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According to the Smackdown spoilers making the rounds, Chris Masters again gets berated for being small (he shows a pic of himself as a teenager to convince Vince he could be his son and Vince's reply was "you sure had a scrawny neck then"). Wasn't Masters the one who got all fucked up mentally after getting small from cycling off roids?

I got the impression that they just didn't want it in the news that there was a WWE superstar with a medical problem when all the Benoit news hit the fan and the company was on the defensive on how they take care of their wrestlers. Plus it was stated the problem was under control with medication and that's usually not the case with the typical side effects of steriod/drug abuse.

Seems like that was it, there's a couple parts in the show that abruptly cut out like that. I've never seen it happen on a NWA episode before, Turner seemed to take such care of their tape library. Still, you gotta love how in the middle of what's essentially the go-home show for Starrcade they have an all-jobber six man tag team match.

In the latest NWA episode, there's a pretty obvious edit where they cut off Tony and David mid-sentence during the opening segment and go right to a Terry Taylor squash match. They then begin to talk about a Superstar Graham interview that apparently was what got cut out. Why would they cut something so random? Did he threaten to kill Paul Jones' wife and kids?

Calvin Ayre is proving to be very Vince-like in his not being good at anything outside his core business.

Random thought: Between the runs as Masked Superstar and Ax from Demolition, couldn't there be a case made for Bill Eadie? He was a pretty good draw as the Superstar, and even though Demolition started off as a Road Warriors rip off, they ended up being the longest reigning WWF tag champions ever.

I was actually somewhat impressed that Arn was able to remember the kayfabe reason for Ole getting kicked out.

In talking about MVP's heart condition, Dave mentions one of WWE's biggest stars has a medical condition that the company wanted to keep under wraps due to the timing of when they found out (right in the middle of all the Benoit stuff) and the gimmick of said star. It's apparently nothing serious as it's being controlled by medication, but the only top guy I can think of who's that protective of his gimmick is Taker, since you can't have it get out that the undead monster has a very human medical problem. Maybe he got hep from Cowboy Bob after all?

Call me crazy, but I think WWE could pull off a Cena-Kennedy double turn if they really put their minds to it. I know Kennedy's the guy all the cool kids are hating, but I watched him come up through OVW and there's something there if WWE decides to go balls-out with him.

Also, Cena works best when against a strong heel (Edge, Umaga, the new Evil Head-Punting Orton) which is something the WWE is kind of lacking. It's only going to be worse when HHH, who is a strong natural heel, has to play babyface for a few months after his return. It's like the difference between Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy and Hulk Hogan vs say, Nikolai Volkoff.

Eric Bischoff coming out and overturning practically every win a WCW guy would get against the nWo would seem to be the obvious example of this. There's a reason that angle never got a proper blowoff, and part of it (other than the egos and politics of course) was that the WCW guys were made to look like complete chumps to the point where actually booking them to win was near impossible.

If you're going to say Cena isn't Wrestler of the Year, then who is?

I wonder if Michael Buffer's appearance on SNME will somehow lead to WWE getting the rights to all his WCW appearances, since the Monday Night Wars are quickly coming up to the point where he was announcing WCW main events on an almost regular basis.

Man there's a Romeo and Juliet angle just BEGGING to happen between her and Ray Gordy.

The Legends show on the Monday Night War was a pretty fun thing to see. Eric obviously knew that the panel was stacked to try to gangrape him, but he ended up not only holding his ground but flat out owning people on more than one occasion. It also seemed clear that Hayes was Vince's puppet on the show since there was things coming out of his mouth that made no sense unless they were coached/fed to him. Like when he got upset at Eric for trying to put WWE out of business because it would have hurt the families of WWE employees/wrestlers, it seemed like such a Vince thing to say because what about all those families of WCW employees who lost *their* jobs? It was interesting to see Lawler pretty much say what someone here stated about Montreal being orchestrated by Vince to get Bret to WCW. From the reaction of the panel it seemed to be the consensus that between Vince transitioning to a on screen performer and needed to get out from the deal he signed with Bret, it set the wheels in motion for the screwjob to happen. Also, I don't think WCW gets the credit it deserves for the role it played in saving the WWF. RAW was such a horrible show by 1995, not even a "looks cheesy 12 years later" thing, even at the time it had terrible production values, cartoon gimmicks, Vince still announcing in 80s WHATTAMANUVER~! mode.... pretty much every aspect of the show sucked balls at that point. If Nitro hadn't have come along when it did to give them a boot in the ass, I really don't think the WWF would have lasted past the 90s. Finally, wow did Foley come off as a big fucking baby at still being all butthurt over WCW giving the finish away of his title win. Did HBK (who'd be more likely to have a tantrum over anything) get this upset when they spoiled him beating Sid by saying "he beat the big guy with 3 kicks"?

Why is Ultimo such a horrible pick? I mean, sure he's debatable, but I didn't think he was so "OMGWTFBBQ~!" horrible. Also, you want to talk about slippery slopes, it's going to be hard to exclude any other promoter after Heyman's been inducted. Especially since Heyman failed so epically at the main goal of promoting, that being the ability to make money. Crockett should make it in as a promoter since he had what was arguably the best in ring product of the 80s and actually made (some) money until he got cockblocked out of the PPV market by Vince. I don't think you can hold the fate of JCP against him considering he didn't fare any better than anyone else who ran against the WWF.

Vince is too much of a mark for multi-generational wrestling families for her to not make it to the WWE.

They have a Terry Funk-Chris Candido match up on the Shorties section that just symbolized so much that was wrong with WCW a the time. First Chris cuts a EDGY SHOOT PROMO~! bashing the WW*silence* and ECW for not having the leadership to recognize his talents, challenges Funk to a hardcore title match, and then they end up going outside to a nearby stable (they were in Idaho, so it didn't seem odd that there was a stable near the arena). They fight *INSIDE* a horse stall with THE HORSE STILL TIED THERE. Now Funk certainly knows horses, but Chris seems to know as much as you'd expect someone from New Jersey would, and ends up on the ground which results in the horse coming inches away from kicking his head off his shoulders to an audible OHHHHHHHH from the crowd. Tony of course comes with the insider terms like all the cool kids were using and states the horse has the highspot of the night so far. I've never seen a promotion make itself look so bush league in a short amount of time.

So what's the deal with Alan Wojojojojojojojojojick getting the bannoration from the Impact Zone? It seems odd that A. People take laptops to wrestling shows and B. TNA would feel the need to make a rule against it. His final tapings report was more maudlin than the final episode of a sitcom that's gone several seasons past its prime.

Boogeyman looks so different now I'm surprised he's not this era's version of the "Ultimate Warrior was two different people" urban legend.

That made me wonder if that's why HHH hasn't made an appearance yet. It seemed as if everything was tailor made for his TV return tonight, and it was just an empty tease. I'd wager he's the one guy everyone would be looking at to see if Vince is serious about everyone getting off the roids/HGH.

I don't know if it was internet BS or not, but I seem to recall the original plan was to sign Joe in one of those "prove WWE guys are better" deals and have him be jobbed out while in a completely stereotypical gimmick. Joe turned them down, Rosey pushed for WWE to reform 3 Minute Warning, WWE saw how much better Jamal was after being in All Japan, and the rest is history.

Probably not. Not now, but it certainly has potential to be one of those things that seem creepy in retrospect.

But it wasn't just Rey who pioneered that style, Juvi and Psicosis were right there as well. I guess Rey gets points for not being a fuckup like those two were, but at the same time he wasn't single-handedly changing the world. I don't want to come off as completely discounting Rey's contributions, but the indy fast paced style seemed to be more based on their view of Lucha in general than Rey specifically. He was certainly a big part, no doubt, but it seems like an important distinction to make.

Is Rey that much of an influence? I'm not saying he's not or can't be one, I just never heard of anyone basing their style specifically on him. I'm not sure about the historical significance thing either, he was a part of the first wave of lucha stars to make an impact in the US, yes, but again I don't think there is anything specifically about Rey that would stand out as historically significant. He certainly has the longevity and the drawing power, but I don't know if that's enough. I mean, I wouldn't object to Rey being in the HOF, but there's certainly a case that can be made against him that doesn't involve the "OMGZ HE'Z TEH SMALLZ" argument that you know we're going to hear about.