[Kristopher Ryans]

 2 June 2017
Jet City Sports Lab
11:57AM PDT
[OFF-CAMERA]


Kris collapses in the center of the ring, lying on his back and looking up at the skylights that line the roof of the Jet City Sports Lab. A towel flies up and into the ring from the floor outside the six sided ring and lands across Kris’ face. His first reaction is to leave it there. He had been pushing himself hard today to work off a week of doing absolutely nothing productive. It was Friday, and the first day of the work week that he had even dragged himself into the Lab. However, when he hears someone grunt with the mild pain that came from rolling under the bottom rope and into the ring, he snatches the towel from his face and looks in the direction of the sound.

”Your girlfriend said you weren’t allowed to get in the ring anymore ever since you bitched on Twitter about the not being able to finish the peg board.”

Coby Quik, one of the two men responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the gym was on his feet and rapidly approaching Kris. The Roulette Champion does not make a move to get off of his back. After all, Coby was not anywhere close to 100%. The former champion in his own right was less than two months removed from surgery to put the whole left side of his face back together. The painful grunting sound told Kris that Coby's ribs were not fully healed either. Even if smaller man was pissed off, Kris knew he was smarter than to take a shot in his condition.

”Look asshole, I get that you own the place, but you have to get out of the way. No way we are going to keep people around if you are always roping off shit for personal use.”

Kris laughs, wiping at his face and then tossing the towel at Coby. The younger, and much faster man, snatches it out of the air, but its dampness makes him immediately regret his decision. His hand opens in response to his disgust, and the towel falls in a heap back to the mat.

”I haven’t even been here all week. This was my first day. I needed to work out. You guys said you needed me here. Two birds.”

Coby shakes his head, looking out across the busy gym. Nearby there were a group of students anxiously awaiting the result of the conversation the two men in the ring were having.

”It’s not two birds if you’re not actually helping do anything that we need you to do. You are just in the way, and you’re going to have to take on all fives of these guys, teach this class, or vacate the area if you don’t want to start handing out refunds.”

Kris turns his head towards the mob without making any effort to get up.

”I could totally teach a class.”

The comment gets a loud, sarcastic laugh from Coby who actually turns away from the crowd in order to do so. He shakes his head, looking down at his employer.

”As someone that has never been formally trained in any kind of fighting, what do you have to offer them?”

Kris sits up, the look of offense on his face would have intimidated someone that did not know him as well as Coby did.

”I will have you know that I have mastered more than twenty unique fighting styles in this week alone!”

Coby barely waits for him to finish before countering his point with the reality of what he was talking about.

”Learning button combinations for all the characters in Injustice 2 does not count as learning a fighting style.”

Kris shrugs, always having an answer for everything.

”Tell that to the crazy Korean people that are building arenas in order to watch people play video games.”

Coby nods, knowing better than to argue with Kris in any kind of fair way. It was a waste of time to attempt to speak to him rationally. A conversation with Kris was a lot like hydroplaning. It was better to just steer into the skid.

”I’ll do that next time I’m there. Now get the hell out of the ring and go do any of the fifty things that need done around here.”

Coby reaches down, and Kris reluctantly takes his hand, allowing himself to be pulled up from the mat. As Kris rises to his feet, he leans in close to Coby, basically whispering into his ear.

"Pass..."

Instead of further arguing with Coby, Kris moves past him, a smile on his face, to address the group of men that were standing by.

”My pint-sized compatriot has informed me that all of you are a bunch of bitches, which makes you perfect stand-ins for Steve Ramone.”

Coby looks down at the mat, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He had hoped that Kris would go quietly so that he could get on with the class. However, the nagging voice in the back of his head told him that something like this would happen before he ever got into the ring. He speaks under his breath so that only Kris could hear him.

”Some of them wrestled in college….”

Kris turns his head, listening to Coby’s words, but not responding to him with anything more than an eyeroll. Instead, he gets louder, trying to sell the students on a fight.

”Here’s what we’re going to do! You guys want to know how to prepared for a fight, right? Well what happens when your plan starts to spin out of control? What happens when you face someone who is unpredictable because they lack all of the training that you have spent so much money getting? Do any of you think that you could handle stepping into the ring and not having any idea what you are walking into?

He looks back over his shoulder at Coby and nods down at the Roulette Championship in a corner close to him. Coby crosses to it, scooping it up, and tossing it to Kris. The champion catches it with one hand and then drapes it over the ropes, putting it on display for all of the students.

"I know what I would do. It's kind of my job. I'm the champion of not having a plan and going with the flow. I am the master of just taking what my opponent gives me and biding my time until I find an opening. Now, all of you came here expecting to be talked at by a cripple. You expected to maybe pick up some techniques you could apply to your own set of skills. I say fuck all that. How about instead you each come up with a stipulation while you get ready, then step into this ring with me, one at a time, and try your luck?”

Coby chuckles, but the group starts to chatter among themselves. They all seem receptive to the idea, and Coby had to give it to Kris. It was actually a pretty intelligent idea. Kris was going to turn an angry mob into a makeshift roulette wheel. He gets no preparation for the rules, and anyone could pick something unique. The junior trainer nods a few times and walks up to Kris, patting him on the shoulder. His voice is still low so that it did not carry to the students who were already starting to get ready.

”Two birds, huh? You know, you’re actually pretty smart when you’re clear headed.”

Kris does not take his eyes away from the group of men, sizing them all up and trying to game plan his way through the handful of match-ups at the same time. When he responds, it is out of the corner of his mouth, and only for Coby’s ears.

”Remember you said that.”



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2 June 2017
Jet City Sports Lab
11:12PM PDT
[ON-CAMERA]

It is after hours at the Jet City Sports Lab. A camera sits in the middle of the six sided ring, facing one of the corners where Kris sits on top of the top turnbuckle. He is a little worse for wear, breathing heavily with his hair damp from sweat.

”First title defenses are huge...”

He is looking down at the mat, his fingers laced together in his lap. Since the tripod that the camera is sitting on is on the mat, Kris is actually at an angle above it. It gives a full view of his face, and the fans can see his smile as he remembers back to the other championships he has won in Sin City Wrestling.

”I mean I guess with the Internet Championship my first defense was actually against Kain at Mayhem in Morocco but you can’t count that. I didn’t even technically win, just got lucky and retained on a technicality. I can hardly remember that night. However, I can remember what it was like walking into the main event at Climax Control a couple of weeks later for my real first defense against Goth. I knew what was riding on the match. I knew the person that I was going head-to-head with was more than formidable. I knew that everyone expected me to lose. However, just over two years ago, I walked in as a paper champion and walked out as someone that needed to be paid attention to. Winning that match was the beginning of the end for my time in The Nobodies. It was when I first realized that I could be something, and somebody, in this business. It was the first real title defense of my career.  Had my priorities been a little different back there, we could be having an entirely different conversation right now...”

He shakes his head as the rest of the story plays out in his mind. The happy parts were few and far between, with a whole lot of bad decision making and poor life choices. It was like that, until last year.

”My light almost went out after that too. If I would have never come back, I would probably be one of those names that sound familiar but you can’t really place. I would be an afterthought, and not even a good one. I was synonymous with not showing up, or showing up and not being functional enough to compete to the best of my ability. That changed when I got a phone call from my brother last October. We signed our contracts on Halloween. We were champions by the middle of November.”

He looks up and raises his arms out to his sides to gesture towards the gym.

”That SCW Tag Team Championship reign that built all of this. There is no Jet City Sports Lab without Jet City winning those tag team championships, and there is no Kris Halc in SCW right now without Jet City. That's the thing that turned by career around. Jet City took those championships from The Elders and held them until the moment that Jason didn’t have anything left in the tank, but nothing can take away the feeling of walking into a no disqualification match at Inception II and kicking the shit out of the Unholy Alliance for our first defense. Scores of people called us undeserving, fluke champions, but we proved that night that we were a force to be reckoned with. It took the entire division to beat us and rip the titles out of Jet City when the time came. That had to happen for me to be sitting here in front of you right now though. James Tuscini and Steve Ramone would have all of you believe that my run in the SCW tag division should have no bearing on what happens in the singles divisions, but I proved that theory wrong a couple of weeks ago.”

He shrugs, the smile on his face not wavering.

”... but I had to redefine myself. The Nobodies was about not being recognized. The Internet Championship taught me that there was life outside of my brother’s shadow. Being The Accident showed me that I could be myself and people would pay attention. The Tag Team Championships taught me that no matter how many people think you’re done, there’s always another chance to be had. Now...”

He turns slightly on the turnbuckle and grabs the SCW Roulette Championship off of the post behind him and holds it out to the camera.

”...now I’m proving that it’s possible to go back and right all of those wrongs. I spent years kicking myself over the fact that I couldn’t win this championship. I took loss after loss chasing it before. I was thrown in a dumpster, I was thrown off of cages. I was beaten unconscious. However, like I was saying a minute ago, my priorities were shit. The things that I thought mattered, didn’t. The things that I thought were expendable, or just a means to an end, were the ones that were the most important. My skewed sense of reality robbed me of my chance to hold this championship years ago. I promised you all when I first came back that I was going to fix it. A lot of you said that it couldn’t be done...”

He pauses, looking like he is fighting the urge to break into laughter.

”...and as much as it would be the right thing to do to tell all of you that I did it for you, these days I feel like ‘I told you so’ is more fitting. I told you all that I was going to come back and hold this championship. I told all of you that I was going to change the way you thought about me. I told all of you that I was going to walk into New York, a city that I hate, and walk away with this championship, and I did just that. So, from the absolute bottom of my heart, I SO fucking told every single one of you. Even better, now I have the proof that says I was right all along, and every one of you were wrong.”

He hops down off of the turnbuckle, slinging the championship over his shoulder and displaying it proudly as he takes a few steps out of the corner.

”But who, pray tell, was the most wrong?”

He taps his index finger on his lips, pretending to be seriously considering who the culprit is.

”I guess if it’s anyone, it’s Steve Ramone. I mean this guy has been at it all along? I would say that he was talking down to me from the moment I came back, but it would be a lie. Truth be told, I wasn’t even on his radar until after I put my name and the word ‘roulette’ in the same sentence. He has been so hyper focused on getting title shots, failing most, and watching my championship slip further, and further, out of his fingers. I’m sure it actually goes on for much longer than even I realize. I mean this time last year he was pretty much doing the same thing, right? It’s kind of sad when you think about it. I mean, here I was going on and on about the success in my personal life and career over the last year. I rambled there for a second about how I have adapted and reinvented my game at every step of my career just a few minutes ago. How depressing is it that Steve Ramone finds himself in the exact same shoes today as he was last year? How embarrassing is it that he has apparently learned nothing in all of that time?”

He pauses to let the questions sink in, but doesn’t dwell on them too long. The answer was clear, and giving the viewers at home too much time to think was never a good thing.

”And THAT was the answer that I searched for after this match was announced. If any of you have seen me talk on Twitter, you have seen that I’m not really concerned with how difficult this match could end up being. I spent the entire week taking some personal time and celebrating my victory with some much needed rest and relaxation. After all, even without a match last week, I had more screen time than just about anybody else. I mean I was doing interviews, flirting with married women, and joining The Black Sheep. People might kno---”

This time he has to cut himself off, shake the thought away, and then refocus. That was not a particular tangent that he wanted to get off on. It would just take him further and further away from his point. The Black Sheep had little to do with the task at hand come time for Climax Control, and wasting his time talking about them now would not do him any favors.

”The thing that I realized about Steve Ramone is that he is stuck in the same place that he has been for as long as I can remember. From the first time that I beat him, the guy has really only been focused on one thing. In his entire career, he has struggled to take claim of the Roulette Championship. He fights to maintain his place at the bottom of the roster, and whines his way into Mark or Christian taking pity on him to shut him up. The problem in, he never shows us anything that captures the imagination of the fans. He never says anything deeper than thinly veiled sexual innuendo, or generic insults. Steven Ramone is the textbook example of someone that has become stagnant. For years he has been wading in the ocean, waiting for his arms and leg to give out so that he can finally be put out of our misery, and maybe that day is going to come this weekend."

Instead of trying to back off of the claims, as would have been typical of Jet City, Kris doubles down without his brother to balance the equation.

"That mind sound a little harsh, and you people are probably wondering why I would say things that would just enrage their opponent and give them more of a reason to win. It is not good strategy to hand out your strategy to your opponent and call them out on their biggest flaw. That is not to say that my doing so puts me in any kind of danger of losing though. See, Steve is no James Bond. We are not playing some giant chess game with words. There is no new and exciting plan for him to win this match that is going to wow the audience. There are no fifth or sixth gear for Steve to shift into when he cannot keep up with me. This is a guy that is just cruising along, never moving up the food chain, and never doing anything innovative. It is the same old shit. I see it. Everyone sees it. I’m sure even his entourage of metal heads and film prostitutes see it and are just too afraid to tell him.”

Another shrug. However, this time half of the smile on his face seems to disappear. Each word seems to get more smug and condescending, and the smile shrinks to the signature cocky smirk.

”How is that the key to beating him? That doesn’t take rocket science. If you have a person who hasn’t done anything new or original in the last few years, you know exactly how to beat them. All you have to do is find a person that is undefeated against him in those three years. You find a person who has never even come close to losing against him. You find a person so talented that Steve Ramone’s chances of winning are worse than us seeing a return from that rookie that got embarrassed by Calvin Harris at Into The Void. What is the key to beating Steve Ramone? Someone that has beaten Steve Ramone without even breaking a sweat. It doesn’t matter if he tapped out, got pinned, or had the match end with me grabbing the championship like I did a few weeks ago. Steve has nothing new to show me. He has nothing that is going to surprise or shock me. Everything that he has in his arsenal, he has already thrown at me in a match, and he hasn’t managed to win even one of them. Why don't I need to spend every moment preparing for this match? Because I have already put in all of the legwork. I know what it takes to beat him, and I have done it every single time I have tried to. I won this match and retained my title from the moment that the card was announced.”

Kris hunches down in front of the camera, raising his championship up so that the face plate takes up most of the frame.

”Get a good look at it Steve. Until I am done with this championship, this is as close as you are ever going to get. You have no hope of taking this from me, and after I beat you one-on-one, for the second time in a little over a month, you won’t have any more reasons to be running your mouth about me. I can’t say that I’m not going to be relieved. There are a lot of untalented people that have my name on their minds, so scratching one off of the list will be a relief.”

He pulls the championship back, but continues to let it hang from his hand instead of re-shouldering it.

"Only 132 days left to go."

With that, the camera cuts off to static.