*Blog post started on August 31, 2020.
I suppose I could have just gone to The AV Club to kill the last 25 minutes of my shift, but we did have a title change over the weekend when Bobby Lashley defeated Apollo Crews. The pressing question for my readers is, "Did he win the DRCW Ocho Championship?" It is a chance for me to bring in AEW to the title lineage of the secondary championship. Hence the question becomes, do I want to expose myself as an All Elite mark?
Tribalism in professional wrestling is something that the Internet Wrestling Community has been trying to discourage. I suppose you cannot have that on the indies. When my career started in Peoria with Next Generation Wrestling, us performers ended up thinking competition was bad, but that was probably because no one on the scene had a trainer worth noting. Springfield was a similar scene if I recall correctly. What I am saying is, when you are playing pro wrestling, you do not want anyone telling you that you are doing it wrong. If you would like a summation of what downstate indies are like, read "What is there to Hurrah about?".
Those with any aspirations to be successful in the business would try to work anywhere they could. Exposure was as good as a hot dog and a handshake. In the end, promotions in great wrestling cities would not care about where you worked, as long as you would be available to still be booked by them. If you were not, chances are that you were in such high demand, you could start your own promotion. Eventually the great could work wherever and whenever they wanted. Until the pandemic of course.
As for wrestling fans, tribalism is the only real sport element we are allowed. I think we would get over that if NXT was on Monday or Friday, but WWE would probably just overload Wednesday with draws from Raw and Smackdown. Then again, based on WWE house show numbers, does either show have a draw? Seth Rollins is no Kenny Omega.
The actual way to end tribalism is for WWE to just run NXT on Tuesday, like tomorrow, since numbers indicate there is an audience that just wants wrestling and still wonders what/where AXS TV is. But it is not about WWE's survival, it is about WWE's domination. Vince McMahon is determined to be the only wrestling on TV. In response, you bet your left one that I am going to be cheering on AEW.
Book me Vince, and I will be professional and give your products a try. I could write off my cable bill for research. Otherwise, do not go putting on too many heavyweights on Wednesday. My motivation to take advantage of a non-picture-in-picture ad break to watch your product will be gone.
The 148th Disgruntled's Real OCHO Champion:
(WWE Intercontinental/WWE United States/IWGP United States/
NWA National/ROH Television/ECW Television/
Impact X Division/NXT North American)
AEW TNT Champion Mr. Brodie Lee (8/30/2020)
So, we are going to have to merge the Television Championships together to accommodate this Network Championship. Bobby Lashley had his hands full with the underappreciated Apollo Crews when he challenged for the WWE United States Championship. Lee ran through an Executive Vice President in Cody who had defeated a monster in Lance Archer to become the inaugural TNT Champion, and successfully retained over a mixed martial artist in Jake Hager. The All Mighty seems to be the leader of the Dark Order not the Hurt Business's Heater.
As for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, Jeff Hardy defeating AJ Styles would have been at SummerSlam if it was a big deal. Jon Moxley cannot defend the IWGP United States Championship until travel restrictions are lifted. ROH is just getting back to production as the NWA is on hiatus.
When it comes to the Impact's X Division, if you were not following the indies before COVID-19, you cannot deem any of them as OCHO worthy. I had only gotten to one or two AAW shows in the last couple of years (I am now out of hospitality, so here's hoping to change that.), and I cannot see Ace Austin on the level of the previous five champions mentioned. After seeing that Austin Aries and Chris Sabin could not be greater champions than the Real Disgruntled's World Champion even with sacrificing the OCHO for the chance to become a world champion.
It leads me to think that perhaps Impact is poser television wrestling. If you want to see the X Division at its finest, go to a good indie show. Impact should just offer Billy Corgan the belt to treat like the old NWA World Championship. With Corgan letting Thunder Rosa wrestle on AEW as the NWA Women's Champion, I am sure he would be up for it.
This at least shows you the respect I have for this championship. That is something I have not had or yet to obtain for the following.
The Disgruntled's Poser Championship Lineage
The following are the top titles from promotions that I think have shown their worth but were never the Championship. My apologies to Bill Watt's Universal Wrestling Federation (Those will be the only apologies he will receive from me), Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association, and Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling. They stuck to the regional model for too long to suddenly say they had a claim to the national stage. But, the first championship would be an attempt to make these promotions mean something.
The 1st Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel (12/27/1982 to 4/22/1984)
I am not going to put him ahead of Ric Flair though he was essentially the serious version of him. He would be a great champion anywhere except New York. When it comes to New York, Verne Gagne trying to screw with Hulk Hogan just shows this world championship was founded on pettiness and failed to be elevated because of pettiness.
O'Connor held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which he won on January 9, 1959, in St. Louis, Missouri; recognized as the first AWA World Champion in May 1960, but was given 90 days to defend the title against Verne Gagne or be stripped of the title.
Gagne was awarded the championship after Pat O'Connor failed to defend the title.
The 2nd Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jumbo Tsuruta (1) (4/22/1984 to 5/13/1984)
The 3rd Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Martel (5/13/1984 to 12/29/1985)
Too his credit, he did have a title unification match with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair during his reign. The bout ended in a double count out.
The 4th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen (12/29/1985 to 6/28/1986)
The 5th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
WCWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Rude (6/28/86 to 7/4/86)
Stan Hansen was stripped of the AWA Championship because of his commitments to Japan. The belt was awarded to Nick Bockwinkel, so he never won it. The CWA/AWA International Heavyweight Championship would be logical championship because of Continental Wrestling Association's relationship with AWA and was just ending its time in the National Wrestling Alliance. That title failed to have lengthy title reigns.
The 6th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
Bill Watt's UWF Heavyweight Champion Terry Gordy (7/4/86 to 11/9/86)
Chris Adams would defeat Rick Rude and then leaves the World Class Championship Wrestling. Bill Dundee was the CWA Champion who would lose the championship to Jerry Lawler who would then vacate it. Gordy had to win a tournament to win Universal Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship (defeating the top champion in the predecessor promotion Mid-South Wrestling Association in the final), so Bockwinkel's 308-day reign as AWA Champion is second to Gordy's.
The 7th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
WCWA World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Von Erich (11/9/86 to 8/21/1987)
The 8th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
Bill Watt's UWF Heavyweight Champion Dr. Death Steve Williams (8/21/87 to 12/26/87)
Speaking of poorly booked, Hennig's win over Bockwinkel would be held up only for the win to be verified. After winning the UWF championship, Williams was unpinned in North America for a decade. Unfortunately, Jim Crockett Promotions would phase out his championship after purchasing the UWF.
The 9th Disgruntled's Poser Champion:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion Curt Hennig (12/26/87 to 2/16/1988)
He did win the championship even with the poor booking. Hennig officially did not lose the championship until May 9, 1988, but poor booking plagued his reign. The title was held up on February 16 due to a no contest with The Grappler. The reign continued when The Assassin, representing Hennig, defeated The Grappler.
