You know Greg, this derby is a lot like the current situation i'm in. While Jermaine Ruler and myself are no longer in DHW, we still know where we've come from, and i've heard Reno Andretti and the rest of 8 Ball Inc. bash it, trash it, treat it like it was something second rate. I can tell that they have their noses stuck so high into the air because they don't think we're anything special, they don't think we can handle them because we used to wrestle for DHW. Well that's a crock of you know what, and i'm going to make sure I prove to them, and show them physically what DHW wrestling was all about, because I want to get it through their heads not take me and Jermaine Ruler lightly. Because whenever you take somebody lightly, they end up biting you in the ass, and we plan on doing that.
The home run derby here is one of the biggest events during the course of a baseball season. Guys always swinging for the fences here. Some guys end up hitting a whole lot, some don't. You get ten outs to hit as many homers as you can, any non homer is an out. Well this is the time for Reno Andretti and Brian Pearlman to swing for the fences. They beat me and Jermaine Ruler on Rage, they hit it out of the park, the opportunity to do it in front of a nationwide audience, beating two of the greatest wrestling stars in the company. But they could make an out, can they risk making an out? Knowing that it could be their one and only chance to prove to everybody that they can take out a former Worlds Champion and a rising talent who has shown that he can hang with the big boys any time he darn well pleases. Can they risk not hitting the longball? Can they fathom blowing their only opportunity to make themselves stars, to make themselves famous?
Greg, I think you know well enough that making an out doesn't worry me anymore. I have proven my place among the greatest in the wrestling business time and time again. I don't have to win the big home run contest every year because people already know that i'm damn capable of doing it. Jermaine Ruler i'm sure thinks of it the same way that I do, and while winning the home run contest doesn't place us on any higher platform than we're already on, for Brian Pearlman and Reno Andrett, whether or not they choose to admit it, it means something to them. It is in their heads, they want to defeat us, they don't just want to do it by one or two homers either. They want to hit twenty, they want to hit into the high double digits and they want us to whiff ten straight times. They're hungry, I know they're hungry, but maybe, just maybe they could be trying too hard to hit the homer?
You know when you're a little kid and you're not really trying to hit for average or spray the ball? You're trying to hit a home run, always trying to hit a home run. You're lunging at the ball, trying to slaughter it, always trying to bust the guts out of it like Benny Rodriguez did on The Sandlot. Perhaps Pearlman and Andretti could be lunging, but they don't need to, but they don't know that yet. They will in time, but for now, we'll let them lunge, and the more they lunge, the more they swing and miss until eventually it clicks, they realize that you need to let the ball come to you and to get that front foot out and make solid contact, then, only then, will you be a consistent home run hitter.
Do these two have the potential to be that 30-35 home run guy? Drive in 120 runs every single year? I think so. I've seen Brian Pearlman personally, last week, we battled it out, but unfortunately we weren't able to truly see who the better man was. Maybe this week we can have a face to face confrontation and see who can hit the ball the farthest, if you will. Pearlman is a kid with tons of athletic ability and charisma, he just needs to learn how to harness it and he'll be on the track to perennial All Star.
Reno Andretti, what can I say? I've seen no film on him, i've only seen what he has to say, but if his big mouth is any indication, he has a lot of talent as well. But Reno Andretti has resembled what we in the wrestling business like to call a jabroni. A guy that has all the smack talk down, but when it comes down to it, that's all he is, a smack talker. I'm hoping he proves me wrong, i'm hoping that he can take EFW into places it's never dreamt of being, will he? Only time will tell.
The last word is determination. How determined are these kids going to be Greg? You remember how I was way back when I first started out, I was anxious, nervous before every single match. We'll see how these two do under the pressure of the bright lights against me and Jermaine. Jermaine and I have absolutley nothing to prove as far as i'm concerned, but Pearlman and Andretti, this is their time to prove they're more than just talk, it's time for them to prove they can get in the batters box and deposit more than just hanging curveballs into the outfield seats, we'll see if they live up to their draft selection, or if they're lost in the shuffle like so many flops before. But let it be known that I have my best fastball ready for them.
*Dusty takes a sip of his beverage and continues watching the contest. The winner is crowned and he holds up the Century 21 Home Run Derby trophy in triumph as everyone in the bar starts collecting their money from respective bets. Dusty laughs and orders a round for the house.*