[Jet City]

==========================================================
>
==========================================================

Old Friends
Jet City South - SAN DIEGO
20 JANUARY 2022
OFF-Camera



My path to Sin City Wrestling was a long one. One that I never really planned on making either. It kind of all fell into my lap. One thing led to another, led to another, and then another, so forth and so on. Before I ended up competing in Blast from the Past, it was me showing up on the doorstep of Jet City. Before that, things were actually a lot more fun. I got to go where I wanted. I mean, the first leg of this tour was in Canada of all fucking places. I prefer somewhere warm. Somewhere with beaches, sand, and people trying to show off the vacation bodies they worked hard to sculpt. That’s where I belong. Technically, that’s where the long and winding road to Sin City actually started.

Hawaii was a fun time, I can’t lie. It’s full of opportunities for anyone smart enough to reach out and grab them. I mean, there’s people falling asleep on beaches. There’s people wandering around lost. There’s huge celebrations that draw massive crowds of tourists. Everything that someone like me needed to fit in, and all made possible by the smartest money that I had ever made. I was riding pretty high at the time, but that wasn’t why that particular night stands out in my memory. I had charmed my way through a couple of pockets at bars earlier in the night. When I turned into that alley, the three guys I was with were pretty much tapped out. More of their money was in my pocket than any of theirs, and they weren’t handling the alcohol near as well as I was. I was already looking for a way to ditch them when they spotted the bartender just trying to take a break in silence. Drunkenly, they redirected towards her, already starting with the catcalls. That wasn’t going to be good for me, or my night.

Oz: "Nah guys don't be building that one up. Whistling at a soft 6  like that is going to make her feel like a hard 8 or something."

Now I strongly believe that there are three kinds of people in the world. There are the people that are going to soften up, tuck tail, and run back inside. There are those that are going to just take it, or maybe even try to shame guys for the attempt. Then there were people that were just ready to square up on sight. I could only read the girl’s body language through the dim light, but she definitely fell in that third group. After a whole night dealing with drunks behind the bar where she couldn’t say anything off-color, she seemed ready to swing at any asshole with the audacity. The problem was, from the moment our eyes locked on one another, we knew something the other three didn’t.

Oz: "Oh shit! Fuck a soft six… This one ain’t nothing but a straight 4. Street folk don't get to climb the ladder just because they fill out nicely and end up in Hawaii…. isn’t that right, E?"

The other three may well have been invisible from that point on. She walked right past them like they weren’t the original intended victims of whatever hatred she was about to open her mouth and spew at me. They wouldn’t have been equipped to deal with it either. They wouldn’t have known what they had gotten themselves into until she had finished laying them out in the middle of the street. I knew it, because I had seen it before. Lived it.

Oz: "How does a soup kitchen kid like you end up in a place like this anyway? Finally work your way off the corner and down to a more tropical climate?"

The three bums did exactly what I expected them to do: kept it moving. See, they were part of that first category of people I mentioned, the ones that flee the scene. Suddenly, they weren’t so worried about where the rest of my night was going to take me. They weren’t worried about winning any of their money back, or finding the missing watch that was definitely in my back pocket. They saw this chick about to flip her lid, and bailed like the cowards that they were.

Oz: "Aight chumps. I see how it is… you gonna let a girl scare you off? Don't nobody be trying to get on my tab later!"

I watched as she balled up her fists on her way towards me. Her mouth fell open a few times and slammed shut wordlessly. By the time she got to me, her jaw was clenched, and I could tell she was trying not to let me back under her skin like I had been when we were kids. She wasn’t going to give me the satisfaction of blowing up. I wasn’t a stranger.

Eiley: “I doubt I scared them off…”

Her voice is devoid of any emotion, and I knew what a struggle that had to be. There didn’t even sound like anything brewing under the surface, even though rage was all over her face. She didn’t have that kind of control the last time that I had seen her. Although, it had been a couple of years at that point. In the past she would have swung at me then and there. She had even chased me through alleys in San Diego for the same reason on more than one occasion. This time, it was like she was determined to not let me win. I had to commend her for the attempt.

Eiley: “I see that you haven’t changed in the least. Still hanging out with the worst of the worst as long as they have an open tab?”

I could see the anger fade from her face as she spoke. The control she had was pretty impressive. Instead of exploding at me, she tried to play my game for once. I could have sworn that her eyes seemed to say they were enjoying it too.

Eiley: “I’m surprised they let scum like you on this island. I’m sure you’re not even making your own money to stay here but swiping it off of others.”

She had me pegged from the start, but to be fair, she had the advantage. We had been part of the same circle of friends for a long time. We all kind of aged out of the system, and came up together. Several of us learned handy little survival trades that worked no matter where we found ourselves. It was almost comical to hear her sound so above it all though.

Eiley: “Why don’t you go back to kicking over trash cans or harassing the homeless? Or whatever it is you do. I have to get back to my job.”

She turned, but I wasn’t going down like that. Even if her best shot had been weak, I wasn’t going to let her just walk off feeling like she had done something to be proud of. Sure, she hadn’t completely lost her cool, but since when is that worth giving someone a medal for? She had her chance, just like I had to return fire.

Oz: "Ha!  …a fucking job… that does suck."

Not that I was surprised. She was always the one of us that was most likely to try and play society’s game the way that it was supposed to be played. She wasn’t going to be afraid of the back-breaking labor in a going-nowhere job. She had always been determined to rise above by only bending the rules that most of us pretended weren’t there at all. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t still wrong about me though.

Oz: "...and I'll have you know, little-miss-full-of-herself, I am here on my own dime. Paid for a ticket and everything….. but…. since touching down have I seen some people get loose with their billfolds and maybe lose some here and there? Maybe. Can I be blamed for what they misplaced though?"

I paused, but only long enough to get her to spin around back towards me. The goal was to keep her from escaping back inside thinking that she had won, and I had succeeded. However, as soon as she tried to answer, I cut her off.

Oz: "Nah. Don't answer that. I know what you'll say. As much as you're one of us, you also have that holier than thou shit going. But… look at the two of us! All this time passed and here we are. Someone still in the same place, at the same time. Only you're working, and I'm out partying."

I could see that anger starting to boil back up even though she didn’t want to show it. She gritted her teeth, and tried to choke it back.

Eiley: “At least I don’t have to lie and steal to make money. Everything I have, I earned. I didn’t have to prey on a flock of hapless drunks every night just to be able to skate by on the bare minimum. You think you’re some kind of success story because you’re here? We see trash wash up all the time.”

It was good. Better than I would have given her credit for before tonight. If I would have gotten to put money down on the argument, I would have put it on her blowing up before managing a single word that was able to cut me more than superficially. Unfortunately, she was a couple of weeks behind the times.

Oz: “Nah, see it’s not like that anymore. If you find the right people you don’t have those kinds of problems anymore.”

Her eyes rolled hard. I knew there was no way that she was going to believe that I wasn’t in the exact same position I was in the last time our paths crossed. Me being better off meant that all of her work was for nothing. She was convinced that the only way out was real work. I was about to shatter that world view.

Eiley: “That’s all pretty pointlessly vague.”

It was intentional. I wanted her to ask, because if she didn’t, then she really wasn’t interested. It would have shown me that she really wasn’t second-guessing the path that she took. Questions meant curiosity. Curiosity meant uncertainty, and that meant that no matter how hard she tried, I would win.

Oz: “Some people are going to pay me to go work out. You know, really bust my ass and go through some kind of combat school. But see, they don’t even care if I am any good. They don’t even care if I ever even actually fight. All I gotta do is keep my eyes peeled for the right guy to walk in the door, and let them know when or if he does. Nothing more. Nothing less. All expenses paid, for as long as it takes.”

She gritted her teeth, and tried to turn away, but I was ready for it. I beat her to the door and put my back to it, bringing the two of us face-to-face.

Oz: "What’s the matter? Upset that you have fought so hard, just to fail to reach the middle all while someone as terrible as me skipped right over you with a smile on my face?"

She reached for the handle of the door, and yanked back. To my surprise, she actually managed to pull me off balance a little, but it wasn’t enough to get me out of the way.

Eiley: "You’re a shit person. You’ve always been a shit person. You’ll likely always be a shit person. You know what the sad thing is though? Nobody has ever expected anything better from you. Sure, you may have started at the bottom and the occasional score might catapult you up a few steps, but make no mistake, you’ll end up right where you belong."

She was probably right, but that seemed like a problem for a future version of me to deal with. I was too busy making sure that I got there without any regrets.

Oz: "I couldn’t help being born in the gutter, but I am only interested in moving upward and onward. If you're too stuck in the past to see that, maybe a job is what you really needed."

She yanked back on the door again, but my foot was firmly planted against it, so there was no movement like there was on the first attempt. Unable to flee, her face twisted up and she made no attempt to hide her anger anymore.

Eiley: “I believe it is you that is stuck in the past. You’re the one that is still doing the same stupid shit that I was doing six or seven years ago but I’ve moved on from that. I don’t need to resort to the shortcuts that you do. I think it gets to you that I grew up. You should think about doing the same.”

She went to pull the door again, and this time I moved so that it swung open. It crashed against the bricks of the back wall of the building hard enough to be heard overtop of the music inside. I knew that it was only a matter of seconds before someone was going to come check that everything was okay, but that display of anger was all I needed to chalk up yet another victory.

Eiley: “Go home Olly. Wherever it is that home is these days…”

She sounded defeated, although she could have just been trying to shoo me along before anybody with the power to fire her came along.

Eiley: “I have to go back to work. Real work.”

I didn’t stop her. I probably could have. I could have made a scene and I definitely could have convinced someone that she accosted me in the alley and deserved to be fired. To be honest though, that wasn’t something that I wanted. I just wanted to get that rise out of her. From the moment that I realized it was her, I just wanted to play the game, because we always had. Getting under her skin started out as a way to pass the time. Years later, it was a way to deal with other feelings. Then in Hawaii, I am not even sure if I knew why I was doing it. I don’t even know why I gave her all of the information that I did. I just know that conversation eventually led us both to the place we ended up: Sin City.



==========================================================
>
==========================================================



I am sure that people are wondering exactly who I am…

That’s kind of the million dollar question of the first round, isn’t it? I mean, all of these fresh new faces come in for the Blast from the Past tournament because the prize is something that nobody can pass up. Anybody can go from a basic nobody to the face of the whole company if they get a good partner and can go the distance. It’s an offer that is too good to refuse.

...but there is a limit. I mean, of all of the competitors in the world, only sixteen men and sixteen women get to enter. There are more people than that on the roster in this company, and yet the tournament is open to the world. Sometimes you have to know the right people to get a foot in the door. Sometimes, you just need to be positioned in the right gym, for when they get the call. I mean, that is how I ended up here. I’ll be honest with you guys, I had never even heard of this place a year ago. I was just looking for a place to stay in beach shape. How was I supposed to know that Jet City South would eventually funnel me here? How could I have guessed that I would be handed one of these spots and told to go run with the opportunity?

The short answer is that I couldn’t have guessed that any of this would happen. I am one of a handful of people in the tournament representing Jet City, and all of you saw what Court Pierce did in the opener last week. I walked into that gym last year, and I have taken on the best that they have had to offer every single day since. I have pushed people that have been doing this a lot longer than me to their limit and then some. I have risen above people that have been around for years. I have ascended the ranks of a gym that produced what I hear is one of the best this company has ever seen. Yet, they pointed the finger at me when it came to signing up for this tournament. They wanted me to be the one coming down the aisle to represent them. They trusted me to do that, all while having a legacy of a gym that typically does really well in Blast from the Past. They have trained a winner, and several others that got very close.

Who can really say who belongs and who doesn’t before they ever actually step inside the six sides of the Sin City ring?

...but that is what a lot of people in this tournament are going to say. People were already doing it this week, and I am sure that this Sunday’s Climax Control will be no different. People are going to say that rookies don’t stand a chance. People are going to say that a lot of the new faces don’t realize what they are getting themselves into. Everyone is expecting the newbies to be tossed out in the first round, because they aren’t ready. So let me ask this, who ever is? Nobody is ever the very best that they will ever be from the first day on the job.

I mean look at the legends of this company. Everyone lost their shit when J2H signed up for Blast from the Past, but from what I hear, that dude was a joke for a long time before becoming the superstar he is now. If he had listened to any of the detractors early on, you people would have never seen what he was capable of growing into. Now it is all you people talk about. It is all that I have heard since the very moment that I signed up. You know what that tells me? It tells me that you people don’t have a fucking clue what will work, and what won’t. You can’t see the future stars coming before they slap you in the mouth. You don’t believe, until you see it for yourselves.

Everyone is quick to write-off the people that haven’t done anything yet, and equally as fast to jump on the bandwagon after new superstars start to take off. And that isn’t just the fans. After being at the show last week, I can tell you that the same conversations are happening in the back, and they are damn sure happening in the gyms. People started picking the winners of this tournament before the teams were even announced. That really helped open my eyes to how all of this actually worked.

Coming out of Jet City South was already bad enough. I mean, the shadow of Kris Ryans is going to be a rough one to break out of. Being around that place, the stories are unavoidable. Nobody took Coby seriously because as good as he was, he wasn’t the ‘The Miracle’. Court heard the same thing, and is still dealing with that to this day. It basically crippled her. Ruby showed up, and people literally hated her from the jump. Kate has been successful, but people don’t even relate her to Jet City the way that all of us students do. Even the kid that showed up in the tournament last year apparently heard the chatter. He flamed out so spectacularly that nobody ever saw the dude again. And I had to deal with all of that every time I stepped into that building. I had to deal with the naysayers and the ones that already believed that the bar had been raised as high as it ever could.

...and that is exactly why I passed them all up. That is why it is me standing here, and not them. That is why I am in this tournament while everyone else with a more important resume couldn’t be bothered. Too many people are paralyzed by the fear of coming out and falling short. Too many people don’t try, because they don’t feel like they could get to the top. Too many of them don’t want to waste their effort on something everyone knows they are going to fail at.

Not me. Why? Because like I said, you people don’t know shit. Nobody in that locker room has seen me actually step foot in the ring. The majority of the people in the arena aren’t going to give me a chance all because they don’t recognize my name. The people in this tournament are going to tell me that I don’t know what it takes, and that I have no idea what someone can put me through in that ring. They’ll say I haven’t learned enough.

...and nobody actually knows a damn thing at all.

I mean fuck, the guy that the majority of you hold up as the guy with the best shot of winning this tournament is a guy that all of you have wrote off as a punchline before you gave him a chance. Even worse, everyone is on Kris’ bandwagon now that he is dead and gone, but that dude’s rise to the top was literally called miraculous around this company. They dubbed him “The Miracle” like he was doing anything as a champion that he hadn’t done the first night on the job. I am new around here, but it seems like there is a trend starting there. Seems like everyone makes up their mind about what newcomers can do before everyone lays an eye on them. That doesn’t sound like there’s a glass ceiling anymore. It sounds awful fucking concrete to me.

So I can’t care about what any of you think. I can’t care about what my opponents are going to say about me. I can’t care what the people in the locker room think of me. If I do, I already lost because they don’t think I can do what I am setting out to do in the Blast from the Past tournament. Nobody thinks I can win. Nobody thinks that I stand a chance. Nobody outside of Jet City thinks that I even deserve to be here. So I say fuck’em. I say, I’mma just do my own thing. I say, me and my partner shut out all the white noise and just go out there to do what we thought we could from the moment we signed up for this thing. Before the teams were picked, before even all the names were announced, we signed up for this thing because we thought there was a chance we could win it. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t feel that way. This would be a waste of time otherwise. I say let’s cling to that, and you people can keep the rest, because at the end of the day, none of you are going to be in that ring with me.

...I only need one person in my corner, and that’s Ariana Angelos. She probably understands better than most people in this tournament what it is like to be counted out, and rise above it anyways. I mean, she came into this year as the Bombshell Roulette Champion. Who thought that was possible before she did it? Who thought that her jump from the Underground to SCW would crash and burn? She is yet another in a long line of people exceeding the expectations placed on them, but she doesn’t seem bitter about it at all. I doubt she would disagree with anything I’ve said, even if she wouldn’t have said it herself. She graduated out of the Go Gym, and has carried a championship in Sin City, and even she can’t get the recognition that she deserves. What makes her any different than any of the other greats that came out of that gym? What makes her less than any other former champion in Sin City? Not a damn thing. I don’t think I could have gotten paired with anyone better. I got a partner that can understand where I am coming from, and what I want to get done in that ring. That’s not a bad foundation for two strangers to start from.

However, I will say that the one thing that bothers me the most about her is the one thing that bothers me the most about our first round opponents. It’s the fact that in the face of all of the negativity, she is still cherry, and gives a shit what people think about her. Granted, she isn’t as bad about the nauseatingly sweet Sam Marlowe, or the human punchline Teddy Warren.

...and I get it. Not only has Sam made it to the finals of this tournament before, but there apparently used to be a whole mixed tag division inspired by this tournament, and she won that championship as well. And it’s hard to hype up Ariana holding that Bombshell Roulette Championship when Sam has had that thing on several occasions. My problem is, there isn’t a single person that has a negative thing to say about her. I’ve asked. Every time her name is brought up, it seems to light up whomever I am talking to. People rave about her, despite the fact that in all her years she has never managed to rise up past the middle. No matter how many chances she has been handed and failed to cash in on, people love her. People love watching her compete. People are always cheering her on. It’s the exact opposite treatment that most of the rest of us get, and for the worst possible reason. She isn’t respected as one of the best to ever come through this company. She isn’t elite in the ring, or even in a promo. Everything is cookie-cutter safe when it comes to Sam. Everyone shrugs off her mediocrity because the only thing she is really good at is kissing ass. She is the queen of pandering. I have watched countless clips online trying to figure out why I should feel threatened by her being across the ring from me, and every one of them made me sick to my stomach. She lets people walk all over her with a smile on her face and everyone loves a good doormat.

...the problem with being a doormat though, is that they don’t end up winning a whole lot of wrestling matches. When you smile in the face of someone pointing out your shortcomings, it means those shortcomings don’t bother you. That come-whatever-may attitude means that there is no fire burning inside of her to actually reach out and do something worth remembering. She would rather be everyone’s friend than the face of the Bombshell division, and that’s fine. That’s clearly worked for her. She has been collecting a paycheck for a long while without having to ever actually work on her craft. That’s as far as the dream goes for some people. They are just happy to be included.

And that goes double for her partner and the “man” that I have to actually lock up with on Climax Control, Teddy Warren. I couldn’t find a whole lot about the guy, because apparently there is not a whole lot about him worth knowing. He also apparently got his hands on that mixed tag championship that doesn’t exist anymore, but from what I can tell, not even he thought that he deserved it. Apparently the only thing that he is actually good for, is getting J2H to show up and make fun of him. What’s even more sad is that back when he signed up for this tournament he was talking about how he hadn’t been competing full time in nearly two years because of a gnarly divorce. So I am stepping into the ring against a guy who hasn’t even really been thinking about competing, let alone stepping inside a ring for two years; a guy that wasn’t even all that great back when he was working on his craft day-after-day. And I could sit here and point out all the same shortcomings in his game that everyone else did years before I was paying attention, but what’s the point? We have seen his best, and it doesn’t even rise to the mediocrity of his partner.

Yet these are the two individuals that people have given the edge to send Ariana and I home in the first round. These are the two that the fans are undoubtedly going to be behind when the bell rings. They are the favorites, and Ari and I are the incapable ones. Is anyone still wondering why I can’t take any of you seriously? Every single person in the crowd, and the locker room are hypocrites. When given the choice between young talent or proven failures apparently the only thing that matters is how long someone has been around. It’s not right. And now it is my mission to show every single person in that arena how very, very wong they all are.

...and afterwards they’ll probably call it something stupid like “miraculous” even though it was all so fucking clear from the start.