Post by RevolutionJones on Jan 28, 2018 8:30:21 GMT
Monterrey, Nuevo León
El 26 de enero de 2018
Few scenes in Mexican famiily life create quite the same atmosphere as a quinceañera dinner, and the Morales family is no exception. The drinks flow freely, the elders converse while the younger guests fill the dance floor, and the food is as delicious as any that the people here might ever eat in their lives. For Gloria Pérez Morales, the young woman at the center of it all, this couldn’t possibly be going any more perfectly…
...well, at least not until her tío spots someone new walking in the door.
Carlos Pérez Garcia: ¡Mira! ¡A.J.!
The words barely leave Carlos’s lips before people start to look for the newly-arriving guest. He looks around, a little embarrassed to be stealing the spotlight at his prima’s party. He honestly tried to blend in. He wore as traditional of a suit as he possibly could, rather than the all-black look he usually went for when he needed to dress up. But globetrotting luchadors with split-color hair and an XWA Hardcore Championship belt they’re contractually obligated to carry around 24/7 aren’t exactly known for blending in.
For the moment, the party practically stops. The food and drinks lie abandoned on the tables, the dance floor empties, and even the DJ abandons his post to try to join the swarm. Family, Gloria’s friends, neighbors, it doesn’t matter. They all crowd around the most famous guest, shouting over each other—come here, A.J.—so good to see you, A.J.—I already used all my napkins, will you sign my face, A.J.?—but A.J. just politely waves most of them off for now, parting the sea of his fellow guests. He knows who he’s looking for already, and when he finally finds her, he takes an over-the-top gentlemanly bow.
A.J. Morales: Gloria, te ves tan preciosa con ese vestido.
Gloria Pérez Morales: Andrew, por favor…
Gloria can’t help but giggle like a little girl—not just because A.J.’s clearly hamming it up, but because she knows everyone at school who turned down her invitations is gonna regret it when they find out who showed up. A.J., meanwhile, rises from his bow and looks over his shoulder at the crowd assembled behind him.
A.J. Morales: Perdón...no fue mi intención robar tu spotlight.
Gloria Pérez Morales: No, no, no te preocupes…¿vas a patearle el culo de Julie Carter, no?
A.J. Morales: Ahorita, guey...pero primero, ¿no te debo una danza? Es tu quinceañera, no la mía…
A.J. quickly turns to the DJ—who isn’t exactly hard to find, since he ran from the decks so fast that his headphones came with him—and points right at him.
A.J. Morales: ¡Oye! Tócame algo de Thalía.
DJ: Lo tienes.
The edges of the dancefloor quickly fill once again, leaving A.J. and Gloria in the center as “Amor a la Mexicana” starts to play. But with a few sweeping hand gestures, A.J. gets the crowd to join in, and even though he and Gloria don’t have the best footwork on the floor, the way those nearby cheer for them, they might as well be world-class. Together, they’re the life of her party. Even if Gloria never goes to a party this good again, it’ll be worth it for the heights tonight reached.
———
The hours fly by, and soon enough, we’re looking at the post-party wreckage typical of any Morales family gathering. Plates are everywhere, various spilled drinks lie on the floor, and there’s at least one broken table from too many people trying to climb on top and dance. But even with so many guests leaving and so many more out the door, A.J. and his abuelito, sitting in chairs right next to each other and watching things go by, have no intention of leaving just yet.
A.J. Morales: ...can you believe all this happened on a night when Tío Gregorio didn’t drink?
Manuelo Morales Martin: I think he knows, no matter what he does, he can’t top jumping out of a tree and breaking his arm at your mother’s quinceañera. So whenever someone else’s comes around, he doesn’t even try.
A.J. Morales: Wait, he did that?
Manuelo Morales Martin: She never told you?
A.J. Morales: She told me her quinceañera was the most perfect one there’d ever been.
Manuelo Morales Martin: And why do you think that is?
A.J. Morales: Because it—wait a minute...oh...OHHHH…
Manuelo can’t help but crack up.
A.J. Morales: That makes so much sense.
A shared moment of silence between grandfather and grandson.
A.J. Morales: So you’re gonna be at the show, right?
Manuelo Morales Martin: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
A.J. Morales: Thank you so much…
Manuelo Morales Martin: Andrew, really, it’s nothing.
A.J. Morales: No, seriously. It’s like I said before the match in ACM. You taking me to that show when I was a kid was what made me fall in love with lucha libre. If I didn’t have that to help get me back on the right path, I’d...God, I don’t know where I’d be.
Manuelo Morales Martin: But I wasn’t the one that told you to start training for it, was I?
A.J. looks quizzically at Manuelo.
A.J. Morales: I’m not sure I follow…
Manuelo Morales Martin: You chose to become a luchador, right?
A.J. Morales: Yeah…
Manuelo Morales Martin: And you chose to put all that time in learning all those different styles, right?
A.J. Morales: Yeah.
Manuelo Morales Martin: And you chose to keep pushing yourself and keep getting better until you were good enough to make it to this point, right?
A.J. Morales: I did.
Manuel Morales Martin: See what I mean? All I did was tell you the path was there. You were the one who chose to walk it.
A.J. sits in silence for a moment, digesting his grandfather’s words.
A.J. Morales: I guess you’re right…as usual.
Manuelo Morales Martin: Aren’t I always?
? ? ?: MANUELOOOOOOOOO!
The sudden shout makes both men look up in its direction.
Manuelo Morales Martin: That’d be cielito…
The two start to get up, Manuelo using his wooden cane to help himself out.
A.J. Morales: When we win Sunday, I’m gonna jump over the barricade onto all you guys. Tell everyone to be ready for it, OK?
Manuelo Morales Martin: Of course.
Grandfather and grandson exchange a goodbye hug and start to head their separate ways. But a sudden vibration makes A.J. stop, and when he pulls his phone out, he’s got a text from his own cielito. He smiles to himself—not just because of who’s texting him, but because the timing here is too perfect. Ever since he was a kid, people had told him he reminded them of his abuelo. But it wasn’t until now that he finally started to see the similarities.
———
Dentro de Arena Monterrey
El 28 de enero de 2018
When we open on this particular scene, Team Bay Area is already assembled in full in their locker room. A Zapatista flag hangs on the wall behind them next to a vintage poster of El Mondragón, the man who would go on to mentor these three men and manage them when they came together under one banner. A.J. Morales takes center stage this time, leaning back on the wall, his championship belts from XWA and BGDF around his waist, while Dontell Porter and Jason Moana flank him on either side. It’s only when he pushes himself off the wall that he breaks the room’s silence.
A.J. Morales: Last month, at the Lucha World Cup, we came in with something to prove.
Dontell Porter: We flew our own flag.
Jason Moana: We had a RevoLucha.
A.J. Morales: And even though we didn’t come home with that trophy…
Dontell Porter: ...we still came home with plenty of victories.
Jason Moana: ‘Cause the one team that repped the hardest for where they were from, the one team that did more to prove themselves than anyone else, was none other than ya boys, Team…
Morales/Porter/Moana: BAY AREAAAAAAAAAA!
Dontell Porter: See, we’re the only team in this trio de los trios TLC match that had to EARN our opportunity at the GOL Trios Championships. We didn’t get no wingnut welfare.
Morales/Moana: NOPE!
Dontell Porter: We didn’t get no fast tracks.
Morales/Moana: NOPE!
Dontell Porter: But what we did get was a W over American Ultras, just like we said we was gon' do.
Morales/Moana: YUP!
A.J. Morales: Now THAT’S how you secede!
Dontell Porter: And it should probably just be us and Dogs of War in that TLC match for those Trios titles, but it’s cool, ‘cause we beat American Ultras last time, and we gon’ do it this time too.
Jason Moana: Man, I can’t WAIT to hear the salt from ‘em after that.
A.J. Morales: But guys, guys...let’s break this Dogs of War thing down real quick, ‘cause I don’t know if y’all have seen the talk around this on social media, but—
A pair of annoyed groans from Dontell and Jason finish A.J.’s sentence for him.
Jason Moana: They really underestimatin’ us, huh?
Dontell Porter: All I been hearin' is Dogs of War this, Dogs of War that. Like, oh no, they got all this momentum in other places, so they’s just supposed to be the ones to win this.
A.J. Morales: But here’s the problem…
Jason Moana: ...we don’t believe in other people’s supposed-to-be’s.
A.J. Morales: Now, it’s not like we don’t respect Dogs of War. I’ve tag-teamed with Jack Tillman in Japan, so I knew firsthand how good he was even before the tournament. You put him with Mark Storm and Devin Hearst, and that’s a scary combination.
Jason Moana: ...unless you’re us.
Dontell Porter: See, we already know we’re on their level. Those Lucha World Cup finals, man, we gave as good as we got out there. You wanna know why they put us through a table on fire AND covered in tacks?
Jason Moana: Why?
A.J. Morales: ‘Cause they knew anything less wouldn’t have put us away!
Dontell Porter: Hell no!
A.J. Morales: And it’s gonna take a whoooooole lot more than that to stop us this time around. Not just ‘cause we’ve had a whole month to study game tape and figure out what went wrong and come up with ways to outdo ‘em, but because we got some more personal motivation this time around.
Jason Moana: What’s that?
A.J. Morales: We’re in Monterrey, my second home. And when I got started in this beautiful art we call lucha libre, I didn’t quite know where I was headed, but I knew the one thing I most wanted.
Dontell Porter: What was it?
A.J. Morales: I was gonna win a championship title right here in this arena, with all my family in the front rows. And even though I’ve wrestled all over the world, main-evented pay-per-views, won all these titles, become a top guy in some of the top promotions in the world, I never got the opportunity to fulfill that first goal. Until tonight.
Dontell Porter: So Dogs of War, American Ultras, y’all can bring tables…
Jason Moana: Bring chairs...
A.J. Morales: Bring ladders, bring stairs, bring the whole Goddamn kitchen sink if you want to, but everything you throw our way, we’re just gonna use it as stepping stones on the way up to grabbing those GOL Trios Championships. And we ain’t just gonna win ‘em for ourselves. We’re gonna win ‘em for mi familia.
Dontell Porter: We’re gonna win ‘em for the Bay Area.
Jason Moana: We’re gonna win ‘em for the RevoLucha.
The trio hold up their fists for the camera...and then A.J. kisses his fist and charges the camera with his famous Superman punch, the Liberator, knocking the camera and our field of view to the floor. The camera stays intact enough to keep rolling, though, and the last thing we see is a tilted image of the trio walking out of the room.
El 26 de enero de 2018
Few scenes in Mexican famiily life create quite the same atmosphere as a quinceañera dinner, and the Morales family is no exception. The drinks flow freely, the elders converse while the younger guests fill the dance floor, and the food is as delicious as any that the people here might ever eat in their lives. For Gloria Pérez Morales, the young woman at the center of it all, this couldn’t possibly be going any more perfectly…
...well, at least not until her tío spots someone new walking in the door.
Carlos Pérez Garcia: ¡Mira! ¡A.J.!
The words barely leave Carlos’s lips before people start to look for the newly-arriving guest. He looks around, a little embarrassed to be stealing the spotlight at his prima’s party. He honestly tried to blend in. He wore as traditional of a suit as he possibly could, rather than the all-black look he usually went for when he needed to dress up. But globetrotting luchadors with split-color hair and an XWA Hardcore Championship belt they’re contractually obligated to carry around 24/7 aren’t exactly known for blending in.
For the moment, the party practically stops. The food and drinks lie abandoned on the tables, the dance floor empties, and even the DJ abandons his post to try to join the swarm. Family, Gloria’s friends, neighbors, it doesn’t matter. They all crowd around the most famous guest, shouting over each other—come here, A.J.—so good to see you, A.J.—I already used all my napkins, will you sign my face, A.J.?—but A.J. just politely waves most of them off for now, parting the sea of his fellow guests. He knows who he’s looking for already, and when he finally finds her, he takes an over-the-top gentlemanly bow.
A.J. Morales: Gloria, te ves tan preciosa con ese vestido.
Gloria Pérez Morales: Andrew, por favor…
Gloria can’t help but giggle like a little girl—not just because A.J.’s clearly hamming it up, but because she knows everyone at school who turned down her invitations is gonna regret it when they find out who showed up. A.J., meanwhile, rises from his bow and looks over his shoulder at the crowd assembled behind him.
A.J. Morales: Perdón...no fue mi intención robar tu spotlight.
Gloria Pérez Morales: No, no, no te preocupes…¿vas a patearle el culo de Julie Carter, no?
A.J. Morales: Ahorita, guey...pero primero, ¿no te debo una danza? Es tu quinceañera, no la mía…
A.J. quickly turns to the DJ—who isn’t exactly hard to find, since he ran from the decks so fast that his headphones came with him—and points right at him.
A.J. Morales: ¡Oye! Tócame algo de Thalía.
DJ: Lo tienes.
The edges of the dancefloor quickly fill once again, leaving A.J. and Gloria in the center as “Amor a la Mexicana” starts to play. But with a few sweeping hand gestures, A.J. gets the crowd to join in, and even though he and Gloria don’t have the best footwork on the floor, the way those nearby cheer for them, they might as well be world-class. Together, they’re the life of her party. Even if Gloria never goes to a party this good again, it’ll be worth it for the heights tonight reached.
———
The hours fly by, and soon enough, we’re looking at the post-party wreckage typical of any Morales family gathering. Plates are everywhere, various spilled drinks lie on the floor, and there’s at least one broken table from too many people trying to climb on top and dance. But even with so many guests leaving and so many more out the door, A.J. and his abuelito, sitting in chairs right next to each other and watching things go by, have no intention of leaving just yet.
A.J. Morales: ...can you believe all this happened on a night when Tío Gregorio didn’t drink?
Manuelo Morales Martin: I think he knows, no matter what he does, he can’t top jumping out of a tree and breaking his arm at your mother’s quinceañera. So whenever someone else’s comes around, he doesn’t even try.
A.J. Morales: Wait, he did that?
Manuelo Morales Martin: She never told you?
A.J. Morales: She told me her quinceañera was the most perfect one there’d ever been.
Manuelo Morales Martin: And why do you think that is?
A.J. Morales: Because it—wait a minute...oh...OHHHH…
Manuelo can’t help but crack up.
A.J. Morales: That makes so much sense.
A shared moment of silence between grandfather and grandson.
A.J. Morales: So you’re gonna be at the show, right?
Manuelo Morales Martin: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
A.J. Morales: Thank you so much…
Manuelo Morales Martin: Andrew, really, it’s nothing.
A.J. Morales: No, seriously. It’s like I said before the match in ACM. You taking me to that show when I was a kid was what made me fall in love with lucha libre. If I didn’t have that to help get me back on the right path, I’d...God, I don’t know where I’d be.
Manuelo Morales Martin: But I wasn’t the one that told you to start training for it, was I?
A.J. looks quizzically at Manuelo.
A.J. Morales: I’m not sure I follow…
Manuelo Morales Martin: You chose to become a luchador, right?
A.J. Morales: Yeah…
Manuelo Morales Martin: And you chose to put all that time in learning all those different styles, right?
A.J. Morales: Yeah.
Manuelo Morales Martin: And you chose to keep pushing yourself and keep getting better until you were good enough to make it to this point, right?
A.J. Morales: I did.
Manuel Morales Martin: See what I mean? All I did was tell you the path was there. You were the one who chose to walk it.
A.J. sits in silence for a moment, digesting his grandfather’s words.
A.J. Morales: I guess you’re right…as usual.
Manuelo Morales Martin: Aren’t I always?
? ? ?: MANUELOOOOOOOOO!
The sudden shout makes both men look up in its direction.
Manuelo Morales Martin: That’d be cielito…
The two start to get up, Manuelo using his wooden cane to help himself out.
A.J. Morales: When we win Sunday, I’m gonna jump over the barricade onto all you guys. Tell everyone to be ready for it, OK?
Manuelo Morales Martin: Of course.
Grandfather and grandson exchange a goodbye hug and start to head their separate ways. But a sudden vibration makes A.J. stop, and when he pulls his phone out, he’s got a text from his own cielito. He smiles to himself—not just because of who’s texting him, but because the timing here is too perfect. Ever since he was a kid, people had told him he reminded them of his abuelo. But it wasn’t until now that he finally started to see the similarities.
———
Dentro de Arena Monterrey
El 28 de enero de 2018
When we open on this particular scene, Team Bay Area is already assembled in full in their locker room. A Zapatista flag hangs on the wall behind them next to a vintage poster of El Mondragón, the man who would go on to mentor these three men and manage them when they came together under one banner. A.J. Morales takes center stage this time, leaning back on the wall, his championship belts from XWA and BGDF around his waist, while Dontell Porter and Jason Moana flank him on either side. It’s only when he pushes himself off the wall that he breaks the room’s silence.
A.J. Morales: Last month, at the Lucha World Cup, we came in with something to prove.
Dontell Porter: We flew our own flag.
Jason Moana: We had a RevoLucha.
A.J. Morales: And even though we didn’t come home with that trophy…
Dontell Porter: ...we still came home with plenty of victories.
Jason Moana: ‘Cause the one team that repped the hardest for where they were from, the one team that did more to prove themselves than anyone else, was none other than ya boys, Team…
Morales/Porter/Moana: BAY AREAAAAAAAAAA!
Dontell Porter: See, we’re the only team in this trio de los trios TLC match that had to EARN our opportunity at the GOL Trios Championships. We didn’t get no wingnut welfare.
Morales/Moana: NOPE!
Dontell Porter: We didn’t get no fast tracks.
Morales/Moana: NOPE!
Dontell Porter: But what we did get was a W over American Ultras, just like we said we was gon' do.
Morales/Moana: YUP!
A.J. Morales: Now THAT’S how you secede!
Dontell Porter: And it should probably just be us and Dogs of War in that TLC match for those Trios titles, but it’s cool, ‘cause we beat American Ultras last time, and we gon’ do it this time too.
Jason Moana: Man, I can’t WAIT to hear the salt from ‘em after that.
A.J. Morales: But guys, guys...let’s break this Dogs of War thing down real quick, ‘cause I don’t know if y’all have seen the talk around this on social media, but—
A pair of annoyed groans from Dontell and Jason finish A.J.’s sentence for him.
Jason Moana: They really underestimatin’ us, huh?
Dontell Porter: All I been hearin' is Dogs of War this, Dogs of War that. Like, oh no, they got all this momentum in other places, so they’s just supposed to be the ones to win this.
A.J. Morales: But here’s the problem…
Jason Moana: ...we don’t believe in other people’s supposed-to-be’s.
A.J. Morales: Now, it’s not like we don’t respect Dogs of War. I’ve tag-teamed with Jack Tillman in Japan, so I knew firsthand how good he was even before the tournament. You put him with Mark Storm and Devin Hearst, and that’s a scary combination.
Jason Moana: ...unless you’re us.
Dontell Porter: See, we already know we’re on their level. Those Lucha World Cup finals, man, we gave as good as we got out there. You wanna know why they put us through a table on fire AND covered in tacks?
Jason Moana: Why?
A.J. Morales: ‘Cause they knew anything less wouldn’t have put us away!
Dontell Porter: Hell no!
A.J. Morales: And it’s gonna take a whoooooole lot more than that to stop us this time around. Not just ‘cause we’ve had a whole month to study game tape and figure out what went wrong and come up with ways to outdo ‘em, but because we got some more personal motivation this time around.
Jason Moana: What’s that?
A.J. Morales: We’re in Monterrey, my second home. And when I got started in this beautiful art we call lucha libre, I didn’t quite know where I was headed, but I knew the one thing I most wanted.
Dontell Porter: What was it?
A.J. Morales: I was gonna win a championship title right here in this arena, with all my family in the front rows. And even though I’ve wrestled all over the world, main-evented pay-per-views, won all these titles, become a top guy in some of the top promotions in the world, I never got the opportunity to fulfill that first goal. Until tonight.
Dontell Porter: So Dogs of War, American Ultras, y’all can bring tables…
Jason Moana: Bring chairs...
A.J. Morales: Bring ladders, bring stairs, bring the whole Goddamn kitchen sink if you want to, but everything you throw our way, we’re just gonna use it as stepping stones on the way up to grabbing those GOL Trios Championships. And we ain’t just gonna win ‘em for ourselves. We’re gonna win ‘em for mi familia.
Dontell Porter: We’re gonna win ‘em for the Bay Area.
Jason Moana: We’re gonna win ‘em for the RevoLucha.
The trio hold up their fists for the camera...and then A.J. kisses his fist and charges the camera with his famous Superman punch, the Liberator, knocking the camera and our field of view to the floor. The camera stays intact enough to keep rolling, though, and the last thing we see is a tilted image of the trio walking out of the room.