Vs The World (Part 3)
Apr 18, 2024 17:44:29 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer, Dave D-Flipz, and 1 more like this
Post by Spike Kane on Apr 18, 2024 17:44:29 GMT -5
Do you give everything you have, or do you half ass it?
See, from my experience? When Rumble season rolls around? You get one or the other. No middle ground, no inbetween. People either give you everything they have, because they so desperately want to win the biggest match of the year. Or you get half assed effort from people to afraid to actually go for it. To rise above their station and make a name for themselves. Write their name into the history of the XHF Network, and wrestling as a whole. I’ll tell you something, as someone who has won three of these over the years?
The feeling is intoxicating.
There reality isn’t much that comes close, and anyone who has won one would tell you the same. If they don’t? They’re lying. There is nothing better than coming out on top over thirty or even forty other superstars? Pfft, it;s top of the world type feeling - and I’m hunting it down, once again. See, a lot of you guys? You do what I like to call seasonal work. Not part time, no, no, this is different.
Fair weather wrestlers.
You come in, light everything up, make a splash, and then you burn out and disappear. Sometimes you come back, but most of the time not. That’s not me, I work through the tough times. I scrap and fight for every little tiny bit of a push I might get. I make the absolute most of my TV time, and I make sure that when the fans go home, the have a memory from Spike Kane to take with them. Day in, and day out. Year after year. It doesn’t matter if you’re freshly back from the dead at Zombie Jesus time, or if you’re someone like my little brother Brad who definitely falls into the seasonal wrestler bracket in my eyes. You just don’t measure up to me. You can’t, there just isn’t enough days in a year to be able to get to my level without jumping twenty years into the future.
I am a once in a generation talent.
There have been so many people who claim to be the best in the world. So many people claim to be the most dangerous, or unstoppable, or even god’s gift to wrestling. All I need to do is simply ask you, where are they now? Because when they flop and leave with their tails between their legs? When they scurry off back into the dark damp indy halls they came from?
I’m still fucking here.
I didn’t aim to become the X*Crown champion again. It wasn’t even on my radar, at all. I was content doing what I was doing, and the championship of all championships just happened to fall my way. Whether I wanted it or not, you put me in that ring? I’ll give you everything I have. Now I find myself standing here as the only two time XHF Champion AND two time X*Crown champion. Just as I’m about to hang up my boots, I finally get my first. Something only a very fucking small number of people could even try to accomplish - and I seriously doubt they will.
Just when I think I’m out….
I do know that nobody has ever won the XHF Rumble twice. So the odds are stacked even more against me, and you know what? I honestly don’t care. Fucking bring it, because when my back is against the wall? When the odds are stacked against me? When I’m told that I won’t be able to do something? That is when I’m at my best, that is peak Spike Kane. I’m not going to run down my accolades, you should know them by now, and if you don’t? Well, jokes on you really because if you don’t learn from history, then you’re doomed to repeat it. I’m gonna be upfront and open about this, I mean I always am, but people just don’t listen.
I will walk out of the Rumble as the X*Crown Champion.
I know, I know, everyone is probably saying that. Everyone and their dog is probably saying it, but the difference is I follow through with my words. I don’t break my promises, and I have a level of conviction when it comes to this business, when it comes to the ring. It’s why I still keep going, it’s why I always pick myself up, dust myself of, and go again. So yeah, when I tell you I’m going to walk out of the Rumble as the X*Crown Champion, you can bet your house on the fact that I truly mean that, and I really do believe it.
See, if I don’t walk out as the X*Crown Champion?
I won’t be walking at all.
Cause you’re gonna have to put me down for good to pry this gold from my cold dead hands.
See, from my experience? When Rumble season rolls around? You get one or the other. No middle ground, no inbetween. People either give you everything they have, because they so desperately want to win the biggest match of the year. Or you get half assed effort from people to afraid to actually go for it. To rise above their station and make a name for themselves. Write their name into the history of the XHF Network, and wrestling as a whole. I’ll tell you something, as someone who has won three of these over the years?
The feeling is intoxicating.
There reality isn’t much that comes close, and anyone who has won one would tell you the same. If they don’t? They’re lying. There is nothing better than coming out on top over thirty or even forty other superstars? Pfft, it;s top of the world type feeling - and I’m hunting it down, once again. See, a lot of you guys? You do what I like to call seasonal work. Not part time, no, no, this is different.
Fair weather wrestlers.
Nelly: So the BANG! Bros. Curtis Kanyon, El Combatiente, Steve Awesome, and yourself. How does that become a thing?
Spike: Honestly? It was a pure fluke. Absolutely. Listen, those guys are all incredible. Individually they are the types of wrestlers you can build a company around. Y’know? The type that can elevate the talent of anyone they share the ring with. I lucked my way onto the team that was gonna win anyway, you know what I mean?
Nelly: I hear what you’re saying, but how does a conversation like that go down? Like, it seems like such a random assortment of characters…
Spike: No word of a lie, they were hanging out and discussing the fact that they needed another body, and the prize was a chance at the X*Crown. All I said was I could do it if they needed someone, and the rest is history. Honestly, the thing I’ve noticed since coming back to the XHF whole network era, is how different it is.
Nelly: In what way or ways?
Spike: Well, wrestling evolved. Just look at when the network started, nobody gave Mongo a chance. Hell, even I told him it’d never take off. Wrestling as an industry, is historically full of selfish people. It’s MY spot, it’s MY TV time, it’s MY show and so on. That’s why so many companies have these bullshit rules about talking about other federations or companies on their TV time. That’s so ingrained into this business, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. Like, why do we not want to acknowledge the accolades of our stars? Are you scared of being overshadowed?
Nelly: True, but there are some companies out there where the competition is tougher, say?
Spike: Which is absolutely fine. Hold your own championships and champions up in their rightful spots, it means more because they did it here. That’s the right way to do it. Not that what you’ve done doesn’t matter, but here in this place? It means more that you did it here.
Nelly: Can you give me an example?
Spike: Honestly? It was a pure fluke. Absolutely. Listen, those guys are all incredible. Individually they are the types of wrestlers you can build a company around. Y’know? The type that can elevate the talent of anyone they share the ring with. I lucked my way onto the team that was gonna win anyway, you know what I mean?
Nelly: I hear what you’re saying, but how does a conversation like that go down? Like, it seems like such a random assortment of characters…
Spike: No word of a lie, they were hanging out and discussing the fact that they needed another body, and the prize was a chance at the X*Crown. All I said was I could do it if they needed someone, and the rest is history. Honestly, the thing I’ve noticed since coming back to the XHF whole network era, is how different it is.
Nelly: In what way or ways?
Spike: Well, wrestling evolved. Just look at when the network started, nobody gave Mongo a chance. Hell, even I told him it’d never take off. Wrestling as an industry, is historically full of selfish people. It’s MY spot, it’s MY TV time, it’s MY show and so on. That’s why so many companies have these bullshit rules about talking about other federations or companies on their TV time. That’s so ingrained into this business, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. Like, why do we not want to acknowledge the accolades of our stars? Are you scared of being overshadowed?
Nelly: True, but there are some companies out there where the competition is tougher, say?
Spike: Which is absolutely fine. Hold your own championships and champions up in their rightful spots, it means more because they did it here. That’s the right way to do it. Not that what you’ve done doesn’t matter, but here in this place? It means more that you did it here.
Nelly: Can you give me an example?
You come in, light everything up, make a splash, and then you burn out and disappear. Sometimes you come back, but most of the time not. That’s not me, I work through the tough times. I scrap and fight for every little tiny bit of a push I might get. I make the absolute most of my TV time, and I make sure that when the fans go home, the have a memory from Spike Kane to take with them. Day in, and day out. Year after year. It doesn’t matter if you’re freshly back from the dead at Zombie Jesus time, or if you’re someone like my little brother Brad who definitely falls into the seasonal wrestler bracket in my eyes. You just don’t measure up to me. You can’t, there just isn’t enough days in a year to be able to get to my level without jumping twenty years into the future.
I am a once in a generation talent.
There have been so many people who claim to be the best in the world. So many people claim to be the most dangerous, or unstoppable, or even god’s gift to wrestling. All I need to do is simply ask you, where are they now? Because when they flop and leave with their tails between their legs? When they scurry off back into the dark damp indy halls they came from?
I’m still fucking here.
Spike: Sure. See, for the long time fans they’ll know I’ve been relatively active either in the ring or outside of the ring from the day I walked out of XHF. I am a 16 time world champion. That record, if it were somewhere more “entertaining” or “elite” would place me in the fucking Hall of Fame of all of wrestling. I’m a two time XHF Champion. Cool, but that was back then old man - the game has moved on without you. Cool, I moved on to nCw. I captured every belt but the Hardcore Title - because I was deliberately kept from it, which I’m sure we may elaborate on later - including the world title, twice. Cool, but that was forever ago, you’re not relevant. Cool, I move on, I go from the Ashes of XHF to the Phoenix of nCw, and once again after several years and more accolades than anyone else, including the OG XHF crew that followed us over. I go from nCw to IWF, and I’m told I can’t challenge for the world title because I’m a former nCw Champion.
Nelly: Really?
Spike: Yeah, it’s one of those...but if what I did elsewhere doesn’t matter, why should it prevent me from doing it here? In the end, it was a blessing. It led to Rob and I having the absolute time of our lives in InFamous, we literally destroyed the tag division. We were undefeated, until the IWF's reliance on purely new stars didn’t go too well, and they needed some established names to step in. So Rob and I found ourselves in a main event feud over the Imperial Title, which is their world title. Thus began a run in IWF that I can honestly say was the best work I ever did. - I’ll circle back shortly, but to get back to the point I was making. I became the Imperial Champion twice. I went on a record breaking run with the secondary tier championship we called the Man of Steel Champion, and I changed the rules so that every defence was in a Dragon’s Den Match.
Nelly: That’s like a Hell in a Cell, right?
Spike: Essentially, wrapped in barbed wire, weapons hanging about. It was my signature match, I even had one or two back in my old XHF days.
Nelly: Would you defend the X*Crown in one?
Spike: Ooh, now there would be an idea. If I somehow make it out of this with this baby still around my waste, I could make every defence a Dragon’s Den Match.
Nelly: I could see that, so you go on a monster run in IWF. Break the records for that championship, and the longest reign, most defences?
Spike: At the time I thought so yes. That was my main goal, because that championship had been held for the longest time by some dickhead who never defended it, but I did it. I then won their Rumble, and set up a legendary match with my old nCw nemesis, Angel - see, once again. What you did doesn’t matter, but it kinda does. I won it again, and I got to defend it, and go out as the champion before the curtain was supposed to close on my career. Once again, two time world champion. Cool, but then you went away forever, right?
Nelly: Right…
Spike: Then I come back and what am I now?
Nelly: A two time X*Crown Champion.
Spike: A two time X*Crown Champion.
Nelly: Really?
Spike: Yeah, it’s one of those...but if what I did elsewhere doesn’t matter, why should it prevent me from doing it here? In the end, it was a blessing. It led to Rob and I having the absolute time of our lives in InFamous, we literally destroyed the tag division. We were undefeated, until the IWF's reliance on purely new stars didn’t go too well, and they needed some established names to step in. So Rob and I found ourselves in a main event feud over the Imperial Title, which is their world title. Thus began a run in IWF that I can honestly say was the best work I ever did. - I’ll circle back shortly, but to get back to the point I was making. I became the Imperial Champion twice. I went on a record breaking run with the secondary tier championship we called the Man of Steel Champion, and I changed the rules so that every defence was in a Dragon’s Den Match.
Nelly: That’s like a Hell in a Cell, right?
Spike: Essentially, wrapped in barbed wire, weapons hanging about. It was my signature match, I even had one or two back in my old XHF days.
Nelly: Would you defend the X*Crown in one?
Spike: Ooh, now there would be an idea. If I somehow make it out of this with this baby still around my waste, I could make every defence a Dragon’s Den Match.
Nelly: I could see that, so you go on a monster run in IWF. Break the records for that championship, and the longest reign, most defences?
Spike: At the time I thought so yes. That was my main goal, because that championship had been held for the longest time by some dickhead who never defended it, but I did it. I then won their Rumble, and set up a legendary match with my old nCw nemesis, Angel - see, once again. What you did doesn’t matter, but it kinda does. I won it again, and I got to defend it, and go out as the champion before the curtain was supposed to close on my career. Once again, two time world champion. Cool, but then you went away forever, right?
Nelly: Right…
Spike: Then I come back and what am I now?
Nelly: A two time X*Crown Champion.
Spike: A two time X*Crown Champion.
I didn’t aim to become the X*Crown champion again. It wasn’t even on my radar, at all. I was content doing what I was doing, and the championship of all championships just happened to fall my way. Whether I wanted it or not, you put me in that ring? I’ll give you everything I have. Now I find myself standing here as the only two time XHF Champion AND two time X*Crown champion. Just as I’m about to hang up my boots, I finally get my first. Something only a very fucking small number of people could even try to accomplish - and I seriously doubt they will.
Just when I think I’m out….
I do know that nobody has ever won the XHF Rumble twice. So the odds are stacked even more against me, and you know what? I honestly don’t care. Fucking bring it, because when my back is against the wall? When the odds are stacked against me? When I’m told that I won’t be able to do something? That is when I’m at my best, that is peak Spike Kane. I’m not going to run down my accolades, you should know them by now, and if you don’t? Well, jokes on you really because if you don’t learn from history, then you’re doomed to repeat it. I’m gonna be upfront and open about this, I mean I always am, but people just don’t listen.
Nelly: So, you are saying that you evolve with the world of wrestling?
Spike: I try to. It’s a world that is constantly changing. Our world is out there for all to see. Everything you do and say on camera, is out there for the whole world to scrutinise. The amount of times I’ve cringed when I’ve watched old promos back? Just because I was trying to be cool, or controversial, just to pop some guys backstage. The Network isn’t like that. Which is my long-winded point. We never thought it would work, because we, as wrestlers, are designed to try and put ourselves over. We are an attraction, and we’re trying to sell ourselves to you, to the viewers. Buy into us, and we’ll take you on a journey. For the longest time, a lot of wrestlers themselves find out far too late that it applies to them too. The best stories you ever tell in this business, the best moments you’ll ever have in the ring, and out, will be with your friends. Working with people, instead of trying to outdo them all the time. Creating a story to try and elevate both parties, rather than just going out there to bury each other and get the chuckles from the lads afterwards. The Network works, because the backstage vibe in XHF has changed, much like it has around the entire world - and rightfully so. People are far more willing to work with each other than they were in the past. Like, there is seemingly a beef between IWF and the Network, and I don’t understand.
Nelly: We did have some members of the IWF roster on the tribute show.
Spike: Which was fantastic, and it meant the world to me personally. I knew Steve would be happy, and I reached out where I could too. If one good thing came from losing Steve was it brought a lot of us to our senses and reached out to those we’d maybe felt too nervous or weird to speak to. I guess there’s been a few gripes from one or two crestfallen ex-members, but as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure Mongo too, they don’t represent the network, hell - they don’t even go here.
Spike: I try to. It’s a world that is constantly changing. Our world is out there for all to see. Everything you do and say on camera, is out there for the whole world to scrutinise. The amount of times I’ve cringed when I’ve watched old promos back? Just because I was trying to be cool, or controversial, just to pop some guys backstage. The Network isn’t like that. Which is my long-winded point. We never thought it would work, because we, as wrestlers, are designed to try and put ourselves over. We are an attraction, and we’re trying to sell ourselves to you, to the viewers. Buy into us, and we’ll take you on a journey. For the longest time, a lot of wrestlers themselves find out far too late that it applies to them too. The best stories you ever tell in this business, the best moments you’ll ever have in the ring, and out, will be with your friends. Working with people, instead of trying to outdo them all the time. Creating a story to try and elevate both parties, rather than just going out there to bury each other and get the chuckles from the lads afterwards. The Network works, because the backstage vibe in XHF has changed, much like it has around the entire world - and rightfully so. People are far more willing to work with each other than they were in the past. Like, there is seemingly a beef between IWF and the Network, and I don’t understand.
Nelly: We did have some members of the IWF roster on the tribute show.
Spike: Which was fantastic, and it meant the world to me personally. I knew Steve would be happy, and I reached out where I could too. If one good thing came from losing Steve was it brought a lot of us to our senses and reached out to those we’d maybe felt too nervous or weird to speak to. I guess there’s been a few gripes from one or two crestfallen ex-members, but as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure Mongo too, they don’t represent the network, hell - they don’t even go here.
I will walk out of the Rumble as the X*Crown Champion.
I know, I know, everyone is probably saying that. Everyone and their dog is probably saying it, but the difference is I follow through with my words. I don’t break my promises, and I have a level of conviction when it comes to this business, when it comes to the ring. It’s why I still keep going, it’s why I always pick myself up, dust myself of, and go again. So yeah, when I tell you I’m going to walk out of the Rumble as the X*Crown Champion, you can bet your house on the fact that I truly mean that, and I really do believe it.
See, if I don’t walk out as the X*Crown Champion?
I won’t be walking at all.
Cause you’re gonna have to put me down for good to pry this gold from my cold dead hands.
Nelly: You mentioned there at some point, an issue you had in nCw regarding the Hardcore Championship?
Spike: Yeah, that was one of the issues I’ve had with management over the years.
Nelly: For someone who says they’re easy to work with, you seem to have a lot of issues with management.
Spike: I’ve been around since ‘96, I’ve wrestled in a lot of places and some of them are just not run very well.
Nelly: Well, you have had a storied career, having been active for so long. If you really are going to retire if you lose the X*Crown, the Rumble could very well be your last match. Do you want to get anything off your chest about these issues?
Spike: I mean, how long you got? Ha. You’re serious?
Nelly: As a heart attack.
Spike: Nice callback. You’re not gonna like it.
Nelly: Let us be the judge of that.
Spike: Yeah, that was one of the issues I’ve had with management over the years.
Nelly: For someone who says they’re easy to work with, you seem to have a lot of issues with management.
Spike: I’ve been around since ‘96, I’ve wrestled in a lot of places and some of them are just not run very well.
Nelly: Well, you have had a storied career, having been active for so long. If you really are going to retire if you lose the X*Crown, the Rumble could very well be your last match. Do you want to get anything off your chest about these issues?
Spike: I mean, how long you got? Ha. You’re serious?
Nelly: As a heart attack.
Spike: Nice callback. You’re not gonna like it.
Nelly: Let us be the judge of that.