Chapter Text
It is well known that in the world of wrestling faces and heels must hate each other, it is simply the natural order; one is the heroe and the other the villain, the embodiment of the eternal battle between good and evil in which the good guys always come out on top. But it's hard for Oliver to even pretend to hate the guy he sees on the screen, the man who has become the embodiment of the babyface concept, Barry Allen, The Flash .
"Hey, Ollie, are you ready yet?" Asks Tommy, whom he just noticed standing next to him.
"Yes." He replies simply.
"Remember the change in the last move?"
"Yes, John does a suplex on me and then ends the match."
"Well, that's my boy."
At that moment his co-workers that were in the match are coming back, after some congratulations they continue their way to the locker room, Oliver just observes the boy dressed in red.
"He's pretty good, huh?" Says John Diggle, his friend and tonight's rival in the ring.
"Yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone use the ropes as good as him." Dig looks at him with slight suspicion, he stops after that, thinking about how he must have sounded and asks: "How's Lyla doing, is she coming today?"
"Better, once the morning sickness stopped now we have to deal with the cravings, luckily today she wanted popcorn." He smiles.
"Great, she and the baby will see you win."
The staff gives them the indication that they are about to enter the arena, John is the first, the audience screams and shows their signs of support, a few seconds after he announcer has announced Spartan , Oliver knows it's his turn, he walks towards the ramp with his best arrogant expression, he listens to his music at full volume and starts to walk down the aisle, looking over his shoulder at the audience and immediately starts to hear the whistles and boos, every insult directed at his mother is music to his ears, a clear sign that he is playing his role well.
" And with you the archer Green Arrow!"
The audience continues to boo, Oliver just smiles mockingly, just like the first time.
Almost eight years ago he left everything to follow his dream of being a professional wrestler, he managed to capture the attention of a company that is the hotbed of talent of his current company, that's how with his friend Tommy as manager he came to the ring with his first gimmick: Billionaire. That character was the representation of the typical rich boy, spoiled, womanizer and selfish. He hated to play it, but it had worked so he saw the need to keep it. At the end of his first year in DCW, with the fame gained in the Dark Matches and some other small interventions, the writers decided to give a twist to his story by incorporating a love interest, the rising star of the female branch, Laurel Lance "Black Canary".
To Oliver's surprise, that occurrence sold well with fans, the idea of the bad boy and the good girl who is convinced she can turn him around with her love seems to charm them. For a year they were a couple, Laurel used to appear during his matches to cheer him up and sometimes they went on "dates" in which they were accompanied by a recording crew; she was madly in love with him, while Oliver behind her back flirted with other girls, either some of her fellow wrestlers or with fans. All this in kayfabe, of course, because Oliver and Laurel are actually good friends, but for the convenience of the storylines to develop they kept faking their relationship, at least until the managers decided to turn heel Sara.
Sara Lance, Laurel's sister, also belonged to the company and despite having been there for less time she was gaining popularity, that added to the development that had been given to her character put her in the right place and time to become a villain, so the creative team decided that the final blow would be to steal her sister's boyfriend, which would also increase the hatred towards Oliver, since at the beginning his character annoyed the fans but now they were losing interest. White Canary's change of allegiance was successfully pulled off, culminating in a fight between the sisters in which Oliver had to intervene and was masterfully defeated by a scorned Laurel.
That "relationship" didn't last long, as six months later Sara broke up with Oliver, triggering an embarrassing plot of him as a repentant boyfriend, trying to get Laurel back, attacking her new love interest or trying to beat powerful opponents like Deathstroke to impress her; once Laurel rejected him that story ended and Oliver's luck got worse, he was getting fewer and fewer matches and those few were not important, because of that Tommy made a suggestion to him.
"I think it's time for the letter r, Ollie."
Oliver knew what it meant: Repackage, a complete revamp of his character; once the creatives agreed the process began. After a segment where Billionaire appears furious in the management's office threatening to quit if they don't give him "the place he deserves" they give him an ultimatum saying that he will get it if he wins it in a match against Count Vertigo, otherwise he will lose his job. Precisely that was the purpose of the fight, that they could "fire him" so he could start from scratch, with a new and better character.
After losing in a somewhat ridiculous way, he does the whole show of being fired and leaving dramatically. He is out for a few months, planning his new gimmick with Tommy, because to achieve his goals he had to be someone else... something else. Talking with his friend, they decide to create something different, a character that would erase Billionaire from the fan's mind; this time it would be a Heel with a darker, violent and dangerous character.
It's not easy, since despite being a character, he's exposing a part of himself, the part he tries to keep at bay, that monster he can only satisfy through wrestling; Tommy understands, but encourages him to channel all those negative things and get rid of them while playing the character. Following that logic, they get the costume and the name: Green Arrow, remembering the times when Oliver practiced archery to forget about his problems, now he would use this character to get rid of what harms him; for before the ring he would wear a green leather vest with hood, while when entering to fight he would stay only with his tight pants also green. His story would be simple: the guy who wants to win and doesn't care what he has to do or who he has to go through to do it.
Once he was given the go-ahead to return he started "anonymously", even without showing himself in his new facet, he intervened in fights of other Heels, at first people thought it was to help the face on duty, but what a surprise they got when they saw that he attacked both; as expected, the public was intrigued by that character who attacked wrestlers at random and then disappeared, due to his black costume that included a mask of the same color and wearing a hood, they began to call him The Hood.
As a few weeks went by, his reception was getting better and better, the audience was already waiting for his intervention and even got to see some posters of support towards The Hood, it was time to reveal himself and make them hate him. During a match between Atom and Deathstroke himself he appeared, the people cheered, first he joined Deathstroke and together they applied a Double Powerbomb to Atom, knocking him out, then he proceeded to face Deathstroke, making all possible traps, from stinging his eyes to hitting his head against the turnbuckles of the ropes, to finish with his new signature move: The archer, which is a bow and arrow submission, thus winning the fight and the boos from the audience, because even though Deathstroke is a Heel the audience loves him, then the moment to leave the mask and show himself comes, he is given the microphone.
"Maybe you don't know this, but you just saw the next DCW champion, I just defeated Deathstroke and soon I'm going to go for the rest, you're going to wish I never came back. From today on, everyone is going to have to watch out for Green Arrow." Tommy hands him the top of his suit, he puts it on and after posing in front of the audience for a moment he leaves, as he passes the curtain he still hears the commotion.
"It worked." Says Tommy.
"It worked." He smiles.
Presently he hears the bell, show time.
Glossary
Face or babyface: Wrestlers who commonly play the role of the "good guy", most of the time they are the most loved by the audience.
Heel: Wrestlers who have the role of "bad guys" almost always cheat, they are not very loved by the public.
Suplex: Wrestling move that basically consists of lifting the opponent up and then dropping him backwards, sort of:
Gimmick: The character played by a wrestler, including name, personality and moves.
Dark Match: Wrestling that occurs during a show but is not broadcast on television.
Kayfabe: Referring to events as kayfabe means that they are worked events and/or part of wrestling, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be compared to an actor stepping out of character in front of the camera.
Turn Heel: When a wrestler's personality (character) changes, in this case to Heel.
Repackage: To change a wrestler's character (name, concept, moves).
Double Powerbomb: The opponent is placed on the attackers shoulders and then will be slammed to the mat.
Bow and arrow submission: Victim is stretched over the attacker's knees.