Steve pulled his hands from the keyboard and gritted his teeth. Should he be saying this? He didn’t have anything publishable yet, just an intriguing connection between the Family Television Group and some investment fund in Canada. He also had an Anonymous source who apparently had some real dirt to dish, and wanted Steve to dish it, but was yet to give him something substantive.
This was not enough to publish anything. In fact, anything Steve did publish that referenced the FTG would be in violation of his court order. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to put this teaser paragraph in the Hangover, since it was entirely possible that Mr. Anonymous’s goose chase could lead nowhere.
But he needed something. His readership was dwindling, and with good cause. His work wasn’t up to snuff. The wrestling world was having a killer month of major stories and Steve was missing all of them. Last week Wrestlingdailytribune.com had been all over the Joey Mayhem / Jade Sleek affair, and WrestlingHotline.com hadn’t mentioned it. This weekend there was a brawl backstage at a GWA house show. Wrestlingdailytribune.com had broken the story and had already covered it thoroughly. Steve was yet to mention it. Updates on Goliath’s condition? The competition was nosing around backstage with ears open and pen in hand. Steve had done nothing. Chandler Dresby was reporting that Revolution was planning to turn Lucifer heel, news that was a complete surprise to Steve.
These stories all would have been cake for Steve even a few weeks ago. His network of email and bulletin board informants had recently been second-to-none. But the FTG crusade had hurt him dearly. No one had been interested in digging up dirt on these people. No one had cared.
And the court order was an embarrassment. It made Steve look like the second-rate journalist he was. Anyone who had been on board had seen their work disappear, as Steve wasn’t allowed to publish it and none of the other sites gave a damn.
Still, the opportunities were there. The same source that gave Wrestlingdailytribune the scoop on Revolution’s future plans had given the word to Steve, but he had never read the email. Hundreds of emails were deleted unopened or read too late because Steve had spent all his free time following these shoddy clues regarding the Saxon Fund and its potential relationship to the sponsors of the FTG.
Steve erased the teaser paragraph. If he was going to play investigative journalist, he was going to do it right. Mr. Anonymous might hush up if Steve got too opportunistic. And if this inquisition into the Saxon Fund and its beneficiaries led nowhere, then so be it. He would recover. The potential reward for uncovering something meaningful and doing it properly were worth the risk.
He started The News section again:
As has been reported on several other sites already, there was a backstage fight between Joey Mayhem and Jumbo Sanders at the GWA house show in Las Vegas on Sunday night. The fight left Jumbo with a severely swollen black eye, and put Joey Mayhem in the hospital. Obviously, neither was able to perform last night on Burn. Jade Sleek, whose name keeps getting attached to this story, was also absent from Burn.
The truth on this story may or may not be buried within the piles of speculation all over the Internet. The closest thing to fact we have so far is from an interview Pit Bull did on the Bobby Franken radio show out of San Diego last night:
“Joey made some accusations; Jumbo denied them. They got in an argument, and then Joey threw a punch. Jumbo came back with a tackle and Joey smashed into the floor with Jumbo on top of him. We got the fight broken up after that.”
The rumors coming from backstage seem to confirm Pit Bull’s testimony. The general storyline floating around the Internet is that the fight was short and broken up by Pit Bull, Raptor, Deep Six, and Lamar Thomas, all of whom were witness to the spectacle.
Notably, the GWA is yet to comment on this incident at all. They’ll have to say something soon. Their ship is sinking. Need proof? Let’s take stock of the GWA main event scene:
Goliath - World Champion - out indefinitely with injury. The latest word from Wrestlingdailytribune.com is that Goliath is suffering from concussion syndrome. This condition can clear up in a week, or go on for years or the rest of his life. Until there’s some certainty, the GWA needs to put the strap on somebody else. But who?
Crusader? - gone. Now wrestling for the competition
Joey Mayhem? - suspended. The sense I get from the gossip around the net is that Joey’s suspension will be long, maybe permanent. The locker room really hates this chap. Can you blame them? His first time on TV, he winked at his opponent, breaking character on camera. His second time on TV, he went over a company veteran who jumped ship the next week. His third time on TV he knocked out the champion. His fourth time never happened because he refused to follow the script at a house show, and got in a fight backstage.
Jack Branson? - out for 6-8 months with a torn thigh muscle. And who knows what kind of shape he’ll be in when he returns?
That leaves us with Jumbo and Deep Six, maybe Lord Mayberry and Zombie could be elevated. That’s a thin bunch up at the top. Time to create some new stars, quickly.
Burn fans, you’re show’s in trouble.
Speaking of which...
The High Points:
GWA Burn - None. A total snoozer. I’ve seen tapes of backyard wrestling that were more organized and coherent. The show opened with an embarrassing interview segment with Duke, Gordy Goodnow, Lord Mayberry, and Deep Six, none of whom are great on the mic. It immediately became apparent that they were improvising, without any idea of where they were going. Truly the most gutwrenching twenty minutes I have ever seen on wrestling television. I’m not the only one who hated it. The ratings speak for themselves. EVERYONE abandoned the show within the first half hour. I don’t know how they’re going to recover from this mess.
Revolution Riot - A face turn for Scott Rollins? Interesting. I guess Max grew weary of him playing a heel and always getting face pops. What makes this extra-intriguing is that it looks like they’re going to pair up Rollins and Lucifer as on-screen allies. This would be a first for the Lucifer character. Here’s hoping they don’t weaken the strongest character in wrestling.
The Big Picture:
You know, as I watch Rollins perform in Revolution, and get over, I can’t help but wonder why GWA held onto the ridiculous name “Crusader” for so long. With every week, it becomes more clear that Revolution has their shit together and the GWA does not. GWA can’t even keep its locker room under control.
Whatever happened between Joey and Jumbo on Sunday night has been a long time coming. Duke has created and allowed for an unacceptable level of conflict among his top wrestlers, vying for the number one spot in the company. He pushed Joey Mayhem to the moon when he wasn’t ready, then didn’t give him any support when the Internet wolves tore him apart.
That brings me to another point, and this one’s for you, Slugs. Why in God’s name was there so much interest in Joey and Jade’s personal life last week? Why was the Internet flooded with pictures of the two of them at the hospital, pictures of the two of them drinking coffee, pictures of the two of them getting into a car, pictures of Joey in his underwear! These are real people with real lives for Christ’s sake! Treating them like circus freaks no doubt puts tremendous strain on their own well-being, strain that plays out in dangerous backstage brawls. Joey Mayhem was a promising young star who grew too bright too fast. He was in over his head and made all sorts of mistakes. But the potential was there. I hope there’s still a future for him in this industry.
Okay. Enough ranting.
Until next time, this is Steve Garcia. Peace.