• The Tragedy of Yes

Posted: **Sat May 05, 2018 8:58 am**

A red curtain hung on screen with gold trim adorning the top and a gold rope hanging down in the middle of the screen. A subtle sound of a murmuring audience played. Slowly the curtain opened on a black backdrop with the Curtain Call logo front and center. Aiden English stepped out from the left side of the screen with a skull in his hand.

Aiden English : Alas, poor Douglas. I knew him. I beat him.

Aiden tossed the skull aside. It crashed to the floor off camera. Aiden stared at the spot where it had hit for several seconds in silence. The audience audio track had faded out. Aiden snapped his head back around to stare into the camera.

Aiden English : I came to the ring and delivered on the promise I made to the EBWF, that I made to my adoring fans, that I made to Shane Douglas himself. I beat him. I proved that for all his talk of former glory, he couldn’t live up to the hype he was self perpetuating. I found the flaw in his act and I exposed it. I beat him. And yet, the EBWF higher ups think he deserves a spot higher up on the bill. That’s not how this works! Your biggest star, your brightest star, your most talented star. His name goes at the top of the program. I am that star! I am meant for greater things than the Shane Douglas’s and Daniel Bryan’s of this world! There is a place in the cosmos, among the pantheon of professional wrestling that awaits for me and me alone! Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, so to speak! Perhaps I pose a threat to some power that has yet to reveal itself. Perchance I have earned a place as the ender of dreams. I destroyed the dream of Shane Douglas and this week I will do the same to Daniel Bryan. This week I will end a second dream. For in this sleep of death what dreams may come? I shall slay.

Aiden tossed his head back and lifted his hand into view. His hand opened in such a way that it might hold an orb, if there was one to hold. He took in a long deep breath and let it out slowly.

Aiden English : I shall slay the career of Daniel Bryan and trample the legacy of the yes movement. The yes movement will be no more because movement requires life and I shall leave it with none at Warfare. I will finish the job Marty Scurll started last week by dominating Bryan. Because, it’s like Polonius said, this above all. To thine own self be true. Daniel can do nothing but be true to the man he is. Bryan doesn’t just play the underdog for sympathy and support. No, he is the underdog. Alway the least likely horse to win the race, the least likely actor to get the part and the least likely dog to win the fight. Sometimes Daniel Bryan proves the odds wrong and picks up a hard fought victory. Sometimes the struggle to rise to the top pays off and that little mouse churns the cream into butter and makes it out against all odds. Sometimes Daniel Bryan gets lucky. There is no luck when it comes to the Drama King! See the bad thing about being the lucky underdog is eventually your luck runs out! That luck, Daniel Bryan’s luck, ran out last week when he met Marty Scurll and now I’m being sent out to pick up the pieces of a broken career.

He tilted his head from side to side to gather his thoughts. Another deep, long, drawn out breath and then he lowered his focus back onto the camera.

Aiden English : This week isn’t the triumphant comeback of Daniel Bryan! It isn’t a return to winning ways, a revitalization of the movement. After stumbling on the road block that is Scurll, Bryan runs head first into the barricade that is Aiiiiiden Engggglish! Another humiliating defeat for the captain of the movement. Because when sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions! An army of disappointment or of disappointed fans. Those who held Bryan up as the everyman who could make a difference see him for what he truly is. They look upon the pedestal they’ve placed him on and see a dressing mirror. A crude reflection of their own mediocrity! They see him exposed for what he has always been. Not the everyman who could make a difference, just the everyman. They tried for a time to look and not see themselves but he is them. He is the people who placed him on that pedestal. He is the loser in the nosebleeds, the failure at the concession stand, he is a nobody like all the other nobodies in attendance! He is them, they are him and they know like themselves he doesn’t deserve a spot in the ring against a legend in the making. He isn’t worthy to grovel at the feet of the Drama King! Daniel Bryan deserves to be in the cheap seats, worshiping idols that are owed their pedestal. Those of us earning our place among the pantheon. I will make sure Daniel Bryan gets the farewell that is owed to him this week on Warfare.

Aiden took a step back and motioned off screen opposite of him. Someone handed him a crown from off screen. Aiden rolled it around in his hands for a few moments looking at the person who handed it to him.

Aiden English : Thanks Richard, I hope you’re enjoying this part better than the last! Now, hurry along. I hear they’re casting some local’s play at the community theatre. Just pray they’re not doing it in French because I know that’s outside your range.

English broke into laughter. A door slammed in the distance. Aiden put the crown on his head and turned his attention back to the camera. He winked.

Aiden English : I am THE Drama King and once I’ve finished taking out the trash for the second week in a row someone is going to take notice! Wes is going to realize that he’s wasting a top tier talent by utilizing me as an opening act! I would serve this company better by being featured in the advertising, by headlining the show. Hell rename Warfare, Curtain Call because it’s all about Aiden English from here on out! You see those in the audience with sense enough to cheer not for their equals but for their betters will gravitate toward Aiden English. The sheep shall follow the flock toward my greatness. Those who struggle to keep up shall be swept away by the tide of my takeover. The era of the Drama King is upon you! This is the final Curtain Call of the pathetic era that came before. I’m happy to usher in this new era by delivering Daniel Bryan the Director’s Cut of his career highlights. An empty reel for a shell of a man. This Monday night we’re a short walk from Mount Royal, the namesake of this slightly better than Winnipeg city. Which is fitting because I take the second step up the EBWF mountain of greatness. The first was hazardous because it was falling apart from time and misuse. This second step is not so old but is crumbling nonetheless due to its shoddy construction. Where will the leader of the yes movement go from here? The unemployment line, a soup kitchen? Perhaps just home with his tail tucked between his legs like the underdog he’s always been? Perhaps the underdog will surprise Aiden English and the world with an upset? No…… No…… No…… No……

The screen began to fade to black, the curtain closing in front of Aiden.

Aiden English : No…… No…… No…… No……

The Curtain Call logo faded in as the video ended.