“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams spoke with WrestleZone’s Colin Tessier ahead of his six-man tag team match against Shane Taylor Promotions on Ring Of Honor TV this week.
The faction warfare has been brewing between The Foundation and Shane Taylor Promotions for several weeks, and Williams spoke about waging that battle as well as the one that still looms with La Faccion Ingobernables.
“It’s interesting. Like most of those guys, if not all of those guys, except for maybe Kenny King here and there, [they] were forced to take some time off from Ring of Honor because they couldn’t come and be a part of these tapings. And so they weren’t even around while we were kind of laying the groundwork of all this. And yeah the second they stepped back in the door,” Williams said, “it became even more clear to all of us what it was that we were fighting for and what it was that we were fighting against. Because you know, watching Final Battle, it was this amazing show but at the same time, it felt like it was two different shows.”
“There’s The Foundation guys trying to create something that is professional wrestling through and through to its bones, to its heart, that is professional wrestling. Then you’ve got La Faccion Ingobernables coming back and running roughshod and breaking every rule there is. The main event of Final Battle, right before the very finish of the title match was a chair shot to the head from Bastia, RUSH’s father from La Faccion and you know that’s exactly what we’re fighting against,” Williams said, “and it became crystal clear that it feels like an inevitable collision course kind of thing where…there’s only room in this town for one of us. There’s not room for both of us. You cannot have these two ideals coexisting at the same time in such a tight space in one company because to have one country disagrees with how the other is trying to have the company look.
Williams also spoke about how The Foundation compares to Lifeblood, his old stable consisting of himself, Juice Robinson, Bandido, David Finlay and Mark Haskins. Williams says the goals might be similar, and so is some of the verbiage, but The Foundation feels like a more “dailed-in” version of what Lifeblood set out to do in Ring Of Honor.
“I think the comparison is natural because I still am here to restore honor, the Foundation is here to restore honor, it’s something that we’ve heard before but I think before people had different interpretations of what that meant. And so even though we all wanted the same thing to happen, we all were maybe not necessarily going about it the same way and so the vision wasn’t as clear and the message wasn’t quite as clear. Not to mention just the hand that we were dealt. People ended in different situations, going different places and all these kinds of things. But yeah,” Williams said, “this feels like a really zoned in version of trying to accomplish that goal where we all feel that we are definitely on the same page, we all have the same ethos and the same belief and so yeah we feel really dialed in now and I know the comparisons are natural but I think there will come a point where the line will be drawn so distinctly that the comparison will fade away.
Despite sharing the same goals, Williams was asked about the prospect of The Foundation facing off against one another for championships. Considering he faced current Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham in the tournament finals, Williams knows there’s some things to work out and he sees the Pure title as the top one in ROH, but that will always be a goal of his, no matter who has the title.
“It is the wrestling championship, and we are a wrestling company and so if you’re holding the championship, it shows that you are currently the best pure wrestler, then you’re the best guy in the company, as far as I’m concerned. So that’s always gonna be a goal. But looking at the bigger picture is different because if I go after the Pure Title now or let’s say I team you with Rhett and we go after the tag championships, we’re essentially trading our own power amongst ourselves and so yeah I think it is only a natural thing to think about of how can I take this power and spread it out and look to the other divisions and see you know, which one is going to serve us best and try to give us the most power that we can get because that’s what it is. In wrestling, in Ring of Honor, championships are power. You know, it’s influence. It proves something and it puts you in a position where now you’re the guy that’s getting chased instead of the guy doing the chasing. And so yeah, should I chase people that on my side or should I try to get more power for the people on my side? That’s the question, so I think the choice is clear. It’s just a matter of time to see how that all shakes out and see where I go and what I go after.”
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