Kyle O’Reilly posted another blog where he again addressed the situation that occurred this past weekend. You can check out the whole blog here. The most important news item to come out is that O’Reilly said he would return the money back to the promoters.
Ryan Kidd and I had an e-mail exchange last night. I asked him for his version of the events that took place this past weekend. We have been in contact with other parties involved. If they eventually choose to comment, we will publish or discuss what they sent to us on the news podcast. The following is Ryan’s story with some minor copy editing changes made:
I arrived in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday afternoon for the 3XWrestling show taking place near what I perceived as Downtown Des Moines. Myself and Jaysin Strife (along with a few other non-wrestlers) arrived well before bell time. A few hours went by and Team Ambition (Davey, Kyle, Tony, and a student of theirs Darren Dean) arrived. They showed up before bell time and I actually ended up in a triple threat match involving Dean. We had a good match that went over well with the (large) crowd and Dean was a pleasure to work with. Davey, Kyle, and Tony all had their individual matches that, from what I heard, went over very well. Following their matches, the four men were a pleasure to talk with and were, as I like to put it, ‘The life of the lockerroom.’ The day ended, we went our seperate ways and everyone was happy. Saturday, in Council Bluffs I attended the Magnum Pro show in Council Bluffs.
Around 2:30 Team Ambition arrived, and they all helped and took part in a seminar helping out younger guys, a seminar that I took part in. The seminar was done very well and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t learn a thing or two from the world- traveled wrestlers. Following the seminar we awaited showtime. During this time I had engaged in conversation with Tony and everything had seemed fine, nothing that I took as unusual or out of the ordinary. During the show, I was approached by the promoter (Strife) and was told that he felt that Davey and crew were judging his show by the way they sat outside the curtain watching the show and perhaps joking about what was going out. (Which I can only assume they were doing, I heard nothing to prove or disprove this speculation) I had viewed them doing this and felt that the expected ‘Indy-show shenanigans’ were perhaps taken a bit too far in the shouting and joking they had began doing. When it came time for my match with Tony, we shook hands, wished each other luck and went out the curtain. Following pre-match introductions, Tony got on the mic and began cutting a ‘shoot-like’ promo on me and they things I had said in promos hyping the match and taking exception to my Twitter ‘about me’ (Which jokingly stated that I was “The Fakest Fake Wrestler ever!”) he said in his pre-match promo that this would be no ordinary match, rather more of a amateur style wrestling match. (Something I have ZERO knowledge in due to me opting to wrestle professionally rather than competitively at my high school) We began the match and well, you can view it for yourself on YouTube. Tony out-wrestled me and some would say took advantage of me. He defeated me with a triangle choke that had me legitimately passed out. Following the match, I was definitely upset but nonetheless, went to the back and shook Tony’s hand and thanked him for the opportunity to which he replied something along the lines of: “Oh, you’re alright!” (Take that however you’d like) Following that I went to a dark hallway backstage and began to think about what had just happened, I was defintely upset but decided I’d rather keep my feelings to myself to avoid a problem so I stayed in the hallway for a good while. When I decided to get up and walk towards the main part of the backstage area I was met by Kyle where he calmly and very professionally approached me.
Kyle: “Hey man, you know why he did that, right?”
Me: “No.”
Kyle: “It was because of the stuff on your twitter, man. You can’t be saying stuff like that on there man, that’s disrespectful to Tony, a guy who’s given everything for this business”
Me: “Yeah, I totally understand that dude, thanks a lot” and the conversation diffused following that and we went our seperate ways, Kyle was very respectful to me and I appreciate him even going out of his way to, at the very least, give me some clarity. After I got changed out of gear I approached Tony and told him that I intended no disrespect in my promo and twitter bio and that I was offering my sincerest apologies. We chatted for awhile but we never talked about anything that had happened in the match. We seperated and never talked until after the show when we said our goodbye’s.
Fast foward to Sunday, Myself and Strife we up and on the road early Sunday morning due to this show taking place earlier in the day (around 4pm) closer to the afternoon. We arrived at the venue and Strife began training some students that had chosen to take part in a seminar with him, a seminar that Strife allowed me to help with (Offering minimal advice to some of the trainees). As showtime drew nearer I noticed Strife and Jeremy (Promoter of APW) discussing things that I would later be informed was a conflict with Team Ambition. I stayed out of it, seeing as it wasn’t my business to worry about and went on with my pre-match routines. A few minutes passed and I heard that Team Ambition was in fact taken off the show because they failed to come to an agreement with Jeremy. I was disappointed in how things had turned out but still stayed out of it. As the show started Jeremy kicked off the show announcing that Team Ambition would not be on the show due to a disagreement but nonetheless, the show would go on. I went out and had my match (against Brian Gott & Shawn Nautilus) and when I cam backstage I heard that Davey and crew were outside talking to Jeremy and that they worked something out. They all came back inside and Davey and Kyle had began to get dressed as I saw I began getting undressed, after I got undressed, I shook all of their hands and asked them how they were to which they all responded with friendly responses. Now since, the crowd did not think that they were even in the building, the plan was for Derek Cornell and Jaysin Strife to go out seperately to have a singles match, only to be interrupted by the two leading to a tag match between the four men. A few minutes before, Strife asked me to take his belongings out of the lockerroom and advised me I do the same based on the fear that “something would go down”. I took his bag to his girlfriend who was at the merchandise table and went right back to the backstage area. As a took a seat next to my back backstage I saw Davey hand Tony money ($350.00). Tony was wearing a backpack and seemed to be waiting for something, I paid it no mind because, simply put, I had no reason to. A minute or so later Derek Cornell’s music hit and he walked out the curtain expecting a tag match. As Jaysin Strife’s music hit I heard and saw the following conversation take place.
Davey: “Man, I feel like I’m forgetting something, I just don’t know what…”
Kyle: “Hmm”
Davey: “Oh! We forgot to tape our wrists! Shit! Do you think we have time?”
Kyle: “Yeah lets go! Real quick, I think we have time.”
To which they ran out the back door to presumabky get their wrist tape. As a few seconds passed, the thought of them leaving had crossed my mind, but I thought better of it and gave them the benefit of the doubt.
“They just fucking left!” Shawn Nautilus said as he got out of his seat
“Nah man, they just went to get their tape” I replied
“No dude, where the fuck are their bags? Where is Tony? They fucking left…” he quickly answered back
As I began to think about it, Brian (Gott) walked in through the same door they left through and confirmed that he just saw them all drive off. Strife was still backstage at that moment and still went out the curtain to have a singles match with Cornell. Jeremy got out of his seat and began to find out what happened but quickly came to terms with it and sat back down to watch the match, which I greatly admired. Following the match things broke down on twitter and on facebook and the rest is history.
This is not me burying Kyle, Davey, Tony, or Darren or even trying to in the least. They know what they did was wrong and I am ONLY giving my firsthand account of what happened. Nothing more, nothing less. I am back in California now and I will surely not forget this past weekend anytime soon. I had a great time in Iowa despite what happened and will definitely be returning soon.
It does not surprise me that Ryan Kidd would agree to give you a written statement. He is not the type to hide behind a “no comment. His reputation for veracity leads me to believe that everything that he wrote accurately reflects what he saw and heard.
Ryan Kidd is more of a class act then a man who has been in the business for over 16 years.