“The Last Nighthawk” Christian Light:

There was once a man, way back at the beginning of my career, who went by the ring name of Drew Jacobs.

 

I have no idea if that was his real name.  Back then, it was cool to use pseudonyms to preserve your privacy.  But wrestling history remembers him as Drew Jacobs.

 

When I first started, I was told that I had size, strength, and potential.  The promoter there...no idea who he was, but he couldn’t hide the dollar signs.  He thought I was good to go from the moment I walked into the room, and being 18 and invincible, I believed him.  

 

Drew and I met in a battle royal that first night, and he was the one who tossed me out.

 

So I made a big production of cutting promos on him, making sure he knew I was coming for my revenge.

 

Yeah, sounds silly now, but when you’re 18 and invincible, you really hate it when someone else comes along who’s older, wiser, and more experienced, and he manages to so easily puncture your invincibility like a person would deflate a balloon after a party.

 

And he beat me.  Soundly.

 

I was angry, sure, since he didn’t bother pinning me but instead hit me with something...knucks I think...and leaving me on the outside to be counted out.

 

To me, that was insult to injury.

 

Before I got a crack at him again, the federation we were both in closed its doors, as feds did back then.  If you made it through your first four shows back then, you were good to go, so a fed closing after two shows wasn’t news to me.

 

So I followed him.  

 

To the International Wrestling Association.

 

Where he was only holding a secondary title, called the Northern Championship.

 

I showed up every day waiting for my rematch.  I went to shows and sat in the back, waiting for my chance to get booked.  I kept cutting promos, making sure I was out there and everyone knew I was here and I was coming for Drew Jacobs title.  

 

It took me ten shows to get that title match.  Six of which I did little more than set the ring up and break it back down again.  

 

Back then, shows were just about weekly, so ten shows was not as long a time as it would be now.  But it still took what felt like an eternity.  To me, that was my shining moment.  That was the match I was waiting for, where I would bring all my frustration with Drew and his running buddies to bear.  Scream it out to the hilltops, I said.  Christian Light will be Northern Champion when the day is through.

 

[Pause.]

 

Light:

He beat me.  Not as badly as it had been...I was starting to learn to avoid some of his offense.  But he still pinned me, in what was an afterthought of IWA television.  Another notch on The Savior’s belt I was, yet again.

 

I was completely dejected.  I thought I was washed up at 19, and I was contemplating my next career move.  

 

But that’s when Mike Vincent came up to me.

 

Now, Mike was a weird dude.  You never knew which Mike Vincent you got on any given night.  That night, I was fortunate to have compassionate Mike Vincent on my side, as he sat me down and looked at what I had done with an objective eye.  He told me that I had put Drew on the ropes, and that Drew just didn’t lose and I should keep my head up.  It was, in his words, a hell of an effort, and it would be rewarded with more chances.

 

But if I was going to come through, I would have to be more clutch.

 

[Pause.]

 

Light:

Now, I’m not always sure how familiar you are with terms, Claira.  Clutch is a term used to describe performance in the most critical moment of a sporting event, whether it’s a wrestling match or a baseball game.  When you have clutch, you are said to come through more often in those critical moments than not.  People count on you to pull it out when it’s all on the line.

 

That’s why I keep asking Alceo Dentari whether anything’s changed.  Because if you want a definition of the term “not clutch”, you can look across the bracket and see his face with the dictionary definition next to it.  He’s had moment after moment to come through with a key performance in interleague matches, but his go-to move always seems to be the “asphyxiator”.

 

[Light makes the universal sign for choking with both hands on his throat.]

 

Light:

If nothing’s changed on his end, he won’t be the last one standing, he can count on that.

 

But back to the story.

 

I looked at game films from all kinds of sporting events to see examples of clutch.  Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Eric Dane, Mark Messier, and other such examples of clutch performers.

 

I studied them closely.

 

And do you know what I saw in each and every one?

 

[Pause.]

 

Light:

The moment was never too big for them, no matter the size or the stakes.  

 

They were always cool under fire.  They always executed their game plan to precision, almost in spite of their opponent’s disruption attempts.

 

So I trained myself to let go.  I trained myself to release my anger and, yes, my anxiety, and focus on making every moment of every match equal.  Only then would I be able to perform like my career didn’t depend on it, even though it did.

 

[Pause.]

 

Light:

It didn’t work out exactly as I had thought in my mind.  I did get one more shot at Drew, this time in a triple-threat match including The Boog-Man.  And I think both Boog and Drew were shocked at the progress I had made, especially since this was a pay per view matchup and they both came in thinking I’d be wowed by the moment.

 

But I never got to pin Drew.  

 

He walked out of the match halfway through.

 

I still won the match by pinning Boog, and in the process won the Northern Title.

 

But a funny thing happened that night.

 

Even though I didn’t actually beat him, people stopped referring to me as Drew Jacobs’ punching bag.

 

They referred to me as Northern Champion.

 

So I hope you understand, Claira.  You have already shown yourself to be a clutch performer.  But you can’t stake your career on whether you win or lose against one single superstar.  Because win or lose this one match against little old me...you still have plenty of history to make.

 

Regardless of the result of this match, I truly believe you will not be known as anyone’s punching bag.  

 

You will be known someday by a different name.

 

Champion.

 

[End.]