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Submitted by Degenerate on Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 7:58 PM EST
 What's up, people? Welcome to yet another edition of Struggle For Power, the column that always arrives on time no matter how much food poisoning it gets during the weekend. I'm the usual non-poisoned host, Degenerate. Well, the Holidays are in full swing now, and the commercialism is running wild. Weird that here in Puerto Rico, most stores in malls already had Christmas stuff for sale in September. Shows how easily people can be swayed by this type of stuff. In any case, I hope you people have the so-called 'Christmas Spirit' inside you, and are being nice to others. Yeah, I know we should strive to be like that all freakin' year. But if one month subconsciously makes people treat others better, I'm all for it. Again, shows how easily people can be swayed by something. Above all, just have fun during these Holidays. I don't know about you, but besides the blinding (and sometimes annoying) Christmas decorations that cover entire houses (no bullshit), Puerto Rican Holidays are usually full of great food and lots of alcohol. So I'll make sure to have fun for those who can't! Christmas season doesn't stop professional wrestling, nor this column, so let's jump into the reading goodness. * Finally, some juicy controversy for good ol' TNA this weekend. First, at this weekend's Turning Point Pay-Per-View, one of the scheduled Main Event participants - the reliable Scott Hall (yes, I was being overly sarcastic) - didn't make the show. Not only did he no-show, he didn't even call nor answer his phone to let those in charge know. Then, during the live show, Samoa Joe cut a scathing promo on not only Hall, but Kevin Nash, who was responsible enough to show up and be in the match. Joe's stock has surely risen at least tenfold in TNA and Indy fans alike. But no, this saga doesn't stop here. After the match, a visibly upset Nash left the ring in a hurry (while his teammates were celebrating a victory) and allegedly got into an ugly discussion with Joe, which led to some shoving. While this can't be good, I wholeheartedly agree with Samoa Joe. I've been a bit angry at the fact that some very capable performers - guys like A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jay Lethal, Robert Roode and Abyss, to name a few - have been pushed aside while these older wrestlers who can't quite go as they did before get more money and exposure. Name value counts, but I believe only up to a certain point. I'm curious to see how this all unfolds in the upcoming weeks. * That wasn't the only juicy gossip to come from the TNA locker rooms. Yesterday at the TV tapings, TNA management did a talent meeting. But TNA management didn't show up alone - they brought the contracts for each wrestling too, offering to void anyone's contract if they wanted out. Senshi, probably being pissed of not being used on TV for months now, spoke up and quit the company in front of everyone. Good for him, I say. I'm sure there are many other wrestlers who wanted to quit but didn't for any number of reasons (they have families to feed, out of loyalty to the company, or they simply know they're not good enough to land a good job elsewhere). But my main question is, what fucking company is insane enough to bring contracts to a meeting and publicly offer anyone to quit? To me, it's just plain stupid to do this. If they want wrestlers to leave for whatever reason, they have full authority to just release them. So why offer? I'm sure if people are angry at their place in the company, they'll be vocal enough about it. To me, this just looks like piss-poor management. * Last night's edition of Raw was fun, for some reason. The setup to next week's blockbuster show was great, and the build-up for Armageddon was great as well. I'm not too high on Chris Jericho getting a title shot as soon as he returned, but it's probably the right move as I have no idea what other feud he could've been put into. Kennedy bringing in the fakes from the past was funny. Fake Razor was awesome! I'm sure part of that skit was a shot against TNA. And Holy APA reunion! Next week's show should be a memorable one, with a star-studded cast appearing. I'm just dying to see the awesomely beautiful Trish Stratus again. Of course, seeing her on TV again will make me miss her more than I already do. Are we in for some surprises, as well? I'm thinking so... The Rock, maybe? Should be interesting, nonetheless. * For some reason, Ric Flair's "Win or Retire" stipulation imposed by Vince McMahon has greatly captured my attention. I don't know if such a stipulation has been done before in pro wrestling, but it seems to be a fresh, novel idea. The illusion of every match being Flair's final one should bring a lot of interest to him. Now I'll want to keep an eye on all of his matches, just to see how he'll pull of the victory. I'm guessing a lot of low blows will be involved (no homo), but he'll keep his streak alive, I'm guessing until Wrestlemania 24 for his last hurrah. The only drawback I see is that they'll probably over-do the gimmick, making Flair win all the time, in the process making fans stop believing that there's a probability he'll lose. Seeing how he didn't appear in last night's show, I think the WWE has the same concerns in mind. The question now will be who will retire him. Will it be an old foe, like Triple H, or a young heel who could use the rub, like MVP or someone else? Let the guessing begin. * One last thing: A.J. Styles in a Turkey suit? For shame, TNA, wasting probably your best young talent in such senseless acts. I hate you. You made me cry, and most likely Baby Jesus too. Last Tuesday, I got off work and drove to a mall that's about an hour and a half from where I live. The reason? The new Shawn Michaels DVD, Heartbreak and Triumph was released that day, and I had been anxiously awaiting the DVD ever since I first read it was going to be released late in 2007. If you read some of my previous columns (particularly the one where my friend just owned me with the "Shawn Michaels looks gay" comment), you should already know I'm a huge Shawn Michaels fan. He's my #1 all-time favorite. My infatuation with HBK (no homo, sickos) began a bit when he debuted in the WWE as part of The Rockers. Being about nine or ten years old, my little mind thought that they were the coolest dudes in the entire universe. Although that I'm older I see that Marty Jannetty was the actual workhorse for the team - which is understandable, as Shawn Michaels was still virtually new in the business - I always saw Michaels as the better of the two, simply due to his good looks (again, no homo - you should stop thinking that) and seemingly flashier than his partner. However, while I liked The Rockers, I never gave much thought to HBK as an individual performer. After the split between The Rockers and HBK started toiling solo, I still never gave him much thought. It wasn't until the famous Ladder Match in '94 where Shawn Michaels grabbed my attention, and he hasn't let go of it ever since. I enjoyed his heel run as Intercontinental Champion, and subsequent semi-Main Event push in 1995 when he won the Royal Rumble. I remember all of my friends marking out greatly for Bret Hart, The Undertaker and Diesel (come on, admit it - if you watched the WWE in 1995, you were a Diesel mark), but I always remained faithful to Michaels. I just knew he would explode one day. His big break came in 1996, where he won the Royal Rumble for the second consecutive year, leading to his first WWE Championship win in Wrestlemania XII in the famous Iron Man match against Bret Hart. He went on to hold the belt for most of the year, being the top dog in the company and having some of the most amazing matches. In the span of a few months, Michaels had a brutal (at the time, at least) No Holds Barred match with Diesel and an amazing five-star match against Mick Foley (I knew him as Mankind at the time). He even got a decent WWE match out of Vader. That has to count for something. This part of HBK's career is one I was very interested in seeing talked about in the DVD, as I lived through that entire year watching WWE programming. I was surprised when I saw people talk about Michaels during this period. No, they didn't talk about him in a negative light. What surprised me was that WCW and the nWo were talked about. As many know, 1996 was the year where WCW exploded - the formation of the nWo just elevated the company to unprecedented heights. The WWE was left behind in the dust, falling way behind in ratings. Unfortunately for HBK, this was his year on top, and a lot of people to this day blame Shawn Michaels - being the go-to guy - for the low ratings. To these theories, I call total and complete bullshit. Yes, the nWo was hot as hell, but that was due to having two major ex-WWE superstar appearing as 'outsiders', along with the first mainstream showing of a heel Hulk Hogan. Until Hall, Nash and Hogan formed as a group, the WWE was trading blows with WCW as far as ratings go. Throwing the blame to one person angers me somewhat, as I believe they're simply baseless allegations. One person in the DVD (I think it was Jim Ross) mentioned that ratings were down in the WWE during that period, but it wasn't due to Shawn Michaels. He even posed the question that truly made me think: If Shawn Michaels weren't on top in 1996, where would the WWE be in that period? I believe that it's true. One of the only reasons I faithfully watched the WWE during that time, while most of my buddies were getting hooked on WCW, was because of Shawn Michaels. His feuds were interesting to me (the feud about HBK getting freaky with the British Bulldog's wife made me think HBK did it for real - the IWC was just in its infancy, what else do you expect?) and his matches were top-notch. Why change that for some old people on the other channel? I did some channel-flipping and saw some WCW, but it never really kept my interest for long. After I viewed that documentary, it kept me thinking. What if Shawn Michaels wasn't the top guy? What if he had a real concussion (not the fake one Owen Hart gave him - I believed that stuff too) that kept him out for the entire year? Do you people who blame Shawn Michaels for the poor 1996 year the company had honestly believe the company would've been better off in someone else's hands? I don't think anyone could've filled the shoes of HBK that year. The competition was just too fierce back in that period. Just take a look at the superstars who roamed the WWE in that time period. There were many veterans, former champions who could've had another run, like Bret Hart, Diesel (had he stayed with the company) and The Undertaker. But they had proven track records already, and I doubt they would be different enough to sway viewers away from WCW. In fact, they probably would've sent WWE fans over to WCW to see the nWo, which was something no one had ever seen before. Michaels being champion was something new, and people like myself were curious to see how well he would do as champion. Then there were some solid mid-carders with no previous WWE Championship experience - guys like Razor Ramon (had he stayed as well), Owen Hart and Savio Vega (so what, I'm biased towards Puerto Ricans). While good wrestlers in their own right, none had the popularity with the fans (and little kids in particular) than Shawn Michaels. Finally, there were some promising newcomers to the company. Do the names Steve Austin, Bradshaw, Mankind and Hunter Hearst Helmsley ring a bell? As of 2007, they have had a combined 21 World Championship reigns between them. But back in '96, these were unproven names, and no one had absolutely any clue they would be some of the biggest names in wrestling ever. The WWE was in bad shape in 1996, especially when you factor in the monster '98 and '99 years that would soon arrive. I truly believe that the company stayed in its position as long as it did - being a semi-distant #2 instead of a REALLY low #2 - if it weren't for Shawn Michaels. His first reign as champion was the most important title reign he ever had. He literally had to shoulder the load of an entire company to avoid being sunk to the very bottom. As screwed up as he was (drugs and women were his vice back in the day), he did a remarkable job in holding the Main Event scene together in that time. HBK, for this reason alone, you're simply The Man. I love you. Okay, I don't really love you, but you rock. Let's keep our relationship like that. The Heartbreak and Triumph DVD is, as most all WWE DVD documentaries, an excellent piece for any wrestling fan to see. I'm not too good with DVD reviews, but I'll offer a small overview of the 3-disc set. The first DVD is a two-hour documentary that spans HBK's entire life, ever since he was born until his recent feuding with John Cena earlier this year. Most everything notable is talked about here - his humble beginnings training with Jose Lothario, the formation of The Rockers, his separation and solo career, becoming the Heartbreak Kid, the Curtain Call, the Montreal Screwjob, hitting rock bottom, being saved... It's all here. There are a lot of tidbits about HBK that newer fans might not have known about, so if you have only witnessed the second coming of HBK (2002 until the present), you owe it to yourself to get this DVD. His story is inspirational, really. I do have some gripes about the content that was put into it. I would've liked it a lot if Jose Lothario was interviewed for the DVD. From the way the documentary was put, it seems that Lothario and either the WWE or HBK have had a falling-out, as the only mention of Lothario was in the very beginning, where he was briefly mentioned twice - as Shawn's trainer, and being part of the WWE during the Iron Man match and afterwards. It was some sort of cold treatment, in all honesty. I thought he was a big influence in his wrestling career, thus should have a more prominent role. Another gripe is the fact that they skipped two of HBK's best Wrestlemania moments. There's absolutely no mention of Wrestlemania XX and Wrestlemania XXI. Of course, the no-show of Wrestlemania XX is due to the very stupid self-imposed "Chris Benoit can't be on any WWE DVD" rule. But to not mention one of the greatest matches in recent WWE history just because Kurt Angle isn't with the company? Granted, this segment of Wrestlemania XXI is included as a "deleted scene", but I think it's relevant enough to be included in the main documentary. That's actually one of my Top-5 matches, to say the truth. Maybe I'm biased, but it made no sense to keep it off. The second and third DVDs are full of matches, from probably his first televised match ever (his name was spelled "Sean Michaels"!) in 1985, up to his hour-long match with Cena in an edition of Raw in April this year. There are a few gems here, like the entire 1995 Royal Rumble (with appearances of such characters like Jacob and Eil Blu, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Kwang (yes, Puerto Rican - it was Savio Vega) and Adam Bomb, who could resist watching this?) and the match (never before released, I believe) where The Rockers won the WWE Tag Team Championships from the Hart Foundation, but was stricken from the books and never shown on TV. In all, some good action, although the definitive Shawn Michaels collection has to be the "From The Vault" DVD set from 2003. Yes, the one where HBK looks gay in the cover. Just overlook that and you'll find some manly goodness inside - in the form of two DVDs. So, in short, get this DVD if you can. You can never go wrong with Shawn Michaels. Also, you should go read these columns from the Columns Forum. You can never go wrong with my picks. The Mega Column #6 - The Passion of the Chris By aisce and Uncle Joe I know there's no shortage of Chris Masters news on LordsOfPain.net recently. I'm getting a bit tired of them myself. But this column exposes the entire truth of this wasted talent (Get it? Wasted? He was fired for drug violations? Bah, you guys are still no fun). Rock bands, Reality TV show appearances and even someone putting some code for people to obsess over are all part of this Chris Masters story. Joe and aisce put things in perspective for you all. Eye of the Storm XV – ALLYALALAYALLAYYAAAAAA!!! By Cman Just a few years ago, there was a very controversial newcomer who was tearing up the WWE, fast becoming a major heel in a company where it was sorely needed. But just as soon as it began, it ended mere months later. Muhammad Hassan was proving to be an asset to the company, but ill-timing and probably more interest in an acting career than wrestling finished this run. Cman takes a look back and talks on how the Hassan character could work nowadays. The Niggas Present: Attack of the Clones By Uncle Joe and some random peeps he calls 'Niggas' Did you know there's some serious cloning going on in the WWE? It's not just recent, it's been going on for years! Joe gives us the skinny on these cloned wrestlers that are right under our nose. Yeah, I know I already plugged Joe once before, but this column is just too damn funny to not show to the masses. One more edition in the books. Thanks for stopping by and taking some time to read my work. I really appreciate. As usual, if you want to drop a line to talk about this column, wrestling, food poisoning or anything else, feel free to send some E-Mail (dennmart@gmail.com) or head on over to my feedback thread. Hope to see you all next week. Thanks for reading, as always, Degenerate ***DIRECT LINK*** Rare Pix of Y2J, Randy Orton & Others with THEIR WIVES!
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