Scapino1974

QAW American Lucha Friday of Week 3, March 2022 Held in Irvine Hall in Topeka, Kansas (Mid South Region) It was true. What I had heard was true. I couldn’t believe it. When Jackson told me, I thought I was hearing things. Or it was a rib. But he didn’t act like it was. So it had to be true. I was going to wrestle in the actual show! “So you, Alice, Sonnaz, and Ellie are going to be up first,” Jackson said. “Now that’s a big responsibility. You four are going to set the tone for the whole show.” “I know.” I felt a flash of annoyance. That’s the way we did things at RFW. Why would this be any different? “And Farrah and I still feel that the right thing to do here is to have Alice and Sonnaz get the win, all right?” All right? I was actually going to be in the show. My friends would be able to see me. Mark would be able to see me! Ace could finally see the match! This was… Tears stung my eyes and I swiped them away quickly. Jackson frowned at me. “You okay?” “Yeah, just… Just happy.” “You say so.” He gestured toward the rest of the locker room. “We’re having Sherie handle the fine details this time around. Head on over there and figure everything out, got it?” I saluted him without thinking. He rolled his eyes and headed to another part of the locker room, flagging down some more girls as he went. Holding back a squeal, I headed over to Alice and the others. Not pictured: Ellie de Grazia (couldn't upload her pic to Imgur for some reason) Alice clapped me on the shoulder and said, “You’re going to die, Kil. Sonnaz and I are going to mop the mat with you.” Ellie snorted. “That’s the plan, shug.” “Knock it off.” Sherie, while not as angry as her on-screen persona, still looked pretty no-nonsense. “So obviously, Alice and Sonnaz are going to pick up the win, but I really want Grace and Ellie to get in some good licks at the start of the match. They need to look like a threat, got it?” Sonnaz, who leaned against one of the lockers, shrugged. “No problem, boss.” So Sherie launched into a discussion of how, exactly, Ellie and I would wind up having the tables turned on us, how Sonnaz and Alice would toss us around the ring, and how we’d ultimately get pinned. And it didn’t bother me a bit. Because tonight, we were going to actually be seen by more than just the audience in the arena. Look out, America. Here came Grace Kil! *** By the time we were done, the audience was on their feet and screaming for more. At least, that’s how it sounded to me. Not to be immodest, but once again, I think I showed everyone what I brought to the table. Ellie and I did okay in the ring together. I mean, I wasn’t exactly hoping to keep doing tag team matches, but if I had to, I thought I was doing a decent enough job as a partner. Sherie clapped us on the back as we returned to the locker room. “Good job, good hustle. Ellie, you looked solid out there, but you gotta be a little more careful with your foot placement during those big moves, right? And Sonnaz, resting bitch face isn’t a great look for you. We’ve talked about trying to show a little more emotion, right? Alice, keep doing what you’re doing. And Kil? Good job.” That was it? But Sherie turned to the next group of wrestlers, who were tugging their costumes into place and stretching out. “Now you guys. You gonna let them go out and set the bar? You gonna let them get away with that?” “No way, Bomb!” Skye Hermosa shouted. “Then go out there and show why you’re not just a bunch of over-glorified show openers, got it?” Honey Badger slapped her own shoulders and roared, causing everyone in the locker room to laugh. But I stood there, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Is that how they still saw me? A glorified curtain-jerker? And that’s the way the rest of the night went. Sherie kept sending out each new match with words to the effect of “Go show everyone why you’re better than Grace.” And what really sucked? A lot of them did. In the second to last match, Janna Hurricane defeated her title in a fatal four-way match that left me in shock. No wonder they kept putting me so low on the card. As excited as I had been at the start of the night, by the time I went back to the hotel, I knew I was going to just cry myself to sleep.

RFW All In Thursday of Week 2, March 2022 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) Broadcast on WrestleWorld (22,231 viewers) 380 in attendance I stopped short outside of the locker room. Tucked into a nearby corner, probably thinking they were completely out of sight, were James Diaz and Allie Perks, passionately making out. My mind locked up and I quickly looked away. How many couples did that make in RFW now? At least four or five by my count. Grace and Mark. Abigail and me. Selina and Quentin. I had heard rumors that Ruby Reece and Jay Silver had hooked up after a show recently. And now James and Allie? Probably that’s what I should have expected, hiring nothing but younger wrestlers. I quietly slipped past them, hoping that they wouldn’t spot me. I think they were too distracted by each other to notice. Once inside the locker room, I spotted Pepper Pelton joking with Perry and Clark, both of whom were busting a gut at whatever he was saying. And once again, Freddie was holding court with Charlie and Jerry. As I entered, Tamara McFly caught my attention. “Hey, Ace, got a sec?” I nodded and she beckoned me into a quieter corner of the locker room. She shot a look around the room then leaned in close. “Have you talked to Diamond about how things are going on QAW?” I frowned. I kind of remembered something from her birthday party, but so much of that night was a jumbled haze, I couldn’t say for sure. “Not recently. Why?” Tamara pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I’m on decent terms with Farrah Hesketh. The other day, she called me and asked me how Grace handled direction. You know, was she actually a team player or was she something of a diva.” “Oh yeah?” Why would Hesketh ask that? “I told her that Grace is solid so far as I’m concerned. Never had an issue with her when I’ve worked with her and seems really open to whatever. But Farrah kinda beat around the bush a little. Kept probing around the issue, like she wasn’t quite satisfied with my answer. I thought that was weird, so I tried to talk to Grace about it tonight.” “What did she say?” Tamara laughed. “Oh, to hear her say it, everything is comin’ up roses for her down south. She’s learning so much, the girls are all great, she’s just happy to be paying her dues. Sounded really scripted, like that’s what she thought she should say. Now since I’m not that close to her, I figured she’s probably feeding me a line. So I thought I would check with you. She all right with everything?” I gritted my teeth and tried to push through the mental haze surrounding my memories of Grace’s birthday party. I knew we talked about QAW at the last bar we were at and then…did she hug me? Or was that Abigail? I finally shrugged. “Could be nothing, but you know, if your main draw is distracted, might not be a great night.” Tamara patted me on the shoulder. “For what it’s worth.” She strolled away, flagging down Selina and shouting for Allie. I left the corner and looked for Grace, but she was already in a deep conversation with Sabrina Wells. I could tell that they were going over some details for their match. I wouldn’t want to distract them from that, so I decided to let it go for now. I mean, if something was bothering her, Grace would tell me, right? *** After the initial roar of music, Martin and Curt welcomed the audience to the show. 1) ALLIE PERKS vs. SELINA SVELTE Allie was in a pretty good mood coming out to the ring. Martin suggested that she was looking forward to competing against Selina and showing everyone that last month’s victory wasn’t a fluke. “Yeah, but she should remember: confidence only gets you so far in this game,” Curt said. “And against a competitor like Selina Svelte, you’ll need more than confidence.” Curt’s words proved to be prophetic. Allie lit into Selina the moment the bell rang and it was clear that her strategy was to overwhelm Selina with rapid fire offense. She tried to unleash her machine-gun punches early in the match. Too early, it turns out, as Selina was able to shove her away and break what little momentum she had. It was all downhill for Allie after that. Selina simply knocked her around the ring before she got her down and tapping in the Prawn Armlock. WINNER: Selina Svelte in 10:11 RATING: 43 2) MINNESOTA AWESOME vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX A pretty decent match all around, although Pepper maybe should have been paying more attention to the match than cracking jokes backstage before the show. He was flailing a little in the match, but Jerry and his competitors were able to cover for him pretty well. Martin reminded folks that the Scofield Index was RFW’s first tag team champs, but Curt scoffed at the idea. When Martin asked if he thought Minnesota Awesome was better, Curt’s response was that they were both jokes. After see-sawing back and forth in terms of momentum, Jerry put a definitive end to it all after he and Pepper dropped Perry with a Carolina Reaper. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 12:56 RATING: 34 3) Fro Sure came out to the ring and did some dancing for the crowd. He held up his title belt and basked in the cheers. Then he waved for everyone to settle down. “It is good to see all of you as well! And I think I’m in for a real challenge tonight. I’m facing off against Jay Silver and—I know, right?” He smiled as some of the crowd oohed at the news. “Jay is a tough competitor and…” Then Fro started laughing. “I’m sorry. Jay is great, but let’s be honest: he hasn’t exactly made a name for himself here. He’s best known for being some Jason Momoa wannabe. I’m worried that he’s going to think he can summon a school of tuna to help in the match tonight and be all like…” Fro scrunched up his face and pressed to fingers to his temple. Then he laughed again. “But seriously, Jay’s a solid competitor and he might be thinking this is his big chance to prove it. So Khal Drogo, let’s see what happens tonight, shall we?” RATING: 61 4) JOY RIDER vs. MODESTY PARDOR The party continued as Joy made her way to the ring. Fro actually came back out to do some dancing with her, much to the delight of the crowd. He even hung around to see if Modesty would want to do some dancing as well, but Modesty seemed distinctly uncomfortable with the idea. Modesty shook off her discomfort once the match got started. She and Joy tore into each other and while Joy tried to maintain a bubbly personality, it soon became clear she had to focus on the match rather than pumping up the crowd. She set aside her party attitude and lit into Modesty pretty quickly. Even though Modesty put up a great fight, Joy took the win after dropping Modesty with a Ryder Rocker. WINNER: Joy Rider in 18:18 RATING: 33 5) Backstage, Charlie Corner found Sherry Smart, who had set up her fortune telling booth in a darkened corner of the Civic Center. When he tried to speak to her, she shushed him and told him to keep quiet. She was communing with the spirits. He seemed suitably impressed, although both Martin and Curt questioned if she knew what she was doing. After a few moments of her rocking in her chair and mumbling stuff under her breath, she opened her eyes. “I know why you’re here, Charlie.” “You do?” “Yes.” She squinted at him. “You’ve lost your cat and you need my help to locate him. Never fear! I’ll get out my dowsing crystals and—” “No, that’s not it at all! I’ve heard that you can see into the future. Is that true?” Sherry nodded solemnly. “Rock on!” Charlie threw up the devil horns, which seemed to disturb Sherry. “Look, I’ve heard that they’re going to book me in a match next month. Can you look into the future and tell me who I’m going to face?” “Of course!” Sherry closed her eyes and resumed her rocking. Then her eyes popped open. “Charlie! You’re going to face Masked Marauder and…I’m sorry, Charlie. I think you’re going to lose.” “Bummer!” Charlie’s shoulders slumped in an overly dramatic fashion. “Well, I appreciate the insight, Miss Sherry. Can I come back for another reading in the future?” “I would love that.” Charlie grinned and slipped out of the chair. Sherry watched him go. “I would have loved to been paid for that too.” RATING: 22 6) THE SILVER BULLET © vs. THE FRANCHISE for the RFW Tag Team Championship Once again, the tension between Hangman and Stallion was palpable. It actually looked like they were going to start arguing as they came out to the ring, but Hangman shut down whatever it was. Jack and Mark, though, looked like they were ready to tear up the place as they came out to the ring. They stopped to take a few selfies with each other, and at one point, Mark stopped to autograph a fan’s shirt, changing the generic RFW shirt to a “Mr. RFW” shirt in the process. The fan (a member of the Four-Clap Posse) did not look pleased at this. Once the match got started, it was clear that the Franchise was going to take advantage of the champs’ distracted state. They took control of the match early on, isolating Texas Hangman in the middle of the ring and not letting him tag out to Stallion. Martin commented that it didn’t look like Stallion was all that interested in being in the match anyway. But Hangman finally made it to his corner and tagged Stallion in. Stallion rolled his eyes and got into the ring, where he took the fight to Mark and Jack until he finally put Jack down with a Lakota cutter. WINNERS: The Silver Bullet in 15:17 RATING: 32 7) PAPA SWOLL vs. JAMES DIAZ vs. CASSIDY BLAINE vs. ORIGINAL SINNER vs. QUENTIN QUEEN vs. MASKED MAULER VII Martin pumped up this match as being a chance for some members of our roster to really show fans what they were all about. Even though it seemed like everyone was eying him, Papa Swoll seemed relatively unconcerned about how the match was going to go. Once the bell rang, everyone tore into each other. For some reason, though, it seemed like James Diaz was focusing on Original Sinner. Even when he had clear chances to attack someone else, James stayed locked in on Sinner rather than go after easier targets. Curt suggested this was maybe not the best idea, seeing as there were four other really strong competitors in the ring. Toward the end of the match, Sinner seemed to take control, tossing everyone around the ring. Martin said this would turn out to be a big upset: “Original Sinner is a powerhouse who has been lurking in the shadows here at RFW. This could be his first step onto the bigger stage!” Sinner looked to make that happen by dropping Cassidy and getting ready to pin him. But before the ref could make the three count, James Diaz drop kicked Sinner in the head to break up the pin. Clearly Sinner had enough of James’s attitude and got in his face. The two started brawling and James wound up getting Sinner in the Asian Thumb Spike. Cassidy recovered and looked ready to stop that, but then Papa Swoll hit Cassidy with the Pounce and made the pin. The ref hit three mere seconds before Sinner started tapping. WINNER: Papa Swoll in 20:03 RATING: 38 8) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL © vs. SABRINA WELLS for the RFW Women’s Championship As the wrestlers came out to the ring, Martin said, “Here’s an interesting note: this is the first time that Sabrina and Grace have faced each other, which is kind of strange. Sabrina is a top competitor and you’d think they would have squared off against each other for the title at some point. I’m thinking this is going to turn out to be an amazing match.” And Martin had a point. The two competitors shook hands before the bell rang. Once it did, they circled each other warily. They told a decent story in the ring, of two wrestlers in their prime who knew they were facing stiff challenges in each other. Once they got started fighting, though, they both laid it on the line until Sabrina missed a chance to hit Grace with her finisher, opening herself up for Grace to end things with a Diamond’s Edge. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 15:25 RATING: 52 9) In the backstage area, Original Sinner confronted James Diaz about what happened in the ring. James smiled enigmatically and told Sinner that he had his reasons for what he did. That didn’t satisfy Sinner and the two started brawling backstage. A bunch of the other workers quickly separated them, but not before Original Sinner said he wanted to take on James next month in the ring! James smiled and said that would be perfect. RATING: 29 10) FRO SURE © vs. JAY SILVER for the RFW Championship Jay seemed a little upset as he came out to the ring, and Martin said he didn’t blame him. “I mean, good natured teasing is one thing, but Fro may have crossed a line there.” “But Jay does look like a bargain basement Jason Momoa,” Curt retorted. “Are you complaining?” There was a long pause, and then Curt said, “No.” The match itself turned out to be pretty decent. Fro tried to shake Jay’s hand, only to have it slapped away. Jay seemed pretty hot and bothered and wanted to punish the champ for it. Fro stepped it up a notch and the two competitors kept up the heat on each other until Fro put Jay down with a Sure Thing. Afterwards, Fro went over and helped Jay up and it looked like he apologized. Jay glared at him, but then nodded and walked out of the ring while Fro led the audience in applauding for him as a competitor. WINNER: Fro Sure in 15:02 RATING: 40 *** Afterwards, I heaped some praise on Sabrina, Grace, and Jay for their hard work. Jay and Fro spent some time afterwards, making Aquaman jokes at each other. As the rest of the workers started their post-show cleanup duties, I tapped Grace on the shoulder and said, “Hey, can we talk?” She nodded and we slipped away. How was I going to phrase this? I didn’t want to come off like I was accusing her of hiding anything again. But at the same time, I couldn’t ignore what Tamara had said. “How’s everything at QAW?” I asked. “You’re heading down there again. Know who you’re wrestling?” She sighed. “I’m not in pre-show, but I’m tag-teaming with someone against Air Raid Syren and Sonnaz Shah.” “Well, that’s great!” I said. “At least people will see what you’re capable of!” “I guess.” She frowned. “Ace…this is harder than I thought it’d be.” “How so?” “I dunno. I guess I kind of figured we’d be doing bigger things by now. You know, TV or selling out the Civic Center. We had so much heat going in the early days, I figured we were just going to zoom off into the stratosphere and…” She laughed mirthlessly. “I know, that sounds kind of stupid.” “No, I get it. I want bigger things for us too.” “And then, when QAW called, I figured, ‘This is it! This is my chance.’ And it really hasn’t worked out that well. And juggling school with this and now traveling down south for QAW…it’s just a lot.” We stood there in awkward silence for a moment or two. “So are you okay?” She offered me a half-hearted smile but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Yeah, sure. Just kind of having an off month, that’s all. I’m good, Ace. Thanks.” With that, she gave me a quick, kind of awkward hug, and then went over to her locker. I turned and found myself face-to-face with Mark. He gave me an inscrutable look, then went over to Grace and started whispering to her. I sighed. Once this was all done, I would give Abigail a call and see if she was up for hanging out. FINAL RATING: 43 Quick Results: From RFW.com...

From RFW.com... Predictions, whatever...

Sunday of Week 4, February 2022 Can a person be hungover for a week? I knew that it technically wasn’t possible, but it felt like a weird pall was pulled over my brain for the rest of the week after I got home. I don’t know how much Grace remembered. Or Abigail for that matter. When we woke up in Grace’s apartment, we were all pretty disoriented. Abigail and I had wound up sleeping on the couch together, our limbs all tangled. Cassidy was crashed in a chair and snored through most of the morning. Once Grace appeared, we went out for a breakfast that none of us really ate. And then the Rochester contingent made the trip back south. Since then, I hadn’t heard much from anyone. It seemed like all of us were keeping our heads down and making it through as best as we could. For me, that meant gathering up all the receipts and seeing how we did. When I saw the bottom line, I was mildly surprised. We had made a little over a thousand dollars, bringing our warchest to $74,184. We had made about $500 in ticket sales, although our broadcast revenue went down, as did our sponsorship. Much to my surprise, our worker costs went down by $1,300, which didn’t feel quite right, but I wasn’t going to argue. I also made two more difficult decisions. First of all, I moved All In to Thursday nights. That seemed to be one of the only nights where none of the other promotions were doing shows or events. Hopefully that meant we wouldn’t lose anyone to RIPW or QAW or anything like that. And I also made the heavy decision to let Zippy and Garry go. As much fun as they were, the comedy really never gelled for us and it felt wrong to keep them around.

Sorry about the onions. I hate to say this, but I can't seem to find the image files in the game directory to share the images. I will say that they're nothing special (just generic belt pictures that came with the game). Sorry!

Saturday of Week 3, February 2022 “So Mark just said we should wait here for them?” Abigail asked, stepping a bit closer to me for warmth. I nodded and looked around. Mark had been vague in the details about what we’d be doing for Grace’s birthday party. The only thing he had told us to do was meet them at a certain corner in Minneapolis at a certain time, namely 8:00 PM. I don’t think he really scouted the area that well. It was a little sketchy, and it was snowing. Not a great combo. Thankfully, Abigail, Cassidy, and I were able to find a street light to stand under and the weather seemed to be keeping most people off the streets. Maybe it should have done the same for us. I glanced at my watch. Not surprisingly, it was 8:10 and we hadn’t seen a hint of Mark or his big surprise. Maybe we should call it a night. Maybe we should. “Hey, check that out!” Cassidy said with a laugh. I looked where he was pointing and my jaw dropped open. A massive Hummer crept down the street, but then I realized what I was actually seeing. Not a real Humvee, but a large limo bus shaped like one. It rolled up next to us and then someone popped up out of the roof. “Hey, party people!” Jack Pryde shouted. “Get on the bus, y’all! It’s time to get crazy!” He let out a war whoop that echoed off the buildings. Abigail laughed. I couldn’t help but smile. The limo’s door popped open and Mark slid out. “Welcome to the celebration, kids! Transportation courtesy of the Franchise.” “That’s us!” Jack yelled. Mark chuckled. “Sorry about that. We got a head start on all of you. So let’s get going!” Cassidy didn’t need any more encouragement. With a whoop of his own, he ran across the pavement and clambered into the limo. I helped Abigail step down onto the snow-slicked street and boosted her up into the limo. Mark grabbed me by the shoulder, then offered his hand to me. “Thanks for bringing them up, man. Grace really wanted you guys to be with us tonight.” I shook Mark’s hand and he then helped me into the limo. Not that I needed it, but I appreciated the gesture. Much to my surprise, there was already a small crowd crammed into the limo and I recognized exactly two of them, Jack and Grace. I suspected the rest were Mark and Grace’s friends from the U. Not to be too judgmental, but they all looked like they came from the same mold as Mark, beefy and thick-skulled. “Ace!” Grace tumbled out of her seat and crawled over three other people. “You’re here!” “I’m here!” I winced at her breath. A head start indeed. She pressed a bottle of tequila into my hands. “You gotta try this! Where’s the salt? Give ’im the lime!” Mark’s friends handed off the salt and lime and I took a quick swig straight from the bottle. The cheap tequila burned down my throat and I coughed. Everyone cheered and slapped me on the shoulders. “This is going to be so great!” Grace shouted, even though she was inches from my face. “Let’s go!” The driver probably heard her through the dividing wall, because with a rumble, the limo lurched forward and carried us into the night. *** I think we visited three different bars in the course of four hours. After that point, my basic math skills took a nosedive into a pleasant haze. Somewhere along the way, we picked up some random women, much to the delight of Mark and Grace’s friends, and we finally wound up at a dance club. I did my best out on the floor, but the alcohol did not do any wonders for my dexterity or dancing abilities. At least, I don’t think it did. I vaguely remember dancing with Abigail. Then Grace for a while. And then Mark and Jack for some reason that seemed really compelling at the time. After a while, though, I stumbled over to a corner table and watched as the rest of the partygoers did their best to impress each other. Abigail tried to coax me out onto the floor again at one point, but I tapped out. She wound up dancing with her cousin and Jack. Finally, Grace wound up next to me as well. She was pretty far gone, stumbling and slurring her words. “There you are!” she shouted. “Why aren’t you dancin’?” “Too tired,” I replied. “Might sleep here.” “No sleepin’!” She whacked me with a limp hand then giggled. “Not here, anyway.” I groaned. “Grace, I don’t know how I’m getting home tonight. We’re all too wasted to drive.” Again, she swatted at me. “I got you, fam. You’ll stay at my place tonight.” “Your roomie won’t mind?” Grace made a farting sound and said, “She’s gone for the weekend. Won’t know at all.” “And you’ve got room for Cassidy and Abigail and me?” “Oh yeah.” She looked at the dance floor and an odd look flickered across her face. “That should be fine. So long as you two don’t…” I snorted. “With Cassidy in the room? Like that’s gonna happen.” We fell silent for a little while, then Grace rolled over to look at me with big doe eyes. “Ace, am I a good wrestler?” “Are you kidding? You’re the best. Look out Alicia Strong, you gotta diamond wanting to kill ya!” I laughed at my play on words. “I’m serious! Is…is the only reason you keep letting me win because you’re my friend? Or do I really deserve the title?” I gaped at her. “You totally deserve it. Yeah, we’ve got some great women’s wrestlers on the roster…” I blinked a few times as my brain tried to catch up with my words. “…but you’re better’n all of ’em. ’At’s why you got the title still.” Grace slumped in her chair. “Farrah Hesketh doesn’t think I’m any good.” “That’s nuts! Then why’d she hire you?” “Dunno. But she has me curtain-jerkin’. You didn’t even get to see my last two matches, Ace. They were good ones.” “I bet they were.” It still bugged me that they hadn’t broadcast those matches. I had really wanted to see them! “You’re a good friend, Ace,” she whispered. “Better’n I deserve.” “What? That’s stupid. You’re being stupid.” “Am not. You’re so good, and so nice, and so…so…” She had scooted her chair closer to me and leaned in close. I stared at her, unsure of what I should do. But then she sagged forward and came to rest on my chest, gently snoring. I froze. Now what? This was awkward, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. Wake her up? She clearly was done. But we couldn’t keep sitting like that. She could fall over and hurt herself. So I gently repositioned her, turning her away from my chest. As I did, she grumbled and snuggled into my shoulder, throwing an arm across my chest. Oh, this was better! Hopefully no one would. “Ace? What are you doing?” Jack Pryde came over from the dance floor, a puzzled look on her face. “Uh…I think Grace might be done for the night.” He hooted. “I’ll say. Hey, Latrell! Get over here!” No. No no no no no no… Sure enough, Mark wandered over. He stopped short when he saw us, his face twisting into a brief frown. Then he guffawed and pulled out his phone to snap a picture. “Oh, come on, man,” I groaned. He waved my words away. “Gotta document, bro. If she forgets, I want to be able to needle her a little. Did she think you were me?” That was as good of an explanation as anything. “Uh, sure.” “Figures. Well, I think this party’s done. When the birthday girl is unconscious, best thing to do is get her home, right?” The two of them helped Grace to her feet. She woke up for a brief second, just long enough to throw her arms around Jack’s neck. He laughed and passed her off to Mark. He whistled and motioned for the partygoers to head for the exit. Abigail came up to me, giggling. “Is Grace okay?” She had seen that? I felt a bit of relief. “I think so. She just needs to sleep it off.” “Me too.” Her hands roamed over my chest. “Where we gonna do that?” “Grace’s place.” “Oh.” Her smile disappeared, then she shrugged. “Works for—” Then she vomited on my shoes. All in all, a great way to cap off the night.

QAW San Antonio Invasion Friday of Week 3, February 2022 Held in San Antonio, TX (Mid South Region) “Another pre-show match?” I winced at the whine in my voice. I didn’t mean to sound like a petulant kid. I mean, I had turned 21 a few days earlier; Mark was planning a big blow out for me tomorrow night and I couldn’t wait to see what was up his sleeve. But when Jackson told me that I was going to do pre-show again, I could hardly believe it. Yeah, I was still the newbie here, but I had done really good work. Jackson regarded me carefully. “You think I’m being unfair?” I caught the unspoken warning, but yeah, he was. I nodded. “No offense, Jackson, but I had some pretty good matches. Just ask anyone.” “Oh, I have and you did,” Jackson said. “So why am I in the pre-show again?” I asked. He chuckled. “You want me to throw you in the main event right away? Put you up against Janna and see which of you deserves the World title?” I shifted my weight, my cheeks burning. The way he said it, he clearly thought that was a ridiculous idea, but why not? I was pretty sure that, if given the chance, Janna and I could put on an epic match, something people would remember. “Well, no,” I said. “But I’m a good wrestler. Wouldn’t you want me to go out there and do my best?” “That’s exactly what I want you to do,” Jackson said. “But we’re not going to throw you into the main show just yet. We still need to figure out where you fit on our roster. This ain’t Rochester, little lady. You gotta pay your dues first.” “Haven’t I been doing that?” Jackson sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Look, why don’t you go have a chat with Farrah? I’ll be waiting to talk over what you’re going to do tonight when you’re done.” With that, he moved on, flagging down Sabrina Wells and another wrestler. I stood by my locker, suddenly feeling exposed. A few of the other girls shot looks in my direction, hooded, judgmental looks. My cheeks burned as I shut my locker and set out to find Farrah. I was sure she’d see reason. Didn’t she say that Jackson was old school when I first came here? This was just a hiccup, easily fixed. Farrah was chatting with some of the camera people when I found her. She glanced in my direction and suddenly, she looked sad. Maybe a little tired. She held up a hand toward me as she finished her conversation with the camera crew, then motioned for me to join her in an office in the backstage area. Once the door was closed, she turned to me. “You spoke to Jackson, I take it?” “Uh, yeah, I did.” “And you have a problem with your match assignment?” I hesitated. From her tone, it was clear that she didn’t think I should. But while I could back down, I really didn’t feel like I should. Someone had to stand up for me. “Sort of? I mean, when you offered me the job here, I thought I would be…well, more visible in the shows.” Farrah laughed. “Believe me, Grace, you’re visible enough. Everyone knows what you’re capable of.” “Then why am I doing another pre-show match?” “Because this is only your third show with us,” Farrah said. “And because that’s how we do things here at QAW.” The heat in my cheeks felt like it was flowing down into my stomach and twisting into a hard knot. I felt like I was back in kindergarten and Ms. McKenzie was telling me why I couldn’t punch kids I didn’t like in the face. “Look, I get it. Back in Minnesota, you and your boyfriend formed your own wrestling company—” “Ace isn’t my boyfriend!” “—and you two have put on some really cool matches, some really memorable shows. You’ve found some really talented workers and you should be proud of what you built. I mean, that’s why I hired you in the first place. But when we hire someone new here, we’re very careful in how we book her. You’re good, no question, but will you fit in here best as part of a tag team? Who will be a good opponent for you and who won’t be? You think I want to find that out live with tens of thousands of people watching on WrestleWorld? “I mean, let’s pretend that I throw you into a match against Janna on day one and it turns out that you two just don’t work well together at all. Suddenly what should be a match for the ages turns into a joke on TEW’s forums. You want that kind of stink associated with you? “And besides, while some of the fans know who you are, a lot of them don’t. Yeah, you’ve generated some waves here with your first few matches, but I want to make sure that those aren’t flukes and I want to see if we can’t make some deliberate waves. The only way that happens is if we introduce you to the fans, figure out where you fit into QAW best, and take things slowly. You’ll get there, Grace. You just need to be patient.” I hung my head. I couldn’t meet her gaze. “Now if that doesn’t sound good to you, you can always go home and keep winning the matches that John Hart sets up for you. There’s no shame in that. But if you want to work here, for me, you need to listen to what Jackson tells you and pay your dues. He may be old school, but there’s a reason why I trust him with the book, okay?” I mumbled an agreement, then headed back for the locker room. Hopefully Jackson wouldn’t hold this against me. Hopefully I’d— “And Grace?” I paused in the doorway. “Happy birthday. Twenty-one, right?” I nodded. Farrah smiled. “Well, paint the town when the time comes, okay?” I went back out and found Jackson. He regarded me critically, then motioned for me to follow him. He rounded up Modesty Pardor along with Ellie de Grazia and Kira Lee. He went over the basics of the match: Modesty and I would take on Ellie and Kira. He was even going to let us pick up the win this time, although he wanted Modesty to make the pin. And then he left us in the hands of Miss Mexico to work out the fine details. I kept my mouth shut and just listened as the others put the rest of the match together. I’d play my part. What other choice did I have?

QAW Titan Clash #62 Sunday of Week 2, February 2022 Held at the New Mexico Armory (South West Region) Strange how familiar something could become so quickly. I mean, I had only been at the Armory once before, but waiting in the airports felt natural. Catching the Uber felt normal. And even though I had only been to the Armory that one time, I already knew the back hallways twists and turns and found my locker easily enough. “Good flight?” Jackson asked as I settled in. “Fair enough.” “Good.” He shifted on his feet. “Farrah and I were really impressed with what you showed us last month, Grace. You’ve got some serious talent there and we’re glad you’re on board.” I stood up a little straighter at the praise. “So tonight, we’re gonna put you in a tag match with Isobel and have you two go up against Pinky Perez and Mariana Torres.” He waved a hand and the three ladies came over to join us. We all shook hands, exchanged names and pleasantries. Pinky had a pretty strong handshake. “You done a lot of tag work before, Grace?” Isobel asked. I shook my head. “Not really. My first and only tag match was with Sabrina Wells last year.” Jackson stroked his chin and nodded thoughtfully. “That’s kinda what we figured. That’s why we’re putting you guys on pre-show. Get the crowd good and warmed up. And that way, if there are any kinks, we don’t broadcast ’em for the whole world to see.” Ouch. That stung, especially the way that the other girls looked at each other and then, almost simultaneously, looked right at me. Clearly they thought they knew where the kinks would come from. I squared my shoulders. Well, I was never one to back down from a challenge. “So what are we going to do?” Jackson called over Miss Mexico and the six of us went over the basics of the match. Once we were done going over the basics, Mariana, Pinky, Isobel, and I spent a few more minutes with our heads together, putting flesh on the skeleton Miss Mexico constructed. And then Izzy and I put a few more finishing touches on our plans. As showtime approached, I felt pretty good about what we had put together. No small matches, right? *** “…and here come their opponents, Izzy Quick and Grace Kil!” There was a smattering of applause as Izzy and I headed to the ring. Since the show hadn’t started yet, a lot of the fans hadn’t settled in, so there was a lot of movement, a lot of chatter as people greeted each other. I tried not to let it distract me, but that wasn’t easy. A few of them shouted some suggestive stuff at Izzy and me as we walked by. “Just ignore them,” Izzy whispered. “The old farts still think this is some sort of jiggle show. You wanna prove ’em wrong?” More than anything. Izzy and I hopped up on the ring apron and then slid through the ropes. As soon as the bell rang, I slipped into my corner and let Izzy kick things off. We had decided to play it that I was our team’s secret weapon. And I was. I was going to show them all. *** By the time Izzy and I were done, the crowd had pretty much screamed themselves hoarse. Even the guys who had catcalled us seemed happy with what they saw. I even spotted a lot of people hurrying back into the arena to see what all the fuss was about. Izzy was good. So was Mariana. But Pinky. Wow. She was something else. When she and I got in the ring together, we just clicked. I think we both had the same thought: put us in the pre-show, and we’re going to just start the show early. So that’s what we did. Pinky did a lot of aerial work that yeah, I had some trouble countering, but when I could keep her on the mat, I showed that I was the dominant force. I didn’t even mind it when Mariana pinned me. The rest of the show went off without any trouble (as near as I could tell). Izzy, Mariana, Pinky, and I hung out in the backstage area and watched the show on the monitors. And here’s thing thing: the ladies at QAW really are the queens of wrestling. But not to be too immodest, I think my match was the best of the night. And from the way some of the other girls reacted to us, I think they knew it too.

All In (February 2022) RFW All In Friday of Week 2, February 2022 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Territory) Broadcast on WrestleWorld (21,670 viewers) 348 in attendance Martin welcomed the audience to the show. “Now normally, I’d be joined by my usual partner in crime, Curt Meritt. But not tonight! Instead, it’s my great pleasure to welcome John Hart to the announce booth to do tonight’s color commentary.” I waved to the camera. “It’s my great pleasure to be here, Martin. I can’t wait to see what we have on tonight’s card…” 1) But before we can get to that, apparently James Diaz had some things he wanted to say. He came out to the ring. A few of the audience members reminded him of how he lost to Fro Sure two months ago. He sneered at them before getting on the mic. “Yes, I will admit, Fro Sure did get the best of me when last we met. But I feel it necessary to remind you: there’s a difference between losing one battle and losing a war. I spent the last few weeks reviewing the tape and let me assure you, the next time we meet, it will be at a time of my choosing. And I will emerge with the championship belt.” He looked ready to keep talking, but instead, Jay Silver’s entrance music interrupted him. Jay came out to the ring entrance. “James, I say this from the bottom of my heart: shut the hell up. You’ve been presenting yourself as this scary ‘son of the monster,’ and yet when the time came to actually get it done, you choked. You couldn’t do it. You failed. You can try to spin that all you want, but we all know the truth. You aren’t a threat. You aren’t anything any of us have to worry about.” James glared at Jay and said, “Why don’t you come down here and say that to my face?” “I’ll do more than that!” Jay charged the ring and the two of them started brawling. Referee Parker Terry raced out and tried to break it up and, when he couldn’t, he simply signaled for the bell. The match was on! RATING: 32 2) JAY SILVER vs. JAMES DIAZ Jay put up an initial great offense, knocking James off balance while raining down punches. But James quickly rallied and took control of the match. He was clearly trying to punish Jay and injure him, but he couldn’t quite take out his opponent. Every time he went for a pin, Jay kicked out. Halfway through the match, Jay managed to rally and started working over James systematically, focusing on his arms. I commented that made a great deal of sense. “James’s primary weapon is the Asian Thumb Spike, and you need a lot of upper body strength to really dial it in. If Jay can weaken him, James is going to be at a severe disadvantage.” James must have realized that was going on, so he “accidentally” wound up knocking Parker Terry out. While the ref was down, James got a steel chair and used it to work over Jay. Once Jay was down and really not moving, James disposed of the hair and roused Parker. But rather than make the cover, James spent some time mocking Jay. He rolled him onto his back, lightly slapped his face, and made it clear he didn’t think much of his opponent at all. James finally made a lazy cover, only to have Jay kick out at two-and-a-half. He tried again, only Jay kicked out at two. Jay came back to life and pummeled James until he finally managed to get James down and pinned in a small package. WINNER: Jay Silver in 19:22 RATING: 32 3) James Diaz clearly couldn’t believe what just happened. Jay, unfortunately, didn’t get out of the ring fast enough. James attacked him again, blatantly using the chair to continue the assault. When Parker Terry tried to intervene, James feinted toward him as well. Once Jay was down and unconscious, James added insult to injury by tying him up in the Asian Thumb Spike. Jay didn’t fight back at all, and finally, a bunch of people had to run out of the back to pull him off of Jay. RATING: 15 4) ALLIE PERKS vs. RUBY REECE Ruby Reece clearly didn’t think much of Allie as she came out to the ring. “I kind of understand why,” I said. “Allie is still pretty new to the industry, whereas Ruby worked for AAA before that company closed and she’s a fixture of QAW right now as well. On paper, I’d say that Ruby is going to win this one pretty easily.” And my prediction seemed pretty spot on. Allie was really off her game, something that Martin and I tried to explain away as just nerves. Ruby kept after her and didn’t let up. But then Allie came to life. She hit Ruby with some really stiff blows, finally tossing her into a corner and following in with her machine-gun punches. Then she surprised everyone by hitting a finisher that Martin identified as the Flatliner, getting the pin and the win. WINNER: Allie Perks in 15:54 RATING: 25 5) Modesty Pardor came out to the ring. She said that part of the reason she came to RFW last month was to help out a friend in need. But the real reason was to check out Grace Kil. When a few of the audience members hooted at that, Modesty blushed furiously and mumbled, “Not like that.” Her embarrassment seemed to throw her off. She tried to explain she was there to take on Grace as a competitor, but she somehow managed to make everything sound like a double entendre. That only made things worse, so Modesty finally blurted out that she wanted to get Grace in the ring tonight and take her title away from her. RATING: 31 6) SABRINA WELLS vs. DUPLIKATE Sabrina couldn’t quite figure out what to make of DupliKate, who came out to the ring wearing an outfit that was a near match for Sabrina’s. And once the match started, it was pretty clear that DupliKate’s ability of mimicking her moves and using that knowledge to anticipate Sabrina’s offense really threw her off. DupliKate managed to get some decent offense in, taking advantage of Sabrina’s confusion. But in the end, Sabrina put a sudden end to it all with a Super Kick that nearly took DupliKate out of her boots. WINNER: Sabrina Wells in 9:47 RATING: 33 7) CHARLIE CORNER & CHIP MARTIN vs. MINNESOTA AWESOME vs. THE GOOD OL’ BOYS vs. MARK LATRELL & PRIME TIME JACK PRYDE to determine the #1 Contender for the RFW Tag Team Championship As Mark Latrell and Jack Pryde came out, I noted that they were wearing matching trunks. “I wonder what that means?” I asked. Martin said he couldn’t make heads or tails of it either. He moved on from that, saying that this was going to be an elimination match. The match would keep going until there was only one team left standing. Cockroach and Adrien seemed pretty hyped to be in the match and they tried to take control of the match early on. And they succeeded, for about thirty seconds. But then Charlie Corner hit Adrien with the Corner Cutter and made the pin, eliminating the Good Ol’ Boys almost right away. Mark and Jack, much to everyone’s surprise, turned out to be a pretty decent team together. That’s not to say that their work together was perfect. It was pretty clear that Minnesota Awesome had better chemistry as a team. But Mark was able to score the next elimination when he speared Chip Martin into the turnbuckles and then rolled him up for a pin. That left Mark and Jack and Minnesota Awesome. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, shouting for the teams to go bigger and hit harder until Jack hit Perry with a PrydeFall and made the pin. WINNERS: Mark Latrell & Prime Time Jack Pryde in 14:52 RATING: 24 8) With the match over, Jack and Mark took a few moments to celebrate their win. They then re-introduced themselves: “I’m Prime Time Jack Pryde, one of the first wrestlers to sign with the RFW.” “And I’m Mark Latrell, Mr. RFW!” “And we are the Franchise!” Jack said. “We are what all of you are going to think of when you think RFW. We are going to embody what people think of when they think of this company. Just you wait and see.” “And you’ll see that for sure next month when we take on the Silver Bullet for the RFW Tag Team Championship.” RATING: 28 9) THE SILVER BULLET © vs. THE HOT TAGGS for the RFW Tag Team Championship If the champs were worried about their match next month, they didn’t show it. There was some definite tension between Texas Hangman and Wild Red Stallion that Martin remarked about. “Given how much Stallion has tried to assert himself as a singles competitor, I’m surprised that they’re able to hold it together so well as a team.” The Taggs must have been able to read the situation and took advantage of it. They managed to isolate Hangman from his corner and worked him over pretty badly. And there were some moments where it looked like Hangman was a little lost. But eventually, he managed to tag in Stallion, who did his part to stop the Tagg’s onslaught. But before Stallion could make the pin, Hangman tagged himself back in and finished things by Choke Slamming Wolfie. WINNERS: The Silver Bullet in 15:17 RATING: 33 10) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL © vs. MODESTY PARDOR for the RFW Women's Championship If Grace had been offended by Modesty’s weird challenge, she didn’t show it. Instead, she blew a few kisses at Modesty as she made her way to the ring, much to Modesty’s consternation. Once the match got started, it was pretty clear that these two clicked as opponents. They were able to play off of each other and set each other up for bigger and bigger spots, really getting the crowd into it. Everyone was on their feet and, to be quite honest, Martin and I found ourselves at a loss of words at times. And while the momentum swung back and forth chaotically, Grace finally put Modesty down with a Diamond’s Edge. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 14:46 RATING: 57 11) Fro Sure came out to the ring and admitted that he was a little hesitant to follow Grace’s match. “I mean, Grace is amazing and I’m not ashamed to admit she scares me a little. If she ever came after my title, I’m not sure I’d be able to hold on to it.” The crowd roared their approval and I frowned. I think Grace might have slipped Fro that line. “But she’s done her thing, and now it’s my turn. And tonight, I’ve got Original Sinner. And he’s big. He’s mean. But tonight, his defeat is an absolute Sure Thing.” RATING: 43 12) FRO SURE © vs. ORIGINAL SINNER for the RFW Championship It was pretty clear that Fro was trying to match Grace’s intensity and aggression and he almost made it. Sinner did a pretty decent job of playing the menacing threat to Fro’s underdog champ. Sinner managed to overpower Fro a number of times but couldn’t put Fro down. In the end, Fro rallied and finally dropped Sinner with the Sure Thing. WINNER: Fro Sure in 14:32 RATING: 43 *** After I finished thanking Modesty, Sinner, and Mark for their performances (yes, the last one rankled a little), and once the workers were cleaning things up, my cell phone rang. I checked the caller ID and rolled my eyes. “Hey, Curt. How’s New England?” I asked. “Not as great as I would have hoped,” he said. “Samson retained the title tonight.” “Bummer.” That was why I had to be at the announce table. Curt had a match with RIPW for their championship, which meant that he wasn’t going to park himself at ringside for us. An unintentional wrinkle from moving All In to Fridays. I was considering moving it again if I could find a free night. “Hey, I did tune in to see how you did in my chair. And hey, you did all right, Ace.” “Thanks, Curt.” I braced myself for the ask. “And maybe this isn’t the best way to approach things, but I’ve been thinking. I probably deserve a raise at this point, don’t you think?” “How much?” I asked with a sigh. “An extra seventy bucks should do it.” “Fine.” “Great! And hey, provided I don’t get booked in a match next month, I’ll be more than happy to take back the headset.” FINAL RATING: 44 QUICK RESULTS: From RFW.com...

Upcoming Matches From RFW.com... Predictions, comments, whatever you got.

<p>A Sense of Impending Loss</p><p> </p><p> <em>Sunday of Week 4, January 2022</em></p><p> </p><p> We were going to lose her.</p><p> </p><p> That was my takeaway. I had invited Abigail and Cassidy over to my place to watch Grace’s debut for QAW. Those two had cheered their heads off, but I had sat stunned as Grace took one hell of a beating from Little Miss Perfect and got pinned. But I could tell from the way that Hesketh and her co-announcers were talking, they hadn’t expected what they had seen.</p><p> </p><p> If any of the bigger promotions were watching, they had just seen what Grace Kil could offer. So far as I knew, there was a good chance that Grace was going to get another call, this time from CWA. Or even USPW. She might just achieve her dream of wrestling Alicia Strong faster than she ever anticipated.</p><p> </p><p> Thankfully, based on what I was seeing in the books, RFW would be around for a while longer. We had lost a little bit of money again this month ($375 to be precise) since our worker bill was a bit higher. But I was feeling better about our long-term survival. If we could keep the bleeding to a minimum, who knew what would happen?</p><p> </p><p> But we still had to make a change. I hit send on the email, letting everyone know that we were moving All In to Fridays starting in February. There was no way I wanted to make Grace choose between us and QAW. And this was a way to make sure she didn’t. QAW didn’t do shows on Fridays. Now we would.</p>

<p>Grace's First Match</p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>QAW Titan Clash #59</strong></span></p><p> Sunday of Week 3, January 2021</p><p> Held in the New Mexico Armory (Mid South Region)</p><p> </p><p> I should never have signed that contract.</p><p> </p><p> Not that there was really a contract to sign. In this case, this was more of a handshake deal. But we hadn’t shook hands either, so…a phone deal? Was that a thing?</p><p> </p><p> I shook my head. Focus, Kil. Focus. You want to make a good impression on everyone, right? It didn’t matter that I was there on my own, although it might have been nice if I could have brought Mark along. Or Ace.</p><p> </p><p> I smiled at the thought of Ace coming with me. I mean, he wouldn’t have been able to wrestle. Maybe I could have convinced Farrah to make him a valet or something. I nearly started laughing at the thought of Ace dressed in a revealing outfit and shaking his butt for the cameras. Maybe I’d suggest it to him for the next All In, just to see how he would react.</p><p> </p><p> The Uber driver thankfully didn’t say anything for most of the ride from the airport. She gave me a bottle of water and then we were on our way. After about a half hour drive, we made it to the Armory. It wasn’t nearly as big as the Civic Center back home, just a squat one story building that would barely hold a thousand people, if I had to guess. The driver dropped me off and I looked around, unsure of where I was supposed to go.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Hey! You Grace Kil?” </span>a voice shouted.</p><p> </p><p> I looked over. A blonde not much older than me waved me over to a side entrance.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="fCzEZgz.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/fCzEZgz.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“I’m Alice Pellerton. Farrah asked me to keep an eye out for you.”</span> She looked me up and down. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Heard you’re supposed to be pretty good.”</span></p><p> </p><p> How was I supposed to respond to that? If I said I was, I’d probably come off immodest, but I didn’t want to undersell myself either. “I’m…okay.”</p><p> </p><p> Alice laughed and motioned for me to follow her.</p><p> </p><p> The Armory’s inside didn’t look much more impressive than the outside. The ring dominated the center of a cramped main room with a ceiling that looked so low I was worried that if I tried jumping off the top rope, I’d hit my head.</p><p> </p><p> Alice led me into the locker room. About a dozen girls were getting ready, laughing or chatting about their matches. That helped a little. It felt a little like home.</p><p> </p><p> An older lady came over to me, and I recognized her immediately. Farrah Hesketh herself.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="PetD71X.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/PetD71X.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Welcome to QAW, Grace. Or is there something else you want me to call you?”</span> she asked.</p><p> </p><p> I shrugged. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Uh…doesn’t matter. Grace works.”</span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Sounds good.”</span> She led me through the room. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“We’ve got a locker set up for you over there. You don’t have to worry if you don’t have a lock for it. There’s always someone back here. Hell, Jackson would stick around back here if I didn’t need him on the mic. He figures the booker should never be seen. Kinda old school.”</span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> </span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> “It’s the way it should be.”</span> An older man walked up to me.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="m7TbOUb.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/m7TbOUb.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> Farrah rolled her eyes.<span style="color:#2E8B57;"> “Grace, Jackson Brayfield. You can call him ‘Boss Man’ if you want.”</span></p><p> </p><p> Jackson groaned. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Please don’t. Those days are far behind me.”</span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> </span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> “Okay, Mr. Brayfield.”</span></p><p> </p><p> Farrah and Jackson exchanged a look, and then they both burst out laughing. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“That ain’t necessary either, little lady,”</span> Jackson said.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“So tonight, you’re going to be wrestling Sarah Taylor. We call her Little Miss Perfect,”</span> Farrah said.<span style="color:#2E8B57;"> “Know her at all?”</span></p><p> </p><p> I shook my head. I mean I had done some reading on the flight down, checking out their roster, their history, past shows, whatever I could find. But I really didn’t know this Sarah Taylor at all.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Well, c’mon, let’s get this figured out.”</span></p><p> </p><p> Jackson led me over to a woman who was slightly older than me. We shook hands and she too sized me up. So I decided to return the favor. She appeared pretty fit, a little taller than me. She had already gotten half of her hair in a pigtail.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="GNWem3h.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/GNWem3h.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“So here’s the deal,”</span> Jackson said. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“We’re gonna have four matches tonight and you two are up second. No real promos to speak of ahead of time. Grace, you’ll head out to the ring first. Keep it really simple. Focused. You’re the new kid, so don’t do anything over the top. We just want the fans to see what you’re capable of. Sarah, you kinda know what to do here, right?”</span></p><p> </p><p> Sarah chuckled. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Let me guess. Go to the announce table, bitch about how I didn’t want a match, throw a tantrum if she gets any offense in. That sort of thing?”</span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> </span></p><p><span style="color:#2E8B57;"> “You got it.”</span></p><p> </p><p> Jackson spent a few more minutes, chatting with the two of us about how the match itself would go. He called over someone he introduced as Miss Mexico, one of the company’s road agents, to go over the finer details. I listened attentively and didn’t say much. I figured it wasn’t my place, right? I’m the newbie, so it’s not like I had any weight to throw around.</p><p> </p><p> He finally asked me if I had any questions. I shook my head. Everything sounded simple enough. Sarah gave me a curious look, but then went back to getting ready. I headed over to my locker as well and got into my gear. I glanced around the ring. Some of the workers were pulling on masks. Others were wearing some flamboyant costumes. I looked over my black trunks and shirt. Maybe I should have asked if I needed to wear something more colorful?</p><p> </p><p> Oh well. Too late now. Best to make the most of it.</p><p> </p><p> ***</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“…and here comes Grace Kil!”</span></p><p> </p><p> I took a deep breath, shook out my hands, and ducked through the curtain.</p><p> </p><p> The interior of the Armory had been transformed. At least, it felt that way. The room was practically full with fans who…well, they applauded for me, but it certainly wasn’t the reaction I was used to. RFW had spoiled me.</p><p> </p><p> I smiled grimly to myself. I’d just have to show them what I was all about.</p><p> </p><p> I made the walk from the entrance to the ring and rolled under the bottom rope. I waved to the crowd, then spent a few moments stretching out my arms, my legs, getting ready for whatever was going to happen.</p><p> </p><p> Childish music started playing and Sarah came skipping out to the ring. She made it about halfway down the entrance ramp and then stopped when she spotted me. Then she started jumping up and down, screeching and crying. She even pulled at her pigtails and it looked like she was about to fall to the ground and start kicking. Sure enough, she went around to the announce table and yelled something at Farrah, Jackson, and Alfonso. She jabbed a finger at me a few times and, when Farrah said something to her, Sarah threw another fit.</p><p> </p><p> She finally got into the ring. Erin Lawrence, the referee, checked us both for foreign objects, and then the bell rang. I took a deep breath and launched myself at Sarah…</p><p> </p><p> ***</p><p> </p><p> I limped back into the locker room area. I winced a little as I sat down on a bench. Sarah and I had done okay, I thought. She was a high-flyer, definitely not something I had really faced before, so there were a few times when I think I took the hits a bit harder than I had to. Maybe I’d talk to Tamara when I made it back to Rochester.</p><p> </p><p> It took me a moment to realize that the locker room had gone silent. I looked up. The monitors, showing what the audience saw, was playing a video hype package for the next match. But no one was watching it. Instead, everyone was staring at me.</p><p> </p><p> Janna Hurricane nudged Teresa Perez. </p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="14vKPxT.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/14vKPxT.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><img alt="139yLhN.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/139yLhN.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> </p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“We’re supposed to follow that?”</span></p><p> </p><p> I frowned, looking around at the others. What was wrong? They all looked…upset? Angry? Or what?</p><p> </p><p> Then Sarah stumbled into the locker room. She laughed and came over to me, putting me in a loose headlock.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“That’s how you do it, Kil!”</span> She looked over at Hurricane and Perez. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Think you can top that? I’d like to see you try!”</span></p><p> </p><p> Hurricane and Perez scowled at me, but they headed for the ring entrance.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“Don’t mind them,”</span> Sarah whispered. <span style="color:#2E8B57;">“When we heard that Farrah was bringing in some kid from Minnesota, everyone figured you were going to suck up the joint. But if you keep wrestling like that… Well, Janna’s going to have some competition pretty quick here.”</span></p><p> </p><p> Oh. I sat up a little straighter. I looked at the monitors and I hoped that what John said had been true. Hopefully he was watching. I couldn’t wait to hear what he thought.</p>

A Seismic Shift Monday of Week 3, January 2022 “John, can you come down here please?” I rolled over with a groan. My arms and back ached in protest. Apparently Swoll had hit me a whole lot harder than I had realized. Thankfully, I had learned a long time ago not to sign up for classes that met on Monday mornings so I could sleep off the matches. But apparently Mom hadn’t gotten the memo. Someone pounded on my bedroom door. “John! You need to get out here right now!” What was her problem? Mom knew I tried to sleep in on Monday. But then the urgency in her voice caught up with me. I rolled out of bed and stumbled over to the door, pulling it open. “What’s going on?” I mumbled. Mom sighed at me. “Just get downstairs. She looks really upset.” She? Abigail? I frowned. What was wrong? I pulled on some sweats and hurried down the steps. Mom led the way, directing me into the kitchen. Dad sat at the center island and sipped at his coffee. When he saw me coming, he gave me a hard to read look and then slipped out of the room. I came around the corner, bracing myself for whatever Abigail had to say. Only to see that it was Grace sitting at the counter. That stopped me short. What was she doing here? Normally, she and Mark would head right back to the Cities after the show was over. So why was she still in Rochester? And I had seen that expression before. Something had rattled her pretty badly. “Grace?” I asked. “What’s…what’s going on?” She glanced in my direction and then looked down at the counter. “I…I had an interesting phone call last night right after my match. I mean, like, right after I got back in the locker room, my phone rang.” Oh no. “Your dad?” She laughed. “No, not that bad, thankfully. But I knew I had to talk to you about it first.” “About what?” She took a deep breath. “It was Farrah Hesketh. Apparently she was one of the people who bought All In last night.” Farrah Hesketh? The owner of… “QAW? Queens of American Wrestling contacted you?” Grace nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “Farrah offered you a job, didn’t she?” I asked. Another nod. I sat down on one of the kitchen stools hard. My back clenched in protest, but I didn’t care. I stared at her, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Is it a good deal?” I asked. She shrugged. “Eight hundred a show, plus they’re covering my travel costs. She wants me to work as a ruda.” “When do they want you to start?” “This Sunday in New Mexico.” I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything. This was a huge deal for her, something that Freddie had warned me about all those months ago. Grace wasn’t RFW’s best kept secret anymore. “And I agreed to the deal, John,” she whispered. How could she not? I nodded slowly, took a deep breath. “So what does this mean for RFW?” I asked. She clenched her jaw. “So far as I’m concerned, nothing. I want to wrestle for both companies. And Farrah didn’t offer me an exclusive contract or anything.” Well, that was good. But that still presented a problem. The reason why Sabrina Wells wasn’t at All In the night before was because she was working a show for QAW. And we had released Marie Punnen a few months back for the same reason. Were we going to have problems with Grace now? I mean, she was loyal to RFW. I had no doubt about that. But if push came to shove, who would she side with? “Are we going to be okay?” Grace asked. That question knocked me back a bit. “Why wouldn’t we be?” “Because…well, this is huge, John. I figured we’d keep doing RFW together for…well, for however long we could. But I never really thought that one of us would ever be offered a contract with a different company. But then Farrah called me and I took the job before I really thought it all through. And I’m just not sure how I’m going to make all of this work, if I’m having to travel down to New Mexico or Texas a couple times a month, and…” She kept babbling, her words a torrent of anxiety. I slid off my stool and did the only thing I could think of. I walked over to her and hugged her. Her words came to a sudden, lurching stop. And she started crying, hugging me tight. We didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “I was just so worried about what you were going to think. I mean, after the way we were…well, not talking to each other. I didn’t want you to think that I was keeping a secret from you again.” I chuckled. “We’re okay, Grace. I appreciate you telling me. So…what does Mark think of all this?” “I haven’t told him yet. The moment the show was over, I went home and surprised Mom and Dad and then I came over here and…” Huh. I wondered what Mark would make of this. And was it weird that she told me before him? I finally gave her another squeeze and asked, “Need some breakfast?” She nodded and sniffled. I set about finding what I could. I was able to rustle up some toast, cold cereal, and a half-glass of OJ. Not much, but Grace didn’t seem to care. “So first match is this Sunday?” I asked as she ate. “Do you know if it’ll be broadcast?” She shrugged. “I think so. WrestleWorld.” I chuckled. “Well, count on me to tune in and see how you do.”

All In (January 2022) RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, January 2022 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Territory) Broadcast on WrestleWorld (22,790 viewers) 309 in attendance New year, new possibilities. And new workers. I had gone on a little bit of a hiring spree admittedly. While I had focused on hiring younger workers, this time around I had also focused on how popular they were. Given that our middle-of-the-road approach to booking relied on how popular the workers were, we needed to make sure they were at least recognizable. But then, we also had to put on decent matches too. So every time I spotted Freddie having his mini-seminar with Jerry, Charlie, and Pepper, it made me smile. If it meant our matches would be better, so much the better. *** Curt and Martin welcomed the audience to the show. 1) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. PAPA SWOLL This was just kind of a throwaway match to get the crowd started and warmed up. Swoll and I shook hands before the bell rang. Once the match officially started, we circled each other warily. Martin spoke about how we both obviously had a lot of respect for each other. Curt pointed out that respect didn’t mean anything when it came to winning a match. “You can respect your opponent all you want, but in the end, pinning him is all that matters,” Curt said. I left this one up to Tamara to book. She had Swoll take control early on, shrugging off my early offense and battering me down. He hit me with a Pounce out of nowhere, but in spite of that, he couldn’t keep me pinned. He tried to hit me with the Pounce again, but I dodged and whipped him into the ropes. As he ricocheted off, I caught him in the Ace of Harts, putting him down for the pin. Once I had been declared the winner, Swoll looked frustrated, but then he shook hands with me again and finally raised my hand in victory. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 12:50 RATING: 46 2) CHARLIE CORNER & CHIP MARTIN vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX Maybe I need to stop the mini-seminars. For some reason, Jerry and Charlie looked a little confused in the ring, kind of like they were overthinking everything they were doing. As a result, they stumbled through most of the match. The only one who seemed on top of things was Chip. Unfortunately, he kind of paid for that. At one point, Jerry Pepper botched a move and Chip rolled out of it, clutching his calf. Charlie was able to tag his partner out of the ring and took over. Jerry and Pepper quickly brought the match to an end with a Carolina Reaper on Charlie. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 9:40 RATING: 24 3) Minnesota Awesome came out to the ring to a modest ovation. They greeted the crowd, saying that they were so excited to be back in the ring again. They reminded everyone that they had challenged Cockroach Carter to a match and said that he should find a friend. Twangy southern music started up and Cockroach Carter came out. He said, “You boys need to learn to shut up, that’s fer sure. So that’s why I got ahold of my cousin Adrien. C’mon out here, Adrien. Let’s show ’em what some good ol’ boys can do!” Adrien Guest came out to stand next to Cockroach. The two of them engaged in some weird hand slapping routine that ended with the two of them letting out a rebel yell and then charged the ring. (SIDE NOTE: Adrien was put into the game by the game and when I saw he used the same pic as Al the Hillbilly, well, I had to hire him) RATING: 20 4) MINNESOTA AWESOME vs. THE GOOD OL’ BOYS As much as Adrien tried to keep up with the others, it was pretty clear he was new to all of this. Cockroach tried to make up for it by knocking Clark and Perry around the ring. But it was clear that Clark and Perry were too good together for the Good Ol’ Boys to overcome. They hit Adrien with double flying elbows and then Perry pinned Adrien for the win. WINNERS: Minnesota Awesome in 9:09 RATING: 30 5) Garry came out to the ring and, for the first time in two years, he did so without any gimmicks or tricks. Not even a clown nose. He got on the mic. “I’ve been doing some thinking. When I came to the RFW, I was given free reign to do whatever I wanted. They asked me to do ventriloquist acts, basic clowning, and magic. And I had a blast doing it. Zippy, not so much. “But I’ve come to realize, all of that doesn’t matter if I can’t get the win. And I definitely can’t do that if I need to watch my back for Zippy the whole time. So Zippy, get on out here. We’re either going to bury the hatchet or I’m going to bury you.” RATING: 41 6) GARRY THE ENTERTAINER vs. ZIPPY DEVERELL Yikes. These two…really didn’t impress me with this match. I was hoping this would be the end of a decent feud, but they kind of groped their way through it. The crowd decided this would be a good time to go get a snack. So in the end, no one really seemed all that invested as Garry put down Zippy with a Pants Pull Sunset Flip. WINNER: Garry the Entertainer in 13:02 RATING: 28 7) The Uprising came out to the ring, but Talia hobbled out on crutches. Selina helped her partner into the ring. A few members of the audience shouted their support for Talia. “Thank you for that,” Talia said. “But I’m not happy about this. I’m not happy to leave my partner twisting in the wind, especially since we were planning on having some fun this week.” “That’s right,” Selina added. “We wanted to establish our dominance as two of the toughest female competitors in the RFW. We were going to start at the bottom with Abigail Thompson and this Allie Perks and then work our way up.” “But my busted leg kind of put the kaibosh on that,” Talia said. “But since we had the match made, I knew I had to do something. So I reached out to a friend of mine to see if she could help. Modesty?” New entrance music hit and a new worker came out to the ring: Curt identified her as Modesty Pardor. Some of the audience members were clearly excited to see her. RATING: 24 8) ALLIE PERKS & ABIGAIL THOMPSON vs. SELINA SVELTE & MODESTY PARDOR Well, this was kind of a dud. Abigail looked a little lost in the ring, especially with Selina and Modesty’s clear experience and skill. But at the same time, Modesty and Selina were struggling as well, not really working that well together. And yet, Allie and Abigail seemed to have a good deal of chemistry in the ring together. It was a weird mix and the match suffered for it. Selina and Modesty dominated the match for most of it, knocking Abigail and Allie around the ring. That led them to get a little cocky, ignoring clear opportunities to end the match. They paid for it when Allie surprised Modesty, tossing her into the corner and then hitting her with her signature machine gun punches. Modesty rolled out of the corner and Allie fell on her, keeping her down for the three count. WINNERS: Allie Perks & Abigail Thompson in 14:58 RATING: 23 9) The Silver Bullet came out to the ring. Texas Hangman looked pretty confident. He talked about how he and Stallion had paid their dues here and now they had finally been rewarded with tag team gold. He confidently predicted that they would make short work of Original Sinner and Mark Latrell. As confident as Hangman was, Stallion looked sullen, mostly sulking in the corner as Hangman did all the talking. RATING: 31 10) THE SILVER BULLET © vs. MARK LATRELL & ORIGINAL SINNER for the RFW Tag Team Championship The crowd really seemed to get into this, even though Curt said that it was weird that Sinner and Mark were tagging together. “It’s almost like someone’s just throwing random people at the champs.” In spite of that, Sinner and Mark did a decent job. Mark especially was able to generate some heat for him and his partner. The crowd clearly got behind Silver Bullet until Stallion hit Sinner with a Lakota Cutter and made the pin. WINNER: The Silver Bullet in 10:38 RATING: 30 11) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL © vs. SHERRY SMART for the RFW Women’s Championship Martin had to explain the situation to the audience: “We were supposed to see Grace take on Sabrina Wells for the RFW Women’s Championship tonight, but unfortunately, Sabrina wasn’t able to make it. As a result, Sherry Smart was subbed in for Sabrina.” “Bet she didn’t see that coming,” Curt quipped. Sherry clearly had difficulty keeping up with Grace during this match. Grace sold what offense Sherry put in, but it was clear that Sherry wasn’t quite on the same level as Grace in terms of skill or competition. After what turned out to be a pretty good match (thanks to Grace), she got Sherry to tap out with the Diamond Lock. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 18:13 RATING: 51 12) FRO SURE © vs. ROGER MONTEIRO for the RFW Championship I think some of the excitement from Grace’s match bled over into this one. Roger and Fro shook hands before the match started, but then they went after each other with everything they had. Roger looked like a legitimate threat against Fro and managed to get a few near falls. But then Fro hit him with the Sure Thing and picked up the pin and the win. WINNER: Fro Sure in 14:05 RATING: 50 *** The workers were pretty psyched afterwards. I called them together and made sure to thank Modesty, Sherry, and Roger for their hard work (especially Sherry, since she hadn’t planned on being in a title defense tonight). FINAL RATING: 46 Quick Results: From RFW.com...

Injury Report Thursday of Week 1, January 2022 My cell phone blared in my pocket, interrupting my English Lit class. Professor MacIntyre glared at me over her glasses. “Mr. Hart, do you mind?” “Sorry!” I pulled out my phone and frowned at it. Selina Svelte? Why was she calling me at 9:30 in the morning on a Thursday? I smiled apologetically and said, “Sorry, have to get this.” I slipped out into the hall and answered. “Hello?” “Ace? That you?” Selina asked. Why was she yelling? I could hear chatter in the background, but it didn’t sound like anyone was speaking English. “Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on?” “Look, I’ve got some bad news. Talia and I came over to Japan to do a show with 5SSW and we had a big match with Kaede Sugiyama, Machiko Matsuda, Chitose Ariwara, and Kuniko Matsura.” I had no idea who any of those people were. “Anyway, Talia took a nasty tumble out of the ring during the match and…well, she broke her leg.” She what? “Is she okay?” “Uh…not really. We’re in the ER right now and it sounds like they had trouble setting it. The docs are telling us that she’s probably going to have to take it easy for a while. Like no wrestling at all.” “For how long?” “They said maybe five months?” Wow. “Okay. Well, thanks for letting me know.” “Look, I’m really sorry about this…” “It’s not your fault, Selina. You just make sure she’s okay and take care of yourself too.” We hung up and I took a shaky breath. At least she was okay. A broken leg could heal. But what would we do about the Uprising’s match this month? We had advertised it and everything… I shook my head to clear it. Plenty of time to figure that out. And really, I shouldn’t focus on that. Safety first.

Upcoming Card From RFW.com: Feel free to make predictions if you want.

Auld Lang Syne Friday of Week 4, December 2021 I decided to throw a party. It wasn’t that hard of a decision, really. Mom and Dad had decided to get away for the weekend, heading out to a B&B in Fairmont. As he left, Dad told me with mock seriousness not to trash the house while they were gone. While he said it in a joking tone, I caught the threat under the words. He wasn’t kidding about that at all. But this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So rather than throw a rager, I decided to instead invite over a few choice people. Abigail for sure. Cassidy tagged along just because. Grace, naturally, but that meant that Mark would be with her too. Miles and Cynthia from RCTC. That was about it. We put on some movies and just hung out. Nothing too crazy. As the night wore on, Grace and I eventually wound up in a corner together. We observed the others for a bit (Mark had found my parents copy of Taboo and had convinced everyone else to play it. The results were…interesting). That gave us a chance to talk business uninterrupted. “So how did we do financially?” Grace asked. “I know we’ve been losing money lately.” “Actually, December is shaping up pretty nicely. We’re not going to go into the red this month.” “Really?” I nodded. “More like break even. We’re going to make about fifty bucks when all is said and done, and we have a little under seventy-five grand in savings.” Grace nodded thoughtfully. I had breathed a major sigh of relief when I realized we weren’t going to lose money that month. I still wasn’t quite sure how that happened. We did have a small bump in ticket sales and broadcast revenue. And our worker bill was lower than usual, which took me by surprise, given how many new wrestlers we had brought on. But hey, small victories, right? Grace smiled at me and took a sip of her wine cooler (Miles’s contribution to the party). “So next year. Any big plans?” I nodded. “One for sure. Call it a New Year’s resolution for the company. I want to start pre-booking our matches and advertising them the first of each month. We’ve been kind of throwing together the matches at the last minute and while that’s worked so far, I’m thinking if we can let people know what they can expect to see when they get to the Civic Center, we might build some buzz, maybe bring in some more audience members and viewers.” Grace nodded. “Sounds good.” “How about you? Any big plans for the new year?” Her gaze flickered to Mark, who was enthusiastically buzzing Cynthia for saying the wrong thing. Then she smiled at me. “Not really.” I could hear the hesitation in her voice. “Grace…” “I’m fine, really. But…I kind of meant what I said. I’m getting a little…bored. I mean, I’ve wrestled Selina how many times. And Talia and Ruby and even Abigail. And I’m happy to do it, I am. But I kind of want a new challenge. Like maybe…integrating the matches?” I sat back in my chair. “You know I can do it. How many guys did I wrestle in high school and I didn’t have a problem with it at all. I can do this!” I had no doubt that she could. Put her in the ring with just about anyone, and I’d bet on Grace stepping up and bringing the fight to whoever it was. But… I looked over at the game players, specifically Abigail, who was laughing at Miles’s attempts to play the game. Grace must have read my worried expression. “Look, I’m not saying that all the girls on the roster would want to do that. And we shouldn’t force them too, obviously. But what would it hurt? You didn’t want me to wrestle at all, and look how great that turned out.” And she had a point. I knew she did. That gamble had paid off in spades. But there was something that kind of held me back on this. Sure, CZCW and APW made it work. But then, they had access to more experienced wrestlers. As sexist as it might have been to think it, I worried that inexperienced workers wouldn’t be able to handle the size and power differences between men and women. Grace stared at me expectantly. I sighed. “I’ll think about it, okay? I’m not going to promise anything.” She nodded. “That’s all I’m asking.” The others laughed loudly. I looked over and it looked like Mark was…imitating President Biden? That, or he was doing an impression of a manatee on crack. Wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. “How’s everything going with him?” Grace smiled wistfully. “Good. Pretty good, anyway.” “Oh?” She shrugged. “I spent Christmas with his folks this year. Met his extended family and everything.” “No way. Nana Kil let you get away with that?” I asked. “Well, he did come with me to Thanksgiving at Nana’s house.” “Did Nana Kil approve?” “What do you think?” she asked with a laugh. “Not Korean, not going to be a doctor or a pastor? No way Nana Kil is going to sign off on that relationship.” “And how about your folks? They still cool with this?” “Very much so.” Huh. I would have expected Reverend Kil to catch on to Mark sooner or later. “Well, I suppose we’d better go rejoin the party, huh?” Grace said. “Unless there’s something else?” Nothing I could think of. The rest of the party was a blast. We finished off the night with a fake “ball drop,” with each of the couples kissing at midnight (and Cassidy insisting on kissing all the guys on the cheek for some reason). All in all, not a bad way to round out the year.

Yeah, you'd think he'd ask for a whole lot more. But he is loyal to Ace, so...

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, December 2021 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) Broadcast on WrestleWorld (21,633 viewers) 282 in attendance Two years. Two years down. Two incredible years. As I stood in the locker room, I was struck by how normal this all felt. When Grace and I started this journey, a part of me was convinced that we were going to crash and burn within a few months. But that hadn’t happened. Instead, we had gotten to a point where our shows were being viewed throughout the U.S. and Canada. I would have thought that that would have taken years to happen. Yet here we were. Once again, Freddie had gathered his students over in one corner, reviewing the psychology of match making with Charlie, Pepper, and Jerry. I have to admit, I was still a little jealous of the attention the three of them were getting. But still, we were turning into a place where young wrestlers could find their footing and grow their skills. I was proud of that role. I clapped my hands and got everyone’s attention. “Let’s go out there and have an awesome show, everyone!” *** Curt and Martin welcomed the audience to the final show of 2021. 1) The champ made his way to the ring, but rather than dance, Fro stalked out to the ring with a grim expression. He rolled into the ring and waited for his music to end, then glared at the camera. “We’ve got a problem here in the RFW, and his name is James Diaz. “Oh, sure, we’ve all seen him come out here, stomping around and calling himself ‘the Son of the Monster.’ And hey, if that floats your boat, cool. I’ve got my dancing. Garry does his magic tricks. And Jerry and Pepper…well, they like vegetables, apparently. But that’s not important right now. “And I get it. James wants to be the biggest, baddest dude in the RFW. Get in line, bro. Everyone wants that. Including the women, I might add. “But James had taken it too far. He keeps jumping into matches he’s not involved in. He keeps sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. And it’s time for someone to snap it off. “James, I’m here and I’m not planning on going anywhere. If you got something to say to me, get out here and say it.” Fro opened his arms and waited. Sure enough, James’s entrance music hit and he came out to the ring entrance with a mic of his own. “You don’t know what you’re asking for, Fro,” James said. “I’ve held back my aggression. I’ve kept myself in check. But if you want to face me, I will unleash my full wrath upon you and you will see what it means to face the Son of the Monster.” Fro stared at him, and then burst out laughing. “Okay, I can’t take you seriously. Who talks like that? But I think I got the gist of it. You and me, tonight, and I’ll even put the title on the line. Cool?” “Glacial.” RATING: 43 2) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. QUENTIN QUEEN Quentin and I came out to the ring to get the crowd warmed up, but he didn’t have to try that hard. They were already whispering about the main event as we got started. But they quickly put their attention fully on us as the match started. We tore into each other. In the middle of the match, there was a sequence where the two of us blocked our countered each other’s moves for a solid three minutes. Martin said it was a testament to how well we knew each other. After all, we had faced each other so many times over the past two years. At the end of the match, Quentin managed to catch me by surprise with a Q-Ball. Rather than pin me, though, he strutted around the ring and shouted some abuse at me. Then he finally, casually, rolled me over for the pin. But I rolled him through into a small package and got a two count on him. He broke the pinning predicament and tried to set me up for another Q-Ball. But I fought back and hit an Ace of Harts, getting him down and pinned. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 13:04 RATING: 49 3) Mark Latrell came out to the ring, once again wearing his “Mr. RFW” shirt. He waved cockily to the crowd, and offered to take selfies with the fans. No one really took him up on that. “Hello, you fabulous people, my name is Mark Latrell and I am Mr. RFW. If you want to know what this place is all about, you just have to look at me. I am cool. I am strong. And I am ready to tear this place apart with my bare hands. Just you wait and see. With 2022 right around the corner, I can confidently predict that 2022 will be the year of Mr. RFW. Me, Mark Latrell!” He looked ready to keep going, but instead, Charlie Corner’s entrance music cut him off. Charlie came out and lazily tossed his long hair over his shoulder. “Who are you trying to kid, Mark? ‘Mr. RFW?’ Who died and left you that title? You weren’t even here on Day One. I was. John Hart was. Quentin was. Not even our champ, Fro Sure, would be so blatant in trying to claim he embodies the RFW. I get you want to stand out. I mean, look at you. You’re kinda boring. But find a different schtick, man.” Mark glowered at Charlie and then shouted, “Why don’t you make me?” “Thought you’d never ask.” RATING: 36 4) CHARLIE CORNER vs. MARK LATRELL Ugh, this wasn’t very good. Mark is still trying to find his bearing in the ring and it really showed. If he really is the embodiment of RFW, we’re in a lot of trouble. Mark struggled to keep up with Charlie and he had difficulties selling Charlie’s offense. Thankfully, Charlie put him and us out of our collective miseries with a Corner Cutter and made the pin. WINNER: Charlie Corner in 12:28 RATING: 25 5) Prime Time Jack Pryde came out to the ring. He got on the ring and complained a little bit about the fact that he hadn’t been in an RFW ring for a while. “But that’s going to have to change in the new year. After all, it’s right there in my name. If you want RFW to be prime time, you need Jack Pryde. I am simply the best thing that will ever happen to this promotion and you’re going to see amazing things from me in the coming year!” RATING: 33 6) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. PRIME TIME JACK PRYDE This match was a little bit better. Roger clearly wasn’t impressed with Jack’s bragging from earlier and seemed determined to teach him some respect. Jack wasn’t getting the message, though, as he did a lot of showboating and clearly wasn’t taking Roger seriously as a threat. He came to regret that, though, as Roger hit the Eagle Chop and then made the pin. WINNER: Roger Monteiro in 12:12 RATING: 35 7) James Diaz appeared on the screen and glowered at the camera. “The time has come for the Son of the Monster to be unleashed. Tonight, we’re going to see a seismic shift in the RFW as I take my rightful place as the RFW Champion. Fro Sure, enjoy your final minutes with the title. Because as 2021 comes to an end, so will your title reign.” RATING: 31 8) MINNESOTA AWESOME vs. DREADMASK Unfamiliar entrance music hit the arena and two newcomers came out to the ring… Martin identified them as Clark Smallbone and Perry Longstaff, two young wrestlers who tagged together as “Minnesota Awesome.” (and with a name like that, how could I not hire them?) Some of the fans clearly recognized them from their work on the indie scene. Dreadmask came out to the ring, looking somewhat put out. Curt said he couldn’t blame them. “Dreadnought and Masked Mauler were the tag team champs, and now they’re coming out to face these newbies? Where’s the justice in that?” If that’s what the former champs were thinking, it clearly fired them up. While Clark and Perry put up a valiant fight, it was clear that Dreadnought and Mauler weren’t going to put up with them. In the end, Dreadnought put Clark down with a Dread Bomb and made the pin. WINNERS: Dreadmask in 11:53 RATING: 37 9) Dreadmask stormed out of the ring. Perry helped Clark up and the two of them grabbed mics and introduced themselves to the crowd. “I gotta admit, that isn’t how we were hoping this was going to go,” Perry said. “Sorry, Clark.” “Hey, no worries. We all have to start somewhere, right? And now we know that we’re going to face some serious competition here at RFW. That’s exactly what we were hoping for. Because we are Minnesota Awesome! We’re gonna show you how great we are!” “From the shores of Lake Superior to the Iowa border,” Perry said. “From the Dakotas to Wisconsin,” Clark added. “We are Minnesota—” Southern music interrupted them. Cockroach Carter came out with a scowl. “What the hell is goin’ on out here?” he drawled. “Where’re all these newcomers comin’ from? I been here from day one, and I have yet to get the respect I deserve. You guys should just pack up and go back where you came from.” Clark and Perry exchanged glances with each other. “Well, I’m actually from Owatonna,” Perry said. “And I’m from Brooklyn Park,” Clark said. “You’re the one who sounds like he’s far from home, Hillbilly Elegy. So why don’t you clear out?” “You better take that back ’fore I come down there and teach you some manners,” Cockroach growled. “Anytime you want to go, we’ll be here,” Clark said. “Why don’t you find a friend and we’ll see you here next month?” Perry said. RATING: 22 10) THE SILVER BULLET © vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX for the RFW Tag Team Championship As the new champs made their way to the ring, it was pretty clear that Texas Hangman was feeling it but Wild Red Stallion wasn’t. As a matter of fact, Hangman had to stop a few times to try to pump Stallion up. As for the former champs, Jerry and Pepper seemed focused and determined to reclaim the tag team gold. And that threat seemed to have gotten to the Silver Bullet. Something just wasn’t clicking for them tonight. Martin tried to play it off as Stallion living with too much doubt and pressure, but it was clear that they were struggling. Jerry and Pepper kind of ran rings around them, isolating Hangman and working him over to keep Stallion out of the ring. But in the last moments of the match, Stallion finally seemed to get into it. He strained for Hangman to make the tag and, when his partner did, Stallion hit the ring and cleaned house, tossing Pepper out to ringside and finally hitting Jerry with the Lakota Cutter for the pin and the win. WINNER: The Silver Bullet in 14:07 RATING: 31 11) Grace came out to the ring and greeted the fans. She waited for them to calm down and made a surprising admission: “I’m kind of bored. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I promise, so long as I have this title, I’m going to come out here to this ring and give it my all. That’s not going to change. But you know what? It feels like I’ve wrestled just about everyone that’s here in the RFW. The women anyway. I’m still trying to convince the powers that be that I should be allowed to take a shot at Fro.” The crowd loved that idea. “So I figured I’d mix things up a little. Anyone wants me, I’ll be here waiting.” It didn’t take long for unfamiliar music to start up and a newcomer came out to the ring: She introduced herself as Allie Perks and said that she was here to show the RFW what she could do! She dropped the mic, pounded her fists together, and stormed the ring. RATING: 68 12) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. ALLIE PERKS for the RFW Women’s Championship While Grace wasn’t disrespectful about it, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t expecting much from Allie. That proved to be a mistake. Allie managed to overwhelm the champ at one point with some offense, getting her down in the corner and punching her so rapidly that Martin compared it to being shot with a machine gun. Even Curt had to grudgingly admit that Allie might have a place on the RFW roster. After that withering assault, Grace clearly changed her tune. She offered Allie a respectful look, then launched into an offense of her own. Allie managed to weather most of it and even hit Grace with more machine-gun like punches again. But in the end, Grace got Allie down and tapping with the Diamond Lock. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 13:42 RATING: 51 13) FRO SURE © vs. JAMES DIAZ for the RFW Championship The crowd was on fire for this match. Fro and James were all business as they went out to the ring. And once the bell rang, it was clear that they both wanted to destroy each other. Nothing held back, lots of big attacks that left each man pretty exhausted. James tried several times to get Fro into the Asian Thumb Spike, only to have the champ either slip out of it or get to the ring before James could really dial it in. But in spite of that, Curt wondered if Fro’s time was over. “It’s pretty clear that James wants this badly. And that kind of hunger can drive a person to new heights.” That may be true, but Fro wasn’t going down without a fight. Just as James tried to get Fro into the Asian Thumb Spike, Fro managed to slip out of it and turn it into a Sure Thing. He then put James down one-two-three. WINNER: Fro Sure in 14:44 RATING: 50 *** After the workers gathered in the locker room, I spent a few moments pumping up Clark, Perry, and Allie for their great debuts. I said I couldn’t wait to see what 2022 had in store for us! FINAL RATING: 51 Quick Results: From RFW.com...

Fro's Request Sunday of Week 4, November 2021 I stared at the text from Fro, waves of ice rolling over my skin. I mean, technically, it wasn’t anything too traumatic. Just a quick note: “Call me when you get the chance.” But given the way things had been going lately, what with the string of injuries that had been plaguing us, what with taking a step back financially, I felt like the other shoe was about to hit me in the head. I had actually gotten the text yesterday afternoon while I was out with Abigail. She ahd come back from her family Thanksgiving and come over to our place to hang out with my family. She and Monica had spent close to two hours going over my sister’s wedding plans. Every now and then, Abigail would glance in my direction with laughter in her eyes. I don’t think she had told anyone in my family what I had done earlier that year. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to. But for a brief moment, it was easy for me to think of Abigail as the bride doing the planning and…well, it didn’t freak me out as much as it probably should have. I shook my head to clear it. I was ducking the problem. Fro wouldn’t want me to put this off much longer. I hit the button and waited. “Ace, how you doing?” Fro asked. “Doing all right, Fro. What’s going on?” He sighed. “Listen, man…this isn’t easy for me to say.” Oh God. He was going to walk away from RFW. Not that I could blame him. From what I had heard, Kanzen was starting to sniff around our roster. Someone must have seen what Fro could do. He was heading to SWF or TCW or even USPW. Not that I could blame him. “When I first signed with you guys, getting paid thirty bucks a show wasn’t that big of a deal. But I think I’ve done some good work for you. Why else would you give me the strap, right? So I was hoping I could get paid a little bit more for each show.” Okay, so this wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Still not the best, given how tight our finances were. Hopefully the ask wouldn’t be that bad. “Uh, sure. What were you thinking?” “Sixty bucks? That sound good for you?” I blinked. “Absolutely. That sounds great.” “Perfect. Thanks, man! Knew I could count on you.” We chatted a little bit more, mostly about how our respective Thanksgivings were. Once we hung up, I decided I had stalled long enough. Time to gauge the damages. I carried out my usual ritual in the vain hope that it would somehow help. And…maybe it did. Maybe? We had lost money again, but only $2,547. We had slightly better ticket sales and our broadcast revenue was up. Our worker bill was slightly lower as well. That meant we had dropped to $73,346. I drummed my fingers on the desk. Well, that wasn’t fantastic, but maybe that meant we could sustain this longer. Last month, I worried that we would cut it pretty close, with most of our warchest gone by the time our WrestleWorld contract expired. But if we didn’t lose as much money, maybe we could keep this going for a little bit longer. Maybe.

All In (November 2021) RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, November 2021 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) Broadcast on WrestleWorld (20,761 viewers) 235 in attendance Once again, there was something in the air as the wrestlers arrived for the show. Maybe it was some leftover excitement over our broadcasting deal. James Diaz especially seemed really pumped up. He let out a war whoop as he entered the room and then clapped me on the shoulder. “You ready for tonight, John?” he asked. I smiled at him. I was indeed. He and I had been texting for the past week, working out some details about how tonight was going to go. I had a really good feeling about it and he apparently did as well. “Hey, I wanted to let you know, I really appreciate what you’re doing for me,” James said. “I mean, when you made the promise last year, I thought for sure it was all just a lot of hot air. Y’know, usual promoter stuff. But I’ve really enjoyed the push you’ve been giving me.” “I make good on my word,” I said. “I always will.” He laughed, then turned to the others and whooped again. A few of the other workers whooped in return. Maybe part of the good mood came from the fact that Lenny Badman (aka Flying Patriot) had brought in a couple of coolers of drinks. One was beer and wine, the rest were pops. But people were helping themselves and cracking them open. “Let’s not get too crazy, folks,” I called. There was some good natured grumbling, but Freddie and Tamara assured me that we were going to be fine. I hoped so. We had to keep building on what we had been doing. We needed everyone focused and ready. Hopefully tonight would be a good night. *** Martin and Curt welcomed the audience to the show. 1) Once the initial introduction had ended, I came out to the ring. I got the mic and waited for the audience to simmer down. “This is supposed to be a great time for RFW. Last month, we were finally able to broadcast what we do here for everyone to see. And you know what happened? 16,000 people tuned it to see what we’re all about. “And how did things end last week? With Quentin Queen winning a match to be named the #1 Contender for the RFW Championship. We had that great stare-down between Fro Sure and Quentin…and then James Diaz came out and attacked both of them. He put the main event for this show at risk. “Now thankfully, both Fro and Quentin are fine. They’re going to be here tonight and I have every confidence that they’re going to put on a hell of a match for you.” The crowd roared their approval. But I wasn’t quite done yet. “But that doesn’t address the real problem here. James Diaz is out of control. He wants us to see him as ‘the Son of the Monster,’ but let’s not mince words. He is a monster. He’s dangerous. He keeps interjecting himself into situations where he doesn’t belong, and—” James Diaz vaulted the security rail and slid into the ring. But I was ready for him. Just as he tried to attack me, I lit into him and the two of us started brawling in the middle of the ring. Half the guys in the locker room came out and pulled us apart. Curt said that fighting in the ring is fine, but we should do it in a regular match! RATING: 36 2) PAPA SWOLL vs. THE MASKED MAULER VII Mauler seemed a little more subdued in the match, probably so he would be careful to not injure Swoll. That led to some tentative feints and cautious lock-ups. But once they got going, Swoll coaxed Mauler to step it up a little. The two knocked each other around the ring for a bit before Swoll went for the Pounce. He missed, and Mauler was able to capitalize by knocking him to the mat and putting him in the Iron Claw. WINNER: The Masked Mauler VII in 12:50 RATING: 35 3) FLYING PATRIOT vs. COCKROACH CARTER Basically, I’m trying to introduce the viewing audience to our roster as best as I can. This…may not have been the best foot forward for these two. Carter came across as a lumbering powerhouse while Patriot took to the air to try to stun him. Carter did manage to knock Patriot out of the air a few times. But in the end, Patriot hit Carter with a Springboard Legdrop. WINNER: Flying Patriot in 14:07 RATING: 16 4) In a corner of the backstage area, Sherry Smart had set up a small fortune teller stand. She introduced herself to the audience and explained that she had “second sight” and used her gifts to predict her matches. For example… She pulled out a tarot deck and dealt several cards. She smiled broadly and predicted that in her match tonight, she would face Abigail Thompson. She seemed perfectly fine with that thought, predicting confidently that she would win. But then Ruby Reece stormed into the set and cleared the cards off the table. She revealed that Sherry was wrong. She actually was going to face her…right now! RATING: 16 5) SHERRY SMART vs. RUBY REECE Sherry looked really rattled as she went out to the ring, and Martin said he couldn’t blame her. “Abigail Thompson is a sweet girl, but she’s still pretty new to the sport. Ruby, though, has some serious experience under her belt and she’s proven herself to be a fierce competitor. Now, Sherry could surprise us—” “Oh, come on, Martin,” Curt retorted. “We don’t need Sherry’s so-called ‘Second Sight’ to know how this match is going to end.” And that proved prophetic. While Sherry tried to mount an offense, Ruby just shrugged it off and tossed Sherry around the ring before putting her down with a vicious Head Kick. WINNER: Ruby Reece in 12:45 RATING: 30 6) THE SILVER BULLET © vs. DUSTIN DEUCE & CASSIDY BLAINE for the RFW Tag Team Championship Martin reminded the audience of what happened last month: “Much to everyone’s surprise, the Silver Bullet somehow managed to claim the tag team titles. I don’t think Wild Red Stallion has quite figured out that he’s the champ. I mean, he’s been struggling to find his footing in the the RFW as of late.” “Well, he better screw his head on straight. Dustin and Cassidy are not a team to be trifled with,” Curt said. Stallion was clearly the weak link in the match, struggling to keep up with the other three. Dustin and Cassidy were able to keep on the offense for most of the match, battering Stallion and keeping him on the defensive. But then, after Hangman started to turn things around, Stallion was able to hit the ring and put down Cassidy with a Lakota Chop. WINNERS: The Silver Bullet in 13:55 RATING: 30 7) Circus-like music started to play and Garry the Entertainer came out to the ring. He carried with him a magician’s collapsible table, which he set up at ringside near some of the fans. He produced a deck of cards and started what looked like a game of Three Card Monte, shuffling three Kings back and forth, back and forth. As he did this, he started talking about his history with the RFW. “When I first got here, I was tagging with a guy named Zippy Deverell. Nice guy, I thought. A real cut up. We figured that we were going to be kings in this business.” He flipped over the outer two cards to reveal the kings. Then he went back to shuffling. “And you know, we did okay for ourselves. I mean, Dreadmask took exception to us, but they’re just short-sighted fools.” This time, when he flipped over the two left-most cards, they had somehow turned into Jacks. Garry smiled sheepishly at the fans. “It helps if you know that Jacks used to be called Knaves at one point. Kind of obscure, I know.” He started shuffling again. “But then, out of nowhere, Zippy stabbed me in the back. And that was the end of Jokers Wild, our tag team.” He flipped over the cards again, revealing that the two outer cards were Jokers and the King of Hearts, the “suicide king.” And then Zippy went back to shuffling the cards. “But that’s all right. Sometimes the greats have to break up the act so they can go on to bigger and better things. That’s what I’m determined to do. And when the time comes, I’m going to beat Zippy…” He flipped over the cards again, revealing the ace of spades, the two of hearts, and the three of diamonds. “…one…two…three.” RATING: 46 8) GARRY THE ENTERTAINER vs. ORIGINAL SINNER Original Sinner came out to the ring and strutted out like he was expecting to rip whoever he faced to little tiny pieces. But when he saw Garry waiting in the ring for him, he looked a little a bit put off. And when Garry started capering around the ring, acting like a clown, he seemed even more upset. That carried over into the match. Sinner tried to overpower Garry, but Garry managed to scramble out of his reach for most of the match, hitting and fading as best as he could. But just as it was looking like Garry might pull off an upset, Sinner hit him with a powerful forearm blow that nearly took Garry out of his boots. The momentum shifted almost immediately as Sinner beat Garry into the mat before finishing him off with a Choke Slam. WINNER: Original Sinner in 12:36 RATING: 32 9) Garry got to his feet and looked more than a little wobbly. He took a few deep breaths and nodded sadly. A few of the audience members applauded and cheered for him. But then Zippy Deverell vaulted the security rail and hit the ring, knocking Garry back down again and beating the holy hell out of him. He spit on him, and then stormed into the back. RATING: 14 10) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. JAMES DIAZ James strutted out to the ring, sneering at the audience as he went. Once he was in the ring, he roared his defiance at the crowd and stomped around like he was a barely contained animal. When I made my entrance, I stayed focused on the ring, although I did shake a few hands and let some of the fans pat me on the shoulder as I passed. Once the bell rang, we tore into each other. Martin commented that it seemed like the two of us thought a title was on the line of something. Curt added that there was obviously some simmering tension between us that had to be vented. We both set each other up repeatedly for various holds and finishers, but for most of the match, we couldn’t quite connect. We both got two counts. I even got a “two and three-quarters count” (according to Martin). But after missing an Ace of Harts, James got me down in the Asian Thumb Spike. In spite of my struggling, James locked it in tight and eventually, I had to tap out before I passed out. WINNER: James Diaz in 16:03 RATING: 46 11) Grace came out to the ring to a pretty loud ovation. She baked in the adulation for a few moments before she started talking about DupliKate, her opponent for tonight. “This isn’t the first time I’ve faced Kate,” Grace said. “As a matter of fact, I was the first person that Kate wrestled when she got here at RFW. And she’s…well, she’s something else. I don’t know how she does it, but she seems to be able to read her opponent and imitate their offensive moves. It’s like she can read your mind. I know how scary that can be because…well, the first time, I let her get into my head. “But not tonight. I know her tricks. I know what to expect. And so tonight, Kate’s going to learn that this Diamond doesn’t break!” RATING: 63 12) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL © vs. DUPLIKATE for the RFW Women’s Championship When DupliKate made her entrance, she had somehow gotten her hands on a duplicate of Grace’s ring attire. That seemed to knock Grace back a step at first, but then she started laughing as DupliKate imitated her ring entrance and pre-match ritual. Grace bowed to Kate and applauded her, which only seemed to annoy Kate. Once the match started, it was clear that Kate had been studying Grace. Every move Grace tried, Kate could counter. And Grace had to try to deal with her own moves coming from Kate. There were a few times where it looked like Kate had Grace’s number, but Grace managed to barely avoid her. Then, out of nowhere, Kate hit Grace with the Diamond’s Edge. Grace hit the mat hard and appeared to be knocked out. Kate stared at the champ in absolute surprise. Then she started celebrating what she obviously thought was a win. Martin commented that that was dangerous, especially with a competitor like Grace in the ring. Kate finally made the pin and the ref started the count, only to have Grace kick out at two. Kate tried to make the pin again, only to have Grace kick out almost immediately. Kate hauled Grace to her feet and set her up for another Diamond’s Edge, only to have Grace come to life and fight back. She knocked Kate around the ring, overwhelming her with her offense before putting Kate in a Diamond’s Lock. She ratcheted it in and Kate quickly started tapping. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 14:50 RATING: 54 13) FRO SURE © vs. QUENTIN QUEEN for the RFW Championship There was serious electricity in the air as this match started. Both competitors were clearly focused on beating the other. As they made their entrances, Martin ran down the history: Quentin was RFW’s first champion. Fro Sure took the title from him. Quentin has always claimed that the title is his. And they really laid it all on the line. We told them to go all out and they certainly did that. High-risk spots, lots of hard-hitting offense that echoed through the arena. They were clearly out to put each other down and keep each other down. Quentin managed to hit Fro with a Q-Ball at one point, only to have the champ kick out almost immediately. In the end, as Quentin tried to set up a second Q-Ball, Fro countered it and turned it into a Sure Thing for the pin and the win. WINNER: Fro Sure in 11:56 RATING: 51 14) Fro looked nearly dead on his feet, but then James Diaz’s entrance music hit. Fro tossed the belt aside and dropped into a ready stance. But James didn’t approach the ring. Instead, he came out to the ring entrance and glared at Fro. Fro mirrored his expression. And sadly, the crowd just didn’t care one way or the other. RATING: 12 *** “I think this may have been one of our best shows ever,” I told the workers. “And we can thank James, Fro, and Quentin for their hard work. You guys really brought it to your matches and I think the crowd knows it.” FINAL RATING: 51 Quick Results: From RFW.com...

Taking the Hit Sunday of Week 4, October 2021 I stared at the computer screen and took a deep breath. I went through my usual routine and clicked on the calculate button then braced myself for the hit I knew I was going to take. No, more like the hit I knew RFW had taken. The computer pinged and I risked a peek out of one eye. I started to groan, but caught myself before I gave in completely. When we signed with WrestleWorld, I knew that we were going to spend some money. Quite a bit of it, in all likelihood. We had scrambled and hired the team we needed to be able to broadcast our show. And knowing that 16,000 people had tuned in for our show meant a lot. It meant that we had gone up in our popularity all over the U.S. and Canada. That would only help us in the long run. But it meant that we carved into our warchest for the first time ever. At the end of the month, we were in the red by $6,531, bringing our total down to $75,893. I leaned forward and scrolled through the numbers a little more carefully to see if I could figure out where we might be able to trim the fat. On the plus side, we had made $2,786 from the broadcast, but our show costs had gone up by $4,000 while our production costs had ballooned by $15,000! Sucking in a few deep breaths, I kept looking. Everything else looked pretty much normal. We could maybe cut back on how long the shows were and put on fewer matches. That would save us some money in terms of worker costs, but how long would the guys be willing to sit out to stabilize the company? Then I frowned and looked at the amount we lost again. Our deal with WrestleWorld was for nine months. Doing some fast and dirty math, I figured that we could keep doing this. Yes, we would likely lose money the entire time, but by my rough estimates, we wouldn’t completely burn through our money. We’d still have a little left. So we could hypothetically grow the brand, spend the money, and see where we were in nine months. If we were almost broke, we wouldn’t re-sign with WrestleWorld. If things had turned around, we could. I blew out a shaky breath. My head told me that this was going to work out just fine. But my heart felt like I had just stumbled out onto an ice-covered lake in mid-April. It felt like I was going to drop into the frigid water at any moment.

All In (October 2021) RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, October 2021 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Territory) Broadcast on WorldWild Wrestling (16,882 views) 217 in attendance I had only been that nervous twice before. The first time was right before our first All In. The second…well, I still didn’t like thinking about how I had proposed to Abigail. But as our growing team got the Civic Center ready for our first broadcast, I felt like I was going to throw up every other minute. If anyone else felt that way, they didn’t let on. Linda and her Four-Clap Posse didn’t seem to care that there were more camera operators setting up and changing the audience’s traffic flow. A few of the wrestlers looked a bit on edge but not nearly as bad as me. They gathered in groups, talking about their upcoming matches and, from what I could overhear, they were all trying to figure out how to pump things up. Grace gave me a small smile. But then I found Abigail. She hugged me, kissed my cheek. “Hang in there, John,” she whispered. “And go show them what we can do.” *** Curt and Martin welcomed audience to the show, introducing themselves to the folks who were watching from home. 1) Fro Sure’s entrance music hit and he came out to the ring. His shoulder was taped up and he was a little hesitant about dancing too much. He made his way to the ring. “Welcome to RFW, everyone! Especially those of you watching from home, welcome to one of the greatest shows on Earth. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Fro Sure, and I am the RFW Champion!” The audience cheered and Fro soaked it in, even encouraging it with a smirk. “Now I’m sure a lot of you showed up hoping to see me in action tonight. And believe me, when I heard that we would be seen all throughout America and Canada, I wanted to be able to put on the best match ever for all of you. “But unfortunately, last month, I injured my shoulder and the docs aren’t going to let me wrestle tonight.” The crowd booed a little. Fro nodded sadly. “But tonight, we’re going to have a six-man match to determine who I’ll wrestle next month for the RFW Championship! And next month, you’ll all see what the hype is about when I lock up with whoever wins tonight’s main event!” RATING: 43 2) JOY RIDER vs. TALIA QUINZEL Joy hit the arena with so much energy, I thought maybe she thought she was in the main event. She yelled at the fans and encouraged them to get into it as well. By the time she made it to the ring, everyone was cheering and jumping. Then Talia made her entrance and sneered at the fans as she made her way to the ring. The moment the bell rang, these two tore into each other. In spite of their clashing personalities (with Joy being so high-powered and energetic and Talia so grim and focused), they really were able to play off of each other well. They sold each other’s offense and really got the crowd into the action. Even though Joy tried to overwhelm Talia with some high-energy offense, Talia weathered the assault and finally caught Joy with a Spinal Trauma. WINNER: Talia Quinzel in 12:36 RATING: 46 3) The camera shifted backstage where Wild Red Stallion was getting ready for a match. He looked sullen and upset. The camera pulled back to reveal that Texas Hangman was standing next to him. “Look, friend, I know you wanted to put an end to our partnership and go out on your own. But let’s face it, that hasn’t exactly worked out for you. That’s why I figured you might want to try one more time. Let’s you and me go out there, face the tag champs, and see if we can’t make this work. Okay?” Stallion tried to explain why he didn’t want to, but we left it up to him about what to say. As a result, his reasons were a jumbled, incoherent mess that Hangman pretty much ignored. He patted Stallion on the shoulder and said he’d see him out in the ring. RATING: 24 4) ABIGAIL THOMPSON vs. RUBY REECE Abigail once again looked a bit nervous out in the ring, especially as Ruby glared at her, making it clear that she was intent on destroying her. The two of them locked it up and, unfortunately, this turned out to be kind of a subpar match. Ruby and Abigail just didn’t work in the ring well together at all. The crowd still got into the match, though, really getting behind Abigail as she tried to duck the offense of the much more dominant Ruby. But try as she might, she just couldn’t handle Ruby, who put Abigail down with a Head Kick. WINNER: Ruby Reece in 14:19 RATING: 31 5) James Diaz came out to the ring and he introduced himself to the crowd. “If Fro Sure got to do it, I should too. Because I am the Son of the Monster. I am the most dominant force in the RFW. And whether you realize it or not, whether those fools in the back realize it or not, you are all going to witness my greatness. “And that starts tonight. I am a part of that six man match that Fro mentioned. When I am done with my competitors, I’ll be moving on to take on Fro Sure and claiming the championship for myself. And it will happen, because you can’t stop a monster!” RATING: 17 6) CHARLIE CORNER & CHIP MARTIN vs. DUSTIN DEUCE & CASSIDY BLAINE I think nerves must have gotten to Charlie. You could tell that he was floundering a little bit. He kept shooting looks over at the cameras like he expected them to jump the security rail. There were several times where we could see Chip get frustrated with Charlie and shout at him to keep his head in the game. As a result, Dustin and Cassidy were able to run rings around them. And Curt was gold on color, hyping the match and covering for the times that Charlie kind of blanked out. In the end, Dustin hit Chip with the Deuces are Wild and made the pin. WINNERS: Dustin Deuce & Cassidy Blaine in 13:10 RATING: 35 7) Grace’s entrance music hit and the crowd went wild. Curt explained as she made her entrance that she used to work with him at the announce table but that she’d gone on to do bigger and better things. Martin dryly asked why he didn’t lace up his boots and get into the ring. Curt didn’t dignify that question with an answer. Once the cheers died down, Grace introduced herself as the RFW Women’s Champion. She said it was her pleasure to be here on our inaugural show on WrestleWorld. She said that there were a lot of great workers here at RFW who would give people their money’s worth. But she then focused on her match for later on tonight. “I’m going to be locking up with Selina Svelte for the RFW Women’s Championship. And I know that some of you may be feeling like ‘Been There, Seen That.’ But that doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to take on anyone who wants a shot at my title. And it is my title because so far as I’m concerned, this belt is never going anywhere else.” RATING: 42 8) THE SILVER BULLET vs. DREADMASK © for the RFW Tag Team Championship The crowd really seemed to get behind the match, even though the wrestling, unfortunately, wasn’t all that great. Dreadmask seemed very confident (maybe overly so) as they got into the ring. Hangman really did the lion’s share of the fighting through most of it. Stallion seemed to be mostly going through the motions when Hangman tagged him in. But then, much to everyone’s surprise, Stallion went for his finishing move, the Lakota Cutter, on Masked Mauler. Curt commented that this was probably not a good idea since the champ would see it coming. But much to everyone’s shock, Stallion managed to catch Mauler by surprise and dropped him. And as Dreadnought rushed in to protect his partner, Hangman intercepted him and shouted for Stallion to make the pin. Stallion did and the ref counted to three. WINNERS: The Silver Bullet in 13:10 RATING: 31 9) The crowd’s interest seemed to have peaked during the match itself. Hangman celebrated with his title belt and clapped Stallion on the back. Stallion looked positively stunned about what happened and just stared at the belt in his hands. RATING: 11 10) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL © vs. SELINA SVELTE for the RFW Women’s Championship This may be something of a rerun, but the crowd didn’t care. Neither did Grace or Selina. They were just as intense as ever, tearing into each other the moment the bell rang. Selina looked particularly focused on punishing Grace and proving that she was wrong that the belt would always stay with her. But Grace was just as determined to prove that she had been telling the truth. They both managed to hit each other hard, with Selina trying to get Grace to tap out twice with the Prawn Armlock. But Grace managed to force her to break the hold both times before she finally hit the Diamond’s Edge for the pin and the win. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 18:47 RATING: 57 11) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. JOHN “ACE” HART vs. PAPA SWOLL vs. QUENTIN QUEEN vs. MARK LATRELL vs. JAMES DIAZ to determined the #1 Contender for the RFW Championship And the show kind of sputtered out at the end thanks to this one. We each made our entrance and tried to play to the crowd as much as we could (except for James, who seemed focused on the ring itself). Once the match got started, we all tore into each other. Mark tried to get Quentin and James on his side in an impromptu alliance, but neither seemed interested, whereas Papa, Roger, and I would fight with each other, but you could tell that it was more a matter of necessity. Each of us got moments to shine in the match and each of us managed to score a near fall or two. Out of all of us, though, it was clear that Quentin and Mark were a bit off their game. Quentin seemed a bit skittish in the ring, like he was hesitant to lock up with anyone. And Mark was just showing how green he still was in the ring. Toward the end, though, as people started getting tired, Roger messed up. He threw Quentin into one corner a bit too hard and Quentin collapsed to the ring, clutching his back and groaning. The ref quickly isolated him and checked on him. While he did that, James took advantage of the distraction and got Papa Swoll into the Asian Thumb Spike. Papa fought to get out, but he was fading fast. Then I hit James and got Papa out of that predicament. James and I brawled and we wound up going over the top rope to fight at ringside. Mark staggered to his feet. And suddenly, Quentin shoved past the ref and hit Mark with the Q-Ball and quickly rolled him up for the pin. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 31:16 RATING: 29 12) Quentin got to his feet to celebrate, but then Fro’s music hit. He came out to ringside and stared at Quentin. Quentin glared back, then motioned for Fro to get into the ring right there. Fro dropped the championship title and clambered into the ring. The two got into each other’s faces, their foreheads pressed together. It looked like they were going to start swinging right then. But then James Diaz got back into the ring and laid them both out, setting the boots to both of them. The camera revealed that I was knocked out at ringside. The show ended with James towering over both Fro and Quentin, glaring at them and the crowd with a wild light burning in his eyes. RATING: 22 for staredown; 28 for attack *** I was starting to think we should hire a backstage doctor. I mean, Rochester was full of them. Surely we could find someone to keep patching guys up. And if this sort of thing kept happening, maybe we’d need one. Thankfully, Roger was apologetic. He stuck by Quentin’s side as Tamara checked him over. It got so bad that finally Quentin shooed him away. Tamara said he was okay for the most part but should probably get checked over by a real doc. “That’s fine by me,” Quentin said. “Met a cute nurse at Mayo last month.” Selina glared at him and Quentin laughed and said, “Baby, you know I’m just kidding.” Wait, they were dating? No, that’s not the thing to focus on now. “All right, people. We had a pretty good first show and I think people have seen what we are all about. Quentin, I am amazed at how you keep going, even after you get injured. And Grace and Selina, you did an excellent job as always. If we keep up the good work, who knows how far we can go.” FINAL RATING: 37 From RFW.com...

What. On. Earth. I'm dying over here. And I'm mad that I didn't think of "Qreepy" Quentin Queen. That's just gold right there. Rayne Man vs Flash Savage vs "Qreepy" Quentin Queen Simon Waves vs Insane Machine Mk2 La Intelligentsia (DeCipher & Disturbed) vs The Happytime Learnatorium (Garry The Entertainer & MissTickle) That name! Papa Swoll vs Chess Maniac Joanna Silver vs La Criatura De La Navidad

Take the Plunge! Sunday of Week 4, September 2021 The folks at WrestleWorld were a breeze to work with. They talked up how excited they were to have the RFW join their team and they promised that we would see a jump in viewers (which wouldn’t be that hard since we didn’t have any). After a bit of back and forth Saturday evening, we came to an agreement: the contract would be for nine months. Our show would be On Demand. And we would get 55% of the revenue from the buys. I tried to go for more, but they would have charged us a flat fee to do so. As soon as we had that done, I cut orders to upgrade our production to Semi-Pro. I also upgraded our broadcast quality to Hired Pro. And I had to do a massive upgrade to our music, finding a local musician who could do all of our entrance music in house as opposed to licensing it. In some ways, I was worried about this. All of those upgrades were going to be added expense. Even with the ticket sales (which totaled $2,409 that month), even though we had made $8,695 in profit, bringing our warchest to $82,244, I still worried that we’d wind up draining our money. But hey, maybe Mark was on to something. To make money, you gotta spend it first.