Abruptly, the scene begins, sun setting as the camera operator walks on a sidewalk, a rough looking building to the right. In the center of the frame is the silhouette of Ned Kaye, holding a mostly eaten slice of pizza.

"I suppose you haven't really checked this place out yet."

Out of frame, the familiar voice of Ethan responds.

"Yeah, I've only really seen it through your promos. Is this really where you got trained?"

"Despite its aesthetic, yeah. This is where it started for me."

He takes a bite, then reaches into his pocket, pulling out some keys and unlocking the door. The camera steadily enters the building, showing it to still be fairly dim within. A small "click" is audible immediately before light illuminates the interior of the building, revealing some new equipment, several shelves filled with labeled tapes and DVD cases. The ring looks to be refurbished, but not replaced and the sole visible trash can has a broken chair leg sticking out from it.

"Whoa... This place is looking slick. Did it cost you a whole lot?"

Kaye passes by the camera, smirking.

"No, no. It was a lot of time in-between training, however."

"Yuh-huh..."

The shot pans to reveal Ned sifting through the open drawer of a filing cabinet, pulling a particular folder out.

"What's that?"

"A file on my next opponent after the battle on Wednesday. The so-called Militant Man."

"John Black? At Anarchy?"

The Notorious one nods.

"Another established opponent? Jeez, they really like pitting you up against people who know the business like the back of their hand."

"Isn't that the case?"

Ned chuckles lightly, flipping through the folder.

"I'll be alright. John is no simple task to evaluate, but there's a glaring similarity between us. Our ability to gain strength vicariously through our supporters. That and the fact that we're both not too beloved by the hands of management. But beyond that, we have little in common. John isn't prepared for someone like me. I never got a white collar IT job. I could've, but I didn't. The truth is that I can't imagine a life outside of this profession. He stepped away? He had a home to return to? Wrestling is intertwined with my existence. My life is devoted to it, regardless of the strain it places me through."

"Sounds like a lonely way to live."

Ned shrugs, thumbing through the file on John Black.

"You mind if I grab a drink?"

"Go ahead. There's a fridge in that makeshift kitchen I installed."

The camera is placed down next to Ned, showing scan his eyes over various details of John Black. After a short moment, Ethan's voice his heard, a concerned tone attached to it.

"Uh... Ned."

"Yeah?"

"What's this?"

Ned looks up, his face shifting from his previous stoicism to a look of shock with a hint of shame.

"That... that must be from when Gator was spending time here."

"Ned, please tell me you haven't been drinking again."

"I haven't."

"Then why is it here, man?"

Kaye begins to speak, but stops himself, staring down at his feet embarrassedly.

"It's just one of the bottles he left behind. I had disposed of the rest, but... I didn't- I couldn't-"

He pauses once more.

"You weren't wrong when you said it was a lonely way to live... I just wanted the security of knowing it was there."

"You don't have to live like that."

"Look, I get it's hard, but you inspire a lot of people. Hell, you inspire me, Ned. A lot of people want you to succeed. You know that. I've seen how happy it makes you. But you can't be inviting this back into your life. I already got to see you go down that path once and I'm not gonna sit by and let that happen again. People don't respect you just because you're the Notorious wrestler. They respect Ned Kaye."

"...You're right. Let me rid of that, please."

"Sure, man."

He walks towards the kitchen, the camera is picked up and twisted to show him in front of a sink.

"To persistence."

Ned pops open the bottle and begins to pour it down the drain.

"You know, it all boils down to a fear of change. I had grown so comfortable with this parasite that leaving it to rot was difficult..."

"...is difficult."

"But the same is taking place within the XWF. Every week, another veteran present, another person administration hopes will crush me and slow my momentous rise. Comfort in the past, unassuredness of the future. That's why this match isn't a breather prior to the most important one of my natural life. If anything, this is my final chance to prove that the days to come are as golden, if not more so, as the ones passed. I won't be the last new wrestler here, nor am I arrogant enough to consider myself the most important rookie in the company. No, my possible influence exists by hard work and happenstance. I've been placed in this position to prove that the new guard shouldn't be regulated to careers that allow legends to step on them to greater heights. The next generation of wrestlers need to see one of their own scale odds that seem insurmountable. If it wasn't me, I'd be rooting for whoever it was. However, since it is me, I intend on winning this battle through my most infamous method."

"By thinking through him?"

"Precisely. Am I really that predictable?"

"Wouldn't say predictable, but you're consistent, Ned. For better and for worse. What's there to think through?"

He grins softly.

"The failure of John Black relies on one factor. Endurance. In that recent bout with Edward, the primitive pummeler was able to wear him down. Now, I'm certainly not a brute, but I didn't get the tiny comforts Black got. If I can outlast my own mistakes, I can endure him."

"And that's that?"

"That's that."

"You can't run from yourself."