PERSONAL INFORMATION
-------------------------------------------------
Wrestler's Alias: “Heartless” Rupert Adell
Wrestler's Real Name: Rupert Adell
Pic Base: Pete Dunne
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 200 lbs.
Birthdate: 1-11-1996
Birth Place: Boston, Massachusetts
Current Residence: Boston, Massachusetts
Physical Description:
Rupert doesn’t look too imposing at first glance, but just because he doesn’t look like he’s jacked for a guy his size doesn’t mean he’s not capable of inflicting some serious punishment. His blonde hair, once neatly kept short and tidy, has now grown out to be shoulder length and fairly messy since his transition into the Heartless, though when his hair is flipped back you can see signs of a buzzcut in places beneath where the hair hangs, indicating a bit of an internal debate on how he truly wants to present himself while he’s like this. His wrestling attire consists of full-length black tights that have “HEARTLESS” in red scratch lettering down both legs. On the front left side of the tights is the Heartless emblem from the Kingdom Hearts games while on the back is the King of Hearts playing card except with a big X cut through it corner-to-corner. He also wears black boots, a heavy amount of black wrist tape (to give him plenty to work with if he needs to use it for obvious rule-bending purposes) and black elbow pads that also both have the Heartless emblem from the Kingdom Hearts games on the back.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CHARACTER NOTE: Because of the issues he faced in his previous fed in dealing with the backstage politics of a Kliq-like group for the majority of his time there (see the bio below for full details), Rupert’s personality and outlook on the wrestling business has shifted towards a more “all about me, I’m the only person I can rely on” attitude. He doesn’t care what kind of prize is at stake, he WILL NOT accept being in tag matches or form any alliances with anybody for any reason. Because these antics went beyond simply being purely a character thing, I will even go as far as intentionally no-showing any such matches to help sell this as the character has no reason to willingly just let this go that easily, and I’m still not at a point yet where I can go back to fully trusting in relying on someone else for a match or how my character’s portrayed, which is also why I’d like to request, at the very least, that if I stick around any matches this character’s involved in ARE NOT also written by the person handling my opponent. Even if they’re a trustworthy writer, I’ve been burned by people’s egos in this game on that front too many times over the past few years to take any chances. Maybe this is a bit selfish, but if you go through some of the B.S. I’ve put up with for far longer than I honestly should have, you’d be a little hesitant to suddenly put your faith in others all over again too.
WRESTLING INFORMATION
-------------------------------------------------
Wrestling Style: Rupert is a very balanced wrestler capable of doing just about anything asked of him, although the power game is a bit of a weak point when tasked with facing much larger individuals. The most important thing to note, however, is that this “Heartless” incarnation of Rupert is extremely aggressive and vicious, doing his best to never give his opponents a moment to breathe or wasting any openings. He’s not shy about bending the rules or trying to brutalize an opponent before the bell where he can get away with the kind of assault that would get him disqualified after it rings. Think how Chris Jericho’s been operating in New Japan (except greatly tone down the arrogance) and you’ve pretty much got this man in a nutshell.
Alignment (Face/Tweener/Heel): Heel
Years Pro: 4
Primary Finisher: The Void (Powerbomb dropped into a Double Knee Backbreaker)
*Rare Finisher: Crowning Moment (Swinging Reverse STO)
*This finisher is rare only because it was Rupert’s original finisher when he was known as “The King of Hearts.” He still keeps it in his arsenal, but for the most part it’s been all but abandoned in favor of The Void. Take note that if Rupert does decide to use the Crowning Moment, it’s a sign of desperation in a longer match where The Void has failed to end it at least once or twice already and he’ll use whatever he has, even buried deep in his arsenal, to try and end things. This, by no means, guarantees the Crowning Moment will get the pin, just that Rupert is digging deep to try and find a solution to scoring the win. Beyond this situation, try to ignore that the Crowning Moment even exists in this application.
Signature Moves:
Beheading (Rope Hung DDT)
Sword Arts (Straight Jacket Neckbreaker - stolen finisher from longtime rival Zero)
Stack the Deck (Over-the-shoulder Belly-to-back Piledriver/Sheamus’ White Noise)
Awakening (Superkick)
Theme Song: “The Encounter” by Yoko Shimomura
Common Moves:
German Suplex
Clothesline
High Knee, sometimes to an opponent seated in the corner
Slingshot DDT to opponent on the apron
Diving Elbow Drop
Vertical Suplex (will sometimes drop opponent in a Brainbuster instead)
Vicious barrage of punches, elbows, knees, kicks and stomps to an opponent in the corner
Step-Up Enzuiguri
Double Underhook Backbreaker
Moonsault (will often perform onto his opponent’s back instead of their chest, but he isn’t picky as long as he can land the move)
Triangle Choke
Boston Crab (will often slowly transition into the elevated variation where he can bury his knee into his opponent’s shoulders or the back of their neck)
Cloverleaf
Joint Manipulation (the finger bending and snapping that guys like Pete Dunne and Marty Scurll employ in their matches)
Exploder Suplex
Any form of blatant cheating he’s able to get away with in a match
Strengths:
Very vicious and aggressive, always looking to maintain any advantage he gets even if it means causing an injury that he can constantly exploit as a match progresses.
Can be dangerously smart about how he bends the rules or unleashes his aggression (usually before a match where most of it is “still technically legal”) in order to gain any sort of advantage he can get.
If his former nickname was any indication, despite now being “Heartless” this man still possesses an incredible heart and fight that is hard for anyone to match, making it extremely difficult to keep him down no matter how much you throw at him or how much the fans just want to see him be put down and stay there.
Weaknesses:
His size can often hinder him when it comes to how he goes about a match, especially being able to put away much larger opponents with The Void.
Despite how crafty he can be in doing it, it’s still possible his aggressiveness or willingness to often bend the rules to gain the upper hand can see him lose by DQ instead.
Entrance:
“The Encounter” by Yoko Shimomura begins to play as the Tron shows the King of Hearts playing card, then after a moment an X is sliced into it corner-to-corner, causing the card to fall to pieces. From here, clips of the now-Heartless Rupert Adell begin to play as the man himself marches out onto the stage, a look of determined anger in his eyes as he carries the bloodstained ION World Championship along in his right hand. He pauses on the stage to take a look at it, reminding himself of where he once was and where he wants to be again, before he storms down the ramp, giving the fans zero attention regardless of whether they boo him or cheer in hopes that the Rupert of old may one day return. He aggressively circles the ring, carelessly tossing the ION World Title belt to the timekeeper with a stern glare before he rolls into the ring and stands tall in the center, slamming his fist into his chest once before shaking his head and moving to stand in his corner, the look in his eyes making it clear he wants to get this match started right now.
Biography:
Rupert Adell was no different from most young people dreaming of getting into the wrestling business. He was a good kid and worked hard in school and athletics, and once he was out of school he went straight into training, busting his ass day in and day out until he was finally ready to get in front of a crowd and compete. He bounced around for a little bit between several smaller promotions until he finally landed his first solid contract for ION Championship Wrestling, a wrestling organization that operated as one of the many sports endeavors under the umbrella of ION (International Operations Network), a global conglomerate with no real specialty that would manage and operate anything they could use their vast reach to promote in order to rake in the money.
Rupert certainly showed a lot of promise in his debut match for the company, wrestling ICW veteran Delmaru to what would be only the third (and coincidentally, final) draw in company history. Impressed by this, for his second match he was challenged to a non-title bout by Zero, the company’s reigning World Champion and regarded by many as the greatest overall athlete under the ION umbrella. To the shock of everyone, Rupert would upset Zero to score his first official win in the company, giving his stock a massive boost as this kickstarted an undefeated streak that would last for two months as he clawed his way towards the top of the company’s *rankings. At the next pay-per-view, however, Rupert would suffer his very first defeat as he was dominated by the dark figure known as Seraphim. It was at this point he learned that there was a Kliq-like group backstage referring to themselves as the Elites that consisted of Zero, Seraphim, Custos and James “Platinum” Howler that exploited the lack of desire from the Board to serve as a constant set of authority figures to manipulate bookings in their favor, and Rupert was told point blank that he only defeated Zero because Zero decided to be nice (as he had a habit of only showing his full potential during World Title matches, and even then he was prone to throwing them to give up the title when he got bored of being champion to resume being the hunter as opposed to the hunted), and the squash by Seraphim was their way of making sure this “hot new talent” didn’t get too high on himself thinking he had a future that didn’t run through them.
After a losing streak that followed in the wake of this loss for a few months before he managed to stabilize his record and snap it, Rupert had his first opportunity with World Title implications in the form of the new Challenge Series tournament, a two month long round robin tournament (that would only break for pay-per-views to operate by the rankings as normal) where the winner would get a floating World Title shot to cash in at any point in the next year (with one week’s notice so the match could be properly promoted). Rupert’s fortunes were not kind to him, however, as three members of the Elites ended up in his group and they abused their booking stranglehold to all defeat him en route to ensuring at least two of them advanced to the semi-final matches from their group. The finals would ultimately come down to Zero and Howler with Zero, still reigning as World Champion, overcoming his fellow Elite to secure the floating title shot, essentially gaining extra protection for his title reign. Rupert wouldn’t stay down for long, though, as the first pay-per-view following the end of the Challenge Series saw him at the top of the rankings as he got his very first World Title shot. Zero, however, proved the prior warnings of the Elites true as he wrestled on an entirely different level from the last time they’d met months ago, easily dismantling the kid and scoring two straight falls to retain what was becoming his longest World Title reign to date.
Over the course of the next two years, Rupert would continue to compete with the company, earning the love and respect of the fans with his heart and determination no matter how much he found himself having to overcome the backstage politics of the Elites, earning the nickname “The King of Hearts” in the process. In that time span, he would earn at least three more World Title shots but would fall short in all of them, one being against “The Emerald Knight” Alexander Bastion while the other two were title rematches with Zero in subsequent reigns of his, though in the second of these Rupert gained a lot of attention backstage (as well as even more heat with the Elites) when he became the first wrestler ever to take a fall off Zero in a World Title match where the man was actually going all out to retain his gold. He did, however, gain at least one title reign during this time, teaming with the aforementioned Bastion (who was fresh off of turning face after growing sick of being a heel and teaming with Seraphim as the Paragons of Darkness, again due to more Elites backstage politics) to become Tag Team Champions for a time, though they would end up vacating the belts when Bastion was sidelined with an injury that would put him out of action for up to a year.
Throughout the second half of 2017, Rupert would find himself in his best position yet as not only was he once again finding the same rhythm he had when he first debuted as he tore through the rankings, but the backstage stranglehold of the Elites had also finally been curbed when the Board at long last began to step in to put a stop to it, the ensuing issues seeing Seraphim and Zero (fresh off the end of his fourth World Title reign now that he was growing sick of the loss of control he had backstage) leave the company while Custos and Howler began to stumble without their safety net. Heading into December, it was clear from the start that unless he asked for time off Rupert was going to end the year with another shot at the gold as no one could overtake him even if they won every match throughout the month. Any excitement he had for this prospect, however, immediately soured when Zero unexpectedly returned during the previous months’ Challenge Series and went on to win it, immediately cashing in his title shot and ripping the belt away from new champion Kevorn only a week after he’d won it to begin his record-breaking fifth reign with the belt. When the pay-per-view came, fans were left in complete shock in the presence of a rare double-turn as Zero’s usual arrogance and seemingly unstoppable “100% effort” crumbled in the face of Rupert throwing all regard for rules and morals out the window as he used every trick in the book on top of a ruthless and aggressive onslaught, his anger and frustration for how Zero and the Elites had treated him backstage since he arrived finally boiling over. When the dust had settled, Rupert had finally won the World Title and even picked up a clean 2-0 win over Zero despite him actually going all out (something that was widely considered to be impossible even if you were the de facto greatest wrestler of all time), the onslaught actually leaving Zero injured and deciding to retire following the match.
For the first half of 2018, Rupert took on the new nickname of “Heartless” as he continued this behavior, not caring about anything other than being World Champion and continuing his vicious assaults even in non-title matches, quickly gaining a new reputation as numerous other wrestlers were injured and several more simply quit the company after being swept by him in their World Title bids. Rupert ultimately became the second longest reigning World Champion and one of its most dominant as no one was able to take a fall off him, but the damage he was causing came with a price as the dwindling roster (with those left saying Rupert’s behavior was far worse than even Zero and the Elites’ backstage politics) ultimately caused ION to shut down the ICW venture, making him its final World Champion. This was demoralizing to Rupert as he was now out of a job and any new place he went to would see him starting from the very bottom all over again, though he refused to accept the blame for causing this in the first place.
As he sat on the sidelines for most of 2018 trying desperately to find a solution to his problems, Rupert stumbled across Supreme Championship Wrestling, and kept an eye on the company and its talent. When he heard about the open invitational they hold during their End of the Year Special event, he decided this was the perfect opportunity to make the kind of statement that brought him infamy near the end of his run with ION and their wrestling events and hopefully propel him into immediate “top threat” status. Now, exactly one year to the day when this once starry-eyed young talent became the “Heartless” force of nature he is now, Rupert arrives in SCW with the ION World Championship as a memento of what he’s done and a warning to all who oppose him of what he’s capable of, all in the name of reaching the top of the mountain by any means necessary.
*It should be noted that unlike most wrestling promotions where final say on matches, especially for titles, belongs to whoever is the boss, ION Championship Wrestling operated under a very strict points system as a means of keeping the ION Board of Directors (who ran the wrestling company but also had their attention divided on all their other projects as well) out of these decisions as much as possible. Matches would be booked at random throughout the month’s shows with the winner earning two points while the loser earned none, and the rare draw earned both competitors one point. At the end of the month going into the pay-per-view show, whoever had the highest point total would challenge for the World Title in a Best 2-out-of-3 Falls Match, while the remaining points rankings would determine who faced off for the rest of the card. In these cases, pay-per-view wins were worth four points, except for the “Triangle Matches” when there was an odd number of total active roster members, where the three competitors with the lowest points totals would do battle against one another in three separate back-to-back-to-back matches and winners earned two points per victory. In the event of a tie at the top of the rankings, the World Title challenger was determined by whoever had the better overall win percentage. The champion was exempt from the rankings but would still compete every week and be allowed to choose who they faced every week, not earning any points in cases where they won. The only exceptions to the points system (and the only time the World Title could be defended outside of pay-per-views) were the prize for the winner of the annual Challenge Series round robin tournament, which was a floating title shot that could be cashed in at any time with one week’s notice (so the match could be promoted), and the ION Interregional Championship, the company’s secondary title division established about a year after Rupert’s debut for newer talent and those with “less than stellar” win-loss records in the company. If the Interregional Champion could clear five straight successful defenses with the title (essentially hold it for five months straight), they had the option of vacating the title in exchange for an immediate World Title match (again, with one week’s notice) and moving up to the World Title division regardless of the outcome.
-------------------------------------------------
Wrestler's Alias: “Heartless” Rupert Adell
Wrestler's Real Name: Rupert Adell
Pic Base: Pete Dunne
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 200 lbs.
Birthdate: 1-11-1996
Birth Place: Boston, Massachusetts
Current Residence: Boston, Massachusetts
Physical Description:
Rupert doesn’t look too imposing at first glance, but just because he doesn’t look like he’s jacked for a guy his size doesn’t mean he’s not capable of inflicting some serious punishment. His blonde hair, once neatly kept short and tidy, has now grown out to be shoulder length and fairly messy since his transition into the Heartless, though when his hair is flipped back you can see signs of a buzzcut in places beneath where the hair hangs, indicating a bit of an internal debate on how he truly wants to present himself while he’s like this. His wrestling attire consists of full-length black tights that have “HEARTLESS” in red scratch lettering down both legs. On the front left side of the tights is the Heartless emblem from the Kingdom Hearts games while on the back is the King of Hearts playing card except with a big X cut through it corner-to-corner. He also wears black boots, a heavy amount of black wrist tape (to give him plenty to work with if he needs to use it for obvious rule-bending purposes) and black elbow pads that also both have the Heartless emblem from the Kingdom Hearts games on the back.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CHARACTER NOTE: Because of the issues he faced in his previous fed in dealing with the backstage politics of a Kliq-like group for the majority of his time there (see the bio below for full details), Rupert’s personality and outlook on the wrestling business has shifted towards a more “all about me, I’m the only person I can rely on” attitude. He doesn’t care what kind of prize is at stake, he WILL NOT accept being in tag matches or form any alliances with anybody for any reason. Because these antics went beyond simply being purely a character thing, I will even go as far as intentionally no-showing any such matches to help sell this as the character has no reason to willingly just let this go that easily, and I’m still not at a point yet where I can go back to fully trusting in relying on someone else for a match or how my character’s portrayed, which is also why I’d like to request, at the very least, that if I stick around any matches this character’s involved in ARE NOT also written by the person handling my opponent. Even if they’re a trustworthy writer, I’ve been burned by people’s egos in this game on that front too many times over the past few years to take any chances. Maybe this is a bit selfish, but if you go through some of the B.S. I’ve put up with for far longer than I honestly should have, you’d be a little hesitant to suddenly put your faith in others all over again too.
WRESTLING INFORMATION
-------------------------------------------------
Wrestling Style: Rupert is a very balanced wrestler capable of doing just about anything asked of him, although the power game is a bit of a weak point when tasked with facing much larger individuals. The most important thing to note, however, is that this “Heartless” incarnation of Rupert is extremely aggressive and vicious, doing his best to never give his opponents a moment to breathe or wasting any openings. He’s not shy about bending the rules or trying to brutalize an opponent before the bell where he can get away with the kind of assault that would get him disqualified after it rings. Think how Chris Jericho’s been operating in New Japan (except greatly tone down the arrogance) and you’ve pretty much got this man in a nutshell.
Alignment (Face/Tweener/Heel): Heel
Years Pro: 4
Primary Finisher: The Void (Powerbomb dropped into a Double Knee Backbreaker)
*Rare Finisher: Crowning Moment (Swinging Reverse STO)
*This finisher is rare only because it was Rupert’s original finisher when he was known as “The King of Hearts.” He still keeps it in his arsenal, but for the most part it’s been all but abandoned in favor of The Void. Take note that if Rupert does decide to use the Crowning Moment, it’s a sign of desperation in a longer match where The Void has failed to end it at least once or twice already and he’ll use whatever he has, even buried deep in his arsenal, to try and end things. This, by no means, guarantees the Crowning Moment will get the pin, just that Rupert is digging deep to try and find a solution to scoring the win. Beyond this situation, try to ignore that the Crowning Moment even exists in this application.
Signature Moves:
Beheading (Rope Hung DDT)
Sword Arts (Straight Jacket Neckbreaker - stolen finisher from longtime rival Zero)
Stack the Deck (Over-the-shoulder Belly-to-back Piledriver/Sheamus’ White Noise)
Awakening (Superkick)
Theme Song: “The Encounter” by Yoko Shimomura
Common Moves:
German Suplex
Clothesline
High Knee, sometimes to an opponent seated in the corner
Slingshot DDT to opponent on the apron
Diving Elbow Drop
Vertical Suplex (will sometimes drop opponent in a Brainbuster instead)
Vicious barrage of punches, elbows, knees, kicks and stomps to an opponent in the corner
Step-Up Enzuiguri
Double Underhook Backbreaker
Moonsault (will often perform onto his opponent’s back instead of their chest, but he isn’t picky as long as he can land the move)
Triangle Choke
Boston Crab (will often slowly transition into the elevated variation where he can bury his knee into his opponent’s shoulders or the back of their neck)
Cloverleaf
Joint Manipulation (the finger bending and snapping that guys like Pete Dunne and Marty Scurll employ in their matches)
Exploder Suplex
Any form of blatant cheating he’s able to get away with in a match
Strengths:
Very vicious and aggressive, always looking to maintain any advantage he gets even if it means causing an injury that he can constantly exploit as a match progresses.
Can be dangerously smart about how he bends the rules or unleashes his aggression (usually before a match where most of it is “still technically legal”) in order to gain any sort of advantage he can get.
If his former nickname was any indication, despite now being “Heartless” this man still possesses an incredible heart and fight that is hard for anyone to match, making it extremely difficult to keep him down no matter how much you throw at him or how much the fans just want to see him be put down and stay there.
Weaknesses:
His size can often hinder him when it comes to how he goes about a match, especially being able to put away much larger opponents with The Void.
Despite how crafty he can be in doing it, it’s still possible his aggressiveness or willingness to often bend the rules to gain the upper hand can see him lose by DQ instead.
Entrance:
“The Encounter” by Yoko Shimomura begins to play as the Tron shows the King of Hearts playing card, then after a moment an X is sliced into it corner-to-corner, causing the card to fall to pieces. From here, clips of the now-Heartless Rupert Adell begin to play as the man himself marches out onto the stage, a look of determined anger in his eyes as he carries the bloodstained ION World Championship along in his right hand. He pauses on the stage to take a look at it, reminding himself of where he once was and where he wants to be again, before he storms down the ramp, giving the fans zero attention regardless of whether they boo him or cheer in hopes that the Rupert of old may one day return. He aggressively circles the ring, carelessly tossing the ION World Title belt to the timekeeper with a stern glare before he rolls into the ring and stands tall in the center, slamming his fist into his chest once before shaking his head and moving to stand in his corner, the look in his eyes making it clear he wants to get this match started right now.
Biography:
Rupert Adell was no different from most young people dreaming of getting into the wrestling business. He was a good kid and worked hard in school and athletics, and once he was out of school he went straight into training, busting his ass day in and day out until he was finally ready to get in front of a crowd and compete. He bounced around for a little bit between several smaller promotions until he finally landed his first solid contract for ION Championship Wrestling, a wrestling organization that operated as one of the many sports endeavors under the umbrella of ION (International Operations Network), a global conglomerate with no real specialty that would manage and operate anything they could use their vast reach to promote in order to rake in the money.
Rupert certainly showed a lot of promise in his debut match for the company, wrestling ICW veteran Delmaru to what would be only the third (and coincidentally, final) draw in company history. Impressed by this, for his second match he was challenged to a non-title bout by Zero, the company’s reigning World Champion and regarded by many as the greatest overall athlete under the ION umbrella. To the shock of everyone, Rupert would upset Zero to score his first official win in the company, giving his stock a massive boost as this kickstarted an undefeated streak that would last for two months as he clawed his way towards the top of the company’s *rankings. At the next pay-per-view, however, Rupert would suffer his very first defeat as he was dominated by the dark figure known as Seraphim. It was at this point he learned that there was a Kliq-like group backstage referring to themselves as the Elites that consisted of Zero, Seraphim, Custos and James “Platinum” Howler that exploited the lack of desire from the Board to serve as a constant set of authority figures to manipulate bookings in their favor, and Rupert was told point blank that he only defeated Zero because Zero decided to be nice (as he had a habit of only showing his full potential during World Title matches, and even then he was prone to throwing them to give up the title when he got bored of being champion to resume being the hunter as opposed to the hunted), and the squash by Seraphim was their way of making sure this “hot new talent” didn’t get too high on himself thinking he had a future that didn’t run through them.
After a losing streak that followed in the wake of this loss for a few months before he managed to stabilize his record and snap it, Rupert had his first opportunity with World Title implications in the form of the new Challenge Series tournament, a two month long round robin tournament (that would only break for pay-per-views to operate by the rankings as normal) where the winner would get a floating World Title shot to cash in at any point in the next year (with one week’s notice so the match could be properly promoted). Rupert’s fortunes were not kind to him, however, as three members of the Elites ended up in his group and they abused their booking stranglehold to all defeat him en route to ensuring at least two of them advanced to the semi-final matches from their group. The finals would ultimately come down to Zero and Howler with Zero, still reigning as World Champion, overcoming his fellow Elite to secure the floating title shot, essentially gaining extra protection for his title reign. Rupert wouldn’t stay down for long, though, as the first pay-per-view following the end of the Challenge Series saw him at the top of the rankings as he got his very first World Title shot. Zero, however, proved the prior warnings of the Elites true as he wrestled on an entirely different level from the last time they’d met months ago, easily dismantling the kid and scoring two straight falls to retain what was becoming his longest World Title reign to date.
Over the course of the next two years, Rupert would continue to compete with the company, earning the love and respect of the fans with his heart and determination no matter how much he found himself having to overcome the backstage politics of the Elites, earning the nickname “The King of Hearts” in the process. In that time span, he would earn at least three more World Title shots but would fall short in all of them, one being against “The Emerald Knight” Alexander Bastion while the other two were title rematches with Zero in subsequent reigns of his, though in the second of these Rupert gained a lot of attention backstage (as well as even more heat with the Elites) when he became the first wrestler ever to take a fall off Zero in a World Title match where the man was actually going all out to retain his gold. He did, however, gain at least one title reign during this time, teaming with the aforementioned Bastion (who was fresh off of turning face after growing sick of being a heel and teaming with Seraphim as the Paragons of Darkness, again due to more Elites backstage politics) to become Tag Team Champions for a time, though they would end up vacating the belts when Bastion was sidelined with an injury that would put him out of action for up to a year.
Throughout the second half of 2017, Rupert would find himself in his best position yet as not only was he once again finding the same rhythm he had when he first debuted as he tore through the rankings, but the backstage stranglehold of the Elites had also finally been curbed when the Board at long last began to step in to put a stop to it, the ensuing issues seeing Seraphim and Zero (fresh off the end of his fourth World Title reign now that he was growing sick of the loss of control he had backstage) leave the company while Custos and Howler began to stumble without their safety net. Heading into December, it was clear from the start that unless he asked for time off Rupert was going to end the year with another shot at the gold as no one could overtake him even if they won every match throughout the month. Any excitement he had for this prospect, however, immediately soured when Zero unexpectedly returned during the previous months’ Challenge Series and went on to win it, immediately cashing in his title shot and ripping the belt away from new champion Kevorn only a week after he’d won it to begin his record-breaking fifth reign with the belt. When the pay-per-view came, fans were left in complete shock in the presence of a rare double-turn as Zero’s usual arrogance and seemingly unstoppable “100% effort” crumbled in the face of Rupert throwing all regard for rules and morals out the window as he used every trick in the book on top of a ruthless and aggressive onslaught, his anger and frustration for how Zero and the Elites had treated him backstage since he arrived finally boiling over. When the dust had settled, Rupert had finally won the World Title and even picked up a clean 2-0 win over Zero despite him actually going all out (something that was widely considered to be impossible even if you were the de facto greatest wrestler of all time), the onslaught actually leaving Zero injured and deciding to retire following the match.
For the first half of 2018, Rupert took on the new nickname of “Heartless” as he continued this behavior, not caring about anything other than being World Champion and continuing his vicious assaults even in non-title matches, quickly gaining a new reputation as numerous other wrestlers were injured and several more simply quit the company after being swept by him in their World Title bids. Rupert ultimately became the second longest reigning World Champion and one of its most dominant as no one was able to take a fall off him, but the damage he was causing came with a price as the dwindling roster (with those left saying Rupert’s behavior was far worse than even Zero and the Elites’ backstage politics) ultimately caused ION to shut down the ICW venture, making him its final World Champion. This was demoralizing to Rupert as he was now out of a job and any new place he went to would see him starting from the very bottom all over again, though he refused to accept the blame for causing this in the first place.
As he sat on the sidelines for most of 2018 trying desperately to find a solution to his problems, Rupert stumbled across Supreme Championship Wrestling, and kept an eye on the company and its talent. When he heard about the open invitational they hold during their End of the Year Special event, he decided this was the perfect opportunity to make the kind of statement that brought him infamy near the end of his run with ION and their wrestling events and hopefully propel him into immediate “top threat” status. Now, exactly one year to the day when this once starry-eyed young talent became the “Heartless” force of nature he is now, Rupert arrives in SCW with the ION World Championship as a memento of what he’s done and a warning to all who oppose him of what he’s capable of, all in the name of reaching the top of the mountain by any means necessary.
*It should be noted that unlike most wrestling promotions where final say on matches, especially for titles, belongs to whoever is the boss, ION Championship Wrestling operated under a very strict points system as a means of keeping the ION Board of Directors (who ran the wrestling company but also had their attention divided on all their other projects as well) out of these decisions as much as possible. Matches would be booked at random throughout the month’s shows with the winner earning two points while the loser earned none, and the rare draw earned both competitors one point. At the end of the month going into the pay-per-view show, whoever had the highest point total would challenge for the World Title in a Best 2-out-of-3 Falls Match, while the remaining points rankings would determine who faced off for the rest of the card. In these cases, pay-per-view wins were worth four points, except for the “Triangle Matches” when there was an odd number of total active roster members, where the three competitors with the lowest points totals would do battle against one another in three separate back-to-back-to-back matches and winners earned two points per victory. In the event of a tie at the top of the rankings, the World Title challenger was determined by whoever had the better overall win percentage. The champion was exempt from the rankings but would still compete every week and be allowed to choose who they faced every week, not earning any points in cases where they won. The only exceptions to the points system (and the only time the World Title could be defended outside of pay-per-views) were the prize for the winner of the annual Challenge Series round robin tournament, which was a floating title shot that could be cashed in at any time with one week’s notice (so the match could be promoted), and the ION Interregional Championship, the company’s secondary title division established about a year after Rupert’s debut for newer talent and those with “less than stellar” win-loss records in the company. If the Interregional Champion could clear five straight successful defenses with the title (essentially hold it for five months straight), they had the option of vacating the title in exchange for an immediate World Title match (again, with one week’s notice) and moving up to the World Title division regardless of the outcome.