Post by Mark Mania on Mar 15, 2013 13:53:07 GMT -4
The Reaction
Thursday March 7th, 2013
APW Overdrive
We cut backstage to where Cindy Shannon is with Mark Mania. Mark’s hand has remnants of Evan Envi’s blood on it. Mark is breathing heavily, he’s clearly upset.
Mark Mania: What do you want Cindy?
Cindy looks taken aback by the normally charming and kind Mark Mania.
Cindy Shannon: Uh, Mr. Mania, I just wanted to get your reaction to everything that happened tonight.
Mark looks at her with a look that could make someone feel a thousand times smaller.
Mark Mania: Everything that happened? Excuse me? Do you mean that Evan Envi lost me millions of dollars, nearly cost me my business, and could’ve put me in jail? Is that what you want to fucking talk about?
Cindy looks shocked.
Cindy: I meant the fact that you and Evan are going to meet at RassleMania for the Overdrive title.
As Mark looks at her, he contemplates what she said. Did he really agree to the match while he was beating down Evan? Did he completely give into him and give him what he wanted?
Mark Mania: That son of a bitch nearly ruined my life. I don’t care if I gave him what he wanted, I don’t care if he thinks this is finally his chance. I’m going to rip him limb from limb. I’m going to make him regret the day he was born. That asshole Evan Envi may not wrestle another day after RassleMania.
Cindy: Evan’s been asking for this match for a long time, don’t you think that he’s thought about this?
Mark Mania: Evan’s view was clouded by his arrogance. He would stop it nothing to get a shot at this title. Now that he’s got it, he has no idea what he’s in for.
Cindy: What is this going to mean for Mania Enterprises?
Mark takes a deep breath.
Mark Mania: Well, we’re going to regroup. This is a setback and the people responsible are going to be dealt with. The two million dollars that is going to be lost will be difficult to deal with. But with the promotions going into RassleMania the Mania brand will continue to flourish. I’ll just have to look elsewhere for my next big acquisition.
Cindy: Do you think that your future in APW is going to be hindered by the fact that you and President Jeff will no longer trust each other.
The fire burning behind Mark’s eyes is almost palpable.
Mark Mania: Jeff knows as well as I do that this all happened because of Evan Envi. I understand the Board of Directors decision and while I don’t agree with it, there really isn’t anything I can fucking do now is there? Once I destroy Evan Envi and I leave RassleMania with the Overdrive title securely around my waste, I’m sure Jeff and I will be able to talk like men and figure this all out. While my future as being owner of Meltdown is all but lost, at the very least I hope to have a working relationship with Jeff.
Cindy: You seem to be handling this all very well.
Mark lifts his bloody hand to Cindy’s face.
Mark Mania: Worked out a few of my issues before we had this little pow wow Cindy.
Cindy: Well that’s for taking the time.
Mark looks appalled at how unflappable Cindy is.
Mark Mania: Yeah, no problem.
The scene fades out.
The Confrontation
Friday, March 9th, 2013
Delta London Amouries Hotel, London, Ontario
Fuck my hand hurts. When I showed it to Cindy Shannon last night during that interview I thought it was only Evan’s blood all over it. Turns out I split it open on his face. I guess there are worse ways for me to hurt myself. I’ll have to get a doctor to look at this once I get back to the states to prepare for RassleMania.
I can’t believe that I accepted that match against Evan. I just let my emotions get the best of me and couldn’t contain myself. I felt more like Crazy Joe than I did Mark Mania. Now that I’m going up against Evan, I need to prepare. I need Rosa by my side and to just start focusing on the match.
The hotel I’m sitting in is small. I didn’t expect to spend my time here but Rosa missed the flight back last night. I probably needed a good night sleep before we left anyways. The concierge said that Rosa hadn’t checked out yet, but I don’t think she came back last night either. Her bag is still here though. I hope she’s okay.
I get up from my bed and make my way into the kitchenette area. I open the freezer above the fridge to get some ice for my hand. As I’m rustling the ice I hear the door to the room open. I shut the freezer door and the face looking back at me is so angry that you’d think I just killed the Pope.
“Hey Rosa, what’s going on?” I ask, trembling in my boots, well, I’m not wearing boots, but, still.
“What are you still doing here?” She asks, ignoring my question.
“Well, I was going to fly out last night, but you weren’t here. Wasn’t going to just leave you.”
“I wish you would’ve. I didn’t want to see you again.” Well, that blew me away a little bit.
“Why didn’t you want to see me? Are you mad that I accepted the match against Evan? Yeah, I know, I wasn’t going to, but he ruined my purchase of Meltdown, you saw it!”
“That’s not what I fucking mean!” Holy shit, that was the meanest fucking I’ve ever heard in my life.
“Sorry, sorry. What did you mean? I didn’t know we had an issue? I thought we moved beyond me not telling you about Mania Enterprises buying-“
“You fucking idiot!” She screamed. “You don’t even realize what you did. Let me refresh you fucking memory. You stood over Evan Envi, before accepting the match against him and said, ‘You can come after me, you can come after my family, and you can even come after my best friend, but don’t come after my business!’ Does that sound fucking familiar?”
Now that she mentioned it, did sound a little familiar.
“I was being followed, stalked, and harassed just because I worked for you! And you did nothing! Nothing! Suddenly your precious little fucked up business in in jeopardy and you’re champing at the bit to get ahold of him. I realize that all I’ve ever been is just your fucking employee but I thought we were slightly closer than that. You asshole.”
“Rosa, I, I, wait…”
Rosa turned around and started walking towards the door. “I quit your stupid fucking business. You can do all the bullshit work yourself. I hope Evan Envi beats the shit out of you and takes that fucking title. Maybe then you’ll start to realize there are more important things in life than yourself.”
With that, she slammed the door and was out of my life. I always thought that I loved her in a way. Not in a sexual way obviously as she was a lesbian, but she was the closest person in my life. The person who I told just about everything. I don’t think I’m prepared to lose her. But there isn’t anything else I can do.
She was right, Mania Enterprises was more important to me than she was. She was being followed and harassed by Evan and I just sat on my hands because I was trying to prove a point. I really am an asshole.
The Beginning
Wednesday August 8th, 2012
Mania Enterprises, Boston, MA
Bill Gnarly: Don’t hire a woman that you’re going to fall in love with again please. I can’t handle that shit again.
Mark Mania: Yeah, yeah.
There’s a knock on the door.
Mark Mania: One minute! Alright, Bill, apparently one of them is here, I’ll talk to you later.
Bill Gnarly: Use them!
Mark hangs up the phone and gets up from his desk. He walks to the door and opens. In walks a stunning woman. Five foot six inches, legs that go on for days and an ass that looks like it was sculpted out of pure marble. She was Hispanic or Spanish, or something along those lines. Her hair flowed down to her supple breasts. Her dress was short, but not too short. Cleavage nearly spilled out of the top. Her eyes were hazel green and her lips were luscious. She walked in confident, beautiful, and with purpose. She walked past Mark and took a seat. Mark studied her from the second she walked in. Taking in every last detail about her. He closed the door and strode to the other side of the desk and remained standing.
Mark Mania: Hello, Ms…..
Woman: Ms. Rosario Ramirez.
Mark Mania: Well Ms. Ramirez, it is incredibly nice to meet you. Can I get you something to drink?
Rosa Ramirez: No, thank you, I’m fine.
Yes you are, Mark was thinking. He was apparently projecting his thoughts as Rosa pulled her dress down her thighs a bit to cover excess skin.
Rosa Ramirez: I was told that you are looking for an assistant Mr. Mania.
Mark Mania: Well, I don’t know if I necessarily need an assistant. But I’ve been advised that I could benefit from one. Have you ever served as an assistant anywhere else?
Rosa Ramirez: Yes sir. I served as an assistant to Congressman Ted Kennedy until he passed away three years ago. Since then I have been doing low-level temp work for this recruiter. I’ve been told that I intimidate potential employers.
Mark could see why. The longer he looked at her the more sexy she was. He couldn’t keep himself from looking at her up and down and stopping briefly on her breasts each time.
Present Day
In my own head
Looking back on that now I can’t believe what an idiot I was to give this girl up. She was everything I wanted in an assistant. She was beautiful, intelligent, and damn it if she didn’t intimidate the hell out of other men. Plus, I didn’t even have sex with her, which was incredible for me. For those that don’t know, my previous assistant was a beautiful brunette named Emily. She led me through APW much like Rosa did. However, Emily and I fell in love. Then, when I disappeared, she was the first person to be left alone. I felt bad about it, I always have, but she’s never come back into my life, and I don’t think she ever will. So now, I’m alone. Without my best friend, without my family, without my employees. Alone.
Coping
Saturday, March 9th, 2013
Beantown Pub, Boston, MA
“I’m forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air. They fly so high, they reach the sky.” I sing, beer in hand along with four other gentlemen that I’ve just met at the bar. I’ve been drowning my sorrows since I arrived back in Boston yesterday. Sometimes there’s nothing better than beers and song.
“Alright, alright, next one… You’re a rich girl, and you tried too hard, but it doesn’t really matter anyway, you’re a bitch a girl, and you’ve gone too far, hey money, money, won’t get ya too far, get ya too far!” I slam my fist on the bar top playing along with the song. As we finish off the song, I realize my beer is getting low and work my way out of the situation to get a refill.
“Barkeep, another pint.” I spent too much time overseas. Wait, is Canada overseas? Ah, fuck it. While the bartender is filling up my glass, a man comes over and approaches me.
“Ah, Mark Mania, you dirty fucker, what’s up man!?”
I look at the man, completely blanking on who he is or what he wants.
“Hey man, what’s up.”
“Nothing man, you’re my fucking favorite wrestler, dude!” Oh, now it makes sense.
“Oh, thanks man, yeah, yeah, let me buy you a beer.”
“You’re the fucking coolest! But isn’t all that wrestling shit fake?” This is a common misconception, don’t know where the idea came from.
“No, actually it’s not man. I’ve heard people say that, but trust me, it isn’t.” I lift up my hand that has a gash in it from Evan Envi’s face. “I got this from knocking a guy out.”
“Ah, no, no, they teach you how to take hits and stuff, it’s all bullshit.”
“Trust me, they don’t.” The man is clearly drunk. Not that I’m one to talk as I’m legless as well.
“Ah, c’mon bro, you can tell me. Watch!” The drunk wildly throws a punch at me. I block it with my left arm and shoot a quick cross hook with my cut open right hand. The man goes down like a pile of bricks.
“Oh fuck.” My hand is busted wide-open and I just knocked out a fan. I’ve got to get the fuck out of here. I throw down a twenty on the bar and start running out. People start calling out my name and asking me what the hell happened. I charge out through people, knocking a few more to the ground. What the fuck have I done?
To be continued…
“You made a fatal mistake Evan. You’ve spent the better part of two months trying to get into the ring with me and get a chance at the Overdrive Title. I appreciate your attempts and I appreciate how hard you’re working to succeed. But it’s all going to be for not. I’ve proven time and again that I can beat you. I will have no problem doing it again.”
“I understand that when you first made the decision to pine after the Overdrive title that maybe your intention were pure. Maybe for a second you thought that you had earned an opportunity and that you rightfully deserved a shot. But when I explained to you that just because you’ve beaten others doesn’t mean you could beat me, you should’ve understood that.”
“I know I sound like a broken record when I say that I’ve beaten you twice already, but it holds true. I know one of the times you weren’t at your best, but the other time, there is no excuse. The only wins you’ve had over me have been in tag-team matches Let’s be honest, in those matches you weren’t the reason that your team won and I wasn’t the reason my team lost. So I wouldn’t lean too hard on those matches for confidence.”
“A lot of people seem to think that I’m some upstanding guy that fights with pride and with honor. They seem to think that I can’t be broke and that I’m all about the majesty of wrestling. I don’t know where this came from. I don’t know how in the hell people thought that I was the king of honor in the ring. If my history is any indication of who I am, I’d be the farthest thing from it.”
“People are talking about how I snapped and beat the hell out of you last week, they’re saying charges should be pressed, saying that I’m a maniac. Have these people never seen me in action? Remember your little buddy Delikado there? One Night in Hell six months ago, I put him inside a cage after destroying him. Azrael Goeren, remember that? No disqualification, both of us left bloodied and broken, only one of us left with the title. The very next week I went up against AC Smith in an Xtreme Rules match, remember that? Beat the shit out of him in his own match. So I don’t know why the hell anyone is surprised by a single thing I do.”
“Now I know that our match is just a good ole’ regular match at RassleMania. I’m not looking for extra stipulations. That’s not because I’m afraid of adding more, or afraid of getting into another no-DQ match. That’s not why. The reason I want it to just be a plain old match is because I want to destroy you with my bare hands. And I don’t want there to be any question of who should be the champion at the end of the night. I don’t want people complaining that our match was too gimmicky or that I used weapons as a crutch. I’m just going to beat you by being better than you.”
“That’s what this will come down to Evan. It will come down to who is better. Not who tries harder or who can fight the longest. It’s not going to be three stages of hell or an iron man match. It’s just who can beat who. You’re going to get the Mania Madness, your face is going to feel like it’s double the size, then I’m going to flip you over and pin you for a quick and easy 1…2…3”
“In the past leading up to matches like this I’ve always told some sort of story that can allude to what we’re about to do. With Buckson Gooch I told all the great underdog stories and about how he was never going to live up to any of them. With Azrael I told stories of two super powers going at each other. The immovable object versus the unstoppable force. So I was going over and over in my head trying to think of how I could help you understand what you were in for.”
“So I broke down the situation in my head, first of all, we have me, one of the best wrestlers of all time. The second longest running Overdrive champion in the history of the company. Been around for fourteen years and faced every great wrestler there is. Then we have you, a rising star, an up and comer, who’s always been jealous of me, who has always wanted to be me, and who, just can’t. Sure you were the North American Champion, a title that has also had Young Mannie as the champion, so, there goes any pride that was ever in that. You also held the Xtreme Title, which, great for you, your first real title, but you had it for what, a week? Sometimes the more impressive thing isn’t winning the title, but retaining the title. So what story could I use here?”
“Some may think of the movie Wall Street. Where Gordon Gecko is an older, wiser, wall street billionaire. A young Charlie Sheen is an upcomer who just can’t figure Gecko out. Well, that’s close but Gecko ends up in prison and Charlie Sheen ends up in rehab. Oh wait is that just real life for him, not the movie? Either, way, I don’t think it works.”
“One could think about the story of Benedict Arnold, the young ambitious general in the American Revolution. He was everywhere in the war, Battle of Ticonderoga, Battle of Saratoga, Battle of Ridgefield. Yet, he was never promoted as high as he wanted to be. He was jealous of those above him but due to his unquenchable ambition, the other generals didn’t trust Arnold. He proved them all right when he took control of West Point and defected to the British Army. So, I guess one could see that type of life for you. Constantly wanting to go higher in the company, wanting to become the best, and then when you don’t get your way, you go off and cry and defect somewhere else. You’d be remembered in APW much like Benedict Arnold is remembered in the US. As a traitor and a coward. Not as the great competitor you could be. You know, I think comparing you to Benedict Arnold may be a little bit too generous for you.”
“You know, the more I think about it, the more I think there may not be a story that we can do justice too. Everything paints you in too high of a light. But I can tell you this, the moral of every story that is that the younger, inexperienced person gets in over his head, destroys everything around him, and never fully lives up to the person he emulated. Sure, in some of these stories the older, better person will have some fall from grace, but that’s not the story we’re telling at RassleMania. We’re still in the beginning stages of our story Evan. We’re still in the part of the story where you don’t realize what it takes to win.”
“I remember back in high school we had a school assembly. It was to address the entire student body and the MC for the night made some poignant points. He explained what it was like for every class in highschool. He explained that when you come in as a freshman, you know don’t know how many things you don’t know. Then, as a sophomore, you know that there are a lot of things you don’t know. Further on, as a junior, you don’t know the fact that you actually know quite a bit. Then, finally, as a senior, you’re aware of just how much you really know. APW can be the same way.”
“I would’ve thought that you’d have made more progress than just being a freshman though. You don’t have the slightest clue how many terrible things are coming for you. I mean, you look at other guys, even Buckson Gooch, he’s at the sophomore level where he knows that he’s in over his head sometimes. That’s a wisdom that you can’t really teach. Then there are the guys like Anthony Bailey who doesn’t even realize that’s he’s good an is a top talent. And finally, guys like me, who know just how good they are and everything that’s coming their way.”
“You’re not going to jump up three level’s Evan. You don’t have it in you. You may have gotten under my skin and gotten exactly what you wanted, but none of this is going to pay off for you. Because the only story that can really compare to this is that you woke a sleeping giant. Maybe I’ve been skating by the past six months, beating those who get in my way and just being happy where I am. I’ve never felt like anyone was that big of a threat to me. Azrael sure had some skill, but not enough to concern me that I was actually going to lose my title. I fought just hard enough to retain.”
“But now, oh boy, now you’ve really messed up. Because I’m not afraid of losing my title to you, but you’ve made me angry. You’ve ruined the thing nearest and dearest to me and you’re going to have to pay for that. So I’m going to enjoy retaining the title, of course, but I’m also going to enjoy beating the ever-living hell out of you. I will make you pay for ruining my business deal. I’ll make you pay for pushing Rosa away from me, and I’ll make you pay for wasting my time at RassleMania facing you when I could be facing someone that could actually give me a challenge.”
“That’s the sad part Evan. For a while, I thought maybe you did have the ability. I saw you make your meteoric rise up through the ranks and I appreciated it. I thought, ‘there’s a kid that’s going somewhere’. But your ego is so big and your jealousy runs so deep that it’s impossible to keep you in check. It’s impossible for you to truly succeed until you accept the fact that you can fail.”
“Obviously I was known to have a big ego for a long time. People have always talked about what a big mouth I’ve got and what an attitude I had. It wasn’t until I accepted that I wasn’t the only one with any ability is when I started to succeed. Because you know what happens when you think you’re invincible and then you lose? Your entire fucking life crashes around you. Everything you thought you knew ends. It falls right out from underneath you. It’s nearly impossible to recover from. What I learned was that losses and failure will happen, but you have to learn from it every time. If you’re going to make a mistake you have to learn from it and never make it again.”
“First time we faced each other, you made the mistake of not being on you’re A game. I can appreciate that, sometimes you’re not fully there and you can’t put it all together. I get it. Second time we faced each other, you had a lot more in you. You tried a whole lot harder. You brought all you had. And you still lost. So what was the mistake that you made there? The mistake was that you thought you could beat me. Why are you trying to do that again? Fool you once, shame on me, fool you twice, shame on you man.”
“You’re going to be the one who pays for the indiscretions that have happened this past few months. I man pay monetarily, but in the ring, you better damn well believe I’m going to make you pay. You’ll feel the full force of my wrath and then hopefully you will truly, finally, know that you can’t beat me. And I don’t want you to forget it. Because someday, I’m going to be holding that Undisputed Title. You will have finally captured this Overdrive title from someone else and you’ll be thinking of making a jump up to the big leagues, but when you see me holding the title, I want to make damn sure that you realize you cannot beat me. I could’ve sworn I’d taught you that lesson before, but damn it, looks like I’ll have to teach you again.”
