Post by Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion on Sept 6, 2017 14:43:52 GMT -5
Radio Announcement: You are listening to Hot Cakes and Hot Takes in the morning on WXYT 1270 with Christian Lennon and Jordan Ferrell. Here are your hosts with the most, Christian Lennon and Jordan Ferrell!
Christian Lennon: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to Hot Cakes and Hot Takes in the morning here on WXYT 1270, the Detroit areas home for all things sports talk. I am your host Chrstian Lennon and I'm joined by my co-hort, mi amigo Jordan Ferrell.
Jordan Ferrell: Thanks Chris, we have a lot of stuff on the docket for the day so why don't we just jump right into it?
Christian Lennon: The big story of the day is actually coming from the world of professional wrestling. Now before you switch that dial this story actually concerns a home town Detroit boy that goes by the name of Lucas Crowe.
Jordan Ferrell: That's right, for those not following along at home allow me to catch you all up to speed since we actually find ourselves enjoying the occasional wrestling match and have been following this guy’s career rising through the ranks. Lucas Crowe for the better part of a year and a half ran roughshod through the WFWF wrestling promotion earning himself the moniker of the Motor City Mercenary.
Christian Lennon: Through the course of that year Lucas Crowe earned plenty of accolades in the world of wrestling including unifying the WFWF National and WFWF International Championships as well as earning the label as WFWF Rookie of the Year in 2015.
Jordan Ferrell: During the course of his tenure it was revealed that he was actually under the tutelage of another former WFWF champion and all around sleaze ball Justin Tyme. With Justin Tyme's leadership, Lucas Crowe was vaulted to the top of major events for the WFWF and was viewed as a future big-name player.
Christian Lennon: Then as quickly as it all came to young Lucas Crowe, it all seemingly disappeared. At Superbrawl Nine, the WFWF's granddaddy of them all, Lucas Crowe staked his WFWF International Champion against a man who up until recently was a perennial underachiever in David Brennan.
Jordan Ferrell: It was at Superbrawl Nine where David Brennan won what was arguably the biggest match of his career up to that point. How did Lucas Crowe handle the loss of his championship on the biggest stage of them all Chris?
Christian Lennon: He didn't handle it well. Ever since Superbrawl, no one has heard a word from the Motor City Mercenary. That is up until now. At the WFWF's Pacific Rim show a badass video package aired for the man that is now calling himself the Motor City Nightmare and it was all set to Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" to keep the whole Detroit ties strong. But that brings us to the question of the day: Has the ship already sailed on Lucas Crowe in the WFWF?
Jordan Ferrell: Now there is a very good possibility this is going to prove to be an unpopular opinion amongst faithful Detroit wrestling fans but I think it has. Y'know prior to the match with Brennan at Superbrawl much was made about whether the relationship with Justin Tyme had fallen apart for Crowe and given the lack of interference from Tyme or his lackies The Wreckers it seems that this was all but confirmed. Then you factor in the fact that he lost to a man that, sure he's gone on to win the WFWF Championship at the Pacific Rim show but before Superbrawl David Brennan was kind of viewed as a bit of an underachiever as we stated earlier. Lucas lost his manager, he lost his extra muscle, he lost his championship and then he slinked away from the spotlight for the better half of a year? You'll have to forgive me if I think that the ship has sailed on what once looked like one of the most promising prospects the wrestling world had seen in quite some time.
Christian Lennon: Will the fans even respond that well to someone like Crowe making his return? I mean when you boil it down it's not like someone like a Phillip Schneider making his return after an extended period of time. Lucas Crowe was a guy that showed some promise early, won a couple championships and then burned out. That's the black and the white of it. I think nine months is too long to be away from the business when you had only been in it for a year and a half in the first place. I think he may have missed out on being the can't miss prospect everyone thought he should be.
Jordan Ferrell: Well that's the hot take on Lucas Crowe in the WFWF, we'll be back after a short break to discuss the blockbuster trade recently that sent Justin Verlander to the Houston Astros and what that means for both the Astros playoff chances as well as the Tigers rebuild.
Christian Lennon: Stay tuned, Hot Cakes and Hot Takes will be right back here on WXYT 1270, Detroit's home for all things sports talk.
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You can’t go home, no I swear you never can
You can walk a million miles and get nowhere
I got no where to go and it seems I came back
Just filling in the lines for the holes, and the cracks
Six Months Post-Superbrawl
For the better half of the last six months the thought of where I was and what I had become just constantly made me ill. I didn't even want to think of stepping foot into a gym, there was a big part of me that wanted my old life back. I moved back in to my craphole apartment in Detroit down the street from Big Kev's Tap and Grill or rather what used to be Big Kev's Tap and Grill, they shut him down shortly after I left. It now just sits vacant and there's part of me that wants to open the place back up again with the money I made from wrestling. I don't want anything in my life tied to that anymore. If you have ever sold your soul to the devil to get a little bit farther in life then you know the feeling.
Wrestling made me a very, very wealthy man. Or should I say being someone else's puppet made me a very wealthy man. But when you burn all of your bridges and then go on to lose the biggest match of your career it doesn't leave you many other options but to cut bait. I haven't heard from Justin Tyme or Steelheart and Speedwagon for that matter since the night of the little *ahem* confrontation. Not that I'm too terribly surprised, me losing the International Championship to David Brennan was probably better than any sort of revenge scheme he could've concocted on his own. I proved his point for him that without his guidance and without the assistance of The Wreckers I really wouldn't have amounted to sweet dick all. I wouldn't have been a WFWF wrestler in the first place. Good riddance to bad rubbish eh Justin?
So back to life as it was before, in all of its wonderful mediocrity. I do occasionally get recognized still when I'm out on the streets but it's nowhere near where it was six months ago when I couldn't go to the store without being stopped. Now it's usually limited to the people at the gym asking "Aren't you Lucas Crowe?" I wasn't a particularly well-loved part of the program anyway and wrestling fans have the memory of a goldfish sometimes so that's not surprising either.
I guess none of what has happened in the nine months since I lost at Superbrawl can be what anyone would consider surprising. A can't miss prospect failed to reach his full potential and tucked his tail and ran away when he faced his greatest opposition. How many times has that story been written?
I've finally built up the will to step into the gym for a sparring session for the first time in I don't even know how long. I have only been doing enough at the gym to not look like a total slob but I'm far and away from the shape that I was before Superbrawl.
The guy I'm stepping into the cage with today looks to be about a foot shorter than me and at least fifty pounds lighter than me. My corner man for the session asks me to go easy because this guy has his big debut fight coming up. I give my corner man thumbs up as I put my mouth guard in and begin to square up. The other guy meets me in the middle of the ring to touch gloves. As he turns his back to me I hear him mutter something.
Can't wait to knock this phony pro-wrestler chump out.
I say nothing, just smile as I return to my corner. The bell rings and he comes out aggressive. The guy throws a few body shots that immediately take the breath from my lungs. It's been so long since I've been in a fight that my body almost went into a panic at the lack of oxygen. But then something else that I haven't felt in a while kicked in, my brain telling me to calm the f*ck down before I pass out. I collected my breath as I began to cover up the last few body shots thrown my way. The guy then goes to throw a left cross which on muscle memory alone I dodged while bringing a knee up into the man's ribs that doubles him over. The guy lets out a gasp as he crumples to the mat. The instinct part of my brain is telling me to pounce on him and hammer fist the hell out of him. Every other part of my brain is reminding me that it's just a sparring match. I back into the corner and let the official attend to the man. He pulls himself to his feet and pulls his mouth guard out to give me a piece of his mind.
What the hell is your problem? It's sparring, I've got a fight coming up. You could've broke one of my ribs. Ogre looking motherf*cker
Y'know the old Lucas Crowe would have ripped this man's head off and mounted it as a trophy for this outburst. Instead I found myself just laughing it off. Maybe it's a good thing I'm out, I'm not just an ogre looking motherf*cker, I'm a soft ogre looking motherf*cker.
Whatever dude. I thought I was going to get a workout in but clearly that's not going to happen with you. Good luck with your fight.
I exit the cage as I hear the guy bickering with his trainer about how much of an bunghole I am. He is not counted among the people at the gym that knows who Lucas Crowe really is because if he did he'd know that I wasn't just a "phony pro-wrestler chump" but I made my bread and butter on being a bit of an bunghole. Whatever
I decide to go work on the heavy bag but as I approach the heavy bag I see a team of men in suits. You could not be less conspicuous then a team of suits in a place like this.
I don't believe that counts as proper gym wear there boys.
The lead man chimes in. Why am I getting some sort of strange Deja-vu feeling from all of this?
Oh trust me, I have better things to do than work out in this dumpster.
Cute. Talks like another guy in a tacky suit that I used to know.
Fantastic. Well now that we've cleared that up, how can I be of assistance to you fine gentlemen?
You can accept this letter.
I grab the letter out of the man's hand and stare at it in disbelief for a few moments trying to fully comprehend the words on the front.
From the Office of Justin Tyme
What is this? Is he finally getting around to pressing charges?
The suits look curiously amongst themselves. Clearly Justin had actually kept the events of that evening quite between the two of us. Impressive for a man with such a big mouth. It does have me more concerned about what this might be.
It's a contract, more specifically your contract.
My contract? My contract with who, the WFWF?
It is your sub-contractor agreement with Justin Tyme and his associates therein.
Yeah that was terminated.
Rather forcefully might I add.
The termination was never officially finalized, it was missing a crucial signature.
So I just sign this and that's it, I can go on with my life.
The lawyer gets a smile on his face that also reminds me entirely too much of Justin.
Oh on the contrary. This is the automatic renewal of that agreement.
What.... What in the actual hell is going on here? Thoughts are flooding back like a bad PTSD flashback.
Automatic renewal? What the hell does that mean?
It's a bit of a legal mess. Essentially what happened is that the termination of the sub-contractor agreement was set to go into effect on December 26th, 2016 but your WFWF contract was frozen on the date of the WFWF's Year End Show on December 22nd due to you going absent without leave after Superbrawl. This put Justin Tyme in an adventageous position. He cancelled his request to terminate the sub-contractor agreement between the two of you as it was never signed by both parties. Justin then quietly came out of retirement in order to legally take on the dates remaining in your contract, I believe it was something like ten matches remaining on that agreement you had with the WFWF. So it's not so much an automatic renewal I guess as it is a back to work order from your former boss.
It's beginning to feel like time has slowed to a crawl. I can't focus on anything right now outside of the words "back to work order" and "former boss". This can not be happening. Then I remembered what he said to me.
Right about now you’re in the middle of the Sh*t-lantic Ocean on a sh*tty little life boat made out of twigs and leaves and you’re just hopelessly floating around in the sh*t. You’re going to drown in it, I promise you that
I thought I was done, I really did. I had completely separated myself from the whole thing. I lost my title at Superbrawl, I separated myself from Justin Tyme, Trace Demon, Drakz, the WFWF, all of it. I was done. My time as a wrestler had come and past. Could I have been something big? Maybe. But the corruption, greed and volume of bullsh*t a person had to wade through took years off of my life that I'm never getting back.
Then the more I thought about all of this I felt anger rise inside of me. An anger I haven't felt in months. Finally, something snapped and I was seeing red. I found myself nose to nose with the head suit.
Oh and here is the dossier on your first match back. Just like old times!
I'm not really sure what Justin Tyme's game plan is here and frankly I don't think I care. If he wants me to go back to work for one go around then so be it, sounds like a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation to me.
It really i-
I cover his mouth with my hand to prevent any more of his trash from spewing forth.
I want you to take a message back to your client, and please make sure to let him know that he is YOUR client he is not MY boss. Let Justin know that if he thinks for a moment that the beating he recieved was bad then he should pay special attention to the beating the next ten people I have to face in a wrestling ring are going to recieve.
I release my grip as the suit grasps for air. The gang starts to hurriedly make for the exit. I decide to shout one last thing their way.
And be sure to mention that the blood of the entire WFWF roster is going to be solely on his hands. I'm sure he would've wanted it no other way.
The suits go sprinting down the stairs and I hear the door open and slam behind them. So, I guess this has gone from the story of how a nothing, nobody from Detroit that reached championship glory but then fizzled out before being relegated to relative obscurity to a story of how a nothing, nobody from Detroit that reached championship glory but then fizzled out before being relegated to relative obscurity until a dagger over his head threatened his very existence unless he came back to dance in the circus once more. Well if I'm going to commence to cracking skulls again, I need to get to work. I’ve been away for so long and I want to be bigger, stronger, faster and all around better than I was last time the people saw me. I almost instinctively went to throw the dossier out but decided to take a peak first to see who my first opponent would be... and what a first opponent it is.
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You say you want a revolution well ya know we all want to change the world… Or at least that’s some people’s mission. They are so deluded into thinking that their small contributions to this vast planet are going to completely change things. But of course, you Frank Lynn aren’t looking to change the entire world, I believe you are smarter than that. You are looking to completely overhaul the world of professional wrestling. You have made that your life’s goal. Kudos to you. However, that is where we couldn’t be more difference.
Never mind the fact I’m much bigger than you, those are the obvious cosmetic differences. We have completely different approaches to this industry as a whole. You want to change this place, you want it to put the pure wrestling at the forefront. You have committed your entire career up to this point in shaping wrestling in the image you desire. But you see you’re not the only one who has tried to do that. Everyone seems to be attempting to do just that. If Trace Demon had his way there would be statuettes of himself on every ring post. That’s probably his vision of where the world of wrestling should be. That’s not to say I don’t have my own vision of what wrestling can be. But my vision of what wrestling doesn’t apply to anyone other than myself.
Someone told me something seemingly eons ago that has always stuck in the back of my head. The world of professional wrestling is a cruel, sometimes desolate world filled with snakes and thieves. That person also told me that the best way to navigate it is to put your head down, make as much money as you can and get out while you can still walk. That has been my vision of wrestling since the day I stepped between those ropes. I made my money and then I walked away. But the reason this vision doesn’t project onto others is because I am the only big money fighter the WFWF has had for the better part of two years. And without me around, the big money dried up I’m sure.
So I guess this begs the question as to where Lucas Crowe fits in the prospective Frank Lynn vision of professional wrestling. The truth is I don’t, I don’t belong in this world. I don’t fit in here, I’m the anomaly. I would be better suited bashing someone’s face in on a street corner or in a cage. But maybe it’s time for me to stop trying to fit myself into the world of professional wrestling and it’s time for me to start taking your world and bending it to my will.
So, Lucas Crowe with the backing of a former WFWF International and Tag Team champion was able to get to a plateau that was pretty nice and scenic. What about Lucas Crowe that has learned from that experience to better understand what he wants out of this business? What’s on tap for that version of Lucas Crowe? I mean I could sit here and say that I see the WFWF World Championship in my future especially now that David Brennan is the one holding that. But then I would be lying to you. No, the days of a Lucas Crowe actively going on a gold rush are over. I have no need for any of your championships, they’re just gold and leather. What I’m after means so much more to me. I’m after blood money.
Frank Lynn, I almost feel sorry that everything you’ve worked so hard for, everything you’ve sacrificed to get this little revolution of yours off the ground is going to crumble under my oppressive boot. Almost. But Lucas Crowe being back in the WFWF is your worst-case scenario my friend. Dare I say Lucas Crowe in the WFWF is the Revolution’s worst nightmare.
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For the past few weeks it’s been back to the grind like never before. Ever since I received that back to work notice from the office of Justin Tyme it’s been up at four in the morning and in the gym until six at night. On this particular day, being a holiday, the gym was closed to the public but the owner had given me a key years ago. In a weird twist of fate, Justin Tyme has once again given me something to prove. I’m sure he only concocted this scheme to take any sort of happiness away from me. And trust me when I say I was the happiest I had been in months in the intervening time away from the ring. But when you’ve been bashing people’s skulls in out of necessity for most of your life and then suddenly for about a year and a half you get paid to do it can be tough to just separate yourself from that completely. Especially mentally.
The door to the gym swings open and in walks the beautiful Amy Sanders. This girl has the most willpower out of anyone I had ever met. Even through all the bullsh*t that Justin made me put her through she still stood by my side. About four months ago she moved in with me in my dump of an apartment. That’s commitment enough right there. She would really like for me to live in a nicer abode but she also knows how my mind works. She knows that I would never be happy living in a place paid for with the money I made from Justin Tyme, it would just be another dagger hanging over my head. I can hear him screaming “I BOUGHT YOUR HOUSE” every time I even think about it.
Amy approaches me as I’m working on the heavy bag and puts a hand on my shoulder as an indication she wants my full, undivided attention.
You’re not really going to go through this again are you?
This time it’s going to be different.
Nothing is ever different with him Luke, you know that.
I am different Ames. You can see that right?
I can… but can he?
I pull her in for a hug and a kiss on the forehead.
He will see it, trust me.
I release the hug and stare deeply into her eyes. She has the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. How the f*ck did I convince her to stick around?
It’s ten matches Amy. Ten matches and I’m done for good. I promise you that. And then when this is all set and done we can finally buy a new place to move into. One not bought by Justin Tyme money but money I truly earned.
Amy brings herself in for another hug. I don’t want to reveal my plans to anyone, not even Amy. Not yet anyways. But I know where I’m heading. I’ve made myself a checklist of goals for my return. No championships are on there. I’ve got ten matches left on my contract. And when that tenth match rolls around there’s only one man I want to have that match against. You want to drag me out of early retirement Justin? I’m returning the favour.
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Coding
Lucas Crowe
Amy Sanders
Lawyers
Justin Tyme
This was fun to write, I never really got to have a real payoff to Justin Tyme being assaulted by Crowe and I had an idea in my head when I took my sabbatical of how I wanted to end that story completely before moving on. This is kind of the start of that story I guess with some obvious tweaks since I hadn't initially factored in a nine month layoff in my plans so I had to come up with a reason for why Crowe would come back and still have a story to finish. Also the legal stuff I made up in my head, pretty sure it's not how contracts work but ehhhh it's fiction?
I dont know good luck 
