Booking Glory-Chapter 119: New Responsibilities 2

Rob’s mind felt a bit unbalanced throughout the morning.

With Robin absent from the company, a lot of work was piled up on Rob’s desk. Even while working through them all morning, Rob felt a bit distracted. His mind kept drifting to the same question constantly.

Why wasn’t he given more booking power?

As time passed, Rob only grew more and more irritable. He didn’t understand why his mind kept focusing on the same thing. His fixation with that question followed him throughout the morning.

And yet, he didn’t find an explanation that satisfied him.

That odd fixation of his continued until he read the news about ZWP’s financial troubles in the afternoon. Only then, he felt his mind calm down a bit.

It looked like his conjecture about the current situation was still quite reliable. This also reaffirmed his thought process from yesterday. With this news, he knew that AWF would turn its attention towards ZWP and LWC.

While it definitely wasn’t good news to LWC, Rob felt oddly satisfied that his conjecture was right on the money. It also made him respect Steven’s abilities a little more.

His conjecture yesterday was just a hypothesis he had made based on what he knew. Seeing it become reality was something else. He didn’t know how Steven manipulated things to this extent. But, he damn sure respected Steven for it.

He was inwardly marvelling at the level of influence and ability Steven had in the wrestling world, when Diana walked into his office.

Diana’s visit wasn’t long. She mainly came to confirm that Rob will be staying with LWC. She was frank in revealing to him that the only reason she stayed with LWC was his presence.

Apparently, she had received some good offers from other promotions in the past few days. But, she had felt that staying under Rob for one more year would help her career more than those fat paychecks. So, she wanted to confirm that he would stay with LWC for another year at least.

Rob felt his ego and vanity satisfied to hear her reasons. He assured her of his continued presence in LWC. He also gave her his promise to make her even more popular in the coming days.

After a satisfied Diana left his office, Rob made his way to the training center to take stock of the situation there.

When Rob arrived at the training center, the trainees were already training under the supervision of various trainers. Rob didn’t walk over to announce his presence. He merely stood to the side and took note of the states of various trainees.

During the recess, Head Trainer Michael walked over to Rob and greeted him.

"Hey kid, heard you are now taking over for Robin?" Michael asked, with a slightly sour tone.

Michael was a stout man nearing fifties. His head was bald and he carried himself around with quiet confidence. His demeanor was of a man who was used to others obeying his orders. So, him calling Rob a kid was in character with him.

During the six months when Rob learned the ropes of this business, he had worked under Michael occasionally. Their relationship wasn’t close. Michael rarely interacted with him deeming Rob as too low down the pecking order for him to bother with.

Now, the situation had changed. Rob was his equal. At least on paper, both Rob and Michael had similar positions. In fact, Rob’s role could be said to be a tier higher than his due to its supervisory nature.

It wouldn’t matter how much Michael trains the trainees. Unless Rob gives the green signal, none of these trainees could be put on show. He was the one who approved or disapproved a trainees readiness to debut.

Naturally, Michael was sore about this.

"Just in the training center, Michael," Rob replied with a small smile. "Mr. Gibson liked my work with the women’s division and wanted to see if I can help refine the presentation skills of trainees."

"I see," Michael smiled thinly. "Well, you have got your hands full with this lot. Apart from that one there, the rest are not up to snuff yet."

Michael pointed to a burly white dude who was drinking from his water bottle. Rob had to give it to Michael. His eyes were sharp.

Jacob Streams, the burly white dude that was pointed out by Michael, was indeed the best prospect among this bunch of trainees. He had a large frame and the kind of agility that you wouldn’t expect someone of his size to have.

"I don’t think many among them have what it takes to make it," Michael continued, roving his eyes across some of the leaner and smaller figures in the crowd. "They don’t have the proper tools."

Rob disagreed with such an assessment. However, he didn’t refute Michael outright. It was a fact that the industry preferred big men who could move.

There had been no small men like Rey Mysterio or Eddie Guerrero in this world who achieved success yet. So, it was only natural that Michael was partial to Jacob.

The criteria for women was different than it was for men. For women, it was their looks that mattered. If they had good looks and some athletic ability, they could make it. Most of the audience for women’s wrestling were looking for eye candies.

But it was different with male wrestlers.

The first and foremost factor was believability. The wrestler must look believable first for the audience to get behind him. So, builds factor heavily in the industry evaluation.

It was not that the industry didn’t use wrestlers with smaller builds. But, they only used them mostly to set off others. Their position on the card rarely moved above mid card status. They had no chance at the main event level.

However, Rob didn’t subscribe to the industry standards. He had seen in his past life the kind of impact smaller men could make. Daniel Bryan’s rise to stardom was sensational. So, he didn’t discount them yet.

If a small wrestler was booked properly with a compelling story, then he would bring returns higher than what a big wrestler would bring. The key was in creating a compelling narrative around the small wrestler.

"I will send over a list of some prospects who I think are ready. It is what I did with Robin. You can assess them later," Michael continued. "That way, you won’t have to waste time on tracking their progress every week. That is what we trainers are here for."

Michael laughed trying to come off as a little familiar with Rob. Rob’s eyebrows rose in response to that proposal.

Michael was cleverly trying to assert control here. By reducing the contact Rob had with trainees, Michael was making his position superficial. While it would reduce a lot of workload for Rob, it would also reduce his influence among trainees as well.

However, Rob didn’t mind. He didn’t want to tangle with Michael for power in the training center. He had other things to do with his time. Especially, when the situation of LWC was quite delicate already.

Rob held Michael’s eyes for a moment, before giving a subtle nod. He watched as Michael’s posture relaxed a little and felt like laughing.

Rob wasn’t here to pick fights. He knew how dangerous things are for LWC currently. Any internal trouble would be exploited by those who were currently eyeing LWC like a piece of meat.

But, what made Rob feel like laughing was how people like Michael clung to their little corner of power tightly. It was as if they didn’t care about the overall situation.

It was clear that Michael didn’t want Rob to interfere in the training center. He wanted to keep the old arrangements going like it did with Robin. As long as his little corner of power wasn’t threatened, he didn’t care about anything else.

"You can do that with the male trainees. For the females, send a report for everyone," Rob altered the terms a bit.

Rob didn’t care much about the men’s division. It wasn’t as if he was the one booking them. Even if he wanted to promote a small guy, the one who would do the booking was not him. Their preference would vary from his.

So, it was better to keep things standard with the men’s division.

But, the women’s division was different. He was the one in-charge of the women’s division. So, he didn’t want to miss out on anything related to female trainees. That’s why he altered the terms.

Michael frowned a little upon hearing Rob’s words. He didn’t want to change things. But, Rob had already taken a step back, so it wouldn’t do for him to be too forceful.

After thinking for a bit, he nodded grudgingly. Rob didn’t expect anything different. The importance of women in the industry has not yet reached such a point that they had similar status to men.

So, he knew that while his request might irritate Michael a bit, he would agree to it to maintain a semblance of cordiality in their relationship. It was clear that Michael cared more for his power over the male trainees.

As long as Rob didn’t reach into that zone, Michael was content to keep things cordial.

"Do you want me to call them over so that you could introduce yourself?" Michael asked.

*****

A/N: Hey folks!

Make sure to add this book to your collection and vote with your power stones to show your appreciation for this work.

Support me at patreon.com/kkephemeral