And it’s Kerry Collins in the I formation, number 12 in the backfield, Oakland on the Green Bay 34 yard line...takes the snap, hands off to Cross the half-back...shoots for a hole in the defensive line and BREAKS THE TACKLE! The 20...the 10...TOUCHDOWN Raider Nation, Mark Cross with his second touchdown carry on the night…
Part 1 - The Rusty Nail
Somewhere in middle America
17th February 2021
Mark "The Dragon" Cross emerges from the diviest-looking of dive bars, with his full glass of whiskey in hand. The sound of Sweet Home Alabama swells to a crescendo, then subdues just as quickly with the opening and closing of the door.
He was on the first leg of the Wrestling Roadshow, a new venture, but the same familiar touring format, a new city every week, the kind of travelling circus where you were expected to cut your teeth as a rookie, sleeping in cars and cheap motels, and where you tended to wash up for some quick cash when your drug habit was out of control. Neither applied, his career in the last year or two was going through a real renaissance.
So why? To keep busy, he guessed. He loved everything about Miami, the weather, the people, the fast cars, but he always had to be occupied with something, in mind and body, and in the place where time is merely a suggestion, he struggled to *fully* embrace it. His new partner Amber, who’d moved from New York to live with him just a few months back, had worked two jobs to keep afloat in the big city. Now she was going full-tilt setting up her dance studio in Florida. They were two people that were both just...more comfortable doing something, it worked and with BFTP on the horizon, he was pleased for the opportunity to tune up with some real action.
Cindy: Just my luck I start talking to the one wrestler in a dive bar that’s spoken for huh?
The girl behind the voice was an eclectic mix of rock chick and cowgirl. Nirvana t-shirt, ripped skinny jeans, dyed black hair, cowboy hat and leather boots to match..
The Dragon: It’s not a question about whether they’re single, it’s just a matter of if they care.
Cindy: Ah - So it’s like that. Hey, got a light?
From his pocket, Mark produces a gold Zippo lighter, an ornate Japanese dragon design wrapping around the front, back and sides. It looks battered and very well loved. He flicks it open, lighting it in the same slick motion, showing the deftness of someone that had practiced with the adult fidget toy on countless road trips like these to pass the hours. Cindy passes her Lucky Strike through the flame, charring the tip.
Cindy: Thanks. You smoke?
The Dragon: Nope.
Cindy: Just carry a lighter everywhere you go huh?
The Dragon: Well the heroin isn’t gonna cook itself…
Cindy’s face is around 20% intrigue, 60% shock and 20% horror, or so Mark calculates it as he stuffs the Zippo back into his jeans. He throws his hands up in defence. He figures that the girl isn’t one for going much past alcohol and a dance to get her kicks.
The Dragon: I’m kidding I’m kidding! That’s definitely not me...
Cindy: Thank fuck...had a bad experience with an ex boyfriend, but anyway, I bet you’ve got some good stories from the road, right? Feels like you owe me one, since I can’t take you home with me...
The Dragon: Yeah, sorry if that got a little weird in there…
Cindy: Nah - It’s cool. Nice to see someone faithful to their girl for once honestly. So - How about it?
The Dragon: Hmm, a story...I can tell you about the time I went on a date with Vanessa Hudgens?
Cindy: A wrestling story!! Wait - You went on a date with…
The Dragon: Yup. Shared a hot tub.
Cindy: Ew, OK no thanks, definitely a wrestling story.
The Dragon: OK so take it all the way back to 2013, and I’m booked on this tour to go through Cambodia.
Cindy: Big wrestling scene in Cambodia then?
The Dragon: Well to be fair, their traditional Khmer wrestling has been practiced for centuries, but that wasn’t what this was about. The US market, Japan, Mexico, all pretty saturated, right? And in the UK we basically just watched the American stuff, so there you go, hard to break into these places. Some genius investor with too much spare cash and too much time decided there was money to be made in “emerging markets”. Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Africa you name it. It was insane, but the guy had deep enough pockets that it could all go south and he wouldn’t care. I was in the first few years of my career, and with the amount of money on offer there were some top top guys lined up for this tour. I was set for a great match every night, none of us could turn it down.
Cindy: Sounds bad for business.
The Dragon: Well yeah exactly, although, reat thing about places like that, a fancy hotel room that'd cost hundreds of dollars here is what, 30-40 bucks a night. Amazing food, cheap. Booze, cheap. All paid for of course, so we're taking full advantage every stop, three-course meals, drinking our own body weights in top shelf liquor, all rocking up at the next place with the hangovers from hell.
Cindy: Great role models!
The Dragon: The pioneers leading the campaign for Cambodian professional wrestling, go us! It's all going great, best free holiday I've ever been on, I’m picking up great advice left and right, fighting some of the best in the business, until we stop in this town up in the mountains…
Cindy: Ooh is it getting good?
The Dragon: Yuh-huh. So I get sent out to work this local guy, wrestles the traditional style, doesn’t speak English or anything so we just go out there and wing it, hope for the best. I’ve got a huge size advantage over him for a start...genius planning there...and the ring...well they’re kinda springy, tough to explain if you’ve never been in one, and you can get bounce off the ropes too, help you get speed and leverage.
Cindy: ...so there’s like...ways he could have dealt with your size advantage?
The Dragon: Yeah that’s right, if he knew that, or had ever been in a ring before. So the guy can’t throw me and runs out of ideas in the first minute, just starts peppering me with forearms and elbows if I get anywhere near him, hurts like hell, and the match is starting to totally suck for the fans at this point. In the end I just start running at the guy and launching myself in the air, just hoping he makes it look like he had something to do with it. I don’t know if the crowd bought it or not, but at least we put on a wrestling show. Kinda. It was just a sign of how the night was gonna go.
Cindy: Finally, drama. I was getting kinda bored...
The Dragon: What a bitch! So I get through the curtain into the locker room and the guys are starting to look real tense about something, there’s not the usual banter, and since NOBODY railed me for that awful match I’d just had, I knew something was up. Apparently there's been a mix-up with our accommodation, and it isn't up to its usual standard for this leg of the trip. I mean, most of these guys were on big full-time contracts by now, sleeping in cars was long behind them, and I was still living off NFL money. I flew coach, but I treated myself to a nice place to rest my head when I booked my own accomodation. This had everyone seriously on edge.
Cindy: Oh no!!
The Dragon: Oh HELL no. So our bus pulls up at this ‘hotel’, building looks like it’s falling apart, the first thing that hits us, any guesses?
Cindy: The smell?
The Dragon: Good guess, but the noise! Honestly there's this fucking V12 engine or whatever ROARING the second we step out of the bus, can barely hear ourselves talk, let alone sleep, we hope whatever it is is gonna stop soon.
Cindy: It didn't stop did it?
The Dragon: That noise? It was the generator powering the whole hotel. Absolutely no way it was going off at any point. It takes a while for us to figure that out though...we didn’t bring a translator, there was always someone at these fancy hotels who spoke English, so who gets sent to the bar to find out about the noise? Me. Under the great logic that I trained in Japan, I spoke pretty good Japanese, and since Cambodia and Japan are kind of the same…
Cindy: Are they?
The Dragon: No. I think she spoke a little Chinese, in a dialect I’d never heard of, super useful, so the whole thing turns into pointing and hand signals within seconds. By the end of it I come away with a fistful of room keys, as many bottles of spirit as I could carry, and some bad news about the generator. We’re all sitting down on this mismatched plastic garden furniture, pretending we’re in a real hotel bar, trying to wonder how much of this home brew Cambodian rice wine we’re gonna have to drink before that generator noise magically goes away. One of the guys went to check out the rooms, and suddenly we hear a scream. A girly scream.
Cindy: No way…
The Dragon: So this guy, he was Mexican, little dude, but proper tough guy persona, comes sprinting out from his room in a panic, giving it the full-on like ‘Ay de mí! Ay, Caramba! ¡maldición!’ or whatever Mexicans say, arms waving around.
Cindy: Terrible accent.
The Dragon: Cheers - Turns out he’s getting chased by a bear…
Cindy: A bear?!? What the fuck!
The Dragon: It was a sun bear, they’re not very big, more scared of us than we are of him I reckon, and this thing jumps up on the table, knocks all the booze flying, we’re scattering cause it’s not very big by bear standards but it’s a fucking BEAR nonetheless, that was just chilling in one of our rooms, absolute carnage…
Cindy: All those big strong wrestlers getting scared of a little bear…
The Dragon: Nah c’mon, bears are vicious, that thing could have easily taken down three or four of us I reckon. We all agreed to stand back and let the bear leave on his own time.
Cindy: Did he?
The Dragon: Yup, bounced off into the darkness, we set about trying to drink the bar out of it’s alcohol supply, managed a few hour’s sleep each, somehow, and the rest of the tour went off without a hitch.
Cindy: Such an anti-climax!
The Dragon: Would you rather have had the Vanessa Hudgens story?
Cindy: Uhh...no. Anyway I’m gonna go get another drink, you coming?
The Dragon: I’ll be there soon, I’m just gonna…
Cindy: ...phone your girl?
The Dragon: Uh...yeah.
Cindy: Aww, young love eh? So sweet! I’ll get you one in, I expect a better story next time!!
Cindy heads for the door.
The Dragon: Can it be about Vane-
Cindy: NO!
As Mark fishes in his jeans pocket for his phone, the scene fades to a flashback from BFTP 2020.
Justin: Ladies and Gentleman here are your winners and the 2020 Blast From The Past Winners! Mark Cross and Evie Jordan!!
Simone: They've done it! They've secured their guaranteed titled opportunities!!
Adams: And Evie has become a two-time Blast From The Past winner!
Evie quickly slides back into the ring where Drew raises her and Mark's hands in victory. Kate is handed back her Bombshell Internet Championship, and she clutches it tightly, glaring at Evie in the ring. Evie just rolls her eyes.
Part 2
Quest for (Twitch) Partnership
*** Have you read Krystal's promo yet? If not, make sure you go there first! ***
As soon as the Skype call with Krystal ends, Mark clicks the “Go Live” button on his OBS software, popping himself live on his own Twitch stream, which was (very) slowly starting to build some momentum. Admittedly, he still had lightyears to travel before reaching the dizzy heights of his partner.
Never Despayre sports fans, there's more to come from me, as after all, that was a little short and sweet by my standards wasn’t it? If anyone’s hopped over from Krystal’s stream to check me out by the way, please feel free to like, comment, subscribe etc. as she’s got more than enough already. I mainly stream Football Manager and occasionally talk about upcoming matches, like Blast from the Past!
So, The Dragon and The Wolfe huh - Now that has a nice ring to it, so much better than trying to hammer home another “Fire Dragons” version - I was starting to run out of original t-shirt ideas anyway. It’s something fresh and different yet...every bit the same as last too. A Brit and an Aussie. One a former Blast from the Past winner. It’s a recipe that’s worked once before, and in wrestling, lightning definitely strikes more than once, especially when it involves me. Ask Barnhart, ask Warren, ask Storms. Ask the Sin City Underground title history.
The difference? No Evie. Not on my team, not even in the draw. No sign of the woman that was already on her way up the ramp, writing off Blast from the Past 2020, as I dug deep and led us into round two. No sign of the “washed up” former champion whose heart wasn’t even in wrestling any longer, didn’t even want to be entered in the first place. The girl who despised my silliness and refused to get on board with Fire Dragons 2.0 all the way up until that very last night, when she appeared next to me wearing the team shirt, finally. I even called that a prouder moment than winning the whole thing, when picking my moment of 2020. I think even a few months down the line, I’d pick it again.
The only people who tried to say Evie carried our partnership? They don’t see eye-to-eye with me anyway, think it’ll get a rise out of me somehow. It wasn’t opponents. Not smart ones anyway. You can honestly say what you like about last year’s partnership, we all know Evie was perfectly capable of making another final if she wanted to, but as Andrea Hernandez rightfully says, and I hate to agree with the bitch, it’s nigh on impossible for one person to carry a team. I proved it with Valentina, I proved it with Evie, I’ll prove it with Krystal - I don’t carry or get carried. I bring out the best in people. I took an Evie Jordan who didn’t want to be in the damn tournament in the first place to a card-carrying, t-shirt wearing member of Fire Dragons 2.0, and a two-time winner to boot. Valentina went from a raw prospect who had enough potential to make it, maybe, into a two-time tag champion with the original Fire Dragons in SCU. Krystal’s on for her first victory now. I’m not trying to put anyone on my back, I’m just making sure my team is the very best it can be, and hopefully that turns out to be enough. It’s happening again right now, just watch.
The fact is, it doesn’t matter who you put me with. The Krystal Wolfe that walks out alongside me in round one of Blast from the Past will be the best Krystal performance this company has seen from her to date. Partnering with me means the bar gets raised. She has my experience to call on, in training, in the ring, in talking tactics, in psychology. It’s almost like having a walking, talking cheat code at the end of the phone. We plan, we adapt, we execute, we train hard, we walk in with more cohesion than any other unit in this competition, and then we let our skills in the ring do the talking for us.
This year, it’s almost easier for me, honestly. I’m not fighting a battle just to get my partner up for it, to engage with me, to talk tactics, to strategize. To WANT to be in the ring. I haven’t got any motivation issues like that to contend with. Krystal’s in her first ever Blast from the Past, she got one of her partners of choice, she’s been actively wrestling, no ring rust, no shortage of match fitness. If there’s ever a better situation to find your A game in, I can’t think of it…how annoying for our opponents, and it’s probably all my fault, right?
Right. You see I’m infectious. I get under people’s skin. This is the sport where wrestling matches kick off because girlfriends get stolen, cats get run over, matches get interrupted, teddy bears get torn apart with scissors, and the best they have on me is OMG you’re like...so annoying! C’mon, there’s more to it than that. Let’s call it what it is - You’re worried I’ll beat you, or your friend, or your stablemate, or bounce your team out of Blast from the Past, so you try and fail to throw me off and why am I the target? This is a results game. I get results. I’ve spent my life getting results, and I’ve developed a style that can turn the tide of a match in seconds, one, two moves and I’m in the driving seat all over again. I don’t need to be on top all the time, I just need one window. One shot, and I’m an expert at creating the angle.
If you ever wondered how a boring, rambly British guy that likes to be a nuisance becomes one of the most feared on the roster? What’s his appeal, why is he going to sell tickets? Well - Ring a bell, watch me really come alive. This business, done right? The only thing that matters is winning matches, the rest looks after itself, no matter who stands in your way.
Dragons are indiscriminate killers, they’ll torch whole villages if their lair gets encroached on, just like I’ll take on any and all comers. Oh, and wolves, experts at hunting in a pack. With friends around, they get stronger, more dangerous. Sounds like a winning combination to me. Oh, and last time I checked, Despayre’s name isn’t George, so I think I’m safe.
One thing he is though is insane, clinically. Completely and totally out of his tree, and you know what? It’s one of the smartest tricks you can ever play. We have our odd characters around here - We have our Candy, we have our Alice Knight, both of them have earned some limited success despite their unhinged ways of course, but Despy’s different gravy. Either he’s throwing someone so completely off their game, he’s underestimated, or both, the record speaks for itself. There’s something about unpredictability guys, that’s for sure. He’s as erratic in the ring as he is out of it, to the point where you, your coaching team, as many rewinds as you can muster later, and you’re still none-the-wiser as to how he beat you. That’s true inventiveness, right?
Well...kinda. Yes and no. It’s not as unique as you think, and as a pro tip for anyone looking to take their wrestling game to the next level - Train with rookies, spar with them. It’s great fun, they will literally throw anything at you because, hey, they literally don’t know any better. Sometimes, if you’re not on your toes, it’ll pay off for them too. I've spent over four years working with Royal Purple, and *she* doesn't know what's coming next most of the time, let alone me trying to predict it. I learned about keeping my head on a swivel, expecting the unexpected. I put myself in those situations out of choice, so I’m ready for when I need them. Sunday is as good a time as any.
Not long after Blast from the Past last year, I took my longest break in my whole career, to heal knee ligament damage. I was out of the ring for twelve weeks, not very long out of the loop at all and you know what, the first couple of times back in the ring was haaaaaard. It was real hard, I just felt so out-of-sorts, off the pace. This sport moves at break-neck speed. It’s why it’s fun to watch. Add more bodies, who can tag and catch their breath? It just means the intensity stays there longer, the pace is more relentless. I had three months off, and my brain was already moving faster than my legs for a while...but three years?
I...honestly...wouldn’t wish that on anyone. They say it’s like riding a bike, but three years is a looooong time. I feel like I’d be a little wobbly on a bike after three years, maybe for the first couple of blocks or so, but like I said, this ain’t some slow-moving sport. By the time you start to feel yourself again, it could all be over. Single elimination, no do-overs.
Despayre has had an incredible career. His place in the Hall of Fame, well and truly cemented. If I don’t progress, with him as my opponent? Well on paper I can’t really be too disappointed can I? Well you know what would disappoint me more, is if he came out and was totally sub-par. The first time we see him in a couple of years, the last time for a couple more, ended at my hand. What a hollow victory that would be, but it kind of feels like the writing is already on the wall.
Mikah, coming out in defence of the one person on the roster she’s consistently nice to, leading the head games, tagging me in tweets, talking about my defeat. Your WORRY and your CONCERN for your friend? It’s noted, and it’s touching...but I don’t care about Mikah. The one I do care about - It’s Angel. I see the way you look at me backstage Angel, I see your footpads quaking at the very thought of me raining on Despy’s comeback parade. It had to happen at some point, it was only a matter of time before your guy got thrown into my lair for a REAL test. We all know you’re the real brains of the operation anyway, you’ve seen what I do in a six-sided ring. You’re scared, admit it, and you should be. To Despayre, you’re his world, but to me you’re just another garden variety teddy bear with too many opinions and absolutely zero power to help on Sunday? Why? Because that’s automatic disqualification. Too. Damn. Easy. Even easier than facing the guy after a couple of years out. If I were you, maybe stay away from ringside where it’s safe. Otherwise I might give you to Mikah’s boy to play with for a while, and yes, he will DEFINITELY pull on your ears.
We already touched on the subject with Despy, so let's talk about unknown quantities for a second, and no, not Amber Ryan, we all know what she's achieved in the past. I think we should all take a leaf out of her book, after all, respect is earned on what you achieve now, right? Krystal - We haven’t even scratched the surface of what she’s capable of yet, and you know what topples legends? Surprise!
The element of surprise is the answer. Now if anyone comes to me and says they were golden right from debut, that first bell, everything they’d ever learned in training was right there, at the forefront of their minds? Their muscle memory was firing on all cylinders, I call BS on that. It just isn’t possible. Sparring in the gym isn’t the same. The electricity prickling in the air, the heavy intensity of a live crowd, the adrenaline of wrestling a match that actually means something, making you go too big too early, or over-extend while your opponent is channeling those chemicals into speed you’ve never seen before, executing their gameplan on you before you even get to blink...it’s different out there. It’s addictive, it’s the drug that keeps me in the gym for five days straight ready for that one half-an-hour or less on a Sunday, and when you learn to harness it, it’s intoxicating. Krystal hasn’t picked up her first win yet, granted, she’s still been feeling her way into how this wrestling thing works. Really works I mean, where it matters.
And that means testing boundaries. Boundaries that I, given over a decade of success, and Amber, with an impressive set of accolades to her name, tend to steer away from. Too much risk, not enough reward. Not because they’re not effective...but because they’re low-percentage. Wrestling smart, great. Leaning on experience, great. Not the be-all-and-end all.
Amber...there’s not a lot of unknowns as far as she’s concerned, not really. Strip some of the rules away, sure, dangerous prospect. Throw her into GRIME and she could probably mix it with the basement dwellers when it comes to really fucking someone up...but standard rules in a standard match and she’s a striker with some techniques bolted on, something to “flesh her out” a bit in the ring. I’m not putting her down for that, I was brought up on Strong Style, where a power technical base is the starting point, with the other 50% being kicking people hard in the face. One knee, one punch, it could be game over, I get it - Deadly, that’s if you have nowhere to hide.
I’ve already said it about Krystal - She doesn’t need more motivation. She’s a little ball of nervous energy right now, wanting that first win, period, over two huge names in this company, along with maybe not wanting to be the reason her partner couldn’t defend his crown. If she can’t get up for this, there’s no hope for her. What I’m trying to say is...there’s enough riding on this match for that little voice in her head to pipe up, break through the mind fog and tell her to just get home, one way or another. Smack my hand, let me take over for a while. It’s not over just yet. Her escape valve is a Blast from the Past winner, a three time champion in this company, and all-in-all not a bad substitution.
Krystal doesn’t have to beat you Amber. She just has to hang with you, contain you, keep you busy. She just has to stay competitive. Anything else is a bonus, I’m perfectly ready to do what I have to.
You know what sets me apart from a lot of the guys and girls in this tournament, maybe even my own partner? I want the best put in front of me. I've been here and I've done this before, I know the score. The winner of Blast from the Past bests the rest, it’s what a tournament is all about. Despayre, one of the highest total win tallies of any Male competitor in company history. Challenge accepted. Amber, so many Hall of Fame inductions she doesn’t even bother listing them individually anymore. Challenge accepted. Hall of Fame, future Hall of Fame, champions past and present. I don't hide from anyone, I rise. Rise to the challenge. Raise my level to above and beyond the tipping point. You make it harder for me, I work harder to overcome, and if someone is there in my corner, they’re coming along for the ride, like it or not.
Twelve months ago, I already showed the necessary greatness. Some would say calling my own performance great is arrogance but who has any right to challenge me. Wrestlers that didn’t make it as far? Those that didn’t even sign up to test their mettle? Sit down, and get off my case. There's a saying after all, the proof is in the pudding. It's in the results, it's in my hand raised up in the air at the end of that Final and it's my chance to do it all over again. Step in my way, you go down like Tallyn, like Jack Washington, like Kate Steele, or her husband or Javi. It’s there in black and white, undisputed. I’ll cement my legacy by beating the best at their own game. I’ll ruin their records, I’ll reset the clocks on their unbeaten streaks and I’ll do all that for fun, because there’s a lot of reasons to getting up in the morning, but the thought of fucking someone’s day up? That takes the cake.
The law of attraction suggests that positive thoughts bring positive outcomes, provided you want it enough, provided you really believe it. So I leave you with one final question. Who out there, genuinely, doesn’t believe I’m winning this thing again? Who honestly thinks there is a single doubt in my mind?
Enter. Win. Repeat. It’s just that easy.
As Mark clicks a couple of buttons, his ending sequence rolls, and the stream comes to an end. He shakes his head, laughing to himself.
The Dragon: ...Did I just shoot on a stuffed bear? Fucking Blast from the Past man...makes people crazy…
The scene fades to black.
