[Jet City]

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The Work
HAWAII -- Mikah’s Gym
4th OCTOBER 2023
OFF-Camera

I guess that I expected things to change after Kris and Mikah’s baby was born. I thought he would start to be the sketchy character that everyone at Jet City warned me about. Kris was notorious for disappearing, and not just because I accidentally got him shot. The guy had up and disappeared on people multiple times, and somehow always came back from it more and more popular. I figured that pushing out and taking care of a fifth child was finally going to cause that good ol’ Kris to show back up, but I was wrong.

Aside from the fact that Eiley and I were making the journey down to Mikah’s gym in Hawaii instead of training at Jet City, nothing had changed. One of the two of them met with us daily to work on different aspects of our style that needed ironed out. It was nothing like the horror stories that Courtney told about training with the two of them, but I kind of just figured it was because they had more invested in Eiley and I. Without the two of us ever even opening our mouths, everyone inside Sin City had labeled us the second coming of Kris and Mikah. We had the same outlook. Eiley and I have a similar dynamic. Something about it just clicks, and even if the two of them hadn’t been the ones to train us, people were going to make the connection.

For better or worse, our actions were always going to reflect on them. The problem with that, is that whether they were called The Black Sheep, Reckless Elite, Mikah and Kris, or Kris and Mikah, they never lost. They never set a goal that they didn’t accomplish. They never stepped into a championship match that they didn’t win. Neither of the two of them were pinned or submitted as a team, or as individuals after they joined forces. They were unstoppable. Now that we were connected to them, we had to be unstoppable. Anything less than perfection was failure, and I think that idea scared the two of them just as much as it did Eiley and I.

None of us asked for this, but it was done already. There was no going back, so we needed to make the best of it. There was no way that they were going to let us drift away like they did Court. They didn’t have the same margin of error with Limitless as they had with Ruby Steele, or Jaycee. We could rest assured that if anyone at either of the two gyms was going to get the short end of the stick because of their new child, it wasn’t going to be us. Somedays that was a gift, and other days it was a curse. I thought it was supposed to get easier after you had proven yourself, but I had never been pushed harder than I had been since winning the Mixed Tag Team Championships. Kris was obsessed with making sure that we were a lot more than paper champions that were just there to open the division.

OZ: I am surprised that you were able to pry yourself away from that baby long enough to put in almost a whole day here.

Everyone was following along with the life of the newest member of Jet City. Mikah was making sure of that. There wasn’t a day that went by that everyone wasn’t getting way more information than any of us asked for. The way that she told it, Kris hadn’t put the baby down since the moment she was born. Yet, we had killed the majority of the day going through every possible situation that The Barnharts might use to try and trap Eiley and I. Kris dismissed my concerns with a shrug, without seeming to consider them.

KRIS: It’s Mikah’s shift. I guess technically I am supposed to be sleeping, but that is overrated.

From what I had pieced together, the two had been more or less working on opposite schedules to cover all of the hours of the day with all of their various children. The whole situation seemed overwhelming to me. I can barely take care of myself. I don’t even want to try wrapping my head around what it takes to run two businesses with a handful of kids to worry about.

OZ: That’s how you burn yourself out and get back into trouble…

I hadn’t ever seen it myself, but I had heard enough of the stories. They were enough to make me think that if anyone should be babysitting Jaycee, it should definitely be Kris. He would understand all of the things Jaycee was going through much better than me, Court, or Eiley. Kris had already gone through all of those trials and came out the other side.

KRIS: Not a thing. I don’t just have myself to think about anymore. There’s Mikah. There’s all of the kids. There’s two gyms full of people that require me to lead by example. I don’t have the time to figure out how to fuck it all up. It’s probably better that way.

It sounded more like a solid recipe for having stress kill him young, but that wasn’t an argument I could make. Between all of the relapses, and then getting shot, Kris already felt like he was living his life in some sort of overtime. Since he technically shouldn’t be alive, he was determined to make the most out of every day. He made sure to tell anyone that would listen how big of a wake up call that had been for him personally and professionally. I guess I couldn’t complain since I had been a beneficiary of his new outlook. Five years ago I probably would have gotten forgotten about and flamed out like Kyle Kavanagh and Aaron Isaacs.

OZ: Still, if you don’t take it easy sometimes eventually you’re just going to pass out for a few days while your body catches up. You’re getting old.

Kris brushed both of those two thoughts off instantaneously, even if it was some of the most useful advice I had ever given. It wasn’t the first time he had heard it, and he had blown it off when it had come from people he respected much more than me.

KRIS: Everyone wishes I was getting old! It would make everything so much easier for them around the gym. People are just waiting for me to take a day off so that they can take a day off, and I am not falling for it.

He was going to be determined to turn it into a game whether any of the rest of us were playing or not.

OZ: You took all kinds of days off on your way to the top, and still made it to the Hall of Fame. I think it’s fine that some of us need a breather here and there.

He did his best to try and look offended, even though there was no way that he could argue with my logic. This guy did disappearing acts for months at a time, where nobody would hear from him. And that was before he got shot and pulled that trick for an entire year.

KRIS: I agree. Some people need the time away for balance. I didn’t though. My time away got me unbalanced. I accomplished so much, but screwed myself out of a whole lot of time on the way there. I could have had another whole Hall of Fame career with the time that I missed. That’s why even though everyone knows I am good, I won’t ever be the best.

I knew that there were some that probably disagreed, but I couldn’t. Since I wasn’t going to toss him a fake compliment either, the least I could do was try and soften the blow.

OZ: ”The Best” is kind of an impossible goal, right? I mean it can only ever be one person. Feels like setting yourself up for disappointment.

He shook his head.

KRIS: Nah. I could have been. I honestly believe that. I just didn’t think it would be worth the effort when it seemed like I could just kind of slide into the Hall of Fame while half-assing it. I didn’t realize what could have been until it was too late.

It was strange to see him admit where he had fallen short when he was always so full of confidence in front of a camera or a crowd. He had always given the impression that he was incredibly sure of himself, but the more time I spent in the gym with him, the more I realized that wasn’t actually who he was.

OZ: Well not everyone is going to be as good as you are half-assing it either.

I expected him to discard the compliment just like he had everything else I said, but instead he turned it back on me immediately.

KRIS: You are. Especially when you’re actually invested.

It was the same kind of thing that I had heard my entire life though. People liked to see more in me than is actually there. I never really bought into my “untapped potential” because it always felt like just a way to trap me into something when he became boring. I am in this line of work because it is fun. When it isn’t fun anymore, then it isn’t for me anymore. Anyone reading further into it than that wasn’t reading out of my book.

OZ: I think everyone saying that I am just like you is starting to go to your head. Just because you would have gone to the very top if you were focused doesn’t mean I will. I don’t even know if I am going to put in all the years that have been active. It all just seems like too much to ask. Especially when I have a whole lot of life left to live. This is a blast right now, and it brought Eiley back into my life. So far it is a win-win. That could turn any day though.

The way that he smiled, I knew that he could relate to everything that had just come out of my mouth. I hadn’t done anything to convince him that we weren’t alike. If anything, it looked like I had simple reinforced his point.

KRIS: I spent a lot of time waiting around for all of this to end. I was certain that SCW or Jet City would burn down by now. I never really made any plans for what would happen if it didn’t. Now I know that was a huge waste of time.

He paused, probably just to make sure that I was actually paying attention and not just writing him off as he was speaking.

KRIS: Don’t waste your time.

I couldn’t help but feel like all of this would have been better for Jaycee to hear. The guy had been struggling, and making an ass out of himself, for the majority of the summer. Maybe if he were the audience for this little pep talk, it wouldn’t have to fall on deaf ears.

OZ: Hey! I am not the one that needs to be hearing that message. You have another Jet City alumni really fucking up his life right now. Go give him a speech!

He shrugged again, and had only a single word in response.

KRIS: Can’t.

He didn’t even make an attempt to explain himself, but I wasn’t just going to leave it at that. Why was I worth all the effort, but Jaycee wasn’t? I get that the two of them had their own history before I got involved, but it really felt like Kris was just actively ignoring a bad situation.

OZ: Can’t or won’t?

He shrugged again, but this time it was actually irritating to see.

KRIS: Can’t. He’s in rehab. I am pretty much banned from all of those that are worth going to on the west coast. My brother used to think that if he could just send me to the right one, they would be able to get through to me.

I was confused. At first it seemed like Kris wasn’t going to help him. Now he sounded like he had helped him, but maybe only superficially. I didn’t understand how he could make it sound like a positive when it hadn’t worked for him.

OZ: So you’re saying that it won’t help?

He shook his head, but I wasn’t sure how I could have gotten it wrong.

KRIS: I am saying that for it to help, you actually have to want to live. That was my problem. That’s not the case for Jaycee. All he did was lose his way but he’ll find it again. He just needed one of those breathers you were talking about earlier.

After watching some of his promos, it seemed like Jaycee needed a lot more than a breather. He was homeless, likely hooked on a handful of substances, and on an embarrassing losing streak that made all of us look bad. If he wasn’t a friend, I would have been advocating for us to cut ties with him. Then again, I really wasn’t the person to make that kind of suggestion either given how much trouble I had already caused.

OZ: You make it sound like it’s not that big of a deal.

For once, it looked like I had gotten something right because he stopped shaking his head at me.

KRIS: That’s because as you have already pointed out, I lost a whole lot of time in my career by making stupid decisions, and I still made it to the Hall of Fame. Jaycee’s missteps haven’t cost him anything yet. There’s still plenty of time for him to turn it around, and he’ll be better for it.

It all sounded a little too good to be true. In my experience, things never worked out that perfectly.

OZ: Overconfident much?

He shook his head at me again. There was something that I just wasn’t grasping and it felt like he was starting to get annoyed by trying to find the right words to explain himself.

KRIS: Again, I’ve lived it. If I can do it, anyone can, because I am just a guy. I am not the biggest, fastest, strongest, or smartest, and you have seen what I have done, and what I have built. Jaycee has gifts that I wasn’t given that give him a head start. I’m not worried.

Maybe that explained why Kris had taken a backseat to all of Jaycee’s issues, but it didn’t explain why Limitless had gotten pushed harder than anyone else at Jet City.

OZ: ...but based on all of this attention Eiley and I get from you and Mikah you are worried about us?

I was hoping that he was going to tell me that I was wrong as I had been about almost everything else, but he smirked at me with a nod.

KRIS: Correct.

Now I was the one that was annoyed. I hadn’t done anything bad enough to need someone looking over my shoulder all the time. I showed up and kicked ass everyday, and took being on the road with Sin City relatively seriously. I hadn’t missed a flight, let alone any of my commitments to the gym or SCW.

OZ: I don’t see how that math adds up…

Kris shrugged, and turned away from me with a laugh.

KRIS: Did I ever tell you about the time that I thought I was untouchable, only for Bill Barnhart to squash me in a match?

He started to head back towards the ring, a clear indication that our short rest period was over and it was time to get back to work. There was no way that he expected me to believe him though.

OZ: That didn’t happen…

He didn’t stop to laugh at me for being gullible, nor did he make any attempt to take his words back. He didn’t even break stride, causing me to have to jog in an attempt to catch up to him.

OZ: Wait… did that happen?!

Kris took two running steps and then slid into the ring at the center of Mikah’s gym. He tossed his towel away and motioned for me to get back into the ring without explaining the circumstances of how one of the least successful men in Sin City managed to beat him.

OZ: You can’t just leave me hanging!

He shrugged his shoulders and motioned for me to get back into the ring once more. I hopped up on the apron, but paused hoping that he would at least give me some kind of context.

KRIS: If you want that story, you’ll have to come earn it.

There was a chance that he was just making it up to keep me on my toes, but I couldn’t hide the fact that I was interested. If I had to go beat it out of him, so be it. After all, he was getting old.



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>Lesson Learned

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”As much as it pains me to admit it, at the beginning of this week, The Barnharts had a real chance of stealing this match from Eiley and I.”

”I know that sounds a lot like a setup for a hysterical punchline, but I actually mean that. That is the one hundred percent truth about it. It may not have lasted long, and they definitely don’t have a chance anymore, but for a few fleeting moments, there was a shot. Although, I can’t give them any credit for it. Just like they didn’t do anything to cost themselves their shot at victory, they didn’t do anything to give themselves the edge either.”

”The problem, like most of them that plague Limitless, was entirely my fault. You people were already a witness to it too. From the moment that this match was announced, I have been mocking these two. They are the married couple that nobody is afraid of in the Mixed Tag Team division. They are one of the only teams that has been around from the beginning of the division. They have faced just about every up-and-coming team, and have gotten smacked around by each and every one of them. I figured that it was about time for Eiley and I to get the chance to lay one of them out for a three count. It seemed like a sort rite of passage in Sin City.”

”...and because of that, I started the week thinking that I might just hang out on the beach the whole time. I thought that I could let myself go a little, and drink myself into a stupor until about halfway through Saturday when I would need to get myself moving for Sunday. The way that I saw it, the result at Climax Control was already guaranteed based on the history of The Barnharts in this company. Everyone knows that the champions are going to walk out with their hands raised. Bill and Bea are going to over-promise and under-deliver the way that they always have. Everything was on track to be as it should be….”

”...but I didn’t take the week off. I wanted to. I tried to. I thought it was the perfect time for Eiley and I to slip away for a mini-vacation being that our trainers just pushed out another child into the world. I figured that nobody would even notice that we weren’t around until it was time for Climax Control anyways. I was wrong, and my assumptions didn’t  stop the phone from ringing. It didn’t stop the notifications from coming nonstop until I finally responded. See, I might have wanted to slide through the week stress free, but apparently that is not what we do at Jet City.”

”When I saw The Barnharts across from Limitless on the card for Climax Control, I laughed. When Kris Ryans saw it, he called me, and then he called me again, and again until I finally answered. He brought Eiley and I down to Hawaii, and he and Mikah have been taking turns putting us through every possible problem that we are going to have with The Barnharts. At first, I was pissed. It was insulting. Eiley and I have yet to lose as a team. We are the goddamn Mixed Tag Team Champions! It felt like they thought that somehow we couldn’t add up to this team that everyone else treats like a joke. It felt like they had more respect for these two than they did their own students. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.”

”.....but that was just because I haven’t been around long enough to understand what all of you watching at home already know….”

”Since the Barnharts have been around forever, I never really looked into them. I never knew that once upon a time, Bill was more of an individual competitor than a member of a team. I thought that they just showed up together and spent their careers being in the bottom third of this division. Once again, I was wrong. Because years ago, Bill Barnhart used to spend a lot of time competing on his own, and even though that record isn’t particularly impressive, there was one night that sent shockwaves through both SCW and Jet City.”

”Kris, fresh out of one of his several stints in rehab, and finally wanting to make good on all of the promises that he had made to the fans, was working his way back into ring shape. He convinced Mark and Christian to give him another chance, but they weren’t necessarily sold. They gave him a match to test and see where he was at. That match was with Bill Barnhart. As you guys can imagine, Kris had the same kind of attitude about it that I did at the beginning of this week. He was talking about mopping the floor with his opponent. He slacked off thinking that the victory was in the bag. For that matter, once he walked out with the win, he figured his spot in the company was back on solid footing. Kris kicked back. He enjoyed himself heading into that random Climax Control match. There weren’t any titles on the line. It wasn’t a main event. It was just a regular night where he had to show up, and beat a very beatable opponent.”

”Only… he didn’t.”

”Kris went out to the ring and Bill Barnhart beat the shit out of him. Bill proved to everyone in the audience, and everyone backstage that Kris wasn’t back and better than ever. He wasn’t showing back up to the save that day with a new attitude. Bill derailed Kris his first night back on the job because that one random match proved that Kris was still all-talk. If Mark and Christian didn’t have a soft spot for him, that might have been his last night on the roster.”

”...and at that point, Kris had already had that gnarly Roulette Championship run. He had already busted his ass to win the SCW World Heavyweight Championship once. He had main evented supercards, not just Climax Control. Yet, it all could have been over because he was overconfident when he walked down the aisle. He didn’t put in the work, and he got his ass handed to him by the man that I am about to step into the ring with. People always ask me if it actually pays off to deal with all of the ups and downs at Jet City. Usually I try to avoid answering that question during the bad weeks. This week? This week it was worth everything that I have put into it, and then some. This week being a part of this gym gave me the wakeup call that I needed before I went out and fell on my face in front of thousands of people. This week being part of Jet City taught me that no matter who you are stepping into the ring with, you treat it like they are a generational talent. If you prepare for your opponents like they are a first ballot Hall of Famer, you’ll never be surprised out there.”

”That was the lesson that I learned this week, even though I am not sure I would have even considered it otherwise until it was too late. I have not main evented supercards. I have not risen to the top of this company. I am a rookie Mixed Tag Team Champion, so I can’t afford to make any mistakes in that ring.”

”History won’t be repeating itself, Bill.”

”This week you and your wife will see how truly Limitless the Mixed Tag Team Champions have become.”