On Saturday night, after Kevin Steen & El Generico lost their match to The Young Bucks, it seemed to everyone in attendance that Steen was going to announce his retirement from professional wrestling. He requested the microphone from Bobby Cruise, and proceeded to tell the fans in attendance, as well as those watching on GoFightLive iPPV, about everything that had been going on in his life.
Steen thanked the fans who supported him, and even the one’s who didn’t. He thanked Nigel McGuinness and The Briscoes by name, as well as everyone in the locker room for helping make him the wrestler he had become. He expressed some regrets, made apologies, and ultimately embraced Generico in a moment that brought tears to the eyes of many around ringside as well as some watching on the monitors in the back.
Then it turned to ashes with four simple words, “I f****** hate you.” Steen punted Generico between the legs, grabbed a steel chair from ringside, and blasted his now former compatriot across the skull. Colt Cabana immediately came from the back, tears still in his eyes, and got between the two men before the situation could escalate any further. As Cabana screamed at Steen, Kevin oddly kissed Colt on the mouth and walked back to the locker room with a smile on his face, and a look of…well, of relief.
Steen seemed almost euphoric as ROH cameras attempted to get a word with him but Cabana interrupted before much was really said. Our cameras did keep rolling though and we hope to have that video available to the ROH faithful very shortly. Suffice to say that some insight was gained into the head of “Mr. Wrestling”, and some questions were answered. One big one still out there: what is going through the head of El Generico? He was quick to leave the building as soon as he recovered from Steen’s assault, and has had no contact with ROH officials in the last few days. To be fair though, most of the contact was usually done by Steen in the past.
El Generico is already scheduled to be at the “ROH on HDNet” TV tapings scheduled for January 8th & 9th, but Steen never confirmed if would be in attendance, waiting until after “Final Battle 2009” and his announcement to make a decision. Hopefully the former World Tag Champion will be in Philadelphia, and hopefully we will be able to get something more. Until then, stay tuned to the ROH Newswire and ROH Video Wire for more on this story.
Quite literally, seconds before this story was set to go live, ROH officials received the following email from Kevin Steen:
To ROH officials, staff, wrestlers, fans,
I have decided not to retire.
I feel much better now.
Tell the world.
Yours forever,
Kevin Steen
Make of it what you will, this is the entire content unedited, but it certainly seems we have not seen the last of “Mr. Wrestling”.
rohwrestling.com
