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Submitted by Degenerate on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 8:41 PM EST
 Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to another regular edition of this nice column, Struggle For Power. I'm the host with the most - of what, I don't know - Degenerate, bringing something for you all to have fun with reading. Don't worry, this won't be yet another Benoit column. I've already two columns about that dude, and I survived to talk about it. So I hope I'll never have to talk about the situation ever again in my entire life. I'm sure most of you won't mind. Before I continue with my regular columnistic (I just invented that word, can't you tell?) duties, I have to give a quick shout-out for my peeps in the Columns Forum. A column-writing tournament I've been shilling for the past couple of weeks, Wargames, has just concluded this weekend. Some cool congratulations go out to The Letter P for becoming the 2007 Wargames winner. As his prize, he'll have his chance to shine here in the LordsOfPain.net Main Page with a spot for a column. So keep a lookout on the Australian fellow. Oh, and he has a seriously unhealthy obsession with yours truly, so try to ignore that if he actually writes about it. Australian male groupies aside, I'm feeling pretty damn good about myself, so let's get the party started. * I don't know if there's something worse to happen to a wrestling promoter, but John Cena's injury at last night's Raw has to be devastating for the WWE, especially going into a much-hyped Pay-Per-View match. And it couldn't be just any match, it had to be the Main Event of the entire show! Now since I was nodding off throughout most of the show (probably a combination of a lack of sleep and not being much interested in the show), I didn't notice what happened or who's to blame, although in the world of professional wrestling, no one should be blamed for an injury unless intentional. But I am curious to see how this affects everything, from the longest title reign in the past 20 years to Kennedy's status, who must feel in a shitty mood to have this happen immediately after returning from suspension. I just hope Vince isn't trying to strangle his neck at the moment. * So it has come to this - an angle in the WWE started by Viagra. For those who didn't read WWE.com a couple of weekends ago - and really, who does on a weekend? - it was reported that hypertension was the cause of Theodore Long's "massive" heart attack from his wedding at Smackdown. But the kicker is that the heart attack was either triggered or worsened by Viagra. Now, I know that JBL used to refer to Long as "Captain Cialis" which was pretty damn funny to me. But I never imagined an erectile dysfunction drug would be actually used. I do know people my age who have taken that stuff, so I don't blame a 50 or 60-something year old man trying to take some magic blue pills to satisfy his hot wife-to-be. * Suspension time is over for the wrestlers involved in the steroid scandal. I'm curious to see how they'll be inserted (no homo - that one's for you, Joe) into the current storylines, besides those shown on Raw last night. Will they continue as if they were never suspended at all? If so, it sucks to be someone like CM Punk, who actually wasn't suspended, but has to job to guys like John Morrison, who got caught doing something that certainly affected the company's already-tarnished image. At least those were the plans I read about. I think a bit of additional suspension wouldn't be bad at all, not in the sense of keeping them off TV, but just avoid giving any decent push to these guys. Just imagine if someone got a slap on the wrist for doing something bad, then they reward him greatly. It just isn't fair. * There's still a whole lotta talk about the return of Chris Jericho to the WWE. I'm really getting sick of these news. If he's going to come back, just do it already. There isn't a right or wrong time to do it. Whenever the time is, I'm sure it'll go down like this: Jericho returns to huge ovations, he'll get a nice push to start off, and after a couple of months, maybe after next year's Wrestlemania, he'll be shoved aside in the higher mid-card once again. I'm guessing the WWE is offering him insane amounts of cash to do this, because with the sweet non-wrestling gigs he's having (in other words, he doesn't have to risk his well-being on these shows), I would've just stayed doing whatever without the hassle of bumps, traveling and wrestling politics. * I'm usually a defender of TNA and its shows, but lately it's been going horribly wrong. Their main feud now, Sting vs. Kurt Angle for the 'first time' (although they already had a match before), is failing miserably. Sting is too busy looking for that Judeas dude instead of focusing on his chance at the World Title. Where's the logic in that? Also, they still have failed to pull the trigger on a Samoa Joe push. Even though he's in a semi-high profile feud with Christian Cage, really, Joe has proven himself already and shouldn't be dicking around these pointless matches. What else does he need to do to get a serious World Title shot? And please don't get me started about A.J. Styles. I still cry whenever I see his lame, outside-the-ring skits. Where's Jeff Jarrett when you need him? Believe it or not, there's a common myth that's been around for a very long time that I want to dispel right here and right now: Computer geeks, wrestling columnists and the IWC in general have full-blown relationships with people they like rather frequently. Nope, I'm not kidding you. Those stereotypes you see on TV? All bullshit. Myself, I'm all three of those stereotypes all wrapped into one. Yet I don't wear glasses nor pocket protectors. I'm not a booger-eater at all. And while I admittedly am a bit on the tubby side, Samoa Joe is too, and he's considered cool. Just wait until I can pick someone up and do a muscle-buster on their ass for making fun of my weight. In all seriousness, people from all walks of life eventually fall into a relationship with someone they like. No matter how much of a nerd you are, there's always someone out there who will float your boat, make your head spin and rock your world. I can't think of any other cheesy way to put it right now. Anyway, it's just a part of human nature. There's always going to be an attraction going on, and as a normal evolved human being, it's perfectly fine to follow that attraction. It'll eventually happen anyway. Unless you really want to be shoved into awful stereotypes. That's your business. In my train of thought, wrestling is a lot like relationships. You might think I'm crazy, but let's draw in the parallels between both. Here are what I perceive (and have experienced in different combinations and end results before) are the stages of a regular relationship: The Passion Of Finding a New Love This stage encompasses the beginning of all new relationships. You meet someone, you get to know them, and BAM - before you know it, you're head over heels for this person. You think about him / her all the time. You want to be with this person every single waking moment. You lose sleep each night, hoping it would be the morning already to see that person again. This is the stuff romance novels are made of. You're practically living in a romance novel yourself. Many wrestling fans don't actually start with this stage, as the 'love' for professional wrestling usually starts off at a very young age, before we know what these feelings truly are and what they represent. I know I started watching wrestling back when I was about five or six years old. However, as I grew older into my teens, just like my hormones started to make me notice girls, I really started to get into wrestling a whole lot. By this time, Shawn Michaels was growing into my 'wrestling crush' (in a heterosexual way, of course). Steve Austin was growing into the Stone Cold character we grew to love a few years later. I would record Raw every week and watch the entire show about five or six times. I compiled tapes of HBK matches just to be able to pop in one tape and sit for hours watching the awesomeness that is Shawn Michaels. It was truly a blissful and innocent period of time in my life. You Already Got What You Wanted While the excitement of the first stages of falling in love is probably the most exciting time you'll ever spend in this life, it tends to wear down after both persons come to the realization that they already have what they wanted all along. This is a basically a period of maturity in the relationship. There's no longer a need to go out every single week, when you can both stay with each other in the comfort of home. Instead of hour-long, intense make-out sessions and (if you're really lucky) mind-blowing sex, both are content with just chilling and talking about life, with the occasional return to the previous passionate stage. While love is still strong, the constant reminders that existed before are a bit more scarce. As I grew older and wrestling was reaching its peak worldwide, I started backing off it. Now, instead of just a one-hour show weekly and the occasional Pay-Per-View, there was an additional show on Sunday, Sunday Night Heat. I think some people are snickering now, but back in the day, Sunday Night Heat was the shit. While Raw was the main two-hour show, Heat was a mini-Raw, with great matches and major storyline continuations from Raw. I should've been hyped that I was getting more shows a week, I stopped watching the shows multiple times per week, instead just catching them when they aired originally and that's it. I was happy that way. I was able to keep the love for professional wrestling going strong. It's Still All Going Great - Except... In this stage, the relationship is still going great. But the physical loving that you used to get drastically gets cut down. Most likely as a result of this, many things you used to not care about much before start grinding at you. If you're a girl, you didn't have problems if your man went off with his boys every Sunday afternoon during the NFL season, but now you wish he stayed with you some of those Sundays. If you're a guy, you used to find it cute to see your girl trying her hardest to cook when she couldn't even boil water correctly, but now you just wish you had a decent, non-poisonous meal once in a while. This is usually "make or break" time for a relationship. Those not-so-cute-anymore moments can get to anyone and just explode. 2001 was an exciting time in the professional wrestling world. Just a year prior, there were three major federations on American soil. Then there was just one. The WWE had virtually unlimited resources at their hands. They could've shelled out major cash up-front, get the very best of all three companies and go balls-out with a killer show that could've been talked about forever and ever. When it started, 'invading' wrestlers started appearing on WWE shows - Booker T, King Booker, Rob Van Dam. Then guys like Buff Bagwell and Hugh Morris - wrestlers I didn't care seeing on my screen - along with no-shows like Sting, Rey Mysterio and Goldberg started to get me very angry. When the fuck are they going to pull the trigger and bring in the REAL show?, I thought. It never happened. I Thought I Knew You, Bitch Unless you fall into place in the previous step and accept your partner's (and honestly, your own) faults, everything will eventually start crumbling apart. You'll begin to look at things in a totally different light. You'll question the other person, their intentions with you, if their feelings for you still exist, the questions go on and on. Your partner will also to do the same, leading to a stand-still in the entire relationship. In other cases, one of the two totally screws up by cheating on the other or something. In either case, the love that was before will stop growing, and in most cases, it'll end here. After the Invasion took place, I continued to watch wrestling. However, a combination with a lower quality showed, along with having other interests, and I didn't spend as much time watching the shows anymore. I used to go religiously to a sports bar that showed the Pay-Per-Views every month ever since I was 15 years old (yeah, that's how the law is followed in Puerto Rico, minors can go into bars rather easily). Now, if I caught one of the PPV's once every three months, that would be a lot. I also started skipping the regular Monday and Thursday shows, Raw and Smackdown respectively, without freaking out for missing it. I just didn't care anymore. It went on like this for months. My love for professional wrestling was slipping away. I Apologize For Calling You A Bitch It happened - you and your partner broke up. The guy told the girl her lazy ass couldn't cook for shit, or the girl called the guy a gay-ass for spending too much with his friends instead of getting some tail. Even though you broke up, the feelings still lingered inside of you. In the months that followed, you started to miss that person. You start wondering what went wrong. So in time, you decide to take the plunge - you call the person again, start talking, and eventually apologizing for all the bullshit that happened. You realize you can't live without that person, and the other agrees, so you hook back up together. With a lot of things to deal with in my life - from finishing college, to getting a new job in a different town I've never been to before, to breaking up with my then-girlfriend - I started getting the itch to watch wrestling. Of course, I never stopped watching wrestling altogether, and still watched whenever I remembered the show was on and I was home. But after these drastic changes in my life, I started to miss those times I just to chill out while watching Shawn Michaels matches. Those days were much more relaxing because of wrestling. So I got back into watching wrestling on a virtual full-time schedule again. I wouldn't tape a show and watch it over and over, but I made sure to never miss a show, either watching when it aired or recording it when I couldn't watch it. We're Made For Each Other By this time, you already know (or at least think you know) your partner. You've been through countless good times and even more bad times. This time spent made you even closer, and even made you both best friends, ready to tackle anything life throws at you. Not to say that everything is perfect at this stage. You'll still have days when you can't stand the other person, or even fight about nothing in particular. But in truly accepting each other as you both are, you'll soon get over it and keep on in life. As part of the IWC, I've written many times about how much I hate a particular aspect of a show, or even hating a show because it sucks so much. However, I know that wrestling isn't perfect. It never has been, and it never will be. Wrestling is a cyclical business, with its ups and down all the time. As true fans, we need to not only be there when it's rosy, but we need to be there when through the dark days. If you enjoy professional wrestling as much as I do, I know you won't skip town when things go bad. You are simply made for wrestling, and wrestling will always be there when you need it. Although some people might not think it's true, I truly believe that wrestling and life in general draw huge parallels. I'm assuming that wrestling is molded that way, thus appealing to many along the way. But sometimes it's just unexplainable. This column was pretty damn interesting to write about. I really enjoyed it, as my writing might tell. And since I'm feeling in an extra-generous mood, I'm not giving you just three links to some of the most awesome columns in LOPForums.com as I usually do. I'm giving you FIVE columns that you should all take the time to read, as they're really great. The Superfiles!--edition 13.0: Full Time Warrior By SUPERFAN! Before John Cena, Batista or even Stone Cold, there was one wrestling champion that was as believable as they come. Even though he stood only 5'8" and weighed about 240 lbs., you know that if you ever met him face to face, he could whoop your ass in ten seconds and you couldn't do anything about it. The man SUPERFAN! writes about in this excellent column? Former ECW Champion Taz. The 16th Stop on the Road: Vol. 12 - The World's Greatest By The Letter P Throughout the times, we've seen many feuds that have been talked about for years and years. My Aussie pal and Wargames Champion, The Letter P, writes about one of the most memorable feuds of all time between two men who defined the WWE Attitude Era - Stone Cold and The Rock. Savana's Chamber of Pain #16- Purple Rooms Remind Me Of Jeff Hardy By Andy_Savana The Intercontinental Championship has admittedly lost its luster from its earlier days. The current hope to bring this title back to prominence is one Jeff Hardy, who apparently makes Andy think of purple walls. He actually reminds me of rainbows. But no matter the color, this is a great column. The Mega Column #2: Work is a Four Letter Word By aisce and "No Homo" Uncle Joe We all know work uses four letters. Unless you're illiterate, but even then you should know what work is. The awesome combination of the British aisce with the Puerto Rican Uncle Joe join forces once again to take on the current working standards that WWE superstars have to face. Oh, and Diva Search prostitutes too (hey, that's what the column says - I love you Jessica!) When in Rome XIX - A Return By romans_3:23 Anyone can run off a list of their favorite wrestlers. But ask someone who their least favorite is, and most likely they won't have a definitive pick, or they'll think long and hard about it. However, in surprising fashion, the relatively passive romans has his mind made up pretty clear when he picks Bob Holly as his least-favorite wrestler. And that's putting it lightly. There's a lot of cool stuff in the forums, so I'm happy there's so much awesome reading material in there. Make sure to pay themk a visit, they work as hard or even harder than myself and others for their columns. That wraps up another edition of this column. I'd like to thank all of you for reading until the end, and also to those who take the time to write. This week I had some difficulty getting back to some of you, so I apologize for that. Just don't hesitate to write to me if you have something on your mind! Hit me at my E-Mail - dennmart@gmail.com or at my feedback thread whenever you want. I'll be looking forward to your responses. 'Til next week, Degenerate ***DIRECT LINK*** Hot New Photos of KAREN ANGLE'S SWEATY WORKOUT!! Amazing Pix!
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