One Fall
CHAPTER 28
“Honey, it’s starting,” Jade called from downstairs.
Joey was in the master bedroom, watching a tape of Red Jackson vs. Lucifer from a broadcast of Revolution Riot a month ago. He found the remote control and pressed pause.
“Coming,” he yelled back. As he descended the hardwood stairs, he wondered if the happiness of this past week was meant to last, or if it was just a byproduct of the fresh surroundings. He had spent the week with Jade, at her house in Dallas, effectively on vacation. Now, one week removed from his hospital stay in Las Vegas, he was leaving a wrestling tape in one room to watch a live wrestling broadcast in another.
Joey found Jade in the den, sitting on a leather sofa, facing a flatscreen TV hung on the opposite wall. She had tuned in to Revolution Riot, but had GWA Burn on in the lower corner using the split screen function.
Joey plopped down next to her. There was a bowl of popcorn on the glass coffee table in front of them, a bottle of water on the end table next to Joey, and surround sound emanating from the speakers built into the ceiling. Truly, this was a wrestling fan’s dream.
“Not so bad being a fan again, is it?” said Jade.
“Not bad at all,” said Joey.
He knew he couldn’t stay away from performing forever without missing it, but that didn’t stop him from reveling in the current bliss. In the past week, he had swam in Jade’s indoor pool every morning, taken a nap every afternoon, and gone out for a fancy dinner with Jade every evening. His body was thankful for the rest. It took only four days off for the pain to heal, the pain not only from his fight with Jumbo, but also from his accumulated wrestling wounds over the past three years, during which he had never taken a vacation. He had grown so accustomed to small pains in his knees and large pains in his shoulders that he had forgotten how enabling it was to be free of injury. There was a playfulness of the healthy body that was only now solidifying after being dissolved in a bath of back bumps and body slams. It was almost as if the abused body of the wrestler had adapted so fiercely to mistreatment that it became inhumanly strong when left alone.
Jade felt it too, Joey could tell. Her normally pleasant demeanor had evolved into a floodlight of joy. It was impossible not to be happy around her. It was one of those weeks that they both would remember with fondness.
Revolution Riot opened with a video package of the feud between Flash Martin and Miguel Cervantes.
“We’d never open with a package for the mid-carders,” said Jade, referring to Burn’s unstated policy of always opening and closing the show with whomever was feuding for the title belt.
“I know it,” said Joey with regret, a sentiment they shared. Featuring the mid and lower card in prominent spots during the TV broadcast was necessary in order to create new stars, ease locker room politics, and keep the show fresh. Duke didn’t understand this at all, hence his locker room was a quagmire of power-mongering.
Ten seconds into the broadcast it was already apparent they had been wrestling for the wrong promotion. Riot’s production was cleaner than Burn’s. Riot’s opening package had more drama. Their announcers had more energy. Their fans were louder.
Furthering the distinction, using their “picture in picture” mode, they simultaneously saw that Burn was opening its broadcast with Jumbo, Deep Six, and Duke in the ring doing an interview segment. With Goliath and Branson out with injuries, Joey suspended, and Crusader gone, Jumbo and Deep Six were all that was left of the main event scene. Despite the fact that they both played heels (and both were not over with the fans) they would have to carry the show.
The crowd was cheering for something going on in the Burn broadcast in the lower corner. Jade lifted the remote and punched a button which swapped the screens, so Burn occupied the bulk of the frame, with Riot relegated to a small corner.
“Oh my God,” she said in response to the television. A very tall, slightly chubby man with long black hair and a braided black beard was standing atop the entrance ramp.
“Who the hell is that?” said Joey.
“That, my friend, is Zeke Thunder,” said Jade, “and his arrival means we got out just in time.”
Joey looked closely. He had seen Zeke Thunder on GWA television a long time ago. He didn’t look at all like this out of shape wannabe biker.
“This clown just won’t die. He thinks he’s worth a million bucks. Look at his belly.” Jade seemed overjoyed. “Have you ever worked with this guy Joey?”
“No. I barely even remember him.”
“He’s been holding out, thinking that one of the two promotions would give him a good contract. They didn’t. Until now, I guess. Duke must be really desperate. This joker wanted a guaranteed million annually and a reduced house show schedule. Plus, he’s total poison backstage. Lazy, whiny, son of a bitch. I can’t believe they signed him.”
In the bottom corner, Riot had segued from the video package into a match between Flash Martin and Butterfly Johnny Grace. Jade switched the TV back to Riot, saying, “Now I’ve seen everything, I think.”
Joey watched Riot intently. He had worked with Flash Martin briefly in the SWL before Revolution signed him, and was impressed with the guy’s skills. And Butterfly Johnny Grace had always been a hell of a worker.
“See, this is much more interesting than anything we’ve been doing,” said Jade. “Butterfly Johnny Grace is a main-eventer, but they’re having him wrestle against their mid-card champion. If Flash Martin goes over, then his match at their pay per view instantly becomes much more interesting.”
“I totally agree,” said Joey.
The entire evening was full of these revelations. Whereas Burn carefully booked its matches with run-ins, disqualifications, and a slew of ref bumps, Riot’s matches ended with clear winners. Burn’s strategy was a feeble attempt to please everyone backstage (thus pleasing no one), with no wrestlers losing any heat, and the stories going nowhere. Riot’s strategy was much more far-sighted. The matches meant something, so even though someone had to lose, the fans had a reason to watch. When Flash Martin defeated Butterfly Johnny Grace, after a solid twenty minute match with no interference and no cheating, Flash Martin was elevated, his character ready to move forward in the storylines, and his pending match with Miguel Cervantes at the pay per view that much more important. By contrast, Burn’s first match of the night featured Gordy Goodnow losing to Bret Stevens, with illegal help from Pit Bull. Nothing proven there, except that Bret and Pit Bull were cheaters, a fact established more than two years ago.
The main event of Burn featured Deep Six vs. Jumbo’s wife Rashann. Somewhere during the two hours when Joey wasn’t paying attention, Burn had set up this match and was going to play Jumbo as a face. Right before the match started, Zeke Thunder laid out Jumbo with a 2 x 4. The whole thing was ridiculous.
Riot’s main event was Scott Rollins vs. Red Jackson. Jackson went over, but Rollins put on a great match, and was established as a big-time player in his new role, suitable to be in storylines with Lucifer at the upcoming pay per view.
At ten o’clock, with both shows finished, Joey felt a strong sense of satisfaction. In taking a stand against Jumbo and Duke, he had earned an indefinite suspension, likely to be followed with walking papers for both himself and his girlfriend. He had turned his back on the entire locker room, placing himself ahead of the promotion, the ultimate taboo in professional wrestling. Watching the embarrassment of GWA Burn when compared to the smooth machine of Revolution Riot, it was clear that the promotion deserved nothing. A few months down the road, Joey’s contract with GWA would be expired, and he’d be free to wrestle for the competition. He couldn’t wait.