The Youtube livestream begins and for a second the image of David Helms grinning into the camera appears, before the screen flashes black for a second only to return  but heavily pixelated as it does. The images dance and jitter momentarily, grossly twisting Helms’ features before it clears up and we see Helms in what appears to be a different home to what we’re used to seeing in this videos. And he isn’t standing some distance from the camera either, but clearly holding the camera out at arms length, so we can assume he’s livestreaming straight from his phone rather than a stationary camera. “This thing working now?” he asks as he walks into a slightly better lit part of his home, the kitchen off in the background and a dining table and chairs just behind him, and he presses something on the screen before nodding his head, seemingly happy that it is. Presumably he was checking the comments section for confirmation before he swipes at the screen again and smiles as he waves with his free hand. “Alright guys, I think we’re good to go here,” he says, grinning a little sheepishly. “I know that I’m not quite forty year and that I have no excuse for not being great with technology, and honestly, I think I’m pretty good with it what with editing my videos for youtube and all when I film them, but honestly, these live streams have a habit of freezing up or not working right when I do them that I try to avoid them… but honestly, I wasn’t in the right place last night to film before we left California to come here, and I’ve spent the day so far doing publicity for tomorrow night as well as some local events based on the fact that I’m in fucking New Jersey!” he says with a great deal of happiness on his face, his mouth splitting into a huge grin now, which seems an appropriate description as the big smile highlights that his lip appears to have been split sometime between Wednesday night’s breakdown and now. “So let me welcome you guys to the greatest state in this beautiful fucking country… which is an opinion probably shared by only me and my brother I guess, unless I’m missing some other Jersey locals, but here with are in New Jersey and this place I’m in is my home away from ‘home’ in my new home… and I just confused myself with how many times I had to say that! Fuck. Okay, well, what I’m saying is welcome to the house I own here in New Jersey, guys. In the state I was born and grew up in until sixteen when I made the move to Boston! It took me a good few years to get comfortable with my past here, and a lot of that’s been well documented so I don’t think I really need to rake over the coals of that one but I’ll say this, there’s something cathartic about finally becoming at peace with your past and learning to love where you’re from. I’ve always portrayed this image that I’m a proud New Jersey native, and that’s always been true, I’ve been proud to represent this state over the course of my career… but for several years I didn’t exactly like it, if that makes sense. But now? Fucking New Jersey baby, SCW is in you and man, this is going to blow your minds because here we are, one night away from Taking Hold of the Flame and broooo, it feels crazy standing here filming this thing, knowing that in twenty four hours I’m going to be standing backstage waiting for my number to be drawn as I compete in the Flame battle royal for only the third time in my career despite joining SCW more than a decade ago now!” he says with an amused little chuckle as he walks towards what appears to be a set of double patio doors and he steps through them onto a patio’d area outside. 

He strolls over to a set of grey wicker outdoor furniture and pulls a chair out from beneath the glass-topped table before taking a seat. “It’s funny though,” he says, looking out over the garden beyond before turning back to the camera. “Last time I competed at Taking Hold of the Flame, I was coming off one of the biggest achievements of my career, I was coming off of my victory in the Best of the Best tournament, having won the whole thing. And my prize, despite not really expecting anything more than some sort of trophy or even just a pat on the back, was a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship at this very show. Five years ago, bro, where the fuck has that time gone? Yet there I was, knowing my retirement - jokes on me I guess? - was only a few months away, and I’m handed a world title shot against Kennedy Street… and what does Kennedy do? She films her fucking promo on the grave of my parents! Have you any fucking idea how that made me feel, guys? How shitty I felt watching that, how enraged? How disrespectful can one person be to another, to literally sit on the gravestone of someone’s dead parents and cut a damn promo on them? She’d have done less damage if she took a knife, stuck it in my gut and then twisted it… and yet I still couldn’t get the job done when we faced off that night. That one stuck with me for a lot longer than I’d care to admit, even if I played it off that it wasn’t a big deal at the time. I took that one badly, and not because I didn’t walk away as a two time world champion that night, but because I felt like I’d seen my parents’ disrespected and instead of dealing with it, Kennedy got away with it that night and thought that she’d done something that was fucking clever…” he says, shaking his head sadly for a moment before sighing. “And me and Kennedy ultimately settled our differences; we’re family, there wasn’t really any question over whether it would happen sooner or later… but that night still sits wrong with me, there’s still that voice in the back of my mind that says I let my parents down that night. And no matter how big and tough you claim to be, nobody wants to feel they’ve disappointed their parents, do they? Even the most heartless bastard on the face of the planet would probably baulk at the idea of letting their folks down the way I felt like I’d done that night. It wasn’t about the title, it wasn’t about heading into Rise to Greatness as champ and main eventing the biggest show of all for the first time in my life, it was about wanting to punish Kennedy for the fact that she had actually done something so insulting, ugly and cheap… and I fucked it all up.”

Helms lets out a deep sigh, a sigh of defeat that seems to come from much deeper than just his lungs. It carries a lot of emotion with it, a lot of embarrassment and pain. But he shakes his head, as if shaking the dark thoughts away and purposefully smiles into the camera. “But that was five years ago, wasn’t it,” he says, trying to keep up a sunny disposition. “I didn’t start this livestream to bring all of you guys down, I wanted to take about tomorrow night and how fucking excited all of you should be about what’s to come! Aside from an amazing world title match that should be amazeballs if it lives up to the height, as well as a solid undercard, how can anyone not be excited about Taking Hold of the Flame for one reason and one reason alone: the battle royal! Forty people… forty people entering one match with the same goal, the same aim, to win the entire thing! And I’m sure everyone and their great aunt’s are gonna say similar things, talking about their reasons to win or how they need it or whatever, but honestly? Well, as awesome as it’d be to do that - and I’m not looking to undersell the importance of the match in any way shape or form here I should stress - I basically just want to make up for five years ago. I want to… no, I feel like I need to redeem myself after what I just talked about bro, I need to do this for my own personal ghosts, rather than to try and push myself into the world title picture. If I wanted to do that, if I felt compelled to be in the main event picture, I could have booked it at any time anyway, right? I mean, I still have my Trio’s contract which gives me whatever match I want to book and I could have interjected myself anywhere with it if that was all I wanted out of my return…. But it just isn’t,” he says, shaking his head before shrugging. Despite his success over the years, David was always one of those people that pointed out titles didn’t make someone a people’s champion and they didn’t make them a better person either. And despite being older and the impetus for success being somewhat more important in a sense, that was a belief he still held. “Am I going to sit here and claim I’m going to walk out the winner of the whole thing, as if it’s my destiny or that my whole career has been building to this moment? Fuck no. I’m not that arrogant or naive. And fair play to anyone who shows that level of confidence that they can just flat out flap their gums to the whole damn world that they’re going to do it and then just take it on the chin if or when they fuck it up or fail, but I’m not going to sit here and do that. Hell, I know for a fact that there’s two people specifically that will probably be planning to do anything they can to ensure I don’t - Tommy, Kandis, how’s it going guys? - so when you don’t only have to beat thirty nine other people with a regular target on you’re back just for being in the match but also a flashing neon sign above your head welcoming specific douchebags to fuck you over, I know how astronomical those odds are… but I’m at peace with that. Is it going to be a fucking huge deal for the winner? Of course it is; Rise To Greatness is the single greatest show of the year regardless of what company you follow closest, I’ve said that for years and I doubt anything is ever going to change that regardless of what other companies I’ll be involved with in the future… and it’s a fucking honor to headline the show of shows in front of tens of thousands in the stadium and millions at home! It’s moments like that… they cement legacies! They create careers, they make people, and anyone who sells that achievement short is an idiot without a shadow of a doubt. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend to be something I’m not in order to seem like one of the cool kids. I’ve not been a cool kid in my life and I’m too old to start now!” he jokes, smirking to himself as he shakes his head. 

“But if it happens… if I get the luck of the Irish thanks to my ancestry, then I’ll take it, obviously!” he continues, getting back on track. “It’s true, despite achieving Supreme Championship status in two thousand thirteen and the Hall Of Fame induction in two thousand seventeen, I’ve never headlined Rise to Greatness, just like I’ve never won the battle royal at Taking Hold of the Flame. There’s plenty of things I never did in the business, and I know Gio is going to talk shit about me chasing glory or whatever insane batshit crap that spews out of his match, but no one is gonna turn up their nose at a chance to tick a few more boxes on things they’d like to do before it’s time to call it a day for good, be that by their own choice or forced upon them. Even Gio himself, who I’m pretty much sick to the back teeth of at this point, has his own selfish reasons for trying to win a match like this, even if they don’t match up with the reasons everyone else does… and in the end, it’s hard to be in this business without being selfish anyway, right? I mean, if you’re not thinking about yourself, even under the guise of a ‘bigger picture’, then why the fuck would you step into the ring to compete?! If we didn’t all want success, regardless of the reasons, we’d walk to the ring, lay down so the other person can win, and then collect that easy money each month without having to break a sweat! That’s why I don’t buy into shit like Gio’s message, or any of that stuff. It’s why even I’m a fraud to a degree, guys, because as much as I say I keep doing this because it brings people like you great joy to watch, I only got into this business in the first place to make my own life better, and now I genuinely worry I’m at that point where I just can’t let go… see my recent return of fucking proof of that, if it wasn’t needed by now! Even in retirement, I couldn’t let go, could I? I threw myself into AnteUp,” he says, pausing as thunder clouds almost flash across his face for a second before he brushes it aside and continues. “I threw myself into training others to follow in my footsteps, and I even bought into another company and took on the role of General Manager, I obviously couldn’t step away and enjoy retirement while I was still young enough to do so. I came back for a one off appearance in the Orlando Cruze memorial, which turned into a second appearance under a mask as Kiken’na to ‘scratch an itch’ as I explained it to Sasha… an idea that ultimately lead to El Lucho Grande and El Lucho Venti, the weirdest fucking luchador’s this company has ever seen, which is a feat in it’s self, given they hired those Burrito guys, with their manager that has more names than he does fans! I had to basically face facts; as much as I walked away for the right reasons, as noble as my reasons for retirement were, I can’t quit this fucking business and with the way you guys still roar when my music hits, I guess it can’t quit me either…”

Pusing, Helms stands up and makes his way back into the house, closing the patio doors behind him as the livestream takes a second to adjust to the lower level of light. He walks into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator to grab a beer, which he puts the camera down to open quickly before picking it back up again. “I guess the point I’m making is that everyone has their own reasons for being in this thing,” he says after taking a swig from the beer bottle he just retrieved from the fridge. “Some are going to sound shallow, some are going to sound inspirational… some will say one thing and mean another and some may just say they’re in it for the lolz, but at the end of the day, we’re all just here fighting for what we have to fight for. And while I may be critical of some that are entering, others I know I’d be right behind if I wasn’t in this myself, and I’m sure that to each of us, are reasons are always going to seem more important that the rationale used by others anyway, so where’s the sense in trying to even fight that side of things? And let’s face it, with so many fucking people in this match, chances are this comes down to luck more than anything anyway! Who spots opportunities and takes them, who proves on the night that they have just that little bit more hunger than the others. It could literally come down to something as simple as someone being half a second quicker on the drop and in that half a second you end up main eventing Rise To Greatness! And truth be told, I don’t need the added weight of expectation going on my shoulders anyway, given I already know I’ve got a couple of petty, arrogant, entitled bitches that are no doubt going to paint me as almost being the literal Devil himself at some point today or tomorrow, and I know that they’re gonna almost see dumping me out of the ring as a more sort after prize than winning the match, so hooray for bullshit I guess? In that sense, I guess absolutely nothing has changed in the last five years, huh?” he asks, actually laughing despite the fact there’s little that could be considered amusing about anything he just said. “But at the end of the day… I’m not expecting to win, especially with recent shows being anything to go by. Maybe a certain ass-hat I spoke to recently was right, maybe I am slower or weaker this time around, who knows. I know that I made Jordan work so fucking hard to get that win on Wednesday and I don’t begrudge anyone who works for their success, so maybe I’m just overthinking… what I do know, is that whatever happens tomorrow night, I’ll leave the Prudential Center knowing I gave it my all, and whether that was enough or not good enough to ensure a ticket to the main event at the Grandest Show of All, as long as I gave it my all, and managed to make up for the failures of my past… I’m good with it,” He says, as he holds his beer up for the camera to see, in a toast of sorts. “So here’s what I’m sure we all hope is a hell of a fucking show!” he says before taking a swig and putting the bottle back down. “To the victor, the spoils. And whoever wins and goes on to face either Bree or Aaron, I hope you make the most of it. Because I didn’t five years ago against Kennedy and here I am now, still hating myself for that. Hopefully tomorrow night serves as closure on that front. And if not… I guess I just have to work harder, huh? But win or lose, I’ll make damn sure to go full throttle out there, because while Jonathan Knots recently described me as being ‘old as dirt’ he also pointed something else out at the same time. I can still go! And tomorrow I hope to show thirty nine other people, along with seventy plus thousand in the building and all of you at home how true that statement is! So start getting excited, bro, because if there’s one thing I can promise you, it’s that no matter who wins tomorrow night… it’s going to make the run to Rise To Greatness one hell of a ride. As for me? Well, let’s just say that I hope the night ends with a BANG and end things there, huh?” he says, flashing the camera a big cheesy grin. “Alright guys, that about wraps this thing up I think. Wherever you’re watching and with whoever you watch it, I hope you all enjoy the show and I’ll see you tomorrow night! Have a good one!” he says, giving a casual wave before bringing a hand up to press the stop button and with the motion, the screen goes black as the livestream comes to an end.