Post by lulu on Feb 17, 2022 23:54:58 GMT -5
Isn’t it funny what can happen in a year?
After Drago Santiago took the biggest gamble of his life, and after departing from two federations that could guarantee at the bare minimum I’d have a paycheck to feed myself, I joined this newer federation called Project Honor. It’s names was whispered in Wrestleworld, as those you cannot name. After all, if you gave it a name, it’d become real. This federation was batshit! It had a weekly schedule evoking nostalgic memories of ‘Where in the World in Carmen San Diego’, and a billionaire backer who hadn’t seen wrestling since you could take out someone with a leg drop, brother. Maybe if this place wasn’t so polarizing, it wouldn’t have garnered the attention of curious eyes, but it did. It kept you fans glued to the television screens, begging for more.
I debuted with Elena, who made me stain the mats with my blood, but I didn’t go back runnin’ to lick my wounds after getting my ego wounded. I knew the fans and the fighters deserved to be led by someone like them - someone who could prove you could get to the top without fitting into a predesignated role. I was a trailblazer, not blazing a trail necessarily out of rebellion, but out of a desire to be myself that couldn’t be cast aside. I got far. Hell, at Project Honor’s first ever crowning, I became the Prime Champion, and when my back went through a glass table to tear JNS into shreds, it felt as though I went into a trance. I’ve spent so much of my career chasing and hunting for the sake of chasing and hunting, and this victory meant being the one being chased.
I didn’t have the longest title reign.
I didn’t have the most significant title reign.
But there wasn’t a distance between myself and my opponents. I MADE the Prime championship division what it is today. Drago Santiago wasn’t posted across billboards, it didn’t light the signs in the sky. I wasn’t doing commercials for wheaties or running the sunday show circuit for free promo. I fought anyone, everyone, wherever, whenever. If you wanted my belt, you knew where to find me. Stand the fuck up and get knocked the fuck back down. Back then, I had a fiery passion to prove that no matter what kind of build you have or background you’re from, you can make it to the top if you put the work in and out of all of the things I cherished about being champion, I have one regret.
According to Big Drip, I lied.
Children, if you’re sitting at home, glued to your screen, surrounded in your memorabilia of MYOJIN if you make tiktoks with heart eye filters or Syndicate if you’re two bad grades away from being a school shooter, and you’re dreaming of seeing yourself fighting underneath these bright lights?
Give up.
Wrestling isn’t the Wild West, where the only law is what you can get away with. It is and industry made to devour those who don’t fit into a special type of mold. I’ve spent more days of my life fighting than I haven’t, and at thirty eight, everytime I say that statement out loud, I’m stunned. Planting roots in Project Honor could’ve meant losing everything I’ve done my best to put together. This is a statement MANY names here could repeat without setting off a lie detector test. We’ve been competing for roster slots with Big Drip, whose sole purpose is to use wrestling as a springboard to push their albums beyond triple wood.
Big Drip trying to convince you to be yourself is like a lottery winner telling you to cash out your life savings into scratch off tickets.
Big Drip might try to convince you that they’re the ultimate underdogs, but that underdog status exists because they haven’t put the work in. Lil Petey’s come a long way since getting his wig split by Caden Young in the early days of Project Honor; it takes a lot of practice to master headlocks and dropkicks!
But I am not moved by True Society’s purpose to change the world, as much as the peace I feel knowing they have a purpose.
I am moved by my fear of things to come if we allow mediocrity to thrive.
I know my place. I play the sage, I try to pass down wisdom, divvying out tokens of truth like TJ passes our breadcrumbs to catch his next meal once those Big Drip checks dry up. I debuted with a yearning to teach, and unlike those who change their stories to fit their narratives, I come back a year later, with a yearning to teach. Lil Petey is the student you suspend because sacrificing his potential is worth allowing others to grow. Lil Petey is the only thing that keeps me awake at night. I’ve stared down Elena DeDraca twice, I’ve walked through fire to beat Pyro on his terms, and I’ve put myself through glass without hesitation because my desire to educate others is that powerful, but Lil Petey is unteachable.
Maybe he’s worse; he’s leading others in his footsteps. If you hadn’t earned the ire of True Society, Big Drip Worldwide would roll over the developmental talent like they always do, while begging for you to steam edamame. I resent that.
I can watch you sign your own death warrant, cuz I respect your right to do it, but when you’re dragging others down, it’s time to kill the parasitic plants so the rest of the garden can bloom.
When did it become cool to steal home plate from third base and call it a home run?
Big Drip at its core, despite all of it’s antics, has enjoyed the highest level of privilege a company can offer. You celebrated with Ozy, despite being twigs he’d deem too weak to serve as fodder for the fire in any other circumstance. You almost fall over yourself entertaining women who wouldn’t give you a second look in public, unless it was to scream ‘that man isn’t allowed in a school zone!’ We are both tall white men in an industry of tall white men discovering tall white men - even if neither of us are the ideal musclebrained idiot the industry desires, we’re starting the race with an advantage, so embracing any ideal of being an underdog is…
..And no. I don’t mean white privilege. In the same manner a court jester was allowed to insult and demean without fear of retaliation, you’re able to clown it up because nobody takes you seriously as a threat.
MYOJIN must’ve felt the instinct to protect you from yourself. Every list of submission savants I hear starts with Santiago, but includes MYOJIN in the top five, and not number five. Their shining presence has been felt at the center of Project Honor’s universe, and they’ve got the presence of Jupiter with the size of Pluto. It’s definitely an advantage to have the X-Factor champion, but a team held together with glue and paper clips isn’t a team at all. MYOJIN’s fought for the Grand championship. They’ve held the biggest prize in XHF, Dominion, and are climbing the ladder in OWA. TJ, Petey, you have their mercy and their sympathy, but you aren’t their priority. Any match with me is a match where life and limb are for grabs, and you better believe you won’t come first. Shit, Fairweather’s as loyal as his name implies. He miiiiiiiight still have a grudge with me for keeping his name out of the history books but… and Swindle Shelldrake moves like a man who knows exactly when the clock strikes 5PM, so he can clock out as soon as the second hand beckons.
Lil Petey, you’ve surrounded yourself with talent you don’t have. It took almost two years, but you’ve finally got yourself into a scenario you can’t joke your way out of. This roster isn’t big enough for the two of us, and that cage DEFINITELY won’t be.
After Drago Santiago took the biggest gamble of his life, and after departing from two federations that could guarantee at the bare minimum I’d have a paycheck to feed myself, I joined this newer federation called Project Honor. It’s names was whispered in Wrestleworld, as those you cannot name. After all, if you gave it a name, it’d become real. This federation was batshit! It had a weekly schedule evoking nostalgic memories of ‘Where in the World in Carmen San Diego’, and a billionaire backer who hadn’t seen wrestling since you could take out someone with a leg drop, brother. Maybe if this place wasn’t so polarizing, it wouldn’t have garnered the attention of curious eyes, but it did. It kept you fans glued to the television screens, begging for more.
I debuted with Elena, who made me stain the mats with my blood, but I didn’t go back runnin’ to lick my wounds after getting my ego wounded. I knew the fans and the fighters deserved to be led by someone like them - someone who could prove you could get to the top without fitting into a predesignated role. I was a trailblazer, not blazing a trail necessarily out of rebellion, but out of a desire to be myself that couldn’t be cast aside. I got far. Hell, at Project Honor’s first ever crowning, I became the Prime Champion, and when my back went through a glass table to tear JNS into shreds, it felt as though I went into a trance. I’ve spent so much of my career chasing and hunting for the sake of chasing and hunting, and this victory meant being the one being chased.
I didn’t have the longest title reign.
I didn’t have the most significant title reign.
But there wasn’t a distance between myself and my opponents. I MADE the Prime championship division what it is today. Drago Santiago wasn’t posted across billboards, it didn’t light the signs in the sky. I wasn’t doing commercials for wheaties or running the sunday show circuit for free promo. I fought anyone, everyone, wherever, whenever. If you wanted my belt, you knew where to find me. Stand the fuck up and get knocked the fuck back down. Back then, I had a fiery passion to prove that no matter what kind of build you have or background you’re from, you can make it to the top if you put the work in and out of all of the things I cherished about being champion, I have one regret.
According to Big Drip, I lied.
Children, if you’re sitting at home, glued to your screen, surrounded in your memorabilia of MYOJIN if you make tiktoks with heart eye filters or Syndicate if you’re two bad grades away from being a school shooter, and you’re dreaming of seeing yourself fighting underneath these bright lights?
Give up.
Wrestling isn’t the Wild West, where the only law is what you can get away with. It is and industry made to devour those who don’t fit into a special type of mold. I’ve spent more days of my life fighting than I haven’t, and at thirty eight, everytime I say that statement out loud, I’m stunned. Planting roots in Project Honor could’ve meant losing everything I’ve done my best to put together. This is a statement MANY names here could repeat without setting off a lie detector test. We’ve been competing for roster slots with Big Drip, whose sole purpose is to use wrestling as a springboard to push their albums beyond triple wood.
Big Drip trying to convince you to be yourself is like a lottery winner telling you to cash out your life savings into scratch off tickets.
Big Drip might try to convince you that they’re the ultimate underdogs, but that underdog status exists because they haven’t put the work in. Lil Petey’s come a long way since getting his wig split by Caden Young in the early days of Project Honor; it takes a lot of practice to master headlocks and dropkicks!
But I am not moved by True Society’s purpose to change the world, as much as the peace I feel knowing they have a purpose.
I am moved by my fear of things to come if we allow mediocrity to thrive.
I know my place. I play the sage, I try to pass down wisdom, divvying out tokens of truth like TJ passes our breadcrumbs to catch his next meal once those Big Drip checks dry up. I debuted with a yearning to teach, and unlike those who change their stories to fit their narratives, I come back a year later, with a yearning to teach. Lil Petey is the student you suspend because sacrificing his potential is worth allowing others to grow. Lil Petey is the only thing that keeps me awake at night. I’ve stared down Elena DeDraca twice, I’ve walked through fire to beat Pyro on his terms, and I’ve put myself through glass without hesitation because my desire to educate others is that powerful, but Lil Petey is unteachable.
Maybe he’s worse; he’s leading others in his footsteps. If you hadn’t earned the ire of True Society, Big Drip Worldwide would roll over the developmental talent like they always do, while begging for you to steam edamame. I resent that.
I can watch you sign your own death warrant, cuz I respect your right to do it, but when you’re dragging others down, it’s time to kill the parasitic plants so the rest of the garden can bloom.
When did it become cool to steal home plate from third base and call it a home run?
Big Drip at its core, despite all of it’s antics, has enjoyed the highest level of privilege a company can offer. You celebrated with Ozy, despite being twigs he’d deem too weak to serve as fodder for the fire in any other circumstance. You almost fall over yourself entertaining women who wouldn’t give you a second look in public, unless it was to scream ‘that man isn’t allowed in a school zone!’ We are both tall white men in an industry of tall white men discovering tall white men - even if neither of us are the ideal musclebrained idiot the industry desires, we’re starting the race with an advantage, so embracing any ideal of being an underdog is…
..And no. I don’t mean white privilege. In the same manner a court jester was allowed to insult and demean without fear of retaliation, you’re able to clown it up because nobody takes you seriously as a threat.
MYOJIN must’ve felt the instinct to protect you from yourself. Every list of submission savants I hear starts with Santiago, but includes MYOJIN in the top five, and not number five. Their shining presence has been felt at the center of Project Honor’s universe, and they’ve got the presence of Jupiter with the size of Pluto. It’s definitely an advantage to have the X-Factor champion, but a team held together with glue and paper clips isn’t a team at all. MYOJIN’s fought for the Grand championship. They’ve held the biggest prize in XHF, Dominion, and are climbing the ladder in OWA. TJ, Petey, you have their mercy and their sympathy, but you aren’t their priority. Any match with me is a match where life and limb are for grabs, and you better believe you won’t come first. Shit, Fairweather’s as loyal as his name implies. He miiiiiiiight still have a grudge with me for keeping his name out of the history books but… and Swindle Shelldrake moves like a man who knows exactly when the clock strikes 5PM, so he can clock out as soon as the second hand beckons.
Lil Petey, you’ve surrounded yourself with talent you don’t have. It took almost two years, but you’ve finally got yourself into a scenario you can’t joke your way out of. This roster isn’t big enough for the two of us, and that cage DEFINITELY won’t be.