Loyalty

Chapter 33: Wrestler.

Jessica's POV

Once Impractical Jokers became more popular, the guys were given more opportunities to do things that they enjoyed, outside of the show itself. For example, Brian and Sal were invited to go backstage before an episode of Monday Night Raw. A bunch of the wrestlers were fans of IJ, and in return, Brian and Sal have always loved wrestling. I was also a huge wrestling fan and luckily I was able to tag along with Brian and Sal backstage. I was excited to go to the event and meet some of my favorite wrestlers, people I've watched on TV for years.

As soon we arrived at the venue, Brian and Sal were met with greetings and high fives from people who recognized them. I've been around them long enough, so by now, I'm used to all the attention they get. Almost every time I went in public with any of the guys, they would get stopped by fans, mostly asking for pictures. I was often the one who took these pictures. It could get kind of annoying sometimes, like when a fan interrupts a date night between Brian and I. But this time it was actually kind of cool to see all the attention Brian and Sal were getting since I actually recognized most of the people backstage who were coming up to them. I know that it was surreal for Brian to meet wrestlers, and realize that they were both fans of each other.

One of the wrestlers we met was Xavier Woods, aka Austin Creed, who is a part of the very popular tag team, the New Day. Austin was one of the wrestlers the guys had become very friendly with, although they were both still fans of each other. Brian introduced me to Austin, even though I already knew who he was from watching Raw every week. Austin was passionate about video games and had his own YouTube gaming channel. He normally films his videos at Raw and other live events. There are often wrestlers or other special guests involved in his videos. Austin asked Brian and Sal to film a gaming video with him, which they were excited about and happily agreed to. Austin was kind enough to invite me to sit in as well but I politely declined. Sometimes it felt awkward to be sitting around while the guys were filming things or doing interviews. I knew that the people watching these videos didn't really care about me. They just wanted to see the guys and I was perfectly fine with that. In fact, I tried to avoid any kind of spotlight if possible, since people online aren't always kind. Especially if you're dating their favorite celebrities. But Brian still tried to make sure that I was comfortable.

"Are you sure you don't want to join us? I feel bad leaving you by yourself," Brian said.

"Don't worry about me. Just do your thing. Enjoy. I'll be fine. I'm just going to walk around a little. I'm sure I'll meet some interesting people," I assured him.

I gave Brian a kiss and left to wander around the arena. As I began walking around, I met a bunch of people I recognized and admired. Brian had introduced me to some of these people in passing, but now I got a chance to chat with them for a little bit. Once I got over that initial feeling of being star struck, I began to have normal conversations with these people. Most of the wrestlers were extremely friendly and lovely people. I even exchanged phone numbers with a few of them.

After chatting with a few people, I spotted one of my favorite wrestlers. Seth Rollins. In my opinion, he was one of the most talented performers in the WWE, and that wasn't just because of his wrestling skills. In wrestling, the bad guy is called a heel. And I loved watching Seth perform as a heel. He was so good at being the bad guy that I wondered if he would be a nice guy or not. But I guess I was about to find out.

"Hi, Seth. My name is Jess," I said, introducing myself.

"Nice to meet you, Jess. But you can call me Colby, my real name. Seth Rollins is just a character," he said.

I felt a little embarrassed calling him by his stage name. I knew that was just a persona, and he probably gets tired of the people who judge him based on the character he plays on TV.