Stevie Richards disrespects the prestigious Extreme Rising championship belt

[Warner2BruceTD]

In what will go down as one of the strangest stories I can ever remember writing about, Extreme Rising emailed current champion Stevie Richards today, demanding he return their title belt (which he has kept since winning and has taken overseas and to independent shows to defend as a way to raise the profile of the promotion) or else...because of Richards said he would defend the belt via a videogame.
Yes, really.

So, let's start at the beginning.

Over the course of the weekend, Richards and former ECW star Danny Doring, who are close friends, were writing each other back and forth via Twitter and Facebook.

Richards, a videogame and technology aficionado, posted a photo of the Rising belt and his copy of the latest Madden videogame on his Twitter account, jokingly offering to defend his belt via the game online since he lost his bookings over Wrestlemania weekend.

Doring then posted a photo of the old ECW World Tag Team belt (which has been in his possession since the company closed in 2001) on his Twitter account and responded that he would put up that belt as well, joking it would be "defunct promotion vs. defunct promotion."

Shortly after, Richards received an email from the promotion, upset over the two friends "blowing off steam online", as Richards termed it, demanding the return of the belt by the end of this week, noting they were "disappointed" over the description of the promotion as defunct.

Richards noted that what really upset him the most was that the promotion "doubted his ability as a Madden player." He noted that Rising was upset over something that "20 people saw on Twitter" and said he's tried to help the company by carrying their belt and was amazed they saw the comments as anything more than two people goofing off online.

He also noted that it was silly no one just called him, especially since he hasn't had any communication with anyone at Rising beyond a text announcing the cancellation of the Wrestlemania weekend shows.

One Extreme Rising official noted they were upset over the promotion being described as "defunct", which is something Doring, not Richards, wrote.

Despite the threat, Doring and Richards intend to play the game after all and Richards is looking for a way for the game to be streamed online for whoever cares to watch it. The two intend to build up their "new rivalry" online. Stay tuned to their Twitter accounts (linked above) for more.

PWInsider.com left word for Extreme Rising's Steve O'Neil and should there be any official statement, we will post it, although in my opinion, the entire thing is really silly...unless you really love your Madden.

 

[SuperKevin]

Someone get Stevie Richards on VSN

 

[Derrville]

Richards is a douche and always has been.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Richards is a douche and always has been.

wait, your takeaway from this is that Richards is the "douche"?!

 

[Derrville]

wait, your takeaway from this is that Richards is the "douche"?!

Not only this but all the shoots and interviews Ive read. Hes a very bitter douchebag.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Not only this but all the shoots and interviews Ive read. Hes a very bitter douchebag.

I guess my sarcasm wasn't clear, but I think Extreme Rising is taking themselves way too seriously, especially for a promotion that cancelled two shows with barely a weeks notice and screwed about 20 guys out of bookings. Especially when you consider that they pretty much knew tickets weren't moving a month ago, and waited until a few days ago to call the shows off. All of those guys (including Richards) could have picked up bookings on another show, but now it's too late for most because all of the other shows are fully booked at this point.

And Richards was just goofing off with his buddy. It's really not a big deal. If you don't like Richards that's fine, but he did absolutely nothing wrong here. He doesn't even need Extreme Rising (or wrestling for that matter), he save his money and does his own thing outside the business. He basically works for them as a hobby, and took all those extra indy shots with their belt as a favor.

 

[BigBiss]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Shane Douglas killed 2 company's this year. Extreme Rising and Crossfire</p>— Luke Hawx (@LukeHawx504) <a href="https://twitter.com/LukeHawx504/status/316762211609620481">March 27, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>