Post by Ronnie Harris on Mar 30, 2017 8:59:55 GMT -5
March 19, 2017.
“FUCKIN’ WYSTAN!”
The – loud – South London accent travelled throughout the backstage halls, and in between his heavy breathing, Ronnie kicked various trunks containing production gear. The raucous commotion was nothing knew to those backstage at a wrestling show, but yet, stagehands and production crew felt the need to scramble towards the noise, and were even quicker to disperse.
After making a tremendous debut for AWE, in a triple threat that was going to be talked about for ages, the only thing on Ronnie’s lips – besides the incoherent ramblings of a madman – was how Cosmo Cooper stole his win. Everyone in the back knew it, and some even sympathised with him. It was The Kray Killer that put Kayla Wright away, and the referee’s hand was merely inches away from smashing the canvas for a third time, but Cosmo was there to crush Ronnie’s dream start. An inch.
As Ronnie sat upright against the steel steps on the outside, clutching his shoulder, he watched his victory slip firmly from his grasp. He tried to get up, but the wear and tear, and his empty stamina, had outmuscled his adrenaline. Unable to move, Ronnie could do nothing else but look on as Cosmo gloated to the entire arena, celebrating his victory.
Now, Ronnie could do nothing but feel like a failure.
His face had turned a slight shade of red. This night meant everything to him; it was an opportunity to rectify his failures in Monarchy. After all, there was a reason why Tom told him he wasn’t good enough, and it was probably the fact that he had looked unimpressive in his first four outings with the company. Fear was setting into Ronnie: what if AWE was a similar situation?
‘This has to be different’, he kept on telling himself. ‘This will be different’, was what he had to keep on reminding himself, but the reminders were getting caught up amongst his internal screaming, and, unfortunately, were going unheard. There was still a chance that it could be different, but Ronnie was too deep spiralling into his rabbit hole to realise. Unlike Monarchy – where he also lost a debut triple threat match – he showed promise. But instead, he couldn’t get passed the fact AWE’s first impression of him was losing. It was the very thing he went at Kayla for, and just mere minutes after suffering the same fate, he now knew how she felt.
Blasting through the AWE locker room door, Ronnie immediately took a seat on the bench, staring down at the carpeted floor, as if looking for an answer. An answer for what, though, Ronnie wasn’t quite sure. Surprisingly, the grey carpet had very little input to offer to Ronnie’s silent discussion. Though, Ronnie had very little to offer, himself.
A short, but sudden, vibration distracted Ronnie from his internal rage. Standing up, Ronnie reached into the bag hanging from his locker, eventually pulling out his phone. His eyes diverted themselves to the circle screen.
‘1 New Message ¬– Keira’
Sighing, Ronnie was unsure whether he wanted to read the message or not. ‘What could she want?’, he kept on asking himself. Ronnie wasn’t in the mood – or the frame of mind – to talk to anyone at the moment, let alone his girlfriend.
Another short vibration caused Ronnie to sigh once more. Now, he had no choice but to read the message. Flipping the phone screen upwards, Ronnie navigated his way through to the text messages screen and opened up Keira’s one-sided conversation with him.
“Saw the match. You were so unlucky. Looked good tho. Proud of you babe”
At almost the exact moment he had finished reading the message, Ronnie turned around and launched the phone at the door across the room from him.
“FUCKIN’ WYSTAN!”
Pacing back and forth in front of his locker, Ronnie eventually took off, storming through the door, though he didn’t have a direction in mind. He was seething, and it was as if everywhere he went he couldn’t escape the reality of what just happened. It was as if everyone was reminding him that Cosmo had stole his victory, and he was supposed to take solace in the fact that he looked good. Nothing feels good about coming second. Second sucks.