The World Cup II (1,987)

The MTS rail train comes to a slowing stop as it enters its regularly scheduled stop to exchange passengers on their daily travels. As it comes to a stop, dust and other small pieces of debris kicks up in the air only momentarily, creating almost a movie like visual. Several people get on the train between the 8 cars, one of them is an elderly man, easily in his late 60’s. He shuffles around the car before finding a seat on the back half of the car, next to an early 20 something year old male. s. He shuffles around the car before finding a seat on the back half of the car, next to an early 20 something year old male.

Hey there Auldjin, why don’t you sit yer auld bones doon?

The old man looks down at him and gives him an odd look but slowly makes his way to the empty spot next to him. As he slowly sits, the young man reaches his hand out for a shake, as the older guy looks at him as if he was offering him a dead rat. The older man clinches both hands on his walking cane that he is using to keep his balance, and avoiding falling to the seat.

A'm sorry, let me caw oan th' subtitles. I’m still not used to speaking common, otherwise when I talk you need subtitles.

His giant cheesy grin and the slight bobble to his head shows he was proud of that joke.

What’s your name friend?

The older man looks at him sideways and reply’s Jerry.

Jerry? That’s a good name there Jerry! Ya see, I am returning to these United States for the first time in years. These young 24 years, I’ve had the pleasure to spend the last 6 as a Professional Wrestler. He pauses for a half second to see if there was any reaction out of Jerry before continuing. There was not. It was a traveling promotion based out of Australia, but they spent a lot of time here in the States. Fun fact, I was their champion once, how cool is that? That was a lot of fun, but not all chapters are the last so when that one closed, I fucked off home for a while. With the exception for me being in Canada in 2020, I mostly stuck around the UK. Now 4 years later, I am excited to be back, and lucky for me this company has a lot going on, so there’s plenty for me to do. You ever hear of the World Cup?

Jerry quickly looks up at the talkative young man. I love soccer!

Ah, yes, close, but not really, or at all actually. Kind of, this instance I’m more meaning in the wrestling sense. When I was in Canada for that year, I was able to catch this great Action Wrestling’s World Cup. It had 8 guys from all over the world, all representing their country. This was beyond Iron Man level of athletics; it was an absolute crazy night of wrestling. The first 4 matches alone were all some of the best wrestling you could have seen at the time. By the time the semifinals started, you could tell they were exhausted, but they drove through for almost another 30 minutes each. Being in the crowd that night when Nostroza and Fortune came out for the finals, the overall energy was something that I’ve never been part of. I’ve been chasing that for myself ever since in my matches, come close, but never like that night. Everyone erupted when Fortune won, didn’t matter if just moments before they were booing and wishing he would lose, everyone was just excited about what just took place.

Jerry sighs out loud and rubs his temples a little. No, no, can’t say I’ve heard of any of those things you just went on about. He reaches in his coat and pulls out a magazine and begins to read it, passive aggressively ignoring the young man. He notices Jerry ignoring him, and chuckles to himself as he sits back, resting his head against the wall of the train and continues on.

It’s funny, I finally got all the paperwork, visa’s, all that stuff taken care of, and I now work for Action Wrestling, super cool right? I’m stoked. Especially since my first match with the company is World Cup II, they skipped a year. Not as exciting as a full-on tournament but I love a good triple threat match. Not even lying, gives me a minute to catch my breath and let the other two fight it out. You know what I hate the most about this match is? The young man looks over at Jerry, and as usual he is actively pretending, he does not hear him, face deep in the magazine. He leans back again and just slightly raises his voice, determined to take his attention. The other two have these really cool nicknames! The NorthStar and the Canadian Dragon, one of them is supposed to be from here in the States. I honestly would have guessed they both are Canadian, but I guess that is probably more because of movies. I should have said my name was SUPERSTAR! No, that’s too 2k, maybe Captain Britain, too marvely. Oh, I got it! THE SCOTTISH MUTALATOR!!!!

With his exclamation in his tone, he jumps up to his feet throwing his arm in the air as if he was some sort of a cartoon hero in a hero pose. As soon as he displays such extra movements, the surrounding patrons jump and a few let out a yelp in shock. He pauses and looks around the cart as all eyes were focused directly on him. As if he was finally realizing where he was, or at least the there were so many more people in the car that he realized. He slowly looks around at everyone in the car, most are scared about what he is going to do next, the rest seemingly thinking he is on some sort of a drug, and waiting for whatever debacle is about to follow. Upon realizing the awkward pause has been long enough, he takes a deep breath and continues, but now addressing the entire car. Jerry surprisingly lays his magazine down, as if him grabbing the attention of everyone else, has now grabbed his.

Let me tell all of you about the first guy in this match with me, Eason Alexander, young guy such as myself. He is one of those generational talents, I don’t believe I faced him when I was in Canada a couple of years ago, but it’s possible we were on the same card at one point, I did spend some time in Toronto. The guy calls himself the Canadian Dragon, and that is some balls to use Dragon, big shoes you have to fill as history is full of the top of the top talent. That’s not to take anything away from Easton, these generational talents grew up doing this, I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t come out saying he started wrestling at 5 and was a Canadian wrestling champ in high school or something. Jobby, I didn’t do all that, I was a simple age of 17 when I started, that’s just 7 years. For real, this guy is someone to at least keep an eye on, which is weird saying, maybe I should google him before the match, maybe he flips pizza dough in the ring or something.

The crowd slowly begins to murmur in response, ” Not the pizza dough” , and ” That sounds good, I’m hungry” take over the car for a few moments. The young man, starts to wave his hands slightly signaling for everyone to lower the rumble, he wasn’t finished.

Yeah it really does sound good, dinner has been decided! But until then, let me tell you about the other guy. The NorthStar Josh Conway, and that name may sound familiar to you, and that’s because this guy is an OG, he’s been doing this longer than I’ve been alive. Normally you’d look at that as an insult, but he’s still wrestling! He looks back and forth at the crowd as the numbers shift as the train comes to its next stop. There is so much I am going to learn just having the opportunity to be in the same ring as him. I almost had an opportunity to wrestling with him 2 years ago, we both were on a 2-day show, I was on the first day, and he was on the second. I didn’t really have a chance to interact with him, but I did have friends who were on that second day and told me all about how he and the others were. I had to catch a flight, had another show to do, but that’s how these things go right? Always passing ships in the night, until we all find our way to a major company about the same time.

“Next stop Old Town Station, Popular for Whaley House, SeaWorld, and Pechanga Arena”

The young man looks out the window as if he was looking down the tracks at the next point, he of course could not physically see the stop.

Almost my stop, but the best part about this isn’t that its all of our debut for Action Wrestling, but winner will forever be immortalized as the winner of the 2022 World Cup!

“WOOO I love soccer!”

Before he could get out a word, history repeats itself, and the young man should and head drops momentarily. Quickly shaking it off, he goes back to his speech. Close but not the same, wrestling. We still walk away with an honor that only one person has accomplished; I don’t know about you but I want to follow in Fortune’s footsteps. Which isn’t all that bad, he did remind me of my favorite wrestling, but I’m not as aggressive as they are, I prefer the more, athletic and attention-grabbing sort, I mean, we are supposed to put on a show. There’s no doubt that Josh and Easton are head first into this, but I have to keep the UK thing going, besides the Queen died in Scotland, what a better time to show we can be on top of the world too!

The crowd begins to clap as loud DING DING rings over the car signaling they are approaching the next stop. The trains momentum quickly begins to slow as they approach, causing everyone to minorly brace against deceleration. The hissing of the brakes come to a stop as dust and other small objects discarded as trash come alive. The doors open abruptly as one side people come in. The young man grabs his bag and waves as a person or two cheers and wishes him good luck as he exits the car. He steps out onto the platform, and the doors shut behind him, as the sounds of the train beginning to move fills the area.

FUCK! I forgot to tell them my name. I hope they tune in. 15-minute walk to the arena, here we go.



20-minutes later he arrives at the front of the arena. Time for a TikTok. He sets up the camera, takes off his shirt and puts on a leather vest and a terrible bold cap.

Stone Cold Alister McKissick here at the Pechanga Arena about to take that World Cup and fill it up with Stone Colds favorite drink, Milk! He takes out two, liters of Milk and smashes them together sending milk everywhere before pouring it all over his face in imitation of his favorite wrestler. He starts to laugh. This is terrible, so posting it. Now only if I can back that up.