Chapter 38
CZW Southern Violence.
August 7, 2010.
It was a date and event that would forever be seared in Keyla's mind as long as she lived. Possibly the most brutal and sadistic match Jon ever participated in throughout his entire CZW career. He walked into Lumberton, North Carolina in front of an audience of a little more than 50 people and they were the best crowd Jon ever wrestled in front of. Keyla was front row for the match and witnessed the massacre of three men all vying for the richest prize in CZW. For some reason, she was nerve wracked over the fact Nick Gage was in the match, but it did make her feel better since Drake Younger was the third participant. Why she took up Jon's offer on sitting front row for the match was beyond Keyla, but she regretted it the moment she saw all the death match weapons being set up in the ring. Light tubes and barbed wire surrounded the ring and, the moment Jon entered it, the match immediately started with all competitors going crazy on each other.
3 and a half minutes into the match, Gage had Jon on the mat and set a yellow light tube on the back of his head before climbing the top rope. Keyla had to hold back a scream, watching helplessly as Gage launched off the rope in the air and nearly had a stroke when Jon moved out of the way just in time, forcing Gage to crash through the light tube alone. Then Jon proceeded to take a piece of the light tube and lacerated Gage's forehead, following up with busting the rest of the light tube over his lower back with his boot. Once they were outside of the ring, Jon grabbed one of the back row chairs to hit Drake with in the gut, nearly decapitating Drake with it. Drake moved and Gage had grabbed his own chair to use as a weapon, launching it right into Jon's face connecting.
The brutality continued with Keyla following the chaos as much as she could, her heart clenching painfully in her chest the moment Drake tossed Jon against the wall, busting him open. It was payback for destroying Drake's back with a set of light tubes earlier on in the match, his back bleeding profusely. Keyla was certain he'd need a blood transfusion. Before long, the match couldn't contain the violent tendencies the wrestlers had in store for each other. She lost count how many times she jumped, cringed and squeaked at the moves, especially when the match moved outdoors. Fans chased them down to watch the match, handing over weapons for the wrestlers to use and Keyla made the mistake of following.
"Jesus…" She whispered in her hands cupped over her mouth, watching Jon take a nasty spill from the side of a parked truck and hit his knee on the gravel.
The sickening thump echoed throughout the parking lot they were fighting in. Keyla had to fight back the urge to run to Jon's side, knowing he was hurt and unable to do anything about it until after the match ended. As if that wasn't bad enough, Jon somehow fought through the pain in his knee and had his head smashed into the back door of a van, courtesy of Drake.
"FUCK HIM UP!" The fans screamed as loud as they could every time a big move was made by the bleeding hurt wrestlers. "YEAH!"
"Please end this. Please end the match already!" Keyla whispered, not wanting to be booed by the fans or take away the incredibly brutal performance Jon displayed. "Christ, how much more can they take?"
Eventually, the match was brought back inside with Jon laid out on the outside of the ring, Drake and Gage beating each other up trying to gain the pin. Keyla didn't care about them, her eyes focused solely on Jon as he tried crawling and scratching his way to get back in the ring to defend his championship. Tears stung her eyes as Keyla clasped her hands together and refused to let them fall, sniffling quietly to herself. All she wanted was to see Jon walk out of here on his own without ending up in a wheelchair or taking a trip to the local hospital. Miraculously, Jon made it back into the ring and delivered a devastating cutter on the stack of light tubes in the middle. Nick Gage took advantage and grabbed Jon from behind, pile driving Jon headfirst into the carnage of the light tubes, pinning him for the victory. The moment the referee made the 3 count, Keyla nearly dropped to her knees and instead sat down, wiping away a few tears sliding down her cheeks. She couldn't let Jon see how upset this match made her because he hated drama and crying women.
Get it together before he sees you, Keyla chastised herself in thought, standing from the chair and made her way to the back while Jon made it to his feet in the ring, stunned by what happened. It took him a few minutes to make it to the backstage area, Jon spotting Keyla waiting for him with medical supplies since CZW didn't have a medical team on standby. She stood up from the chair she occupied and guided Jon to sit down in it, being careful since he had shards of light tube glass sticking out of his skin. Dipping a washcloth in the bowl of water and holding a pair of pliers, Keyla began the task of cleaning Jon up from the match, plucking pieces of glass out of his arms. It was a smart decision for him to wear jeans and a white beater because it protected his back and legs, leaving his arms, neck and hands exposed. Even through a crimson mask of blood, Jon could tell Keyla was visibly upset and saw the tears streaking down her cheeks silently. She wasn't making a sound or saying a word to him. Jon grunted, grabbing her wrist to stop her from cleaning him up and looked up in her bloodshot red rimmed citrine eyes, his chest tightening slightly.
"Why the fuck are you crying?" He demanded gruffly, releasing her wrist and pushed Keyla away, wincing at his sore knee. "What is it?"
Speaking would open the flood gates and Keyla's face would look like Niagara Falls, so she opted to keep her mouth shut. She didn't mean to cry, but seeing him bloody, bruised and broken like this broke her heart in ways Keyla never experienced before. Watching the man she was in love with put his life on the line night after night was taking its toll on her and Keyla didn't know how much longer she could handle doing this job.
"You have to get used to this, Keyla. I've been through worse than this. It doesn't hurt as much as you think and it's not that bad either." Jon decided to take the blunt approach with her, needing to make Keyla understand this was the life he lived and nothing would change it. "Getting hurt and cut up and beat up is part of the job, darlin'. And I LIKE it. I like having my body smash through light tubes and being hit with steel chairs. I LOVE the sound of a body crashing to the mat when someone misses their mark on me and I take advantage by smashing their face to the mat in a Hook & Ladder and pinning them for the win. Having my arm raised in victory and hurting someone at the same time is orgasmic to me. So you either deal with it or you stop coming on the road with me and I'll find another camera person that can handle watching me destroy myself. I don't need a woman crying over me or caring enough about me to cry over me. I just need you to do your fucking job, realize I'm a professional wrestler and this is my life."
Not able to keep her mouth shut any longer after that verbal berating, Keyla felt the anger well up inside of her and picked up the first-aid kit, tossing it at him as hard as she could. "YOU ASSHOLE! You egotistical, self-righteous, inconsiderate, no good SON OF A BITCH!" At this point, Keyla didn't care who overheard her and shoved Jon, making the chair tip over to land on the floor with him growling in response. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry I cared about you because I forgot who I was dealing with for a minute! I'm sorry for wasting tears on the likes of YOU! Take care of your damn self and go to hell while you're at it, Moxley!"
Storming out of the room, Keyla slammed the door behind her and went outside to get some fresh muggy August night air, leaving Jon alone to tend to his wounds alone.
January 2011 – Dragon Gate.
"Turn the camcorder on."
Keyla's head snapped up when she heard the command, seeing Jon had just lit a cigarette and was leaning against the nearest white cinderblock wall. He had on a dark blue t-shirt that fit him like a second skin and light blue jeans with holes ripped in the knees, his hair wet hanging over his eyes. There was no match that night, but Jon had spent countless hours behind closed doors with the owner of Dragon Gate, apparently cutting deals for his group known as Kamikaze USA. It consisted of Jon Moxley, Yamato and Akira Tozawa – one of the most lethal groups in the Dragon Gate wrestling organization. Keyla started learning a bit of Japanese to communicate with them, thanks to Jon, and they were sweet men behind the scenes. Unlike Jon, they had manners and always pulled her chair out whenever they went out to eat after shows. She thought Yamato was adorable and Akira Tozawa was a little self-indulged, but still sweet nonetheless.
As far as her and Jon's relationship went, ever since Keyla snapped at him 5 months ago in North Carolina after the Southern Violence match, things had changed between them. They were friendly with each other – sometimes too much. Depended on the moment and mood Keyla and Jon were in. There were times Keyla allowed him to have his way with her body, but no sex happened. Never once. That lead to a lot of oral sex between the two and Jon kept questioning why Keyla wouldn't let him have her fully. Keyla shut him up by saying she would only have sex with her next boyfriend and Jon never asked again, sticking with the strict foreplay. Not only were they getting along sexually, but Keyla's blowup showed a different side of her, one Jon respected and he realized he didn't want to lose her as his on-road camerawoman. No more tears were shed during any of his matches, at least not in front of Jon, and Keyla made it a personal goal of hers to never cry in front of him again as long as they worked together.
Without a word, Keyla flipped the camcorder on and pressed the record button, zooming into Jon's face and upper body. He started off talking about how Kamikaze USA accomplished a lot in the year 2010 and made the champion's life, BB Hulk, miserable throughout. But he was still walking and that wasn't satisfying to Jon Moxley, so as far as he was concerned, 2010 was a big failure, a big fat zero. Keyla couldn't remember the last time she saw so much intensity in Jon's eyes, her mouth going dry while filming him as he continued on with the promo, explaining the deals he cut in exchange for bowing out of the tag team tournament coming up in Dragon Gate.
"Because I keep thinking back to Chicago, thinking back to BB Hulk saying 'I'm gonna take out Kamikaze USA one by one!' Really?! Are you now? Well GODDAMN!" He yelled, walking toward the camera and lowered his voice slightly. "Here's your chance. January 28th, 29, 30 – you can, in a manner of speaking, run the Kamikaze USA gauntlet. Manhattan, Philly, Union City – face Yamato, Jon Moxley and, if you're still breathing, Akira Tozawa. Title on the line all 3 nights. It's what you wanted – and it's on the table, all you gotta do is say yes! So what kind of champion are you? What kind of MAN are you? Are you gonna hide behind your belt? Or are you gonna at least TRY to stand up and back up your words? I would, but that's just me, you know, 'cause I'm not a coward! But you do whatever you want. If you choose not to accept, I won't judge you. I won't call you a lame ass paper champion…"
Keyla wanted to stop filming, toss the camcorder aside and jump on him, the pool between her thighs warm and wet by now in her dark washout jeans. Christ he's going to kill me, Keyla thought, trying not to tremble while holding the camcorder.
"In 2010, I wrecked everything everywhere! I pissed off the whole world! I set the trends, I shifted the power, I changed the game! In 2011, Kamikaze USA GUTS Dragon Gate like a fish!" Jon promised vehemently, bringing his arm down right in front of the camcorder as if he was the blade doing the cutting. "And that's STILL just the beginning, it won't be long, I'm gonna change everything. Because I am energy that cannot be created or destroyed, manufactured or copied! I don't have to dream. I'm gonna make a lot of things, a lot of frightening things, become stark reality." With those last words, Jon's face was nearly pressed into the camcorder before walking away and effectively ending the promo.
Slowly lowering the camcorder from her eye, Keyla turned it off and set it down on the nearby table, walking forward Jon intently. "Is that all you wanted to say?" She asked, reaching out to stop Jon from lighting a new cigarette since he flicked the other one across the room during the promo he just cut.
Another moment that scorched her lower extremities.
Jon could see something different about Keyla, her normal citrine eyes a deep molten gold blazing into his electric blues. "Yeah, I'd still be talking if I wasn't done." He blinked as Keyla reached up to cup his face and brought his mouth crashing down on hers, both engaging in a passionate kiss.
Not breaking the kiss, Jon cupped both of Keyla's jean covered cheeks and lifted her to where her legs wrapped around his waist, spinning around to plant her against the wall where she couldn't escape. It'd been a while since Keyla initiated something with him and Jon had no idea why she was attacking him, but she would hear no complaints either. Every time they were entangled in an explosive kiss and Jon undressed her to pleasure her with his mouth, tongue and teeth was definitely a good night. However, it was getting to the point where he wanted more than just oral – he wanted all of Keyla completely, just not a relationship. In the back of his mind, Jon had something brewing on his mind and had been for a month – something that would forever change what he and Keyla had, whatever it was. He had to tell her and it had to be tonight before anything else transpired.
"K-Keyla…" Jon mumbled against her mouth, pulling back while she tried stopping him from doing so and suddenly got diarrhea of the mouth. "I got an offer from WWE…and I'm thinking about taking it."