The stadium was packed to the gills with wrestling fans of all ages, all of them patiently anticipating the most important match of the entire year. The ability to attend this flagship event was a highly coveted thing, and everyone here was super lucky to be able to get tickets to see it tonight, even if they were really far area from the wrestling ring.
He couldn't count exactly how many mammals there were in the audience, but an educated guess was somewhere in the thousands. The stadium was humongous and almost every seat appeared to be occupied. In a few moments, he would be going out there and his fans would be filling his ears with the sounds of cheering, all of it being directed towards him.
"Ladies and gentlemammals, boys and girls..." the announcer said, echoing loudly across the entire stadium. "It is time to bring out this year's two finalist. Whoever wins this match will be the Zootopia Wrestling Champion! Now to introduce the first wrestler who will be entering the ring..."
A spotlight from above was casted in his direction, illuminating the path he would be walking down in a few seconds. It's showtime, he thought.
"He might be small in size, but he sure is feisty," the announcer continued. "Over this year, he has become a force to be reckoned with in the ring. It's the great vulpes zerda, The Mighty Finnick!"
As soon as his name echoed out of those speakers, the audience, just like he assumed, was booming with more applause than he had ever heard before. He slowly walked from where he had been standing, making his way over to the ring where the match would momentarily be taking place. The cheering from folks that were watching in the closest seats only got louder as he did so, and he could also hear some positive remarks from the ladies in the audience that swooned over him.
That happened quite naturally during the wrestling matches he participated in.
He looked back at one of his female friends and waved back at her, and she placed a paw to her chest in admiration. He then made his way into the ring and stood there, the heavy spotlights shining luminously upon him. He pumped a fist into the air and took in the clapping from the thousands of fans that gathered here tonight.
The applause came to a halt a moment later, though, and dark-sounding music filled the stadium. This was the introduction to who he would be going up against tonight.
"Taking on the mighty Finnick to defend his title is a feline whose strength knows no bounds. Making his way to the ring next is a mammal who needs no further introduction. Make some noise for the one and only Alvaro!"
Except the audience's reaction wasn't exactly as positive as Finnick's. There were some folks clapping for the aforementioned feline, but the sound of it got drowned out by the booing that came from a good majority of spectators, as if that kind of reaction was universal. But the reason for that was a valid one, since Alvaro was a wrestler who had the most arrogance. An overinflated ego was expected, however, from somebody who managed to win this event repeatedly, and had quite a reputation for taking out opponents rather quickly in earlier matches.
Stepping into the opposite side of the ring was his opponent. The tiger had large muscles, which he flexed as he prepared for the fight that would protect his current title. When the music stopped playing throughout the stadium, he let out a loud roar that echoed around the place.
Finnick and Alvaro both started to walk forward until they stood in the middle of the ring. The fennec fox gazed up at his taller rival, who chuckled under his breath.
"This is who dared to take my championship title away?" the feline cackled. "This short and puny fox?"
The audience reacted to his taunting with another round of booing. Finnick grunted before sternly looking back up at Alvaro. "Every castle's gotta fall," he responded, "and now's the time for that t' happen t' you. This is Judgement Day from the mighty Finnick!"
The short fox held his paws up high and gazed around at the spectators surrounding them, nodding his head with a wide grin on his muzzle.
Alvaro shook his head, still believing that he pretty much had this championship match in the bag. "Or perhaps your final judgement has come, Tiny," he snapped back. "When I'm finished with you, all of these mammals gathered here today will be like, 'Finnick who? You mean the one who got crushed by the legendary Alvaro?'"
Finnick growled. "Nobody calls me Tiny," he replied. "And when I'm finished with you, that title ain't the only thing that'll be taken off you. They'll be takin' your stripes too!"
"Your bark is probably worse than your bite," Alvaro said. "Your following will find that out soon enough."
They stepped back and prepared themselves for the match. The moment the bell rang, commencing that it began, the audience became ecstatic once again.
Finnick quickly ran towards the ring ropes, and hopping onto the tallest one. He used it as a catapult to lunge himself forward, delivering a swift slap to his tiger opponent.
The feline was stunned for a moment, giving Finnick enough time to back up a few inches. Alvaro growled, baring his teeth as he started to run forward.
As soon as he started to do so, Finnick immediately got out of his way, getting to the side. Alvaro didn't manage to get back at him for the surprise hit just yet.
After blocking each other for a good amount of time, Finnick was knocked down temporarily by the tiger. But he wasn't down long enough for the feline to become the champion again, and the feline's current state of cockiness didn't last long either.
Alvaro reached for the steel folding chair, which was known as the most brutal but also most commonly used weapon in the history of wrestling. He grabbed it in an effort to knock the fennec fox down again, but when he went to swing it his attempt had failed.
The short fox repeated the same action that first caught his opponent off guard, jumping onto the ring rope before lunging towards him.
"Gotcha with that move," the vulpine remarked. "Two outta two."
Finnick took a sip from his can of soda before continuing on with his story. "This guy thought fo' sure he was gonna win, but I proved him wrong," he said.
On the opposite side of the room, cozy in the chair he always sat in, Noah, Nick and Judy's adopted son, listened attentively. The fox kit thought his Uncle Finnick's story was the coolest thing ever. "You were really a wrestler?" he inquired.
The fennec fox nodded his head. "Yep."
"That tiger you fought sounds really mean," Noah said enthusiastically.
"He sure was, Noah," Finnick replied. "Meaner than any other wrestler I was up against."
"Okay, we both know that isn't true," Nick said from across the room, shaking his head.
"What ain't true, Wilde?" the small fox asked his friend.
The russet-furred vulpine replied, "You being a wrestler. You know that's a bluff."
Finnick let out a sigh, holding up a paw. "Don't act like ya don't recall it. You was there in the ring with me."
Noah's eyes lit up as he looked at his father in amazement. "You and Uncle Finnick were both wrestlers? Wow, Dad, that is so awesome!"
Nick looked at his son and shook his head. "Your uncle's just-" he started to say to him.
"Your father," Finnick interrupted, "is just pretendin' he don't remember. He was actually my sidekick in the ring. They nicknamed him the Nick the Nifty, 'cause he was real skillful in the ring."
The red fox started to dart forward towards the ring. He appeared to be cloaked in a cape that was an emerald shade of green, and the audience started going wild over this change in events.
"Folks, it looks like Finnick's going to get some help from Nick the Nifty," the announcer said over the speakers.
Nick, a determined grin wide across his muzzle, swooped into the ring, grabbed Alvaro by his shoulder and slammed him down to the ground. He took in the cheering that he was currently receiving, up until the moment that the tiger got back up.
Alvaro proceeded to pick the tod up with both arms like he was nothing, and then threw him hard onto the floor of the wrestling ring. "Karma, my friend," he taunted.
The striped feline, while the fox was still on the ground, climbed up to the top turnbuckle, preparing himself to jump from where he was. Nick gasped in that moment, defending himself from the tiger by rolling out of the way. He then got over to the nearby corner, an arm shielding his face out of protection.
Alvaro slowly approached the vulpine, the drive to get him out of the ring as easy as possible evident in the grin he flashed him.
"Hey, Stripes," Finnick cried from behind.
The feline was too slow to turn around, because as soon as he did, the fennec fox leaped as high as he could and delivered a forearm strike. This sent the titleholder stumbling, muttering a curse as he rubbed a paw over where the pain was now coursing. Finnick followed that up by grabbing the steel folding chair with all of his might, whacking Alvaro to the ground.
Nick, meanwhile, got up to the ring's top rope and leaped. He did a small flip while in the air, crashing onto the arrogant tiger with leg drop. Excitement arose from the crowds as he performed this maneuver.
"It's called a hustle, sweetheart," the fox said with a grin.
"Wow..." was all Noah could say. The kit was in amazement as he listened to his Uncle Finnick's story.
"Okay, that did not happen, Fin," Nick said after his friend concluded his recount.
"Alright," Finnick admitted, "maybe ya weren't a sidekick, but I was a wrestler. I most certainly was."
"I don't believe you," the russet fox replied.
"I can swear in on a stack of bibles. I'm tellin' ya both the truth. My days of bluffin' are over."
"If that's the case, Fin, then how come I didn't know about it?"
Finnick shrugged. "There's a lotta things ya don't know about my past, Wilde. You'd be surprised." The sound of old-school rap suddenly filled the room, coming from the fennec's phone. "Hang on, I gotta take this. Been waitin' for this call." He accepted the incoming call and said, "Yo."
His phone was on speaker, so who he was currently talking to could be heard by Nick. "Hello, I'm calling on behalf of the organizers for the Zootopian Wrestling Network."
"Yeah, what up?" Finnick told the guy on the other end of the phone.
"As you might have already seen, we forwarded the designs for the advertisements regarding your match next month with the Grim Grizzly. We hadn't received a response from you the other day, so we were calling to see if you okayed the design or if some alterations need to be made."
"Nah, it's all good, mammal. No complaints."
"Okay, I will pass that info along to the team. Your return, as you probably know, is something a lot of folks are ecstatic about."
"I'm sure. Pretty nice t' get back in the ring after so long, t' be honest."
A short laugh came from the mammal who was on the phone. "Alright, thank you for the quick confirmation. You have a good day, Finnick."
Finnick ended the call and slipped his smartphone back into his pocket. He drank what was left of his soda before setting the can to his side. "That was just the folks for the network," he said to Nick. "Just needed me to say yes to somethin' real quick. Now what were you sayin' before, Wilde, 'bout me not actually bein' a wrestler."
Noah looked up at his father with a smile on his face, one that was always there and was often seen on kits his age. Nick, meanwhile, remained completely frozen and unable to speak. His eyes had remained widened in shock from the moment he had heard the phone call.
Finnick was apparently right; there was definitely some things that he didn't know about him, including the fact that he had been in the wrestling ring before.
Author's Note: Came up with this one in memory of Finnick's voice actor, who sadly passed away last month. He was an occasional professional wrestler, so I thought it would be interesting to write a story in which Finnick was a wrestler.