Conquest Colosseum - Mercadier de Leon Promo #2

One thing that is oft-overlooked is the fact that the air is thinner at the top of the mountain. Yes there's that old adage about "the higher you go, the farther you'll fall", but even putting that aside, the air is just thinner. It's harder to breathe, it's harder to think, less oxygen goes to your brain, your vision gets blurry, it gets hard to see anything beyond the gold in front of you, it's impossible to look down and see anything except for the bodies you had to trample and climb over to reach that point in the first place. When you're at the top, there is no room left for any extremities. Lofty ideals are just that, lofty, an encumbering burden that not even the strongest man is able to carry with him to the end of the conqueror's road. We all know that there is no one who reaches the top with clean hands, that's a fact of life. The same way that CEOs and other titans of industry cannot call themselves billionaires without reaping the rewards of the sweat and hard work of their laborers… There is no wrestler who can become a champion, who can become a CONQUEROR, without blood on their hands, without standing atop the mountain made of the bodies of their enemies and opponents they had to cut through to reach that pinnacle.

So when I see the men who have spoken in this match talk about anything other than that brutal and unforgiving road of conquest, I can't help but judge them. Is it pity I feel? No, I would never pity the weak. Disgust is the better word, and I can admit that a fair bit of that disgust comes from projection on my end. I was disgusted with myself, as well. When the blindfold of blind faith comes off and you can see the world for what it truly is, there is no way I could have looked back after that point of awakening and ever go back to what I once worshiped. "God.", a fraud, a false ideal, and for me, that was my heaviest burden. My blind devotion. Why? To redeem the failures of a man I view as nothing more than a weak leper? To deliver a promise to a woman that was no mother to me beyond her own selfish vendetta against that failed Vidame I once called a father? No. Those ties, those bonds, those threads of fate… They had to be severed. They were holding me back. Those bonds were my chains that kept me on the ground. Now that those chains are broken, there is nothing holding me back. I am no longer on a mission of faith, I am no longer on a mission of atonement, I am no longer bound to the scriptures of a religion that should have long since died, I. Am. FREE.

I am free to conquer. This company is mine for the taking and I will NOT be stopped by lesser men, men who have not yet been able to shed their own foolish ideals, ideals that are more akin to delusions, shadows on the walls of the caves in the minds of men too weak to escape them. What are you fools holding on to? I mean really, in this world, in this industry that we work in, the ring we must enter, our battleground where shedding blood is a sign of honor and walking out of a match without a single scar is a sign of shame, a sign that you didn't walk out to the ring as a true warrior, ready to leave it all on the line, blood, body, and life. In an industry where any match, any fight can be your last, what exactly do you pathetic cretins still have to hold on to? I cannot believe that we are merely one PPV away from the flagship event, and you men are still out here discussing platitudes?

I'll start with the man who in my eyes, is the biggest offender. Tomi Venus, you simply have no right to even utter my name at this point, without being on your knees at the pew of the church of Mercadier, where you will learn your place as the scum on my shoes, and you will look up to ME, Mercadier de Leon, and you will bask in MY light, you will say MY name, and you will REMEMBER it. You are not fit to be a conqueror, you are barely fit to even be a wrestler! Have you no shame, Tomi? Have you just truly lost all utter concepts of shame? Do you have no problem at all baring your weakness so openly to the world, to your fellow competitors in this match? Is it stupidity or is it overconfidence? I suppose arrogance and ignorance are merely two sides of the same coin. What's your angle here, exactly? "Therapy with Tomi Venus" your new shtick now, Mr. Saint? The delusions you currently live with are more stifling than the ones I had with my old faith, and that's saying something considering I was a literal crusader, while you seem to be little more than a has-been from a bygone era who thinks he's still worth the price that he pays for his ring gear. You have no right to call anyone else inferior when you have nothing else to show for yourself BUT your own inferiority, Tomi Venus, you are a man with more excuses to your name than championships, a man with more justifications than victories, and now it seems like the next thing you're collecting is mental illness, a completely bizarre God complex that you have derived from a place of zero merit. Back then I had so definitively shown you that your place in this company is under the boot of men greater than you, men like myself, men with divine purpose who have the power to carry out that purpose. Back then, you had no purpose, and if the only purpose you've found since then is nine more voices speaking to you in that puny brain of yours then I don't know what else to say other than you have fallen even further down the ladder than where you once were, and falling further than rock bottom Tomi? I believe it's time that this industry must cut you off like the festered tumor you are and leave you where you belong - on the streets, still rambling with your suppurated delusions, at least then it'll be only your fellow lunatics that have to listen to that nonsense, and you can leave this artform that you love so much it has driven you crazy in MY hands, Tomi… That will be your ultimate defeat and embarrassment, in my eyes, losing everything you love to me… and then watching me accomplish and achieve everything that you could only ever dream of. There are no promises you can make to me that I could ever take seriously, "Saint", because you can't even keep a promise to yourself. I will dismiss you, and this sense of security isn't false, it's simply what you've shown me and everyone else… You just aren't worth taking seriously. "I could put my Nine against your God", please don't make me laugh. What Nine? Nine of your schizophrenic demons speaking pleasantries to you because you have nothing else to live for being a failed wrestler? By the way, since I know you're so high on your own delusion that you've been out of the loop, but I don't worship that God anymore. I don't need even one false icon to look up to anymore, but you're so far gone that you need nine… Please. When it is I who wins the Conquest Colosseum, when I sit upon the throne of PCW's divinity, you will be no Saint, you will be a disappointment to yourself, to your "Nine", to everyone around you… You will be no more than another martyr who fell at the hands of the name that will make you scream in agony towards the Heavens where I sit… Mercadier de Leon.

Now if one basket case wasn't enough, we have yet another who has doubled down on his delusions. Speaking frantically and in short, broken sentences, I can see that Kasey is yet another man who just isn't the same person since the last time we've met. I mean very clearly, the difference in mental fortitudes is what separates the weak from the strong in this industry. What our bodies can endure is one thing but it's evident that the minds of the meek cannot handle defeat. Whereas I came out stronger by having my faith shattered by Maximus Steele, Kasey Kash and Tomi Venus have been completely and utterly broken by failing to live up to any sort of standard that is necessary to thrive in this company. Two lost and fractured souls now hanging on to unrealistic ideals. Tomi has devoted himself to Nine of his schizo demons, and Kasey has somehow surpassed that buffoon with an even more unrealistic ideal that he clings to… Redemption. Let's start with the very obvious reality that the road to redemption leads to the destination furthest away from the path of conquest… Redemption is a burden, the idea that you owe someone something, even if that person may be yourself. No, I don't believe in that. Trust me, I had walked the path of a redeemer before. It is why I took the vows of the Vidame. However, I do not let myself be weighed down by that anymore. Now, there is only conquest in my future. There is only the top of the mountain, there is only the allure of ascension that drives me forward. That castle at the top of the world, the throne that awaits the man who has the power to become God, the chance to win the World Championship in the main event of Standing Room Only, THOSE are the reasons I fight, and it is that difference, it is my Conqueror's Will that will take me to the top, and it is your devotion to meaningless platitudes like "redemption" that will leave you chained to the dirt of this world, on the ground next to trash like Tomi Venus. Considering you're as delusional as that clown is, forgive me for not being able to take you calling me "braindead" seriously, even if it is for me writing you off. Why should I, or anyone else ever take you seriously again Kasey? What have you ever given us to believe in? You couldn't win the Prodigy Ladder match where I won that title for the first time, you couldn't beat me one on one for the belt, you couldn't put Matt Miles away, what was all that nonsense as AZAZEL for? Matt Miles is still here, walking, potentially about to walk into SRO as the World Champion and you? You, Kasey? You will once again be a casualty at the hands of Mercadier de Leon. And unlike you, what my motivation at the time is won't matter, I don't need face paint or alternate personalities to chase a selfish grudge, I just do what I always do best… Whether or not I believe in any God, whether or not I am executing any vows I have taken, whether or not there is a title on the line, although gold is the greatest motivator in this industry, I just walk into this ring and do what I have done since the day I debuted in PCW… I will dominate. I will conquer. Whether it is easy prey like Tomi and Kasey, whether it is a titan like Maximus Steele, or anyone else in this match that has yet to open their mouths, they will be nothing more than roadkill on my path of conquest, the Colosseum will be their final resting place, the Colosseum will be where I stand atop their bodies and scream my name loud enough for my old God to hear, to hear how I have taken his place as the conqueror of this world, how people will now worship at my feet, how the entire wrestling industry shall say with fear and revere the name… Mercadier… Mercadier…

MERCADIER. DE. LEON.