Posted by The Andrews Foundation on August 31, 2004, 2:36 am

“I can’t believe you actually went and did it, Jeffman.” Kai Scott is euphoric. He couldn’t have imagined a better night, actually. Winning the CAL Tag Titles, screwing the CAL over, AND getting IWA to go independent after 3 long years? He’s psyched. “Yeah, well ” For someone who just made a decision as big as the one he made, Jeffy Andrews isn’t very energetic about things. In fact, he looks about as low as he has since he dropped the “Low Man Immortal” routine. That could be blood loss – he’s suffering from that yield sign induced head wound, and has a gauze bandage the size of Nebraska taped to his forehead – but it could be something else. Kai isn’t really that perceptive right now. Ronnie Long is, however. The three of them are loitering around outside the arena. Angelina Bishop, as anyone who read Crusade knows, threw Andrews and his entourage out after Andrews announced IWA’s departure. They’re all feeling the effects of a wild brawl with Jeffy’s younger cousins. Scott with a lump forming on his head, and Long with his ribs aching again he’ll have to get that checked. Heidi hasn’t made it out of the arena. Maybe it’s because she’s just plain a better person than they are, but she didn’t get thrown out with the rest of them. But they can’t leave without Jeffy’s girl, if only because she’d kick their asses if they did. And so there’s nothing to do but sit, talk, and stay out of sight so no fans come up and bug them. “Jeff, I exaggerate not. That was one of the coolest things we ever did. Maybe even cooler than Absolute Power, and that was pretty cool itself. But dude, you made Angelina Bishop break. Nobody else has done that. NOBODY. You really, truly, are the MAN.” Jeffy Andrews grins a little bit as he hears his catchphrase spoken back at him. “I guess. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Shame it had to happen though.” Kai Scott sees no bad in IWA leaving the CAL. It’s no secret that he didn’t like it from the get-go, and he’s kept a mental black book of every wrong, real and perceived, that the CAL has done to the IWA. He’s a grudge holder extraordinaire, and not an entirely logical grudge holder at that. “What’s shameful about it? That you didn’t think to wait until Shockwave to quit the CAL, so as we could shitcan the titles?” Andrews sighs, a long, weary sigh. But he doesn’t actually answer. “I don’t get it, Jeff. You plan this whole thing out, I mean, you actually play Angelina Bishop. You use the entire CAL, and everyone in your fed, and I’m thinking, yeah, you’re finally the scheming cold-blooded evil sonofab###h that the IWA needs as a boss. Then you turn around and get all mopey because you had to go and be mean about something.” Andrews doesn’t answer. Kai looks first at him, then at Ronnie Long. Long shrugs as if to say ‘what do you expect me to say about it?’. Somewhere behind them, a door slams, but Kai is the only one to turn and look at the sound. A few seconds later, Heidi walks up to them. Alone of all of them, she took relatively little damage during the CAL Tag Title match, and she still looks fresh. “Well, I’ve taken care of buisness. Ready to go eat?” The four of them will grab dinner as a group before splitting up and going home. Most likely it’ll be Taco Bell. They climb into Jeffy’s jeep. Heidi decides to drive, what with Jeffy’s head being hurt and everything, so he takes shotgun. Kai and Ronnie ride in the back where Kai will see how much he can get away with kicking the back of Heidi’s seat before she attempts to strangle him with the seatbelt, and Ronnie will let the wind blow excess grease out of his hair. The four of them ride in silence. Jeffy didn’t bother turning the radio on, loud music isn’t what you need when you have a headache the size of his, and Heidi hates his kind of music anyway. The neon lights of downtown Miami fly past, and on the sidewalk. Standing on the sidewalk, an unfortunate wrestling fan who wasn’t able to get either tickets or a PPV order for Crusade III, flips out at the sight of the infamous Andrews Foundation silver jeep. “Taco Bell at 3 o’clock” Jeffy says. By now, he’s resting his head on the headrest. Heidi pulls into the parking lot without a word. A few minutes later, two Grande Combos on the table in front of them, the four wrestlers are eating. And at length, Jeffy Andrews sighs and drops a half eaten burrito back onto his tray. “There’s so much I wanted to do with the IWA, you know.” Heidi nods. “Yeah, Jeff, I know. There was a lot there I wanted to do too.” “I really shouldn’t have rejected Sam Carnage’s challenge.” He then says. “Sure you should’ve.” It’s Kai, butting in unhelpfully. “Why fight Carnage? He’s old. Can’t do anything. Not worth your time anyway. You left, remember?” Jeffy Andrews takes a long breath. He looks into the eyes of his girlfriend, almost as if seeking strength. Finally, he speaks. “Yes, Kai, I left. It was a conscious decision I made, and I’m not planning to undo it any time soon. But dude ok, you need to ####ing stop with the anti CAL bullshit, and you need to do it now.” Kai drops his taco. He hasn’t heard Jeffy use this tone of voice, ever. He heard Heidi use it once, when she was talking about her ‘admirer’. “If this were entirely an act, Kai, I’d try and pretend like this was my plan all along. That I never liked the CAL and I only wanted IWA for myself. This plan was nearly spur of the moment. Bishop and Richards were going to do this thing with or without me, and I went along with them because I was sick and tired of having to deal with people pulling against me. I was looking forward to being able to use this new stroke I had to get back at people like Ripper Longshanks. But if I had it to do over again, I’d have directed Heidi to jump Miss Angie at Reindeer Games 3 and ruin her shit to the point she didn’t even want to THINK about wrestling again. Then NPW would have merged back into the CAL, I’d still be running the CAL look. The CAL isn’t at fault. It never was. But it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole thing, and when one of those bad apples is on the executive board, it means you’re screwed. As far as I’m concerned, I saved the CAL TWICE. And if you think I’m going to piss that away on a ‘neener neener, I quit and you suck’ heel promo, you better step back and reevaluate, because that is NOT ####ing happening.” By now, Jeffy Andrews has the attention of everyone in the entire restaurant. Apparently none of them are wrestling fans, as there’ve been no autograph requests. “Well, Jeff ” Kai stands up. “You just got done bragging to me about your lack of foresight. But I have foresight, Jeff, and let me tell you what I forsee. You’re in control of what was, until about 3 hours ago, the unquestioned top fed of the CAL. Only NPW at its absolute peak could compete with IWA right now. Not only do we have us and Heidi, but we’ve got Freddy, Neo, Cole, Gazz, Fats, BA, Damien, Gemma. We’ve got a talent roster that’d make your random promoter splooge in his pants. And considering we’re becoming NPW 2k4, we’ve only got up to go. IWA is, dare I say it? The BEST indy promotion in the United States. Now you’ve got the majority share of this company, and Dawn’s already said she’ll do whatever you want so long as you don’t ever pull politics on Cole Christenson. And from a buisness standpoint I’d be OK with that, because the big man is ratings, and while I don’t like promoting Dawn in any way shape or form, I give almost as much a damn about the IWA as you do. So all things considered, Jeff, you can do whatever the hell you want you follow?” Jeffy Andrews nods. “So what are you going to do? Are you going to go out there and start making some noise? Are you going to give the wrestling world what they really want, and shoot on the CAL? I’ll help you out if you need some good shoot material. Or are you going to play the politically correct road, and say that you have regrets that the situation came about, and generally look like a complete pussy who can’t help but second guess himself? I mean, we all know that you ARE a complete pussy who constantly second guesses himself, but not everyone has to.” Heidi’s watching Kai in the same way you might watch a relatively interesting commercial while channel surfing. Ronnie is looking at Jeffy, gauging his reaction. “When you reopen IWA, does it become just another indy fed? Or do you promote it as the be all of end all of wrestling on the east coast of the USA? If you plan to do the latter, Jeff there’s no way you can avoid NOT calling the CAL a festering pile of shit that was holding you back.” “Making ones self obnoxious IS the cornerstone of wrestling ” Ronnie Long imitates a wise man as he crumples taco wrappers into a ball. “I think we all need a break. My ribs are killing me, and I’m tired. So, maybe we should just hook back up tomorrow and do some talking I’d like to see this work out.” “Sounds good. We’ll meet at my place.” Jeffy yawns, stretches, and stands to leave. “Don’t you mean our place?” His girlfriend’s question follows him to the trash bin. “Nope. I mean my place. The house up by Wildwood. If we’re going to start with a bang like Kai said, I’ve got me an idea ”