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Yeah, that's what I was referring to. Obviously we need to see where the storyline goes, but it seems to be sending the message that wrestling is a man's sport and these things will happen.

It seems like all the criticism Gabe Sapolsky received for allowing Bryan Danielson to work so soon after suffering a broken orbital bone and a detached retina may have got to him.

Supposing it is Jim Cornette, why would Dixie Carter and the rest of her management heed the advice in his anonymous letter when they don't even listen to his criticism when he bluntly tells it to their faces in their booking meetings. It's really a waste of his time, unless he needs to vent to maintain his sanity and stop himself from going all Boris Alexiev on Russo the next time they meet.

I'd imagine it's to get heat on Sweeney for being the person responsible in the storylines for Sydal cutting a deal with WWE.

Really, all things considered, Kurt's TNA run so far has been surprisingly incident free. I mean he hasn't missed multiple PPVs or TV tapings like other trainwrecks they've pushed in the past.

I thought the more interesting jab was at his work. Not that I disagree with the sentiment, but he listed several guys who were viewed by WWE as disappointing failures for one reason or another when they were pushed as the franchise of the promotion. Also in today's environment, with all the deaths, injuries and aging of their top workers, if Jericho is still simply "very good", he'll be a better worker than most of the guys left.

I wonder if Congress will be able to join up the dots.

Hulk Hogan is also hoping Vince is finally desparate enough to work with him again on his terms.

Whether he is or not, it'd be pretty ballsy of them to do a Kiss My Ass Club segment in Iran... Especially with the Iron Shiek or Daivari, who would be the first choices to do such a segment there.

My disc arrived this morning.

I suppose that's the advantage of having the widow of one of your most recently deceased wrestlers on your talent roster. I'm surprised they didn't encourage Vickie to seal the death certificate as soon as it was released because it completely torpedoed their talking point in the wake of Eddie's death that he had been sober for years, instead of waiting till Marc Mero suggested that he died of steroid abuse on Nancy Grace. Now, no-one can "prove" that. Add a copy of Eddie Guerrero's death certificate and other documents relating to his death to the growing list of things Congress asked from WWE that they didn't receive.

True, but it was the earlier performances of Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley that made the Hell In The Cell gimmick such a strong draw.

Hmm, you'd think all Orton's backstage problems you've been so quick to point out in the past would have tipped WWE off that he was crazier than the average wrestler.

I wasn't sure whether this warranted a new thread, so I decided to put it here: Did Randy Orton attempt suicide? - Irv Muchnick If this is true, WWE better hope that Congress doesn't pick up on it.

When did Hennig ever main event in WCW? I agree with Loss's assessment of his candidacy. Really what makes him a better candidate than a Rick Rude or a Jake Roberts or a Steve Williams, three workers who are unlikely to get in before Hennig, two of whom aren't even on the ballot?

A key reason why Cena has got booed as a babyface over the last couple of years is that his persona is too clean cut and goody two shoes for the young adult male fans to get behind him fully. On paper this angle sounds like a great scenario for Orton to get heat on Cena, but in reality playing daddy's little boy was exactly the type of angle that was going to get fans to rebel to his push again.

I believe Vince Russo started being more heavily involved with scripting Raw after the dismal April 14th 1997 episode. He's been quite open though about only scripting word for word the wrestlers who needed that and weaning wrestlers off full scripts and only giving them bullet points as their confidence improved and they got to know their characters better. I think that system was probably better than the one they've got now.

I think many fans are really in denial about the risks of working a strong Japanese style because Japanese wrestlers aren't dying at the same rate as American wrestlers. It's also a lot easier to deny the risks when that's the style you love to watch.

This is certainly better than the WWE stubbornly doing nothing, but this doesn't exempt them from having a strictly enforced, comprehensive drug testing policy. The key is to stop their wrestlers from abusing pain medication while working for them, so fewer wrestlers eventually become addicted and need rehab. They need to start stepping in a lot earlier and stop their wrestlers from hiding injuries and working through them. If this is the only thing they are going to do to better the lives of their past and present performers, the measure seems too little, too late. I hope this policy is a permanent one, because it will be a bit of a hollow gesture if the offer doesn't stay on the table indefinitely, as drug addicts will only get help when they finally realise they need it.

I think the reasoning may be something along the lines of WWE has a Women's title so gosh darn it we're going to have one too now that we've got an extra hour of TV to fill. Also I'm sure the ever so humble Vince Russo reminisces fondly about the days when he saved women's wrestling in North America and made Sable into one of the hottest stars in the business.

Bah, I'm sure Bryan Danielson isn't such a pussy that he'll come back wearing a protective face mask. With regards to Gordi's claims that he'll get out before it's too late, I hope that's true, but how many times have we heard that? For example, wasn't Shane Douglas supposed to retire young and go to medical school to become a doctor, instead of working through a catalogue of injuries and ending up addicted to Oxycontin? Sure that's the worst case scenario, but Danielson seems to have a dangerous drive to be one of the best workers in the world that will make it unlikely that he'll get out of the wrestling business unscathed.

From the file marked "Why have one broken orbital bone and detached retina when you can have two?", Bryan Danielson has been booked to face Takeshi Morishima again this Saturday, returning to action only three weeks after he suffered those injuries.

I believe it may be because it was a Dave Meltzer talking point in the Observer a few months back. I don't believe putting a World title on Flair would do monster business, but in the current environment it could serve as some harmless nostalgic escapism where hardcore fans could lose themselves in the moment and believe for one second that all is right with the wrestling world. And it's not like anyone else is drawing on PPV at the moment, so it's worth a shot. If the title run doesn't take you can always pull it off him quicker than planned.

Usually such ramblings are accompanied by that old chestnut that he could still cut killer promos and have very good matches with the right opponent if he was just given the opportunity darn it.

WWE key performance indicators Key things to note: - Domestic house show business is up year on year. - International house show business is down year on year. - Recent PPV business is pretty much a wash. Judgment Day was the most successful B show PPV since Unforgiven last September. Vengeance and the Great American Bash did average business. Backlash and Bad Blood did poorly, but that's more due to running too many PPVs in such a short period than who was headlining them. - DVD and online merchandise business is up year on year, but the increases may be starting to plateau. It should be noted that Raw house shows tend to draw significantly better than Smackdown ones, though this isn't reflected in the performance indicators linked to above.