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Flashback
Topic Started: Jun 28 2008, 12:15 PM (250 Views)
Joof
sVo Champion
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Tokyo Dome
June 2002


"Is he dead?"

"What happened!?"

"He fell on his neck! There's something wrong!"

Everything was a swirling vortex of emotions. Backstage at the Tokyo Dome, a huddle of wrestlers and trainers were gathered around a stretcher, and on that stretcher was the limp body of my opponent.

Cody Williams.

As far as everybody knew, it had been an accident. I had gone for a powerbomb with my injured arm, and sometime during the move, my arm had given out, and I had dropped Cody, and injured him. Or so everybody thought. The truth was... the drop and the injury had been planned. And nobody knew the truth. Hell, Cody himself had agreed to the powerbomb the night before, when we had met in his hotel room to dicuss the match. Hell, I can even remember his parting words to me as I left the room.

"Nomad?" he had said, pausing by the door.

"Yeah, man, what's up?" I said, I turned around, brushing my blonde hair from my eyes.

"Listen, do me a favour. Try not to be too over the top tomorrow... Please?"

"Over the top? What do you mean bud?" I had replied. I had no idea what he was talking about. Cody smirked.

"Well, you know... the thumb across the throat, saying you will take me to hell, the overselling... Some of that stuff is cool, but it's just.. uneccessary. I don't that that type of shit in my match. I've had to put up with all all throughout the tour. Please, for one night, can you just do what you are being paid to do and job to me without the theatrics?"

"Cody, man, I had no idea-" I felt shocked. Throughout the trip, Cody and me had been friends. Buddies. Chums. Amigos. And now here he was, saying that my wrestling was 'over the top'!?

"Just save it, Nomad. After tomorrow night, we'll never have to see each other again. All you'll have to do is contact my people and pick up your cheque. Okay?"

I blankly nodded, and the door was slammed in my face. I turned away, and walked down the hall leading away from the room. "Screw Cody. Fuck his match", a small voice told me in the back of my head, "You've been the one doing all of the PR work, the guy interacting with the fans, while Cody has been in his hotel room fucking his valet..."

As I walked out of the hotel, a plan was already beginning to form in my head. The powerbomb was the key. Drop him when I was picking him up, and blame it on my injured arm. Take Cody out indefinitely, and reap the rewards. That'll teach the fucker.

That thought had comforted me throughout the night and all of the next day, right up until we had stepped into the ring together. Now, that I had actually gone through with the move, everything was not so great.

"Cody? CODY!?"

A shrill scream broke through the dull hum of the crowd, and Cody's valet Sasha cuts through onto the scene, pushing two Japanese trainers out of the way so she could see her man. She drops to her knees, clutching his hand, sobbing, telling him that it will be alright. Then she rounds on me.

"What happened!? How could you drop him, you clumsy fuck!" Her voice is magnifyed a thousand times thanks to her tears. I shrug somewhat apologetically.

"Dunno mate. He just, like, fell.." I speak in my broadest Australian accent, and allow the sentence to trail off. I'm not commenting on what happened in the ring at all until some offical representation arrives for me.

"We have to get this man to a hospital!" a voice rings out. Several Japanese men, and a harried looking English promoter materialise from the crowd, and lift Cody up. Cody lets out a low groan, and accompanied by Sasha the procession moves away. I turn, and begin to walk away. Time to collect my cheque, just as Cody said I should. Until a voice stops me in my tracks.

"Hey, Nathan! Nathan Paradine!"

I freeze, before turning around. Kenji Yojihito, the man I defeated to win such acclaim here in Japan, was standing behind me. In the very arena I defeated him in not more than six months ago. I found the sense to bow respectfully for the living legend.

"Mr. Yojihito. It's an honour and a suprise to see you here!" I say. I shake his hand, and the former World Champion smiles.

"I came to see your match tonight, Nathan-san. I saw that your opponent was injured. Will he be alright?"

Fuck. Me. Even when he is injured, this whole tour is still about Cody!

"Um, yeah, he should be fine."

Yojihito nods thoughtfully. He motions for me to walk with him, and I do so.

"You know, Nathan, I know what you did tonight. Injuring your opponent deliberately." We were walking down a deserted hallway towards my locker room when he said that. Up until then we had been talking about our own twenty second match. I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Excuse me?" I said. I tried to fit an appalled expression on my face. It didn't work.

"I know what you did. You deliberately injured Cody Williams. Perhaps you have taken him out of wretling for good..." Yojihito places a steady hand on my shoulder as he speaks. "Listen to me, Nathan-san. I did the same thing when I was young, and foolish. I injured my opponent deliberately in a match, just so I would be awarded his World Heavyweight Championship. And not a day has passed when I didn't regret my actions."

Yojihito turns, and begins walking again, and I follow intently.

"Yes, I did it... and not a day has passed that I didn't regret my decision. Not a day has passed that I wish I had won that belt fairly. And now, I have a legacy built on a bad decision made in my youth... I must live with that always."

I pause, only to brush my hair out of my eyes, absorbed by the story the old wrestler is telling me.

"But, what does this have to do with me?" I ask. I'm confused by the lesson this man is obviosuly trying to teach me.

"Nathan-san, what I am saying is, eventually you will wish you had waited and beaten Cody Williams fairly, in the middle of the ring, instead of injuring him when he wasn't expecting it."

I ponder his words for a moment.

"But, Mr. Yojihito, Cody deserved what he had coming to him! He was a cocky little bitch, and as far as I know, people won't exactly keep him in their prayers while he is injured..."

We reach my locker room door. Yojihito places his hands on my shoulders.

"Nathan-san, the lesson will only be learnt when you defeat Cody Williams fairly. Do you understand me?"

I nodded, and bow my head. I don't exactly know why, but right then seemed like the moment to do it.

"I will do it. I will defeat Cody Williams fairly."

Yojihito smiles and nods. "And only then, will you have learnt the lesson and accomplished your true goals, Nathan Paradine."

I smile, and say my farewells to the old man as I step into my locker room. In the corner of the room, a small TV was blaring. It wasn't until later, when I had showered and was packing my gear into my sports bag, that I heard the news from a Japanese news program. Actually, I only picked up a few words of the report. But what I found out shocked me.

Cody Williams had broken his neck. He would never wrestle again. I would never have a chance to accomplish my goals. I would never have a chance to set tonight straight, and to fix what I had done.

But six years later, I would get that chance. We would both be older, wiser, and in a different promotion.

And we would both be wanting to rip each other apart.

---

Cody Williams.

I never meant to break your neck. It was an accident, and i had intended only to take you out of the game for a short time, just to get some mean-spirited payback for the way you treated me on that tour. Instead, you neck was broken, and you were told you would never again wrestle.

After that night, I changed my name from Nomad to my real name, Nathan Paradine. I spent the rest of 2002 reaping the profits that were due to YOU, Cody. Untold hundreds of thousands of dollars. So much money and success, that I was able to retire from the ring the following year and live the quiet life. Until my assets dried up, and I was forced back into the ring.

And on my first big night, my first chance to shine, who did I see backstage but you? Out of a wheelchair, and suprisingly mobile for a crippled man. I expected you to fight me right there and then, backstage at Retribution. But instead, you completely ignored me. For six years I had been fearing the moment when I would have to face you, and instead of knocking me to the ground you completely ignored me. And then you proceeded to steal my hopes and dreams from me, and my fear turned to anger. I wanted to beat you fairly Cody. I wanted to prove that I was better than you, that I could have beaten you that night without injuring you. And so, certain events lead to certain events.

But last week, you said something that completely threw me off. You said you forgave me for breaking your neck. I had been waiting to fight you fairly for SIX YEARS, I had planned to use me breaking your neck as an excuse to get you intp the ring with me, and you freaking FORGAVE ME!

And you know what? It was that instant that I realised I truly did want to break you, to rip you limb from limb, to make you sufer again. Because I didn't want your forgiveness. I just wanted you to get out of my life. I wanted to stop dwelling on the past. And to do that I had to fairly beat you. But I knew that deep down I would never fufill my promise wioth myself. And when it came to be that I WOULD fufill that prmosie, well.

I realised that I do want to beat you Cody. I want to end the era of 220. I want to shattter the Reflection of Perfection. This Sunday Cody, you will meet your maker.

The Nomad will return to claim what is his.



















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