The Unfaded One
(FADEIN: A hallway of charred black film posters. It is dark, except for moonlight that illuminates the edges of several rooms in the burned house of CASTOR STRIFE. Castor himself appears from one of them, wearing a brown leather overcoat. His blonde hair is wet and combed back, and his green eyes scan the wreckage before him. He continues through the house, wiping his fingers along the burned wall)
CASTOR: “A man sets fire to my home, blacks his face in the ashes, and claims that I am what he could have been – that maybe in an alternate universe, I would be the one holding the matchbook.”
(Looks down at fingers which are now stained black, rubs them together and tucks his hand back into his coat pocket)
CASTOR: “It sounds like the stuff of dreams. But what sets me apart from everyone else – what earns me the right to call myself the very best, and earned me every dime of what this company realized it had to pay me – is that I make dreams into reality. When reality doesn’t fit my vision, I change reality.”
“What have you changed with this fire? Nothing. You burned my materials, but my legacy remains, and so does this fact: that you are a version of ME, not the other way around. Remember that. You walked into MY LIFE, and I still don’t know who you are. You’re a man of masks and shadows; I am the bringer of light and starshine. The grandest, brightest spectacle in professional wrestling today, yesterday, and tomorrow. I do not fade. You and I...are nothing alike. There is no mask that will change who you are not – and you...are not me.”
(The camera follows him into another room, where belts are mounted on the wall and trophies, including the 2012 ULTRATITLE, are locked in glass cases which have now been shattered. The broken glass crunches beneath Castor’s boots as he walks in)
CASTOR: “Stryfe with a ‘Y’ is the sad delusion of a lonely, bitter fan. Dangerous? Yes, I see that now. But a person who overplays their hand is only dangerous to a coward. You want this fight? I gladly oblige.”
“Winning my attention will be your last victory. In that cage, doppelganger, you’ll find out that I wasn’t made to be tested. If it’s true that I created you, then the story writes itself: I will cinematically unmake you at Reloaded.”
“But promise me something – promise that when I do end this game, that you will get down on your knees and thank me. Thank me for making you a star. That’s what you’re really after, isn’t it? Fame? (smiles) Aren’t we all.”
(Walks out of the room and toward the front door, which is missing and instead covered in yellow caution tape)
CASTOR: “Your star will quickly fade, but you will, for a moment, hang across that sky. And like the others who thought they could replace me and what I AM to this business, you will leave faster than you arrived. But you can always look up there and find me, the unfaded one. The space horizon is mine; I am the name, the One, the Gold, the Dream, and I am going nowhere. Understand?”
“Think hard. How is it that a man like me got to be so feared in the ring? Why is it that I can walk into any promotion, any tournament, and eviscerate any man I choose? I warned you not to fuck with me. Now you’ll have the honor of seeing what all the hype is about.”
(FADEOUT as Castor steps through the caution tape and exits the house)