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 vintage worn Next F’n Level shirt and blue ripped jeans that show the tattoos on his legs beneath as he brings a hand finger up to his brow to knock out a casual salute to the camera with a smile. As he does so, a date stamp appears in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, reading 05.03.2020, before fading out again as he slips his hand back into the pocket of his jeans and begins to speak. “Sup guys,” he says giving the camera a nod before continuing to talk. “And welcome to what I like to call Batshit Insanity season here in Supreme Championship Wrestling, or as it’s otherwise known, Fatal Fortunes! It’s a time where nobody has any fucking idea what’s going on, what they’re doing or what they’re going to be by the time it’s all done with… trust me, I know this one personally, given I remember walking into Fatal Fortunes one year as tag champ and walking out again without the belts, wondering what the fuck had just happened… which I guess is why I’m wearing this shirt right now, thinking about it? I mean, it was a conscious choice, I admit that; I dug it out of the bottom of the closet to throw it on just for this video. I’m sure there’s thousands of you out there that look back on The Next Level with fondness, right? It’s easy to understand; for quite a while, we were two of the biggest champions of the division in this place, maybe even the business… and I’m not saying that out of arrogance or whatever, but there was a time where people didn’t care about tag wrestling in SCW, that people didn’t bother with making teams to compete for the belts because they’d rather concentrate on themselves, but me and Tommy, we were one of the biggest supporters and celebraters of tag team wrestling there was. And we brought it. Every single fucking time. There isn’t anyone that can say we ever phoned in a match when fighting as a tag team and if they do they’re a liar, because we did bring it every time. We gave everything as a tag team, gave everything for each other in that ring… funny how things change over time, huh? Can’t really say I’ve changed that much if I’m honest, but not everyone’s the same, are they? And I guess in a way, it’d be a boring world if we were all the same… variety is the spice of life as the old saying goes, or words to that effect anyway…” he added, making damn sure his meaning was implied, even if he didn’t flat out make any blanket statements about what he meant with the remark. 

“Like I said though, here we are in Batshit Crazy season,” he continues, moving on. “That time just before Taking Hold of the Flame, which we all know is the true beginning of Rise To Greatness season, the greatest time in the SCW calendar year, not just for you guys at home but many of us on the roster too. And while many of us are probably thinking about what’s to come at the Flame or whether we plan to take part in the battle royal this year, the champs are probably resting a little less easy right now because they don’t know if they’re going to even have that gold heading into the next pay per view. I know how I felt when I headed into Fatal Fortunes as a champion, knowing I’d have to defend my title but not who it’d be against, knowing that it could be two random people thrown together which adds to the uncertainty because you don’t know what they’ll be able to do as a team or whether it’s against an already established team that forces you to up your game to get past them… as it turned out, me and our resident Jackass, we went up against a long-established team when we lost the belts to Standing Room Only, but despite how it may have felt at the time, at least I can say we lost to a couple of great guys when that happened. Donovan and Simon are people I class as friends, and the fact we got to share the ring with guys that have accomplished as much as they have as a team over the years, it was an honour and a privilege… even if at the time, I wanted to slap the grins from their faces and maybe hit them with a chair to boot,” he admits, smirking before chuckling to himself. He takes a moment for the chuckle to die down before going back to what he was saying. “What can I say, asshole Dave was a douchebag, he didn’t want anyone else to be happy,” he says, still grinning. “But it goes to show that what I was saying about how I haven’t changed that much is true I guess, because I wanted to hit those guys with a chair back then, and I’ve actually been hitting people with one recently, haven’t I? So while I may not be the same asshole I was during the darkest  days of my career to date, I guess some things are still reminiscent, huh? Are now here we are in twenty twenty, ready for another Fatal Fortunes, where we all get to see what fucking chaos the element of chance pulls up for each of us, where champions worry or even panic about their immediate future, and you guys at home get to fill the internet with predictions and talk about what you’d like to see happen or who you’d want to get the golden opportunities when the randomiser throws out who’s got what and who! I admit, I’m definitely curious what my fate’s gonna be at some point over the next couple of weeks… and I also had a couple of ideas of what I’d like to happen too.”

He lets that hang in the air for a moment, looking into the camera with a serious expression for a moment before he places a smile back on his face. “And who wouldn’t, I guess? I find it hard to imagine that there isn’t a single person on the roster that isn’t looking at the next two wednesdays on the calendar and thinking, this is what I want. And that can go both ways, you know? It could be those of us who aren’t holding gold right now thinking ‘gee, I hope I get a shot at this title’ or ‘I hope I get to face this bitch’, etc… but it could also be our champs, thinking ‘fuck, I hope I get to face so and so’, or ‘I hope I get a nice easy one like black dee blah’, it works for both sides of the equation. Do you know who the real winners are gonna be though? You guys. Because not only have you got two shows where literally anything can fucking happen, but nearly every single member of the SCW roster is going to be booked over the course of the next two weeks, so even if you have to put up with assholes grabbing the attention at some point - because let’s face it, SCW has plenty of them - you’ll still get to see whoever your favourites are, grabbing their moment in the sun when their name is drawn! And who knows, maybe that moment is one that they’ll live to remember forever! Maybe we’ll see Konrad Raab get a world title match? Maybe Jordan Majors gets a chance to kill Sienna Swann in a street fight? Maybe Ace Marshall gets to face Syren in a bra and panties match, we just won’t know until it’s literally happening right in front of our eyes, bro! And if that isn’t worth being excited about, I don’t know what the fuck will be, you know?!” he says with excitement; looking at him and the enthusiasm he’s showing, it’s easy to forget that David is approaching his fortieth birthday this year and isn’t still one of the young guys eager to impress. “And I guess plenty of us will end up disappointed when all’s said and done…” he continues, his enthusiasm dropping a little as he shoots the camera a sad face before finally perking up again. “I mean, statistically speaking, we can’t always get what we want in life, can we? Not everyone can have a World Title opportunity handed to them in the next two weeks. Not every husband and wife tandem can face a couple of assholes in a fight for the World Tag Team Titles to ensure they don’t achieve the goal they’ve not set out to achieve as well as taking the gold from people who need a good lesson in humility!” he says, his face a picture of pleasantry and simple enthusiasm, despite the obvious barbed nature of his comments. If you’d have pointed that out, he wouldn’t have believed you for a gold toilet! “But I’m sure plenty of us will end up happy with what we get. I’m just happy that at thirty nine I can still do this bro, because I’ve seen plenty who can’t still perform at the level that SCW demands when they get to my age. And I know that Alex Desoubrais is still kicking around and I know Konrad has a good decade and change on me… but I look at a lot of the guys and gals that are around my age who simply aren’t around anymore. The Simon’s, the Amy’s and Kelcey’s, people who had their careers ended for them either by injury or illness. The Donovan Kayl’s, the Brittany Lohan’s and James Exeter’s, people who could still go today but choose not to. I think of those guys and I have to be thankful that I’m still able to do this with my fortieth on the horizon… and maybe I’ll come to regret the decision, because we never know what’s around the next corner or the one after that, right? Maybe I hurt myself in a month's time, maybe I blow my back out carrying the weight of disappointment I’m carrying around right now. Or maybe I don’t. Maybe I use that for fuel and end up going on a better run than any of my time in SCW to date, I just don’t know! But that’s why Fatal Fortunes is so fucking fun, guys, because of exactly that: other than the person who draws the names, stipulation and whether it’s fore the title or not, nobody knows what’s gonna happen until our name comes up!”

“There’s no escaping Fatal Fortunes,” he says, shaking his head but still smiling. “It won’t pay to be friends with the boss, you can’t fudge a system that’s watched over by people who are incorruptible. History isn’t going to help you, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get anything regardless of your standing… it’s a crapshoot and it’s everything this business stands for and I love it! And I mean that; this business was built on the idea that absolutely anyone can come from nowhere and make themselves into a household name around the world, a true underdog story that can set someone up for life! And while it’s tough, and it can sometimes take a looooong ass time to get there, but it can happen… but something like Fatal Fortunes? That can speed up the entire process! You don’t have to sit in line, wait for an opportunity, win a clusterfuck like Taking Hold of the Flame or get a vote from the fans before you can grasp that brass ring. One random drawing, all decided by a scrap of paper or a bunch of zeros and ones and your ticket is called and now you’ve got to make it count! And there isn’t a damn thing people like Bree or Sienna or Chris Cannon or Tommy or anyone can do about it, unless they want to rain on your parade and screw you over and there’s going to be plenty of backlash if that happens. I swear to god, if Bree’s first World Title defence end’s with skullfuckery of any kind, my brother’s girlfriend or not, it’s gonna cause trouble! And there’s still three Trio’s contracts out there right now, so people need to take that into consideration, that’s all I’m saying. No to anyone in particular, just keep in mind the power that me, Ace and Glory all have… though let’s be honest, Glory turned into a raving psychocunt anyway, didn’t she? Her ego finally went to her head and now she runs with the Look At Me twins and she’s turning into one of them and I’m going to shut up before I get into trouble,” he says, grinning sheepishly before miming the act of zipping his mouth shut before throwing away the key. The words “Don’t @ Me Dom” appear on the screen in small white letters for a split second before disappearing again and he continues to talk. “Anyway, where was I?” he asks, looking thoughtful for a minute before remembering where he was going. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Fatal Fortunes and cheating… well, I mean, pro-wrestlers are always gonna be pro-wrestlers, right? So I won’t be shocked if people cheat their way through these shows, but I’d like to think that any stipulations will try to take care of that, you know? Then again, look at all the stipulations Sienna threw around for Day Of Infamy and that still ended badly for her, didn’t it? So I guess stipulations can only cover for so much before it really comes down to someone’s desire to grab that brass ring, or fight all the odds or whatever… but as someone who’s been handed that lucky chance before, by way of fan vote, all it takes if desire and you can beat anyone in this company, regardless of hot streaks or mind games and everything else that comes with being part of this business. All the extra bullshit on top of the basics of competition and the best person winning on the night. This business is a minefield and it can be difficult to tread, in fact that’s a fucking understatement...”

“...yet some people do it, they navigate the minefield and dodge the bullets and win the battle! They excel and go beyond their wildest dreams, and that’s what makes Batshit Crazy season so fucking great!” he says, slipping his hands into his pockets as he prepares to finish up his promo. “And here’s hoping I end up doing that same thing as I did back in twenty ten… ten years later. Here’s hoping that I come out of this lucky so lucky that people think I humped a leprechaun for his gold and found a genie's lamp in there at the same time, so that I can not just get the match I want, but walk out the victor too… because to the victor, go the spoils, and as much as everyone with a ‘rational’ mind wants to say that the spirit of competition is what’s important, those who aren’t like extra’s from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest know that ultimately, success if measured in exactly that. Success. And while those said cuckoo enthusiasts may think that we’re all gold digging Lizard supporters for it, ultimately, our career isn’t going to be judged on whether we were nice or whether we contributed to charity or got involved in make a wish or any of the stuff we do outside of the squared circle, it’s going to focus solely on titles and achievements! I guess it’s rich coming from me, given I don’t necessarily have to worry about that anymore, because I’m already in the Hall… but when all’s said and done, I could still fuck it all up for myself and I’m mindful of that. But I’m here… I’m here and I’m part of this clusterfuck known as Fatal Fortunes, and I’m going to wait and see where it goes…” he says, holding up two fingers to the camera. “Two weeks, guys… two weeks, two shows, and everything could change. So don’t go placing bets on Taking Hold of the Flame just yet, alright? Because we don’t even know who’s going to head into that show as champion yet, we don’t know what SCW is going to look like in three weeks time. The end of the month could be entirely different from the start of it, and I’m there for that. I really am. I just hope that my involvement with it was something fun and that I get to help facilitate change. Because christ knows, after only a couple of weeks, we already fucking need it. But again, I’m going to watch my mouth or I’ll have the brother calling me complaining, and I’m not talking about the one who says the same things but much worse either, you know who I mean. So here’s to two weeks of fun, games and hopefully surprises, guys. Here’s to hopefully two shows packed to the fucking rafters with insanity and stuff we’d never have guessed would happen in our wildest dreams… and here’s hope I see you on the other having picked up a win in something that was fun and out there. Who knows, maybe I’ll even gain ten pounds or so when all’s said and done. Here’s to finding out. Either way, it’s gonna be fucking great… now we just got to hope certain specific people don’t think so by the end of it, huh?” he says, before winking into the camera before finishing up in the only way he knows how. “BANG!” he shouts and winks into the camera again before the final shot freezes and the video dims as the replay button appears in the middle of the screen.