Post by Mike Laszlo on Mar 23, 2014 3:10:49 GMT
Did you think I forgot?
Did you think that amongst all the talk of the Roulette Match and the fact that my girlfriend has run off has made me forget what this Pay Per View really means to me?
The grandest opportunity in the entire world is before me. The chance to ascend the ladder and reach the very top, both figuratively and literally, is upon us. Three men, possibly four, are to step through those ropes and do battle like nobody has ever seen in their entire lives for the chance to be “the man”.
For me personally?
This is put up or shut up time. This is a chance to finally prove every naysayer wrong. For almost a year now, opportunity after opportunity has come up and featured one hell of a show just for the chance to prove that I am exactly what I say I am, and then in some way shape or form, I fail. Whether it’s letting someone else get beat, or me myself being beaten, I haven’t been able to have that marquee moment. I want that to end at High Stakes.
All the scratching, all the clawing, all the talk, it all comes down to this; to which man can climb the ladder and grab the prize hanging above the ring. If I didn’t believe that I was that man, I wouldn’t have spoken out a couple of weeks ago. If I didn’t have the motivation, the desire, to stand atop the mountain and claim it as my own, I wouldn’t have walked down that ramp two weeks ago and wasted everyone’s time.
Malaki Toala, Davey Ortega, and Spike Kane, well possibly. You are the roadblocks that stand in my way. You are the three men who will pull out every trick in the book to stop me from reaching that summit. The blizzard, the avalanche, and the sickness that will try to overcome me as I climb that icy, slick slope to greatness. One slip up, one more defeat, and I fall all the way back down. I start at square one and that’s simply not acceptable.
Two weeks ago I began this journey. I walked out to that ring and I professed my intent to become the Imperial Champion and unlike the rest, I mean every word. Everyone who walks in the doors of this company has a smile on their face and proclaims they want to be the best and yet so many fail to achieve that goal. I walked in and didn’t just proclaim it, but went out and proved it every single night. For months on end, whether it be a win, a loss, or a draw, I performed to the best of my ability and gave one hundred and fifty percent to make sure I put on the best show of the night, and in many cases, that was true.
At the time and still to this day, I do it for the entertainment factor. I want people to respect what I do inside that ring and on a microphone and I feel they do just that. The time for me to prove something to them has come and gone. The time to look for respect just based on my abilities is over and it’s time to set out for the prizes this organization has to offer. Yes I won the Man of Steel Title, but really, it pales in comparison to the top prize. It doesn’t have the grandeur or stature of the Imperial Championship, and all of that is what I want.
There really is no pun intended, but I am laying all of my cards out on the table here. I talked a good game and got myself put into this match by the Board of Directors and now it’s time to deliver. It’s time to end the reign of a champion not seen on television since his beating at the hands of the then Empire. It’s time to give these people a champion worth watching. It’s time for me…to be champion.
====================
Title: Lost…in Reality
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 3:30 PM Local Time
I had searched for nearly three hours and still nothing. If I hadn’t pushed her into this crap, she wouldn’t be wandering the streets right now. I’ve gone up and down streets, some more than three times over, and I still haven’t even seen her. How far could she have gone?
Mike Laszlo: Come on Alexis. Where are you?
I searched for a little bit longer then pulled over and parked on the side of the road. I pulled out my phone and as I had done numerous times throughout the search and called her on her phone which she had tucked away in her pocket all the time. The last ten or twelve times I got nothing but the answering machine but this time was different. This time there was an answer, but her voice was muffled.
Alexis Caffrey: Hi.
Mike Laszlo: Babe, where are you?
Alexis Caffrey: First off, I’m fine. Second, I need some time alone.
Mike Laszlo: I’ll leave you be. Just tell me where you are and we can go home.
Alexis Caffrey: No. I need to be alone. I’ll call you when I’m ready.
Before I could respond, the click was heard on the other end of the phone. My heart skipped a beat as I sat there staring at the screen on the phone. It was as if time stopped. A realization was coming and I had to contemplate the fact that I may be a failure. Not so much as a person, but as a boyfriend. Here was my girlfriend going through this treacherous ordeal and I was no help whatsoever.
I was in awe as I slowly set the phone down in the cup holder and pulled off onto the street.
Mike Laszlo: I’m losing her.
The sound of those words out loud was enough to sink my heart. I couldn’t think straight and although I was supposed to go to the gym for some business agenda, I simply couldn’t bring myself to focus on it. Rather than making the left I would normally make to get there, I turned right and headed onto the express-way, headed home…
Alone.
====================
Failure is not an option.
Is that such a hard concept to understand?
Tell me, would you accept failure if you were me?
Of course you wouldn’t.
So is it that hard to believe that I cannot fail at this endeavor? I can’t fail at being a boyfriend and becoming champion because then and only then would I be a complete and utter failure. I would be…here’s the truth of the matter, Davey Ortega.
Sit there and look on as stunned as you want as I say these words because yes, you’re hearing it here, live and in person, a supposed good guy, is calling another supposed good guy a failure. I can’t help it that I state facts. Since beating Spike Kane in the Dragon’s Den, Ortega has meant nothing to this organization. Since becoming Imperial Champion, he got his ass kicked, and since then has been sitting at home licking his wounds.
No public appearance.
No update.
Nothing.
Hell, the only thing that has kept him relevant around here is the fact that in name only he is the Imperial Champion. Part of me even wonders if he’ll even show up at High Stakes. How do we know he didn’t take his ball and go home, and informally vacate the title? I wouldn’t be upset. That’s one less person I have to deal with.
There is however one thing that upsets me with this whole situation. Why have you not been around? Yes there’s the beating, but we’ve seen you take worse. The world has seen others take a worse beating, hell I’ve taken a worse beating and I was back the next week or two after. It’s been a long month Davey.
The machine that is the Imperial Wrestling Federation has proven that no man is greater than the company. This colossal vehicle has proven that you, like us all are simply spokes on a wheel with no real importance whatsoever. You left and it all moved on. I will eventually leave and guess what? That’s right, it will still move on.
None of that answers the question though. Why have you not shown your face? Did the target on your back glow too bright a shade of red? Did the pressure of being the champion get to you? Did it simply get too hard for you Davey?
Those same pressures that cracked you; that broke you; won’t do so to me. Unlike you, I thrive under those pressures. I live for those moments of being able to say I was better than the other man, and I look forward to doing so over and over again after High Stakes with the Imperial Title around my waist.
Just think Davey, the pressure will be gone soon. Any semblance of relevance you still have will vanish into thin air, and I almost bet my life that not a single soul will care. You “The Spoke” will snap off and be left behind as you are replaced and the machine keeps on rolling.
====================
Title: Lost…in My Own Mind
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 11:37 PM Local Time
Mike Laszlo: I don’t get it. How could I screw this up so badly?
Sitting at my desk, I tried to do some work, really I did, but it just wasn’t happening. As I spoke those words I flicked the pen toward the middle of the desk and rested my elbows on the desk while massaging my forehead in an effort to stimulate some sort of thought. With nothing coming to me I reach forward and flip off the desk light and head for my room. I looked down at the bed and felt the emptiness. I picked my head up and peered back out the doorway and through the railing hoping that for a second she would walk back through the door. I stood there, like an idiot, it never happened. I sighed and turned back into my room, closing the door behind me as I quickly got ready for bed and lay atop the mattress, alone. As I stared up at the ceiling I had one of those moments where you think that someone is listening. In this particular instance, I thought of my mother, and my ex-wife Sara.
Mike Laszlo: I know I don’t talk to you like this often, hell I barely have time for a simple trip out to the cemetery and for that I’m sorry. I need your help now more than ever though. I need you to help me rectify this. I don’t want to screw this up…I can’t. Any sort of sign that things will get better would be greatly appreciated.
With that said I reach over and turn off the light. The room becomes overtaken with darkness as I lie there in solitude. The kids were gone, and apparently, now Alexis was gone too. I stared until my eyelids were too heavy to stare anymore. The dream in my head became more and more realistic. I reached out and touched a ladder that had appeared in front of me. It was so real that I could feel the chill of the aluminum as I started to climb. Rung after rung and it seemed like an eternity. I thought that I would never reach the top as I paused to breathe. I looked up and something was lowering down from above me. I was only about five rungs from the top and began climbing toward the object.
As I hit the top of the ladder I peek over a stage of sorts with a chair in the middle. Alexis was sitting in the middle of the chair. I reached up to pull myself onto the stage when a jolt of electricity hit me and I went flying backward, hitting the ground below with a thud. I looked up the fifty or so rungs I had climbed to get to the stage and took a deep breath before ascending them again. All the way up I got and slowly touched the stage.
There was no shock and so I pulled myself up and took two steps toward Alexis who looked up and tilted her head. Almost immediately, the floor dropped out from under me and again I fell all the way down. I was getting frustrated as I got back to my feet and started to climb again, this time keeping my eyes focused on the stage. As I got about halfway up I noticed that it was retracting back to where it came from.
Mike Laszlo: NO!
I started to climb faster and faster but the rungs continued on and on as the stage continued to lift higher and higher.
Mike Laszlo: STOP! WAIT!
It soon vanished into thin air. The rungs of the ladder too disappeared and I started falling again. This time though there was no floor to hit. It was a bottomless pit.
Mike Laszlo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
SNAP!
I sat up in bed, I could feel the sweat pouring down my face. My breathing was deep and rapidly inhaling and exhaling. I looked over and just like in the dream…I saw nothing.
====================
You had the chance to be defending the belt at this Pay Per View.
Malaki, I understand everything you said. I get that you want to prove to the world that your skillset is superior to that of everyone else in this ring. To be honest, I’m in a way glad that you chose the position you did. I’m glad you chose not to be a Spike Kane puppet in the Empire.
Then again, nobody said you should be.
Malaki, you watched the Empire beat Davey down before you finally decided to intervene. You the big bad Malaki Toala stood tall against the Empire and said no. Don’t think that the message wasn’t received. Do not, please, for one single second think that there’s a single person in this locker room who didn’t understand what that truly meant.
For those of you who aren’t in on the game, Malaki is showing the world that he has his own free will. He could have saved Ortega at any time, but he waited. He picked his spot and he exerted the energy he did when he saw fit.
So you have your own decision making abilities; you have the mind to make your own choices, should we all jump around for joy? Should we blow noise makers and light off some fireworks?
Free will is a funny thing Malaki. It means that you have to make choices in life. Choices that could have been made for you by that idiot you have dancing around you like a fly around horseshit. These same choices that will have a profound impact on the rest of your career. These decisions that will in the end impact your legacy.
You didn’t want to taint that legacy last month and for that I commend you. The flawed way of your thinking though is that nobody cares how something starts. They don’t care that empires began with the burning of small villages. They wouldn’t have cared if you laid a foot upon Ortega’s chest and won the Imperial Title.
You’ve said that it would have meant bowing to Spike Kane, not necessarily. You could have taken the ball handed to you and ran with it. Legacy isn’t about the beginning Malaki, it’s about the overall body of work. If you would have taken that belt and defended it against all comers, dominating in a fashion yet to truly be seen around here, your legacy would have been cemented. Instead, you chose to prolong it.
So here we both are at a crossroads. We stand opposite that ring with a belt hanging high overhead, with a possibility of two other people standing in the other two corners, waiting for their chance to pounce. There we stand, each of us on a different side of the intersection, each in the other’s way no matter which way they choose.
The wildcard here is the other possible man in this match. Grant it he’ll have to get through Xander Famularo, but let’s for one instance talk about the God of Xtreme himself, the so-called “Uncrowned King”, Spike Kane. Before I start though, may I ask who I’m talking to? Are you the good witch, or the bad witch? Should I click my heels and say there’s no place like home, or should I drop a house on your head?
You know Spike, part of me hopes you get past Xander at High Stakes. There’s in fact a majority of me that hopes you win. Then I can show a bit of morality and…do the right thing? What do I mean? It’s simple; you’re the last credible champion around here. You’re the last and only one to have a defense or two under your belt. I want this victory to mean just a little bit more. I want to beat the best this company has to offer, and I don’t give a damn if that makes things that much harder.
I’ve told you on plenty of occasions that I think despite your immorality that you’re a talented son of a bitch. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with you more times and lost than I care to remember, though I’m sure given the chance you’ll bring it up.
What you don’t understand, what you can’t understand is the difference between this time and all the others. In the past I’ve lied. In the past I’ve said things that I didn’t mean just to get a rise out of people. I made excuses for losing, even going on to say that “oh well you pinned my partner, I didn’t lose.” and thinking that I got away with it. I thought that I could pull the wool over the eyes of everyone with just a bit of arrogance, and a moxie that was unmatched by anyone in this company. The lies though, they built up and up and up until there was nowhere else to go but come crashing down.
That’s where you are now.
Admit it, come clean, you’re worried. You claim your dominance, you talk of past federations that nobody here really cares about. You go on and on about how you were forsaken your rematch against Davey Ortega, and in all honesty, I almost felt bad for you. I felt bad for wrestling. You and your antics took things to a whole new level. I’m not blind, I saw it. I watched firsthand the things you did and I wanted to be just like that. I wanted to be the man who took this business by storm and raised it to new heights. Spike, by doing what you did for as long as you did, you raised the bar. Starting at High Stakes, I take the bar and throw it out the window. I’m taking this title, this organization, this business as a whole, and I’m launching it to the stratosphere. You won’t stop me Spike; Malaki won’t stop me; Ortega won’t stop me.
I’m giving myself the birthday present of a lifetime at High Stakes, and the best you can all do is what I’ve done all along…watch from a distance.
Did you think that amongst all the talk of the Roulette Match and the fact that my girlfriend has run off has made me forget what this Pay Per View really means to me?
The grandest opportunity in the entire world is before me. The chance to ascend the ladder and reach the very top, both figuratively and literally, is upon us. Three men, possibly four, are to step through those ropes and do battle like nobody has ever seen in their entire lives for the chance to be “the man”.
For me personally?
This is put up or shut up time. This is a chance to finally prove every naysayer wrong. For almost a year now, opportunity after opportunity has come up and featured one hell of a show just for the chance to prove that I am exactly what I say I am, and then in some way shape or form, I fail. Whether it’s letting someone else get beat, or me myself being beaten, I haven’t been able to have that marquee moment. I want that to end at High Stakes.
All the scratching, all the clawing, all the talk, it all comes down to this; to which man can climb the ladder and grab the prize hanging above the ring. If I didn’t believe that I was that man, I wouldn’t have spoken out a couple of weeks ago. If I didn’t have the motivation, the desire, to stand atop the mountain and claim it as my own, I wouldn’t have walked down that ramp two weeks ago and wasted everyone’s time.
Malaki Toala, Davey Ortega, and Spike Kane, well possibly. You are the roadblocks that stand in my way. You are the three men who will pull out every trick in the book to stop me from reaching that summit. The blizzard, the avalanche, and the sickness that will try to overcome me as I climb that icy, slick slope to greatness. One slip up, one more defeat, and I fall all the way back down. I start at square one and that’s simply not acceptable.
Two weeks ago I began this journey. I walked out to that ring and I professed my intent to become the Imperial Champion and unlike the rest, I mean every word. Everyone who walks in the doors of this company has a smile on their face and proclaims they want to be the best and yet so many fail to achieve that goal. I walked in and didn’t just proclaim it, but went out and proved it every single night. For months on end, whether it be a win, a loss, or a draw, I performed to the best of my ability and gave one hundred and fifty percent to make sure I put on the best show of the night, and in many cases, that was true.
At the time and still to this day, I do it for the entertainment factor. I want people to respect what I do inside that ring and on a microphone and I feel they do just that. The time for me to prove something to them has come and gone. The time to look for respect just based on my abilities is over and it’s time to set out for the prizes this organization has to offer. Yes I won the Man of Steel Title, but really, it pales in comparison to the top prize. It doesn’t have the grandeur or stature of the Imperial Championship, and all of that is what I want.
There really is no pun intended, but I am laying all of my cards out on the table here. I talked a good game and got myself put into this match by the Board of Directors and now it’s time to deliver. It’s time to end the reign of a champion not seen on television since his beating at the hands of the then Empire. It’s time to give these people a champion worth watching. It’s time for me…to be champion.
====================
Title: Lost…in Reality
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 3:30 PM Local Time
I had searched for nearly three hours and still nothing. If I hadn’t pushed her into this crap, she wouldn’t be wandering the streets right now. I’ve gone up and down streets, some more than three times over, and I still haven’t even seen her. How far could she have gone?
Mike Laszlo: Come on Alexis. Where are you?
I searched for a little bit longer then pulled over and parked on the side of the road. I pulled out my phone and as I had done numerous times throughout the search and called her on her phone which she had tucked away in her pocket all the time. The last ten or twelve times I got nothing but the answering machine but this time was different. This time there was an answer, but her voice was muffled.
Alexis Caffrey: Hi.
Mike Laszlo: Babe, where are you?
Alexis Caffrey: First off, I’m fine. Second, I need some time alone.
Mike Laszlo: I’ll leave you be. Just tell me where you are and we can go home.
Alexis Caffrey: No. I need to be alone. I’ll call you when I’m ready.
Before I could respond, the click was heard on the other end of the phone. My heart skipped a beat as I sat there staring at the screen on the phone. It was as if time stopped. A realization was coming and I had to contemplate the fact that I may be a failure. Not so much as a person, but as a boyfriend. Here was my girlfriend going through this treacherous ordeal and I was no help whatsoever.
I was in awe as I slowly set the phone down in the cup holder and pulled off onto the street.
Mike Laszlo: I’m losing her.
The sound of those words out loud was enough to sink my heart. I couldn’t think straight and although I was supposed to go to the gym for some business agenda, I simply couldn’t bring myself to focus on it. Rather than making the left I would normally make to get there, I turned right and headed onto the express-way, headed home…
Alone.
====================
Failure is not an option.
Is that such a hard concept to understand?
Tell me, would you accept failure if you were me?
Of course you wouldn’t.
So is it that hard to believe that I cannot fail at this endeavor? I can’t fail at being a boyfriend and becoming champion because then and only then would I be a complete and utter failure. I would be…here’s the truth of the matter, Davey Ortega.
Sit there and look on as stunned as you want as I say these words because yes, you’re hearing it here, live and in person, a supposed good guy, is calling another supposed good guy a failure. I can’t help it that I state facts. Since beating Spike Kane in the Dragon’s Den, Ortega has meant nothing to this organization. Since becoming Imperial Champion, he got his ass kicked, and since then has been sitting at home licking his wounds.
No public appearance.
No update.
Nothing.
Hell, the only thing that has kept him relevant around here is the fact that in name only he is the Imperial Champion. Part of me even wonders if he’ll even show up at High Stakes. How do we know he didn’t take his ball and go home, and informally vacate the title? I wouldn’t be upset. That’s one less person I have to deal with.
There is however one thing that upsets me with this whole situation. Why have you not been around? Yes there’s the beating, but we’ve seen you take worse. The world has seen others take a worse beating, hell I’ve taken a worse beating and I was back the next week or two after. It’s been a long month Davey.
The machine that is the Imperial Wrestling Federation has proven that no man is greater than the company. This colossal vehicle has proven that you, like us all are simply spokes on a wheel with no real importance whatsoever. You left and it all moved on. I will eventually leave and guess what? That’s right, it will still move on.
None of that answers the question though. Why have you not shown your face? Did the target on your back glow too bright a shade of red? Did the pressure of being the champion get to you? Did it simply get too hard for you Davey?
Those same pressures that cracked you; that broke you; won’t do so to me. Unlike you, I thrive under those pressures. I live for those moments of being able to say I was better than the other man, and I look forward to doing so over and over again after High Stakes with the Imperial Title around my waist.
Just think Davey, the pressure will be gone soon. Any semblance of relevance you still have will vanish into thin air, and I almost bet my life that not a single soul will care. You “The Spoke” will snap off and be left behind as you are replaced and the machine keeps on rolling.
====================
Title: Lost…in My Own Mind
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 11:37 PM Local Time
Mike Laszlo: I don’t get it. How could I screw this up so badly?
Sitting at my desk, I tried to do some work, really I did, but it just wasn’t happening. As I spoke those words I flicked the pen toward the middle of the desk and rested my elbows on the desk while massaging my forehead in an effort to stimulate some sort of thought. With nothing coming to me I reach forward and flip off the desk light and head for my room. I looked down at the bed and felt the emptiness. I picked my head up and peered back out the doorway and through the railing hoping that for a second she would walk back through the door. I stood there, like an idiot, it never happened. I sighed and turned back into my room, closing the door behind me as I quickly got ready for bed and lay atop the mattress, alone. As I stared up at the ceiling I had one of those moments where you think that someone is listening. In this particular instance, I thought of my mother, and my ex-wife Sara.
Mike Laszlo: I know I don’t talk to you like this often, hell I barely have time for a simple trip out to the cemetery and for that I’m sorry. I need your help now more than ever though. I need you to help me rectify this. I don’t want to screw this up…I can’t. Any sort of sign that things will get better would be greatly appreciated.
With that said I reach over and turn off the light. The room becomes overtaken with darkness as I lie there in solitude. The kids were gone, and apparently, now Alexis was gone too. I stared until my eyelids were too heavy to stare anymore. The dream in my head became more and more realistic. I reached out and touched a ladder that had appeared in front of me. It was so real that I could feel the chill of the aluminum as I started to climb. Rung after rung and it seemed like an eternity. I thought that I would never reach the top as I paused to breathe. I looked up and something was lowering down from above me. I was only about five rungs from the top and began climbing toward the object.
As I hit the top of the ladder I peek over a stage of sorts with a chair in the middle. Alexis was sitting in the middle of the chair. I reached up to pull myself onto the stage when a jolt of electricity hit me and I went flying backward, hitting the ground below with a thud. I looked up the fifty or so rungs I had climbed to get to the stage and took a deep breath before ascending them again. All the way up I got and slowly touched the stage.
There was no shock and so I pulled myself up and took two steps toward Alexis who looked up and tilted her head. Almost immediately, the floor dropped out from under me and again I fell all the way down. I was getting frustrated as I got back to my feet and started to climb again, this time keeping my eyes focused on the stage. As I got about halfway up I noticed that it was retracting back to where it came from.
Mike Laszlo: NO!
I started to climb faster and faster but the rungs continued on and on as the stage continued to lift higher and higher.
Mike Laszlo: STOP! WAIT!
It soon vanished into thin air. The rungs of the ladder too disappeared and I started falling again. This time though there was no floor to hit. It was a bottomless pit.
Mike Laszlo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
SNAP!
I sat up in bed, I could feel the sweat pouring down my face. My breathing was deep and rapidly inhaling and exhaling. I looked over and just like in the dream…I saw nothing.
====================
You had the chance to be defending the belt at this Pay Per View.
Malaki, I understand everything you said. I get that you want to prove to the world that your skillset is superior to that of everyone else in this ring. To be honest, I’m in a way glad that you chose the position you did. I’m glad you chose not to be a Spike Kane puppet in the Empire.
Then again, nobody said you should be.
Malaki, you watched the Empire beat Davey down before you finally decided to intervene. You the big bad Malaki Toala stood tall against the Empire and said no. Don’t think that the message wasn’t received. Do not, please, for one single second think that there’s a single person in this locker room who didn’t understand what that truly meant.
For those of you who aren’t in on the game, Malaki is showing the world that he has his own free will. He could have saved Ortega at any time, but he waited. He picked his spot and he exerted the energy he did when he saw fit.
So you have your own decision making abilities; you have the mind to make your own choices, should we all jump around for joy? Should we blow noise makers and light off some fireworks?
Free will is a funny thing Malaki. It means that you have to make choices in life. Choices that could have been made for you by that idiot you have dancing around you like a fly around horseshit. These same choices that will have a profound impact on the rest of your career. These decisions that will in the end impact your legacy.
You didn’t want to taint that legacy last month and for that I commend you. The flawed way of your thinking though is that nobody cares how something starts. They don’t care that empires began with the burning of small villages. They wouldn’t have cared if you laid a foot upon Ortega’s chest and won the Imperial Title.
You’ve said that it would have meant bowing to Spike Kane, not necessarily. You could have taken the ball handed to you and ran with it. Legacy isn’t about the beginning Malaki, it’s about the overall body of work. If you would have taken that belt and defended it against all comers, dominating in a fashion yet to truly be seen around here, your legacy would have been cemented. Instead, you chose to prolong it.
So here we both are at a crossroads. We stand opposite that ring with a belt hanging high overhead, with a possibility of two other people standing in the other two corners, waiting for their chance to pounce. There we stand, each of us on a different side of the intersection, each in the other’s way no matter which way they choose.
The wildcard here is the other possible man in this match. Grant it he’ll have to get through Xander Famularo, but let’s for one instance talk about the God of Xtreme himself, the so-called “Uncrowned King”, Spike Kane. Before I start though, may I ask who I’m talking to? Are you the good witch, or the bad witch? Should I click my heels and say there’s no place like home, or should I drop a house on your head?
You know Spike, part of me hopes you get past Xander at High Stakes. There’s in fact a majority of me that hopes you win. Then I can show a bit of morality and…do the right thing? What do I mean? It’s simple; you’re the last credible champion around here. You’re the last and only one to have a defense or two under your belt. I want this victory to mean just a little bit more. I want to beat the best this company has to offer, and I don’t give a damn if that makes things that much harder.
I’ve told you on plenty of occasions that I think despite your immorality that you’re a talented son of a bitch. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with you more times and lost than I care to remember, though I’m sure given the chance you’ll bring it up.
What you don’t understand, what you can’t understand is the difference between this time and all the others. In the past I’ve lied. In the past I’ve said things that I didn’t mean just to get a rise out of people. I made excuses for losing, even going on to say that “oh well you pinned my partner, I didn’t lose.” and thinking that I got away with it. I thought that I could pull the wool over the eyes of everyone with just a bit of arrogance, and a moxie that was unmatched by anyone in this company. The lies though, they built up and up and up until there was nowhere else to go but come crashing down.
That’s where you are now.
Admit it, come clean, you’re worried. You claim your dominance, you talk of past federations that nobody here really cares about. You go on and on about how you were forsaken your rematch against Davey Ortega, and in all honesty, I almost felt bad for you. I felt bad for wrestling. You and your antics took things to a whole new level. I’m not blind, I saw it. I watched firsthand the things you did and I wanted to be just like that. I wanted to be the man who took this business by storm and raised it to new heights. Spike, by doing what you did for as long as you did, you raised the bar. Starting at High Stakes, I take the bar and throw it out the window. I’m taking this title, this organization, this business as a whole, and I’m launching it to the stratosphere. You won’t stop me Spike; Malaki won’t stop me; Ortega won’t stop me.
I’m giving myself the birthday present of a lifetime at High Stakes, and the best you can all do is what I’ve done all along…watch from a distance.
Well howdy there pardner.