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O'Brien Captures ASP Title, Gains Retribution For Fans For Reprehensible Comments

Posted: Aug 18th 2020 By: Michael Hunt

For much of ASP's run, O'Brien has been near the top of the card and deservingly so. His record speaks for itself in being a dominant performer. 2-time Heavyweight Champion at ComPro. Former SWCW Champion. Former OWA Champion. Former SRPW Champion. Few men still wrestling in Oklahoma possess the pedigree that O'Brien shows. And the fans have come to respect and admire O'Brien for what he accomplishes in the ring. But now they know they can count on him to do what's right for the sake of being right.

On July 26th, a match occurred between Jerry Bostic and Gorgeous Garcia. Garcia, being a member of Legendary, was accompanied to the ring by his manager C. M. Burnham. And during this match, Burnham said something that was so vile and offencive that we at Oklafan will not repeat it. Suffice it to say that it severly crossed the line and fans were understandably upset.

This match had nothing to do with O'Brien, but word got back to him about the situation and he decided to take matters into his own hands. So at the August 9th event, O'Brien called Burnham out to the ring and explained the situation. He then offered Burnham the opportunity to make it right and apologise to the people he had offended, who were sitting front row at the show. Burnham stated that there had not been anything wrong with what he had done and refused to abide by O'Brien's wishes. O'Brien then offered Burnham a choice of either apologising or facing him one-on-one in the ring! At that point, the weasely side of Burnham made itself known. He began to beg off, reminding O'Brien that he was just a manager. And then, inspiriation seemingly hit Burnham as he pointed out that O'Brien had been trying to get an opportunity at ASP Champion Angel Camacho to regain that title for several months. So Burnham countered by suggesting that instead of taking his aggressions out on a non-wrestler, he should take them out on Camacho. O'Brien still insisted that if he beat Camacho, Burnham needed to apologise and Burnham complained that this was too one-sided. There was nothing in it for him. So if the title match was going to happen, he wanted it agreed to that if O'Brien lost, he could NEVER challenge for the ASP Title again! A momentary bit of hesitation crossed O'Brien's face here. As confident as he was, as successful has he had recently been in non-title matches and tag team matches against Camacho, could he make it count when it really needed to? But that hesitation was only momentary and O'Brien made it crystal clear that he WOULD win, he WOULD be a 2-time ASP Champion and he WOULD force Burnham to apologise straight to the people he had upset!

That was the main event for the afternoon and when the time came, both O'Brien and Camacho came to the ring confident in what they had to do. O'Brien's forte was usually power and strong-style tactics. Camacho had size and duplicity in his favour, plus the lurking presence of Burnham at ringside. And while O'Brien withstood and overcame much of the early tactics that Camacho presented, he couldn't be lucky forever and eventually, Camacho began his assault. Between Camacho's devastating offence backed by his size and girth and the chicanery that Burnham contributed by interjecting himself at just the right times, it seemed that O'Brien was destined to fail in what would be his last chance to regain the ASP Title. But O'Brien refused to give up. He would not quit. He could not let down the fans that he was fighting for. He knew he had to get Burnham to make things right by them. And every time that Camacho would put O'Brien's shoulders to the mat, O'Brien would make sure to get them up before the three-count occurred.

The anger in Camacho's face increased until he was red both from exertion and frustration. And something snapped in the champion. Seeing as how he seemingly could not defeat O'Brien no matter how hard he tried to do so, Camacho looked for another way out. As long as he walked away with the title, that was all that mattered to him, so he grabbed the referee and told Burnham to knock him out, knowing this would get him disqualified. He would lose the match, but keep the belt and he and Burnham could run for the hills and plan for later. But this never happened as the referee ducked when Burnham went to hit him with his cane and instead he hit Camacho in the middle of the head. O'Brin then covered Camacho for pin and 3 seconds later, he had the ASP Title in his grasp!

One could almost see the pieces of Burnham's world begin to crumble apart. He had lost control of the ASP Title, which had been in Camacho's clutches since January. And as Burnham attempted to explain to Camacho what happened, Camacho shoved Burnham and declared that he wanted nothing more to do with him, storming to the back. Burnham stared in that direction like a kicked puppy, seeing the cornerstone of Legendary walk away. And then the real consequence of these actions sank in and Burnham, like the coward that he was, had no intention of upholding his part of the bargain. He defiantly strode to the back through the curtain, but O'Brien had no intention of letting him get away like that and gave chase. Grabbing Burnham by the collar, he brought him back out and dragged him all the way around the ring to where the fans he had offended were sitting. O'Brien then told Burnham he was going to have to apologise, but Burnham still refused. O'Brien then forced Burnham to his knees, but Burnham remained obstinate. And at that point, O'Brien forcefully suggested that Burnham needed to uphold his agreement because if he didn't, he would be put back in the ring and chopped again like had happened two weeks previous by O'Brien and Dexter Hardaway. Remembering the intense pain of that incident caused Burnham to realise there was no escape and he haltingly expressed his regret and remorse for what he had said, followed by a promise that it would never happen again.

So O'Brien had gained multiple victories on this day. A personal victory for the ASP Title. A moral victory for the fans. And now, as always, he knows that victories will be all the more challenging. Winning a title is the easy part. Defending it is the hard part. Especially with a roster packed with talent like ASP's. It's something that's going to require beastly talent.

Thankfully for O'Brien, he's a Full Time Beast.