Scripted Through Sin 9.23.08: Personal Reflections and a Side of Rasslin~!

Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 09.23.2008

Hoping to make this a habit once more, we look over WWE’s dismissal of their future and TNA’s attempt at storytelling while wrapping up with a personal reflection upon the internet wrestling community.

Perhaps I've shared too much of myself while never really setting things up properly within me.

I know I get criticized a lot on the internet for all of my faults; my weight, my hairline, my looks, my employment status, my marital status, my virginity, my residence and living habits - it's all out there in the open and subject for all sorts of attacks and ridicule, but it's out there because I put it out there. I'm not particularly hard to read because I don't care to be hard to understand.

It makes it hard for me to be a better poker player as I wear my emotions on the cuff of my sleeves, right about nipple height as I'm always adorned in short sleeved designs, but putting myself out there makes it so that it's easy to figure out where I'm coming from. My stances, my opinion, my thoughts upon a matter aren't too hard to see as I don't try to hide behind any agendas or convoluted plots. I play honest and make myself aware to others of my honesty but I think I've never been too honest with myself for the sake of sparing myself the true hardships of my reality. Lately things have been getting hard for me as I seem to be becoming more and more complacent with my life as it is: a complete and utter mess.

I hate that I've delegated my duties to this site as a bi-weekly ordeal in the recent month, constantly fluctuating between moods that allow me the drive and will to sit behind the keyboard to write out a contribution and the running dry spells I place myself in. I've allowed myself to fall in and out of wrestling these past few months based upon my disposition in this household. I've become disgusted in my actions of being a lecherous slob in my own home when really the truth had always been that I have no support system to help keep me motivated in the affair of trying to actually live life.

I know what some of the comments would say here, "typical emo blaming his parents for his own failings." I only wish that to be true, honestly I do. To simply come out here and blame all of my own short comings, from the mundane failed dreams of becoming the kind of athlete I had always pictured and wanted to become to the constant concreteness of my inability to hold a job for longer than 6 months, would be a far more acceptable note to my situation. Unfortunately for me I know the harsh truth far too well, and wish it weren't [the case] that nothing is ever good enough for these people.

Perhaps that is where my real problem laid, my attempts to really please everyone, particularly my grandparents who had been my support system throughout my entire life. Maybe I shouldn't take their contradictions so close to heart and try only to focus upon what I think is right for myself? It's a tough task to really undertake as their every snarky criticism is always heard and they make sure to remind me of my value when they're not trying to sugarcoat everything by being so sweet and understanding. To explain this vicious cycle we struggle through would just be too big a pain to even begin attempting, but let's just say that despite hating the environments I placed myself to work under, even if I enjoyed what I was doing, are now spinning around to their first position of believing it was a good job for me. I guess the better example of this would be their position upon my venture through college at Westchester Business Institute.

The purpose of this exercise isn't to place blame, or cop out and say this is what's kept me from writing on this site but rather for me to vent it out. I feel comfortable in the knowledge it's out there, and out of me so that it doesn't weigh me down anymore. This site, sadly enough, has been what gets me through my times on unemployment as it reminds me, daily, that I actually have a responsibility to someone and that I need to keep busy. It's not a paying job but a labor I take to proudly because it helps me to keep myself from my own ugly reality as much as possible.

No one ever said that life was going to be beautiful and enriching the whole way through. For every bright side there is the dark to counter it, and for me I bog myself down into the negative because it's all I see; it's all I've ever been allowed to see and trained to see even through ignorant veils that shield my eyes from the blackened pools of life and entrance me into believing that I'm surrounded by white and beauty. I guess this lends to the idea that I really am too negative, even in my enjoyment of the art of pro-wrestling.

It's out there now and I feel I can get through this long enough to stop doing these columns bi-weekly now. With this all off my chest I present to you once more:

It's been too long since I've last done that.

This week I found my motivation, and with it I'm hoping to make this one of the better editions of this column despite coming off of a horrible start. I mean, I didn't realize how much of a whiner I actually was until I actually wrote all of that. Anyway, let's try and pick up some actual business and roll right into the wrestling scriptures and see if we can spot what went wrong now.

Focusing on… WWE:Recycle the Old as New

Focusing on… TNA: Never a Moment Dripped in Grey

Weekly Scripture: The Wicker Community

Recycle the Old as New

So last week marked a disturbing timeframe for fans of the new generation of televised wrestling as it became apparent that [the new generation workers] were being moved to the side in favor of the seasoned veterans. In the span of 48 hours, it seemed as though both TNA and WWE have decided to remove some of their stronger young talents further away from prominent roles in favor of some of the same old horses they've relied upon in the past. You have AJ Styles placed into a difficult program with the MMA fighter Frank Trigg in a series of bouts that won't cater to anyone's strengths, in a program that could just stretch itself out as an excuse to avoid giving fans what they really want in a Bound For Glory main event run against Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Then you have Samoa Joe who has been positioned into a feuding role with Sting, the only issue with this is that Joe isn't the main focus of this feud so much as Sting and his growing issues with Jeff Jarrett. Jump over to the WWE and you see CM Punk is no longer even a thought for the main event role that sees Chris Jericho placed into positions where he's faced with either the task of working with big lummox in Batista, having to try and work a heel versus heel program with JBL, revamping his current feud with Shawn Michaels despite the triceps injury that was feared to knock him out for three months, or looking for any number of other faces to step up and take the shot.

What's irking about this situation is the eclipsing of Punk's movement up the card and his legitimization as a star of the WWE product in favor of returning to the well they've found success before, lingering about as a lost child in a mall. What should be the elevation of a career to fill in the void of a main event that is lacking the names of Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena the WWE insists upon ignoring any evolution of Punk's character as if to say that creating a new star for the next 5 years isn't nearly as important as banking on the current day product that could up and disappear within moments.

The experiment of Punk's first title reign in the company should have been an indicator of what they can do with him long term, but instead of building upon it in last week's episode creative insisted on making him a small foot note in the makings of their build to No Mercy, an event that is usually riddled with criticisms and a sense of unimportance.

It's not to say that Punk should still be champion, to the contrary. Transitioning the title off of Punk and onto someone who is so incredibly hot as a heel entity currently, in Chris Jericho, right now was exactly the right move to make. The manner in which to move the title off of Punk was also well executed despite my disagreement with the booking of Jericho's match with Shawn Michaels earlier in the night [of the Unforgiven card]. It left the idea in the fans head that Punk was still held the rightful claim to the title as he never had the opportunity to defend his championship, nor did he actually lose the match to crown this new dubious champion. It stirred up the right kind of emotions in fans as it garnered much more attention for Punk and made him into a victim of circumstance. Creative made Punk seem far more sympathetic simply by pulling him out of his match in a manner that is certainly going to stir up much more interest in a CM Punk and Randy Orton bout.

The issue that falls under this now championless Punk is that instead of even taking a segment to build upon his character outside of the ring, RAW instead insisted upon itself that we follow the ventures of the big lummox, Batista, lumbering around trying to intimidate and whine his way into championship match with Chris Jericho at No Mercy based upon the credentials that he was the last man to score a pinfall in the Championship Scramble [at Unforgiven] until Jericho managed to sneak in and steal the only pinfall victory that mattered in the affair. We saw more development for Batista's journey towards the claim of number one contender that we were almost left to believe that we should have forgotten all about Punk's entire run as World Heavyweight Champion, from magnificent beginning to tragic end.

What irks me about this all is that the WWE really could rely upon Punk as a future star and not have to worry about whether or not he can maintain his heat or engage the crowd in segments and on the mike. After all, we are talking about CM Punk here, one of the few young, indy guys of this generation that grew up getting what it was that made Shawn Michaels stand out over guys like Marty Jannety. Whether you like him or hate him you have to admit that Punk is the complete package of wrestler: the in-ring ability and understanding to pull emotion out of a crowd in every match he contests in, an understanding of how to develop character and portray that character to get the fans to react, and an uncanny to speak in front of a live crowd and feed and play off of them as well as engage them to feel the exact emotion they should be feeling. This isn't testament that he's the greatest wrestler in the world; just enough praise to paint the picture of what the WWE has in their commodity.

So instead of advancing Punk forward a step, redeeming his value as you repackage him to be a more serious contender to the main event fray for a later time the WWE opts to stuff him in the back, sulking and licking his wounds after failing to regain his championship in a match where he didn't have to actually be beaten to lose. Granted his one and only return match for the championship, it was placed in an environment out of his control, under rules that didn't necessarily improve his chances of winning nor aided him in his venture for victory, and at the end of it all he's no more important than Paul Burchill. That's not how you treat a former champion, especially someone that you can build around for your future.

For all of the heat that could fall upon my head for even talking this much about CM Punk, as if I were infatuated with the man, could anyone honestly tell me they'd much rather see Batista getting that same airtime that could be given to a fresher faced main eventer in Punk? After all, isn't this just another, in a long line of pushes, that Batista has gotten in his 3 year tenure as a main eventer?

It's also not as if Chris Jericho is going to benefit from an even more thinned out roster in his title defenses. After all, Rey Mysterio is preoccupied with Kane in a feud that lacks much in the way of reason or care, Kane hasn't been seen as a trusty main eventer in possibly a decade, Randy Orton is still nursing injury, John Cena is still out with injury for the second fall season straight, Batista has been in the title chase scene for 4 pay-per-views and was featured heavily in high profile matches in at least 4 others throughout this year, Triple H is enjoying the leisure of a new environment in which to systematically destroy, Shawn Michaels is still shaky to depend upon as he was noted as going down to a triceps injury not that long ago, and while [Jericho] has a storied past with JBL he simply doesn't draw up the same type of ire he once did nor does he look relevant in today's environment given how loose he appears. The long term effects of this decision should be grander, but instead it feels stifled and smothered in favor of continuing down the same line of tried and tested material. It feels as if the creative is only interested in treading the safe path rather than risking something in a truly innovative future that doesn't rely on guys they'd prefer to be their main stars. It's like watching the WWE try, futilely to retell the story of the mid-90's transition from Hulkamania to the era of the Excellence of Execution battling the Heartbreak Kid. Right now we're stuck in an Undisputed era where the WWE doesn't feel they really have to pander to a wrestling market for the fact they've conquered that market long ago, and for second because they feel they have no competition in that market to have to go down that path once more.

No, I'm not trying to state that the WWE should scrap the rest of the Jericho and Michaels feud, but does it make sense that someone who was stated as having suffered an injury that was potentially leaving them on the shelf for the next three months to be involved in a title match? Not only that, take into account the range of emotions their storyline has guided them, and ourselves, through up until that promo discussing the ladder match proposal – did that promo really feel like that was the next evolutionary step in that storyline? Or perhaps it's not the match they're working towards that bothers me so much as it was Michaels delivery of that promo after the hell he and Jericho had been through this year. The feeling in the air wasn't that there was still animosity between the two that spilled into the personal side; it felt more like Michaels taking advantage of Jericho's found fortunes to try and take what he claimed was a moral victory in their feud. Perhaps this was the goal. Perhaps this was what the WWE wanted so Jericho could play off of it in the same manner to which he played off the striking of Shawn's wife.

Perhaps I'm just upset that in this time of progression as the WWE moves from a true next-gen star in the making in Punk to a current-gen worker who really has showcased that all of the hype around him for all this time was rightfully justified , but in doing so nothing else has changed. All of the other players are still the same faces we've grown used to seeing in the main event.

Personally speaking I would enjoy seeing the WWE try and build up some of these younger talents and seeing if they put them in a position to draw, and should they fail at least they'll know the extent to how far that particular talent can go and should go. It wouldn't take much to do it, either, as you've demonstrated when you pitted Festus up against the Undertaker. The match helped to establish how strong a character Festus is, how well he holds up in the bright lights of a main event role of a show and how well he works with other established main event talents and in this test you lost nothing. Would the move have been to start campaigning for Festus to be in the main event following that match? Of course not, but at least now you give him enough credibility to sell better in the mid card while giving him some credentials for a future run at the main event should you want to take that step. Moves like this are what need to be considered and taken.

So instead of shifting focus off of Punk to favor more time to hear Batista's campaign for a championship match at No Mercy, you build him up for the long term and get the fans to really connect better with him. Should last week's actions just be a tool to set up a heel turn for CM Punk then I have to cry foul as he's possibly one of the best drawing faces you have now, alongside Jeff Hardy and The Undertaker. Not only that but you also have a host of heel talents on RAW to pick and choose from to feed to your face line-up. Not only do you have the RAW side to pick from but because of the structure set up you allow a loan of talent from the ECW brand to be utilized for the sake of putting over the face talents.

I've screamed it before and I'll certainly keep screaming it until the message finally sinks through: fuck regression, cheer progression. A simple enough mantra to understand and keep in mind as no one lives forever and nothing can last forever; eventually Hulkamania needed to die to make way for the company's future. So what's wrong with focusing on the youth of the industry when you consider we did this back in the mid 90's around two guys in Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels?

Never a Moment Dripped In Grey

So its official, Mike Foley is a member of the TNA roster and I'm the asshole that doubted the legitimacy behind the rumors. Seeing it go down I still hold true to the belief that this was a bad decision, not only for Mick Foley as his role in TNA will be undefined as the company has too many stars and not enough airtime for them all, but on TNA's part as they still don't seem to get that they really don't need to be expanding their roster.

Currently a rumor is floating about that TNA is interested in having a developmental territory and is even thinking about doing business with OVW as Jim Cornette still owns some action on the former WWE developmental territory. At least, this is what the rumors suggest when talking about Cornette's relationship with OVW. What irks me about this idea is that this is just another bad idea in a long string of them done by this company because they have enough talents on their roster and they're signing more than what they need. They're wanting to take on the responsibility of too many people when it comes time to cut some paychecks and the sad part is that while they keep focusing on in-ring talents they'd like to protect from the WWE, a company known for snatching up talents and never utilizing half of it all so they can prevent the competition from having these potential stars, they continue to turn the blind eye to their lousy production crew who, time and time again, showcase their ineffectiveness.

But beyond all of this, the company still tries to sell us on a rift between the old school stars who've had their turn in the spotlight and have cemented their legacy for generations to come and the new school guys who "have no respect" for those who paved the way for them. Despite all of the cries about this being a revamping of the millionaire's club and new blood rivalry that failed so horribly in WCW, what really holds back this idea in TNA is the characters they have aligned for each side and the explanations given to fit in certain characters who never truly belonged to this brand of puzzle.

Sitting in and listening to parts and chunks of Jeff Jarrett's showdown with Sting I once again felt underwhelmed even if only for the fact that Jeff had to remind the seals at the iMPACT! zone that he hadn't hit the money shot in his tirade to Sting. Many people always say that fans add to the atmosphere and the feel of a moment and if you believe in this philosophy as well than you probably believe, like myself, that there are very few good moments in the iMPACT! zone.

For me, this segment had nothing to do with the introduction of Mick but somehow managed to slip him in just to get his debut out of the way. It wasn't the same kind of build and anticipation that we saw with Christian's debut, there was no instant shock value much in the same with Angle's and it may have actually been worse than Booker's arrival. It seemed as though TNA wasn't interested in the big building debuts for some of the most shocking jumps we've seen in quite some time. As if they are more interested in gloating that this big name has jumped ship from the WWE for the "greener" pastures of TNA, something they boast about as they continue to say how fast they're growing and how much better they're becoming with each passing year. It's as if they no longer care about making moments with some of these debuts, as they happen to be big deals, all in favor of the bragging rights they gain with association to this big name.

So while the moment of Foley's debut was nothing major either for the fact that everyone knew it was happening, a philosophy I don't believe in, or for the simple fact that the segment seemed to force itself to allow Foley a chance to show up on iMPACT! and make his presence on TNA official, none can argue that TNA is trying to force this rift of schools while still trying to maintain the whole "everyone is grey" methodology they practice. I know I've stated before in a previous column that I'd like to see more characters in that tone, never inherently good or evil, but there has to be some sort of meaning behind it that draws upon the fans emotions. Not every character needs to be fixated on being a good guy that deals in evil acts to overcome the difficulties laid out by their nemesis, and not every bad guy needs to come to some sort of epiphany and commit good deeds to further their own selfish actions. There are ways to make these kinds of characters work and then there are ways to ensure its own failures, and TNA seems hell bent on making a large majority of their roster a failure on the aspect of character development.

It's not as if all of that matters, however, as you have so many fans of the product who only care about the in-ring quality of matches that such minor details of the characters they're watching can easily be omitted. There doesn't need to be a lot of reason behind characters like Petey Williams because the fans connect to his style of wrestling and love his athleticism enough to overlook any flaws his character may have. It's all overlooked because of what he can do to entertain the crowd in the ring, something our generation is becoming notorious for.

So the lines seem to be drawn and Sting still tries to come off as the face in the equation despite his actions coming off as being heelish, and his attitude about the situation almost whiny. The sour note to this is that if Sting portrays himself as the face, the justified party in all of this that the fans sympathize with and rally behind, than you leave all of the young guys looking like the bad guys despite their legitimate claims. No matter what both sides of the coin come off as menstrual.

Sting's case has rallied fans behind him. His words echo some of the same sentiments that Triple H has rattled off in recent interviews, and are common statements about today's generation of young wrestlers. It's easy to see how justified he is in this stance as you do have a lot of workers running around believing their own hype and are unwilling to change their ways because of their own arrogant beliefs that they're a future superstar destined for greatness and no one can tell them otherwise, much like Chris Harris. There is merit to Sting's stance so he never comes off as a true heel, but his words move the crowd to believe he's still the good guy.

However, his actions and statements are contradictory to his own words, something that make for a good heel character. He's attacked Joe and Styles because they went too far in their bouts with foes that they personally hate. At those points of saving the heels from further beatings at the hands of the younger workers, Sting appointed himself the judge and executioner of their punishment. He anointed himself as being the true representative of fair and just in the land of TNA another attribute you can align with a good heel character. Sting believes in himself as being the true beacon of hope and good, but in doing so tends to play up to favoritism; he allows himself to act too quickly without the proper context of the case and seems to believe that these vile attacks were not only placed upon these individuals but upon himself as well. His character simply doesn't allow for him to be as impartial as he can be, moving quick to violence to snuff out an escalated situation rather than allowing the cooler heads to prevail.

When you look upon the other side of the coin you see some heavy merit behind Samoa Joe and AJ Styles rally cries about how they carried this company in the absence of Sting. That they were the force that picked up business and pushed this company out there while Sting was sitting at home collecting paychecks for his name value. That their actions were justified due to the nature of their storied rivalries and no one appointed Sting to be the overseer of these actions.

In the case of Joe, his claim tends to be muddied as his rivalry with Booker T came off the heels of Nash's participation at the King of the Mountain match, costing Booker the opportunity to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The build into their encounter at Victory Road also never escalated to the point that Joe was a complete victim; despite all of the verbal put downs and insults Booker has lain out against the champion. At no point did it seem appropriate for Joe to assault Booker in the manner he did at that show, despite that the match was never officially stopped and had no official supervision present to maintain order. Here we see a face character taking the short cut of allowing personal feelings to get the better of him in a manner unbefitting a role model. What becomes of Joe now is he's no longer the clean cut babyface as he's muddled shade of grey character.

With AJ Styles it becomes a little more difficult to rationalize as you have an unfinished storyline between himself and [Kurt] Angle. The whole premise of this feud began with AJ's infatuation with Karen, where AJ even went as far as kissing her on an iMPACT! taping during the Valentine day special edition. The build slowly boiled into the idea of trouble within the Angle's relationship that seemed unconquerable for either side to come to terms of reconciliation. When AJ was pit in a situation where he was outnumbered, Karen would enlist the help of Kurt leading to the save of a mutual friend. It was this segment that Kurt's demons were raised up as suspicion of Karen's relationship with AJ arose as being more than just friendly. It was this point that the feud would begin, officially, for the two but would no longer involve Karen as the root of the issue over AJ's trustworthiness and loyalty.

What were being questioned now were AJ's character and his morals. Classified now as an adulterer, AJ was set on proving his character as still being honorable and noble enough to have not crossed that line despite so much build to the contrary before. What we got was AJ being victimized physically and verbally labeled as an adulterer. His good name and character was now smeared and he was set upon clearing both and amending the record to show he is not those things.

AJ had suffered weeks of abuse at the hands of Angle and his make-shift alliance with Team 3D, Tomko and Booker T. At no point was Sting around to alleviate the issues for AJ, but when it came time for Styles to have a moment of weakness Sting was there to again apply his own brand of justice. When AJ saw fit to do unto Kurt what had been done to him, then and only then did we see Sting jump into the issue and make his intentions known. What we have here is justification for Styles over his issue with Sting, but what holds it back is the affiliation between Styles and Joe.

As we've already looked over, Joe's stance in this issue is muddied. His lapse in judgment makes him a weaker character and AJ's association hurts his own credibility. So what does TNA do to make these two seem like the just over Sting? They equate Jeff Jarrett as an ambassador figure to represent Styles and Joe in this confrontation and the result is a confusing puzzle that they try to piece together to explain the conflict.

It comes off as convoluted and overly contrived. Jeff [41] tries to explain that he wanted a younger replacement for himself and that candidate for this task was Kurt Angle [39]. That somehow he was a good figure for the company, looking out for the young guys of whom he would give shots to – this all despite his track record of refusing to do business with Monty Brown who was massively over. This also in spite of the fact that for a long while Jeff kept recruiting former well-established WCW talents bringing in such names as Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and DDP. That somehow all of this makes Jarrett the good guy to Sting's "bad" guy.

It's hard to even rationalize how this segment could be looked at as progressive when all of the build into it seems to spin and contort itself in ways that leaving you asking more questions that can't be, or simply won't ever be, answered. To say this storyline is destined to fail based upon the premise that it was a failed storyline in WCW would be wrong – to say this storyline is destined to fail thanks in large part to poor writers and storytellers would be far more accurate. But hey, at least the wrestling will be good and that's all that matters, now isn't it?

The Wicker Community

Wrapping up this edition I look at what I've once again failed to mention: I really want to talk about Mike Knoxx. I know he's an easy target for all sorts of puns and is looked down upon as a horrible worker who isn't worth the roster slot, but personally I think the guy can work out. That's not to say he deserves any big title runs or should be main eventing, but rather that he has a distinct look, works very well in the ring despite a pretty lackadaisical bout with Matt Hardy [during last week's ECW airing] and has some of the right tools to create emotion in a match. He's not your go to guy for big projects but he's certainly the guy you can trust to enhance your talent and build up your characters around.

The way things work around the IWC, however, it seems as though we're so anti-WWE's mold of champions that we're ready to pounce and proclaim "generic big man wrestler is crap" just because we've grown up seeing enough big men who weren't nearly as entertaining or as athletic as some of the smaller workers. That we've now become the thing we hated, only our infatuation is based upon how small and athletic a guy is rather than how impressive his physique is. We're as prejudiced as those in charge of the big lummox's that are feed through the marketing machine and turned into champions. How and when did this happen?

So weeks of thinking about how to best use Mike Knoxx has slipped on past me, a field of other workers has cropped up as needing some ideas to salvage their own careers [namely Paul Burchill] and all I can think about for not posting it up is the amount of venom that we as a community can spew. We have grown to be so abhorrent towards one another that even mentioning you're a Matt Hardy fan will be cause enough for crucifixion. That either you're a complete "mark" or a total "smark" who has a hard-on for phony work ethic principles, while those spewing out this venom are somehow neutral in all of this.

The sad fact is we're all marks and fail to realize this. Some even writing off the label as something offensive and disgusting that one with no pride or knowledge would actually accept upon themselves. That somehow if you like someone that is generally received, especially by the internet groups, that you're a "smark" or someone who thinks themselves smarter than all other fans just because of your taste in wrestling. Somewhere along the lines we allowed ourselves to believe in this bullshit – and that's exactly what it is, no way of spinning it.

We believe in such bullshit that we even shoot down the idea of intellectual discussion upon the topic of wrestling, subjecting ourselves into a myriad of bullshit dialect that typically breaks down into name calling and arguing over whose e-penis is bigger. That somehow the expression of a thought that is thought out and well explained makes you a "fag". That the appropriate response to a debate upon any topic is to default to racial slurs or mock the appearance of the person.

We've fallen into the league of internet tough guys; balls the size of grapefruits when we sit behind our keyboards, holding faux discussions about the topic of wrestling when really all we care about is our own opinion. No one else matters and everyone else is wrong because my opinion matters more, because I matter more to society. We lull ourselves into these false identities and fluff our own egos into believing we're so much better than others, so much more important because we know how to call someone "queer" when we disagree with them, or don't like them.

The sad part is we've become so elitist toward one another that there's almost no community in which to correspond with. We shoot down ideas like building company uniqueness through their own working deals but support fantasy theories of betrayal to institute a feud that could never happen, and why? Because the "smark" would want to see an institution of a true World title while the neutrals have the better sense to believe that a confrontation between TNA and WWE could be worked out realistically under the confides of a simple rumor? How is one looked down upon while the other is uplifted? Why aren't both looked upon equal footing as being a good premise of ideas?

The issue here is that when someone we don't like says something we instinctively look to label and belittle them while imparting our own "wisdom" about their idea. When it's something we agree with voiced out by someone neutral or liked, we quickly flock up and follow this shepherd without announcing any allegiance as we closely follow, eyes wired shut, everything that they say.

Think of this as my way of importing my take upon all of the hatred around here that falls upon Csonka or Hubbard; personally I look at this more a statement as to how gross we, as a community, have grown over the past decade. To me, this is what we've become: a more rude flock of sheep that is willing to rift up our own sects even further into tiny groups as we alienate and disparage one another from holding civil, intellectual and mature discussions upon a common hobby. It's not enough to label someone a ROHbot or WWE mark when they voice out against TNA, or to call someone a TNA lemming just because they don't appreciate the current direction of the WWE. It's not enough to proclaim, smugly and arrogantly, that the only companies and wrestlers that matter work on American television. It's not enough that we demean anyone for wanting to praise the works of indy or foreign talents. We've become so demanding that we want a complete stripping of individualism in this community for the conformity of a unified way of thinking. You think like us or you're a weirdo, and no one wants to associate with the misfit of the flock.

We're a breed that loves to ostracize and castrate from the community. Think like we think, do like we do. Share something we as a group can like or remain silent and stand in formation like a good little lemming. Believe as we believe. All of these mantra's suck, and this community has been a cesspool for far too long.

Whatever happened to just being a fan of this industry and sharing your love with others? Being willing to open up your own insecurities about this business and accepting of other's opinions and tastes? What happened to being a fan of wrestling rather than an affiliate of one brand? Just how did we become so cynically inclined to hate one another just based upon a difference of views? How did we get to be so intolerant?

It's a wonder our house of cards community hasn't completely imploded upon itself as we continue to bitterly sign off one another as some form of turd. In the end, what really is missing is a lack of compassion for one another and all because we're too arrogant in our own ways to accept the views of others. We're too persistent upon being right and making sure everyone else is wrong as opposed to educating each other and helping one another to understand things, as well as open to different views upon topics. Perhaps that's why I'd rather not roll out of bed and contribute to this community anymore.