The Conspiracy

**The Conspiracy** was a professional wrestling group that appeared in the American Wrestling Federation (AWF).

The group was officially formed in July of 2017, when J.T. Flairs was revealed to be the man behind the mysterious backstage manipulator known as The Master. However, the beginning of collusion between The Master and several AWF wrestlers began in December of 2016 with the debut of The Nightmare, who acted as the proxy for The Master by carrying out his will. This was often times in unpredictable blackout attacks on AWF talent. Through Nightmare, The Master began recruiting more wrestlers to his cause, including Trevor Gruen, Angus, Ben the Unhinged and MC Jeff Patz. When Flairs was outed as the leader of the group, he brought his protégé Keegan Stone into the fold with him and effectively removed AWF general manager Mr. McPatz from power with the help of backstage official Booker D. He officially gave The Conspiracy its name in October of 2017, after blackmailing Brian Halligan into joining, as well as renaming himself J.T. Masters.

From October of 2017 to June of 2018, The Conspiracy had complete control over the AWF both in the ring & backstage. They gradually added more members to the group, including Krazy Kelsey, Big Ty, Sam Bates & Benjamin Cole. By victimizing and manipulating AWF personnel to their will, they maintained power and held all of the championships in the AWF (with the exception of the Women's Championship) at one time. After multiple circumstances caused the group to mostly disband, The Conspiracy remained active as a three-man stable consisting of Ty, Bates and Cole until they split up in December of 2019.

Despite a disgraceful end, The Conspiracy is remembered as one of the most compelling storytelling vehicles in the AWF's history. Many AWF wrestlers experienced turning points in their careers through their role in The Conspiracy storyline. iPPV buy-rates and ticket sales increased dramatically during The Conspiracy's run on top in the AWF and played an undeniable part in the commercial & critical success that the company enjoys today.

## History

### **Formation (2016–2017)**

On December 16, The Nightmare debuted in the AWF and declared in a promo that he had a "Master" whom he acted in the service of. On multiple occasions, The Nightmare would engage in blackout attacks on AWF wrestlers on the order of his Master, who would be revealed to be a kind of puppet master backstage with the power to make executive decisions. This knowledge would continually wear on Mr. McPatz, driving him into a frenzy to find out who the Master was. On February 24, 2017, Nightmare recruited Trevor Gruen to become a new acolyte to the Master, who enticed him with an AWF World Heavyweight Championship match on February 28 at *Capitol Hill*. Meanwhile, The Nightmare continually tormented Brian Halligan. Gruen lost the title match, but the Master was quick to offer him another opportunity by inserting him into a ladder match to determine the inaugural AWF Pan-American Champion. On April 21, The Master got into the ear of Angus, informing him that Sean Maximus was the real-life brother of his rival The Lexbot. On May 28 at *Graduation II*, Gruen failed to win the ladder match while The Nightmare lost to Halligan in a "Sleep Paralysis" cell match. To the surprise of the fans, The Master failed to make an appearance at the show. However, the Master continued to target Halligan and the new Pan-American Champion Jon Silver. The Nightmare drove Halligan to challenge him to a Loser Leaves Town match at *Summer Breakdown*, while Gruen faced Silver in a Pan-American Championship match. On July 30 at the show, The Nightmare was successful in his match, ejecting Halligan from the AWF entirely. However, Gruen was unsuccessful once again at winning the Pan-American Title. In addition, The Nightmare interjected in Akbar and Ali's AWF Tag Team Championship defense, costing them the titles to Ben the Unhinged & MC Jeff Patz and adding the new Tag Team Champions to The Master's collective. At the end of the night, a crooked referee allowed Keegan Stone (with manager J.T. Flairs) to retain the AWF World Heavyweight Title against Chris Pyle. This prompted McPatz & Silver to interject, when The Nightmare hit another blackout and stood alongside Stone & Flairs. Mimicking the infamous Mr. McMahon "higher power" line, Flairs told the laid out McPatz “That’s right, McPatz. It was me. It was me all along." Thus revealing himself as the man behind The Master before leaving the ring with his full collective behind him.

### **J.T. Masters' leadership (2017–2018)**

Flairs began using his newly attained manpower to assert dominance over the AWF, despite attempts by McPatz to stop him. However, on August 25, The Nightmare decided that he was disillusioned with the man who called himself his Master, turning on the group and calling Flairs just "a man." Using his influence backstage, Flairs put Gruen in a third AWF Pan-American Championship match against Silver and sicced Angus on The Nightmare. On October 1 at *School of Pain*, Angus defeated The Nightmare, Deadbeat retained the AWF Tag Team Titles over Akbar & Ali in a tornado tag team match, but Gruen failed to defeat Silver once again. As a result, Flairs kicked Gruen out of the group for disappointing him. In the main event of the show, Stone defended the AWF World Heavyweight Championship against Pyle in a steel cage match. Despite Silver being the referee for the match, Stone won by escaping the cage using a key that Flairs had slipped him. After the match, Flairs' cronies beat down Pyle in the ring while he informed McPatz that the AWF board of directors were displeased with McPatz's recent impulsive behavior and voted unanimously to have him removed as the CEO of the company at Flairs' behest.

On October 6 during the show following *School of Pain*, Flairs revealed board-member & AWF backstage official Booker D as his eyes-and-ears on the board of directors and the newly-appointed commissioner of the AWF. D's first act was to appoint Flairs as the new general manager in McPatz's place, giving Flairs an iron grip over the AWF itself. On October 6, Flairs put Silver in an AWF Pan-American Championship match against a surprise opponent. That opponent was revealed to Brian Halligan, having sold his soul to Flairs in exchange for being reinstated into the AWF. On October 27, Halligan defeated Silver to win the title and an elated Flairs made a declaration to the crowd with the rest of his enforcers in tow.

> "*Congratulations to our new AWF Pan-American Champion! Or should I say, MY AWF Pan-American Champion! Joining me now is my World Heavyweight Champion! And my Tag Team Champions! I hold all the gold in this company, and I didn’t even have to compete in a single match! Could that vain pretty boy J.T. Flairs pull off something like this? Hell no. But I did. Because like I told all of you, J.T. Flairs died when you all decided he wasn’t worth living. But I, ​J.T. Masters,​ am alive and prosperous! And all of this was built on some kind of conspiracy? Well guess what? We are that conspiracy! All of us who stole the show right under your noses! WE run this show now! All the people who were placed up on high in this company? The Lexbot? Chris Pyle? El Flying Diablo? They all made it as far as they did off of OUR backs, and now we’re taking what’s rightfully ours!”*"
> ― J.T. Masters
>
>

Despite his chokehold on the AWF, Masters and The Conspiracy would face opposition from several AWF wrestlers. James Duffy Esquire & El Flying Diablo stood against them, as did Silver and The Lexbot. At *Midterm Mania* on November 26, Deadbeat successfully defended the AWF Tag Team Titles against Duffy & Diablo and Halligan retained the AWF Pan-American Championship against Silver, forcing him to retire as a wrestler and become a full-time referee again. However, Masters used his influence to protect Stone from defending the AWF World Heavyweight Championship, instead having The Lexbot face Angus in a match to regain his contractual championship rematch he never got due to injury by Angus' hands. Lex defeated Angus, forcing Masters to grant him a title match. On December 8 Masters approached the #1 contender to the AWF Women's Championship, Krazy Kelsey, enticing her with an offer to join The Conspiracy. Kelsey accepted the offer and became the first and only woman to join the group, renaming herself Konspiracy Kelsey. As general manager, Masters shuffled the AWF event schedule to introduce a new pay-per-view event of his own making called *Grim Resolution*. On January 28, 2018 at the event, Halligan successfully defended the Pan-American Championship against The Nightmare. However, in the midst of a Tag Team Championship match against Cal and Chad Lewellyn, Ben the Unhinged turned on MC Jeff Patz and disbanded Deadbeat, vacating the Tag Team Titles and leaving The Conspiracy. The same night, Kelsey failed to defeat Dashing Daniela for the AWF Women's Championship. Finally, in the show's main event, The Lexbot faced Stone for the AWF World Heavyweight Championship. Despite interference by Masters and a crooked referee, help came from Duffy and Silver, the latter of which delivered a three-count as Lex won the AWF Championship from Stone.

Infuriated at being humiliated at his own marquee event, Masters began targeting the people responsible for The Conspiracy's downfall, putting them in grueling matches leading up to *Capitol Hill*. Needing a new tag team to claim the vacant titles for him, Masters recruited Big Ty and Sam Bates to The Conspiracy on March 9, with Halligan helping them win their AWF Tag Team Tournament qualifying match. On April 1 at the event, Benjamin Cole shockingly turned on his longtime partner, The Trash Man, causing them to lose their Tag Team Tournament semifinal match but allowing Cole to join The Conspiracy. However, Ty and Bates lost to the Flying Lewellyns in their semifinal. Kelsey came close to defeating Dashing Daniela for the Women's Title, but the match ended in a disqualification after Abbigail Tyler and Kelsey's old partner Sara Marie interfered. Halligan lost the Pan-American Championship to El Flying Diablo later in the night. Immediately after this grueling match, Masters openly sabotaged the Capitol Hill match by ordering his lackeys to ensure that Stone won the match and forced Halligan to protect Stone. Halligan took excessive punishment in the match and was eliminated by the winner, the returning Chris Pyle. In the main event of the show, Stone had his AWF World Heavyweight Championship rematch against The Lexbot in a no disqualification match, with Masters, Halligan, Patz and Angus ready to interfere on his behalf at any time & all of Lex's allies barred from ringside. Despite getting hit by multiple finishing moves from The Conspiracy members, Lex continued to kick out at two, forcing the entire Conspiracy to attack him at once. Before they could deliver the finishing blow, Ben the Unhinged suddenly ran in, took out Patz and distracted Angus. Masters ordered Halligan to finish Lex off but the Hound delivered a *Release-the-Beast* to Stone instead, turning his back on The Conspiracy and handing the win to The Lexbot. As a panicked Masters tried to escape the arena in a limousine, he found himself face-to-face with Duffy and a returning McPatz.

At the following show on April 6, Duffy revealed that Masters would be facing off against him at *Graduation* in a traditional Loser Leaves Town match where to the winner would go control over the AWF. However, Duffy then made an agreement with The Nightmare to make the match a "Sleep Paralysis" Cell match. Meanwhile, The Conspiracy focused their attention on Ben the Unhinged, who had made it his mission to brutalize Patz. On May 27 at *Graduation III*, Ben defeated Patz in a No Holds Barred Street Fight. Late in the show, Duffy and Masters faced off in the cell, with McPatz and Booker D supporting them. After a fight broke out at ringside between McPatz and D, Duffy defeated Masters to end his reign of terror over the AWF. On June 8 at the show after *Graduation*, Duffy and McPatz officially fired Masters and threw him out in the back of a garbage truck driven by The Trash Man.

### **Benjamin Cole's leadership (2018–present)**

After Masters was deposed by Duffy and McPatz and fired from the company, several members of The Conspiracy ended their affiliation with the group. These included Angus, Patz and Kelsey. The remaining members of the group consisted of Stone, Ty, Bates and Cole. The group attempted to maintain their power and continue Masters' vision, but hit several roadblocks in doing so.

## Legacy

The Conspiracy has been widely praised by wrestling critics and fans as being one of the most effective AWF storytelling tools since the company's conception, comparing some aspects of the group to stables like the nWo and Bullet Club.

Numerous wrestlers who were involved in The Conspiracy storyline saw their careers benefit positively from it. The matches that El Flying Diablo had with Halligan gained him enough mainstream attention to be offered bookings from various other independent promotions.

After leaving the AWF, J.T. Masters became a highly sought-after free agent on the independent circuit.

### Sub-groups

 The Big Two | Sam BatesBig Ty | 2017–present | Tag team

## In wrestling

* **Double-team finishing moves**
	+ **Deadbeat**
		- *Praise Us* (Superkick (Jeff) into a *Praise Him*(Ben))​
	+ **The Big Two**
		- *Big Symphony* (Back suplex (Ty / Diving leg drop (Bates) combination)
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Master of Puppets" by Metallica

## Championships and accomplishments

* **American Wrestling Federation**
	+ AWF World Championship (1 time) – Stone
	+ AWF Pan-American Championship (1 time) – Halligan
	+ AWF Tag Team Championship – Ben and Patz (2 times)