"Every single time we got to a fork in the road, Ray Rowe went the wrong way"

Josh Prohibition: "The late great Bob Marley once said: 'In this bright future you can't forget your past.' So let's take a quick trip down memory lane. Back about a dozen years or so ago I was sitting on my computer. And all of a sudden all of those AOL Instant Messenger conversations start popping up, one after another, after another, after another. And it was a common story. It was always this young man that said: 'I had the dream to be a Professional Wrestler.' And I would always say: 'You know what? Okay, here's the reality: you gonna make no money. You gonna get your butt kicked. You gotta pay for training. You gotta ride in the car. You've got to take all those terrible trips and then maybe if you're lucky you could become a Professional Wrestler.' And all of a sudden, all of these kids that said that it was their dream would disappear. They disappear, they disappear.

But then one young man popped up in particular. He told me that he was a Heavyweight wrestler at St. Ignatius High School and also a Football player. And I said: 'You know what? Go away. Go away.' Next night he sends me another message. I discarded him again. Next night he sends me another message. And I said: 'You know what? This kid's persistent. I'll meet him.' So I go and meet this young man and he's about 240 pounds, terribly athletic and he seemed to have that passion for the sport of Professional Wrestling. So I said: 'You know what? I'll do you a favor. I'll train you.' That man was Ray Rowe.

So I began taking Ray all over the place. To anywhere there was a ring set up. Before shows, after shows-- when we couldn't get a ring I'd roll out mats at the Rec Center and I start teaching Raw how to wrestle. When we couldn't get those mats we'd go in my basement and I would train him on my carpet. That being said I wanted to teach Ray a little more besides just how to bump, how to run the ropes, how to do the psychology. I wanted to show him what life on the road was actually like. So, M-Dogg and I, we had a three shot in Pennsylvania. We were gonna zigzag all over the place. And I said: 'Ray, would you like to go with us? So you can see the reality of what it means to be an Independent Professional Wrestler.' And his eyes got as big as saucers. And Ray said: 'You know what? I will.' So about two hours after that conversation I get a phone call. And it's Ray again. And he says: 'I don't think we can go. Because my mom is scared to me getting in a car with two kids.' And I understand that. Kid was 17 years old. And here's a couple of dudes in their 20s. That's just good parenting. She said: 'On one condition I'd let you go, Ray.' [He said:] 'If you come and meet my mom, if you meet.'

So Friday morning, all of a sudden, Ray Rowe shows up with his mother at my house. And his mom walks up to me and she's got this worried-sick look on her face. And it's understandable. She didn't know anything about the world of Professional Wrestling. But I looked her square in her eyes and I said: 'Listen. Matt and I are good men. We'll take care of your son. We will protect your son.' And-- huh, I can't help to think that I lied to his mom! I looked her right in the eye and I lied to her. I told her that I would take care of her son and I didn't. I said that I would protect her son and I didn't. But it wasn't for lack of trying because I nearly died trying to protect Ray Rowe.

I started walking that path with Ray Rowe. The path of Professional Wrestling, hand in hand. And I've said it before and I'll say it again: every single time we got to a fork in the road, Ray went the wrong way. Ray went the wrong way. Ray went the wrong way. Do you see the common trend? And then it was getting to the point where Ray wouldn't listen to me. Because at the heart of it, here's the problem: Ray has to prove to everybody how tough he is all the time. And I don't know where that comes from. That's why he got all tatted up, that's why he tried to sing in a hardcore band, that's why he got in street fights, that's why he started shooting guns around. 'Cause he wanted to prove to everybody how tough he was.

But then there was one event in particular that I can't get out of my memory. It was for Cleveland All Pro Wrestling. JT Lightning was running a big show down at the Nautica Pavilion. And in a Pre-Show Battle Royal Ray Rowe got in there with 19 other men. But for some reason Ray set his sights on an undersized kid with a disability that was one year into Professional Wrestling. And he brutalized that young man like nothing I've ever seen before. To the point that if that young man had not gone to the hospital, he would have died. And that young man was Gregory Iron, another kid that I helped get into the business. They almost had to drill a hole in his skull to let the blood out so that he didn't die right there in the hospital.
And did Ray apologize? No. I had to go to Ray and I had to look him in the eye and I had to ask him: 'What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you!?' And he said this: 'I was told to work stiff.' That was his reasoning. That's why he wasn't going to apologize. So I looked him right in the eye, I said: 'You were told to work stiff. You weren't told to work stupid. And the fact that you can't go to apologize to a kid that you just nearly killed shows something seriously wrong with your brain. And I don't want anything to do with you anymore.'

See, Ray, there's a story in the bible-- I don't quote it often. But there's a story about the prodigal son. And the dad saw his son doing wrong, after wrong, after wrong, after wrong, to the the point that he couldn't take it anymore and he'd let him go. He'd let him go off and do all the wrong that he wanted to do. But at the end of that story there was a happy ending. The son comes back. And his dad is standing there with his open arms, waiting for him. But this story is much different, Ray. Because here you are, trying to come back to AIW. And I'm not gonna be that father in the story of "The Prodigal Son" that's standing there with his arms spread, waiting to give you a hug and welcome you back. Because for you, Ray, forgiveness is denied!"