XWL.com Exclusive: Motor City Diaries: The Heart of a Champion

Alex Shelley is seen staring at a picture hanging on a wall inside of a building somewhere. Shelley mutters things to himself like “very nice proportions” and “I’d like to meet the inspiration” and while he takes in as much of the image as possible the sound of someone clearing their throat is heard off screen. Distracted, Shelley looks up and realizes that the recording for this entry of the diary has already begun. Thinking quickly, Shelley places his hand on the picture he had been gawking at doing his best to cover it up.



Alex Shelley
Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is the man of your dreams, Alex Shelley, on your screen and once again I’m going it solo while Chris Sabin is busy learning to walk again. Hmm, where do I begin? There were a couple of close calls in that steel cage match; I mean how many times was my United States title reign a millisecond away from ending prematurely? Swagger tried to break my ankle with that Patriot Lock, he tried to break my back with that gutwrench powerbomb but more than anything else, that monster tried to break my heart by claiming that I was not a Real American. I eat at McDonalds, I habitually sleep past noon, hell sometimes I do both at the same time. But all that matters is that I showed Swagger who the true champion of this country is.



Alex Shelley
By beating Swagger I avoided my time with this title being nothing more than a meaningless one night stand. And while those are fun, I want me and this title to bond beyond a fling. Maybe I’ll take it to dinner, get to know it better and before you know it we’ll have a beautiful relationship going and I’ll do whatever has to be done to keep another man from getting between us. I stopped Swagger last week and I’ll do the same to Barrett when he comes knocking and before you know it I’ll be champion longer than anyone thought I would be. But my business here tonight has nothing to do with the United States Championship, because you see as XWLs only dual champion, I have other obligations that don’t just go away because my tag team partner is crippled.



Alex Shelley
So I went to XWL Management, told them to reach deep into the well of active tag teams and find me an opponent to defend the Ersatz Tag Team Championship against as soon as possible but lo and behold there weren’t any other tag teams for me to face. Fear not because I took matters into my own hands and at a local event I took on a pair of homegrown talent. The fight was intense, it was physical and as you’ll see in a few moments it was definitely up there in quality and entertainment.



Alex Shelley
Guys like Miz enjoy criticizing the Machine Guns for creating titles instead of winning them on our own. Well I have a question for you Miz, what conditioner was that woman using on your hair? I may pick up a bottle. Most importantly, what’s stopping you from finding a friend and challenging us for these belts? R-Truth hasn’t been doing anything but staring longingly at pictures of Tomato, and even though John Morrison just came off a bad break up with Damien Sandow, but hey, I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve been the rebound guy. Of course I did tell Chris I’d stay out of it, at least until he comes back, and since he has yet to return that tag team match, you know the one I mentioned earlier? With me against the two hometown guys? Remember? Yeah, of course you do. That match took an interesting turn….





Some generic music is played as the hometown superstars make their way out to the ring. One of them, clearly the muscle of the group, is introduced as Ethan Schroke and the other, much thinner and wearing a mask, is simply called Ice. The two men make their way down to the ring basking in the lukewarm reception from the crowd. They enter the ring and try to play to the crowd and hype them up as much as possible, but they just aren’t feeling them despite Schroke and Ice representing their city. The duo drops down in the corner, meet in the middle of the ring and begin to formulate a game plan that will be effective enough to net them the Ersatz Tag Team Championship.



The house show crowd gives The Gun the loudest cheers the small group can muster and when Shelley steps onto the stage with the United States Championship wrapped around his waist and the Ersatz Tag Titles draped on his shoulder, the cheers get louder. Shelley stands on the stage where he does his signature gun pose and shoots it before making his way down the ramp. Mid way down it suddenly dawns on him that he’s about to enter a tag team match alone, but instead of looking worried, Shelley has a smile on his face as he motions backstage for someone to come out here.

Is Sabin okay?

No, a instead of the real thing, a man quickly walks out with a Chris Sabin cardboard cutout in tow! He hands it to Shelley who tucks it under his arm and makes his way down to the ring. Shelley slides the cutout under the ropes then he walks up the stairs, gets onto the apron and gets into the ring. He grabs the cutout and climbs up a turnbuckle where he raises it high into the air drawing another big round of cheers from the audience who are all clearly amused. Shelley drops down and places the cutout on the apron after making the executive decision to start the match off. After listening to a few words of vital advice from the cutout, Shelley steps away and after The Ref checks on the other team the bell is rung.

Schroke is the man who starts things off, and he looks like a man that doesn’t know his own strength. Tall and with muscles coming out of his muscles, Schroke looks like the kind of guy who could do devastating damage to another human being with just a mere flick of his finger. Shelley picks up on that too, which is why he avoids Schroke’s grapple attempt by ducking under and popping up on the other side.

Shelley delivers a few swift kicks to the side of Schroke’s right knee that would bring many men to their knees, but Schroke is like most men and those kicks of Shelley appear to be ineffective. Schroke tries to KO Shelley in the opening minutes of the match with a big right but it’s slow enough for Shelley to duck under but when he pops back up, there’s a big left incoming and Shelley’s forced to duck under that too.

The two men continue to play that game until Shelley decides that his reflexes have been tested enough and the next time he ducks a Schroke punch, Shelley stays down and crawls between Schroke’s legs. When Schroke turns around Shelley hoists him in the air and hits an atomic drop. Shelley races over to the ropes and attempts a crossbody but Schroke catches him and almost hits a backbreaker but Shelley elbows his way out.

Shelley lands behind Schroke and immediately pulls down the back of his tights causing him to moon the crowd. Shelley shouts “cover your eyes” to the Sabin cut out resting there idly on the apron, while Shelley climbs onto the apron himself. Once the distraction has run its course and Schroke fixes his tights he turns and finds Shelley in midair after sprinboarding off the top rope. Shelley tries for the crossbody again and just like last time Schroke catches him easily.

Shelley violently throws his elbow back into the side of Schroke’s skull until he drops him again and Shelley aims high this time by raking Schroke in the eyes and kicking him hard in the shin. That stuns Schroke long enough for Shelley to race over to the corner and climb up, and when Schroke turns around Shelley shouts out “the third time’s the charm” before diving off with the crossbody but Schroke catches him again.

Suddenly the man who brought the Sabin cutout to Shelley, gets onto the apron, grabs the cutout and flings it into the ring hitting Schroke on the back. Schroke lets go of Shelley not realizing what the object was and turns to see what happened. When he sees the cutout he looks a bit confused but that’s replaced with a look of pain after Shelley catches him off guard with a lungblower.

Shelley places the cutout pack on the apron after thanking it for the help and drops down next to Schroke and tries for the pin but Schroke powers out at one. Shelley goes flying into the air and lands on the mat gut first. While Shelley sucks in sweet air, Schroke runs over and kicks him hard on the side before pulling Shelley to his feet and hitting a monster powerbomb on him.

Schroke tries for the pin and just gets a two count. Schroke walks over to his corner and tags in Ice who springboards off the top rope and drops his leg across Shelley’s throat. Schroke lifts Ice into the air and bodyslams him on top of Shelley then steps onto the apron while Ice goes for the pin and just gets a two count.

Ice gets to his feet and when Shelley is nearly up, Ice races over to the ropes when Shelley holds out his hand, screams out “stop” and Ice inexplicably adheres giving Shelley the opportunity to slap him in the face then flip him off before quickly hitting a spinning heel kick. Ice doesn’t stay on the ground for long and when he gets up Shelley takes him by the arm and throws him into the ropes.

Ice bounces off and Shelley sets up for the back body drop but Ice jumps on and off Shelley’s back, bounces off the ropes on the other side, comes racing back over behind the still bent over Shelley, jumps over him and hits a fameasser! Ice doesn’t go for the cover and instead makes his way over to the corner where he climbs to the top.

When Shelley gets up, Ice goes for a diving cross body but Shelley catches him! The crowd pops for that one, but then they groan when Shelley the momentum causes Shelley to lose his balance and fall onto his back. The Ref slides down to make the pin, but Shelley is able to roll through and the crowd starts to cheer again as Shelley works his way back to his feet with Ice still in is arms. Shelley begins walking around showing off when Schroke clips him from behind causing Shelley to fall backwards again.

The Ref only gets a two count before Shelley kicks out. Ice tries to pull him up and gets hit with a jawbreaker for his troubles. Shelley looks like he trying to crawl over to his corner to tag in the cutout but Ice grabs his ankle preventing that from happening. Shelley uses he free leg to stand, then he does a roll through that sends Ice flying into the cutout!

The crowd boos as the cutout gets knocked off the apron and based on his body language Ice can’t believe that they could hate him for that. Shelley suddenly comes charging and knocks Ice of the ring with a clothesline. He immediately races over to the ropes to gather momentum and flies through the ropes with a suicide dive that knocks Ice back into the barricade.

Shelley gets up just in time to evade an incoming attack from Schroke and nearly knocks him out with one hell of a superkick. Shelley turns his attention back to Ice and roll him into the ring then he places the Sabin cutout back onto the apron before rolling in himself. Shelley tags in the cutout to the delight of the fans then he grabs it and waits for Ice to get to his feet. When Ice stands, Shelley charges and drives the cutout deep into Ice’s cut, and when Schroke gets into the ring Shelley swings the cutout like a bat striking Schroke in the head.

Shelley quickly drops the cut out, grabs Ice in a DDT hold, sets up Schroke for an STO and nails the two men with combo. Schroke rolls out of the ring and without hesitation, Shelley grabs the cutout and begins making his way to the top. He raises the cutout into the air and draws some cheers from the crowd, then he dives off and sandwiches the cutout between himself and Ice! Shelley rolls off leaving the cutout on top of Ice and The Ref begins the count: 1,2,3!

As The Guns’ theme hits, The Ref comes over to check on Shelley but he gets shooed off after Shelley insists that he check on the Sabin cutout. The Ref takes the cutout and lifts it into the air in victory and the crowd applauds. Shelley is handed the cutout, then his two titles and with his hands full he seems to be having a hard time getting out of the ring, but in a great show of sportsmanship, despite what happened in the match, Schroke and Ice give Shelley a helping hand. Shelley walks backwards up the ramp thanking everyone, then when he gets onto the stage he raises the cutout in the air with one hand, and his tag title in the other while the crowd cheers on and the video feed cuts off.