Stygian [vs] Parker Wayde

The Night UECW Died

Stygian walks up the stage after having finished off the overmatched “Manimal” at what would ultimately be the last UECW show in San Jose, California; though nobody at the time would know it. Flanked by Lilith and Lilah, he ducks backstage. The scene isn’t like the last time he left a UECW after a match, but it’s similar. The talent of UECW is assembled to catch a glimpse of him before he goes. But many of these faces are unfamiliar. They look downtrodden, they look beaten, they look on in disbelief. Some of them look like children meeting someone important, say the president of a famous actor or athlete; gazing up at him in wide-eyed wonder. They haven’t gathered to wish him well or ask him to reconsider his decision to jump to IWF…they’ve gathered just to see him for the sake of seeing him. Stygian and the girls trade looks with one another, and look back at the gathering kind of dumbfounded. Stygian gives them a wave and presses past them. He makes his way through the gauntlet with the girls, talking to them under the din of conversation.

Stygian: What the hell is all this?

Lilah: I don’t know.

Lilith: It’s like the night you left.

Stygian: Yeah, but I don’t know any of these people.

Lilah: So why are they all here?

Lilith: Maybe they just want to see what all the hype is about.

Stygian: Like people buying tickets to see King Kong?

Lilah: That movie was boring.

Lilith: Which one?

Lilah: The one with Jack Black and the gorilla.

Lilith: I think he meant the way people in the movie bought tickets to see the gorilla.

Lilah: Oh.

Stygian: Yeah, just to see the beast with your own eyes.

Lilith: Well, even gone a year, you still cast a long shadow over this company.

Lilah: Yeah, they probably still talk about you all the time.

Stygian: I still feel like…I dunno…

Lilith: Like a zookeeper walking past the lion cage at feeding time?

Stygian: Yeah.

Lilah: Now you know how we feel, dressed like this.

Stygian: I don’t make you dress like that.

Lilah: Oh I know, but still, that’s what it feels like.

Lilith: We weren’t complaining. As the song says, “if you got it, flaunt it”. I’m still flaunting away.

Lilah: Me too!

The three of them come to a dressing room where Stygian’s name is printed in plain, bold black letters on a regular 11”x8.5” sheet of copy paper and taped up. They vanish inside.

It is difficult to tell how much time has passed when the camera follows them in, due to flawless editing. When we’re allowed into the dressing room Stygian is shirtless, wearing only a black pair of Adidas shorts and drying his hair with a long white towel while sitting on a black sofa at the beck of the room. Lilah is wrapped in a pink towel and brushing out her hair in the mirror. Lilith is dressed in black yoga pants and a purple bra with black lace, texting away on her phone when there’s a knock at the door. All three of them look at the door. Lilah looks back and forth between Lilith and Stygian. Lilith looks at Stygian, who nods.

Stygian: JUST A MINUTE!

Lilith hands Stygian his bag and goes over to the door. Stygian’s hands vanish into the bag, and when they come out he has a black Beretta 92FS in them. He clicks the safety off, rests his finger on the trigger guard, and pulls the slide back to chamber the first round of the clip, he nods again and Lilith opens the door. Standing there, in a tailored charcoal gray Hugo Boss suit with matching tie over white shirt is…IWF Hall of Famer Shane Michaels. Shane was the face if UECW for most of his career, indicted into the hall of fame in 2009. In 2010 he retired from competition to become UECW commissioner, a post he held through most of 2010. He’s also the bastard son of UECW owner and founder Michael Nelson. The girls both sigh with relief as they see Shane.

Shane Michaels: Lilith, Lilah good to see you.

Lilith: Hi, Shane.

Lilah: Heya, Shane.

Shane steps in to the dressing room, looks over at Stygian pointing the gun and freezes, putting his hands up.

Shane Michaels: Jesus, Jason! What the hell, man?

Stygian clicks the thumb switch on the pistol back to SAFE and lowers it, sitting it on the couch beside him.

Stygian: I thought you might be someone else. Sorry, Shane.

Shane Michaels: Remington?

Stygian: Yeah.

Shane Michaels: Why the pistol?

Stygian: I was hoping he’d give me an excuse.

Shane Michaels: I got no love for the man myself; he is dating my ex-wife, but shooting him?

Stygian: He pulls another stunt like he did to get me here; he’s going to be begging for a round in the head. I can do a lot worse than a 9 millimeter round to the brain.

Shane shakes his head.

Shane Michaels: Scary thing is, I know you can. Mind if I sit?

Stygian: Sure. What brings you by?

Shane unbuttons his jacket and sits on a steel folding chair over by the lockers. He smiles.

Shane Michaels: I just came to chat. I haven’t talked to you face-to-face in a year. How’ve you been?

Stygian sighs, finally relaxing. He folds his arms up behind his head, turns sideway and lays across the couch, tucking the pistol under one of the cushions.

Stygian: Other than having the two men who hate me the most in the sport plot to sell my wife’s contract and manipulate me into a match?

Shane chuckles.

Shane Michaels: Yeah, other than that.

Stygian: I can’t complain a whole lot. It’s been a good year.

Shane Michaels: I hear you cleaned up on a software patent.

Stygian: I did. Got another patent that’s still being sorted out, too.

Shane Michaels: Yeah I heard about that. Something about a gun?

Stygian: I can’t talk about it. Apparently it’s “national security” now.

Shane Michaels: Right.

Stygian: So how’s UECW? I saw the guys…I didn’t recognize half of them.

Shane Michaels: Well, we’ve lost a lot of guys since you’ve been here. A lot of new faces on the roster.

Stygian: Is that a good thing?

Shane Michaels: I don’t know, man. I just don’t know.

Stygian: The guys looked like you sound…

Shane Michaels: If they did, that would be an improvement.

Stygian: That bad, huh?

Shane Michaels: I guess.

Stygian: You guess, don’t you know?

Shane Michaels: Not these days. When Brooke took over, the first thing she did was fire me. I sold my shares the next day. I could see the writing on the walls.

Stygian: So you aren’t officially involved with UECW anymore?

Shane Michaels: Not for a long time now.

Stygian: Wow. Bailed out of your dad’s company.

Shane Michaels: Jase, this hasn’t been my dad’s company since he married the shrew.

Stygian: Chelle?

Shane nods.

Shane Michaels: My father was the brains of the company. When he had his hands on it, when he was running it, I mean when he was running it? UECW was at its best. But he let go of the wheel…I’d say a little after you got here. Signing you was the last thing my father did on his own. It was also the last smart business decision this company made. After that? Chelle somehow talked dad into thinking she could do a better job.

Stygian: We see how that went. She let all the top talent walk out the door without so much as saying, “don’t go”.

Shane Michaels: Tell me about it. Ace, Dean, Axle, Jaci, Salazar, Glass, you…how many times did she fire Remington?

Stygian: Not enough.

Shane Michaels: You’re just mad at him, right now.

Lilith: He’s not the only one.

Lilah: Yeah!

Shane Michaels: Alex is still a top draw in this sport. He was the only one willing to come back to UECW. Alex thought he could save it. By the time Brooke brought him in, it was too late. Alex is only helping stave off the inevitable.

Stygian: What do you mean?

Shane Michaels: UECW is dying. It’s Brooke. She didn’t get our father’s business sense. First attendance dropped. Then buy rates slumped. We lost some sponsors. Then payroll started getting pushed back. First it went from every week to every other week. Now those checks are getting withheld with promises of bonuses. You’ve been around the business long enough, you’ve heard these stories before.

Stygian: Yeah. What happened?

Shane Michaels: It wasn’t one thing. It wasn’t that we lost this guy, or that guy. It wasn’t that we just lost, like, you. We lost you, we lost Ace, we lost Axle, we lost Salazar Darke, I mean, Jesus how many top level people left UECW in your tenure, ending with you?

Stygian: Sheesh, let me see if I can count them all. The guys you named, so, that’s four, counting me. Jaci, Joey, Matt Thomas, Tommy Glass, Bryan Sweet, you, Alex, Steve Relic…

Shane Michaels: And right after you left we lost Corey Bull, Kevin Kayfabe, Kelly Fury…I mean, if you look at those names, you could build a promotion, a good promotion out of the people we lost in a 16 month period.

Stygian: Not to mention Eric Telfor dying.

Shane Michaels: Telfor, that one hurt. We probably could have made it if he’d been there to take the wheel. I mean, if my father wasn’t going to guide UECW, then Eric Telfor would have been the next best thing. Chelle Fury never would have pushed him around.

Stygian: Why didn’t Mike come back and take things over?

Shane shakes his head.

Shane Michaels: The divorce really messed him up. Losing his youngest son didn’t help.

Stygian: Jacob didn’t…

Shane shakes his head.

Shane Michaels: Oh, no. He’s alright, but Chelle has primary custody.

Stygian: I see.

Shane Michaels: When the time came to take back over the company…well, he delegated it to Brooke. Brooke ran off anyone she thought was more loyal to dad than to her, and then she hired Chad so she can scapegoat him to dad if things go wrong.

Stygian: Which, from the sounds of it, they have.

Shane nods.

Stygian: What about Alexander Remington?

Shane Michaels: She brought him back too late.

Stygian: Not what I meant. I meant that Alex talked of buying UECW on twitter, more than a few times.

Shane Michaels: I don’t think that’s in the cards now. I mean, unless he’s waiting for the price to drop so low that he can get it for cheap. But then he’d have to build it back up from almost nothing, and probably carry it in the ring. He’d have to rebuild the brand, undo all the damage that Brooke did. Nah, I think Alex is content to let UECW die and move on to the next place.

Stygian: Suddenly things are starting to make a lot more sense.

Shane Michaels: What do you mean?

Stygian: Alexander Remington has a new friend.

Shane Michaels: Please, Alex doesn’t have friends, he has “associates”.

Stygian: Fine, Alex has a new associate.

Shane Michaels: I’ve heard. Corey Casey, right?

Stygian: That’s how I wound up here tonight.

Shane Michaels: Yeah. I don’t know Corey, only what I hear.

Stygian: Now that I hear this about UECW, I know why Corey agreed to take a meeting with Alexander Remington. Christ, I bought it when Alex sold me on the five million dollars.

Shane Michaels: What do you mean?

Lilith: Alexander Remington came to our hotel room in Chicago two weeks ago and he told us that he’d bought my contract for five million dollars, thus setting up the big man’s appearance tonight.

Shane Michaels: What are you saying? Alex didn’t pay Corey Casey five million?

Lilah: He had to.

Stygian: Oh, he paid him, of that I have no doubt. But I thought it stopped there.

Lilah: There’s more?

Lilith and Stygian catch one another’s eye, and seem to reach a simultaneous epiphany.

Lilith: ASWF!

Stygian: Of course…

Lilah: Uh, guys? What are you talking about?

Shane Michaels: I’m with Lilah on this one.

Stygian: Corey Casey just bought out a struggling company. An upstart outfit called All Star Wrestling Federation. It was mostly made up of a bunch of guys who were either fired, or left IWF because they were disgruntled. It didn’t last long. Corey used his connections to slip in and buy it up

Lilith: Some people even accused Corey of planning it that way all along.

Stygian: Which he didn’t.

Shane Michaels: So where does Corey Casey fit into this?

Just then there’s another knock at the door.

Stygian: Speak of the devil…

Lilith: …and he shall appear.

Lilah: With a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer!

Stygian, Lilith and Shane all look at Lilah.

Lilah: Oh, that’s something else, isn’t it?

Lilith: Yeah…

There’s the knock again. Stygian pulls the gun out and shifts around on the couch. He clicks the safety off, pulls back the hammer and points at the door.

Shane Michaels: Jesus, Jason, put the gun away! This isn’t South Central for Chrissakes.

Stygian: I’ll put it down when I’m good and ready.

Shane Michaels: Well point it somewhere else, Tupac. This probably isn’t what you think it is.

Shane stands and waves his hand. Stygian lowers the pistol and uncocks it, but he doesn’t put the safety back on and doesn’t let go of it. Shane Michaels opens the door, and in walks Alexander Remington, followed by IWF Chairman of the Board Corey Casey. Alex and Shane shake hands.

Alexander Remington: Shane! Good to see you, how’ve you been?

Shane Michaels: I can’t complain.

Alexander Remington: This is fortuitous.

Alex steps it, turning his back on Stygian and the girls for the moment, oblivious to the fact that he’s got a 9mm pistol pointed at him.

Alexander Remington: Shane Michaels , may I introduce the new owner of UECW, Corey Casey.

Lilith: New owner?

Stygian: I knew it!

Shane Michaels: Wait, what?

Alexander Remington: [continuing, undaunted] Corey Casey, this is Shane Michaels, UECW Hall of Famer and son of the founder of UECW.

Corey shakes Shane’s hand. Shane is still a little stunned.

Corey Casey: A pleasure.

Shane Michaels: Sold?

Alexander Remington: Oh please, Shane, you knew your father was looking to sell.

Shane Michaels: I did, I just didn’t expect it tonight.

Corey Casey: What can I say Shane, I liked what I saw and I made an offer.

Shane Michaels: Right…Well, uh, congratulations then.

Corey Casey: I just wanted to see some of the new talent I’m acquiring.

Shane Michaels: Oh, I’m retired. I don’t have any plans to get back in the ring these days.

Corey Casey: That’s a shame; I could see you fitting in to IWF.

Alexander Remington: Maybe Shane will change his mind in time. Meanwhile you already know…

Alex steps aside and makes a sweeping gesture towards the girls and Stygian, stopping dead when he sees the gun. It takes Corey a second, and he’s momentarily startled, ducking half out of the room for a second.

Corey Casey: JESUS!

Alex merely smiles.

Alexander Remington: Relax, Corey.

Corey steps back into the room, easing his suit coat back into place.

Alexander Remington: First time having a gun pointed at you?

Corey Casey: I can’t say it happens a whole lot…

Alexander Remington: You get used to it.

Shane Michaels: I’d better go…

Shane tries to shove out of the room, Alex stops him with a hand on the shoulder.

Alexander Remington: Go head and make yourself comfortable, Shane, we need to catch up.

Stygian: Keeping your only witness handy?

Corey Casey: Not his only one.

Stygian: You’re saying that like I wouldn’t shoot you, too.

Corey cants his head to the side, realization dawning.

Stygian: I hold you just as guilty as I do Alex, Corey.

Corey Casey: I’d be out the door before you could get me.

Stygian: No, you wouldn’t.

Alex nods.

Alexander Remington: He’d shoot you first, to keep me from getting out. He might have been an engineer in the Air Force, but the basic training is all the same. If you want to kill both men, you shoot the one in the door first. If you want to protect an objective, you shoot the man further into the room and let the trailer get away.

Corey Casey: That is scary that you know that.

Stygian: Alex was in the Army, to begin with.

Alexander Remington: Quite. Make no mistake, Corey. He’d shoot you first and he’d drop you. Then he’d empty the rest of the clip into me. All he needs is us to give him a reason. I’ve had many pistols pointed at me in my life; this man is probably the best shot of all of them.

Stygian: You’ve done your homework.

Alexander Remington: I always do. Shall I go on?

Stygian: Only because I’m very curious to what extent you’ve been stalking me.

Alexander Remington: Stalking? Me? Please. You’re something of a sex symbol Jason. Reasonably good looking, moderately famous…all the money in the world can’t buy the kind of intel you get from a group of lonely women with a crush and the power of the internet. All I need to learn about you I can find on fan forums.

Stygian: Even my gun skills?

Shane Michaels: Speaking of that, could you put the gun down?

Alexander Remington: [Ignoring Shane] There is a section of women who find that kind of thing very sexy. Mostly of them live in trailer parks or cabins in states with more wildlife areas than urban centers, but still…

Corey Casey: I agree with this guy over here, Shane, was it?

Shane Michaels: Yeah.

Corey Casey: Why don’t you put the gun down Jason?

Alexander Remington: Are you nervous, Corey?

Corey Casey: I wasn’t until you told me he was Hawkeye with a pistol.

Alexander Remington: Oh, I haven’t even gotten into the worst of it. He can shoot a one-inch group at 500 yards, and he was just certified as a Master by the USPSA.

Corey Casey: Great…

Alexander Remington: In fact, the only reason he isn’t a Grand Master is because his travel schedule keeps him from competing as much as he’d like, or he’d be one.

Corey Casey: More good news.

Alexander Remington: But he’s not going to shoot us. Not here. Alex turns back to Stygian. Jason, I’m not going to give you the excuse. Corey isn’t going to give you the excuse. Put the gun away. Well, at least put it down. Shane’s here. We’re in an enclosed space with plenty of witnesses nearby. You might be a smart man, but not even you could fabricate a way to make me look guilty in the two minutes it would take someone to come down and see what that noise is. And I’m damn sure not going to give you an excuse to shoot me. You know me well enough to believe that.

Stygian sighs, uncocks the hammer and flips the switch back to SAFE. He sets the gun on the back of the couch.

Stygian: I should have seen this coming.

Alexander Remington: You have a loaded gun ready to pull at a moment’s notice…you did see this coming.

Stygian: I mean Stygian gestures between Alex and Corey. This.

Corey Casey: What’s he mean?

Alexander Remington: He’s figured it out.

Stygian: It never was about Lilith, was it?

Alexander Remington: It was never about Lilith.

Stygian looks to Corey Casey then.

Stygian: It was never about the five million.

Corey Casey: It wasn’t. Hey, I need to go talk to some guys before they leave. I really want to bend Jack Savage’s ear. Are you sure you’re going to be fine here?

Alexander Remington: I’ll be fine.

Corey Casey turns and walks out the door, vanishing down the hall. Stygian stands, holding the gun in his hand and packing on the spot back and forth.

Stygian: You didn’t come back to save UECW, you came back to kill it.

Alexander Remington: At first, no. I thought I could save it. I thought I could rally the troops and inspire people. For a while I did. This company galvanized into new life, and it limped on, teetering on the brink, toiling just above a flat lime for months longer than it had any business to.

Stygian: That’s why you got into bed with Brooklyn.

Alexander Remington: No, Jason, she lied about that.

Stygian: Metaphorically. You wanted an in. You didn’t care about saving the company, you didn’t care about flying the flag, you wanted an excuse to watch the books.

Alexander Remington: It doesn’t take a great businessman to take advantage of a bad one. Well businesswoman in this case. None of Mike’s kids had his brains.

Shane Michaels: HEY!

Alexander Remington: Oh come on Shane. You were a great wrestler, you were even a good commissioner, but you’ve no head for business. You may as well admit it. You wouldn’t have known what to do with the bottom line any more than your half-sister did. You don’t know how to cut overhead, maximize profit margins, increase revenue streams. It’s all above your head.

Shane Michaels: Ok, so it is.

Alexander Remington: That’s why Mike should have picked you, Shane. You’re infinitely smarter than Brooklyn, never let anyone tell you differently.

Shane Michaels: Uh…thanks Alex!

Alexander Remington: You’re smart enough to know you’re an idiot.

Shane’s smile quickly diminishes as he glares at Remington.

Alexander Remington: When a capable and established businessman like myself offered to help you run the company, you would have taken my offer. Brooklyn didn’t want to share credit. She got your father’s stubborn streak but not his brains. Brooklyn was happy to lay UECW on my back and tell me to carry it, but she wanted to orchestrate a resurgence. She didn’t. She couldn’t.

Stygian: So when you started to see the writing on the wall…you…

Stygian stops, tapping his finer against the trigger guard of the gun.

Stygian: …you called Corey.

Alexander Remington: Correct, UECW started circling the drain a few months ago. Right around the time of the WEW/IWF supercard. It was the same matches, the same feuds, the same guys at one another’s throats, because Brooke hamstrung Kreuger. She wouldn’t let him make the matches he wanted to. She thought she knew how to get asses in seats, she wouldn’t listen to anyone.

Stygian: So you started bending Corey’s ear in such a way. You always have had a silver tongue. You started feeding him the same line of bullshit you feed everyone. Your lies and your schemes.

Alexander Remington: You paint the elegant way in which I weave my actions in such divisive and disparaging language.

Stygian: If the shoe fits, Alex.

Alexander Remington: That’s hurtful, Jason. I didn’t scheme anything, I reached out to a fellow businessman. I planted the seeds. Corey wasn’t interested at the time. But then I saw him make his mistake. He let you goad him into a match. He let you manipulate him. Because despite what you want people to think, you’re not just muscle. You’re like The Joker in The Dark Knight, you claim you don’t have a plan when you’ve got everyone playing along with that selfsame plan. You lured Corey Casey into that match you invented, and you ended his career.

Stygian: Maybe I did.

Alexander Remington: You did, and you made a lifelong enemy. You don’t really realize how much that man despises you, do you?

Stygian: I don’t care.

Alexander Remington: Of course. Because you think if they can’t get into the ring with you, they can’t hurt you.

Stygian: Corey Casey is equal parts impotent rage and stupidity.

Alex smirks, closing the door, just to make sure his voice can’t travel.

Alexander Remington: Yes, he is. But he had, and still has something useful to me. He has the desire to see you carried out of that ring on your shield.

Stygian: So you’re Corey Casey’s big gun. Don’t think I don’t see what he’s doing. He buys out ASWF, brings in Brendan Maddox and Cody Taylor, possibly sets up a return by James Shark, now he’s bought UECW. Who’s he bringing over? Besides you?

Alex shrugs.

Alexander Remington: I genuinely don’t know. I’m hoping Grif comes.

Stygian: He’s meeting with Savage as we speak.

Alexander Remington: From the sounds of it. I hope he’s bringing Raven. I want the chance to finish what you helped set up. After that, I don’t care what happens to Alexander Raven.

Stygian: Corey Casey is building an army to try and take control of IWF.

Alexander Remington: Possibly.

Stygian: But he knows he’ll never get me on his side.

Alexander Remington: He doesn’t want you on his side.

Stygian: And he can’t control Chuck Matthews. Chuck is still the president. He’s the commissioner. Corey can’t just run over the top of him. Sooner or later he’s going to cross Chuck.

Alexander Remington: You and Chuck Matthews are powerful enemies to have. Hell, if the two of you ever could work together, it probably wouldn’t matter who Corey brought in. But you think you’re invincible in that ring. You think nobody will challenge you. Nobody will hurt you where you’re truly weak.

Alex points to Lilith and Lilah in turn. He turns to Lilith, still sitting there in her bra and shakes his head.

Alexander Remington: Aren’t you going to grab a shirt?

Lilith: Please, this is more than I wear to the ring on some nights. If you really want to see them, I’ve been in Playboy.

Alexander Remington: Most crass and indulgent women have.

Stygian: I’m still holding a gun.

Alexander Remington: Shane’s still here.

Stygian: Right.

Shane Michaels: I can leave, it’s no trouble.

Stygian: Don’t. Alex really needs you to stay in the room if he’s implying what I think he’s implying.

Alexander Remington: If you and someone like Chuck Matthews combined your formidable intellects, few could stand in your way. But you don’t like believing in anyone but yourself. You don’t trust anyone but yourself. Because you think you’re unbeatable. And in a vacuum, one on one, you are. But I know where to hurt you.

Stygian: If you lay one finger on either of them…

Alexander Remington: [interrupting] Oh, I know. A lifetime of promised pain. I’ve seen you threaten with it, and I’ve seen you carry out that threat. You dismantled the AOD. Raven Darkhawk quit. You beat Khaos into a greasy stain. You retired Steve Relic and you beat Corey Bull into an institution. Those threats are legitimate.

Stygian: So you come in here, with the bad news that Corey Casey just bought this company…

Alexander Remington: [interrupting] Technically IWF did. Corey’s learned not to entangle his personal finances in his professional ventures if he can avoid it.

Lilah: Too bad he didn’t know that before Ragnarok.

Alexander Remington: Yes. If he had, I wouldn’t have had the opening I needed to bend Corey Casey’s ear and execute this.

Stygian: Anyway, IWF buys UECW so Corey can get his hands on some of the talent he wants. He’ll buy out the guys he doesn’t want.

Alexander Remington: And they can go demand higher paydays on the independent circuit or overseas because they were in a major American promotion. It’s really a good deal all around. I mean, Caleb White is never going to be IWF World Champion. Let him go pretend to be a famous American wrestler in Japan and collect a higher pay check.

Stygian: So you bring me bad news, and then threaten Lilith and Lilah. You’re really climbing down the list of my favorite people.

Alexander Remington: Don’t patronize me; I was already at the bottom.

Stygian: But you were on the ladder, at least. Now you’re digging a hole at the base of the ladder.

Remington laughs and leans back against the door.

Alexander Remington: Your threats only work when someone is scared of you. I know you can hurt people, Jason. I know you can end men’s careers. I know you’ve crippled men for less than I did to get you here tonight. But when you’ve been where I’ve been, seen what I’ve seen…nobody in this business can scare you. You haven’t seen the hell I’ve seen unless you were watching it on a thermographic image shot by a drone far overhead. You haven’t been in the places I’ve been. There is nothing you can take away from me that I’m afraid of losing. I’ve been standing over the grave of the person I love the most in this world, drowning in the sorrow, wiping my tears away only long enough to look to the sky and tell God that someday he would answer to me. You might hurt me, Jason. You might run me out of the sport. You might even cripple me the way you did Damien Drake. But there is nothing you can do to scare me. You aren’t capable of taking away anything I care about. That’s why I will do what I want to you, to them, and to anyone I want to. That’s why I can truly promise you something nobody else can. Deep down, these men are afraid of you. Maybe not actively, more on the unconscious level. It’s a primal fear, because they see how big you are, they see the video footage of what you’ve done, and they are afraid they might be the next Corey Bull, the next Steve Relic, the next Corey Casey. I’m prepared to do what it takes, to do what I think it will take to destroy you. I don’t care who I have to hurt to do it. And unlike everyone else you’ve ever faced before? I don’t care what you threaten me with.

Stygian, Lilith and Lilah sit silently. Finally Shane Michaels coughs to break the tension.

Shane Michaels: Uh…I don’t really want to stay here all night, could you guys wrap this up?

Alex laughs, holding his palm to his forehead as he does so. Stygian pulls the slide back and ejects a lone 9mm round from the pistol and catches it in the air. He holds the bullet in his open palm and offers it to Alex Remington.

Alexander Remington: What’s this?

Stygian: Take it. TAKE IT!

Everyone but Alex jumps when Stygian snaps into his outburst. Alex takes the round from the big man’s hand and holds it up to his eye.

Stygian: You’ve made several bold statements. You’ve promised to hurt Lilith and Lilah to get at me if you need to. You’ve promised the kind of war you think you’re ready to fight. Like everyone else, you’re going to lose. You’re going to falter. You’re going to find yourself flat on your back, pinned to the mat, just like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, I’m going to make it personal. I’m going to destroy your career one match at a time. So take that round. It’s yours. And when I think you’ve had enough, you have my permission to beg me to put it in the back of your head.

Alex tucks the bullet into the inner pocket of his jacket with an unimpressed look on his face.

Alexander Remington: The funny part is, you really think you can accomplish it. You’ll see.

Alex opens the door, turns on his heel and exits. Shane Michaels catches the door as it closes and looks at Stygian.

Shane Michaels: Well…let’s do that never again.

Stygian laughs, sitting back on the sofa.

Shane Michaels: Well, it was fun at one point. Then it turned into something else. Uh, take care. Lilith, Lilah, Jason…see you guys sometime later.

Lilith: Without Remington.

Shane Michaels: Yeah.

Shane steps out of the door, pulling it closed behind him. The camera cuts out as it clicks shut.

#OOC: I was really looking forward to this match. Hell I was even going to bust my ass to write even after that medication fucked me up. Haven't been able to keep my head straight, and still cant hear for shit. I can't half ass and beat Styg. I will say that it is a damn shame to see this angle go to shit, but these things happen.

Styg... We need to do this again in the future. I want to give you a run for your money sir. Sorry guys.

If I can I will get something up so that I am not a total no show.