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"Does anyone remember how long it's been since I've started wrestling? Four years? Five?"

Stein has his feet up on a desk inside of a Las Vegas hotel room - the Epicenter's hotel, nonetheless, and was biting into an apple. He wore a white button down with the long sleeves rolled up and the top three buttons undone, a pair of khaki cargo shorts with a cloth belt hanging off to a side, and khaki sandals that were probably from Aéropostale. Stein enjoyed the apple, as the exaggerated look on his face told the camera so.

"Yeah, I do believe it's been about five years. Of course, guys like Azraith DeMitri, Cade Sydal and the rest of this funky bunch group of misfits in the Master of the Mat are all seasoned well into their second decade of dominance in the world of professional wrestling - and I'm sure they'll be the first ones to tell me when I've made a mistake. The point I'm trying to make here, Azraith, is that 'picking up the scraps like I always do' is not what I 'always' do. It is what I have done. Always did. Always was.

"And just for a point of reference, Azraith, I do believe I've beaten you not once, not twice, but three times - in singles matches nonetheless. So while I may have picked up the scraps, before, for everyone in the match, you were left with sloppy thirds. If being a two time Iron Fist champion is 'picking at the scraps', well, maybe you'd better do some garbage diving."

Stein took another bite of the apple, waving it in the air with a limp wrist as his elbow never left the armrest.

"Five years in the business. That's not a long time, especially when you consider the latest year vacation that SHOOT Project took. In five years I've accomplished what I've accomplished because I was OK with 'picking up the scraps'. I was OK with being Cade Sydal's second hand man, or even his third when Dutch Harris was still around. The friendship that Cade and I had still stands today - he is still my best friend and I would do almost anything for him in this new incarnation of SHOOT Project.

"Almost anything. He has never asked for it, but I can't say I never thought about it before. He has never asked for me to take a dive, or pull from a match because I was facing him. He has never asked for it, never hinted at it, never gestured, the thought probably never even crossed his mind - but it did mine. I won't be afraid to admit that any more. I have thought about sacrificing my own welfare for my friend. I've thought about making a poor career decision so my friend could have some glory. Most of the reason why I never did was because he never needed it. Some of it was because I was too chicken. A little of it was because I wanted to be selfish."

Stein stood up out of the chair and took another bite of the apple as he walked to the window of the hotel suite, placed his hand with the apple up against the glass and stood there.

"Not in the, 'give me, give me, give me' type of way. You know, where nobody can have fun unless I am having fun. No, I mean in the 'I don't want you to succeed with my help because it'll hurt me' type of way. Again, let me state that Cade never needed my help. Cade never asked for my help - but... maybe in a roundabout way, Cade GOT my help. Let me explain how."

Dan turned the camera, took another bite of the apple and threw it in the trash bin next to the window.

"Everyone knows what I've done, who I've beaten, time-limit drawed and narrowly lost to. Everyone knows this useless knowledge because I ramble on and on about past victories like they matter. Adrian Corazon went on to win the World Championship when he lost the belt, does that mean that I beat the World Champion? Or does that mean I beat a man who became a World Champion. I didn't beat the World Champion. The man that I beat became something better with his loss. He became something more... more brutal with the loss. Part of me thanks God he didn't try to get the belt back, because the man that spawned after my victory wasn't the Iron Fist champion. He was the future World Champion.

"However... after the Iron Fist championship victory, I became complacent. I was content on being the second best champion in SHOOT Project, as some men or women would be. I was happy playing second fiddle to Jonny Johnson or Adrian Corazon or Donavan King. I had accomplished what I wanted to, my name was up in lights on the billboard and that was what I thought I wanted.

"Then my health started to slip. I got into a rut. I was depressed all the time. I was setting myself up for failure. I missed a match with Cade Sydal - why? Because I had to be checked into a Cedar Rapids hospital and missed my flight, and thus the show. I lost the Iron Fist championship because of it. I drifted apart from my friends and family, and even from work."

Stein walks over to the bed and sits down on the end of it.

"It took me having nothing, no job, no money, no car, no friends, no parents, absolutely nothing, to realize what the fuck I was doing with myself. It made me realize how I was being so fucking stupid it made me look halfway smart. It took me being in the absolute lowest pit of shit I could be in to realize that even though I have the talent, and I do, even though I have the skill, which is kind of like talent, but not entirely, even though I have the desire, which I do, that I was still not putting myself first. I was still putting Cade Sydal first. I was still allowing myself to play second fiddle to anyone that I thought was, 'eh, a pretty cool guy'. I should have had David Spade beating me fucking senseless with a four by four, I was being so God damned stupid. I realized all of that. Which is why I brought up Adrian Corazon."

Stein stood and ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair as he looked at the camera.

"It wasn't because I wanted to hatefuck him, like I apparently did Cade. It's because he made a change, and he made a change for the better. Jonny Johnson thought he could keep Adrian Corazon down? Fuck that. Adrian Corazon came back like a razorblade and cut Jonny's shit all up. Sure, Corazon was stabbing people in the eye with screw drivers as Iron Fist champion, but World Champion Corazon didn't need tools to do his bidding. He had himself.

"If Adrian Corazon could make the change and take his career in SHOOT Project one step further, why couldn't I? Why can't I? Is Iron Fist champion the best I'll ever be? Do any of you really think that?

"I mean, for a while there... I did. Sure, I talked of being World Champion, but I knew that shit wasn't going to happen. I knew, in my head, that I would never amount to anything more than Cade Sydal's friend, the guy that shows up for the high pressure shit but fizzles away when nothing is going on. The guy that couldn't capitalize when the cards were right. And it wasn't just in SHOOT Project, every where I went I was happy being 'almost good enough', because it still got my name out there.

"I was all about the name. I was all about the fame. I was all about the girls, drinking and having a good time. I was never about taking this seriously. Whether it's because I didn't want to ostracize my friends, or because wrestling wasn't a big deal to me growing up, or because I just subconsciously didn't feel like I could be anything more than second best."

Stein smirked, then rubbed his chin.

"You know what you can do in a year with an entire lifetime of heirlooms, memories and trophies? You can look back on those heirlooms, memories and trophies, and you can remember who you were... you can remember all of the things that you went through to get to where you got to. You can remember that you were successful in everything you did - that you were state champion in diving four years in a row, and that you lettered in football three times and that you hold school records in baseball. You can go back and look at the victories you've accomplished - Azraith DeMitri's name pops up a bit. You can see all the memories that you created in OPW, SHOOT Project, TTW, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

"You can see what you were, and you can make that who you are."

Stein nods.

"Last week I got most of the people in the Relaunch Rumble upset and their panties in bunches because I said that I wanted the rumble more than them. 'Waaa, you don't know how much I want it, waaaa'. That's fine. You can want the rumble. All that I needed was not to be dumped out first or second, and thankfully Ron Barker was in the match to cut the chances of that in half. When I said that I want it more than you, I didn't mean the rumble. I didn't mean the number one seed in the tournament. I meant the title itself. I meant the honor that comes from knowing you had your hand raised as winner of the 2010 Master of the Mat. I meant the gold belt around my waist, and further more...

"I meant being the next great leader in SHOOT Project history."

Stein chuckles.

"Which is funny, Willenium, because that's exactly what you and Papa Smurf said I was incapable of doing. Ainsley Lake fires back that just because I want it, doesn't mean it will happen. Of course, she also said I have balls of steel and that I work hard.

"Is my hard work going to be for not? Is my hard work going to be for nothing, Willy? Will I end up face down on the mat like I was time, or is this finally my time to shine?"

Stein ran his hand through his hair again. Some sort of tape editing has been done as "New Divide" by Linkin Park from the Transformers 2 soundtrack begins to play.

"SHOOT Project has reopened. The Asylum has reopened. Jason Johnson owns the place, he's the warden. But Dan Stein?

"I am going to be Master of the Mat. I am leader of the pack."

Stein smirked.

"Enjoy the fucking view."