Post by Icon Lord Jon Kellar on Mar 7, 2014 13:21:35 GMT -6
The following are excerpts from a recent interview with Jon Kellar printed in SportTalk Magazine, a UK publication.
Iconic Dynamite
Anna Smithson sits down with a wrestling legend as he looks forward to life outside of the ring. He discusses his recent induction into GZW2K1's "Ring of Honor", the company's current direction, his few regrets from his time in the ring, and what awaits the "Human Dynamite" in the future.
In 2006, few would dispute that Jonathan Harrison Kellar was the jewel in GZW2K1’s professional wrestling crown. He won the World Title in February, was the focus of the central NEOGZW storyline, and wrestled classic matches with the likes of Kid Kaos, Nathaniel Davis and Zachary Sharp.
Unfortunately, a serious back injury and a struggle against addiction meant that following 2006 Kellar never really achieved his full potential. Since losing the World Heavyweight Championship to fellow Icon “The Ace” Zachary Sharp, Kellar has appeared sparingly for the organization and, indeed, has only wrestled a handful of matches in the past 7 and a bit years. Nevertheless, he made enough of an impact for his fellow in-ring performers to induct him into GZW2K1’s hallowed “Ring of Honor.”
Nowadays Kellar spends more time in the offices of Billion Pound Media Conglomerate Ultimight Media PLC with CEO wife Sarah Wilson-Kellar (better known to GZW2K1 fans as Dyna Might). The company is a market leader in online broadcasting, and includes GZW2K1 programming among its extensive portfolio. Last year the company was valued at just over $30bn, with the Kellars’ personal wealth estimated to be somewhere in the $9bn range after successfully investing in social networking site Twirker during its floatation last year.
However, the man who greets me at a local restaurant in South London, round the corner from the Macheda Dojo where he works as an instructor, looks far from the billionaire businessman you would expect. Though his penchant for luxury Jaguars is well known, he confesses that he feels just as confortable travelling around London in his standard Mini Cooper D.
“I am fortunate,” he says when asked about this curiosity, “to have more than enough money to be comfortable. I went through a phase of great extravagance, but the big 40 is on the horizon and I have a young daughter to think about. I can’t afford to be childish anymore!”
Strange words you might feel, readers, considering Kellar’s actions at the recent GZW2K1 Event “Anniversary Aftermath”. At the conclusion of the main event, Kellar assaulted the current World Champion Sean Locke, took a swipe at the company that had only an hour ago made him an Icon, and threw the Championship belt down. Many onlookers assumed that was an almost literal case of throwing down the gauntlet, but Kellar insists that he has no intention of returning to the ring.
“Let me be clear about what happened,” says Kellar, “and let me be especially clear that it was not about Sean Locke. The poor kid was just the wrong man in the wrong place”
“When I got the word that I was to be inducted into the Ring of Honor, it was a wonderful moment. The Ring of Honor is voted for by wrestlers; not by corporate busybodies, not by the fans, not by the snarky Internet, by wrestlers. The fact that they chose me to join them is a privilege.”
“But that’s not strictly true, is it? The only time the Ring of Honor gets to vote is when the corporate busybodies can’t sell you to the fans anymore. As per tradition, you’re not even considered for the Ring of Honor until you’ve retired from full time competition.”
“In 2012 I was back in the ring, wrestling for GZW2K1. Now I admit when I started wrestling I wasn’t in the best shape… well I guess round is a shape but anyway, I got back up to a level I know I can compete at, and compete with the very best. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere I fail a drugs test and I’m suspended. Now per the rules of the company I had the right to take a second test and appeal. I never got either. I know that I was clean, so I can only assume something went wrong with one of the samples, but GZW2K1 didn’t want to know.”
“I sat at home, my contract ran out, I went back to Japan and wrestled some dates for Nipon Star Puro. I came back to the UK and wrestled for the UBWF again. I came back to America and wrestled in the South West Regional Tournament. I even made a surprise appearance at a CSW show! In all that time, I didn’t get one letter, one phone call, one email, one twirk from GZW2K1. Not a word.”
“Then suddenly out of the blue, I get the Ring of Honor induction. The wrestlers, the people I respect hadn’t forgotten about me and they wanted me to know that. But there was always that nagging feeling that my old employer was pushing me out the door, but I pushed it to one side and accepted the induction; I would never ever be so disrespectful as to dismiss a ROH induction.”
“Then I walk around the arena and what do I see? People I wrestled alongside are being phased out, forgotten about. Why? Is it because they can’t get it done in the ring anymore? No. It’s because GZW2K1 can’t make any money off them. We’ve been pushed out the door so that the Sean Locke’s off this world can be slapped all over lunchboxes and soda cups and the company can make money from selling them to 8 year olds at $10 a pop”
“It’s like wrestling has become a dirty word in the current company. Hell, we might as well drop the Wrestling bit from GroundZero Wrestling 2K1. Just call it GroundZero Merchandise 2K1. I watched the main event, most of it anyway, and Alex Cross, the WRESTLER, was wiping the floor with that poster boy. The only reason Cross isn’t champion is because of his attitude, but given time he’ll learn to control that and in terms of wrestling ability he makes the Sean Locke’s of this world look like their standing still”
“But Alex Cross isn’t a man you can put on a lunchbox. He’s not a pretty boy. He’s not a sob story you can sell to kids searching for a dream; he’s a wrestler. If he does win the title, the chronies upstairs will find some way to get it off him again… or they’ll have the World Title being defended in the midcard somewhere so that Sean Locke can close the show, because god forbid that the focus of the show be the best wrestler in the company.”
“So yeah, I attacked Sean Locke, because I wanted to peel back that veil just a little and show the “Globalverse” just what their favourite product has become. Sean Locke isn’t the problem here. He’s a figurehead, he’s a poster boy, he’s a fraud, but it’s not his fault that he’s in a position he doesn’t deserve, and I’ve got no problem with him personally. He doesn’t book the matches. He doesn’t decide whose face goes on the posters. The fact that he’s just a big solid hulk of muscle with the technical wrestling talent of a baked potato doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is that someone upstairs decided people like me needed to retire so that people like him could be the focus of the product.”
Discussion then turns to Kellar’s future projects.
“I’m passionate about helping addicts,” he says, “the drug rehabilitation center we opened in 2012 has had remarkable success, and we plan to open a similar facility in the United States in 2015. I’m also keeping busy with Ultimight Media, and of course I’m a principal instructor at the Macheda Dojo here in the UK. I still wrestle on occasion, in fact I’m due to wrestle an exhibition match in Japan next month.”
“I’ve also been known to appear at the Corbin Academy when the mood strikes me, and let me tell you something about that. If you’re thinking about going into professional wrestling, go there for your training. Leon is an excellent instructor and he’s got a great hand-picked team there. You won’t learn better fundamentals anywhere in the world.”
High praise indeed for his former teammate, but would Kellar like to face him? After all, a match between the two was teased several times but never quite came to fruition.
“I think Leon’s happy doing what he’s doing and I’m happy with my lot in life,” Kellar replies. “I’m disappointed that he’s retired but he went out on his own terms and I respect that. It’s not an easy thing to walk away. I regret not wrestling him but it’s not a regret I feel any great need to correct at this point. If that changes I’ll let you know. I’ll even supply the matches to light under Leon’s arse!”
Are there other regrets? I ask
“I always wanted to win a title in United Japan Wrestling,” he replies, “I lobbied hard to get a shot at the Junior Heavyweight Title a few years ago but it fell on deaf ears. Then all the bulls**t with GZW2K1’s upstairs started and it all faded out. I also really wanted to get in the ring with Eva Hikari. I’ve watched some of her stuff and my god she’s good. I would love to have squared off with her.”
But surely the life of a city businessmen and part time wrestler/martial arts instructor could never be enough to satiate a three time (or is it four time?) World Champion?
“Whatever problems I may have with GZW2K1 and the direction it’s gone in,” says Kellar, “I haven’t forgotten that I had a great career there. It might not have been as long as I wanted, but I got a lot done in that short time. Call it efficiency! I’ve got a family whom I love and a life I enjoy. I’m not in any hurry to give that up, and I certainly don’t see myself setting foot in a GZW2K1 ring anytime soon.”
I press Kellar on this point, perhaps against my better judgment. I ask him about Sean Locke’s recent statement on GZW2K1 television, and I show him excerpts from Twirker, where #KellarvLocke is trending as we speak, and speculation is already rife about a possible Locke/Kellar confrontation for the World Title.
“It’s flattering to know that there are people who care enough to want to see it,” he replies, diplomatically but visibly irritated by the question. “But I made the point I wanted to make. I don’t have anything to prove to Sean or anyone else. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t see it happening.“
Iconic Dynamite Anna Smithson sits down with a wrestling legend as he looks forward to life outside of the ring. He discusses his recent induction into GZW2K1's "Ring of Honor", the company's current direction, his few regrets from his time in the ring, and what awaits the "Human Dynamite" in the future.
In 2006, few would dispute that Jonathan Harrison Kellar was the jewel in GZW2K1’s professional wrestling crown. He won the World Title in February, was the focus of the central NEOGZW storyline, and wrestled classic matches with the likes of Kid Kaos, Nathaniel Davis and Zachary Sharp.
Unfortunately, a serious back injury and a struggle against addiction meant that following 2006 Kellar never really achieved his full potential. Since losing the World Heavyweight Championship to fellow Icon “The Ace” Zachary Sharp, Kellar has appeared sparingly for the organization and, indeed, has only wrestled a handful of matches in the past 7 and a bit years. Nevertheless, he made enough of an impact for his fellow in-ring performers to induct him into GZW2K1’s hallowed “Ring of Honor.”
Nowadays Kellar spends more time in the offices of Billion Pound Media Conglomerate Ultimight Media PLC with CEO wife Sarah Wilson-Kellar (better known to GZW2K1 fans as Dyna Might). The company is a market leader in online broadcasting, and includes GZW2K1 programming among its extensive portfolio. Last year the company was valued at just over $30bn, with the Kellars’ personal wealth estimated to be somewhere in the $9bn range after successfully investing in social networking site Twirker during its floatation last year.
However, the man who greets me at a local restaurant in South London, round the corner from the Macheda Dojo where he works as an instructor, looks far from the billionaire businessman you would expect. Though his penchant for luxury Jaguars is well known, he confesses that he feels just as confortable travelling around London in his standard Mini Cooper D.
“I am fortunate,” he says when asked about this curiosity, “to have more than enough money to be comfortable. I went through a phase of great extravagance, but the big 40 is on the horizon and I have a young daughter to think about. I can’t afford to be childish anymore!”
Strange words you might feel, readers, considering Kellar’s actions at the recent GZW2K1 Event “Anniversary Aftermath”. At the conclusion of the main event, Kellar assaulted the current World Champion Sean Locke, took a swipe at the company that had only an hour ago made him an Icon, and threw the Championship belt down. Many onlookers assumed that was an almost literal case of throwing down the gauntlet, but Kellar insists that he has no intention of returning to the ring.
“Let me be clear about what happened,” says Kellar, “and let me be especially clear that it was not about Sean Locke. The poor kid was just the wrong man in the wrong place”
“When I got the word that I was to be inducted into the Ring of Honor, it was a wonderful moment. The Ring of Honor is voted for by wrestlers; not by corporate busybodies, not by the fans, not by the snarky Internet, by wrestlers. The fact that they chose me to join them is a privilege.”
“But that’s not strictly true, is it? The only time the Ring of Honor gets to vote is when the corporate busybodies can’t sell you to the fans anymore. As per tradition, you’re not even considered for the Ring of Honor until you’ve retired from full time competition.”
“In 2012 I was back in the ring, wrestling for GZW2K1. Now I admit when I started wrestling I wasn’t in the best shape… well I guess round is a shape but anyway, I got back up to a level I know I can compete at, and compete with the very best. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere I fail a drugs test and I’m suspended. Now per the rules of the company I had the right to take a second test and appeal. I never got either. I know that I was clean, so I can only assume something went wrong with one of the samples, but GZW2K1 didn’t want to know.”
“I sat at home, my contract ran out, I went back to Japan and wrestled some dates for Nipon Star Puro. I came back to the UK and wrestled for the UBWF again. I came back to America and wrestled in the South West Regional Tournament. I even made a surprise appearance at a CSW show! In all that time, I didn’t get one letter, one phone call, one email, one twirk from GZW2K1. Not a word.”
“Then suddenly out of the blue, I get the Ring of Honor induction. The wrestlers, the people I respect hadn’t forgotten about me and they wanted me to know that. But there was always that nagging feeling that my old employer was pushing me out the door, but I pushed it to one side and accepted the induction; I would never ever be so disrespectful as to dismiss a ROH induction.”
“Then I walk around the arena and what do I see? People I wrestled alongside are being phased out, forgotten about. Why? Is it because they can’t get it done in the ring anymore? No. It’s because GZW2K1 can’t make any money off them. We’ve been pushed out the door so that the Sean Locke’s off this world can be slapped all over lunchboxes and soda cups and the company can make money from selling them to 8 year olds at $10 a pop”
“It’s like wrestling has become a dirty word in the current company. Hell, we might as well drop the Wrestling bit from GroundZero Wrestling 2K1. Just call it GroundZero Merchandise 2K1. I watched the main event, most of it anyway, and Alex Cross, the WRESTLER, was wiping the floor with that poster boy. The only reason Cross isn’t champion is because of his attitude, but given time he’ll learn to control that and in terms of wrestling ability he makes the Sean Locke’s of this world look like their standing still”
“But Alex Cross isn’t a man you can put on a lunchbox. He’s not a pretty boy. He’s not a sob story you can sell to kids searching for a dream; he’s a wrestler. If he does win the title, the chronies upstairs will find some way to get it off him again… or they’ll have the World Title being defended in the midcard somewhere so that Sean Locke can close the show, because god forbid that the focus of the show be the best wrestler in the company.”
“So yeah, I attacked Sean Locke, because I wanted to peel back that veil just a little and show the “Globalverse” just what their favourite product has become. Sean Locke isn’t the problem here. He’s a figurehead, he’s a poster boy, he’s a fraud, but it’s not his fault that he’s in a position he doesn’t deserve, and I’ve got no problem with him personally. He doesn’t book the matches. He doesn’t decide whose face goes on the posters. The fact that he’s just a big solid hulk of muscle with the technical wrestling talent of a baked potato doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is that someone upstairs decided people like me needed to retire so that people like him could be the focus of the product.”
Discussion then turns to Kellar’s future projects.
“I’m passionate about helping addicts,” he says, “the drug rehabilitation center we opened in 2012 has had remarkable success, and we plan to open a similar facility in the United States in 2015. I’m also keeping busy with Ultimight Media, and of course I’m a principal instructor at the Macheda Dojo here in the UK. I still wrestle on occasion, in fact I’m due to wrestle an exhibition match in Japan next month.”
“I’ve also been known to appear at the Corbin Academy when the mood strikes me, and let me tell you something about that. If you’re thinking about going into professional wrestling, go there for your training. Leon is an excellent instructor and he’s got a great hand-picked team there. You won’t learn better fundamentals anywhere in the world.”
High praise indeed for his former teammate, but would Kellar like to face him? After all, a match between the two was teased several times but never quite came to fruition.
“I think Leon’s happy doing what he’s doing and I’m happy with my lot in life,” Kellar replies. “I’m disappointed that he’s retired but he went out on his own terms and I respect that. It’s not an easy thing to walk away. I regret not wrestling him but it’s not a regret I feel any great need to correct at this point. If that changes I’ll let you know. I’ll even supply the matches to light under Leon’s arse!”
Are there other regrets? I ask
“I always wanted to win a title in United Japan Wrestling,” he replies, “I lobbied hard to get a shot at the Junior Heavyweight Title a few years ago but it fell on deaf ears. Then all the bulls**t with GZW2K1’s upstairs started and it all faded out. I also really wanted to get in the ring with Eva Hikari. I’ve watched some of her stuff and my god she’s good. I would love to have squared off with her.”
But surely the life of a city businessmen and part time wrestler/martial arts instructor could never be enough to satiate a three time (or is it four time?) World Champion?
“Whatever problems I may have with GZW2K1 and the direction it’s gone in,” says Kellar, “I haven’t forgotten that I had a great career there. It might not have been as long as I wanted, but I got a lot done in that short time. Call it efficiency! I’ve got a family whom I love and a life I enjoy. I’m not in any hurry to give that up, and I certainly don’t see myself setting foot in a GZW2K1 ring anytime soon.”
I press Kellar on this point, perhaps against my better judgment. I ask him about Sean Locke’s recent statement on GZW2K1 television, and I show him excerpts from Twirker, where #KellarvLocke is trending as we speak, and speculation is already rife about a possible Locke/Kellar confrontation for the World Title.
“It’s flattering to know that there are people who care enough to want to see it,” he replies, diplomatically but visibly irritated by the question. “But I made the point I wanted to make. I don’t have anything to prove to Sean or anyone else. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t see it happening.“
