The Biography of Brad Savage

[Race Baj]

[IMG]http://www.frozenzero.net/Dynasty/Brad.jpg[/IMG] I wasn’t what they wanted…Eisen was looking for the next generic big guy to push. The next Remo or Runaway Train. He wanted the stereotype I was not the stereotype. I was big but I moved well and had more of a Brawling then entertaining style. I had been working in MAW for the last two years where I flurished. Rip Chord liked me, I worked for peanuts of course but I liked Rip and knew he wasn’t stiffing me. I had a lot of fighting training, but much less wrestling training. That’s not to say I was a MMA veteran. The fights just weren’t my style, but I hung around MMA fighters and I learned various forms of martial arts. When I moved into wrestling I would dance the ring like a boxer, pulling punches and throwing in the occasional kicks. I was a big guy so I could toss people around to but I never seemed to do it. I would Occasionally finish matches with a Scoop Slam Side Brainbuster Driver that I called the Savage Drop and it seemed more devastating due to me hardly ever using drops or slams. Mostly however I would brawl flat out with my opponent. It was vicious sometimes but it was fun. I was easy to work with because I knew what I was doing. The guys in Mid Atlantic Wrestling were my friends and they loved me. If they were asked to put me over, they were going to do it damnit. Not because they had to but because they wanted to. The only person I had trouble with was Al Coleman. Coleman is a good guy definitely but he would have to job to me. It didn’t matter that I had been there a few months longer then him, when we had our feud in the summer of 2005 he wound up putting me over and it bugged him. Other then that things were good. When I turned heel in September of the same year Rip Chord came out of retirement for a match that saw me beat this Veteran to what look like an inch of his life. He was busted open and blood was pouring from his head. The match was heartfelt because the crowd had this hero who was bullied into getting in the ring and was being buried in front of them. Just then Antonio, Chords real life and on screen Protégé got on the mic and started a chant. The crowd joined with him screaming at the top of their lungs of their hero. Chrod got to his feet, and with a very Sam Strong vibe, he regained his energy and fought back. Ultimately giving me the Rip Chord DDT which I sold with every ounce of my soul. He pinned me to win the match and celebrated in Stanley Hall in front of a packed crowd. This match reminded the crowd how much they loved Chord, but it also started gaining me a real cult following. My part in the shows was diminished because other workers were in storylines but I usually was fighting once a month (especially once we switched to bi-monthly shows.) Despite often opening the shows I would get huge reactions. In the first show of 2006 I opened with a match against Eddie Howard. Howard has never awed me, nor the crowds. But we decided ahead of time to have a very brawling style match. We went out there and for 15 minutes we beat the living **** out each other, just fist to fist. Throughout the whole arena the two of us fought and the crowd loved it. We finished this intense match, the kind that had never been seen before and the crowd gave us a standing ovation. When Howard and I got to the back Chord chewed us out for turning what he planned for to be a 3 minute squash into a 15 minute epic. When he was done he told us Stanley Hall would be giving him **** for going late but in the end it wouldn’t matter as they provided them great business in the past. Then told us it was one hell of a match and he was riveted. Howard later told me it was the greatest match of his life and it ranks pretty high on my list. But then it happened, in June of 2006, after being with Maw for almost two years I got a call from a talent agent for SWF. They wanted me to work a dark match as an Audition. They had me face Andre Jones. I liked the guy’ style and had seen him wrestle before. And I know our styles didn’t meld perfectly but I could do it. They signed me up for a show in the MAW territory, thankfully not on the same night that MAW was running their June show. I threw up several times as I waited in the locker room. The only other person there was Knuckles who was a really nice guy and told me most people have the same reaction. The clock was counting down when Chief Two Eagles approached me. At the last minute Keith changed the booking and I was to win today. I was floored as I had thought out how to do the match. Andre and I had agreed that I would attempt to hit my primary finisher the Savage Slam (speared the opponent when he was against the turnbuckle) Andre would jump to the top rope and I would smash my shoulder, and he would hit a shooting star neck breaker which was something he was working on to impress the higher ups in the company. I quickly found Andre and we went over what would happen, and then we went out for the match. The crowd was bored when we got there but we put on a good match. Our styles were different but we managed well. I would be on the brutal attack for a short time, and then Andre would bounce back with some speedy high flying moves that would toss me around a bit. Our 8 minute match went back and forth. But I let Andre have a lot more offense that was originally planned since he would not longer be winning. The guy had paid his dues at the bottom for so long, I really wanted him to impress them and to move up. Our ending went very much the same as before but instead of the shooting star neck breaker he went for a cross body but I caught Andre and through what I think is only a miracle I managed to move him around to hit the Savage Drop. I pinned him and all in all I thought it was a good match. I knew I wasn’t SWF’s style so I figured I wouldn’t be given a contract, but I got a call from Sam Keith himself. He told me he liked what he saw and was willing to give me a written. I almost died of excitement as it was happening. I told him right away how much I wanted to work for them and he made me an appointment. We wrote up the papers later that week and I was in. Just one thing was left, leave MAW. My friends were all here and I loved it. I didn’t want to leave, but SWF wouldn’t let me work both venues. Rip Chord understood which in a way made it harder I think. If he got mad, screamed, shouted, cursed me out for abandoning the place I could leave with a sense of self entitlement. That he had no write to be angry. Instead I was hurting his promotion and I knew it, he knew it, and he still understood. For my last show we decided that since I was still a heel I would go out like a heel. I had a good match that saw me beat Stephen Parker. Afterwards I announced triumphantly that I was the best thing to ever leave MAW. That I would be going to where the real wrestlers work, the SWF. And just like that the MAW locker room came out, marched down to the ring and brawled with me. Then as the crowd watched they threw my ass out the fire escape. The crowd cheered as their heroes had vanquished me. They knew where I was now and I left putting MAW over. I of course went backstage after the show and had a moving goodbye with my friends. Rip Chord wished me good luck and that was it. From this point on, I was a SWF roster member.

[Race Baj]

My first day was very interesting. I was asked to attend the Supreme TV taping, although I would not be taking part in it. So I sat backstage watching on the monitors. No one really talked to me and I wasn’t in a big social mood. It wasn’t like MAW it wasn’t my family. I walked in there first day and had a warm reception. Rip Chord himself had shaken my hand on my first day, I had the feeling I would never see Richard Eisen in my entire life. I was watching an amusing angle that saw Jack Bruce trying to get the underwater Union to back him as a part of his new band. Seeing them out there wailing badly on instruments and dancing around on stage amused me greatly and provided some comfort since I had no idea why they wanted me there. “You’re the new guy, Brad Savage right?” I looked up to see Angry Gilmore looking at me… with a big smile on his face. Beside him stood Jessie looking just as welcoming. “The angle was Bruce’s idea, the Underwater Union have nothing to do as of late.” “Oh yeah its great.” I think I mumbled. “Nervous are ya kid?” Usually I hated being referred to in something condescending like that but I was in no place to complain about anything, I was just scared. He asked me where I was from, it turned out we were both born fairly close to each other in Ontario. He mentioned he saw me work and was excited to see what I could do with some of the workers here. It was small talk, I have no idea if he meant any of it, but it was a nice thing to do for the new kid, I instantly liked Gilmore a lot. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he and Jessie made a cute couple I had to say, but he left me with one piece of advice, I didn’t pay enough attention to it as I should have because in the end it would have saved me a lot of headaches in the future. “The higher you are on the card, the more popular with fans, the more the management cares about you here. Keep quiet while you’re starting here and don’t give Keith or the Eisens any trouble.” I mumbled a thank you, still very nervous and Gilmore told me he had to get ready for his own appearance today. He wrestled Enforcer Roberts in a match I really enjoyed seeing. The show finished with a main event that saw Eric Eisen get beaten by Runaway Train in a match that I was bored quickly by. I’ve never liked Runaway. A writer approached me as I was packing up my things. Apparently they wanted me to work a series of four consecutive dark matches against Big Smack Scott. Over the next four Supreme TV tapings. They wanted to see what I could do, get a good look at me and decide what to do with me. Scott wasn’t doing anything at the time so he got the job of breaking in the new kid. The writer handed me a schedule for the next few weeks. I nodded and told him I would be glad to do it and try to put on some good matches. “Whatever man, I don’t even watch the matches, I’m doing this until I can get a job writing for Stephie and Amber.” The writer left and I got my stuff and I was about to leave when Big Smack Scott himself marched in, looking pissed off. I started to introduce myself when he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. “Listen you piece of SH-- I worked damn hard to get his job and I am not a baby sitter. Its not my job to help you learn the ropes or give you something to do. When you work our matches you better make me look damn good or you’ll F---ing regret it!” Scott turned around without waiting for an answer and I let out a sigh. I remembered talking to Frankie Perez when he had a 6 month stretch with MAW and he had mentioned he worked a few dates with Perez who was a terrible wrestler and the most unsafe Perez had dealt with. I had to work four dates with this dangerous worker who was pissed off to have me fight him. I had left my home at MAW and I wasn’t sure I would live through the month.