• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Destination X! Sanchez Loses Career-vs-Career TLC Match for EPW Title

Posted: Jun 19th 2024 By: Michael Hunt

24 years ago, a bright-eyed young man trained with Tom Jones and entered the professional wrestling ranks. In that 24 years, he became a mainstay of the Oklahoma City area (though also venturing to Kansas and Tulsa). He racked up 29 title reigns. He became known as the master of the TLC Match, winning several of his titles that way.

24 years later, he lost the last title he would hold in a TLC Match with his career on the line. And Kevin James Sanchez was forced to walk away from the sport he loved.

Sanchez will gladly admit that he is not in the same physical shape he was when he entered the sport as a cruiserweight. He has put on size. He has suffered many injuries and had to wear knee braces to compete. Many competitors counted him out before the bell rang. But he had proven them all wrong many times. He proved them wrong when he beat Double D for the EPW Title in a 3 Stages of Hell match where his career was on the line. He proved them wrong when he beat Montego Seeka for the EPW Title in a GBK Rules match where Sanchez was not allowed to use the DDT. He had proven them wrong so many times.

So when the challenge was laid out by WAH Tag Team Champion Malachi and his manager, Lucian Loveless, Sanchez did what he always does. He prepared. It was HIS match. He had the chance to once again prove to everyone (including himself) that he had all the tools he needed to have in order to be successful. The FACT that Malachi had also put HIS career on the line saddened Sanchez a little because Sanchez had helped train Malachi. But in the end, this was not a personal situation. This was business. This was about proving he still had a place and continuing to prove the haters wrong.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Sanchez failed in this effort was psychological. Only a couple of months earlier, his best friend, Kareem Sadat, had passed away. Sadat and Sanchez had waged war against each other and had won tag team titles with each other. They did all they could to keep wrestling happening at the Underground Arena in Oklahoma City for as long as it did. Additionally, Rick Russo, another long time close friend and tag team partner of Kevin's, lost the EPW All-American Title to the NCWO Champion The Gatekeeper and chose to retire. This meant that if Kevin was going to continue competing, he would be going at it almost completely alone. Sadat was gone. Russo was gone. His brothers Shane Sanchez and David Kyzer were gone. Gemini [2nd] was preoccupied with other matters and was now tagging with Shadow Gemini [2nd]. It's possible that at the back of his mind, Kevin just didn't want to face wrestling without his closest associates.

But if Kevin was going to go down, he would do down fighting. Because he was still a man. He was still the leader of X-Rated. EPW understood the importance of this match and brought in some special representatives. C. M. Burnham and L. J. McDaniel (who technically still owned EPW, though he had been inactive for a long time) were on special commentary for it. Tuck Davion returned to the Oklahoma City area to be the special ring announcer for it. And EPW Hall of Famer (and former EPW Champion) Striker was the special referee. And even thought the temperature in the Up Together Venue in Norman was scorching, due to an ineffective air-conditioning unit, that did not stop EPW fans from forcing a standing-room only situation for this card and this match. And those fans were torn in support. The Psychotic Messengers had been such a phenomenon in Oklahoma wrestling in 2023 and their support was incredible. But Sanchez was the established veteran and long-time favourite of the area. Neither of these men were what could traditionally be considered the "bad guy" in the match. And the opening handshake acknowledged that. At first the match was very unlike what might be expected in a TLC match. Collar-and-Elbow tie-ups, headlocks, Elbow drops. Nothing outrageous. The earliest mistake in the match actually came with the introduction of a chair, as Sanchez grabbed on on the outside and swung to hit Malachi in the back, but Malachi ducked and Sanchez connected with the cornerpost, sending shockwaves up his arms. Malachi did not miss his chance with the chair as he connected solidly across the back of the champion. Kevin recovered from that and both men made it back into the ring, bringing a ladder with them. Neither man made much progress up the ladder before being stopped by the other but Sanchez hoped to turn the tide when he connected with a huge spinebuster. Sanchez then folded the ladder up after hitting Malachi with it, laid the challenger on top of it and connected with a full-on body splash. Normally, this would lead to the pin. But there are no pinfalls in a TLC match and Sanchez now found himself having to set the ladder back up to climb it and take down the title. Malachi turned the tables around and prepared to get the ladder back up when Black Flag Rising came from the back and entered the ring. Malachi and Sanchez, who moments before had been fighting each other, found themselves suddenly having to partner up to face off against the pirate faction and chased them off while Lucian Loveless summoned Jack Talos to go to the back and ensure no one else could spoil the match. While all that was happening, a table was brought into the ring and Kevin Sanchez found himself crashing through it. Leaving him prone and unable to stop Malachi, who would ascend to the top of the ladder and take down the belt.

After 24 years, the odds had finally caught up to Kevin James Sanchez. In a great show of sportsmanship, Sanchez raised the new champion's hand and then started to take his boots off to leave them in the ring, the symbol of retirement in this business. And that was when the Sterling Society (Floyd Maystorm & NAW Indigenous Lands Champion Billie the Kiid, w/ Guy Sterling) hit the ring to attack. But C. M. Burnham was having none of that and bolted from the announce table to get help from the back, led by his son, Father Padge. After clearing the ring of Sterling and his crew, Sanchez had the opportunity to say his final farewells to the fans,to his fellow wrestlers and to the business he has loved for 24 years.

Unlike many others recently, Sanchez retired basically on his own terms. There as no crippling accident. No unexpected death. He go to have a final match and go away content that if he lost, he understood that it was time to go. And now, Sanchez can look forward to whatever life brings him after retirement and know that when he stepped through the curtain, he did everything he could to entertain the fans every time. Hopefully that legacy can comfort him going forward.