Ned Kaye stood in front of the grave of his father, David. The cold of New York brought with it a thick fog that made all breath smoke as it left his lungs. The past few days had been difficult for Ned, his place in this world seemingly uncertain and strange. His psychiatrist would always tell him not to get too focused on graves, but as he stood on the chilled, dead grass that filled the cemetery, he found himself feeling similarly lost with only graves to mark the ways forward and back. Shaking his head, he let out a few words.

“Second birthday without you, Dad. Still hard to believe. Nate tried to make up for it, but you know how he can be.”

He clutched his gloved hands, hoping to warm them a little through the cloth. They didn’t warm much at all.

“I was actually hoping you could help me out, y’know? The world’s been crazy and you always knew what to say to make it make more sense. The more I think about how you’re gone, the more I realize how much I have to do on my own now.”

Ned shook his head again. He was talking to a grave. His dad wasn’t here. He didn’t believe in an afterlife or reincarnation or anything of the sort. It was just him and a grave. And that was going to have to be enough. Still, despite rolling his eyes at the superstition, it warmed him to feel like he was still close to his father. To his roots.

“Maybe I just came here so I wouldn’t forget.”

“I love you, Dad. I’ll see you again soon.”

He smiled, kneeling to place some flowers on the dirt over David Kaye’s body before walking into the gray mist behind him. To another therapy session. To a world he still lived in. To a world he could still make his father proud in.

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"And now, the indies of the world, brought to you by Ned Kaye!"

“I can’t believe you talked me into another one of these videos.”

"Assault Championship, Century, Chaotic, Top Rope, Front Row, Power League
ECWA, Access and Dragon Gate, CHIKARA, PWG
Combat Zone, Keystone State, Shimmer Women Athletes, Windy City, don’t forget
Heartland and IWA Mid-South, with Combat Force by Jeff Jarrett
Metro, Southern State, Juggalo, Innovate, Memphis, and Smoky Mountain
Mason-Dixen, PWX, OMEGA, Incredibly Strange
Empire Wrestling, All-Pro, Anarchy, and ECW is gone
Ultra Championship, Premiere eXperience, and West Coast from Oregon
Maryland, Mid-Eastern, New Generation, 5-Star, All England, and Pride
Progress, All Star, Association R, Defiant along for the ride
There's Lucha Libre Elite, Bellatrix, 4 Front, EVE, Revolution, World of Sport
Frontier, Over the Top, RoH and its crop, WoW belongs in a court
Lucha Britannia, Noah, Basara, Diamond Ring, Hustle, Kingdom
DDT,Sendai Girls, Pro Wrestling Wave, Pure J, and then Arsion
Inoki Genome, Tenryu, NEO, Riki Pro, NEVER, and Smash
Osaka, Ice Ribbon, Zero1, Dradition, Big Japan with their deathmatch
Battlarts, Maple Leaf, Stardom, Lutte, and Stampede, Maximum Pro, BSE
Disaster Drop, Seadlinnng, One Pro Wrestling, Irish Whip, Fight Factory
Attack, Grand Pro, Toryumon Mexico, UWA has fallen
Insane, Preston City, Extreme Rising, West Coast Wrestling Connection
Turnbuckle, Xcitement, Southern Championship, Pro-Pain and Evolve as well
Steel City, Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity, Hardcore Homecoming, IWL
Welsh, MLW, Shine, MCW, Chaotic, and Union Pro
JDStar, Gaea Japan, Wrestling New Classic—
High Impact, Prairie, then Lion’s Gate Project—
Grand Pro, New England, WAW, that’s all I know!"

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“You made a fool of two men when you opened your mouth, Charlie.”

“See, I sat up here and talked about the ways we were similar. The background we had both come from and I painted a picture of you that showed you as you are: flawed, but with potential. But, of course, despite my attempts to be courteous, to pay my respects to another who has been in my position for so long, you got out there the second we were no longer allied and let loose every ounce of vitriol you had built up and point it squarely at me. So, I’m done being courteously, Charlie. I’m done giving you the benefit of the doubt, especially after the vile things you implicated about my mother. About my family. Something I loosely considered you a part of due to our shared history. Something I was a fool to do. But that brings us to the second fool you made, Charlie: yourself.”

“You decided you were going to piss me off. Get under my skin. Doubt my status as a “real man.” Well, let’s talk about real men. Like you, right, Charlie?”

“I mean, you remember when I told you that if you said something about my fiance again, I’d knock you on your ass? Remember how you shut your mouth then, when you were right in front of me? Where was the man who joked about abuse of my mother then, Nickles? Did the “real man” Charlie Nickles have to wait until he was in a secure little booth until he could insult me in private where I couldn’t punch him square in his jaw? Seems he did. In fact, Charlie, you wonder why I wasn’t so hot last match, maybe it was due to the musk of smoke and booze that envelops you so constantly that it dizzies normal people and acts as insecticide. Or maybe it was because, like with a lot of things, you love to go out there and succeed alone. At least you try to. And that’s when it all became clear to me. You’re not just selfish, but you have to belittle everyone around you to make yourself feel bigger. You have an incessant need to win at everything.”

“I still recall your tone when talking about your ex-wife. That passionate hatred for a partner, Charlie. I’m not gonna get onto you for being divorced, that’s your business, but it speaks a lot to your character that you’ve thrown away another partnership to feed your own ego. And it breaks my fucking heart, Charlie. Because deep down, I know there’s a good person in you, but you’d never let him out just so you don’t have to feel weak. This match we have coming up is shifting rules, buddy. You have to adapt and if there’s one thing you’ve proven to the world it’s that you will stick to your ways no matter how low it makes you sink. But I’m gonna let you in on a little secret and why I’m not too concerned with the outcome of this match. Because no matter what, I’m going to go in there and kick your ass, win or lose. And when I walk out of there, I’ll have a brother who I don’t always get along with ready to greet me, I’ll see my mother, recovering in the hospital, I’ll see my friends and the people I’ve helped around me as I work to become a better person. When you walk out of that ring, you’ll leave alone, go home alone, and be forced to face yourself. You have to walk out of there as Charlie Nickles. I don’t.”

“So, continue insulting my family. Continue insulting me. Run your mouth until you’ve said every single dipshitted idea you’ve come up with to get under my skin and watch my wrestling do the talking for me. So, show me what you got, “real man,” and pray I don’t rip the mask of bravado right off your face.”

"You can't run from yourself."