This is a story about friendship, betrayal, and revenge. Very few people know this history other than the principal members and myself. I am personally indifferent to each of the actors and I have sworn no oath to hold my tongue.
I will not divulge how I came by this story but rest assured, it was a dangerous affair.
Our saga starts before the days of the Bryant run "board". I was a semi-frequent poster back in those days, not as @Ching but another benign know-it-all. As many of you remember, when Bryant took over, he was a strong departure from his predecessor in the realm of censorship. His threshold for banning a thread was tighter than the Spanish Inquisition.
One particular firestarter that always seemed to evade Generalissimo Bryant was our good friend Kentucky Mudflap. Mudflap and Bryant formed a friendship through DM long before Bryant took over the reins of the board. Bryant appreciated Mudflaps ironic persona and Mudflap likened Bryant to his well connected straight man. The genesis of Mudflap’s best posts was in the DM of the board with Bryant.
The friction started almost as soon as Bryant started at USA Wrestling. By the time he got there, the board had dissolved into the Wild West of forums. Hate wars were common and could be triggered by the mere mention of any two of the following: “Virginia Tech”, “Tom Brands”, “Brent Metcalf”. Bryant’s commission was to clean up the mess, shut down the riffraff, and take control. As I said, Mudflap seemed to always get a pass, but that wasn’t the whole story.
Only a portion of Mudflap’s content was seeing the light of day. Bryant had grown ruthless on his unrestricted power over the board. He had special preview controls on content and he would block whole posts by MF. Others he would edit heavily, even changing large passages to correct grammar or remove a targeted person. As you can imagine, Mudflap was incensed.
Another foible that ruffled Mudflap’s feathers was Bryant contacting him directly with Mudflap’s personal e-mail address instead of DM. When Mudflap originally created his account, he didn’t seem to consider that anyone would ever care what his e-mail address was, so he used his work address that was structured: first_name.last_name@company.com. Bryant had the ability to unmask him and was only too willing to hint that he would do it.
While Bryant was running roughshod over the board and his former friend, Mudflap played a card Bryant had no idea he held. Unbeknown to Bryant, Mudflap was tight with a higher-up at USA Wrestling. When I say “higher-up”, I mean way up. This ace essentially forced Bryant’s manager to send him packing. On the surface, the departure was seemed cordial, behind the scenes it was anything but.
Bryant desperately wanted to find out why he was suddenly persona non grata and USA Wrestling was only responding with “change of direction”. Bryant’s friends on the inside tipped him off that he had somehow “displeased leadership”. Bryant was dismayed, angry, and could find no solace.
Bryant didn’t have to wait long to find out what happened, his old friend Mudflap, using his “personal” email address, let him know he had powerful friends. Bryant fired back that he was now absolutely going to unmask Mudflap and that there would be a piper to pay in Iowa. Mudflap countered that Bryant could try that, but it would make him look very foolish. The email address Mudflap had registered with was as fake as his avatar. Bryant did some research and confirmed that the company was fake (and registered privately with the domain name registrar) as was the name.
Bryant was not willing to let this go and told Mudflap he would interview a fake Kentucky Mudflap on his popular podcast network. This interview would destroy KMF’s credibility with the board’s other posters or force KMF to unmask himself.
The rest you all know. The fake Mudflap did the interview and the real Mudflap has yet to acknowledge it for fear of crossing the fourth wall. It remains to be seen the effects on Mudflap’s board cred. Some of you have been calling for MF’s resignation long before the fake interview and others seem to love him even more.
Either way, this war is still going on behind the scenes. Bryant is not only seeking out Mudflap’s identity so as to finally unmask him, but he’s also trying to find out the USA Wrestling leader that sent him packing. Mudflap hasn’t been idle either. He has been inserting negative “Jason Bryant” subliminal messages into his posts. It takes an expert in this field (I happen to be one) to decipher how he is injecting the negative propaganda, but be advised, it is having an effect. Bryant’s approval rating among board members and casual readers is at an all-time low (including his days as The Sheriff).
