003

February 3, 2014 (off camera)

PPW.

Poughkeepsie Pro Wrestling.

It wasn't exactly a name synonymous with wrestling fans throughout the world. Or even the state of New York. There were far bigger indy promotions. PPW operated on a very small budget, and tonight their show took place in a national guard armory that held a whopping total of about 400 people. And that was far from the case tonight. Less than a hundred wrestling fans had 'packed' the armory for this show tonight, featuring some local greats such as Paul Plunkerton, 'The Flying Fisherman' Leroy Lure, and Summer!

Summer? That's right, that Summer. Not the real Summer. It's...never mind!

"Take a left in one half mile." That would be the voice of the GPS in Carson's car as he duly did what it said. Situated in the passenger seat was the real Summer, Kasey Summers to be precise. Not the one appearing for PPW tonight. Carson wasn't all that familiar with the city of Poughkeepsie, this was his first trip. And as they pulled into the parking lot of the armory, it was certainly a far cry from the places the real Summer actually wrestled.

The building had seen better days, it was tired looking and worn down. The parking lot was pretty slim too, and once the pair entered the building and bought their tickets to see the show, one look inside the 'arena' gave one the distinct air of what kind of promotion this was. Small time would be almost too much to call it.

This time, they had arrived on time and took their seats. And in Carson's hand was a flyer he was given that ran down tonight's match card...including a picture of Kasey sitting beside him facing someone called Lexi Lovely.

Kasey's eyes were wide behind her black rimmed glasses, taking in every aspect of this dive that made even RMP look like a high-class promotion. Glancing down at the flyer in her agent's hand, she resisted the urge to freak out at seeing her own publicity headshot displayed alongside a girl who looked like a Tuesday afternoon stripper. "Lexi?" She scoffed at the name, rolling her eyes, "what kinda name is that? A terrible one… for sure."

"I'm not familiar with her. She may want to lighten up on the lipstick; this flyer makes her look like the Joker." Carson remarked as some other fans filtered in. And one rather portly fellow sat down beside him on the bleacher, reaching up and scratching a considerable beard. Carson eyed him, noticing there was plenty of room if he wanted to slide down a bit. He was about to speak when the overhead lights darkened a little and the ring announcer welcomed everyone to the show.

A dull murmur of response from the small crowd of fans greeted the announcer as he called out the first match on the card between two super heavyweights. The match was what you'd expect, a lot of rest holds and very slow. When it was finally over, the bearded man nudged Carson. "That was a good one, huh?"


Carson looked back at him for a moment, nodding his head slowly. "Sure." Neither of the two men in the ring had to worry about Carson beating down their door to sign them.

"The next match features the women of PPW! Coming to the ring at this time….she weighs in at 177 lbs! She's from Syracuse, New York! It's…..LEXI LOVELY!" The ring announcer bellowed as Carson watched the woman head towards the ring with "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred playing through the speakers. Carson would have disagreed.

Kasey leaned forward, her elbows on her knees as she watched the dolled up blonde roll into the ring and do some elaborate stretches. "What a terrible song," she muttered, her eyes moving back to the doorway that served as the makeshift entrance ramp. Sucking in a breath, she could already feel how sweaty her palms were-- her ears were burning too-- yeah, she was already angry.

"And her opponent….from Phoenix, Arizona….making her PPW debut…...SUMMMERRRRR!!!!"

"Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson began to play as the door opened and out popped 'Summer'. Dressed in almost identical ring gear to the woman at Carson's side, she pumped her fists into the air, passing some fans along the rails. She reached out and hugged a few of them, even signing an autograph before climbing up onto the apron and then stepping through the ropes... 'til she almost tripped on the bottom rope getting into the ring.

"Kelly… freakin' CLARKSON?!" The words died on her lips as she stared at the woman climbing into the ring, literally facepalming at the trip although she was completely rendered speechless in her horror and anger. They hadn't lied. This impostor was a total spaz and the match hadn't even started yet.

"She really should work on that whole getting past the bottom rope thing." Carson added as the referee called for the bell. The bearded fellow yelled out from his seat, clearly a Lexi fan as the two locked up. And the match that followed was not going to make any Best Of lists. 'Summer' managed to fire Lexi into the ropes, but a wild clothesline never ever came close to the much bigger woman. And Lexi countered pretty much everything she had. Lexi actually dominated the match, trapping 'Summer' in what looked to be quite a headlock as she fought trying to get out of it for nearly a minute. She finally managed to shoot her off and go for a double leg takedown, which turned into more of a clothesline at one of Lexi's ankles before the larger woman began throwing her around like a rag doll with some ease.

The real Kasey was watching between her fingers, her cheeks crimson with mortification as she watched her name being (quite literally) stomped into oblivion in front of these lackluster fans. "Oh God," she groaned, "where's the alarm clock to wake me up from this nightmare!"

The match finally would come to an end when the fake Kasey went for a dropkick on Lexi, and landed on her head before her feet got too far off the ground. Lexi stepped over her and sat down on top of her with her arms crossed as the referee counted a very decisive three.

"The winner of the match…...LEXI LOVELY!!!!"

Lexi received a few boos as 'Summer' rolled out of the ring, holding the back of her head...and nearly tripping over the wooden steps at ringside before she started to slink towards the back again. Carson nudged Kasey. "C'mon, let's go say hi."


She shot to her feet, clearly eager to do a lot more than just a little verbal salutation. "I should ask for her autograph because that was certainly…. something. I'm not sure what… but it was definitely something."

Carson and Kasey headed down the bleachers towards the railing and heading towards the same entrance door that the wrestlers had come out of already. As they approached, a police officer stationed on the other side stopped them when they stepped through. "Excuse me, fans aren't allowed backstage, sir."

Carson glanced down to his badge, realizing this was actually a real officer and not some hired security. "I'm a sports agent, I wanted to go see a potential….client. She just came through."

Kasey kept her face turned, hoping that he didn't really look too closely at her. She hadn't even thought of wearing some sort of disguise other than the black woolen sock hat that covered most of her vibrant red hair. Glancing back towards the bleachers, she noticed that the crowd seemed slightly thinner but couldn't figure out why. "Please," she finally said, turning her head to look at the man, "I'm sure you can make an exception for the legendary Carson Black."

"Who?" The officer asked.

"Where's my baby girl?! That was great!" Carson glanced behind him as the large bearded man followed through the door after him. The officer waved to him as he let him pass, heading towards the dressing rooms.

The officer noticed Carson's confused face at letting the large man pass. "That's Lexi's dad right there."

Carson nodded as it occurred to him. "Well….I'm her uncle."

"Oh?! Well I saw you two sitting together, so….go ahead." The officer waved him through as Carson was shocked that worked.

Kasey had to suppress her giggles as she linked her arm through Carson's, hoping that she could pass as part of the 'family' as his significant other. Elbowing him in the ribs, she cast him a sidelong look that spoke volumes. "Don't worry," she said in a stage whisper, "I'll be on my best behavior."

Carson and Kasey sped through the hallway, glancing around and trying to find the room that the girl went into, not seeing where as the officer had distracted them.

"THAT'S MY GIRL!"

The bellow of the bearded man was heard well as they followed that into an open door, which seemed to be the girls' locker room. Inside the man was hugging his daughter, telling her how awesome she was till he saw Carson and Kasey.


"You saw it! Was she something or what?!" He asked.

"Uh...something...else!" Carson added. "You didn't happen to see where Summer went, did you?"

"Do I look like I care? My baby girl whooped ass!" He shouted.

The sound of a door opening at the end of the hall was heard as the pair glanced out to see 'Summer' heading out. Carson nudged Kasey as the girl spotted them. Her eyes widened as she locked eyes with her namesake down the hallway, and took off like a bat out of hell towards the exit with her bag over her shoulder!

Carson and Kasey took off after her at top speed, as much as Carson could run in loafers. As they reached the door, the squeal of tires was heard as she sped off into the night. "Damn it….."

"AW HELL!" The words exploded from Kasey's lips, almost deafening as all that anger boiled over. "If that damned cop hadn't stopped us… we would've had answers!"

Carson let out a long sigh as he reached for his cell phone in his pocket. He checked his messages quickly as a grin formed on his face. "Well well well….I think we're going to get them after all. One of my contacts sent me a message. Guess who's scheduled to do an autograph signing in Montreal the Friday before Chaos Theory?"

"Me?" She perked up considerably, "well not me… but pseudo-me?"

"Yup. We'll go see about getting an autograph Friday." He gave her a wink as he sent a text back to his contact.

"Time to put 'Summer' out of business."