The Awakening
From Bywpedia
| The Awakening | |
| |
| Stable | |
| Members | Focalin Sic Ric Bsnow Devin Bliss Shooter |
| Name(s) | The Awakening The -\wakening |
| Former member(s) | The Pen Name |
| Debut | October 31, 2010 |
| Federation(s) | REVIVAL |
The Awakening is a backyard wrestling heel alliance in REVIVAL, consisting of leader, Focalin and members, Sic Ric, Bsnow, Devin Bliss, and Shooter. Being a mysterious unit, The Awakening invokes a mistrust among the backyard wrestling world, with no one knowing who might "awake" and join them.
The group is formed under Focalin, who storyline spiritually transformed into a newborn demon as guided by his personal demons. As the master manipulator of the group, Focalin recruits and unites with his "awakened" demon companions after convincing them to change their perspective by adapting, controlling and channeling their pains towards their wrestling goals and allowing no one to get in the way, whereas they would "awaken" to become aware of the their new perception. The group revealed themselves during the "Devil's weekend" in October 2010.
Contents |
History
Formation
Over the course of weeks leading up to the formation, Focalin began posting strange and subliminal messages on the GBYWN forum, and one in particularly provocative was, "help me I'm in hell", that baffled and concerned everyone in regards to his well-being, as it was unlike his characteristics to behave in that matter, which led to a ban to his board membership due to spam. As he has been battling with personal demons of his own, many continued their worries upon hearing Focalin had altered into a different personality, filled with hostility and anger when Shooter contacted him over the phone.
Focalin aired a dark promo, apologizing for his actions and emotionally imploring for forgiveness. Turning into an angle,
Planning to reveal his mystery, it became evident that the incident was a "work", or in other terms, a storyline angle that depicted his evil, demonic transformation, which was all explained through a series of subsequent promos. Struggling through fears and insanity, Focalin claimed the Devil reached out to him while in hell, "burned" him painfully for why he had been saying, "help me I'm in hell" and, in his "Awakening", was reincarnated to adapt to the "flames of the sin", as a newborn demon, declaring that on Devil's weekend, his demons will "Awaken" with him.
In one promo Focalin stated, "There comes a time in your life when you finally get it. When in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere, the voice inside your head cries out, enough! Enough fighting...and crying...of struggling to hold on. And like a child quieting...quieting down after a blind tantrum, your softs begin to subside, you shuttle once or twice, you blink back your tears and...the rue mantle of a wet lashes, you begin to look at the world from a new perspective. This is your awakening!"
Inching closer to Devil's weekend, Focalin unveiled that his demons were going to awaken at the Revival supershow, Just Another Supershow 6, though promoted as Just Another Supershow 666 taking place on October 30 and 31, 2010, Devil's Night, and the day of Halloween respectively.
At the event on day 1, Sic Ric and Bsnow won the GBYWN World Tag Team Championship in a match against Illuminati and D-Ryda & General Joe. Notably, Ric began exhibiting a heightened amount of viciousness than normally seen. Later, he competed against DC Doom in a competitive match which he won. After the match, Doom displayed his sportsmanship by extending his hand out of respect, and Ric seeing him as "good enough", allowed him to join his alliance with Bsnow in Day One. During Ric's handshake with Doom, Ric shockingly followed up, "good enough for me to take my f*cking crashes out on", before executing a devastating forearm smash.
Day One continued to pummel Doom until Shooter made the save to question their actions. Shooter assisted Doom to his feet to commend him on the match, but only shortly to much surprise, turned on Doom and embraced with Day One, leaving behind confusion. In the aftermath of a match between Bsnow and Focalin, Day One expressed their respect for Focalin by shaking his hand, but Focalin distanced himself from the crew.
During the day 2 of festivities, and prior to a match, Ric and Bsnow attacked Hack Edjamin and Super Phoenix, who were scheduled to face off. Focalin, trying to break up the brawl that ensued, almost immediately attacked Edjamin and Phoenix, eventually causing Chris Castle to arrive at their aide. Devin Bliss rushed out to halt the interference of his tag partner and good friend, Castle, telling him he was "not apart of it". In the final piece of the puzzle, Bliss betrayed his partner and joined Focalin, Bsnow, Sic Ric, and Shooter with Focalin declaring that "we are The Awakening...my demons are with me".
In the main event, Ric faced off against defending champion Bsnow for the coveted REVIVAL Championship. Following Ric's victory to gain possession of the title, The Awakening appeared to have encountered a problem when Bsnow reacted towards losing the title, but The Awakening ended the event on top celebrating their domination.
Appearances
On March 20, 2011, The Awakening attended the CCW Burn this City supershow in Greenfield, Indiana, competing against alll members in J.O.B Squad 2.0 with Sic Ric picking up the victory for the group.
Voice of Reason
In a string of promos conducted 4 months after the debut of The Awakening, each of its members provided an explanation for why they joined the group.
- Focalin - Not fond of a one demon dynasty, Focalin explained that he wanted an equal group to exist to share in on the agenda.
- Devin Bliss - Explained that he thought Focalin took his best friend The Pen Name away when The Pen Name turned on him and their alliance known as OutShined in April 2010, to begin a partnership with Focalin as the tag team, Zebracakez. Bliss claims after a long talk with Focalin, he was helped to realize The Pen Name actually turned on him for his own selfish reasons, thinking he was the better partner and friend. Worried, Bliss thought people began to see it that way, considering himself the better talent, which all led him into a breakdown of sadness and anger. Bliss continued to state that Focalin taught him to embrace his feelings and apply them to his abilities and that was when he "awakened".
- Shooter - Explained that he felt his appearance at Just Another Supershow 6, despite a surprise showing when he could have been elsewhere, was not appreciated nor cared about after all his success in the sport. Shooter says that Focalin was the only one that cared and promised to take him back to prominence. He goes on to inform that people may think The Awakening are wrong, crazy or extremists, and that their minds are not clouded, but says they are not distracted by championships, friends, or enemies but only exist to eliminate regardless.
- Sic Ric - Explained that for 3 years he gave everything to backyard wrestling, by wrestling, training, studying the art, and compiling music videos for everyone's enjoyment, but claimed nobody cared and he had to endure some online harassment in the backyard wrestling community. Ric states that he realized that even after he acquired the desire and advanced skill, it did not matter unless he was apart of an "in-crowd", although he still managed to gradually make a name for himself. Ric said that the only one that stuck it out with him from the beginning, Hack Edjamin, turned on him at SWC's biggest show Plexfest in August 2010 during their SWC Championship match, when Edjamin refused to admit that he beat Ric knowingly with his feet hanging off the edge of the base that called for a break of the pin, but wasn't seen by the referee. After the show, he said he brought the incident to a discussion with Focalin, who told him that it takes a true somnambulist to think that something good will happen to him when he dwells in bad thoughts and advised him to accept the bad things he thinks about and use it to his advantage. Ric credits Focalin for helping him "awaken" to who he is after going on to Just Another Supershow 6 and winning the GBYWN World Tag Team Championship with his Bsnow and claiming the REVIVAL Championship.
- Bsnow - Explained that Focalin contacted him during a time he was undergoing problems that caused depression, hatred, frustration and anger, and told him to focus it and take it out on his opponents, a pep talk that got Bsnow to direct his attention back on wrestling again. Bsnow explained that Focalin asked him to join The Awakening and joined because of his tag team partner Sic Ric, though Focalin had mentored him for the past 2 years trying to groom him into tapping into his potential. His biggest reason for aligning with the alliance is because he feels people haven't been giving him the respect, attention and have been doubting his abilities and wants to raise his game on behalf of himself and The Awakening as well as show that he deserves a spot in The Awakening and deserves to be higher ranked as a wrestler.
- The Pen Name - Explained that he awakened and betrayed everyone that did the same to him, for refusing to acknowledge the feats he accomplished by starting anew in SWC during his relocation to Pittsburgh, and traveling to various supershows in different states. He claims only one individual cared and it was Focalin, who also recruited him into SWC.
In wrestling
- Sic Ric's finishing moves
- Hatchet Driver 2
- Bella Morte
- Devin Bliss' finishing moves
- Tokyo Driver
- Vertabreaker
- Shooter's finishing moves
- The Barry White Driver
- The Argo Special
Championship and accomplishments
- REVIVAL
- REVIVAL Championship (1 time) - Sic Ric
- Global Backyard Wrestling News
- GBYWN World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - Sic Ric and Bsnow
