...POWERLESS
"...and when the referee is raising my hand, you’ll realize that…STRAIGHTEDGE MEANS I’M BETTER THAN YOU!"
The volume cuts again and the camera backs away, revealing that clip to have been played on a monitor of some kind. The room we're in is dark and we can't see anything but the glow of the monitor as the scene continues to play. We gradually progress away from it, however, and gravitate towards what appears to be another monitor. As we get near it The volume crackles slightly before blaring at us just as CM Punk finishes his speech..
As those words are spoken the camera whirls around and we're face to face with CM Punk's opponent for Warfare: THE UNDERTAKER! His eyes are hidden behind the brim of his hat, his head tilted at just the right angle to cause them to disappear. What we can see is the chilling grin of the Deadman, the toothy, spine tingling grin. What does he want? Why is he here? Why now? The grin seems to almost laugh at these questions as we think them. The Undertaker holds this grin for a moment, somewhat uncharacteristic of the somewhat mysterious Deadman but before long he turns his back on the camera and walks forward. He begins to walk up a set of stairs just off in the distance. The camera follows him but the lights suddenly cut out. When they come back on the Undertaker is nowhere to be seen. The camera moves forward, seemingly hesitant to start up the staircase but nevertheless it begins the ascent. As it gives us a view of the stairs before us we can see nothing but darkness, leading us into the abyss as it continues to move forward. The silence at this point is almost deafening in of itself, not even the sound of the Undertaker's footsteps can be heard which begs the question of if he's even still around. That question, however, is answered almost as quickly as it was asked. His voice echoes from somewhere beyond the camera, speaking from an unknown location with his grave voice as the camera continues to climb the stairs, guided only by a set of dim lights entrenched in the ceiling.
THE UNDERTAKER
"It's almost laughable. You've kept this facade up for so long that some view you as invincible. They see you as the Best In The World CM Punk and wouldn't dare cross you. They fear you, CM Punk. That is a curious thing. Throughout your time in EBWF you've shown that you are nothing to be feared. You are not perfect. While the record books will not show it there have been multiple occasions where the invincible CM Punk was defeated. But through your own smoke and mirrors you've kept these moments hidden away. But I'm no fool. I won't pretend as though wins and losses mean anything in this business either, CM Punk. But the fact remains that you...you have things to hide.'' It's here that the Undertaker does another uncharacteristic thing: he chuckles. Laughs, even. We can hear this laugh from our position on the stairs and the camera seems to stop, looking around briefly to no avail. The Undertaker eventually continues. "I, on the other hand, am merely curious. I see the reaction on the face of the superstars you face and I do not understand. I do not understand the fear. I see the reaction on your face and I do not understand. Help me, CM Punk, help me understand. Why do you feel the need to remind us of your superiority? What do you gain from repeating that you are better over and over? I've pondered this in my silence, CM Punk, and it puzzles me even now. You see, I'm sure you're wondering why I've decided to come back and why I've decided to come back now of all times. While you may not find it fitting to answer my questions, I will answer your's. My decision to come back, my decision to return and confront what most see now as the most dominant superstar EBWF has ever seen, is as simple as this: I do not like you. I do not respect you. But most of all, CM Punk, I detest you. As I watched over my time here in EBWF I witnessed the things you accomplished. The things you achieved. I witnessed your rise to power and that is where I began to watch you even closer. Because at first I saw you as no different than the others. The ones that had come before you and attempted to make EBWF their stomping ground. I saw you in the same light as men such as Sting and Jeff Hardy, the lost souls of this business who longed for a place to call home. But then, CM Punk, then I caught something else from you. I realized your true intentions and your true motivations. You plan to change this company and change this business and get the respect you deserved. Or so you wanted everyone to believe. It was you CM Punk, that made me realize what kind of soul you are. As I mentioned before I realized it was the power you sought and not a home. You came to EBWF to get to the top from where you could then rule. It was very troubling. A leader who knows his cause is a leader that earns respect. But a leader who lusts only for power and fame will never attain that same respect. But you don't realize that. You just keep going and going. You keep repeating to yourself that eventually you'll catch the attention and the respect that you feel you deserve and then...then you will be satisfied. But can you ever really be satisfied? Will that respect ever be enough for you? Because as futile as your attempt to garner that respect is, the goal is even more futile. The respect you seek will never be enough. The attention, the respect, the admiration. You would reach it and demand more. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself at that point, there would be nowhere to go but down but CM Punk only moves up. CM Punk, your hunger for more will never be satisfied and as such, you will never be happy with yourself. You will continue to preach and ramble on about how your the Best In The World and your plans for a better EBWF but at the end of the day you will look at yourself in disgust. You will see yourself for what you truly are, what you mask every day to hide from your loyal and most loved followers: insignificant. For a man that craves to be remembered, you look at yourself with disdain when your day is done because you know that you have not yet reached a level that will be remembered. That eats you alive, it burns your soul.." As the Undertaker says that the lights cut out again. They stay off only for a moment, flipping back on a few seconds later to reveal the Undertaker right in front of the camera! That grin flashes across his face once again as he speaks. "Tell me, am I close?"
With another flash of the lights the Undertaker disappears yet again. We can't help but feel jarred by this as he seems to be manipulating the camera and lights at will. Nevertheless, the camera continues to make its way up the stairs. As we get closer and closer to what we can only assume is the top we begin to see a light off in the distance. Surely this is the end. As the camera approaches the top the light gets brighter and brighter until we finally come to it...a torch. Hanging from the wall at this spot on the stairs is a lone torch. A bit odd given the general lack of bright lighting around the rest of the stairs, the lights on the ceiling only giving us enough light to see where to step next. This torch blares with a bright shine, lighting up the surrounding stairs like the sun. That cold chuckle is heard again and the camera catches what appears to be a gust of wind. The flame sways to the side from the wind and eventually gets blown out completely, leaving us in semi darkness yet again. The lights on the ceiling return as our sole light source and we again begin to make our way up the stairs. It doesn't take long for the Undertaker's voice to return, speaking in a very deliberate tone as he seems to want to make a point.
THE UNDERTAKER
"But fixing your problems and quelling your insecurities is not my purpose. No, Punk, my purpose here is far more...direct. I am here to end you. For you see, CM Punk, you have toyed with those around you time and time again. You have played the reaper and declared the end of careers, the end of your own career. But something that always follows is contradiction. No matter how much you try, you are not the judge of any man's fate. You step in that ring and you do your job but at the end of the night their soul is never in your hands. Perhaps more troubling is that deep down, you know this is true for yourself as well. Your fate is not, and has never been in your hands. You come and you declare yourself finished. You hide your motivations behind walls of lies. You have no competition, you've not been given respect, whatever your weak mind decides is the best reason at the time but you have never revealed the true reasons for your leaves: fear. You are afraid that everything I just said is true. That you truly have no power over your own fate, over your own end. So you try desperately to bring upon the end yourself, to bring it on your own terms. Yet every time you come close to the flames...they go out."That chuckle is heard once again and we're reminded of the torch. The way the wind blew it out just as we reached it, giving us the impression we were close to the end only to rip it away.. "It's the story of your life, is it not? The great CM Punk, announcing your the Best In The World over and over again only to find that the business keeps pulling you back. This is the way it works. For a man like you, for a soul so lost and damaged, there is nothing more satisfying to you than seeing the look on the faces of every man and woman that comes to see you. The anguish and disappointment as you claim you have no addictions and that your body is clean but your soul tells another story. You thrive on the feelings of others like a man with no true feelings of his own. You stand and you speak to those people with words perhaps even you don't understand but you know that afterward they will look at you and react. Love or hate, they react. That is what the almight CM Punk craves and that is why you can never leave of your own free will. Try as you might you make your way from this business like a man posessed and you find yourself back before you can blink your eyes. This is where you have made your mistakes because when these people see through your lies and your tricks, when they see what you are really after...the reactions will be gone. They will no longer care if you stay or if you go, if you keep your winning streak alive for just one more match or if you finally fall to the power of your opposition. They will not care about CM Punk...anymore. Not because they're above caring or to send a message, but rather because when the day comes for your true nature to be revealed you will no longer be in a position to command them to care. You will no longer command the respect and admiration that your adoring fans shower you with, the jeers and jealousy that your most heated detractors pelt you with. You will find yourself in the heap of men in this business that fly below the radar. The heap of men you once cried to the heavens for as the voice of the voiceless, all the while tricking them into believing you were truly a sheep just like them when you were in fact a wolf in sheep's clothing. How far did you lead them as their shepard? How far they did they truly progress as opposed to how far your agenda moved forward? Now you'll have a chance to answer for those sins CM Punk. You see, I've witnessed this exact scenario countless times before and while those sheep were eager to listen to your voice and do everything your heart desired of them when you were disguising yourself as their one and only chance at stardom...now that they've seen you for what you really are, maybe it'd be best to regard them as piranhas. Limp over to them and let them smell your blood. You control them no longer, they'll eat you alive."
The Undertaker laughs again, an ominous laugh to give warning to CM Punk about the actions that will soon come. Not the actions of the so called piranhas he mentioned but rather his own actions, the Undertaker seems to be intent on making CM Punk fight for his life on Warfare. As the camera continues up the stairs we begin to hear footsteps on a hard floor, definitely unlike the soft carpeted floor of the stairs we're currently on. As we get a bit further up the carpet seems to gradually fade, each step having more and more ripped off until we're eventually heading up plain wooden steps. These steps are obviously the source of the footsteps, the trademark black boots of the Undertaker no doubt making the sound that is currently echoing throughout the scene. The footsteps continue for a few moments before eventuallt stopping, leaving us in silence as we move up the stairs; silence that is quickly broken by the sound of the Undertaker's dark voice..
THE UNDERTAKER
"..and this brings us back to the thing you despise: power. Despite your powerful position in this company you have constantly made it clear through your actions and words that you cannot stand power. The mere thought of it makes you cringe but you push through it and continue doing what you have to do. This is what you tell the people that watch you week in and week out and some of them admire you for it, others respect you for it, but all of them are blinded by it. Blinded by the lies of the Straight Edge Superstar. You claim that you push through your dislike of power because you care about this business, because you care about them but if you've shown anything in your brief tenure here it's that you care about nothing but yourself. Just like you that you marched right into the mouth of hell and the hundreds of poor lost souls you cried were just like you, you look at the people that worship you and the business that's made you with disgust. They're beneath you. What a sad notion. These people you push away and this business you scorn, these have made you what you are. But you justify your feelings by claiming you never wanted to be what you are in the first place. You never wanted the power, you never wanted the attention, you never wanted it. That's what you cry to anybody who will hear you. You scream it from the rooftops because the almight CM Punk can't handle the position...but that's not quite true, now is it? You do want the attention. You want to be the best in the world and you want everything that comes along with that. You'll step on anybody that gets in the way of your goal, John Cena, and Chris Jericho. These men have stood up to you and challenged your rule and you've done everything in your power to weaken them and force them aside. It was quite the show to see how you manipulated your quest to be the best. I'm sure that you feel respected. Everybody seemed so shocked so but from you? This was inevitable. It was all part of your plan to cheat death. To get to the top without earning it, to have everybody do your work for you, and then to stay there much longer than you ever deserved. But sooner or later it all catches up. Sooner or later you have to stop running and face the music. I'm sure you knew from the start that it wouldn't last forever, that all good things must come to an end, but the damage you've done in your time at the top was enough for me to take notice. Allow me to remind you of something: no man cheats death. Your time is up and your fate has been written, it is inevitable. So at Warfare, in front of all of those people you've cheated and lied to, all of the people you've tricked and manipulated, you will finally see. You had a chance..but you made a choice. You chose to attempt the impossible instead of climbing to the top like everybody else and now it will leave you with what you started with: nothing. The respect you so desperately longed for and the admiration you strived for will be lost. You and your legacy that you worked so hard to cement will be forgotten." The Undertaker chuckles again. As the camera takes the next few steps we actually see silhouette of the Undertaker off in the distance! Just a few more steps to where he stands, the light shining upon him from beyond clearly indicatining the end of our journey. Before we can get to it though the camera reaches the Undertaker and is stopped from moving. He stands with his back turned for a few moments, silent, before eventually speaking up one last time. "You've watched as others have fallen back to the bottom and you've laughed from your perch, all the while not realizing that you are worse. You stand at the top with everything in hand yet you throw it away at every opportunity. You tarnish it and you spit on it because "you don't want it." The power you hold was never meant for men like you and that is why you can't handle it. You are, and have always been, weak. The choices you've made have only strengthened this fact. But the power you hold prays upon your kind. It requires a strong hold, it destroys the weak. It leaves them broken, beaten, and forgotten. Savor these last few moments while you can, because soon you will be right back at the bottom.." The lights flicker again and the Undertaker is suddenly face to face with the camera. The brim of his hat covers his eyes and his mouth forms that chilling grin as he speaks his final words. "...powerless."
With that, one last flicker of the lights causes the Undertaker to disappear from the scene completely. The camera finally moves on and up the final few steps to lead us to the end of our ascent. As we enter this new room the camera looks around. We see monitors playing clips from CM Punk's EBWF career, desks littered with clippings of newspapers and web articles that are then hung from the wall...we're back where we started. This only further confirmed as the camera turns just slightly to see the bottom of the staircase we had begun climbing just a short while ago. The eery realization is accompanied by a sudden feeling of being watched as the camera moves towards the monitors. The clips of CM Punk's career are muted just as when we left but they seem to be cutting out visually as well. They turn to static sporadically and eventually all of them cut out at once. The static suddenly gets some volume to accompany it and we're left with the screeching snow for a few moments until they cut to something else. There on the screen is the man who we've been following for this entire video, the Undertaker! The brim of his hat still hides his eyes as he faces the camera from within the monitors. After a few moments he utters just a few words, a chilling end to this video and perhaps something we'll be hearing again soon..
REST...IN...PEACE...