Inheritance
The gym smelled like iron, sweat, and old rubber mats that had absorbed decades of punishment. Alex liked it that way. There was something honest about a place that didn’t pretend comfort was part of the deal. The weights didn’t care who you were. The mirrors didn’t flatter you. Every rep was either done or it wasn’t. No excuses. No shortcuts. Just effort and consequence. Alex moved through his routine methodically. Wrist tape tight. Breathing steady. Each movement precise, controlled. His body knew this language better than any other. It was the one place his thoughts didn’t spiral unless he let them.
And today, he let them.
Dylan had been training hard. Too hard, if you asked some people. Early mornings. Late nights. Sore joints. Bruises he laughed off like badges of honor. Alex saw it all. not through rose-colored glasses, but through experience. He corrected when necessary. Pulled him back when needed. Let him fail when it mattered. Because failure was part of the education. Alex racked the bar after his final set and reached for his water bottle when the front door of the gym opened.
He didn’t look up at first.
He didn’t need to.
Her presence hit him like a bad memory resurfacing without warning. ”Still slumming it in places like this,” Shelly Taylor’s voice said, sharp and unimpressed. “Some things never change.” Alex closed his eyes briefly, exhaled through his nose, then turned. Shelly stood just inside the doorway, arms crossed. Long blonde hair, styled carefully enough to suggest effort without admitting it. She was still fit, painfully so, like someone who weaponized discipline when control was slipping elsewhere. Designer gym wear. Perfect posture. A look on her face like she’d already decided she hated everything in the room.
Including him.
“Didn’t realize this was a public gym,” she continued, eyes scanning the space with thinly veiled disdain. “Or did you finally upgrade from warehouses and basements?”
Alex took a slow drink of water, unbothered. ”What do you want, Shelly?” No greeting. No pleasantries. They’d burned those bridges years ago.
Her lips pressed into a tight smile that never reached her eyes. “Straight to the point. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” She gestured vaguely. “I came to talk about Dylan.”
Of course you did.
Alex set the bottle down carefully. “You could’ve called.”
“And have you dodge my calls again?” She scoffed. “No. I wanted to see this for myself……I wanted to see you.”
Alex stepped closer, just enough to reassert space. “You’re standing in my gym. You’ve seen enough. Say what you came to say.”
Shelly’s jaw tightened. “He’s training to be a professional wrestler,” she said flatly, like an accusation.
Alex nodded once. “Yeah. He is.”
“You’re letting him do this,” she snapped. “You’re encouraging it.”
“I’m supporting him,” Alex corrected calmly. “There’s a difference.”
Shelly laughed, short and humorless. “Don’t play semantics with me. I know exactly what this world does to people.” She gestured at him. “I lived with the aftermath.”
Alex’s expression hardened, not angry, but resolute. “You lived with me. And you didn’t like that you couldn’t control what I was becoming.”
Her eyes flashed. “That’s not fair.”
“No,” Alex replied evenly. “It’s accurate.”
Shelly stepped closer now, finger jabbing the air. “Wrestling destroys people, Alex. Their bodies. Their minds. Their families. You of all people should know that.”
“I do know that,” he said. “That’s why I’m the one helping him. Because I know the traps. I know the shortcuts that ruin careers and lives. I know the difference between passion and obsession.”
She shook her head, exasperated. “He’s twenty. He doesn’t know what he’s signing up for.”
“He’s an adult,” Alex said firmly. “And he made this choice before I ever agreed to help.”
“That’s convenient,” Shelly shot back. “Let him idolize you. Let him chase your brothers ghost.”
Alex’s eyes went cold. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t reduce him to a projection of me,” Alex said, voice low but dangerous. “He’s his own man. He came to me because he wanted guidance, not permission.”
Shelly folded her arms again, defensive now. “You named him after your brother,” she said. “Don’t tell me this isn’t about reliving something you lost.” Alex didn’t flinch.
“That name was about honoring someone who mattered,” he replied. “Not trapping my son in someone else’s shadow.” She hesitated. Just for a moment. Alex saw it, and pressed. “You’re angry because he didn’t ask you…..Because this isn’t a life you can micromanage. There are no safety nets you control here.”
Shelly’s voice rose. “I’m his mother. I have a right to be concerned.”
“You have a right to feel however you want,” Alex said. “You don’t have the right to decide his future for him.”
She looked around again, as if hoping the walls would agree with her. “This business chews people up.”
“So does every dream worth having,” Alex replied. “The difference is whether someone teaches you how to survive it.”
Shelly’s eyes glistened, not with sadness, but frustration. “And what happens when he gets hurt? When he fails? When he realizes this isn’t the fantasy he built in his head?”
“Then I’ll be there,” Alex said simply. “Like I wasn’t always able to be before.” That landed harder than he expected.
Shelly turned away, pacing a few steps. “You always do this,” she muttered. “Turn everything into some moral victory.”
Alex watched her, unmoving. “No. I’m finally being honest.”
She stopped and faced him again, eyes blazing. “You’re letting him walk into pain.”
Alex met her gaze without blinking. “I’m letting him walk into choice.” Silence stretched between them, thick and uncomfortable.
Finally, Shelly exhaled sharply. “This isn’t over.”
Alex shook his head. “It is. Because there’s nothing you can do to stop him.” Her mouth opened, then closed. She knew it was true.
She grabbed her bag, anger simmering just beneath the surface. “When this blows up,” she said at the door, “don’t expect me to clean up the mess.”
Alex didn’t raise his voice. “I wouldn’t ask you to.” Shelly lingered for half a second longer, then stormed out, the door slamming behind her. The gym felt quieter after she left. Alex sat down on the bench, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. His body was tired, but his mind was alive, racing, processing, adjusting. Dylan wasn’t a kid anymore. He wasn’t a replacement. He wasn’t a second chance to rewrite history. He was a continuation. Alex smiled faintly to himself. For the first time, the weight of legacy didn’t feel like a burden.
It felt like trust.
Again?
”Sometimes, just sometimes, I get so sick of being right..”
Alex chuckles and shakes his head. His long hair is tied back away from his face.
”I get sick of telling the truth and having nobody believe me. It seems to be a running theme in this company. I am one of the best professional wrestlers on this planet, and no matter what people say about me or what they believe, no one can take away my career. Nobody can look at all the things that I’ve done and diminish them. But for some reason, even though I have one of the most prolific careers in this business, a lot of you simply throw my opinions and my critiques to the side.”
“I looked into this camera, I talked about how I wanted someone to step up, and I want the youth of today to really, really think about what they are doing. I gave LJ Kasey a chance. He failed. So I gave his brother that same chance. And Miles failed. Not only did Miles fail, but he lost a championship that he worked so hard to get. I told the world that Miles needed to step up, that he needed to step out of Carter’s shadow, and he needed to do everything that he could to break through that glass ceiling, and he failed. Just like I said he was going to.”
“And now, I’m the Internet Champion…”
“Which means I am now a Grand Slam Champion. I have been the World Champion, I have been the Roulette Champion, the Mixed Tag Team Champion, and now the Internet Champion. I have held them all, and I have done everything that I can to be that legend that everyone believes me to be. And while I sit here and I realise that I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain, none of you have. None of you have lived up to that same level, and none of you have done anything to further what we need to do in this company to thrive and survive.”
Alex pauses and can’t help but chuckle under his breath before continuing, getting to his feet and stepping forward, grabbing the Internet Championship and throwing it over his shoulder.
”I am the reason people care about this company. I’m the reason people care about this business. No one is tuning in to see Carter and Raven go at it again. No one is tuning in to this company to see LJ or Miles. They are all watching me. Because I have always been the heartbeat of professional wrestling. I have always been the measuring stick that everyone else is held up to. People look at me with the Internet Championship and they find the championship to be interesting, and they find it to be a prize. Then they look at the World Championship and they find it boring. Nobody gives a shit about Carter as the World Champion, and nobody gives a shit about Alexander Raven facing him.”
“But when I speak, people listen.”
“When I perform, the world watches.”
“When I excel, the business succeeds.”
“So, what now? I beat Miles and I took the Internet Championship. I have become a Grand Slam Champion. I have given the Internet Championship relevancy. So where do I go from here? What do I do? Because the way I look at it, this business and this company need me. They need me firing on all cylinders. They need the fans watching me and having their eyes on me, so they put me in a match against Ryan Keys.”
Alex pauses for a moment, a hint of annoyance and frustration in his eye as he clutches the Internet Championship over his shoulder and shakes his head.
”I could have sworn that we just did this. Really. I could have closed my eyes and envisioned a time where I just beat him. He was able to beat Liam Davis, and now for some reason they’re putting Ryan back in the ring with me, expecting there to be some kind of difference. What is wrong with you people? Do you really want to do this to the poor guy? Ryan was once a star in this business. And this company. There was a time in Sin City Wrestling where he was relevant. Not only was he relevant, but he could’ve been that next big thing. But that ended.”
“That ended before my tenure in the company even began. Ryan was here doing his thing, winning championships and making them look bad, while I was in other companies being the World Champion. I was in other companies breaking records. So tell me, why should I care about a match with Ryan Keys? Why should I look at this match as anything more than it really is? A colossal waste of my fucking time. And that’s what you are, Ryan. You are a waste of my time and a waste of my energy. I’m not here to face people that I’ve already destroyed. I’m not here to get in the ring with you and make you feel good about yourself.”
“You’re not on my level or in my league.”
“You are one of these little industry plant douche bags who use terms like ‘spot’ in a promo. You are one of these people who talk about categories like it’s a real thing. You mentioned it last time we faced each other. The tough guy, the smart guy, the flashy guy, the big guy. Do you know what type of guy I am? Because I’ll give you a little hint.”
“A champion…”
“That’s what I am. That’s who I am. A champion. Someone who is in the Hall of Fame. A legend. I am feared and respected in equal measure, and all you are is a sniffling little rat that I’ve already put down once, that is being put against me again. And I don’t know, maybe this company is hoping and praying that you’ll be able to get a miracle win over me and somehow capture some of that glory that you believe yourself to have so you can start to step up and be the potential field man that you once were, but the truth is you are long past your expiration date.”
“So on Climax Control, I’m going to put the final nail in your coffin. And I’m going to make damn sure you realise that even thinking that you can beat me is your biggest sin.”
