Valor's History

[Hardcastle]

In December of 1992, a 13 year old boy had a vision. A vision of a fantasy wrestling company he could call his own. But not just any fantasy wrestling company. Sure, he had been apart of numerous fantasy wrestling leagues over the last year. And he had won his share of titles. But there was always one thing missing. One thing that kept those experiences from being truly satisfying. That one thing was creative storylines. Angles and situations for the character's to be involved in, that had depth. Not something that would last a week and then it was onto something else. In the modern world of professional wrestling.....stories lack depth. One week its a feud with "wrestler a" and the next with "wrestler b." That 13 year boy had a vision of more detailed stories. Stories that meant something. So on a cold December night, that 13 year old boy created a company called United Championship Wrestling Federation. And 13 years later.......it would evolve into what we see here today....American Championship Wrestling.

That 13 year old boy was me, Jay Ryan. I have been involved in ewrestling for 13 years. And I have seen it all. I've done roleplays, sims, etc. I've wrestled some of the biggest names across the internet and been involved in some the very first fantasy wrestling leagues. I've had good experiences. I've had bad experiences. But the one thing that has stayed constant was ACW......the best experience. Never have I had so much fun. Never have I've seen so many great matches. And never have I seen true desire shown by the ewrestlers to become the very best.

As you know, ACW wasn't always known as ACW. It has evolved and reevolved a number of times. Back in 1992, UCWF was a one man operation. Everything was done by me. Two shows written each week and a pay per view, once a month. We started with 16 active wrestlers. One of those wrestlers......was The Iron Curtain. Iron Curtain quickly established himself as the cream of the crop. At the first pay per view, Holiday Horrors, Iron Curtain won a 4 man World Title Tournament. He faced "The Lion Hearted Kid" Shane Michaels in the finals and defeated him with his devastating chokeslam powerbomb. And so began the first days of UCWF.

While The Iron Curtain became the pinnacle in ewrestling, UCWF began to lose steam. Iron Curtain would dominate the roster of UCWF from December '92 to July '93. Using his awesome ability at roleplaying, no would could contend. Challenger after challenger fell. No one could stop The Iron Curtain........and that became a problem. While The Iron Curtain's career soared, others dwindled. Wrestlers began to leave because they felt they would never be able to capture Curtain's World Title. We started the roster with 16. Within 2 months, we almost doubled that to 30. But when the season changed and we "sprung forward," the roster had shortened to 9. UCWF was reeling. One of those 9 was a young Ben Deweese. Ben was a youngster to say the least. He was one of the worst roleplayers in the league. His roleplays lacked depth, format and issues of grammar and misspellings. But Ben had heart. He had the desire to win. And no matter how many times this kid lost, jobbed out or was made fun of, he stuck it out. He came to me seeking assistance in writing good roleplays. And he never quit. He just kept trying and trying. While, Ben was the not the best roleplayer.......he was certainly the most loyal.

Ben decided to open up his own fantasy wrestling league, CCW, in order to try and develop new talent for UCWF. At first, I didn't like the idea. I didn't think Ben could handle it. I would soon change my mind and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Ben had the company up and running from February of '93 to April of '93. Soon, I began to see that Ben was doing a good job in developing new talent and also began to improve on his own roleplays. With the league struggling and roster dwindling, UCWF merged with CCW and formed a new company called UIW. Universal Internet Wrestling was born in April 1993. Iron Curtain remained the head guy and roster went from 9 to 17. We almost doubled in size. The full roster was not enough to get us over the hump. We still needed another drastic change. The company had changed names. Ben was promoted to Vice President In Charge of Development and Web Design. And I was able to lure an up and coming roleplayer from a rival promotion, CWA or RAW as later became known as, named Mike Stryker. But it still was not enough. So I concocted a plan to take the title off of Iron Curtain, and make him become the hunter for a couple of months. Always in the back of my mind, I was going to put the title back on him.

[Hardcastle]

One of the better roleplayers in the league at the time was Area 51. Professional wrestling was red hot with the NWO forming and I felt we needed an angle, much like it. I talked to Jeff, who was Area 51 and asked him to roleplay a new character. So I created, Nick Bollea......supposedly Hulk Hogan's son, to head the NBS....No Bull Shit. In a controversial move, at Capital Combat, I jobbed Iron Curtain out and put the title on Bollea. I make no apologies for what I did. We needed a change. We needed people to believe that they could rise to the top and become the #1 guy. With Iron Curtain......there really was no room for that. Iron Curtain was, understandably, pissed. Luckily, I got him to understand. He did not agree, but he understood. I informed him, he was going to now chase Nick Bollea for the World Title. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for me, Mike Stryker began to rise in the ranks of UIW. And news of Mike's success began to travel back to the CWA or RAW as it later became known as and the roster began to grow. In the fall of 1993, one of the greatest roleplayers ever that I had the pleasure to know came knocking on UIW's door. His name was Chris Gilbert and he has roleplayed with a number of characters, such as; Adrian Caine, Tristan Caine and Black Wolf. This was awesome. UIW's future was only getting brighter. But not just UIW, but my own character, "The Lion Hearted Kid" Shane Michaels. I was learning from Chris and began to mature as a roleplayer. Chris really helped establish me, not only as a roleplayer, but as a promoter and writer. It was his knowledge and forsight that engineered the most prosperous times of UIW and beyond. He took me under his wing and its something that I will never truly be able to repay. Anyway, I was making my move and paying my dues in the mid card. I had already had 3 reigns as the UIW Light Heavyweight Champion and it was time for me to move to the next level. Unfortunately, Iron Curtain would have to take a back seat. This did not sit well with Curtain. In December of 1993, Iron Curtain turned heel on his friend Soviet Savot, the new UIW Light Heavyweight Champion, and joined NBS with Nick Bollea.

1994 became a banner year for UIW. Roster moves became the biggest news, as well as a new era dawning. At Wrestlefest in January, Shane Michaels eliminated Tristan Caine last and defeated 28 other wrestlers to win The Ultimate Battle Royal and the right to face the World Heavyweight Champion at Super Slam, our Wrestlemania. In March, at Super Slam I (we did not run a PPV that month the year before) Shane Michaels defeated Nick Bollea for the World Title and became the #1 guy in UIW. A controversial decision to say the least. But one that, unarguably, helped establish UIW as an elite ewrestling league across the internet. With Shane Michaels at the helm and no major push for The Iron Curtain........Iron Curtain left UIW. I was very saddened to see him go, but the company was prospering and more and more big names were coming in. Personally, I wished I had talked him into staying and really didn't do a good at trying to find something for him. For that....I do apologize and I do regret. But it wasn't the last we heard from The Iron Curtain. More on that later.

The roster was getting out of control. Everyone and anyone wanted to come to UIW. I was getting 3 or 4 new apps a week and turning most of them away. Other ewrestling leagues began to resent UIW, such as; CWA and EWCW. CWA had lost some of their biggest stars to UIW. Gone were Tristan and Adrian Caine, Mike Stryker and Mr. Man. They were now, firmly, apart of UIW. All 3 guys were awesome roleplayers. From EWCW, we took their former World Heavyweight Champion....."Primetime" Paul Richards. That move alone, began a huge feud with EWCW. Much like the WWE/WCW feud........this one got personal. When Paul Richards came to UIW....it was nothing personal to EWCW. He came voluntarily and began moving up the ranks. He decided to leave EWCW and the owner of EWCW, President X, was angry. One of his top stars was gone. Ironically, a the month previous, Shane Michaels defeated Dusk for the EWCW World Title. When President X put 2 and 2 together, he realized that Shane Michaels and Jay Ryan were one in the same. Rumor got out that at the next opportunity he was going to job out Michaels and take the belt from him. But he needed a strong champion. Enter my plan to rape, pillage and plunder upon EWCW. Richards passed the info. to me and I hatched a plan with a buddy of mine to lose the belt to him. My friend, Eric, created Death Raven. Death Raven was a very dark character on a mission of vengeance. He and I roleplayed against one another and I jobbed the belt out to him at the new EWCW PPV. And then the big bang came! Chris and I were rapidly becoming friends and I told him what was going on EWCW. Enter Tristan Caine. Chris and I planned to have Caine come in as Michaels biggest rival, about 2 weeks before the PPV. President X got him a match, right quick and the week following the PPV, Shane Michaels and Tristan Caine revealed their plan to EWCW via roleplay. We announced we were working together to take over EWCW. We started hyping UIW and were promptly removed from the league. Our last message was "He Who Laughs Last......Laughs Best." Two months later, Death Raven beat Dusk at the PPV and then destroyed the EWCW World Title and sent a roleplay, I had written informing President X........HA! HA! HA! HA!! We told ya.....we would getcha!! We gotcha!! Almost, immediately all of EWCW joined UIW and EWCW was no more. The UIW roster was now stronger than ever. We had our first woman roleplayer in Dusk's wife Dawn. Shane Michaels was World Champion. I put EWCW out of business. And we just came off one of the biggest ewrestling feuds of all time.

The feud that I spoke of was between Eric Stone and Nick Bollea. Eric Stone was one of our older roleplayers. He had been around for a couple of years and made his way to UIW. He began feuding with Area 51 of NBS. And then began a feud with Nick Bollea following Super Slam. Bollea and Stone had a history from a previous fed. Evidently, they were tag team champions there and Bollea left Stone hanging and Stone lost the tag titles because his partner quit the league. Personal hatred spilled over into UIW. These two had some great roleplays back and forth and in May of 1994, the feud came to a screeching, screaming halt. At Guts N Glory......we saw the most brutal encounter, up to that point in ewrestling history. Eric Stone and Nick Bollea fought in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The match spilled out into a local saw mill where Eric Stone would use a power saw to cut off one of Nick Bollea's leg. He would then cover him, not hooking a leg of course, for the 3 count. Nick Bollea was now gone from UIW. Jeff, who controlled Nick Bollea and Area 51, did not want to RP for Bollea anymore and felt that this would be a good way to end the character.

UIW continued to flourish in the summer and fall of 1994. Shane Michaels had some memorable matches. The Caine's established themselves in the top echelon of UIW. Big Boone was dramatically improving. EWCW was dead and their entire talent roster was now a part of UIW. UIW's roster was never bigger than in 1994 where in the summer we had over 60 active wrestlers. The task became to big for me to handle by myself.......and Chris stepped up as Vice President of Operations and began writing our second card of the week in Friday Night Fights. With all the wrestlers, I was writing Sunday Night Slam, Monday Night Mayhem and Friday Night Fights and The Pay Per View. It was too much and I was very lucky to have Chris help me out at the time.

At the tail end of 1994, some resistance was felt and I took the title off of Shane Michaels and put it on Adrian Caine. I felt this would be a better business move. Adrian was an established star and had great roleplays. This was purely a business move. This still did not please the league, as it was felt that because Chris was now VP......his character was able to dominate. This was not the case. Chris earned the World Title. And as I took the belt off of Curtain.....I felt a fresh face would help boost energy. People had felt that I played favorites. Accusations were thrown around that Chris and I were one in the same. Others said Eric Stone and I were one in the same. I heard numerous rumors about all kinds of characters were other incarnations of me. These rumors were vehemently FALSE!!! But lashing out began and it was Shane Michaels and Tristan Caine that took the beating.

In 1995, the league continued to grow and mature. The roster had dwindled down to a much more manageable number, after I cleaned house of guys who were not top notch roleplayers. I trimmed the roster from 60 + to 30. Over half the guys were now on the unemployment line, so to speak. 1995 saw some of the best competition in any ewrestling league ever! We had Shane Michaels, The Caines, Black Wolf, Eric Stone, Mike Stryker, Paul Richards, Dusk and Dawn, Death Raven, Big Boone and so many others. Towards the end of 1995, we got two big additions. One, Drew Snyder and the other Ian Bradley. Drew Snyder was a phenomenal roleplayer, while Ian Bradley is the exact opposite. Snyder immediately ran up the ladder of success. Ian Bradley, immediately, took a shit on that same ladder.

But "The Bronx Bomber" Ian Bradley reminded me of Big Boone. I had watched Ben evolve and have his character evolve and Ben was becoming one of the best in UIW. Bradley had the same desire as Ben. And its hard to believe, but he was worse than Ben, when Ben got started. But I hung onto the fact and believe to this day that Ian Bradley is the most improved roleplayer that I have ever seen.

[Hardcastle]

1995 came to a close and 1996 came knocking. 1996 started out on a poor note. I began to fall behind on ewrestling, as my personal life continued to grow. I was a junior in high school. I was hanging out with my friends, getting drunk and dating girls.....more and more. More now than I had ever before. Fantasy Wrestling was taking a back seat. We cut back on the number of shows, but it didn't seem to help. I would go weeks without roleplaying and cards would show up days after they were supposed to. UIW was in disarray. It didn't last long, as Drew Snyder became World Champion at Super Slam and with the summer approaching, I felt I would have more time. And I did, to a certain extent. We got the ball rolling, but took a heavy shot when Chris pulled back from his writing duties to pursue other personal interests. Friday Night Fights became a Results Only Card. But the league was still good. The roster did start to trim down. We would lose Dusk and Dawn, when financial issues played a part. We would lose a dear friend in Ben Deweese when financial strain became an issue for him as well, but a few months later he would return.

In the fall of '96, Ben Deweese would achieve his dream of winning the World Heavyweight Title. On that same night, I would stab Ben Deweese in the back. Big Boone was a good ol' country hillbilly hog farmer. Ben Deweese was from Kentucky. There wasn't much I felt that I could do storyline wise, with a hillbilly. But Ben earned the World Title. He out roleplayed Drew Snyder and most importantly, he was always loyal to me throughout the years. I thought putting the title on him would be a mistake in the long run, but was torn between the idea of trying to do what I felt was right for the company and what was right overall. I did what I felt was right for the company and I WAS WRONG!!! I WAS WRONG!! Period. On the same night, Big Boone won the World Title. I had a rematch done following the win and Drew Snyder won the title back. Ben was crushed!!!! One of very few regrets I have in ewrestling. I have done a lot of controversial shit. It was never a popularity contest with me. But on this night......I made a HUGE MISTAKE!!! Drew Snyder became World Champion and went into 1997. Ben Deweese, Big Boone, lost the title, lost his AOL account and I lost a friend. I never heard from Ben Deweese ever again. Guys will attest that he did a make comeback to fantasy wrestling......but I never spoke to him again. They say when he came back he was 10 times better, but still remained one hell of a nice guy. And if he ever reads this.........I am sorry. Ben was a good man and a deserving champion. But my ego couldn't see past the hog farmer and see the man.

I graduated high school in the spring of '97. UIW began to suffer more and more setbacks following the incident with Ben. Some people threatened to quit. Some people actually did. The roster began to dwindle to under 20 active wrestlers. I was a senior in early '97 and with graduation looming my personal life took over and UIW was put on the backburner. There was still love for this company. I decided to take a leave of absence in early '97 and guys like Mike Stryker, Chris, Snyder, Paul Richards, and others picked up the pieces and began to run with it. They developed new stories, angles and did a fine job. I returned to UIW in the late summer of '97 with a renew thunder. One of the first things I did, was replenish the roster. The roster was over 20 wrestlers, including one Black Ninja.

At first, Black Ninja was laughed at. But I thought he had some talent. And years later......boy was I right. I took back over the reigns of UIW and made it my mission to get the train going in the right direction again. I began to push Shane Michaels and Tristan Caine. A red hot feud from 2 years back. And groaning continued. People felt that Caine and Michaels were taking up too much of the card. The emphasis was on them. At the time, I honestly felt and still do, they were the 2 best rpers and characters in UIW. But the groans got louder and louder and finally, I decided to do something about it. Shane Michaels was the ultimate good guy. Tristan Caine was the ultimate bad guy. Instead of continuing their feud, they decided to work together and form De-X. At the time WWE had Degeneration X and they were doing some of the best stuff on TV. I took the same idea. The league had out casted Michaels and Caine. So Michaels and Caine embraced. They didn't wrestle......they just showed up on cards and made fun of people. They were almost Beavis & Butthead like. They did stupid stuff. They said stupid things and even lived in their own stupid world. Michaels began to shoot on the whole idea of being the good guy. He began to list all sorts of nicknames for himself, stolen, directly from WWF and WCW. He was The Showstopper, The Headliner, The Main Event, The ICON of Fantasy Wrestling. He was Your Hero, Your Rolemodel, Your Paragon Of Virtue, The Ayatollah Of Stocks and Cola. He was The Postmaster General of Wrestling, Big Sexy The Curtain Closer. Well, The Curtain Closer wasn't added until the next year, but more on that later.

Michaels and Caine were the outsiders. But the idea began to grow on the league and soon enough, the guys who weren't cool, reinvented cool. People kept emailing us trying to find out how they could join. UIW had caught fire again. I only wished it would last.

In early 1998, we got another big time player in ewrestling in the form of Brandon Bailey. Bailey was an accomplished roleplayer and overall great guy. Bailey was more my age and I related better with him. Bailey immediately latched onto Mike Stryker, while Caine and I continued to run around our merry way. Since the tag division was never really a hot commodity, Caine and I took the titles in December of 1997 and feuded with jobber teams just because. Bailey and Michaels began to develop a one on one feud that would spill over into the summer of 1998. It then became Michaels/Caine vs. Stryker/Bailey. To keep the story going, we jobbed the titles out to Stryker and Bailey and the tag division actually had some life all around April of 1998.

By the summer, the feud was starting to crumble, so we brought in DX Pac. Black Ninja never really got over, but Matt Meola did and he did with DX Pac. Pac was brought in to help Caine and I get the belts back and we did. We would lose them a few weeks later in the mid summer.

Unfortunately, by the fall of 1998, my personal life really began to take off. I was in a very serious relationship to the point of where I was engaged. I took a job at a local radio station and began to build a small fan base in my local area. Fantasy Wrestling didn't take a back seat........it wasn't even in the car anymore!! Matt Meola had really improved as a roleplayer and was definitely one of the best at the time. Ian Bradley had made successful strides and was becoming an accomplished pro, as well. Between Stryker, Bradley, Bailey and Matt Meola.......they took the reigns in late '98. Shane Michaels did the old injury speech, shed some tears and left UIW. De-X basically broke up. DX Pac left UIW, but Matt Meola reemerged with an even better character as Mr. Awesome. The biggest angle still going was Caine vs. Bailey/Stryker. But Caine needed a partner. Enter Eric Stone. Stone had left about a year ago, but Chris felt that he might be a good fit in UIW, considering the talent pool was getting smaller. Eric Stone did return, but it was short lived. Caine double crossed Stone in late '98 and Bailey and Stryker moved onto bigger and better things. Stone and Caine feuded for a month or two. Caine defeated Stone and then Stone disappeared again.

[Hardcastle]

As 1998 came to a close 1999 struggled its way in. I was pretty much apart from UIW at this point. I read the cards and tried to do some consulting work. I had no character and really no duties at that point, nor did I want any. Super Slam V came and Mike Stryker became World Heavyweight Champion. Following Super Slam.....a major shock came to UIW, as a former World Champion made a comeback. After nearly 5 years of being out of UIW......The Iron Curtain returned. But he didn't come back for the World Title. He came back for Shane Michaels. Iron Curtain began calling out Shane Michaels. But I had been out of the game for almost 8 months. But Iron Curtain was still pissed. Pissed off for 5 years because he felt he was screwed and came back, only because I wasn't in charge, or at least that's what he thought. I never lost the rights to ownership of UIW. Reading Curtain's roleplays inspired me to return. At first, I didn't do it. I felt I owed it to the league to keep Shane Michaels out of UIW. But Iron Curtain was relentless. He would continue to verbally attack Shane Michaels in roleplay, after roleplay. Sometimes it was straight forward, others very subtle. Finally, in early August 1999, Shane Michaels announced his return to the ring. He would face Iron Curtain at the Summer Sizzler. They had a great war, but in the end Michaels defeated Iron Curtain. This only angered Iron Curtain more. I wrote the card and made the decision and he felt it was unjust. He felt he had the better roleplays and cried foul. I felt the roleplays were pretty even, maybe he had a case, as he did write more. But this decision was made more to build heat for this feud and it did exactly that. My plan worked perfectly. Absolutely, perfect! For the next several months, the feud just continued to boil. We hadn't had such a strong feud since the days of Stone/Bollea. And now Curtain/Michaels was even better. The league had new life and everyone wanted to know what was going on. Finally, in late September, it was decided that Iron Curtain and Shane Michaels would meet at Holiday Horrors in December in the very first UIW Hell In A Cell. It would end here. With the year coming to close and a new millenium.........all the personal feelings and professional hatred would go out the door. It wasn't just one sided. Iron Curtain did piss me off when he began to publically make accusations of me being unfair to him and putting my character over at anyone else's cost. I always tried to be fair and do what was right. Whether or not that meant the better roleplayer won, didn't really matter. What mattered was that the better roleplayer came out on top of the feud. Curtain didn't see it that way and felt that he was being misused. In order to make sure there was no question of who won the match in December, I assembled a board of directors to decide who won that match. The board consisted of Mike Stryker, Chris, Matt Meola and Brandon Bailey. Never in all my years of ewrestling have I ever witnessed a feud so strong, built so perfectly and with 2 characters so skilled in roleplaying that it could actually last for over 5 years!! Iron Curtain carried this grudge for 5 years and then from late September to late December, approximately 2 months, both Curtain and Michaels would roleplay their asses off. Some of the best roleplays that I ever seen, came during those 2 months. They never lost steam and they never letup. At one point those 2 combined for 31 roleplays in the same 7 day week. On one day........they had combined for a total of 7 roleplays in mid December. As the match got closer, the roleplays got better and more and more of them were coming in. Neither one of us could shut off our computers, because we were afraid that the other would break out and take a significant lead in roleplays. Iron Curtain finally issued to Michaels a challenge. He wanted Hell In A Cell to be retirement match. Loser leaves UIW forever!!!! Being more balls than brains....I accepted, knowing my fate was in the hands of 4 of the best roleplayers in UIW. I refused to influence any of them. I wanted to win. But more importantly, I wanted to win because I was truly better. I did get worried the closer we got to the PPV and I got sneaky and started to write multiple part roleplays. Every RP was basically the same story....I would just email them in separate parts, including one that had 4 parts. Of course, Curtain called foul.

A day before Holiday Horrors happened, the board met and rendered a decision. There were 2 votes for Iron Curtain and 2 votes for Shane Michaels. It was tied. Most of the matches had already been written, Hell In A Cell was last to go. I was forced to make a decision and began to wrestle with the idea. I actually went back and forth on who was going to win, because they were so close. But in the end, there could be only one. And Shane Michaels was it. Michaels and Curtain beat the hell out of one another and bled like pigs. In one of the greatest matches I have written or read, Shane Michaels emerged victorious. Both men got out of the cell and climbed to the top. Curtain would continue the onslaught, as Michaels was being dominated. Curtain would use the cell to punish Michaels over and over. Curtain grabbed Michaels and tossed him over the top of the cell and into the announcer's table. Curtain would climb down and continue the onslaught. Michaels would attempt to escape, by climbing back up the Cell. Curtain followed him back up and beat Michaels within an inch of his life. Curtain used the ceiling of the cell to punish Michaels. But at one point, the cell's ceiling collapsed due to a powerbomb chokeslam and Michaels and Curtain came crashing to the ring. The impact caused the ring to break and both men were completely laid out. With the ring destroyed and both exhausted, Shane Michaels somehow managed to nail his superkick and get the pinfall. This was the longest PPV that I had ever written. It covered every bit of 10 parts. 5 of which were dedicated to Hell In A Cell. Following Hell In A Cell, I explained to the entire company what happened with the voting panel and how I made the decision of Michaels going over. I had Michaels appear at Sunday Night Slam asking Iron Curtain not to leave, but to continue in UIW. Unfortunately, Iron Curtain refused and never returned and I never spoke to him again. To this day, I believe Iron Curtain still holds this grudge.

[Hardcastle]

Y2K arrived and Iron Curtain was gone. That renewed spirit for me was on its way out and UIW began to suffer again. By the summer of 2000.......I finally decided, we needed a drastic change. Like I said, Iron Curtain was gone, but so was Shane Michaels. We had lost quite a number of stars.....Curtain, Michaels, Big Boone, Dusk and Dawn, Eric Stone, etc. The roster was still around the low 20s and I just couldn't handle this full time schedule with all these guys. I informed the league that I was selling UIW to a private investor, who was going to close UIW's doors for good. What was really going on was I was reinventing how I saw fantasy wrestling. So in the early part of 2000, American Championship Wrestling bought UIW and elminated almost half the roster. Approximately, 11 wrestlers stayed on. There was Adrian Caine, Tristan Caine, Mr. Awesome, Mike Stryker, Brandon Bailey, Bronx Bomber, Primetime Paul Richards, Rally Jackson, Chris Douglas, Erik Caine and a new guy........"The Show" Eric Hardcastle. I created a new character and adopted a new policy. ACW was for fun. It wasn't going to be a business, nor was it going to be about making business decisions. It was about roleplays. And that was it. Iron Curtain would have loved ACW. Mike Stryker immediately rose to the top and won the World Title. Erik Caine and Eric Hardcastle would feud over the Americas Title and The Bronx Bomber was becoming an awesome roleplayer, while Mr. Awesome was rising to the Main Event. We ran shows from early 2000 until late summer 2000. The Show came to hault when personal tragedy struck.

As stated before, I become engaged in late '98. By early 2000, the relationship had gone on the rocks. I had moved out of my parents house in 1999 and moved in with a room mate. My fiancee was not happy and wanted for us to live together, but she was a little younger than I was and still living at home. She had some personal issues with family and just wasn't ready to be out on her own, but didn't want me in some sort lease for when she was. I began to see and feel the relationship problems. First it started with money and the lack of time for us to be together. I trimmed back my schedule at the radio station and took a job in mortgage sales for Citfinancial. I was working full time in a white collar world, trying to make enough money to buy us a house and get ready for the wedding. This freed up weekends for us to spend together. I turned my life upside down for this girl. But by the summer.........things got really bad and I had to quit my job at the radio station to try and save my relationship. Unfortunately, there was nothing really left for me to save. She gave me her engagement ring back in late August and I was totally crushed. For the next several months, I slowly slipped into a depression. I quit college, shy of just 5 credits to graduate, including a 2 credit gym class. My radio gig was gone and I coudln't get it back. My room mate got engaged and moved out. There is a long laundry list of things. Its neither here nor there and I am, by far, better off without her. The point is......I handed ACW over to Matt Meola, who ran the league for a couple of months and then ACW closed its doors in late 2000 for good.

Until now!!!! American Championship Wrestling, in one form or another, was born in December 1992. It died in 2000. Eight years........it withstood the test of time. So many leagues opened and closed in that span.......you couldn't write all the names in an entire almanac! But ACW remained, somehow, someway. Sometimes it was living by a thread. Others.....it was totally on fire. But it survived. Still today, people remember and recognize ACW.

It is now the Year 2005 and American Championship Wrestling is REBORN!!! I've learned a lot things over the past 13 years. Not just as a promoter, a fantasy wrestler.......but as a man. Things have changed. The world has evolved from "reply all emails" to a web board. This is different. Because this time.......its about having fun. ACW is going to become the best e-fed on the net, once again. And nots gonna be because we got great storylines. Not cuz we have great characters. Not cuz we have well written matches. Its gonna be all 3 of those things combined with the most important.......Great People!!!

There's a saying, a motto, written all over this web board......"Everything That Has A Beginning......Has An End." ACW was born in 1992. ACW was reborn in 2005!!! Happy Birthday.........American Championship Wrestling!!!

[Hardcastle]

And yet, our story does not end there. In June of 2005, I negotiated an acquistions merger with Steve Lynch, who had just opened TWA. Being out of ewrestling for so long and having most of my talent grow out of ewrestling, left me pretty high and dry. ACW was faced with its smallest roster in its 13 year history. A whopping 7 active guys tallyed the roster and matches became pretty run of the mill.

Brandon Bailey quickly found success in the NEW ACW era, as he rose to the finals of the World Title Tournament. Topping, "The Redeemer" Jayden Raine, in the finals.......Brandon finally accomplished his dream of wearing the ACW World Title. At the same time, a new start had developed in Jayden Raine, who would later become The Sin City Saint.

Now that I had a partner in Steve Lynch, Lynch decided to bring on a third party assistant, Zmaster. Zmaster is co owner of WFWF and at the time I was semi reluctant working with him, stemming from personal issues I had had with the company and its management. But I quickly found out how great of a guy he truly was and what an accomplished roleplayer he is to this day. Zmaster became a true blessing to the company.

Once merger was complete, a new was decided upon to combine ACW and TWA and thus Ring of Integrity was born. This name was met with extreme controversy. Many of the roster hated the name. They called it a cheap rip off of Ring Of Honor. I didnt think it was cheap at all. But, Zmaster, Lynch and myself spent many hours coming up with the new name. After many debates and opinion polls, Valor Wrestling Allaince or just Valor was decided upon and seems to have made everyone pretty happy. While still representing integrity and honor, a new element has been introduced.....Valor.

So as the future dawns on this company, its 13 year history still remains rich and intact. And once again, Brandon Bailey has risen to the top, becoming Valor's First World Heavyweight Champion, after defeating a who's who of Valor to get there.

The future looks very bright for the company. Some have come. Some have gone. Some, we've kicked them right out of the door. But the bottom line is Valor is still alive and going stronger than ever. New talent are beginning to learn the "old school" way of doing things. And a resurgence of "old school" with a "modern" twist is dawning.