brushed gel into his hair with his fingers. âYou gonna have anything to eat other than carrots and celery sticks?â
âI was just getting ready to say that, Goose,â Bucky said. âAre you going to have anything to eat other than carrots and celery sticks?â
âIâm not inviting you guys over for supper,â Wendell said. âJust to watch wrestling.â
âWell, how do you expect me to sit through two hours of Monday Night Mayhem without eating anything?â Goose asked. He checked his reflection in the mirror and smiled at what he saw.
âThen stay home,â Wendell said. âI donât care.â
âWhoâs wrestling tonight, anyway?â Bucky asked.
Wendell sat on a bench and tied his tennis shoes. âThey announced last week that Ice Man Jacob Sloane will be defending the ACW heavyweight belt against Lance Redwine.â
âRedwine?â Goose said. âWhy are they giving him a title shot? Heâs not championship material.â
âYeah, heâs not championship material,â Bucky echoed.
Goose threw a wet towel at Buckyâs face. âQuit repeating everything I say, man. Itâs irritating.â
Bucky removed the towel and gave him a goofy grin.
âIs your dad fighting tonight, Jesse?â Wendell asked. âI donât remember them mentioning anything about him on last weekâs show.â
âYeah, heâs wrestling John Henry Sykes,â Jesse said without giving any details.
âYour dad should be fighting the Ice Man for the title,â Goose said. âThe Angel of Death is the best champion the ACWâs ever had.â
âYeah, the Angel of Death is . . . â Bucky started, then stopped.
Jesse usually kept the guys informed about what took place behind the scenes at American Championship Wrestling. They knew how matches were set up and how it was determined ahead of time who would win each match. They even knew about âblading,â in which wrestlers bleed by cutting their foreheads with tiny, hidden razor blades to make their matches look more realistic. But Jesse couldnât bring himself to tell them that in a few weeks, the Angel of Death would no longer exist.
When his father began his wrestling career, he was known as Mark âthe Manglerâ Baron. Later, he wore a black and silver mask and called himself the Annihilator. But his career didnât take off until he joined the ACW and became the Angel of Death. Now, it appeared that he was about to lose that character forever.
The plan was for Jesseâs father to become Elijah Nightshade, a false prophet. He would quote lines that sounded like Bible Scriptures, except that he would twist the words to justify his heel or âbad guyâ actions.
Carlos Montoya, who had wrestled as a masked man called El Azteca Dorado, was also going to be stripped of his gimmick. He would appear without his mask and be known as Brother Jeremiah. He would form part of Elijah Nightshadeâs Assembly. So would Marv âDemented Devlin Dreddâ Snider, whose new ring name would be Brother Ezekiel. Cassandra Richardson, who had once worked as the Angel of Deathâs valet, Spirit, would be paired with him again. This time, she would be called Sister Ruth.
Jesseâs father said that other wrestling promotions had done the evil preacher gimmick without success, so he didnât have any hope that it would work now. And without the Angel of Death character to fall back on, what would happen to his career? He had been home for the weekend because the ACW was slowly removing the Angel of Death from house-show appearances.
Jesse used to look forward to seeing him, but the way his father was acting stirred bad memories of the night of his parentsâ big fight. Jesse wished his father would make a decision about his careerâeither retire or accept his new gimmick, because he was getting tired of his nonstop