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FWrestling.com - Circuit News and Info
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FWrestling.com - Circuit News and Info
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Fwrestling.com news
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ESEN Spotlight: The Killing of the King (Part Two)
This is the end… my only friend, the end.
Most professional wrestling historians acknowledge FISH FUND XI: End of an Era as the biggest event in the history of the sport. Hornet would lose the Career Match to GUNS in the second night’s main event, but numerous wrestlers would cite that night as the night their careers took a sharp turn.
Certainly, Troy Windham would never be the same again.
Set to unify the EN World Tag Team Championship with the Unified Tag Team Championship, Generation X-Press, Troy Windham and his partner Shawn Matthews were set to square off against Japanese Assault, the Shotgun Shogun and the Kamikaze Kid.
There was just one problem: Shawn Matthews had quit the CSWA mere days before the event, tossing the EN World Tag Team title belts in the trash on live television. Nonplussed, Troy went to the ring, determined to defend the EN World Tag Team Championship all by himself. Truth be told, he nearly became Unified Tag Team Champion without a partner. In contrast, Eli would find more success at Fish Fund XI, retaining the Presidential Championship against ATTAXX.
The months that followed would show that, much as FISH FUND XI was the end of an era, it was also the beginning of the Troy Windham story. The King of the Slackers took the notoriety that his attack on his former tag team partner had given him and used it to build a stable around himself. This precursor to the Frat would see Troy become one of the most outspoken wrestlers on the CSWA’s roster, and, while he was still not considered one of the ‘money wrestlers’ by the major players in the sport, he was regarded highly enough to earn a shot at Eli’s CSWA Presidential Championship belt in January 1997.
The match would be the only time in history that Eli and Troy would wrestle each other with a championship on the line.
Troy came out on top in a heavy battle that saw multiple cases of interference – both on the side of the Frat and from Poison Ivy. The after – effects of the match saw the Frat lay Eli out on a table, stack another table on top of him, and drive him through both. This would put him out of action for more than a year, during which time everything that had not changed at FISH FUND XI would do so, rapidly.
Nobody knew it at the time, but the moment Eli went through the tables, war was declared.
Take my picture by the pool cause I'm the next big thing!
Shortly after Troy became the CSWA Presidential Champion, Co-Commissioners Chad Merritt and Stephen Thomas vacated every title and brought back the CSWA World Heavyweight Championship (previously supplanted by the Enterprise World Championship), and immediately began a single elimination tournament to crown the first Champion of the new era. While Troy would ultimately fall to GUNS in the semi – final round at ANNIVERSARY 1997, the King of the Slackers had taken the wrestling world by storm, not only ultimately taking the CSWA World Championship from GUNS in July of 1997, but becoming the biggest name in the UWA without wrestling a single match. Even as the CSWA shut down under the weight of the Red Midget’s apparent murder and Commissioner Merritt’s overbearing pride, Troy Windham remained in the spotlight, parlaying his status as the King of the Slackers into mainstream media exposure – one could approach the term overexposure – that turned him from a token ‘cool’ professional wrestler into a household name.
Even after the CSWA’s return in April 1998, Troy remained at the forefront of the Greensboro assault, first by defeating Mark Windham at ANNIVERSARY with the help of the newly re – formed Frat, then by insinuating himself in the World Title picture – a title he was never defeated for – by interfering in the Hornet/GUNS match designed to fill the vacancy, then by teaming with Mark in an unorthodox tag team match for the belt before a tournament was declared to settle the issue once and for all.
Unfortunately, Troy Windham’s personal demons and party habits would force him out of the CSWA as the weather started to heat up, and he would not be seen from again for nearly a year.
Or perhaps fortunately, all things considered.
I got my fist, I got my brain, I got survivalism.
Eli Flair made his return to the CSWA without a press conference, without a high profile match, and without a contract. In his absence, another wrestler had been hired under the name ‘The Eliminator,’ and Eli simply interrupted a match. In a move that would become something of a trademark, there was no fuss and no pageantry; just a course of action. Rapidly re-signed, Eli made no secret of the fact that he had returned to the CSWA for Troy Windham, though Troy’s departure and growing frustration with both the Eliminator and his trio of allies would cause the King of Extreme to radically realign his goals.
It wasn’t long before those goals found him across the ring from not only The Eliminator, but newcomer ‘Good God’ Kevin Powers, in a triangle match for the CSWA United States Championship at ELVIS LIVES XI. Eli and Powers had managed to start a relationship that wavered between enemies and rivals so closely that the only thing they hated more than each other was The Eliminator himself. Flair would come out on top in what would ultimately be the final pay per view that the Eliminator would wrestle on, with what seemed like a new set of enemies in Kevin Powers, former World Champion ‘Hurricane’ Eddy Love, and ‘Iceman’ Steve Radder, better known by the initials “PLR.”
He would soon be distracted, however, by a bigger name than he ever thought. As CSWA Anniversary 1999 approached, Eli Flair would gain access to a truly exclusive club – and he would get his hands on Hornet. In the closing moments of the final match of the IRONMAN of CHAMPIONS tournament, Eli, with a small assist from Poison Ivy, would defeat the former UNIFIED World Champion to become CSWA World Heavyweight Champion himself.
CSWA Anniversary 1999 also saw the return of Troy Windham.
If I’d listened to everything that they’d said to me I wouldn’t be here.
It should be noted that both Troy Windham and Eli Flair consistently reached the pinnacle of the sport when the other was not an active participant in whatever promotion they were in. Troy Windham won his first CSWA World Title while Eli was out with injury, and likewise, Eli’s road to the title took place while Troy was dealing with personal problems. Troy’s return at Anniversary 1999 was motivated by the escalating feud between his cousins Mark and Timmy, and the subsequent revelation that Timmy was not a Windham at all, and that Mark and Troy were actually brothers.
During the four year stretch between their most brutal matches and their final match, while Eli became a household name and multi – time World Champion in a number of promotions of varying status and global reach, and Troy cemented his status as perhaps the greatest overall wrestler to ever step into the CSWA, the silence stretched through the wrestling world and proved to even the most jaded fan that, when both men were under the same roof, other people held World Titles because they allowed it, and both men thrived on it. Even Troy’s massive ego could not cover the fact that he knew he was never as good as when Eli Flair was across the ring from him, and Eli knew, even with his reputation as one of the hardest workers in the ring, nobody was a harder fight than a man ironically nicknamed the King of the Slackers.
Fans the world over have debated endlessly over how far Eli and Troy could have gotten if they had focused the energy they used against each other on defeating World Champions, or, more unbelievably, if they had actually joined forces.
For the sake of the men and women who held championships during their greatest battles, it’s a good thing they didn’t.
Fortunately for Eli’s title reign, Troy’s return did not immediately send them against each other. The King of the Slackers insinuated himself into the breakup of tag team champions Eddy Love and Kevin Powers, forming the Playboys with Love, to combat Powers and Gabriel Poe, a team that would come to be known as the Dark Carnival. Love and Troy seemed a perfect fit, with their arrogance outmatched only by their ability. Added to the mix was Love’s manager and life partner ‘Sweet’ Melissa, and they would eventually round out with personal aide – turned – wrestler JJ DeVille, still a CSWA wrestler to this day.
But the war would find itself the night Eli defended his World Title against Eddy Love.
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