"You can't talk, you're anxious,
I'm off the walls, I'm right here, just
Come outside, and see it,
But pack your heart, you might need it..."



***

The continual mindset of a person who views themselves as champion is a widely intricate yet incredibly complicated one. It delves into a deep, faceted state of mind that is frankly quite hard to pin down to a certain, solitary, state. Some people will try to analyze the supposedly, so-called "champion's mindset" as just one, overall, grand thing. It's just a one-off with no particular specialties of any kind. It's just the general nature and ebb-and-flow things that will keep things relatively afloat. That to them is what they continuously view as the particular mind frame that is needed to keep themselves grounded, and to ultimately avoid going into a mind frame where they lose control of the crux that a particular situation may aim to uphold.

Then there's the other approach at looking at it, the other way of viewing and perceiving what it takes to be referred to as a champion in the highest and utmost regard. All those various ways, methodologies and various ideologies definitely vary from individual to individual, they vary greatly and exponentially from mindset to fucking mindset, and for some people such as the new and current reigning XWF Television Champion Damon Tyler, those particular methodologies could even be categorized. Perhaps, even broken down into three main categories which he personally views as being integral into carrying yourself, and continuously surging on wards as having the mindset...of a champion.

The first of those is the momentum of a destroyer. This framework in Damon's mind is the concept that you need to be an absolutely, ruthless, destroyer whenever you step into that ring. After all in his mind, along with the constant demons that feast and plague him on vicious, continual cycle, every time he steps into that ring, that squared circle, that very battleground that he refers to as his mistress, he's going to war. He's going to nothing short, but absolute battle. Damon approaches every single match he ever competes in like it's going to be his very last. And with that mind frame in certain execution, he will be relentless at preying on whatever opponent stands in his way because he knows that if there was going to be any perception of weakness coming from him, not actual weakness just the PERCEPTION of it, then it will come back to bite him...hard. So with that mind he believes that in every battle, you need to go in proving that you can attack. Proving that you will hold you ground and whatever proverbial fuel you need will be there to make your levels be continuously going. You need the energy of an absolute, carnal, maniacal, destroyer. The momentum of a fucking destroyer.

Secondly in his head, you need the brains of a tactician. It's one thing to be able to be a physical powerhouse and a physical threat, being able to punish and inflict nothing less than immense blood, pain, and excruciating torment on whoever you face but that's just one side of the battle. Strategy plays an incredible part in this process too. Being able to seize your opponent out, predict your opponent's movements, being able to calculate and analyze your opponent as if you're playing a match of chess. Being able to pinpoint, lock down and ultimately neutralize anything your opponent will possibly try and throw at you. Combine the tactical side with your physical side and you have a surefire recipe for success...or destruction depending on how the fuck you look at it.

Finally there's the third component. There's the physical side of the equation, the mental side of the equation but finally last and certainly by no means least there is the emotional side of the equation. There's the requirement and the necessity of having the "soul of a fighter." You can have the physical side sorted out to the point where you can pulverize any opponent to a bloody pulp. You can have the mental, strategical side of things where you can outwit and outmatch your opponent and have a keen eye for taking advantage of various weaknesses whenever they show up, but then there lies the emotional factor. Proving and showing that there is a reason to what you are doing. Showing that at the end of the day when it is all said and fucking done you are fighting...for SOMETHING. Something you want whether it is finally achieving a valid state of recognition or overcoming a continuous, abyssal state of destructive, self-doubt. Either way, once you show that you're fighting for something and nothing is going to deter you from accomplishing that, the combination of all three of those elements will make you unstoppable and that...that is the true mindset of a champion.

***



Standing tall, amongst all of the other various landmarks that conjure and ultimately paint up the Los Angeles Skyline is the historic Griffith Observatory. A place where one can go to take in the backdrop of the skyline, and marvel in it's almighty presence and beauty is something that can truly be upheld. Grandeur in stature and elegant and undeniable in it's appearance and impact as it lights up the trajectory of the City Of Angels.

It's early Sunday morning with the lights still out and the sky still shaded with an ominous, flowing field of black. Approximately 3AM, roughly 5 hours removed from when Damon Tyler defeated Abigail Monroe for the XWF Television Championship at this week's edition of Savage. Damon was due back home in Pittsburgh and then Manhattan soon but at least now he was taking in the sights of Los Angeles. Feeling the emotional connection that the city has to offer and perhaps for the first time in a very long time, Damon's mind was momentarily at a calming point of ease. But nonetheless, he has already been assigned his first title defense.

Damon stood calm, clutching his newly won championship before he began to express himself on the matters at hand.



"24 Days. 24. Fucking. Days. You want to know exactly why that number is so significant? Why that number has so many implications on what has just conspired tonight? 24 Days is the amount of time it has taken me from when I first got my pen and signed on the dotted line to officially join the XWF, and then win my first piece of championship gold. 24. Fucking. Days. Now don't quote me on this but that has to be some sort of record right? That has to be an accolade that not many people who have chosen to walk into this company...well not just this one but I arguably say into any major league wrestling company have been able to accomplish, yet I have. In less than a month I have signed a contract here, unleashed nothing less than pure catastrophic destruction and hellfire across every single opponent I have faced and as of tonight? Well you can just go ahead and add another name to that list of people who know better than to cross or defy someone who has their number, will make them meet their maker and will have no hesitation in brutally pulverizing them in a macabre fashion on an international level for the whole world to see. Rain...Azrael Erebus...Cate Indigo...Sebasstian Dyke and now Abigail Monroe. The fucking water vixen herself. Five victims down and many, many, many more to go."

"So in my first title defense, the XWF Management as well as the acting GM of Savage, Jenny Myst are going to make me defend the very championship I won tonight in a handicap match against the current tag team champions, BX3. Now if you ask me, certain individuals would complain. Certain individuals would go a mind-warped binge where they convince themselves that a conspiracy has developed against them, and that some sweltering, decimating force is looking to wipe them out of the company all because they have convinced in their screwed-up, distorted state of mind that someone wants them out and out for good amidst, a faltering, whirlpool of a politicking shitstorm. But you see I don't think like that - not for one second. You see I'm grateful - yeah you heard me fucking grateful."

" I need to say thank you to the acting GM of Savage, Jenny Myst for giving me these opportunities so far since she took over the brand from that hopeless, incompetent former GM Taylor Mayde, and now I view it as her and management's way of saying "Damon...you're just that good, just that skilled, that taking on just one opponent isn't enough anymore. We believe that you can do what you do as you inflict damage and carnal chaos on your opponents against two at the same time." Just giving me more opportunities to showcase to everybody else in the XWF Locker Room just exactly what I've already be doing so far in my tenure here. Knees to FUCKING faces and drawing BLOOD out of FUCKING bodies.

Damon adjusts his grip on the championship now, flinging it across his shoulder before continuing.

"So a champion vs. champion match...that's what the card says and that's what's happening because the dice has been cast. You know...I feel it's important, a fucking necessity to have the mindset of a champion. After all you're not just representing yourself, or even the brand or company you're apart of for that matter. You're representing an industry. A full, entire, mechanized, globalized industry and you are carry it's entire weight on your shoulders. You need to give champions a good name. A respectful name...like I do as opposed to my opponents tonight who as I recall from our last encounter at Warfare in Colombia, are more concerned about making full-blown degenerates of themselves getting people fired for fun, or blasting music from boomboxes in the middle of that ring...taking the proverbial PISS if you will out of everything I FIGHT and BATTLE for day in, day out as opposed to actually respecting it."

"You see Dyke and Baggins, the mindset of a champion has several components. Three to be exact. The first of those is possessing the momentum of a destroyer. You know, having the energy and the persistence to inflict nothing but continual pestilence and damage onto whoever we face...just like I did to you this past Wednesday night when I destroyed you Sebasstian, to a pulp for the entirety of Colombia to see unlike what you typically did which is breaking down into a crying, blubbering, decrepit mess in the middle of that canvas. I've defeated you before Dyke, clean as a whistle, and if you think what I did to you and your buddy Baggins was bad in Bogota? Then that is just a fucking cakewalk compared to what I'm going to do the both of you come this Saturday night."

"Next a champion needs to possess the brain of a strategist. Knowing how to fully capitalize on opportunities when they come and arise, and knowing how to exploit weaknesses in your opponents mid-match, when those opportunities and chances come apparent to you. Now as far as looking out and determining weakness I could just go ahead and state the total and absolute obvious which is, every single thing the two of you do whenever you step foot in the ring but that's taking a cheap shot...like you two always do to every single one of your fucking opponents, and I don't want to stoop to your level. Ever."

"And finally last but not least...you need to possess the soul of a fighter. You need to fight for something. PROVE that you have something to gain. PROVE THAT YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON AND THAT YOU ARE CONSTANTLY STRIVING, CLAWING AND FIGHTING OUT OF WHATEVER VERDANT ABYSS HAS DECIDED TO CONSUME YOUR MIND AND SOUL...but none of you do. All of you decide that taking the piss out of everything you and not having any fucking RESPECT for it is how you choose to carry yourselves. The two of you don't possess any of those qualities. Hell the two of you don't even deserve to be carrying the belts you're holding so let me break this down for you. This Saturday night the two of you are fucking finished. I will show the two of you how what it means to be a champion. What it takes to be a champion because at the end of the night, all I have to do to you is do what I already did to you Sebasstian back on Wednesday which is decimate, brutalize you to a bloody pulp then pin you clean on that fucking mat, 1...2...3.

"Pittsburgh's Prodigal Son" Damon Tyler
Win Loss Record - 6 | 0 | 0

ACCOLADES
1 x XWF Television Champion (Current - Won 8/18/18)