ON CAMERA – AFTER ADRENALINE 68
“Adam, calm down!”
A bloodied towel comes flying at the wall of the locker room. Maria Dainelli, the GPW wrestler and girlfriend of Adam Stryker, is trying to calm her man down, but to no avail.
“ADAM!”
Stryker picks up a chair and throws it halfway across the locker room. Then he falls to his knees and starts breathing heavily, with blood still dripping from his forehead.
“Adam, darling… you lost a lot of blood. You need to see the medics.”
It’s like Adam doesn’t listen to her at all. He wipes the blood off his face with his right forearm, then gets up and faces the camera.
“Darin Zion, if you are watching this video, then listen very closely… YOU’RE GONNA DIE AT HOSTILE TAKEOVER, MOTHERFUCKER, YOU HEAR ME?! YOU’RE GONNA DIE!”
Maria is trying to drag her fianceé away, but he tells her to let him go and faces the camera yet again.
“For long weeks, I have been a victim of your bullshit, Darin, and tonight was the last fucking piece of the puzzle. You put me in two matches just to get the KOK out of the tourney, you attacked me, you made me bleed, you probably injured my good friend John Pariah… you didn’t step over the line, Darin, you took a big old fucking leap over it and your pathetic ass is gonna pay for that! See what you did to me? YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID?!”
In anger, Stryker unleashes a loud scream as he punches the door of the locker room.
“YOU WOKE UP THE MONSTER INSIDE OF ME! Darin… I’ve put my bad side to sleep, for a long time now, but you’ve poked it time and time again and ultimately woke it up. And let me tell you one thing, you piece of shit…”
He gets closer to the camera, which now has a close-up of his face. With a crazed face and almost dead eyes, he whispers:
“It’s hungry, Darin. It’s fucking hungry…”
Stryker marches away from the scene and the locker room, with his worried fianceé following him. The scene fades to black.
—
OFF CAMERA
“So… how long have you been seeing the symptoms on yourself?”
He never wanted to see Adam again. Not that he didn’t like him, Stryker was one of the guys that John Morrow called friends. But he definitely never wanted to see him laying on the couch of his office. Stryker was surprisingly calm, doing his best to cover all the troubles up. Morrow sat next to him on a chair, nervously tapping his fingers on the folder in his hands.
Stryker: “I dunno… last few weeks, a month maybe.”
Morrow: “Same as five, six years ago? Depressions, anger issues?”
Stryker: “It feels… less powerful. But pretty much the same.”
Morrow just nodded, which Adam barely even noticed.
Morrow: “Any specific problem that happened to you?”
Stryker: “Nothing… specific. Just the mood, I think. Being unable to control my anger. Being depressed. Thinking I’m losing Maria…”
Morrow: “She came back to you after all that stuff last year, didn’t she? You’re not losing her. In fact… she can be the biggest help.”
Stryker: “You think?”
Morrow: “Of course. Spend more time with her. Have some nice evenings together. Then when you get to the ring, do your thing. It will help you vent.”
Stryker got up to face the doctor.
Stryker: “So… that’s it? No pills this time? No therapies?”
John smirked and stood up too. He put his right hand on Adam’s shoulder.
Morrow: “You’ve been through all that already, Adam. Now, the whole fight is up to you.”
—
ON CAMERA
The scene is set inside the Stryke Dojo training ring. Adam Stryker, dressed in jeans and a black hoodie, is sitting on one of the top turnbuckles. The cameraman is standing right in front of him.
“You’ve picked the worst guy imaginable to be your enemy.”
He looks at the camera with dead eyes and pretty angry face as he states that.
“It was last year when I dragged you up the ladder and Powerbombed you, the cancer of PWX, down to the sound system. That was more than a move, Darin that was a statement. A statement that said ‘Go away from PWX and NEVER come back’. But you were never really one to understand things, were you? You kept coming back, time and time again… fine, okay, I wouldn’t mind that, had you stayed away from my business. But no, Darin, you came back only to make my life a hell on earth. Nobody likes to be put in that situation, but the thing is that most of the guys tend to break down because of it, while I… I respond with something even worse than hell on earth.
You see, Darin… I’ve been to hell and back several times now. I don’t want to sound egotistical, but I don’t think anyone in PWX has quite been through the things I have gone through. Several years ago, I left rehab as I successfully overcame my demons and addictions. Eversince that, I’ve won several championships and was successful on the indy wrestling scene… but I have also kept winning and losing my girlfriend, I’ve kept fighting with anger management issues and depressions, I’ve kept fighting against people wanting to feed of my bank account. I was pitched against the odds all the time, and you know what, Darin?
I won. Every damn time, I won.
And I’m not ready to lose at Hostile Takeover. Call it ego, conceit, anything you want… but I am not ready to lose and I am going pull out all the stops to be on the winning end of this. And unlike you, Darin… I have motivation to do that. You only care about fulfilling your bad intensions, about nothing more than a mere payback that means nothing now. I have the intentions of finally winning the PWX World Championship, no matter if I have to beat Troy Stone or Wrath to do it. I know I have lost three times in a row, if I don’t count the matches with your little buttbuddy Jarome Owens. You thought I’d be frustrated? You thought I’d break down and cry and quit? If so, you’re wrong, because if it gave me something, it wasn’t desperation… it was anger. And after all those years, if there’s something I know perfectly… it’s turning the anger from my worst enemy to my greatest weapon.
Darin Zion, when you chose to lock yourself in the Cage of Death with me, you made a terrible mistake. When we had that Ambulance match last year, I was a little pissed off at you… and you still got drove away in the ambulance and didn’t come back for several months. Now I’m not ‘just pissed off’… I am downright angry, and that means that you aren’t getting away in an ambulance… this time, you’ll be carried out in a body bag.
I’ve heard people say you’re a psychopath, Darin, hell, I have felt it first hand… but a psychopath, with his bitchy woman beside him or not, is merely a match for the bloodthirsty monster when the cage is lowered and everything is legal…
See you at Hostile Takeover, Darin. Expect the worst treatment you can get…
Get Real… or DIE HARD!”
Typical cut-throat taunt ends the scene which fades to black slowly.
Adam Stryker - professional wrestler 