The Art of Dreaming and...

The slamming of human flesh on hard canvas echoes throughout a much more professional looking gym than the previous time we saw Brett Carson in a gym. He tossing around his manager, mentor and good friend, Bronx Goldie in the ring with a series of spine tingling arm drags and hip tosses. Every time Bronx’s body collides with the mat the black ropes shake violently off the vibration. Carson is quick on his feet and unloads with a stiff kick showing no sign of remorse or hesitation in his series of strikes against a withering, aging old man who hasn’t wrestled competitively in a while. Goldie does his best to take the kicks well but soon is met with a swift knee lift to the chin, rattling his teeth for a moment. With a dazed Goldie, Carson takes the chance to hit his “Athlete’s Foot”, one legged dropkick right onto the jaw of Goldie causing the once legendary competitor to crumble to the mat Brett dives onto his guide and hooks both his legs as he counts loudly

“One...Two…..Th-whooaa!” 

His pinfall count is interrupted by Goldie who reverses the pin into one of his own, and he places both his feet up on the ropes! Now it’s him who counts loudly and quickly…

“Onetwothree…”

He leaps up and off his client before falling into the ropes, battered but victorious as Brett rolls onto his knees, a look of shock on his face as Goldie rolls out of the ring and performs a victory lap around the squared circle. Carson chuckles lightly and shakes his head just as Goldie finishes his victory lap and leans against the ring apron. 

“You’re an old, dirty tactician at heart, BG, you know that? Handful of tights, feet on the ropes and a fast count. Damn cheater.” Carson spits with a sense of humor in his tone as Goldie scoffs. 

“I may be old and dirty but I’m no cheater, I’m smart and devious. Ever heard the saying it ain’t cheating unless you get caught.” Goldie mockingly looks around as if he’s searching for someone, “Seems to me like we have no official in here that saw that so I guess you gots to raise my hand then, son.” Goldie proclaims cockily, not forgetting to put on a shit eating grin on his face before outstretching his arm, ready for his client to raise it towards the crowd of a few heavy gym enthusiasts who are doing bicep curls while watching.on.

Brett shakes his head before unenthusiastically grabbing the wrist of the smaller, older man and raising his arm up before quickly dropping it. BG slaps his sweaty, bare chest, for a man of his age he’s still got quite a physique of his own. The once exciting and out there tattoos he had on his arms and chest are now faded and old, you can barely see what they are. He drops to the canvas and weakly rolls out of the ring as he arrogantly takes a bow. Brett steps through the obviously homemade ropes and picks up a towel and water bottle from under the bottom turnbuckle of one of the corners. He throws the towel around his neck and starts sipping water from the water bottle as Goldie cuts short his celebration and slaps his client and apprentice on his shoulder. 

“Tough break, kiddo but you know what? That’s a great lesson for someone like you...make the absolute best of everything you do.” Goldie chuckles again slightly, “Patrick is similar to me in age and experience, I’m a little older and been doing this for a little longer but he’s got experience no doubt. Experience that, with all due respect, you don’t have yet. We got to ruffle up your ring smarts up…The only thing he’s got on you is experience but in times like this it’s those little things that could send you over.” Goldie switches tone to one of serious nature as the pair begin to make their way to the shower section of the gym. 

Brett shakes his head and sighs heavily, “You quite clearly don’t understand...I’ve beaten him before on more than one occasion and nothing changes, I beat him again, just like I beat Mr. E and Reya Serra previously. The only people I’m focused on are Scott Knight, Casanova English, Seth Iser….and that rat, Vanessa. The people I’ve yet to beat, everyone else is in the past…” Brett sneers as they enter the changing room section.

They both enter side by side changing cubicles so that they can continue their conversation still.

“Oh boy...Listen, Brett...Those two matches where you pinned him? They don’t matter anymore. What did they do for your career? Tell me…” Goldie shouts from his cubicle as from under the door you can see gym shorts dropping and sitting at the bottom of his hairy legs. 

Brett remains silent as he spends a second or two thinking, while both men change into an unknown attire. Goldie coughs and grunts, obviously not happy with the attitude his client is showing. 

“I’ll answer it for you, jack fucking shit is what it did. The first match where you dropped him on his head and pinned him, led for you to have some lower card match against an insane, jacked up lunatic who they pulled straight out of the asylum…and then your second match...well, that itself was a damn opening contest but that led to some petty four way.” Goldie reminds his client of the two other times he faced PKA in VOW. 

Brett finally speaks up, “And your point? This Tuesday won’t be any different than those two other times, BG…” 

Goldie doesn’t spend a second to think about his reply, immediately shooting back a point at the lesser experienced and knowledged Brett, “Oh but it is...You have something at stake now. This match means more than any other match you’ve had. You may have won those two other matches but if you lose to PKA now, then that really leaves a blemish in your record. No matter how many times you’ve beaten him...now is when it counts the most. Remember what’s at stake here, kid.” Goldie advises his client as almost at the same time both men exit their changing cubicles with fresh white towels wrapped around their waists with their sweat gym clothes in hand. 

Brett nods before a coy smile reappears on his face, “Frei made quite the mistake putting a guy like PKA in this tournament nonetheless against a top wrestling talent such as myself. I’ll be focused and ready for him this Tuesday...Patrick is nothing more than a dreamer with a wide imagination.” 

They dump their clothing on a counter in the changing room which has one of the gym’s employers standing behind it to manage the clothes (most likely placing them in some sort of locker for safe keeping)

It’s clear now that they’re heading towards the sauna section of the gym where they cross by a gentlemen in a dark blue polo shirt which has the words “SECURITY” written boldly on the front in white and covering his legs is a neatly pressed out pair of black trousers. He stands right next to a door with a number pad and card slot on it, to which Goldie pulls out a shiny slick card and swipes it through the slot swiftly as the door rolls open, momentarily allowing heat and steam to escape from the room  and douse all over Brett and Bronx. They enter into the sauna as the door glides closed behind. 

The steam floats through the air as a few hairy, fat and sweat common men sit peacefully in the calming room. 

“Speaking of wide imagination…” Goldie breaks the short moment of silence as they both take a seat on one of the wooden benches in the sauna, “...Vanessa was only a bump in the road, she hasn’t been good for years so you really shouldn’t be worried about a small loss to her. She got lucky, kid...Soon she’ll join her buddy, Omega and...Owen on the retirement list. Let her enjoy her last shine in the spotlight.” Goldie spits, throwing all his advice practically out the window with his bitter comments towards The Queen. 

Brett simply nods, soaking in the atmosphere (literally!) and enjoying  the soothing steam.

“Nice, ain’t it?” Goldie grins  before leaning against the wall and relaxing himself, “This is exactly what was needed after the rough week we’ve had. A nice relaxing sauna session...then we head to St. Cloud where we most likely will advance into the semi-finals.” Goldie confidently proclaims as he shuts both his eyes.

Brett grunts slightly, “Quite ironic...PKA has had his heads in the clouds for a while and in the city of St. Cloud that scarred and cut up head of his finally crashes back down to Earth and into the ground where soon after...his career will end up too.” He finishes his comment with an almost sinister, villain like chuckle.

Will Brett go 3-0 against PKA? Or will The Ultraviolent Perfectionist prove everybody wrong and beat Carson when it counts the most? Stay tuned to find out.