Fighting Off The Past, Focusing On The Future

Well, here we are back in another medical facility. You would think that by now I would be sick of being around these kinds of places, and deep down I'd say you would be right to think that. But this kind of scenario is a bit different, this one isn't about being hurt or having someone close to my heart being injured, no this is about a much more positive thing.

"Alright Mrs. Storm, I think that should be a clear view of the baby."


Zelda and I look over at that image with huge smiles on our faces. I mean being able to see our dream become such a reality is amazing, we have come a long way in our relationship together but now we get to see a new chapter on the horizon for us.

"Tyler look at his nose, it's so cute. Oh my god our little baby is so adorable."

Zelda is definitely excited about all of this, and I admire her strength so much going through all the hardships that comes with having another life inside you. I mean I do share that same excitement, don't get me wrong, but I guess I am trying to be a bit more cautious about my reactions. I admit though, that little guy or gal is pretty dang cute. Smiling, I lean down and kiss Zel on the cheek, and it seems that doing this has made her start crying.

"You don't need to cry sweetheart, it's OK."

"I know Tyler, but I just can't help myself. I mean it's just hard to believe that we are becoming parents. I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm nervous, every emotion just wants to come out."

I chuckle a little as I wrap my beautiful wife in a hug. Seeing her feel this way is really incredible, and I am going to love seeing the look on her face when we get to meet our little one in a few months. For now though, I can definitely enjoy this moment with her.

---

So me and Zelda decided after our little appointment with the baby doctor to head out and grab some dinner, and what better place to head out to than Olive Garden. After all, gotta be able to treat your lady, especially when she is your wife and the mother of your soon to come child. As we sit here at the table, enjoying some delicious bread sticks, I begin to ponder a bit about how my life has been one of many ups and downs. I mean I certainly am not one to say that I have had the roughest life, especially compared to the people around me at the moment in VoW. I have a beautiful wife, an amazing group of friends and a great family, I own a very well established company as well as work for one of the best wrestling companies I have ever come across, and I get to make people happy on a daily basis thanks to my jobs.

"Hey Silent Bob, why you being all quiet to me right now."

"Oh...sorry sweetheart I just kind of was thinking about some things. I don't know, you understand how I get usually, my mind is never at rest."

Zelda nods to me and smiles and she takes another bite of bread stick.

"Well how about you talk with me a bit about what's on your mind silly butt. Wifey likes to talk about stuff with you."

Smiling, I begin to explain to Zelda exactly what just went through my mind. As I finish with that, I continue on with what I was going to go to before being interrupted by my wife's vocal-self.

"...So from all of that, it's pretty clear I don't have much to complain about, I couldn't ask for a better life. But that doesn't mean some of those good patches didn't come without some hard moments, and I definitely have had many."

"Oh I definitely agree, I mean we all have our rough moments, and I've been with you through some rough stuff. I mean when we met, you were so down on yourself with losing..."

Zelda stopped talking, I understand her trying to be careful mentioning one of the absolute roughest things I've ever been put through.

"No no, it's OK you can go on about it. At some point I've got to get past that hard moment in my life...she hurt me, it was a big reason for our divorce, but she still mattered to me and losing her and Coop hurt me more than anything in life. The only thing close to that was losing Dad, and the only thing that could ever trump those would probably be losing you."

"Well I doubt you are going to lose me anytime soon, of course with life you never know, but I am fairly confident in saying that. But yeah, seeing how you were after losing Lacey and sweet little Cooper, I felt so bad for you as a friend which at the time we were. But at the same time, if it weren't for me feeling so bad, I would have never spent those long nights with you coming over to check on you and help you out, and soon we started dating and then one thing lead to another and we got married. It is weird to kinda think that we got together under rough circumstances, but you needed someone and I just couldn't let you be alone as at least a friend. God knows I was about to lose it in KAPOW with the stuff they put me through, and having you around made it at least worth it all."

"And you do know I didn't marry you only because of trying to get over Lacey, right?"

"Tyler...of course I never thought that way. That kind of thinking is toxic and you are one of the kindest people I've ever known. You like to let your emotions dictate your life, and you were lost losing people close to you, even if Lacey wasn't as close as she used to be after the divorce. But I know when you married me, you were doing it out of love, not out of replacement. I've dated those guys that had me as a rebound girl, so I could have told if you were the same way. But hey, how about you relax a bit and just enjoy some dinner babe?"

She's right, as I nod and smile at her. She just knows how to say the right things, probably a lot better than I can. She has a heart to her that is so easy to fall in love with, and I'm just happy I got to be the one who stuck to her in the end. But, like I said, she is right. I need to relax, enjoy our little feast, and just take my mind off of the stress on my mind. Life is crazy, you just have to keep on living it though.

---

It's midnight, the witching hour...Zelda lays here next to me fast asleep, dreams of happiness and joy probably going through her mind. I wish it was just as easy for me to sleep so calmly, sadly I live in a mind filled with endless thought and wonder about things, situations, ideas, and so forth. Zelda certainly helped with easing about my small complications in life that effect me still to this day, in particular with losing my ex-wife and son, but now as I sit here in bed I begin to go back to thoughts on my career in pro wrestling.

It's been a while since I've actually won a match, at least here in VoW. I got to get back on track slightly in the King of the Cage tournament, and I was met with some great challengers that prevented me from reaching the ultimate goal as champion, but I never really sought out fully to only go into that tournament to win. It was meant to show the world about how competitive VoW is in this industry, and I along with the "Xcellent One" and my good friend Stacy certainly showed that competitive nature through our victories and losses. We stepped up as good as we could have, in the end that makes us all winners in my heart.

But as that comes to a close, VoW now goes back to the center stage for me and my focus turns to trying to re-salvage my competitive nature in my own company so I can get back on track. I'll admit, everything the past few weeks with helping out my friends to seeing Zelda get hurt, even the news of becoming a father again, they all have weighed on my mind so much that I think it really threw me off. I understand I'm the nice guy, I help everyone out, I do what I can to make my surroundings and the people in it secure and happy. But what good is that if I let my own being be crushed slowly and slowly, if I allow failure to just become a constant for me. I've let so many things slip by me, from a chance to knock off the current World Visionary Champion Casanova English, to controlling my emotions to take care of Scarlet Flint for what she did to my wife, and even just shutting up Ryder Blade for once so he isn't running around bragging about his stupid streak of wins. Can't blame the guy though, he is dirty but he can win, can't deny the impressiveness in that, but even still it was just the most recent setback in the many that have happened for me since my high moment of winning the Quest for the Case match which held the I4NI Title.

Now here I am, no title, a record so close to becoming a losing one, just failure after failure. I'm not one to hold myself to standards like those but when they are in your face it can be frustrating, it makes you want...

...more.

It's at least glad to see you are around...but even still I must control you, especially with what opportunity I get coming up in this rematch with Ms. Flint. I need you, but I also have to be able to go through some moments of this match without you.

I understand...but embrace me in your control. You are being locked up like an animal with that fiend at the Darkest Hour, you have nothing to lose if you decimate her.

You thinking that way is exactly why I can't go in wanting to do that. As much as I despise the woman, she is methodical, she will take your thoughts and turn them in her favor. She proved that at the last event, she will do it again if I am not more strategic.

You can't let her survive.

If she does, let her. She is a worthy competitor at the end of the day, I can't fault her for that. I will do what I can to walk out above her at Darkest Hour, but I have to do it smartly, not forcefully.

...It seems as though he has left for now. That's good, that usually means he understands. He has his own training to do, as do I in the morning. For now, I need to try as hard as I can and rest. Tomorrow, the process commences.

---

I turn on my camera, I decided maybe was a good time to record my thoughts while enjoying my walk.

"Hello there Witness Army and VoW family, Tyler Storm here and we have reached the Darkest Hour. Kinda fitting name in a sense, especially for matches such as mine or the ones occurring in other places on the card, especially that main event. Brutal circumstances between Val and English, and I never wanna go through a Buried Alive match again in my life. But let's get down to some nitty gritty, as you guys can see I get to take on Ms. Scarlet Flint once more with the chance to regain my I4NI Title and get back to a winning track after so many rough battles in recent weeks. But hey, it's time to look past all that and focus on the now, and that now has me looking right at a steel bar Cage Match with a woman inside that has the capability to rip me to shreds if she wants to, even with that very under-weighted body of hers."

Laughing, I continue on with confidence.

"Scarlet, you and I definitely had a war against each other not too long back, and to say my ill feelings towards you have gone away even after all of that is sadly not the case. I don't exactly hate you, I as a Christian man with my common sense good morals am very forgiving in some cases, and I need not hate someone at the end of the day for we are all human and make mistakes. But I can see that you are someone who doesn't like to make mistakes, no you do exactly what you want to do whether people like it or not, and you enjoy doing it more than anything. From that, it's easy for you to probably understand that I don't exactly like a person such as yourself, and I know you care absolutely zero if anyone cares about Scarlet Flint other than Scarlet Flint."

I stop for a moment and take in some fresh air. It's not everyday you get to just walk around Sheffield, at least not for me being a common American foreigner here, so I like to stop around and check out the beautiful surroundings this place has to offer.

"Nice place for a war, don't ya think Scarlet? Now Little Red, do you mind if I call you Little Red? I feel it fits you pretty well so I'm gonna keep on anyways, after all it's just how I feel to continue with. But yes, Little Red, I can say that after our battle in the Wall of Woe match, I learned a few things for when we would meet again, and the easiest first lesson I learned was I was definitely wrong about my attitude I took you on with. Now although I do feel very wanting to just take your head and rip it from your body after what you did to my Zelda, I learned that control is going to be a much greater key going forward with not just you but any opponent, as my severe anger and want to hurt and maim you was actually more against me than I originally imagined. As a result, you got that win and I went on and continued a path that recently has been kinda lackluster. You manipulated me thanks to my stubborn thinking and for that I applaud you, you were smart Scarlet. You took advantage of a broken vengeful man and you made me look like a bitch, I admit that. If I can't admit my flaws, well...well..."

Leaning down, I pick up a crushed can laying on the street.

"If I can't admit my flaws, I'm no better than this can, worthless and crushed trash. I mean you probably already think I am this can, but at this point I want you to think however you wish to think against me Ms. Flint. Batter me with your w...is that a condom in this can?"

Grimacing, I quickly throw the can into a near by street garbage bin and continue on with my walk.

"Anyways...batter me with your words Little Red, be the master wordsmith you so often become when faced with a new challenger. But here is the thing, we can both say whatever we wish, bottom line is we both can fight and we both can deliver some pain to each other. At Darkest Hour, we are in a Cage, not just some regular Steel Cage, a Steel Bar Cage, I mean I didn't think VoW would be the company to send us back to the stone ages of wrestling but hey, I like the style. We are gonna be locked in, with no way out other than if we pin or submit one another, then the cage will be lifted up and we can drag our aching carcasses out of that ring, one of us victorious, the other beaten and fallen. We are to VoW great warriors of two different clans, I fight for my family and my honor, you fight for yourself and for your own personal vendetta. But hey, we all know that by now and we know that this is probably gonna be no different than what happened at Armed and Dangerous."

I stop in my tracks once more, turning my focus fully to the camera.

"But Scarlet, even if things won't be different in the sense of winner or loser, I can at least assure that I am of a much better mind this time as I come to face you. This time around, it isn't about revenge, it isn't about defending a title, it isn't about showing off an unleashing fury on you. If I let out The Hybrid again, he will be much more controlled, and he understands why I must be more controlling as I step toe to toe with you again Scarlet. See, I have had so many things go wrong for me recently that at this point, I'm just gonna go out and fight. I've never been one to care for glory, I've never been one to have winning or constant victory control my life. They are nice to have, don't get me wrong, but I don't need them. I just want to go in that cage, look you in the eye, take your puny ass and slam you around, and if I win then I win. If I lose, then I accept my defeat and I finally move on and admit you are the better warrior in this conflict. Scarlet, I want you to try and destroy my confidence, destroy my well being, take me so far and hell, even attempt to rid me from VoW.

I smile and lean closer into the lens.

"But no matter what you fucking do Scarlet, I promise you I am only just beginning here in VoW and I won't let anyone, even you, just take me out once and for all. I'm never going away, whether you like it or not, whether people like Casanova English and Ryder Blade like it or not, even if certain fans like it or not, Tyler Storm is here to stay and he will come ready to fight. And in that, you ultimately will fail at Darkest Hour, Little Red. Because you want nothing more than to decimate, to destroy, to overall get rid of so called pests like me. Well buttercup, with me, you just can't do it. I attest that you try, but it ain't going to go your way in that sense Scarlet. You can win the match if you want, have that victory, I'll be going after that goal to. But Tyler Storm is still going to be smiling...still going to be riding strong...and still going to be having you and everyone else in this company...Be Witness...to The Hybrid."

Still Smiling, I place my hand near my lens, and before covering it over...

"I'll see you soon, bitch."

With that, I end the recording. Scarlet has a lot of momentum and a lot of abilities coming with her at the Pay Per View, but I'm going in to fight and make sure she isn't accomplishing her ultimate goal. VoW will be Hybrid Territory for a long time, like it or not. I'm ready for Round Two, let's see how well my words will be backed up inside a cage.