Word spread like wildfire through an African brush--the White Lion was NOT going to face AJ Powell and Chris MacBeth in a tag-team match! The Lion Hero, the Battle Cat of Courage, was cowering in some corner from the challenge of MacBeth and Powell. He was going to leave the Slick One, Rick Jones, alone in the ring...to face the twosome as a lone warrior, with only his courage, his two fists and his slick ways to save him.

The Pride was in despair and disarray! The children, unshakable in their fierce feline faith, found themselves battling doubts...doubts which, like the hydra, returned two fold after being crushed!

Finally, unable to take it...a determined member of the Pride, filled with an insatiable hunger for the raw, unadulterated truth...no matter how powerful...slipped past the XWF security and stole into the White Lion's dressing room to answer once and all the question...had the One True Lion Hero turned into a fear-fraught house cat?

Only one man could answer the question...only one man had the courage, the skill, the stealth and the smarts to make the journey...to make the journey, yes...and to look the Lion Hero right into his wild, untamed irises and unblinkingly ask the question...ready and braced to have his hopes crushed and his ideals incinerated in the aftermath of the White Lion's soul-shaking, heart-breaking answer!

And that man, True Believers, was none other than...yes...it is true! None other than....SLICK RICK HIMSELF!



The English emcee swung open the door to the lion's lair to see the back of a majestic finger, his mighty hands locked together behind his back, his head bowed in somber contemplation...but of what? What grim subject held the hero's attention? What thought was the White Lion wrestling with, pouring over in the laboratory of his very mind?

Just as the greatest storyteller in hip-hop history was about open his mouth, he received the greatest surprise of all.

"Slick Rick...the White Lion knew you would come. He could feel it in his blood...in his very bones."

The White Lion swung around and suddenly the jungle king's eyes, those twin beacons of laser-like intensity, were suddenly turned upon the one-eyed rapper.

"And the answer is.....YES. YES....and NO."

Slick Rick's single good eye widened in awe.

"Yes! You do have the power inside to unleash unbridled creativity and power...and transfer that very power into a new single...'Roar with Me, Drug Free, Drug Free!' You DO have the power to reach the children...the power to inspire...the power to make children find their own inner lion...but only Slick Rick...only...if you believe in yourself...only if you stare in wonder up at the stars above...at the Earth below...and between those two planes...find the humility to kneel...and the courage to dream, Slick Rick.

Yes! You can pass the torch to Rick Jones...place the burning brand into his hands and know...in your heart of hearts that you have passed the name and the legend onto a worthy heir...a man of courage....a man who has his own story to tell...not with rhyme...but with wristlocks! While you rocked the mic, the new Slick Rick will rock the ring...bringing the children hope...sending a message to the masses...!"

Slick Rick was stunned--the White Lion had answered questions that the rap legend had not even yet asked! And yet...he put off the most pressing question of all...saving it for the last!

"And no...Slick Rick...the White Lion...is not going to face the power of paranoia and punk-rock that personifies itself in the person fo Chris MacBeth...and the man who survived a bomb-blast, AJ Powell, in a tag-team wrestling match. Chris MacBeth, the serial arm-breaker, AJ Powell, the utlimate survivor...will not face the White Lion and Rick Jones in a tag-team wrestling match. It will never happen....NEVER!

Wednesday on Warfare...there will be no such tag-team match....when the arena fills with sound and fury...when Burnham wood comes to Dunsenane...when the men opposing him are of no WOMAN BORN...but ARE THE VERY SEEDS OF A LIONESS HERSELF...then the paranoid punk-rock personality...will try to the last...his eyes full of defiance and courage...he will shun surrender...he will look inside himself, Chris MacBeth will dig deep...into the very core of his soul...to pull forth....like a burning ember...the FIRE THAT BURNS WITHIN! He will find that he indeed has what it takes...to put down the whiskey...to pick up the water...to break his bad habits just like he breaks the arms of his opponents...to power his punk rock with supercharged positivity...and most of all...he will find himself transformed into an unstoppable force...set to collide with the immovable objects known as Slick Rick and White Lion...and then...and only then...will AJ Powell understand that this moment...of all moments...is the reason why he survived the bomb...the reason why he was not incinerated by the blast...he will embrace his destiny...and the world will witness Ragnorak in the Ring...the Twilight of the False Gods of anger and alcohol...of beers and bad attitudes...the birth of two new Lion Heroes in AJ Powell and Chris MacBeth...

A tag-team wrestling match...?

NO SLICK RICK! NO! NO! NO!

AN EPIC FOR THE AGES! A SAGA OF TRIUMPH...TRAGEDY...AND TRANSCENDENCE!"

Slick Rick backs away...the revered rapper is stunned at the revelation...

"B-b-but...White Lion...a-a-an epic...needs...an epic poet...a man to chronicle the tale...who could possibly...have what it takes...to capture...that story? Who could possibly be the Homer for this modern day Illiad....?"

White Lion looks straight at Slick Rick. A low growl begins to rumble within the Lion Hero. He stalks towards the rapper, who is now shaking in his boots. His hand shoots out, lighting swift. And then...from his clench fist...a finger emerges...a finger....pointed towards the rapper himself!

"YOU!"

"M-m-me...? No...I'm not worthy...I couldn't possibly..."

White Lion puts a hand upon Slick Rick's quivering shoulder.

"IT. IS. IN. YOU."

Suddenly...inspiration explodes inside the rap legends mind like a thousand, thousand nova suns!

"See me soar, Evil's what my claws tore, ready for more...ROAR WITH ME! The children grow, reap what they sow, to drugs say no...ROAR WITH ME!"

The chorus has been born...and yet...the story...has yet to be told...there is only one thing that is certain...

...in the pitch of battle...

...in the heat of the moment...

...the darkest hour...

...the White Lion's Pride will never abandon their hero...

....they...and all the world...


WILL CONTINUE ON.....TO ROAR WITH ME!