Post by Immanuel Taylor on Sept 16, 2011 22:03:59 GMT -5
Destroying the blackberry that once belonged to Mr. Rivera’s secretary was easier than making a copy of all the folders stored on it. But Immanuel successfully did so. After losing his match to Maynard Hetfield, Immanuel took a post-match shower, returned the Hardkore Title belt to the EUW-Asylum Storage Facility and departed from the arena in Moscow. He offered a Russian teenager 10,000 Russian Rubles (the equivalent of 327 U.S. Dollars) if he got him a yellow phonebook in less than ten minutes. The teenager did so and was rewarded with the money as promised.
Immanuel used the phonebook, and his decent command of the Russian language, to locate an electronics place that closes well after midnight. Upon entering the place, Vitali struggled only twice to express himself in Russian but managed to do well. His Slavic ethnicity helped him greatly as the shop clerk and owner, a fellow Slav from Macedonia, was patient and friendly. Immanuel then offered him an outright bribe of 20,000 Russian Rubles if he can hack into the stolen blackberry and extract the contents.
The Macedonian clerk responded by giving Immanuel a phone number. Immanuel replied to that by giving him 1/3 of the 20,000 Russian Rubles. He also bought a 2 GB USB drive. Immanuel called the number the first thing next morning and arranged a meeting as soon as possible. The contact, a 24 year old young man who finished his Computer Science degree from an American university and had returned to Russia, took only 16 minutes to decode the blackberry and copy its contents on the USB drive Immanuel bought along. Immanuel Taylor then paid the boy his fee and proceeded to destroy the blackberry before gathering his luggage and catching his 8:00 PM back to San Francisco with a stop at Paris.
The first thing Immanuel did upon returning to San Francisco was book himself a room in two separate hotels in two separate neighborhoods. One would serve as the decoy while the other would be Immanuel’s actual residence. The need for a decoy hotel arose after Immanuel received a general notification SMS on his cell phone just as he landed from the San Francisco airport stating that the EUW-Asylum Headquarters requiring every EUW-Asylum active wrestler to register his or her current residence with the headquarters. Given that a Euro-looking stalker is hot on Immanuel’s trail, most probably hired by Mark Rivera, Immanuel decided the need for a decoy is essential.
The decoy address is the Beach Motel on Judah Street which, impressing enough, is just a mere walking distance from Golden Gate Park. Budget-savvy and in a convenient location, it’s a great fake location. Immanuel almost felt like actually living there. But, alas, the other and real address is located at the Russian Hill neighborhood where Immanuel booked a room at the Heritage Marina Hotel under the alias of a second generation Chinese American name. The payment for the decoy hotel was with Immanuel’s Asylum-EUW issued debit card while the real hotel was paid for with a Bank of America debit card which the EUW-Asylum Headquarters is not aware of.
Immanuel bought some supplies from the local convenience. It’s 5 in the morning now and, fully clothed in a black shirt, jeans, and cap, Immanuel made his way back to the Mission District. He called a cab and paid him a handsome fee to park a block away from the Hotel Tropicana and wait for Immanuel to return. The mission is clear. Immanuel has to retrieve a couple of important items from his apartment room, especially his two handguns. The obstacles are clear, too. The Euro-looking man whom was probably hired by Rivera to stalk Immanuel is living right across the hall from Immanuel’s room in the Hotel Tropicana. A vicious coincidence, Immanuel concluded, and a bloody stroke of luck that Immanuel was able to spot the Euro-looking without being spotted himself.
Immanuel, with a cap donning his head and thus hiding his face, walked through the front door of the Hotel Tropicana with his head down. The receptionist at the desk was dozing off whilst watching a rerun of a string of comedy shows. Immanuel glided past him, cool and calm. The receptionist saw him, of course, but due to Immanuel’s posture and distance, the receptionist did not make anything unusual of the mysterious customer coming in at the middle of the night.
Immanuel went up the stairs, rushing, and, upon reaching the floor he and his Euro-stalker share, he checked the coast and rushed to his room, unlocking it with his key, and entering it. 40 seconds passed before Immanuel had successfully packed his two pistols, a stack of folders including important documents and a few other items into his shoulderbag. The room is empty. Immanuel slowly opened the door of his room and stared at the door across the hall.
This is where the Euro-looking stalker whom Rivera probably hired to investigate Immanuel is staying. Immanuel had accidentally opened this very door one evening and saw the back of the stalker’s head and recognized him from that night long ago where the Euro-looking stalker first saw Immanuel and followed him. Immanuel lost him at the grocery store and now, at this moment, the Euro-looking stalker is probably resting his head on a pillow in there.
Immanuel thought about this for a second. Here he is, in one of many hotels in vibrant and diverse San Francisco, with two pistols in his shoulder bag. One of them has a silencer with it. Could Immanuel perhaps…..hmmm….knock twice, wait patiently, and then blow the Euro-looking’s man head off with two shots in the head when he unexpectedly opens the door?
No. Immanuel snapped back to reality and, noticing that the hallway is empty, rushed towards the staircase. After making his way out of it, he took a brief stop at the front desk, positioning himself so he can see the front entrance of the hotel.
“Yeah?” The clerk said, momentarily lifting his gaze from the mounted television.
“I am a resident here, Room 315, and I would like to check out please”
“In the middle of the night?”
“Yes, please.”
“Fine. Name?”
“Jonathan Harker”
The reception clerk swirled his rolling chair towards the computer at his back and began typing rapidly. Immanuel placed his key on the desk and slid it to the front. It took the receptionist three seconds to pull up the folder. He rubbed his eyes in confusion.
“Wait a minute….this folder here says that room 315 is occupied by Vitali…Khodo-roko…what?”
Immanuel leant over the front desk and focused in on the screen. He caught the name of the Euro-looking stalker living across the hall from him. Vitali Khodorkovsky. Immanuel blinked once before placing his left palm over his face, feigning embarrassment.
“Oh…I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I am in room 305, not room 315. That’s across the hall from me. I’m sorry. It’s the middle of the night and I’m…I’m sorry.”
The receiptonist let out a very loud sigh before furiously typing on his computer. He pulled up the folder for room 305 and then did some clicking with his mouse before swirling around in his chair and grabbing the key of the room from the front desk.
“Ok, you’re good to go. I assume the room is empty just like it was when you arrived?”
“Yes”
Immanuel nodded and put out a fake smile as the receptionist ignored him and went back to slothing in front of his television. Immanuel rushed out of the hotel, with the cap firmly on his head. He rushed a block away to the taxi waiting for him and got in.
“Back to the Heritage Marina Hotel, please”
Immanuel slept like a baby once he reached his room at the Heritage Hotel, content that he not only secured his anonymity for the short term but that he also managed to get the name of the thug Rivera unleashed on him. Vitali Khodorkovsky. Immanuel knew how to pronounce it. Russian. The USB Disk containing the folders of Rivera’s secretary’s blackberry is safely hidden somewhere in Immanuel’s room.
Immanuel’s train of thought stopped there and he soon drifted off to sleep. The next morning, the only thing that occupied Immanuel’s mind was his loss to Maynard Hetfield. Immanuel guessed (correctly) that he would be defending his Hardkore Title at the next show and he was vindicated when he received a carbon copy of the August 18th Edition of Sunday Night Vengeance at his mailbox over at the EUW-Asylum Corporation. He also took the time to fill in his address, as the General Notification SMS informed him of, and proceeded to make his way to his gym.
Immanuel Taylor would be heading into his fifth Hardkore Title match come Sunday the 18th and he would be doing so by going one on one with Bane, the same man he faced in his debut match. On his way to the gym, Immanuel stopped by the archives on the sixth floor and ordered a copy of Bane’s biography folder. He flipped through it as he sat in the GYM locker-room and he realized that he remembers a good chunk of it from the first time Bane and he tangoed. Bane the Ex-Cop. A similarity he shares with Immanuel, an Ex-Soldier. Both men would be matched very closely in a gun-fight and while that obviously isn’t going to happen, Sunday’s Hardcore Rules match might very well be the only EUW match stipulation that gets as close.
And this is where Immanuel immediately sniffed his first advantage. For the immaculate record, Immanuel Taylor is not a Hardcore Wrestler, despite the fact that he is the current reigning and defending Hardkore Champion. In fact, Immanuel hates weapons and deplores unnecessary conflict. Yet he competed in those Hardkore matches. He danced the dance in the chaotic fatal four way Hardkore Match at Back 2 Roots and he dove head-first into his brutal Barbed Wire slash-fest with Tyreke Bell, the latter leaving Immanuel with a deep cut on his arm that still has not healed.
Although not being a Hardcore wrestler at the least, Immanuel is immersed in the Hardkore Division. He is the champion after all and he will be walking into the match with Bane as both the reigning and defending incumbent Hardkore Champion and as someone who has seen the kind of hell the Hardkore Division can unleash on you.
Immanuel finished the preliminary stage of his workout and went to work on his maneuvers with one of the many sized dolls in the GYM area. No EUW-Asylum trainer would train with Immanuel Taylor. As Immanuel gripped the doll and locked it in a dragon sleeper, he kept his mind focused, lucidly and strongly, on his eventual tango with Bane.
Immanuel’s tango with Bane would be a straightforward yet sufficiently barbaric Hardcore Rules match. Anything goes. Weapons encouraged and Savagery rewarded. Any strategy Immanuel has to deal with Bane must first come to terms with the fact that Bane debuted at the same time as Immanuel did and, more importantly, faced him in his debut match. Bane knows Immanuel from the very beginning and he might be in one of the other theatres in the headquarters revising Immanuel’s matches, taking astute notes on how Immanuel has improved since. Any shred of ambiguity Immanuel might have is gone. The Hardcore Rules stipulation gives the match an extra flavor but it’s still a singles contest and Bane will be going against someone he is familiar with.
Immanuel saw that as the main obstacle. Of course, add to that the fact that the match is a Hardcore Rules match, that it is for the Hardkore Title and, in Bane’s case, it is another chance for him to win his first title. Immanuel expects to see a minimum degree of zealotry on Bane’s behalf. Given all the elements that have just been described, Immanuel would conclude that Sunday’s match is going to be a potentially hellish one.
But it does not matter, Immanuel insisted to himself. He has the doll in a Torture Rack and is testing how strongly he can stretch his hands. It does not matter how thorny the match will be. Defeat is not an option. Immanuel had hospitalized Tyreke Bell after a horrific Barbed Wire match to regain this title but lost his victorious momentum to a close match with Maynard Hetfield. The match with the increasingly unstable Hetfield was a close one and Immanuel intends to make sure that his loss does not extend beyond his last match. If it does, it would mean Immanuel would lose his Hardkore Title, effectively killing off his momentum.
Thus failure is not an option. Immanuel was able to defeat Bane in their debut match and he would be able to do so in Sunday’s main event Hardkore Title match. There is a gap between these two matches and in that gap is what Immanuel saw as worthy of observation. Immanuel and Bane debuted, face-to-face, on January the 30th of this year. Sunday’s dance will be on the 18th of September. The time period spans a little more than seven months. What has naughty Bane been up to throughout that period?
After finishing his workout for the day, Immanuel went back to the archives and requested the paper transcripts of Bane’s matches, very easy to obtain. Back in his room at one of the many hotels in San Francisco, Immanuel highlighted the names of Bane’s opponents. Big Dave Markinson on the 13th of February and Jackal on the 27th. Mr. Rudo on the 13th of March and, at the Back 2 Roots PPV at the end of that month, a fatal four Hardkore Title match against Immanuel Taylor, Jackal and Diabolik. Taylor recalled that match vividly.
Jack Bull. Roy Viper. Christian Kane. Kaden Ward. Diabolik. A Lionheart Title match against Brett Cross. Danny Tenfold. Immanuel saw a breadth of experience there. From an untelevised dark match with Diabolik to a main event Lionheart Title match with Brett Cross. Bane has been stretching him wide enough in these seven months. Yet Immanuel immediately saw the weakness. A very few of the matches Bane has been in against a wide variety of opponents are Hardcore Rules. Bane would be at an obvious disadvantage. Like Immanuel, he is not a Hardcore wrestler. However, unlike Immanuel, he has not been forced to fight till his last breath in Hardcore matches in the Hardkore Division.
Wrestling wise, Immanuel recalled Bane’s style as a powerhouse with an undercurrent of inexperience that made him the more unpredictable. This was back at the debut match so, now after seven months, the inexperience is gone. Bane’s powerhouse drive would be more refined, Immanuel swiftly concluded, and Bane would be in more control of his abilities. Yet Immanuel had evolved too. Immanuel’s wrestled powerhouses during those seven months.
He’s had a painful tango with Brett Cross and Fallen One along with high-fliers such as Danny Tenfold and well-rounded wrestlers such as Chance Fusion. Taking on a powerhouse like Bane who had a mouthful of experience against a diversity of wrestlers but not in the Hardkore division would be, as already stated, Immanuel’s strength. Immanuel’s submissions now are more precise, more poignant even and Bane would find it difficult to pull off a brutal spinebuster if Immanuel’s already got him locked in a Crossface Chickenwing.
And, building up on that, it would be equally difficult for Bane to utilize a weapon if Immanuel’s got his hands tied up in the Kimura Key-Lock. Immanuel saw an added advantage in the endless selection of weaponry, too. A chair shot to the face, breaking some bones, followed by a brutal crossface could very well bring about the end of the match. But no. Immanuel loathes weapons and he knows from now that he'll eschew the numerous weapons.
It was elasticities and flexibilities like these in Hardcore matches that would give Immanuel, with his submission-centered wrestling style, the opportunities he needs to pick up a win. Preventing your opponent from grabbing a weapon by locking him in submission hell while also inflicting damage to him and wearing him out. Immanuel saw his strategy as patient and painfully effective.
Come Sunday, Immanuel would be meeting Bane for their second one-on-one tango. To Bane’s 7-Month diverse experience, Immanuel responds with a 7-month diverse experience with an added specialization in Hardcore warfare. Bane would look into the eyes of an old foe and would soon realize that he is going up against the two-time EUW-Asylum Hardkore Champion.
And Immanuel intends to walk out of the arena in Rome, Italy with his status remaining as the two-time EUW-Asylum Hardkore Champion.
Immanuel used the phonebook, and his decent command of the Russian language, to locate an electronics place that closes well after midnight. Upon entering the place, Vitali struggled only twice to express himself in Russian but managed to do well. His Slavic ethnicity helped him greatly as the shop clerk and owner, a fellow Slav from Macedonia, was patient and friendly. Immanuel then offered him an outright bribe of 20,000 Russian Rubles if he can hack into the stolen blackberry and extract the contents.
The Macedonian clerk responded by giving Immanuel a phone number. Immanuel replied to that by giving him 1/3 of the 20,000 Russian Rubles. He also bought a 2 GB USB drive. Immanuel called the number the first thing next morning and arranged a meeting as soon as possible. The contact, a 24 year old young man who finished his Computer Science degree from an American university and had returned to Russia, took only 16 minutes to decode the blackberry and copy its contents on the USB drive Immanuel bought along. Immanuel Taylor then paid the boy his fee and proceeded to destroy the blackberry before gathering his luggage and catching his 8:00 PM back to San Francisco with a stop at Paris.
The first thing Immanuel did upon returning to San Francisco was book himself a room in two separate hotels in two separate neighborhoods. One would serve as the decoy while the other would be Immanuel’s actual residence. The need for a decoy hotel arose after Immanuel received a general notification SMS on his cell phone just as he landed from the San Francisco airport stating that the EUW-Asylum Headquarters requiring every EUW-Asylum active wrestler to register his or her current residence with the headquarters. Given that a Euro-looking stalker is hot on Immanuel’s trail, most probably hired by Mark Rivera, Immanuel decided the need for a decoy is essential.
The decoy address is the Beach Motel on Judah Street which, impressing enough, is just a mere walking distance from Golden Gate Park. Budget-savvy and in a convenient location, it’s a great fake location. Immanuel almost felt like actually living there. But, alas, the other and real address is located at the Russian Hill neighborhood where Immanuel booked a room at the Heritage Marina Hotel under the alias of a second generation Chinese American name. The payment for the decoy hotel was with Immanuel’s Asylum-EUW issued debit card while the real hotel was paid for with a Bank of America debit card which the EUW-Asylum Headquarters is not aware of.
Immanuel bought some supplies from the local convenience. It’s 5 in the morning now and, fully clothed in a black shirt, jeans, and cap, Immanuel made his way back to the Mission District. He called a cab and paid him a handsome fee to park a block away from the Hotel Tropicana and wait for Immanuel to return. The mission is clear. Immanuel has to retrieve a couple of important items from his apartment room, especially his two handguns. The obstacles are clear, too. The Euro-looking man whom was probably hired by Rivera to stalk Immanuel is living right across the hall from Immanuel’s room in the Hotel Tropicana. A vicious coincidence, Immanuel concluded, and a bloody stroke of luck that Immanuel was able to spot the Euro-looking without being spotted himself.
Immanuel, with a cap donning his head and thus hiding his face, walked through the front door of the Hotel Tropicana with his head down. The receptionist at the desk was dozing off whilst watching a rerun of a string of comedy shows. Immanuel glided past him, cool and calm. The receptionist saw him, of course, but due to Immanuel’s posture and distance, the receptionist did not make anything unusual of the mysterious customer coming in at the middle of the night.
Immanuel went up the stairs, rushing, and, upon reaching the floor he and his Euro-stalker share, he checked the coast and rushed to his room, unlocking it with his key, and entering it. 40 seconds passed before Immanuel had successfully packed his two pistols, a stack of folders including important documents and a few other items into his shoulderbag. The room is empty. Immanuel slowly opened the door of his room and stared at the door across the hall.
This is where the Euro-looking stalker whom Rivera probably hired to investigate Immanuel is staying. Immanuel had accidentally opened this very door one evening and saw the back of the stalker’s head and recognized him from that night long ago where the Euro-looking stalker first saw Immanuel and followed him. Immanuel lost him at the grocery store and now, at this moment, the Euro-looking stalker is probably resting his head on a pillow in there.
Immanuel thought about this for a second. Here he is, in one of many hotels in vibrant and diverse San Francisco, with two pistols in his shoulder bag. One of them has a silencer with it. Could Immanuel perhaps…..hmmm….knock twice, wait patiently, and then blow the Euro-looking’s man head off with two shots in the head when he unexpectedly opens the door?
No. Immanuel snapped back to reality and, noticing that the hallway is empty, rushed towards the staircase. After making his way out of it, he took a brief stop at the front desk, positioning himself so he can see the front entrance of the hotel.
“Yeah?” The clerk said, momentarily lifting his gaze from the mounted television.
“I am a resident here, Room 315, and I would like to check out please”
“In the middle of the night?”
“Yes, please.”
“Fine. Name?”
“Jonathan Harker”
The reception clerk swirled his rolling chair towards the computer at his back and began typing rapidly. Immanuel placed his key on the desk and slid it to the front. It took the receptionist three seconds to pull up the folder. He rubbed his eyes in confusion.
“Wait a minute….this folder here says that room 315 is occupied by Vitali…Khodo-roko…what?”
Immanuel leant over the front desk and focused in on the screen. He caught the name of the Euro-looking stalker living across the hall from him. Vitali Khodorkovsky. Immanuel blinked once before placing his left palm over his face, feigning embarrassment.
“Oh…I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I am in room 305, not room 315. That’s across the hall from me. I’m sorry. It’s the middle of the night and I’m…I’m sorry.”
The receiptonist let out a very loud sigh before furiously typing on his computer. He pulled up the folder for room 305 and then did some clicking with his mouse before swirling around in his chair and grabbing the key of the room from the front desk.
“Ok, you’re good to go. I assume the room is empty just like it was when you arrived?”
“Yes”
Immanuel nodded and put out a fake smile as the receptionist ignored him and went back to slothing in front of his television. Immanuel rushed out of the hotel, with the cap firmly on his head. He rushed a block away to the taxi waiting for him and got in.
“Back to the Heritage Marina Hotel, please”
Immanuel slept like a baby once he reached his room at the Heritage Hotel, content that he not only secured his anonymity for the short term but that he also managed to get the name of the thug Rivera unleashed on him. Vitali Khodorkovsky. Immanuel knew how to pronounce it. Russian. The USB Disk containing the folders of Rivera’s secretary’s blackberry is safely hidden somewhere in Immanuel’s room.
Immanuel’s train of thought stopped there and he soon drifted off to sleep. The next morning, the only thing that occupied Immanuel’s mind was his loss to Maynard Hetfield. Immanuel guessed (correctly) that he would be defending his Hardkore Title at the next show and he was vindicated when he received a carbon copy of the August 18th Edition of Sunday Night Vengeance at his mailbox over at the EUW-Asylum Corporation. He also took the time to fill in his address, as the General Notification SMS informed him of, and proceeded to make his way to his gym.
Immanuel Taylor would be heading into his fifth Hardkore Title match come Sunday the 18th and he would be doing so by going one on one with Bane, the same man he faced in his debut match. On his way to the gym, Immanuel stopped by the archives on the sixth floor and ordered a copy of Bane’s biography folder. He flipped through it as he sat in the GYM locker-room and he realized that he remembers a good chunk of it from the first time Bane and he tangoed. Bane the Ex-Cop. A similarity he shares with Immanuel, an Ex-Soldier. Both men would be matched very closely in a gun-fight and while that obviously isn’t going to happen, Sunday’s Hardcore Rules match might very well be the only EUW match stipulation that gets as close.
And this is where Immanuel immediately sniffed his first advantage. For the immaculate record, Immanuel Taylor is not a Hardcore Wrestler, despite the fact that he is the current reigning and defending Hardkore Champion. In fact, Immanuel hates weapons and deplores unnecessary conflict. Yet he competed in those Hardkore matches. He danced the dance in the chaotic fatal four way Hardkore Match at Back 2 Roots and he dove head-first into his brutal Barbed Wire slash-fest with Tyreke Bell, the latter leaving Immanuel with a deep cut on his arm that still has not healed.
Although not being a Hardcore wrestler at the least, Immanuel is immersed in the Hardkore Division. He is the champion after all and he will be walking into the match with Bane as both the reigning and defending incumbent Hardkore Champion and as someone who has seen the kind of hell the Hardkore Division can unleash on you.
Immanuel finished the preliminary stage of his workout and went to work on his maneuvers with one of the many sized dolls in the GYM area. No EUW-Asylum trainer would train with Immanuel Taylor. As Immanuel gripped the doll and locked it in a dragon sleeper, he kept his mind focused, lucidly and strongly, on his eventual tango with Bane.
Immanuel’s tango with Bane would be a straightforward yet sufficiently barbaric Hardcore Rules match. Anything goes. Weapons encouraged and Savagery rewarded. Any strategy Immanuel has to deal with Bane must first come to terms with the fact that Bane debuted at the same time as Immanuel did and, more importantly, faced him in his debut match. Bane knows Immanuel from the very beginning and he might be in one of the other theatres in the headquarters revising Immanuel’s matches, taking astute notes on how Immanuel has improved since. Any shred of ambiguity Immanuel might have is gone. The Hardcore Rules stipulation gives the match an extra flavor but it’s still a singles contest and Bane will be going against someone he is familiar with.
Immanuel saw that as the main obstacle. Of course, add to that the fact that the match is a Hardcore Rules match, that it is for the Hardkore Title and, in Bane’s case, it is another chance for him to win his first title. Immanuel expects to see a minimum degree of zealotry on Bane’s behalf. Given all the elements that have just been described, Immanuel would conclude that Sunday’s match is going to be a potentially hellish one.
But it does not matter, Immanuel insisted to himself. He has the doll in a Torture Rack and is testing how strongly he can stretch his hands. It does not matter how thorny the match will be. Defeat is not an option. Immanuel had hospitalized Tyreke Bell after a horrific Barbed Wire match to regain this title but lost his victorious momentum to a close match with Maynard Hetfield. The match with the increasingly unstable Hetfield was a close one and Immanuel intends to make sure that his loss does not extend beyond his last match. If it does, it would mean Immanuel would lose his Hardkore Title, effectively killing off his momentum.
Thus failure is not an option. Immanuel was able to defeat Bane in their debut match and he would be able to do so in Sunday’s main event Hardkore Title match. There is a gap between these two matches and in that gap is what Immanuel saw as worthy of observation. Immanuel and Bane debuted, face-to-face, on January the 30th of this year. Sunday’s dance will be on the 18th of September. The time period spans a little more than seven months. What has naughty Bane been up to throughout that period?
After finishing his workout for the day, Immanuel went back to the archives and requested the paper transcripts of Bane’s matches, very easy to obtain. Back in his room at one of the many hotels in San Francisco, Immanuel highlighted the names of Bane’s opponents. Big Dave Markinson on the 13th of February and Jackal on the 27th. Mr. Rudo on the 13th of March and, at the Back 2 Roots PPV at the end of that month, a fatal four Hardkore Title match against Immanuel Taylor, Jackal and Diabolik. Taylor recalled that match vividly.
Jack Bull. Roy Viper. Christian Kane. Kaden Ward. Diabolik. A Lionheart Title match against Brett Cross. Danny Tenfold. Immanuel saw a breadth of experience there. From an untelevised dark match with Diabolik to a main event Lionheart Title match with Brett Cross. Bane has been stretching him wide enough in these seven months. Yet Immanuel immediately saw the weakness. A very few of the matches Bane has been in against a wide variety of opponents are Hardcore Rules. Bane would be at an obvious disadvantage. Like Immanuel, he is not a Hardcore wrestler. However, unlike Immanuel, he has not been forced to fight till his last breath in Hardcore matches in the Hardkore Division.
Wrestling wise, Immanuel recalled Bane’s style as a powerhouse with an undercurrent of inexperience that made him the more unpredictable. This was back at the debut match so, now after seven months, the inexperience is gone. Bane’s powerhouse drive would be more refined, Immanuel swiftly concluded, and Bane would be in more control of his abilities. Yet Immanuel had evolved too. Immanuel’s wrestled powerhouses during those seven months.
He’s had a painful tango with Brett Cross and Fallen One along with high-fliers such as Danny Tenfold and well-rounded wrestlers such as Chance Fusion. Taking on a powerhouse like Bane who had a mouthful of experience against a diversity of wrestlers but not in the Hardkore division would be, as already stated, Immanuel’s strength. Immanuel’s submissions now are more precise, more poignant even and Bane would find it difficult to pull off a brutal spinebuster if Immanuel’s already got him locked in a Crossface Chickenwing.
And, building up on that, it would be equally difficult for Bane to utilize a weapon if Immanuel’s got his hands tied up in the Kimura Key-Lock. Immanuel saw an added advantage in the endless selection of weaponry, too. A chair shot to the face, breaking some bones, followed by a brutal crossface could very well bring about the end of the match. But no. Immanuel loathes weapons and he knows from now that he'll eschew the numerous weapons.
It was elasticities and flexibilities like these in Hardcore matches that would give Immanuel, with his submission-centered wrestling style, the opportunities he needs to pick up a win. Preventing your opponent from grabbing a weapon by locking him in submission hell while also inflicting damage to him and wearing him out. Immanuel saw his strategy as patient and painfully effective.
Come Sunday, Immanuel would be meeting Bane for their second one-on-one tango. To Bane’s 7-Month diverse experience, Immanuel responds with a 7-month diverse experience with an added specialization in Hardcore warfare. Bane would look into the eyes of an old foe and would soon realize that he is going up against the two-time EUW-Asylum Hardkore Champion.
And Immanuel intends to walk out of the arena in Rome, Italy with his status remaining as the two-time EUW-Asylum Hardkore Champion.
