Addressing the rut

As Monday night Fusion episode #88 rolls on live from the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York city, the crowd are as lively as you would expect and understandably so. Already they’ve been treated to two outstanding matches here tonight with so much more to come. Up next for example there is a match scheduled between Brody Sampson and the Royal Rumble winner, Paul Divine, which is sure to be explosive and they all know it. First though, a familiar yet unexpected theme engulfs the arena.



The Scotsman, Jacob Ziegler, comes out onto the stage and makes his way down the ramp towards the ring, sporting his usual dank jacket and chain. Despite his fairly lacklustre showing since his return at Absolution, the hype is still real from the fans who continue to kill their voices cheering for him as they know the best has yet to come from him. As always has been with Jacob, not much attention is given to the fans as he makes his way up the steps and into the ring, collecting a microphone from the beautiful Edith before she exits. As the music fades out and the fans slowly begin to quiet down and find their seats, Ziegler raises the mic and speaks.

Jacob Ziegler
You know, this isn’t what I expected in the weeks leading up to Absolution. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I’ll be honest, I fully expected to win the Royal Rumble match and solidify my place in the main event of Ascendance. A lot of you all did too, I heard about all the hype that was building around me and people getting excited to see me again before anything had even been confirmed. Dashing over there talks about how I’m “one of the greatest superstars in Fusion history” despite us hating each other’s guts. Seriously, any of the unfortunate people sitting there just behind him can vouch for just how bad he actually smells. When you think about how I was before being suspended you can’t blame that mindset. Yeah sure I didn’t win the Elimination Chamber back at Exodus and I didn’t win the Money in the Bank briefcase whenever the hell that was, but I was the longest reigning Anarchy champion of all time and made that belt relevant before superstars such as Sushi X or Chris Andrews even looked in its direction. I won that championship from freaking Hayden 2 weeks into my career here. Hell I represented not only CMV but professional wrestling as a whole at last year’s Ascendance and knocked out ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor. I was voted the Newcomer of the Year in a landslide. Looking at all of that it's understandable why that mindset exists in us all. I didn’t win the Royal Rumble though and I still haven’t actually won a match since returning.

Jacob Ziegler
Now I’m being dragged into this whole mess with Schmidty and the Sampsons and somehow I’m on the side of the man that suspended me for 8 months just because Schmidty is such a toxic presence around here, even more so than Johnny was before I left. Well, that and the fact that Schmidty tried to fire me because he was jealous of the attention I get that he wants from all of you, which is actually pretty funny. Still though, I didn’t and still do not want to be caught up in this crap. I don’t care about it and don’t need it weighing on my mind. All I want is to fight Paul Divine and spark some fire back into him as well as show everyone that all the hype around me isn’t unwarranted. I belong in the conversation surrounding the Undisputed Championship and will be coming for it after Ascendance. This rut I find myself in right now isn’t going to last, in fact it ends tonight.

Ziegler lowers the mic and pauses, looking around the arena at all the fans who until now have sat mostly quiet and attentive. As the pause grows longer the cheers start to come, hyping the Scotsman up a little.

Jacob Ziegler
Tonight I face the United States champion and former Coalition “leader”, Xander Slate. My former “mentor” or so he likes to tell himself even though I wiped the floor with him last time we met. To be fair to him though he has done pretty well for himself since then as evidenced by his gold, things aren’t going to be any different though. I will beat him tonight just like I did easily a year ago and just like it did then, it will show that I’m above him and belong in the main event. A win over the United States champion tonight will prove that I’m on that level and this Sunday when I beat Divine it will prove that I’m above that level…

Almost as soon as his name is mentioned, the music of one Paul Divine hits and gets the fans again up off their feet. Ziegler in the ring lowers the mic and turns towards the stage looking slightly pissed off but to be fair, Ziegler has cut off Divine twice in the past few weeks. As Paul comes out onto the stage with the usually goofy ass look on his face, Ziegler lowers and shakes his head before dropping the mic and making his exit so that the planned match can go ahead. The two men have a brief staredown at the bottom of the ramp before Paul smiles at the Scotsman, pats him on the arm and makes his way into the ring causing Ziegler to walk away.

I tried writing this yesterday and spent a stupid amount of time on this just now to write and I’m still not happy with it to be completely honest, especially the last part. I’m apparently experiencing a little bit of writer’s block so apologies if this isn’t up to standard, it’s the best I can pull out right now.