Tuesday, March 14, 2022
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

Sitting in his hospital bed lies “Godly” Ken Davison. It most certainly was not anywhere he actually wanted to be, but at the moment, he had no choice. The white walls are plain and sanitary looking. Ken peers over at the corner of the room where a large man with long black hair and an equally long beard sits.

“You really think that you should keep wrestling or are you actually trying to put yourself in the ground?”

“You want the honest truth or a happy lie?”

“You’ve finally got it all. You’ve got the life. You’re about to have the wife. You’ve got a kid that’s already calling you ‘Daddy’ and you haven’t even made it to the altar yet. Why are you doing this to yourself?”

Ken pauses, taking time to really think about the question. He had never really thought about it before.

“I suppose it’s all I know. I started training at 15. I got my GED so I could train full time. Wrestling has given me the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Besides, there are guys wrestling well into their fifties and sixties.”

“Your ticker says you might not making it to your fifties.”

“I told you, I am only here for observation because my doctor thought my blood pressure was too low. They ran all the tests and I’m fine.” Ken gives a bit of a shrug. “Besides, if shutting Matt Knox’s mouth is the last thing I do, then my life will be complete.”

“You really are a stubborn son of a bitch. Aren’t you?”

“Coming from ‘The Demon of Sobriety,’ I will take that as a compliment.”

“The Demon of Sobriety” Dorian Hawkhurst; recovering alcoholic, profession wrestler, disciple of “Godly” Ken Davison, and the best damned father that Ken had ever met. Also, he was one of the few men who could be completely honest with Ken.

“Speaking of stubborn, where the hell is Kyra, anyway?”

“Adina’s getting out of school. She had to pick her up. For fuck’s sake, why the third degree?”

“Because she should be here.”

“And she will be, just as soon as she gets Adina settled. Besides, I’m going to get discharged in a bit anyway. I told you, there is nothing wrong with my heart.”

“And how does she feel about you going back to LA and facing Knox so soon after this scare?”

“You forgot Jack Washington.”

“I didn’t forget shit. I don’t know him so I really don’t give a rat’s ass about him.”

“Big mouth. Small dick. Definitely compensating for something.”

“Goddamnit, Ken. Can’t you take anything seriously? You are seriously going to sit there and waste whatever time you have making jokes about your health? Your opponents, whatever. But your fucking health, man. If Kyra were here, she’d kick your ass. In fact, I’d kick your ass if I didn’t think she’d kick my ass.”

“Your Kyradamned right, I would.”

“Gimmick infringement.” Ken yells as he and Dorian turn their heads to the doorway where Kyra and Adina are standing.

“Damn, that feels kind of good. I really should make that a thing.” Even under her mask, you can see the smile in her eyes. “Hey, Dorian.”

“Hey, Kyra. Hospital’s only letting in two visitors at a time, so I guess I’d better go.” Dorian replies. As he walks past Kyra he stops and puts his massive hand gently on her shoulder. “Do yourself a favor. Remind this asshole to appreciate the time he has.”

Dorian puts his mask on as he is walking out leaving Kyra looking out the door, completely confused.

“What the fuck was that about?”

“It would seem the big man doesn’t like my atti,” Ken grunts audibly as Adina plops her five year old self on the hospital bed next to him. “Hey, baby girl.”

Ken gives Adina a gentle squeeze before looking back to Kyra.

“He didn’t like my attitude. He doesn’t think I’m taking this seriously. Shit, I didn’t even tell him about the match with Rydell. I just don’t get what he wants me to do. Am I supposed to be fucking miserable because I’ve gotten a raw deal with my health? Fuck that, I’m glad that I’m on the right side of the dirt. It’s that simple.”

“I know, babe,” Kyra says as she pulls up and chair and takes Ken’s hand.

“You know, if you want me to step away..”

“NO! You can’t. Who’s gonna teach me how to wrestle?”

“I don’t know… YOUR MOTHER?”

The sarcasm coming out of Kyra is palpable. Ken can only laugh in spite of himself.

“I mean, she’s not wrong, baby girl.”

“So, what the hell is going on? Because I swear if you have another heart attack, I will kill you! You cannot do that to me. You cannot do that to us.”

For the first time, a look of genuine concern crosses his face. Kyra doesn’t say ‘cannot.’ She always says ‘can’t’ without fail.

“You know if I didn’t pass a physical every time I wrestle, they would pull me because it’s a liability for their insurance. I just wrestled last night. I’m fine. I just had one overzealous doctor who got paranoid. The two of you,” Ken squeezes Adina and reassuringly gives Kyra’s hand a more gentle squeeze. “The two of you are more important than any championship and I will spend every moment of my time doing whatever is best for the three of us.”

“I’m serious. I’ll kick your ass.”

“I love you, too.”

Ken Davison sits, comfortably relaxing in a recliner, upholstered in a white Corinthian leather. He is dressed in an orange button down shirt, with black slacks and a matching tie.

“Ay, yo. When I’m in the ring, I’m doing great. As “Godly” Ken Davison, I don’t have a care in the world. But when I come back through the curtain, reality is there waiting. Reality waits for no man, woman, or child. Time is valuable. Dare I say, time is the most valuable commodity in the entirety of our reality.”

Davison looks down at his watch, a fine looking silver timepiece.

“You see, time is among the very few things that once lost can never be recovered. In a First World Nation such as ours, the average life of a person is just a reservoir of 2.4 billion seconds, give or take. That’s about 75 years, here where life expectancy is quite high. The situation is worse in third world nations. So, each passing second our reservoir sheds time, just like in an hourglass. Unfortunately, most people do not realize how precious time is until later in their lives. Money lost can be regained. Broken trust can be amended. Opportunity lost can be replaced by another opportunity gained. However, when time is lost it has gone forever. So, what makes time precious, so very, very precious, that we have to make the best out of it? Glad you asked.”

Davison picks up his coffee mug, with navy blue on the bottom and brown surrounded the square, but rounded, lip of the cup.

“Have you ever heard the phrase that “time stands still for no man?” How could it be made any more clear than that? Time is always in motion. It does not stop for anyone, Like every other aspect of nature, it does not care about you. Circumstances mean nothing; rich or poor, famous or ordinary, Muslim or Christian, man or woman. Each person is given 24 hours a day to either utilize it or waste it away. Time waits for nobody, but it gives us equal duration to follow our dreams or waste them. Since it cannot be contained, we are only gifted with the power of memory to capture all the great moments that made our lives worthwhile.”

“Secondly, time is priceless. You have probably heard the saying that “the best things in life are free”. Same goes with time. It is simply the greatest gift that life has to offer us. You cannot put a monetary value to time. Any employer may try to put a value on an hour of your time, but they are remiss. You cannot redeem time for any form of money or property. If that were the case, then many wealthy men would have traded their billions of dollars to enjoy more time on Earth.”

“As I have mentioned, this is why I always take some time to step away and look at my situation, to figure out what it is I could have done differently. I don’t blame the referees. I don’t make excuses. I put myself in the situation During the last Synergy, Ragdoll and Cervantes did the exact thing that I would have done in their situation. This is why I use my time to invest in my future. This is why I am doing everything in my power to try to use this match, against Dave Rydell, to make an impact at the next Synergy.”

Davison stands up and begins loosening his tie while continuing to speak.

“People actually say that “they are buying time” to mean that they are delaying the inevitable. Fact of the matter is, people are probably thinking that the Baltimore Elite are doing that exact thing right now. We understand that when you have opponents the caliber of Ragdoll and Cervantes, that people are going to look at our victory of them as a fluke. Why? Because there were titles involved? We were fighting for our pride, something that means far more in the long run than any championship does. Kyra and I are doing everything in our power to prepare for the match against the Astrocreeps that will inevitably happen as a result of their victory last week. Back to my point, the truth of the matter is that they are wasting their precious resources by not doing something that they will end up doing in the near future and in the process wasting even more time in an effort to buy more of it. “The Jawdropper” Kyra Johnson and “Godly” Ken Davison are not two of those people.”

Davison discards his tie onto the side table, causing it to land on his UGWC Cooperative Championship Belt. He quickly unbuttons his shirt, displaying the large scar on his chest.

“Some of you people know, some of you may not, I had a heart attack three years ago. I had a Kendamned widow maker. Even then, I didn’t realize it and it wasn’t until 10 days later when my blood pressure tanked that I went to the hospital and found out what had happened to me. That is why I worry so much about time. You cannot buy time. You can not stave off death. You can only play the proverbial hand you are dealt. That is why my time here in the UGWC is so important to me, because I don’t even know if I have any Kendamned time to waste.”

Ken takes a moment to stop and calm himself down. In the background, you can see Kyra peeking into the living room from the hallway with a look of concern on her face. Ken turns and motions to her that he’s fine.

“I could understand how some would think I view this match against Dave Rydell to be a waste of my time, but any opportunity I have to sharpen my skills against worthy competition is time well spent. I don’t even know anything about Dave Rydell, which is something of my own fault. I have been so singularly focused on making a moment with my beloved, that I have admittedly not paid attention to the singles rankings. Then again, Rydell, I’ve seen your resume and I have to say, three time cooperative championships with three different partners is quite the accomplishment on it’s own. Add in your six Cross-Hemisphere and one Chaos Championship, that’s quite the resume. It’s been a hot second since I’ve had to go on my own, and Dave, I want you to know that just because I don’t know who you are doesn’t mean that I don’t respect what you’ve done.”

“Anyway…” Ken drags the word out. “I really need to stop doing that.”

“As I was saying, time can never be recreated, once it is gone it is gone. That is why I must do the selfish thing and go after my prey. I have to take this chance, this opportunity and wager that I can take advantage of the situation. Imagine, if you could go back in time. The world would be a much different place. The concept of risk would be nonexistent. After a failure, loss or mistake, people would just remodel their time in a time travel fashion and go back to amend their mistakes. Time would be at a standstill until they wasted so much of their time correcting their mistakes that they would simply run out of time.”

“Thankfully, there are no do overs. This isn’t like that movie “The Butterfly Effect.” We cannot redo the past, we can only move forward and learn from the past. Some people look at someone like Dave Rydell  and feel that he has taken advantage of his time. Victories, championships, and a plethora of other achievements. I wish I could say that I felt the same. I have a resume the size of a CVS receipt, and yet, feel as though I wasted the first 42 years of my life. It took living the last two years of my life to realize that we are given time but in different proportions. It is not so much what we achieve, but rather, it is how we live is what matters, because we have control over our destiny. The only part of control we do not have is how other’s leave their thumbprint on our time. I know my worth and know my value. I also know yours, professionally speaking.”

Ken grabs his coffee cup once again before sitting back down. His tone has returned to it’s normal volume and clarity.

“For some people, time depreciates in value. This is especially true for people who have done crime and have to do time to atone for their crimes. This time is toxic to them and they just want to do away with it so that they can be free and get back to their normal lives. But, this time is not always bad when you factor in people who may be in need of it, such as criminals on death row waiting to be executed. Still, I find that in our industry, time away is time wasted. While I took the time I needed after my heart attack, hell, even when Carnage closed down, I made it a point to continue to train, continue to study, continue to spend every waking moment that wasn’t focused on my family on my career to ensure that my time was appreciated in value. That is the man I am. That is why I repeat this point. I am the most competitive, for lack of a better word, most rabid man, not just in this match, but in this entire company.”

“Yet, there are others who waste their time waiting for the right opportunity to strike. Unbeknownst to them, opportunities rarely come and it is up to us to create them. Opportunities do not come flying through the window. You have to be in the nick of things, doing something meaningful and that is when an opportunity will arise. I don’t know what you have spent your time doing, Rydell, but the one thing I have not heard of you doing is clamoring for a title shot. Since day one, I have screamed, yelled, and otherwise drawn attention to the fact that the Baltimore Elite wanted one thing and one thing only,” Ken says and that little vein in his forehead pops a little, “and that is the Cooperative Championships. What you should be doing, Rydell, is making the most of your time and you will be rewarded tenfold for it, as we were. Waste it and the little you have will be taken away, just like in the parable of talents. People make excuses that they just don’t have time to do something. Maybe to visit their friends or loved ones or to go on that vacation that they have been postponing for the last six years or it may be a workout regimen that they told themselves they would pursue. Maybe you have more important things to do, like bask in your own glory or simply sleep the night away. Take the time you have and enjoy it, but be willing to put in the work.”

“Of course, you won’t do that. Will you, Dave? You’re one of those people that coasts by on just their talent and doesn’t put in the work. Those people, they never seem to have time to do them, as they continuously tell themselves. The truth of the matter is that there is time for everything, how we plan or fail to plan our time is the problem. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. That is why I spend as much time researching as I do training.”

“The secret is how I plan my life. I wake up earlier than most of us. I utilize the early morning hours doing something constructive like working out. I spend the day with my lady. We work out in the afternoon. When the kiddo gets home from school, we spend time as a family. Then, when I feel the need, I do my due diligence and study up on my opponents. I spend all of my time, every waking moment, nourishing my mind, body and soul. I do not waste my time. I am coming to Synergy to make a statement. I am coming to Synergy because I know that even though Kyra and I did not take the fall last week, this match will help me to rebound. If that means that you are the one that has to suffer from the fallout from that, so be it.”