In the world of G-Feds, everyone wants to be a badass. Everyone wants to be a top dog (Unless you're Saint Joey and then you're just kinda born into the beautiful curse), and at some point, most people do get to be that top dog. They get to be the badass they've always dreamed of being: Matt Shanahan is no exception to this. He's done in all, from being the worst low-carder in the history of EEW, to being one of the biggest stars in such guilds as WWF:G, EW- We're not allowed to say that one, ICW, and even owning one of the most prominent guilds in recent years. Now before I stroke my own ego way too hard, let me explain something.
Matt Shanahan's career is not nearly as illustrious as I try to paint it.
Hello, I'm Matt Shanahan and this is the 10 Things G-Feds Want You To Forget About...
Me, Matt Shanahan.
10. He sucks at obeying rules.
"Oh he's suck a Punk, he's such a rebel," No, actually. Matt just really sucks at obeying the rules of a wrestling match. More often than not, Matt breaks more rules than a group of street-tough 5th graders on a public playground. If you're booked into a match with Matt, at some point you're going outside of the ring. At some point, you're getting hit with something that SHOULD get him disqualified. And, at some point, you might as well have made it a no-DQ match, honestly. There's a reason all of his best matches have been without any restrictions. Maybe it comes back to him not being trained on the art of legitimate wrestling?
9. He actually has had a lot of relationships.
Today, Matt is painted as a tragic character. One of his two best friends killed himself, he betrayed the other, his family is unheard of, and he's more alone than ever since it was confirmed that him and Christina Parks are not actually an item. While it might be true today, Matt has actually had a pretty... friendly career, one could say. He's enjoyed romantic relationships throughout his career, most notably in ICW and WWE:U, the latter in which he feuded with Mike Landry over his love interest's contract (and lost). On top of this, he's had more friendships than a My Little Pony convention, with allies such as Marxx, Phoenixfire, Nuke Fusion, Chrono Clepsydra, Cartwright, Harli Drummond, and many more behind the scenes. Despite how his career is painted now, it wasn't always dark clouds and sorrow for the Philadelphia native.
8. He still hasn't lost the FFA:US Championship.
Now you may be thinking, "But wait, this isn't a bad thing, why would this want to be forgotten?" Well, there's one man who wants you to forget, and he's the face of FFA itself, Kelly King. Since tradition is that when a guild closes, the titles it has are also vacated, King doesn't like that Matt clings to the title like a toddler who can't give up their toy for five seconds. Whether or not Matt Shanahan's claim of holding the belt for nearly 8 years is legitimate or not, he will believe it until he dies of old age, or he is forced to lose it.
7. He was a main eventer in EWA.
Now while Matt and Chrono Clepsydra are not at each other's throats anymore, the two's falling out a couple of years is still a sore wound, at least to Matt. Their falling out over EWA's closing (which Matt was regrettably responsible for) has resulted in some resentful feelings between the two "Gods." As a result, EWA is a company that Shanahan seems to have completely forgotten about. He won't mention his championships, feuds, or matches had within the company's halls. While nothing remains forever, the lack of titles on his resume shows that he's not looking to make amends with the company anytime soon.
6. The Black Star gimmick.
Everyone has that gimmick that they regret, something that just really... really sucked. If you ever wanted to see a super edgy Matt Shanahan who had a weird love for hair dye, angst, and the electronic-metal band Celldweller, then you might be one of the two people who actually thought The Black Star was a good idea. The gimmick was made as Matt's "fall from grace", essentially trying to pull away from the success of his "God of Punks" work. He succeeded, by making one of the lamest gimmicks yet. It was shortlived and he was quickly forced back into his role as The God of Punks by the fans, only to transition into the modern-day "Storm" gimmick that we now have. Ditching a cloak for a trenchcoat was the best decision he could've made.
5. He wasn't really part of the Tap-Out Mafia.
So you know how the Tap-Out Mafia was one of the best factions around when it was founded? How it went on to win some real gold and became Best Faction of 2011? Funnily enough, Matt Shanahan is listed as a member! Why is this funny?
Because he never competed for them.
Yep, despite being listed as a Tap-Out Mafia member and claiming his share of "BiTB Best Faction of 2011", he never competed in a match with the faction. If it weren't for his ties with the faction leader Nuke Fusion, chances are that he wouldn't even have been mentioned in the faction's list of members. But hey, this is just another footnote in the ever forgettable Black Star gimmick.
4. He tried to make a band.
Everyone's wanted to be in a rock band, and we can't exactly fault Shanahan for wanting the same thing. Except... we absolutely ******** can because my god, it was the dumbest angle he could've done. The angle was kept exclusively to Desire Underground Wrestling, which was probably the best decision that was made with it. Since Matt was often compared to the lead singer of American Metal band Avenged Sevenfold, he decided to "parody" that by making his own band: The Un-Avenged. Not even the name was done right.
While the writer's extreme shame over this angle prevents him from linking you, the reader, anything in particular, you can be left with this. Most of the cringe occurred there, but it spilled into nearly everything in the guild. The only positive? Matt and Phoenixfire had a pretty good friendship at the end of the whole mess.
3. He was never professionally trained.
Yes, you heard right. Matt Shanahan is not a professionally trained wrestler. While today he maintains a pretty solid routine in the ring, his maneuvers are far from extravagant and well balanced, as he doesn't have the wide catalog that so many others are trained to do. He entered EEW in 2007 as nothing more than a guy with a baseball bat, and somehow stuck to that gimmick for a long, long time. The majority of his matches in his career have relied on his striking ability, basic moves, and weaponry because... as we said, Matt is far from trained in the art of wrestling. It wasn't until 2014 that the man actually started used submission holds, showing that now he might have a wider vocabulary of moves; it only took him nearly a decade to do that.
2. He failed at running a company three times.
Yes, as much as Matt would love for people to believe that BBW's magic was a one-shot one-kill kinda deal, he would be lying his tight black jeans off. Matt was responsible for booking three different companies in the past, one of which he even owned. Philadelphia Hardcore Championship Wrestling, Outdoor Extreme Championship Wrestling, and Gaia Professional Impact Wrestling. While the first two were not his companies, they still failed under his supervision, and the last one failed massively and he owned the damn thing. In fact, GPIW was two companies in one! Full Impact Pro and Wrestling Society X were both "brands" of the company, and had promising rosters for both; even with that promise, Matt dropped the ball and he dropped it HARD. But hey, remember Bad Blood Wrestling? That place was great. You should go check it out, not GPIW.
1. He hates WWF:G.
Right now, Matt Shanahan is only competing in one company, one of which he holds many accolades in. He's a WWF:G Hall of Famer, held four different championships under the company's logo, was one half of the legendary Matt Shanahan vs Kelly King rivalry, and has a streak of 5-0 at WrestleMania. Despite this, he loathes the company more than anything; even EWA probably has more love from him than F:G. To be honest, Matt never seemed to forgive the treatment he was given all those years ago, with the revival of The Outcasts being treated as nothing more than a publicity stunt and never really being given the spotlight he felt he deserved at the time. While he did eventually go on to be one of the more noteworthy world champion's in recent years, one thing Shanahan doesn't do is let sleeping dogs lie.
And that's been my list of some of the things I really don't talk about involving the character of Matt Shanahan! Did you like the list? Did you hate it? Please let me know below, give me some feedback, and I'll see you in the next episode!
[Disclaimer: While I didn't want to make the first one of these about me, I didn't want to risk others being offended by my future posts, thinking that I was seeking to s**t on things I didn't like or something. I love me, so that's clearly not the case.]
Next: 10 Things G-Feds Want You To Forget About WWF:G.
