June 28th, 2008: Sutter General Hospital, Sacramento CA
On June 27th, 2008... Ehno Pericolo, my son, was born into this world. It was around 11:42PM at night, Suki had been in labor for roughly fourteen hours by that point, and my hand had probably been broken for a good three of those hours leading up to the time of the birth.
I stayed by her side the entire time... it was one of the most surreal experiences I'd ever had. Forget wrestling, forget my entire career... when you see a human being-- your own son-- being born... it really puts perspective onto your life as a whole. For roughly nine months he'd stayed inside of Suki, growing and developing into the infant the doctors were then cleaning and preparing to hand over to her.
And the birth was not the cleanest of affairs-- far from it; however... even despite all the often-overlooked unpleasentries of human birth, it was honestly the most beautiful moment of my entire life. Suki was exhausted, I was being told to get my hand treated, and our son... our amazing, precious son was just curled up in his mother's arms, crying softly in-between his feeding. I reached out and brushed the soft curls of black hair that covered his head...
... just remembering it now makes me want to cry, really. Who knew I'd grow to be such a soft-hearted guy? Heh... the NLCW's storytelling hero, a multi-time World Champion who'd made his money off of being good at hurting people, and there I was... bawling like a child at the sight of my own newborn child. Suki was crying too, the both of us just extraordinarily happy... because it signified the start of a new journey in the both of our lives.
I'd been dabbling with the NLCW for awhile, thinking about coming back full-time again, doing the whole thing with Remnant and all... but when Ehno was born, my life was filled with new meaning. I knew the NLCW could wait for me, that it had stood up to worse threats than Durst and his little crew and survived the onslaught in the past... as far as I was concerned, Suki and Ehno both were top priority for me then.
They still are today, and will continue to be for the rest of my life. The return to the NLCW, the desire to close my chapter with the federation... it all spawned from a single conversation I'd had with her several months later, still long before I settled on making my official return. She knew I had some unfinished business there... she knew that, if left unsettled, I'd regret not coming back for the rest of my life, always wondering what might have been. She's the one that pushed me to return, in the end... she's always been supporting me really, ever since we were kids.
Still, that night... just around an hour after Ehno's birth, Suki and I found ourselves talking about the future, about everything we had planned and how important it was to find somewhere solid to move to and raise Ehno. Up until then, we'd been living in what the both of us knew would only be a temporary home in Sacramento, something low-key but in a safe neighborhood... we'd planned to save more money and get ourselves a nice farmhouse one day, move to the country and all.
"I'd like that, really..." she'd whispered to me, her voice ragged and tired as she stared down at our then-sleeping son in her arms, "Somewhere quiet. Somewhere peaceful... somewhere we can grow old together."
I leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead, tell her I'd do everything I possibly could to see our dreams become reality. Our dreams... you know, when you find the right person in this world of ours, you'll find that your dreams become dreams of theirs for you as well. I learned fast that every time I said "my dream", a large part of me was thinking "our dream" all along.
It took awhile, too... but eventually, we found the perfect place to prepare ourselves for the future. It was hard, leaving my hometown for somewhere new-- let alone in a state like Texas-- but in the end... I've not regretted the decision in the slightest. Ehno's going to be three this year, he's starting to talk more and trying to form full sentences, and there's no greater feeling in the world for me than having conversations with him in our yard, the fields surrounding our home flowing with the breeze.
Suki's been talking about wanting another baby, too... and to be honest, I would love to give Ehno a baby brother or sister one day. When this business with the NLCW is finally over, I... I'm honestly expecting things to start to fall together back at home.
It's going to be heartbreaking to leave my fans when I retire, and losing my NLCW family is going to hurt for a long time after... but when it comes down to it, the most important people in my life are right there beside me, and I've never been happier because of them.
So, needless to say... if I lose this last match of mine to you, Majors, it won't be nearly as heartbreaking for me as you seem to believe it will. If anything... it will make me happy for you, in a sad kind-of way, for the fact that I'd leave you with something to hold onto while you avoid risking the pain of failed hope for your wife's sake.
But, that being said... you're going to have to learn it the hard way, Rick: sometimes... hope has to be born from the darkest of circumstances, because when the chips are down and we've been left with nothing at all... hope is what keeps us alive.
And Rick, no matter how hard you give your all... you're not going to beat me. Not this time, and with the NLCW closing and my own final retirement... not any time in the future.
So hold onto hope, Rick Majors, because when Avulsion ends... it's all you'll have left when the NLCW closes its doors.