In a week otherwise full of warm holiday wishes, more major news has broken regarding the latest episode in the seven year BACW saga. Shortly before Christmas, a purchaser was found for the Nephilim Arena structure, and the land on which the structure rests. The land was purchased by TuffCorp, a manufacturer of protective pads for extreme sports, and the word is that they plan to keep the arena as-is, and reconstruct it to serve as an indoor skate park from which they can host events. They will keep the land as-is, and use it for extra storage space, as well as to create an outdoor half-pipe. The park will be open to the public for a small fee, and will also serve as a testing lab for TuffCorp's many products.

Andie Liddell, CEO of TuffCorp, noted in a brief public statement before the holidays that she was “very happy to have the opportunity to purchase this land. It's in a prime neighborhood, and though Seattle is losing a business that has been a local institution for some time, we feel that our business will carry on the same spirit with our planned use of this real estate. We've been looking for a way to execute this dream of ours for some time, and now we have the option to do it. We're very thankful for that, and we wish the Ambrosis and all of BACW's employees the very best in whatever they decide to do next.”

This, naturally, implies that BACW as we know it will cease to exist, since there is now no venue in which to house the company for either wrestling cards or administrative functions. We got Lia Ambrosi on the phone to discuss the idea as quickly as possible.

“That implication is pretty much what we're looking at here,” Lia said, evidently not preferring to beat around the bush. “The company just has no market in Seattle anymore. We negotiated a deal with Andie Liddell because we felt that she had the city of Seattle's best interests at heart with her company. We can no longer provide what we once did to Seattle for various reasons, some of them beyond our control. But her business proposal is sound, and it will offer a lot to the youth of Seattle, while at the same time promoting the same avant-garde athletic spirit that we always wanted BACW to be about.”

I asked her about the potential that people were going to start saying she and her husband Virgil were taking the money and running – that is, that all the rewards from BACW's three recent court cases were going to be lining the pockets of the Ambrosis while everyone else merely got a pink slip. She seemed peeved, returning that “anyone who feels that's the case can certainly feel free to come directly to me, because I'd love to disabuse them of that notion. Virgil and I will be making some small amount of profit off of the sale of the land, yes, but you have to realize that after what happened with Hampton, BACW was pretty far in the red. We have a good many debts that we need to pay off, not to mention the back pay that we owe our employees, some of whom have been very loyal and diligent in sticking around as long as they have to try to help us get back off the ground. We are in no way intending to screw our employees in favor of making a buck.”

With that issue settled – or, at the very least, with Lia not wanting to discuss it, it's the end of the line for reporters. I asked her what her plans were from this point; she was forthright in answering. “Virgil and I plan to move home,” she said, sounding relieved, happy. When I asked her what “home” meant, she sounded even happier. “We're leaving the States. Although he and I have had a lot of good times here, our hearts have always been in Europe. We met in Spain, were married in Spain, and our honeymoon was in Switzerland, not to mention that his parents are in Spain and Italy, and mine are in Ireland... it's hard for us to get away from those roots. We're currently looking into which option would be best for a big cross-Atlantic move, and going from there.”

I wished her the best of luck, and got off the phone. Where the story will go from here... is really anybody's guess.