A Wrestling Tale 6.12.02: Mr. Rodriguez Helped 2 (Conclusion)

Read Part 1 here. I didn’t really spell check this, so you can correct the mistakes and send them to me for super happy bonus points!

Until Zach snapped the match had been a standard RFWF main event. Good guy starts off winning, bad guy gets the advantage, outside spot, inside spot, bad guy controls for a while, good guy battles back, spot, outside, table spot, rest period, fake finish. A pretty good match, considering it involved a guy who only got his job cause he had the crap beaten out of him and a guy known for almost killing another wrestler and who hadn’t had a match in about 3 years.

Then Zach snapped, just like they had planned.

Zach apologized for the way he acted at the diner. He had done so the day before at the walk through for the match, and he had done so with a major lack of enthusiasm. The walk though went well enough after that, and Zach even cracked a smile when Greg tried a bodyslam and hit himself in the head with Zach’s foot. The smile set Greg at ease. They had practiced the snapping, and while it actually did look very good, it hurt Greg as well.

However, it was not supposed to be real. Blood ran from Greg’s nose as the thought occurred to him that he was going to die in this ring. He was supposed to be getting married, but instead he was going to die. Greg briefly wondered if it was all for the best. He had let Mr. Rodriguez die when he could have saved him. He had helped Zach’s career but ruined his life. Two lives destroyed, and he hoped to have a child with his fiancé. Who knew what Greg would do to his child? As the blood ran down his face, Greg let go and prepared to let Zach kill him. Greg looked up and saw the look in Zach’s eyes.

Two days earlier.

Alan turned around and had a quiet conversation with the man behind him, patted the man on the shoulder and left. Zach stared at Greg, who remained seated. Greg’s eyes met Zach’s, and then Greg looked away. Zach sat in the unoccupied seat, and their first face to face interaction since Greg had pummeled Zach to a pulp began with another cry of pain.

“OW!” Zach rose, grabbed a napkin and wiped his ass. A small, bloody piece of glass fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Greg said. “I broke a glass before.”

“I’m fine.”

“The waitress must have missed ”

“I said I’m fine.” Zach wiped down the seat and sat down again.

“Are you sure? I bet they have a first aid kit ”

“It’s only a little blood. I’ve had worse.”

They were silent for thirty seconds. Whatever attitude Greg had shown to Alan was gone. He had gone over and over the first thing he would say to Zach, and ‘I’ sorry, I broke a glass before’ had not been the statement he had wanted to make. He had no idea what to say now, and Zach didn’t look like he wanted to initiate a conversation as he chewed on his bottom lip.

So instead of saying something to him, Greg looked at Zach. The plastic surgeon had been remarkable. Greg had tried to mold Zach’s face to make it resemble his own with his fists. Instead, Zach had resembled a person hit by a train headfirst. The plastic surgeon had reshaped Zach’s face almost perfectly, although there had been problems with the jaw. Greg was told that Zach would have a bit of a lisp for the rest of his life, and hey.

“What happened to your lisp?”

“Hey! It’s gone!” Zach feigned celebration, raising his hands in triumph over his head, never dropping the serious look on his face. He lowered his arms and shrugged his shoulders. “I had my jaw reset last year. A couple of months of speech therapy, and I’m better then ever.”

“But when you talked to me on the phone ”

“Alan told me to fake a lisp. He thought it would guilt trip you, and I guess it worked. It’s part of my character anyway. We’re dropping it after this match. Truth is, Alan wanted me to talk to you with a lisp the entire time that you’re here, but I think you’ve paid enough.”

“I’ve paid enough? No. Look, the lisp doesn’t matter. This isn’t about what you owe me, and I don’t know why you want to job to me, but it’s not necessary. I came here because to help you. I came here because I owe you.” There was an awkward pause. “Would you like something to eat?”

Zach looked at Alan’s uneaten food and Greg’s untouched burger. “I’m not hungry. But please, eat.”

Greg uncomfortably went to take a bite of his burger and felt like he was going to vomit. He put it back on the plate. Zach rolled his eyes and spoke. He spoke for a while He had some things to say to Greg, and unlike Greg, he was going to say them.

“Eat your burger. What’s wrong? Eat it? No, huh? Feeling guilty? Feeling too guilty to eat? Look, you beat me up and went to jail for it. While I was healing, you were locked up. While I was hired by the RFWF, a national promotion, something you’ll get your first and last taste of in two days, you were probably dwelling on the past, torturing Mr. Rodriguez or whatever. I don’t care what you did to the fat asshole. Whatever. While you lost your passion for the business, I was actually trained by competent wrestlers, and became twice the wrestler you ever were. I was in the PWI 500. When were you in the PWI 500? Never! Last year, I was 256. This year, I might crack the top 100. The WWE has shown interest in me. Not much, but a little. The current plan is to put the world championship on me in 6 months. Were you ever even the champion of the Wisconsin Wrestling Scene? I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be bragging here. You see, I’ve changed. I wasn’t able to see why you did what you did, but Mr. Vainrib, Alan, he taught me that everything looks different in retrospective, Retrospect, rather. For awhile, I wanted to see you dead for what you did to me. But maybe you were right. Maybe you saved me. Maybe you saved me and so many others from becoming you. What Mr. Rodriguez did to you we don’t have to talk about that. It would have killed me to be in your position after doing what I did to earn my spot. So, thank you. Yes, thank you. You maybe you don’t deserve thanks. After all, I read what you said on the stand. You weren’t trying to save me. You were trying to warn yourself. God, you couldn’t have triggered the crazy part of you some other time, could you? But that’s in the past. I still hurt from time to time, especially my eyes. I wear contacts now. You did some remarkable damage to them, I’m lucky the doctors were able to save them. But I regress. I digress, rather. If you don’t deserve a thank you, you also don’t deserve to apologize to me. You’ve been through plenty. I just want you to know that there is absolutely no reason for you to feel like you owe me anything.”

Zach felt good. Yeah, Zach felt awesome! He did it! He God, he just wanted to rip that bastard’s throat out. He was laughing at him.

“I’m sorry! Heh. Ha! HAHAHA! I’m sorry. Really, I’m very glad to hear all of this. 256, huh? That’s great! HA! Man, I’m starved. Famished. You sure you don’t want something to eat? HA!”

Greg felt relieved. While he sensed Zach’s anger, Zach had a lot of luck since the incident. Zach’s looks had returned to normal, he had a great job, and he had a great future. Even the lisp was gone! Greg felt the weight of the world slide off his shoulders, and suddenly began to laugh. Zach stared at him with rage as Greg guffawed, and then took a big bite out of his burger.

“Stop laughing at me.”

Greg laughed so hard he spit a chunk of hamburger into Zach’s lap. Greg laughed harder and grabbed a napkin to wipe the hamburger off of Zach.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH ME!”

Greg stopped laughing.

The manager shuffled his feet uncomfortably. This was the second outburst from that table, but those guys were huge.

Tears streamed down Zach’s face.

“Don’t you touch me. I bet you rationalized it at one point so you didn’t kill yourself. I bet you decided that you saved me from Mr. Rodriguez. You could have gone to the police. You weren’t the guy who blew his boss, you were the guy in jail who put away a molester. I was the guy who blew his boss. I still am. Everyone found out because of you. My girlfriend left me. I tried to go back home to see my parents, and my mother told me my father said I wasn’t welcome in the house. I talked to him on the phone for about 30 seconds since you showed the world what I did. He said, ‘You a faggot? Don’t you bullshit me! Don’t bullshit me!’ I’m 20, and I feel like the laughing stock of the world. When Mr when he died, he started laughing at me when I slept. You went crazy, and I paid for it. Look, I can’t do this right now. I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym. Do me a favor and pretend everything went well in front of Mr. Vainrib.”

Greg opened his mouth to speak as Zach left. Greg vomited all over the table.

*******************************************************************

Greg wanted to go straight from the diner to the airport. Nothing was worth the pain, the guilt, the anxiety he was feeling. Instead he went back to the hotel and got some sleep. He showed up at the gym and greeted Zach with a friendly handshake in front of Alan Vainrib. He arrived at the arena the next night and was pretty much ignored by all of the other wrestlers, save for looks of disgust, contempt and jealousy. At first Greg didn’t understand why, and then realized he was working the main event. Greg did approach one of the prettier female wrestlers and asked for a favor. She said no. He begged, and she said she’d think about it. He was an outsider working the main event because he had nearly killed a person most of these wrestlers now considered a pretty cool guy, if not a close friend. Zach spoke to him once backstage to go over the spots again. Greg slipped and accidentally said, ‘stupid spinning headbutt’ under his breath. The whole thing was just too goddamned similar, if much more complicated. Zach shot him a dirty look, finished the run down and left.

Greg found himself repeating the series of moves from the first match. Lock-up, head lock, off the ropes, sunset flip, kick out. Stare down. Lock up, kick to the gut, DDT. Kick out. Rest hold. A rest hold that soon into the match was below him, but he had to because Zach would be panting like a dog in heat if they didn’t slow it down there. How’d he draw Lipsky anyway? No! Break out of the rest hold. Suplex, split the legs and kick the balls, play to the crowd. Miss the elbow off the top rope, let him kill you with the stupid head butt that he doesn’t know how to do properly and get pinned. So simple. So goddamned simple. A waste of his time, really.

It was so much more complicated this time. Zach really was going to be a major force in wrestling. It was kind of, in a really weird way, due to Mr. Rodriguez.

Greg felt like vomiting again when Alan walked up to him and said, “Greg, my man, you better sell your ass off for Zach out there. He’s the future of our promotion.” Mr. Rodriguez had said the same thing to him. “And also, have a lot of fun.” Mr. Rodriguez had not said that.

Until Zach snapped the match had been a standard RFWF main event. Good guy starts off winning, bad guy gets the advantage, outside spot, inside spot, bad guy controls for a while, good guy battles back, spot, outside, table spot, rest period, fake finish. A pretty good match, considering it involved a guy who only got his job cause he had the crap beaten out of him and a guy known for almost killing another wrestler and who hadn’t had a match in about 3 years.

Then Zach snapped, just like they had planned. However, it was not supposed to be real. Blood ran from Greg’s nose as the thought occurred to him that he was going to die in this ring. He was supposed to be getting married, but instead he was going to die. Greg briefly wondered if it was all for the best. He had let Mr. Rodriguez die when he could have saved him. He had helped Zach’s career but ruined his life. Two lives destroyed, and he hoped to have a child with his fiancé. Who knew what Greg would do to his child? As the blood ran down his face, Greg let go and prepared to let Zach kill him. Greg looked up and saw the look in Zach’s eyes.

The look said, oops.

Zach jumped on top of Greg and began to batter him with very real looking fake punches, being very careful to avoid the nose. Zach whispered, “Sorry, a little over zealous I guess.” Greg struggled at first, as he’d been told to, and then lay limp. The crowd was going nuts until Zach was about to hit Greg’s limp body again but instead let out a cry of frustration. Zach got up and began to beat the hell out of a turnbuckle. He was showing mercy. It would get him over as a huge face. Then they heard it.

Laughter.

The audience was not buying this. Hardcore fans were not buying this soap opera crap. The small bit of laughter turned into boos when Greg rolled Zach up for the pin. Greg knew these boos. Zach didn’t, but Greg did. It wasn’t, ‘BOO! THE BAD GUY WON!’ This was, “BOO! THIS IS BULLSHIT!”

To solidify the face turn, the ending called for Greg to raise Zach’s hand after Zach shook his. Zach offered his hand to Greg with a look of anger on his face. He was waiting for Greg to take it, but Greg didn’t at first. The blood loss must have been making him feel light headed. He wiped his nose and it burned. His hand was bloody. He shook Zach’s and smiled. The crowd booed loudly. A small portion was chanting refund.

Zach knew he was finished. This was the match that would make or break him. He was broken, and having Greg raise his hand now would why was Greg leaving the ring? Why did he have a microphone? Oh, now he raised Zach’s hand. The crowd was throwing things into the ring, part of them laughing, part of them booing. Zach wanted to die.

Greg lowered his hand and sucked some of the blood flowing from his nose into his mouth. “Ladies and gentlemen, I gotta tell you something. Zach stopped when I didn’t. He is a true gentleman and a first rate pussy!” Greg then spat the blood from his mouth into Zach’s shocked face and tackled him. “Beat the living shit out of me. Try not to kill me.”

When it was done, the crowd was chanting, “LIPSSSKY, LIPSSSKY!” Greg honestly couldn’t move. It hurt everywhere. He was going to need surgery. It wasn’t nearly as bad as what he had done to Zach, not even in that arena. The swelling in his forehead would turn into two black eyes, as the broken nose was already going to. Zach had left the ring and was high fiving the fans on the way back to the dressing room as the EMT’s came out. Greg could see Alan yelling at Zach as Zach pointed to Greg, obviously explaining what had happened. Suddenly, the female wrestler Greg had talked to backstage came out. She yelled at Zach and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the ring.

“LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!” She screamed it over and over, not much of an actress. Greg was on a stretcher, and she ran right up to him. He whispered to her to push him off and kiss Zach. Zach and Alan Vainrib looked bewildered as she did just what Greg told her to. The crowd went absolutely nuts.

It suddenly hit Zach. He was no longer viewed as the fag who sucked his boss’ dick. He was a killer and a lover. The EMT’s put Greg back on the stretcher and took him backstage as Zach and the female wrestler posed for the crowd. The PPV went off the air, and the match immediately received mixed ratings online. The one thing everyone could agree on was that Zach was a future star.

Alan profusely apologized to Greg. Greg told Alan it had been his idea and asked for help with the medical bills. Alan had no problem with that. Zach was going to make him a million times whatever the medical care cost. In the ambulance, Alan offered Greg a position on his creative team. Greg laughed, which hurt his nose, and turned Alan down. Alan then told Greg he was giving him double his pay for the match. Greg thanked him and smiled. The doctor’s had never seen a man so beat up smile the way Greg did during his stay in the hospital.

SIX MONTHS LATER.

Allison made a beautiful bride. Everyone thought so. Greg Stemkowski made a handsome groom, save for the huge scar on his forehead. It was a beautiful if bland wedding, and any doubts Allison’s family may have had about professional wrestlers came to an end when Alan Vainrib said that the RFWF would be happy to take care of the bill when the owner of the Swan Lake Country Club informed them their check had bounced. Greg may not of wanted a job on the team, but he was invaluable as a creative consultant. Alan just hoped the WWE never found out who was responsible for this new product, this direct competition. Paying for his wedding should put Greg into his debt for a while.

It was time for the best man’s toast. The best man rose and spoke.

“Allison, Greg destroyed my life. He’s been through hell and took me with him. But he got out of hell, and again he took me with him. It’s been a weird six months, but the best of my life, and it’s all because of this guy. I have a feeling that there will be similar ups in your life, but not nearly as many downs. When he does get down, do me a favor and take care of him so he doesn’t beat me to a pulp.”

The best man paused for laughter.

“Greg, I hate you and I’m beginning to love you. The only advice I can give you is to not mistake your past for your future. You could of become him, you didn’t. He’s dead, and you’re more alive then he ever was. You have a beautiful wife and a beautiful life. I simply hope that our friendship continues to grow as your marriage blossoms. Lady’sssss and gentlemen, to the bride and groom.” There was some laughter as everyone drank. The best man and RFWF champion Zach Lipsky sat down next to his fiancé and winked at Greg. The reason they had become friends was simple; when things looked darkest for Zach, Mr. Stemkowski helped. He had done well.