Fan club
Things were heating up. Both in his professional and personal life. In his professional life, he had become the number one contender for the world championship. Finally living up to the potential that so many people saw in him. He looked to become the latest in a long line of world champions from Wolfslair. Aiden looked up to them all. Alex, Austin, Alicia, Finn…
And that was just on the SCW side. He wanted to become one of them.
And now he was on the cusp of realising that dream. Meanwhile, things were also going well in his personal life. His wife Kallie was pregnant with their second child. Things seemed to be going very well in Dickie’s life too. Nothing had gone wrong when it came to the Yakuza, and Aiden had been accepted by the Yakuza clan. He would go out and have a few drinks with them, get food with them, laugh and talk in Japanese—being able to exercise that skill he didn’t really get to use in his everyday life.
But now it was back to the gym. Back to preparing for his opportunity to become a world champion. And what an opportunity it was, being thrown in the deep end not only with the match itself but also with the training and hard work that would go into it. From the second he arrived at the gym for his first training session back, it felt different. He was being looked at differently and talked to differently. Aiden wasn’t used to this. He was always the joker, the fun Australian who was great in the ring but was also just a laid-back and chilled-out individual.
Now he was a contender.
Now he could be a world champion. He looked over at Alex, a man who just a few months ago was also a world champion. In fact, he was holding the championship that Aiden was now trying to win, held by the champion who beat him. Aiden gave a small nod toward him. Alex nodded back and turned away. Aiden understood the assignment. Alex was putting all of his trust in the Australian Wolf to bring the SCW World Championship back home—to get revenge for his loss. It was a lot of pressure, but it was pressure that Aiden was ready for.
”Let’s go, Aus…” Austin James Mercer, a former world champion in his own right, was a hulking monster. Taller than Aiden, stronger than him too. His long brown hair was tied back in a high bun. Austin was caught off guard by the fact Aiden was taking the initiative. He stepped forward, locking up with Austin before quickly dropping down and under, running and hitting the ropes. Austin threw a hard elbow that missed its mark. Aiden hit the opposite ropes and Austin threw a vicious-looking clothesline that he ducked under.
Aiden spun and dove, tripping Austin up and taking him down before locking in a front facelock and spinning sideways, shooting a half on the ground and rolling Austin over onto his back for a quick pin. Austin was able to kick out, but Aiden stayed on the attack, grabbing a side headlock and pulling Austin back over his hip to the ground, keeping him down. After a few moments of Austin trying to fight to get up, he started laughing. He gave Aiden a small nod of approval as the bell rang. They had finished their grappling training, and Aiden showed how good his cardio was getting.
Aiden moved to the lockers, taking a deep breath. He drank some of his post-workout shake, grabbed his gym bag, and moved past everyone to the parking lot. As he got to his car he heard a few wolf whistles from the side. Turning and looking confused, he saw four elderly women standing near the chain-link fence. He raised an eyebrow as one of them waved frantically. ”Yoooohooo Aiden! Just so you know, you have plenty of support when you’re going for the world championship. We have your back!”
Aiden looked around, unsure exactly what was going on, before slowly raising his hand and giving them a thumbs up and a small nod of appreciation. All four of the older ladies cheered as he slipped into his car, getting ready to drive back home. His mind was still racing, thinking about the world championship and the match he had building in his future—and all the hard work he was getting ready to put in.
A giant pussy… and Felix the cat…
”Well, where are all the naysayers now?”
Aiden paused and shook his head slowly. A small laugh escaped his lips as he continued.
”Everyone had their money on Eddie and Miles. That’s all I heard, that those two were going to be the favourites going into that match. But in the end, I was the one who walked out with my head held high. I was the one who walked out winning a world championship opportunity. And now I get to team up with the current world champion to face a couple of losers who shouldn’t even be in the ring with us. I know why this match has been booked. Because it’s always funny to put two opponents who are going to be in a high-profile match together on a team to make things awkward.”
“There’s only one small issue with that. As angry as I’ve been at the entire world lately, and as much as I’ve been calling out this company for some of the stupid bullshit it’s done, I’m not the type of person to backstab anyone. Carter and I can work together to beat these two. And I hope you realise that. I hope you know that I’m not going to be looking for a soft spot to stick the knife while I watch your back. I’m not that kind of guy, as much as some people want to believe I am.”
“See, a few cancers that have been poisoning this company have been cut out. Some of the garbage that infected it has taken itself out. And now this company will be stronger for it.”
“Now, things aren’t perfect and I’m not going to stand here and pretend that they are. I’m not going to go back to being that smiling idiot, you know, the one none of you took seriously. The one you all just kind of laughed at and chuckled along with, like some kind of dancing fucking clown. That isn’t me anymore. I’m not going to be your little entertainer. I am here to be a world champion. I am here to be the champion. I’m here to follow in the footsteps of my friends and my family. I’ve been a world champion before, but that was in a company that floundered. I’ve never been a world champion in a major organisation such as this, and now? Well now I’m putting everything on the line to accomplish my dream.”
Aiden smiled and paced back and forth.
”But Carter and I are being forced to face two guys who are real clowns. Not just perceived like I was, but real clowns. Justin Smith, a guy who likes to think of himself as a tough guy, yet somehow loses almost every single fight he’s in. You know what you are, Justin? You’re the type of guy who goes into a bar, gets completely shitfaced, starts talking very loudly about how much of a badass he is, and then gets put on his ass by one punch from one person. And then after you pull yourself up and dust yourself off, you start talking about how the only reason you got knocked out is because you were drunk.”
“The thing is, fake and phony badasses tend to get found out very quickly in the professional wrestling business. And you have been found out—many times. Any time you have stepped up to someone who has a name in this company, you have failed. You’ve been beaten and shuffled aside. And now you’re being put on a team with Felix the Cat against the world champion and the number one contender. How exactly do you think this is going to go? Because spoiler alert, Justin, all that’s going to happen is you or Felix are gonna be staring up at the lights. You’re a joke. You shouldn’t be in this company, and all you are doing is taking up a spot for someone who could take this seriously, actually win matches, and have a career.”
“How does it feel knowing that you are taking food out of someone’s family’s mouth because you want to take up a roster spot despite the fact that you are of no consequence or value to this company?”
“You should pack your shit, go home, and never come back, because nothing of value would be lost if you decided to do that. You are never going to be a contender for a championship. Whether that is the Internet, the Roulette, and certainly not the World Championship. And if you enter a tournament like the Blast from the Past, all you’re doing is giving someone a free win. You are exactly the type of person I hate, and I hope soon you realise that this business is not for you and you just leave and never come back.”
Aiden spoke his words with venom before calming down and continuing.
”And what about you, Felix? The bitch best friend of a guy who is just as big of a joke as Justin. You hang around Bill and his bean-headed wife like they are the best things around this place, but all you are doing is leeching off what little fame they have. And that isn’t a lot. The three of you get together in your nice little group and think that people give a shit about you when no one does. You are being put in this match as a throwaway opponent, nothing more and nothing less. You don’t deserve to be in the ring with me and Carter any more than Justin does, but you’re being put in this position for entertainment value, and that is the saddest thing of all.”
“No one expects you to be able to win this match. And that is really sad. There should always be an unknown going into any match. No matter how good one opponent is and how bad another is, there should always be a ‘what if’ question hanging in the air, that question of unpredictability. But we don’t get that with you, Felix. We don’t get that with Justin. We don’t get the possibility of you and Justin being able to beat the world champion and the number one contender in an upset. It’s just unfathomable.”
“So at Climax Control, Carter and I are going to do what we need to do. We are going to win this match and then we are going to look forward to our world championship bout. Because we are worthy of that position. We are championship material. You two? … are not. And we are going to prove it.”
