Post by logansky on May 13, 2024 0:34:10 GMT
Kurt looked around the school library nervously before turning back to the computer monitor in front of him. He took out his earbuds from their case, slipping them and going through the settings to make sure they were paired with the computer. He took a deep breath and opened up YouTube. He stared at the list of suggested videos for a moment before he used the mouse to click into the search bar. His hands hovered over the keyboard as he stared at the blinking cursor on the screen.
Kurt normally considered himself a good kid. Sure he got into trouble sometimes, what young boy didn’t after all? But he tried to behave. He listened to what his parents said and did his best on his school work. Made sure to practice the violin and do his chores.
His mom had a firm line about violent sports. She also really didn’t like talking about grandpa either. He was old enough to remember what happened at grandma’s funeral. But when he had asked his mom said that Grandpa was sick. Of course now Kurt knew that ‘sick’ meant that he was on something. Health class taught him about what happened when people abused drugs and alcohol and that certainly seemed like how grandpa was acting.
But his new friends kept asking him questions and it felt weird not being able to tell them anything, especially because he didn’t know anything. Grandpa was gone most of his childhood. He had vague memories of Christmas and birthdays where he was around. But he and grandma had split up when he was little.
Plus, his grandpa was on TV, and a professional wrestler. That was too cool to ignore. He touched his fingers to the keyboard and started to type out ‘Logan Johnson Wrestling Matches’ before he remembered that his grandpa used a stage name. He double clicked on the last name and made the correction before pressing enter. The first several lines were videos put up by the Imperial Wrestling Federation. He saw one that talked about his match with Seth Evans and he clicked on the video, only a big red ‘X’ to flash on his screen with the warning that the school’s filters deemed the page inappropriate due to violence. A frown crossed his face and he clicked back, trying several other videos with the same message.
The boy sighed heavily after unsuccessfully getting any of the videos to load. He opened up another tab, bringing up Google and doing a search for ‘Logan Sky Wrestler’. He scrolled through the results, the first couple being for the videos he had already tried to watch and paused at the section of news articles. Several of them were from the past week with headlines like ‘The Machine upsets Seth Evan’s’. How could his grandpa beat someone like Seth Evans? Seth was ripped and grandpa was… well old. Practically ancient.
He continued to scroll through the results until he found a pro wrestling wiki page and clicked on it. He had told his parents he had to stay after school to study. Which wasn’t a total lie, it just wasn’t all of what he wanted to do. His own computer was monitored and he knew his mom wouldn’t like what he was doing. He leaned forward in his chair and started reading through the wiki on his grandpa. He didn’t have a lot of time.
~_~
Our scene opens up on Logan standing next to a squat rack, loading plates onto the barbell in anticipation for his work out.
“Ram you got a chip on your shoulder, son. Anyone who has spent any time around you knows that. That’s good. I can appreciate that. I got a chip on my shoulder too. You need one in this business. Complacency is the death of so many careers in this ring. You need something to drive you. Need to be ready to prove yourself everytime you walk up those steps and through those ropes. That will never go away. So you keep that chip on your shoulder. You keep that drive to prove everyone about you wrong. Some people might hold that against ya, but I sure don’t.”
He clasps the barbell collar in place before loading up the other half of the plates.
“I don’t hold you have a chip on your shoulder against you, son. But I do take issue with a lot of the words you’ve been saying. I don’t much participate in social media. Don’t really understand it that much. But I pay attention. You talk about nepotism holding you down. All the people in this company are trying to keep you from what you deserve. Stuff like that? Makes me glad that I get to climb into that ring and slap the taste out of your mouth, son.”
He turns from his work and stares into the camera with tired eyes as he lifts the hood of his sweatshirt back and shakes his head.
“I fought all my life to get where I am today. I have spilled buckets of sweat and blood in every ring that would have me, to do what I did to get here. I’ve been working to get to this place longer than you’ve been alive boy. I ain’t bitter about that. You gotta earn your keep in this business, and I didn’t. I made myself too risky. I burned too many bridges. I own that. You gotta earn your respect in this business. They don’t just hand you the flowers you gotta take em.
But you. By the grace of who trained you, of who took you under their wing you got your spot here. And you want to talk about nepotism? While me and others like me gotta live in our cars on the circuit, scraping together the money to make it one more week. Taking jobs that we end up losing money on just to get the eyes on us. You didn’t have to do all that. So I’m gonna look forward to showing you just what true hard work means in this ring. Maybe if you keep your mouth closed and your eyes open you might learn something. You got spirit, son, and you got heart. Tell your mouth to stop acting like a taco joint toilet and maybe you’ll make something of yourself.”
The camera fades out as he steps under the bar.
Kurt normally considered himself a good kid. Sure he got into trouble sometimes, what young boy didn’t after all? But he tried to behave. He listened to what his parents said and did his best on his school work. Made sure to practice the violin and do his chores.
His mom had a firm line about violent sports. She also really didn’t like talking about grandpa either. He was old enough to remember what happened at grandma’s funeral. But when he had asked his mom said that Grandpa was sick. Of course now Kurt knew that ‘sick’ meant that he was on something. Health class taught him about what happened when people abused drugs and alcohol and that certainly seemed like how grandpa was acting.
But his new friends kept asking him questions and it felt weird not being able to tell them anything, especially because he didn’t know anything. Grandpa was gone most of his childhood. He had vague memories of Christmas and birthdays where he was around. But he and grandma had split up when he was little.
Plus, his grandpa was on TV, and a professional wrestler. That was too cool to ignore. He touched his fingers to the keyboard and started to type out ‘Logan Johnson Wrestling Matches’ before he remembered that his grandpa used a stage name. He double clicked on the last name and made the correction before pressing enter. The first several lines were videos put up by the Imperial Wrestling Federation. He saw one that talked about his match with Seth Evans and he clicked on the video, only a big red ‘X’ to flash on his screen with the warning that the school’s filters deemed the page inappropriate due to violence. A frown crossed his face and he clicked back, trying several other videos with the same message.
The boy sighed heavily after unsuccessfully getting any of the videos to load. He opened up another tab, bringing up Google and doing a search for ‘Logan Sky Wrestler’. He scrolled through the results, the first couple being for the videos he had already tried to watch and paused at the section of news articles. Several of them were from the past week with headlines like ‘The Machine upsets Seth Evan’s’. How could his grandpa beat someone like Seth Evans? Seth was ripped and grandpa was… well old. Practically ancient.
He continued to scroll through the results until he found a pro wrestling wiki page and clicked on it. He had told his parents he had to stay after school to study. Which wasn’t a total lie, it just wasn’t all of what he wanted to do. His own computer was monitored and he knew his mom wouldn’t like what he was doing. He leaned forward in his chair and started reading through the wiki on his grandpa. He didn’t have a lot of time.
~_~
Our scene opens up on Logan standing next to a squat rack, loading plates onto the barbell in anticipation for his work out.
“Ram you got a chip on your shoulder, son. Anyone who has spent any time around you knows that. That’s good. I can appreciate that. I got a chip on my shoulder too. You need one in this business. Complacency is the death of so many careers in this ring. You need something to drive you. Need to be ready to prove yourself everytime you walk up those steps and through those ropes. That will never go away. So you keep that chip on your shoulder. You keep that drive to prove everyone about you wrong. Some people might hold that against ya, but I sure don’t.”
He clasps the barbell collar in place before loading up the other half of the plates.
“I don’t hold you have a chip on your shoulder against you, son. But I do take issue with a lot of the words you’ve been saying. I don’t much participate in social media. Don’t really understand it that much. But I pay attention. You talk about nepotism holding you down. All the people in this company are trying to keep you from what you deserve. Stuff like that? Makes me glad that I get to climb into that ring and slap the taste out of your mouth, son.”
He turns from his work and stares into the camera with tired eyes as he lifts the hood of his sweatshirt back and shakes his head.
“I fought all my life to get where I am today. I have spilled buckets of sweat and blood in every ring that would have me, to do what I did to get here. I’ve been working to get to this place longer than you’ve been alive boy. I ain’t bitter about that. You gotta earn your keep in this business, and I didn’t. I made myself too risky. I burned too many bridges. I own that. You gotta earn your respect in this business. They don’t just hand you the flowers you gotta take em.
But you. By the grace of who trained you, of who took you under their wing you got your spot here. And you want to talk about nepotism? While me and others like me gotta live in our cars on the circuit, scraping together the money to make it one more week. Taking jobs that we end up losing money on just to get the eyes on us. You didn’t have to do all that. So I’m gonna look forward to showing you just what true hard work means in this ring. Maybe if you keep your mouth closed and your eyes open you might learn something. You got spirit, son, and you got heart. Tell your mouth to stop acting like a taco joint toilet and maybe you’ll make something of yourself.”
The camera fades out as he steps under the bar.
Well howdy there pardner.