It's funny how you tend to notice the smallest of details at the most random of times. Take a stage for example. A stage is merely an empty platform without it's performers. Likewise, performers are merely stage decorations without an audience. For some, an audience is what fuels their creativity, their passion, and it is the very lifeblood that courses their veins. For others, an audience has absolutely zero impact on their performance.
The latter of which are the true warriors.
Those who step up to the plate and swing for the fences regardless of the situation are the strongest of all. They have eradicated the fear of loss, the fear of judgement, and above all else, fear itself.
Me?
I am a warrior.
A darkened soul, immune to the fallacies of life. Through loss comes prevention, through pain comes redemption.
There's an old saying…
“If only my mind could forget what my eyes have seen..”
I've done it all. From championship runs to rock bottom losses, yet I've never given up. I've never hid behind my short comings, and I've never skirted a challenge. Your size, your strength, your record, they don't exist in my mind.
The only thing that exists when that bell rings is determination fueled by desire. The desire to be the greatest, the desire to prove to myself I am the best and that I will not falter.
You will not find deception within the words that I've spoke. You will, however, find out the man I claim to be is the man I've always been.
I am bound not by the chains of your logic.
I will not falter, nor shall you extinguish my flame.
To think otherwise is gross negligence, only to be rectified by my hands.
I am..
The Dark Warrior. |
The shot opens to a black screen. No video, just audio.
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“This is stupid...”
Cadryn Tiberius
“No, it’s training for Leap of Faith.”
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“Well your training is always stupid!”
Cadryn Tiberius
“Hey, I helped you prepare for Jimmy Pidgeon didn’t I?”
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“Yeah, how’d that turn out anyway?”
Cadryn Tiberius
“You gave him a hell of a fight and did better than anyone gave you credit for!”
A moment of silence passes before...
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“This is still stupid!”
As the video fades in from the black screen, we find Micheal Graves and Cadryn standing on the ledge of a bridge. Micheal is holding on tightly to the railing as he looks over the edge. His face is a pale white, but he isn’t wearing his signature skull makeup.
Cadryn Tiberius
“Trust me Gravy.”
Without warning Cadryn slaps Micheal on the back hard. Hard enough that he loses his grip and falls off of the bridge, screaming like a banshee all the way down. Fortunately this isn’t some great betrayal. Cadryn didn’t just try to murder his friend and partner Micheal Graves. We quickly realize that Micheal Graves is tethered to the bridge with a bungee cord as he drops about 30 feet from the ground below and springs back up into the air.
An undisclosed amount of time passes as the scene fades from one to the next. We now find Micheal leaning up against Cadryn’s truck, nervously smoking a cigarette as Cadryn loads his bungee equipment into the bed of his truck.
Cadryn Tiberius
“I can’t believe that you didn’t manage to grab any of the cases I hung up for you.”
Graves takes a deep, irritated breath as he cuts a dirty look over to Cadryn. Cadryn on the other hand doesn’t even notice as he’s too busy packing away his equipment. Graves shakes his head and takes a long draw off of his cigarette.
Cadryn Tiberius
“I’m just trying to help you out. You’re going to have to get over your fear of heights if you want to win that case Gravy.”
Micheal takes a final draw off of the cigarette and holds the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds before exhaling heavily and flicking the cigarette away.
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“I’m not afraid of heights. I’m just not comfortable with all of the crazy shit that goes in toe with winning this case. Climbing, ziplining, then diving to my possible death all just to get a 24/7 contract? This seems like a fool's way to gain a title shot.”
Cadryn Tiberius
“It’s not just a title shot. It’s basically a guaranteed title reign.”
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“Sure, but with a big asterisk beside of it when you drop the belt back to the former champ in your very first defense.”
Cadryn finishes packing things away and moves next to Graves, leaning beside him against the truck.
Cadryn Tiberius
“A fear of heights and a low self esteem. You’re the perfect partner! Any other crippling mental disorders I should know about?”
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“I’m just being real man. If you are really that desperate for a case, chances are you don’t have what it takes to win the belt anyway. So you’ll end up looking foolish when you drop it back on your first defense. Or worse yet, fail at the cash in.”
Cadryn smiles as a soft chuckle escapes through his lips.
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“What?”
Cadryn Tiberius
“You really are a piece of work, you know that?”
Graves huffs as crosses his arms and looks away from Cadryn.
Cadryn Tiberius
“Here you are, with one of the bigger, if not the biggest opportunities in your career, and instead of focusing on HOW to win, you’re already putting more effort into coming up with your excuses. How about you just man up, kick some ass, and win the damn case already?”
Micheal turns his head back towards Cadryn, shooting him an unimpressed look.
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“Are you done?
I’m not making excuses. I’m just being a realist. The whole concept is lame to begin with, and then when you factor in all of the bullshit you have to put yourself through to get this case…. I’m not sure if it’s worth it.”
Cadryn shakes his head, unwilling to believe what he’s hearing.
Cadryn Tiberius
“You know, you always complain that you’re never given opportunities. Now here you are, with a golden ticket to the main event layed out right in front of you. All you have to do is reach out and take it, but noooo, it’s just not worth it. It’s not what you want. It’s too hard… Do you want to know why you’re seldom given opportunities like this one? It’s because everytime you start to inch your way up the card, you shit the bed. I’ve always wondered why you did that. Maybe it was just bad luck, or maybe you were letting everyone get into your head and throw you off your game. That’s not it though, is it? Instead, it’s simply the fact that you don’t want to try and move up the card. You’re afraid of having to face guys like Robert Main and The Engineer. So whenever you accidentally impress the powers that be and get a shot at doing something with your career, you decide to throw it all away by either pissing yourself during the match, or disappearing for months at a time so that people forget about that big win that you left on.”
Micheal doesn’t say a word at first, he just stares down at his feet. The fact is, he knows that there is some truth to Cadryn’s words, but not wanting to admit that out loud, he fires back with…
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
“I just faced Engy one on one, did I look scared to you?”
Cadryn hops off of the truck and throws his arms out as he yells...
Cadryn Tiberius
“YES!”
Micheal’s eyes cut back to the ground as Cadryn continues.
Cadryn Tiberius
“You went after Engy in your promos licking his balls and telling him how much of a fan that you were. You did everything in your power to soften him up before the match hoping that he’d take it easy on you. Of course he did, since he allowed you to walk away with your arms. The saddest part about that whole ordeal is the fact that you had a legitimate shot at beating him, but instead of developing a plan of attack, you concerned yourself with not getting too hurt. You’re better than that Micheal. You’re better than what you allow everyone to see most of the time. If you want to move up the card and win the Universal Championship someday, then you’re going to have to embrace your talent and go full throttle, otherwise you might as well retire because you’re wasting everyone’s time…”
Cadryn stomps around the truck and climbs into the driver's seat. Graves lets out a deep sigh as Cadryn turns the engine over. Micheal turns and reaches for the door handle, but before he can open the door, Cadryn peels out and shoots down the road, leaving Micheal with a long walk ahead of him to try and figure out just what it is he actually wants in life.
===========PROMO===========
”Dark Warrior” Micheal Graves
It all happened just like I said it would. Micheal Graves and Cadryn Tiberius return to the XWF in a blaze of glory, defeating Paragon to earn a shot at the Tag titles and then laying waste to an Empire and walking out your new Tag team champions.
Of course it didn’t take long for Chris Chaos to trim the fat (literally) and rebuild his Empire by ousting Peter Gilmour and replacing him with N.A.Z.I.
See, that’s what Chris does these days. He leeches off of others success to try and hold onto whatever shred of worth he still has in the XWF. Something that he recently accused me of doing when I decided to team up with my long time friend Cadryn.
The fact is, Chaos only aligned with Peter Gilmour because Gilly had a guaranteed Tag title shot, we all know this, just like we all knew that he would drop him as soon as they lost those titles. Chris Chaos is a who came in hot and quickly fizzled out. Now everyday is a struggle to remain relevant. A task that I’m growing accustomed to twarting every chance I get.
Enter Leap Of Faith where Chaos and I are set to meet inside of the ring once again. Only this time it will be along with five other men.
Unfortunately for Chaos, I’m not the only one looking to spoil his night as most of those men are frothing at the opportunity to place his head on a pike, especially...
Peter Gilmour, who was recently ousted from Empire because he cost them the titles, or that’s what Chaos would want you to believe anyway. Never mind the fact that Peter was in the ring trying his damndest to win the match against me while Chaos allowed himself to become distracted on the outside playing with Cadryn. Hey look, I guess Chris Chaos found his notation after all!
But much like Peter, I digress.
This isn’t about all of that. It’s about winning a case and having the opportunity to challenge for any title in the XWF at your leisure.
This match is full of hungry competitors. Chris Chaos sees this as his shot to finally get back on top. After a full year of failed attempts to either win a case or win the Universal title, he hopes that this time proves to once again be his time… Spoiler, it won’t.
Finn Kühn sees it as his chance to finally break through the glass ceiling. Finn has spent the entirety of his tenure in the XWF telling anyone who will listen how he’s the future of this business. He’s never done a single thing to prove it mind you, but that doesn’t stop him from believing. If wrestlers could be sued for false advertising, Finn would be so tied up in court that we wouldn’t see his next match until he was around my age.
Robert Main (odds on favorite, am I right?) looks to this match as the next logical step in his career. After returning to the XWF and regaining the Hart championship, Robert has taken on any and all comers and put them down systematically. There’s no doubt that he’s preparing to move on to bigger and better things. The only thing that I’m really worried about when it comes to Robert is where we stand once we stand in the ring together. A former brother in AX3 who took his leave when we needed him the most. I don’t blame Robert for AX3’s demise, but I am a little hurt by the fact that him and Jim basicly reformed as APEX and I didn’t get an invite. Friends or enemies? I haven’t spoken to Robert since our AX3 days, so I guess we will all find out soon enough.
Azrael Erebus looks to win it all and continue his impressive return. There’s no doubt that the guy has had some impressive showings since returning, though one does have to question someone who claims to be any sort of all powerful being, but fails to win simple wrestling matches. It’s like Superman striking out in baseball, did he go down on purpose or is he just not as “super” as he claims to be?
Gilly and Robbie are always hungry. Maybe I’ll just pay catering to bring some jelly doughnuts out and keep those two out of everyone’s way. Fat jokes, I know Robbie loves’em! In all seriousness though, Peter is going to Peter like Peter always Peters. I hear tell that he’s already talking circles around himself. I think I’ll avoid watching any of that garbage this time around. Dude seriously makes me light headed from all of the stupid that flies out of his mouth. If he ever wants to actually win a match, maybe he should just start cutting promos mid match. It’d be like casting confusion and sleep all in the same spell. Ah, who am I kidding? Peter Gilmour would struggle to gain a pinfall over even a sleeping opponent.
As far as Robbie is concerned, he’s big, he’s bad, he once wrecked me so hard that I completely lost my grip on reality. That was a long time ago though, and since then, I’ve hardened the fuck up in that ring all while Robbie has allowed himself to slip down a few rungs on that ladder of success. Rob’s a sleeper at best. If he wants it, he has a damn good shot of taking it, but does he want it? I don’t think so. Robbie’s moment of the night will likely involve a jar and Rains anal cavity. His involvement in the Main Event is more a less just an experiment in finding out once and for all if pigs can fly…
AH-HA! Another Fat joke just for you Robbie!
When it comes to me, and my involvement in this match, I’m not banking on winning the case. Let’s be honest here. This is less a test of skill and more a test of luck. Sure, we gotta get in there and beat the hell out of each other like any other match, and if that’s all there was to it, I’d feel pretty confident in how the night would go down. I’d go into this match and manipulate some doofus like Gilly into helping me take out the competition and try to sneak in a pinfall. What can I say? I’m not beyond fighting dirty. The fact that we also have to take the leap, and hope that we grab the correct case on our way down though, that makes this a complete crapshot. This isn’t a wrestling match. What we are being asked to do is more akin to a challenge on Double Dare.
Imagine fighting your way through 4 of the best talents the XWF has to offer, plus Gilly and Chaos, only to grab a case with your termination papers inside of it. Or how about grabbing a case and thinking that you just won only to find out that your case contains bottled up Bourbon farts? Or Rains surgically removed anus jar?
I’m not setting my heart on winning a 24/7 case. Instead, I’m going to use this opportunity to get some practice causing all sorts of pain. Imagine Chris Chaos’s face if I throw him off of the X-Tron, or Gilmours reaction to me shoving his head back up Chris’s ass. I’m going to go into this match and have a little fun, then at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens. If I walk out with a case, great, and if not, oh well. At least I still have one half of these.
Graves pats the Tag Team title that’s draped over his shoulder as the scene fades to black.
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