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Who's got the Bigger Belt?

Posted: Apr 18th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Without any real effort on his part, the fans have taken to new NWA-U Oklahoma Champion Slam Shady has become more and more popular every appearance. All to the chagrin of Hate, Inc. members Christopher Fox & NWA-U Champion Rocco Valentino. Tensions have been building slowly for months now, but with Shady now in possession of the 2nd most prestigous belt in the company, it looks like problems may come to a boil.

Everything appeared to be back on track for Hate, Inc. during their first appearance at the show on April 14. They came out during the match between ComPro & AACW Tag Team & Heavyweight Champion Chance Christopher and Sudden Impact 2. Christopher ducked out of the ring and Slam & Rocco beat up the masked twins, who had done nothing to incur the wrath of Hate except to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fox even said as much to the assembled crowd, pointing out that they were just another example to anyone who wanted to cross him and his cronies.

Later in the show though, the tensions began to rise again. Valenino was defending his title against Mark Sterling and while things were even for a while, the "Oklahoma Legend" took the upper hand towards the end of the match and once again seemed to snap, calling Sterling "Brent", a reference to his cousin Brent Albright. Oklafan has learned that Rocco had been ordered by the NWA-U Championship committee to defend his title against Albright shortly before his match aginst Sterling and obviously the frustration over that spilled onto his opponent. Valentino even went so far as to lock Sterling into the Fujiwara armbar and force him to tap, something that Albright does to his opponents regularly. But after Sterling submitted, Rocco refused to break the hold, even after the pleas of his manager Charming Charles. Shady & Fox entered the ring and in a rather uncharacteristic moment, Shady got in Rocco's face and told him to break the hold. He even went so far as to shove Charming Charles down when Charles & Rocco told him to get in his place.

But those actions didn't deter Slam as he entered the main event, a Sooner Stampede to crown a new NWA-U Oklahoma Champion. Shady was #1 in the ring, immediately followed by 1/2 of the NWA-U Tag Team Champions Spoiler 2000. These 2 functioned as something of a duo, which should come as no surprise since they were both trained together by Skandar Akbar, and when Spoiler's tag team partner the Bounty Hunter entered the picture things looked rather grim for the rest of the contestants. A brief showdown between Slam Shady & Chance Christopher sparked some interest and the #10 entrant was a surprise in the return of AACW Mid-American Light Heavyweight Champion & SWCW Sooner Xtreme Champion Dexter Hardaway, but after his elimination, the match looked the same as it had started, with Slam Shady & Spoiler 2000 standing together. I appeared that Spoiler convinced Shady to let him win, but as the masked man turned to taunt the crowd, Shady used the opportunity to throw Spoiler over the top and become the new NWA-U Oklahoma Champion! Once again, the forces of Hate came out to the ring and while Fox & Charles seemed pleased with the outcome and the addition of the Oklahoma gold to the stable, Rocco made a clear statement by holding up the NWA-U belt that he had no intentions of being the smaller dog in this yard.

Rocco recently made some posts on the NWA-U message board, including the following statement about his relationship with Slam Shady: "My belt is bigger and more prestigious. Shady wants to be me. Shady knows that his place is behind Rocco. Right now Shady is feeling propped up by the fans, but the fans can't help you one bit when you are in a match. That is why I rely on Charming Charles for management guidence.I couldn't care less if you chant Shady's name. I am still the number one guy in this fed and you are just one more goofball jumping on the Shady express." It's impossible to ignore the real message in this posting and once again, the ego of Rocco Valentino makes its presence known. If Shady is going to be truly be his own man, he needs to step out now and do it, as lingering in the presence of Hate may one day make him another name on the LLC...the Long List of Casualties.