Hello all, my name is James "JT" Thomlison, and as some of you may have noticed, I have taken over some of the editing duties here at OWW. Although, considering I edit 1 column to every 63 that Kirsty does, it seems odd to me that I would be labeled as Co-Editor. I think a more appropriate term would be "1/63rd Editor". Either way, I'm more than happy to help out, and in return for my "contributions", I've been rewarded with this month's editorial, which if I'm not mistaken, is late even as I sit here typing this. Fortunately, I know where Brad lives, and thus firing me is completely out of the question. Never mind the fact that 1200 miles and an entire country separate us.

But before I dive into who I am, and my thoughts on various things pertaining to the world of wrestling, I have a job to do! That job is to remind you - the loyal readers - of all the wonderfully talented columnists and contributors we have here, and that you should be reading them.

By the way, I hope you aren't busy, because it will take you at least fifteen minutes to read this column. No, make that twenty. Actually, make it thirty. I believe that's fifteen minutes past the standard set time for "fame". Hey, it's my only column, I have to cover everything, right?

First off, here's a little advice for all of you who write articles for websites. When plugging things, make sure you ALWAYS plug your boss first; in this case, BRAD DYKENS, who had an excellent column as always. See what I did there people? This does two things. First, it has them thinking "I like this" before they even read it, and it also allows you more leeway in your column because their ego is too distracted by the compliment. Here's another helpful hint. Do your own HTML work. Trust me, no matter what your boss / editor / 'person in charge' tells you, HTML is a bitch, and they will love you for it.

Rob Orchard chimed in with his run-down on the career of Eddie Guerrero. It's a very nicely done piece that fills in the gaps for some of you who may not have known Guerrero until later in his career. Everybody seems to have their two cents on the subject, and I'm no different. More on that later.

Calv R. also gave us some goodness, explaining why he feels Eddie Guerrero is the greatest Mexican wrestler of all time. He makes a very strong case, and due to my limited knowledge on the history of Mexican wrestling / wrestlers, I'd have to say I agree. If nothing else, it can definitely be said he was the most "successful" Mexican wrestler of all time.

As we all know, the WWE is not the only wrestling promotion. No no, there are plenty. One is such TNA, and their X-Division was the subject of Peter Le's submission to OWW. A quick little read that introduces us to some of the main players in the X-Division. It's a big help to anyone who may be new or may not be familiar with TNA, and it's roster.

Scott Bimms compares old school wrestling vs. new age sports entertainment. Admittedly, I'm not nearly as picky as Scott, but the article was nicely done, and a little trip down nostalgia lane is always fun.

Let me tell you all something. Randy Orton should never, EVER be forced into the face role again by WWE management (more on that later). One day, when he finally does go face, it needs to be because the FANS decided it was time, not McMahonagement. Justin Pulanski agrees that Randy Orton is a heel, and you should go read (and agree) with him. Cut him some slack on his 'setting a casket on fire' comments. Apparently, he hasn't been with us that long.

John Edwards article on Legends or Icons? got some of biggest numbers of feedback that I have ever seen in my short time here with OWW. Lots of feedback = good read. Do the math people, and give it a go. FYI John, when leaving Ric Flair off lists like this, and also STATING that Ric Flair will PURPOSELY be left of said list, be prepared to duck, because crap will get thrown at you. Personally, though, I saw exactly where John was coming from, whether I agree or not.

Adrian Cotton needed to vent about perceptions, if you will, and I really enjoyed his article. He makes very interesting points, and by all means people, like he said, leave the X-division alone!

But we don't just take submissions here, we have columnists too!

Official columnist John Simmons hits us with the good, the bad, and the downright ugly that was the Tough Enough experiment. I have to say I agree with most of the points that he made. Who knows what the hell they were thinking with Morgan? One point I think he left out (unless I'm forgetting) is that once it went from being a thirty minute reality television show to taking up 20 minutes of my wrestling time on TV every week, interest dropped like an anvil. Nobody wants to see Diva Searches and Tough Enough challenges crapping up our televisions (although, somehow the DS segments are always the highest rated of the show... ...men).

Columnist Joe L has decided not to retire, and I'm glad he did because he contributed his thoughts on the Big Red Machine: Kane aka Glenn Jacobs. I completely agree with Joe in everything he said about the travesty that is Kane over the last couple of years. Talk about a guy deserving a title shot... correction, title REIGN. I can only think of about three wrestlers on the entire roster that deserve a shot and / or reign more than him. Sadly, he remains relegated to jobbing and deflated pushes.

Many people have different opinions on the brand split, and most recently, the RAW vs. SD! feud. Columnist Antonio Figueroa finds it to be a good thing (both the split and the feud), and I happen to agree. I mean, seriously, no offense to Trips, because I think he gets a lot of unnecessary crap slung his way, but do we really need him giving twenty minute promos on BOTH shows every week?

Columnist Colm Kearns takes a look at the history of the Intercontinental Title (Part 1 and Part 2). Despite the fact that a lot of people think the IC title has fallen from grace, I still find it to be one of the most legitimate and respected titles in the entire industry. Be sure to check back in and catch part 3 (and possibly 4, I'm not sure).

For most of us, the passing of Eddie Guerrero was a dark and nasty reminder in this sport, one we see far too often. Columnist Johnny Larue echoes those sentiments, and explains how Eddie Guerrero may have saved his life.

Somebody actually defending the Boogeyman? That's right, folks. Columnist Landon Beck took on the tumultuous task of trying to convince people that the Boogeyman has the potential to be a big-time superstar. Now, personally, I can't stand the character or the thought of him every being in a WWE ring. But that's just me. My personal opinion does not take away from the fact this is a well written article, and it is very hard to argue with Landon's logic. Go read it!

He may have snapped. He may be psycho. He may be racist. He may be homophobic. But the fact is that the Ultimate Warrior is one of the most over wrestlers in history. He also happens to be my favorite of all time (although he has some people close on his tail and chasing). Columnist Avi Krebs takes a look at the man behind the mask ...er paint... er... oh just go read him!

Whew... pimpin' ain't easy!

Now that you know where to go AFTER you read my column (what, no shameless self plugging allowed?), let's get back on track. As I said before, my name is James "JT" Thomlison. I am 25 years old, and I underwrite bonds for a Bail Bonds company in Swartz Creek, Michigan. I love wrestling, and I love football. I also love flirting with Kirsty, but she's married, so shhhhhh. Lucky for me though, should her husband ever take offense to my playful advances, I have hired a very large bodyguard. He goes by the name of Atlantic Ocean. When not making passes at married women, I'm a columnist over at 411mania.com, where I cover ByteThis!... I'll pause until you finish laughing... ...done? Good. I also co-host (with my good buddy JP) the most positive article to ever hit the IWC, Hidden Highlights, where we take a look at all the little things you may have missed that make the product great. I cover some other stuff for the Movies and Sports Zone's there, but there's no need for that here!

If this wasn't my first column, it would be no secret that I'm am a HUGE mark for Christian. I am, in fact, quite possibly the biggest Christian mark on the entire planet. There's been a lot of news with him recently, so I'll start with that. I'm going to look back at the events leading up to last Saturday's episode of TNA Impact!, whilst sharing my boring and wit-less thoughts on the situation.

September 4th, 2001 - Christian officially begins his singles career. I officially begin my markdom. We will now skip forward because for the next 3 years, he had a relatively decent stature in the mid-card, and he spent it honing his craft, hoping to eventually hit main-event status. WrestleMania XX, 2004 - turned on his best friend, and got a bodyguard, solidifying his full-blown heel status (which was already there anyway). One he would have for the rest of his WWE career. November 2004 - Something strange started happening. All of a sudden, we started seeing more "Captain Charisma" jackets. We started hearing this new theme song. We started hearing less boos and more pops. We started seeing my "peeps" signs. Oh no... was Christian, this big pric of a heel, starting to get over? Yes, the chain of events had finally be set in motion. January 2005 - April 2005 - Christian continued to get more and more over, and despite being heel, was seemingly one of the more popular characters in the entire E. He even came close to winning the 6-man Money In the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 21. I'm glad he didn't though, because it would have been due to Tomko, and not clean. May 2005 - The push "seemingly" continued, as he cut some excellent promos on Mr. Cena, and pushed (excuse the pun) for a major move to SmackDown! (where at the time, John Cena was champion).

June 2005 - October 2005 - ...where do I start? Cena gets drafted to RAW. Okay, so they're on the OTHER show, but they're still on the same show. I can deal with it. Then, thrown into a three way with Cena and Jericho. Alright, there's another man in the mix, but you're there. As we all remember, he lost that match. Then, what happens? Drafted to SmackDown! while Jericho gets the one on one. We're still okay, you can get a fresh start on SD!. What happens next? Goes to SmackDown!, gets pinned in his debut match, gets jobbed to the Champion (in a NON title match I might add), has his push completely ripped from under him, and spends the next three months jobbing and getting pinned in tag matches (call it biased if you want, but it's the truth).

November 2005 - Declines a contract from WWE. Due to the no 90-day compete clause, signs with TNA within the week.

November 13, 2005 - Debuts at TNA Genesis with an amazing promo, and immediately inserts himself into the World Heavyweight Title scene.

November 19, 2005 Debuted on TNA Impact!, cutting a great promo with Monty Brown, and setting up his first match at the next Pay-Per-View, Turning Point (December 11th).

Now, most of the people... no, EVERYBODY who knows about me being the biggest mark ever, so when the news of his departure hit, I got numerous emails with "are you okay" and "you'll live, it'll be alright". Now, while these were all in good fun, but the fact is, they were all right. I welcomed the change. Let's face it, he was going nowhere in the E, and despite being possibly the most OVER guy in the E (okay, sans Cena and a few others) at one point, his push was going to continue to lay dead and unmoving.

Let me give you some stats people, because in every good marking out rant lies facts:

Singles Match Record in 2005: 3 - 9 (with two of his wins being unclean, and the third being on Velocity)

Tag Team and / or Multiple Person Matches in 2005: 2 - 21 (with one of the two wins being unclean)

That's a combined record for 2005 of 5 - 30.

In over half of the tag / multiple person matches, Christian was the one pinned.

Despite this, he was one of the most over guys on the ENTIRE roster...

And people wonder why he left...

Let's review:

- Spent an entire year jobbing and having his push killed despite the fact that people LOVED him.

VS.

- Has since debuted with TNA, is one of the top five over guys (don't believe that, go watch Genesis or Impact) in the company, and is headed towards a well-deserved push.

Truth be told, I couldn't be happier for the guy. He is financially set, lives 90 minutes from the Impact! Zone, and has to make only multiple appearances a month. I'm especially happy for him because he recently (as far as I understand) had a child. All in all, GOOD FOR HIM!!! Not only is his lifestyle much easier and more accommodating, he is helping an upstart (okay, you know what I mean) promotion show people there is an alternative.

...I promise, if you keep reading, there is actual wrestling discussion not involving my favorite wrestler.

There. I feel better. Now that I've gotten all necessary marking out of the way, can we finally get to some actual wrestling talk? Yes, kiddies, we sure can. The biggest news of last week was obviously the passing of WWE Superstar Eddie Guerrero. What can you say after all that's been said? Well, not much, but that doesn't mean I can't give it the old college try. First, I will share (in italics) some of what I said over in the "other website I work for's" staff forum (hey, can't be promoting somebody else THAT much), and add in a little more since it was over a week ago: "You'll notice over the course of the next week or so that any mention in my articles concerning this has been very, very brief. No, I was not saving up a big speech to submit here. The fact of the matter is that I just plain did not want to get into it. I am in a bad way about this, and what frustrates me even more is that nobody else can seem to understand why.

My parents, my friends, everybody who isn't a wrestling fan says the same thing, "He was on TV, and that's it. It's not like you knew him". Well, that is wrong. Completely untrue. The thing about these wrestlers is that we do feel like we know them. We know more about them than we do about people in any other media outlet. Yes, we may get information pertaining to other celebrities, but I will never feel closer to Vin Diesel because I know he just bought a new house. I will never feel closer to Latrell Sprewell because I know he has a auto customization shop. With wrestlers, on the other hand, this simply is not the case... especially with Eddie Guerrero. We knew about everything. His growing up in the business, his battles with drugs and other demons, his mental instability when he was the champ, his friendships with Benoit and others, the reconciliation with his wife, leading to the eventual happy family they had become. And most importantly, we knew that he did all of it, every show, every drop of sweat and blood, every bump, all for us. To say that all we are looking at are actors who happen to be athletic is absurd, and to be honest, insulting. We are looking at human beings. Human beings that we have grown to know and love. One such man is Eddie Guerrero.

I remember the first match of Eddie Guerrero's I ever saw. November 6, 1995. Almost 10 years to the exact day he died. It was Monday Nitro and his opponent was, fittingly enough, Chris Benoit. Here was this young, fresh, athletic guy who could really wrestle. I enjoyed Eddie in his WCW days, and I continued to enjoy him in the WWE. When he won his first and only Championship, I remember being so happy for him because of all the odds he had overcome. I then felt so unhappy for him when he just wasn't able to handle the pressure of carrying the belt. For months now, he's been telling Vince, Steph, anybody who would listen, that he was finally ready for another chance. He was ready to shine. It appeared that this Friday night, they were going to let him prove it. Sadly, this is a sight we will never get to see. The passing of Eddie Guerrero has affected us all in our own way, and for me, it wasn't a good one."

...and then of course came RAW and SmackDown! last week. You know, I told myself I was going to be strong in this situation. I thought "Eddie would want you to enjoy the show, no matter the content and / or context". I told myself I wasn't going to cry, because in this time where EVERYbody was crying, SOMEbody had to be the rock.... right? Somebody had to show Eddie (as he watched us all from above) that it was not all hurt and pain. Show him that we could remember the good and that it could be our beacon in this time of loss. That we could recall all of the positives and appreciate what he gave us, despite the fact he's no longer here... somebody had to, didn't they? Well, that aforementioned strength lasted about 17 seconds into RAW. I saw all these giants; these heroes, these big strong tough guys all up there crying their eyes out over the loss of their fallen comrade, and I lost it. And it would be far from over there. I lost it during the tribute video. I lost it listening to Chris Benoit. I lost it listening to JBL. I lost it when they showed the Benoit / Eddie moment from WrestleMania XX. I just plain lost it. If tears are really healthy for you, I certainly got my work out last week.

...Thank you, Eddie. Thank you for risking life and limb for me. Thank you for changing your life around, allowing you to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Thank you for giving all of your blood, sweat, and tears for me. Thank you for entertaining me. Thank you for everything... I will miss you greatly; my thoughts and prayers are with your wife, children, family, and friends.

R.I.P Eddie Guerrero: 1967 - 2005

First and foremost, we all know that Davari has returned to WWE television. While I'm happy for Davari, what I'm not happy about is his involvement in the main event between Kurt Angle and John Cena. You see, my hopes, my dreams, my everything, was all tied into the fact that I was going to enter Joe Louis Arena, and watch Kurt Angle get that ugly ass belt off my TV. Now, with Davari acting as "special referee", there's no way in hell that happens. What the hell? Is John Cena THAT great??? Must we continue to let him run through the entire roster, looking stronger and stronger each time (as he will now have to overcome TWO men to retain)? I can now only pray that that A. John Cena somehow manages to eliminate Davari earlier in the night, thus enabling a real ref to call the match. B. Davari gets knocked out early, and a new ref is sent in, giving us at least 10 clean minutes before Kurt gets the pin, and C. Somebody with power (a la Vince or Bischoff) comes to their senses and somehow, through kayfabe, overturn the decision. Let's remember though, this is WWE booking we're talking about here.

Dear Vince, Put my damn wife on television, already! - JT Okay, okay, I'll be serious now. Dear Vince, PLEASE put my wife on television, already! - JT ....I slay me.

Nick 'Eugene' Dinsmore collapsed sometime during overseas tour, admitted to taking painkillers, and has been suspended until further notice. He has been admitted to a rehabilitation center of some sort. Apparently, Dinsmore missed the memo everybody got that Eddie Guerrero DIED from crap like this. I wish him the best of luck and all that other polite crap people say, but I really wish people would stop killing their bodies. Especially a guy like this. I mean, even if he's working four shows a night, it's for what? ten minutes tops in little comedy spots and filler matches? I hate to be judgmental because I am not a professional wrestler, but it can't be taking THAT big of a toll on his body. I know he has a nagging knee injury, but still... GET IT LOOKED AT. He is not a BIG star, and would not have lost anything he had taken a month or two off to get it patched up, as opposed to hiding it and then driving himself to calapsure and subsequent suspension.

JT: "Window on that door"? Are you drinking again? JT: I do not drink on the sir, job. JT: Your editing job? Your editorial job? You sit in a recliner in front of a computer while watching television... JT: Okay, THEY didn't know that! JT: Put...the bottle....down... JT: ....only because it's you.

In related news, I've completely jumped on the Lashley bandwagon. That man owns. Randy Orton was and will remain one of my favorites... as long as, and this is important... HE REMAINS FANS UNTIL THE FANS DECIDE OTHERWISE, NOT THE BOOKING TEAM. Seriously, they were setback YEARS when they turned him face the night after he won a belt. It's like nobody in the back was paying attention to the fact he was getting over AS A HEEL. Nice work creative, nothing like watching a nice, young, upstart superstar getting booed out of the building within a month of his title reign beginning. He STILL isn't anywhere near as over as he was back then. Because back then, we booed him in that "we hate you but man you are cool" kind of way... now, he's gotten a little of that back, but now we mostly just boo him for being a prick. He hasn't lost much ground with me though. I know what he's capable of, and look forward to his future.