Did you ever know that you're my hero
And everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle
For you are the wind beneath my wings.
Bette Midler’s best-known hit became all that more poignant to me when we were planning for Dad’s funeral. it was the only request from my Mum, who ultimately left the rest of the decisions up to me. Hearing it now never ceases to bring tears to my eyes, and it’s the ultimate fallback plan on those times when sometimes…just sometimes…I feel like I need a good cry…
…and yeah, before you start saying anything about wrestlers not doing that…we all do it.
I know why she picked it for Dad. He had a habit of making everything okay, no matter the situation. More often than not, he would find a way to step up, find the solution, steady the ship. If you just take the chorus, on the face of it, that was my Dad in a nutshell…but for me it goes deeper than that.
Very few people get to the top of the tree alone. It may seem that way…and when it comes to direct involvement that probably is the case, but you don't know what happens behind closed doors, and you don't know who has been involved in their past. Sadly I don’t think I truly understood it until he was gone. It was only in listening to that song again, that I realised I would be nothing without him. I wouldn't be standing here as a former world champion and I wouldn't have the crown on my head as King…even if it's only for a day.
It must have been cold there in my shadow
To never have sunlight on your face
You were content to let me shine, that's your way
You always walked a step behind
I remember hearing someone say that our job as parents is to become good memories for our kids. I’m not a parent myself, or at least…not that I know of…but I get the concept…suddenly our own dreams and ambitions become secondary. I've always been competitive from a young age, and I've always enjoyed sports. There was this common running theme that went through it. Whenever I need to get somewhere for training or for a match, guess who my taxi driver was. If I needed company to go to a game, it was my Dad alongside me. Maybe it was more he was taking me along for company, it didn’t really matter, but it started forging something.
Parts that I took…and parts that I took for granted.
I’ve never lived in a shadow. I’ve always forged my own path…and it wasn’t until I lost one of my biggest supporters that the lyrics really began to hit home how much that was the case.
Everything connects with one another. My work ethic. My competitive spirit. My love for playing sport, for watching sport, my love of football, which brought me into the League. My love for wrestling, which I ended up circling back around to in the end. I had someone in my corner who made me who I was, before I even hired a coach.
Sometimes, we don’t get to choose our mentors, they just find their way into our lives organically. They don’t label themselves, they just…exist. Those tend to be the most powerful…
...but then there’s the ones we can choose.
When your wrestling career spans the length of mine, a lot of things get lost in the shuffle, a blur of planes, trains and automobiles all combining into one big mess. I’ve been to cities, even wrestled in arenas and completely forgotten I’d been in them before. I know experienced guys like us get looked to for tales of glory, we should have hundreds, right?
Well…what usually happens is we all hold some close to our heart, a select few that stick while some of the others blur into the shuffle. One that will always go down fondly was my first appearance in Blast from the Past.
I hadn’t thought about her all that much…her being Evie…and before you start on this whole obsessing over other people’s wives thing - Just stop. It’s not like that. It was never like that. There were times during that run where it looked like we really didn’t like each other and yeah trust me, that shit was very real, not hammed up for the camera at all.
In life we all make certain human connections. Ours…as it happened…was solely in the ring. It’d be one of those ideal situations where, put the two of us together and it’d be a gold-mine and as much as the dislike may have been there out of it…she implanted herself into my memory in some way.
I guess that’s why I find myself getting involved in a situation that really…I should leave well alone, even if I know the damage it can cause. It’s why Levana Cade was now on my radar…and why by now, she had a plane ticket to Miami, Florida in her hand.
Evie and I were never going to completely see eye-to-eye, on a lot of things. When it came to the wrestling business she wasn’t all that pleasant. Made her great to have in your corner. The fear factor of my ability to pull a win out of nothing and Evie’s ability to just be intimidating as fuck at a moment’s notice. Nobody could go through GO Gym without showing the relevant respect to Evie…the original, the prototype, the very reason THEY even had the OPPORTUNITY to become HALF the competitor she was.
Intimidating and to most? A little unhealthy.
It might have appeared to go unnoticed
But I've got it all here in my heart
I want you to know, I know the truth, of course I know it
I would be nothing without you
I learned a whole lot of valuable lessons from someone whose influence on my life I didn't realise until after they were gone. Someone who completely and selflessly put me above them and above all else. Someone who's only agenda was my success in my happiness. I get the concept of tough love, and sometimes we all need a bit of kick at certain times, and other times we just need that reassuring arm over your shoulder.
One thing I never heard my Dad do was stroke his own ego. He was too busy pushing someone else’s agenda.
I haven’t been a parent, but I know what it means to be a mentor. And I know what it looks like to see someone make a mess of all my hard work.
There was a time with my star students where her parents decided to get involved. She got attacked in the ring at a show, and they held me responsible. They said I never should have put her in that situation, but the fact she is proved the very point I was trying to make. Those women attacked because they were threatened. They knew this 16 year old kid could hang at their level, and they were scared.
Of course they had their way, and they brought their own coaching into the fold, going against their daughter’s wishes. Now Faith’s parents had both been in wrestling longer than I had, they owned a promotion, they thought they knew best. I knew who he was of course, a clear case of roid rage, too stiff, very few people wanted to go in with him as a worker, and as a coach he was the same. I didn't approve of his methods. Of course, he set about abusing Faith as if that was going to toughen her up. Look around. You only have to look as far as Sin City Wrestling and the story of Myra, the emotional damage inflicted on Andrea and Chelsea - That shit is DAMAGING, permanently. I feel like one may be both of them in that example yeah both of them in that example wouldn't be the same again.
Faith on the other hand? Well she was more of a fighter. It was at some point at a show…she was defending her title belt and this guy started screaming in her face backstage, right before she went out to the ring. Telling her she wasn't good enough, that she didn't deserve it. She was the fucking champion, she earned it in the ring, where it all counts. She proved that she deserved to be in that position as much as anyone else…but it was another chance for some tough love.
Faith snapped, she hit him with her title belt and then she grabbed a folding chair. Beat the living hell out of this guy that was over a foot taller than her, and probably twice her weight. She left the poor guy crying for his Mom to save him before a bunch of backstage crew pulled her off.
In that case…HE was never the same again.
I don't think you can understand how important a coach or a mentor is.
They can make you.
They can break you.
They can destroy you.
Don’t get me wrong - I’d never want to meet Evie in a ring. I’d like to meet her in a dark alley even less. She is scary…dominant…worthy of every single one of her accolades…and she holds everyone to her own impossibly high standards.
She could ruin someone else, just like Myra and ironically…even though she started out the victim…Faith.
Maybe I could stop her from crushing a hot prospect before it was too late.
Part 2 - A New Proposition
The Dragon’s Lair…Miami, FL. My training centre, the place I practically live in whenever I’m at home. I figure after Greece it was time I got myself back here as nothing helps you prepare better than a solid routine. After all - There’s been a changing of the guard, and a lot of pieces still need to move.
This last cycle has certainly been an interesting one. and to see Matthew capture the World Heavyweight title…feels almost like there was some vindication that already took place, you can’t take the easy path as Champion, you get found out, and as many expected, Raven’s title pedigree elsewhere showed out, when it mattered the most.
Unfortunately though, there is still a little unfinished business to attend to. That is exactly why the decision will not include a referee, just pure splintering wood and fire. The theme for this week’s main event is revenge of the very professional kind. A chance to right a wrong, as simple as that. You can talk about motives and yeah there is something behind this but I don't think it's what you expect it's going to be.
You may ask why the World title isn’t on the line. Two reasons, I said I wouldn’t…and in reality, it doesn’t matter. I want Levana to take this one.
Now…Part one…the fact is, I lost any right to take a stab at the title the moment our Head Referee missed a rope break. It was fraudulent. Don’t get me wrong, that was shaping up to be one hell of a match and if it’d gone all the way to a proper, legal conclusion the result could well have been the same, but I can’t stamp a title shot on a ‘maybe’. I realise I won the right to quite literally do whatever the fuck I want but that doesn’t automatically mean to gift myself a shot on a silver platter.
I’ll earn that title, and I’ll come up looking bloody. That’s the only way I’ve ever worked around here, and I’m not going back on that now. Matthew has the chance to right that wrong, and to avenge his Blast from the Past loss too.
There’s always that second reason.
There is always a better way.
Sin City Wrestling has its fair share of historic names on the roster. Some you could say are more successful than others. After all, if you're around long enough you will find yourself falling in you will find yourself falling into certain opportunities at the right time. Kind of like I’ve been doing, except I don’t need to break 100 losses to put myself there. In fact, I think I will probably get there in the least amount of time. Not here for a long time, just here for a good time.
A win against Jessie Salco is basically like an opinion, everyone seems to have one. Of course, on balance, you can look at the things that she has achieved in that time as well and have to give full credit, it just takes a whole lot longer to sink in with her. I guess that's not the best position to be in when you beat someone and it's a given…and when they do pull it off, there’s enough meat on the bone that you can kind of wear it, if you dig hard enough. After all, finding those big wins that she has on her record, though successes, are kind of like finding the diamond in the rough. The same can be said for rookies in this business.
It takes a while to find a good one.
I know you've asked already on Twitter Jessie, so let me give you the background on why this match has happened, and why you're involved. You see, I looked through Levana's losses. While we can deal with all of them in time, it just so happens that with availability for booking, you are the first head on the chopping block.
You're gonna be the proof of what a little changing direction can do. I’m sure most of us love the fact that it might get one over on Evie too, without having to see her face-to-face.
So I've mentioned finding the diamonds in the rough. If you're looking at Bombshells the first place you’d normally look is GO Gym. Evie…Dani…Krystal…You name it.
Matthew Knox - New World champion.
Maybe it’s time for a changing of the guard elsewhere, too.
Jessie, your check will be in the mail, as you’ve just been signed up to become the latest ambassador for the Dragon’s Lair gym out of Miami, Florida.
It’s crazy to see a Blast from the Past semi-finalist get treated with such a ‘meh’ reception.
When Levana stuffs you through a flaming table, Jessie, maybe she’ll see that a change of scenery is all she needs to become the star attraction she has all the potential to be.
Our first port of call is to reverse every one of those losses.
The next is to make her World Bombshell champion.
Miss Salco…The King thanks you for your service.
