Post by Meatball-kun on Oct 18, 2014 11:08:59 GMT -6
Chuck Matthews: "So! ....what do you guys wanna talk about?
I don't really have anything written down this week. Normally, I just kinda go off the top of my head, talk about current goings-on, give my opinions on a few things, maybe give you all something new to think about, let you pick my brain for a little bit...but this week, I've kinda slacked off. I've had other things to worry about, and truth be told, I might have completely forgotten about my in-ring obligations if it wasn't for my trainer calling me up yesterday asking if I had anything filmed yet. Oops.
So I think we're going to improvise. I'm pretty good at improvising.
I mean...that's what I've been doing lately, isn't it? Go in with a plan...and if that fails, think on your feet. Turn a failure into a success. Turn defeat into a victory. Know when to go in, guns blazing. Know when to let your opponents get the upper hand. Know when to strike, know when to wait, know when to move, know when to remain perfectly silent and let the world pass you by. You know...things that you would expect someone like me to do.
That's how I've made my career. That's how I've succeeded. And, as you all have so plainly seen, that's how I now find myself in the happy position that I'm in now. I have shown this company exactly the sorts of things I can do. I've shown them exactly the type of competitor I am, and slowly but surely, you have started to come around.
And yet, for every person that sees what I'm all about, there's still that one guy that can't really get it through his head. There's that one person that thinks he has all the answers to the problems, and all he needs to do is push the button and all will be right with the world. Enter Mr. Stearns.
I don't really know why I keep picking on the guy, honestly. It's not even fun. It's like the high school jock that shoves a kid into a locker as he walks down the hall. I go home at night, and I will never remember shoving Stearns aside. It was one more little interaction through the course of my day. But that one tiniest action consumes his soul. He spends his time, meticulously plotting his revenge, showing that he can one-up the big nasty bully, but the sad fact of the matter is he doesn't pose much threat. And neither does Darrin Stearns.
I mean...I'm sure he's giddy that he hand-picked someone to go up against me. Hell, Collins himself was so...fucking...PROUD of himself that he'd given that happy authority to somebody else, that Darrins Stearns would surely be the guy that could break Chuck, that could get inside Chuck's head.
Now THAT...That's just disrespectful, man. I expected better from you. I mean, of all he people on this roster, you chose Stearns to deliver my little slap on the wrist? Darrin Stearns is the captain of your "break Chuck's brain" crusade? Dude can't get his OWN head screwed on straight, what makes you think he'll be able to get inside mine?
And, ever-predictably, he does not fight me himself. He chooses someone else. That's the bureaucracy in action: Chuck's ousting Jon from EXODUS, Jon needs to keep things under control...so he has Darrin do it for him, because heaven forbid if the almighty Jon Collins got HIS hands dirty...and of course, since it wouldn't really be a proxy war without more proxies, Darrin turns right around and picks a THIRD party to take on Chuck Matthews.
And, surprise surprise, he chooses another brainiac, just like they did with Nathaniel Dixon, just like they did with Zack Lifer, so they can call it another 'meeting of the minds!' Like that's supposed to fucking mean something.
Well, hello Mr. Scott. This would be your entrance cue.
See...this is what I can't get my head around. I go and I do....something. Maybe it's orchestrating an attack, maybe it's revealing my big scary plan, maybe it's executing the next phase of this little coup I've staged. You know what I'm after. You know what the end result is going to be. And you know that I've done it in such a way that I've completely detached myself from what goes on in that ring.
So what I don't get, and perhaps, Mr. Scott, you may be able to provide an answer, is why the solution to Chuck's master plan is to throw PEOPLE at him! I mean, at the end of the day, who really has more riding on these matches? I mean, you...you have something to prove. You've got a lot of bad history to erase, and what better way to do that than to tackle the guy trying to take over that very company, right? And that's understandable. You want to succeed, and you've paid enough attention to know that unless you get on your knees and pucker up, that ain't going to happen.
Me? I don't really care either way. I mean, I go to the ring, I compete, I look to beat you....but you have to ask yourself my motivation. That's really the problem here, and that's why my punishment continues to elude me: Collins? Stearns? The rest of EXODUS? They have no idea what's motivating me. They have no idea why I'm doing what I do. They're cursed with this one-track mind that forbids them from thinking outside the box. The PROBLEM...the problem is that they fight me the way they would fight themselves, and it's tremendously funny from where I'm sitting, because that implies that I'm anything like them...anything like the rest of you.
At the end of the day, Chandler, amigo, you're another Christian Kane. You're another Zack Lifer. You've been thrown into the ring with me because the big bad powers that be are angry, and their solution is to hand-pick a guy that they expect to beat Chuck in a wrestling match, as if that's going to make all their problems go away. And you'll do it, because despite how smart you're hyped up as, you still haven't stopped to consider why you're bothering to do it.
Think a minute here, pal: What have I really got to lose? You saw this with Kane. Kane beats me, and everybody cheers and hoots and hollers. 'The bad guy loses! The devil is dead! Long live Kane!' Like I would jus drop everything, throw up my hands and say 'Well guys, you got me, guess I'll go try to take over another company instead.' Kane expected a parade in his honor, and me to spend the next month sulking about, brooding over my crippling defeat.
You know what we got instead? Kane won, people cheered and celebrated my defeat....and then I stood up, brushed myself off, and got ready for the next week. Congratulated Mr. Kane on the victory. Spent a week resting up. And I was right back on track.
And....you're going to be different? How? I mean, you come in and you beat me, that's exactly what they want you to do, because they think it's going to put a dent in my plan, but you know better, don't you? You know that what happens inside that ring means absolutely nothing to me. Means nothing to my plans. I'll get right back up and keep rolling. That's what I do. And you'll get angry at me because your win meant nothing, and EXODUS will get upset because your victory meant nothing, and the powers that be will get upset because they'll realize that they can keep throwing people at me all day long, and it's simply not going to get the job done.
But on the flip side of that coin...what if I go in, and YOU are on the losing end? What happens when you can't get the job done? What happens when you disappoint the guys in the offices, who are counting on you to put Chuck Matthews down for the count?
Fact is, Chandler, you've got this mission to prove that you're worth a shit to EXODUS, to Collins, to their band of merry men. I have no such obligation. You're shackled by this idea that you need to appease this one man if you want to stick around in EXODUS. You NEED to beat me. Your career depends on it. Your validation as a professional wrestler depends on it.
Me? I'm just here to foil that plan. I'm here to show you what happens when you die trying, when you're assigned a job that you can't get done. Because when you fail to stop me, Mr. Scott, all the blame will fall on your shoulders. When I've taken control of EXODUS, it won't be Jon Collins who takes responsibility for his failure. It will be you. It will be Christian Kane. It will be Steve Lenton and Wulf Erikssen. It will be all the people that were given that simple task: Stop Chuck Matthews. It will be all the people who failed to beat him, who failed to put that final nail in the coffin.
Come on, Scotty. You think this has been a test of loyalty? This is a way for somebody else to save his own skin. He knows damn well that he can't stop this. So he's going to send everybody else into battle to suffer for him so that when he falls...and he WILL fall...he can dodge the bullet and put the blame on everyone else's shoulder. You think this is a test of loyalty? Ask yourself that, Scott. Why is it that YOUR loyalty is questioned? What, your history? Who the fuck cares?
You're trying to prove that you belong here. And that's admirable, I won't fault you for that. What I'm going to fault you for is this...painful adherence to a broken set of traditions. You've got this very cut-and-dry thinking of how this business is supposed to work. We're supposed to go in and compete, and when the bell rings and a victor is decided, he can celebrate and catapult into a higher position, maybe gun for a championship, while the loser can wallow in his defeat and try to figure out a way to get back on track. But...I was never really on that track to begin with, was I? Nobody's really knocked me off track. Even after a crushing defeat, I've bounced right back up as if nothing happened. You realize that by now, don't you? You know that I not only don't subscribe to this little wrestling philosophy, I go out of my way to break it. So...what? How will you react to that? Are you going to beat me up? Are you going to pin me for a three? Are you going to try and break every bone in my body so that I CAN'T get back up and do it all over again in two weeks?
Is that supposed to mean something to me?
There is nobody on this roster that poses a threat to me. Nobody in the back. Nobody in the main offices. Nobody in the audience. I'm not motivated my championships. I've won championships. I don't really care about championships. My ambitions aim a little bit higher than that...and so, sure. Yeah. Beat me up all you like. If that's what makes you feel better, sure. I can take the punishment. I'll still be here two weeks from now. I'll still be competing, and this match will be another little footnote, stashed away somewhere.
You want to REALLY beat me, Scotty? Use that big educated brain of yours. Think a little bit. Rack your brain, and see if you can answer the riddle that nobody in EXODUS has yet been able to solve:
How do you get inside the head of the Smartest Man in Wrestling?
I don't really have anything written down this week. Normally, I just kinda go off the top of my head, talk about current goings-on, give my opinions on a few things, maybe give you all something new to think about, let you pick my brain for a little bit...but this week, I've kinda slacked off. I've had other things to worry about, and truth be told, I might have completely forgotten about my in-ring obligations if it wasn't for my trainer calling me up yesterday asking if I had anything filmed yet. Oops.
So I think we're going to improvise. I'm pretty good at improvising.
I mean...that's what I've been doing lately, isn't it? Go in with a plan...and if that fails, think on your feet. Turn a failure into a success. Turn defeat into a victory. Know when to go in, guns blazing. Know when to let your opponents get the upper hand. Know when to strike, know when to wait, know when to move, know when to remain perfectly silent and let the world pass you by. You know...things that you would expect someone like me to do.
That's how I've made my career. That's how I've succeeded. And, as you all have so plainly seen, that's how I now find myself in the happy position that I'm in now. I have shown this company exactly the sorts of things I can do. I've shown them exactly the type of competitor I am, and slowly but surely, you have started to come around.
And yet, for every person that sees what I'm all about, there's still that one guy that can't really get it through his head. There's that one person that thinks he has all the answers to the problems, and all he needs to do is push the button and all will be right with the world. Enter Mr. Stearns.
I don't really know why I keep picking on the guy, honestly. It's not even fun. It's like the high school jock that shoves a kid into a locker as he walks down the hall. I go home at night, and I will never remember shoving Stearns aside. It was one more little interaction through the course of my day. But that one tiniest action consumes his soul. He spends his time, meticulously plotting his revenge, showing that he can one-up the big nasty bully, but the sad fact of the matter is he doesn't pose much threat. And neither does Darrin Stearns.
I mean...I'm sure he's giddy that he hand-picked someone to go up against me. Hell, Collins himself was so...fucking...PROUD of himself that he'd given that happy authority to somebody else, that Darrins Stearns would surely be the guy that could break Chuck, that could get inside Chuck's head.
Now THAT...That's just disrespectful, man. I expected better from you. I mean, of all he people on this roster, you chose Stearns to deliver my little slap on the wrist? Darrin Stearns is the captain of your "break Chuck's brain" crusade? Dude can't get his OWN head screwed on straight, what makes you think he'll be able to get inside mine?
And, ever-predictably, he does not fight me himself. He chooses someone else. That's the bureaucracy in action: Chuck's ousting Jon from EXODUS, Jon needs to keep things under control...so he has Darrin do it for him, because heaven forbid if the almighty Jon Collins got HIS hands dirty...and of course, since it wouldn't really be a proxy war without more proxies, Darrin turns right around and picks a THIRD party to take on Chuck Matthews.
And, surprise surprise, he chooses another brainiac, just like they did with Nathaniel Dixon, just like they did with Zack Lifer, so they can call it another 'meeting of the minds!' Like that's supposed to fucking mean something.
Well, hello Mr. Scott. This would be your entrance cue.
See...this is what I can't get my head around. I go and I do....something. Maybe it's orchestrating an attack, maybe it's revealing my big scary plan, maybe it's executing the next phase of this little coup I've staged. You know what I'm after. You know what the end result is going to be. And you know that I've done it in such a way that I've completely detached myself from what goes on in that ring.
So what I don't get, and perhaps, Mr. Scott, you may be able to provide an answer, is why the solution to Chuck's master plan is to throw PEOPLE at him! I mean, at the end of the day, who really has more riding on these matches? I mean, you...you have something to prove. You've got a lot of bad history to erase, and what better way to do that than to tackle the guy trying to take over that very company, right? And that's understandable. You want to succeed, and you've paid enough attention to know that unless you get on your knees and pucker up, that ain't going to happen.
Me? I don't really care either way. I mean, I go to the ring, I compete, I look to beat you....but you have to ask yourself my motivation. That's really the problem here, and that's why my punishment continues to elude me: Collins? Stearns? The rest of EXODUS? They have no idea what's motivating me. They have no idea why I'm doing what I do. They're cursed with this one-track mind that forbids them from thinking outside the box. The PROBLEM...the problem is that they fight me the way they would fight themselves, and it's tremendously funny from where I'm sitting, because that implies that I'm anything like them...anything like the rest of you.
At the end of the day, Chandler, amigo, you're another Christian Kane. You're another Zack Lifer. You've been thrown into the ring with me because the big bad powers that be are angry, and their solution is to hand-pick a guy that they expect to beat Chuck in a wrestling match, as if that's going to make all their problems go away. And you'll do it, because despite how smart you're hyped up as, you still haven't stopped to consider why you're bothering to do it.
Think a minute here, pal: What have I really got to lose? You saw this with Kane. Kane beats me, and everybody cheers and hoots and hollers. 'The bad guy loses! The devil is dead! Long live Kane!' Like I would jus drop everything, throw up my hands and say 'Well guys, you got me, guess I'll go try to take over another company instead.' Kane expected a parade in his honor, and me to spend the next month sulking about, brooding over my crippling defeat.
You know what we got instead? Kane won, people cheered and celebrated my defeat....and then I stood up, brushed myself off, and got ready for the next week. Congratulated Mr. Kane on the victory. Spent a week resting up. And I was right back on track.
And....you're going to be different? How? I mean, you come in and you beat me, that's exactly what they want you to do, because they think it's going to put a dent in my plan, but you know better, don't you? You know that what happens inside that ring means absolutely nothing to me. Means nothing to my plans. I'll get right back up and keep rolling. That's what I do. And you'll get angry at me because your win meant nothing, and EXODUS will get upset because your victory meant nothing, and the powers that be will get upset because they'll realize that they can keep throwing people at me all day long, and it's simply not going to get the job done.
But on the flip side of that coin...what if I go in, and YOU are on the losing end? What happens when you can't get the job done? What happens when you disappoint the guys in the offices, who are counting on you to put Chuck Matthews down for the count?
Fact is, Chandler, you've got this mission to prove that you're worth a shit to EXODUS, to Collins, to their band of merry men. I have no such obligation. You're shackled by this idea that you need to appease this one man if you want to stick around in EXODUS. You NEED to beat me. Your career depends on it. Your validation as a professional wrestler depends on it.
Me? I'm just here to foil that plan. I'm here to show you what happens when you die trying, when you're assigned a job that you can't get done. Because when you fail to stop me, Mr. Scott, all the blame will fall on your shoulders. When I've taken control of EXODUS, it won't be Jon Collins who takes responsibility for his failure. It will be you. It will be Christian Kane. It will be Steve Lenton and Wulf Erikssen. It will be all the people that were given that simple task: Stop Chuck Matthews. It will be all the people who failed to beat him, who failed to put that final nail in the coffin.
Come on, Scotty. You think this has been a test of loyalty? This is a way for somebody else to save his own skin. He knows damn well that he can't stop this. So he's going to send everybody else into battle to suffer for him so that when he falls...and he WILL fall...he can dodge the bullet and put the blame on everyone else's shoulder. You think this is a test of loyalty? Ask yourself that, Scott. Why is it that YOUR loyalty is questioned? What, your history? Who the fuck cares?
You're trying to prove that you belong here. And that's admirable, I won't fault you for that. What I'm going to fault you for is this...painful adherence to a broken set of traditions. You've got this very cut-and-dry thinking of how this business is supposed to work. We're supposed to go in and compete, and when the bell rings and a victor is decided, he can celebrate and catapult into a higher position, maybe gun for a championship, while the loser can wallow in his defeat and try to figure out a way to get back on track. But...I was never really on that track to begin with, was I? Nobody's really knocked me off track. Even after a crushing defeat, I've bounced right back up as if nothing happened. You realize that by now, don't you? You know that I not only don't subscribe to this little wrestling philosophy, I go out of my way to break it. So...what? How will you react to that? Are you going to beat me up? Are you going to pin me for a three? Are you going to try and break every bone in my body so that I CAN'T get back up and do it all over again in two weeks?
Is that supposed to mean something to me?
There is nobody on this roster that poses a threat to me. Nobody in the back. Nobody in the main offices. Nobody in the audience. I'm not motivated my championships. I've won championships. I don't really care about championships. My ambitions aim a little bit higher than that...and so, sure. Yeah. Beat me up all you like. If that's what makes you feel better, sure. I can take the punishment. I'll still be here two weeks from now. I'll still be competing, and this match will be another little footnote, stashed away somewhere.
You want to REALLY beat me, Scotty? Use that big educated brain of yours. Think a little bit. Rack your brain, and see if you can answer the riddle that nobody in EXODUS has yet been able to solve:
How do you get inside the head of the Smartest Man in Wrestling?