Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2021 16:45:26 GMT -5
Corrections (on-cam)
We see the Big Finn Don Tirri lounging around in his livingroom as usual. This time the room is actually cleaned up from the last visit, and the man himself is in a lot better shape too.
“Yanno. This is refreshing. Since the time I’ve been in UPRISING, only Flix and Luthie have played my game. And now you. I applaud your efforts Matty. Not that they’ll get you far but hey, A for effort.”
He throws a mocking thumbs up before continuing.
“But that’s where it ends. At effort. You really have a weird way of trying to boost your own ego Matty. You had a whole spiel on how you tried telling me to not look beyond Luther… Dude. I kept saying “IF I win” and how I wouldn’t count my chicken till they had up until almost the day of the show. Go ahead. Double check my tweets. Ya might find a few where I spoke like I already won, but a lot more where I kept it at “If”-level. I never discounted Luthers inring ability. Hell, that was the one thing I kept saying. All the way from day 1 of UPRISING. The fact that Luther is an inring beast. Again, double check my tweets and even my promos. It’s all there in the archives.
So no. I didn’t chalk you off as a Luther stan. So you can scratch that off your list of back-patting. And as far as making money on Luthers win? Kiddo, do you have ANY idea how much I raked in by betting on Ignis? Your loss netted me more than enough to not only pay back all the losses I incurred by having faith in Ignis before, but also to soothe the pain of losing to Luther. Seeing you get your just desserts and raking a huge payday from Ignis was an absolute joy. So while I am very pleased that I won, unlike you, I am upset that I lost. Because while I don’t really give a toss about losing a no-stakes throwaway match like the triple threat I had at Revo 4 or the one we’re having at Revo 6… I do care about losing a big one like this. If you don’t feel bad for losing your big match.. Kiddo, you’re in the wrong business”
He leans forward and cracks a small grin.
“And now onto the meat of the matter. Wanna know why I call you mini-me Matty? Because you’ve bit my whole schtick. You’re basically the canadian version of me when I was in my 20’s. Lets recap: Loudmouth braggard? Check. Self-deprecating humor? Check. Irritating as fuck catchphrase? Check. Hitting on anything that moves? Check. Not giving a toss what others think of you? Check. Now add into that the fact that you are considerably smaller than me and facially look like a teenager about to get his first pimple… Yeah. The narrative is painfully obvious. But there is ONE key difference between us, outside the size difference that is. I actually work hard in the ring and I actually win the matches I get on my win-column. You’ve always been the master of escaping with the skin of your teeth. Like with against Knox. Or way back in BCW when you dodged and dived and avoided karma like a fucking houdini, mostly due to having the boss in your back pocket. Had him on your back pocket to a point where he paid me a considerable sum of money to come do the job for you.
Also. Your whole spiel about me being full of cliches, being a new man yada yada yada… Ya really don’t pay attention do you you dumb motherfucker. What I said was the exact opposite. I am not a new man. Infact I am back to my old ways. I am not a changed man. Infact I stopped a change. Small nuances like that which escape your attention because you have your own head so far up your own ass that you can almost eat your breakfast twice. And as far as catchphrase stealing goes… I guess you can make that leap of logic if you try hard enough. But in reality I didn’t steal it. I flipped it. I called attention to the fact that it is what you use and then used it myself. That is another nuance that you clearly can’t get. Being the obnoxious twat you are. Not to mention calling attention of me saying your name over and over again. I do admit Matty, that I tend to mention the name of the target of my verbal barrage more often than I probably should, but chalk that up to a verbal tic. We all have them to various degrees.”
He stops to think for a second before continuing.
“I do have to correct you on a few things. First off, you’re off by a decade. “These little videos” as you called cutting a promo weren’t big 20 years ago. It was 10. And depending on the promotion they still are. Because not every promotion caters to the AD/HD-generation. And sometimes a man needs to say more than they can fit in 280 characters. Hell, I was amongst the first to adopt twitter as a part of the promotional package. I was a trailblazer. Almost 12 years ago.But Twitter was never more than just a way to augment the promo. Never meant to replace. Until your generation got big and sloth creeper into this biz. I mean, it’s not a surprise your entitled and lazy generation of wrestlers would embrace twitter. After all, it takes infinitely less effort to shoot a few tweets every now and then and then make an on-camera appearance during the show than it does to actually take the time to sit down, or stand up depending on your preference and talk for a while.
So I’m not surprised you’d take your opportunity to diss the promo. Because you always go the path of least resistance. You are lazy Matty. And 15 years ago? You woulda been booted the fuck outta this business before you even got your first match in. But nowadays? Well nowadays every tom dick and harry can get into the biz and think themselves a big fucking star because the effort required to compete is barely zilch. I’m also not surprised at you trying to turn the “its just business”-point on its head. See kiddo, of course I am having an emotional response to losing. Because that is what you SHOULD have when you lose a big fucking match. You don’t just shrug it off. But towards you Matty? It’s all business. I am not having any sort of an emotional reaction towards you. Well save maybe a bit of annoyance for having to get into the ring and see your pasty face, but thats beside the point. It’s all business.”
He leans back and gives a quick chuckle.
“It is funny though. You keep bragging about your inring ability, when the only match you’ve actually won by wrestling was your first one. Granted, it does align with my “win the right matches”-mentality, but still. You might outwrestle me. But that is irrelevant. You’ll never outsmart me and never outlast me. But it is all a moot point because like I told you last time around, I’m not there to wrestle. I’m there to beat the living shit out of you. You can either run or take your beating. No other choices. See the thing is Matty, you ARE below me in the totem pole. You didn’t sign up in time, true. But it’s not just the tournament that matters. I’ve been here since the start and I have the second best record in the company. The only one I haven’t beaten is Luther. And you know just as well as I do, as established earlier, that he is no joke. So as it stands now you ARE below me in the totem pole. Because you haven’t shown jack shit to be higher. Your first match you won and thats it. After that, Dunn gave you a win over Knox. Knox gave you a technical win in the tag match. And at Coronation you blew it. While i’ve gone from success to success, ACTUALLY winning matches. But hey, whatever you need to tell yourself to be able to sleep at night.
You keep telling me how I am walking into a trap by underestimating you Matty. While you fail to see the entire point I’ve been trying to make. I am not underestimating you. I am not estimating you at all. You aren’t an opponent I’m out there to wrestle. You aren’t anyone I feel like I need to actually pin or make submit. No. You are just a warm body for me to take my frustrations out on. Like I stated before. You are there for the sole purpose of getting your ass kicked. You can pick up the win all I care. Like I’ve said multiple times. But you’ll end up hurting bad. Bottom line is Matty, you’re irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. And you won’t matter unless you start winning matches with stakes. Go ahead, prove me wrong. Weasel your way into a titleshot and beat Luther and maybe. JUST MAYBE I’ll start showing you some respect. Until then? You’re nothing but a crash test dummy for me to throw around. See you at Revolution Matty.”
He throws a mocking salute to the camera before the feed cuts off
It’s better to be hated for what you are…(offcam)[/u]
“Hi… Dad”
Those words hung in the air between the two of us as we both sat in our respective seats, neither looking at the other, both trying to wrap their heads around the fact that the truth was out there. I was staring at my hands, my still-somewhat alcohol-addled brain struggling to get to grips with the fact that I had a son. And Donny? When I glanced up to him I saw a myriad of emotion flash on his face. Relief. Disbelief. Guilt. Even Regret. It was a weird feeling. But for some reason I found myself starting to chuckle. It started at a low rumble deep in my chest and finally burst out into an all out laugh as I buried my face in my palm. Donny looked up to me with a confused stare. The unspoken words of “what’s so funny?” screamed from his bodylanguage.
“You called me a motherfucker…” I managed to squeeze between fits of chuckles. “I guess that is technically correct…” Hard as I tried I couldn’t suppress the laughter. I didn’t know if it was a reaction to a shock or just all the mental suffering I had gone through in the past few days just erupting all at once. “I mean.. I fucked your mother and out came… you”
Donny blinked, probably wondering if I had completely lost my mind, but through eyes teary from the laugh I saw the corner of his mouth twitching and finally he burst out laughing aswell. And the tension that had hung in the room dissipated in an instant. We were both laughing our asses off at the absurdity of it all. Finally after what seemed like an eternity we both managed to quell the chuckles down and silence fell back to the room. I found myself staring at him and noticing a lot of features I was used to seeing in the mirror. He wasn’t a perfect clone, but there was a lot of familiar things in the way he held himself. And finally I spoke up. “How… how long have ya known?”
It was ONE of the big questions I had swirling in my mind. But I wanted to take them one at a time. Donny had clearly been expecting it as it took him almost no time to respond in a quiet voice. “Mum told me shortly before she passed. Said that I was gonna find out eventually anyway so she wanted me to hear it from her.” He glanced up at me. The pain of his mother dying of cancer was clearly still fresh on him. “And I know what you’re gonna ask. Why didn’t she ever tell you.” He took the words out of my mouth. I was about to say something but I saw from the way he fidgeted that he was trying to come up with a way to explain it so I let him be. “She said… She said that she never told the truth because all three of us were better off that way.” He looked up at me. “You were gone, traveling the world. Even if you knew you would’ve been on the road all the time. Worst case scenario she said… you would’ve never acknowledged me and we woulda been back to square one.”
I sighed. She had been right. Back then? I was a man angry at the world. I had taken off from the UK by burning the bridge behind me. Even if I had known, it wouldn’tve made a difference. “She was right Donny.” I mumbled under my breath. “She made the right choice”
I stood up and stared out of the window. The night sky over Reno dimming the window and reflecting my own face back at me. I looked like shit. “When were you going to tell me, had this not happened Donny? Had I won the title and been celebrating instead of trying to drink myself to death?”
Donny also stood up and came to stand next to me, staring out of the window. “Honestly? Probably never. I came to Reno thinking I would check out what kind of a man you really were. And then tell you if I felt it was necessary. But I didn’t need to. You took me under your wing even without knowing and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to risk the friendship we had built by telling you the truth.” He threw a sideways glance at me. “I couldn’t help but to throw in a few thinly veiled hints though. You really do suck at reading between the lines old man”
I shook my head and gave a small self-deprecating chuckle. “I know kiddo. It’s funny though. For years I’ve been responding “That I know of” whenever someone has asked me whether I have kids. It’s been more of a running joke but I never imagined it’d actually be true.” I looked at him from the corner of my eye. Despite the fact that he was 4 inches taller than me, the more I looked the more I saw myself in him. And the more I cursed the fact that I hadn’t seen it before. “Now… don’t hate me for this but… your mom. What was her name? I guess Mason was her last name but…” I left the end of the sentence hanging in the air.
Now Donny sighed. “Beatrice. Beatrice Mason. But she told me that you wouldn’t recognize that name since you never asked her name. You called her beau. And she loved you.”
I felt a sting in my chest. Beau. The one girl who had followed me everywhere while I was touring the UK. Every show no matter how small of a town. She was there. Never pushing herself on me. Watching from the sidelines. And if I struck out that night with the other ladies, she was there to keep me company. I was a dumb young man and never saw beyond the fact that she was gorgeous and willing. “Beau. Still remember her ya know. Always there for me.”
“Do I hear regret in your voice old man?” Donny spoke with a hint of sharp sarcasm in his voice, something I was fond of doing myself. It kinda took me by surprise. “Don’t. She was happy at what she had. And I grew up alright. You’re the only one who turned out to be a total mess” That one came out very sharply and I turned to face Donny.
“Fuck you too, read the room Donny. This ain’t the moment to rub it in.” I snapped at him and went back to the couch, slumping down and reaching for a cigarette. “Ya dragged me outta the pit just to knock me back down?” I wasn’t pissed, yet, but kinda annoyed.
Donny chuckled and returned to the recliner he had been sitting at. “I didn’t mean just the match on Saturday old man. You’ve changed. And not for the better.”
“The fuck do you mean kiddo?” now I was getting proper pissed.
“That whole man of the people act you were pulling in UPRISING. That’s not you. Thanks to mum I’ve seen pretty much every promo you’ve ever cut and every match you ever wrestled. This borderline nice guy schtick? That’s not you old man. That’s something you’ve tried to be.” His words kinda hit me hard. I let out a few puffs of smoke from my cigarette to buy myself time to think. I had been more respectful, more nice than I used to be. But I thought that was what had made me so successful in my comeback. He musta read my mind. “Your inring ability got you so close to the top pops. But trying to sell yourself as the good guy took your edge away. You were trying to be loved for something you aren’t”
I began staring at the ceiling, something I had done for a few days now. “Maybe you’re right kiddo. But I tried something different and it worked. So of course I kept doing it.” I glanced down at him. “You trying to tell me I went wrong?”
Donny also leant back. “Nah. I ain’t tryin to tell ya shit. The results speak for themselves. Ya lost. And instead of setting everything on fire like you used to, ya locked yaself in ya house and tried to drink yaself to death. That ain’t the Don Tirri I grew up with.”
I couldn’t help but to chuckle again. “You think you coulda done better kiddo? If you were in my boots, ya coulda finally grabbed that big one that had eluded you for decades?”
“Maybe. If I was properly trained as a wrestler. I know I wouldn’tve tried to get outta my comfort zone. Change your moniker. Change your music. Hell, change your gear. But you can’t change who you truly are pops. You are a mean motherfucker. The guy who says it so others don’t have to. The Verbal Shrapnel Grenade.” He sat up and stared right at me “Fuck the fans pops. Be that asshole you’ve always been. Don’t try to be loved for what you aren’t. Embrace being hated for what you are. Just like you always have.”
No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t find the words to argue his point with. He was right. I had tried to be something I wasn’t. And it didn’t work. “So back to being a mouthy motherfucker you say?” I looked at him and he nodded. “For all the changes I did to the way I do things, from the workouts to the diets and so on… You’re telling me thats the one thing I shouldnt’ve changed?” He nodded again. “Fuck kiddo. Is it really that easy…”
Donny leant back again and stretched a bit. “It’s what’s holding ya back pops. Try it.” He got up. “I need to head to work. I’ll fix up the door on my way out. Barring it was not cool ya know, almost busted a shoulder breaking through it. Get a camera, talk for a bit. Take your phone, tweet for a bit. Don’t you dare to go back to the bottle. Atleast not until I’m back. Got it?”
I gave him a small wave. “Yeah yeah. I promise. You’ve given me a lot to think about anyway.” When I turned my head to look his way I felt a tinge of pain in my neck, probably due to the way he sent me sailing through the air. “You can really throw a motherfucker you know kiddo. Ever thought about becoming a wrestler yourself?” It was a way to change the subject but his response surprised me.
“I have. Especially after I was told who my father is. But like I said. I need to go. We’ll talk about that when I come back, aight?”
I nodded and watched as he left.
I had a son. And he might want to follow in my footsteps. Fucking hell.
We see the Big Finn Don Tirri lounging around in his livingroom as usual. This time the room is actually cleaned up from the last visit, and the man himself is in a lot better shape too.
“Yanno. This is refreshing. Since the time I’ve been in UPRISING, only Flix and Luthie have played my game. And now you. I applaud your efforts Matty. Not that they’ll get you far but hey, A for effort.”
He throws a mocking thumbs up before continuing.
“But that’s where it ends. At effort. You really have a weird way of trying to boost your own ego Matty. You had a whole spiel on how you tried telling me to not look beyond Luther… Dude. I kept saying “IF I win” and how I wouldn’t count my chicken till they had up until almost the day of the show. Go ahead. Double check my tweets. Ya might find a few where I spoke like I already won, but a lot more where I kept it at “If”-level. I never discounted Luthers inring ability. Hell, that was the one thing I kept saying. All the way from day 1 of UPRISING. The fact that Luther is an inring beast. Again, double check my tweets and even my promos. It’s all there in the archives.
So no. I didn’t chalk you off as a Luther stan. So you can scratch that off your list of back-patting. And as far as making money on Luthers win? Kiddo, do you have ANY idea how much I raked in by betting on Ignis? Your loss netted me more than enough to not only pay back all the losses I incurred by having faith in Ignis before, but also to soothe the pain of losing to Luther. Seeing you get your just desserts and raking a huge payday from Ignis was an absolute joy. So while I am very pleased that I won, unlike you, I am upset that I lost. Because while I don’t really give a toss about losing a no-stakes throwaway match like the triple threat I had at Revo 4 or the one we’re having at Revo 6… I do care about losing a big one like this. If you don’t feel bad for losing your big match.. Kiddo, you’re in the wrong business”
He leans forward and cracks a small grin.
“And now onto the meat of the matter. Wanna know why I call you mini-me Matty? Because you’ve bit my whole schtick. You’re basically the canadian version of me when I was in my 20’s. Lets recap: Loudmouth braggard? Check. Self-deprecating humor? Check. Irritating as fuck catchphrase? Check. Hitting on anything that moves? Check. Not giving a toss what others think of you? Check. Now add into that the fact that you are considerably smaller than me and facially look like a teenager about to get his first pimple… Yeah. The narrative is painfully obvious. But there is ONE key difference between us, outside the size difference that is. I actually work hard in the ring and I actually win the matches I get on my win-column. You’ve always been the master of escaping with the skin of your teeth. Like with against Knox. Or way back in BCW when you dodged and dived and avoided karma like a fucking houdini, mostly due to having the boss in your back pocket. Had him on your back pocket to a point where he paid me a considerable sum of money to come do the job for you.
Also. Your whole spiel about me being full of cliches, being a new man yada yada yada… Ya really don’t pay attention do you you dumb motherfucker. What I said was the exact opposite. I am not a new man. Infact I am back to my old ways. I am not a changed man. Infact I stopped a change. Small nuances like that which escape your attention because you have your own head so far up your own ass that you can almost eat your breakfast twice. And as far as catchphrase stealing goes… I guess you can make that leap of logic if you try hard enough. But in reality I didn’t steal it. I flipped it. I called attention to the fact that it is what you use and then used it myself. That is another nuance that you clearly can’t get. Being the obnoxious twat you are. Not to mention calling attention of me saying your name over and over again. I do admit Matty, that I tend to mention the name of the target of my verbal barrage more often than I probably should, but chalk that up to a verbal tic. We all have them to various degrees.”
He stops to think for a second before continuing.
“I do have to correct you on a few things. First off, you’re off by a decade. “These little videos” as you called cutting a promo weren’t big 20 years ago. It was 10. And depending on the promotion they still are. Because not every promotion caters to the AD/HD-generation. And sometimes a man needs to say more than they can fit in 280 characters. Hell, I was amongst the first to adopt twitter as a part of the promotional package. I was a trailblazer. Almost 12 years ago.But Twitter was never more than just a way to augment the promo. Never meant to replace. Until your generation got big and sloth creeper into this biz. I mean, it’s not a surprise your entitled and lazy generation of wrestlers would embrace twitter. After all, it takes infinitely less effort to shoot a few tweets every now and then and then make an on-camera appearance during the show than it does to actually take the time to sit down, or stand up depending on your preference and talk for a while.
So I’m not surprised you’d take your opportunity to diss the promo. Because you always go the path of least resistance. You are lazy Matty. And 15 years ago? You woulda been booted the fuck outta this business before you even got your first match in. But nowadays? Well nowadays every tom dick and harry can get into the biz and think themselves a big fucking star because the effort required to compete is barely zilch. I’m also not surprised at you trying to turn the “its just business”-point on its head. See kiddo, of course I am having an emotional response to losing. Because that is what you SHOULD have when you lose a big fucking match. You don’t just shrug it off. But towards you Matty? It’s all business. I am not having any sort of an emotional reaction towards you. Well save maybe a bit of annoyance for having to get into the ring and see your pasty face, but thats beside the point. It’s all business.”
He leans back and gives a quick chuckle.
“It is funny though. You keep bragging about your inring ability, when the only match you’ve actually won by wrestling was your first one. Granted, it does align with my “win the right matches”-mentality, but still. You might outwrestle me. But that is irrelevant. You’ll never outsmart me and never outlast me. But it is all a moot point because like I told you last time around, I’m not there to wrestle. I’m there to beat the living shit out of you. You can either run or take your beating. No other choices. See the thing is Matty, you ARE below me in the totem pole. You didn’t sign up in time, true. But it’s not just the tournament that matters. I’ve been here since the start and I have the second best record in the company. The only one I haven’t beaten is Luther. And you know just as well as I do, as established earlier, that he is no joke. So as it stands now you ARE below me in the totem pole. Because you haven’t shown jack shit to be higher. Your first match you won and thats it. After that, Dunn gave you a win over Knox. Knox gave you a technical win in the tag match. And at Coronation you blew it. While i’ve gone from success to success, ACTUALLY winning matches. But hey, whatever you need to tell yourself to be able to sleep at night.
You keep telling me how I am walking into a trap by underestimating you Matty. While you fail to see the entire point I’ve been trying to make. I am not underestimating you. I am not estimating you at all. You aren’t an opponent I’m out there to wrestle. You aren’t anyone I feel like I need to actually pin or make submit. No. You are just a warm body for me to take my frustrations out on. Like I stated before. You are there for the sole purpose of getting your ass kicked. You can pick up the win all I care. Like I’ve said multiple times. But you’ll end up hurting bad. Bottom line is Matty, you’re irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. And you won’t matter unless you start winning matches with stakes. Go ahead, prove me wrong. Weasel your way into a titleshot and beat Luther and maybe. JUST MAYBE I’ll start showing you some respect. Until then? You’re nothing but a crash test dummy for me to throw around. See you at Revolution Matty.”
He throws a mocking salute to the camera before the feed cuts off
It’s better to be hated for what you are…(offcam)[/u]
“Hi… Dad”
Those words hung in the air between the two of us as we both sat in our respective seats, neither looking at the other, both trying to wrap their heads around the fact that the truth was out there. I was staring at my hands, my still-somewhat alcohol-addled brain struggling to get to grips with the fact that I had a son. And Donny? When I glanced up to him I saw a myriad of emotion flash on his face. Relief. Disbelief. Guilt. Even Regret. It was a weird feeling. But for some reason I found myself starting to chuckle. It started at a low rumble deep in my chest and finally burst out into an all out laugh as I buried my face in my palm. Donny looked up to me with a confused stare. The unspoken words of “what’s so funny?” screamed from his bodylanguage.
“You called me a motherfucker…” I managed to squeeze between fits of chuckles. “I guess that is technically correct…” Hard as I tried I couldn’t suppress the laughter. I didn’t know if it was a reaction to a shock or just all the mental suffering I had gone through in the past few days just erupting all at once. “I mean.. I fucked your mother and out came… you”
Donny blinked, probably wondering if I had completely lost my mind, but through eyes teary from the laugh I saw the corner of his mouth twitching and finally he burst out laughing aswell. And the tension that had hung in the room dissipated in an instant. We were both laughing our asses off at the absurdity of it all. Finally after what seemed like an eternity we both managed to quell the chuckles down and silence fell back to the room. I found myself staring at him and noticing a lot of features I was used to seeing in the mirror. He wasn’t a perfect clone, but there was a lot of familiar things in the way he held himself. And finally I spoke up. “How… how long have ya known?”
It was ONE of the big questions I had swirling in my mind. But I wanted to take them one at a time. Donny had clearly been expecting it as it took him almost no time to respond in a quiet voice. “Mum told me shortly before she passed. Said that I was gonna find out eventually anyway so she wanted me to hear it from her.” He glanced up at me. The pain of his mother dying of cancer was clearly still fresh on him. “And I know what you’re gonna ask. Why didn’t she ever tell you.” He took the words out of my mouth. I was about to say something but I saw from the way he fidgeted that he was trying to come up with a way to explain it so I let him be. “She said… She said that she never told the truth because all three of us were better off that way.” He looked up at me. “You were gone, traveling the world. Even if you knew you would’ve been on the road all the time. Worst case scenario she said… you would’ve never acknowledged me and we woulda been back to square one.”
I sighed. She had been right. Back then? I was a man angry at the world. I had taken off from the UK by burning the bridge behind me. Even if I had known, it wouldn’tve made a difference. “She was right Donny.” I mumbled under my breath. “She made the right choice”
I stood up and stared out of the window. The night sky over Reno dimming the window and reflecting my own face back at me. I looked like shit. “When were you going to tell me, had this not happened Donny? Had I won the title and been celebrating instead of trying to drink myself to death?”
Donny also stood up and came to stand next to me, staring out of the window. “Honestly? Probably never. I came to Reno thinking I would check out what kind of a man you really were. And then tell you if I felt it was necessary. But I didn’t need to. You took me under your wing even without knowing and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to risk the friendship we had built by telling you the truth.” He threw a sideways glance at me. “I couldn’t help but to throw in a few thinly veiled hints though. You really do suck at reading between the lines old man”
I shook my head and gave a small self-deprecating chuckle. “I know kiddo. It’s funny though. For years I’ve been responding “That I know of” whenever someone has asked me whether I have kids. It’s been more of a running joke but I never imagined it’d actually be true.” I looked at him from the corner of my eye. Despite the fact that he was 4 inches taller than me, the more I looked the more I saw myself in him. And the more I cursed the fact that I hadn’t seen it before. “Now… don’t hate me for this but… your mom. What was her name? I guess Mason was her last name but…” I left the end of the sentence hanging in the air.
Now Donny sighed. “Beatrice. Beatrice Mason. But she told me that you wouldn’t recognize that name since you never asked her name. You called her beau. And she loved you.”
I felt a sting in my chest. Beau. The one girl who had followed me everywhere while I was touring the UK. Every show no matter how small of a town. She was there. Never pushing herself on me. Watching from the sidelines. And if I struck out that night with the other ladies, she was there to keep me company. I was a dumb young man and never saw beyond the fact that she was gorgeous and willing. “Beau. Still remember her ya know. Always there for me.”
“Do I hear regret in your voice old man?” Donny spoke with a hint of sharp sarcasm in his voice, something I was fond of doing myself. It kinda took me by surprise. “Don’t. She was happy at what she had. And I grew up alright. You’re the only one who turned out to be a total mess” That one came out very sharply and I turned to face Donny.
“Fuck you too, read the room Donny. This ain’t the moment to rub it in.” I snapped at him and went back to the couch, slumping down and reaching for a cigarette. “Ya dragged me outta the pit just to knock me back down?” I wasn’t pissed, yet, but kinda annoyed.
Donny chuckled and returned to the recliner he had been sitting at. “I didn’t mean just the match on Saturday old man. You’ve changed. And not for the better.”
“The fuck do you mean kiddo?” now I was getting proper pissed.
“That whole man of the people act you were pulling in UPRISING. That’s not you. Thanks to mum I’ve seen pretty much every promo you’ve ever cut and every match you ever wrestled. This borderline nice guy schtick? That’s not you old man. That’s something you’ve tried to be.” His words kinda hit me hard. I let out a few puffs of smoke from my cigarette to buy myself time to think. I had been more respectful, more nice than I used to be. But I thought that was what had made me so successful in my comeback. He musta read my mind. “Your inring ability got you so close to the top pops. But trying to sell yourself as the good guy took your edge away. You were trying to be loved for something you aren’t”
I began staring at the ceiling, something I had done for a few days now. “Maybe you’re right kiddo. But I tried something different and it worked. So of course I kept doing it.” I glanced down at him. “You trying to tell me I went wrong?”
Donny also leant back. “Nah. I ain’t tryin to tell ya shit. The results speak for themselves. Ya lost. And instead of setting everything on fire like you used to, ya locked yaself in ya house and tried to drink yaself to death. That ain’t the Don Tirri I grew up with.”
I couldn’t help but to chuckle again. “You think you coulda done better kiddo? If you were in my boots, ya coulda finally grabbed that big one that had eluded you for decades?”
“Maybe. If I was properly trained as a wrestler. I know I wouldn’tve tried to get outta my comfort zone. Change your moniker. Change your music. Hell, change your gear. But you can’t change who you truly are pops. You are a mean motherfucker. The guy who says it so others don’t have to. The Verbal Shrapnel Grenade.” He sat up and stared right at me “Fuck the fans pops. Be that asshole you’ve always been. Don’t try to be loved for what you aren’t. Embrace being hated for what you are. Just like you always have.”
No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t find the words to argue his point with. He was right. I had tried to be something I wasn’t. And it didn’t work. “So back to being a mouthy motherfucker you say?” I looked at him and he nodded. “For all the changes I did to the way I do things, from the workouts to the diets and so on… You’re telling me thats the one thing I shouldnt’ve changed?” He nodded again. “Fuck kiddo. Is it really that easy…”
Donny leant back again and stretched a bit. “It’s what’s holding ya back pops. Try it.” He got up. “I need to head to work. I’ll fix up the door on my way out. Barring it was not cool ya know, almost busted a shoulder breaking through it. Get a camera, talk for a bit. Take your phone, tweet for a bit. Don’t you dare to go back to the bottle. Atleast not until I’m back. Got it?”
I gave him a small wave. “Yeah yeah. I promise. You’ve given me a lot to think about anyway.” When I turned my head to look his way I felt a tinge of pain in my neck, probably due to the way he sent me sailing through the air. “You can really throw a motherfucker you know kiddo. Ever thought about becoming a wrestler yourself?” It was a way to change the subject but his response surprised me.
“I have. Especially after I was told who my father is. But like I said. I need to go. We’ll talk about that when I come back, aight?”
I nodded and watched as he left.
I had a son. And he might want to follow in my footsteps. Fucking hell.