My 2008 Wrestling Year-In-Review
Well it’s already getting towards the end of 2008, and as per usual, it’s time for my review of my year in wrestling. I’d like to start off by saying that my 2008 in wrestling didn’t exactly blossom like I wanted it to honestly, but in the end it wound up becoming overall more of a stepping stone to the new direction I want to take with wrestling.
My first goal in 2008 was first and foremost, to get back in the ring at some point. And while I was on hiatus, I noticed how much my home fed Next Era Wrestling was beefing up the production, getting to the point where the set started reminding me of Monday Night Raw, which was awesome. And of course, me always trying to be a little different, I saw all this and thought to myself that I'd love for my return to be something with build-up and surprise; something that would be a memorable moment.
The coming back part obviously happened no problem. But... unfortunately, the part about it being a memorable moment failed miserably.
It really sucked, because I'd put quite a bit of effort into this hoping it would work out; I thought it was a great idea, and one that was simple, yet effective, to pull off. And this isn't me knocking anybody, but those that I put my trust into to assist me with it didn't really put forth as much effort as needed. Too many people got their hands on it, my idea got changed up so much that it wound up being a fraction of the original idea, and in the end, it flopped. Nobody really noticed or cared, which was the exact opposite of what I was going for. I also made it a point to let me know if they couldn't really put in the time and effort, and I'd try something else. They gave me the green light with it, but didn't put forth 100% effort like I'd hoped, so that was kinda disappointing as well.
Case in point, sort of an ironic story stemming from it: this guy we call Mullet Joe was a big fan of mine since my time in Roc City Wrestling. While I was on hiatus, I still came backstage to N.E.W. shows to help out with other things. And a lot of times, Joe would catch up to me after the show and always ask me "ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?" Of course I was kayfabing it at the time, but I was trying to give the impression that it wouldn't be anytime soon. That would happen so many times after shows: "ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?" and I'd try n' kayfabe him. Then finally, it was the night of the comeback. Despite it failing, I was still hoping to hear what Joe thought of it. I was walking around doing the usual post-show frolicking with people, when Joe finally caught up with me.
"ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?"
At that point, I was pretty much like "Ouch". That told me how much it failed, so that was a tough pill to swallow.
But I still played with the cards that were dealt, and bounced back as best as I could. The working idea fueling the return was that I got screwed over by N.E.W. back when I was N.E.W. Champion; that I worked so hard to achieve that, and that it was just simply taken away. So now I was going to come back the opposite of what I was. I was going to go from being a hard-working, honorable sort of journeyman wrestler who wanted to earn his accolades, to being a cowardly heel with no respect for anybody or anything (except myself of course, lol), taking any shortcut I can, and bragging about the things I did accomplish.
I was excited about doing this new character, since I was always into heels. Plus this character would allow me to open up and be more myself than ever before. Robert Ezekyo was always kind of dark and sinister. But despite me trying to be dark and sinister, I couldn't help but throw in some sort of comedy one way or another, which wasn't exactly dark or sinister (lol). But now I was able to shed that and just let my funny side really blossom, since I also kind of use wrestling as sort of my outlet for comedy. Prior to me going on sabbatical, I toyed with this new character a few times in Canada, since I was a heel there, and I had a LOT of fun doing it, so I was excited to make this my primary gimmick.
On that note, this brings me to my overall primary and major goal of 2008: for Amy Ash and I to become a duo.
This idea was pretty much 17 months in the making. After N.E.W. Prodigal Sons in April 2007, that was when I pretty much decided I needed time off. When everything was done for the night, Amy and I were driving home. It was a long-ass drive from Elmira to Buffalo, so of course we were talking quite a bit about this being it for me for a while. Then out of the blue, Amy suggested that when I do come back, that her and I become a wrestler/valet tandem, with a gimmick similar to Edge and Lita. Just her mentioning that idea already got me feeling like I was ready to come back, and the wheels had pretty much been turning ever since. And I give all the credit to her for getting that idea going.
Back to 2008. Another storyline at the time was that Amy Ash came back to N.E.W. and was scouting matches, looking for her next charge, which eventually became J.C. Money. Coincidentally, J.C. was my target the night of my comeback. After I came back, we kind of played a game of cat-and-mouse with me always dodging J.C. until we actually had a match. Along the way in July, to add fuel to the fire, I came out when it looked like J.C. was going to defeat Kriptic for the N.E.W. Championship. I grabbed Amy by the hair, got J.C.'s attention, and then drilled her with my new finisher on the floor, otherwise known as The C.U.M. (Currently Unnamed Move, lol).
Then in September we finally had our match, and J.C. pretty much went to town on my ass as expected. He got the duke in the end, and as he was celebrating, I grabbed Amy by the hair threatening to drop her again. But I pushed her out of the way when J.C. got in my face… and then the double-cross happened. Amy nailed J.C. with a low blow from behind which got the crowd REALLY pissed off. We both kind of stalked J.C. looking down at him, then I laid him out with The C.U.M. And then the icing on the cake: in the middle of the ring, Amy and I shared a long, raunchy, dirty kiss. The disgusted reaction from the crowd was unbelievable, and I loved it so much. So long story short: her angle of looking for her next charge and my angle of coming back both intertwined and became one, another thing I was going for. So finally after 17 months, Amy Ash and Robert Ezekyo were an item, and the crowd hated us for it. And that was exactly what I was hoping for. It worked out awesome. That was my highlight for 2008, without a shadow of a doubt.
Unfortunately, that's the last time we've been on a show. Things have been really rough financially lately, so we're focusing on that right now. We should be back soon in early 2009, which brings us to what I'm looking forward to in 2009...
I eventually want to start traveling again in 2009, go back to Ontario and hopefully other parts of the Northeast. In 2008, I didn't exactly get back to where I used to be with wrestling. I hope to do that in 2009. Also, a goal for 2009 is for Amy Ash and I to gain more notoriety as a duo, and eventually become the next Marc Mandrake and Ferrari; to do all of our bookings together as a team, and look good doing it (lol). And finally, one more goal I have for 2009 is to simply just have some more fun in wrestling again.
Overall, I wouldn't rank 2008 as my best year, mainly because my 2008 spanned from May to September (lol). I think my best year was definitely in 2006, my run from becoming the first N.E.W. Tap Out Champion, transitioning from being one of N.E.W.'s most hated guys to being one of the most popular, to finally becoming N.E.W. World Champion, and also being recognized as 2006 Wrestler of the Year by N.E.W., as well as WrestleBlast TV. 2008 was a really rocky and rough year for me, but my last moment of 2008 was definitely the exclamation point. It was that good to where it overshadowed everything else, so that's enough for me to give my 2008 a thumbs up. Not as high up as I wanted, but thumbs up nonetheless.
My first goal in 2008 was first and foremost, to get back in the ring at some point. And while I was on hiatus, I noticed how much my home fed Next Era Wrestling was beefing up the production, getting to the point where the set started reminding me of Monday Night Raw, which was awesome. And of course, me always trying to be a little different, I saw all this and thought to myself that I'd love for my return to be something with build-up and surprise; something that would be a memorable moment.
The coming back part obviously happened no problem. But... unfortunately, the part about it being a memorable moment failed miserably.
It really sucked, because I'd put quite a bit of effort into this hoping it would work out; I thought it was a great idea, and one that was simple, yet effective, to pull off. And this isn't me knocking anybody, but those that I put my trust into to assist me with it didn't really put forth as much effort as needed. Too many people got their hands on it, my idea got changed up so much that it wound up being a fraction of the original idea, and in the end, it flopped. Nobody really noticed or cared, which was the exact opposite of what I was going for. I also made it a point to let me know if they couldn't really put in the time and effort, and I'd try something else. They gave me the green light with it, but didn't put forth 100% effort like I'd hoped, so that was kinda disappointing as well.
Case in point, sort of an ironic story stemming from it: this guy we call Mullet Joe was a big fan of mine since my time in Roc City Wrestling. While I was on hiatus, I still came backstage to N.E.W. shows to help out with other things. And a lot of times, Joe would catch up to me after the show and always ask me "ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?" Of course I was kayfabing it at the time, but I was trying to give the impression that it wouldn't be anytime soon. That would happen so many times after shows: "ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?" and I'd try n' kayfabe him. Then finally, it was the night of the comeback. Despite it failing, I was still hoping to hear what Joe thought of it. I was walking around doing the usual post-show frolicking with people, when Joe finally caught up with me.
"ZEKE! WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?"
At that point, I was pretty much like "Ouch". That told me how much it failed, so that was a tough pill to swallow.
But I still played with the cards that were dealt, and bounced back as best as I could. The working idea fueling the return was that I got screwed over by N.E.W. back when I was N.E.W. Champion; that I worked so hard to achieve that, and that it was just simply taken away. So now I was going to come back the opposite of what I was. I was going to go from being a hard-working, honorable sort of journeyman wrestler who wanted to earn his accolades, to being a cowardly heel with no respect for anybody or anything (except myself of course, lol), taking any shortcut I can, and bragging about the things I did accomplish.
I was excited about doing this new character, since I was always into heels. Plus this character would allow me to open up and be more myself than ever before. Robert Ezekyo was always kind of dark and sinister. But despite me trying to be dark and sinister, I couldn't help but throw in some sort of comedy one way or another, which wasn't exactly dark or sinister (lol). But now I was able to shed that and just let my funny side really blossom, since I also kind of use wrestling as sort of my outlet for comedy. Prior to me going on sabbatical, I toyed with this new character a few times in Canada, since I was a heel there, and I had a LOT of fun doing it, so I was excited to make this my primary gimmick.
On that note, this brings me to my overall primary and major goal of 2008: for Amy Ash and I to become a duo.
This idea was pretty much 17 months in the making. After N.E.W. Prodigal Sons in April 2007, that was when I pretty much decided I needed time off. When everything was done for the night, Amy and I were driving home. It was a long-ass drive from Elmira to Buffalo, so of course we were talking quite a bit about this being it for me for a while. Then out of the blue, Amy suggested that when I do come back, that her and I become a wrestler/valet tandem, with a gimmick similar to Edge and Lita. Just her mentioning that idea already got me feeling like I was ready to come back, and the wheels had pretty much been turning ever since. And I give all the credit to her for getting that idea going.
Back to 2008. Another storyline at the time was that Amy Ash came back to N.E.W. and was scouting matches, looking for her next charge, which eventually became J.C. Money. Coincidentally, J.C. was my target the night of my comeback. After I came back, we kind of played a game of cat-and-mouse with me always dodging J.C. until we actually had a match. Along the way in July, to add fuel to the fire, I came out when it looked like J.C. was going to defeat Kriptic for the N.E.W. Championship. I grabbed Amy by the hair, got J.C.'s attention, and then drilled her with my new finisher on the floor, otherwise known as The C.U.M. (Currently Unnamed Move, lol).
Then in September we finally had our match, and J.C. pretty much went to town on my ass as expected. He got the duke in the end, and as he was celebrating, I grabbed Amy by the hair threatening to drop her again. But I pushed her out of the way when J.C. got in my face… and then the double-cross happened. Amy nailed J.C. with a low blow from behind which got the crowd REALLY pissed off. We both kind of stalked J.C. looking down at him, then I laid him out with The C.U.M. And then the icing on the cake: in the middle of the ring, Amy and I shared a long, raunchy, dirty kiss. The disgusted reaction from the crowd was unbelievable, and I loved it so much. So long story short: her angle of looking for her next charge and my angle of coming back both intertwined and became one, another thing I was going for. So finally after 17 months, Amy Ash and Robert Ezekyo were an item, and the crowd hated us for it. And that was exactly what I was hoping for. It worked out awesome. That was my highlight for 2008, without a shadow of a doubt.
Unfortunately, that's the last time we've been on a show. Things have been really rough financially lately, so we're focusing on that right now. We should be back soon in early 2009, which brings us to what I'm looking forward to in 2009...
I eventually want to start traveling again in 2009, go back to Ontario and hopefully other parts of the Northeast. In 2008, I didn't exactly get back to where I used to be with wrestling. I hope to do that in 2009. Also, a goal for 2009 is for Amy Ash and I to gain more notoriety as a duo, and eventually become the next Marc Mandrake and Ferrari; to do all of our bookings together as a team, and look good doing it (lol). And finally, one more goal I have for 2009 is to simply just have some more fun in wrestling again.
Overall, I wouldn't rank 2008 as my best year, mainly because my 2008 spanned from May to September (lol). I think my best year was definitely in 2006, my run from becoming the first N.E.W. Tap Out Champion, transitioning from being one of N.E.W.'s most hated guys to being one of the most popular, to finally becoming N.E.W. World Champion, and also being recognized as 2006 Wrestler of the Year by N.E.W., as well as WrestleBlast TV. 2008 was a really rocky and rough year for me, but my last moment of 2008 was definitely the exclamation point. It was that good to where it overshadowed everything else, so that's enough for me to give my 2008 a thumbs up. Not as high up as I wanted, but thumbs up nonetheless.