Messiah Interview

[Guest ShooterJay]

From EPICprowrestling.com, but I ripped it from the czwfans.com message board:

 

 

MESSIAH INTERVIEW part 1

By Gary Yap

 

Gary Yap: So many questions. How are you doing? How’s the hand? How’re you coping? How’s the rehabilitation coming along?

 

Messiah (long pause): Hmmm. Well, everything’s fine. I’m not gonna downplay it and say that my hand doesn’t hurt, y’know? It hurts. I mean, c’mon, I don’t have my thumb anymore. It’s definitely still sensitive.

 

GY: How’d it feel when you got back into the ring at CZW?

 

M: I was really, really lit that night when I did it (laughs). It was still sensitive, though. I think it always will be. Know what’s funny? Now I have friends who suddenly have friends who’re missing digits. They tell me that after a while, their “stump” heals enough so that when they hit somebody with it, it just kills who they’re hitting. Hopefully, I’ll get to a point where I can just jab this into somebody’s throat and use it as a lethal weapon. Maybe I’ll bring back the ol’ Meng “spike” gimmick (laughs). It’s hard to believe it only happened two months ago. The hardest part for me is still just waking up because when I stretch out, the first thing I see is my hand. I’m adapting. I don’t know if you saw but at the EPIC show when I was in the ring, I was just trying to feel it out. Even when grabbing a chair. It definitely feels weird. There’s definitely a discomfort there. Slowly but surely, I think everything should work out.

 

GY: What did you think of the “America’s Most Wanted” piece? It definitely seemed to divide people up. Some people seemed to think it was a good piece. Others, like New Jack, thought it was a piece of crap. Your thoughts?

 

M: Well, first of all let me just say that my Grandmother said that I was very handsome. Second, I can see both sides of the story, y’know? Personally, I completely and totally understand where New Jack is coming from. Even I was a little bit pissed off when they said that we ALLEGEDLY use real thumbtacks, or that we ALLEGEDLY use real light tubes, or that we ALLEGEDLY bleed real blood. That was just bull crap. Hell, you know this…especially when they show footage of that guy narrating it from this…whatever it was…school…

 

GY (interrupting): Yeah, I know. That school shit that had nothing to do with us.

 

M: Exactly. I mean, WHO WAS THAT GUY? He wasn’t doing the interview with me or you. I mean, no disrespect to the guys who were wrestling and all, but who were they?

 

GY: Right.

 

M: Like I said, I get where New Jack is coming from. I believe it was very much a piece to get ratings. Like the whole bit with my penis getting cut off. Dude, I never said that! It was kind of like a trick to get me to say that. And then they show me pulling on my belt? Dude, they TOTALLY edited that to make it seem like I said they were trying to cut my penis off. I mean, it was complete bullshit. I hope it does its job, though. I really do. At least it got the composite sketches up there. I would have liked to have seen the New Jack interview that he did. But look, they interviewed you for how long and all they showed was 3 seconds of you.

 

GY: That’s because, for whatever it’s worth, I’m not considered as good-looking as you are.

 

M: Really? Actually, you DID have the whole beard thing going on, looking like the guy on “Short Circuit 2” that created Johnny 5 (laughs). But I hope the piece just does its job, especially because I really don’t go on the message boards at all but the things I’ve heard are just the funniest things. I think “America’s Most Wanted” pretty much bluntly said who did it, or at least where the investigation’s going.

 

GY: I understand where they’re coming from, though, because they couldn’t legally come out and say who did it.

 

M: Right.

 

GY: I know you were even frustrated at one point because they even said you had to CLAIM that you had an affair with somebody, because it couldn’t be PROVEN.

 

M: Whatever. As far as I’m concerned, it’s done. It’s over with. I’m living my life and that’s it. I know I’ve been freaking out a lot of people with the way I’ve been acting because I do the occasional thumb joke and still try to have a very good attitude. But there are two ways you can handle this. One, let it consume you and get you down OR you just move on, go on with your life, and live day to day. I think I’ve done a pretty good job but, like I told you before, I’m sure there’s going to come a day where I just completely snap and wind up crying in a closet for a day. I’ve talked to the Detective and they’re doing pretty well. Sometimes I just feel like it’s going nowhere and that’s just the way I am. You gotta remember, it’s not like TV where you find the guy in an hour. This takes time. Right now, they’re gathering their evidence and they have a lot of it.

 

GY: Yeah, they do.

 

M: When they nail these guys, they really wanna nail ‘em. I have complete and total confidence in Detective Lewandowski and the department. I take satisfaction in knowing that the people who are behind this are sitting pretty, thinking everything’s fine.

 

GY: Do you think they’re really sitting pretty? I’d be pretty freaked out if my picture were plastered all across the country.

 

M: No, I think they’re sitting pretty. I think it’s human nature to first get paranoid and freak out. Then, when nothing happens, it’s like, “Oh…okay, nothing happened. Everything’s fine.” It’s like that scenario of “God, please let me get through this and I’ll never do it again” only to have time go by and do the same fucking thing next weekend, y’know? I think it’s that scenario, with this. My only real concern is that I want these people to get caught because I don’t want these people to think that they can just do this to anybody WITHOUT getting caught! That’s why I want it to get solved.

 

GY: What about CZW? You’ve been back twice since this has happened. First time, you were in the “Tournament of Death”. The second time, at “Ultraviolent Freedom of Expression”, you made quite the little speech (laughs). Any (pause) regrets?

 

M (laughing): Any regrets?

 

GY: Look, man, the speech you made was pretty powerful. It seems as though every time you get a microphone in your hand, you get very dangerous!

 

M: When I went out there to do the “Tournament of Death”, I called Zandig and said I really want to be there. He said, “Are you sure?” I said, “Definitely. I want to go out there and be a part of this.” He said if I wanted to then we would do it. He came up with the whole thing of me getting into the tournament. You know my feelings on the whole Death Match stuff. I don’t enjoy doing it but I’m not gonna bitch and moan about it, either. Dude, I’m gonna go out there and bust my ass and give them 120% and not just get hit with this or that. I want to make a good story out of it. When I got out there and got to work with Mondo again, I mean c’mon. You can’t really go wrong with a guy like Mondo. Don’t get me wrong cause you might get the occasional chair thrown at you when you’re not expecting it (laughs) but that’s Mondo. I think he and I did well. I really wanted to prove a point, though, that I’m not going to be stopped from doing whatever I want to do. I think it was also a nice little message to the people who were responsible for my thumb, like a great big “Fuck you, I’m still going to go out there and do what want.” Homeless Jimmy was telling me about some dude who wrestles with an orthopedic leg (laughter) and shit. And here I am with no thumb? Dude, if he could do that…what am I gonna bitch about? But when I ran out there, the place just exploded. It was the greatest feeling in the world. It was the greatest feeling just to see those guys again. I mean I’ve never been in a locker room like that before. I really don’t think there’s a locker room like that anywhere else, either. I think that EPIC will get there but you still have a lot of guys who’re going here and there. EPIC’s still the baby promotion. It’s definitely a family thing over there, though.

 

GY: Speaking of the locker room, you say that the CZW locker room is really, really tight but it’s become very apparent that a lot of the talent in that locker room is WANTED by other promotions. How do you feel about the various talent raids going on?

 

M: Dude, it’s Indy wrestling. For a promotion to feel that they’re above Indy wrestling, it’s just idiotic. My former employer would always be saying, “We’re not an Indy! We’re not an Indy!” and I was like, “We’re a friggin’ INDY! There are Indys out there that wrestle every single week, sometimes two times a week, and we’re wrestling every two months? WE’RE AN INDY! We might be an above-average Indy but we’re still an Indy!” and as far as the talent raids go, you’re always gonna have that. It’s just wrestling. No one’s under contract and basically what it always comes down to is loyalty; where you feel loyal. CZW is definitely one of those places for me. Jon’s not the kind of guy who says, “You’re taking the weed-whacker tonight.” That was all Mondo. In CZW, nobody makes you do anything you don’t want to do. I’m not going to do anything I don’t want to do. I do it because I want to do it. I mean just look at the roster. You got the Backseats, Adam Flash, Danny Rose, Justice Pain, Wifebeater, Nick Gage, Nate Hatred, the New School, Mdog 20, Josh Prohibition, Nick Burke I feel is really underrated, Ty Street, the list goes on and on. Everybody in that locker room is somebody who, if you were to give the ball to, would friggin’ run with it. And the majority of those guys are doing it. It was very overwhelming when I made that speech in CZW. When I got there, Jon had already had the card set. A buddy of mine did me a favor to get me there. Oh, before I forget – Detroit Lions rock! There. So I show up and Jon says to just do a run-in on the Main Event. I was bummed cause I wanted to work. In retrospect, it was probably good that I didn’t work but when I went out there he said to go ahead and close out the show with a promo because he thought the fans would like it. And you know what? I NEVER meant to just go off like that! I seriously didn’t. I ran out there. I saw the fans. I heard the “welcome back” chants and everything. I just got overwhelmed and I just went off. Wrestlers love to feed off the crowd and if the crowd is hot, there’s nothing else like it. There is NO crowd hotter than a CZW crowd! Words can’t describe it. I never initially meant to say those things. It wasn’t like it was scripted out or anything. I just WENT OFF! When Justice Pain ran into the ring, I thought it was to tell me that Jon wanted me off the mic. I just looked at him and he just gave me a hug. Then, when I said that all the boys have got my back, all the guys wound up coming into the ring. It was very much like EPIC, when all the boys came into the ring. It was very overwhelming just to have that kind of support behind me, y’know? In that locker room, everybody watches each other’s back. No one’s there to get over on anybody or get over on the company. No one is the STAR. Everyone is there for the company. That’s what makes a good wrestling company. You NEED to have everyone there for the company and not there to just move on to bigger and better things, which everybody wants to. But when it comes down to it, you’re only as good as the guy you wrestle. That’s what makes CZW so special. There’s no other company like it.

 

GY: This might be a touchy question, but do you have any comments or thoughts about the current situation hanging over that building, Viking Hall?

 

M: In my opinion, it’s just idiotic for a company to assume that they’re taking over a building, as if they have the God-given right to go in there and do it. The one thing I will say about my former employer is that’s where my name got out and I will always thank my former employer for that. It pisses me off when I hear about how my former employer “made” me. It was my ABILITY that made me! THAT’S what it was. Not the name. They felt as though putting not one, but BOTH, belts on me gave the company credibility. I was the guy who, when people would say that my former company was nothing more than a bunch of washed-up backyarders, was shoved in peoples’ faces as an example of someone who could WORK. There were certain guys who they could throw in people’s faces: myself and (pause) Kaos. That’s it. Nobody else. As of right now, I wish I was never a part of that company. I wish I was never their Champ, their Death Match Champ, and I’m ashamed to have ever been a part of it. Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword. If it wasn’t for that company, I wouldn’t be known. You walk into a Suncoast video and who’s on the cover of their videos? Me. But you know what? My former boss always wanted to make it as if I was never a part of that company. You want to erase me from that ENTIRE company’s history? DO IT! I’m not gonna be missed by any one of their fans, those blind marks who just…(pause)…God bless ‘em. Just do it already. You want to be a sheep, marks? Go ahead. As far as the CZW Arena, if they want to buy it so bad, go ahead! Will that make them a better wrestling company? Never. It’s all a big ego check and they haven’t even earned the right to run in that building. There’s guys there who HAVE wrestled there before who’ve made that building famous and you can’t take anything away from that. But a hostile takeover? Respect - we don’t earn it, we take it? It’s all just fear and sometimes there are some folks who can just see and smell their way right through it. And when they do, they’re not scared anymore. And when that happens, you have NOTHING! As long as you have respect, I may hate your guts, but I’ll always respect you. I don’t respect them at all. I’m all about fighting your own battles and in this day and age, that seems to be a thing of the past. What ever happened to the days where you just took care of your own shit? I’ve never understood that.

 

GY: Another possible touchy question. Have any of your former co-workers contacted you or tried to call you at all?

 

M: No. One of them even responded with an, “Oh…that sucks.” After this happened, there were a couple of people who I would hang out with. Since this has happened, though, I don’t want to have anything to do with that company or any of them. The two guys who have asked me how I’ve been have been Kaos and Chris Hammrick. Those guys are two nice guys but I told Hammrick that I really don’t want to have anything to do with anyone associated with that company. “You can trust me,” he said. “Know something? I can’t. I just can’t,” I told him. I wish everybody in that company the best. Just go do your thing. That’s my whole thing regarding them. Go do your thing. The worst is that what happened to me happened in, of all places, the place where I should’ve felt the safest…my home. What a lot of people don’t understand is that the friends that I have fall into two categories: my childhood friends and my wrestling friends. My childhood friends all went snowboarding and I went to wrestling school. They only went to wrestling shows to see me and support me. When everything happened, I was living with my childhood friends; a person that I knew for ten years. When everything happened, my childhood friends visited me in the hospital. Since that time, however, I have not seen, nor spoken, to any one of them. None of them want to have anything to do with me. What pisses me off more than the thumb, is that I have friends don’t want to have anything to do with me because they don’t understand the situation. All they know is that two guys came into my house, beat the shit outta me, and took my thumb. They’re scared and, you know what? I don’t blame them. I don’t blame anyone for never wanting to be around me. The thumb is almost secondary to the fact that people that I loved or whom I considered friends…I’ve lost. That’s what sucks, that’s what pisses me off, and that’s what keeps me up at night.

 

GY: I’m gonna throw you a tough one here. How would you respond to someone who said that, in a weird way, you DESERVED what happened to you for the way you were running our mouth?

 

M (long pause): First of all, I’d flip ‘em off. Second, it’s the nature of the fucking business! It really is. Unlike most people, I’m a person that lets it all fly! I’m not a guy who talks shit behind other people’s backs. If I have a problem with you, I will go to you and tell you. I mean…if someone actually thinks I deserved this (long pause), then fine. Whatever. Then I fucking deserved it. I’m not here to…Dude, I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for me. To those people, get a fucking clue. The way I was running my mouth? EVERYBODY runs their mouth in this business! I kept it real and if I had a problem, I said what it was!

 

GY: Okay. Speaking of locker rooms, it’s no secret that after you had your match with Nick Mondo at “Pain & Suffering”, there were certain people within the EPIC locker room that took umbrage to the fact that the match between the two of you, a Death Match, was not only occurring at an EPIC show, but also MAIN-EVENTING an EPIC show. One of those people was Spanky and that match, along with our connection to CZW, was definitely the catalyst to him leaving the company and not wanting to perform at your benefit show in August. His words to me were that he didn’t want to be associated with what he calls “garbage wrestling”. Many may not know this but before your attack, I was actually negotiating with him to face you in a match on our August show before it became a benefit show. It was at that time that I found out about his general dissatisfaction with the company and his subsequent quitting. What are your feelings about that? Do you have any?

 

M: First of all, I’ve said this before. I don’t like Death Matches. I don’t like thumbtacks. They hurt. Don’t get me wrong because I WILL do them but a guy like Mondo likes pain. A guy like Wifebeater likes pain. I hate it. But I DO it. And you know what? I couldn’t tell you WHY I do it. But I DON’T do it because it’s all I can do, I can tell you that much.

 

GY: Many would say that you have a lot to prove. When you have a card with Samoa Joe, American Dragon, Spanky, and so forth…there seems to be a desire for you to “step up” and show people that you can actually WRESTLE!

 

M: What’s funny to me is why don’t they prove themselves to me by doing what I can do? Of course, their answer to that is they’re not stupid. I don’t know. Fine, whatever. If they think I’m doing those matches to just get over, whatever. It DOES hurt when guys I DO respect like Frankie Kazarian, Chris Daniels, Samoa Joe, and Spanky, all really nice guys, look down on me because I’ve done Death Matches. Personally, I think it takes a special kind of athlete to do those kinds of matches, and I’m not talking about that backyard shit you see. Death matches? Man, I just fell into it. When XPW had their first Death Match tournament, I walked into the office and there was this thing on the board that said Death Match tournament. Nobody forced me to be a part of it. They just said sign up if you want to be in it and I signed up. It just so happened that I did really good in it. So me and Supreme wound up feuding for the Death Match title. We just gelled well. That’s it. But now all I want to do is go out there and prove to everyone that I can wrestle with the best of them. And Spanky. He was trained by the best. He’s definitely one of the top Indy workers out there. I can’t take anything away from him or any of those guys. I’m looking forward to getting in the ring and proving myself to the fans, and especially to myself, that I can do this. I remember when I was supposed to wrestle Frankie Kazarian at MPW. Hell, I remember winning the MPW title and sucking major balls in that match! I had the worse off-night of my life. Tag matches and three-ways are NOT my thing. I suck at them, seriously. I really, really do. I want to be a part of a promotion where I can wrestle guys I can learn from. That’s the only way you’re gonna grow as a worker. Guys like Sabu? Shit, Sabu will teach you volumes if you’re just willing to listen. New Jack, too. He’s got a lotta good insights that made a lotta sense to me. The guy also has great stories, too. Right now, though, is really my time to step up, especially after all that’s happened to me. And I’ve said that when I come back, I want to be at the same level I was at before, if not better, or I just don’t wanna wrestle anymore.

 

GY: Spanky’s a hell of a guy to come back against.

 

M: My whole thing with Spanky is that you’re only as good as the guy makes you look and Spanky is the kind of guy who can make you look like a million bucks. I have the utmost respect for all of those guys and I think I’ll always be kind of bitter that they look down on guys like me and Mondo and think we’re stupid. I think Mondo did a great job when he wrestled B-Boy at GSCW. It’s not like he had thumbtacks there. I think he did really well. When you give a Death Match guy a chance to work a real wrestling match, I think you’ll be shocked at how some of these guys might blow you away. Like I said before, it’s a case of “gimme the ball and I’ll run with it.”

[Guest Sandman9000]

The sad thing is, he's never going to be recognized for his talent, he's always going to be "the guy who got his thumb cut off." I respect Messiah and everything, but he needs to stop doing these interviews now. He's done his shoots for EPIC and CZW, and done these interview, and as much as I'm going to sound like a dick for saying this, he needs to put this tragic fact behind him and move it. It sounds insensitive, but you can only hear the same thing so many times before it becomes annoying. It's what happened to Bret Hart, which led to Bret being "the guy that Vince screwed over," and I hope it doesn't happen to Messiah.