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Not to rehash that whole debate again, but Chris Benoit is officially back on WWE 24/7 with this week's Nitro. I guess the fact that I didn't see it mentioned anywhere is a sign that people are done freaking out over seeing him again.

Dave mentions in the new WON that since next year's WM is in Texas, it's the likely year for Austin and the Von Erichs to go into the HOF. Who else would you add considering their love for putting people in the HOF based on where the show is being held? I'm thinking maybe the Freebirds can go in too, as well as perhaps Tully Blanchard. He has the Texas cred and also WWE 24/7 running the NWA shows reminding people how awesome he is. After that, who's left? Mick Foley's the only big name left who's retired and not in. Unless hell freezes over and they mend fences with Bruno, there's really no big names left until guys like Taker, HBK, etc hang it up.

Updated April Schedule:

Madonna's new CD cover:

Perhaps it was Kane. Well I think we just found the first program Jeff will be involved in when he gets back. "KANE, YA'LL KILT MAH DAWG"

Heh it's great living in a wrestling town sometimes. Tyler Kennedy just scored a goal in today's Penguins game and the sound guy at Mellon Arena played a clip of MIIIIIIIIIISTER KENNNNNNNNNNNNEDY.

Man, the Shorties section of WWE 24/7 has a Yoko/Jake/Ahmed vs Owen/Bulldog/Vader match up as part of the Wrestlemania Lost Classics theme. I totally forgot how awesome Yoko's face run was. He got the hot tag and the crowd went nuts for it. Even though he was getting ridiculously large by that point, he was still surprisingly fast and hitting moves. The only other superheavyweight style wrestler I can think of who was even somewhat close as a worker was Viscera, but the Big Daddy V gimmick has him just as a generic brawler now (albeit a 500 pound one).

Just my two cents, until the brawl with Dragon at the last ROH PPV I saw nothing in Morishima. In fact, I'm wondering how much being in the ring with one of the best in the biz had to do with me finally seeing what the fuss was about. I think it's more of "The guy booking Morishima obviously has Dave's ear" thing. Pretty much everything. That's not a knock btw, Gordy was the best big man of all time in a lot of people's minds.

Holy shit, in the span of a couple days he went from future WWE champ to the subject of a country song.

I don't doubt that he came up with the Gordy comparison on his own, but Gabe sure seems to be the one putting it in Dave's mind that Morishima is a great worker.

As part 1 of a multi-part piece it was good, as a standalone bio it was like only seeing the first 1/4th of a movie. As I recall it seemed to focus mainly on his football career. with most of the wrestling portion centered on how he wouldn't take shit from promoters. Speaking of the WON, is it time to reconsider the concept that Dave is above being influenced by Gabe? Every week brings another hilarious ROH talking point that obviously came directly from Big Daddy G. Who would have thought there would be a time where Dave would suggest someone like Morishima is a better worker than Gordy?

There's an Old School show up now, 12/11/87 from Houston. Who the hell thought Pete Doherty would make a good color commentator? He sounds like Gilbert Gottfried with a Boston accent.

So much for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over WWE not putting the belt on him. You know they figured this was going to happen. Looks like Jeff is on his way to being this generation's Jake Roberts.

I just want to add how much I'm liking the new doctrine of having the announcers lay out during big moments. I really hope someone from TNA notices that not every highspot needs constant screaming.

Didn't Cole get beat up by Austin at one point? I seem to remember him getting his shirt ripped off and laughing at the fact that he of all people had a tattoo.

I thought they had an under the table deal at that point, like WWF and ECW did later on. Wasn't part of the Loose Cannon angle supposed to be that Pillman would spend time in ECW to sell being fired?

Funny how this ended up in retrospect probably the biggest news of all. Dave Meltzer, wrestling psychic.

Joe Babinsack is either full of it or functionally retarded. This in particular: Here in Pittsburgh, all first run PPV events (WWE, TNA, ROH, MMA, or boxing) are on channel 501. That "obscure menu on digital cable" would be the on screen guide that lists all the channels. Hell, there's only 3-5 PPV channels depending on where in town he lives at so it's not that hard to find. There's only 3 explanations for this: 1. He's lying to make a point about ROH not advertising their PPVs better. 2. He's never ordered a PPV before and legit doesn't know what channel they are on. 3. He's retarded. IMO all 3 seem equally likely.

Well they did try to copy the "Homer chokes his son" bit they've done for so long.......

More than the rest of ROH to be sure. More than most of the wrestling world? That's a bit of a stretch.

A number of dudes - myself included - have had to shoot down the delusions of fans who talk about how thus-and-such wrestling show could never be in jeopardy because they get high ratings, ignoring that it is not the ratings but the ad rates that actually make TV shows money, and ad men tend to avoid wrestling like the plague. But....The Simpsons? Desperate Housewives? Law & Order: SVU? I don't know if it's indicative of anything, or even how valid the survey is...but it's something that struck me as interesting, and something that may be worth keeping in mind in the future. I would guess the Simpsons made it on the list since it's been on the air for a million years and advertisers may be thinking Fox might pull the plug on the show. Or maybe because it gets pre-empted so much during football season. The rest would have to be due to content. I can see an advertiser shying away from SVU. Who wants to be the commercial seen when they stop for a break in the middle of a story about child rape.

Bumping for the latest PPV: This was actually a pretty great show, probably the best of the PPVs so far. Dragon-Morishima was a great brawl that reminded me of those 70s bloodbaths in Florida you'd see pictures of in the mark mags and be all "holy shit, that must have been awesome". It's funny that after the big title push and right before he went back to Japan, they finally made me like Morishima. For once he didn't look like a Japanese girl with Downs, and when he went apeshit and started pummelling Dragon in the balls for a DQ (in a "relaxed rules" aka ECW style match) before tossing officals Godzilla style they finally had him look like the monster they wanted him to be. I still don't like McGuinness though. I'm surprised ROH gave him the belt since they're all about workrate and he does almost nothing but lariats. Not to mention that Jawbreaker lariat with the Terry Funk style flip between the ropes is the most contrived bullshit since the Canadian Destroyer. Having said that, the match was awesome pretty much solely thanks to Aries bringing a HBK-esque willingness to die for one's art. He really made Nigel look like a million dollars, The Briscoes are starting to grow on me too. Not the whole "BEST IN TEH WORLD" shit, but just coming to terms that they may be spot monkeys but at least they hit their spots. Watching them reminds me of watching Sabu if he wasn't fucked up all the time. Not to mention they actually look like a tag team. Growing up on NWA wrestling burned it in my brain that tag teams should have like a uniform of sorts to signify they are a team. They should wear the same colors or at least the same kind of gear. Otherwise they look like a jobber team put together for the weekend syndicated shows. The brawl at the end was unintentionally hilarious too. They had all the stables/teams have a huge brawl backstage and all that was missing was "Yakety Sax" playing in the background.

Just like how we look back at footage from the 70s and 80s and discover guys who were awesome but flew under the radar, I suspect people 20 years from now will be doing this with the Hardys. I would imagine the big internet discussion then would be "Why didn't they ever put the belt on Jeff Hardy?"

Am I cynical or does it seem like Jake Roberts went to WWE sponsored rehab because they're going to induct him in the HOF and don't want it to be another Heroes of Wrestling moment?

WWE Shop has been updated for the Triple H: King of Kings - There Can Only Be One DVD set and the Twist of Fate: The Hardy Boys DVD set, which takes the interesting twist of having Disc 1 be the Matt story and Disc 2 is the Jeff story. The official WWE synopses: The HHH DVD also has some of his WCW matches, including his debut as Terra Ryzing. I'm kind of bummed that the Taker-Jeff match didn't make the cut for the Hardys set. I hope it gets included as an extra, as that was probably the best match Jeff will ever have in his career. Also, the WWE DVD Releases page lists The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment as a 3 disc set. No matches yet since it's not out til June, but that's gotta sting some egos that the guy who "turned his back" on wrestling gets a bigger release.