Eric Dane gives post-show interview, speaks on Chance Von Crank, High Octane Wrestling, Dan Ryan and the CSWA, and Team Danger nepotism.
Posted by Lance Warner on 14 Dec 2013
You thought Chance Von Crank could GodBook a journalist and get away with it? Not this whiteboy from Witchita! Eric Dane gave me a one-on-one interview as I recovered in Birmingham and we touched on a couple of hot button issues as he made sure he wasn't gonna have to dip into the medical fund and send me off to the hospital!
So, there I was counting Tweety-birds in Iris Davine’s makeshift medical center after Chance Von Crank decided to GodBook me into oblivion for no discernable reason, when who would pay me a visit other than the Baws himself, Eric Dane! Now, to be fair, I had been out for a good long time, and as it is with head injuries I’m a little fuzzy with the details, but I’ve since seen the video of it and as far as I’m concerned Mr. Chance Von Crank is done being covered by myself and DefianceWrestling.com, as a professional I just don’t have to deal with those kinds of shenanigans.
Luckily, Mr. Dane agreed with me on that point. So, you heard it here first ladies and gentlemen, the Shock ‘N Rolla’s on his own from here on out as it pertains to promotional efforts. Anyway, back to the point of this. Dane spent a few minutes with Iris discussing my injuries as well as asking me how I felt and what had happened, etcetera. You know how it is. The good news is, bruised or not, my brain was working because I asked Eric if I could get a couple of tidbits on tape for this very article, and as usual he was happy to oblige.
As an aside, it’s good to see that guy in a good place, enjoying himself and his business. He spends so much time pulling his hair out dealing with nutjobs like Bronson Box and Heidi Christenson that to have the chance to have a normal conversation with the guy was getting fewer and further between. Not anymore, though, the boss seems in high spirits since the massive success of the Japanese tour and the television deal with Hulu.
But I digress. The first thing that I asked him was about Chance Von Crank.
“Here’s the thing about Chance,” he said. “I’ve actually got quite a fair amount invested into Mr. Von Crank, it may or may not be public knowledge, but purchasing his High Octane contract from Lee Best had set the ol’ payroll department back a pretty penny.” I started rapid-firing questions at that, did he really just admit to having business relations with Lee Best? If so, did that mean there would be any other transactions and/or cross-promotion in the future? Dane rolled his eyes and stopped me with a simple raised hand.
“We’re not “in business” with Mr. Best, High Octane Wrestling, HOTv, or any of their other myriad of mediocre products. Fact of the matter is I’d been trying to sign Chance to a DEFIANCE contract since I saw him in Death Row Wrestling. As a matter of fact, there was something of a bidding war, in which Chance initially signed to HOW. That’s how Lee knew he could jack the price up when he couldn’t figure out how to get his money’s worth out of a guy who’s as 100% pure blunt force trauma insane as Chance has turned out to be.”
I wasn’t really liking where this was going. The boss sure was taking special care to put Crank over. He could tell that I was still somewhat sour at the situation.
“However, the man put his hands on a non-wrestling journalist in the course of a televised interview. No matter how much money I’ve got invested in someone, and no matter how much freedom that they may think that they have, I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. Bronson Box damn near cost me this company two years ago by laying his hands on staff members, the referees went on strike last year for the same thing. Having said all of that, Chance Von Crank will pay a $5000 fine before he appears again on DEFIANCE Television.”
I nodded and smiled at that. It was later on, after I stopped taking quotes that we worked out the deal for me not having to work with Crank again, and you can better believe that you’ll never see myself and Chance Von Crank together on the screen again!
But anyway.
Next I asked him about the returning CSWA, Dan Ryan’s involvement therein, and if/how it would affect the DEFIANCE product at all. “To be quite frank, the CSWA will have zero influence on anything involving DEFIANCE. As far as Dan Ryan goes, he is contracted to us for a certain amount of dates, and so long as the CSWA doesn’t attempt to book him on those dates, he’s free to work where he pleases when he’s away from DEFIANCE.” I suppose Ivy McGinnis said it best when she said that exclusive contracts are a thing of the past.
“If I were to give Mr. Ryan a bit of advice, however, I’d encourage him to focus on the promotion who pays him to wrestle more than once every other year, and keep his eyes attuned to the men and women trying to overtake his contendership for the FIST of DEFIANCE rather waste time defending an obsolete and overrated championship such as the CSWA Unified World Title.”
I pressed him, informing him that the Egobuster had already been booked to defend said title at the PRIMETIME: Winter Wonderland event next week in Greensboro. He asked if the shows were booked for the same day. I feel like he was almost disappointed when I told him that Winter Wonderland would be taking place on the 22nd, the day after our show in Amsterdam.
“Well then, I guess Ivy and Hornet won’t mind flying him in red-eye from Amsterdam.” He smiled again. “You know, I think I might just fly in with him, take in the CSWA show for myself, maybe do a little scouting for a project that I’ve got in the works down in New Orleans.”
That’s when I perked up. Not at the chide in the general direction of Greensboro, but at the mention of that little “project” in New Orleans. It’s been rumored for weeks that while Dane was in-country handling DEFIANCE business while the promotion was in Japan one of the deals he’d struck was for some sort of housing facility for DEFIANCE. I pressed him, but the boss wouldn’t budge. He promised that as soon as there was something worth reporting on the matter, he would give me the exclusive. Deflated but not defeated, I changed the subject to his former Team Danger partner Tyrone Walker and his ascension into World Title contention.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that, Ty pinned the champ in the center of the ring. If Kai Scott doesn’t want to defend the belt willingly, I don’t have a problem with arbitrarily naming contenders. As far as that goes, if he doesn’t want to make it easier for me, he should work on not getting pinned in front of the whole damned world.” I asked him the over/under on how many Truly Untouchables would interfere before it was all said and done. “Maybe the better question would be, how many of Ty’s friends are willing to step up and make sure that doesn’t happen?”
I’ll give this to the baws, he had a point, a damn fine one. We spoke for several more minutes that evening, he stuck around long enough to make sure that I wouldn’t need to be transported to a local hospital before taking his leave, citing meetings, an early flight, and a date with a thirty-two year old bottle of scotch as his reasons for taking his leave.
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