| THE RISE AND FALL OF A HARDCORE LEGEND With the acquisition of Tommy Polo from Extreme Zone to Action Zone, things looked up for the �Hardcore Legend�. His time us up on Extreme Zone as The Triple Threat (Steve Austin, Batista, and Tommy Polo) had sustained a massive loss to The Ministry of Darkness (Brimstone, Raven, and Vulcan) at Detox, thus losing the Tag Team Championship. During this battle, Tommy Polo sustained a monstrous chokeslam from the stage in the arena, through several tables. Many thought this was the end of Tommy Polo, but it was just the beginning. As he laid up in his hospital bed, M.O.D member, Vulcan �paid� Mr. Polo a visit and cast a spell on him, turning him into a chicken. Yes, a chicken. Polo would not be seen or heard from for months. During this time, Action Zone was lagging in the ratings and needed some star power to revive its dying audience. A trade was made between Extreme Zone and Action Zone in hopes to bring new life to Action Zone. The gamble paid off as Tommy Polo was traded to Action Zone, even as a chicken, to help that show. More time went by and Polo had not appeared on Action Zone television. General Manager Winter Sanderson took time off because of the stress of running the program and a new General Manager by the name Ice Blazestone took over. Soon enough, he couldn�t save the program and he scurried away like a rat. Action Zone was looking bleak, until Al Powers� son, Shane Powers stepped in. He had fresh ideas and had a direction for Action Zone. He even convinced Tommy Polo to return to action. Polo did just that with an attack on then, Universal Champion, Hitman. Many thought, this was the breakout feud that Polo needed to jumpstart his career and to bring the ratings of Action Zone up to standards, but it didn�t happen. An unspoken tragedy happened to Hitman, thus vacating the Universal Championship and ultimately it being handed over to Polo. Polo did not like the circumstances he obtained the title, but vowed to defend it with blood, sweat and tears. Time went by and many challenged Polo. Even long time rival from Extreme Zone, Vengance made his bid on the Universal Championship to try to quiet the mouth of Polo. But Polo dominated that feud that ended at the biggest pay per view of the year, No Mercy. Vengance was never the same afterward and it added to the mystic of Tommy Polo. Yet, he didn�t feel good about himself. He still had other things he wanted to obtain, he wanted to become the first-ever �Grand Slam Champion� of JWA:EWA. The �Grand Slam Champion� is a term coined by many federations when one individual holds or once held every single major title that there is to hold. His eyes were set on Red Crush, the World Television Champion, to accomplish this feat. Moves were made to see if Polo was worthy of the Television Championship and he had a couple obstacles to jump. Being the tough guy that he is, he cleared the hurdle with ease to getting his shot at Red Crush. But once again, the champion didn�t show for the match and Polo was awarded the title. Deep inside, Polo was feeling down about Action Zone and contemplated giving up and requesting a trade back to the harsh lands of Extreme Zone, but first, he wanted to accomplish his goal, being the Grand Slam Champion. Shane Powers offered his hand in friendship to Polo, who doesn�t like management at all, and declined. This action would later make Polo think of his actions. He then wanted to team with Triple D to go after the World Tag Team Championship held by Shadow and The Corpse. It would help Polo get closer to his goal and Triple D get revenge on the team that he lost those titles to. Funny, but Triple D declined and he never saw those tag team titles again. With that behind him and his plan still in full effect, Polo then set his eyes on the Action Zone Championship, then named the JWA:EWA / WWA Undisputed Action Zone Championship. It was being held by Virus but by some ill twist of fate, Virus vacated the title a week before No Mercy, leaving Polo to wonder why all the champions are vacating their championships before he can get his hands on them. At No Mercy, the Action Zone Championship was decided between The Invincible and Reaper, with The Invincible accomplishing a dream and becoming a major champion. Polo, saw light at the end of the tunnel as he knew, The Invincible was easy pickings���or was he? Polo fought week in and week out, trying to impress the Booking Committee to allow him to fight The Invincible for the Action Zone Championship, but they seemed reluctant to allow that to happen, even Shane Powers put up a vote of �no�. Polo began to wonder why is he being held back, even with a spotless record. Other wrestlers were getting shots at the title, even Big Show, who many thought was the biggest waste of time. Polo felt as if the Action Zone Championship was losing shine due to it being around the waist of The Invincible and being defended against the likes of Reaper, Big Show and G-Dawg. Polo demanded that he get his shot and this is where the controversy began. Action Zone management did not like the fact that Polo was being aggressive with them, in his attempt to be champion. Another obstacle was thrown into the face of Polo as he had to go through both Big Show and Reaper in some insane cage match to get a shot at The Invincible. By some force of nature, Polo suffered his first loss on Action Zone and his shot at the big prize. He became incensed at management for putting him in an odds-out situation and they laughed at him and told him to suck it up. During this period, Winter Sanderson returned as General Manager and threw his fist in the face of Polo, vowing to �never, under my watch, will you ever get a shot at the title�. This set Polo off to the point where he started to publicly criticize Action Zone�s talent and management. His cries here not heard and if they were, he was told that he would not wrestle on Action Zone again. In the middle of Polo�s run to the championship, The Corpse, who was traded back to Action Zone from Extreme Zone, because of a situation he didn�t like, was put into the face of Polo to �shut him up�. It was speculated that The Corpse was used to stop Polo from achieving his goal and make it impossible for he to do so. Then the accusations that The Corpse, Shane Powers and Winter Sanderson were all together, in a grand scheme to kill the career of Tommy Polo, soon followed. Polo didn�t know what to do but to give it up and leave, since that�s what management had been telling him to do in the first place. Once the words, �I hate you and I don�t care where you go� and �you are not allowed to carry as many belts as you want,� are uttered, it�s time to go. But first, management thought it would be a nice gesture to include Polo and The Corpse in a match where both of Polo�s titles will be on the line and the winner will be the final participant in a 6-Pack match for the Action Zone Championship. The stipulation was for Polo to win and move on and eliminate The Corpse from ever gaining a shot at the championship. This was odd to Polo as he fought for months to get to the championship and The Corpse was being handed a chance without even having a match, but against him and everything was on the line. Why would The Corpse have such precedence over Polo? Then it all points back to Polo being hated and the accusations of The Corpse being in with management. It was all denied, but nothing else can be said about it. Polo felt that�s what it was. In the middle of this soap opera, Polo explained the he helped Action Zone get ratings and people wanted to see what was going to happen next, due to his presence, management felt otherwise. The words of Polo could have never been so true when he explained that he�s so World-renown that people would just come up and challenge him. Then comes an arrogant punk by the name of Coggle to prove Polo right. Coggle calls Polo all sorts of names and threatens to give him his �long sausage�, but calls Polo homophobic names. Polo answers the calls of Coggle by pissing on his boots and taking his women. Coggle never stepped to Polo again and never got into an Action Zone ring again. The frustrations of Polo just couldn�t get any worse but he remained the real deal. Before the �ALL or NOTHING� match happened between Tommy Polo and The Corpse, Polo was stabbed by a gang of Corpse fans and almost died. Now the twist of fate that always happened to other champions before he got his shot now came full circle and happened to him. Is it a curse on Action Zone that certain performers fall before their time? Or is it that management drives the talent away due to mistreatment? Polo recovered enough to sign a waiver with his doctor to face The Corpse, but he had had enough of Winter Sanderson, Shane Powers and The Corpse holding him down and elected to throw away his two titles, since that�s what management wanted him to do anyway. He gave management what the wanted. He agreed to wrestle The Corpse, but the match was a disappointment, as Tommy Polo said his goodbyes to the Action Zone fans and walked out in the middle of the match. The pain and frustrations of management drove a Hardcore Legend to the top and violently pulled him back down. He took his bumps and bruises from a political standpoint and left Action Zone, the show he so desperately wanted to help. He officially left Action Zone on September 11, 2004 to become a �Free Agent� and walked out of his match after that a few days later. Polo now sits at home, listening to the likes of Randy Orton and Batista insult him on Extreme Zone, and waiting for the right moment to return to JWA:EWA, or give up wrestling all together. He feels that wars should be won in the ring, not in a board room. Maybe one day, a legend could return. 10.08.04 |
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