Michael Astin: "Welcome one and all to Redemption 2015. I'm here to address a few things first as I was asked to by Smoke. If you read XWA.com, you'll know that I have fired James Knight."
Some audience members begin to murmur while others start to boo.
Michael Astin: "I know, I know: now some of you will be thinking that this is a tyranny. It's not. The reason why I fired James is quite simple. Last week, I went around the locker room asking people if they wanted a match at Redemption or not. See, I'm not about to book somebody in a match if they're not going to even be bothered to show-up or even be motivated to wrestle. Only two people said 'yes'. Those being Vertigo and Chris Dolmeth. No- wait. Chris... Dol... meth. Crystal Meth. How have I... wow. Alright. As I was saying: now those two are going to be in a match tonight, where it's going to be a Taipei Deathmatch. Why? BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT?! Back to James though. I approached him, just like everybody else who didn't have a match. He said that I was going to be the downfall of XWA."
Michael nods his head with a smirk and starts to slowly pace inside the ring.
Michael Astin: "I was the downfall of 2WWF, of course. That was his reasoning. I drove 2WWF into the ground. Except I didn't. What drove 2WWF into the ground was a combination of the actual wrestlers not giving a shit and the fact that our money was plummeting. 2WWF was given another chance with me in charge and it failed because of various reasons. But since it was ME who was General Manager... that means, OBVIOUSLY, it was ME who caused it to fail. If you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. James had the audacity to compare the two situations when all I was doing was asking him if he wanted a fucking match or not. So I told him that since he had no clue what he was talking about to apologize. He told me to go fuck myself. I fired him. I don't have time for crap like that. You can criticize me all you want about 2WWF, but ask yourself this: why am I in charge of XWA then? Because Smoke and everybody else knows that I wasn't the reason 2WWF failed. So James did that to himself."
Michael is about to leave the ring, except it appears as if he remembers something.
Michael Astin: "Also! Similar issue. The TLC is now a Triple Threat. Why? If you watched Vendetta last week, you'll know that Ace Andrews and JHalc decided to not even show up for their match. Turns out they were at a bar. I approached them after the show. They apologized. But I wasn't about to grant them a spot in the match. Instead, I asked if they wanted a match or not. They said they didn't. That's when I revealed to them that effective immediately, their contract status was going to change where they'll only get paid for appearing at shows. Suddenly, they wanted a match. Too bad. They fucked me over by making me look bad after I announced the TLC Fatal Fourway, which a lot of people were excited for. They decided 'Nah... fuck this new guy.' But I'm not going to fire them. I'll just make it so they get no money unless they have intentions of showing up. And I think that's it. Yup. Enjoy the show everybody."