Hoping For ACH to be Repaired For Redemption

When I was living in Austin and getting into Texas indy wrestling scene in Dec 2011 one wrestler stood out throughout the years. From his athletic skills and his charismatic charm A.C.H. stood above. He is one of key wrestlers to help put Austin on the map on indy wrestling scene. A well respected locker room leader who got two proper send-offs when he first left for Ring of Honor then for WWE on the second. The guy gets the crowd pumped up for his matches and back it up with his wonderful performance in the ring. Got to wrestle in Japan where he quickly absorbed more in-ring knowledge. Goes to WWE and assigned to NXT where he won the NXT Breakout tournament. WWE camera crew followed his excitement being at Wrestlemania 35 as a contracted worker. Things were looking ahead for him or as fans thought til last fall.....

WWE released a controversial t-shirt of a smile with his ring name on a black shirt. ACH, offended, angrily blew up calling them racists for the t-shirt design as it was quickly pulled. He follow it up with week-long meltdown which including taking a shot at Jay Lethal and ROH which ended with him publicly announcing he quit the WWE.

He returned back to indy scene quickly with his first post-WWE appearance in I-35 Austin/San Antonio corridor area first with Heavy Metal Wrestling then to Anarchy Championship Wrestling and Inspire Pro and Chicago based AAW. Was signed to Major League Wrestling where he wrestle a show only to say he retire from wrestling the next day because he hated wrestling. Yet despite retirement claim he would continue to wrestle afterwards til the pandemic shut down all shows. He took that time to reflect and wished how he would handle it differently.

So what happen? Where did it go wrong? He did interview on Submission Squad: Dollar Menu Midcarder few weeks ago. After listening to the entire podcast I felt the pressure of backstage politics got to him. He got first dose of it in ROH. Then he goes to WWE and got another dose of it causing him to flashback his time in ROH. It pretty much broke him down mentally leaving him in a rough patch of state. He wished to take back how things went down because he now will be known for the meltdown than his matches.

Not for me because I will remember his matches watching it live in person. I was there live when he and Matthew Palmer had, in my opinion, the greatest match in ACW. He would also give Marcus Rose a beatdown of a lifetime. He out-classed Sammy Guevara in a match at Inspire Pro. Speaking of Guevara here's another wrestler that bounced back from being in the wrong and got himself in national stage of AEW. I witness him give and risk his body not to the fans but entire Austin indy wrestling scene to even going far to check himself out ER to wrestle against Shane Strickland (now known as Isiah Scott in NXT) at Inspire.

When this covid-19 outbreak is over with and shows start running regularly I want A.C.H. to do this when he's mentally ready: road to redemption in the ring. Its to prove he can bounce from regrets and show why he's not just King of Texas, but one of the best indy wrestler in the nation that it will lead him to AEW or Japan or back to WWE (even though its a longshot and all is forgiven). I'm not the only fan who wants that. There are thousands of fans and talent want him to do it as well. One of thing he did in the ring is to motivate his opponent. This time we, the fans and wrestlers, motivate and are pulling for him for in-ring redemption.

Here's full ACH interview from Dollar Menu Midcarders. It's a great listen for over 2 hours of in and off the ring stories and thoughts. Give credit to Evan Gelistico and Matt Jackson (formerly known as Pierre Abernathy; not the guy from a tag team) for doing this. In fact give these guys a listen for the stories of their on the road indy shows travels, interviews, and happening around St. Louis area indies (especially St. Louis Anarchy which Matt runs). You will be entertained as they pull behind the curtains.