For the first time, we will learn not just how Mike Check came back to life, but we will also delve into the back stories of a few other WCR personalities...
John Smith was once the toast of London's West End, acknowledged as one of the finest actors to ever tread the boards. However, he was forced to flee British justice when he was accused of incdeceny and lewd behaviour with several of the denizens of Madame JoJo's in the city's seedy Soho district, and Smith absconded to the USA before he came to trial.
Hiding out with his mistress Ellie, Smith took on the pseudonym Sir Alec Heineken, and took whatever bit parts and voiceover work he could get without revealing his true identity.
One day, Heineken was retained by none other than Blade Braxton to provide dramatic readings of wrestling fan fiction, something he initially thought was far beneath him, until he discovered the depth of depravity of some of the stories. With this in mind, he had no hesitation in sigining on with Wrestlecrap Radio as a regular contributor... but he didn't count on seeing a face from his past at his new employer's office, working as their TNA Correspondent.
Enter Mike Check. Mike's memory wasn't as sharp as it could be, so he didn't recognise Sir Alec. But Sir Alec recognised Check immediately. He remembered that before he fled the UK, Mike Check had interviewed him about a theater production he was starring in as John Smith.
The interview was broadcast on London's Chelsea, Marylebone, Pimlico and Tower Radio (CMPT, or 'The Crumpet' as Mike would have it), where Mike worked with a recently demobbed US Navy seaman named Popeye, who exhibited some rather flamboyant behaviour during his short time with the station. Mike went by the name of Billy Country, and together they were 'Queen and Country', which I don't know if he ever told you about. He thought it would play well in that market.
Sir Alec was rattled. Not knowing that Mike was simply a rambling dunderhead who simply didn't remember that they'd met previously, he felt he had to get Mike out of the picture and protect his identity. And Mike's Summer Roadshow was the ideal opportunity to do so.
For a few weeks, Sir Alec used plot after nefarious plot in an attempt to eliminate Mike. And finally, with one well-timed offer of a firework in place of a cigar, the deed was done... or so we thought.
However, keen listeners may remember that shortly prior to Mike's apparent demise, WCR received a call from one John Thomas, working for a debt recovery company searching for Mike Check. Now that was a name that Mike DID remember.
The reason that Mike played so many markets and worked for so many radio stations around the world is that names weren't the only thing he was forgetful about. Hotel bills, credit cards, bar tabs, mortgages, gambling debts, alimony... all things that Mike wasn't exactly careful about. Threatened with jail, Mike skipped from town to town and alias to alias to keep the debt collector from his door.
Mike used the money he had raised selling WWCR bumper stickers to hire a professional stuntman to stand in for him during the final segment of the roadshow, and persuaded the stuntman look for an opportunity to fake his own death, which Sir Alec presented quite nicely. Even going so far as to broadcast from 'beyond the grave', Mike was declared legally dead, and the pursuit of his debts was finally called off.
This allowed the opportunity for Mike to resurface and resume his affiliation with Wrestlecrap Radio, beginning at the Wrestlecrap Radio Roast.
