Post by EZRA on Mar 23, 2024 7:48:42 GMT -5
MAR 18
Ezra Wolf had taken the full force of the Empire Kick and was still out of it as the final bell rang. Zane Scott had pulled out the victory for their makeshift team then assisted his partner to the back. Ezra had managed to regain his bearings as the two neared the entrance to the trainer’s room.
“Naw, bro. I’m good.” Ezra stated groggily as Zane reached for the door handle. “I don’t need to get checked out.”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry, Ezra. You couldn’t even walk under your own power until about ten feet back.”
Zane opens the door and points for Ezra to go in. Ezra does as he’s told, and Zane follows in behind him.
“He took a hit on the chin and seemed a bit glazed over.” Zane relays to the trainer’s assistant. “I think he’s fine. He’s a tough kid. But just keep an eye on him.”
The assistant gives him a nod and Zane turns towards the door. Right before he exits, Ezra speaks up to get his attention.
“Zaniac,” he says, getting Zane to pause and turn back towards him. “Thanks, bro.”
“Don’t mention it.” Zane replies gruffly before exiting, leaving Ezra in the trainer’s room.
“You wouldn’t know it, bro. But he’s a big ol’ teddy bear.” Ezra says, sitting down on the edge of one of the beds in the room.
“I doubt that,” the assistant says as he gets him to sit still and shines a penlight into Ezra’s eyes as part of the concussion protocol. His eyes respond in a manner that pleases the assistant and he walks out of view briefly before returning with a large bag of ice. He places it on the back of Ezra’s neck and positions it to sit there without needing to be held up.
“Like your friend said, I think you’re fine,” the assistant says as he takes a seat on a stool opposite Ezra. “If you get lightheaded or dizzy or a bad headache that won’t go away, you need to go see a doctor. The preventative signs show that you’re good to go though. So just hang out here for a bit before going to your locker room. Just in case.”
The assistant heads out of view again as Ezra sits with the ice on his neck.
“He called him my friend…” he says with a smile as the scene fades out.
“Life is as good as you make it.”
As time passed after Synergy, Ezra Wolf felt much better. He didn’t have a concussion after all. Just some stiffness after being kicked in the face by a 240lbs man. Eventually, he was cleared by JK and made his way back home to his apartment in West Hollywood. He hadn’t touched on it recently, but it felt good to be back home in California after spending a few months with the Good Doctor in Chicago. He’d continued the routine he had started that helped him regain a measure of his sanity and things were going well. He and Nora had caught up on the time they’d missed and now we join the two of them as they sit cuddled on the couch in their living room.
“I told you this show was dope, love.” Ezra says as the end credits begin to roll on an episode of Warrior on Netflix. He’d started the show in Chicago and restarted the show with Nora from the beginning. “Did you know that Bruce Lee originally wrote the show? Some bigwigs turned down his idea, allegedly stole it, and re-tooled it into the original ‘Kung Fu’ series.”
Nora had gotten up while he was talking and walked into the kitchen.
“How do you know so much about movies and TV, Ez?” she says, grabbing a bag of popcorn from the cupboard and placing it in the microwave. “I’ve always wondered that because you really don’t seem to watch that many movies since we’ve been together.”
“Funnily enough, I can answer that with a movie reference.”
“Of course you can,” she says with a smile as the popcorn begins to pop.
“It just requires a bit of exposition first. In the movie ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, also known as Die Hard 4.0, Bruce Willis’ character works with a hacker to try and stop the bad guys. The hacker does some fancy stuff on a phone to get a connection and an astonished John McClane asks him ‘How do you know all this stuff?’ and the hacker replies back, ‘I don’t know, man. I just do.’ And that pretty much explains my brain regarding pop culture things. I just read a lot online and magazines and stuff like that. I absorb it like a sponge, bro.”
Nora chuckles as she retrieves the popcorn from the microwave, dumps it in a bowl and heads back over to the couch.
“What’s so funny? I answered your question,” Ezra says as she plops down on the couch next to him.
“Sometimes you have these flashes where I think you’re really smart. And then you talk like a surf bum and it brings me back to reality.”
Ezra playfully scowls at her and tosses a piece of popcorn at her. She returns the favor and he reacts in an overexaggerated manner.
“Quit wasting the snacks!” he yells while taking the bowl of popcorn from her. “Sheesh. If you’ll calm down, we can start another episode.”
“Hey. You started it,” she says, cuddling back up to him.
“Tomato, potato.”
fair-weath·er friend - [fer ˈweT͟Hər frend] – NOUN - a person who stops being a friend in times of difficulty.
The scene opens to Ezra inside the gym he frequented before his breakdown and temporary stay in Chicago. He sits on the edge of a wrestling ring glistening from sweat as he has just finished his workout for the day. His chest heaves as he starts to catch his breath and he addresses the camera.
“Before last week, I would’ve considered both Seb and Lucy acquaintances. Not really friends or enemies. Lucy and I have had a healthy rivalry since I started here in UGWC. And I had thought that Seb and myself had mutual respect after our banger of a title match back in November.”
He lets out a sharp exhale and gets to his feet, still not looking at the camera.
“That was until last week, my dudes. When you two decided to just run me down. The BFFs can change their tune regarding my success all they want; it just shows their true colors. You play the part of the ‘good guys’ when, in fact, you have no grasp on reality. Your respect towards others isn’t earned, it is just a matter of convenience. And when it comes down to it, you both spit the same old rhetoric and look where it got you. You both rambled on and on about how bad Zaniac and I both suck but then we won the match. Which means, according to you two idiots, you were beaten by people that suck.”
Ezra begins removing the tape from his hands and wrists as he continues.
“I listened to what you had to say about me, and you both got a few things wrong, my dudes. That’s what happens when you just say the same shit with different fancy words. You misspeak. You misrepresent your own successes and failures, bro. Friendly reminder, Lucy. Who took the Co-Op Titles from you last time when you held them with Rogan? That’d be me. In your first title defense. Here’s another question for you. Who lost THREE different championships on three different occasions without one successful title defense? That’d be YOU, Lucy. You see, I did my homework.”
He crinkles up the tape and tosses it next to his water bottle so he can dispose of it later.
“I know I haven’t had the best win/loss ratio when it comes to titles. I’ll be the first to admit that. So when Sebby says some bullshit about me hopping from division to division, he misspoke there as well. When I first came to UGWC, I was a part of the Chaos Division. I even wrestled barefoot for a short while. Not my finest moment. And then through a series of fortunate events, I earned an opportunity at the Cross-Hemisphere Championship when I wasn’t even ranked in that division. My friendly rivalry with Dave Rydell turned into another opportunity and we dethroned your BFF. Yes, we held the belts for six months with only one defense because the Co-Op Division was somewhat neglected at the time. Rogan and Lucy went different routes. The Baltimore Elite disappeared. There wasn’t many options. Like you said, Lucy. They were considered a joke back then.”
Ezra sits back down on the edge of the ring and begins undoing his wrestling shoes.
“And now, all these months later, I’m back where I started. I didn’t come to the Chaos Division to be the next Sebastian Everett-Bryce the Third. Shit… I lost the last two Chaos Rules matches I was in. I came to this division to change my own personal record. Similarly to how I signed up for the Global Challenge to beat my own standings from the previous year, bro. Nothing that I do in UGWC has anything to do with the two of you. And I know I’m wasting precious promo time ranting about two people who don’t give two shits about me. Honestly, I’m just a bit surprised about what the two of you had to say about me last week. Offended isn’t the right term because I’m not built that way. I guess the optimistic approach is that now I know how you both really feel, and I can move forward with my eyes open to the truth, my dudes.”
The scene fades as Ezra towels the sweat off his face and shoulders.
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Mr. Thornfield, you’ve had a rough go since coming to UGWC.”
Now that the weather is warming up, the rooftop of Ezra’s apartment complex was the perfect place for him to continue his meditation routine. He’d just finished and had lit up a joint as we joined him in the sun.
“You’ve managed to garner two victories over less than stellar opponents and I think I know why, bro. You seem to put most of the pressure for scouting your opponents on the shoulders of your manager dude, Orville. Instead of putting in the effort to do some solid research, you leave it to the guy that isn’t even a competitor. And where has that gotten you, my dude?”
He pauses to take a long drag from the joint and look out over the horizon as he exhales.
“I used the age-old quote regarding repetition and insanity not too long ago. And in the interest of irony, I’m going to repeat it. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing while hoping for a different outcome. And, my dude, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You talk about proving that you belong with the elite in this company and some people might even believe that. Shee-it. You’ve been here a few months and already received two title shots against Zaniac with one of them being at the flagship event of the year.”
Ezra lets out a sigh and puts out the joint.
“But what happened? You put up a good fight at Horizons. Then you took the same strategy that failed to get you the victory and lost again at Infinity. Then you acted like you were going to step your game up only to lose again. And again. Take it from somebody that started 2023 looking up at the lights repeatedly. Something has to change or else you’re going to be stuck at the bottom forever, my dude. The potential is there. You got good looks, intelligence, money, and the ability to do something big here, bro. Unfortunately, at the moment you just seem like a third-rate version of Sebby.”
He kind of laughs for a moment then shakes his head.
“I totally sound like a parent right now, bro. ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’. Sounds about right. Gideon, my dude. I hope this match is a wake-up call for you, bro. Because I’m not saying any of this with malice in my heart or ill will. I’m not some salty veteran that will brag about everything I’ve done then refuse to offer a hand to the next guy. I’m essentially a kid in this business but I’ve tasted success on a few different levels here in UGWC. And part of that success had to do with changing and adapting after some tough losses. I’m far from a beacon of wisdom, bro. I’m just acknowledging that you want to be considered among the elite. And change just might be the key, my dude.”
Ezra lets out another sigh and takes a seat with his feat hanging over the edge of the building.
“Your finisher uses the word ‘gambit’. Which essentially translates to a calculated risk or sacrifice. And is typically used in Chess. Yet your strategy up to this point is similar to Checkers, bro. The same diagonal move after diagonal move hoping to win. In my opinion, you need to take more of a risk at this point. Hopefully, instead of bunkering down in a training room as you get ready for our match, you’ll spend some time coming up with a real strategy. You have time to turn this ship around, my dude. You can become the next big thing here, instead of the next John Blade. Think about it.”
The scene fades as Ezra gets to his feet and heads towards the stairs that lead down from the roof.
Ezra Wolf had taken the full force of the Empire Kick and was still out of it as the final bell rang. Zane Scott had pulled out the victory for their makeshift team then assisted his partner to the back. Ezra had managed to regain his bearings as the two neared the entrance to the trainer’s room.
“Naw, bro. I’m good.” Ezra stated groggily as Zane reached for the door handle. “I don’t need to get checked out.”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry, Ezra. You couldn’t even walk under your own power until about ten feet back.”
Zane opens the door and points for Ezra to go in. Ezra does as he’s told, and Zane follows in behind him.
“He took a hit on the chin and seemed a bit glazed over.” Zane relays to the trainer’s assistant. “I think he’s fine. He’s a tough kid. But just keep an eye on him.”
The assistant gives him a nod and Zane turns towards the door. Right before he exits, Ezra speaks up to get his attention.
“Zaniac,” he says, getting Zane to pause and turn back towards him. “Thanks, bro.”
“Don’t mention it.” Zane replies gruffly before exiting, leaving Ezra in the trainer’s room.
“You wouldn’t know it, bro. But he’s a big ol’ teddy bear.” Ezra says, sitting down on the edge of one of the beds in the room.
“I doubt that,” the assistant says as he gets him to sit still and shines a penlight into Ezra’s eyes as part of the concussion protocol. His eyes respond in a manner that pleases the assistant and he walks out of view briefly before returning with a large bag of ice. He places it on the back of Ezra’s neck and positions it to sit there without needing to be held up.
“Like your friend said, I think you’re fine,” the assistant says as he takes a seat on a stool opposite Ezra. “If you get lightheaded or dizzy or a bad headache that won’t go away, you need to go see a doctor. The preventative signs show that you’re good to go though. So just hang out here for a bit before going to your locker room. Just in case.”
The assistant heads out of view again as Ezra sits with the ice on his neck.
“He called him my friend…” he says with a smile as the scene fades out.
“Life is as good as you make it.”
As time passed after Synergy, Ezra Wolf felt much better. He didn’t have a concussion after all. Just some stiffness after being kicked in the face by a 240lbs man. Eventually, he was cleared by JK and made his way back home to his apartment in West Hollywood. He hadn’t touched on it recently, but it felt good to be back home in California after spending a few months with the Good Doctor in Chicago. He’d continued the routine he had started that helped him regain a measure of his sanity and things were going well. He and Nora had caught up on the time they’d missed and now we join the two of them as they sit cuddled on the couch in their living room.
“I told you this show was dope, love.” Ezra says as the end credits begin to roll on an episode of Warrior on Netflix. He’d started the show in Chicago and restarted the show with Nora from the beginning. “Did you know that Bruce Lee originally wrote the show? Some bigwigs turned down his idea, allegedly stole it, and re-tooled it into the original ‘Kung Fu’ series.”
Nora had gotten up while he was talking and walked into the kitchen.
“How do you know so much about movies and TV, Ez?” she says, grabbing a bag of popcorn from the cupboard and placing it in the microwave. “I’ve always wondered that because you really don’t seem to watch that many movies since we’ve been together.”
“Funnily enough, I can answer that with a movie reference.”
“Of course you can,” she says with a smile as the popcorn begins to pop.
“It just requires a bit of exposition first. In the movie ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, also known as Die Hard 4.0, Bruce Willis’ character works with a hacker to try and stop the bad guys. The hacker does some fancy stuff on a phone to get a connection and an astonished John McClane asks him ‘How do you know all this stuff?’ and the hacker replies back, ‘I don’t know, man. I just do.’ And that pretty much explains my brain regarding pop culture things. I just read a lot online and magazines and stuff like that. I absorb it like a sponge, bro.”
Nora chuckles as she retrieves the popcorn from the microwave, dumps it in a bowl and heads back over to the couch.
“What’s so funny? I answered your question,” Ezra says as she plops down on the couch next to him.
“Sometimes you have these flashes where I think you’re really smart. And then you talk like a surf bum and it brings me back to reality.”
Ezra playfully scowls at her and tosses a piece of popcorn at her. She returns the favor and he reacts in an overexaggerated manner.
“Quit wasting the snacks!” he yells while taking the bowl of popcorn from her. “Sheesh. If you’ll calm down, we can start another episode.”
“Hey. You started it,” she says, cuddling back up to him.
“Tomato, potato.”
fair-weath·er friend - [fer ˈweT͟Hər frend] – NOUN - a person who stops being a friend in times of difficulty.
The scene opens to Ezra inside the gym he frequented before his breakdown and temporary stay in Chicago. He sits on the edge of a wrestling ring glistening from sweat as he has just finished his workout for the day. His chest heaves as he starts to catch his breath and he addresses the camera.
“Before last week, I would’ve considered both Seb and Lucy acquaintances. Not really friends or enemies. Lucy and I have had a healthy rivalry since I started here in UGWC. And I had thought that Seb and myself had mutual respect after our banger of a title match back in November.”
He lets out a sharp exhale and gets to his feet, still not looking at the camera.
“That was until last week, my dudes. When you two decided to just run me down. The BFFs can change their tune regarding my success all they want; it just shows their true colors. You play the part of the ‘good guys’ when, in fact, you have no grasp on reality. Your respect towards others isn’t earned, it is just a matter of convenience. And when it comes down to it, you both spit the same old rhetoric and look where it got you. You both rambled on and on about how bad Zaniac and I both suck but then we won the match. Which means, according to you two idiots, you were beaten by people that suck.”
Ezra begins removing the tape from his hands and wrists as he continues.
“I listened to what you had to say about me, and you both got a few things wrong, my dudes. That’s what happens when you just say the same shit with different fancy words. You misspeak. You misrepresent your own successes and failures, bro. Friendly reminder, Lucy. Who took the Co-Op Titles from you last time when you held them with Rogan? That’d be me. In your first title defense. Here’s another question for you. Who lost THREE different championships on three different occasions without one successful title defense? That’d be YOU, Lucy. You see, I did my homework.”
He crinkles up the tape and tosses it next to his water bottle so he can dispose of it later.
“I know I haven’t had the best win/loss ratio when it comes to titles. I’ll be the first to admit that. So when Sebby says some bullshit about me hopping from division to division, he misspoke there as well. When I first came to UGWC, I was a part of the Chaos Division. I even wrestled barefoot for a short while. Not my finest moment. And then through a series of fortunate events, I earned an opportunity at the Cross-Hemisphere Championship when I wasn’t even ranked in that division. My friendly rivalry with Dave Rydell turned into another opportunity and we dethroned your BFF. Yes, we held the belts for six months with only one defense because the Co-Op Division was somewhat neglected at the time. Rogan and Lucy went different routes. The Baltimore Elite disappeared. There wasn’t many options. Like you said, Lucy. They were considered a joke back then.”
Ezra sits back down on the edge of the ring and begins undoing his wrestling shoes.
“And now, all these months later, I’m back where I started. I didn’t come to the Chaos Division to be the next Sebastian Everett-Bryce the Third. Shit… I lost the last two Chaos Rules matches I was in. I came to this division to change my own personal record. Similarly to how I signed up for the Global Challenge to beat my own standings from the previous year, bro. Nothing that I do in UGWC has anything to do with the two of you. And I know I’m wasting precious promo time ranting about two people who don’t give two shits about me. Honestly, I’m just a bit surprised about what the two of you had to say about me last week. Offended isn’t the right term because I’m not built that way. I guess the optimistic approach is that now I know how you both really feel, and I can move forward with my eyes open to the truth, my dudes.”
The scene fades as Ezra towels the sweat off his face and shoulders.
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Mr. Thornfield, you’ve had a rough go since coming to UGWC.”
Now that the weather is warming up, the rooftop of Ezra’s apartment complex was the perfect place for him to continue his meditation routine. He’d just finished and had lit up a joint as we joined him in the sun.
“You’ve managed to garner two victories over less than stellar opponents and I think I know why, bro. You seem to put most of the pressure for scouting your opponents on the shoulders of your manager dude, Orville. Instead of putting in the effort to do some solid research, you leave it to the guy that isn’t even a competitor. And where has that gotten you, my dude?”
He pauses to take a long drag from the joint and look out over the horizon as he exhales.
“I used the age-old quote regarding repetition and insanity not too long ago. And in the interest of irony, I’m going to repeat it. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing while hoping for a different outcome. And, my dude, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You talk about proving that you belong with the elite in this company and some people might even believe that. Shee-it. You’ve been here a few months and already received two title shots against Zaniac with one of them being at the flagship event of the year.”
Ezra lets out a sigh and puts out the joint.
“But what happened? You put up a good fight at Horizons. Then you took the same strategy that failed to get you the victory and lost again at Infinity. Then you acted like you were going to step your game up only to lose again. And again. Take it from somebody that started 2023 looking up at the lights repeatedly. Something has to change or else you’re going to be stuck at the bottom forever, my dude. The potential is there. You got good looks, intelligence, money, and the ability to do something big here, bro. Unfortunately, at the moment you just seem like a third-rate version of Sebby.”
He kind of laughs for a moment then shakes his head.
“I totally sound like a parent right now, bro. ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’. Sounds about right. Gideon, my dude. I hope this match is a wake-up call for you, bro. Because I’m not saying any of this with malice in my heart or ill will. I’m not some salty veteran that will brag about everything I’ve done then refuse to offer a hand to the next guy. I’m essentially a kid in this business but I’ve tasted success on a few different levels here in UGWC. And part of that success had to do with changing and adapting after some tough losses. I’m far from a beacon of wisdom, bro. I’m just acknowledging that you want to be considered among the elite. And change just might be the key, my dude.”
Ezra lets out another sigh and takes a seat with his feat hanging over the edge of the building.
“Your finisher uses the word ‘gambit’. Which essentially translates to a calculated risk or sacrifice. And is typically used in Chess. Yet your strategy up to this point is similar to Checkers, bro. The same diagonal move after diagonal move hoping to win. In my opinion, you need to take more of a risk at this point. Hopefully, instead of bunkering down in a training room as you get ready for our match, you’ll spend some time coming up with a real strategy. You have time to turn this ship around, my dude. You can become the next big thing here, instead of the next John Blade. Think about it.”
The scene fades as Ezra gets to his feet and heads towards the stairs that lead down from the roof.