Braggarts and Self Doubters. [Card DAF 1}
Feb 14, 2019 16:36:29 GMT -5
ForeverKuroi, strangerdanger, and 3 more like this
Post by Technical Perfection on Feb 14, 2019 16:36:29 GMT -5
St Michaels on the Thames Restaurant and Cocktail Bar,
London, ON.
Chris Card is seated at one of the tables near a window. Normally he would sit outside where he could freely smoke his own choice of Cuban cigar but the Ontarian weather at this time of year can be rather inclement, to say the least.
Card waits as a personalized monogrammed tumbler is filled up with an expensive double of whisky from a classy looking bottle. He takes a quick smell and a subtle sip, raising his eyebrows and offering a subtle nod of the head to the waiter in recognition of the quality of the alcohol. Leaning back in the leather chair he sits in, Card looks into the camera and offers a knowing wink to the audience who he knows this will reach. Card beings to speak in a cool, collected metered tone.
Chris Card: Well, Anthony, it seems I may have missed my chance to take a front row seat to your festival of your own greatness. No, I didn’t get the London wrong. I just chose to stay near my home and hearth rather than traipse halfway round the world to listen to you yammer on. Still, it’s not like I will have lost an opportunity for you to declare your own superiority. There are plenty of tapes out there of your vignettes where you feel that you need to restate your position as the star that shines brightest, the lionized ubermensch of the Network. If I wanted to know how great you are, all I need to do is bring up the AXW site and look for the Caffrey videos and boom, there we have a fresh spiel about your in ring excellence.
A broad grin breaks across his face.
Chris Card: I hope you believe it.
The smile fades slowly as he continues talking, turning to a colder, almost calculating tone.
Chris Card: I mean there is no great reason why I shouldn’t think you believe it. It’s easy when you are at the top to be blinded by your own brilliance. When everyone is praising you, it really does feel fantastic. To soak in all that hype. To bask in your own glory. It’s a seductive path to walk down. To have that level of superiority over an entire locker room is a rare pleasure in this industry. That self belief is also thoroughly exploitable.
After all, thinking you’re untouchable and actually being untouchable are very different things. If you don’t think your opponent is in your class then why would you bother to learn their strengths? You obviously have the skills to beat anyone in AXW, anyone on the network. So why put the effort in, looking up at the match up and finding the chinks in your opponent’s armour. After all, the only weakness that you ever need in a match is that you opponent isn’t Anthony Caffrey, right? Why would you ever need to strategize and scheme on how you intend to defeat your latest victim? That ankle lock will work on anyone!
So walk out to that ring, head held high, confidence flowing through your veins. Rely on your innate skill, your tried and tested talents. After all, what can Chris Card do in the face of such unassailable odds? He’s not Anthony Caffrey, submission artist extraordinaire. Heel hook or modified kata hajime, everyone taps in the end.
I love that line of thinking from an opponent. I can profit so much from an opponent who takes me lightly. But what if that line of thinking isn’t true?
Card takes another sip before he floats the next question lazily across the air.
Chris Card: What if you are deeply, deeply insecure?
Leaning forward a little, Card’s line of attack is precisely thought out and very direct.
Chris Card: After all, I don’t need to hold massive celebrations for my birthdays. I could. I could hire out the yacht, fill it with glad handers and hangers on ready to praise me to the high heavens and take it out into warmer waters. I could surround myself with loyal stable mates, ready to praise me at the slightest moment’s notice. I could keep clippings of every positive review that my many elite caliber matches have garnered. Instead I keep naught but a few memories of my career in my house for posterity’s sake.
And speaking of my little room of success, Anthony Caffrey seems to want me to avoid talking about any past success as a subject. Is that maybe the an indicator towards him being insecure rather than convinced? That he knows that I have considerably more past accolades than him. I’ve been in this sport longer, of course I have. But the mere fact that someone has a better résumé than him? Well it kind of punctures the self image of being the greatest thing walking God’s green earth, doesn’t it?
Then I hear him talk about the superiority of AXW as a federation. Now I would not expect Caffery to be the sort to drink their own federation’s Kool-Aid. I mean, that’s Dylan Viper’s job. But I can see how the internal logic works here. “I am the best, I am champion of AXW therefore AXW is the best.” It’s such a beautifully simple self conceit.
Pause...
Chris Card: It’s bunkum, of course.
A lean back and an inscrutable smile. As in, Card might be being condescending with his next passage. Or he could be showing genuine warmth to those mentioned. But you will never know.
Chris Card: I could not say for sure which federation is better. I’m sure fantasy bookers across the globe pitch match ups between the top stars of both federations and debate through the night over several hot mugs of cocoa who would win. We have no evidence since last year when AXW walked into an AWF taping, declared all out war and it all ended up in a big blowoff show in front of about 5,000 people in Nailsworth, (Nailsworth of all places!) Which the AWF won. But our rosters have changed so much since then, I really wouldn’t want to be held to an accurate guess as to who would hold sway in a repeat event. But Caffrey? You need to feel that AXW is better because you need the validation of being the best of the best.
Denigrating the X*Crown. That might be another clue. It’s the highest regarded belt on the Network, it’s defended at every major XHF show (including this one.) It’s a belt that I, myself failed to win because Jack Diamond isn’t too proud to take a disqualification to preserve a title. And I applaud him for that. But you, Caffrey, seem to think that because it isn’t a title you currently hold then it can’t be as important as a title that you do. That’s some Orwellian level doublethink going on. Holding a federation level title is better than a global one because the global one doesn’t grace your waist.
If that is your sincere belief then I am quite frankly flummoxed at your logic.
Chris Card: And I am rarely flummoxed. But you could read it as your fear of being regarded in a lesser light than anyone. Like those who, I don’t know, sit above you on the card maybe? I’m happy to take the semi-main slot. It is an honour to work at any place on The Icons’ pet project. Especially given their usual level of antipathy towards me (which I have quite rightly earned.) But given the recent history of the X*Crown, how the highest belt on the Network has not been taken out of AWF hand by in-ring results in six months, it really doesn’t play into your self-created narrative.
And then you surround yourself with sycophants to tell you you’re the best. You hire out rooms in London for your own birthday party to have people sympathetic to you to heap praise upon you. Because you don’t believe that they’re right. Not truly. Not deep down. You need those boosters because quite frankly you really do need the boost.
So we have two scenarios.
Card places his drink down and leans right into the camera, holding forth one protruding finger.
Chris Card: Scenario one. You are a braggart. You have not one ounce of modesty in your body. You truly believe that you cannot be touched as a competitor. If you’re half the man you say you are you’re still twice the competition.
And why does that help me? Because you won’t study me properly. You won’t believe I am capable of winning the match. I will put the hard hours in. I will learn your game down to the finest exploitable point. And there will be something that you will miss. An opening. A chance. And I only need one chance.
And now a second.
Chris Card: Scenario two. You are insecure. Scared that you cannot hope to be the man you loudly claim to be. That your success will be fleeting. That Anthony Caffrey the man will never, ever match Anthony Caffrey the image.
And why does that help me? I may not be the most talented wrestler on the planet. But my grasp of psychology is fearsome and I’m not just talking about in-ring psychology here. I know that I can outwrestle you, Caffrey. Not over the course of a whole match. Any man who claims he can dominate an entire match against even a vaguely credible opponent is a damn fool. But I can retain control for just long enough to break your spirit. To bring those self doubts to the surface. And those doubts bring errors. And errors bring openings. Chances. And I only need one chance.
Card leans back again, moving the topic back to a familiar promotional territory.
Chris Card: I’m a bad match up for Caffery. A really bad match up. The absolute worst booking you can take in a wrestling match is somebody who uses basically the same style as yours but is a hair’s breadth better at it. I’m not underestimating your chances here, Caffrey. I’m giving you an out. One that lets you keep your self image intact.
You use a strong striking game, Caffery. You throw a good solid punch, you know how to use forearms and elbows. I respect that in an opponent. I look forward to throwing down a few strikes of my own against you. And then you get to find out what a reasonably skilled practitioner of muay thai can do. Because every strike I throw is practised and finely honed. There’s an old cliché in professional wrestling that some people have educated feet. Well I have educated limbs. And they’ve had time to do their full post graduate studies.
Ahh, but then there’s your submission artistry. After all, you can hit that ankle lock from anywhere. And if you get that locked in it’s game over for me. Well, that’s definitely something to be aware of. You’re not the only wrestler on the Network whose specialization is in the old heel hook. It’s a great technique. There’s a big secret to defeating opponents who go for a leg submission. Protect your legs. Learn your counters. A heel hook is nigh unshakable as a hold once it’s locked in. So don’t let your opponent lock it in. There are a ton of ways to counter a heel hook attempt. I would encourage Caffrey’s future opponents to add a little Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to your game. Learn how to counter these MMA submissions before they happen because after can be impossible. That’s what I did.
And what of your other submissions? I hear you like to throw other holds and stretches in with great frequency and a near reckless abandon. What you need to do, if I may be so bold, is to cut about 90% of them out. There is a reason I don’t use more of my own submission arsenal. It’s because I stick to what works. What sets up my devastating selection of spinal locks. What leads very directly to my path to victory.
Maybe you have the aerial advantage over me. I’m skipping the power game side for discussion because that’s something neither of us is any good at. You have been known to take to the skies. High risk, high reward. So should I fear you ability to dive off the ropes? Of course not. You’re no expert up there and you use that as a roll of the dice when you feel nothing is working. So the second I see you climbing the ropes I will know that I have the advantage. If you hit the move, great, it might help you get back into a match that you feel locked out in. But I will take succour from the mere act. Because I will take it as empirical evidence that whatever I am doing within the ring is working.
Or you might find course to cheat. That would, of course, be foolish. Because there is an area of professional wrestling where I am absolutely without peers. I have counters for your submission arsenal. If you are actually going to do your research, like a proper wrestler should, you will find that out. But what those who have dalliances with the dark arts of professional wrestling find out is that not only is Chris Card a dirty, low down cheat. But that Chris Card has cheated so much, so well for so long that he actually has counters for the more sinister side of pro wrestling. Ask anyone who has tried the old uppercut low blow on me only to find themselves trapped in a stepover arm bar.
Caffrey is trying to sell you on his unimpeachable position as the greatest wrestler alive today. I am not. There are plenty of wrestlers out there that have proved difficult challenges for me in the past and I am sure there will be in the future. I know Caffrey will be one of them. But I relish difficult challenges. I don’t have an overinflated ego nor am I wracked with self doubt.
I’m sure Caffrey will laugh all of this off. I’m sure he will try to rubbish my achievements and upsell his own. After all, we’re wrestlers, that’s what we do. But Caffery has a special kind of knack for this. He will do his damnedest not to give me any credit for anything. It’s just how he is. Just bear in mind when you listen to his words.
Why is he doing it?
Is it for your benefit?
Or is it for his own?
Card shrugs his shoulders and returns to his whisky, taking a couple of extra sips.
Chris Card: You know, I’ll have to recommend this to Jack if I see him at the event…
Fade.
London, ON.
Chris Card is seated at one of the tables near a window. Normally he would sit outside where he could freely smoke his own choice of Cuban cigar but the Ontarian weather at this time of year can be rather inclement, to say the least.
Card waits as a personalized monogrammed tumbler is filled up with an expensive double of whisky from a classy looking bottle. He takes a quick smell and a subtle sip, raising his eyebrows and offering a subtle nod of the head to the waiter in recognition of the quality of the alcohol. Leaning back in the leather chair he sits in, Card looks into the camera and offers a knowing wink to the audience who he knows this will reach. Card beings to speak in a cool, collected metered tone.
Chris Card: Well, Anthony, it seems I may have missed my chance to take a front row seat to your festival of your own greatness. No, I didn’t get the London wrong. I just chose to stay near my home and hearth rather than traipse halfway round the world to listen to you yammer on. Still, it’s not like I will have lost an opportunity for you to declare your own superiority. There are plenty of tapes out there of your vignettes where you feel that you need to restate your position as the star that shines brightest, the lionized ubermensch of the Network. If I wanted to know how great you are, all I need to do is bring up the AXW site and look for the Caffrey videos and boom, there we have a fresh spiel about your in ring excellence.
A broad grin breaks across his face.
Chris Card: I hope you believe it.
The smile fades slowly as he continues talking, turning to a colder, almost calculating tone.
Chris Card: I mean there is no great reason why I shouldn’t think you believe it. It’s easy when you are at the top to be blinded by your own brilliance. When everyone is praising you, it really does feel fantastic. To soak in all that hype. To bask in your own glory. It’s a seductive path to walk down. To have that level of superiority over an entire locker room is a rare pleasure in this industry. That self belief is also thoroughly exploitable.
After all, thinking you’re untouchable and actually being untouchable are very different things. If you don’t think your opponent is in your class then why would you bother to learn their strengths? You obviously have the skills to beat anyone in AXW, anyone on the network. So why put the effort in, looking up at the match up and finding the chinks in your opponent’s armour. After all, the only weakness that you ever need in a match is that you opponent isn’t Anthony Caffrey, right? Why would you ever need to strategize and scheme on how you intend to defeat your latest victim? That ankle lock will work on anyone!
So walk out to that ring, head held high, confidence flowing through your veins. Rely on your innate skill, your tried and tested talents. After all, what can Chris Card do in the face of such unassailable odds? He’s not Anthony Caffrey, submission artist extraordinaire. Heel hook or modified kata hajime, everyone taps in the end.
I love that line of thinking from an opponent. I can profit so much from an opponent who takes me lightly. But what if that line of thinking isn’t true?
Card takes another sip before he floats the next question lazily across the air.
Chris Card: What if you are deeply, deeply insecure?
Leaning forward a little, Card’s line of attack is precisely thought out and very direct.
Chris Card: After all, I don’t need to hold massive celebrations for my birthdays. I could. I could hire out the yacht, fill it with glad handers and hangers on ready to praise me to the high heavens and take it out into warmer waters. I could surround myself with loyal stable mates, ready to praise me at the slightest moment’s notice. I could keep clippings of every positive review that my many elite caliber matches have garnered. Instead I keep naught but a few memories of my career in my house for posterity’s sake.
And speaking of my little room of success, Anthony Caffrey seems to want me to avoid talking about any past success as a subject. Is that maybe the an indicator towards him being insecure rather than convinced? That he knows that I have considerably more past accolades than him. I’ve been in this sport longer, of course I have. But the mere fact that someone has a better résumé than him? Well it kind of punctures the self image of being the greatest thing walking God’s green earth, doesn’t it?
Then I hear him talk about the superiority of AXW as a federation. Now I would not expect Caffery to be the sort to drink their own federation’s Kool-Aid. I mean, that’s Dylan Viper’s job. But I can see how the internal logic works here. “I am the best, I am champion of AXW therefore AXW is the best.” It’s such a beautifully simple self conceit.
Pause...
Chris Card: It’s bunkum, of course.
A lean back and an inscrutable smile. As in, Card might be being condescending with his next passage. Or he could be showing genuine warmth to those mentioned. But you will never know.
Chris Card: I could not say for sure which federation is better. I’m sure fantasy bookers across the globe pitch match ups between the top stars of both federations and debate through the night over several hot mugs of cocoa who would win. We have no evidence since last year when AXW walked into an AWF taping, declared all out war and it all ended up in a big blowoff show in front of about 5,000 people in Nailsworth, (Nailsworth of all places!) Which the AWF won. But our rosters have changed so much since then, I really wouldn’t want to be held to an accurate guess as to who would hold sway in a repeat event. But Caffrey? You need to feel that AXW is better because you need the validation of being the best of the best.
Denigrating the X*Crown. That might be another clue. It’s the highest regarded belt on the Network, it’s defended at every major XHF show (including this one.) It’s a belt that I, myself failed to win because Jack Diamond isn’t too proud to take a disqualification to preserve a title. And I applaud him for that. But you, Caffrey, seem to think that because it isn’t a title you currently hold then it can’t be as important as a title that you do. That’s some Orwellian level doublethink going on. Holding a federation level title is better than a global one because the global one doesn’t grace your waist.
If that is your sincere belief then I am quite frankly flummoxed at your logic.
Card’s raises his eyebrows in mock confusion.
And then you surround yourself with sycophants to tell you you’re the best. You hire out rooms in London for your own birthday party to have people sympathetic to you to heap praise upon you. Because you don’t believe that they’re right. Not truly. Not deep down. You need those boosters because quite frankly you really do need the boost.
So we have two scenarios.
Card places his drink down and leans right into the camera, holding forth one protruding finger.
Chris Card: Scenario one. You are a braggart. You have not one ounce of modesty in your body. You truly believe that you cannot be touched as a competitor. If you’re half the man you say you are you’re still twice the competition.
And why does that help me? Because you won’t study me properly. You won’t believe I am capable of winning the match. I will put the hard hours in. I will learn your game down to the finest exploitable point. And there will be something that you will miss. An opening. A chance. And I only need one chance.
And now a second.
Chris Card: Scenario two. You are insecure. Scared that you cannot hope to be the man you loudly claim to be. That your success will be fleeting. That Anthony Caffrey the man will never, ever match Anthony Caffrey the image.
And why does that help me? I may not be the most talented wrestler on the planet. But my grasp of psychology is fearsome and I’m not just talking about in-ring psychology here. I know that I can outwrestle you, Caffrey. Not over the course of a whole match. Any man who claims he can dominate an entire match against even a vaguely credible opponent is a damn fool. But I can retain control for just long enough to break your spirit. To bring those self doubts to the surface. And those doubts bring errors. And errors bring openings. Chances. And I only need one chance.
Card leans back again, moving the topic back to a familiar promotional territory.
Chris Card: I’m a bad match up for Caffery. A really bad match up. The absolute worst booking you can take in a wrestling match is somebody who uses basically the same style as yours but is a hair’s breadth better at it. I’m not underestimating your chances here, Caffrey. I’m giving you an out. One that lets you keep your self image intact.
You use a strong striking game, Caffery. You throw a good solid punch, you know how to use forearms and elbows. I respect that in an opponent. I look forward to throwing down a few strikes of my own against you. And then you get to find out what a reasonably skilled practitioner of muay thai can do. Because every strike I throw is practised and finely honed. There’s an old cliché in professional wrestling that some people have educated feet. Well I have educated limbs. And they’ve had time to do their full post graduate studies.
Ahh, but then there’s your submission artistry. After all, you can hit that ankle lock from anywhere. And if you get that locked in it’s game over for me. Well, that’s definitely something to be aware of. You’re not the only wrestler on the Network whose specialization is in the old heel hook. It’s a great technique. There’s a big secret to defeating opponents who go for a leg submission. Protect your legs. Learn your counters. A heel hook is nigh unshakable as a hold once it’s locked in. So don’t let your opponent lock it in. There are a ton of ways to counter a heel hook attempt. I would encourage Caffrey’s future opponents to add a little Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to your game. Learn how to counter these MMA submissions before they happen because after can be impossible. That’s what I did.
And what of your other submissions? I hear you like to throw other holds and stretches in with great frequency and a near reckless abandon. What you need to do, if I may be so bold, is to cut about 90% of them out. There is a reason I don’t use more of my own submission arsenal. It’s because I stick to what works. What sets up my devastating selection of spinal locks. What leads very directly to my path to victory.
Maybe you have the aerial advantage over me. I’m skipping the power game side for discussion because that’s something neither of us is any good at. You have been known to take to the skies. High risk, high reward. So should I fear you ability to dive off the ropes? Of course not. You’re no expert up there and you use that as a roll of the dice when you feel nothing is working. So the second I see you climbing the ropes I will know that I have the advantage. If you hit the move, great, it might help you get back into a match that you feel locked out in. But I will take succour from the mere act. Because I will take it as empirical evidence that whatever I am doing within the ring is working.
Or you might find course to cheat. That would, of course, be foolish. Because there is an area of professional wrestling where I am absolutely without peers. I have counters for your submission arsenal. If you are actually going to do your research, like a proper wrestler should, you will find that out. But what those who have dalliances with the dark arts of professional wrestling find out is that not only is Chris Card a dirty, low down cheat. But that Chris Card has cheated so much, so well for so long that he actually has counters for the more sinister side of pro wrestling. Ask anyone who has tried the old uppercut low blow on me only to find themselves trapped in a stepover arm bar.
Caffrey is trying to sell you on his unimpeachable position as the greatest wrestler alive today. I am not. There are plenty of wrestlers out there that have proved difficult challenges for me in the past and I am sure there will be in the future. I know Caffrey will be one of them. But I relish difficult challenges. I don’t have an overinflated ego nor am I wracked with self doubt.
I’m sure Caffrey will laugh all of this off. I’m sure he will try to rubbish my achievements and upsell his own. After all, we’re wrestlers, that’s what we do. But Caffery has a special kind of knack for this. He will do his damnedest not to give me any credit for anything. It’s just how he is. Just bear in mind when you listen to his words.
Why is he doing it?
Is it for your benefit?
Or is it for his own?
Card shrugs his shoulders and returns to his whisky, taking a couple of extra sips.
Chris Card: You know, I’ll have to recommend this to Jack if I see him at the event…
Fade.
