02-16-2020, 12:20 AM
Smoke.
It blinds. It burns. It coats the lungs of anyone too close to it. It endangers lives. It kills.
And right now, it billows out of Damian Angel’s home - his compound - with violence and destruction. As firetrucks pull onto the scene, their sirens blaring and their lights flashing, there is immediate concern for anyone who might have been trapped within. Rescue workers are quick to rush from the trucks toward the building, eager to douse the flames and bring the blaze under control. And while the fire rages on, a silhouette steps from it. A few workers rush towards the body, bringing a weighted blanket to drape over his shoulders, helping him get further away from it.
The man is Damian Angel.
The rescue workers, not recognizing their victim, move him towards a nearby ambulance. As Damian sits upon the open back, his eyes are drawn back to what had been his home for some twenty years. Upon his face is a look of shock… very unlike the Devil Himself. He watches his life go up in flames…
-----
It was October 27, 2019. While most people were using the weekend to put the finishing touches on their children’s Halloween costumes or nursing the hangovers of their own parties, Supreme Championship Wrestling was in the midst of the Under Attack pay-per-view event. While the night would go down as the night Sierra Swann outlasted five other competitors in the vaunted Chamber match to win the SCW World Championship from Owen Cruze, for Damian Angel the night held different significance. For by the time the destructive match had begun, he was not in the building. At least, not as far as he was concerned.
Earlier in the night, Damian had taken on Peyton Rice in what had been a match with lukewarm anticipation. For Peyton, it was an emotional contest, coming not long after the murder of Ricky Octavius. For Damian… it was another match in an effort to restore his place in the order of Supreme Championship Wrestling. And in the end, it was a match that Damian had lost. He would never admit to throwing a match, but a part of him was met with relief in defeat...
---INITIATING SCW FEED---
Damian is shown sitting up. He rolls out of the ring. Damian begins to walk around the ring. The cameras show him, stretching his arms out, before zooming in, catching a glimpse of him talking to himself, but nothing is audible.
Knots: “I believe the Devil has lost it.”
Sharper: “Damian Angel muttering to himself after losing this match. What is going on here?”
Damian stops, turning to look at the ring. He stares at it for a few moments, before making his way toward it. He gets ready to hop onto the apron, only to be grabbed.
Knots: “What in the blue hell?”
The cameras show Damian, struggling before he is pulled underneath the ring. The crowd is heard gasping. As cameras show the outside of the ring, where Damian was grabbed.
Sharper: “Folks, I don’t know what happened, but Damian Angel was just pulled under the ring, by who we don’t know.”
Cameras show the spot Damian was grabbed once again, before we cut away. Smoke starts to billow from it as the cameraman steps back. He then steps forward and looks under, more smoke billowing out before we cut away.
---CUTTING SCW FEED---
Damian was dragged under the ring, a burlap sack thrown over his head and bound by rope. He had no cognizant idea of where he was - he was dragged out through a trapdoor under the ring, quickly whisked away from the arena. Unbeknownst to anyone else in SCW, by the time the main event was underway, Damian Angel was out of the city. An hour after the show, he was dumped into a damp cell, the bag removed from his head, and the light around him was blinding. Squinting, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings.
Angel: “Where the fuck…”
Focusing in, Damian finds himself inside a shark cage, looking out over a crowd of people, much like a Christian in the middle of the Roman coliseum. As he struggles to focus in on faces, he hears the roar of the crowd, followed by the appearance of a black-robed man. This man wears a hood over his head as he moves along a procession, pausing to survey The Devil Himself, before standing behind a podium. Staring towards Damian, he states in a booming, authoritative voice…
Judge: “Let the trial of Damian Angel commence!”
Damian moves forward, his hands rattling on the bars of the shark cage.
Angel: “Trial? On what charges? On whose authority?”
Judge: “Now is not the time for you to question the process, Damian.”
Angel: “There is no authorization to try me for any crimes. Who are you? I demand answers.”
The Judge ignores Damian’s demands, which only causes further anger in the man once dubbed the “Hellbound Messiah”.
Judge: “For our first witness, we call Helena Evans to the stand.”
Damian leers, watching as Helena strides past him, a smug expression in her eyes. She moves to a seat in front of the podium, facing Damian directly.
Judge: “State your name for the record.”
Evans: “Helena Evans.”
Judge: “And what is the nature of your relationship with the accused?”
She looks at Damian again, her expression hardening as she stares death towards him.
Evans: “I met Damian back in 2007.”
Judge: “Under what auspices?”
Evans: “He presented himself as a Doctor where I was staying.”
Judge: “Please, do continue.”
She continued relaying their story, not taking her eyes off of his as she does.
Evans: “At first, I thought he only wanted to help me… to allow me to heal on my terms. But I soon discovered that I was nothing more than an unwilling pawn in his game with my step-brother, Chad. Soon after he departed SCW the first time, I joined his order. We became lovers. I bore him a son. But then I was victimized by him.”
Judge: “In what way?”
Evans: “He cast me out like I was a common whore.”
Angel: “You attempted a coup.”
Evans: “I attempted to SAVE us! You were going to lead us into oblivion with a stupid smile on your face… all to show up some unworthy asshole wrestlers. Who gives a shit!? That was always your way… you never thought about the bigger picture. You never considered what anyone beyond yourself might have. You acted on impulse for your own desires.”
Damian sneers, breathing heavily through his nose, restrained only by the knowledge that the shark cage was imprisoning him.
Evans: “I loved you. I was going to HELP you… but you couldn’t have that. You couldn’t have any EQUAL support… it had to be your will and your way above anything else. So yeah, I was planning to take over your “Order”. I would have done a fucking better job with it than you.”
Angel: “WHY THIS CHARADE!?”
Damian stands up forcefully, nearly knocking the shark cage to the ground. Helena grins, shaking her head.
Evans: “This isn’t my mechanation, Damian. This is all you. You’re responsible for everything that’s happening here. Just like you always have been. Just like you command.”
The two stare at each other a moment longer before…
Evans: “Am I done now?”
Judge: “Yes. Miss Evans Thank you.”
She steps down from her seat, walking towards the shark cage and looking at Damian.
Evans: “I hope you burn for this…”
She moves just out of reach, exiting into the swarm of people.
Angel: “This is ridiculous. I demand to face my accuser.”
Judge: “Demand? Damian, you are in no position to demand anything of me or anyone else.”
Angel: “You have presented NO charges. NO accusations. Just a circus designed for what Godless purpose?”
The sound of the gavel banging on the podium can be heard. Damian glares towards the faceless judge.
Judge: “You have nothing. Your order has abandoned you. Do you really not understand that? Everything you promised… everything you have said has been built upon lies. The Devil Himself has truly become the great deceiver. Your order has burned around you… what do you say?”
Damian shakes his head.
Angel: “No…”
Lifting his eyes to the judge, he grins.
Angel: “Not yet, anyway.”
A glimmer flashes in the Devil’s eye, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
Angel: “Do you really think you could organize a mob gathering against me without me having contingencies in place?”
Judge: “What is this?”
Angel: “I never go anywhere without back-ups to my back-ups. I have plans for every conceivable possibility.”
Judge: “You…”
Angel: “You cannot stop me. I know who I am. I know what I need to do. You want me to burn? You will burn in my place. You think I cannot be redeemed?”
He smirks.
Angel: “I am the Redeemer.”
Flames start to fly around the area. The crowd begins to disperse as Damian remains in his shark cage, staring at the judge as two other men start to approach him, getting him out of the scene.
Then in a flash, everything was black. Damian awoke in the back of an ambulance, oxygen pressed to his face as he looks around. Two paramedics work over him…
And the scene fades…
------
“I am a man who has not been one-hundred percent committed. I have not been one-hundred percent of anything. Not committed to Supreme Championship Wrestling. Not committed to my career. And despite everyone remembering the Damian Angel of old, the Damian Angel of 2007 who won Taking Hold of the Flame, broke Alex Desoubrais’ spine and went into a Holy War with Chad Evans… that man is long dead. The Devil Himself no longer lives. There are days I get up and I don’t even know how I did those things before. I mean I crucified a man against the stage, lashed him with a whip of barbed wire, and jammed a wire crown upon his head in a moment of religious iconography.
How do I reconcile that thirteen years later?
So what happens when we are faced with the realization that we are not what we once were? When I started in SCW, I made it a point to target people like I have become now. People clinging to their reputations and becoming albatrosses to the company at the expense of tomorrow. I look myself in the mirror and I am sickened by what I see. I had once woven together a tapestry of story and now I am merely a shell of myself. What do I have to offer?
And then I look to the future… to the likes of Peyton Rice and I see me place.
Many have wondered why I find myself circling her orbit. Let me make it clear: When I say she is responsible for my rebirth, I mean it entirely. I hold no sinister motives nor sexual proliferations towards her. Peyton is simply… the key. She is the key to tomorrow for me. Because when you have men like me, who’s best days are behind them… the path into tomorrow is through the faces that will carry the company there. Tomorrow is not mine. It is her’s. And so I secure my path by ensuring her safe passage to it.
And it is through coincidence that I now find myself at her side for this Trios tournament.
I am telling you now… I am formally declaring that should my trio win this tournament, my contract is to be abdicated to Peyton. Allow her a second wish, for I have my new lease on life through her. And for the first time in my life… I have fear.
I fear that I will let her down.
I fear that I will lose this chance at Redemption.
But for those in this tournament, I fear that you will not know peace after I am through. Because whether by act or mere reputation, I AM The Devil Himself. And while that does not carry the weight it once had, I do not fear what I can do to the foe. Mark my words… I am coming for blood.”
It blinds. It burns. It coats the lungs of anyone too close to it. It endangers lives. It kills.
And right now, it billows out of Damian Angel’s home - his compound - with violence and destruction. As firetrucks pull onto the scene, their sirens blaring and their lights flashing, there is immediate concern for anyone who might have been trapped within. Rescue workers are quick to rush from the trucks toward the building, eager to douse the flames and bring the blaze under control. And while the fire rages on, a silhouette steps from it. A few workers rush towards the body, bringing a weighted blanket to drape over his shoulders, helping him get further away from it.
The man is Damian Angel.
The rescue workers, not recognizing their victim, move him towards a nearby ambulance. As Damian sits upon the open back, his eyes are drawn back to what had been his home for some twenty years. Upon his face is a look of shock… very unlike the Devil Himself. He watches his life go up in flames…
-----
It was October 27, 2019. While most people were using the weekend to put the finishing touches on their children’s Halloween costumes or nursing the hangovers of their own parties, Supreme Championship Wrestling was in the midst of the Under Attack pay-per-view event. While the night would go down as the night Sierra Swann outlasted five other competitors in the vaunted Chamber match to win the SCW World Championship from Owen Cruze, for Damian Angel the night held different significance. For by the time the destructive match had begun, he was not in the building. At least, not as far as he was concerned.
Earlier in the night, Damian had taken on Peyton Rice in what had been a match with lukewarm anticipation. For Peyton, it was an emotional contest, coming not long after the murder of Ricky Octavius. For Damian… it was another match in an effort to restore his place in the order of Supreme Championship Wrestling. And in the end, it was a match that Damian had lost. He would never admit to throwing a match, but a part of him was met with relief in defeat...
---INITIATING SCW FEED---
Damian is shown sitting up. He rolls out of the ring. Damian begins to walk around the ring. The cameras show him, stretching his arms out, before zooming in, catching a glimpse of him talking to himself, but nothing is audible.
Knots: “I believe the Devil has lost it.”
Sharper: “Damian Angel muttering to himself after losing this match. What is going on here?”
Damian stops, turning to look at the ring. He stares at it for a few moments, before making his way toward it. He gets ready to hop onto the apron, only to be grabbed.
Knots: “What in the blue hell?”
The cameras show Damian, struggling before he is pulled underneath the ring. The crowd is heard gasping. As cameras show the outside of the ring, where Damian was grabbed.
Sharper: “Folks, I don’t know what happened, but Damian Angel was just pulled under the ring, by who we don’t know.”
Cameras show the spot Damian was grabbed once again, before we cut away. Smoke starts to billow from it as the cameraman steps back. He then steps forward and looks under, more smoke billowing out before we cut away.
---CUTTING SCW FEED---
Damian was dragged under the ring, a burlap sack thrown over his head and bound by rope. He had no cognizant idea of where he was - he was dragged out through a trapdoor under the ring, quickly whisked away from the arena. Unbeknownst to anyone else in SCW, by the time the main event was underway, Damian Angel was out of the city. An hour after the show, he was dumped into a damp cell, the bag removed from his head, and the light around him was blinding. Squinting, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings.
Angel: “Where the fuck…”
Focusing in, Damian finds himself inside a shark cage, looking out over a crowd of people, much like a Christian in the middle of the Roman coliseum. As he struggles to focus in on faces, he hears the roar of the crowd, followed by the appearance of a black-robed man. This man wears a hood over his head as he moves along a procession, pausing to survey The Devil Himself, before standing behind a podium. Staring towards Damian, he states in a booming, authoritative voice…
Judge: “Let the trial of Damian Angel commence!”
Damian moves forward, his hands rattling on the bars of the shark cage.
Angel: “Trial? On what charges? On whose authority?”
Judge: “Now is not the time for you to question the process, Damian.”
Angel: “There is no authorization to try me for any crimes. Who are you? I demand answers.”
The Judge ignores Damian’s demands, which only causes further anger in the man once dubbed the “Hellbound Messiah”.
Judge: “For our first witness, we call Helena Evans to the stand.”
Damian leers, watching as Helena strides past him, a smug expression in her eyes. She moves to a seat in front of the podium, facing Damian directly.
Judge: “State your name for the record.”
Evans: “Helena Evans.”
Judge: “And what is the nature of your relationship with the accused?”
She looks at Damian again, her expression hardening as she stares death towards him.
Evans: “I met Damian back in 2007.”
Judge: “Under what auspices?”
Evans: “He presented himself as a Doctor where I was staying.”
Judge: “Please, do continue.”
She continued relaying their story, not taking her eyes off of his as she does.
Evans: “At first, I thought he only wanted to help me… to allow me to heal on my terms. But I soon discovered that I was nothing more than an unwilling pawn in his game with my step-brother, Chad. Soon after he departed SCW the first time, I joined his order. We became lovers. I bore him a son. But then I was victimized by him.”
Judge: “In what way?”
Evans: “He cast me out like I was a common whore.”
Angel: “You attempted a coup.”
Evans: “I attempted to SAVE us! You were going to lead us into oblivion with a stupid smile on your face… all to show up some unworthy asshole wrestlers. Who gives a shit!? That was always your way… you never thought about the bigger picture. You never considered what anyone beyond yourself might have. You acted on impulse for your own desires.”
Damian sneers, breathing heavily through his nose, restrained only by the knowledge that the shark cage was imprisoning him.
Evans: “I loved you. I was going to HELP you… but you couldn’t have that. You couldn’t have any EQUAL support… it had to be your will and your way above anything else. So yeah, I was planning to take over your “Order”. I would have done a fucking better job with it than you.”
Angel: “WHY THIS CHARADE!?”
Damian stands up forcefully, nearly knocking the shark cage to the ground. Helena grins, shaking her head.
Evans: “This isn’t my mechanation, Damian. This is all you. You’re responsible for everything that’s happening here. Just like you always have been. Just like you command.”
The two stare at each other a moment longer before…
Evans: “Am I done now?”
Judge: “Yes. Miss Evans Thank you.”
She steps down from her seat, walking towards the shark cage and looking at Damian.
Evans: “I hope you burn for this…”
She moves just out of reach, exiting into the swarm of people.
Angel: “This is ridiculous. I demand to face my accuser.”
Judge: “Demand? Damian, you are in no position to demand anything of me or anyone else.”
Angel: “You have presented NO charges. NO accusations. Just a circus designed for what Godless purpose?”
The sound of the gavel banging on the podium can be heard. Damian glares towards the faceless judge.
Judge: “You have nothing. Your order has abandoned you. Do you really not understand that? Everything you promised… everything you have said has been built upon lies. The Devil Himself has truly become the great deceiver. Your order has burned around you… what do you say?”
Damian shakes his head.
Angel: “No…”
Lifting his eyes to the judge, he grins.
Angel: “Not yet, anyway.”
A glimmer flashes in the Devil’s eye, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
Angel: “Do you really think you could organize a mob gathering against me without me having contingencies in place?”
Judge: “What is this?”
Angel: “I never go anywhere without back-ups to my back-ups. I have plans for every conceivable possibility.”
Judge: “You…”
Angel: “You cannot stop me. I know who I am. I know what I need to do. You want me to burn? You will burn in my place. You think I cannot be redeemed?”
He smirks.
Angel: “I am the Redeemer.”
Flames start to fly around the area. The crowd begins to disperse as Damian remains in his shark cage, staring at the judge as two other men start to approach him, getting him out of the scene.
Then in a flash, everything was black. Damian awoke in the back of an ambulance, oxygen pressed to his face as he looks around. Two paramedics work over him…
And the scene fades…
------
“I am a man who has not been one-hundred percent committed. I have not been one-hundred percent of anything. Not committed to Supreme Championship Wrestling. Not committed to my career. And despite everyone remembering the Damian Angel of old, the Damian Angel of 2007 who won Taking Hold of the Flame, broke Alex Desoubrais’ spine and went into a Holy War with Chad Evans… that man is long dead. The Devil Himself no longer lives. There are days I get up and I don’t even know how I did those things before. I mean I crucified a man against the stage, lashed him with a whip of barbed wire, and jammed a wire crown upon his head in a moment of religious iconography.
How do I reconcile that thirteen years later?
So what happens when we are faced with the realization that we are not what we once were? When I started in SCW, I made it a point to target people like I have become now. People clinging to their reputations and becoming albatrosses to the company at the expense of tomorrow. I look myself in the mirror and I am sickened by what I see. I had once woven together a tapestry of story and now I am merely a shell of myself. What do I have to offer?
And then I look to the future… to the likes of Peyton Rice and I see me place.
Many have wondered why I find myself circling her orbit. Let me make it clear: When I say she is responsible for my rebirth, I mean it entirely. I hold no sinister motives nor sexual proliferations towards her. Peyton is simply… the key. She is the key to tomorrow for me. Because when you have men like me, who’s best days are behind them… the path into tomorrow is through the faces that will carry the company there. Tomorrow is not mine. It is her’s. And so I secure my path by ensuring her safe passage to it.
And it is through coincidence that I now find myself at her side for this Trios tournament.
I am telling you now… I am formally declaring that should my trio win this tournament, my contract is to be abdicated to Peyton. Allow her a second wish, for I have my new lease on life through her. And for the first time in my life… I have fear.
I fear that I will let her down.
I fear that I will lose this chance at Redemption.
But for those in this tournament, I fear that you will not know peace after I am through. Because whether by act or mere reputation, I AM The Devil Himself. And while that does not carry the weight it once had, I do not fear what I can do to the foe. Mark my words… I am coming for blood.”