[Justin Underwood]

 

Frustration after High Stakes

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“Damnit I was so close.” I said as I pulled my t-shirt on over my head.  Now in my street clothes, I tossed my wrestling trunks and elbow and knee pads into my back.  I didn’t bring my sneakers with me, so I still had on my combat boots that I had wrestled in just minutes before.

“Listen kid, you almost…” started Matt Ward before I cut him off “Not right now Matt.  I know what you are going to say, and I really don’t want to hear it.”  I started walking out of the locker room and reached into my bag pulling out my cell phone and my keys.  I pushed past Matt and accidentally bumped into Misty.

“Sorry Misty, didn’t see you there.  My apologies again, but I got to go.” I say as I make sure she is stable on her feet before walking away from both her and Matt Ward.  

Misty glances over to Matt, but doesn’t feel the need to say anything to him. She walks off, trying to catch up to JT before he leaves.


“JT, wait! I need to talk to you.” Misty yells after me as she sprints to catch up. “It’s about the next show.”

Trying just to ignore everything, I didn’t stop to allow Misty to catch up.  I continued to walk out of the Mandalay Bay Events Center.  I pulled my book bag up onto my shoulders and looked down at my phone checking the time before sliding the phone into my pocket.  I stopped momentarily at the door leading to the back of the center where I had parked my motorcycle.  Looking over my shoulder I didn’t see Misty, so I proceeded to walk out to my motorcycle.

With my keys in hand, I walk up to my bike and grab the helmet from the handlebar and swing my leg over the motorcycle so I can sit down and I rest on the helmet, letting my mind wonder about the events of the past hour.   Misty steps out of the Event Center and watches as me rest my head on my motorcycle looking deep in thought.   Misty walks up to my motorcycle and steps in front of it, to keep me from going anywhere and to clearly talk.

“Aren’t you interested in why I need to talk to you exactly?” She asks me, folding her arms across her chest.   I look up at her, my mind racing, I run my hands through my hair “Sorry Misty, I didn’t mean to bump into you earlier.  I’ve got a lot on my mind.  What do you need to talk about?”

“Well,” she starts. “First off, I watched that Gauntlet Match for the Heavyweight Title and I just wanted to tell you that you put up one hell of a fight and shouldn’t feel discouraged at all. Second, did you happen to hear about the main event for the next Climax Control?”

Swinging my leg back over I take my bag off my back and rest it on the handle bars my facial expression becomes one of annoyance.  I was able to get away from Matt’s Gauntlet match comments, but not Misty’s I tighten my grip on my helmet as I look at her “I didn’t do a good enough of a job.  Since SCW opened its doors all I have wanted to do is become the first heavyweight champion. I thought I had Gabriel beat, and I got to confident.”  My hand squeezing the helmet tightly around the opening for my head and the gap for the visor, I turn away from Misty and fling my helmet against the large stone wall, causing it to shatter.

“And, no, I haven’t seen or heard what Climax Controls main event is going to be.  Went to the locker room, changed, grabbed all my stuff into my bag and wanted to get out of here.” I said as I turned back to Misty.  She looks from my shattered helmet, and then back to me before finally speaking.

“Regardless of the outcome, you should be proud of your performance. And, I guess I get to be the lucky one to break this to you. You and I are teaming together at the next show to face Gabriel and Kittie.”
My frustration eased, as I listened to Misty tell me what my next match was going to be.  A smile spread across my lips as I started to speak “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why the hell did Mark and Christian do that?   I mean, I could understand them putting Kittie and I up against Gabriel and yourself.   They really do like to mix things up.  I should have listened to Matt a little more closely.”

I look back over at my shattered helmet, as I start to think about what Mark and Christian could have up their sleeves.  Misty shrugs her shoulders, wondering the same thing.  Just then, a car honks its horn from behind her.  She looks around her, to see Spike sitting in their car only a few parking spaces away, waiting for her.  She holds one finger up, signaling she’ll be there shortly.

“All I know is that Kittie wants what I have...the Bombshell Championship.  And you want what Gabriel has, the Heavyweight Title. They teamed us the best way they saw fit, and I just want you to know, I’m going to do everything in my power to not add another loss to either of our records right now.  I may not be able to fight Gabriel, not that I’d want to, but I’ll do everything I can to hold Kittie off.”  Misty replies.  

I look over at Spike, as I listen to Misty talk.  Turning my focus back to Misty, I reach into my bag and pull out a small notepad and write my number down on it, as I start talking “Likewise.  You take care of Kittie, I’ll focus on Gabriel.  Here is my number.  Give me a call, we can meet up and talk about the upcoming match sometime”  I tear the sheet of paper out of the small pad, and hand it to Misty.  “and Congrats on winning the Bombshell championship.  You will make a great champion.”

“Thanks, and once you get the Heavyweight Title, which I am confident you will, same goes for you.”  Misty replies, as Spike honks yet again. “Anyway, I have to get going. I’ve got some celebrating to do. You take care JT, and I’ll see you at Climax Control in two weeks.”

Misty waves goodbye to me, and walks over to her car and gets into the passenger seat.  I lean against my motorcycle and watch as they drive off.  My mind, racing with the new information, and trying to get a grasp over everything I had experience in the last forty-eight hours,  I look over at the helmet I shattered and let out a sigh as I climb back onto the motorcycle, and pull the backpack back onto my back and place the key into the ignition.  I turn the key and press the start button on the right side of the handle bar as I turn the throttle, revving the bikes engine.  Lifting the kickstand up, I pull the clutch in and put it in gear and speed off as the scene fades out.


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Hitting the Batting Cages


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The sounds of go carts racing around can be heard along with the mixture of voices and the sounds of baseball bats hitting balls into netting.  I had been looking forward to this day and being able to release some frustration, anger and stress.  Finally I was able to.  Dressed in a pair of Under Armor shoes, loose fitting blue jeans and a t-shirt, I stepped into the batting cages with a bat in hand and placed the shitty batting cage helmet on my head.  Placing a stack of coins onto the coin taker for the pitching machine, I pull my bottle of water out of my back pocket and take a drink from it, before placing it next to the stack of coins, and taking a coin off the top I place it into the slot and take my stance.

The first ball comes flying out and I take my swing, sending the ball flying into the net.  Resetting my stance I look over my shoulder at Matt Ward who came with me so that we could talk about the upcoming main event for Climax Control.

“So you didn’t want to hear me tell you that you did a good job even though you didn’t win the championship.  But yet here we are, you and the Bombshell Champion Misty facing Kittie and the Heavyweight Champion Gabriel.  How are you feeling about that?” Matt asks as I take my second swing and reset my stance as the ball flies fast into the net.  Allowing a few more pitches to come out, I take my time as I make contact with each one sending them flying hard and fast into the net.  I finish off the first round of baseballs and I turn towards Matt leaning the bat against the cage and grabbing the bottle of water.

“I’m intrigued to be honest.  The first mixed tag team match for SCW.  I know what I am going to need to do.  I need to pace myself and not get over confident when things are going my way.  I can’t get discouraged when things aren’t going my way.” I reply to Matt before taking a drink from the bottle of water and I look around the area.  Watching everybody moving around and having fun with their friends, playing miniature golf and racing in the go karts.

“Gabriel and I put on one hell of a showing at High Stakes. I know he and I pushed each other’s limits.  But I also know me losing is my fault. I can’t blame that on him.  Sure he has the edge due to his experience in the ring that I don’t have, but I have a ton of potential and can adapt to so many different situations.” I continued as I moved back over to the stack of coins and placed the bottle next and took a coin off the stack and slipped it into the slot, and resumed my stance.

“Are you sure you can handle facing Gabriel and not allow your emotions to get in the ring with you.” Matt asks “I need to make sure you will be clear headed and be able to put the emotions aside.  You already destroyed a helmet because of that night.  I want to be able to reassure Misty that you will be one hundred percent when it comes to this match.”

Taking my first swing I laugh at Matt and prepare for the second pitch.

“Of course I’m going to be one hundred percent.  I hope Gabriel is going to be one hundred percent.  If it wasn’t for Despayre eliminating himself, Gabriel might not have made it as far as he had.  Gabe might not have walked out of High Stakes with that championship in his hands.  Small things can change the timeline of history making events.  That being said I hope Gabriel thanks Despayre for eliminating himself.” I say as I swing and send yet another ball flying into the net.

“Keep that kind of thinking going into this match, and you will do just fine.” Matt says as I continue swinging, connecting with the balls with powerful swings, sending them flying away faster then they came at me.  Matt approached the cage and continued to speak “How do you feel about teaming up with Misty in this match?”

I wasn’t expecting that question coming from him and the last ball came flying out while he asked, and being thrown off, I swung to late and missed it.  I turned back to him and smile “You asshole.  I’m excited about teaming up with Misty.  She is the Bombshell champion.  She is a former multi time GXW Women’s champion.  I have a good partner and I’m confident between the two of us we will walk out with the win.”

I turn back to the stack of coins and water and take another sip before grabbing another coin and restarting the pitching machine.  Taking my stance I turn back to Matt - “Now get out of here, I still need to hit out some frustration.  Can’t do that with you distracting me with all these questions.”

Matt let out a laugh and shook his head as he patted the cage and started walking away.  I stayed in the cage, slowly spending the stack of coins into nothing, focusing on releasing the rage that had built up since I didn’t walk out of High Stakes with the championship.  Finally in a genuinely better mood, I take the last swing, sending the ball flying and I take a look around the cages before grabbing my water and walking out of the cages.  I remove the helmet and run  my hands over my sweaty head of hair as I started walking towards the turn in stand with the bat and helmet as the scene fades to black.