Sibling Rivalry
Dallas Texas
13 Years Ago
“Come on kid”. Alex laughed and moved to the side as his younger brother went for a double leg but slid across the canvas. Alex laughed as Dylan slammed his fist on the mat. At 15 Dylan was bigger than a lot of his friends but still smaller than Alex. He was athletic and wanted to try his hand at wrestling. They had got permission from their mother. After much begging from Dylan and kind words from Charlie, now 18 and Alex. now 22 convinced her to let Alex train Dylan at a local gym.
Alex moved around Dylan and as Dylan again ducked down he grabbed a leg, this time Alex quickly bent down wrapping his arms around his baby brother's midsection squeezing before lifting Dylan up and slamming him down. Alex then spun around Dylan's back and took him around and over locking in a rear naked choke. Dylan struggled and moved, he tilted his chin and grabbed Alex’s arm pulling back and away from his neck, turning around to gain the upperhand. Charlie looked up with a proud grin at ringside, nodding at Dylan.
“Not bad….” Alex laughed as Dylan smiled not realising Alex had wrist control. He looked down too late. Alex turned his hips pulling Dylan around wrapping his arm and his legs straightening into an armbar pushing his younger brother down. Alex straightened his back and pushed up. Dylan screamed in pain. “Tap DJ….” There was nothing Alex rolled his eyes and pulled harder causing Dylan again to cry out.
“TAP DYLAN” Charlie screamed and slammed her hand on the mat.
“No….” Dylan yelled and Alex sighed, pulling once more cracking his elbow before letting go, Dylan yelled in pain again and stayed on his knees holding his arm as Alex rolled over his shoulder to his feet, he paced back and forth shaking his head.
“If this was a match I would have fucking taken your arm off DJ…” Dylan smirked and gave him a small nod before sitting back looking over at Charlie who just sighed deeply.
“I ain’t a quitter Alex.” Alex stopped mid step. Charlie rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, Alex turned and slapped his brother across the face.
“Don’t be an idiot. You know what pride gets you in this?. Broken bones and time off…” He scoffs and throws his arms in the air as Dylan slowly wiped the blood from his lip. “There isn’t shame in knowing you got beat by someone better. You learn, take it in and never make the same mistake again.” Dylan nods slowly and slides from the ring, Alex turns to Charlie and slides through the ropes with a deep sigh. Alex looks at his phone as Charlie keeps an eye on their baby brother scowling as a few of his “friends” approach
“We need to do something about that…” Alex made a grunting noise and looked up for a moment putting his phone away,
“They’re just his friends Charlie….I’m not dad I can’t tell him who he can and can’t see…” He looked back at the screen, Charlie grabbed Alex by the face turning his head towards the entrance just in time for Alex to see it, Dylan shaking a friend's hand and a small bag being passed between them.
“Yeah...we have to do something about that...and soon…”
A few days later
Alex took a long drawn out breath, his hands on his hips as he looked his younger brother’s door up and down. Wondering if he should just walk in, or if he should knock. Alex holds his hand up, before lightly knocking. After a few moments the door opened. Dylan went and gave a small smirk. He looked tired. Alex noticed, he noticed the bags under his eyes, he noticed his brother's pale complexion.
“Hey D, got a minute?” Dylan gave a small nod and moved to the side so his brother could walk in. Dylan moved over to his bed sitting on the end grabbing his can of soda drinking it down and then burping “charming…” Alex laughed, Dylan just smiled and sat back as Alex looked around his room. Out of the corner of his eye Alex saw pill bottles under Dillans bed he swallowed hard as his heart sank, he knows what is going on but how can he bring it up to Dylan?
“We missed you at training today.” It had been true, a lot of the other trainees asked where Dylan was. Both Charlie and Alex could not give a straight answer. The truth was that they weren’t sure. Alex had yelled to Dylan early in the morning, asking him if he was awake. Dylan said he was in that he was going to be at the gym later.
But as the time ticked by in the morning going into the afternoon, there was no Dylan. Alex and Charlie were worried. They came home, hearing the music coming from Dylan's room. Charlie begged Alex to go and talk to him Alex wanted to ignore it but instead gave in. “Yeah sorry. I felt sick.” It was a bullshit excuse. And Alex knew it. He moved around Dylan's room, his foot touching an empty pill bottle. Alex turns sideways moving his foot to the side to kick the pill bottle out from under the bed as if my accident.
Alex looked down, Dylan did to his face twisting. Alex leaned down picking up the pill bottle turning it towards his brother. “What the hell Dylan?”
There was an awkward silence, Alex took his head and Dylan slid to the edge of the bed getting to his feet. He grabbed the pill bottle and turned, throwing it in the bin. “Must have been left here by a friend.” Alex took a deep sharp breath in his eyes focusing on his brother. He knows he’s lying, he can feel it, he can see it. Alex takes a small step back and folds his arms over his chest.
“You think I’m that dumb?” Dylan lockdown. Alex has nostrils flared, he could feel the anger rising even higher into his chest. His voice rising to almost a yell. “You don’t think I can see what is going on here? You pulling away from us, becoming withdrawn, looking the way you do. Dylan Charlie and I aren’t dumb we know what’s going on.”
“And why do you care?” Dylan finally looked up at Alex, his anger matched by Dylan’s. He got to his feet and stood right in Alex‘s face. Dylan only a few inches shorter than his older brother. “You walked out on us Alex, and then you come back in and think that everything is just going to be fine?. Stay out of my life unless I ask you to. Stay out of my business.“
Dylan moved over to his bedroom door, he opened it and looked through it signalling he wanted Alex to leave. Alex shook his head, his hands balled up into fists. He wanted to smack his brother as hard as he could. He wanted to make sure Dylan knew that this was stupid. But, Alex also knew it would push him away. He moved towards the door and out into the hallway hearing his brother's door shut behind him. He moved over towards the stairs getting ready to go down wondering just what he was going to tell Charlie.
This was bad, and it was only gonna get worse.
Trust issues.
The screen comes alive, we focus on the Sin city wrestling world Heavyweight championship. The gold nameplate at the bottom clearly reads Alex Jones. It sits over his shoulder, his right arm wrapped around it holding onto the main plate has his head tilted to the side with a smile on his face
“Well here we go. My first match as the world champion. The first time I’m stepping back in the ring as a champion with the gold. I know it will be something that all of you will remember forever.“
Alex has his hair tied back in a bun. Dressed in a black suit as we have seen him lately. We noticed that he is standing in the main room of the wolfslair training facility. Other members of the gym and stable around him training. But Alex just smiles and stares directly at the camera
“When the champion gets in the ring, it is an event, it’s an occasion, it’s not just a simple wrestling match it is the wrestling match. Even if I do have to carry two inept partners with me against a team of people who shouldn’t even be able to touch me in the confines of a professional wrestling match. I have to team with the other two singles male champions in this company. And I’m sure some of you are questioning why that would be a problem, after all they are like me they whole championships..”
“But you do realise, not all champions are created equal. I am the world champion, the best of the best. I walk down into that ring a few weeks after losing the mixed tag team championships, a few weeks after feeling the weight of propping up that goddamn division has been lifted off my shoulders.“
“And I once again, for the 10th time in my career, for the first time in this company, became the man”
“And II told you all it was going to happen. When I lost the mixed tag team championships, I told the world that this was going to free me up to go after the world title. That I was done standing in the background and wedding my friends, my students, stand in the spotlight. It was my time, my turn. And people laughed. They said that I was over the hill, that my time to be a world champion has passed.
“An apparent irrelevant has-been, at 35 years old.“
Alex couldn’t help but laugh. He looked down into the side holding the title tighter to his chest, an arrogant glint in his eye as he cracked his neck and looked around at all of his friends.
“I suppose I showed everyone didn’t I?. So not only did I become the champion, it seems like I broke Griffin Hawkins. I meant what I said, I like Griffin as a person I thought he and I were friends. And as a friend I will always be honest with people, I won’t sugarcoat things, I won’t lie. See I was a real friend to Griffin Hawkins. I told him he wasn’t world champion material, I told him what he needed to do to become world champion material, and he didn’t listen. So when I did get in the ring with him I forced him to listen, I tried to teach him a lesson and then instead of him listening to my lesson, and learning from me, he walked away. Proving my point.”
“And now I will be gracing the ring For the first time since winning this title! And I know there are some people, my detractors, who say that I have not been a fighting champion. Because I haven’t been challenging people left or right. The truth is? As the champion people need to be coming for you. They need to be hungry for this championship. If someone challenges me, and I think the third the shot. I’ll put the belt on the line. But nobody has, even Jack Washington has just rambled on with the same things he’s been saying for weeks.And at violent conduct he will get his shot “
“Before that, we have a six-man tag team match to get through.“
“As a rule, I really only team with people I trust. I trust Austin, I trust Alicia, I trust Johanna. I don’t trust Teddy or O’Malley. Teddy Warren-Steele Fluked his way 20 Internet title shot, and he was able to pull another four leaf clover out of his ass and beat Vinnie. Trust me, I will have plenty of things to say about Vinnie later on. But Teddy should not of been him. Teddy got lucky. That joke of a human being should not be a champion, he should be opening the show getting the shit kicked out of him by the latest star that sin city wants to have as a champion contender.”
“But this week I have to carry Teddy to win kicking and screaming.”
“O’Malley on the other hand, I don’t have to carry him. People underestimate him. But he’s clearly been able to win championships. Doing it both here and in sin city underground. The only problem I see with O’Malley, is that his ego is larger than his talent. And yes you are a talented professional wrestler O’Malley. But your ego, it’s okay to have an ego if you can back it up. And you seem to have trouble in that situation. Do you think I have a god complex?. No, I just know I’m good and I know I can back it up”
“I’ve done it my entire career. And I’m going to keep doing it while I drag both of you to win.“
Alex laughs to himself again, he moves along the main floor of the gym away from the practice rings and maths. Over to his office where he turns and leans against the door following his arms over his chest.
“And on the opposite side of the ring, We have a team of Contenders. We have Milo Kaaey, señor Vinnie, and Jack Washington. The only thing more pathetic than the two douche bags I have to team with, is the three douche bags on the outside the ring. Milo Casey was supposed to face Austin in a match, that match never happened yet Milo is still a contender. He’s going to go on and face O’Malley. Admittedly it’s for a championship that no one should really give two shits about, a championship that needs a gimmick to be relevant.”
“Miles, and I’m going to call you Miles from now on, because Milo sounds like the name you give one of those annoying little pugs that can’t breathe properly that has the tongue hanging out the side of their mouth and likes to run into brick walls. You may believe you can hang with the best of the best. But, on a team full of weak links that seem to be coming apart at the seams, you are the weakest. See, Jack Washington at least has a future in this business, he looks put together and he’s already proved he can stand up with the best in what he did against Ben Jordan.”
“Vinnie has had success. But you? You have exploded onto the scene, but not in a way that is going to actually make a difference. You are someone who will be looked at as a flash in the pan, and O’Malley is going to steamroll over you.”
Alex shrugs, his assessment based on over a decade of in ring activity and seeing people come and go in different promotions and the business.
“Now, don’t get excited Vincent. I know the fact that I just said you had success is probably made you jump up and down and try and give Cactus Pete a hug, or maybe you felt a nice little flattering of butterflies down in the base of your stomach that got you all nice and excited enough to jump on top of your fat wife.”
“But I was using success in a relative term. You have been somewhat successful in sin city. It took you many times to actually become the world champion but you did, you beat Austin one on one. Then you did it again to take the Internet championship. And while your world title run was good, It was stuck in an era where we have had dominant champions. Fenris, Austin and Ben. I don’t happen to agree with Austin’s assessment about your world championship reign. If it had happened at any other time, it would be looked at as amazing. But your Internet reign on the other hand.”
“You won the title, and then you rolled over on your back and played dead for three seconds for Teddy like your name is Kate. Not the best look Vinnie…”
“I’ll give you credit though, You got right back on that horse, going after the Internet Championship. And to be honest, you are better than Teddy and you deserve that championship more than he does. So good luck, but I’m still gonna be going as hard as I can’t win this match. Because I hate losing.”
Alex raises his eyebrows, it’s a pretty normal statement and something that encompasses most of what Alex has done in his career
“But, what people should be most excited about is this is the first time Jack Washington and I will be competing in anything that actually matters. He’ll be standing over the other side of the ring from the ready to get his hands on me and actually see what all the fuss is about. But what you need to remember Jack, I am the champion. And I’ve done it nine times before this one. You have not climbed the mountain. You don’t know what it’s like. So, I’m sure you believe your comments about me being irrelevant hurt me or got in my head or made me angry…”
“Oh sweet summer child.”
“The steroids have gone to your head.”
“I’ve heard comments like that for years. From people like Kaden Kessler. Where is he now? And Dinn Whelan, gosh where did he go?. From Kevin Hunter, he up and disappeared…..”
“Meanwhile, I’m standing in a gym I own, surrounded by friends, students, training partners and family that are champions or have been champions, holding the world title of one of the best companies in the world and you...you think off hand childish comments like yours are going to put me off my game or get in my head?”
“To steal from fight club. I am Jacks sense of disappointed and latent potential….”
“You are a great talent Jack. I’m not saying you aren’t. I’m not even saying you won’t be world champion someday. But if you keep down this line of thinking...then I’ve already won. But on climax control we will both have to compensate for lacklustre partners. But….they have me….”
“And you have Miles kasey”
Alex can’t help but laugh before shaking his head and walking off screen.
