Post by Cosmo Cooper on Sept 8, 2018 8:20:44 GMT
“You know exactly who I am if you’re watching this. You know exactly what I am capable of…” We flash… through the highlights we go. Cosmo Cooper spearing a rushing wrestler nearly out of his boots. Cooper lifting someone over his head and throwing them out of the ring. Cosmo with his gloves up in an MMA octagon. Cosmo lifting Leela Watts up on his shoulder as she held the CWC Championship high into the air.
“People they’ve… they’ve like… put me up there as the best this industry has to offer and I’ve only been doing this a little over two years now,” his voice continued over the highlights. “I get asked to come to 4CW. I get approached about going to CWC. I get asked to do tournaments and make appearances. Since the moment I signed on the dotted line in AWE? I’ve never had to seek a booking. They’ve always came to me.”
“And that’s it, right? You people think you know who I am. You see the goofy smile. You see the guy who puts a little of himself out there for every person or every fan who asks for it,” his voice broke slightly. “But you don’t know me. I give and I give and I give. I don’t ask for nothing in return because I love this business with my heart and soul. I just want to be successful. I just want to look out and see people smiling because they enjoyed seeing Cosmo Cooper in the ring.” Cosmo, wherever his voice was coming from sniffled slightly.
“Our days on this earth are numbered. We can only make so much out of them. People ask me why I take so many dates or why I’m in every tournament or why everything has to involve me.” He swallowed so hard you could hear it. “It’s simple. You never know when you’re star is going to burn out. You never know when your platform crumbles underneath you and you don’t have anything to stand on nor speak on anymore.”
“That’s the case of every single wrestler in this tournament, what Mark Storm has considered the best of the best,” as he went down the list. The faces of the wrestlers appeared. “Nemesis, Joe Stanton, Ana Hayden, Heathen Jones, Dom DiBona., Gavin Grimes, Andre Holmes. Each of them look at this a little differently. Ana Hayden is the best in the world. Gavin Grimes laid claim to that at one time. Nemesis and Joe are trying to carve a path while Jones and DiBona are trying to get to that next level.”
A long pause from Cosmo.
“Just like everything I do. This tournament isn’t a sidebar to my current work. It isn’t something that I want to take… you know… lightly.” He sniffled again. “You think you know who I am and what I bring but you don’t know the half of it. None of you do.”
It was as if he were lined up in front of the field and speaking directly to them. In minds eye we could almost see Cosmo pacing back and forth.
“I get up every morning… and I lay there.” A long breath, like a sigh. “And I think about how everyone thinks I have it so good. I have the best girlfriend a guy could ask for. I have companies knocking down my door—wanting me to sign with them. I have every opportunity I could ask for… but there’s some days where I don’t want to get up out of bed… and there’s some days where I open my eyes and I wish I hadn’t.”
Another long bout of silence.
“When I roll over and sometimes I see Leela, my heart feels with joy because she is happy, but I am not because of what I’ve had to sacrifice to get where I am,” a soft knock was heart. Like Cosmo was drumming his fingers on a table or something… but all we saw were those same highlights everyone wanted to see. The smiles. The slams. The submissions. The championships.
“I cannot give myself happiness. No matter how many titles I win. No matter how many matches. No matter how many magazines write that I’m the greatest. No matter how many fans of social media tell me how great I am… it doesn’t help.” He sniffed again. “So I give myself to the fans. I give myself to those people I step into the ring with. I give myself to them, because it makes them happy. And I’ll give it to the people in this tournament, I’ll give it all to Mark Storm. Because that’s what I do. In the face of everything, I strap on my work boots…”
An actual laugh escapes his lips.
“I guess that’s a bad metaphor because I go barefoot into the ring, huh?” A chuckle. “But you get it, right? It makes me feel alive. It gives me energy, but when the spotlight drops for the night and I’m on the road… there’s nothing… wrestling makes me happy. Leela makes me happy. My friends make me happy but they’re not always there… and it sucks to say that. It sucks to put on this front every time I get on camera that I’m some happy guy… when I’m not… but don’t think for a second that mental illnesses can make me weak.”
His voice perked up.
“It’s quite the contrary. I work hard to keep it from creeping up on me. I go extra hard in the gym. I go into the ring for every fight like it is my last, and that’s what my competitors are going to find out the card way. Because I am NOT going one and done in this tournament. I’m not. Because the man I am facing… he claims to be a monster. He claims me to be a mere mortal. He’s been meme’d to death and he just keeps coming…”
For the first time we see Cosmo’s face. His eyes are red and watery from crying. The bags underneath makes it seem as if he hasn’t slept in weeks.
“You don’t know what a fucking monster is, Nemesis.”
The house was lonely, it had been for some time with his grandmother now in hospice care. Cosmo Cooper would find himself alone for weeks at a time with his animals. When we was lucky, Leela was there with him. She had her own career and her own things to worry about. They were both adults and he understood. He wasn’t entirely alone. His pet goat would sometimes cheer him up. All the little animals he had was like the spirit of the house… but days like today…
Just a few days before the tournament down in Miami—which Florida had nearly become his new home away from home with his bookings for Revolution Pro where he was the current TV Champion and now Mark Storm’s super show. The sun in Santa Rosa, California was high in the sky but the weather couldn’t have been nicer on the summer’s day. 75. Not a cloud in the sky.
Cosmo stepped out on the porch for his morning coffee. It was a good morning for once, not one of the ones we had just heard about. He looked forward to hearing from Leela who had probably already been up for hours. It didn’t take long for his phone to buzz from the pocket of the athletic shorts he wore. Smiling, he stuck his hand down and pulled the phone out only to see it was from a number which hadn’t called in a long, long while. Not since the death of his grandfather.
“Grandma’s House.”
A mix of emotions ran through him. Part of him knew it was too good to be true. Part of him thought that maybe someone had broken in and called him to demand money or something. Part of him thought that maybe… maybe his grandmother got to come home? Those thoughts fired off quickly as he picked up his phone and quickly put it to his ear.
“Hello?” He stammered into the phone.
“Wystan!” It was a slurred voice on the other end of the phone and his heart dropped into his stomach. It was his uncle. A number his constantly avoided because when it rang? It meant his uncle was drunk. Most of the time it was good. He wanted to brag on Cosmo, tell him how much he always told his friends about how his nephew was one of the best wrestlers in the world.
This morning? It was not one of those days.
At 11 AM his uncle was already drunk, Cosmo could sense it in his voice and his southern like dialect. Cosmo lowered his head.
“Yea, unc? What’s up?” Cosmo walked over to the stairs of the porch and slowly eased himself down.
“How’s everything been going, man? How’s Leela. How’s the business?” Cosmo wanted to hang up but he fought the urge, no matter how loud and belligerent his uncle sounded, he would press on. But the familiar anxiety crept into his body.
“Leela’s awesome. I just got home from Florida. It was nice.” He kept it short as he looked down at his bare feet.
“Yea…” his uncle trailed off. “Why the fuck haven’t you been to see your granny?” Cosmo opened his mouth.
“I’ve—I’ve been on the road.”
“That fuckin’ rasslin.”
Silence between them. Despite the warm day, Cosmo felt cold. For months now his grandmother had been sick. For months she had been in the hospital. For months she had been wasting away to nothing. And as this happened. Cosmo’s visits slowly got fewer and farther in between.
It hurt because his uncle… was right.
“She thinks you don’t care about her.” His uncle said again. Drunk mouths spoke sober thoughts, that’s what hurt the most.
“I’ve already got all these bookings, I can’t like, you know, go back on them?” Cosmo said as he ran his hand through his hair.
“Sometimes you’ve got to cut your losses—an”
Before it got out of control, Cosmo ended the call and let it fall down to his side. Seconds later it would buzz again… but the phone would lie there forgotten as Cosmo with tears in his eyes let his back hit the cool concrete of the porch as he stared up at the blue sky. Hoping that maybe something would come and pierce him through the head before he got up.
We were back staring at the same gaunt face that we weren’t used to seeing. Cosmo sighed.
“But you think you’re something of another realm, don’t you Nem? You think you’re a monster. You run around with your painted up friends. You want to be scary and you know that every single person is laughing at you… because what kind of painted demon goes on Twitter and banters with people anyway?” He scoffed. “No, you’re a man, Nem. You’re a man in face paint who wants to win a tournament just as badly as the rest of us. You’re a man trying to hide insecurities and problems like the rest of us. You’re a man who already behind the scenes wanders why nobody takes you serious… and why nobody sees you as a threat.”
“It’s simple. You’ve never taken a life in the wrestling ring, Nem. You could beat me in four seconds after the bell sounds in our tournament match… and… then what? You go on to the next round… I go on being more successful than you in every single way. Right? You want to talk about consequences and penance and salvation. I’m telling you it’s an athletic competition and both of us will live to fight another day… but that’s where the stakes get really, really high.”
Cosmo nodded and smirked underneath the flat bill hat he wore.
“I go on to have more fights in Caged Glory. I have more title shots in Revolution Pro. I’ll go on to have more title reigns and longer title reigns in 4CW than Nem…. but what happens… what happens if he loses once again to someone who he considers a mortal?” Smugly, he looked up. “He turns into a fucking running joke like his buddy Viduus. I mean, these guys can’t cut a promo with a spooky baseball bat slamming into glass figures or dummies or what have you. And they wonder why people make fun of them?”
Cooper threw his hands up.
“I could name sixty wrestlers more formidable and more scary that should have been in this tournament… but instead we have Nemesis.” The name looked like it tasted bad coming out of his mouth. “One of these things are not quite like the other. Because I am a man. Yes, I lose. But the thing is? I keep coming back for more. Call that the folly of man, but when Nemesis loses after all of the shit he spills about being some creature from hell or whatever the fuck he claims? Yeah, it makes him look like a fucking idiot.”
“Like the rest of the the edge lords who claim that they’ve murdered and killed… yet lose in the wrestling ring. Sometimes it works, but in Nem’s case? It doesn’t. Because he sucks. Hell, I wish he were as good as he thinks he is because then I could actually brag if I beat him. But instead? If I beat him it’s something that was supposed to happen—everyone knows that when they see his name with mine. But if I lose to him? It’s fucking embarrassing. If I lose to him? It will be one of the most embarrassing losses of my career. That’s facts. But if he loses to me? Somehow his shitty career lives to fight another day. And he’ll be right back on 4CW television spewing the same shit he always does like a broken record and probably walking through people hanging from the rafters or something because he and Viduus combined cannot think of anything creative to say or do… it’s why the big bad wolves choked it off in Bad Company.”
Cosmo put a hand on his chest.
“I’m human. I make mistakes, Nem? He isn't supposed to be human… therefore… why does he make mistakes?” Cosmo took his cap off for a second and pushed his hair back and then slapped it back on his head. “Because he needs that face paint and that identity to help hide how badly he hates losing just like the rest of us. When he’s crying into his pillow at night over how bad he fucking sucks… that face paint he wears to the ring somehow helps him. There’s nothing supernatural about that. There’s nothing of a higher power… you know who the real monster is…”
He lowered his head to look back up the camera.
“The man who knows more opportunities are more chances to lose… but he keeps pushing anyway. A man who is giving up time he will never be able to get back to be in Miami for a tournament that he feels like he has to win. A man who is too scared to look his own grandmother in the face because he is afraid he can’t take what she has become… that’s a man you should be scared of, Nem. Not some coward with a hard-on for being edgy. You should be scared… of me.”
“Because I don’t have anything to lose. All I have is pro wrestling. All I have is fighting, and if I lose? The bookings will still come in. The championships will still be worn… and I will still be more over in a loss than Nemesis would be if he wins this entire tournament. I don’t have anything to lose. I want people to know who are depressed. I want people to know that have anxiety that they can step out into the spotlight and they can EXCEL… they can be something GREAT. Something MORE!”
Cosmo clenched his fists together.
“And you can represent those demons for me, Nem. The entire field of this tournament can represent what I go through each and every single day when I wake up. This is fucking REAL! Can you feel it? Or are you too busy coming up with un-clever ways to cut a wrestling promo? Can you feel it? Or are you too busy trying to be scary all while having a fucking social media and making gay jokes like you’re in high school.”
“I want people to know it’s okay to be depressed. It’s okay. Just fight… and I’m going to fight for you… if you’re watching this at home. Reach out.” Cosmo reached his hand towards the camera. “Reach out, and touch whatever device or screen you’re watching on and know that I care about you… and I love you. And I will fight as long as it takes. As long as I see smiling faces, as long as I can make a difference… I will FUCKING. FIGHT!”
His breath came in small tatters as he looked down and then back up at the camera, exhausted from putting himself out there.
“This is a side of me you’ve never seen before. This is the real Cosmo Cooper. This isn't the guy you expected, but it’s the guy you have. Nothing changes when I step into the ring. No matter how bad it gets… I’ll always have these memories of competing… it got me through high school. It got me through college, and it’s still providing for me all of these years later. No opportunity gets glossed over… no competition only gets half of Cosmo Cooper… if I have to die in that ring to prove a point… to win this tournament? Then I’ll fucking do it… Mark Storm… you wanted Cosmo Cooper for your tournament? Well guess what?”
Cosmo stood up and looked into the camera.
“You fucking got him.”
And he walked away.
“People they’ve… they’ve like… put me up there as the best this industry has to offer and I’ve only been doing this a little over two years now,” his voice continued over the highlights. “I get asked to come to 4CW. I get approached about going to CWC. I get asked to do tournaments and make appearances. Since the moment I signed on the dotted line in AWE? I’ve never had to seek a booking. They’ve always came to me.”
“And that’s it, right? You people think you know who I am. You see the goofy smile. You see the guy who puts a little of himself out there for every person or every fan who asks for it,” his voice broke slightly. “But you don’t know me. I give and I give and I give. I don’t ask for nothing in return because I love this business with my heart and soul. I just want to be successful. I just want to look out and see people smiling because they enjoyed seeing Cosmo Cooper in the ring.” Cosmo, wherever his voice was coming from sniffled slightly.
“Our days on this earth are numbered. We can only make so much out of them. People ask me why I take so many dates or why I’m in every tournament or why everything has to involve me.” He swallowed so hard you could hear it. “It’s simple. You never know when you’re star is going to burn out. You never know when your platform crumbles underneath you and you don’t have anything to stand on nor speak on anymore.”
“That’s the case of every single wrestler in this tournament, what Mark Storm has considered the best of the best,” as he went down the list. The faces of the wrestlers appeared. “Nemesis, Joe Stanton, Ana Hayden, Heathen Jones, Dom DiBona., Gavin Grimes, Andre Holmes. Each of them look at this a little differently. Ana Hayden is the best in the world. Gavin Grimes laid claim to that at one time. Nemesis and Joe are trying to carve a path while Jones and DiBona are trying to get to that next level.”
A long pause from Cosmo.
“Just like everything I do. This tournament isn’t a sidebar to my current work. It isn’t something that I want to take… you know… lightly.” He sniffled again. “You think you know who I am and what I bring but you don’t know the half of it. None of you do.”
It was as if he were lined up in front of the field and speaking directly to them. In minds eye we could almost see Cosmo pacing back and forth.
“I get up every morning… and I lay there.” A long breath, like a sigh. “And I think about how everyone thinks I have it so good. I have the best girlfriend a guy could ask for. I have companies knocking down my door—wanting me to sign with them. I have every opportunity I could ask for… but there’s some days where I don’t want to get up out of bed… and there’s some days where I open my eyes and I wish I hadn’t.”
Another long bout of silence.
“When I roll over and sometimes I see Leela, my heart feels with joy because she is happy, but I am not because of what I’ve had to sacrifice to get where I am,” a soft knock was heart. Like Cosmo was drumming his fingers on a table or something… but all we saw were those same highlights everyone wanted to see. The smiles. The slams. The submissions. The championships.
“I cannot give myself happiness. No matter how many titles I win. No matter how many matches. No matter how many magazines write that I’m the greatest. No matter how many fans of social media tell me how great I am… it doesn’t help.” He sniffed again. “So I give myself to the fans. I give myself to those people I step into the ring with. I give myself to them, because it makes them happy. And I’ll give it to the people in this tournament, I’ll give it all to Mark Storm. Because that’s what I do. In the face of everything, I strap on my work boots…”
An actual laugh escapes his lips.
“I guess that’s a bad metaphor because I go barefoot into the ring, huh?” A chuckle. “But you get it, right? It makes me feel alive. It gives me energy, but when the spotlight drops for the night and I’m on the road… there’s nothing… wrestling makes me happy. Leela makes me happy. My friends make me happy but they’re not always there… and it sucks to say that. It sucks to put on this front every time I get on camera that I’m some happy guy… when I’m not… but don’t think for a second that mental illnesses can make me weak.”
His voice perked up.
“It’s quite the contrary. I work hard to keep it from creeping up on me. I go extra hard in the gym. I go into the ring for every fight like it is my last, and that’s what my competitors are going to find out the card way. Because I am NOT going one and done in this tournament. I’m not. Because the man I am facing… he claims to be a monster. He claims me to be a mere mortal. He’s been meme’d to death and he just keeps coming…”
For the first time we see Cosmo’s face. His eyes are red and watery from crying. The bags underneath makes it seem as if he hasn’t slept in weeks.
“You don’t know what a fucking monster is, Nemesis.”
The house was lonely, it had been for some time with his grandmother now in hospice care. Cosmo Cooper would find himself alone for weeks at a time with his animals. When we was lucky, Leela was there with him. She had her own career and her own things to worry about. They were both adults and he understood. He wasn’t entirely alone. His pet goat would sometimes cheer him up. All the little animals he had was like the spirit of the house… but days like today…
Just a few days before the tournament down in Miami—which Florida had nearly become his new home away from home with his bookings for Revolution Pro where he was the current TV Champion and now Mark Storm’s super show. The sun in Santa Rosa, California was high in the sky but the weather couldn’t have been nicer on the summer’s day. 75. Not a cloud in the sky.
Cosmo stepped out on the porch for his morning coffee. It was a good morning for once, not one of the ones we had just heard about. He looked forward to hearing from Leela who had probably already been up for hours. It didn’t take long for his phone to buzz from the pocket of the athletic shorts he wore. Smiling, he stuck his hand down and pulled the phone out only to see it was from a number which hadn’t called in a long, long while. Not since the death of his grandfather.
“Grandma’s House.”
A mix of emotions ran through him. Part of him knew it was too good to be true. Part of him thought that maybe someone had broken in and called him to demand money or something. Part of him thought that maybe… maybe his grandmother got to come home? Those thoughts fired off quickly as he picked up his phone and quickly put it to his ear.
“Hello?” He stammered into the phone.
“Wystan!” It was a slurred voice on the other end of the phone and his heart dropped into his stomach. It was his uncle. A number his constantly avoided because when it rang? It meant his uncle was drunk. Most of the time it was good. He wanted to brag on Cosmo, tell him how much he always told his friends about how his nephew was one of the best wrestlers in the world.
This morning? It was not one of those days.
At 11 AM his uncle was already drunk, Cosmo could sense it in his voice and his southern like dialect. Cosmo lowered his head.
“Yea, unc? What’s up?” Cosmo walked over to the stairs of the porch and slowly eased himself down.
“How’s everything been going, man? How’s Leela. How’s the business?” Cosmo wanted to hang up but he fought the urge, no matter how loud and belligerent his uncle sounded, he would press on. But the familiar anxiety crept into his body.
“Leela’s awesome. I just got home from Florida. It was nice.” He kept it short as he looked down at his bare feet.
“Yea…” his uncle trailed off. “Why the fuck haven’t you been to see your granny?” Cosmo opened his mouth.
“I’ve—I’ve been on the road.”
“That fuckin’ rasslin.”
Silence between them. Despite the warm day, Cosmo felt cold. For months now his grandmother had been sick. For months she had been in the hospital. For months she had been wasting away to nothing. And as this happened. Cosmo’s visits slowly got fewer and farther in between.
It hurt because his uncle… was right.
“She thinks you don’t care about her.” His uncle said again. Drunk mouths spoke sober thoughts, that’s what hurt the most.
“I’ve already got all these bookings, I can’t like, you know, go back on them?” Cosmo said as he ran his hand through his hair.
“Sometimes you’ve got to cut your losses—an”
Before it got out of control, Cosmo ended the call and let it fall down to his side. Seconds later it would buzz again… but the phone would lie there forgotten as Cosmo with tears in his eyes let his back hit the cool concrete of the porch as he stared up at the blue sky. Hoping that maybe something would come and pierce him through the head before he got up.
We were back staring at the same gaunt face that we weren’t used to seeing. Cosmo sighed.
“But you think you’re something of another realm, don’t you Nem? You think you’re a monster. You run around with your painted up friends. You want to be scary and you know that every single person is laughing at you… because what kind of painted demon goes on Twitter and banters with people anyway?” He scoffed. “No, you’re a man, Nem. You’re a man in face paint who wants to win a tournament just as badly as the rest of us. You’re a man trying to hide insecurities and problems like the rest of us. You’re a man who already behind the scenes wanders why nobody takes you serious… and why nobody sees you as a threat.”
“It’s simple. You’ve never taken a life in the wrestling ring, Nem. You could beat me in four seconds after the bell sounds in our tournament match… and… then what? You go on to the next round… I go on being more successful than you in every single way. Right? You want to talk about consequences and penance and salvation. I’m telling you it’s an athletic competition and both of us will live to fight another day… but that’s where the stakes get really, really high.”
Cosmo nodded and smirked underneath the flat bill hat he wore.
“I go on to have more fights in Caged Glory. I have more title shots in Revolution Pro. I’ll go on to have more title reigns and longer title reigns in 4CW than Nem…. but what happens… what happens if he loses once again to someone who he considers a mortal?” Smugly, he looked up. “He turns into a fucking running joke like his buddy Viduus. I mean, these guys can’t cut a promo with a spooky baseball bat slamming into glass figures or dummies or what have you. And they wonder why people make fun of them?”
Cooper threw his hands up.
“I could name sixty wrestlers more formidable and more scary that should have been in this tournament… but instead we have Nemesis.” The name looked like it tasted bad coming out of his mouth. “One of these things are not quite like the other. Because I am a man. Yes, I lose. But the thing is? I keep coming back for more. Call that the folly of man, but when Nemesis loses after all of the shit he spills about being some creature from hell or whatever the fuck he claims? Yeah, it makes him look like a fucking idiot.”
“Like the rest of the the edge lords who claim that they’ve murdered and killed… yet lose in the wrestling ring. Sometimes it works, but in Nem’s case? It doesn’t. Because he sucks. Hell, I wish he were as good as he thinks he is because then I could actually brag if I beat him. But instead? If I beat him it’s something that was supposed to happen—everyone knows that when they see his name with mine. But if I lose to him? It’s fucking embarrassing. If I lose to him? It will be one of the most embarrassing losses of my career. That’s facts. But if he loses to me? Somehow his shitty career lives to fight another day. And he’ll be right back on 4CW television spewing the same shit he always does like a broken record and probably walking through people hanging from the rafters or something because he and Viduus combined cannot think of anything creative to say or do… it’s why the big bad wolves choked it off in Bad Company.”
Cosmo put a hand on his chest.
“I’m human. I make mistakes, Nem? He isn't supposed to be human… therefore… why does he make mistakes?” Cosmo took his cap off for a second and pushed his hair back and then slapped it back on his head. “Because he needs that face paint and that identity to help hide how badly he hates losing just like the rest of us. When he’s crying into his pillow at night over how bad he fucking sucks… that face paint he wears to the ring somehow helps him. There’s nothing supernatural about that. There’s nothing of a higher power… you know who the real monster is…”
He lowered his head to look back up the camera.
“The man who knows more opportunities are more chances to lose… but he keeps pushing anyway. A man who is giving up time he will never be able to get back to be in Miami for a tournament that he feels like he has to win. A man who is too scared to look his own grandmother in the face because he is afraid he can’t take what she has become… that’s a man you should be scared of, Nem. Not some coward with a hard-on for being edgy. You should be scared… of me.”
“Because I don’t have anything to lose. All I have is pro wrestling. All I have is fighting, and if I lose? The bookings will still come in. The championships will still be worn… and I will still be more over in a loss than Nemesis would be if he wins this entire tournament. I don’t have anything to lose. I want people to know who are depressed. I want people to know that have anxiety that they can step out into the spotlight and they can EXCEL… they can be something GREAT. Something MORE!”
Cosmo clenched his fists together.
“And you can represent those demons for me, Nem. The entire field of this tournament can represent what I go through each and every single day when I wake up. This is fucking REAL! Can you feel it? Or are you too busy coming up with un-clever ways to cut a wrestling promo? Can you feel it? Or are you too busy trying to be scary all while having a fucking social media and making gay jokes like you’re in high school.”
“I want people to know it’s okay to be depressed. It’s okay. Just fight… and I’m going to fight for you… if you’re watching this at home. Reach out.” Cosmo reached his hand towards the camera. “Reach out, and touch whatever device or screen you’re watching on and know that I care about you… and I love you. And I will fight as long as it takes. As long as I see smiling faces, as long as I can make a difference… I will FUCKING. FIGHT!”
His breath came in small tatters as he looked down and then back up at the camera, exhausted from putting himself out there.
“This is a side of me you’ve never seen before. This is the real Cosmo Cooper. This isn't the guy you expected, but it’s the guy you have. Nothing changes when I step into the ring. No matter how bad it gets… I’ll always have these memories of competing… it got me through high school. It got me through college, and it’s still providing for me all of these years later. No opportunity gets glossed over… no competition only gets half of Cosmo Cooper… if I have to die in that ring to prove a point… to win this tournament? Then I’ll fucking do it… Mark Storm… you wanted Cosmo Cooper for your tournament? Well guess what?”
Cosmo stood up and looked into the camera.
“You fucking got him.”
And he walked away.
