Stygian [vs.] “SBK” Johnny Styles

Roleplay here.

Just a Man

Lilith, dressed in a tight purple tank top with black trim, bobs up and down into the picture from the bottom. Curiously the camera pulls back. It turns out Lilith is sitting on Stygian’s back as he does pushups on the floor of some gym, probably in the Oklahome City area. It’s also worth notig Stygian is wearing one of those weighted vests. A shrewd eye would gather that Stygian is packing an extra 200 pounds, plus whatever Lilith weighs, as he does pushups.

Stygian: Is it me, or has Lilah been acting strange?

Lilith: You’re going to have to be more specific, this is Lilah we’re talking about.

Stygian: She’s…I don’t know. She comes in late, she leaves early.

Lilith: She spends a lot of time with Rosalie Knight.

Stygian: And she’s glued to every one of her matches.

Lilith: Do you think Lilah…and Rosa…

Stygian: I don’t know. I don’t think so.

Lilith: Why not?

Stygian: Because Rosa’s too straight laced. She doesn’t have it in her, I don’t think. Rosalie Knight doesn’t have the nerve to step out of her comfort zone. She just doesn’t. She has a code and she holds to it no matter what. That’s why she’s never going to get anywhere in this company, and this business. If Rosalie Knight was fucking Lilah, I’d maybe have some hope for her.

Lilith: You just hope to get her in a four way ‘cause she’s got nice cans.

Stygian: Guilty.

Lilith: But that’s not what you meant.

Stygian: No I mean she has no killer instinct. She’s too polite. She cares too much about the societal rules. About being thought well of. She’s not the kind of person to grab a chair and bash someone’s skull in because it will get her where she wants to go. She thinks she’s Wonder Woman or something. Play fair, do right, all that bullshit. If she was banging Lilah, that’d be a step in the right direction for her.

Lilith: And what about for us?

Stygian: …I hadn’t thought of that. Alright, off.

Lilith braces her hands on Stygian’s shoulders, puts her feet down, and stands as Stygian holds his push-up position for a moment. When she’s got her fet under her, he drops down and flops over on his back, looking straight up between his wife’s split legs, at the tiny shorts she’s barely wearing.

Lilith: Getting ideas?

Stygian: We’ve been together for six years. You know I’m getting ideas. But that’s for later. I’m doing cardio now, you’re my cool down.

Lilith: Just what every girl wants to hear.

She steps over Stygian over to where a purple Under Armor gym bag sits next to what looks like a brand new St. Louis Cardinals gym bag. Stygian sits up and slides over to lean against the wall. Lilith digs into the bright red bag and tosses Stygian a red St. Louis Cardinals water bottle. He catches it and pops the top, squirting a steam of water into his gullet.

Lilith: Jesus, did you get enough free Cardinals shit the other day?

Stygian: Never.

Lilith: I admit, I’m glad to see at least one of your old Air Force bags go.

Stygian: Hey, they’ve been good bags.

Lilith: That thing you’ve been carting around to the gym since before I met you was grotesque!

Stygian: It was a little funky.

Lilith: A little? That thing smelled like you were transporting a dead skunk.

Stygian: It did not smell like I was packing a dead skunk.

Lilith: Not only did it smell like you were carrying around a dead skunk. It smelled like you stopped by a water treatment plant twice a day to bathe it in raw sewage before burying it in the dead animal disposal section of a landfill each night before you went to sleep. I swear to god I saw the green scent lines wafting off of it like Pig Pen from Peanuts.

Stygian: Okay, it was a little funky.

Lilith: Whatever. It’s gone!

Stygian: Was it necessary to burn it?

Lilith: Yes, because you refuse to throw out any of your old Air Force stuff. I’ve seen people hand over their firstborn children more readily than you part with mementos from the Air Force!

Stygian: Hey, you like my dress blues.

Lilith: I’ll grant you that. And I’m fine with you keeping all the old t-shirts, even if they’re faded and threadbare these days. Hell, I’m fine with you buying new t-shirts to replace the old ones. But that gym bag of yours? It had to go. I burnt it to make sure I would never have to see it, or smell it again.

Stygian: Was it necessary to use chlorine triflouride?

Lilith: Only because nuking it from orbit wasn’t an option.

Stygian: Fair enough.

Stygian takes another swig of his water.

Stygian: If Lilah was sleeping with Rosalie…

Lilith: I don’t know if she is, I think she might be trying, though.

Stygian: Why would she? I mean, we don’t have an open relationship. The three of us is just that: the three of us.

Lilith: We did say that we’d consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Stygian: We’d pretty much decided on Jaci.

Lilith: Wouldn’t you love to have that to hold over Remington’s head?

Stygian: If we’d have gotten to her first, I was going to tattoo a black dragon on her ass.

Lilith: You think she’d have gone for that?

Stygian: That’s why they make tranquilizers.

Lilith: Devious.

Stygian: And you both had a little crush on Rosalie at first.

Lilith: She’s hot, in an Amazonian kinda way.

Stygian: You still have the dream about being Power Girl with Lilah as Wonder Woman and Rosa as Wonder Girl, don’t you?

Lilith: …maybe.

Stygian: I don’t think there’s such a thing as a Kryptonian Sex Battle.

Lilith: When Krypton was destroyed, many of it’s cultural nuances were lost.

Stygian: Fair point. But the two of them would be Themysciran, so they wouldn’t necessarily know about this obscure, Sapphic Kryptonian ritual.

Lilith: It’s an island of woman warriors. There are bound to be multiple combat rituals that turn into violent, girl-on-girl action.

Stygian: Fair enough.

Lilith: That reminds me, I need to get a new Power Girl costume.

Stygian: Yeah, that thing tore so easily.

Lilith: I didn’t know Lilah had that kind of strength.

Stygian: If she’s doing this, why do you think she would be?

Lilith pulls a free bench over near the wall and sits on it, looking down at Stygian.

Lilith: You remember that little scare a while back?

Stygian: I wasn’t scared.

Lilith: Well, that’s the best word I can think of for it.

Stygian: I suppose it’s as good as any.

Lilith: You know, you weren’t scared, I wasn’t scared, but I think she was.

Stygian: Why would she be?

Lilith: I don’t think Lilah is fully comfortable with her place. I think she’s constantly afraid that one day, you and I are going to say “okay, this was fun, but we’re married, and you’re not. It’s time to go.”

Stygian: She rather does, doesn’t she?

Lilith: She does.

Stygian: But we’ve included her in everything. You and she decorated the house. She moved in with us. We even had a wedding ceremony with her. You picked out her ring. She’s part of our lives, as much of a part as we can make her.

Lilith: She is. But sometimes I think she sees herself as the odd woman out. You and I are married, she’s not a legal part of it.

Stygian: We can’t change that.

Lilith: I agree, we can’t. So it’s always there, in the back of her mind. We’re married, she’s not. It’s always going to mess with her. And I think that little incident sort of pushed it forward in her mind a little. I mean, I could have been pregnant. We’ve never really outlined what we’re going to do if or when that time comes, have we?

Stygian: I suppose we haven’t. I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it back and forth. I’ve thought of all the permutations of it. What happens if one of you gets pregnant?

Lilith: What if she does and I don’t?

Stygian: What if one of you wants kids and the other doesn’t?

Lilith: What if one of us can’t have kids? More to the point, what if I can’t have kids and she can? Would I be ok with you and Lilah having kids if I can’t?

Stygian: I’ve thought about all of it.

Lilith: As have I. As has Lilah. She and I have had the kids conversation a hundred times. We’ve had every permutation of the kids conversation. But the three of us have never settled anything. We’ve never decided anything. I really think we need to after last month. Because children will change things. We’d be naïve to think they wouldn’t. And if you and I have kids, that’s one more tie we have to each other that we don’t have to her. If she’s freaked out over it, I really can’t say I blame her.

Stygian: So you think she might be chasing after Rosalie as a…what…a way of acting out?

Lilith: I think so, yes. I don’t think anything will come of it. I think she just needs a distraction. Maybe she needs to feel like she’s still attractive, that she can still be desirable. And I think she’s picked a safe target. Rosa’s straight. Eventually Lilah will make her move, and Rosa will give her a smile, take her hand and say “I’m flattered, but I’m not that kind of girl. If I was, I’d totally go for you.” That’s all Lilah wants. Let her have this.

Stygian: Fair enough.

Lilith: So when’s your next session with Kurt?

Stygian: Next week. He’s given me some more dirty boxing stuff to work on. And I’ve got a blocking drill I can run with a sparring partner.

Lilith: When are you going to start with the sumo guy Chuck set up?

Stygian: No idea. Chuck keeps telling me “one thing at a time”.

Lilith: That’s Chuck Finley for you, Easygoing to a flaw. I swear the guy’s ring music should have been “Margaritaville”.

Stygian: For a while, it was.

Lilith: Why does that not surprise me. Lilith laughs. Why sumo?

Stygian: Chuck says my problem; the flaw that Robbie exploited is that I don’t do great with up close defense. He says I’m great when I use my length to keep people out.

Lilith: Ironically most of my experience with your “length” has been intimately up close.

Stygian: Very funny.

Lilith: In fact, you quite easily penetrate my defenses.

Stygian: Are you done?

Lilith: I’ve got one more, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Stygian: Go for it.

Lilith: The only dirty thing we haven’t done is boxing?

Stygian: Not bad.

Lilith: Can I get a score?

Stygian: 6.5. You didn’t stick the landing.

Lilith: Fair enough. So why sumo?

Stygian: The kickboxing is supposed to teach me techniques to use when my opponents get in my face and want to throw punches and kicks. It also supposed to teach me how to better defend myself inside.

Lilith: I understand that. I asked about the sumo.

Stygian: As did I. And what Chuck told me was that Sumo is actually a lot more than two fat guys shoving one another.

Lilith: Yes, they also have to wear diapers.

Stygian: That’s only about two-thousand years fo Japanese culture you’re insulting.

Lilith: I try.

Stygian: There are leverage throws in Sumo. There are intricate trips and sweeps. And there is a litany of shoving and hand-fighting techniques that can help me keep opponents at arm’s length.

Lilith: I never thought about it like that.

Stygian: You probably never thought much about sumo.

Lilith: Not really, no. Other than when we go to a party and they have those bouncy sumo suits. I love those.

Stygian: You and Lilah had a boob sumo match one night.

Lilith: It was after one of those parties.

Stygian: I remember.

Lilith: That hurt!

Stygian: It was kinda fun to watch. You two trying to shove one-another over with your boobs.

Lilith: Yeah, but, not our best idea ever. That was one of those ideas that sounds good when you’re drunk. Then your smashing boobs with your best friend while your husband films it. After it’s over and you’ve got smashed boobs you say “what the fuck was I thinking?”

Stygian: The sex was amazing, though.

Lilith: I think it was the adrenaline. That whole rush of competition thing. Now I know why you’re so worked up after a big match.

Stygian: So some sort of wrestling match before sex is…

Lilith: …totally in the cards again. I just don’t know if it should be boob sumo.

Stygian: If we ever see Lilah in the bedroom again.

Lilith: She’s been around.

Stygian: Not much. If she’s doing her little “chase the straight girl” because we thought you might be pregnant and she felt alienated…how alienated would missing out on our sex life make her?

Lilith: She hasn’t missed out on it.

Stygian: She hasn’t been as…involved is probably the best word…as she normally is.

Lilith: True. We’ll get her in the locker room after your match tomorrow night. Remind her where home is. I can tell already that it’s going to be good.

Stygian: The match, or the sex afterwards?

Lilith: Both. The big matches always get you going. And they way you’ve been talking about it? This match is the biggest one in a while.

Stygian: Feels like the biggest match of my career. I mean it’s Johnny Styles. It’s not Johnny Styles 15 years ago, but that can’t happen. I mean, I don’t have a time machine.

Lilith: You did just buy a DeLorean!

Stygian: True. But I have no way of generating the 1.21 gigawatts of power necessary to activate the flux capacitor.

Stygian and Lilith laugh. He drinks more of his water down and then stands, handing the bottle to Lilith. He undoes the buckles and divests himself of the weighted vest. The dark blue Air Force tank top underneath is drenched with sweat along where the vest once pressed it to his body. He stumbles as the sudden loss of 200 pounds throws off his balance. He looks down at his shirt and shrugs, pulling the drenched fabric up and over his head, and tossing it to the floor. Lilith smirks. Stygian walks across the weight room over to a door leading out onto a semi-enclosed terrace. He opens the door and steps out into the mid-day sun. There’s a light breeze that ruffles what little of his hair isn’t plastered to his skull with sweat as he braces on the support rail and looks out across OKC.

Stygian: Is this the part where I ask “why Anna, why?” Maybe it’s supposed to be. But really, I don’t need to. I’m not mad at what you did. Hey, getting ambushed and kicked in the head? That’s what I signed on for when I became a wrestler. You aren’t the first to do it, and you didn’t hit me the hardest I’d been hit that night much less in my career. To be honest, Hostyle Jones rattled my skull when he squished it like Lucille Ball stomping a grape against those steel steps. And it’s supposed to be so “out of character” for you to blindside a man, kick him in the crotch and then light up his dome? Only to anyone who doesn’t really know you. Only to anyone who hasn’t figured you out. You see, this is nothing new to me. Brandon MacDonald was the center of your universe at one point. You were friends, as I understand it, lifelong friends. You were romantically linked for several years. But more than that, he trained you. Like so many, you had to see Brandon Macdonald on this pedestal. Then I came along. You had a ring side seat to watch me end his career. Like so many you thought he was the best wrestler in the world…and what did I do to him? Five Baneblades later I left him beltless and broken down in tears thanking the crowd for all the memories. He’s trying to walk on to an NFL team at 25 where he’ll be lucky to make the practice squad…because he thinks that would be easier. You saw me dismantle your boyfriend, your friend and your mentor. It had to be like Luke watching Vader strike down Obi Wan, except I’m not your father. As From the Ashes gets closer, as our match approaches, you’re starting to realize just how large a seven foot, 315 pound shadow is. Why Anna why? Because you’re scared to death and nobody can say they blame you, least of all me.

Stygian pushes off the railing and walks along the edge, past the scattered chairs and benches of people who came out for a breath of fresh air the way he did. He finds a small semi-circular staircase leading to grassy field below. He grabs the rail about halfway down and slingshots himself over it, landing in the shade provided by the elongating shadow of the wall in the mid-afternoon sun. Stygian slides down to sid in the shade and the camera faces him head on.

Stygian: I’ve been tall my whole life. I mean, I know I grew seven or eight inches my freshman year of college, and that made me freakishly tall, but in reality, you have to consider that means I was six-foot-four-or-five when I graduated high school. So I was always tall. I was taller than my father by about the time I was 13. He isn’t a tall man, he claims six feet, but he’s really closer to 5’10”. He stands on his toes and stretches to get the extra two inches. I’ve been taller than him for over half my life, but you want to know something? I have never been able to look down on him. I don’t know what it is, it’s the strangest mental thing I’ve ever encountered in my life. Whenever I see my father, whenever time permits in my busy schedule, usually around Christmas or Thanksgiving, or when IWF passes close enough to Flagstaff, where my parents live now? Whenever I see him, I always feel like I’m looking up at him. I feel like my eyes are in my sternum, and he’s always a couple feet taller than I am. I mean, that’s my dad. I just can’t bring myself to look at him that way. As a smaller man. As beneath me. I can’t bring myself to admit I’m seven feet tall, and that I’m up here, and he’s down there. I can’t bring myself to admit, on a deep psychological level, that my father is just a man. A mortal man with mortal limitations. I can never see myself above my father. Not metaphorically, and I’m not sure I ever will be. My father’s a much better man than I will ever be. But I can’t even bring myself to look down on him physically, when I’ve been taller than he is for seventeen years.

Stygian: I mention this, because I’m faced with the same dilemma this week. Johnny Styles has been wrestling for 27 years. Think about that for a moment. I was still learning to count from a purple vampire when Johnny Styles stepped into the ring for the first time. Johnny Styles was lacing his boots, stepping between the ropes and laying down the foundation for a three decades long career, I was learning to count slowly, slowly, slowly getting faster! It’s mind-blowing.

Stygian laughs and pulls up a small handful of grass from the ground, tossing up to be carried a short distance away on the summer breeze.

Stygian: To say I’m a fan would be putting it mildly. I was a huge Johnny Styles fan as a kid. I’ve met him twice before I got into the business. The first time, I was about ten. Johnny probably doesn’t remember it, nor would I expect him to. I was one of a thousand kids he probably signed an autograph for that day alone, much less over a 30 year career. I had a copy of the program from that night, he was on the cover. I tore the cover off that think and hung it on my wall. It stayed there through elementary school. I had to tape it up a little in junior high. I finally snuck into the teacher’s lounge and laminated it in high school. I had it with me until I went to college. It got misplaced when I was deployed to Iraq as a drone mechanic. After I came home from that deployment I met Johnny Styles again. It was in San Diego, right after we got in. A group of us got complimentary tickets, as often happens with servicemen. We were in the crowd and Johnny won his match. He grabbed the microphone and told the house to throw a spotlight on us. He gave a short speech thanking us for our service and saluted us. Can you believe that? Johnny Styles saluted us! Do you know how cool that was? Afterwards he posed for pictures with all of the different units. I still have mine. It’s framed and hanging on my military wall at home. Johnny Styles with my crew from the 412 MXG, just barely off the plane from Iraq. Cool day. Cool moment. Cool guy, Johnny Styles.

Stygian: I never knew I was going to get in to this sport. I never even dreamed of being a wrestler. Up to a certain point, I really didn’t like physical altercation. I played football for one year, and when I didn’t like it, I focused on basketball and track. Through high school I was actually a pretty decent long-jumper. But I was better at basketball. And I focused exclusively on it my senior year. I was good. I was really good. If I’d known I was going to shoot up to seven feet tall during my freshman year of college, I might have stayed with it instead of accepting a scholarship from the Air Force. Once I got to college, I thought I had a career path mapped out. Once my enlistment was up, I had my pick of any aeronautical engineering job I wanted on four continents. Wrestling has never been in the plan. Not until I got out of the Air Force and decided I’d had enough of the rules and the regulations, and decided to turn down all of those jobs and travel. I was going to be Kerouac or The Doctor. I kind of wound up being a Charlie Sheen character, partying up and down the California Coast while working security, but that’s beside the point. And that point is, up until a certain point, I never even dreamed of seeing Johnny Styles as a contemporary. I never humanized him in my mind.

Stygian: Growing up, my basketball heroes, after a certain point, seemed tangible. They seemed human. As my skills grew, as my game improved more and I knew more about the sport…they started to come down. Not to my level. I never thought, even as an All-American in high school, that I could just walk off my high school court and throw it down in Karl Malone’s face. But I could see their weaknesses, I could see their flaws. I could see how, if I worked hard and if I dedicated myself to the craft, I could beat them. I haven’t met many of my wrestling heroes in the ring since I got in the sport. I’ve lost to Leon White and Brock Lesnar in Japan. I’d only really consider the former one of my heroes. Rick Steamboat, Ric Flair, Mike Richards, Chuck Finley, Kyle Rayner…up until last week, I never got a crack at one of them. Crimson Skull…Crimson Skull is good, even now, closing in on 50 and knowing the end is coming. Of course, in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Quatermain says, “Old tigers, sensing the end are at their most fierce.” So when I saw Crimson Skull on the card, I knew I was going to get the kind of fight that would belie his age and the toll of the injuries of a 20 plus year career. Add in Hostyle Jones, who I’ll admit I underestimated, and that was the kind of a brawl people are going to remember for a long time. But Crimson Skull was never one of my heroes. I admired him, I respected him, I do both even more now that I’ve been in the ring with him. But he was never one of my heroes.

Stygian: In a lot of ways, Johnny? Well, we’ve met since I became part of IWF. We’ve met, we’ve talked, we’ve hung out; you seem to make it a point to try and be available to the young guys. You’ve been every bit the man I cheered for growing up. The man who’s battled…just about anyone who was anyone in this sport in the last 20 years. In a lot of ways, Johnny? I find myself looking up at you perpetually, the same way I see my father. It’s that level of reverence. Physically I tower over you. I mean I’m seven feet tall, who don’t I dwarf, right? At 6’4” you’re actually an unusually tall man, but 7’? Physically I can look down at the top of your head and see where you comb it over to hide that there’s less of it these days. But mentally? In my head, I’m still that ten year old kid running around in the old Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum trying to find SBK’s table and get an autograph. I feel like my eyes are at about stomach level and I’l looking up at you perpetually.

Stygian: I feel like I’m still four feet tall, and you’re still wearing those neon tights, God those were awful, and I’m watching you fly through the air like a stunt pilot. And that is the single greatest challenge I face in that ring Saturday night, Johnny. I’m not in the ring with Johnny Styles…I’m in the ring with Johnny Styles. Holy shit! How do I reconcile all the matches I’ve watched, all the pay per views, all the main events, all the titles…all the t-shirts I had as a kid all the video games I’ve played as you in? Because I have to. You’re coming down that aisle and you’re going to kick me in the head whether I’m swinging back or not. Whether I’m ready or not, you will be. You always are.

Stygian: I’d be lying if I said that this match wasn’t equal parts admiration and ego. Some of it is getting into the ring with a childhood hero. The rest of it? The rest of it is being able to say I beat that hero. You’ve got your legacy Johnny. It’s strong, it’s safe, it’s secure. But I cannot say that selfsame thing. Leading up to the biggest show of the year, I have a real chance to make my mark on this industry, on the history of this sport. Does that come with beating you? In my mind, you’re damn right it does. This match? I’m only going to get on shot at this. This is your last go around. This is my only chance to defeat the legendary Strike Back Kid Johnny Styles. This match, the nature of it, the singular finality of it? It makes this match more important than anything else I’ve ever done in my career. I’ve been in 17 world title matches. I’ve been in the Hellzone with Corey Casey. I’ve got Alex Remington trying to kick in my door and lure me into a death trap. To me? None of them have ever, or will ever be as important as this match.

Stygian: Name the biggest names in this business today? I’ve been in the ring with all of them, and I’ve beaten most of them. But this? Usually when a wrestler has to come back at your age, when he’s forced back into the ring because his finances took a dive? He’s past it. He’s done. He’s trading on his name and collecting a check. He can’t bring it anymore, he doesn’t have it anymore. He has no business looking at the top, because he couldn’t climb that ladder anyway. And Johnny, you’re so lucky you aren’t more beat up after a career as an undersized flyer. But you’ve avoided the injuries. You’re still healthy, you’re still spry and what you’ve lost in age, you make up for in craftiness. Old tigers, sensing their end are at their most fierce. Are you the same man I saw in Phoenix 20 years ago? No. Are you the same man who saluted me and my fellow servicemen seven years ago? No. But you’re still good. You’re still worth beating. Most guys at this age have their name and nothing else. They’re decrepit, they’re broken down, they can barely walk much less wrestle. I’m not the kind of a man who wants a win over SBK that way. I want a win, a real win. The legendary Johnny Styles…maybe not at his prime, but I don’t have that choice. I have to face you as you are. I still expect this to be a challenge. You’re too proud to mail it in. This is a unique opportunity. A legend at the end versus what is turning out to be a legend in progress.

Stygian: I can’t tell you what this match means to me personally, because I can’t put it into words. Who could? You know? You tell some kid standing in line right now at an IWF event, in his Star Destroyer t-shirt, with his Stygian poster that he wants signed that in 20 years he’ll have a chance at getting into that ring with me? That I’ll still be relevant and a match with me will be meaningful? Tell that ten year old kid that now, and see what he says. Because ever since you took this match, I’ve been that ten year old kid, inching along the backstage corridors, nervously waiting my chance to get face-to-face with Johnny Styles. And when I come to that ring, and wait for Johnny Cash to play, wait for you to walk out, wait for you to get in that ring and stand across from me? I’ll still be the that ten year old kid when I walk to the middle of the ring and the referee brings us together and gives that usually bullshit he gives about a good, clean match and all of that. When the crowd is gazing up at you and adoringly chanting “SBK…SBK…SBK”? Part of me will be right there with them…right up until that bell rings. Because much as I don’t like it, much as it pains me to do so…once that bell rings you have to become just a man. My eyes will return to their sockets, and there you’ll be: just another opponent. The meaning of the match, the possibility of what beating you would mean to me? That gets shuffled down the ladder as I focus on the task of beating you. After the match, you’ll still be a legend, win or lose. You’ll still be an icon in my eyes, and the eyes of wrestling fans around the world. But I get one chance to beat the legendary Johnny Styles. One chance to add his legend to my own. I will bring the kind of effort nobody has ever seen from me before. This match means more to me than any other match I have ever had. I am preparing an treating it as such. After the match, you’ll still be a legend. A legend I either defeated or lost to, with no shame in either prospect. If I beat Johnny Styles? It will be remembered forever. If I lose to Johnny Styles? Hey, who hasn’t? Because you’re the Strike Back Kid. You are now, you will be after the match and forever. But for however long it takes after that bell rings? You’re just a man, and can beat a man; even one like you Johnny.

Stygian stands up and smooths the wrinkles out of his shorts. He turns and walks off as the camera fades out.