A Message For Tammy Sytch From Lacey

So you call yourself the "Original Diva?" I really don't see how there's anything original about you. You're just the same as all the other women who came before you in the wrestling business who were nothing more than eye candy, and you're just the same as all the talentless Divas that have come after you. ANYONE can go out there and shake their ass and fake tits to get a crowd reaction. There's nothing special or original about you.

You say you'll be looking out for me in Orlando, eh? Well Tammy, I'm not hard to find. I'm sure I know right where you'll be...trying to corner Austin Aries and win him over with your so-called "assets." Unfortunately for you my dear, I believe Mr. Aries is far too intelligent to fall for your same old schtick. He belongs with the Age of the Fall. He knows it, we all know it...so stop trying to take something that isn't yours. As Jimmy and Tyler have said many times before, we are bigger than Ring of Honor, and we are bigger than pro wrestling. We are a revolution, a call to arms, a cry to stand up and fight for what you believe in--something you know nothing about. You're just one of the sheep, following the herd blindly. You can fake all the confidence you want, but we both know underneath all the plastic you're nothing. You're clinging on hoping for one more chance in the spotlight. NEWS FLASH: You're old and washed up. No one cares about you anymore.

Don't patronize me with idle threats. Don't tell me you'll be there somewhere 'looking out for me.' If you don't find me, I WILL find you, so we can settle this face to face. And don't think we're going to handle things in a fashion you're used to--there won't be any bikini contests or mud wrestling. You might want to buy yourself some SHIMMER DVDs and study up...

Message from The Leader

I write this at an internet cafe in Germany. Thus far my trip has gone well and have found a lot of international support for the Age of the Fall cause. For those of you who have not seen my latest video message, it is on my front page on Myspace. I recommend everybody checks it out, as I have a had a lot on my mind and had a lot to vent about. Our Revolution is undoubtedly stronger than ever, with a new chapter of AOTF just starting in southern Indiana. I will not be at the Ring of Honor shows this weekend. As important as the ROH PPV, I will be holding a meeting for people interested in the AOTF cause. For those interested, please email me here on Myspace. And as always, go to ageofthefall.com for constant updates.

On to something else that is of personal significance to me, Alex Shelley makes his big Ring of Honor return on April 18 in Detroit. My real hatred for him is multi-layered. Our history is well documented, but in recent years our paths have diverged. While he parades himself as a national tv sell out, I have started a grass roots campaign, not in search of fame and money, but a goal to make a legitimate change in this world one person at a time. While he uses his tv time to simply feed his ego, I have touched people's lives in a very real way from the bottom up. And all that aside, I do have so many unsettled personal problems with him. It was a feud that began in 2002 in Detroit, and to this day, has never gotten any resolve in my mind. Beyond that, many people seem to believe that along with his tag team partner Chris Sabin, that the Murder/Motor City Machine Guns are the best tag team in the world. Well, while they failed to defeat the Briscoes in 2007, Tyler Black and I were the team successful to finally dethrone them to become the Ring of Honor world tag team champions. With so much to prove to the world, to society, to myelf, to this business, to the fans, and to Alex Shelley, I'm making a campaign to bring our feud back to where it started. In Detroit, Michigan, the home of the Machine Guns, I'm putting the offer on the table to Ring of Honor as a company and to the Murder City Machine Guns to have the match... MCMG vs AOTF.

The time to move is now.

Jimmy Jacobs

Change The World

I start tonight’s entry with a quote written in response to my last post. It is the final sentence of nuketheben’s comment:

“...but today is not the day for people like me to drink your kool aid.”

So tell me then, where did you pour this imaginary Kool-Aid we’ve been handing out? Because as far as I can remember all we’ve been dealing with here are ideas and honesty; not some formulaic poison or your scapegoat excuses.

And more importantly, if not today then when? How about when it’s too late? How about when our kids are growing up and dealing with more shit than you or I or God could ever foresee, let alone save? How about after the next nuclear holocaust? Sound good to you, motherfucker? Cause it sounds like you—and everyone like you—are the reason we’ve fallen this far.

It’s this fucking absurd idea that has a stranglehold on America; the feeling that everything will just be OK. And further, that just being OK is right. So, then you have kids who grow up with no hope. And why? Because unprepared, irresponsible imbeciles are the general population. Because uneducated, underprivileged, poor kids well, they have kids. And so from Day 1, those babies have no hope. They are born into welfare and will most likely spend their entire lives dependant on a naturally corrupt government for everything from diapers to cigarettes. And the cycle will repeat.

But maybe, hopefully, those reading don’t fall into that category. No, I imagine most of the people who’ve let the message drift unabsorbed through their peripheries are even worse. I believe that the crime is not committed by the misfortunate, but rather by the sons and daughters of this generation who are intelligent and capable and well-off enough to lend a helping hand. Those apathetic fools, like nuketheben, who sit idly by and let the world rot, they…

…you…you pieces of trash are the catalysts for disaster. I see the shopping malls and superstores and suburban sanctuaries and they teem with greed. Being young and impressionable is one thing, but someday we all have to grow up and make a fucking change.

Eric’s story is a great start, but there are a million stories out there just like Eric’s. I realize understanding the magnitude of what Age of the Fall is trying to accomplish may be difficult, but so is the actuality of it. If you don’t believe this is about you, you’re dead wrong. This is about every single one of us, and the lives we lead. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:

Change your life.

Change the world.

Every great revolution started in the same place: someone’s heart. Tell me now that this can’t be real.

TB

AOTFBlack@hotmail.com

The Democrat? The Republican?

I can always be a distraction. So, where’s the changeover then? How has time become our last resort? I’m idling here, I know….

I buy my jeans from a thrift store for reassurance. I am a rebel. I am a social drinker. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t want to be like my parents either, but heroes are a waste of time. And religion? Ha. I scoff at anything organized. No one’s going to hell because it doesn’t exist. And what is morality anyway? Such hypocrites. The artists on my iPod no one is allowed to recognize, because pop music and money is for the sellouts. I don’t feel sorry for myself, in case you’re wondering. I just don’t want to be stuck here in this little state. Everyone here is so closed-minded. Maybe if they would get off their asses. And this. And that. And the rest…

We’re tired of the same old sad story. Everyone and all their pity.

What are you doing?

What am I doing?

Yeah, you—the kid with all the potential in the world—what are you doing?

I’m working, smoking, fucking, breathing.

Taking up space. Coveting. Consuming. And now they tell you to make a difference. They say, “You invoke change! Come out and vote!” Vote for whom? Who the fuck does the United States government and all these paid celebrity campaigners want you to vote for?

The Democrat? The Republican?

Fuck. That. These political pundits with all their talk about policy and bills and Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Like this is make or break. Like your vote makes a difference. How about a vote for indifference? Every single one of these proposed candidates represents the same thing: moderation. Fuck Left. Fuck Right. Fuck the Ass and the Elephant. I am not a proponent of extremism in any form, except extremist freedom. Open your eyes America; the war we need to fight is the war within. And I don’t mean inside the borders of our own country; I mean the war we wage every day in our hearts and in our heads. Democracy, Jihad, genocide? How about depression, anxiety, and the search for shreds of remaining truth in hope. How did we get all the way from hunting and gathering, to oppression and tyranny and self-destruction? Tragedy has taken hold, and so we get our name; this is the Age of the Fall, and nothing changes until it…all…crashes…down.

To whom it may inspire,

This is one man's story- mine.

Moreso than any wrestler on the Ring of Honor roster, I have climbed higher, achieved more, and fallen farther.

Nearly a decade on the independents.

A rise to become a bonafide superstar in the professional wrestling industry.

A world champion 3 times over who gained respect of his peers while plying his trade on 6 continents, hundreds of thousands of dollars, magazine covers, action figures, video games, t.v. commercials, and prestige of which i could only dream.

And I lost it all.

And it was all my fault.

I suppose I was too immature to handle the success I achieved

The well-informed die-hard fans of ROH have heard the rumors.

"Joey's life is in shambles", "Joey has personal issues", "Joey has demons", "Joey showed up in 'no condition to perform'".

That's the thing about rumors, they're usually true.

In this case, they were.

3 drug overdoses, 7 car wrecks, a 5 month stay in drug & alcohol rehabilitation, and countless broken hearts along the way, including my own.

My former employer did everything they could for me. They gave me chance after chance after chance.

I did this to myself.

I am a grown man, and when you are a grown man, you make your own decisions, you don't place blame on your environment, or anything else for that matter.

You admit when you're wrong.

I have made mistakes.

I can tell you that I am standing on my own two feet today, clean & sober.

I'll tell you why.

I answered the call.

It was Jimmy Jacobs.

This benevolent individual had something I needed to hear.

Jimmy said for once in my troubled career, there was a choice that could save me.

Jimmy said my world as I knew it had become a den of iniquity.

Jimmy said there's only one road to freedom, one road to redemption, and one road back to the land of the living for souls like ours.

That road is being paved by The Age of the Fall.

If that wasn't enough to draw me to the AotF, he continued.....

There are no activation fees or background checks.

The only requirement is a willingness to rise above what will inevitably fall.

That was music to my ears.

For, I have had all I've wanted of alot of things I've had, and a whole helluva lot more than I needed of some things that turned out bad.

And the AotF are like-minded.

We, in the AotF, are the practitioners of an agenda-free agenda.

I, along w/ my brothers & sisters in arms (Jimmy, Tyler, Necro, Lacey, & Allison), immerse ourselves so completely in our cause, and the truth it conveys, that those in the audience who are rigorously honest w/ themselves can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved.

I want the readers to be clear on this.

This is NOT lip service.

This is NOT a way for me to "get over" on you.

This IS the truth.

If you don't listen, it is your fault.

The road is being paved....... Which road are you traveling?

-Joey Matthews

Nothing Stops

You fall down. You get back up. Nothing stops. And the memory only serves as a reminder that there is much left to be done.

Acknowledging the setbacks of last weekend doesn’t mean we’ll dwell in defeat. Loss—and the reaction it—is a vital part of any personal growth. We came into the weekend knowing the deck was stacked against us. What’s new? We know no they don’t want to see us succeed. With our backs against the wall we came out firing in the hopes that our backwards hand would be able to fend off the predatory brigade that was closing in on our tag belts. Unfortunately, we fell short this time; losing our belts, and in the process, temporarily cutting the air from our voice.

Loss…

…and the reaction it…

Because we’re still here. Because we’re still breathing. We’ve picked up our pride and dusted off its shoulder. Because there will always be something to fight for as long as exists persecution and genocide and desecration, both in physical and intellectual realms. Life as we know it is a war. Everyday is worth standing your ground, and we’re not waking up to back the fuck down. Remember all the times you’ve been stuck in a hole, alone. Whether it be by melancholy condition, a broken heart, or by way of an inexplicable entropic division of self; you feel like the bottom has dropped out and you’re stuck standing on this little ledge, alone. And every time you’ve cowered until daybreak showed you a regrettable escape. Every time until now. Now is the time we all close our eyes and step off this ledge together; into despair, into oblivion. And what awaits us? Freedom awaits; the will is the means to change our lives by doing and being the all the ways we know we can and should be. Simple, I say. And simple it is.

We had our taste of gold and the power it holds. It’s now an addiction. No Remorse Corps, be sure you haven’t heard the last of us. Come February. Come Lond Island and New York, we’ll ride in full force. Lacey, Jimmy, Necro, Myself… and Joey Matthews. Age of the Fall. Strength beyond strength.

See you in Dayton and Chicago

The measure of power is not in its style or accomplishment, but rather in its action and consequence. Thus, what we have in store for the weekend’s events will only serve as another reminder that the scope of our strength is interminable…

He came to us with a chip on his shoulder. And it wasn’t what he spoke that got our attention. It was the look in his eyes that conveyed in conviction an aura of change; our change. He fits right in, we said. He’s glad to fall in line and fight this war, he said. His truths are our truths. And he gave us his pledge; his devotion. And in return we have given him the avenue to drive his point into the heart of this wretched business that has betrayed him time and time again. This weekend, for the first time in a long time, he’ll fight for the only answer any of us can ever really believe in: he’ll fight for himself.

Shedding light on another situation, our recruiting doesn’t stop with just this weekend. We’ve had our eyes on another talent that seems to have fallen off as of late. It seems that not only has his professional life been a victim, but personally his demons are biting at his heels. Now, what and why are questions that dig beyond what we can assume. Without those answers though, obvious changes in his demeanor and behavior have led Jimmy and me to believe that maybe we could be of some use to this confused soul. He seems to be spiraling down the same dark, vacant fissure we all fell into that landed us here, in this revolution. The question isn’t if, but when will he hit bottom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXttjevsM7Q