In the months leading up to Shang Tsung’s Mortal Kombat tournament, Karol Kano, mother of Black Dragon leader Kano, warned him not to compete.

As Kano trained and made contingency plans with his henchmen, he was bombarded with phone calls, voice mail message, personal visits and postcards from Ms. Kano. Tough as he was, Mr. Kano almost dropped out of the competition when his mother’s complaints began to wear on his psyche. Among her warnings:

• “Somebody’s going to rip your spine right out of your back!”
• “You’ll lose another eye!”
• “They’ll blow fire on you until you’re nothing but a collapsing skeleton!”
• “One of those insane masked women is going to rip out your heart! If you don’t do it to them first!”
• “I hear they turn people into babies in those contests. BABIES!”
• “If you’re not careful, you’re going to fall off a ledge and land on some sharp spikes!”
• “If you go, they’re going to blow you up like a giant balloon until you explode!”
• “They’re going to laugh at you!”
• “You could get turned into a bunny!”
• “Take a sweater so you’ll be nice and toasty or else you’ll catch a cold!”
• “Do you like having arms? Because you won’t like it when someone RIPS THEM OFF!”
• “You’re going to give your father agita!”
• “They’ll knock that good-for-nothing head right off your shoulders!”
• “If it gets turned into a horrible comic book crossover game, don’t come crying to me!”

Surprisingly, every one of Karol Kano’s predictions came true.