By: Tom Mitchell
Beyond the Canvas is a monthly interview series PPW’s backstage announcer, Tom Mitchell, will present to fans in anticipation for the next show. At the end, Mitchell will offer his opinion on what the PPW superstar has to stay. The second guest this month will be “The Devil’s Favorite Reject” Jason King. To read the interview with Evander James, click here.
King has been a member of the PPW roster since October of 2018. Ever since his debut. He has solely been focused on removing Undeniable from Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling. What this edition of Beyond the Canvas plans to show is who the man behind the leather jacket is and his motives for being in Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling.
Interview with Jason King
Tom Mitchell: Hi Jason. Thanks for letting me interview you for Beyond the Canvas. Now, obviously you and Undeniable have an extensive history. Where did these issues begin?
Jason King: The issues with Undeniable? I do not have issues with Undeniable as a group. I have Issues with Ryan Race. The issues date back to 2008, and that’s what I don’t think everybody understands. Everybody thinks I just came out of the rafters one day and attacked his crew just to get my foot in the door or make a name or whatever it was, but that’s not the case. I have a very crooked submission here and it’s directed at Ryan and only Ryan. People in his group are just casualties of their guilt by association, unfortunately. I don’t care who they are. I’m not mad at John Wes. I’m not mad at Clutch Adams. I’m not mad at any of them. They’re just associated with the wrong guy at the wrong time.
Tom: So, as you mentioned, Ryan is the most hated member of the group for you. But you don’t actually hate any of his
men? It’s just merely guilty by association?
JK: Yeah. If the top guy in the company, the biggest fan favorite in the world, say Mike Orlando, for example. Everybody loves the guy. If he were to join with Ryan Race tomorrow then unfortunately me and Mike would have an issue. The only reason why is because of this whole thing with Ryan Race, and nothing to do with anything else. People’s best bet is to not be associated with Ryan right now. I have no issues with any of those other guys. I’m very impartial on them in either way. I don’t care. It’s just that if you’re gonna be with Ryan, then you’re gonna be in my way.
Tom: With your former manager Penny Lane, well, I’m assuming former manager after what happened at Throwdown on 5th Street where she hit you below the belt at the event, you truly do not have any real allies heading into PPW Super Show II. How do you plan on overcoming the overwhelming advantage Undeniable has whenever you come to the ring?
JK: Well, without saying too much, her turn definitely is a big wrench in my plans; however, that doesn’t change the plan. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m still gonna get to Ryan. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m still gonna disrupt everything that he’s worked for. The plan is still to take away titles and to take away prestige from him. It sets me back and it hurts me personally, but I’m not going to get into that too much because I don’t feel like that’s anybody’s business and it’s something that me and her will have to talk about someday outside of the wrestling world. As it is, that’s the route she chose and that’s the way she wants to go, and that’s fine, but unfortunately, while it might not look that way, she picked the road she did.
Tom: You’re one of the veterans on the PPW roster. How have you been able to keep differentiating your style to keep up with these younger and more athletic guys?
JK: I mean yeah I’m almost 40 years old. These guys are younger than me, they’re faster than me. A lot of them are stronger, taller, bigger, what have you, but they’re dumb. Young kids are dumb. All I gotta do is play every match like a game of chess. I might lose one piece. I might lose two pieces. I might lose five pieces. But then they’re gonna screw up. And I only need you to screw up once to get checkmate. I don’t need all of the pieces on the board. So, I’m smarter than they all are because of my experience. So, for their 8 years or their 9 years or even then 10 years, I have almost double that, and there’s not too many guys sitting in that locker room right now outside of guys like Tommy Suede or a few others that walk through there that can even say anything close to that. So, a lot of them are like I said. They’re too arrogant, they’re too cocky, they’re too dumb for their own good. They do dumb things and make mistakes. They hurt themselves, throw themselves off balance and I only need that one second. And if I’m being honest, having Penny in my corner was obviously a nice backup. Which is, like I said, as of recent times, there is a small issue there, clearly. But like I said, I’m still confident that I’m smart enough to stick my way around these guys who are gonna try to out flip me and out muscle me. I just need them to make one mistake. That’s all I need.
Tom: When you first came into PPW, your goal was to remove Undeniable from the company. Would you say that you are taking the necessary steps towards achieving that goal or do you think you need more like-minded people around you in order to make that goal a reality?
JK: Here’s the deal. It’s gonna happen no matter what. Whether I have to do it myself or if some like minded people might come along and be willing to assist in the fight, that’s fine, but at the end of the day, it’s gonna happen either way. Now, would I like some help? Yeah, I think that I probably need some. While I sit here calm right now and my stubborn side is not showing, yeah, I probably need to look into a little bit of back up here and there. But yeah, if people are judging my career since October when I joined PPW, then people should know that I have a very big history with fleeting armies in these kinds of situations. If I feel I need backup, rest assured I will get what I need. But so far? I’ve been irritated. I’ve been frustrated, and I’ve been making mistakes. I’ve beaten Andy [Header], I beat Clutch [Adams], and, if you want to get technical, while it wasn’t my ideal scenario, I beat Pat Sawyer in a tag team match and this is what got me to the dance in the first place. So, yeah, do I get 12 guys after every match and left laying on my back? Sure, but I can take that. That doesn’t mean anything to me. I got the win, they will be made fools of and that’s all that matters to me. And at the end of the day, Ryan [Race] has to sit and watch all of this. And I know, I KNOW in my heart that he goes home at night and this is driving him crazy and that’s the biggest win to me that you and fans don’t care about but to me, it’s the greatest feeling in the world to know that Ryan Race is at home knocking things over, probably fighting with his girlfriend, pissed off, angry, upset and everything else because of what’s going on, and that’s all that matters to me.
Tom: Last question. Is there anything else that you feel PPW needs to know about Jason King or what to expect from Jason King in 2019?
JK: What I need everybody to understand like I said, if we’re gonna go back and touch a little bit, is that Ryan Race, like I said, we go back a long time. Ryan, respectfully, wouldn’t even be where he is in the wrestling business if, one day, I didn’t invite him to referee matches and be an announcer at a wrestling company not too far from here. And then somewhere along the line he started getting into managing wrestlers and now I’m here to put him back in his place so that’s what you can expect in 2019. I’m gonna finish what I started in 2018 and beyond that, I’m not really gonna tell you much more because I don’t wanna let people know what I’m up to I want people to check it out for themselves and see.
Tom’s Take
All I can say is wow. Personally, I had no clue that the history between Ryan and Jason went years back. I’m very glad that I actually interviewed Jason, as I was always curious as to where their issues truly came from. Jason admitting that he could probably use some help was a bit startling, but it shows how much of a man he truly is and that he is not afraid to admit when a situation is looking bleak. Jason has beaten practically all of Undeniable, but still gets destroyed after every contest. With literally nobody in his corner now, he’s really got to the point where it is him against everyone. Some backup is desperately needed if he wants to truly run Race out of town. With a key match coming up against John WEs for the PPW Television Championship at Super Show II, having something up his sleeve might just be in Jason's best interests.