QuestionMan

This entire thing is just so sad.

Since when did you have to be invited to a funeral if you were a friend of the deceased?

Savage was never blacklisted from WWE. I don't know where any of that shit came from. They even interviewed Savage in the first Smackdown magazine in 2003. The only reason they stay stay away from him is because he asks for buckets of money.

If Stephanie is supposed to be "safe," then enjoy nothing changing, Vince. The beginning of the gradual decrease in ratings from the 6-7s area to the 3s can be traced back to Stephanie taking over as head writer in Fall 2000. The company line is that it was due to the changeover to TNN/Spike TV, but Steph's crappy booking is the real culprit. The first sign of trouble was the HHH/Steph/Kurt angle that was aborted for no given reason (but probably due to HHH not wanting to put over Angle). Just give Paul F'N Heyman 12 months of the totalitarian booking power Vince Russo had in 1997-1999 and see if anything happens. Could it honestly hurt?

How hard is HHH laughing?

Nothing says EXTREME championship wrestling like a DQ or count out. What's your point? They did a DQ finish for the ECW Title match in the HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM. They don't care and have never cared.

Roid rages never last more than 15-30 seconds.

I'd say this is an issue of Benoit gradually losing his mind because of all his friends dying coupled with the idea of losing his marriage and his child. Mike Awesome and Crash Holly committed suicide over issues like this. My guess is Nancy made a crass remark about leaving Chris and taking Daniel with her. That's when I think all this senselessness started. I couldn't give a rat's ass about steroids. Steroids don't make you murder your family and then commit suicide. The only thing I'm interested in with these toxicology reports is the presence of anti-depressants in his system. They found Zoloft in Brynn Hartman's system when she shot up Phil Hartman and then herself. If no anti-depressants are found, than this is 100% nothing but issue of a man gradually losing his mind over an 18 month span, refusing to seek and accept help for it, and it culminated in three dead bodies.

They were protecting Tazz hardcore when he started. His second TV match in the company was a triple threat match as Tazz vs. Kurt Angle vs. The Rock. Angle took the fall.

I'd much rather see Sid vs. John Cena than Lashley vs. John Cena or Khali vs. John Cena.

RVD should have been a top star in 2002. He was fucked up beyond all repair after HHH killed any chance of RVD making any money for the company.

Orton was suspended 60 days for the marijuana incident. Orton was also suspended again in September 2006, but he was the first suspension after WWE revised it's policy for suspensions. The prior policy was total suspension for 30 days without pay. But WWE got pissed that it totally fucked up their Great American Bash PPV, so they revised it to only being suspended from house shows and having to work TV, all without pay for 30 days.

Glad to see Mark Henry's got some integrity.

The 6 who worked for TNA: -- Curt Hennig (Mr. Perfect) -- Mike Lockwood (Crash Holly/Mad Mikey) -- Mike Hegstrand (Road Warrior Hawk) -- Mike Alfonso (Mike Awesome) -- Jerry Tuite (The Wall/Malice) -- Chris Candito Candito, Lockwood, and Awesome are circumstantial because their situations had nothing to do with the issues being discussed. Awesome committed suicide due to depression over his marital troubles. Lockwood also committed suicide due to his ex-wife getting full custody of their daughter. Candito died due to a blood clot that formed in his leg after surgery for a wrestling injury that had nothing to do with drugs or steroids. Hennig's death was a coke overdose. Former TNA guy Jason Cross is a friend of mine. He said he had dinner with Hennig two weeks before he died and said he was clearly screwed up on something. That one could be a debate about the conditions wrestlers work in. The only ones that really need to be scrutinized under the pain killer/steroid talk are Hawk and The Wall, since their prior drug use clearly contributed to their early demises.

See, it's stuff like this. Meltzer and Alvarez bring the facts, and both are of the opinion that WWE deserves some of the blame and needs to make some changes. The evidence points to that argument being more correct than the opposing viewpoint. Not to say that guys like Mero aren't full of shit, because I don't know if he really has his facts straight either, but his side of the argument makes a lot more sense knowing the specifics of the wellness policy, and knowing how much bullshit damage-control PR is coming from WWE and their wrestlers. It's just a matter of getting that information out there, but even if it was, there seems to be a group of individuals who don't want to listen. I think Alvarez for the most part hasn't said anything to really question if it's a fact or not he's been solid from what I've seen.....I think Meltzer has said a few things that made me go ehhh....and Keller is so far fucking out there he just needs to stop. When he has stuff on his site about wanting to ask Linda McMahon if Benoit snapped because his workrate was better than Lashleys but he wasn't getting pushed I've had enough...... I thought the DiBiase thing I posted in his response to Meltzer was pretty solid personally, I'm curious to see what Dave says about it in all honesty. I hope it's more in depth than 'Ted is just towing the line" or something like that. Keller said those questions came from forum users, not him.

WWE SENDING DAVE FINLAY TO DEBATE MARC MERO ON NANCY GRACE Friday night on Nancy Grace's show, WWE will dispatch Dave Finlay to be on the show to debate with Marc Mero, who has been all over the media circuit since the Benoit tragedy talking making very anti-WWE comments about the conditions it forces its wrestlers to work in. Might want to set your VCR or DVR for this one.

Edge has an undisclosed injury that he's telling people isn't serious. It happened during the Smackdown tapings that will air tonight on The CW. He is still in-line to work his World Heavyweight Title match against Kane at the Great American Bash.

JOHNNY GRUNGE'S WIDOW APOLOGIZES FOR STATEMENTS ON NANCY GRACE LAST NIGHT Last night, as many of you know, I appeared in-studio, to talk about the life and death of my late husband Mike “Johnny Grunge” Durham. It was a very emotional experience and I was very nervous. Mike had a longtime addiction problem leading to his death last February. It has come to my attention that, in my nervousness and emotional state, I indicated that all wrestlers are on drugs and steroids. I would like to state, for the record, that this is not the way I truly feel. While there are other wrestlers I know who have battled drug issues, there are also many that I know that have won those battles and have been clean for years (William Regal is an example) and others that do not take drugs at all. As a matter of fact, Mike’s longtime tag team partner and friend Ted “Rocco Rock” Petty did not do drugs and encouraged Mike to stop using constantly, as did I, to no avail. I definitely did not mean to cast a shade on the wrestling business as a whole, only to discuss my situation with Mike. I hope this clears up any misconceptions. God Bless, Penny Bordeau-Durham

CHRIS BENOIT'S FORMER BOSS, ERIC BISCHOFF, WEIGHS IN ON THE MEDIA COVERAGE For the first time in my 20 years in this business, I am embarrassed. Not because of the horrific act of an obviously troubled individual, who until a few weeks ago was a respected part of the sports-entertainment business. I don't believe that the Benoit tragedy is representative of the business, or more importantly the people who are a part of it. Chris Benoit had psychological problems. The root cause of those problems will debated for months to come. As well they should be. By experts. Not by the parade of clowns who are fighting for their last 60 seconds of fame on cable news programs that are clearly sensationalizing and exploiting this situation for one reason and one reason only: ratings. If there was any doubt about that, one need only look back at the list of idiots that have covered this story. Nancy Grace…give me a break. Or how about Bill O' Reilly? "Hard Hitting Interview" with Linda McMahon? Since when is a half decade old out of context interview newsworthy? Can anyone seriously argue that news networks are not exploiting and spinning the sad death of a wife, son, and father for one reason and one reason only? But I'm not embarrassed by the obvious ethical/professional lapse of the cable news industry. I've never been in that business. Besides, we see it all the time. The most embarrassing thing for me over the past ten days has been watching the likes of Debra Marshall-Williams-McMichael-Whoeversheisgoingtotaketothecleanersnext, Marc Mero, Lanny Poffo, et all fighting like a bunch of addicts at a crack festival, trying to become the spokesperson for an industry in which they have been irrelevant for years. If it were not for the painful circumstances surrounding this issue, these three would have a regular gig on Saturday Night Live. Hopefully accurate information will come out soon that will allow for a meaningful discourse surrounding this issue. In the meantime, somebody get the hook and get these clowns off the stage.

"In the midst of the storm caused by the Benoit family tragedy, the news of WWE releasing referee Chris Kay a few weeks ago got lost in the shuffle." -- PWI

"USA Network has told WWE that they want Monday Night Raw extended to 3 hours on a weekly basis. USA also told WWE they want Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker to be featured prominently on Raw, even if they can't wrestle. WWE cited the failure of WCW Monday Nitro going to 3 hours every week, but USA was not budging. WWE is obviously dead against all of this since Austin's knees are in such bad shape, which means, unlike Vince McMahon, he couldn't ocassionally wrestle a match to blow off an angle. Also, Undertaker is likely out until the Royal Rumble. But WWE has a lot less leverage in their current TV deal than they did with TNN/Spike TV, so they may not have a choice."

WWE is 10:1. Olympics is 3:1.

I do believe you mean "snickered".

Yeah, seriously. Would you rather be a wrestler or a chiropractor for a living? No contest.

Shawn Stasiak is actually now Dr. Shawn Stasiak. He is a highly successful chiropractor now and has left wrestling in the dust.