Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ain't About the Money hits the PA after a long pause and the lights begin to flash. Several moments in, after the chorus, Drako steps out onto the stage to the cheers of the crowd in attendance. Once again, he's in his street clothes with the slight addition of some MMA gloves on his hand and a hoodie with his Dragon logo on the back. He also tied his hair back. Now he makes his way to the ring and steps inside, taking a mic out of his back pocket as his music cuts out.

"It's always interesting when business gets handled in the ring. So just to be clear, this is a conversation between us as the guy holding a contract with you to wrestle here and yourself as the guy who signed said contract to pay me, right? This ain't a wrestler to wrestler thing?"

Drako cocks his head to the side as Cartwright speaks. This feels like bullshit and Drako is going to call him out.

"Wait a minute, so you want to try to make that distinction between Cartwright the business man and Cartwright the wrestler, but from where I'm standing, they're one in the same. You can't even do what you supposedly came out here to do and apologize, but let's be frank, shall we, Carty? You never intended to apologize. You say you see the face of every other Damone? Well, my brothers and I look a lot alike. But why don't we talk about the real issue here, before I agree to this "friendly match" of yours."

Drako looks around the ring a bit.

"Let's talk about why you really have to have an entire squad of security out here. You kinda said it yourself, when you see me you see my brothers. And deep down, you remember that for the entire length of your career you have been getting your a** handed to you by my brothers. Hell in a cell, inferno matches, extreme rules matches, ladder matches. Then, just when you thought you were free, you got locked in a cage with my nephew Andre and he beat you and battered you and left you a bloody shell of a man. Like father like son, right? So at the end of the day, when you look at me, you get uncomfortable flashbacks, don't you?"

Drako grins and a low rumble of cheers starts from the crowd.

"See, history has taught you well that anyone with the last name Damone is your worst nightmare. History has taught you that you can't out fight us. And truth be told, you can't out wrestle us either. You know deep down that if you pick the fight, we'll give you more than you asked for. You also know, as you proved so well just before you took ownership of this place, that without an entire gang behind you, you can't beat us. And now that extends to me, because I'm the one here, which by the way is doing you a favor. And despite popular belief, the only problem with me being here isn't some form of politics. It's the fact that you hate every Damone and that happens to be my last name."

Drako takes a moment and looks the boss over, a look of almost disgust on his face.

"See, this wishy washy, meek version of you. I ain't buying it. Because I know you. I know you don't fight fair. I know you don't want a normal match. I know you want something where you might have an advantage and here's the thing, Cartwright. You don't need to bullshit me. There's no need to try to play nice when you hate me for the very fact that I exist despite having done nothing to you until you swung first. You got punched in the nose because you started what you couldn't finish. So let's skip all of the fluff and get to the real meat of the matter. You want to fight? I'm ready to fight. So name the time and the place, and the match type so that I can put you right back in your place again, then maybe go on and do something other than beat the crap out of the boss here."

Drako laughs at the accusation, but he's ready for it.

"Leave it to you to fail to understand. Listen, for years I was the Harbringer for my brothers. I showed up just to let you know the big boys were on their way and pissed. But we had an agreement. If my brothers could not tell for themselves that it was time to move on, then I would do it for them. Now, while I could very well have put them down myself, that wasn't enough to keep Jarel and Zarel gone. So I had their sons do it. Which again, you should be thanking me for. If I hadn't forced Zarel into retirement, do you think you'd have gotten that last world title run? Having the spotlight is just a bonus."

there's a mixed fan reaction to that one.

"Hey, it is what it is. But you say I represent all of their worst traits? In the end, doesn't that just make you jealous? See, I remember when you were Zarel's tag team partner back in an old favorite fed of mine, XCW. Did pretty well for yourself, but you ended that before you learned all that you could learn. Then here, in the WWF, Jarel tried to take you under his wing when you had forgotten who you were, forgotten how good you should have been. And what did you do? You ran, you vanished. You never got all the knowledge you could have, but I did. I spent years not only training to wrestle with my gigantic brothers, I learned how their minds worked. I learned how they got themselves to the top and stayed there. And I learned how they could manage to pretty much every time beat someone like you before they even stepped in the ring. I made sure to learn all that they had to teach before I did what they asked me to do, sent them off into retirement. So what I see here is simply jealousy."

JR: "That's an interesting viewpoint."

King: "It's a weird viewpoint. What does Cartwright have to be jealous of?"

Drako gives a bit of thought before he continues.

"But if all you want is a standard match. Fine, next week, you got your match. But you better make it count for once."

Drako outright laughs again at Cartwright by the end.

"Can't stand each other? No, we simply don't play up the delusion that families never fight or disagree. But we're still a family. We're still a unit. And if I really need it, any one of the family are a call away. The good thing is, I don't need them right now. Because it's just me and you and when it boils down to it, I can beat you any day of the week and twice on Sunday."

Drako keeps his eyes locked on Cartwright.

"You can make this about my family if you want. I got no problem defending the family honor. But for me, this is about simply proving I'm better than you even though I really think you're number one."

with that, the Soaring Dragon extends a finger to prove his point, specifically the middle one to the cheers of the crowd

to be fair, Drako might have deserved that. The slap rings out throughout the arena as his head snaps to the side and he moves to the side a step or two.

"Well, there it is."

Drako drops the mic and turns back looking to clock Cartwright with a right hand to the jaw

"Oh you weak mother...."

Drako isn't going down without a fight, and at this point, the jig is up and the trap is set. Time to start swinging as he quickly clocks the first security guy in the side of the head and starts going for the others.

Drako is swinging for the fences, and while he's at it, he kicks one in the balls because he's outnumbered and screw playing fair. But there is an inevitable fate here, and that's the fact it was a set up from the start and Cartwright was not among those swarming him. well, that's because he was grabbing a chair, and now bashes him across the skull, flattening him with ease and leaving him to slump to the mat