Post by Raion Kido on Oct 14, 2022 13:08:03 GMT -5
No matter how many people we face and meet, or where we work throughout our careers, for all of us wrestlers there’s always that one match, that one person we want to face.
That is, after all, the essence of who we are as wrestlers - above all else, we’re warriors, and the best way in which we can express ourselves is through battle.
I have been in the ring for less than a year, but there is already one of those dream matches that I have so far had - Atara Themis, current XWF Xtreme Champion. It meant a lot to me to face the Grecian Goddess, for reasons about which no one could really understand but I, and likewise, there are some other dream matches I would want as well - Betsy Granger, James Raven over in the XWF. Vhodka Black from the rest of the wrestling world.
But to tell you the truth about whom I would really like to fight, more than anyone else in the entire world, well… I shall ask for your indulgence this one time, but I would have to go for the fictional side. You have already seen and heard me talk about the Saint Seiya franchise and the Saints of Athena in it, and know that this Gold Cloth I wear is fashioned after one of the Gold Saints - Leo Aioria.
I shall try to make life easy for you who don’t watch Saint Seiya. Aioria is the Saint of Leo, one of the twelve elite warriors that wear the Gold Cloths, each for one Zodiac sign. He is a mentor figure, like Obi-Wan, for the story’s main character - the one that was there to reassure him when things got too hard, the one that didn’t care that he was a Japanese kid in Greece, surrounded by prejudice, and treated him as a younger brother.
In addition to that, Aioria is brave and strong as the Lion that he symbolizes, if somewhat hot-blooded, and possesses a sense of justice and honor beyond compare. That is why his peers respect him, and those that serve the goddess Athena look up to him.
This is the guy I saw on T.V. when I was a kid, and well… the one man I knew I wanted to be when I grew up. Of course, it’s different for everyone. Today, girls might identify with Wonder Woman, and I’m sure you’ll find many children in Japan that want to be Goku. But for me, it was Aioria, the Gold Saint of Leo.
I couldn’t have been more than five, one night at home when my father showed me the show he used to watch, and as soon as I saw Aioria, I said “I want to be this guy!”. And I would dare say that is one dream fulfilled, so there’s no better choice for me but to pick him. And also, both him and I were born on August 16th!
Now, I’m not stupid, I know that this is but a coincidence, and also that no star or planet movement affects our personal lives in any way, but it makes for a fine story, and that’s how I choose to take this. Indeed, he is the reason I became a wrestler - since, you know, it was the closest option in real life -, and all of that I have described about him is also how I want to be remembered after my time in the ring is past. As someone to serve as an example for those that come after me. That’s the thing with the Saints of Athena - they are men wearing armors, but men fade, and throughout the ages, the Cloths remain, passing from Saint to Saint.
And quite literally, Leo Aioria is the man that wore this Gold Cloth that I now wear. I cannot say, for obvious reasons, that I have earned this Cloth, or that it was passed to me as it would have a Saint, and so I crafted this myself to the best of my ability.
So there you have it, friends. There is the full story of Raion Kido, the Gold Saint of Leo.
But this goes deeper than just a cosplay armor that I wear before I step into the ring, or just the show after which I fashion myself and the in-ring presence that got me noticed to receive the Golden Ticket by which I now stand before you. This is about an ideal that I hold sacred, and from which I shall not stray regardless of whatever befalls me.
For you see, it is said in Saint Seiya that it isn’t just the Cloths, or the powers that a Saint teaches their successor each time a new generation blooms. The most important thing that passes on is the spirit, which may be inherited from one Saint from his predecessor. However, this isn’t one thing one can just give, but rather, it must be taught - the other person must feel the desire to follow on this path. To feel that same dedication to inspiring people to be the best they can be, to show them that strength and power may be used for something greater than oneself. To give others the hope they need when they falter.
To be a symbol, above everything else.
So what would it mean to me that this character, this role model that I have had as a child was actually a living being, just like you or me, and I got to see him, and to face him on equal footing? What would it mean to me that the Gold Saint of Leo himself acknowledged me as his successor after our battle was done? It would mean that I was right to follow this dream, my calling in life. It would mean that everything I represent is not just an ideal, but the actual truth. It would mean that I have been right all along, and that my fate was exactly as I wished it to be.
And that, my friends, would be the ultimate triumph of all - more than any achievement I could attain in the ring. Whether it was in the largest arena in the world, in front of a sold out, massive audience in a night illuminated by the arena lights, or in the ruins among the mountains of Athens in a quiet, wind-swept sunset, it would make no difference, for this fight would not be about glory.
It would be, in the end, about finally becoming exactly who I wanted to be - the realization of that ideal of which I have spoken before..
As to what I would actually say to Aioria, well, this is where it gets difficult. What should I say to one of the greatest of the Saints, to this larger-than-life figure of awesome power? I could tell him all of this I have just said, but he would have no response, because his duty comes above all else. I could tell him I’ll prove worthy to succeed him, but it would be obvious above all else.
I could even throw everything I have said away; and, in a huge display of arrogance, tell him to prepare to suffer a resounding defeat at my hands, and in any case, no matter what I did, or where this fight would take place, his answer would be the same.
He would throw his cape back, stand on guard, put up his fists, and make his cosmos burn.
And that, I think, is what ultimately matters more than any grand speeches I could make, or any feelings I would want to express. In the end, a battle between two Saints of Athena comes down to the one thing that both understand: the inner cosmos of one’s soul, the power of the universe that dwells within. Once the battle begins, both of them know the stakes and what they must do - to put their very lives to the limit in order to achieve victory.
That is why I believe there is but one thing that I would tell the Gold Saint of Leo, before we were to face. I would make the effort to convey everything I have said in one simple sentence.
Something that he would undoubtedly understand, but something which, I hope, shall serve as a prelude before he realizes that here is one that has followed in his footsteps, and means to be his successor. Someone who means to inherit his spirit once it is time for the Golden Cloth to finally pass from Saint to Saint.
Someone that, in the end, shall prove worthy of doing so, and that shall bear it as proudly as Aioria himself did in the service of Athena, and to fight for justice in the world.
And all of that, my friends, would be encompassed within these words.
“This is my cosmos… and you shall now see it burn!”
1500 words (wordcounter.net)