Promo: Just Add Water...

[Guest chirs3]

Deep inside the Nassau Coliseum, Chris Raynor tilts his head up, listening intently to something...

 

Rain.

 

Then he looks down at his watch. 5:37

 

Early evening... rain... last time this happened, I got my head sliced open with an icepick.

 

Raynor resolves then and there not to go into any dark and creepy rooms for the rest of the day... Then he wonders where the hell that first thought came from.

 

 

...

 

 

It's Thursday. A day before Storm. A day before Silent.

 

 

Scratch that.

 

 

A day before Silent in a friggin' strap match.

 

I should've fought him last week... I could've taken him... Hell, I could've taken him OUT... Edwin talks me out of it, and now I've got him in a friggin' strap match.

 

Sigh.

 

Z sure didn't turn out so well after the fact, either... and he wasn't tied to Silent by a 10-foot strap... I'm going to have to take him out quick, because even if I win, I'm still gonna be tied to him for a little bit...

 

... if I lose...

 

And again, Raynor questions where something like that came from. He's not scared of Silent. He's ready for Silent. He can take Silent.

 

 

 

Right?

 

 

 

Maybe it would have helped being able to face him before he went homicidal on Z. It's a lot easier to fight someone and think you can win when you haven't seen them pulverize one of your friends.

 

 

Suddenly, a voice from the doorway.

 

 

"Early evening, rain... last time, you got your head sliced open with an icepick."

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

"Hello, Wilson."

 

Chris Wilson steps slowly into the room, in no rush. "Ah, good times... I'm out looking for Stubby when you get dragged into the hallway a bloody mess, right in front of me..." He chuckles at the memory.

 

Raynor turns his head away, feigning boredom. "Wilson, your reminiscing is... really quite interesting... really... but unless you've got a lot of money that you're going to give me for no reason other than your newfound sense of charity, I'll ask you to kindly fuck off."

 

A quarter sails across the room and bounces with a light *ting* off the couch.

 

"Merry Christmas."

 

Raynor rolls his eyes and drops his head back, wincing slightly... his neck was still sore, as was his arm, his back, and early today he had gotten one of those nagging headaches behind one eye - six Tylenol and six hours later, it was still there. He was too sore to care that Wilson was still there, now slowly taking a tour of the Carnival locker room.

 

"What do you want, Wilson?"

 

Again, Wilson is amused. "Heh... not much... The World Title... Edwin's head on a pole... a nice summer home... but right now?"

 

He turns away from whatever had been occupying him and steps in front of the couch, where Raynor lazily looks up at him.

 

"I want to offer you something."

 

Raynor scoffs, and winces again.

 

"I want to offer you...

 

... the truth."

 

“Oh, thanks a ton, Chrissy, but I don’t smoke.”

 

Wilson smiles. “It’s good to see in your beaten and battered condition you’re still this witty. In fact, in this condition I think you would have been good enough to take out Silent.”

 

Raynor raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean? If you’re going to just ramble on about nothing, I’m going to have to reiterate my request of you fucking off.”

 

Wilson clicks his tongue while shaking his head. “You people. Ignorance. Don’t you realize that knowledge is power? Maybe not knowledge as much as understanding.”

 

Raynor stands up, very slowly. “Get to the point, or I’m going to not-so-kindly remove you from my locker room.”

 

Wilson shrugs. “I suppose that’s fair. And the point is, you could remove me from your locker room. You could have removed me from it last week, too! Easily. Chris, I’ve battled you many a time. And I’ve gone up against some strong guys, tough guys. But you, by far, are one of the toughest.”

 

Wilson begins to pace around in a circle, Raynor’s eyes following him. “Last week on Storm, you had a chance to face Silent. The new guy. Death on wheels. The one your great and fearless leader is, well, quite fearful of. Edwin doesn’t know if he can beat Silent or not.” Wilson stops right beside Raynor and thrusts a finger into his chest. “But I know you could have. Bad arm, burns, beaten up or not. One-armed you still could of laid him out.” Wilson pounds his finger into Raynor’s chest to emphasize the last few words.

 

Raynor grabs Wilson’s wrist and throws his arm away from him. “That’s quite possible, but Edwin thought it would be best for me to just wait it out." He sees Wilson begin to jump on that, so he quickly adds "My best friend Edwin, who I trust. Did you see what happened to Z on Smarkdown? We’re going to see how right he was on Storm.”

 

Wilson shakes his head, and frustratedly shouts “No no no no NO! You’re not listening! You just said, Edwin came out and stopped the match. Why? Because he didn’t want you to beat Silent!

 

Wilson is flailing his arms now, provided wild movements to punctuate his remarks "He can’t beat Silent... you can. If you beat Silent, what’s to say you can’t beat Edwin? I don’t see Edwin running up to challenge him and end it now. He’s scared! You went out there, ready to go. And you would of won. I’m positive of it, but Edwin stopped you.”

 

“As I said before-“

 

“He didn’t want you to look better than him!” screams Wilson. “Don’t you understand?!”

 

Raynor starts to get angry.

 

“Christ, man…” Wilson continues. “It’s what I’ve been saying all along. Why do you think Edwin didn’t save you in the cage? Tyler had you in the armbar, you were in the flames, and what was Edwin doing? Edwin was trying to break Deathwish’s ankle-“

 

“To win the match…”

 

“-instead of saving you! Thoth had just taken out Taylor and Frost. All Edwin had to do was save you, and it was going to be a dissection of Deathwish. But what did he do? He went for the win. The glory. He wanted everyone to know how goddamn good he was. And it failed.”

 

“So now it’s Storm, after Edwin’s embarrassing defeat, and people are wondering if he’s not up to snuff as champ anymore. Or as top face. And here you have the chance to take out the deadly Silent. He’s coming in arrogant, brash, and a rookie to the WF and here you are, grizzled veteran, hurt and ready to fight. You wanted to prove yourself! And what does Edwin do? He doesn’t give you the chance. He doesn’t discuss the decision with you. He’s ‘protecting you’…” Wilson adds the obnoxious finger quotes to that last part.

 

“..get out…”

 

“He’s just doing what he’s been doing the whole time. Keeping you second banana. Tag partner of the World Champion. Best friend of the World Champion. Tell me, Chris, when’s the last time Edwin asked you if you wanted a shot at his title? Or help getting a singles title shot?”

 

“Get out. Now.”

 

Wilson smirks, which further infuriates Raynor. “Because he hasn’t. Ever. Stevens did, I remember. ICTV title, right? But Edwin? Never. He wouldn’t even let you get a shot in a non-title match against some new guy he knows that he can’t beat, but Chris Raynor probably could…"

 

"GET.... OUT."

 

Wilson's smirk disappears and he holds his hands up in surrender, done talking, and he takes his leave. Outside, he quietly closes the door behind him... then his face breaks out into a very large smile.

 

In no particularly hurry, he strolls down the halls of the Nassau Coliseum, down to the Magnificent Seven locker room. It's empty, for now... Wilson flips the light on to reveal a rather plain looking chess board, with (seemingly) random pieces in random places...

 

He picks up a white pawn, from next to its King, and pockets it...

 

...then replaces it with a black one.

 

The seed has been planted...

 

Now all he needs... is a little luck.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Chess metaphors + appropriate use of bold text + suspicious words = quality.

 

An excellently moody confrontation between two Chrisses that makes Raynor's match with Silent on Storm all the more interesting.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

YES! I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!

 

 

*spoiler*

 

 

Wilson's trying to get Raynor to turn on Edwin!

 

 

*/spoiler*

 

Excellent promo, Raynor. Keep up the good work!

[Guest Longdogger_Pete]

"I want to offer you...

 

... the truth."

 

Oh, my God! M7 just hired Ron Killings?

[Guest Rabbi_wilson13]

I'll be damned if I don't at least try to convince every Carnie that Edwin is the devil. Chris Raynor rocks the non-goofy, serious promo world with a nice little diddy and Storm just keeps lookin' better and better.

[Guest kelloggs]

Rayn man I finally got to read this promo. I can't wait until you write a carnie esque prank promo. I have yet to see one and everyone says you're great at it.

 

By the way that was a great promo because it puts some tension in the Raynor/Edwin dynamic and builds Raynor/Silent. No stable can ever be in perfect harmony.

[Guest Lerrin Breggan]

Great promo Raynor! I really enjoyed the back and forth discussion, and you made it seem so real. I couldn't imagine it going any other way, there is some great character development right here.

 

Even the little friction between Raynor and Edwin now could be setting up bigger things, while letting Wilson use his mastermind tactics to be a pimp daddy! Good job man, keep up the great writing!