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I bet he won't realize it's a USA show even if they plug it every segment. Sadly that won't be true. "Next week the hosts of Raw are actors from the USA show “Psych.” The hits just keep on coming." - Todd Martin

Wade's bias has been pretty obvious in the past with some of his sources and their enemies (Sean Waltman and Chris Jericho being the most obvious), so that argument really doesn't hold much water. Clearly Russo isn't a source of his now. But it wouldn't surprise me if Russo was a source for the Torch when he came back to TNA in late 2006 / early 2007 until he got pissed at something Wade wrote and broke off all communications with him. I mean Wade's contrarian nature only explains so much, someone must have told him that Russo had such little influence on the final product for him to report it so emphatically and Russo (or one of his cronies) would be the prime suspect.

If he was wielding so little power, why would anyone be gunning for his spot? Was Lester Burnham working for TNA? "I want a job with as little responsibility as possible...." Actually, the anti-Russo propagandists supposedly gunning for his spot, Jim Cornette and Mike Tenay, clearly didn't want his job at the time. Cornette, because he was burnt out from booking pretty much non stop for over 15 years and all the politics that went with it. Tenay, because he's never really sought out such a position.

I think Wade overplayed his hand when he wrote that. Russo's only 5% responsible for the final product when he was writing the whole scripts? S.L.L.'s quote reads like Russo was a source of Keller's at the time and Keller bought what he told him a little too much.

Case in point?

Wade on the Torch board: What Wade apparently asked on Russo's Facebook comments area before they were deleted and Russo blocked him: Wade again:

"I've worked and been in a business that is very testosterone loaded." Um...

Yeah, I think this has more to do with the Fertittas needing the cash with their casino business being in trouble, than the potential Middle Eastern and Asian contacts the Abu Dhabi businessmen bring to the table, the benefits of which sound a bit tenuous. At the end of the day, the Fertittas and White still have majority share of the business, so they'll remain in control even if their relationship with their recent investors sours.

I actually think she'll be in it till the bitter end and may even run as an independent if she doesn't get the Republican nomination.

Yeah, World title belts in wrestling have always been a promotional prop. It really is rose tinted nonsense to suggest otherwise. Even Babinsack's buddy Bruno regularly lost matches via count-out or blood stoppage as WWWF champion and he was a champion that was well protected in that era. However, to be fair, Babinsack may be right about "very little" of his columns being (easily) available for free online. But that's only due to the original wrestlingobserver.com website disappearing when Dave merged his website with Bryan Alvarez's Figure Four website and because the f4wonline.com "Full News, Radio and Column Archive" is a misnomer that only stores about three month's worth of content. The point still remains that the book solely contains articles that were once made available for free on the Internet.

I think Michaels obviously respects Jericho's ability to make him look good, but like the writers probably doesn't mind joining in with Hunter's fun and games.

Joe Babinsack starts talking UFC - doesn't really "get it" either. "In the UFC, which for the most part is the MMA world today -- because until StrikeForce shows staying power, and until a savior appears for the Japanese market, the UFC is the only place where the sport truly exists – the sport is constructed on a basis of championships." Dismissing MMA companies like Strikeforce and K-1 with national major network TV deals is a bit rich coming from the guy that plays up any two bit indy that gives him a free DVD for him to shill. "But unlike the WWE, the realism of the MMA world, coupled with a sports-oriented process of determining challengers, and the very real determinations of the matches (ok, judging issues persist) creates those important marketing dynamics that sell tickets, PPV buys and the brand". Does Babinsack even read the MMA section in the Observer? I have to ask because for a guy who parrots Meltzer's opinions, he seems to be off message. Meltzer has been pretty clear in his analysis that what "creates those important marketing dynamics that sell tickets, PPV buys and the brand" is the creation of realistic verbal conflict and grudges between headliners to hype their PPV matches, not the "sports-oriented process of determining challengers and the very real determinations of the matches". He's been so clear in fact that he's become a broken record that moans whenever pure sport gets in the way of business.

I hope this gets linked to in the daily Observer/Figure Four website news update. To be honest I think the playing up big the fact he writes for the Observer website is not so much being intentionally disingenuous, but more deluding himself. Most of Meltzer's online columnists are marks for him and genuinely believe that writing for his website is a really big deal. The stuff about Bischoff and the comic book is to be fair weird though. I'm in two minds about the effort made to review the DVDs of any and all independent promotions. Sure it's good exposure for them, but would he watch them if he had to pay for them himself?

His major run wasn't really that major from a booking standpoint. Clearly booked as being inferior to Shawn Michaels. Then he fluked into the World title, but almost immediately hot potatoed the title with Batista, before putting over Cena at two straight PPVs and dropping out of the main event picture.

Get a grip. Poor Todd, another of the dying breed of pro wrestling intellectuals driven to the point of insanity by WWE outrageously pushing characters for kids.

And COO Donna Goldsmith and Executive Vice President of Marketing Michelle Wilson?

That does presume that if she loses she retreats back to the company. As she's 61 and wrestling isn't her passion, I doubt she comes back. She'll probably take on more political or charitable roles while she eases into retirement.

I skipped this initially, because I didn't want to "shred my intelligence", but this is unbelievably dumb. It's not believable that Bret wants to bury the hatchet with Vince when he's already shook his hand, made a DVD with him, gone in his Hall Of Fame, come back as an on screen character and done plenty of public interviews saying how he wants to move on from Montreal? It's not believable that Vince doesn't want to bury the hatchet when he's supposed to be this "ultimate bad guy", "capable – when in character – of almost anything"? And if Vince wanted to bury the hatchet wouldn't that make him the babyface in this scenario? Lots of things rang hollow in Bret's return storyline, but one of them wasn't Bret punching out Vince to close the end of the show. He already did that 12 years ago. And why pay $50 for WrestleMania if Bret gets his revenge on his first night back?

To me, this came across a little like Mike Benoit trying to subtly downplay the need for his son to use steroids early in his career to bulk up. I'm not surprised that there seems to be some heat with Meltzer on Mike's part, given that Meltzer rightly believes that his son's drug abuse was a major contributing factor to his mental breakdown and was initially a bit dismissive of the research into his son's brain (Meltzer didn't completely dismiss it as a factor, but was dismissive of the claim that Chris's brain was like an 80 year old Alzheimers patient). Regarding Stu training Chris, while it might be true that Stu played no part in his formal training, it would be highly surprising that he went through the Stampede system without being stretched by Stu at least once.

It's probably because he always worked for such talent rich groups where it was harder to standout as being really great.

Really that's a great rating if it holds up, given that they went three hours, two of which were head to head with Raw. Of course, if they couldn't pop a rating with the return of so many old stars, then they never could. A point that was lost on Bryan Alvarez a couple of weeks ago.

Don't the WON types always give TNA shit for making things too complicated? By having Bret and Shawn make up before the Vince stuff, it kept the Bret/Vince storyline focused on Bret and Vince. Adding Michaels to the mix just complicates things, especially when he's going to be programmed with Undertaker at Wrestlemania and staying face. Plus, by Shawn and Bret burying the hatchet early in the show, it makes Vince look like more of an asshole for turning on Bret later, whereas if Shawn had turned on Bret or fought with him or whatever, nobody would have cared about Bret and Vince at the end of the show, and that was the main event. Surely there was a way for them to bury the hatchet without having them go so far as to hug each other though?

Speaking of Owen, is this the year WWE induct him and Stu into the Hall Of Fame? It would make sense with Bret back in the company fold and WWE apparently working on a Hart family DVD. If so, things could get a bit messy with Martha Hart.

Listening to Bret on Wrestling Observer Radio, he comes across as a lonely old man who has nothing to do in his life apart from lusting after Melina.

My memories are fuzzy on the Hogan vs. Tyson negotiations, but I think it never got past the talking stages and no deal for a match was ever close to being in place. Weren't the Tyson side worried that Hogan would double cross them and shoot on him on the mat or something?