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I don't know about that. I doubt Vince could work a good Mania main event match at this stage, even with tons of distractions and liberal usage of weapons. Even though Orton-Hunter has been run into the ground over the years, you're at least guaranteed a high quality match. At the end of the day, I don't think it matters much whether they can keep the program strong for seven weeks, as I think the success of the show still hinges on what Austin and Rourke are doing, because that's what is going to resonate with the casual fans who rarely buy a PPV. Even if they promote Orton-Hunter perfectly, it's still going to be a recycled match with recycled storylines.

Also, the Vickie Guerrero angle actually changed considerably from how it was originally planned, due to Krystal Marshall's firing and Vickie getting much more over as a heel than anyone dreamed possible.

I'd be surprised if anyone officially switches brands until the draft lottery. I think they'll just ignore the brand split for the major stars until the draft lottery happens and have several inter brand matches at Mania (Hunter vs. Orton, Cena vs. Edge, Shawn vs. Taker and Money In The Bank).

I'd say it will be a lot less likely this year for them to change their minds, as the draft lottery is happening the week after Mania, so everyone will probably be in new programs by the time Backlash rolls around. Unless they decide that Hunter needs to switch brands again, but it seems a bit soon to do that.

And there I was thinking a wrestler making it in Hollywood is a great advertisement for the business! Much more than the wrestlers who loved the business too much that they didn't know when it was time to get out.

I don't think that's really true. I get the sense that there were members of the creative team who were really high on him and pushed for him to be used as more than just a midcarder, but the key decision makers, most importantly Vince, didn't see him as anything more than that.

I suppose I could see a scenario where the WWE higher ups worked Christian and the sheets into believing he was up for a major push off the bat, only to give the role to someone else in order to screw with Christian for having the audacity of being the first person who voluntarily jumped ship to TNA. Though Vince changing his mind at some point is equally plausible.

I suppose it depends who leaked the payoff to the Jeff Hardy mystery assailant attacks angle to Dave Meltzer. I mean that Christian was the original plan was pretty obvious, but the plans for No Way Out and Mania were leaked too. I'm not surprised he got Matt Hardy's old spot as top ECW babyface, given that the Mania plans are probably set in stone by now and that was the only spot left open for him to take. Really, botching big name debuts/returns should be expected from WWE by now. Most guys end up starting in a similar or worse position than they were in previously. That said, I think in the long run Christian will be fine, once he's paid for his past sins, as he's got the talent and charisma to overcome the botched return, like Chris Jericho did.

I'd imagine Dave Meltzer recommended him for the role to Eric Bischoff personally, as this was during the time period where Bischoff was Dave's inevitably shortlived new best friend.

Dave Meltzer, ever since Jericho's interview on Monday where he trashed Ric Flair, has been speculating that the company has been forced to change course and Jericho is more likely to face Flair (or perhaps Austin, since Jericho trashed all Hall Of Famers in general) than Rourke. Personally I found that speculation to be a bit baffling, as Dave was the one who reported that Flair was going to be involved in the angle a week earlier and Rourke can't appear until after the Oscars. Obviously WWE is keeping their cards very close to their chest and don't want the real plans leaking, so it wouldn't be surprising that Flair's coming out of retirement tease is a red herring to work the sheets. All this secrecy really makes me wonder if WWE has got an ace up their sleeves that no-one has really thought about, especially as the angle is currently lopsided with too many faces and not enough heels. Meltzer reported last week that WWE had talked with The Rock about wrestling at Mania this year, but always thought it was a long shot and believed that paragon of virtue Good Ol' JR when he shot down any suggestions that Rock will ever wrestle again on his blog. Joining up all the loose threads, maybe the real main event is Austin & Rourke (with Flair) vs. Jericho & Rock (perhaps with someone else in their corner like Hogan or Vince). It would certainly be a big enough match that it would be worth Austin and Rock coming out of retirement for and would be a really fitting match to book for the 25th anniversary of Hogan & Mr T (with Jimmy Snuka) vs. Piper & Orndorrf (with Bob Orton Jr). Well, that's my bold new prediction.

Dan Wahler's is a bit too upset about rumours that Ric Flair will come out of retirement.

What would that make Shawn, Taker and Hunter then?

The inclusion of current TNA wrestlers Sting and Mick Foley is a bit surprising, as they could have easily chosen to ignore them and feature other big name stars of the era. ECW being so ignored is interesting too, given that they've spent years promoting that brand and they've got the tape library. Still no Randy Savage I see.

Regarding Jericho, he did another promo on Raw about Rourke and Flair, which suggests that the match is still on, unless Flair is going to be the one wrestling, though I think the former is much more likely. Regarding J.R., words like "idiots" and "little geeks" is pretty hateful. I remember the days when he said that a young Bradshaw reminded him of Stan Hansen. Was that because he actually "knew" Stan so well or because Bradshaw was shamelessly ripping off Stan's act? Is it hateful to point out that in J.R.'s capacity as a WWE employee it is most likely the latter?

To be fair to Resident Evil, believing that Benoit was better than Owen in '88 isn't a silly viewpoint, as Bad News Brown at the time believed it to be true and thought Benoit got the shaft due to nepotism. I need to see more of Benoit's and Owen's early stuff, but by '88 Benoit could have been the better technician of the two, but he certainly lacked the charisma and pizzazz that Owen had, so they were both in the right roles for the time.

WCW brought in a lot of talent whose priority was Japan throughout 1990 into the spring of 1991, like Bigelow, Hansen, Spivey and Vader. Sting could have done TV/PPV feuds with a couple of them, while Luger feuded with Flair.

With all due respects to Loss and jdw, whose analysis is I think spot on, they are not the ones writing history. The ones that are (Ric Flair, WWE and Dave Meltzer, mainly) still paint the same picture. Meltzer is at least open about the political games Flair played, even though he tends to take his side on his fights with Herd. Flair actually won the battle with Herd, as he wanted out and got out with the title belt to do the dream feud with Hogan in the WWF, but ultimately his penchant for linking key jobs to contract extensions cost him dearly when he used the same tactic with Eric Bischoff. Also, his earlier refusals to put Luger over caught up with him, as Luger was tight with Nash and encouraged him to bury Flair when he had the book in WCW. Personally, I think Flair gets too much of a free pass for his tactics, when others get heavily criticised for similar behaviour. Brock Lesnar, for example, got tons of heat for not coming back and dropping the IWGP title to Hiroshi Tanahashi when New Japan wanted to cut his pay.

You may be right Bob, but the media when covering wrestling can be really dumb, lazy and gullible. Last year, the whole media fell hook, line and sinker for the whopper that Floyd Mayweather was being paid $20 million to wrestle at Mania.

I don't think they would have shot the original angle if they weren't certain they had a concrete deal in place with Rourke to participate at Mania.

I think this is hilarious: I know he's just shilling the storyline, but if you're trying to con people into believing a worked shoot storyline, at least try and make it a bit more believable.

This may just be a coincidence, but both CNN and the New York Times did stories about multiple concussions causing brain damage in dead NFL players yesterday (CNN story, NYT story).

Flair is being interviewed by Bryan and Dave tomorrow. They're taking questions, though the odds that they'll be asked may be fairly slim.

It's really no different than Dave Meltzer joking about how Eric Bischoff regularly talked with him while the sale of WCW went down, every time Bischoff takes a shot at Meltzer's journalism on his blog. That said, Wade did lay the sarcasm on a bit thick at the end.

Even today, I think most people who go into the business are at least somewhat naive to just how ugly, disgusting, wrong, and unkind, the business can be. You can argue the ones that stay are dumb for not leaving, but there will always be a ready supply of people who will be willingly tortured and adapt their personality for a chance to live their dreams.