Last year, as former Ring of Honor World Champion CM Punk made his way out of the promotion and into the waiting arms of World Wrestling Entertainment, he left a brief message on his website about the "three kings" of Ring of Honor. Those kings being himself, Samoa Joe and Homicide. A fair description. Punk, Joe and Homicide were the rulers of Ring of Honor. All three were with the young company in its early days in 2002. In fact, Homicide worked the very first show. All three performed nearly every show with the company up to the point Punk signed with WWE, unlike other long-time ROH greats like American Dragon and Christopher Daniels who had committments and contracts elsewhere that prevented them from being with the company as consistently as the Three Kings. All three were MVP caliber attractions for ROH. All three put on the best matches. All three had some of the most memorable feuds. All three were Ring of Honor World Champions.....except Homicide.

So, when is it Homicide's turn?

First, let's take a trip back in time. Homicide debuted with Ring of Honor on its first show, "The Era of Honor Begins", on February 23, 2002. Not as the singles wrestler that would catapault him to the main event but as a tag partner with Boogaloo in the Natural Born Sinners. Homicide and Boogaloo wore masks of popular horror movie characters and carried a chainsaw to the ring. Frankly, it looked a little too backyard and garbage for a promotion called Ring of Honor, but they were reasonably over with the crowd.

The team lasted a few months in ROH, but in October in the first "Glory By Honor" show, Homicide started wrestling singles. He soon began his massive feud with Steve Corino that featured some of the most brutal and intense matches in ROH history. The feud was very hot with the promotion and lasted over a year from point where Corino turned on Homicide in a tag match all the way to the "War of the Wire" barbed wire match in November 2003 to settle it. He went to great lengths to make his performances memorable. He bled buckets, flew through the air and took massive beatings from his opponents. Enough that ROH called him the Most Valuable Player of 2003.

In the midst of this feud, Homicide was granted a Ring of Honor Championship shot against Samoa Joe. He lost. After the feud with Corino was finished, Homicide focussed on another electric (not to mention long) feud with Samoa Joe. They had a series of matches in 2004. Three of which had Joe's title on the line. Homicide lost all three. All strong performances by Homicide. With the exception of the DQ match, all were lost fairly convincingly and clean if memory serves.

After the Joe feud ended, Homicide stepped out of title picture until March of 2005. His heel stable, The Rottweilers, won a tournament. The story was the winners received a favor from Ring of Honor management. Homicide's was a title shot against new champion Austin Aries. Next month, Homicide received yet another World Championship shot. He lost. Again. Aries pinned him clean and Homicide once more retreated. In August, he received his final (to date) championship shot in a triple threat against ROH Champion James Gibson and challenger Brian "Spanky" Kendrick. It ended in a no contest, which received MASSIVE boos from the crowd. Homicide was removed from the bout and the fans hated it. They were dying for him to be champion.

How long is ROH going to keep Homicide away from the gold? Let's look at some statistics. From ROH's first championship match at "Crowning a Champion" in 2002 to "Final Battle 2005", thirty different wrestlers received Ring of Honor World Championship matches. That is, while at a ROH show and not counting foreign matches. A lot of these men received multiple title shots. For example, Trent Acid had one, Paul London had three, CM Punk had four, Christopher Daniels had five and so forth. Who has had the most? Homicide. Six World title matches. Many against Samoa Joe. All losses.

How many times can Homicide be put into the ROH World Championship picture and lose without becoming redundant and disappointing? He's the most consistent main eventer in Ring of Honor who has never held the belt. How long can this go on? At this point, isn't he due? Now I know some would say that achieving such a great success in ROH would ruin Homicide's gimmick. That he's angry at the world for keeping him down. That he's a street thug and not a champion. Homicide went psycho in 2004, which more or less solidified that role. When he turned heel, it added a lot to his character. However, his development became stagnant in 2005. If they gave him the championship in 2006, he could continue and accelerate the psycho character in a big way. Think about it. He could play the paranoid champion perfectly. Throwing fits when it looks like he is about to lose. Having Julius Smokes interfere in the matches. Calling down Rocky Romero and Ricky Reyes to distract the referee. He could be a fantastic heel champion. It would not ruin his gimmick. It would enhance it.

Think about play-by-play man Lenny Leonard's reaction to Homicide winning the ROH Championship due to some heel tactics and having a post-match riot. "Homicide is the champion?! What does this mean for Ring of Honor?!" When CM Punk won the title, he "held it hostage" due to the circumstances surrounding his immenent departure. It got over huge. Homicide's reign could be similar. Not because he's going anywhere but because a dishonorable champion is holding it hostage. The heat could be incredible. Plus, when the time comes to lose the belt, he can claim ROH "screwed" him out of the title and will take revenge. That fits nicely with his character.

Homicide as champion would work. More importantly, he deserves it. Until Homicide captures the Ring of Honor World Championship, the Three Kings will be incomplete.