When he was doing his bitter old wizard routine Huddie told me that magic is pointless because spending 20 years to learn a spell to make light is stupid when you can buy a flashlight. He’s wrong about that, but he’s also kind of right.
I found the contact information for some of the professor’s clients and cold called them about buying the magic coat. Several of them said the same thing, why would I pay for an old magic raincoat that protects me from bullets when bulletproof vests exist? The coat from the Bessie Love collection is actually way better than a bulletproof vest but I get their point.
One guy was interested when I told him about its history, that it was created by blood mage serial killer who as defeated by a famous actresses, but then he got too interested about the serial killer angle. I didn’t want to meet that guy.
Once again wrestling must pick up the slack where magic fails. I’ve heard old timers talking about how in the old days there were all kinds of money schemes going on, most of them designed so “the boys” could spend their pay on hookers and blow without their wives finding out.
For the most part that’s all gone, but one thing that still exists here and there is a “skinner”. A skinner is a special loan shark for wrestlers only. They loan you the cash and then you agree to work X many shows for their buddies, who are promoters, so they can take half your check guaranteed. On top of sort of guaranteed payback if you ditch the shows they can have their promoter buddies blackball you so you have extra motivation not to default.
These guys work on reputation, they aren’t going to lend to people that no one wants to book, and apparently I don’t have the rep to get them interested myself. I called Austin Starr and he was able to hook me up with a Skinner based on his cred. He also sent me a bunch of pictures of his kid and his new baby. I hate having to pretend babies are cute but it’s a small price to pay for his help.
I feel like I’m fifteen people down the line from where this started at Triple 8’s. But at least I know fifteen people now. Three years ago I didn’t know anyone.
