Psycho

The Psycho is an alter-ego for cult leader and criminal boss AJ Shepherd that came about when he was possessed by an ancient being known as Xivass. From his otherworldly patron, Shepherd gained a number of unnatural powers, one of which was the ability to transform into the Psycho persona, granting him strength, endurance and free use of some of his other abilities.
Shepherd used this persona to pretend he was receiving prophecies and visions from his “god”, he could speak in a demonic voice and talk in a multitude of dead languages.
== History ==
=== Possession ===
When on a secret mission to an unknown location, AJ Shepherd encountered a Phylactery sat upon a mysterious alter inside of an ancient tomb. After interacting with the Orb on the alter, the spirit of the Entity: Xivass was released and attached itself to Shepherd.
After making a deal with the entity and becoming accustomed to the powers his new patron provided, a Shepherd found he was able to transform himself into a form he named “the Psycho” at will. He discovered that this form possessed increased strength, speed and endurance compared to his normal self. He chose for this persona to be instrumental in his rise to power as a religious profit and cult leader.
=== Church of the Ancients ===
With the help of his powers, Shepherd started his own church that quickly spread into a large and influential cult.
As well as the power to persuade and deceive people into following him and commanding his followers, he used the Psycho guise to stage interactions from a higher power. Covered in black markings with red eyes and a deep demonic voice he spoke to his cult pretending that the church’s god was speaking through him and that he was performing a ritual that provided him with visions and prophesies in his role as High Priest.
In all business the Psycho persona became useful, the intimidating appearance and psychic powers were usually enough to let him get his way in most situations but in the event of combat, the Psycho’s physical capabilities exceeded his own and were very formidable.
Shepherd’s Psycho alter-ego was used liberally in the building of his empire as he often used it as a show of strength and to assert dominance in the criminal underworld while it also helped assure loyalty and dedication behind closed doors in the corporate world.
=== Pro-Wrestling ===
Entering the world of pro-wrestling following the pulling of many strings, Shepherd ordered the creation of the WWE wrestling brand called Thursday Night Throwdown. He became a wrestler on the show alongside the other members of YMM and soon decided to bring in his Psycho alter-ego as it’s own wrestling gimmick.
He had difficulty in deciding how to integrate the Psycho as he was reluctant to ever divulge the true nature of himself or the entity, Psycho included. Shepherd decided initially to sneak the character in as member of the Wyatt Family before the family were disbanded in Kayfabe and it was no longer an option. Instead the character was introduced as a descendant of Shepherd from the future that ranted about the apocalypse.
Eventually the character went away for a brief period and returned with a modified background. “Psycho Austin” resembled the reality of the persona fairly accurately as the alter ego of Sgt AJ being possessed by a monster. This background was kept seemingly as a gimmick by the occasional addition of several other false personas that left the validity of the situation unlikely.
When Shepherd’s main wrestling persona “Sgt AJ” took on the role of general manager he naturally wrestled a lot less. But in-part this was an excuse to wrestle as The Psycho more often, with greater strength, speed and endurance he became almost unbeatable.
=== Mortal Qombat ===
Shepherd took part in the events of Mortal Qombat, hiding behind his wrestler/general manager persona “Sgt AJ” partially to defend his business ventures but also to look for further recruits for his squadron of closest enforcers and bodyguards. While Shepherd made a point of mostly using his wrestling skills and the minimum of supernatural powers, he did call upon some powers including the Psycho when he needed to including certain “Qills”
== Appearance ==
When channeling the Psycho, AJ becomes covered head to toe in black tattoos written in ancient runes and strange languages, these markings completely cover him all over leaving very little space and his eyes glow a bright red.
When powered up to “X Ultimate” level; unnatural red flames protrude from his eyes, his teeth become bestial and sharp, his fingers grow to be elongated and clawed with pitch black corruption climbing up his forearms. His hair grows to reach his back and becomes spiked.
If “X Ultimate Ultimate“ is achieved his hair stretches all the way down his back and turns white, his eyes burn blue and he sprouts angel wings. And “X Ultimate Ultimate Ultimate” makes his wings larger and turn black, his hair to black and even spikier and his burning eyes pitch black.
=== Attire ===
In Psycho form Shepherd is always shirtless and without any footwear, additionally in the Psycho persona is the only time he allows himself to be seen without Sunglasses on so his red eyes are visible.
The only clothing he wears are black trousers or jeans.
== Powers ==
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== Wrestling Persona ==
Psycho Austin is a split personality created by the Psycho Entity when he possessed Sgt AJ Shepherd and “works” as a Professional Wrestler on the WWE brand Throwdown. This personality is an evil cultist working under the Psycho Entity, he has knowledge of his patron’s plans providing him with premonitions of doomsday.
=== History ===
Sgt AJ Shepherd was a wrestler working for WWE as part of the West Bridgeford Boys. Outside of this he also worked as the Sergeant in a private militia.
Along his adventures as a soldier, he came across the Psycho Entity who possessed him, creating the Psycho personality.
The Psycho was originally named “Austin of the End” and was believed to be a different person. He was covered in tattoos and was mistaken for an insane person spouting nonsense about the end of the world. This new personality seemed to have not settled in yet as at the time he was uncontrollably obsessed with the apocalypse.
He became a member of the East Tunnelford Lads providing more evidence that he might be a different person to Sgt AJ, being in several matches fighting against his own alter-ego.
As time went on, the Psycho became known as being a split personality, but also became a more independent and ambitious character, the Psycho continued to appear for the following year.
Until Sgt AJ came into possession of a relic that was said to grant the owner various psychic powers, while granting telepathic powers; it also promised to grant him control over the Psycho, meaning that the two personalities would work together and he could change between them at will.
Sgt AJ and the Psycho both obtained the Manly McMahon Championship several times throughout “their” career, this meant that as a split personality they would share the belt between the two (or sometimes more) of them.
For a brief time; there were two more personalities that also inhabited Sgt AJ’s mind, but these were short lived and their backstory was based around AJ being possessed by Multiple entities.Eventually Sgt AJ took on a more managerial role and wrestled less frequently but the Psycho took on a more dominant role and wrestled even more frequently.
=== Behind the Scenes ===
The original design was “Austin Wyatt”, a character during 2K17 that would be the next member of the Wyatt family. This version wore bootcut jeans & a fedora whilst remaining shirtless and bare foot.
After the Wyatt family disbanded the character was changed to be “Austin of the End”, a character that would be mistaken for a lunatic while actually being a descendant or Sgt AJ from the distant future in a dark timeline where the apocalypse has taken place. This version of the character was retro-actively retconned to be a less developed form of The Psycho
As of 2K19, the character was brought back and was retconned once again to be an evil split personality that was created by a demonic monster.
During 2019, the season of stones occurred where several of the most dominant characters on the Throwdown roster obtained magical relics granting them powers. Sgt AJ was one of these characters and his stone came in the form of a glowing yellow ring. This stone was worked into the character granting harmonic abilities between the split personalities.
== Trivia ==
* Psycho is a character that has gone through more changes than most, not only as part of the canonical story but also via real life retconning to create a more interesting character. Currently he is not a real character at all, merely a persona.
* The Psycho’s wrestling entrance theme is “Sleep Forever - by Loup GarouX”
Category:Chaotic Evil
Category:Wrestlers
Category:WWE 2K17
Category:WWE 2K19
Category:Supernatural Entities
Category:Heels
Category:Alter-ego
Category:Church of Ancients