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But he gets a lot of people talking online. And surely that's a good thing. You know the "there's no such thing as bad publicity" philosophy. Speaking of Dixie, from Dave's review of Hardcore Justice: Hilarious on several levels. Dreamer and Russo getting the crowd to verbally fellate Dixie will probably set the company back another few months.

The thing is I don't see Apter getting much support. I just think people will write him off as a candidate. It doesn't help that as the business changed, his magazines weren't quick enough to change with the times and he became increasingly irrelevant.

The WrestleMania programs this year were clearly mapped out four months in advance and they didn't deviate from their plans. SummerSlam's main events seemed to be similarly mapped out in advance, until Triple H's and Undertaker's injuries forced them to switch gears. Still, the Team Cena vs. Nexus and Undertaker vs. Kane programs had two and half months of build. I think this talking point is a bit overplayed.

That may be true, but Bryan didn't really make his 3 minutes count though, as some of them were not particularly well thought out fluff questions. All fighters get bonuses, so why wouldn't Sonnen? UFC always tries to book in a way where whoever wins and loses they could live with, so why wouldn't he consider Toney winning?

Your misinterpreting the ad. Linda McMahon "tamed the traveling show-world of professional wrestling" is no different from Vince McMahon "took wrestling out of the dank, smoky arenas". She's clearly arguing that the traveling show-world of professional wrestling was made respectable by her family in the '80s.

Hey, didn't this guy get the memo that wins and losses don't matter in MMA? This talking point is also silly because even WWE and TNA books their major programs several months in advance.

I like Bryan but couldnt he not hide his awe? It's amusing that Todd Martin jumped in and asked the smartest question to Dana. Of course, neither asked the obvious follow up question to that.

The Lance Armstrong rant and then denying he ever said it when it was played back to him makes the sport just look so bush league. He's becoming more Brian Pillman than Roddy Piper, which isn't a good thing.

The fact that Rey Mysterio doesn't crack the top 15 says a lot too.

You're being far too generous, John. I mean one of the funniest things I can recall a carny pushing was Billy Graham, while he was on the WWE payroll, trying to persuade Dave Meltzer that he was sure Vince McMahon was steroid free a few years ago. Dave wasn't buying that.

The most relevant paragraph about this from the bio:

On paper, Linda took a regional business that started out in 1982 with maybe a few dozen employees and made it an international entertainment franchise with 564 employees by February 2009. That's not counting the increased number of wrestlers under contract too. Yeah, we all know that was largely down to Vince, but the public will just see Linda as the Business Manager (from the establishment of Titan Sports?), President (1993) and CEO (1997) during a period where the company massively expanded and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

With Vince, there's plenty of evidence that he was a big cocaine user in the past and enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that his proclamations of being a reformed character in this regard ("I don't do illegal drugs") are disingenuous. I really think this is more likely to be the reason he doesn't submit himself to company drug testing, despite still being an on screen performer over the last few years. After all, no doctor is going to give someone a prescription for cocaine. With Flair, I roll my eyes at the suggestion that he's never done cocaine. I mean the most renown partier in the business in the '80s never touched the stuff. Please. Maybe he wasn't an addict and predominantly chose booze and broads over coke, like Bret Hart did, but I'm sure he dabbled, just like Bret did.

He's been a semi-consistent main event figure in a close to rock bottom period for PPV business. He's not a big house show or merchandise draw like Cena or Rey either. The feud with HBK is certainly a feather in his cap, but his main event PPV programs with Batista and Cena did pretty poor business, which led to him being shuffled back into a supporting upper mid card level role. Being in the fourth biggest match at Mania and playing second wheel to John Cena in a fourteen man tag aren't really achievements that dwarf what he did before he left in 05 either.

I interpreted it as "The winner of a horse race is the fastest animal, but in the Observer HOF dog show the best candidate to voters isn’t necessarily the best worker, or the biggest draw, or the most charismatic, but the truest to type". Take Chris Jericho, for example, who was only taken seriously as a HOF candidate after he started playing modern day Nick Bockwinkel. I mean he's had a decent return run where he's reinvented his character, but he's nowhere near as hot a star as he was at the peaks of his previous run.

Regarding Batista and Jeff Hardy, I think the dearth of high quality modern day HOF candidates, means that they've got a good shot of eventually getting in, as the bar for induction consequently drops.

Bryan's completely unsubtle sarcastic tone makes Dave a lot easier to read nowadays.

Tom Cole was the ring boy at the centre of the WWF's sex scandal. Irv Muchnick has covered this story in great detail on his blog. By the way, from Dave and Bryan's tone on their latest radio show, it does sound like he was paid off.

I think 2010 is a bit early to be complaining that not enough WWE stars from the past decade are in. It doesn't really jive with the facts either. Already in are: Ric Flair Hulk Hogan Vince McMahon Jim Ross Steve Austin Mick Foley Chris Benoit Shawn Michaels Kurt Angle The Undertaker Paul Heyman Triple H Eddie Guerrero The Rock Certain to get in eventually: John Cena Randy Orton Rey Mysterio Chris Jericho Should get in eventually: Edge Jeff Hardy Batista Will get in if Dave is stupid enough to put him on the ballot: Brock Lesnar I mean who else would Dave possibly want in.

Do you really think the McMahons would leave it to chance that Tom Cole wouldn't badmouth them to the media, given that it's probably the most damaging skeleton in their closet and it was bound to come up eventually? What makes Cole's new found love for Linda particularly suspicious is that his communication with POLITICO went via Jerry McDevitt.

From the file marked "boy is Chris Jericho completely overrated as a Hall of Fame candidate today":

If he said anything else, then I think Lockhart or someone else in the Connecticut media would have pointed out that he was hypocrite because of this exchange in his Congressional interview:

You're spot on about Lawler, but I'm not so sure about Flair. Flair strikes me as someone who is really broken down backstage, yet when he goes through the curtain and the adrenaline starts pumping can still will his body through his pat match.

Actually it was name association. Maybe Dawn was overcompensating? Mike Aldren responds to Dawn Marie.