Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2015 20:29:29 GMT -5
“Frankly, I'm just not that excited to team with E. Honda.”
It's a joke. Barely a joke. Alex Kincaid has never been noted for his superb sense of humor. But then, even as he cracks a joke about his partner in the upcoming Battle Royal he sounds anything but amused. Tonight, the Pure Class Wrestling cameras have taken us far from the PCW Arena to northernmost Alberta. It's the middle of the afternoon in the woods just a few miles outside the coal mining town of Bearing. Alex Kincaid walks with a rifle slung over his shoulder and his dog at his side.
“You guys came up here looking for me. You wanted my thoughts. Well, those are my thoughts. For the last month no one's been returning my calls. I haven't been able to get a match. And now, when I come back what do. they do? They plug me in a match with every other nobody on the roster for the number one contendership to the tag titles. Because yeah, if there's one lesson you should take from a guy who lives in the middle of the friggin' woods as far from everyone as he can get it's that he just loves to be a team player.”
The dog stops and starts sniffing around the ground. Alex studies it for a minute and sighs. It's a massive animal, a nearly 160 pound Newfoundland that's not made for long treks around the edges of Kincaid land. It goes jogging off to the side somewhere and Kincaid snorts. He goes to lean against a tree while the dog does its business.
“But you know, I'm not stupid. I get where I am. I said 'the other nobodies' for a reason. Because I know I'm at the bottom of the card. I know I've got to work my way up before I matter. And maybe it's selfish that it's hard for me to get excited about the tag belts. I've never been a tag team guy. I don't understand tag team wrestling. Never have. For those of you who never wrestled, that might seem hard to imagine but it's like a completely different sport. It's not just a matter of keeping track of another wrestler. Though, obviously, that's a huge part of it. Everything changes. The entire strategy goes nuts. It becomes all about cutting off an entire side of the ring, about managing spaces and distance in a whole new way. The actual effect is that it feels like you're trying to smother a guy. Trying to work with this tiny little section of the ring. Except it never works. Sooner or later it all goes friggin' crazy and you've got four guys running around the ring throwing bombs at each other.”
He pulls the rifle off his shoulder and balances it against the tree. There's a weariness to the action, his shoulders slump ever so slightly and the camera zooms in on his eyes. Under his thick black brows and between a well trimmed beard there's bags underneath them. He hasn't been sleeping.
“That's not to say I've always been on my own though. When I came into wrestling, I saw a lot of very talented people around me. Very talented people that I thought were being exploited. So I fought back. And you know, when you tell a bunch of people you're the only one who understands them when they've been being used as attack dogs for people to get rich off them they'll follow you to the ends of the earth. So for a couple of years, I had people who would have done anything for me. And I built myself a little empire on blood, steel chairs and thumbtacks. But I had ideas. Ideas about change. Ideas about all of us being something better together. About taking this industry away from the fans and putting it in the hands of the wrestlers.
But I didn't care about any of them.”
The dog comes near him again. He drops to his knees and scratches the side of it's neck. He frowns and for a moment looks away from the camera.
“...I used people. That's the truth. I exploited people. Because as much as I paid lip service to the idea that I cared about changing things, in the end when it came down to defending my ideals or having personal success I always went the way that would give me personal success. I guess it gets easy to rationalize what you're doing, to tell yourself you're compromising tiny bits of yourself because you're going to try and do a greater good later. But deep down you know you're lying every time.”
Kincaid keeps his eyes locked on the dogs. The animal doesn't appreciate the stare and moves uncomfortably away from him. Kincaid follows the dog with his eyes and he continues speaking to the camera.
“I made a decision to change things. To face up to the things I've done. That meant coming back here, to a town that my family destroyed. And that meant getting back into wrestling, a business that I wanted to walk away from. You'll hear a lot of people say that they love wrestling. I don't know...I guess I do. But other people love it the way they love Christmas. I love it the way I love gas for my car. I realize it's a part of my life I absolutely need to get where I'm going. Because I've never been good at anything else. Because I'm a rifle. I'm a dog. Because you're never going to see me sitting at a desk doing the nine to five you know?
I got married. We took in a kid. For the first time in my life, I'm really understanding what it's like to have wrestling be a job. My father used to say that getting to have ideals was a luxury. That most people wouldn't get the chance to change the world because they had to pay the bills. And I guess...I guess it's a bit of a culture shock to have to come back to something that I know is bad for me because in the end I've got to buy school supplies in a month.”
He stands up and turns toward the camera filming him. His eyes narrow, his brow furrows as he focuses on the task to come.
“I don't have the luxury of being concerned about being an honorable competitor like Yukio. Because for the last two shows I've had to sit at home staring at my phone hoping they'd give me a call. I've had to tell this kid who doesn't even trust me yet that yeah, I've got it together. I've seen my wife sitting at the table with a notebook trying to figure out our finances. And I ask her if we're good for the month. Her mouth tells me it'll be fine. Her eyes tell me otherwise.
You came and found me because you wanted me to tell you what I think about Return to Glory. I think the name doesn't apply to me. There's nothing glorious about what I'm going to do. I don't have any aspirations of being a tag champion. But I will take advantage of the opportunity I've been given. Because it's the simplest formula in wrestling. Win a match, make some money. Win a title, become one of the top paid wrestlers in the company. That's the game. And for years I thought I could get around it. But now I'm going in there the same as anyone else.”
Kincaid collects the gun and throws it back over his shoulder, starting to continue his walk through the woods.
“I've never been good at coming up with the clever things to say at the end of these. I guess I've never been able to talk people into the building. But this is where we are, where I am. In a situation where my back's against a wall in a very real way. Where I've got countless other people in the ring I have to get rid of to go over a title that I might not want...but I need.
So yeah. There's your clever end line.”
With that, he keeps walking into the woods. The camera stops and follows he and the dog before we get a fade...to...black...
It's a joke. Barely a joke. Alex Kincaid has never been noted for his superb sense of humor. But then, even as he cracks a joke about his partner in the upcoming Battle Royal he sounds anything but amused. Tonight, the Pure Class Wrestling cameras have taken us far from the PCW Arena to northernmost Alberta. It's the middle of the afternoon in the woods just a few miles outside the coal mining town of Bearing. Alex Kincaid walks with a rifle slung over his shoulder and his dog at his side.
“You guys came up here looking for me. You wanted my thoughts. Well, those are my thoughts. For the last month no one's been returning my calls. I haven't been able to get a match. And now, when I come back what do. they do? They plug me in a match with every other nobody on the roster for the number one contendership to the tag titles. Because yeah, if there's one lesson you should take from a guy who lives in the middle of the friggin' woods as far from everyone as he can get it's that he just loves to be a team player.”
The dog stops and starts sniffing around the ground. Alex studies it for a minute and sighs. It's a massive animal, a nearly 160 pound Newfoundland that's not made for long treks around the edges of Kincaid land. It goes jogging off to the side somewhere and Kincaid snorts. He goes to lean against a tree while the dog does its business.
“But you know, I'm not stupid. I get where I am. I said 'the other nobodies' for a reason. Because I know I'm at the bottom of the card. I know I've got to work my way up before I matter. And maybe it's selfish that it's hard for me to get excited about the tag belts. I've never been a tag team guy. I don't understand tag team wrestling. Never have. For those of you who never wrestled, that might seem hard to imagine but it's like a completely different sport. It's not just a matter of keeping track of another wrestler. Though, obviously, that's a huge part of it. Everything changes. The entire strategy goes nuts. It becomes all about cutting off an entire side of the ring, about managing spaces and distance in a whole new way. The actual effect is that it feels like you're trying to smother a guy. Trying to work with this tiny little section of the ring. Except it never works. Sooner or later it all goes friggin' crazy and you've got four guys running around the ring throwing bombs at each other.”
He pulls the rifle off his shoulder and balances it against the tree. There's a weariness to the action, his shoulders slump ever so slightly and the camera zooms in on his eyes. Under his thick black brows and between a well trimmed beard there's bags underneath them. He hasn't been sleeping.
“That's not to say I've always been on my own though. When I came into wrestling, I saw a lot of very talented people around me. Very talented people that I thought were being exploited. So I fought back. And you know, when you tell a bunch of people you're the only one who understands them when they've been being used as attack dogs for people to get rich off them they'll follow you to the ends of the earth. So for a couple of years, I had people who would have done anything for me. And I built myself a little empire on blood, steel chairs and thumbtacks. But I had ideas. Ideas about change. Ideas about all of us being something better together. About taking this industry away from the fans and putting it in the hands of the wrestlers.
But I didn't care about any of them.”
The dog comes near him again. He drops to his knees and scratches the side of it's neck. He frowns and for a moment looks away from the camera.
“...I used people. That's the truth. I exploited people. Because as much as I paid lip service to the idea that I cared about changing things, in the end when it came down to defending my ideals or having personal success I always went the way that would give me personal success. I guess it gets easy to rationalize what you're doing, to tell yourself you're compromising tiny bits of yourself because you're going to try and do a greater good later. But deep down you know you're lying every time.”
Kincaid keeps his eyes locked on the dogs. The animal doesn't appreciate the stare and moves uncomfortably away from him. Kincaid follows the dog with his eyes and he continues speaking to the camera.
“I made a decision to change things. To face up to the things I've done. That meant coming back here, to a town that my family destroyed. And that meant getting back into wrestling, a business that I wanted to walk away from. You'll hear a lot of people say that they love wrestling. I don't know...I guess I do. But other people love it the way they love Christmas. I love it the way I love gas for my car. I realize it's a part of my life I absolutely need to get where I'm going. Because I've never been good at anything else. Because I'm a rifle. I'm a dog. Because you're never going to see me sitting at a desk doing the nine to five you know?
I got married. We took in a kid. For the first time in my life, I'm really understanding what it's like to have wrestling be a job. My father used to say that getting to have ideals was a luxury. That most people wouldn't get the chance to change the world because they had to pay the bills. And I guess...I guess it's a bit of a culture shock to have to come back to something that I know is bad for me because in the end I've got to buy school supplies in a month.”
He stands up and turns toward the camera filming him. His eyes narrow, his brow furrows as he focuses on the task to come.
“I don't have the luxury of being concerned about being an honorable competitor like Yukio. Because for the last two shows I've had to sit at home staring at my phone hoping they'd give me a call. I've had to tell this kid who doesn't even trust me yet that yeah, I've got it together. I've seen my wife sitting at the table with a notebook trying to figure out our finances. And I ask her if we're good for the month. Her mouth tells me it'll be fine. Her eyes tell me otherwise.
You came and found me because you wanted me to tell you what I think about Return to Glory. I think the name doesn't apply to me. There's nothing glorious about what I'm going to do. I don't have any aspirations of being a tag champion. But I will take advantage of the opportunity I've been given. Because it's the simplest formula in wrestling. Win a match, make some money. Win a title, become one of the top paid wrestlers in the company. That's the game. And for years I thought I could get around it. But now I'm going in there the same as anyone else.”
Kincaid collects the gun and throws it back over his shoulder, starting to continue his walk through the woods.
“I've never been good at coming up with the clever things to say at the end of these. I guess I've never been able to talk people into the building. But this is where we are, where I am. In a situation where my back's against a wall in a very real way. Where I've got countless other people in the ring I have to get rid of to go over a title that I might not want...but I need.
So yeah. There's your clever end line.”
With that, he keeps walking into the woods. The camera stops and follows he and the dog before we get a fade...to...black...