Layton's League Lowdown

The student becomes the master...

August 18, 2007

Johnny Gun was a hell of a student.

If you weren't there for MEWL's Forsaken on Aug. 4th, let me explain. Gun made his professional wrestling debut. He was introduced by one of his trainers, "The Natural" Christian Vaughn, then proceeded to put up an impressive fight in a debut loss to Lones Oaks.

Then, after the main event, in which Vaughn took the North American Title from Wilbur Whitlock - more on that later - Gun attacked his bloodied, exhausted mentor, laying him out.

Yes, Johnny Gun was a hell of a student.

He really learned his lessons well, not only how to exchange holds and endure pain, but how to get ahead in the business. You see, as I watched "The Natural" lying there, broken, bloodied and betrayed, I couldn't help but think of how Vaughn had once done the same thing to "Big Gun" Jeff Cannon, costing his friend the MEWL Title.

So the student learned: Do what you have to, and there are no such things as a friend in MEWL.

And Vaughn learned his lesson: What goes around comes around.

Yes, it was a night of firsts. Gun's first match, a piledriver on the top turnbuckle...

Oh, you didn't know? Vaughn and Whitlock's brutal cage match featured a piledriver on the top rope. Bet you never saw that before! Yes, you never know what you'll see on an MEWL show.

For example, who would have thought we'd see a five-star match between teammates Shane Sensation and Jazin Blaze? But that's just what we saw, right before the Shane-Blaze-"Killer" Chris Kole team seemingly imploded, and before the night was through Kole left Blaze in a pool of his own blood, having seemingly aligned himself with Jessyka Havok.

So there goes my favorite tag team. The bad news: Kole is a total douchebag. The good news: I'm sure we'll see some great wrestling matches come out of this.

Speaking of great matches, we've seen so many of them over the years from Shane Sensation, and we saw another one that night. And yet, despite all of his success, despite all of his fans, he was still bothered by some of the things I've written about him in this column, and he let me know it Sat. night.

"Do you think I've earned my pay?" he asked me after winning the Cruiserweight Title.

Yes, Shane. Yes I do. But I've always thought you earned your pay. I just never thought you had lived up to your potential.

And why do you care what I think? After all that you have accomplished, why does that matter?

The real question is this: When you look in the mirror, do you see someone who has done all that they can, who is as good as he can be? If not, don't take it out on me.

And if you do see someone who has lived up to their potential when you look in the mirror, it's time to get a new mirror. The one you have is broken.

Bottom line time, folks: Forsaken was one hell of a show, and Sever, Aug. 25 at the Dover Armory, is sure to be one too.

Can't wait to see you there.