Start
Sometimes it’s hard to open up. When you are in a new place and around new people, let alone when you’re already carrying around some baggage and PTSD from your former friendships and relationships. But, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. If you are prepared to try hard enough and you are prepared to let people in then you can always have friendships and relationships. The problem though, is trust. It is hard to trust people once it’s been broken.
Even when the people around you are the ones who actually broke your trust. It can be hard to let people in. Hard to open up yourself and be yourself around them. Hard to know who you can and can’t trust. It’s something that Aiden was struggling with.
Wolfslair had given him a reputation. Most thought it was arrogance. That this Australian star, who had been in Japan for the better part of three years, was too good to be training at this New York gym that had really started to attract names. Everyone thought that Aiden was using his time in Japan as a way to keep everyone at arm’s length. Like he was a star and everyone else was just trying to become what he was. However, that could not be further from the truth.
Aiden was scared.
Scared of opening up to these people and scared of being himself. Scared that he was going to let someone get close and they were going to look for a nice soft spot in his back to jam the knife. He was scared of another situation like he had Steve. And he wasn’t looking for a relationship; in fact his heart was still broken. Even though it hadn’t been her fault the memory was there. But now? There was a girl in his life.
Yes, the one mentioned the last part of his story
Her name was Florence. She was tall, tattooed, had long black hair and wore lipstick that made her lips pop with an almost cherry red glaze. She had blue eyes and long eyelashes. She was a tattoo artist, she lived locally, and she didn’t give a shit that Aiden was a professional wrestler.
Whenever he wasn’t at the gym, Aiden was spending time with Florence. They would go shopping, walk along the street, talk, and just enjoy each other’s company. But very slowly, Florence had started to be an influence on Aiden. Outlandish things that he would normally say without even thinking started being met with angry glares and a stern voice. That’s right, she was trying to educate and civilize the savage Australian.
Because apparently the word Cunt is not as popular as it should be in America.
”Aiden? Are you listening to me?” He wasn’t. He was sitting across from her, a Chai latte sitting in front of him. Something he didn’t really want but that Florence ordered for him. He was more of a straight up cappuccino kind of guy. ”Hey…it’s a good job…” She reached out lightly touching his hand.
Aiden shook his head. ”Bouncin?…” his voice was filled with disappointment and disdain. He looked down taking a sip of the Chai latte and tried not to make a face.
Florence shook her head, obviously annoyed with Aiden‘s outlook and attitude ”Doorman. You would be a doorman.”
”Same thing love.”
Florence took a deep breath, shaking her head and calming herself down before leaning back and grabbing her latte, taking a sip. She swallowed hard and then leaned forward, changing her voice and making it slightly more calming. “It’s a steady paycheck.”
”Flo….i have a job” she posted her lips together, trying to keep her mouth shut as she could feel anger boiling up. Aiden shook his head and pushed out a deep breath before looking back across the table at her. ”Look, maybe I could do it for a bit. Just for extra money. But you have to understand, I’m a wrestler. It’s what I’ve done since I was old enough to get a real job. It’s what I trained for.”
She gave him a small smile. He had listened to her request. And instantly her demeanor changed. She went from clearly rigid and angry to happier and more supportive. I believe that’s called manipulation? “Alright. That’s fair. This way you have a real job while you continue pursuing wrestling.” Her voice took a condescending turn.
Aiden winced. It almost looked like he was in pain hearing that shot at his profession and his career. But, he wanted to make her happy. She was there for him, she had picked him up when he felt like quitting. So he felt like he owed her.
Kittens and Pussies
”Our hero, Aiden Reynolds sat in the lounge room of his apartment. Thinking about what he was going to say to his opponents. What exactly was a hero about to reveal? What jokes was he about to say?”
Aiden blinked a few times before very slowly looking up and over at Dimitri Watson, otherwise affectionately known as Dickie. He was Aiden‘s tag team partner and best friend as well as the younger brother of our Sin City Wrestling World Champion Finn Whelan. He tilted his head giving a smile at Aiden who farted his bra and rolled his eyes.
”Mate, what the fuck are you doing?”
”Narrating…”
”Don’t do that mate. It’s stupid.”
”I know…”
Aiden shook his head and got to his feet. He moved around and paced back-and-forth with his arms folded over his chest looking a lot more serious than you would expect this man to look.
”I know. I let you all down. Not just members of my family. Not just my friend Dickie, not just my beautiful wife Kallie, my son Dax. But all of you. All of the great fans who are tuning into Sin City Wrestling Climax Control week and week out when I’m performing. All of you fans who actually give a shit about my career. I know there’s a few of you, I see the comments, I see the tweets, I see all of the cool little messages left on the clips on SCW’s YouTube channel. I see all of you and I appreciate all of you.”
“But the better man one. Alexander Raven is a beast of human being. And as much as he seems to be struggling to crack through that glass ceiling to become a bona fide main event star in this company, he is still someone who you should never and I mean never underestimate. I got in the ring with that bloke and he absolutely made me look like an idiot.”
“And I deserved it.”
“Losing the Roulette Championship hurt. Especially since I just won the thing. I was able to beat Eddie Lyons, who is one of the toughest sons of bitches I’ve ever faced before and I was looking forward to try and continue the amazing work he had done with that championship and perhaps even defend against him in rematch.It hurts that I don’t get to do that, it hurts that I lost to Alexander Raven as good as he is. But do you know what hurts the most in this entire situation?”
”Your pride?”
”Nah…”
”Your self worth?”
”Nah mate it’s tha-”
”Your left testicle?”
”My left test-NO!.... the thing that hurts the most is that I let Victoria Lyons get one over on me. She was the one who wanted to get revenge against me on behalf of her cousin. This isn’t the type of underhanded stupid bullshit that Eddie Lyons likes. If he wanted to get revenge on me for winning that championship he would’ve done it like a man and come to me face-to-face and face me one on one. But his cousin is a vindictive little bitch who decided not to do that and instead booked Me in a match with the bloke who was fighting for the World Championship.”
“That’s what hurts.”
”Fair.”
Aiden takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before opening them slowly and refocusing.
”Now, returning to the ring after losing that championship is always going to be a hard prospect. But I’m getting into a match where I don’t even have to be pinned or made to submit to actually lose. A triple threat match. A match where I could get thrown out of the ring, hit my head on the floor, and then get up after 10 seconds only to find the one of the two guys I’m facing has ended up tapping out like a little bitch.”
“And the two guys I’m facing? Look, I try to see the good in everyone. I try to respect everyone because anyone who has the balls to get into a professional wrestling ring and throw their body around deserves it. But I find it so hard to respect someone like Justin Smith. This guy should be called Justin incompetent. Just a joke. Just another L in the loss column.”
“The fact I was able to claw my way up to becoming a champion only to lose that title so fast and then end up right back to square one where I started facing someone like you Justin? It makes me sick to my stomach. Now I can joke around with Dickie, I can say stupid shit, I’ve been through this before. But most people will notice that since I came into this company I have had a harder edge and I’ve been much more serious than I have been in other places. And the reason is simple.”
“I don’t want to be like you.”
“I don’t want to simply be a name on a roster, someone who is here just to collect a paycheck and go home. I don’t want to be an afterthought, I don’t want to be someone who is putting in the ring with people who everyone else knows is going to win. I do not want to be like you, Justin. Because to be quite honest with you? That is all you have become. You get in the ring with everyone else and nine times out of 10 unless something devastating happens you are on the losing end. You’re just here. What? Are you here to have fun? He’s getting beaten every single week like a government mule, fun to you? What kind of sick sado-masochistic motherfucker are you?”
“But he’s the good news for you. In this match I’m going to do everything possible to treat you like the lame duck that you are. I’m going to take you out back aim right between your eyes, pull back the hammer and end your miserable wrestling existence.”
Aiden slowly looked over a dicky expecting his friend to say something witty or funny or goofy. Instead, Dickie's eyes were wide and he just gave Aiden a small nod of approval.
”But as I mentioned, it’s not a one-on-one match. We also have the addition of Felix the cat.”
”Wait…a cat?...a wrestling cat?...like...Ollie?”
”MAAAOOOOOWWW!”
We smash cut sideways to find an orange and white cat. He is Ollie, the former Excellence Kitty, a fearsome tiger of a cat who once took on Chelsea Skye one on one inside a PWE ring, but has since retired to the comfort of ownership by Kayla Richards. of course she would never admit it, she just says that Ollie is a roommate. Of course, Aiden jumps, because he thinks the cat is secretly trying to kill him.
”What the hell is he doing here? Who let him in here?”
”Maow?”
Ollie looks Aiden up and down, he then jumps down off the back of the couch and wanders off. Aiden‘s nostrils flare and he swallows hard before shaking his head and refocusing back on Dickie and his question.
”Nah, Felix is human. I think. I dunno. All I do know about him is that he tried to win the roulette championship and failed, he tried to win the golden briefcase and failed, for some reason it says I was in that match on some sources. I don’t know. I was never here. Either way he has done nothing but fail. And he’s also really good friends with Bill Barnhart.”
“And that explains even more.”
“But, Felix, I don’t want to just call you a loser who is friends with a bigger loser and then walk away. I’m sure you have some redeeming qualities. Like, I don’t know, you have a rather impressive receding hairline and widow's peak. It takes balls to pull off or look like that. It also takes balls to turn up in this company being as big of a joke as you are. so I guess what I’m saying is, you have courage. And I admire that.”
“Doesn’t mean much though.”
“See, I don’t have to respect you, admire you, like you, hate you, I don’t have to have any discernible feelings towards you or Justin Smith. I do have thoughts, I do have feelings, I do have emotions and opinions. But when that bell rings none of that matters. And he why. Everyone in this business in this company only needs to be concerned with one thing once that bell rings. Winning. Every single one of us is here to win, every single one of us is here to earn the right to get championships because then we get more money and more glory and we are remembered for years. That is the whole goal of becoming a professional wrestler. Everything else we do is just window dressing.”
“So, I'm going to get in the ring with both of you at Climax Control 399. We are going to wrestle. Then I’m going to walk away the winner. That’s what’s going to happen. You two can go back to doing whatever it is you do and I’m going to go and get my goddamn Roulette title back….. or maybe the Internet I don’t know, whatevs…”
