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Also, at this point Billy Graham is basically a paid for WWE shill.

The way I see it is that a promoter, first and foremost, has a responsibility for the wellbeing of their employees. Some fans may care about their own entertainment more than the wrestlers' safety, but a promoter doesn't have to and shouldn't satisfy those bloodthirsty fans' demands, even though it may put a few more bucks in their pocket and his wrestlers are crazy enough to want to do it. I'm not sure I buy that story, but even if it is true, it didn't stop McMahon from allowing Foley to do similar risky stunts in subsequent matches.

I read that section and while I agree with your criticism of wrestling fans, I think it should have been pointed out that their worst behaviour is often bred by the reckless actions of the wrestlers and wrestling promoters themselves. Is it any surprise that fans have forgetten that wrestlers are human when Kurt Angle was allowed to work WrestleMania 19 with a broken neck, risking paralysis, and such behaviour is not only condoned by WWE but praised and encouraged? In a similar vein, WWE fans have been taught by over two decades of booking that "bigger is better". Why should WWE fans believe Rey Misterio is believable facing bigger wrestlers in main events, when during his World title run they book him to be squashed in three consecutive weeks by Mark Henry, The Great Khali and Kane? I agree that the second Hell In A Cell match raised the bar of fan expectation way too high, but Vince McMahon, in the middle of the biggest wrestling war ever, was all too willing to allow Foley to risk his life and limb by taking those two death-defying stunts.

No wonder Dave Meltzer is worried about an ensuing media frenzy. We all remember the bad publicity WWE got when lawyers have used the imitating pro wrestling defence for juveniles who murder younger kids. It will be even worse when the media latches on to the story that Benoit used his finishing hold to murder his son. And that isn't mentioning all the other lurid details about his growing paranoia and depression that WWE did nothing to tackle.

Debra could have wiped the floor with him even more if she was more clued up on the story. We do know that Chris tried something before, as Nancy took out a restraining order against him when they were having marital problems four years ago. Being able to point out the obvious flaws with WWE's drug policy that enable their wrestlers to continue to abuse steroids despite being tested would have helped a lot too. With regards to Bill DeMott, one suspects he would love his old job back based on that shameless performance. And gee Sean Hannity mustn't have done much research if he thinks that "Vince McMahon seems like a nice guy".

I'm not sure Vince's tack of emphasising the need to wait for the toxicology reports was a sensible one. Sure, it buys him some time, but surely he must know that this story isn't going to be forgotten about and that the media are going to savage him when it almost certainly turns out that Benoit had a dangerous cocktail of steroids and painkillers in his body before he died. He needs to at least look like he will change things in the face of this horrible tragedy, rather than looking like he wants to get back to business as usual ASAP. I agree with Loss that the tragedy is much more complicated than simply a case of roid rage, but I do worry that when the toxicology reports come back the media will believe its an open and shut case and fail to probe more deeply into the other issues afflicting the sport.

Yeah, pretty much. I think he still doesn't fully understand the bigger picture like people who have been following what goes on behind the scenes for much longer than he has. I'm not surprised there wasn't much insight in the column to any drug or health problems Benoit had, because Dan is still too willing to give the benefit of the doubt before Meltzer confirms what everyone expects.

With regards to Booker's interview, how should WWE handle Chris Benoit's funeral? Will the McMahon family attend? Should they? Will they even try to stop their wrestlers from attending? Just throwing these questions out there, as how WWE handles it could be crucial to their public relations coming out of this tragedy.

Good point. We've been discussing this for a half hour, and one of the pissant internet fans on a pissant internet board came up with something that the folks in the WWE couldn't come up with. I'd say it was a calculated decision not to dedicate the show to Nancy and Daniel rather than incompetence, because his statement was very carefully designed to say as little as possible about what actually happened.

I don't even recall the "official" one from last year, which shows how much I've been paying attention to the WWE in the past year. Can someone fill me in? IIRC, the story Dave Meltzer reported at the time was that Nancy was recovering from major neck surgery and Chris took the time off to help her recuperate at home and look after their son. I assume this is what you were talking about Loss?

With the stories of domestic abuse Nancy Sullivan comes across as an even more tragic figure than Miss Elizabeth, escaping from one controlling, abusive relationship with a wrestler only to end up in another one. And Nancy's story is much worse because she was murdered by the man she loved, unlike Elizabeth who died of an accidental drug overdose. Very sad indeed.

I think nothing could be further from the truth. Alex Marvez, filling in on the Observer website for Dave Meltzer, who is scheduled to appear on Good Morning America today to talk about the deaths, is already reporting that the wrestling industry itself is about to come under some heavy scrutiny. This very well could turn out to be the worst scandal to ever hit WWE, if the reports are true that Benoit murdered his wife and child and then committed suicide.

This is really f***ed up.

That said, ROH starting to run PPV events would have almost certainly messed it up anyway. The funny thing is he didn't get the title as punishment for a comment he made on a ROH show mocking TNA booking that happened before his farewell tour even started.

Actually, if Matt Hardy continues to improve and doesn't make another major political faux pas, then I could see him getting a run with the Smackdown gold if circumstances, like a serious injury, force them to change the title off their chosen one and no-one else is ready for the role. Similar to how long term tag team wrestlers like Bret Hart got the title in 1992 and JBL in 2004.

Mike Tenay IS TNA management. To be fair, Jim Ross was WWE management and that didn't stop Vince McMahon from feeding him lines, regularly humiliating him on TV and allowing his son-in-law to potato him in a wrestling match. Of course, even if Mike Tenay knows better, he deserves to be criticised as a gutless coward whose willing to turn himself into a complete laughing stock so he doesn't get in trouble with his feckless bosses.

I think this is a good point and is the reason why their Japanese shows are getting no buzz at the moment. Their show in Osaka has a line up that sounds like it could have happened in the States during WrestleMania weekend, as no outsiders are being used. When these shows were first announced people were getting ahead of themselves and salivating at the possibilities of seeing Kensuke Sasaki or Toshiaki Kawada in a ROH ring for the first time, so it isn't surprising these shows are getting no buzz when the line up seems like just another house show except it's in a different country. I think there is a good chance these shows could really bomb at the box office, particularly the one in Tokyo, as there are so many bigger shows in those markets that they could easily get lost in the shuffle. With regards to TNA I think their lack of buzz is due to them clearly treading water until Jeff Jarrett recovers from the loss of his wife and their TV situation is cleared up. I can imagine they're holding off shooting any major angles or shaking up the booking too much at the moment, because in a few months time they may be on a new network and or have the extra hour of TV time they've been craving for, for so long.

You can't ever complain that the WWE was subtle about these things what with Poffo's deep breathing, fluttering eyelids, fawning puppy dog eyes, looks of exileration and broad grin. Though its so OTT you can't be offended by it or find it dull. That said, I'm not sure such skits were a good way of making Hennig a serious opponent for Hulk Hogan. What has being a better diver than Hogan got to do with anything really?

It's a bit of a conundrum for WWE, as on the one hand Flair needs to win his retirement match because the fans won't accept any other result, yet on the other hand WWE seems resistant in putting him over any of their top stars convincingly. Actually it would be a really shrewd move if Trips did the job for him, as people wouldn't expect it to happen and he could dine off that job for years and years. I quite like the idea though of Flair feuding with JBL at Mania, because he is probably the only top star Flair has never worked against, the promos could be off the charts great and JBL wouldn't need to be protected in the booking as he's pretty much retired anyway. A turned Chris Benoit dropping the ECW World title to him is another plausible idea.

I'm sure there are some stockholders like that Loss, but it is fairly clear from their quarterly conference calls that many of the larger investors know little about their onscreen product or what goes on behind the scenes and if they do they'll have their calls rudely blocked in the future, as WWE prefers their investors to remain closeted and naive.

Yeah, I thought it held up really well and would be cutting edge for the time too. Hayes looked every part the charismatic rock star, so it was a great vehicle to get him and his gimmick over. I thought the only problem with the video is that it made the other Freebirds seem like bit players.

Some random thoughts: I really liked the pacing of the match and how they picked things up before a commercial break with a nice flurry of action to keep viewers hooked. Bret's slow methodical destruction of the Kid made a great contrast to Kid's high risk, fast paced offense and Bret's strikes looked really crisp and stiff. I thought they did a good job of teasing the Kid's big comeback before it happened with Bret constantly cutting off his mini comebacks either by beating on him some more or outsmarting him. Bret's facials expressing shock whenever the Kid outwrestled him or almost beat him really helped put the Kid and the story of the match over. After the great false finish where the Kid countered Bret's superplex for a near fall, Bret had this great look on his face like "Gee, he almost beat me there". Loss makes a good point how this match epitomises Bret's vision of wrestling - a morality play between good and evil with good always triumphing in the end. The lesson here being that Bret's honesty and sportmanship didn't consequently cost him the match and his title. Bret was more of an everyday man hero than Hogan's cartoon character come to life, someone who wouldn't bend the rules and stoop to the same levels of his opponent unless he was unduly provoked and snapped.

It was Mick Foley, who was nuts and was willing to take unbelievable amounts of punishment to get over and have memorable matches. You could say "Why on earth would anyone agree to be thrown off the top of the Hell in a Cell cage on to a table more than 12 feet below?", but Mick did it and scared his family back at home too. That's why I'm sceptical of that story. I still think the number of planned chairshots is a bit immaterial anyway. Even if he only took 4, it would have still been upsetting to his young children. In his DVD documentary? That documentary is so full of holes, it's hard to take any of his claims at face value. Dave Meltzer in his review of the documentary didn't buy Roberts' and WWE's version of how he was unfairly portrayed in Beyond The Mat. To be fair sek, the majority of WWE stockholders probably watch little, if any, of their programming, so some confusion isn't that surprising.

Talking about tasteless behaviour, the Foleys putting their children at ringside to watch one of Mick's worst beatings ever, so he could do his "Aw, shucks" routine in Beyond The Mat was pretty bad.

I got my disc this morning!