Off Camera
Las Vegas Nevada.
Last Week
The nerves in his stomach rattled like coins in a jar. Every second that passed brought him closer and closer to his destination and a reunion he never thought possible or wanted. He sat in the back of the cab, his long hair tied back in a bun away from his face. Dressed in a navy blue suit with a matching tie. His beard trimmed short as he watched the Vegas strip fly by. Austin's hands came to rest on his knees as he tried to keep his breathing low.;
He looked to the side to the empty seat, knowing that Lisa wished she could be there. He has left her and their child Marcus at the hotel, safe and away from the insanity of the strip and the past of Vegas Austin had been told to go to. The bright lights and the bustling city started to fade. The landscape became that of a rundown urban space. The underside of Vegas most people never saw or cared to know. Run down houses in the shadow of the large towers and casinos in the now distant skyline.
The cab came to a stop as Austin handed the driver a few bills stepping out onto the street. He did up the buttons on his jacket looking at the number on the front of the house. The gold paint chipped off now leaving a grey steel shell. The grass on the front yard was unkempt and long, full of weeds and other trash laying inside. Austin walked up the broken and cracked concrete walkway, the steps onto the small wooden porch cracked and strained under his weight as he stood outside the door.
His head told him to run, to just not deal with it, his heart screamed to knock and see. As his knuckles hit the heavy wooden door his heart seemed to skip a beat. The lights inside were on, the curtains though were drawn across the front window. Austin stood and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. Each second that ticked by feeling like a minute. He slowly started to back away when he heard the door unlock, he stopped dead in his tracks as a woman slowly looked around the corner. Her hair in a straight ponytail. Her eyes tired and darting around. She looked at him confused as if not registering who he was.
“Hello?...can I help you?”
Her voice was the same, she looked almost as he remembered her. Except for a few extra grey hairs and wrinkles. Austin swallowed hard and smiled weakly. “Hi, Mom.” The words rolled out of his mouth with labored and fractured breath. The woman narrowed her eyes and looked at his face more closely, her own mouth hanging slightly open as if she’d seen a ghost, she stepped forward out of her house, her hands shaking as she got close to him.
He towered over her, his muscled 6’6 frame towering over her compared to the small boy he was when he last saw her all those years ago. She put her hands on his chest with a sigh. “Austin?” Her voice broke, the emotions welled up in her eyes as Austin tried to keep himself calm, his arms wrapped around her after he gave her a slow nod. She held him tight, a hug he never got as a child. But this was different. This was not the desperate woman clinging to her youth and wanting a man she could never have and punishing him for it.
No, this was a frail old woman. Clearly full of regret and sadness that Austin saw in her eyes as the realization of who he was seemed to set in and restart a heart that had until then only been used to keep her alive, shuffling through life. As they pulled apart she wiped her eyes and turned opening the door wide. “Please, please come in...excuse the mess I wasn’t expecting company.” Austin stepped in the door and was hit with a wave of heat and smell he couldn’t describe. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. As they did he noticed the room and almost tripped over a box on the floor. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and flat beer hung in the air. A smell Austin remembered from his youth. He turned and looked towards the couch, covered in a ragged old blanket, torn and stained and a few crushed cans.
He bent over to move them but his mother quickly shuffled in front of him. He hands wiping the cans aside as she straightened the blanket out and stood back. “Please, sit...I’m sorry about the mess...I...it’s been a rough few...well years…” Austin cleared his throat and tried to keep all the emotion in, he sat down and smiled politely as his mother scrambled before sitting on the recliner next to the couch. She looked at Austin taking a deep breath, she suddenly took a deep breath in and shot up. “Oh I should… do you want a drink?. I have beer, or...water?...” Austin stood up and took his mother’s hands as she shook, she seemed to calm looking up at the young man her son had become.
“I’m fine, please...we have a lot to catch up on.” Austin spoke slow and calm, his voice lowering as he sat back down. “It’s been a long 14 years. I’m married, I have a son. Your grandson….” Her eyebrows shot up as her hands raised to her mouth covering it, the tears forming in her eyes as she let out a small noise from under her breath trying to keep everything in check as she took it all in, then it happened a nervous laugh, a flash of happiness. The tears. “Oh...what’s his name?..what is your wife’s name?..oh I am so sorry for all the questions….”
He smiled and laughed as well, he was calmer. Like his father and upbringing had taught him. The politeness of class. “It’s alright, My wife’s name is Lisa and our son is Marcus… He pulls out his phone showing his mother a picture she puts her hands over her heart and exhales deeply. “She’s beautiful, and he’s perfect...I bet Christian loves him…. Austin's heart sank. He assumed she’d have known. That someone would have told her or that it would have been news. He looked away and even in her state his mother picked up on it. “I’m sorry did I say something wrong?”
He turned his head and smiled lightly again shaking his head. “No, I just thought you’d have known. Dad…...Christian passed away.”
There was a silence, an uncomfortable one. Austin had no clue how to react, how to feel. He hadn’t said it out loud or talked about it too much. Most people did the talking for him. Apologies and condolences. She didn’t take the news well. Her eyes welling up in tears as she looked away. “That is unfortunate.” Austin raised an eyebrow. “I thought you and he..hated one another…” She sat back and shook her head as if this thought, this revelation was a sobering one. Her life and past flashing through her mind as Austin waited for an explanation. “Hated?....no…..I loved that man….not enough it seems…”
“Loved him…” Austin said it under his breath almost in disbelief. Why did women always love what they couldn’t have?. There was a line of them through the years. Yet only one that he held close to his heart. The ultimate irony. “Mom….” She looked over, hazy-eyed as tears rolled down her cheeks, she wiped them away hastily as if ashamed. “I want to help…” She tilted her head as if not quite understanding. Austin looked around. The aging furniture, the trash build up, the bottles and cans of alcohol. He sighed and turned his head back to her. “You can’t live like this. I want to be a part of your life, I want you to be a part of Marcus’ life….but you need a life to have us in first….”
The silence returned. It was heavy and thick. The air between them seemed to become suffocating as the silence itself became deafening. Then he heard the words he’d never expect but hoped beyond normal convention he would “Thank you……”
On Camera
Las Vegas
Present Day
”I think I overestimated the intelligence of the team we’re facing….”
Austin sighed deeply and looked over at Alex who just sat back on a chair, his legs kicked up on a table, his phone in his hand as he seemed to send off a few tweets or messages, a smirk on his face as he gave a nod to Austin who continued.
”I thought, despite the fact these two were nothing but streamer gaming trash that they would have some kind of comprehension of the business they seemed to dabble in. They sat there and repeated the same mantra over and over that they were wrestlers, that they had been in the business. Jimmy even bringing up his “name” in the business much like my own. Despite the fact I had already done that, I sat there and looked into the camera and talked about Jimmy being a part of a wrestling family. Only for him to also bring it up. It really amazes me that two morons who had nothing to talk about so they replied to what Alex and I said could also get it so totally wrong…”
“Boys, if you’re going to just use the “I know you are but what am I?” approach could you at least LISTEN to what we said?. Use your ears, they’re those things that frame your faces.”
“See Jimmy, I never said you weren’t a big guy, I was just pushing forward how big I am. You and I are both tall, but if you look at me I look like I should be on an ancient battlefield swinging a fucking ax, holding a horn full of mead and destroying all those in front of me as a warlord or a king. I look like a warrior. You look like a tall apple genius at the apple store who fucks up and locks iPhones for good. See you can reply to all of that but it doesn’t make you smart to come up with answers. And Alex and I listen to what we both have to say too. See Jimmy said that I wasn’t a former world champion, that I was a liar.”
“A liar…”
Austin pauses for a moment and looks over at Alex again who just smirks and shakes his head.
”So putting aside that I was the Honor champion a few weeks ago, the top title in that company. I had also been the WWH Hellsgate champion, the world title on one of WWH’s brands. Just because something isn’t called a world title doesn’t mean it isn’t. Just like how, you two can call yourselves professional wrestlers but, are you really?. What is your typical day?. You wake up, eat breakfast, start up a gaming PC or console, capture some footage or turn on a streaming service and start going. You wait for all your subscribers to send you money, like some kind of cyber begging weirdos.?”
“You guys eat and sleep and think about video games, the name of your team is the name of the gaming company you work for. It isn’t just a fun little side thing to get fans on your side. And speaking of which your fans are the same people who stand in the street and think doing the floss is funny.”
“Now, I might be wrong. I might be assuming things. But my gut feeling is usually right. You don’t take wrestling seriously. You don’t take me seriously. You don’t take Alex seriously. And the disrespect I got shown, is what brought Alex back. He told me what was going to happen here, he told me the path that I was walking down and I didn’t believe him, I didn’t take him seriously or heed his warning yet here we are. I don’t take you seriously because you have done nothing to grab my attention, you say the same thing about me but you brought up “bios”. Alex and I are well known, something we brought up.”
“You guys hate that right?”
“You hate that we bring up our pasts, you hate that we throw it in your faces that we have been successful everywhere we’ve gone. And then ask if it’s because we’re worried that it will be because people will forget. No, it’s because people like you have no idea what respect is. You don’t respect the business, you don’t respect peoples pasts. All you do is look at SCW, think you’re hot shit when you have done nothing here and run your mouths and what’s worse?...fans cheer you for it….”
He shakes his head, almost shocked the worlds came out of his mouth, the anger rising up with his voice as it gets deeper and adds in a growl.
”The fans. These people. When I signed with SCW I wanted to give them all a show, I wanted to be a man they could believe in. I wanted to put on a show against Fenris and be the final Honor champion to carry that belt with pride and then it hit me like a goddamn truck. These people have no idea what they are doing or what Honor is. Not the company or the word. Hell...you said it…”
“If Honor was such a great company why did it merge with SCW?”
“Well, aside from mismanagement on behalf of the Saxon family. Both companies needed it. SCW needed it as much as Honor but since day one DAY FUCKING ONE because of how the Saxons have handled it and the goddamn narrative that SCW has pushed forward everything is about SCW talent, everything is about SCW originals being the best of the best. But you all want to call it “whining”....”
“Imagine you put everything into a career and a company, imagine that company says that we are going to make this leap and it’ll be fifty-fifty. That everything will be equal. That you will have to fight to keep your position but no one will get an advantage only to find out that it’s bullshit and you are now a second class citizen?...wouldn’t you be a little-pissed off?. Wouldn’t you think it was a miscarriage of justice?. Alex and I are prepared to fight for our spot and prove everyone wrong but if you’re expecting us to be silent about it, if you’re expecting us not to throw how good we are in everyone's faces then you’re just plain wrong…”
Austin paced back and forth before stopping for a moment and taking a deep breath.
”The fact is I shouldn’t be in this tag match with the likes of you, I should be in a match against Fenris, something even Jake Raab himself just admitted to. He doesn’t belong there, he doesn’t belong with that belt. He didn’t pin me,l he didn’t make me submit, he beat that giant fuck up Casey Williams and then got a free pass to the semi-main event. The truth is Jimmy, Jack, your precious SCW, the company you decided to put over as superior to where I came from, fucked up. They fucked up and they fucked over a future star of this place all because they wanted to shut Jake Raab up or give Casey Williams is a stupid little fairy tale ending and in the process, they unleashed something on SCW that will bring it down and burn it…”
“Wolfslair isn’t just the name of a gym, it’s not just the name of a tag team. Wilfslair is the future, wolfslair, are destruction and you two have a few choices. You can either keep running your mouths like the ignorant little morons you are, or you can open your ears, listen and learn and come into this match knowing you're outclassed in experience, in st5ar power, in skill and basically everywhere else and still try and beat us. See if you do that you’ll earn respect. And you can earn even more after you’re beaten, when you two look at Alex and look at me and say a simple “I’m sorry”...”
“Say you’re sorry for being ignorant, you’re sorry for making a mockery of professional wrestling, you’re sorry for even entertaining the thought for a moment that you could EVER be better than us. At Inception….Wolfslair rises…and for you?...it’ll be game over….”
