Forged Steel's Wrestling Journal

Entry 12

More offers came in on where to work, including the Cloudsdale and Vanhoover territories. I’ve made my decision, though, with help from everyone else. I’m going to work the Crystal Empire promotion, Great North Championship Wrestling. Quake put it best, opportunity only knocks once and everyone in any locker room would kill to work with the world champion. The promoter for the north, Iron Maiden, sent over some more info and the pay looks massively better than anywhere I’ve worked.

So everything is set for me to leave, and as business goes I’ll have to put over Slapjack clean. It’s going to be a Loser Leaves Town match, and we’re going on last since the feud is still red hot. I spend my days working on packing up into a transport container for the move, as well as getting a place set up in the Crystal Empire. Promoters everywhere have connections because Iron gets me hooked up with a penthouse suite apartment a few blocks from the palace, about the same arrangement I had in Canterlot.

The last two weeks fly by as I manage to keep busy with moving arrangements and Sister’s dance lessons. The guy who I beat for insulting Sister and Rusty came by one day to apologize. I was suspicious of him, I’m sure Sister was as well, but Rusty was accepting. He kept his distance from me as he did. After he left, Rusty told me I should have apologized for clobbering him. She says that hurting someone is no way to get acceptance. She’s right, I really should know better.

Right then Sister walked me inside with them, put Rusty’s hand in mine and I can tell this is a final test. She puts on a song she’d always skipped over during our lessons and says to dance with Rusty. She can see that I’m caught off guard and frozen in place and then it starts again, she’s yelling at me, deriding my lack of confidence in my abilities. I don’t know why this happens to me, but this time her yelling does not help and my mind stays blank. After a moment, she shuts it down and I can see she’s not happy with me.

Rusty is bewildered by everything as Sister walks away in a huff. She asks me what that was all about, and I tell her that it was about her dance lessons. It was supposed to be a final exam and I failed because I went blank. I was trying to think how to start and ended up doing nothing because I just simply froze up. She only smiles, hugs me and says that dancing probably just isn’t my thing.

I share my concern with her, that I’ve wasted Sister’s time in trying to learn. Rusty says that I haven’t wasted anyone’s time because I still tried and that’s the important thing. I guess I’m just so used to success that I forget the important things. I’d have never known for certain if it was something I could do until I tried it. I tell her that I’m worried because I was hoping to learn for a lady, but Rusty says that as long as she knows I’m trying it won’t be any issue. I wish I could share her confidence in me.

Before I leave Sister comes back and apologizes for putting me on the spot. I tell her it’s no big deal because I know she only wants me to do well for her. Before we part, I leave them two tickets to tomorrow night’s show, my finale. At the very least, they’ll both be able to see what I’m truly my best at. We say our goodbyes and with one last hug, Sister wishes me well and says to not do anything reckless.

Caramel is waiting at the house for me when I return. I let him in and tell him everything about my moving and where I’ll be going. He seems mostly happy but at the same time sad that I’ll be leaving and especially so soon. Although it was mostly his idea that I leave for my own happiness and sanity, it’s still quite hard on him for me to just up and move so suddenly. We both know he’ll be alright, so I don’t say it, and we spend the rest of the evening just watching TV, no sex this time.

Apparently we lost track of time because we both fell asleep and awake the next day with him on top of me. Quake is standing at the end of the couch with a huge smirk and says “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Caramel awakens and his face turns bright red, I guess I forgot that Quake wanted to get a workout in with me before I left. Quake gives us a few minutes as Caramel gets dressed again and we say our goodbyes, with him also telling me to not get into trouble and that he hopes to see me again sooner rather than later.

With Caramel leaving, Quake and I go to the gym. I underestimated his athletic abilities because he manages to keep with me through everything. The two mile warm up run didn’t faze him, he hardly broke a sweat during weights, and he appeared as fresh as ever during cool down. He says he wishes he could have a partner like me every day, and that if he’d had one all along he might still be in working shape. I feel like that’s probably the highest praise I’ve received yet.

Quake didn’t spend the day just to get a workout with me, he wanted to give me a little report on the world champion and my next partner, Headcrusher. Crush, as he apparently goes by, is a big guy like myself but I’m a little bigger. Not only is he world champion, he’s also the heel so he will be the one to call the matches unless he asks me to. He can work any style, he has to be versatile like that to be on top, but his preferred style is deliberate mat-based work into brawling.

We spend all afternoon talking about Crush until the time comes to head to the Appleoosa auditorium for my last show. We get a couple blocks away and are led in by police convoy. In the dressing room, instead of the usual fare of video games and cards, most everyone is saying goodbye and wishing me well. I imagine it’s hard to to be upset with someone leaving when you know they’re going to have what could be the biggest moment of their career.

The place is packed to legal capacity, and they have a great show for them tonight. Everyone seems to step up their game for tonight, each match performing better than the last. Tonight I sit at gorilla position and watch matches instead of in a corner with my thoughts. Even Thunderbolt, usually a very unpolished worker looks like a seasoned pro in the ring. After his match he thanks me for everything even though we’d butted heads a few times and that the next time he sees me he hopes we can do main event work. Quake is sure to bust his chops by saying that he’s got a long way to go before he can even think about that.

As the night nears its end, the regional title match goes out. Before the both of them do, Quake is sure to remind them absolutely no color. The only bleeding tonight will be our match. They put out a good half hour fight before they time out, so that feud will keep going for a while. The match before mine is the battle royale. I think of some high spots for my match with Slapjack. Quake sees that I’m nervous, he tells me not to worry because my heat alone can carry the match. It’s no help, because my mind keeps wanting to ponder my match.

With the battle royale finished, the crowd starts to buzz. This is it, this is what I’ve been building towards the past two months. Slap gives me the nod before heading out to a thunderous ovation. Quake gives me the knowing smile as I stand up and walk slowly to the curtain. Their jeers are just as loud as I take my slow walk to the ring. Our eyes don’t leave each other even for an instant.

The crowd wants blood and is in a frenzy as we stare each other down. They just get louder as we stand there, chest to chest without a word. Without even a wind up, I whip my hand over and deliver a slap to his face, and it’s a good one that echoes throughout. Though it’s no disqualification, I don’t go for the dirty tricks yet. He answers back with a slap of his own, followed by me getting a punch on him a bit harder than I intended to.

I continue to deck him for the next few minutes and am merciless with my assault. He teases a comeback but I stop him dead in his tracks with a solid boot. I use a variety of holds to make him yell and writhe in pain. He gets his chance when I throw him to the outside and decide to bring some gimmicks in. The throw allows him to get a chair and crack me in the head with it. He works me over with the chair, the crowd getting louder with each hit.

I see the look in his eyes and the wink, and we know it’s time. He backs up to run at me with the chair, but I get my leg up and it blasts him in the head. When he drops to the ground, I take a moment to regroup, grab him and drill his head into a nearby ring post. I grab a wooden chair from under the ring and shatter it over his head. Grabbing a broken piece, I pull him up by his hair, show his head and gouge him with the piece to make him bleed.

With him writhing, I waste no time pulling him back up by his hair and drilling his head into the steps before I toss him back in the ring. Holding the metal chair I wait for him to stand up, then deck him with the chair. He gets up again only for me to whack him once more. He lays on the ground as I beckon him up again and when he gets to his knees, I plow him once more.

I carelessly leave the chair by him as I size him up for a spear. He sits up once more on his knees and I come running along but he gets the chair up, turning the tables once more. The crowd erupts as now I’m going to get my share. He shakes off the cobwebs and waves the chair around to get the crowd into a frenzy as I undo the tape and make a quick swipe on my forehead. I see the red drip down my muzzle and onto the mat. Sliding the edge back in my tape, I stand up with my hair over my face, whipping it out as he takes the chair to my head.

The crowd only gets louder as they see me bleed. He pulls me up and throws me to a corner, and I make sure to go head first into the post, just crumpling down to the mat. I see through my hair he’s ready to bring it in for the grand finale. As he starts to pick me up, I slam his head into the corner and climb to the top. With a jump I go for the diving headbutt, but he pulls the chair onto himself and I take it like a champ. With no time to spare, he sets the chair in the middle, pulls me over and I go vertical for his piledriver onto the chair as he pins me.

One…

Two…

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Three!