Silas Young Sets Himself Apart As Ring Of Honor's 'Last Real Man'

Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view Friday night in Las Vegas includes some of the biggest names in professional wrestling. “The American Nightmare” Cody puts his ROH World Championship on the line against New Japan Pro-Wrestling star Minoru Suzuki, and The Young Bucks will defend both of their ROH Tag Team Championships.

But the best feud that will be settled in the ring doesn’t involve a title. Silas Young and Jay Lethal are set to square off on the first day of fall, continuing their storyline that began in the spring.

It started on April 28 when Young defeated Lethal at ROH Unauthorized in front of his hometown crowd of Milwaukee. Lethal got his revenge two months later at the Best in the World PPV, though a post-match attack by Young and Beer City Bruiser kept Lethal off of ROH TV for more than 40 days. It all culminates with a Last Man Standing Match at Death Before Dishonor.

For Lethal, wrestling in high-profile PPV matches is something he’s been doing for a long time. Seven years ago, he was working with Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in TNA. Lethal made his ROH debut 14 years ago, and at just 32 years old, his name has become so synonymous with the company that he’s known as “The Franchise.”

Lethal had a 427-day ROH World Championship reign that lasted from June 19, 2015 to Aug. 19, 2016. He last had a PPV match for the title on May 14 at War of the Worlds.

Young’s professional wrestling career is just about as long as Lethal’s, though his journey to becoming a star in Ring of Honor has been much different. He landed a developmental contract with WWE in 2007, only to have the deal nullified shortly afterward. It was six years later when he was part of the ROH Top Prospect Tournament and things began to take off for Young.

“Wrestling is such a subjective thing,” Young told International Business Times. “It’s not like baseball or football, where if you have really good stats at a certain position you’ll have a job or a spot. Wrestling is definitely one of those things where, you know, right place, right time, being prepared, all that. I’m definitely not the wrestler I was a decade ago, I’ll say that. But I can’t tell you exactly what made that difference to make things work differently.”

Young’s “Last Real Man” character has certainly been a major part of his success in climbing the ranks in Ring of Honor. In a company that’s known for its superior in-ring product, Young stands out, portraying a character unlike any other in ROH.

Drawing inspiration from his father, Young talks in a gravelly voice and with an old-school mentality. He complains about his opponents and misses the time when wrestlers were “real men.”

“For the longest time, I was just Silas Young, a guy with long hair and a beard that wrestled. I realized a couple of years back when I was getting this opportunity with Ring of Honor that I can be something different,” Young told IBT. “I had been toying with the idea of the ‘Last Real Man’ character. It was something I was doing a little bit, but it was something I decided to go full-fledged with. I’m gonna really get behind this, I’m gonna do this. Luckily it’s something that people enjoy. It’s something that fans love or they love to hate. It’s worked out really well for me.”

The feud between Young and Lethal works, in part, because of the differences in their characters. Lethal is one of the faces of the company, a big talker that often appears in commercials and finds himself in the main event. Young has accused Lethal of being gifted his opportunities and not earning them like a “real man” should.

Of course, it’s Young that’s actually looking for a shortcut to the main event. He’s landed a match with one of the biggest stars in ROH history by blindsiding him multiple times, making him easy to root against.

During an era in which the line between “good guys” and “bad guys” has become extremely blurred, Young is much closer to being the latter. While talented in the ring, he’s not a high flyer that’s trying to perform moves that will pop the live crowd. He knows how to get heat and cut promos that will put the fans on the side of his opponent.

To put it simply, Young is a jerk, and it’s why he’s one of the best heels in the company.

“Not a lot of people really like being the asshole and not a lot of people like being that guy that people are like, ‘well that guy can go fuck himself,” Young said. “I do try to pride myself on that, the fact that I’m gonna do whatever I can do to make these people hate me the whole time I’m out there.”

It might have taken him a while to get here, but there’s no doubt that Young has arrived. He signed a one-year contract before the start of 2017 to exclusively work with Ring of Honor in the United States.

Still looking for his first title in ROH, the “Last Real Man” believes it’s only a matter of time.

“The way I look at it, I’m going to beat Jay Lethal. It’s already happened. It’s just a matter of making it happen now. I’m going to beat Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonor and I’m gonna go on to become the world champion within the next year.”

Death Before Dishonor airs Friday night at 9 p.m. EDT. Fans can watch it on PPV, ROHWrestling.com, PlayStation Network and the Fite.TV App.