It Aired From Detroit

4/07/16
7:45 AM EST

Voiceover: CIMX is a division of Bell Media.  Windsor-Detroit's New Rock Alternative.  89X.  New music first.

Cal Cagno:  We have been hyping this up all week.  The time has finally come.  Sarah Jean and I have promised you that we would get professional wrestler turned VoW promoter, Ryan Omega in the studio this morning.  Well here he is.  Ryan, you are looking good.  How are you doing this morning?

Ryan Omega:  I am doing great, Cal.  I had about six black coffees.  Loaded with energy, which is great because I am in no way a morning person.  I think that was the main reason I broke into this business, because it is not a nine to five job.  I do not have to wake up at five or six in the morning to shower up, eat breakfast, all that yadda yadda and repeat it for the kids.

Sarah Jean:  That's why I just have my dog.  Well there's Tofu Town but he's pretty independent.  I don't have to let him outside.  No screaming, 'bad husband, bad husband' as he drops trou in the backyard over the flower garden.

Cal:  I love getting up early, I mean doing a morning radio show forces me to get up early, but I enjoy it.  I feel like i have a whole day to look forward to.  But let's get on the topic at hand.  Last week at the WFCU Arena, VoW produced Nothing Else Matters.  89X has helped promoted many shows there.  Panic At The Disco, Weezer, The Killers.  This was the first time that 89X helped with the promotion for a pro wrestling show.  It went off with a bang, I mean the show sold out within two weeks of tickets being released as many people from Windsor, metro Detroit and elsewhere flocked to see this spectacle.  None of them even knew that their hometown boy was gonna show up.  How did it feel to be back in VoW and near your hometown?

Ryan: It was tremendous.  Nothing Else Matters was a great show.  I want to put it out there that not many rosters are like the VoW roster.  This company has some of the best talent from around the world.  Casanova English from Canada, Constance Chapin from the UK, Heath Williams who just won the I4NI Championship comes to us from Australia.  VoW started out as this small company doing auditoriums in Minnesota.  Now, we have competitors from all over the globe coming to compete for our fans under our banner.  It is surreal to see something like this.  I moved from here over to St. Cloud, because the promotion is based in St. Paul.  As reluctant as I was about leaving Detroit, you know, this is home, shoot off of I-96 into Livonia, that's where I grew up. I wrestled in high school gyms, churches and even The Insane Asylum.  I competed all over this area. However, I wanted to contribute to what I thought was best for this sport, this industry so I took an offer as Director of Wrestling Operations and I made the move.

Cal:  What spawned the move into the operations side of things, that made you leave active competition?  You were a two time NWA World Champion and a TransAtlantic Champion in NEW, things were looking on the incline as many thought you were on the path to an NEW World Championship, but then things happen and next thing we know a handful of wrestlers left that organization and VoW started up.  It's a question I am sure people ask about a lot, but what happened?

Ryan:  It has been two years already and I cannot believe that for starters.  I guess I can clear the air, it seems pretty old now.  My last match in New Edge Wrestling was at an episode of Ignite a week after Kamikaze in 2014.  I was irritated and frustrated.  I did not like how the organization was running at the moment and I felt that I was getting passed up as a talent, time and time again.  I felt people in the locker room who were friends of mine were getting passed up on opportunities.  This culminated with finding out that I was diagnosed with uh...  cervical spinal stenosis.  My time in the ring was coming to an end no matter which way I wanted to look at it, and I wanted to leave a lasting impression.  That's all it was.  It really sucked because I finally was put in a number one contendership match, one in which I was attacked before the bell rang, by the champion.  He didn't take kindly to my words, and I lost to Tristan Ambrose who is now on the VoW roster.  He actually went on to win the World Championship over in that company.  My biggest regret is not giving him the match he deserved.  I was caught up in what was about me, that I totally overlooked the fact that what I did was disrespectful to him.  He is in VoW now, so here's to hoping that it is water under the bridge.

Cal:  When did you first get wind of VoW?

Ryan:  It was after I was FedExed my walking papers from NEW, I didn't disclose my injury with them so there was no discrimination from their part on that respect.  I got a call from Stefan Frei, somebody whom I grew up watching.  He was someone who main evented Madison Square Garden back in the territory days of the 1980s into the 90s.  He had a hybrid style of european catch and a submission set that seems signaturely, is that even a word, Canadian.  Anyway I was sitting at home, my phone rings and it was Steve, you know Stefan, but I call him Steve.  He was an avid follower of the sport and he heard about the ruckus that surrounded me.  I opened up to him, because he was also a former grappler taken from competition to soon by injury.  Steve talked me down, calmed me down and he informed me that he was getting ready to open up shop in his native Minnesota, he wanted someone on his management team that would look after the welfare of his roster.  Having a condition like I do, where I can no longer compete.  I know how irksome it truly is, I wouldn't wish it on anybody.  So I gladly accepted the honor.

Cal:  But you were unfortunately released from your duties in the later half of last year, do you mind elaborating on that?

Ryan:  Anybody who knows me, knows I am a family man.  My wife, Rayne had a match.  She was lured up steps in the arena. Long story short two other wrestlers, Beck Ramsey and Big Boss Hogg were involved and all three tumbled down the stairs.  Upon seeing the possible harm, I flipped.  I saw two men throw my wife down a set of stairs...  When he got back up, with nothing more than bruising, I slapped Beck Ramsey across his face before medics came and I was deemed a threat.

Cal:  But you are back now, what spawned it?

Ryan:  After I left, a huge weight was put on Sky Sangue's shoulders.  She's a smart and capable woman, she has business savvy as well as an eye for an opportunity of economic gain for the company.  Even though her and I do not see eye-to-eye more often than not.  I cannot dispute that she is good at the job she was hired for.  With that said, she had to do the job I was hired for as well.  it put Sky in a very difficult position, somebody who is strong willed and skilled like her, used to succeeding, she doesn't know how to cope with where she finds dead ends.  Health and welfare is not her forte.  VoW's injury rate has spiked up since my release and the board of directors could no longer turn a blind eye, so they asked me to come back.  I think the turning point was Double Jeopardy in Puerto Rico.

Cal:  The Cera Janason incident?

Ryan:  Precisely, something like that should have never ever happened.  These men and women are wrestlers.  Athletes and entertainers.  They want to put on a show, they want to compete and hone their craft.  Cera on popular opinion was very unlikeable, but she embraced it.  I think adversity motivated her to be one of the best in this sport, it is hard to say what the motive was for Romeo Vasquez to assault her.  It happened in her hometown.  Not much is known if Vasquez had met Cera before.  Or if he was an obsessed fan.  Security has been ramped up and this assault in my opinion wasn't perpetrated by one man, but there had to have been at least one accomplice.  Somebody to set the lights in the Coliseo to trigger at that perfect moment.  Vasquez was seen sitting in the front row during that entire event by eyewitnesses.  He mysteriously vanished when the lights were back on.  There had to have been somebody else who helped Vasquez commit this assault.  Issue number two was her untimely death.  Cera seemed unusual that whole night, at first nobody thought anything of it.  She looked a little under the weather but there was no cause for concern.  She had her own demons, VoW as an organization failed her and we have to take ownership of that.  If VoW had a stringent drug policy from the get go, maybe perhaps Cera Janason would still be alive today.  Her death is my biggest regret in this company.  Her health was in my jurisdiction, and with nobody equipped to fulfill my role or expand upon it, we failed her.  It is now our time to invest more in the health of those who are with us, so nobody else has to end up in the same manner.

Cal:  Music and sports seem to have hard backgrounds for the participants.  Traveling, partying, drug use, constant performance.  The stresses of these professions seem to take their tolls and for some it ends up too late.  Although your return to VoW sounds like it will make a positive impact, Sky Sangue did not look pleased.  What are your thoughts on that?

Ryan:  If I were in Sky's shoes.  I would not look pleased either.  In fact, I was in her shoes before and I wasn't pleased when she came back.  The thing is, while I was gone, while Steve was gone.  Sky Sangue was the only one keeping this company going with the Board of Directors hounding her at every turn.  She has them to answer to, and they have sponsors to answer to.  Running a wrestling promotion is not as glamorous as it may seem.  She's proud of what she has accomplished, she should be.  But she should recognize her short comings and allow me to help her.  And we will address each other next week on Breakthrough at the DFCU Arena in Flint.

Cal:  Yes, and tickets are still available via the DFCU Arena box office and ticketweb.com.  We have a couple pairs to give away later in the broadcast for caller 89.  As well as Ryan Omega joining myself and Sarah Jean at One Under in Livonia this Friday night from 9 - 11, where you could also win your way into the show.

Ryan:  And the wonderful thing about this is that 25% of the ticket sales will go towards funding the families suffering this water crisis in Flint and Genesee County.

Cal:  Always a great deal to go see a show and support a good cause in one shot.  Ryan, thank you again for coming in the studio.  It's been a pleasure.

Ryan:  Thank you for having me.