Hunter's Torn Quad

They were good opening match level act to get the crowd going. They got the 'Godfather pop', and that was it. It's no big loss to see them gone.

Cade and Murdoch were probably kept over CT due to seniority. Or because CT started whatever the incident was.

Is the problem Fedor or Fedor's people? Could, or would, Dana throw them a bone and let one of Fedor's teammates into the UFC? Do Team Fedor even want him in the UFC, or are they just adamant about what they want and simply unwilling to budge for whatever reason?

Seems like the finish to one or both of those matches will be used as the means to write someone out of things.

The lamb has been sacrificed, says PWI:

With Smackdown and ECW being taped tomorrow night, it'll be interesting to watch the spoilers come through to see who isn't there.

From Alvarez:

Jeff Hardy was suspended and he was taken off the road and TV completely for his 30-days. It was to do with Congress getting interested. A preemptive strike.

They didn't get a chance to, what with you getting stripped of the title for failing a drug test. I don't have anything against Barnett for trying to get a job with the UFC, but he's going about it the wrong way for a number of reasons: 1: Dana White hates him. A lot. 2: Knocking Randy Couture directly. Seriously, why would this be a good idea for anyone already on the bad side of the president of the UFC? 3: He beat Randy while on steroids. Could he have beaten Randy clean? Maybe. But it looked liked Barnett wasn't so sure, or he wouldn't have tried to cheat. 4: He doesn't have a lot of friends, or credibility, with the NSAC, when his main defense against the positive steroid test result was his attorney arrogantly/contemptuously asking the NSAC, "Does he look like he's on steroids?" The heavyweight division in the UFC is looking pretty good right now. Maybe if that changes, Josh might have a chance to get signed. As it is, it's probably not going to happen, and will almost certainly never happen if Fedor comes on board. Barnett always acts like a dick in interviews, it's just his shtick. I think he enjoys heeling it up just to get people pissed off at him. Barnett is a terrible style matchup for Randy, as he showed before, regardless of the fact that he was juicing. Let's be honest about the three losses to Cro Cop too; he was injured in one match, banged up after a war with Nogueira in their last, and the second match he was basically an unmotivated, out of shape tub, certainly not the same fighter that would later beat Nogueira. It's a shame Barnett is on the outs with Dana, as I enjoy watching him fight. You'd think he'd try something different when the guy he's trying to get to hire him hates him to begin with. Even if Barnett's style makes for a bad match for Randy, he still, for whatever reason, felt the need to juice up. If the reason was something mental, then that's a major factor working against Barnett before the fight has even started. I'd like to see Barnett in the UFC as well; he's a pretty decent-to-good fighter, and he's got a good heel persona going for him. But it's not going to happen unless Dana suddenly decides that Barnett in the UFC would draw money, and I don't know if that will ever happen.

It's as if the universe is actively finding ways to expose the Wellness Policy for the joke it is with each passing month. McDevitt was on Fox News and said nine of the suspensions were first time offenses while one was for a second offense, which seems likely to be Randy Orton.

Possibly Bucci, because he isn't an active wrestler anymore.

When did they start advertising the match? But yes, it would seem likely none of those names, all of whom just happen to be major names on Raw, are among those who have been suspended.

If either of those four is on the list, the match will get changed. If the suspension starts today, they won't be able to run an angle to change it on the night.

Buddy's used that gimmick for about ten years prior to when he showed up in the WWF with it. He was brought in at the end of 1995 to lose a squash match on PPV to Ahmed Johnson when Shane Douglas was unable to wrestle. WWF liked him and I think he was going to get a slot on the lower end of the card, but he tore up his ankle around Christmas time and that was it for his chance. Purely for ratings. Though, I'm sure the WCW guys who were shown would have been losing.

Maybe this is why Batista didn't win the title. It might also explain certain things on Smackdown this week.

That was one very expensive choke.

He was in there for a few months. Why was he put there? Because it was a swerve; who would expect the ultimate American patriot to turn heel on the US? It was a reference to Hall and Nash being the "Outsiders". At the time, Hall was suspended from WCW for being drunk and in no condition to travel while overseas, as well as being rude and abusive to someone he was going out with who just happened to be related to a higher up in WCW/Turner. Nash was lobbying to get him back, but it wasn't happening. Not only that, but I believe it ended up with an edict coming down that Hall's name was no longer to be mentioned on TV. So, when Nash and DDP started feuding with O'Haire and Palumbo, they named themselves The Insiders as a reference to Hall. As well as that, there were numerous instances of angles and promos done to tease Hall coming back in some fashion, even though it was constantly being made clear that Hall was going to be allowed back. But that wasn't going to stop Nash using his angle as a vehicle to get Hall's name over enough to where he felt WCW/Turner would have no choice but to bring him back No. It was meant to be Rick Steiner, but it was felt too many people knew so decided they needed to surprise people.

They seem to want Undertaker holding the title going into Wrestlemania and to get it from Khali rather than Batista. They could have Undertaker get the belt at No Mercy instead. In any event, it looks like they're trying not to change either of the major titles unless they feel they have to.

Some WWE notes from F4W: As of the last week, the plan had been for Orton and Batista to win their respective titles. The final decision to keep the WWE title on Cena was made Friday, and was partially a result of Vince McMahon not liking any of the finishes for the title match that Michael Hayes, who was in charge of that, was suggesting. Vince felt the various finishes came off as flat and also believed Orton was hot enough that it was the perfect big win for Cena. Orton seems set get the rematch at Unforgiven and maybe the title as well. The Khali-Batista rematch looks to be either Hell in a Cell or a Punjabi Prison match. Vince is considering the idea of Khali keeping the World title until Survivor Series, losing it to Undertaker and then Undertaker defending against Edge at Wrestlemania. Vince was approached with the idea of doing a pro-wrestling off season a few times in the past couple months and completely blew it off every time. Brian Gewirtz was at the ROH show in New York. He’s a big fan of Delirious and is pushing for him to be brought in. Johnny Ace has been bringing up Sid Vicious as someone to bring in. Jamie Noble has been getting praise for speaking up in production meetings and coming up with new finishes and angles. The angle with John Cena’s dad is likely going to continue. Johnny Ace was in New over the weekend as well, intending to meet with Takeshi Morishima, but NOAH stopped the meeting from taking place, citing loyalty to ROH. WWE had talked with Morishima when he was at Harley Race’s training school last year; the talk was that he could be the new Terry Gordy, and there was consideration to putting Morishima in ECW at the time, because Masato Tanaka and Tajiri weren’t going to be coming in, but NOAH blocked that from happening as well. When Tazz was put with Jim Ross on Raw, it was meant to be JBL in that spot, to see how Ross worked with someone other than Lawler, but JBL was out of the country. MVP is cleared to wrestle, and has been doing so at house shows. The match with Matt Hardy at Summerslam was cancelled because they want to keep the competition with Matt Hardy gimmick going, and don’t feel they need to do the match yet.

They seemed to have left out the various backstage segments that will air, so they probably weren't shown to the live fans.