Leander Apollo vs Mark Mania

[Alex Smiley]

This is the place where the burritos...I mean roleplays...go.

RP Deadline: Monday, September 3 @ 11:59PM Pacific Standard Time
RP Word Limit: 1500 words

[Mark Mania]

Let me tell you a story.

This story isn't about a man who was sitting alone on a beach in the Abacos Islands.

This story isn't about a man who had made enough money to sit on that beach every day for the rest of his life.

This story isn't about a man who had nothing left to prove. He was a champion, he was a Hall of Famer, he was, a "legend".

No, this story is about the love of the ring.

It would be easy for any of us to press ignore on the phone when it rings. It would be easy for us to walk pass a gym without looking to see if there was a ring. It would be easy for us to sit down with a good book, a glass of scotch, and pet our dogs.

But we can't do it. No matter how many times we've called it off. No matter how many times we've said to ourselves while looking over bruises and scars, "fuck, I'm not doing THAT again." No matter how many times we've seen our shoulders on the mat. All we can think about is the last time our arms were raised above our heads and we heard our names echo over the arena.

That's where our story begins.

"AND HERE IS YOUR WINNER, MARK MANIA!"

Mark has been replaying the ending of his match with James Raven over and over again. He did what he set out to do. He returned to The Experts, his true home, for one more match with another "legend". He beat him. He just flat out beat him. It felt good, it felt right. He didn't have any gimmicks, any bullshit, just out-wrestled the mother fucker. People say that Mark is old or Mark is washed up or frankly that Mark never-was.

It's 2018, the most popular things and people in the world take place on Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube, Instagram, blah blah blah. Mark has a Twitter, mostly to keep in touch with old faces from APW that he doesn't get to see anymore and to always keep his ear to the ground for Level-One. Level-One, that son of a bitch who shows up at Chaos Reigns and as per usual, made it all about him. Sorry, that's another story for another day. Beyond Twitter, Mark didn't get involved much in social media. He didn't care to know what recipe he HAD to make tonight with kale, flax seed, and zucchini pasta. He didn't care about an old girlfriend who was so enveloped in a multi-level marketing scheme that she sent out daily invites to everyone she's every made eye contact with in her entire life.

No, Mark just cared about the bottom line. How will Mania Enterprises continue to make money and how the hell will he get his hands on Level-One and the True Expert Title? Admittedly, Mark has been spending a lot more time thinking about Level-One than he should. After Chaos Reigns, he was asked if he wanted to take part in more of these types of events and after the rush he got last month, it was a no brainer. Mark didn't really have any bad blood towards any of these other wrestlers but, he wanted to keep getting into the ring, stay fresh, stay involved. The Experts will always be his true home and whatever it takes to stay involved, he's going to do it. Even if that means wrestling Leander Apollo,

This is the first time that the two of them have been in a match together, but they didn't almost cross paths in 2011 at the Extreme Tournament. Back then Mark was going through a bit of a "phase" and he was wearing a mask calling himself "Crazy Joe". It started as a startling head wound and ended up one of the bigger twists in APW History.

When the match was first announced there wasn't much fan fare to it. Here's two guys that have a shit ton of experience that have never faced each other. No one really asked them to face each other either, it's just, hey we're two dudes, lets fight.

But there is a little more to that. Leander and Mark are two people with very different backgrounds. Leander is proficient in MMA and started his career with that training. Mark has been purely focuses on professional wrestling since before UFC 1 ever happened. Leander spent his time in SVW and TFWF. Mark spent his time in APW. Leander has made a career on being half of a tag-team. Mark has made a career as a singles competitor. Leander lost his match at Chaos Reigns. Mark won his. See, the differences could go on and on.

Now, Mark wasn't surprised when he saw who he was going to be facing, Mark hasn't really been trying to make much noise since coming back to the Experts. Everyone always gives Mark shit for living in the past, which, admittedly, he does at times. So this time around, Mark decided he would just let fate choose his path. Of course, he's not disappointed per say that he's facing Leander, but he wasn't hoping for a little bit more of a high profile match.

Mark handled himself pretty well, he thought, at Chaos Reigns and looked like he should get a shot at one of the big boys these days. But, alas, Leander Apollo.

Mark has spent many nights the past month thinking about Leander.

"There's no way he thinks he can beat me right? I mean, I don't want to be over confident, but without some type of tag team partner in his corner, what on earth can he do? In the hay day of The Experts, TFWF was certainly one of the most competitive federations and had true all-starts within it, but it wasn't APW. APW had the cream of the crop, Level-One, Sally Talfourd, Kurt Noble, Terry Marvin, Mark fucking Mania. Ok, maybe my name doesn't belong with them in the APW days, but goddamnit, back in the old days...wait, I said I wouldn't do that anymore. Still, my point stands, I was the longest running APW Overdrive Champion around the same time Leander was the longest running Tag champion. I don't know, I just feel like, we're not in a tag match, I'm going to beat this guy to within an inch of his life and he's going to be looking for someones hand to slap. Maybe he can high-five the ref? It won't help, but maybe it will make him feel better?"

"I can't say I'm really afraid of his MMA background. Sure, kicks, punches, submissions, judo chops, whatever. It's all the same thing. One fisherman suplex and this guy is going to be thinking about rear naked choking me, boy, who came up with that fucking name? Sorry, distracted, fucking MMA. But yeah, so he's going to rear...naked...choke me. I don't know, just not high on my list of concerns. I don't know where he falls on the Kinsey scale, but I'm pretty sure I'll just toss him over my head and be done with it."

"Sure, he's been wrestling a lot more frequently than I have been now, but shit, I'm old, I've gotten rest up after each one of these. Maybe Leander can think of it like his MMA buddies, I fight once, then I bulk up for six months, and by that I mean eat Cheetos and drink beer, but then when I'm put on another card, I do a quick cut, run around in a trash bag, puke up my Cheetos and get in the fucking ring."

"It's not rocket science, it's wrestling, it's what I'm here to do. And this week, I'm going to kick Leanders ass. Bing, bang, boom"

See, this story wasn't about a happy and content man. This story was about a guy, who even when presented with everything, still can't stop talking about the glory days and trying to relive them. This story is about a perpetual child who will always chase the high of hearing his name over the loud speaker.

THE END

"So what do you think?" Emily, Mark's longtime girlfriend and former employee looks up at Mark away from the computer.

"I think you might've gone a bit heavy on the perpetual child stuff." Mark looks at her with a smile.

"Eh, I think I encapsulated pretty well what's going on here." Emily gives Mark a sassy look.

"Well, I did like the part where you talked about rear naked choking. Maybe you could show me that move so I can practice coming out of it."

"Perpetual child."