Post by The Ace on Sept 26, 2008 13:21:06 GMT -6
*The scene opens into some footage dated December 12th, 2007...*
~The Ace wrenches back, however Awesome pushes forward, as the referee begins to count, one….Two….Ace breaks the hold to avoid the pin fall. He gets up and is showing signs of damage in his shoulder, He charges at Awesome, who ducks under a sloppy Lariat Attempt, he goes for a Super Kick, but The Ace ducks under, then grabs Awesome….He hooks him for the Ace-Plant!!!
Eric Hardy: Ace –Plant coming up!
The Ace lifts up Awesome, however in doing so, causes him Pain, as he is unable to delivier the move. Awesome quickly takes him down with a Inside Cradle….One….Two….Three!
Eric Hardy: Dammit, Ace had him!
Kelly Fox: Ace had nothing! He was unable to pull the Ace-Plant off and Steve Awesome quickly took advantage of that.
Steve Awesome gets his hand raise, as he quickly exits the ring. The Ace isn’t looking happy what so ever...~
*The scene opens on The Ace sat in utter darkness apart from a single solitary candle, which lends his face an inhuman yellow glow as he speaks...*
Many a night since I have woken up in a cold sweat because of what happened that night, in our one and only singles encounter not only in nCw...but ever...
*The Ace pauses*
And even then it was a long time coming, people wanted to see what would happen between master and protege and because of the size of my ego, I robbed them of that match in September in XHF, my return was hyped...I was going to come for your United States Championship...I was going to show you what happens when people try and backstab me...and you did when you let Smokin' Aces fall into disarray the first time just because I was called away, I had to leave - my mother was ill at the time - but you just didn't get it, did you?
*The Ace sighs*
But then you never did care about family values, did you Steve? No, even in my family crisis back then, all you thought about was yourself...you thought I was simply abandoning you, even when I asked you to understand...I asked you to keep the team spirit alive in my absence, I told you I would return...I told you we'd pick up exactly where we left off...and I was prepared to do just that...until I realised that you just didn't care about me or my hardships during that time of my life...and yor not caring led me to look inside myself and realise that hey I also didn't care...I didn't care about the US Title, I didn't care about returning to a company that protected its 'veterans' at my expense and I just didn't care about a personal fued with a man I once considered a friend...
*The Ace shrugs*
Then my mentor, Spike Kane, told me of this place, told me of a chance to start afresh, a chance to capture some of that glory that XHF had denied me for three years...three damn years! nCw was to be my haven, a place free of backstage politics and infighting between members of the roster off camera when they took fueds too far...a place where friendship and loyalty were still worth a damn...I had the chance to salvage my career and I wasn't about to lose it in a fist fight with you...but of course Steve Awesome had to be Steve Awesome...and to this day you still tell anyone who listens that the reason I walked away from renewing my contract with XHF was because I was scared of you...
*The Ace laughs*
Oh please, how egotistical can one man be? I mean, come on...and now you think I'm jealous of you...I know the man behind the scenes, away from all the lights and glory, and though your name may be Steve Bates, don't ever think you can bait me into some sort of personal ruckus with you, I won't do it, because I still value you as my best friend...it is not Steve Awesome who is Solitaire's Godfather, it is Steve Bates...it was not Steve Awesome who was my best man at my wedding a few months ago...it was Steve Bates...
*The Ace sighs*
It really is a sad day when people are so consumed by glory that they sacrifice the people who stick by them through thick and thin...I did not want to face you in September, just like I didn't want to face you in December here in nCw...but management decided it would be a big money match, and it was...we didn't disappoint...you even injured my shoulder and in the end it worked out for you, you capitalized on it and you walked away the better man that night, I'm not afraid to admit that...but ask yourself this, did it really prove anything? Did it really snswer the question of which of us is the better man? Did it?
*The Ace shakes his head*
No...see that one match was only a teaser for the finale that has been building up silently in the background for months, the question that everyone whispers when it comes to the two of us...who will turn on who when the most prestigious title is finally on the line? Whose ego will be stronger than the bonds of friendship and loyalty? I'm betting many people are thinking that I am the weaker link of our tandem, but not because you Steve are insisting that you carried my piddly ass to tag team success, but because of the two of us, I am still human - I have a family, a family I'm so proud of having that I want them to share my spotlight, I don't push them away into the background and hope that they'll still be there when I get home...
*The Ace sighs*
But I will say this...if my compassion for my family, if my love for them makes me weak, then I don't ever want to be strong...I was like you once Steve, I thought some random blonde bimbo, a different one every night, would make me happy, if I'm honest that's how my rekindled love affair with Kathy started...she was a face from my past, one glorious night of exquisite sex, and a face I never expected to see again...least of all in nCw...but there she was...on the arm of not so Sexy Jason...and in a moment, all those feelings came flooding back, only stronger and more potent than ever before...I knew then that I had to seize this second chance...at any cost...then I found out about Solitaire and all the smoke of my playboy days cleared, the haze in which I had lived my life was lifted, and I saw the undeniable light of love before me...I let it wash over me, I bathed in its warm glow...the hatred in my soul was forced into balance...into co-existance with the purity of my love for this woman and the child she had blessed me with...
*The Ace claps his hands above the candle and suddenly the hotel room he sat in was alive, bright and unmistakable...and sat beside him was Kathy...no longer, a pale green eyed monster on the cusp of sanity, but the blonde, blue eyed woman who had made all his dreams come true, she smiled at the camera, with Solitaire in her lap, and leant over and blew the slowly burning candle out...*
Kathy: That's right Steve, stare...stare in disbelief at that which is before you...I am back...but you need not worry, I have enough respect and love for Jake to let him go this one alone, he doesn't need me to be in his corner to beat you or Philip Burns...what? You were expecting some sort of speech impediment? Well I guess I have Falcon to thank for that, seems I'm well on my road to recovery...a full recovery...just as my husband is on his road to your gold...
*The couple kiss as The Ace slips an arm around his wife's waist and pulls her close...*
I have a feeling that this won't be the only time you'll be staring back at me in utter disbelief Steve, it will also happen again this Sunday, but as an aside I must take this opportunity to thank Falcon for inadvertently giving me back the woman I fell in love with and the woman I married, but don't think for one second that I will ever forgive or forget the fact that you chose to make the mistake of laying your hands on her...but that really is an issue for another time...for now I must return my attention to at least one of my opponents for Sunday...
*The Ace smiles*
Steve, you know its funny, you call me the killswitch of the Empire just because I laid my eyes on your prize for a little longer than I should have, yet despite my envy and despite my knowing exactly what I could achieve this Sunday, I never once acted on the same impulse that JFK did last week, I never once thought about betraying the Corporate Empire...and still you doubt my loyalty? I am a team player Steve, I have proven that more than once in my career, I can do only what I consider to be best for the team...something you in all your selfishness could never do...no, you would rather take the glory for my vision of our team, and gloss over the fact that I put my career on hold to make you the Superstar you are today...but no matter, I've had enough of creating stars...this Sunday its all about me, its my time to shine...
*The Ace sighs*
My time to satisfy that hunger and yearning I cannot hide from you because you know me so well, you see it in my eyes and at Road To The Gold, you will feel it also, when I strike down upon you my brother with great anger and furious vengeance and when you feel my wrath, you will know me as Satan and the Lord, I will finally be the new face of nCw and I will be the new World Heavyweight Champion...
*The Ace breathes deeply to calm himself*
You want to say you carried my ass while we were champions, well here's a little statistic for you Steve, of the five successful tag team matches we had, including the one in which we won those titles, you only scored the winning pinfall on two occassions, that means you only carried me forty percent of the time, if indeed you carried me at all - but here's the thing, when it came to match number six, who dropped the ball and got his ass pinned? That's right, Steve, it was you my boy...so for you to even sit there and even imply that you are better than me just demonstates the stupidity and ungratefulness of today's youth...
*The Ace is quite visibly seething at this point*
I took you under my wing, and this is how you show your appreciation for everything I did for you? How very dare you? I see now that you're just some snot-nosed little punk who has gotten a little two big for his boots and needs a lesson in respect...and this Sunday you can bet your piddly ass that the class will indeed be in session...you surpassed me simply because I allowed it, you became as big as you are off the back of my name, but you seem to have forgotten that, no matter because this Sunday I will prove exactly why the original is still the best...
*The Ace laughs*
And now you expect me to believe that you didn't need me when Trent got injured, and that you hated our team from the beginning? The only reason I didn't turn my back on you, my brother, was because I was man enough to give you a chance to redeem yourself after that whole XHF fiasco, if I had known then that you were just waiting to stick the knife in my back like this, I would have told you to go stick it up your ass...Trent was a better friend than me huh? Well, you could have fooled me sunshine, because who helped you break his wrist - the wrist of your so called better friend? It was me! And as a result, who ultimately guaranteed that you would walk away with the title? It was me! So please don't insult either of us when you say you wish he had never been hurt and that Close Encounters would have ruled the world and that you and Trent would have lived happily ever after in a little gumdrop house on lollipop lane in happy happy land with three little children and a family kitten named Dewdrop...because we both know that wouldn't have ever happened...
*The Ace smirks*
Nothing is quite as pure and simple as hatred my friend, I helped you embrace it, to realise it not as a weakness but as a strength, and now that you have turned on me, I will destroy you because I may have taught you everything you now know but I didn't teach you everything I know...I was in this business before you and I will continue to be in this business after you...so your claim that I would be absolutely nothing without you is simply not true, infact it is quite the opposite...I survive, I persist, I am a cockroach in this business...and that is why people hate me as much as they do...no without you Steve, I would have simply found another road to the gold...nothing more, nothing less...
*The Ace sighs*
I'm getting really tired of trying to explain this to you Steve, but Hammond couldn't stop me, Xavier couldn't stop me, The Burning can't stop me and Steve Awesome wont be able to stop me from realising the culmination of a year's dream here in nCw...like it or not this sorry sack of crap is coming for that title...and when I do, Steve, when I do...you'll be the one left causing a stink in the middle of my ring...see what you call undeniable evidence of you being better than me...I call simply one man's truth...and as we know one one's truth is another man's lie...but let's look a little deeper...what exactly is truth? Truth is simply that which you get other people to believe, whether they buy your story of being better than some guy who expresses his merriment and amusement at his opponent's words through a handful of simple facial expressions, or whether they buy mine of being the backstabbed mentor and best friend...
*The Ace raises an eyebrow*
But above all this, you know what amuses me even more than my opponent's words to me Steve? It is when they get so worked up about having them backfire that the best retort they have is oh that guy's just a parrot who evidently enjoys flexing his facial muscles a little too much...you know why that amuses me, Steve? It amuses me because when I counter every move somebody throws at me in the ring, I somehow am a brilliant wrestler, a skilled tactician, and yet when I use the same trick on dissecting somebody's promo...all of a sudden I'm a terrible promoer with his own language no less...go figure...
*The Ace shrugs*
Now Steve if I were to be as immature as you, I could try and imitate you but I feel the hot air in my lungs would be better spent elsewhere...
*The Ace gives Kathy a quick wink before focusing back on the camera*
Yes Steve you may be the World Champion, but you are not evil...you know nothing of being evil...you do not know the joy, you do not understand the pallandrome as I do, to be evil is to live it...breathe it...let it consume you, as harmonious and fluid as a second skin to keep you warm, the skin I wear to the ring certainly, but the skin is shed when I am back here...with my wife and daughter...and of those men you mentioned, I too have beaten them, though I'll admit that they weren't always in singles competition, and in any case none of them will be a factor this Sunday so it really is irrelevant...as is the rather redundant point about being better, stronger and faster, better looking, more entertaining and more talented than me...the same thing could be said about the Six Million Dollar Man but in the end even he got axed...and as for me running from you way back then, also irrelevant as I have told my side of that particular story now, whether you want to believe it I really don't care at this point...all I really care about is finally getting the chance to shut you up...I know everyone talks behind my back, and I say let them talk for now, because this Sunday all the talking stops...this Sunday will be a time of action and I will finally be what you once were without having to wish for it...I will be the new nCw World Heavyweight Champion...I will beat Burns, and I will beat you Steve...you can bet on that much...
Kathy: Wait, Steve called me ugly, aren't you going to address that and tell the world how beautiful I am...
No...I wasn't planning on it...
*Kathy looks oddly at her husband*
Kathy: Why not?
Because I know he's only saying it for the same reason he called Soli a brat...he's envious that I have the family he could have had with Layla if he had learned to put his ego aside, besides even if I did tear him a new one for insulting you, I wouldn't do you any justice, you're too beautiful for words...
*Kathy blushes and the couple start to kiss and Kathy claps her hands twice, cutting out the light and abruptly ending the promo...*
~The Ace wrenches back, however Awesome pushes forward, as the referee begins to count, one….Two….Ace breaks the hold to avoid the pin fall. He gets up and is showing signs of damage in his shoulder, He charges at Awesome, who ducks under a sloppy Lariat Attempt, he goes for a Super Kick, but The Ace ducks under, then grabs Awesome….He hooks him for the Ace-Plant!!!
Eric Hardy: Ace –Plant coming up!
The Ace lifts up Awesome, however in doing so, causes him Pain, as he is unable to delivier the move. Awesome quickly takes him down with a Inside Cradle….One….Two….Three!
Eric Hardy: Dammit, Ace had him!
Kelly Fox: Ace had nothing! He was unable to pull the Ace-Plant off and Steve Awesome quickly took advantage of that.
Steve Awesome gets his hand raise, as he quickly exits the ring. The Ace isn’t looking happy what so ever...~
*The scene opens on The Ace sat in utter darkness apart from a single solitary candle, which lends his face an inhuman yellow glow as he speaks...*
Many a night since I have woken up in a cold sweat because of what happened that night, in our one and only singles encounter not only in nCw...but ever...
*The Ace pauses*
And even then it was a long time coming, people wanted to see what would happen between master and protege and because of the size of my ego, I robbed them of that match in September in XHF, my return was hyped...I was going to come for your United States Championship...I was going to show you what happens when people try and backstab me...and you did when you let Smokin' Aces fall into disarray the first time just because I was called away, I had to leave - my mother was ill at the time - but you just didn't get it, did you?
*The Ace sighs*
But then you never did care about family values, did you Steve? No, even in my family crisis back then, all you thought about was yourself...you thought I was simply abandoning you, even when I asked you to understand...I asked you to keep the team spirit alive in my absence, I told you I would return...I told you we'd pick up exactly where we left off...and I was prepared to do just that...until I realised that you just didn't care about me or my hardships during that time of my life...and yor not caring led me to look inside myself and realise that hey I also didn't care...I didn't care about the US Title, I didn't care about returning to a company that protected its 'veterans' at my expense and I just didn't care about a personal fued with a man I once considered a friend...
*The Ace shrugs*
Then my mentor, Spike Kane, told me of this place, told me of a chance to start afresh, a chance to capture some of that glory that XHF had denied me for three years...three damn years! nCw was to be my haven, a place free of backstage politics and infighting between members of the roster off camera when they took fueds too far...a place where friendship and loyalty were still worth a damn...I had the chance to salvage my career and I wasn't about to lose it in a fist fight with you...but of course Steve Awesome had to be Steve Awesome...and to this day you still tell anyone who listens that the reason I walked away from renewing my contract with XHF was because I was scared of you...
*The Ace laughs*
Oh please, how egotistical can one man be? I mean, come on...and now you think I'm jealous of you...I know the man behind the scenes, away from all the lights and glory, and though your name may be Steve Bates, don't ever think you can bait me into some sort of personal ruckus with you, I won't do it, because I still value you as my best friend...it is not Steve Awesome who is Solitaire's Godfather, it is Steve Bates...it was not Steve Awesome who was my best man at my wedding a few months ago...it was Steve Bates...
*The Ace sighs*
It really is a sad day when people are so consumed by glory that they sacrifice the people who stick by them through thick and thin...I did not want to face you in September, just like I didn't want to face you in December here in nCw...but management decided it would be a big money match, and it was...we didn't disappoint...you even injured my shoulder and in the end it worked out for you, you capitalized on it and you walked away the better man that night, I'm not afraid to admit that...but ask yourself this, did it really prove anything? Did it really snswer the question of which of us is the better man? Did it?
*The Ace shakes his head*
No...see that one match was only a teaser for the finale that has been building up silently in the background for months, the question that everyone whispers when it comes to the two of us...who will turn on who when the most prestigious title is finally on the line? Whose ego will be stronger than the bonds of friendship and loyalty? I'm betting many people are thinking that I am the weaker link of our tandem, but not because you Steve are insisting that you carried my piddly ass to tag team success, but because of the two of us, I am still human - I have a family, a family I'm so proud of having that I want them to share my spotlight, I don't push them away into the background and hope that they'll still be there when I get home...
*The Ace sighs*
But I will say this...if my compassion for my family, if my love for them makes me weak, then I don't ever want to be strong...I was like you once Steve, I thought some random blonde bimbo, a different one every night, would make me happy, if I'm honest that's how my rekindled love affair with Kathy started...she was a face from my past, one glorious night of exquisite sex, and a face I never expected to see again...least of all in nCw...but there she was...on the arm of not so Sexy Jason...and in a moment, all those feelings came flooding back, only stronger and more potent than ever before...I knew then that I had to seize this second chance...at any cost...then I found out about Solitaire and all the smoke of my playboy days cleared, the haze in which I had lived my life was lifted, and I saw the undeniable light of love before me...I let it wash over me, I bathed in its warm glow...the hatred in my soul was forced into balance...into co-existance with the purity of my love for this woman and the child she had blessed me with...
*The Ace claps his hands above the candle and suddenly the hotel room he sat in was alive, bright and unmistakable...and sat beside him was Kathy...no longer, a pale green eyed monster on the cusp of sanity, but the blonde, blue eyed woman who had made all his dreams come true, she smiled at the camera, with Solitaire in her lap, and leant over and blew the slowly burning candle out...*
Kathy: That's right Steve, stare...stare in disbelief at that which is before you...I am back...but you need not worry, I have enough respect and love for Jake to let him go this one alone, he doesn't need me to be in his corner to beat you or Philip Burns...what? You were expecting some sort of speech impediment? Well I guess I have Falcon to thank for that, seems I'm well on my road to recovery...a full recovery...just as my husband is on his road to your gold...
*The couple kiss as The Ace slips an arm around his wife's waist and pulls her close...*
I have a feeling that this won't be the only time you'll be staring back at me in utter disbelief Steve, it will also happen again this Sunday, but as an aside I must take this opportunity to thank Falcon for inadvertently giving me back the woman I fell in love with and the woman I married, but don't think for one second that I will ever forgive or forget the fact that you chose to make the mistake of laying your hands on her...but that really is an issue for another time...for now I must return my attention to at least one of my opponents for Sunday...
*The Ace smiles*
Steve, you know its funny, you call me the killswitch of the Empire just because I laid my eyes on your prize for a little longer than I should have, yet despite my envy and despite my knowing exactly what I could achieve this Sunday, I never once acted on the same impulse that JFK did last week, I never once thought about betraying the Corporate Empire...and still you doubt my loyalty? I am a team player Steve, I have proven that more than once in my career, I can do only what I consider to be best for the team...something you in all your selfishness could never do...no, you would rather take the glory for my vision of our team, and gloss over the fact that I put my career on hold to make you the Superstar you are today...but no matter, I've had enough of creating stars...this Sunday its all about me, its my time to shine...
*The Ace sighs*
My time to satisfy that hunger and yearning I cannot hide from you because you know me so well, you see it in my eyes and at Road To The Gold, you will feel it also, when I strike down upon you my brother with great anger and furious vengeance and when you feel my wrath, you will know me as Satan and the Lord, I will finally be the new face of nCw and I will be the new World Heavyweight Champion...
*The Ace breathes deeply to calm himself*
You want to say you carried my ass while we were champions, well here's a little statistic for you Steve, of the five successful tag team matches we had, including the one in which we won those titles, you only scored the winning pinfall on two occassions, that means you only carried me forty percent of the time, if indeed you carried me at all - but here's the thing, when it came to match number six, who dropped the ball and got his ass pinned? That's right, Steve, it was you my boy...so for you to even sit there and even imply that you are better than me just demonstates the stupidity and ungratefulness of today's youth...
*The Ace is quite visibly seething at this point*
I took you under my wing, and this is how you show your appreciation for everything I did for you? How very dare you? I see now that you're just some snot-nosed little punk who has gotten a little two big for his boots and needs a lesson in respect...and this Sunday you can bet your piddly ass that the class will indeed be in session...you surpassed me simply because I allowed it, you became as big as you are off the back of my name, but you seem to have forgotten that, no matter because this Sunday I will prove exactly why the original is still the best...
*The Ace laughs*
And now you expect me to believe that you didn't need me when Trent got injured, and that you hated our team from the beginning? The only reason I didn't turn my back on you, my brother, was because I was man enough to give you a chance to redeem yourself after that whole XHF fiasco, if I had known then that you were just waiting to stick the knife in my back like this, I would have told you to go stick it up your ass...Trent was a better friend than me huh? Well, you could have fooled me sunshine, because who helped you break his wrist - the wrist of your so called better friend? It was me! And as a result, who ultimately guaranteed that you would walk away with the title? It was me! So please don't insult either of us when you say you wish he had never been hurt and that Close Encounters would have ruled the world and that you and Trent would have lived happily ever after in a little gumdrop house on lollipop lane in happy happy land with three little children and a family kitten named Dewdrop...because we both know that wouldn't have ever happened...
*The Ace smirks*
Nothing is quite as pure and simple as hatred my friend, I helped you embrace it, to realise it not as a weakness but as a strength, and now that you have turned on me, I will destroy you because I may have taught you everything you now know but I didn't teach you everything I know...I was in this business before you and I will continue to be in this business after you...so your claim that I would be absolutely nothing without you is simply not true, infact it is quite the opposite...I survive, I persist, I am a cockroach in this business...and that is why people hate me as much as they do...no without you Steve, I would have simply found another road to the gold...nothing more, nothing less...
*The Ace sighs*
I'm getting really tired of trying to explain this to you Steve, but Hammond couldn't stop me, Xavier couldn't stop me, The Burning can't stop me and Steve Awesome wont be able to stop me from realising the culmination of a year's dream here in nCw...like it or not this sorry sack of crap is coming for that title...and when I do, Steve, when I do...you'll be the one left causing a stink in the middle of my ring...see what you call undeniable evidence of you being better than me...I call simply one man's truth...and as we know one one's truth is another man's lie...but let's look a little deeper...what exactly is truth? Truth is simply that which you get other people to believe, whether they buy your story of being better than some guy who expresses his merriment and amusement at his opponent's words through a handful of simple facial expressions, or whether they buy mine of being the backstabbed mentor and best friend...
*The Ace raises an eyebrow*
But above all this, you know what amuses me even more than my opponent's words to me Steve? It is when they get so worked up about having them backfire that the best retort they have is oh that guy's just a parrot who evidently enjoys flexing his facial muscles a little too much...you know why that amuses me, Steve? It amuses me because when I counter every move somebody throws at me in the ring, I somehow am a brilliant wrestler, a skilled tactician, and yet when I use the same trick on dissecting somebody's promo...all of a sudden I'm a terrible promoer with his own language no less...go figure...
*The Ace shrugs*
Now Steve if I were to be as immature as you, I could try and imitate you but I feel the hot air in my lungs would be better spent elsewhere...
*The Ace gives Kathy a quick wink before focusing back on the camera*
Yes Steve you may be the World Champion, but you are not evil...you know nothing of being evil...you do not know the joy, you do not understand the pallandrome as I do, to be evil is to live it...breathe it...let it consume you, as harmonious and fluid as a second skin to keep you warm, the skin I wear to the ring certainly, but the skin is shed when I am back here...with my wife and daughter...and of those men you mentioned, I too have beaten them, though I'll admit that they weren't always in singles competition, and in any case none of them will be a factor this Sunday so it really is irrelevant...as is the rather redundant point about being better, stronger and faster, better looking, more entertaining and more talented than me...the same thing could be said about the Six Million Dollar Man but in the end even he got axed...and as for me running from you way back then, also irrelevant as I have told my side of that particular story now, whether you want to believe it I really don't care at this point...all I really care about is finally getting the chance to shut you up...I know everyone talks behind my back, and I say let them talk for now, because this Sunday all the talking stops...this Sunday will be a time of action and I will finally be what you once were without having to wish for it...I will be the new nCw World Heavyweight Champion...I will beat Burns, and I will beat you Steve...you can bet on that much...
Kathy: Wait, Steve called me ugly, aren't you going to address that and tell the world how beautiful I am...
No...I wasn't planning on it...
*Kathy looks oddly at her husband*
Kathy: Why not?
Because I know he's only saying it for the same reason he called Soli a brat...he's envious that I have the family he could have had with Layla if he had learned to put his ego aside, besides even if I did tear him a new one for insulting you, I wouldn't do you any justice, you're too beautiful for words...
*Kathy blushes and the couple start to kiss and Kathy claps her hands twice, cutting out the light and abruptly ending the promo...*