Opening Pandora's Box - Jack Gives Back (0/0/0 Promotion)

[EricAdams]

http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz290/obiwan6986/JackAvatar.jpg

 

You know that song that goes "I've been everywhere, man?" It was used in some commercials a few years back. I feel like that song speaks right to me. It really feels like over these last few years that I've been everywhere and done everything in the wrestling world. I've booked, wrestled, commentated, done backstage work. Hell, it even feels like I've been, black, asian, masked and even a woman! I love this business more than I've loved some girlfriends in my life. I mean, sometimes when I think about it, "love" doesn't even feel like the right word to use for how I feel about wrestling. I love Pop-Tarts and "Lost" and Lady Gaga. No, I bleed wrestling. I live wrestling. I am wrestling. I'd be lost without it.

 

So I'm giving back to the business that gave me a reason to live. There's a lot of young talent out there, and there's even more untapped potential out there. I purchased a gutted storehouse in central New Jersey and turned it into the House of Avatar, a Dojo that focuses mostly on technical wrestling but I'm hoping we can regularly churn out well-rounded young workers. It's a nice place, I guess. A tiny locker room with (mostly) working showers, some second-hand weight sets and a full-size ring. Plus we're right next door to a gymnastics studio and they're cool with letting us sneak in while they're setting up for kids birthday parties on Saturday mornings to use the foam pit so our guys can practice some high-flying stuff without risking serious neck injury.

 

But learning how to work is just half the battle, especially in this economy. You look at the independent wrestling scene and see how many really talented workers are unemployed right now and it's flat out depressing. That's why we've set up PWMAX, a tiny promotion that runs shows straight out of the House of Avatar. It's going to be where the trainees can practice working out in front of an audience and where some good local indy guys can get their feet wet. If we move all the weights and stuff out back we can probably cram about a thousand people in there if the fire marshall doesn't show up. Of course, we don't actually own that many chairs. Realistically, we're set up for about 200 people right now. Not that anywhere near that many people will be showing up. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

What's that? Why do I keep saying "we?" Oh, well I have a partner in this whole mess.

 

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http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz290/obiwan6986/FumihiroOta_alt2.jpg

 

"I'm not good with kids."

 

"I'm not asking you to set up a day care, this is a frigging wrestling school," I argued. "We both said it's something we wanted to do when we were done wrestling."

 

Fumihiro Ota c0cked an eyebrow at me over his pint glass. We were at "Fox and the Hound," a local sports bar that showed all the big wrestling PPVs. The crowd popped for something behind us.

 

"Who says I'm done wrestling?"

 

"You know we're not done with wrestling, Fumi, you know what I mean, we've talked about this. This industry has been a scummy revolving door thats vomitted us everywhere from here to Australia. Remember what you said when we were up in Canada together?"

 

Ota shook his head. He was always a man of few words.

 

"Look, you don't even have to put up much capital. If this starts to work and we turn a profit you can buy in more but for now, I don't know, 80/20?"

 

Ota didn't look convinced.

 

"I already put out my own money for the place and the ring and the equipment, it's just the upkeep now."

 

"Jack, no one is making money in this economy. It's not the time to create anything."

 

"Gotta spend money to make money, Fumes. You can't make on omellete-"

 

"-without breaking some eggs. You got anymore cliches you want to throw at me?"

 

I smiled. The crowd behind us jeered something on the big screen.

 

"We can still work the indy circuit. A show a month? Training three or four nights a week. We don't have to quit our day jobs."

 

"Alright, let's say, hypothetically, we do this promotion."

 

"PWMAX."

 

Ota tilted his head and thought about it for a second.

 

"Let's say we do PWMAX. Are we working or are we backstage?"

 

"I don't know," I said. "If I could road agent it up and do play-by-play in post I would but I think it'd be cheaper to do live commentary for the DVDs. Or internet. I haven't decided yet."

 

Ota cut me off.

 

"But at the same time it'd be good to let some of these kids dance with people who know how to lead."

 

"That's why I have some ideas for people who might be into Road Agenting for us. Some others who might be up for giving back like us."

 

"Like you."

 

"Come on, Fumes," I said, raising my eyebrows with the All-American grin that the ladies loved.

 

Behind us the fans popped again. This time we turned around to see a midget pin an extremely talented worker we had both wrestled in the past who was being used by a certain big time promotion as a jobber. The midget then followed up his win with crotch chops. Ota swallowed the rest of his beer.

 

http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz290/obiwan6986/pandoras-box1.jpg

[EricAdams]

*RING*....*RING*

 

"Talking Heads Hair Salon."

 

"Uh, yeah, hi, is Reese there?"

 

"One moment, who's calling?"

 

"Jack."

 

"Hello?"

 

"Hey Reese's Pieces, how's it going?"

 

http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz290/obiwan6986/ReesePaige.jpg

 

"There's a nickname I haven't heard in a while. How are you Avatar?"

 

Reese Paige and I worked together in the midwest for a year or so for a failing promotion. Besides the fact we were both Jersey-born and raised, two things immediately struck me about her. One, her natural white hair, completely unnatural on a girl of barely thirty. Two, that there was no weirdness when she came into the locker room. Usually when a girl comes into the boys' room it gets quiet and awkward until she leaves. Not Reese though, she was one of the boys. She ribbed with the best of them and not only didn't she expect respect like a lot of girls on the road, but she worked to earn it.

 

"I'd be a lot better if I knew you weren't cutting hair for a living."

 

"Watch your mouth, kid. I like this job. That reminds me, you still owe me for those free haircuts I gave you back in Heartland," she laughed.

 

"Sounds good. Come work for me."

 

"What?"

 

"I'm opening up a wrestling school with Fumes."

 

"You're letting Ota around rookies? Oh lord their chests are going to be calloused by the time they get into the ring."

 

"It's easy money, Reese, I'm not asking you to stop giving grannies dye-jobs. A weekend show every couple of months and you come into the Dojo once a week to watch them work and talk to them about real stuff that other Dojos aren't teaching them: how to survive in the wrestling business. Tell them about scummy promoters and chain of respect."

 

"I'm in."

 

"Really?"

 

"Sure, why not. I've been away from wrestling too long."

 

"I expected you to be a harder sell."

 

"Kid, you could sell sand to a desert. No use in fighting."

 

And like that I had a creative team. Two of my best friends in the business would be working under the PWMAX umbrella. I was excited but trepedation was creeping in. I had an empty warehouse and no one to fill it with. Fortunately there were a lot of out of work wrestlers looking for a job...