Hot Bean Juice

[Gerard Angelo]

A cripple and two rednecks walk into a wrestling ring.

Sounds like the start of a shitty joke your MAGA hat wearing uncle is inevitably going to tell you at Thanksgiving next week right before he goes on a Coors Light and peppermint schnapps fueled tirade about immigration. But it’s real life for me this week. Six-man tag action. Pandaemonium vs South Texas Deathride and Rick Majors. Oh brother.

PCW is just throwing random wrestlers at us now. Trying to derail the train before we really get chugging down the track here. The brass fears us because we are the greatest collection of talent ever seen in this company. They know that we are the ones who can really facilitate change around here.

And it scares them to death.

So they are gonna try any combination of stars that they can’t get to work together to try and stop us. It won’t work. They already sent out the transitional World champ, an angry girl that loves the ocean like every other chick on Instagram, and the glass man himself, in a crazy match that I still don’t know what happened.

And guess what?

It didn’t work! Pandaemonium won. Hell, Holden almost shoot murdered Rick that night. So now they think throwing him in a team with two guys who got their asses handed to them by the Black Hand are gonna be able to step to us? The disrespect.

I know Rick is a good solider, so he’s gonna do whatever Loki and them boys tell him to do. And he was a great wrestler like a decade ago. But now he’s a shell of a wrestler, and of a man. That’s not even considering he left whatever little bit of the old Rick Majors in the ring at Deadly Intentions to beat Jason Willard. The man is running on fumes, but he can’t quit because he knows this is the last stand.

It’s honestly sad to watch a guy I looked up to in this business for so many years tarnish his legacy like this. I remember when I was in NLCW with the Flock, Rick Majors was one of the guys, if not THE guy. Now that run failed for many reason, which is a story for another time. But I always looked up to how Rick carried himself. Like he was the biggest star in a room full of them.

Now, he’s just a guy. A guy that’s going to be another casualty in this war.

I’m sitting at a small cafe in Los Angeles as I go through my musings, sipping an espresso. I have my shades on and my Yankees cap pull down low on my head, just to avoid being recognized. I’d say it’s a tough life being one of the most famous people in the world, but aside from being stopped by randoms in random places it wasn’t so bad. David and Holden were still getting used to the fame that came with me at this point. They were naturals though. Two of the best young talents I’ve ever been around. I was trying to share as much of my knowledge of the business with them as possible, and they soaked it up like sponges. Both of them had the potential to be future World Champions.

After me of course.

I took a sip of my espresso as I looked around the slightly busy cafe. A lot of people just staring at their phones and laptops while they attempted to get hot bean juice into their mouth while not staining their seemingly expensive clothes. This was one of those cafes where all of the patrons were “film writers” while most of the staff were “actors”. I came here because they actually had Italian espresso.

South Texas Deathride. STD. Jesus, that has to be a rib. Who in the hell would actually name their tag team that?

A bunch of rednecks. Oh, well that makes sense. Two Texans that I know nothing about except for the fact they got their asses handed to them by Grimm and Dom before the boys and I decided to send a message to the locker room. They were just collateral damage. Wrong place at the wrong time. So now they want to step up to the guys that run this place. That’s no problem. Pandaemonium will put them down just like we did last week.

I don’t see why they would be mad though. Just like Brenna Gordon, we made these two hick relevant! People are invested in them because they want to see anybody kick our ass. I did them a favor. They get to share the ring with the Living Legend. And it would’ve been the main event too. But nope. Stormm needs to do what he always does and steal the spotlight. I had a match with Razor, so Stormm needed to have a match with him. I’m sure he’ll try to make Razor submit like I did, because Stormm needs to feel like he’s in charge all the time. Feel like he has the upper hand. That’s why he’s always wandering around the arena like he’s Sting, trying to play mind games that are pretty much just him turning the lights off. I’ve seen better men do his schtick and still survived, so I’m not worried about Stormm digging into his kid’s birthday magic tricks.

I finished my espresso and set the small cup down. Reaching into my jeans pocket, I pulled a wad of cash out. Unfolding it, I peeled off two twenty dollar bills and tossed them on the table. I stood, and adjusts my ball cap before exiting the cafe into the California sun. I turned to my left and started walking.

This was another week for David, Holden, and I to make a statement to the rest of PCW, and the world, that we are for real. No matter what happens, we will make a statement. That can be counted on.

Suddenly I felt pressure in my head, as if a headache was coming on.

You should’ve killed that elf girl when you had the chance.

I rolled my eyes as I walked down the street.

“Nice to hear from you again, Ba’lal.” I said out loud. “It’s been a while.”

I’ll say it again. You should have killed the elf.

I huffed as the voice in my head repeated itself. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Air Pods, slipping them into my ears so I could talk and people wouldn’t think I was crazy. Even though this situation was crazy. I was talking to an ageless god’s voice in my head.

“Why would I do that to, Amanda? She was nothing but kind to me.”

Because she is our enemy!

His voice boomed it my head, causing me to wince.

“I thought handling the DMP was your part of the bargain. Unless you think you can’t handle a bunch of ghouls and goblins.” I said with a smirk. I could almost see him scowling in my mind.

I could take care of them in an instant, they are of no matter. It would have been a way for you to prove your loyalty to me.

I sucked my teeth.

“Listen, when you hold up your end of the bargain, then I’ll do whatever you say. But, I’ve yet to get a movie deal, become World Champion again, nor is Kara slipping in my DMs. So until something happens I think we’re at a stalemate.”

Sliding into what? Never mind, So you are saying you need a show of good faith, human?

“Exactly.” I said with a smirk.

Fine. Have it your way, Gerard.

The pressure in my head vanished and I knew he was gone. I rubbed my beard. I didn’t know how playing hardball with a being of immeasurable power would be, but it seemed to be working out so far. But he needed to hold up his end of our bargain before he demanded I started killing friends of mine, even if we are on opposite sides.

Go big or go home, right?