OOC: This was long... whoops?
*Jack Rogue’s music hits to a rapturous ovation and the Precision Champion emerges from behind the curtain, gold over his
shoulder, in nervy fashion. He is dressed, as ever, in his ring gear with his black “ROGUE” tee over the top, and while he is smiling he isn’t grinning and isn’t as evidently jubilant in his body language as usual. He lifts his title aloft to a pop and walks to the edges of the stage as is his habit, then walks to the ring. His smile widens as he gazes all around him at the thousands of cheering fans in attendance then rolls into the ring under the bottom rope. After shaking hands with Trent Kingsley and holding his belt up again, Jack sits at the table, sets his belt next to him and slowly picks up a mic*
Jack: Ladies and gentlemen of Las Vegas, Nevada…
*Rogue’s tone is even but not excited; the cheap pop arrives regardless and the Precision Champion pauses for it with another smile*
Jack: …we are here tonight to ratify the most important match in the history of this company. At Duality, a week from now, I will walk to this ring for the main event, with this championship over my shoulder. That is where the certainty ends. I have no guarantee of walking out of that match with my title and many people you would ask would tell you that it’s quite unlikely. I lost a one-on-one match to Will Neilson a few weeks ago despite having been on an unbeaten streak of five before that match. Will Neilson has a greatly better record in championship matches than I do. Will Neilson is signing for RWK, is about to be living the jet-setting champion’s lifestyle and, so some say, is the guy Precision management want to lead them into the future, to lead this great company back to the prestige it once had. They want the
winner, the good-looking guy who beat both Ryan Blake and Buster Gates for world championships, the two-time world champ and former Intercontinental and Survival Champion, to be the guy on the front of the merchandise and
not the ginger that everyone remembers watching get beat the hell up every week for months.
Jack: I’ve walked into every battle I’ve ever fought as an underdog and that’s mostly because, statistically, I’ve lost most of them. Went 0-12 at one time in Sony Storm. Lost all my matches with Andersen Vega for the Survival Title and so became his employee. Lost to Joseph Diamond for the Intercontinental Championship and never pinned him when I won that title. Lost my first battle with psychosis while under Vega. Lost my first defence of the Intercontinental title. Almost cost the world a life in Alexander Diamond. Lost my freedom of will to Ivy Hale’s manipulation. Anyone who believes me to be a weak runt of a man unworthy to lead Precision has all the evidence in the world to substantiate their claim. But allow me to present some other evidence. In fact, let me tell you all, my haters, doubters and critics, a story.
Jack: I was born to an army vet mother with PTSD and a father constantly fighting the urge to drink. I grew up in the rough end of Birmingham, the second largest city in England, and spent my childhood trying frantically to stay out of fights. I started wrestling training to escape my troubles then wrestled my first nine months in a deathmatch promotion to buy a plane ticket to the states. I got here without a clue, so willing as to be desperate but a long way from ready. I got to Sony Storm because I had a knack for making a connection to people like all of you but I wasn’t close to on the right level of experience and my record reflected that. I lost until it humiliated me, broke my heart and then took my sanity. Just when all of you had dragged me by force of love back to the surface, Ivy Hale dragged me back under. But then, when a side of me I neither know nor love got what I had spent my life working for… I fought it. I fought not just the animal and the maniac in me but the loser, too. I put myself back together and found the new me, the reconstructed fragments, to be better than what broke in the first place. My cracks made me stronger. Finally, built behind closed doors while the Universe was kicking me into the dirt, the wrestler I always knew I could be, the young, skilled veteran, could break out of the shadows of what the other side of me did and what the younger me couldn’t do. And I started to win. I beat Vega, my greatest rival, for this title, under Two out of Three Falls. I beat men like Chris Young and Mike Thunder on this very program. I defended my gold against Tyson Blade under Last Man Standing at Gauntlet of Champions, then under normal rules at Judgment Day. People go on, nonstop, all the time in this business – Will Neilson included – about a “new me” that isn’t accountable for the failures and mistakes of the old. That’s not who I am. I failed to do all those great things and did all those bad things. I lost a lot in Sony Storm, I nearly killed Alexander Diamond, I lied, ambushed and cheated from a dark mental place, I submitted to evil, in Vega and Hale, in so many more ways than a tap out – twice. That was me; it’s just that that
isn’t me. I’m the same man, but I’m better now. I’m healed. I’m strong. I’m finally, at long last, ready. These three months as Precision Champion have proven that for me, have validated me, but that brings me back to here, to this table, this contract.
Jack: My career has been about all of you since day one and you’ve all done so much more for me than I could ever hope to truly thank you for. My plan to repay all of your love and my debt to Precision for the wrongs I did to it has been very simple: hold on to this title with every fibre of myself and be the best champion I can be. But I realised something today: that’s selfish. I don’t deserve the chance to make myself feel better about my wrongdoing if that’s not what’s best for Precision. What’s best for Precision is whatever all of you want so, if you guys want, this is what I’ll do tonight. I won’t sign this contract. I’ll thank Trent Kingsley for the great work he has done and will do. I’ll ask Will Neilson to this ring and wish him good luck. Then I’ll pick that championship up… and hand it to him. Then I’ll take one last bow and walk out of here forever, leaving Precision in very capable hands. If I may ask you all one last favour, it is to answer me this: is that what you want to see?
*The crowd boo deafeningly, then a chant of “No!” begins. Rogue visibly breathes a sigh of relief, grins widely, then picks up the pen and signs the match contract to a huge cheer*
Jack: Thank you all. If you want me to be your champion, then it will be my honour to walk into Duality and fight the underdog’s fight that I’ve been fighting all my life. The best Jack Rogue that has ever existed will walk in next week and make no mistake I will do my job: protecting Precision. If Will Neilson beats me at Duality, it will be because he’s better than me that night. And if he is capable of that, then I want you all to cheer it because you will have a champion that can lead you all into the future just as well as me. But if I am capable of it by Duality then Will Neilson, I will kick your head clean off your shoulders and leave that event on top of my world, which is what Precision has been since it began… as your
reigning, defending, undisputed Precision Heavyweight Champion of the world!
*Jack throws his arms out wide and stares up the ramp, as Will Neilson’s music hits*
