Post by Cliff of Doom on Sept 30, 2016 2:45:07 GMT -5
“A Long Island teacher has resigned after restraining a student using a dangerous wrestling move. Cliff McManus, a Social Studies teacher at South Bay Middle School in Bellhaven, was trying to break up a fight between two teenage girls when he restrained one of them in a front face lock, a moved widely used in professional wrestling. When applied, it could cause the person being restrained to pass out. McManus is, in fact, a professional wrestler during the weekends and goes by the name Cliff of Doom in the Wrestling Championship Federation. The South Bay School District has released a statement, saying ‘We regret that Mr. McManus used poor judgment when trying to break up a fight and we are truly sorry to the student and her family for his poor decision. The staff and faculty of South Bay School District will receive training on the appropriate way break up fights within our schools.’ McManus could not be reached for comment.”
I brought Malcolm, my union representative, with me to the meeting just like Dr. Coleman had suggested. He wasn’t trying to be a nice guy. He just wanted a witness to the meeting so that I couldn’t turn around and say I was treated unfairly or give a conflicting account of how the meeting went down, not that I would have done that anyway. I mean, I didn’t have a case. They had me dead to rights. Coleman played me the footage from the security camera, which clearly showed me restraining Kesha in a front facelock to get her to stop fighting with the other girl. It was the totally wrong way to restrain her. Putting my hands on her at all was a risk, but restraining her the way I did was the absolute last thing I should have done. If I had held her tighter, she could have passed out and been in serious trouble. Anyway, the footage was right there as clear as day. I talked to Malcolm before we went into Coleman’s office to tell him what I thought the meeting was about.
Malcolm: You put her in a what?
Cliff: A front facelock.
Malcolm: What the hell is that?
Cliff: I basically wrapped my arm around her neck while she was bent over. I didn’t squeeze the hold on her that tightly, just tight enough to get her to let go of the other girl.
Malcolm: Yeah, but Cliff, you could have seriously hurt the kid. I mean, you never know. She may have a pain in her neck later and the next thing you know, she’s coming in with her neck in a brace tomorrow. Why did you even attempt to grab her?
Cliff: There was nobody around, not another teacher or a security guard, and I tried to call the main office to let them know, but the line was busy. What was I supposed to do, stand there and watch it happen?
Malcolm: For your safety and for the sake of your job, yeah, I would have.
Cliff: My job?
Malcolm: Yeah, this is serious shit, Cliff. This isn’t reading a book during your hall duty. You put a student in a dangerous chokehold, and if they have you on camera doing it, then all bets are off. No justification you could offer would be good enough to explain away you restaining the kid like you did. They will definitely discipline you, maybe even a 3020-A.
In New York State, a 3020-A is the procedure for firing a teacher. I sat down to try to deal with that possibility.
Cliff: Fuck me.
Malcolm: Listen, I’ll be there with you to make sure you get treated fairly in that meeting and you’re afforded your contractual rights, but there really isn’t anything I can do for you beyond that. I can’t defend what you’re telling me you did, even if you had the best of intentions. Just hope and pray that he wants to meet with you about something else.
Malcolm just sat there and listened during the meeting and watched the video alongside me when Coleman showed me the footage. There was really nothing he could do except listen. I was sent home for the rest of the day and was told that I would receive a phone call about whether I should show up for work the next day. I was asked if I understood and I just nodded my head.
Security had to escort me out of the building like I was a trespasser. Luckily, I was removed in between periods, so there weren’t too many people, including students, who saw me being accompanied out of the building. Still, I’ve never felt more embarrassed in my life.
I was allowed to go to Tina’s classroom just so I could tell her what was going on. All I said was that something happened before first period and I was instructed to leave the building. I would explain the whole story when she got home. I’m sure that was a great thing to have on her mind all day.
I went home and did the only thing I do when I get stressed out and need to forget what it is that’s stressing me out: I went to 7-11, grabbed a six pack of Miller Lite, a bag of Fritos, and sat in front of the couch watching wrestling videos on YouTube. I watched video after video of WCF matches. I didn’t even care what the matches were. I just wanted to watch wrestling and forget about the world.
One was a Sarah Twilight match. A lot of people had a problem with her as general manager. I didn’t. In fact, I think she did a pretty good job as the boss of the WCF for a few weeks. Most people didn’t like her attitude or her management style, but you have to be a son of a bitch, or just a bitch in her case, in order to manage a roster as crazy as the WCF’s. Plus, she never got in my way, so why would I hold anything she did as the General Manager against her? But, she’s not the boss anymore. She’s a competitor again, and she’s stepping into War, and believe you me, her and I will be getting in each other’s way during the War match.
She’s definitely one of the favorites. Just like ZMAC, she’s a prolific champion. Hellimination Winner. Television Champion. Two Time Tag Team Champion. And even though it’s defunct, I’ll mention it anyway: Elite Champion. However, unlike ZMAC, she’s also been the World Champion.
She is one of the best in the WCF. Just like beating Zero Tolerance is an accomplishment, beating Sarah Twilight might be even more of an accomplishment. Look what if did for Captain WCF. I know I’ve ragged on him, but beating someone as talented and accomplished as Sarah Twilight cemented a place for him in the WCF.
And what led to that loss? Well, the obvious answer is that Captain Crunch shifted his fat butt enough to escape the Twilight Zone and roll her up for the pin.
But if you think about it, she’s certainly spent a lot of time off from the WCF this year. Just take this year for example. She showed up at Fifteen after being gone for two years. Then she lost at Timebomb to Jared Holmes and left. She shows up at Slam 350 and beats the piss out of Katherine Phoenix. Then Nathan Chambers beats her in the WCF Classic and she leaves again. Then she comes back again for ONE NIGHT at Blast and gets upset by Captain WCF. Finally, she comes back to run the WCF for a few weeks and now she’s competing in War.
I don’t know. I happen to think that if you take that many breaks, the ring rust never totally wears off. The greats that competed in the ring before Sarah and I were even alive became greats because they didn’t take any nights off. They were practicing their craft in that ring ever night, and when they weren’t in the ring, they were in the gym training. The result was that they never got ring rust. They never faltered. They were on their game all the time. I may not wrestle every night like those guys did, but I’ve certainly wrestled more than Sarah Twilight has lately, and I’m not just talking about the WCF. Before I came here in August, I was training in the Long Island Wrestling Alliance and wrestling on their shows on a consistent basis.
I think when she steps in the ring for War, she’ll be a little out of sorts. Besides not wrestling full time at any point this year, she hasn’t participated in War since 2013. Three years of not wrestling full time. Three years of not wrestling in the hardest match there is to win. I’ve been prepping for War since Revenge. I’ve only fought multi-man matches. No tag team matches. No one-on-one matches. Just matches where I’ve been put in the ring with three, four, five other people. I know how to handle a crowd in that ring. Sarah hasn’t had that luxury for a long time, and I doubt she’s just going to pick it back up for this match. Not even Michael Jordan was the best on his first day back after he came out of retirement.
But hey, she was the one booking the matches for weeks, right? She was the one that was putting me into these multi-man situations. She had to have noticed a pattern. Maybe, subconsciously, in the back of her mind, she wanted me in those matches. She wanted me to be experienced in that type of environment. Maybe she saw me and decided that she wanted me to be at my best at War so that when she and I finally encountered each other in that ring, she would have a challenge.
Well, Sarah is going to get a challenge. Sarah is going to get everything that I have and everything that I am. She may have a million moves. She may have the power of the occult behind her. But I only need a few moves to cause my own mischief. I only need the power of my own beliefs to be the epitome of her demise. And when I eliminate her and make it to the end of the match as the last man standing, I will truly be The Only One That Matters, and all that will matter about Sarah in the end is that she’ll be a loser.
Next, I watched last year’s War, the first War Match I had ever seen. Jay Omega won. He’s in the match again this year. No worries. He eliminated ONE guy the entire match the last time. Was he in the longest? Yes, but he still only eliminated ONE guy. I’ll give him credit for hanging in there, but he relied on everybody else to get the job done in that match.
Yes, his one elimination won him the match, but maybe he was just holding back and didn’t get into the thick of it just so that he could make it at the end. Hey, more power to him, he was smart. It wouldn’t be the way I’d go about it, but it was smart. Still, he was exposed not too long after War. What happened just two weeks after winning the title? Wade More beat him for it.
I know it was a ten man tag that turned into an impromptu lumberjack match, but it just went to show that Jay couldn’t handle the quick turnaround. Being a great competitor means adapting to any surroundings at any time. If I were in his shoes, I would have been prepared! When I train, I train for everything. I don’t just train for one specific situation. Jay trained himself to rely on four other people that night. He wasn’t ready for Wade and when Seth, rightly or wrongly, ordered the match for the World Title, Jay couldn’t deal with it. He now had to rely on himself to win. There weren’t 49 other people spending their energy trying to eliminate each other just so he could swoop in and eliminate the last one at the end. He had to fight the entire time and he couldn’t do it.
At War, I know he’ll be ready, but if he chooses to hold back and not get in the fight, I’ll come after him. That’s what I do. I go after people. That’s what I’ve done in every single match I’ve had so far. I’ve had more than one opponent in every match and I never waited for my time to attack, I just attacked, and I’ll attack Jay when he gets in the ring. He’ll be my prime target as long as he’s in this match and I won’t be done with him until I eliminate him. At War XV, there will be no repeat.
I watched a package of Jeff Purse’s best WCF moments. One of them was of course War XI, when he won the War Match to become the WCF World Champion. Another moment was when he beat Oblivion back in the spring to win the World Championship again. The first title reign was pretty good. He held it until One, which was in January 2013. He had a hard fought battle against Eric Price, but he made one costly mistake. He went up to the top and took a little bit too long to drop down on Price with the Deflator, allowing Price to get his knees up, capitalize, and win the World Title. The second reign was not as impressive. He held it for less than a month and lost it in a Fatal Four-Way- a match that I haven’t lost- to Stuart Slane, a guy so impressive that General Manager Twilight decided to fire him.
If Purse wants to be obsessed about something, maybe it should be his age. I know I’m not as young as a lot of the guys on the roster, but I’m not talking about age young. I’m talking about physically young. Purse has been doing this a lot longer than I have. Purse has been beating his body up for a lot longer than I have. It’s only natural that he’s slowing up while guys like me are getting faster and faster every day, just like it’s natural that I’ll beat his obsessive compulsive face at War.
And before he was wrestling, he was doing that crazy BMX shit, and he probably wrecked his body doing that, too. It’s time for a guy like Jeff Purse to ice down his entire body once a day, get out of my way, and let me do my thing. Maybe instead of worrying about how dirty his opponents’ bodies are or the position of the ring bell, he should be worrying about how he’s not going to get permanently paralyzed by the Doomstone. But hey, if it comes down to that, then so be it. I’ll do him a favor and pin him exactly in the center of the ring.
Same goes for Doc Henry. It’s time for Doc to meet his maker. I’ve seen old videos of Doc winning the Hardcore Title, winning the Tag Team Titles, and the Internet Title, and the U.S. Title, and the TV Title. He was one hell of a great promo, too, at one point. But he’s lost a step, too. The guy doesn’t seem to be present anymore.
I remember last year before One, Bernard Core was cutting a promo on Doc and called him Mervin the Merkin. What did Doc do in response? He was the first man eliminated in the Torneo Cibernetico at One. Way to show em’, Doc!
And in more recent fare, he lost to Oblivion, another failed World Champion, couldn’t put “Mr. #1 in War” Henry Spearman away, was eliminated from the TV Title Battle Royal, and couldn’t outlast the degenerate Crazy J in a Hardcore Title match at Revenge. All of these failures happened within the same time that I was going undefeated in my first four matches. Even when he wins, like he did against Spearman and Oblivion the week before Revenge, he still finds a way to end up on his back, like when Mikey eXtreme kicked him in the face. It’s time for someone to finally make him submit. That person is me, and it’ll happen at War. It’s time for the old Southern Rogue to go back home to Georgia.
I got a little tired of matches and moved on to watching videos of promos. I clicked on the latest one by Odin Balfore.
Odin: Wrestling is full of guys like Cliff of Doom who wanted to be wrestlers but couldn’t make the run. He settled down, became a teacher and then decided to give it a try. Well, wrestling is all or nothing and Cliff quiet literally is nothing.
Well, if I didn’t feel like shit before, I feel like shit now.
I wanted to throw the computer but stopped myself from doing that. I got up and started cleaning the apartment instead. Now I had to get my mind off of the thing I was using to get my mind off of what had happened at the school.
Around the time when I knew Tina would be home, I sat myself down at the kitchen table like I did when I got suspended from school in sixth grade and waited for my dad to come home and mete out punishment. When she did get home, she put her stuff down on the table and just walked around the apartment for a few minutes, throwing in laundry, checking her mail, using the bathroom. She didn’t look at me or say a word to me once. Maybe she was trying to put off the worst. Maybe she was thinking about how she would react to my bad news. She had to have found out what happened already. Whatever she was thinking, she finally sat down. She still wouldn’t look at me. She just looked down at the table. I stared at her, waiting for her to say something. It was more agonizing than any wrestling move that I could think of.
Tina: Well, are you going to tell me your side of the story?
Yep, she found out. Her voice was a mix of aggression and annoyance.
I told her everything that happened.
Tina: Why the fuck would you grab the kid like that? Why didn’t you just grab her arms?
Cliff: I don’t know. It was instinctual. I didn’t even think about it. I just jumped in there to break it up and it was the first thing I did.
Tina: Fucking wrestling. You’ve spent so long learning how to do this shit that now it’s like second nature. I’d hate to think what you’d do to me out of instinct.
Cliff: Hey, take it easy, alright? I wouldn’t do anything that ever hurt you.
Tina: How do you know?
Cliff: Because I fucking know, that’s why.
Now I was getting pissed off.
Cliff: You’re my fucking wife. Why would I hurt you like that? I swear to God, you don’t fucking think about what you say sometimes.
Tina: And you don’t fucking think about what you do sometimes, like putting a kid in a fucking wrestling hold!
Cliff: I wasn’t doing it to hurt the kid! What don’t people get about that?! She was fighting in the fucking hallway and there was no one around to stop it! I tried to call the right people but there was no one around and it was causing a safety hazard! What if anybody else got hurt?! It happened right in front of my room! I would have been in trouble if I hadn’t done anything!
Tina: Yeah, but at least you wouldn’t have put your hands on a kid and it wouldn’t have possibly cost you your job! You would have gotten a slap on the wrist at the most!
Just like Malcolm, she was right. There was nothing I could say to defend myself. Once I put my around the girl’s neck, all bets were off. I sat there silent for a minute, giving us both a chance to calm down.
Tina: Cliff, what are we going to do if you lose your job?
Cliff: Well, I still have wrestling.
Tina: Oh, God, wrestling.
Cliff: Well, babe, it’s still a job that’s going to pay me money.
Tina: Yeah, but there was a reason you didn’t quit teaching when you got the WCF contract. You can be on my medical insurance, but your WCF income combined with my income won’t be enough to get us by.
Cliff: If I win War and win the World Title, it will.
Tina: Oh, babe.
She looked up and gave one of those smiles that read “you’re being so delusionally ridiculous that I almost want to laugh.”
Cliff: What?
Tina: I know you haven’t lost yet and you’re very confident in your abilities, but the chances of you winning War are slim.
Well, that hurt.
Cliff: You don’t think I can win?
Tina: No, I don’t. I don’t know wrestling that well, but I’ve watched every show you’ve been on and there are a lot of guys better and more experienced than you. I’m afraid of you even wrestling in this match. What are there, like 50 people in this match? The thought of you fighting guys like Mikey eXtreme or Gemini Battle or the Zero Tolerance team all at the same time scares the shit out of me. I just keep envisioning you breaking your neck. The image plays in my mind over and over and over again.
I wasn’t sure whether to accept her concern or feel indignant. She didn’t have confidence in me? She thought I was going to be manhandled by these guys? How dare she? Then again, she was worried about my well being, and I would think it’d be bad if she wasn’t.
I got up from the table and knelt down in front of her. I had to be a man. I had to reassure her. I held her hands in my own and looked her straight in the eye.
Cliff: Babe, nothing’s going to happen to me. I promise you. I’m well trained, I’ve scouted these guys, I know what I’m doing in there.
She looked down, the weight of her thoughts bearing down on her.
Tina: And I’m going to win this match. I’m going to win this match, go to One, become the World Champion, and then all of your worries and my worries will vanish. We can buy a house. We can start a family. Everything we want will be ours, I promise you.
She looked up at me defiantly.
Tina: And what if you don’t win? What if you lose your job and your plan B of winning War and the World Title doesn’t pan out? What then?
Cliff: Well, I’m not just going to sit on my ass all day. If I have to flip burgers, I’ll flip burgers. My cousin owns the irrigation company. I know his season is almost over but I could get a few weeks of work out of that. There’s the CVS that I worked at when I was a substitute teacher. My old manager still works at the one in Holbrook. When I left, he told me that I was welcome any time I wanted to come back. But, you know, nothing’s happened yet. Maybe they’ll review the whole situation and decide that it’s okay for me to come back to work, and then everything will be back to normal.
My phone rang at that exact moment. I looked at the number. It was the school. I answered it.
Cliff: Hello?
Sandra: Hello, Mr. McManus. This is Sandra, Superintendent DeJoseph’s secretary.
Sandra sounded like she was making a very official phone call.
Cliff: Hi, Sandra.
Sandra: Dr. DeJoseph would like to meet with you in his office tomorrow at 10 AM. He is advising you to bring a union representative with you.
Fuck me, I thought. Those words must have crossed my mind and come from my lips about three dozen times that day.
Cliff: Okay, I’ll be there.
Sandra: Great. Thank you.
She abruptly hung up. I looked at Tina. Her face had gone from preoccupied to stern once again.
Cliff: It was…
Tina: I know who it was. I could hear her speaking on the other line.
I hate being cut off, but I restrained myself.
Cliff: I need to call Malcolm.
I got up and went outside and called him. He told me that he would contact the union’s Labor Relations Specialist (LRS) to be at the meeting as well. That’s the lawyer for the union. When I got off the phone, I went back inside. Tina was still sitting at the kitchen table, just thinking.
Cliff: Listen, don’t tell anybody about this yet, okay?
She didn’t respond.
Cliff: Did you hear me?
No answer.
Cliff: Babe!
Tina: I heard you, alright?! No, I won’t tell anybody! God damn!
She stormed from her chair and into the bedroom. I just stood there, not knowing what to say or do.
I was at the district’s Central Office building thirty meetings early the next morning. I wasn’t allowed in until a security from one of the schools showed up to escort me in. I had to wait about twenty minutes, so I just sat in the car and watched Bernard Core vs. Mikey eXtreme from Fifteen on the WCF Network. It was the Two Out of Three Falls All American Weapons Match. Bernard Core was such a dick. No one liked him when he was the education commissioner for New York State and people liked him even less as a wrestler, but he was a great wrestler and his feud with Mikey eXtreme was one of the best since I started watching WCF. Mikey eXtreme just had it that night, though. It was a pretty even, back and forth match. They both beat the shit out of each other. Mikey was just better that night. He hit the right move at the right time and capitalized on it. That match brought him to another level.
Which is why it’s strange that after that match, Mikey’s career went downhill. He lost the U.S. Title to Vengeance, got it back the next month, and then quickly lost it again to Ethan King. Then he failed to win the Hardcore Championship. The guy named eXtreme who swings an American flag Singapore cane like it was sledgehammer, couldn’t win the HARDCORE Title. Then he failed to win the TV Title. That was followed by the failure to enter Ultimate Showdown, which was followed by the failure to win King of the Death Match. He even failed to beat Henry Spearman outright. He only won the final entrance spot in War because somebody kicked HIM in the face. The guy couldn’t even earn the it. He had to rely on somebody else to get it for him.
Still, the fact remains that he’s the last man to enter War. He’s going to be the freshest one there. Even if I enter late and I come just one spot before him, he’ll have an advantage over me. Two days before I was boasting in a cell phone video that I had been undefeated since entering the WCF and that’s one thing that gave me an advantage over everyone else. I’m not so confident to think that that is what makes me better than Mikey eXtreme. Bernard Core hadn’t been beaten outright by the time he faced Mikey eXtreme at Fifteen and look what happened. Mikey choked him out so bad that he passed out. Where is Bernard now? Running a private school upstate, not in a wrestling ring.
Then again, that was a one-on-one match. Mikey excels at those, but what about multi-man matches. He failed to get the pin in a Four-Way on September 4. He failed to win a Triple Threat Match on June 19. When he lost the U.S. Title for the final time, what kind of match was it? A multi-man match between Ethan King and Steve Orbit. The facts prove that when it comes to Mikey having to go it alone against multiple people, he can’t handle it. It’s too much for him. He gets overwhelmed and flops.
While maybe I shouldn’t boast about being undefeated so far, it’s fair to mention that in all of those matches that I won, they were all multi-man matches, a Six-Way, a Five-Way, and two Four-Ways (Jesus, that sounds like Caligula’s daily schedule). Heck, call me the King of the Multi-Man Matches. It doesn’t get more multi-man (or woman) than War. I just find a way to win, all the time. I find my opportunities and I strike. Greg St. Matthews took to the air and gave me the chance to Doomstone him. Jaice Wilds decided to climb to the top rope and allowed me to send him to the mat with a Cliffhanger. Teddy Blaze decided that listening to Gemini Battle mock him was more important and I rolled him up. Even when Joe Smarts threw me into the crowd and the chips were seemingly down, I found a way to get back into the ring and pin Mark Gallagher. No matter how many people there are, I’m always the last one standing.
Mikey, on the other hand, left himself wide open to get dropkicked to the floor by Ethan King at Aftermath and wasn’t able to prevent the U.S. Title from leaving his possession. He let himself get distracted in the June 19 match and was thrown out of the ring by Teddy Blaze. He telegraphed that he was going after Kevin Bishop in the Four-Way, which allowed the cult master dickhead to suplex Mikey into the turnbuckle and out of the ring.
On the one hand, he’s last. On the other hand, he’s no good in multi-man matches. If it comes down to me and him at the end, one-on-one, he’s got a better chance of beating me. That’s why when he enters, I’m coming after him first and I’m going to keep at him until I find that one moment where he gets overwhelmed and he leaves himself open to get attacked. That’s when I’ll pounce, hit him with the Doomstone, and eliminate him. After that, he can go back and sulk about how he can’t win anything anymore.
What am I going on about? I’m talking about Mikey not being able to win the big one while I’m in the middle of a story about me losing the match called life.
In the middle of the match that I was watching, I saw a security guard get out of his car. I walked up to him and told me who I was. We walked into the building together and I was told to wait in the lobby. Malcolm and the LRS, Guy, came in a short time later and we had a quick conference before the meeting.
Cliff: What’s the best I can expect out of this?
Guy: Honestly? Suspension.
Cliff: That’s the best I can do?
Guy: Look, you put a kid in a chokehold. There is going to be some sort of major discipline. You can’t expect that they’ll just put in a letter in your file admonishing you for the putting your hands on a kid. Why did you do that anyway?
I was so sick of answering that question, but I told him the same thing I told Malcolm and Tina. He just shrugged.
The superintendent called Malcolm and Guy into his office without me. I sat on a couch, feeling anxious about what they were talking about, anxious about what was going to be the result of the meeting. It was funny. I sat on that couch when I was being interviewed for my job and I felt the exact same way: anxious. However, if I had been turned away at the interview, I wouldn’t have lost anything. If I was turned away at this meeting, I would lose everything, at least as far as my teaching career was concerned. Who would hire me after something like this? What human resources director wouldn’t look at my employment history on my resume and ask me why I left South Bay School District? And how would I answer such a question? I’m not a good liar and lying during an interview is probably a bad idea, especially if they call my former employer. I started sweating from everywhere, my forehead, my armpits, my balls, it was raining underneath my suit.
Guy and Malcolm finally ended my agony and came out after twenty minutes. Their faces did not say “good news!” They summoned me into the conference room next to where the couch was and sat me down.
Guy: They are going to…“invite” you to resign.
Cliff: Invite me to resign? So, they’re firing me.
I pounded the table.
Cliff: Motherfucker.
Malcolm: Hey, calm down. You can’t be like this when they get in here. You have to handle this like a professional. You don’t want to have one of those exits like Tom Cruise when he got fired in Jerry McGuire and have these guys talking about you to their friends in other districts.
I folded my arms and breathed a heavy sigh.
Guy: The girl’s parents are threatening to sue the school district. They have no choice but to strongly suggest that you resign.
I leaned my head up against my hand.
Guy: Hey, if they wanted to call this a termination, they would. They have a stone cold case against you and if you tried to fight termination, it would cost them money, but nowhere near how much time, effort, emotion, and money it would cost you- and for nothing. You would not win. You would fight it and be fired. I wouldn’t suggest that you take a moral stand in this case, especially since you put your hands on a kid. Plus, they’re kind of doing you a favor. If you resign, you don’t have to tell other districts you were fired.
That was little consolation. I would still have to tell an interviewer why I resigned, but I figured that resigning had a slightly less negative connotation than being fired. I thought again about what I was going to do with myself, what I was going to do for money. What if none of the Plan Bs and Cs and Ds worked out for me? There were too many what ifs. And Tina. God, her worse nightmares were coming true all because of one well intentioned but misguided decision.
The Superintendent, the human resources director, the president of the school board, and the district’s lawyer all walked in. They asked if I understood the offer I was given. I told them that I did. They passed a letter of resignation across the table. I signed it and that was it. My career in the South Bay School District, and possibly in all of education, was over.
I was told that I could go to South Bay Middle School at the end of the day (with a security escort, of course) to collect me personal belongings. When I went there, I got some empty boxes from the copy room and used them to put my books and stuff in. When I was almost done, Rory, my favorite student, ran in holding a big piece of folded cardboard under his arm.
Rory: Mr. McManus!
The security guard stopped him from approaching me.
Security Guard: Hold up, son.
Cliff: Are you serious? Do I look like I’m going to try to restrain this kid?
Security Guard: Hey, I was told to avoid any contact between you and kids.
They guy was making me feel like I was some sort of pedophile.
Rory: Mr. McManus, is it true what they said? Were you fired?
Cliff: No, Rory, I resigned.
Rory: What does that mean?
Cliff: It means I quit.
Rory: Quit? Why would you quit? Is it because of what you did to Kesha?
Cliff: Rory, it’s not something I really want to take about right now.
Rory: Oh. Well, um, I brought this to school today and I planned on giving this to you, but you weren’t here. I was about to bring it home but when I saw your door open, I thought you might be here.
He opened up the piece of folded cardboard. I couldn’t believe what it was. It was a life size cardboard cut-out…of me…in my wrestling get up. He had blown up a photo of my first promotional shot from the WCF website and glued it to a piece of cardboard.
Cliff: Rory, this is…I just can’t believe this. You made this for me?
Rory: Well, my dad helped me, but yeah.
I didn’t think it was possible to feel worse than I already had, but it was. Besides how I was letting down Tina and how I had jeopardizing my teaching career, I now was reminded that I had let down all of the kids. I let down the kids I had in class who now had to adjust to a new teacher. I let down all of my students, current and former, who I had failed to be an example for. Teaching wasn’t just a way to make money for me. It wasn’t my first career choice, but I liked doing it, and now I could feel a whole in my heart that hadn’t been there before. When I wasn’t wrestling or training over the summer, I wanted to be in the classroom and it made me sad that I wasn’t. Now, I’d have that feeling for the rest of my life.
Cliff: Rory, thank you. This really means a lot to me. This is going to be prominently displayed in my apartment.
I was about to hold out my hand so that I could shake Rory’s, but I stopped and looked at the security guard.
Cliff: Can I at least shake his hand?
The security guard rolled his eyes and turned around. Rory and I shook hands.
Cliff: Rory, I’m never going to forget you. You’re a good kid and this is a great gift.
Rory: And you were a great teacher, Mr. McManus.
I knife right through my heart.
Cliff: Thanks, Rory.
He left and I finished packing my things. I filled up my car and put Cardboard Cliff of Doom in the front seat. I sat there and thought about the overwhelming emotion I was feeling.
I felt like someone in my life had died.
Something was gone.
And I was never getting it back.
I snapped and pounded on my dashboard.
Cliff: GOD-FUCKING-DAMN IT!!!
I burst into tears, alternating between sorrowful sobbing and spontaneous fits of rage. I’d punch the dashboard a few times, stop, catch my breath, let a few tears out, and then go back to beating the shit out of my car, hitting it harder each time.
I caught a glimpse of my eyes in the mirror. I was ashamed that I was crying. I hated the image that was looking back at me so much in that moment that I started pulling it. When I ripped it off finally, my hand slammed down on my center console and cause the glass to break and cut my hand.
Cliff: FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!
I threw the god damned thing to the floor and looked at my hand. I’d bled before, but this snapped me out of my temporary moment of insanity.
Fuck me. I lost my primary job. My wife probably hated me. And now I’d injured my hand with eleven days to go before War.
The ring announcer in my imagination made the official call.
Kyle Steel: The winner of this contest…LIFE!!!
And now I’m here in the WCF Studios, sitting across from Hank Brown, giving him an exclusive interview for WCFwrestling.com.
The story about my resignation made it on to the news. My parents and my in-laws found out. My mother-in-law wasn't thrilled that someone had knocked on her door looking for me.
Thank God it was only a local story. It didn’t go national. I’m sure the dirt sheets and other wrestling websites reported it, but if they did, it wouldn’t go any further; and besides, I haven’t paid attention to those sites in the last seven days.
Still, I was worried Seth wouldn’t like the bad press, but I guess I don’t know Seth that well. He liked the small amount of attention it was garnering the WCF, especially with a big pay-per-view coming up. He called and said he wanted me to come in for an interview with Hank. It’s true. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
I look like absolute shit. I haven’t really taken care of myself since I “resigned.” I’ve been too embarrassed to go to the gym and show my face in public. I’ve been drinking more beer and eating more chips than I should be. I haven’t shaved. Sometimes I wear the same clothes as I wore the day before. I haven’t been able to sleep. I haven’t looked for a job like I told Tina I would. She won’t talk to me unless she absolutely has to. It feels like I’m living by myself most of the time. It hurts even more because our first anniversary is the day after War.
I didn’t even get dressed up for this interview. I’m wearing my fading black Metallica T-shirt from their Orion Festival in Atlantic City back in 2012, a pair of jeans with dirt at the bottom of the pant legs, and sneakers.
Some people may question why I’m doing this interview if I don’t want to go out in public. Well, because Seth’s paying me to, so that seems to me as good a reason as any.
Hank: Welcome to another WCFwrestling.com exclusive interview. I’m here right now with one of the hot young rookies here in the WCF who’s been on a bit of an undefeated streak since debuting a month ago at Revenge- Cliff of Doom. Welcome, Cliff.
Cliff: Thanks for having me here, Hank.
Hank: I’m glad we finally get to hear from you. You haven’t had the time to say anything on TV. First, I think we need to address the elephant in the room. The local fans here in New York probably know the story already, but you were recently fired from your teaching job on Long Island.
Cliff: I resigned.
Hank: Yes, I’m sorry, resigned. How have you been dealing with that over the last week?
Like shit, Hank. Take a look at me. I look like something that came out of Crazy J’s asshole.
I say stone faced, not trying to show any emotion, and trying to put up somewhat of a strong front, even though my appearance betrays me.
Cliff: I’ve been getting through it.
That’s all you’re going to get, Hank. Hey, Seth didn’t order me to say much about losing my teaching job.
Hank: I see you injured your hand a bit. Will it be healed before War this Sunday?
More no-selling of emotion.
Cliff: Yes.
Hank finally got the message that maybe he should move on to wrestling.
Hank: Very well then. This is your first War match. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but you only decided to start training as a wrestler after watching War XIV last year.
Cliff: That’s correct.
Hank: And you’ve cited Wolf’s performance in that match specifically as something that inspired to lace up your first pair of boots at this point in your life. What was it that Wolf did that inspired you so much?
Cliff: Well, I don’t know how many people actually know this, but Wolf and I actually went ot the same high school growing up and graduated in the same class.
Hank: Really?
Great journalism there, Hank.
Cliff: Yeah, and just the fact that he entered at number one and went balls to the wall until he was finally eliminated over two hours later made me think, hey, if a guy from my hometown can make an impact like that and live his dream, I can do the same thing, too.
Hank: Wrestling was always a dream of yours?
Cliff: Yeah, I loved wrestling as a kid and War XIV, the whole event, not just the match, rekindled that love in me and that fire to finally try it out and see if I had what it took to be a professional wrestler.
Hank: You’ve certainly proven that you do.
Cliff: I’d say so.
Hank: You sacrificed a lot to hold on to your teaching job and wrestle at the same time.
Jesus, back to the teaching.
Hank: Do you think now that you’re not teaching anymore, you’ll find it easier to devote more time to wrestling?
Cliff: Well, yeah, naturally, but it’s not like I wanted to lose my job, Hank. It’s not like the WCF is paying me what I was making as a teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love the opportunity to be here. It’s just harder to get by now that I’ve lost a significant portion of my income. Plus…
Fuck, I don’t want to get into this, but something tells me I’m already headed there, so I might as well just wear my emotions on my sleeve. Fuck, I guess Hank Brown is good at this job.
Kyle Steel: The winner of this contest, Hank Brown!
Cliff: I loved teaching. When I wasn’t wrestling, I wanted to be in the classroom. Being in front of a class of thirty kids is a lot like being in front of a crowd of 15,000 wrestling fans. They both want to be entertained and it’s my job to get them interested in what I’m doing, whether it’s teaching about Christopher Columbus or executing a C4 off of the top rope. And I feel like I’m helping both groups of people. If I get the kids interested in what I’m teaching, then it’s to their benefit. They’re learning something and I’m giving them knowledge, the most powerful weapon they could ever have. If I get the wrestling fans interested in what I’m doing, then they get their money’s worth and forget about their problems for a little while. Now I’ve lost the ability to reach one of those groups of people and…it kills me inside. It really does kill me inside.
Hank: Are you afraid that you’ll lose the ability to reach the wrestling fans?
Cliff: I guess that’s always a possibility. Anything can go wrong in the ring and in life, but I can’t worry about that right now. I have to worry about War.
Hank: Well, it sounds like you’ve taken some precautions to protect yourself during War. There’s been talk that Thomas Bates has been getting a coalition together to fight some of the returning participants in War like Joey Flash and Jay Omega and your name came up as someone who is part of that coalition. Is there any truth to that?
Through the bright studio lights, I can see over Hank’s shoulder. I spot Bates off camera walking out of the shadows and staring at me, waiting for an answer.
The news about the meeting between Bates and I traveled rather quickly. Bates probably advised Hank to ask me this question. The Mountain approached me this morning when I first got into the building. I was in the bathroom and he walked in while I was washing my hands.
Bates: I was kind of hoping I’d run into you at some point before War. I didn’t think it was here.
Cliff: Well, you did. What do you want with me?
Bates: You know that Flash and a bunch of either guys are returning for the War match, right?
Cliff: Yeah.
Bates: I don’t think it’s right, especially for you new guys. It’s your time to shine, not these guys.
Cliff: Really, Bates? You’re worrying about guys like me that you hardly fucking know? Maybe you’re just worried that a guy like Joey Flash will win War and beat you for the World Title at One.
Bates: Hell, no! You think I’m afraid of that son of a bitch? No, as the World Champion of the WCF, I’m the leader of our locker room and I’m speaking up against something that I think is wrong. These guys haven’t been here for months and some of them didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms. Now they think they can just stroll on in here as if nothing happened and fight for a World Title opportunity at one of the biggest shows of the year. I’m not going to stand for it and you shouldn’t either. I’m facilitating an alliance of a bunch of War participants to fight these guys off and stop them from getting to the end of the match. I’ve gotten commitments from people like Adrian Archer and Lilith…
Cliff: Oh, yeah, Lilith, great recruit.
Bates: Well, there’s a lot of other people I’ve got on board that can easily pick up any of Lilith’s slack, and I think you’d be a great addition. Think about it? Do you really think that it’s fair for Joey Flash or Jay Omega to be taking a chance away from a promising young star like you?
I stayed silent and let his words play in my head.
Fair? What’s fair? It’s not like it wasn’t fair. These guys weren’t breaking any rules by coming back and fighting in War. Being concerned about their entry into War was to betray a lack of confidence that just simply wasn’t there.
Still, these guys were fucking good. Any advantage I could have over these guys was helpful. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t consider Bates’ offer, right? Then again, was I not good enough to go it alone?
Bates: What’d you say? You in?
Now, sitting in my chair back in the studio, I stare right into Bates’ eyes.
Cliff: Yes.
He smiles, satisfied.
Cliff: But not for WCF.
His smile immediately disappears, his face turning incredulous.
I look back at Hank.
Cliff: I’m doing it for me.
I pause before I launch into another trip down Soul Bearing Lane.
Cliff: Does the date August 28 mean anything to you, Hank?
Hank: No, I can’t say that it does.
Cliff: Oh, Frank, come on. That was the night of Revenge, my first night here in the WCF.
Hank: Oh, right, you won a six-way between…
Cliff: It’s not important who I faced. What’s important is that date, August 28. That date has been running through my mind ever since I entered the WCF. You know why?
He shakes his head.
Cliff: Because I made a deal with my wife when I was booked for Revenge that if I didn’t win the World Championship one year to the day that I debuted in the WCF, that I was going to retire from the sport of professional wrestling forever.
Hank’s in a bit of disbelief.
Hank: So let me get this straight: if you don’t win the WCF World Championship by August 28, 2017, you are leaving not just the WCF, but all of professional wrestling for good.
Cliff: Yep.
I notice that even Bates’ eyes widen.
Hank: You’re not leaving yourself a whole lot of time there, Cliff.
Cliff: There will be 330 days left by the time War rolls around. It’s funny. You say it’s not a whole lot of time, and before I got fired…I mean, resign--- fuck it, I got fired. Before I got FIRED, I would have told you that it wasn’t that short amount of time. But now, with no teaching career to fall back on, it sure as shit is short. The sense of urgency has kind of gone up a little bit.
I mean, winning the World Title; that would change everything for me. Think about the money I would earn just from winning the World Title once. With that money, my wife and I could move out of her parents’ basement and buy a house. We could finally start a family. And if I don’t do it by the deadline I’ve set for myself, my dreams for my wrestling career will be dashed, but more importantly, the dreams of my wife and I will be on hold, possibly forever.
So yeah, I joined Bates’ coalition, but not because I care about this promotion or anybody else in the promotion. I’m thankful for the opportunity the WCF has given me to live out my dream and I respect most of my competitors, but I’ve got to be more selfish on this one. Winning War will put me on the fast track to getting that World Title shot, and then all I need to do is win it at One from whoever is the defending champion, even if it’s Thomas Uriel Bates.
I look at Bates when I say his name. He nods his head up and down slowly. Then, he walks back into the shadows.
Hank: Well, you’ve got a tall order coming up here. I mean, these returning stars are no rookies. These are seasoned vets who have way more experience than you. Is there anything you want to say to any of them?
I think about it for a second.
I’m so fucking tired.
This whole month has fucking killed me between trying to teach and wrestling on Sunday nights and training and trying to keep my wife happy. I’m just so fucking tired, and I don’t have the energy to talk shit about my opponents anymore. I mean, I’ve fucked up my life so royally in the past ten days that how could I, of all people be so bold as to tell someone else why they suck and why I’m going to beat them. I can’t even handle my own fucking life. How am I supposed to talk shit about someone else?
I looked right at the camera.
Cliff: Joey, you want the world and all I want is my little piece of the American Dream. You want to save the WCF and I want to save my marriage. Two different goals, but we both have the same method of achieving our goals- winning War and winning the World Title.
Odin, you said that I was nothing, and I guess to you I should be nothing. You’re one of the best the WCF has ever seen. You’re the All Father. You have that name for a reason. You may be a piece of shit but deep down, everybody in the WCF respects you. You have a record that is unmatched by anybody else on the roster, including runner-up honors at War X. You must look at me and think that I’m not even worthy to lick the bottom of your boots.
So what in the world gives me the right to think that I can outlast you two in War?
Maybe I can’t.
But neither of you will pin me.
Neither of you will make me tap.
Joey, if you want to save the WCF and remake it in your own image, then I can’t be a part of that image. You are going to have to kill me or die trying, because your world is in the way of my dream.
And Odin, if you want to think I’m nothing, you’re going to have to turn me into nothing. You’re going to have to kill me, because at this point, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if you eliminated me and I lived to remember it.
Neither of you need this match. I know neither of you have ever won War but you don’t need this match. You’ve gotten everything you’ve ever wanted out of this business. All the titles, all the accolades, they’ve been yours. You’ve accomplished all that you’ve set out to do.
You two want for NOTHING- but for me, there isn’t much left for me to lose anymore. I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my self-respect. My wife, Jesus Christ, I’m five days shy of my first wedding anniversary and I wouldn’t be surprised if I got home today and she was fucking gone. Odin, Joey, I don’t want this like you want it. God damn it, I NEED THIS, and if I can’t get past the two of you to have it, then God damn it, you better just fucking kill me and put me out of my misery!
I rip the mic off of me and storm off the set.
In the car ride home, I don’t turn the radio on. I drive in silence. Sometimes I do that when I start reflecting on my own life.
Where did I go wrong?
Becoming a wrestler?
Watching War XIV?
Getting married?
Getting engaged?
Becoming a teacher?
Meeting Tina?
Going to college?
Feeling pressured to become a teacher?
Plastering my bedroom with wrestling pictures?
Finding the The Extreme Gladiator’s comic book?
Finding wrestling on TV for the first time?
Wherever I went wrong, I wish God in his infinite mercy would just end me right now.
I brought Malcolm, my union representative, with me to the meeting just like Dr. Coleman had suggested. He wasn’t trying to be a nice guy. He just wanted a witness to the meeting so that I couldn’t turn around and say I was treated unfairly or give a conflicting account of how the meeting went down, not that I would have done that anyway. I mean, I didn’t have a case. They had me dead to rights. Coleman played me the footage from the security camera, which clearly showed me restraining Kesha in a front facelock to get her to stop fighting with the other girl. It was the totally wrong way to restrain her. Putting my hands on her at all was a risk, but restraining her the way I did was the absolute last thing I should have done. If I had held her tighter, she could have passed out and been in serious trouble. Anyway, the footage was right there as clear as day. I talked to Malcolm before we went into Coleman’s office to tell him what I thought the meeting was about.
Malcolm: You put her in a what?
Cliff: A front facelock.
Malcolm: What the hell is that?
Cliff: I basically wrapped my arm around her neck while she was bent over. I didn’t squeeze the hold on her that tightly, just tight enough to get her to let go of the other girl.
Malcolm: Yeah, but Cliff, you could have seriously hurt the kid. I mean, you never know. She may have a pain in her neck later and the next thing you know, she’s coming in with her neck in a brace tomorrow. Why did you even attempt to grab her?
Cliff: There was nobody around, not another teacher or a security guard, and I tried to call the main office to let them know, but the line was busy. What was I supposed to do, stand there and watch it happen?
Malcolm: For your safety and for the sake of your job, yeah, I would have.
Cliff: My job?
Malcolm: Yeah, this is serious shit, Cliff. This isn’t reading a book during your hall duty. You put a student in a dangerous chokehold, and if they have you on camera doing it, then all bets are off. No justification you could offer would be good enough to explain away you restaining the kid like you did. They will definitely discipline you, maybe even a 3020-A.
In New York State, a 3020-A is the procedure for firing a teacher. I sat down to try to deal with that possibility.
Cliff: Fuck me.
Malcolm: Listen, I’ll be there with you to make sure you get treated fairly in that meeting and you’re afforded your contractual rights, but there really isn’t anything I can do for you beyond that. I can’t defend what you’re telling me you did, even if you had the best of intentions. Just hope and pray that he wants to meet with you about something else.
Malcolm just sat there and listened during the meeting and watched the video alongside me when Coleman showed me the footage. There was really nothing he could do except listen. I was sent home for the rest of the day and was told that I would receive a phone call about whether I should show up for work the next day. I was asked if I understood and I just nodded my head.
Security had to escort me out of the building like I was a trespasser. Luckily, I was removed in between periods, so there weren’t too many people, including students, who saw me being accompanied out of the building. Still, I’ve never felt more embarrassed in my life.
I was allowed to go to Tina’s classroom just so I could tell her what was going on. All I said was that something happened before first period and I was instructed to leave the building. I would explain the whole story when she got home. I’m sure that was a great thing to have on her mind all day.
I went home and did the only thing I do when I get stressed out and need to forget what it is that’s stressing me out: I went to 7-11, grabbed a six pack of Miller Lite, a bag of Fritos, and sat in front of the couch watching wrestling videos on YouTube. I watched video after video of WCF matches. I didn’t even care what the matches were. I just wanted to watch wrestling and forget about the world.
One was a Sarah Twilight match. A lot of people had a problem with her as general manager. I didn’t. In fact, I think she did a pretty good job as the boss of the WCF for a few weeks. Most people didn’t like her attitude or her management style, but you have to be a son of a bitch, or just a bitch in her case, in order to manage a roster as crazy as the WCF’s. Plus, she never got in my way, so why would I hold anything she did as the General Manager against her? But, she’s not the boss anymore. She’s a competitor again, and she’s stepping into War, and believe you me, her and I will be getting in each other’s way during the War match.
She’s definitely one of the favorites. Just like ZMAC, she’s a prolific champion. Hellimination Winner. Television Champion. Two Time Tag Team Champion. And even though it’s defunct, I’ll mention it anyway: Elite Champion. However, unlike ZMAC, she’s also been the World Champion.
She is one of the best in the WCF. Just like beating Zero Tolerance is an accomplishment, beating Sarah Twilight might be even more of an accomplishment. Look what if did for Captain WCF. I know I’ve ragged on him, but beating someone as talented and accomplished as Sarah Twilight cemented a place for him in the WCF.
And what led to that loss? Well, the obvious answer is that Captain Crunch shifted his fat butt enough to escape the Twilight Zone and roll her up for the pin.
But if you think about it, she’s certainly spent a lot of time off from the WCF this year. Just take this year for example. She showed up at Fifteen after being gone for two years. Then she lost at Timebomb to Jared Holmes and left. She shows up at Slam 350 and beats the piss out of Katherine Phoenix. Then Nathan Chambers beats her in the WCF Classic and she leaves again. Then she comes back again for ONE NIGHT at Blast and gets upset by Captain WCF. Finally, she comes back to run the WCF for a few weeks and now she’s competing in War.
I don’t know. I happen to think that if you take that many breaks, the ring rust never totally wears off. The greats that competed in the ring before Sarah and I were even alive became greats because they didn’t take any nights off. They were practicing their craft in that ring ever night, and when they weren’t in the ring, they were in the gym training. The result was that they never got ring rust. They never faltered. They were on their game all the time. I may not wrestle every night like those guys did, but I’ve certainly wrestled more than Sarah Twilight has lately, and I’m not just talking about the WCF. Before I came here in August, I was training in the Long Island Wrestling Alliance and wrestling on their shows on a consistent basis.
I think when she steps in the ring for War, she’ll be a little out of sorts. Besides not wrestling full time at any point this year, she hasn’t participated in War since 2013. Three years of not wrestling full time. Three years of not wrestling in the hardest match there is to win. I’ve been prepping for War since Revenge. I’ve only fought multi-man matches. No tag team matches. No one-on-one matches. Just matches where I’ve been put in the ring with three, four, five other people. I know how to handle a crowd in that ring. Sarah hasn’t had that luxury for a long time, and I doubt she’s just going to pick it back up for this match. Not even Michael Jordan was the best on his first day back after he came out of retirement.
But hey, she was the one booking the matches for weeks, right? She was the one that was putting me into these multi-man situations. She had to have noticed a pattern. Maybe, subconsciously, in the back of her mind, she wanted me in those matches. She wanted me to be experienced in that type of environment. Maybe she saw me and decided that she wanted me to be at my best at War so that when she and I finally encountered each other in that ring, she would have a challenge.
Well, Sarah is going to get a challenge. Sarah is going to get everything that I have and everything that I am. She may have a million moves. She may have the power of the occult behind her. But I only need a few moves to cause my own mischief. I only need the power of my own beliefs to be the epitome of her demise. And when I eliminate her and make it to the end of the match as the last man standing, I will truly be The Only One That Matters, and all that will matter about Sarah in the end is that she’ll be a loser.
Next, I watched last year’s War, the first War Match I had ever seen. Jay Omega won. He’s in the match again this year. No worries. He eliminated ONE guy the entire match the last time. Was he in the longest? Yes, but he still only eliminated ONE guy. I’ll give him credit for hanging in there, but he relied on everybody else to get the job done in that match.
Yes, his one elimination won him the match, but maybe he was just holding back and didn’t get into the thick of it just so that he could make it at the end. Hey, more power to him, he was smart. It wouldn’t be the way I’d go about it, but it was smart. Still, he was exposed not too long after War. What happened just two weeks after winning the title? Wade More beat him for it.
I know it was a ten man tag that turned into an impromptu lumberjack match, but it just went to show that Jay couldn’t handle the quick turnaround. Being a great competitor means adapting to any surroundings at any time. If I were in his shoes, I would have been prepared! When I train, I train for everything. I don’t just train for one specific situation. Jay trained himself to rely on four other people that night. He wasn’t ready for Wade and when Seth, rightly or wrongly, ordered the match for the World Title, Jay couldn’t deal with it. He now had to rely on himself to win. There weren’t 49 other people spending their energy trying to eliminate each other just so he could swoop in and eliminate the last one at the end. He had to fight the entire time and he couldn’t do it.
At War, I know he’ll be ready, but if he chooses to hold back and not get in the fight, I’ll come after him. That’s what I do. I go after people. That’s what I’ve done in every single match I’ve had so far. I’ve had more than one opponent in every match and I never waited for my time to attack, I just attacked, and I’ll attack Jay when he gets in the ring. He’ll be my prime target as long as he’s in this match and I won’t be done with him until I eliminate him. At War XV, there will be no repeat.
I watched a package of Jeff Purse’s best WCF moments. One of them was of course War XI, when he won the War Match to become the WCF World Champion. Another moment was when he beat Oblivion back in the spring to win the World Championship again. The first title reign was pretty good. He held it until One, which was in January 2013. He had a hard fought battle against Eric Price, but he made one costly mistake. He went up to the top and took a little bit too long to drop down on Price with the Deflator, allowing Price to get his knees up, capitalize, and win the World Title. The second reign was not as impressive. He held it for less than a month and lost it in a Fatal Four-Way- a match that I haven’t lost- to Stuart Slane, a guy so impressive that General Manager Twilight decided to fire him.
If Purse wants to be obsessed about something, maybe it should be his age. I know I’m not as young as a lot of the guys on the roster, but I’m not talking about age young. I’m talking about physically young. Purse has been doing this a lot longer than I have. Purse has been beating his body up for a lot longer than I have. It’s only natural that he’s slowing up while guys like me are getting faster and faster every day, just like it’s natural that I’ll beat his obsessive compulsive face at War.
And before he was wrestling, he was doing that crazy BMX shit, and he probably wrecked his body doing that, too. It’s time for a guy like Jeff Purse to ice down his entire body once a day, get out of my way, and let me do my thing. Maybe instead of worrying about how dirty his opponents’ bodies are or the position of the ring bell, he should be worrying about how he’s not going to get permanently paralyzed by the Doomstone. But hey, if it comes down to that, then so be it. I’ll do him a favor and pin him exactly in the center of the ring.
Same goes for Doc Henry. It’s time for Doc to meet his maker. I’ve seen old videos of Doc winning the Hardcore Title, winning the Tag Team Titles, and the Internet Title, and the U.S. Title, and the TV Title. He was one hell of a great promo, too, at one point. But he’s lost a step, too. The guy doesn’t seem to be present anymore.
I remember last year before One, Bernard Core was cutting a promo on Doc and called him Mervin the Merkin. What did Doc do in response? He was the first man eliminated in the Torneo Cibernetico at One. Way to show em’, Doc!
And in more recent fare, he lost to Oblivion, another failed World Champion, couldn’t put “Mr. #1 in War” Henry Spearman away, was eliminated from the TV Title Battle Royal, and couldn’t outlast the degenerate Crazy J in a Hardcore Title match at Revenge. All of these failures happened within the same time that I was going undefeated in my first four matches. Even when he wins, like he did against Spearman and Oblivion the week before Revenge, he still finds a way to end up on his back, like when Mikey eXtreme kicked him in the face. It’s time for someone to finally make him submit. That person is me, and it’ll happen at War. It’s time for the old Southern Rogue to go back home to Georgia.
I got a little tired of matches and moved on to watching videos of promos. I clicked on the latest one by Odin Balfore.
Odin: Wrestling is full of guys like Cliff of Doom who wanted to be wrestlers but couldn’t make the run. He settled down, became a teacher and then decided to give it a try. Well, wrestling is all or nothing and Cliff quiet literally is nothing.
Well, if I didn’t feel like shit before, I feel like shit now.
I wanted to throw the computer but stopped myself from doing that. I got up and started cleaning the apartment instead. Now I had to get my mind off of the thing I was using to get my mind off of what had happened at the school.
Around the time when I knew Tina would be home, I sat myself down at the kitchen table like I did when I got suspended from school in sixth grade and waited for my dad to come home and mete out punishment. When she did get home, she put her stuff down on the table and just walked around the apartment for a few minutes, throwing in laundry, checking her mail, using the bathroom. She didn’t look at me or say a word to me once. Maybe she was trying to put off the worst. Maybe she was thinking about how she would react to my bad news. She had to have found out what happened already. Whatever she was thinking, she finally sat down. She still wouldn’t look at me. She just looked down at the table. I stared at her, waiting for her to say something. It was more agonizing than any wrestling move that I could think of.
Tina: Well, are you going to tell me your side of the story?
Yep, she found out. Her voice was a mix of aggression and annoyance.
I told her everything that happened.
Tina: Why the fuck would you grab the kid like that? Why didn’t you just grab her arms?
Cliff: I don’t know. It was instinctual. I didn’t even think about it. I just jumped in there to break it up and it was the first thing I did.
Tina: Fucking wrestling. You’ve spent so long learning how to do this shit that now it’s like second nature. I’d hate to think what you’d do to me out of instinct.
Cliff: Hey, take it easy, alright? I wouldn’t do anything that ever hurt you.
Tina: How do you know?
Cliff: Because I fucking know, that’s why.
Now I was getting pissed off.
Cliff: You’re my fucking wife. Why would I hurt you like that? I swear to God, you don’t fucking think about what you say sometimes.
Tina: And you don’t fucking think about what you do sometimes, like putting a kid in a fucking wrestling hold!
Cliff: I wasn’t doing it to hurt the kid! What don’t people get about that?! She was fighting in the fucking hallway and there was no one around to stop it! I tried to call the right people but there was no one around and it was causing a safety hazard! What if anybody else got hurt?! It happened right in front of my room! I would have been in trouble if I hadn’t done anything!
Tina: Yeah, but at least you wouldn’t have put your hands on a kid and it wouldn’t have possibly cost you your job! You would have gotten a slap on the wrist at the most!
Just like Malcolm, she was right. There was nothing I could say to defend myself. Once I put my around the girl’s neck, all bets were off. I sat there silent for a minute, giving us both a chance to calm down.
Tina: Cliff, what are we going to do if you lose your job?
Cliff: Well, I still have wrestling.
Tina: Oh, God, wrestling.
Cliff: Well, babe, it’s still a job that’s going to pay me money.
Tina: Yeah, but there was a reason you didn’t quit teaching when you got the WCF contract. You can be on my medical insurance, but your WCF income combined with my income won’t be enough to get us by.
Cliff: If I win War and win the World Title, it will.
Tina: Oh, babe.
She looked up and gave one of those smiles that read “you’re being so delusionally ridiculous that I almost want to laugh.”
Cliff: What?
Tina: I know you haven’t lost yet and you’re very confident in your abilities, but the chances of you winning War are slim.
Well, that hurt.
Cliff: You don’t think I can win?
Tina: No, I don’t. I don’t know wrestling that well, but I’ve watched every show you’ve been on and there are a lot of guys better and more experienced than you. I’m afraid of you even wrestling in this match. What are there, like 50 people in this match? The thought of you fighting guys like Mikey eXtreme or Gemini Battle or the Zero Tolerance team all at the same time scares the shit out of me. I just keep envisioning you breaking your neck. The image plays in my mind over and over and over again.
I wasn’t sure whether to accept her concern or feel indignant. She didn’t have confidence in me? She thought I was going to be manhandled by these guys? How dare she? Then again, she was worried about my well being, and I would think it’d be bad if she wasn’t.
I got up from the table and knelt down in front of her. I had to be a man. I had to reassure her. I held her hands in my own and looked her straight in the eye.
Cliff: Babe, nothing’s going to happen to me. I promise you. I’m well trained, I’ve scouted these guys, I know what I’m doing in there.
She looked down, the weight of her thoughts bearing down on her.
Tina: And I’m going to win this match. I’m going to win this match, go to One, become the World Champion, and then all of your worries and my worries will vanish. We can buy a house. We can start a family. Everything we want will be ours, I promise you.
She looked up at me defiantly.
Tina: And what if you don’t win? What if you lose your job and your plan B of winning War and the World Title doesn’t pan out? What then?
Cliff: Well, I’m not just going to sit on my ass all day. If I have to flip burgers, I’ll flip burgers. My cousin owns the irrigation company. I know his season is almost over but I could get a few weeks of work out of that. There’s the CVS that I worked at when I was a substitute teacher. My old manager still works at the one in Holbrook. When I left, he told me that I was welcome any time I wanted to come back. But, you know, nothing’s happened yet. Maybe they’ll review the whole situation and decide that it’s okay for me to come back to work, and then everything will be back to normal.
My phone rang at that exact moment. I looked at the number. It was the school. I answered it.
Cliff: Hello?
Sandra: Hello, Mr. McManus. This is Sandra, Superintendent DeJoseph’s secretary.
Sandra sounded like she was making a very official phone call.
Cliff: Hi, Sandra.
Sandra: Dr. DeJoseph would like to meet with you in his office tomorrow at 10 AM. He is advising you to bring a union representative with you.
Fuck me, I thought. Those words must have crossed my mind and come from my lips about three dozen times that day.
Cliff: Okay, I’ll be there.
Sandra: Great. Thank you.
She abruptly hung up. I looked at Tina. Her face had gone from preoccupied to stern once again.
Cliff: It was…
Tina: I know who it was. I could hear her speaking on the other line.
I hate being cut off, but I restrained myself.
Cliff: I need to call Malcolm.
I got up and went outside and called him. He told me that he would contact the union’s Labor Relations Specialist (LRS) to be at the meeting as well. That’s the lawyer for the union. When I got off the phone, I went back inside. Tina was still sitting at the kitchen table, just thinking.
Cliff: Listen, don’t tell anybody about this yet, okay?
She didn’t respond.
Cliff: Did you hear me?
No answer.
Cliff: Babe!
Tina: I heard you, alright?! No, I won’t tell anybody! God damn!
She stormed from her chair and into the bedroom. I just stood there, not knowing what to say or do.
I was at the district’s Central Office building thirty meetings early the next morning. I wasn’t allowed in until a security from one of the schools showed up to escort me in. I had to wait about twenty minutes, so I just sat in the car and watched Bernard Core vs. Mikey eXtreme from Fifteen on the WCF Network. It was the Two Out of Three Falls All American Weapons Match. Bernard Core was such a dick. No one liked him when he was the education commissioner for New York State and people liked him even less as a wrestler, but he was a great wrestler and his feud with Mikey eXtreme was one of the best since I started watching WCF. Mikey eXtreme just had it that night, though. It was a pretty even, back and forth match. They both beat the shit out of each other. Mikey was just better that night. He hit the right move at the right time and capitalized on it. That match brought him to another level.
Which is why it’s strange that after that match, Mikey’s career went downhill. He lost the U.S. Title to Vengeance, got it back the next month, and then quickly lost it again to Ethan King. Then he failed to win the Hardcore Championship. The guy named eXtreme who swings an American flag Singapore cane like it was sledgehammer, couldn’t win the HARDCORE Title. Then he failed to win the TV Title. That was followed by the failure to enter Ultimate Showdown, which was followed by the failure to win King of the Death Match. He even failed to beat Henry Spearman outright. He only won the final entrance spot in War because somebody kicked HIM in the face. The guy couldn’t even earn the it. He had to rely on somebody else to get it for him.
Still, the fact remains that he’s the last man to enter War. He’s going to be the freshest one there. Even if I enter late and I come just one spot before him, he’ll have an advantage over me. Two days before I was boasting in a cell phone video that I had been undefeated since entering the WCF and that’s one thing that gave me an advantage over everyone else. I’m not so confident to think that that is what makes me better than Mikey eXtreme. Bernard Core hadn’t been beaten outright by the time he faced Mikey eXtreme at Fifteen and look what happened. Mikey choked him out so bad that he passed out. Where is Bernard now? Running a private school upstate, not in a wrestling ring.
Then again, that was a one-on-one match. Mikey excels at those, but what about multi-man matches. He failed to get the pin in a Four-Way on September 4. He failed to win a Triple Threat Match on June 19. When he lost the U.S. Title for the final time, what kind of match was it? A multi-man match between Ethan King and Steve Orbit. The facts prove that when it comes to Mikey having to go it alone against multiple people, he can’t handle it. It’s too much for him. He gets overwhelmed and flops.
While maybe I shouldn’t boast about being undefeated so far, it’s fair to mention that in all of those matches that I won, they were all multi-man matches, a Six-Way, a Five-Way, and two Four-Ways (Jesus, that sounds like Caligula’s daily schedule). Heck, call me the King of the Multi-Man Matches. It doesn’t get more multi-man (or woman) than War. I just find a way to win, all the time. I find my opportunities and I strike. Greg St. Matthews took to the air and gave me the chance to Doomstone him. Jaice Wilds decided to climb to the top rope and allowed me to send him to the mat with a Cliffhanger. Teddy Blaze decided that listening to Gemini Battle mock him was more important and I rolled him up. Even when Joe Smarts threw me into the crowd and the chips were seemingly down, I found a way to get back into the ring and pin Mark Gallagher. No matter how many people there are, I’m always the last one standing.
Mikey, on the other hand, left himself wide open to get dropkicked to the floor by Ethan King at Aftermath and wasn’t able to prevent the U.S. Title from leaving his possession. He let himself get distracted in the June 19 match and was thrown out of the ring by Teddy Blaze. He telegraphed that he was going after Kevin Bishop in the Four-Way, which allowed the cult master dickhead to suplex Mikey into the turnbuckle and out of the ring.
On the one hand, he’s last. On the other hand, he’s no good in multi-man matches. If it comes down to me and him at the end, one-on-one, he’s got a better chance of beating me. That’s why when he enters, I’m coming after him first and I’m going to keep at him until I find that one moment where he gets overwhelmed and he leaves himself open to get attacked. That’s when I’ll pounce, hit him with the Doomstone, and eliminate him. After that, he can go back and sulk about how he can’t win anything anymore.
What am I going on about? I’m talking about Mikey not being able to win the big one while I’m in the middle of a story about me losing the match called life.
In the middle of the match that I was watching, I saw a security guard get out of his car. I walked up to him and told me who I was. We walked into the building together and I was told to wait in the lobby. Malcolm and the LRS, Guy, came in a short time later and we had a quick conference before the meeting.
Cliff: What’s the best I can expect out of this?
Guy: Honestly? Suspension.
Cliff: That’s the best I can do?
Guy: Look, you put a kid in a chokehold. There is going to be some sort of major discipline. You can’t expect that they’ll just put in a letter in your file admonishing you for the putting your hands on a kid. Why did you do that anyway?
I was so sick of answering that question, but I told him the same thing I told Malcolm and Tina. He just shrugged.
The superintendent called Malcolm and Guy into his office without me. I sat on a couch, feeling anxious about what they were talking about, anxious about what was going to be the result of the meeting. It was funny. I sat on that couch when I was being interviewed for my job and I felt the exact same way: anxious. However, if I had been turned away at the interview, I wouldn’t have lost anything. If I was turned away at this meeting, I would lose everything, at least as far as my teaching career was concerned. Who would hire me after something like this? What human resources director wouldn’t look at my employment history on my resume and ask me why I left South Bay School District? And how would I answer such a question? I’m not a good liar and lying during an interview is probably a bad idea, especially if they call my former employer. I started sweating from everywhere, my forehead, my armpits, my balls, it was raining underneath my suit.
Guy and Malcolm finally ended my agony and came out after twenty minutes. Their faces did not say “good news!” They summoned me into the conference room next to where the couch was and sat me down.
Guy: They are going to…“invite” you to resign.
Cliff: Invite me to resign? So, they’re firing me.
I pounded the table.
Cliff: Motherfucker.
Malcolm: Hey, calm down. You can’t be like this when they get in here. You have to handle this like a professional. You don’t want to have one of those exits like Tom Cruise when he got fired in Jerry McGuire and have these guys talking about you to their friends in other districts.
I folded my arms and breathed a heavy sigh.
Guy: The girl’s parents are threatening to sue the school district. They have no choice but to strongly suggest that you resign.
I leaned my head up against my hand.
Guy: Hey, if they wanted to call this a termination, they would. They have a stone cold case against you and if you tried to fight termination, it would cost them money, but nowhere near how much time, effort, emotion, and money it would cost you- and for nothing. You would not win. You would fight it and be fired. I wouldn’t suggest that you take a moral stand in this case, especially since you put your hands on a kid. Plus, they’re kind of doing you a favor. If you resign, you don’t have to tell other districts you were fired.
That was little consolation. I would still have to tell an interviewer why I resigned, but I figured that resigning had a slightly less negative connotation than being fired. I thought again about what I was going to do with myself, what I was going to do for money. What if none of the Plan Bs and Cs and Ds worked out for me? There were too many what ifs. And Tina. God, her worse nightmares were coming true all because of one well intentioned but misguided decision.
The Superintendent, the human resources director, the president of the school board, and the district’s lawyer all walked in. They asked if I understood the offer I was given. I told them that I did. They passed a letter of resignation across the table. I signed it and that was it. My career in the South Bay School District, and possibly in all of education, was over.
I was told that I could go to South Bay Middle School at the end of the day (with a security escort, of course) to collect me personal belongings. When I went there, I got some empty boxes from the copy room and used them to put my books and stuff in. When I was almost done, Rory, my favorite student, ran in holding a big piece of folded cardboard under his arm.
Rory: Mr. McManus!
The security guard stopped him from approaching me.
Security Guard: Hold up, son.
Cliff: Are you serious? Do I look like I’m going to try to restrain this kid?
Security Guard: Hey, I was told to avoid any contact between you and kids.
They guy was making me feel like I was some sort of pedophile.
Rory: Mr. McManus, is it true what they said? Were you fired?
Cliff: No, Rory, I resigned.
Rory: What does that mean?
Cliff: It means I quit.
Rory: Quit? Why would you quit? Is it because of what you did to Kesha?
Cliff: Rory, it’s not something I really want to take about right now.
Rory: Oh. Well, um, I brought this to school today and I planned on giving this to you, but you weren’t here. I was about to bring it home but when I saw your door open, I thought you might be here.
He opened up the piece of folded cardboard. I couldn’t believe what it was. It was a life size cardboard cut-out…of me…in my wrestling get up. He had blown up a photo of my first promotional shot from the WCF website and glued it to a piece of cardboard.
Cliff: Rory, this is…I just can’t believe this. You made this for me?
Rory: Well, my dad helped me, but yeah.
I didn’t think it was possible to feel worse than I already had, but it was. Besides how I was letting down Tina and how I had jeopardizing my teaching career, I now was reminded that I had let down all of the kids. I let down the kids I had in class who now had to adjust to a new teacher. I let down all of my students, current and former, who I had failed to be an example for. Teaching wasn’t just a way to make money for me. It wasn’t my first career choice, but I liked doing it, and now I could feel a whole in my heart that hadn’t been there before. When I wasn’t wrestling or training over the summer, I wanted to be in the classroom and it made me sad that I wasn’t. Now, I’d have that feeling for the rest of my life.
Cliff: Rory, thank you. This really means a lot to me. This is going to be prominently displayed in my apartment.
I was about to hold out my hand so that I could shake Rory’s, but I stopped and looked at the security guard.
Cliff: Can I at least shake his hand?
The security guard rolled his eyes and turned around. Rory and I shook hands.
Cliff: Rory, I’m never going to forget you. You’re a good kid and this is a great gift.
Rory: And you were a great teacher, Mr. McManus.
I knife right through my heart.
Cliff: Thanks, Rory.
He left and I finished packing my things. I filled up my car and put Cardboard Cliff of Doom in the front seat. I sat there and thought about the overwhelming emotion I was feeling.
I felt like someone in my life had died.
Something was gone.
And I was never getting it back.
I snapped and pounded on my dashboard.
Cliff: GOD-FUCKING-DAMN IT!!!
I burst into tears, alternating between sorrowful sobbing and spontaneous fits of rage. I’d punch the dashboard a few times, stop, catch my breath, let a few tears out, and then go back to beating the shit out of my car, hitting it harder each time.
I caught a glimpse of my eyes in the mirror. I was ashamed that I was crying. I hated the image that was looking back at me so much in that moment that I started pulling it. When I ripped it off finally, my hand slammed down on my center console and cause the glass to break and cut my hand.
Cliff: FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!
I threw the god damned thing to the floor and looked at my hand. I’d bled before, but this snapped me out of my temporary moment of insanity.
Fuck me. I lost my primary job. My wife probably hated me. And now I’d injured my hand with eleven days to go before War.
The ring announcer in my imagination made the official call.
Kyle Steel: The winner of this contest…LIFE!!!
And now I’m here in the WCF Studios, sitting across from Hank Brown, giving him an exclusive interview for WCFwrestling.com.
The story about my resignation made it on to the news. My parents and my in-laws found out. My mother-in-law wasn't thrilled that someone had knocked on her door looking for me.
Thank God it was only a local story. It didn’t go national. I’m sure the dirt sheets and other wrestling websites reported it, but if they did, it wouldn’t go any further; and besides, I haven’t paid attention to those sites in the last seven days.
Still, I was worried Seth wouldn’t like the bad press, but I guess I don’t know Seth that well. He liked the small amount of attention it was garnering the WCF, especially with a big pay-per-view coming up. He called and said he wanted me to come in for an interview with Hank. It’s true. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
I look like absolute shit. I haven’t really taken care of myself since I “resigned.” I’ve been too embarrassed to go to the gym and show my face in public. I’ve been drinking more beer and eating more chips than I should be. I haven’t shaved. Sometimes I wear the same clothes as I wore the day before. I haven’t been able to sleep. I haven’t looked for a job like I told Tina I would. She won’t talk to me unless she absolutely has to. It feels like I’m living by myself most of the time. It hurts even more because our first anniversary is the day after War.
I didn’t even get dressed up for this interview. I’m wearing my fading black Metallica T-shirt from their Orion Festival in Atlantic City back in 2012, a pair of jeans with dirt at the bottom of the pant legs, and sneakers.
Some people may question why I’m doing this interview if I don’t want to go out in public. Well, because Seth’s paying me to, so that seems to me as good a reason as any.
Hank: Welcome to another WCFwrestling.com exclusive interview. I’m here right now with one of the hot young rookies here in the WCF who’s been on a bit of an undefeated streak since debuting a month ago at Revenge- Cliff of Doom. Welcome, Cliff.
Cliff: Thanks for having me here, Hank.
Hank: I’m glad we finally get to hear from you. You haven’t had the time to say anything on TV. First, I think we need to address the elephant in the room. The local fans here in New York probably know the story already, but you were recently fired from your teaching job on Long Island.
Cliff: I resigned.
Hank: Yes, I’m sorry, resigned. How have you been dealing with that over the last week?
Like shit, Hank. Take a look at me. I look like something that came out of Crazy J’s asshole.
I say stone faced, not trying to show any emotion, and trying to put up somewhat of a strong front, even though my appearance betrays me.
Cliff: I’ve been getting through it.
That’s all you’re going to get, Hank. Hey, Seth didn’t order me to say much about losing my teaching job.
Hank: I see you injured your hand a bit. Will it be healed before War this Sunday?
More no-selling of emotion.
Cliff: Yes.
Hank finally got the message that maybe he should move on to wrestling.
Hank: Very well then. This is your first War match. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but you only decided to start training as a wrestler after watching War XIV last year.
Cliff: That’s correct.
Hank: And you’ve cited Wolf’s performance in that match specifically as something that inspired to lace up your first pair of boots at this point in your life. What was it that Wolf did that inspired you so much?
Cliff: Well, I don’t know how many people actually know this, but Wolf and I actually went ot the same high school growing up and graduated in the same class.
Hank: Really?
Great journalism there, Hank.
Cliff: Yeah, and just the fact that he entered at number one and went balls to the wall until he was finally eliminated over two hours later made me think, hey, if a guy from my hometown can make an impact like that and live his dream, I can do the same thing, too.
Hank: Wrestling was always a dream of yours?
Cliff: Yeah, I loved wrestling as a kid and War XIV, the whole event, not just the match, rekindled that love in me and that fire to finally try it out and see if I had what it took to be a professional wrestler.
Hank: You’ve certainly proven that you do.
Cliff: I’d say so.
Hank: You sacrificed a lot to hold on to your teaching job and wrestle at the same time.
Jesus, back to the teaching.
Hank: Do you think now that you’re not teaching anymore, you’ll find it easier to devote more time to wrestling?
Cliff: Well, yeah, naturally, but it’s not like I wanted to lose my job, Hank. It’s not like the WCF is paying me what I was making as a teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love the opportunity to be here. It’s just harder to get by now that I’ve lost a significant portion of my income. Plus…
Fuck, I don’t want to get into this, but something tells me I’m already headed there, so I might as well just wear my emotions on my sleeve. Fuck, I guess Hank Brown is good at this job.
Kyle Steel: The winner of this contest, Hank Brown!
Cliff: I loved teaching. When I wasn’t wrestling, I wanted to be in the classroom. Being in front of a class of thirty kids is a lot like being in front of a crowd of 15,000 wrestling fans. They both want to be entertained and it’s my job to get them interested in what I’m doing, whether it’s teaching about Christopher Columbus or executing a C4 off of the top rope. And I feel like I’m helping both groups of people. If I get the kids interested in what I’m teaching, then it’s to their benefit. They’re learning something and I’m giving them knowledge, the most powerful weapon they could ever have. If I get the wrestling fans interested in what I’m doing, then they get their money’s worth and forget about their problems for a little while. Now I’ve lost the ability to reach one of those groups of people and…it kills me inside. It really does kill me inside.
Hank: Are you afraid that you’ll lose the ability to reach the wrestling fans?
Cliff: I guess that’s always a possibility. Anything can go wrong in the ring and in life, but I can’t worry about that right now. I have to worry about War.
Hank: Well, it sounds like you’ve taken some precautions to protect yourself during War. There’s been talk that Thomas Bates has been getting a coalition together to fight some of the returning participants in War like Joey Flash and Jay Omega and your name came up as someone who is part of that coalition. Is there any truth to that?
Through the bright studio lights, I can see over Hank’s shoulder. I spot Bates off camera walking out of the shadows and staring at me, waiting for an answer.
The news about the meeting between Bates and I traveled rather quickly. Bates probably advised Hank to ask me this question. The Mountain approached me this morning when I first got into the building. I was in the bathroom and he walked in while I was washing my hands.
Bates: I was kind of hoping I’d run into you at some point before War. I didn’t think it was here.
Cliff: Well, you did. What do you want with me?
Bates: You know that Flash and a bunch of either guys are returning for the War match, right?
Cliff: Yeah.
Bates: I don’t think it’s right, especially for you new guys. It’s your time to shine, not these guys.
Cliff: Really, Bates? You’re worrying about guys like me that you hardly fucking know? Maybe you’re just worried that a guy like Joey Flash will win War and beat you for the World Title at One.
Bates: Hell, no! You think I’m afraid of that son of a bitch? No, as the World Champion of the WCF, I’m the leader of our locker room and I’m speaking up against something that I think is wrong. These guys haven’t been here for months and some of them didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms. Now they think they can just stroll on in here as if nothing happened and fight for a World Title opportunity at one of the biggest shows of the year. I’m not going to stand for it and you shouldn’t either. I’m facilitating an alliance of a bunch of War participants to fight these guys off and stop them from getting to the end of the match. I’ve gotten commitments from people like Adrian Archer and Lilith…
Cliff: Oh, yeah, Lilith, great recruit.
Bates: Well, there’s a lot of other people I’ve got on board that can easily pick up any of Lilith’s slack, and I think you’d be a great addition. Think about it? Do you really think that it’s fair for Joey Flash or Jay Omega to be taking a chance away from a promising young star like you?
I stayed silent and let his words play in my head.
Fair? What’s fair? It’s not like it wasn’t fair. These guys weren’t breaking any rules by coming back and fighting in War. Being concerned about their entry into War was to betray a lack of confidence that just simply wasn’t there.
Still, these guys were fucking good. Any advantage I could have over these guys was helpful. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t consider Bates’ offer, right? Then again, was I not good enough to go it alone?
Bates: What’d you say? You in?
Now, sitting in my chair back in the studio, I stare right into Bates’ eyes.
Cliff: Yes.
He smiles, satisfied.
Cliff: But not for WCF.
His smile immediately disappears, his face turning incredulous.
I look back at Hank.
Cliff: I’m doing it for me.
I pause before I launch into another trip down Soul Bearing Lane.
Cliff: Does the date August 28 mean anything to you, Hank?
Hank: No, I can’t say that it does.
Cliff: Oh, Frank, come on. That was the night of Revenge, my first night here in the WCF.
Hank: Oh, right, you won a six-way between…
Cliff: It’s not important who I faced. What’s important is that date, August 28. That date has been running through my mind ever since I entered the WCF. You know why?
He shakes his head.
Cliff: Because I made a deal with my wife when I was booked for Revenge that if I didn’t win the World Championship one year to the day that I debuted in the WCF, that I was going to retire from the sport of professional wrestling forever.
Hank’s in a bit of disbelief.
Hank: So let me get this straight: if you don’t win the WCF World Championship by August 28, 2017, you are leaving not just the WCF, but all of professional wrestling for good.
Cliff: Yep.
I notice that even Bates’ eyes widen.
Hank: You’re not leaving yourself a whole lot of time there, Cliff.
Cliff: There will be 330 days left by the time War rolls around. It’s funny. You say it’s not a whole lot of time, and before I got fired…I mean, resign--- fuck it, I got fired. Before I got FIRED, I would have told you that it wasn’t that short amount of time. But now, with no teaching career to fall back on, it sure as shit is short. The sense of urgency has kind of gone up a little bit.
I mean, winning the World Title; that would change everything for me. Think about the money I would earn just from winning the World Title once. With that money, my wife and I could move out of her parents’ basement and buy a house. We could finally start a family. And if I don’t do it by the deadline I’ve set for myself, my dreams for my wrestling career will be dashed, but more importantly, the dreams of my wife and I will be on hold, possibly forever.
So yeah, I joined Bates’ coalition, but not because I care about this promotion or anybody else in the promotion. I’m thankful for the opportunity the WCF has given me to live out my dream and I respect most of my competitors, but I’ve got to be more selfish on this one. Winning War will put me on the fast track to getting that World Title shot, and then all I need to do is win it at One from whoever is the defending champion, even if it’s Thomas Uriel Bates.
I look at Bates when I say his name. He nods his head up and down slowly. Then, he walks back into the shadows.
Hank: Well, you’ve got a tall order coming up here. I mean, these returning stars are no rookies. These are seasoned vets who have way more experience than you. Is there anything you want to say to any of them?
I think about it for a second.
I’m so fucking tired.
This whole month has fucking killed me between trying to teach and wrestling on Sunday nights and training and trying to keep my wife happy. I’m just so fucking tired, and I don’t have the energy to talk shit about my opponents anymore. I mean, I’ve fucked up my life so royally in the past ten days that how could I, of all people be so bold as to tell someone else why they suck and why I’m going to beat them. I can’t even handle my own fucking life. How am I supposed to talk shit about someone else?
I looked right at the camera.
Cliff: Joey, you want the world and all I want is my little piece of the American Dream. You want to save the WCF and I want to save my marriage. Two different goals, but we both have the same method of achieving our goals- winning War and winning the World Title.
Odin, you said that I was nothing, and I guess to you I should be nothing. You’re one of the best the WCF has ever seen. You’re the All Father. You have that name for a reason. You may be a piece of shit but deep down, everybody in the WCF respects you. You have a record that is unmatched by anybody else on the roster, including runner-up honors at War X. You must look at me and think that I’m not even worthy to lick the bottom of your boots.
So what in the world gives me the right to think that I can outlast you two in War?
Maybe I can’t.
But neither of you will pin me.
Neither of you will make me tap.
Joey, if you want to save the WCF and remake it in your own image, then I can’t be a part of that image. You are going to have to kill me or die trying, because your world is in the way of my dream.
And Odin, if you want to think I’m nothing, you’re going to have to turn me into nothing. You’re going to have to kill me, because at this point, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if you eliminated me and I lived to remember it.
Neither of you need this match. I know neither of you have ever won War but you don’t need this match. You’ve gotten everything you’ve ever wanted out of this business. All the titles, all the accolades, they’ve been yours. You’ve accomplished all that you’ve set out to do.
You two want for NOTHING- but for me, there isn’t much left for me to lose anymore. I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my self-respect. My wife, Jesus Christ, I’m five days shy of my first wedding anniversary and I wouldn’t be surprised if I got home today and she was fucking gone. Odin, Joey, I don’t want this like you want it. God damn it, I NEED THIS, and if I can’t get past the two of you to have it, then God damn it, you better just fucking kill me and put me out of my misery!
I rip the mic off of me and storm off the set.
In the car ride home, I don’t turn the radio on. I drive in silence. Sometimes I do that when I start reflecting on my own life.
Where did I go wrong?
Becoming a wrestler?
Watching War XIV?
Getting married?
Getting engaged?
Becoming a teacher?
Meeting Tina?
Going to college?
Feeling pressured to become a teacher?
Plastering my bedroom with wrestling pictures?
Finding the The Extreme Gladiator’s comic book?
Finding wrestling on TV for the first time?
Wherever I went wrong, I wish God in his infinite mercy would just end me right now.
