Hello, I’m Lincoln Slayter, special investigative journalist for XWA.  Once looked upon as the tag team champions in waiting, the Logging Crew, Cletus & Big Jim, have been absent from competition for nearly two months.  The circumstances of their parting, following a dark match loss to SM Raye and Chris Pyro at Chain Reaction this past March, have, until now remained a mystery.


I sat down with the Logging Crew in this pre-recorded interview, in order to ascertain their whereabouts these last eight weeks, their reasoning, and their plans for the future.

Feed cuts to the pre-taped segment; the back of Slayter's head is just visible at the corner of the camera's eye.  In the midst of the shot are the loggers themselves.  Cletus sits left, his hair parted and slicked to his head with aid of some greasy brown substance. His plaid shirt and shabby tie are covered by a well-worn wool coat, while Big Jim sits to the right in a tattered suit, crowned with a dog-eared pork pie hat.

Thank you for speaking with me gentlemen...

No trouble Link...Jim and I always like to have a say.

He elbows Jim, and the latter hands Slayter a large bottle of Hermit Sherry with a ragged bow attached

‘Ere ya go, some fightin’ juice…

Uh...thank you...I'll save it for later...

You'll drink it now.

You'll share too.

An uneasy silence accrues as the host fumbles with the bow and removes the cap on the green bottle.  He takes a drink, but unexpectedly finds himself aided as each of the lumberman offer a hand to tip the bottle ever higher.  Slayter takes a coughing fit from the caustic nature of the brew and passes it on.  When he regains his voice, he continues.

So, let's not waste time, where have you been?

Glad you asked, Cletus and I had a few scores to settle, a little unfinished business...if you follow...

That, and the ice was outta the river...it was log drivin' time!

That's right, we had hard drivin’, the men were tired and ornery.  

The logs settled together and knotted up into a jam; it was an awful mess and it made for slow goin’.  Well we took one look at that, and we seen enough.

We swore by Christ and all the saints that we’d break the jam or we’d be damned to Hell.  

We grabbed his peaveys and away he went, and the whole damn thing caved in on us.  

When the dust settled we seen this animal, it let out a god-awful sound and come at us.  

A long, brown thing, with a long tail and a round head like a man and short horns; sure wasn't it the Devil hisself coming to collect.

The blood of too many fallen opponents called out for vengeance, and I guess he could only ignore them for so long.  

Well sir, we looked that son of whore in the eye and we dared him to come on.

Now here we stand, and where's he?

Excuse me gentlemen, but what does this absurd story have to do with your leaving XWA?

I think he's callin' us liars Jimmy?

What we're sayin Link is that a brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.

You see there's a lot of men in XWA who claim a helluva lot, but when it comes down to it, they turn away.  Rather than face you, they'll look for someone else, and when you're gone they'll say they ran you out of town.

You're referring to the former tag champions, D-Volution?  Now I have to say gentlemen that, though rumours abound as to things they might have said, no concrete evidence exists that they made any intimation as regards their part in your having left.

Well then, they're either gutless or awful forgetful.

Excuse me again, but I've got to ask, was it not D-Volution that had their hands raised at the end of your encounter for the tag titles?  Surely they didn't turn away when you're challenge came.

Smart ain't he?

Yessir, slippery as a shithouse rat; not gonna let us get away with anything.

You're right, they won.  The marks said it wasn't our best effort, called the match a disappointment if I remember.

But you don't hear much outta them about it, in fact you never heard much outta them beforehand either. 

Other than their screams when we beat 'em in January.

What are you implying gentlemen?

We ain't implying a goddamn thing!

If folks say they run us out, then we say let them keep us out.

We're looking those devils in the eyes....

They gonna look back?

We cut back to Lincoln Slayter at his desk.

There you have it ladies & gentlemen, the Logging Crew looking to pick up where they left off and rejoin battle with the former tag team champions.  No doubt they'll be watching tonight's title match between D-Volution and The Knockout Kings, perhaps in the hopes that JHalc and David Michaels will reclaim the gold.  


It has been said that temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole and yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.  Dear viewers, I put it to you, will D-Volution yield and open the door to a third encounter with the Logging Crew?


I'm Lincoln Slayer....

So glad to have these guys back. One of the coolest gimmicks in XWA imo. Can't wait to see what they do.