Interview With EPW Booker Kross

This is a brief interview I did with the EPW booker, Kross, at the EPW Arena in Booneville on Saturday, 8-29-09:

Kross, I would like to get your comments and opinions on the recent incidents at EPW, since you are the booker and your name has come up very often over the past week or so. Let’s start by talking about the situation involving Izzy Rotten and his departure from EPW. Do you have anything you want to say about that situation?

Yeah, Axeman, this whole situation has really gotten blown out of hand. Earlier on, I had made an announcement in the back room that anybody having an issue please come to me, as far as me taking care of the back room, because Edith was being pressured too much with things from the outside and everyone running to her, so to take a burden off of her, I made the announcement that everyone, if you have an issue, should come to me first, and if we cannot resolve it, then we go to Edith, that’s where we bring her in. I thought I made that clear, and not wanting to be discriminating towards anyone, no matter who you are, so we had the situation with LSD, and Izzy Rotten went to Edith, he texted her and told her he was through with EPW. She was getting calls & texts from him, and it really caused a big uproar, mixed signals and everything like that, and that’s strictly something on my behalf that I asked everyone not to do, don’t go to her, come to me first. That’s why I had a meeting with Izzy, and I had Edith out here with me, and while we were talking I basically broke it down, I didn’t do it with any disrespect or anything like that, I plainly told him that I had asked everybody, I had a meeting with everybody, asking them to come to me first. And Izzy said yeah, he acknowledged all of it, and I said that by me asking you not to do something, and you still went and did it, and caused more problems than anything, I said I was going to have to let him go. His exact words were I don’t give a shit. And that’s fine. That’s basically the situation with Izzy.

Izzy Rotten has, since that time, done a number of things. Any comments about what has gone down since then?

Axeman, this is a business, and professionalism is everything, and I know Izzy Rotten’s history and everything, and when I talked with him and told him I was letting him go, I told him it was not personal, but it’s just like any other company, you broke a rule, and sometimes when you do that, they terminate you, and that’s what happened in this situation. What Izzy is doing now is, I think, purely unprofessional and completely unnecessary. If you tell somebody you don’t give a shit about them letting you go, and then do what he is doing now, that shows absolutely different. Like I said, it’s not necessary, trying to get other wrestlers to leave, by whatever means he has done it, but what it’s supposed to prove, I do not know. But like I said, we have a business here, and we are going to keep it going like a business. EPW will not fold. Izzy Rotten is just showing his true colors.

OK, let’s talk a little about the situation with Pure Destruction and LSD. What are your thoughts on that incident? Did it go too far?

The situation with Pure Destruction, I don’t think it went too far, but this goes to show you that when guys get into that ring, they should be properly trained to take a normal wrestling move. When you’re not properly trained, there are things that can happen. The Commissioner reviewed the tape, as well as I reviewed the tape, and I would never, ever, send anybody on anyone to hurt them, to mangle anyone, because I am fully capable of doing it myself if I wanted to do something like that. That’s not the type of business we’re running. We’re a family back here, that’s the way we try to run it. They gave the kid the move one time, he held on to their shirts. They gave him the move a second time, he still held on to their shirts. They gave it to them a third time, and he really made them look like crap. Some other people would have gotten a chair and beaten the kid. But that is not what they did. I think Pure Destruction was purely professional, and what they did was in no way intended to hurt him. LSD called me the next day, no – it was Monday that LSD called me, and he told me man, he was just scared. The guys from another organization put a rib on him, they told him there was a hit out on him. Nothing happened that Friday, so then he came to the show Saturday, he came here, and when he got in the ring with PD, he thought they were hit men or something. Hits don’t happen in wrestling, at least not here, that’s drama stuff. That’s TV, that’s what it is. It just don’t happen in wrestling. I am a professional about what I do, no matter what people might think about me. I will carry on as such. Pure Destruction was in there trying to make themselves look good, trying to save something that someone who was totally inexperienced messed up, and in the words of Sammy Hall, the kid shouldn’t even have a license to be in the ring.

Is there anything else you want to say about any of this that has gone down?

The only thing I wish is that, instead of pulling Izzy Rotten to the side and letting him go, I had Miss Edith with me, but I should have done it in front of the whole dressing room. Maybe, if I had done it in front of the whole dressing room – I didn’t because I thought that may be humiliating – but I should have done it in front of everyone instead of trying to consider someone’s feelings, because you see what we are going through now, which just shows that he don’t care about anybody’s feelings. And yeah, he’s cost us workers, and by him costing us workers, that’s their opportunity gone, because EPW is gonna make it, EPW is gonna be a success, and I’m not giving up. The last thing I want to say about it is that I don’t have to post on the internet, hollywoodjimmy.com, or anything. I am man enough to say anything I have to say face to face. That’s how I do business. I don’t do texts, you ask Izzy Rotten, I talked to him face to face before I let him go.

Alright, Thank you for your comments.

Thank you, Axeman.