EMERGE Arena
Etibocoke, Toronto, Canada
29th April 2019
We weren’t gonna leave anyone in any doubt over whether we meant business when we made our collective debut’s at Emerge 22, not on my debut and the return of the Moustache Lads to the company after Tommy’s injury. Couldn’t let that happen.
Tommy and Johnny got the job done, like there were any doubt given the caliber of opposition – upstart mouthy little pricks they are – but no one were expecting me to turn up and rain on the parade of the returning masked prick Zero.
I’d feel bad, but the clues in the name, ain’t it? Strong Style.
“Pretty successful neet all round ad say, all things considered…”Tommy said as we made our way back towards our locker room to grab our bags. The fat bastard weren’t wrong, either; two matches, two wins, Ivy won her match too thanks to tubby and pinhead helping out. All in all, Strong Style arrived and made themselves known, which is exactly what we were wanting to do in the first place. Sure, maybe I weren’t planning on going back in a ring any time soon until Lucas asked us to, but getting that first win sure felt good and it were nice to be back.
“Yeah, not bad. Gives us summet to build on anyway…”I conceded as we reached the door to our locker room; we were just about ready to get the hell outa there by this point, the smell of pathetic loser were washed off of me after my match with Zero and we just had to grab our bags from the locker room before leaving and that would have been the plan if a voice behind the three of us didn’t change things slightly.
“Thomas? Or, I mean… Tommy?” it said, and both me and the fat one turned to look over our shoulder at the same time, both thinking it were us that was being shouted to and when we turned, we were greeted by the sight of a recognisable red-haired woman walking towards us. Marie Jones, from up in SCW, slumming it down ‘ere with us in Emerge.
“Well orate darlin’,” Johnny said, stepping in front of both’re us, laying it on thick despite the fact it’d been one of us she were wanting a word with. “What you doing down here in Emerge then, huh? Nevermind, doesn’t matter why you’re here, you’ll be wanting someone to show you around won’t ya?” Johnny said, and I was already rolling my eyes at this point, way before tubby stepped up and shoved pinhead out of the way.
“Ignore chuckles ‘ere, he’s talkin’ bollocks,” He said, and Marie were looking more concerned by the second. “If ya want someone to show yer around, say no more love, am the man’fer the job alrate! How a’bart we swing by concessions an’ get a drink first, eh?” he went on in his irritatingly fucking bubbly way. Good guy but annoying as fuck to deal with on a daily basis, let me tell ya.
“Oi, you’s two, pack it in will ya,” I told the pair of ‘em, stepping in to stop the wolves from circling. I swear, owt with a minge and they turn into rabbid bloody animals. “How can we help ya love?” I asked Marie as Tommy and Johnny stepped back.
“Actually I was wondering if I could have a word with you? In private if that’s okay…” she replied, looking at me, which was quite the surprise. Nodding, I turned to The Chuckle Brothers and nodded my head to the locker room, telling em to do one. Once I was happy they were following instruction I turned back to Marie, intrigued about what she wanted.
“Private enough for ya?” I asked, not exactly trying to come across as hostile but guarded ‘cause I had no idea why she wanted to talk to me.
She looked around, and evidently decided it were, despite the fact that Tommy and Johnny were being extra slow about their exit, no doubt to hear what she wanted, the nosy cunts. “I wasn’t sure whether or not to come here tonight, or whether I should just send a note to thank you,” she said, leaving me more lost than I already were. I opened my gob to ask her what she were talking about but she went on before I could. “The flowers. I wanted you to know I got them and wanted to thank you. They were lovely. It took me a moment to realise who Tommy was and why I was their favourite ginger but then I thought about the tweet you sent me wishing me good luck last week and put two and two together,” she explained… or tried to anyway, because I still had no chuffing clue what she were talking about.
“Oi, wait up,” Tommy said from behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see him stop short in the doorway of our locker room, but I nodded my head at Johnny and he used his grotesquely muscular body to drag his portly friend into the locker room.
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to Jones. “Sorry about that, some people have no manners,” I apologized; Tommy Wasley is an oaf. A good guy, but he talks crap and has no manners what so ever. “So, you were talking about flowers?”
“Yeah, I… I had flowers delivered to me backstage at a house show on Saturday,” she said, sounding a little less sure of herself now. I were still lost, but I made sure not to show it. “The card said “To my favourite Ginger in the world from Tommy” or words to that effect… it was you who sent them, right?” she asked and I nodded my head.
I had no fucking clue what she was talking about whatsoever, but I weren’t going to admit that. “Absolutely,” I told her calmly. “Favourite ginger in the whole world, yep,” I added for emphasis.
That seemed to calm her nerves for some reason, not sure why. Either way, she seemed to relax. “It was sweet of you. I’m not sure why you sent them, but it was nice and I wanted to thank you,” she told me, her arms folded across her white blouse, almost protectively, resting just above the SCW Television Title she was wearing around her waist.
“You take that thing everywhere with you?” I asked, nodding at the title. She looked down and flushed a little but smiled too.
“It’s how I got backstage. Told them SCW sent me for promotional reasons, see,” she told me, reaching for a lanyard that dangled from the back pocket of her jeans, showing triple A status. “I did some photos with fans earlier, before the show started and I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to come and speak to you… I was wondering why. The flowers, I mean.”
Bollocks. Had to think fast with that one. “I heard the radio interview,” I told her, trying to sound sympathetic. “The one you did for N.P.R with Scott Simon, I heard Friday night. It was picked up on some sports website I use for the footy results back home and I ended up listening to it… I didn’t know about your fella. I’m sorry for your loss,” I told her. At least that bit was true; I had no idea her husband topped himself and I did sympathise with her… had a friend way back when who took his own life and, well, let’s just say it helped me legit sympathise with the situation she were in and leave it at that.
“Thanks,” Marie said, nodding as she wrapped her arms around herself again. Interesting defensive mechanism there, love. “I’m surprised you heard it really, N.P.R may be nationwide but it doesn’t exactly drive high traffic… but I’m glad you listened. The more people we can get talking about the issue the better.”
“Couldn’t agree more love,” I told her. Maybe opening up weren’t such a bad idea after all? “Male suicide is actually an issue pretty close to my own heart you know? I had a friend growing up, went all way through school together from being little nippers, learned the ropes together as well at my old man’s school… he took his own life about five years ago now, affected me something rotten at the time and still does,” I told her, speaking about Alfie out loud for the first time in the longest time. Not that it doesn’t still affect me, I’d just got to the point where I didn’t speak about it anymore. Which I guess is part of the problem. “Did you know that back home, suicide is the bigger killer of men under the age of forty five?”
“I didn’t know that,” Marie said, looking kinda shocked. “I know it’s a big problem, but I think we end up ignoring it until it affects us personally probably…”
“Yeah, definitiely,” I nodded, agreeing. “It’s like, blokes are told they’ve got to be macho, got to be strong and can’t show emotions, because it’s not manly enough… so it’s ingrained in us to not talk when we’re struggling. The strongest guy can really not be okay, and you’d never know because we just don’t talk about it…”
“Like Robin Williams,” Marie said. “He looked like the happiest guy in the world but was actually suffering from crippling depression, and you’d never know to look at him that there was anything wrong.”
“Yeah, exactly,” I said with another nod. “My mate Alfie, he were a good lad. You’d never know how unhappy he was until I saw the note he left behind. Such a shame, but that’s life I guess. Either way, I’m glad you’re speaking about it anyway. And I’m glad you liked the flowers, Red…”
“Red?” Marie asked. “Not Phoenix? That’s what you called me on twitter, wasn’t it?” she asked and I nodded. “Red works. Or Phoenix. Or you know, just Marie… anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for the flowers and I’ve done that, so, yeah. Thanks again.”
“No problem,” I said, giving her a nod and with that she turned to leave. I started turning myself to go to the locker room when I were stopping in my tracks again.
“Hey Tommy?” she shouted and I turned to look at her again. “Want to go get a coffee some time? Or maybe something to eat? We can talk some more about your friend? Or not, if you don’t want to talk about… what I mean is, do you wanna go out some time?” she asked, getting a little bit flustered. Well weren’t this a turn up for the books, huh? No fucking clue why she thought it were me who sent her the flowers but it were some good bloody luck whoever did it.
“Yeah, I’d like that. I’ll shoot you my mobile number in a dm later and we can arrange something,” I said, grinning.
She returned the grin with a smile of her own and she started walking backwards a bit as she nodded. “Alright,” she said softly. “It’s a date… or not… I’m gonna go now,” she finished, somewhat lamely and turned to leave before she could say anything else.
Chuckling, I turned and made my way to the locker room. I wasn’t even two steps in the room before a shoe came flying at my head. “You fuckin’ rat bastard,” Tommy shouted at me, scowling. “It were me who sent them fuckin’ flowers, an’ she thinks it were you!”
“Pull the other one pal, it’s got bells on,” I told him, shaking my head, rolling my eyes. Nice try lad but not gonna wash.
“It were!” he shot back at me, angrily. “But they weren’t even meant for her, they were meant for her sister Kim! Card said ‘To my favourite Ginger in the whole world, hugs and kisses, Tommy’! I sent ‘em ya prick!” he shouted at me before turning and dropping down heavily into one of the empty chairs in the room, all in a huff.
Johnny’s head were snapping from side to side as he looked between me an’ Tommy, and at that point I couldn’t help but laugh, proper laughter too, it just burst outa me. That were fucking funny, no matter how bad Tommy were throwing a paddy about it! “Ya snooze ya lose mate, sorry,” I told him, laughing as he flipped me the vee’s. “Not to make yous feel worse about it like, but she asked me out too. Just saying,” I said, dodging the second shoe that came flying at me with as much ease as the first. Maybe coming back to wrestling at Lucas’ request weren’t so bad after all…
