World Champions

As all of our A1E readers will know by now, we crowned a new World Heavyweight champion at Sudden Death when Jericoholic Anonymous defeated Beast to achieve his longest running goal in efedding.

Honestly, I have nothing but good things to say about JA's win. He has been extremely focused since winning the Pier 6 Brawl back in January, and it's been a pretty steady march toward the title. Through no bad intentions, the BC actually made his path to Sudden Death pretty hard as he went through a gauntlet of very strong opponents that could have derailed him, but he didn't let it.

This is a very good time for JA. There really is nothing quite like becoming a "world champion" in whatever fed you're competing in, which is the point of this entry.

Through the years, A1E has developed something of a "hierarchy" of champions. There are guys like Housefly, BigDog, or Gladiator who have racked up title reigns many months long. For that reason, they are looked up to as being somehow "better" champions than some others.

I'd like to take something of an issue with that. And coming from me, that means a little something since my name is one that often comes up in discussions of "Greatest A1E Champion".

The way A1E works, it takes a lot to even be considered for a World Title shot. With our two week schedule, we are down to six pay-per-view cycles in a year. In two of those, the #1 contender is pre-determined through winning a prior event. The challenger at Golden Dreams comes out of our annual #1 contender tournament in the summer, and the challenger at Sudden Death goes to the winner of the Pier 6 Brawl.

That leaves only four pay-per-views where a challenger is chosen by the booking committee. Sure, there are occasional times where a guy can get what I call a "hotshot" title shot in the middle of a month, but I maintain that it's extraordinarily difficult for a challenger to actually win the title in one of these matches because the voters are ingrained to be looking forward to the angle that's being played out for the coming PPV. It's happened, but it's definitely in the minority.

So, when you find yourself with a shot at the World Heavyweight Title in a programmed event on pay-per-view, you definitely have to give it your best shot. In an environment like this, it becomes very difficult for the champion to hold onto the title for any real length of time. Yes, that does make it impressive when someone does it. But, I think we sometimes go overboard in downgrading someone who isn't able to rack up the months.

People consider champions like Cross, Snake, or some others as "transitional" champions. I think this does a great disservice to the effort these guys put into winning the title. Recently, both Richard Farnswirth and Beast have turned in one month title reigns. Would you consider either of these two guys to be second tier champions? I'd like to think not.

Anyway, what this is boiling down to is that I think we owe a touch more respect to guys who are able to win the biggest title in our fed. I don't care if you defend it for a year or never defend it at all. The accomplishment is not diminished.

Hail to the Champ!