Ever since I was five years old, I wanted to be a professional wrestler.
There's just something about this business that I absolutely fell in love with. After high school, I saved up my own money at the age of 22, I paid to go to a training school with a guy who this business had chewed up and spit out.
I used what he taught me and got stuck in a nowhere gimmick in a long-dead company with no expectations from anyone to make it. I won their World title twice, among others. Then I went into business for myself and no one expected my promotion, ICW to make it. It burned out quickly, but we were the place to be for the two years we were alive. I'd go on to other places. MWF, LOW, OWF, NLW. Once again, no one would expect me to succeed. I'd work twice as hard to show that I'm the best in in that ring.
You know what I want. What do you want, Jesse Williams? What do you get for the man who has everything? You're the World Champion again of a now defunct organization, your challengers scattered to the wind. Were you just hoping the OWF title would be forgotten? Maybe you were hoping Jesse Williams would be forgotten.
Maybe you wanted to slip quietly into retirement, having vanquished all of your foes and laid waste to your kingdom. It's hard to come at the franchise of the OWF when there is no OWF. Jesse Williams, seven-time champion and undisputed best to step between the OWF's ropes, could get his happy ending and ride off into the sunset. Maybe he could work on training his daughter to carry on his legacy.
I have a legacy too, Jesse. I have a legacy that I've been working to rebuild. I hurt people. I injured people. I listened to a part of me that should have stayed dormant. What did it get me? Not a damn thing. When it comes to the record books of our former employer, I'm a footnote. A lengthy tag team title reign and some brief PDA title reigns, but that's it. Barely made a dent in Quest for the Best. I've had some impressive wins and some legendary matches, but that's it.
I'm 6'5. I'm 260. I have all the natural gifts you can ask for in this business and an in-ring mind few others have. Yet for my entire career I've been treated like the underdog. Everyone's always questioned me. Can JC beat this guy? Will JC do the right thing? Is JC telling the truth? My legacy is doubt. My legacy is being a steady hand and not much else.
It was the same in the OWF. In fact, it was the same from you, Jesse, before our first meeting. Do you even remember what you said, Jesse? Because I do. Eight years in the business and you were treating me like a rookie. Over three world titles to my name and you acted like I was a pretender to your throne. I guess if we're being honest, I might as well have been. You beat me eight years ago. You moved on.
I haven't.
Eight years later and I haven't forgotten a single word you said. Even after I thought I was retired. Even after I came back and threw myself at everyone from Redemption to Lorenzo DeMarco to get myself to the top. Everything I did in that ring, every single moment I've ever had in the last year, it was all to get back to you. To the Franchise of the OWF. To the OWF World Heavyweight championship.
I chose to remember not because I hold a grudge, but because words like that stick with you. They add on the doubt and questions everyone's had about me for my entire career. No matter how good I've been, no matter what I've achieved, there's always doubt. You might say that beating Jesse Williams and finally winning the one title that's eluded me is the perfect way to silence that doubt.
I beat you within an inch of your life at Shock and Terror 2016. I didn't play games, I didn't mess around. I came in and gave you what has to be the most embarrassing loss of your career. It was so bad you came back a month later and ruined CJ Wylde's dreams with a vengeance. Meanwhile, I respectfully decided to wait and cash in my title shot in March, give you more than enough time to prepare so I could beat you the right way.
I did the right thing, for the right reasons, and somehow my title shot almost slipped through my fingers. Chase Johnson killed the OWF. He drove a stake right in its heart, without warning and without mercy for the lives he was toying with. He's moved on to greener pastures and we're left to pick up the pieces. So now, this story of glory, deceit, tragedy, triumph and everything else in between, has come to its conclusion.
Win or lose, this is the end.
The end of the OWF. The end of Jesse vs JC, for what it was. The end of everything. More importantly, this is my very last chance to restore my legacy and show that JC is everything he's always said he was.
Win or lose, you will get everything I have on New Year's Eve. I will give you more than I've ever given. If I should die in the middle of that ring in pursuit of this one goal, I think that would be fine with me. Because Jesse, I would rather die than not beat you. I would rather die than not be the champion.
Maybe you've heard this before. Maybe you've heard this from me before. Maybe I said this eight years ago when we fought before. It doesn't matter.
This time I mean it, because this time I have to mean it. You once told me, before I unsuccessfully challenged your throne, that I was worried I was getting my one and only shot. You were wrong then, but you couldn't be more right today. This is it for me. There's no chance I can work my way up with a few more matches and try again. If I don't beat you at New Year Zero, I don't beat you. Ever. I don't become the OWF World Heavyweight champion. Everything I ever worked for within that company means nothing.
I won't allow that to happen.
I told you before, at Shock and Terror, that all I needed was a shot. A single, solitary shot. I earned that shot and now I'm getting what I'm due. As a certain colleague of ours used to say, I'm getting paid in full. When I say I'm giving you everything I have, it's not just a bunch of words meant to highlight a video package or sell the match to fans. As cruel as it may sound, and as much as I don't want to say it, not a single fan will matter that night.
I'll never hear Missy Janson announce me as the OWF World Heavyweight Champion. I'll never get to watch the match on the OWF Network and hear Bobby and Nick talk about how far I've come. Guess what? Our President put them out of work too. I'll never step into an OWF ring with the title, knowing that I've finally come full circle. As of this month, I'll never be an OWF wrestler again and neither will you. That doesn't matter either.
Your belt is the only thing that matters because it's the only thing that can matter. I don't care what it takes. If it's within the rules I'll do it. I'll boot you in the face until it's unrecognizable. I'll put my own body at risk if it means putting you down for a three count. I may lose a little bit of myself out there but that's okay. It will be worth it. The ends will justify the means.
Because I will beat you, Jesse Williams. I will beat you and I will be the champion. I might be the last champion, but you better fucking believe that I will be champion.
So let's give them something to remember us by. Let's give them a show that will make them regret ever kicking us out of our home. Let's show them what they're missing. Maybe you're sick of being the measuring stick. It's lonely at the top and it's a lot of pressure. Tough. That's what happens when you're the best. Look at it this way, you only have to be the best one more time. New Year's Eve, 2016. Chicago, Illinois. Then I'll take that pressure and put it on my shoulders.
Come to Chicago. Bring your belt. Bring your best.
Then watch as I become everything they've always said I couldn't be. Watch me become the OWF World Heavyweight Champion.
Since I was a child, I've wanted this and nothing else. Now that I'm this close, I will take what I'm owed and I will earn what I deserve. I've come too far and sacrificed too much to let this slip through my fingers again.
You won't deny me, Jesse. You can't.
You lost that option when you agreed to fight me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
