TAKE IT HOME (For an old wrestling buddy who passed away)
I get cramps now and again in these little muscles that I never knew existed, be that as it may, the collar and elbow tie up didn’t cause any pain...luckily. Pulling the Kid in for a headlock, I take the opportunity to get some air in my system because I’m about to take off. He shoots me into the ropes and I hit him with a shoulder tackle, he goes down. I bang the ropes on my right and take a short hop over him as he hits the mat belly first at my feet. I do it again a second time and he does the same thing, on the third try he leap frogs over as I come off the ropes and on the way back he gives me a giant hip toss.
I got air and my wheels are alright so far, my thighs aren’t burning yet, but when I hit that canvass flat on my back it takes everything right out of me and all my nerves are on high alert. The Kid gives me no time to think, he sits me up and cinches a sleeper hold. He’s real snug on that rest hold, just the way I like it. Well, the way I used to like it, right now I keep waiting to catch some air but it’s not coming back the way it used to. That’s what a rest hold is usually for so that you can get your wits about you before you move through the next few combinations, but not me. I’m starting to get dizzy and it’s already been five minutes, however, the Kid grabs me by the bottom of my chin and the back of my head and puts me in a standing headlock. Instinctively, I grab him around his waist and give him a hip toss suplex. It’s a text book move and he lands on the back of his traps, no harm was done there. It used to be one of my signature set up moves with a bow and arrow follow up but now it takes me a few seconds to get up and move to my left, the thing is that I have to actually be able to get up first. The Kid beats me to it and does a kip up and casually walks over and stomps the shit out of me, then he gets me in the standing toe foot hold. He’s got this hold on tight too and he’s really torking my neck back, “C’mon! This is what you wanted! You told me not to take it easy! Let’s go!’
He lets me go and gets me up and shoots me into the turnbuckle, he’s right behind me and as soon as my back hits the pads, he is already air born and connects with a searing drop kick right to my face. I crumble to the canvas and he stands me up against the turn buckle and lets loose with three open hand chops to my chest. I've taken chops like that from the best in the business but right now it feels like my skin just got peeled right off my chest and up to my shoulders. I turn the kid around and I give it right back, three over hand chops to his chest Japanese strong style. I move him to the middle of the rope and shoot him to the other side, on his way back I put him down with three Aikido style clothes lines. I pick him up and whip him into the rope again but this time he reverses it and brings me crashing face first into the mat with a leg scissors take down. Before I know it, the Kid puts on the standing toe foothold again. He’s got his hands locked around my mouth and I grab his thumb and twist it in an awkward direction, he screams and let’s go. I give him the standing spinning wheel kick that used to hit the mark like a fly on shit, usually right on the forehead. It’s been twelve years and I can’t even get the height like before so when I jump, I end up catching him in the collar bone. He smirks and comes after me but out of sheer instinct I blast a shin kick into the side of his knee and he wobbles for a second and I hit him again. This time he goes down on both knees and I give him a shin kick square in the back and another one I blast into his face but he covers up and manages to catch my kick and tucks my shin into his under arm. The next thing I know, he’s got me by both feet and I can see that he’s going for a Boston crab, I immediately twist my body and tuck myself between his feet and let my legs propel him forward. While the Kid is still flat and prone on his tummy I wrap his arms up in a full nelson and flip myself forward in a bridge. It's my old finishing move called, 'The Burning Arch.' I pull his arms toward me until he verbally submits and gives up. I relax the hold and crumble to the mat and try to catch my breath. He rolls over next to me and says, “You still got it, old man, you still got.”
But I can’t reply because I can’t catch my breath, there’s a terrible pain in my chest and my left arm is numb. I’m having a massive heart attack, I’m dying and the kid is panicking and he’s frantically telling me that he’s going to apply CPR. I grab him by his arm and I tell him, “Don’t worry kid, this is the way I wanted to go out, that’s how we give back to the business right? I'm ready to take it home.”
“Just stay still!” The kid shouts but I have to drive the point home otherwise he’ll never get it.
“Kid, it’s okay. I’m ready to go, they’re gonna cue my music soon. It’s okay.”
….……..
At fifty-five years old John Davis Richard instinctively knew that he had a kind of heart disease that was way past any kind of help. He figured that since he couldn’t stop the inevitable that he’d go out his way, and so he got a hold of one of the local wrestling promoters and offered to pay the owner some money for one last work out. His glory days in the ring were long gone but he just wanted one last go with the top face of the promotion. That happened to be Kid Synergy, he asked that no quarter be given and that they go full tilt, the Kid obliged and gave John Richard everything he had, as did John to the kid. Is there a ghost story to this? Yeah, of course, if you’re able to get into one of the house shows early, you’ll see John’s apparition sitting up top in one of those mini-bleachers with a smirk on his face. It’s not really a smirk, John was such a successful heel that an errant fan slashed him across his cheek with a switch blade while he was making his way to the ring one night. It’s a classic story because John was able to grab the knife and break it in two, afterward he beat his attacker so badly that it took every security guard in the house and a few fans to pull him off. Within the last few years, toward the end of his life, anyone who remembered him would see John sitting in the bleachers as he silently took in the matches, and that’s where his ghost is until this day.
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