Post by Headmaster Bernard Core on Dec 12, 2015 8:06:37 GMT -5
December 10, 2015- Core Household, Albany, NY
The look. Bernard Core has thought about it since that night in Corpus Christi when he saw it in Wolf Ryder’s eyes; when he saw Wolf Ryder go from drunk to enraged in half a second. But it’s not just the look that intrigues him. It’s the man behind the look that has piqued Bernard Core’s interest. Wolf Ryder is a drug addled alcoholic, yet he was able to counter everything that Bernard Core threw at him. How was he able to hang with me, a former NCAA Division III Heavyweight Champion?
There was something more to Wolf Ryder than was on the surface. He has to find what that something is.
I don’t know why I need to find it. All I know is that I have to find it.
That’s why he asked for a match against Wolf Ryder this Sunday.
And that’s why he’s in his office, searching the archives of the WCF Network for an answer.
The first video he watches his Wolf’s promo for Revenge. He’s in a gym, by himself, going to town on a punching bag. Wolf’s voice is heard over the punching.
“When I was seven, I played pee-wee football. The coach called me Flash. I thought it was because I was fast. It was even the name printed on the back of my jersey. My father would later point out that the coach called me Flash because I was the slowest kid on the team. Nice. Take advantage of the naiveté of a seven year old kid.”
Wolf continues to tell his story about how his football teams never treated him like a teammate, but as the video continues, Core pays more and more attention to his punches than his words. They become more ferocious.
No wonder my lip still feels swollen.
“Needless to say, I don’t like playing on teams. Being on a team means somebody is supposed to lift you up when you fall. All my teammates ever did was knock me down. I mean, the words ‘team’ and ‘teammate’ might as well be blasphemous in my mind.”
Core clicks on the next video in the archive. This time, he’s in a basement talking to a picture of Jordan Caliban on a wall.
“You call yourself an ‘Artful Dodger.’ So, you’re a Dickens fan. You know, I’ve never been into Dickens’ work all that much, but I’ve found that I have one thing in common with a lot of his characters. When they were at their most vulnerable, people took advantage of them…You know, if you’re going to name yourself after a Dickens character, may I suggest some other names for you. I mean, you are Bi-Polar anyway, so you should be used to having multiple personalities. How about calling yourself “Tiny Tim” instead? The reason being, I’m going to break your leg and make you a permanent gimp. No, no, no. You should call yourself ‘Sydney Carton’ because I’m going to beat you so bad you’ll want to hang yourself just to end the pain.”
He's well read. He may be a drunk, but he’s certainly no idiot.
Wolf moves on to a picture of some hick looking fat ass.
“I learned the truth a very long time ago, Cletus; that this world is a bad place where bad things happen to people. When I finally discovered that, my senses became stronger, like any wolf, and I became more cognizant all of the danger in the world. I was able to stop bad things from happening to me. I got to the bad people before they got to me.”
He’s a realist. We need more of those instead of wizards, fake Mexicans, and women who wrestle for men’s championships.
“That’s the kind of world I live in, Cletus. Maybe it’s time you were exposed to that world. Yes, maybe it’s time for you to see the world for what it really is. And maybe, just maybe, starting this Sunday, I’m the guy who’s supposed to take you there.”
The words send a chill up Core’s spine. He enjoys the sensation.
He clicks on a wrestling match. Wolf is wrestling alongside a guy that looks like he came out of a Calvin Klein ad, Ace Maverick, against Cletus T. Clyde and Jordan Caliban. The match degenerates into a brawl between Wolf and Clyde outside the arena. Wolf and Clyde are pulled apart my security.
"You fat fuck! You and me next week! Next week!"
The next video finds in a studio interview with Zach Davis. Interview is not the right word. Wolf dismissed Davis before it even started and then stared into the camera and addressed his opponent.
“How are you going to stop me when I bust both of your knee caps? How are you going to stop me when I snap both of your arms in two? How are you going to stop me when I concuss you to the point where you can’t even get off the mat? You can’t! Hell, I can’t even stop myself and lord knows I’ve tried. I tried to change the person that I am but after a while I realized that I am who I am. I’m a fighter. I hurt people. I get angry very easily, and when I get angry I want to break body parts. Cause mayhem. Destroy lives. Disrupt the fabric of a person’s soul. I get off on it. Fuck, I’m getting hard right now just thinking about it! You get it? Being Wolf makes me feel alive. I can’t help it. I can’t help it just as much as you can’t help being a fat, disgusting, cousin fucking, piece of shit, stupid backwoods redneck asshole. The only difference is that the person that I am is more violent, more ruthless, more sadistic, and just plain better than the person you are. And that can’t be stopped!”
The man knows who he is. Or at least he did at the time.
At the end of the video, Wolf goes off camera and Zach Davis comes back into view. He turns his back for a quick second. When he turns around, Wolf comes back on camera and gives Davis a discus clothesline that knocks Davis out.
Wow! That’s one hell of a clothesline!
Wolf bends over and looks down on Davis.
“Seek the wolf in thyself.”
Next video: Wolf vs. Cletus T. Clyde, September 13, 2015. Both men were pretty evenly matched. It reminds Core of the fight they had in the bar. No one seemed to gain the upper hand, really. Whenever Wolf was down, he came back and did something devastating to the fat man.
He’s a fighter. He hangs in there. He doesn’t know how to quit or say “stop.”
At the end of the match, Wolf kicks Clyde in the testicles and gets himself disqualified. He goes to the outside of the ring and grabs a steel chair. He uses the chair to smash it over Clyde’s head, sending the big four hundred pound man crashing down to the mat.
Core just stares at the scene wide eyed with a devious smile on his face.
He moves on to a video of Wolf sitting in a locker room by himself. He goes on about not being respected despite the fact that he’s one of only two people from his debut match that has stayed in the WCF.
No respect for your accomplishments. I know how that is.
“I’m not going to walk out to the sounds of wolves howling. I’m not going to wear a picture of a wolf on my vest. I’m not going to start calling myself ‘The Lone Wolf.’ I’m not going to say ‘Wolf’s on the prowl,’ or start a group called Wolf’s Pack. I’m not going to get a tattoo of wolf scratches on my chest or attach wolf’s fur to my wrestling gear.
Wolf isn’t a gimmick to me. I’m not trying to attract eyeballs or make myself more marketable. To me, the name Wolf is about change. It’s about becoming the person you know you are. Look at my tattoo.”
He holds out his right arm and points to the tattoo.
“’Seek the wolf in thyself.’ When I was fifteen years old, I sought the wolf that was inside of me and I found him. He was hiding inside a scared little boy, a scared little boy that was too timid to defend himself. I looked inside, found the wolf, and pulled him out. And I unleashed him on the people who took advantage of my fear, my timidity, my weaknesses.
And when it comes to War, I will seek the wolf once again and unleash him on my opponents.”
But where is he now?
As the video plays on, Wolf becomes more and more angry, especially when he starts running down the list of men he will be facing in War.
“Gemini Battle, Jordan Caliban, Corey Black- three schizophrenics who can’t decide who the fuck they are. I know exactly who I am…
Teo Del Sol- a man whose first priority is entertaining the fans. Any man who’s more concerned with entertaining the fans rather than being the last man standing is weak minded and probably wants an award just for participating…
David Sanchez- he calls himself a “plague” and thinks he can break people down mentally. My will is too strong to be broken down by some turd stain who hates himself so much that he compares himself to a disease!”
He works himself into a frenzy until, all of a sudden, he smashes his head up against a locker repeatedly until he breaks the door off of its hinges. When he backs up, blood is seen trickling down his forehead.
More men need his intensity and passion. Too many men today are weak and ineffectual.
Core watches another video of Wolf hyping War. It’s like the last video, but his last few words get Core’s attention.
“To all of my opponents tonight- and whoever my opponent is in the future- life is too short to waste time, so I’m bringing the fight to you and I’m bringing everything I have! This may be my only shot at gold and the way I see it, there are only three ways I’m going to leave this building tonight:
A- As the number one contender
B- Dead
Or C…All of the above”
Then Core finds it: Wolf’s shining moment, War XIV. This was the event that Jeff was talking about in the bar in Corpus Christi that night. Was Wolf as good as he and Jeff said he was?
“Whoops, he just ate a running knee lift by Wolf, that's his Easy Prey. Moreno is back up.. THE KILL!"
"One, two, three…"
"Discus Clothesline to Peters! THE KILL! Pin!"
"One! Two! Three! There he goes!..."
"Vacher back in the ring - WOLF HITS ANOTHER KILL!"
"One! Two!"
Three!..."
Core sees Wolf fight with non-stop ferocity. Whenever he knocked one man down, he turned around to see who else he could knock down.
Three eliminations in about five minutes. No, they weren’t kidding me.
Core watches the match for the next two hours. He gets wrapped up in it and roots for Wolf, even though he knows Wolf won’t win. When he is finally eliminated by Occulo, he notices that some of the fans are giving Wolf a standing ovation. Wolf looks pissed at being eliminated, but right before he goes behind the curtain, Core notices that Wolf looks back at the crowd and has somewhat of a smile on his face.
He’s happy and he should be. What a hell of a performance. So what changed?
Core watches Wolf’s next two matches and sees the sorry state that Wolf quickly fell into. He didn’t look like the man he’d seen in the previous videos. He looked uncoordinated. Unmotivated. The look he’d seen in every video, the one that he saw in the bar, was gone.
"OCCULO HITS THE OESOPHAGUS BUREAU!"
Occulo puts Wolf in The Epitome and Wolf taps out immediately.
He tapped? He didn't tap with me in the bar and I'm much better than Occulo.
In the next match, Wolf gets tagged in by Occulo and loses the match in about one minute.
Jesus, even his partner didn't want to help him.
And that is the end of Wolf’s videos.
Core is a little sad. He was on a high watching Wolf destroy people during War and then all of a sudden, Wolf became a shell of himself. It's the same feeling that a kid gets on a roller coaster. One second he’s screaming and yelling and having fun, and then it just stops and the kid’s disappointed.
Core leans back in his chair and becomes very pensive. He wraps his hands together and leans his elbows on the arm of his chair, resting his hands on his chin. He thinks for a few more seconds and then grabs a pen and notepad from his desk. He writes down some quick thoughts.
He was a loner. He didn't like partners. Maybe he just hasn't found the right ally yet.
He was a deliberate man. He had intentions. He had goals.
He disdained the freaks of this country just as much as I do.
He would fight anyone, wrestler or not, in the ring or outside the ring.
Winning didn’t seem to be the most important thing to him. Maybe sending a message was his main goal. Perhaps he can send my message about Common Core and America’s need for reform; not just in education, but in all facets of American life.
I saw the look so many times, in his promos and especially in his matches. When he got worked up, when he was in the thick of the fight, it was there, like a laser targeting someone’s head.
The other night in the bar, the look cut through that drunken, drug induced haze that he put himself in.
Perhaps that look is the wolf that he's always seeking.
What activates it? What sets him off? What makes him become so angry?
And how can I use it to my advantage?
