Post by Lachlan Kane on Jul 9, 2023 22:28:31 GMT -5
June 22
Orlando, Florida
Wolfslair Gym
It was a completely packed house today, the most students Lachlan had ever had for one of his classes. He watched the 20 or so people milling around on the floor, waiting for the class to get underway. He spotted a couple of familiar faces in the crowd, his cousins Alfie and Ciara being two of them, as well as his new protegee Callie. There were a few others that he had seen around the gym but could not put faces to the names, and the rest were brand-new signups to the gym within the last few weeks. It brought a smile to his face as he watched from behind the glass window in his office above the gym floor.
When he and his wife Sierra had made the move to Orlando just over a year ago to help run the Florida chapter of Alex Jones’ Wolfslair Gym, he had been nervous that it wouldn’t live up to the expectation and impressive reputation that the New York gym had accumulated over the years. Under Alex’s guidance, the gym had turned out a multitude of champions, each with a laundry list of accomplishments across multiple wrestling companies all over the world.
He knew that he shouldn’t feel intimidated by this, because when Alex had first approached him to join Wolfslair in 2021 he stressed that Wolfslair wasn’t solely about collecting belts or achievements. It was taking the best untapped talents in the world and giving them the training to go further than they ever dreamed. It was about bringing in the next generation and giving them the tools they would need to go out into the wrestling world and carve their own paths to greatness. Alex had seen something in Lachlan that the Irishman hadn’t seen in himself in quite some time, and he wanted to help bring out the untapped potential that was lying dormant just under the surface.
Two years later, Lachlan was still working hard to bring prestige and renown to Wolfslair. Stepping up to help run the Orlando location had been a big step, and one that had made him more nervous that he was willing to admit, but it had turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. It was hard work, and he had his share of bad days. But as he watched the class sizes grow and the students adapt and improve every week, it filled his heart with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
It certainly helped distract him from the tumultuous freefall his career was currently suspended in. When PWE announced that it would not be returning from its summer hiatus, that had been a blow to the gut. He understood that the challenges running a wrestling company could certainly be many and he didn’t fault the management team for doing what they needed to do, but he would be lying if he said he hadn’t felt massively disappointed. He had been on almost a single-minded crusade to regain his Victory title and become the company’s first two-time champion, and now it seemed that the opportunity wouldn’t happen.
Still, the downtime afforded him more time to be home with his family. His baby boy Cruz was now a giggly five month old, and he adored that boy more than life itself. When he wasn’t at Wolfslair, he was at his home spending as much time with Cruz and his two stepdaughters, Jade and Olivia, as he possibly could. And while he wasn’t considering a full-time active return to the ring, he appeared for one-time appearances at some independent wrestling shows around Florida, especially for companies that his trainees worked for. He also took a huge leap and signed up for the Splat Network’s final wrestling event, the Calamity Chamber back in May. It was far and away the biggest and most intense match he had ever participated in, and despite not walking away with the win, it helped to scratch the itch of performing in a big-time atmosphere without the commitments.
So much so that when he came across the advertisements for the mysterious Triad, it piqued his curiosity. It seemed like more than just a mere wrestling promotion starting up. There was mystery, intrigue, drama…it was unlike anything Lachlan had ever seen before in his years of wrestling. For a while, he went back and forth with himself about tossing his name in the hat. On one hand, he wanted to continue this new path he found himself on, expanding his comfort zone and pushing past the self-imposed barriers that were holding him back from the heights he wanted to achieve. On the other hand, the crippling self-doubt he constantly carried in his heart told him to not even bother, that there was no way he would even be drafted so why make a fool of himself?
In the end, he rationalized that even if he wasn’t drafted, he would regret never trying in the first place. So the email was written, the application was sent…and now, today was the day.
Triad Draft Day.
He let out a long breath. He knew that if he didn’t keep himself busy today he was just going to be stuck to his computer all day, a bundle of anxious nerves as he awaited the results of the draft. He didn’t really have any sort of high hopes that he would get drafted, as he wasn’t much of a household name on the wrestling circuit like some of the other applicants he had seen. So he made it a point to book a class for the day to keep his mind occupied. But as he came out of his thoughts and focused his attention on the students down on the gym floor, he noticed that they were all now staring up at one of the TV monitors mounted along the far wall. He raised an eyebrow as he left his office and descended the stairs to the main floor.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he approached Alfie.
The blonde Brit turned his head and beamed at his older cousin. “Just put on the Triad draft. Gotta see if you made the cut, after all! I mean, they’d be daft not to pick you, cuz!”
All the students nodded eagerly as they turned their attention back to the screen, where a graphic flashed up with the ninth round draft pick of Penelope to Team PIC. Lachlan shook his head and turned away to start walking towards the ring set up in the middle of the floor. “Alright, shut it off. We’ve got a lot of work to get done today and I don’t want to -”
He was interrupted when a massive cheer went up from everyone in the gym, and it startled him so much that he jumped and spun on his heel just in time to see Alfie fly at him and tackle him in a tight hug, followed by the rest of the students patting him on the back and shouting altogether until it was just a cacophony of noise. When some of the students moved away, he was able to get a glimpse of the screen…
…where he saw his face staring back at him with the words “Pick #10” boldly plastered above his head.
He blinked a few times, unsure if what he was seeing was true. If it weren’t for Alfie pinning his arms to his sides, he would have rubbed his eyes in a comical fashion. But the longer he stared, the more it burned into his brain until the image faded out. I…made it? he thought to himself. I got drafted?
“Told ya!” Alfie whooped loudly. “That’s my cuz, making big money moves on a worldwide stage!”
As the students continued to shower him with their congratulations and encouragement, he smiled and nodded appropriately. But the negative thoughts already began swirling in his mind, a dark cloud that threatened to douse the euphoria spreading through his body.
With a sharp shake of his head, he pushed the thoughts back to the furthest recesses of his mind, a problem to be dealt with in his own time. For now, he allowed himself a small celebration with the students, before shutting off the TV and turning to them with a stern expression and a hard glint in his blue eyes. “Alright, let’s get down to work, people. After all, I’ve got to intensify my training…and you’re all now my test subjects.”
The celebratory mood instantly deflated as a collective groan rose from the group, while Lachlan just smirked smugly as he folded his arms across his chest.
—----
It was a muggy night in the city of Orlando, but the sky was clear and dotted with thousands of bright white stars that twinkled and glimmered in the inky blue expanse stretching overhead. The air itself was still, no hint of any breeze, which only added to the oppressive heat. But after a year of living here Lachlan was used to it despite coming from the markedly cooler climate of Ireland. In fact, he now much preferred the more tropical climate of the southern US, though he did miss his homeland from time to time.
Even still, he had to admit that Florida had its own unique beauty to it. Even the quiet Orlando suburb where they’d bought their home to raise their family had its own charms and quirks that he’d grown to love. They had good neighbors, a beautiful home, and a thriving community. In a lot of ways, it did remind him of home…though this was certainly a big upgrade from the tiny cottage near the river in Waterford that had been his childhood home.
Sitting out in the backyard of his home, stretched out on a comfortable lounge chair on the patio, he stared up towards the night sky for a moment in peaceful contemplation. The quiet night air was occasionally interrupted with the croak of a frog or a chorus of crickets chirping away in the grass. A few moments passed before Lachlan lowered his gaze towards the camera set up before him, his blue eyes reflecting the light of the fire crackling away in the stone pit in front of him.
“Well, it’s finally here. After all the drafting, the Twitter hype…the Trials are set to kick off. And how appropriate that I was drafted to the Bravery trials? This has been the year for me to break out of my comfort zones and to forge new trails. To test myself against brand-new competitors, people I’ve only seen but never had the chance to go toe-to-toe with. It started with the Calamity Chamber, and it continues here in the Trials. I’m ready to stake my claim and etch my name into the minds of every fan of professional wrestling…and it all begins this Tuesday night.”
He sat forward slightly, interlocking his fingers together as they hung down between his knees. “Alexander Raven. Now there’s a name I know from personal experience. Alex, you and I have a bit of history, don’t we? Snatched that Internet championship right from my hands over in SCW before I even had a chance to break the leather in.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “Now, before you start getting any thoughts in your head, I’m not holding any grudges over that. You were clearly the better man that night, and you were a hell of a champion. But this is a new company. New beginnings. This is a whole world away from anything we’ve ever done in the past. But now, I’ve got a bit more insight into your methods. How you move in the ring. Of course, you could still go and surprise me, that’s just the nature of the game. But this time around, I’m more focused and determined than I’ve ever been.”
He sat back in the chair, raising one leg to rest over his knee in a casual way. “And then we have Vhodka Black. Never had the honor of being in the same company as her, but I’ve had friends that have. And from what they’ve told me, coupled with what I’ve seen of her in my own research…she’s definitely the wild card in this match. On Twitter, she comes across as someone that…well, to put it bluntly, someone that probably would benefit from a grippy-sock vacation, as I’ve heard one of my students say. But I can attest after some research that she is just as capable and dangerous in the ring as anyone I’ve tangled with in my entire career. How’s that saying go? ‘Don’t judge a book by the cover’? Or in this instance, don’t judge a wrestler by their tweets. I have no delusions that Vhodka doesn’t have a trick or two carefully tucked away to use, but I also know that she can wrestle damn well.”
A slight smirk turned up the corner of Lachlan’s mouth as his eyes moved away from the camera to stare directly into the flames, an almost otherworldly glow seeming to overtake the normally clear bright blue irises. “The Trials are just the beginning…”
Orlando, Florida
Wolfslair Gym
It was a completely packed house today, the most students Lachlan had ever had for one of his classes. He watched the 20 or so people milling around on the floor, waiting for the class to get underway. He spotted a couple of familiar faces in the crowd, his cousins Alfie and Ciara being two of them, as well as his new protegee Callie. There were a few others that he had seen around the gym but could not put faces to the names, and the rest were brand-new signups to the gym within the last few weeks. It brought a smile to his face as he watched from behind the glass window in his office above the gym floor.
When he and his wife Sierra had made the move to Orlando just over a year ago to help run the Florida chapter of Alex Jones’ Wolfslair Gym, he had been nervous that it wouldn’t live up to the expectation and impressive reputation that the New York gym had accumulated over the years. Under Alex’s guidance, the gym had turned out a multitude of champions, each with a laundry list of accomplishments across multiple wrestling companies all over the world.
He knew that he shouldn’t feel intimidated by this, because when Alex had first approached him to join Wolfslair in 2021 he stressed that Wolfslair wasn’t solely about collecting belts or achievements. It was taking the best untapped talents in the world and giving them the training to go further than they ever dreamed. It was about bringing in the next generation and giving them the tools they would need to go out into the wrestling world and carve their own paths to greatness. Alex had seen something in Lachlan that the Irishman hadn’t seen in himself in quite some time, and he wanted to help bring out the untapped potential that was lying dormant just under the surface.
Two years later, Lachlan was still working hard to bring prestige and renown to Wolfslair. Stepping up to help run the Orlando location had been a big step, and one that had made him more nervous that he was willing to admit, but it had turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. It was hard work, and he had his share of bad days. But as he watched the class sizes grow and the students adapt and improve every week, it filled his heart with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
It certainly helped distract him from the tumultuous freefall his career was currently suspended in. When PWE announced that it would not be returning from its summer hiatus, that had been a blow to the gut. He understood that the challenges running a wrestling company could certainly be many and he didn’t fault the management team for doing what they needed to do, but he would be lying if he said he hadn’t felt massively disappointed. He had been on almost a single-minded crusade to regain his Victory title and become the company’s first two-time champion, and now it seemed that the opportunity wouldn’t happen.
Still, the downtime afforded him more time to be home with his family. His baby boy Cruz was now a giggly five month old, and he adored that boy more than life itself. When he wasn’t at Wolfslair, he was at his home spending as much time with Cruz and his two stepdaughters, Jade and Olivia, as he possibly could. And while he wasn’t considering a full-time active return to the ring, he appeared for one-time appearances at some independent wrestling shows around Florida, especially for companies that his trainees worked for. He also took a huge leap and signed up for the Splat Network’s final wrestling event, the Calamity Chamber back in May. It was far and away the biggest and most intense match he had ever participated in, and despite not walking away with the win, it helped to scratch the itch of performing in a big-time atmosphere without the commitments.
So much so that when he came across the advertisements for the mysterious Triad, it piqued his curiosity. It seemed like more than just a mere wrestling promotion starting up. There was mystery, intrigue, drama…it was unlike anything Lachlan had ever seen before in his years of wrestling. For a while, he went back and forth with himself about tossing his name in the hat. On one hand, he wanted to continue this new path he found himself on, expanding his comfort zone and pushing past the self-imposed barriers that were holding him back from the heights he wanted to achieve. On the other hand, the crippling self-doubt he constantly carried in his heart told him to not even bother, that there was no way he would even be drafted so why make a fool of himself?
In the end, he rationalized that even if he wasn’t drafted, he would regret never trying in the first place. So the email was written, the application was sent…and now, today was the day.
Triad Draft Day.
He let out a long breath. He knew that if he didn’t keep himself busy today he was just going to be stuck to his computer all day, a bundle of anxious nerves as he awaited the results of the draft. He didn’t really have any sort of high hopes that he would get drafted, as he wasn’t much of a household name on the wrestling circuit like some of the other applicants he had seen. So he made it a point to book a class for the day to keep his mind occupied. But as he came out of his thoughts and focused his attention on the students down on the gym floor, he noticed that they were all now staring up at one of the TV monitors mounted along the far wall. He raised an eyebrow as he left his office and descended the stairs to the main floor.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he approached Alfie.
The blonde Brit turned his head and beamed at his older cousin. “Just put on the Triad draft. Gotta see if you made the cut, after all! I mean, they’d be daft not to pick you, cuz!”
All the students nodded eagerly as they turned their attention back to the screen, where a graphic flashed up with the ninth round draft pick of Penelope to Team PIC. Lachlan shook his head and turned away to start walking towards the ring set up in the middle of the floor. “Alright, shut it off. We’ve got a lot of work to get done today and I don’t want to -”
He was interrupted when a massive cheer went up from everyone in the gym, and it startled him so much that he jumped and spun on his heel just in time to see Alfie fly at him and tackle him in a tight hug, followed by the rest of the students patting him on the back and shouting altogether until it was just a cacophony of noise. When some of the students moved away, he was able to get a glimpse of the screen…
…where he saw his face staring back at him with the words “Pick #10” boldly plastered above his head.
He blinked a few times, unsure if what he was seeing was true. If it weren’t for Alfie pinning his arms to his sides, he would have rubbed his eyes in a comical fashion. But the longer he stared, the more it burned into his brain until the image faded out. I…made it? he thought to himself. I got drafted?
“Told ya!” Alfie whooped loudly. “That’s my cuz, making big money moves on a worldwide stage!”
As the students continued to shower him with their congratulations and encouragement, he smiled and nodded appropriately. But the negative thoughts already began swirling in his mind, a dark cloud that threatened to douse the euphoria spreading through his body.
With a sharp shake of his head, he pushed the thoughts back to the furthest recesses of his mind, a problem to be dealt with in his own time. For now, he allowed himself a small celebration with the students, before shutting off the TV and turning to them with a stern expression and a hard glint in his blue eyes. “Alright, let’s get down to work, people. After all, I’ve got to intensify my training…and you’re all now my test subjects.”
The celebratory mood instantly deflated as a collective groan rose from the group, while Lachlan just smirked smugly as he folded his arms across his chest.
—----
It was a muggy night in the city of Orlando, but the sky was clear and dotted with thousands of bright white stars that twinkled and glimmered in the inky blue expanse stretching overhead. The air itself was still, no hint of any breeze, which only added to the oppressive heat. But after a year of living here Lachlan was used to it despite coming from the markedly cooler climate of Ireland. In fact, he now much preferred the more tropical climate of the southern US, though he did miss his homeland from time to time.
Even still, he had to admit that Florida had its own unique beauty to it. Even the quiet Orlando suburb where they’d bought their home to raise their family had its own charms and quirks that he’d grown to love. They had good neighbors, a beautiful home, and a thriving community. In a lot of ways, it did remind him of home…though this was certainly a big upgrade from the tiny cottage near the river in Waterford that had been his childhood home.
Sitting out in the backyard of his home, stretched out on a comfortable lounge chair on the patio, he stared up towards the night sky for a moment in peaceful contemplation. The quiet night air was occasionally interrupted with the croak of a frog or a chorus of crickets chirping away in the grass. A few moments passed before Lachlan lowered his gaze towards the camera set up before him, his blue eyes reflecting the light of the fire crackling away in the stone pit in front of him.
“Well, it’s finally here. After all the drafting, the Twitter hype…the Trials are set to kick off. And how appropriate that I was drafted to the Bravery trials? This has been the year for me to break out of my comfort zones and to forge new trails. To test myself against brand-new competitors, people I’ve only seen but never had the chance to go toe-to-toe with. It started with the Calamity Chamber, and it continues here in the Trials. I’m ready to stake my claim and etch my name into the minds of every fan of professional wrestling…and it all begins this Tuesday night.”
He sat forward slightly, interlocking his fingers together as they hung down between his knees. “Alexander Raven. Now there’s a name I know from personal experience. Alex, you and I have a bit of history, don’t we? Snatched that Internet championship right from my hands over in SCW before I even had a chance to break the leather in.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “Now, before you start getting any thoughts in your head, I’m not holding any grudges over that. You were clearly the better man that night, and you were a hell of a champion. But this is a new company. New beginnings. This is a whole world away from anything we’ve ever done in the past. But now, I’ve got a bit more insight into your methods. How you move in the ring. Of course, you could still go and surprise me, that’s just the nature of the game. But this time around, I’m more focused and determined than I’ve ever been.”
He sat back in the chair, raising one leg to rest over his knee in a casual way. “And then we have Vhodka Black. Never had the honor of being in the same company as her, but I’ve had friends that have. And from what they’ve told me, coupled with what I’ve seen of her in my own research…she’s definitely the wild card in this match. On Twitter, she comes across as someone that…well, to put it bluntly, someone that probably would benefit from a grippy-sock vacation, as I’ve heard one of my students say. But I can attest after some research that she is just as capable and dangerous in the ring as anyone I’ve tangled with in my entire career. How’s that saying go? ‘Don’t judge a book by the cover’? Or in this instance, don’t judge a wrestler by their tweets. I have no delusions that Vhodka doesn’t have a trick or two carefully tucked away to use, but I also know that she can wrestle damn well.”
A slight smirk turned up the corner of Lachlan’s mouth as his eyes moved away from the camera to stare directly into the flames, an almost otherworldly glow seeming to overtake the normally clear bright blue irises. “The Trials are just the beginning…”