The CycleAfter a tumultuous few months, things had seemed to settle at the home base for Alex Jones and many of the others in SCW, the gym in New York known as Wolfslair. They had all gone about their training, rehabbing injuries, or getting better and learning from one another. Standard fare in a gym that has been known to produce world champions. One member had a world championship match coming up.
Aiden Reynolds.
And he was training with Austin James Mercer, with Alex occasionally popping his head in to help. But Alex had other things to worry about. His focus had been pulled elsewhere as his son Dylan had returned to training after dealing with the fact his stepmother had picked up and left. So with Dylan‘s return, Alex was focused on helping his oldest child get settled in and learn the art of professional wrestling. Alex stood outside one of the rings, his arms folded as he watched Dylan move with one of the young trainees who had a little bit more experience.
They locked up — the basic collar and elbow. The two of them moved against each other and the young trainee dropped down, getting a single leg on Dylan before wrestling him to the ground. Dylan rolled over to his stomach and the trainee moved around, locking him in a front face lock. Dylan tried to struggle to his feet as Alex watched every movement. Dylan got to his knees, but the young trainee anticipated this and slid up and around, floating over and getting one of his legs hooked around Dylan before pulling him into the mat in a rear naked choke.
”Don’t you tap! Move your chin down, move your hips sideways!”Dylan tried with Alex’s advice, but he couldn’t move fast enough. Before he knew it, the other trainee had slipped his arm under Dylan‘s chin and around his neck, squeezing. Dylan felt the pressure on each side of his throat and couldn’t help but tap. The trainee let go of the hold, pushing Dylan off him and getting to his feet. Dylan started coughing and sputtering onto the mat, unsure of what to do and unsure of what to say as Alex shook his head and took a deep breath.
Dylan coughed and looked up at his father. He had long hair that he had dyed blonde. He sported a mustache and a goatee. He was built well for a 20-year-old. He shook his head and got to his feet, using the ropes for leverage.
”He was so fast locking that in….I couldn’t do anything.”Alex jumped onto the apron and leaned on the top rope, staring at his son with a mixture of disappointment and understanding.
”I understand. But it’s all about practice. You have to work hard and get better. You took time off and you’ve already seen how far you’ve fallen. This is why I told you not to give up and to keep working hard. So do it again. Lock up and see what you can do. Try and stop the takedown, and if he does get you down, for the love of God anticipate his movements.”They locked up again, and again the trainee dropped down, grabbing hold of a single leg. This time Dylan was able to sit back and fight it off, but eventually the other trainee grabbed hold of Dylan‘s second leg and turned, taking him down. This time the trainee grabbed hold of Dylan‘s leg, twisted around it, and locked him in a kneebar. Dylan could not do anything about it and started tapping right away.
Alex pounded his hand on the mat as he jumped down and threw his hands in the air.
”What did I say? Anticipate. Adapt. Counter. He hasn’t been training that much longer than you, but he’s been taking you down easily before you know what’s happening and you’re ready to tap.”Dylan looked down and then away from his father. Alex just shook his head and turned, moving back toward the office. As he did, Dylan looked over at the other trainee who was getting ready to jump out of the ring.
”Again….”They went at it in the ring again as Alex continued toward the office and closed the door behind him. But as soon as he had closed it, it opened again. Aaron slipped in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, tilting her head as she looked Alex up and down.
”I know you are angry and pissed off about losing the championship, but taking it out on your kid isn’t exactly the most healthy way to go about this.” It was sound advice, surprising coming from her.
Alex took a deep breath and then shook his head before placing his hands on the table.
”That isn’t what this is about.”Aaron nodded slowly and moved toward his desk. She obviously didn’t believe a word he was saying. As she got closer, she pulled out the chair on the opposite side and slowly sat down.
”Right. So you go through a bad spot in your career, and your kid comes back to training, and suddenly you are riding him harder than you did m—“”Aaron….”She chuckled and sat back.
”I’m just sayin’... you don’t really want your kid to end up hating you and despising you, do you?” She raised her eyebrows as Alex slowly looked up to meet her gaze.
”Are you really giving me opinions about not giving someone daddy issues? You?””Oh fuck off.”Alex laughed before visibly relaxing. He took a deep breath and twirled a pen in his fingers.
”I just… I know that he can be great. I know that he could probably be better than me. And I don’t want him to feel like a failure. I want him to succeed, and succeed well. I know pushing him hard is the way to go, but maybe you’re right. Maybe I should back off a little bit.”He breathed deep, staying relaxed as he looked out the window, seeing that Dylan had stopped a takedown, swung around, hooked the arm of the other trainee, and stretched it out in a cross armbreaker. A move that Alex himself had used to win world championships. He smiled and nodded his head toward the window as Aaron turned to look. Alex got up and moved toward the window, a small smile coming across his face, filled with pride at what he had just witnessed.
Wolves and Lyons”I feel like I need to get a nice pretty lipstick. After all, I would like to look pretty before I get fucked.”
Alex sneers and shakes his head, his anger rising into the pit of his stomach and his chest.
”I deserve a shot at that world championship. I beat Carter, I made sure everyone knows that when he beat me it was a goddamn fluke. And now he has to go and defend the championship against one of my students. And what do I get? I get thrown in this Internet championship four-way all because some douchebag arsehole decided to bounce out of the company. I guess he followed J2H out the door, right? J2H ended up losing to Carter and his ego couldn’t handle it. Meanwhile, I lost to him and came back stronger than ever, because that’s what a champion does.”
“In fact, it’s been a true mantra at Wolfslair.”
“You get beaten, you lose, and you come back stronger. You come right back and you beat the person who beat you. You go from being someone who they can laugh at and say he doesn’t have it anymore to someone who is undeniably great. Alicia did it, Austin did it, Sierra did it, Miles has done it a few times, and I have done it. Now Aiden will do it.”
“But what about me?”
“I should be in the main event of Violent Conduct. I should be going after Carter to get that world championship back. But instead, I’m not. And you know what? Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. Instead of looking at it as a demotion, instead of looking at it as me getting screwed over because this company doesn’t want people to tell the truth, maybe I should instead just go for the Internet championship because it’s something that I’ve never done before. It’s a title I’ve never had the pleasure of holding. And it also allows me to get my hands around the throat of Eddie Lyons more than once.”
Alex pauses and shakes his head before taking a deep breath.
”Now, I am more than 100% certain that Eddie is looking at getting his hands on me too. And many people think that his anger toward me is completely justified because I cost him a match and a shot at becoming the world champion. Pushing him away and making sure that he doesn’t get to that level. And I’m sure that there are plenty of people who agree with that. Plenty who think that, for some reason, Eddie deserves that position. But the sad reality is that he doesn’t. You don’t deserve to be going for the world championship, Eddie. Because you aren’t good enough. That is the difference between people like you and people like me.”
“I’ve heard many others, including Aiden, talk about how you should be going for the world championship. And a lot of people tend to agree with that, but most of them have no idea what they are talking about. You are a fan favourite. And people respect you. But just because you are respected and liked doesn’t mean you get to be a world champion. You don’t have the killer instinct needed to become a world champion. You don’t have that grit that so many others need to have. You becoming world champion would be just as big of a tragedy as Carter becoming the world champion, and it makes me sick to my stomach that I allowed that to happen. So as long as I’m in this company, you’ll never become world champion, Eddie. People like you don’t deserve it.”
“People like me live it.”
“And now, before we go into this four-way at Violent Conduct, you and I have to go one-on-one. And all before we find out exactly who we are gonna be facing. So the momentum is right there for the taking, and if you learn anything from me, Eddie, it’s going to be that momentum matters. You should know that.”
Alex chuckles and shakes his head.
”You’ve never really been able to get the momentum that you need in this company, have you? Two steps forward, three steps back with you, always. You are looked at as someone who could be a future world champion, but you never really get there. You never really take that extra step because you’re not good enough to. You tried to get there against Finn, and you failed. Meanwhile, I walked in and did what needed to be done to take that championship from him. Many people will say that it was underhanded, many people say that I betrayed him. But I want to be perfectly clear: Finn and I were never friends. I never respected him as a man. As a competitor, maybe. He was a great world champion. He was a deserving world champion. But I never respected him the same way that you did.”
“You showed him too much respect. And I get that it’s something that you do. Something that you care about. The only respect I care about is the respect the people give me. If you want that same level of respect, then you need to earn it, and it’s something that you just struggle with, because you can’t take that extra step. You can’t pull the trigger. Instead, you constantly bang your head against the glass ceiling while you’re trying to climb a ladder, because you aren’t strong enough to break through it. The rest of the members of your family are definitely strong enough to do it. Victoria could end up being a world champion, Vincent could be a world champion, but you?”
“No…”
“Definitely not.”
“And now, well now you are left treading water, while I’m looking at a championship that I’ve never held. A championship that needs someone of my calibre to make sure that it stays a prize people want. That title was held by someone who never truly realised its potential. A championship that he thought he could probably give away like some kind of toy. So I’m going to do everything in my power to become the Internet Champion. Not just for my own legacy, but also to make sure that someone like you doesn’t get a hold of it. I will have my hand raised at Violent Conduct just like I will have my hand raised at Climax Control. In a battle between lions and wolves, you have to realise that the wolf will always fight harder than a fake king….”
