DEFIANCE 1.0
Season 1
The World (fantasy) Wrestling Alliance was in its' dying days. And Eric Dane, the man who'd been a mainstay of the interfed since the year 2000, decided it needed to be put out of its' misery. To achieve that end, he opened Defiance wrestling. Named after its intention to Defy the WfWA. He opened the promotion based in his home near Mobile, Alabama.
Defiance quickly became a "heel promotion" - that is, the fans cheered the men who would in other places be considered the bad guys, and booed the good guys. He enlisted the aid of Cobra and Stephen Greer to create a stable called The Hydra, and used it to spearhead the attack on the WfWA. He was successful, with Cobra winning the WfWA World Title injuring previous champion Jack Amethyst in the process, and the Cowboy Dragons winning the WfWA World Tag Titles.
In the end, Cito Conarri stepped up to defend the failing WfWA and made a gentleman's agreement with Dane that they'd put it all on the line at the WfWA's traditional Summer Games - if the WfWA won, Defiance would behave itself as a regional territory, and if DEF won, the WfWA would be consolidated into one fed under the Defiance name. Despite a late WfWA pushback at the hands of Ronnie Long winning the World Title back from Cobra, Defiance won thanks to Dane's intervention in the Summer Games finale, helping Boston Bancroft defeat Victor Mandrake.
On the Defiance homefront, a tournament to crown the first DEF Heavyweight Champion would take place. Defiance mainstays Bronson Box and Jimmy Kort made their first contributions in the tournament, but the winner would be Aaron Vasquez.
By the end of Season 1, Jimmy Kort would have staked out his reputation as the 'representative' of the Southern Heritage Title, The Untouchables (Jeff Andrews & Heidi Christenson) would have offically jumped ship from the WfWA, and the beginnings of the feud between Boston Bancroft and Bronson Box would start.
And "Cool" Cancer Jiles would make his arrival at the end of the Season Finale.
Season 2
As Season 2 started, Dane was determined to stomp out the remainder of the WfWA influence in DEF, and move Defiance away from its' indy roots and into a national promotion. The former was more easily accomplished than the latter. The Cowboy Dragons managed to consolidate the WfWA World Tag Titles and Defiance World Tag Titles into one title, and when Vasquez's reign as DEF Heavyweight Champ was cut short by Ronnie Long and a shovel, Dane unified the DEF Heavyweight and WfWA World into the DEF World Title.
The second part was more complicated. Dane got Defiance a deal with the ESEN Sports Network, and ESEN sent a weasel in a suit named Elijah Goldman to oversee Defiance. Goldman was on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect, and his involvement in DEF usually resulted in stupid things like attempting to turn Adrien Cochrane into the next big thing (Cochrane lasted 2 cards).
On the wrestling side of things, Season 2 also saw the beginnings of the hostility between Cancer Jiles and Jeff Andrews, the arrival of the Foreshadowing, and the arrival of Edward White and subsequent formation of Money for Nothing and COOL for Free (abbreviated as $$Cool).
This all, however, was quickly overshadowed by the feud between Bancroft and Box. Box, wanting Bancroft as focused as he could possibly get him, began a game of psychological warfare that climaxed with Box kidnapping Bancroft's son Jeremy. This resulted in the disintegration of The Hydra.
Season 3
Season 3 saw the rise of DEF Row, consisting of Xavier Langston, The Foreshadowing, and Jimmy Kort. It also saw a greater involvement in the promotion from Elijah Goldman, continuing to force stupid ideas on the wrestlers while refusing to book what the fans wanted.
The infamous "Riot Show" happened on S03E06. Elijah Goldman tried to fire everyone who was critical of him, and instead the wrestlers and fans alike went nuts. The fans tore the arena apart and DEF Row cornered Goldman in his office and extorted the matches they wanted - a three way TLC Match between The Foreshadowing, The Untouchables and $$Cool for the Tag Titles, and the World Title match between Bancroft and Box.
In the end, Bancroft reclaimed the World Title and $$Cool win the tag titles.
Season 4
Season 4 began with the World Title being contested by Bancroft, Heidi Christenson and Xavier Langston. Locked out of the loop after his loss to Bancroft, Box became increasingly violent. And, angry that 'some wench' was moving in on his title shot, Langston decided the way to handle it was to ambush Heidi with a pipe and then backstab Bancroft to win the World Title from him.
And then as the war between Heidi and Langston was heating up, Box blew up backstage and attacked a female stage technician, breaking her leg.
The resulting fallout caused the temporary closure of DEF. Heidi would win the World Title from Langston on the final episode of DEF 1.0, but it wouldn't be televised.
DEFIANCE 2.0
The Grand Champion's League
A few months after the closure, Eric Dane had an idea. The problem was, he needed to get a television deal for Defiance to make it work. And the only way to do that was through Elijah Goldman.
The plan was a points based two-league tournament. One league, 'EVOLUTION', lead by Elijah Goldman. The other, 'HERITAGE', to be lead by a captain of Dane's choice. Dane chose Cito Conarri. Previous Defiance wrestlers as well as new talent signed on for the tournament. The leagues had a draft with Conarri and Goldman each getting six choices, and then the rest of the roster was placed in the leagues according to a lottery. And at the last minute, Goldman shocked the promotion by rehiring Bronson Box.
And, in the strange way things tend to happen, none of the original big deals lived up to their hype. In Evolution League, Bronson Box and Heidi Christenson both tripped out of the starting gate and got themselves fired for uncontrollable behavior and "conduct unbecoming a World Champion". Instead, newcomers Alceo Dentari and Yoshikazu YAZ ended up as the league's top names. In Heritage League, Adam Waterman, who'd won the preseason trios tournament, flopped. His flop was offset by a completely unexpected rise from career midcarder Claira St. Sure, and the return of multi-time World Champion Christian Light.
Heritage won the first interleague event when Light defeated 5 other wrestlers in a ladder match. Heritage also won the second interleague event when their team won a particularly chaotic War Games that featured Edward White backstabbing Heritage, Sam Turner, Jr. switching from Heritage to Evolution to compensate, and Cito Conarri lacing up the wrestling boots. In doing so, they won the rights to an extra person in the finals.
The tournament top 6 for Heritage were, in order, Claira St. Sure, Christian Light, Eugene Dewey, Cancer Jiles, Edward White and Bronson Box. For Evolution, they were Sam Turner, Jr., Jimmy Kort, Heidi Christenson, Alceo Dentari, Mike Sloan and Dragon Jones. The finale ended up being Light vs St. Sure vs Heidi.
Light won.
He was immediately upstaged by Jeff Andrews, who superkicked Dane, stole the promotion right out from under him, and reformed The Untouchables.
DEFIANCE 3.0
In some regards, Andrews' run as BAWS of Defiance had positive effects. He instated the FIST of Defiance belt and got the promotion on national pay per view. But he also alienated fans and wrestlers alike by assigning himself as new World Champion and his fellow Untouchables (Heidi, Long, and Kai Scott) as the Trios Tag Champions. Christian Light and Tom Sawyer put together a collective called The Good Fight to oppose them, and the first half of Def 3.0 would be dominated by the ongoing war between The Good Fight and The Untouchables.
The Untouchables reign didn't last long. The Trios Champs dropped the belts their second defense to Alceo Dentari and The Gorillas. At Defiance's first PPV, Untouchable (named after the stable), Heidi broke the arm of Kelly Evans at the top of the show, leading to the early and unexpected return of Eric Dane. Though the Untouchables defeated Team Danger in a 4 vs 4 (Scott pinning Stephen Greer), Dane booked an impromptu triple threat match between Andrews, Edward White and Cancer Jiles for the World Title. Jiles won with a 450 Mongo Chop on Andrews.
Regaining his spot as BAWS was easy enough for Dane, but regaining control of the promotion wasn't. Heidi in particular went to every length she could to disrupt the promotion and cost Dane money. The wars between Edward White and Cancer Jiles, and between Bronson Box and Dan Ryan, destroyed the backstage area and cost the promotion money. Fans got hurt in wild crowd brawls. And Dane couldn't seem to get the promotion back in line. His attempts to bring Heidi back in line by assigning security guards to taze her when she got out of line not only failed, but got Dane and Defiance bad press in the wrestling world. A journeyman wrestler named Chance Von Crank was signed to Defiance, and got it more bad press with his antics, which included an auction for pictures of his junk and a kickstarter to buy "durgs". CVC would also become the Southern Heritage Champion in short measure, giving Defiance one of the least desirable spokespeople of all time.
It all built up to a show in Baltimore, Maryland. With the referees on strike and a hostile smarkish crowd riled up before the opening bell rang, the show was a recipe for disaster. Heidi had skipped out on a match with Python earlier in the show, and in the supposed main event, a 4 vs 4 tag team match, Kai Scott deliberately broke Tom Sawyer's neck with a tombstone piledriver. After that, Heidi was located and dragged to the ring for her match with Python. The show ended with Heidi winning, the decision getting reversed when she wouldn't release her finishing hold, Heidi kicking Cito Conarri in the head and starting a riot, Eric Dane coming out and challenging Heidi to an I Quit match at the upcoming PPV, and then restarting the riot.
Fallout from the Baltimore show resulted in Heidi and Dane both facing legal charges, and the loss of DEF's television deal. Elijah Goldman, who'd maintained an office job with ESEN all along, came out from behind his rock to cancel DEFtv.
Guerrilla Grindhouse World Tour
On Ascension, Defiance's final PPV, just off his I Quit match with Heidi and half-delirious from blood loss and head trauma, Eric Dane announced that Defiance wasn't dying with the ESEN TV deal off, not even a little bit. Defiance was headed to Japan, and then Europe, and then finally Canada.
The Guerrilla Grindhouse World Tour is currently in progress.
