Quarter Finals: Erik Holland vs. KEG

Open, and we're on a close up of Erik Holland.

Not sure where he is, it looks similar to a locker room, but the entire scene is shot in a grainy, red-lit filter so we can't be sure. Holland's situated to where only one of his eyes, his right one, can be seen. His breathing is muffled, which must indicate those teeth belong to his entrance mask,

Awake. The Wideawake Tournament. Wide awake..

Kind of an appropriate term. I don't sleep much. Never have, really..

Who am I? The name is Erik Holland. Be glad you didn't figure out who I was until now.

Erik claps his hands together.

Just warning you now, y'all; Erik isn't doing much moving going forward. He wants to let the shadows play all around him, make you think you're not alone with him.

Back then when I first broke in, I...was unfocused. I was a gibbering, drooling animal. I needed help, didn't get it, thought help meant getting paid to savage human bodies. It was good, i liked it and I was good at it, but...everything that was wrong was STILL wrong, is what I'm saying. So I took some time off. I went and got the...help...I needed.

Then I come back, and it's like night and day. The bodies just stack higher and higher, I'm winning more than I'm losing, I've got a piece of championship gold already as the FIW Rising Champion...but I take a look at this upstart, this...Elysium Pro...and decide that I'm not satisfied, that I'm not fulfilled. Yet. And that Elysium Pro might just provide that opportunity.

Not to say I haven't been at the top of the mountain before but this time I don't have to crucify anyone..

And of course, as is always the way with Erik Holland, to lay claim to the Elysium World Heavyweight Championship i have to voluntarily walk headlong into a meat-grinder. Look at the other seven in the tournament with me. KEG, for one, my first round opponent, even though the man is perpetually obliterated drunk is a brawler, a mauler, a dirty-ass rawboned street fighter. Even in the state he's in he's conscious, I hope, of the physical and mental danger he is now in.

Dry, cruel, leathery laughter from the Maniac.

Wrestling, as you might have noticed, hurts. All of it hurts. Whether it's what you call "garbage wrestling" or a straight one on one match, or any type of match you can think of, ESPECIALLY when it comes to me, well...he's not going to be able to tell the difference. I've always found that the world of Horrorcore really had nothing to do with chairs, or with tables, garbage cans, barbed wire or cookie sheets. The name Horrorcore, and the idea of hardcore wrestling means that I was gonna go above and beyond 'wrestling skill', go above and beyond just being a 'wrestler', to put on the best show possible.

I spent some time in NGIW and took part in some barbaric matches, I did it with love for the business in my mind. After all at the time I was in therapy, I was contributing to my own hospital bills and legal fees to keep me alive, keep me out of a wheelchair, keep me from being in a straightjacket somewhere drooling on myself and keep me legally competing...and I did what I had to do to pay the bills.

So even though some of the matches I competed in could be faithfully described as inhumane, deep down in my heart I rested in the comfort and knowledge that I did it out of love. Love for the business and love for myself. And when I got out of therapy, KEG, I swore I'd never go back. I swore to myself I'd never watch those tapes and never watch what I put those people through to get where I got because I was NOT...in a safe place in NGIW. For myself, or for anyone else. But in trying to see for myself JUST what it was that spurred me on to the heights I reached, I went back and I looked at the tapes...and I did barbaric things. I did INHUMANE things. But it wasn't the moves, KEG, it wasn't the times I put things to bed with the Toxic Avenger...It wasn't the barbed wire or any number of the weapons that caught my eye....IT WAS MY EYES!!

Over and over, KEG!! Rewind. Play. Rewind. PLAY. And I saw it! It was THERE. It was the look in my OWN eyes that said deep down maybe there was a little part of me that didn't think i was doing this out of necessity, that there was a part of me that didn't MIND..inflicting that type of DAMAGE. DEEP DOWN..maybe there was a little part of me that even liked it! KEG...These were honorable men I did these things to.

Understand the gravity of your situation. Understand the body count does not stop, that I will not stop, until I am the first ever Elysium Pro World Heavyweight Champion. Plan for cheap-shots. Plan for triple team efforts. SEND ME TO THE HOSPITAL, KEG. You're going to have to. You know you do, even though you ALSO KNOW, these participants know even IF!!! that happens..I'm gonna be headed back down that ramp, IV bag hooked to me, in nothin' but a hospital gown ready to cave your skull in.

I am Erik Holland. I am a Weapon of Human Design. I WILL be the Elysium World Champion.

Holland now pie-faces the camera sending it to black.