Davey Richards, thief? Or elaborate work?

[Warner2BruceTD]

An indie group is claiming Davey Richards, Tony Kozina, Kyle O'Reilly, and one of their trainees stole $350 and bailed on a show.

The evidence...(the promoter, who can be seen in the first video, has taken down his twitter account, where he has spent the last day or so bashing Richards & crew/pushing the angle, or whatever it is that is going on here):


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n36QPke8qWk?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Supposedly, Kozina double crossed this 16 year old kid and shot on him, including legit choking him out at the end. Kozina claims the kid called him "the fakest pro wrestler in the business", so Kozina took it upon himself to do a really weird work shoot with the kid. You decide:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JPMp86PRrzU?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I can shed some light...

The company I work for (3XW) helped a couple smaller local groups book Richards, Kozina, O'Reilly and one of their flunkies for a triple shot this weekend.

They worked for us Friday night. Everything went perfectly smooth. They were totally professional and already asking about coming back to work for us again.

Saturday night, I wasn't at the show. They set up camp outside the locker room, talking shit about everyone and everything involved with the show. Kozina went out for his match with Ryan, who is 16/17 years old, and told him he was changing the plan, and was going to teach him about respect. I haven't watched the video yet, but everyone I've talked to said he roughed the kid up, and legitimately choked him out in the finish.

Sunday afternoon, we show up at the venue and find the promoter, a friend of mine, pissed off. The show starts in 20 minutes and none of them have arrived. Davey has been texting him all day and is now demanding to change the card and put the four of them in an 8 man tag. Jeremy has already changed up the card for them multiple times through the day, but will not take them all out of separate matches, because of promises made to other workers, to the fans, and the price that had been negotiated for 4 separate matches. Show starts, Jeremy goes out and breaks the news to the crowd that they won't be on the show, and life goes on.

They finally do show up at the building before the main event goes on and demand to speak to Jeremy. He takes the issue out of the locker room and goes outside to meet them. They threaten to kick Jeremy's ass (and he's all of 140 pounds soaking wet) if he doesn't give them their money. He finally works out a deal that KOR and DR will work for a slightly reduced fee in the main event. He pays them upfront as a gesture of good faith (trying not to piss them off further, or get his ass kicked). They change into their gear and work out the plan for the match. As they're doing that, their stooge trainee is quietly running their bags back out to their truck. "Where's the wrist tape?" "Oh, I left it in the truck. Be right back." They run out the back door, into a waiting car with Kozina behind the wheel, the promoter out $350 mostly from his own pocket.

Meanwhile nearly every reference to it on Facebook from someone involved gets a bunch of responses from the four of them tagged #TeamBandit and other shit, basically bragging about getting away with it.

Calls have been made to ROH and Sinclair, but apparently Richards has been done with ROH for a few weeks now and is not being brought back.

There is also a video floating around from an upcoming shoot interview where Richards runs down ROH & Cornette.

The whole thing reeks of a work to me. If Richards' crew was pissed off at the promoter for some reason and really jacked the guy out of $350, I doubt they'd be bragging about it on the internet. If the story really went down this way, well, there is no defense for them and they are lower than dirt.

The whole #TeamBandit thing is the giveaway for me. Maybe Richards & co are doing some sort of loose cannon gimmick now, which would also explain the shoot interview where he rips ROH.

Biss, feel free to comment on your boy, you know you want to haha.

Oh, the wacky wrestling business.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Poster from the Sunday show:



$10 adult, $5 for kids...now look at that video...they didn't even draw $350. Even at the "reduced rate", these guys took a fucking bath if this story is true.

Also, I can't get the idea of Tony Kozina, wheelman, out of my head. Engine running, towel around his neck, cackling like a jackass.

[FedEx227]

That promo smells "work"y to me. It doesn't sound like a guy who is legit pissed off.

[Warner2BruceTD]

That promo smells "work"y to me. It doesn't sound like a guy who is legit pissed off.

Yeah, that too. He rambled on forever and was using pro wrestler cadence.

[FedEx227]

Like Russo before him, when you cut a pro wrestling promo and say it's a shoot, it's probably a pro wrestling promo.

[Warner2BruceTD]

"This is a shoot, brother!"

[FedEx227]

THIS ISN'T ON OUR FORMAT!!11!!

[Sharkweather]

Milo, IA you say?

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

LOL @ the name "Team Ambition"...sounds like gay porno title.

[Warner2BruceTD]

LOL @ the name "Team Ambition"...sounds like gay porno title.

Look at Davey on that poster...The Wolves are on the hunt for twinks.

[SHOGUN]

There is also a video floating around from an upcoming shoot interview where Richards runs down ROH & Cornette.

[SHOGUN]

Scumbag Kozina. That was a dick move.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Wow. They did take the money and sneak out the back door. And Kozina did stretch the kid.

Regarding the “incident” in Iowa, Sunday, July 29, 2012.



I feel obliged to clear the air regarding the accusations against Team Ambition this past weekend. The accusation I’m referring to is that Davey Richards, Tony Kozina, Darren Dean and myself deliberately showed up late to an Indy show in Iowa after demanding to have the card changed, physically threatened the promoter to pay us and left before wrestling. It boggles one’s mind how stories stray from one individual to the next, altering truths and facts into self-fulfilling myths. I admire the passion that is being displayed amongst people obviously outraged by these accusations, and I think it’s tremendous when people stand up for their beliefs on morality. I am simply going to recount the story as I saw it unfold to help shed some light on the matter and perhaps bring forth some clarity to those made ignorant by false claims.



I had my first professional wrestling match in October of 2005, so that would put me at coming up on seven years of having matches. By no means do I consider myself above anybody else or do I consider myself an experienced veteran of the wrestling business. I’m constantly learning and improving to better myself both physically and mentally towards the game. However, I do have a genuine respect for wrestling and those that paved the road before me. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve worked my ass off and sacrificed a lot of time, money, friends and well being of my physical health to get to where I am today. “Mouth shut, ears open” is a saying not practiced enough amongst many “workers” and through practicing this phrase I’ve learned how things operate on the road and what is and isn’t acceptable.

Anybody that has ever worked me, booked me or for that matter met me will tell you that I always wrestle with conviction and with passion regardless of how much money I’m making or how small the crowd is. The same can be said for any member of Team Ambition because we have pride and belief in what our team represents. On the road we find a gym, we train, we show up to the show (not always on time) and we deliver matches that people expect of our work ethic. This weekend was no different.



After a show in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday and a show in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Saturday the Earth’s rotation had brought us to Sunday. Now if you had asked anybody from these two shows about Team Ambition’s work ethic and attitude on these two shows I’m sure most responses would have been satisfactory. Providing the best matches on both nights and delivering an open training seminar on Saturday before the show, which included the attendance of said “promoter/worker” that we supposedly would threaten 24 hours later. No demeaning or insulting comments were made during these shows towards individuals like is what’s now being claimed. An altercation between Kozina and Ryan Kidd happened and it is nobody’s business but Tony and Ryan Kidd’s. They both know why this happened and Tony isn’t a bully, he’s a veteran that was providing a lesson to someone that had disrespected him. I won’t elaborate on the matter because it’s not my place but contact Tony for an account of the unbiased simple truth.

So it was Sunday morning and as per usual we found a gym. Body Masters Inc. Run by a gentleman named David who had also performed on the Magnum wrestling show the previous evening. Ask him about Team Ambition’s “devious ways”, or ask him about the unrequested donation we made to his awesome self-run business. The point I’m getting at is that we are men of routine and consistency and if we are shown respect and generosity we will show it back, plain and simple. Thanks again to Body Masters for the great training facility and I highly recommend it to anybody living in or traveling through Omaha, Nebraska.

Following my match the previous night and our training session that morning, my back had been giving me a lot of grief. After a full weekend of wrestling, and a full schedule of upcoming appearances, we decided amongst ourselves it would be best for everybody involved if we got our singles matches changed to an 8 man tag team match for the show. By no means was this an excuse to call it in and have a lazy match, this was simply a way of evening the work load and still putting his guys over clean in an outstanding 30 minute match. This request was met with hesitance from the promoter, claiming that his fans had expected specific singles matches from us and that he couldn’t come to an agreement with us on the matter. After several back and forth attempts of an agreement, he simply told us we were then cancelled off his show. “You can’t just cancel us like this” Tony replied, “I just did” was his response. Let me remind you we are in the middle of a cornfield laden highway in friggen Iowa and we’re being told that we no longer have a booking for today and to just go home.

Davey Richards and myself make a living from wrestling, being told to turn around and just drive home was insulting and disrespectful. At that moment, canceling us completely meant he owed us the full amount of pay whether we showed up or not. It’s understandable that he wanted specific matches and we were willing to work with him on the matter but cancelling us then and there shows a level of immaturity and ignorance. So after getting lost we finally arrive at the show an hour after bell time, which admittedly, isn’t unusual for us. This is where we supposedly threaten him. According to the promoter himself and one witness that was with him. Davey basically reiterated everything I just wrote about regarding our lives, how we wrestle for a living and how disrespecting Tony, a guy who trained us and paved the road is unacceptable. Davey just said it in his own words, which can come off as extremely intimidating and were obviously misconstrued as threats. We DO NOT threaten people unless it’s a matter that makes it completely justified like a fucking rapist is stalking your girlfriend. People with legitimate backgrounds are usually the last to threaten or hurt others. I spend almost every day being humbled by legitimate fighters who tap me out constantly, which is basically me admitting to them that they could have killed me but I tapped out so “please release the choke”. And they’re all cool as shit, the people who fulfill their own self-righteous agenda are the ones who pretend to be something they’re not and are more often then not bluffing and hiding something.

So after dealing with all of this we continue to negotiate some way for us to wrestle and make at least some of the money that we were promised. I’m starting to feel bad for the guy as he clearly has no idea how to run a wrestling promotion, (bear in mind I have no idea either). He then has the audacity to say and I quote:

“Well nobody here really knows who you guys are anyway…”

Well which way is it?! Do you have fans expecting certain singles matches out of us that you promised or do they not know who the fuck any of us are and it doesn’t matter if we do a damn 8 man tag?! It’s all well and fine if the 25 people there don’t know who we are, but don’t tell us something and then completely change your words. That statement was the breaking point for Davey and Tony. So we agreed to work a tag, Davey and myself against 2 of his guys, who I wont mention because after all the shit talking they’ve done in the last 24 hours they don’t deserve any more publicity. We take a pay cut, yet still enough to cover our gas and all of our food for the day, put our gear on, got paid and walked out the back door.

Was what we did wrong and unethical? Perhaps. Was what we did completely justified and reasonable? Perhaps. The fact of the matter was we felt disrespected and so “give and you shall receive”. The point being that sometimes you have to be the bad guy and stand up for what you believe in. I’ll be completely honest in saying the entire thing made me feel really uncomfortable and I felt a sense of guilt. Am I going to apologize? Absolutely not, because you have to live and die by the sword. Regardless of regrets, one must stand by their decisions and at the end of the day a guy disrespected two of my close friends that I look up to and that’s simply, morally wrong.

The majority of you reading this is probably in complete disagreement with me on the matter and thinks what went down in Milo, Iowa yesterday was a crime. Most of you reading this probably have a strong dislike for me, being my wrestling style, my selling, my promos and character ability (or lack there of) or just you know me and personally dislike me for whatever reason. I’m okay with that. Hopefully this whole incident won’t affect anybody’s desire to book me or Team Ambition. However, if it does that’s okay because I’m a man of honour and regardless of what you say or think I’m going to continue being the best possible professional wrestler I can be. I’m standing by the decision that was made whether I regret it or not. It’s in the past and to those people who are hiding behind a computer screen “Wishing Team Ambition would get in a car wreck and sustain career ending injuries” just makes me sad for you. You live everyday through other people’s successes and mistakes and you feed off it to just have something to talk about amongst your pro-wrestling sewing circle. To anybody making an overly elaborate blown out of proportion attempt to create hateful energy towards myself you can stop wasting your time. Go and read a book, put on some “Beatles”, smoke a fat joint and try to incorporate a little love and positivity in your life. Focusing on negative aspects only dumbs everyone around you down, get over it and move on. XOXO

None of this really disputes the other accounts.

It looks like they wanted to re-book this guys show, and the guy told them to get lost. They wanted to be paid anyway, and again were told to get lost. So they worked the guy into paying them and then took off into the waiting vehicle where WHEELMAN TONY KOZINA was waiting.

Have to side with the promoter on this. First of all, Kozina strecthed the kid the night before and choked him out. I'm sure the kid was out of line with whatever he mouthed off about, but I can't get behind that. He could have killed him. He could have worked stiff and made the same point.

Then, these guys decide to re-book the show. I guess the promoter could have worked with them and came up with a solution, but it seems like they were being real pains in the ass about it. I can understand the guy getting frustrated and just saying "you know what? you drew 25 people, get lost, i dont need this shit". At that point, you could argue he owes them something. That's fine, but the Richards crew loses that leverage when they weasel out of town with the cash after finally agreeing to new terms.

Lame

[Warner2BruceTD]

http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/7825/teamambition.jpg

[BigBiss]

3XW ... not much more to say ... booking 101 never pay an advance ... always stay in control of your card