The Secret Life of a Pro Wrestler: Hitting the Big Leagues

Welcome to the season premiere of The Secret Life of a Pro-Wrestler. For those not familiar with the series, it is about my rise through the world of professional wrestling.  

Last season in the finale, I found out I was being brought up to a main roster. The roster I was being brought up to was none other than ECW. I was about to go extreme; well, the WWE's version of it, anyway. Now, on to the premiere of the Secret Life.

I had finally made it; made it to the WWE! Sure, I was in FCW before, which was a part of the WWE. But, you don't think you have arrived until you see the bright lights, the thousands of people in the huge arenas, and the big time entrances.

I met with Laurinitus earlier on, and he told me that I needed to make an impact when I got there so the WWE audience would remember me. He told me if I did, then I would become someone the fans wanted to see again and could be around for a long time, which is something obvious, but also something new guys in the business don't do right away. 

There have been so many people who came in and worked just one match and left, and I was determined not to be one of those people. I was not going to be someone the fans didn't want to see. So I had to make my first match a memorable one.

It seemed my life always had obstacles to overcome. This time, my obstacle was that I was always told I was not good enough. Not good enough to be a top contender for any title, much less a world title. 

It was my goal to one day win a world title, but I had always seemed to run into people who didn't want to see me succeed. It seemed I was too gullible in my FCW days, and I felt the need to show the people that said I was not good enough, that I was.

To do this, I needed my character to be a good one. It seemed that all the people with gimmicks were no longer around. Sure, you had a few. But the big time gimmicks like that of The Undertaker seem to be few and far between nowadays. 

The WWE has not seen a new person with a good gimmick in quite a long time; at least, not a person who could compete at a high level.

I wanted to change all of that. I felt my gimmick could work. However, the WWE officials told me that they wanted to try me out in a dark match to begin with, right before the SmackDown! taping. 

It would be after ECW, but right before the SmackDown! taping, and I can understand why they would want to do it that way.

If I wasn't good then, I wouldn't be a burden on them. So my job was to make sure they would want me on TV. 

The match would be tomorrow in Chicago, Ill. The WWE felt it was best if I showed what I could do with my gimmick and, of course, wanted to see as much as they could of my wrestling ability.

I had excelled at FCW; what would I do with the bright spotlight on me? 

My gimmick was that of an Angel. I would wear white and speak a lot of scripture. My high-flying ability looked like that of an Angel, according to a few people backstage with FCW, so we got the idea of making it my character.

I had two finishers people knew me for, The Halo (which is a moonsault I could hit just about anywhere) and Saving Grace (which is a suplex into a mid-air DDT). Both were very effective and could easily be moves the crowd got behind and wanted to see. 

So I hoped that since the FCW audience loved my matches, much of the WWE Universe would, too.

One day later, match time

When I came out, I had a few cheers, but not that many. The people who did cheer had probably seen me in FCW.

I was nervous as hell! I kept going over some of my moves in my mind, trying to calm myself down. I just couldn’t mess this up!  

This could be my one and only shot at the big time.

I was facing Kung Fu Naki. Because it was a dark match, they could let me face a member of the SmackDown! roster, even though I was assigned to ECW.  

Naki had more cheers than I did, but I wanted to make sure that was not the case at the end of the match. I would work as the heel in the match and Kung Fu Naki would be the face.

The match started and Naki came towards me, trying to punch. I blocked it and hit him with a right of my own. I picked him up and suplexed him. I then went to the top rope and landed a leg drop. I went for the cover. One...two...kick out. 

I got up in frustration and Naki kicked me in the gut, hit a DDT on me, and went for the quick pin. One...kick out.

He picked me up and attempted a suplex on me, but I blocked it.  

Then I hit him with a European Uppercut, hit him so hard that it turned him around. I then hit the Impaler on him (A move where you put your arm over the neck and around the adam's apple of the opponent, and sling him to the mat where he lands on the back of his head).

I hand gestured a cross in the air and went to the top rope once more and hit the Halo.

I then got up and hit the Saving Grace, and the crowd immediately said "Ohhh." I went for the pin. One...two...three!

The match was over. I asked for a mic, and Josh Matthews handed it to me from outside the ring. 

I went over to Kung Fu Naki, and stooped down over him. This is what I said to him:

"Kung Fu Naki, it is about time you paid for your sins. I am here to take out all that have oppressed this place, starting with you." 

I went out of the ring and grabbed a chair. I then brought it in and placed it on the mat. I grabbed Naki and hit the Saving Grace on him right on the chair. I then picked the mic back up.

"You have just met the less than a God, more than a Man, Joe Burgett. May God have mercy on your soul!" 

I then left the ring and headed out.

I ducked behind the curtains and some of the people backstage came up to me and told me I did a good job. Jeff Hardy was one of the first people to do so.

He was walking towards the entrance area because he was supposed to be in the opening matchup for SmackDown!, but waved me over to talk. 

He told me that he loved what I was doing out there and that he hoped to wrestle with me one day.

That, coming from Jeff Hardy, was a very cool thing to me. I knew he’d made his name by doing certain things people didn't agree with, but worked out for him in the end. He is a former WWE Champion, so I knew I could learn a lot from him. 

I was then approached by a WWE official, who began by telling me the match was good, but he had a better idea for me and my gimmick.

He felt I would be a good heel because I had played such a good one in my match with Kung Fu Naki. I normally play a face character, so to hear him say he liked the heel version was exciting to me. 

He felt I could be an Arch Angel character, where I do the same things I normally would wrestling wise, but my gimmick needed a little help only because he said it could be "better" in the eyes of WWE creative.

He also told me that I could not use my real name when I made it to TV for various reasons. They said that I was good enough from what they saw to be on ECW next week. So that’s how long I had to come up with a new name.

They gave me two choices:  Arch Angel or The Dark Angel

They felt one of these names would be better. If they wanted to give me a name, it would only be Michael because of the connections to it.

I had to decide between the two names, but I was so excited to even be on a main roster. And be on TV next week!

I was told that I would have a match with Tyson Kidd in that match next week. They felt he would be a good person to face because he was the best worker on the show and they wanted to put me over on him a bit.

Even though he was a heel himself, they felt Kidd was the best bet because he always seems to make others look better out there. 

There was no decision yet on who would win that match, but what was for sure was that I would make a big splash.  

Then it hit me, the thoughts of people saying I wasn’t good enough starting ringing in my ears.

Was I good enough? Would the reviews, writers, and others like me next week when we were LIVE on ECW?

Only time will tell.