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Submitted by Morpheus on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 5:01 PM EST
Oh my God, you guys should run! That’s because your good ol’ pal Degenerate is on the LordsOfPain.net Main Page! Yep, thanks to those kind folks over at the LOP Columns Forum, I got a chance to show the rest of you wrestling-loving guys and gals what I got to offer. Wow, who knew this 25-year-old dude from Puerto Rico would make it this far. Maybe someday soon I’ll be a staple on these pages, and you all can read me on a semi-weekly basis. But enough about myself for a minute. I would like to direct your attention to LOPForums.com, particularly the aforementioned Columns Forum. All of the Main Page column writers you see here every week have come from these parts, and due to their talent and hard work (at least most of the times – hi BC!), they have their spot here today. The current crop of columns writers in the Columns Forum is no different. There are some very talented writers, who will undoubtedly be gracing this prestigious website very soon. And I guess here is where the plugging begins. First off, there’s a fellow by the name of RIPbossman, who’s closing in on 80 columns of Hardtime in about a year and a half. His work is constantly impressive, and shows no signs of slowing down at all. Of course, you might have seen his work here previously, as he’s a two-time COTM winner. There’s another two-time COTM winner called Jules, with an awesome Pulp Wrestling column. There are very few people who can match his writing skills, and he’s yet to disappoint in his short tenure at the Columns Forum. Another previous COTM winner is J-Man with his Train of Thought, who really has written some of the best columns I’ve read in my time at the Forum. I’ll take this opportunity to just to say that he should seriously write more, now. Not that I miss him, you know. Then there’s my Columns Forum rival, LOP’s Most Stubborn Writer, a native Quebecer – even more native than Sylvan – and grizzled (winless) veteran, Big Brother, who’s always saying I Got To Tell You Something. His last few columns have really impressed. But truly, his greatest hour was when he teamed up with me for the LOP Columns Cup tournament, which was a team tourney that we ended up winning. You should seriously read that column, as I’m sure you’ll find it very funny. There are some other honorable mentions I have to make. The rookie eldandy and his Sittin’ Pretty columns are taking the Columns Forum by storm. Our local friendly moderator Boss Foxx has written an awesome Faith Based Guide To Choosing Your Favorite Wrestler. Mike From Jersey is always Takin’ a Ride Down I-95. That Darn Frog is making a strong comeback with The Fabrication. Of course, the final plug is for myself and my previous version of Struggle For Power. Hey, I gotta make a living too. Sorry I can’t mention anyone else, as the plugs have gone way overboard already. Anyway, if you’re a striving writer who wants to show what you got, you’re more than welcome to participate as well. There are many other up-and-coming talent that you will see in the future in the Columns Forum, so why don’t you drop on by? We’re kinda like OVW to the LordsOfPain.net Main Page’s WWE. Kinda. Well, let get on to the show! You’re not here to see a stinkin’ plug, are you? * Can someone please beat on Degeneration X, for just one show? I’m all up for the comedy antics of DX, but a feud just gets way too boring when it’s so one-sided for a long time. True, it happened with Shawn Michaels, with his feud against Vince McMahon from January to March. But the culmination at Wrestlemania 22 was totally worth it. It just works when the face is getting beat up. So come on, just bring in someone to beat on Triple H and HBK for one show. Make me believe that the McMahons have a shot of destroying DX. That’s just my old-school way of thinking. * Mick Foley just owned (or ‘pwnd’, if you’re the 133t type) Ric Flair this past Monday. I swear, Foley has to be way up there with the best as far as doing promos is concerned. After I watched his promo on Monday night, I immediately put his ‘Greatest Hits and Misses’ DVD, just to watch his old ECW promos. I felt that the intensity of his old promos was there this past Monday. If he would’ve come out to the ring, that promo wouldn’t have been so good. * Okay, so I was totally blown away from the Big Show – Ric Flair match at this week’s ECW show. It was much more than I think any of us expected. Seriously, I thought that match would be a total train wreck, with Flair’s old age and Show’s lack of actual wrestling abilities. But it worked well in the hardcore environment. So Flair, to me, still has something left in him. Weird how after all those years in wrestling, he now does these hardcore / specialty matches at 57 years of age. * Well, TNA and Rhino are sure ramping up their game, I guess. That skit with Rhino and the ECW Belt was pretty – if you excuse the term – hardcore. I wonder if all this back and forth talking will escalate between the two, and at least have the foundation of a new wrestling war. Still, I think we’re very, very far away from a war the magnitude of WWE and WCW. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think it will happen sometime along the way. * Will this finally be the time when Booker T finally gets a hold of one of the World Championships? I wouldn’t like to see Rey Mysterio lose so soon, especially as this will probably be his only time holding the World Heavyweight Championship, I think Booker T should get a title run. Ever since coming from WCW after the company closed, he hasn’t been given a fair shake. I find him really entertaining, and this whole King Booker stint just furthers my opinion of him. I still think he has a good run left in him, so maybe this time around, it would be different. I know many will disagree with me on this here. * Was it me, or did Batista look smaller in muscle mass in his return? Is the WWE Wellness Program getting to him, or does he need time to recuperate after surgery? Was he unmotivated to return, seeing that he had to confront Mark Henry? Is it bad that I was looking too much at his body to note this? We may never know the answer to all those questions. Especially the last one. This column is not only special to me because it’s on the Main Page. I hold a very dear spot in my heart for this date of posting, July 15, because this marks my first anniversary from when I posted my very first column in the Columns Forum. I’ve written approximately 29 columns by myself, along with some others with the fine folks of the Columns Forum. As I read my first column once more, I can see how much I’ve improved in 365 days. Time really does fly when you’re doing something you thoroughly enjoy doing. Just like this past year of my column-writing career has gone by in seemingly a flash. These days, in this fast-paced, short attention span world, it seems like our clocks are in fast-forward all the time. Many times I feel like I blink, and I missed something. Wrestling is no different. Way back in the day, and I mean way back in the 70’s and 80’s, wrestling was so much different than it is now. Most notably, things were done at a much slower pace than today. You had champions that spanned many years holding the title. You had feuds that went on and on. That’s a very far cry from today’s month long title reigns and sometimes one or two match feuds that are canned way before their time. In this past year, we’ve had so many changes, that it’s difficult to sometimes keep track of absolutely everything that’s going on. Many times I’ve had to go online to some wrestling website, just to remember how long someone’s title reign was, or on which Pay-Per-View did two wrestlers face off.  We can start off with World Championship title runs. At this time last year, we had two rising stars in John Cena and Dave Batista, holding the title ever April 2005. Surprisingly, they still had the belts when 2005 was over. However, between January 2006 and July 2006, there have been 6 World Title changes (4 for the WWE Championship, 2 for the World Heavyweight Championship). While that doesn’t seem much, it sure pales in comparison of the yearly title reigns held back in the day by the likes of Bruno Sammartino (8 years), Pedro Morales (2 years) and Bob Backlund (6 years). Hell, even Kevin Nash held the belt for basically a year. If you count the 12 times the other ‘minor’ championships have switched these past seven months alone, you’ll see how fast things can change in the wrestling business. But not only championships change hands quickly. Jobs also change just as quickly. Many, many wrestlers were released last year in the month of July alone – almost twenty, I believe. There are also many releases on the following months as well. Of course, with so many wrestlers on both rosters and just a few spots to showcase them, it’s a logical step. But the quantity of the releases has been totally unprecedented.  Along with those long-gone wrestlers, we also have a new batch of wrestlers entertaining us today. The most notable of them all has to be Bobby Lashley. No one knew who the hell he was last year, but now he’s on the verge of becoming a major superstar for years to come. Another notable is Mr. Kennedy, with his incredible charisma and top-notch microphone skills.  Not only do we have many newcomers who we had never seen their faces last year, there’s also some recognizable faces who were floating around in the mid-card last year, and are main event players this years. Edge was turning into a dastardly heel, in the aftermath of the news of his affair with Lita, but no one knew he would become World Champion at all, much less a two-time champ. A similar story is of course Rey Mysterio. Mysterio was a hot commodity back then, and was always praised for his excellent matches ever since he came to the WWE. Still, he had his fair share of detractors, mostly because of his small build. Little did those detractors know that he would win the 2006 Royal Rumble match – lasting 62 minutes, nonetheless – and win the World Heavyweight Championship this year.  Unfortunately, tragedy has also struck us in the past year, as we have also lost forever one of the greats. At this exact time last year, Eddie Guerrero was entertaining us fans with his awesome matches with the aforementioned Rey Mysterio. His newfound persona of being a psychotic heel was really clicking. His final feud with Batista surely seemed that it was heading for a World Championship winning victory with his lying, cheating and stealing tactics. Regrettably, we never got the chance to see those plans come to fruition, as Eddie Guerrero passed away on November 13, 2005. His legacy, however, will still live on as the years go by. After all those events in this past year, you can see how quickly time can pass you by. But that’s not only happening this year. If you take any 365-day period in wrestling, there are also some very drastic changes that have occurred.  Chris Benoit, dubbed by many as the premier mat technician in the entire world, was stuck in tag-team hell. It wasn’t really hell, as this was the last time we would see great tag-team feuds up to this day. But Benoit was such a great wrestler, that to put him in the mid-card, tagging along with someone else, was viewed as a travesty to some. Then, after becoming just the second man in history to win the Royal Rumble after entering first, he achieved his crowning moment: winning the World Heavyweight Championship on March 14, 2004, at Wrestlemania XX.  Stone Cold Steve Austin was a mid-carder, with nothing seemingly special to elevate him to the next level. One promo in that date in 1996 got the ball rolling. After a great feud and a classic Wrestlemania 13 match with the legendary Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, on that exact date a year later, Stone Cold was one of the WWE’s biggest stars, and already a fan favorite.  Shawn Michaels was three days away from his first Wrestlemania World Championship match as a despised heel against ‘Big Daddy Cool’ Diesel. The very next night, Michaels began a face turn. After a long year that included the creation of The Kliq, a fake concussion and a second Royal Rumble win, Shawn Michaels reached the very top of the sports-entertainment industry and the adoration of millions of fans, with his classic Wrestlemania XII victory over Bret Hart in the Iron Man Match on March 31, 1996.  Hulk Hogan was in the midst of a year and a half long year feud with the Dungeon of Doom, not doing much to generate as much interest he did during his first year with WCW. With his dwindling popularity reaching new lows, Hogan turned heel on July 7, 1996. Not only did this give a sudden resurgence to Hogan’s career, but it also gave WCW the upper hand in the war with the WWE.  The wrestling world was still in a territorial phase during the mid-eighties. Syndicating the wrestling shows was unheard of. That all changed when a younger Vincent K. McMahon took a huge gamble to create a wrestling super card, and expected people to flock towards venues all around the United States and pay to be able to watch it on closed-circuit television. That event was Wrestlemania, and on March 31, 1985, the risk paid off. From there on, a new era of sports-entertainment was born that still lives to this day. So, if you come to think of it, a lot of things in the wrestling world seem to happen in a very short period of time. If you were like me, last year I wouldn’t have even dreamed of all those things happening this year. I would’ve never thought Mysterio would have a run as World Champion. I would’ve never thought we would have another tragic death in the business. I sure as hell would’ve never thought Mark Henry was returning to such a big push. Hey, not only good things are happening in the WWE this year. My point is, you should never say never in the wrestling world. Sort of like a variation of Murphy’s Law, what you don’t expect to happen, may happen after all. The wrestlers you hate today could be the ones you love tomorrow. The guys who are on top now can be near the bottom, or probably not there at all in the near future. Just like that geek you teased at high school that’s now your boss and is making all the money, don’t under-estimate any wrestler, ever. You never know when the next great thing is under your nose. That’s about it for this edition of Struggle For Power. You can find this column posted as well in the Columns Forum, the place which I have mentioned about a thousand times in this column. You can leave your feedback there, or by E-Mail at dennmart@gmail.com. I would like to hear from those guys who frequent to Main Pages. No matter how good or bad your feedback is, just send it along. All feedback will be responded to. As if that mattered. ‘Til Next Time, Degenerate *NEW GALLERY* AMAZING!! More Uncensored Kelly Kelly Bikini Photos! Very Rare!
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