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Excellence Personified Threaten To Shoot Down A Star In The Making

Posted: Oct 14th 2009 By: CMBurnham

A new era dawned for MWA this past Friday. And with that new era came several new faces and issues, many of which centred around MWA Champion Michael Barry and his faction, Excellence Personified.

Although this faction had been formed elsewhere, they had infiltrated several northeast Oklahoma federations, including MWA & ComPro. And now that their manager, Mike Iles, is in control of the federation, many fans wonder just how long it will be before they completely take over.

Iles was appointed as the new Director of Operations for MWA after it was announced that former DOO Raymon Downey's contract had expired after one year. His first act in that office was to set up a tag team title shot for the Old School Express against MWA Tag Team champions Texas, Inc. This upset Southern Tag Team champions The Jet Setters, who had been promised a title shot by Downey at the last show and Jack Legacy didn't hold back expressing his discontent, asking Iles directly what kind of politics were being played in this situation. Iles promised the Jet Setters a title shot next month against whoever won the title match this month and also gave them the $5 000 that Jake Boulder had won in the battle royal last month. Although it wasn't stated, Oklafan has received confirmation that a deal was struck with Boulder where he sacrificed his winnings in exchange for the title shot.

Upset at the development, the Jet Setters tried to leave, but Iles called them back and said that just because they weren't receiving a title shot didn't mean that they weren't wrestling that night. They had a match against the El Matadors and took all their pent-up aggression out on them, dominating the match and adding a decisive win to their record.

With one win under their belt, EP proceded to the next stage of what they hoped would be domination of the night as Lars Manderson took on the Canadian Red Devil. Manderson was accompanied by Barry and told him before the match not to disappoint. But after a hard-fought match, the Devil tied Manderson up in a submission hold and forced the "immaculate" one to tap out. Barry was obviously upset at thisand shoved Manderson down before chewing him out for tapping out. He said he brought Manderson into the wrestling world and could take him out, then invited the other members of EP out. The Jet Setters confidently strolled to the ring and Jack Legacy took the microphone, saying it didn't feel good to be there and that Lars was a disgrace. Barry, Legacy and Dustin Heritage all verbally ran Manderson down in front of the assembled crowd and then Barry told Manderson to sit at ringside during his match and take notes "what you've been taught hasn't worked!".

At that point, music played and the crowd was surprised by the arrival of Jeff Starchild. Starchild, who hadn't competed in Oklahoma for 2 years, bounded down the ramp and said he was sorry to interrupt, but it was an honour to be there. He said he got a call from the Old School Express to come where wrestling was. Following Barry's protests that Starchild was "noone", Starchild told Barry to shut his mouth and declared that he would face Barry for the MWA Title that night! He guaranteed that he would be the star of the show anytime he was in the ring with Michael Barry.

That title shot didn't happen, as Barry was already signed to face Bobby V in a match. With Lars Manderson taking notes (after Barry had confiscated this reporter's notepad for him to use) and the Jet Setters at ringside watching, Bobby certainly felt the pressure, but put on a tremendous effort against the veteran champion. It wasn't long, though, before the "Saturday Night Special" was hit and the champion racked up another win. But as Barry was basking in the celebration of his win, Jeff Starchild appeared and attacked Michael Barry. The referee ordered the bell to ring and the match was on!! With no time to recover, Barry could hardly turn around before he was being pelted with blows from Starchild. Reeling from this attack, Barry couldn't defend himself. He soon found himself down and covered by Starchild and, to the delight of the crowd, his shouders were counted down for 3.

Starchild grabbed the MWA Title belt from the table and ran through the crowd, celebrating the victory. Meanwhile, Barry took the microphone from new MWA ring announcer Ray Martinez and demanded that Mike Iles resolve this situation. Iles calmly walked out as Barry was about to go into convulsions and told Iles that he had been robbed of his title and wanted it back. Iles took the microphone and said that before the "lovefest" involving EP had begun, Barry had said that he could beat "anyone in the arena". Iles clearly saw on the monitor in the back that Barry was pinned for a 3-count, so as far as he was concerned, Barry lost! Barry looked like he was about to have a stroke, but Iles then delivered the bad news: the match wasn't a sanctioned match. Therefore the title could not change hands and Starchild had to give it back. Starchild was obviously unhappy, but Iles tried to compensate for that by offering him a title shot at the next show. Starchild promised the crowd that there would be no excuses and next month, he would be "the star of the show".

EP would have one more payday that weekend as the Jet Setters (with Mike Iles at ringside) participated in a Triple Threat Match the next night at ComPro. Their opponents were Legion 13 (with Ray Martinez at ringside) and Dawn of Extreme. Martinez and Iles were certainly friendly at the beginning of the match and created what was essentially a 4-on-2 (6-on-2 if you count the managers) situation for DOX. But inevitably there came a moment where one member of Legion 13 was forced to be in the ring against a member of the Jet Setters. Martinez and Iles questioned each other at ringside briefly accusing each other of duplicity before Martinez pulled an envelope from his jacket and handing it to Iles. lles inspected the contents, then called Legacy & Heritage out of the ring and leaving the match. Now facing a 2-on-2 situation, DOX was still worn down, but found the strength to rebound and pull out a victory.

Obviously, the Jet Setters are thrilled with the increased income in their pockets, thanks to Mike Iles. But EP certainly have problems facing them. Barry must be concerned about the victory that Starchild was able to gain and the ineffectiveness of Lars Manderson in his match. The Jet Setters seem to have gained the most, both monetarily and with the tag team title shot in November. And then there is the question of Mike Iles. Although he appears to be abiding by the expectations of the MWA Board of Directors now, one has to wonder how long it will be before his allegiance to Excellence Personified overrides his common sense.

Tags: MWA, Michael Barry, Excellence Personified, ComPro, Mike Iles, Raymon Downey, Old School Express, Texas, Inc., Jet Setters, Jack Legacy, Jake Boulder, El Matadors, Lars Manderson, Canadian Red Devil, Dustin Heritage, Jeff Starchild, Bobby V, Ray Martinez,