Vs The World (Part 1)
Apr 18, 2024 17:38:27 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer, Dave D-Flipz, and 1 more like this
Post by Spike Kane on Apr 18, 2024 17:38:27 GMT -5
When I left the XHF, I was young, I was dumb, and I didn’t understand what it really meant to be a champion. Ironically, maybe all the pricks from back then who did nothing but slag me off backstage and try and politic their way into my world title spot ... .maybe they had a point? It’s not like I didn’t have the talent, I think anyone stupid enough to try and say so would really just get the piss ripped out of them online in today's day and age.
I’m a living legend.
I’ve been doing this for twenty eight years. I’ve had small gaps here and there, but for the most part? I’ve wrestled week in and week out, several times more than once. Everything you can think of doing, I’ve already done it. Every accolade you can set for wrestlers to claim, I’ve done it. I can’t keep saying this over and over, it’s starting to drive me mad. I have done anything and everything in this business.
And you still don’t put respect on my name.
I don’t know what else to do, so I kinda stopped trying, right? I mean, I’ve spent god knows how many months pissing my career away in Wrestle UK being overlooked time and time again for any kind of title shot. A world title shot? Nah. An X*Crown title shot? Not even a sniff.
But they’ll send their friends though.
Right?
I spent so much time making Donzigs life a living hell, and forcing him to hear those fans cheer for me no matter what I did, I kinda took my foot off the pedal, didn’t I? I was happy. I was content. Then my world got thrown upside down, and arguably the best friend I’ve ever had in this business was taken from us, and truth be told?
I lost my smile.
I just didn’t want to do this anymore.
I was quite happy, and ready, to ride off into the sunset and let the work that I’ve done in the past nearly three decades speak for itself. Then I suddenly, somehow, end up becoming the X*Crown champion. The same night I finally won my 30th Tag Team Title with my buddy PRICE. To me? That felt like a sign. That felt like Steve wanted me to go on. At least for one more run, one more trailblazing title reign. Well, I have every intention of doing my friend proud, in Detroit of all places. Steve had a true association with the X*Crown Championship, and I’ve come to respect it for the legacy it really is.
I talk a lot about my work in other companies. Like XWF for instance, my very own company. The company where I scouted the likes of Jake “The Ace” Conway, and even Milo and Dave, The Brothers Holland. My companies title, the XWF World Title….is a part of the X*Crown. Instead of taking that as some kind of insult, I look at it in the way of….my federation will always be remembered. Even if those from XWF have gone on to bigger and better things, it’s legacy as part of the X*Crown makes me smile.
You know what else does?
The fact that Steve somehow managed to bring nCw back from the dead - long enough to have the nCw world title also wrapped up in the legacy of the X*Crown championship. See, my time in nCw saw me really develop into a main event superstar. XHF gave me the initial push, not just to be a champion in some rinky dink indie fed, but a global champion. Seen around the world, in the toughest place I’ve ever worked at. It was truly tough to succeed and stand out amongst some incredible talent, but I somehow managed to do so, and then went on to even greater heights.
nCw was my home for many years.
The fact that I held that title twice, and now it’s part of this title….that I’ve held twice. Shit, the only downside here is that the XHF Title itself isn’t included, and neither is the Imperial title from IWF. If those two were included? Well, it may as well be the Spike Kane championship. Look, I’m not stupid. I know the deck is stacked incredibly against me. I don’t claim to be the best in the world, I don’t claim to be the best X*Crown champion of any era.
Dylan Black did that, and even he couldn’t retain the championship in the rumble.
So when I’m told it’s Spike Kane Vs The World?
You bet your fucking ass it is, because I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure I walk out of the Little Caesar's Arena? I will still be your reigning, defending…
God of X*treme
I’m a living legend.
I’ve been doing this for twenty eight years. I’ve had small gaps here and there, but for the most part? I’ve wrestled week in and week out, several times more than once. Everything you can think of doing, I’ve already done it. Every accolade you can set for wrestlers to claim, I’ve done it. I can’t keep saying this over and over, it’s starting to drive me mad. I have done anything and everything in this business.
And you still don’t put respect on my name.
[We open on a fairly nice sized office. We can see Nelly Angel sat near a window, with a desk in front of him as well as a laptop screen, and a microphone, as well as another opposite.]
Nelly: Thank you for joining us here tonight. I have the special pleasure of committing a sit down interview by request. So let’s get right into it. He goes by many names, he is the God of Xtreme, the Blood God, and your reigning, defending X*Crown Champion, Spike Kane!
[Spike walks onto the screen and can be heard greeting Nelly, as he gets into position near the empty mic.]
Nelly: It’s good to see you, you’re looking great.
Spike: Thank you, so are you. I’m really happy you agreed to do this.
Nelly: I can’t say I saw it coming, but we do have a bit of a history.
Spike: Yeah, I’d try and embarrass you as much as possible on Live TV while you were just trying to do your job.
[laugh]
Nelly: That being said, we’ve spent some time wrestling within the same companies, and whilst we’ve crossed paths a few times we’ve mostly been involved in our own thing.
Spike: Which is true, and it’s been fun watching you throughout the years. Starting off as the green rookie, to becoming one of the best Junior Heavyweight Champions.
Nelly: That…
Spike: Was honestly one of the funniest things I’ve done since I came back, and I think we made good TV. It was fun, right?
Nelly: Ok let’s go back a bit before we get carried away. You leave IWF and that is the end, you were done. Retired, killed off, ready to ride off into the sunset. Then at the Rumble you return to XHF and create quite a storm. I know there was that time in early AWF where you wrestled to help promote the network, and I’m sure long-time fans remember Combats short but fun run also on the network, but being in that position, having finally hung up the boots for good. How did that even come to be?
Spike: Coming back? Or the Rumble?
Nelly: Well both I guess.
Spike: Oh of course. Well, see ... .Everyone has this perception of Mongo as this greedy money grabbing bastard right? I know I’ve been there, there’s been times in my career where I’ve been so anti-Mongo he probably hated my guts.
Nelly: No comment.
Nelly: Thank you for joining us here tonight. I have the special pleasure of committing a sit down interview by request. So let’s get right into it. He goes by many names, he is the God of Xtreme, the Blood God, and your reigning, defending X*Crown Champion, Spike Kane!
[Spike walks onto the screen and can be heard greeting Nelly, as he gets into position near the empty mic.]
Nelly: It’s good to see you, you’re looking great.
Spike: Thank you, so are you. I’m really happy you agreed to do this.
Nelly: I can’t say I saw it coming, but we do have a bit of a history.
Spike: Yeah, I’d try and embarrass you as much as possible on Live TV while you were just trying to do your job.
[laugh]
Nelly: That being said, we’ve spent some time wrestling within the same companies, and whilst we’ve crossed paths a few times we’ve mostly been involved in our own thing.
Spike: Which is true, and it’s been fun watching you throughout the years. Starting off as the green rookie, to becoming one of the best Junior Heavyweight Champions.
Nelly: That…
Spike: Was honestly one of the funniest things I’ve done since I came back, and I think we made good TV. It was fun, right?
Nelly: Ok let’s go back a bit before we get carried away. You leave IWF and that is the end, you were done. Retired, killed off, ready to ride off into the sunset. Then at the Rumble you return to XHF and create quite a storm. I know there was that time in early AWF where you wrestled to help promote the network, and I’m sure long-time fans remember Combats short but fun run also on the network, but being in that position, having finally hung up the boots for good. How did that even come to be?
Spike: Coming back? Or the Rumble?
Nelly: Well both I guess.
Spike: Oh of course. Well, see ... .Everyone has this perception of Mongo as this greedy money grabbing bastard right? I know I’ve been there, there’s been times in my career where I’ve been so anti-Mongo he probably hated my guts.
Nelly: No comment.
I don’t know what else to do, so I kinda stopped trying, right? I mean, I’ve spent god knows how many months pissing my career away in Wrestle UK being overlooked time and time again for any kind of title shot. A world title shot? Nah. An X*Crown title shot? Not even a sniff.
But they’ll send their friends though.
Right?
I spent so much time making Donzigs life a living hell, and forcing him to hear those fans cheer for me no matter what I did, I kinda took my foot off the pedal, didn’t I? I was happy. I was content. Then my world got thrown upside down, and arguably the best friend I’ve ever had in this business was taken from us, and truth be told?
I lost my smile.
I just didn’t want to do this anymore.
Spike: You’ve got to remember, when I left the XHF I burned all the bridges on the way out. I took the XHF World Title to a new federation called nCw and literally threw it into a dumpster fire.
Nelly: Probably not the wisest move.
Spike: I’d fucking hate me too! How disrespectful, right? But you have to understand the mindset that I was in when I walked out of the XHF, to understand what my mindset was when I came back.
Nelly: Which brings us to quite a hot button topic right?
Spike: I guess yeah, especially at the time.
Nelly: So you’d become a two time XHF champion, having defeated your brother Brad - who had won the championship after winning that year's Rumble.
Spike: That’s right yeah. So, making it to be a two time champion elevated me into some pretty elite company. The kind of company that had either already hung up their boots, or have most definitely by now. The first time I won the title, I won the rumble itself and then I went to Night of Champions to fight one of the greatest XHF wrestlers, and a member of the hottest faction XHF ever produced - James Mueller of the Young Guns. Problem is, I wasn’t anybody's preferred champion, or even preferred Rumble winner. Everyone wanted MGK, everyone expected it to be MGK. The guy was the hottest thing going, but he ended up getting into some trouble backstage, and it partly involved Alex - AJ Phoenix also, so…I end up being third choice!
Nelly: I mean, third in the company doesn’t seem too bad? MGK did have quite the career in XHF.
Spike: He really did, and listen, me and Mike were tight. I was behind him also, but when someone offers you the chance, you gotta snatch it up. I had the chance to prove to the world that I deserved to be in the main event. That I wasn’t just the hardcore sideshow that so many people labelled me as. I won, I went onto Night of Champions and I won, and the sentiment backstage was rotten man.
Nelly: As in, with Mongo?
Spike: No, no, Mongo was one of the few who had my back. No, a lot of the boys were salty. I didn’t deserve it, I hadn’t earned it, despite it being a decade since I debuted. It became not fun. Like, I’m your champion and nobody has my back. All I hear is the shit being talked about me backstage. So once I lost it to my BANG! Bros actual brother, it seemed like the shit talking and the politics died down, then I somehow end up in the same spot again, and I don’t only get another shot at the title but from my own brother. Well, as it always has, when it matters - I win, and it all starts again. The atmosphere was toxic, the work environment was just hostile, and I wanted out.
Nelly: So you just walked?
Spike: …essentially, yes. I walked onto nCw television, threw the XHF Championship in the trash and set it on fire.
Nelly: That is one way to burn some bridges.
Spike: Oh and it did, for a long time. You know the story though, eventually several members of the XHF found their way to nCw including you. That was a huge chapter in my career because I went on to become a two time nCw Champion, a hall of famer, amongst many other things. I got to meet some people I’d work with for years. I got closer to those I’d worked with, the likes of Steve Awesome and Rob Diamond. Which eventually led to IWF and we killed it there too, before finally?
Nelly: You return to the XHF in the Rumble.
Spike: Exactly. I know I’d done a one-off match and I’d tried to run Combat Wrestling on the Network, but actually coming back out of retirement to wrestle full time? I couldn’t for the life of me tell you that what happened was expected, or even planned. Standing backstage waiting for my music to hit, I was weighing up if I’d made the right choice or not. Would anyone even care? Would I even be remembered?
Nelly: It certainly seems like you were!
Spike: The moment the music hit, it hit me like a tidal wave (no pun intended) and I knew right there, in that moment. I was home. I was right where I needed to be. Inside that ring, is where I shine the best, and I laid down the groundwork for an insane run.
Nelly: Probably not the wisest move.
Spike: I’d fucking hate me too! How disrespectful, right? But you have to understand the mindset that I was in when I walked out of the XHF, to understand what my mindset was when I came back.
Nelly: Which brings us to quite a hot button topic right?
Spike: I guess yeah, especially at the time.
Nelly: So you’d become a two time XHF champion, having defeated your brother Brad - who had won the championship after winning that year's Rumble.
Spike: That’s right yeah. So, making it to be a two time champion elevated me into some pretty elite company. The kind of company that had either already hung up their boots, or have most definitely by now. The first time I won the title, I won the rumble itself and then I went to Night of Champions to fight one of the greatest XHF wrestlers, and a member of the hottest faction XHF ever produced - James Mueller of the Young Guns. Problem is, I wasn’t anybody's preferred champion, or even preferred Rumble winner. Everyone wanted MGK, everyone expected it to be MGK. The guy was the hottest thing going, but he ended up getting into some trouble backstage, and it partly involved Alex - AJ Phoenix also, so…I end up being third choice!
Nelly: I mean, third in the company doesn’t seem too bad? MGK did have quite the career in XHF.
Spike: He really did, and listen, me and Mike were tight. I was behind him also, but when someone offers you the chance, you gotta snatch it up. I had the chance to prove to the world that I deserved to be in the main event. That I wasn’t just the hardcore sideshow that so many people labelled me as. I won, I went onto Night of Champions and I won, and the sentiment backstage was rotten man.
Nelly: As in, with Mongo?
Spike: No, no, Mongo was one of the few who had my back. No, a lot of the boys were salty. I didn’t deserve it, I hadn’t earned it, despite it being a decade since I debuted. It became not fun. Like, I’m your champion and nobody has my back. All I hear is the shit being talked about me backstage. So once I lost it to my BANG! Bros actual brother, it seemed like the shit talking and the politics died down, then I somehow end up in the same spot again, and I don’t only get another shot at the title but from my own brother. Well, as it always has, when it matters - I win, and it all starts again. The atmosphere was toxic, the work environment was just hostile, and I wanted out.
Nelly: So you just walked?
Spike: …essentially, yes. I walked onto nCw television, threw the XHF Championship in the trash and set it on fire.
Nelly: That is one way to burn some bridges.
Spike: Oh and it did, for a long time. You know the story though, eventually several members of the XHF found their way to nCw including you. That was a huge chapter in my career because I went on to become a two time nCw Champion, a hall of famer, amongst many other things. I got to meet some people I’d work with for years. I got closer to those I’d worked with, the likes of Steve Awesome and Rob Diamond. Which eventually led to IWF and we killed it there too, before finally?
Nelly: You return to the XHF in the Rumble.
Spike: Exactly. I know I’d done a one-off match and I’d tried to run Combat Wrestling on the Network, but actually coming back out of retirement to wrestle full time? I couldn’t for the life of me tell you that what happened was expected, or even planned. Standing backstage waiting for my music to hit, I was weighing up if I’d made the right choice or not. Would anyone even care? Would I even be remembered?
Nelly: It certainly seems like you were!
Spike: The moment the music hit, it hit me like a tidal wave (no pun intended) and I knew right there, in that moment. I was home. I was right where I needed to be. Inside that ring, is where I shine the best, and I laid down the groundwork for an insane run.
I was quite happy, and ready, to ride off into the sunset and let the work that I’ve done in the past nearly three decades speak for itself. Then I suddenly, somehow, end up becoming the X*Crown champion. The same night I finally won my 30th Tag Team Title with my buddy PRICE. To me? That felt like a sign. That felt like Steve wanted me to go on. At least for one more run, one more trailblazing title reign. Well, I have every intention of doing my friend proud, in Detroit of all places. Steve had a true association with the X*Crown Championship, and I’ve come to respect it for the legacy it really is.
I talk a lot about my work in other companies. Like XWF for instance, my very own company. The company where I scouted the likes of Jake “The Ace” Conway, and even Milo and Dave, The Brothers Holland. My companies title, the XWF World Title….is a part of the X*Crown. Instead of taking that as some kind of insult, I look at it in the way of….my federation will always be remembered. Even if those from XWF have gone on to bigger and better things, it’s legacy as part of the X*Crown makes me smile.
You know what else does?
The fact that Steve somehow managed to bring nCw back from the dead - long enough to have the nCw world title also wrapped up in the legacy of the X*Crown championship. See, my time in nCw saw me really develop into a main event superstar. XHF gave me the initial push, not just to be a champion in some rinky dink indie fed, but a global champion. Seen around the world, in the toughest place I’ve ever worked at. It was truly tough to succeed and stand out amongst some incredible talent, but I somehow managed to do so, and then went on to even greater heights.
nCw was my home for many years.
The fact that I held that title twice, and now it’s part of this title….that I’ve held twice. Shit, the only downside here is that the XHF Title itself isn’t included, and neither is the Imperial title from IWF. If those two were included? Well, it may as well be the Spike Kane championship. Look, I’m not stupid. I know the deck is stacked incredibly against me. I don’t claim to be the best in the world, I don’t claim to be the best X*Crown champion of any era.
Dylan Black did that, and even he couldn’t retain the championship in the rumble.
So when I’m told it’s Spike Kane Vs The World?
You bet your fucking ass it is, because I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure I walk out of the Little Caesar's Arena? I will still be your reigning, defending…
God of X*treme
Nelly: That’s right, that’s right, the return at the Rumble was only really the start wasn’t it?
Spike: Quite fitting, don’t you think? Almost like a bookend.
Nelly: What do you mean?
Spike: I had a foot out the door Nelly, I was out. Listen, I don’t want to use his name for clout or anything of the sort. When we lost Steve, I really struggled. I couldn’t see myself doing this without him in my life. Our stories are so entwined, he and Rob were my friends for life. People I went through the trenches with for over two decades. Ride or die. So I was winding down, ready to quietly walk off into the distance. I was honouring my commitments to SCCW and then on one night, I don’t just capture my 30th Tag Team Championship with PRICE, finally, but I also become a two time X*Crown champion. That makes me a two time XHF and a two time X*Crown champion. As far as I’m concerned? My legacy is settled. If I’m remembered half as fondly as Steve Awesome? I’ll be happy, but I make this promise to you now Nelly….once I lose this X*Crown Championship?
Nelly: Yeah?
Spike: I’m done.
Spike: Quite fitting, don’t you think? Almost like a bookend.
Nelly: What do you mean?
Spike: I had a foot out the door Nelly, I was out. Listen, I don’t want to use his name for clout or anything of the sort. When we lost Steve, I really struggled. I couldn’t see myself doing this without him in my life. Our stories are so entwined, he and Rob were my friends for life. People I went through the trenches with for over two decades. Ride or die. So I was winding down, ready to quietly walk off into the distance. I was honouring my commitments to SCCW and then on one night, I don’t just capture my 30th Tag Team Championship with PRICE, finally, but I also become a two time X*Crown champion. That makes me a two time XHF and a two time X*Crown champion. As far as I’m concerned? My legacy is settled. If I’m remembered half as fondly as Steve Awesome? I’ll be happy, but I make this promise to you now Nelly….once I lose this X*Crown Championship?
Nelly: Yeah?
Spike: I’m done.