June Column of the Month - When in Rome by Romans_3:23
    Submitted by Randomguy#5 on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 2:01 AM EST



    Each month in the LoP Forums, a vote is held to determine which column series is the best. All registered members to the forums are welcome to vote and June's winner was "When in Rome" written by Romans_3:23. This is the first Column of the Month award won by Rome and is a testament to the quality of his columns, as his column writing career is still very young. As a reward for winning the COTM vote, Rome has the opportunity to post one of his columns on Lop's Main Page for your viewing pleasure. Please direct all feedback for this work to Romans by clicking HERE. Enjoy.

    Welcome to When in Rome XV, Column of the Month edition. Let me tell you, it feels good to write that sentence because in all honesty, I never thought that I would. I just want to thank all the people who voted for me this past month, and I want to thank all the people who have ever either read and/or feedbacked any of my work. You all have helped my writing in countless ways. If not for you guys, I guarantee that I’m not writing this right now. I’m honored to have won this prestigious award, and am blown away that now my name is listed among some of the all time great column writers who have won this award in the past like Morpheus, YourAyatollah, Leviathan, Xanman, Randomguy #5. Well I could continue on and on with the list of greats who have won before, but I think that you get the point.

    I guess I should take a moment to introduce myself a bit since this is my first go on the main stage. My handle on the LOP forums is Romans_3:23, and if you didn’t get the hint from that username I am a devout Christian. I try to live my life in gratitude for the salvation that God has given me through the work of Jesus Christ. I base my knowledge of God on his revealed Word, the Bible, and I want to glorify God and enjoy him in everything that I do. Also, I am a seminary student, the only one I know of around these parts, and am training to be a pastor. If there are any other seminarians reading this, be sure to drop me an email, but I kind of have the feeling most seminarians aren’t the biggest wrestling fans in the world. Whatever, it’s their loss.

    As for my column, I take my knowledge of the different literary genres in the Bible and use those genres as the format of my column. In other words, I do things like letters, proverbs and psalms. I even do apocalyptic writing. I just hope that it’s as entertaining for you to read, as it is fun for me to write. That’s enough of an introduction; let’s get on with the column…

    The Gospel Truth

    I’ll admit it. I often buy into the idea that "bigger is better." I like to swim in the mainstream. Does that make me cool? Not really. Do I care? Not really. I like what I like. This character trait especially applies to me in the realms of music and wrestling. When I listen to music, it’s usually of the radio friendly variety. I’m too old and too disinterested to search out the indy scene for the hottest new band.

    Same thing when it comes to wrestling – I think bigger is better. I’ve heard about the little feds like ROH, but if I’m to be completely honest, I may know a thing or two about the Noah who built the ark, but I know nothing about NOAH. (Yeah I realize that NOAH isn’t technically an indy, but how can I pass up such a play on words?) And I didn’t think I’d ever care to learn. For one reason, I’ve believed that a major requirement for liking the indies is to renounce your love for WWE. That may well be a misguided thought on my part, but that’s been the vibe I’ve gotten from some indy fans in the past. Not from the people on LOP, but elsewhere. Also, the WWE gives me all the wrestling I can handle. They give me five hours of new programming each week, plus a ton of quality DVDs. If I want, I can even go online and watch pretty much any WWE match I want to, any time I want to. What reason do I have to even think about the smaller promotions?

    Well, since the incident that shall not be named has occurred, I’ve begun to reflect on my undying loyalty to WWE. No, I’m not going to stop watching WWE. That’s pretty much unfathomable to me. All I’m saying is that I’ve suddenly had the urge to expand my horizons a bit. It’s like I’ve been eating chocolate ice cream every day for years – it’s still very good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just dying to taste a little butter pecan. I need to explore a world of wrestling that doesn’t have a spectre of death and steroid scandals looming over it. I want something different, but not anything that involves a certain fed and their six-sided ring. I hate that ring and refuse to acknowledge that wrestling takes place inside it.

    Back in the day it was easy to try a different flavor because of WCW and ECW. I just had to flip the channel and BAM! I’m watching something different. Way back when WCW was still the NWA, there was a palpable difference between the WWF and NWA products. Variety existed among the big national promotions. The WWF was cartoony, and it appealed to the little kid I was at the time. It was the biggest fed and everyone loved them. You couldn’t be a wrestling fan and not watch the WWF. The NWA however, catered to the fan who wanted more realistic action, and they had the advantage of their fed’s world championship having lineage back into the 1800s. My dad always harped on how the NWA was better, and for a while I believed that as well. Nowadays, TNA and its circus ring are the only alternative to WWE on TV. If I going to watch something different, I’m going to have to search outside the cable box to find it.
    I said earlier that I don’t really like or care about indy music. That’s not completely true. There is one indy band that I do like a good bit, named Joy Electric. Joy E is a unique band to say the least. It’s really not so much a band, but one guy, Ronnie Martin, who sings and plays synthesizers. He also has some different guys as his drummer during his live shows. I have a hard time putting Joy E’s sound into words – it is different than pretty much anything out there, and completely different from the other music that I listen to. I’m more of an alternative/punk/rock kind of guy and Joy E is – well, it’s Joy E. If you want to hear some Joy E click on this link and check out Ronnie’s Myspace page. Joy Electric’s MySpace Page

    I discovered Joy Electric because my wife is their number one fan. Others’ may lay claim to that title, but they’re kidding themselves. Here’s an example of why she is the undisputed number one fan. Just a few months ago over a three day period she went to three Joy E shows in a row. Now that doesn’t sound all that impressive on the face of it, but that’s not the whole story. We live in eastern PA. The first show was in central PA; the next one was in New Jersey; the last was in Washington D.C. The time she spent driving probably tripled the amount of sleep she got over that three day period, and she didn’t miss a single day’s work. I figure there are some kids reading this who go to shows all the time and don’t think that this is big deal, but I dare you to try making these kinds of commutes while having to go to work and give your all at your job for eight hours the next day on no sleep whatsoever. And then do it again, and again. Needless to say, my wife was zombified by the end of this experience, but she did get to hang out with Ronnie and even go out and eat with him and the opening bands after one of the shows – her fandom was repaid in full.

    Anyway, in my unbiased opinion, she’s Joy E’s number one fan, and her obsessive fandom is what made me check out Joy E in the first place. I was excited to hear what all the fuss was about. I don’t exactly remember what songs I listened to that first time, but I do remember that after hearing them, I didn’t happily agree with her that Joy E was the best band ever. In fact, I didn’t really like Joy E at all. I thought the lyrics were too heavy on gumdrops, fairies and other fanciful things and that didn’t really jive with a punk/rock/alternative kind of guy.

    But, as time passed, I came to appreciate the music’s distinctive flavor and I became a fan, not an obsessed fan like my wife, but the kind of fan who stops listening to the Killers or Nirvana for a bit to listen to some Joy E. I guess you could say that it grew on me like mold on an old piece of fruit. I went along with my wife to some shows, and I began to appreciate Ronnie’s independent spirit, how he does what he wants to do and doesn’t worry if the masses buy it or not. I found that as I got to know him a bit, I respected him more as an artist and person. I started willingly listening to Joy E on my own, without provocation from my wife.

    Just as my wife’s obsessive fandom led me to Joy E, the obsessive fandom of the posters in the LOP forums ROH thread led me to watch some of the matches of indy star The American Dragon Bryan Danielson. I was also heavily influenced by this classic column Benbeeach wrote a while back, the definitive career retrospective of Danielson, The Best in the World. I could feel Ben’s passion for his subject as I read that column, and I wanted to feel that kind of zeal for wrestling again as well. I was stoked. I knew that I could feel that fervor if I watched some of Danielson’s matches.

    So, I sat on a Sunday afternoon at my computer and watched a few of Danielson’s matches. First I watched the one where he took on Kenta in Japan. Then I watched him wrestle A.J Styles, and finally I watched when he wrestled James Gibson, who wrestles as Jamie Noble in WWE, for the ROH championship. I thought these were good solid matches, but to my dismay, much like my first experience with Joy E, I wasn’t all that impressed. By no means did I hate the matches, but my expectation going in was off the charts. I thought I was going to see the "Best Wrestler in the World." What I saw were some matches that reminded me of the old NWA matches I watched as a child. Now, that’s not a bad thing, but after reading Ben’s column I just expected more. I thought that maybe I picked the wrong matches to watch. I felt deflated. This was good stuff, but not mind-blowing. I believed that I failed in my search. If I’m not left drooling over the matches of the so-called "Best in the World," what hope do I have in enjoying the rest of the indy feds? I was left with no alternative.

    I sat disappointed for a while, but then it hit me. I hadn’t failed in my search at all. I just forgot what I was searching for, an alternative to WWE. That’s what the Danielson matches showed me – that an alternative besides TNA and its silly ring exist. I had let expectation overwhelm me and I had forgotten my original goal. I had tricked myself into thinking that Bryan Danielson had to be the best wrestler in the world for me to enjoy his work. Now I enjoy Danielson’s matches much more since I’m not watching each match with the intention of finding the savior of wrestling. I realized that the problem was with me, not the matches.

    Just as I realized the unique beauty of Joy E’s music, I realized the unique beauty of Bryan Danielson’s matches. His matches are usually pretty long, over thirty minutes. That might turn off some people, but how often do we get to see a good, long match in WWE? We got Cena/Michaels earlier this year on Raw, but that was a once in a blue moon kind of deal. With a Danielson match, you get a good back and forth contest in which both wrestlers look good. Danielson is skilled at making his opponents look just as good as himself. His psychology, pacing and mannerisms are all excellent. In my eyes, he resembles a young Bob Backlund, especially when he clamps on a chicken wing. Danielson can also work the crowd and finish a match in several different ways, making his matches not feel repetitive like many WWE ones. All in all he’s a darn good wrestler.

    So what if I think that Triple H is better – that is irrelevant if my true goal in watching Danielson is finding an alternative to WWE. Just as I realized that I could be a Joy E fan and enjoy their music even if I hadn’t sold my soul to them, I realized I could enjoy Bryan Danielson’s matches without him becoming my favorite wrestler. I can view the big WWE as superior, while still taking pleasure in Danielson’s work. And in the end that’s enough for me.

    So what? You might ask. Well, for me this discovery is a big deal. As I said earlier, I think that bigger is better, but I’m slowly learning not to despise the small things. Realizing that means that Danielson doesn’t have to come to WWE to prove his worth as a wrestler. It also means that Joy E doesn’t have to be on a major record label for me to like their music. So what if I can’t go to Wal-Mart and buy a Joy E CD or an ROH DVD? Because of this little thing called the internet I have access to both just as easily as I can access WWE or the Killers.

    You know, I figure that a lot of wrestling fans out there are like me. They love the WWE. They love how they put on the greatest spectacles in the world. They love how the history of the wrestling business all intertwines into WWE’s history. They love sports entertainment.

    But, you same fans may also be feeling a little out of sorts after the incident that shall not be named. You might want to just watch a good wrestling match without unintentionally being reminded of a tragedy. You want wrestling to be the escape that it was for you a few weeks ago. You’re the type who got the same sick feeling that I had when watching the first Raw after the incident, when Randy Orton was going to call himself "Legend Killer," but stopped short after saying legend, obviously because of sensitivity to the incident. You find that although you still love and watch WWE, when you are watching your mind keeps on thinking about something that has nothing to do with wrestling. Something that you wish you could just forget, but can’t. Time may be healing your wounds, but the little reminders keep opening them back up again.

    So, you can do what I did. Check out something new and different. Listen to Joy Electric. Go into the LOP forums and check out the Ring of Honor thread. Find some Bryan Danielson matches online and watch them. If you’re really ambitious order an ROH pay per view – they’re actually doing those now. Their first one aired on July 1. You might be blown away by what you’re seeing. If so, great, but if not, don’t fret. You might be like me and need a little time before becoming surprised by the joy that small stuff can bring.

    A Prophetic Word

    I was sitting at my computer, tirelessly typing away at this column when behold – a flash of brilliant white appeared! A voice rang out,

    "Do not be afraid. For I, the Messenger have returned to you."

    I shuddered and asked, "Why have you returned? Haven’t you tormented me enough?"

    He replied, "You have done well in sharing the message of the Three Woes. Now, a great bash will soon take place and I have something that you must witness. Look!"

    My computer screen went fuzzy. Then images began to appear. I saw a beast, a large red beast, which stood triumphantly upon his hind feet, coming up from a pit of fire. He raised his claws as in victory, but behold! His waist was pale like a ghost.

    Next, the Messenger showed me a forest, in which stood a large black bear and a golden colt. The bear growled and clawed at a golden colt, but the colt survived the bear’s attack. The colt placed the bear upon his back and dropped him to the ground, and the bear fell through the earth, leaving the colt alone on the ground. Birds appeared in the sky and circled the colt. Some swept down and dropped gifts as a tribute, but others swooped in and defecated upon the colt’s head.

    Then I beheld statue. It was covered in gold from head to toe. A flaming sword circled around it. The sword struck the statue with its straight edge and split it in two. The screen went black.

    The Messenger spoke, "Do as you have done before. Be my mouthpiece and tell the wise fans what I have shown you, for they shall interpret these visions for you."
    I wanted to respond, but after he spoke these words, in a flash he was gone!

    Apocrypha

    Recent headlines suggest that Samoa Joe will not be re-upping his contract with TNA and their silly ring. I for one would love to see Joe in the WWE. Admittedly I haven’t seen a ton of his matches, but what I’ve seen, I’ve liked. Much like CM Punk before him, Joe has a built in rabid fanbase in the IWC. I could see him getting a huge pop if he came out as a surprise opponent against fellow Samoan, Umaga. That’s what I’d like to see – Joe taking the IC strap from Umaga his first time out. You may say that adding Joe to Raw would just clog an already clogged roster, but Joe doesn’t have to main event right off the bat. He could have an extended run with the IC belt, bringing back some of its recently lost credibility. Then he could move up to the main event level.

    What is up with Viscera, err… Big Daddy V’s new outfit? Seriously, why would you have that guy go shirtless. I can see the creative team now saying, "Oh we’ve got to show off those tattoos. They make him look so fierce." Well, I don’t think Big V looks any fiercer now that I’ve seen his tats. All I can think about is his poor tattoo artist when I see him. Can you imagine tattooing all that flab? Pretty disgusting, I say.

    I for one am glad to see John Cena defending the WWE championship against Bobby Lashley at the GAB, and that’s not because I love Lashley. I’m just happy to see that WWE decided not to rush Ken Kennedy into the number one contender slot. Cena/Kennedy has the feel of a Wrestlemania type feud, and I groaned when it looked like they were about to start their rivalry in full force a few weeks back. If it ends up Kennedy/Cena at Summerslam, I guess that’s ok, but in my opinion, the longer they are kept apart, the better the feud will be when it happens. I like that the seeds have been sown, but you’ve got to let the crops grow before you harvest them.

    ProverbsA fool allows boredom to suck the enjoyment from his life, but a wise man reads SUPERFAN’s The Superfiles! edition 9.0- The Dangler.

    If you build your house on a solid foundation, you will have shelter during the storms, during which you should read brianw503’s Bored on a Monday #5 – TNA = Totally Not Acceptable Wrestling… for now.

    The wiles of a temptress seduce the weak hearted man, but he who resists should read Jules’ Pulp Wrestling - Stripes.

    That’s it for number fifteen of the uninspired, fallible, opinion only Word of Rome. I hope you all enjoyed and will read me again sometime. Also, if you haven’t had your fill after taking my proverbs to heart, be sure to head into the Columns Forum and check out more of the goodness that’s written there. I also want to thank Random for helping me with the html codes in formatting this column. I am not too computer literate when it comes to that kind of stuff and I couldn’t have done it without his help.

    Lastly, I want to dedicate this one to my beautiful wife, who is my inspiration. She gets a kick out of the fact that I write these wrestling columns and it’s my pleasure to write one here on the main stage that she can truly enjoy reading. Anything Joy Electric related makes her smile. You are my gem and I love you.

    Send any feedback to blinkone82_2000.

    Later all





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