Everyday begins the same. My fingers instantly move to the top of the alarm clock to turn off the 5 AM alarm. I continue to lie in bed, surrounded by darkness and silence. At first, I stay in my bed by choice and contemplate the day ahead. Eventually I choose to get up, but am kept in my bed by force.
My mind urges me out from the warm confines of my bed and blanket but my damaged body does not obey. Mentally, I will myself to rise. Physically, my back, hips and knees ach and prevent me from moving with any agility and speed that I once experienced. Minutes pass before my mind and body sync and work together to life my mammoth frame to my feet.
With a slight hunch, I slowly shuffle towards the en suite washroom. Ashamed of my declining appearance, I straighten myself as much as possible before stepping into view of the mirror above my sink. I open the door to the medicine cabinet and remove a number of pill bottles. Some pills relax my back and muscles, others ease the pain in my joints, and one is designed to prevent further damage to my heart.
Aided by a tall glass of water, I ingest the pills one by one.
**********
The sunlight creeping through the gap between two curtains gently eases Matt Tastic to wake. He twists his body as he stretches between the sheets. In mid-stretch he sees his alarm clock, smiles and proudly realises that he didnt oversleep. Without hesitation, he escapes his bed with just over an hour left in his morning.
**********
I simultaneously lower myself slowly into a leather chair in my living room while reaching for the remote control that I had placed previously on the table. I hit play on the remote and the VCR begins to play the video cassette tape that I had put in earlier. Part of my attention is on my lunch as I cut into my chicken breast and asparagus. The majority of my focus is on the footage in front of me.
Despite my years of experience, I still enjoyed studying old wrestling matches from various events world wide. It was a habit that I developed over thirty years ago when I was first breaking into the business, and one I still keep now as I try to stay current with the constant changes that occur in this sport.
I rarely watch anything from WZCW. There is very little that I can learn from the crop of talent that wrestle for the broken promotion compared to the wealth of knowledge that I can witness by the thousands of wrestling legends that competed before WZCW even existed.
**********
Matt Tastic lays sprawled across his couch, his head barely propped up above the rest of his body. He pauses from eating his sandwich, fascinated by the imaginative and violent action on displayed on the large television which has been mounted on the wall. The Blu-Ray disc he was currently watching was a gift from Alisha.
Every so often, after Matts big matches, she would express how proud she was of Matt in the form of an Anime movie or television series. Matt wasnt sure why she stuck with him and endured his career. He was on the road and away from home 300 days of the year, and when they were together, she was out of the spotlight rather than standing beside him in it.
She would never ask him to leave WZCW and the wrestling business in general, but if she did, Matt would gladly give it all up for her.
**********
I set my grip on the barbell above me at the local gym in preparation for my main event match on Meltdown tonight. While I am still able to push around large amounts of weights, it is only a fraction of the strength that I used to display.
Before I would lift to grow. I would push myself to the limit to increase my size, strength and muscle endurance. Now, I lift strictly to maintain. I lift in an attempt to cling onto what I have worked so hard to build, despite it seemingly fading away year after year.
**********
Like most days, Matt Tastic was participating in a WZCW public relations event. He had always been heavily involved in promoting the company that supported him. Media interviews, television spots, granting wishes for sick children, he proudly did whatever the company asked of him and more. Now he was hosting a meet and greet with a small group of lucky WZCW fans who had won a radio contest. He posed for pictures, signed autographs, answered questions and assured everyone that he would even the Best of Three Series against Rush tonight.
He doesnt do this for himself or for WZCW. He does it for the fans. He is thankful for them to spend their hard earned money on seeing him compete and buying his t-shirts. He believes in them, and they believe in him.
He had become just as vital to WZCW outside the ring as he was inside of it. It is his unprecedented devotion and eagerness to champion WZCW in the publics eye that makes him so valuable to management.
**********
Before my match, I pace back and forth backstage, shielded from the view of the live crowd by a black curtain. I am focused and consumed by my own thoughts. My music begins to play throughout the arena. I begin to massage my hands together as I listen for the appropriate cue to emerge from behind the curtain so I can be showered by a chorus of boos. Even after all of these years, nervousness overcomes me and my heart rate increases dramatically.
Before this moment, I was a weakened old man. I was a fragile shell of what I once was just trying to survive and doing everything possible to cement my legacy in the history books.
From this moment on, I am an intense and unbreakable monster. I am the best wrestler in this company with decades of experience to call upon. I am the EurAsian Champion, and not one single person in this company is capable of taking the title from around my waist. I am strengths without weakness.
I am a professional wrestler.
**********
Before his match, Matt Tastic continues to prepare. He alternates between push-ups on the floor and pull-ups which are aided by a hanging beam nearby. Music from his favourite animes blast his eardrums from earbuds that connect to his iPhone. He sees the visual cue from a backstage employee, puts the iPhone down and grabs a bottle of water. He drinks part of it before dumping the rest over his head. When he is ready, he intensely and opens the curtain with a confident smile. The fans scream their love for him, and he shows them his gratitude.
Before this moment, he is a man who is literally living his childhood dream. As gratitude to the fans, he works as hard as he can to be apart of the best match of the night and tries to ensure that every fan gets more than their moneys worth, regardless of his position of the card or role on the show.
From this moment on, his contributions to WZCW outside the ring make him more valuable to the company than his actions inside of it. He is athletically gifted, but has a proven record of falling short of the finish at every big occasion that is gifted to him. He has the support of the world, but cant win when it counts. He is his own worst enemy inside the ring, pandering to the crowd rather than targeting the win.
He is a sports entertainer.
