[Kristopher Ryans]

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Dr. Halliwell’s Office
20 February 2025
10:32pm
OFF-Camera

E.G. Halliwell was smiling as she came to the door of her office. It had been a great morning. She woke up refreshed. Traffic hadn’t been terrible on her way through the city. The weather outside was perfect, and had put everyone she had come across in a much better mood. There were days where she dreaded the trip into work, especially on days where her list of clients was particularly challenging. Today was supposed to be one of those days, but so far it hadn’t wiped the smile off of her face. She was taking that as a win. She took her keys out of her pocket and slid them into the deadbolt, only for the door to push open at the slightest pressure. She sighs; the smile long gone from her face.

E.G.: You aren’t even scheduled for another hour and a half…

The first time this happened she panicked. It was almost something that she could laugh about these days though. Sometimes she thought about what her life would be like if she had done the rational thing and thrown Kris out of her office eight years ago. It certainly would have saved her a ton of headaches.

Kris: The earlier you schedule me, the earlier I have to be here to beat you through the door….

E.G. rolls her eyes and comes through the door. She locks it behind her, and flicks on the lights in the office before throwing her bag down on a chair in the corner of the room. She makes her way to her desk, but doesn’t take the bait to start an argument. They had been over this exact thing so many times that she knew she was wasting her breath. If she wasn’t willing to throw him out over it, she had to let it go. Kris was sitting in one of the chairs across from her desk, with his shoes propped up on the corner, scrolling through something on his phone.

E.G.: I would ask how you were doing, but I think I know. You might be a pain in the ass, but you aren’t breaking into my office for nothing. I’d like to just skip the pre-game if you don’t mind.

He puts his phone down in his lap, and looks up at her with a forced smile.

Kris: You know I can’t make any big decisions without your help. It’s been too long. You’re the only one that will tell me that I am stupid.

Everleigh shakes her head. If this was where he was trying to start, he would have needed to show up hours ago to finally get to the point. She knew better than to even let him start weaving his false narrative.

E.G.: Kris, everyone in your life is willing to tell you that you are stupid. You are selfish. You are impulsive. You are typically self-destructive. You know it. I know it. Let’s not waste a whole bunch of time trying to break through those layers. You want to talk, I am here to listen. You have to dig a little deeper than that though, or I am going to start answering emails while I am waiting on you to figure out what you want to say.

She couldn’t have used this approach with any of her other clients. It had taken years to be able to get to a point with Kris where they could get through all of the superficial layers he put between himself and the rest of society. It took even longer to find the right way to get around having to do that for each of his sporadic appearances in her office. Her solution may have been blunt, but oddly, it was the only thing that had ever worked.

Kris: Well that is just the list of all of the things that I need you for, isn’t it? I can’t listen to the world. That’s not how paranoia works. I definitely can’t trust any friend or family, because they are always just selfishly worried, right?

She rolls her eyes again, not even attempting to hide her frustration at having to listen to this speech for what felt like the one thousandth time.

E.G.: I think people call that caring, Kris.

He puts a hand up to stop her from interrupting his thought by answering his rhetorical question.

Kris: The point is, you are the only one that truly doesn’t care. Plus, it is kind of your job to tell me when I am being unreasonable, and you have all of those degrees so I am forced to accept that you are qualified to have an opinion.

He wasn’t wrong. The problem was that he wasn’t getting any closer to actually talking about whatever had brought him in the door.

E.G.: You’re always unreasonable.

He takes his shoes off of the desk, and sits up in his chair. Her lack of enthusiasm for his game had wiped the smile off of his face, and he had finally gotten serious.

Kris: I am thinking about going back to work.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. They had gone back and forth in sessions about this decision last year, and he eventually chose to ignore all of her advice. Of course he was back in her office to rehash all of it now that it was the time of year for his tournament to start again. Fortunately, she didn’t have to tell him directly that it was a terrible idea.

E.G.: Have the nightmares gone away?

He sits back in his seat and averts his eyes, trying rapidly to find a way not to answer the question. However, he knew that his body language had definitely already given him away.

Kris: They aren’t so bad.

He couldn’t even bring himself to look at her while the lie was coming out of his mouth. To be honest, she would have been surprised if they had improved. She had told him dozens of times that the only way that was going to happen is if he actually wanted to unpack the reasons they were happening in the first place. That wasn’t something he had been interested in doing during any of their sessions.

E.G.: …and I am still the only person you have talked to about them?

He shrugs, still diverting his attention out the window to avoid the judgement in her eyes.

Kris: Like I said, you’re the only one qualified enough to have an opinion. I don’t need anyone else in my head poking around and trying to tell me how I feel.

She wasn’t even sure that Kris really knew how he felt. His entire life had been spent splitting himself into smaller and smaller pieces to micro-manage different pieces of his life. He was one person in front of a crowd. He was another person at home. Those two were more than enough to cause him a whole mess of problems, but then he started stretching himself in even more directions. Could he be a successful father? Could he effectively run a gym and teach students? Could he still give fans the ‘Kris’ they knew and loved? Each one of these was another piece of himself that he snapped off from the original. Getting gunned down in his own gym a few years ago tossed all of those little pieces into the air, and Kris had never been able to put them all back together again. Some days were better than others, but all of the nights were bad. It was the reason that he stopped sleeping. It was the reason he volunteered to be at his daughter Ridley’s service all hours of the night. Yet, it wasn’t something that he could open his mouth and put into words.

E.G.: You won’t talk to anyone about it. You won’t do any work on it. And now you want to run head first into a situation that you know is only going to make it worse. I don’t know exactly what you want me to tell you.

The smug smirk came back to his face, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Kris: I want you to tell me that it’s not a terrible idea.

Everleigh shook her head, not willing to tell him what he wanted to hear.

E.G.: You know I won’t do that.

He looked away from her, and back to the window, a grimace coming across his face. He bit down on his tongue a few times, debating on exactly how he wanted to phrase his next words.

Kris: What if I need it?

Unlike Kris, she answered immediately, and confidently.

E.G.: You don’t.

He looked back at her, but the smugness that was previously on his face was gone. He finally dropped the act, and for the first time she could see how he actually felt all over his face. Things were significantly worse than she expected. He was desperate.

Kris: You don’t know that…



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>SCW Fan Event
18 April 2025
Oslo Spektrum
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The feed starts with a wide shot looking down at the Oslo Spektrum. We zoom in as part of the card for Climax Control flashes across the various different marquee screens. Once we drop to street level, the camera moves to the left to mount the curb to allow a car to pass on their right. It comes to a stop, and the driver runs around the vehicle to open the door for whomever rides in the back. From behind, we see them step out, and look up at the sign before having a laugh.

”It seems like every time that I come back, the show gets further and further away from home…”

The Sin City faithful know the voice without having to see his face. He takes a few steps away from the car, and the camera moves with him first down the sidewalk, and then up the steps leading to the front doors of the building.

”There was a time that I wouldn’t have made trips like these. I would have said that it wasn’t worth the flight time. I would have said that I had too many obligations back home. There was one contract that I signed with Sin City where Mark and Christian couldn’t force me to leave the continental United States for an entire calendar year. But…..”

When he pulls open the center door of a set of three, and steps across the threshold and into the building. From the moment the door opens, the cheers of the screaming fans inside are startling. The Sin City Hall of Famer shrugs off his jacket, and hands it to one of his handlers revealing that he is wearing the new Blast from the Past: Reckless Elite shirt.

”I WASN’T GOING TO MISS MY CHANCE TO TEAR IT UP IN FRONT OF THE SIN CITY WRESTLING FANS IN OSLO, NORWAY!!!!!”

The already cheering fans roar even louder as Kris makes his way through the crowd, giving out high-fives and even going as far as to sign one of the posters presented to him. He talks over his shoulder to the camera, only barely able to be heard over the raucous crowd.

”I was a bit of a passenger princess for the first stop of the tour. I was trying to keep a low profile so as to not step on the wife’s toes, you know? It was her big night. Her big return. Her big win. I spent the duration of the show handling our little crew of offspring, and I was content to let her have her moment. Not this week though. This is my moment. This is my tournament. Let’s go!”

He turns away from the camera as he gets to the front of the crowd, and goes up a few stairs onto a platform. The camera stays on the floor in front of him, but moves behind a makeshift railing made to keep the fans a few feet back from the stage. Behind Kris is a black backdrop covered in miniature versions of the Sin City Wrestling logo, but the whole setup seems awfully well-designed, albeit temporary. There is a podium at the center of the platform with a microphone for him to use, but Kris nonchalantly picks it up and drops it off the side of the stage. He raises his voice slightly, but forces the fans to quell their cheers to be able to hear him instead of talking over them through the PA system.

”I’m not going to lie, I appreciate all of the enthusiasm, but I only know what half of those signs out there even say. Hopefully I didn’t sign anything awful on my way up here.”

He gets a chuckle from the crowd, but continues before they can turn against him for not knowing anything about the language before showing up.

”...but there was no way that I was missing this tour for Sin City. There was no way that I was going to sit on the sidelines for another Blast from the Past tournament. See, I have been very vocal about pointing out the few milestones that are left for me to achieve here, and winning Blast from the Past is one of them. Somehow, someway, this one has always eluded me. I have had past students from my gym win it. My wife has won it. I have never had the luck required to go the distance though.”

A hush falls over the crowd as they all lock-in on what the Hall of Famer is saying. A smirk crosses Kris’ lips as he realizes that he has them all in the palm of his hand.

”That’s not going to be a problem this year though. Mark and Christian went and axed the worst part of this tournament. And I don’t mean any disrespect to the Mixed Tag Team Division. We all know that I was responsible for building it, and dominating it before anyone thought that was a cool thing to do. The blind tournament vibe was just never really my thing though. The few times that I tried it, my partner ended up costing us matches early on. This year there are no partners though.”

He pauses as the fans burst into more cheers. Kris seems at least slightly surprised at being so well received, despite the relatively short time away. The pause allows him to go back and slightly correct himself though.

”...I mean this tournament was always basically two singles matches happening at the same time, in the same ring. The rewards were always for two individuals, not one team. At the end of the day, everyone is in this tournament for the reward, not the long-lasting friendships that we make along the way. Then I saw that the bosses were scrapping the inconvenient part of the tournament. I finally saw my opportunity to actually go the distance.”

The fans, or at least those that cared enough to attend his part of the event, don’t seem opposed to the idea of seeing Kris make a deep run during Blast from the Past.

”...and then a couple of weeks ago my wife sweetened the pot by letting me in on the secret that she was going to be joining the tournament as well. Now we don’t have to wait on some random pairing to put us together. We don’t have to cross our fingers and hope that our partners don’t suck. We put our names on the list for Blast from the Past, and our ability to run the table and win this thing is totally in our own hands. If anyone wants to stop us, they’ll have to do it between the ropes by putting our shoulders to the mat for a three count. No distractions. No shitty partners. Reckless Elite is here to take Blast from the Past 2025 for ourselves.”

The fans pop again, but Kris cuts them off quickly.

”My wife took her first step in this tournament last week. She didn’t let me down, so I have to hold up my end of the deal. That brings me to our first obstacle on this comeback tour, Logan Hunter.”

The crowd boo the rookie from the GO Gym, and Kris holds his hand up behind his ear as if he can’t hear them to evoke more of a reaction. The negativity brings a smug smile to his face that he couldn’t have hidden if he’d wanted to.

”...yeah, I haven’t been all that impressed either. I’ve tried to give the kid the benefit of the doubt. He got off to a little bit of a hot start before fizzling out lately. I would like to be able to speak a little more harshly about that, but it kind of sounds like the story of my 2024, so I am going to have to give the kid a little bit of a pass...”

The crowd boos that idea, and immediately Kris reverses course to get back on their good side.

”You’re right! What was I thinking? I was losing matches for the World Heavyweight Championship last year. I failed to recapture the Internet Championship last year. I was busy beating people on my way to winning major opportunities. I was competing in high profile matches. I was in the main events. I was one of the few people last year to pin Finn’s shoulders to the mat for a three count. The matches that I was losing, while heartbreaking, were against some of the best that Sin City had to offer. I wasn’t opening the show and having some hack mop the floor with me. I wasn’t pissing away matches to nobodies. I wasn’t failing to rise off of the bottom of the roster, despite being the hot new thing in the locker room.”

The fans are now whole-heartedly back on Kris’ side.

”If people can’t spot the difference between me, a Grand Slam Champion and Hall of Famer and a kid that will never be either of those two things, then they need to make sure they are watching Climax Control in just a couple of days because I have something to show them real quick. This kid is not ready for the beating that I am about to uncork and unleash on him. I have been out of the ring for months waiting for this tournament to start. I announced back in February that this was going to be my sole focus. I am putting the shitty end to last year behind me. He couldn’t last ten seconds with Fenris, and I have taken that big bastard on for hours at a time. Logan isn’t on my level today, and I don’t think the day exists that he ever will be.”

”...so this kid has got to go, and he will. He’ll be flat on the mat, in the center of the ring, wondering why he ever bothered to sign up for this tournament. He will be the warning shot that I send to anyone else that makes it out of the first round. I am not here to make friends. I am not here to have a good time. I am here to win this tournament, and have my name etched into history alongside my wife’s once again. After that, who knows? Who cares?”

Kris waves to the camera and acts like he is going to step down from the stage, only to be met with a chorus of boos. When he looks up, all of the hands in the crowd go up in front of him, and he gets the message immediately. Instead of descending and exiting the way that he came, he runs the stage, and leaps off into the crowd like he had done during the Jet City shows in San Diego. After a few moments of him floating around in the arms of the crowd, the camera cuts away.