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The irony is Wade Keller has had no problem whatsoever with this so far.

Tell that to Dan Wahlers too.

Tell that to Wade Keller. From his Raw take: "Let me preface by saying that I have never in nearly 20 years covering the pro wrestling industry been as disgusted with anything in pro wrestling as I was last week, culminating with the opening minutes of Smackdown. A lot of bad things have happened to good people over the years because of various powerful people in pro wrestling who have been negligent, greedy, dishonest, and vicious. For whatever reason, the exploitation of the emotions drawn from deaths of Eddie Guerrero, Owen Hart, and Brian Pillman - the gathering on the stage on Smackdown of all of the wrestlers to honor the "death" of Mr. McMahon - felt more offensive to me than anything else I've seen. I have yet to watch beyond the opening segment of Smackdown and considered skipping Raw tonight, only because the vile I feel toward Vince McMahon and those in power to shake some decency into him is raw and strong still tonight, days later. That said, I will write this ongoing commentary on the site and write a report as usual for the newsletter (which will be posted on the VIP site later). I am watching and reporting on this show because it's my job - not because I'm curious to see what comes next, not because "controversy creates hits" for the site, not because I'm looking forward to anything about this storyline. I am disgusted by WWE as a company right now. Their lack of judgment and decency, to put it mildly, has never been more pronounced. Obviously, the buck stops with Vince McMahon, who has lost his sense of good judgment. Those who had both the ear of Vince McMahon to change his mind and the ability to not participate and walk away with financial security the rest of their lives should protesting have lead to their firing share the shame for their decision to participate in this heinous exploitation of real deaths. That list includes but is not limited to: Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon, Kevin Dunn, Triple H, John Cena, Batista, and JBL (who's included because he has Vince McMahon's ear as much as anyone else not on this list and more than some preceding him on this list, and because he's not seen by Vince a a goody-two-shoes, so if he spoke out, it would have really resonated with him). I have more sympathy for the wrestlers without the political power to say no or the financial security to walk away. Yet, I can't help but think if they all got together and staged a sit-in protest - and it would take almost everyone for it to work - they could have collectively changed McMahon's course also. (Undertaker is out injured and didn't partake, so he gets a pass, but he is among those who should be on the phone giving his boss an ultimatum to drop this storyline and apologize on air for it.) The positioning of Vickie Guerrero on the stage on Smackdown last Friday night to hang her head and mourn the fake death for storyline purposes of Mr. McMahon is what put an end to my viewing of Smackdown last week. Right now, as I sat down to report on Raw, the intensity of my lack of desire to stomach more of this storyline is greater than I anticipated even earlier today and this weekend. My feelings have intensified, not calmed over time. With that said for the record, I will now try to cover Raw as usual..."

I don't get the sense that Gewirtz has that much pull, as he seems to be someone who is happy to follow orders and doesn't rock the boat much. He facilitates Vince and Stephanie's vision rather than challenges it. I'd say Michael Hayes and perhaps even JBL are more influential because they too are part of the inner circle but are more willing to speak their mind and more likely to tell Vince things he doesn't wants to hear.

I'm not sure I've heard about that. I'm sure it was alluded to in the Torch, probably by Bruce Mitchell, when Shawn pinned Rey in the Raw vs Smackdown Survivor Series match a few weeks after Eddie died.

Actually I'd be a bit surprised if Stephanie did such an interview. I know they are bad people with no class, but they are hypocrites too. If Stephanie was too creeped out to do an incest angle with her father, I can definitely see her refusing to cut a tearful promo over her father's fake death. Feel free to laugh at me if I'm proved wrong on Monday though. Also I don't really blame the Dave Meltzer's of the world going off on a bit of a rant over the angle. Sure they shouldn't be surprised at the lengths the McMahons will stoop for ratings, but it's their job to point out their lack of taste and rightfully criticise them for it.

I'd suggest that if WCW raided the WWF of all those guys a better plan would have been to delay the Sting title reign until Flair had run through feuds with at least Piper and Savage. It would have given Sting more time to be groomed into the role of World champion that he was rushed into and his title victory would have meant much more if Flair had successfully retained against two former top WWF stars, who were bigger stars than Sting at the time, before the torch was passed to him.

Oh dear, here we go again. Why, dear anarchistxx, are we supposed to believe that it is a mere coincidence that the animal chosen as a nickname for Mark Henry is also black? Moreover, why choose an animal that has been used in the past as a racial slur for black people? Or is it OK just because they didn't choose the more common slurs of ape and monkey? When a promoter like Vince McMahon has a long track record of using negative racial stereotypes in his storylines, he doesn't ever deserve the benefit of the doubt in situations like this. I'm pretty numb now to WWE's brand of bad taste, as I expect the worst of them, but it does incense me when people won't call a spade, a spade. Be apathetic to it all you want, but don't call it unprejudiced, when it so blatantly and overtly is.

I think in this conversation it should be remembered that Hogan successfully reinvented himself as a heel in the summer of 1996 and rode the wave of the momentum of his heel turn for two and a half years before WCW imploded. Sure his Hulkamania schtick wouldn't have worked today, but his nWo run showed he wasn't just a one trick pony and could thrive in a weekly television environment. Sek's point that his run would have burnt out faster is certainly a valid one, but that's a problem for every star in WWE today and you have to be able to roll with the punches and change course if need be.

Minor correction - it was Earl Hebner who was pretending to be Dave Hebner, as Dave was the one who had been refereeing in the WWF at the time, while Earl had been refereeing for the NWA. Not long after Dave retired to become a road agent and Earl took over his refereeing job. I do wonder how Bret Hart justified to himself cutting that wrestling promo on Vince McMahon after years of saying he would never turn Montreal into a phony wrestling angle.

Just because there was a place in major league wrestling for Sid a decade ago, doesn't mean there is a place for him today. He was an unreliable, volatile, injury prone egomaniac who even in his prime absolutely sucked as an in ring worker and failed to draw on top despite numerous opportunities. Having only worked a handful of dates in the last six years and now being in his mid 40s, he'll suck even worse today and his star power will have been completely eroded by being off TV for so long. It would be incredibly reckless for WWE to bring him back and give him a huge push right off the bat sight unseen given his track record and lack of recent ring time. Doesn't everyone remember what happened when Vader and Goldust were brought back about 18 months ago?

Actually I don't think the first post Vince death Raw will be that tacky. Unfortunately they've done enough memorial shows to have the format down pat. The speeches where everyone says how great Vince was will probably get a bit nauseating by the end of the night though.

Actually in Japan the trend was the opposite until recently - wrestling became more and more realistic looking and harder hitting. Upstart promotions like the UWF and UWFi used a more realistic style to con their fans into believing their matches were shoots and to be able to deride as fake their established competition (New Japan and All Japan) that used a more traditional style. The problem was the style was a dead end. The appeal of the worked shoot style employed by the UWF and UWFi was based on people believing it was real when it really wasn't, so the style became obsolete when it was exposed by Pride that it was fake.

Tammy "Sunny" Sytch used to give wrestlers oral sex backstage while her boyfriend Chris Candido was wrestling. She should have dumped him for Shawn Michaels when she had a chance. Triple H taught Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit how to work main event style.

With regards to Stephanie, it is hard to know how much credit to give her for the recent improvement in booking, given that from all accounts Vince is as hands on as he's ever been creatively. She probably deserves credit for running the writing team competently and helping to execute Vince's vision in a committed fashion, but I don't know what we can credit to her beyond that. Are there any recent angles or feuds that were successful that were mainly her idea, because I can't think of any?

I'll probably be interested in this too.

Yeah, it definitely won't last because it will take years and years for WWE to shed their current sleazy image and the last thing Vince McMahon's got is patience. Of course, this decision comes just after they've decided to have their 4th Diva Search competition to find the next budding Playboy pin up.

Personally I think getting rid of the Money In The Bank gimmick would be a big mistake. It has proven a useful tool for elevating fresh talent to the main event level and building slowly to a major title match. At a time when secondary titles have become so devalued, WWE needs a gimmick like this that can be used to groom talent for bigger and better things.

Are people really buying PPVs to see him lose though? Most B show PPVs draw roughly the same number of buys (220,000 to 250,000) whether he's on the card or not unless the card is really weak like December to Dismember or is boosted by having a major gimmick match on the card. And this is at a time when North American PPV business is at the lowest point they've been at for years. I don't think this PPV will be any different because it was obvious that this show was a transitionary one where no major feuds would be blown off and thus was skippable.

With regard to Cornette (and Tenay by the way), Keller has been insinuating that they've been burying Vince Russo to Dave Meltzer because they crave his spot on TNA's booking committee.

I believe they're just edited versions of his Observer articles.

You're right about what prompted his meltdown. But I think Dave Meltzer being treated as the industry gold standard, while Keller is regarded as a second rate hack has really started to get to him, particularly the fact that he rarely gets credit when he has handled a story better than Meltzer. In particular, he resents how no-one remembers that he actually nailed the death of WCW story when it happened, while Meltzer relied on an unreliable source (Eric Bischoff) and fluffed the story consequently. More recently, Meltzer initially claimed the Batista / Booker backstage fight was a work and lots of people got on Keller's case when he insisted it was a shoot, but no-one apologised or gave him credit when it turned out he was right all along. I think it also irks him that Meltzer handles some sources with kid gloves who rarely get criticised even if they deserve it (Flair, Cornette, Tenay, etc), whereas he refuses to do such a thing (or at least he can rationalise in his head that he doesn't).

From Keller's blog:

Vince will never fully retire, he won't relinquish real control of the company until the day he dies. And let's face it, with all the drugs he's taken and the stress his job entails, he'll be lucky to make it past 70. I think it's more likely that Shane will piss his half of the fortune away on a failed MMA venture, than directly compete with his sister and son in law. Also, Linda will probably still be around to prevent all out civil war from breaking out.

Yeah, I could see Brody having a cup of coffee in WCW in the mid 1990s when Hogan was at his height of his political power, as he was the big star of the 80s that he never got to beat. A bit like how he brought the Warrior in, in 1998, just so he could get his job back. It probably would have turned out to be a farce of similar proportions.