Hunter's Torn Quad

I put Thorne in the MITB because mine had two representatives from each brand and he makes for good cannon fodder. Depending on who is getting pushed in ECW at the time, you could replace him.

With regard to Jeff Hardy, it's worth pointing out that at the time WWE hired him back he'd been fired from TNA twice for no shows and other disciplinary problems. Jeff has apparently cleaned up his act, at least to where he's no longer considered a risk, but at the time WWE re-hired him, he'd shown no indication at all that he was willing, or able, to do that. It's good that Jeff's turned things around, but it's telling that WWE were willing to look past Jeff's behavior at the time when they hired him on the chance he wouldn't screw up again. Yes, the gamble paid off, but it could have easily backfired.

WWE title: John Cena © vs. Triple H vs. Randy Orton. I'm thinking Cena goes into the match as champion and beats Orton to retain. Where you go from here depends on where you want the title to go, what you want to do with Cena and Hunter and if Hunter is a heel by now. If Hunter is a heel, and they want to hold off on Cena/Hunter II, then Backlash can main event with Cena/Hunter/Orton and Hunter can cheat to beat Orton to backdoor his way to the belt in classic heel fashion. They can find some way to hold off on Cena/Hunter II until Summerslam, possibly by having Cena and Orton feud while Hunter goes through some babyfaces. World title: Undertaker vs. Edge. Depending on what they do for each man on his return, either can go into the match as champion, but the main selling point is each being undefeated in singles action at Wrestlemania. Unless something major happens, Undertaker will probably go over. ECW title: CM Punk © vs. John Morrison. While maybe not going on for nine months straight, it's likely this issue will still be alive to a a degree come Wrestlemania, so this can be the big blow off with Punk getting the win, maybe in some sort of 'Extreme Rules' match. Raw vs. Smackdown: Bobby Lashley vs. Batista. I'm sure Vince has had fantasies about this match ever since he set eyes on Lashley. Lashley goes over clean. Raw vs. ECW: Shawn Michaels vs. Monty Brown. I'm putting Brown here on the assumption he's getting a big push down the road, and because I think it could be a fun match. ECW vs. Smackdown: Elijah Burke vs. MVP Money in the Bank: Kennedy vs. Matt Hardy vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Umaga vs. Finlay vs. Kevin Thorne. Umaga wins and either challenges Undertaker for the World title, if Hunter is a heel, or challenges Cena if Hunter is still a babyface, with the hype playing off of Cena choking out Umaga just over a year previously and Umaga wanting to avenge the only man to beat him in such a fashion. Ric Flair retirement match: Ric Flair vs. Carlito. It's a year late, but it finally happens. Flair goes over, even though he'll probably want to lose, because people don't pay to see legends lose and a Flair retirement match, with enough serious hype, will draw.

I think the capacity for wrestling is around 12,000.

Those holes are there because the workers abuse the fact that they are allowed to use steroids and whatnot if they have a prescription and by the company not really showing much concern that the wrestlers are abusing said loophole. It's like carnival folks trying to run a game legitimately. The game and rules can be perfectly fair and on the level, and the carny will play fair for a little while at least. However, when things stop going their way, the carny will go back to his old ways. Which is what makes the policy a joke. Shakespeare could write the thing, but if it's filled with loopholes and 'outs' to enable the continued abuse of drugs, then how well it's written is irrelevant.

Keep your damn legs closed, Brit. And your mouth too, while you're at it.

How 'solid' can a written policy be when it's got so many holes in it?

Domestically, yes, it is.

Wrestlemag That's a lot of miles to rack up in five days.

I think Lashley is feuding with Carlito simply so he can squash someone and look strong after doing his first clean job in forever.

Until something major happens out of this, the big guys and juicers will keep getting the top pushes.

Re: Hunter going over Booker. Booker was originally going to win the match, but when they signed Goldberg and penciled in his title win over Hunter for Bad Blood, Hunter argued against a short-term title change and they changed the finish to Hunter going over instead. At that point, the racial overtones of the storyline were dropped. Of course, Goldberg had to wait three more months for his title win when Hunter then decided he wanted to keep his feud with his good friend Kevin Nash going. The only match finish in recent years that raised eyebrows with me was Angle making Hogan tap out. Angle winning wasn't a surprise, but that Hogan actually taped out clean was.

It makes sense for Smackdown to go HD over Raw, because the taped nature of Smackdown allows for WWE to edit around any of the feared mistakes that HD would spotlight. And if Raw ever goes HD, WWE might be able to work out some camera tricks they can use to avoid the same problems.

A third party, not HHH, who shows up on the final Raw before Summerslam and inserts themselves into the main event.

the guy telling us to check history needs to check history himself, you're saying? Well, more checking than seemingly taking one book at face value. The value of Ms Hammer's contributions are way overblown, that's for sure.

He is. Hammer's influence and contributions are being greatly exaggerated. More research is needed.

A check of the rating info shows that, segment peaks aside, Raw only got above an 8 rating once (5/10/99) and a 7.0 rating or more 5 times. It's best ratings in the 'Attitude Era' were in the mid-to-high 6's.

I think most people would want a Raw that was as you described. The problem is that Hammer, and Vince and company for that matter, think of Raw like it was an actual action show. There are some things real actions show do that simply wouldn't work in the context of a wrestling program, which is what Raw is at it's heart, no matter how much Vince and company want to think otherwise.

If she really wants to make Raw more like an ACTION SHOW, she should demand that they have a wrestler called Chris Benoit. He can 'return' on ECW and demand an ECW title shot. Have the announcers explain that 'Benoit' had been dealing with a family emergency for the last few weeks, and that he was back to take care of business. Everyone can treat the new Benoit like he was Benoit and talk about how they missed him while he was gone, but are glad he's back, and things can keep going like nothing in the real world happened.

Three prospective or reigning Smackdown champions in a row go down with torn muscles. Something in the water, maybe?

Did you try converting the data again? If that doesn't work, then it looks like the problem is with the original data.

It won't matter if the ratings fall or stay the same if Hunter returns; he's 'made' so is immune to any kind criticism when it comes to any negative effect he might have on the ratings. That said, if he doesn't bump the ratings, or only does so for a short time, then it'll be fun to see what does get blamed instead.

I think the answer to both of those is yes. The insurance might have been cut at the same time TNA stopped paying for hotels, in an effort to cut costs. That TNA are now insisting talent pay for any surgery suggests that the insurance is indeed a thing of the past.