Scapino1974

I think it's awesome that workers participate in indie shows to get bumps to their popularity and skills. I was thinking, though: it might be cool if player avatars were invited or able to participate in those indie shows as well (if certain conditions are met). For example, if my avatar is an active wrestler (as opposed to say a referee or announcer/color commentator or whatever) and is part of a promotion that's so small they only do handshake/non-exclusive deals, they would be given the option of participating in a match at an indie show. As the player, I couldn't control who I'd wrestle or how the match goes (although maybe there could be a system where, if my avatar is popular enough, I could be given certain choices about that). And there could be the risk that my avatar could get injured during a match. Obviously, if my avatar works for a company that is "too big" and thus offers exclusive contracts, s/he would be unable to work one of those indie shows. Just some random thoughts.

So where did that idiot go? I checked in with Lisa. None of her posse had seen Mark anywhere, but she promised me that if she did, she’d send him my way. I wound up wondering through the halls of the Civic Center. This place was huge. We had a lock on part of it every month, the auditorium in the middle of the building. We fit pretty comfortably in there so far, but I couldn’t help but hope that someday soon, we’d need to move into the actual arena. I saw people from other events coming and going. I tried not to call attention to myself, but I was definitely frustrated. Our instructions were pretty clear: we were supposed to stick to our part of the building and not wander around. The last thing anyone wanted was for us to scare the “normal people” coming to the Civic Center for other events. My wandering took me to the furthest corners of the building but I simply couldn’t find Mark anywhere. Had he already left? Maybe. Maybe he thought that once his match was over, he could leave. That wasn’t the case. I mean, if it was an emergency, sure, but it was good for the locker room for everyone to stick around to the end for solidarity. Maybe I’d have to go over our unofficial rules and expectations when I finally found him. A feminine giggle drifted out one branching hallway. I frowned. I hadn’t seen anyone else in this part of the building. Could that be Mark? Had he brought a date? That sounded about right. He probably figured that he was going to win and probably thought his match would help him seal the deal or something. I smirked. Glad I burst that particular bubble. I followed the noise and peeked down the hall. Sure enough, Mark had someone pinned up against the wall and was saying something I couldn’t make out in a husky, deep voice. Whoever his partner was giggled again and swatted at his shoulder. I sighed. Might as well end the party now. When I was halfway down the hall, I finally could make out what he was saying: “…looked so hot up there tonight, I kind of wished I could be in the ring with you.” I almost tripped over my own feet. He was with one of the other wrestlers? Okay, I hadn’t expected that. So who was it? Probably not Selina or Talia; they were both probably too old to fall for his boyish charm. So Joy maybe? Or Sherry? “Oh, I bet you did.” I froze. I knew that voice. No way. I dove against the wall so Mark wouldn’t spot me, but I crept down the hall and risked a quick peek. Please, no, please let me be hearing things. I wasn’t. Grace had her arms around Mark’s neck and was staring at him with what could only be called open infatuation. My stomach sank. When had this happened? How? After what a jerk he had been for so long? Why would she…how could she… “But we really should have stayed in the locker room, Mark,” Grace said. “The show has to be over by now and Ace is probably wondering where we went.” “Like I care what he thinks,” Mark said. “I’d rather have this time with you.” I started to crumple the envelope in my hand. Why would she let him talk about me like that? “Even still, we’d better get back before someone notices.” They started coming down the hall. I hustled out of there and got out into the main lobby. I stumbled around, trying to figure out what I should do. Head back to the locker room? Just wait here for them to find me? What would be the best option? What would be most natural? Too late! The decision was taken away from me as Mark and Grace emerged from the hallway. They were holding hands, but Grace let go of Mark the moment she saw me. “Ace!” she said. “What are you doing out here?” I stared at her for a moment, then managed to force myself to say, “Show’s over.” She shot an uncertain look at Mark, then said. “Sorry. Mark wanted to…well, he…” Mark snorted. “I got this. Look, Hart, it’s like this: Grace and I have been dating for the past two months. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I know you two have been close. But we are really happy with how things have been going.” I stared at him. He was making noise, and I was reasonably sure that those were words. But my mind just locked up at the thought. Who had made the first move? Him? Her? “That for me?” He pointed to the envelope. I mechanically held out his payment. He nodded and took it. “Awesome.” He turned to Grace. “I’m gonna go get my stuff. You ready to head back yet?” They had driven down together? Of course they had. That made sense. Grace nodded, but she was studying my expression. Worry was painted across her face. Mark thankfully stepped around me rather than shouldering me out of the way (like I would’ve expected), leaving the two of us in the lobby. “Is this why you wanted him to have a job?” I asked. “So you two could hang out?” She shrugged. “Kind of. Look, the U won’t let him play anymore because of his injured knee. He was really upset and wanted to do something, so…” “So you figured that the best solution was for him to go into professional wrestling?” “He did okay tonight, right?” That was beside the point. “Why didn’t you tell me about this? About…any of this?” She looked away. “I don’t know. I guess…well, it’s pretty clear you don’t like him that much.” “I thought you didn’t either!” “Things change. People change. He and I had some classes together in the fall and we do live in the same building. We’ve had some good talks and, well, a couple weeks ago he asked me out and I thought why not and the next thing I know…” She shrugged. “What about what he did to you with those posters?” I demanded. “That was a year ago, John. And he’s apologized for it. And don’t forget, I got him back at prom. So far as we’re concerned, it’s done.” I still didn’t like it. Not a bit. But it was her life, right? She could make any mistake she wanted to. And this was a mistake. Oh, it was definitely a mistake… “Why are you so upset about this?” Grace whispered. That question caught me off guard. My head snapped back and I looked at her. “I…I don’t know. I guess… I mean…” I didn’t have a good answer. At least, not one that made sense to me. There was just something…wrong about this. “Look, can you at least try to be happy for me? Please?” she asked. My shoulders slumped. Yeah, I could. I nodded. She stepped up to me and squeezed my arm. “And hey, maybe at some point, you, me, Mark, and Abigail can go on a double date or something.” Oh, wouldn’t that just be fun! Grace slipped past me and followed after Mark. Dark thoughts chased me back to the locker room. I didn’t speak to anyone as they all left. Mark and Grace went out, arms around each other. A few of the guys cast worried looks at me when they saw it, but they retreated just as quickly. Eventually, I was by myself. I finally settled on a course of action. Maybe it wasn’t a good one. But if she could have a friend come into the RFW, so could I.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, March 2021 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN 192 in attendance Shortly after I arrived at the Civic Center, I checked in with Lisa. She had taken the job almost immediately. Turns out, she was a teacher at a Lutheran school in town and really enjoyed what we were doing. She was more than happy to take the reigns and organize her friends into teams of ushers and other helpers. They even showed up for the show wearing shirts declaring themselves “The Four-Clap Posse.” I’m not sure who told them about our backstage nickname for them, but hey, they wore those shirts with pride. I moved backstage. Tamara had gathered some of the workers together and was going over their matches. Freddie had pulled Pepper Pelton into a corner and was chatting with him about something. Pepper listened to whatever he was saying with rapt attention. Freddie spotted me as I walked in. He excused himself and came over to me. “Is he ready to go?” I asked. “The new guy? As ready as he’s going to be. You sure about him?” No. But Grace was. And that would have to be good enough. *** Martin and Curt welcomed the audience to the show. 1) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. CHIP MARTIN vs. JAMES DIAZ vs. PEPPER PELTON We tried to hit things off with a fatal four way match. We tore into each other almost immediately, although Pepper pulled up at the last minute so that only Chip, James, and I started the fight together. Chip, unfortunately, had a hard time keeping his head in the match. Martin tried to play it off as trying to keep track of three opponents at once, but it was pretty clear he was struggling. James and I spent some time trying to one-up each other while trying to pin each other. Chip and Pepper hung back and mostly worked to keep us from winning the match. In the end, though, James wound up tied up with Chip and the two of them tumbled out of the ring to brawl at ringside. While they were distracted, I grabbed Pepper and dropped him with an Ace of Harts for the pin and the win. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 15:15 RATING: 37 2) Selina Svelte came out to the ring. She said she had bad news: Sabrina Wells didn’t show up for her match tonight against Joy Rider. “She thought that it was more important for her to work at some other promotion. But luckily for you, my schedule was open. So I’m tagging myself back into the tournament and taking her place. Because unlike her, I’m bound and determined to prove to everyone that I am the best female wrestler this pathetic little company will ever see. So Joy Rider, get suited up, sweetie. Because you’re going to have a really bad night.” RATING: 27 3) JOY RYDER vs. SELINA SVELTE (Semi-Final for the RFW Women’s Championship) Joy Rider came out to the ring, but it was clear she was really nervous. Even though her upbeat entrance music played, she didn’t dance or work up the crowd. She cautiously started to crawl into the ring… But Selina was right there, pulling her in by her hair. Referee Parker Terry barely had time to get the bell rung before Selina just started clobbering Joy. Joy tried to rally several times, but it was clear that Selina was not going to give her the chance to fight back. She battered Joy around the ring before Joy just collapsed in the middle of the ring. Selina tried to keep pounding on her, but Parker ordered her away and checked on Joy. Upon seeing that she was knocked out, Parker called an end to the match and raised Selina’s hand as the victor. WINNER: Selina Svelte in 18:03 RATING: 38 As soon as the ring cleared out, new entrance music started up and RFW’s newest hire came out to the ring. Some of the crowd recognized hometown hero Mark Latrell. For those who didn’t know who he was, Martin reminded them that he had played high school football in Rochester and had been playing for the U of M before he was injured. Mark swaggered out to the ring, although it was pretty clear he was a bit nervous about his right knee, which was wrapped in a brace. 4) CHARLIE CORNER vs. MARK LATRELL It was pretty clear that Mark wasn’t really on top of his game. He did okay, but that was only because Charlie was carrying him through the match. Mark tried to put Charlie down a couple of times and it was pretty clear he thought he was going to get an easy win, but then Charlie caught him with a Corner Cutter and pinned him for the win. WINNER: Charlie Corner in 13:17 RATING: 27 5) Sherry Smart came out to the ring, this time with a crystal pendulum. She said that she was going to use a different technique this month to see what the future held for her. “Last month, I was sure I was going to win my match against Talia Quinzel but I misread the cards. Now I call upon the spirits of this place to show me a deeper truth, a truth that will lead me to—” Before she can finish, Sabrina Wells stumbled out to the ring, looking positively wrecked. She revealed that she hadn’t gone to work for a different promotion at all. Instead, Selina Svelte jumped her backstage and then locked her in a closet. “So far as I’m concerned, Selina, you’ve just painted a target on your back. So watch out, because I’m coming for you!” RATING: 20 6) JOKERS WILD © vs. DREADMASK for the RFW Tag Team Championship The new champs came out and Garry’s shoulder was bandaged up pretty heavily. As a result, Garry was a lot more sedate in his entrance and the way he carried himself during the match. This resulted in a really lackluster match. Zippy had to do most of the work to protect Garry from further injury, but it was becoming pretty clear that the crowd just didn’t care about Zippy one way or the other. The audience seemed more interested in heading for the restroom or getting a snack than paying attention to what was happening in the ring. That included when Masked Mauler caught Zippy and put him down with a Piledriver for the win. WINNERS: Dreadmask in 15:04 RATING: 19 7) Garry and Zippy stumbled out of the ring and headed toward the back. Dreadmask stood at the two corners, holding up their newly won titles and shouting abuse at the retreating former champions. RATING: 12 8. ROGER MONTEIRO vs. QUENTIN QUEEN This got the crowd’s attention again, but Quentin was struggling to keep up with Roger in terms of the action. Curt tried to play this off as Quentin being too focused on what he doesn’t have, namely the championship belt. “He really has to keep his head in the match he’s fighting, not focused on a match he might never get again.” Almost as if he heard what Curt had to say, Quentin suddenly caught Roger in a Q-Ball and pinned him. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 12:48 RATING: 40 9) Cassidy Blaine came out to the ring and did his best to cut a heel promo, saying that he had risen above Rochester and he was going to prove it tonight by taking the championship title away from Fro Sure. He demanded that the champ come out and answer him right now. Fro came out and agreed to the match, but it was pretty clear that we would need to script these guys’ lines in the future. RATING: 33 10) FRO SURE © vs. CASSIDY BLAINE for the RFW Championship Where they stunk up the ring with their promo, they made up for it in terms of the match. Cassidy turned out to be a credible threat against Fro. While Fro didn’t take him seriously in the early going, he quickly changed his tune when Cassidy actually got him down and pinned for a one count. Fro really sold Cassidy’s offense throughout and finally dropped him with a Sure Thing. WINNER: Fro Sure in 15:29 RATING: 54 11) Grace came out to the ring and got on the mic. She said that she had a semi-final match tonight against Talia Quinzel, and she was looking forward to it. “Because here’s the thing, Talia: I remember how you made your debut in RFW. You and your buddy Selina came in and beat me down to announce your presence. I haven’t forgotten that, and I’m not about to go easy on you. “And part of the reason? Thanks to Selina’s attack on Sabrina Wells earlier tonight, that means that Selina’s in the final match for the new Women’s Championship. And while it might be fun to see who comes out on top if it’s Quinzel vs. Svelte, I want in on that action. And after I put down Talia Quinzel with a Diamond’s Edge, I’m going on to get that title and finally show Selina who the better woman really is.” RATING: 39 12) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. TALIA QUINZEL (Semi-Final for the RFW Women’s Championship) Once again, the young women in the crowd were solidly behind Grace in this match. It’s clear that she really resonated with them and they cheered her on, even when Talia looked poised to put her down and make her eat her words. But Grace kept fighting and soon turned the tide of Talia’s offense. Talia actually started to look worried until she managed to hit Grace with a Spinal Trauma. Grace lay on the mat and looked like she might be out. Talia lazily made the cover with a big smile on her face, only to have Grace kick out. Talia tried to put her away, but Grace rallied and, as Talia tried to set her up for yet another Spinal Trauma, Grace hit her with the Diamond’s Edge and made the pin. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 24:47 RATING: 50 *** After the show, I gave props to Fro Sure and Cassidy for putting on such a surprisingly good match as well as to Joy Rider for really selling Selina’s offense so well. Then Tamara started handing out everyone’s pay and I tried to speak privately with everyone to make sure everyone was good. Especially Garry. I was worried that he had hurt himself again. Garry, it turned out, was frustrated with himself more than anything. “I wish I could have been on the top of my game. I should be good next month, though.” I nodded. That was good news, but from what I saw of the match, it might be time to make some changes. I’d have to think about that. Someone tapped me on the shoulder. Tamara frowned. “You know that Mark Latrell?” She held up an envelope. “I’ve got his pay, but I can’t find him anywhere.” I rolled my eyes. Figured. He probably thought that since he was an “old friend” (as he phrased it when I called to offer him the job), the regular rules didn’t apply to him. I held out my hand. “Give it to me. I’ll go find him.” FINAL RATING: 47 Quick Results:

Thursday of Week 4, February 2021 After the dust had settled from the big news, I convened a Zoom call with Freddy and Tamara to discuss what we needed to do now that RFW had grown. “First off, kid, congratulations!” Tamara said. “Sean used to share stories about the parties that he went to when the companies he worked for hit certain milestones. You got anything planned?” “Uh… I might get some snacks for everyone next month,” I said. Tamara blinked in confusion and Freddie laughed. “Small steps, Tamara. Big parties can wait until we’re breathing down Allen Packer’s neck,” Freddy said. “For now, let’s talk about what this means for RFW in the here and now.” I braced myself. Freddy looked stern, like he was trying to figure out how to tell me how badly I had messed things up. Then he smiled. “Actually, we’re in pretty good shape already. You’ve hired a lot of wrestlers already, so our roster is just about the right size. And we can keep working on the handshake agreements you have with everyone. So far as the business side is concerned, it’s smooth sailing.” “Unless the finances say something different,” Tamara added. “We’re good there. We made $6,210 last month, bringing our bottom line to $52,559,” I said. “Grace found us another $500 in sponsorship revenue.” “Good girl,” Tamara said. “Speaking of Gracie, where is she?” “In class,” I said. “I’m taking notes for her.” We talked about some other details: possible feuds, wrestlers to watch for (Tamara was really keen on someone named Joanna Silver. She had been pushing for us to bring her in for the past two months. But when I did my research, I discovered that she was a stripper from the defunct Babes of Sin City. If she was on the roster when Reverend Kil found out about Grace’s side hustle, I think he’d either have a stroke or call down the wrath of God on us all). “There is one other thing,” I said. “I’m thinking it’s time we hire someone to coordinate our shows. Right now, we’ve been asking people’s friends and family to act like ushers and stuff like that. I think we need someone to coordinate all of that.” “Have someone in mind?” Tamara asked. I smiled. “Yeah. Her name’s Lisa Wellington.” Freddie frowned. “That name sounds familiar.” “She’s the head of the Four-Clap Posse,” I said. “As near as I can tell, she’s been to every one of our shows since day one. Seems like a nice enough lady.” “You talk to her about doing this job yet?” Freddie asked. “No. I was toying around with the idea. What do you think?” Freddie chuckled. “I’ve heard the guys talk about this Lisa and her friends. If she’s as dedicated as you say, we might be on to something here. I say go for it.” We wrapped up our meeting and I sat back in my chair. We’d just added another $2,500 to our expenditures, but I think we could take that hit. Only one way to find out!

Monday of Week 3, February 2021 The sunlight filtered through my window just as my phone started ringing. I groaned. I hadn’t slept well at all. For whatever reason, Peter Crockett chased me through my dreams. I knew I had done the right thing. I knew that he didn’t bring anything helpful to the table. Yet I couldn’t sleep. In some dreams, he paraded his wife and fifteen children in front of me, all of them crying about how they were going to starve. In another, he was Darth Vader in Rogue One and I was standing at the end of the hallway. Yes, none of them made sense. But I still felt guilty. Then the ringtone cut through my mental fog: Grace’s ringtone. I rolled over and answered. “What?” “Well, good morning to you too, sunshine,” she said, her voice annoyingly chipper. “Grace, it’s…” I looked at the clock. 8:23. I had to get up soon anyway, but I wasn’t about to admit that. “…too early for this.” “Sounds like you had a fun night last night,” Grace said. “I checked TEW.com this morning and like half the stories are about RFW.” That woke me up. What? I quickly slid out of bed and found my laptop and booted it up. “Bad press or good press?” I asked. “I’ll let you be the judge of that.” The smirk in Grace’s voice was all too loud and clear. There! I opened Chrome and clicked on my bookmark for TEW.com. And sure enough, there it was: four or five stories about RFW. The first two I ignored. One was a summary of All In—who beat who, how many audience members were there, that sort of thing. Another was a “barometer post,” where some staffer gleaned audience reactions. Underneath those were three more: “Garry the Entertainer injured at last night’s RFW All In,” “Peter Crockett fired after last night’s RFW All In,” and… My mouth went dry and it felt like the room had started spinning around me. “RFW Rises in Stature.” I clicked the last one first. What did that even mean? I started reading: I stared at the screen while Grace peppered me with questions. What did this mean? Were our finances going to take a hit? Did we need more workers? Fewer? Would the guys want downsides to their contracts? But at the same time, excitement bubbled through me. We had a long way to go before we’d be a threat to the Big Three in the U.S. I’m sure this news wasn’t even a blip on the radar for USPW, TCW, or SWF. But we hadn’t gone bankrupt. We could still truck along and put on our shows. And based on the rest of this article, the staff at TEW were expecting to see big things from us. “Ace, are you even listening to me anymore? Because I just spent the last three minutes describing the color of my underwear and all I got out of you was a ‘Uh huh.’” That snapped me back to reality. “What?” She laughed. “Congratulations, partner. I wish I could have been there to see it all happen.” I started to laugh, because I knew that if Grace had been there, she probably would have hauled off and knocked out Peter Crockett for his attitude. But the chuckle died in my throat. She should have been there. And she should be able to trumpet this news all over the place. But she wouldn’t be able to. And I’d have to be careful about who I shared this news with as well. All because of her dad. She must have realized the same thing, because an awkward silence rose up between us. I shifted in my seat, trying to decide what I should do or say or… “So can you make it up for my birthday party?” What? Oh, that’s right. Later that week, Grace was going out on the town with some of her college friends to celebrate her 20th birthday. She had mentioned it to me in passing a few weeks ago and, when I hadn’t picked up the hint, sent me another reminder. “I think so. What are the details again?” “This Saturday. We’ll meet at my room at 7:00 and we’ll go from there.” I pulled up my calendar on the laptop. I had this nagging feeling that… Oh no. “I…I can’t.” Silence. Then, “What?” “You remember how Monica got engaged at Christmas? Patrick’s family is having an engagement party to celebrate this Sunday. We’re going to be in Des Moines.” “You can’t skip?” “I don’t think I can. Patrick wants me to be a groomsman in the wedding. Carson’s flying in and everything.” “I really want you to be there, John.” “I know.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you think maybe I could come to your family party?” More silence. We both knew the answer to that. “This sucks,” she said. “It’s not fair.” “I’m sorry, Grace. I really am!” She sighed, heavily, then said, “Well, you better get me something nice for my birthday then.” “Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?” “Well, we have a hole in our roster right now, don’t we? With Peter gone?” “I suppose so.” I mean, I didn’t know for sure. There was a good chance that, since we had grown in prestige, we couldn’t afford to have as many workers as we did. I’d have to have a word with Freddie and Tamara about all of this. “I have an idea of someone we could hire.” “Oh yeah? Who?” She told me. I froze. “Are you serious?” “Completely.” I didn’t say anything, trying to process this request. “Do I need to play the ‘I’m half owner’ card?” she asked. “No. You have his number?” She did. I scribbled it down on a piece of paper. We chatted a little bit more, and then I hung up. I checked my phone and discovered that dozens of text messages had stacked up, from the RFW workers congratulating us on making it to “tiny.” There was also a message from Garry, saying that he’d be able to work in a limited way through his injury, but that he was glad I had gotten rid of Peter Crockett. I’d have to sift through them all later. I dialed the number Grace gave me. “Hey, it’s John Hart. Grace asked me to call you. Need a job?”

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, February 2021 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 156 in attendance The locker room felt empty. Oh, sure, everyone was engaged in their usual preshow rituals. Things had gotten a bit crazier since the locker was used by men and women, but we had made it work pretty well so far. No, the emptiness was because Grace wasn’t there. For the first time since we started RFW, she wasn’t at the show at all. It hadn’t been an easy decision for her. When I told her what happened with her parents, she had tried to blow off my concerns, but I could hear the worry in her voice. Would her parents figure things out? It didn’t sound like they had called her yet, but I think we both knew they would at some point. So Grace finally decided not to tempt fate and just stay in the Twin Cities this month. In terms of booking, it wasn’t a problem. We had two other first round matches for the new women’s title and Grace wasn’t in either of them. We wouldn’t need her at the announce table. So the safer thing for ust o do was have her just stay away. And for the most part, it didn’t seem to bother anyone else. At least, no one commented on her absence. But I could feel it acutely. It was like some of the air had been sucked out of the room. She should be here. But the show had to go on… *** Martin Thecott and Curt Meritt welcomed the audience to the show. 1) Quentin Queen came out to the ring and glared at the crowd, who welcomed him by booing and jeering him. “Shut up!” Quentin thundered. “Surprised to see me? Apparently once you lose a title, you’re persona non grata. Two months ago, Fro Sure stole my title from me in an unfair match. And then, last month? I get told that I not only don’t get a rematch, but I don’t even get a match. What the hell is up with that? So I’m thinking right now, what I’m going to do is just sit here until someone makes it right. I demand a rematch! I demand respect! I demand—” He was interrupted by Texas Hangman, who came out to the ring entrance and glared at him. “We demand that you shut up. This is what happens, Quentin. You should know that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you’re left in the dust. Just suck it up and take the L. But as for tonight, my understanding is that Fro Sure already has a fight. But I’m free. What do you say? You and me. We’ll see if you can back up your bad attitude with action.” Quentin sneered at him. “Fine by me. And when I’m done with you, I’ll move on to bigger and better things.” RATING: 33 2) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. CASSIDY BLAINE As Cassidy and I went out to the ring, Martin reminisced about his days playing high school basketball. He explained that Cassidy and I had been teammates not too long ago. He speculated that maybe there was some residual bad blood from those days. Cassidy did a pretty good job playing the heel, getting the crowd riled up against them. I played off of that as best as I could and, by the end of the match, I think most of them were rooting for me (although I did notice that the Four-Clap Posse seemed to be solidly in Cassidy’s corner). We started things off on the mat, putting on a quick clinic of Greco-Roman wrestling. The crowd applauded a few of the moves, but before they got too bored with it, we kicked things up a notch and started whipping each other around the ring. Cassidy was able to get me pinned once or twice, but he couldn’t keep me down. I finally put him down with an Ace of Harts. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 19:56 RATING: 46 3) Sherry Smart came out to the ring with her tarot cards. She thanked the crowd for their warm welcome and then said that she was going to commune with the spirit world to determine the outcome of her match. She rifled through the cards and then sat cross-legged in the middle of the ring. She dealt out a ring of cards around herself and then picked one with her eyes closed. She revealed it to be The Empress. Sherry then celebrated and jumped up and down. She said this indicated that she was going to win in her upcoming match against Talia Quinzel. RATING: 21 4) SHERRY SMART vs. TALIA QUINZEL (First Round Match for the RFW Women’s Championship) Unfortunately, Sherry couldn’t back up her boasting. She was off her game, but Curt and Martin played that off as her being over-confident from her “very scientific” predictions. Sherry tried to take control of the match early on and, for a brief moment or two, it looked like she might actually take Talia out of commission. But then Talia smirked at the crowd and went on the offensive. She tossed Sherry around the ring for a while before finally putting her out of her misery with a Spinal Trauma. WINNER: Talia Quinzel in 12:56 RATING: 37 5) FLYING PATRIOT vs. PRIME TIME JACK PRYDE This was an okay match, but it kind of dragged through the middle. Jack finally took Patriot out with a PrydeFall. WINNER: Prime Time Jack Pryde in 12:36 RATING: 17 6) JOY RIDER vs. MARIE PUNNEN (First Round Match for the RFW Women’s Championship) Joy came rushing out to the ring, dancing and whooping it up like a cheerleader on steroids. She actually got the crowd hyped up for her, especially some of the younger fans. When Marie Punnen came out, she didn’t show any interest in joining the party. Once the bell rang, Joy tried to get Marie to lighten up. It sounded like she may have even challenged her to a dance off. Marie answered the challenge with a quick kick to the head. That snapped Joy out of her party mood and she took the rest of the match a lot more seriously. These two put on a pretty decent match. Marie seemed really confident in her chances to win. She spent a lot of the match pounding on Joy and, when it looked like Joy had been taken out, Marie smirked and actually did a little bit of dancing to mock Joy. But that proved to be a mistake. Because when Marie finally got ready to put Joy down, Joy surprised her with the Ryder Rocker and got the pin. WINNER: Joy Rider in 12:47 RATING: 24 7) The party wasn’t quite done yet. Before Joy could get out of the ring, Jokers Wild came out. The tag champs urged Joy to stay in the ring with them and the three of them had an impromptu dance contest. Zippy seemed a little hesitant to do so, but he did a passable soft-shoe routine. Garry was a little wilder in his moves, clearly not caring how ridiculous he looked. But Joy put them both to shame with some sweet moves. When the crowd was asked who won, they all sided with Joy. RATING: 36 8. JOKERS WILD © vs. ORIGINAL SINNER & PETER CROCKETT for the RFW Tag Team Championship This match should have been a lot of fun. It was clear that Zippy and Garry weren’t all that worried about the challengers and they spent some time mocking them and engaging in some pranks. But things took a turn for the worst when Peter Crockett clearly botched a move while fighting with Garry. Garry’s shoulder was clearly injured. Referee Quincy Jones checked on him, but Garry waved him off. He gingerly continued the match until he could tag in Zippy. Zippy didn’t waste any time in grabbing Peter and putting him down with a Spinning Bulldog. It looked like Peter was trying to kick out, but Zippy put his full weight on it to end the match. WINNERS: Jokers Wild in 12:24 RATING: 21 9) TEXAS HANGMAN vs. QUENTIN QUEEN Apparently news of what happened to Garry had made it to the backstage area. Quentin looked a bit nervous getting into the ring. He was hesitant to lock up with Hangman. Finally, Hangman had to smack Quentin upside the head and shout at him to focus. Once he had done that, Quentin seemed to pull himself back together. He and Hangman put on a decent match. They adapted to Quentin’s discomfort with Hangman controlling most of the match until he tried to put Quentin down with a Choke Slam. But then Quentin blocked the attempt and ended the match with the Q-Ball. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 12:40 RATING: 30 10) FRO SURE © vs. DUSTIN DEUCE for the RFW Championship It looked like Fro was just as upset as Quentin, which made sense since Crockett had nearly injured him a few months back. Thankfully, he was able to pull himself together as Dustin Deuce got into the ring with him. The match swung back and forth with both men getting in some offense. Finally, Fro took control of the match and decisively put Dustin down with the Sure Thing. WINNER: Fro Sure in 16:36 RATING: 33 11) As Fro celebrated his win, Quentin Queen rushed the ring with a baseball bat and used it to take the champ down. He then spent some time beating Fro with the bat before he picked up the belt and stared at it. He then tossed the title on Fro’s chest and then left. RATING: 31 *** The tension backstage was palpable. Zippy had already gotten Garry out of the Civic Center and taken him to St. Mary’s to get checked out. He promised that he would get in contact with me once he had word about what we were dealing with. The rest of the locker room had separated itself from Peter Crockett. Crockett seemed completely unconcerned. He leaned against one of the lockers, his feet propped up, and a pair of headphones on. As I walked in, I kicked his feet off their perch so he sat up. He snatched off his headphones and glared up at me. “What’s your problem?” he demanded. “Right now? You. How many people have you nearly injured since we hired you? Two? Three? And now you actually hurt Garry! What do you have to say for yourself?” Crockett shrugged. “Accidents happen.” Heat flashed through me. I was sorely tempted to snatch the headphones and snap them in half. But I curled my fingers into fists and forced them to my side. “Accidents. Right. You seem to be at the center of a lot of them. And I seem to have made one when I hired you.” I pulled out my wallet and peeled off two twenties and tossed them at him. “Don’t bother coming back. You’re done here.” That finally got his attention. He looked up at me, his jaw hanging open. “You can’t be serious.” “Can’t I? Like I said, three ‘accidents,’ the last one actually resulting in a real injury. And not only that, you can only wrestle for like what? Three minutes? Four? And then you’re completely out of breath and can’t go on. Freddie’s been covering for you in every match! “So this is what we’re going to do. You’re going to take your final pay and get out of my face. You’re done with Royal Flush Wrestling.” Crockett stared at me, slack jawed. He looked like he was ready to protest, but then he glanced over my shoulder, looking at either side of me. I could feel someone looming behind me. “You heard the man,” Fro Sure growled. “Get out,” Hangman added. Crockett froze, but then he gathered up his stuff and left the locker room without another word. As soon as the door closed, I felt like my legs were going to go out from under me. I actually worried I might throw up. What if he had actually taken a swing at me? He looked like he was thinking about it. If Fro and Hangman hadn’t stepped up behind me, would there have been a real fight backstage? I didn’t want to think about that. “You okay, boss?” Hangman asked quietly. I nodded, not trusting my own voice. “You did the right thing, man,” Fro said. “We were lucky that Peter didn’t seriously injure anyone. I mean, we don’t know how Garry is doing, but he’ll probably be all right. Maybe.” The two men patted me on the back, the shoulder, and then they went back to their lockers to keep cleaning up. I blew out another shaky breath. Then I turned to the others. They were trying not to stare at me. But they were all doing a lousy job of hiding it. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day. FINAL RATING: 35 Quick results:

Friday of Week 2, February 2021 Was everyone staring at me? It felt like it. But then, why wouldn’t they? I had actually gotten dressed up for the occasion, a suit I had bought a few weeks earlier in case I ever had to go to a business meeting (Freddie’s idea; he said that, as one of the co-owners, there were times when I’d need to put up with the discomfort to grease the rails). And Dad had commented that I “cleaned up really good,” whatever that meant. But no, they weren’t really looking at me. Or, if they were, it was only to figure out why I was walking down the sidewalk to Pescara with the most gorgeous girl in town. If I cleaned up well, then Abigail… I had no idea how to complete that metaphor. None whatsoever. But she was simply stunning. Her blond hair was brushed out and hanging halfway down her back. She wore a fancy dress that clung to every curve and she had put on minimal makeup to just accentuate her beauty rather than overwhelm it. Truth be told, I should have been nervous. This was our first Valentine’s Day together. Granted, we had been dating for seven months, so maybe that took the edge off of it. But still. This was a big deal, especially with the gift bumping against my chest in the coat pocket. But Abigail made this so easy. She had looped her arm through mine when we set out from the car and didn’t seem to mind the attention. We entered the restaurant which, according to my research, was the most romantic one in Rochester. I had no way of evaluating that. It seemed nice enough, and the dining room was packed with couples of all ages. Thankfully, Dad had told me to get a reservation a few months back. So when we approached the hostess, she ushered us past some of the waiting people and to a table tucked away in one corner. “Fancy,” Abigail commented. “I’m not used to eating in a restaurant with cloth napkins.” I smiled at her. “Same here.” The waitress stopped by to get our drink orders and then our dinner orders. She ordered the walleye malinese so effortlessly I wondered if she had been here before. I settled on an 8 ounce filet. I know, ordering a steak in a seafood restaurant was weird, but I wasn’t confident I could pronounce half the stuff on the menu. We made small talk while we waited for the food. We didn’t have much to discuss, really, just stories about people we knew in class or how our families were doing. Abigail mentioned her parents might want me to come home with her for Easter. I mumbled something about checking with my parents. “John?” she frowned. “You okay?” “Better than okay,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. “I know we said we weren’t going to do presents, but…” She frowned at me. “What did you do?” I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a flat jewelry box. Her eyes widened. “What did you do?” she whispered again. I took a moment to relish the look of surprise on her face, then launched into my prepared speech. I had spent a week finessing these words. I’d rather go head-to-head against Garry in a battle of the wits than this. There, a stumble here or there would add to the fun. Here, though, I wanted to get every syllable right. “Abigail, from the moment I saw you, I was simply blown away. I’ll admit, it was shallow at first because…well, you’re simply gorgeous. But ever since that first night, I’ve come to appreciate how thoughtful and kind and amazing you are. I am so glad that—” “John?” a familiar voice interrupted me. I froze, my mouth half-open and my words stuck in my throat. No way. I turned and sure enough, Mrs. Kil hustled through the restaurant. What was she doing here? “I haven’t seen you in so long!” she said, then froze when she saw Abigail sitting across from me. “And who is this?” "Mrs. Kil, this is Abigail, my girlfriend,” I said. “Abigail, this is Mrs. Kil.” Abigail’s face lit up. “Grace’s mom? It’s so good to meet you.” “You as well.” Mrs. Kil gave me a sly look. My cheeks burned under her scrutiny. “So out on the town, huh?” Mrs. Kil laughed and flicked her hand at me. “Hardly. Thomas is much too dignified to be ‘on the town’ in any sense. The only reason we’re here at all is because a member gave us a gift certificate for Christmas. Otherwise, it’d be watching something on Netflix. That’s still a thing, right? ‘Netflix and chill?’” My mouth popped open, but then Mrs. Kil giggled and swatted a hand at me. “Look at him blush, Abigail! Such a proper young man.” “He is at that.” Abigail put her hand over mine and smiled in a sympathetic way. Mrs. Kil’s gaze landed on the jewelry box in my hand and her eyes widened. “And jewelry as well? Perhaps you should give Thomas a pep talk on what someone should do on Valentine’s Day.” Oh, that would go over great. And speak of the devil! Reverend Kil walked up behind his wife and touched the small of her back. “Hannah? Our table is…” Then he spotted who she was talking to. His features hardened. “Ah. John. Good to see you.” From his tone, it was clear he felt it was anything but. If Abigail picked up on the sudden drop in temperature, she didn’t let on. Instead, she offered Reverend Kil a dazzling smile. “Mr. Kil! So good to meet you too!” “Reverend Kil,” he said quietly. Abigail took the correction in stride. “It must be so nice to see your daughter so often.” Reverend Kil frowned. “What?” “Grace. Don’t you see her every month?” I froze. Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no… The Kils exchanged a confused look. “We haven’t seen Grace since Christmas,” Mrs. Kil said. Abigail turned to look at me, her confusion painted across her face. I scooted my foot across the floor and tapped the side of her foot, hoping she’d get the message. She must have. She offered the Kils another smile. “I’m sorry. I must be thinking of someone else.” Mrs. Kil seemed to accept that explanation, but Reverend Kil stared at me, his gaze narrowed, his eyes burning with suspicion. I fought to keep from looking away or clearing my throat or doing anything that would let on that Grace had been to Rochester since Christmas. But then he turned to Mrs. Kil and offered her his version of a warm smile. “Let’s go to our table, dear, and leave them to their dinner,” he said. Mrs. Kil said good night and followed her husband to the other side of the restaurant. I still couldn’t relax, even when I realized they wouldn’t be able to see us. “She still hasn’t told them?” Abigail asked quietly. I shook my head. She hadn’t. Even though she hadn’t lived with her folks for the past five months or so, she still couldn’t bring herself to tell her parents about RFW. “That’s crazy!” Abigail said. “They’re gonna find out eventually.” I shrugged. They probably would. Abigail glanced in the direction of the Kils’ table. “And I almost gave it all away, didn’t I?” Another shrug. She almost had, but I figured it would ruin the mood if I agreed. She shuddered and then smiled at me. “I’ll do better next time. Sorry.” She looked down at the jewelry box. “So. You were saying?” I laughed. I had a hard time picking up my speech where I had left off. Being confronted by Reverend Kil had a way of doing that. But I fumbled through my final thoughts and then presented her with the gift. It wasn’t much, just an inexpensive sterling silver necklace with a smattering of diamonds. But Abigail reacted like I had just presented her with something far more precious. She put it on immediately and then leaned across the table to kiss me. We spent the rest of the evening making more small talk. I did my best to ignore the looming presence across the restaurant. Finally, after a quick dessert, we left the restaurant and walked back to my car. I drove her back to Cassidy’s house and then I headed home. I resisted the urge to call Grace and warn her about her parents. For one thing, it definitely was not a good idea to call another woman after dropping off my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. For another, I had a sneaking suspicion she was going to learn about it anyway.

I nervously entered the receipts and bills one by one. Last month’s decision to upgrade our production values, our broadcast quality, and our music seemed good at the time, but I had been nervous ever since. Had I just doomed our company to bankruptcy? I didn’t think I had; we had some decent margins and that should provide a good cushion for the added expense. But we suddenly had two video camera operators (Lee and “Woodsy”—I had no idea what his real name was) at every show, along with Glenn doing the still photography for us. It’d be nice to have an actual ring entrance instead of the makeshift one we had created, and having actual ring aprons with our name and logo would be a plus too. And the guys had had a blast sifting through the music catalog, finding their new entrance themes. I mean, it was all a positive step forward, all things considered. But had we bitten off too much? I closed my eyes as I hit enter after filling in all the data. Please please please please… The computer chirped at me and I risked a peek. I goggled at the screen, hardly believing it. Our production expenses had gone up by $1,700, but we had taken in $4,201 in profits, bringing our bottom line to $46,349. I sat back in my desk chair and let out a shaky breath. I looked through the spreadsheet. Nothing else really jumped out at me, other than we took in approximately $300 more from merchandising. I grabbed my phone and scrolled through my contacts, but then I froze. Who should I call? Grace, obviously, but I knew she had a major paper due later that week and wouldn’t want to be interrupted. Abigail? That seemed right, but her family was visiting her grandma and she said she’d probably be too busy to chat. I could always tell my folks, but I wasn’t sure how excited they’d actually be. I mean, they had accepted RFW and let me “do my thing,” as Dad put it, but this felt like I’d be poking the bear. Finally, I set down my phone and leaned back in my chair, spinning around slowly to soak in my room. It felt like I had never really ever looked at it, at least, not recently. Not critically. How had I never noticed that my decorations were a weird mishmash from growing up? I spotted some old action figures tucked on a bookshelf near posters of bands that I hadn’t listened to in years. Not that this was bad necessarily. It just felt…small. Too constricting. Like I needed something more. Something different. My own place? The thought struck me pretty hard. That would be interesting. I’d be able to come and go as I pleased. I could have Abigail over whenever I wanted. A basic step toward freedom! I quickly set to searching to find out how much an apartment would cost. It couldn’t be too much, right? I mean, Rochester wasn’t the Twin Cities. So apartments would cost… I nearly choked on the numbers I saw. At least five to six hundred dollars a month, and those looked to be so extremely small. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I’d have to do stuff like cooking and cleaning and… Wow. I looked back at my room again. Maybe I just needed to do some sprucing up rather than do anything too drastic.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, January 2021 Civic Center in Rochester, MN 150 in attendance Martin Theocott and Curt Meritt welcomed the audience to the first show of 2021. 1) Fro Sure’s new entrance music started up. He laid down some of the vocals himself (using what few very basic music tracks we had on hand). He strutted out to the ring, holding the title belt up over his head. He got into the ring and basked in the audience’s welcome. “New year, new champ!” he bellowed. “That’s right, last month, Quentin Queen’s reign came to an end. It was a Sure Thing going into the match and here’s the proof right here. “Now I don’t doubt that having this title has painted a bullseye on my butt. Everyone in the back is probably chomping at the bit to get a piece of me. It’s lonely at the top, baby. “But it’s not going to be lonely for long, because I have the incredible privilege of announcing that, starting tonight, the RFW is unveiling a new title: the RFW Women’s Championship. We’re going to hold a tournament, just like we did for my title last year. And the first match starts right—” Before he could finish his sentence, Papa Swoll’s entrance music cut him off. Swoll came out to the entrance and got a mic. “Fro, you and me, we’ve got history, man. We go way back, not just here, but out west too. So I was so happy for you when you won that strap, man. You are going to make an awesome champ…if you can hold on to it.” The smile on Fro’s face disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion. “That’s not a knock on you, Fro. But how about you and me, tonight, for that title?” Swoll asked. The crowd seemed to get behind that idea. Fro played it up for a bit before he turned to his tag partner and said, “You got it, Papa. Let’s do this!” RATING: 42 2) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. DUPLIKATE (First Round Match for the RFW Women’s Championship) Grace and DupliKate squared off. This time, Grace didn’t seem nearly as disturbed when DupliKate tried to mirror her moves. As a matter of fact, she used that to her advantage. “I mean, it makes sense,” Martin said. “Grace is a savvy enough competitor to know what the strengths and weaknesses of her moves are. If DupliKate tries to, well, duplicate her moves, Grace is going to already know the best counters to use.” That’s not to say that Kate didn’t get her licks in. She managed to catch Grace by surprise with a few unique moves of her own. But Grace simply looked every inch the champ already. At the end of the match, DupliKate tried to hit Grace with the Diamond’s Edge. Grace countered the move and turned it into one of her own. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 16:22 RATING: 47 3) A video appeared on a big screen, supposedly showing the locker room live. Sherry Smart was seated at a table with her tarot cards. Garry showed up and offered to show her a trick with the cards. Sherry told him to leave the cards alone, because she was getting ready to do a reading on the first match of the tournament. “Uh…Sherry?” Garry said, trying to interrupt her. Sherry shushed him and continued to deal out cards. As she did, she confidently predicted the end of the match, saying that Grace would win with the Diamond’s Edge. “That’s an awesome prediction, Sherry,” Garry said. Sherry preened a bit and thanked him. “Except the match ended four minutes ago,” Garry said. Sherry’s face fell. “You sure you don’t want me to show you a card trick?” Garry asked. RATING: 24 4) TEXAS HANGMAN vs. CASSIDY BLAINE Hangman came out to the ring to a modest ovation. Then Cassidy came out. Martin and Curt tried to play him up as a local athlete, the former captain of a high school wrestling team. Cassidy tried to strut out to the ring, sneering at the crowd as he passed. But unfortunately, he looked more sick than cocky (which is what I think he was going for). The match was decent enough, mostly thanks to Hangman. He covered some of Cassidy’s greenness before putting him down with a Choke Slam. WINNER: Texas Hangman in 10:49 RATING: 27 5) As Hangman and Cassidy cleared out of the ring, Dreadmask took over. They got on the mics and complained about the fact that Jokers Wild had a match against the Scofield Index tonight for the tag team championship. “Why would you give two clowns a chance at the titles?” Dreadnought raged. “There is no way that they deserve it. If anyone does, we do. Don’t you know who we are? I am the son of Dread, a wrestling legend.” “And I am the seventh man to hold the name Masked Mauler, personally chosen by Masked Mauler VI himself!” Mauler added. “Tag team glory is our birthright!” Dreadnought added. “So whoever walks out of that ring with the belts…you’re on notice.” “Dreadmask is coming for you!” Mauler added. I thought they did pretty well, but most of the crowd’s heat came from the Four Clap Posse. RATING: 13 6) WILD RED STALLION vs. JAMES DIAZ Once again, Stallion seemed determined to prove himself as a singles competitor. The crowd, unfortunately, didn’t care nearly as much as he did. Stallion tried to get them rallied to his side, but they mostly sat on their hands when James put him down with an Asian Thumb Spike. WINNER: James Diaz in 12:29 RATING: 22 7) James vacated the ring. As he did, Texas Hangman came out to the ring and rolled in. He helped Stallion get up again. “Partner, I get it. I do,” Hangman said. “A man wants to be able to stand on his own two feet. You want to prove yourself and show the world what you’re capable of. There’s no shame in that at all. But Stallion, a man also has to know when he’s in over his head. You’ve shown your heart and now, the time’s come to come back home. What do you say? Partners again?” Hangman held out his hand. Stallion considered it and then brushed past Hangman to head backstage. RATING: 26 8. JOKERS WILD vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX © for the RFW Tag Team Championship The Jokers seemed pretty pumped about their title shot. The champs seemed a bit unsure of themselves as they went out, Pepper especially. It was almost as if they weren’t sure if they should take the challengers seriously. It was a fair question, as Garry had come out with his ventriloquist puppet again. But once the bell rang, Garry and Zippy were all business. They took the fight to the champs and had them fighting a defensive game the whole time. They got some offense in, but Garry and Zippy expertly tagged in and out to keep themselves fresh. Toward the end of the match, Dreadmask came out to ringside. Referee Parker Terry warned them not to interfere, and it seemed like they were content to watch. But then Masked Mauler distracted Parker while Dreadnought got into the ring, ready to take out Garry. But Garry saw him coming and ducked the attack. Dreadnought ran straight into Pepper, knocking him off his perch. Then Zippy hit Dreadnought, carrying him out of the ring. Garry punctuated the match by hitting a Pants Pull Sunset Flip on Jerry and then pinned him for the win and the title! WINNERS: Jokers Wild in 14:13 RATING: 27 9) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. ORIGINAL SINNER I thought this would be a good breather match, and it turned out to be one for all the wrong reasons. Neither Roger nor Sinner seemed all that into the action, almost like their minds were elsewhere. They fought back and forth before Roger finally put the big man down with an Eagle Chop. WINNER: Roger Monteiro in 12:18 RATING: 26 10) SABRINA WELLS vs. SELINA SVELTE (First Round Match for the RFW Women’s Championship) The crowd really got into this, especially since Selina seemed bound and determined to hurt Sabrina. But Sabrina was able to take advantage of Selina’s rage. Selina kept making what Curt called “stupid mistakes” because she wasn’t focused on what really mattered, namely winning the match. It looked like Selina was about to sew things up, but then Sabrina dropped her and got the pin. WINNER: Sabrina Wells in 15:22 RATING: 37 11) FRO SURE © vs. PAPA SWOLL for the RFW Championship This turned out to be a fun match. Martin commented that it probably would be. “These two are tag partners here in the RFW, and they’ve competed with and against each other elsewhere. That brings with it a certain measure of familiarity that is both an advantage and disadvantage in a match like this.” It was clear that these two also respected one another. At one point, Swoll almost pinned Fro in the early going, getting a two count. Once Fro rolled to his feet, Swoll applauded him. A short time later, Fro returned the favor when Swoll kicked out of a pinning predicament as well. The crowd got into the match as well, with the fans split about evenly between the two competitors. At one point, the fans started chanting back and forth at each other about who was better. Fro and Swoll paused the match to lead their respective fans in the chants. But eventually, they stopped goofing off and you could see that they were both determined to prove who was better. Swoll tried a few times to catch Fro in the Pounce, but Fro had him scouted. The same was true with the Sure Thing. But finally, Fro managed to dodge a Pounce and then catch Swoll with a Sure Thing, putting him down for a three count. WINNER: Fro Sure in 22:06 RATING: 37 *** As the workers filed out of the locker room, I pulled Cassidy aside. He was moving a little gingerly. I suspected he’d be popping some ibuprofen when he got home. “You good?” I asked him. His expression changed to one of pure excitement. “Brah, that was so awesome. Exactly what I was hoping for. You want me to job against Hangman every week? I am down for that!” I laughed at his enthusiasm. “That might get a bit predictable. We’ll see what we can do with you going forward.” FINAL RATING: 38 Quick Results:

Wednesday of Week 4, December 2020 Grace performed a miracle. That’s the only way to explain it. Normally, Christmas for the Kils meant traipsing all over the Midwest, first to visit Reverend Kil’s family, then Mrs. Kil’s family, then random shirt-tail relations who have to win some sort of lottery. Okay, I don’t know about that last one, but that’s the way it feels. It’s a whirlwind tour that can take upwards of a week and leaves Grace pretty much exhausted for a day or two. This year, somehow, Grace managed to talk her parents into only doing two of the stops. They actually dropped her off at home after they finished with Nana Kil. I don’t know how she did it, but for two days, she would be home by herself. So we decided to celebrate her freedom by going to Applebees. What? We’re college students. You expect us to go whole hog or something? Actually, I suppose we could have. Although we got caught up on the goings-on in each other’s lives, eventually—inevitably—the talk turned to the RFW. So that meant that technically, dinner was on Royal Flush Wrestling. I figured our warchest could handle a fifty dollar hit. We had a little over $42,000 in the bank, and Grace had somehow added another $500 to our sponsorship revenue. We had made $5,000 and change over December. And we were approaching RFW’s one year anniversary. It just made sense for the company to pick up the check. I wound up paying for it all anyway. I thought I was on good footing, but I didn’t know if the IRS would agree with my logic. “So how is everything else going business-wise?” Grace asked as she picked through her salad. “Not too bad. By the next show, we’ll have finished upgrading our merchandise. We’ll have some generic RFW merch, but nothing for individual workers. I mean, if you want to make some shirts for yourself, you could sell them at the show.” She laughed. “Where would I store them? Under my bed?” Fair point. “I’m also going to take a chance and upgrade our music, our broadcast quality, and our production values.” She choked on her lemonade. “Won’t that cost us too much?” “I don’t think so,” I said through gritted teeth. At least, I hoped not. I had done a lot of back-of-the-napkin figures and, as near as I could tell, our profit each month could absorb the upgrades. The music was necessary. We had spent the last year “borrowing” music we found on Spotify or iTunes. We had flown under the radar for now, but I figured we’d get sued if the artists or their management found out. And it made sense to upgrade everything else. Well, not our Live Experience. That was too pricey, so we’d have to keep using volunteers for now. “How about TEW’s year-end awards?” Grace said. “You look at that yet?” “Haven’t had the chance,” I admitted. “You?” She nodded. “No surprises, unfortunately. No awards for us or for our workers.” I shrugged. I hadn’t really expected to get anything. I mean, it would have been nice. In my not-so-humble opinion, Grace should have gotten something. Fro Sure as well. But we were still too small, flying too low under the radar. And in some ways, I was okay with that. The moment we got big enough or people started taking notice, the bigger promotions could start snapping up our workers. “So what do you have planned for the next couple of shows?” she asked. I rubbed at a spot on the table. “Well, I’m going to have Fro do some title defenses and really shore up his cred as a champ. And I’m contemplating having Jerry and Pepper drop their title as well. They’ve had it longer than Quentin did and it might be time to let someone else run with the strap.” “Jokers Wild?” Grace suggested. “Maybe. I feel like their feud with Dreadmask has pretty much run its course.” “What about the women?” she asked. “I mean, you had something good going there for me and Selina.” “Well, I—” Grace looked over to her left then whispered, “Hey, it’s Cassidy.” I looked where she had. Sure enough, Cassidy Blaine sat at a table with…well, I didn’t know who that was. Some girl I had never seen before. Date? Girlfriend? Another cousin? She was pretty enough, but didn’t look much like Abigail at all. Then he spotted us. He said something to his companion and headed over to our table. “You cheating on my cousin, brah?” he asked. I laughed. “You know me better than that, Cass.” “I do, I do.” He slid into the booth next to me. “But still…business or pleasure?” Grace smirked at him. “A little from column A…” “…and a little from column B,” I finished. “Fair enough.” He frowned and looked down at the table. “Then you won’t mind me interrupting with something…kinda important to me.” “Oh yeah?” I asked. “I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about what I saw at the show two weeks ago. I saw how much fun you two were having.” He tipped his head back and forth, as if he were trying to get his thoughts to settle. “And I gotta admit, I got kinda jealous.” “You? Jealous of us?” Grace asked, a taunt clear in her voice. He finally met her gaze and mirrored her smirk. Cassidy and Grace had never really been friends. More like frenemies. Or, at best, friendly rivals. Grace had campaigned hard to be the wrestling team captain but coach had gone with Cassidy. He never made an issue out of it and neither did she. But they still poked at each other from time to time. “As much as I hate to admit it, Diamond, yes. You guys are able to keep doing something that I loved and I can’t anymore. There’s no wrestling program at my college. I thought about trying out for track or baseball or something, but it just isn’t the same.” I could understand that. I had tried my hand at track years ago and hated it. “So what I’m wondering is this: do you have room on your roster for your team captain?” I froze and exchanged an uncertain look with Grace. Technically Cassidy fit the bill for who we would normally hire. He was our age and wasn’t employed by another promotion. Granted, we had bent the rules a lot with the latter, but I still hesitated. “C’mon, brah.” He must have read the hesitation in our expressions. “I know I won’t get a title shot any time soon. But give me a shot!” Another look exchanged with Grace and she shrugged. I stuck out my hand. “Welcome to Royal Flush Wrestling.”

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, December 2020 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 135 in attendance I bounced on my feet as I waited for Abigail to show up for the show. I had asked her to come two hours early so I could make introductions, show her the backstage area, and hopefully reassure her. We had spoken a couple of times since she shared how frightened she was, but we never really brought it up again. I could still see the worry in her eyes whenever RFW came up, but she didn’t say anything. You can imagine my surprise when she showed up with her cousin Cassidy in tow. She gave me a hug and kiss and he not-so-discreetly looked away. I smiled at her, then pulled her to one side. “What’s he doing here?” She shrugged. “He came home a bit early from college and was looking for something to do. Why?” That made sense, but it also left me feeling…disappointed. Like tonight was supposed to be about just her. But it wasn’t like I could send him away at this point. Cassidy came over and clapped me on the shoulder. I led them both inside. I frowned as we entered the locker room. What was that smell? I was used to the stale smell of sweat and dust, but this actually smelled good. Like someone was cooking…pancakes? No. It turned out to be waffles. Fro Sure was busy stirring up batter while he tended to three different waffle irons. He had even brought in fresh strawberries and blueberries, whipped cream, and a bunch of different syrups. The guys were lined up, filling up plates and then taking them over to the benches to chow down. “What are you doing?” I asked. “I figured we should mark the last show of the year with something special,” Fro said. “So I’m making waffles.” He handed both Abigail and me a plate, much to the consternation of Charlie Corner, who had been next in line. Abigail looked at me, wide eyed, and said, “Is this normal?” I considered lying to her, but thought better of it. “Not in the least.” *** 1) As the show officially started, a video played, hyping our main event. It would be RFW champion Quentin Queen taking on Fro Sure and Roger Monteiro in a triple threat match. RATING: 15 2) SHERRY SMART vs. MARIE PUNNEN Sherry Smart, one of our new hires, came out to the ring. She was dressed as a fortune teller, complete with a deck of tarot cards in one hand and a zodiac chart in the other. The entrance was a bit clunky. Marie, coming out in her kickboxer persona, looked a whole lot more threatening. I suppose that’s the point. Even though the match dragged in the middle, the crowd really got into it. In the end, Marie hit Sherry with a Scissor Kick for the pin and the win. WINNER: Marie Punnen in 12:18 RATING: 16 3) WILD RED STALLION vs. PRIME TIME JACK PRYDE Oof. This one took us back a step. Story-wise, Stallion was supposed to flail in the ring but these two just didn’t click at all. The match really dragged as a result, and there were numerous times when it became clear that neither wrestler knew what the other wanted. Jack finally put us all out of our misery by hitting the PrydeFall. WINNER: Prime Time Jack Pryde in 12:53 RATING: 13 4) CHARLIE CORNER & CHIP MARTIN vs. DREADMASK This was mostly my way of trying out a new tag combination. I think Charlie and Chip did okay, all things considered. Dreadnought, though, looked a little sluggish. Maybe he had too many waffles? Thankfully, Masked Mauler covered for him, looking particularly dangerous in the ring until Dreadnought managed to snap out of it and spiked Chip in the middle of the mat with the Dread Bomb. WINNERS: Dreadmask in 13:38 RATING: 30 5) JOY RIDER vs. SELINA SVELTE Joy Rider made her debut. She came out dancing and bouncing around the ring, waving her arms and generally trying to work up the crowd. For the most part, she was able to succeed. A lot of them really seemed to enjoy what she was doing. Selina, however, didn’t. She came to the ring with a grim expression and lit into Joy the moment the bell rang. Joy managed to put up a decent fight, but it was pretty clear through the whole match how things would end. Selina finally got Joy down on the mat and got her tap out with a Prawn Armlock. WINNER: Selina Svelte in 11:45 RATING: 40 6) JOHN “ACE” HART & JAY SILVER vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX © for the RFW Tag Team Championship I may have to make a “no waffles” rule going forward. For whatever reason, Jerry Pepper was off his game and seemed to be struggling to keep his head in the match. I’ll admit, I was pretty distracted too. I kept looking to ringside, where Abigail sat and cheered her heart out throughout the match. If she was scared for me, it didn’t show. Jay and I did our best to take down the champs, but it was little use. The champs hit Jay with the Carolina Reaper and then Pepper picked up the pin. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 16:08 RATING: 35 7) Grace came out to the ring next and it was clear a fire had been lit under her. She got on the mic and railed against Talia Quinzel. “If you wanted a fight last month, all you had to do was ask. So I’ll ask right now: why don’t you come down here and we’ll see who wins in a fair fight.” Talia Quinzel came out and said, “Thought you’d never ask.” RATING: 48 8. GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. TALIA QUINZEL Wow. These two really tore it up. Grace got the crowd behind her solidly as she and Talia locked up in the center of the ring. The momentum swung back and forth before Talia surprised Grace and hit her with a Spinal Trauma, getting the pin and the win. WINNER: Talia Quinzel in 20:23 RATING: 54 9) Quentin Queen came out to the ring with a mic. “Boy, aren’t I popular lately? Both Fro Sure and Roger Montiero have made it clear that they are both after my title. So what’s a guy to do? I can’t keep looking over my shoulder forever. So tonight, I demanded a three way dance. I figure, this way, when I walk out of the Civic Center with my belt still around my waist, those two will find something better to do. Like working at an IHOP or something.” The crowd, who of course didn’t know anything about Fro Sure making waffles, didn’t laugh. Roger seemed a bit peeved about that, but he was ready to go. RATING: 21 10) FRO SURE vs. ROGER MONTEIRO vs. QUENTIN QUEEN © for the RFW Championship The crowd seemed to get into the match as the three competitors circled each other warily. Then Roger and Fro rushed each other and started fighting while Quentin hung back and watched as they tore each other apart. Eventually, though, Fro figured out what was going on and brought Quentin into the fight. And Fro turned out to be the one who kept the match going. He kept both of his opponents engaged and took the brunt of their offense as well. But in the end, he tossed Roger out of the ring and then hit Quentin with the Sure Thing, picking up not only the win, but the title as well. WINNER: Fro Sure in 20:17 RATING: 41 *** Fro entered the locker room like he was Alexander the Great after conquering most of the known world. The workers applauded for him and I motioned for them all to gather around. I gave props to Talia, Fro, and Selina for their great matches. Once the speech was over and people started packing up, I spotted Abigail chatting with Grace. Both of them looked so excited and I could tell by her hand motions that Grace was walking Abigail through some of the moves she and Talia had done. “…and it really didn’t hurt?” Abigail asked. “That…Spinal Trauma? It looked so painful.” “Well, it didn’t tickle,” Grace said with a chuckle. “But I’ve learned how to hit the mat safely and Talia knows how to really make it look dangerous. We watch out for each other. If we wind up really hurting each other, nobody’s going to want to work with each other and then nobody will get paid. Right, Ace?” I nodded sagely. Abigail turned to me and she smiled. “You were awesome tonight.” “I didn’t get the titles,” I pointed out. “You never were supposed to, were you?” “No.” She leaned in an gave me a quick kiss. “I’ll go find Cassidy. Call me later, okay?” She slipped out of the locker room. I watched her go, but then Grace slugged me in the arm. “You like her,” she said in a sing-song voice. “A little more than that.” “Really? How do I not know about…” Her voice trailed off into an awkward silence. She knew why. And I realized why as well. For the past couple of weeks, we hadn’t really talked. Not even texted. She was only in Minneapolis, and it felt like she was on the other side of the world. “Coming home for Christmas?” I asked. She nodded. “For a couple of weeks.” “Think you can convince the warden to let you out for good behavior?” She smiled. “He won’t have a choice.” FINAL RATING: 42 Quick Results:

Saturday of Week 4, November 2020 Thanksgiving was weird that year. In some ways, it was like any other. My siblings came home and soon, our house was busting at the seams. It seemed like all of them had good news of some kind or another. Carson, my oldest brother, had gotten a big promotion a few months back and was full of stories about his new responsibilities. Monica, my older sister, filled us in on how she was convinced her boyfriend was going to pop the question at Christmas. And me? Yeah, I had started my own wrestling promotion (which my brother thought was a risky venture; he demanded I show him my books so he could make sure I was properly indemnified, whatever that meant). And I was dating an incredible woman (which Monica thought was “so cute,” like we were middle schoolers holding hands at recess). But at the same time, I couldn’t help but notice how different things were. I mean, Abigail had gone home to see her parents. And sure, she was only an hour away, but it felt so far when I was so used to having her just five minutes away. And yeah, Grace had come home, but seeing her in person was still forbidden so far as Reverend Kil was concerned. And yeah, we had found ways around it, but I was so used to spending at least part of Thanksgiving break with Grace. I tried to busy myself as much as possible. I tried calling Cassidy to see if he could hang out. Nope, he was in Albert Lea at his uncle and aunt’s (and Abigail, lucky jerk). I hate to admit it, I felt lonely. For a brief moment, I thought about calling up Jack or Billy. Or maybe give Freddie a call to see what he was up to. But I decided against it. I dodn’t want to be one of “those guys.” So after throwing myself a pity party on Black Friday, I get to work. I found another young referee named Parker Terry to work our shows with Quincy. Hopefully that would relieve some of the pressure. I was pretty sure we’d be able to afford it. We had made almost $5,000 in November, bringing our warchest to $37,000 and some change. And, as near as I could tell, we were steadily gaining popularity. It felt like we were on the cusp of something good.

Saturday of Week 3, November 2020 I tried to play it cool when I heard the knock at the door. But I knew I failed miserably. Dad chuckled as I hurried past him to the front door and opened it. Abigail smiled at me. “Good to see you too.” I kissed her and led her into the house. She waved to my parents, who discreetly vacated the living room so we could settle in and start studying. This had become part of our routine for the past few weeks. We only had one class together at RCTC, but we had made it a habit to meet at least once a week to study. We did more than that, obviously, but it kept both of us accountable for our classes. So near as I could tell, I was pulling down Bs and even an A. Abigail, though, kept acing everything. She kept teasing me she was going to claim my nickname. I was not at all surprised when she finished her homework before me. So she lay down on the couch with her head on my lap, scrolling through her phone while I tried to keep reading. That proved difficult, especially when she would smile at me. Eventually, I gave up and set aside my books and turned on the TV. True, it didn’t distract me from Abigail at all, but at least I wasn’t fooling myself into thinking I was studying. I watched the TV, she kept looking through things on her phone. “You kids need anything?” Mom called from the kitchen. “I think we’re good, Mom,” I called back. Actually, I would have loved to ask her and Dad to take a long walk. Maybe go get dinner and a movie or something. But I knew that wouldn’t happen. “Hey, didn’t you go to school with a Mark Latrell?” Abigail asked. “Playing football at the U?” My head snapped back in surprise. “Uh, yeah. Why?” She handed me her phone. “Looks like he won’t be anymore.” What? I took her phone and scanned the article she had opened. Apparently the U had been playing Purdue. They won, 34-31, but apparently freshman Mark Latrell had been injured during one of the plays, blowing out his knee. The reporter speculated that Mark’s football career was likely over. I let out a low whistle. The guy was a jerk, no doubt about it. But this would have crushed him completely. Ever since the fifth grade, he had wanted to play professional football. If this report was correct, that dream died on the field. I actually felt sorry for him. “So do you know him?” she asked. “Yeah, I do. That sucks.” “It does.” She frowned. “John…is there a chance you could get hurt doing what you’re doing?” “Sitting on the couch with you? I don’t know. Seems pretty risky.” She rolled her eyes. “I meant the wrestling.” I knew that. And I also knew she wouldn’t want to hear the answer. We had been lucky so far. Sure, a few people had gotten hurt so far, like Stallion a few months back. And we had had some near misses, like with Fro at the last show. And Freddie had already told us stories about guys whose careers had been cut short due to careless mistakes. Truth be told, that sort of thing always weighed heavily on me. Would I wind up hurt? Or worse, would I be the cause of someone else getting hurt, either directly because I was the one in the ring with them or indirectly since I was booking the matches? “We are…very careful,” I said. Sometimes the best way to dodge a question was to answer a different one with the truth. She rolled over and sat up, fixing me with a worried look. “John… I’m being serious here. Could you get hurt doing that?” I sighed. I could have lied to her, but Abigail had this way of seeing through me when I tried to lie. When we celebrated our three month anniversary last month, I had lied to her about remembering. She figured it out almost immediately. “Okay. Cards on the table? Yes. It’s possible. We try to be really careful and Freddie hasn’t let us do anything really crazy yet in terms of matches because a lot of us are still figuring this out. And a bunch of the guys have some good experience or training already. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, it’s just…” My voice trailed off as I saw the tears glistening in Abigail’s eyes. Ah, man! How did I mess this up already? “I’m sorry. It’s just…I know that what you guys do isn’t ‘real’ or it’s ‘fake’ or whatever. But I get worried. I get worried that you’re going to get hurt and need surgery or…or worse. And I…” She hiccuped and swiped at her eyes. “…and I…” She started crying and I pulled her into my arms, stroking her hair and trying to get her to calm down. She clung to me and sobbed. Mom poked her head into the room with a concerned look on her face. I waved her off. I could handle this. I hoped. “I just…I just…I don’t want that to happen. Because I love you.” The calming words I was about to say died in my throat. She what? “I do. I love you, John, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to—” I kissed her. What else could I do? We eventually broke away and I rubbed her shoulders. “I love you too.” She smiled, but tears still trickled down her cheeks. “Look, I can’t promise you I’ll never get hurt. I can’t keep that promise. I can promise that I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen.” I wiped a tear from her cheek with my thumb. “Tell you what? Why don’t you come early next month? I’ll introduce you to the guys backstage and you can see how it all works. And hey, I’ve got a shot at the tag titles. It’d be nice if my girlfriend was there to cheer me on.” She offered me a shaky smile and kissed me again. “I’ll be there.” Good. We settled back in and I’d like to say that her words didn’t rattle me. But they did. For the rest of the night, I kept thinking of what would happen if I was injured. And I gotta say, I did not sleep well that night.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, November 2020 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 135 in attendance Before the show started, I put on a hat and sunglasses and tried to blend in with the crowd that filed into the arena. I was probably fooling myself into thinking that disguise would fool anybody, but thankfully, no one seemed to notice me. So would I spot Mark and his goon squad coming to the show? I hadn’t yet. I did spot Four-Clap Fan come in with her posse. I chuckled when I saw them; they had actually put together an unofficial uniform, matching shirts and pants. I was tempted to go backstage and tell some of the guys to purposefully do something stupid so they’d have something to do. But no sign of Mark. My phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from Grace: Where are you? Court’s in session. I groaned. Who messed up now? I left my perch and found my way back to the locker room. Sure enough, the judge had settled in on the bench. But whereas Freddie filled out the second-hand robe well enough, Tamara McFly was practically swimming in it. “Kalder Tagg!” she bellowed, trying to make her voice sound low. “You have been accused of being an hour late picking up your travel partner. How do you plead?” I frowned. His travel partner was Wolfie. How are you late picking up your own roommate? Kalder sighed. “I guess I’m guilty, you’re honor. That did happen.” “I’m glad you’re taking this matter so seriously. So here’s your punishment. You have to pay for Wolfie’s meals for the next three months.” Wolfie smiled at the news. Kalder rolled his eyes. “I already do that!” “Court dismissed.” Tamara got up and walked over to me, slapping me hard on the arm. “This is gonna be a blast, Ace. Chin up. Let’s do this!” *** Martin Theocott and Curt Meritt welcomed the audience to the show. 1) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. MARIE PUNNEN We started out with a serious match right away. Marie Punnen has a strong martial arts background and we leaned into that when putting together her gimmick. She came out, looking like she was ready for some sort of kickboxing match. She glared at the crowd as she got into the ring and fired off a few high kicks as a warm up. Grace came out next. I stuck by the ring entrance and watched her. She didn’t seem distracted this time. Instead, she climbed into the ring and squared off with Marie. This turned out to be a different kind of match. Both women were fiercely determined to take the other one out and it looked like Grace was struggling to cope with Marie’s kicks and hard strikes. But then Grace rallied, especially as the younger female fans cheered her on, until she managed to catch Marie in a Diamond’s Edge. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 23:58 RATING: 34 2) Grace got up and started celebrating her win. But then, Selina Svelte hit the ring, accompanied by another woman Martin identified as Talia Quinzel. The two of them ran over Grace and spent some time punching and kicking her before they left her in a heap in the ring. RATING: 35 3) FLYING PATRIOT vs. DUSTIN DEUCE Once the ring was clear, Flying Patriot and Dustin Deuce hit the ring. This one was an olive branch to Patriot; I had left him on the sidelines for a while and he was getting upset about it. So I had him hit the skies while Dustin tried to ground him. The wrestling wasn’t all that bad, but the crowd just wasn’t into it. Patriot finally put Dustin down with a Springboard Legdrop. WINNER: Flying Patriot in 10:26 RATING: 19 4) JOHN “ACE” HART & JAY SILVER vs. THE HOT TAGGS Jay and I hit the ring and we tried to play this up like we were men on a mission. When the Taggs hit the ring, we jumpstarted the match, attacking them before they could get their bearings. Grace commented that someone had lit a fire under us. I decided to have Freddie book this with me taking most of the beating from the Taggs. They isolated me in the ring and worked me over as best as they could with Jay on the outside begging to be tagged in. As the match wore on, the Tagg brothers got more and more cocky, deciding to punish me rather than put me down. That proved to be a mistake. As they tried to set me up for the Montana Slammer, I managed to slip out and tag in Jay. He tore through the Taggs and finally put Kalder down with an AG Driver. WINNERS: John “Ace” Hart & Jay Silver in 18:49 RATING: 35 5) Jay helped me back into the ring and we got on the mic. I did a lot of the talking, playing up that I was barely able to stand. I issued a challenge to the champs, saying that next month, Jay and I were coming for Scofield Index’s tag titles! RATING: 29 6) Fro Sure came out to the ring. He looked pissed. He snatched the microphone and got into the ring and went on a rant about Quentin Queen. He congratulated the champ on actually finishing a match against him in the ring, but pointed out that the only reason why Quentin won was because Quentin pinned him with his legs on the ropes. Fro suggested that if Quentin hadn’t done that, Fro would have kicked out and won. This led to a debate at the announce table. Grace agreed with Fro, but Curt reminded everyone that Fro had missed an unnecessary frog splash. Fro demanded that Quentin meet him in the ring again tonight to finish this once and for all. The champ came out to the entrance and told Fro to get out of the ring. “I’ve got nothing left to prove with you. I’ve beaten you, what, three times now? I’m doing playing. You can forget it. Besides, my dance card’s full for tonight.” RATING: 34 7) WILD RED STALLION vs. COCKROACH CARTER Wild Red Stallion came out to the ring and tried to pump up the crowd. He especially targeted the Four-Clap posse in the audience and tried to get them to react. The Four-Clap posse finally stood up and offered him two claps. Stallion seemed a little disappointed. Cockroach came out and, when he saw Stallion in the ring, he got after Quincy Jones about something. He didn’t look too happy about the match, but once the bell rang, he locked up with Stallion and gave it his all. Unfortunately, the match dragged in the middle. Both men just couldn’t keep the crowd engaged in what they were up to. In the end, Carter put Stallion down with Cannonball Senton. WINNER: Cockroach Carter in 11:45 RATING: 16 😎 THE SCOFIELD INDEX © vs. DREADMASK for the RFW Tag Team Championship Dreadmask seemed pretty confident of themselves as they came out to the ring. The tag champs didn’t seem overly concerned, but that changed once the bell rang. Dreadmask was on fire, taking the fight to Jerry and Pepper. Masked Mauler especially looked dangerous, taking the time to systematically destroy his opponents. As matter of fact, Curt started confidently predicting that we were going to see new champs crowned tonight. Just as he said that, though, Jokers Wild hit the ringside. Garry and Zippy stayed just out of sight so that Quincy wouldn’t see them. They stalked the match as the Scofield Index managed to isolate Dreadnought from Masked Mauler and beat him pretty badly. But then, just as Dreadnought tried to tag in Masked Mauler, Garry and Zippy charged forward and yanked Masked Mauler off his corner. Dreadnought tagged empty air, and then he ate the mat as Jerry and Pepper dropped him with the Carolina Reaper. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 15:13 RATING: 27 9) FRO SURE vs. PETER CROCKETT This match was supposed to be fast and brutal and, for the most part, it was. Fro was clearly trying to send a message about how dangerous he was. He kept after Crockett for most of the match. But a few minutes in, Crockett managed to elbow Fro in the face. Problem is, he actually wound up hitting Fro too hard. It was pretty clear that Fro’s bell had been rung enough that, when Crockett tried to put him in a DDT, Fro wasn’t ready for the move and probably would have gotten injured had it landed. Thankfully, Fro recovered at the last minute and shoved Crockett away. Crockett hit the ropes and Fro quickly put him down with a Sure Thing. WINNER: Fro Sure in 5:55 RATING: 33 10) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. QUENTIN QUEEN © for the RFW Championship The crowd really got into this match. Roger played to the audience and got them solidly behind him as Quentin sneered at them. Once the bell rang, the match seesawed back and forth between the two competitors. Quentin would get a near fall, only to have Roger answer with one of his own. Toward the end of the match, referee Quincy Jones accidentally got clocked and knocked out. Roger didn’t realize it and hit Quentin with the Eagle Chop and then pinned the champ. But no one was there to make the count. Grace screamed at Quincy to wake up, but it was no use. Roger finally realized what happened and went over to wake up Quincy. Just as the ref started to stir, Quentin jumped on Roger and rolled him up in a small package, using a handful of tights to hold Roger down. Quincy recovered and made the count. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 17:52 RATING: 38 *** Apparently the fighting wasn’t done with the final bell. When I went backstage, I found Freddie physically restraining Fro while the latter screamed at Peter Crockett. Crockett, for his part, seemed completely unimpressed and unconcerned. “You could have seriously hurt me, man!” Fro shouted. “You have to be more careful in the ring.” “Yeah, yeah,” Crockett waved away his words. “It all worked out okay. You gotta chill, Fro.” Fro lunged again, but Freddie ordered him off to the showers to cool down. I motioned for the rest of the workers to gather round. I gave my usual speech, this time thanking Quincy Jargon for taking a hit for the sake of the match. I told Peter that he did have to improve. And I thanked Flying Patriot for a good match as well. As the crowd dispersed, I kept an eye on Crockett. He really didn’t seem to care about what happened at all. I frowned. This was the second time he had nearly injured someone in the ring. I glanced over at Garry, who glared at Crockett as well. Maybe I’d have to rethink Crockett’s contract… FINAL RATING: 36 Quick Results

I considered driving up to the Twin Cities the next chance I got, but I finally decided against it. What was I going to do? Confront Grace? Track down Mark and interrogate him about what he was up to? Neither option appealed to me. For one thing, Grace hadn’t told me what had her so distracted. I had tried to connect the dots as best I could, but it was entirely possible this was all a coincidence. Or even a mistake. The further I got away from All In, my memory got fuzzier and fuzzier. Sure, the driver looked like Mark. But I only saw him for a second or two. And maybe that was what I wanted to see. Within a week, I had convinced myself that the best thing I could do was leave it alone. If Grace wanted to talk to me about it, she would. Of course, I’d also keep an eye out during the next All In. If Mark showed up again, I would find out for sure. So rather than drive up to the Cities, I put together an email update for Grace and Freddie about how we stood financially. We had seen another $1,000 jump in our sponsorship income. We made $4,822 last month. And we had saved up $32,281. That was cool and all. I could feel a slight itch to spend some of it. But I didn’t feel like that was a good idea. I didn’t get a reply back from Grace, but Freddie shot me a reply almost immediately. He had a lot of good notes about little tweaks we could make, but there was one line that really caught my attention: The change from two hours to three might start taxing people beyond what they can do on their own. Martin and Curt should be fine, but I worry about Quincy and the volunteers you’ve roped into doing our tickets and such. Maybe you might consider upgrading our live experience or finding Quincy some help. I frowned. I had this nagging feeling that Freddie was trying to drop a hint. He was our only road agent, after all. Going from five matches to seven or eight might have been expecting too much of him. Maybe the time had come to find him some help too…

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, October 2020 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 120 in attendance The locker room seemed more chaotic than usual. I mean, everyone has their preshow rituals. Papa Swoll liked finding a quiet corner to meditate or pray or something like that. The Tagg brothers would bring in their Switch and set it up on a TV so everyone could take turns playing different games. And there was the usual conversation and laughter as people went over what they were going to do during the show. But things seemed a whole lot louder as I stepped through the door. People were clustered together shouting at people in different groups. Every now and then, someone would dart between the groups and it looked like they were trying to tag each other? At least, that’s what it looked like. “What is going on?” I asked. James Diaz glanced in my direction, but apparently he shouldn’t have. Pepper Pelton darted around a row of lockers, sprinted past him, and slapped him between the shoulders. James groaned and sat down. “I’m sorry?” I offered. James laughed. “No worries. Just a game Pepper came up with. I have no idea what it’s called, but hey, it’s kind of fun.” It looked like it. But I skirted around the edge of the playing space so I wouldn’t be mistaken for a participant. As I walked through, I spotted Freddie seated across from Charlie Corner in a quiet conversation. Charlie listened intently to whatever Freddie was telling him. I caught Grace’s attention and nodded in Freddie and Charlie’s direction. “Charlie had some questions for Freddie about the business. They’ve been chatting for about an hour now.” Huh. Good for them. *** As the show started, Curt Meritt welcomed the audience to the show and introduced them to Martin Theocott, RFW’s new announcer. Martin had some kind things to say about being excited to be a part of the RFW. 1) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. PRIME TIME JACK PRYDE Jack and I did our best to get the crowd riled up for the show and, for the most part, I think we succeeded. We did our best to show off what we could do. While the audience applauded for our moves, they didn’t seem to get too invested. But I think we got the show off to a strong start as I put Jack down with an Ace of Harts. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 22:27 RATING: 38 2) CHARLIE CORNER vs. ORIGINAL SINNER Original Sinner stomped out to the ring and roared at the crowd. A few of them roared back. I think I may have seen some laughter in Sinner’s expression as his opponent came out to the ring. This turned out to be a pretty decent match. Charlie apparently took whatever Freddie told him to heart, locking up with the bigger man and trying to put him down. But it became increasingly clear that Sinner was just too much for him. In the end, Sinner put Charlie down with a Choke Slam. WINNER: Original Sinner in 9:55 RATING: 23 3) PAPA SWOLL vs. JAMES DIAZ Another decent match. Swoll acted very nonchalant as James spewed threats and venom, first at the audience, then at him. But once the bell rang, Swoll took James very seriously. The two brawled through the ring and then around the outside until finally, Swoll hit the Pounce seemingly out of nowhere and pinned James. WINNER: Papa Swoll in 11:51 RATING: 31 4) THE SILVER BULLET vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX © for the RFW Tag Team Championship Martin noted that it seemed like the challengers were having trouble staying in sync with each other. Curt confirmed that Hangman and Stallion were indeed struggling recently. That was unfortunately on full display. It was pretty clear that Stallion was not happy to be teaming with Hangman. Hangman tried to keep things going. Martin speculated that maybe he thought that if the Silver Bullet got the tag titles, Stallion would get on the same page. If that was his plan, it didn’t work. Hangman took a bad beating at the hands of the champs before they put him down with a Carolina Reaper. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 11:47 RATING: 25 5) The champs vacated the ring as quickly as they could. Stallion got on a mic and informed the barely conscious Hangman that so far as he was concerned, this was the end of the Silver Bullet. RATING: 26 6) Grace came out to the ring to a pretty decent pop. She waved at the crowd and made sure to fist bump a few of the younger girls in the audience. She got into the ring and waited for the crowd to calm down. “That’s right, folks. I am still here. You may have noticed that my spot at the announce table is presently occupied. Martin, make yourself at home, buddy, because I’m not planning on being back there any time soon. “But don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. The RFW is always going to be my home. But we saw how much you guys got into the matches between Selina and me the past few months. And you know what they say: give the people what they want. “So starting this month, RFW is going to have a women’s division! We’re bringing on board some of the best young talent we can find and we’re going to show everyone how it is done! Because when it comes to the squared circle, we can play too!” Even though that’s not really in question—by anybody—the fans reacted like this was a huge revolutionary announcement. Grace beamed at them. “Now I’d love to punctuate this announcement with a match. And I’d even be willing to face Selina again so I can show her what happens when you try to break a diamond. But Selina has slunk off to Japan to lick her wounds…” The crowd booed, although I suspect some of the smarks knew that it was also because Selina was touring with 5SSW. But Grace wasn’t going to share that little detail. “For now, I guess I’ll just invite anyone in the back who wants to kick things off here. Let’s see what you have!” Entrance music hit and a young woman who Martin identified as DupliKate made her way to the ring. The crowd…well, I think they were just happy to see Grace in the ring and gave DupliKate the benefit of the doubt. RATING: 60 7) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. DUPLIKATE The match started kind of slow. DupliKate’s gimmick is that she mirrors the moves of her opponent. So as Grace started to square off with her, DupliKate mimicked her stance and movements. Grace paused and tested this a few times, with DupliKate mirroring everything she did. Grace laughed at this, with DupliKate copying her, until Grace cut the moment short by kicking Kate in the gut. The match was pretty good. While Grace was able to mount a pretty good offense, but DupliKate was able to mimic it and turn some of her own moves against her. “It looks like DupliKate may have gotten into Grace’s head there,” Martin said. “I know I would be unnerved if someone was able to copy me that quickly.” (Backstage, I frowned at the monitor. Grace was off her game. Martin’s explanation was a good one, and Grace tried her best to cover it up, but something was bothering her. She kept looking into the audience.) Thanks to that distraction, DupliKate managed to get Grace down and pinned twice, but Grace kicked out each time. Then, much to everyone’s surprise, DupliKate tried to hit Grace with the Diamond’s Edge. But Grace blocked it, reversed it, and put her opponent down with it instead. WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 13:19 RATING: 40 8. A music video played on a big screen, hyping the feud between Jokers Wild vs. Dreadmask. Many in the crowd decided this was a good time to hit the restroom or go get more snacks. Once the video stopped playing, the same fan from a few months ago stood up and signaled to three of her friends sitting with her. They all clapped exactly four times and then sat down again, crossing their arms and looking upset. RATING: 4 9) JOKERS WILD vs. DREADMASK The two teams came out to the ring. The Jokers tried to play up the crowd. They actually vaulted the railing and found the fan who led the clapping. They clowned around, trying to get her to smile. She came close a few times, but no go. Then Dreadmask came out and the two teams tore into each other. Once again, there were a few times where Garry and Zippy were clearly trying to make fun of their masked competitors. But Dreadnought and Masked Mauler were not having it. When it became clear that Dreadmask was not clowning around, Garry and Zippy put on their game faces and started wrestling for real. The crowd kind of got into this one as both teams worked hard to put the other one away. But in the end, Dreadnought hit Zippy with a Dread Bomb and then pinned him. WINNERS: Dreadmask in 11:35 RATING: 26 10) Fro Sure came out to the ring, but instead of dancing or having fun with the fans, he had a grim expression on his face. He got into the ring and motioned for his music to shut off. “I know, you’re all hoping I’ll do some dancing and have a great time. But as the Good Book says, there’s a time for everything. And tonight’s a time to be serious. “For the past couple of months, I’ve been trying to get Quentin Queen to take me seriously and it hasn’t worked. The last two times I’ve faced him, Quentin has ended the match by just walking away and disqualifying himself. I get the W, he keeps the belt. And that ain’t right. Not at all. “So I’m out here and I’m not leaving until the RFW Champ comes out and faces me fair and square. No walking away this time. We do this until one of us is pinned! “But I figure I’m going to be waiting for a while because we all know the truth around here: Quentin Queen is a coward. That’s why he won’t face me in—” Quentin’s music interrupted the challenger and he came out and angrily accepted the challenge. RATING: 19 11) FRO SURE vs. QUENTIN QUEEN © for the RFW Championship Quentin got into the ring and glared daggers at Fro. Quincy Jargon helped build the tension by very carefully checking both men for weapons as they stared each other down. Then the bell rang and they tore into each other. Wow. This was a great match. The crowd got into it, including our four-clap fan. Quentin did his best to put Fro down quickly and brutally, but Fro wouldn’t go down or stay down. Finally, about halfway through the match, Quentin tried to bail, but this time, Fro was ready for that. He charged out after him and clubbed him over the back of the head before dragging him back to the ring. “Makes you wonder why he didn’t do that the last two times,” Curt said. The match continued and you could read the dawning realization on Quentin’s face. He wasn’t going to be able to walk away from this one. He gave it his all, but it was clear that Fro Sure was on fire and wasn’t going to let up. Quentin did his best to stop Fro’s offense, and while his attacks were taking a toll, Fro wouldn’t let up. Fro finally hit the Sure Thing and laid out Quentin in the ring. But rather than cover him, Fro dragged him closer to a ring corner and climbed up to the top turnbuckle. It took him a bit too long to get up there and he wobbled as he stood up. Martin commented that he shouldn’t dawdle like that. Fro tried to hit what looked like a frog splash, but Quentin rolled out of the way. As Fro rolled on the mat, Quentin dove on top of him and made the pin, but as Quincy Jargon made the count, Quentin got his feet up on the ropes for leverage to keep Fro pinned. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 14:12 RATING: 46 12) Quentin got out of the ring while Fro recovered and pulled himself up on the ropes. Fro glared at the champ, who mocked him as he carefully backed out of the arena. RATING: 29 *** The locker room gathered around as I gave my usual post-show speech. I thanked DupliKate, Fro Sure, and Quentin for their performances. But as I spoke, I kept an eye on Grace. For some reason, she still looked rattled. Once the speech was done, I tried to go over and talk to her. Before I could, Fro pulled me aside. “I really appreciate the push you’re giving me, Ace,” he said. “If you ever decide to head out west, I’ll put in a good word with Grimm. I bet he’d have a blast with you on his roster.” Wow, okay. “That’s…well, that’s awesome, Fro. But I’m not sure if I can swing that. I mean, classes and…well, running this.” Fro clapped me on the back. “Totally get it, Ace. Totally get it. But hey, as long as I’ve got your ear, I wanted to talk to you about something.” "Uh huh.” I looked around, trying to spot Grace. Had she slipped out already? “Look, I know that Pepper Pelton and I stink up the ring together, but I’ve been watching some of his matches. He’s got some serious charisma and I think you should push him a little harder.” Okay… “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” "Well, good show. Go find Grace.” Was I being that obvious? I wormed through the locker room and finally found her stashing her stuff in a gym bag. I knew that she had some friends waiting to take her back to the U, so why was she in such a rush? “You okay?” I asked. “You seemed a little distracted tonight.” She laughed, a brittle chuckle, and shrugged. “Just got some papers due this week and you know how it is. Brain starts working on them at the worst possible time. I’m good. I’m good.” I frowned. She most definitely wasn’t. I could see all the signs. Something was eating her. But before I could ask, she turned and hustled out of the room. My frown deepened. What was this all about? During her match, she had kept looking at the audience. But no, not just at the audience. At one part of the audience. My eyes widened. She must have recognized someone in the crowd! Her dad? No, that didn’t seem likely. If Reverend Kil had come to the show, he would have stormed the ring. So maybe one of her relatives? Or a member of Reverend Kil’s church? That could be it. Well, speculating about it wouldn’t help. I hurried out of the locker room and into the arena. Most of the audience had left already, but the few stragglers who were there shouted for my attention. I smiled and waved, but I got into the ring and oriented myself. When Grace looked in the audience, she was looking…over… There! I turned and pointed. Much to my surprise, I was pointing at the four-clap fan and her posse. I quickly vaulted the rail and rushed over them. She looked absolutely petrified to see me approaching. “Uh…hi…Ace, is it? Look, I’m sorry about…” I waved away her apology. “It’s all good. I love what you guys are doing.” She goggled at me. “Y-you do?” “Absolutely. Keep doing it. I’m thinking about having t-shirts made for you. Look, did you see anyone unusual sitting near you guys tonight? Like, right over there?” I pointed to where I thought Grace had been looking. She glanced over there and rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. Them.” “What did they look like?” Maybe I would get lucky and I’d recognize the description. “Just some typical frat boys,” she said. “Kind of rowdy, although one of them tried to get them under control when Grace came out.” What? Frat boys? I didn’t know of any fraternities in Rochester. “Did you see what school they came from?” She turned to one of her friends. “Those jerks were from the U, right?” He nodded. “Yeah. Football players, I think. They just left if you’re looking for them.” That made no sense. Why would Grace get distracted by a bunch of football players from the U… My eyes widened. I held up my hands. “Thank you so much! You guys are awesome!” Four-clap fan (I should really learn her name!) giggled and, as I ran toward the exit, had her posse give me a four-clap salute. I burst into the parking lot just in time to see a car pull out onto the road. And while I didn’t get a great look at the passengers, I was pretty sure I recognized the driver. Why did Mark Latrell come down to one of our shows? FINAL RATING: 44 Quick Results

Saturday of Week 4, September 2020 For two weeks, I had wrestled (metaphorically speaking) with what Freddie said and what I had seen with my own eyes. Those were formidable opponents, but they were facing my respect for Reverend Kil. Or maybe it was just fear. And maybe I had some old prejudices that I hadn’t realized. Whatever the case, by the end of the month, I had figured out what I had to do. First step: talk to Grace. And this wasn’t something that could be done by text or over the phone. I once again borrowed my dad’s car and drove up to the U. I picked her up at her dorm and drove over to the Ethiopian restaurant. I had been craving it for a few weeks. We made small talk over the most of lunch. She shared about her classes. I shared what I could about mine. It sounded like Grace was really taking to the U. She told me about some of the friends she was making, parties she had attended, even some games she went to. Sounded like she was becoming a Gophers football fan. I suppose that would be inevitable. She asked me about Abigail. I didn’t open up too much about this. I mean, it felt kind of weird for some reason. We had been seeing a lot of each other. We hung out at least three times a week, supposedly “studying” for our classes. We had been on at least a dozen official dates, some of them parties thrown by people from RCTC. I don’t think my life was nearly as exciting as Grace’s, but I was good with that. Toward the end of the meal, Grace gave me a pointed look. “So. How are the books looking?” “Pretty good.” I pulled out my phone and pulled up the financial app. “We made a little over four grand this month. Sponsorship revenue jumped by a thousand bucks, so we’re at approximately $27,500 in our account.” “That’s fantastic!” I nodded. “But I’m thinking of making some changes.” She quirked a brow at me. “Like what?” “Well, for starters, I think we can maybe make All In an hour longer. We’ve got a decent margin to work with in terms of cash. I think we can take the hit if we have more of the guys working each show. We’d be able to put on seven matches a show instead of just five.” Grace nodded thoughtfully, then smirked. “You gonna pay me more for an extra hour of work?” “No.” She blinked, surprise painted across her face. I think she expected me to say something sarcastic. But I wasn’t done yet. “Plus I’m also thinking about bringing in some new workers.” I pulled out a paper with a list of names and slid it across the table to her. “Since you’re part owner, I figured you should look it over too.” She took it and scanned the list. Her head snapped back and she read it again. And then again. "‘Selina Svelte, Talia Quinzel, DupliKate…’” She looked up at me. “Ace, these are all women.” “Boy, the U is doing wonders for your reading comprehension, huh?” I smiled. Grace looked between the paper and me, confusion painted across her face. “But I thought…” I nodded. “I know what I said. And I’m still worried about what could happen if we do this. But Grace, you were amazing in the last show and I’d be stupid if I left you at the announce table. Starting next month, you’re not an announcer anymore. You’ll be a wrestler.” She stared at me with her mouth popped in an O. Then she squealed and tried to hug me. That proved awkward with the table between us. I laughed it off. “You think you can handle it?” “Are you kidding? This is going to be so amazing!” I hoped so. I also hoped that we didn’t just make a huge mistake. Because if…no, when her father found out, I had a feeling this could all come crashing down around us.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, September 2020 Civic Center in Rochester, MN 120 in attendance Curt welcomed the audience to the show. He mentioned that he’s all by his lonesome at the announcing table, because… 1) Grace paced the ring with a mic in her hand. She looked absolutely intense and ready to tear the place apart. Some of the audience members shouted at her, most of them shouting words of encouragement. “I know why you’re all here tonight. You’re here to see me. That’s not an egotistical statement. It’s just the truth, because more specifically, you’re here to see what happens to me. You’re here to see if Selina Svelte beats me down once again, right? You want to see if she’s going to get the drop on me. “I still don’t know what her problem is. We’ve been content to do our own thing here at the RFW and we weren’t bothering anyone, and yet she decided to come in here and mix things up. She jumps me two months ago and beats me up. And last month? When she realized I wasn’t a pushover after all, she had to knock me out using a weapon. “So is she going to show up tonight? I hope so, because here’s the thing: diamonds don’t break. Diamonds are the hardest substance in the known universe. You can smack me around. You can ambush me. You can cheat to put me down. But this diamond doesn’t break. And Selina, tonight, I’m going to show you what happens when you mess with me. I’m going to put a stop to this once and for all.” A tingle washed over me backstage. The crowd was into this. Into her. She had them in the palm of her hands. RATING: 32 2) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. COCKROACH CARTER Roger came out to the ring to a modest pop as Grace got back on the mic at the announce table. Cockroach, not so much. The match turned out surprisingly good. Cockroach clearly didn’t have his head in the game, but Roger did his best to sell his offense, making him look like he was a powerful heavy-hitter. In the end, Roger hit Cockroach with the Eagle Chop and pinned him. WINNER: Roger Monteiro in 12:51 RATING: 31 3) JOHN “ACE” HART & JAY SILVER vs. DREADMASK Jay and I made our entrance and waited in the ring for Dreadmask. They tromped out to the ring, looking positively menacing. That all changed when they got into the ring. Unfortunately, the two masked wrestlers seemed to have trouble focusing on what they were doing and there were a few times when you could tell that they were legitimately having a hard time communicating with each other. We sold their offense as best as we could, and until Masked Mauler got Jay Silver down and tapping with the Iron Claw. WINNERS: Dreadmask in 13:17 RATING: 34 4) JOKERS WILD vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX © for the RFW Tag Team Championship This was an interesting contrast. The Jokers definitely had Scofield’s number going into the match. They seemed ready to play it up as a comedy match, but the Scofields played it straight. It looked like the Jokers were about to actually beat the champs and capture the titles, but then Dreadnought ran in and tripped up Zippy as he was bouncing off the ring ropes. That was enough for Pepper Pelton to drop on Zippy and pin him with a handful of tights for the win. Dreadnought escaped before referee Quincy Jargon could spot him. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 12:06 RATING: 27 5) The champs quickly got out of the ring as Garry rushed in to check on his partner. Once he made sure that Zippy was okay, Garry got a mic. “Okay, I don’t mind being the butt of a joke. That’s all part and parcel of this gig. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re the one getting pinned. And yeah, sometimes that can be embarrassing, but only if you’re to blame for the loss. “But every good comedian knows when a joke has gone on too long. And this one has worn out its welcome. So next month, at the next All In, how about you stop with the sneak attacks and the veiled insults. You and us, in the ring, finishing this once and for all.” RATING: 36 6) Fro Sure came out to the ring. Some of the audience members tried to get him to dance and do his usual entrance swagger, and he obliged for a moment or two. But then he got really serious and made his way down the ring. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s something in the air tonight. Maybe they spiked our Gatorade in the back. Or maybe it’s a full moon. Whatever the case, everyone seems to be really on edge. Ready to break. And that includes me. “I can feel the electricity. I can feel the charge in the air. And I want to do something about it. So Quentin Queen? I think you’ve had that title long enough. How about you and I see who the real champ should be?” RATING: 33 7) FRO SURE vs. QUENTIN QUEEN © for the RFW Championship Whatever it was that Fro was feeling in the air, Quentin didn’t seem to experience it. He circled Fro warily while the challenger glared daggers at him. The moment the bell rang, Fro leaped into action, raining down fists on the champ. Quentin tried to block them but, just at the point where it looked like he was going to get overwhelmed, he rolled out of the ring to break Fro’s momentum. He cautiously got back in, but Fro was ready for him again, so Quentin had to retreat out of the ring again. Quincy Jargon ordered him back into the ring, but the champ was clearly frustrated at the whole situation. Eventually Quentin got back in and tried to take the fight to Fro. But Fro was on fire tonight, blunting Quentin’s offense and overwhelming him until finally, Quentin left the ring entirely. Quincy ordered him back, but Quentin ignored him. Quincy finally counted to ten and ended the match, much to Fro’s frustration. WINNER: Fro Sure by DQ in 12:43 RATING: 44 8. Selina Svelte came out to the ring. She had a mic in her hand and she glared at the crowd as they booed her. “Shut up! You guys are so sure you know me, but you don’t. Not at all. What I’m doing here is a medical intervention. “Sometimes when someone is sick, you have to chop off a limb to save the rest of the body. And that’s what I’m trying to do here. Grace Kil is a sickness. She’s so full of herself but she comes across as all innocent and sunshine. Someone had to cut out the cancer and that person is me. Because I know where this is going. I know where this story ends. And it’s nowhere good. “So you want to take me on again, ‘Diamond?’ Then get in here and show me how it’s done.” The crowd wasn’t nearly as into it, but it got the job done. RATING: 17 9) GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. SELINA SVELTE Whoa. I think this may be the best match we’ve ever put on. I joined Curt at the announce table for this, but I think these two left me in the dust. I just couldn’t keep up. The crowd really got into this match, especially the women in the crowd. I think I even saw a few little girls who were jumping up and down, waving their hands and screaming. Selina snarled at them, but Grace really played up to them the whole time. But it wasn’t just the crowd interaction. Selina and Grace put on a wrestling clinic, showing the guys in the locker room what a real match looked like. They tore into each and left it all in the ring. It was clear that Selina was bound and determined to get Grace to tap out. She kept slapping Grace into different submissions moves and screamed at her to give up and admit that she shouldn’t be in the ring. Grace simply wouldn’t give up. She screamed her defiance and slipped out of each hold or forced Selina to break them herself. Selina was clearly getting more and more frustrated until, at the end of the match, Grace suddenly exploded with a flurry of offense herself that ended, much to everyone’s surprise, with a move that I identified as “the Diamond’s Edge.” WINNER: Grace “Diamond” Kil in 17:42 RATING: 53 *** The locker room applauded for Selina and Grace as they came back from their match. Once they had settled down, I got everyone’s attention. “I think this may just be our best show yet,” I said. “And that’s thanks to all of you and the hard effort you put in. But there are three people I want to single out for really giving their best. Roger, you did a great job in your match. And Selina and Grace, just…wow. That was awesome.” Selina smiled thinly. Technically, this was the end of her contract with us. I only signed her for a three match deal. Grace patter her on the shoulder and Selina’s smile broadened. She whispered something to Grace, and my friend started laughing. “Let’s get cleaned up and call it a night.” Everyone set to work. Freddie motioned for me to talk to him. “So what’d you think?” I asked. “Are you stupid?” That…wasn’t the reaction I expected. “Excuse me?” He pointed toward Grace. “So what are you going to do with her now? Put her back at the announce table?” Uh… yeah. That was the plan. But clearly Freddie didn’t think that was a good idea. “People are going to be talking after that match, Ace. Selina clearly respects the hell out of Grace as well. I asked you this once before: how long do you think it’ll be before someone snaps her up. And you’re just going to have her call matches? Put her in the ring for real.” A cold weight settled on me. “But if her father—” Freddie waved away my words. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Daddy issues, rebellion, all that. Here’s the thing: this isn’t going to stay secret for long. Someone will tell someone who will tell Pastor Kil. It’s gonna happen and you guys need to be ready for it. “But here’s the thing. If you want the RFW to make it, there’s the path forward. Grace could carry this company like no one else. The question is, are you gonna be smart enough to do the right thing? Or are you gonna park her at the announce table and just limp along.” I stammered a bit but I couldn’t find the right words. “You got a lot to think about, Ace.” Freddie patted me on the shoulder. “I can’t make this decision for you. Just do the right thing.” By the time the evening wrapped up, I went out to my car where I was surprised to see Abigail waiting for me. She gave me a big hug and a kiss. “I didn’t know you were going to be here,” I said. If I had, I would have made arrangements for her to meet the guys. She shrugged. “I wanted to surprise you.” “Good surprise.” “I thought so.” “So what did you think?” “That was so amazing! The way you dropped that one guy in the mask? I was cheering so loud, I thought for sure you heard me.” That was sweet, but she’d have to be more specific since both members of Dreadmask wore masks. “And Grace? Wow!” Abigail said. “She was amazing, wasn’t she?” “She was.” “I heard a lot of folks say that they would love to see her in the ring more often. I know that I’d come back to see her if I could.” “Oh? She’s the only reason?” Abigail smiled slyly. “Well, that and I kind of have a thing for one of the other wrestlers.” FINAL RATING: 46 Quick Results

Off to College... Sunday of Week 4, August 2020 We barely had time to rest up from All In. I know I was feeling it more than usual. Maybe it was the stress. Maybe my body was going into mourning a little early. But the day I had been dreading finally rolled around. Grace was moving to Minneapolis. Oh, not permanently. She’d be home for breaks and over the summer. And we were still working out how to get her to the shows each month. Jack Pryde was willing to give her a ride for the shows he worked; the rest was going to be something of a challenge. But the reality was this: I wouldn’t be able to just run over to see her whenever I wanted. She was an hour and a half drive away. Again, not the other side of the country by any stretch, but still… I think part of my problem was that this marked the death of a dream. An old one, kind of childish. When we were in middle school, I got it into my head that we were always going to be joined at the hip. We’d go to the same college together. I even figured we’d move into the same dorm room or apartment together. Ace and Grace, Diamond and Hart, taking on the collegiate world in a series of madcap adventures. I may have watched too many sitcoms when I was younger. But even if those dreams weren’t rooted in reality, I still held on to them. Even when I enrolled at RCTC and Grace decided on the U, a small part of me held on to that idea. Confronting the reality was a hard blow. What made it even harder was that I technically couldn’t say goodbye to her either. I had hoped that in the weeks since Grace’s graduation party, Reverend Kil would have lightened up on me leaving Grace alone. I had hoped that he would maybe call my parents or come to see me to let me know he had reconsidered. But no, so far as I knew, so far as Grace could figure out, the ban was still in place. All I could do was keep track of what was happening via Grace’s texts. For a week, she and her mom had boxed up the stuff she would bring with her to the U. The day of the move, she kept a running commentary on what happened as her dad tried to cram everything into their car. And then, at noon, she texted me to say they were on the road. I had hoped that she would maybe figure out a way to swing by and see me, but two hours passed. I realized she had to be in Minneapolis by then and probably started the move in process. I wound up watching a movie with my folks that afternoon, some old Disney flick my mom chose. But I really didn’t pay attention to it. My gaze kept drifting toward the front door, toward the window. Part of me still hoped that I’d see the Kil’s car pull up in the driveway and… “John?” Dad asked quietly. “What’s eating you?” His quiet question snapped me back to reality. I started to answer, but my voice caught and my eyes stung a little. What the hell? Was I really going to cry? Mom started to say something, but Dad shook his head. He leaned forward. “You know what, kiddo? I’m feeling awfully tired right now. I think your mom is too.” Mom shot him a confused look. But Dad just kept on going. “There’s a good chance both of us are going to drift off and be dead to the world for, oh, I don’t know, ten or fifteen minutes. And you know I always keep the keys for the car on the hook in the garage. If someone were to, say, take the keys without asking and go for a drive for a couple of hours, why, we’d be too disoriented upon waking up to really notice until it was too late.” I stared at him. He raised his eyebrows and then settled back in his chair and, with an exaggerated yawn, closed his eyes and started fake snoring. Mom stared at him, but then understanding dawned. She looked at me and smiled. “I’m not going to do that. Just get going.” I looked between the two of them and then hurried to the garage. I snagged the keys and rushed to the car. While I had never been to the U, Siri had my back. Thankfully, traffic going into the Cities wasn’t as bad as I worried it would be, but finding parking near the Yudof building proved to be tricky. Lots of first year students moving in with their parents. I finally found a spot a few blocks away and started jogging over. It wasn’t until the building itself loomed over me that I realized I had miscalculated. What happened if her parents were still here? I couldn’t imagine that Reverend Kil would be thrilled with me driving up from Rochester. So what would I say? “‘I was in the neighborhood…’ ‘Grace texted me and asked if I could bring up something she forgot…’ ‘Funny thing, I decided to enroll late and I’m moving in down the hall…’” I sighed. “‘Reverend Kil, no offense, but your daughter is an adult and if we want to see each other, you can’t exactly tell us no.’” I winced at that last one. That would send him into an absolute fit. I slipped through the doors and into the flow of people coming and going, hauling in boxes and furniture and hurrying out to their cars. I popped up on my toes, trying to spot Grace. Stupid, I know. Like she would just be wandering past at random. I tried to flag down some of the passersby and ask if they knew Grace. None of them did, naturally. I kept asking until one of them asked why I didn’t just text her with the phone I was holding in my hand. Oh. I should have thought of that right away. I opened the app and started typing in a message when I heard a voice behind me say, “John?” I turned and there she was, standing at the bottom of the steps with her mouth popped open in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Stalking you?” I offered. She rushed over and gave me a hug. “Is your dad still here?” She shook her head. “No, he and mom left about a half hour ago.” Was she crying? It sounded like it. I hugged her tighter. “So how long are you here?” Grace asked. “Probably not that long,” I said. I doubted my dad intended for me to be out for too long, but definitely not overnight. “Can you get dinner with me?” she asked. “Absolutely. Let’s go.” We wandered through the neighborhood and finally found an Ethiopian restaurant to try out. The food turned out to be excellent, and as we ate, Grace filled me in on her roommate (“a pretentious art major who was horrified when I put up my Alicia Strong poster”) and her RA (“a pretty cool guy, I think. Seemed pretty chill”) and what she was expecting with her first classes (“I’d rather wrestle Alicia Strong along with Selina and Talia in a 3-on-1 handicap match than go to my math class”). I wish I had something to contribute, but there wasn’t much to discuss. RFW had made a little over three grand that month, bringing our warchest to a little over $23,000. Classes at RCTC would start in a couple of days. That was about it. After an hour or two, we headed back to her dorm. Grace seemed a lot calmer than when I first arrived, more grounded. And truth be told, I felt that way too. As a matter of fact— “Hart? What the hell are you doing here?” I froze. No way. I turned around to see Mark Latrell walked toward me, flanked by two huge guys who looked like they could tear a car in half with their bare hands. “Hey, Mark,” I said. “Just visiting Grace. Making sure she made it here all right. I see you did too.” He sneered at me. “Whatever.” He shoved past me. I considered taking a bump right there on the pavement, but I figured that would stroke his ego too much. “Does he—?” I asked. She nodded. “Unfortunately. He’s rooming with another football player. The way they’re carrying on, you’d think that they were about to compete in the Rose Bowl.” She frowned. “That’s a football game, right?” I laughed. “I think so, yeah.” “I’m hoping I don’t run into him that often,” Grace muttered. “I mean, it’s a big campus and we’re not on the same floor or anything. I should be good, right?” “I suppose so.” We eventually made it back to Yudof. We both delayed the inevitable as long as we could. She showed me her apartment, a tiny two bedroom unit with a small kitchen. I didn’t get the chance to meet her roommate. Maybe on a future visit. Then we went back outside where we made stupid small talk until I couldn’t stick around any longer. We hugged one more time and she kissed me on the cheek. “I’m so glad you came up to see me, Ace,” she whispered. “It would have broke my heart if you hadn’t.” “Well, we’ll see you in two weeks, right? You better not no-show. I think Selina would hunt you down if you did.” Grace laughed. “I bet my roommate would love that.” We said our goodbyes and I headed to the car. The ride back was quiet. I couldn’t quite find the right music to match my mood and when I tried to call Abigail to talk to her, she didn’t pick up. So I wound up driving back in silence. Once I pulled into my driveway, my phone rang. It glanced at the screen. Abigail. “Hey you,” she purred. “Hey.” There was a pause. “You okay, John?” “Yeah. Just…well, it’s kind of tough. Grace left town today. I just got back from checking out her dorm.” “Should I be jealous?” she asked, her voice light and teasing. "Not even a little,” I said. “So I tried calling you on my way back home.” “Yeah, I saw that. Sorry. I was kind of busy.” “Doing what?” “Oh, unpacking.” I frowned. “Unpacking what?” “My stuff in my new room.” Now I was completely lost. “Where’s that?” She laughed. “Turn around, stupid.” I did and there she was, standing at the end of my driveway with her phone. I hurried to the end of the driveway. “What are you…” She kissed me. “Well, I was going to do the whole community college thing in Albert Lea, but since Cassidy moved out of Uncle Jean and Aunt Carol’s house, I asked my parents if I could move in with them and go to RCTC with this guy I met a few months back.” No way. “Really?” She nodded. “It took a little wrangling with the parents and my aunt and uncle. But I moved into their basement guest room today and I’ll be ready to go when classes start.” I hugged her and kissed her. Suddenly, this day didn’t seem quite as bad.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, August 2020 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 116 in attendance Curt Meritt welcomed the audience to the show. As for where his partner was, well… 1) Grace started the show in the ring with the mic. The audience cheered for her as she glowered at everyone. “So there I was last month, doing my job when all of a sudden, Selina Svelte drags me into the ring and tries to beat me up. And…yeah, she did.” The crowd booed a little, but Grace waved them silent. “No, it’s all right. Call it what it is. She got the better of me and I am not happy about it at all. I have no idea what Selina’s problem with me is, but what she did last month tells me everything I need to know about her. If she had a problem with me, she should have come here and said whatever it is face to—” “Oh, please!” Selina came out to the ring with a mic of her own. “Playing the victim, Kil? Figures. You think you know me, but I have your number. You came out here a few months back with that boy toy and stroked everyone’s ego about how this was going to become a bastion of professional wrestling. And for whatever reason, these losers bought all of it, hook, line, and sinker. “That’s why I did what I did. You guys aren’t ready for what this business is really like. Oh, sure, you’ve got your friends and you’re putting on your little shows, but when you get real competitors in here, people like me? All you’re going to do is bleed and then die.” The crowd shouted abuse at Selina, and she tossed off a few choice insults back at them. “‘Real competitors?’” Grace scoffed. “Is that what you think you did last month? Sure, you got the pin, but only after you jumped me. How do you think it’ll end if I see you coming?” “I don’t know,” Selina shot back. “Let’s find out.” She tossed down the mic and leapt at Grace. Grace and Selina started brawling in the middle of the ring, but the locker room quickly rushed out to separate them. Curt got on a mic of his own and quickly announced that these two would meet in the main event tonight. RATING: 41 2) FRO SURE vs. PEPPER PELTON Fro Sure came out to the ring and quickly rallied the crowd to his side, putting on a quick dance clinic complete with some freestyle raps. Curt used this time to get Grace settled down, but you could tell that she was still seething. Pepper Pelton made his way to the ring, which finally snapped Grace out of her anger. She said that this was kind of a rewind to when the Kings took on the tag champs. While she explained that, Pepper tried to do a few dance moves himself but did not look nearly as smooth as Fro. Once the match started, though, things kind of declined. These two didn’t really click in the ring. Fro was able to cover for it mostly and the crowd kind of got into it (especially since they were still hot from the fight between Grace and Selina). Fro finally put Pepper down with the Sure Thing. WINNER: Fro Sure in 13:13 RATING: 33 3) JOHN “ACE” HART vs. JERRY PEPPER I left this one up to Freddie. According to him, we had some great chemistry in the ring together, but it was pretty clear that Jerry was feeling the pressure. Not sure why that was. He tossed me around the ring for a bit before I hit him with the Ace of Harts for the pin and then the win. WINNER: John “Ace” Hart in 13:40 RATING: 36 4) Roger Monteiro came out to the ring with a mic in hand. He addressed his comments first to Curt: “I heard what you said back there, Curt, that Grace taking on Selina was now our main event for tonight. And I have to say, a part of me is disappointed. I came here tonight to take on Quentin Queen for the RFW Championship and, in any other promotion, that would and should be considered main event material. We’re talking about the championship belt. “But the rest of me? The majority of me? I just want to see what those two ladies can do, right?” The crowd agreed with him. “So I figure, why wait? Quentin, let’s do the match now so you and I can pull up a chair and watch what’s bound to be a great match!” Quentin Queen made his entrance. He sneered at the crowd and then addressed Roger: “Don’t act like we’re buddies, ’cuz we’re not. I earned this strap by beating the best this podunk little wrestling company had to offer. And yet somehow, you come traipsing in here and think you’re entitled to this? Forget it. If I’m not defending in the main event, I’m not defending at all!” The crowd did not like hearing that. Roger nodded thoughtfully. “You know, I need to revise what I said earlier. I’m not looking forward to watching the main event anymore. Instead, I want to watch the main event…as the new RFW Champion!” And with that, Roger tossed the mic away and lunged at Quentin, kickstarting the match. RATING: 32 5) ROGER MONTEIRO vs. QUENTIN QUEEN (c) for the RFW Championship Roger and Quentin told a pretty decent story in the ring. Roger seemed bound and determined to keep Quentin in the ring for the entire match (“He obviously saw how last month’s title defense ended,” Curt said). Quentin tried his best to stop the offense and escape, but Roger simply wouldn’t let him. The one time Quentin got out of the ring and tried to walk away, Roger chased him down and dragged him back to the ring. It was pretty clear that momentum was on Roger’s side, but just as he set Quentin up for the Eagle Chop, Quentin dodged it and then hit Roger with the Q-Ball. The audience shouted and yelled as Quincy Jargon made the three count. WINNER: Quentin Queen in 12:38 RATING: 35 6) Garry and Zippy came out to the ring. Garry launched into a comedy routine about Quentin’s opinion of himself with Zippy playing the straight man. I thought it was reminiscent of an old Abbot and Costello routine, and the audience really ate it up, especially as Garry started improvising as one of the fans started heckling him. RATING: 38 7) JOKERS WILD vs. DUSTIN DEUCE & PETER CROCKETT I thought it would be fun to throw our two new hires together in the ring with the Jokers to see what would happen. That proved to be…an unwise choice. And it all centers around Peter Crockett. Don’t get me wrong, the guy looks great on paper and he seems decently over in the Mid West Region. But he has absolutely no stamina. He was winded by the end of this match, which might explain why he nearly injured Garry toward the end of the match. Zippy saw what happened and clearly got worried. He was really hesitant as he got into the ring to cover as Garry slipped out. Thankfully, Peter tagged in Dustin, which seemed to settle Zippy’s mind. He quickly put Dustin down with a spinning bulldog. WINNERS: Jokers Wild in 9:51 RATING: 22 😎 GRACE “DIAMOND” KIL vs. SELINA SVELTE The crowd popped as Grace left the announce table and clambered into the ring. Then Selina made her entrance. The two glared daggers at each other until the bell rang. Then they lit into each other. I really wanted this to turn into an epic brawl that would go down in history, so I instructed Freddie to have the ladies really go all out. But I also asked him to make this a really long match, which made the middle of the match drag. But the ladies did their best and, I hate to admit it, really did a great job. I was starting to see what Freddie said about Grace. Selina may have more experience, but Grace kept up with her every step of the way, scoring a few near falls that had the audience popping to their feet. In the end, though, Selina slipped something out of her sports bra and used whatever it was to reinforce her first as she punched Grace across the jaw. Grace staggered and fell to one knee. As she tried to recover, Selina leapt on her and got her in the Prawn Armlock. WINNER: Selina Svelte in 27:06 RATING: 35 *** I gathered the guys together. “This was another great show,” I said (although I felt like I had messed up the rhythm in the booking, but I kept that to myself). “I want to really thank Selina and Grace for putting in such an incredible effort. And Fro, you really stepped up as well. Way to go, everyone. Let’s keep up the good work next time too!” My speech was met with a lot of nods and smiles. Especially from Fro. But as I started cleaning up some stuff, Garry tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to step away from the others. He glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one could overhear. “Hey, Ace, I just wanted to put a bug in your ear. I’m assuming you saw what happened with Peter, right?” I nodded. “Well, I tried to talk to him about it after our match, but he didn’t want to talk to me. Like at all. He blew it all off like it was no big deal.” That wasn’t good. “You want me or Freddie to talk to him?” Garry pursed his lips but shook his head. “I don’t want to stir up anything backstage right now. I’ll be honest, Peter isn’t my favorite person. I’d prefer not to get in the ring with him again if it can be avoided. But just…keep an eye on him, okay?” It was the least I could do. FINAL RATING: 35

As July wrapped up, it became more and more difficult to see Grace. Part of it was out of fear of Reverend Kil finding out that I hadn’t listened. Part of it was that she was hip-deep in getting ready to move to Minneapolis. It seemed like every other day, Grace and her mom were making runs to Target to get this or that essential item. Based on what I had heard, there wouldn’t be room enough to lie down in Grace’s dorm room by the time they were done. But we still had business to attend to so I managed to convince her to set up a Zoom call with Freddie so we could talk business. “So what’s the ledger look like, Ace?” Freddie asked after we made some small talk. “Not too shabby,” I said. “Even with us giving away tickets this month, we still made a little over $2,700 in profit, bringing us to $20,660.” Freddie nodded sagely. “And you’re still—” “Yes, he’s still setting aside my pay,” Grace said. “Not that I ever asked him too!” Freddie held up his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, Grace. Just watching out for you.” She grumbled good-naturedly. She hadn’t asked me for that money yet, but I suspected she would at some point once she was off to college. “So my plan is to keep giving away the tickets,” I went on. “At least for now. If we can get some momentum going in terms of our attendance, that will eventually lead to us growing the company, right?’ Freddie nodded. “You’re on to something. That’ll especially be true if we can get some more matches like the one with Grace and Selina going.” Grace practically beamed through the computer screen. I braced myself for the bragging. She had been sending me the occasional snotty text message, pointing out that I should have put her in the ring in the first place. It was hard to argue against, but I didn’t necessarily appreciate the constant reminders. We spent another hour talking about future plans. Grace revealed that she was working out ways for her to come down to Rochester from the Twin Cities for the shows, especially since we had Selina on a short-term contract for two more matches with her. We started to wrap up the discussion but, before we could, Freddie raised his hand. “One last thing: do we want to establish someone as the face of the RFW?” I frowned. “What do you mean?” “Well, some companies like to pick a worker and sort of position him to represent the company. You know, like the SWF does with Rocky Golden?” Grace’s face lit up. “Oh, or like Nicky Champion in USPW?” Freddie nodded. “Right.” “So do you think we should do that?” Freddie shrugged. “Up to you. You don’t have to. Not every company does. But I think we might have a couple of workers who could fit the bill if they’re handled right.” “Like who?” Freddie pulled out some reading glasses and looked at his notes. “Well, based on what I’m seeing, we have four possibilities as of right now. We could use Fro Sure, Quentin Queen, Roger Monteiro, or even Selina Svelte.” Grace laughed. “Selina? She’s only here temporarily.” Freddie looked over the rim of his glasses. “But contracts can always be extended.” I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. Grace would love that idea. If Selina stuck around, she’d need someone to wrestle… Thankfully, Grace didn’t take the bait. “Well, Roger’s great, but he doesn’t strike me as having a lot of charisma or star power. He doesn’t have that ‘it factor,’ in my opinion.” “I’d agree,” Freddie said. “Same sort of problem with Quentin. He’s not being pushed as a face right now, and I’m not sure he’d do well as a face. And he doesn’t come across as being all that charismatic.” “So that leaves Fro Sure,” I said. I could get behind that. Fro had a great connection with the fans already and I really liked him. “Yeah, but Fro isn’t as over as the others,” Grace countered. “At least, I don’t think he’s as well known.” I ground my teeth. This could devolve into an argument quickly with no real choice. Freddie held up a hand to stop us. “There’s no need to get stressed out about this just yet. It’s probably a premature discussion anyway. No offense, guys, but this is something that the big guys need to worry about. We’re only pulling a hundred fans in a pop.” “So table it for now?” Grace smiled. “Sounds good to me. And you know what? By the time we need to talk about this again, I bet I’ll be the face of the company.” She laughed. My stomach soured. I could hear an echo of Freddie’s warning from earlier in the month. If she wasn’t our face, she probably would be for someone else. And I definitely didn’t like that idea at all.

Freddie led me out of the locker room to a small conference room. Much to my surprise, Glenn sat at the table with his laptop open. “You got that footage cued up, Glenn?” Freddie asked. Glenn nodded. “Good. Then can you give us the room, please?” Glenn seemed hesitant to leave. Freddie rolled his eyes. “I promise I’ll take good care of your laptop. Okay?” That didn’t seem to help, but Glenn did as he was asked. Freddie motioned for me to take a seat, but he didn’t. Instead, he paced back and forth in front of me, shooting me uncertain glances. I felt like I was back in Ms. Rutledge’s office. But why would he be so upset. He finally turned and faced me. “Okay, I’m just gonna rip the Band-Aid off here. You and Grace. Are you guys…” His voice trailed off and he raised an eyebrow. I hate to admit it, but it took me a moment to realize what he was asking. “No! No, we’re just friends.” “You sure? Because she’s pretty cute and none of the guys in the back would be upset if you were.” Especially not Curt. Or Pepper, either Jerry or Pelton, I supposed. But why would I need to worry about that? “I’m sure.” Freddie sighed and sank down in the chair behind the laptop. “That was some match that Grace put on, huh?” “I’ll say.” I laughed. “When I contacted Selina to come in and do this, I figured we would just be using her for a quick pop. I had no idea that they would put on a match like that!” Freddie studied my face and then grunted. He turned the laptop around to face me. Glenn had apparently queued up the video from Grace’s match. The footage was frozen in the middle of Selina getting ready to put Grace into a sitout full Nelson atomic drop. Grace had been really excited to get the chance to do that move. But much to my surprise, the move didn’t finish properly. Instead of slamming Grace into the mat, Selina wound up launching her halfway across the ring. Grace hit the mat hard and rolled before popping up from the mat and stumbling around. “Did you see what happened there?” Freddie asked. I nodded. “Looks like Grace messed something up.” Freddie shook his head. “No, Grace didn’t mess it up. Selina did. Look.” He rewound the video and played it back slowly. As he did, he pointed out how, as Grace was coming down, Selina’s fingers slipped, sending Grace flying. “It was an honest mistake, but it’s one that could have ended badly under other circumstances. But watch Grace’s reaction.” He rewound the footage and played it back. This time, I focused on Grace. As Selina’s fingers slipped, I could see the surprise painted on Grace’s face. But it quickly disappeared, replaced by determination. “You saw it too?” Freddie asked. “Grace realized things were about to go south and, in a split second, Grace positioned herself to avoid injury and still sell the move.” We rewatched the footage several times. Freddie was right. In slow motion, knowing what to look for, it was plainly obvious what had happened. Selina had nearly botched the move but Grace salvaged it. “I have to ask you again: what’s between you and Grace?” Freddie asked quietly. “Nothing!” I insisted. “That’s probably for the best.” He closed the laptop. “Because here’s the thing, Ace. I’ve been around this business for a while. I’ve seen a lot of really talented workers come and go. But I have to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone this young save a move like that before. Grace has some serious skills. With the right training and some more experience, she could be one of the best.” I sat up a little straighter. I always knew that she was someone special. And sure, a little part of me selfishly wished Freddie would say something like that about me, but hey, this was good news, right? “So when the other companies find out about her and see footage like this, there’s a good chance they’re going to come in here and start throwing some money at her to get her on their roster.” Wait, what? I looked at Freddie and he nodded grimly. “That’s why I wanted to know if you had something going with her. Because if you did, you should brace yourself for her to be looking for greener pastures. Wrestling-wise, I mean.” He rose and patted me on the shoulder. “Sorry to be the bearer of good news, kid. But this is why you pay me.” And with that, he left me staring at the closed laptop, wondering what kind of new can of worms I had accidentally opened.

RFW All In Sunday of Week 2, July 2020 Held at the Civic Center in Rochester, MN (Mid West Region) 110 in attendance How was I going to handle this situation? I mean, Grace’s determination to wrestle had knocked me for a loop already. But there was something about what she said a few weeks ago that stuck with me, that comment about Curt looking down her shirt really bothered me. After all, Freddie had warned me about what it would be like for her working with a group of guys. And here I had allowed this to happen and hadn’t even realized it! Even though he didn’t wrestle for us, Curt usually hung out in the locker room to chat with the guys and to “workshop lines,” as he put it. He often would listen as Freddie worked out the flow of the match and would try out quips or commentary with the workers and Freddie’s input. He was a dedicated worker, but the fact that he was always around other people made this difficult. Finally, as Quentin and Fro wrapped up their discussion with Freddie and Curt, I motioned for Curt to come over and join me in a quieter corner of the locker room. He was all smiles as he stepped up to me. “Hey, Curt, listen…” I swallowed hard. “I’ve heard that…well, someone here is kind of giving Grace a hard time.” He tipped his head to one side, a confused look on his face. “There is? What’s he doing?” Oh, man. I didn’t want to blurt it out in case anyone overheard. “They’ve been…checking her out.” “Oh yeah?” He turned and looked around the room, spotted Dreadnought, then leaned in closer to me. “It’s Sam, isn’t it? He thinks people can’t figure out where he’s looking when he’s wearing his mask, but it’s so obvious.” “No!” I whispered. “It’s not Sam.” “Is it Billy?” Curt shook his head. “It’s always the quiet ones. Sweet kid, but he can be so awkward.” “No, it’s not Billy either.” “Then who is it?” I swallowed a groan. “You.” He blinked. “M-me?” I nodded. “She said that she’s seen you look down her shirt. At the time, she was really worked up about something else, so she might have been exaggerating how often it happens, but you know that—” Why was he laughing? He was nearly doubled over. Then he stood up and swiped some tears from his eyes. “Ace…that’s hilarious. Who put you up to this? It was Pepper, wasn’t it?” He looked around the room again. “Nobody put me up to it.” I took a step closer. “She seriously said something about this and I have to make sure that—” He waved away my words. “Oh, I get it. But honestly, Ace. You have nothing to worry about with me.” “And why’s that?” He goggled at me, and then started laughing even harder. He finally said, “Because I’m gay.” I stared at him, my mind locking up for a moment. Then my mouth popped open and I started trying to figure out the right thing to say. “I…uh, I am so sorry, Curt. I had no idea, and…” Again, he waved away my words. “Look, we’re cool. I’m sorry if I made Grace uncomfortable. I’ll admit, I was looking her over, but mostly because I was trying to figure out how to give her some advice on how to dress at the announce table. She does okay, but I think she could do a bit better.” “I…see.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll clear the air with Grace, don’t worry. And I’ll be better behaved at the announce table from now on.” He started to walk away, but then turned back to me. “And just in case, Pepper is gay too.” My head snapped around to where the tag champs were talking quietly with their challengers. “First name or last name?” He chuckled. “I guess that’s a mystery you’ll have to untangle.” *** Grace and Curt welcomed the crowd to the show (it looked like both of them had been laughing about something before the show started). Grace pointed out that we had a slightly larger crowd than usual. She said it was proof that people were starting to see how great RFW was. Curt snarkily commented that it was more likely that we were giving away the tickets for free. Which we were, starting with that show. I had decided that, given we weren’t making much from ticket sales, we would throw open the shows to the public for free in the hopes that we would attract more people and, as a result, build some momentum. The fact that we had almost forty more people in the audience indicated that it probably had worked. 1. PAPA SWOLL vs. DUSTIN DEUCE Papa Swoll made his way to the ring and tried to work up the crowd. He managed to sway a good number of his side, which made his opponent, Dustin Deuce, look particularly worried. Swoll and Dustin put on a pretty good match, all things considered. But there was a distinct lack of urgency to what they were doing. The crowd still got into it, cheering on Swoll until he put Dustin down with the Pounce. WINNER: Papa Swoll in 10:41 RATING: 26 2. Grace left the announce table and joined RFW Champ Quentin Queen in the ring for an interview. She explained to the crowd that Quentin was going to face Fro Sure for the title tonight in the main event. She kicked things off by pointing out that Fro’s partner, Papa Swoll had just won his match. Did that make Quentin at all nervous? Quentin sneered at her. “Look, little girl, I know that you just graduated high school and all that, so you’re trying to find some way to apply the crap they shoveled down your throat. But here’s the thing, sweetie: wrestling doesn’t have a transitive property. Just because Papa Swoll won his match against some nobody curtain-jerker doesn’t mean that Fro Sure has a chance against me. This title belt isn’t going anywhere.” Grace started to act offended about being called “little girl” and “sweetie,” but Quentin held up a hand in her face. “Learn your role, know your place. You’re lucky we tolerate you at the announce table.” Grace seethed at the condescension and punctuated the interview by kicking Quentin between the legs. Quentin went down and Grace looked ready to tear him apart. But a few of us rushed out from the backstage area and pulled her back to the announce table just. People helped Quentin backstage while the next competitors came out to the ring. RATING: 29 3. THE SILVER BULLET vs. THE SCOFIELD INDEX (c) for the RFW Tag Team Championship Curt got Grace to calm down, distracting her by asking her to recap some of the recent tension between Texas Hangman and Wild Red Stallion. Grace reminded folks that last month, Stallion had taken exception to Hangman having a title match against Quentin Queen. “This match must be an attempt by Hangman to make peace with his partner,” Grace suggested. “If that’s the case, then Stallion really needs to set up his game,” Curt grumbled. Unfortunately, it was true. Stallion was definitely missing some heat and seemed to be sleepwalking through the match. Jerry Pepper finally put him out of his misery and pinned him. WINNERS: The Scofield Index in 14:03 RATING: 25 4. Roger Monteiro came out to the ring to a decent pop. He waved to the crowd, then shot an uncertain look backstage and started to cut a promo about facing Prime Time Jack Pryde. He stumbled over his words more than once, making it clear that he kind of needed someone to write this out. But backstage, I was a little confused. Jack wasn’t even at the arena and I hadn’t even scheduled Roger to have a match. So why was he here and why was he talking about Jack? I found Freddie and asked him. He showed me the notes that I had put together and, sure enough, there was my scribbled instructions for Roger to come and badmouth Jack. No idea what I was thinking. That taught me to not plan these things on little to no sleep. I was nervous enough… RATING: 23 5. While Roger rambled about Jack, Grace and Curt tried to cover for his awkwardness with their own banter. But then, a young woman vaulted the security rail and snared Grace by the hair and dragged her into the ring. She tossed Grace into the turnbuckles and then snared Roger by the neck and tossed him over the top rope. She then turned and lit into Grace, stomping her in the chest repeatedly. Curt stuttered and fumbled before identifying the mystery attacker as Selina Svelte. “The last we heard, she was supposed to be in Japan with 5SSW! Why is she here in Rochester?” RATING: 31 6. GRACE "DIAMOND” KIL vs. SELINA SVELTE Selina ordered Quincy Jargon, who was hanging out at ringside, to get in and start an impromptu match. Quincy seemed hesitant, so Selina rolled out and forced him in. Once the bell rang, Selina continued her assault. Curt flailed (by design) in his commentary until I hustled out to ringside and took Grace’s spot. We caught the crowd up on Selina’s resume: a Triple-A veteran from Canada who was known to be a fierce competitor. Enough of the people in the crowd recognized her that she was able to generate some serious heat. The beating continued until Grace suddenly came to life and started fighting back. And before long, Curt had to nudge me to get my attention back to what I was supposed to be doing. The match was easily one of the best we had ever put on in RFW. Grace and Selina went all out, with Selina trying to get Grace to submit with move after move. Each one, Grace managed to slip out of. Several times, Grace managed to mount a counter-offensive, but Selina would shut them down. Curt pointed out that Grace had taken a lot of punishment already and that it’s no surprise that Grace couldn’t quite hack it. “But she’s put in an incredible effort tonight,” Curt grudgingly admitted. In the end, Selina got Grace to tap out withe Prawn Armlock. WINNER: Selina Svelte in 12:27 RATING: 43 7. Selina stormed out of the ring and disappeared through the crowd. Several people rushed to the ring to help Grace out of the ring and back to the locker room. As she limped away, a voice doing a bad English accent intoned, “And now for something completely different.” Garry the Entertainer came out to the ring riding on a unicycle. He did laps around the ring before somehow jumping the cycle up the steps. Thankfully, he didn’t try to slip through the ropes while still riding. But once he was in the ring, he started riding and doing a series of tricks. The crowd actually got into it. As he wrapped up his demonstration of unicycling prowess, Garry said, “I don’t know what brought Selina Svelte to Rochester, but you can tell, she really needs to relax. Some people take things waaaaay too seriously. This is supposed to be fun, right? “That’s a lesson that those clowns in Dreadmask need to learn. And you know what, Dreadnought? Lucky for you, class is now in session.” RATING: 39 8. GARRY THE ENTERTAINER vs. DREADNOUGHT Maybe Dreadnought was jealous of the unicycle. Or maybe he was worried that someone would come out and attack him. But he seemed a bit distracted as he came out to the ring and faced Garry. Garry didn’t seem nearly as concerned, spending time mocking him and doing his best to make him look foolish. In the end, Garry got Dreadnought all wound up and then dropped him to get the pin. WINNER: Garry the Entertainer in 10:11 RATING: 24 9. FRO SURE vs. QUENTIN QUEEN (c) for the RFW Championship The crowd really got into this as Fro Sure made his entrance. He swaggered down to the ring and did a little bopping to the beat of his entrance music. He even engaged one fan at ringside to an impromptu dance off before declaring her the winner and surrendering with a laugh. Quentin stomped out to the ring and got in the challenger’s face. Fro seemed ready to laugh it all of until the bell rang. Then he was all business. These two put on a great match on their own. The crowd really got into this match as Fro nearly got Quentin pinned several times. Quentin gave as good as he got, but it was clear he couldn’t put Fro down either. But then Fro mounted a swift and devastating offense before he finally dropped Quentin with a Sure Thing. Referee Quincy Jargon got to a two-and-a-half count before Quentin broke free. But rather than continue the fight, Quentin rolled out of the ring and walked away from the ring. Quincy counted him out and, when he got to ten, declared Fro the winner. Unfortunately, Fro didn’t get the belt and the crowd was not happy about it at all. WINNER: Fro Sure in 14:55 RATING: 38 *** Afterwards, I pumped up Grace, Selina, and Fro Sure for their explosive matches. But as the wrestlers started to leave, Freddie motioned for me to join him. He had a grim expression on his face… FINAL RATING: 38

Friday of Week 1, July 2020 I had to be crazy. I had to be absolutely out of my mind. My hands were so slick with cold sweat I worried the steering wheel would slip and I’d drive off the road. When Siri spoke up for the first time in twenty minutes, I almost did just that. My heart felt like it was about to batter its way out of my chest. Why was I feeling like this? I had participated in dozens of high stakes meets in high school. I had started my own wrestling promotion at 18, for crying out loud! And sure, I got a few butterflies, but never like this. So what was so different about this situation? As Siri directed me off I-90 and into a quiet neighborhood, as my stomach twisted itself into a solid knot, I knew the answer. Especially as I pulled up outside the house and walked to the door, I understood all too well. And as Abigail Thompson opened the door and offered me a dazzling smile…well, that just cinched it. The answer was so obvious. “Ready to go?” I asked, thankful that my voice remained calm. “Absolutely.” She stepped out of the front door and followed me to the car. I did everything the way Dad said I should. I helped her carry her bags out to the car, a small backpack plus an old-fashioned picnic basket. I opened the door for her and offered my hand to help her in. She giggled. I slid into the driver’s side and risked a peek at Abigail. She was gorgeous, as always, with her hair framing her face. I felt so far out of my depth right now. Part of it was because we were staying in Albert Lea. While I had been to a few tournaments here, I had never hung out in the city. Never gone on a…on a… On a date before. This is what I wanted, right? Almost from the moment I saw her at my birthday party, I had imagined this very scenario. And sure, Grace had pushed me to ask her out, but I didn’t need that much encouragement, not really. When I called her last week and asked, she didn’t even seem to hesitate. So here we were, going out to… “Where to?” I asked. She smiled at me again. “You brought your suit, right?” I nodded. She had insisted I bring a swimsuit and I had done so. I jerked a thumb toward the backseat. “Good.” She gave me directions to a city park near a lake. Much to my surprise, there weren’t that many people there. I would have thought with the nice weather that more people would have taken advantage of the beach. But we easily found a place to set out our towels. Then we took turns going to the simple cinder block buildings to change. When I came out, I think I spotted Abigail checking me out. It might have been my imagination. But I was definitely checking her out when she came back out after changing. No bikini, unfortunately, but her suit hugged her curves and revealed that she was really fit. I probably wasn’t subtle enough, but thankfully, when I met her gaze again, her smile had grown. Suddenly my nervousness evaporated. “What should we do first?” "How about a swim?” she said. “Last one in has to pay next time.” Wait, next time? But Abigail turned and raced for the water. It took me a moment for my brain to catch up with her words. I scrambled to my feet and raced after her, but she had too much of a head start. She hit the water and rushed out until she was up to her neck and treading. I swam out to her and smirked. “Next time?” I asked. “We’ll see,” she said. We spent an hour or two playing in the water. She turned out to be a pretty good swimmer, often taunting me to chase her. I could about half the time and the few times I did manage to tag her arm or back, I suspect that she let me. The last time, I got the distinct impression that she was actually waiting for me. I caught up to her, reached out a hand to touch her shoulder… And then she grabbed my wrist and pulled me in close, brushing her lips against mine. I pulled back in surprise. In that moment, she looked so unsure, so uncertain, like she was worried that I would—I don’t know—laugh at her or run away or— I put my hand on the back of her neck and kissed her again, for real this time. We stood in the water, kissing, and it was such a delicious mixture of the sunlight and the warmth inside me and the coolness of the water and the— She pulled away and took a deep breath. “How about we go eat?” No way. I wanted to stay here, like this, for the rest of the afternoon. But Abigail was already headed back for the beach. I took a deep breath and followed. She had packed a simple enough meal, just some sandwiches and bottled waters. But it tasted so good. We lay on our towels, nibbling at the food and chatting about…well, ourselves. I learned that she had done some swimming in high school, but she also had taken gymnastic lessons since she was six. Youngest kid out of five. Wasn’t entirely what she wanted to do with her life either, so we were kind of in the same boat there. While I would have loved to listen to her talk the whole time, she teased a lot of information out of me as well. I shared stuff about my parents, my siblings, my friends. I spoke a little about RFW, mostly how I hoped it turned into something great but it’d be a fun ride. She did ask me a few questions about Grace, but when I told her that we were more like brother and sister, she seemed to relax. As the sun started to set, we held hands and stared over the water. And then she kissed me again, slow and sweet. I brought her back to her house and dropped her off. Another kiss at her door and a whispered promise of “next time” (for which I was paying, she reminded me with a chuckle), and I headed back home to Rochester, feeling like I had just won a world championship. Hey, sue me. I’m not a poet.

... Uh.... I got no excuse. Didn't even look at that part of his profile. Okay, he's silently judging her fashion choices and she just misread the situation? ... I got nothin'.