"Gateway" JC Mason vs Heatwave

[Ryan Cooke]

Good luck to both!

[Heatwave]

[March 20, 2009]
[Continental Airlines flight 513]
[Non-stop flight service to Miami, Florida.]

He found himself once again placed in first class of the Boeing 747 aircraft over thirteen hundred feet over the East Coast. His iPod simply playing the smooth rhythm and blues sounds of Carl Thomas, Anthony Hamilton, and the lot. It was safe to say there was a lot on the big man's mind.

Unless you've been under a rock in the past few days, he was going to be a father.

Yeah, that's right.

God found it okay for this man to reproduce.

I guess the Lord does act in mysterious ways.

You know perception is a total crock of shit, if you ask me. Perception is nothing but another word for first impressions. And the thing about first impressions is you only get to make on of them. But yet in my case, I couldn't give a flying fuck about what people think about me when they first meet me. Just like I don't give a damn about what Mason thinks about me or what everyone else thinks. I wasn't born to make friends; I wasn't born to simply make everyone happy. I was born to be me and what you see is what you get, if you don't like it...

...tough.

It's funny; I can -still- remember a time where black folks couldn't walk around in nice clothes without them thinking they pushed drow or if they rapped for a living. Well, while he can remember, I know it for a fact. And it's not narrow minded thinking; it's the way of the world. And it only gets people in trouble when they decide to open their mouth and prove what a narrow mind they have. Everybody thinks it; just not everyone has the gall to say it. Hell, I know a few people on this airplane who have a perception about me.

He glances about the first class section of the cab and smiles softly at the woman next him across the aisle.

"How are ya' doing?" he says softly to her.

She looks around as if she didn't know he was talking to her and after a nervous smile and nervous giggle. She nods her head and replies. "I'm doing well, thank you, how about you?"

He nodded his head slowly. "I'm doing real well, I'm not trying to sound to forward, but I need to ask you a question, something that is bothering me."

She looks around and arches a brow in curiosity. "Um, I guess so, what is it?"

He straightens himself out for a moment before continuing on. "Let me ask you, upon your first glance upon me, what did you think about me? I mean, this isn't some cheesy pick-up line, I'm just doing a bit of research and I liked to know your first impression, your perception of me, if you will."

She giggled softly and looked around. "Are you serious?"

He simply nodded his head.

"Well, when I first say you, I thought you were some kind of rapper or something. OR maybe an athlete or something like that. I wasn't sure but I really wasn't going to ask, I didn't want to offend you or think I was patronizing you or something like that."

He held up a hand and smiled. "No, I don't get offended very easily. But thanks anyway, you helped me out quite a bit."

She smiled, seeming a bit more comfortable now. "Hey, anytime."

He sat back in his seat and looked out of the window to his right. It was still a clear day outside, at least over the clouds it was.

Perceptions, huh? They are only as good as the people who have them. So it leaves me to think who am I? Well, that's easy enough. I'm Nicholas Charles Burbank, better known as Heatwave, a former WMW Champion. And despite the bullshit that J.C. Mason wants to sling around, everything about me is natural. J.C. doesn't know who I am from Adam and I don't know who he is from Eve. So hey, at least we got that going for the both of us, but I have a feeling we are going to get to know each other -really- well. I mean I'm sure that he doesn't understand me and I quite sure that he doesn't know me from outside of what he might read on that stat sheet or that roster page. And don't forget:

Ninety to Ninety-Five percent of time, lacking to understand or the lack of knowledge will get you killed.

So if that's the case, we are going to be some dead motherfuckers pretty soon. Because I have yet to find a reason why I should care about him, yet to find a reason why I should give a damn about J.C. Mason and what he's going to do in the PPW, yet to find a reason why I should be shaking in my boots or kiss his ass because of the shit that he thinks he's gonna do. That doesn't mean a damn thing to me and it never will. He can call it being ignorant or he can call it =my- perception, but whatever you want to label it, it doesn't prove anything in the ring.

If Mason wants respect, then come get it. I don't hand it out like candy on Halloween, you want respect, Go talk to Shawn Hillard, he's chalk full it. He'll give it you like the Waffle House does hash browns. Covered and smothered. If you don't get that reference, its okay it's a southern -thang-.

But when it comes to me, you are going to earn whatever I deem acceptable to give it you. Even it's an ass-whipping or respect, remember that you earned it. Nothing in life is free and in my case I'm dead broke so it's time to go to work. So what else is there to say in this instance, I mean what really is there to be said?

"Hey Nick, I'm back."

He looks up to see Nicole standing in the aisle next to him. He stands as she slips in front of him into her window seat.

"I never knew you got air sick."

Nicole shook her head.

"That's the thing, I'm not it's just the kid isn't too happy about it."

He only chuckled softly and nodded his head.

"For a minute, I thought I was going to have to come back there and come get you."

She shook her head playfully, he brown hair flowing down her shoulder.

"No, I was fine. I just wanted to make sure I didn't blow chunks after I left. Last time I checked you get a lot of cool points for that."

"No, actually they start to deduct them after awhile."

"Jackass."

"Oh I know."

"So Nick, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, I told you I could do this in New York."

"Yeah, I'm well aware that you can do in New York but at the same time, I would feel better if you were in Miami."

"Well, the last time we were in Miami together I ended pregnant."

He smiled big at that remark.

"Yeah, and we can still do it until the third trimester too."

"Oh you are a sick bastard." she playfully punches him in the air as he simply laughs, batting her away gently.

"Oh shut it, you know you like it, besides, my father wasn't there for me so I would like to think that I can still do something good in life instead of cussing and drinking.?

"Well, if I have anything to do with it, you will.", she said as she looked up at him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Granted, he wasn't a model citizen but at the same time the man did have some good in him, even if you needed to dig with a backhoe just to get it.

The thing is, it was there.

Perception, huh?

It was as only good as the people who have them.

[gateway425]

Once in a while a man has to realize that he is going down the wrong path in life. Some of the decisions that we make are not the best ones. JC Mason has being making all of the wrong decisions since he has started wrestling. Before wrestling, he was on steroids but he didnt act the way he does now. Abusing women and being an arrogant asshole is just completely out of character for the young star. When we make mistakes we must fix them, all throughout Gateway's life he has been able to fix things by himself, now is different. Now he needs a little intervention to get his life back on the straight and narrow before he can ascend to the top of the wrestling world.




"Jordan"...

"Jordan"...

"Jordan Christopher"...

Those were familiar words to the brash young man, words that he hadn't heard in such a long time. JC rolled around in the bed for a few seconds trying to collect himself after a long night.

"Jordan, if you don't get your narrow behind down here and take out this trash..."

Jordan finally rises from the bed, he wipes the cold from his eyes and takes a slow deep breath. He throws on a crumpled up wife-beater and begins his new life back at home with mom. It was not going to be a pleasant time back home, especially since momma found out about the steroids her son was abusing.

Jordan grabs the bag of trash and takes it to the curb. You can tell things with JC are different, he doesnt have that same bounce in his step as before.

"Good morning ma. What's for breakfast?"

Of all the negatives that come with living at home the one positive is the home cooking. JC didn't get too much of that being out on the road, wrestling and playing baseball.

"I made your favorite...bacon, scrambled eggs with a lot of cheese, fried toast and a piece of sausage, cuz I know my baby loves him some sausage."

JC grabs himself a plate out of the kitchen cupboard, and piles on the food. Jordan was never shy when it came to eating, he had developed a very healthy appetite at a young age. He was a stick figure of a boy until around age 16 when he first became recruited by a pro baseball scout. Which coincidentally was around the time he started to use steroids.

"You know Jordan, I have missed you a great deal over these past few years. The money you sent home every week was more than appreciated but not needed. Your grandmother and I were more than able to survive without it."

Gateway becomes teary-eyed at the mention of his grandmother. In his eyes she had raised him, but for godsakes don't say that to his mother. She gave birth to him so in her eyes she raised him. He had always been the favorite of his grandmother, not just out of the grandchildren but out of all her family.

"Thank lord your grandmother is not alive to see what you have become. She is probably rolling in her grave at this very minute. Steroids, Jordan? What in the hell possessed you to start taking steroids?"

JC just shrugs at the question.

"And on top of that terrorizing your poor fiance. How dare you even think of striking that poor woman? I thought I had raised you better than that."

Jordan becomes a little uneasy, his mother did raise him better than the way he's been acting.

"Ma, that wasn't me. That was the roids. I love Dolly and there isn't a damn thing that I haven't tried to get her back. Now since my boss said Ive got to take drug tests I'm cleaning myself up."

"I hope and pray that you are getting your act together. You need to make things right with Dolly and try and get her to take you back. That poor girl was so distraught when I spoke with her a few weeks ago."

"Look I've done away with the drugs. I'm not that person anymore. Im trying to make things right. And I'm going to make things right with Dolly. That is my biggest concern right now.I looked to the lord for guidance and he lead me here."

His mother leaves the room for a minute and returns with a bible and places it on the table.

"This was your grandmother's bible. I want you to have it. If your serious about turning your life over to Christ than this will help."

JC takes the bible and holds it near his heart. Its reminiscent of what his grandmother would do when times got hard.

"So now your that your a man of the lord, do you plan on continuing wrestling? You know the lord looks down upon violence."

"Yes I know mother. But I've got a great thing going. I've got a serious shot to be somebody. It's not like the baseball thing, I have already left my mark on the business."

"Oh you think so? All those people are laughing at you. You haven't left a mark, you've left a black eye. You went around all arrogant bragging about steroids. And all those men with actually abilities laughed at you. They don't take you serious, and they never will."

He hangs his head in shame. In his short time in wrestling JC had been unfazed at all the insults hurled his way. But when momma threw them they left an everlasting impression.

"Yeah they might have been laughing, they might never take me seriously, but by the time I close my eyes, and take my final breath I vow that everyone of them will remember me, and it won't be for steroids either. It will be for turning my life around and becoming one of the best wrestlers that has stepped in the ring. I'm no slouch when it comes to wrestling. I've got the natural athletic ability to be good, I just need to impress the powers that be with some high profile wins to get over so to speak. And believe you me, sooner and not later I will be turning heads in PPW for the right reasons. I've got this big match coming up this weekend with this guy Heatwave. Me and him started in PPW together, he picked up a couple of wins on me since that time, but now things are a little different. Before my head was a little clouded from the drug use, but now I can see things alot better. I can go into Redemption and redeem myself. I can make people believe that I am going to do big things. Right now they just think Im a junkie, I vow to change their perception of me."