The Story So Far...

And now… The story continues!

***

Kato stares down at the phone in his hand…

The Commander failed to pick up.

…

…

And the arena is definitely… more on fire.

The KFC Yum! Center is now engulfed in flame, as it’s rapidly grown from the right side of the building, all the way across the top.

The 135 foot tall arena is now a raging inferno…

…

Kato sighs.

He could stay here. Wait it out.

“The Commander will survive. He’s quite persistent. If he could survive a hanging and a tank explosion, surely this fire will fail to slay him…”

Kato purses his lips, considering this option… He leans back sideways…

Accidentally bumping against the opening lever to the middle console.

He spins surprised as the mechanism wrenches itself open.

And he stares down at 114 cheddar-cracker snack packs.

Delivered unto him by Mark Flynn.

…

……

The man to whom Kato swore a North Korean Life Debt after the gift of 150 cheddar snack-packs had been bestowed from his generous bosom.

…

Kato sheds a single tear, ashamed of his inaction.

He must uphold his life-debt, thereby upholding the honor of his people.

Kato leans down and kisses the top of the snack-pack pile.

“Thank you, my darlings, for showing me the error of my ways…”

Kato wrenches open the driver’s side door.

And runs back to the trunk of the limo.

He presses the button, popping it open…

And reaches down, past the rotting fruit rinds from leftover edible arrangements… And retrieves…

Something long… And wrapped in brown packaging paper…

“Hold on, Commander! Hold on, Coach Flynn!”

Kato sprints up to the front entrance and starts tugging on the handle!

THUMBPRINT INVALID. PLEASE SUPPLY EMPLOYEE THUMBPRINT

Kato leans toward the sound of the electronic voice! “There’s a fire in your arena!”

EVALUATING STATEMENT…

…

Kato bounces up and down desperately… Wielding the package in his arms, eager to get inside.

…

STATEMENT EVALUATED.

“And?”

FIRE DETECTED IN VICINITY OF BUILDING. ACTIVATING FIRE ALARM.

A buzzer rings out… An echoing alarm buzzing throughout the parking lot.

Kato taps his foot impatiently…

“AND?!?”

AND WHAT?

Kato rolls his eyes. Damn capitalist machine, needing to be reminded of work safety and labor regulations…

“In the event of fire alarm activation, as per National Fire Protection Association regulations, electromagnetic doors must be released to ensure safe escape routes for employees inside.”

“If your designers don’t want a lawsuit, you’ll pop open the door, machine.”

EVALUATING STATEMENT…

…

…

Suddenly, the door pops open.

DOOR UNLOCKED

Kato sprints inside, clutching the package to his chest...

***

A kick.

The grate on the ventilation shaft drops to the floor with a clatter.

The first one to drop is United Korean Peace Official, followed shortly thereafter by North Korean War Criminal.

If you’ve been watching attentively, you might think, Hey, didn’t War Criminal enter the vent first?

Yes, he did. And then, NK asked if UKPO could crawl over him.

So that NK could cover that rear.

Then UKPO said What?

Then War Criminal said ‘so I can cover the rear, I said’.

He’d been very… attentive on the crawl.

The second his feet touch the ground, UKPO rushes to lock the door.

“There, we should remain undisturbed…”

UK turns around to get a look at the room… and allows a smile to spread across his face.

“Aha, we’ve arrived!”

NK peers around, puzzled.

“What is this place?”

UKPO gestures his arm forward.

“This is where we need to be…”

They find themselves in the Executive Suite of the KFC Yum! Centre… And in the corner of the room is a desk with a computer, a whiteboard on the wall with various dates and times sketched on it.

Planted on the wall closest to the skybox view of the ring is a familiar lever and a safe.

The second NK sees the lever in the wall, he walks towards it to inspect it and grins, recognizing it!

“Aha!” He snaps his fingers.

“This is the lever from the informational video Mark Flynn and I watched with Comrade Maria about The Broadcast Delay!”

NK rests his hand on it.

“Were I to pull this lever, the entire arena would reverse in time… Like s-”

SMACK!

UK’s slaps two fingers across the back of NK’s hand. NK’s hand immediately comes off the lever so he can suck the back of his mitt.

“Do not pull that lever!”

NK briefly reels his paw out of his mouth to retort “I wasn’t gonna!...”, only to put it right back in his mouth.

Instead, UK turns his attention to the safe beside the lever.

“This, my friend, is our target.”

NK shakes his hand once more to relieve the remaining pain, before turning his attention to the safe.

“The safe? The means by which the XWF may send content and superstars back to April 1st, 2021?”

UK nods, smiling brightly.

“Ah, I see you are already familiar with it. However, you are slightly off the mark.”

NK’s brow furrows angrily.

“Preposterous! I am never inaccurate.”

…

“In what way are YOU incorrect about ME being incorrect?”

“We currently occupy the FXW dimension. This is a doorway back to April 1st, 2021… in the XWF dimension.”

NK scoffs.

“Aha, of course. Well, I knew that… I just didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

UK strokes his chin.

“We must move quickly, if we are to open the safe before Flark Mynn arrives.”

NK snaps again.

“AH! Yes! You agreed to inform me about the nature of Flark Mynn once we reached safety.”

UK sighs, but nods, still smiling.

The FWX’s resident peace-keeper walks to the dry erase board and grabs a marker. He begins drawing a picture of the Korean peninsula both the North and South…

“That I did. Fine, I will divulge all that I know.”

***
The fire alarm is buzzing all around the concession storage room Maria and her patient are holed up!!! But the alarm is not nearly as loud as the man on the other side of the door!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

“OPEN UP! I’M HERE TO STOP YOUR MACHIAVELLIAN PLOTS AND RESTORE THE XWF BACK TO THE PEOPLE!”

“Um! There’s nobody in here!”

…

“Except me! But… I’m a disembodied voice! Yes, that’s right! I’m not in here because I’m not anywhere physically!”

“BE THAT AS IT MAY, MA’AM! I AM MAKING A CITIZEN’S ARREST OF YOUR ENTIRE PREMISES! IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY, I WILL BE AUTHORIZED TO USE DEADLY FORCE!”

Okay, lying didn’t work. Drat!

Maria brushes the hair out of her eyes, still desperately shaking Kyodai Monsuta [the man she thinks is Kyodai Monsuta, but is actually Mark Flynn] by the shoulders.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

“MA’AM! I HAVE BEEN GIVEN AUTHORITY BY PRESIDENT ROBBIE BOURBON TO INSPECT YOUR BASEMENT! I HAVE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE THEO PRYCE IS CONDUCTING CHILD BLOOD SACRIFICES BENEATH THE ARENA!”

Maria’s brow furrows with confusion.

“...Um. That’s actually impossible.”

Maria grabs one of her helpful facility tour brochures and slips it under the door, which is shaking and rattling from being struck.

“If you’d check the map on the backpage, (please ignore that it’s printed backwards…), you’ll see that the KFC Yum! Centre doesn’t have a basement…”

…

Briefly, the battering outside the door stops. You can hear the faint wrinkling of a brochure being flipped open.

…

“...”

“Ah. I see.”

Maria breathes a sigh of relief.

“IT’S CLEAR NOW! YOU’RE ONE OF THEM, MA’AM! YOU’VE BEEN SENT TO TRICK ME AT THE PRECIPICE OF MY SAVING OF THE CHILDREN! IT’S EVEN POSSIBLE YOU YOURSELF ARE A LIZARD GLOBALIST AND ARE CURRENTLY CONSUMING A CHILD AS WE SPEAK!”

“I’m not consuming a child!”

“THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SOMEONE CONSUMING A CHILD WOULD SAY!”

The battering resumes…


A bead of sweat drips down Maria’s forehead.

And onto Mark Flynn’s smiling, unconscious face…

***

“GIMME THAT BELT!” The Whore for Gold, the feral Flynn, screams as he dives face-first at Flynn, his hands clawing forth.

BAM!

Not retreating an inch, Flynn catches him with a perfectly placed headbutt, that craters his skull and impacts his face.

The Whore hangs in place for a few seconds… until Flynn retracts his strike. The Whote falls to his back, his nose gushing blood…

And as he sinks into the black floor of Flynn’s subconscious…

He blinks… into nothingness.

Flynn smiles at the two remaining copies in front of him.

He holds up three fingers.

And then reduces to two.

“One down.”

The Beast, the velvet robe wearing Mark Flynn, steps forward, eagerly circling around his older counterpart.

“Go ahead, Marcus. Make your move. We both know how this plays out.”

“Sure we do. Which is why you shouldn’t be afraid to make the first move…”

Flynn tries to step in between Beast’s legs to trip up his footwork, but Beast capably reels back without retreating.

“Here it comes, right leg kick…”

“Shut up.”

Flynn tries to reach forward and grapple Beast, but the scholar paws just narrowly out of his grip.

“Mate in three moves, Marcus.”

“Your vision is lacking.!”

“Stop being a coward then, Marcus! Begin the endgame! You’ve already lost!”

Flynn takes a step forward, hoping to throw off Beast’s stance.

…

He holds firm.

Sigh.

Okay.

Flynn throws that right kick.

Beast catches it. Duh.

Beast goes to dragon-screw takedown Flynn to the ground. Flynn permits it and rolls to the side, keeping his stance…

Beast’s eyebrow furrows in surprise, expecting to bring Flynn to his knees. Nevertheless, he improvises, running his hands up Flynn’s side to grip his arm… And tries to rip it back, breaking the joint…

He takes hold, trying to press his weight down onto Flynn’s back to force Flynn off his feet, and sink his grip in deeper.

“Checkmate, Marcus.”

“Not quite, Bobby Fisher. You missed an escape route.”

Flynn, instead of fighting against his opponent’s weight as his foes always do… He relaxes his shoulder joint and twists his torso in the same direction as his opponent is forcing his arm.

He rotates in a snap. And ends up face-to-face with his younger 2012 self.

His arms trapped under Flynn’s armpits, gripped tightly…

Eyes wide.

Terrified.

“Hmm. You know, for some reason, I thought I was taller back then.”

“N-n-no! Wait!”

“Good game.”

Flynn reels back his neck.

And headbutts straight through Beast’s skull.

The moment their heads make contact, the Beast explodes into vapor and ash.

Flynn, a thin trickle of blood now running down his forehead…

Turns to face Free-Win, the black-eyed, sweater-wearing apocalyptic cultist.

The one who claimed to know RM’s identity.

The one whose trademark smile has diminished rather significantly.

And drops down to one finger.

…

For the moment, Free-Win still wields his lead pipe defensively.

“Hey Free-Win…”

Flynn smiles, stepping forward.

“How many swings do you want me to give you before I stuff that thing down your throat?”

…

Free-Win drops the pipe.

“Yeah, thought so.”

Free-Win’s smile suddenly beams.

“You’re very impressive, Marky. You’ve exceeded… our expectations.”

“It’s not too late to join us.”

Flynn scoffs.

“I’m pretty sure it is. I understand this is all a metaphor for my internal struggles, but I just headbutted Beast and the Whore for Gold straight-up-to-death.”

Free-Win tsk-tsks that comment.

“Those two? Not to belabor the Beast’s chess metaphors, but they were… pawns.”

“You can still join us.”

“Us? Maybe You mean you? It looks like your ranks are down to one.”

“No.”

Free-Win giggles.

“There is another.”

…

Flynn spins around to Near-Future, December 2021 Mark Flynn, who is still sitting in a lawn chair eating popcorn from a bowl he brought.

“He talking about you?”

Near-Future Flynn doesn’t flinch.

“Don’t look at me. I came here to do what I always do after a fight.”

October Flynn and December Flynn AND Free-Win all say at the same time:

“Watch the tape back and look for openings to close.”

“Now that the fighting part is over… I’ll take my leave.”

“So you never wanted to drive?”

“Nah, you’ll be me in two months. From my point of view, Waiting my turn looks like the… Optimal Path.”

December Flynn winks, then drops the popcorn bowl. In a flash, he’s gone.

Our Flynn turns back to Free-Win.

“Okay, so who are you talking about when you say ‘us’?”

“Me. And… The Mark Flynn who won us our World Heavyweight Championship.”

Free-Win steps to the side.

And behind him stands…

God dammit, what else? Another Mark Flynn.

But… This one is dressed all in black.

“The one who shocked the world.”

This Flynn reaches into his pocket…

“The one who will lead us to our ultimate glory.”

And retrieves a… slip of rubber.

Which he slides over his face.

In a flash, he seems to transform.

Into a balding, thin figure.

With sharp facial hair.

Silent.

Robert Miles.

The First Man to Ever Pin Tristan Slater.

“...Wait. Oh my God.”

“OH MY GOD!”

The scene dissipates like fog…

***
Flynn snaps awake, his head smacks right into Maria’s.

“OW!”

She rubs the center of her forehead tenderly.

“Watch where you’re… waking up… from! Ow…”

Flynn is completely ignorant that he’s even headbutted someone, not missing a beat.

“I’VE GOT THE ANSWER! R.M. IS ROBER-”

Finally, the hinge shatters and the door smashes open…

And standing on the other side of it…

Is a 6 foot 10… 350 pound.

BOB-Anon.

Wielding a katana over his shoulder.

“NOW WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THE ANTIFA SUPERSOLDIER I WAS SENT HERE TO FIGHT?!?! FOR AMERICA! FOR THE CHILDREN!”

…

Flynn leans to Maria and whispers

“I think he’s talking about you…”

***
NK licks his index finger, flipping to an empty new page.

UK stands in front of his very detailed diagram, impatiently tapping his foot.

“Perhaps we would accelerate through this information sharing session if you would listen to me, rather than write down what I say?”

NK blushes.

“Oh! I apologize. I require rigorous notes of every experience! It’s how I guarantee accurate reporting to Central Command.”

“In fact, may I summarize your story to ensure I’ve recorded it accurately?”

UK sighs. “If you must.”

NK flips back to the first page, his finger tracing along the bottom of each word he reads…

“Your world has existed for as long as mine. But, on your planet, the Koreas were never split into ideological factions during the Cold War and instead became one United Korea.”

“This would be a preposterous sentiment in any normal reality, for the North is inherently superior! The Glorious Leader was born there after all. But in your world, The Ancestor of Your Glorious Leader was born right on the 38th parallel! And thus the Glorious Leader was destined to lead both the North AND the South to unite!”

“You were assigned to the task by United Korea’s Central Command of spreading peace globally, cost be damned.”

“Precisely so!”

“And that mission took you to the Federation of X-Treme Wrestling, where you worked to guarantee fair play and that all rules were followed to the letter!”

“Nothing better than a well-followed rule, eh?”

NK hesitates and blushes.

“…Yes, I love… obeying rules and… not-cheating.”

UK nods happily, before allowing NK to continue.

“However, the night of your special event… In which the XWF’s ‘Nefarious’ Ned Kaye promised to broadcast the FWX’s exploits across dimensional boundaries to his home dimension… my world, the XWF dimension…”

“Mid-match, you were left frozen in time… For the last eight months, you’ve remained frozen…”

“Then, suddenly, one day, two of you were suddenly unfrozen.”

“Indeed, myself and Flark Mynn.

“Mynn being an ally in your mission… Mynn typically being a staunch believer in following the spirit of the rules and insisting that they be malleable rather than strictly considered… Because he believed in friendly, relaxed competition and managed to feel a sense of self-worth without needing to be the best…”

NK snickers, and shakes his head.

“Haha, what a fool.”

“Pardon?”

NK blushes.

“I said nothing!”

UK pauses, slowly and quietly circling behind NK as he reads, glancing at his notebook…

“However, when you were unfrozen… It awoke something in Flark… A fear. He had no knowledge of why you two had been freed but your fellow co-workers remained in place. You told him the importance of saving everyone… And that was your goal at first… You began examining our fellow FXW superstars in an effort to understand their condition… But eventually… Flark began dissecting them.”

“Yes. He would meticulously dissect our colleagues to attempt to understand what physiological resistance we might have that they don’t… When I discovered what he was doing, he became obsessed with doing the same to me… I’m the only other unfrozen FWX star, so naturally, he’d want to open up my chest and discover what makes me different.”

NK flips to the next page, where he’s drawn a speculative doodle of what he imagines United Korean Peace Officer would look like shirtless…

…FOR CENTRAL COMMAND’S DOCUMENTATION, OF COURSE.

“Mmmm, what a chest…”[

“Pardon?”

NK snaps to attention, having been momentarily distracted by UK’s fictional bulging pectorals. He snaps his notebook shut and spins… His eyes are briefly drawn to the real thing, hidden beneath his uniform, before finally meeting his eyes.

“What a story to get off your chest, I said!”

“Yes, indeed. And when I escaped his grasp, I knew that the only way to save my compatriots, both those still intact and those dissected… To crawl into the safe, go back to April 1st and stop the show from ever having started in the first place! The freezing can be avoided and Flark Mynn will remain sane!”

UK walks over from behind NK to the desk…

“But, in order to do that, I must unlock this computer… I have reason to believe it may hold the combination to the safe and allow me to succeed in my mission of restoring peace to my world!”

…UK peers into the distance, his eyes full of hope… Before sighing with a tinge of bitterness.

“Unfortunately, I have never been trained in the art of infiltration… United Korean Central Command has always emphasized open, transparent communications with other nations… And no matter how politely I ask, this terminal refuses to allow me access.”

NK smiles, closing his notebook. He tut-tuts, shaking his head, like one might watching a pup chase its own tail.

“You asked it politely? Adorable.”

NK cracks his knuckles.

“Perhaps this challenge calls for someone slightly more adept in … espionage.”

UK smiles.

“My thoughts, exactly!”

UK pulls out the chair in front of the computer and NK quickly sits down.

The username says ‘rm_xwf’... Last login one week ago… NK smirks confidently…

“Now… WITNESS ME!”

NK reaches into his chest and retrieves…

…

A sheet of plastic wrap.

UKPO is… surprised.

“Is this …some sort of special spy gear from Central Command?”

NK shakes his head.

“No, Kato purchased this from Wal-Mart. But, it is the perfect tool for any password retrieval…”

NK gently lays the sheet onto the keyboard… Then presses down firmly, as the layer gently wraps around each key…

After a few seconds, he laughs triumphantly, “AHA! BEHOLD!”

UKPO glances over his double’s shoulder and sees… fingerprints on every key.

“Now…” NK retrieves from a compartment in his sleeve, a small, short monocular, framed in jet black, that he holds up to his right eye…

NK then returns the monocular to his pocket… and jots down a list of letters in his notebook.

“These have the most fingerprint coverage on their key’s surface… And thus are the most likely to be characters in this user’s password…”

NK has written down ‘I’, ‘O’, ‘P’, ‘A’, ‘S’, ‘D’, ‘K’ and ‘N’.

UK nods, pleased.

“Very clever, my… friend…”

NK blushes, both at the compliment and at the realization that, this entire time, he never introduced himself.

“Oh, I apologize! My name is North Korean War Criminal.”

UK grins and eagerly stretches forward his hand to shake, like a totally cool handshake that a cool guy would do with his cool friends.

NK takes a deep breath… Okay, don’t blow this, you’ve practiced this using Central Command’s diagrams… Hell, you’ve even gotten to practice a few of these with Corey Smith before WarGames…

NK stretches his arm forward mechanically, like a robot working on a conveyor belt… Before grasping down on his counterpart’s hand and shaking it once…

Then, Twice quickly.

UK smiles kindly, then releases his hand.

NK smiles back unnaturally.

“Hmm. It is curious, though…”

UK raises an eyebrow.

“Hmm? What is?”

NK’s forehead wrinkles in thought…

“I just mean… You mentioned you were unversed in espionage?”

“Indeed. I have struggled many a night to unlock this computer terminal, and then you have a method immediately! Most impressive!”

“And yet, for someone unversed in espionage… You very quickly surmised an unconventional exit route through the ventilation… When we were both in the dissection room.”

UK pauses. Then, he chuckles nodding.

“Yes, I was rather surprised of myself. It seems desperate times can show unexpected traits…”

“Much like Flark Mynn, eh?”

…

“How do you mean?”

NK strokes his chin, re-opening the notebook in his hand to verify something…

He nods, and points at the section of his notes about Flark Mynn. Or rather, UK’s description of Flark Mynn…

“I just mean… Flark Mynn sounds like he WASN’T the sort of man to dissect his compatriots. He sounded easy-going from your short description.”

“Precisely so.”

“And yet, Flark became deranged and eventually resorted to dissecting bodies for usable data… Which is something the Mark Flynn of my world had done in the past.”

“I apologize, but time is of the essence. Is there a point to this thought exercise?”

NK smiles… differently than his usual fake smile. As if mirroring UK’s natural, friendly open smile… Like a robot trying to replicate a human expression. So close, and so far away.

“Oh, none. I just find it ironic how a situation like this might make opposites… similar.”

“Like Mark Flynn and Flark Mynn… Or even like you and I…”

UK nods…

……

Then coughs, and points down at NK’s notebook…

“So… now that we have these letters… Perhaps you have some device that might unscramble them into logical patterns?”

NK snaps his fingers, smiling. He flips back to the page with the letters.

“That I do.”

NK then taps his temple twice… Then leans back with his notepad and pen, eyeing the letters.

…

“Wait, you’re going to assemble the password letters manually?”

NK doesn’t look up.

“Yes. As implied by my tapping of my head. My mind is the device… I assumed that was clearly communicated…”

UK sighs, and walks to the door, verifying that the door is still locked…

“Will it take long?”

NK wrinkles his nose, waving away any urgency.

“You yourself said we are safe. If Flark Mynn cannot break down the door, what is the rush?”

UK peers through the window above the door… And sees the fire alarm… The room is sound-proof, but the lights are visibly blaring.

…

UK reaches with his hand…

And shuts the drapes. The lights disappear behind the blinds.

“I suppose…”

UK smiles.

“We have… nothing but time.”

***

Mark Flynn and NK stand at the front of the War Room…

The classroom where this contemptible tag team plots their strategy before a big match.

“Well, well, well…”

“The Can-Jap Connection!”

“Arguably, the number two contenders for the XWF Tag Team Titles.”

“Behind us, of course.”

“Ol’ Billy B. Promised way back in June that you two chuckleheads would take the tag division by storm! And guaranteed that you two would dominate the roster and become the next tag team champions.”

Flynn smiles.

“How did that turn out?”

“Don’t answer that. I’ll tell you.”

“We did it. We rocketed to the top of the tag division in just two months and we defeated the tag team your manager swore you’d be the ones to strike down.”

NK cackles.

“How does it feel being the SECOND BEST Mixed Nationality tag team in the XWF, Can-Jap Connection?”

“In a field of two teams?”

Flynn and NK smile and bump fists.

“Of course, the Can-Jap Connection has quite the record, huh, NK?”

“Three wins, zero losses, Mark Flynn… And they debuted in June!”

“Wow, they’ve wrestled as many matches in six months as Latina Submission Machina wrestled in her first week!”

“Indeed. For a pair of ‘workhorses’, the Can-Jap sure don’t like coming into the office regularly!”

Flynn and NK nod thoughtfully, considering this conundrum.

“Well, how good is their work when they make it in?”

“Passable at best, Mark Flynn.”

Flynn gasps, in mock horror.

“Wow, NK. Strong words for a team that’s undefeated. It’s impressive they haven’t lost yet, right?”

“It would be. If they’d beaten teams worth a goddamn half a DPRK won!”

NK and Flynn cackle, as NK opens his notebook.

“We’ve done the research watching Can-Jap’s three total victories.”

“So our audience at home doesn’t have to.”

“They’ve logged one win over Yin/Yang.”

“Who the fuck are Yin/Yang?”

“Ah yes… You know Salt & Pepper?”

“Yeah, we stomped the shit out of them.”

“Imagine that but Salt is racist.”

“Wow, sounds awful. We beat S&P in 28 seconds. How long did Can-Jap take?”

“Like 9 minutes.”

“…Huh. Okay, and how has Yin/Yang done since then?”

“They haven’t had a match. Their record is 0 wins, 1 loss.”

“Then, the other two Can-Jap wins are over the DISINTIGRATORS.”

“Oh cool! Those guys were good enough to be #1 tag title contenders earlier this year! How many wins have they had?”

“Zero, Mark Flynn.”

…

“You mean zero title match wins, NK?”


“Zero match wins, Mark Flynn. In FOUR years.”

…

Flynn scratches his head.

““Sorry, NK. You’re telling me the DISINTIGRATORS have been around for four years…”

“Since 2017, Mark Flynn.”

““They’ve competed for the tag titles.”

“One more time than the Can-Jap Connection ever has.”

“…And they’ve won zero matches?”

“Not a single one, Mark Flynn. Their manager Freddy Fabulous has one more career win than the team he manages.”

“…So, the Can-Jap Connection may have a 3-0 record. But the combined record of the teams they’ve beaten is…”

“Zero wins. And eight losses.”

Flynn is stunned.

“Wow… Boys? Ricky? Kyodai?”

“Some might call this your first real match.”

“Again a team that won’t shit the bed and fold when you do your old-school 80s shit strategies…”

“Because now, you’re facing the men who took down Them No Good Bastards and won the tag titles you promised to make yours, yet never came close to sniffing.”

“Now, you’re facing the men who the current reigning Universal champ had to cheat to sneak the belts off of.”

“For all your bluster about how you came to the XWF to revitalize tag team wrestling?”

“For the first time since your debut? You’re going to fight an actual fucking tag team.”

Flynn and NK laugh and crack their knuckles.

“Hope you gentlemen got a lot of rest since your last match at Relentless… Three months ago.”

“Cuz you’re facing a team that has been working every show since WarGames.”

“Tweaking Strategies, Making Improvements, Perfecting the Art of Tag Team Wrestling!”

“While you two dorks were sitting at home, checking the wrestling newsletters for your names and popping up on ol’ Billy B’s podcast where he complains about a sport he hasn’t been a respected voice in FOR THREE DECADES!”

“…We were putting the time in. And became the greatest tag team in XWF History.”

“Yet another promise YOU made.”

“That we fulfilled.”

“And now, Ricky? Kyodai?”

“The only thing left to do?”

“Is take the Can-Jap Connection…”

“Grab their arms…”

“And snap their limbs at the joint.”

NK and Flynn snicker maliciously.

“In other words… the shoulder blades of the Can-Jap Connection…”

“Are about to get disconnected.”

[FADE TO BLACK]