Chuck Matthews
Admin
Posts : 1020
Join date : 2011-03-01
Age : 33
Location : Chicago, Illinois
Wrestler Stats
IWF Record: 12-16-2
Alignment: Heel
 |  Subject: Proving Grounds  Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:49 pm | |
| Chuck Matthews: “I’ve had quite the career. I’m the CEO of a media empire. I’m a rich man because of that company. Fuck, I even own my own arena in my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. But that’s not important. It doesn’t matter that I make almost three times as much with ME than I do with IWF. It doesn’t matter that I’m one of the most well-connected individuals thanks to my business relationships. I consider myself, first and foremost, a wrestler.
And, yes, I do owe much of that to my opponent this week.
It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Almost ironic, really. See, Carmine…you and I don’t need this. We don’t need wrestling. You’ve made a fortune as a promoter, done great things with the wrestling companies you’ve created. I’ve got my company. I’ve got Matthews Enterprises. I don’t need the money from IWF.
Carmine’s right, though. I would never have been on national TV if not for Carmine Vesteri. You made a good point, and one I won’t deny. RWF was one of the biggest promotions in the Midwest, and I did have an occasional match in Florida or Canada…but fact is, my wrestling career for the first six years was based primarily in Chicago. Indianapolis. Milwaukee.
But I had my fan base. My following, for lack of a better word. I was an internet hit. Some kid, twenty-three years old, been wrestling since he was seventeen. Possibly one of the most talented guys in the business, yet for whatever reason, he’d never gotten that big break.
NLWF was my break. My time to get into the national spotlight. For those who had followed my career, they could finally see me succeed. For those who’d never seen my work, they were in for a treat.
It’s true, I have Carmine to thank for that opportunity. What did I do? What I do best. I took that opening, and kicked the door wide open. I rose to the top of the company…and yeah. I was the driving factor that led to that company’s demise.
But you look around, Carmine, you see that your precious NLWF is no more, that this ‘great company’ no longer exists…and yet, here we are, in IWF, the product of NLWF’s demise…and people love it. Ask yourself something: Why is it that people can so easily accept that NLWF is gone? Why were they so quick to move on to IWF? Why does nobody mourn the death of NLWF? Why do they so readily follow IWF, the company that profited on NLWF’s destruction?
No ideas? Let me fill you in.
BECAUSE NLWF SUCKED.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the company started out great. I signed there for a reason. I liked what it was doing, I liked where it was going, and I felt it was going to be my best career move. And so it was. Then what happened? Carmine and Silva disappear off the face of the fucking earth, leaving it all to Cyrus…who later lost it all to Nick…who eventually led NLWF straight into the fucking ground.
My point? I did the world a favor by putting a bullet through the old dog’s head. I helped to kill off a company that was being run like a dictatorship. A company that had more red tape and political bullshit than the fucking Illinois governor’s office. I mean, to be fair, I was a big part of that political bullshit…but it was a tactic I utilized to survive. That’s what NLWF was in the reign of Ridicule. A fight to survive. A fight to stay with the company, despite all rhyme or reason telling you it fucking sucked.
Eventually, it became a victim of its own game. The politics, the sneaking around, the dictatorship-mentality caused NLWF to self-destruct….and who should be the man leading the people to the promised land when it was gone?
Chuck Matthews.
See, Carmine…this is something that no push, no contract, no match could have changed. My helping to create IWF was my own doing. It was the respect I had gained over the years from the people I’d met. Given the choice between staying with the semi-stable, though quickly failing NLWF…or go with the IWF, newly opened and inexperienced, but run by one of the most influential men of the time. THAT’s where IWF came from, and that’s something you will never be able to take credit for.
But again…It’s ironic. See, because when I started off in NLWF, it was you who was helping me in my career…and now that we’re in a new company…it’s the reversal of roles. It is now you who is at MY mercy. Remember that Carmine. I own Matthews Enterprises. I own the network that puts IWF on TV. Without me, you fade into obscurity. Without me, you’re lower on the pedestal than I ever could be.
You think my career doesn’t mean anything? Come on, you can’t be that dumb. You’re looking at a man who went into your company and became one of the top stars it ever had. People put me in Cyrus’s shadow? When NLWF tanked, you know who was the man on the top of the mountain, watching it burn? Me. Brenton Cyrus was nowhere to be found. He had turned tail and ran when the going got tough. I sat and not only watched things fall…I helped the inevitable. I sped along the process.
I had become an eight-time World champion in that company.
I had become one of the most well-known faces.
I was the man that nobody could ever, under any circustances, count out.
I was the man that everybody knew was always a threat. I was always the man to be keeping a lookout for, lest you let your guard down and fall victim to my plans.
Where the fuck was Cyrus? By the end of NLWF, I had become his superior. I was running Bad Company, running NLWF…and just as I had used Salvation to put myself in the spotlight, so he used Bad Company.
Let’s face it, Carmine. I was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most talented of all the originals in the NLWF. I was the one who had lasted longer than anyone else, and for good reason. Because I was that fucking good. Johnny Styles? Brenton Cyrus? Death-Angel? I had risen above every one. I had surpassed every one. You ask any fan at the end of NLWF who the bigger star was, and you would get the same answer every time.
Chuck Fucking Matthews.
I mean, even the guy that people thought I could never beat fell at my feet. Frank Hart? Really? Evened a one-sided rivalry? Maybe you weren’t paying attention, Carmine, but I was the guy winning that fucking thing walking into From the Ashes. I’ve beaten Frank far more than he’s beaten me. But of course…I would expect as much from you. You’ll sit there and try and downplay my accomplishments. Pretend my title wins weren’t as great as I made them seem. Pretend the fact that I won Match of the Year for two years running isn’t that impressive. Act like it wasn’t that big when I helped to bring NLWF down like the fucking Titanic. Act like I never actually fucked your wife back when she recruited me to NLWF. Oh yeah, remember that? Poor Carmine couldn’t get the job done, and it was ol’ Chuck who ended up sleeping with your wife to show her what a real man was like?
Wait a minute…..sleeping with another man’s wife because he couldn’t give her what she wanted himself…this sounds awfully familiar…
Oh yeah, what’s going on, Brandon?
But that’s beside the point. The point is, Carmine, that I think this is what annoys you the most. You realize that I’m exactly right. You realize that the kid you’d decided to bring in, in your desperate attempt to get that company off the ground, ended up exceeding your expectations far beyond your wildest dreams. I may as well have been NLWF’s fucking Chosen One. The man, selected by Carmine Vestieri to help bolster the roster….and who ended up dominating the company, and eventually leading to its demise.
Ain’t that a kick in the head?
We have a lot of history going into this match, Carmine. A lot of bad blood…but I had a lot of respect for you going into NLWF, and it was that same respect that made me proud to have you signed to my company all this time later. I walk into this match to prove that I was every bit as deserving of the spotlight I forced on myself, in NLWF and in IWF.
Something tells me I won’t disappoint.”
| |
|
