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Origins
Oct 25, 2010 16:42:06 GMT -6
Post by Spike Kane on Oct 25, 2010 16:42:06 GMT -6
Spike Kane: Origins Part 1 Let me tell you a story…..The origins of my family within the wrestling industry aren’t exactly hidden. Our story has been used and abused in several federations over the past. I’ve been wrestling since late October back in 1996, but the rest that followed, you never could have predicted it. A humble family in Ireland, a father who had grown up to hate the English had become a freedom fighter, assassinated. A Mother who couldn’t cope with the grief committed suicide. That left three children, Brad, Freya and myself, the way we were separated was inhumane. Brad was sent to the states to live with our aunt and uncle. Freya was sent to an insane asylum, but this isn’t there story. This is the story of the one who was sent to an Orphanage. It was around ’85 or ’86 that it happened, I was sent to a place in Birmingham, England. For weeks I never left my room, torn up with grief for my parents and being ripped apart from my brother and sister. The worst was yet to come however, after a few weeks I began to notice things. Some of the kids would disappear during the day and the next time you saw them they would have bruises and cuts, sometimes you wouldn’t even see them. Curiosity began to get the better of me and to this day I just wish I’d never tried to find out what was going on. The head orderly went by the name Conrad Jones. At the time I had no idea that the name would have a profound effect on my life from that day onwards. I followed them down the stairs one time, I didn’t know they’re names; I hadn’t bothered to find them out. I didn’t care, that was why. They lead me downstairs underneath the orphanage into a large room. The room itself was plain and spartan, a few punching bags here and there, one or two sets of free weights and a small circular pit. The things he made us do down here pull at my heartstrings even now, they nauseate me even now. Conrad Jones was a sick man who abused the children under his care physically and ….sexually. When he wasn’t in the mood he would make us fight each other, and in that forum of blood and concrete I found a bond of friendship that would span decades and shape the future of five young children. It was here that I came across Carl Foster known as Xcon, Triple D (known only to me at the time as ‘D) Milo Holland and, Dave Holland. Milo, Dave, Carl and I seemed to gravitate towards each other. We seemed to be very similar in the way we tried to live our lives. We didn’t want to fight, but we knew we had too, so we began to train with each other. We began to spend our days together in the Jones Dungeon and outside of it too. After a while we became our own little family four brothers who would do anything for each other, but as there is with most stories there was another side to it. ‘D didn’t gravitate towards people, he had an aura about him, and some would say looking back that it was power, others would say it was evil. All I knew is that he was trouble, and he didn’t like me. ‘D made sure I as aware of this with any opportunity he got, whether it was knocking my lunch to the floor in the cafeteria, tripping me up when we were doing laps, or sabotaging my room. He was a real piece of work, and I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone. Sadly, so did Conrad, and he used it to his advantage.
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Origins
Oct 25, 2010 16:43:32 GMT -6
Post by Spike Kane on Oct 25, 2010 16:43:32 GMT -6
Spike Kane: Origins Part II A few years later Milo and Dave Holland left the Orphanage as Dave had turned 18. They were taken in by a women known only to me as "Ma" and took an instant liking to Milo and Dave. She was like an angel saving these poor kids from the horrible life they were living. She was always kind to me and the times I ever went to their place she treated me just like a son….but they day Milo and Dave left I hated their guts. How couldn’t I? They had just taken away two of my closest and best friends. For weeks I hated thm, I look back on it now and know that I was wrong to feel that way. I was wrong because Milo and Dave finally had a life, she gave them a loving home and I sit here happy in the knowledge that they got that because they deserved it. A few days afterwards though I found out that a foster parent was actually due to come and see me instead of some other kid. Rumour was that somebody had deliberately switched the files around, it only took a little ego stroking and specific questions asked before I found out it was ‘D who did it. Carl tried to calm me down, but he didn’t realise that something was going on, for some reason ‘D was trying to take my friends away from me. I confronted him and he swung for me, luckily my friend James who had become part of the group once the Holland’s left was there to back me up. That was of course, till later that same day. Conrad Jones had a favourite, it was no secret, everybody knew it, and everybody knew it was ‘D. ‘D had been speaking to Conrad and later when we were all dragged into the basement once again he forced me and James to fight, he forced us to fight hard. I refused and got beat, he tried again and I refused. Eventually James begged me to fight and when I saw the smirking face of ‘D I lost control, my temper flew completely and I almost destroyed one of my closest friends. The fight was brutal and gritty and although I may have ‘won’ the fight, I knew in the end that I had lost. James swears to this day that it didn’t change our friendship, that we’re still good friends, but ever since that day I saw the fear in his eyes, I saw the fear of the monster I held inside me. To be honest, I think a part of me was too. The fateful day came eventually though, I was almost sixteen years old and something snapped inside me. I’d had enough of ‘D and Conrad’s games. I fought back, I hit Conrad as hard as I could with everything I had because I knew if I didn’t I’d suffer tenfold when he got back up. It’s a weird thing, thinking back on it. I don’t know what it was exactly that made me finally snap, whether or not it was one specific thing or just a build up of years of abuse, but I couldn’t take it any more. After moving our “extra curricular” activities towards a more wrestling based scenario he demanded we all had a finishing move. I didn’t, he punished me for it. Then out of nowhere I slammed my foot into his gut and hit him with what is now known world wide as the ‘Spike Impailer’ as soon as I heard his head crack against the floor I knew I had to run. I grabbed the one bag of belongings I had and headed straight out of that place. I swore that I’d never go back, but I broke that promise years later when vengeance was enacted upon the man I’d known as Conrad Jones, but that story is far away right now. For now I was free, or as free as I’d ever known. The memories of my twin brother and my younger sister where all but forgotten as I walked the streets of Birmingham England trying to find my place. I guess it was inevitable that I would end up doing the only thing I’d known how to do for the past decade or so…. fight.
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Origins
Oct 25, 2010 16:45:54 GMT -6
Post by Spike Kane on Oct 25, 2010 16:45:54 GMT -6
Spike Kane: Origins Part III It was what was called a backyard wrestling federation at the time. Over glorified gymnastics with some really poorly executed hardcore dramatics but I didn’t know better at the time. This guy Simon Dynasty was offering to pay me a couple of hundred quid just to get beat up a little bit and make it look good. Who would have thought that the idea of starvation was what really made me take my first steps in the wrestling business. Not that I’d really call what we did wrestling, but people liked it and I was good at it. I’d grown up taking real beatings on a daily basis so this whole “selling” thing was a piece of cake. My offence wasn’t the best, but nobody cared because once I hit that Spike Impailer they went wild. Everybody wanted to know where I trained, who had shown me how to do such a violent move, but I kept my mouth shut. I did the job and got paid enough to rent a small flat in the city. Life wasn’t great, and I was having trouble sleeping at night for fear that this freedom I was living was just a dream and that I would wake up to see Conrad Jones’ face looking down on me. It wasn’t much at all, but it was a start. A few months after this Mickey Mouse backyard “wrestling” federation started a couple of Indy Promoters came to watch. The guys working the show called them the Rape Squad because they would come to shows like this and literally rape the federation of it’s talent offering the talent better paid jobs with some TV exposure, and well….the chance to wrestle inside an arena, rather than some rich kids backyard. It seemed stupid at the time, that I could do this as a real career, make something of myself but I stuck with it. I kept my head down and tried to show those suits that I had what it took to be the next big thing, a superstar. I didn’t. I sucked really bad. Lucky for me they were in the market for jobbers. So they actually signed me up on a pay as you perform basis. This meant as long as I was in the ring I would get paid, win or lose. I felt like I’d just hit the big time and that my life was finally turning around. For the first time in my life I was being paid to wrestle, my first steps in this monumental journey were so filled with innocent hope and expectations that the ride that followed doesn’t seem real, but trust me it was. I have the scars to prove it.
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Origins
Oct 25, 2010 16:46:53 GMT -6
Post by Spike Kane on Oct 25, 2010 16:46:53 GMT -6
Spike Kane: Origins Part IV My first trip to America was some collaboration show, we were brought over as surplus bodies because they planned on doing some big battle royal type show. I’d been working for a guy named Foley and it wasn’t the best. I had my own little flat in some rundown s**thole in the middle of Birmingham, and I got paid enough to put a pot noodle or two on the dinner table, but it was steady. It was stable, something I wasn’t used to. We came over to the states, and we were doing a series of shows in Boston. Never before had a place felt so welcoming and warm to me. The rich Irish heritage of the city called out to me and reminded me of home. It was this main fact that made me want to stay in America in the first place. That was when I first met the guys….it was when I bought my first Harley. I didn’t know what it meant to be part of a motorcycle club, but they offered me food and shelter so I went willingly and became their prospect. Things would become more intense for me living my first few months in America, but my priority was wrestling, and I’d have wrestled in a pig sty as long as it got me some exposure. Considering I’d never really known about this industry, and I most certainly didn’t plan to be a part of it. I had fallen in love with wrestling, and it seemed that wrestling was falling in love with me.
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