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Finn Kühn · (10-11-2022)

8 October 2022
Brooklyn, New York City

THUD!

"Son of a BITCH!" I cursed out, having to rub my aching head once more from yet another bonk on the head from that wretched crimson spear in my trainer's hands.

"This would be a lot more simpler if you could just keep to the goal of training, here..." Skyla Hawkins mused as she watched and studied my movements from halfway across the smaller ring. Her lips were pursed together, twirling the spear between her fingers as she paced around, watching me.

All things considered, the drill was rather basic. Skyla had been looking to instill a more proper, fundamental sense of movement within me and was going hard to try to make that a reality. I had been practicing strikes and grapple attempts on the dummy in the center of the ring for a while now. Weight on the balls of my feet... Step forward with the lead leg and slide over when moving forward... things of that nature. Good advice, something I had been trying to work on myself even - but trying to undo years of experience with improper habits was something that took considerable work.

And of course, the moment I'd even come close to messing up, that spear was there to rap me on the top of my skull.

"Getting there..." I managed to get out before coming back to work on my strikes. It wasn't that hard, it's just... habit-breaking at this point. Step and slide, step and slide, step and slide...

"You got this, Finn!" The familiar blonde called out from the outside of the ring, cozy within her spot in the gym seating as she was clearly waiting to talk business with me after I was done here.

"Thanks..." I muttered out, looking over to her. I really needed to remember her name at this point, but with how hard and fast these spear strikes were coming, mixed with the heat of adrenaline, it was really hard to try and remember her name-

"Christine!"

...Of course Christine could practically read my thoughts. Why wouldn't she be able to? Huffing out, I continued wailing and letting frustrations out on the poor training dummy, who wobbled and swayed with every strike I delivered. I'm not sure for how long it persisted, but I just let myself get lost in the drill until the thump of the crimson spear on the ring mat roused me from my thoughts. I went to let loose with one more straight right hand right to the bridge of that fake nose-

"That's enough for now," Skyla said with a deep exhale. My hand froze, inches away from contact as she continued. "You have much work to do... but you've still made strides over the past few days. This is a start - and you should be at something resembling a good enough rate to get you through a match on Warfare, if nothing else..."

"Chose a Hell of a time to have me try reinventing the wheel... but the help is appreciated, at least..." I exhaled myself, stretching out my muscles. The habits were starting to get weaker at least if nothing else, and I still had a good few days before Warfare rolls around to the point where I could try hammering things in more clearly. Assuming I could really try doing something like this over the span of two damn weeks...

"Because I know this will give you an edge when it's done," Skyla said, unamused by my sarcastic comments. "Look at most competitors in the XWF. Even your opponent Charlie Nickles come Warfare. Technique is not the strong suit of many within its halls. Many of them are rash, impulsive, and rely more on instincts than proper training - even something like this is lost on many of them. So you'll be able to move faster, hit stronger, be far more fluid in the ring once all is said and done..." Her voice flowed like the smoothest silk, as if trying to build up and promise me the world in exchange for hard work. I had to admit, she was good at her job if nothing else... "Warm-ups are over. Take ten, and then when you come back, we'll be settling into something more... difficult."

And so, that was that as Skyla headed out of the ring. I wiped the light layer of sweat off of my face. The joys of trying to undo years of progress and start anew... Still, I knew it'd be for the better in the end. Better to start on the fundamentals now. Even now, I could feel her work helping me out immensely with the pointers she had given me when it came to coming up with new signature moves. But as I headed out of the ring, for the time being my eyes settled onto the still-sitting form of Christine.

"So what bring you out here...?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing major..." Christine told me with a smile as she reached out her hand. I recognized one of the contents in it already - a brand new manila folder. Time for another scouting session... but this time, I recognized something new in there too. A tablet...? I looked up at her, my brows furrowing. "I figured you should get a look at what he had to say about you too before you continue - bit of extra fuel to the training... right?"

"Mmmh..." I murmured as I slowly powered on the tablet, pulling up the video.

"What's wrong? You're looking almost... distant?" Christine's expression to me was one of genuine concern, but as I stared in the reflection of myself in that tablet, I couldn't help but think.

Could I... really do this? My first main event back in so long?

...

I won't know until I try, at least.

I dreamt. I yearned for this one day where I proved once again I could belong and do even better than how I was before. My doubts were weighing me down like heavy weights, but I knew I was so close to truly putting the entire damn company on notice.

It's time to make good on that. I pressed the play button as I looked up at her.

"I'm fine. Let's do this."

Present Day

"Can I just say - this is fucking ridiculous. So many people in the XWF want to proclaim how they're the best and baddest in the world, trying to measure their phalluses and see who comes out on top while adding on top with some ridiculous sob story about how 'oh, woe is me' that someone just needs to take two seconds in order to research and debunk with ease. I've seen it in my first match back with John Black and it's the same damn story here. Because yes, ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Nickles is the epitome of this laughable archetype."

"'Woe is me!' he proclaims. He whines, he bitches, he moans about how management has it out for him. He complains about how he never gets the opportunities to show himself on the big stage, right after contradicting himself. Because by his own admission, he went on and talked about how for the majority of this year, HE WAS MAIN EVENTING WARFARE! Tell me, brave people who had to bear through the utter disgrace of a diatribe that was Charlie's promo, how can someone babble on about not getting any opportunities with management out for him when in the same exact breath, he'll go on about how he makes his home in the exact area people would kill for an opportunity in?"

"I'll tell you why."

"Charlie Nickles is a sad, frail, pathetic man. He's a pathological liar who thrives off of trying to get eyes onto him, to listen to his sob stories. Now sure, we've all been there, that's the nature of this business. But it's the depths he'll go to to see that it happens that's the sad part."

"For him, lying comes as easy as breathing, because he doesn't know any other way to live his life. To blame others for his misfortunes, he'll come up with a scapegoat to cast his blames onto if it means he can prevent others from noticing him for the being he is. He does that to his daughter, and constantly bitches and moans at her despite her having held championship gold more recently than him. He does that to management, proclaiming they hold him back, that they'll never give him a fair shake despite them doing exactly that. Because tell me, Charlie, do you remember what happened as of a few months ago? End of June? I know I sure do, because I just recently watched that episode of Warfare for myself."

MARF and CHARLIE NICKLES

- vs -

MARK FLYNN and NORTH KOREAN WAR CRIMINAL ©

- TAG TEAM RP RULES - TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH

"And... wow, that was right after he lost his Universal title match to Alias, wasn't it? In the main event of a Pay-Per-View? Funny, one would think a loss in a match like that would be the perfect reason for management to step in and send him to the back of the line, yet they gave him another title chance... just like that."

"Charlie thinks that lying makes him look better. Come up with a sympathetic story about how a scapegoat is holding him back and have people look at him in a better manner. But again... it just takes two seconds to debunk it. It takes just two seconds to try and piece together the hole in his story. He gets opportunities constantly. Just because he's left off of one Pay-Per-View, he thinks that's enough fuel to his story, but that couldn't be further from the truth because..."

"Here we are."

"The main event of Warfare."

"Charlie Nickles versus Finn Kühn in a First Blood match."

"Two men well acquainted with prior failures trying to right their course."

"That's the thing, Charlie, I'm not knocking your failure to get the job done and win the Universal Championship or win the Tag Team Championships against the guy you'd later be claiming to beat with lesser stakes on the line. Really, I'm not. I'd be the last person to bash someone for prior failures. But laying out all the facts like this... is complaining about management really the route you want to take? After all this? With showing how you've had more opportunities at the top than most people can count?"

"But I'm still here. This... 'prissy little metro,' you put it, is still here and still fighting after everything he's gone through so far in my career, and he's on his way to knock you off at Warfare. Why? Because this is the same exact story as what I had to deal with with Buster Gloves at Relentless. He underestimated me. He overlooked me despite what he said because he gave me halfhearted compliments while saying there's time for me to go off and do other things outside of wrestling. Do you know what happened at Relentless, Charlie?"

"I didn't lose. If anything, I was two seconds away from breaking his arm before a voice from who-knows-where chimed in and saved his arm. He learned the hard way what I'm capable of."

"So, what do you want to do, Charlie? Do you want to sit idly by and babble more about lies with how the 'man' is holding you back despite all evidence to the contrary? Or do you want to sit up in your seat, put on your big boy pants and face me as the longest-reigning Television Champion of the Modern Era? Are you going to face me as the man who was once considered a worthy challenger for one of the most dominant Universal Champions in recent memory, or are you going to just hound and harass your daughter again instead of taking anything remotely seriously?"

"I'll tell you one thing. If you take one of the paths ahead of you, then you've already lost. I won't prove a damn thing by beating that version of you come Warfare. But if you take that other path and take this match as seriously as you like to claim you take every other main event match..."

"We're going to show them EXACTLY why we deserve to be challenging for titles."

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Act CIII: The Art of Mind Games - Part 2 of 3
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