Darkness falls over the arena as the fans cheer, some of them out of anticipation, others out of lack of knowing how to react. Suddenly a young voice begins to recite a familiar poem.
When a man's heart is full of deceit
it burns up, dies, and a dark shadow
falls over his soul.
From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse,
a wrong that must be righted.
We look to the skies for a vindicator,
someone to strike fear into the black heart of the same man who created him.
The battle between good and evil has begun.
Against an army of shadows comes the dark warrior,
the purveyor of good, with a voice of silence,
and a mission of justice.
This. Is. Sting.
After a brief moment of silence and darkness, the titantron screen lights up with the entrance video of the "Icon".
As the crowd erupts into cheers, "Immortal" by Adema begins to play as the fans are joined by the one and only Sting as he makes his way from the backstage area and enters through the curtain, turning the corner and appearing on the stage before them all. Sting stops and outstretches his arms and leans back, letting out a loud and passionate, "Wooooo!" before making his way down the ramp.
He makes his way down the ramp, darting over to the steel steps as he reaches the end of it. He ascends the steps and walks along the apron, stepping through the ropes as he walks to the opposite side of the ring and retrieves a microphone from the ringside official. He turns around and faces the stage, the music fading out to silence as he raises the microphone to his mouth.
Sting: This past Friday night, I issued a challenge for Daniel Bryan and Damien Sandow to meet myself and Samoa Joe at Summerslam in tag team competition, a match that we will gladly be putting our UWF Tag Team Championships on the line for. Now, I was the first one out of the four of us to come out and speak on the match, and to everyone's surprise, I was very short and sweet with what I had to say. Well the reasoning for that is very simple, young Joseph usually lets Jim Cornette do a lot of the talking for him, but right now Jimmy's serving as the interim general manager of Smackdown so Joe is left on his own so I figured I'd let him ease into speaking for himself and on his own by not giving him something big and long-winded, not to start with anyhow. Once things get going and Joey starts talking and Bryan starts talking and Sandy starts talking, I'm going to start doing a lot more talking than I started with. Now that I've cleared that up, Jimmy decided to give his ol' buddy Stinger a bit of a present, a chance to whet my appetite, if you whee-el. Because, this week on Smackdown, it's going to be yours truly and Daniel Bryan in one-on-one competition!
Daniel, you belong to the crop of young talent that I have spoken out against in the past several weeks. Not because you're young, but because you're headed down a destructive path that has already had harmful repercussions. Why do you head down this path? Because you're impressionable, you want to make it and you'll do whatever you believe will get you over, that's where my problem with your youth comes in. Nothing good has come of you teaming with Damien Sandow, Daniel, nothing. You disrespected Desmond Wolfe's authority until you coaxed him into a match, and now he's gone from power. And why'd you do it? Arrogance, self-service, ego. When you faced me and Joe a few weeks ago, you tried to take him out of the equation and double team me, then claimed you were the ones being wronged when your plan blew up in your face. Why? Arrogance, self-service, ego. But it doesn't stop there, because this past Sunday, Desmond Wolfe wasn't your only victim. You interfered in Damien's match with Edge and beat him down on the night of his debut, and then this past Friday you attacked me during my match with Bray Wyatt. Why? For the same exact reasons. Arrogance, self-service, EGO!
I will not let Smackdown continue to be what the two of you have made it, what men like Bray Wyatt have made it, what the Jeff Jarretts and the Jeff Hardys and the Batistas and DiBiases and Big Shows have made it, NO MORE! But what's an old man like me going to do about it besides talk, right? Well, age is just a number, my friend, as long as I know I can beat you in my heart and my mind, then I can, I am able! And not only am I able, it will be done. There's too much wickedness going on around here, and nothing's been done about it until now. Next Friday night will be the initiation of phase one of what I'm calling the Stinger Solution, something that will see Smackdown rid of everything that makes it evil when it's seen through to completion. Friday nights need a hero, but the Justice League alone won't suffice, and that's why the Black and White Machine is here as well. You think it is you that will be submitting me young Daniel, but it will in fact be me submitting you. Yes Lock? No. Death Lock? Yes! Yes! Yes! Gotta say, I love that chant.
As Sting balances his seriousness with his lightheartedness, the theme music of Daniel Bryan begins to play.
