Chapter 0: Rookie
Posted by Stockton Pyre on 22 Dec 2013
The following are exerpts from Stockton Pyre’s first blog entry, entitled “Chapter 0: Rookie”
One of the things I expected as an outsider coming into the Defiance locker room was there to be complete and total anarky backstage. I figured I’d walk in the door and see Bronson Box carrying a woman over his shoulder to his locker room to do the kinds of things that would make Joffrey Baratheon blush. I figured there’d be some kind of chalk line dividing the arena exactly into halves, as one side of the feud lines stayed on their side, and the other side of the feud lines on the other, with the line patrolled by DefSec members acting as the border patrol between Side A’s USA and Side B’s Mexico, preventing one party from crossing the line and attacking the other. I was soon to discover that I was quite off about what happens backstage.
First off, when I arrived, the security at the door was an issue. For one, the guard in Manchester had no idea if I was the right person that was trying to enter the arena, being as I wore my mask to the door. Secondly, being the only six and a half foot tall man wearing a wrestling mask in the area, a small crowd of fans followed me to the back of the arena, as far as they were allowed to go. The guard kept me in front of him while he called back into the office with a walky-talky. A few words later, and I was let in past the guards, in some kind of elaborate two-door system. I was told later that the system is used to ensure that fans don’t get in and run wild; fans that manage to bypass the first door can’t get past the second door without a guard on the inside of the second door letting them in. It was truly more ingenious than I would have thought.
.....
Once I was deep inside the back labyrinth of the arena, I met with Wyatt Bronson. His official title is Head of Security, but it seems like that’s just one of the many hats he wears during a typical event. Seems like he’s the one that knows where everyone and everything is; when we were in the process of shaking hands, he had three people I had never seen before asking him all kinds of questions from “Where’s Diego De Leon?” to “Where are we going to find more food for catering?” As it was, I had enough time to shake his hand, thank him for having me as part of the show, and having him tell me to follow one of the road agents (an African American man named Darryl) to find the dressing room. From there, Darryl told me all of the little things I needed to know: where the locker room was, how to get to the ring from the locker room, a bit of what to expect (though, since this was his first show in Europe, he didn’t know what to expect fully), and where catering was. I thanked him for the information and retreated to the locker room.
There were a couple of people around I think...to be honest, I don’t remember too much, because I was starting to get nervous about my debut. I remember getting changed, and beginning to stretch out for the match I had scheduled against Rick Mitchum. That’s about when Curtis Penn walked up. To be honest, I was stunned at first. Here’s this guy, title belt and all, who just got done wrecking Chance Von Crank’s neck, and he’s here talking to me? I mean, it wasn’t like he was complimenting my tights or something; he was berating me as a do-nothing, worthless rookie. And at the moment, I was so nervous that I really couldn’t process it all. I thought he was ribbing me, as I’ve heard so much about in the past. Of course, had I known this was being filmed (the camera guy just kind of hangs out, waiting for something to happen. A little creepy, but there’s a “blind spot” where guys can change into their geir without camera involvement), I think I might have reacted differently. As I’d find out later, it turns out he wasn’t kidding.
.....
Coming out to the ring for the first time was, to be honest, a failure. I was thrown off from the beginning, when the guy at the gorilla position asked me for my entrance music, and I didn’t have any. I always thought that stuff was done for me, you know? Like I thought Defiance had these marketing wizards that take one look at you, then go sifting through their mental music catalogue looking for the perfect fit, and not two seconds later, turning to someone and saying “Play this song” to the production crew, and they made it so. Turns out that I needed to bring my own. Whoops. That won’t happen again.
Walking out on the stage...I just got this huge dose of stage fright. All the people standing at the ramp, reaching out, reaching for me, combined with the bright lights and the lack of background sound made everything seem even more heightened, and it just made me want to be in that ring. Want to be, dare I say, safe from the fans? It’s not that they’re bad at all...I actually like the fans and hope they can come to like me....but I was just so crushingly nervous. Hopefully I can conquer that fear for next show.
.....
I was taken completely by surprise when I heard the music for Curtis Penn. There was no prior discussion. There was no whispers. There was no indication that Mitchum would be out of action. But there was Curtis Penn, with a sneer on his face and evil intentions.
I don’t have a ton to say about the match to be honest. I’m happy I held my own, but I think what we proved is that, while Curtis Penn has wrestling and fighting talent, he is a morally bankrupt person and a bully in every sense of the word. What he did to me after the match was completely uncalled for, and I hope he gets his comeuppance from someone for it. But as for me? Well, I’m supposed to be the neutral one. I’m supposed to be the watcher, observing and not moving to one side or the other. Already I feel like I’ve thought too many bad things about Curtis Penn, and while he makes it really easy to hate him sometimes, if I am to uncover how the world of wrestling works in Defiance, I must at least attempt to remain neutral and observe the conditions in which I am working.
.....
Henry Keyes, the man who came to my defense in the backstage area, strikes me as one of the good guys like from out of a comic book. Part of the appeal is his dress; he’s quite the imposing visage in the steampunk get-up. Accompany that with not just a strong moral compass, but a true THIRST for good...and you have the man who managed to belly to belly superplex a huge man in Luke Windham. He truly interests me, both as a person and a wrestler, and I hope to interact with him in a more sportsman or friendly way than we interacted before. In many ways he seems the antithesis of Defiance in general and Curtis Penn in particular, and it will be interesting to see how Defiance reacts to him in the future.
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