Matt squeezed his hand at that moment, perhaps lost in his own thought at the time and he looked over at him. They just smiled at one another as they walked. Matt’s starry smile was his light, but with everything going on, he couldn’t help but also feel a deep sadness behind it, and of course an anger he’d never known before. Despite the fact that they were in Maniac’s home city, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind knowing the likelihood of them even crossing paths was extremely low. They had an amazing Omakase dinner at Sushi Noz, on the
Upper East Side and Matt surprised him after with tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. He was absolutely giddy! The night rounded out with an amazing romp in the sheets, the floor to ceiling windows and panoramic view of the city setting a fantastic backdrop.
Morning came and after they had eaten, and exercised they wanted to walk Central Park before his appointment. The day found them at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. Plastered everywhere on the wall was posters and pictures of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” He felt like he had arrived. He’d been interviewed before, but this was major television and more importantly this wasn’t an HWA event. For the first time in his career, he had been sought out to make an appearance and he was both humbled and thrilled by the opportunity. Matt of course got an amazing reception himself, brushing off greetings.
“Oh, I’m so sorry about what happened…I loved watching your matches”
“There’s still tons of stuff you can do, look at HHH.”
Folks meant well, but for Jeremy the wound was all too new and he didn’t want Matt to feel like a third wheel following along behind him, or some charity case. If it bothered him, Matt didn’t let it show and handled it all with grace. He gave Jeremy a kiss before being escorted out to the sound stage, and for Jeremy it was nearly show time. Music was playing, the crowd was cheering and Stevn Colbert had his opening monologue, some jokes and stagehand had pulled Jeremy to the holding area since he was up first.
(Steven Colbert): Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Last Show I’m Steven Colbert and you know my first guest as an up and coming wrestling superstar in the Hardcore Wrestling Alliance, please welcome to the Late Show…Jeremy Branson.
The music pops and Jeremy walks out onto the set to a round of cheers from the crowd, turning to wave with a big smile as he walks over greeted by Steven with a handshake then takes a seat next to his desk.
(Steven Colbert): Get in here Jeremy, it’s good to see you.
(Jeremy): It’s good to be here, truly an honor.
(Steven Colbert): So Jeremy, it’s been about a year now…HWA is back on the map after a bit of a rough patch and emerging from that is a whole new crop of talent such as yourself. Tell us about that transition to wrestling stardom.
(Jeremy): “Wrestling Stardom” wow…it feels to strange to hear it said that way. You’ve had The Rock and Cena and Rousey here, but hey I’ll take it.
The fans cheer loudly and clap for him. He looks to the crowd nodding and smiles.
(Jeremy): Well you know, I actually never intended to be a professional wrestler. I graduated Miami with a degree in Physics, minoring in Astrophysics. I had my heart set on NASA, but when that didn’t work out a buddy of mine in LA was coming up over at SpaceX and said “hey come on down and I’ll get you in.”
(Steven Colbert): So you get to LA, did you meet Elon?
Jeremy smiles…
(Jeremy): I did not meet Elon, I was just a nobody getting my foot in the door doing grunt work, but I needed more income. For those of you who don’t know LA isn’t a cheap city so I was looking for some extra work.
(Steven Colbert): So you take on this wrestling thing, and I mean come on…look at you…who in the world was going to believe you were a Scientist anyway?
The crowd laughs and Jeremy smiles.
(Jeremy): I very much was though, that’s the thing. I started wrestling just for the check. I was in decent shape, could take a bit of bumps and bruises and at the time HWA was only doing a one-hour Youtube show. I didn’t even wrestle all of the time, but we had to be at the show and still got paid a little.
(Steven Colbert): So you do the wrestling thing and at what point did you say…I got a little cash, I need to get back to this SpaceX? Or had you already made your mind up on this pretty big career shift?
(Jeremy): Oh I thought about leaving every day.
(Steven Colbert): Every day?
(Jeremy): Every day! I pretty much accomplished what I wanted which was coming to LA, getting my legs under me and was looking at advancing at SpaceX, but then they hit us with this big announcement. Butch comes into the room.
Jeremy spreads his arms out wide and wobbles a bit side to side trying to imitate Butch and the audience laughs.
(Jeremy): No seriously, the guys built like a tank so he’s got this…
Jeremy again tries to model Butch’s body language.
(Jeremy): Anyway…the CBS deal comes up, its even more money…
(Steven Colbert): So you decide to stay, who doesn’t want more money right?
(Jeremy): I actually still decided to leave.
(Steven Colbert): So what changed your mind?
Jeremy looks over into the audience at Matt, and points to him. The audience goes nuts and they both smile.
(Jeremy): Him! I mean, I was head over heels for this guy and you know how you’ll do stupid things sometimes when you’re feeling a certain way about someone. Here was a guy who by every indication to me was straight and had zero interest in me, and I’m wagging my tail like a puppy because he comes over after the announcement and was like “Isn’t this great, we’re going to put this place back in the map, you, me and Sean.” If you could see the excitement in his eyes, in his whole body…it was infectious.
(Steven Colbert): So you make the googly-eyes with prince charming over there, HWA returns and you guys have been tearing it up for now for the past year.
(Jeremy): Pretty much, yeah!
The crowd bursts with cheers and whistles.
(Steven Colbert): Now, you’re going into a ppv, this Blood, Sweat and Tears deal. This past week you seemed pretty set on your opponent…we have a little clip.
They turn to the monitors that show a clip from the end of Havoc.
(Maniac): Well……………….I guess you’re going to get that pound of flesh after all. Blood, Sweat, and Tears it is then Jeremy Branson.
Maniac once again holds his hand out to shake it. Jeremy looks at it and this time, and after a pause…he takes it.
(Jeremy): Blood, Sweat and Tears it is!
Maniac starts to turn away but still in the handshake Jeremy yanks him back.
(Jeremy): But like I was saying…I accept your apology Maniac. I believe you, which is why at Blood, Sweat and Tears…..I don’t want you……..I want DreamMaster!
The footage ends and the audience is “Ohhhhh” ing, and clapping. Jeremy just nods.
(Steven Colbert): So what’s that all about who is this DreamMaster? I’m thinking of some clownish guy sneaking into kids rooms at night like Monsters Inc. or something.
The audience laughs and it even brings a little chuckle to Jeremy.
(Jeremy): To be honest, this guy Maniac. He did a lot worse than that, and I took issue with a lot of it. You know, I’m still young in this business…I get my head into a lot but I’m surrounded by a bunch of guys who have been in this way longer than I have which has forced me to pause a little. Maniac apparently suffers from some multi-personality disorder thing and to be completely honest I didn’t really believe it, I didn’t care or both…I don’t know.
(Steven Colbert): We talking Split, James McAvoy’s Patricia kind of thing. Does he come to the ring thinking he’s some middle-aged woman wanting to make you a sandwich and tea?
(Jeremy): Not exactly, that would be quite interesting to be honest, but I’m afraid it’s a bit darker than that unfortunately. More importantly, it took a lot of soul searching for me to admit he had a real issue. It’s hard to see past anger when someone’s pissed you off and all they have to saw was “It wasn’t me!” ya know?
(Steven Colbert): So it was Patricia?
The audience laughs again and for once Jeremy was really pleased to be talking about this in a more lighthearted manner than he had been.
(Jeremy): No, it wasn’t Patricia. I guess you could say this other persona or being, or whatever he calls it is DreamMaster. So like you just showed, I finally accepted that. I accepted his word that he had a mental issue, a lot of people do…I can’t deny him and believe them so I accepted that. But… what a lot of people don’t realize about me is that its hard for me to let things go.
I want, I need to bring justice to the things he, it, whatever did. If not Maniac find…I told him to being me the one he says is responsible so I asked for DreamMaster. Some people think I’ve lost my mind, but I don’t care. Matt’s sitting on the bench because of what he did over the last year, he doesn’t get to just disappear into someone’s mind. If I have to put on a catholic robe and exorcise his ass once and for all at the ppv then that’s what I’ll do. This ends, and he ends at Blood, Sweat and Tears.
(Steven Colbert): Ladies and gentlemen Jeremy Branson! Jeremy, best of luck to you at the ppv, would love to have you again. Coming up is our musical guest Teddy Swims performing his hit “Lose Control,” we’ll be right back.
The show goes to commercial as Jeremy rises and Steven Colbert greets him once more, shaking hands. He looks to the front row over at Matt who gives him a wink as he’s whisked away backstage. Minutes later Matt’s rejoined him and they’re invited to stay and hang around a bit through the end of the show. They meet the other guest and musical artists before finally taking their leave. An Escalade waiting for them to take them back to their hotel and they get inside. Matt looks over at him.
(Matt): You did great, really great so you did! That was huge babe!
(Jeremy): Yeah, well…should have been you up there.
Matt grabs the bottom of his chin and turns his face towards him.
(Matt): Hey…we talked about his yeah?
(Jeremy): I know, but…
(Matt): I’m not going to try talking you out of this match, you know I support you, I love you, we know how dangerous this can be but I’ve got nothing but confidence in you, and I’m not just blowin’ smoke up yer hot arse, I know you can beat him.
(Jeremy): I don’t want to beat him, I want to destroy him. I want to take away from him what he’s taken from you.
(Matt): I don’t want you to lose yourself in this, it’s a fine line across that dark space like Maniac said. I went there myself, had to bring out my own beast, my own dragon.
(Jeremy): I know…I’ll be fine, this will all be over soon and we can finally move on to the next…whatever.
(Matt): Oh aye, I know what you’re next thing is. You want to rip Fallen a new arse for drinking that bottle of booze Draconis gave ya!
(Jeremy): Damn right I do! He might as well had pissed in the bottle. He violated my space, took my shit and turned around to grin about it. Look, I’m not worried about him right now, he’s got every Tom, Dick, and Harry on his heels as it is…I’m focused on the ppv, on Ring Master. He’ll get his when the time comes. Right now, it’s you, it’s me, we’re in New York another night so let’s make the best of it.
(Matt): Pub?
(Jeremy): I knew you’d say that. Yes, but first…lets give Sean a call. See how he’s doing.
Jeremy pulls his phone out and Matt snuggles up next to him as sets his phone to make a video call dialing Sean. It rings, but there is no answer and goes to voicemail.
(Matt): Call Michelle, she’s with him yeah?
He does so calling Michelle, she answers and her face lights up seeing both of theirs on her screen.
(Michelle): Oh my gosh, you guys…how are you? What are you doing? Where are you?
(Matt): New York, this one here was just on the Late Show with Steven Colbert, so he was.
Jeremy blushes a bit.
(Michelle): Jeremy, that’s great…I can’t wait to see it.
(Jeremy): How are you, how’s Sean doing…we tried calling him.
(Michelle): He’s good, in a lot of pain and meds have him a little loopy, but he’s good.
(Jeremy): A loopy Sean, now that I need to see.
(Michelle): No not like drunk loopy…loopy, loopy…its messing with his mind a bit, but the doctor told us about the affects of the anesthesia he just got a weird reaction I guess but it should make its way out of his system. He was a little sick earlier, but they changed his meds and he should be fine.
(Matt): When are ye back?
(Michelle): Ummm, I’m not sure. He has to do some rehab for a bit, maybe another week or so, Diana…his aunt is here and she’s been such a sweetheart, so very kind to me.
(Jeremy): That’s good, glad to hear you’re not alone. Look, we won’t keep you…we’re gonna go hit the town…tell Sean we called and for him to call us, just to check in…doesn’t matter what time.
(Michelle): I will, thank you guys for checking on us.
(Matt): Of course, love!
Michelle waves as does Matt and Jeremy before the call ends.
(Matt): Oh I bey he’s lovin’ this. Layin’ there getting waited on hand and foot. Pain meds, some scran…he’s in heaven.
(Jeremy): Hey, I pamper you, don’t I?
(Matt): Aye, and I love it, that’s how I know he’s in heaven right now, so he is.
(Jeremy): He’s gonna be in hell when all those meds wear off, he won’t feel so pampered then.
(Matt): He’s made of the tough stuff, just like you…he’ll be fine.
Matt gives him a kiss on the cheek and they hold hands as the driver continues to their hotel and the scene fades to black.
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