Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

How prosaic and insightful those words are, ringing out with a vibrancy and depth that is seldom heard in this MTV age of ten second sound bytes; I wish that I could claim them for my own but alas I cannot. Well actually I suppose I could but just because I wear a black mask does not make me an archetypal ‘bad-guy’ you know, so plagiarism is not a depth to which I will allow myself to sink.

… why should I when there are much more enjoyable depravities to taste?

As I was saying though I didn’t coin that phrase, no that honour went to a scholar by the name of Thomas Huxley, one of Darwin’s greatest supporter which, considering the era in which he lived … the mid nineteenth century … was not a great career choice to make.

That is neither here nor there though, because like most artists who are not appreciated until after their death Huxley left his mark on the World around him, and those words are part of his legacy.

… and part of my way of life.

You see I firmly believe that life is exactly how he put it, and every thing that we do … every breath we take, every decision we make, every wrong turn, every mistake, every thing … is nothing more than a lesson learnt. We don’t have to like the lesson, we don’t even have to be aware of the lesson all that we have to do is learn from it.

We have to build upon the success and even the failures of the past and move onwards.

To paraphrase his great work in simpler terms, something that may fit into this MTV mentality it boils down to this.

Like it or not … do it … and learn from it!

Something that I personally have taken onboard as one of my personal mantras. Not that I get up in the morning and stare into the mirror talking to myself and repeating it over and over again, oh no nothing as trite as that. No what I mean is that I am fully cognisant of the fact that I don’t have to like the situations that I find myself in, in order to achieve my goals. As long as I deal with the hand that is deal to me, as long as I learn from each and every experience, then I am educating myself every waking moment and I am ensuring that I learn my lesson well.

Take this upcoming Monday night for example. I seem to find myself in a new situation in which I will be facing three other men in our modern day gladiatorial games where names such as Proximo, Caladus and Crsecens have become Ace, Bonafide and Grunge and the traditional garb of a Samnite or Thracian has become garishly coloured lyrca and leather.

… though it would be hypocritical of me to besmirch my new found peers simply on the choice of their name of clothing, I mean Ember is not exactly traditional now is it? Besides that there are so many better reasons to mock my opponents!

I digress though, a fault of mine.

As I was saying though in the not so distant future I get to step foot for the first official time into a WWA ring. The actual first time was in a colloquially entitled dark match, though truth be told it seems that the battle lit up the arena, but that sounds almost like boasting so we will leave it there. The imminent future is that I will be one of four men who set foot into the ring, and each of us will have the same goal in mind.

Victory.

For Ace he is seemingly on the very selfsame path that I am embarking on right now. He is a new acquisition to the WWA and he has earned his stripes and made a good first impression so the powers that be are either rewarding him with a career making match … or punishing him by throwing him to the wolves. For the man-child known as Ace, the little soldier boy himself, this could be a golden moment where he can finally achieve a status in wrestling that he so desperately wants or it could simply be another cycle of a downward spiral that makes him look back and wish for days as fondly remembered as the loss of Clarence, his fiancée’s infidelity or his best friends death … because compared to what I have in store for him those memories should be looked upon as cherished!

Speaking of the wolves though that brings us to the other two entrants in this little tete a tete that we all find ourselves in, Bonafide and Grunge … the almost was and the has been themselves. Someone in the offices of the WWA obviously has a sense of humour as the pit two newcomers to their federation against two of their franchise players.

Just who is the joke on though, is this a test for the new guys or a punishment of sorts for the veterans?

Why am I even asking these questions when it is fair to say that I don’t even care about the answers in the slightest. The WWA have put me into a match with three other men and it doesn’t matter who they are in the slightest, all that matters is that in order for me to win I have to beat them, and in order from them to win I have to lose.

Only one of those is an option, and I do hope that no-one requires three guesses to get it right.

That may sound egotistical I suppose considering the calibre of Bonafide and Grunge. I know who they are, I know what they have done and I know what accolades they have achieved. Bonafide is a former two time Intercontinental Champion as well as a former Gen-X Champion to boot … Grunge of course is no slouch in the titles department himself managing to be a former Cruiserweight, Television, United States and World Champion.

Bravo to both of those fine champions … oh hang on a moment, I just realised something, something very important! The word FORMER cropped up quite a lot there didn’t it? These fearsome men, these staples of the WWA that are being put against us are former champions.

So the question has to be asked … what have they done lately?

Apart from lose their titles obviously?

… again though it is not something that I am really holding my breath for as I wait for an answer. I simply do not care. I know enough already about the men that I am fighting … more than enough to be honest.

You see that is the single biggest advantage that I have over the others … and something that they have still to learn … I know them, I know of them, I know what they are capable of.

… and to paraphrase an edgy Canadian wrestler, ‘You think that you know me?’

Sorry to disappoint you gentlemen but you don’t know me, you don’t have a clue!

So as Huxley said, there are lessons to be learned and it seems that class will be assembled at Meltdown. Don’t be late gentlemen as it never impresses to be tardy for your first class after all.

… but here is something free of charge, call it an early education if you will. Huxley, as I said, was a supporter of Darwin, who is the father of the theory of evolution; of the term survival of the fittest.

That is something else that I can totally empathise with my friends, and come Meltdown … come my official welcome to the WWA … all I can say is this.

Welcome to my World … Ace … Bonafide … Grunge … hope that you survive the experience!