Lifeblood's blood types didn't match up or something. Well, Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams did, but not everyone else.
The stable consisted of the aforementioned two, as well as Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Bandido and Tenille Dashwood. Within a few months, it was already down to a tag team. What happened?
"I don?t know," Williams admitted to Fightful. "It?s just the way wrestling works. I mean, things take people in different directions all the time. There?s definitely no?I don?t mean for this to be a pun?but, there was no bad blood between anybody. I think everybody understands that you never quite know what card you?re going to draw in your career and what the next turn, where it?s going to take you. It was just the way things shook out, that seemed like one by one everybody involved in the group had something that was taking them away from it or taking them away from Ring of Honor. You just gotta play with the hand you?re dealt."
As of now, Lifeblood consists of Mark Haskins and Williams, with a light affiliation with Bandido. Both Haskins and Bandido are out of the country, and Williams is on his own. Could we see Lifeblood add some more names?
"I think we?re gonna have to kind of wait and see. Because with everything changing the way it is, opportunities are presenting themselves for really different sort of paths in Ring of Honor. I think especially now with that the way things are and people being limited to whether or not they can even come in and wrestle here. It?s like, yeah, you absolutely have to keep your eyes open and look at who else could fit those values or what other ways you could get that job done," Williams said.
Hypothetically, if Lifeblood does add names, they'll have pretty big shoes to fill even if it's been a long time since the original concept emerged. Williams admits that he's looking, though.
"My eyes are definitely open on who?s active, who I think fits that mold. I?ve always got my eyes on the independents still. I definitely keep up with everything and watching everybody. I?m keeping an eye on the people I saw potential in when I was still there and seeing how they?re growing. I think it?s awesome to see people like Wheeler Yuta in Ring of Honor appearing in the Pure tournament. That?s definitely somebody who I think embodies those values and I?m really glad to see him getting that spot and getting that opportunity. Hopefully somebody like that can build on it the way that I?ve been able to built on it and really carve out a spot for themselves here in Ring of Honor. Somebody like that is definitely somebody that I have my eye on," he told us.
Williams actually debuted in ROH and appeared in Lifeblood before he was even under contract. In February 2019, they inked a deal, but is still looking to find a foothold on what exactly the group's purpose is.
"I think we?re really still in the process of figuring out what that meant. What our next move was when everything shut down. It was still very much a work in progress. I?ve been saying that I look at a lot of that as a bit of a failure because we came into Lifeblood with a goal. Our goal was to bring some more honor to this company, and make it look like the Ring of Honor that we all knew and loved and to bring those values that we thought made Ring of Honor what it was to the company and be the shining example of what that is. With all of the difficulties that got thrown our way, with the group and the things really splintering, I don?t feel that we fully accomplished that yet by the time everything had shut down. We really hadn?t accomplished it yet. I?m just trying to look forward to what I can do to find that goal and realize that goal in the future," Williams said.
For now, Williams' purpose is the ROH Pure Tournament, which he's entered in. The rule set is a little bit different, but harkens back to ROH's formative years.
"Just because there are more rules doesn't mean it's more contained, it's just a different playing ground," Williams said before noting he's only had one quick match under the rule set. "I've never gone full on with these rules before. This is an opportunity to make something of yourself in a clear and obvious way in ROH. One of the things I've struggled with in Ring of Honor, there's so many things going on. I'm always getting attacked from behind. There's these distractions and detours of what I came to do. Then there's this, a wrestling tournament. It's a perfect environment, it's all I can ask for. It's an opportunity I'm not taking for granted."
Tracy Williams is participating in Ring of Honor's Pure Title Tournament. You can learn more about it at this link, and you can see our full interview with him at the top of the page.