Post by Sam Kidsgrove on Nov 12, 2022 16:55:22 GMT -5
Sam Kidsgrove stomps through gorilla in a foul mood. He courteously hugs people and shakes hands with whoever needs to speak to him and has his debrief but he’s clearly annoyed at something. He doesn’t hang around as soon as his debrief is done and hits the changing room, slams the door shut and flings his pads across the room. He hits the showers immediately as Zooey deals with some press calls outside but even under the hot water, his mood isn’t improved.
“Fuckers” he mutters under his breath as he closes his eyes and tries to eliminate the anger. It doesn’t work, so he scrubs himself down quickly, turns off the water and gets dressed. Without even waiting for Zooey to come back he tries to leave the arena, texting Zooey that he’ll meet her in the car. When he gets to the car park he takes a deep breath as he notices his former agent, Dan Smith, leaning against the car.
“What are you doing here?” Kidsgrove asks. “Get off my car you dickhead.”
“Hi to you too.” Dan replies. “You seem happy you won tonight.”
Kidsgrove grunts, walking past Dan, opens one of the back doors and throws his bag in the seat.
“C’mon! It was Lissie Hope! You did exactly what you said you would do in the main event. I’m proud of ya buddy.”
Kidsgrove gives him a glare. “Patronising ass.”
“Why ain’t you happy? I thought you’d be more happy. Phase one done right? You can move on to phase 2 and take down Angelo! The old man can’t be more proud of you.”
“The old man can kiss my fucking ass. Again, why are you here? If you remember, your agency dropped me the moment I lost to Lissie and you decided I wasn’t worth your time.”
“Yeah about that, well, the old man has been keeping tabs on you, he likes what he sees. He thinks your stock is as high as it’s ever been and he wants to bring you back into the fold. You know what this means.”
“Yeah it means you guys mooch 12% and make money off my name.”
This barb doesn’t phase Dan
“Well the old man actually just wants 0.5, think about it Sammy, movie deals, sponsorships, action figures, blockbuster after blockbuster, you have unlimited earning potential and you can get your old life back. No more whatever this piece of shit car is, no more coach. You can get back to driving your lincolns and private jets and 5 star hotels. You just have to sign the contract.” He hands Kidsgrove an envelope, Kidsgrove stares at him, refusing to even acknowledge it. Dan takes the hint and puts it next to Kidsgrove’s gear in the car.
“Think about it OK? I know that seeing me must have put you in a bad mood, with how we treated ya but we want to make it right.”
Kidsgrove laughs, not in an amusing way, but sarcastically.
“No, seeing you actually made me happier, because I get the chance to tell you to fuck off to your face. I’m not signing a contract with you or anyone else. I’m done with that life, my only focus is on beating the shit out of Gerard Angelo and winning the World Title, nothing else.
But no, I’m not pissed off with you, I’m pissed off with the results tonight.”
“But you beat Lissie?” Says Dan, confused.
“And? Turmoil was supposed to be my redemption story. The bracket was perfect for me. After all, my career, according to the more hard of thinking idiots in this industry who bring the same shit up time and time again, is defined by 3 things. Dandy, the US title, and not winning the big one.
This tournament bracket was perfect for me to get through that barrier, finally take Dandy down, beat the US champion and put Angelo on notice. As well as avenge the travesty that was the loss to Lissie. But Dandy and Jill shat the bed. I could have shut every single idiot on this roster and in the dirt sheets up in 3 weeks but no, that pair of cretins get in each other’s faces instead and now I’m left with facing fuckin’ Corey Black instead.
Now 99% of this roster would look at this match and be like “Oh my god it’s a dream match, Corey Black, the GOAT. You go through and you’ve made it. It’s a fantastic opportunity” and all that shit which feeds into the ego and the mystique of the King of Wrestling or Deathproof Corey, whatever the fuck moniker he’s attached to himself nowadays. Most people would be thrilled to step foot in the ring with a living legend, to test themselves against the best and would throw themselves down to worship at the altar of Black just because of his past. And what a past, right? He’s won everything everywhere he ever went and took that shit worldwide, spending the best part of a year or two kicking motherfuckers all around the globe because he decided he was bigger than AW, that AW had nothing more to offer him so the best thing he can do is face the best of the best everywhere else.
Me? I’m offended.
If I ever got to the point where I thought I could beat everyone on the roster so I’d better go find the best people in other organisations and fight them I’d actually make sure I could beat everyone on the roster.
Well guess who he overlooked? That’s right, if you guessed ol’ Sam Kidsgrove then you win the big prize.
He’s another in a long long list of people who just decided I wasn’t worth his time. Another in a long list of people who just overlooked me as if I wasn’t shit. I was there, breaking records, winning title after title. Being one of the most decorated champions in AW history but here he was, part of that great closed shop top of the card system that just figured “Oh it’s only Kidsgrove, he couldn’t even beat Dandy.” So he just ignored me. No amount of tapping on the window made him notice me, no amount of smashing through the door made him care enough about facing me. He’d rather go and fuck off on a world tour than to face me. Hell when he came back he still went and did the same old things. Philidor, Hope, Dandy, stuff with Spence and rinse and repeat. Challenging people in his little closed shop that are big enough names to make him look good with little effort.
Why?
Because if a guy who came from Hollywood beat him then his claim to be the GOAT is in tatters. And he knows that it’s a real possibility. See guys like him only care about rep, they only care about being seen as the greatest. Doesn’t matter if they are, they just need to be seen as it. So inevitably, when they hit the top of the card they close shop and pick people they can easily beat to stay there. Like you know when Balboa won his first title and Mick was signing fights with bums to keep his legacy intact? That’s exactly what Corey Black does. It’s why, when he ran out of bums to fight he went off to fight others. It’s why, when he came back he immediately drew the ire of Downfall and got his face ripped clean off.
He’s forgotten what it’s like to fight and claw for respect in this business. He’s become everything that he hated from the beginning. A guy who holds people back so he can keep top billing.
I remember Corey Black when he was all about fighting for respect, when he was all about literally killing a guy to make a name for himself. Corey when he was in beast mode just yearning to prove himself against naysayers and people who thought he just couldn’t do it. I remember watching WCF from afar when I was training and seeing this 5’9 guy, told he’s “too small, too messed up, too weird to make it” , giving people burning hammer after burning hammer. I saw him climb the ranks and beat some of the best. I remember Pantheon, Man Made Gods, all that shit. Despite the fact he doesn’t have a fight in him now, despite the fact that even Downfall can choke him out and leave him in a bloody, desperate state. He deserves his place in the Hall of Fame for what he’s done in the past.
But you know what? So do I. And I haven’t been given anywhere near as much respect as he has.
When he was padding his position at the top of the roster, hanging with the same guys every week I was grinding. I was carrying a division on my back. When he went on his world tour because he thought he was bigger than AW - I was grinding, begging management to put me in the spot, hell *any* spot.
When he went up against Philidor after months of just ignoring them, I was itching to get involved and take them down. I even offered him my help but was ultimately ignored by him, ignored by the management, ignored by everyone. All of the accolades Black has could easily have been mine - if I had the same respect he has that is. But I don’t.
Hell a perfect example of this was when I almost died and was put on the shelf for 9 months. I was at the top of my game, main evented Elimination Chamber, had an epic fucking feud against Nightingale and what happened when I came back?
Back of the back of the line. You can have a nice little spot challenging for the US title if you want. Then nothing for months. Absolutely nothing, radio silence in fact from the management. I literally had to get into the last year of my contract and tear through the roster to even get noticed.
Corey goes away for 7 months?
“Cool, here’s a hardcore title shot immediately, oh by the way Downfall wants to kick your ass and how about you go into the WOTY tournament? We always have a spot for you in that, no worries.” Before that? It was a guaranteed world title match. Hell the guy got his own damn Pay Per view for Christ sake.
I get this business is cut-throat. I get the business is at times just brutal, we are all fighting for the top spot, we’re all fighting tooth and nail to be THE guy. Some are doing it for their own smug satisfaction, like Angelo and Black, some of us are doing it for the fans and to prove the world wrong.
Turmoil is the next big thing, the 8 of us that are left are sharpening their knives, we’re watching our backs and preparing more than ever because we’re getting to the sharp end of the tournament. Once we get through this we’re 3 seconds away from the final. We see the brackets forming, we see what’s happening on the other side and we can see the shadow of the final boss starting to form.
I know he’s hoping for the same thing I am - he’s hoping to get to the final and beat the guy who makes his very existence hell. He wants Downfall, I want Angelo.
The reason he wants Downfall, whether it’s to pad his own claim to be the GOAT by knocking off one of the most surprising Champions ever, or simply because he likes getting his face smashed in It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t override my need, it doesn’t override my actual burning desire to go to Turmoil, look Angelo in the eye before I kick his ever smug dickbag face into irrelevance.
Nothing Downfall does to Black compares to the actual torture I see every single day knowing that Angelo is still the Champion, it eats me up inside knowing that I had a golden chance to take that smug, self satisfying prick out of this business and I failed to do it. Nothing hurts more than knowing you fucked up. Sure Downfall left Black in a pool of blood. Sure he choked him out, sure he beat him within an inch of his life but did that truly hurt him?
Not really. Anyone who’s crazy enough to be a two time Hardcore champion loves getting hurt like that. Physical pain to Corey is just basically his ambrosia. It’s the way he knows he’s still alive after 20 years of seeing his status as the greatest wrestler of all time, the King of Wrestlers being diminished day by day because he’s not been challenging himself. It’s the way he motivates himself to wake up in the morning and actually get onto the plane to the AW arena to face off against people he claims to be better than but are actually hand picked to beat.
It’s the way he can look himself in the eyes and tell himself that he matters now. He can say this because the pain matters, it’s real. Every single time Downfall hits him with that Crowbar, every drop of blood that falls down his face. Every time he tastes the metallic tang of blood on his tongue it reminds him that what he’s finally doing is real and that everything he’s done for the past couple of years is just fakery. It’s just nothing. Everything is hollow because he sold his soul to keep his roster spot and he’s now just a shell of everything he ever was.
Don’t get me wrong, unlike Lissie, unlike Dandy, unlike Jill and Angelo, I actually respect Corey. He’s done so much for the sport, the burning hammer dojo is a great initiative. It’s going to set up the next generation of wrestlers worldwide and frankly that’s a good thing. Because we all need to give back to the kids who’ll replace us. We need to nurture them, to help them grow and make sure they have every chance to succeed.
I don’t want to see a kid ever have to go through the same path I did. No one should have to go through that again, to have their parents turn them into a performing monkey to make them rich. No one should be hooked on painkillers, antidepressants and alcohol by the time they’re twenty. Absolutely not, this is why stuff like the dojo is good. It helps kids find themselves, a true version of themselves and not something conjured up by someone else.
It helps them grow and learn, to take on new challenges and approach every single obstacle head on.
It’s a shame its founder doesn’t follow that ethos ain’t it?
But I do. This is why I’ll prove Corey isn’t Deathproof.”
“Fuckers” he mutters under his breath as he closes his eyes and tries to eliminate the anger. It doesn’t work, so he scrubs himself down quickly, turns off the water and gets dressed. Without even waiting for Zooey to come back he tries to leave the arena, texting Zooey that he’ll meet her in the car. When he gets to the car park he takes a deep breath as he notices his former agent, Dan Smith, leaning against the car.
“What are you doing here?” Kidsgrove asks. “Get off my car you dickhead.”
“Hi to you too.” Dan replies. “You seem happy you won tonight.”
Kidsgrove grunts, walking past Dan, opens one of the back doors and throws his bag in the seat.
“C’mon! It was Lissie Hope! You did exactly what you said you would do in the main event. I’m proud of ya buddy.”
Kidsgrove gives him a glare. “Patronising ass.”
“Why ain’t you happy? I thought you’d be more happy. Phase one done right? You can move on to phase 2 and take down Angelo! The old man can’t be more proud of you.”
“The old man can kiss my fucking ass. Again, why are you here? If you remember, your agency dropped me the moment I lost to Lissie and you decided I wasn’t worth your time.”
“Yeah about that, well, the old man has been keeping tabs on you, he likes what he sees. He thinks your stock is as high as it’s ever been and he wants to bring you back into the fold. You know what this means.”
“Yeah it means you guys mooch 12% and make money off my name.”
This barb doesn’t phase Dan
“Well the old man actually just wants 0.5, think about it Sammy, movie deals, sponsorships, action figures, blockbuster after blockbuster, you have unlimited earning potential and you can get your old life back. No more whatever this piece of shit car is, no more coach. You can get back to driving your lincolns and private jets and 5 star hotels. You just have to sign the contract.” He hands Kidsgrove an envelope, Kidsgrove stares at him, refusing to even acknowledge it. Dan takes the hint and puts it next to Kidsgrove’s gear in the car.
“Think about it OK? I know that seeing me must have put you in a bad mood, with how we treated ya but we want to make it right.”
Kidsgrove laughs, not in an amusing way, but sarcastically.
“No, seeing you actually made me happier, because I get the chance to tell you to fuck off to your face. I’m not signing a contract with you or anyone else. I’m done with that life, my only focus is on beating the shit out of Gerard Angelo and winning the World Title, nothing else.
But no, I’m not pissed off with you, I’m pissed off with the results tonight.”
“But you beat Lissie?” Says Dan, confused.
“And? Turmoil was supposed to be my redemption story. The bracket was perfect for me. After all, my career, according to the more hard of thinking idiots in this industry who bring the same shit up time and time again, is defined by 3 things. Dandy, the US title, and not winning the big one.
This tournament bracket was perfect for me to get through that barrier, finally take Dandy down, beat the US champion and put Angelo on notice. As well as avenge the travesty that was the loss to Lissie. But Dandy and Jill shat the bed. I could have shut every single idiot on this roster and in the dirt sheets up in 3 weeks but no, that pair of cretins get in each other’s faces instead and now I’m left with facing fuckin’ Corey Black instead.
Now 99% of this roster would look at this match and be like “Oh my god it’s a dream match, Corey Black, the GOAT. You go through and you’ve made it. It’s a fantastic opportunity” and all that shit which feeds into the ego and the mystique of the King of Wrestling or Deathproof Corey, whatever the fuck moniker he’s attached to himself nowadays. Most people would be thrilled to step foot in the ring with a living legend, to test themselves against the best and would throw themselves down to worship at the altar of Black just because of his past. And what a past, right? He’s won everything everywhere he ever went and took that shit worldwide, spending the best part of a year or two kicking motherfuckers all around the globe because he decided he was bigger than AW, that AW had nothing more to offer him so the best thing he can do is face the best of the best everywhere else.
Me? I’m offended.
If I ever got to the point where I thought I could beat everyone on the roster so I’d better go find the best people in other organisations and fight them I’d actually make sure I could beat everyone on the roster.
Well guess who he overlooked? That’s right, if you guessed ol’ Sam Kidsgrove then you win the big prize.
He’s another in a long long list of people who just decided I wasn’t worth his time. Another in a long list of people who just overlooked me as if I wasn’t shit. I was there, breaking records, winning title after title. Being one of the most decorated champions in AW history but here he was, part of that great closed shop top of the card system that just figured “Oh it’s only Kidsgrove, he couldn’t even beat Dandy.” So he just ignored me. No amount of tapping on the window made him notice me, no amount of smashing through the door made him care enough about facing me. He’d rather go and fuck off on a world tour than to face me. Hell when he came back he still went and did the same old things. Philidor, Hope, Dandy, stuff with Spence and rinse and repeat. Challenging people in his little closed shop that are big enough names to make him look good with little effort.
Why?
Because if a guy who came from Hollywood beat him then his claim to be the GOAT is in tatters. And he knows that it’s a real possibility. See guys like him only care about rep, they only care about being seen as the greatest. Doesn’t matter if they are, they just need to be seen as it. So inevitably, when they hit the top of the card they close shop and pick people they can easily beat to stay there. Like you know when Balboa won his first title and Mick was signing fights with bums to keep his legacy intact? That’s exactly what Corey Black does. It’s why, when he ran out of bums to fight he went off to fight others. It’s why, when he came back he immediately drew the ire of Downfall and got his face ripped clean off.
He’s forgotten what it’s like to fight and claw for respect in this business. He’s become everything that he hated from the beginning. A guy who holds people back so he can keep top billing.
I remember Corey Black when he was all about fighting for respect, when he was all about literally killing a guy to make a name for himself. Corey when he was in beast mode just yearning to prove himself against naysayers and people who thought he just couldn’t do it. I remember watching WCF from afar when I was training and seeing this 5’9 guy, told he’s “too small, too messed up, too weird to make it” , giving people burning hammer after burning hammer. I saw him climb the ranks and beat some of the best. I remember Pantheon, Man Made Gods, all that shit. Despite the fact he doesn’t have a fight in him now, despite the fact that even Downfall can choke him out and leave him in a bloody, desperate state. He deserves his place in the Hall of Fame for what he’s done in the past.
But you know what? So do I. And I haven’t been given anywhere near as much respect as he has.
When he was padding his position at the top of the roster, hanging with the same guys every week I was grinding. I was carrying a division on my back. When he went on his world tour because he thought he was bigger than AW - I was grinding, begging management to put me in the spot, hell *any* spot.
When he went up against Philidor after months of just ignoring them, I was itching to get involved and take them down. I even offered him my help but was ultimately ignored by him, ignored by the management, ignored by everyone. All of the accolades Black has could easily have been mine - if I had the same respect he has that is. But I don’t.
Hell a perfect example of this was when I almost died and was put on the shelf for 9 months. I was at the top of my game, main evented Elimination Chamber, had an epic fucking feud against Nightingale and what happened when I came back?
Back of the back of the line. You can have a nice little spot challenging for the US title if you want. Then nothing for months. Absolutely nothing, radio silence in fact from the management. I literally had to get into the last year of my contract and tear through the roster to even get noticed.
Corey goes away for 7 months?
“Cool, here’s a hardcore title shot immediately, oh by the way Downfall wants to kick your ass and how about you go into the WOTY tournament? We always have a spot for you in that, no worries.” Before that? It was a guaranteed world title match. Hell the guy got his own damn Pay Per view for Christ sake.
I get this business is cut-throat. I get the business is at times just brutal, we are all fighting for the top spot, we’re all fighting tooth and nail to be THE guy. Some are doing it for their own smug satisfaction, like Angelo and Black, some of us are doing it for the fans and to prove the world wrong.
Turmoil is the next big thing, the 8 of us that are left are sharpening their knives, we’re watching our backs and preparing more than ever because we’re getting to the sharp end of the tournament. Once we get through this we’re 3 seconds away from the final. We see the brackets forming, we see what’s happening on the other side and we can see the shadow of the final boss starting to form.
I know he’s hoping for the same thing I am - he’s hoping to get to the final and beat the guy who makes his very existence hell. He wants Downfall, I want Angelo.
The reason he wants Downfall, whether it’s to pad his own claim to be the GOAT by knocking off one of the most surprising Champions ever, or simply because he likes getting his face smashed in It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t override my need, it doesn’t override my actual burning desire to go to Turmoil, look Angelo in the eye before I kick his ever smug dickbag face into irrelevance.
Nothing Downfall does to Black compares to the actual torture I see every single day knowing that Angelo is still the Champion, it eats me up inside knowing that I had a golden chance to take that smug, self satisfying prick out of this business and I failed to do it. Nothing hurts more than knowing you fucked up. Sure Downfall left Black in a pool of blood. Sure he choked him out, sure he beat him within an inch of his life but did that truly hurt him?
Not really. Anyone who’s crazy enough to be a two time Hardcore champion loves getting hurt like that. Physical pain to Corey is just basically his ambrosia. It’s the way he knows he’s still alive after 20 years of seeing his status as the greatest wrestler of all time, the King of Wrestlers being diminished day by day because he’s not been challenging himself. It’s the way he motivates himself to wake up in the morning and actually get onto the plane to the AW arena to face off against people he claims to be better than but are actually hand picked to beat.
It’s the way he can look himself in the eyes and tell himself that he matters now. He can say this because the pain matters, it’s real. Every single time Downfall hits him with that Crowbar, every drop of blood that falls down his face. Every time he tastes the metallic tang of blood on his tongue it reminds him that what he’s finally doing is real and that everything he’s done for the past couple of years is just fakery. It’s just nothing. Everything is hollow because he sold his soul to keep his roster spot and he’s now just a shell of everything he ever was.
Don’t get me wrong, unlike Lissie, unlike Dandy, unlike Jill and Angelo, I actually respect Corey. He’s done so much for the sport, the burning hammer dojo is a great initiative. It’s going to set up the next generation of wrestlers worldwide and frankly that’s a good thing. Because we all need to give back to the kids who’ll replace us. We need to nurture them, to help them grow and make sure they have every chance to succeed.
I don’t want to see a kid ever have to go through the same path I did. No one should have to go through that again, to have their parents turn them into a performing monkey to make them rich. No one should be hooked on painkillers, antidepressants and alcohol by the time they’re twenty. Absolutely not, this is why stuff like the dojo is good. It helps kids find themselves, a true version of themselves and not something conjured up by someone else.
It helps them grow and learn, to take on new challenges and approach every single obstacle head on.
It’s a shame its founder doesn’t follow that ethos ain’t it?
But I do. This is why I’ll prove Corey isn’t Deathproof.”