Evolution of a Tag Team Specialist - From Teams to Singles Glory

March 22nd 2004.....

It was a Monday morning, a mild and somewhat unassuming day only a few hours into its birth. Dazz walked into the room from the bedroom area, standing in the dim light of the lounge. Looking around, he noticed that the mocha coloured armchairs situated in the room looked shadowy and eerie, looming in the near darkness as if they were monsters awaiting the chance to attack once his back was turned. The darkness that cast such imagery upon the room, upon his mind, came from the fact that the darkened curtains were drawn fully across the window, blocking out whatever light may want to seep in and illuminate the hotel room he was occupying. He continued to stand there in just a pair of boxers, his eyes half closed as he stumbled towards the window and grabbed at those curtains and began to tug them apart, having to drag the bottom of them too as they rested upon the floor.

Almost instantly, the light beamed directly onto his face, causing him to squint even more since his eyes were still not yet adjusted from recently awakening from his slumber. He stood there, silently for what seemed like forever until the blurred vision slowly became clearer and his eyelids were able to be forced wide open naturally, taking note of the details of the outside world such as cars roaming the streets and the pedestrians and store fronts of 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan close to Grand Central Terminal in the heart of New York City. New York seemed to already be raring to go, the city that never sleeps living up to its reputation while here was this man standing watching it all from a window and still not used to this feeling of being wide awake yet, parts of his mind still trying to shake off the last remnants of the land of slumber in which he’d occupied as a sleep tourist up until just a few minutes ago.

His hair was long and running down between his shoulder blades, not quite tidy with areas of it needing to be combed back down flat with a band visible in the locks he had dyed a blonde colour, giving away the fact that he’d gone to bed with the hair on top of his scalp tied back while the sides and the back were hanging loose on his back and shoulders. His hair was dyed a lighter shade back then because he wished to go blonde to match the light tones of his younger brother’s sometimes was plus he’d grown tired of having brown hair and wanted to convey that whole megastar persona, having a blonde mane to go with the expensive shimmering shirts he wore of a black PVC or silvery or cyan and magenta colour. His torso showed signs of his athleticism but he didn’t have the definition he would be known for, especially in his abdomen, in fact right now his stomach was completely flat with no muscle structure visible.

His staring competition with the outside world ended abruptly as he broke away from this one sided eye contact and turned to face the room he was staying in for just a few more hours. He’d initially occupied this room on March 13th ready for the NLCW pay per view event the very next day in Madison Square Garden, an event where he’d returned sooner than expected – he’d previously held a Hardcore Invitational match in late February in defense of the Hardcore championship he held and took himself out of it along with one other opponent by wrapping himself in barbed wire and leaping from the stage set in a shooting star press that sent him crashing through the other person with both going through a table, allowing the four others in the match to fight and crown a new champion while he himself was touted to spend at least a month out of action as well as force his Fallen Angelz team mates to find a replacement within the group to defend the Tag Team titles he also held along with Jason Stylez, subsequently losing those championships too – to interrupt a Rob Thorn promo.

That event also saw the return to wrestling of his group Chaos A.D. after they’d been away for months due to Dazz being fired from CWF in mid 2003 due to his abuse of power in his General Manager role and both Violent A and Souless taking a temporary hiatus from wrestling until they joined him in NLCW. March 14th had seen them all on the same show together as Chaos A.D. once more, only it was Violent A and Souless who had matches that night, ‘A taking on Rage in the Rage Cage while Souless had a singles match against the debuting Bucky Skylar. Nevertheless though, they’d made a huge impact and Dazz interrupting Rob Thorn a mere hour before he won the World Heavyweight title from Jason Stylez in a triple threat scaffold match that also included Scotty Ace meant that Thorn granted him the first title shot against him one week later at Avulsion.

All of that didn’t seem to matter in the here and now though as he stood staring into the room he’d flown back to purely because he enjoyed the clubs and bars that were in the surrounding area, looking at the variety of empty bottles and aluminum cans littering the tables and floor. He tried to remember what had caused such a mess, his head pounding as a result of the previous night as well as attempting to recall exactly what had happened. It was then that it hit him. Lying amongst the bottles and the cardboard pizza boxes that he could now see was an object with a black leather strap and a gold and silver front, the initials of the company he worked for across the front in a prominent position and large lettering. It even had his name on it in black lettering on a type of nameplate, staring him in the face as a kernel of remembrance began to form in his mind, slowly growing and building momentum until finally, he’d cracked it.

It was the World Heavyweight championship. He looked back to the night before, watching as the thoughts gathered and gave him insight as to how the belt had got there, why his name was on it and why there was a multitude of empty food and drink containers all over the room. The realisation that his match against Thorn the night before had been successful, defeating one of the men he’d first noticed main eventing the first company he worked for after making his debut, indeed that he’d beaten such a huge and charismatic and talented star one week after he’d won the title himself, snatching the belt and handing Thorn a one week title reign……it shocked him just standing there staring at this title so how shocked must everyone else feel about this happening? There was nothing really he could do or say to convey the feelings he had other than to walk closer and carefully clutch at this object as if the slightest touch could shatter the delicate belt.

Using every strength within him, he raised that championship up off the table, surprised at how light and easy to lift it was and staring at his own reflection in the metal. He even held it in one hand and gently ran his fingertips against every curve, every ridge in this World title, amazed that it was now in his possession. It wasn’t that he’d never been World champion before because he had many times but to hold this title, knowing he’d defeated somebody he held a special regard for years despite his outer self showing the complete opposite – especially when he insulted and openly attacked the man the week before the title match took place – and to win it just about two months into his NLCW career was just extra special. It seemed as though the stars had aligned for him in this company, beating a legend in Eddie September for the Hardcore championship in his second match after being unsuccessful in a battle royal for the vacant PPV title the week before in his debut and then shortly after teaming with Jason Stylez as the man replacing Ethan Andrews in the Fallen Angelz, defeating the team of Greg Hetrick and Seth Tolbert for the vacant Tag Team titles and now this……

Could it be that this company, this place where the name and the motto was “no limits”, was it the place where he could spend years successfully racking up wins against people, be THE man in professional wrestling for years to come? At the moment it seemed the case but as he thought this, his concentration was broken by the sudden knocking at the wooden door, startling him as he almost dropped the championship, wondering who was at the door and deciding to throw the belt over his shoulder and see who was standing on the other side of the entrance into the room. Striding over and tugging the band out of his long hair, using one hand to try and make it look less wild and unkempt, he opened the door hoping to see what the person knocking wanted but instead instantly spotting the recognisable face of his best friend and long time tag team partner since mid 2002, Violent A.

‘A – real name Alex Taylor, a name he’d become known as in later years when he dropped the Insane Clown Posse look and persona – was stood with short hair, spiked and dyed blue while his face was adorned by black and white face paint reminiscent of one of his favourite bands, giving away his status as a Juggalo. Completing the look was a baggy t-shirt with the Chaos A.D. logo all over the front and baggy shorts hanging down just below his knees, a pair of Reeboks adorning his feet as he stood looking bemused at the sight before him.

Violent A: Don’t get dressed on my account.

The two smiled as he stepped aside, allowing ‘A into the room, the Juggalo taking a look around the room as the sound of the door being shut echoed as the only sound in this hotel room. Violent A seemed almost impressed at the state of the room, smiling and nodding his head as he scanned every corner, taking note of bottles all over the television, cans piled up on tables with the phone underneath one such pile of containers, boxes lying around the floor and across the counter, some having even fell into the sink. He looked back at his friend still clutching the World title over one shoulder in his underwear, shaking his head and releasing a slight chuckle.

Violent A: Is that thing permanently attached to your shoulder or something?

Dazz: No man, just thought I’d show it off to whoever was knocking the door.

Violent A: Yo, I saw that bitch last night when you won it, remember? I was sat over there munching on pepperoni and cheese pizza, few cans in my hand?

He was right, with the images of the night before still seeping into his brain, he could picture the scene. Violent A was seated in a chair looking somber as he raised his hands to either eat pizza or drink beer……nearby their other close friend Souless was doing the same while also gently tapping the shoulder of somebody else they’d known for years, Lithium, causing him to keep looking back to see who was doing such a thing and finding nothing but the Brazilian smiling at him with a lopsided grin, Lithium still not quite realising just who was tapping him. Close to them, newer members of Chaos A.D. who had joined only two weeks before included Highlight Man, Lightning, Phil Castle but notably absent was another member who had joined at the same time, the female known as Faith, absent although not many seemed to care, to busy eating pizza and drinking copious amounts of alcohol in celebration that one of their own had taken the World Heavyweight title.

That was the type of camaraderie and bond the group shared, whether it was the original three of Dazz, Fear and Tommy Chaos or the most popular line up of Dazz, Violent A and Souless or even if they gained members such as the influx they had in NLCW a fortnight ago when the group debuted in the company. Chaos A.D. had always been a brotherhood, living by the “one for all and all for one” philosophy so that anything achieved by one member was a shared accomplishment to be celebrated massively by everybody within the group, that whole “me, me, me” way of thinking cast aside with no jealousy or bitterness amongst them, just fun, laughter and dominance all across the board, thinking more of winning big matches or championships for the sake of the group than to add to their own personal ego. There would surely be nothing to stop this group from achieving more than the World title they’d gained the night before, nothing to rock the group to its core and cause differences among them.....would there?

******

April 19th 2004.....


His eyes opened in more ways than one, in both the literal sense after being asleep for hours as well as in a more spiritual sense with the events of the previous night replaying even in his waking moments, giving his mind an awakening to certain circumstances he now found himself in courtesy of two people he’d never have expected to perpetrate such activity and action. He lay there flat on his back staring up at the white ceiling above, his head and back rested upon the softest of pillows and mattresses causing him some comfort despite the throbbing pain coursing throughout his entire body from the dull aching in his calves right up to the thumping headache that just seemed relentless and unstoppable. A sigh escaped his lips as he turned his head to the side and saw the figure lying next to him, slender yet athletic and with long dark hair, this female form was on its side still asleep, bare skin of her back to him as he looked on at Faith, the woman he’d met a month previously and began dating when their similarities in both personality and thoughts and goals in wrestling interlocked.

Here she was resting next to him in the bed, some of the bruising caused by both her triple threat ladder match for the Women’s championship AND the War Games match between Chaos A.D. and Rebellion were visible and fully formed on her shoulder and in the very middle of her back. It wasn’t as if she was the only female in that cage because one of her opponents in the ladder match – Justice – was also competing where a major prize was at stake. He thought back even in his waking moments to the main event between two groups, one that had returned to wrestling and another that had formed as opposition and seemed much more dominant due to the amount of championships they held collectively. Rebellion had consisted for their several week shelf life of a leader in Matt “Icey” Arren, a man who held the Television championship……the Women’s champion Justice…….her boyfriend and former Fallen Angelz member Scotty Ace who held both the Hardcore and Tag Team championships……..plus the other half of the Tag Team champions, a man who had teamed with Scotty since winning the tag belts from the Fallen Angelz in February by the name of Jason Wright.

Matt, Justice, Scotty and Jason had joined together as a collective and tried to fight off the attempts at domination perpetuated by Chaos A.D. and its members and chose to meet the group at Fallout in a War Games match to put an end to them once and for all only a month after they’d come to NLCW on that night when they attacked Rob Thorn. Matt had announced in his Southern drawl that he wished to topple Dazz especially and become a contender to the World Heavyweight championship even though his main foe in the TV title division was Violent A, a man looking to gain yet another Television championship. Scotty meanwhile also wanted to get his hands on Dazz, not only because he was a contender for the World title anyway the night Thorn won it but because the two men held a grudge against one another after Scotty walked out on the Fallen Angelz, causing Dazz to feel betrayed despite his own yearning to leave the group and reform his own.

He remembered the choices he was given to either defend the World title at Fallout one on one against a returning Ethan Andrews or to compete in a War Games contest against Rebellion and of course, he chose to try and eradicate Rebellion but to up the stakes, put his belt on the line so that if anybody on the opposing team pinned him to win the match, even if it was Justice who did so, they would become the new World champion. The idea had gone down well but for some strange reason he couldn’t remember what happened after Chaos A.D. had parodied Rebellion in a mock interview moments before the match was to take place. Could it be that he had partied again and couldn’t remember exactly what had happened? It certainly looked as though that could be the case because as he shifted slightly in bed, he could see the World title resting upon a wooden chair on the opposite side of the room so it was clear that he had retained it and could have been drinking to celebrate.

Sitting up in bed, he felt a sharp pain in his ribs, immediately clutching at them and hissing in pain. As soon as his hand reached and felt his side, the pain in his head began, possibly as a result of his head turning a little too fast, an almost dizzying feeling coming across that caused him to have to remain still while the swirling waves crashed against his skull, the feeling eventually disappearing but leaving him with that thumping headache that just seemed to continue hammering at his brain with no sign of letting up. His legs swung out of the bed and his feet planted firmly on the ground, another sigh as he forced himself to a standing position as he walked away from the bed and towards that championship belt. Fingers reaching out, he decided to touch it to make sure all of this was real, that he wasn’t imagining the fact he’d won and walked out as champion, satisfied with the result and making his way towards the door, gripping the handle and twisting it before gently tugging it open. Once on the other side of the doorway, he looked out into the lounge and main area of the hotel room, looking for signs of a major party with pizza boxes, cans of beer and bottles lying around but the room was nothing but pristine and tidy.

This was highly unusual. Why would he not have a party or any sign of one after a big pay per view event that had gone successfully? It’s not as if he’d tidy up the mess either, it’d still be there awaiting the cleaner to come in and convert the room back to its regular self before he and his entourage had walked into it but again, why would he still be World champion after an important match and not celebrate it, even just a little drink? It was then that it began to add up. His memory wasn’t impaired due to alcohol or partying, it was the pain wracking his entire body although that wasn’t unusual, especially in a cage match but there was a niggling thought in the back of his mind that something wasn’t quite right, wasn’t quite all that it seemed. Slowly but surely, it all came flooding back, everything that he’d forgotten about Fallout was returning to the forefront of his mind as if a faucet had been twisted to allow a flood of water to rush in and splash around in his skull.

The match had been successful, Chaos A.D. taking on Rebellion with him managing to gain a little retribution on Scotty by hitting him with a Chaos Factor and gaining the pin to win the match for his team and ensure he’d go home still World champ but then after the match when the cage had been raised again was when the big shock came. During their victory celebration, Violent A and Souless had both suddenly attacked himself and Faith from behind, sending them crashing to the mat and unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks before planting measured strikes to his face. The two long time members of the group had effectively turned their backs on the brotherhood, turned their backs on their friendship and for what? What was the purpose of all of that, what would it accomplish to attack their friend and his girlfriend just after a huge match they’d participated in and won? He could still recall the feeling of knuckles striking at his cheeks and eye, planted harshly time and time again with no sign of allowing him to escape until they’d given him everything they had within them.

He tried to remember what Violent A had said during the onslaught, only pieces of dialogue coming to mind, fading in and out of his head as if the volume dial was being turned up to highlight specific sentences and then turned down again until the next piece of information he was trying to remember to try and deal with what had happened, cope with the fact that his group had won a match and then had half of it turn and practically end it with an attack and a bout of verbal abuse. Pieces of that speech came into his head, drifting along on a sea of memory……. Your goddamn ego gets too big and you think you run this bitch……..You’re a media whore……..Since the day we met I been there strong, puttin’ the work in aaand you were always there sucking up the limelight……….Well, homie, shit’s about to change around here yo……..It’s Violent A’s time to shine………

As the words he’d vaguely heard through a blur of punches and pain and confusion slowly crept into the forefront of his mind, he felt shocked at what had been said. Here was a guy who had been his best friend for years, had rode together up and down the United States and all over the world as the most dominant tag team in professional wrestling’s illustrious and long history. They’d almost been like brothers such was the level of closeness and tight knit their bond reached, both being seen together a lot and even if they weren’t, you could be damn sure that if one was out on their own, the other wouldn’t be too far away. There was even a time when some people thought that the initials in their group’s name had stood for the initials of this tandem, “’A and Dazz”, despite the fact they’d met and become a tag team 3 and a half years after Chaos A.D. had initially formed.

It seemed such a shame that a pairing so unique and yet so similar and close could implode and take away everything they’d built up over the years, all the hard craft in getting themselves known throughout the wrestling world as two of the best to ever compete, whether it be alone when they racked up separate singles championship reigns or whether they absolutely dominated tag team divisions all over the world, sometimes holding several different Tag Team titles at once. They’d even been banned from forming a tag team together in one company because of their dominance together and were forced to wear masks and compete secretly, Violent A taking the name King Nothing as Dazz had suggested while he himself stole the name of a friend and former foe Jake Fury as they became the champs and then unmasked to reveal to the world the clever plan they’d concocted to get around such a ban that they felt was pointless in the first place.

Now, despite running through tag teams such as Konnection amongst others over the years, having defeated the Rebellion group in the War Games match, Violent A had turned his back on all of that and took Souless with him, denying the chance for Chaos A.D. to snatch up more NLCW gold for themselves as individuals and as a group used to being on the receiving end of victory time and time again. To think, only a few days prior to Fallout, they’d spoken of their plans to defeat Rebellion and have that group forced to go their separate ways before taking the Tag Team gold from Scotty and Jason while Faith would have taken the Women’s championship back from Justice and Souless would be on track to defeat Matt for the Television gold. Violent A himself had even mentioned that he wanted the PPV title, the belt Dazz had failed to win in his NLCW debut and was only defended once a month at pay per view events as denoted by the title’s name.

Now of course all of that was gone, lost forever thanks to the pair of them turning their backs on their friend and the group that had brought the trio so much success over the past few years. He couldn’t help thinking about one of those messages in particular, the one which Violent A stated involved his desire to be in the spotlight for once after seemingly putting in all the hard work while Dazz took the credit for it all. That wasn’t the case at all, he’d always mentioned the “one for all and all for one” mentality, lived by the fact that a victory for one was a victory for them all. How could ‘A think such things? Had he lost his mind or had he always thought that, even when they were having fun at the expense of others and dominating various different divisions within the wrestling companies they worked for at any given moment?

It just didn’t make sense to him, he couldn’t understand what had happened, what had gone wrong if anything. Had he really done something wrong to cause such hidden friction and hatred or was it all just jealousy that he’d kept winning World titles while the others weren’t really ever considered for such a prestigious honour? It seemed stupid to end a group like theirs, a brotherhood like theirs, over a silly little thing like a championship belt. What would happen next, what would he do without the people he’d spent the last few years with, would they attack him again at another time when he least expected it or would they confront him face to face this time? The only thing he knew was that whatever happened in future regarding each one of them, history would forever tell of the moment when one of the greatest and most dominant forces in history had been ended when one half of a tag team turned on the other after a successful group win, effectively killing it off purely to make a statement and try to get his hands on the World Heavyweight championship that had always eluded him.

The tag team of Dazz and Violent A was no more.....

******



This is the year where hope fails you
The test subjects run the experiments
And the bastards you know, is the hero you hate
But cohesing is posssible if we strive
Theres no reason, theres no lesson
No time like the present, telling you right now
What have you got to lose, what have you got to lose
Except your soul...who's with us!

I fight for the unconventional
My right, and its unconditional
I can only, be as real as I can
The disadvantage is
I never knew the plan
This isn't just a way to be a martyr
I cant, walk alone any longer
I fight, for the ones who can't fight
And if I lose, at least I tried

We, we are the new diabolic
We, we are the bitter bucolic
If I have to give my life you can have it
We, we are the pulse of the maggots

I won't, be the inconsequential
I won't, be the wasted potential
I can make it, as severe as I can
Until you realize
You'll never take a stand
It isn't, just a one-sided version
We've dealt, with a manic subversion
And I won't, let the truth be perverted
And I won't leave another victim deserted

We, we are the new diabolic
We, we are the bitter bucolic
If I have to give my life you can have it
We, we are the pulse of the maggots

Do you understand? (yes)
Do you understand? (yes)
Do you understand? (yes)
Do you understand? (yes)

Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)

We fight til no one can fight us
We live, and no one can stop us
We pull when we're pushed too far
And the advantages is
The bottom line is
We never, had to fight in the first place
We only, had to spit back at their face
We won't, walk alone any longer
What doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger

We, we are the new diabolic
We, we are the bitter bucolic
If I have to give my life you can have it
We, we are the pulse of the maggots

Do you understand (yes)
Do you understand (yes)
Do you understand (yes)
Do you understand (yes)

Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)
Say it again say it again (we won't die)

Pulse of the Maggots - Slipknot



******

January 20th 2010.....

We open with nothing more than a shot of the MCW Global champion standing with white surrounding him, looking like the white painted walls of a room he is standing in. The first ever Global champ has his hair long and dark, hanging around his shoulders and down towards his upper pectoral muscles, Gucci sunglasses adorning his eyes while a black sleeveless MCW Dedication t-shirt covers his muscular yet lean torso. Designer jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch cover his lower body while his feet are out of shot as the Messiah of Metal stares at the camera ready to compete in his first match of 2010 in the first ever main event of the debut edition of MCW Livewire, the new brand created to allow the company’s talent pool to be split in half and give more people the opportunities to appear and compete on television rather than having to pick a number and wait their turn on an otherwise crowded Mayhem.

Dazz: 2010 is upon us and with a new year comes a brand new show to MCW. Livewire finally makes its television debut on Thursday nights and as the guy who walked out of Nightmare Before Christmas with the World Heavyweight title, that meant that by default, I would become the first ever MCW Global champion and the leader of the Livewire locker room. Now obviously I don’t put myself above everybody because with Aerik Walker sharing a locker room with me on this new show, the wealth of experience and knowledge he possesses, whether I’m the Global champion or not I’ll always respect my elders and my peers, guys like Aerik to help lead the way. My almost 11 years in this business is nothing to his time working the rings all over the planet but nevertheless, being Global champion will put me on a pedestal above all others, at least for the time being. A unique position to be in with the entire Livewire roster aiming for the target that’s now on my back but also looking up to me to help take them forward and eventually show Mayhem that just because that show has been around longer, it doesn’t mean they have the right to claim superiority over Livewire.

Now believe me when I say this, this isn’t the first time I’ve had this dance, this isn’t the first time I’ve had the bullseye planted firmly between my shoulder blades for everyone to take aim. This may be the first time I’ve ever held a Global championship but this main event scene and everything this belt represents is familiar ground, territory I’ve occupied for at least half of my career. Do I still feel nervous going out there and defending in my first match since Nightmare Before Christmas? Let me put it this way, if I never felt nervous before stepping through the curtain and taking that long walk down to the ring, that would be the day I throw in the towel, hang up the boots, sell my ring attire on eBay and leave professional wrestling forever. People have said my passion for this business and my sheer enthusiasm for competing are unmatched, are what inspires them to continue competing themselves in an effort to keep up with my hunger to be inside that ring in front of thousands of fans.

My opponent isn’t used to it here in MCW, only managed to reach the main event scene when his League of Superstars win tally enabled him to challenge for the World Heavyweight title last month and despite coming up short thanks to me defeating Angelica Jones for the very belt she won from me in November, now he finds himself on the precipice of Livewire’s top spot, on the verge of joining his brother Lance in holding a major championship and meaning that if he beats me then Southern Blood will once again hold gold. See Jay, this is your big chance, everybody seems to be thinking you’ll defeat me and take home the Global title on the very first Livewire. They’re all betting against me despite the fact I’ve been in this business for a lot longer than you have, have held more championships in my career and been a main event megastar while you were sitting idly by sharing locker rooms with tag team partners. That’s the beauty of this profession though isn’t it? Sometimes the favourite and the more experienced person in the match is chosen as the overall winner, predicted to come out on top as the victor while other times the underdog is picked as the one who will be the winner.

Isn’t that funny? On the one hand there’s me, everybody knows about my accomplishments in this business, everybody knows I’ve taken on and defeated many of the very best in professional wrestling. Whether it’s Jason Stylez, Rob Thorn, Angelica Jones, Christian Connolly, Priest, hell I’m even undefeated against Rayne Young in all of the various encounters we’ve had against one another over the years. He’s the guy I beat for my first MCW World title. My career list reads like a who’s who of top stars that I’ve beat or taken on inside the ring all over the world, my record for having championships wherever I go is almost unobtainable for a majority of people who lace up their boots and put it all on the line while fans go wild all around them. Despite the near 100 wrestling championships I’ve held, I’m not one to brag about that because as everybody with half a mind knows, the truth is that winning things like this Global championship, while it’s all good and shows that you were the better person on that one night when it’s all on the line, that the company entrusts their existence on your abilities to even allow you the opportunity to compete for such a prize, the real, the REAL thing that’s remembered most is the memory of that moment in time.

You know the one Jay. The moment that you remember for a lifetime, I’m not talking about the first few seconds when your name is announced as the winner of the match and new champion, no……It’s the moment when the world seems to stand still and silent, preserving everything experienced as a bubble that sticks with you in your brain for an eternity, a constant reminder of what happened around the time you held a championship. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. When I first held the NLCW World Heavyweight championship most people remember the fact that I pinned Rob Thorn in a shock defeat while for me, the biggest memory is attending all the parties with my Chaos A.D. brethren, sitting in the VIP section of clubs up and down the United States of America drinking champagne and having fun with my friends. Defeating Rayne Young for the MCW World title for some was the night I beat one of the best this industry has ever seen and put him in retirement while for me, it was the quiet conversation after the event the two of us had where I thanked him for such an incredible match. I’m sure you have a moment very much the same from the time you and Lance wrested the Tag Team titles away from The Sisterhood, Lance himself now has one that will be with him till the day he dies from the night he defeated Priest to become World Heavyweight champion.

I’m pretty sure you want another moment, one all of your own for you to be selfish about, a moment where it’s just about you and nobody else sharing it like you have to when you and another person hold tag gold. That’s why at Livewire you will want to give me everything you have not just to try and take the Global title away from me but also to impress the fans and our new boss Angelica to ensure that even if you don’t win, you’ll be given another opportunity in future. That’s the way it goes anyway and Jay, I won’t lie, I think you’re a great person with untapped potential but as far as I’m concerned, being an ultra competitive person and being used to this main event spot I’ve coveted for a majority of my career means that I will do everything in my power to make sure you walk away with nothing but the bruises I give you for even daring to accept Angelica’s opportunity to challenge me for my title. There are a lot of similarities between us though, some you brought up, others you didn’t but lets start with this whole competition thing. You and I, we thrive on the fact that a lot of the time, we’ve been seen as the underdog.

Until recently, you were nothing more than a tag team guy and a midcard singles wrestler at best, someone who would never break the glass ceiling and get that big title shot, never see the launch pad that will take you up amongst the brightest stars in the sky but lo and behold you managed to see a main event match for the biggest prize in MCW at the time at Nightmare Before Christmas. Similarly, despite the fact I had a lot of success and earned a lot of title belts in NLCW, that company always held me down, ignored my abilities and kept me pissing around in opening matches instead of allowing me my rightful spot in the main event scene where I belonged. They overlooked everything I had and everything I gave just to give their so-called “golden boys” all of the glory that was meant for people like me, all of their accomplishments praised highly and given credence while mine, despite being in more abundance and more important, were cast aside, ridiculed as if they meant nothing and the top dog who made that company what it was despite all the yammering to the contrary by others who claim it was down to people other than myself was made to be the lower card underdog.

As you might hear from the passion in my voice, I feel so strongly about the fact I was made to feel that way for 5 long, arduous years. Five years Jay. Half a decade of wanting to prove myself as the real leader of that company and yet being held back by a desire created by all of the various management teams that came to power that despite having the very best in their lap ready, willing and able to carry the weight of the company on my shoulders and be the face of the company, they wished to promote their friends and families instead. I could sit here for days telling you exactly how I felt, how I still feel about all of that but honestly, even if you had the patience to sit and listen to it all, you’d still be nowhere close to knowing how it feels. The fact is here Jay, you have to experience it to know what it’s like and nobody else who was in that company had to suffer the way I did, nobody else has even one iota on how I was made to feel thanks to that company. My dignity, my enthusiasm, my love of this profession was slowly but surely stripped away piece by piece over the years and still I continued under the delusion that one day my talents, my abilities and the fact I built that company and made it what it was continued to be ignored.

That is one thing you should feel lucky to have not experienced and never will Jay. You’ve suffered hardships the way I have, yours were more trying to overcome barriers and break through walls put up due to inexperience and a lack of desire or by others not seeing something in you that could’ve been a benefit to their company. Regular things that with just a little patience and hard work would pay off but with me……With me Jay, no matter what I did, I’d never overcome the prejudice and the bias whether I defeated their so-called “best”……which I did on many occasions……..or won every championship available at least once……..which I did on many occasions…….it was a matter of who you know and not what you could bring to the table.

Right there is another similarity between us yet also different at the same time, I guess you could call it “same difference”, both having to overcome the closed minds of others but in very abstract and vastly different ways. Like I said, you’re lucky that you only had to get through matters of ethnicity and where you stood on the card as far as the pecking order within a wrestling company because honestly, if it was a matter of me being hated for being Canadian born I might not have minded so much but considering I shared a company with two other Toronto natives and yet they were hailed as two of the greatest while I was ignored rather than revered alongside them beggars belief. No, it wasn’t racially motivated because Canadians are welcomed, it wasn’t due to me being a low card athlete because I’d proven since the very early days of that company that I was main event born and bred. You know what it was Jay, why they dismissed me so readily? Simple reason, they were scared of me. Scared that my penchant for stealing the show and being one of the people that fans focus on most would distract from the people they wished to hail as their top stars, that by not holding me down they would have to set aside their plans to cater to the thousands tuning in specifically for me and my matches.

That and jealousy for the mere fact that again, I did more for them than they ever want to acknowledge. There’s another similarity though, you having relatives that are Southern born and proud of it, Lance and Vincent Williams joining with you to form Southern Blood and trying to get your message across that people from that region of America can and will be seen and heard and not cast aside. Here’s the thing though, while you believed in that mentality and thought that your roots were being ignored, my roots, my half brothers and father were competing for decades, winning championships all over the world. They were proud to be born in Texas – Longview to be exact – and yet they didn’t boast about it, never shouted from the rooftops about their good old country boy roots, they just got on with doing what they do best, competing in the ring. My father Ira Stylez held in the highest regard in Texan territories, my oldest brother Cody won belts as New Age Degenerate, my most famous brother Jason held World titles in NLCW, in uWo and NYWF amongst others. Not once did they complain about their roots getting in the way, they just did it and by the good grace of their abilities, they became legends.

That’s the kind of thing you need to focus on Jay, not where you came from but where you’re going. Who cares if you’re born in Texas or Tennessee or Mexico or wherever, all that truly matters is what you do when that bell sounds and how those fans react to you. Forget what Eric tells you about never forgetting where you come from because while that may be true in keeping you grounded and never losing sight of why you got into this business in the first place, don’t ever take it literally and flap your gums about being from the south because honestly? No one will give a damn if you don’t back up what you say between those ropes. Look at this though, follow me.

Dazz motions for the camera to follow him and begins to walk to the side of the screen, the cameraman close behind as Dazz strides towards an area where various championships sit resting with the centreplates clean, shiny and showing off their glory and splendour to whoever may be looking at them on the screen. The Messiah of Metal stands in amongst them, holding out his arms as if like an assistant on a game show doing their utmost to promote whatever prize may be on offer.

Dazz: These here are my Tag Team championships. A copy of every belt I held in tag divisions all over the world throughout my career. You got pairs titles from companies as varied as CWF, RWF, NLCW, GWF, CWA, BWR and many more including new designs and variations thereof that I won after they were introduced to replace the older looks for each. Why am I showing you these? You brought it up yourself Jay, we’re both tag team specialists that have been thrust upon singles glory, into a realm we weren’t quite used to for a time. For you, Southern Blood were separated by the live draft that took place after the final Mayhem of 2009, Lance staying on that show while you came here to Livewire alongside myself, forced to go it alone for the first time in MCW. Somehow it’s new to you despite your challenges for singles titles such as the Motor City belt or the World title match you were in at Nightmare Before Christmas and I know why Jay. It’s the same reason others in the situation find it new and frightening because while you had opportunities such as that before, you always had back up and familiar faces urging you on, always there to wish you luck and either congratulate or commiserate you depending on the outcome of the contest.

That’s the thing with tag teams Jay, you know this as well as I do that being part of a team means sharing the responsibility, having an extra pair of eyes and ears to make sure your back is covered. That means if you’re in a match, your partner is there to make sure the match doesn’t end in loss and to try and keep everything in check, one hand washes the other in essence. If you were at a point about to lose, Lance would be there to make the save and vice versa. That won’t be the case this time Jay, you won’t have anybody breaking up the count for you as I won’t, there will be no one there to support you by spending time in the locker room as you prepare, giving you a pep talk and an extra boost in confidence during Livewire. It’s the sort of thing you have to get used to, being out on your own the way you and Lance both are now. I had to get used to it myself when myself and Violent A first parted ways properly. Of course we held singles championships throughout our time as a tag team but unlike you being broken apart by a draft with the potential to come back together in future, the way my tag team ended was a little less……shall we say, mutually friendly?

See, Lance was kept where he is and you got moved to Livewire, in my case I had my partner turn on me inside the ring after a successful match as a group. Would Lance have ever turned his back and attacked you after you defeated The Sisterhood? No? Guess not then but in my case, in my experience, my partner decided that he’d be better off going out on his own but unlike Lance becoming World Heavyweight champion in his first match since your team broke apart, Violent A……or Alex Taylor as he was known by in his later years in the business when he wore a full mask instead of face paint……..it took him the better part of 7 months to become a champion and even then, I took that belt from him first chance we had when we faced each other to truly decide between ourselves and in front of the fans the age old question that plagued us for years. Just who was the better half of the team? I answered that question with my win but he didn’t win a World championship for years to come.

Could that be your fate Jay, sit back while Lance parades around with the World title on Mayhem while you’re stuck on Livewire without the Global belt, taking years to finally capture it and going from the guy everyone claims will defeat me to being the forgotten half of Southern Blood, slightly envious of your family heritage when you become the one in the family that can’t manage to crack the big time for a while? If it’s any comfort to you though, Alex and I did get back together for a huge match in the final CWF show before it closed to form Motor City Wrestling. He even put the face paint back on and went under the Violent A name again for the first time in years when Chaos A.D. took on Talent Inc’s team of Christian Connolly and Dark Rayne, fans going wild for the pair of us who for years held a kind of disdain for one another due to his attack on me and on that one night teamed again for a huge send off before he retired from professional wrestling forever. If we could get back together, even for just one match, there could be some hope that yourself and Lance will reunite as Southern Blood in future.

Moving away from the various Tag Team championships, Dazz finds himself in a pile of singles gold, all of them World Heavyweight or Undisputed championships displayed in much the same manner as the titles seen only moments ago. Notable is a spot that’s empty and bare, Dazz remedying that by leaning to one side to go off camera and then bringing up another championship belt, placing it atop the empty space with its shimmering gold and globe pattern looking brand new and fresh as if it was brand new. In fact, with the fact that it says “MCW GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP” across the front revealing that it is indeed a brand new title. He seems almost visibly proud as he gently places that belt upon its place amongst all of the others, presenting it like an intensely proud parent wishing to showcase their child’s talents. Looking at the camera, he smiles once more.

Dazz: These are championship belts earned and defended over my career, every one of them is either a World Heavyweight title or an Undisputed title or the newest addition, the MCW Global title. I have plenty of other championships but I only wanted to display the most important ones for the sake of this promo. Reason being, this match is in the main event of the first Livewire for the biggest prize on the brand. As you can see, I’ve danced in this situation before many a time, too many times to even mention and considering on show here are representations of each title and subsequent title design a company may have had that I won and only shown once rather than say, the handful of times I’ve held some of these……you get the point.

Now as you know Jay, I went from tag team specialist relying on another person to aid me, be my back up physically and emotionally for years and became a singles competitor having to watch my own back, make sure I had all of the bases covered and hope that my best was good enough to withstand the onslaught I had to face and see me through to the other side with a win. That’s what you have to put up with now Jay, having to go it alone, be a sort of lone wolf. Sure you can form alliances, have loose friendships where you watch people’s backs in return for the same but to be honest, it’s not the same, never will be. Going for years being a part of something with a trusted ally you know extremely well and then having to become friendly with people you may not totally trust as much as you did with Lance.

Livewire will get a spectacle, it’ll get an epic main event in its debut on television but still, that niggling feeling of doubt will be there won’t it? I won’t hear otherwise because as you said, we’ve gone through almost the same things, gone through almost the same experiences and trust me, while I held the World title during the days of my team in various different companies, once that alliance ended due to that attack after the War Games match, I never felt the same again. That first main event match, that first contest with a major championship on the line whether I was the champion walking into it or not, the very fact that a long time friendship and tag team had ended, torn apart by force rather than by my own choice and decision meant that I was a wreck on the inside. I stood in that ring wondering if I could truly live up to the hype without the man I considered my brother watching my back and being there for me to crack open a cold one if I retained. What made it worse was that my next World title defense after that alliance was broken apart involved Alex as one of my challengers for the belt.

That’s why you should think yourself lucky this time Jay because at least you’re not against Lance for his belt, at least you haven’t had him attack you from behind and tell you that you were somehow holding him back from making it big, making it as a potential World champion, that all of those years riding up and down this country, flying all over the world together sharing jokes and memories went to naught all because one person decided to feel so jealous that he’d try to force a World title reign for himself rather than try to earn it with the help of his best friend. I would’ve been happy to defend against him but no, he decided to end it and for the first few months I needed to adjust, just like you’ll have to now you’re out on your own Jay. It’s the nature of the beast, the evolution of the business that sees some want to stick to being a tag team forever for the security of having another person there to lean on.

Others meanwhile, people like myself, we enjoy the rush of having accomplishments and awards earned through our own work rather than having to share it with somebody else. It took several months but now, sure I can team up with people now and then and enjoy tag reigns but despite the maniacal nature of sharing a ring or a championship with another person, I love the rush and the joy that comes with being looked to as the leader of a show like Livewire, of a company like MCW all on my own. As the Marilyn Manson song goes, which song was it……”Cruci-fiction In Space”? Anyway, as that goes Jay, “this is evolution, the monkey…the man then the gun”. Let me tell you this Jay. I have evolved from tag specialist to main event wrestler out on my own winning things like the World Heavyweight title and this Global title. You are on the brink of evolving yourself but are unsure of how to do it, where you’ll end up once you give in to nature and allow it to take place, never quite knowing whether your evolution will be a success or a failure.

The monkey on our back is the simple nature of our past. We were known as tag guys, never seen as anything more even though we had opportunities and wins for singles gold, primarily booked in the early days in contests which saw us having to partner up with other people because nobody saw the potential in us that we so clearly had in our possession. It takes years to shake that monkey off, get rid of the stigma of being one half of something and not the unique thing going solo in a way I have for years and you’re having to adapt to now since the draft. The man, that could mean a lot of things but only if you over analyze to the point of no return. Look at the bigger picture and you’ll see the answer staring you right in the face. The man is the very person you’re looking at right now Jay.

Again, that’s no boast, no overblown egotistical opinion, simply nothing more than mere facts. Remember my winning streak since I first began competing in MCW? The match we had when you called me a washed up old veteran, the puppet doing Jacob Laymon’s bidding and wishing to put you and your Southern heritage down purely because that’s the way you wanted to picture everybody that wasn’t in your immediate family or tight knit clique of friends? The match where I defeated you utterly and then did the exact same thing when we became the final two in the Charged Chamber months later, you having to watch while I got to face Rayne Young for the World Heavyweight championship at All Hallow’s Annihilation, while I defeated him and ended his career before his bombshell revelation that he was suffering cancer, while I went through yourself, Priest and Angelica Jones to win back the MCW World title four weeks ago? I was the man then and while I hold this Global championship, while I hoist it over my shoulder or wrap it around my waist, I will always be THE man.

The gun is a metaphor and you know how I love those. The more foolish and gullible would believe the gun would be my Chaos Factor shooting you down in the ring and killing your dreams of becoming Global champion, at least for the time being. Others may believe the gun is this very belt, stopping you in your tracks before you even get close enough to touch it much like a gun will halt you at a distance by firing a solid metal pellet directly into your flesh. It isn’t though, the gun is in fact you Jay. Well, not specifically you but here’s where I’m coming from. The gun is your willpower, your desire to become champion and overcome the odds of defeating a man who is the most decorated in this industry in a main event match that I’m used to competing in. You know as well as I do, I’ve been in this situation too many times to count against some of the biggest and baddest this business has ever laid eyes on and while I’m not going to say you’d never match up to them, I will say this. My sheer experience against people like that has molded me and shaped me into the athlete I’m known as, the athlete you’re probably deep down afraid of.

You won’t be feeling afraid to set foot in the ring with me, that would be stupid, we’ve done this before already but in such an important and high profile match? On the debut Livewire where it’s just me and you and nobody else in the ring to keep our eyes on or allow to weaken the opposition? That’s the key ingredient to this match Jay because we won’t have Priest to pummel somebody for us to take the advantage, we won’t have Angelica Jones watching out for us and needing to rush a pin fall. The only thing we need to watch out for is how long our shoulders are pinned to the mat and where our ring positioning is during a submission, other than that? We’re out on our own. Can you handle that or will you crumble and need more time to adjust? Not even you can be sure until the match is over and you get to reflect back on how you felt during this battle but one thing I do know is that the two of us share a similar past and the two of us have a mutual respect for one another. That’s one thing that tag team partners or a draft lottery can never take away from us, the respect we have for each other. Good luck.

He turns to look at the Global championship, peering at it and gently rubbing his hand across the gold while the camera slowly zooms in close, watching as his hand moves away and allows the image of the belt before fading to black.

The End