Post by AJ Knight on Jan 21, 2023 5:00:25 GMT
The Laurentide Cup finals. 2018. Who would have thought the rivalry that would have spawned?
The action was just as intense as AJ remembered it, AJ jumped at the pop of the first clean kick that Troy landed. To this day, that still stands as the hardest he'd ever been kicked by somebody whose name was not James Edwards.
It's weird picking up on the exact moment you realize the kind of fight you're in, but damn it if that kick didn't do it.
AJ had made more enemies and more rivals than he'd care to admit. Most of them came from him being a tremendous douche. But among them, David Troy was unique.
He wasn't James Edwards, the generational peer who always seemed a step ahead of him.
He wasn't the mega star of the previous era like Julian Cutlass, the mountain he had to overcome to reach that next level.
It was never personal, unlike against Eli Buchanan, Alexander Irvine and Hammerstein, where it felt like a matter of survival, and always wishing to see the others fail.
No, with Troy it was different. AJ was the one a step ahead, AJ was the mountain to be climbed. And yet it was never personal. Both he and Troy wanted to best each other, yet both wanted the other to succeed, to make their triumph all the greater.
From David Troy AJ always learned the toughest lessons in the ring. Indeed David Troy was one of his greatest teachers. Any flaw any imperfection was too great for him to ignore against so weighty of an opposition, a man who had forgotten more about the sport than AJ was likely to ever know.
"Maybe the matchup is more fitting than they think..."
They could never be accounted friends to be sure. Yet both wanted to win. Both wanted to see the other win. In their desire to do better than each other there was the assurance of each man giving their utmost effort in the ring. And in many ways their rivalry made them the perfect tag team.
Teacher/student tag teams were a mixed bag to be sure. Chemistry was obviously there, and clearly they knew each other well, but it was the distinct inequality of the two sides always created problems in the ring. His experiences with Ben Crenshaw taught him that.
The student always seeking to impress his teacher and thus made himself prone to over playing his hand, and the teacher, always found himself prone to underestimating the capabilities of his student and thus placing too much of the burden of the match upon himself. Especially in the wrestling industry the relationship of teacher and student was one which invariably bred dissension. As well as they would know each other, they'd never understand what the other was truly capable of
But who knows you better than your rival? Studying hours of tape to find for out weaknesses, match after match after match giving an encyclopedic knowledge of what your rival could or couldn't do. In many ways it almost seemed rivals were better partners than your friends were.
"Hm.... Maybe..."
Both were strangers in a new land. One they helped build but had seemingly left them behind. In this new world... Maybe...
AJ pulled out his phone.
"Hey Bastian, you got a minute? I've got something to run by you."
The action was just as intense as AJ remembered it, AJ jumped at the pop of the first clean kick that Troy landed. To this day, that still stands as the hardest he'd ever been kicked by somebody whose name was not James Edwards.
It's weird picking up on the exact moment you realize the kind of fight you're in, but damn it if that kick didn't do it.
AJ had made more enemies and more rivals than he'd care to admit. Most of them came from him being a tremendous douche. But among them, David Troy was unique.
He wasn't James Edwards, the generational peer who always seemed a step ahead of him.
He wasn't the mega star of the previous era like Julian Cutlass, the mountain he had to overcome to reach that next level.
It was never personal, unlike against Eli Buchanan, Alexander Irvine and Hammerstein, where it felt like a matter of survival, and always wishing to see the others fail.
No, with Troy it was different. AJ was the one a step ahead, AJ was the mountain to be climbed. And yet it was never personal. Both he and Troy wanted to best each other, yet both wanted the other to succeed, to make their triumph all the greater.
From David Troy AJ always learned the toughest lessons in the ring. Indeed David Troy was one of his greatest teachers. Any flaw any imperfection was too great for him to ignore against so weighty of an opposition, a man who had forgotten more about the sport than AJ was likely to ever know.
"Maybe the matchup is more fitting than they think..."
They could never be accounted friends to be sure. Yet both wanted to win. Both wanted to see the other win. In their desire to do better than each other there was the assurance of each man giving their utmost effort in the ring. And in many ways their rivalry made them the perfect tag team.
Teacher/student tag teams were a mixed bag to be sure. Chemistry was obviously there, and clearly they knew each other well, but it was the distinct inequality of the two sides always created problems in the ring. His experiences with Ben Crenshaw taught him that.
The student always seeking to impress his teacher and thus made himself prone to over playing his hand, and the teacher, always found himself prone to underestimating the capabilities of his student and thus placing too much of the burden of the match upon himself. Especially in the wrestling industry the relationship of teacher and student was one which invariably bred dissension. As well as they would know each other, they'd never understand what the other was truly capable of
But who knows you better than your rival? Studying hours of tape to find for out weaknesses, match after match after match giving an encyclopedic knowledge of what your rival could or couldn't do. In many ways it almost seemed rivals were better partners than your friends were.
"Hm.... Maybe..."
Both were strangers in a new land. One they helped build but had seemingly left them behind. In this new world... Maybe...
AJ pulled out his phone.
"Hey Bastian, you got a minute? I've got something to run by you."