RedJed

Someone mentioned Bret Hart and I'm starting to think that is the big news possibly. They've been trying to get him in for months and the only thing previously stopping him was a loyalty of sorts to WWE in regards to the DVD release. Now that its out of the way, it's fair game for him to show up. Just for the record, if it ever could happen, I think the thing that might get TNA really noticed would be if Bret led a Team Canada group comprised of Benoit, Christian, Jericho, and Storm. Also, someone said TNA shouldnt try anything too risky such as competing with WWE until they are pulling strong buy rates and 2.5 ratings. I tend to disagree with that just because its going to be damn near impossible to regularly pull that kind of number on an 11pm Sat night slot. They have to start somewhere and ideally, having their big weekly show on the same night as competition will serve them better than just any other night - one, because your casual and hardcore fans alike will always be conditioned somewhat to Monday Nights being THE night to watch wrestling. Because of that same fact, as long as TNA could book strong characters and storylines, it would work out to the benefit of them in the long run, as sooner or later the success would hit, even if its not running neck and neck with Raw. I guess look at it this way - WCW probably would have never hit the success they did if they never started Nitro up against Raw. If they would have stuck with their normal timeslots, or at very best, even had Nitro on a Thursday, I dont think we would have seen it draw the interest it did, moreless because of the competitive nature in theory turning up creative.

Probably in the minority here but I thought he was much better workrate-wise than he ever has been during the last 5-6 months. Add some personality to the worker and you would have had someone who could have gotten over if given the chance. TNA certainly could have done a ton more with him to make him more than a glorified jobber. Kind of shitty that he's stuck with the company since its start and he obviously wasnt treated in kind for being that sort of person.

I really dont see it out of the realm of possibility that Jericho or Lesnar could possibly show up at anytime considering Jericho is free and is good friends with Christian, who has publicly stated he is trying to get Jericho into the company - and with Lesnar, there was at some point a NJPW-TNA relationship of some sort documented by Liger being in. With that said, will they this Sunday? Jericho maybe, but not counting on it. I am pretty sure they are going to announce a Monday Night timeslot, hopefully head-to-head (preferably just one hour for now) with Raw. Depending on how this is promoted on Saturday's Impact will be telling on if this announcement pertains to an internal company move or if it's an actual worker debuting on Sunday.

Grabbing this thread from the past 60 days dungeon.... I just got the Kobashi-Joe DVD over the weekend after ROH had a pretty decent Black Friday sale of 25% off all DVDs, including this one. If there ever was a pretty damn historic and flawless match in ROH history, this was it, folks. Top to bottom this was an incredible match laced with stiff chop fests, fantastic pacing, unparralled crowd heat, etc. Can't emphasize enough that this needs to be seen by anyone who considers themselves a wrestling fan. Havent seen the next night yet in terms of the tag match, but going to get to that later this week. I believe ROH is having a 20-30% holiday sale soon, now would be the time to pick it up....

Jackie and/or Gail might be the girl who is apparently Raven's girlfriend, versus what everyone is saying about the two girls being both Jarrett's chicks. Just a thought. Didnt think too highly of the Impact show this week really, other than the Sabin-Styles match (I'd love to see a singles match between them on ppv) and the Rhino vignette. They need to keep doing special vignettes on workers to draw some character development/personality from them.

The screen is overwhelmingly huge, and the sound is completely fucking awesome. Seen Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and now Harry Potter in an IMAX and it is definately something else. They are already pimping out Superman for next summer in the IMAX - that appears to probably be the next real major box office film to hit em. I doubt Kong, Narnia, etc, will be in the IMAX since I think they have an exclusive license with Warner Bros movies only. I did hear something about Kong being re-released in 3-D though in March/April, on a side note.

Damn did all of the new releases sure bomb for the most part. Most dissapointed in Ice Harvest - went to it over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone got individual numbers for the IMAX box office for Harry Potter? Also went to that over the weekend and it was sold out, pretty overwhelming being in a sold out show in one of the largest number of seats I've seen in a theatre to date. Capacity there was something nuts to say the least.

Thought this was worth posting, was going to add it to either the steroid or Eddy threads in WWE folder, but thought it might get missed by many. Good read here, some interesting insight into how the drug test system in WWE (then WWF of course) used to be. Torch Talk with Sean Waltman, pt. 1 Originally Published: November 26, 2005 Torch Newsletter #888 The following is the first installment of a 90 minute Torch Talk with Sean "X-Pac" Waltman. This interview focuses on two subjects: memories of Eddie Guerrero and WWE's new drug testing policy in response to Guerrero's death. Waltman has been down many of the same roads as Guerrero. He also was around during the last time WWE drug tested wrestlers and talks about the pros and cons of testing and how he tried to beat it once. Part two will be published next week. Wade Keller: Talk about how well you knew Eddie Guerrero and what memories stand out. A lot of times when people die there often is exaggerating the good and ignoring the bad. I don't think there's been a lot of that with Eddie. He could be moody and not always having a bright, cheerful day, but most of the time he was a favorite person to be around. Sean Waltman: Even in his most melancholy moods, he was a warm-hearted, compassionate human being. He was everything people say he was. My first time ever meeting Eddie was in Japan in 1993. I had already done the thing with Scott Hall with the Razor Ramon-1-2-3 Kid angle. However, I had one prior commitment with New Japan, the Super Junior Tournament that year. Looking back, that is where I began getting to know Eddie. Chris Benoit started getting to know Eddie really well on that tour. That's quite a long tour when you're over there for the Super Junior tournament. I was with him day in, and day out. As opposed to over here in the States, over there it's a tour schedule and you're on the bus with them all the time. We spent every day together. We got to know each other really well. That wasn't long after Art Barr passed away, and he was Eddie's dearest friend. Of all the matches I had on that Super Junior tournament, mine with Eddie Guerrero had to be one of the greatest matches I ever had. He led me through that match, as a matter of fact. It had to be one of the greatest matches I've ever had. If anyone has a copy of that, it was tremendous. I'm not saying this because he is dead, it wouldn't have been that tremendous if it wasn't for Eddie. I had some disappointing matches on that tour. I wrestled Jushin Liger and choked so bad and screwed so many things up in that match, it was embarrassing. I got to know Eddie Guerrero really well on that tour. I didn't see any real bad signs that I can remember of any drug use back then. If there were any good drugs going around back then, nobody shared them with me. [laughs] I don't mean to laugh at that, actually. I've known Eddie since 1993. I didn't see him again until I left Vince McMahon (the WWF) the first time and went to WCW when the NWO thing started. Then I spent a lot of time with Eddie there as well. Things had gotten, I think, a little bit out of control for Eddie back at that time. I remember the very infamous NWO Souled Out pay-per-view from Cedar Rapids, Iowa where Eddie and I had a ladder match. I remember coming prepared; the night before I had several tapes of all sorts of different ladder matches. One of my best friends in the world, Scott Hall, was kind of an innovator of that match. He was helping me out with trying to come up with a really good ladder match. Not that we (Eddie and I) didn't have one, Wade. This is where you kind of get into some of the negative things. I couldn't find Eddie. I couldn't track him down the night before to sit down and kind of study other people's ladder matches. It definitely, I think, hurt the quality of the match. Even though I think we had a really good one, there were so many things from a psychology standpoint about that match that were problems. I remember coming back from the match and at the time, because of the crowd reaction, because there were some pretty spectacular things in the match, I was pretty happy, but when I walked back through the curtain, instead of getting a pat on the back and a hug and telling me what a great match I had, I remember getting my ass chewed out by Scott Hall. There were so many obvious things that could have been better had we prepared a little better. So I was a little disappointed. I remember Eddie took that kind of hard. Scott wasn't friends enough with Eddie to go over and give him shit and jump his case because I don't think Scott thought it was his place to do so, but word had gotten back to Eddie. I know that bothered Eddie for a long time. Keller: If he took it so personally that the match didn't go well, was that in part because he felt bad he wasn't there the night before to go over the tape? Waltman: Maybe subconsciously. I think just the fact - kinda like me, I share a lot of Eddie's characteristics in terms of being real sensitive and getting my feelings hurt kind of easily. It was a combination of things, you know? He was so awesome in the ring and it was a pride thing, too, realizing that somebody that knew actually thought the match could have been way better. We were patted on the back and told how great a match we had by a lot of people in the company who were in powerful positions, but actually didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Some of them that you would just assume knew, but still said, "Great match." Kind of like, Arn Anderson. I don't know if you ever heard stories of Arn Anderson as an agent, and I may or may not get shit for this from Arn if I ever see him again if he reads this, but Arn was infamous for being an agent and sitting back playing cribbage or gin backstage and coming back from your match that he didn't even watch, he'd tell you what a great match you had. Keller: Tell me what comes to mind as two or three moments that you'd like to have captured on videotape to show his daughters some day that you were either directly part of or eyewitnessed that really captures Eddie Guerrero as a person, a colleague, and a friend. What would show his kids what their dad was all about? Waltman: There are so many things. It was just such an every day thing to experience Eddie displaying his compassion. It wasn't something you had to try to do, it was just the way he naturally was. If anybody was ever experiencing some kind of a problem, if he saw somebody - and they didn't have to be a dear friend of his, Wade - and I know I'm not giving you one particular example, this is more of a blanket statement - if he saw somebody else hurting, it was like he felt it was his duty as a human being to try to do something about that and take some of that hurt away. I just have a feeling, and not like trying to blow smoke up my own ass, I know when I see people who are hurting, you kind of feel some of their pain. And Eddie really, really exemplified that. You didn't have to be his friend. Keller: We've heard that. Charlie Haas, Batista, and a couple of people on the roster now who told me off the record stories - and those aren't people known as good friends of Eddie. In the case of Haas, he was going through marital problems, and Eddie was there to help him through it. Batista said the same thing on the air about how Eddie read him Bible passages to help him through tough times. There are people who weren't his best friends who say they had great moments with him where they bonded. I don't know if that was really well-known about Eddie outside of the locker room until this last week. Waltman: To give you one example, it's my last memory of Eddie. This is my last memory of Eddie Guerrero. When I was at about my lowest and going through my shit with Joanie Laurer and I finally got to the point - as a matter of fact, just a month or so earlier I sobered up enough to come down to the WWE pay-per-view. Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL was the main event. It was the match where Eddie lost tons of blood. I didn't get a chance to see Eddie that night because of him losing all that blood and being in that kind of shape. However, a month later I called Hunter on the phone and said, "Hunter, I need help and I want to come back to work." He said, "Where are you?" He sent a limousine to come pick me up from where I was at and put me up in a hotel downtown to get me away from her. To make a long story short, finally Hunter comes to town and gets me and before we get on the airplane, we have to stop by where they're shooting a commercial for Summerslam. So there are several of the guys there, including Eddie. He came up to me and gave me the biggest hug. I hadn't seen him since he started having his really bad problems and he lost his job and lost his family and everything. He saw me and gave me the biggest hug and said, "You know, I'll never forget." This was when Eddie himself was probably in a worse place emotionally and everything else than I was at this time. Eddie said, "Remember, I called you and you kept me on the phone for hours talking to me. That helped save my life. I'll never forget that. If there's anything I can ever, ever do for you to make that up, I'm here for you." He gave me a book, kind of a devotional book with scriptures in it. It really meant a lot to me. It helped me in where I was going, which was really straight from there to rehab. [laughs] Although Hunter didn't tell me that as he was getting on the airplane, I kind of knew. That was the last time I saw or talked to Eddie. It was a nice way to remember him. Keller: He went out of his way when you were at a low point and he hadn't forgotten what you had done for him. Waltman: To me, I didn't do a damn thing for him other than just be a friend. He was my friend. We went through a lot together. We had a lot of fun and stuff together. And I also saw a real ugly side of him when he was drinking heavily. That was a side of Eddie I didn't want anybody to ever see again. Personally, when I would get f---ed up, I wouldn't get like that. I wouldn't get mean. I can't remember ever, ever being mean or getting into a fight because I was messed up. That may be because I can't remember, period. But, he was a very, very emotional guy and those emotions came out in the best ways and the worst ways when he was using. I remember a time in Germany - you're asking me to give accounts of things that his kids would be happy to know about, and this isn't one of them; this is one I just thought about. We were in Germany on this really lame tour for WCW and I don't even remember why he was doing the shows, but he was really drunk and he was going off on Disco Inferno for no reason. You know, Disco Inferno, I don't know anybody who's ever been mad at him for anything. He‘s the most nice, passive guy in the world. He just kept open-handed smacking Disco. Keller: In the ring? Waltman: No, this was outside the hotel at night. I was like, oh my God! It was alarming. That was a side I saw of him, too. Thank God I didn't see that side often. Actually, that was the only time I had seen him get that really mean. Keller: I think it plays to your honesty to mention low points in Eddie's life. When he has talked about the lows he experienced, I'm sure those are times he really does regret. Waltman: He may or may not have even remembered that. Keller: We'll talk more about Eddie as we venture into other subjects, but I want to talk about the effect that drugs and drinking have on people. You've done both to excess at various times. What is it that brings somebody from drinking recreationally or using pills for their prescribed purpose or recreationally to a point where you get a buzz out of it to the depths that you spoke out, that you've been through, that Eddie's been through? What is it that leads so many wrestlers down that pathway, and is there something unique about the wrestling business that fosters that path? Waltman: What makes people cross that line into problem drinking or becoming a full blown alcoholic or drug addict? It's hard to really answer that with one blanket for all drug addicts or alcoholics because we're all different. I mean, so different. Everybody's alcoholism and drug addiction reacts to them differently, just like our fingerprints. I say "we" because I'm a drug addict. I don't like to say alcoholic because it wasn't my drug of choice. For lack of any other drug around, I would drink a ton of alcohol and it tastes like shit and it's probably one of the worst tastes I can think of, but in lieu of getting a buzz or getting completely obliterated, I'll drink it. That's like saying I'd drink a gallon of piss just to get a buzz or get drunk. That's pretty sad. That's the definition of being sick. There are some people who were born with genetics who are predisposed to be drug addicts. Eventually, if you're given an endless supply of something, if something's always there, if there's always pills there, it's bound to happen. If that person was because of their genetics predisposed to be that, it's going to happen and there's no two ways about it. That doesn't mean to say somebody with those genetics, if they're just exposed to it here and there, it's like rolling the dice. It's not necessarily going to happen if there's not an endless supply of these things. I know I'm veering off the subject here, but it's making me think of the drug testing policy that Vince is instituting again... I can almost imagine that this will probably be just as stringent as the testing I remember. Wow, that's a really giant step for Vince to take. Keller: You were there, so historically speaking, you can talk about this. There was all of that media pressure to talk to WWE and Vince McMahon didn't want to do it at first, but when he did it and decided to do it, it seemed he put forth a genuine effort to clean up his company. Talk about what the reaction was to it at the time, whether it was taken seriously, and how it led to changes once it started taking place. Waltman: This is the only thing I can't relate to. I can't relate to being part of a major wrestling company and going through years where pretty much anything went - you could do steroids, whatever you wanted to - and then having the rug pulled out from underneath you pretty much over night where all of a sudden you're not allowed to do these things anymore. When I came in there, I wasn't using steroids to begin with and I never really had at the time. I tried once or twice or something, but the truth is, I don't even know if I had real steroids back then. I never touched a steroid until I was 25 years old, until I left Vince McMahon. Before I went to the WWF, I had never really taken a pain killer or any pills. So it wasn't nearly as big of a deal for me, although the sad part about it is, because they were testing for some things - when you can have a prescription for Valium, Xenix, Percocet, Oxycontin, whatever you can get your doctor to prescribe for you. You can take these things and piss in a cup and these metabolites can show up in your urine and you're okay, and you're not allowed to test for alcohol - it doesn't really show up, anyhow. It's really hard to infringe on somebody's civil liberties when you tell then you can't drink alcohol in the first place. How do I put this? I walked into a company that was full of people who were taking tons of pills and drinking tons of alcohol on a nightly basis. I got caught up in that whirlwind really quick. We weren't allowed to smoke a joint. They were testing for illegal drugs, and marijuana was an illegal drug in most states. So that was the big thing. We weren't allowed to smoke a joint. If they had only allowed us to smoke pot, we wouldn't be taking all of these pills and getting f---ed up and getting drunk every night. The testing can't solve all of the problems. I know it's a big p.r. thing, but Vince does really care. For all of his flaws, the guy does care. He does not want to keep having to go through this. Keller: When you were part of the stringent drug testing policy, describe how that worked in excruciating detail. How did you find out that you were about to be tested? How much notice did you receive? How often did it happen? What was the test like? Waltman: Okay, we'd find out we were being tested by showing up to the arena and seeing a sign on the door that said, "Drug Test." That's when we knew. It could have been anytime. You never knew when it was coming. There was a doctor Mario DiPasquali. He was a very, very good match. He was very knowledgeable in all of these things. He was probably, in my opinion, one of the top two or three most knowledgeable people about performance-enhancing drugs and how to beat the tests, by the way. He ran Vince's drug testing policy. He was great at it. He really was. He was great at his job. He was very understanding to us because he was an athlete himself. He understood what we were going through. But at the same time, we could show up one day, take a test, and then think we would be okay for a couple of days, and bam, the next day he'd hit us with one. It wasn't just where you walk in, they give you a cup, you go into the bathroom, and you piss in a cup. The bathroom you go into to piss in, there's a guy standing there. We call him the cock-watcher. They watched the stream of urine leave your genetalia and go into the cup. I couldn't think of a way to beat the test. I mean, not very many drug testing policies require somebody to actually watch it come out of you. Even when I was in rehab, you could go and have some privacy while you were taking the test. What happens is, there's ways to beat that, too. Nothing is unbeatable. Now they've come up with prosthetic penises that look like real penises that have a real heating system in them to heat the clean urine that you would put in there to body temperature. They'll test the temperature and the PH to be sure that you're not using some kind of a masking agent. I'm sure in Vince's test that there's a thing to detect that. I'll tell you a quick story. We really liked to smoke our pot back then, Wade. It was a big deal because they wouldn't let us do that. I felt strongly about it. I don't know if marijuana is on his list of things he's testing for. If I were him, I wouldn 't test for it. It's a hell of a lot more benign than alcohol and we're not talking about a p.r. thing where we're worried about somebody getting caught with a dime bag of pot going through the airport or getting stopped on the road, this is a thing to save people's lives. This policy to save people's lives, it shouldn't be strictly for the p.r. of the company. I really don't think there is going to be any bad press on the company if one of Vince's WWE superstars gets caught with a bag of pot. And that's my opinion on it. It might be a biased opinion because I'm a legalization of marijuana advocate. And I do have, in the state of California, a medical marijuana permit. If I was working for Vince, I'm sure that would exempt me from being tested for marijuana anyhow. But not everybody lives in the state of California and not everybody's able to get a doctor's note, either. It's just not the thing I'd be testing for. There was one time we beat the test. It was the Royal Rumble of 1995. It was in Tampa. We started figuring out in our drug addict minds that, okay, they test at house shows, but they don't test us at TVs because there's too much going on at TVs. Same for pay-per-views. And they don't test us in non-English-speaking countries, so if we go to Europe, we can get away with smoking a joint. We had all these things figured out in our heads, so we thought. So we went out the night before Royal Rumble to Ybor City in Tampa. By the way I remember Scott Hall and I leaning on each other walking down 7th St. in Ybor City and bumping into Lawrence Taylor of all people. He looked at Scott and me and was like, "God, aren't you guys wrestling tomorrow?" We were all pilled up and definitely in downer mode. If you want to make any assumption about Lawrence Taylor, he was probably exactly the opposite; he was probably zoomin'. So he's looking at us like we're crazy. Anyway, we get to the show the next day and that's when Lawrence Taylor did the angle with Bam Bam Bigelow at the end of my match leading to WrestleMania. So we show up for the pay-per-view. Bam, they got us. There's signs up. "Drug testing." We're dirty because we smoked pot the night before. We're like, oh shit! So guys were going in and taking the test. I was avoiding it all day long. Finally Dave Hebner cornered me. He tricked me into going in. He said, "Somebody wants to talk to you." He had taken a sign down on a door. I walked through the door and, bam, there they were with the cups ready. So I'm telling the guy that's doing the test, "Uh, I can't really piss." He could tell I was nervous. I didn't want to get caught. Nobody wants to get caught because it costs you money and you get suspended. He goes, "Give me two hundred bucks and I'll piss for you." I'm telling you, two hundred dollars never left my wallet and went into somebody else's hands so quick in my life. I didn't even think that the guy could have been dirty himself if he was pissing into the cup. This guy actually couldn't piss for everybody, but I think he pretty much took a couple hundred bucks from several people in the company and ended up dumping their samples out. That was the only time that I could tell you that that test was beatable. It was because of a corrupt person who was administering the tests. Keller: And that's not something that could be consistently done because different people conducted the tests each time? Waltman: Different people all over. Keller: So somebody with a major problem would not be able to get away with that even if the current testing used the same method. Waltman: No, that was just a one time thing. I thought that was a pertinent story.

Well considering the guys who are getting pushes right now are some ECW alumni, I would be willing to bet that not only would TNA love to have him onboard but Heyman might enjoy it too, as he wouldnt have to worry about the financial end of the business at all. Spike TV does not = Nashville Network, though. That company/network has, as a whole, gone through so many changes throughout the years that the guy running Spike now (he also runs or did run Comedy Central) isn't the same southern guy who had it when it was TNN (Summer Redstone I think his name was), for starters.

Few thoughts on the show.... When Michael was talking to Sayed while he was tied up and mentioned Walt being taken by the Others and how it happened, did anyone notice the unusual reaction Sayed did? It was more like he was reacting to something internal inside him instead of just externally reacting to the news. I dont know how to explain this, but did anyone else find this a little odd? Almost like he was in some physical pain of some sorts after Michael told him about Walt. I could have just been so baked though, I was looking into this way too deeply. Marked the fuck out for the "pairings" of sorts when Locke and Ek had their first scene together, same with the ending of Ana and Jack. I think there is strong merit to the theory that most every character has a yin to their yang, ie Jack/Ana, Locke/Ek, etc, etc. I have certainly had enough of Ana Lucia and if they dont make some real headwaves soon of giving her some more substantial character depth beyond the bad-ass cliche shit (and I give them credit for trying, but the flashbacks on her didnt give me much other than she's fucked up because of losing her baby) that character is going to go nowhere.

Much like someone already asked, am definately curious if most of these deals at Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc, will be applicable to order online tomorrow morning. I refuse to wake up to go to a crazy mess at the stores, but if they can be ordered online, I'm all about it.

The thing is, though, is that what you are talking about IS the fault of the writing. They need to create some more substance, personality, etc, to all of their workers. I think a big part of this is being limited to one hour a week to try to create some character development, which is hard, but admittedly, the bottom line issue is that the main event material is pretty sour right now with Rhino/Jarrett continuing and that is not going to appeal to any broad audience. So I would blame that right there for the fall in ratings the last few weeks. With that said its not too far gone to build upon and fix easily and the first thing is to get the belt off Jarrett ASAP and probably even consider having him take a hiatus much like HHH did this year. The pairing of him and AMW is already stale after only a few months too. Started out strong and it kept going alright with that funeral angle, but since then its been pretty null and void. Oh yah and ixnay any thought of bringing in soap opera writers. There are plenty of good wrestling minds in and outside of the business that nothing needs to be resorted to trying to duplicate what is an already trite formula with WWE writing. In fact I dont even see a need to change the booking as it is right now, as until they get more time each week to write a show (at LEAST 90 to 120 minutes a week) it's kind of hard to say what and what not the team can really do.

This reminds me when they brought in Urlacher, and the Tennessee Titans, etc, etc, just to try to get a cheap SportCenter plug. Did those sports players help before? Not really. They need to be reaching far further than this if they are trying to tie in their product to other mainstream sports/media. This just seems low rent to me and pretty pointless and it was all based off of a SportsCenter comment about this "other" AJ. Pretty weak.

Got a flyer from Wal-Mart today - over 40 DVD titles for $3.44, had Minority Report, Mooseport, Road to Perdition, and Entrampment as examples. Only from 5 to 11am Black Friday. Thanks for that link too, DH. You da man, man!!!

Those are some great deals - can't pass up a deal on the Family Guy movie like that. If anyone has any other really hot DVD deals for this coming weekend, PLEASE post!!

Really surprised they just dont do the Buried Alive match gimmick for the ppv instead of HIAC, since it was just done in June essentially and it appears by all indications that the proposed Buried Alive Orton-Taker match at Survivor Series is off.

Just caught the show today finally (been lagging behind) and it was alright, still - some of the stuff needs to be addressed like glorified squashes. There really isnt a point to these anymore now that the characters are more established and you are running squashes with guys like AMW and Joe. BTW, never commented on it but Genesis was a million times better than it had any right to be on paper. That main event blew away what I thought it was going to be, which wasnt much!

From Wrestlingobserver.com.... Vince McMahon announced to all the talent this afternoon in Sheffield, England, a new drug policy, which would include performance enhancing drugs, recreational drugs as well as abuse of prescription drugs. In addition, the company is going to mandate more comprehensive cardiovascular examinations for its athletes. All performers under full-time contract will be subject to frequent, unannounced and random testing. Unlike with the McMahon drug policy instituted between 1992-96, there will be a completely independent, and presumably autonomous figure in control of handling the testing, punishments and potential rehabilitation. The figure will report first to the talent to advise them of any positive results or alarming signs, and then report his findings to Vince McMahon afterwards. In the original policy, the doctor who headed the policy would report first to McMahon and generally, J.J. Dillon, and they would decide what action to take. There are two other major differences between the old policy, dropped in 1996 for a number of reasons, basically financial (the policy cost $1 million plus annually and the company was running deeply in the red at the time) and because the WWF was involved in a promotional war with a company that wasn't nearly as strict on the steroid issue, and the fact is, bodies sell and it made a difference in the wrestling war at the time. One is the emphasis on extensive cardiovascular examinations because of the deaths of so many relatively young wrestlers due to heart ailments, presumably brought on by use of both recreational drugs and abuse of performance enhancing drugs such as steroids That was a given due to the circumstances surrounding the heart damage Guerrero had, likely from years of abuse. The other is more careful monitoring of prescription drugs, in particular pain killers. One of the flaws of the old testing was that wrestlers, who knew doctors in many cities, would get multiple prescriptions for the same ailment from doctors who liked being around the stars. Since the wrestlers had prescriptions for those drugs, when they showed up in their system, they were allowed to continue. While not made clear, it is believed this policy would monitor levels of pain killers, whether prescribed or not, and those with high levels would be addressed and likely taken off the road and put into rehab if necessary. Shortly after the death of Brian Pillman, the WWF banned certain well-known doctors from its dressing rooms and told talent to stay away from them. There were two reasons for this, the obvious one of being concerned and reacting to Pillman's death, but the other reason that they had already been through a Zahorian trial and a McMahon trial. Indeed, one of the doctors in question at the time was feared to be "hot" (in that the feds were onto him) and his being linked with a substantial number of wrestlers if there was an arrest would have been disastrous. Even so, some major talent ignored the warnings and continued to see the doctors in question for their prescriptions. In the case of one of those doctors talent was warned to stay away from, Dr. Joel Hackett of Indianapolis, many wrestlers he was closely associated with in the 90s, are dead today. At least two, and likely more, of those who passed away, ignored the company directive and continued to see him. It goes without saying, this was brought on by the death of Eddie Guerrero. We can be critical that prior warning signals were ignored, and probably should be. It would have been far worse for issues of this magnitude, particularly after a second scare this week involving Nick Dinsmore, who passed out after taking too many somas in the lobby of a hotel in Manchester, England, be ignored. As far as discussions of what would come out of the death of Guerrero, it is believed they started as early as the day after, and the Dinsmore situation may not have even played a part. No details were announced to talent because all the procedures will not be written up or finalized for several weeks. McMahon in a very short speech, that lasted less than five minutes, seemed to hint at suspensions for violations of non-prescription drugs, and rehab for abuse levels of prescription drugs. One would suspect, and while this hasn't been said, that wrestlers will have fair opportunity to rid themselves of current issues, most notably steroids, some of which can stay in the system for lengthy periods of time. Using 1991 as an example, McMahon made a similar announcement to talent in July, after a damaging steroid trial. In November, months after everyone was told to get off steroids, 50% of the wrestlers in the company (and that percentage included both male and female talent) tested positive on the first test. The company policy became that those wrestlers had to show decreasing levels of steroids in future tests or be suspended. That policy was criticized at the time by some leading steroid doctors who stated to us that levels of steroids when it comes to being in tests fluctuate up and down, and levels themselves could increase even upon cessation of usage, but still, there were not a lot of policy violations, although numerous big stars, both in terms of bulk and stature in the industry, quit that year. The key point to look at was in late 1992, when business was falling badly, and depth of talent was not there as in years past, when Vince McMahon believed Davey Boy Smith and Jim Hellwig were using Growth Hormone to get around the company's policy, he fired both of them. Vince McMahon himself was also under fire at the time, with a governmental investigation going on, so had tremendous pressure to keep the wrestlers clean. Nevertheless, no matter how it may be phrased, steroids, as an example, were tacitly approved of by the company, and while never verbally said so, in reality, encouraged based on decisions on who to push at what levels, combined with no testing or penalties involved with use. They were until recently in baseball as well. And there is no sport that has gotten the handle on controlling performance enhancing drugs. The top wrestlers, like top athletes in other sports, can find access to doctors who can teach them to beat the tests, and there is still Growth Hormone, that can't be tested for, and is known to enlarge hearts. The only true cure is this. Promoters can't push people based on physique, and judge talent for jobs based on physique. The public can't be impressed by talent with better physiques in thinking that helps make them bigger stars. The talent itself has to no longer care how their physique looks. All three are impossible in the business as we know it. There is no true cure, only an attempt to do the best possible on all accounts. The fact there is no cure does not mean steps shouldn't be taken to help, and this appears to be a giant step, as compared to two weeks ago. The reality is if there is a test in three weeks based on the standards that would be the goal, many would likely fail. McMahon stated they would be fair. However, it is also imperative McMahon discuss openly what that policy would be, such as how long wrestlers had to get steroids, just as an example, out of their system. It's a killer, because it would only admit to issues, but if there is testing one month from today, even if everyone involved goes cold turkey today, many would still fail. Half the performers failed four months after a similar meeting. If McMahon doesn't publicly explain, and take whatever early heat there would be, and if the public is told there are no failures, the credibility would have to be questioned. The point here is, it would be easy to just say suspend everyone who tests positive. There may not be enough guys to fill a roster, let alone two, not to mention the p.r. nightmare if major names suddenly disappear. They could wait six months and hope people clean out, and if that's the case, they also need to be open about this. During the 90s, there were wrestlers who tested positive that were allowed to stay on the road, but they were working without pay, under the guise they would both protect their reputations and also not interrupt existing storylines. If that's the case, the company also has to be open about this ahead of time. I don't care about pointing fingers and holding up examples of suspended guys to prove they are serious. But I do believe all aspects of the policy have to be open and honest, and not misleading. If word spreads that things happen, such as a wrestler who failed a steroid test and then worked a European tour for several weeks because he was booked in main events and the depth was down at the time, in 2005, this will backfire. Also, talent will know if the policy is adhered to unfairly, and it's a very different world at this time, because if talent knows, we will all know soon enough, and all credibility will be lost. I believe that is a major reason why McMahon is going to have someone autonomous in control of the policy. But the most important thing is to remember what the goal is. The goal for everyone is the health of the performers and hopefully never having to go through another week like we did, and far more importantly, that no more families will have to go through a lifetime of which they have been unfairly sentenced. It is natural to be skeptical of this, and if McMahon is serious, we will see major physical changes in much of the talent, both men and women. It's going to be a tough pill for a lot of people, wrestlers, fans and management, to swallow. We will have to accept the standards of real bodies, as opposed to bodies by science, and perhaps of a standard of physical punishment in matches diminished to a degree based on not using artificial means of recovery. If the changes are not significant, people are not stupid and will know this is a fraud. This is not just physiques, but the entire nature of the business and lifestyles of many of the performers, if this is an honest policy, will have to change. This is, after all, pro wrestling, which hardly has a sterling track record for honesty. I also was in the same place Vince McMahon was this past week, and please don't think for a minute that he doesn't care. You couldn't be human without this making a huge impression and wanting to do everything in your power to keep this from happening again. But even from a cold business perspective, the circumstances of why this happened and very different from any other period. We not only had the death of a popular performer, but judging from feedback, the fan base, and the media, are a whole lot more savvy on this subject than they were in 1991 or 1996. It is horrible it took what it did for these problems to be addressed. We've all heard many times that the only consolation is that Eddie is in a better place. Maybe a second consolation is that Eddie's most important legacy in this business is that it took his death to save the lives of others. We can't turn back the clock. We can only look to the future.

Because its a publicly shared company, basically.

Might be looking into that a little too deeper than it is. WWE.com is being used, as they have said many a time to whoever is there to listen, as THE outlet for ALL WWE news for the most part to be released "before the others." So in that sense, just because they did this big deal about it on their website shouldnt mean there is more to this than there is. They might just want to release the info before anyone else reports it.

THe problem with Muschnick's commentaries on wrestling is he comes off somewhat jaded (there was some heat between Muschnick, who was a pro wrestling fan, and the McMahons, around the same time as the steroid trial, IIRC) and also he easily conveys very cut and dry conclusions to his points which arent always accurate. From a first perspective, he actually makes alot of sense with some things but then goes on so many absurd tangents, its hard to take him seriously with his broad and general statements that are supposed to all tie in together to portray the WWE as the devil. I wish someone had some audio archives from Meltzer's audio show - he was on there a few times and was so hyperactive and closed minded on his opinions (including a refusal to even hear out caller's viewpoints and hardly Dave himself could retort) on those shows that it really exposed him. Most of this piece was somewhat spot on, but he's been saying the same things for years now, and nothing has come across that further gives himself some credibility against the system that is WWE, he still comes across jaded and over-reactive without any unbiased viewpoint. One thing I feel he was completely wrong on is this shit about using the Guerrero death to generate ratings. If that was the case, WWE would have sent out press releases like crazy beforehand, loaded up the card beforehand to the public, spent $$$ on commericals for the shows, etc. Its like a company can't do a tribute show without be accused of using the death to generate ratings. Pillman's wife and the Owen/Eddy tribute shows are two different things and for Muschnick to compare them as one of the same is absurdity at its finest. I'd love to see Phil Muschnick do a piece on the testing news from today, but I doubt it will happen, and if it does, it will be portayed as a negative somehow, someway.

I can understand cynical viewpoints with current storylines, characters, etc, but I dont get how anyone can't bitch and moan about this news. Its nothing but a good thing anyway you look at it. They have had one of their top stars die, another succumb to some sort of blatant drug abuse on the road, and another (Angle) apparently on the verge of something serious. Whether or not they are doing this because of those reasons (which I believe they are) is pointless as long as ITS BEING DONE.

What is the story with that BPJT thing? I know its on some website and has been for years (I remember a friend sending me the link years ago) but other than that, not quite getting the point of parodying it on the show. It sure was funny though....

Not very long at all, maybe 5 minutes MAX. There really wasnt much to change anyway as they just raise the titantron and change over the stuff below it, and then they had to get the low rider set up for the Batista stuff at the beginning of the show. Just as an FYI, a lot of the backstage segments with wrestlers talking about Eddy were not shown live at the arena during the Smackdown taping. The Chavo-JBL match was even better on TV than live although they cut away after the match and Chavo was out there in the ring for a few minutes longer getting an Eddy chant really loud, getting emotional, etc.

And much more emotional to sit through....I'm pretty choked up right now.