Booking Glory-Chapter 115: Let Me Be The Villain...
Rob laughed loudly as things fell into place.
It was an exhilarating feeling to crack the puzzle that most people weren’t even aware of. It was almost as if only he saw with two open eyes while others remained blinded in one eye.
Steven’s plan was meticulously crafted. He had been planning for a long time and moving his pieces far before everyone realized his intentions. He had his layout already completed when everyone took notice of his actions.
When Steven realized that he will be driven out of AWF once Roger retires, he began planning for a way out. Until now, Rob thought Steven realized things a year ago. But, it didn’t seem to be right.
Steven must have realized far earlier. That’s why he was able to arrange things so meticulously.
In his plan, when he was swept out of AWF, he would join with Willy Wagner and start a new promotion to rise anew. However, Steven, who had been with AWF for enough time knew that AWF wouldn’t allow that.
So, he needed to hit them fast and hard. Right now, there was internal turmoil in AWF, due to Steven’s departure. But, it wouldn’t take long for a behemoth like AWF to sort through the turmoil in a relatively quick manner.
Even if things weren’t taken care of completely, they will suppress the issues in a short time. Steven took advantage of this time when AWF will be in turmoil to enact his first step.
Willy Wagner’s impactful entry into the scene should have stunned AWF. But, they will need to sort things out internally first. This small window of time gave Steven and Wagner the breathing room they needed.
But still, that was not enough. If AWF reacted quick enough, they will turn their attention to Steven and Wagner. So, a distraction in the form of LWC and ZWP was thrown out to buy more time for them.
Steven must have dug pits for both promotions to be in a relatively precarious position at this juncture. This will make them juicy targets in the eyes of AWF executives. Steven, who knows well about the habits of AWF executives, should have made things enticing enough for them to pounce there first.
Breeze TV deal was the sugar coated poison offered to LWC. ZWP must have something similar. The aim was to push both these promotions to precarious situation. If everything went right, ZWP should be dangerously close to folding now.
And LWC should have been in similar situation as well. But, things were different with LWC currently. Even though they aren’t in a safe situation, they still had a chance left to turnover. And this was contrary to Steven’s plan.
Thinking back, Steven must have created some assurances to make sure the two promotions ended up in the situation he envisioned. Without them, it would be hard for Steven to keep the overall situation right.
Taking LWC as an example, Steven must know that Mr. Gibson will not sell LWC to AWF unless it was the last option he had available. So, how to push LWC to such a situation?
There must be someone inside LWC to make the situation progressively worse. They must do the deed without attracting suspicion from others as well. That meant only someone with enough power be a suitable candidate for this job.
Robin was Steven’s mole in LWC.
Robin’s job was to push the promotion slowly towards bankruptcy. He would increase the expenditures slowly and push LWC to the cliff. For that, the Breeze TV deal was the bait.
Mr. Gibson would not increase the expenditure mindlessly. They needed a reason for Mr. Gibson to bite the hook. Using the renewal of the deal as an excuse, Robin will increase the expenditure slowly but surely.
When the situation became untenable and Breeze TV refused to renew the contract, Robin would advise Mr. Gibson to sell the promotion to AWF. This way, Robin will enter AWF and be Steven’s spy there.
At least, Rob thinks that was the initial plan.
But, things went slightly off course because of Rob’s arrival.
When Rob took over the booking of the women’s division, LWC’s situation was dire. If not for Rob bringing in new revenue in the form of merchandise, ratings, and PPV sales with his novel booking methods, LWC will be in dire state now.
Rob vividly remembered Robin vehemently opposing his promotion to the booker position. At that time, Rob thought it was personal dislike. But, now he wasn’t so sure.
Rob had not proved himself at that time. He was merely a rookie with only six months of experience in the industry. Robin didn’t have anything to do with him. So, there was no reason for such animosity.
But, Robin vehemently opposed.
The reason was simple. Rob was an unforeseen variable. Any variable might affect the overall plan. Robin didn’t want anything to jeopardize his mission. That’s why he vehemently opposed Rob’s appointment.
Neither Steven nor Robin expected Mr. Gibson to undertake such a gamble. But it paid off for Mr. Gibson. And thus, Rob became a thorn in Robin’s flesh.
Ever since then, Robin has tried to undermine Rob’s achievements and derail things subtly. That sudden change in main event spot on that one episode made more sense now.
Looking back, Rob also realized that Robin’s go to method in trying to improve things were always to hire out of date veterans. He also remembered Robin trying to convince Mr. Gibson to invest more money into the product all the time.
Hiring veterans was a good formula for top tier promotions. But, for low tier promotions, veterans were money holes. A lot of investment needs to be made before putting a veteran on the show.
From contracts with huge money to merchandise priveleges, there were a lot of things that a veteran would demand before signing on. Such things would be normal operation for top tier promotions. But to low tier promotions, it was extra burden.
Hell, Dacey didn’t even have a merchandise before Rob needed one for the storyline. Most of the women didn’t have merchandise still. But, Marshall Jones had merchandise the moment he came in. That was the privelege veterans had.
He had always wondered why LWC couldn’t create any stars even after 3 years. Now it made sense. Mark Weathers and Diana Wharton weren’t native stars grown by LWC. They already had some popularity before signing with LWC.
Now the reason for it also became apparent. It was all Robin’s doing. By not cultivating homegrown stars, he created the need to sign popular wrestlers and old veterans for main event scenes. This way, Mr. Gibson’s money was being continuously spent without any suspicion.
The new revenue Rob brought in had alleviated LWC’s issues somewhat. But, the pit was too big and the little money Rob generated could only alleviate the stress a bit.
However, Rob’s actions had affected Steven’s overall layout a little bit. Now, LWC wasn’t on the verge of bankruptcy. That meant, they needed to do something to turn AWF’s eyes towards LWC.
That’s where this article came in.
There was nothing wrong with the article. Rather, it was the entire article that was wrong. Such an article shouldn’t appear. Without insider source, there was no possibility of such an article appearing.
And the amount of nitty gritty details regarding the contracts of various wrestlers indicated that the source was very close to these operations.
Rob didn’t think Mr. Gibson or Mr. Wolfe would betray LWC’s confidential secrets like this. Rob wasn’t even aware of such details. That left Robin as the only option for being the source.
Was Robin stupid to sell out information that would implicate him? Rob didn’t think so. Robin was able to string along Mr. Gibson towards bankruptcy. He was anything but a fool.
So, Robin must know that people in the know would realize that he was the source. That meant bearing the anger of Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Gibson. And yet, he did it.
All because this was the only way to bring AWF’s attention towards LWC.
As for repercussions, Steven would take care of Robin. It would tarnish his name a bit, but it wouldn’t ruin his career completely. Steven lost a potential spy in AWF, but he was able to implement his plan successfully. Not a complete victory, but still a win.
Rob had to admit that this made sense of a lot of inexplicable recent events.
Why was he dragged into the whirlpool needlessly? Why did Steven want him to take the commentary gig so bad? Why was Steven angry at him during the initial meeting? Why did Robin never show him a good face?
Everything fell into place now.
Rob had inadvertently caused them trouble. So, they were angry with Rob. But, they were also afraid he would stir up more things. So, they want him under their control.
Rob was a variable. And they didn’t like that.
Rob chuckled after figuring things out. He felt happy for a bit. Lighting a cigarette, he smoked peacefully for a while.
Suddenly, an evil idea popped up in Rob’s mind.
"Since I am a villain, let’s do things more thoroughly. Steven, you don’t want me to stir things, right? Let’s see how you react to this. Also, this will be my little payback towards that shit Robin."
With an evil chuckle, Rob took out his phone, typed a message and sent it Dacey.
Rob felt incredibly free at this moment. He whistled an old favorite song from his old life and smoked away his cigarette joyfully.
*****
A/N: Hey folks!
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