Monkey Flip: NOVA 2017

It's 2017 and Alex Helton's world is changed forever.  Colt Carson has a talk with him early, admitting that he's been a dick, and that he's booked them in a match together...in November.  For the NOVA title, and Alex will be...the defender.  Alex doesn't believe it for a minute.  "Bullshit," he says.  "Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit."  Carson likes the reaction so much he has Alex repeat this in the arena, and it's the exact character catalyst he needs to once and finally get over, become a vocally supported, uniquely supported competitor.

But he's booked to lose his match at Idolwild, against Hector Luna, one of the most respected indy wrestlers of his generation.  Luna is booked in March to do the honors for Carson, a month before Carson challenges for the title, which Dixon Wolfe is holding.  Dixon's been champion since last October.  In fact, Dixon will remain the longest-reigning NOVA champion for the foreseeable future (I won't tell you what that means just yet, son).  Alex is booked to lose again in February, and the fans chant "Bullshit!" right along with him.  Little do they know...He loses in March, and the fans chant "Bullshit!" 

In April, he picks up his first win of the year.  It's against Anton Jericho, and yes that's significant, as even Carson has realized that Anton's a Helton guy, making that two active competitors on the roster, including Alex's old friend Scott Peavy, and two departed, slipped-through-Carson's-fingers superstars, Koba and Bronson, both of whom were positively giddy about Alex's future prospects.  Alex wins again in May.  In June, he beats Damian Goch, and Goch makes it clear to the fans, at the end of the match, that he's passing the torch, mouthing "Bullshit!" after taking the pin, and they return it back to him, loudly. 

Finally, finally, in July, at the Warrior card, Alex battles Dixon for the title.  It's the best match of the year.  Everyone says so.  If Dixon's epic reign is to finally end, three months short of a year, it will have to end spectacularly.  They brawl all over the arena.  And this never happens at a NOVA show, except in stretcher matches, which at this point are a thing of the past.  Alex breaks out the kendo stick, which fans haven't seen him use since the match with Koba, last March.  The fans know what this means.  They know immediately.  He didn't even have to argue with Carson about it.  He couldn't believe it then, and he doesn't believe it as he's using it on Dixon, clubbing the champion as he's never clobbered anyone with it before, letting savagery fly, knowing that once again, as Koba helped him realize, that expectations are a funny thing, and that if he's going to make history he's going to have to break his own rules, play to what the fans want, what he's long denied them, what he's long been denied himself.  And Dixon's smiling.  He's smiling from ear to ear.  The fans can't believe it.  They've never seen anything like it.  They know what Dixon knows, that finally, he's being given the fight of his life, and it's from Alex Helton, who having the fight of his life...And just like that, it's over.  One, two, three.  Alex is champion.

Three Rules, in August, is designed to replicate this without duplicating it.  For the first time ever, not only will one man compete in each of the "three rules," but two of them: Alex and Dixon.  First, they have a tornado match.  Scott can't be his partner.  Neither can Anton.  Scott's injured.  In he suffers a stinger against Jull Marias.  It's basically the end of Marias, who sticks around a couple more months (a decisive loss to Carson in February sends a clear enough single).  The immediate concern is that Scott is paralyzed for life.  He remains motionless in the ring for several minutes, and the whole locker room panics.  Alex fights back tears.  Carson gives him the okay to break kayfabe and be there for Scott on the way to the back.  It won't be until October next year that Scott is up to competing again, and that's for the "Beast" program that will establish the persona WPW use to great effect.  He becomes more limited, but emphasizing his power becomes a huge draw.  It would never have worked in NOVA, except fans realize at this precise moment how much Alex and Scott mean to each other, and on that note, embrace Scott's "Beast" for reasons other than the storyline, because he's their last link to one of their all-time favorites at that point.

Anton defeated Steve Williams on the Warrior card; at Three Rules he's Dixon's tornado partner, and at Unleashed VI in September, he's Alex's challenger in the main event.  Alex has Jason Donovan beside him at in the tornado match.  Donovan is a solid indy competitor who'll never break the main event in NOVA, much less WPW or NWW.  Alex gets the win and the pin, on Anton, leaving the fans to anticipate their next encounter, and eager for Dixon to grab the spotlight in the night's next match, under kendo rules.  Everyone knows what this means, and so Alex and Dixon play against expectations.  Alex lets Dixon do the monkey flip.  It draws a decent pop.  He unveils a corkscrew flip from the turnbuckle, with the stick.  It's something he's practiced a thousand times, and half the time been thoroughly dissatisfied with.  The momentum of the move makes it hard to stick the landing, so it's always a matter of the flashiness overcoming the execution.  With the kendo stick?  It's enough not the get tangled up and completely botch it.  Somehow he pulls it off.  He calls it the Hell on Earth, which helps WPW come up with the "Hell Town" gimmick when his name is switched to Alex Dane next year, and the company still wants a nod to his given name.  Somewhat more intimidating than the monkey flip.  Tricky as, well, hell to pull off, so he'll only ever do it sparingly.

The final match of the evening is the stretcher match.  This is the one where they allow themselves to duplicate what they did at Warrior.  They fight all over the arena.  They go into the stands, right among the fans themselves, which never happens at a NOVA show, so that there's no mistake how special a moment this really is.  It creates the right amount of illusion about how personal this is, how desperate they are to end the feud, two matches on the night later.  Alex gets his third and final pin.  He remains champion.  The whole idea was to sell this as an impossibility.  He scaled the mountain after years of futility, only to lose, definitely lose, the night of his first defense, against the man who had proved to be the most dominant champion the company had ever seen, in three grueling matches in more than an hour of wrestling...But he does it.  He comes out with the belt still in his possession.  If someone had told him back in 2012...

At Unleashed, the anniversary card, he beats Anton.  In October, he beats Luna.  In November...the card he dreaded more than any other...he beats Carson.  Easily.  It's such a lopsided contest, he feels guilty the whole time.  He wallops on Carson for twenty minutes.  Carson just keeps taking it, rallying just long enough to be beaten down all over again.  Alex enjoys every minute of it.  He doesn't care for a minute that he already knows the ride ends in December, against Oliver Pine, against a guy who overstays his NOVA welcome after a lengthy title reign to become irrelevant, and it's not just because WPW has come calling with the most unbelievable deal imaginable, the chance to headline World Famous just a few months later, in a sensational battle of indy darlings, against the one-and-only BM Pro...The match with Pine is brutal in ways he hasn't experienced before.  He suspects it's Carson's passive-aggressive parting shot.  Pine works stiff, and Alex's back is screaming out in pain by the end of it, and he's wondering if he'll even be able to wrestle again in a few months, much less live up to the hype...But what the hell, right?  He screams "Bullshit!" at the end of it, and the fans scream it right back at him, and they know what happens next, too, and for a change, they aren't bitter about it.  Not one bit.  They love their fortunate son.  They know he'll deliver there, too.  He's experienced far too much.  As he's walking out of the arena, Scott's there waiting for him, and it's the most emotional moment NOVA has ever experienced.  Pine's moment is completely overshadowed.  He stands ignored in the ring.  (Ah.  Maybe that's why that happens.)  Alex and Scott embrace, and Alex shouts "Bullshit!" one more time, and he's behind the curtain, the deadening curtain, before he can hear it repeated back at him one last time. 

Scott pulls him close, and says, "I love you, brother."  The pain is there on his face as he says it.  His neck will never be the same, and in that moment, he doesn't care.  Alex blows off Carson, still congratulating himself for having engineered all of this, and Alex is suddenly pissed off.  He feels full of ingratitude all of a sudden.  This year has been magical, but...so many things could've been different.  He wonders if it would've been better.  He fears what tomorrow will bring, if he's going to fail on the bigger stage, if he's been set up to fail...Is it just one big cruel joke?  That's why he blows Carson off, when he should be thanking him, thanking him for the years of opportunity, and, yeah, for putting all this past year together, for sticking with him when other wrestlers fell by the wayside, a lot of much bigger names, the ones everyone already knew, the ones who came in and made huge splashes and walked away as soon as they'd been given these same opportunities without so much as...He turns around and gives Carson a hug, scowling the whole time.  Carson is totally bewildered, and Alex begins to laugh. 

Life is good.  His fortunes just took a cosmic monkey flip forward.