Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

by Super Aid Sun May 03, 2020 9:19 pm

Interview to go here

by **Arkken** Sun May 03, 2020 9:19 pm

I'm in.

by **Arkken** Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:18 pm

Unknown music starts to play

Then the words "Behind The Curtain" appears in red

"The" below "Behind" and "Curtain" below "The"

The words disappear five seconds later

Sandra Evans is then seen sitting down on a chair with Arkken the Archetype sitting down on a chair next to Sandra's left

They are sitting in a bar which appears to be closed, though there is a man mixing drinks behind the bar itself

Sandra: Good evening, everyone.
Welcome back to Behind the Curtain,
A program where you get a look at the people behind the wrestlers.
My guest this evening has been around the world and in many companies
Before finding their way to Ring of Glory.
You know her, of course, as Arkken.
Arkken the Archetype.
I'm glad you could join me for this interview.

Arkken: It's a pleasure to be here, Sandra.
Whenever I am given the opportunity to open my mouth, I do so.

Sandra: There will be a lot of that tonight.
While you are a new face on Ring of Honor posters, you've had a long career.
Where did you train?

Arkken: Like a significant part of this roster, in Montreal, Quebec, my hometown.
Before long, I bought a one-way ticket to Japan.
Well, two of them, because I had a little Immacolata to take care of.

Sandra: Her father was your brother, correct?

Arkken: That's right.
He and his girlfriend died in an accident, so it fell to me to raise the baby.
I didn't do a great job, which led to her antipathy toward me.
And a couple of bloody feuds.
But I think we got past that.

She smiles, clearly more amused than bothered by any of this.

Arkken: So I trained at a Japanese dojo.
I didn't make any long-lasting connections,
mostly because I was a self-involved a-hole.
Though there was one relationship that would have repercussions down the line.

Sandra: You are speaking, of course, of Tanmin.

Arkken: Yes, but we'll get to that later.

Sandra: Where did you get your start?

Arkken: I began coming into my own, as "The Vampire" Arkken,
in Bastion of Light Wrestling Federation.
Father Lance Goodison was in charge and we held our matches in Warwick Castle.
Other alumni include Buzzsaw and The Masked Terror.
But it was really in Generation eXcess that I became a star.

Sandra: As The Immortal Arkken.

Arkken: Indeed.
The vampire thing was confusing because my gimmick, if you can call it that,
was that I wanted my name to live forever.
So I filed the necessary name change with the proper authorities and joined GX.

Sandra: Now, when we watch footage of you from that period,
we can't help but notice a significant change.

Arkken: I was a man.

Sandra: Yes.

Arkken: That's also something we'll get to later.
Suffice it to say, science is a marvelous thing.
There was no magic involved.
Or was there?

Arkken raises an eyebrow dramatically.

Arkken: This is the wrestling world, after all.
Anything is possible.
Maybe I was even re-cast.

She laughs through her nose.

Arkken: That's actually something I read online.
I may never have laughed so hard in my life.
But I am the same verbose person, obviously.
Roughly four hundred surgeries later.
I decided to keep the name, because, well, I am Arkken.

She opens her hands to the sky.

Arkken: Someone as self-centered as I am can only change so much.
But the change was only physical.
This is my truest self.

Sandra: As you were saying, Generation eXcess was where you first found success.
Tell us more about your time there.

(I'll continue this at a later time!)

by **Arkken** Wed Jun 24, 2020 7:59 pm

Arkken: Ah, Generation eXcess.
I came in as a nobody, but by the time the doors closed, I was one of its pillars.
One of only three people to win the World Heavyweight Championship three times.
The other two were Semag D'Nim and Black Spirit.
I held the belt the longest.
In this business, as in life,
if one happens to have a life outside of wrestling,
it's all about seizing opportunities.
When I started, our GM, who happened to be Black Spirit,
put me in a feud against some guy named... I want to say Severus?
Anyway, Severus was going to be the long-lost descendant of the Tudors.
My job was basically to steal his identity so he could win it back in a ladder match.
You know, typical wrestling stuff.
But I was so good that Black Spirit decided I should run with the Tudor gimmick.
So Immacolata, who started in GX a few months after I did,
interfered in the ladder match and helped me win the Tudorific paperwork.
Let's face it: the regal stuff plays right into my wheelhouse.
I was born to impersonate royalty in the ring.

Sandra: Speaking of your niece Immacolata, you two tagged together for a while.

Arkken: We sure did.
We were Legacy of the Rose.
We won the tag titles twice before our split.
The funny thing is, when Black Spirit signed Immacolata,
he didn't know we were related.
When he found out, he asked that we pretend to be father and daughter
for a while to set up some drama later on.

Sandra: And there was drama, as you alluded to earlier.

Arkken: Oh, yes.
The storyline was that I pretended to be her father her entire life.
When our in-ring association started to go sour...
I think she cost me an opportunity at the world title or something along those lines...
I exposed the shocking truth!
That I was really her uncle.
And that she would never know who her parents were.

The Archetype looks to the ceiling, pensive.

Arkken: I guess records or Google were never considered.

Sandra: Wrestling often requires suspension of disbelief.

Arkken: You don't have to tell me.
So we had our bloody feud, which was helped by her resentment of me.
I was never a great parent or guardian, always more interested in myself.
There was fuel there for angry promos.
Angry matches.

Sandra: How did you end up winning your first world title?

Arkken: My mouth put me in the spotlight.
My skills did the rest.
As for the actual moment I won the belt, I'll never forget it.
It was an elimination chamber match.
One of the competitors had been taken out beforehand.
Not by me!
I was the replacement.
It was part of the story anyway.
There were three guys left.
Semag, myself, and... SJ Dixon, I believe?
Semag had been in the match since the start.
He eliminated Dixon, or whoever the other competitor was.
Right when he got up, I speared him out of his boots.
It earned me the win and my first world title.

She smiles, reminiscing fondly.

Arkken: The spear was one of my trademark maneuvers at the time.
I still break it out from time to time, as you may have seen at Night of Glory.

Sandra: Why did Generation eXcess close its doors?

Arkken: Black Spirit didn't have enough time anymore to keep the federation going.
It's a shame, because it was one of the best homes I've known in my career.

Sandra: But your career didn't end with GX, obviously.
Where did you go next?

Arkken: TMG, or Total Maximum Grade Wrestling.
I looked around, and here was this federation with three or four rosters under its umbrella.
Definitely the biggest stage I could think of.
So I signed up to its main show.
The pay-per-view for my first season featured a challenge for the world title
by some inactive wrestler named Spectaculus.
I went up to the World Champion, Kailani Penn, and told her she should fight me instead.
I said no one wanted to see her beat Spectaculus, as we all knew she would.
Instead, she should have an exciting matchup, one the fans had never seen before.
That's how I challenged for the world title in my first season there.
I can hear the locker room cringing from here.

Arkken shrugs, showing no sign of remorse.

Arkken: Like I said, you have to seize opportunities.
Kailani and I fought to a draw.
I went on to win another belt, the Steel Guardian Championship.
And that's when it happened.

Sandra: When what happened?

Arkken: The shutdown that caused all federations to stop operating for months on end.

(Coming up next: The Shutdown!)

by **Arkken** Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:43 am

Sandra: Ah, yes.
Who could forget that time?

Arkken: Some fans might not know about it.
Essentially, our regulating body, TWG Corp., upgraded its equipment.
But it did so before any of the infrastructure
needed for federations were ready.
So we languished for a long time.
Many wrestlers left the business in protest.
It absolutely gutted many federations.
I'm sure Ring of Glory was impacted too.
In TMG, it was the death knell.
I was once again without a home.
One good thing that came out of my stay there was my nickname.
That's where I became The Archetype.
The Archetype of Truth, at first, because I am given to saying
uncomfortable truths, to laying bare the hypocrisy of my fellow wrestlers.

Sandra: Like someone with whom you just had a rivalry.

Arkken: Exactly.
Before long, it morphed into The Archetype, because it's perfect.

Sandra: From there, you went to OCW, didn't you?

Arkken: Quite right.
I signed a non-exclusive contract, which let me also join wXw.
World eXtreme Wrestling.

Sandra: SM HeartBreaker's company.

Arkken: At the time, yes.
That's how we became acquainted with each other.

Sandra: wXw is also where you won your last world title.

Arkken half-smiles.
There is an edge to the look she gives the interviewer.

Arkken: During my first season there, I feuded with an
up-and-comer that SM saw as a future star in the company.
Some Max guy.
Max Thunder? Yes!
Maximum Thunder.
Right?

Her eyes dart away as she searches her memory.

Arkken: I think so.
Anyway, Max couldn't stand up to my lecherous ice-cream eating promo.
I mean, it's hard to shake the needle opposite this.

She stretches her arms to either side, showcasing herself.

Arkken: Since we had a hot thing going--
which is to say I was involved in said thing--
I was kept in the picture the following season as Max challenged
then-champion Adam Rogers.
I think the plan was for me to put over Max as he grabbed Adam's torch.
That sounds naughty.
But, like, the ring ropes were more over than Max Thunder.
He barely showed up.
Me?
Well, I was Arkken.
The air sizzled around me.
Wow.
I am so conceited.
Anyway, that's how I became wXw World Champion.
As a guest competitor.
That angle lasted for a couple of seasons.
Until Sturm took the belt from me.
That's really when things started to take a turn.
A turn toward retirement.

(TBC)

by **Arkken** Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:23 pm

Sandra: As I understand it, that's when Tanmin came into your life.
And there she is.

Tanmin Shimazu enters the frame, a smile on her face.
Arkken looks surprised, but delighted to see her.

Tanmin: Hello everyone.

She sits on the arm of Arkken's chair.

Arkken: Well look at that.
I'm like Aid.
But without a harem.

Sandra: Would you like one?
Or maybe a reverse harem?

Arkken: Why not?
I'm of the pan persuasion.
Which really ought to mean I'm into goat-headed gods.

The reference seems completely lost on her daughter.

Sandra: Thanks for joining us, Tanmin.
Why don't you tell us how you met Arkken?

Tanmin: I was training at a dojo to become a wrestler.
That's when an old man came to visit.

Arkken: Hey!
That's mean.

Tanmin: He was former student and a big-time star.
He was very interested in me.
It was super creepy.

Arkken laughs out loud.

Sandra: I can imagine.
What did he want?

Tanmin: To compete my training.
Sorry, I mean complete.
I had my first exhibition match against him.

Sandra: Did he tell you he was your father?

Tanmin: No.
Not for a very long time.

Arkken: Well I didn't want to be murdered by the father who raised her.
That's a scary man right there.

Tanmin: But a kind man.

Arkken: To you, maybe.
He spoiled you.

Tanmin: He didn't want me to go into wrestling.
I did it anyway.

Sandra: How did you know about Tanmin?

Arkken: I had an epiphany at some point in my career.
I realized just how much of an a-hole I had been.
I went back to Japan to see what damage I had caused in my youth,
to try to make amends.
That was during the big shutdown.
That's how I learned that a former acquaintance of mine
had a daughter who was training to join the business.
A daughter old enough that she would have been
conceived during my first stay in the country.
I went to see her, saw that she was a natural,
and took her under my wing.
That was around the time I lost the world title to Sturm.

Tanmin: When you started doubting yourself.

Arkken: Yeah.
I was afraid I had lost a step.
I tried and failed to get the belt back.
I was starting to panic.
I HAD to know if I could still hang with the best of the best.
So I challenged the OCW World Heavyweight Champion
to a title-versus-career match.

Sandra: That was D-Maniac, correct?

Arkken: One of the toughest opponents I've ever faced.
Since I was willing to put my career on the line, he accepted.

Arkken twists her lips.

Arkken: It didn't go well.

Sandra: So you retired from wrestling.
From being a wrestler, I should say.

Arkken: Right, because that's when I became Tanmin's manager.
Just like I had been, she was involved in both federations.
But Immacolata wasn't fooled.
She figured I wouldn't just throw myself behind a young rando.
She put two and two together.
And all of the ol' resentment came rushing back.

Arkken suddenly stretches her neck and looks around.

Arkken: Is she here too?

Sandra: Immacolata declined to come for this interview.

Arkken: She is on the other side of the world, after all.

Tanmin: Imma didn't like that I was getting all of the attention.
I was Arkken's daughter, that he did not raise.
She was the one he did raise.

Arkken: Badly.

Tanmin: Badly.
She wanted to make him suffer through me.

Arkken: And she did a pretty good job.
She beat the living hell out of you.

Tanmin: And speared you into a river.

Arkken: She was aiming for you, though.

Sandra: That's when you disappeared.
When you "died."

(To be... concluded?! Maybe).

by Sponsored content

Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype

Re: Behind The Curtain Episode 8: Arkken The Archetype