Basler’s Blog
by Al Basler
Declaration of War
What started as the release of frustration in the heat of battle has evolved into much, much more. After his second consecutive time limit draw with Slyck Wagner Brown, Jeremy Prophet lashed out. He claimed that the veterans of New England Championship Wrestling, guys like Brown and NECW Heavyweight Champion Antonio Thomas, were being given the spotlight while younger wrestlers were forced to watch from the sidelines. Prophet felt they needed to step aside and let the future take over. To prove his point, he challenged Brown and Thomas to a tag team match against him and whoever he could find to be his partner.
No one was prepared for what would happen when it was time for this challenge to take place. Clearly, Prophet is not the only one who feels that the old guard was holding the next generation down. In a move designed to show Thomas and Brown just how widespread this sentiment is, he not only found one partner, he found two. Prophet, not in the building last week on New England Championship Wrestling, informed his opponents that he found two men who shared his views. What unfolded next was a shock to everyone in attendance, especially Thomas and Brown.
The first man introduced was Bobby Ocean, a protege of Wagner Brown. In disbelief, Brown was refusing to fight his longtime friend. Cameras clearly picked up Ocean saying that Wagner had promised that he would get Ocean into NECW. It seems that Wagner wasn’t working fast enough for Ocean’s liking.
While Ocean and Wagner were having it out and all of the focus was there, a man came in from the back door. A man who we haven’t seen in NECW in months. A man who has had a good deal of time to sit back and think about things. Former NECW Heavyweight Champion, Sean Burke emerged, wielding a baseball bat and a chain, hit the ring and viciously attacked his mentor, Antonio Thomas.
I told you not to forget the name of Sean Burke. Forced to relinquish the NECW Heavyweight Championship due to an ankle injury, suffered in a match with Thomas, the man who would go on to claim the vacated title, Burke has undergone a change. When a man loses a championship in battle, it hurts, but there is an easier path to acceptance. You were bested in competition on that night, and while you no longer possess that which you have worked so hard for, it can strengthen your resolve and teach you what to do differently in your future quest to reclaim that position as champion. In Burke’s case, he was forced to hand over what he had earned. It led to a feeling that he is still the rightful champion and, due to the circumstances surrounding the injury, unmitigated anger.
Sean Burke is angry that he lost the NECW Heavyweight Championship without being defeated. He is angry that the man who was in the ring at the time of the injury that forced his championship forfeiture is the man who benefited from it. It just so happened that that man was Antonio Thomas, someone who Burke regarded as a friend. As he rehabbed his ankle, every day fueled that anger, and it all culminated with what we witnesses last week. A savage assault that no one, least of all Antonio Thomas, saw coming.
While Burke decimated Thomas, Ocean took the opportunity to attack his mentor, Wagner Brown. The two proteges laid waste to the men who helped hone their skills and get their careers off the ground. It was cold and it was calculated. They only relented when NECW Television Champion, Johnny Thunder and Jonny Idol came out to aid Thomas and Wagner. Burke grabbed the microphone and announced that they were taking NECW back from the veterans who refused to step aside. And with that, Sean Burke, Bobby Ocean, and Jeremy Prophet declared war, both physically and psychologically, against what they feel is the establishment of NECW.