One Fall 05.21.11: Chapters 6 & 7

Thanks to all the commenters last week. Nice to see that some of you are digging this. Keep the comments coming, good, bad, and hysterical (the suggestion to have Joey join TNA was awesome). I appreciate the feedback.

And now…

CHAPTER 6

On Friday night, just a few hours after learning he would be the next GWA Champion, Joey defeated Bret Stevens in Lubbock. The crowd treated him like a war hero, exploding in noise, camera flashes and homemade posters when he entered. During the match, they cheered whenever he was on offense and they booed whenever Bret had the upper hand.

On Saturday morning, GWA.com announced there would be a tournament for the World Title on Monday night’s Burn, with the participants to be announced the next day. As the wrestlers gathered in Amarillo for the Saturday-night show, there was a growing buzz regarding the recent announcement on the web site. No one knew who was going to be in the tournament, or who would win. Company leadership was strangely silent regarding the announcement. Joey avoided anyone who might ask him if he knew about the tournament. That night, after wrestling Bret again, in front of another hysterical crowd, Joey rushed to his hotel.

On Sunday, as promised, GWA.com gradually posted the names of those who would be competing in the tournament. At noon, the web site announced Crusader as the first participant. At one, Jumbo. At two, Jack Branson. At three, Deep Six. At four, Zombie. By four-thirty, wrestlers were arriving at the Fort Worth Convention Center for the Sunday night house show. They had been traveling all day, and were unaware of whose names were posted on the web. Joey and Bret put on the same show, to the same response. After the match, Goliath slapped Joey on the back and said, “You’re our hottest commodity right now.”

By the end of the Sunday-night show, after word had gone around about whose names were posted on the web, the tournament was all anyone could talk about backstage. As the wrestlers learned that Duke wasn’t giving away any of the booking, curious speculation turned to giddiness, and then anxiety. Who would win? Why were they putting a tournament on free TV with such little notice? Why wasn’t Duke telling them who was going over?

As far as Joey could tell, most people assumed the finals would be between Crusader and Branson. He didn’t know about the whisper campaign that had started in the locker room. He didn’t hear the jealousy, the vitriol, the angst in the voices of Jumbo and Deep Six, who told their admirers that Joey had disappeared with the boss and the champion for a private meeting before the Lubbock show.

“Hey Joey, do you have a second?”

Joey was on his way to the showers after his third match with Bret in three days, lost in his own world of fan adoration and television tournaments. The gravelly voice that had disturbed him belonged to Shane Walker, GWA road agent, former World Champion, and Joey’s trainer from the farm league. Shane was sitting by himself in a folding chair against the wall, leaning on his cane and not about to get up. Joey went to him.

“You’re getting quite the response these days,” said Shane.

“I know, it’s unbelievable,” said Joey.

Joey had grown up watching Shane on Pro Wrestling All-Stars. At that time, Shane had long, flowing blonde hair and a ridiculous physique that screamed anabolic steroids. Today, Shane was bald and slim, with skin that could have been removed from a hot dog. He leaned on a cane, even while sitting, and his body shook, as if he were riding a bus.

“How do you feel about the reaction you’re getting?” Shane asked.

“I love it,” said Joey.

“Do you think you deserve an ovation like that?” asked Shane.

Joey’s instincts told him to end this conversation immediately and leave. The last thing he needed was for his idol and teacher to tell him he was stealing the spotlight from more deserving players.

“I don’t know if I deserve it, but I don’t have any control over that,” said Joey.

“You’re right,” said Shane. “You can’t control the fans.”

Joey nodded his head, knowing there was more listening to do. He had spent many an afternoon listening to Shane’s patient speeches.

“You know, Joey, I was twenty-two when I did my first TV match. I had been wrestling for Clyde Gallagher’s promotion in the Midwest for three years and got noticed by Larry Jenkins. Larry was barely a teenager back then. He invited me to come on All-Stars and be a jobber for a fellow named Igor who wrestled by the name Polar Bear. Igor was a hairy monster who couldn’t wrestle worth a shit, but was tough as nails. Back then, if you were a jobber you were expected to take a beating. A real beating. I let that Igor fellow beat the shit out of me for six minutes, and it hurt. The guy was stiff as a board on me. I finished that match with a broken finger and a black eye. Two weeks later I got invited back to All-Stars to be a jobber for Wrangler Billy Black. Broke my nose in that one.

“For my first two years on TV, every time I stepped in the ring, I had to do the job to some established star who beat the crap out of me. Someone had done it to them, now they were doing it to me. It was tradition. It was a way of making sure that the young crop coming up didn’t make it to the top unless they really wanted it.

“And you know Joey, even though it was painful and frustrating to let those guys pound me like that, I’m thankful they did it. I’m thankful because it gave me an opportunity to pay my dues. It was a chance for me to earn respect from the veterans, one beating at a time. It’s a shame that tradition’s fallen out of favor. Wrestling’s changed. It used to be that it took the fans awhile to warm up to somebody new. They wanted to see familiar faces win the matches. They wanted courageous, good-hearted heroes to defeat the bad guys. Now it’s harder. Now it seems like they want something different every week. Duke’s got to give these fans what they want to see or else none of us get to perform. Right now the fans want to see you. Next month they might want to see someone else. Who knows?”

Joey stood silently, unsure of how to react. Was this advice?

“If you ask me,” Shane continued, “I think you should just enjoy it while it lasts, and quit worrying about what the other guys think. They might get angry if the crowd takes to you and not to them, but when push comes to shove, they’ll do whatever Duke tells them to do. In the end it will all wash out. Your fifteen minutes of fame will be over and some new kid will take your place.”

Joey was saved by a deep, rhythmic beating sound that trembled through the concrete floor under his feet and distracted Shane from his spiel. It was Zombie’s music playing out in the arena.

“Zombie wasn’t supposed to go over tonight, was he?” Joey said.

Shane’s eyebrows tightened into a puzzled look. “Not that I know of.” They both turned toward the arena entrance.

While Joey and Shane had been talking, Jack Branson and Zombie had been wrestling. They had performed together two times in two cities leading up to tonight’s show, with plans to get a feud between them on television soon. Branson went over every time, and was surely supposed to go over tonight. It would be an odd booking decision to let Branson, one of the company’s biggest stars, lose to Zombie, even at a non-televised event. But the music out there was not Branson’s blues guitar theme. It was Zombie’s tune, an unmistakable heavy metal riff with a thick percussive beat.

Zombie came through the black curtain, breathing heavily and shaking his head. He made a left turn to head toward the locker room. Outside, in the arena, the fans began applauding, a rare form of recognition in professional wrestling. Amidst the applause were scattered “Bran-son” cheers.

“Did you guys hear what happened?” said Jade. She was approaching from down the hall, dressed in the black rubber outfit that served as her wrestling attire.

“No, what’s going on out there?” said Joey.

“Branson’s hurt,” said Jade. “Something happened when he went for a clothesline.”

Joey wondered if he’d heard correctly. He got injured delivering a clothesline?

“I think he planted his foot wrong,” said Jade. “Looked like his left knee buckled under him. He totally missed the move and fell to the ground, holding his knee. They had to improvise the finish. When Zombie figured out what was going on, he grabbed Branson’s neck in a choke and held it until he could be disqualified. The crowd was pissed. For some reason, Tony fired up Zombie’s music and that was the end. It was a mess.”

The three of them watched the curtain, listening to the crowd cheer. Branson’s familiar blues theme came over the stadium speakers. A few seconds later Branson hobbled through the curtain with the help of Victor Pardo from security. As soon as he stepped through, a team of sports trainers and paramedics swarmed and lifted Branson onto a rolling gurney. Branson’s face was contorted in an expression of pain that looked very real. The trainers grabbed at his kneecap, asked him where it hurt, tested his movement, and yelled at the other wrestlers to get out of the way. A crowd of wrestlers and entourage followed the medics as they rolled Branson through the locker room area and out to a loading dock, where he was lifted into an ambulance.

“Do we know if he’s going to be okay?” Joey asked Jade.

“I have no idea,” she said. “I’ll go talk to Zombie and see what he knows.”

Joey watched the ambulance leave the parking lot and disappear into the dark of an unfamiliar city. He thought about the main event-level spot that would be left open in Branson’s absence. Maybe the locker room would be more accepting of a new star now that an old one was out.

Then he cringed at his own opportunism. Branson had worked tirelessly for years to achieve his dream, and tonight a freak injury might have taken the dream away for good. It was no time for Joey to be thinking of personal gain.

What a crazy business. One misstep in a non-televised match in a forgettable town and a career could end.

With the ambulance gone, the crowd of onlookers dispersed into ten different conversations. Joey, thankfully, was part of none of them. He seized the moment to escape to the showers, alone.

When he finished cleaning up and returned to the backstage area, he found it mostly empty. Everyone who was available to leave had gone to the hospital to visit Branson. Everyone except Jade.

“There you are,” she said when he stepped into the main atrium of the backstage space. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Jade Sleek was waiting backstage for him? His ego swelled.

“Shane and I are going for a bite,” said Jade. “You wanna come?”

Joey’s balloon popped. Why did Shane have to come?

“Yeah, I’d love to go,” he said, and, though he really wanted to go with Jade alone, he wasn’t lying. This was the first time he’d been invited to do anything with people from the company.

Five minutes later, they were in Jade’s rental car, driving the streets of Fort Worth. Joey sat in the back seat. In the passenger seat was his childhood idol. In the driver’s seat was an international sex symbol. Two days ago he was told he’d win the GWA World Title. It was as if Luck herself was giving Joey a push.

CHAPTER 7

They landed at the Cattleman’s Steakhouse, a kitschy restaurant in the historical district. The place was nearly empty when they were seated.

Shane ordered “The Heffer”, a 64-ounce cut of sirloin that was free if he finished it in an hour. When the waitress brought it, she also dropped off a digital clock that counted down from sixty minutes. It took Shane only ten minutes to plow through the first half of the steak, but with a good 30 ounces left to go, he started to look tired. Jade ate two helpings from the salad bar. Joey had a chicken breast.

Shane’s endless stories from wrestling’s past took up the first part of the evening. Joey and Jade patiently listened as Shane went from one year to another between bites of steak.

And then Jade took the conversation exactly where Joey didn’t want it to go.

“So Joey, what can you tell us about the tournament tomorrow night?”

Joey nodded as he swallowed a bite of baked potato.

“I don’t know what I’m allowed to tell you,” he said. “This whole thing’s so weird. Duke wants me to keep it secret from everyone who absolutely doesn’t need to know. I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“It’s not that unusual,” said Shane. “Used to be the case that no one but the two in the ring knew who was going over and who was doing the job, and even they didn’t know sometimes until they got going and played the crowd a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got back to that sort of thing, what with the Internet kids always lurking about and spreading gossip.”

“It’s put me in a tough spot,” said Joey. “The fact that I’m in the loop when so many veterans aren’t, it can’t be sitting well with some of the guys in the locker room.”

“Well I know one veteran wrestler who is safe to tell,” said Jade.

“Who?” said Joey.

Jade’s face creased into exaggerated disappointment. “Me, of course,” she said.

“Oh, sorry.” Joey shook his head and tried to laugh off his mistake. Jade wasn’t laughing with him, although he couldn’t tell if the anger on her face was real or playful. He knew a full confession would more than cover for his goof.

“How you comin’ on the Heffer big fella?” said a waitress as she cleared a nearby table.

“Still working,” said Shane. He smiled at her and cut off another piece of meat.

“You’re not going to try to finish that are you?” said Jade.

“Why not?” said Shane. “I’m not performing anymore. If I finish, I get my picture on the wall over there.” Shane pointed with his fork to the opposite wall, labeled “Hall of Fame.” The wall was covered with framed 3 x 5 pictures of cowboys who had apparently finished The Heffer. They all had a smug “Now-I’m-gonna-puke” look on their faces.

“It’ll clog your arteries Old Man. A heart attack will hurt more than a few knife-edge chops,” said Jade.

“Listen to Ms. Salad over here,” Shane said to Joey. “She wouldn’t even order a baked potato. I’m sorry to say Jade, that unlike you, I don’t have to keep up a million dollar figure, and couldn’t even if I tried. You keep eating your carrots and celery, I’ll keep eating my cow.”

Jade rolled her eyes then turned back to Joey.

“So let’s have it. Who’s going over?” she said.

Joey tilted his head back to drink the last of his water. When he put his glass down he noticed that he had Shane’s undivided attention for the first time since “The Heffer” had been put on the table.

“I’m going over,” said Joey.

There was a brief pause. Jade’s expression was guarded, as if she didn’t know if he was teasing or not. Joey took a breath and went on.

“I’m going over Lord Mayberry clean, then I’m going over Crusader clean, then I’m going over Jumbo clean.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” said Jade.

Joey nodded. The table was quiet again.

“So Branson and Crusader…” said Jade, more as a question than a statement.

“Branson and Crusader were both going to do the job early. I have no idea who’s going to replace Branson, but whoever it is, well, it’s my hope that with Branson out it won’t be so shocking when I win the tournament,” said Joey.

“So what happens next week, do you know?” said Jade.

Her unspoken question was, ‘You’re not winning the title are you?’ Joey was worried that Jade felt threatened by all this, which was the last thing he wanted.

“Next week I lose to Goliath, but, in Goliath’s words, he’ll have to cheat like hell to beat me. That will begin a three-week feud between us that will end on May 24th with me winning the World Title.”

Another second of silence at the table. Joey wondered if he was saying too much. After all, no one knew. What if he was mistaken? What if plans had changed? With Branson out, plans would have to change, at least a little.

“Well congratulations to you,” said Shane. That’s fantastic. You’re headed for super-stardom much faster than you ever thought, I bet.”

“Oh yeah. I never pictured myself as a 22-year-old GWA champion,” said Joey.

“Are you worried?” said Shane.

“Yes. I’m worried about how everyone backstage is going to react. I wish Duke would lay out next month’s booking for everyone like he did for me.”

“Don’t worry Joey. Everyone will know everything soon enough,” said Jade.

“You all aren’t going to tell anyone, are you?” said Joey.

“Relax, kid. We won’t let anyone know you leaked Duke’s secret plans,” said Jade. “Will we Old Man?”

“I make it a point not to engage in any backstage gossip,” said Shane with a confident smile.

“That being said, Joey, we’ve got to know, where and when did Duke tell you all this, and who else was there?” Shane chuckled at his own nosiness.

“I know the answer to that,” said Jade. “It was in Lubbock, when Duke and Goliath met up with Joey before the show. They called him down from the stands where he was having a nice conversation with a sophisticated, older woman. A woman, I might add, who Duke and Goliath conveniently ignored.”

“Ah, so Goliath was there also,” said Shane. “That’s a good sign, Joey.”

“Why’s that a good sign?” Joey asked.

“Because these days Goliath is in on all the decisions regarding the upper card,” said Shane. “When you told me what was planned, it sounded like something was amiss, because it didn’t sound like something Goliath would agree to. After all, he’s going to give you quite the rub if the next month plays out like you say it will. It just isn’t like him to put over the hot new star, and I can tell you, no matter how bad Duke wants you to go over, if Goliath isn’t in on it, it ain’t happening.”

“That’s the most surprising thing about all of this,” said Jade. “You’re the first person Goliath will put over in a big way since he got here.”

“Well, they both were eager to tell me about the plan,” said Joey, thinking back to the meeting. Goliath didn’t seem at all hesitant to proceed.

“That’s good,” said Shane. “There’s something about you and the way the fans connect to you that even Goliath can’t deny.”

“I don’t know about that. This whole situation is as much a surprise to me as to anyone,” said Joey.

“Well, for whatever reason,” said Jade. “Your number’s been called. I guess keeping your head down isn’t much of an option anymore. I see some tough times ahead for you backstage, Joey Mayhem.”

“Ah, it doesn’t have to be that bad,” said Shane. “Listen Joey, Jade is right, some of the boys are going to be bitter about you getting the title belt, and you’ll need to watch out for that. If this business is about anything, it’s about politics. But there’s another side to this, an upside. You’re a player now. You’ve got Duke and Goliath’s ear. The guys will recognize that, the smart ones, anyway. You have to remain a player. Now that you’re in the circle, you need to make sure you don’t get knocked out.”

“What do you mean?” said Joey.

“I mean, don’t screw this up. By next week, your star will be one of the brightest in the wrestling world, everyone will be watching you. Your promos, your look, and your wrestling need to be flawless. If they are, people will quickly forget the shortcut you were given. But if you mess up now, well, there’s a whole pack of ravenous wolves on the Internet who feed on the mistakes of wrestling’s biggest stars.”

“Wow, that’s some pressure,” said Joey.

“Yes it is,” said Shane. “Yes it is,” he repeated, as if he had a story in his head.

Shane grabbed his glass of cola and raised it in the air. “Enough talk about backstage politics and Internet fans. I propose a toast to the next GWA World Champion, Joey Mayhem.”

“Here, here,” said Jade, raising her glass of water.

Joey picked up his own glass and clinked it with the others. If nothing else, these two were accepting of him as champion. That was a start.

Shane finished off his cola and looked down at a plate full of meat scraps. “I feel awful just leaving all this steak to be thrown out,” he said

“You could get a box,” said Joey.

“A box. Hm. I don’t remember the last time I asked for a doggie bag at a restaurant,” said Shane.

“Just leave it,” said Jade. “They won’t mind throwing it out now that you have to pay for it.”

“Maybe I could scarf down the rest of this, there’s still time,” said Shane, holding up the digital clock for Jade, as if his meal was a time bomb in an action movie.

“You’re gonna be sick if you do,” said Jade.

“I’m going to be sick either way. If I finish it, at least I won’t have to pay. Plus I’ll get my picture on–“

“We know,” said Jade. “I’m going to ask for the check, and I’m going to have them charge us for that steak. It’s on me.”

“Oh no. You’re not paying for–“

“Waitress, could we get our check?” Jade called out. “He’s not going to finish the Heffer.”

The waitress strolled to the table and pulled the check out of her apron.

“I knew you weren’t going to finish that when you ordered it,” said the waitress. “Don’t sweat it. It’s on the house. But,” she turned to Joey, “I’m supposed to ask for your autograph.”

“My autograph?” said Joey.

“Yes. The manager says you’re a professional wrestler. His kid loves that shit. Autograph that check for me and the meal’s free.”

“Actually,” said Joey, “we’re all professional wrestlers.”

“Really? Would my kid know all of you?”

“Just sign the autograph, Joey,” said Jade. “You’re the big star now. Shane and I would only lessen the value if we put our names on the same paper.”

Joey shrugged, signed the check and handed it back to the waitress.