A couple of days before the legendary Pepsi-Man match, Zaboru was sitting inside a private meeting room with Vince McMahon, several WWF superstars, and Pepsi CEO Roger Enrico. The room already felt strange before anyone even started talking seriously. On one side, there was Vince McMahon, a man who could make a normal sentence sound like a wrestling announcement. Beside him were Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker, three men whose presence made the room feel like a wrestling ring even though they were only sitting around a table. And on the other side was Roger Enrico, the CEO of Pepsi, a man who looked calm at first glance, but whose eyes carried the burning hatred of someone who had been personally offended by Coca-Cola since birth.
Zaboru, of course, found the whole atmosphere hilarious. He was already business partners with WWF through ZAGE, since ZAGE owned the rights to WWF video games and had also invested in several related projects. He was also good friends with Vince, mostly because Vince respected insane ideas as long as they had money, spectacle, and at least a fifty percent chance of making people scream. That made Zaboru very compatible with him.
Roger Enrico was also clearly excited to be there. Apparently, he genuinely loved WWF, and even more importantly, he hated Coca-Cola with the passion of a final boss seeking revenge. The moment someone placed a Pepsi can on the table in front of him, he looked at it like a sacred artifact. When someone accidentally placed a red pen nearby, Roger quietly moved it away from his side of the table with a disgusted expression, as if the color itself was corporate contamination.
Vince noticed that and raised an eyebrow before saying, "Roger, that's just a pen."
Roger Enrico smiled politely, but his eyes remained sharp. "It was red."
Bret Hart slowly looked at Undertaker and muttered, "This meeting is already weird."
Undertaker, expression completely serious, replied, "It smells like sponsorship money and vengeance."
Hulk Hogan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and said, "Brother, I've been in a lot of strange meetings, but this one feels like we're about to start a war over soda."
Zaboru grinned. "That's because we are."
For a second, everyone became quiet.
Then Vince slowly smiled.
Roger Enrico leaned forward.
Hogan frowned.
Bret looked suspicious.
Undertaker's expression did not change, but somehow he looked more interested.
Zaboru placed his hands on the table and began explaining the plan. As he talked, Vince's eyes widened more and more. The idea was ridiculous, shameless, aggressive, and unbelievably stupid in the exact way professional wrestling could turn stupid into money. By the time Zaboru finished describing the basic outline—Hogan defending Pepsi, Undertaker insulting it, Bret Hart appearing with Coca-Cola, Hogan calling for Pepsi-Man in broken Japanese, and Pepsi-Man arriving as a real-life ZAGE character—Vince was already staring at him like he had just seen either genius or tax fraud.
Vince rubbed his chin and said, "You're serious right now, Zaboru? I mean, I'm okay with saying great and insane things about Pepsi. I've said crazier things on television. But to ditch Coca-Cola that hard on live broadcast?" He glanced toward Roger with a half-nervous, half-greedy expression. "That's not just a jab. That's a steel chair to the brand."
Zaboru was just about to answer when Roger Enrico suddenly slammed both hands on the table and grinned like a man who had found his life's purpose. "Do it. Do it! This is the best possible idea ever!"
Vince blinked. "You're... really fine with this?"
Roger pointed at him with terrifying enthusiasm. "Fine? Vince, I am beyond fine. Leave Coca-Cola to me. I'll handle them. They mentioned us directly in their recent ads and said Pepsi tastes like toilet water." His smile became colder. "Toilet water, gentlemen. Toilet water. Do you know how much restraint it took for me not to personally drive to their headquarters with a truck full of Pepsi and poor decisions?"
Bret Hart slowly raised his hand and asked, "Is that a real question, or should we pretend we didn't hear it?"
Roger ignored him and continued, "This is not just advertising. This is justice. This is revenge with carbonation."
Zaboru chuckled, genuinely entertained. The ad wars of the late 90s and early 2000s were always wild, even in this world, but seeing the Pepsi CEO act like Coca-Cola had killed his dog made it even better. "See, Vince? The sponsor loves it."
Vince's grin grew wider. "Well, if the sponsor loves it, then suddenly it sounds less legally dangerous."
Bret Hart sighed and said, "That is the most Vince McMahon sentence I've ever heard."
Undertaker nodded slowly. "He values survival less than ratings."
Vince pointed at Undertaker. "And that is why I respect you."
Hulk Hogan, however, was still stuck on one part of the plan. He leaned forward and asked, "Wait a damn minute. What exactly am I supposed to say again?"
Zaboru smiled, lifted his hand dramatically, and shouted, "Pepsi-Man, tasukete!"
The room froze.
Then Bret Hart covered his mouth.
Undertaker looked away.
Vince's shoulders started shaking.
Roger Enrico grinning..
Hulk Hogan frowned deeply because he did not understand Japanese, but he understood enough from everyone's reaction to know he was being set up for something humiliating. "What does that mean?"
Zaboru chuckled and said, "It means 'Help me, Pepsi-Man.' That's all, Hogan."
The room finally broke.
Bret laughed first, then Vince followed, then Roger Enrico laughed so loudly that one of his assistants outside the room probably became worried. Even Undertaker made a low sound that might have been a laugh, though with him it was hard to tell if he was amused or summoning fog.
Hogan stared at all of them, offended. "Brother, I know this is important, but I have an image to maintain, you know. You want Hulk Hogan, the immortal one, to shout 'Help me, Pepsi-Man' in Japanese?"
Zaboru nodded seriously. "Yes."
Vince immediately added, "It's beautiful."
Bret wiped a tear from his eye and said, "It's humiliating."
Roger Enrico pointed at Bret and said, "Exactly. Beautiful."
Hogan looked around the room as if searching for one sane person, but unfortunately, he was in a meeting with Vince McMahon, Zaboru, and the Pepsi CEO. Sanity had left the building before the first sentence. "I'm supposed to defend Pepsi, get beaten down, then call for a silver soda man like he's my tag team partner from Tokyo?"
Zaboru nodded again. "Yes. And the crowd will lose their minds."
Hogan narrowed his eyes. "Will I look strong?"
Zaboru immediately answered, "You'll look like the only man brave enough to summon a corporate superhero through the power of Pepsi."
Hogan paused.
Vince nodded. "That actually sounds strong."
Bret muttered, "That sounds insane."
Undertaker said calmly, "In wrestling, those are often the same thing."
Roger Enrico leaned forward with a business smile that could buy morality by the kilogram. "Hogan, I understand your concerns. So let me make this simple. I will give you an additional Pepsi sponsor contract for saying the line."
Hogan's expression changed instantly.
The concern disappeared.
The dignity disappeared.
The immortal pride became negotiable.
Hogan grinned and said, "I'm in, brother."
Bret and Undertaker both laughed. Bret shook his head and said, "Professional as always." Undertaker looked at Hogan with deadpan respect and added, "Money buried the pride."
Hogan pointed at Undertaker and said, "Brother, pride doesn't pay for houses."
Roger Enrico then turned toward Bret and Undertaker with the smile of a man handing out ammunition. "You two as well. I'll make additional contracts for you. You'll play Pepsi-haters and Coca-Cola lovers during the match, but near the end or afterward, you need to say Coca-Cola is ass."
Bret stared at him. "So you want us to pretend to support Coca-Cola, get beaten up by Pepsi-Man, then insult Coca-Cola anyway?"
Roger nodded. "Correct."
Bret slowly looked at Vince. "This is the stupidest business structure I've ever heard."
Vince smiled. "But you heard the word 'contract,' right?"
Bret paused.
Then he nodded. "I'm listening."
Undertaker leaned back and asked, "What exactly do I say?"
Roger thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe something like, 'I should've drunk booze instead of that garbage.'"
The room became quiet for half a second.
Then Vince slapped the table. "That's good!"
Bret pointed at Undertaker and said, "That line fits him too well."
Undertaker nodded solemnly. "I accept this burden."
Hogan squinted at him. "You accept it that fast?"
Undertaker looked at him. "I enjoy insulting things."
Vince then turned toward Zaboru and asked the important question. "But who's going to be Pepsi-Man?"
Zaboru chuckled and pointed to himself. "Obviously, it's me."
Vince's eyes immediately lit up. In previous years, Zaboru had appeared as ZABO-Man as a guest, so Vince already knew very well that Zaboru was physically capable of doing insane things in the ring. The problem was that Zaboru was extremely busy and rarely appeared in WWF anymore. Vince had wanted to use him more, but using Zaboru was like trying to book lightning. Sometimes he appeared, amazed everyone, and then vanished back into running a global empire.
Vince leaned forward excitedly. "For real? You're actually willing to do it?"
Zaboru shrugged. "It sounds fun."
Vince looked like he had just been given free money. "Zaboru, when you say something sounds fun, my ratings go up and my legal team starts sweating."
Bret nodded. "That's probably accurate."
Vince ignored him and continued, "Can we record you as Pepsi-Man behind the scenes too? It will make everything more interesting later. Of course, we won't reveal it right away. We need to let the audience think and guess who Pepsi-Man is first. We let the mystery build. Then later, boom! Reveal footage."
Zaboru chuckled and nodded. "I don't mind. But don't reveal it too soon. Let people argue. It'll be funnier."
Vince's grin became almost evil. "Oh, they'll argue. Wrestling fans argue about everything. If Pepsi-Man runs slightly too fast, someone will say it's a lightweight wrestler. If he punches too hard, someone will say it's a heavyweight. If he jumps too high, someone will say he's not human."
Undertaker looked at Zaboru and said, "They might be correct."
Zaboru smiled innocently. "I'm just athletic."
Bret snorted. "That is a suspiciously modest way to describe whatever the hell you do."
They then began talking seriously about how the match would look. Or at least, they tried to talk seriously. The problem was that every time someone described the scene, someone else started laughing. Vince wanted maximum drama. Roger wanted maximum Pepsi. Hogan wanted to make sure he still looked strong. Bret wanted to make sure he did not look like an idiot. Undertaker wanted to say as little as possible while still seeming terrifying. Zaboru wanted the whole thing to feel like a surreal fever dream that somehow worked.
Vince said Hogan should act like Pepsi had been personally disrespected, and Hogan immediately stood up, pointed at an imaginary Undertaker, and shouted, "You crossed the line, brother!" Roger Enrico clapped like a proud father watching his son graduate. Bret then suggested that he should enter with a Coca-Cola can and sip it slowly, which made Roger hiss under his breath like someone had shown him holy water. Undertaker suggested simply crushing the Pepsi can under his boot, and Roger looked physically wounded but admitted it would make the audience furious.
Zaboru then demonstrated how Pepsi-Man should run down the ramp, leaning forward with his arms pumping in that ridiculous iconic way. Vince nearly fell out of his chair laughing, while Hogan shouted, "Brother, if you run like that on live TV, the people are gonna explode."
By the end of the meeting, the plan had become more detailed. Hogan would defend Pepsi. Undertaker would insult it. Bret would appear with Coca-Cola and join the anti-Pepsi side. Vince would overreact on commentary because that was basically his natural state. Hogan would get beaten down, reach the announcer table, find the hidden Pepsi bottle and microphone, then shout, "Pepsi-Man, tasukete!" as if summoning a legendary warrior. Then Zaboru, in the Pepsi-Man suit, would appear, rush down the ramp, clean house, help Hogan, and vanish like a heroic soda phantom.
Roger Enrico looked deeply satisfied. "Gentlemen, this may be the finest cultural weapon Pepsi has ever deployed."
Bret stared at him. "It's a wrestling angle."
Roger nodded. "A cultural weapon."
Vince smiled proudly. "I like him."
A couple of days later, after the match aired, the result was even more ridiculous than they expected.
The whole thing took the media by storm. The audience loved it, not necessarily because it made sense, but because it was so absurd that people could not stop talking about it. Everyone wanted to know who Pepsi-Man was. The forums exploded. Some people insisted it had to be a trained wrestler. Others argued that the movement was too strange and too fast. A few people genuinely claimed Pepsi-Man had popped out of the ZEPS 3 game into real life through some kind of ZAGE technology.
One thread titled "PEPSI-MAN IS REAL AND ZAGE IS HIDING HIM" reached thousands of replies in one night.
Some even pretend to be ZAGE Employees and said that he met pepsi-man on ZAGE tower.
Another thread argued that Pepsi-Man was an alien being kept in Area 51 and that ZAGE had only made the game to prepare people for his eventual arrival.
Someone else posted, "I don't know who was inside the suit, but he moved like he had dream"
That comment became a meme immediately. "I don't know who it's but i know he can dream"
Vince loved it. Roger Enrico loved it even more. Pepsi sales saw a noticeable bump, especially among younger fans, and WWF ratings got a strong spike because people wanted to see whether Pepsi-Man would appear again. ZAGE also benefited because the Pepsi-Man game suddenly became hot again.
Coca-Cola, of course, was pissed.
But surprisingly, they did not immediately launch legal charges. Instead, they started looking for a creative way to humiliate Pepsi back. Their marketing department apparently took the whole thing as a declaration of war. They wanted revenge, not in court, but in culture. They wanted an ad so sharp, so funny, and so humiliating that Pepsi would be forced to answer again.
And that was exactly what Zaboru loved to see.
The soda war had become entertainment.
The advertising world had been punched directly in the face by wrestling, games, and corporate stupidity, and now everyone wanted to see who would throw the next hit.
By late May, Zaboru had finally returned to Japan. The Pepsi-Man chaos was still spreading online, Vince was still calling him every other day with increasingly stupid ideas, Roger Enrico had sent him enough Pepsi to ZAGE tower Japan that Ayumi asked if he was secretly opening a vending machine business, and Coca-Cola's counterattack was already being whispered about in marketing circles.
But Zaboru had no time to focus on soda madness forever.
Now, he had something even bigger to handle.
He was preparing to hold a grand ZAGE meeting for ZEPS 4, inviting all major higher-ups from every ZAGE branch across the world. Japan, USA, Korea, and England, would finally gather to hear what kind of monster ZAGE was preparing for the next era the ZEPS 4 meeting.
To be continued.
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