Post by kosmos on Aug 27, 2019 3:26:07 GMT -5
Another night, another city, another hotel. Staring down at the screen of his phone, it read ‘Papa’ and had just been answered by voicemail.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Hola papá, soy solo yo otra vez. Llámame.
Ending the call, he sighed. Looking around the empty hotel room, he was beginning to understand the grind of professional wrestling. The toll it took on the wrestlers, the toll it continued to take on his father. Barcelona, Ibiza, Riyadh, Atlanta, New York, Atlanta again, and now Chicago. He was seemingly in constant motion. There hadn’t been time to stop, and Vanessa Martinez was loving every second of it.
Since somehow negotiating him into two promotions, she hadn’t rested since. Both companies now sold plastic replicas of his mask aimed at kids and starting this event he now had his own signature t-shirt!
Modeled after his ring gear, It mimicked scales up the front of the torso. The back emblazoned with his name in fire. Pequeño Dinosaurio had arrived!
From a marketing and promotion stand point she had positioned him light years ahead of where rookies of his tenure usually found themselves.
On somewhat of a roll in RSW, the rookie tecnico was working more dates than his peers and, more importantly, was really starting to find his feet in the ring. Even when he found himself suffering, he always made sure to learn from the experience and with his flashy Lucha Libre style, he tried his best to leave a lasting impression. The rewards were certainly starting to show.
Sliding the mask off, he ran his hands through the coal black hair he’d been sure to keep short. He never understood how long haired luchadors survived.
Walking the short grey carpet in his green ASICS runners, he suddenly became cognizant of just how lonely he’d become.
The various timezones made calling home sporadic, add his father’s recent commitments in Japan making reaching him even harder than usual, and for the first time in his life, he felt alone. Truly alone.
Past the double bed that occupied most of the center of the room sat a brown faux leather chair. Facing an LED television mounted upon the wall, the arm of the chair was just level with a lightly stained wide framed ledge that led to a window overlooking downtown Chicago.
Forgoing the chair, he sat in the window ledge, his attention split between half heartedly watching a rerun of ‘2 and a half men’ before Ashton Kutcher killed it and staring out over the Windy City.
As Charlie Sheen parades a woman half his age across the screen, there’s a knock at the door.
Scrambling for his mask, he slides it on quickly as he stutters out.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: ¿Quién es?
Realizing he’d spoke in Spanish, he starts to correct himself.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Who is…
A familiar voice came through before he could finish. As though summoned via his loneliness, Vanessa had been the only consistent human interaction in his life for weeks now.
Vanessa Martinez: Es Vanessa. ¿Puedo pasar?
Opening the door for the lady, he couldn’t help but be grateful for the company.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Hey, I’m just kinda vegging out, watching tv, what’s up?
Dressed casually, even in jeans and a t-short, she came into the room with the confidence of someone about to make a person’s day. A magazine rolled up in her hand, little did she know she’d done that by virtue of her arrival alone
Vanessa Martinez: As much as I hate to break that up, I have some good news. The lucha mags are paying attention to RSW!
There was a feature on Riot Star Wrestling in Box y Lucha, the oldest Lucha Libre Magazine still in print. Shane Mitchell stared a hole through him. The cover screamed, “Who can stop Shane Mitchell?”
He didn’t get her point.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: What’s this supposed to be?
Looking slightly disappointed, her tone didn’t sound like that of an agent as she scolds him.
Vanessa Martinez: Stop it. Jealousy doesn’t suit you. Mask or not, you’re the son of the great Tiranosaurio, don’t fall into the pettiness of this business…look closer, bottom corner.
He’d gotten a story! Jumping up, such was his joy that he suddenly had Vanessa in a tight hug as he jumped up and down until he stopped from laughter.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: I’m sorry Vanessa, I, I don’t know what to say. Thank you. Man! I can’t wait to tell mi familia! Papa, he will be so proud! Can you…
His voice softened, losing just a bit of the excitement at the mention of his father, she would have to turn it up to distract him.
Vanessa Martinez: Get copies? It hits the stands in a couple days, I’ve already arranged to have one set aside for each of your friends and family.
She’d noticed his commitment to his familia, as strong as his sense of honour. No, even stronger. He was clearly taken back by the gesture, maybe even a little choked up by it.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Thank you, that means a lot that you would think to do that for me. Why are you smiling?
Vanessa wasn’t just some rookie agent, she was a prodigy. Never having a son, her father turned to Vanessa to join the family business. As a result, in many ways, she became the son her father never had.
He had been grooming her for years, taking her into contract negotiations and using her as a lead when he felt the situation warranted a woman’s touch. Thus far she’d shown an aptitude for getting young men to sign their careers away.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: You worked it into the contract, didn’t you?
He’d been paying attention, making a mental note of that. She decided to play coy.
Vanessa Martinez: No, not exactly. I told them the truth. I told them they were wasting a golden opportunity with a genuine luchador with a family legacy matched by no one, and then negotiated the passing story they were going to do on you into a small featured article and a bump in your pay and then used that money to buy the magazines outright. Something like a hundred of them. Even your cousins will get one. And, the magazine will ‘sell more copies’ which makes it look like the Mexican fans want more RSW, and more importantly, more you! I’m hoping it will lead to an increase in RSW coverage back home.
He was impressed. After all, who wouldn’t be? Her quick thinking made him appear far more marketable than he truly was and got him copies of his first magazine article for his entire family without costing him any of the amount he’d agreed to.
As a client, he couldn’t have been happier.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Is there anything you can’t do?
Vanessa Martinez: Win your matches for you. But I’m working on that.
Interested, he sat down, in the chair this time. At her current rate, it wouldn’t surprise him that much if she were to tell him she’d be suiting up and getting in the ring herself. He was half convinced that if she pursued that as much as she did seemingly everything else in her life, she’d be a champion before him.
Vanessa Martinez: Remember we talked about reducing your workload per match while we ramp things up having you compete in two companies? Well, only one person didn’t, more or less, laugh in my face.
Outside the Lucha Libre world, teaming with a bright green five foot four dinosaur was a tough sell. There wasn’t exactly a line forming in the locker room. He understood it, he didn’t like it, but he understood.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: That doesn’t sound too promising, but; who might that be?
Even with the string up success he’d had lately, he never would have guessed the name to come from her lips.
Vanessa Martinez: Dexter Payne.
Dexter Payne was another relatively new signing, the similarities didn’t end there. Both had been gaining management’s attention despite short tenures within the company.
He was a six foot five, two hundred and fifty pound brawler fresh out of prison. He was everything her client was not.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Dexter Payne? I wouldn’t have thought he’d be interested.
She walked over between him and the tv, she needed him to understand what was happening.
Vanessa Martinez: You get a ‘winner take all’ match at the Shadow Wars pay per view, but each of you has a victory over one half of the Tagteam champions. I spoke to someone named Nick Morgan who seemed to think he can get Payne to agree to at least one match as a team. Just get through Martin Montana and we could have a lot more than a magazine story to celebrate…you could have an RSW Championship in just a couple more events! Get through Montana, no unnecessary risks. Then it’s onto Mila Rader, and the Anarchy, Legacy AND Tagteam Championships…bring all that to Tiranosaurio and hen tell him you want the mask…
There it was, she saw the fire in his eyes. All that the wide eyed boy that swelled deep within his soul ever wanted. To make his father proud.
He would walk through hell, and she would show him the way.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Hola papá, soy solo yo otra vez. Llámame.
Ending the call, he sighed. Looking around the empty hotel room, he was beginning to understand the grind of professional wrestling. The toll it took on the wrestlers, the toll it continued to take on his father. Barcelona, Ibiza, Riyadh, Atlanta, New York, Atlanta again, and now Chicago. He was seemingly in constant motion. There hadn’t been time to stop, and Vanessa Martinez was loving every second of it.
Since somehow negotiating him into two promotions, she hadn’t rested since. Both companies now sold plastic replicas of his mask aimed at kids and starting this event he now had his own signature t-shirt!
Modeled after his ring gear, It mimicked scales up the front of the torso. The back emblazoned with his name in fire. Pequeño Dinosaurio had arrived!
From a marketing and promotion stand point she had positioned him light years ahead of where rookies of his tenure usually found themselves.
On somewhat of a roll in RSW, the rookie tecnico was working more dates than his peers and, more importantly, was really starting to find his feet in the ring. Even when he found himself suffering, he always made sure to learn from the experience and with his flashy Lucha Libre style, he tried his best to leave a lasting impression. The rewards were certainly starting to show.
Sliding the mask off, he ran his hands through the coal black hair he’d been sure to keep short. He never understood how long haired luchadors survived.
Walking the short grey carpet in his green ASICS runners, he suddenly became cognizant of just how lonely he’d become.
The various timezones made calling home sporadic, add his father’s recent commitments in Japan making reaching him even harder than usual, and for the first time in his life, he felt alone. Truly alone.
Past the double bed that occupied most of the center of the room sat a brown faux leather chair. Facing an LED television mounted upon the wall, the arm of the chair was just level with a lightly stained wide framed ledge that led to a window overlooking downtown Chicago.
Forgoing the chair, he sat in the window ledge, his attention split between half heartedly watching a rerun of ‘2 and a half men’ before Ashton Kutcher killed it and staring out over the Windy City.
As Charlie Sheen parades a woman half his age across the screen, there’s a knock at the door.
Scrambling for his mask, he slides it on quickly as he stutters out.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: ¿Quién es?
Realizing he’d spoke in Spanish, he starts to correct himself.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Who is…
A familiar voice came through before he could finish. As though summoned via his loneliness, Vanessa had been the only consistent human interaction in his life for weeks now.
Vanessa Martinez: Es Vanessa. ¿Puedo pasar?
Opening the door for the lady, he couldn’t help but be grateful for the company.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Hey, I’m just kinda vegging out, watching tv, what’s up?
Dressed casually, even in jeans and a t-short, she came into the room with the confidence of someone about to make a person’s day. A magazine rolled up in her hand, little did she know she’d done that by virtue of her arrival alone
Vanessa Martinez: As much as I hate to break that up, I have some good news. The lucha mags are paying attention to RSW!
There was a feature on Riot Star Wrestling in Box y Lucha, the oldest Lucha Libre Magazine still in print. Shane Mitchell stared a hole through him. The cover screamed, “Who can stop Shane Mitchell?”
He didn’t get her point.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: What’s this supposed to be?
Looking slightly disappointed, her tone didn’t sound like that of an agent as she scolds him.
Vanessa Martinez: Stop it. Jealousy doesn’t suit you. Mask or not, you’re the son of the great Tiranosaurio, don’t fall into the pettiness of this business…look closer, bottom corner.
He’d gotten a story! Jumping up, such was his joy that he suddenly had Vanessa in a tight hug as he jumped up and down until he stopped from laughter.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: I’m sorry Vanessa, I, I don’t know what to say. Thank you. Man! I can’t wait to tell mi familia! Papa, he will be so proud! Can you…
His voice softened, losing just a bit of the excitement at the mention of his father, she would have to turn it up to distract him.
Vanessa Martinez: Get copies? It hits the stands in a couple days, I’ve already arranged to have one set aside for each of your friends and family.
She’d noticed his commitment to his familia, as strong as his sense of honour. No, even stronger. He was clearly taken back by the gesture, maybe even a little choked up by it.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Thank you, that means a lot that you would think to do that for me. Why are you smiling?
Vanessa wasn’t just some rookie agent, she was a prodigy. Never having a son, her father turned to Vanessa to join the family business. As a result, in many ways, she became the son her father never had.
He had been grooming her for years, taking her into contract negotiations and using her as a lead when he felt the situation warranted a woman’s touch. Thus far she’d shown an aptitude for getting young men to sign their careers away.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: You worked it into the contract, didn’t you?
He’d been paying attention, making a mental note of that. She decided to play coy.
Vanessa Martinez: No, not exactly. I told them the truth. I told them they were wasting a golden opportunity with a genuine luchador with a family legacy matched by no one, and then negotiated the passing story they were going to do on you into a small featured article and a bump in your pay and then used that money to buy the magazines outright. Something like a hundred of them. Even your cousins will get one. And, the magazine will ‘sell more copies’ which makes it look like the Mexican fans want more RSW, and more importantly, more you! I’m hoping it will lead to an increase in RSW coverage back home.
He was impressed. After all, who wouldn’t be? Her quick thinking made him appear far more marketable than he truly was and got him copies of his first magazine article for his entire family without costing him any of the amount he’d agreed to.
As a client, he couldn’t have been happier.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Is there anything you can’t do?
Vanessa Martinez: Win your matches for you. But I’m working on that.
Interested, he sat down, in the chair this time. At her current rate, it wouldn’t surprise him that much if she were to tell him she’d be suiting up and getting in the ring herself. He was half convinced that if she pursued that as much as she did seemingly everything else in her life, she’d be a champion before him.
Vanessa Martinez: Remember we talked about reducing your workload per match while we ramp things up having you compete in two companies? Well, only one person didn’t, more or less, laugh in my face.
Outside the Lucha Libre world, teaming with a bright green five foot four dinosaur was a tough sell. There wasn’t exactly a line forming in the locker room. He understood it, he didn’t like it, but he understood.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: That doesn’t sound too promising, but; who might that be?
Even with the string up success he’d had lately, he never would have guessed the name to come from her lips.
Vanessa Martinez: Dexter Payne.
Dexter Payne was another relatively new signing, the similarities didn’t end there. Both had been gaining management’s attention despite short tenures within the company.
He was a six foot five, two hundred and fifty pound brawler fresh out of prison. He was everything her client was not.
Pequeño Dinosaurio: Dexter Payne? I wouldn’t have thought he’d be interested.
She walked over between him and the tv, she needed him to understand what was happening.
Vanessa Martinez: You get a ‘winner take all’ match at the Shadow Wars pay per view, but each of you has a victory over one half of the Tagteam champions. I spoke to someone named Nick Morgan who seemed to think he can get Payne to agree to at least one match as a team. Just get through Martin Montana and we could have a lot more than a magazine story to celebrate…you could have an RSW Championship in just a couple more events! Get through Montana, no unnecessary risks. Then it’s onto Mila Rader, and the Anarchy, Legacy AND Tagteam Championships…bring all that to Tiranosaurio and hen tell him you want the mask…
There it was, she saw the fire in his eyes. All that the wide eyed boy that swelled deep within his soul ever wanted. To make his father proud.
He would walk through hell, and she would show him the way.
