Post by Carter Shaw on Nov 14, 2020 23:25:05 GMT -5
People really seem to dislike the decisions I’ve made over the past month.
People have this distaste for Philidor Holdings, but people often don’t like what they don’t understand.
People seem to think I’ve taken some sort of easy road, that I’ve copped out and turned my back on the basis of who I am when I signed the dotted line and became a Philidor-sponsored competitor.
But what is easy? The game of numbers, maybe? I could see that assessment, as if I’m the only person who has found it useful to have someone watching their back. Everyone plays that game here in AW. From your most despised in the Lost Breed to your most beloved Man Made Gods. Where would Spencer Adams be if no-one was watching his back in this climate? Fact-check the notion that your greatest heroes always dared to weather the storm alone.
What is it that I have not earned? The financial support I now get to enjoy? I’ve earned that by physically scrapping for every single goddamn dollar I’ve EVER earned in my life. The talent that those earned dollars have honed finally gets its pay-off. That’s not selling out, that’s finally getting something you deserve. That’s the dream, ain’t it?
I’ve not been given anything. I’ve earned my spot in AW over the course of 2020. I have earned this All-In briefcase as well as the right to use it however I wish. I have earned the respect of the people and peers who haven’t unjustifiably thrown that away at a judgmental whim.
I have earned the right to stand across a ring from Corey Black and look at him, eye to eye, knowing that we’re on the same fucking plane. I have earned the right to stand in the ring with the Kyle Kemps and Dandy DiVitos and Wesleys and NOT be cast aside as the piece that doesn’t belong.
This ain’t a sell-out. This is an investment.
This is Carter Shaw investing in the future of Philidor Holdings.
This is Philidor Holdings investing in the future of Carter Shaw.
It was earned. And will continue to be.
I’ll stand beside Derrick Vayden, my fellow Philidor representee this Monday Night. I will take the place of Noris Cranley while he heals up and we will look into the eyes of The Following that faces us at Clash...knowing that we can fight them to a final breath just like anybody else.
Let's look at the goods Kyle Kemp is sellin’. Kemp is like shitty chocolate in a gold wrapper. He’s a master of passing himself off as more worth than he is, and part of that is his impeccable talent to pick the right people to surround himself with to elevate his own name. The Following has been quite a roller coaster over the course of the year, but Kemp lands on his feet like the pussycat he is, every time.
He brilliantly puts himself...kind of in the shadow of his own creation, doesn’t he? He’s the bassist of a band that keeps switching out the cast around him. “Oh, I loved that lead singer. Oh, I love that guitarist. Who was the bassist again? Ya know, the one who’s garage this all started in to begin with?”
It’s brilliant, because it sets him up to perfectly pawn off the failures on his Odin Balfores but always keeps the door open to step out into the limelight of victories like Trios.
He’s the Charlie Manson of AW. He never actually won anything, but he orchestrated it.
Shows how heavy charm can outweigh the lackluster qualities hiding behind it.
The desperate need for back-up is a popular quality in AW. Like I said, I’ve “ganged up” with Philidor...I’m not about to hit Kemp with the hypocrisy hammer. It’s what the current landscape demands while the Corey Bulls, Nightingales and Walters go around fucking kidnapping and killing while the rest of us just try to get a little better every day inside a wrestling ring.
A happy medium is what EVERYbody is searching for.
But Kemp has been the one to step up and make Dandy DiVito a better Dandy DiVito. I hope it started with a half-way house and plenty of 2-liter bottles of Diet Soda.
Dandy...we meet again. I enjoyed the boost our little ‘throw away’ Clash match gave me. Adding your name like a brick to the foundation of my sufficiency. But aligning with the list of things wrong with AW, the match only feels like a ‘throw away’ to people because Dandy FELL to Shaw. The Action Original and his downward spiral just happened to crash through the future that was rising up to meet it.
Let’s see if your enhanced sense of self helps you stack up a little better. #1 contendership for the AW Tag Team Titles. Let’s dance for the right to meet Lockhart and KOS.
Dandy grew up with a fucking silver spoon up his ass, so I don’t expect him for one moment to understand the changes that I’ve made since the last time we clashed. He may cry ‘sell-out’ and he may cry ‘waste’ just like everybody else, but what about him? The opposite of my existence, it took Dandy to THIS point of his life to finally not have anything to fall back on when things got tough.
But as hard as you claim that you’ve lost a step, like a fuckin’ pitcher working on mechanics, it’s not the case. You’re just as good as you ever were, Dandy. It’s just a new generation of talent that has you on your heels. There’s no shame in being passed by, but the more you flail for something to grab on to as if you’re drowning in a sea of talent, the more pathetic you become.
...You ever been drivin’ on the highway and that 18-wheeler drives past you at that perfect speed that has you feelin’ like you’re driving backwards?
Dandy is the sedan.
Philidor is the fuckin semi, barreling forward. You weren’t moving backwards, Dandy, you were never moving backwards. You never lost a step, you never forgot how to BE DANDY. You just started to experience failure for the first time in your damn life. Panic settled in and you never were equipped with any mental tools in your life to know what to do with it…
And along comes Kemp to sweep all the garbage under the bed and call the room clean.
Learn to lose, Dandy. Because the world does NOT stop passing you by just because you’ve found a temporary sanctuary under the mentoring of Kyle Kemp. And when it passes you by a few more times? Kemp will drop you like the bad habits you personify.
I look forward to watching the aftermath when you’re high ride after winning the Trios tournament finds you no further along The Following path than losing to Derrick Vayden and Carter Shaw for a shot at those Tag Team Titles.
Trying to get somewhere on a treadmill, are ya Dandy?
Kyle Kemp can watch and learn how to fuckin’ orchestrate. Philidor Holdings is SO MUCH bigger than anything you’ve gotten to see. Vayden and I? We’re just Action Wrestling representation, now a part of something bigger than the industry itself. The Following is no bigger than the world that resides inside Kemp’s ego.
Dandy is the marionette. Kemp is the master of puppets. But cut the strings? And BOTH lose their fucking purpose.
Meanwhile, Wesley is out there this week gunnin’ for the Turmoil Finals.
Man, nobody fuckin’ needs you Kemp.
You’re so damn good at convincing people otherwise.
However, let’s not glaze over facts, as is the status quo these days. Kemp is a TWO-TIME Trios trophy winner. An ex-United States Champion. Dandy’s a damn ex-World Champ and a TWO-TIME U.S. Champion. The Following ain’t no slouches, let’s not twist my words to assume anything different. I respect Dandy DiVito...Kemp, I...acknowledge.
But these two have experienced the top of the mountain that the likes of Vayden and myself are climbing. It’s our fucking turn, and what better way to prove it then by beating Dandy, beating Kemp and going on to beat Spencer Adams and Ryan Lockhart?
A murderer’s row of AW Originals. Exactly what Philidor is gunning up to mow down. What poetry.
And me? ...Well, I’m like fine art. Open to interpretation. You can hate me for my Philidorian dealings. You can love me for the example I set in that squared circle and in my preparation. You can question my calls, you can judge my choices…
But for the first time in my life?
Simply put, I really don’t give a shit.
Heal up, Cranley. Vayden and I got this.