Unscripted 2019: Mikey Stormrage(c) vs Matt Tastic - Elite Title (Hell in a Cell)

[Yaz]

Deadline is Tuesday, May 14th, 11:59 PM EST. Poles will stay open as close to the deadline as possible.

Extensions will be handled on a case by case basis in private.

[ABMorales787]

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

I've been hearing this question for the longest time. Since I did what I felt had to be done. Since I turned my back on Mikey Stormrage. Everyone used to see me as this shinning light. The face of WZCW. The one who could do no wrong. But they didn't care. Nobody did. How I felt seeing myself fall behind. I needed a change.

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

I underwent a drastic change. I shed everything about my past self. I disassociated myself from the people I loved. I stabbed a man who loved me in the back. I threatened his dearest friend and I stole a kiss from him. All in the name of reclaiming my former glory. Was it all worth it?

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

I hear it. Echoing through my mind. Day after day. Hour after hour. Everything I see reminds me of him. The sounds of cars remind me of his erratic driving. Annoying ringtones remind me of his phone. I see his face everywhere and I can't help but feel the anger swell up inside me. I can't tell anymore if this anger is hatred towards him or hatred towards myself. Am I trying to further my career? Or trying desperately to justify a mistake? I can't tell anymore. I'm far too blind to see what behind me. I just try desperately to walk forward hoping to see the shinning light of gold ahead. As the voices in my head ask again.

'Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

But what do they care? They used to see me as this ideal worker. They say what I did was wrong. But are my actions any different from Ty Burna ruling WZCW with his cult? Or Garth Black disrupting management? Titus used to be a very hated indivual. A snivelling coward doing whatever he could to walk away with his Eurasian title. Nobody batted an eye. Two of them are Hall Of Famers. But when I do it, all in the name of furthering my career, now it's frowned upon. Why? Were they really that attached to the relationship I shared with Mikey Stormrage?

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

Stupid, nosey, careless pieces of garbage. If you people are so angry, how do you think I feel having betrayed a man I loved? Do you not think that 4 years of friendship and love would hurt to just rip away one night? I gamble all that in the name of an opportunity. One final opportunity to be what everyone says I am but I clearly am not. The face of WZCW. I pushed what I loved away in the name of the greater good. Literally threatened their livelihood. Invaded them. Intimately. All in a desperate last gas. It not paying would be far worse than winning. Mikey Stormrage.

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

He was everything to me. Without him I never would've been World Champion. Never would've been Eurasian Champion. Never would've been Tag Team Champion. Never would've won Lethal Lottery. Never would've won Gold Rush. Never would've headlined Kingdom Come. I can't deny what's true. I owe my Hall Of Fame career to Mikey Stormrage. But if I can't defeat Mikey Stormrage at our absolute best, with no preceding matches, headlining a show then my career is meaningless. He did not cling to me. I clinged to him. I simply realized it. And wanted to see if I could do it on my own. I have to. I just have to. If I don't. If I can't win the Elite title from him in the most grueling match in WZCW, then what the hell am I? If I lose, it would be best that he threw me off the top of the Hell In A Cell. To just let me die. That's what this match is. It's Do Or Die. All in the name of validating myself one last time.

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

Maybe that's the way it should be. That way if I'm gone, Mikey doesn't have to suffer. Maybe that's what I truly feel. Maybe, deep down, I just didn't want to be a disappointment to him. Maybe the second he kissed me, when I saw him holding two titles while I was in a losing streak and needed his help to bounce back, I felt I wasn't good enough. Were the things I did horrible? Yes. They were. But I'd be lying if I said I did them with a clear head. The more I talk here, the more I feel it in me. My insecurity. It bites at me. it always has. It's something that always plagued both of us. We always feel like we're not good enough. No matter how much praise we get.

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

Goddammit, I keep hearing it! Every time I hear it, it tears away from me! It drives me desperate! It makes me do things! I have a Hall Of Fame career but I still didn't feel good enough! I betrayed the man I loved! He said he loved me! And I responded with this! Anger. Frustration. Jealousy. Insecurity. Hatred. Towards who? To him? Or myself? Am I really that desperate for this? That I would lock myself in Hell In A Cell? Threaten to throw him or myself off the top of this tall structure? Plunge ourselves down the fiery pits of hell itself? Burn in our own rage? All for this? The Elite title?

"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"

I realize it now. I dropped to reality. Now I must do it all by myself. To defeat the man who helped define my entire career. I must do everything within my power. Right or wrong, in order to win. Because if I lose, I may as well burn in Hell. I gambled it all. I can't turn back anymore. No one understands and they don't have to. Because this is my personal struggle. It doesn't concern anyone else. Mikey just happens to be the casualty. And for that, I do apologize. Maybe if this wasn't such a cut throat business and I wasn't such an insecure person, we could've lived a happy life together. But you know this better than anyone else, Mikey. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough for you. Maybe you thought I was. But...... I never felt I deserved your attention. Your friendship. Your love. You were there for me in my worst days. And I just threw excuses about you leaving. I failed by myself. I failed to avenge you. I failed to do anything until you came back and teamed back up with me. I don't deserve it. And I'm fine with that. Because if I can't beat you, what the hell is the point of me continuing to wrestle? So let me fall from grace, Mikey. Separate yourself from me. Find someone better. I know you can. I'll go out there one last time to pay off this gamble. You were my better half. But I need to know if I can survive on my own. And if I can't.....


"Why did you fall from grace, Matt Tastic?"


Because I deserved it.

[Yaz]

Matt Tastic you are a heartless bastard.

The first sentence of the letter was bigger than the rest. I had a staple gun in my hand, the letter in the other. I came in cover of darkness, knowing the doors would be locked for the day. No one would be inside, and it would be the last time I saw the entrance to Kick Ass Academia. The wrestling school I helped found. The wrestling school I had put over a million dollars into. The school that was supposed to be my legacy. The school were I would spend my life with a man I loved.

Love though, is a funny thing. Chances are most people have been there. It starts with two people in love. I want to say Matt and I were. It may not have been traditional, but it was there and no one who was around us could deny it. You make a lot of promises. You tell each other you're different from the rest, the exception. For a month or two the long meandering conversations feel foreign, a chance to get to know each other at a more intimate level. And then slowly, so slowly you might now even notice, conversations are replaced with missed calls and resentful voicemails and then finally the day comes where you admit that you weren't in fact the exception. That being in love is difficult on the good days and impossible on the bad ones.


Maybe it was our profession. Maybe it was the stress of us being in constant combat. It could have been any number of things, but most days, it was impossible.

The more time I put into, the more blame I wanted to place on my shoulders. I was lazy, unorganized, a borderline alcoholic, and used my mental illness as an excuse for my often shitty behavior. I was no saint. The more I thought about it though, the more I knew that I wasn't the one who needed to shoulder most of the blame.

Matt deserved the majority of the blame. What he did was low. It spat in the face of everything we had ever accomplished. In no uncertain terms, Matt Tastic was indeed, a heartless bastard.

Matt Tastic, again in no uncertain terms, was also a genius.

When Matt and I first began our partnership so many years ago, we were both solid enough wrestlers. We got decent matches, made a nice check, had a couple endorsements. We were solid hands that WZCW was happy to have. Then we started to Live Mas. That's when two perennial also rans, turned into two future Hall of Famers.

I can't say for certain if when Matt and I first teamed up if his ultimate goal was to use me, but in the end, its what happened. I almost liken to boiling a frog. Matt, and most of WZCW by and large, were fans of metaphors. They say if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it would immediately jump out, because it knew it was in danger. If you dropped the frog into room temperature water and gradually increased the temperature of the water, the frog would be none the wiser. You could boil the frog alive and he would never know. It may have been Matt's plan. To gradually increase how much he pushed me, how much he cast me aside for his own needs. Given my own history with my infatuation of the month club, he had reason to do so.

But Matt wasn't a genius because he know how to boil a frog alive. He was a genius because he knew what the audience wanted. For years, the better part of half a decade, Matt and I received thunderous applause when our music hit. Sometimes it was simply because the crowd wanted the free tacos we handed out, but mostly they respected and appreciated the job we did. It was euphoric.

Like all things that gave you a euphoric feeling, you built up a tolerance. Trust me, I'm the guy who once did drugs and tore through Grandpa Tastic's house with a broom fighting "dragons." Matt needed that reaction. It validated him in a way. He also knew that no matter how much we were cheered, our rivals were often booed even harder.

André 3000 once sang in Outkast's hit, Hey Ya, "Y'all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance."

Matt Tastic was a genius because he knew the fans didn't care about the story, they just wanted to react to something. They needed a hero to cheer and a villain to jeer. Matt was no longer getting the validation he sought as the hero, so he decided to seek it as a villain.

By the time the monologue had passed in my head, I had already shot four staples into the door without hanging the note. I knew that once this letter went up, it was over. Sure there was still the fight at Unscripted, but the Hell that was promised inside the Cell was nothing compared to the Hell that Matt had put me through the last few months. It was nothing compared to the Hell that I put myself through in my constant struggle between wanting Matt, and wanting to move on with myself, moving on with Katherine.

I know I was never perfect. Fuck man, I was far from it, but that was always why we clicked. I could make this some long and drawn out affair, you know I fancy myself a writer. I will just say this. Matthew, I love you. My entire life I have lived by the thought that you don't stop loving someone. You either always love them, or you never loved them at all. You aren't the first I have said this too, and there is a strong chance you won't be the last. I will always carry a part of you in my heart, because I wanted you there. Despite the fact that deep down, I knew you being heartless meant it would never be mutual. I want to say I don't blame you for what you did, but I do blame you. I will never forgive you. Time doesn't heel all wounds, but sometimes in order to save a sick patient, you have to cut off the infected limb. Unscripted will serve as the scalpel that amputates the infected limb. When that Cell door locks behind us, it isn't about the Elite Title, it isn't about revenge, it isn't about love. It's about giving you what you want, validation. I know I took a lot from you, so maybe this is the least I can give you. I'll make my peace with how I treated you and what you did to me. I only hope one day you can make peace with the life you have created for yourself. After this, No Mas.

-Michael

I knew Matt didn't care about the title, or beating me, or proving himself, or continuing the tradition of fighting or whatever bullshit he tried to justify his actions with. He just wanted relevance, and fighting Mikey Stormrage in a Hell in a Cell was about as relevant as it got.

I let out a sigh as I stapled the note to the door of Kick Ass Academia. I walked back to my car, stopping one last time to look at the life I was going to leave behind. If Unscripted was the amputation, this was the anesthesia.