I’m not really in a good place right now.
I may look like it on the outside but inside, I am a walking, ticking time bomb of hatred and anger. An anger and hatred that only has one target. And that target is my arch-nemesis, former friend and current Frontier Grappling Arts Wrestling Heavyweight Champion AJ Fairchild.
AJ Fairchild had made my life a living hell these past couple of weeks. I don’t mind him pulling my tights to beat me at Final Frontier last month. Sad and frustrating as it is, that is part of our sport. There are some handful of people out there who will use underhanded tactics and take the easy way out just to get the three count. And I can accept that and I get why AJ had to do it. His title is on the line and he was facing an individual who is determined to take his title away from him.
And then that incident with Vikki happened at the end of Final Frontier. As most of you know and had seen, Preston Blake had ran out as I was confronting AJ after our match. He shoved AJ to me and I was knocked out. Preston went on with his assault on me and my girlfriend Vikki came running from the back to try and save me. Now Vikki is also a wrestler. She can protect herself if she has too but she was overwhelmed by Preston Blake. Preston tried to DDT her and AJ went for the save but Preston ducked and Vikki was hit by the FGA Heavyweight title instead. Vikki was knocked out cold.
AJ kept apologizing to me however he can. Twitter, voicemail, text messages, even e-mail… You name it, AJ had probably used it to try and get to me to apologized. But I ignored it. I must admit, it was a bad move on my part to not acknowledge the guy. I know its unjustifiable but I was pissed. I was angry. My girlfriend was hurt because of me and I couldn’t do anything about it. I guess you can say I was angry at myself instead of AJ.
But then AJ turned the other cheek. He began berating me on Twitter. He called me “bitter” because I lost to him at Final Frontier. He called me “jealous” because he’s holding the title that I’m coveting to hold. He even went so far as to say that the only reason I befriended him is for me to ride his coattails. He also claimed that I am inferior to him and he’s better than I am in any possible way. And that got to me. That hit every nerve on my body. For a guy who claims that I am inferior to him and he’s better than I am in every possible way, for a guy who claims I’m just riding his coattails and that I’m jealous and bitter, he seems to sound like he was what he was claiming to be what I am.
He went on antagonizing me on Twitter but I let it pass. I was getting bookings everywhere and I have no time arguing with an immature and unprofessional individual on social media when I have a job to do in some of the best independent wrestling promotion in the country.
Then on the first show of FGA in the New Year, AJ finally showed his true colors. Towards the end of our match, AJ attacked my opponent Preston Blake by shoving him to the ring post forcing the referee to give the match to Preston by DQ. Then after that, he then attacked me with a ladder. Vikki ran out from the back to check on me. Vikki got a shot at AJ but AJ hits her with a title yet again. And after that, he then drove me to the ladder with a flipping piledriver.
Because of that vicious attack, I was forced to miss that following Wednesday’s PWX Adrenaline event which ironically featured me and AJ Fairchild on opposing side in a six man tag match. Luckily though, I was medically cleared to wrestle for my debut match for Sin City Wrestling which I won via DQ (yet again) against Daniel Tyler, Tiami and Danielle’s brother.
So that’s how I’ve been these past few weeks. I may look like I’m doing fine on the outside but I’m on my boiling point on the inside. But I’m not just going to unleashed that anger on anybody. That honor will go to AJ as I confront him this weekend on FGA’s DVD taping in Plymouth, Massachusetts. People had been asking me if I’m interested in his reasoning why he did what he did at the Woodbridge DVD taping but to be completely honest? I don’t care anymore. He made a little friendly competition personal and now all I’m interested is getting my hands on him and beating him badly.
But until then, I’m going to have to keep my focus on my training for my match Sunday for Sin City Wrestling. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I won my debut match for the promotion and I’m planning to take the momentum I got from that match into this match. I am teaming with one of the most talented Bombshell in the company in Amy Marshall to take on Jordan Williams and Odette Ryder.
**********
Long Beach, California
“Are you okay?”, Jackson asked.
I snapped out of the funk I’m in and nodded.
“Yeah I’m fine.“
“Do you know what you’re ordering yet?”, I asked him as a I went through the restaurant’s menu again. It’s been awhile since I’ve really hung out with Jackson as both our lives had been really, really hectic lately. With our trainer and SoCal renowned independent wrestling promoter Scott Hayes decided to hung up retire permanently from pro wrestling to try out his hand in film-making, he passed along the operations of his training facility and his promotion to Jackson. Jackson, on his part, is doing a great job with it as he is now running shows bi-weekly instead of the monthly format Scott used to have. He had approached me for a couple of guest appearance for the promotion but I had to decline due to my hands being full right now too. He understood but he said I owed him one and I promised him I’d made it up to him.
“Yeah I’ve decided on that 15 minutes ago. You, on the other hand, had gone through the menu a million times now with that blank stare of yours.”, he replied.
“Cool…”, I said. “Give me five more minutes and I’ll be ready to order as well…”, I added as I then went back to looking at the four-page menu again. Jackson stared at me as I do so as he then noticed my blank stare again.
“Is there anything bothering you? You want to talk about it?”, he asked.
I stopped flipping through the menu and tried to flashed the most faked smile I have ever flashed.
“Nope. I’m alright. Just a bit tired.”, I replied.
“Bullshit.”, he exclaimed.
“Huh?”, I asked confusingly.
“How long have we known each other, Ryan?”, he asked.
“Six years… “
“Six years?”
“More or less…”
“And four of those was us spending time on the road, being around each other twenty four seven right?”
“Yeah.”
“So if there’s anyone out there who would know you so well aside from your really, really old friends and your family members, it’ll be me right?”
“Yeah but what’s your point?”, I asked still confused as hell.
“All I’m saying is I know you so well that I know how you act when something’s bothering you, man. And right now, this… All of this… Your actions, your aura, your body language is giving you away… There’s something in your mind and you badly want to talk about it but for some reasons, you’re trying to disregard it.”
We fell silent as I tried my best to pretend that I’m reading the menu. I looked at him and sighed.
“I guess there’s no hiding from you, huh?”, I said.
“Fuck there isn’t. You’re so easy to read that even Hellen fucking Keller would be able to read you.”, he joked.
I chuckled and went through the menu again. Jackson stared at me waiting for me to open up whatever it is that’s bothering me.
“So? What is it, princess? I don’t have all day!”
I chuckled again and then shook my head.
“I really don’t wanna talk about it, man. I’m sorry. It’s something I want to deal on my own and something that will be dealt when the right time comes. Right now, all I want to do is to hang out with my best friend and catch up on each other’s lives.”, I replied.
He sighed.
“Fine. Whatever.”, he said as he reached for his glass of Pepsi of took a gulp from it. After drinking, he replaced the glass on the table and leaned back on his chair and stared at me.
“So tell me about this Sin City Wrestling place…”
“It’s a great promotion man. Lots of young and up-and-coming talents who are hungry to make their name in the sport. There are no so-called veterans who cant let go of their spots in the spotlight. If there are any, they are there to help out and teach us young wrestlers without asking for anything in return. The energy in the locker room is amazing and you will be able to feel the electricity the moment you walked into it. It’s really great.”, I replied.
“That’s good. I’m happy to hear that there are still those kinds of promotion out there. Promotion who aims to help out the young guys and giving them the platform to get over. That’s what Scott had been doing for years and that’s what I’m going to continue to do with his promotion.”
I nodded.
“And I’m proud of you for doing so.”
“Thanks man.”, he said smiling. “So… you said you are involved in a mixed tag team match this week?”, he went on.
“Yeah. I’m involved in this Blast From The Past Mixed Tag Team Memorial Tournament to commemorate two of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived: George Hackenschmidt and Mildred Burke…”
“Two of the greatest indeed…”, he said cutting me off.
“Yup. And I’m teaming up with this chick named Amy Marshall and we’re taking on the team of Jordan Williams and Odette Ryder.”, I went on.
“Among the three, Odette is the only person I’ve met so far. Odette is an awesome chick. She’s one of the first people that came up to me backstage last night and welcomed me to the promotion. She’s been really nice and she’s fun to be around. Kinda remind me of Vikki to be honest. She’s as bubbly too. She’s a great wrestler too and even though we’re on opposing sides, I can’t wait to have the best spot in the house that night to watch her do her thing. Her partner Jordan Williams is a fucking mountain of a man. He calls himself the “God” of professional wrestling and I wouldn’t doubt that because he’s built like a fucking Greek god. He stands 6’5 and weighs two hundred and fifty pounds of pure fucking muscle. But don’t let his size fool you, the guy is so agile and fast as he is strong. The guy utilizes a hybrid style of wrestling. He’s very technical and hard-hitting and uses his strength really well to overwhelm his opponents. He’s been known to bust out a high-flying move or two if necessary. So I have my work cut out for me.”, I went on as Jackson picked his phone from his pocket and began to fiddle on it.
“And it seems like you’re teaming with a former porn star?”, he said as he turned his phone to me. There it was, Amy Marshall’s wiki page. I took the phone and read the information that is written on the page.
“Interesting.”, I said as I handed him back his phone. “To be honest, I don’t really care about what she is in the past. All I care about is she’ll do her best in the ring so we could win this entire thing. Other than that, it’s her issue, not mine. Personally, I don’t really thing anyone care about it. I don’t think most wrestling fans look at that and condemn her for that. After all, there are people in this sport who have more fucked up past than she is.”, I continued.
Jackson nodded. “That’s true.”
“So yeah… It doesn’t really matter. All that matters to me is us working together to win this match and advance to the next round. As I said, we got our work cut out for us. I mean I know Amy will be able to handle Odette but I have to face a massive road block in Jordan Williams. I know I’ve faced a lot of those big, muscular guys before but none of them are as talented and skilled as Jordan. All I would have to do is keep my distance, use my speed and hopefully wear him out to the point that I will be able to hit and affect him with my impact attacks. But until then, I have to avoid him and his powerful attacks. If I can be able to do that, we have a great chance of winning this.”
“Let’s hope that you have your head straight that night and you’ll be able to focus. If not, then…”, he said with a concern tone.
“Oh I will be focus. You don’t have to worry about that. You know how competitive I am, Jackson. I don’t like losing so you know I’ll do whatever I can within the rules to win this match on Sunday. I don’t care if I have to sacrifice my will-being as long as I get the job done. And this Sunday, it will be no different. Me and Amy are going to win this match. I can guarantee you that.”
He nodded as we fell into silence.
“Now, let’s order. The servers are all looking at us. We’ve been here for thirty minutes and we havent really ordered anything besides sodas. I don’t want to get kicked out.”, I said chuckling.
“Yeah we should do that. I don’t want to get kick out either.”, he replied chuckling as well.
I nodded as I raised my hand to catch the attention of our server. He walked over to us with his notepad and asked us politely as we began to tell him our order.
