No Punches Pulled with Mike Spinelli

[Robert Lotti]

Welcome to another edition of the No Punches Pulled interview series. In this edition, it's former NYWC heavyweight champion Mike Spinelli?

RL: Were you a wrestling fan growing up?
MS: I was born in New York and remember watching classic WWF stuff from the early 1990s. When my family moved down to North Carolina all my new frends that were into wrestling liked WCW so there always seemed to be a rivalry between me and them. Maybe me holding on to whatever northern loyalty I felt I should of had. I think Summerslam 1994 is the first pay per view I remember listening to on the scrambled channel trying to make out waht was going on. I guess when your doing that you must be a pretty dedicated fan. My uncle sent me a tape in the mail one day when I was in 4th grade all it said was "don't watch this in front of your Mom". It was the recap show of ECW November To Remember 1995 from the MSG network and every perception of what I thought was cool at th time was forever changed.

RL: When did you decide "I'm going to be a wrestler"?
MS: From the moment I saw that first ECW tape I begged my uncle to send me one every week. It changed the way I looked at wrestling and really made it seem like it could be a possibility as a career if you worked at it. I made sure to tell everyone who would listen that as soon as I finished school I was going to become a wrestler. Now keep in mind for the first 8 years of my life, I told everyone I was going to be an X-Man when I grew up and in most peoples minds the two had about the same chances of becoming a reality. It's a phase they said, he'll grow out of it was the common line at the time. Well fast forward a few years later, I'm 16 now I have a ring in my backyard and my friends and I have formed a backyard group doing the stupidest things you could ever imagine. Some local independent wrestler got a hold of one of our tapes and offered to train us for free. Bad sign to start with. About 2 weeks in one of my friends hit his head and got a severe brain injury, putting my training on hold for a while. No matter how much I tried to tell my Mom that it was a freak accident she didn't let me go back and wouldn't let me train until I was out of the house. Worked out for the better.

RL: How did you discover the NYWC academy?
MS: I couldn't wait to train. I graduated early just so I could get a head start. While I was still in school I used to visit New York a couple of times a year to visit my Dad and although he HATES wrestling, he would take me to a show every now and again. Luckily and just by chance of my visits I had him take me to an HWA show and it turned out to be the first ever Psycho Circus. Red & SAT were there, but the first guy I ever saw on that first ever ECW tape was there, Mikey Whipwreck! That night was unbelievable for me. It was the craziest match seen up to that point and as I stood with my jaw wide open for the entire match. My Dad froze his ass off and cursed under his breath about a bunch of thumbtacks that had fallen out of the ring. It cemented to me that New York was where I wanted to get trained and when I looked schools up here Critical Mass was the one that seemed to stick out. I came up here on vacation to check out the school and loved what I saw. It was really cool and I made up my mind right then that Critical Mass was the place for me. I moved up here 2 weeks later and sent them an email. I was ready to start and they told me that the school was closed! So here I am having just moved everything I had up here just for wrestling after I'm here I have no place to train. So I decided what the hell did I have to lose and went to an NYWC show just to see what iot was all about. Remember NYWC only was doing shows at the time, no training. So just by chance when I went I wore my old HWA T-shirt that I bought. Also by chance Robert Franklin was at the show, and having wreslted for HWA he started asking me about the shirt. I tell him my story and he tells me not to go and to stick it out a little while longer. He told me that NYWC was opening the school and he gave me his email. If not for him I would of been back home before I even knew that NYWC was starting a school.

RL: What were yout initial impressions of Mikey Whipwreck & Curse?
MS: Curse must of hated me lol. From March when I moved up here until my first day of training in August I must have sent him a hundred emails. I remember not really being sure if the new school was goingv to happen and being nervous that this one would blow up in my face just like last time. But true to his word the school opened exactly when he said. He was really cool to me an I still remember when he first told me about who was training. It was on instant messager I believe and it was at the end of the conversation he threw it out there like I guess figuring let me throw the kid a bone. It went "oh yeah by the way, the head trainer..." then a second delay, "Mikey Whipwreck" and he signed off. I was floored I mean for me personally it couldn'tof been scripted better if you tried. The 1st time I put my uncle's tape in I see this small guy holding up this heavyweigh belt and getting lifted onto everyone's shoulder in the most dangerous group on the planet. This was the guy who made me think that guys my size might have a shot(if you worked your ass off) and maybe the WWF path wasn't the only way to make it. So the first day of training I was like an hour early just anxious as hell and when he pulled up I was just thinking I hope he's as cool as I've made him out to be in my head all this time. He wasn't, he was even cooler.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: How tough was training?
MS: I was the first guy to sign up at the new school. It was just me and one other guy. So at first I wasn't sure how long it would really last, but every week we would get a few more students. Then as it got harder, we would lose some. Eventually that first class became myself, Stockade, and Billy & Danny Angus. We didn't really know each other at all but when you go through something as tough as training was you end up bonding really quick. If one of us couldn't do a certain part of cardio Mikey would have one of the others do double to pick up the slack. But it wasn't to punish us as much as it was to build trust and brotherhood and it worked. We would have run through a brick wall for each other. We didn't get to even touch the ring for about 3 months. We were just learning chain moves and basic holds. It was torture to set up that ring every time and not be able to go in and hit the ropes and take a bump. That's what it is, it's an honor to get in there and all the drills and all the tough cardio we had to do was completely worth it the second you stepped into that ring. Training was the toughest thing I've ever had to do, but that's what it should be and if it was watered down just to make sure everyone passed then it would have cheapened the experience.

RL: What your memories of your debut match against Stockade?
MS: Stockade and I were about 7 months in at the time and we were allowed to work out in the ring after our beginners calss was over. One day Mikey was watching us in there and liked what he saw and he called us outside. He told us that we were improving and that we were getting to be pretty decent. We thanked him for the compliment and he said "no problem, do that on the next show". We were both nervous as hell and wanted to go 100 miles an hour. The match itself was passable so for your first match you can't ask for much more than that. Besides the fact that I got to wrestle Stockade before he was breaking people's noses which is a plus. Just kidding Stockade is my boy and maybe the best pure wrestler in the company.

RL: What are your memories of you & Tony Burma vs. Mikey Whipwreck & Raven?
MS: No one in the crowd cared about Mike Spinelli and I think Tony was between opponents at the time so they asked me if he would be willing to teach me the ropes. Thank god for whoever suggested it and that Tony agreed. Besides Mikey, no one showed me as much as Burma did and he let me latch on to all the heat that he worked so hard to get. Mikey vs. Raven was being built up for a few weeks as the main event on the upcoming NYWC show. I was pumped as a fan just to see two of my absolute heroes mix it up live. The day of the show comes and I think Raven was hurt and couldn't do the kind of match he wanted to do with Mikey. So out of nowhere I hear him in the locker room say "hey Mikey, why don't we just team and beat up these two"? Burma and me were freaking out, was this really happening? Before I knew itin my 3rd match ever I'm in the ring with these two legends. Were some of the older guys rightfully upset that. Rookie was in there? Absolutely, but what was I going to do tell them no thanks? It was an amamzing night and I wouldn't change a thing. It was a real honor.

RL: What are your memories of Billy & Danny Angus?
MS: The NYWC school had 2 beginners classes at the time and those two trained in the one opposite Stockade and me. After only a few weeks, both beginners classes had their share of washouts and before long there were only enough students left for one class. I remember seeing those two for the first time thinking "Christ they're big for 16". They were agile as hell and strong as could be and in the ring they seemed like they had unlimited potential. Outside of the ring they were great too. Had a lot of fun times out in Great Neck with those guys. Not sure who's to blame for their exit from the company but I know I was one of the saddest guys to see them leave.

RL: What are your memories of Foxy Dreams & Damien Dragon?
MS: Never really got to know either one of them all that well although I know both of them were there long before I was and always were super polite and never looked down on any of the new guys. I started out my first Psycho Circus match as the first guy out there and was against Damien. We worked alright together although I was still really new and coulld have done better. Hope those two are doing alright.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of Ken Scampi?
MS: Oh dear Kenneth. I guess this is where I could go into how he tormented all the greenhorns and beat on us relentlessly. At least that's how it felt at the time but then you realized he was doing it for a reason and it would serve to help you in the long run. Like one time I'm in practice with him and every time I try to get up he's pulling my hair as hard as he can and it feels like he's going to scalp me. So by the time I'm tagged out my head is numb and he comes up to me and tells me next time someone pulls your hair, grab their wrists and they won't be able to pull any further than you let them. It wasn't him being a bully(although he was good at it if he wanted to), it was him just teaching me a lesson that sunk in a lot better by showing me rather than telling me.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of Dan Barry?
MS: That first NYWC show I went to as a fan I remember seeing Dan fight against Affirmative Action and they did this awesome spot where they pulled him out of the cormer while he was laying against the bottom turnbuckle and he did a full back flip into a front bump. I would go on to see Dan do something equally as cool if not
more so in every match he ever had when I was there. To say I patterned my style after his would be an understatement. I just watched what he was doing and tried to do maybe a quarter of it. I always liked to think I was wrestling a watered down Dan Barry styl. Maybe not true but I liked to think it none the less. I heard he was trying to be a comedian these days and took a ride out to see him perform and was happy to see he was really funny. Of course he was though. Dan's good at everything he tries.

RL: What are your memories of Matt Striker?
MS: He was the man around NYWC when I first started there. He & Mason Raige were the two guys that you took one look at and thought that they could get to the WWE based on just the look. Then you found out that Striker could outwork just about everyone on the roster and it was no-brainer. This guy wasn't going to be around unsigned for too much longer. Happy for him that everything is working out the way it is and wish him all the success in the world. He did make me buy him dinner once and told me it was something all the greenhorns had to do. Strangely though I don't remember anyone else picking up the check.

RL: What are your memories of SAT?
MS: I first saw those two on that HWA show I attended and afterwards I went back to North Carolina and told all my wrestling friends about them and Amazing Red. Within a couple of months of that show, all three had blown up on the indy scene and just did things that you never had seen before. When I met them at the NYWC school for he first time they just got in there and started showing everyone these amazing spots that no one could believe and it was just second nature to them. They also had this kind of enthusiasm that made you want to be better when they were around. Like the time they convinced me to try an Asai moonsault from the ring apron to the outside. I was scared to death but with those two assuring me that it would be fine and pumping me up I never really had a choice. Somehow I landed it perfectly but I never attempted it again. Those guys could motivate you to just go for things you diidn't think were possible. They really clicked and had good chemistry with The Angus Brothers and Javi-Air & James Newblood.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of Grim Reefer?
MS: A really good dude always offered me help if I needed it. I remember when I was just getting to be on shows before I reamed with Burma. Mikey asked me who I would like to wrestle if I got to pick, just as a hypothetical. Without hesitation I said Reefer. Mikey laughed and told me I was nowhere near ready and he would eat me up in there. He was right and he would have made me look foolish in there. Too bad we never did get to have that "dream" match lol.

RL: What are your memories of Jerry Lynn?
MS: Jerry was another one of my all time favorites and I had a Jerry Lynn T-shirt I used to wear to training every now and again. A few months after I got on shows they told us Jerry was coming to teach a seminar at the school. How awesome to not only work on the same show as this guy, but to get trained by him too. Then the day before he was going to come, Mikey told me to mke sure I wore my Jerry Lynn shirt to the seminar as a rib. Ugh, I felt like a tool and was sure Jerry would think I was some kind of kiss ass. Next day comes, Jerry walks down the line meeting everyone takes one look at my shirt and just shakes his head in disgust. I could have died right then and there! I told him later I was forced to wear it and went on to actually have a couple of really awesome times getting to hang out with Jerry at shows. Victory Through Self Destruction, that's what the back of the shirt said. I always thought it was the perfect definition of his style and I tried to use just a little bit of that in my matches.

RL: What are your memories of The Dead Presidents?
MS: Had a couple of pretty good matches with those guys and also did some cool stuff against both of them in the Circus one year. Boogalou could go move for move with just about anyone and some of his power moves and suplexes were just devastating. Lo Rida was the speed and the agility and those two were a really good pairing. It was almost like Burma and me where the one guy would pick up the slack where the other one lacking.

RL: What are your memories of Xavier?
MS: Never really had any experiences with Xavier. I knew who he was for sure, but I don't remember him being around when I was there other than sporadically. Think I heard he was doing MMA fighting now and dominating people. Which isn't surprising seeing that he was always intimidating.

RL: What are your memories of Spyder?
MS: Three things I always think about when talking about Spyder. First, he made me awesome wrestling gear and can take any design you give him and bring it to life. Two, his springboard 450 splash was unbelievablly pretty for a guy his size. Lastly, he seemed like he always had some kind of new move he wanted to try that always ended up hurting worse than the last. He also came through for me recently whn my friend Brandon Alpha needed some gear made up for his debut, like always Spyder did an awesome job.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of Spike Dudley?
MS: Put Spike down in the same category as Jerry & Raven as guys I always looked up to and hoped to meet one day. I was really luck to meet all these guys and have most of them be really cool. I told Spike when I first met him that I remebered some chokeslam he took on Raw years back from The Undertaker over the top rope to the floor. I let him know that me and all my buddies from North Carolina thought it was crazy and even though the announcers didn't make a big deal out of it, it didn't go unappreciated. He didn't know what to say at first because I probably should have started our conversation with "hello" but he thanked me, actually laughed and went on to tell me all about the bump. He was also responsible for getting Stockade, The Angus Brothers, & myself booked in TRPW a few times.

RL: What are your memories of Psycho Circus 2006?
MS: The circus was a HUGE deal for me. As I was saying before I was at the very first one live just by chance and it really made a lasting impression. When I found out that NYWC had continued the tradition that HWA started I immenidately made it one of my goals to be involved in some way. For the 2005 circus I had only been training for a few months and they had Stockade and me go out and hold up the cage to make sure it didn't tip over. That would have been cool enough, at the time we thought that was the tip of the iceburg lol. Then a year later I have worked my way onto shows and luckily they put me with Burma and we get on somewhat of a hot
streak so they tell us we're in the circus. It was a really important night for me and it really meant a lot that they could handle being the first guy in knowing that I might have to almost an hour. Then midway through I get cut and pulled from the match and saw everything falling apart right in front of me. So the doctor is wrapping up my head and telling me to stay out of the ring, when I see him turn his bacl I just give a look over to Shane who is holding a huge ladder and just giving me a look back kind of like "if you want to, go for it". It really cemented what I thought my character could and should be. I owe Shane one for believing that I knew my own body and letting me finish the match.

RL: What are your memories of Plazma?
MS: Everyone's first thought of Plazma at first was what a goofball. Just laid back and easy going, until he got in the ring. He was really awesome and up for anything. The crazier the spot, the more reversals, no matter how dangerous, he could go move for move and beat you to the punch every time. I probably had my best pure wrestling matches of my career with him and he is 100 percent the reason why. Also won my first belt wrestling him, and that was at the top of my list of goals. No matter waht company or what strap, just win a belt. He just elevated whoever he was in there with, and this was still early on in his career. One of those guys where you just knew he had the talent and if he wanted to, it was there.

RL: What are your memories of Brett Matthews & Brian Myers?
MS: Almost the exact same thing as Plazma. It was really great getting to work them and I would be lying if I said I didn't totally feel outclassed when I was in the ring with them. Burma & Crusher helped me through it and we walked out with the belts. It was really cool to be able to hold those with Burma and at the time I felt our team was really firing on all cylinders. Also on that show were Sabu & Rhino, neither of which were particularly cool to me but it was really grat being in the same locker room as them.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of Dan Dynasty & Jamie Van Lemer?
MS: Those guys were a good team and had similar styles and builds as I did so I felt it was a pretty good match. They had that cartwheel double superkick which was nice as hell. Both of them were capable of turning in a really good performance especially Dan.

RL: What are your memories of Bruno Marciano?
MS: Bruno can be mistaken for a 65 year old man and when you get in the ring with him you might be nervous to break his hip. Then he's got you wrapped up in the craziest submission move you've ever seen, while you're starting to realize he's really only 25. Seriously though right from the start you knew he was the NYWC's American Dragon. No matter how blatant it was, everyone takes something from someone. At least he did it really well.

RL: What are your memories of Benny Martinez?
MS: Benny really came into his own after I left the company. I've only heard good things about him and I know he was getting booked in other places so that says a lot about someone's work. Outside of the ring you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

RL: What are your memories of Psycho Circus 2007?
MS: My second Circus was just as big a deal to me as the first. I had the crowd on my side this time and I remember starting the match out maybe like 6th instead of 1st so I had a lot more energy. My first second in the match I gave Danny Angus a Cactus Clothesline over the barbed wire ropes and that set the tone for how the night would go. There was a ton of blood again which didn't bother me one bit, I was just nervous the doctor might take me out like the year before. So I had a ringside fan tie a piece of cloth around my head to cover up all the color. Came down to Dickie & me at the end which was fortelling the year to come I guess. A couple of thumbtacks, a little barbed wire and the Circus was over for another year.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of King Mega?
MS: Is there a scarier guy to be across the ring from an angry King Mega? Is he ever not angry? He's always screaming! There's only so much you can do when you're matched up against somone like him. You duck, you try and take your shots,and then you run. Eventually you get caught and you just hope it's over quick and you wake up in one piece. On a sidenote, when I hear the tag team name "The King & I" I almost pissed myself laughing. That kind of wit must have come from someone with as much useless movie trivia knowledge as me. Alex Reynolds? In all seriousness though ib have a ton of respect for Mega.

RL: What are your memories of Joey Matthews?
MS: You see in theast question where I had a ton of repsect for Mega, make sure you don't confuse that with Joey. When I was a kid in North Carolina I use to go watch the local indy shows. On those shows were The Hardy Boys, Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, Christian York, & Joey Matthews. When Joey was first brought into NYWC I told him all about this and he was super cool even hung out with him that night and heard a ton of great stories. When he was brought back a few months later and I was told I could work him it was a huge thing for me. Then Joey showed up to the building and was completely different from the guy I had met months before. He stayed away from all the boys, kept to himself, and didn't want to really be bothered. Maybe he was bitter about just being let go by the WWE. Maybe he was having a bad day, who knows but this guy preceded to hand me my head for no apparent reason other than he could. Beat me up bad enough that I had to sit out the next night when I was supposed to team with Jerry Lynn. He took that away from me because he decided to be a prick. One of those guys that you looked up to and ended up being a major let down.

RL: What are your memories of feuding with Tony Burma?
MS: Feuding with Burma? Really, that's what you want to know about? The dude pinned me with a clawhold. Don't make me relive that moment. I can tell you about when we teamed. That he took some greenhorn snot nosed scrub and made him into someone who could put on a decent match and make sure everyone walked out of the ring ok. Inside the ring we just clicked. He called our styles something similar to a porsche and a tank. One of us sleek and speedy the other one just big and ready to tear shit up. Outside the ring we clicked even more. He saw me through more than a few rough nights and made sure I saw the sun come up the next day. When they first asked him to team with me I was happy that I wouldn't get beat up in practice by him anymore. That was just a bonus though because without a doubt. Tony is to thank for a lot of the things I was lucky enough to do.

RL: What are your memories of winning the NYWC title from Dickie Rodz?
MS: Probably the biggest night of my wrestling career. When I started training I had a goal of just making it on a show. Then it was doing the Circus, and then winning any belt. It would change every now and again but to actually have the top belt in a company as great as NYWC really wasn't something I thought was possible. I mean I feuded with Dickie for almost 9 months and he always walked away with the belt. By the time that match rolled around I didn't know what I would have to do to take the belt off of him. He had it for over a year and earned the nickname "Superstar". When the referee counted 3 I can guarantee that I was the most surprised guy in the house. The guys coming in the ring to hoist me up was a great touch and Mikey handing me the belt meant everything. Unfortunately I was going through a lot of shit at the time personally. Where as winning the belt should have been my wake up call to cut it out and grow up. I was so warped in my thinking at the time that I figured if I can accompish all this the way I am now I guess I don't have to change. BIG mistake.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: What are your memories of losing the NYWC title from Quiet Storm?
MS: This goes back to the end of the last question. I didn't carry that belt like a champion should of. Especially following up a reign like Dickie's. I should have put more effort into it and done the work but I was just so out of it at the time that I couldn't see it. Fortunately though for the company they put it on guy who deserved it a thousand times more than I ever did. If you have to drop the strap then Quiet Storm is the guy I would have wanted to lose it to. I should have been better for the company in that time. They gave me the ball to run with it and I fumbled it big time. I didn't meat to put John, Shane, & Mikey in a bad spot. I was just in such a bad one myself at the time that I was so dumb and numb to realize how much damage I could have caused. Now that's something I have to live with and those guys should know that I did really appreciate the chance even if I wasn't able to fully show them at the time.

RL: What are your memories of winning a battle royal and your match with Eddie Guapo in January 2008?
MS: Fuzzy.

RL: What are your memories of Psycho Funkin' Circus?
MS: My friend Brandon Alpha was in town from Pennsylvania that weekend to hang out and see the show. He says now that he could tell I wasn't into it the same way I had been even just a year prior. I used to get to the building pretty early but on this day I just couldn't pump myself up to get going. That's a really bad sign to start. Now add to the fact that it's the circus match which as I've already said is a huge deal to me. Then just a topper you have Terry Funk coming out during the match. I mean if you can't get up for that you shouldn't be in the business and that thought stayed with me. The match itself was not my best performance and I should have done more. Truth be told I was just going through the motions. It was more about how quick we could go out after the show then actually putting on the match. As I was laid out on the broken table after I was eliminated I had a sense that I was done and this is the way my character should go out. I guess almost like a full circle type of thing, watching the first circus live at 15 to ending my short lived career in a Circus 7 years later.

[Robert Lotti]

RL: Why did you leave NYWC?
MS: At the time if you would have asked me I would of told you I lost my heart and soul for the business. You need both and you have to give every ounce of both if you want o be successful. When you're not willing to do that anymore it's time to go. Those reasons were both accurate but what I should have done is try to figure out why I suddenly lost my desire to give it my all. I wouldn't do that for a few months after I left the company. I hit rockbottom and admitted I needed help. Luckily I have the best wife in the world who stuck by me through all my bull shit. With her help and the help of my Dad, I slowly came back from the dead. It wasn't that I lost my heart an soul for wrestling, I had lost them in general. I used to love my routine of going to the shows, having a great match, going out after, having a blast and then having Stockade give me a ride home. It started to get to where I looked forward to the party more than the matches. The classic stupid sterotype of the wrestler who liked to casually party turning into a partier who liked to casually wrestle.

RL: Word Association-Mikey Whipwreck
MS: Mentor. Miss him and I wish we talked more.

RL: Curse
MS: Tough guy, can you think of anyone else who was on Team Taz and made it through the ECW school?

RL: Crusher Doogan
MS: Teacher. Took the BS Xpress to the next level and got us a ton of heat when we needed it.

RL: Tony Burma
MS: Brother. Took care of me in and out of the ring. The pleasure was all mine and I never had as much fun in wrestling as I did while part of. Our team.

RL: Papadon
MS: Hybrid. Shouldn't be allowed to be this good at so many different styles.

RL: Stockade
MS: Life Saver. His matches are probably the most fun for me to watch personallly(see him vs. Eddie Kingston), but it's the way he constantly kept me out of trouble that is more impressive lol.

RL: Syther
MS: Fearless. I tried to go out of my way when I was with the company to take the bumps that other people thought twice about. Syther tales the kind of bumps I would think twice about.

RL: Tony Nese
MS: Total Package, kind of like Lex Luger. But a Lex Luger who could work his ass off and he deserved to be signed. Should have happened sooner.

RL: Steve Forge
MS: Class Act. One of the few true nice guys in the business who doesn't have an agenda. He just does it because he wants to. No one can say a bad thing about Forge.

RL: What do you think of people who fake post on message boards?
MS: Do people actually do that? If anyone doesn't like what I wrote can we just say someone fake posted this interview?

RL: What do you think of the NYWC message board?
MS: I think it's a really valuable asset to the company that should be utilized more. It looks like it took a lot of time to set up and keep running and that kind of fan support shouldn't go unnoticed. I hope it can grow in members and really be the best spot for NYWC information.

RL: What do you miss about NYWC?
MS: I miss the boys and the common goal we all shared to put on the best show we could and make the company better and better. Looks like it worked too because when I left it was one show a month. Now their at 3 or 4 and that's great. I look back on my career like a match. You light it and it's a qucik flash and then it disintegrates. That's cool with me because there are a ton of guys who would kill to have had that flash.

RL: Is there anything you'd like to say to the fans?
MS: I'd like to thank them for any support they have given me through the years and I was really shocked to see this email saying people were wondering what I was up to. It's a nice feeling to knowing you made a lasting impression and I'm sorry for letting down anyone who ever put any faith into me. The fans paid money to see someone give 100 percent and towards the end of my time with the company they got less than that. I'd also like to say I have over three years now of being on the straight and narrow, not even drinking! I hope this was what everyone was hoping for. Sorry if it came off like I had a lot to say but this was my chance to clear the air. I'm glad I got to get that off my chest. Thanks again to Robert for taking the time with the interview and the message board. Thanks to the fans for being great over the years. Most importantly thanks to Mikey, Shane, & John for everything. You can have the best wrestlers in the world but without the vision and planning, your promotion can turn into just another one of the countless shitty indy feds. Those guys are still kicking ass after all this time.

RL: Thank you so much Mike.

[Uninvited]

This was a very interesting interview. Spinelli pretty much buried Joey Matthews. I'm glad he managed to get help fo his problems before it was too late.