Olympic Gold Medalist ejected in Episode 1
Brandon Slay knows all about controversy. First, he was in the middle of it as a competitor, now as coach of the Texas Shooters.
In 2000, Slay won the Olympic Gold Medal a month after the Games when the International Olympic Committee announced that Alexander Leipold of Germany had been stripped of his gold medal due to a positive drug test. Slay, who competed at 167 pounds, was initially awarded a silver medal in Sydney after losing to Leipold in the finals.
In last Sunday’s debut episode of Real Pro Wrestling, with less than a minute remaining in the 121-pound semifinal match between third-seeded Erik Akin of the Texas Shooters, the wrestler Slay was coaching, and second-seeded Teague Moore of the Oklahoma Slam, a controversial sequence occurred in which both wrestlers were awarded two points. Akin, who was trailing by a score of 12-5 at the time, executed a roll, but exposed his own back in the process according to the referee. Slay disagreed with the call.
“The referee should have awarded it two points for Akin, plus he should have been awarded a five count because it was clear that it was his move,” said Slay. “After he was finished with the count, he continued to roll Teague through. I don’t see that being much different from a gut wrench. You take your opponent to the side with a gut wrench, obviously you’re exposing your back if you hold him. So I just saw that as a similar scenario.”
After the scoring sequence went to video review, the mat judges determined that both wrestlers would be awarded two points. Slay protested the call by throwing the challenge towel in the center of the mat.
“One of my desires is to be a positive influence,” said Slay. “They made it real clear that if we wanted to challenge a call that we should throw the towel into the center of the mat. Kenny Monday (the other coach of the Texas Shooters) was upset with the call, but didn’t challenge it. I just thought, as a coaching team, we needed to challenge that call, so I threw the towel out there and it hit the referee’s foot or something, so he was upset about that. He walked over and gave me a red card for throwing the towel. But there was no animosity towards the referee. We were just challenging the call.”
The referee felt that Slay was out of line and promptly ejected him from the competition.
“That’s when I began to get upset,” said Slay. “I felt that it was uncalled for. I don’t think the referee really understood everything that was going on. He decided to single me out. Since it was the first show of Real Pro Wrestling, I didn’t know what was going to go on. I was like ‘I’m not really going to leave.’ So I stepped back and wanted to continue watching the rest of the match. Then the match continued and the referee stopped it again, making it very clear that I needed to leave the arena.”
Moore went on to earn a 14-11 decision over Akin to advance to the Real Pro Wrestling finals, where he will face number one seed Sammie Henson of the Pennsylvania Hammer. Slay had high praise for the victor.
“Teague is a very good scrambler and also very physical,” said Slay. “I was very impressed that he just came off knee surgery, so he didn’t have a chance to get his cardio where it needs to be, but still wrestled hard. I wish him well in the rest of the tournament.”
Slay, a 29-year old native of Amarillo, Texas, is currently involved in the Masters Program at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has also started an organization called Greater Gold, which prepares youth to reach their full academic and athletic potential while planting positive seeds of Biblial Truth. He travels across the country speaking to schools, youth groups, churches, and companies.
He is excited not only to be a part of Real Pro Wrestling, but also about the future of the sport.
“We need to appeal to people that have never seen a wrestling match, but are willing to turn on Real Pro Wrestling next Sunday when it comes on,” said Slay. “I’m excited to be a part of something that should help take wrestling to the next level and something that could become an occupation for a lot of the wrestlers in the United States. You get a lot of these young kids that want to be state champions, national champions, Olympic champions, but after that, you didn’t really have any opportunities for an occupation. I’m excited to be part of something that could help grow wrestling and create opportunities for wrestlers.”
Slay, who was a two-time NCAA runner-up for the University of Pennsylvania, retired from competitive wrestling after winning his Olympic Gold Medal in 2000.
So would he ever consider coming out of retirement for a chance to compete in Real Pro Wrestling?
“I’d be lying if I said that I’ve never thought about it,” said Slay. “But right now, because of what I’m doing, it would have to become a little more financially interesting for me to train to get back to that level.”
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