Yeah, but that's a lot. And to be honest, most of them are kind of boring... I must admit. I didn't wrestle for a big promotion like WWE or something. Matter of fact, the indy shows I did were very local to my home. But there IS one story that sticks out...
Our promotion was very small... we only had about 12 wrestlers on our main roster. We'd have public shows every other month since financing them mostly came from advertising, boosters, and our own pockets. But sometimes that's all it takes... I'll explain...
We had a show in West Paterson, NJ at the IWF facility. Most of our audience was family, friends, colleagues, and staff of the gym in which we performed. At the time, I was the world champion and I was to defend the title for the first time. The event was very bland, for the most part, since the first three matches consisted of extremely "green" wrestlers that had no clue about how to put on a match and use ring psychology. So basically, the crowd was waiting for something exciting to happen.
The head of the promotion asked me to open the evening with a promo segment that consisted of me gloating about my title win at the previous event. You see, I won a triple threat match (clean) against two of the promotion's top wrestlers and won my first title in 6 years, so I had a lot to say. Plus, I played a heel, so going off about my title win just came naturally. The punchline of the promo was for me to thank a 'certain someone' for my title win and present them with a gift.
I thought of this elaborate promo that consisted of me carrying a large object to the ring that was covered in wrapping paper to hide it from the audience before the "big reveal." I spoke about my rise to the top, how long it took, and how my opponents deserved to lose. And then I began to thank that "certain someone". The promo ended with me thanking no one other than MYSELF, unwrapping the gift to reveal a large mirror, and I presented MYSELF with my world title belt. The crowd went fucking crazy with laughter, cheering, and booing. Shortly after, I was interrupted by the number one contender running out to the ring and attacking me before the wrestlers in the back had to come out and break us up. It was a very good opening segment to the show.
Fast forward to the title match. From the second my music played ("Black" by Sevendust) the crowd was hot. Besides the US title match that happened earlier in the night, the crowd really had no reason to be excited. But once they knew the world title match was going to start they seemed to finally become attentive as a result of the opening segment. The match went very smoothly and told a decent story. I called the match and had myself and my opponent fighting in and out of the ring. The ending came when another wrestler (who believed they deserved my opponent's title shot) came out to the ring, grabbed the title belt, tried to hit me with it, but I ducked and he hit my opponent, instead.
The original plan for the match was that my opponent was still going to kick out of the pinfall attempt. I would get so angry that I would grab him and use my finishing submission maneuver to have him tap out. Instead, when he was hit with the title belt, don't ask me how, but he was busted open... BIG time. His shaved head starting gushing blood and the referree was forced to finish the three count on the spot. It was sort of a botched ending but the crowd never caught on. My opponent immediately exited the ring and ran to the back to get medical help. As a result of the match, he needed 6 stitches and fractured his wrist. From that moment on, my height, weight and overall size didn't matter. The people now believed I was a badass because I was able to inflict such an amount of injury onto my opponents.
Our promotion was very small... we only had about 12 wrestlers on our main roster. We'd have public shows every other month since financing them mostly came from advertising, boosters, and our own pockets. But sometimes that's all it takes... I'll explain...
We had a show in West Paterson, NJ at the IWF facility. Most of our audience was family, friends, colleagues, and staff of the gym in which we performed. At the time, I was the world champion and I was to defend the title for the first time. The event was very bland, for the most part, since the first three matches consisted of extremely "green" wrestlers that had no clue about how to put on a match and use ring psychology. So basically, the crowd was waiting for something exciting to happen.
The head of the promotion asked me to open the evening with a promo segment that consisted of me gloating about my title win at the previous event. You see, I won a triple threat match (clean) against two of the promotion's top wrestlers and won my first title in 6 years, so I had a lot to say. Plus, I played a heel, so going off about my title win just came naturally. The punchline of the promo was for me to thank a 'certain someone' for my title win and present them with a gift.
I thought of this elaborate promo that consisted of me carrying a large object to the ring that was covered in wrapping paper to hide it from the audience before the "big reveal." I spoke about my rise to the top, how long it took, and how my opponents deserved to lose. And then I began to thank that "certain someone". The promo ended with me thanking no one other than MYSELF, unwrapping the gift to reveal a large mirror, and I presented MYSELF with my world title belt. The crowd went fucking crazy with laughter, cheering, and booing. Shortly after, I was interrupted by the number one contender running out to the ring and attacking me before the wrestlers in the back had to come out and break us up. It was a very good opening segment to the show.
Fast forward to the title match. From the second my music played ("Black" by Sevendust) the crowd was hot. Besides the US title match that happened earlier in the night, the crowd really had no reason to be excited. But once they knew the world title match was going to start they seemed to finally become attentive as a result of the opening segment. The match went very smoothly and told a decent story. I called the match and had myself and my opponent fighting in and out of the ring. The ending came when another wrestler (who believed they deserved my opponent's title shot) came out to the ring, grabbed the title belt, tried to hit me with it, but I ducked and he hit my opponent, instead.
The original plan for the match was that my opponent was still going to kick out of the pinfall attempt. I would get so angry that I would grab him and use my finishing submission maneuver to have him tap out. Instead, when he was hit with the title belt, don't ask me how, but he was busted open... BIG time. His shaved head starting gushing blood and the referree was forced to finish the three count on the spot. It was sort of a botched ending but the crowd never caught on. My opponent immediately exited the ring and ran to the back to get medical help. As a result of the match, he needed 6 stitches and fractured his wrist. From that moment on, my height, weight and overall size didn't matter. The people now believed I was a badass because I was able to inflict such an amount of injury onto my opponents.