International Wrestling Cartel

Worth - Hentai
It came as no surprise to me that the Yuan "unpegged" itself from the American dollar. With its constantly expanding production and exporting base, it was only a matter of time before the way that it was viewed as a global economic entity had to be changed.

Knowing that the world was not about to voluntarily re-evaluate the worth of their economy (and by proxy their currency), China took the matter into their own hands and declared that their worth was no longer to be viewed in relation to the US dollar. With the US devaluing the Yuan as much as 40%, a change of this magnitude can only have a positive impact on China's economy.

I bring this up because an allegory can be drawn between this current event and current events in the IWC. Indeed, this comparison can be summed up in one word.
Hentai.

To be fair, this story starts with Super Hentai. Trained in Hayabusa, Japan, he quickly picked up the more brutal side of puroeasu just as easily as he picked up the showmanship of the American style that would become just as important a part of his in-ring style that he uses today. To say that he picked up the various aspects of life in the squared circle effortlessly would be unfair to the amount of work that Hentai put (and continues to put) into learning his craft.

This skill garnered him many accolades. Many "super indys" (for a complete list, ask Joe Dombrowski) made a detour into our ring to test their skills against IWC's own Super Hentai. Not content with letting the best of the best search him out, Hentai even accepted several tours in Japan's FMW, just to prove that he could compete on a global level.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Much like China, Hentai proved again and again that he was a substantial value to his market. Much like Hentai, China realized that it was time to recognize their own worth and act upon it.

Pop quiz time, kids. Super Hentai’s last title shot before he and Dark faced the Midnight Express was when? Question #2: When was the last time that Super Hentai's accomplishments and record were even considered by the IWC booking committee? He was passed over time and time again for title shots that he was more than deserving of, but he let it slide for the better of "the company." He accepted the challenges against those who were looking to make their name on his back while being passed over for title shot again and again. Hell, he wasn't even invited to compete in the last Super Indy Tournament, the very contest that helped put IWC on the map.

Looking back, it was really only a matter of time. You can only undervalue a product for so long. The US under-valued the Yuan by as much as 40% to make sure that other imports were treated equally. Before Super Hentai was lost in the second rate competition, he decided to take his future into his own hands. IWC didn't recognize the value that Super Hentai contributed to every show that he was on, so he decided to remind everyone what he was worth. Super Hentai stepped aside, and just plain Hentai made a deal with IWC's own devil incarnate, Sebastian Dark.

They say that the difference between the mindset of Japanese and American businesses is that if you double cross an American company they want to bury you, where if you double cross a Japanese company, they want to recruit you. Hentai saw Dark as a brutal, amoral force. He had run into him time and time again in the ring, and was showing the scars from it. Dark saw Hentai as the in to finally taking a good, hard stab at Norm Connors, who has been the target of Dark's grudge for years (but that's another column). It was a pretty simple math that brought these two one-time rivals together.

With both China and Hentai, it was a drastic action. It took months of planning and wasn't made as a snap judgment. Most importantly, it got the attention of those who it was meant to in a very real and sudden way. Investors are scrambling to get enough liquid capital transferred over to Chinese currency to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Hentai, in addition to being the great Satan of IWC, now has title gold around his waste. By making that "power move" and joining forces with Dark, Hentai forced everyone to quickly re-evaluate just who could do what in IWC. When he and the bastard son of 1000 corpses did their message job on Norm Connors, people were lining up to be the next in the ring against both (or either) of them.

This is precisely what Hentai wanted. He doesn't need your love or your cheers. He doesn't need anything from the crowd anymore. What Hentai set out to remind everyone of is that he deserves your attention.

Judging by the way his stock is rising every time he makes an appearance in IWC, I'd say that your attention is exactly what he has.