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Just what a Republican candidate wants!

Obviously Takada became a joke because they didn't take his advice! I imagine Dave doesn't think it's that big a deal, as I'm sure he's had countless discussions with wrestling and MMA promoters about their booking and match making.

I was half joking, but it seems such a weird decision from somebody who seemed to have completely moved on from wrestling, that you have to wonder whether he needs the money. Maybe he's pining for the spotlight, worried that by being off TV for so long that his legacy is being forgotten. I invoked Flair and Hogan, because just like their recent tour of Australia came across a little sad, so does Bret returning to the lion's den to work a match with Vince at Mania over Montreal, after being so adament about never doing such a thing and doing so when such a feud is years past its sell by date and he's in no fit state to work a proper match.

Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan tell me divorces are an expensive business!

Being an anchor of the ECW brand seems to be a fairly short term position. It's the nature of the beast. Partly because it's explicitly or implicitly used to groom talent for a spot on one of the bigger brands (implicit in the sense that might not be the goal, but by virtue of being a big fish in a small pond an ECW anchor will inevitably start looking like mouthwatering fresh meat to feed to the real stars, who have already eaten up and spat out the last batch of fresh young stars sent to their way). Partly because having an annual draft lottery necessitates change for changes sake and ECW, as the red headed WWE step-brand, will always get shafted in that process. So odds are good that even though WWE shouldn't switch Christian to another brand, inevitably they will and almost certainly sooner rather than later.

Christian is actually in a good position. Being on ECW has protected him from being lost in the midcard shuffle and being bigfooted or sabotaged by his main event peers, which would have inevitably happened if he started out on Raw or Smackdown due to him having the political taint of being a TNA turncoat only to come crawling back with his tail between his legs. I'd expect him to get a few Raw or Smackdown main events next year, once his ECW stint has runs its course, just because of WWE's dearth of fresh talent that their fans will accept on top. With regards to the pushes of Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, I think we have to be glad that they're finally pushing someone new and seem to be fully committed into getting them over. That's a step in the right direction, even if their choice of whom to push is a little uninspired. Hopefully they'll grow in the role and become more than just serviceable fresh guys in the mix. Unfortunately I don't think we can presently expect the company to push guys that are too charismatic or too athletic for their own good, because there are too many old guys that have to be pushed as main eventers taking up room at the top of the card. They'll have to wait their turn.

There's a lot of luck involved too, unless you live a clean life like Lance Storm. For every premature death, there's someone who dodged a bullet and is still living. I don't think that necessarily follows. I think WWE could easily reorganize their company so that they make the same profits while giving their wrestlers more time off, if they set their hearts on it. House shows only contribute about 20% to their total profits and most of that comes disproportionately from their international tours of Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Australia.

Just don't ask them how well Forest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz II drew compared with Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Shogun Rua!

Irv Muchnick has apparently caught WWE bending the truth in response to the ESPN article I linked above: WWE's Medical Director Met With Chris Benoit Brain Experts in 2008 Mike Benoit via Irv's blog has also resurfaced in the light of the results of the research on Andrew Martin's brain. He claims that his grandchildren could take legal action against WWE up to two years after their 18th birthday, so they have 7 years left to take such action. He also claims that a doctor with links to Jerry McDevitt contacted Dr Kris Sperry, Chris Benoit's coroner, suggesting that there was a strong probability Daniel died first and urged him to test Daniel for fragile X.

Hashimoto died of a brain aneurysm. I'm not arguing that he died directly of headdropping and the stiff style he wrestled, but that all the brain trauma he suffered during his career would probably have increased his risk of suffering an aneurysm, along with all the other unhealthy things he did that would have also increased his risk (smoking, drinking, poor diet, stress of running a struggling wrestling promotion, etc). Misawa is unusual that you can chalk up his death to one risk factor. Most wrestlers that die young do such a lot of bad shit, that it's easy for people to deny a certain poison contributed their early death or poor health. Some people are in denial about roids, others about the dangers of a hard hitting wrestling style. :-/ With regards to Loss's post, I think that might explain why Dawn Marie has problems with head pain. Many of the Divas get thrown on TV with minimal training and have to work matches with other comparative amateurs, often being expected to take and execute intricate moves and sequences beyond their capabilities, leading to many blown spots and bad bumps due to their inexperience.

It was far from just chairshots that caused Benoit's screwed up brain tissue (and neck, which helped lead to his pain pill addiction). There were all the missed diving headbutts and tons of suplexes too. Kawada is alive. But we have no idea how screwed up his brain is from the headrops. Dittos Kobashi, Akiyama, Williams, etc. But on that same side, we also have Hashimoto, Takayama and Hoshikawa too. Not just Misawa. The problem is all their brains on both sides of the argument are probably screwed up, as Andrew Martin worked a generally safer style than Benoit, Mick, Sandman, Rotten, Kawada, Kobashi, Akiyama, Williams, Hashimoto, Takayama, Hoshikawa and Misawa. That's the big worry.

But none of those accidents came from blading. I think Bix's point was that ironically catering to the blood marks turned out to be a lot safer for wrestlers than catering to the headdrop marks or the stunt bump marks or the workrate marks. Despite the perverse nature of blading, the wrestlers who bladed with reckless abandon (Dusty, Flair, Onita, Sheik, Abdullah, Lewin, Iaukea, etc) all lived to a reasonably old age.

Speaking of the dangers of headdropping, Andrew "Test" Martin was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the time of his death. Which is a bit worrying given that Test wasn't a wrestler renown for taking nutty risks in the ring like a Chris Benoit or Mike Awesome.

It's ironic that the only person defending Linda in that Politico article is Dawn Marie Psaltis who was fired from WWE for being pregnant and had to sue the company for unfair dismissal.

There was nothing all that deep about the original Goldust character; it was just a facade to thinly disguise the political incorrectness of the gimmick. You can't send the message that there is nothing *wrong* with Goldust being gay when he's out there groping his opponents. Same goes for Mohammed Hassan.

I thought the performers and promoters were meant to manipulate the fans not the other way around! For that reason you can't absolve any party of blame from the culture of death that pervades professional wrestling.

In fairness, that's a loophole in WWE's drug testing policy. The fact that he was doctor shopping with Astin suggests that he's had a serious pain pill problem for several years and that he probably required rehab a lot sooner than he got it. Still passed all of WWE's tests. Which is problematic. If Rey was telling the truth, it was a prescription issue, not a drug test failure.

I don't think there has been a WWE PPV payoff since his return in 2002 that Hulk has been happy with. It's part of the reason he kept quitting on Vince. Also, Flair will end up bankrupt before he stops shopping at Macy's.

Actually it was Bryan that pointed that out, but it begs the question what took him so long to make that observation. That pink elephant has always been in the room. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, two wrestlers whose pain pill addictions were probably worse than Rey's, never failed tests for abusing prescription medication either.

By wrestling standards, he was a pretty nice guy then!

Linda's political ignorance already being exposed.

Dave Meltzer stated on his latest audio show that Mickie James lost her spot as Raw Women's champion due to her "weight issues" and that this was the next step in sending a message to her. The fat pig remarks are also very reminiscent of another performer who was sent a message when she took some time off for her family recently.

We've seen that Meltzerians can win in Real Wrestling (aka MMA) too.

Yeah, that struck me as odd. It's sorta weird that they complain about parity booking so much, yet then they complain on the very rare occassion when someone is clearly booked as being better than the person they're feuding with or clearly the top star of a brand.

Billy Graham is on the anti Linda bandwagon, probably looking for a payoff. That's BS isn't it? Wasn't the liver transplant needed due to his decades of drug abuse?