Odd Man Out
We open backstage at the Pennhurst Asylum. It’s mere minutes after the main event of WrestleVersary. The camera is waiting in a locker room. It’s neat, clean, well organized. By the presence of the Interstate Championship on the bench, you already know who this room belongs to.
The doors open and Adam Stryker walks in. He looks beaten up, sweaty, but his face shows relief. He has the Undisputed Championship in his left hand, and a plastic bottle of water in his right. He takes a seat on the bench, facing the camera, and places the Undisputed title next to the Interstate one. Breathing heavily, he opens the bottle, takes a few big sips, then pours the rest of the water on his head. It’s cold, refreshing. Keeps him up.
Adam finally looks at the camera, catching his breath.
“What just happened… Wasn’t a wrestling match. Wasn’t supposed to be. That was six men, stripped down to their basic animalistic instincts, thrown into a fight for their lives. It wasn’t about who wins, but who survives. And like I told you beforehand…”
He glances at his championships, then back at the camera.
“I’m pretty damn good at that.”
He forces a slight smile through the exhaustion.
“Whether some people like it or not, Adam Stryker is still your Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. Five other men, former champs included, had the chance to step up. They all brought hell to me, and each other… And still none of them succeeded in dethroning me.
Now, don’t take this as my ego talking. I can parade myself here and talk about how I cleared out the main event scene of AWS in two shows. But you know I won’t do that. You know I’m a realist. And most importantly…”
He grabs the Undisputed title and puts it on his shoulder.
“I’m a fighting champion. In the unpredictable world of AWS, somebody will always step up. And when they do… I’ll keep proving my point against them too.”
The feed cuts to static.
When we come back, it’s days later and the environment is much more welcoming too. We are in Stryker’s living room, directly facing the couch and a small coffee table. The Undisputed Championship is resting on the side of the couch, the Interstate Championship on the other. Adam Stryker walks in, dressed in jeans and a black Jinjer t-shirt, holding a cup of coffee, and sits down between them. He’s still wearing some wounds from the Empty Asylum match, but looks a little more rested.
“I know this visual might anger some people,” he opens. As usual, he sounds as if he’s giving you a lecture.
“Adam Stryker with both the Undisputed title and the Interstate title. The championship belonging to the main star, and the one meant for the up-and-comers. I shot up the ranks of AWS faster than anyone before me, so a difficult situation arose – I won the main championship before ever managing to lose the other.”
He smirks slightly.
“I want to focus as much as I can on representing AWS as the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. But regarding the Interstate title, let me tell you one thing – This son of a bitch is not giving anything away. I dedicated my life to chasing and winning championships, so I’m not gonna send one back to the company in a gift box just because I happen to have a shinier one. No, no, no…
I earned it. You have to earn it too.
So for the next Assault, I’m issuing an open challenge. No matter if it’s one person answering it, two, three, or if ten people show up and we have ourselves another Battle Rumble. I welcome all challengers. The Interstate Championship is, in the end, meant for the people stepping up to the main event scene…”
He leans forward.
“So step up.”
He sits back again and folds his arms across his chest.
“Before we get there though, I have another big match to go through. Another champion vs. champion encounter. This time, it’s with Ethan Murphy.
Now Ethan… He is a peculiar case for me. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the hell out of him. He’s a great wrestler, a two-time World Champ here at still a young age, and that American title he carries proudly means a lot in this company too. He talked a lot about other companies wanting him, but he stayed here. That’s loyalty to the place that brought you up.
But there’s just something… Off.”
Adam takes a second.
“Now my issue isn’t the fact that his memory is probably cooked by the age of 25. He said in his promo package for WrestleVersary that he beat me some years ago, but as far as my records show, we never even met before. When Ethan was starting, I was out getting my knee fixed. Maybe you took too many hits to the head, Ethan, like the one from Drake Nygma at WrestleVersary.”
He chuckles.
“No, my real issue is that while I respect everything Ethan does in the ring, I just don’t buy anything he says out of it. No matter how many times he repeats that he fits AWS perfectly, he’s… Just too clean. He’s a great wrestler, tremendous athlete, but he’s not a killer.
And in the land of the psychos like this one… You have to be a killer.
Do you get it, Ethan? Is it in the back of your head somewhere?” he asks rhetorically, speaking to the camera as if he’s addressing Ethan directly.
“You talked about dominance, and aggression, and respect… For what? To get eliminated second, right after the man whose biggest focus wasn’t the title but hanging up his boots. You talked big and then found out you weren’t fit for wars like that.
At Assault, we meet in a straight up wrestling match. I know that there, you will bring your A game to me. I expect nothing less from a match of this magnitude. When you’re looking at the lights at the end of it, I hope these words I’m saying right now will resonate in your head. Maybe I’ll teach you something about being true to yourself.”
Adam grabs the Undisputed title and rests it on his lap.
“Coming into WrestleVersary, I thought I was the outsider. The man with the least history in AWS against the men who built it. But the fact I did everything right in that insane environment and walked out of that match on my own two feet and with this championship still in my possession, while you talked big and got laid out early… It shows me that I had it all wrong.
Whether you like it or not, Adam Stryker is the face of this company. Adam Stryker is what AWS is right now, and will be for the foreseeable future.
And turns out that not me, but Ethan Murphy might be the odd man out.”
We slowly fade to black.