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Didn't read the article so maybe I'm missing something, but why should he have if Barnett was embezzling funds? It just wasn't a wise move on Ole's part. Barnett was respected in the local community and also had a wealth of connections and experience, both inside and outside the business (like Ted Turner). Barnett quickly jumped ship to the WWF, which certainly didn't help Ole's cause in the long run, even though Dave believes Barnett "had nothing to do" with the sale and forcing Ole out in the process.

I don't think Ole is that sympathetic of a character given that: (a) He didn't allow Jim Barnett to save face in the local community by allowing him to retain a title in the company (with no power or salary) when Ole caught him embezzling funds. ( He drew a huge salary for the standards of the time, whilst allowing profits dwindle to a pittance. © He himself was secretly trying to buy out some of the other stockholders stock to gain majority share of GCW, so he could control the company without answering to The Briscos. (d) He threatened to send The Road Warriors to Tampa to break The Briscos legs. (e) Vince McMahon ended up paying $100,000 for Ole's stock, anyway. The only thing that seemed like a dirty trick was that it sounds like Jack Brisco took advantage of Ole leaving the territory for a week for his mother's funeral to get the ball rolling on the takeover negotiations while Ole was out of town.

Vince Russo finally comes clean:

Russo on Twitter in response:

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com believes he has concrete evidence that Vince Russo is back working for TNA:

Owen was under contract to the WWF, but they didn't do much with him until they started the ball rolling on his feud with brother Bret at Survivor Series.

Both the World and WWE titles changed hands on the first and last Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view on June 20th, 2010. Jack Swagger lost the World title to Rey Mysterio in a match featuring both CM Punk and Big Show, while John Cena lost the WWE title to Sheamus in a match featuring both Randy Orton and Edge.

The problem is that they haven't got much cash reserves left to fund heavy investment into the Network. This isn't a decade ago when they had well over $300 million sitting there unspent. Cash in hand is likely below $65 million and they already borrowed money to buy their new corporate plane.

They should just ditch the live stream or reduce it to prime time.

The surgery was done by WWE's medical director Dr. Joseph Maroon, who has done neck operations on many WWE wrestlers previously. This doesn't seem to be a case of incompetent doctors.

It's arguably worth a re-look, given he's put over Daniel Bryan and The Shield strong, and presented two excellent NXT live specials on the WWE Network since then.

Love it. Then again, I always thought the use of IWC and smark were dumb shit as well. It was also fun listening to Dave debunk all the lies that Vince Russo told on the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast (Bret turned down every finish we gave him before Montreal, I came up with the finish to have Shawn "beat" him with his own hold, the Owen Hart stunt was a last minute idea when they heard that Sting's stunt operators would be in Kansas City that night, etc).

Someone else would have filled that niche, probably Wade Keller who was cut from the same cloth, but started out later.

So he just burned every bridge there? :/ I might be misinterpreting the situation, but it would be unusual for WWE to give someone another opportunity in developmental at his age.

I know there's never going to be a PED free world, but why would it inherently make for a much less entertaining product?

Re: Hero maximising his potential as a wrestler, there's no way he'll get another chance in WWE at age 34, with or without the gut. Can't really blame him for letting himself go a bit, as having your wrestling dreams crushed is a bitter pill to swallow.

He's been able to get away with so much for so long because he's a draw and was a consummate company guy (he'd always be there to take a fight on short notice to save a show). Actually I don't think Dave would have massacred other fighters who had been using TRT for testing positive for HCG and anastrozole, as he's been consistent from day one that quitting cold turkey would be dangerous for their health and they needed medical assistance to get their testosterone levels back to normal. I just hope we can close the book now for anyone who ever doubted that Chael was a drugs cheat.

I wonder if they can sell the TNA World Heavyweight title to Wrestle-One to pick up some extra chump change.

"Gotta go to bed. Word of advice--If wrestling books aren't written by the WRESTLERS---don't believe a word in them!" - Vince Russo Classic!

I wonder how many people simply asked their CC companies to stop payment? I can't imagine anyone being *that* dissatisfied with the Network already, to take that kind of action. But... There's the possibility that people signed up to get WrestleMania 30 for $9.99 and then stopped payment having seen what they wanted to see.

WWE's Network blamed for roster cuts, corporate bloodletting expected:http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2014/6/12/5805414/wwes-network-blamed-for-roster-cuts-corporate-bloodletting-expected More from Dave Scherer on WWE Network subscriptions: That would be a disaster if they showed no growth in subscriptions in a three month time period.

Bourne got a lot of heat for his reaction to his first Wellness Policy suspension, as he complained about double standards when R-Truth wasn't suspended immediately like he was, and was blamed for that story leaking to the wrestling media by Triple H. He also went a bit crazy on Twitter at that time. Given that synthetic marijuana is more dangerous than the real stuff, I don't think it's bullshit to suspend a guy for smoking it.

Chael Sonnen fails random drug test after burying Wanderlei Silva for running away from one: http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/6/10/5797578/chael-sonnen-fails-random-drug-test-pulled-from-vitor-belfort-fight

Punk's promo may have drawn a lot of hardcore fan buzz, but it didn't cross over into the mainstream. Trump vs. McMahon hair vs. hair did, more so than any other program in recent history. More people were also watching those segments in 2007 too.

I don't really disagree with any of this, but one thing I would note is that I think Dave's position is one that closely coincides with his own biases as a fan. I.E. Dave really likes stuff worked like say Davey Richards v. Michael Elgin, and an older match with less stuff (moves, nearfalls, less of a quick pace, et.) - while something Dave may have loved at the time - is not going to fit THAT sort of individual standard. It's interesting to note that Dave today regularly complains about the Dragon Gate wrestlers doing too much, in the sense that they could slow down, do half as much and their matches would still be just as good and it would prolong their careers. But that does seem to be the natural progression of the style from what he values most as a fan.