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Submitted by Boss Foxx on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 5:37 PM EST
Hi again, and welcome... Wait, where am I? What are all these bright lights doing in my face? What are all these people I've never seen before doing here, reading this? Oh yeah, this is the Main Page of LordsOfPain.net ! I'm your host for the next couple of minutes, Degenerate, serving you this offering of my column, Struggle For Power. This is the second time I've been around these parts on my own, so I'm glad I could be here one more time. In case you didn't know, I come from a great place called the Columns Forum, down in the forums of this very site, LOPForums.com. If you like reading wrestling columns such as this one, I recommend spending some time in the Columns Forums, where you will be surprised at how good some - if not most - of the columns are. There are a lot of talented writers down there who spend their time there writing columns. I feel like I can do them a small favor and give a shout-out to some of the columns posted that I've enjoyed recently. First off, we have a fellow named Leviathan who has been on the Main Page a couple of times already, with his column On The Couch. Another good column comes from a newcomer named Mighty Casey, with a nice column named In The Clutch. Yet another newcomer, SUPERFAN!, has a column named The Supershow! Yes, the exclamation point is included. There are also some great joint columns on the horizon, like the one from aisce and Slap, aptly named Never Mind The Bollocks (Hint: One of them is British). Even if I didn't mention a column directly, that doesn't mean that those are the only ones that warrant a mention. I could spend half of this column plugging the great work from the guys in the Columns Forum. Best of all, if you like writing, you can start writing your own column there, and maybe some other Column of the Month winner will plug your column for free! It's a good place to start, so what are you all waiting for? Oh yeah, to finish reading this column. You should definitely go after reading this one. I'll remind you again, don't worry. * Well, Wrestlemania came and went like a bad storm (apologies to those folks in Northeast). I have to say that I was pretty satisfied with the show overall. I just can't seem to get my mind off of the ending. Now, I'm a pretty huge Shawn Michaels fan, ever since 1995. So naturally, I was expecting him to end the booing of one John Cena and have a storybook ending to the show. However, we were treated to a flashback of Wrestlemania 22, with HBK taking the place of Triple H. I think the anger I felt at the end of Wrestlemania 23 will be one I'll never forget. At least until John Cena makes both Triple H and Shawn Michaels tap out at the same time with a newly-invented double STFU at Wrestlemania 24. * How soon do we forget? I don't know how many of you follow TNA wrestling on a regular basis, but I do. And this week saw the return of one Jeff Jarrett. As a face, too. And people were just cheering the hell out of him. I'm guessing these are the same people who wished death upon him less than a year ago. Yeah, he bashed a heel over the head with a guitar. Does that instantly make him a guy we should all trust? It'll take time. In any case, it was a nice surprise, and it should make the Lockdown Pay-Per-View a very interesting one. * Something I truly dislike about the whole Internet Wrestling Community is the fact that we rarely give the deserved props to something great when it happens, opting instead to just whine and moan and bitch about the negative things. Case in point: The Benoit vs. MVP matches we've seen recently. I can assure you that 99% of you guys thought their match in Wrestlemania was going to be lame and short, with MVP stealing a cheap victory. Instead, we got a great match out of MVP (who knew?) and a victory for Benoit. Also, their rematch this week on Smackdown was an awesome television match worthy of being on any Pay-Per-View. However, not many people have mentioned it. Kudos to MVP for proving a lot of people who doubted his abilities, myself included, wrong. * There's a new conspiracy theory coming around that the WWE is personally after Hulk Hogan. After all the bickering by Hogan on that radio show he calls all the time to whore his daughter's music, a proposed match between Hogan and Jerry Lawler was called off due to the WWE removing Lawler from the card. While it can be viewed as something personal, since the wrestlers do have to clear these things off with the higher-ups of the company before promoting their appearance elsewhere, the main excuse is the fact that the matches were going to be partly shown on Hogan's reality show on VH-1. All I can say is, whether it's true or not, who outside of Memphis cares? * I have to admit, I want to see The Condemned when it's out on theaters. Sadly, I think I'm falling into the same trap as The Marine when it came out last year. Granted, I only went because my friends were bugging me on a daily basis to go and see it. But damn, I felt like I lost my money after seeing that movie. Luckily for me, a movie ticket here in Puerto Rico is only five bucks, but it's money I could've used elsewhere, like buying some of those DX lightsticks or something. Wait, those crappy sticks cost more than five dollars? Oh well, I know I'll still drop five more bucks to see Stone Cold. This movie actually looks interesting to me. Or it may be the work of good marketing toward simple-minded folks like myself. As I mentioned at the beginning, this has been my second time winning the Column of the Month award down in the Columns Forum. I'm really grateful for winning it yet again, as this award is given depending on the votes of my peers. Thanks to them, I'm able to write another Main Page column and showcase my writing to a much larger audience. It's great to have second chances in life, yet unfortunately we rarely get them in most walks of life. In work, wouldn't we all want a second chance to impress the higher-ups with our skills after messing up a first attempt at a job? At school, wouldn't we want a second chance to take an exam where we didn't do so well? What about a second chance to impress that cute girl from work you went out with, only to have a disastrous first date? There are many, many moments in life where a second chance would be just what we need to make all things right again. Yet those second chances don't come easily in most cases. The professional wrestling world is known for all the second chances given to many wrestlers. Most of them are totally unexpected, when we all thought that a second chance would never, ever be given due to certain circumstances. Others are just a matter of time before it happens. Then there are those that never happen, no matter how much we, as fans, want it to happen. Still, these second chances are very under-rated, in my book, and the proper credit to those who make these decisions is never given. There are so many types of second chances that can be given. For instance, there's the second chance given to those who truly want it more than anything else in the world, just to make things right. Eddie Guerrero's well-documented drug and alcohol abuse in the past not only messed up his wrestling career, but his personal life as well. I know that I'll never even fathom the dark depths where Eddie Guerrero fell. In fact, I wouldn't had blamed him if he didn't turn his life around, because it truly seemed like a mess than no mere mortal could. However, a second chance was given to Eddie Guerrero. I don't want to impose my beliefs on anyone, but I believe that God truly gave Eddie a second chance at life. He slowly rose up from the ruins of his life, and got another chance at making things right. And he did. Not only did he get his personal life together, battling his addictions and getting back with his wife, he also got another chance to do what he truly loved: wrestle. The rest is history after that, yet his story should be one that is remembered, for the mere fact that he took full advantage at another shot in life. There there's a fellow named Shawn Michaels, who had already proven he was a great wrestler bound for the Hall of Fame in the future before a back injury forced him out of wrestling. He did return almost five years later, and in most cases, even better than ever. But the story behind this return is what makes the whole concept of a "second chance" great. HBK had the reputation for being a dick before his injury, not caring for much, not even himself. Yet during his time out of wrestling, he found new life as a born-again Christian, and seems to enjoy this phase of his career more than ever. What about Hulk Hogan? Yeah, I know many people will throw a fit for my mention of Hogan right after Eddie Guerrero and Shawn Michaels. However, it's a very similar path as well. After Hogan's departure from WCW, he was given yet another chance to return to the WWE after years and years of bashing the company during his successful run in WCW. In what was seemingly a simple and possible short term role, Hogan got tremendous receptions, most notably during his Wrestlemania 18 match with The Rock, and Hulkamania was running wild again. True, this may have fueled his ego more, something that still is evident to this day, but there's no denying that Hogan took full advantage of this opportunity to revive his career. While some people want a second chance to make things right, there are many others who fail to fix their old mistakes, opting to continue with their old ways. Brian Christopher Lawler was given a second chance at a WWE career in 2004 after being fired a few years before for alleged drug possession. Instead of trying to erase all the doubts in the heads of his co-workers and stay clean, he was fired a month later for arriving late at some events. Nice way of making the most out of another chance. No matter how bad Christopher's slip-up seemed, there's always one to trump them all: The Ultimate Warrior. He's had his fair share of "second chances" (instead of calling them "third chances", "fourth chances", and so on), and he manages to fuck up in all of them. After being fired for holding up the WWE at a live Pay-Per-View and refusing not to compete unless he got paid some additional cash, he got another chance to be at the top of the company again in 1992. Any sane company would've never hired this guy again after doing what he did in the first place, but then again, this is the WWE. Then he got into a spat over the legal control of his character and name, among many other things, promoting another pink slip. I won't even go into detail on his subsequent hirings in the WWE and WCW. Just know that he fucked those chances up as well. But the second chances aren't given exclusively to the rehiring of wrestlers. What about the countless rematches that appear on WWE programming on a monthly, even weekly, basis? These are second chances as well, although it happens all too often to make it really count for something special. Still, these rematches allow wrestlers to make an average match great, and a great match even better. There's always a need to top your previous work, no matter what it is. I think that this applies especially to wrestlers, who are great competitors at heart and in most cases, always want to top themselves. I'd say that championship reigns, while not 100% important in a pre-determined sport like professional wrestling, can also be mentioned here. There are so many one-time champions that I'm sure wouldn't mind a second chance at wearing the gold. I'm sure Kane wouldn't mind being WWE Champion one more time, to avoid being the only 24-hour champion ever. I'm also sure guys like Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho would enjoy a second, stronger title run, to deflect any doubt as to their apparent weak first run. Right now, at this very moment, I know there are many people you wish had a second chance to return. Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho are just a few that we all wish would return for a second run in wrestling. Whether it be because of injuries, other entertainment gigs or simply over cash, it still remains to be seen that there's a second chance waiting for these individuals. And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), most of those second chances remain in the hand of one individual: Vince McMahon. Yeah, I'm sure you're thinking that the decision is up to the wrestlers themselves. But if Vince McMahon offered them the right amount of money, along with a lighter schedule to accomodate their other interests, don't you think they would be back in a heartbeat? Most likely they would. I'd say that with exception to Stone Cold (who probably can't wrestle much due to injuries) and The Rock (let's face it, wrestling will never pay him Hollywood money), any of the current inactive wrestlers would return under the right circumstances. Does that mean Vince is the heartless bastard we all think he is? Hell no! At least in my opinion, I think Vince is totally under-rated as far as being generous goes. True, he has a business to run, and not all his decisions will be popular at all. He also needs to look out for what's right for his business, obviously looking for other ways to expand his ever-growing endeavors. You also can't forget the fact that, as a businessman, he's always looking for more cash. Can you blame him? Not at all. Every businessman does the same. However, most of the times, we don't see the human side of Vince McMahon, and I truly believe that he does want to help people most of the times. The fact that he's given jobs to people like Jesse Ventura (after suing him for not paying up royalties as a commentator), Sable (after suing him for alleged sexual harassment in the locker room) and the Ultimate Warrior (after firing him previously - twice), along with people who had almost put him out of business like Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, that should show that he's a forgiving person. Yes, it might seem that he only did it because of the money he could get from them. But honestly, if you were the owner of a large company, would you hire your fiercest competitors after years of aggravation on their part? Of course not. You would probably laugh at their face for being unemployed while you still have your company, then watch with great pleasure as they wallow in their own unemployed misery. Then again, that's just me, and that's probably why I'm not the CEO of a large corporation. So even if money was the true motive in hiring those people mentioned above, it's still a good gesture to hand out those types of opportunities. In a world that only allows you to have one shot at achieving what you want, we should be grateful that there are people out there, willing to give us a second chance. It's not every day you get another shot at doing what you want and make things better. Well, that's about it for me here. I hope you all enjoyed this column. Hopefully you'll be seeing more of me in the future, as I have my aspirations of being a regular featured columnist on this very site. We'll just have to wait and see if those wishes come true later on. In the meantime, remember to head off to the Columns Forum if you want to read some more columns like this one. Hey, I told you at the beginning I would remind you all. While you're at it, go ahead and read myprevious column as well, if you liked this one. I think I'm allowed to plug my own stuff after doing so for others! You want to tell me how much you liked this column? How much you hated and despised it? Want to know where I live so you can hunt me down in groupie fashion? Or just want to talk about plain ol' wrestling? Feel free to send any E-Mail to dennmart@gmail.com, and I'll make sure it's replied to. Until my next time on the Main Page, Degenerate MUST SEE New Pix of Kelly Kelly & Friends Partying!
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