The Live Spark! with IWF Commisioner Kathy Conway

[Dark Lord Simon de Montfort]

Immediately following Monday Night Sacrifice and after the short introductory video package, airing live exclusively on the IWF Network, we are taken to a simple but plush studio where Damien Sparks in a suit and tie sits on the left behind a desk, and to his right is the newly appointed IWF Commissioner, Kathleen Conway, who is wearing a fashionable red dress and diamond studded earrings and the golden spade shaped pendant around her neck.

The camera zooms in on Damien who introduces us to this IWF Network first.

Damien: Hello and welcome to The Live Spark, an unscripted look behind the veil of the professional wrestling business. What is life really like behind the scenes for the men and women of the Imperial Wrestling business, and just how much of what we see on live TV each week is real and how much of it is scripted for our entertainment? In the next half hour, exclusively live on the IWF Network, we will ask these questions and many more of one of, if not the most famous, professional wrestling wives in the business, the new commissioner of the Imperial Wrestling Federation, Kathleen Conway...

The camera zooms out again as Damien turns to Kathy.

Damien: Kathy...may I call you Kathy?

Kathy: Of course, Damien, we're all friends here.

Damien: I had to check, especially after that last interview you did with poor Maria Iniesta...

Both Damien and Kathy laugh at this.

Kathy:  Funny you should bring that up. Maria is actually one of the sweetest young girls there is backstage, underrated in her current role, but I think she has a bright future, when we were rehearsing the segment backstage at Metamorphosis, she was so nervous about being on the screen with a, and I hate when anybody uses this term to describe me, "veteran of the business" and I was like "Listen honey, I'm just as nervous as you are, I haven't done this in several months either", that immediately put both of us at ease...

Damien: I find it interesting that you hate being described as a "veteran of the business", why is that?

Kathy: Truthfully, I've never felt I deserved it. To me, that term should be reserved for the guys and girls who have been here for years and actually had an impact on this business...

Damien: It might be easy to overlook the fact that this is your seventh year in the business, but for my money I think it could be argued that you have made an impact in this company, you actually made it to the finals of the first ever Heiress To The Throne tournament, with a relative unknown at the time, Jessica Reed, what was that like? Did you have any idea that she'd become as successful as she has?

Kathy: Awww, you're too kind, Damien. You know the wonderful thing about Jessica Reed is that she is one of the most dedicated and passionate workers I have ever shared the ring with, to be here, to do this, it's all she ever wanted to do and I don't think any of us can deny that she shows that every time she goes out there. She is one hundred and percent committed to making you believe in her, and that kind of talent is rare. To answer your question, I knew she'd make it in this business, I just didn't know how far, and truthfully I am a little envious of all the younger girls who have the youth on their side, Jessica Reed, Amber Richards, Ana Valentine and Eternity to name a few...

Damien: I don't think it's a coincidence that the names you just mentioned have all been to the top of the mountain, and one of the biggest criticisms you've faced in this business is that you just don't have the ambition or the drive to really dedicate yourself to your career, how do you respond to that?

Kathy: Whilst it's true that I have never tried to push myself into the title scene or use my position to play politics, I don't think it's entirely fair to say I don't have ambition, I mean who wouldn't like the right to call themselves the best in the business? As valuable as an asset is to some of the girls backstage, it also tends to foster an ego and arrogance in some of them, and they don't understand that if everybody in this business really was as self serving as it is our job to appear on TV every week, nobody fresh would get over today, and then we'd be stuck relying on the same old reliable names to go out there and put on a show. The Spike Kanes, The Angels, The Alex Jones'...

Damien: The Jake Conways?

Kathy: Oh, we're going there already, huh? Yes, yes, Jake too.

Kathy laughs.

Damien: Sorry, I couldn't resist, but now we're here, I have wondered for years about you and Jake. What is the real story between you two?

Kathy: Oh boy, well I suppose it depends on what you call real. I suppose the old adage of the course of true love never running smooth really does apply to us.  Truth is, sometimes I look back at the last nine years that Jake and I have known each other and still can't believe it is real. Surreal, some might say...

Damien: How did you guys meet? 

Kathy: I first met Jake when XHF came to Wichita in early January 2006. They were concerned with the security of one of their house shows and I was called in to oversee it and Mongo just happened to catch me and my sister talking backstage and he asked both of us if either of us had worked in the business before...

Kathy pauses.

Kathy: Of course neither of us had, and then he introduced us both to this strapping six foot three blonde pretty boy and explained to both of us that they were looking for a new valet to pair up with Jake because he just wasn't connecting with the female talent on the roster, complaining about a lack of chemistry, and that without a beautiful woman on his arm, The Ace was dead in the water, so they were now being forced to think out of the box...

Damien: Let me guess, you were immediately taken with him?

Kathy: Honestly, no. My first thought was that he sounded like an insufferable douchebag!

Kathy giggles.

Kathy: At the time, I had no interest in leaving my job to become a trophy, but Tiffany was up for it, so she got the gig.

Damien: And it didn't work out?

Kathy shakes her head.

Kathy: Nope, after trialing it on the house show later that night, the angle didn't even make it to TV. They decided to briefly pair Tiffany with Spike instead, and after the show Jake came and found me backstage and explained that at least sixty percent of what he did out there was just a gimmick, and that it wasn't really who he was.

Damien: Why would he tell you that?

Kathy: When I asked him exactly that, his response was that "he could never lie to such a beautiful woman" and handed me a playing card with his cellphone number on it.

Damien: Smooth...

Kathy: I thought so! Anyway we started dating pretty quickly after that, and it only lasted about a month before we decided that it would never work with his road schedule being what it is and my job that I wasn't prepared to leave back then. I thought that was that, but it turned out fate wasn't finished with us yet. A couple of days later, I found out I was pregnant with Soli, but Jake was already back on the road, so I had to let him know over Skype of all things!

Damien: Must have been quite the call!

Kathy: At the time, it wasn't the most ideal of circumstances for both of us. I had my job in the Sheriff's office to think about and Jake was too concerned with getting himself over, in his words, "The Ace with a baby would never work"...

Damien is startled by her unexpected personal revelation.

Damien: Wow! He was really that concerned about his career?

Kathy: Oh yes, I remember thinking back then how stupid I had been for letting myself fall for such a bastard. I blamed myself more than I blamed him...

Kathy pauses, and tries to keep herself composed as she recalls the conversation, but the tears are hard to hold back. Damien hands her his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit.

Kathy: I'm sorry...it's just....it was...

Kathy wipes her tears with the silk handkerchief and sniffles back her tears.

Kathy: It was hard to hear the man I had fallen so quickly for tell me he had no room in his life for his child and that I should just get rid of it for both our sakes, but that's what he said and so I swallowed my pride and let him go. I just couldn't do it, I couldn't get rid of my baby and so I was determined to raise it without him, and with the help of my family, I got through it.

Damien: It must have been hard.

Kathy: It was. I remember the last thing I said to Jake before we broke up was that he'd never find anyone like me again, I said it not to brag, but as a means to hurt him as deeply as he had hurt me, and six months after that, I started a relationship with a man we both know very well in this business...

Damien: Ah yes, good old "Sexy Jason", a man who was hired more for his physique than his skill inside that ring or on the microphone. It must have felt weird when he told you that he had been hired by New Championship Wrestling in late 2007?

Kathy: At the time, yes it was weird that despite my best efforts I became linked to the wrestling business again, but looking back, I suppose it was fate or destiny. "Sexy Jason" became Tiffany's way back into the business and she asked me to come worth her when she found out that NCW was scouting new talent, and I agreed. It was only after I saw Jake again that I truly understood how devious my little sister could be.

Damien: So it was Tiffany's idea to rebuild the bridge between you and Jake?

Kathy nodded.

Kathy: Yes. It was strange that it had been almost two years since we had broken up, but actually seeing him again brought it all back for me. The goosebumps, the butterflies, the instant feeling of a deeper connection. It was funny, as soon as he saw me again, Jake rambled his way through an apology, there he was telling me how much of an idiot he had been, and all I could do was giggle like I was twelve again. I suddenly realised how much I had missed him, even after everything that had happened between us. Those kind of feelings can be ignored if you really try, but they never go away.

Damien: So what changed?

Kathy: I don't really know. I only know what hadn't, my feelings. I'd like to think it that was true for both of us. Looking back, I can say that I had grown and matured as a woman and a mother, but back then how much I had hurt him by saying that and how genuinely he was trying to apologise to me, and he walked away. I felt so bad that, on a whim I asked Kelly Fox for a tryout...

Damien: Ah, the famous Kathy impulsiveness strikes again! So you were so determined to patch things up with Jake that you took a job opportunity within this industry purely on a whim?

Damien smiles and Kathy laughs.

Kathy: Rather poetic, isn't it? It was my impulsiveness that had gotten me into this mess and now it would help me get out of it again, or so I thought....

Damien: It didn't go quite as you hoped?

Kathy: Does anything in this business? Whilst Jake and I were trying to figure out just where the hell we were going, Leonard Fox was determined to pair me up with "Sexy Jason", hoping in the long term to capitalise on the natural animosity that it would create between him and Jake, who in the meantime would be paired with my sister who would "drop the baby bombshell on him" and therefore begin a storyline where the old cliche of "who's the daddy?" would be turned on it's head, and it would be Solitaire's maternity that would be questioned, with the eventual pay off being that I would betray Jason and side with Jake.

Damien: So, it turned into a case of life imitating art?

Kathy nodded.

Kathy: Sort of, apparently it was obvious to Jason and everybody else that Jake and I were not over each other, so he was a complete gentleman when he told me that he'd step aside and that it was more important for him to see me happy even if it couldn't be with him...

Damien: Wow, very noble. Quite out of character when you consider who "Sexy Jason" was portrayed to be on TV.

Kathy: Yes, Jason was an absolute sweetheart whenever the camera wasn't on him, but as soon as it was time to go, out came the baby oil and the pecs and the cheesy catchphrases. He may not be remembered as much of a wrestler, but he is a born showman. A little bit like Jake actually, now that I really sit here and think about it.

Damien: You said that Jason was a world apart from his gimmick, with that in mind, just how close are you and Jake to the characters you play?

Kathy: Pretty damn close actually, in fact the joke that the girls tell backstage is that I've made an entire career out of not having a character at all, but to me I just find it easier to be myself in front of the camera. People forget that I really fell into this business by accident, before I came into NCW, I had no idea how to cut a promo, never mind execute a wrestling move!

Damien: To say you've never had a character is a bit unfair, after all who could forget, "The Wild Kat"?

Kathy: Oh God, I KNEW you would bring that up!

Damien: Who came up with that? Where did it come from?

Kathy: It happened quite by accident actually, in a scary moment that proves even the most experienced wrestlers can botch a spot, Spike Kane slipped and lost his grip as he had me in the air for the Spike Impailer and dropped me hard on the top of my skull, and I was out immediately. To this day I just can't watch it without flinching, it was a damn miracle that I wasn't injured and Spike, bless his heart, was so apologetic to both Jake and myself, but of course, me being just fine was too boring for TV and so it became this huge angle and gimmick.

Kathy smiles.

Kathy: Leonard Fox had once heard Jake call me Kat, and he walked by saying "you should go with that" and my husband's pun based sense of humour being what it was, the gears began turning for him on a literal "catwoman" gimmick that wouldn't infringe on the popular DC villainess. When I started it, I hated it, but after the first couple of promos, I really started to have fun with it...

Damien: The head injury angle ran for five years, was it always supposed to run for so long?

Kathy: The problem was we all knew that the gimmick would eventually run its course, but nobody had any idea how to end it realistically, and so Jake and I pitched the idea of slowly fading it out over time and wrapping it up as neatly as we could, looking back I think we did the best we could given the circumstances.

Damien: So no hard feelings towards Spike?

Kathy: Spike, maybe, but Mike was at our damn wedding, a few months after, that should tell you everything you need to know!

Kathy laughs.

Damien: You mentioned how you were reacquainted with Jake in late 2007, but you never said how all that turned into one of the most infamous long term relationships in the business...

Kathy: Jake took me out to dinner within weeks of me signing an NCW deal, and in January 2008, a full two years after we had first started dating, we officially agreed to try this all again, and Jake was so determined to do things the right way and show me that he really had changed and that I was more important to him than any character he played on TV that on Valentine's Day, he proposed to me and vowed that if I said yes, he would prove himself to be the most committed and loving husband and father Soli and I deserved...of course the "kayfabe" proposal for TV came a month later, so we actually got to celebrate two engagements.

Damien: So he really is as sweet as we see every week now, huh?

Kathy: Oh, these days absolutely! It's amazing how much he has changed when you consider what he used to be like. Nowadays he works hard to fit this job around us and not the other way around. Honestly I think he's just as happy playing himself for the cameras as I am, at least when he is not in the ring, and as nice as it is to see him comfortable in his skin, I have to admit I still get a hot seeing him step into the ring and transform himself into the piddly ass kicking machine, The Ace!

Damien: Personally, whilst I have a hard time buying you as a heel, I have never had that problem with The Ace and I guess now it makes more sense, it seems to come naturally to him, what do you prefer to play?

Kathy: Definitely the bad girl. It's fun to be a bitch, and now that I'm back and in power, you're going to see Kathy Conway reach a new level of despicable. I want to have people watch us and say for the love of God, somebody please slap Kathy and punch The Ace in the nose!

Kathy chuckles.

Damien: I'm getting word in my ear that we're going to have to wrap this up, so bearing in mind everything you've said,  one final question: What's next for the two of you? Where can you possibly go from here?

Kathy: Well, all I can really say about that Damien is stay tuned, you'll get your answer next week on Sacrifice!

The camera then zooms in on Damien.

Damien: Well, there you have it folks. Unfortunately that's all we have time for! This has been The Live Spark exclusive to the IWF network, and I'm Damien Sparks, reminding you to stay controversial!

'Money, Power, Glory' by Clawfinger plays the show out as the studio lights dim and the camera zooms out again.