My Life on the Cutting Edge of a Squared Circle: Matt Savage

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

My Life on the Cutting Edge of a Squared Circle: Matt Savage

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Those were the dramatic last words of the commentator in the last match of my career as a professional wrestler. A career that spanned two decades, four continents, and touched the highest of heights and the lowest of lows. I remember when words like "What a Display of Power," and "Oh My God," were used in description of my work. On that fateful night however, I was on the other end of the stick; the shitty end.

"Lucky to be alive"

Those were the first words I translated after waking from an induced-coma in a Tohoku hospital. After all the time I spent abroad I often wondered at what point I could start to think in a foreign language. It hasn't happened yet though as I still find myself constantly translating to English in my head, coming up with an English response in my head and translating once again. Too many bumps to the head I suppose.

A lonely profession I chose I'll tell you. Scanning around the empty hospital room I see only one person sitting in a chair frantically tapping away on his cell phone. No one shows up other than my obnoxious, ridiculous, over-the-top agent. What did I expect though? My ex-wives wouldn't have minded at all if I had keeled-over in the ring. In fact they probably would have preferred it; they might get more money out of my corpse than they will with me still living and breathing.

I stare across the room at my agent, none other than Ty Darling of Alite Athlete Association (AAA). Ty was an indy wrestler for a few years and actually helped me get into wrestling a long time ago. We met almost twenty-five years ago when I was a 16 year old kid. He was the agent my parents had hired to ensure I made it to college on a football scholarship. Making a long story short he did his job and so did I, at least just enough. I played Left Tackle for NCAA division II Florida Tech and finished with a diploma in Sports Administration. I wasn't going to make it to the show and I put too much time into being an athlete to completely abandon that aspect of my life and toil away in a cubicle. A few months after college I was getting no where and was about to hit rock bottom. Working at a temp agency for less than minimum wage and living in my '89 Dodge Shadow wasn't exactly what I had planned when I left Florida Tech with that fancy piece of paper but hey life can be a bitch. I was 22 years old, 6'5", 255Lbs, basically homeless, and basically jobless. If I had enough money to drink or do drugs I probably would have transcended into that realm but I was literally too broke to even make a go of being an alcoholic or a chronic. Somehow Ty sought me out and found me. It's not like I had an address or a phone and I wasn't easy to find I don't think. Maybe I was? I never really asked him. Anyway, he found me living in my old Shadow just outside of Miami and told me he had an opportunity for me.

"I don't know if it's something you're even remotely interested in but I'm promoting this local Indy wrestling fed this weekend..." He started to say.

I laughed and cut him off. When I was a kid I was completely hooked on wrestling. My dad was a big Crippler Ray Kingman - Dick the Devastator era fan and we'd watch wrestling together on Sunday's quite often. I was a big fan of Johnny Martin, Nemesis, and Eric Tyler and would wait to watch the goings-on in the early days of DAVE with bated breath. I idolized those guys until I got to the point in my life where my old man told me wrestling wasn't real, it was "kayfabe." Destroyed, I rarely watched any of it again. Actually, I went through a short stint of keeping up with PSW when it first opened. The prospect of a DAVE recreate piqued my curiosity, but I couldn't bring myself to get into wrestling again.

I told Ty I didn't want anything to do with wrestling, it wasn't a real sport and it was all fake. I still remember him laughing in my face.

"You big dumb shit, I wasn't going to ask you to wrestle. I need some big mean looking lugs to be part of the show. $300 bucks cash for a couple hours of work and by the looks of it you need the money," he said.

That's how I got into this business. It wasn't because I was a fanboy and made my dreams come true or even anything I would have willingly chose to do with my life. I started out in this business as a necessity. $300 was good coin back then to stand around and look mean. Thinking back now though I got paid much less than that for my first matches where I actually wrestled. I stared out to survive. Though I've grown to love it and wouldn't see myself doing anything else, and I'd like to think that I've left a stamp on the sport, there's no was in hell I'd condone any of my three sons becoming a professional wrestler. They'd probably defy me and I'd help them anyways but I wouldn't be happy about it.

When I first decided to enter the ring, Ty set me up with 3 days worth of wrestling lessons. Apparently you have to have a "licence" to wrestle for promotions working in the state of Florida. I show up to this dingy gym on the wrong side of Miami for wrestling lessons and find none other than Bob Casey there as the instructor. Turns out the lessons weren't how to do some of the moves or sell moves or any of that stuff, it was all about safety. I actually came out of the 3-day class at the time a little bored and pissed-off that I didn't learn how to do any cool moves but looking back I have to say, a lot of what Bob taught me about preventing injuries to myself and my fellow workers I still employ today. Employed I should say.

Back to the story anyway, Ty saw me stirring around and came over to the bed side with a puzzled look on his face. I'd seen it many times through the years at different points in my career where things weren't exactly going my way.

Never one for subtlety, he looked down at me and blurted "looks like you're all done in the ring old friend." He said it so fast I didn't know what he said at first, it took me a minute to put it all together. I think he was glad to get that burden off of his shoulder's. Poor bastard, that would be a terrible thing to have to do. I remember how devastated my dad was when he blew his back out and couldn't do his job anymore, he was a bricklayer, and the doctor nonchalantly told him he needed to find a new career. There was nothing they could do. He eventually did but I don't think my dad was the same man after that blow to the pride. Surprisingly maybe to some, I wasn't upset when Ty told me I was finished as a wrestler. As he started yammering on about the details of my injury, a broken vertebrae in my neck... blah... blah... blah... All I cared about was that it hurt, though strangely I couldn't help feeling slightly relieved by my current circumstances. I had been contemplating retirement for the last couple years but had made such little money for the majority of my career, I was trying to squirrel away as much dough as I could before I hung up the boots. I'm not going to leave the business, in fact I'm thinking about opening up a promotion back in Florida for young up-and-comers. A training/developmental fed if you will. But that's a story for the future.

In the interim, during my recovery time, Ty has me writing this autobiography. I obliged him because he told me about how much money some other guys had made at doing it. I wanted to get a bio done on Netflix like the iconic Jack Bruce but Ty laughed at me.

This is the autobiography of journeyman wrestler Matt Savage from my first indy match to the last match of my career.

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

So Ty booked my first match. Before I get into it I just want to point out a preconception I had back then. When the word "professional" is used in the name of the sport I assumed there would be a professional manner of approach in setting up and executing these events. Turns out for majority of the indy shows I was involved in and even some of the name promotion's shows I was in, the professionalism is severely lacking.

Ty calls me and says "Hey kid, I've got you your first match. You might not like it but there's $150 bucks on the line win or lose."

Little did he know but he has me at $150 bucks so I asked for more information.

"Well I'm not sure on the particulars but the venue is off of I-55 in Hammond, Louisiana. It's outside of a shopping mall. Should be a good start for you. Be there by 5pm tomorrow night, show is at 7pm and they will have a meeting to go over the matches with the workers. Good luck," He said and hung up.

I had to borrow money from my dad to put enough gas in my car to get to Hammond and pay for a hotel room. Let me tell you, after spending as many years on the road as I have, a $25 motel is a great thing. Bring a pee sheet with you and sleep on it though. At this point I still didn't even know what was going on, I knew some basic moves but nothing that was going to interest a crowd of wrestling fans. I was going to have to wing it and hope that my opponent was able to work with me.

Turns out I was carried more than a few times by a few journeyman on the indy scene that I'm still friends with to this day. I came across more than a few guys that I'm willing to admit were far better wrestlers than me, but maybe they didn't have what Ty calls the "total package." Ty told me I had the size, the look, and the athleticism to make it a.k.a. the "total package." Either way some guys that should make it just don't for one reason or another. One thing I'd like to say before I go into detail about the first match of my career is that I wish I was a worker back with Crippler Ray Kingman and those guys, long before the internet existed. I looked at some old tape of myself the other day from back when I first started and man did I look horrible. Just remember this, since I'm sure some of you will read this and go ahead and google this for a laugh, I got much better!

So I pull into Hammond, Louisiana around 3:30pm on I-55 and start looking around for a shopping mall. I drove around for an hour until I saw a cardboard sign scribbled with black sharpie "Wrastlin." The venue was a parking lot outside of an ABANDONED shopping mall. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll be honest, I've wrestled in worst places since and actually it wasn't my only match in the parking lot off of I-55.

My opponent was none other than New York Red.

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I remember the old beat up looking road agent telling me that the South East fans hated Red due the gimmick he portrayed throughout his short tenure with Southern Championship Class Wrestling. "This is your first match eh young lad?," the road agent asked me as I nodded. He looked at Red and said "what do ya think Red, these bastards hate you down here anyways. Let him play the triumphant face?" Red's reply I'll never forget as long as I live. "I'm beyond caring man, if you're paying cash I'll lose to a gay midget with no legs." And with that it was settled. We tried to go through the spots of the match but I was totally lost and Red gave up. He finally just told me "look man, you're huge compared to me" which was completely true since he was a small cruiserweight, "just pick me up a lot and throw me around. The safest place is vertically into the ropes or onto my feet then into the corner. We're making $150 and there might be 30 people here tonight, this ain't prime time TCW."

I laughed at that and thought Red was a pretty funny guy but our personalities and thoughts on work ethic couldn't have been farther apart. I wanted to put on the best matches of my life back then and to be honest I never really lost that inclination throughout my career. Sure there were some where I just went through the motions but most of the time I wanted to give the best show I was able to. Well, let me tell you again, this match against Red was not the best piece of work I've ever done. Consider yourself warned if you are about to google it.

Red didn't make it easy on me and he tried to pin me at one point then let off. I tried a piledriver part way through the match and he just laughed and went with it. I accidentally poked him in the eye trying to do a different move and took that opportunity to try a stunner after 11:55 minutes of bumbling and fumbling. It looked horrible and Red sold it even worse since he was genuinely worried about me poking him in the eye. He lay there and let me get the 3-count on him though. The road agent told me I was a natural and it was a "run-of-the-mill competitive bout, probably two-stars young lad. Not bad for your first one." I ached for three days after that match but felt great. I was still living in my car though so I decided to stay in that parking lot off of I-55 for a couple nights.

From here on out my career spanned hundreds of matches so I'm not going to go into extreme detail with every one of them, only the ones that stick out in my memory. There are some I should probably remember but it's been a long career full of bumps to the head so bare with me.

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

My next match was in Tenessee in a church no less. Because I had to travel Ty was able to get me a couple hundred bucks for the match but I didn't find out who my opponent was until I got there. I arrived at "The Assembly of God" church in Pikeville, Tenessee and start looking for the road agent. I get a call from Ty in the meantime... "Hey man are you at that event in Pikeville?" I reply in kind and he continues "well, I've got some bad news. That's actually one of my events and I'm not going to be there until after show time. I need to ask you a big favor. I'm wondering if you've ever wanted to try your hand at being a booker and a road agent?" he asked as I literally shit a brick right there on a pew bench in a church in Pikeville, Tenessee. "I'll give it a shot I guess man. You're putting me in a terrible spot here. I want double my purse," I told him. "You'll do great. We'll work out the money thing later, the tow truck just showed up gotta go. Make sure to keep the boys happy," he finished. Well, I'd have rathered him kick me right in testicles to be honest. Before long I had 12 indy scene journeyman standing there looking at me for direction... I didn't even know their names, gimmicks, pushes, styles etc. ANYTHING. With some help from my new buddy New York Red we got it sorted out. It was decided that I would face youngster Melvin Otto. I guess I was younger than him though. Call me a jerk but I used my position as interim booker and road agent to chalk myself up another W in the win column. Melvin didn't care and we put on what I thought was a pretty good match.

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I hit him with a stunner for the finisher, after watching the tape against Red where I poked him in the eye and then hit the stunner I decided to adopt that as my trademarked finisher. I dubbed it the "Savage Stunner." Anyways I finished Melvin in 8:52 seconds in what I thought was a decent bout to finish the show. As I'm stepping out of the ring waving at the 23 fans, that showed up for "professional" wrestling, like an idiot and thanking them for coming as they fold up their lawn chairs, Ty appears with that familiar puzzled look on his face.

"You look good in the ring, in terms of the appearance. Your selling is absymal and your technical skills are atrocious though. You need a lot more seasoning before I start making a few calls to the lower tier name promo's," he said. "I've got a couple more shows coming up over the next few months. I think if you come to them and stick this thing out you could be in for a decent career kid," he finished. "Thanks for helping me out tonight I'll tack on an extra $50."

Cheap prick I thought as I headed back to my car. Ty told me the next show was back in Florida at the Rainbow Bar & Grill. I was hoping to go visit my parents for a shower and a good meal before heading to the venue.

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

I arrive at the Rainbow Bar & Grill though this time I wait around for Ty in the parking lot so if he called me wanting to do his job I could just tell him I wasn't there. On the way in he tells me my opponent will be veteran indy wrestler Mad Dog Mortimer.

"Mad Dog is one of the jobbers I hired for this event. Jobbers are important because they can make their opponent look really good. Mad Dog will take the loss and a squash at that if you give him $50 out of your purse," Ty told me as we entered the Rainbow Bar & Grill. "He'll make it look convincing that you are completely out-classing him and he will help teach you how to flow moves together and try some new moves. The choice is yours, I gotta go."

I thought about if for a few minutes and then sought-out Mad Dog. While going through the match with him I told him I'd give him the extra $50 if he would teach me how to sell and perform a powerbomb and a DDT, two of my favorite moves. I think it was a great decision and my confidence took a huge boost after that match. It lasted 5:22 seconds and I finished him with my newly minted Savage Stunner. The crowd boo'd heavily after as they only held up one finger. The crowd of 11 I should mention.

Ty told me he'd call me before the next one since it wasn't for a week or two.

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

It wasn't two days after my last match with Mad Dog and Ty was calling me again. "Hey kid I have an opportunity too good for you to pass up but there's a couple hitches with it," Ty said as I couldn't help but begin to imagine what the "couple of hitches" could be. "Well you're headed to New Jersey and you're headed to the bloodthirsty hotbed of The Camden Elks Lodge #1451," he finished.

The what? I asked. "Lodge #1451 of The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is located in breathtaking Camden, New Jersey. She holds 150 and I heard that place is always packed and the crowd is like a bunch of rabid dogs. It's one of those make-or-break type of deals for you. Your opponent will be this guy from up there I've never heard of. Austin Smooth I think it is? Anyways I booked you a plane for tomorrow night. Good luck."

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At this point this sounds pretty standard for me really. Back in 2014 we had google as well so I googled the heck out of Austin Smooth on my way up to New Jersey and dug up whatever I could find on him. He looked really good and I was heading into his back yard. Ty told me I might have to take the loss since I was from out of the area and going up against their top dog. Smooth lived up to his ring name since he was a very solid grappler and everything he did in the ring seemed to flow together seamlessly like it wasn't planned out beforehand; it just came naturally. It seemed like the worst possible match-up for me as we were total opposites. A quick little lightweight with very good grappling and ground skills versus a strong big heavyweight with good striking skills, no speed, and a non-existent grappling game.

Like Ty mentioned though, if I don't put on the match of my short career the crazy Elk Lodge crowd will probably lynch me though so this is a pretty important match. To be honest it was probably the most memorable match of my whole indy career for many reasons. It was my first time away from home or thereabouts, I was nervous as hell, the crowd heat was unbelievable, was my first match against Smooth, and it was my first time at Lodge #1451.

I showed up at the lodge the next night a few hours before the event. There were already probably 50 fans there waiting for the show to start, getting a jump start on pickling their livers. I had a pint with one of the old lads who asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from Florida and up here to take on Austin Smooth I think he regretted giving me the beer. "I hope you get your arse kicked," he said as he walked away. I met with the road agent who surprisingly told me that Austin and I were going to call the match in the ring. The crowd was filling in now and it was my turn to head to the ring. Austin hadn't come out yet and before I walked down the "ramp," the road agent gave me a mic and told me to "say something good to get things cooking."

I thought about what to say and anything I could come up with was pure shit. As I walked out to the ring the room was quiet but packed with 150 bodies awaiting the main event of the evening. This was my biggest purse of the still-young career thus far at $350 so I figured I had to earn part of it with the microphone. I flipped it on, on my way down the ramp and starting spewing rubbish. "How are we tonight Camden, New Jersey?" and you could hear crickets chirping outside. Then it hit me and it just kept coming "I've got a story for you all tonight. It goes like this. I'm the Savage from the South, Florida to be exact and I'm here for one reason and one reason only. I've come all the way to Camden, New Jersey...Wherever that is? to kick the living snot out of Austin Smooth and prove that you Northerner's are all a bunch of second-rate, panty-waist," I said as malevolently as I possibly could and the crowd went ballistic. I was sprayed with probably 30 different beers. I had been trying to think of a catchphrase on the way up in case I ended up having to rock the mic for a bit at some point in the near future but couldn't come up with anything. Then I remembered what my dad used to say about the guys at his work so I continued: "When you're good, you're good and people talk about you. Well there ain't nobody talking about Austin Smooth and there sure ain't nobody talking about Camden, New Jersey," I finished. Not very good but these crazy Northern fans ate it right up. I have no doubts that the crowd at Lodge #1451 are of the most rabid sort and probably the hottest crowd I've ever wrestled in front of and I loved every minute of it.

Smooth came out moments later, came into the ring and said "What the %^ck man. Now I have to take the loss after that. I can't follow that at all. That's fine we're calling this in here. You're really new so you just follow my lead and I'll take you to the big finish," Smooth told me. He was a great talent and the fact I got the win over him made the crowd go absolute bananas. I was actually kind of worried when I left the Lodge to head home that someone was going to attack me. Either way I made it home intact and with the victory. Hit Smooth with the Savage Stunner at 11:04 and finished it off. Ty called on my way home talking about how he watched the match on the internet. "We need to work on your mic skills but that wasn't bad for an on the spot first attempt and your ring skills are definitely improving. I'd give it two stars and if you let Smooth get in a little more offense it could have been three. It had a few good moments but for the most part it was painfully average and will not linger in the memory," Ty said as he signed off.

Lifeline · November 22, 2015

A week or two later Ty shows up at the little apartment I've managed to rent so I no longer have to live in my car and wants to talk about the future.

"This is the point where you either keep stepping up or you end up like a guy like New York Red, toil away in the indies until you're 38 years old and never made it anywhere," he said with a long dramatic pause and then continued. "You've done well but I've tried to work more of my connections with some other promotions to no end. They want to see fans putting their arses in seats to see you wrestle. That's not going to happen unless we give you lots of exposure. Flood the market with Matt Savage. I think that match up in New Jersey is exactly what we need more of at this point, those people hate your guts but hey any popularity is good. Like you said when you're good people talk about you. Well those folks are talking about you but they've got nothing good to say," he finished with a laugh.

I laughed at that as well. Ty offered me a couple different scenarios heading into February. He wanted to add a more hardcore element to his indy promotion and those type of matches are why I started watching wrestling as a kid. Believe me it wasn't Nemesis vs Eric Tyler by any means but it was fun. We decided I would face Whisky Jack and Melvin Otto back in Tenessee at the "Assembly of God" church and finish the month off with a match against Mercy Michaels who was someone I knew I could learn from at this stage in my career. The matches would all be first blood gimmick matches which didn't bother me at that time.

Up in Pikeville I took a pair of wins against Whisky Jack and Melvin Otto. The match against Otto was a complete wash since I hit him with a DDT after only 6:05 and I think he fumbled the razor blade and got prematurely cut. Oh well, it looked legitimate and I got paid. The match against Whisky Jack was actually pretty fun, we were breaking each other's moves left right and center. He's actually not a bad hand in my opinion and I had fun working with him. The match with Jack was the longest of my short career thus far at 12:34 long and finished via DDT once again.

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The final match of the month was against Mercy Michaels back at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in Florida. Michaels I figured was another guy I could learn a thing or two from, similar to Mad Dog. The match was great as I used almost every move in my modest arsenal at the time. I had a chance to practice some DDTs, Piledrivers and Powerbombs which was great. I even hit two Savage Stunners on him before he was busted open by a DDT at 12:41. The match was described as a "perfectly acceptable but perfectly dull bout that will soon be forgotten **." To top off another successful month I celebrated my 23rd birthday and Ty game me an extra $200 for beating the tar out of Michaels (Secondary objective "Noggin' Knocker" take his head to red).

OOC: In case anyone is following this or is interested; these are my base atty's and stats and as of now I have 930 free xp

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After two really good first months Ty knew he had to bump things up a notch and try to get me over a little bit. That meant wrestling in front of bigger crowds and against more popular guys.

Storyline Chosen: Rise to the Occasion.

Lifeline · November 24, 2015

At 3am on Monday, Ty called me "Hey Kid I think I've got some good news for you. There's a big indy event going on in Philadelphia this weekend at the Troc..." He blabbed

"The what?" I asked

"You've never heard of the Trocadero? It's a great indy venue with a crazy fan base," Ty continued.

"So another version of Lodge 1451? Oh great. I considered myself lucky to get the hell out of there," I said sarcastically.

"You'll like working at the Troc it's basically a dedicated wrestling venue and you'll be facing a bit stiffer competition up there. This isn't your standard indy card man. There will be big names there as far as indy guys go. You'll be facing three guys there over the course of the weekend and it's a really good way for you to build some popularity in a hotbed wrestling community," Ty explained frantically. "I feel like I'm talking you into this one man, though I don't really think I should have to. A good showing here could get you a contract with a name promotion. Anyways I booked you a ticket to Philly, do us proud up there. Try to come up with a new catchphrase though in case you start wielding the mic around again!" He finished and hung up the phone.

I'd never heard of this Trocadero so I googled it on my phone. Wikipedia stated "Opened in 1870, The Trocadero in Center City, Philadelphia is the greatest venue in the history of mankind. A staple of the 1980s punk scene, The Troc has been a home for acts ranging from opera to Vaudville and Burlesque, and now wrestling."

Capacity: 250

Sounded pretty legit. I had no idea who I was facing other than Ty told me the bar would be raised a bit at this one. I had high hopes for this event since most of the rag-tag, back yard indy cards I'd been on up to this point were a little disheartening. I wasn't disappointed when I arrived in Philadelphia. Philly Indy Invitational at the Trocadero was everything I imagined and more. As a budding professional it was a great and rewarding experience; something like what I expected the independent scene to be like. A 3-day event that featured almost every indy wrestler from the Eastern United States, live entertainment, and lots of road agents representing promotions from across the continent.

New York Red was invited too and I caught up with him the night I got there. We checked out a couple bands at the Troc and Red explained to me how this all came to be. "This isn't my first time at the indy invitational, the whole point of this thing is for the name promotions to scout for potential talent. A good showing just might get a guy a shot," Red told me. "I had my shot fifteen years ago. It didn't last long but that's what this sport is like. I just love it too much to give up on it," he told me as we went our separate ways that night.

Scouts. Shit, that information got me all nervous and I hadn't thought of a new catchphrase like Ty told me to. What if they gave me a mic and wanted me to cut a promo, what if an SE fed was looking for a young guy who was good in the ring and could talk for himself? f#$@k. I racked my brain all night and got little to no sleep. Guess I'll have to wing it I thought; a staple behavior throughout my career.

I showed up for the morning meeting and met with the road agent, Curt O'Malley. "You're going in with Crash Lewis today. He's a good hand and will bring you through. You are to win, put on a good show. You're on in 3 hours," he said and motioned for the next worker to approach him. I'd never heard of Crash Lewis before. I met up with him a little while later to go over the match and found him to be a really great guy. He'd spent the majority of his 23 years in the ring as a jobber, aside from a short stint with Shane Sneer's Southern Championship Class Wrestling. Today he would be a jobber as normal.

After that bout with Lewis I knew what Ty was talking about. The Troc was the ultimate small wrestling venue. It felt like the crowd was in the ring with you, you could smell the breath of everyone in the first row and if you threw a guy out of the ring they'd end up amidst the crowd. Every cheer and every jeer was heard loud and clear, the smell of sweat and stale beer filled the air. It honestly felt like main event SWF for indy workers. A second to none atmosphere to say the least.

Following the win over Lewis I was ushered into the staging area with the rest of the workers who had been granted matches the following day. "Ok, Savage? You're having a go with Turner. Take some time tonight and work through the spots. We'll determine outcomes in a few hours. Put some thought into this shit," O'Malley said as he left the room.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/Ricky%20Turner_zpsj3b3ow5o.jpg

Ricky Turner? That was pretty sweet I thought. He was basically the first legit guy I'd faced to this point in my short career. He worked for MAW until Sam Keith took over and was a former tag champion with Findlay O'Farraday. MAW may no be SWF or TCW but being trained by Rip Chord is about as legit as they come; even today. I talked to Ricky who had been in the room and we came to a pretty cool agreement that we'd call the spots in the ring and at a certain time we'd determine based on the crowd reaction who would take the victory. Everything seemed to be working in my favor on this weekend as the match went flawlessly and when it came time for the big finish the crowd was heavily on my side. I went with it and we ended up with a two-star match out of it. Ricky was happy and I was elated.

One of the show hands ran me out a mic while I waved at the crowd in the ring. F@#k I thought. This could be a deal breaker right here. I grabbed the mic and breathed heavily into it. "I can't hear you!" I yelled as the crowd answered in kind with an equal mix of cheer and jeer at some ridiculous decibel for only 250 strong. I acted as if the volume hurt my ears. Holding my head and staggering around the ring I spoke again "I hear you ALL now. Loud and Clear!" Cupping my ear and pacing the ring in long strides I brought the mic up once more, "Do you want more Savagery?" and they chanted "Y...E...S" I stopped the pace and cocked my head back. "Loud and Clear," I yelled back. Right as they erupted again, none other than Tank Bradley waded through the crowd and into the ring. He over-accentuated his breech of the ropes and I noticed he had a mic in his hand. I was kind of awe-struck at that moment since I used to watch Tank Bradley and Alex Braun during the heyday of DAVE and the early days of PSW. I'd never really thought I'd ever have this type of opportunity. The only thing that was going through my head was 'don't screw this up now.' Tank walked by me as I was standing in the ring looking like an idiot just staring at him. "Good job kid," he said under his breath as he turned his mic on. As soon as Tank started to talk, the crowd began to boo. He turn his back to me so I looked around the crowd and pointed at him as if I was going to take him out from behind. They all jumped out of their seats as if they wanted to attack Tank Bradley themselves. I took that cue and came up behind him "sorry about this," I said as I threw him through the ropes into the audience. He smiled as I saw him stand up. He gave me a small nod and got to a small clearing near the ramp and spoke into the mic "Tomorrow. You and me punk. We'll see just how savage you are." I cocked my head back and said "Loud and Clear!" Sounding a defiant and confident as I possibly could. The crowd popped again; it was on and it was hot.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/Tank%20Bradley_zpsgdth197e.jpg

O'Malley approached me that night while I was sipping on a beer and watching one of the live bands. He told me I was one of the better prospects he'd seen this year. Along with Austin Smooth and a couple others he figured I'd made myself look good enough to get hooked up with a contract from one of the lower-level name promotions. "As long as you don't botch tomorrow's match," he said with a laugh. "You know you'll be the main event tomorrow," he added as he held his beer up, took a sizeable gulp and walked away.

I didn't know what to do with myself so I called Ty. He just laughed and laughed. "I watched your mic work on youtube," he laughed. "You might be getting better with that tricky device," he said, "Still need some work though." We talked a bit about the match with Tank and he spent most of the time trying to calm me down. I knew with a good performance against Tank I'd be setting myself up for success. This was make or break if it ever existed. After a short promo we entered the ring separately and Tank was amped up running around the ring like he couldn't wait to make me pay for throwing him out of the ring the night before. The match was short (9:59) but intense and we really did give it our best. At 36 years old, toiling away on the indy scene, Tank was well past his prime but it was a once in a lifetime chance for me to face one of the guys I used to idolize as a kid. He knew why he was there that weekend and that he had, had his chance years ago. His job was to put over as many of the younger guys as he could. Our match was dubbed one of the best of the weekend and was considered "a good match, it was very competitive but perhaps the wrestlers could have kicked it up another gear or two. *** it is." I finished tank with a savage stunner and got the 3-star match; the best of my young career.

After a great weekend in Philadelphia, I headed home to Florida. As soon as my feet hit the ground back in Miami, Ty called me with some really good news. I had received contract offers from MAW, RIPW, IPW, and GSW, all PPA's for nine months. After a short debate I had to sign with Invincible Pro Wrestling for a couple of reasons. My goal at this point in my career was to work for a company like DAVE. PSW and WEXXV were out of reach for me at the time and IPW was run by DAVE alumnus Nemesis, focused on a hardcore product, and seemed to be a fairly stable company. If Rip Chord was still with MAW I probably would have signed there but Sam Keith was a big question mark for me.

Storyline: IPW A Beginning...

Lifeline · November 24, 2015

OOC: I had the next post/storyline written though I carelessly wrote it on the forum in firefox and it crashed >.> Re-writing now in word but there won't be anymore updates today unfortunately. Some maybe a little more interesting stuff coming up......

Lifeline · November 25, 2015

<div style="text-align:center;">IPW A Beginning...</div> <div style="text-align:center;">http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/IPW_zpss2vnucfx.jpghttp://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/Nemisis_ager_zpsnfofa3xb.jpg</div> OOC: I'm going to change a few things for formatting purposes from now on. Also, I don't know if I said anything about it before but Matt Savage is a Big Heavyweight, Psychopath style. I was nervous and excited when I talked to Nemesis about signing with IPW. Ty filled me in on the whole GSW/IPW thing when I signed the PPA contract and more about what their product is and how they typically book. Meeting Nemesis was the most exciting part about my first month with IPW. I arrived at the IPW office and it wasn't how you would imagine it might be. Back then, before I knew better, I would expect an office building with tons of staff running around like busy beavers. However, I was in for an eye-opener when I arrived at a strip-mall in Highland Park, Los Angeles. A modest sign out front read "Invincible Pro Wrestling" though the building looked like it was once a Dollar Store of some kind. Once inside there was an empty receptionists desk that showed obvious signs that there was no receptionist. Beyond that was a hallway with two offices. One door read "John Campbell" while the other read "Creative." I walked down the narrow hallway and knocked on Nemesis' door... <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="40500" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>JC: Enter *He stands up after a momentary pause as he hangs up his phone. He extends his arm for a handshake* JC: John Campbell, nice to meet you. MS: Matt Savage. I'm really excited about this opportunity. JC: Great. We're glad to have you here. I heard those pieces of shit over at GSW offered you a contract as well. You did the right thing by signing with us. I watched the footage from the Indy Invitational in Philly last weekend and couldn't resist. Myself and the creative team think you'll fit in perfectly with our current roster and hardcore product. MS: I'm looking forward to working with you. When can I start? JC: We're booking for our next show sometime later in the week. The creative team assembles usually on Thursdays and we have weekly shows on Sunday nights. I talked with the guys and we're going to be slowly introducing you to our fans. If your current package works well we'll keep at it, if the fans don't respond well we might have to re-package you with potentially a whole new gimmick and look. Either way you'll be on the show this sunday and we'll continue the introductory storyline as required. Typically they last about four matches. At that point we can get a feel for how the fans are responding to you and we have a better idea on how to book you moving forward. I can't guarantee anything but from what I've seen we're hoping you'll have a bright future here at IPW. MS: Sounds great. </div></blockquote> I was nervous as hell around Nemesis and I think he picked that up based on the amount of talking I did. After a few more awkward minutes he told me to get settled in and call him later in the week for more details.The four-match "IPW: A Beginning..." Storyline featured matches against Deadly Deadshot, Ash Barnaby, T-Bone Bright, and Stanley Axis. The match against Axis was a complete flop but the rest were satisfactory. T-Bone was the first guy I've faced that could match my strength and is an all-around good worker. The match was very competitive and I was hoping to one day form a tag team with him. http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/T-Bone%20Bright_zpsn2ayxyhz.jpg Overall the month of April was exciting since I was working for my first promotion but it featured little in the way of entertainment and dramatics.

Lifeline · November 25, 2015

<div style="text-align:center;">Monster Mania</div> After the final match of my first storyline with IPW, John Campbell called me for a meeting the following week. <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="40500" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>JC: Ok Matt, we just wanted to fill you in on what we've come up with moving forward. Overall you did a decent job last month. Take it from me, it can be hard to get clicking in a new place, with a new roster, in a new product. We're willing to give you some leeway here since we see a lot of potential. The fans seemed to respond well to your current package so we won't be changing anything. The menacing big-body thing works for you and it's fairly simple for both you to use and us to book. This coming month we're going to book you in a monster storyline. You'll be facing Deadly Deadshot, Ash Barnaby, and one of our brightest prospects in Babau. If you haven't noticed those three are also the smallest guys on our roster. We want you to look big and act even bigger. It is our opinion that this storyline offers the most effective use of your abilities in terms of exposure to the fans. </div></blockquote> http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/Mattd_album/Babau_zpsmzp4w4rm.jpg Much like April, May featured three squash matches against much smaller opponents. Nothing too crazy although Babau took me to term for the longest match at this point in my career, just over 13 minutes long (13:02) for a two-star match. Although April and May proved to be rather pedestrian, June would prove to be one of the most exciting of my first year. Stay tuned. To add something to this diary I have decided to let anyone following this (if there are any followers) to choose the July storyline for Matt Savage. The options are as follows: (IPW) Build-Up Feud Three build-up matches followed by the deciding final match (opponent: Ash Barnaby) (IPW) Competitive Edge Step up and face four midcarders in singles matches. Higher XP payout. (IPW) Gut Check Time Face three lower level opponents and a final against a midcarder. Popularity will Rise. (IPW) Keeping Busy Face four lower level opponent in singles bouts. I'll give it a few days and then proceed. Thanks to anyone who decides to post.

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My Life on the Cutting Edge of a Squared Circle: Matt Savage

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