We click play on the video and as we do, a small loading icon appears in the middle of the blank screen, turning slowly as the video buffers for a split second before it disappears and the video begins to play. And now that it's playing, the first thing we see is none other than Supreme Championship Wrestling star and Hall of Famer himself, David Helms, standing in front of the desk of his home-office in the Hollywood Hills. He wears a black Handsome Devil’s Club t-shirt with the group logo on the front and a pair of ripped blue jeans that show various parts of his tattooed legs beneath. With a slight frown on his face, David brings a finger up to his brow to knock out a casual salute to the camera and as he does so a date stamp appears in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which reads [03.09.2020]. As he lowers his hand back to the pocket of his jeans again, the date stamp fades and Dave quickly begins to talk. “Sup guys,” he says, sighing under his breath as his brow furrows further from the frown that sits upon his face. “So here I stand again huh, and you know what? It’s funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. I dunno what I expected really, I mean part of the reason I returned to the business is because I didn’t like how things were going and wanted to help be part of the solution instead of sitting back ignoring the problem, but here we are. Breakdown was one of those moments where I should have had a chance to shut some people up and prove a point. I mean, didn’t I call it? Didn’t I call most of what Zoe Christy and Ravyn would say in my last video? They say a leopard doesn’t change its spots and I think last week kind of proved that because I’d been away from the ring for four years yet I basically told you exactly what Zoe in particular would say about me and some things in general, yet here I am, having to start with an apology to both Owen and Blake for abandoning the match the way I did. I could stand here and make excuses about how not chasing off those two chuckleheads would have been to the detriment of the match as a whole if I did nothing, but at the end of the day, I abandoned the pair of you and for that, I am sorry. In the end, I guess it didn’t matter anyway, given the chaos that engulfed the ending of that match and we did still win I guess, given Infamous went and got themselves disqualified from the match, but that doesn’t really help remove the sting does it? But that’s what I’m talking about,” he tells the camera with a nod, still frowning. “The more this business changes, with the new faces coming in and the new rules that get adopted over time, the more it stays exactly the same because assholes don’t stop being assholes, they don’t stop existing just because the place we work changes and adapts to a more modern way of thinking. And Breakdown was further proof of that, not that I really needed it of course. I’ve seen enough kids come through the academy with big enough egos to know that no matter how the business swings, we’re always gonna have arrogant people within it, so why should I expect anything different? But I guess you can’t really call it a wake up call or anything, but how about a not so gentle reminder, that this business will always harbour it’s arrogant, it’s delusional or it’s plain narcissistic along with those who actually care about more than just themselves…”

David takes a deep breath before letting it out, long and slow. He didn’t want to get worked up, not when he was still so early in his return, but the fact that things hadn’t really progressed in the years he had been away would leave anyone downbeat. “I wish I could be the kind of guy that doesn’t let this stuff get to him, I really do,” he admits, looking away from the camera for a second as he looks thoughtful, before turning his attention back to the lens. “I wish I could be one of those people that doesn’t let this shit get them down and just shrugs it off like water off a duck’s back, but you guys know I’ve always been the type that wears his heart on his sleeve and between me and you, I think if I was that kind of person, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. I mean, if I could just ignore things that are blatantly wrong, would I even have reached the level I did before my ‘retirement’ even? I doubt it. But I know I definitely wouldn’t have made my comeback earlier this year, because it’s those things that anger me that brought me back! We’ve all spoken about our reasons for returning, and I’m no different, I couldn’t stand to see what was happening in SCW with some of the fucking ego’s running rampant, but in that way, I guess I should actually be thankful for the assholes of the world really, shouldn’t I? I should stand here and thank the arrogant, the vain, the narcissistic, the egocentric and conceited. Each and every one of them, I could give an Oscar acceptance speech worthy of winning best actor or best picture with people I should be thanking!” he says, turning to grab his Male Of The Year award he won the year he retired, before turning back to face the camera, holding the award up as if he just won it. “I’d like to thank Sienna Swann and Bree Lancaster for reminding me every day what not to become in the business, I need to thank Syren for reminding me that I absolutely made the right decision when I stopped loving her. I need to thank Chris Cannon and Glory Braddock for being a constant reminder why I will never turn my back on the fans again. I need to thank Katie Steward, Ravyn Taylor, Christy Matthews, Xander Valentine, Silas Mason and Aiken Frost, so many people for inspiring me, for motivating me to be better every single day of my life, without you guys, this diatribe wouldn’t be possible. Thank you guys, thank you so much. You hate me, you really hate me! Goodnight!” he says, and with the power of editing, as he holds the award up for the camera to see better, canned applause begins to play over the shot before it cuts to show stock footage of an audience giving a standing ovation. We see quick cuts of different shots of the crowd before finally cutting back to David and the applause immediately stops as he shakes his head angrilly. “See guys, it’s all fun and games when you stand here and poke fun at something, have a bit of a laugh and get someone to add some effects and splice in some footage as I plan to do with this… but there’s nothing funny about some of the bullshit that goes on in this company!”

Helms turns and carefully places his award back down on the desk before turning back to face the camera. “Look at the lengths that Sienna and her cluster of cancerous cheerleaders have gone to in order to try and take the World Title from James Evans, a guy who hasn’t just battled hard inside of the ring, but has battled his own demons and come out stronger for it in order to be at the top of this company right now! She didn’t just book a fucking match with the contract that she got from my wife in far less than virtuous circumstances, oh no… she stacks the deck and loads the bases to try and ensure that the only possible outcome is that she walks out of Retribution as World Champion! And sure, there’s a chance that she ends up with egg on her face if it fails and James retains, but fuck bro, the referee is her damn agent, her ‘bestie’ - Bree - is an enforcer, she has Spirit Dansby, who should be impartial as an SCW employee but almost certainly won’t be as the time keeper, it’s basically gonna be a two on one because she added Cannon to the match too and the whole thing takes place inside of the fucking Thunderdome! So if or more likely, when this becomes a glorified beatdown dressed up as a match, there’s nothing anyone can do to help ensure it doesn’t go too far! But you know what?” he asks, actually laughing a little. “I hope James Evans kicks both their fucking asses and everything comes crashing down around the former Beauty Factory in spectacular fashion, because all Sienna has done is ensure that everyone bar those who already pucker up to her sphincter on a regular basis are gonna be begging for her to fail! And maybe that’ll motivate her. Maybe it’s what she wants, just so she can rub it in everyone’s face if she succeeds, but damn, can you even imagine how united people are gonna be on Sunday night when the main event begins?! Eighteen thousand people inside of that building, millions watching at home, nearly all of them united in wanting her to fail… it’s gonna be a hell of a thing to witness if it happens, it really fucking is!” he says before sighing, looking slightly disappointed. “And don’t get me wrong, I know that I sound like an asshole myself for saying that, the irony isn’t lost on me… but these douche nozzles don’t understand regular lessons, bro. They don’t understand right from wrong, or more accurately they do but they don’t care, so it takes something monumental to happen in order to actually drive the message home!”

“Which is kind of ironic, because I’d have thought that the beating that Giovanni Aries took at the hands of James Evans at Day Of Infamy would have been enough for him to finally understand a similar message… clearly those drugs he openly takes have done more damage to him than an ass kicking can ever do,” David continues, shaking his head. “In truth, maybe I’ve gone off on more of a tangent than I planned in this, because let’s be honest, the reason I’m here is to talk about the tag match coming up at Retribution against The Wonderland… but in a way, it’s all relative, because this kind of shit is exactly why I decided to come back from retirement and climb back into a ring! This type of bullshit is exactly why I felt so compelled to return to a company that meant so much to me and you know what? It took only five shows to prove why that decision was fucking justified! And it’s doubly ironic because it all started during a match with another group that I think is part of the cancer in this company, a group I’ve had a pretty long list of grievences with for a large number of years, but my battles was Infamous are more than documented, so hey, at least it’s something new for me to experience, going to war with the world of Lewis Fucking Carroll!” he says, sighing before taking a minute to pull himself together. David runs a hang across the stubble of his chin as he thinks about everything before finally turning back to face the camera. “Am I meant to congratulate you on not being dead, Gio? Is that what I’m meant to do right now, stand here and give you a standing ovation over the fact that you managed to come back to SCW after James tried to break you in half? I mean, as we saw earlier, I have the stock footage and the canned applause track that I can throw in again if that’s what you really want, because you made a big enough point of it after your lackies attacked me and my brother last week, so if that’s all it's gonna take then I’m happy to oblige… but I suspect your actions weren’t just a cry for attention bro, because I know Jason made a point of how you want to be the centre of it, but I think he’s short selling you. You don’t just want the attention, you crave it because you need the validation! And I know you’re gonna deny that, tell me I’m full of shit, but I’ve been around this busines for twenty one years now bro, and I’ve seen plenty of people come along with a messiah complex and believe me Gio, talented a wrestler as you may be, you’re not exactly reinventing the fucking wheel here!” he says, drawing a circle in the air with his finger before slashing a cross through it. “You’ve heard the phrase ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’ before, right? Even if Shakespeare is another person on the list of people you believe to be lizards, you’ve got to know one of the most famous quotes from Hamlet, surely? Well, I’m gonna give it a modern spin for you bro, because I think the douche bag doth protest too much! And maybe I should be standing here with a skull in my hand as I deliver this soliloquy but I didn’t plan that far ahead. Bad planning notwithstanding though dude, do you really think I’m buying into your B.S as anything other than a clamouring for validation?!”

“Everything is a fucking plot with you, everything is a plan to destroy the Wonderland or cement the Lizard King’s power!” David states, clearly showing he has no time for Gio’s shit. “I’m surprised you haven’t told the fucking world that COVID-19 is a plot by the Lizard people to strike down humanity so they can overthrow the government or some equally inane bullshit dude, because christ knows you spout enough of it on twitter and at shows already, so what’s one more outrageous and downright insulting comment to the list, huh?! But of course, I’m probably just some stooge of the Lizard King or a proponent of Lizardist propaganda, aren’t I? I mean, anyone who doesn’t buy your crap or speaks out against a single solitary word you say has an agenda that suits the Lizard King so why should I expect you to pay attention to anything I say, anyway? Jesus Christ, I can’t believe this is the point I’m at guys, that I’m standing here talking about a ‘Lizard King’ in twenty twenty without it being some sort of joke made at someone’s expense… fuck, this is what it’s come to now?” he asks, actually managing something of a laugh though it’s brief and wasn’t overly convincing to begin with. “But hey, in this business we’ve had God, the Devil, the Messiah, a host of Queens, so why the fuck not a Lizard King, huh? I mean, Jason already proved that it sells t-shirts when he bank rolled the merchandise for Gio and his ‘cause’ back in twenty eighteen so it’s clearly got commercial value, and I’m sure SCW loves that shit, even if Gio is regularly telling the world that the entire board are reptilian in genetic makeup and serve the aforementioned lord of LIzards. Money is money, however you wanna cut it. But you’re dangerous, Gio. Not in a catchy nickname like I used to use it and not because you can hurt people physically or orchestrate physical attacks like last week… you’re dangerous because whether you believe the shit you spew or not - and if you do I’m already questioning how badly the standards of SCW’s medical assessments have fallen in my time away -  there are people out there that are going to buy into it, and as long as that happens, you’re gonna keep spewing your crap because you know you have an audience! The fact that you have Alice Ames and Cain Adams already doing your dirty work is testament to that very fact, but of course, you’re gonna tell me that it’s because they’re ‘woke’ or truly believe in the cause rather than admitting that you found two people that were easily manipulated into buying your shit. Jase made a damn good point when he brought up Jim Jones and David Koresh, and while I don’t want to repeat shit that he said, I want you guys watching this to at least think about that comparison, because the way he has Alice Ames and Craig Adams doing his every bidding? It can’t just be us that has the Branch Davidians or People’s Temple vibe, surely…”

Shaking his head, David takes half a step back and leans on the edge of the desk behind him, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’d love to know what exactly it was that Gio told Alice and Cain to earn such devotion, I really would. I get that they’ve bought whatever he’s peddling but I’d love to know why; what makes a young woman like Alice become so aggressive and go after someone the way she did me. What makes a guy bend the knee and do someone else’s bidding without question the way Cain did? And okay, maybe I don’t know much about either of them so maybe this was just who they were anyway, but they’re new to the fed so what am I expected to know anyway? I know one thing though; you made a mistake blindly going after me, bro. You guys, Alice and Cain, you fucked up, because now you actually have my attention. And while I don’t throw around threats like some, I made a career of not knowing when to fucking quit. Just saying,” he tells the camera, leaving the threats thinly veiled as he shrugs his shoulders and prepares to continue speaking. “Instead of attacking you though, or berating you or bitching about you, a long slew of words that go right before ‘about you’ for the sake of repetition, let me point out this: you guys might be blindly following old Gio, but at Retribution, you’re stepping into a world that’s my wheelhouse. And it’s fair to say that while me and Jase don’t know which combination of two we’re gonna get, and while it’s probably just as fair an assumption to make that it’s still gonna be three on two anyway, this is my world you assholes have stepped into! Think about that for a minute, assholes, because you two may have blind devotion to Captain Crazy Pants and his Wonderful Technicolour Dreamland for whatever reason, but me and Jason, we’re family! And not just that, we’ve been a tag team before, a division I know particularly well! I have the replica belts hanging on that wall,” he says as he motions off camera to the wall in question “to prove my point if you need further evidence that this is gonna be anything but fucking easy for the three of you! But know this too, and I say this specifically to Alice and Cain, because it’s not something Gio is gonna want to hear. When it comes down to it, when push comes to shove? You two are the ones that are expendable. Sure, Gio likes having his followers, his devoted worshippers or servants of the Blunderland… but when backs are really against the wall, who you think he’s gonna save when the choice needs to be made? Do you think that you guys are gonna be his priority or is he gonna do exactly what so many have done in the past and save his own hide while you two pay for his sins?! Think we all know what the answer to that one is going to be… right?”

David cocks his head to one side before raising an eyebrow questioningly. His features reset back to normal though, as he begins to speak again. “Last week, you gave him the opening he needed to make his point,” David tells the camera, calmly. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know how it goes, I already know that none of this is gonna be anything to do with me, I was just the bait, wasn’t I? That’s how it works, right Aries? I’m the bait or I was the bait anyway, hard to draw Jason out so you could extract the revenge that comes a good eighteen months too late. Because let’s face it bro, you had more than enough time to try and show Jason that he should have continued to fight for your imaginary cause. You could have gone after him before his injury, couldn’t you?! Because that old incarnation of the Wonderland had died months before Jason got hurt, only it wasn’t convenient to grab attention back then, was it? And if you really wanted to ensure you added salt to the wounds you could have gone after him while he was out injured, make sure his recovery was derailed and delayed by your own hand. If this was really about being disappointed that he stopped standing by your side then you’ve had plenty of time and fucking opportunity to do something or say something, but no… instead you wait until we show up. You wait until we give you a public forum, a chance to make a grand statement and draw more attention to your mythical commission and then you make the lackeys do the dirty work for you by getting involved in my match, leading me away from the ring and attacking me backstage just to draw him out before you finally show yourself!” He says, shaking his head in annoyance. “But here’s the thing… and I’m talking to all three of you now because I don’t know which of you will be in this match and I honestly don’t care either: At Resurrection, whether I was the bait or not in order to make your statement Gio, whether I was just the means to an end for you both, Alice and Cain… I’m now your problem every bit as much as Jason is! And that may not frighten you, it may not intimidate… but it should give you moment for pause. It should give you something to think about. Because there’s a good reason that I wear this hall of fame ring,” he says as he holds up a closed fist to the camera to show the ring. “There’s a reason I’m a Supreme Champion, an icon and not so humble brag or not, one of the most fucking successful wrestlers this company has seen, and that’s because I’m a fucking good wrestler! So you can take your lizard kingdom and your lizard King and the might of the Wonderland and you can shove it all right up your collective asses because amateur dramatics notwithstanding, this match isn’t gonna become a battle of tall tales or outrageous lies. This is about me and Jason showing you that you can take your attitude and fucking stick it! You took a hell of a beating at Day of Infamy, Gio. At Resurrection I’m gonna make sure history repeats itself, with plenty left for the two of you as well, because after last week Alice, Cain, I’d say I owe you both a receipt as well! They say be careful what you wish for… we’ve moved past that and now you’re getting it regardless. BANG!” He finished with enthusiasm, bringing his hands up into the Self High Five, quietly breaking them apart before glaring into the camera as the video ends, the final frame dimming as the replay icon appears in the middle of the screen.