Scripted Through Sin 5.20.08: Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun!

Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 05.20.2008

It’s been a while since the last issue – oh wait, no it wasn’t. Double header time, boys and girls, think you can handle talk about Shawn Michaels, the IC title, Project 161, Pearce’s briefcase and reasons to believe that the government spikes your corn flakes with PCP? I thought you would.

We keep the bacon sizzling with this first ever double shot Scripted Through Sin. This is better than an ROH double shot, because it's twice as much me as you can handle, and then some. What did I say earlier? Oh yeah, "call me Csonka-lite, bitches."

There was just too much on my mind this week to leave it at that. I wasn't about to try and get half of you to read what more I had to say on the blog, so instead, I worked things out and managed to get the Ari Berenstein treatment, which basically means I get to have more face time on this site, because I'm super awesome like that. So let's roll with it and continue with the momentum.

But before we do that, we have to do some more cheap plugging:

411's back with another huge podcast broadcast! With the Wife out of town, celebrating her sister's baby shower, Larry is joined by 411's James Thomlison to breakdown WWE's latest PPV offering! They'll discuss HBK and Chris Jericho delivering big time, HHH and Randy Orton going old school, lots of questionable booking and the fact that CM Punk is a complete bitch! Enjoy!

TO STREAM: Simply press the play button on the podcast player.

TO DOWNLOAD: Right click on the DOWNLOAD HERE link below and then save the mp3 file to your computer.



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Please email Ashish if you experience any problems.

Legacy 4 Sale!

I had a few thoughts on what to start off with for this second part, but rolling with the aftermath of Judgment Day we're going to start off with the hot button topic of the past decade: what the fuck is going on with the Intercontinental Championship?

Hit the "Buy It Now" button and own a piece of history that hasn't been relevant to creative since 1997.

So Judgment Day came and went, and while the build of the pay-per-view was flat, the perspective of the event varies between both the extremes and the balanced off opinions. The way I see it one can't argue that this pay-per-view was amazing or God awful, but the balancing act of it being worthwhile or a skipable event sounds more than fair depending on which side of the fence you'd like to sit upon. But what's interesting about this pay-per-view is the inclusion of champions who, found in competition for the heat of the night, weren't defending their titles. Mr. Money in the Bank, CM Punk, didn't even tease the usage of his contract this go around, unlike at Backlash in which he showed up Randy Orton by wishing him ‘good luck' with the briefcase in hand. ECW Champion, Kane, was involved in tag team action with Punk, but his title was never in danger of changing hands. Even more insulting than all of this was the inclusion of Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho in a singles bout against main event treat Shawn Michaels. This was seen as far more insulting as you have a champion taking on a potential challenger, and throughout the duration of their "feud" leading into this bout, at no point was the title even a focal point. In fact, the title wasn't even worth noting even when Jericho came down to the ring with the trophy adorned around his waist.

To put it very lightly, the title is meaningless and growing even more irrelevant by the hour. At one point this title was looked upon as the true title that rewarded talent rather than be the image and reason that keeps a popular character around as the focal point of the company. Of course if you were to believe this, looking over the previous list of champions from the past decade would lead you to believe that's still the case, but the undertones of each title is smeared with all sorts of crazy happenings and fore goings of champions not focusing on defending the title, or simply making it a secondary part of their feuds with individuals, if not just completely forgetting about it entirely.

The list of champions in the past decade [right] looks to be strong on in-ring talents who were capable of putting on strong matches with their opponents, but that's not what's missing around the title as Jericho demonstrated on Sunday night against Michaels. The major problem with the list is the fact that going through the timelines you see that the title took back seats to other programs that were designed to focus on other things, such as Triple H's pursuit for dominance as he with his new found partner in dominance, Steve Austin, with the addition of the WWE World Tag Team Championship. In fact, the title had fallen from grace to such a degree that it was, at one point, unified with the World Heavyweight Championship for nearly 7 months. Its return to the scene would come off a feud with Christian Cage and Booker T that would have signaled that the WWE was ready to bare down and focus on the title the way it used to be focused upon and treated with the same prestige it once held, serving as the true claim to the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Champion, but that was not to be the case as time continued.

Jericho would hold the title more times than any other, and is still in position to add to his reigns at some point, but at no point after 2003 did his title reigns mean as much as it felt like he was delegated to the title only because the company didn't believe in him enough to be a main event star. It feels as though for every (1½) IC title reign he claims, that would equate roughly to one (WWE) World (Heavyweight) title reign. His current run showcases this sort of truth trailing behind him as he came in hot and ready for a big role in the main event but was quickly side stepped in favor of Triple H and the returning from injury John Cena. While Jericho's role still feels big, it feels bigger than the title, which had even, at one point, taken a back seat to the ECW Championship which has been featured prominently on the bigger stage of Wrestlemania two years running; the first being on Bobby Lashley in the big Battle of the Billionaire's hair versus hair match with Umaga, with the title being the tool to further Lashley as the main to represent Donald Trump's interests, and this year [at Wrestlemania XXIV] with Chavo Guerrero defending against the winner of a 24-man Battle Royale from earlier in the night. Though neither of those matches were nearly even worth thinking about in the same caliber of former Intercontinental title bouts such as Roddy Piper versus Bret Hart [Wrestlemania VIII] or Randy Savage versus Ricky Steamboat [Wrestlemania III] it just goes to show how far from grace this championship has fallen. Looking through the annals of Wrestlemania history, you'd have to go as far back as 2002, Wrestlemania X8, to see the last time the title was defended, and at Wrestlemania 21 as the last time the champion was featured in a prominent role [with Shelton Benjamin entering the Money in the Bank ladder match because of his championship role].

The focal point of it has become blurred and faded. Creative doesn't seem to take as much care for their secondary titles as much as they once used to, as I'm sure Mike Chin pointed out in his discussion of secondary titles earlier in the month [The Importance of…5.04.08: Secondary Titles] The importance of the titles has slipped, and while the United States Championship had MVP and Matt Hardy to keep it relevant and add to its prestige on the WWE stage, the IC title didn't have that sort of luxury as Jeff Hardy and Umaga's program never kicked into another gear after it started, or at least it didn't for that very title. It would have picked up a great big deal of worth leading Hardy into the Royal Rumble bout with Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, but the problem with that was that the title would keep that same glow about it once the focus shifted entirely around the personal nature of their feud and the apparent show of respect Orton expected to pull from Hardy, with the WWE Championship taking the third seat in the order of things importance in the story, and the IC taking the furthest seat back.

There are so many ways to go about restoring honor to the title; to restore importance and strength to the title and then, in turn, strengthening its champions, but it seems as though, like with TNA and the X (Division) Championship, no one wants to invest long term booking into a secondary title. Straps like these get hot shotted about with title changes happening on the fly. There needs to be more meaning behind everything a champion does, but in these instances because we're dealing with mid carders they don't get nearly the same amount of care placed in them as the main eventers. Someone needs to take note of what Michael Hayes did with the US title and try and apply that sort of long term booking in mind for the secondary title.

Triple H 2 August 30, 1998
Vacated October 9, 1998
Ken Shamrock 1 October 12, 1998
Val Venis 1 February 14, 1999
Road Dogg 1 March 15, 1999
Goldust 3 March 29, 1999
The Godfather 1 April 12, 1999
Jeff Jarrett 4 May 31, 1999
Edge 1 July 24, 1999
Jeff Jarrett 5 July 25, 1999
D'Lo Brown 1 July 26, 1999
Jeff Jarrett 6 August 22, 1999
Chyna 1 October 17, 1999
Chris Jericho 1 December 12, 1999
Chyna (2) and Chris Jericho 1 January 3, 2000
Chris Jericho 2 January 23, 2000
Kurt Angle 1 February 27, 2000
Chris Benoit 1 April 2, 2000
Chris Jericho 3 May 2, 2000
Chris Benoit 2 May 8, 2000
Rikishi 1 June 20, 2000
Val Venis 2 July 4, 2000
Chyna 3 August 27, 2000
Eddie Guerrero 1 September 4, 2000
Billy Gunn 1 November 21, 2000
Chris Benoit 3 December 10, 2000
Chris Jericho 4 January 21, 2001
Triple H 3 April 3, 2001
Jeff Hardy 1 April 10, 2001
Triple H 4 April 16, 2001
Kane 1 May 20, 2001
Albert 1 June 26, 2001
Lance Storm 1 July 23, 2001
Edge 2 August 19, 2001
Christian 1 September 23, 2001
Edge 3 October 21, 2001
Test 1 November 5, 2001
Edge 4 November 18, 2001
William Regal 1 January 20, 2002
Rob Van Dam 1 March 17, 2002
Eddie Guerrero 2 April 21, 2002
Rob Van Dam 2 May 27, 2002
Chris Benoit 4 July 29, 2002
Rob Van Dam 3 August 25, 2002
Chris Jericho 5 September 16, 2002
Kane 2 September 30, 2002
Triple H 5 October 20, 2002
Unified October 20, 2002
Christian 2 May 18, 2003
Booker T 1 July 7, 2003
Christian 3 August 10, 2003
Rob Van Dam 4 September 29, 2003
Chris Jericho 6 October 27, 2003
Rob Van Dam 5 October 27, 2003
Randy Orton 1 December 14, 2003
Edge 5 July 11, 2004
Vacated September 6, 2004
Chris Jericho 7 September 12, 2004
Shelton Benjamin 1 October 19, 2004
Carlito 1 June 20, 2005
Ric Flair 1 September 18, 2005
Shelton Benjamin 2 February 20, 2006
Rob Van Dam 6 April 30, 2006
Shelton Benjamin 3 May 15, 2006
Johnny Nitro 1 June 25, 2006
Jeff Hardy 2 October 2, 2006
Johnny Nitro 2 November 6, 2006
Jeff Hardy 3 November 13, 2006
Umaga 1 February 19, 2007
Santino Marella 1 April 16, 2007
Umaga 2 July 2, 2007
Jeff Hardy 4 September 2, 2007
Chris Jericho 8 March 10, 2008

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Of course there is a quick fix here with Jericho playing the role of champion and the role of devil's advocate between Shawn (Michaels) and Batista. Seeing as he's the true tweener of this exchange between the two stars, and the only champion between the three of them, it would make sense to slowly make the shift in focus of these men to what's around Chris's waist – the Intercontinental Championship.

Csonka on the podcast this week (DOWNLOAD HERE) it was clear that the idea of Jericho fighting Michaels without the title being caught in the middle of the crossfire only further devalued a championship that, for weeks, was absent and invisible on WWE television. A simple thing could have been tweaked on the go-home episode [to Judgment Day] of RAW, one I feel could have added that much more intrigue to this bout and would have warranted that they get more time – Shawn lures Jericho into a false sense of security and lulls him into a vulnerable position where Jericho's own hubris allows him to put the title on the line for the confrontation.

October 22, 1995 marks the last time HBK held the Intercontinental Championship

The last time we had seen Shawn Michaels with this, particular, championship was almost 13 years ago [12 years, 7 months roughly] in which he would relinquish the title at In Your House 4: Great White North to Shane Douglas, and since then has gone on to see the heights of success with 3 WWE Championship reigns, 1 European title run, 1 World Heavyweight Championship, 2 WWE World Heavyweight Title reigns, and a victory at the 1996 Royal Rumble. This is a laundry list of achievements from a former Intercontinental Champion, the one of likes could be viewed as unparalleled when you take into account that he was also the first Grand Slam Champion and the fourth Triple Crown Champion within the McMahon organization. The relevance of this all? The instant credibility Michaels name brings to any gold he touches and any match he's placed into. While the argument could be held that he is far too big a name and far too above the accolades of a secondary title such as the IC championship, the claim of importance he can bring to the title would be bigger than anything else as his legacy would have been cemented as both a superstar of the highest caliber, a champion of champions, and the man who has paved the way for others to follow in his footsteps. The role of reviver for the stepping stone of future generations of main eventers would strike as being an even bigger accomplishment has he would have shown that through all of his negative use of his position backstage that he was always willing to lend a helping hand to the stars of tomorrow by giving them as much of a rub as he could – what bigger way to allow the future generations to shine than to restore the mid card's glory? Winning a mid card title might be exactly what helps to add freshness to Michaels new found direction in character, and what better way to cement that than to do something as win a championship he hadn't touched in over a decade?

With Michaels playing up the knee injury (something that was still awkward to view as the replays and commentators tripped up constantly by highlight the right knee, while Michaels was insistently selling his left) he managed to sucker Jericho into finally believing the injury as legitimate. Upon their confrontation at RAW (Raw Report 5.12.08) Jericho insisted that he knew Shawn was really hurt after weeks of stating (Shawn) as being a faker and a fibber to boot, that he was masterful in his deceit and performance. It seemed at this point that Michaels felt it necessary to come clean and explain to Chris he was right all along, that he would have done anything to win that bout with Batista and would do whatever it takes to get his way. But instead of concluding upon that note leading to the inevitable superkick to end the segment, why not have Shawn thank Chris for finally coming to his senses and realizing the injury, but that he wasn't here to accept his pity or his generous offer to call off the bout at Judgment Day.

Playing up the card that he needed this match to happen to prove to Jericho that even on a bad wheel he would still gut out a performance that would steal the show, that what he did at Backlash was due to his sheer determination to fight through the pain and prove to Batista that he was truly the better man that night. His focus would be set to show Jericho, first hand, that same amount of determination and grit that got him through Batista, and that he hoped that would never lead to Chris ever questioning his integrity like that ever again.

All one would do is have to lure Jericho into that position to where he feels over confident that Shawn needs to take him up on the offer to go talk to General Manager William Regal and get the match taken off the card, while Shawn insists he won't accept such an offer, questioning Jericho's own confidence and abilities to defeat a one legged old man. The interaction of these two has been fantastic as of late but this would have added the type of intrigue Judgment Day needed as a pay-per-view as not only do you milk a Intercontinental Championship match to be featured on the card after not being defended on pay-per-view since SummerSlam 2007 (yeah, I know, even I had to pull a double take on that little unknown fact), but you also feature two main eventers fighting over the prize and their pride.

Though most would then complain that for the majority of the match Michaels would be selling his knee, with Jericho having to target it to gain the advantage, but the simple way to avoid that is pull off a moment between the two similar to Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness at Sixth Year Anniversary Show, where Jericho promises not to target the knee and to ban himself from utilizing the Walls of Jericho but lacing those promises with threats that Shawn is indeed faking it like he initially thought, that much like Batista, he too would have to consider destroying the Showstopper; it only fair that Jericho, much like Batista, feel as though he'd be justified in retaliating with violence after the deceit from the born-again Christian, Michaels.

With Michaels as the champion, the sky is the limit, though the limit upon who beats him for the strap is very narrow margins as you don't want your star being beat by just about any potential mid card star, such as a Cody Rhodes. The obvious answer of having Michaels dropping the title back to Jericho at one point just seems counterproductive to putting the title on Michaels in the first place as the goal should be to move the title on Shawn to freshen up the strap, add some luster to it, and move it to a strong enough mid carder that could be viewed as both a main eventer and a champion, someone such as a Mr. Kennedy (after some polish on his new found push). That's not to say Jericho shouldn't fight Michaels for the title, it's just the moving of the title back to Jericho, especially too early, would only hurt the value of the belt after it had just gone and earned some value back.

To further book around this, though, would require more space and time, and right now, I think I've glossed over this topic enough that I feel comfortable in moving on to another topic.

It's Right To Be King

Sometimes I hate to say "I told you so." Wait a bloody tick, no I fucking don't.

An image used to demonstrate what a pillory was for the TNA Revised project speaks volumes of how appropriate it is to the situation related to CM Punk currently

I've been saying it for a while, but CM Punk is a talent that is not being appropriately tapped into. A well rounded talent that can perform in the ring, and has more than adapted his KENTA-lite style to fit him and his actual style of wrestling, and an entertainer that can cut a promo better than most his age and in the WWE. The fact of the matter is, while a lot of us were creaming ourselves over seeing Punk take down the "mega push" in the absence of Jeff Hardy at Wrestlemania XXIV's weekend, and that he was now Money in the Bank, his role as of late has been that of a truly underappreciated talent that isn't being utilized to his fullest of potentials here. I know a lot of people will think this is just an over exaggeration from the IWC, and especially of us writers here, but the truth is that Punk doesn't look as credible as he did going into the King of the Ring finals, let alone how credible he looked walking out of that finals match. Right now, he really is looking like the lucky guy who won a ladder match to get a title shot that he's not deserving of. Of course, the big payoff here would be that if he does, indeed, challenge for a major title [WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship] that he wins the title in surprising fashion. The problem with that is the lead in to it would look shaky with the title win looking like a swerve for the sake of swerving the fans – we don't need that sort of hand out. After all, the last time the IWC complained about a deserving champion never getting his dues, Benoit would went on to earn figures that were pitiful considering the outcry for him and Eddie, leaving a huge yolk covering our collective faces. We don't need the WWE to give in to our demands for the sake of giving in to our demands, but rather we'd like them to sell us, and the rest of their fan base for this matter what we would pay to see. If the appeal around Punk would draw in huge truck loads of money with him as the main event attraction and as a champion, then do it. Don't, however, just do it, see it flop and turn to us and say "see, we knew you people didn't know what you wanted and here's your proof" because if you sabotage something you fucked up, not us.

The issue here isn't that he's losing so much as he is losing unimportant matches and looking weak as a result of those loses. This is the same complaint I placed against the WWE back when Punk lost to Hardcore Holly and Matt Striker back around early 2007 that resulted in neither of the victors moving on to bigger and better programs, and Punk not even getting redemption from those losses. The WWE seems to still believe in their flawed philosophy of breaking down a young star and rebuilding them to see if the fans still love them throughout the whole process, and the reason I say it's flawed is that none of this shit would be pulled on Brock Lesnar during his spring dominance that led to him becoming a champion in mere months of his debut, and this shit wouldn't have been acceptable of Steve Austin after winning King of the Ring. Could you imagine how little fans would have cared for Steve Austin if they broke him down like this before finally giving him the big run at the title and with the main event on his back? The appeal there wouldn't have been nearly as strong as it actually was, and that's all because the fans perception of him was that he looked strong enough to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at any point when feuding with Bret Hart. Call me crazy, but now I think it's more appropriate that this should have become a reality: The Punk King might have been allowed to lose as many matches as he currently has, but without losing too much heat and momentum just because he managed to fight through so many adversities to gain his claims as Money in the Bank and King of the Ring. Again, I'm not saying the man should be given the moon and the collective stars in the sky, dubbed the second coming of Christ and be worshiped as though he were the greatest thing since Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan mated to try and create the success of Brock Lesnar – if anything, someone would argue that point for MORRISON. But what I am saying is that Punk should be kept strong to look a viable threat to any World Championship (and no, ECW's title doesn't count).

Maybe this really wasn't that bad an idea after all?

The fact that the WWE even teases the idea of CM Punk using his title shot for something that's the equivalent of the retired Cruiserweight Championship should speak volumes of how weak he's been billed to look. It's like the writers think Punk would be the type of man that wins an opportunity to date and possibly fuck Angelina Jolie's brains out but opts to pass on that opportunity to settle for a date with one of the "ladies" from Hunts Point. Just what the fuck kind of nonsense is that?

Punk, right now, needs another tournament to come by for him to go through and look strong again. I don't care if the WWE opts to have a round robin challenge in a single night at The Great American Bash for a number one contenders shot at the horrible deformed love child of the Cruiserweight Title, the WCW Television Championship and whatever holds Vickie Guerrero's ass from falling out of her skirts, so long as he walks out of that night looking strong, a viable threat to any real championship of value, and a threat to the main event. It's what you'd expect of any Money in the Bank winner to do – look strong.

WWE, it's time to stop giving Punk the Elijah Experience and start giving him the type of hype that made Edge into a legitimate superstar of the main event caliber. And while you're at it, stop giving Elijah the Elijah Experience. Maybe he'd like to be useful in a program some point, like possibly feuding with someone rather than floating about limbo of the ECW mid card, which is probably the equivalent of playing opening act on HEaT.

Destined For Failure?

I read through half of Ari's latest set of articles (Column of Honor 5.17.08: The List Issue (Part One)), and while I'm still sitting through the second column, one thing stood out that I figured I'd comment upon.

ROH Newswire Week of May 11
May 15th: Ring Of Honor is finally heading north of the border to Toronto, Canada. You have been demanding it for years. ROH has wanted to go to Toronto since the start. Now it is finally happening. You will witness a loaded ROH show in Toronto on July 25th at the Ted Reeve Arena on 125 Main Street in Toronto, Ontario. Tickets will go on sale at www.ROHwrestling.com on Tuesday, May 20th at 11am. This will be among the biggest debuts in ROH history right next to Chicago, Manhattan, Tokyo and England. Already signed: ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness; Bryan Danielson; Kevin Steen; Austin Aries; The Age Of The Fall of Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black & The Necro Butcher; Claudio Castagnoli; Larry Sweeney plus many, many more names to be announced. There will be a World Title Match to main event this huge debut. ROH is finally coming to Toronto and we can't wait!!!

ROH Newswire on ROHwrestling.com

I hold two issues with this, the first being it's a Tuesday show which means it's falling on a bad time for those who have an active working schedule, the other being that it starts at 11am, apparently. Yes, that's right, this show will apparently start before lunch time even officially starts in most chain fast food restaurants, and it's on a weekday, which means most people will be working during this time. Is ROH trying to fail in their venture up to Canada?

I'm not getting the vibe here that the Canada trip will be treated with the highest of esteem as they're going in with two strikes against them for this show just based upon the scheduling. Add to this they also hold a strike with Canada for having to pull their pay-per-views out of there because of poor numbers, and you have a recipe for disaster cooking up here. I'm sure the show will be stacked to deliver some great wrestling and entertaining times for all who show up, but the problem is that the live crowd will be stunted and the crowd may not be lively for everything they're witnessing just because they're still settling into the day. Unless this is part of some television exposure for the Great White North to get to know ROH this strikes as being a bad move.

I'm going to sit and hope that there's a television station running the venue they'll be performing at, and that the deal will mostly be for the exposure of ROH to the Canadian audience that was, otherwise, unaware of them before. This just looks like this could blow up in their face much like Chaos At the Cow Palace and Survival of the Fittest 2007, but with more of the forewarning signs walking into the show. But here's to hoping ROH makes the best of it and pulls off a good showing to warrant their immediate return.

SPOILER ALERT – You'll Be Spoiled And Upset When It Doesn't Happen

Sometimes it's good to think outside of the box, but sometimes that can lead to high expectations and then disappointment with the reality when those expectations aren't met. For every angle and storyline there's an over expectation implanted into that situation that leads to nothing but dissatisfaction, and sometimes the fans do it to themselves by reading too much into things.

For instance, and stop me if you've heard this one before, prior to the unveiling of the Age of the Fall, Project 161 had a lot of speculation around it. So much so that many people came up with their own theories of who is should be, while some came to suspect who it could be. Most signs pointed to something big – something that would shake the company to its very foundations. No one expected the unit of Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, Necro Butcher and Lacey to be that very entity, or least not to be as weak as they would be perceived by some as they failed to really shake up grounds in ROH. But while the mysterious blogs pointed to Jacobs being the poet behind the sonnets of destruction and change, it also pointed to another individual who was known for his strong grasp of linguistic arts. The blog entries were dark and sinister with a bleak outlook upon society and all of its flaws, a person who felt himself to be a victim for all of his life despite being acclaimed as a anti-hero later in his career of a certain promotion that ROH is often dubbed as being the evolved form of: ECW.

The only remaining member of the ECW Originals to still be actively working with the WWE is Tommy Dreamer – the others remain as free agents.

There were plenty of hints to buy the idea that Raven was the man behind the blog entries, and there was enough coincidences to lie about that led to the idea of certain people being pulled together to form a truly revolutionary stable that could wage war upon Gabe's vision of Tri-State wrestling: Paul Heyman was released late Spring, Sabu was just coming off of his 90 day no-compete clause to his now defunct WWE contract, Rob Van Dam was cleared of his obligations with the WWE as his contract expired, and Sandman was coming around to just being available for the 161st ROH show in Chicago. It felt as though the stars had aligned themselves just in time to allow a reunion of the hardcore and bring about yet another revolution in the wrestling industry, once again with Heyman out front in center of it where history remembers him being before.

Things just felt like it would prevail with the unveiling of Project 161 being the return of the Extreme Anti-Heroes in these men who are considered the foundation of ECW's heydays? But that's the thing about expectations; they tend to get your hopes up for the sole purpose of crushing them.

So imagine how crushing it would be to see that something we're seeing now, in ROH, doesn't come to be this after just getting into the idea and really rallying behind it.

For weeks Larry Sweeney and Adam Pearce have been carrying about a briefcase. While Ari jokes about the contents within it (Column of Honor 5.17.08: The List Issue (Part One)), including a boss reference to Pulp Fiction that should already give it +15 Kudos points, the one thing he missed out on or simply didn't list as it wasn't humorous was Pearce's most prized possession: the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

It's been something I've been aching to see for some time, the NWA clean up its act and utilize the hottest (American) independent wrestling promotion out there to help restore its legacy as a relevant promotional banner. Before I talked about Bryan Danielson being the representative to bring the title back to ROH's events and by showing, once more, that the NWA still means something, even if only to the smaller crowds of ROH. But as time went on, the shift began with ROH growing ever more relevant than the NWA. It began to overshadow them and leave this huge doubt in wrestling fans minds that the NWA still meant something, especially when Danielson dislocated his eye at Manhattan Mayhem II which led to the NWA World Heavyweight title tournament finals to come down to NWA Heritage Champion Adam Pearce and powerhouse Brent Albright. Many figured that if Danielson was out and couldn't win the title in Puerto Rico like expected than the title should go to Albright by default, but when the reality of the situation hit many fans began to trash the company for their decision to put the title on the more lackluster Pearce.

While his title reign came at the price of Bryan Danielson suffering an injury and being unable to perform, Adam Pearce continues to hold onto a title that many think he doesn't deserve.

It would also make sense as to Sweeney's plan to take over ROH; the power of a champion is that they're the main representative of the company. Sweeney has that in his corner with Pearce as a member of Sweet n' Sour Inc. so why not take advantage of that and introduce that you have a real champion in your ranks and the power of an entire company at your disposal to try and acquire this smaller, less significant company? It could also be the type of leverage that leads to Nigel (McGuinness) being caught between a bidding war, and though I would still prefer him as the perennial face and champion of the company that would have fallen to the sweet temptations of Larry and his NWA backers, him as the heel going into that bidding war would still play out the same, only with Nigel looking to get as many incentives out of ROH to avoid siding with the real winners and selling the ROH World Championship to the NWA.

But again, this is one of those wild theories that probably won't come to pass. It's right up there in brilliance with Takeshi Morishima defending the GHC (World) Heavyweight Championship at the Wrestlemania weekend shows in Orlando, or battling Bryan Danielson at the Hammerstein Ballroom for the title and their pride, or Mitsuharu Misawa coming to America to fight the disrespectful Samoa Joe and losing on American soil to our favorite champion. As great as some of these ideas can be, they also set you up for a fall as reality sinks in and you're stuck with something that should have been good and fun but wasn't nearly as great as the light bulb that went off in your head.

The number of ideas we get for any promotion could probably do us all more harm than anything else, but hey, it's still fun to think about stuff like Delirious and Daizee Haze out on a date, only for Delirous to get distracted and become smitten with a passing dog being walked by some West Side snob. Come on, you chuckled, admit it.

The Go Home – Now Go Home, You Hobo

My mind is a maze. Seriously, I get lost in it every day of my life and sometimes I have better things to say for these columns but end up sleeping through those thoughts, or being too far away from a computer to place them down on paper. Hell, look at things now, I probably have enough space to fill you all in on some Mike Knox ideas I've had for the past 2 weeks, but I'll spare you seeing as I really want to wrap this up and make Larry happy that I promised two pages of columns this week and delivered well under the deadline – and yes, this was all written on a Monday afternoon because I'm that damned good at what I do (looking at porn).

I think I did all I could this week without over doing it – wait, scratch that, I always over do these things. So how do we wrap this up into a nice and tight little bundle of joy? Well, there's always talk of baseball, and how utterly fucking useless umpires are. Seriously, I now understand why every fan hates ROH referees because most people in power of enforcing the rules are utter fucking bone heads.

For those who didn't see the New York Mets at the New York Yankees Sunday night game, there was yet another instance of bad officiating as Carlos Delgado powered a pitch to the opposite field that hit right off the lower part of the foul pole. The third base umpire didn't look to be in position to make an exact call but hesitated only for a moment before signaling for a home run. Of course, the other umpire's met up and talked it over for about two seconds and reversed that decision. Joe Morgan made the observation that a call on the field always stands unless an official with a better view of a play in question can make the case for the call to be overturned, but who else was in position to better see that ball than the third base umpire? This would lead to both Willie Randolph and Jerry Manual ejected from the game within the span of 30 seconds from each other, and only 3 minutes after pleading their case to the umps on the field. This stunk of rotten shit as ESPN would then get cameras into the corner in question, where the fan kept pointing to the ball being fair. In fact, some interesting shots of the corner would show a reporter talking to the fan seated right on top of the fence, and from every angle it looked as though the reporter was constantly moving himself on, left or far right of the fair line, but always to the left (facing the field) of the foul pole. When ESPN sent in their cameras to the actual spot, getting a real close look at things, you could easily see that the foul pole and the foul line weren't lined up with one another with about a 4 foot gap between the two. Not only this, but the fan who, amongst a sea of lying scum bag Yankees fans who are all spoiled rotten to the core, would hold the ball in question up to the pole and show the scuff mark on the pole and the ball where the two made contact. It was the black painted portion of the pole that allowed the marks to stand out on both.

It's shit like that that bothers me about this game. In Florida earlier in the season, a ball was hit just over the wall by the Marlins against my beloved Mets, and the ball was dubbed a ground rule double when replays could show the ball just going over the home run mark of the park. Back in San Francisco, last year, the same thing happened where Bengie Molina was robbed of a home run on a similarly hit ball despite a fan actually catching the ball within the marked territory. Then there was last year's fiasco that still bothers me with Washington where the first base umpire would constantly give calls to Ryan Zimmerman's strong throws to the bag (from out over third base) to gun 3 Mets base runners heading up the line, but when a National runner (I believe it was Lopez) was out by a step and a half, this same bone head called him safe. It wasn't even close enough to mistake, and that call would lead to Randolph getting ejected – but not because Willie was bullish, but rather the umpire got in his face. I'm sorry, but some of these officials have an inflated sense of self worth as they ruin games for players.

I hate when an umpire makes a bad call, like last year when Bobby Abreu was called out on strikes in the bottom of the 9th to end the game against the Angels on a pitch that was basically in the opposite batter's box from Bobby. When the game is basically taken out of the hands of the players to the point that they can't utilize their talents to win, it's bothersome. Really fucking bothersome. It's a game of inches and when umpires are stealing those inches away from you then they're basically robbing you of a game.

But that's neither here nor there, as the Mets still won in blow out fashion, but the threat of the Yankees stealing a win was still there. Call me a protective Mets fan who is also paranoid that they can't win games these days without crying foul and conspiracy, but when it happens to your team then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about – it's the principal of the matter that's being fucked around with here.

Anyway, now that I'm done ranting, that'll do it for this special two part edition of Scripted Through Sin. Larry, I'll e-mail you my address so you know where to send the Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas card and bonus to. I expect plenty of praise for my amazing abilities after this, and for my awesome substitution work. Just call me the perennial sixth man of 411mania, biz-natches.