At the crossroads.... again...

It’s night time, dark as can be, no stars in the skies… No moon… The only lights coming from a Hummer stopped on the road… Inside the vehicle, Xavier Lux sits behind the wheel, gripping it tightly with both hands. The engine of his H1 is running, the gear shifted to drive, but he stands still at a crossroads for the third time this year, pondering his next move. The first time?

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Xavier: They told me: “I don’t have to go home, but I can’t stay there…”

He looks at the street sign that tells him the arrow pointing north will take him to IIW, 50 miles away. The arrow pointing south tells him XWF is only a few miles away if he wants to return. The road straight ahead leads right into the inevitable, where perhaps he should have headed to at this time last year: retirement.

Xavier: Actually no one told me that, I told myself that. If I had any respect left for myself, then I had to get myself out of the situation and go. But where?

Xavier takes a moment to look at the rearview mirror and sees what’s behind him, what once was, and what could have been. He stares into the darkness, what appears to be an empty void, but he knows there is something there, something he had blocked out and it him.

Xavier: Fu(k it.

He slams on the accelerator with his right foot while keeping the brake pedal pressed with his left, which causes the back wheels to spin wildly and smoke to erupt from them. He releases the break and shoots forward, but then pulls on the manual break causing the H1 to do a full 180 and then releases it so he heads into the darkness, disappearing, but not before we get a glimpse of the sign on the road: “Next exit: OCW.”

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Yup, he decided to go back to OCW for the Great Illuminatus pay per view in February, when he finally hit “fu(k it…” But that was short lived as after winning one match, he was eliminated in the next round and what was going to be his great return to OCW wasn’t because… “classic OCW baby.” Enough said. Fast forward a month, and there he sat at the crossroads for the second time.

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Xavier: How does that song go? “Here I go again on my own…?”

Xavier Lux sits there again, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, his facial expression showing that he is struggling with the decision that needs to be made. Again the road sign has three possible destinations: he could go north where IIW is over 4 thousand miles away. He could go “down” south and the emphasis on down is because down is where XWF is, still only a few miles away if he wants to be a masochist. The road straight ahead, heading west, has the shortest distance, it is literally right there… and it leads right into, again, the inevitable: retirement. Xavier takes a moment to look at the rearview mirror and sees what’s behind him, OCW… The place that used to be his father’s home promotion, but where he realized that it wasn’t his. Going back was nothing more than an itch he needed to scratch. So, with OCW in the rearview mirror, it is time to decide his next move.

Xavier: Well, I am never going back south, and I still have plenty left in the tank, so I’m not going to ride west… So north it is, across the pond.

He slams on the accelerator with his right foot, shooting forward, but then pulls on the manual break causing the H1 to do a sharp turn left, then releases it so he heads north for IIW.”

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IIW was great for Lux, for 5 months straight Xavier found himself again… He found his passion again, he found ‘winning’ again, and most importantly, he ended a championship draught that ran over a year and a half. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and quickly, as that promotion was forced to close its doors in late August and Xavier was left with 3 championships, and nobody to defend them against. Fast forward 3 months to November, and after a quick 2-match stint a month prior in a promotion that doesn’t even deserve to be named, Xavier find himself yet again at these crossroads that will likely haunt him until the day he dies.

Xavier: What have I become? Am I a journeyman now?

He let’s go of the steering wheel and buries his face in his hands before sliding them up his head and to the back, where he rest his head against them as he looks at the ‘updated’ street sign. The arrow pointing right will take him to West Virginia and TPW. God how he wishes they were back in Florida… The arrow pointing left, has no label, meaning no destination… Perhaps if he does go that way, he will be lost for good, never to find his way again… Maybe that’s what he should do and please the trolls who wish he would just ‘go away’. The destination for the road straight ahead remains unchanged from the previous times: retirement. The only difference is that suddenly, a bunch of arrows appear, in different shapes and sizes, lighting the sign up like a Christmas tree, all pointing to retirement. Every single arrow is telling him to retire, to call it quits… He even hears his own father’s voice ring in his ears…

Scorpion: It’s all over kid, yield..

Xavier grabs the steering wheel again, now with a determined look on his face.

Xavier: NO! I WILL NOT YIELD!

He slams his foot on the accelerator and shoots forward, but then pulls on the hand break causing the H1 to do a sharp turn right. With a thundering sound full of fury, the dark night becomes a dull gray right away and then white as we enter a snowstorm where, despite Xavier driving the original Hummer, he loses control of it, going offroad and flipping over multiple times before coming to a crashing halt as the Hummer slams against a row of trees. Some of the trees fall over on top of the hummer and the snow from them nearly cover it completely. Icey conditions remain undefeated in the great north.

Scorpion: Stubborn as a mule… just like me, see you at the crossroads kid.

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As the lyrics of the song fade away, we find Xavier sitting on a wooden stool in the darkness, the only light coming from a swinging lightbulb above him.

We’ll get back to our story in a minute, I know you are probably wondering what just happened and where was I really at… But that doesn’t really matter, what matters is where I’m going to be… in a few days from now: Hamilton, Ontario Canada where I take on my next opponent, the doctor of - *scoffs* I can’t even finish that sentence because it’s so idiotic, much like my opponent. For whatever reason, and maybe it’s because I’m being forced to ride this crazy rollercoaster known as Mike Zybala, but my next opponent after Soot Loosem is John Blade…

Now look, I’ve faced some bottom shelf characters before, the likes of El Landerson, Big Money Oswald and Clubbing Man come to mind… Perhaps even Warthog, nah, I put him on the next shelf up from you guys… But yeah, John Blade, you are as bottom shelf as they come… You know how people usually say: "I don’t mean any disrespect?" Well, that is not the case here… Disrespect is meant to the fullest because I just don’t take someone like you seriously… and the reasons are many and we could literally spend hours going over them, but the main one is this: how can I take you seriously when even you don’t take yourself seriously?

Are you familiar with "Same Song" from Digital Underground featuring a very young 2Pac? I know you are, I mean you claim to be a thug who can rap, so you got to be... Well the hook of that song goes: "All around the world same song." and while the song itself may not apply to you, we can twist those words a bit and say that all around the wrestling world, it's the same song with you man... You are like the COVID virus man, you are everywhere... In every federation possible out there and the end result is always the same... You losing match after match, coming out to rap your same ol' tired ass rap... You don't strive to improve yourself, you don't aim to get better... You are perfectly happy being the loser that you are, and while you may claim that you want to win a match and then perhaps challenge for a title and maybe even headline a pay per view the fact of the matter is that you're not... and you never will. You ever heard the expression, hustle, loyalty and respect? Well you don't hustle John, you have no loyalty, going from fed to fed, and you have no respect... and again, not to others but to yourself. You look in the mirror and decide to come out looking the way you do, talking the way you do that leads to nothing but losses and you are okay with that. You brush off a loss like it's nothing, which is a good thing, not letting a loss bother you, but only if you are going to strive to do better next time... To win next time out...

But nah, nothing ever changes with you John, and nothing will change after I face you at Friday Night Fury... It will be just another win that you simply couldn't see.

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Xavier sits up on the snow, holding his head, feeling a cut and blood oozing from it.

Xavier: What the hell happened?

Xavier dusts off some of the snow of himself and then before he tries to get up, he hears a voice.

Welcome friend…

It startles Xavier who falls back down into the snow… He looks up and sees a trio of characters that let him know that he must have hit his head harder than he thought: a deer, a dwarf, and a Paul Bunyan looking mofo. All three in animated form.

Xavier: Who the hell are you guys and why are you animated?

To his surprise, the deer with the light up nose answers.

Deer: Ah, well I’m Rudolph the red nose reindeer, this is Hermey the Elf and Yukon Kornelius, who, like you, landed on this island…

Xavier: Island? What Island?

Rudolph: The Island of Misfit Toys of course!

Xavier: Fu(k me…

Xavier falls backwards and passes out. All three characters look at each other, wondering what to do.

Hermey: What should we do with him?

Yukon: Same thing you guys did with me, take me along in your adventure.

Rudolph: The more the merrier! Throw him on my back, I’ll carry him.

Yukon: No, don’t be silly, I got him.

Yukon picks up Lux, dusts the snow off him and flings him over his broad shoulder. Together the three of them continue on their way as the scene fades to black.

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