Sleeping Sickness

Disclaimer:
The following was recorded on Wednesday, November 4th.

Following the victory over Ozymandias at By The Sword, eyes had been locked on the ‘Last Breathing Outlaw’ Colt Montoya. Despite the incredibly difficult journey to get there, it had been satisfying for the man to finally climb the mountain to become a Champion in Wrestleworld. It came at a heavy cost, but one that took the necessary steps to place him on the steps of the promised land.

Chapter 22 was meant to be a night of celebration. With that victory, it was a chance for him to inform the fans of how much he appreciated their support, then came Cynthia Rose. Crashing the party and lending her support to Colt, everything seemed to be on the up and up. That was when things went wrong with Kimberly Chase, and thus the match scheduled for Chapter 23 was reflecting that incident. It couldn’t have been more clear, the Champion found himself into a match he had zero interest in being in. First time in the company, and the first time in a very long time when the investment just wasn’t there.



-- The Saloon Night Club --
-- Wrestleworld Capital --



Joy, Wrestleworld’s Intern Interviewer, stood impatiently in the parking lot. She was questioning her life’s decisions for this particular moment that was going to take place. After seeing the dark side of Colt Montoya arrive as he walked in for By The Sword, the world was having a hard read on this man. For everything that he had put his mind and body through for that match, it was insanity at its finest. While completely impartial to the best of her ability, Joy had it in her mind that the interview was going to be awkward with a confused Champion heading into his match against Cynthia. Still, the man couldn’t show up on time?? She had been waiting nearly twenty minutes!!

Speeding through the parking lot is a Golden 2020 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Like usual, he finds himself parking in four spaces before the car is shut off, and out came the Wrestleworld European Champion. Colt Montoya, decked out in a crimson red dress shirt and black slacks, walks through the lot to meet up with the unimpressed interviewer. His sleeves had been rolled up, in his signature style, to lead one to think that he might have gotten into a scuffle with someone or possibly slaughtered a cow. The world may never know.

“You’re late.”

Taking a drag of his cigarette, he looked up at the night club. Saloon, eh?

“Had the wrong bar. My mistake.”

He smirked to himself as he threw the cigarette aside before walking past her to head into the night club. Joy, rolling her eyes, picked up the pace to walk with him.The Champion had been a busy man since winning the European Title from such a monster, getting this interview time was a pretty daunting task. Employees of the club opened the doors for them as they walked in. Immediately greeted by the manager of the club, Colt glared past him towards the action going on. A lot of drinking, a lot of dancing, some loud music.

“We have an interview, Got a quiet lounge for us?”

The manager looked over at Joy, then at the Champion. He nodded promptly and escorted the two up to one of the VIP lounges. The manager snapped his fingers to the staff while Joy and Colt made their way into the lounge. Finding the comfortable couch and seats available, Joy sat down in a couch while Colt took a seat on the opposite side. Social distancing is a good thing evidently. A server immediately walked in, desperate to keep her job by not angering a Wrestleworld Staff member or a Champion.

“Hi! What can I get for you two?”

“Two Stellas.”

“Colt, I’m not going to drink a beer.”

“Of course not, those were mine. What do you want?”

“Just get me a water, if you would.”

She pulled out her notebook and the voice recorder for the interview, Joy was impressed by the prompt response as the water and beers were brought to them immediately.

“Good service, wow.”

Colt reached over for his beer, looking at the server before grabbing onto it as he leaned back against the couch. Nearly sinking into it, the Champion had to adjust his position.

“So, let’s get this rolling?”

Joy cycled through her notes to the questions before turning the recorder on.

“First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to have this interview. People have been talking a lot about you in recent months as the guy who was on the horizon to become a Champion here in Wrestleworld. Of course you had to take on one of the toughest men on the roster, and took a beating in the process. How are you feeling about your current state and what’s on the early agenda for you as the Champion?”

That was quite a loaded question early on. He wasn’t used to being asked such a long winded question. Maybe it could warrant a long winded response. Taking a moment to think it over, he took a drink from the beer bottle.

“That’s a tough one. I learned a lot in recent weeks leading up to that match, and to be honest with you, there’s parts of me still sitting in Japan as we speak. Ozymandias is the toughest man in the world. Not just the company, not just the business, but really across the world. When you get someone that size into the ring, and he already has that intensity about him when he fights, it was going to be a long night for sure. I guess the current status for myself, despite being a little sore still, I’m alright. To put it into context, I do wrestle all over the world and it’s very draining. When I was just a guy sitting on DOMINION before it became this awesome brand, I was always waiting for the opportunity. Always sitting at the bottom of the pecking order despite winning matches here and there. I can’t tell you really how challenging that was because the mind went into such an overdrive that I just simply went into full adrenaline mode for the match.”

Nodding at the answer, Joy scribbled down some notes. She noticed the eyes of Colt Montoya weren’t what they used to be. He always had a fire in his eyes, but it seemed that the fire had been put out with events transpiring the way they did.

“On Chapter 22, it was supposed to be this big celebration for you on finally becoming a Champion. A lot of people passed you on the pursuit to becoming a Champion, but when you went to celebrate, you were interrupted by Cynthia Rose and Percy. What are your thoughts on that action?”

“How do I put this without sounding horrible? Obviously I don’t have any ill will towards Cynthia Rose. Hell, I barely know her. She seems like a young prodigy in the business and someone who will become a household name. To say that her coming in and interrupting this celebration, I can’t say I’m a fan of that. I don’t ask for a lot of things in life, I don’t want people kissing my ass or even throwing these celebrations, but it was a moment for me. A moment where I could grab a live microphone and tell the fans how I felt about them. I felt like it was my chance to really soak in the moment and enjoy being the Champion. We all wanted that since we started in this business, hell even before that! Anyone who loved this business at a young age, they’d grab one of those replica titles, maybe even a piece of cardboard that their mother turned into a title belt for them. They’d stand in their bedroom, resting that title on their shoulder, and they’d tell the ‘world’ how they felt. How much they appreciated the support and how they’d never let the belt slip away from them. I was one of those kids growing up, and even as a baseball player, I still loved wrestling.”

More notes were taken. Joy looked back over at Colt, noticing that he pulled a cigarette out and proceeded to pull the zippo out as well. She looked around to see if there were rules and regulations over whether or not he could smoke in the building. Colt didn’t seem to care, as he lit up in an attempt to come to a fully relaxed state of mind.

“Obviously, things did go south. Cynthia came out and Kimberly immediately went after her, making fun of her. There was bullying going on in there, and you just kind of stood back. Why did you do that?”

“From the moment she walked out, I knew my moment was gone. See, here’s the problem, Joy. I worked my ass off to get to this point. I worked as hard as anybody else, and was passed over by a lot of people, people who I know I can beat. People who I DID beat. I had to wait for that moment, and when it came, it quickly disappeared because of some issue between Kimberly and Cynthia that had nothing to do with me. Nothing at all. It wasn’t my hill to die on, so I didn’t participate. I think the world needs to know something about this business, before social media spins the story saying that I’m this terrible human being. This is a very, VERY tough business. To get into the ring, and know that you’re going to get an ass beating from someone who knows the same thing, you have to have some kind of moral compass that has been thrown out the window. Cynthia Rose could have found another business to get into if she was that concerned about her feelings, much less expect people to cater to her beliefs and emotions. It’s the same damn thing that I dealt with when Lillie told me she was going to wrestle. I told her the exact same thing. When the bell rings, your opponent will not care how YOU feel. It’s nothing personal, but I’m not being paid to go out there and babysit. I’m being paid to get in the ring, kick people’s asses, and go onto the next fight.”

“That seems a little selfish though, Colt. You do talk about doing the right thing, and when the moment happened, you stood away from the obvious rudeness coming from your manager. Why step away from being the ‘good guy’ when something like that happens?”

“What is a ‘good guy’?”

“A good guy stands up for people weaker than him. A good guy isn’t afraid to step and say ‘Hey, that’s enough!’. A good guy doesn’t celebrate when the bullying happens. It was wrong.”

“All those things you brought up, they don’t matter in the ring on a show glorifying violence. Wrestling isn’t an art, it’s not a science, it’s violence. It’s people getting in there, hurting each other to get paid. Now, outside of the ring, would I go have lunch with Cynthia Rose and Percy? Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. I wouldn’t pass on the opportunity because they’re respectful people. I do have a tremendous amount of respect for people OUTSIDE of the ring. The minute you step in there though, you’re not going in to play around. You’re stepping in to win or to lose. I don’t really care much for losing, so obviously I will do what I have to do in order to win.”

“So, there’s no line? You just step away and let someone bully another because you feel it’s a business that allows people to get harassed and bullied. So, if I went into that ring and Ozymandias hit me with a chair. You’d just stand there?”

“That’s not a fair comparison. I reckon you’re not a paid wrestler. You’re an interviewer, you work for the company for that purpose. Cynthia Rose signed a contract with the company to be a wrestler. She’s green, absolutely. She will make the same mistakes in the ring as anybody would when they’re learning the game. Still, she is a professional wrestler now, she’s not an interviewer, a time keeper, an commentator, she’s not a fan in the crowd. That’s just part of life, and part of the business.”

“Okay, I’ll agree that I’m not a wrestler. It just feels like you’re in a position in the company to stand up for others, and you choose not to. I felt let down as a staff member seeing a ‘good guy’ allow it to happen. Anyways, I digress.”

Cycling through her notes, Joy could see from the corner of her eye that Colt was frustrated at the questions. He took a swig of his beer before another drag of his cigarette. The man was burned out from such wars lately that maybe his heart wasn’t in the right place at the time. The Colt Montoya the world knew would have stepped in and stopped the bullying, but there was something else stopping him.

“Anyways, Chapter 23, you and Cynthia will meet inside of the ring for a match that I think people are looking forward to. A lot of people have made blatant comparisons between Cynthia Rose and Lillie Saint. Very cordial, fun loving people who are just trying to do their best. Are you intending to carry your attitude into the match that you’re having during this interview?”

“That’s one thing I don’t understand about this match. I’ve heard people talking about these huge comparisons between the two. They’re not the same people, obviously, and there really isn’t that much in common between the two. My sister is one of those people who doesn’t give a shit what the world thinks about her. She is perfectly happy by having people think she’s weird, or goofy. She knows what they think and it doesn’t affect her in the slightest. Cynthia, on the other hand, is trying to make the world love her. She’s naive to everything around her, she thinks that buying someone shoes is going to make them her friend. That won’t work, much less for Kimberly, she spends so much money on shoes that I’m wondering where a lot of that cash comes from. I don’t agree that she should have been rude about getting the shoes because let’s be honest, Cynthia Rose isn’t made of money. I grew up that same way, we gave our best to what we had growing up. It was a pretty harsh thing on Kimberly’s part, but Cynthia wasn’t aware, despite the negative reaction she got from Kimberly to begin with.

Now a pair of shoes are the reasoning for this match to happen. SHOES!! Fucking shoes, really??!”

Taking a heavy drink from the bottle, the bottom raises up until the beer is completely emptied from it. Colt puts the first bottle down before grabbing the second one. Joy inches herself away from Colt in a very awkward way.

“I am the Wrestleworld European Champion. Couldn’t this match be about if Cynthia Rose is able to have a good showing, that MAYBE she could get a title shot? Couldn’t this match be about the rookie upstart having a battle with a guy who came out of By The Sword, victorious over the toughest guy on Earth? No.. Fucking shoes, man!”

“Do you think the match will be good? It seems like you might be taking her lightly, despite her showcasing that she is a talented wrestler in her early stage of her career. Do you think you might be in for a challenge against her at Chapter 23?”

“I have absolutely zero doubt that she’s going to bring her best to the ring. She’s got Percy in her ear, telling her all of these things that she needs to do in order to defeat me. They’ve probably watched my matches, they’ve probably seen shit that I’ve done when I was a rookie for crying out loud. I don’t fault this young lady for wanting to make a mark in the business, and she certainly won’t pass up the opportunity to face someone like me inside of that ring. She’s going to bring it. Guess what, though? Do you think I’m taking the night off, and not preparing for a match with her? I can spout all day about how she isn’t a challenge. I could down several of these bad boys, watch funny animal videos on youtube, maybe bust out a game of Metroid. Obviously those things aren’t going to happen. I’ll go into this match the exact same way that I always have. I’ll walk in and fight like I always do, and try to end this match early. I’ll test her along the way, and see what she brings to the table. The better she does in that ring, the harder I have to work to stop her. That’s the common denominator though, every match that I’m in, I stop the opponents in their tracks. Tristan Killebrew got stopped, Jay Jones got stopped, Maverick got stopped, Nas got stopped, Aoi Akuma got stopped, April Song got stopped, all those fuckers in the Feast of the Fallen match got stopped.. Ozymandias got stopped.. She will be stopped too. Everybody gets stopped when I’m in there with them.

Don’t come at me and say that I’m this asshole for not stepping in the way of a manager fighting with a wrestler who wasn’t going to harm her. I’m not the villain here, I’m just a guy who wants to get in the ring and fight. I’ll say this one last time so hopefully someone hears and doesn’t judge me on the actions of others. I’m the Wrestleworld European Champion. In my opinion, I am the best professional wrestler in this company. There are no days away from the game for me, I’m stuck with this crap for the rest of my life, it feels like. Telling me that I’m a bully, you guys don’t even know what I am. I’m the best there is right now, and you guys want to paint a cute picture to make her look like a hero? I’m sorry you got bullied, Cynthia, but toughen up. Otherwise, you’ll be eaten alive.”

“Um..okay I think we’re done here. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. This business though..”

After he put the beer back down on the table in front of him, Colt lowered his head into his hands. The headache was real, the mind games were real. The war with Ozymandias had taken its toll on the Champion, who remained silent as he tried to breathe. Joy turned off the voice recorder, looking over at him. She shrugged to herself before thinking about patting him on the back before deciding against it. She, like the rest of the world would find out when the interview was released, realized that he was breaking down. Cynthia Rose might have the leg up going into this match after all.