FADE IN...
The inside of Room 219 at the Lebanon, MO Fairfield Inn, extremely temporary residence of former MCW Heavyweight Champion Bryan Storms. Storms sits cross-legged on the room's queen sized bed, reading Ben Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House" as the sounds of Explosions in the Sky's "Your Hand in Mine" play from an MP3 player connected to his laptop. Bryan sets down the book on the nightstand next to him and flashes a quick smile at the camera.
BS: Don't worry, folks, I won't keep you long.
Maxwell, this message is straight from me to you. No cocky B.S., no arrogance, none of the hyped-up, overrated bull that gets spread around in this business far too often. I'm here to tell you the god's honest truth, and then I'll leave it be until you and I meet up again just down the road in this worthless, one horse ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
I'll make it nice and simple for ya, Chandler, so you're pea-sized noggin can process the information.
There is absolutely no way in hell that you're living this piece of land that God forgot with the MCW Heavyweight Title in your possession. I'm going to say that one more time, Maxwell, just to bring the point home a little more in case you weren't listening the first time.
There is NO WAY, no way in heaven, hell or here on earth that you will walk out of that s***hole of an arena as MCW Heavyweight Champion. Because, if you look back at my career, if you look back at the men I've beaten, you'll realize that no one puts my shoulders to the mat for three seconds more than once. It's a fact of life, Chandler, because it just doesn't happen.
When you get into that ring with me, Chandler, it's...well...it's a bit like blackjack. You sit at the table, play the right strategy, maybe you win a little bit. Hell, if you know the right system, if you can get yourself a little edge and press the bet when you know it's going your way, sometimes you can take the house for a whole hell of a lot without anyone noticing anything's wrong.
But, sooner or later Chandler, the player's advantage slips away. When it comes down to it, the deck is always stacked in favor of the house, and at the end of the night the house will always win. Every single time, Chandler.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
And, God forbid, if someone finds out you've been screwing with the house, well, we can just say that the results get a hell of a lot worse for the maverick who thinks he can bring down the big, bad nameless evil. The house always wins, Maxwell. Always. This week, your time as the new high roller on the scene is over.
No comps, no suites, no V.I.P. treatment. This week, it ends for you. Your high ride, your "First Class" lifestyle, I'm going to flush all of it down the toilet. I'm going to stare your damn illusions right in the eye, and I am going to flush each and every one of them down the toilet until you come face to face with your reality.
The reality that, on your best day, you will never, not in a million millennia, measure up to me. You "beat" me once. You will never do that again, and that's a promise.
You can try and end my career this week. You can try to force yourself into the spotlight as much as you'd like to. But you've got to come to grips with the cold hard facts of the matter, Mr. First Class. And that is the simple realization that your entire championship reign has the stability of a house of cards made by a seven-year old child.
All you have to do is make one wrong move, and it all comes crashing down. You've gotten lucky to have it hold up so far. Don't be so stupid to think it's going to stay up any longer.
Doesn't matter how many of those sixty minutes I'll use to get this done, but it will get done. I'm taking my title back, and then I'm leaving you all to your own devices.
Because as much as Jalen Latham wants to claim he built this house, he knows he couldn't have made dollar number one without a star like me on the top of the program every single night. I'm the house in this game of chance, Chandler. I'm the one in control of the whole racket, and this week I'm calling in all bets, all IOUs, all lines of credit.
The house always wins, Chandler. Just like death and taxes, it's always going to hold true. This week, you're bound to bust, and bust in absolutely spectacular fashion.
But don't worry too much, buddy. It's my world, and you're just living in it. I've got no need to waste anymore breath on a punk like you. Bring it to the ring, and be prepared to walk out without the belt you've got on temporary loan from its rightful owner. This time, that belt's coming home where it belongs.
...FADE TO BLACK