Post by EBR on Aug 21, 2011 19:18:18 GMT -5
We return from commercial.
[/color]Mark Sanction:[/color] Welcome back to Massacre folks. Of course, one of the most talked about events in the XWA is what transpired in the main event at our Pay-Per-View Grand Prix when DGX paid EBR to not compete. We’ve heard DGX earlier, we saw Jack Sabbath’s opinion on it, and my broadcast partner was so disgusted by it he quit. A lot of people, be it in this company or the fans, believe that EBR owes some type of explanation, and as such, he was asked and agreed to a sit-down interview with our own Holly Hunt.
Cutting away to the official segment, we are greeted by the familiar image and video of EBR and DGX sharing the ring, EBR shaking DGX’s hand as he and KC Krystal take their literal bags of money. Holly Hunt’s voice narrates over the video.[/color]
Just five months removed from his induction into the XWA Hall of Fame, the once revered EBR is now receiving an unprecedented level of criticism following his recent actions at “Grand Prix”. Offering him a platform for him to give his side of the story, EBR complied to my request to an interview and invited us to his home in Oakland, California.
Again, we cut away, this time to what is apparently EBR’s living room. He sits opposite Holly Hunt as they engage in what is presumed to be small talk, Hunt’s voice-over continuing.[/color]
With a man who was in good spirits and claiming that no question was off limits, we began the interview with one of the most polarizing figures in the XWA. I for one was happy for it; I feel I’m rarely used.
Holly Hunt:[/color] You return to the XWA, you go through four men in the Grand Prix Tournament to win the number one contendership to the Heavyweight Title. Why throw that all away?
EBR:[/COLOR] See, you and other people may call it throwing it away or some other adjective that describes something negative. It’s a little dramatic too be honest. I made a business decision.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Throughout the Grand Prix you made reference to regaining the Heavyweight Title, even doing so to DGX directly. What changed?
EBR:[/COLOR] The goal. I had a goal and then the goal changed. I wanted the Heavyweight title, but I wanted the money more. There’s probably a more diplomatic way to put it, but yeah, I don’t know what it’d be. You can let that be the quote or the headline, doesn’t really matter.
Holly Hunt:[/color] This was a show that was, I think it’s safe to say, heavily promoted around you. You were on the poster -
EBR:[/COLOR] Sorry not to interrupt, but it was only promoted around me because I had to earn it. They didn’t just give it to me. They didn’t walk up to me one day and say “hey E, you’re our guy!” and let me roll with it. I had to go through fifteen other men to get it. The XWA didn’t care enough to put my face on any other poster, didn’t care enough to put me in any other main event, and to them the Grand Prix could have been to fifteen other men and they would have been game with it. They just hit lotto because they got what? One of the three matches that was going to be worth any sort of draw? But yeah, as you were saying.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Whatever the semantics of the situation, do you not feel you had an obligation to the XWA who announced this match and based their Pay-Per-View around it? To the fans who paid for it under the understanding that it would happen?
EBR:[/COLOR] Yeah, definitely. Look, to anyone who paid tickets or ordered it, I whole heartedly apologize. I mean that sincerely. They put down their money and I’m incredibly sympathetic of that, but at the same time ... again ... it is a business. I had to do something which, no doubt, was unpopular but was the right thing to do for me. As I said, I apologize to them.
Holly Hunt:[/color] And in regards to the XWA?
EBR:[/COLOR] Nooo. F*ck no. What’d I do wrong? The XWA didn’t win the Grand Prix. I did. If anyone, in this company has any problem with it then well ... they had their chance. And if anyone higher up has a problem with it, they probably should have paid more to begin with and this mess would have been avoided.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Clearly you don’t agree with the criticism, but you must at least understand where it’s coming from and why people feel the way they do?
EBR:[/COLOR] Yeah sure, I just think it’s horribly misguided. Can’t hate the player, man. This company, this industry? You hit a rough patch and you can be gone. Gone. You think they pay you while you sit at home? Nah man, it ain’t like that. If they don’t honor commitments and contracts why should we? That’s why when you get down to the brass tacks, there was an element nobility in what I did. I didn’t go out searching for what I deserved, it just came to me. They can say “oooh, EBR took the money”, but likewise, you gotta say “well he never held out when he had every right”. Keep it consistent.
Holly Hunt:[/color] You think you’re underpaid?
EBR:[/COLOR] For sure. Let’s look at it objectively; I work on a nostalgic level, people tune in to see me and my merchandise sells well, though admittedly that’ll probably drop a little bit. And above all, I’m still one of if not the best in the company, evidenced by my coming off the street and winning the Grand Prix. My contract doesn’t represent my value. I’m a bargain. In fact, you even had KC out there doing commentary for my matches, a man who has a history in this company. A man who’s won titles in this company. You think they signed a check for him? For real, he was working for free. For free. Yet, when I look to get paid it’s suddenly frowned upon? That ain’t right, I’m sorry.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Well not to put words in your mouth and I’ll let you clarify, but it certainly sounds and certainly appears that you’re saying you’re only in this for the money.
EBR:[/COLOR] Not only. But I won’t lie and claim it’s not a part of it. Because it is. It’s a big part of it. When you have the chance to get C.R.E.A.M you gotta take it. I mean, I could understand if you’re a real young guy and you’d never had the opportunity to win the Heavyweight Title or something, I’d understand that. It just doesn’t apply to me. I gotta prepare for a family, prepare for life in retirement. I’m in a situation where anything I do from this point forward is just adding on to a Hall of Fame career, really. If we’re calling it like it is, no, I’m not that hungry but I still gotta get fed, you know?
Holly Hunt:[/color] That’s an erratic mindset considering you even turned DGX down initially.
EBR:[/COLOR] Cause he wasn’t offering enough.
There’s a silence, before various images of EBR in action are shown, smacking his various opponents with forearms and dropping them on their heads. Ultimately, the short compilation is capped off with EBR’s stirring victory over Danger Liam in the finals, while voiced over with what will become one EBR’s most infamous quotes.[/color]
“Get my nameplate ready!”
We resume with EBR and Holly Hunt.[/color]
Holly Hunt:[/color] Your return to the XWA, and with your performances in particular, many people believe you’ve never been better. At varying points during the Grand Prix you looked like a man on a mission and it appeared that you were just never going to be stopped. Do you feel any regret over, I don’t know, what could have been? What could have been the highlight of a Hall of Fame career?
EBR:[/COLOR] Nah ... and if I do ever feel that it won’t be after only two weeks, so even then it’s a question I’m not sure I’d even be able to answer right now.
There’s a pause as EBR removes a cigarette and lights it up. Holly Hunt looks to begin a new question but is interrupted as EBR speaks.[/color]
EBR:[/COLOR] I can’t remember who said it ... may have been Alex Sean, may have even been me ... but true greatness just leads to continuous expectations. All that ... that’s all things that people put on me. I strive for greatness and that’s my downfall. I’ve raised the bar to the point I’ve got to jump higher, and higher, and higher and eventually it’s just like, I’m thirty one year old man. Can’t I just get a blow job?
Holly Hunt:[/color] DGX is an unpopular figure. It’s safe to say a lot of people would like to see him lose his Heavyweight title, and I think a lot of people saw you as the guy who was capable of doing that.
EBR:[/COLOR] Yeah but that’s all revisionist history. Once people started jumping on my bandwagon and acting like it’s something I had to do ... I’m not into that. All of a sudden I became this white knight who everyone puts their stock in and believes can be the man to defeat DGX and what? End his tyranny? Yet when I return where was this praise? I wasn’t the front-runner to win the Grand Prix. I know what the predictions read, I know what people said. Derrick Jedi sat in a chair and had me going out in the semi-finals. The semi-finals. Like really dude? Not even the finals? I couldn’t at least be picked to get to the finals and lose in some dramatic and memorable upset or something?
Holly Hunt:[/color] Semi-finals would have still been very good.
He doesn’t respond, opting instead to take another puff of his cigarette. That ultimately says everything.[/color]
Holly Hunt:[/color] Can a lot of that not just be attributed to people being unaware of you and your history? You hadn’t been involved in the XWA, for the most part, in about six years.
EBR:[/COLOR] People are entitled too, I suppose, their opinions but I choose to take it personally. Consider me whatever you want, but don’t flip-flop on me when I prove you wrong and act like you never changed. I shouldn’t have to prove myself to anyone to get any type of “validation” at this stage in the game, like suddenly after four matches I’m only now capable of beating DGX? You either had my back from the beginning or you didn’t. Much love to those who truly supported me, to the others? Don’t expect me to do your bidding and do what everyone else thus far can’t do because you suddenly consider me worthy.
Holly Hunt:[/color] But from all appearances, you’re the one who changed. Your attitude doesn’t seem at all consistent with what we’ve seen.
EBR:[/COLOR] I don’t need a Heavyweight Title to be validated as the baddest mother*cker around. I didn’t give my myself that nickname either, that’s what other people call me. I’m still that ain’t I? That didn’t change any did it? That’s what I care about. That’s why I returned in the first place. You were there at Legends, you interviewed me in the ring after I had just put in work. I believe I told you very clearly I didn’t wrestle that match for the XWA. I did it, because, the man I faced showed me up. And now that man who at one time was regarded as one of the most vile, unpredictable, and dangerous in the history of the XWA is now reciting Shakespeare. I don’t believe I changed, not at all. It was just that, for awhile, my motivations and goals happened to match what people wanted them to match.
You and others call it inconsistent, I don’t. If you had given me the option at Legends to just take the same cash value that DGX offered me without ever having to go through the tournament in its entirety then you best believe I’d have taken it. There’s no regrets on my end, except as I alluded to earlier, the fans who paid their money and didn’t get what was advertised. Though hopefully, they can understand why I did it and understand that it wasn’t personal. I will say in regards to that though; if you didn’t buy a ticket or order the show then shut up. You didn’t lose anything.
Holly Hunt:[/color] The XWA Heavyweight Title is considered one of the most prestigious belts in the industry, with a history that spans nearly a decade and through more than one federation. You’ve held it or at least some incarnation of it twice. Don’t you feel your actions hurt some of its credibility?
EBR:[/COLOR] That’s other people who did that, though. Controversy came from them processing information and coming to a conclusion, and then expressing it. It created discussion. Which leads to a new question, that being “did I, in turn, give a gift to the XWA?”.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Nope.
EBR:[/COLOR] That’s your interpretation.
Holly Hunt:[/color] That’s everyone’s interpretation.
EBR:[/COLOR] True, true. But no one person is wrong. It’s all based on the different interpretations. So, I suppose, we’ll all just agree to disagree.
Holly Hunt:[/color] How do you feel about DGX’s title reign? He won it under controversial circumstances and made comments about how he wanted to prove he was the greatest. Doesn’t this completely nullify that?
EBR:[/COLOR] Well ... I don’t really feel all that comfortably about talking about someone else’s deal. That’s all on DGX. You’d have to ask him. I can only speak for myself. Can’t speak for him.
Holly Hunt:[/color] It seems to completely contradict everything he said.
EBR:[/COLOR] Okay, I won’t speak for him, if I can politely correct myself.
Holly Hunt:[/color] So it’s safe to say with everything you said that you’re okay with how everything went down? You don’t believe it sheds a negative light on the XWA, the XWA Heavyweight Title, or even you?
EBR:[/COLOR] I sleep very comfortably at night, often times with a prostitute while I’m -
The audio mutes as EBR commences, using his hands to describe. After a few moments it returns.[/color]
EBR:[/COLOR] ... You best believe I use a rubber.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Had you competed in the match -
EBR:[/COLOR] I would have won.
Holly Hunt:[/color] You’d have beaten DGX for the Heavyweight Title?
EBR:[/COLOR] Yes. Absolutely. Not a doubt in my mind.
There’s a temporary break as Holly Hunt let’s EBR’s answer resonate. She knows how to do interviews. She gets it.[/color]
Holly Hunt:[/color] Have you spent any of the money?
EBR:[/COLOR] Yes.
Holly Hunt:[/color] On?
Looking to answer and continually stopping, he instead opts to just stares at Holly Hunt. Again, she gets it.[/color]
Holly Hunt:[/color] ... I see.
EBR:[/COLOR] Oh, and that table.
The camera pans to the left, a black table occupied with several empty bottles of Hennessey.[/color]
Holly Hunt:[/color] It’s a nice table, I’ll give you that.
EBR:[/COLOR] Thanks. I got it at IKEA. Only took me about ten minutes to assemble. All in all, great success.
Holly Hunt:[/color] The two most vocal against what transpired at Grand Prix, Tempest and Rose. What are the issues there?
EBR:[/COLOR] It’s tough, because these are two men that for my entire career I’ve largely respected and had no ill will towards, yet they’re both apparently so insecure about themselves that they need to drape themselves in an XWA flag and play hero when no one ever asks them too. I’m not entirely sure who they think they are that they have any sort of right to tell me what to do or what’s right, but it really disappoints me.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Because they’re speaking out against you?
EBR:[/COLOR] No, because they rep this company and say they act on its behalf so people can rally around them. It’s pretentious, and frankly, what they do offends me so much more than anything Rated X or Legion did.
Holly Hunt:[/color] How can you possibly say that? Rated X and Legion were detrimental to the XWA.
EBR:[/COLOR] That’s the thing, you buy into what Rose and Tempest say and do. It’s not your fault, they’re just masters of manipulation. They masquerade themselves as something they’re not. And I mean, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re not trying to act with maliciousness, but what are they doing differently from Rated X and Legion again? I have no invested interest in either group so I can watch the history without any bias, and at least Rated X and Legion made their motives clear so you knew where they stood and what for. Rose and Tempest are doing the same thing, only lie about it. They claim they’re the good guys, and yet what are they doing? Trying to mold the XWA into what they believe it should be, all the while claiming to work in its best interests. The names my change but the game remains the same.
Another cigarette puff.[/color]
EBR:[/COLOR] What is it they even claim to be fighting for anyways? Because it sure as hell ain’t fairness. Where were they when Dan Bennett goes out and does his job and has cocaine thrown in his face, and half an hour later is handed a cup and told to piss in it? When he was fired where were they? Where they at? Dan Bennett’s not worth fighting for? You know where they were at? Rose was busy dealing with Chris Chaos, claiming that he was “guilty” because he had prior involvement with Legion. Yeah, Chris Chaos was guilty of being a kid trying to get his foot in the door of a cut-throat business. How dare he try to make something out of himself. See, they take it to a whole another level because they attack our livelihoods, and that’s something through all my flaws and criticisms I’ve never done. Never. These are the guys who are going to tell me I’m disrespecting this company and title because I didn’t wrestle?
Holly Hunt:[/color] I think they have a point -
He quickly cuts her off.[/color]
EBR:[/COLOR] When’s it okay not to wrestle? When’s it okay? When I’ve torn ACLs in both of my legs? When I’ve broken my hand? Torn pectoral muscles? Suffered a concussion? No tell me, when it’s okay? When Tempest and Rose tell me? For f*ck’s sake, they didn’t wrestle the show either. Sh*t, since I’ve been here Rose has wrestled twice. Tempest has wrestled twice. Look, Tempest I’ll give a bit more of a pass because he’s been f*cked over as much as he has. Why he would still try and rep the company that keeps doing it to him is beyond me, but whatever. But Rose? He needs to study some of that history he wants to preserve. Pick up a book, bro. I hold seniority over him. Don’t tell me where to go when you don’t have sh*t on me. The XWA put me in the Hall of Fame so they’re even admitting they think higher of me then him. I’m sorry to go off like this but c’mon, man. Get your head out of your ass.
Holly Hunt:[/color] It sounds like you hold a grudge.
EBR:[/COLOR] Well I mean ... I’ve treated these men with nothing but respect. When have I ever done anything to them? When Drama was biting off Rose’s nose who saved him? We’re both veterans here, we should be cool. He rocks pink, my favourite thing in the world is pink. I used to think we were cut from the same cloth, but now? Nah. I’m a bigger man him. Bigger man then Tempest, apparently. At its core, yeah, I’m definitely more disappointed in them then anything.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Some people are questioning why you quickly left the ring when they came out at Grand Prix.
EBR:[/COLOR] Because I didn’t want to hurt them.
Holly Hunt:[/color] Why’d you return?
EBR:[/COLOR] Okay truthfully, at that point I was a little tipsy and it seemed like a good idea at the time. So yeah, my bad one that one.
Holly Hunt:[/color] You were drunk at Grand Prix?
EBR:[/COLOR] No, no. Remember, I exited through the crowd and me and KC hit up a bar and had some drinks, things kind of escalated and found my way back to the show.
Holly Hunt:[/color] That seems highly improbable -
EBR:[/COLOR] Then where did KC go?
Holly Hunt:[/color] ... Hm.
EBR:[/COLOR] Yeah.
Holly Hunt:[/color] That is, in some strange way, rather impressive.
EBR:[/COLOR] We all have gifts.
He smiles, tapping out the ash.[/color]
EBR:[/COLOR] I also got cash. Straight cash, homie. Shout out to Randy Moss, by the way. He’ll be missed.
Holly Hunt:[/color] So what does the future hold for you? Where does EBR go from here?
EBR:[/COLOR] Wherever I want.
Holly Hunt:[/color] And Rose? Tempest?
EBR:[/COLOR] Nah, as far as I’m concerned that’s over. I’ll give them this one pass for old time’s sake, just so long as they don’t approach me and don’t let my name leave their mouths.
With that, we fade out.[/color][/center]