I
February 23, 2016
Gina Carelli’s apartment, Trenton, New Jersey
‘Atlantic City?!’
Gina Carelli gasped as her eyes wandered over the latest event card for invitational company Pro Wrestling Project and landed on her opponent’s billed home town.
‘Mandy’, she cried, turning the screen towards her room-mate and best friend, ‘he’s a guido!’
‘Who’s a guido?’ Amanda Fratelli did not so much as look up from the rows of notes spread before her, but this did little to curb her friend’s enthusiasm.
‘My opponent! Y’know, for that one-off show I signed up for? He’s Italian, from Atlantic City!’
‘That’s nice, Gina’, Mandy retorted distractedly, her entire attention centered on the hastily-scrawled contents of the half-dozen A4 sheets in front of her. ‘Now go watch a movie or somethin’. I gotta learn this stuff.’
‘I’m gonna do one better’, Gina said, swooping off her seat and scooping her friend’s mobile phone off the table. ‘I’m gonna call Joey!’
‘Hey!’ Amanda’s attempt at resistance was feeble, and came far too late; by the time she made a grab for her friend, Gina was already out in the hallway, gabbing away to the third wheel of their unique conclave.
‘Hey! It’s me! Listen…you an’ Rock work in a bunch’a different places, right? …Yeah, okay, tryouts…but you have ‘em all over, right? ‘K, cool. You ever heard of a dude called Vic Cappotelli? Yeah, Cappotelli. Double P, double L.’ Gina paused a moment as Joey replied, then let out an excited shriek. ‘You saw him fight WHO?! ….NO WAY! No way, dude! That is too rad!’
The youth paused again, attempting to get a hold of herself before eventually continuing the conversation. ‘I bet he lost, though, right? …What?! No fake?! …Whoa, man.’ Gina halted herself yet again, this time at a question from Joey. ‘Oh’, she then said, ‘it’s just that I’m facin’ him for this one place I’m appearin’ at. But whoa, for real? A time limit draw? That’s rad, man! You think I gotta chance?’
This time, the pause was final, as Joey passed on giving a concrete answer, instead excusing himself and hanging up the call. Gina therefore had no option but to return to the living room, her steps unsteady, her mind spinning in a haze.
‘Mandy’, she croaked, ‘he faced Jake!’
‘Joey faced Jake?’ Mandy’s mind was still clearly in the world of books.
‘No, dum-dum’, Gina giggled, ‘this guy did!’
‘What guy?’
‘The guy I’m facin’ at…’ Gina suddenly gave up, with a sigh. ‘Y’know what? Never mind.’
This finally made Mandy turn her attention from her notes to her best friend. ‘Sorry, hon’, she said, swivelling around on her chair to face Gina. ‘It’s just this midterm is killin’ me…’
‘Don’t worry, Mandz’, her friend replied, with a shrug. ‘You’re gonna ace it!’
Mandy grinned. ‘I can only hope… But hey, you need some help researching this guy?’
Before Gina could so much as reply either way, her room-mate had pulled her laptop around to face them. ‘Okay’, she said, booting up Google. ‘What’s this guy’s name?’
‘Vic Cappotelli. Double P, double L.’
‘C-A-P-P-O-T…great, here we go!’ Mandy clicked on the first result at the top of the search page, the wrestler in question’s Wikipedia page. ‘Let’s see…World Elite Wrestling…didn’t win much a’ anything there…and then a bunch of those indies Joey and Rock go to to try and get a job.’ Mandy waved a hand, dismissively. ‘Pffff…honey…you can beat this guy, no problem!’
‘No, Mandy! You don’t get it!’ Gina’s tone was urgent, in stark contrast to her friend’s smug assurance. ‘He fought Jake Mason! The Jake Mason! 'Amazin'' Jake Mason! The Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion! To a time limit draw!’
‘So…?' Mandy remained unconvinced, in spite of her friend’s pleas. ‘Maybe Jake was havin’ an off night. Maybe this guy had the best performance a’ his life. You don’t know the specifics, Geeg!’
‘Yeah, I guess…’ Gina seemed reluctant to accept her friend’s logic. ‘Still …Jake freakin’ Mason, man!’
That was all either woman said for a long moment afterwards, as Mandy sought to return to her studies and Gina made a half-hearted attempt at losing herself in her favorite videogame, Duck Hunt. It did not take more than a couple of rounds of light-gunning cartoon ducks, however, before the silence was broken by the college student in the household.
‘Geeg?’
‘Yeah?’ Gina expertly shot down a duck before it so much as had a chance to soar upwards.
‘I’m kind’a tired a’ studying…my brain’s turned to mush. You wanna go make your video for this guy?’
Gina paused the game and turn to her friend, frowning. ‘Without Joey?’
‘Yeah, without Joey’, Mandy said. ‘You’ve done it before…’
‘I guess’, Gina said, falling silent for a moment as she pondered the pros and cons of her friend’s offer. Eventually, however, she lifted her gaze towards Mandy again, flashing a bright smile. ‘Okay.’
‘Okay?’
‘Okay. Let’s do this.’
‘Cool.’ Mandy got up off her seat, her textbooks forgotten as she searched for Gina’s father’s old VHS camera and began to prep it for filming. ‘Go get ready while I set this up.’
When she looked up again, however, she found her friend was nowhere in sight.
II
Fifteen Minutes Later
Gina Carelli’s apartment, Trenton, New Jersey
‘You ready, Geeg?’
Gina Carelli – now wearing a blinding white nylon coat over her fluorescently-colored gear - adjusted the scrunchie holding up her side ponytail and nodded. ‘Ready.’
‘Alright. You know what to do. On my count.’ Slowly, Amanda held up three fingers, then dropped them one at a time. ‘Three…two…’
The last two fingers were silent – a staple of video production. The moment the last one had descended, Gina began:
‘WOOO!!!! Can you feel it, PWP?! It’s the Neon Madness, yeah! Freak out, freak out!’
The youngster threw her arms in the air, whooping deliriously, but immediately composed herself when she noticed her friend staring at her from behind the camera.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Erm…sorry.’ Gina smoothed herself down, attempting to avert a fluster. ‘Can we, like…start over?’
Mandy groaned. ‘Giiiinaaaaaa! …okay. But I’m not starting over a third time, capisce?’
‘Okay’, Gina said; then, after her friend had once again counted the video in, she began:
‘Wooo! What’s kickin’, P-W-P! Are you ready to feel the Neon Power?!’
The brunette lifted a fist to the camera as she continued:
‘That’s right, baby! PWP episode 19 will feature none other than the one, the only, the most exciting rookie in professional wrestling today, GINA, THE WINNAH!!!'
This time, the arms stayed up, and no embarrassment was forthcoming – instead, Gina's tone barely lost an ounce of its pep as the rookie continued:
'And I know what you might be thinkin'...'oh, this kid is in the opening match, who cares?' An' I get it, man. There's some for-real important people in this card. Jessica and Ricky. Ms Fujiko. Blyss Lockhart. People you wanna see. People I wanna see. In between all that, it's kind'a easy to overlook the two no-name kids from Jersey goin' out there to open the show.
Here's the thing, though...'
Gina's grin widened.
'...if you overlook this match, you'll be missin' out on the chance to see a wrestler who won a five-way and a belt on her first match! Another five-way on her second! Who main-evented on her fourth! Who took Champions to the limit! You'll be missin' out on the chance to see the first-ever PWA Television Champion, and one-half of the REIGNING VoW Twin Cities Champions! The girl who hung with Zakk Morris and Johnny Raike! The girl who's faced every obstacle a wrestler can face in their career, and come standin' out the other side! The girl who lives up to her name... GINA...THE WINNAH!'
Another clenched fist accompanied these words, as Mandy stifled a giggle from behind the camera.
'And lemme tell you somethin'...just 'cause my opponent isn't that well known, don't mean he's a nobody, neither! I happen to know from a real reliable source that he fought one of my favorite wrestlers, a real big-shot 'round here in New York an' Jersey...an' it went to a time limit draw! An' sure, maybe he didn't do nothin' much else, but hey – anyone who can take that dude to the limit sure can take li'l Gina to the limit!
So yeah...if you don't watch the openin' match of PWP Sweet Nothings, you won't be missin' much...only one of the most over-achievin' rookies in modern professional wrestlin' an' an undiscovered name of the Northwestern independent scene. Nothin' special...'
Gina's comical, would-be nonchalant shrug drew a chuckle out of her best friend; the rookie, however, did not skip a beat, moving on to address her opponent for the show in question:
'Speakin' a' which...Vic...I hope you're ready, dude! 'Cause ya may not be facin' 'Amazin'' Jake Mason, but you ain't just gonna be facin' some wet-behind-the-ears rookie, neither! I may have only had like ten matches, but lemme tell you somethin', dude...I defied expectations in every. Single. One of 'em. Every single time, people expected me to last ten seconds, and I went all the way. People expected me to go down easy, an' I kept getting back up. People expected me to lose...an' I kept winnin'.'
Gina leaned forward, pointing a finger out towards the camera:
'So yeah, Vic...Gina, THE WINNAH, is more than a nickname. It's a state a' mind, baby. An' lemme tell you this, paisan...I don't know how you guys roll down there in A. C....but up here in Trenton, we give our best, every time. An' on February 27...in front a' all a' my Neon Knights out there in Philly...that's just what I'm gonna do. Question is, paisan...are you?'
Gina leaned in further, the camera closing in on her face, as she concluded:
'Portate il tuo meglio, Vic. Cerchiamo di strappare giù la casa.'
'...aaaand cut!' Mandy emerged from behind the camera, beaming. 'Gina, that was amazing! What the heck do you still need Joey for?'
Gina shrugged. 'I dunno. Guess I do better with questions...' Then, realizing: 'Speakin' of questions...your midterm!!! You lost a whole bunch of time helpin' me that you could'a been using to study!' Gina folded her arms over her chest, upset. 'Aw, maaan...sorry 'bout that, Mandz!'
'Are you nuts, girlfriend? I did it 'cause I wanted to! All that stuff about lenses and angles was messin' with my brain anyway!' Mandy grinned. 'You're all right, kiddo.' Then, affecting irritation: 'Now scram! I gotta midterm to prepare for!'
She did not have to tell Gina twice; seeking to repay one favor with another, the apartment's more famous occupant ran out the door, giggling, not to be seen the rest of the afternoon.
