I’m happy to say next week, we will have a new contributor to the Professional 3 Blog on Hardway HQ.
BANKIE BRUCE will debut his column “THE BANK STATEMENT”, a no frills look at pro wrestling, mixing his blunt statements on the pro wrestling industry with his pure fandom of the sport. He is a no-nonsense writer and is not afraid to speak his mind.
I first came across Bankie through ACE Pro Wrestling. A die-hard fan of the business, he followed ACE from Union City and into Wallington. He was a true member of the ACE Nation and loved it passionately.
Around 2016, Bankie got a chance to write for ACEProWrestling.com and wrote a couple of pieces, being both controversial and honest-to-a-fault with his views. Although ACE owner Mike Morgan loved them, a lot of the wrestlers did not, and Mike forced Bankie to either tone down the pieces or stop writing on the site.
Bankie refused, instead starting a blog on Blogspot, http://BankieBruce.Blogspot.com. After a few pieces, the overall feedback got incredibly intense for Bankie, and he stepped away. He went to a few more shows, but in 2018, decided to stop going altogether. I hadn’t even thought of him for a few years, but a vanity search changed all of that.
I was on Google last month, searching Project: Diverge reviews, seeing if anyone had reviewed the show online ever. There was only one: BANKIE. In 2019, after the release of Diverge to YouTube, Bankie had apparently written a review on the show. Did I agree with it? Not all of it, but I really respected his blunt, unapologetic viewpoints. It definitely feels like that mentality is missing with pro wrestling writing nowadays.
I reached out via email the next day, and for the first time in a few years, we talked. After some solid back-and-forth, I mentioned a possibility of coming onto Hardway HQ as a contributor, and he agreed...on one condition. He wanted the ability to speak his mind and not be censored.
I accepted, and next week, Bankie will make his debut on the site.
I can’t wait to read his work and I know one thing for sure: Bankie will not be afraid to open people’s minds to a different mentality. He knows what he likes, and he doesn’t like what he doesn’t like. He will definitely TAKE THAT TO THE BANK.
Jon Harder