Post by DGX on Jul 12, 2022 13:32:24 GMT -5
WFWF Press Conference, One Month Ago
Bobby Abadi: And so, it’s obviously a bunch of BS that he even thinks the issue would make it into a courtroom. I’ve consulted my legal team and they tell me honestly, you’re about as clear as you can be from it. I’m having them draft notice to Perez’s folks but I don’t expect a reply. It’s pretty cut and dried.
There’s a beat while this sinks in.
DGX: So I don’t need to meet any other dates?
Bobby Abadi: Nah. But I’m really amped to do some great things with WFWF and it’s really important to me that you be a part of those plans.
DGX: I see. Well, I mean I guess I could give it some thought, speak with my agent about things…
The new owner of WFWF quickly and excitedly rises from his chair, leaping into position as he holds his hands up and shoulder length apart. Apparently pantomiming a marquee?
Bobby Abadi: Picture this! DGX! The greatest of all time tour!
DGX: Hrmm. I mean do you really think that’ll fly?
Abadi tilts his head slightly to the right.
Bobby Abadi: That you’re the greatest of all time??
DGX: I mean no, that should be obvious. I mean statistically I’ve kind of ya know…put that to bed. Wait you think there’s questions?
Bobby Abadi: I mean, it’s largely subjective and wrestling has allot of great top names over the last twenty years. I mean WFWF alone has Michael Kyzer, Drakz, Frost, Thunder, EBR, Alex Sean…
DGX: Sure I guess but are any of those guys an eleven-time world champion with a career seventy nine percent win rate? I kind of doubt it.
Bobby Abadi: I mean I guess statistically you have a pretty solid case but wrestling fans are very visual folk. You have to show them. And you have to show them often. But that’s why this deal I have for you is so great, it’s going to give you a fantastic chance to show them just that!
The energetic and somewhat eccentric new owner of the company slides easily beside DGX, putting one hand on his shoulder and holding his other out still helping to focus the “vision.”
Bobby Abadi: I can see it now D, we’ll get you hooked up with some of the best mind’s money can hire. I’m talking full scale rebrand. You will not just be legendary DGX no…no you sir will be…the “Caesar of the company!”
DGX looks sidelong at his potential new boss.
DGX: Caesar? Honestly? Not awfully original, I’m quite certain allot of wrestlers have gone with the whole “you shall all hail Caesar” deal in the past…
Bobby Abadi: YES! But you will radiate and embody Caesar! I’m talkin’ togas! I’m talkin’ a Crier! I’m talkin’…
DGX: I’m just…I’m not feelin’ Caesar. I mean I’m not against it conceptually just…I dunno…maybe I’ll just stick with Sovereign. I mean means same thing basically just…
Bobby Abadi: Ummm…yeah. Sovereign sure. Just…the Crier thing. It uhh, it needs to go through. I have bud, he’s real into togas and public speaking…uhh Steve! His name!
DGX: Oh. I mean…aight?
Bobby Abadi: Great! Great! Yes!
There’s a pause as Bobby fist pumps victoriously a few times.
Bobby Abadi: But yeah, I’m fully committed to having you on board for this relaunch. And I’m willing to pay you a good number. Now you have a bit of a history, ya scamp, of not fully honoring contracts sooo this deal may have a few conditionalities written into it but I’m not one to stand on ceremony. So I’ll make sure you get enough it’s worth your while. And I’ll make sure you have the best tools available to rebrand as the Sovereign.
Bobby flashes a big frankly markish grin before continuing...
Bobby Abadi: I even went all out to help kickstart that repack. Check it out!
Bobby Abadi gestures grandly to the door as a small red headed woman in a power pant suit walks through the door into the office. DGX takes a moment and looks trying to come up with a name…
Bobby Abadi: The architect of Rated X! The mastermind of the Alex Sean Monster run! The consummate consultant!
Cathryn O’Shea: Cathryn O’Shea.
DGX: Right..
Cathryn O’Shea: Right, Mr. Abadi I appreciate the job and opportunity, but I can see I have allot of work to do…
DGX: Hey…
Bobby Abadi nods enthusiastically and gives DGX a reassuring wink!
Bobby Abadi: Of course! This’ll be so cool!!
DGX arches an eyebrow as the new WFWF owner flees from the room leaving him with this unfamiliar but apparently should be familiar red head who looked oddly enough like Rebecca to give DGX a slight shiver of déjà vu.
Cathryn O’Shea: One item before we begin?
DGX: Uh…sure?
Cathryn O’Shea: Alex and Alex related topics…
DGX: Right?
Cathryn O’Shea: I don’t want to discuss it.
Huh, Alex and his underwhelming and underendowed organ seem to have left another disappointed red head with that distinct cocktail of disappointment and hint of distaste. This really IS déjà vu all over again.
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Local Starbucks, Two Weeks Ago
Random Starbucks patron: Hey look! I can’t believe he’ here!
Recognized again! Understandable given the profile of the glorious Sovereign…
Random Starbucks patron: It’s Matthew WEINER from WFWF!
DGX tilts his head quizzically at the random man yelling this before turning his sunglass covered gaze to his lunch/interview companion Matthew Werner. For his part Werner heavily signs and tries not to give attention to his hecklers.
Random teen girl patron: NO WAY! The WEINER himself?!
Matthew Werner: Just…just ignore them, be still. They’ll go away.
DGX: Why are they calling you that man?
Random teen girl patron’s friend: WEENIE! Stop ignoring us!! We want an autograph!
Matthew Werner: Because Kurt Burton is a dang buffoon that’s why!
DGX tilts his head at his companion interviewer. It’s rare to see him lose composure but he had to give Kurt Burton credit. In his whole time knowing him Werner had exhibited a very stiff and put on professionalism. Played to the idea in his head that he was a real media journalist not some tech jockey with a camera who caught a lucky break interviewing a few of the best promos in the business. To see him flustered now was actually kind of amusing.
Original random Starbucks patron: Oh look! The Oscar Meyer Weiner is too good for us people!
The trio of heckling patrons spontaneously burst into song.
Hecking Choir: OH I WISH I WAS AN OSCAR MEYER WEEEEIINNNEERRRR!! THAT IS WHAT I TRULY WANT TO BE….
Werner’s face was crimson with embarrassment. But he held as firm as he could, not turning his head to the sing song of his apparent new sponsor. DGX mentally began to place bets on if when Werner would crack. Smart money said yes. He always took himself far to seriously to just let such berating cat calls go. But he was holding steady…
Barista: Venti Expresso for D and Grande Caramel Macchiato for Wiener?
Ah he’s cracking…
Matthew Werner: It’s Werner.
Fair play. Kid is holding it down.
The two collect their beverages and then find a table. Apparently frustrated with being ignored the gaggle of young hecklers give up. For now, anyway.
Matthew Werner: So I would imagine we’re here to talk about your big return match with Trace Demon.
DGX: Astute as always Wern.
Matthew Werner: Well, let’s get started.
Werner takes a sip of his drink and activates the recorder on his phone.
Matthew Werner: Since the announcement of your return match for He’ll Kick You Apart, He’ll Kick You Apart Trace has in media been extremely uncomplimentary and even diminishing of this match with you. What do you make of that?
DGX: I could mess with him, try to incite him by saying its nerves being up against someone of my stature after years away jerking off or doing whatever it is he does when he’s not pretending to be a big deal wrestler. But I’ll take the high road and tell you it’s Trace Demon, he’s just kind of a prick like that.
Matthew Werner: Well, his comments at the press conference suggest that Trace believes he’s quote “living rent free” in your head. What do you say to that?
DGX: His supposition is not entirely without merit however his lack of understanding for what’s happening is typical of a man with his condition. As a perfectionist it’s true, most of my losses live rent free in my head. I’m pretty sure Vestal is still rattling around up there and that was twenty years ago. There is a key and critical different between the two however.
Matthew Werner: I would assume that difference being you can still face Trace and beat him as opposed to Vestal who is for all intents and purposes dead and gone in the wrestling world?
DGX: Got it in one. Look at you! Yeah, I’ll admit Trace has occupied some tertiary space in my temporal lobe but the press conference where I announced our match was his eviction notice. After our match in DC, he’ll just be another WFWF wrestler I’ve beaten.
Matthew Werner: Well, you’ve certainly laid out quite a path for yourself to the WFWF Rumble. Staying on Trace Demon though, do you think maybe it was a bit too bold to make him of all people your first step on that path? I mean he IS a former world champion.
Random teen girl patron: Come on Weenie! We want an autograph!
Werner continues the freeze out.
DGX: See Wern, that is the fundamental difference between myself and Trace Demon. To go a cut deeper it’s actually the fundamental difference between “really good” and “generationally great.” Trace Demon is no doubt a talented competitor, he’d have to be to get where he’s gotten in the business. But the man doesn’t know how to push himself, he looks back on everything he’s done and it seems like that’s enough for him. He bemoans his “masterpiece” finger quotes that only he seems to see and acknowledge and that eats away at him.
Then you look at me. Since I’ve returned, I haven’t lived on the fact that I was WFWF champion. I haven’t coasted on the glory that I secured the biggest win in company history for Rated X or the Anointed or whatever you want to call us by winning at Battleground. I haven’t even brought up the cavalcade of WFWF greats I’ve defeated. I just came back to work, took down another pair of WFWF greats, one established and one up and coming. And I’ve put a hard path before myself sure, this match with Trace Demon, the Rumble…I can admit that’s not going to be light work. But that’s what makes me a generational all-time great, I keep working. I keep pushing. My eyes are forward, not back. I continue to evolve, advance, the biggest match of my career is the next one.
Matthew Werner: So, you are saying Trace Demon rests on his laurels? That he doesn’t evolve as you do?
DGX: I don’t say that, he does. He says it with his actions coming out and bemoaning his position in the company, on the card. How he constantly tries to belittle the intelligence of the audience, the executives, his fellow competitors as to why he isn’t where he thinks he ought to be. Are you familiar with the term “cognitive dissonance” Wern?
Random Starbucks patron: Yeah Wien, do you know what that means?!
D slightly chuckles as Werner glares at him briefly before the Sovereign composes himself.
DGX: Sorry.
DGX nods for Werner to answer.
Matthew Werner: Yeah, it’s a psychological condition that occurs when two cognitions or thought processes are incompatible with each other.
DGX: Right. That’s basically what Trace is the walking embodiment of. It’s why he’s so touchy and upset most of the time, it’s why his vision is locked perpetually backwards. Because the two competing cognitions in his brain that can’t reconcile are his vision of himself as this key figure who “built” the company and propped it up, this persona of the “King of Demons” and reality.
Because reality paints a very different image of Trace Demon than is depicted in his own mind. The reason fans really don’t get behind Trace, in addition to his perpetual need to be the villain of his own story pushing them away is nobody sees him in the terms he does because they can’t. He’s won a couple of world titles, beat some tentatively good competition but nobody that no one has ever beaten before. I mean a generational great like EBR, I’m still to this moment one of four people to pin him in the last decade. Trace Demon beat who? Thunder? Phillip Schneider? High Horror God rest his soul? All decent competitors but come on, who hasn’t beaten them at some point that was active in that time? Again, not claiming they were scrubs but the fact is Trace Demon stepping up to the plate against all time greats doesn’t have a strong batting record. It’ll be worse after He’ll Kick You Apart, He’ll Kick You Apart!
Matthew Werner: Strong words on Trace Demon. Now let’s talk about this mission you’ve set for yourself since your return. Going the distance in the WFWF Rumble, a feat that has never been accomplished in this company, will be a daunting task.
DGX: As I said earlier, it’s far from a given that I’ll accomplish what I’ve set out to do. I have to bring everything I possibly can to this task. But I believe that now, here, today, I have what it takes to walk the path I’ve set before me. And when I do, much doubt will be erased as to my claim of being the Greatest of All Time. I’ve got so many statistical records on the books the case is strong but as I’ve said with Trace earlier, in this business it’s all about moving forward and updating your resume. If I’m able to walk the path, the doubts will be tapped down.
Matthew Werner: Where do you see yourself at the end of that path?
DGX: Alone. Atop the mountain as the Greatest of All Time. There will be no Rushmore for me, I deny peers. Trace can content himself being “one of” the best. I’m going for “thee” best. The Rumble however is not the end, it is the path that ends with me holding the WFWF championship again. I’ve said it multiple times since my return I feel incomplete without gold. It’s unfamiliar and I don’t like it.
Matthew Werner: I think that’s a good note to go out on. I’ll take this back, do the write up. It’ll be good. Thanks for taking the time, D.
DGX: No problem. Word of advice?
Matthew Werner:: Yeah?
DGX: Even if you’re a talking head, you still represent a re-emerging company and brand.
With that D reaches out, turns Werner’s head to look at the trio of grinning, expectant fans who’ve orbited the interview.
DGX: Give the kids their autographs.
Matthew Werner: But it’ll just make them…
Werner pauses as he feels a firm open hand slap to the back of his head. He shuts his eyes and nods.
Matthew Werner: Fine! Fine!
The Sovereign smiles benevolently at the fans and then his charge.
DGX: Thanks Wien!
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Stasis.
Webster’s defines it as “a state of static balance or equilibrium: Stagnation.” And honestly Trace, I can’t think of a better word to define you. This history between you and I, it’s long. Not very storied though. You beat me when I didn’t care, so focused was I on other things happening at the time. See in a way, I made the mistake then that you’re making now. As a Demon I’m sure you know we all have our sins, yours is very simple: Pride. The story of Trace Demon and Rated X in the XWA is a tale of tragedy akin to that of Icarus. Because not many people followed and knew the XWA I’ll tell it.
Once upon a time, there was a Demon. This Demon rose to the top of his kingdom and held an implacable strangle hold on the place. And after a period of time, this Demon stepped to the fore of his domain and issued a proclamation! A directive! A demand! He stated that no one was on his level, that people needed to step up their game to match his! He even threatened to leave with the prize, saying he wouldn’t allow complacency to ruin his rule. He screamed into the abyss for a challenge! And Rated X heard his challenge. And we accepted. And a scant few months later the Demon was vanquished, crushed underfoot like the also-ran he’s always been. See Trace, there are levels to this game. And you? You’re great. Easily a top tier champion, a solid upper card draw. You might even steal a house or two on your name alone. Don’t get it twisted, you’re a star friend.
But you’re not generational. You’re not a superstar. You’ve been at this a long while, not as long as I have by any means but enough that perhaps you ought to know. It’s funny to me how upset you are at accepting the lot you’ve earned though. The industry itself, all these years later still tells you that when it comes to the marquee your name? Well, it doesn’t hold the value an EBR or a DGX or a Drakz holds. Because you’re not that dude. And you huff and say “yes I am! I’m the best!” and bemoan how people are intellectually compromised for their inability to see you as you see yourself. It’s funny, I actually laugh about it because even today you’re exactly the same guy you were in 2013. Hell I’d go as far as to say you’re same guy you’ve been since your debut. The lack of development is startling to be honest. Because here you are in 2022 still insulting people’s intelligence and demanding to be hated. Even when the boys and I came in and basically pillaged the place, raped it of its money and took food off the table of good people: it was on the table for you to be appreciated and beloved as you feel you should be. And you shouted the people down and tried to make them dislike you with pathetic insults about their families and hygiene. Because you have a pathological need to be the villain of your own story. That’s why you fail, because end of the day when it comes to villains no matter how big, how bad, how dominant the destiny of a villain is to be vanquished. A lesson I’m only too happy to teach you.
A decade on from your win over me and your hubris and inferiority complex still demand you demean and belittle everyone you face. That works for me. Because I love that you underestimate me. I love that you believe me to be some small speedbump on the way to establishing yourself as the top of the new WFWF. But the WFWF is mine. And you are the first to fall. I’m so happy you’re the same man from 2013, erasing this wrong will be even more satisfying knowing that the King of Demons across from me still believes he is in fact that dude. To anyone else, you may be. But I am no mere man.
I am the Greatest of All Time.
I am the Sovereign of the industry.
I am DGX.
