One Fall

CHAPTER 36

  The announcement came at ten A.M. on the spot.

  Joey and Jade had been in the hotel business center since nine in the morning, surfing the Net. There were three computer terminals in an otherwise empty room. Joey and Jade occupied two. The third was empty.

  Joey was checking in on Revolution.com every few minutes. The opening screen had remained unchanged for an hour. There was a splash picture of Joey and Goliath standing in the ring, from the most recent broadcast of Riot, and a headline that read, “Re-Match at Apocalypse.” When Joey checked Revolution.com at 9:59, the site was unchanged. When he checked again at 10:00, it was there. It was the first box of text underneath the banner logo.

  “Revolution Wrestling Names Michael ‘Duke’ Correlli as General Manager.”

  Joey clicked on the link to read the story.

  Revolution Wrestling is proud to announce Michael “Duke” Correlli as its new General Manager. This announcement comes just four days after Revolution’s groundbreaking acquisition of the Global Wrestling Alliance, of which Correlli was the president.

  “Duke and I have had many harsh words for each other over the years, but this week we sat down and buried the hatchet. Business is business, and hiring Duke is good business. He is the preeminent figure in professional wrestling, and we’d be a fool not to ask for his help as we create the greatest wrestling promotion in history,” says Revolution President Max Zeffer.

  “I ate my piece of humble pie on Thursday, and now I’m ready to get on with what I do best,” said Correlli. “Revolution won the Monday Night Battle fair and square with a superior product. I couldn’t beat them, so I’m ready to join them. I’m excited to be a part of what will truly be the greatest wrestling promotion of all time.”

  As General Manager, Correlli will assume a leadership role behind the scenes, as well as an on-air presence as the infamous “Duke Correlli” character made famous on GWA Burn. Look for him to make his inaugural appearance as a Revolution superstar this Monday night at 8 eastern on Revolution Riot.

  “There it is,” Joey said to Jade. She rolled her chair closer to him, and read over his shoulder.

  “So what does this mean?” she asked.

  “It means this Anonymous guy knows his shit. It means that what Steve said is going to happen is probably going to happen. I’m going to do the job to Goliath on Sunday night and them I’m out.”

  Jade stood up, stepped away from Joey and the computer, and began pacing around the room.

  “I don’t understand what you’re supposed to do with this info,” she said. “So, now you know you’re getting screwed again. So what? Do you turn down the big money you’re getting for the show?”

  “I don’t know. It’s almost like this guy’s playing with me.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, knowing that Goliath faked his injury makes it hard enough to consider doing the job for him. Knowing that I’m gonna get let go afterwards...why would I do the job at all?

  “Joey, it’s okay if you don’t want to work the show. We don’t need the money. After Steve runs his piece, everyone would understand why you didn’t want to work.”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to do the show. I really want to get in the ring with Goliath. I really want to get in the ring with him and give him a real concussion.”

  He was surprised at his own venom. In speaking his violent desire to Jade, he made it real. The thought had been in his mind since Steve presented his news the night before, but he hadn’t allowed himself to consider the desire as real.

  “Don’t talk like that Joey,” said Jade. “You don’t need to be getting into any more fights. It’s not worth it. Your little bout with Jumbo almost killed you.”

  “You don’t think I can take Goliath?”

  Jade looked at him with sympathy. “Honey, he’s got fifty pounds of muscle on you.”

  “Fifty pounds of steroid muscle. Not that any of it would matter anyway. I was up all night thinking about what he did and what I’d like to do to him. He’d never know what hit him.”

  “I don’t like the way you’re talking at all, Baby. You’re not seriously considering this are you?”

  “Why not? It used to happen all the time in wrestling. The phony show turns into a real one. Just thinking about kicking his ass in front of the whole world right before everyone finds out what he did to me, what he did to all of us--”

  “Joey, you can’t do this. You can’t do this to me. You’re all fired up with rage and you’re not thinking straight.”

  Joey stood up, carried by his own excitement. “I am thinking straight. This is a good idea. Steve’s piece isn’t running until Monday. No one will be expecting anything like this on Sunday night. I go out there, beat the shit out of him, go home, get fired, then the next day Steve tells the world everything. We’re both vindicated and Goliath is left looking like a dupe.”

  He didn’t know if he really believed what he was saying. Somewhere in the back of his mind was the reality that he would get paid half a million dollars just to put on a wrestling match. If he chose to do what he was saying, he would give that up.

  And maybe that was the appeal. Picking a real fight with Goliath would be supremely rebellious, not only because Joey would be flouting years of convention, but because he would be giving up the biggest payout in wrestling history.

  “Honey, please. This is crazy. Didn’t you learn anything from your fight with Jumbo? You ended up in the hospital. You’re lucky you didn’t end up with brain damage. You’re lucky you didn’t get killed. Don’t you think it would be more effective if you didn’t show up at all? Don’t you think that would make a stronger statement?”

  “It’s not just about making a statement. It’s about revenge.”

  “You’re going to get revenge, Joey! On Monday morning the whole world is going to know everything!”

  Jade’s eyes were filling with tears. Her face was flooded with desperation. Joey didn’t care. How dare she suggest that Goliath could beat him in a fight, just because the scrap with Jumbo went awry. She certainly wouldn’t be the only one who would think Goliath could take him. He would beat up Goliath and surprise the entire wrestling world. He would be the underdog, and he would be fighting for the right reasons. He had been wronged. He was about to get screwed. He was going to do this.

  “I’m calling Steve,” he said. “I’ve got an idea. Can I have your cell phone?”

  “What? What’s your idea?” She was crying now.

  Joey hated the way she sounded. Her desperation made it clear that, in her mind, this wasn’t just his decision. He had to ignore her now. He had to do this. If ever there was anything in his life that he had to do...

  “Please, can I just...if you don’t let me have your cell phone, I’m just going up to the room to call Steve,” he said.

  Jade looked at him, judged him, then gave up. Her desperation changed to resignation, and to anger. She shook her head as she pulled her cell phone from her purse.

  “Fine, whatever you want,” she whispered, handing over her phone.

  “How do I get into the phone directory to dial his number?” Joey asked, remembering that Jade had programmed Steve’s number into the phone the day before.

  “Here, let me do it,” she said, taking the phone from him.

  She pressed some buttons, then handed the phone back to Joey, its display reading, “Calling STEVE.”

  “Honey, please. Tell me what you’re doing,” she said.

  He held up his hand and nodded his head, in a feeble attempt to communicate that everything would be fine. Jade’s face only became more intense.

  “Hello, Steve, this is Joey.” He walked past Jade, out of the business center and into the hotel lobby. She followed him.

  “What is it Joey?” Steve said from the other end of the connection.

  “Steve, I have another story for you to post on your web site. T
his one is good.”

  Jade was standing right in front of him. Behind her was a stone bench. Behind the bench was a decorative water fountain. Behind the water fountain were stairs leading to the hotel front desk, where a young blonde woman caught herself looking right at Joey, and turned away.

  Joey looked back to Jade, who slowly sat on the bench, as if her nerves were too rampant to continue standing. Joey’s instinct was to run away – he didn’t want Jade to listen to this conversation – but he knew he couldn’t keep his idea secret from her for long. Perhaps it was best if she heard it first.

  “Okay, I’m listening,” said Steve.

  “Steve, on Sunday night I’m not going to lay down for Goliath. I’m going to shoot, and I’m going to try to pin him. What if, right before you post your story about the FTG and Goliath and everything else, I give you a piece to put up, explaining why I chose to shoot? You could post the story right as I do my ring entrance, so that a lot of the fans at home will know right away what’s going on, but Goliath sure as hell won’t. It will give me a chance to speak my piece, and to screw Goliath and Max before they get the chance to screw me again, and it’ll give you another big story.”

  Jade exhaled heavily then dropped her head. Her hands gripped the front of the bench like she might fall forward.

  “Wow, are you sure this is what you want to do?” said Steve.

  “Oh yes, and I’ll be doing it whether or not you post my piece. I just think it would turn out even better if I could tell the world why I wasn’t going to lay down. Think about it Steve. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have this news on your web site as I walk into the arena for my match?”

  “Well Joey, I wasn’t going to post any of the stories until Monday morning. I wouldn’t want to put up your explanation of things before I got my story on the site.”

  “So, change your schedule! Steve, I’m giving you the scoop of a lifetime here! This is going to make you famous.”

  “Yeah, I guess this is quite a story. It’s just that--”

  “Steve, if you don’t agree to run with this, I’ll just find someone who will.”

  Jade lifted her head. The movement caught Joey’s attention. She was looking at him like he had just kicked a dog. A drop of panic caught him. He wondered if all of this was getting out of hand.

  “Joey, don’t go to anyone else, please. I’ll run your story. Give me just a bit to call you back to talk about it further.”

  “What’s the problem here Steve?”

  “It’s just that...Mr. Anonymous had told me not to run anything until after the show. Let me just shoot him an email quickly, and tell him I want to run with the story on Monday night...just to clear it with him. His instructions were very specific.”

  “Why does he want you to wait until after the show?”

  “He said he has his reasons, and he can’t tell me.”

  “Well that sounds like a crock of shit to me. Steve, it’s your web site. It’s your story. Why do you have to do what he tells you?”

  “Joey, I have to trust him. He’s been right every time.”

  “Steve, you’re not going to tell him about my plan are you?”

  Jade was sitting on the edge of the bench now, thoroughly engrossed in the conversation. Hearing this spat with Steve, this potential snag, had given her new energy.

  “I was...I won’t say a word about this Joey, it sounds like you don’t want me to, so I won’t. I promise,” said Steve.

  “Okay...,” Joey began, then was overcome with fear. This conversation, both with Steve and with Jade, wasn’t going how he wanted it to. He wanted both of them to see what he saw. He saw the ultimate opportunity for revenge. It was so perfect in his mind. But Jade wasn’t with him. Neither was Steve. Joey was losing control of the plan before it even started. If he couldn’t control this conversation with Steve, how in the world was he going to control Goliath tomorrow night? “You know what?” Joey said to the phone, his voice running away from him. “No. No, Steve. I want you to agree with me right now that you’re going to run this story right when my match starts. Fuck what Mr. Anonymous wants. I want you to promise that to me right now or I’m taking the story to someone else.”

  “Joey...I, this...I don’t know--”

  “Yes or no, Steve.”

  Silence on the other end of the line. Silence from Jade. Silence in the room, except for the gurgle of the fountain and the pounding of his heart. What in the world was he doing?

  “Okay Joey. I’ll run your story as you want. Send it to me over email. I’ll post it right when your match starts, and I’ll make it work with what I’ve got. I won’t tell Mr. Anonymous a thing about it. We’ll just run with it and see what happens.”

  “Excellent,” said Joey, feeling tiny waves of contentment. It was a small victory, but victory was something he hadn’t felt much of lately. His entire body calmed as he realized that, with just a little force, he got what he wanted.

  Goliath would be next.

  “You’re making the right decision Steve. This will be the biggest story in the history of wrestling Steve. You’re going to win the fucking Pulitzer Prize for this.”

  “Sure thing, Joey. You have my email?”

  “I do. I’ll have the story, my statement, to you by the end of the night.”

  “Okay then. We’ll be in touch. Thanks for calling Joey.”

  “Thank you Steve.”

  Joey clicked the phone off and turned toward the business center. He had an email to write, an email that would be turned into a web page that would be read by hundreds of thousands of fans. Words were already forming in his mind. “Goliath faked his injury last time, but tonight I’m going to hurt him for real,” or something like that. Before he took a step, he realized his conversation with Jade wasn’t finished. She was still sitting on the stone bench, in front of the fountain. He turned toward her.

  “Honey, I need to do this,” he said.

  Her face was an accusation. It accused him of ignoring her, and ignoring her wishes. It accused him of thinking only about himself. It accused him of hurting her.

  “What was the trouble?” she said, softly. She had given up.

  “The trouble?” Joey stepped closer to her. He thought of how he took control of the conversation with Steve and got what he wanted. He willed himself to walk right up to her. She ignored him. He put his arm around her. He would take control of this conversation too.

  “It sounded like Steve was reluctant to run your story,” she said.

  “Yeah, this anonymous guy wanted him to wait until Monday. That’s settled, though. Steve was just caught off guard. I think it took a minute for the significance of what I was offering him to set in.”

  “Honey. Aren’t you worried that you’re basing all of this on the word of some Internet kid and his anonymous friend? What if they’re wrong? What if we’re being played?”

  “They’re not wrong Jade. We’re not being played.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know because I’m one hundred percent positive that I didn’t mess up that kick. I know that Goliath faked that injury. I knew it the instant it happened, but I allowed myself to believe all this crap that’s been said about me lately. I’ve done a superkick hundreds of times before, and I’ve missed a superkick once. I know what it’s like to do it right, and I know what it feels like if you mess up. My heel barely touched Goliath’s cheek. I just convinced myself that I messed up because it didn’t make any sense otherwise. It didn’t make any sense for him to fake an injury like that. Everyone believed that I botched it, because I’m Joey Mayhem, and I’m reckless in the ring. But I didn’t botch it. And yesterday, when I was about to slam the door in Steve’s face and he said to me, ‘Goliath faked his injury,’ I knew I needed to let him in and listen to what he had to say, because deep down inside, I knew it was true.”

  Jade stared straight ahead. In front of them w
as a revolving door surrounded by picture windows, through which the late morning sun was broken into the shadows of window panes and trees.

  “Have you ever heard about Goliath’s incident in Sydney?” she said, softly.

  “Yes, I remember that I think.” Joey’s mind stuck on a conversation he had with a companion in wrestling school, a kid named Neil Crawford. Neil was always up-to-date on the latest gossip, and had mentioned Goliath causing a scene in Australia.

  “Duke did a good job of covering the whole thing up,” said Jade. Her voice was empty, like the words were being pulled from her without any effort on her part. “Today, any fans who hear about the Sydney incident think it’s just gossip that may or may not be true.”

  Joey was frightened at where this was going.

  “It’s true,” she said. “I was there.”

  Joey had lost control of this conversation. The uneasiness was back. Did he know what he was doing?

  “We did a tour in Australia two years ago,” Jade continued. “Duke didn’t go. Neither did Shane. Martha Tanner came to run the backstage, but there was no one there to control the wrestlers. They turned into spoiled kids, frat boys on a drunken spree. It was awful. In every city there was some fight on the bus or on the plane. Rocky Preston and Flash Martin were both rookies with us on that trip, and they got hazed like you wouldn’t believe.

  “But the worst was in Sydney, after the show. A bunch of us went to a bar. Goliath and I were together at the time. He was still all ‘roided out from his match, he got way too jacked up that night. Everyone else was drinking and having fun, but he was just stewing in this chemical shit, hardly saying anything to anyone, and his eyes. He was scary.

  “And it was crowded, and some local guy bumped into him on accident. Goliath flipped out and punched the guy in the face. Instantly the whole bar blew up. I swear, I’m never going to a bar in Australia again, the men get drunk and they want to fight. And one by one Goliath beat the shit out of all of them. And it wasn’t pretty. He was knocking people’s teeth out and kicking them in the ribs. And he was yelling, “Who’s next! Who’s next!” Even the bouncers couldn’t contain him. He had this rage in his eyes. It was horrifying. It took half the locker room to get him under control. The next morning, on the airplane, I told him I never wanted to speak to him again and then sat next to Jumbo for the rest of the trip, thinking it’d be smart to stay near the biggest guy in the locker room until I knew Goliath was safe.”

  Jade leaned forward, as if the story had exhausted her.

  “Honey, I’m sorry you had to see that,” said Joey. “I promise Sunday night won’t be like that at all.”

  “You can’t promise that. You can’t...” She shook her head and let out an angry sigh.

  “I can’t what?” Joey knew he was being ruthless. She was drained, and now he was asking her to fight with him.

  “I can’t what, Jade? I can’t protect myself? I can’t win? Your story doesn’t scare me, Jade.”

  “It wasn’t meant--”

  “It was meant to scare me!” He backed away from her, preparing to yell at the top of his lungs if he had to. “And I’m sorry that it doesn’t scare me. I’m sorry that I have to do this, and I’m sorry you don’t want me to. And I’m sorry that I can’t guarantee that I won’t get my ass kicked, because I might. But I have to do this!”

  “Why? Why do you have to do this? It’s stupid Joey. You’re not proving anything.”

  “I am proving something. I’m proving that I can hang. I’m proving that I deserved my shot at the top. I’m proving that I didn’t deserve all the shit I took from everyone in the GWA locker room from the minute I arrived. I’m proving that next time no one’s going to push me around, no one’s going to work me stiff, no one’s going to talk shit about me--”

  “Shootfighting Goliath doesn’t prove any of that! You’re a wrestler, Joey, not--”

  “That’s right. I’m a wrestler, not some drunken barfly who’s easy pickings for Goliath’s ‘roid rage. This is what I do for a living.”

  “This is not what you do for a living! You pretend. We pretend to fight, Joey.”

  Her eyes were full of tears, dyed black from mascara. Joey turned around so he didn’t have to see her. He looked out the revolving door and thought about storming outside. His mind was made up, and hers was too. This argument was nearing the point where the stakes would increase. Soon they wouldn’t be arguing about what he should do, but why he should do it. Soon he would be asked if this fight was more important to him than their relationship.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She said nothing. A man in a suit, carrying a briefcase, walked through the revolving door. He nodded at Joey before heading to the front desk.

  Joey turned around and looked at Jade. Drags of mascara now underlined her eyes. She was crouched forward on the bench like she was suffering from stomach cramps. He was hurting her. This had to stop.

  “Honey?” he said, taking a small step towards her, looking to her for permission to come any closer.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t have to do this. I want to do this, but I don’t have to.”

  She shuddered, from either a laugh or a cry, Joey couldn’t tell.

  “Jesus, Joey,” she said. “I’m just...I don’t want anything to happen to you. I love you.”

  He knelt before her, then kissed her. Her lips were salty and wet with tears. Her cheeks were cool from evaporation. He pulled away and cleaned her cheeks with his thumbs, then kissed her again. He stood up and pulled her into his chest, where he held her.

  “I love you too,” he said. “Give me the word, honey, and I’ll call this off.”

  “Oh no,” she said. She forced her way up, making Joey take a step back to allow her room. “I’m not making this decision. You go do whatever you want. I think this is a bad idea, but I’m not going to take the blame for your regret if you make the wrong choice.”

  “Okay,” he said, containing a small and perhaps inappropriate joy. He had won. He and Jade were in a fight, which was now over, and he was going to get what he wanted.

  And if he could win this fight, he could win his next one too.

  “Why don’t you go up to the room?” he said. “I’m going to the business center to write my email to Steve.”