10-11-2024, 08:16 AM
The following VHS tape was delivered to SCW headquarters via mail, courtesy of Dexter Grant. Despite Dexter’s demands not to do so, the following video was extracted from the tape and converted into a digital format for general viewing.
We start with all the hallmarks of a recorded VHS tape. Blue screen with the occasional crackle of visual white noise, an audible mains hum, the little text in the corner that reads “PLAY” next to the play symbol. Once we move past this however, we see what’s admittedly a rather low quality video, almost as if it were recorded using a now-ancient camcorder. Despite this, the footage shows us enough to make it clear we’re looking at what appears to be the wall of some sort of shack, and covering this wall are several wanted posters of one Sean Michael Prime. Whether or not these are legitimate wanted posters or something that was Photoshopped is hard to tell because of how believable it looks. Despite the persistent mains hum echoing through the audio track of the footage, we can clearly hear the sound of floorboards creaking and boots walking in the direction of this room. Sure enough, a figure steps in front of the camera, moving to stand right in front of these wanted posters, locking eyes with the visage of Sean Michael Prime. Given that the one standout feature of this figure is a black leather vest with a familiar logo on it, that being the circle-backslash symbol with a wi-fi symbol behind the backslash and the words “DISCONNECT TO RECONNECT” written within the circle, it’s not hard to guess who this might be.
“Do you want to know one of my biggest issues with social media and the online world in general? How fake everything is when you really start digging through it. Since I know whoever’s watching this is most likely another fly caught in the threads of the world wide web for those digital spiders to slowly feast upon, I want you to answer a question for me. How much of the news you read online is actual news? If you responded with ‘all of it’ then it’s painfully clear you’re in too deep and more extensive detoxing is going to be necessary.
These days, very little news you see online is factually correct or truthful, because that’s not what draws attention. Targeted advertisements, sensational pieces that create their own version of the truth, outright fabrications that are so outrageous they couldn’t possibly have any supporting facts but will always garner a reaction…that is the sad, miserable truth about your ‘news’ you find floating around on the internet these days. It’s to the point where AT LEAST 60% of people, regardless of which survey you look at, believe that news they find online, primarily through social media, is fake or heavily biased in some way. It’s not just news though, especially with the rise of this bullshit known as AI. Wendell, give me some numbers.”
The video abruptly cuts to a better lit but still low quality shot of Dexter Grant’s flunky, Wendell, filmed perhaps somewhere else in this same shack as he stands as confidently as someone like him can, holding up a handheld whiteboard with a bunch of numbers and statistics written on it that likely fly far over the heads of most of you watching.
“From 2022 to 2023, it’s been reported that video deep fakes have tripled in online presence, while audio deep fakes have seen an eightfold increase during the same period. Last year alone, an estimated 500,000 deep fakes were shared around social media platforms. Equally concerning is how easily large numbers of social media users fell for these fakes, believing them to be genuine and having appropriate outraged responses to their contents without realizing that none of it was real to begin with.”
With that, the video abruptly cuts back to Dexter, who’s now seated on the edge of a table that we’re certain wasn’t in this room before, making sure his body isn’t blocking the biggest of the wanted posters decorating the wall.
“Thank you Wendell. Did you hear those numbers? 500,000 deep fakes floating around out there last year alone, and with the rise of AI, those numbers are only going to climb even higher. Social media was already such a nuclear wasteland to begin with, because how often do you see tweets or posts about somebody making them out to be some absolute scum of the earth human being? I’m not talking small stuff like someone bitching and moaning about how mean their favorite celebrity was because they weren’t anything like they portrayed themselves to be online once you met the real person behind the illusion. I’m talking all the sickening, grotesque, stomach-churning accusations that rightfully ruin lives and careers, things that not even I am comfortable enough to list off because trust me, I think we all know what kinds of things I’m talking about without it needing to be said.
The point is, cancel culture has become the new hot trend with social media in recent years, and for as much as I hate this soulless machine, even I will bite the bullet and admit that some good has come of it to bring to light some truly heinous actions from people you never would’ve suspected because it was the word of a victim who most would’ve deemed a nobody versus the word of someone rich and famous who could sweep it all under the rug and keep their true ugliness hidden. After all, how could they ever do wrong?”
Dexter can’t keep from literally spitting on the floor in disgust.
“The real problem, however, is whatever jackass decided to weaponize this idea of ‘cancel culture’ by sensationalizing it just to bully and harass someone who was truly innocent of all they were accused of. Thus, we have a conundrum: is what you’re seeing about person A doing all these abhorrent things the honest accusations of an actual victim who rightfully deserves justice? Or is it all a lie so they can get their 15 minutes of fame, garner sympathy they don’t deserve, and potentially utterly destroy the life of someone who was actually a decent human being who was guilty of nothing but perhaps having their name drawn out of a hat or something?
Add in this deep fake bullshit, especially with the increase in AI garbage polluting an already toxic digital abyss…and you see arguably one of the biggest reasons why I’m an advocate for the digital detoxing you are all in desperate need of.
Here’s a perfect example. Take a look at the wanted poster behind me. The criminal in question is a man named Sean Michael Prime, who coincidentally, happens to be my opponent for this upcoming Breakdown in Buffalo, New York. To borrow from a certain television star named Jonathan Frakes…is this wanted poster fact? Or fiction? It certainly looks authentic, doesn’t it? And it’s been confirmed on SCW television in the past that Sean has, in fact, served jail time. Then again, maybe all of that is a lie, crafted as part of a persona meant to elicit sympathy from you fans and make SCW look better in social media circles because they helped a ‘hardened criminal’ turn his life around through the therapy of legalized assault between those ropes. Or, perhaps, he IS a former felon just trying to turn his life around, but like a case of the blind leading the blind because ‘justice must prevail’ you proud keyboard warriors refuse to accept that he might belong here in SCW because you need something to give you an excuse to pat yourselves on the back and feel like you’re good, upstanding citizens for the next 24 hours.
I’m sure you’ll all be very proud of yourselves for driving him out of this business while some murderer spills blood right in front of you and gets away scot free because you’re too busy weaving a confusing web to cancel somebody you simply do not like, painting them as the ‘real’ murderer. But please, by all means…keep crying wolf and making it much harder for the real wolves to finally be caught because you think this vile behavior is funny and good for a few clicks and hashtags.”
Dexter reaches back and violently rips the biggest wanted poster off the wall, holding it in front of him as he stares at it, almost as though this is his means of addressing Sean himself “face-to-face.”
“Sean, you and I aren’t too different in the grand scheme of it all. To the social media machine, we’re the monsters who must be cut down at all costs…you because of your past, me because I have the audacity to stand here and tell people to put their goddamned phones down for more than five seconds and try some actual human interaction for a change. But what have I actually done so far to warrant such a violent reaction? Spoke some truth that no one wants to hear because it didn’t come from their favorite influencer who brainwashed them? Tore apart a geography teacher posing as a wrestler because he failed my test and fell for some verbal clickbait? Exposed Gavin Taylor as the attention whore he truly is, chasing social media validation from strangers who don’t actually care for him but will gladly suck him off in a mutual stroking of egos so he can reinvent himself with a new nickname by next week?
See, unlike your Selena Frosts or your Kirsten Scotts or…honestly, at least 98% of the SCW roster at this exact moment in time, I don’t need to lie about thinking I belong at the very top around here and bitching and moaning about how I’m not there right this second when I’ve only just stepped through the door. What I did at Apocalypse has nothing to do with Gavin being supposedly on the cusp of greatness at one point in time and trying to kick him while he’s down to raise my own stock. I’m not here to be some gold-obsessed whore who absolutely needs to be validated as the ‘greatest of all time’ each and every waking moment of my life by nobodies wasting away on social media until they’re nothing more than husks that could float away in a decent breeze blowing by.
I’m here for one reason and one reason only…to help SCW digitally detox from the social sickness that is ultimately going to lead to the inevitable deaths of every single fan, worker and especially wrestler around here.
And I’m extending my hand to help you, Sean Michael Prime.”
Dexter symbolically extends his hand towards the camera.
“I criticized all of Gavin’s failures in Vancouver, but we both know that you are worse off than he is Sean. As far as I’m aware, you haven’t even won a single match in all the time you’ve been lurking around this roster. Unlike Gavin and his obsession with reinventing himself to trend thinking it will turn everything around, I firmly believe that all of your failures since arriving here are the fault of this digital deluge of diarrhea that keep you thinking about all the wrongs in your past and not even giving you a chance to become something more. To everyone else, you’re just a joke to be written off, a man who’s only here when someone needs a quick pick-me-up to put their ego back into place so they can smile for that selfie and stand by for validation.
To me, I see someone willing to hear me out and be saved.
In Buffalo, I present you with a choice Sean. Like Chase Upshaw, I will test you. You can either accept my help, submit to your detoxing and come out the other side a much better person and wrestler because of it, ready to turn it all around and prove to the world that Sean Michael Prime is legit.
Or…you can try to strike me down for daring to be your savior in these apocalyptic times of digital atom bombs reducing the human race to social zombies.
If you choose the latter Sean…know that all you will become is just another message that I will deliver in my mission to save us all by any means necessary before this ticking time bomb reaches hypocritical mass. Either way, you will learn that there is only ONE WAY to be saved from this cyber cancer, and it lies in three simple words.
Disconnect…to Reconnect.”
Dexter’s gaze lingers on the camera for a moment longer, offering his best welcoming smile as his hand remains extended for Sean to hypothetically take. This, however, is when the video is lost to white noise that inevitably returns to the familiar blue screen, and from there, the whole thing cuts.