Breakdown 1-14-22
Once again, Tommy and me had a chance to make history. And once again, we were denied. We weren't blatantly screwed this time... we just didn't win. We weren't beat either, Christy Matthews ate the pin. There were two arguments here – either we should have put someone away sooner, meaning we go to the back of the line. Or, we weren't beat and therefore still have a claim. I'm sure you already know what line The Connection are taking.
We. Don't. Quit.
After that Breakdown, we were pissed, but we knew there was nothing we could do about it til the new year. The End of the Year Special helped a bit, when The Connection won Tag Team of the Year. I wanted to take that trophy and shove it down the throat of everyone who said we didn't deserve it.
The holidays passed. Ante Up closed for two weeks. Tish kept acting like she had something to tell me but then would back down. When I did find out what it was.... there was no way I would have ever guessed it. Luckily, I didn't have much time to process it as a whole new issue cropped up at almost the same time...
January 3
Santa Barbara
Ante Up
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I walked into Ante Up Monday morning, ready for my first class of the year. I was dressed for work, in long gym tights and a t-shirt, a hoodie over it all. I threw my bag down near the practice ring, pulled my hoodie off. When I tossed it aside, I caught a glance of someone out of the corner of my eye... and could not believe what I saw.
Coral!
In an Ante Up ring!
Doing stretches!
What the actual fuck?!
She didn't see me as I stormed my way to the stairs, headed to Tommy's office. He'd been here earlier, he had a lot of paperwork to handle with the start of the year. I saw Tish though, and she froze as we made eye contact. Holy shit. She knew! That's what she'd been trying to tell me! I just glared, shook my head, and continued to Tommy's office. When I got upstairs I knocked but didn't wait for an answer. I just barged in, seeing Tommy at his desk.
“What the fuck is-”
Tommy waved me quiet. I then noticed he was on the phone, and typing at the same time.
“Yeah.... I know.... I'm taking care of it.... I gotta go, looks like something's come up over here.... I'll keep you posted.” Tommy hung the phone up and looked up at me. “I know what you're pissed about, but we have-”
“Oh, you do? So you know that Coral is down there right now, warming up?! What the fuck is going on here, Tommy?!”
Tommy sighed. “We wanted to tell you before, but the title match came up, and-”
“We?”
“Me and Tish.”
“Oh. Tish. I guess that's why she just looked terrified of me?”
“Probably.”
I walked over to the desk and slammed my hands on the top. Tommy flinched a bit at the noise. “What the fuck is she doing here?!”
“She applied under a false name. Showed up to start... and I immediately told her to leave.”
“Yet here she is.”
“That... was Tish's idea.”
“Excuse me?!”
“She figured... what better way to fuck with her, than to give her exactly what she wants? Do you really think she can handle the training we do here? She obviously just wants to be here to fuck with us, so... we called her bluff.”
“Unfuckingbelievable.”
“Tish wanted to tell you before Coral started. But... title match, holidays. She kept calling asking why she hadn't been called to start yet. I had no more excuses, so she's here.”
“This is a terrible idea. You know that, right?”
Tommy sighed. “Listen... I really hate to cut this off, because I know you're upset and we do need to work this out, but right now we have a bigger problem than your scheming sister.”
“What could possibly be bigger than that bitch?”
Tommy leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh. “Ante Up New York.”
I stepped back, baffled. “What?”
“The other gym? In New York City?”
“I know what you meant... but how is that place a problem? It's been self-sufficient since the asshole sold out. I mean... up.”
“Yeah, it has. Until now. The General Manager quit.”
“Shit. Without notice?”
“Uh... not exactly. It just somehow escaped my notice. The point... is that I can't let it go on with an assistant running things. She doesn't know how to do schedules or submit payroll or anything like that. I need to hire someone as soon as possible.”
“So.... you're going to New York?”
“That's the problem... I can't. There's too much going on here and at the club for me to leave. But....” Tommy grinned.
“Why do I get the feeling I'm not gonna like this?”
“I think you might. I want to send you to New York to handle it for me. You won't have to deal with Coral until you come back.”
I raised an eyebrow, and sat on the end of the desk. “Let me get this straight... you and Tish decided to allow Coral to be a student here, without consulting me, and now the day I find out about it, you want to send me across the country to handle something that I have no business handling? I'm not an owner here, I'm just staff!”
“You recommended Tish to me. If you didn't think she could do it, you wouldn't have. I know I can trust your judgment.”
I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment. “You really know how to take the wind out of my sails.”
Tommy grinned. “So you'll go?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Of course you have a choice. If you really don't want to, I'll have to do it myself. But then I'd have to either close the club for a week, or trust Thomas not to fuck everything up and-”
“Okay okay, you don't have to make threats! I'll go.”
Tommy laughed. “I wasn't trying to but... thanks babe. You're really saving my ass here.”
“When do you want me to go? What criteria should I look for? How-”
“Slow down.” He laughed again. I grinned. I was nervous with suddenly having a real responsibility with this place. “I was hoping you'd be okay with leaving this afternoon. That way you'd be rested for tomorrow morning to look over the few resumes I've pulled so far and make phone calls. I've already booked a room for the week.”
“Confident I'd agree, huh?”
“Honestly? Half and half. No matter who was going though, needed a room.” I nodded, he had a point. “Everything else you need to know, I'll email you.”
“Okay. I guess this afternoon works... although we're gonna have to have a long lunch together before I go anywhere... you left this morning without a proper goodbye.” I smirked. Tommy winced a bit.
“I'm not sure we have time for that. You'll have to pack right after your class, I have one of my own soon, then I have to run to the club-”
“I am not leaving here for a week without fucking you first. Those are my terms.”
“Dealbreaker, huh?”
“Absolutely.”
Tommy smirked, looked me up and down, then leaned over in his chair, grabbed me, and pulled me onto his lap. “We'd better get busy then.”
I laughed before I kissed him, hard. I hoped he didn't think I forgot about Coral. That would just have to wait.
January 4
New York City
Ante Up NYC
-------------------
The flight was fine, although it felt weird to be on Tommy's plane alone. I picked up the rental car Tommy reserved, checked into the hotel. I ordered room service, and read over the things Tommy had emailed me. He'd put a lot of trust in me to do this. Sure, he trusted me in everything as far as our relationship went, but business was different, and I really didn't want to fuck this up. I read over the dozen resumes, and decided five were worth talking to. But, I wanted to see the inside of the place first, talk to the staff. I wondered if anyone there had any animosity towards Tommy, and me by association, over what happened with David Helms. Well, I was there in a official capacity so if they did, they'd have to get over it.
The next morning, I drove to the gym, taking nothing with me but my phone and laptop. I assumed there was an office I could use to make phonecalls. I parked and took a deep breath as I stepped out of the rental. I was in jeans, boots, a black sweater, and leather jacket. It's a lot colder here than back home. The building looked nice, two stories, clean, a good amount of cars in the parking lot, which meant it was doing good business. It must have, since as far as I knew, Tommy was never contacted about any issues. Until now, anyway. As I walked up to the door, I looked up, and the wording caught my attention. The building wasn't labeled Ante Up Academy. Oh no... over the door were the words “The Orlando Cruze Academy of Wrestling.”
“What in the blue fuck...?”
I knew the history, that it was a place run by the deceased Cruze, and Ante Up bought it so it wouldn't go under. But that was a long ass time ago, yet the man's name was still on the building? I shook my head, thinking maybe it was a condition of the sale, and walked in. No one immediately looked in my direction. There were people using equipment, and a few men in a ring in the back corner. I couldn't hear but it looked like an instructor was speaking to a class. I walked around a bit, looking around. On the back wall, painted in letters taller than me, was the word ICON. On every other wall, there were pictures of the dead guy. In-ring shots, promo shots, poses with other wrestlers, young people I assumed were students, and one... with a much younger Owen Cruze.
Oh hell no.
This was Ante Up property! I wondered if Tommy knew about this. No one was paying attention to me, so I snapped a few pictures. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and turned around, intending to look for whoever was temporarily in charge. I was faced with a muscular woman, wearing track pants and a t-shirt with the Ante Up logo. Shit, we didn't even wear those.
“Can I help you?”
“Actually, I think you can. I'm looking for the person in charge here.”
“That's me. For the moment, anyway. I'm Sabrina.” She stuck out her hand. I took it.
“Hi, I'm-”
“Kandis, I know. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. So you're the assistant manager?”
“Yeah. Acting GM, I guess? I'm not really sure. Eddie resigned at the start of the year, gave his two weeks and everything. Haven't heard a peep from... Oh.” I saw the fog lift. “That's why you're here. Valentine send you?” Valentine? Tommy would have hated that.
“Yes. Tommy... had too much going on back home so he asked me to come out and take care of things.”
“Don't tell me you're gonna run the place?” She looked terrified. I laughed.
“Hell no. No offense, but I hate New York. I'm here to hire someone for you.”
“Oh... well in that case... glad you're here.”
Another staff member, obvious by the logo shirt, walked up. He was tall and hot. I looked him up and down. He didn't seem impressed by me, though.
“He sent you? Couldn't even bother gracing us with his presence to handle business?”
I glared. If this guy was gonna be rude to me, I was gonna be rude right back, hot or not.
“And who are you, exactly?”
“Trent. I lead the beginner wrestling class. Which you'd know, if your boyfriend ever acted like he gave a shit about us.”
“Trent!” Sabrina scolded.
“What? I'm just saying what everyone here's been thinking since Dave abandoned us. We were promised to be treated just like out west. But we were forgotten.”
“You know... Trent, was it? Maybe you should take pride in the fact Tommy hasn't had to come out here. You guys obviously know what you're doing.”
That seemed to calm him down some, but then the edge came back. “Yeah, we do. Unlike him, who didn't even know Eddie quit until-”
'Trent! That's enough. Kandis is here acting in his stead. Are you trying to get fired?”
Trent snapped his head between Sabrina and me, then stepped back.
“I don't think....” Sabrina gave me a look. I was going to say I don't think I can do that, but I caught her meaning. “... that's necessary. Look, we know we've been busy and let a few things fall through the cracks. That's gonna be rectified. Starting with me being here to hire you guys a new GM.”
“Yeah... sure. Sorry. I just get defensive of this place.”
“I understand. Don't worry about it.”
Trent nodded and walked off.
“Sorry about him.”
“It's fine. Do you have an office I can use?”
“Sure. Follow me.”
Sabrina led me to a door marked “Manager.” It looked like Eddie had taken just about everything with him. Sabrina showed me how to page out on the phone if I needed anything, and left me alone, closing the door. I sat at the desk and called Tommy.
“Hey babe... how's it going?”
“Well, the assistant manager Sabrina is nice. The wrestling coach Trent is a dick. Oh, and the place looks like an Orlando Cruze shrine.”
“Oh, well I'm sure... wait, what?”
“Yeah. From his name over the door to about a dozen pictures everywhere. Did you know all this stuff was still here?”
“No... I didn't. When I went after the sale the GM said he was thinking about redoing some things. I guess that never happened.”
As Tommy spoke I put the phone on speaker then texted him the pictures I took.
“I just sent you pics. It's actually pretty fucking creepy.”
“Hang on... okay, got them. Wow... that's actually more than I saw.”
“Are we gonna let this stay like this? If I'm here hiring for you, maybe we should put your touch on everything. This place does not look like it belongs to Ante Up. Other than their logo t-shirts.”
“Yeah, I agree. I guess I'm gonna have to come out there after all. I just can't right now. Take care of what you're there for, then we'll see about some redecorating.”
“I knew you'd think so. I just had to show you this as soon as I was alone.”
I explained about the five applicants I'd chosen, and promised to keep him updated. After ending the call, I opened my laptop and then the resume files of the five. I had work to do.
ON CAMERA
Before I get to my opponent this week, I have to get something out of the way. Owen... I hear you been talking shit. You just can't keep the Jackal's name out of your mouth, can you? What, you think you're suddenly superior cause after Drake kicked your ass for the majority of your match, you caught a break at the end? That doesn't make you better, it makes you lucky. You might want to watch your mouth, cause the only tool I see around here... is you.
But I'm not gonna waste more time talking about my next opponent rather than my current one, like some people.
Looks like I get the honor of stepping into the ring with Glory Braddock. Self proclaimed best in the world. You ever notice how everyone who calls themselves that, almost always fail to prove it when it counts? I could rattle off names but I'm not gonna waste time on that either, y'all know who I mean. Glory is right up there though, she's always talking about it. Bringing up her experience, her fifteen world championships, or however the fuck many it is, nevermind the fact most of them are from pissasnt promotions no one has ever heard of. The one she likes to claim these days though, SCW World Champion.... I don't even know if we should count that. It was in the middle of a gauntlet match, and she had it for exactly one match in the thing. So that was, what? Ten minutes, tops? It wasn't even a real reign, it was temporary. I remember Glory making a big thing about how she was gonna leave that Breakdown as champion, or she was gonna leave SCW. Yet the bitch is still here! Just goes to show you that no matter how much a person runs their mouth about honor and respect, they can be a hypocrite by not standing behind their own words. Glory said something she regretted, she didn't really want to leave, and she decided that being champion for maybe ten minutes was good enough, so she walked it back and stuck around.
And now I have to deal with her.
Glory. Listen, doll. I know what you want. You're just like all the other gold diggers around here. Want to get your hands on as many championships as you can, cause you think it makes you look better. You can talk about being all about the competition, all about respect. But you're not fooling anyone, the only person you truly respect is yourself. All this gold chasing of yours isn't about competition or respect or even trying to prove your the best in the world as you say you are. Nah... it's ego. You're chasing clout. And don't try to throw back in my face the way me and Tommy won't give up coming after the Tag Titles so we can break that record. Yes, I want that moment, I want our names in the record books for being the first team to hold those titles five times. But it's not just for us. It's setting an industry standard. It's raising the bar, it's elevating an entire division.
You? You only want to elevate yourself. Acting all high and mighty, talking shit about the way me and the Jackals do things... as if you've never, ever in your career done anything similar. Maybe you'd like the world to believe that, but unfortunately for you... we have memories. You're sitting up on that pedestal of yours looking down at us for the way we get things done, but don't try to act like it's morality behind it.
It's jealousy.
We do what we do because it works. Yet nothing you do seems to stick these days. You can throw me and Tommy's tag losses in our faces all you want, it doesn't bother me at all. We know that in every case... we weren't actually beat. No, we were screwed! And the Thunderdome? Neither one of us was pinned. No one actually beat us.
So get off your goddamn high horse, okay? You're not any better than us, and especially not me, just because you don't like my methods. You're about to find out first hand that whether you like it or not, my methods work. And you don't have to worry about anyone coming out to sneak attack you, help me in any way. It's not necessary. I'm gonna kick your ass all on my own, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, but take your beating then slink away to lick your wounds.
You want a World Championship match? You might get one in the long run just because I know from experience that if you demand and scream long enough, eventually they give you what you want just to make you shut up. But I'm damn sure not gonna be your stepping stone to get there! You'll just have to keep screaming until Cruze gets tired of your shrieking, cause you're not gonna earn a motherfucking thing off of my back. Keep looking down at me, keep acting like you're better than me cause you think you have some better sense of morality. That's what David Helms thought too, and look how that turned out for him. Tommy kicked his ass, then I broke his leg and he fell off the face of the earth. He thought he was better than us, too. He fucked around and found out, though.
Come fuck around, Glory. I dare you.