Tuesday Morning Backlash: Money in the Bank for WWE Raw and Smackdown, Paul Heyman, ECW Invade TNA

Columns, Features, Top Story

The Best Wrestling Analysis on the ‘Net breaks down the likelihood who who wins each brand’s Money in the Bank, Paul Heyman and ECW in TNA, and 10 Responses to 10 Thoughts on Raw, and 10 more amazing promos. Anybody want a peanut?

1) WWE Raw Thoughts – Ranking the Money in the Bank Contenders
2) WWE Smackdown Thoughts – Ranking the Money in the Bank Contenders
3) TNA Impact Thoughts – Paul Heyman and the ECW Invasion
4) WWE NXT/Superstars/Misc – What should Nexus do on NXT
5) ROH Thoughts – Andy Mac on Dis-Indy-Franchised
6) Guest Spot – Kyle Sparks on 5 Gimmicks that Should have been Huge
7) A Modest Response – To Will Pruett’s Will Pruett’s 10 Thoughts on Raw
8) History Time – 10 of the Best Promos
9) Match Review – Jake Ziegler on World X Cup Final Elimination Match
10) Personal Life/Blog/whatever: About Us, Chapter Four

1) WWE Raw Thoughts – Ranking the Money in the Bank Contenders

8. Mark Henry – I don’t like R-Truth at all, but how exactly is putting Henry in this instead of Truth benefiting anyone? The only reason for the switch I can think of is Truth pissed off someone important who didn’t want him to get the PPV payday. Henry has no shot here.

7. John Morrison – There was a time when Morrison would have been a favorite here, but, alas, that time has passed. Morrison has shown that he can only have a good pure technical match and that he’s poisonously bad with a live mic. No way should this guy get that big of a push.

6. Ted Dibiase – He’s good, but his gimmick was recently changed to make him like his father, then tweaked to include Maryse. WWE will want to see if this new gimmick works before giving it a huge push. Dibiase should be able to make it successful, but it would do for that to happen before a Money in the Bank win, not after.

5. Edge – He’s being pushed too hard as the experienced, obvious choice to win it. Edge has had remarkable ladder match success in the past and can afford to lose one without losing heat. He can always attack the winner to set up a mini-feud and get his heat back, as well.

4. Chris Jericho – I’d probably like it best if he won. He’s been the lost, forgotten man on Raw for awhile, getting less and less promo time. Money in the Bank could change that. He wouldn’t even need a feud; he could crow endlessly about having the shot, acting like the title was his and get his character extremely over that way. Of course, his television time is declining because he hasn’t signed a new contract, so the WWE likely won’t… unless he has and that’s why he was involved with NXT and Wade Barrett on Raw. Nexus interfering for Jericho would be huge and awesome. Check around the 5-minute mark of this video to see their conversation:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Legendkiller501#p/c/75BD9951ED9F7AE5/2/edWW7b4i_RI

3. The Miz – If John Cena wins, it’s hard to see anyone but the Miz winning on Raw. Miz has come a long way since Cena crushed him, just like Cena came a long way from being crushed by Brock Lesnar. I’d think this was the plan if they kept the US Title off Miz and weren’t teasing Sheamus keeping the belt.

2. Evan Bourne – If they want the Raw challenger to lose, it’ll be Bourne. He can easily challenge Sheamus as the plucky underdog on a PPV with a bigger Cena match on top and lose in a great, star-making performance. His eating the awesome RKO on Raw could set up revenge on Orton at the PPV.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Legendkiller501#p/c/75BD9951ED9F7AE5/6/hAKAKVH3hvE

1. Randy Orton – It’s more likely, however, that Randy Orton is just asserting his dominance. As the top active wrestler without the belt, a win here could propel him into title contention, leaving Cena to face Nexus without the onus of the title. Sheamus vs. Orton could headline Summerslam and makes the most sense to do so.

2) WWE Smackdown Thoughts: Ranking the Contenders in Money in the Bank

8. Matt Hardy – Still out-of-shape, but now, he’s finally less over. He won’t be getting a bit win since it so heavily foreshadows a lost right after due to his weak mic skills.

7. Dolph Ziggler – Ziggler is a very good worker who can talk on the mic, not a modern Billy Gun as PK suggests… but he’s also been pushed nowhere near this level and is the guy most clearly in over his head.

6. Big Show – The Big Show just got out of a title feud and probably has more chance than this of re-entering the picture, but my total apathy for the biggest guy in the company as a face ruins my ability to believe he’ll win a giant ladder match.

5. Christian – Probably the best all-around performer in the match, he has as little momentum as Ziggler, from a higher spot on the card. He’d have a better shot, but the WWE pretty clearly don’t want the big title on him so it would, again, heavily foreshadow a loss.

4. Kofi Kingston – Kofi is as good as Christian on the mic and nearly as good in the ring. Him winning would likely lead to a briefcase feud with #3, but he’s good enough and over enough for that to work. Really, though, does he need both the US Title and the Breifcase?

3. Drew McIntyre – All the story around him finally having to earn getting into this match makes him a likely victor, but then where do we go? He just isn’t good enough to carry the belt, though he is good enough to use it like a tertiary title and defend his briefcase. Still, him earning the win at this point makes him seem like a face, and he’s just unlikable, so that’s not my favorite idea.

2. Cody Rhodes – Rhodes has been excellent in his new role and could certainly ascend the top of the card as a surprise challenger with a big win here. If the belt is kept on Rey Mysterio, in particular, this could lead to a fun feud and some memorable, elevating matches. Still, with Jack Swagger just elevated this way at Wrestlemania, would the WWE do the same basic idea on the same brand?

1. Kane – The WWE still hasn’t positioned anyone as Undertaker’s attacker, making it appear likely that this will be Kane’s spot. He can, then, win the match, take the title, and be ready for the Undertaker’s pending return for a feud no one wants to see again. Unless Chris Jericho wins on Raw due to Nexus, this is the result most likely to end in a MITB cash in before the end of the night.

3. TNA Impact Thoughts – Paul Heyman and the ECW Invasion

Paul Heyman is widely looked at as the man to change TNA, inside and out. His track record is excellent, from the innovative ECW to the best run of OVW ever to the Smackdown 6 era of that show, he’s gotten the most out of his wrestlers’ talent at every stop, creating new stars and shaking the foundation of major companies. Now, TNA is looking to get him to come in and are reportedly very close to a deal. The internet is widely assuming this is a good thing, but is it?

It seems apparent that Paul Heyman’s first TNA angle will be an ECW invasion. TNA has already gone ahead and set this up in anticipation of his signing. My question is, how is this a good thing?

ECW’s heyday was over 10-years back and the majority of its workers weren’t particularly great to begin with. RVD is the only guy who can still be said to be near his prime, and he already has the belt, so what exactly would he be invading? ECW wasn’t particularly compelling the last time they invaded WWE, almost five years ago. There’s no reason for it to be better now.

ECW could surely incorporate a more hardcore style, but, again, TNA had an entire division built around that stuff for years. How is this new? And if they do invade, who are the heels? Surely TNA isn’t dumb enough to make their own company the bad guys, while ECW has long been beloved and we saw how poorly the concept worked with them as heels during the Invasion.

Paul Heyman could almost certainly book an interesting TNA from scratch, but if he’s just re-hashing ECW again, just like TNA already re-hased the Young Blood vs. Millionaires and every other late 90s angle, successful or not, even Paul Heyman is going to fail.

4. WWE NXT Thoughts – What Should Nexus do?

Being heavily hyped for NXT tonight is the Nexus. The first season NXT rookies, the Nexus have been wreaking havoc on Raw, destroying superstar after superstar with a special focus on John Cena. This being done in such an unorthodox manner has lead the Nexus to be major players in the WWE and hugely over, but that hasn’t translated to NXT ratings in any meaningful way. With that the case, here’s what Nexus should do.

The Nexus should, starting the show, absolutely destroy all the pros. This would allow them to spend the rest of the show recruiting the NXT rookies into Nexus. All shouldn’t join, but having some join would certainly spice up the show. Competing factions of Rookies changes the show dynamic and with every NXT rookie voted off joining Nexus, stakes would be raised, as would ratings.

I’d suggest Kaval, Lucky Cannon (as Cannon Fodder), Eli Cottonwood and Husky Harris and Percy Watson to join the Nexus, leaving Michael McGuillicuty as a face with other ideas and Alex Riley as a heel with other ideas forming an uneasy alliance. This can, of course, be tweaked as needed, but the Nexus recruiting would change NXT and make it must-see.

5) Indy Thoughts – Dis-indy-chantment – ROH, Chikara, Dragon Gate USA and Bryan Danielson by Andy Mac

The WWE has been dull and uninteresting for the better part of a decade. TNA has been directionless pretty much since its inception. From 2002 until 2008 the bright spot was a little company called Ring of Honor. Their run as the best thing going in American wrestling ended, of course, when all star booker Gabe Sapolsky got his walking papers. Since then there has not been a whole lot to get excited about. I attended a couple of post Gabe shows and the spark in many ways, was gone. Questionable people were given runs with the top belt. The two best wrestlers moved on to “greener pastures.” Interest waned for me, and for a lot of other people. The indies have been playing catch up ever since.

Chikara is doing some interesting things, but they play to a niche market within a niche market. Dragon Gate USA took the scene by storm putting on amazing shows packed with dream match after dream match. They are just starting to integrate storylines to compliment the matches and that will only help things. It will get people to care and come out more and more. Evolve has made some noise with a novel concept and like DGUSA is booked by wrestling genius Gabe Sapolsky. AIW in Chicago has a lot of support and other small indies are putting on fun shows, but there isn’t anything to get the indy fans super excited.

The indies lack that biog star to bring the fans out. The name that can add 50-100 paid admissions to your local indy fed hasn’t been around in a while. Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Low Ki, Bryan Danielson and a few others were those guys. They are on TV right now with one obvious exception: Bryan Danielson. Bryan has done a few indy dates and is the hottest ticket on the indies after his brief tenure on Tuesday nights. He is now doing two big shows for Evolve and DGUSA. These shows actually made me take pause and consider going. I still sit on the fence for geographic reasons, but this is the first time I, who have attended countless indy shows from many different companies, have considered attending a show in quite some time. Danielson is the reason. He is also the reason for a lot of other fans.

The downside of all this is that Danielson will also be the reason that the fans stop coming when WWE re-signs him. He draws people in, gets people attached, and gets people wanting more. This is everything you can ask from a wrestler. What needs to happen is someone needs to step up and be that guy when Danielson goes back to plying his trade on television. Will it be Bobby Fish, Danielson’s first Evolve opponent? Will it be one of the American members of a Japanese stable in DGUSA? Will it be Davey Richards who is supposedly retiring at year’s end? Will it be RoH Tyler *cough Lex Luger cough* Black? Will it be Jimmy Jacobs? Will it be someone else? It needs to be some one. It needs to be someone…

I’ll see you next time…

6. Guest Spot – Kyle Sparks on 5 Gimmicks that Should have been Huge

This week, while watching NXT, I found myself taking a closer look at one Eli Cottonwood, and he reminded me a great deal of a character who was very short lived in WWE in the 1995. This character, who I’ll go into more detail on momentarily, was one who should have been huge, but never took off. This got me to thinking about other gimmicks/characters that for one reason or another, either never came to fruition or never worked. So, without any further ado, here’s five great gimmicks that never achieved as much as they should.

**Waylon Mercy: Know What I Mean? – Mercy was based off of Robert DeNiro’s portrayal of the character Max Cady in the film Cape Fear. In DeNiro’s version, Cady was a homicidal sociopath who came from a southern pentecostal family who used poisonous snakebites and strychnine to achieve religious ecstasy. The Waylon Mercy character had a similarly creepy vibe, exuding an eerie, easygoing calm, shaking hands with fans, his opponent and the official before a match and being all smiles, before going on a murderous rampage in the ring after the bell. The gimmick was working fairly well for the worker portraying it, Dan Spivey, before a jackknife powerbomb from Diesel essentially ended Spivey’s career and killed the Waylon Mercy gimmick dead.

**Sean O’Haire: Devil’s Advocate – O’Haire is a guy who has been talked about ad-nauseum on the net since his dismissal from WWE, so I’m hesitant to throw him on this pile, but you simply can’t have a discussion about missed opportunities without discussing O’Haire’s devil’s advocate character. Here was a guy who was a passable worker, had good size, could talk and was doing something that we hadn’t seen before in a character. The vignettes to debut him were among the best WWE has done in a long time, and when they finally brought him on-screen, it all went downhill. O’Haire was unfortunately killed dead right out of the blocks by going into a feud with Rikishi. His character was ambiguous enough that he wasn’t a heat machine, and the crowd was more than burnt out on Rikishi by that point. Not only did the crowd sit on their hands, but the match was bad as well. The combination completely undercut any faith they might have had in O’Haire, and he was promptly made Roddy Piper’s right-hand man, in a role that got him zero heat and saw him job to Hulk Hogan and Zach Gowen. O’Haire was done for.

**Muhammad Hassan: Angry Arab-American – In second place to Sean O’Haire is Muhammad Hassan. What can be said about him that hasn’t already been said? The character was brilliant, his motivations were perfectly reasonable and his goals seemed perfectly justifiable. Again, I won’t use as much space here as with others, because–let’s face it–Hassan has been written about a lot, and justifiably so. It was actually a gimmick that a thinking wrestling fan could appreciate, and they turfed it all for the sake of “Generic Foreign Heel #24234B.”

**Matt Hardy: Avenging Angel – In early 2005 Matt Hardy had started filming vignettes for a new direction for his character, described as a “Punisher-like” character, that would essentially be an avenging angel and a vigilante force for good. While I know Matt Hardy isn’t Aaron’s favorite wrestler in the world, there could definitely have been worse choices for this gimmick, and let’s face it, the gimmick itself is really good stuff. This is a character that has a lot of tweener potential. You have shades of “Loose Cannon” Brian Pillman in that one wonders just how far he’s going to go, you have viable feuds with just about any heel on the roster, and you eventually set up a possible heel turn when/if he finally does go too far and crosses the line. The only problem with Matt Hardy in the role is that he wasn’t–and honestly probably still isn’t–a good enough interview to pull off that part of the “shades of grey” character.

**THE Brian Kendrick: Shawn Michaels 2.0 – Brian Kendrick (aka Spanky) is one of the most successful students to come out of Shawn Michaels’ wrestling academy. He also may have been the most like his mentor of any of them. A smaller, more athletic wrestler, who can fly, who can mat wrestle, and has an outlandish attitude. But by the time WWE finally got around to acknowledging it and letting Kendrick run with the ball as the next generation Shawn Michaels, there had been so many gimmick changes, stints as jobbers, time on and off TV, that it would have taken an extended dedicated effort to get it over. Kendrick was absolutely the right worker to do it, but WWE simply couldn’t (or wouldn’t) put the full weight of the machine behind him. They gave the halfhearted effort, in that they gave him the bodyguard (Ezekiel Jackson) and even a slot in one of the championship scrambles, but zero mic time to get himself over. After the scramble match, he was promptly forgotten again. If built correctly, Kendrick could (and should) have been a consistent contender for the IC/US Title, and an eventual feud with Shawn Michaels would have been not only a natural, but a rather enjoyable destination. Ultimately, Kendrick just became another WWE reject that got scooped up by TNA and is languishing in the X Division, still kind of sort of working the same gimmick, only without mic time (still) and without a bodyguard (yeesh).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQA03NHsgJk

7. A Modest Response to To Will Pruett’s Will Pruett’s 10 Thoughts on Raw

Will Pruett is among the newer class of writers on Pulse Wrestling. Every Thursday, he writes the excellent People’s Column, the archives of which you can find, right here, as well as WWE Raw 10-Thoughts. This week, I thought I’d look at his most recent, 10 Thoughts on Raw. Feel free to click the link, it opens in a new page and will help the points I’m making.

1. The Wellness Policy is not part of kayfabe, so bringing it up in relation too the kayfabe storyline is a bit of a logic gap. Of course the punishment is different.

2. I don’t see the USOs and Hart’s as being a good feud due to the USOs not being ready for prime time. The Hart Dynasty are good workers, but the USOs are nearly hopeless at this point and need more time in FCW. It’s also interesting that you want Nexus chasing these titles, as they’re another set of developmental talent, except, baring Otunga, they’re actually developed enough to be worth watching. It would also make sense as The Hart Dynasty getting revenge for Nexus costing Bret Hart his job, giving them direction.

3. Nexus doesn’t have to turn on the heels to be lead by Chris Jericho. If Jericho leads them it gives them a greater reason to focus on faces, especially John Cena who has humiliated Jericho time and again. Remember Jericho being fired from Raw and carried out due to Cena? Remember how NXT guys were unceremoniously dumped from the show? There’s a parallel here.

4. John Morrison is done as a main event guy. You can see by the way the WWE uses him, he’s just another Shelton Benjamin now. He’s a great athlete who embarrasses himself on the mic.

5. Michael Cole is the worst. Dedicate a 10-thoughts of a particularly boring Raw to the 10 most ridiculous things he says. It shouldn’t be hard.

6. The Air-Bourne into the RKO was absolutely sick… but imagine how much better it would have been as the go-home spot on the Money in the Bank PPV. If that ended the MITB, would you ever dare miss another? Now it was just a cool spot on Raw that should be remembered, but will likely just drift away.

7. R-Truth being replaced by Henry is terrible. Truth either wasn’t supposed to get the payday or Henry needed the payday or they were worried Truth was too sloppy and would hurt someone or Truth pissed someone off or they planned to give Wade Barrett this spot and changed their minds. This, flat out, does not sound like a wrestling decision.

8. The lower-card of the WWE was far more featured than this for years. Guest Hosts revolve around silly comedy, sure, but Hacksaw Duggan and Koko B Ware were hardly working atop the card, nor were Bob Holly and Val Venus. Ugh, we really do view the past through rose colored glasses sometimes.

9. Nexus are still being heavily protected. They simply couldn’t be exposed in a 6-on-1 where all anyone had to do was a spot or two, sell a touch and get out of the ring. They might be ready- I think most of them probably are ready- but the WWE is not giving us a reason to know for sure yet.

10. Cena and Sheamus banding together really only makes any sense if Chris Jericho is the mastermind and at the PPV he costs them the title. The swerve also works if Sheamus, recently a developmental guy himself, is the leader. There has to be more to this, though.

8) History Time: 10 of the Best Interviews Ever

Last week, you all requested the 10 Best Interviews become a regular feature, so for at least until I, or you, get terribly bored of it, here are 10 more of the best interviews ever!

1. Dick Murdoch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y_gDUkAVl4&feature=PlayList&p=59B49BF4DB3639AF&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=55

2. Tully Blanchard and Ole Anderson

3. Bobby Heenan

4. Road Warriors and Paul Ellering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75TgOoi_CsE&feature=PlayList&p=608A6C81227F4582&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=22

5. Ted Dibiase

6. The Freebirds/ Michael Hayes

7. Paul Heyman

8. Steve Austin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_atmzsOrK0

9. Raven and Cactus Jack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPmNSOxdUY

10. Andre the Giant

9. Match Review: Jake Ziegler on World X Cup Final Elimination Match

World X Cup Four-Way Elimination Match – The Motor City Machineguns & Curry Man vs. Tyson Dux, Doug Williams & Alex Koslov vs. Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection AT & Puma vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero & Averno

Two referees are on hand to help control the action. The winning team gets three points, second place gets two points, third place gets one point, and fourth place gets nothing. Yoshino and Man start the match with some immediately fast-paced offense. Man gets hit with a dropkick, and then decides he would rather engage in a test of speed. It was actually a trick, as Man trips Yoshino up and tags in the Guns. Sabin gets backed into the corner and Dux gets tagged in and he and Williams go to work on Sabin, briefly. Sabin makes the tag to Team Mexico, and they go to work on Williams. Guerrero wipes Williams out with a dive on the floor. Bucanero hits Dux with Chemical Imbalance II for the first elimination at 2:58. Puma gets in the ring and goes after Bucanero. Milano pulls Bucanero to the floor and whips him into the guardrail. Back in the ring Team Japan continues beating Bucanero down. Bucanero reverses a victory roll attempt with a powerbomb of sorts and makes the tag to Averno. This is Averno’s first appearance in the World X Cup, and he makes it a good one. He hits the Angel’s Wings to eliminate Puma at 5:07. AT jumps in the ring to battle Averno and he kicks him down on the apron. Averno makes the tag to Sabin, and AT is able to immediately go after Sabin’s leg. Shelley comes in to break it up and AT locks both Guns in a half crab. Man breaks that up. AT pushes the referee out of the way and pretends he was hit with a low blow, but outside referee Rudy Charles refutes that claim. Awesome, they’re actually USING the referee outside the ring. Moments later Sabin kicks
AT in the face and hits the Cradle Shock for the pin at 7:14.

Yoshino is on his own now but he gets right in the ring to battle Sabin and the Guns go right to work on him. They both hit hesitation dropkicks but Yoshino kicks out. Yoshino comes back with the Octopus hold, but Shelley escapes and kicks Yoshino’s head off. Shelley goes for Sliced Bread but Yoshino pushes him into the corner and Averno tags himself in. Tenay and West are doing a good job putting Yoshino over as a super underdog as Averno works him over. Yoshino comes back with a rollup out of nowhere to pin Averno and eliminate him at 10:34. Williams and Kozlov immediately jump Yoshino, and then the Guns and Man come in. Kozlov hits Man with a powerslam and then does the Russian Hat Dance. Sabin answers it with a superkick. Williams hits Sabin with the Chaos Theory but Man breaks it up. Man goes for the Spice Drop on Williams but can’t it. Team Mexico comes in with cross body blocks on both Williams and Man. They execute some impressive double teams, but Man comes back and puts Guerrero on the top for a super hurricanrana. Guerrero counters with a super powerbomb to eliminate Curry Man at 12:57. Moments later Guerrero hits Williams with a twisting senton off the top rope to eliminate him at 13:24. Half of the competitors have now been eliminated.

The Guns battle Guerrero and Bucanero now, and they miss simultaneous dives to the floor. Koslov gets in the ring to go after Guerrero, and they go up top. Guerrero is able to hit Koslov with a super gourdbuster for two. Koslov comes back with a low blow and then a Cobra Stretch and Guerrero taps out at 15:12. Bucanero jumps in the ring and slams Koslov down for a two-count. Koslov tags Sabin in and takes a break. Bucanero slams Sabin and goes to the top rope. Sabin cuts him off and hits a super hurricanrana. The Guns then hit Bucanero with a double superkick to eliminate him and Team Mexico at 16:20. Yoshino gets back in the ring and the Guns show him no sympathy. The Guns utilize some incredible double-team maneuvers on both opponents. Sabin hits Koslov with a running Ace Crusher and then hard clothesline for two. He charges in and Koslov pulls the referee in front, and then scoops Sabin’s legs and puts his own on the ropes (but has trouble) and Sabin is out at 19:07.

Shelley protests to the referee and Koslov knocks him to the floor. Koslov wipes him out with a somersault. Koslov and Yoshino battle briefly, and then Shelley gets back in the ring. Shelley goes for a running knee in the corner but Koslov moves and Shelley crashes right back to the floor. Moments later Yoshino traps Koslov in the Sol Naciente and Koslov taps out at 20:31. We’re down to two men. Yoshino uses his speed to take advantage. He hits the shotgun missile dropkick for a two-count. Shelley comes back with Sliced Bread but Yoshino kicks out once again. He goes up for a Frog Splash but Yoshino gets the knees up and hits Another Space for a two-count. Shelley comes back with a face-first powerbomb and a Tiger Suplex for two! He puts Yoshino on the top rope and superkicks him. Yoshino fights back and hits the Sling Blade for two. He puts Shelley on top and goes for a super something. Shelley counters with a super inverted atomic drop and then an Air Raid Crash to get the pin and win the match at 24:19. That was just an incredible match with nonstop action for the duration of the contest. The story of Yoshino lasting as long as he did by himself gave the match an underlying story that gave meaning to all of the incredible action.
Rating: ****½

For lots more from Jake Ziegler, click here.

10. Short Story: About Us, Chapter 4

In section 10 of each article, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3.

“ I can’t believe that just happened,” she thinks as she charges out of the diner towards her car, “I knew it, I knew, I should never have come!”

Her vision blurry, she searches for the key to her car, fumbling around, replaying the events of the diner over and over again in her head. The door comes open and she nearly falls backwards in her haste. She immediately puts the key in the ignition and begins to drive, getting maybe two blocks away before her blurry vision and shaking hands force her to pull over.

His words echo in her head “I still love you.” “I can’t, ” her composure is wholly gone, eyes a puffy mess, “I was doing fine without you still loving me. What gives you the right? I was doing fine.” She puts her head down on the wheel steadies her breathing. As she again remembers how close they were, how hard it was to put him in the past the first time… “I still love you.” She never meant to hurt him, but there’s just too much pain for time to ease. “Maybe what they say is true, sometimes you really don’t know what you have until its gone. Too late now though. Should have done something about it back then. I can’t now, but back then… While I was innocent. Superheroes, kid stuff.” At this she sighs, a bitter sigh, realizing for the first time what was lost, and, at least partially what she had come to find.

She remembers his accusation that had hurt her so. “You lied,” he had said. “Yeah, I was innocent. Now I’m not. I don’t need a superhero; I just need a grown man. I grew up and moved on. I might not be innocent, but I did the right thing. ” Her innocence, like their life together, was merely one more broken promise. She started the car and went on her way, on with her life, determined to leave her memories as just that. “I love Jack. He’s good to me. Just like you were.”

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.