By Kari Williams
“Future” Donovan Ruddick established his dominance in the Midwest in two and half years with eight championships and numerous main event-caliber matches to his name. However, the one title he values most—the Lethal Wrestling Alliance (LWA) Championship—escaped him under ominous circumstances.
Ruddick (champion) faced off against XXX Jordan Lacey (challenger) on Sept. 20 in a First Blood match for the LWA championship, where Lacey forced Ruddick to bleed with shards of broken glass as his ally. Chaos ensued in the aftermath of the match, in which Lacey suffered an injury that required him to relinquish his newly won title at the following show on Oct. 24.
LWA President Luke Roberts announced at that show that a tournament would take place to crown the new champion—that is, until “The Rebel” Jeremy Wyatt cashed in his Medallion and was awarded the title. The tournament now stands as this—whomever emerges victorious will face Wyatt in January.
“Honestly, I think the championship tournament is a load of bullsh*t. It’s f***ing stupid because I was never pinned. I was made to bleed because that was the only way that Lacey was ever going to pin me.
“When Lacey was hurt, I should’ve just been given my title right back then and there at the next show, and it just didn’t work out like that, so I’m forced to be in this stupid tournament, but it doesn’t matter because at the end of the tournament, I’m going to get back what’s mine,” Ruddick said.
Despite having held the Heartland Championship Wrestling (HCW) Illinios Title, the HCW Heavyweight Title, Independent Wrestling Alliance of Illinois (IWAI) Heavyweight Title, National Wrestling Alliance-Missouri television title, and currently holding Rampage Championship Wrestling Tag champ with Wicked Stiff Johnson, High Voltage Wrestling-Midwest Heavyweight Title, he holds the LWA title to a higher standard.
“It was cool to go to Texas. It was cool to go to Indiana, but the highlight [of my career so far] was probably winning the LWA title because right now it’s the title in the Midwest. You can’t deny that. You’ve got the up-and-coming feds that are competing with us and what not, but right now you can’t knock the LWA belt,” Ruddick said.
Ruddick’s life has revolved around wrestling since before his birth—his mother used to watch Wrestling at the Chase—so it is only right that he feels such a connection to the sport. Throughout his time in the business he learned an imporant lesson.
“Restraint because there are a lot of times when you want to go out there a rip a f*cking guy’s head off, and you can’t do that. Or, you want to go down the crowd and slap a stupid fan that doesn’t know what the f*ck is going on. So, I would say wrestling has taught me restraint,” Ruddick said.
One place Ruddick did not show self-control was in his LWA title defense against Gary the Barnowl in a no disqualification match in St. Charles, MO, which also won MWR match of the month for May.
“We beat each other’s a**es, we went balls to the wall, and that was my first real wrestling scar. I have a scar from the kendo stick from my left shoulder all the way down to my right thigh, so it was great,” Ruddick said.
Ruddick plans to retake what he believes is rightfully his after he defeats Gary the Barnowl on Dec. 20 at Yuletide Terror to win the tournatment. After all, the belt means “the world [to Ruddick]. I mean, the world. Right now, that’s everything.That’s everything. Period.”
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