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Heritage Can't Win For Losing In Oklahoma

Posted: Mar 4th 2012 By: CMBurnham

When knowledgeable individuals were questioned about the fasting rising stars on the Oklahoma wrestling scene in 2010 and 2011, one of the names all could agree on was Dustin Heritage.

Now, that doesn't seem to be the case any more.

It's odd to see someone's career crash and burn so quickly. Dustin has been successful wherever he went, holding titles and drawing attention to himself with outstanding performances in the ring. His feuds with such stars as Blake Albright, Kenny Campbell and his trainer Michael Barry are just a few of the recogniseable accomplishments in his brief career.

But the events since September show a man who just can't seem to string together the success ratio he had before. And something drastic needs to change for him to rise back to the top of state's best wrestlers.

In September, Heritage and Campbell shocked the world when they revealed themselves to be the newest inductees into the Future Hall of Famers, under the guidance of Brad Michaels. All 3 men were also members of Excellence Personified, so it's not as if this came out of nowhere, but Heritage had always been a crowd favourite in IZW. Just one week later, Heritage and Campbell defeated John O'Malley in a handicap match. And then...both men were gone from the company never to return. Heritage tied the record for most Impact Division Titles (5, the same as Campbell) and in an instant for whatever reason, he decided he didn't want the exposure of the audience watching every week on GFL.tv.

Heritage was still a regular in MWA, though. He had lost the MWA MAX-Division Title to Michael Barry in a Ladder Match in September and lost the rematch to Barry the next month. In November, he put Jason Jones out of commission, viciously injuring his eye. It seemed that Heritage might be showing more hunger and looking towards MWA Champion Jeff Starchild. But then...MWA ceased operations after the November show. And Dustin's dream of being a top-level Heavyweight Champion were yanked out from under him.

After November 4th, Dustin didn't return to Oklahoma soil for 4 months, but that didn't mean he was inactive. In MStW, he captured the Independent Wrestling International Title, a title not bound to any one federation, but recognised through all independent wrestling here and overseas. Most recently, Heritage had been challenged for that title by BYEW Caution Champion The Canadian Red Devil at the MStW events in Harrison, AR. The Devil came close on several occasions, but could never quite capture that gold. So on February 25, when MStW made its Oklahoma debut, the Devil received another opportunity at the title in the opening match against Heritage, who was accompanied by Katy.

Heritage wasted no time in making it known that he had no tolerance for the crowd, stating that he wanted to bring them all gifts, but he couldn't pack bathtubs for everyone. After the Devil entered the ring, things took a very different turn from Heritage as he clearly knew momentum wasn't on his side. Every opportunity he had, he ran from the Devil, cowering in the ropes and on the outside. Ever the experienced veteran, the Devil eventually connected with the Faceplant From Hell and had Heritage pinned for the win. But Katy, using her feminine wiles, distracted referee Chance Snodgrass and kept that pin from being counted. When the Devil got up to get Snodgrass turned around, Heritage used that opportunity to schoolboy the Devil and pull some tights, getting a cheap win but holding on to his precious title. This gave the Devil his first recorded loss in 2012. But things were over between the two of them.

Acting MStW commissioner Jason Jones came out and said that he saw everything that happened backstage on the monitor. He was not going to tolerate those kinds of shenanigans while he was in charge and ordered a rematch to be held later in the card. Since Katy insisted on making her presence known, Jones had someone to counter her in the form of WWE Legend "Hacksaw" Butch Reed! The crowd went wild at the announcement, knowing that the former football player at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M would be making an appearance and Heritage's chances of walking away with gold had just gotten even slimmer.

When all parties involved arrived at the ring, Reed announced to the crowd that there would be no interference from Katy with him around. That didn't end up being quite true as Katy still managed to get her grubby little paws on the Devil several times. Heritage wanted to try and make this a repeat of the earlier match, even to the point of attempting the schoolboy/pulled tights pin that had worked for him before. But the Devil kicked out at 2. Katy then grabbed the International Title belt and went to do something with it, but the referee and Butch Reed cut her off. Devil then made Heritage taste some of his own medicine as he schoolboyed the champion (without the tight-pulling) and pinned him for the belt! Heritage was embarrassed, irate and had lost the one thing giving him hope in the wrestling game. And he tried to take his frustration out on Butch Reed. But Reed would have none of that and introduced Heritage's face to one of his "soup bone" fists, knocking Heritage to the ground.

Heritage probably thought that was the end of the humiliation for him, but the main event was still to come. An over-the-top-rope Battle Royal featuring most of the stars that had appeared earlier on the card. Heritage wasn't actually in the event, but since he was still at ringside when it started, he decided to try and redeem himself by entering the fray. And it looked like things were going to work out for him as the final 4 competitors were himself, Michael Barry and the Southern Tag Team champions The Spine Busters, Tim Rockwell & Cast-Iron Cothern. Barry took out the tag champs and almost got thrown out by Heritage at that moment. He was able to rally from that, but again, got laid out by a Code Breaker from Heritage. Heritage knew he had to redeem himself and get himself some sort of win before the night was over, but it just wasn't going to be the case this night as a slight miscalculation from Heritage saw him sailing over the top rope and Michael Barry standing proud in the middle of the ring.

It seems that Heritage has no future in the state. He has made no statements about competing for any of the 9 federations that run shows on Oklahoma soil. He does plan to continue to appear at MStW in Arkansas as well as Traditional Championship Wrestling in the same state. But it seems that the rising star that took Dustin Heritage so far up has now plummeted as far as his Oklahoma career goes.