Since his debut with Platinum Championship Wrestling last year, “Do Or Die” Chip Day has become a fan favorite who is consistently in contention for the PCW Heavyweight Championship. Though he has yet to win that coveted title, he gets another chance tonight in a main event match against current champion Grotesque at the Masquerade. With Grotesque now aligned with the invading Empire faction, and with Sacred Ground: Chapter 2 coming up in September, the results of Day’s match tonight could be detrimental to the fate of PCW in the near future. As he prepares for one of the biggest matches of his career, Day talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about this match and his overall role in PCW.
You were involved in the four-way match at the Masquerade a few months ago where Grotesque won the PCW title. Actually, you were the one who eliminated then-champion Shane Marx. How are you preparing for this one-on-one match against Grotesque?
During my time in PCW so far, I feel like the aggression just hasn’t been there. For the past few weeks I’ve been focusing on my striking and how I’m delivering my strikes. I’m doing less of the high flying stuff and just making sure I have the aggression and that killer instinct that I’ll need against someone like Grotesque.
Grotesque is now part of the invading Empire faction, which has kind of taken over PCW over the past few weeks. You have to anticipate that some of these guys will get involved in your match. Do you have anyone that will be in your corner in case that happens?
I’m going to try to have Kyle Matthews in my corner because he’s my best friend and me and him have been riding up and down these roads together for the last four or five years. I know he’s got a lot going on that night, so if he’s got too much to handle to be in my corner, at least I know he’s there morally to support me and will keep an eye out for me if anything starts to go bad. So I’ve got Kyle there to watch my back, as well as the rest of the PCW locker room.
You were absent from PCW for a while until recently. What was going on with you during that time?
Just a matter of being in demand in so many places. I had a show in Piedmont, Alabama that was requesting my services. Then I went on vacation for a week or two. I also was doing some work with Universal Independent Wrestling in Franklin, Georgia. But with Sacred Ground: Chapter Two right around the corner, I told everybody that I wasn’t going to be available from the time I got back from vacation until probably October or November so I could concentrate on PCW as much as I could.
Depending on the outcome of your match with Grotesque, you could be heading to Sacred Ground as the PCW Champion. If that happens, who would you like to defend that title against at Sacred Ground?
Steve [Platinum] has already announced that Davey Richards will be at Sacred Ground: Chapter Two. That would be a dream come true for me to be walking into the biggest show of the year for PCW as the PCW World Champion and defending against the Ring of Honor World Champion. Obviously that would be a big feather in my cap to have the PCW World Title, but I also think it would be a big stepping stone for me to test myself one on one against the guy that many call the best in the world right now. That would be something awesome for me.
You wrestled Richards right after Sacred Ground last year, at PCW’s first show at the Masquerade. You and Richards had an aggressive back and forth at one point and you seemed to hang with him pretty well.
Yeah, it was me, Davey, Shane Marx and Jay Fury. Davey took me to the limit. I don’t think I’ve been hit as hard as Davey hits ever in my career. That was a test, but I think I stood up to it alright.
You were not originally part of PCW when it started doing shows a little over a year ago. But you became a pretty big part of it a few months later. Why is PCW such a priority for you right now and how do you think it compares to other promotions you’ve wrestled for?
PCW is a priority for me because there’s something different with everything I’ve seen here. I really like that too, because if you see so much of one thing over and over again you kind of get burned out on it. When I came to PCW, I was given opportunities to do things that I wanted to do and how I wanted to do them. This show on July 28 is actually one year for me in the PCW locker room, so in the year I’ve been there I’ve had more big opportunities come my way because of wrestling for PCW. I got to wrestle one of my big influences, Davey Richards, when I got to PCW and I’m treated like I’m part of the upper card while at other shows I’m kind of lost in the shuffle it seems.
Platinum Championship Wrestling. Free for ages 21 and older, $5 for ages 20 and younger. 8 p.m. July 28. The Masquerade, 695 North Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 404-577-8178, www.platinumchampionshipwrestling.com, www.masqueradeatlanta.com.