One Fall
CHAPTER 37
To my fans,
What you are reading was first posted on the web precisely when my name was announced for my title match with Goliath at Apocalypse. It is important to me that everyone understands that what I did (what I am about to do) was carefully planned and thought about over the course of several days.
If you are one of the lucky ones who is reading this soon after it has been posted, congratulations. You will be witness to wrestling history. What happens in my match with Goliath tonight will be talked about for years to come.
Tonight I am supposed to “do the job” for Goliath. I am supposed to lose. The plan is for the two of us to get approximately fifteen minutes to work a strong main event match, with many near-falls and lots of momentum changes. Near the end of the match, Goliath is supposed to gain control, then nail me with his finisher, The Thunderclap. Then he is supposed to pin me, getting a clean victory and going on to face Lucifer at next month’s Pay Per View.
I have been told that doing the job is the right thing for me to do. I have been told that, since I carelessly injured Goliath in our title match and knocked him out of wrestling for a month that it is only fair for me to lay down for him tonight. I have been told that since the stakes are high at this first pay per view of the new Revolution I should lose to a proven superstar in the Main Event. I have been told that the world wants to see Goliath vs. Lucifer, and that Goliath deserves this opportunity.
But there is much more that I wasn’t told, until I met an ambitious Internet wrestling columnist named Steve Garcia. Stay tuned to this web site for more details, for soon, very soon, Steve Garcia will be telling the entire world what he told me.
After you read that story, you will understand why I did not just lay down for Goliath tonight. You will understand why I came out and did not follow the script. Tonight I intend to pin Goliath for the 3-count. To do so, I will have to wrestle him, to fight with him, for real.
Tonight you won’t see any clotheslines or Irish Whips. There won’t be any bulldogs or slingshots. If steel chairs or ring bells or blood shows up tonight, the violence will be very real.
And I may lose. Despite my best efforts, I may still get pinned, or knocked out, or disqualified.
But I will not lie down. What happened to me and to professional wrestling is a disgrace, and I will not lie down.
Enjoy the show.
Sincerely,
Joseph Hamilton a.k.a. Joey Mayhem
Steve closed the email. He had now read it five times or more.
It was an impressive piece, if a little rough around the edges. Steve wanted to run it. He still hadn’t decided.
He went back to his Inbox. There were still only three messages, nothing new. At the bottom was the message from Joey, sent on Jade Wilcox’s email account. It had arrived at four thirty. Its subject line was “My Statement.” Right above that were two emails from Anonymous, both titled “RE: Posting the Story.” They were part of a chain that Steve had started right after reading Joey’s statement.
To: Anonymous
From: Steve Garcia
Posing The Story
Mr. Anonymous,
There has been a new development. I need to post my story tomorrow night. It’s very important that I post the story right away.
Steve
It had taken Anonymous all of two minutes to respond to that email. He had written back:
To: Steve Garcia
From: Anonymous
RE: Posting the Story
Steve,
What is this development?
Anonymous
That was it. Greeting and signature with one line in between. Right to the point. So, Steve sent a message right back to him:
To: Anonymous
From: Steve Garcia
RE: Posting the Story
I can’t tell you about the development. There’s been a new twist (a big twist) to the story, but I promised my source I’d protect him. Needless to say, the story has taken on even more urgency, and I MUST post my story tomorrow night. If you’re still holding onto any information– I need to have it right away if you want it to show up. I will be posting the story, with or without your new information, tomorrow night.
Steve
As expected, Anonymous wrote back right away.
To: Steve Garcia
From: Anonymous
RE: Posting the Story
Steve,
You are a good journalist, and I can appreciate that you want to protect your sources.
I promise you that it is safe to tell me about this “development.” Not only is it safe, it’s extremely important. It would be a huge mistake to publish your story before you’ve heard from me. I’m the one who has led you to where you are, and I’m the one who knows everything that’s going on. There is so much more at stake than you know, and if you don’t follow my instructions, you jeopardize the story and your own well-being. I don’t say this to intimidate you, just to remind you that you don’t know everything and would do well to listen to me since I do.
Steve, I might be persuaded to have you run your story early, but I must know what this “development” is and how it fits into the scheme of things. Trust me Steve. You can trust me. You have to trust me.
Anonymous
That email had arrived a little under an hour ago. Since then, Steve had been paralyzed with indecision. There were lines in that email that were downright frightening. “You jeopardize the story, and your own well-being.” “You have to trust me.” In the midst of this story that had unfolded, of the facts that had fallen into his lap or revealed themselves like treasures for which only he had the map, of his meeting with Joey and Jade, and their interest in what he knew, of their willingness to use him and his web site to alter the course of wrestling history, Steve had forgotten that he was just an unemployed twenty-something who lived with his parents and was playing a high stakes game with some of the most powerful people in the world.
The answer was obvious. He needed to tell Mr. Anonymous everything and hope for the best. Yes, he had promised confidentiality to Joey, but he was in over his head. And his promise to Joey was ridiculous anyway. As soon as he posted Joey’s column, Mr. Anonymous would read it like everyone else. So what if Mr. Anonymous saw it a few hours early?
But that thinking only led to the other wall: Who was Mr. Anonymous and why did he care so much about any of this? Obviously, Mr. Anonymous was very well-connected with Max Zeffer and/or Goliath. This new email, its desperate tone, suggested that Mr. Anonymous was involved. He had fed Steve all this information with a purpose. For some reason, he wanted Steve to present the story as Mr. Anonymous knew it, on Mr. Anonymous’s terms. Failure to follow these rules apparently was not acceptable. Mr. Anonymous had a lot at stake here.
And if he had a lot at stake here, he might have his own agenda regarding tomorrow’s taping of Riot. He obviously didn’t want any information to escape until after Riot had already aired. Perhaps something big was going to happen, something bigger than Joey’s shoot fight.
And that led back to the first wall. Steve was trapped between his word to Joey and his fear of Mr. Anonymous.
He played out the two possible scenarios in his head.
Number One: He keeps his word to Joey. He would have to email Mr. Anonymous and tell him the story gets posted on Steve’s terms, because it’s Steve’s story. If Mr. Anonymous wishes to help by providing whatever this last bit of information is, then fine. If not, so be it.
Instantly, Steve’s mind swarmed with visions of men in suits and sunglasses greeting his mother at the front door, no, knocking the front door down and entering with guns. There was still a good twenty four hours between now and the start of Joey’s match on Riot, plenty of time for Mr. Anonymous to do whatever he felt necessary to ensure things went according to his plan. “There is so much more at stake than you know, and if you don’t follow my instructions, you jeopa
rdize the story and your own well-being.”
Of course, he could just remain silent, or better, tell Mr. Anonymous, “Forget it, there’s no new development. I was just trying to get the story out of you early. I’ll do it your way,” only to post Joey’s story as planned. Still, the men in suits might come. Now that the cat was out, Mr. Anonymous knew that Steve had something juicy, this game might continue until Steve spilled his guts, one way or another.
Okay, Scenario Number One didn’t go anyplace happy. What about Number Two: He betrays his word to Joey and forwards Joey’s statement to Mr. Anonymous. Mr. Anonymous could say, “Very interesting, go with what you were planning, here’s my information too. Now we’ve got a killer of a killer story.” Or, Mr. Anonymous could say, “Don’t run this piece, this will muck everything up,” and then do Lord knows what behind the scenes to destroy Joey’s big moment. Or, Mr. Anonymous could say nothing to Steve, he could take the information and run with it, and whatever master plan Mr. Anonymous had in the first place could be adjusted to account for the new information.
Any way it played out, Scenario Number Two didn’t involve men in suits visiting his mother’s house. Clearly, Scenario Number Two was the superior choice.
Steve clicked on the Reply button to send a new email to Mr. Anonymous.
To: Anonymous
From: Steve Garcia
RE: Posting the Story
Dear Anonymous,
Okay. Attached to this email is “the development.” A few hours after I returned home from my visit with Joey Mayhem, I received a phone call.
Steve thought about the phone call. Joey had been thrilled with his plan to shootfight Goliath. It was a way to restore his dignity after the wrestling world had screwed him. And he had chosen Steve. After everything Joey had learned about all the lies, Joey still blindly put his trust in someone. He put his trust in Steve.
Steve thought about his mother, about her constant harassment of him to get a real job. How she had never believed that this Internet “journalism” was worth a second of his time. How often she told him he was throwing his life away. How she thought her only son was a loser.
Steve deleted what he’d written and started over.
Dear Anonymous,
I will not divulge my information. I promised my source I wouldn’t. I will post the story on my own terms. I thank you for your help. You are correct, you gave me this story, but it’s still mine, unless you’d like to write and post it yourself.
If you’d like to give me your last bit of information in time for it to appear with the rest of the story, please send it right away.
Steve Garcia
He clicked the ‘Send’ button before he could change his mind.