Alchemy [CROSS X*CROWN @ WUK #1]
Nov 17, 2023 14:22:54 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer, Dave D-Flipz, and 3 more like this
Post by Cross Recoba on Nov 17, 2023 14:22:54 GMT -5
[13th November 2023]
[The Sands Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada]
The day after the show was always a comedown. The endorphins and dopamine depleted from the night before by the pressure to be able to produce a wrestling show to capture the conversation of fans. In its place was a steady stream of numbers and opinions that determined whether your gut feeling that the show was a hit turned out to be true.
Inside the office space that Tap Out took up at The Sands a steady buzz of chatter hummed across the air between piles of print-outs, interactive whiteboard charts and the staccato ring of telephones each coming into the symphony of noise at a different point of the beat.
“The clip of Merric ending Jackalope with the Contract Fulfilled Lariat’s trending on TikTok!”
“The Network won’t release any new subscriber numbers until the end of the month, no way to know how many of them were down to last night’s show!”
“We can try and set something up with NOMAD but wouldn’t Tommy Strychnine be the better choice? He’s got the first crack at unseating Merric…”
Orchestrating this symphony of chaos was Cross Recoba. Making his way through the desks that made up their press team; he took in everything he could, focusing on the unexpected news.
“Anything on the Oscar Goodman Cup?” Cross noted the lack of chatter around the event, “It’s closing out the year here. Anything on advance sales?”
“Hospitality is nearly sold out.” A voice answered to be helpful, they should have held their tongue.
“What about General Admission?”
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
“Make it your top priority. We’re playing with a quarter of the venue size compared to SCCW, we CANNOT afford to look small-time.”
Recoba made a mental note to put pressure on the Network to foreground the event on their site, being sold out and disappointing fans still looking for tickets was a better impression than being forced to discount or give away tickets to fill the seats.
“Excuse me, Cross…you might want to see this. It’s not Tap Out directly but…” The voice trailed off as the XHF X*Crown Champion made a beeline to their desk.
Leaning over the Media Relations Assistant, Cross took the words in on the screen.
“Forward that to me.” Cross didn’t push the ask, it was read as the demand it was. “How wasn’t this picked up in the morning clippings?”
Making his way to the glass-walled office at the far end of the room, Recoba pushed open the door and slung himself into the chair. He opened the email that had just arrived and sent it to the big screen on the wall.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ALLURE OF THE XHF X*CROWN?
Making a note of the publication, Cross picked up the phone on his desk.
“Dani, drop whatever you’re working on. The only thing I want you working on right now is getting Ross Smith to our office tomorrow. I’ll cover flights, we’ll put him up here and I’ll even comp him some chips for the night but just get him here!”
[14th November 2023]
[The Sands Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada]
The camera opens up on Recoba as he sits looking out over the balcony to the Vegas skyline. The X*Crown title strap is clasped in his hand as he lifts the belt, almost feeling the weight of it as he does so.
His posture suggests he seems tense as if something was pressing down on his shoulders, feet planted to ride out the force.
“How does it feel, Kasper, to be nearing the biggest match of your career? Do you feel prepared? Ready to show the world that you can stand out from every other person on the Network? That on those well-developed shoulders, you can carry the Network? Be the face of it, be the person at the very top of the totem pole?”
Cross exhaled and straightened up, still with his back to the camera as he spoke.
“When I won this title, I did so intending to restore its glory and make it THE Network’s title and not just the preserve of those who held it before. I looked at the companies that had been around the longest and never had the chance to showcase an X*Crown match to their fans; their only way of seeing the Champion tuning in to another fed, their only hope of the belt coming home to them? The quarterly Network shows. That’s when I approached the Wrestle: UK Board…”
No attempt was made to hide the disdain in his voice.
“We started talks about bringing the X*Crown to their company, I saw matches that would help continue my reign. After besting future Hall of Famer, Bloodied Fox and beating two-time holder Death Trap it surely wasn’t a huge stretch to want to take on the best and even on the Wrestle: UK roster, some names stood out. Would I be facing former Heavyweight Champion, Kalmin Watts, a man I’ve bested repeatedly to the point that his manager refuses to let him wrestle me any longer for fear I’ll destroy his reputation? Try again. Maybe it was the longest-reigning former Wrestle: UK Champion, Wesley Crane, who repeatedly referred to me as the Wish version of him? No, he’d rather be on a PBS show where people have no clue who he is. Perhaps then, Spike Kane? You’d think that’d be an easy money match. After all, I released him from his contract in Tap Out and he’d held the X*Crown before…again, the board decided against it. With all that being said, you can only imagine the ennui I felt when the name they decided to put against me was on the table.”
A slightly perplexed expression forms on the face of the XHF Box Office Smash.
“Kasper Van Zant, someone who wasn’t even wrestling when Bloodied Fox took the X*Crown, KVZ whose career has seen seven and a half matches, the Van Zant who was never meant to wrestle. That’s who the Wrestle: UK braintrust decided was the most deserving of everyone on their roster.”
No comment, just let that last point sink in.
“In one fell swoop, the Wrestle: UK Executive Ccommittee have told the world two things: that they don’t trust their new crop of talent, the likes of Rage and Cage or Preston Reese but equally, that they think the established names of Psychotic Goth, Lord Dominicus and Donzig can’t be trusted to get the job done. What a company you’re representing, Kasper, and how must it feel to know that this opportunity makes you by far the most resented wrestler in the Wrestle: UK lockerroom? Every spotlight is on you and this match, every move and every second inside that ring is going to be used by the rest of your peers as a stick to beat you with. Don’t bring home the gold? They would have. Don’t put in a showing? They should have received the nod. Get completely outclassed? You’ll be delivering the blueprint on how to beat you not just to Wrestle: UK but EVERY wrestler on the XHF Network!”
Although anyone who has seen your body of work has that already.
“Of course, there is always a third philosophy they could have employed: they didn’t want to damage the reputation and perception of their main event scene in Goth, Watts, and Hunter so sent you: acceptable collateral damage.”
Pick whichever scenario makes you feel better.
Recoba finally turns to the camera.
“Unless I’m mistaken, Kasper, this is your third EVER singles match and the ONLY one that was officially sanctioned. It’s one thing to step into the ring in front of a hundred or so faces in your father’s company but quite another when there are four thousand fans in attendance alongside EVERY. SINGLE. NETWORK. SUBSCRIBER tuning in! Sure, you beat Vincent DeSaint to cover for your brother being made of peanut brittle and yes, you beat Fat Chocolate to earn a contract with Wrestle: UK but how do you think you’ll fare against me, a man who has lost one match in a year? You can point to your victory over Otto Ritter and John Blade but it’s the same as sending the Kansas City Chiefs your Madden Franchise save!”
But then again, Wrestle: UK is home to failed HKW West Coast Champions so it could carry some cachet with its people.
“We could talk about your other matches if you like, Kasper, but that just makes me wonder if your Super Finisher is coming second in battle royales and sure, you could point to the win at Legacy 20 in the eight-man tag match but did you get the pin? Your job was to keep Lord Dominicus from being interrupted as he dragged your team to the win!”
Does the Waterboy get a Super Bowl ring?
“Maybe the Wrestle: UK board know more about you than I do, perhaps they see all the hard work you put in when you couldn’t even be bothered to wrestle on the End of Days show that they hosted? The biggest audience they were guaranteed of the year and did we see KVZ? Of course not, you were busy making sure you could finish a runner-up to Florida Man in your latest failed attempt to win a Battle Royal!”
Although, by now you should have that down.
“It’s not putting in the work now that’s why the betting line has you further out than Kalmin ‘Forty-two to one’ Watts but it’s the presumption of the past that makes you seem an absolute non-starter as X*Crown Champion.”
If you were a racehorse, you’d be shot already.
“Interrupting MY show to cut your promo and tell me that ‘you’re the bitch’ to give the X*Crown a sex change? I’d wager that Random McConalogue or Sam Sawyer would have you down for the count before you could even open your mouth to call for Pappy Van Zant. They really should be in your place, if we’re talking about women for the X*Crown in today’s Network. Random? She’s taken down Jason Long and Spike Kane, two former X*Crown holders and went a year before she was put down in singles competition…and by who? Sam Sawyer, not a male! But that’s only the here and now and only within Tap Out…”
Maybe spend less time fluttering your eyes at Awesome and do some legwork.
“You overlooked Mistress Discipline who was one-half of the longest-reigning XHF Tag Team Champions but more criminally - you missed out the yardstick with which you’ve chosen to measure yourself against…Dakota Jennings…”
Cross shook his head dismissively that he had to even go there.
“Misha Constantine, James Mueller, Brad Swann, Pepe Morales or Zoran Sainovic, take your pick…that’s the list of people she beat to win End of Days 2020. Two X*Crown Champions, four XHF Network legends. Throw in Bloodied Fox when she won the AWF United States title just for good measure while we’re doing this. Where do you place ANYONE you beat on the list of her scalps? Topher Klein wants to turn you into the Network Tough Gal and it’s an image built with foundations of sand! You’re a yet-to-be-somebody, Kasper, and this is a match where you can’t win… but you could benefit from it.”
If you put the effort in.
“Turn up to Mennaye Field and give it your best shot. Who knows, a fan jealous of my success, looks, and talent might throw a foreign object at me and knock me out but more likely, when the inevitable happens and you lose you’ve gained experience in the ring. More than that, you can watch the match back and pick up on where holes exist in your game…"
Believe me, you’re spoiled for choice there.
“...and see how a real Champion carries themself in the ring. Kasper, I should feel sorry for you for being put in this position but you went and decided to invade MY show to talk about how you’re taking MY belt. When that bell rings in Cornwall, I’m going to take you apart and the blood won’t be on my hands. It’s on EVERY Wrestle: UK board member that put you forward and EVERY member of the roster who shied away from the challenge!”
[The Sands Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada]
The day after the show was always a comedown. The endorphins and dopamine depleted from the night before by the pressure to be able to produce a wrestling show to capture the conversation of fans. In its place was a steady stream of numbers and opinions that determined whether your gut feeling that the show was a hit turned out to be true.
Inside the office space that Tap Out took up at The Sands a steady buzz of chatter hummed across the air between piles of print-outs, interactive whiteboard charts and the staccato ring of telephones each coming into the symphony of noise at a different point of the beat.
“The clip of Merric ending Jackalope with the Contract Fulfilled Lariat’s trending on TikTok!”
“The Network won’t release any new subscriber numbers until the end of the month, no way to know how many of them were down to last night’s show!”
“We can try and set something up with NOMAD but wouldn’t Tommy Strychnine be the better choice? He’s got the first crack at unseating Merric…”
Orchestrating this symphony of chaos was Cross Recoba. Making his way through the desks that made up their press team; he took in everything he could, focusing on the unexpected news.
“Anything on the Oscar Goodman Cup?” Cross noted the lack of chatter around the event, “It’s closing out the year here. Anything on advance sales?”
“Hospitality is nearly sold out.” A voice answered to be helpful, they should have held their tongue.
“What about General Admission?”
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
“Make it your top priority. We’re playing with a quarter of the venue size compared to SCCW, we CANNOT afford to look small-time.”
Recoba made a mental note to put pressure on the Network to foreground the event on their site, being sold out and disappointing fans still looking for tickets was a better impression than being forced to discount or give away tickets to fill the seats.
“Excuse me, Cross…you might want to see this. It’s not Tap Out directly but…” The voice trailed off as the XHF X*Crown Champion made a beeline to their desk.
Leaning over the Media Relations Assistant, Cross took the words in on the screen.
“Forward that to me.” Cross didn’t push the ask, it was read as the demand it was. “How wasn’t this picked up in the morning clippings?”
Making his way to the glass-walled office at the far end of the room, Recoba pushed open the door and slung himself into the chair. He opened the email that had just arrived and sent it to the big screen on the wall.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ALLURE OF THE XHF X*CROWN?
Ross Smith
It doesn’t seem too long ago that I wrote about the amazing first reign of Dylan Black. The 202-day-long reign broke a record that had lasted fifteen years and saw the title visit every company on the XHF Network in its time.
Unbelievably, Dylan was the sixth person in 2020 to hold the belt and he wasn’t short of challengers: Death Trap, Lord Dominicus, Hyperion, Anthony Caffrey, and El Rey were all names that were in and around the scene and the list of challengers seemed never to end. The names came from all over the Network and people, myself included, saw this as a reign that would define how all others after would follow.
We were wrong.
What made me think back to this period in time were two things that happened independently of each other but made for stark reading.
The first was when a colleague shared with me a table of the longest reigns of the X*Crown and also who had held it the longest time. It made for interesting reading and maybe, when I’ve run out of editorial topics, I’ll break down the detailed findings. What stood out was that Bloodied Fox’s reign was the second-longest of the modern era and this was followed by the announcement of who the next challenger for the title will be, Kasper Van Sant.
For 153 days, Bloodied Fox held the title but what was his defining moment? What was the signature of his reign and more importantly, when there wasn’t an XHF event - why didn’t more people clamor to get their shot at what should be the jewel of the XHF Network?
To blame Fox entirely would be ignorant but is the current reign going down the same damaging path for the title? Cross Recoba HAD to defend the title against Death Trap but when you see his latest challenger you do have to wonder if he’d have had the balls to put the title on the line against the two-time former X*Crown Champion without a metaphorical gun to his head.
Perhaps I’ve become too cynical and myopic as I get older and maybe I’m not the target demographic of the XHF Network anymore but does Kasper Van Zant make me think that THIS is the match that justifies the nine-ninety-nine that comes out of my wallet each month? If Cross wins then what next? Does he up the ante in December and put the belt on the line in HKW Florida against Florida Man’s dog and Panda Demonica?
Who doesn’t miss the days when wrestlers on the Network actively called out the Champion en masse and vice-versa? Not since last November have we seen something on that level and that was when Zoran Sainovic arrogantly announced three defences in six weeks to put the pretenders on notice. One of those names? The man who holds the X*Crown now.
Give us some sparkle, give us some dream matches, Cross! The biggest Champion of this match-up will be the production crew who find enough video tape of KVZ in the ring to make a two-minute hype video!
Making a note of the publication, Cross picked up the phone on his desk.
“Dani, drop whatever you’re working on. The only thing I want you working on right now is getting Ross Smith to our office tomorrow. I’ll cover flights, we’ll put him up here and I’ll even comp him some chips for the night but just get him here!”
*****
[The Sands Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada]
The camera opens up on Recoba as he sits looking out over the balcony to the Vegas skyline. The X*Crown title strap is clasped in his hand as he lifts the belt, almost feeling the weight of it as he does so.
His posture suggests he seems tense as if something was pressing down on his shoulders, feet planted to ride out the force.
“How does it feel, Kasper, to be nearing the biggest match of your career? Do you feel prepared? Ready to show the world that you can stand out from every other person on the Network? That on those well-developed shoulders, you can carry the Network? Be the face of it, be the person at the very top of the totem pole?”
Cross exhaled and straightened up, still with his back to the camera as he spoke.
“When I won this title, I did so intending to restore its glory and make it THE Network’s title and not just the preserve of those who held it before. I looked at the companies that had been around the longest and never had the chance to showcase an X*Crown match to their fans; their only way of seeing the Champion tuning in to another fed, their only hope of the belt coming home to them? The quarterly Network shows. That’s when I approached the Wrestle: UK Board…”
No attempt was made to hide the disdain in his voice.
“We started talks about bringing the X*Crown to their company, I saw matches that would help continue my reign. After besting future Hall of Famer, Bloodied Fox and beating two-time holder Death Trap it surely wasn’t a huge stretch to want to take on the best and even on the Wrestle: UK roster, some names stood out. Would I be facing former Heavyweight Champion, Kalmin Watts, a man I’ve bested repeatedly to the point that his manager refuses to let him wrestle me any longer for fear I’ll destroy his reputation? Try again. Maybe it was the longest-reigning former Wrestle: UK Champion, Wesley Crane, who repeatedly referred to me as the Wish version of him? No, he’d rather be on a PBS show where people have no clue who he is. Perhaps then, Spike Kane? You’d think that’d be an easy money match. After all, I released him from his contract in Tap Out and he’d held the X*Crown before…again, the board decided against it. With all that being said, you can only imagine the ennui I felt when the name they decided to put against me was on the table.”
A slightly perplexed expression forms on the face of the XHF Box Office Smash.
“Kasper Van Zant, someone who wasn’t even wrestling when Bloodied Fox took the X*Crown, KVZ whose career has seen seven and a half matches, the Van Zant who was never meant to wrestle. That’s who the Wrestle: UK braintrust decided was the most deserving of everyone on their roster.”
No comment, just let that last point sink in.
“In one fell swoop, the Wrestle: UK Executive Ccommittee have told the world two things: that they don’t trust their new crop of talent, the likes of Rage and Cage or Preston Reese but equally, that they think the established names of Psychotic Goth, Lord Dominicus and Donzig can’t be trusted to get the job done. What a company you’re representing, Kasper, and how must it feel to know that this opportunity makes you by far the most resented wrestler in the Wrestle: UK lockerroom? Every spotlight is on you and this match, every move and every second inside that ring is going to be used by the rest of your peers as a stick to beat you with. Don’t bring home the gold? They would have. Don’t put in a showing? They should have received the nod. Get completely outclassed? You’ll be delivering the blueprint on how to beat you not just to Wrestle: UK but EVERY wrestler on the XHF Network!”
Although anyone who has seen your body of work has that already.
“Of course, there is always a third philosophy they could have employed: they didn’t want to damage the reputation and perception of their main event scene in Goth, Watts, and Hunter so sent you: acceptable collateral damage.”
Pick whichever scenario makes you feel better.
Recoba finally turns to the camera.
“Unless I’m mistaken, Kasper, this is your third EVER singles match and the ONLY one that was officially sanctioned. It’s one thing to step into the ring in front of a hundred or so faces in your father’s company but quite another when there are four thousand fans in attendance alongside EVERY. SINGLE. NETWORK. SUBSCRIBER tuning in! Sure, you beat Vincent DeSaint to cover for your brother being made of peanut brittle and yes, you beat Fat Chocolate to earn a contract with Wrestle: UK but how do you think you’ll fare against me, a man who has lost one match in a year? You can point to your victory over Otto Ritter and John Blade but it’s the same as sending the Kansas City Chiefs your Madden Franchise save!”
But then again, Wrestle: UK is home to failed HKW West Coast Champions so it could carry some cachet with its people.
“We could talk about your other matches if you like, Kasper, but that just makes me wonder if your Super Finisher is coming second in battle royales and sure, you could point to the win at Legacy 20 in the eight-man tag match but did you get the pin? Your job was to keep Lord Dominicus from being interrupted as he dragged your team to the win!”
Does the Waterboy get a Super Bowl ring?
“Maybe the Wrestle: UK board know more about you than I do, perhaps they see all the hard work you put in when you couldn’t even be bothered to wrestle on the End of Days show that they hosted? The biggest audience they were guaranteed of the year and did we see KVZ? Of course not, you were busy making sure you could finish a runner-up to Florida Man in your latest failed attempt to win a Battle Royal!”
Although, by now you should have that down.
“It’s not putting in the work now that’s why the betting line has you further out than Kalmin ‘Forty-two to one’ Watts but it’s the presumption of the past that makes you seem an absolute non-starter as X*Crown Champion.”
If you were a racehorse, you’d be shot already.
“Interrupting MY show to cut your promo and tell me that ‘you’re the bitch’ to give the X*Crown a sex change? I’d wager that Random McConalogue or Sam Sawyer would have you down for the count before you could even open your mouth to call for Pappy Van Zant. They really should be in your place, if we’re talking about women for the X*Crown in today’s Network. Random? She’s taken down Jason Long and Spike Kane, two former X*Crown holders and went a year before she was put down in singles competition…and by who? Sam Sawyer, not a male! But that’s only the here and now and only within Tap Out…”
Maybe spend less time fluttering your eyes at Awesome and do some legwork.
“You overlooked Mistress Discipline who was one-half of the longest-reigning XHF Tag Team Champions but more criminally - you missed out the yardstick with which you’ve chosen to measure yourself against…Dakota Jennings…”
Cross shook his head dismissively that he had to even go there.
“Misha Constantine, James Mueller, Brad Swann, Pepe Morales or Zoran Sainovic, take your pick…that’s the list of people she beat to win End of Days 2020. Two X*Crown Champions, four XHF Network legends. Throw in Bloodied Fox when she won the AWF United States title just for good measure while we’re doing this. Where do you place ANYONE you beat on the list of her scalps? Topher Klein wants to turn you into the Network Tough Gal and it’s an image built with foundations of sand! You’re a yet-to-be-somebody, Kasper, and this is a match where you can’t win… but you could benefit from it.”
If you put the effort in.
“Turn up to Mennaye Field and give it your best shot. Who knows, a fan jealous of my success, looks, and talent might throw a foreign object at me and knock me out but more likely, when the inevitable happens and you lose you’ve gained experience in the ring. More than that, you can watch the match back and pick up on where holes exist in your game…"
Believe me, you’re spoiled for choice there.
“...and see how a real Champion carries themself in the ring. Kasper, I should feel sorry for you for being put in this position but you went and decided to invade MY show to talk about how you’re taking MY belt. When that bell rings in Cornwall, I’m going to take you apart and the blood won’t be on my hands. It’s on EVERY Wrestle: UK board member that put you forward and EVERY member of the roster who shied away from the challenge!”
******
