Post by aquarius on Oct 8, 2021 16:12:26 GMT -7
Nostalgia was a troublesome thing at times. When your present was full of unpleasantness and your future uncertain at best, the past was the only remaining option for even a moment's happiness. And so Joseph found himself sat in the shoebox of an apartment he called home, watching a TV documentary on the glory days of his former profession.
It covered all the levels of the sport, from regular human athletes, all the way up to the Unlimited Class wrestling that had been the inevitable product of the emergence of superheroes. Except for Spider-Man, of course. Not that he held that against the man of course, nobody had ever expected a superhuman to sign up for a wrestling event like that, so had never thought to check just in case. Their mistake, not the Spider's.
As he sat down on his shabby couch with a drink that would hopefully last the evening, they were just reaching an old interview he'd done, only a few months before that fateful match that had left him struggling to cope for so long afterwards. It was strange. Back then, he'd felt bitter, almost cheated. Now? He felt like it had been inevitable. Even if it had been an ordinary human, there would eventually have been someone come along who was younger and better and he'd have been in the same position, only without the knowledge that he'd been up against someone not humanly beatable. In time, that had made all the difference. He'd done his best, and that was what truly mattered.
The tv had moved on to his 'Bonesaw McGraw' phase now, and he chuckled in memory of the over the top gimmick that had admittedly been a lot of fun at the time, but much like the good times of the past, this was over too quickly as the show moved on to other wrestlers and the changes to their image, or in a few cases in much more significant ways. Screaming Mimi, for example. He'd never fought against her, she was an Ultimate Wrestler and he'd likely have been lucky to survive the match against any one of those guys. But he'd always liked her, she'd fought with a lot more skill than many of the bricks that far too many people with powers seemed to end up as. Not too many skilled fighters got powers, after all. Those that did usually had better options available than getting punched in the face every night for a braying audience.
But where was Mimi now? She was apparently going by the name 'Songbird', and was one of the Thunderbolts. He'd not really heard much about them before, beyond knowing them to be a super hero team. But they were largely ex cons and the like, going straight? Good for them, Joseph thought. And good for her, too. It was nice to know that being dragged down into this sort of life wasn't irreversible. And it was with that thought that he sank into a dream filled sleep on his couch, his mind filled with visions of himself wearing a garish cape, suplexing the Red Skull into the mouth of an active volcano.
It covered all the levels of the sport, from regular human athletes, all the way up to the Unlimited Class wrestling that had been the inevitable product of the emergence of superheroes. Except for Spider-Man, of course. Not that he held that against the man of course, nobody had ever expected a superhuman to sign up for a wrestling event like that, so had never thought to check just in case. Their mistake, not the Spider's.
As he sat down on his shabby couch with a drink that would hopefully last the evening, they were just reaching an old interview he'd done, only a few months before that fateful match that had left him struggling to cope for so long afterwards. It was strange. Back then, he'd felt bitter, almost cheated. Now? He felt like it had been inevitable. Even if it had been an ordinary human, there would eventually have been someone come along who was younger and better and he'd have been in the same position, only without the knowledge that he'd been up against someone not humanly beatable. In time, that had made all the difference. He'd done his best, and that was what truly mattered.
The tv had moved on to his 'Bonesaw McGraw' phase now, and he chuckled in memory of the over the top gimmick that had admittedly been a lot of fun at the time, but much like the good times of the past, this was over too quickly as the show moved on to other wrestlers and the changes to their image, or in a few cases in much more significant ways. Screaming Mimi, for example. He'd never fought against her, she was an Ultimate Wrestler and he'd likely have been lucky to survive the match against any one of those guys. But he'd always liked her, she'd fought with a lot more skill than many of the bricks that far too many people with powers seemed to end up as. Not too many skilled fighters got powers, after all. Those that did usually had better options available than getting punched in the face every night for a braying audience.
But where was Mimi now? She was apparently going by the name 'Songbird', and was one of the Thunderbolts. He'd not really heard much about them before, beyond knowing them to be a super hero team. But they were largely ex cons and the like, going straight? Good for them, Joseph thought. And good for her, too. It was nice to know that being dragged down into this sort of life wasn't irreversible. And it was with that thought that he sank into a dream filled sleep on his couch, his mind filled with visions of himself wearing a garish cape, suplexing the Red Skull into the mouth of an active volcano.