New York, New York

Fall 2002

It had been building for months.

Or perhaps years.

It had been building since whenever a cult Golden Glen Miller follower felt like “the arch” had begun.

There were his years of cutting his teeth in the pro wrestling circuits of the early 1970s. His first world championship in 1978. And his years of greatness before his injury.

Those were the good years.

Then the catastrophic knee injury in 1982.

Of course, he tried to return to the ring in 1985, but he wasn’t the same, and he struggled to draw a crowd or receive cheers. Finally, he and the fans turned on each other in 1988 but then his personal life fell apart and he ultimately became the pariah of pro wrestling through the 1990s.

Those were the bad years.

However, since he had joined 21^st Century Wrestling in 2001, he had been forced to take a hard look in the mirror. Deep down, the money meant nothing to him anymore, and all he was left with was disdain by a whole new generation of wrestlers.

After taking into account the countless fans he had disappointed, the small speck of goodness that remained within him had begun to pump back through his heart and into his veins.

Yes, indeed, it had been building.

What was it? It was this moment.

Across the warzone that was a wrestling ring in the middle of Madison Square Garden, bodies laid strewn about. The raucous fanbases, bitterly divided by the intra-promotion feud were at each other’s throats.

For months, 21^st Century Wrestling had been drawn into a conflict with a rival promotion simply known as the Asylum. The Asylum was nothing more than a mixed bag of fighters and psychopaths; very few considered them professional wrestlers of any nature.

Inside the ring, the venerable Golden Glen Miller was one of the final competitors left in an arduous match simply called the Iliad. It was a six vs. six contest between the two promotions’ best wrestlers.

The winner of the 21^st Century Wrestling vs. the Asylum duel would officially claim victory in the intra-promotion feud.

Now it was down to two men, Golden Glen Miller and a psychopath simply known as Villam.

It was at this moment that Villam put Glen into mid-ring sleeper hold. Villam tightened and exerted as much pressure around Miller’s shoulder and neck area as possible. GGM was enduring insurmountable pain and was about ready to pass out.

Villam screamed out of exertion and was sure that Glen would break at any moment…And it looked as if he would. Miller’s head draped forward, and the referee moved in to raise Glen’s arm.

21^st Century Wrestling’s fans sat on the edge of their seats, biting their fingernails, in what now seemed like forlorn hope. Villam was just too persistent. Too sick. He wanted to kill Glen Miller. He wanted to strangle him to death.

Miller was bright red, and the referee raised his arm to check for any sign of life… Before it dropped to the mat for the third time, Miller reached for the sky, and Villam couldn’t believe it.

Thousands screamed, eager for Miller to get back off one knee, and he did.

Back onto both feet, Villam’s eyes widened with horror as he was now being overwhelmed and overpowered by the veteran wrestler from Memphis, Tennessee. Miller grabbed him by one arm and yanked him in for a short arm crunching clothesline.

As Villam lay on the mat, Miller spotted a discorded, broken chair. He picked it up and laid it over Villam’s head.

For the first time in decades, the fans screamed and chanted Miller’s name.

Fueled by the return of love from the fans, Glen bounced off one rope and glided across to the other.

He let himself slingshot back to mid-ring and dropped his elbow onto the chair, which sent Villam’s head bouncing.

THE GOLDEN ELBOW!!!

1… … 2… … … 3!!!

Villam lay motionless, but Glen finally managed to get up. His arm was hoisted into the air by referee while the totality of the moment began to sink in.

He began to realize what he’d just achieved.

It wasn’t just victory.

It was redemption.

The adulation of the fans drowned out any pain Glen was in, including his badly damaged knee that he first injured nearly twenty years ago.

For this moment… he was immortal.