"Have you heard?"
The camera faded in to none other than the Bad Chyld, AJ Warner. He was sitting on a foldable chair in an empty room. The only objects visible were the chair he was sitting on and the white, solid walls that surrounded him. However, the camera seemed to be on the opposite side of the room from AJ, so slowly the cameraman zoomed in while our antagonist was hunched over, his elbows dug into his thighs and hands folded. He looked down so his face wasn't seen, but the tattoos and physique of the Bad Chyld made it obvious to the crowd.
"Maybe you're just unaware. Unaware of the lies that most of the men who enter that ring tell you... unaware of the pay scale that the yes men in this company get. Maybe you're just unaware that the more shirts these guys sell, the more food you put on their table.... maybe you're just ignorant." AJ shrugged his shoulders as he said that final line and bit his knuckle as if he were choosing his words correctly; this would prove to be false. People who have heard Warner speak knew he wasn't going to let anything back, and so far, he had re-assured them he wouldn't. "You observe these barbarians in combat without a real clue on who is going to win, because the parity and curiosity keep you on the edge of your seat. You're ignorant to how matches are won and lost. It's not about being the biggest... or the strongest... or the fastest, the smartest, the most loved, or the most hated. No... it's about something much more than that." The Bad Chyld jabbed the area of his chest where the heart was located. "It's about this." Warner sat up and looked towards the camera with a blank stare on his face, as if he had no emotion. So far, the fans could support this argument since he seemed to appeal to rationality. But maybe that would change as the video continued. "Go ask Jed what he fights for after that lack of effort he put against me. Ask Mikey McKay how he's going to celebrate the fact that he's finally main-eventing something. Ask Lauri Henry or Cartwright what that title belt does for them and their families, and you'll hear the same... they're all the same."
AJ face-palmed for a moment and laughed with a cynical tone while doing so. "They're nothing but politicians. They are so immoral and unjust, but if they can spend ten minutes on television telling you to eat your vitamins and say your prayers, you people... you people seem to eat that up!" Warner lifted his head out of his hand and looked to the camera again with the same blank stare he originally wore at the start of this promo. "Because the people you see in the ring are so familiar. You see them overcome obstacles and taste bittersweet defeat in hard fought matches... but they haven't lost the way I've lost." At this point of the segment, the camera was about a yard away from AJ's face and had stayed there for a few seconds after zooming in ever so slowly. A projection on the wall to the left of Warner had shown what appeared to be he and his brother doing submissions and pin-counts on one-another from the recording of an old video recorder. During this time, AJ had his head down and arms limp in his lap as the projection was rolling. It stopped as soon as our antagonist lifted his head to speak again. "I never had anything to fight for besides the opportunity to show that my in-ring work, whether it was speaking... or killing... they were both the new standard of professional wrestling. Once my bosses saw that, I was given title shots, and soon I was headlining pay-per-views and selling tickets. But the money meant nothing to me, while the people you cheered for standing on the other side of that ring, were driven by paper bills."
Tonight's most intriguing and controversial contender had scoffed at his own words. Even though they were true, AJ was truly insulted by his own ideas about the wrestler's respect (or lack thereof) for the business almost as much as he was by the general public's stupidity. "I fight for my fallen brothers. I've had tag team partners literally die in matches. My brother was killed by a drunk. Those two men were the two that had carved me into the man sitting before you, and it is my duty to carry their tradition and make them proud. You see the people you make signs for, they don't love you. They love the money in your pocket, they are no better than cheap whores." Warner, as it seemed with each one of his promos, became so passionate about his words that his cynicism would lead him to become more and more aggravated towards the end of his speeches. "I fight for my lost loved ones. I fight out of pure hatred for my opponents, most of them I've never met. I fight to redeem my life choices, and yet you still seem to dislike me for it. But don't worry... there's a method for my madness. I'll get those titles tonight, and if you're smart... and if you respect the empire that I've built with the empty hands I was given... you'll celebrate with me. Then again, who knows? Maybe you're just unaware.... maybe you're just ignorant."
AJ stood up and walked out of the camera's sight towards the door that exited the room. The camera faded back to black and the lights in the arena came back on as the fans swallowed the pill Warner had just fed them.
