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O’Brien Victorious Over One Pillar, Falls to Another

Posted: Jul 3rd 2018 By: Michael Hunt

Success can bring support. And it can also bring jealousy. Both of these factors have been present recently for ASP Champion O’Brien.

O’Brien defeated a game but inexperienced Tristan Thorne for the ASP Title in February and over the past 4 months has met challenger after challenger. All of them have gone down in defeat.

But one of the men who had not received a title opportunity was former ASP Champion Prince Mahalli. Thorne defeated Mahalli for the title, but because O’Brien had won a Gauntlet match in December, he became the automatic #1 contender to the ASP title, trumping Mahalli’s title rematch. And given Mahalli’s highly-in-demand schedule with WCR, it seemed like perhaps he was never going to an opportunity to regain what he felt he should never have lost.

So fate dropped several prizes in the lap of Mahalli and his manager, Mohammad burn Ham, on June 25th. The absence of ASP 5-Star Champion Double D meant that a scheduled 2-out-of-3 Falls match between him and Gemini [2nd] would not take place. Burn Ham took that opening and negotiated with the ASP Board of Directors to have his match with O’Brien turned into a 2-out-of-3 Falls match. This way, in burn Ham’s mind, there could be no fluke victories and Mahalli would prove beyond any doubt that he was the better man.

So the match was announced and both men came out for the main event. Mahalli matched O’Brien move for move and looked to be confounding the champion, but O’Brien was able to turn the tables and hoist Mahalli up in position for a Tombstone Piledriver. Burn Ham, fearing the worst, hopped up on the ring apron, which caused O’Brien to drop the challenger. Mahalli, seeing no other option, ran up to O’Brien from behind, shoving him into burn Ham from behind and knocking him hard off the apron and onto the floor. But it allowed Mahalli to roll O’Brien up and score the first pinfall.

The collision also seemed to negate burn Ham as a factor, as he appeared to injure his knee and had to get a chair to sit in for the remainder of the match. And while he probably questioned his decision to make this a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match since his man had won the first fall, he could do nothing but sit back and watch from a distance, hoping that Mahalli would make it two straight. That was not in the cards, as O’Brien was able to rally and even things up. This sent the match into the third fall and things became more and more intense with each near-fall scored. But then, with Mahalli down and O’Brien preparing to perhaps polish him off, burn Ham signaled towards the curtain and out came Angel Camacho! Camacho, who had beaten Gemini [2nd] to a near pulp earlier in the show, stood with his eyes locked on O’Brien and as the fans watched that, burn Ham (who had been faking the knee injury the whole time) hopped up and threw his cane into the ring to Mahalli. Mahalli then yelled at O’Brien to get his attention and charged at him with the cane, but the champion ducked and Mahalli collided the cane with Camacho’s forehead, knocking him off the ring apron! Burn Ham went to tend to Camacho and O’Brien put Mahalli’s down and pinned him to retain the title.

And then the aftermath occurred. While O’Brien was celebrating his victory, Camacho hit the ring and began to obliterate the champion. Putting all of his 400+lbs. to great use, Camacho slammed, splashed and looked to sideline his prey. After laying him out on the mat, Camacho then climbed to the top rope, peparing to dive off and put O’Brien in the hospital. But burn Ham mercifully interceded, tellng Camacho not to go that far. As Camacho climbed down, burn Ham grabbed the microphone and informed everyone in attendance that THIS had been the plan all along. Burn Ham knew that Mahalli’s schedule would not allow him to be present to defend the title regularly, so there was no real embarrassment in losing this match to O’Brien. What it was meant to do was to soften the champion up for next month, when O’Brien would have to meet Angel Camacho for the ASP Title! And as the show ended, Camacho, Mahalli and burn Ham stood victorious over a fallen champion, who couldn’t even hold his title.

Rumour has it that O’Brien suffered internal injuries as a result of the attack and his current status is unknown. But regardless of his physical condition, he will either have to step in the ring on July 29th to face the biggest challenger to his title so far or he will have to forfeit the title to the same person. Either way, on the surface, it appears that the ASP fans may have a new champion to toast come July. And that champion will demand that they all hail Mohammad.