Post by darkhorse on Apr 25, 2010 22:43:06 GMT -5
Generals gather in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction.
Sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields, the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind.
Poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord yeah.
[/color]Just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction.
Sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields, the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind.
Poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord yeah.
________________________________________
"War. Hah. None of you know what war is."
"Let's cut straight to the point. To call this minor dispute between two wings of the same bird a 'war' is an insult to everyone who has ever stepped foot on a real battle, known real conflict, and known real fear. To compare this little spit, this ego-driven barking of insults to the highest form of human conflict is an absolute joke, and I cannot be the only one who feels soured by the idea of you making a fun of the concept of war. I'm sure our men in the armed services would love to hear that men in spandex arguing over whether blue is better than red is synonymous with what they're doing at present."
"Now that's off my chest, I suppose I should get talking about this...'war'."
"It's a simple enough concept. This company has come to understand that the best way to form commercial success isn't from a monopoly, but rather, from competition. And, quite frankly, lacking any serious competition, it's decided to create some of its own, splitting itself down the middle and letting its two 'brands', each held in a different hand, attack each other like a twin headed snake. Now, for one thing, the futility of the entire ordeal, that being that ultimately we're all employed by the same company, goes ignored, if it's even acknowledged to begin with, and now we find ourselves in this situation. Putting ourselves on the line for brand superiority, and the chance to leech the opposition of what 'talent' they have."
"Allow me to make one thing clear, first and foremost. I am completely neutral in this. Regardless of my 'affiliation' to RAW, that label means as much to me as any other label does. I am fighting for myself and my own goals, and this entire company is of very little relevance to me, other than that it happens to provide the best funding for said goals. Now, to this end, there's a great oppurtunitty to be had, and yet, at the same time, it can potentially backfire for the entire brand. It would appear that not many have looked at this situation in the way that I have, rather than jumping the gun and yelling about breaking things. Have you truly considered what is to be gained with a victory?"
"Well, providing me and my three 'comrades' manage to pick up the victory against our opponents this week, then our General Manager wins the right to raid the contracts of two of the opposition. Now, I'm going to be under the assumption that in order to get the 'best deal', said GM is going to go directly to the top of the barrel, either an up-and-comer or someone already fully established. That means quite a healthy paycheck, and unless they are capable of returning that investment, means the company itself runs the risk of dropping into the red. Even if they are, it means that we, the wrestlers, are essentially fighting for the right for someone else to fill the spot that we are all aiming for."
"After all, think of what it means for them. If they are drafted, the General Manager is either going to work to justify his investment and give them every oppurtunity under the stars, or otherwise he's going to see whatever loyalty they assumedly would have had to the 'enemy' and is going to do everything he can to trample them into the dirt - using us, of course. This entire brand split seems like we, the wrestlers, are not only wasting our time with this fight, but we're fighting to have our time wasted even more in the future."
"We're pawns. And that doesn't seem to bother some people."
"There was a time when I dreamed of finding a company with impartial management, who would provide oppurtunities for someone on the basis of their talent, rather than their contacts, their ruthlessness, or even their ability to shift merchandise. This is supposed to be a sport, a competition, and now over time, it's been watered down into a brand. Where we, who have cut our lives into portions of what they would have been and left our bodies in mutated wrecks, are left to vanish, whilst they begin work grooming the next face of the company, the next mascot, as if this was just one, long, violent commercial for a new brand of cereal. I've come to believe, for a good while now, that finding that ego-less management...is a myth."
"So, since I'm here, I might as well focus on dealing the cards I've been dealt. An eight-man tag so I can jump about and call my brand superior. Yippee."
"Alright then, first things first is to assess who I'm working with. More World Championships than I care to count combined in The Rock and Hunter Hearst Helmsley and a newcomer to the company in John Sturking. I can see how some might consider this a handicap in my favour. Unfortunately, I'm not as optimistic as you are. This couldn't be more of a handicap if each of us had to wrestle using only one arm. Once again, refer to the rules of the competition. This is an eight-man tag match. Regardless of whether or not the rules are one-straight fall or elimination, it means that at some point, a member of Team A is going to be pinning Team B, or vice versa."
"Do you really believe that it's characteristic of Hunter Hearst Helmsley - a man who is incapable of relieving his claw like grasp on the spotlight in the name of supposedly being a veteran to help out all those he clubs away from his spot, or of Dwayne Johnson - who was smart enough to leave this sham of an industry and go where the money was, before coming to the conclusion that his box office draw isn't what he thought it was and leaving him crawling on back, to stand back and celebrate a team victory? Do you think that John Sturking is going to be looking at these World Champions alongside him and be thinking that it would be great to grab a coffee and listen to stories with them, rather than doing everything he can to upstage them?"
"This might be quite a shocking little secret, but everyone in this match is going to be fighting for themselves. Not for the brand, and sure as hell not for the team, and unless SmackDown is some sort of paradise where everybody gets along and their team walks down the rampway all wearing friendship bracelets, then it isn't going to be any different for them, either. The only thing on everybody's mind is not only defeating the opposition, but looking a hell of a lot better than your teammates when you do that, and if it ends with you getting your arm raised at the end of it, then you can relish in the glory of it all. After all, there's more at stake than just a win, or of a 'brand pick.' Do you know what that is?"
"Leverage."
"Now, I must admit, the contract I'm currently signed to in regards to my minimum expenses and insurance isn't exactly something groundbreaking, and I would be exaggerating its worth if I called it 'modest.' But I can most certainly guarantee that it is worth a lot less than whoever our esteemed General Manager is going to be snatching up free of charge, no buyout necessary, should we win this match. And since we've already established that the management in this company is anything but distant and unbiased, then it's in our best interests to aim for this leverage. It means we get provided with additional oppurtunities out of some ingrained 'indebt'. Or otherwise, we have grounds to negotiate."
"Grounds for your star, who outshone everyone else in the battle against SmackDown and led you to a victory, to suddenly say that the grass is looking greener on the other side, and that it's going to take a lot more 'green' this side for you to change your mind. It's not going to be an option that wins you any friends, and especially not in management, but everybody has something that they want. And besides, if you really are that person, then you've already proven that you're capable of knocking down any barrier that gets set in front of you, regardless of managerial influence. Unless they're particularly creative, of course. But that would be a miracle. A creative general manager, hah, really."
"Now, as I've already mentioned, on my side, I already have a top tier side, providing Hunter and Dwayne still have some of that spark they had a good decade ago now, and Sturking is as good as throwing punches as he is at running his mouth. On the opposition, we have...well, silence, mostly. Barring Maven, I'm not entirely sure what to make of the other side, considering I haven't heard anything from most of them, and nothing from half of them. That's a potentially dangerous situation, but it's not something that can't be controlled. Anybody willingly allowing themselves to be called 'Psycho' is more than likely compensating for something and can be written off to begin with."
"As for Ambrosio Santiago, that's a name I can't recall, in all honesty. Whatever they bring is going to hinder us in any way, so the best course of action would be to look at them as big a threat as our main contenders. After all, making up the muscle of the opposition is Maven and a Mr. John Cena. How cute."
"Two sides of the same coin. On one side, we have John Cena, the man who made transforming himself to suit commercial needs so subtle it became an artform. A man through the virtue of literally shouting over people, forged himself a legacy as a household name to become the franchise player. But there's something you must be aware of, John, especially by now. Wrestling is dying. There isn't an industry for it now. Perhaps there are a generation of fans that have grown up, in their childhood to have you as their hero, but you were hand-picked for that. Someone family friendly, someone marketable, and through virtue of being good enough to put up a fight, got the stamp of approval from the authority you always seemed like you were determined to fight."
"Why didn't you fight, John? Why didn't you try being who you are, instead of getting rid of all the sports jerseys, the rapping gimmicks, the state-sponsored saluting and dropped the theatrics between the ropes. Why didn't you fight back and let management know that you were going to be your own person? Oh, what a dumb question. Because if you did that, then you wouldn't be in the position you are now, would you? You'd be biting the hand that feeds, and we couldn't have that, not in the slightest. You were compliant. The perfect employee. Did you ever consider that was why you were never fully accepted? When you were trying to sell yourself as that rebellious champion, while all aspects of the public relations department were falling over themselves trying to disguise the fact that in every arena, in every part of the world, there were always a vocal contingent who utterly despised you?"
"I can't wait, John. Not right now, but it'll come. The time will come when all the people you have eating out the palm of your hand are growing to grow up. All the people that grew up watching "Stone Cold" Steve Austin drink his beers and make his boss' life a living hell have already given up on you as their supposed better replacement, but all of them - the ones who you already are the 'Stone Cold' to be virtue of there not being a Stone Cold to turn to anymore. When they grow up, they're going to look back on their childhood memories of you, and see you, even now in a more advanced age, prancing around and pumping up your high tops, turning back your baseball caps and making jokes about fecal matter, and they're going to think 'God. What was I thinking watching this shit?'"
"I can't wait for everyone who wasted their time with you to realise that I was right all along. And that someone like you is going to kill the industry."
"And then finally, who do we have left? Oh, that's right, Maven."
"Ah, Maven, there's so many things I could say to you. Things that if I was like the rest of the roster, blind and narrow minded, that you would have already heard a thousand times over and would have shrugged off like an irritant, a gnat bite or a temporary allergy. But I pride myself on not being like the rest. I pride myself on doing my best to make a more complete picture of things. So I could sit back and laugh, call you 'bland' like so many have before, laugh about your former career, which even you have to admit was forgettable bar a few bright sparks. But that would be too easy. No, instead, Maven, I'm going to do my best to look at you and give you a career retrospect."
"1998, you graduate with a degree and go straight into teaching. Your life is comfortable but unfulfilling. Somehow, you get the idea that following your dream as a professional wrestler is worth living, and not willing at the time to go through a wrestling school and work your way up to to the top, you aim directly for the big time off the bat. 2001, you join WWE's branching-out franchise of 'Tough Enough' and immediately get your face all over television at the expense of all those working the independents and wishing they could be in your shoes. You get through by virtue of being one of the only people there to care enough, along with Christopher Nowinski - who lived up to his Harvard degree by working out that this industry was a waste of his time. Next thing you know, you're there. You're in the big time."
"2002, the Royal Rumble. You create your career defining moment by eliminating the Undertaker using a dropkick and get thoroughly beaten into the ground for your efforts. You go on to do a whole lot of nothing, until you're granted a golden oppurtunity, more than two years later. Survivor Series, 2004. You prevail in an elimination match against Evolution, of all people, to win the oppurtunity to be General Manager for the night. You respond in humble manner, by providing yourself with an immediate shot at the World Heavyweight Championship and manage to blow it despite having the support of no less than three separate men and a biased referee. You respond in turn by blaming the fans for your problems, getting fired, and vanishing from the spotlight, until you turn up here again."
"Does it sound like I'm taking shots at you, Maven? On the contrary. You've done what every single one of us would have done if we were in your position."
"So thank you, thank you for proving my point that no one is capable of getting by in this industry without warping the industry to suit their own needs. Thank you for proving my point that ultimately, talent and desire is secondary to ambition and greed. And thank you for showing me that even someone like yourself, who comes into the industry from a distance straight into the mainstream, uninformed, educated and as close to pure as you can manage, even someone like you - falls victim to the corruption of the cancer eventually."
"So, good luck, RAW, SmackDown. Have fun with this farce. I could care less about being the 'underdog' on my side. The fact of the matter is, I'm fighting for what all of you won't admit you are."
"Leverage."[/center]
Word Count - 2,685
