Chapter 25

Friday September 24th, 2010. Early Night

CSWS Building

Randy was halfway across the parking lot when a random pure red, Ferrari came cruising in by him. It nearly missed his right side by a few inches. "Of course, Gregory, that smug bastard," he whispered. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued towards the front entrance. As soon as it was open, Gregory called him out. "Hey RANDAL! What's going on?" He asked, walking over towards him.

His cronies, the Salem twins, were crossing their arms, and smirking at him. They were relatively shorter than their leader, but Randy never underestimated their strength. He saw them wrestle before, and they took all the big guys down in an instant. Sure the tactics were a bit dirty, but you gotta do what you gotta do, he always said. He sighed, staring down at his feet and shook his head. "What do you want now?" "You know that tonight is our twenty fifth on air show! I heard talk that Mr. Maximus is granting one of us a title shot and you can already guess who it'll be," Gregory replied, with his arms outstretched. Randy could care less what this man or the twins were wearing. They normally sported the same attire; tonight was different, however. He noticed that they were all wearing red coats with white shirts and black pants. He figured it was some type of group thing.

Gregory took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "I can feel the energy already. A couple hundred local fans chanting: GREG-O-RY, GREG-O-RY! God, I just love it! Now, get out of my way!" He shoved Randy aside, and didn't even hold the door open for the twins. Both of which followed him through, without a single complaint. Shortly after this confrontation, a broken down black Chevy truck pulled in. Both sides were rusted around the wheel rims and the back tailgate was held up with wires. The windows were dirty and tinted black, so Randy couldn't really see the driver. The moment that it parked right up next to Kolleen's car, he knew who it was.

He knew it had to be Gorgon. Sure enough, the tall, white skinned Russian born man stepped out of the truck. He had cut blue jean shorts, brown work boots, and a long sleeved, blue flannel shirt on that night. It suited his skin color very well. The parking lot lights glistened off of the top of his head, just like a mirror. Randy couldn't help but feel happy to see him again, so he walked over towards him. Kolleen was already on her way over so she allowed him to grab her hand and guide her back towards the car. All around them, the cool air was setting in. Goose bumps formed all over Randy's arms and he felt her arm shiver. "It's warm inside Kol, no worries." She smiled at him, indicating that she heard. "Gorgon, my friend; how have you been?" Randy asked. He reached his free hand out to shake the Russian's.

"My man, Randy! I've been doing just fine. I heard about your mother though and I'm sorry that she isn't doing well," he replied. Randy saw the concern in his face and shook his head in reply. "She's fine Gorgon, but thanks." "Absolutely no problem! Are you excited about tonight? The show's important and I heard good things about a possible title shot finally. I'd love to get my hands on that CSWS Heavyweight Title. And who knows, maybe tonight will be a big break and an agent from the DWL will be there."

They all walked towards the school, with Gorgon on Randy's right and Kolleen close to his left. "Yeah, that'll be a dream come true man. I'd love to just get a title shot in general. Sure, I'd love to get that main title, and even the K.O. Championship would suffice. But what I want is really in a totally different league. The Submissions Championship… it belongs to the DWL." Randy replied, gazing off past the building. He noticed flashing lights going across the sky. A plane had just taken off to some random location. Just once Randy wished he could escape all this drama and treat his mother, Kolleen and himself to a better life.

"Who knows Randy, perhaps someday soon you'll be at the DWL challenging the champ for that title. I heard about that devastating finisher you've been working on, the Super Shooter?" Gorgon asked, holding the door open. Randy let Kolleen in first and then nodded towards his friend before entering the building. The entrance room is a tiny one, with only a front desk in between two doors. All of the walls inside were chipped away, and painted red. The floors were just dusty wood with scuff marks. The left door led off to the male locker rooms whilst the right led to the female ones. Both of which connected to a central gymnasium, where they all could work out in unison. Behind the gymnasium, was another hallway, full of trophies, titles, and Mr. Maximus' offices. And at the very back sat the double iron doors that led to the arena. Randy could remember it like it was just yesterday.

They were all heading towards the male section. "Umm, Kolleen may have to follow us just for a bit. She's new to the building and she's here to watch the show." "That's fine, I'll guide her towards the arena, you just get to the locker room and get ready. I'll meet you in a few." They entered the darkened hallway, and Randy watched as his friend guided his lady friend to the end of it and then disappear. The hallway had a few dust covered light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. There were only two rooms in each hallway; the showers were the last door on the left.

He walked slowly down the hallway, scuffing his feet every few steps to try and kick his nerves. Despite all of this air time, he still got butterflies in his stomach when he imagined the audience. He leaned against the wall, remembering all the cheering and roars of people as his name was introduced. There was a bright flash of light, which blinded him a bit. When Randy adjusted his eyes, he was standing outside the iron doors. His heart was pounding hard and ears tuned into the ring announcer. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the challenger, fighting against Marcos Gonzales. He is a third generation wrestler within the Rodriguez bloodline."

Just the mention of the name, Rodriguez, caused the crowd to go into an uproar. This made his stomach sick, nearly making him vomit on his ring boots. He was wearing cheep, green ones with a yellow trim and matching waist high shorts. He hated these things, since they always rode up in his butt. Everything from the waist up was bare. Again his ears tuned back into the announcer. "His grandfather, Patrick and father, Robert; whom we all miss dearly, God bless their souls, are the older generations…"

His brain buzzed wildly from the mention of his two elders. He felt the vomit rising into his throat and tried to dance around on each foot to calm the nerves. Gorgon appeared behind him, with a towel around his waist and another on his shoulder. He stood next to him, resting his hands on his hips. "Feeling nervous?" he asked in the familiar low voice. "Oh yeah, you have no idea." "Psh, of course I have an idea. I just got done with my first match, and I was nervous as hell! I'm going to give you a tip to stay calm. Think of this as a backyard match, no one else exists except your family and friends. It makes the tension ease up real well, trust me."

Randy nodded, and felt that mammoth of a man, place a hand on his shoulder. "Look at me," he said. Randy gazed up into Gorgon's rock like face and crystal blue eyes. "You're a natural, I saw you train and you definitely have the Rodriguez blood flowing within your veins. Just breath, and practice that tip I told ya about. I'll be listening from the back, knock em' dead." He walked off towards the end of the hall. "Please give a warm CSWS welcome to, RANDY RODRIGUEZ!" Randy heard the announcer yell his name. He took a deep breath, then pushed both of the door handles in, allowing the bright lights to blind him. He winced, trying to strain his eyes so he could see the ring. The lights faded, and were replaced with the three hanging bulbs.

"Yo Randy, what's up?" a familiar Spanish voice called out. He turned around, and grinned invitingly towards his buddy, Marcos. "Nothing much Marc, how about you?" Marcos had a white t-shirt, with his initials spray painted on the front. He also had his baggy black shorts on that stopped juts below the knee and black sneakers. "Man, I'm doing great! Sales are up, but hopefully I won't be doing that business much anymore. I can't stand it man, selling dope to these people. I mean, I feel so damn guilty that I can't even go to sleep at night without praying for an hour."

"I'm excited about tonight though! Mr. Maximus came up to me last week and talked to me about some potential title matches tonight. He saw me wrestle and said I improved a lot since my first show. We both know how that ended." Marcos added on. "Yeah, the Super Shooter… God I love that move!" Randy said, smiling like crazy. He chuckled at the floor, shaking his head. "That was one painful submission move, dude. I felt like my spine was snapping into multiple pieces." "Well, you almost had me with that weird diving move, the Marco Polo. That blew the air straight from my lungs, and I barely kicked out."

"Let's get to the locker room and get ready. We can talk while we set up anyways," Randy said. His friend nodded and walked with him towards the locker room. When they entered, Randy looked around. The room was more lit up than the hallway, with black tiled floors and red tiled walls. Four rows of lockers lined up horizontally in the center of the room with another two sets lining up the opposite walls. Randy's and Marcos' lockers were the first two in the front row, so they headed over and started putting in their combinations.

"So what's the big news Marcos?" Randy started, as he turned the dial to 23 and yanked the lock open. He pulled out the green underwear-like shorts and matching boots then sat down to get his normal attire off. Marcos sat down next to him, slipping on his wrestling attire. He wore black boots with a white trim, with matching tights. "Mr. Maximus said that he was very impressed with your progress as well. He told me that the Tag Team belts are on the line tonight and he wanted me to go after them. Of course, I need a partner to do this and guess who I chose?"

Randy could not have been anymore lightheaded than this particular moment. He tied up his boots after slipping his wrestling bottoms on. "Me?" "That's right homes! I told Mr. Max that there's no other person I'd like to wrestle with than you! So it's official, we're challenging the Tag Champs tonight and he said that we got to pick the match type. I'm leaving it up to you homes, since I was given the choice to pick my partner." "This is amazing! I can't believe this man, thanks!" The elation in his veins, made his brain buzz. He stuck out his fist which Marcos bumped.

"What match do you want to have?" the Spanish, lucha libre asked. "I have the slightest idea, I'm really good with submissions and you've got the aerial attacks. Let's make it interesting." He saw Marcos smiling and laughing with his face in his hand. "I know what's going on in that twisted mind of yours. What do you want to do?" Randy stood up, and helped Marcos up to his feet before answering. He was inches away from him and whispered, "Tonight… It's gonna be a two on two falls count anywhere, elimination match. No DQ, count outs, or rope breaks. Just the four guys, and their wits." "Yeah! I love it man! Let's go kick some twin ass!" They both exited the locker room, leaving the Salem twins and Gregory behind a set of lockers. The twins were both staring at each other, with scared expressions; their hands clutched tight onto their titles.