Post by Adrien | Adam on May 27, 2018 20:51:46 GMT -5
It gets old when you talk to the sun
In a tongue understood by no one
Can it be that I hear what he's saying?
Is there a reason why I'm still awake?
And he says, "I've got you written
In a black book by the railroad track.
You see, I know your fate"
And I say, "you've got to listen,
I'm a songbird with a brand new track.
You underestimate"
I'll give you something to believe in
Burn up a basement full of demons
Realize you're a slave to your mind, break free
Now give me something to believe in
Date: Friday, May 25th, 2018
Cameras: ON
“T.S. Eliot once wrote ‘This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.’ And my, oh my, am I hearing the said whimper."
Adrien Cochrane speaks as he is seated in front of the departures sign just outside Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana. There’s some light rain, but Adrien is covered by the awning of the airport. Next to him are two pieces of luggage with the MSY tag attached to them. One of them is a hard shell case in the shape of a guitar. The other is the duffle bag he is commonly seen with backstage of NGW shows. The sound of the rain is noticeable but not too distracting. In fact, the ambiance is secondary to the noise pollution caused by all the vehicles that aren’t too far away, dropping off and picking people up from the airport.
“I look at what my opponents. You’ve heard of them, right? The Destroyers, right? Yeah, those guys. So, you’ve seen some of the videos put out by them, right? As of me taping this, the only one not to say anything yet is Jaxon Richards. And I’m sure that one is coming too. Do you know what the main idea I’m getting out of their messages to everyone prior to this big match at Victory and Honor?
“We are so under their skin.”
There is a small chuckle. It’s followed by a shake of the head with a wide grin. Dressed comfortably for a man who plans on being on an airplane for a good portion of his day, he’s wearing a pair of loose fitting jeans and a light blue Nirvana shirt.
“See, Matthew Shields spent his entire time trying to find a reason for the Rebel Society to not be present. I’m fine with that. If you would have asked Amber or Devlin to take them out of the match, I would have interjected and said ‘Do it! We don’t need them!’ It’s no disrespect to Avery, Damon, Daisy, and Alex. They are damn good competitors who have more of a resume in this company than I do. But simply put, I don’t want them or Dean Matthews or anyone else making any sort of excuse or loophole for the Destroyers to use to complain and whine and pitch a fit over when this match doesn’t go their way. I want this to be a clean match. Is it going to be?”
Cochrane pauses for a moment for his rhetorical question as if he was saying it to someone in his presence. He then responds to it.
“Hell no! Look who we are facing!! They are literally the most likely group in the entire company to take the rulebook and throw it out the window. Yeah, I heard Kayla’s rebuttal about that. It’s their ‘strength’ that they are willing to do that.”
Adrien put up air quotes as he emphasized the word “strength” in his most previous sentence.
“Shields finishes his little video with his lawyer scoffing at the idea of this match, and only remember the name of three out of four of the Guardians. Which we all know is condescending and on purpose. The way I see it, it’s a pathetic attempt to try to rile up Joshua Goldstein, a man who has held a championship in this company on three different occasions. A feat only matched by a select few, which in the interest of giving credit where credit is due, that list includes Destroyer member Jack Tillman.
“Kayla, on the other hand, must have taken the same hit to the head that Shields took a while back when he considered himself royalty. I think she was just trying to be as outrageous as possible. I mean, let’s try to be more original than being the eighty-second person to try to call Jessica a slut because she’s had bad relationship luck in the past. Speaking of that, you actually went to the lengths of accusing Kaylee Goldstein of infidelity with Josh’s best friend, who is clearly getting enough physical loving when cameras are on him. Then there was the comment that just because me and Stacy Sterling didn’t work out, that would somehow cause me suddenly be attracted to males instead because that’s totally how sexuality works.”
Adrien blinks into the camera.
“I think my personal favorite was the claim that Jazmyn Rain is in love with me. I mean, Jazmyn, is there something you’re not telling me?”
He asks the question with a tone of jest. His smile holds back laughter.
“Complete nonsense. You can go on your little rants about favoritism or whatever about what you believe is going on. Let’s go forward with some concrete facts. I’m getting a championship opportunity because I won a match, with the Destroyers, where it was stated that winners would get championship shots. That’s not favoritism. That’s a meritocracy. That was earned in a situation where you could have earned it as well. Another fact that you wanted to distort is your claim that I’ve lost all these championships opportunities. Did you know that, since Matthew Shields lost his championship last WrestleForce and I debuted, just so we are talking about the same timeframe, Shields has had THREE shots at the Heavyweight title and I’ve only had one? In fact, you had two, and Maverick had four. It’s quite apparent that the trend is that it takes more than one attempt to capture that Championship. But you know, you have to make sure that despite it applying to literally everyone else, you want to try to make it seem like I'm the one who is incapable.
“But you know, you gotta spin a narrative that puts me in a negative light as best you can, right? A girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do, aye, Kayla?”
Wink, wink, nudge.
“Meanwhile, Jack Tillman called me overrated. Called Jessica overrated. Because everything is about titles in Tillman’s eyes. So let’s talk about that, Jack. Why don’t you go ahead and rewind a couple of seconds about the opportunities that have been given to everyone for championships. Do you know what can cause someone to not capture titles? Lack of opportunity. And if there was such a fervor for favoritism, I would have been just handed all these championship opportunities the way some of the Destroyers have been, right?
“Except that NGW Title shot I had in the past was because of a number one contender’s match. And so was that Tag Title shot. And the upcoming one is one earned in a victory in a match YOU yourself was in, Jackie-Boy. And I guess once WrestleForce comes around and I face the winner of Alex Jones and Johnny Maverick and come out with the championship, that throws that whole argument out the window, right? Oh, guess what Jessica has that you don’t, Jackie? A Heavyweight title in this company’s lineage. Go ahead, look it up. IPW counts, bud!”
The eighteenth of April, two years ago...despite not being acknowledged by most of the Destroyers, Jessica was champion here before.
“But do you know what I’m more interested in, Jack? The head-to-head matches. I’ll try to limit it to ones where at least one current Guardian faced at least one current Destroyer. I won’t count matches where it was only Coda representing your side or only Alechs and/or Honey on mine. But the first time you all first coined the name the Destroyers was the time me and Honey faced off against Kayla with Coda and won. Like the time I tagged with Kenzie Rydell against Matthew and Kayla and got a disqualification win. My victory against Matthew Shields at Convergence in the cage match happened. Of course, Kayla got a title defense with me and Matthew in the match. But Josh’s team of the Radicalliance did beat you and Shields. And Rain does have a singles win over Shields...actually two. You guys got some tag victories in against me and Jessica on two occasions. You took two tries to get the title from Joshua and won the rematch after, which you can cancel out with Jazmyn taking two tries to get the belt off you and won the rematch after. I’ll give you Lest We Forget’s Strange Bedfellows despite weird circumstances, but the best example we could possibly have is Warfare, where we had complete teams matching up, even having a two-to-one advantage between me facing Shields AND Kayla. Let’s do some quick math...that’s seventeen total matches with ten victories for Guardians and the Destroyers having seven. So we are the inferior group, BUT WE’VE BEATEN YOU GUYS MORE THAN YOU BEAT US, AM I RIGHT?!?!”
Clearly spending so much time with his manager, Eddie Walker, has given Adrien a little bit of skill in the sarcasm department.
“But you know what? It’s time we make that eleven victories for the Guardians. It’s time we finally put that final dagger in. It’s time we end this, once and for all. All the chips are down, Destroyers. Think you can prove yourself the best foursome?
“Both sides tend to call their own partners as family. I look at Jessica Sears and I see someone I could potentially be related to by marriage down the line but is already referring to me as her brother. I look at Jazmyn Rain and see someone who has stood with me from beginning to end, through thick and thin. I see Joshua Goldstein as one of the first people in this company to welcome me and accept me as part of his circle, even letting me be a groomsman in his wedding. I hate to be a part of the cliche all of us are using, but this is my family. They give me something to believe in. And we all know how much I like to believe…”
Adrien winks one more time before standing up, grabbing both parts of his luggage.
“I have a plane to catch. Want to get there so that I can watch my two students fight in the Tag Team Trials tomorrow. I’ll see all of you in the ring in two days.”
The camera fades as Adrien begins walking into the airport with his luggage, Everalda Sears-Theron briefly visible on the other side of the doors with her rolling suitcase.
Every day when I speak to the moon
Pale as a ghost in the afternoon
Tragedy has a hold of my mind
But I can see the light between the lines
And I say, "you've got to listen,
I'm a songbird with a brand new track.
You underestimate"
Promise me
So, I'm afraid I'm a slave to my mind
You give me something to believe in
"I've got you written
In a black book by the railroad track.
You see, I know your fate"
And I say, "you've got to listen,
I'm a songbird with a brand new track.
You underestimate"
I'll give you something to believe in
Burn up a basement full of demons
Realize you're a slave to your mind, break free
Just give me something to believe in
Just give me...
Just give me something to believe in