The Legacy Part I

ROMAN DILLINGER: The Legacy Part I

OFF CAMERA - Scene One
Location: The HFF Gym - Hollywood, Califronia
Flashback

The sun was shining, not a cloud in sight. I had gathered my things together, slowly removing the tape from my wrists. Looking up from the ground I saw a shadow and slowly there after felt a hand on my shoulder. “

You did awesome today, I expect big things from you bro.” My older brother Alex stood there with a smile on his face. He had big expectations for me and I only had hoped that I could deliver. The pressure was immense but the excitement and things to look forward to were what motivated me. I wanted to be the best naturally since it ran in the Dillinger blood. For some reason I just couldn’t wrap my head around the reasoning for Alex being so nice to me. We had just met not that long ago, while being blood brothers we’ve never been close. Maybe he’s just been on this whole growing up kick and this could just be his way of filling that older brother role. Whatever it was I appreciated it. No one could deny his in ring abilities.

“Thanks man, I think a few more months and I’ll get the hang of this stuff.” Sure I sounded confident that’s just what we do. Did I have my own personal reserves and doubts? Sure I did, no question about it.

“So Rome, I’ve got some big plans and I hope you’re excited about them. IWF wants me to go out and do my retirement speech walking away from active competition. Sure it was my choice with my injuries but they informed me that they have a surprise for me…” he trailed off at the end as I stared off into space. I had heard him but lately I had been getting easily distracted. I wasn’t sure why. Just my mind was elsewhere.

“Are you listening to a word I’m saying bro? This is kind of a big deal…” rubbing my eyes with my hands I looked back towards my older brother as I could see a scowl creeping upon his face. “Of course, you were talking about IWF and some surprise, some shit like that.” Shrugging my shoulders I chucked the ball of athletic tape across the room into the trash like my man Kobe Bryant. “KOBE!” Shouting out I chuckled unlacing my boots as Alex shook his head.

“Well I think they’re going to ask me to run the place…” whoa wait a minute what could this mean for my career? My brother the owner of IWF…now that would be some crazy shit right there though. I mean sure he’d make me work for everything I got cause he’s an asshole like that but man the doors opened up that much more. “I know that Corey Casey has been fuckin up and the board has been on his ass for some time now. We had a talk about it over a bottle of Kraken. Dude was plastered. I’ll miss Corey Casey but I wouldn’t hesitate to jump at this opportunity. I’ve always wanted to stay within the business…” There he went again ranting on and on, he tended to do that all the time. I started to do a circular motion with my index finger indicating to him to hurry it up that he was rambling once again. He rolled his eyes and then he quickly cracked his hand back and chopped me hard as fuck across the chest. Clutching my chest it stung like hell. He chuckled before giving me a hard pat on the back as he headed out of the locker room. “See you in the car, hurry up.”

Throwing the rest of my stuff in my duffle bag I slid on a pair of Nike slides and headed out. My brother was playing some heavy ass angry music loud as fuck in his car. Sure he could pick anything else, my brother has a wide taste…but naturally he does it to irritate me since I hate it. Throwing my bag in the backseat I hopped in the front. “Where we headed to now?” I asked him. “Oh you thought training was over? Shits just getting started open the glove box and look inside the envelope…” his vagueness peaked my interest so I popped open the glove box and opened the envelope.

“You serious?” As I pulled out the plane ticket inside I could read that the destination was to Japan. I had no idea what to make of this. Why did he want me to go to Japan? He continued to race down the freeway changing lanes on the fly.
“I want you to go to Japan to train more. You’ve got a good base but I know some guys down there that you should train with. They’ll open your eyes to whole different way and mindset towards wrestling. I did this later in my career and it catapulted me into superstardom. If you can hone your craft early you’ll be unstoppable kid. Trust me.” Sure I trusted him, I just wish he would’ve talked to me about this first. I mean this was insane.

“I don’t even have any of my luggage, what am I supposed to do? Like we can plan it out and I’m down to go but this is just ridiculous.” Honestly I just couldn’t do this spur of the moment bullshit. All he did was look over at me taking his eyes off the road momentarily proceeding to crack a smile at me. “I’ve already got all your shit packed up and ready to go in the trunk. Trust me this was more planned than you even know.” Turning his attention back to the road I didn’t really have much to say about it. I mean why would I even deny a free trip to Japan to take in the sights and train. This is nothing but win, win for me. “I trust you, sounds good…”

We drove off towards LAX and suddenly the nerves started to kick in. I mean man I had barely just got into wrestling and used to the way things worked. Here I was on my way to Japan, a place I didn’t know anyone…a place that was full of people of a different culture…fuck man I felt my stomach beginning to turn as I put my hand on my brother’s arm. “Pull over…” he changed lanes and headed to the side of the freeway. Ripping the door open I vomited immediately.

“Jesus bro, you good?” Alex began to question me as I continued to dry heave. Nothing else came out it was mainly reactionary. All of this stuff going through my head I guess it just put me in a tailspin. Gathering myself Alex handed my some napkins from the glove box. Wiping my mouth off I took in a few deep breaths so that I could regain a grasp on everything. “Nah, I’m good…just fuckin got dizzy for a second that’s all.

Slamming the car door shut I was pretty embarrassed about the whole having to vomit shit. Like for real though, that shit had my older bro grinning all the way to the airport. Sure he’d probably share it on twitter for everyone to hear about or talk about it with the guys in the back when he introduces me. Fuck it…it is what it is. At this point all I needed to focus on was arriving in Japan and figuring out what I’m going to be doing there.


OFF CAMERA - Scene Two
Location: Tokyo Japan
Flashback

As my plane touched down it was a long flight I stood up out of my chair and slowly felt the blood circulation return to a normal state. Grabbing my luggage from the overhead everyone began to make his or her way off the plane. All of us walking down the isle one by one just like cattle.

“Thank you for flying Southwest airlines, please enjoy your stay in Tokyo, Japan.” Her voice was soothing; I never understood the whole changing the voice when doing a public announcement. Guess it was a “skill” or something. Walking through customs and down the escalator I could see a small Asian guy that looked like Jet Li holding a sign that read “Dillinger” on it.

“You must be my ride, I’m Rome.” Extending my hand to him he shook it and bowed his head slightly before taking my bags. “Nice to meet you, Roman-san please follow this way.” Walking and more walking, you’d think after a long plane ride I would be stoked to walk…nope I was feeling extra lazy from the plane ride.

Stopping at the town car he loaded up the trunk and I climbed in the backseat. I still really had no idea where we were going or what I was supposed to once I got here. My brother said he’d call me when the driver met up with me but he must’ve been busy.

“So where are we headed to?” I decided to ask the driver, he seemed like he spoke some English at least. “We are headed to hotel. Just for you, we have suite reserved.” Ok that made sense, wined and dined in Japan. Of course my brother would shell out the big bucks for me. “Alright sounds good friend, wake me when we get there.” I hadn’t gotten much sleep on the plane, something about falling asleep on a plane always weirded me out so I never could do it. Shutting my eyes I pulled my beanie down over them and knocked out.

“We are here now Roman-san.” When I awoke I looked around and saw nothing but what looked like a rural are of Japan. This looked like something straight out of a Samurai movie. Stepping out of the car I slowly looked around taking in the beautiful scenery and large architectural genius that was rural Japan. “Where are we?” Still glancing around I asked the driver as he removed my bags from the trunk. “We’re here at your training.” I started to speak about it but decided against even trying to pry more information from him.

Walking closely behind him we walked into a large building and there was nothing but pure silence, you could hear a pin drop. A few people looked to be meditating. I wasn’t sure what to think honestly. The driver asked me to wait one moment so I stood by the doorway as he went off to get someone that was walking around the room. Both of them made their way towards me so I acted casual.

“You are Roman Dillinger?” Nodding my head agreeing with this older Asian man in some sort of robe or something like that. He placed a hand on my shoulder and we walked outside.

“Your brother Alex trained with me years ago. I owe him a few favors and therefore I have agreed to train you as well. Frist thing you need to know is that this training will break your spirit, it will force you to edge. Are you willing to give everything you have within yourself?”

He looked at me dead in the eyes, this guy wasn’t joking around. Taking a gulp I could tell the severity of his question. “Yes, I’m willing.” Cracking a bit of a smile the man calmed me down a bit and put me at ease. “Well then let me show you to your room…”


ON CAMERA – Scene Three
Location: Denver, Colorado
Present Day

“You know some might look at me and they might say hey that’s Alex Dillinger’s younger brother. That kid is going to get handed the keys to the city. But make no mistakes my brother is making me earn my way to the top again. There are no shortcuts in life. Hell I spent months in Japan honing my craft, walking the path that he did but as a God damn rookie. My brother has been preparing me for greatness. He has been watching me grow and the legacy I carry with me in my name is one that I will not take for granted. I know what I have to do to go out there and prove that I belong. I know what I need to do to show the world that Roman Dillinger has arrived. I need to go out and seize the opportunity to win the Path to Valhalla match. I had to earn my spot in the match; everyone else just got an automatic entrance. So before people start running be down about being the bosses little brother, take a look at what I was doing in IWF Development. “