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I think the theory is too much blood could scare away families from attending the matches.

This story is mentioned on the Wikipedia page for the Midnight Express and seems to stem from a Tim Horner shoot interview. From the Wikipedia page in question: "In the early parts of 1987 Dennis Condrey left JCP from one day to the next, and no reason has ever been given by Dennis Condrey with only speculations from those who were not directly involved. Regardless of the explanation, the problem was still that Bobby Eaton was without a partner. Enter a man from Eaton’s past, another former opponent turned tag team partner: “Sweet" Stan Lane. Lane and Eaton knew each other well from working against each other in the past and this showed as the new version of the Midnight Express gelled from the beginning. Tim Horner was having problems with his tag team partner, Brad Armstrong, and was actually considered to replace Dennis Condrey, but according to Horner, Stan Lane just happened to call the office at the right time. The facts are that J.J. Dillon approached Stan Lane in Florida telling him that Dusty wanted to talk to him. He was told to give Dusty a call so when Stan called Dusty he was given the details. At the time business was down in Florida so Stan Lane made the jump to Jim Crockett Promotions after meeting with Dusty and Bobby Eaton in Charlotte. In reality Steve Keirn, Lane's long time partner in The Fabulous Ones had already quit wrestling since business was so dead in Florida. This made it a no brainer for Stan to step in and take over the spot that Dennis Condrey previously had and worked flawlessly."

The death of Mal Kirk and Big Daddy being revealed as the promoter's brother wasn't the cause of a sudden ratings decline. The bad publicity didn't help matters, but the aging Big Daddy's act had already started to wear thin and the wrestling business had already been exposed in the UK several times well before Kirk's death. Greg Dyke, the head of ITV at the time, cancelled British wrestling because he saw it as a working class sport and wanted to modernise the station's image, but British wrestling would have eventually been axed anyway, as it was so costly to produce compared with the price of airing tapes of American wrestling like the WWF or WCW.

Am I the only one who finds this hilarious rather than low class?

Both, as Undertaker used the triangle choke as a finisher in his feud with the Big Show in 2003. He also used the move a lot in his matches with Angle in 2006.

You're forgetting how he tried and failed to get the triangle choke over as a finisher years before that.

Orton coming back to TV really doesn't prove anything either way. Eddie Guerrero overdosed while injured, hid it from both WCW and WWF management, and was back on TV about a month after his overdose. Dave not voicing any more suspicions also really doesn't prove anything either way either, as he may have since been told the real story and may not be at liberty to report it. I agree that the motorcycle accident being a cover story for Orton overdosing again is an extremely unlikely scenario, but something about the story still doesn't seem to add up.

I was more shaking my head at Necro Butcher taking a crapload of chairshots to the head again than the fans treatment of Nakajima's German suplex finisher.

Really CMLL was having a pretty great year at the box office until their top draws Mistico and Perro Jr both got seriously injured in August, which obviously screwed up some of their big plans for the 75th Anniversary show cards. When both return I'd imagine business will bounce back again.

"Free reign" may be going a bit far, but he strolled back into the promotion after leaving on bad terms 3 years ago, got paid more in one night than the highest paid superstar made in the previous year, and forced the plan of having a competitive 10 minute back and forth match with Hunter in his return changed to a 90 second squash match by threatening to walk out. He had an insanely sweet deal until he screwed it all up by pushing Vince too far by no showing some house show dates when they were arguing about the WWF using one of his trademarks for an ad campaign without his permission and without compensation.

This revelation isn't all that surprising given that Kurt in his recent RF video shoot interview was supposedly kissing up to Vince, Shawn and Hunter in an effort to try and repair that burnt bridge, while Karen had always been adamant about never wanting Kurt to return to WWE. This probably isn't good news for Kurt's long term health, as who's going to babysit Kurt now and stop him from working hurt injured or doing insane stunts in the ring?

Go ahead, but the odds are high he wouldn't give a shit. I remember Todd Martin reviewing one of his earlier books where he took him to task for his sloppy fact checking and he responded like it was no big deal. Also better fact checking wouldn't change his offensive opinions and shallow conclusions which he's had over a year to formulate.

I'm sure Scott never forgave Nancy Grace for the heinous sin of saying Chris Benoit was a member of the Four Horsemen at the time of his death! Fortunately, Scott would never publish a book with such a blatant disregard for the facts! Didn't everyone (the doctors, his family and WCW) think Davey was faking his injuries to get painkillers to feed his drug addiction until they X-rayed his back and found out it was completely fucked? Scott must have forgotten the last part of the story. I love how Scott brings forth more bile for Animal tagging with Heidenreich in a scripted TV programme than for Chris Benoit who murdered his wife and child in real life! Aww, I'm sure we could easily come up with the Scott Keith book reading drinking game to ease your pain!

The comments about Mutoh being a more spectacular worker didn't bother me as much as the downplaying of his historical significance. I mean the North American equivalent of saying Hashimoto was only close to being an all time great is saying Steve Austin was only close to being an all time great.

I was listening to today's Wrestling Observer Radio today and someone asked a question about Shinya Hashimoto, where he stood in comparison with his peers Chono and Mutoh and whether he was an all time great. Dave's gut reaction was a bit disheartening saying he was close, borderline as to whether you would have to call him an all time great, before Bryan (of all people) reminded him he was a top draw. Dave though, after acknowledging he headlined a lot of Dome shows, went on a tangent saying that the three Musketeers were booked kind of as equals and interchangeably and put over Mutoh as the most spectacular worker of the three by far. Pretty sad, as Hashimoto was clearly the biggest star of the three (and one could argue was the biggest Japanese star of the 90s), pushed the hardest of the three overall and was the most consistent worker of the three.

I'm not sure it was done to build to anything in particular, other than the brand is babyface heavy at the moment (Cena, Batista, Shawn, Rey and Punk), so it makes sense to put the belt on a fresh heel for the faces to chase while they sort out over the next few months the WrestleMania card. For example, I could see Jericho dropping the title to Cena before Mania to set up Cena vs Batista II.

Could it just be that he was misdiagnosed or his family and friends simply misinterpreted his diagnosis, rather than his family and friends actively trying to deceive everyone and Dave being dumb enough to fall for it?

Yeah, Jarrett was upset that they were going to reveal over the coming weeks that he had been lip synching "With My Baby Tonight" and that the Roadie was the person really singing the song, thinking it would kill his heat being revealed as a fake and it was too soon to break their act up. If I recall correctly, the Roadie quit not just out of loyalty to Jarrett, but also because he had failed two drug tests already and wasn't willing to clean his act up.

Not that I'm complaining about Moolah not getting in, but it seems odd to categorize her as a modern candidate. I don't see how you can argue that Moolah's prime as a performer was post 1975. I mean she was born before most of the wrestlers considered historical candidates were born.

Interesting article, though I'm not sure I buy the argument that the territorial system was somehow inherently more humane than the modern wrestling industry today. In many territories like Mid South, Stampede, the Maritimes and Amarillo, the wrestlers were wrestling every day of the week and in the process having to drive several hundred miles a day, which, while obviously easier than the WWF schedule of the mid to late 1980s where wrestlers flew cross country and often worked for 28 straights days, I'd argue that the schedule of those territories was much harsher than today's schedule where they work for 4 days and then have 3 days off except for overseas tours. Really, most territorial promoters worked their wrestlers hard and drug abuse was going to escalate to some extent, as recreational drugs like cocaine and performance enhancers like steroids became more widely available and popular in the 1980s. I mean the worst drug cultures in wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s weren't the major national promotions, but World Class and ECW.

Well, Kanyon has his autobiography coming out in just over a months time, which details his struggles to keep his sexuality a secret from his wrestling peers that ultimately led to a suicide attempt and severe depression, so it's probably too late to hope he shuts his mouth and keeps quiet about things that could hurt their case.

Here are links to the lawsuit by Levy et al. and WWE's notice of removing the action to federal court: http://www.ctemploymentlawblog.com/uploads/file/wwe.pdf http://www.ctemploymentlawblog.com/uploads.../wweremoval.pdf The other plaintiffs are Chris Kanyon and Mike Sanders.

The next one is with Lanny freakin' Poffo! I do like how Wade puts over Lanny as an engaging, entertaining storyteller, after panning him for being so odd and strange when he went on Hannity & Colmes during the Benoit media frenzy.

Given that most of the present WWE roster spent time in their developmental territories being trained or receive on the job training from road agents like Fit Finlay, this point probably isn't that debatable. I wouldn't say that, given that when wrestlers are injured they still receive pay cheques every week for a specific amount. I'd say it's closer to employee than "contractor", though WWE's bonus system is a bit of a grey area. I'd say it's more of a grey area, than a clear cut "contractor" relationship, as WWE does pay for some of their talent's business expenses. In particular, WWE pays for all of their talent's air travel.

Wasn't Luna supposedly fired over an incident where she taped the mouth shut of a producer and bound him/her up?