Climax Control
December 21, 2025
Denver, CO
The camera cuts on abruptly in a quiet backstage hallway in Denver. No music. No interviewer. Just the low hum of the lights and the distant echo of the crowd from the arena. LJ Kasey storms into frame, clutching at his lower back for half a second before shoving the pain aside like it doesn’t matter. His chest is heaving. His eyes are wild and he doesn’t speak right away.
He just stares into the camera, those blue eyes blazing....it was a dangerous calm for a moment....
And then...
“Bill Barnhart....you miserable, attention-starved son of a bitch.”
LJ drags a hand down his face and lets out a sharp, bitter laugh.
“This mother fucking toss-pot...I swear to absolute fucking CHRIST! ...You weren’t even in the match.”
He shakes his head, pacing once, then snapping back toward the lens.
“Let that sink into your oversized melon that sits three feet above that fat you call your arse.... You weren’t booked. You weren’t even involved. You had nothing to do with that ladder match and you still couldn’t help yourself.”
He points down the hallway toward the arena.
“You came out there for one reason, because you needed to screw me. You just could not help yourself even for ONE FUCKING NIGHT! You just had to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
LJ steps closer, voice rising.
“And the funny part? The really pathetic part? My brother already kicked your ass last week. Miles beat you, clean in the ring and even had an answer for your double standard society, talking about cheating when Bea does more dirty work for you than you do for yourself! YOU. ARE. PATHETIC to even think that anyone was going to fall for your bullshit...and that should be the end of this story.”
LJ’s jaw tightens.
“But instead fuck off back under your rock, licking your wounds like a grown man, and LEARNING from the asswhooping of a lesson that you received... you still decided to come after me. You are still not grasping the straws of the absolute OBVIOUS of it all.”
He gestures down at himself, incredulous.
“Because you just can’t help it, can you? You have to be a nuisance. You have to constantly insert yourself. You have to keep trying to make an example out of the ‘kid’ because that’s the only way you still feel relevant.”
He stops pacing. His voice drops, cold, controlled, lethal.
“You tipped that ladder because you couldn’t stand the idea of me climbing past you. Of me earning something you think only belongs to your generation.”
LJ exhales sharply through his nose.
“That ladder didn’t cost me a match, Bill. It showed me exactly who you are. You are a bloody fucking coward and perhaps one of the biggest hypocrites in the entire company. You’ve been doing it so low key that people have been letting you get away with it for far too long”
He leans in closer, eyes burning.
“You talk about respect, but you can’t stand it when someone doesn’t fear you, when someone keeps getting back up... when someone younger, faster, and hungrier refuses to bow. And to top it all off, with what you cost me with your actions tonight? I’m going to take it out of your ass, TEN-FOLD!”
His hand clenches into a fist.
“So here’s what’s gonna happen.”
He straightens, shoulders squared despite the pain screaming through his body.
“I want you to enjoy your holidays. You enjoy hiding behind cheap shots and nostalgia. You enjoy pretending you still matter because you can sabotage matches you aren’t even part of.”
A slow, dangerous smile curls at the edge of his mouth.
“Because January 11th at Inception in Las Vegas?”
He points directly into the camera.
“There’s nowhere left for you to hide. There are NO excuses left. There is no bullshit made up scenarios that are in your head about how things actually are. When I’m done with you, your wife Bea is gonna need your dental records to identify what’s left of your old, decrepit body. There will be no apologies made, most of all from you because I know that will never fucking happen.... And this time?”
LJ shakes his head.
“You won’t be able to blame the new generation of the talent that is in this company that has surpassed you even in your best years. You won’t be able to blame disrespect.”
He takes one last step back, eyes never leaving the lens.
“You’ll only be able to blame yourself....for not knowing when to stay the hell out of my way.”
LJ turns and storms off down the hallway, the camera lingering on the empty space he leaves behind, rage, pain, and inevitability hanging thick in the air.
-----------
That Odd Pause
LJ & Ally’s Home
Las Vegas
The week after Christmas always felt strange. Not quiet exactly as Las Vegas never really allowed for that, but slower in a way that LJ wasn’t used to. The city still buzzed, still glowed neon at night like it refused to rest, but the rhythm had shifted. There was less urgency, fewer demands and that rare pause between one obligation and the next.
LJ wasn’t very good at pauses.
He woke early anyway, habit more than necessity. The ribs were the first thing he noticed, like they had been every morning since Denver and even before that, a dull, lingering ache that flared sharp if he twisted wrong. He rolled onto his side carefully, teeth clenched until the worst of it passed, then sat up on the edge of the bed and breathed through it. Not broken and not sidelined. He just is not right...at least not yet.
He wrapped them before training anyway. Every time. Not because the doctors told him to, but because he refused to give the pain permission to slow him down.
The gym sessions were quieter now. No ring bookings and no travel. There were no cameras to play up too. It was just him, weights, cardio, shadowboxing, and the constant internal argument between heal and push. He compromised by doing both, working around the ribs, modifying lifts, drilling footwork and timing until sweat soaked through his shirt and the ache faded into background noise.
Possessed wasn’t the wrong word but neither was focused.
By the time he got home, shirt slung over his shoulder, breath still heavy, the apartment smelled like coffee and cinnamon. Ally was curled up on the couch, hair pulled into a messy knot, legs tucked beneath her, a wooden puzzle box sitting on the coffee table like it had personally offended her. LJ couldn’t help but smile, he got it for her for Christmas after she personally challenged him to get her something challenging. It had been there every day since Christmas, barely leaving her side. She glared at it like it owed her money.
“You’re pacing again,” she said without looking up.
LJ paused mid-step, then smirked, "Am I?”
“You are,” she confirmed, "You only do that when you’re thinking too hard or when you’re mad at something you can’t hit.”
He dropped onto the couch beside her carefully, ribs protesting ever so slightly and leaned back with a low exhale, "That’s incredibly specific.”
“You’re incredibly predictable.”
That caused LJ to sputter to a laugh, “OH THANKS!”
She picked up the puzzle box again, turning it slowly in her hands. It was beautifully made, dark polished wood, hidden seams, grooves that didn’t make sense until they suddenly did, or were supposed to. Ally had wanted a challenge. Something that would take time. Something that would fight back. At the moment, it was winning.
“I swear,” she muttered, sliding one panel and watching it stubbornly refuse to open, “This thing is mocking me.”
LJ bit back a laugh, “You said you wanted something hard.”
“I wanted a challenge,” she corrected, "Not emotionally devastating, especially knowing that my big present is in there...you should have never told me that, you know that right?.”
He reached out, gently steadying the box as she rotated it again, his fingers brushing hers, "I can help, you know that.”
She shot him a look, "You touch it and I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Okay, that’s fair., but the offer stands.”
She sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder, careful of the ribs, "I’ve been working on it for days, LJ. DAYS. I beat Dark Souls without throwing a controller. I should not be losing to a box. I have been through so many possibilities and always get stuck at the same place! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
“You’re not losing,” he said quietly, "You’re just... stuck. Might I suggest looking at it from a different point of view?”
She hummed, unconvinced.
The apartment felt fuller even without Ashlynn there at the moment, less chaotic, but warmer somehow. Her shoes by the door. Her hoodie slung over the back of a chair. Evidence of a life that had uprooted itself from Texas and landed here, in the middle of his madness, without hesitation.
That part still hit him sometimes, usually when things were quiet like this.
He’d tried to sneak in studying later that afternoon. His second semester law books spread across the dining table, notes half-written before his focus drifted. He wasn’t behind, hell the semester wasn’t even going, but he refused to be caught off guard when the semester started back up in mid-January. Wrestling might be the thing people saw, but the rest of his life didn’t pause just because the ring did.
Neither did the clock ticking toward Inception.
Still, for this moment, it was just him and Ally and a stupid puzzle box that refused to give up its secrets.
She set it down again with a huff and flopped back against the couch, "Okay. I’m taking a break before I throw it through the window.”
LJ laughed softly, then winced when it twinged at his ribs, "That would defeat the purpose of keeping the present inside.”
“You are a cruel individual, Lyle Kasey, Jr.. I will not be mocked.” She turned to look at him then, eyes softer when he gave her a look, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said automatically, then amended it, "I’m getting there, I think.”
Her hand slid over his side, warm, careful, "You don’t have to be a madman every second, you know. You are allowed to take breaks and relax.”
“I know,” he said. And he meant it, "I just... I don't want to waste the time.”
She smiled faintly, "You’re not. You’re healing both your body and your brain and that counts. It’s bad enough Bill did some serious damage to you two weeks before that ladder match and going into said ladder match on top of it. You barely got to heal from getting jumped before that. And that was after you getting stretched thin with finals. Give yourself time to rest, babe. Please?”
He leaned down, pressing a kiss into her hair, breathing her in like it grounded him. Outside, the city kept humming toward the new year. Toward January. Toward Las Vegas and unfinished business.
For now, though, he let himself sit still.
And watched the puzzle box, waiting for the moment Ally cracked it open, just like everything else she set her mind to.
Of course she had to stop being stubborn if that was going to ever happen.
-----------
No Applause
Private Gym
Las Vegas
The gym was empty in the way only a private gym ever was. He had no music blaring. No crowd noise bleeding in from an arena. Just the hum of fluorescent lights, the faint whirr of a treadmill cooling down, and the sound of LJ Kasey’s own breathing as he leaned forward, hands braced on his knees.
Sweat dripped from his chin and splattered against the rubber mat beneath him.
The ribs burned. Not sharp enough to stop him but they were not dull enough to ignore.
Honestly, it was perfect because it reminded him of what atrocities had been committed against him for just existing on a roster that hosted assholes.
He straightened slowly and turned toward the mirror.
The man staring back at him looked leaner than he remembered. There was still faint yellowing along his side if you knew where to look, skin not fully done healing yet though it was close. His eyes were the biggest difference though. They weren’t wild nor frantic but focused.
LJ wiped his face with the hem of his shirt and laughed once under his breath. No humor in it.
“Look at you,” he muttered to his reflection, "Still standing. That must really piss him off.”
He stepped closer to the mirror, close enough that his breath fogged the glass for half a second.
“Bill Barnhart.”
The name came out like poison.
“You really thought that between being attacked from behind or having the ladder tipped out from under me was something that was gonna end me, didn’t you?” he said quietly, "Thought you’d shove me off, watch me crash, and I’d finally learn my place. That I would stay down, stay quiet and supposedly know my role.”
His jaw tightened.
“After talking to several people, I have found out that you’ve been doing this your whole career. You pick your moments where you don’t have to earn anything. You tend to show up when someone else is doing the work. And you have zero issues in taking shortcuts and calling it ‘experience.’”
He shook his head slowly.
“You didn’t attack me because I disrespected you. You didn’t attack me because I cheated or cut corners or skipped a line.” His eyes hardened, "You attacked me because, like many of the youngsters on the roster, I don’t fear you.”
LJ leaned his forearm against the mirror, knuckles whitening.
“And that eats you alive.”
He straightened again, posture squared, voice rising just enough to fill the empty room.
“You see me and you don’t see a kid. You see time catching up to you while you are constantly running away denying that your time is not almost up. You see someone who keeps getting back up no matter how many times you try to clip the knees out from under him. AND most importantly you see someone who doesn’t need your approval and sure as hell doesn’t need your permission.”
A breath in through his nose, slow and controlled.
“You wanna talk about respect? Respect isn’t cheap shots behind someone's back. Respect isn’t hiding behind your wife or your reputation or whatever scraps of nostalgia you think still matter. Respect is standing across from someone and beating them when they’re ready.”
He scoffed.
“And you couldn’t wait.”
LJ stepped back, pacing once, then stopping dead, eyes locked with his own reflection again.
“So here’s the part you don’t understand, Bill. I didn’t rush this. I didn’t come back half-broken swinging just to prove I could. I healed, I trained and more importantly, I waited. I let the anger settle into something useful.”
His lips curled into something sharp.
“A fatal mistake was you giving me time. We could have EASILY settled this weeks ago but instead YOU chose the hard road that would temporarily put a spotlight on you.”
He jabbed a finger toward the mirror, as if Bill were standing on the other side of it.
“And at Inception? I’m not coming to out-wrestle you and I’m not coming to impress anyone. I’m not going to make a statement about generations or respect or the future of this company....well maybe that one partially...BUT...”
His voice dropped, low and dangerous.
“I’m coming to hurt you.”
LJ leaned in close again, eyes cold.
“I’m coming to make you feel every shortcut you ever took. Every cheap shot you ever justified and every time you thought you could just insert yourself and walk away without consequences. You wanted my attention? You have it. You wanted to make this personal? Congratulations.”
He straightened, shoulders squared.
“At Inception, there are no ladders for you to tip. Instead its you on the other end of a chain, tied together where you won’t be able to escape and run like the bitch you are. There will be no surprises, no excuses. Just you, me, and the reality you’ve been running from.”
His reflection stared back, unflinching.
“When it’s over,” LJ said quietly, “You don’t get to blame disrespect. You don’t get to blame the new generation. You don’t get to blame anyone else stepping out of line.”
He turned away from the mirror, grabbing his towel.
“You get to live with the fact that you pushed the wrong man.”
LJ walked toward the exit, leaving the mirror behind. The gym stayed silent but the decision had already been made.
