[Raising Fear by Armored Saint hits the speakers.  The crowd gives a mixed reaction.  Nic Totopoulous appears from out behind the curtain.  He is wearing his UWA United States Championship title belt around his waist.  He comes down the ramp toward the ring.  He has somewhat of a weird look on his face.]
 

 

[He walks around the ring and takes the microphone from the ring announcer.  He rolls under the ropes and into the ring.  Walks straight to the centre of the ring.]

Cut the music.

[The music stops.]

Well, here I am.  I am here to speak with all of you fans out there live in the stadium, and wherever you can hear me.  Now I know many of you have heard a side of me that none of you thought ever hear from me lately.  Well, I'd like to appologize for those actions.  I would like to appologize because they are completely uncalled for.  I had been doing a lot of thinking, and I think I was thinking too much.  Damn it, there i go again, thinking too much.  So today I've stopped thinking.  I'm just going to say what I think feels right.  I'm going to say what I want when I want.  And when I want is right now in front of all you people.

This past little while has been tough for me.  As soon as I won the United States Championship, I've been slumping.  I lost to Wall2K, and it was by submission of all things.  The submission is what pissed me off the most you know.  And I know that if I got the chance again, I would be able to beat Wall.  If I was only given the chance.  Damnit!  Wall2K is a good wrestler, no doubt about it.  But you know, I still truly believe that I am the best wrestler here in the UWA.  I truly believe that if push came to shove in a best of ten confrontation with him that I would be the victor.  I would benefit from it, I would get the World Title shot, and then I would be the world champion.  Isn't that what we're all here for?  Aren't we all here to one day become the World Champion?  Doesn't he make the most money?  I think so, but I'm not sure.  But it's not the money that matters now is it?  It's not.  It's the pride, the pride that the Champion would take in knowing that he is the best.  Knowing that he has beaten everyone to become the best, to be able to say that he's the best.  Isn't that what we all want?  Sometimes I wonder.  Sometimes people seem so fixated on certain things that they forget what they came for.  I'll give you an example.  Let's take myself here.  When I was scouted by the UWA I tried my best to get in the UWA.  I wanted it so bad I could taste it.  I could taste the contract.  Then it happened.  They offered me a contract.  They gave me what I had been working my whole life for.  They gave me a contract to the best wrestling company in the world today.  They gave me the chance to show the world on the biggest stage in the world what I was made of.  This was the single greatest day of my life.  This is going to be until another day, the day that I become the World Champion.

Then though as time went on, I started to worry about what the fans thought.  It was just a few weeks into my tenure here, and the fans started to cheer me.  I couldn't believe it.  I was getting popular within my first month here.  I thought that I was a top dogg, but little did I know that I was only beating the weaker wrestlers.  But that wasn't the problem.  The problem was that I started to worry about what the fans started to think of me.  Of all the people in the world to do that, and of all the things in the world to worry about, it was me worrying about impressing them.  Then I go and win the UWA Television Champion.  I claimed to be the best wrestler on television with that belt.  Of course at the time I wasn't.  I was just another guy on the roster.  I wasn't bad, but I wasn't great either.  I just wasn't as good as I thought I was.  I was simply popular.  Then, thinking that I would be able to increase my popularity, I joined the now defunked, but then ever so popular P.U.N.K.S.  Our motto, Picture Us Not Killing Shit.  Now isn't that the coolest?  Isn't that was fans like?  Don't they like all the blood and the gore and the violence and profanity.  This group of people, BladerSkum, Viper J and myself.  BladerSkum is a former World Champion.  Viper J was the first every Undisputed Champion for crying out loud.  This was the group to be in.  These were the guys to be around.  They were going to make me popular, right?  Well, maybe.  But you see, deep down inside being popular isn't really what I wanted.  What I wanted to be was the World Champion.  But you see, the short term satisfaction of being popular was overpowering the long-term satisfaction of being the World Champion.  I wasn't thinking straight.  The only thing that Blader and J could really do for me was hold me down.  Everyone was telling me this.  They were holding me down.  But did I listen?  Of course not.  Because I was popular, I was Nic Totopoulous, and I knew all.  Now I'm not saying that they did it on purpose, but they did it none the less.  They're good guys.  Fun to be around, but really for my career, for my long-term goals, they just weren't what I needed.

Then, I do something stupid again.  I realize that I don't need the people, which of course I don't.  So what do I do?  I go out of my way to make them hate me.  I act like a cocky arogant ass, and the people hate me.  I act like a complete jerk, I tell off all of these people, and they hate me.  Good plan right?  Of course not.  It was terrible.  I was still worried about what the people thought of me.  I was still worried about whether they liked me or not.  Now this time instead of the liking me, I wanted them to hate me.  As this was going on, J had left, and Blader was holding me down.  not just me mind you, but Stonehart was well.  Now both of there two guys are good friends of mine, and I don't mean to disrespect them, but they weren't what I needed, and I wasn't what they needed.  I needed to be more focused.  I needed to be thinking clearer.  I needed to not worry about the people, and I needed to worry more about myself.  Then is happened, Blader left, Stone went somewhere, and I was left alone.  I was feeling insecure.  I was feeling as if there was nothing left for me.  But I still worried about what the people thought.  I still worried about what people thought, but only more now.  I didn't have BladerSkum by my side, so what was I going to do?  Who was going to keep me popular?  I thought that it was Blader who made people hate me.  I was paranoid.  I was more worried than ever.
 

 

Somehow though through it all, even without being at my best.  Even without my concentration being on wrestling, I managed to fend off three other wrestlers in Marcus Luster, Fraz, and Eddie Draven to become the UWA United States Champion.  Now this I knew was the next stepping stone to becoming the World Champion.  I knew that I was close.  But the World Title, as much as I thought it was my focus, my main focus, it just wasn't.  I was still worried about the people.  You all saw that drinking binge I had at a bar near mt house.  That was because I didn't know what to do.  I didn't know what to make of anything.  So, I drank.  Then I tried to go swimming.  Now that was on a whim, I like swimming okay.  But anyway, back to what I was saying.  I was confused, and I was worried still about the people.  Then I have a match against T-Money.  I win by disqualification.  I couldn't even pin him.  I mean, how am I supposed to get anywhere if I can't get clean victories.  Especially over the new guy T-Money.  Now I know that he is better than most of the new guys, and he does deserve better.  But he doesn't deserve a United States Title shot.  And that is final.  Then, I have a match against Wall2K.  What happens?  I lose of course.  Now it's not the fact that I lost like I said before that pisses me off.  It was by submission people.  I was still worried about the people.  I wanted them to hate me.  I wanted them to boo me, that's what made me feel good.  But now, not only am I distracted by the fans, I'm also distracted by Joe Traupman.  Look at me.  Last Monday on Rampage what happened?  Well, I has put through a table.  I lost because of my lack of concentration.  I was focused on how much Traupman was pissing me off, so I put him through a table.  I looked away for a few seconds, I stopped thinking about the match and only about getting even with Joe Traupman.  I know now that Traupman doesn't matter.  He's only there for T-Money.  He's there to do this to me.  He's there to get me distracted.  He's there to cost me the match on Sunday.  Well now, I've begun to focus.  I am focusing on wrestling.  I am focusing on winning.  I know that from now on everyone one of my matches will be life or death.  If I win on Sunday, I am one step closer to the ultimate goal.  I now am truly focused on that goal.  That goal being the UWA World Heavyweight Champion.  I know that holding on to the U.S. Title is only going to make me more eligible for that title.  If I win, I'm worth more to myself and to the company.  If I am winning matches I will be given the chances I deserve.  I don't deserve a World Title shot right now.  I know that.  I'm wrestling at my best.  I'm not wrestling as well as the top wrestlers are wrestling.  But that will change.  And it will change starting on Sunday at Sex Violence.  I am now focused.  I know what I really want, and I'm not going to let anyone stand in my way.  I now truly don't care what anyone thinks, just as long as I win the World Title.

Now T-Money, remember what I said before.  Everything we both say means nothing.  I can talk about everything I'm going to do to you.  About how I'm gonna beat you against the steel cage.  About how I'm gonne climb out of the cage first.  About how I'm going to spill your blood, which by the way is a line that I really like.  It doesn't mean a thing.  Not one thing.  When you say that you ike barbed wire matches.  When you say you can beat me.  It doesn't mean anything.  All that matters is whether or not you put your money where your mouth is.  If we can put on quite a performance, I like both of our chances in succeeding in the near future.  But the winner will get all the benefits of the war in the cage.  The winner will move on to bigger and better things.  So will the loser, but it won't be the same.  Not even close.  So here it is.  It's all on the line this Sunday.  Nic Totopoulous versus T-Money, with the UWA United States Championship belt on the line.  This is the last stepping stone to becoming the World Champion.  Who's it gonna be?  Only time will tell.  T-Money, I'll see you in the cage.

[The audience stirs as Raising Fear by Armored Saint hits the speakers.  Nic Totopoulous drops the microphone.  He climbs through the ropes, walks down the stairs and out of the ring.  He walks back up the ramp, through the curtain and backstage.  The crowd continues to stir as the music stops, and the show continues.]