“The return”
2 days after Riot.
(A few days after Eddie returns to the company that he loves, we see Eddie at his house working at the garage. Which is his favorite thing to do, he loves to tinker with stuff. Eddie is finally starting to live a normal life again after his knee replacement last year which he got after his retirement match with his daughter. After a while we see a car pull up, and we see Gracie step out of it, she had made her way to San Diego, which is a 2-hour drive. After parking the car and getting Manny out, Manny darts towards her grandfather with a big smile on her face. He picks her up and a cute interaction happens between them before Gracie gets to them.)
Eddie Sr: Ahhh! It’s always nice to see my granddaughter, always brightens my day!
Gracie: I figured you would, I kinda felt like going on a road trip and found myself around here. Things have changed a bit since I’ve been in this part of town. I mean I don’t see this area that much anymore, maybe every 4 months or so.
Eddie Sr: Yeah, it’s normally me that drives to LA to babysit this little bundle of joy! So, it makes me wonder why you drove down here.
Gracie: Had a lot of things on my mind and I decided to go for a drive. Then I asked her if she wanted to see her grandfather and her face lit up like a Christmas, so her vote won.
Eddie Sr: Well I would never deny a visit from my kid or grandchild, so come on in!
(The group transfers their convo inside the house. Inside the house is beautifully decorated with a lot of wood furniture, stuff that he and his dad used to work on when they were younger. On the wall stands 2 oil canvas paintings. One of his dad, Jorge, and the other of his high school sweetheart and the mother of Gracie, Mia. On the end table by the couch, there’s another picture of Mia. this time it’s with her, Eddie, and a baby Gracie! Eddie places Manny in the playpen with some struggle, but she went down anyway.)
Gracie: soooo, you weren’t gonna tell me what happened last week?
Eddie Sr: About my return? I wanted to keep it a secret and I think I did a good job at that. I heard the crowd from the offices when I threw that piece of trash out in the dumpster where he deserves to be.
Gracie: I saw it on TV since I took another week off just to have time to myself and hit the slopes. I was excited to see you back. You think you can handle being back full-time?
Eddie Sr: Yeah. Look, I tried to be a normal person but it wasn’t working it. I saw the retirees at the golf resort and Just no…they looked miserable, old, and just doing that for a living. That’s not me, I can’t just sit down in one place for too long, just like you can’t. I need to be doing something and once my knee healed up, I called Star up she said she had a place for me once that asshole left and when he didn’t leave I forced him to leave.
(Eddie shrugs his shoulders, he knows he’s limited on what he can do physically with his knee, but throwing that idiot in the dumpster was the highlight of his post-wrestling career.)
Eddie Sr: And since I can’t do anything physical nor will my doctor ever allow me to wrestle again and I don’t wanna damage my new knee, this is the next best option for me. To give back to the business that gave me everything I wanted since late 96.
(As Eddie says that, he looks at peace with that decision just like he was when he wrestled his final match with his daughter.)
Eddie Sr: Also I'm going to honor the match we had last year at Destiny. I know retirement in wrestling is not worth the paper it's printed on but no amount of money or anything will change my mind. Even in 17 years when Manny decides to join wrestling and begs me. " oh grandpa, you gotta wrestle me!" The answer is and always will be "no thanks".
Gracie: …. I don't want to think that far ahead now! I wanna enjoy the moments I have when she's still this young. I know the terrible 2’s are coming. But that'll be her decision if she wants to get into wrestling. I won't pressure her, just like you never pressured me. It was my decision with my own money. Even tho I worked as a model beforehand…
(It’s a story she’s told many times over the years about how she used to work as a kid model for this company, but she always felt that people tend to forget about it or decide to spew whatever bullshit decides to come from their mouths but she feels it’s something she’ll have to fight for the rest of her career, she’s fought it for 7 years now.)
Eddie Sr: Oh I know, I know how hard you work. Though I do think you stretch yourself thin working 2 places, I get it. I’ve been there. You have an extra mouth to feed and being a single parent isn’t an easy job but somehow you make it look easy. I can already see people thinking that I hand my kids title shots….but nope. I have no say in it. You kids got it through HARD work, how it should be done.
(Gracie nods her head, that’s the answer she wanted. She doesn’t any handouts from anybody. She wants her hard work to shine through, and it has. That’s why she’s held so many different title belts over the years, including the world title.
Gracie: I guess I don’t need to worry then, but you know I will.
(Eddie lowers himself to ground level to get closer to his granddaughter, and they end up playing with some toys to her delight and giggles! The scene comes to an end with Gracie proudly watching on as she wants to spend time with her dad, something that doesn’t happen too much that often.)
“Let’s tear it down”
2 days later
(It’s been 2 days since Gracie took her small road trip to San Diego to see her father, and have her daughter hang out with her grandpa. We see her back home in LA on the grill making some food. She uses the grill to cook because she hates to warm up the house with the stove unless she has to or it’s a rainy day. On the flattop, we see Chicken parm starting to crisp up the way she wants it too and hash brown potatoes on the side, also the level of crispness she wants. As she finishes up the food, the doorbell rings, and she can see who’s at the door from a little screen in the backdoor. Gracie made her way to the door…..)
Gracie: What do you want!?
A voice from outside the door: Open the door you fool!
(Gracie chuckles before opening the door. At the door, we see someone we haven’t seen since her injury. Madison! She looks great, and she’s walking pretty well too after her ACL injury.)
Madison: Geez, don’t even open the door for a family member.
(Gracie chuckles in a playful matter before closing the door behind them, she didn’t want to let any unnecessary heat out since it’s a chilly day in southern Cal.)
Gracie: I was outside anyway, making some food. I got hungry and Manny did too.
Madison: What are we having?
Gracie: WE are having Chicken Parm and Hash browns…
Madison: Thanks…I’ll have some.
(Gracie’s face fell a little bit as she only made food enough for 2 people, but she shook her head slightly with a smile on her face. They walk through the house and back outside to where the food is, Manny is out there too. The girls get their food, which was enough to spread across the 3 of them but barely.)
Gracie: You’re welcome….anyway how’s the recovery going? With me working all the time, I don’t really have much time to just sit down and talk to people anymore like I used too.
Madison: It’s going fine, they gave me the green light to do some light training, so that’s pretty exciting I think. My mindset is this, I lost a few things that I never got pinned for and that means I have a lot of unfinished business, with a lot of things.
Gracie: Honestly? I hope you come back and get your rightful spot. I mean I know you didn’t get off your feet in PWS but to me it doesn’t matter. You’re still a former champion but you just got shit on for no reason, never made any sense to me but maybe it’s jealousy from others? Who knows.
Madison: Maybe it was, i unno and I don’t care. When I come back I’m gonna have some aggression on my side, so people need to watch out. I don’t care if they take it as an idle threat….that’s on them, and a very stupid mistake. My rehab has been nothing but fueled by their hatred towards me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to come here all aggressively like, but when the doctor told me I could go and do light workouts, my mind shifted that way.
Gracie: You’re fine, trust me I would be the same way too. Being cooped up for as long as you have looking at the walls and getting sick and tired of looking at them.
Madison: True, but enough about me. What about you? Miss badass defiantly winning that Armageddon match.
Gracie: I wasn’t going to be put down easily, and if they did something to me when I was tied up in the ropes, I woulda got back up. Look during that entire thing I took a lot of shit from everyone on that other side and yet they couldn’t get the job done. They all walked with their heads held high pretending like they could get rid of me, and couldn’t. I’m still here, I’m still standing. They learned the hard way just like everyone else who fell before me.
(Gracie shrugs her shoulders. She doesn’t care if the other side likes her or not, she’s not here to be liked.)
Gracie: However, I didn’t do it alone. My team did great! Levi, Trisha, Laura, Nick. All of them did great for not being active wrestlers anymore. I’m really proud of all of them. It doesn’t matter how many people come into this company, this group right here will ALWAYS be the OG’s and will always have the legacy they deserve and I’m sure they’ll come out of retirement and prove it again. If they need a partner, I’m here, since I’ll always have that link with them and since my dad can’t do this anymore.
Madison: Very true, how are you feeling after it? I know it’s been almost 2 months now since it happened, do you think it’ll affect your match?
Gracie: You answered your own question. No, It won’t affect me. It’s been over a month and a half now and I feel fine. I’ve wrestled between that and now and I didn’t feel anything wrong with me, so I don’t why it should now. Plus, I’m facing Cleo. She’s a former champion, like me. So I can’t let a little injury get in the way, and I wrestle hurt all the time. I’m never 100 percent.
(Again, she shrugs because she knows it’s true. With how many times she wrestles throughout the year, it’s a miracle that she can even get out of bed in the morning and put on pants.)
Gracie: Now speaking of Cleo, I’m looking forward to this match. When It got announced all I did was smile. Why? Because She’s a hella talented person, and I knew that one day I would face her. I didn’t think I’d be facing her on some random TV show after she lost her title, but it’s ok I guess. I know she’s going to come into this match emotional, and who wouldn’t? Normally I would cut someone down for that but you? Nah. I’ve always been your biggest supporter backstage, when you won that title I was happy for you because you DESERVED it, you EARNED it and you never bitched once about anything.
(Gracie lets out a small smile with thinking about the stuff she’s going to say next.)
Gracie: I know you’re upset with losing your title, but let's go out there and tear the house down. Let’s go out there and make it difficult for anybody else to follow us, let’s go out there and show them what 2 former world champions can do! I know we lost a great man along the way, but let’s have him look down on us and smile, because we tore the damn place down!
(Her food, which has gotten cold by this point still lies untouched on her plate. But she takes a giant bite out of it. The scene comes to a close with the 3 of them enjoying their healthy meal but Madison acts like she has something else on her mind, we can’t hear what is being said but she pulls out a picture of something as the video cuts to black.)