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Chin Check
Jaycee’s Apartment - SAN DIEGO
14 February 2022
OFF-Camera
Being awoken by the sounds of someone beating down the door isn't how I like to start my day. It's literally the reason that I don't fuck with people. I keep my head down and stick to my routine in order to avoid this situation entirely. Even from the back room though, I knew this wasn't going to be a spurned lover thing. The hand that was hitting the door sounds like it is attached to a boxer that is swinging angry. The shouting that I can't even really make out over the thuds definitely sounds like it's carrying a lot more bass than a female could muster, or at least any female with reason to be angry with me.
Will: You better open this damn door!
I freeze. The irritation leaves and is immediately replaced by panic. I know that voice. That voice is the reason that I am stuck in this place with the windows shuttered. That voice put me here to wait out a storm that might not ever actually come. It also tells me everything I need to know about the hostility in his voice.
Jaycee: Why are you so loud all the time?
I say the word as I open the door, trying my best not to sound shaken by his surprise visit. William MacDonald is not the type to be kept waiting, or inconvenienced in any way.
Will: It’s your fault. Can’t believe you! Can’t follow simple directions. Can’t even open a door in a timely manner. I don’t know where we went wrong…
He pushes past me and scans the room to make sure there are not any strange guests listening in. Once he is satisfied that he caught me alone, he turns back to me. I cannot let him or his irritation gain any momentum at this moment. I have to look like I have it all handled or who knows where he will send me this time.
Jaycee: I have a few suggestions if you really want to dig into it.
I knew that they were the wrong choice of words before they came out, but there is no changing that now.
Will: Shut it. I didn’t come all the way down here to listen to you run your mouth.
He's the same old Willie Mac that wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise as a kid. I should not have expected that to change. Likewise, I should know not to let it rile me up, but instead I take the bait just like I always do.
Jaycee: Then why have you decided to grace me with your presence?
Why can't I ever keep my mouth closed when it actually matters?
Will: Sarcasm is a coward’s tool. Why don’t you say what you really mean?
He knows what buttons to push to make me sound like an asshole. Despite this whole unannounced visit, it is always going to be my fault. Fighting it out with words isn't going to work.
Jaycee: What do you want?
He at least looks like the directness of my words were appreciated.
Will: I want to know what part of our deal wasn’t clear? You’re supposed to be down here, keeping your head down. What happened to getting a normal job?
I did not need to ask any more questions to figure out what brought him to my doorstep. The whole thing had been a gamble. I can't lie though, I was hoping that I would be able to slip under his radar until the end of the tournament. He always taught me it was better to apologize after the fact than ask for permission when you know what the answer was going to be. He should feel some pride that I finally listened to something he said.
Jaycee: I have one. That’s why I haven’t been taking any of your money anymore, not sure if you’ve noticed that.
I know he doesn't check. If he did, I would have gotten a wellness call. That was the first hint that maybe I could get away with Blast from the Past. I was apparently wrong.
Will: Ah, so it’s this new independence that has you acting reckless and dragging me down with you? You finally get on your feet, so you decide it’s time to change the rules?
I may be destroying myself, but I didn't see how that involved him.
Jaycee: I’m not dragging anyone down anywhere.
He doesn't seem swayed, no matter how confidently the words sounded coming out.
Will: So that wasn’t my last name you’re using to promote yourself on some wrestling show?
Dammit. Maybe I hadn't thought that one all the way through. It seemed like the best option at the time. Definitely better than the alternative.
Jaycee: I felt like it was probably a better idea than using my own. I am not supposed to be a person, remember? They had to call me something while I was walking out.
I shrug, but that was the trigger that causes him to lose his temper.
Will: ...so you decided to give the whole world the biggest fucking hint that you could!? I knew that you weren’t the brightest Jalen, bu---
My chest felt like it caved in on itself hearing that name. I can't let that hang in the air.
Jaycee: Nah. You don’t get to call me that. You took that name away from me. You took that life away from me.
I may as well have punched him in the mouth, but the words came out in freeflow. I guess bottling something up for so long will do that to you.
Will: I didn’t take shit away from you. I’m the reason that you still have a life to live and don’t you forget that.
He is not wrong either, and the two of us arguing that right now was going to do damage that neither of us want to clean up.
Jaycee: Look, I have worked really hard to build something out of nothing here. I have spent enough time hiding out and keeping my head down. It was either this, or drive a car off a bridge. You get that right? I can’t sit around waiting forever. I was smart about it.
It is as honest as I can be with him. I know it is still not the answer that he wants to hear.
Will: Putting your face in front of a camera is not smart, kid. You made a first name out of your initials and slapped my last name on it. You think that is going to fool anybody that catches a passing glance at you?
Anybody still looking for me was a persistent fuck, or at least that was what I convinced myself of before contacting Sin City about the tournament.
Jaycee: I would hope after the last ten years that people would have stopped looking, or giving a damn. Plus, it’s not like I haven’t grown up a lot. Filled out.
He looks me up and down, unimpressed.
Will: So in addition to being stupid, you’re also naive. Stuff like this doesn’t go away. This is life. It always will be. That was the deal when I set you up here. It was always supposed to suck, but at least you weren’t going to have to be looking over your shoulder anymore.
As a fifteen year old kid, that had been my safety net. I did not feel like I needed it anymore though. That was the point of all this. It was time to break out of the shadows.
Jaycee: Maybe looking over my shoulder all the time doesn’t seem so scary anymore! I am more than capable of taking care of myself. I shouldn’t have to piss my life away when I never did anything wrong.
It was more of the truth that he did not want to hear. He never did. He wasn't built that way. Although, I am not sure that I could demean his fierce loyalty. It might be the only reason I am still breathing.
Will: It doesn’t matter. It never mattered. What matters now, is that you ran. You disappeared. That doesn’t look good. It makes you look guilty regardless of what you may or may not have seen.
That was not something I could let fly. He knew my side. Shit, he knew all the sides.
Jaycee: Oh, fuck off. Don’t lawyer-speak at me.
I wish I could master the art of shutting my mouth in these situations. It would save me a lot of trouble.
Will: You need to kill this Sin City thing. Today.
That is a step in the wrong direction. I am not willing to do that, but I don't think that is an answer he will accept.
Jaycee: No. I’m not gonna do that.
Again, it was another slap in the face. I was not going to get away with many more of those. I can see his blood boiling.
Will: What did you say? I don’t remember asking you a question. It wasn’t optional. I didn’t mean to make you think it was up for debate.
I need to convince him that I am not some scared kid anymore. I am not sure I have the right words though.
Jaycee: I’m not walking away. I can’t do it. I have done nothing but sit around for a decade at this point. I have been worried that the worst was going to happen at any minute. This is something that I have had my mind set on as a goal for making it this far. This is my opportunity to see if I am good enough to compete. It’s like six weeks worth of fighting. Less if I lose out early. What harm am I really doing to anyone?
I know that I am asking him to go out on a limb for me once again, but this seems much lower risk than the last time.
Will: You’re doing yourself a lot of harm if you get noticed, and that harm is always going to lead back to me.
I could not argue that. There is a chance he is right, but it was still worth it to me, and this might be my only chance. He needs to understand that.
Jaycee: I’m not drawing any attention. My partner is more than happy to stand in the spotlight apparently, and I am not going to fight her for it. Did you watch that last show? That was just my first time out, and I had a guy begging for me to let him go. I might be able to make a run for this, and I am keeping my mouth closed.
He shakes his head, still not caving.
Will: I don’t like it. I think it’s an unnecessary risk.
It would not be our first though. I got him to stick his neck out for me once before and have followed his every word since. I have earned this little bit of rope.
Jaycee: Was it not an unnecessary risk to stash me here? Or moving me up to Seattle for a while on a whim? I don’t want you to think that I haven’t put thought into this. There’s no guarantee that this pushes on past this week. Why burn a bridge that is already falling down on its own?
It feels reasonably split down the middle between what we both want.
Will: What happens if you put this team down? And the next? And the one after that? What if you actually go on to win this thing, claim the prize, and your face ends up everywhere?
The thought had crossed my mind but there was no guarantee that would happen. Some of the best of the best were still hanging around in round two.
Jaycee: That’s a lot of faith in someone that you have called stupid from the moment you nearly beat down my door.
It feels good that he had the confidence that I could win this thing. Even more, there is a significant enough chance that it forced him to come down the coast to confront me.
Will: Your ass is lucky that I stopped with the door.
I can tell that his heart isn't really in being hateful anymore. Something I said made sense even though he was never going to admit it.
Jaycee: We both know you’re too old to square up anymore.
He laughs. That is another good sign.
Will: You’d be surprised.
I push my luck, hoping that I have built up enough good will that the worst of this is past us.
Jaycee: You’d be hospitalized.
I was right. He claps one hand on my shoulder and smiles.
Will: You’d do no such thing. There’d be no way that you could live with yourself.
It was the moments like these that showed me exactly why he was always on my side in the end.
Jaycee: That’s a problem I have been dealing with for the last few years anyways. That’s why I want to take this chance. What are the odds that I can go pull this thing off anyways? Some of the best of the best are already in this tournament, and my partner is a rookie like me. It’s only a matter of time before this ride is over. When it’s done, I won’t re-sign.
Hopefully that was a big enough peace offering to kill off all this fear in the air.
Will: If you get too far--
I cut him off. I know what he wants to hear.
Jaycee: I’ll shut it down. I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that.
Apparently those terms were acceptable, because he heads back towards the door.
Will: Good. Maybe I will make a little side money betting against you then.
I would not have expected anything less./i]
Jaycee: Anything to get ahead, right?
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>That was a hell of a first impression, am I right?
Last week two rookies squared off in the ring with someone who was an alleged “proven commodity” and a Sin City Hall of Famer. Yet, Levana and I were able to not only hold our own, but knock Amy and Knox out of Blast from the Past, at least for the moment. We have seen people lose only to somehow slip in the back door later and go on to win the thing. Do I think that will happen this time? No. Amy is a representative of the Hall of Fame, and has done great things in the Underground, but she was taken to her limit by an unknown. Last week I said that if Levana was able to hold up her end against Amy, that there was no way that I didn’t come through for her when our team needed it most. I took one of Sin City’s commodities and had him tapping out in the middle of that six sided ring.
Levana and I left our mark on the first round of this tournament. We made a first impression that will not soon be forgotten. We defied the expectations of everyone watching last week. If we didn’t take any more steps forward in this tournament, this little experiment will have already been a roaring success. Part of me feels relieved by that. Other parts feel like maybe it was a little too easy. Part of me wishes that those two were able to put up more of a fight than they did. I mean, I expected the competition in this company to be the best of the best. I shouldn’t be able to walk through them as a guy coming off the street. Did you hear the fans? From the moment that all four of us were introduced, it was easy to tell who they had their money on. How many people were disappointed to see two unknowns walk away victorious for that reason alone?
How many of those people are going to be watching and waiting for us to finally fail this time around? How many people are going to make the mistake of doubling down on the fact that there is no way that two rookies could pull this off? I can’t say that I blame them really. Just look around at the competition that is left in this tournament. There are champions on both sides of the roster still hanging around. The history books are littered with the names of people that cleared the first round. Yet, the rookies prevailed.
Is this the week that the wheels come off? Fresh off our outing with the first Grand Slam Champion in company history, Levana has to throw hands with a woman that is very nearly unbeatable. How many people have tried to dethrone Amber in this company? How many have tried to ascend to challenge her only to crash back down to the bottom of the rankings? On paper, if the last match-up was an unlikely win, this one looks straight up impossible. It doesn’t even discount what Levana can do in the ring to say so. Amber Ryan has only lost a handful of matches in this company. She is closing in on a year as Bombshell Champion, and has defended that championship on ten different occasions against every Bombshell that the owners could throw at her. On paper, this match is a slaughter. Let’s just be honest about it.
That doesn’t make it a sure thing though.
Nothing in this business ever is. Anything can happen on any night. Look what happened to Amy Santino last week. That was one of the best of the best, and Levana was able to hang on just long enough for me to take out the weak link on the team. That is all that we are going to have to do to advance in the second round as well. We have the formula, and we know that it works. How? Well, despite the fact that Amber is both in the midst of her second Blast from the Past, AND nearly unbeatable, she didn’t win this tournament last time around. Despite challenging the mixed tag team champions back when Mac was first getting started around here, she couldn’t pull that off. In fact, it seems like Amber has fallen short much more often in a team setting than she has by herself. Why? Because of how these matches work.
Levana and I were successful last week, because we have a common goal. We don’t just trust one another because we have to, we trust one another because we are working towards the same thing. And people might look at the end of our match last week, and that little spotlight grab as a sign of dissension in the ranks, but it’s not. At the end of the day, we got the job done. I can’t blame her for wanting to celebrate that, and I don’t care that much about recognition to care about getting shoved out of the way. As long as we are winning, nothing else matters, because they aren’t handing out championship matches to the team that becomes the best of friends over the next month or so. We have proven the ability to work as a team inside that ring. If you listen to the two of us talk, we speak on a lot of the same things. These teams may have been random, but I don’t think that I could have formed as solid of a team with any other female name drawn out of that hat, and that’s the truth.
Are there more impressive bombshells in this tournament? Maybe at least for now. Who knows what any of us are going to go on to prove to all of you over the next few years though. For some of us, this is just the beginning of something great. For others it could be the end of their relevance. I look at it as a positive that I got paired with someone on the same trajectory that I am. I got lucky to be paired with someone that really wants to win this damn thing. There are teams that have had a hard time even making it in the door, and I got paired with the Bombshell that I think is the most likely to surprise everyone in this tournament.
How do you beat Amber Ryan? You put her in a Mixed Tag Team match, where she loses almost as often as she wins. And if all else fails, you keep her on the apron, and beat the hell out of her partner.
...and when it comes to her partner, I am a whole lot less impressed. Sure, the guy is the champion of Underground, but wasn’t Amy Santino really successful down there in the minor leagues as well? Everyone saw how well that worked out for her last week. The main show is a whole different environment than what they are doing at Underground. I should know. I briefly considered going to work over there before realizing that nobody would really take me seriously until I made something of myself here. Why go to the Underground and waste time? The way to make a name for yourself is on Climax Control. Everyone knows that.
A couple of years ago, Hitamashii was in this tournament and got eliminated by Fenris’ brother. That guy wasn’t even a real competitor. Last year the guy went out in the first round for the second time in a row. And for some reason, I am expected to shiver in fear now that this guy has gotten over his case of mistaken identity and won the Underground Championship once and for all? Miss me with that.
This guy cannot cut it on this level. He proves that year after year. Does he step up to Sin City during the year? Does he come out of the Underground and take on challengers at Climax Control? Has the guy even really tried to make a run of it under the brightest lights on the bigger stages? No. He enters this tournament, usually doesn’t make it out of the first round, and then buries his head in the sand until next year. That’s a loser’s mentality. I can’t get behind that kind of thinking. I am here to make something of myself. Repeated failure like Hitamashii’s would be a waste of my time. I wouldn’t be entering into this tournament, and filling a spot that a more worthy competitor could have filled, just to phone it in. I wouldn’t be constantly signing up if I wasn’t working on my craft inside Sin CIty’s ring on a regular basis. This is a guy that has tried this approach, and failed. He has a history of letting his partner down, and the only reason he made it out of the first round is because people see Amber Ryan’s name next to his and think the game is over before the opening bell even rings.
That isn’t going to be the way that Levana and I are looking at this match though. Like I said, pulling the upset that we did in the first round makes this tournament a success no matter what we do and if we lose to SCW’s unbeatable Bombshell Champion, that is just business as usual. Nobody is going to lose any sleep if Levana and I are out of this tournament come Sunday night. Nobody is going to be surprised. However, two rookies have the ability to flip this entire tournament upside down by taking out one of the teams with arguably the best odds, just because of Amber’s singles reputation.
There is nothing but upside for my team in this match. There is no pressure. There is no intimidation. This can only go as expected, or as an upset, possibly even one of the biggest upsets that this tournament will see. But it is definitely an upset that is possible. It is attainable. When this match starts, it might even be an upset that is inevitable. Not because Amber isn’t a generationally great talent, but because this tournament has forced her to put her trust in someone who is going to let her down.
Like Hitamashii, I am used to being the smaller guy in the match-up. I am used to having to think on my feet and pick my spots. I know how to use my momentum against my opponent to overcome a size difference, and I have learned how to protect myself in a fight. However, I walk into this match as the bigger guy. I come into this match standing against a guy that can’t throw hands with me and live to tell the tale. I come into this match with the ability to dominate and dissect my opponent at every turn. Every single one of his strengths pair with mine, but the moment that this guy leaves his feet I am going to drive him into the mat and rip one of his limbs off, and you can bank on that. Amber better not let him start the match, or she is going to get the best seat in the house for how this tournament isn’t going to go her way. She better hope to kick things off for her team, and end it quickly, because the moment that I get in there I’m not going to be giving up control easily. My path to winning is going to be breaking down an opponent that I am more than capable of crippling. I am convinced that the only way that my hand is going to be raised in victory is going to be by taking out the weak link. As long as Levana can keep her shoulders off the mat, this is going to be smooth sailing, and anyone that is thinking about this critically should be able to see that. My team has the potential to go all the way to the end of this thing with people underestimating us and writing us off early. My opponents? Their only destiny is to be eliminated.
You can even take Levana and I out of the mix. Let’s say hypothetically that we do lose. Do any of you see Amber and Hitamashii taking down Mikah and Mac? I don’t. You shouldn’t either. They’ll crash and burn, and I don’t think that, I know it. That’s why I am going to stop it from even becoming a possibility for the finals. What this company needs is something new. What we need to see in this tournament are fresh new faces. That is the reason that entry is open to basically the whole world, right? The company wants to bring in outside help to put those that have become spoiled or entitled back in their proper place. Last week, Amy had to learn that lesson from us. This week, these two are stepping up to the plate.
...but it doesn’t matter what resumes our opponents are bringing with them to the ring, Levana and I are ready to fight our way through to the end and we have already shown that we aren’t going to crack under the pressure. It doesn’t matter what our opponents have done before this Sunday, because this war is going to be fought in one ring, on one night, between two sets of bells. I firmly believe that anything can happen in that six sided ring on any given night, and the first round of this tournament seems to back me up on that.
This Sunday won’t be any less spectacular. It might come off as arrogant, but I’m about ready to start setting up the celebration already.
Amber…. Hitamashii…. I hope you really savored that first round win. Enjoy the first half of your weekend. The back half is going to get hard for you two to handle.
