Here I Stand [Hardcore Title vs El Combatiente]
Dec 28, 2022 9:08:31 GMT -5
Kira Izumi and mosler like this
Post by Spike Kane on Dec 28, 2022 9:08:31 GMT -5
We open on Spike Kane sat in a wooden arm chair, with the XHF Hardcore Championship draped across his lap. He’s wearing a CHAOS Theory t-shirt, but he has a BANG! Bros cap on. Slowly he places a hand on the championship, as he looks up towards the camera.
“I was never lying when I talked about how much this championship means to me. You’d think I’d be prouder of being an X*Crown Champion, but ….I guess I’ve always been an oddball, especially as far as XHF is concerned…right?”
He glances down to the championship again, before looking back up, and slowly running a hand through his beard.
“It’s no secret that my time in the actual federation known as XHF was full of struggle. I’m not here to play my own personal violin, life was tought back then. The business was different back then, things have changed, and like the rest of the world, our business has progressed. To a degree of course, nothing is perfect, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop trying. I’ve been told many times in the past that I have an inferiority complex. That’s why I push so hard, that’s why I do everything I can to hit that level. To be the best, to have an absolutely stacked legacy that nobody could deny…”
He rolls his tongue through his cheek as he takes a breath.
“....because my entire career, I have been looked down on. I have been dismissed, I have been overlooked, overpassed, and left to rot. I’d say it was funny, that people still think the same. That people still treat me the same way….but it’s not fucking funny. I’m absolutely sick of it. I’ve gone out there, time after time, and proven myself over and over. I’ve done things nobody else in this business has done, I’ve been going almost non fucking stop the entire time, and almost always at the very fucking top of the competition.”
He looks down at the XHF logo, and his eyes drop.
“Then I come back to the XHF Network. I make an impact like I’d never done before, dominating the Rumble, and then the BANG! Bros happened…and for the first time in my career? I felt valued. I felt like my contribution, my skill set, and my loyalty was respected. Expected. And returned in kind. I did what I set out to do, with the BANG! Bros besides me, initially only as a means to an end….to get to Night of Champions. I did. I failed, but I put my name on the lips of everyone talking X*Crown contenders, and not long after….it was mine. I did exactly what I’d set out to do in less than a year.”
He closes his eyes for a moment, as if remembering that night.
“Yet outside of my new family. They saw a fluke, they saw a chair swinging moron who is too old to still be doing this. It doesn’t matter where I go, they say the same thing over and over again. As if my actions don’t prove them wrong, as if my existence has no impact on their lives in any way, shape, or form. I haven’t had the most successful year, no, not by a long shot, but you look back at the stack of matches I’ve banked this year? They headline grabbing events, the Network wide effects….I’m doing okay…”
He strokes the belt, and this time it makes him smile.
“Then after what had to be my lowpoint since returning. A losing streak creeping out of nowhere. Matches that could easily go down as match of the night, but coming up short in the end. It took a lot of soul searching to realise what I was doing wrong….and despite losing twice to Rat Bastard amidsts him turning Steve against us? ….I was beginning to question myself. Are they right?”
He slowly shakes his head, as a sneer spreads across his face.
“Not by a fucking long shot. You see, I realised…I’ve been spending so much time trying to keep the people around me happy, that I stopped putting myself first. I stopped being Spike Kane, and I stopped being the unstoppable force I was capable of being. I took time to reflect, and I refocused. The change to fight for the Hardcore title came up, and with the champion at the time being Dylan Black? Well, that just felt like it was fate. The timing matched up, the stars were aligning. So many people are so quick to cast me aside as a relic, Dylan takes the role of Spike Kane now. We’ve moved on, we don’t need you anymore.”
He grabs the title in a swift motion, and rises to his feet, snarling and holding the title aloft.
“Yet here I stand, having beaten him for the championship that the Pillars of Violence hold in such esteem. I held this belt once before in XHF, and I am going to bring the prestige back to this championship, and make it worthwhile. Make it sought after, and make sure that whoever pries it from my cold dead fingers, earns it.”
He takes a moment to calm himself, before looking into the camera again.
“Whether that is a friend, or whether that is an enemy. EC….I don’t doubt your ability. You know that, and you know that I’m well aware of the threat you are. I don’t claim to be better than you, honestly? Because that’s not what friends do….we’re supposed to lift each other up, everything over these past few months with Steve and Curtis has taught me that lesson once again. You’re fucking phenomenal dude, and I know you know it too. Going up against you, it’s not going to be an easy task, but then, neither was beating Dylan.”
He cracks his neck as he shifts the XHF Hardcore Championship onto his shoulder.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is. I reckon I’m up for the challenge. Like I’ve tried to express….this isn’t about a match for me. It isn’t about getting a victory, and it isn’t about having a good match with my Bro. It’s about this..”
He slaps the title.
“...and only this. Validation. Everything I fought so hard to prove to everyone back in the XHF, and everything I’m trying to prove right now. This championship shows the world that I am the best at what I do. It shows the entire Network that I am the God of Xtreme, and it’s going to take an incredible effort to take it away from me. Not like some twisted Gollum and the Ring type shit, just sheer and utter pride. See, I am Spike Kane. I have always presented myself as I am. Rough around the edges, easy to temper, but an absolutely fucking stellar professional wrestler. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve left highlight after highlight behind…and I’m still doing it, and I’ll continue to do it. It’s gonna happen again Combatiente, when we step into our match. The sheer level of violence will only be determined by how far you are willing to go. By how much you really want to take this title from me.”
He rolls his neck before he stands there and looks at the championship for a few seconds.
“This is the second time I’ve had to defend a championship against one of my BANG! Bros shortly after winning it. Beating Steve wasn’t easy, I’ve never beaten him in an XHF sanctioned match before, but I managed to push myself to that level, and I have every intention of doing the same. It doesn’t matter how many light tubes you smash over me, how many you try and put me through, I’ll keep coming, and I won’t stop. This is my championship Bro, this is my reign, and I’m not going to let it end so quickly. I’m going to be the greatest Hardcore champion of all time, and I will take on anyone and everyone to prove that….so in one way, I owe you thanks already my masked compadre.”
He slowly lowers the XHF Hardcore Championship, and fastens it around his waist.
“When my hand is raised, and the call goes out….-AND STILL!- having a title defence against someone of your calibre will legitimise my reign, and show everyone that I’m not here to fuck around. I wish you all the best El Combatiente, I really do…I just hope I don’t have to go to a place I don’t want to, to keep this championship around my waist…but I need you to know, and to understand….that it doesn’t mean I won’t go there.”
He steps up to the camera again so his face takes up most of the frame.
“I am Spike Kane, the XHF Hardcore Champion….and I aim to keep it that way.”
The camera feed cuts.