See you at Chaos…

We here at HOWrestling.com received a handwritten letter on Monday. We apologize on the delay in sharing but we had to get Lee’s approval….and well quite frankly he hasnt been in a good place to talk since War Games. We were given the all clear today. We hope you can appreciate the weirdness of that in the year 2023. We had to enlist the help of a few interns to help translate the document….

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“Dear High Octane Wrestling,

 

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m back, aren’t you? Why this asshole? Why is he back?

 

It should be pretty obvious, to be honest. I’d hope it’s the same fucking reason that you signed a contract, the same fucking reason you ground out the hours in the gym, perfecting your professional wrestling slash sports-entertaining.

 

I want that gold encrusted strip of crimson leather that’s currently in STRONK’s hands. I want to be the High Octane Wrestling World Champion.

Yeah yeah, I know, I know – trust me, I know. A Hall of Famer coming back and saying that they want a shot at the World Championship? Shit, Rhys, didn’t you make money off of going after those very people earlier in your career? Didn’t you relish calling them out? Were those not fights you actively went looking for?

 

I’d argue that I went looking for literally any fight, but yeah, I did go after those fights. I hated the idea that some Hall of Famer could come back and take my spot, or take the spot of anyone who was showing up, week after week, putting the time and grind in to make it somewhere in this company. I despised the half hearted comebacks because they saw me or Mike advancing towards some number of World Championships that they’ll never touch, short of spending half a century in the company. So, with a shoutout to a good friend, it’s on me right now – is this gonna be a Silent Witness sort of return, or is it gonna be an Aceldama?

 

If we were speaking in person, this is the part where I’d shrug and tell you that I don’t know. I’m not prescient. I can’t see the future. And if you know me, or if you’ve followed my career, you know I don’t like guarantees or promises. You know that I’ll tell you what I’m planning to do and why, and that I’ll do my level best to do exactly that.

 

So I’m gonna tell you that I’m here because I sit at home, I see and hear all that goes on, and I don’t see why I can’t become a six time HOW World Champion. Nobody here scares me. Nobody here makes me feel like HOW has passed me by, surpassed even my best level.

 

I see some dudes who care about their craft, but yet more who don’t. More bothered about videogames, or big business, or who the fuck knows what gimmick – but whatever it is, that’s the thing. Not the fact that they have had to grind to get to the biggest wrestling federation on the planet – or the biggest sports-entertainment league, if you prefer that terminology.

 

And then there’s others who are just happy to glom onto whatever the latest Alliance bullshit Lee Best is peddling. 

 

Lazy. Fucking lazy.

 

But it got to be real simple for me.

I could stay at home, on the couch with plenty of weed and tacos and I could tell anyone who’d listen that I could go back to HOW and get another World Championship if I wanted it. My gut would continue to grow at an exponential rate, and I’d spend the rest of my life curious about if I could have done the traditional professional wrestling unretirement and made my way back to the pinnacle of the sport.

Or I could come back and actually try it. See if I can. If I’m wrong? If I fail, if I’m not that good anymore, and if things have really passed me by? If…gulp…I’m nothing more than a largely irrelevant midcarder these days?

 

That’s fine. My home, the place I love, the place I grew up? It’s fine. It’s in great health.

 

But if I can? Well…it’s always nice to be right, isn’t it?

 

So that answers the why I’m back, though personally, I think that should answer the why you’re here for everyone not named Michael Lee Best in this federation. Y’know…if you’re not here to become World Champion, why are you here?

 

But it doesn’t answer the more pressing, pertinent question that you no doubt have, right? That is, if you were a good fan and bought War Games (Replays available…I’d list providers and prices, but a man is out of practice here…cut me a break.). If you didn’t buy War Games, or have a chance to watch it yet? Yeah…#SPOILERS

 

Why did I return that way? I mean, again, this isn’t really something I should be having to answer for you, but I will. I want to be HOW World Champion. I could, as I’ve mentioned, have taken the lazy option – I think the fact that I showed up the way I showed up proves that – and then done my time in the Best Alliance, Final Alliance, whatever it’s being called right now…and then waited, patiently. Because eventually Lee would tire of everyone else’s attempts, and it’d roll around to being my go, for being a good, loyal soldier. Or…I could do the very same thing that I made my name off of, back at the start of my career.

 

I could do what felt right. I could do what made the most sense to me, the thing that my love of sports entertainment tells me to do, that every pro-wrestler should do. I could set myself in opposition to the thing that is the biggest obstacle. I could do what hundreds have done before me, and likely will do after. I could stick both fingers up to Lee Best and say fuck you, I am not taking the lazy option. I am not going to wait for my turn. I am gonna show up, week after week, and I’m gonna grind. I’m gonna grind until I am undeniable, and then? Then, I’m gonna take what should be mine. The way any professional wrestler or sports entertainer should.

 

Yeah yeah, I know, I know. Again, hundreds have attempted this before me, and honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if hundreds attempted it after me. What makes me different to Fuse, or Byrd, or, well, anyone who’s bellowed out similar sentiment?

 

Well, we’re currently sitting in the aftermath of the potential end of Evan Ward’s career. Everyone calls him the heart of Ground Zero. Silent Witness? They called him the soul. Me?

 

I was the brains.

 

Last night should demonstrate that – from an ace Lee thought he had in the hole to a scene of devastation and ruin. From safety and confidence to a state of ground zero.

 

And if this is a fight I have to do on my own, the same way I felt I would have to when I was an 18 year old boy, in his first year in the business – a true rookie – who just so happened to be HOW World Champion? Then this 31 year old will embrace it with everything he has. It might not be a fight I can win on my own, but I’ll fucking try.

 

But like I did then, I will do the same now.

 

I will make an appeal to everyone who loves this sport of ours – whether you pray at the Church of Pro-Wrestling or the Mosque of Sports-Entertainment or fuck, the Gurdwara of the Graps, if you be a suplex supremacist or a deathmatch maniac, whatever, it doesn’t matter – because now is the time when you need to stand up. Now is the time when you need to express your love of competition, of the most sacred art of manly men slapping man meat.

 

Because if you don’t? If you stay on the couch, talking about how you could take out the Final Alliance, the Best Alliance, if only you could be fucked to try?

 

High Octane Wrestling will die. Again.

 

And then you, wrestler who wasn’t offered a spot in the BA/FA, will be out of a job. You’ll have to go actually be a businessman, or a noir detective, or whatever bullshit gimmick you think you live, and your life will suck. Because you are mediocre at best at those things. But at this, at professional sports wrestling entertainment?

 

You truly are one of the best in the world.

 

So this is your appeal. Your call to arms. I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want to hang out with you after shows, I don’t want to get cute matching tights. I don’t want to spend hours texting back and forth until we come up with a badass name that shows how badass we are and makes a statement about what we’re going to do. I don’t want power. I don’t want to lead some stable and have to hold your hand on a weekly fucking basis, because the only thing that matters right now- the only fucking thing – is that you love our sport. Our art. Because if you do, you’ll know that me saying right now, that you have to be open to working together is the truth. If you want that fair, clean shot you’ve always said you’ve deserved at glory, you know you’re gonna have to stand up and attempt to do something about it. So take a moment and think about it before you instantly dismiss me. I’ve been there, done that, won that, and I have the Hall of Fame ring and World Championships to prove it. Sit on your couch and talk about how you could do it if you want, or get up off your arse and make an attempt at doing it. It’s your call, HOW.

 

See you at Chaos,

With Love,

Rhys