Chapter Three: "Acceptance"

PEOPLE U/M: Abram, Zarek, Angela // Everyone in FFA
BUD RECORD: 02/01/00
METHODS OF MADNESS: This is my like...fourth I believe, but third in this collection.

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity
loses the prize as surely as if he had failed."

 Only a couple of hours now before hangover. Only a couple of hours before a multitude of roster members earn their spots in contendership matches. Only a couple of hours before a load of superstars enter the ring, and one will walk out with the BUDvision Championship around his or her shoulder. This has to be one of the biggest Hangover matches, that there has ever been. This is definitely a match worthy of the pay-per-view. Jade, Jessica Michaels, Da Sweet Lunatic, Matt Matlock, Justin Black, and the list goes on and on. Everyone is anticipated for this match, and everyone has different ways of getting ready for this match. The scene opens to Angela Jackson, in a beautiful gown, ready for Hangover. She has a wonderful smile upon her face, and the voice to match.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am sitting here with one of BUD's rising stars, Zarek Lyle, and his manager, Abram McCallister" The camera widens and Abram, along with Zarek, can be seen sitting on a couch across from Angela. It appears they have gotten time to change from earlier today, and wear something more corporate. Abram, obviously being the more corporate of the two, wears a suit and tie, looking very managerial. Zarek on the other hand, toning it down but still wanting to look nice, wears black pants, and a button down shirt. Both Zarek and Abram smile to the camera and wave to everyone that is watching their segment.

"So Zarek, I have to ask you, what happened earlier this week? It appeared that you had some sort of mental breakdown, is that true, and if so, what do you believe caused this mental breakdown?" Angela Jackson hands the microphone over to Zarek with a quizical look in her eye. Zarek was surprised that people even knew about his little episode that happened earlier this week. I suppose people really want to know what was going through Zarek's mind.

Zarek immediatly grabbed the glass of water sitting on the table beside him. He brought it to his lips and let the cold water slide down his throat. Abram sees this and believes Zarek is cracking under pressure, in an attempt to save him, Abram speaks up, "Zarek has just been put under a lot of pressure lately and..."

Zarek speaks up, interupting Abram in the process, "Thanks Abram, but I can answer for myself.Well Angela, I'm coming clean here, so yes, I did have some sort of mental breakdown earlier this week, if you could call it that. I went a little AWOL after my loss to Manic, and it wasn't brought on by the loss itself. I could care less about Manic. Yeah, losses hurt, but I'll meet him in the ring some other time. I think it was more brought on by the fact that, after the loss and after seeing the Hangover card, it was as if I was starting all over again. True, I had only been in a few matches, but it still seemed I was going somewhere, climbing the ladder, you know? Seeing myself next to Evan Pierce, yet again, didn't set to well in my mind. That's all, I'm over it."

Abram was surprised that Zarek recovered, but was also glad he did, "Oh yes, that' exactly what I was going to say. Don't expect it to happen again. It was just a one time deal" Abram turns to Zarek, knods, and Zarek returns the knod.

"Of course, even the best of them have been known to lose their head. I mean, didn't Mariah Carey have a breakdown awhile back? Anyway, Zarek, you brought up the fact that he are yet again facing Evan Pierce. What do you think about his quest for redemption, and what makes this time around different from last time?"  Angela definitely knew how to ask the hard hitting questions. Instead of wearing that smile we had come to know and love, she wears a more serious love, as if she was some sort of serious journalist.

Abram looked over to Zarek with a look as to say 'you got this one?' and Zarek knodded, giving him his answer "I really don't know what Evan is thinking, going on this little quest for redemption. I mean, I would like to ask him myself what was going through his mind when he requested that re-match with me. What makes this time different from last time? Well, at 2007 Wayz 2 Die, he had his little buddy, Corey Vega, to back him up in the match. As I've said many times, it was a triple threat match, but was more like a handicap match. The BUD management pretty much screwed me over, although I don't blame them because the partnership happened after the match was made. Oh yes, and this time we're pretty much allowed to bea the hell out of each other with anything we can find in the parking lot. But honestly, I don't think a parked car will help Evan climb out of this personal hell he has made for himself. He really should have started with PMS if he wanted to back track and redeem himself."

Angela knodded in agreemement, Evan obviously doesn't have what it takes to do what he plans on doing, and that is taking out Zarek. Angela looks down on her notecards for her next question "And what are your thoughts about him cutting such a controversal promo, and then somewhat, disapppearing? I believe in his promo he referred to you and Abram being a homosexual couple?"

A laugh came from both Zarek and Abram. Evan obviously had some inner homophobia  "Let me start off by saying that Zarek and I have nothing against homosexuals, both we don't swing that way" Abram laughes again at Evan's stupidity and looks at Zarek to finish it off.

Zarek sighes at what Evan got himself into when he requested a rematch. If only Evan would have learned from the past, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this mess. Oh well, what's done is done."It's times like this where the inner hypocrite in Evan Pierce comes out. He calls Abram and I homosexuals as an insult for one, yet his partner has dated Brian Juneau. Maybe Mr. Pierce was unaware of Corey Vega's sexcapades before choosing him as his partner. At this point, after two losses, one being to PMS, I think Evan Pierce has officially lost his mind. He cuts some promo in a church, and gets himself talked down upon by the whole BUD roster. Da Sweet Lunatic, and Matt Matlock, just to name a couple, are among the ones that have verbally spoke out against Pierce because of this promo. By the way, you did mention about his disappearing action. After that promo was cut and he was verbally thrashed by everyone, he seems to have run away somewhere. You might find him in a hole somewhere, that's what I would be if I was him at this moment. As a former OCW fan myself, I used to look upon Evan Pierce as a talented wrestler, but now all I see when I look at him is tragedy."

"Speaking of redemption, I heard that you were looking to redeem yourself against Manic? Did you happen to get that Manic dropped out of the free-for-all? Because of this, when do you think you will be able to carry out your revenge against Manic?" Angela looked out from here notecards that she was reading the question off of and looked from Zarek to Abram, looking for an answer.

Zarek laughes out loud of news that Manic dropped out of the free-for-all. Well, it wasn't much a surprise, but it was definitely hiliarious, "So you mean to tell me that Manic makes this big deal about himself winning the free-for-all, yet he drops out? To be honest, it isn't much of surprise. You can tell, just by looking at Manic, that he is afraid. Now, I'm not saying that he is afraid of me, Manic is afriad of recieving a lose to his perfect record, thus far. He's afraid of what happened to me, happening to him. He saw that there was no way in hell he was going to win this free-for-al, he saw it was going to be a challenge, so what does he do? Manic drops out, seeing that he may actually not win the free-for-all. Wow, Manic, my hat is off to you. I hope Justin Black kicks your ass, and if that happens, and I end up winning this free-for-all, you'll won't be coming anywhere near the BUDvision Championship. As for me seeking revenge upon Manic, I was upset that my loss to Manic was almost entirely my mistake. I'm over it now, I'm on to bigger and better things other than Manic. He can drop out, whatever, it doesn't matter."

Angela looks down at he notecards and notices a chance to smooth into her next question. "You mentioned that Manic was going up against Justin Black for a contendership to the BUDvision Championship. Speaking of Justin Black, did you manage to catch his latest promo?"

Abram immediatly speaks up before Zarek can get anything in,  "As a matter of fact, Angela, we did manage to catch his promo and were highly disappointed in it. I, for one, expected more from a former multiple champion. Don't get me wrong, promo skills have nothing to do with in-ring skills, I'm sure there's a reason why the guy was a multiple champion, but it was a bit disappointing." Zarek kind of leans back in his chair and shrugs, letting Abram take this one, rather than picking it up wherever he left off.

"Did you happen to catch the point where Justin Black didn't really acknowledge that Zarek was in the match? He mentioned almost everyone, but he didn't seem to even know Zarek was in the match" Angela looks at Abram, a bit confused. Abram said he had seen the promo, but hadn't mentioned anything about Justin not acknowledging Zarek.

This time, it was Zarek's turn to save Abram, as he jumped into the conversation "To answer your question Angela, of course we got that he didn't even acknowledge me, and truthfully, it shows how hypocritical the world is today. I believe somewhere in that promo, Justin tried to play to the fans, by saying he's not underestimating anyone, and everyone has a chance. Yet, he seems to be underestimating the very man that has made a career on underestimation. It's what pretty much drove Evan Pierce insane, it contributed into the fact as to why we haven't heard much from Corey Vega, and it's the reason why John Wilson has yet to return to the ring since the free-for-all at 2007 Wayz 2 Die. These names may mean nothing to you Justin, but they're humans as you are, are made the mistake of underestimating me, something you claim that you aren't doing. It's okay Justin, I really don't care what you think of me, but don't say I didn't warn you when I turn out to be something much more than you expected."

Not even realizing that Abram totally just choked, looks down at her notecard and moves on "He seems to be not the only one that is underestimating you. DSL barely gave you the time of day in the promo she recently cut, what do you think about that?"

"Angela, it's like I said, people can form their own opinions about me, and can underestimate me all they want, they are entitled to think whatever it is that they want to think. Thanks for the advice DSL, but I believe I've heard something like that before, except that time it was from the no-talent wannabe, Kayla Marie, so you can understand if I don't believe you. If people don't look at me and think threat, then that's their problem. If I do end up winning this free-for-all, and this whole time they didn't look at me as a threat, then they only have themselves to blame. I'm not going to force the truth on people if they aren't willing to hear it. It's quite simple." Zarek sighes and shrugs again, realizing that he can't change what people think until he can actually show them. He's not going to attempt to change someone's mind, they can think whatever they want to think

 Angela skims through her notes real quick, unprepared on Zarek's previous answer "And Matt Matlock, you don't care what he thinks or says about you?" Angela looks up at Zarek, wondering what he might say this time.

"Of course not, his opinion is his own opinion, and I can't do anything to change that at this point in time. Matt Matlock thinks I haven't done anything, okay, then I haven't, that's what he thinks. Of course, I do find it kind of fishy that he took all the time to look up what I had done in BUD, thus far. I am sorry I haven't been here long Matlock, but the only thing I seemed to have gathered upon you is that none of your tag partners seem to like you, considering they all leave, and you lost the tag team championships to men like Dominic Demetri and his pawn he brought in, in order to defeat you. Apparently you have some sort of showing up problem, as well, but that one is up for debate. Truthfully, I haven't been here long, but as long as I have been here, you have shown me nothing. I figure you have to be somewhat talented in order to recieve a World Heavyweight Championship contenders match. That's all I have to go off, the fact that you were put in a certain match, meaning, I have nothing." Much to Angela's dismay, Zarek's outlook on this whole thing has much changed since earlier this week. She had planned for him to get all defensive and whatnot. She was a good interviewer though, and knew how to recover from this.

Angela quickly flips through her notes again, attemptiing to find something that would be interesting. She stops on a notecard and smiles "And Jade, Christina Gellar, do you care what she thinks about you?"

A smile crosses Zarek's face "Well, Jade is different, she actually has class, unlike a lot of the other competitors. Don't get me wrong, I didn't say everyone else in this match doesn't have class, I said most of the other people in this match, don't have class. People tend to take my words and twist them to their usage often, so I have to specify everything now. Anyway, as I said before, Jade and Emerald seem to be the only ones in this match that have a chance in this match. As said before, Emerald's problem seems to be that she is only doing this to impress Nova, which could ultimately be her downfall. Jade's only thing in her way, besides me of course, was Jessica, who could be discarded in their singles match. If Jessica doesn't go all psycho and out for revenge in the free-for-all, I think Jade might have a real chance at this."

 Angela puts on a confused look. From where she sees it, it almost seems as if Zarek wants Jade to win this free-for-all "Besides yourself, of course?" 

"Oh yes, of course. In conclusion, I've come to accept that you can't change people's minds just by bitching at them. That's all people seem to do nowadays in BUD, just bitch at their opponent and attempt to make them believe they are some kind of threat. It doesn't work out that way. People can believe what they want to believe. Let's clarify something though, if someone is obviously lying out their ass, I will take time to prove them wrong, but that is in no way trying to prove myself to that person, through words. In regards to the free-for-all, the person that most deserves it, the person that most wants it, will get it. Let's go Abram."

Zarek waves to the camera and then waves to Angela before exiting the room. Abram, however, feels like he needs to do much more in order to leave the room. Abram kind of bows to Angela and tips his head before exiting the room, and the scene fads. There have been many superstars that have entered, and exited this free-for-all, so there's no telling what might happen. You have sane people, you have insane people, you have the people that are running around wanting to kill someone else. Bobby Johnson had no idea what he was going to do when he dropped the BUDvision Championship and left BUD. He opened the door for many superstars, and they all took the chance at it. Everyone just needs to accept that they have as much chance as everyone else does, and it really depends on luck. It depends on who goes after who first, and what order the people get thrown over. If three people go after the biggest threat in the match, and throw that person over right away, the match can go anyway. Bobby Johnson opened the doorway, and everyone is running for it, but only one person will make it through.

Gone.

TBC: Me Only