From The Beginning
Dec 17, 2011 11:44:17 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2011 11:44:17 GMT -5
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Social relationships, friendships, and supportive alliances are strengthened now. Your energy and confidence are high and you can accomplish much in a harmonious, flowing manner right now.
Social relationships, friendships, and supportive alliances are strengthened now. Your energy and confidence are high and you can accomplish much in a harmonious, flowing manner right now.
~*~OFF CAMERA~*~
The scene opens at Dargan's Restaurant and Bar in Santa Barbara, CA where I've just met up with an old family friend. Papa Zellor is a family friend; he and my dad go way back to when they both wrestled together in the eighties or some time. Now he spends his time managing his sons, Stone and Clint as they wrestle on the independent circuit. But they're not the cause of his trip to Santa Barbara.
Blaine Harrison
So what did you want, Jack?
Papa Zellor
I just wanted to catch up...
Blaine Harrison
I meant to drink.
Geez, I wasn't being that blunt, old man. The bartender walks over to us; he looks calmly as Papa Zellor. At the wrong side of fifty with greying temples and a tendency to wear leisure suits he looks like the usual clientèle around these parts. On the other hand, I'm in my mid-twenties and am wearing a pair of ripped-at-the-knee jeans and a 'Primatech Paper Company' t-shirt I bought back when I was into 'Heroes'. It's laundry day, don't judge me.
Bartender
What can I get ya, fellas?
Papa Zellor
A pint of Guinness for me.
Blaine Harrison
A woo woo, please.
The man behind the bar looks at me gone out. He finally shakes his head as I hear a couple of middle aged guys a few seats down laughing.
Blaine Harrison
Fuzzy navel?
Bartender
We don't do those drinks...
Blaine Harrison
Cosmopolitan?
He shakes his head again. The men down the bar laugh more. Papa Zellor turns the colour of beetroot. Finally I give up and look at the drinks menu and order a Magners cider. I should have known somewhere like this wouldn't serve anything decent; the bar is decked out in beech effect wood panels without a neon sign in sight. There's proper whiskeys on show behind the bar. Everything I don't like in a bar. As our drinks arrive, Jack restarts the conversation.
Papa Zellor
I'll be blunt, kid. Remember a few years ago when I helped you get into Saints Haven?
Blaine Harrison
How could I forget?
How could I forget. He pulled some strings with Isaac Bronco and got me hired by SHW. It got me my 'big break' in wrestling, got me reunited with my half-brother before he got uber pissed at me for, in his eyes, failing at it. He hasn't spoken to me in a year and a half because of that.
Papa Zellor
I need to call in that favor.
Blaine Harrison
Yeah, sure. You want to be my manager in FRONTIER?
Papa Zellor
Not quite ... Do you remember Jenny?
My eyes widen so I look somewhat like a deer in the headlights. I haven't seen Jenny since we were seven or eight years old when our families went camping in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Our fathers had been drinking since the early hours of the afternoon. Her older brothers, teenagers at the time, had snuck off in the middle of the night to smoke either cigarettes or weed without the adults knowing. And Jenny had been watching a lot of the teen sitcoms that were sprouting up at the time and had developed an interest in kissing, which would have been fine if Jenny hadn't have been an overweight, bespectacled preteen with onion breath (we'd had hot dogs that evening and that girl smothered her dogs with onions until there was more veg than 'meat' in that bun). I wasn't a large child so she managed to catch me off-guard and overpower me, laying on me and delivering to me my first kiss. After she had rolled off me, she said that she found the whole experience to be unpleasant and a waste of her first kiss. The memories of this incident, I thought, had long since been repressed but the mention of her name has brought them flooding back to the forefront of my mind. To this day I still can't have onions on my hot dogs.
Papa Zellor
You okay, kid?
He asks this because I'm now cradling my head in my hands repeating the word "no" over and over again. Possibly a bad thing to do in front of the girl's father.
Papa Zellor
Blaine!
Blaine Harrison
I remember her, yeah. Don't tell me, she's become a manager like you an--
He interrupts.
Papa Zellor
God no! She hasn't got the style or grace to be a manager like me. But she wants to be a valet to a wrestler and I promised I'd help her out. Call in a favor from someone who I know, you know how it is.
Blaine Harrison
I know. I don't mean to sound offensive, Jack, but is Jenny ... is she really suited to being a valet?
He gives me an evil look as I make a fat gesture with my hands. I probably should have stopped expanding them several inches ago, but Jenny might have let herself go during high school or college. She could be the size of a damn blimp by now. And he wants me to have this fat chick accompany me to the ring every week? Instead of hitting me like most fathers would have by now, Jack reaches into his inside chest pocket and pulls out a picture of his daughter. Creepy, but whatever. If this were a Warner Bros cartoon my jaw would have just hit the floor; not that Jenny is overly attractive, but she's shed a lot of weight. A lot, I mean a lot, a lot, a lot of weight. If she was an actress she could easily play the best friend to the cute girl ... I wonder if I can keep this photo.
Blaine Harrison
I see your point.
Papa Zellor
As I was saying. Jenny's new to the business and I don't want to throw her in at the deep end. So when I heard you were signing for FRONTIER Grappling Arts, well, it sounded too good to be true. Since you owe me a favor, what do you say?
Blaine Harrison
I do owe you...
I say as I pocket the photo, smiling at Jack before drinking more of my cider. He seems pleased.
Papa Zellor
You won't regret this, kid. So, how are you and Joelle doing nowadays?
Oh, it has been a long time since we spoke hasn't it, Jack? The scene fades out as I try to explain to my old friend exactly what's happened in the last two and a half years. Ugh.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Your vitality and courage are strong now and you are eager to meet challenges. You can accomplish a great deal of work, especially if it involves physical effort. If you are active in sports, you will be especially competitive and vigorous now. Self-confidence is high.
Your vitality and courage are strong now and you are eager to meet challenges. You can accomplish a great deal of work, especially if it involves physical effort. If you are active in sports, you will be especially competitive and vigorous now. Self-confidence is high.
The scene opens at Jenny's Syracuse home where she and I are getting ready to cut our first promo against Evan Bodom for the upcoming Wednesday Weekly Combat. She's taken one of the lesser used rooms and converted it into a mini-studio of sorts. It was supposed to be a second bedroom, but since her father helps pays her rent and she doesn't need a room-mate it's been converted. She's covered one wall with a black home-made FGA banner, copying the logo she saw in Edison last week, which is the wall we'll be standing in front soon.
Blaine Harrison
So this'll be your first?
Jenny Zellor
Yeah.
She's nervous, I can tell. Between the pacing and the nail biting it's pretty easy to come to that conclusion. I've decided against wearing a black tee today, I didn't want to clash with the banner that Jenny had told me she was making. Instead opting for a Sesame Street based tee I bought off a website and a pair of baggy jeans. She's dressed similarly; we thought it best we show a united front. Baggy jeans and a tie-dye gypsy top make up her ensemble.
Blaine Harrison
I'll be here to guide you through this. It's easy, you just stand there, look pretty and back up what I'm saying. I'll do ninety-nine percent of the talking.
Jenny Zellor
Is that it?
Blaine Harrison
Yeah, pretty much...
She smiles and nods approvingly. Must have low self-confidence if she's willing to settle for that. I, on the other hand, have drank two cans of Monster this afternoon and am on something of a buzz, so I may ramble a bit much for my own good. Jenny makes her way over to the camcorder and starts recording before walking back to where I'm standing. We'll edit out that bit before we send the promo in.
And breathe, Blaine...
Blaine Harrison
Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, days away from the second edition of FRONTIER Grappling Arts' Wrestling Weekly Combat and my in-ring debut against 'Born To Be Hated' Evan Bodom. Before I get started let me just say, Evan, what happened to you last week was a travesty! Dirty tactics like those employed by Chandler Scott have no place in a wrestling ring. This week you do not have to worry about me cheating. I'm gonna fight the fair fight this week.
Jenny nods on cue. It's a good start.
Blaine Harrison
But I know what you're thinking. You're wondering exactly who I am and why should you, 'Born To Be Hated', savior of pro-wrestling be worried about a little piss-ant such as myself. You seem like the kind of person who would say "piss-ant" ... Anyway, I'll tell you a little story about me. A history of sorts; my journey as a professional wrestler. It all started back in the Summer of '06 when I was twenty years old. My father was a wrestler and he wanted his sons to follow in the business, so we did. And I paid my dues for about three years. I did what you did, drove around--not the country--but I drove around Ohio working any and all shows for those paychecks. In my clapped out Chevette, driving from Akron to Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinatti, Lima. I did them all, Evan. I rose from some punk's backyard through the school halls and gymnasiums until I got my shot in '09 for a promotion called Saints Haven Wrestling, maybe you've heard of it.
A momentary pause, as if I'm giving Evan Bodom a chance to reply. He probably hasn't heard of it, not many people have.
Blaine Harrison
You talk about people who have heart, who do what they do for the love of this sport, Evan. I went up against bigger men, stronger men. Even a bigger, stronger woman and that was a new experience. And I may not have beat them all ... not many of them in fact ... but every damn time I stepped into that ring, I gave it my all. I tried my hardest and all of my opponents came away with a greater respect for me. I mean it. You take Chandler Scott as an example; before your match last week you thought what? He was a spoiled rich brat who hadn't paid his dues and had everything handed to him on a silver platter. You had your match, he kicked you square in the crown jewels and cheated you out of a match that was basically yours for the taking ... how do you feel about him now?
Jenny Zellor
I'm guessing not good.
Blaine Harrison
I agree. I mean, I'd hate his guts if I were you, Evan. I've faced people like Chandler Scott before and they used those same dirty tricks on me. They think that because they're bigger than I am, that they're stronger than I am that I'm going to be a pushover. And when I stand up and fight they have to think twice. When I refuse to stay down after they slam me into the canvas, after they put their whole body weight behind squashing me in the corner. After they twist my arms or legs in directions that arms and legs shouldn't go ... when I refuse to tap, when I stand right back up and take it to them, people did to me what happened to you on Wednesday. What can I say, I get a licking and I keep on ticking. And you're probably looking at me right now, Evan, imaging how you're gonna strong arm me this Wednesday in Edison, New Jersey. How you're gonna toss me around the ring like a rag doll and take out those frustrations you feel about Chandler Scott and the way he cheated you out of a debut victory here in FRONTIER Grappling Arts. If I were in your place I'd probably do the same. Therein lies the difference between us, Evan. Because this Wednesday on Weekly Combat, you're gonna give your all and you're gonna try and wear me down with your strikes and submission holds. And I'm gonna keep coming back at you. How long will it be before you resort to the same dirty tactics?
Jenny Zellor
Ten, fifteen minutes...
Blaine Harrison
How long will it be before you take the easy way out and try to get the win? Become the person you hate the most.
I shake my head and sigh softly. In reality I'm thinking back to my time in Alpha Entertainment when I did exactly that. When I was part of Zenith, the dominant stable at the time and we ran roughshod over the competition. It was easy in numbers and, damn, it was satisfying. But I'm not that person any more. Things have changed and I've got to be better.
Blaine Harrison
I hope you don't. I mean, I don't want to have to hate you the same way you hate The Harvard Connection. Because, you see, this week will be my in-ring debut here in FRONTIER Grappling Arts and I'm looking to make that big first impression to make the people sit back and take note of me!
I make an aggressive gesture, sharply jabbing my thumb at my chest.
Blaine Harrison
You may be bigger and stronger than I am, but I bet you don't have my heart, Evan. The people may have cheered you on last week--they may do so this week--at least until the inevitable happens. Until that anger and frustration builds up and you really become 'Born To Be Hated'. I know your type. And I'm gonna do what I've done my whole career. I'm gonna fight with all my heart, Evan. It may even be enough to beat you but we're gonna have to wait until Wednesday Weekly Combat to find that out!
I point at the camera for a couple of seconds as Jenny walks over to stop recording. As she does so I breathe a heavy sigh of relief. If truth be told, Evan Bodom is probably one of the worst possible opponents for me in my debut match. I've never done well against the puroresu style he employs. If I can somehow try and keep him grounded or take away his legs so he can't use those kicks or hold up my two hundred plus pounds body, I may stand a fighting chance.
Jenny Zellor
How did I do?
Blaine Harrison
You did perfect, Jenny.
She jumps with joy; her exposed cleavage enticing me ever so slightly as I try my hardest to look away. Her father had warned me not to touch her or else he'd break every bone in my body and I believe him. Plus, given my current romantic situation (which I'll save for later) I don't want to make things even more complicated for myself. Jenny wraps her arms around my neck to hug me, which means I have to put mine around her body as she thanks me for allowing her the chance to be my valet. I'm not quite sure if she knows I'm only doing it as a favor to her father and that my only memory of her before we met at the show last Wednesday was the onion breath kiss she forced on me when we were seven or eight years old. Then again, if she doesn't know that she probably doesn't need to. She releases the hug after five seconds, a huge grin on her face as she appears very happy to just be a part of FRONTIER. You know what, me too. Me too.