Kill Your Conscience (DT Rumble RP6)

[Dave D-Flipz]

*We open scene in a new scenario. We are in a black room but it is clearly small. It’s like a soundbooth where voice actors record for cartoons or anime. The camera is a stationary handy cam mounted on the wall looking at the stool where the recording artist would be and behind it is the glass where we can see the silhouette of a man setting something up in the control room. We see the silhouette grab a remote and head out of view. A second later the lights come on dim in the booth and the door opens and shuts silently due to the soundproofing. Death Trap steps into view and sits on the stool in front of the camera and the microphone with the speakers from the sound booth behind him on either side of him mounted to the corners of the room near the ceiling.*

: How is it that some of these guys all have this … this other level? I’ve noticed a few guys who seem to have these triggers. And not noticing them gets people beat up. Beast Mode. To steal a phrase from my local football team’s former running back. I freely admit … I am not one of these people. I pace myself well and I always give my best and look for openings. But you will be hardpressed to find a match where DT snapped … or just broke out some next level shit. I win just fine with the arsenal I have. But guys like Seth Dillinger so many times, and Bloodied Fox fighting Kuroi, and Draven on Caffrey … where they seem to turn on a third wind and unleash new shit and just … push. It’s amazing to see. But that’s not me. I’ve never needed it. It’s like they are all stick shift switching into fifth gear but I’m an automatic just cruising up to the power I need in any situation. But see … then there’s another aspect. Seth snapping on Ryan, Storm snapping on Card, Caffrey on 110% Syberus … a true … beast mode.

*He clicks a button on the remote and into the room is pumped a song. To be more specific, it’s “Kill Your Conscience” by Shinedown … have you all figured out all my titles are songs yet? Every one.*

"Beast mode, everybody striking a pose.
Everybody's taxing my soul.
They say it's all the rage, to never act your age"

: All these guys, ready to rip each other’s throats out. All these people acting like spoiled rotten children. It’s a far cry from what we used to be. As wrestlers, not just the XHF. I mean even back in the day we had guys who were always on another level and just animalistic in their approach to matches. Reeshi, Ishnari. And guys like Destruction and Scorpion who could flip a switch and become monsters. You’d never guess some of these current guys are in their late 30s … Rat … Storm … Jack … or later … Zoran. They simultaneously act like teenagers on a bender, just swearing and lashing out and being belligerent for the sake of it. At the same time they act like they are ancient, in their twilights, deserving of all the respect and the right to write off their actions as justified.

"So what you gonna hit me with next?
Darwin or a Crucifix?
So why you wanna do me like this?
It's always so extreme, so what's it really mean?"

: Listen to some of these folks in the rumble. You have Bloodied Fox pushed to the edge ready to go all animal and be the next evolution of ol’ Foxy. You got Michael Storm ready to go full on murderer because get this … Jack ALREADY TRIED to murder him. I mean the anger is justified, the response? As always extreme. There is no half measures with Michael Storm. I’ve known this from back in the old days. It used to just break down to what he would do to himself to win. But now … now it’s grown like a cancer into what can he do to harm everyone around him. So often we hammer the ‘last man standing’ trope at our fellow wrestlers but that isn’t the goal. Not permanently anyhow. And so we see guys like Rat Bastard and Zoran and Storm bringing me up because they know what I am. But everyone else sees me as the guy who just coasts on his charisma and his athleticism. He doesn’t have that “edge” to him like these others. How can he possibly win if he doesn’t snap in anger and laser focus like Caffrey, or try and drain someone’s blood like Draven, or try and fucking murder someone like Michael Storm? Why is DT out here thinking he should be a front runner and on everyone’s mind when he won’t hire some shady actors like Jack Diamond or shelter himself away like High Finance or lie, cheat, steal, embezzle, and abuse power like Zoran … and Mongo … SO I ask rumble field … why you wanna do me like this?

"When you're begging for a brick, Just to throw it back and forth.
And you call each other sick, Yet you're coming back for more.
Back for more of what you love, Back for more of what you hate
You can't stop (stop, stop!), 'Cause you're already too late"

: What it comes down to is you want to talk about who you want to talk about. You want someone who will spit fire back at you so you can make them look like fools. You want to show them up and prove you are better by doing what they do better. And I get it, look how I played at Caffrey by copying Seth better than he could, maybe better than Seth could? *he winks* Fuel for another fire I’m afraid. See that? Starting shit for no reason. That is what this rumble has become. Why would I pick a fight with Seth other than for sport? No it’s all about who you impress and how you do it. You want ammo to fire back and since I’m out here speaking truth and putting people on notice, nobody wants to step up and put their two cents in. Storm and Zoran hit me early, before I started speaking. Discipline is apparently in love with my body. And Rat Bastard wanted a bit of nostalgia. Otherwise nobody bothers to try and tell me I’m wrong, because I’m not. Nobody tries to punk me out, because they can’t. Not one person tries to act tough because they know it isn’t gonna do anything for their publicity in this match. And that’s all it is. Hype. HYPE HYPE HYPE, gotta be the one everyone votes for, predicts for, wants to see win, wants to see lose. But DT? He’s the Main Attraction, so what better way to get him to play our game and snap and give us the ammo we want … than to deprive him of that spotlight he loves so much? Instead let’s all just come back for more at the well of insulting Johnny Sniper, or Rat Bastard, or Caffrey, FUCKING CAFFREY!

"So you kill your conscience, cry yourself to sleep
Kill your conscience, better you than me
You're all plugged in, ready and rehearsed
Do your best, do your worst, show me where it hurts"

: So we get to the strategy that seems to be winning out here in this rumble field. Kill your conscience. Strike it down. Make sure you set your expectations right. Don’t wanna feel remorse for what you say or do right? Kill your conscience, and worry about it later, alone in your bed. In the ring? On the mic? Gotta be a coked out psychopath willing to strike down everyone else. Better you than me after all. Why should I feel remorse when nobody else does? American hero Johnny Sniper … former AWF US Champ. How very American of you to go snapping on small children and being a violent rage monster. That’s so like you right? But it’s just the rumble getting to you. You can do whatever and once you’ve won you can cage it all back up and go back to loving your friends and wife and America and children! And if you lose? Well you slipped. It wasn’t your fault. Why feel remorse? Just do better next time. Kill your conscience. Leave it in the trenches in Iraq or Afghanistan right? Oh shit just got too real right? DT can’t spit fire like this it’s not his game! He’s LOST HIS MIND!

"So you kill your conscience. Kill your conscience
You're all plugged in, ready and rehearsed
Do your best, do your worst, show me where it hurts"

: Or Anthony Caffrey, a man who I’m pretty sure has no conscience. Your whole XHF Career has been using people, abusing people, calling yourself the ruler in some form or another, chief, king, emperor, jedi overlord WHATEVER. You don’t come out trying to be the best by competing over and over. You try to kill the competition. Make yourself the only one who can draw in the ratings and use it to gut the system in your favor. And what did that get you in AXW? Forced Dunne out, took out Dylanomoly, took out Barratt, basically made it so there was only ever the choice of Draven toppling you or bringing in some old ruddy nostalgia act to shut you up and even then it was too late. How effective that was. Feel no remorse for killing a company then come back and bludgeon us all over how it was all you running the place. And getting you into that place where you snap in a match and try to just end every career for daring to … fight you. Ya know the business we are in, where we get paid to do just that. SO you can stand atop a mountain of old bones and crushed dreams and shout into the empty void how great you are while all that’s left is whispers and memories. “Come at me with your best, come at me with your worst. I’ll hit them where it hurts … and hurt your bottom line.”

"Good luck (good luck)
Everybody's passing the buck (the buck)
Praying that they're making the cut (the cut)
They'll sell you by the pound and keep you underground"

: And Michael Storm. Look I appreciate that you can respect me. But you are the walking embodiment of the kill your conscience movement. Jordan Cassidy, Chris Card, Seth Dillinger, a bunch of random fodder used to make a point. How many people did you try to fucking assassinate? And that’s what it is. You KNOW you were goddamn lucky to survive being clinically dead for fifty-two seconds. Congrats you are the New 52 Michael Storm. The New 52 was mainly SHIT man and so is your attitude. You used to care. You used to put your heart and soul into your matches. And what are you now? A wannabe submission master who chokes people out because he’s got some twisted survivor’s guilt? No remorse for your actions. No caring for who you hurt OTHER than the poor bastard in the damn choke hold. You killed your conscience. You. Nobody else. You LOVE to pass the buck. Mongo shouldn’t have let you keep fighting, Felix should have held you out of the match, Jack should have just given up because that’s an option for a wrestler right? Fucking leave? Lose your smile, take your ball and go home. Of everyone in this match you should KNOW what it means when someone goes off. You put yourself out, you had to mae the cut and sell yourself. And what happened? YOU put yourself nearly underground. YOU kept fighting beyond reason. And I get it. You won’t find me giving up either, it’s a trait we share. But my head was MY fault and your coma was YOURS! Stop passing the buck and take fucking responsibility. But no that’s too hard. Easier to just kill your conscience and become a monster. Something I haven’t been able to do.

"While you're scratching at the gate Screaming "come on, let me in!"
Like a fully-loaded zombie Throwing caution to the wind
Back for more of what you love. Back for more of what you hate. You can't stop (stop, stop!) 'Cause you're already too late"

: Or how about Rat Bastard, who I’m sure doesn’t even understand what a conscience is. Hey at least he didn’t have to kill it, just blunt it into uselessness with bad hygiene, Jeffrey Viper propaganda, and enough booze to fill the Pacific Ocean. There isn’t a number high enough to count the bad decisions that make up Rat. What brought you back Rat? You never cared about the glory. You never cared about the business or the money. It was all just to be antiauthority. Counterculture. You don’t know me. You don’t even remember who I am. You spent all your time after I joined up fighting Gravedigger … and losing. And Then you got fired. You got fired for having no filter, no conscience. You wanna know why all my successes came after you left? Because you couldn’t hang around longer than the blink of an eye. You couldn’t contain your worst urges. You couldn’t hang with guys like me so you acted out and got pushed out. Things have changed. I may have been brittle in my early days, hell the years I spent in a haze of concussion effects can vouch. But for the last year I have had the toughest work schedule of ANY wrestler in the XHF Network. I am in the only fed that holds weekly events, I am also the guy who won 4 matches WHILE STILL COMPETING WEEKLY and holding a world title to win the end of days tourney. And I am known for my endurance and my ability to break others. Why am I bothering? You’re probably not going to bother remembering this. Sure you’re sober for now but we all know that won’t last. After all you love throwing caution to the wind and living your life like a zombie in a drunken haze. How did that steel cage with that Aussie poacher treat ya?

"So you kill your conscience, cry yourself to sleep
Kill your conscience, better you than me
You're all plugged in, ready and rehearsed
Do your best, do your worst, show me where it hurts
Kill your conscience. Kill your conscience"

: How do you all do it? Sleep at night? Live with yourselves? Rat Bastard is the very model of the ANTI role model. Nobody would ever wish the fate of being Rat on their worst enemy, He has no moral compass, no idea of the shit he’s doing. He turns off his morality and can’t switch it back on. Jack Diamond … you rip on Mongo but you are just as morally bankrupt. What exactly is the end game of this endeavor anyhow? Coming back for past glory isn’t exactly going to be easy. You’ve been gone a while. Michael Storm will literally try and kill people if he feels they breathe the wrong way. How do you go about thinking you are a talented wrestler when your MO is to just fuck the rules and choke people? Don’t even get me started on guys like Psychotic Goth or Kira Izumi who turn psycho in the ring and forget this is a sport … for entertainment. What happens when Tarrasque forgets where he is and yeets some fool into the ocean? What happens when Card and Cross use their money to make their transgressions disappear? What happens to a guy like me?

*He clicks the button on the remote and the song shuts off.*

: So that is the secret. That’s what it takes. Zone out and just do shit. Don’t feel remorse. Turn yourself into Caffrey in an anger fit, turn yourself into Michael the murderer Storm, block out the voice in your head like Card and Cross. Do what you have to. Become a monster. Tap into Beast Mode. KILL YOUR MOTHERFUCKING CONSCIENCE! Well message received. You all forget the monster I was. Back in 2005 when I won the XHF title. You all forget that DT has a rage, a temper, a monster deep inside. You want to know if I am able to kill my fucking conscience? DO YOU?

*He leans in real close to the camera*

: WELL YOU …

*He snarls into the camera*

: YOU …

*His resolve falters. He looks down a bit.*

: I … That is to say …

*He bites his lip and looks pensive. He sits back in his chair and looks into his hands as if he’s lost.*

: Nah. No I can’t. That is not who I am. I have changed over the years. I’ve become a better me. I’ve become a happier me. I can’t just do horrific things and sleep at night. I can’t look myself in the mirror and be ok with snapping and trying to murder someone or end their career. I can’t put myself in that position like Storm and Caffrey and every other clichéd “tortured soul” trying to be tough without looking emo. I don’t have that switch. I don’t do beast mode. Because it makes you sloppy. It makes you make mistakes. That … isn’t … me. Does that mean I can’t win this match? N… I don’t know. I am not willing to stop being ME. I am not going to sacrifice who I am … kill my conscience. I can’t do that. It’s just … this has become so serious for all of you. You all are willing to change, to become different, to mutate into some horrific soulless creature. I’m not. I’ve always been good enough WITHOUT that. My best runs have always come when I’m true to me. Maybe that is something to reflect on.

*He looks away deep in thought and speaks softly*

: Why am I still doing this? What is the cost? Can I even really stand here and be that confident? What if I am not enough? What if one of these sociopaths decides I need to die for them to win? Huh? Am I ready to go through with this? There’s no telling the lengths Zoran will go to retain that title. He KNOWS I can beat him, he knows I am coming at him hard. What if Caff decides to just up and break my ankles for shits and giggles? What if Storm actually finds a way to choke me out … I mean as unlikely as it is since his submission game is so sloppy?

*He stands up and walks out of the room. The camera switches to a cameraman in the hallway who was waiting for a post promo interview.*

: I … I just … I need to think on some things. I … know the place to go … follow me cameraguy … Darwin or a crucifix indeed …

*DT walks down the hall as we see in the window at the end of the hallway a building across the street. A building with tall spires and old construction material and a large crucifix on top. And we fade as DT enters the stairwell to the exit*