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“Little man keeps you busy, I bet,” William said.
“You have no idea.”
“I’m in karate,” Chase jumped into a stance and held his hands up. “But I also just signed up for soccer. I’m going to kick the ball so hard.”
“Karate is cool. Good luck with soccer.”
Teddy smiled at Chase, then Dad resumed talking to the students about the traffic and some construction going on at USC. His students stayed in line with us while Morgan and I started to look at the program again. Once we got inside, Teddy and William went in a different direction than we were going in.
“Let’s get our snacks before we go to our seats,” Dad suggested and guided us toward a line.
While we waited in line, Morgan and I looked around us on the concourse. There were more tables and booths selling stuff. Posters, t-shirts, action figures, and even collector cards and plaques. The three of us brought our allowance money to buy something, so hopefully we’d have time to look after the match.
Morgan carried two sodas in plastic WrestleMania cups while Dad carried one in one hand and Chase in the other. Chase held the program and a box of candy for us to share. I carried another soda and a giant tub of popcorn and followed behind Morgan, who followed Dad to our seats. Our seats were lower level, and I couldn’t believe how close we’d be to the ring! Chase and Morgan sat on either side of Dad, and I sat on the other side of Chase. Dad also held on to the tub of popcorn and candy for us to share.
While we waited for the first match, I thumbed through the program again. At the very back there was a page mainly in black and white. It looked like a wrestling ring but also different. It looked like a cage with multiple sides. “Coming soon” was splashed across the page in bright red letters.
What is that?
I read the debut article for The Undertaker, but I quickly found myself staring at the back page again. The promise of something coming soon intrigued me.
Soon the arena went dark, and a few indoor fireworks went off from the top of the ring’s posts. The huge screen over the ring came to life, and a gritty, deep voice read the phrases that appeared on the screen.
“Think you’re tough?” The screen showed two men from the waist down in baggy boxing shorts moving around in a boxing ring. Only they looked barefoot. The screen went black, and in red letters it read, “We’ll see just how tough you are.” The monitor flashed to the black and white image again, only this time it showed the men from head to toe. No boxing gloves. No shoes. One of the men spun on the ball of his foot and made a karate-type kick to his opponent’s face. The screen went black again and red letters popped up as the announcer spoke. “Get ready.” Suddenly a brief picture of the cage from the back of the program flashed on the screen. It was gone in the blink of an eye and then the announcer’s booming voice said, “Coming soon.”
What?
What the hell was that?
Whatever the hell it was, I wanted to see more of it. My heart pounded as I quickly went to the back of the program to see if there was anything there that I hadn’t seen the first time. Maybe some fine print or something. Anything. I was almost desperate for info on that cage.
During the matches, the cage had slipped my mind. But as soon as each match ended, I opened the program up and started going through each page to see if anything was mentioned about the cage. During one of the smaller and lesser known matches, Dad took Chase to the bathroom, and Morgan scooted over to Chase’s seat.
“Did you see that cage, Morg?” I asked while my fingers moved the pages quickly.
“Yeah.”
I found the page and held it up for him to see.
“What do you think it is?” I asked. When Morgan shrugged, I glanced at the two wrestlers in the ring, but I was thinking about the fighters from the cage. “The guys looked like they were wearing boxing shorts.”
“Maybe it’s a kind of boxing,” Morgan suggested.
“Without boxing gloves, though?”
“I don’t know.” Morgan tossed a few chocolate covered raisins in his mouth. “They didn’t have shoes on either.”
“Exactly.” I held my hand out for him to put some of the candy in. “And that kick move.”
“It was like karate, but something else too.”
“Definitely some kind of martial arts.”
“Look, Hollis and Morg!” Chase exclaimed as he was excitedly moving toward us with Dad holding his hand. He clutched a plush, muscled Hulk Hogan toy against his chest and stomach. As Chase walked by us, he made sure his Hulk Hogan plush danced on our laps and then made Hulk Hogan punch us gently in our faces.
“Cool,” I said and then did a karate chop at Hulk’s neck.
Dad took the seat Morgan had vacated and put Chase between himself and Morgan now. We turned our attention to the ring when a familiar voice filled the arena.
