(N.) The Phenomenon Of Finding Valuables Not Sought For.

[Kyle Shane]

What else, really, could be said about Gerard? Gerard had had a competent argument at the very beginning but he'd let it fall apart due to his conspiracy theory handling. And since then they'd had to face each other across the ring forced to tag with two other men they both disliked, they were probably knowing Pure Class Wrestling's wacky obsession with booking tag matches going to have to team up WITH each other in some kind contrived love hurting thing, and try as he might to taunt and mock Angelo's premise about him needing help to win the dude was as convinced of his righteousness as a fanatic. And he was of the impression that he lived inside Kyle's head, which... was... true. But not for the reasons Gerard wanted it to be.

We've come to the flashpoint. The one moment in time where all these lines converge. So I want to take a second to reflect on how it all happened, and acknowledge the elephant in the room so that Gerard doesn't point it out and say it's living in my head, too. The simplest fact is that Collision Course *might* have gone another way. I've never disrespected Gerard enough to downplay his talent, because we both are fan favorites and honestly, despite a difference of opinion that manifested in our two egos neither being able to admit the other one had a point, I do still respect what he's done. So it's with that said that I can finally admit it, even in a small way. Gerard did have a point. He did, through all of that shit, manage to pin my shoulders just as I pinned his shoulders. And because he did pin my shoulders, he did have a claim to beating me. That's always, it seemed, been his central issue, the hill he was willing to die on. And as much as I wanted to fight it, to literally point out that he wasn't WINNING THE MATCH BEFORE THE TURNBUCKLE BROKE, because I was the one hitting wrestling moves on him and pinning him before I tripped... to argue that point right now just seems moot.

The fact is that it was all engineered. Congratulations Gerard, you're not an idiot or a conspiracy crackpot, I did set all of this up!

No.

This entire debacle was decided by the universe. Again, just think about the confluence of events that all had to coalesce into being at Collision Course just for that to take place. We needed a referee to go down, Kyle Shane to hit a move against a turnbuckle, said turnbuckle to break and the rope to throw Kyle Shane off balance, so that Gerard Angelo was able to score leverage on a pin, and a second referee had to come in and get a different angle look. That is... a lot going on. But as much happening in that moment, it wasn't time for Gerard Angelo to lose, because him and me still had issues. I hadn't even addressed or unpacked his obsession with telling the world Kyle Shane had been given favoritism to get to where he was. Him and me hadn't even really come to blows before Collision Course, we'd just had one or two quick segments, no. For our issue to really come out into the open, for the shots to start coming and our egos to fully flex, the universe needed Gerard Angelo to have a case.

If that sounds like the same flavor of conspiracy as Gerard is selling, it's not. I'm not claiming the universe put referees in Gerard's pocket or unscrewed a turnbuckle the way Gerard did. I'm just commenting on how funny it is that all of this was put into motion in just the way it did, so everything since Collision Course could unfold, so the conflict would escalate. So that even more elements would come into place. Like President Loki's ruling on the World title giving Gerard more motive to think he was being screwed over, giving him even more determination to win in our last match. Like the addition of a cage to seal off any doubt. Everything moved into this position, like some makerless mechanism, a clock ticking second by second until it brought it's hands here, together, a few minutes before midnight.

This is your moment, Gerard.

The universe gave you all of this. It brought you this far because it had to happen this way. And I've done my part. I've given you all the rope to hang yourself with. I've let you get to this point so I can take it all away.

Because even if I can admit that maybe you have a point, you'll never do the same. You're blinded. Blinded by the same ego, the same relentless need to prove yourself and the need to get that win that Kyle Shane showed in his rise to the top. I know enough from my first crack at the World title situation that you'll never be dissuaded from thinking like that. You're thinking the same way I was, when Gabriel and Seromine screwed me out of a Deadly Rumble win, so I doubled down on my determination, I upped the cocky patter about how afraid of facing me they were and how they could never beat me and I spoke about how my willpower was what was going to make me a champion. So I know, Gerard, you think this is the same. I know you think you've been screwed over, forgotten and passed by time and time again, and that this is your moment to step up and take what's yours.

You really think that it's because you've been held back that you never got a title shot. Not even an Underground title shot, you said, and you hold me in blame that I got one on my second match in. Did you ever put the work in and ASK for a title shot, Gerard? Hell, did you do what seems to be standard operating procedure for PCW and attack the champion from behind, pose with his title belt, maybe steal it and run away? I'm asking because that's how everyone from Justin Michaels to Dominator to Tyler Scott seems to think you should be number one contender to everything. And I thought, you've never had one title shot? Because I absolutely remember you trying to take Stormm's North American title and failing, you fucking liar.

But suppose you're right, and you never have gotten one.

And suppose you're right about it being management's fault that you're rarely ever nominated for an Icey and have barely won one. It's not like those are voted by popular vote, a consensus of people about who's work they admire the most.

What does that say about you? If management is to blame for holding you back in your career, but they give me all this consideration, then why don't you extrapolate why that is? Is it because I always put in ten times more work than you do? I'm the first one to get to the arena and the last one to leave. I try and get myself on the card even when I have nothing to do , hell, when the World Champion was gonna sit out all those Traumas while we got the Icemann Tournament going, I was the one who came up with the betting pool idea and I did that to get both the tournament and my picks over. If you're not in a match, what are you doing, Gerard? Eating catering, sitting on your hands? If you don't profit from it, you do nothing, but you come here with your hand out demanding a title match. Well, aside from winning a qualifier where more people were talking about Lee Rumbles, what have you ever done to earn one?

And realize Gerard, I didn't want to burst your bubble because I think you ARE good and you are underrated as fuck, and at any time I think you are a threat to all of these titles. But you go on about how much bullshit management puts you through and how you're so good guys, you just never get given a chance. Then you cheese your face in the shot and fucking smirk at me, saying you've gotten inside my head because I address these claims over and over. You're pulling the response out of me where I have to utterly and ruthlessly crush your career and your character. You're pulling the meanest, most honest and brutal truth about yourself out of me. And you're losing the fight you picked. You're inside my head, your claims of favoritism, my golden boy status, all of that because I have had to fight tooth and claw to get where I am and stay over. I didn't ask for second helpings of Tyler Scott, but I would rather main event a show against someone you don't consider worthy than the World Champion not compete on a card. I've had losses hamstring my momentum, every single time I think I'm getting somewhere, I'll have to go the next Trauma and tag team with some doofus who no-shows on me and my team will eat a loss. But you don't hear me crying about how overlooked and under-compensated I am.

By the way, a couple weeks ago, that "some doofus" was you, and your lack of effort cost us a win we probably should have had. And YOU lost.

But you look at that effort you didn't show there, and you still want to pretend like this is all what you deserve?

Your being here is all due to cosmic accident, a coming together at the right place, right time, right in the current track. Even you GETTING to the main event is your prize, Gerard. This, finally, is all the recognition and praise you could ever want for your skills right here, the phenomenon of you lucking into valuable things you never sought for. Reach out and grab it. This is your moment.

I had to give it to you to destroy it.

Because at the very end of all of this, it all coalesces into this one pure, crystalline moment where we clash in the cage, and buddy, if you think YOUR will is going to finally make you a champion, if you think that I'm too cocky and overlooked you for too long, you have no idea. Because I've allowed the possibility into the equation that at Collision Course, you had a point in time where you had me beat. But you have never admitted the same, and you continue to shriek that I can't beat you, long after that claim has lost all it's luster and meaning due to your lack of trying. You didn't shine in the moment, Gerard. You haven't made the impression. You haven't stuck the landing. You just got here, and are taking what you aren't working for with a smile.

It all comes down to this, Gerard. You, me, inside the cage. All of the stars have aligned, and opened up to this.

And there's no more excuses now. As much as I was fucking around when I showed the cage being made on Trauma, I was sincere about that. There's not going to be a last second break or an outside variable that gets added. There is not, never will be someone looking out for me, helping me along. There's just the universe, getting us both to the same place in time where I can use my skill and all of the willpower I can muster into putting you down. Period.

And when it's done, and your moment has passed, you're going to feel the pain of loss. Of heartbreak, that everything came together just enough to get you here, now, but you didn't have the spark that Kyle Shane has that bridges that cosmic happenstance and acceptance of the gifts that you're HANDED, with putting in good old fashioned hard work. You wanted to be gifted Icey awards. You wanted management to come up to you unsolicited and say Hey man, you need to be in the World title picture. You wanted more than anything in the world to have one, big moment on the grandest stage you could point to and say you ARE an A-list star.

So I'm going to give you one brief moment. Before I send you crashing down to earth, like a comet.

Endgame, scrub.