Raven: Gasping for air, the bubbles surface, creating a stir. Ripples reaching far. No air. Lungs collapse. The water pours in from every side, caving in, no air, no chance. Drowning. Sinking. To the abyss below.
The figure lowers his head and slowly turns around to remove all doubts about who he may be, revealing himself as none other than Raven as he turns to the camera with a fiery glare
Raven: Is this what life was all about? Meaningless accomplishments, feathered with tokens of success that in the end don't comfort a damn soul. Men die, they are frail. Reborn into the world as a new creature, but making the same mistakes.
Raven's eyes are ablaze as he delivers his intense promo, Raven continues.
Raven: The cycle, it continues. Round and round it goes, where it stops...no one cares. If it stops here, if it stops there, it stops, that's what’s important. Or does it stop? No it doesn't. The cycle keeps going, and you don't even know it. The movies stopped, the CD has run its course, and no one realizes it. When your number is up, its up. And there's nothing you can do it break free of it.
There is a glimmer in Raven's eyes as he continues, a familiar flickering of something different in Raven that we've seen only a few times before – a viciousness, but the darkness that came with it remains absent in this glare
Raven: In one instance, your life is amazing. Perfect life, with perfect children. Your wife makes love to you when you want her to. Your children go to school, do their homework and shut up. They ask you questions because you have knowledge. or you sit and dwell upon the life you may have had, if you hadn't changed your major in college, or you hadn't dropped out. This is their life, and its ending one minute at a time, for Paul London and Jungle Boy they believe it, they are living it. These men are LIVEING A LIFE I SO BADLY WANTED.
Raven scowls with contempt
Raven: The water crashes through my lungs like a tsunami, washing out all of the tar and cancer of professional wrestling that has eaten away at my insides. Its not the blackness of it that chills peoples bones, its the fact that between those lungs, pumps a heart that won't give up. Though air is thin, the heart still beats. Its unlike any other heart you'll find. This heart beat for one reason only. But no one knows what that reason is. The lungs are scratched on the surface, years of smoking WHAT EVERY SINGLE PROMOTER HAS BEEN FEEDING ME YEAR AFTER YEAR, its obvious the respiratory system has seen better days, but then again this withered old soul has fallen on rough days as of late. WHAT ABOUT ME WHAT ABOUT RAVEN....
Raven lets out a deep sigh as he bites at his lip in ambivalence, seemingly regretting the decisions he has made in his life
Raven: Just can't breathe. If this was any easier, trust me, there wouldn't be this much pain. I can see the surface of the water, and I'm reaching out for it. Sadly you can't hold water in your hand for very long. It slips through your hands just like life does. One minute its hard like ice, then it melts with frustration and you are drowning. Just like I am. Its nice to think that your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die. But sadly, the only thing flashing before me is a light off in the distance. It draws near, but I attempt once again to breach the surface. No luck, its almost as if there's a glass ceiling here in the EBWF on the surface, keeping me from reaching up. the light is getting closer.
Raven nods his head, looking forward to Warfare as he begins to bring the promo to a close
Raven: Is this the end? The actual end? Do I repent? Do I ask Jesus to forgive me for being such a rotten bastard? Hell no. If this be the end, I only have one thing to say to the proverbial son of God....GO TO HELL. I struggle for air, not because I'm afraid of being face to face with the messiah, but because its uncomfortable not being able to breathe. If I am honestly looking fate in the eye, I might as well accept it right? Wrong. I don't believe in fate. THE SCUM OF THE EARTH believe in fate. "Things happen for a reason" they say. Fate is a short way of saying "shit happens," through a guilt free pursuit of life. I however, don't believe in fate. This is not my fate. I have a hand keeping me down, drowning me over and over again here in the EBWF.
Raven smirks with a touch of evil intent in his eyes
Raven: And then it hits me, that hand is my own. I'm drowning myself. Not in a sea of sorrow, but in a sea of reflection. Like a phoenix dies and rises from its ashes, reborn and revitalized, so do I. I'm drowning myself to be reborn. Only I'm not doing this physically, I'm doing this mentally.
Raven raises his hands and clenches them into fists
Raven : This is the part where you backtrack to the first time you heard Paul London and Jungle Boy open their mouth's. This is the part where you think about all the things that they have said, and all you know of them. Take all of that information, and ERASE IT. It means nothing now. All that matters is being reborn. And reborn I will be. Its time for the pilgrimage you've all been waiting for.
Raven savoring the punishment he intends to inflict.
Raven: This is the part when I wake up, surrounded by sweat soaked sheets, cold and odorous. I was too busy drowning in my sleep. Dreaming of trying to stay above water.
Raven tilts his head and glares deep into the viewers soul
Raven: I have been put on the shelf SO MANY TIMES... I've been BETRAYED BY FANS....BETRAYED BY FRIENDS.....BETRAYED BY FAMILY....AS GOD IS MY WITNESS I WILL NOT BE BETRAYED BY THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT IN MY LIFE AND THAT IS MY DESTINY ..... Quote The Bálor Club Nevermore
Raven stares down the lens with a strange composure in his eyes as the scene fades to black.