Post by MERICA on Jul 21, 2023 11:39:04 GMT -5
The rest of MERICA’s trip across the country was uneventful compared to his first few hours in which he was tortured by the presence of a young boy who asked too many questions. MERICA got to see some sites and cities that he had never seen before, if only in passing but still it opened his eyes up to possibilities beyond what Philadelphia had to offer.
Anyway MERICA made it all the way to L.A. where his Mentor was waiting. The two spent several days training,physically and mentally for the fast approaching Trials. Unfortunately as we saw in Night 1 with MERICA eating a pin courtesy of the Catalina Cortes, MERICA wasn’t ready quite yet. Which is where this story begins.
::::Miami - Moments after the conclusion of Night :::
MERICA’s match ended about an hour ago but after the grueling affair in which blood was spilled and bones possibly broken the Owners of The Trials felt it prudent for all talent to get checked out by medical professionals. An ordeal that took about 15 minutes but thankfully ended with the doctors giving MERICA a clean bill of health. MERICA picked up his bags and immediately headed for the parking lot where a bus would be waiting to take him back to his hotel where he would wait patiently for his Mentor to arrive.
During that walk to the exit his focus immediately shifted from what was to what lies ahead. A match with two of the most well known names in wrestling today. Stephen Stratford and Lachlan Kane.
He thought about how for all the success Lachlan Kane has found in places like PWE or Sin City Wrestling he still seems fundamentally incapable of owning his mistakes. Whenever he loses it was someone else’s fault. He didn’t lose, he was robbed. He didn’t get pinned, the ref was blind and didn’t see his shoulder go up before the 3 count. For all his successes Lachlan is a deeply flawed man. And it is those flaws that will be what MERICA focuses on when attacking Kane. Lachlan is very good but he is also very prideful and as they say pride always comes before the fall. Lachlan fell to MERICA’s teammate the sweetest shit talker this business has ever seen, Vhodka Black and on Night Two MERICA is going to be responsible for Lachlan’s fall once again.
MERICA rounded a corner and saw the exit sign about 100 yards down the hall. As he continued his march towards it he thought of his other opponent Stephen Stratford. A master of manipulation. What Stephen lacks in size and speed he more than makes up for by engaging in psychological warfare. Stephen knows what many don’t. The mind can be as powerful as the strongest punch to the face. This is not to say Stephen is weak or untrained, neither are true but when push comes to shove the brain is Stephen’s weapon of choice. A self described Puppet Master, Stephen has fought and beaten some of the very biggest and best the industry has to offer and most times he does it without breaking a sweat. Stephen inflicted unimaginable amounts of pain on someone near and dear to him, MERICA’s teammate Helena on Night 1. If he could do that to her MERICA imagines what Stephen has in store for the rookie. As a veteran MERICA is extremely well versed in mind games. Much of basic training is centered around not just physically but mentally breaking you. MERICA made it through while many did not. MERICA made it through because like Stephen his mind is a fortress and his fists are the guardians at the gate. MERICA may not be able to outsmart Stephen. He may not be able to pull the strings with the same joie de vivre as Mr.Stratford but what he will do with great enjoyment is cut every single string until there are none left. And when Stephen is no longer able to engage in a battle of wits that is when MERICA will strike. That is when MERICA will win.
Finally MERICA has reached the exit. He pushes open the door and steps outside. It took a moment for MERICA’s eyes to adjust to the bright sun above the Miami sky and just as they did he felt a pinch in the back of his neck and then total darkness…
:::Some Time Later:::
Clang Clang Clang!!!
The sound of metal hitting metal echoes throughout what sounds like a large empty space.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
Louder this time. The repeated noise waking MERICA from his slumber,
“Hello!! Anybody there?” The sound of a man’s voice cuts through the space as MERICA eyes open for the first time to reveal a man standing before him with a metal pipe in his hand.
It takes MERICA a few moments to fully register the situation but from what he can tell by the pain he feels everytime he tries to move an extremity he is currently bound by the arms and legs to a chair. Standing in front of him is the aforementioned man with a pipe. The man is dressed in all black fatigues with a gaiter covering every part of his face except for his eyes.
Oh the irony.
“I said…” CLANG CLANG CLANG!!! “Is anyone there?”
“Yeah yeah I hear you. Sorry if I’m not responding fast enough but I’m pretty sure you drugged me. Not sure if you’ve ever had a similar experience but it’s not pleasant.”
“It’s not supposed to be.” The man says as he starts circling MERICA, his pipe dragging along the ground for added effect.
“So it’s like that then.”
“Yeah. It’s like that.” The man responds as he walks over to a tripod with a camera affixed to the top of it. The man taps a button on the camera and a second later a little red light starts blinking signifying that the camera is now on.
“Soooooooooo if you don’t mind me asking but why am I drugged and tied to a chair?”
“You call yourself a Patriot yet you espouse the views of the liberal left. You wear the colors of our flag on your face. You tweet the Pledge of Allegiance daily. You say you take your mother to church every Sunday. You look like one of us but you are not one of us.”
“You mean a racist coward with incredibly small testicles that wishes it was still the 1950’s? You’re right I’m not one of you. But you’re wrong in thinking I’m one of them. I am me. I don’t fit into the boxes you and others might try and place me in for your convenience. I think the Extreme Left and the Extreme Right are both insane and have moved so far from what this country stood for that it makes me sick. You all are so dug in, so mired in your hatred for the other side that you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
“And what’s that?”
“The government is the problem. Our elected officials have sold us out to make a buck. Republican, Democrat it doesn’t matter. They’re all slimeballs. Where I take exception with people like you specifically is your insistent need to tell other people how they should live their lives based on how you want to live yours. ESPECIALLY when you want to use religion as your reasoning for doing it.”
“We should all live by the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
“No we all shouldn’t.”
And with that the masked man lifts the metal pipe and swings it as hard as he can striking MERICA in his mid section.
If MERICA could double over in pain he would but his restraints are keeping him stationary.
“You don’t get it.” MERICA says in between heavy breathing. “You should live your life the way you want. Live by the teachings of God and Jesus just like I do. But he is the teacher, not us and God will make his final judgments when it’s time. Not us. It’s really that simple guy.”
The masked man lifts the pipe again and rears back but before he can swing it he is interrupted by another person who approaches him.
“Sir we have a problem outside.”
“What kind of a problem?”
Antifa is here. And they are demanding we let MERICA go.
The masked man with the pipe looks over towards MERICA and without any type of warning swings the pipe right at MERICA’s mid section again.
“I knew you were one of them. Antifa is here to rescue you but they will never get in here.”
“Actually sir, they are almost inside.”
“Well then what the fuck are you doing here? Go deal with it while I figure out what to do with this asshole.”
The second man does as he’s commanded and disappears out of sight to deal with the escalating Antifa problem.
“I don’t know how much more clear I can be. I have no idea why they are here. I’ve never met an Antifa. As far as I am concerned they are as insane as you guys but with less guns.”
The sounds of yelling along with various windows breaking and other loud noises can be heard off in the distance, growing louder with each passing second.
“Look man, I get that you’re pissed at me because I actually stand for the true values of AMERICA as opposed to the ones you have twisted to fit your narrow view. I get that but I have other things I need to worry about. I just lost my debut wrestling match and I got another one in two weeks. I need to be training. Not sitting here.”
“I don’t care.”
“I didn’t think you did but I figured I’d just throw it out there anyway.”
“I just said I don’t care about your stupid wrestling career. All I care about is you making fun of us on the internet.”
“I’ll be honest with you, that's a little weird to me. It’s the internet. I know i’m new to it and all but it seems like the internet exists for people to anonymously shit talk others. Maybe you should have thicker skin? I mean in my business, wrestling people shit talk to each other all the time. On the internet, to each other’s faces etc. For instance, I am sure Stratford and Kane are both going to spend a lot of time talking about how I lost a match to two women. That I thought because of my physical abilities and combat training that I could just walk into a wrestling match and win and lo and behold I didn’t. They could call me an embarrassment and a failure. And a fraud. And you know what, some of it might even be true. But I don’t let it offend me the same way you seem to let some guy trigger you with 140 characters.”
The man lifts the pipe again but this time is interrupted by a loud BOOM accompanied by some window rattling.
“Sounds like you got a choice to make my guy. Either stay here and keep interrogating me or cut me loose and high tail it out of here as fast as you can before those Antifa folk get a hold of you.”
“Fuck that! I don’t run from anyone. I ain’t afraid of no one.”
“Then why wear a mask?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Because I don’t want people to see my face. Obviously. But it’s not fear that keeps my face hidden. It’s hope. I wear the mask of the Red White and Blue because I want to inspire people to beLIEve in the colors and the flag and the promise of AMERICA. My face can’t do that but the Mask can.”
More banging can be heard outside, growing louder with each second.
“Look, clearly you have bigger fish to fry so how about you deal with that while I just stare into the camera and sing AMERICA The Beautiful.”
Suddenly the door to the room swings open and 5 people rush inside holding baseball bats. They immediately make a beeline for the pipe wielding masked man who takes off for an exit.In the commotion they knock MERICA over to the ground. An action that breaks one arm of the chair just enough so that MERICA is able to wiggle free. MERICA quickly gets to his feet and runs to the nearest exit.
Once outside MERICA is shocked to see that the building he was being kept in is a few hundred feet from the Venice Pier. MERICA has never seen the Pacific Ocean and it being so close he decides that despite everything that just happened now would be a swell time to see it for the very first time. But of course nothing can ever be simple.
“SOMEONE’S BEEN ATTACKED!!!” The voice of a woman yells.
Suddenly a crowd of people start flocking to the beach and MERICA joins them.
As he approaches the beach he sees a man walking out of the ocean with a shark on his back. The man drops the shark on the shore as people audibly gasp.
“THERE HE IS!! OUR HERO!!!” A woman shouts as a man’s face all too familiar to the wrestling world comes into focus for the first time…the hero is…
…FIND OUT ON NIGHT 2!!!
Anyway MERICA made it all the way to L.A. where his Mentor was waiting. The two spent several days training,physically and mentally for the fast approaching Trials. Unfortunately as we saw in Night 1 with MERICA eating a pin courtesy of the Catalina Cortes, MERICA wasn’t ready quite yet. Which is where this story begins.
::::Miami - Moments after the conclusion of Night :::
MERICA’s match ended about an hour ago but after the grueling affair in which blood was spilled and bones possibly broken the Owners of The Trials felt it prudent for all talent to get checked out by medical professionals. An ordeal that took about 15 minutes but thankfully ended with the doctors giving MERICA a clean bill of health. MERICA picked up his bags and immediately headed for the parking lot where a bus would be waiting to take him back to his hotel where he would wait patiently for his Mentor to arrive.
During that walk to the exit his focus immediately shifted from what was to what lies ahead. A match with two of the most well known names in wrestling today. Stephen Stratford and Lachlan Kane.
He thought about how for all the success Lachlan Kane has found in places like PWE or Sin City Wrestling he still seems fundamentally incapable of owning his mistakes. Whenever he loses it was someone else’s fault. He didn’t lose, he was robbed. He didn’t get pinned, the ref was blind and didn’t see his shoulder go up before the 3 count. For all his successes Lachlan is a deeply flawed man. And it is those flaws that will be what MERICA focuses on when attacking Kane. Lachlan is very good but he is also very prideful and as they say pride always comes before the fall. Lachlan fell to MERICA’s teammate the sweetest shit talker this business has ever seen, Vhodka Black and on Night Two MERICA is going to be responsible for Lachlan’s fall once again.
MERICA rounded a corner and saw the exit sign about 100 yards down the hall. As he continued his march towards it he thought of his other opponent Stephen Stratford. A master of manipulation. What Stephen lacks in size and speed he more than makes up for by engaging in psychological warfare. Stephen knows what many don’t. The mind can be as powerful as the strongest punch to the face. This is not to say Stephen is weak or untrained, neither are true but when push comes to shove the brain is Stephen’s weapon of choice. A self described Puppet Master, Stephen has fought and beaten some of the very biggest and best the industry has to offer and most times he does it without breaking a sweat. Stephen inflicted unimaginable amounts of pain on someone near and dear to him, MERICA’s teammate Helena on Night 1. If he could do that to her MERICA imagines what Stephen has in store for the rookie. As a veteran MERICA is extremely well versed in mind games. Much of basic training is centered around not just physically but mentally breaking you. MERICA made it through while many did not. MERICA made it through because like Stephen his mind is a fortress and his fists are the guardians at the gate. MERICA may not be able to outsmart Stephen. He may not be able to pull the strings with the same joie de vivre as Mr.Stratford but what he will do with great enjoyment is cut every single string until there are none left. And when Stephen is no longer able to engage in a battle of wits that is when MERICA will strike. That is when MERICA will win.
Finally MERICA has reached the exit. He pushes open the door and steps outside. It took a moment for MERICA’s eyes to adjust to the bright sun above the Miami sky and just as they did he felt a pinch in the back of his neck and then total darkness…
:::Some Time Later:::
Clang Clang Clang!!!
The sound of metal hitting metal echoes throughout what sounds like a large empty space.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
Louder this time. The repeated noise waking MERICA from his slumber,
“Hello!! Anybody there?” The sound of a man’s voice cuts through the space as MERICA eyes open for the first time to reveal a man standing before him with a metal pipe in his hand.
It takes MERICA a few moments to fully register the situation but from what he can tell by the pain he feels everytime he tries to move an extremity he is currently bound by the arms and legs to a chair. Standing in front of him is the aforementioned man with a pipe. The man is dressed in all black fatigues with a gaiter covering every part of his face except for his eyes.
Oh the irony.
“I said…” CLANG CLANG CLANG!!! “Is anyone there?”
“Yeah yeah I hear you. Sorry if I’m not responding fast enough but I’m pretty sure you drugged me. Not sure if you’ve ever had a similar experience but it’s not pleasant.”
“It’s not supposed to be.” The man says as he starts circling MERICA, his pipe dragging along the ground for added effect.
“So it’s like that then.”
“Yeah. It’s like that.” The man responds as he walks over to a tripod with a camera affixed to the top of it. The man taps a button on the camera and a second later a little red light starts blinking signifying that the camera is now on.
“Soooooooooo if you don’t mind me asking but why am I drugged and tied to a chair?”
“You call yourself a Patriot yet you espouse the views of the liberal left. You wear the colors of our flag on your face. You tweet the Pledge of Allegiance daily. You say you take your mother to church every Sunday. You look like one of us but you are not one of us.”
“You mean a racist coward with incredibly small testicles that wishes it was still the 1950’s? You’re right I’m not one of you. But you’re wrong in thinking I’m one of them. I am me. I don’t fit into the boxes you and others might try and place me in for your convenience. I think the Extreme Left and the Extreme Right are both insane and have moved so far from what this country stood for that it makes me sick. You all are so dug in, so mired in your hatred for the other side that you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
“And what’s that?”
“The government is the problem. Our elected officials have sold us out to make a buck. Republican, Democrat it doesn’t matter. They’re all slimeballs. Where I take exception with people like you specifically is your insistent need to tell other people how they should live their lives based on how you want to live yours. ESPECIALLY when you want to use religion as your reasoning for doing it.”
“We should all live by the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
“No we all shouldn’t.”
And with that the masked man lifts the metal pipe and swings it as hard as he can striking MERICA in his mid section.
If MERICA could double over in pain he would but his restraints are keeping him stationary.
“You don’t get it.” MERICA says in between heavy breathing. “You should live your life the way you want. Live by the teachings of God and Jesus just like I do. But he is the teacher, not us and God will make his final judgments when it’s time. Not us. It’s really that simple guy.”
The masked man lifts the pipe again and rears back but before he can swing it he is interrupted by another person who approaches him.
“Sir we have a problem outside.”
“What kind of a problem?”
Antifa is here. And they are demanding we let MERICA go.
The masked man with the pipe looks over towards MERICA and without any type of warning swings the pipe right at MERICA’s mid section again.
“I knew you were one of them. Antifa is here to rescue you but they will never get in here.”
“Actually sir, they are almost inside.”
“Well then what the fuck are you doing here? Go deal with it while I figure out what to do with this asshole.”
The second man does as he’s commanded and disappears out of sight to deal with the escalating Antifa problem.
“I don’t know how much more clear I can be. I have no idea why they are here. I’ve never met an Antifa. As far as I am concerned they are as insane as you guys but with less guns.”
The sounds of yelling along with various windows breaking and other loud noises can be heard off in the distance, growing louder with each passing second.
“Look man, I get that you’re pissed at me because I actually stand for the true values of AMERICA as opposed to the ones you have twisted to fit your narrow view. I get that but I have other things I need to worry about. I just lost my debut wrestling match and I got another one in two weeks. I need to be training. Not sitting here.”
“I don’t care.”
“I didn’t think you did but I figured I’d just throw it out there anyway.”
“I just said I don’t care about your stupid wrestling career. All I care about is you making fun of us on the internet.”
“I’ll be honest with you, that's a little weird to me. It’s the internet. I know i’m new to it and all but it seems like the internet exists for people to anonymously shit talk others. Maybe you should have thicker skin? I mean in my business, wrestling people shit talk to each other all the time. On the internet, to each other’s faces etc. For instance, I am sure Stratford and Kane are both going to spend a lot of time talking about how I lost a match to two women. That I thought because of my physical abilities and combat training that I could just walk into a wrestling match and win and lo and behold I didn’t. They could call me an embarrassment and a failure. And a fraud. And you know what, some of it might even be true. But I don’t let it offend me the same way you seem to let some guy trigger you with 140 characters.”
The man lifts the pipe again but this time is interrupted by a loud BOOM accompanied by some window rattling.
“Sounds like you got a choice to make my guy. Either stay here and keep interrogating me or cut me loose and high tail it out of here as fast as you can before those Antifa folk get a hold of you.”
“Fuck that! I don’t run from anyone. I ain’t afraid of no one.”
“Then why wear a mask?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Because I don’t want people to see my face. Obviously. But it’s not fear that keeps my face hidden. It’s hope. I wear the mask of the Red White and Blue because I want to inspire people to beLIEve in the colors and the flag and the promise of AMERICA. My face can’t do that but the Mask can.”
More banging can be heard outside, growing louder with each second.
“Look, clearly you have bigger fish to fry so how about you deal with that while I just stare into the camera and sing AMERICA The Beautiful.”
Suddenly the door to the room swings open and 5 people rush inside holding baseball bats. They immediately make a beeline for the pipe wielding masked man who takes off for an exit.In the commotion they knock MERICA over to the ground. An action that breaks one arm of the chair just enough so that MERICA is able to wiggle free. MERICA quickly gets to his feet and runs to the nearest exit.
Once outside MERICA is shocked to see that the building he was being kept in is a few hundred feet from the Venice Pier. MERICA has never seen the Pacific Ocean and it being so close he decides that despite everything that just happened now would be a swell time to see it for the very first time. But of course nothing can ever be simple.
“SOMEONE’S BEEN ATTACKED!!!” The voice of a woman yells.
Suddenly a crowd of people start flocking to the beach and MERICA joins them.
As he approaches the beach he sees a man walking out of the ocean with a shark on his back. The man drops the shark on the shore as people audibly gasp.
“THERE HE IS!! OUR HERO!!!” A woman shouts as a man’s face all too familiar to the wrestling world comes into focus for the first time…the hero is…
…FIND OUT ON NIGHT 2!!!