After seeing all the shit posted about Ken Shamrock in recent weeks I can no longer sit idly by.
People seem to doubt Kens abilities (forgetting his perfromances in early UFCs and Pancrase) and even worse, his character! Most people have read his book(s) and have an idea of the tough life he endured growing up. What most people don;t realise is that after the WWF (as Ken alluded to on Beatdown) his life really spiralled out of control. I haven't yet read his second book so possibly some of this information could be in there so I appologise if thats the case.
Now I am retisent to even post this as it is rare I speak about it as it is (or was at least very private information that personally I don;t think I should ever be told) but considering all the negative talk concerning him I really think people need to know just what he has gone through and why he may not have shown how good a fighter he really is and why I will never think of him as anything but a warrior and legend just because throughout all of this he never even stopped doing everything he could for the sport he and all of us love!
I was given permission to speak about this freely as long as it was the truth but it transpired that I should never have known any of it anyway...Around the Frye fight I started an e-mail communication with Ken's partner at the time, Alicia Webb (Ryan Shamrock from WWF). It later became apparent though, that, as far as I can tell, she did not have Kens best intrests at heart and thus why Ken is no longer with her and is with his current wife and life long friend who finally is perfect for him.
Now let me say, I have no personal relationship with Ken at all, I have never spoke to him once, I was simply a mad fanboy trying to find out anything I could about my favourite fighter. Thats why I feel I should not have been told any of this. Remember that I am in no way trying to harm Ken by posting this I am a huuuuge fan like you couldn't understand and would never ever try to damage his reputation.
In short between the time Ken left WWF and fought Tito the following happened:
Firstly, he was released from the WWF after a serious, potential career ending and even crippling, neck injury stemming from his broken Neck suffered in his youth. You may remember the Vovchanchyn fight that never happened. That was due to this injury.
Whilst sitting on the sideline consdering what he was going to do with his career his marriage fell apart. There was a very protracted legal battle that was not very pretty as few divorces are, especially as children are involved! Not only was Ken dealing with this though but he was also dealing with a 2nd ugly court case with Mark 'The Cobra' Hall, who had taken him to court over an asault (as many of you know Ken deservedley kicked his ass at a KOTC show, ironically because he was defending his wife who he was then to divorce).
Not only was he dealing with personal problems with his wife but their were others that could be considered just as serious. Alicia confirmed Frank and Ken had a falling out over who was running the Lions Den when he was wrestling but she put it down to their egos on both sides. As we now know she confirmed there was no hard feeling but they didn't see each other much as all. Much more serious though was Kens relationship with Bob, his (adopted) father.
You may remember around the Frye fight their was some trashtalk concerning Bob and Kens relationship well it may have just been trashtalk on Fryes part but there was definetely more to it than that. And I quote:
Quote:
|
Bob and Ken have had a lot of falling outs. It is sad to say that they are mostly about money. Bob thinks that Ken owes him something(money) for adopting him. Ken now thinks that the only reason he adopted him was to get paid. It's really sad. Bob recently sent Ken a letter saying that he was UNadopting him. He wants Ken to change his name back!!!
|
Throughout this Ken was still trying to keep his career going despite his personal life, however this didn;t go as well as planned either. Before fighting Tito the original plan (at least on Kens part) was for him to fight Randy but then he lost to Barnett and everything got changed around. WWF only offered Ken a crappy contract which he declined and kept saying they would get back with a bigger better contract and plan (the rumoured Angle/Shamrock fued) but it never played out. Whilst negotating with the Jarretts TNA company Ken was also working out a deal with KOTC but that also fell apart (quite spectacularly in fact but I don;t know the exact details). Ken was apparently treated 'very badly' by Pride so was unwilling to return there. So in the mean time Ken set up Mega Fights (where he beat Sam Adkins after Marsh pulled out/was kicked out depending on who you ask). He then looked at setting up another event but was sceptical as Mega Fights turned out very badly - his 2 partners ripped him off 2OGrand!!!
Fortunately Ken went back to the UFC for the megafight with Tito. However that did not go to plan either. I can confirm that Ken was only fighting on 1 leg! In the build up to the fight (quite late on I believe) Ken completely tore his meniscus. Being a man of his word he was unwilling to cancel the fight as he knew the UFC needed that marquee fight. So he continued to prepare for the fight, unfortunately making the injury even worse by nearly completley ripping his ACL (by the time of fight or during the fight it may have completley torn as he had to have a full replacement post fight). He fought his heart out regardless against a younger fighter at the top of their game and managed to drop Tito to his knees early, escaped from bad position numerous times and lasted longer than Tanner/Elvis and Kondo combined (ALL WITH 1 LEG!)
That was not the end of his injuries though as he still needed treatment for a bad shoulder where he had his rotator cuff scoped to remove bone spurs from a lifetime of wear. Remember Ken was unable to live the clean life like Randy primarily due to his period in WWF!
Now I cannot confirm or deny this but their were rumours of Ken having a problem with cocaine after his stint in the WWF. Thats not me accusing him of taking drugs (like I said I am his biggest fan) that is me just commenting on the rumours. When you look at the Fujita fight something clearly isn't right and when you put that with all the rumours and the numerous other examples of drugs in pro-wrestling it isn't hard to put 2 and 2 together!
Perhaps this was the case and perhaps it wasn't, perhaps Ken brough some of his problems on himself but given the stress he was clearly under, how would you have reacted? I think people really need to give the guy a break and believe him when he has turned his life around as he clearly has!
Kens career (and life) cannot be judged soley on the last few years as he was unable to show what he was really made of. I am not making excuses for him I am simply asking people to consider the facts before they unfairly criticise him. I am not saying that Ken will roll back the years on Saturday, he is 42 and the clear underdog in this fight, logic dicates Tito should win regardless of how good Ken comes in. However if their is any justice in the world Ken will go out in a blaze of Glory and if you listened to him on beatdown you can tell he is clearly a changed man and focused like I cannot remember him ever being!
Good luck Ken you will always be my hero.
