Home
The concept of going home is a strange one. When you think about it the whole concept of Home itself is strange. Is home where your family is? Is home the place that you make yourself? Is home where you are currently laying your head? It’s a very strange thing. The feeling of homesickness. When you go somewhere else all of those creature comforts that you have come to expect are no longer there. The feeling of not having that around you can lead to many things. Depression, anxiety, sadness. All of these negatives.
There are those among us though who can move and live wherever they want. They don’t feel burdened by the feeling of home or family. They can go anywhere in the world and as long as they are taking care of themselves and they have a few others around them they will have their own home in their own mind.
Aiden Reynolds was not one of those people.
After months of living in Japan, months of working himself to the bone and going to every single event that the company asked him to go to as well as a few that they didn’t, not to mention working on the side for a few of the smaller independent companies he wanted to go home he wanted to see his parents, he wanted to see his sister, he even wanted to see his brother. He missed Australia. The beaches, the sunshine, the people.
Aiden missed it.
So, the second he had some time off and an excuse he flew back to Australia. The excuse was a simple one. He needed to renew his work Visa. So he went home, flying back to Queensland, landing at Brisbane Airport before going back to the Gold Coast. He didn’t tell anyone that he was going to be there. He just knew that his siblings were going to be at his parent's house on Sunday.
As the airport shuttle rumbled down the street, Aiden swallowed, he was nervous. Nervous because this was the first time he was going to see his family since leaving to go to Japan. He wondered if they had been keeping tabs on him, wondering if they even cared that he had found success in his dream job.
Aiden got out of the shuttle, slinging his bag over his shoulder. He walked up to the door. He opened it knowing it would be unlocked. He stepped in closing the door behind him. Moving into the kitchen he smiled as his parents and siblings sat and turned to see him. His mother‘s face lit up, his father‘s eyebrows raised, and his sister smiled. Something he found amusing. And his brother slowly smirked and nodded slowly being the most subdued out of everyone.
There were hugs all around, laughter, and smiles. But after everything had calmed down, Aiden sat making a chicken and salad wrap ”So…. how's Japan?” Amelia, Aiden’s sister sat next to him at the kitchen bench. She was the first one to ask. Everyone else just making vague illusions to Aiden working overseas.
Aiden smiled and nodded slowly taking a deep breath after taking a bite of his rap and swallowing ”Yeah it’s great aye…. I’m learning a lot, I’ve even picked up a little bit of Japanese. I am rooming with this guy named Steve. He’s a Brit. Nice guy. We were staying at the same sponsor's house but when I get back, we’re going to be moving into an apartment.”
”Oi ya got a boyfriend? Good job!” Adam, Aiden‘s brother perked up with a laugh. Amelia rolled her eyes and Aiden simply turned and looked at his brother.
”Hey..hey….fuck off”
Aiden shook his head, his brother had always been a bit of a dick head. Always making stupid comments. But they laughed it off in the end. He took a deep breath, his heart sinking to the pits of his stomach. Everyone was ignoring the fact that he moved to another country and had been working hard. They obviously hadn’t been watching anything that he was doing. which was strange. The entire reason Aiden got into professional wrestling was because he and his family had all watched it.
Admittedly, his mother hadn’t really been involved. But his father would sit down turn it on and have all three kids sitting on the floor watching it. Amelia had started to not care about it in recent years but the boys Adam and Aiden would both both wrestle on the floor all the way through their teenage years until Aiden decided he wanted to become a professional professional wrestler. Adam wanted to but had been too cowardly to tell their mother and father about his dreams.
Aiden wondered if Adam had become better about it. He wondered whether or not his parents held it against him for moving away. He took a deep breath and shook his head before looking at his sister with a smile. ”Enough about me. While Japan is great and everything and I’m doing well, I’ve missed a few things around here. So how’s things going with you”
Amelia shrugged and sat forward, leaning against the kitchen bench before grabbing her can of no-sugar Coca-Cola and taking a sip ”Good. I’m going to be graduating from university next year and then I’m gonna start looking for work. I don’t really like having to have a casual job while I’m studying, especially when where I’m working at fucking Maccas.”
”Oi next time you’re at work bring home some nuggets yeah?”
”Fuck off Adam”
Aiden couldn’t help but laugh. This was it. This was home. This is what it had always been like. They would give each other shit, talk and laugh, the part of Aiden thought it would be different. He thought maybe, just maybe they would congratulate him on living his dream. But instead, there was nothing. He took a deep breath, his smile fading and it seemed to be at this moment. Amelia noticed.
”You know, Dad and Adam have been watching your matches. Dad has even been paying for a subscription to the Japan wrestling streaming service. I even caught Mum watching it the other day.”
Aidens eyes widened and he cleared his throat. ”What? Legit?!?”
Amelia nodded. Aiden smiled. Their mother walked in the room and Amelia stood up getting ready to go and help her before patting her brother on the shoulder and leaning in. ”We’re all proud of you. Even if we don’t show it.”
Aiden took a deep breath, happy that he knew the truth. He realized the reason why they weren’t making a big fuss about it was because they didn’t want him to stay. They wanted him to go back to Japan and continue living his dream. He shook his head and smiled before getting to his feet finishing his chicken and salad wrap and walking over to hang out with his brother and his father. Home is where the heart is indeed.
Elimination
”Man what a weird time this is.”
Aiden slowly smiled and shook his head. His light brown/Sandy blonde hair flowed down into his eyes as it had become a little bit longer. His face was covered in a short beard.
”Inception was certainly something special. You see, I did everything I could to try and make people interested in that match. I talked about it endlessly. I brought up how good Daniel Morgan and Connor Murphy were also being a little bit light-hearted with their recent records. I want the roulette championship to mean something. I want people to look at it as a prize. And add inception while I was able to win the match and while I was able to get some eyes onto the match, it was still a failure. It was a failure because apparently, my opponents didn’t give a shit”
“They didn’t talk about the match. They didn’t promote the match. These two guys literally just turned up to get in the cage and try and win it without telling anyone why they wanted to win it. I have said since I won this championship against Alexander Raven that I wanted to make it mean something. I wanted to have a second championship run with it that was worthy of it. Because my first one certainly wasn’t.”
“I failed in my first attempt”
“But this time, I wasn’t the failure. This time the two guys who I got in the ring with other failures. They both failed to live up to their end. They both failed to make people care about that goddamn match. So yeah, The happy-go-lucky Aiden that most people know disappeared for a night. When I got in that cage I wasn’t just in there to try and win it. I wasn’t just in there to try and keep the roulette championship. I was in there to prove a point and I was in there to hurt the two guys who decided to disrespect that championship and by extension Me.”
“I deserve more respect than that”
Aiden spat venom as he clearly started getting angry. He took a deep breath and shook his head before continuing.
”Now, it’s funny that I’m talking about the roulette championship. The first time I won this title it was off of my opponent who I’m facing this week. Eddie Lyons. And this rivalry between myself and him has been built off of the one thing that I just talked about. Respect. I do respect you Eddie, I respect everything that you’ve been able to accomplish and I respect your family. I feel like a broken record repeating myself here. But I mean it. Every single time you get in the ring, you leave it all in there. No matter what kind of match it is you leave it all in the ring.”
“You now have an opportunity in front of you. The same opportunity that I have in front of Me. This match isn’t for a championship, it’s for an opportunity to earn the right to challenge for a championship. And that’s what championships should be. They should be these goals that we all strive for and reach for. That’s what the roulette championship should be and that’s what I’ve always tried to make it. It’s what you succeeded in making. When you were the roulette champion everyone wanted to go for that title because they saw you as a champion that earned the right to be a champion. I’m still fighting for that. But, the powers that be have decided to grant us both this opportunity.”
“A great opportunity.”
“See whichever one of us wins gets to go on to be in the elimination chamber. And whoever wins that match gets an opportunity against whoever the champion will be after that. Now, some people might disagree with us having to jump through hoops like this but I think it’s great. A championship should be a prize and the SCW world heavyweight championship is the biggest prize. And it’s one that I know for a fact Eddie wants. Because, unlike most people in this company, Eddie is a pure professional wrestler. He doesn’t have anything else on the side. This is his love, this is his destiny. But it’s a destiny that has eluded him. Hasn’t it Eddie?”
Aiden raises his eyebrows and offers a small shrug before continuing.
”I’ve been a world champion in other companies. I’ve been a tag team champion, I’ve held mid-card titles, I’ve been an old girl champion of a company. I’ve done a lot. Immediately I’ve never been the world champion in SCW but I know what it’s like to climb to the top of the mountain and realise that dream. Eddie doesn’t. And I know you Eddie, I know that that’s what you want in this world. You want to be able to stand on top of the mountain and look down at everyone else and say that you are the best. And here’s your chance. I told the world that you should be going for the world championship and that the roulette title was something that you outgrew and I wholeheartedly believe that.”
“But, it’s my dream too. It’s my Destiny 2. So what do we do? Well, we go to war. We get in the rain and we go at all to earn the opportunity to try and earn another opportunity. And as I said, that’s how it should be in this business. You earn everything. And I can tell you this right now, Eddie, if you can beat Me I’m gonna make sure you still earn your way into that chamber. Just like I know if I beat you then I will have earned it because you’re going to make me earn it.”
“That is what we do in this business. That is the kind of person you are and the kind of person I am.”
“And I have to be completely honest with you, part of me is intimidated by this entire situation. See, if he’s still the champion by the time we come out of this and I should happen to win the elimination chamber then I will be facing Finn Whelan. And to be completely honest with you the type of person Finn is in the mood he’s been in lately. That match is not going to be pleasant for anyone involved. But that’s the dream, isn’t it? To be able to hold the SCW world heavyweight championship over our heads and say at that moment that we are the best? It’s the dream of everyone who gets into the business. And if you don’t have that dream, if you aren’t looking at the top title in a company and planning to do everything you can to own it and become the champion then you shouldn’t be in this business. But then again that isn’t something I have to worry about with you is it Eddie? Because I know damn well you feel the exact same way as me. So let’s dance again, brother. Let’s see where the dominoes fall.”
