Wrestle Talk

“Hey, is it cool if we check this place out?”

Brooke asked you as you walked by a pretty big hobby shop that you totally didn’t peg as a place she’d want to check out. Your three girlfriends forcibly split off from you and Brooke so that they could go shopping for a dress for Stella to wear on your date tomorrow evening. More so than that, you think, is that they wanted to leave you alone with Brooke for reasons you’re unsure of yet.

Do they want you to pursue her? Do YOU want to pursue her? Okay, dumb question, of course you do. She’s beautiful, a genuinely nice person based on your previous interactions with her, you get along great with her and she gets along amazingly with your girlfriends. That being said, Tanya did say you and Brooke were just hanging out as friends, so don’t go beyond that for now and start flirting. Especially since, as your daughter pointed out, you’re really bad at it.

“It’s cool if you don’t want to.” Brooke continues, as you realize that you haven’t answered her original question and it sent the wrong message you were uninterested to go inside.

“Oh! Sorry. I was just surprised this was a place you wanted to go to.” you tell her as an excuse, although that was your initial thought anyway.

“You’re an author Jay. What was the idiom about books again? Don’t judge it by its cover?” Brooke replies. “Touché.” you say back. “You still haven’t answered my question though.” Brooke tells you with a smile. “Oh, of course. Lead the way.” you reply.

The two of you enter the hobby shop that is filled with walls and shelves of all kinds of collectibles— from Funko pops, to RC Cars, to anime figures, Gunpla, collectible toys, board games, card games, puzzles, among others. With the amount of collectibles in this place, you’re even more intrigued as to what certain hobby she gravitates towards.

“Anything tickles your fancy?” Brooke asks you.

“Oh, for me personally, nothing yet. Although, since there are anime figures here, maybe they have Haikyuu!! figures for sale that I could check out and maybe buy for Stella and Cassie as gifts.” you tell Brooke.

“What’s a… what you said? I’m guessing it’s an anime but what’s it about?” Brooke asks you.

“Oh, it’s a volleyball anime the girls like. I started watching it a week ago, and it’s actually really interesting even for someone who doesn’t really watch volleyball, since the heart of the story really just focuses on someone’s love for the game.” you answer Brooke.

“Of course it’s about volleyball.” Brooke chuckles, connecting the dots of why Stella and Cassie enjoy that particular anime.

“What about you? What made you want to check this place out?” you ask her.

“Oh, I collect wrestling figures.” Brooke answers.

“Wait, like The Rock and Stone Cold kind of wrestling?” you ask her.

“Yeah. I grew up during the height of the Monday Night Wars and the Attitude Era, and I just never grew out of it.” Brooke answers you.

“You know about Stone Cold, so I’m assuming you’re a little familiar?” Brooke asks you.

“I don’t think there’s anyone our age that doesn't know who Stone Cold Steve Austin is.” you joke, making Brooke nod in agreement.

“And that’s the bottomline…” Brooke starts the iconic catchphrase in her best impression, “Cuz’ Stone Cold said so!” you continue with her, and you both have a laugh in the middle of the hobby shop, reminiscing your childhoods.

“I have to admit though, I stopped following it once I became a dad and started college.” you admit to her.

“Yeah, that happens with a lot of fans.” Brooke answers.

“They become dads before they start college?” you ask jokingly, making Brooke laugh.

“No! I mean a lot of people grow out of it eventually, and it suddenly becomes uncool to be a wrestling fan once they start thinking it’s ‘fake’ or whatever.” Brooke admits.

“I always kind of knew it was fake, so I didn’t give a shit. It just felt like the show wasn’t growing with who I was becoming. Plus, you know, new baby and everything.” you tell her.

“I completely understand that. The fact that you mentioned that it wasn’t growing with you is actually very reasonable, especially if you only watched WWE. The Ruthless Aggression Era still had pretty good storylines and new wrestlers though, and I kept watching because of that.” Brooke tells you.

“Yeah that was around the time I dipped out. After Austin and Rock’s trilogy at ‘Mania.” you tell her.

You finally find the wrestling action figures section of the hobby shop, and Brooke’s eyes noticeably light up at the sight of all the wrestling memorabilia. Some wrestlers you recognize, while others you have no clue who they’re supposed to be. ‘Must be from the more recent eras’ you think to yourself.

“Who was your favorite wrestler before?” Brooke asks.

“Undertaker. His backstory was just so unique, and then they introduced Kane as his brother, and it was incredible. I was hooked as a kid from there.” you answer her.

“You watched his matches with Shawn Michaels at ‘Mania?” Brooke asks you.

“No, can’t say that I have.” you tell her.

“Dude! You have to watch those! If you’re into storylines both in promos and the matches themselves, you’re gonna love ‘em. Their entrances alone tell a story. The light and dark theme. Shawn comes down from above while ‘Taker rises up from below. I get chills just remembering it.” Brooke tells you excitedly.

You can’t help but just smile at Brooke being so passionate about something you only have a surface level appreciation for. It’s really endearing.

“What about your favorite female wrestler?” Brooke follows up. You take a little longer to answer that question since you really don’t have a favorite as you remember they weren’t really utilized other than eye candy when you were watching wrestling back then. Still, one name came to mind.

“Wait! Don’t answer. Let me guess!” Brooke stops you from answering. “It’s Sable isn’t it?” Brooke guesses, and you just shyly smile that she got it correct. “HA! Typical teenage casual during the Attitude Era.” Brooke says, almost sounding like an insult, but you can’t really deny the assessment since you were exactly that.

“Still, can’t blame you for liking Sable. Beautiful blonde bombshell, just the way Vince McMahon liked ‘em.” Brooke tells you.

“So you’re saying Vince McMahon would’ve liked you too?” you asked her.

“Settle down, Jay. I just might stop believing Stella that you’re bad at flirting.” Brooke jokes, and you can only give her an awkward smile since, once again, you were just trying to be clever, and not flirty.

“Anyway, if I was really anything like Sable or Trish Stratus, they would’ve signed me when I tried out.” Brooke tells you, but the last part took you by surprise.

“You were a wrestler?” you ask in surprised fascination.

“Yeah. After I graduated college, I did some indy wrestling for extra cash while I worked odd jobs here and there.” Brooke reveals.

“Oh wow! That’s incredible. You have tapes of some matches? I’d love to watch some of them.” You tell her with genuine interest. Brooke blushes a bit at your little show of fanboying.

“I have some CDs at home of my matches, yeah. I can send you softcopies if you really want to watch them.” Brooke tells you, a bit of shyness in her tone, probably because she’s going to share a more intimate part of her wrestling past with you. You tell her as enthusiastically as you could that you’d love to watch her matches, which brings a smile to her face.

The two of you kept browsing the wrestling memorabilia section, circled back to talking about your shared past of enjoying Attitude Era wrestling, her hyping you up to watch the two matches between Undertaker versus Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania, something about a pipe-bomb, and some of the newer wrestlers that are keeping her hooked to keep watching every week.

Until the conversation stops abruptly. She saw something on the shelf that just slowed down time for her.

She picked up the box from the shelf with a look of awe. The box had two action figures inside of familiar wrestlers, even to you. “Let me guess which one you’re excited for.” you joke. Brooke just laughs, knowing she can’t really hide her excitement after finding this particular memorabilia.

“Chyna was where it’s at, Jay.” Brooke tells you. The box she was holding had Chyna and Triple H inside, with Chyna carrying two belts around her shoulders.

“First, and only, woman to win the Intercontinental Title. Only woman enforcer to a stable of men, and one of them was the world fucking champion at one point.” Brooke continued to gush about her love for Chyna. Once again, you can’t help but smile at Brooke just being incredibly passionate about professional wrestling.

“First woman to participate in a Royal Rumble. Hated being Women’s Champion because she thought it was a downgrade. Fucking icon this woman. She was the whole reason I wanted to become a wrestler. She is, hands down, my favorite. Man or woman. Not even using the usual criteria of in-ring or promo ability, or being a huge draw; but just for being as groundbreaking as she was for women’s wrestling. I could talk about her for hours.” Brooke added.

“Don’t let me stop you.” you say with a genuine smile, intrigued at the stories she could tell about how much she loved Chyna.

“Oh crap, I must be boring you with this. I’m really sorry about—” she began to apologize, to your surprise.

“Woah! No way! Never feel ashamed about something you're passionate about. I’m genuinely enjoying listening. I think I’m the one who needs to apologize if the last thing I said sounded sarcastic—” you cut her off and start to apologize as well, and she cuts you off to stop you from apologizing to her, ending up in both of you just laughing at making the conversation awkward.

“Really though, thanks for indulging me and being a good listener.” Brooke tells you. “We can go to the counter and I can pay for this, and maybe you can ask if they have figures for that volleyball anime you told me about.” Brooke suggests, which you agree to and you both make your way to the counter.

Sadly, they were out of stock for any Haikyuu!! figures for you to purchase for the girls, but the clerk did say that they sold a Karasuno Banner windbreaker and you checked it out, and it was literally a black windbreaker with the kanji for Karasuno’s slogan on it printed in white at the upper right chest area. If you remember correctly, the kanji translates to ‘Fly’, which you tell Brooke when she asks what it means.

“That’s dope.” Brooke says, showing her approval; and you have to agree with her, it does look pretty cool. You message Cassie asking what her size is for women's jackets, since you know Stella’s already, and she just replies her size without asking what it was for. She did message: ‘Thanks for still thinking of me when you’re with such a hottie ;P’

‘Sweet talker.’ You think to yourself, but you’re pretty sure Cassie isn’t like that either, she’s just genuinely a sweet girl.

After making your purchases, the two of you exit the hobby shop and ask each other where you want to go next to kill time. Brooke mentions she’s good, and probably just needs to put her action figures in her car, which she says can wait for later. So you suggest finding something for Tanya as well, since you bought something for your two other girlfriends.

“Oh, I have an idea for that.”