THANK YOU, EDGE!

Edge in Manila, February 2006. (all photos by Hub Pacheco)

The Driver Seat
by Hub Pacheco

"The MRI showed that I have to retire," revealed Edge in the April 11 edition of RAW, less than a week after WrestleMania 27.

Edge's sudden retirement came off as a bigger shock to the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) than The Rock's run in with John Cena and The Miz at the WrestleMania 27 main event.

There were hints of Edge retiring soon but for him to announce it abruptly, especially after a tough title defense at WrestleMania, it's too much of a shock for me. I still haven't gotten over Shawn Michaels' retirement speech the RAW after WrestleMania 26. If you look at the speeches Edge made in both RAW and SmackDown!, you could really see the sincerity in his eyes. His smile, his thank-yous to various peeps - it was genuine. People in general dismiss pro wrestling as fake or staged, but seeing his demeanor in his last week on TV, you can't get any more real than that, man. That was from the heart.

Manila loves the The Rated-R Superstar.

Respect, Edge said, is the most important thing he can take away from this tragedy. And I agree. On February 2006 when RAW held two shows here in Manila, Edge was then the WWE Champion. And honestly, I wasn't convinced of Edge as a world champion, the world champion at that. You see, he had just cashed in his Money-in-the-Bank briefcase and took the title from John Cena a month ago on New Year's Revolution. Hey, I'm no Cena fan, too, but I felt Edge hadn't proven himself yet. He wasn't main event material for me. I guess the same holds true for other midcarders suddenly pushed to the top.

Oddly enough, a few world championships later, Edge grew into it for me. From the Edge-Lita teamup to team Rated-RKO with Randy Orton to the Edge-Vickie Guerrero-La Familia-Edgeheads to his surprise return at the 2010 Royal Rumble, he solidified his character of The Rated-R Superstar and The Ultimate Opportunist.

Edge retained the WWE Championship vs Cena in Manila. Circa 2006.

It was fortunate that Edge ended his career as a face, although his retirement speech would've been more interesting to formulate had he been a heel. But hey, there are a lot of WWE greats who had a bad sendoff when they retired (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart). How many wrestlers can say they had two retirement speeches and retired as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion? So it's still a blessing even if we will never see that Edge-Christian feud we all have been waiting for since Christian came back to the WWE in 2009. Much like Rey Mysterio when Eddie Guerrero suddenly passed away late 2005, Christian now has the unenviable but well deserved chance of carrying Edge's momentum as Captain Charisma is currently in line for a World Heavyweight Championship match at Extreme Rules this Sunday.

I can say the same about The Miz, too, but that's a another topic altogether. I won't delve deeper into Edge's main event status because I think other IWC bloggers can say it better than I can. Hey, Edge's career wasn't all roses and cherries. He had his fair share of controversy (Lita/Matt Hardy, steroids), but he (pun intended) speared his way though all that and achieved more than anyone else in recent memory. Check the T-shirt to see what I mean.

As briefly as he said it in his speech, thank you, thank you very much, Adam Copeland.

THE BLOG IS BACK!

The Driver Seat

By Hub Pacheco

About five years ago, my good friend Jeff & I started this blog after the WWE RAW team held two shows here in Manila. This blog was supposed to gather and collect our thoughts and opinions on WWE happenings. We are HUGE fans of the WWE and other pro wrestling federations and this blog was the outlet for all of our mark out moments, character sentiments and booking frustrations. All in good fun, of course.

School work started to pile in a year later and although SmackDown! held two shows on July 2007 in Manila, we just couldn't find the time to get back to writing here. So we just stopped. I loved discussing anything and everything about wrestling, but I wasn't motivated to do so any more then.

July 2009 - Smackdown/ECW held a one-night only show in Manila. At the first RAW of 2010, Bret Hart appeared on RAW. HBK retired that same year in a WrestleMania match with The Undertaker. February 2011 - The Rock came back and announced on RAW that he would be the special guest host of this year's WrestleMania. To quote good ol' JR Jim Ross, business picked up!

I also started writing a webcomic called Work in Progress (WIP) last year and that kinda reenergized me to write some more. And what better way to get my writing chops back in order than by writing something I'm passionate about other than basketball, comics and photography?

Long story short, that is the reason why I just shined this blog up real nice, turned it sideways and will be sticking this up on all your candy@$$ screens!

Now can you dig that, sucka!

ON THE BENOIT TRAGEDY: DON'T JUDGE THE LAST 3 DAYS ONLY

The Driver Seat
by Hub Pacheco

Before anything else, let me just share a quote from my Theology textbook. It's about conscience.

"Conscience is our capacity to discern what is morally good or evil, with the feeling of being obliged to do the good and avoid evil....Conscience can be defined as our subjective norm of moral behavior, which determines how we should act by applying objective moral norm(s) to a specific moral act."

Much like Eddie Guerrero's tragic demise back in 2005, I was caught by surprise by the news of Chris Benoit's double murder-suicide. Much like in 2005, I was in class when I was informed of the news.

By now, the US media will have been all over the Benoit tragedy, debating "'roid rage" and drug abuse as the main cause for what has happened. Being a media student, it can as no surprise that reports spread like wildfire all over newspapers (It made the front page of our national daily here.) and the Internet. The truth, whatever the investigations can tell, is very much vague.

I don't really know the whole story (does anyone? I mean, it was murder-suicide after all.) Speculation is all that can be interpreted by the people in this debate. Internet reports have very little credibility. And since almost everything has been said, let me just go straight to the point:Chris Benoit should not be remembered for the last three days of his life. His is a wrestling career that should be admired by wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike. As far as I know, from watching him on TV, we has always a good hard worker. And his legacy should not be tainted by the last three days of his life.

Let me give an analogy to make my point clearer: Let's say that Osama Bin Laden, being a crazy-ass terrorist that he is, keeps on doing that shit until the last few days of his life. Before he dies, the confesses all his sins and is given penance. Would you remember him as a good person? Or would you remember him for all the shit that he did?

We can never know what Benoit was thinking when he did what he did. We have no right to judge him, even if we constantly do. Let's just leave that judgment to the Big Guy above.

Now leave him be. Chris, Nancy, and Daniel. Rest in Piece.