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On a similar note, you could argue Lawler was a better worker than Benoit given that he didn't destroy his mind, body and soul by the age of 40 working such a dangerous style, instead working a style that was conducive to having entertaining matches into his late 50s.

Rey may not be telling the whole truth, but I tend to think there is something to his story. It doesn't make sense that Rey would suddenly be stupid enough to start failing tests that he's been "passing" for years. It makes more sense that Rey has failed plenty of tests like Chris Benoit, but he always had a prescription handy for the banned substances he was taking until now. WWE may not use their Wellness policy to "get" people, but if Rey was on better terms with the company I think Vince may have made more of an attempt to sweep this under the carpet by subtly suggesting to Dr. Black that he give Rey more time to find his prescription.

Publicizing? More like burying on their website. Usually WWE sends out press releases to the media when their wrestlers fail drug tests, but they didn't in this case. Oh and I agree with BK that this test failure reeks of sending a message to someone who threatened to give notice a few months ago, extracted begrudging concessions from the company (like a vacation and a lengthy IC title run) and tried to force the company to live up to their end of the deal when they tried to renege on it (WWE kept booking Dolph to win the title almost as soon as Rey won it, only for Rey to keep nixing the title switch).

He was treated as a jobber when he debuted on Raw in the gimmick. It's only since he was moved to Smackdown that he's got a serious push and he's been perceived as a guy with lots of potential. He's obviously one of Michael Hayes's pet projects, whereas Bryan Gerwirtz didn't see much in him.

I think Bryan's being worked. WWE always gives an air of aloofness off regarding other smaller promotions, even when they do actually care about what they're doing. If WWE truly didn't care about ROH's existence, then they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to stop Ric Flair appearing on their TV shows. Vince has flipped his lid over much more minor things than ROH running a "wrestling returns to Monday night" campaign.

No, it's a company that gets it's rocks off giving ridiculous names to talent they perceive as jobbers. This is simply a ludicrous statement to make given that Regal's biggest push ever in the promotion occurred when he was Commissioner and Intercontinental champion from late 2000 to early 2002, mere months after making his TV re-debut. Also Danielson's style is closer to Benoit's than Regal's.

This isn't really a good example to point to given that Ric Flair was getting babyface pops for his digs at Steamboat's family values like "Why don't you go home and wash the dishes?". I suppose it's a testament to his stellar in ring ability that he could overcome such an outdated, out of touch gimmick though.

WWE plans to launch a cable network within two years - Vince McMahon

I think Russo's bad booking traits that became more glaringly obvious in his later booking stints in WCW and TNA were mainly consigned to the undercard where Vince McMahon gave him more free reign.

I think it really fell apart when Austin turned back heel, though they made numerous mistakes before and after. The crowd was insanely hot for the return of the old Stone Cold kicking ass on the WCW invaders. As much as Austin's fresh paranoid heel character was entertaining, it was the wrong role for him to play at that time, given that it was so well known that he hated WCW for being fired over the telephone in 1995 and was the WWF's franchise star that turned the company around and helped them defeat WCW in the promotional war. Angle was also terribly miscast as Austin's kickass babyface foil, a role he wasn't used to playing and felt forced after playing cowardly chickenshit comedy heel for so long.

Yeah, Jingus is right. His title win was clearly booked in a way to elicit boos (causing Jose Lothario to have a suspected heart attack, using a camera against Shawn), but the mainly male MSG crowd decided to cheer him on regardless when he used those dastardly tactics. I suspect he would have been booked as a full blown heel rather than more of a tweener if the reaction at Survivor Series went as planned.

In 1995 there was a real dearth of heels in the WWF that were over. That he got over despite a cartoonish gimmick and more than the level of his push, unlike Sid, Mabel, Dean Douglas, Davey Boy Smith, etc, should be considered a feather in his cap. I really take JR's and Austin's opinions with a pinch of salt, given their feud with Russo at the time and Austin's grudge with Jarrett and paranoia in general. Actually Eric Bischoff offered him a new deal, which Jarrett turned down. I really think the lack of negotiations was more due to Bischoff disliking Jarrett personally, than the type of fan response he received. Bischoff didn't even negotiate with Chris Jericho, while offering fat contracts to less talented midcarders like Rick Steiner, Scott Norton and Stevie Ray. A program with Steve Austin was really beyond Triple H at that point. I think if you went back, you'd find that Jarrett in July '99 was actually getting more heat than Hunter through his shortlived angle where he was abusive to Debra. Gunn may have been a bigger star, but his heel push was also one of the biggest flops of all time and he was getting no heat whatsoever. Jarrett works in front of that audience because he burnt his bridges with WWE. If he had left on good terms, he'd have likely taken Rhyno's spot in the Invasion angle and been involved in the upper midcard mix in WWE for several years.

I think this is a bit unfair, as there were brief periods where Jarrett gained traction as a heel and got the right reactions. With help from Brian "The Roadie" James, he made the cartoonish "Double J" gimmick work and for a while was perhaps the hottest heel in the WWF. Both times before he jumped ship in 1997 and 1999, he was picking up steam as a heel too and getting the right reaction from crowds. Of course, at those periods of his career he wasn't overpushed like he later would be. Size does play a part in it, but so does the size of the promotions they run. I think if Hunter was working in front of the same small hardcore audience week after week, the backlash to him playing the invincible superman top star would have been just as vociferous.

Hmm, the previews make me a bit skeptical. Vince playing heel owner to the babyface WCW renegades didn't work the first time. I also despise with a passion angles based on telling the audience that everything else previously on the show was fake, but this by Gawd is a shoot. On the basis of the previews, they should have given Paul Heyman a call and let Cornette rebook Jim Herd era WCW instead.

I think this is spot on. It should be remembered that numerous WWE employees have been caught buying (Signature Pharmacy) or with illegal substances (Brian Christopher, RVD, Sabu, etc). Rarely are they ever fired and if they are fired, they are often given a second chance. The stalking charges are much less serious than the domestic abuse charges Steve Austin was convicted of or the statutory rape charges Jerry Lawler once faced. Ric Flair was accused of road rage and domestic assault while under WWE contract, but the company didn't even bat an eyelid. The AP may have picked this up, but really this isn't a major story outside Pittsburgh and is likely to be forgotten about by the mainstream media by the end of the month.

It sounds like he's gently suggesting that Angle commit suicide. It really does read that way but there's no way that's what he meant. I think. Kenta Batista missed the initial paragraph of JR's first blog posting on the matter, which clears up what he meant: Follow up post: It's pretty clear that JR believes Kurt should take some time away from the business for his own good, so he doesn't end up another wrestling tragedy.

Probably for the same reason WWE rehired Jeff Hardy merely 6 months after he gave TNA management no choice but to fire him after no showing a TNA booking one time too many.

Was all this on boards or in the WON or someone talkign to Dave? I think someone asked about it on an audio update. Can't remember exactly what he said, but the gist was that he was encouraged to close down his MMA HOF, because it would get in the way of plans people were working on for an official MMA HOF. Just to be clear, Dana White putting pressure on Dave to close his rival HOF is my speculation based on Dave's cosy relationship with Dana.

Rey struggling shouldn't be surprising. He's getting the same level of support that Eddy did before he died. As ludicrous as this might sound, I think his lack of size, lucha background and lack of consistent main event push, is a barrier to him getting votes, despite objectively ticking all the WON criteria for a Hall of Famer. With regards to Dave's MMA Hall of Fame, for all intents and purposes it's dead. He hasn't held elections for the last 2 or 3 years and I believe he was encouraged by someone to quietly close it down. At the time, it sounded like people were working on an official MMA HOF, but as nothing has transpired in this direction since then, one wonders whether Zuffa also put pressure on him to close his rival HOF.

That's certainly true today, but if Strikeforce somehow stole all of UFC's biggest stars, I'm sure CBS would offer them prime-time shows, which would give them greater television exposure than even UFC has got at the moment. It would be a complete game changer.