Post by OfLegend on Jun 16, 2006 14:03:41 GMT
Leonard versus...?
by Dan Seltzer
Well, a new champion on Unleashed, but if my sources and journalistic instincts are correct, it won’t last long. Despite putting on several match of the year contenders aside from his excellent title-winning performance against Adam Matthews, Lance Leonard will almost certainly be called upon to lose the CCW World Heavyweight Championship to the returning Nathan Versus before the Summer is out. To put it simply, Leonard is too dangerous a threat to a position at the top of the card for Versus to allow him to carry the title for long. Furthermore, on a personal level, the “Future of Sports Entertainment” cannot stand to see “The MVP of CCW” as the champion.
Why? The answer is simple. There is a legitimate dispute between these two men dating back to early in their careers, when Versus was IWGP Champion and Leonard was a rookie in training. In following issues, I hope to unearth the true story behind this bad blood, but for now I will present you with the turn of events reported by onlookers present on that fateful day in Tokyo’s branch of the Inoki Dojo which started the real life feud off.
The story runs thus: during a training session in 2004, the dojo was graced by a surprise visit by champion-to-be Nathan Versus, who had just signed with the company. Hoping to display his skills to the rookies, Versus stepped straight into one of the training rings and challenged one of the two men inside to work a few spots with him. Only one of them, a man working under the name of Lance Knight (no relation to CCW’s Marcus Knight), could speak English, and retorted with a different suggestion: instead of working a spot, Versus should see if he could take a new and innovative move the rookie was developing.
Possibly overcome by pride (no pun intended), Versus foolishly accepted to take a manoeuvre he had never seen performed before, which turned out to be Knight’s “Fury Driver”, a muscle-buster into a reverse Samoan piledriver. Intentionally or not, Knight landed Versus directly on his head when performing the move, causing the veteran to be literally knocked unconscious. After several minutes, the trainers present managed to revive Versus, who went straight for Knight, knocking him out in return with a single right handed punch and storming out of the building. Knight is now known as Lance Leonard in CCW.
Since then, Leonard and Versus have taken several shots at each other in supposedly in-character interviews, and building security have repeatedly been called on to separate the two men during Unleashed tapings. The most significant repercussion came at The Reckoning: in what was nearly a repeat of the infamous Tokyo Dome Shoot, Versus and Leonard potatoed the heck out of each other various times during the match. Fortunately, both men were able to keep their egos in check, and Leonard managed to retain enough professionalism not to break Versus’ neck when performing The Kraken.
In what is surely asking for trouble, the CCW writers have decided to imitate life; and by the time you read this, the on-screen feud between Leonard and Versus should be well underway. Expect Versus to walk away with the last laugh, however: as potent a backstage force as Leonard is reportedly becoming, he currently has none of the businessman saavy or ruthless pull that Versus executes and enjoys on a regular basis.
The full results from Vindication were as follows:
Al Woodbridge defeated Marnie in a **** opening match. A huge improvement over Marnie’s previous PPV outings, this one got the card off to a very good start.
Kings of Krunk rolled over Union Jakked and Team Thrashers to win the Global Tag titles in a ** triple threat match. As entertaining as Hot Fudge Douglas and the Vanilla Gorilla are, the uninteresting Unleashed tag scene in general needs working on.
Damien Johnson predictably won a * 10 man open, which aside from the victor was basically a curtain-puller battle royal.
Bulldog defeated Adam Machiavelli in a typical ** hardcore outing to win the Street Fight title. An overbooked mess with one or two redeeming features.
Josh Violence shockingly beat Paul Hill after Machiavelli’s interference in a strong *** match. Violence, who was carried by Hill despite showing some promise outside of a brawling environment, is now on the verge of main event stardom as the official number one contender.
Max Macbeth pulled out a win against the British Lion to retain the National title in a strangely booked but entertaining *** match, which started high impact and then slowed down.
And Lance Leonard beat Adam Matthews to win the World Heavyweight title in the ****1/2 match of the year so far, which would have got full marks were it not for the interference of Marnie and Macbeth. This is well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already.
--
Next issue, further coverage of the feud between Leonard and Versus that threatens to split Unleashed in two, as well as a look at Onslaught's current position as the B show. 'Til next time.
by Dan Seltzer
Well, a new champion on Unleashed, but if my sources and journalistic instincts are correct, it won’t last long. Despite putting on several match of the year contenders aside from his excellent title-winning performance against Adam Matthews, Lance Leonard will almost certainly be called upon to lose the CCW World Heavyweight Championship to the returning Nathan Versus before the Summer is out. To put it simply, Leonard is too dangerous a threat to a position at the top of the card for Versus to allow him to carry the title for long. Furthermore, on a personal level, the “Future of Sports Entertainment” cannot stand to see “The MVP of CCW” as the champion.
Why? The answer is simple. There is a legitimate dispute between these two men dating back to early in their careers, when Versus was IWGP Champion and Leonard was a rookie in training. In following issues, I hope to unearth the true story behind this bad blood, but for now I will present you with the turn of events reported by onlookers present on that fateful day in Tokyo’s branch of the Inoki Dojo which started the real life feud off.
The story runs thus: during a training session in 2004, the dojo was graced by a surprise visit by champion-to-be Nathan Versus, who had just signed with the company. Hoping to display his skills to the rookies, Versus stepped straight into one of the training rings and challenged one of the two men inside to work a few spots with him. Only one of them, a man working under the name of Lance Knight (no relation to CCW’s Marcus Knight), could speak English, and retorted with a different suggestion: instead of working a spot, Versus should see if he could take a new and innovative move the rookie was developing.
Possibly overcome by pride (no pun intended), Versus foolishly accepted to take a manoeuvre he had never seen performed before, which turned out to be Knight’s “Fury Driver”, a muscle-buster into a reverse Samoan piledriver. Intentionally or not, Knight landed Versus directly on his head when performing the move, causing the veteran to be literally knocked unconscious. After several minutes, the trainers present managed to revive Versus, who went straight for Knight, knocking him out in return with a single right handed punch and storming out of the building. Knight is now known as Lance Leonard in CCW.
Since then, Leonard and Versus have taken several shots at each other in supposedly in-character interviews, and building security have repeatedly been called on to separate the two men during Unleashed tapings. The most significant repercussion came at The Reckoning: in what was nearly a repeat of the infamous Tokyo Dome Shoot, Versus and Leonard potatoed the heck out of each other various times during the match. Fortunately, both men were able to keep their egos in check, and Leonard managed to retain enough professionalism not to break Versus’ neck when performing The Kraken.
In what is surely asking for trouble, the CCW writers have decided to imitate life; and by the time you read this, the on-screen feud between Leonard and Versus should be well underway. Expect Versus to walk away with the last laugh, however: as potent a backstage force as Leonard is reportedly becoming, he currently has none of the businessman saavy or ruthless pull that Versus executes and enjoys on a regular basis.
The full results from Vindication were as follows:
Al Woodbridge defeated Marnie in a **** opening match. A huge improvement over Marnie’s previous PPV outings, this one got the card off to a very good start.
Kings of Krunk rolled over Union Jakked and Team Thrashers to win the Global Tag titles in a ** triple threat match. As entertaining as Hot Fudge Douglas and the Vanilla Gorilla are, the uninteresting Unleashed tag scene in general needs working on.
Damien Johnson predictably won a * 10 man open, which aside from the victor was basically a curtain-puller battle royal.
Bulldog defeated Adam Machiavelli in a typical ** hardcore outing to win the Street Fight title. An overbooked mess with one or two redeeming features.
Josh Violence shockingly beat Paul Hill after Machiavelli’s interference in a strong *** match. Violence, who was carried by Hill despite showing some promise outside of a brawling environment, is now on the verge of main event stardom as the official number one contender.
Max Macbeth pulled out a win against the British Lion to retain the National title in a strangely booked but entertaining *** match, which started high impact and then slowed down.
And Lance Leonard beat Adam Matthews to win the World Heavyweight title in the ****1/2 match of the year so far, which would have got full marks were it not for the interference of Marnie and Macbeth. This is well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already.
--
Next issue, further coverage of the feud between Leonard and Versus that threatens to split Unleashed in two, as well as a look at Onslaught's current position as the B show. 'Til next time.
