The 60th edition of XWA Vendetta is about a third of the way through, and the rest of the night is shaping up to be fantastic. The solid opening bouts are soon to give way to major star power later in the show, but right now, there's a backstage segment to be had.
"All right ladies and gentlemen! Welcome back to Vendetta! We've got two more Elimination Chamber Qualifiers and another King of Xtreme match to come up later on tonight, but as I understand, right now we have a special message...from Tyler Lawson."
"Heah, while I'm still not too keen on his "resume", if you could call it that, I'll still say he looked...slightly impressive last week against Riley Daniels."
"Annnnd...here he is, folks!"
The video swaps off from the commentators to the big video screen. The crowd's eyes dart to it, and they immediately let up a cheer as it's Lawson himself staring back at him. Actually he's not; he seems to be staring off to the right for some reason. He's gathering his thoughts. It's been a long time since he's addressed the crowd...any crowd. The cheers fade a bit as he tilts his head back toward the camera, a bit of a smirk crossing his face.
"...Hi guys."
The crowd's roar comes back in full force.
"It's, uhh....been a while."
Two and a half years, to be precise. Regardless, the fans have seen their fare share of Lawson; enough, both here and elsewhere, to grow a great fondness for him, which they undoubtedly show here tonight.
"Hmm...Haah, holy hell. Where do I begin? I, I guess let's start with why I'm back. I mean, I've wanted to wrestle here again for a while now, and I was trying, but just...nothing was working out. I was...I was here at Vendetta 50, you saw me then....eh...that wasn't my finest hour, though, for sure. But, I-uh, I've just been training, I've wrestled the indies, I've honed my skills...and I'd say I'm better than ever."
That's something the crowd loves to hear.
"...And I realized, before my match last week, I just...I missed this. I missed doing this every week. Just the feeling of coming out, with the music, and the lights, and the crowd..."
Another roar, a bit cheap, but a pop nonetheless.
"...It's just...there's a rush. No matter where you are: here...anywhere, it's just a great feeling. And I like that. So...I want to stick around. I'm going to try to stick around. As long as I can."
A good sign, that is. And the fans eat it up.
"But enough of that, all that sentimental stuff. Down to business. Now I was fortunate enough...to get put into the King of Xtreme tournament. Never been in this, it's exciting. I won last week; I'm in the second round. And that's where the problem comes around. I got other participants, other people who advanced last week...clamoring to get booked against me in the second round, cause they see me as an easy win."
The crowd begins to boo in disagreement. Lawson nods to acknowledge them.
"I know! I got EG Deal saying he's gonna squash me like a pancake! Well nuh-uh. That ain't gonna happen, big man. I trained with a guy bigger than EG; I've put him in the Sharpshooter, not a problem. Rellim: I own a tag team victory over him. Shade....well...I don't know much about Shade...but if he can't control his emotions, he can't control me. And that....that brings me to my opponent tonight."
The room almost seems to dim at the mention of "The Son of Sin".
"No matter what I do next week, or the week after that, or whatever...it all starts tonight. Tonight sets the tone. Tonight makes the statement. Dante......oh, Dante. I've beaten Dante, too. And I'll be damned if I don't give him hell tonight. Or...maybe I'll be damned if I do, if he's some sort of savior...Anyway, I WILL make my statement tonight. I WILL beat Dante. And I WON'T be beaten in this tournament!"
Lawson's head has dipped a smidge, as though he's looking up at the camera. His expression means business. His eyes have the fire. The crowd cheers him on every step of the way.
"...And who knows? I beat Dante here, and then that'll just be a preview of what'll happen later on in the tournament....even the finals. And...after the finals..."
"After the finals..."
Tyler's head snaps back to the right. It's a voice he's heard several times before, a voice every wrestler here in XWA has learned to detest. It's the voice of
Razor Xtreme. The camera zooms out quickly to show the Rated-X Superstar arrogantly step into the picture, while Lawson takes a step back away from him. The jeering begins immediately, as expected for one of the most hated men in XWA history.
"...you'll still be where you were last week, on the undercard where you belong, facing losers like Riley Daniels. Cause there's no way, hehe, someone like you...will win the King of Xtreme tournament."
"Someone like me, Razor? Surely you'll elaborate."
Lawson's annoyed expression and tone, coupled with Razor's trademark smug grin, telegraph where this is going from a mile away.
"Oh, gladly. Someone...like you...has no chance of winning this year's Kind of Xtreme tournament, because...well, the XWA World Heavyweight championship...has a rule. And that rule is....No Closet Gays."
Lawson smiles and nods. Wait....smiles and nods?
"Oh bravo. That one never gets old, does it? You see Razor, I don't care what you call me; it's not gonna change the fact that I'm going to mow down my opponents in this tournament."
Razor is puzzled.
"Hmm...the Lawson I knew would be pissing his pants whenever someone'd call him that, screaming about showing respect or some shit. Who are you and what have you done with the Butt Pirate?"
"Butt Pirate, it's all the same. It was funny once, but now it's not. Get over yourself."
"Get over myself? Over myself? You're telling me? Ha! You're the one that's claiming victories you can't back up! Your previous match with Dante's all but been erased from the records; you were wrestling in disguise! You can't claim that!"
Tyler turns to the camera and mouths "Disguise?" as Razor continues.
"And I know for a fact that that you got eliminated from that tag team match first. In fact, Rellim...PINNED...YOU!
Lawson rubs the side of his face. He sighs before retorting.
"Ahh...well, you got me there. I may not have won that match on my own...but I still won. And I don't know what you mean by a disguise; I was using a different name...but it was clearly still me. Now I don't know exactly what you're trying to do here, discourage me or whatnot? But it's not gonna work. It might have worked...a long time ago, but it's not gonna work now. Nobody else is gonna define what I am, or what I can do. I can beat anyone I put my mind to beating...and that's something I'm sure you know well Razor."
Razor's smug look quickly descends into a scowl at that remark, alluding to Lawson's upset victory over him several years ago.
"And actually, that wouldn't be a bad way to prove my point. I win the tournament, I face the 'almighty' Razor Xtreme for the world title...oh wait, that's right, you aren't even in the chamber match."
Lawson smirks as Razor goes into a blind fury.
"Now listen here you little shit..."
Tyler raises a hand to stop him.
"Again with the namecalling, jeez. Just...just focus on your own stuff, man. I'd stay and discuss this more, but I've got a match to go win, so I gotta get dressed."
Razor is speechless, waving a finger in the air and trying to mouth out something as Lawson backs away and turns off in another direction, out of the shot. Xtreme's pissed Xpression (I had to) stays on his face as he pulls his arm back into his body and watches Lawson go off. After a few seconds, he looks down, curses under his breath, and starts to turn off in the other direction as the feed fades out to the next match.
"And that was a STATEMENT if I ever heard one. Lawson just told Razor off like it was nobody's business."
"But he just went and pissed off Razor Xtreme. I'll tell you, now that's a bad idea..."
"Well we'll just have to see if The Instant Classic can live up to his lofty promises in the coming weeks, won't we?"
...and with that, the show continues as scheduled...
Subject: "It's Been Too Long" | Tyler Lawson 
