"It was my third match.."
The camera tunes in from black to find the voice's owner, Vladimir Strife, sitting in a steel chair inside an empty gymnasium. Training equipment, ranging from treadmills to weights to punching bags and the ilk litter the landscape behind the Barbarian Lord, all lost on him as his eyes are directed at the concrete expanse between his boots.
"My stablemates encouraged me to step into that environment, expand my boundaries, test my limits. I'd been in a singles contest and then a submission match.. people had begun to get a taste, an idea of my technical prowess. They weren't the definitive, sweeping victories I've since become accustomed to, but they were victories alright. I had professed to the world that the hardcore antics part of my fellow stars prided themselves on were all cheap, a crutch for men who couldn't truly wrestle. So I ponied up.. I walked into a cage that was about to be set on fire with 4 other men inside to prove to them that all of their weapons and all of their brutality couldn't hold a candle to a true wrestler. I found myself inside that cage... I learned that my abilities didn't put me at odds with the world of thumbtacks, steel chairs, and tables... but rather made me able to take that world to a level where it had never been before. I could incorporate a steel chair into a clothesline to greater effect. I could turn an already powerful powerbomb into a world of pain for my opponents by scattering around some thumbtacks. Hardcore was something crude and simple. I could make it something precise and effective.."
"But, beyond that, something else happened from that night that changed my career. As I pinned a man to that mat for 1, 2, 3 seconds.. one of my opponents seized the opportunity to do the same. They sent us out the next week to fight again and when the dust was settled.. I was carried to the back with a championship title around my waist. After my fourth match in this business, I had found myself the champion of the very division I'd worked so hard to deride. So, week after week, I went back out there and I put down the next challenger. I held that title for 100 days. The company I was with had merged with another, larger one who could foot the bills we were drowning in, and they already had a hardcore champion. So the decision came down to merge the titles into one and they put me in a ring with 5 other men to see who would be crowned the King of the Deathmatch. The bastards never stood a chance.. I walked out of there, replacing the title I'd held since it's inception with a brand new one."
"I went on to win a world title, which I dropped with all the concerns one might have for an ugly baby, because it couldn't compare to what I already held. Then, the tag team titles. I found a partner who shared my love for punishing opponents and pushing them to their breaking points and we demolished 5 other teams with ease to hold those belts. But they couldn't compare to the gold I already had around my waist... the title that I had made prestigious.. nor could it compare to the fabled winning streak I'd amassed. And so, he challenged me.. and when he realized that he was unable to do what all others had failed to.. he shattered my knee. 377 days after I'd been crowned a champion for the first time in my career, they stripped the last of the belts from me because I couldn't defend them. "
"It took me just barely over a month to claim a title.. and over a year to find myself without one and even then it was without ever having tasted defeat. And I loved that damn title.. it meant the world to me.. but I realized later that it was only in those brief few months that the title had made any sort of a name for me and, thereafter, it was I making a name for that title. It wasn't sought after simply because it was gold.. there were other titles to be had and none so staunchly defended or in the grasp of a man they called the Undefeated Behemoth.. but time after time, they came for me. It was the violence that brought them. It was knowing that a round in the ring with me was a test of their abilities that could show them more about themselves and their abilities than anything else could. Holding championship gold meant nothing in comparison to what taking down the best in the business would."
Vladimir leans back in his seat, finally gazing up to the lens and the people who would be watching on the other end.
"My point is... I've held my share of titles.. and I don't need another. I don't want your intercontinental title or your hardcore title or even your world title. I didn't come to XWA for championships... I came for champions. I didn't come here for more accolades, I have plenty enough, I came for anarchy. I don't want gold... I want crimson.."
Standing up from his seat, the GodKing dons a vile smirk and crosses over to the camera. He gets within a couple of feet of it and his brows hunker down, taking on a furrow in display of the wrath brewing within the Czar of Scars.
"And I
will
have it."
Vlad turns away and walks off, presumably to utilize the training equipment in the background, as the camera cuts away.
Subject: [S 7.5|PROMO] "Hold The Gold" - Vladimir Strife 
