act one: what defines a dream

As if the rumble in the Chaotic Cage wasn't enough to sate the thirst of the handful of fans we NLCW loyalists have left to appeal to, this Monday marks yet another multi-man showdown between two of the hottest feuds going on in the company today-- and, by "hottest", I of course mean "only".

As it stands, the four of us are the highest-profile wrestlers left standing for what the NLCW believes in, and if the trend that's sustained the federation these past few months keeps up, we four will be the only ones left fighting at the end of the night, every night and every week, until the company finally closes its doors.

This was not the way things were meant to end, this... this was not what I'd had planned when I came back to try and help the NLCW. Then again, though, it seems not many of my plans are holding together these days... last Sunday I'd failed to keep my best friend from trying to kill himself on pay-per-view and had instead given him yet another reason to keep pushing himself harder and harder.

I still regret the things I said that Avulsion before Havok... because it was the intent of those words to rile Champion up, and though they had their effect... they clearly did more damage to him than I'd even thought of in the first place. Champion put absolutely everything he had left in his body into that match to prove what he perceived to be a status quo true.

Had I just beaten him then, had I not bothered to say a word... it's entirely possible that I could have won that night and kept him from doing what it is he's doing to himself today. Instead, I let my selfish desires for the best fight possible against the best opponent I've ever had override my common sense as his friend... and I let things get out of hand.

In the end, it cost me my title, and it nearly cost me Champ's life. I... needless to say, I truly regret the events of this past Sunday, and not just for the loss that I sustained.

Still, regrets are in the past... they're things I have to deal with, one way or another, but they're things to learn and grow from, just as I've said before. I realize now all the running I've done from the horrors of my past and, for the first time in so very, very long... I know now I'm ready to face the demons I've left behind me. I am ready to move forward.

More than anything, now... I'm ready to show Champion exactly why it's never smart to assume lightning can't strike twice.

This Monday, I'm teaming up alongside an old friend of mine in Alex Jay against what is ironically the dream team of rivals both old and new in Chris Champion and Carmine Vestieri. The Educator and the Roaring Lion... you know, it's funny, I... never really did get into giving a nickname to myself. I guess I've always just been satisfied with getting called "Percolator" by those in the industry close enough to me to get away with doing so.

Anyway, what's there to say about this rag-tag team of rivals except for the fact that their lack of chemisty will likely be exactly what brings them down in the end? Both Carmine and Champion have some of the greatest egos I've seen in the sport, and all it'll take is for one of them to set the other off before there starts infighting in their group. Meanwhile, as for Alex and I... well, we've had some experience in watching each other's backs; after-all, we had to do just that when Absolution was still in town.

Now, Chris... I could see being a problem. Forever and always, that man will push anyone facing him to the brink and back, he will bring out the best in his opposition and he will always assume that he's king shit of shit mountain, regardless of the outcome. We all saw it when he took his loss against me just two months ago... he wrote it off as a one-off occurance and went sofar as to call me his bitch, despite our collective record in matches against each other showing that, despite what he may say...

... most of our careers were spent with him in my shadow.

See, though, this is exactly what stops men like Champ or Carmine from staying consistant throughout their time in the business. They come into this thing honestly believing that they can't be beaten, never planning anything for what they perceive to be the impossible likelihood of them losing at anything. When they finally do lose, however... they begin to talk about flukes and second-chances and unable-to-repeat-career-bests as if they honestly act in any way shape or form as a tangible way of softening the blow of their loss.

The difference, at least, between Champ and Carmine... is that Champ will readily admit that him losing fucked him up. Carmine's still denying to this day that his multiple losses against me did anything more than piss him off; which is fine, to tell you the truth... because there's going to come a day when all of this hits him like a ton of bricks, and he's either going to run with it to improve himself or-- in the more likely of the two options given-- he's going to run away from it all and do whatever he can to deny the truth of it, all the while giving up on what he spent so long trying to build.

The long and the short of it, really, is just that Carmine won't be much of a problem at all. He wasn't this past Sunday and he'll continue to flounder about in his mediocrity, even in a match he honestly has no business in. This won't be Champ versus Pericolo Round Twelve, truth be told... but then, neither was this last Sunday, either.

His ego might lead him to believe that the results of these multi-man matches make a world of difference in this ongoing saga between he and I, but his heart knows damn well that the only true gauge for the measure of our skills against one another comes when we take each other one on one. He knows this, and as desperately as he wants to see me show him some sign of fear any time I step against him... he also knows that will never happen.

Just as I know not to expect the same from him, too.

We are the unmistakeable, unshakeable, unchangeable sun and moon of the NLCW... we can't show fear to anyone, let alone each other. No matter how dire our circumstances may be going into a fight, we fight through it anyway because it's what defines us as who we are.

We have our own shortcomings to try and overcome-- from Champion's illness to my fights with the demons of my past-- but beyond all of that, when we enter that ring, we turn into fucking Gods.

So even though this Monday may be nothing more than some insignificant pitstop on the road to All Hallows Eve, it's still going to be one hell of a match. You can bet that the main attraction of it all will be to see how the two of us handle each other now that the tables have turned yet again, and trust me... we won't disappoint.

So see you out there soon, Chris... because, just like I told you before, you and I are far from over, and that's something that I doubt will ever change.