I wasn't trying to say that a Thing Returns would be smooth -- and if I came off as saying that, I was wrong. In my case, tending to throw the ball straight end over end or very close to it it is easier to tame than if one has substantial sideroll (even then it has a strong, but controllable backend, which is why I liked it -- see my review).
That, however, was not the point I wished to make. All Air ForceOnce noted he would like to see the Anomaly core or the TLives Core in a pearl. Assuming it was a "soaker" pearl, my point was that one is extremely likely to get a reaction similiar to the Thing Returns, because the core dynamics are similar and you are putting a pearl soaker cover on the ball.
What makes the Anomaly and the Thing Lives smoother is their covers -- solid Soaker and enhanced Soaker, which tends to pick up early and smoothly (my Element, for example, despite its high differential, never was "flippy" in any real way because of the Soaker cover. The Thing, which was a combination of the pearl and solid soaker, was fairly smooth (with a similar core) but could have a fairly harsh backend depending on the axis rotation one used.
Thus, what you like about those balls, probably can't be easily duplicated with a pearl. I found that if I was willing to put up with the extra length, I could polish the Anomaly up substantially and get a later reaction, but even with the polished Anomaly, it tended to be flippier than I would have thought.
--------------------
"Some guys get the world. Other guys get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona."