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Worldwide Road Trip
23th August 2024
OFF-Camera
I spent the better part of two weeks after Summer XXXtreme trying to convince Holdan that he and the kid should come on the tour with me. Mikah wasn’t a huge fan of showing up to every show these days, and the kids had gotten so used to traveling around the world that it wasn’t really special to them anymore, it was work. They weren’t really the cheerleaders that they used to be in the lead up to my matches, because this had always been their life. Mikah forcing me to bring Max and Holdan along for the ride to Summer XXXtreme had been a bigger blessing than I think she bargained for. Their energy was what had really propped me up for the duration of the cruise. I wanted to go out and beat Miles Kasey because it was the first time that they were going to be there to see me compete. I wanted to make an impression. As weird as it was, I wanted to feel like the cool older brother.
It felt like a no-brainer that they would follow me for Climax Control, but Holdan wasn’t having it. He wanted the two of us to get to know each other. He wanted me to be there for the kid as a role model. But he also wanted Max to have more of a normal life than Jason and I got, and that didn’t include jetting off to foreign countries for weeks at a time. It took every bit of good will I have built up over the years of continued sobriety to find a compromise. They weren’t going to take off for the week, especially not since school was back in session. And there was no way that Holdan was getting on a series of flights that would monopolize most of an entire day. However, he did add me to the kid’s school pick-up list, and made me promise that I wouldn’t make him regret it.
I think we all know that he should have seen this coming.
MAX: Didn’t expect to be seeing you here. Is Holdan okay?
I had been sitting in the line in front of the school for so long that I had almost forgotten what I was there to do. It wasn’t until the kid pulled open the door to the passenger side of the car and plopped down into the seat next to me that I was pulled out of the daydream. I did my best to avoid the question without raising undue suspicion.
KRIS: He’s fine. He’s just old, and not very fun.
The kid scrunched up his face, and gestured to the world around us.
MAX: Well sitting in a high school pick-up line isn’t really a fun activity. Seems to be more his style than yours.
The car behind us laid on the horn the moment that Max’s door was closed. Apparently I was stopping some crazed PTA mom from making her appointment to get fucked by her yoga instructor. At least, that is the story that I was going to stick to later when they asked me why I spun the ties and sped out of the parking lot leaving a cloud of dust and debris behind us.
KRIS: True, but only if we were heading somewhere as boring as his house.
Concern took over his face almost instantly. Apparently Holdan was already priming him not to trust me.
MAX: We’re not?
I shrugged off the question with a laugh.
KRIS: God no! We have to be in Thailand in two days.
The confusion only grew on his face, and he turned towards me in his seat.
MAX: Thailand? Like the country?
I nodded, doing my best to make it seem like it was all part of a plan that everyone had already agreed to. The more nonchalant I was, the more compelled he would be to just go along for the ride.
KRIS: Correct. Bangkok specifically. Unless you’d rather stay here this weekend.
He opened his mouth to argue, but closed it wordlessly while he seemed to consider why he would try to talk me out of the adventure. Instead, he settled for some kind of reassurance that this was okay.
MAX: You can just show up and take me out of the country?
Instead of answering that question, I turned to answering all of the ones that he should have been asking instead. For instance, why I would take him, of all people.
KRIS: Well, you’ve already proven to be my good luck charm. I can’t just leave you behind. Plus, we have your brother’s jet, and I have a very long history of poor decision-making.
I could see some of the excitement fade from his face at the mention of Jason. I couldn’t say that I didn’t understand the feeling.
MAX: My brother? I don’t even know him.
That was a problem for another day, but it wasn’t like I could say that to him.
KRIS: Yeah well, you aren’t missing much. However, now that there is someone that shares both of his parents, I don’t have to claim him anymore. He is all yours.
All of the words came out in jest, but he wasn’t willing to stop taking the subject seriously.
MAX: You and I only share one parent, and you’re still here.
I shrugged again, and made another excuse for Jason.
KRIS: I am nicer than he is.
He at least appeared to take that answer in stride, and softened just a bit.
MAX: Somehow I don’t think that is much of a challenge. Since Summer XXXtreme I have been watching some of the things that you two did as Jet City. He kind of seems like a bummer.
I elbowed him with a smirk on my face.
KRIS: Well, fair warning, standing next to me everyone kind of feels… lackluster.
He smiled, but I could tell that it was forced.
MAX: It feels weird that I have to get to know him like any other fan. It would be nice if he actually cared. It’s not even like I expect much. He could call and say what’s up. It just feels like he doesn’t want anything to do with me.
I wasn’t going to be able to fix this problem today, but I also couldn’t leave the kid hanging. There was every chance that the fact that he wasn’t around had significantly more to do with me than the kid.
KRIS: I know it’s unfair, but it really doesn’t even have anything to do with you. He’ll come around.
All my words earned was a sigh.
MAX: ...and if he doesn’t?
I knew that I couldn’t lie to him, and trying to cheer him up wasn’t having any impact on his feelings. So instead, I offered the only solution that I could.
KRIS: We have his jet. It’s not like we can’t just drop in on him.
That changed his expression entirely. I couldn’t help but feel the full weight of the ‘half’ sibling title, but that wasn’t something that I could put on him. He was still a kid. They were going to say hurtful things unintentionally. Leighton was particularly good at it, but at least dealing with her prepared me for it.
MAX: Really?
KRIS: I’ll tell you what, the next time that I am not booked for Climax Control, I will pick you up from school and we will book it straight to Seattle. We won’t even give him a heads up. No chance he can blow us off.
He sat back in his chair, convinced that I wasn’t just telling him what he wanted to hear. I could see the weight finally lift off of him.
MAX: That’s bold.
KRIS: Not really. Actually, I am pretty sure that is exactly what he expects to happen.
I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but my words definitely piqued the kid’s interest.
MAX: So this is all some kind of game?
I laughed, and tried to bury 35 years worth of frustrations in it.
KRIS: With him? Always.
Apparently it had worked, because he had an immediate follow-up question.
MAX: Then how do we win?
This time there was no chance that I could stop myself from laughing. The kid definitely had a whole lot to learn about our oldest sibling if he was ever going to survive a conversation with him. Max deserved to know what he was getting himself into though if we really were going to disturb Jason up in Seattle.
KRIS: We don’t. He does, every time. If I had to guess, the only reason that he hasn’t come to see you is because he didn’t trust that I would show up first. He was trying to force my hand, knowing that as soon as I caved in one of the first things I would do is bring you to beat down his front door.
He frowned, and I could see the wheels turning in his head before he ever opened his mouth. All of that weight he had been carrying was about to get dumped on my shoulders.
MAX: Then why haven’t we done that yet?
The words felt a whole lot like getting shot all over again. Even worse, I could hear them coming out of his mouth in Jason’s voice. I definitely should have done that already. Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind before today. I was always a couple of steps behind, and now even Max understood that. I did my best to deflect with a better answer.
KRIS: ...because going on a cruise and flying his jet to the other side of the world is so much more fun.
For the first time, the trip must have felt real, because he immediately patted his backpack, and then looked into the backseat of the car, only to find it empty.
MAX: ...but I didn’t bring any clothes or anything…
I laughed, and reached into my pocket.
KRIS: I got that part covered.
I tossed him the card from my pocket, and when he turned it over and saw the name on it, he smiled more genuinely than I had seen before.
KRIS: Everything for this weekend is on Mikah. Let’s go get me another win!
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>Third Time’s The Charm
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”In this business, when you underestimate your opponent, you get blindsided….”
”It doesn’t matter how good you are. It doesn’t matter what kind of roll you have been on. You can be at the top of your game, and still get knocked off the top of the mountain. Nobody is immune, and rarely does anyone see it coming. If you are lucky, you learn from your mistakes, and it never happens again. If you’re anything like me, you have to learn that lesson over and over again until it finally sticks.”
”When Sin City passed through Japan, I was reminded of one of the times my career almost blew up in my face. A few years ago I carried the SCW Internet Championship into our international tour. I was riding high, as it was the first singles championship that I had ever held. Even bigger than that, it was my first time traveling the globe as a champion. I was on top of the world. Every week was a celebration, including, but not limited to, my birthday which fell just before the Tokyo show. I thought that I was walking into another easy win. I didn’t think that I needed to take things seriously. I went out and partied a little too hard. I talked a little too much shit. I was a little too confident stumbling to my car, and because of that I was taught a painful lesson about walking around Los Angeles at night. The smart move would have been to pull myself off of the show, and live to fight another day. I didn’t think that I had anything to worry about though. I showed up to defend my championship. I was sure that I was going to win.”
”....and I got absolutely fucking embarrassed by a kid and his teddy bear…”
”You would think that I would have learned my lesson from that. I had to take a few months off to heal from the injuries I suffered that week. It sidelined my career, and when I finally came back, I had to work my way up from the bottom all over again. I went from sitting on top of the world, to being an afterthought. I went from being the fastest rising star in this company, to being someone that everyone thought was destined to flame out early. It took a long time to recover from that, but I did. Eventually, I recaptured all of that momentum. I went on to do bigger and better things than I had dreamed of as Internet Champion. I became a Grand Slam Champion….”
”...but that doesn’t mean that I learned a goddamn thing in the process…”
”...because sure enough, another day came where I was blinded by my success. I talked down to everyone on the roster. I thought that I was invincible. It didn’t seem to matter what anyone threw at me in the ring because I always managed to avoid disaster. There were signs in the crowd saying that SCW was KRIS. I didn’t think that the company could exist without me, and everyone should be lucky to get to see me do my thing in the middle of the ring.”
”As embarrassing as Despayre and his stuffed animal beating me was, the fall from grace following Bill Barnhart stomping me out was worse.”
”I didn’t think that he had what it took to lace up my PF Flyers, let alone stand toe-to-toe with me in the middle of the six-sided Sin City ring. I didn’t take him seriously. I made a long list of jokes at his expense. I brushed him off as a threat, and then when that bell rang he did everything but rip off my arms and beat me to death with them. To say that I lost that match wouldn’t be giving Bill the credit that he deserves. He dominated, and in doing so, he knocked me off of the pedestal that I put myself on.”
”....but a funny thing happened when he did. Despayre might not have been able to beat the message into me, but Bill certainly did. That match was the very last time that I looked over an opponent. That match was the very last time that I didn’t look into my opponents before a match. I started watching how everyone moved in the ring. I started listening to the contents of their promos. I became a student of the craft for the first time in my career, and because of that I rose to heights that I didn’t think myself capable of. Eventually, I became The Miracle.”
”...and it was that attitude that I carried with me into my latest matches with the Kaseys. LJ is a newcomer still trying to gain his footing. People said that our match was going to be a squash, and that I would run circles around the kid. They couldn’t have been more wrong. He brought the fight to me, and in the end, it was my preparation that carried me to the victory. The story wasn’t much different when it came to taking on Miles. People think of him as wasted potential, and the guy that gets close, but can’t quite take hold of the brass ring. I think the two of us proved at Summer XXXtreme that Miles is starting to put it all together. That match could have gone either way, and I am lucky to have survived.”
”....but the Kasey name isn’t unknown. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the group they are associated or the places that they have been knows that they need to be taken seriously. It wasn’t like I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I saw my name across from theirs on the card. I wasn’t building a game plan from ground zero when it came to either of those guys.”
”Felix ‘The Cat’ Hernandez is truly one of those unknown quantities….”
”...and for anyone else on the roster, I am sure that he has the potential to pop up and surprise them in the ring. A few years ago, he definitely would have had the potential to blindside me and hand me a loss that would set me back months in this company. I hadn’t heard his name before I saw it on the card. I hadn’t seen any of his matches in Sin City. I wasn’t paying attention to him at all, and there was a time where that would have been my downfall.”
”However, within thirty seconds of looking into the guy, I saw a face that I won’t ever forget. I saw an individual that will haunt me forever, no matter how many times I have beaten him since the most embarrassing day of my career. When I started looking into Felix, imagine my surprise when I saw clip-after-clip of him standing alongside The Barnharts. Then I find out that, like Bill, he is managed by Bea. I was smacked with the foreboding feeling that history could repeat itself for the third time. It became an itch under my skin that I couldn’t quite scratch. It was my first thought of every morning, and the thought that kept me awake at night. It caused me to push myself harder all week long. Until I could shake it, research took up every free moment. And if there was a chance of me forgetting that lesson that Bill taught me years ago, it went out the window at that moment. ”
”See Felix, you couldn’t have possibly known what you were doing, but you managed to bring the one person to the party that could cause you to have my absolute, undivided attention. Before you ever opened your mouth, or uttered my name, I was breaking down every single thing you have ever done in this business. I became obsessed with knowing your game forwards, backwards and inside out. I wanted to know everything that there was to know about you so that when the bell rings in Thailand on Sunday, there wouldn’t be any surprises.”
”...and what did I find?”
”I found a guy that is more reliant on a stainless steel ‘Magical Bag of Tricks’ than he is his in-ring abilities. I found a guy that appears to be as full of himself as I was on my worst days. I found a guy that talks a big game, but has fallen short in all but one of his endeavors in this company.”
”Color me a little disappointed….”
”See, I have been handed two blockbuster matches since my return. LJ Kasey and I were the highlight of Climax Control. Miles and I stole the show at Summer XXXtreme. In both of those cases, my opponent and I went out to the ring and threw everything that we had at each other in order to get the fans up and out of their seats. We tore the house down, because we actually gave it our all. We weren’t out there taking short cuts. We weren’t worrying about the best way that our managers could help us steal a win. We weren’t trying to get away with anything behind the referee’s back. We went to war, and we left everything that we had out in the ring, because that is the job. That is the kind of effort that this industry has been built on. The Kaseys and I went out there to create an instant classic, and I feel like we delivered. In both cases, I was paired up with a guy that was younger, faster, and hungrier at this point in their career than I was, but in both cases I walked away with a hard earned win.”
”Compare that to the fact that this week I will walk down the aisle to fight a guy the same age as me. I will step into a ring with a guy with physical stats that match mine almost exactly. I go to war against a guy that has been in this industry roughly just as long as I have been, and has taken all of the extended breaks in the meantime that I have. On paper, there is no advantage for either of us.”
”...except I don’t have to carry my tricks in a cartoon-possessed briefcase.”
”On Sunday, Felix is going to learn that my bag of tricks runs a whole lot deeper than whatever he is going to have Bea pulling out of that case. While he prefers to keep his feet planted firmly on the mat, I am going to be flying circles around him. While he is looking for a shortcut, I am looking to use myself as a wrecking ball. His little briefcase might have an item for every possible occasion, but how well-prepared will he be to take on the most unpredictable superstar to ever step into a Sin City ring? I have made a name for myself by slipping out of every predicament I find myself in during a match. I adapt. I overcome. If Felix thinks that his little case is going to be enough to help him pull out a victory, then Sunday night is going to haunt him for the rest of his life. ”
”...because I didn’t come back to play games.”
”I came back to stack W’s.”
”Felix can step up like so many others before him, and come catch the L he deserves.”
