"Alright," Matt Bloom says, clapping his hands together. "We're gonna go slow since it's your first time back in the ring, Zack." He watches from the floor as Jason Jordan walks forward, immediately locking up with Zack.
It's a simple exercise, lock up, throw into the ropes, rebound, shoulder check. One of the first chains you learn, but Zack is still wary of doing it for the first time, not sure how his arm's going to hold up. Either way, he doesn't want to disappoint the familiar blue eyes watching him from the seats past the security barricade so he kicks off, grabs Jason and tries to fight him back. He holds his breath, going with the motions as he hits the ropes, rebounds, checks Jason to the ground. They do this a couple of times and though it hurts at first, his arm holds, reacquainting itself to the motion, the impacts, everything that comes with giving and taking the wrestling moves.
Eventually Matt calls it and Jason slips out of the ring after nodding and clapping Zack on his good arm, barely breaking a sweat. He looks so confident and able that for a brief minute Zack hates him. He's distracted, however, when the ring gives upon a new entrant and Zack stares across at Mojo Rawley, frowning as the man hops around, looking like he has so much energy he may explode. This guy, he thinks dismissively. They shift the order around a bit, adding a couple of things just to see how far Zack's endurance can go, and it's harder to achieve than the earlier, easy set of moves, but Mojo guides him through it, his energy easing back a bit when Zack struggles to pop a hiptoss, his face reddening with annoyance.
"It's ok, playboy, I gotcha," Mojo chirps in his ear and, although it's annoying for Zack to be treated with kids gloves by a rookie like this, there's something almost comforting about it and, the next time they go through the moves, Zack hits it with only a little hesitation and Mojo bounds back up, face lit up like it's his accomplishment too. "See, told you you'd get it!"
Zack grins at him without thinking before Matt yells at them and they fall back into it, Zack exhaling softly once it's done and Mojo rolls out, seeming about as unaffected by it all as Jason Jordan was, but Zack's ok with that. He'd managed the chain wrestling just fine. It's a start.
He's just caught his breath, downing some water, when the ring shifts again and he looks up ti find Dolph smirking at him. He raises his eyebrows at Dolph and screws the lid back on the bottle before approaching him, a little bit surprised that Matt allowed this without yelling at them both. "What's up, bro?"
It's not that much of a surprise when Dolph grabs at him, snapping a headlock on him before he can react and Zack rolls his eyes, hitting against Dolph's side but then grounding himself and whipping Dolph away, before taking his shouldercheck and bumping. When Dolph leans over to try to get an armbar on him, Zack squirms away and sweeps his legs out from under him, rolling over and trapping him in an armlock, wrenching back as best as he can from this awkward position. Dolph huffs, trying to fight back, just for Zack to put even more weight on the move, Dolph having no choice but to tap after squirming desperately gets him nowhere, there being no referee around to help even when he hit the ropes.
Afterwards, they lay side by side in the middle of the ring, listening to each other breathing. "I'm proud of you, kid," Dolph offers, aware that they'll have to move soon to not hold up the next class, scheduled time for Zack's first ring session rapidly running out.
"Thanks," Zack murmurs. "And thanks for coming." He knows it can't have been easy, especially with how Dolph's week has been going between being fired and everything else. He's just started to frown, thinking about it all, when Dolph rolls over and lightly kisses him. Zack sighs against his lips before humming.
"I'd do anything for you, kid," Dolph murmurs, kissing him once more before rolling off and standing up, offering a hand to Zack.
As they leave the ring together, Matt Bloom nods distractedly at them, already preparing for his next class, and Zack grins, that old enjoyment of competition digging under his flesh yet again, reminding him part of why he does this. His pleasure abates slightly as he peeks over at Dolph, hoping that soon enough, Dolph can re-claim his own passion for the business as well.
