Roppongi Nice

It’s been a long time, but not really. Two years is nothing in the grand scheme right? And this is a grand scheme. A social network post flickers into your timeline, reposted by OCWFED, Gabe Seltzer, SomeDQs.com… they’re all carrying the story - the video of a man thought lost to the annals of OCW lore… you might have all stopped listening, but he sure as shit didn’t shut his mouth.

Tokyo. Roppongi to be precise. Paul Pugh is standing outside a club, wrapped in neon glows. He’s old, in a young man’s scene, but this city knows him, it embraces him. A warm hug. His journey back started here… and tonight… well I’ll let him tell you.

Pugh: OCW. It’s been a long time. Two years. Two long years. And I didn’t miss you for a solitary second.

Pugh: One thing to make clear. I’m not back for you. I’m not back for the fans, the locker room... Whatever. I could care less. I’m back for one thing.

Pugh: Sensation called me. He said to me “Paul, we’re putting a show together and there’s a boatload of money” and I put that phone down. See, we’re not on the best of terms. I don’t like Jaysin Sensation. I don’t have time for Jaysin Sensation. I don’t need a boatload of money. I went about my business and then about a month ago I got another call.

Pugh: “Paul I want you to…” I put it down again. I didn’t want to hear from him… but that one night, I happened to be sitting in a bar in Manchester. I happened to see the second half of Summercide - I’m told the first half was nothing to write home about.

He grins

Pugh: Maxx Edwards was on the screen. He had this big hype video. The fans were electric, he stepped onto the stage to a rapturous reception - that crowd was desperate to see him win the big one. I was transfixed, I sat and I watched an OCW match for the first time since I left two years ago. Here’s this kid - top of his game, ready to dethrone the… and then he got his shit pushed in. Quickly. Ruthlessly.

He grins again

Pugh: By Harvey. The kid that nervously shook my hand years ago in a random locker room in Bumblefuck, Nowhere. Could’ve been a Riot taping, could’ve been a Turmoil, who even knows at that point. But I watched him. I saw him arrive, I saw him introduce himself, I saw him working up the courage. He puffed out his chest and marched over to me and he introduced himself as Harvey. I told him that was a shit name and he should change it.

Pugh: Later that night, we wrestled. And we had a barnstormer.

Pugh: Harvey has natural instincts. Harvey is a stupendous wrestler. Harvey earned my respect that night. So much so that I walked back through the curtain and I told Sensation “we’re fighting at the PPV”. And we did. And he shit the bed. Like he’s done time and time again against me. He gets shy. He can’t cope… I am the antidote to Harvey and he hates it. He can’t stand it. It’s something that he’s struggled with for years.

Pugh: This isn’t a story about how I taught Harvey everything he knows - he wasn’t in my school, I didn’t meet him once, take his $1000 and create some backstory when he finally got to the big leagues. We’ve had a true, organic rivalry for over half a decade. We’ve shed blood, sweat and tears in the last 5 years. I took the World Title away from him in 2018. I’ve been a thorn in his side every time he got ahead. I promised him that I always would be.

Pugh: …and watching him stomp Maxx’s head in… I realised he’s got ahead again.

Pugh: So I picked up the phone, I called Sensation and I told him I’d be in Japan and he should make sure that Harvey is there too. And here we are.

Pugh: See. When I saw something in Harvey all those years ago, I also saw that he’d need to be humbled every now and then. And locker room… you’ve failed in doing that. You’ve outed yourselves as being useless. Harvey is not a god, yet you let him run roughshod over you all.

He sighs

Pugh: So here we are 2022. Kid Ego himself walking back into a show weekend…

Pugh: And It’s not about anything other than me and the kid I met in 2017. The kid that is seemingly head and shoulders above all of you. The kid that needs reminding how scared he felt that first night. How he’s felt every time he’s had to face me. This isn’t about titles. Leather and Gold. Accolades. This isn’t about Kasstianity.

Pugh: This is about a near 50-year-old man showing up to beat the brakes off of the best current-day OCW has to offer, just to prove I can. Just to put Harvey back in his place.

Pugh: This will be the mother of all Ego trips… and come Saturday Night, you’re all along for the ride - whether you like it or not.

Pugh: See you Saturday Harvey.

The video stops abruptly as your screen returns back to the social network. The likes and reposts are rising. Anticipation is rising. The Red Sun is Rising.