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I think after wrapping up the Kane stuff they realized they need to end the Zack/Eve stuff too. Well they didn't need to, but they sure put a bow on it. Also WO is reporting Wade has a dislocated elbow, which I guess is better than a broken arm but doesn't sound like it's much fun either.

To the point of ending the segment by calling Eve a "scandalous bitch" and informing her that he's disease free and intends to stay that way. Considering the show cold-opened with her explaining to the Bellas like an idiot her plan was to basically be a gold digger with Cena, it's not quite as bad in context (since it's basically a heel being foiled and getting their comeuppance), but the fact that it happened literally minutes after her heel turn made it come off like Trish barking like a dog in the "let's humiliate a woman" department.

That and right after the audio came back, Lawler was doing the "keep calm but this is serious shit" voice on commentary suggesting someone needs to get down here fast.

I thought Kofi was trying to do one of his wacky Spiderman spots to avoid elimination, but then he crashed into the wall looking like my mom's cat when he tries to make a turn while running on linoleum.

Jesus, the latest WO.com update is saying damn near everyone in the match got hurt:

The closing segment was a battle royal to determine who would face Punk for the WWE title. Big Show press slammed Ziggler out of the ring, Wade and Truth tried to catch him, and it didn't end well to say the least. Ziggler was tossed too hard and landed half caught/half face first on the announce desk which caused him to bend at a sick looking angle. Truth was down for a while (he may have just been selling) and Wade looked like he broke his arm because the entire WWE medical team and the rest of the ref crew were out working on him the rest of the match. It messed up the angle they were trying to tell because it looked weird seeing all these guys working on Wade while they were trying to sell Jericho-Punk, and when they had their end of show staredown, the crowd was doing the "give the guy who got hurt a cheer for moving" pop to Wade who was walking off under his own power with what looked like a air cast running the length of his arm.

Wow, that opening segment on Raw with Cena and Eve probably just ensured Linda's not winning this election either.

Not to mention it would be the closest modern wrestling could get to the "heels had to fist fight their way out of the arena" level heat. Of course it also just occurred to me that considering their own history, WWE might not see anything wrong with Chris Brown.

So CM Punk tweeted a few days ago about wanting to curb stomp Chris Brown and offering his services if Brown wanted to fight someone who can defend themselves (Chris Brown famously battered Rhianna while they were dating a while back and his prominent place at the Grammys this year rubbed a lot of people the wrong way). Brown's response upon hearing he was called out by a pro wrestler guy was to call CM Punk a roid abuser who's junk is to small to please a woman. Not only is that hilarious for obvious reasons, I bet WWE will freak out and make Punk drop it despite A: constantly whoring for mainstream attention and B: the fact that the vast majority of people agree with Punk on this.

I'll admit, when I was watching the promo on Raw last week and Shawn had that line about HHH "marrying that chick" I immediately thought of the HHH and Shawn as a couple thread that (I think it was) Kevin Cook posted way back then that was in the "best things ever on the internet" thread a while back.

Wasn't the deal with Sean O'Haire that they were punishing him because Piper (who he was inexplicably teamed with after the awesome vignettes before his debut) went on some show and bashed Vince/WWE?

I see it more as Vince is Steve Jobs in the mid 80s where he owned part of the company but he's such an asshole the board voted him out of any position of power. So instead of leaving to create Pixar, Vince is staying around to deliver messages for the board which is really the most ridiculous part of the kayfabe WWE power structure. To think that the TV character Mr. McMahon would be reduced to playing messenger boy is more of a suspension of disbelief fail than anything else. What's weird is that they seem to be booking HHH as taking over Linda's role more than Vince. It was always told on TV that she ran the business end while Vince ran the TV shows/matchmaking. Now with all this "good for business" talk from Hunter it's as if that's the role he's being slotted for and he won't be a major TV character when the time comes where "all of this is his".

Just to put a cap on the Kevin Cook deal: As I remember it going down he was starting to rub some people the wrong way which led to an admin at the board he was mainly posting at sharing the IM logs of him somewhat clumsily hitting on a girl, which pretty much broke his gimmick of being a suave motherfucker on the internet. Also prior to that there was a deal where he would constantly reappear with new usernames, claiming he would always forget his password for the prior one. I know for a fact he reappeared at least once after the IM incident, but he was toned way down and more or less went away again after some people started putting 2 and 2 together and asked if he was Cook. I may be forgetting some parts, but that was the gist of what went down.

It's funny, on the last WOL there was a comment by Dave where he stated he thinks the "We All Hate You" chant was a work. As if somehow WWE thought things out to the point they would put plants in the crowd to get worked chants going on a show that is rewritten several times a week.

It's WrestleMania time. Get ready for Lagana, Bauer, etc, etc, to be all over net radio/ podcasts explaining how smart they were and how great their ideas were, and again going on about Vince and Stephanie's quirks. Last year they were all on Lagana's podcast at IWantWrestling, which he shut down when he got the TNA gig.

Not only is the feud bad, but stuff like tonight where they had a Hogan/Savage-like moment where it looked like they cut to the back early and it appeared that Kane gently escorted Eve into the ambulance instead of forcing her in. It's very rare WWE has gaffes like that, and when they do it always seems like the most embarrassing kind possible. Also how brutal was it while Cena was trying his best to babyface it up, only to have a large portion of the crowd chant "WE DON'T LIKE YOU" at him. He tried his best to play it off, but it looked like it even caught him off guard how vicious the crowd was.

I agree with the old timers, but for different reasons. They feel ex football players in wrestling make it seem more legit, I feel guys with an athletic background are more likely to stick around when the going gets tough and won't bail like bodybuilders and TV actor types. Plus football players in particular are probably more accustomed to things like bullshit hazing, so you'd expect that to appeal to old timey guys.

I love how Punk and Bryan have stolen each other's gimmicks with Punk now BEST IN THE WORLD and Bryan as the Meatless Messiah (VEGAN MEANS I'M BETTER THAN YOU!). Also seeing the reaction to the Mania buildup on the internet makes me realize how just completely opposite my tastes seem to be compared to the IWC at large. I was just posting on another forum how this year's WM has been one of the best hyped in years and the potential with three great matches with Rock/Cena, Punk/Jericho, and Taker/HHH (opinions on which will almost entirely be based on what people thought of last year's match, but whatever). Throw in Show/Shaq for the mainstream pub, and a Mike Tyson appearance for the HOF segment, and I don't see how this won't end up one of the biggest Manias ever. That doesn't even take in to account the rest of the card that will at least include a MITB match.

I could see Rob being a better Josh Matthews than Josh Matthews is, if that makes any sense. I just hope he doesn't end up one of those guys who hates the business after being run through the WWE wringer, It would be sad to see someone who enjoys what he does have it get squashed.

To me, everything about Hogan can be summed up by his latest face turn in TNA not too long ago. He was battered and bloody in the corner while the rest of the heels are beating up Sting, who's yelling for Hulk to help him. Hogan's regaining his senses and realizes the situation, and looks to the crowd for guidance on what he should do. The crowd wants him to be the Hulk they remember so badly and start going nuts, and after a few moments of indecision he finally makes the save. The crowd loses it like it's 1984 all over again, and for a few seconds it seemed like he was the old Hulk instead of just Old Hulk. I think Bryan and Vinny said it best when reviewing the show when they said "there's no one better at being Hulk Hogan still to this day than Hulk Hogan". When he puts his mind to it, he can work a crowd better than anyone wrestling has ever seen. That's why I still enjoy the WM Rock-Hogan match to this day. Yeah it's not a technical masterpiece, but it's two of the best ever at crowd manipulation putting on an absolute clinic.

I love how Dr. Lucha seems to make a conscious effort to filibuster when he's on with Bryan. After he does the intro and whatever the week's jumping off point is, Bryan barely gets a word in edgewise.

I believe the story goes that Sting was banging Slater's woman (Dark Journey maybe? I forget who it was) behind his back, Slater found out, and punched him. Sting allegedly didn't even attempt to fight back because he knew he was in the wrong.

There's certainly valid reasons to have a "locker room policeman" role, most sports teams have a guy who makes sure that everyone's behaving properly. The problem lies when whoever is in that role lets it go to their head. Taker's been that guy for decades and you never heard any stories of him bullying people, hell the only story I've ever heard was when he implied to HBK he'd beat the shit out of him when it looked like he was going to try to weasel out of doing the job for Austin. With Holly, I at least got the impression when he was being an asshole it was either in receipt to what he perceived as a legit misbehavior or in the case of the Tough Enough kids just trying to weed out the ones not cut out for wrestling. He seemed like an equal opportunity grumpy bastard. With JBL I always got the impression he preyed on people (like mentioned before) who couldn't fight back for one reason or another. That's why the Joey Styles story became so well known, he thought he could bully this pipsqueak announcer guy around, and even if the Rocky-like retelling of the story is exaggerated, it seems at the very least Joey got tired of his bullshit and popped him one. Even the non-violent tales of bullying like making Miz change in the hallway because he didn't feel he belonged is just straight up high school ridiculousness that just make him look no better than beating up the chess team for lunch money.

When I think of Paul Jones, I think of a guy who's stable was largely second tier guys. Other than Rude and Fernandez his guys were always on the US tag/Mid Atlantic/Six man championship level. Plus watching NWA tv, he frequently loses his place and/or stumbles in his promos. It's even more obvious when watching the promos between the Powers of Pain and the Road Warriors. Ellering didn't do much in terms of traditional managing, but he was excellent when he would sum up Hawk and Animal's promos (which at times, they needed someone to do for them). Then Jones comes out in his goofy ass 70s cowboy gear and mush mouths his way through another interview. Ironically, I think the WWWF trio probably suffers from less footage available. Most people today remember Blassie as the old guy the WWF would trot out and Albano as either Mario from Saturday Morning TV or the sloppy fat guy who did those funny skits on TNT. The Wizard died right before the big boom and hardly ever gets mentioned anymore in official WWE canon, so he's almost forgotten by everyone who didn't grow up watching 70s WWWF TV. Albano would probably be a solid #2 behind Heenan all time when it comes to being a guy who could get people to pay to see him get his ass beat. The main difference I noticed is that Bobby usually would get his ass beat and bump like a superball for the babyface, while Albano would usually do his "take one bump, juice, and bail" routine when it came time for the payoff. I thought people would figure it out that he always seems to escape, but it seemed to work every time they did it until they turned him face. Most of their best work is locked in the basement somewhere in Titan Towers. They just started running WWWF Championship Wrestling on WWE On Demand so hopefully we'll see some of the masters at work before they close it down for the Titanic Channel (aka WWE Network).

I've always wondered, I know Steve Lombardi was Kim Chee in the WWF, but who was under the mask elsewhere when the character was called Friday? Also, rewatching the 1988 NWA Saturday Night shows on demand is a good way to remind yourself how awesome Cornette was. Not only does he do his usual rant against the jobbers of the week (all without stopping to breathe), when the announcers offhandedly mention that Tully and Arn will probably be #1 seed for the upcoming Crockett Cup tournament due to being world champs it causes him to go off on another rant mentioning the MX were champs for the first one in 1986 and were not named #1 seed. It put over his team and he had an absolute legit reason for feeling his team got boned before by the seedings and reason to feel they should be ranked ahead of the champs.