>Every time Bryan kicked, slapped, or chopped us, the crowd wanted more. Every time Roderick suplexed or body-slammed us, the crowd wanted more. And guess what? When we tried to fight back, the audience booed. Too stubborn, Roderick and Bryan were convinced they could still flip the crowd, so they continued to give us a beating. The crowd continued to cheer. Finally, feeling taken advantage of, Matt and I began to defend ourselves, and suddenly the match felt like a real fight. But the more we fought back, the harder they hit us back. And the harder they hit us, the louder the bloodthirsty fans got. All our chests were purple and blistering. And while Bryan continued to deliver multiple stiff elbow strikes to my head, I yelled, “Okay! That’s enough!” I didn’t want to look like a punk, and I respected the hell out of Bryan, but I simply couldn’t take any more.
>In the audience I saw Matt’s wife, Dana, in tears. She’d watched Matt perform for years, and she could tell something was going awry. Brandon and Dustin watched from the crowd, later telling us they came close to running out and getting involved. We went to the scheduled finish, where we’d hit our finisher and the audience showered us with boos as the referee counted to three. We lay there for a second, feeling a bit violated and disturbed. When we got to the back, the usual loud, spunky locker room had fallen to a hush. Everybody sat quietly with their heads down. Dana rushed into the room, her face wet with tears. Matt promised her he was okay.
>Dana drove us home that night, as Matt and I sat in silence the entire drive home, not even making our usual stop through the Taco Bell drive-thru. We were so disappointed in the fans and in our colleagues. We’ve since forgiven Roderick and Bryan for what was clearly an excessive beating, but Matt still refuses to replay the match.
