Clipped from a news broadcast:
Newscaster: Legendary professional wrestler and promoter, Rieji Okamoto has died today. He was 66 years old.
Yoshio Okamoto: Rieji was never what you would call a top wrestler. He had the dream and the ability, but he never really had that large personality to push him to the top. When he decided to retire, he built Dream.
Newscaster: Dream Wrestle was one of the most popular wrestling companies out there. But not without some controversy.
Yoshio Okamoto: He started Dream Wrestle with Shunsuke Ketamura.
Newscaster: Shunsuke Ketamura was also a professional wrestler who turned businessman after his career was over. The two had very public battles over the direction of Dream Wrestle.
Yoshio Okamoto: Rieji wanted to ensure all the wrestlers that worked for Dream were paid well. Ketamura only worried about the profit. He also wanted to drive Dream into more of an entertainment company while Rieji was happy for it to just be about wrestling. One day, it all came to a head and Ketamura left Dream and started WrestleCraft.
Newscaster: At first, WrestleCraft took off, Dream suffered. But Rieji Okamoto carried on and soon, fans began to return. When Dream Wrestle overtook WrestleCraft, the fans had spoken. Soon it was all about Dream Wrestle. WrestleCraft stayed competitive, but always in second place.
Yoshio Okamoto: Without a doubt that bothered Ketamura. He was constantly trying to get Rieji to sell him the company.
Newscaster: Just last night, suffering a major heart attack, Rieji Okamoto died. It is rumored that his company would be left to his only daughter, Shiori Okamoto.
ONE MONTH LATER
My name is Shiori Okamoto. I have suddenly become the owner of the biggest wrestling company in Japan. Or, I should say what used to be the biggest wrestling company in Japan. My father, the great Japanese wrestling legend Rieji Okamoto, started this company thirty years ago and grew it into the most popular wrestling brand in all of Japan and even around the world.
Dream Wrestling was just that. It was the best of the best competing for wrestling's most adored prize. The Dream Wrestling Championship.
The biggest names in wrestling came through this company. Even in the midst of a wrestling slump, the television show always did tremendous ratings.
One month ago, he died. He left it all to me.
Three weeks ago, our TV deal was broken.
Two weeks ago, nearly the entire roster walked out.
One week ago, every venue we had booked for the year, cancelled.
SHUNSUKE KETAMURA
Today, I was called by our company’s biggest rival. And I know exactly what he wants to talk about.
Scene changes to a fancy restaurant. Shiori is seated at a table and across is a very elderly Japanese man. “Shiori, we go back a very long time. I knew you since you were a baby. Your father would bring you to the shows. Now, I know that we didn’t get along in the last few years, but I never stopped caring for him.”
Shiori shakes her head, “You left him. You stole most of his talent and then you started your own company to compete with him. You tried to bankrupt him.” She’s getting angry and she knows it so she reaches for a glass of wine and she takes a small drink to try and calm her nerves.
“Look, I know we weren’t on the best of terms as of late, but that was mostly his doing. He made that choice. One thing you don’t know is that starting a wrestling company was my idea. He just got to it first.”
One thing you should know about Shunsuke Ketamura is that he is known to be very ruthless. Some of his business practices have been called into question by Japanese authority. He has just enough of his thumb on everyone who works for him that they will say nothing.
He worked behind my father’s back while working for him in the office. He talked almost every top talent that my father had into leaving the company. Not only that, after my father died, he convinced almost every talent on my roster to go to his WrestleCraft company, telling them I could not run Dream Wrestle.
“Dream Wrestle is done for,” he told them.
And they believed him.
“Look, Shiori, I know you want to do the right thing. You are not your father. There is no way you can run this company. Sell me what’s left of Dream Wrestle and I promise you that you won’t ever have to work again. I’ll give you every yen of it’s value. Today. Let me have everything and you’ll walk away a rich woman.”
I almost believed he was sincere.
Shiori stood up quickly, bumping against the table and her wine glass tips over as the red liquid begins to seep into the tablecloth. “Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you. I will not sell my father’s company. I will run it. I will succeed. I will make it work. Even if I cannot bring it back to its former glory, I will run it the way he ran it. Not the way you run things, Ketamura-san. Understand one thing, I still have those loyal to my father, not just to their own greed. They have promised to be loyal to me. So, you can take your offer and you can go f---”
He suddenly rises as well, “I wouldn’t finish that sentence if I were you, Shiori…”
“Okamoto. You will address me formally. You and I are not friends. You and I are not partners. You have lied and cheated. And you continue to do so. Let’s not have any misunderstandings, there will be no further meetings between us.” Shiori opens her wallet and drops some bills on the table then turns and walks away.
As she exits the building, she walks around to the side of it and leans up against the wall, placing her hand over her chest. She starts to reach into her purse for her pack of cigarettes.
I can’t calm my heart. Perhaps he is right. Perhaps I don’t have the fortitude for this.
Her phone chirps and it catches her off guard, causing her to jump. She drops her purse and everything spills all over the pavement.
It continues to chirp so she finally reaches for it and looks at the text. She lets out a small curse before bending down to scoop everything back into her purse. She picks up her phone.
She fires off a response and then continues to walk down the sidewalk to her car.
As she pulls up to the address she was texted, she looks at the outside of an old run down warehouse. Outside is an older man who smiles and excitedly waves at her. She returns the wave and then continues to look at this building, “What is this?” she asks herself as she turns off the engine and then steps out of her car.
One thing you should know about my uncle Yoshio, is that he’s very childlike. He followed in my father’s footsteps and became a pro wrestler, wrestling up until a few years ago when he was forced to retire due to