This $#!& is Bananas

[Notorious B.O.B.]

"So turns out that even though it fried my cpu, I still had it under warrenty so I just had to twiddle my thumbs for a bit until I could get the replacement parts delivered; which has obviously happened."

The videos seems to pick up mid-story and, as Pooler leans back to laugh and reach behind him for a hat, explains the lack of updates in recent weeks.

"Hell of a storm, though," he continues, bringing the WWIDN down onto his head. "Way I see it," he adds, pulling the flat brim down until his eyes are barely visible, "I was looking to upgrade a few components and this was the chance, eh? Even though this rig is VR ready, the room sure isn’t."

He chuckles again, looking around the room. To the viewers there isn’t much to be seen other than the green screen behind him, which tonight is shown to be promoting the upcoming Bloody Assizes pay-per-view. A few viewers in the chat room seem to remind him of this as he quickly smiles and reaches out for the webcam.

"Sorry, ‘bout that - here’s a peak at the space. I’ve got to get a bunch of this shit out of here and try and, maybe, find a better place to set up the desk. I want to be able to move around a little bit without smashing my knees onto anything or punching a hole in the wall. Any of you guys play that Rick and Morty game yet?" he asks while placing the webcam back in its correct location.

He scans the chat, his head nodding up and down as though agreeing with what he’s read. "Yeah," he laughs, "I haven’t gotten that far in the game. I mean," he says with a shrug, "I haven’t done a good enough job with the boundaries of this room and I dropped something on the ground in the game and couldn’t pick it up again. Little things like that tend to ruin the whole experience for me - but fuck me if it isn’t a fun looking game, eh.

You could get lost in games like that; but getting lost in VR means that you don’t take the time to train your ass off in preparation for the biggest defense of your title yet," he winks.

"I gotta say," he shakes his head, the smile not leaving his face though, "I certainly hope that everybody that was telling me that Jayson wasn’t worthy of an Invictus shot, that he was just a hapless goofball, that he couldn’t wrestle his way out of a paper bag … I certainly hope they enjoy eating their words.

Jayson Matthews has, for lack of a better phrase, had a fire lit under his ass for weeks now. Guy shows up," he starts to gesticulate, "out of the blue and answers an open challenge. Next thing you know he’s going the distance and outlasting well beyond what he should‘ve - hell, what most people should’ve.

I threw everything I had at him that night, and he just kept … kicking … out.

over

and over

and over, again …

The kicker here is that," he laughs, "we agree to do this whole dance again and this time, dude comes out like a ball of fire and starts to give as good as he’s been getting. Everything I threw at him, he caught and threw right back. Unlike a few guys I know, I’m not afraid to say that I’m lucky that I walked out of that match with my title still in hand - but it sure as shit isn’t because I figured out the secret to beating Jayson.

No, I walked out a champion because we ran out of time just as Jayson was going in for the pin - now THAT’S a kick in the pants if I ever saw one.

Two times we’ve faced each other, and two times we’ve taken our match to the time limit. Nobody else in the history of this company has done that, and yes, I’m actually proud of that fact.

In the years that Imperial has been an entity, for all the hundreds of thousands of matches that we’ve seen through the years - nobody has done this. Now," he snorts, "I’m not saying that those two matches are Hall of Fame bids for me and Jayson, but it sure as hell has turned some heads.

Bloody Assizes is poised to be our final meeting for this title. No time limit for the match means that one of us, hopefully me, is walking out of that arena with either a pinfall or submission victory.

One winner …

One loser …

Jayson," he begins, addressing the camera, and one particular viewer directly, "brother there’s a whole heap of stuff that I want to say to you. Some people," he rolls his eyes, "they don’t give you the respect that you deserve; we both know that. I’ve been where you are, lived that life and loved every minute of it. Early in my career, I was all about the catch phrases and the ‘live for today’ attitude. I was the epitome of one of those Live is Good bumper stickers; and I honestly wish I could go back to that place, go back to being that person.

But I can’t.

See, I’ve done a whole lot of growing up since those days. Well," he pauses, choosing his words more carefully, "scratch that, I wouldn’t say there was much ‘growing up’ so much as ‘getting older’. As I got older, I let myself get led down different paths because I was weak and easily influenced. Don’t get me wrong, Jays, every one of those bad decisions was made by me - there’s nobody else to blame there. What I am saying is that I see great things in your future, man, so long as you keep listening to that orange haired Mr. Miyagi of yours.

Nighthawk is as good a man as they come, and I’d trust him with my life. He’s probably forgotten more about wrestling than we’d ever learn, but the point is that he’ll never steer you wrong. But," he adds, "at the end of the day you’ve got to remember to listen to yourself. When you look in that locker room mirror after your match, do you respect the man staring back at you?

The day you can’t look yourself in the eye, is the day you need to reevaluate your life.

That’s what I did, Jays, and I haven’t looked back. I was disgusted at the person that I’d become. I was a shell of my former self; a joke; and worse yet, not the kind of friend I knew I should have been.

It’s taken me a long time to get to this point. The Invictus title," he pauses to pat the belt that he now has raised to his shoulder, "it’s been a major part of this transformative process for me. I doesn’t define me anymore than I define it, but together we’ve revitalized the Invictus division, and my career.

I know that I won’t be able to hold on to this title forever; but I do know that when the day comes that I no longer can be called the Invictus champion, the man who took this title from me will have earned it;

Because I will not go quietly into the night ...

to quote the great Bill Pullman, who has yet to have one of his films sullied by James Gilmore, ‘we will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!’

THIS, Jayson, this is MY day of independence. This is the day that no matter what the outcome, I walk away with my head held high.

You have proven yourself to be worthy of calling yourself Invictus champion in the past, and I’m sure that you will once again someday;

but that day is not today.

The third time will be the charm for one of us, Jayson - and as always I wish you nothing but the best of luck and promise you a few surprises along the way!

I’ll see you soon, friend, until then …" he leans back, aiming his index fingers at the webcam and firing with a smile on his face.