[Kristopher Ryans]

 

”Ivan Darrell and Andrew Garcia….”

Jason’s voice can be heard before the camera even focuses on the two men that are standing in front of it. The figure next to him speaks, not letting the fans down by not appearing next to his brother.

”Dying Breed...”

The camera comes into focus on the two. Each of their shirts is a plain color, Jason’s red and Kris’ orange. Across the front of each shirt is a word, but they are not the same. The older brother’s shirt reads, “#Jet” while the younger’s reads “#City”. They are even standing on the proper sides, so that fans watching can read left to right across their chests and put the team name together correctly.

”Former SCW Tag Team Champions...”

Until now, both of their voices had sounded genuine. Each statement was bold, and meant to be a headline of sorts. Kris is the first to break from that, turning to his brother and complaining.

”From like… March 2015 to… later in March 2015. Do we really have to build these guys up as important? Like, I feel like everything we have to say is just so much stronger without doing the whole song and dance. We have to mention their ‘blink and you missed it’ tag team title reign, when they didn’t even have to beat the former champions to win the belts? I don’t think I can stomach this one Jay.”

Jason tries to stay focused on the camera, and not break from the serious look on his face, but when he notices that Kris is not just going to stop and go back to what they were doing, he turns his head and then moves his eyes back and forth between Kris and the camera, hinting at him to stick to what they were doing.

”Oh fuck you and your camera! These guys haven’t done anything worth getting a title shot in a while. So they beat the Bad Boys and get to move to the front of the line? We hate The Elder Bitches, but they should have been given this shot instead of these two. How good can the Bad Boys be? Isn’t one of them brain dead enough to be able to stomach conversation with Veronica Taylor?”

Jason starts nodding back towards the camera, becoming more overt in trying to get his brother to go back to talking to it instead of him.

”For the love of God… WHAT?!”

Jason extends an arm to the camera, and finally snaps, raising his voice and yelling at his brother and tag partner.

”Talk to the camera. Vent frustrations to people buying tickets. Sell the match to people that are planning to leave early and beat the traffic out of the arena. Stop telling me things I already know, and talk to them. Why can you nev---”

Kris cuts him off, holding up his hand and turning from his brother to the camera.

”Want frustration? Here is some frustration. We are defending our titles in a main event that they didn’t earn, and that we never asked for. It’s got all of thirty seconds worth of hype and thought put into it. From what I remember, I’m not sure we’ve so much as really talked to each other since Jet City has been around SCW. Other than a shot at titles that they couldn’t hang onto last time, what reason do they have to be excited about the idea of fighting Jet City?”

He waits, but Jason does not answer him, and neither does the camera as a result of being an inanimate object. Unchecked, Kris just keeps rambling.

”It’s not like they don’t like us. We haven’t been mixing it up with Dying Breed on social media like we occasionally do with the likes of “The Promise Breaker” Rage, or Drake Green’s little bitch J2H. We didn’t cross paths in the back, or come out and take note of one of their matches. There is nothing here. So, that just leaves me with one question: How many di---”

The camera feed cuts awkwardly in the middle of the sentence, and starts abruptly what had to be a few moments after that. When it does come back, Jason is stepping away from the camera, when only a frame ago he was directly next to Kris. The tone of Kris’ voice had changed entirely, almost remorseful.

”How was I supposed to know? It’s not like I really know or pay attention to them.”

Jason shakes his head, and motions back to the camera, ushering Kris to take a different route with his words.

”Yeah, well you know now….”

Kris nods, but the look on his face shows that if he does actually care, it is very little.

”It doesn’t matter how or why Dying Breed got this match. I don’t know what strings they pulled, or favors they called in, but here we are. I also don’t want to give any of you the impression that I’m not game to walk down the aisle and compete in this match. I’m going to be in the middle of that beautiful six sided ring, in a main event, as a reigning champion. That’s not something that having less than stellar opponents is going to change. Jet City is still going to come out there, do our thing, and walk away with another title defense under our belt. By my count, that would roughly be two more than Dying Breed racked up in the three weeks that they held these championships. If they think that they have a snowball’s chance in hell at walking out of this with a win, then The Mean Girls are not the only special needs case on this roster. And just like that faction of dumb sluts, these two can easily ‘Get Fi---”

Again, the feed awkwardly cuts. Jason goes from standing at Kris’ side to having his back to the camera, walking back to the position that he technically never left. This time he is beyond angry though.

”Just shut up. I’ll do it myself.”

Kris shakes his head furiously and argues that directorial choice.

”Listen asshole, if you think that you still get to order me around after I beat your ass in our last match, then you can eat a mouthful of my ba--”

Again the camera cuts, but this time when it returns, Jason is in front of it by himself. He takes a deep breath, clearly annoyed.

”You know what the definition of insanity is according to Einstein? I don’t think, for a second, that there is any way that a viewer of this particular kind of entertainment has never heard the phrase quoted, but I will give it to you for the millionth time anyway. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It is horribly cliched to point out, but everything about my current situation ties to that phrase.”

He expertly pauses, allowing the minds of those that are watching the video to try and figure out what he was going to say next. Confirming the most thought of choice, his next words reference his brother.

”Trying to get Kris to stay away from a handful of subjects during a promo by playing nice, was obviously just stupid. Trying to enforce those rules while being polite was insanity. You people aren’t going to believe this, but we started this at nine this morning. Thirteen hours later, here I am by myself. I blame myself, mostly…. I think we all know exactly where Kris stands though. Fortunately for us all, he is taking a little nonconsensual nap of screen.”

He raises a finger and points out of frame to the left of the camera. Slowly it turns and shows the opposite side of the basement than what they were facing. In the small resting area to the side of the obstacle course that has made appearances in previous promos, is a couch that looks ripped apart. The table there has been flipped over, two glass end tables have been shattered. In all of the mess, resting on the back of the couch, is a foot up in the air. The rest of the other half of Jet City was out of view, but the PF Flyer on his foot gave his identity away. Slowly the camera starts to move back to the standing half of the SCW Tag Team Champions.  

”Let me remind all of you, I’m no stranger to being called a little insane, but I am not the only one in this equation that is displaying that kind of behavior. Don’t believe me? Think about SCW Management. Before our first match with the Unholy Alliance, we told management that they didn’t deserve it, and that they couldn’t beat us. They proved on that night that they didn’t need to beat us. The Unholy Alliance just needed to give management a little sizzle and they would get a title shot. Sure enough, their plan worked. They got their match, and again, Kris and I told management that they didn’t deserve it, and that they would lose. Inception II came and went, but the SCW Tag Team Champions remained the same. Now here we are, after an attempt to pull us apart, with Jet City delivering the news that a team has done nothing worth giving a title shot to, and because they were never made to earn it, they are not motivated to take these titles. Dying Breed is going to lose, because the powers that be in SCW keep doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting one of these teams to knock us off the top of the mountain. ”

He pauses, shaking his head.

”And on the subject of the vampire and the mobster, I heard it mentioned during last week’s show that the big win they picked up has moved them back into our sights. Let me be the first person to tell you, they are further off of our radar than Dying Breed was before this match was announced. They fail to beat us once, maybe giving them another shot makes sense. At this point they have failed twice, and no winning record against other teams is going to change the fact that they CANNOT beat Jet City. It would be insane to book that match for a third time. Think about it gentlemen.”

He brings both of his hands up to cover his mouth, his eyes going wide. Still feigning mock outrage at his own words, his voice becomes much more high pitched as he mimics the voice of Ms. Rocky Mountains as best he can.

”But Jason, talking about The Unholy Alliance means that Jet City is already looking past Dying Breed, but that match is for the titles….”

His face goes emotionless, and he shakes his head slowly back and forth, rolling his eyes.

”Are we underestimating them? Maybe. Are we looking past them? Definitely. A successful tag team always keeps their eyes on the future. Why? Because there shouldn’t be any doubt in their minds that there is another challenge coming after this hurdle gets jumped. The moment you start thinking that maybe your next challenge is going to be your last, is the moment that you lose the championship you’re holding. Rest assured, that’s not going to be a line of thinking going through any of the heads in Jet City. We are looking ahead, because anyone thinking that Dying Breed is going to be the team that ends our title reign needs to be committed to a room with fluffy walls and a hug jacket.”

He laughs.

”So on behalf of my brother, “Mr. Jet City” Kristopher Halich, I’m going to suggest that before Dying Breed comes out the ring for the main event, they pick up a phone and use it to call an ambulance.”

He takes a few steps closer to the camera, leaning in so that only his face fills the frame.

”Dying Breed is going to need it, because they think they are leaving with tag team gold, when really they are walking into the worst accident of their career, and will be lucky to walk out.”

The camera feed fades out to black, and just before it cuts off, the Jet City logo pops up, freezing on the frame as the video ends.