AS-002: Impact

[Deleted]

"...I want it bad. I want it now.
Oh can't you see I'm ready now.

I've seen all the pictures, I've studied them forever.
I wanna make a movie so let's star in it together.
Don't make a move 'til I say, "Action."
Oh, here comes the Hardcore life.

Put your money where your mouth is tonight.
Leave your make-up on & I'll leave on the light.
Come over here babe & talk in the mic.
Oh yeah I hear you now, it's gonna be one hell of a night.

You can't be a spectator. Oh no.
You got to take these dreams & make them whole.

Oh, this is Hardcore, there is no way back for you.
Oh, this is Hardcore, this is me on top of you.
And I can't believe that it took me this long.
That it took me this long..."

THIS IS HARDCORE
Pulp

It came across as a challenge during a Twitter conversation. Or at least, that's the way I saw it. The discussion? How to approach a 5-Way clusterfuck featuring the very best this company has to offer. Most wrestlers would look at a match like this, they would try to analyze all four of their opponents, and try to come up with a game plan. A game plan to beat each one of them as an individual, and a way to modify that game plan to allow them to defeat all four opponents as a unit.

It's a fool's errand. It really is. You've heard the saying “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”? Well, multiply that five-fold for this kind of match.

But it made me wonder... it made me wonder what the Ivory Tower officials here in PURE were thinking when they decided on this match, at this time. A match that really isn't about pitting the skill of one opponent against another, but rather about throwing five dogs into a pit and seeing which one emerges. No true measure of who will be the face of PURE Wrestling moving forward can come out of this type of match.

I was legit confused.

But then it dawned on me. I had voiced my opinion about this type of match on Twitter, and our fearless Director Callahan had replied. When I pointed out that there was no good strategy going into a clusterfuck of a match like this, he countered that simply stepping into the ring and hoping for the best wasn't going to help me either. I was slightly offended, and I responded that clearly, he didn't know me at all, and that rather than hoping for the best, I'd 'make the waves' he was looking for by giving him waves of blood. To that, he responded:

“...'Waves of blood". Your knowing exactly what I want compensates for me knowing nothing about you...”

And that's when I figured it out. See, as much as I hate all of them, I can respect my opponents this week. As professional wrestlers, all of them: Jordan Caliban, Xianlong, Aubrey Parker & Anthony Bailey, they're all very capable athletes. They're all worthy of respect, at least in so far as their abilities inside that ring are concerned. One-On-One, each would pose their own challenge, and in this type of match, any one of them is capable of coming out on top. Hell, in this type of match, someone far less skilled or talented than any of them would still have an even chance of winning the match, that's just how far the chaos and the variables run when you have five bodies in that ring at the same time. Regardless of how skilled any of the five of us are, my point about this type of match still rings true... with this much chaos between the turnbuckles, anything can happen. The variables run so high that any one of the five of us could win this match, regardless of skill or ability, regardless of strategy or game plan.

But that's the point, isn't it?

See, I thought about what Callahan said to me on Twitter, and them I went back and watched the tape from Episode One of PURE TV again. Specifically, this clip:

“...So, what we have decided is this. On each of the next four shows, we'll be having a qualifying match to determine one of four people who will ultimately compete in a four-way dance to determine the company's first ever champion. We'll be hand-selecting competitors to appear in these qualifying matches based off of wins, sacrifice in battle and of course? Making an impact. Those who stand out from the crowd will get the opportunity to prove to everyone why they should be called champion and earn themselves a place in the match to determine our first ever champion...”

That's when I realized the real point of all of this, the point that everyone is missing. Yes, the winner of this 5-Way clusterfuck does get a one-way ticket into yet another 4-Way clusterfuck at a later date, a match that will then determine the first PURE Wrestling Champion. But Callahan and Rebel? They've both been crystal clear about one point, since day one: Winning isn't the only way forward in PURE. Face it... last week in the Main Event, I faced and beat the single most skilled, most experienced, most accomplished wrestler on the PURE roster. So why throw me into this cluster fuck of a qualifier now? Haven't I already earned my spot? But I haven't. Because the fact is that anyone can win a match. Callahan and Rebel both know that. They're not looking for the wrestler with the best win-loss record to lead this company. They keep saying it, over and over again: Make Waves. Make An Impact. Stand Out From The Crowd.

What they're really saying? Show us who you are.

Eureka.

I don't know why I didn't see it sooner. I mean, The company is called PURE Wrestling, and up until this point everyone has assumed that Pure Wrestling is what they want. But if that's the case, why did they give a contract to the brightest up-and-coming Ultraviolent wrestler in the industry, then stick her in the companies first Main Event, even as the rest of the locker room let out a collective “What the fuck?”. Hey, I wasn't going to complain, but I'll be honest, it didn't make sense to anyone, myself included. I mean, sure... offer the hardcore girl a contract, broaden the fanbase. Put the hardcore girl in the first Main Event of a company called PURE Wrestling? It really didn't make sense, even to me. It makes sense to me now. Turns out that PURE Wrestling isn't about pure in the technical sense. It's right there in the logo... a bondaged wrist broken free of it's shackles. It's about the pure freedom to be who we are. And who I am is one ultraviolent bitch. That's why they gave me this contract. That's why they've put ME in two Main Events in a row. They want me to be me, to do the thing that got me here in the first place, to do the thing that I do better than anyone in this business. They want the real Ash Scion, and god damn it, that's exactly what I'm going to give them.

It isn't going to lend well to me winning the match. Hell, it will damn likely get me disqualified right out of the gate. But I'm not coming down to the ring this week thinking about my win-loss record anyway. I'm thinking about giving the bosses exactly what they asked for. If they want us to make an impact, if they want us to make waves, if they want us to show them and the world who it is that we actually are? Holy fuck. It's giving me goosebumps.

Somebody is gonna get ripped. Somebody is gonna get cut. A hell of a lot of blood is gonna get spilled.

What I'm going to turn this into? I don't even know if you will still be able to call it a match. They can disqualify me if they want, but it won't stop me. They can turn off the cameras, turn out the lights, and empty the arena for all I care... I'm coming down to the ring to initiate a pure ultraviolent bloodbath, and I'm not gonna stop till crimson is dripping from the rafters. I'm gonna drag PURE Wrestling, kicking and screaming, into the extreme and there's not a damn thing anyone, not my opponents, not security, not Rebel or Callahan themselves, can do to stop me. They want us to make an impact? I promise you all one thing: after next Monday night, everyone in attendance, as they make their way back to their cars after the show, will have one name on their lips. The fans watching at home, they'll all be talking about one wrestler. And the internet? Ha! The IWC is going to be rejoicing at the return of true extreme.

You want impact?

I'll give you impact.

I'm Ash Scion, and this is what I do.