Alex Shelley posted:

It’s pretty ironic that I lose my @impactwrestling World Title to @moosenation69 the day before @rainmakerxokada returns to TNA. Kazuchika and I have known each other since the first photo here was taken in 2006.

Four years after that, he came to TNA on excursion for exactly 22 months. I remember the first time we shared a hotel room - we stayed up way too late playing GTA and talking about Final Fantasy. He got his own apartment and every week I would stay with him. We were two young wrestlers who wanted to make their marks on the industry but felt stuck; so we studied, trained, and tried to survive, emotionally, mentally.

When this happens? It’s so hard to continue to love wrestling. It’s like a date that saw you enamored with their charm and beauty whereas they see you as someone who’s really nice. We had so many matches, meals, laughs, and video game sessions together.

He stayed with my family during Thanksgiving and when we said goodbye at the airport, before he went back to Japan, we both teared up because we didn’t know if we’d ever really see each other again. As soon as he got home, he sent me the original Rainmaker costume designs and we talked about it as if it were a Japanese Razor Ramon. I suggested the money drop from the ceiling if he gets the chance, and he told me about the name coming from a film Gedo San liked.

Record scratch here, years later, he’s the greatest wrestler of all time (hate to say I told you so) and I have taken the STRANGEST but most PUNK ROCK route to becoming a champion and Chris Sabin is, was, always will be the underrated GOAT: three guys that, 14 years ago, sat backstage watching monitors with @nickjackson, @mattjackson13 and @sensationalamazingred just wanting to wrestle our styles, our ways, finally getting to do so in the main event of a TNA ring while fans chanted one of my best friend’s name.

So yeah, I lost. But life is a journey, and I know in the past two years that I have helped rebuild this place and that I have given it my heart and I loving hope it’s better than it was before I came back. Everything I had. So much so that Kazuchika actually came back to see me in that ring. I’m not crying, you’re crying.