The Fighter

[Off Camera]
[My Bed To Lie In]
[Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena]
[9:25 PM on July 15th, 2016]

I didn’t expect the night to end up like this… With me waking up on the concrete floor of my guest locker room in HKW. I weakly manage to get on my hands and knees and I stare down at the concrete floor, not really knowing what in the fuck is going on. My head is pounding to the point to where it’s hard for me to process what in the hell just happened. Think, Gavin, think! Why are you facedown in your locker room with your world spinning? After a few minutes pass, the spinning starts to subside a little and I make my way up onto the bench in the locker room and I sit down on it. Letting out a long sigh, I run my hands over my face and though my hair as it comes back to me.

I just got done fighting one of my best friends, Jackson Magnum, in one of the toughest matches of my life. All I can remember was the end of the match now… The rest of it… It’s all just a blur. Jax, he had me on the ropes and could have finished me off but he went for the big move. Mags leaped off a ladder and tried to hit a five-star frog splash but I managed to get out of the way at the last second and he hit the mat hard. I checked on him to see if he was okay, he flipped me off in an act of defiance so I used the last bit of strength I had to hit The Crowning on him before pinning him for the win and then walking helping him and myself backstage.

Then I guess I… Passed out? Yeah, I won the match but at what cost? Whatever the case may be, I don’t have time to just sit around and reflect on what just happened or to rest, I need to get to Atlanta to meet Ash at the airport because we have a tag team match in NGW. Standing up from the bench, I stumble forward a bit before finally gaining my bearings. I gently kneel down to grab my gym bag when my phone rings and it’s Ash. I quickly answer and try to act normal.

Gavin Grimes: “Hey Ash what’s up?... Yeah, I’ll be there in a few hours, I just had to rest a bit in the locker room because I took a beating… What? No, I’m fine and good to go for tomorrow, I promise… Yeah, see you at the airport and I love you too.”

Hanging up the phone, I look down at the concrete floor and shake my head. I told her I’m fine and I’ll be good for tomorrow but the thing is… I don’t know if I believe that at all. I’m not fine but I refuse to let her wrestle on her own because the stupid schedule of matches I’ve made for myself. I made this bed…. And I’m going to lie in it.

[A Breaking Champion]
[Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA]
[7:00 PM on July 16th, 2016]

Something’s not right and I can’t shake this feeling, this pain and worst of all, this nervousness. Tonight, Ash and I fight Aurora Knight and Damon Graves, two people who have been on a roll and they’re looking to take mine and Ashleigh’s place but Ash won’t have any of it… I just hope I don’t fuck this up for her. My knees are weak and my head's still spinning from my match yesterday against Jax and Ash has no idea. If I told her, she wouldn’t let me out there in the match with her and I can’t… I fucking can’t let her go at it on her own, I refuse that. Letting out a sigh, I run my hands through my hair and look down at the ground in mine and Ash’s locker room. I don’t even hear the door opening and closing as Ash enters the room.

Ashleigh Grimes: “Our match is up next! You ready?”

I immediately perk up, trying to act as if I’m not completely out of it from yesterday’s match but I think she knows and isn’t saying anything.

Gavin Grimes: ‘I’ve never been more ready in my life. Can’t wait to team with you out there and show the world who the real Power Couple is.”

She nods but she's watching my every move. She's not convinced.  She can sense that something's off.

Ashleigh Grimes: “Good. I have to admit, I saw the footage from your match with Jax and... well, it seemed like a lot to come back from in less than twenty-four hours.”

Nope, I'm not going to say shit. Whether she wants me out there or not, I'm fighting.

Gavin Grimes: "Babe, you've got to trust me, I'm fine. I took a few bumps and bruises but it's nothing I can't handle. Besides, I've got you to carry me tonight anyway, right?"

A sly grin runs across my face from the last thing I said, knowing that it's basically music to her ears and will hopefully make her drop it.

It works, she snorts and shakes her head as that trademark cocky grin takes hold.

Ashleigh Grimes: “I was going to carry you anyways, bumps and bruises or not. At least this way you're on board.”

Gavin Grimes:"Let's go kick some ass then, yeah? I'll follow your lead!"

I give her a wink as a feeling of relief comes over me. Crisis averted.. For now at least. I just hope I survive this match.

Ashleigh Grimes: Just try and keep up. You know that when it comes to tag partners I have a history of dropping dead weight.

Gavin Grimes: "The only dead weight out there we'll be Aurora and Damon. So let's get out there and kill them."

I have to use all the power I have to walk straight and to give off the appearance that I'm fine as I walk out of the locker room with Ash. It's the moment of truth... Match time.

… 30 minutes later …

We won... I looked like shit the entire match but Ashleigh, she shined like a star and we pulled off the win. As Ash and I walk to our locker room, I can feel her eyes watching my every step and move, waiting for me to falter in some way but I hold strong. Well, I did until I walked into our locker room and my body finally gave out as I fell to my hands and knees.

Gavin Grimes: "FUCK!"

She races over and I can feel her hand on my back. I hear the concern in her voice. She's scared.  It's my fault.  What am I doing?

Ashleigh Grimes: “Gavin? GAVIN?! Talk to me.  What's going on?! I'm calling for a medic.”

Her hand leaves my back as she turns to find help.

Gavin Grimes: "Ash! Wait! Please, no medics! I'm fine, I swear, I'm fucking fine!"

I pull myself up off the ground but it's only for a second before my butt lands on the steel chair that had been a few feet from me. I look down at the ground and start to mumble to myself.

Gavin Grimes:"You're a fucking idiot, Grimes... An idiot."

I've never felt more human in my fucking life then at this moment. I thought I could take on the world but I can't.

I can feel her eyes again.  Judging me... hating me even. She knows I'm overdoing it. It's been an issue in our relationship from the beginning.

Ashleigh Grimes: “Right. No medics. They probably can't diagnose stupid without the proper equipment anyways.”

Yep, she's pissed. She folds her arms and stares daggers at me.

I roll my eyes and throw my hands up in defeat. I can't win with her, never can and never will.

Gavin Grimes: "What do you want me to say? That you're right? That I'm over-doing it and you've been warning me about this day since we've been a couple? Well guess what, Ash? YOU WERE RIGHT! But hey, at least you'll have me all softened up like you were joking about by the time our match rolls around in September. You should be happy."

September isn't even what I'm worried about right now.... It's July 24th that's on my mind because I have to fight Blyss... And I have to be be ready for probably the fight of my life. I have to!.

Ash simply scoffs at my answer. Here it comes, more venom.

Ashleigh Grimes: “Is that what you think? That I care about our match? That I give a shit about who wins the Unified Title?  Fuck the title, Gavin.  And fuck you for insinuating that ANY of my anger right now has to do with us facing each other. You keep this up and there isn't going to be a match come September, in fact you may not even be wrestling any more.  You'll be just another memory.  A star who burned too bright for too long and extinguished far too soon.  But you know what? I'm tired of telling you what should be obvious. You want to shorten your career and possibly your life?  Don't expect me to sit around watch. Oh and P.S... you sucked tonight.”

She storms out the door without another word.

I sigh as I try to get up and chase after her but I drop back down onto the chair.. I don’t have enough strength to follow her. Shaking my head, I realize that she’s right… If I’m not careful, I could end up being that star who burned to bright and then died out way too soon. I need to change, I need to slow down… But I don’t know if I can or if it’s in my identity to slow down. I never give up and I never back down. I fight and that’s what Blyss is going to learn at Resurgence.

[On Camera]
[The Fighter]
[Sacramento, California]
[6:00 AM on July 23rd, 2016]

The scene opens up with the camera at the back of Gavin Grimes, who is wearing a white shirt and black basketball shorts. He’s standing on a sidewalk and it’s apparent that his gaze is fixated on the two-story house with a white picket fence that’s across the street. The camera eventually moves to the left side of Gavin and is now only a few feet away from him. He keeps his eyes on the house for another thirty seconds before turning towards the camera and he has a serious look on his face.

Gavin Grimes: “A question that is asked from time to time is, ‘what makes you, you?’ There can be several answers to that question, really and some of us will answer the question when asked, others of us are too damaged to say. Despite everything I’ve been through, despite all of the physical and mental damage that I’ve accrued in my short twenty-two years of life, I’m not afraid to answer that question. That’s what made me who I am.”

Gavin points a finger at the house in front of him but he keeps his steady gaze on the camera.

Gavin Grimes: “That’s where I grew up. The place I was chewed up and spit out over and over again by the people who were suppose to show me love and affection. I was told by those people that I would never amount to anything and that I was lazy. The words no, you can’t became the most common phrase that I heard but I kept pushing through anyway, holding onto the tiny shred of hope that I had…. The hope to escape. It was two months before my eighteenth birthday that the fighter, Gavin Grimes, was born. They hurt my sister Sophie and for the first time in my life, my fists took flight. For the first time in my life, I felt freedom, euphoria, ecstasy, adrenaline… Bliss.”

A sly grin runs over his face as he hand that had been pointing at the house while he was talking finally drops back down to his side.

Gavin Grimes: “They were shocked and appalled at my actions, so they ostracized me and warned me to never come back. The thing is, they gave me what I had been seeking my entire life… Freedom and the fight to live my life to the fullest. I moved to Vegas, lived off a shitty jobs for a year before Chris Night reluctantly took me in and him and Xavier Young trained me for almost three years until I was signed to Portland Pro Wrestling in October of 2015. Despite the doubts of those DNA donors that were supposed to be my parents, the doubts of fellow trainees like Julian Savell and even the doubts of Chris Night clouding my brain, I kept on fighting. Portland Pro Wrestling… It’s where this match between Blyss Lockhart and I started.”

“I was a rookie when I showed up to PPW, never having fought a professional fight in my life and nobody took me seriously. I reeled off three victories in a row and they were called flukes. But then it kept happening and Blyss, well, she believed in me. She saw something in me that nobody else did. I’m also not afraid to admit that I told her that I looked up to her and that I was a huge fan of hers when I was still in training. Back then, when I was a green fighter, I had only hoped that I could one day be as good as Blyss Lockhart. Back then, she was on top of the world as the Portland Openweight Champion. She was a fighting champion and for a rookie like myself, it was something to look up to. But the keyword for everything that I’m talking about right now is was, which is a huge difference from is.”

A grin runs over his face as his demeanor becomes quite confident now.

Gavin Grimes: “That’s the difference between Blyss and I right now, she is a was and I’m an is. She is the past and irrelevant while I’ve been making a mark on this industry as one of the most respected top champions in wrestling. Did I leave Portland Pro because I didn’t have enough time while being in NGW? Fuck no. I left because I saw a sinking ship and I had greener pastures in front of me in a much larger company like NGW. I went off and did my own thing in NGW and what happened? It’s become one of the most well known companies under MY leadership. What happened to Portland Pro Wrestling? It shut it’s doors and closed. The place that Blyss had finally won the big belt after all of these years of trying, the place ended up losing. I know she wasn’t the champion when Portland closed but don’t tell her that.”

“Blyss was running around, asking everyone what happened to her ‘Eternal’ Championship, as if she had never lost the Openweight Championship to Jackie Fowler. It was around this time that I started to lose my respect for Blyss. I mean, I still believe she’s one of the best to do it inside of the ring, but her delusional antics were just too much for me. You can’t take someone like her seriously when she acts like this. Her delusions are what is going to get her into trouble against me in that ring. You see, all that Blyss had to say about me was my personal life, which were some things that I did share with her several months ago. But does that crap really matter? Yeah, Ash and I fight, everyone knows that and we’ve done it in front of people to see. It happens, we’re a couple. So the real question at hand is, will my fighting with Ashleigh affect what I do in the ring?”

His brow furrows as he tilts his head at the camera with a questioning look now on his face.

Gavin Grimes: “Are you serious right now? Seems like you are though, so let’s play a game… I’ll list out the people I’ve beaten over the last seven months and you can tell me if my relationship with Ash and personal life in general has affected the outcome of the match. Dirk Bentley, Tyson Gregory, Jacob Daniels, Kiana Pearson, Blair Kivisto, Xavier Laroux, Damon Graves, Aurora Knight, Corey Bull, Christian Michaels, Eric Steel, Jackson Magnum, Tee Voland, Mark Storm, Bronx Valescence, Kenzie Rydell, Shelley Silver… And the list goes on and on and on. They all have the same thing in common, they’ve lost to ME in the ring.”

“It doesn’t matter where I’ve fought them either; NGW, IPW, HKW… The results are the same and I come out the victor. But Blyss, you want to make things personal? How about when your were following around Jason Halich like some crazed stalker and what kind of trouble did that get you into here in IWF? Oh, that’s right, Jason cost you a shot at the IWF Heavyweight Championship, the one belt that you wanted your entire career. You call yourself the greatest IWF wrestler to never win the championship but the reason you never won it was because you got into your own way with your own personal life mistakes.”

Gavin pauses as his eyes give off the vibe that he’s cornered Blyss into a corner like a wild animal.

Gavin Grimes: “I’m not perfect and I never claimed to be. My personal life blows up like fireworks on the Fourth of July for a crowd to see quite often but I still manage to keep it all together. My ego also knows no bounds, which is why I accept every challenge that’s ever thrown my way. A week ago today, I fought alongside Ash to defeat Aurora Knight and Damon Graves and the night before that, I fought Jackson Magnum in one of the toughest matches of my life. In a few days from now, I fight Blyss in what will assuredly be the TOUGHEST match of my life, physically and mentally. Then four days after that, I fight Heath Sommersby AND Sasha Foote in separate matches on the same night.”

Gavin pauses and looks away from the camera and shakes his head as he thinks about the prospect of his upcoming matches and the daunting task he has of surviving all of three of them.

Gavin Grimes: “I’m tired and beaten and broken. I’ve felt this way for months but I still make my way to the ring with no excuses and I BEAT everything that stands in my way. Two months from now, that person standing in my way is going to be Ashleigh, my wife, and just like I do with everyone else, I’m going to beat her and prove that I’m the best in the world because I am a FIGHTER. But you? You’re not a fighter. Blyss, you don’t even know how to fight off your own demons that haunt you in your head. It’s why you’ve taken several hiatuses over the past two years because you slowly and methodically break down everywhere you go. You want to know why you chose to fight me over anyone else, Blyss?”

“Because YOU need ME to stay relevant. Do you think that this match is so hyped up because I’m fighting you? No, it’s because you’re fighting ME! I’m the NGW Unified Heavyweight Champion and you? You’re just the past and even you know it, you basically admitted it. You’re stuck at Flex Johnson’s wrestling school, teaching young kids how to be great. As noble as that sounds, you want to know what I’ve been doing this entire time? SHOWING this generation how to be great. I’ve showed that no matter how many people doubt you, no matter how many people want to bring you down, that you can get through all of the adversity in the world and be great, that you just need to believe in yourself and you can do whatever you dream of doing.”

“At Resurgence, Blyss has everything to gain and nothing to lose. She needs to prove that she’s not the past, that she’s not washed up. Blyss needs to prove that she doesn’t have a bum ankle anymore as well. But you know what I’ve got to say about that? It’s bullshit. Blyss can takes as many mental and physically breaks as she sees fit while I compete non-stop. I fight my fucking heart out when I come out to the ring. I break and I bleed in that ring every time I go out there. I’ve suffered concussions, sprains and so much more but the one thing that I’ve never done is complain about it or ask for this sport to let up on me.”

“I might come verbally spar with people like a raging bull but the only angry person in this match is Blyss. She wanted this, she ASKED for it. Why? Because like she said, I’m in her ‘spot’. Jealousy and rage fill her heart, which is a narrative of Blyss that has been on repeat for the world to see over and over again. Blyss wants to beat me and prove that she’s still on a top championship level but just because she wants it, doesn’t mean that she’s going to get it.”

Gavin nods confidently as he lets his last line sink it. He then runs his hands through his hair and takes a deep breath as he keeps his focused eyes lasered in on the camera.

Gavin Grimes: “What Blyss has failed to realize is that our trajectories are going in an opposite direction. While her’s is going down, mine is still moving up. While she’s been pinned in the last four months even though she’s been out of action for the majority of it, I haven’t been pinned or submitted since January 24th of this year. That’s half a fucking year, Blyss and the last time I lost thanks to Kenzie Rydell being my tag partner, was February 27th. I’ve been that unbeatable, that unstoppable because of my work ethic. It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting, I take them as serious as a hard attack.”

“You want to call me your biggest fan? You know what that means? It means I’ve watched everything there is to watch on you. I know the mind games you play and I know how you work the ring. You’re relentless and you charge in blindly like a bull and that is why you’re going to falter against me. I’m calculated in the ring and I’ll catch you with The Crowning when you least suspect it. You know, I find it funny that you used to chase the championship that you lost to Jackie, thinking that it was stolen from you. It’s like how you think I stole your place in the wrestling industry and now you are chasing after me to take it back.”

“You chose me over everyone else, Blyss, because you know there’s nobody better than me right now. The thing is, I never stole your spot, I simply surpassed you and our roles are now reversed. I used to look up to you but now? Now I’m looking down at you and you? You’re looking up at me and because I fight for everything that I’ve earned, I plan on making sure that you’ll continue to look up from the bottom. See you soon, number one fan!”

Gavin winks at the camera before putting his hands in his pockets and walking away as the scene fades to black.

[END]