The Plight of Bobby Dempsey
Thursday, December 04, 2008

Since the "Good Times, Great Memories" event back in April of 2007, Bobby Dempsey has found himself in a precarious position. After graduating from the ROH Academy in July of 2005, Dempsey fought to make a name for himself alongside his twin brother Derrick, but success came to Derrick first as he captured the ROH Top of the Class Trophy at the "Hell Freezes Over" pre-show. Happy for his brother, Bob still wanted that brass ring for himself, but the opportunity never came until after Derrick lost the trophy to Shane Hagadorn at "Destiny", and disappeared from ROH shortly thereafter. Bob fought valiantly to bring to trophy back to the Dempsey house, but failed repeatedly, in large part to due the underhanded tactics of its holder.

Frustrated and alone, yet finding increasing support from the ROH fans, Dempsey jumped at Tank Toland’s rather backhanded offer of assistance that April night. Tank offered to turn Bobby into a paragon of fitness, a model of a man, instead of the out of shape wretch Toland saw him as. Toland, albeit half-heartedly, tried to motivate Bobby to get into shape, but really found it more fun to verbally, and physically abuse him. And after Toland was brought into Sweet & Sour Inc. as Chris Hero’s personal trainer, well the abuse and humiliation only got worse. What was once a simple kick in the butt turned into repeated slaps across the face, Tank’s looks of disappointment became Hero’s verbal abuse, while the hundred squats a night became 500 or more. And once Hagadorn became a part of the group, Bobby’s humiliation only got worse as the man he never got true revenge on was now party to his humiliation.

But after months of being forced under the ring, or forced to stay in the locker room, a light of hope came to Bobby in the unlikely form of Brent Albright. It started at "A New Level" when Brent refused to hit Bobby after his vicious assault on SnS, and has slowly evolved into an outright plea on Albright’s behalf for Dempsey to stand up for himself, and revolt against Sweeny and his crew. Sweeney responded by threatening Bobby’s place in SnS if he didn’t start earning his keep.

So in Dayton, for the first time in months, Dempsey was put into the ring to compete, and defeated Ninja Yellow in just under 3 minutes. Sweeney still found cause to berate and abuse him. Later that night, Dempsey actually seemed prepared to walk away with Albright after Brent came to the aid of Roderick Strong, but he was dragged away, by his hair no less, by Hagadorn.

Now Dempsey is at a crossroads of sorts. One path is his oddly comfortable position within Sweet & Sour Inc. There he knows his place, and he knows what to expect. The other side is to follow Albright into the unknown, an infinitely scary place. But really, how much abuse can one man take? He’s had his spirit broken, and his will crushed. Can Dempsey reach down and find that part of him that’s willing to fight? Maybe some answers will come this weekend in St. Louis and Nashville because sources say Sweeney has told Bobby that its "time to earn his next meal".

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A Broken Man
Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Up until September 20^th everything seemed to be going the right way for Shane Hagadorn. He was a proud member of Sweet & Sour Inc, his man, Adam Pearce, had just regained the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, and his team had beaten and humiliated Erick Stevens, Roderick Strong, and the Vulture Squad. “Glory by Honor VII” was a glorious night for the manservant, but twenty-four hours later the wheels apparently all came off.

The change was immediately noticeable at the “Return of the 187” event when the normally loud and obnoxious Hagadorn spent the majority of his night sitting in the corner and sulking, nearly breaking into tears according to a couple eyewitness reports from ringside fans. His hair was unkempt, his face unshaven, and his clothes, while never top of the line, had degenerated into sweatpants and an SnS t-shirt.

But it wasn’t until shortly before the “French Connection” event that the ROH faithful found out Sweeney had sent Hagadorn to a therapist to treat some sort of extreme depression. The only official statement Sweeney would make was that Shane had “lost his purpose”, but refused to elaborate on the meaning of that statement. But apparently there is video floating around the Internet of what this loss of purpose has done to the former manservant.

Further evidence was presented at the two most recent ROH events in Dayton and Chicago. Rumor has it that the first night in Dayton, Hagadorn was apparently slightly intoxicated during the Four Corner Survival, and told some fans at ringside he was now on anti-depressants. There were apparently some words exchanged between Sweeney and Hagadorn about his “unprofessionalism” and his “terrible attire”. Yet in Chicago it must have been even worse because Hagadorn apparently was not allowed to accompany the rest of Sweet & Sour Inc to ringside, although he was spotted after the event yelling and cursing at the ring crew to hurry up so he could enjoy his night.

Well it’s not entirely clear what’s happened to bring about such a change in this normally verbose and irritating individual; one can make several educated guesses as to the reasons. Shortly after “GBHVII”, Sweeney announced he was pulling Adam Pearce out of ROH, basically taking away Hagadorn’s reason for existing since “Glory by Honor V”, as well as removing his best friend from the company. Since Hagadorn is still associating with Sweet & Sour, obviously he must have understood Sweeney’s motivation for doing so, but it still doesn’t necessarily sit well with Hagadorn.

In addition, some digging on the part of ROH officials has uncovered that at that Philadelphia event, Hagadorn suffered both a fractured left shoulder and rotator cuff damage, in addition to severe ligament damage to his left knee. And apparently these were both preexisting conditions as Bryan Danielson initially injured his shoulder back at “Reborn Again” while Hagadorn underwent a minor knee surgery in April of this year.

Each of these elements could play into the reasons why Hagadorn has become a shell of his former self, and it’s anybody’s guess which version of this man will show up in St. Louis and Nashville. But word on the street is that if he doesn’t start cleaning up his act, Sweeney just may have to clean house.