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+--- Thread: No Man is an Island (/showthread.php?tid=34628)
No Man is an Island - Ned Kaye - 09-03-2019
[OOC: SUCK MY DICK FORMATTING! TWO PROMOS ONE NIGHT BABYYYY]
The following is an excerpt from the documentary: "Notorious: In His Own Words" available on DVD and X-Channel now!
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The scene opens, revealing Ethan Davis, Ned's best friend, in front of a generic gym background that appears to have been greenscreen'd in. A narrator sets the subject matter over clips of Ethan being uncomfortable and quiet.
"But not all was perfect in paradise, as Kaye's personal vices quickly overshadowed his impressive in-ring resilience."
A series of pictures appear on screen, all showing Ned with some kind of alcohol in hand, many times just holding the bottle. Ethan begins to speak.
"He was drinking... a lot at the time. He... it wasn't nearly as much of a problem until Lilian died. Once she was gone... well, I thought Ned was about to follow."
The footage cuts to Ethan, near tears, recounting further.
"He had always dealt with adversity, but not like that. I still remember a night he woke up on my lawn.... Thought it was his place. He looked destroyed. This is my friend. This is a guy I look up to and he's telling me that he hates everything about himself. That it should've been him. That he's going to die alone with no one bothering to mourn. But I begged him to try. I fucking begged him to try. And he told me right then, right there that he would. He did. When his father finally confirmed he had cancer, Ned pushed all that obsession, all that pain, everything into just getting money to support his folks."
The kid wipes a tear from his eye smiling.
"He just became too busy to destroy himself, I guess."
"I blame myself."
The clip cuts to a similar cheap background, this time with Ned's brother Nate sitting in front of it. He's crouched over, frowning deeply at the words escaping his lips.
"I pushed my kid brother around a lot. Did shit to get under his skin. Just a ton. I also pressured him into a lot of drinking early on. I'm not gonna act like a victim or shrug it off, but I know I was in a lot of pain at the time. It's a bad habit to drink to avoid pain. You just keep finding yourself at a weaker and weaker threshold because you just wanna be numb eventually. Caught the habit from Dad; think we both did. One night, Dad called me. We had been on awful terms for years, but he just wanted to know why Ned would do that to himself. Just ignore all help and dive straight into hell. And I had to tell him he was just trying to avoid pain the way he learned from me. The way I learned from Dad. He cried that whole night from what Mom said. He barely touched any beer after that."
The scene cuts to showing a match in which an obviously inebriated Kaye poorly wrestles a masked man named El Churro. Ned goes for a kick and slams his knee into a ring post, slumping over in pain afterwards.
"Ned's addiction led him down worse and worse situations, leading to several severe injuries that put him out for months."
"Why did I do it all?"
The picture shows Ned Kaye sitting in front of his array of televisions. With a clear shame, he continues.
"I felt alone. Completely."
"I had already fallen out of faith. I didn't really have a brother. I lost the love of my life. It was as if the whole universe played a cosmic joke on me. That all of these values that I held were, in actuality, meaningless, and all I was doing was prolonging their downfall in me. I was about to disavow my supporters. To give up on wrestling and just put a bullet in my brain. I just wanted to run away from what made me hurt. That's all alcohol was to me. An escape from feeling miserable. But I stuck through the pain and I came out stronger than before. I know this world is worth fighting for, that APEX Prophecy is worth fighting for, that inherent courage is a cause to die for. I'm certain of it."
The footage ends.
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Standing alone in his gym, clearly after it has closed, is The Notorious One. He stares at his phone as it rings. The name displayed on the screen: Robert Main. He looks intently at his phone's screen, a hint of desperation covering his face. The ringing ceases.
"I'm sorry, but the-"
Looking down to his feet, Ned sees his cat, Deepthroat, nudging at his heels. He frowns, picking the cat up and walking to his private room, his several televisions already set-up for the shoot of that new, tacky documentary XWF was releasing. Ned looks around for a small treat for Deepthroat, sitting on the bed after grabbing one. He lets go of Deepthroat, placing the cat on the wood floor, dropping the treat in front of him. Ned sighs, looking to the camera, a strange distance in his eyes.
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"A lot's been going on. This Federation seems to be changing. I'd argue not for the better."
Ned sighs, looking down.
"I don't know when the shift began, but I know it did. In the span of one week, Vita Valenteen abandoned her morals, Dexter Bright took his final breath, and the Universal Championship was taken hold of by a psychotic Satanist. Now, I can't get a hold of my APEX Prophecy brothers, APEX Prophecy and myself are being treated like nothing more than a passing joke, and nearly everyone in this company is preparing for dark days ahead."
His hands clenched tightly, Ned gazes into the camera.
"In a sad way, I feel somewhat vindicated. Not satisfied, mind you, but my points have been proven valid. Every time I said that we needed a higher standard on our champions than someone like Sarah Lacklan? Just so happens that's why Vita turned. All my mentions of integrity? Accountability? How important these are for a champion? Now we have someone with neither and it's already starting to go to hell. I stand here every week, it seems, talking about how we need to treat our opponents and ourselves with respect and I'm ignored. Ignored by the owner, by the other wrestlers, but not by the fans."
Ned gives an earnest smile.
"Thank you."
"Now, I know a great deal of you have been asking why I brought up Tony's problems and related them to my own. These people think the Hart Championship is far more important than any of the champion's personal afflictions. In their eyes, all I needed to do was come up here and make some Hart puns and talk about how it was my time. They're forgetting something very important."
"The Hart Champion is a man. A human being. Not some invincible being. Not a god or legend. When you step in that ring with me, your legacy means very little. You want an example?"
A series of videos begin to play behind him, showing moments of his matches against Mastermind, Centurion, and Robert Main.
"Here's three. These men didn't get to just lightly parade their superiority. They had to come to my level. I don't face legends. I only ever face people and nobody is better at that than me. That's why Tony Santos isn't trying to outdo me as a person. He thinks he can outdo me as a legend. Mr. Hart Champion. Mr. Top 50."
"None of it matters. Especially not now. There is too much riding on this match. Not just the Hart Championship. Not just regaining a belt for my friends. But Tony's livelihood. The fact is, I don't want Santos as an enemy. I don't want to shake his hand after a hard fought match. I wanna shake his hand after he's 60 days sober. I wanna see him be the best goddamn Tony Santos he can be and I know he can't be that while that gold weighs him down."
Ned takes a deep breath.
"I don't think Tony is a cause of all of this turmoil going on. I think he's a symptom. But regardless of that, he has to face up and take his pain head on. Not run from it in waves of booze. We're going to be in a submission match Tony. One of us is running from pain now. One of us is taking that pain right dead on in the face. Who do you think's gonna win?"
The scene cuts.