"The Gospel Truth"

WHY 99.9% OF THE MARKS ARE BLINDED BY THEIR OWN HIDDEN AGENDA AGAINST VKM. In the 80's Vincent Kennedy McMahon bought off talent left and right from Independent territories and in part he helped to cripple many regional promotions while doing this. Vince did this to add depth to his own territory because he had visions of global expansion in his mind. A lot of regional promoters did not want Vince to attempt this and laughed at the idea because it was "suicide" and "couldn't be done".

But Vince did it. No one can argue this because it is a well documented fact. Vince took the territorial business and molded it in to what he envisioned it being. At the same time he was booking a product that was as far away from traditional wrestling as any promotion ever could be. Vince gained a real reputation during this period for being the 'anti-Christ' of pro wrestling in a sense. By this people said Vince McMahon wasn't promoting "wrestling" but "sports entertainment". Vince himself coined the phrase "Sports Entertainment" when he got wrestling de-regulated in New Jersey. Vince testified that professional wrestling was "pre-determined" during this infamous trial to help de-regulate the business. A lot of wrestling people & wrestling promoters hated Vince McMahon for doing this and saw him as a villain for doing this. They didn't think the business should be exposed and didn't like the fact that Vince was buying up "wrestling" acts left & right and using them as "sports entertainers" first and as professional wrestlers second. And in some cases he didn't even promote them as being "wrestlers" at all. During this period everyone hated Vince McMahon's company who was an "insider" and openly criticized him for running a "circus". WWE was called "The Circus" by many "smart fans" during this period. Dave Meltzer's National Wrestling Observer generally spear headed the rally against Vince McMahon's company. I remember when BIG TIME WCW/NWA "wrestlers" (like Ric Flair) would leave WCW/NWA for WWE their careers would be 'over' in the sense that the publication would down play them as being legit marketable attractions and when guys the publications hated would leave WWE for WCW/NWA all of a sudden they were highly marketable competitors. This still goes on with the "insider's". Guys like Jerry Lynn & D Lo Brown & Raven are stuck underneath in NWA TNA yet when they were in the same positions with Vince McMahon the same fans who now rally around them in NWA TNA were blasting WWE for "burying them" and "misusing them". The knock on Vince was he would not push any of them because they had "wrestling talent" and he didn't respect "wrestling" and would never allow a "wrestler" to win his title. Of course they discounted the fact that Ric Flair was brought over from WCW and given the WWE Title multiple times back in the early 90's.

They discount the fact that NWA TNA isn't pushing these "wrestlers" either and make excuses for why TNA isn't pushing them. Never once have I seen any of them admit the three are no better off with NWA TNA. And they aren't. In fact they are worse off. At least when they were in WWE working on the undercard they were making a hell of a lot more money then they currently are working for NWA TNA. But lets get back to the real subject matter of this column. Vince gained a reputation with the "inside" fans during the 80's because he largely concentrated on pushing talent like Hulk Hogan on top at the expense of every other "wrestler" ever to enter his company. McMahon latched on to "Hulkamania" and rode it until the craze started to fade away (become stale). He even rode it years after it had run its course but did decent business. It was during this period when the "inside" newsletters created the marketability for Mr. McMahon to exist on camera. Vince was always 100% behind the scenes back in the 80's. He was doing play by play on RAW but he kept it quiet that he was the actual owner of the promotion, he didn't want his fans to know that for some reason. By doing this he gained a lot of credibility & depth as a character. He was always present on WWE TV so it would not be a stretch to see him expand his role in front of the camera one day. But with out this anti-McMahon sentiment spawned in the 80's, there would have been no marketability (no place to go) for the Evil Mr. McMahon character of the 90's. In a sense the rhetoric surrounding Vince helped to allow him to become everything that was ever written about him. No one wrote anything good about Vince McMahon. No one on the "inside" ever promoted the fact that Vince McMahon was the greatest wrestling promoter of all time. He was just a guy who was the "anti-wrestling" promoter and screwed over talent left & right. He had little respect for his talent and lied to them. HE cheated them. He swindled them. He did this time and time again, yet they all wanted to work for him (doesn't this strike you as odd that the guy that supposedly acted like the Evil Mr. McMahon character still got all of the talent to work for his company? Oh it was the money he paid. Certainly it was they got paid the most money they ever made working for Vince's company because he was brilliant at getting them over to the mainstream public).

And now as Stephanie's entrance music basically says, "I'm all grown up now!" and so are all of the Meltzer followers of that era. They are not the writers of inside information. They are the one's who grew up understanding Vince was this EVIL guy who hated PRO WRESTLERS and PRO WRESTLING and generally speaking wanted to push Hogan & Warrior over anyone else. Hell they still are fighting the same war they were fighting in middle school or high school. They are fighting this war against Vince McMahon to prove he doesn't respect pro wrestling. When that could be the furthest thing from the truth. Vince McMahon has never been an individual who set out to HATE wrestlers or wrestling. Vince had just understood what is marketable and what isn't marketable. There was a time when is brand wasn't able to produce quality wrestling but the talent he had was marketable. Hogan, Andre, etc etc were not GREAT WRESTLERS, but they were marketable. So he ran with them on top. Any company in that era that had the services of Hogan & Andre & Piper would have used them on top. That would suggest they were "anti" anything, it would just prove they were brilliant promoters. It should not matter if talent A is a great wrestler or sucks as a wrestler, if he is what the fans want to see then he should be promoted to the moon. To disqualify someone from the list because he or she isn't the greatest "wrestler" is an absurd thing to do. Bob Sapp isn't the greatest "wrestler" in the world but if WWE had the ability to promote this guy on top, then they should! He draws money and that is all that counts in the wrestling business. But these "all grown up now!" insider fans who became writers started to criticize Vince McMahon all over again on 1wrestling.com and other news pages during the "Attitude" days. Now he did not respect "good wholesome, clean wrestling". Damn straight he didn't because it didn't make any money. Once again he was ahead of the curve and was doing what would make his company marketable nationally. But he was also producing some of the best wrestling content in the wrestling business during this period and he didn't get any credit for doing such.

Austin v. Bret Hart was a smorgasbord of good wrestling action. Shawn Michaels was an excellent wrestler and his series of matches with Hart were awesome. Yet these critics still scoffed at the idea that McMahon actually did promote "wrestling". They found reasons to continue to brag about how Vince was the SATAN of pro wrestling. It all began to center around "The Clique". Now the "Clique" was keeping talent down left & right and was causing the "internet's" favorites to JOB. Shane Douglas was "run out of WWE" by "The Clique" and forced to hand over his recently won IC Title to Razor Ramon. NO one could just accept that Shane Douglas has been a miserable person to get along with his entire wrestling career. Shane Douglas burned his bridges in ECW many times because he has a EGO. He has always found a way to belly ache and whine when leaving a territory or claim someone, somewhere was out to get him. When ECW was born all of the talent that eventually wound up in WWE was going to be "buried" by Vince. Yet one by one they weren't. Still no one saw the writing on the wall or were too hell bent on hating Vince to write about it. Foley's debut as Mankind was going to "kill his career" and bury him. In short it got him two best selling books and multiple World Titles.

Austin going to WWE as "Ringmaster" was the end of his career. In short he became the most marketable performer in the history of the wrestling business, even bigger then Hogan. Yeah you can name guys that went from ECW that didn't "make it", but so what. You can name guys that left WWE to go to ECW that "didn't make it" as well. The point is, there was no lack of respect, no lack of upward movement for talent that could help Vince make some money. Vince McMahon always put guys on top that he thought had the slightest chance of making him some money. Yet he was still hated and bad mouthed. Even when he was presenting 5 star matches on every single PPV he ran based around throwback wrestling attractions like Austin & Bret Hart. Every now and then he would give the belt to Undertaker and people would say "see, told you so!" and brag on about how Vince only pushed "bigger wrestlers". When there was no upward movement in WCW under Eric Bischoff and talent like Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit & Eddy Guerrero were talking about going to WWE a lot of the brass in WCW laughed at them and called their bluffs. Vince McMahon would never give them a shot on top because they lacked size. They were "midgets". Some high ranking WCW officials even called Jericho a "midget" in interviews after he left WCW for WWE. Of course most of the people who had an agenda against Vince McMahon saw this as their chance to prove he hated "wrestlers".

None of these guys would be any better off in WWE then they were with WCW. They would be BURIED to death by Vince. They would be midcarders for life in WWE. Jericho arrived in WWE and was given a huge push right to the main event, but he never made it that far. He worked the undercard for a lot of years and allowed these critics to brag about how Vince would never allow a "wrestler" like Jericho to actually win the WWE World Title. It just wasn't going to ever happen. They took pleasure and pride in bragging about this fact and trying to tear down the entire business. Vince McMahon didn't rush Jericho to the top and he waited. He then put Jericho over as the "First Undisputed Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" in wrestling history beating both Steve Austin & The Rock on the same night to unify the WCW & WWE Titles. Still this wasn't good enough for these critics. Somehow the push wasn't done correctly and Jericho wasn't really a legit champion. They effectively turned on Jericho and no longer were asking WWE to give him the World Title (he had it now), but were writing about how Jericho would simply be a transition champion and post title reign wouldn't be anything special. I saw them turn on him and it pissed me off. Vince was still somehow the villain in all of this. There was other wrestlers like Rob Van Dam & Tazz & Chris Benoit & Eddy Guerrero who the internet wanted to see on top. Instead of writing or putting over how Jericho had made it to that level they began to talk about the other wrestlers. If one of them lost a match they were being buried.

If one of them won a match they weren't being pushed, just were being misused. If the win happened it wasn't big enough or didn't mean anything. If a loss happened it meant they were doomed to stay on the undercard for the rest of their careers. Benoit & Guerrero would go on to actually holding both versions of the WWE World Titles at the same time. Eddy the WWE Smackdown World Title and Chris the WWE RAW World Title. Did anyone give Vince McMahon credit for pushing these two wrestlers to the top of the mountain at the same time? NO! In fact, I have read columns about how Guerrero is "only a transition" champion. Guerrero was obviously going to drop the belt to Kurt Angle at WMXX, but that didn't happen and Guerrero has been pushed on Smackdown. I read how Triple H was never going to allow Chris Benoit to look strong and was going to bury him at WMXX. I read about how Benoit wasn't being "PUSHED CORRECTLY" on RAW leading to WMXX and was second fiddle to HBK. But yet he still made Triple H tap out at WMXX and won the RAW World Title. The emphasis during both these title reigns IS NOT placed on how many weeks or months they survive with the World Title, it is placed on when they are going to lose the titles. And when they lose the belts no matter if it is a year from now or a day from now the columns are going to be the same. They are going claim they were buried and send back to the midcard. I don't know a former World Champion who wasn't sent back to the midcard after dropping the title. They have to go somewhere, unless they are just going to win the belt right back instantly and then the guy they beats has to go somewhere as well. What is the midcard? Anything under the main event? Only 2 guys can work the main event on a given PPV (unless its a tag or match with multiple talent involved). But my point here is, no matter if Benoit or Guerrero are pushed "correctly" or not the internet community has already TURNED on them.

I read about how Smackdown still lacks STAR POWER/STAR APPEAL and how HHH obviously has a ego problem and perceives Smackdown as the in superior brand and has gone back to RAW to bury Edge. I am laughing at this! Just about six months ago people were upset that Booker T was being used as a midcard wrestler when he deserved to be up their with HHH & HBK & AUSTIN, etc. Now all of a sudden Booker T & D Von & Bubba being traded for Triple H so Booker T can be a main event player over on the Smackdown brand is a BAD BUSINESS DECISION driven by HHH's ego? What happened to the love affair with Booker T being ready and able to be a major player on top? I thought he had some major star appeal and was being misused on RAW? And what about Rob Van Dam. How many times have I read that the type of reactions he gets over on RAW are the same type of reactions that the main event players are getting and he should be closer to the top of the card then he is? Well what happened to this? If he is getting the pops that main event wrestlers are getting then doesn't that prove he has STAR APPEAL? Do fans want to see HHH more then RVD? I thought fans wanted not to see HHH because they "hated" how he was being rammed down our throats? Now all of a sudden these morons want HHH on Smackdown over Booker & RVD? It doesn't make much sense because RVD & Booker are closer to the top of the mountain with Smackdown then they would be on RAW.

But it isn't about the facts with these people. It isn't about who is or isn't being pushed. Damn we have Eddy Guerrero who people claimed deserved to be where he is currently at but then they write columns disrespecting him by saying Smackdown doesn't have any "established" stars. How can they not have any established stars post Lesnar when Eddy himself beat Lesnar and beat Angle at WMXX. I don't understand how any one in their right mind can argue that RVD & Booker T & Eddy Guerrero are not 'stars'. These are three guys who should be at the top of the business and get the reactions to be at the top of the business. Instead these people who hate HHH wanted to see him go to Smackdown? I understand why, so when he beat Guerrero for the title (and he would have) they could claim Vince was doing it again. "OH HE'S DOING IT AGAIN!"... "HE'S BURYING EDDY! TOLD YOU SO! ITS THE DREADED TRIPLE H EFFECT!". Give me a break. There is on Triple H on Smackdown so there is in essence no way Eddy is going to be "buried" and none of the Smackdown wrestlers (outside of The Undertaker) have held the WWE Smackdown World Title and thus there is no possibilities of Eddy losing the title to someone who is above him. Well, Angle could return but who has a problem with Kurt Angle? LOL. My point is there is no way for Eddy to be "buried" now on Smackdown and I think in part that is why a lot of people are pissed off at HHH going to RAW.

No reason to bitch at Vince over on the Smackdown business model because Vince has set it up to promote new talent to the top positions on the brand. If Eddy drops the belt to Booker T there is no way for anyone to claim Booker T doesn't deserve the title. There is no way for them to claim Eddy was buried either. If Eddy drops the belt to John Layfield, again there is no way for anyone to prove that Eddy was "buried" because he is wrestling a guy who has never been to the top of the mountain in the wrestling world and thus it would just be WWE trying to establish someone fresh on top. The only guy on Smackdown that has a chance to bury anybody is Undertaker. And I don't think Undertaker is going to be put in matches with babyfaces upon his arrival on the scene. So the chances of Eddy dropping the belt to Undertaker are almost non existent. Over on RAW there is a better chance of Benoit dropping the title to someone who has already held the World Title, since RAW has most of the already "established" names. But Benoit has the great ability to be a "throwback" champion who in my opinion is bullet-proof. They can't bury a Chris Benoit if they wanted too. It is my opinion the hatred directed at Vince McMahon stems from this subconscious fixation to hate everything he puts his hands on. Even if it is 100% "pro wrestling" related. No one can claim they saw this era coming where we could brag about Jericho being the first ever Undisputed Champion and claim Benoit & Guerrero held WWE World Gold. No one could claim that saw it coming because no one believed Vince McMahon had it in him to allow these guys to make it to the top spots in his company. Vince deserves praise for allowing these talented individuals to make it to those spots, when other promoters in the same position refused to allow them to rise to those spots. He should not be shunned and his legacy should not be written as a guy who "doesn't" respect professional wrestling or professional wrestlers.

A LACK OF CREATIVITY? So the knock on the wrestling business right now is there is a lack of creativity. Columnists have even come up with cutesy names to define the WWE Creative Team ("Stephanie's Boobs" was a term coined by Dave Scherer or PWInsider.com to describe the WWE Creative Team led by Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. I'm not a fan of such terminology because in my honest opinion it demeans the individuals present on the WWE Creative Team as well as diminishes the writer who came up with the terms credibility. I mean if you were 16 then perhaps using such a term in your daily updates would be "cool" but for an adult it is sophomoric humor that misses its mark quite a bit in my opinion) to show their discomfort and displeasure in the state of the business.

Has the business really fallen as far from grace as these columnists suggest? Or are they just spoiled? I happen to think in most cases these columnists have become spoiled in a sense. I look at some of the storylines & angles written during the height of WWE as opposed to what is being written in today's product and I scoff at the idea that todays product is worse off then yesterdays. Does anyone care to remember skits like "Rock this is your Life" or Mae Young Giving Birth to Mark Henry's Baby, which by the way turned out to be a hand! Does anyone remember when Ahmed Johnson went in to apparent cardiac arrest and Goldust decided to give him the french version of CPR? Does anyone remember when WWE thought the answer was to bring in The Inane Clown Posee (thanks to Dave Whitaker for coming up with that one!)? Does anyone have a memory? Maybe the problem with todays columnists isn't having a good sense of what is good or what isn't good, maybe just maybe they have ADD.

Attention Deficit Disorder. Maybe they have done to many drugs back in the 70's and have bad long term & in some cases bad short term memories. Or perhaps they just forget the past and like to yell at Vince McMahon for doing the same thing with his company. I mean how many times have you heard someone scream that WWE doesn't remember their own storylines? Perhaps the Creative Team does remember them quite fondly and understands they were HORRIBLE! Perhaps in the moment when the masses were hooked, WWE realized they could program 2 hours of golden crap and the mainstream fans were going to buy it hook, like & sinker! Perhaps when "Rock this is your Life" got an 8.4 in the ratings, Vince McMahon was grinning from ear to ear because he had peddled smut.

Not smut like that peddled by Larry Flynt, Hugh Heffner, Howard Stern or CBS/VIACOM. But defined as smut by TRUE WRESTLING FANS. Wrestling fans who tuned in to RAW that night to perhaps see Mick Foley wrestle a hardcore match against someone of equal status and instead got Yurple the clown, actresses & actors purporting to be from Rock's past and a bunch of talk for nearly half of the show. To me it was the single worst skit ever produced by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and I hated every second of it. But you know what? I laughed my ass off when it happened. In hindsight I can recognize it was the ANTI-WRESTLING. But I can also admit it was the most watched segment in the history of WWE and RAW. But does that mean WWE should bring back Yurple the clown next week to get back to the glory days? Most fans of today look at the numbers as compared to the one's before and automatically think the writing has gotten a lot worse then it actually has. It really hasn't. What happened was the masses revolted back to watching moronic shows like "Survivor" or "Fear Factor" or decided to watch less tv and play more PSX.

Don't worry, ratings are down across the board with the key demographic WWE seeks. But lets get back on track. This isn't a column about ratings, this isn't a column about the past. This is a column about doing something about what you are thinking about. So you agree with the people who think the product has gotten worse storyline wise and want to give something back? I have written "fantasy columns" before and refuse to do them now. I think it shows a lack of respect for the entire industry and the entire creative process for me to be so sanctimonious and toss around a few good ideas and suggest that if I was in fact in control of the WWE Creative Process I could somehow do a better job then those currently in place. Because frankly, I couldn't. Sure I can come up with ideas on the fly and pop my readership. I can write column after column and get messages flooding my e-mail box with people telling me WWE should hire me as the head writer of the Creative team. But I know absolutely NOTHING about what it takes to be in that position. I would be lost on the first day in charge of the WWE Creative Team. Sure over time I would learn how to exist in that structure, but during the first few weeks of my employment the RAW show would suck eggs.

Because I wouldn't have clue #1 how to implement any of my ideas. Do I hold meetings and just give orders to the talent? Do I write scripts and hand them out to the talent? Do I schmozz with VKM first and run all of my ideas by him? Do you even know how the process works? Sure I could pump ideas to the head of the creative team and probably help invent some interesting storylines. But this would simply make me an "idea" man. I would be as good as Vince Russo was until my ideas dried up and then I could probably work the world in to thinking that I actually "turned" WWE around and created their boom, hell I could probably work groups like WCW & NWA TNA in to thinking I actually single handedly did turn WWE business around and sign huge contracts with them promising to turn their brands around as well. But I would be full of it. I'll the be the first to go on record right now and say that I really think Vince Russo is full of it. And I have talked to Russo before on the phone and I thought he was full of it back then as well. Now contrary to what some people are going to write about what I just wrote, the entire intention of this column wasn't to see how many times I could say Russo was full of it, but in actuality, it was because I wanted to pen the first quality based column that I have tried to write in a long time.

You see, I lost my passion somewhere along the road to covering pro wrestling. I decided that perhaps my readers didn't want hear my voice so much as read the news that I provided to them on a daily basis. But I have since discovered that perhaps my talents have been wasted for some time. And also I wanted to write a long column to piss of my critics. I want to quote one of the greatest American's of all time (in my eyes) right now and say when I die, I hope they bury me upside down so my critics can kiss my ass (thank you Bobby Knight for that quote). I don't really care what people think about me or what they think about what I write. I have always written for myself and for no one else. I might get off track every so often and venture in different directions, but that is okay. Right now I am trying to talk about the Creative issues. As I stated above I don't write "Fantasy Columns" again and I won't print them in my newsletter either. But what I will do is give ideas on occasion. I will pass along my ideas of what should or should now happen on occasion. This to me is not showing the creative team a lack of respect. This is perfectly okay.

The Creative team loves ideas. Ideas are what inspires creation. So what I am suggesting here is that we open the flood gates up and perhaps turn this all around on to you my readers. You think you can come up with 10 good ideas that will turn WWE business around? Write them down and send them in to me! I want to see ideas, ideas and more IDEAS! I want to see so many ideas flooding my e-mail boxes that I get sick of ideas.

MORE ON ICP SITUATION AT THE MID-ATLANTIC FAN CONVENTION. Mike Mooneyham recently wrote a column detailing the Insane Clown Posse's situation at the Mid-Atlantic Fan Convention. I bring this up again because there are some morons online who actually believe it wasn't ICP who caused the disruption at the convention, but instead two ICP fans dressed up to look like ICP and an Independent Wrestler who caused the disruption. In an issue of LEWD I openly discussed how ICP had gotten heat backstage at the NWA TNA show because of their assault on Jim Cornette (who is a legend in the Nashville region and remains one of the most respect performers of the Smokey Mountain market). Cornette agreed to do a "question and answer" session at the convention and it was disrupted by The Insane Clown Posse, who were then asked and required to leave the building due to their unprofessional behavior. Cornette has since gotten rave reviews for the way he handled the entire situation and actually had his legend grow because of the quick witted response he had for ICP's attempt to heckle him that night. Cornette was joined on stage by Les Thatcher (who owns and operates Heartland Wrestling Association based out of Ohio), James J. Dillon (who works with and form Major League Wrestling based out of Florida and is a legendary wrestling figure himself) and Bobby Eaton (who is semi-retired from the ring and is a legend himself).

Mooneyham wrote in his latest column about the convention that, "All, however, didn't go smoothly. Two members of the rap/wrestling group Insane Clown Posse were asked to leave after reportedly heckling Cornette during his VIP members-only session. Although ICP had passes for the event, their loud and disruptive comments prompted their departure, said several fans in attendance. When the two declared that they had VIP passes and weren't leaving, Cornette responded, "And that means one thing. You paid 100 bucks to come see me," before launching into one of his inimitable diatribes and shouting them down." Through this the majority of the audience was laughing, note to all ICP fans, laughing at ICP not with them. ICP were thoroughly put in their places by Cornette and then shown the door by the security at the event. Cornette however continued his assault on ICP Mooneyham wrote in his column by saying the following as they were being escorted out.

"Rap is noise that no one wants to particularly hear, which is why you boys have to pick up those little outlaw bookings for $25 a shot." And that was the end of ICP as they were tossed out of the convention. Interesting is Bobby Eaton helped to personally escort the two morons out of the building as the fans in attendance were heard erupting with loud "raucous" cheers according to Mooneyham. He also stated the fans began singing "na na hey hey hey goodbye" at the two clowns.

Mooneyham also discussed the situation involving Buddy Landel which also happened at the same convention. Landel has since apologized for his behavior at the convention and has vowed to get help for his alcohol problem. Insane Clown Posse on the other hand hasn't offered an apology for their behavior at the convention and instead probably are supporting the theory that they were not even at the convention and it was simply two fans and an independent wrestler dressed up as them. The fact is it was Insane Clown Posse and Bobby Eaton, Gary Price, Les Thatcher, Jim Cornette and everyone else who was at the convention can testify that it was in fact Insane Clown Posse who caused a major disruption at the event.

INSIDE THE BUSINESS; A LOOK AT WHY WCW REALLY WENT OUT OF BUSINESS. You can talk about finances all you want and a lack of being able to 'create stars' as well, but the reason why WCW went out of business was a different story altogether.

There was a pattern which I want to discuss in this column, which I think points to the reason why WCW went out of business. And it isn't something that was exclusive to one power regime. This was something WCW management had accomplished ever since it began to compete with WWE. Call it a lack of understanding of how the business operates or a naive business nature if you will, call it what ever you want to call it (it doesn’t really matter what you label it). Ever since I can remember WCW operating on a semi-national level there were problems with the way they operated.

There was a problem with WCW signing certain talent to short term contracts and then not recognizing this talent was good enough to make it to the highest level obtainable. Lets look at a few names so we can begin to recognize this pattern. "Mean" Mark Callis. He was a midcard character in WCW used in WCW's tag team division. There was no recognition in WCW that this guy was going to one day be a legend. In fact, no one in WCW ever talked about his talent or the fact that he was one day going to be a World Champion. So what happened? He left after only a few months of working on WCW Television and signed with the competition. He debuted in WWE with a new character known as The Undertaker. It is now around 13 or 14 years since Calloway worked for WCW and he is still wrestling and is still at the top of his profession.

Scott Hall was brought in to WCW and put in the midcard tag team division with Diamond Dallas Page. He was going nowhere in WCW pretty quickly and he had signed a short term deal with WCW. WCW did not recognize the talent he had and thus didn't plan on doing much with him. He eventually accepted an offer from Vince McMahon to venture to the World Wrestling Federation, where he became Razor Ramon. He went on to become one of the most popular characters in WWE history. He made WWE a lot of money with the Razor Ramon character. Yet WCW did not recognize his talent until after he left WWE to return to WCW years later, may I add after Vince McMahon made him in to a money making machine.

Kevin Nash was with WCW first, before he went to WWE. In fact he was handed his debut by Jim Herd as part of a midcard tag team known as The Master Blasters. WCW saw more in his tag team partner Al Greene then they saw in Nash. Nash was under a short term contract with WCW and after months and months of being pushed as a midcard talent in a tag team with Diamond Dallas Page he opted out and went to the competition, where he became Diesel. Diesel eventually became one of the hottest attractions in WWE history and had one of the longest WWE Title Reigns in the history of the company. Eventually Vince McMahon turned Nash in to such a star that he went back to WCW and was credited with turning the entire business around as part of the New World Order.

Lets talk about Terra Rizing, who was in WCW for a short period of time as part of a mirdcard tag team. He was part of William Regal's Blue Bloods team and balked at staying with WCW when it was apparent he was never going to materialize in to being a major player. And it didn't take him long to figure this out either and where did he end up at? WWE. He was given the ring name of Hunter Hearst Helmsley in WWE. Vince McMahon saw something in him and now he is probably one of the greatest World Heavyweight Champions of any era. By the way he also married Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie McMahon and is going to be a fixture with WWE for the rest of his life. This is a guy who was under the complete control of WCW prior to Vince McMahon getting his hands on him

Steve Austin. Here is another talent we can throw in to the stuck in midcard tag team role by WCW. He was under contract for a longer period of time then most of the others but eventually went to WWE as well. He became the biggest draw in the history of WWE and remains as over today as he was then. But WCW didn't recognize this potential and let him go to the competition.

Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero. These are all names of talent that were stuck in WCW on the under card and eventually left for the competition. Certainly not all of them are representative of the names on the list above.

But Benoit, Jericho & Guerrero certainly are. I can point to how all three are headed to becoming the top wrestlers on this era in WWE. And WCW had all of them under their control, locked up in contracts prior to Vince McMahon getting his hands on them.

But I saved the best for last. The one man who WCW let slip through their hands who not only could have turned their business around, but could have offered them so much more then just a wrestling talent. Mick Foley.

Mick Foley was stuck in midcard tag teams his entire WCW career and was never given any type of a chance to reach the top of his profession. Some people laughed at the idea of Foley being pushed as a top hand with WCW because he was never looked like he fit the role. But he went to WWE and got his chance and made it. Not only did he become one of the most popular WWE superstars of all time but he also became a #1 best selling author with WWE. And this is someone WCW controlled! Someone Vince McMahon should have never been able to market.

So we can see the pattern. It existed. WCW didn't know how to direct the talent they had. It wasn't about creating talent because WCW controlled this talent from the start. Vince McMahon didn't create these talents more so then just nurturing them to becoming top attractions with his company. The problem with WCW was a lack of recognition. They were not able to recognize good talent when the talent was right under their own noses. Instead WCW let these guys go to WWE time and time again.

Vince McMahon must have been grinning from ear to ear because he saw what he had in these guys. He knew that with the right exposure and the right time in the ring, eventually these guys would become the future of his company. And that is what has happened. Not all of them were going to be the future in year one, but some were. I compare it to what good baseball minds can do with limited funds. The Yankee’s might have the highest pay roll in baseball but that doesn’t mean a team with half the pay roll can’t compete with them. As long as the team hires good baseball people who know the game, they can win out in the end by making solid baseball decisions. But even If you give hundreds of millions of dollars to teams with inadequate baseball minds then they will spend the money in the wrong areas and pass over good baseball talent along the way. And this is what happened with WCW. They had a lot of money to throw around but had insuperior wrestling minds operating their company. Vince McMahon knew the wrestling business better then WCW’s executives did. Vince McMahon never spent as much money to compete against WCW but he got all of the talent required to beat WCW, because the WCW executives knew NOTHING about directing a wrestling operation outside of in most cases being worked by the veteran talent (who were out for their own financial gain). It would be like the St. Louis Cardinals passing on Albert Pujuls because their baseball people knew nothing about baseball talent and asked the guy who he was about to replace if he was worth signing or not. In most cases in that situation the veteran talent is going to look out for #1 and tell management to pass on the player because he isn’t quite as talented. This is what happened in WCW. And Vince McMahon never did this.

Some of the talent WCW passed on took 11 years to be the future, some took 11 months. But the thing is WCW could have had all of this talent to themselves and at one time did! Instead of spending millions and millions of dollars on Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, etc all WCW really needed to do is hire someone like Paul Heyman to run their organization (from a creative perspective, not a business one). If WCW would have spent all of its bank on bringing in a solid WRESTLING mind and kept all of this talent, then Vince McMahon would have never got this talent. Imagine if WCW had Eric Bischoff running the business end of the company and Paul Heyman writing the creative end. They would have been dominant! Funny thing is WCW also at one point had Heyman under contract, they didn’t recognize his talent, he left and created Extreme Championship Wrestling. Ultimately WCW would have shined through this if they had only recognized the talent they had right under their noses,.but they failed to see in them what Vince McMahon saw in them and let them go to WWE.

FIRST FAN RESPONSE TO CREATIVE ISSUES:

CREATIVE ISSUE'S: OPENING UP THE DISCUSSION TO THE READERS (MAIL BAG). Over the next few weeks I hope to bring you more quality response to my recent column. The first such response was written by Dale Spear and follows unedited in its original form.

"To LEWD:

I enjoy your well reasoned rants and your newsletter, but I have to tell you that the recent one on WWE storylines is a little over protective of WWE and a little targeted at Scherer. Simply stated, I want storylines that I CAN suspend disbelief...not The Undertaker embalming anyone, not stupid cartoon characters and people getting run over by a semi truck and appearing the next week, not hitting people with a sledgehammer, etc. The This Is Your Life segment for The Rock was NOT an angle but a comedy bit. It was funny and at the time I thought fit the Foley character. Then Mick would go out and bust his ass in a match. I like some of the recent direction of the WWE having wrestlers as champs pushing the Kurt Angles, Chris Benoits and Eddy Guerreros. I've actually enjoyed The Triple H and Shawn Michaels matches (I, like you, am not a Triple H fan, but he has taken up a notch lately against a great worker like Shawn) Perhaps I'm old school and we'll never return to those days again since Kayfabe has died. I still like a good story, a good feud and a sinister, believable act or two and I sometimes see it on WWE programming.

As for 10 story ideas to turn the WWE around...not for free and I'm lucky if I could come up with three, but I did send one to Jim Ross a few years ago and he sent me a nice thank you note back. I suggested that instead of having Mick Foley retire at the peak of his career when rumors were flying that he might, the WWF should make him Commissioner and he could wander the back halls of events and suggest the type of crazy matches he used to work. This was at least three months before the WWF did this. Maybe it was obvious. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe I helped. Maybe I'm full of it, but it's the truth.

Thanks for a great newsletter. I'm a Boston sports fan too having grown up in Maine, but now live in Minneapolis. It's HARD to be a Minnesota sports fan. They don't GET IT!

I am currently watching Smackdown. They just did a promo with Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman to set up Misterio v. Lesnar in a non title match. Very well done skit and I certainly look forward to seeing the match between Lesnar & Misterio. It really does not matter if Misterio loses this match, because he is so over in San Diego that the people will overlook a loss. He is the biggest underdog in the world on this show and thus a loss won't hurt his career.

Right now Rhyno is on his way to the ring to take on Bradshaw. It is good to see Rhyno back in the swing of things on Smackdown. I think Rhyno is one of the talents that has been under utilized on the Smackdown brand and if he could get back on the show full time he could help out quite a bit. Rhyno is a very intense superstar who is ready to break through to the other side, so to speak.

How about WWE sending the superstars to Iraq to tape a show? Imagine what that show is going to be like. I just hope they have a "falls count anywhere" match and brawl in to the desert. That would be so cool to see something like that happen. Then they could have some Saddam impersonator show up and have the talent beat the crap out of him. It would seem realistic since they would be in Iraq. This is a once in a life time opportunity for WWE to do something like that.

WM is so far away but it seems like it is right around the corner. I can't wait for WM 20 in New York. I think it is going to be the greatest WM of all time. We know that Rock is going to wrestle on the show. We know WWE is going to bring back some of the legends from the other twenty WM's. It certainly could be the greatest WM of all time if WWE spends enough money to get everyone involved in the show. I know it talent wise will be the most talented WM of all time. WWE has so much talent on the roster that the show could be the greatest line up of all time for a WM. Top to bottom they could have 12-14 main event matches. I just hope they build them all up properly so they all mean a lot.

Have things calmed down a bit? Triple H (Paul Levesque) is no longer the RAW World Champion and he has dropped the title to Goldberg a while back. Goldberg has been running with the ball on RAW and the ratings haven't rebounded. There was this thought that once Triple H dropped the title the ratings would rebound back to the levels they should have been at if it wasn't for the strangle hold Triple H held over the brand. Of course now the argument is Triple H didn't allow Goldberg to be pushed correctly and thus he isn't as effective as he would have been if he was pushed as a total dominant monster his entire stay with WWE. I don't buy it. I don't think the ratings had much to do with who was on top personally. I think anyone who carries the belt isn't going to make the ratings rebound. WWE needs to hit the home run they hit when Mike Tyson came onboard to help Austin become as big as he became. No one knows what that home run is or how to manipulate it in to happening.

No one knows who is going to be the next Austin. Certainly the company would like to think they can judge who is going to be the next big superstar to carry the business to new heights, but they can't. I would think with the right platform there are a few wrestlers in WWE right now who could be that big thing WWE needs. One of course is John Cena. Cena has all of the tools and only needs to be given a huge push to make it to the next level. I don't think Cena is ready just yet though, I think he needs another couple of months underneath before he is ready to rule on top in WWE. I think once Cena is ready there will be no stopping him from becoming one of the top superstars in this industry. I would look to WrestleMania 20 as the coming out party for John Cena in WWE. If they presented him correctly at WrestleMania 20 and brought in the right celeb to be in his corner, by his side, then I think the sky would be the limit for Cena's popularity to grow. I have my ideas on how they should market Cena to the young kids and the quickest way to get to the young kids is to put Cena with someone like Eminem. Eminem is controversial enough in the media to fit in to what Vince McMahon likes to accomplish with this kind of publicity and he connects with the younger demographic WWE needs to attract. Cena's gimmick would only gain a lot more credibility by pairing up with Eminem, it is almost a no brainier to bring in Eminem for at least some type of appearance at WM20.

Eddie Guerrero is poised to be one of the biggest superstars in WWE if he is pushed correctly over the next few months and weeks. I really think Guerrero has the ability and look to be a top attraction on Smackdown. All Guerrero needs is the chance to be the World Champion for a few months to make it to the next level. The big question is whether or not Guerrero has the ability to break through to the next level and drive business like others have. I am not so positive Guerrero has the ability to do this, but I could be wrong. I would like to find out if I am wrong and see Guerrero win the Smackdown World Title sometime in the next few months. I think Guerrero deserves this honor and he would be one of the greatest Champions of all time in my opinion. I think if WWE doesn't present Guerrero with this chance to wear the World Title, they would be doing their company & brand a disservice. Also to give a talent such as Eddie Guerrero the honor of holding one of the two World Titles would show the underneath talent that hard work does pay off in the end. It would up morale in my opinion because Eddie Guerrero has always been one of the hardest workers in the history of the business who has never gotten to the top of the business. It certainly would make all of the younger talent take notice and realize they to through hard work could obtain the same accomplishments Guerrero obtained. I think just for that reason it would be a strong move on WWE's behalf to give Guerrero the title in the future.

Who on RAW has the potential to carry the business to new heights? Some are looking at Goldberg and thinking if he only got a better push he would be able to do this. I am not so certain he would have been able to do this. I don't think Goldberg could have reached a new level in WWE. I think Goldberg is as over as he is ever going to be in this business. It isn't as if the fans dislike Goldberg these days, it is just the audience has changed quite a bit since Goldberg's WCW days. The audience who paid bucks to see Goldberg don't watch wrestling anymore and even if Goldberg is back they aren't going to start watching again. So the project known as Goldberg in WWE hasn't been a failure by any means, but it hasn't been the success WWE hoped it would be. Obviously they thought by bringing back Goldberg it would bring the ratings back around the 5.0 level. This didn't happen. It was insane to think it would happen. I think Goldberg can be marketable if he is pushed correctly over the next few weeks and months, but I don't think he is going to be as marketable as the WWE had hoped him to be right away. I think Goldberg could be a break through star in other entertainment industries if he is given a chance to shine in those industries.

Rob Van Dam is in my opinion the one wild card talent WWE currently has on their rosters. I don't have faith in RVD to make it to the next level because he doesn't seem to have the fire he had in ECW and it shows. There are times when RVD turns it back on and looks great in action and other times when he doesn't. Some would say this is due to the WWE pushing him incorrectly. But for some reason I think there is something there to RVD being World Champion and lifting up the entire business. I don't know why but I just think it is RVD's destiny to win the World Title and lift the business to new heights. It doesn't matter what WWE does to Rob Van Dam in the end, because if I am correct it is his DESTINY to do this. Nothing WWE can do is going to stop him from reaching his destiny in my opinion. This doesn't mean it is going to happen in WWE mind you. It just means that one day RVD is going to be wearing a World Title and he is going to lift business up. I feel this in my heart and hope for WWE's sake they re-sign RVD to a new contract. I really think RVD is going to be a megastar in less then 3 years.

In the end WWE has a lot of talent under contract. You take a look at the talent and you have no idea what you really have. Especially with the young talent. It is a crap shoot nine times out of ten and developing the talent in to superstars isn't as easy of a task as some make it out to be. You have to hope the talent catches on with the audience in one way or another. In some cases it isn't easy to get the fans to care about the new talent, in other cases it is hard to make the fans not care about the new talent. Is the business okay? I think it is. I think WWE has brought up enough new talent to help the business reset in a sense. It was needed for the business to slow the product down and that has happened. It has been a slow re-education but it is coming along nicely. I think the automatic reaction to the slow down was to blast the company and claim they were watering down the product. It was to claim they were destroying their company by watering down the product.

I read the awesome column that contributing editor Mike Maynard sent out a few minutes ago. Although I do not agree 100% with the content, I do share some of the opinions on pro wrestling as were addressed in the column.

I have been toying with the idea of writing this column for some time now. This is how I feel about the educational process that went on to educate “marks” in to “smart fans and what I think it did to the business. I think it may have helped to kill the business to a certain extent. I think a lot about how Bill Watts governed his promotion. Watts was a strange fellow when it came to ruling his empire. Watts had some really strange rules the talent had to follow or they would be fired. One of those rules was: heels & faces could not associate with each other in public.

Today (in part due to the education of non smart fans) this would be scoffed at by talent. Heels & faces do interact with each other in public. It is my opinion that I itself has hurt wrestling. So when I think about how Watts would struggle to exist in todays wrestling climate, I think back to the day when Vince McMahon testified in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On that day he told the entire world that wrestling was just ‘entertainment’. Ever since that day the business educated "marks" in to “smart" fans. The proliferation of the "insider" began on that day and has grown so large today that most of the "insider’s" really are no more inside then they were when they were considered "marks".

Wrestling fans watch wrestling these days with the intent to analyze each segment on each show and pick them apart. They do this so they can re-write each segment their own way and suggest a better way the company could have brought it all together.

There are millions and millions of bookers-writers online who actually think they could write a better edition of RAW then the WWE creative staff could. But what is it all about? Do any of them understand what the business is really about? Or do they simply look at the wrestling business as "entertainment". Do they look at the talent as pawns in a chess game to be positioned by some omnipotent force who controls them? Or do they look at the talent as human beings who have emotions and feelings and may not agree to go along with every storyline concept you throw in their general direction. Do they even grasp the concept of reality themselves?

Often at times I struggle to think they understand what reality is. But perhaps I am getting a bit sidetracked with this column. This was most certainly supposed to be about the education of the "marks" creating a hybrid wrestling fan who bitches, belly aches and whines about anything that doesn't go their way. It is like that old saying, opinions are like assholes, because everyone has one.

There I was watching the NASCAR race this week end and the NASCAR announcer told me that this years race would not take place in August of next year, but instead was being moved to November next year. I chuckled, because to me that was the punchline to a funny hysterical wrestling joke. Imagine what would happen if WWE decided to move a PPV event to another month, the wrestling fanatics would have a cow about it.

Vince McMahon would be destroying the business by making an improper decision and or attempting to kill the PPV concept. I guess I can point to King of the Ring as my direct evidence to prove my point. Even though in the past the KOTR Tournament was started, stopped and re-started as a working concept, when Vince McMahon decided to do away with it this past July in favor of the first ever exclusive RAW PPV ("Bad Blood") a lot of wrestling fanatics decided Vince McMahon was "killing WWE".

They neglected to understand the decision wasn't any different then what had happened in the past, more or less they were naive about it. They were not "educated". They were not "smart". They were enlightened "marks".

Finally we have arrived at the point of the column. See, there was no education of the "marks". Certainly they learned the terminology (carny language), but once they learned it, the carny language in itself went out of favor. Today the talent do not toss around terms as much as their predecessors did in the past. Mainly because it isn't 'cool' or 'in' to use those terms these days because the “marks” use them now. There was a time in this business when an announcer going on television and using a term like "booker" or "mark" would have POPPED me. Because it was unheard of. Now it is ho-hum.

Do you understand what happened in the wrestling business to create the Mr. McMahon v. Austin angle?

Maybe no one understands why it was able to get as big as it got. Dave Meltzer deserves just as much credit for creating that money making angle as Vince McMahon & Austin do in my book. Because Meltzer began the grass roots movement which allowed a Paul Heyman to exist, to create Extreme Championship Wrestling, to begin to educating "marks". Dave Meltzer's newsletter grew and grew and grew to such heights that it allowed enough of a wide scale fan base to exist who would be able to support ECW, who in turn would BUY the Mr. McMahon v. Austin act years down the road in WWE.

With out Dave Meltzer's "National Wrestling Observer" in the 80's paving the way for this to happen, I honestly do not think WWE's angle would have been as big as it was. The reason Austin v. McMahon worked so good was because it seemed as if it was a gigantic SHOOT. It all was an offshoot of the actual SHOOT against Bret Hart in Montreal. And there was a market for that type of an angle, because of the Meltzer's and Heyman's. But after it ran its course, it killed the concept (the same angle would never work again for this reason).

Everything that was done with McMahon & Austin had been done in the 80's and no one understands that. It all happened, but it wasn’t part of the on camera show. Those types of situations happened in this business, but for real. What became popular was to take the reality of the backstage situation and use it for monetary purpose in front of the camera. And it created a hybrid wrestling fan that isn't happy about anything that happens in the current wrestling climate. You can have the greatest two performers wrestling in a "five star classic" on television for free and those fans are still going to nag about something else that happened on the same show.

So we have in a sense spoiled ourselves to such an extent that by itself we have warped ourselves. We have skewed our perceptions of what is or isn't a good wrestling show. We have deviated away from what led us to the dance and have begun to nit pick and chastise the company for doing things that just five years ago we would have considered the greatest wrestling angle of all time. These are my points:

- We no longer accept to sit back and enjoy the product unless we have our 'talent' winning the titles we want them to be winning.

- If the company is not pushing the 'talent' we want them to push we harp on how the company is burying them on a weekly basis.

- If the 'talent' we suggest should be pushed is pushed by the company, we will find some reason why the push they are given isn't good enough to meet our standards of the push they should have gotten.

- If the company does anything that we do not agree with in using this talent, then the company was ultimately attempting to kill the talents career on purpose.

- If a decision is made by upper management to change a business practice, we seem to collectively jump to conclusions and suggest doomsday type scenarios that will follow those decisions. I.E. The Brand Extension was going to murder the business and Vince was making a real big mistake by going forward with the extension. I.E. The split PPV concept was going to lower the number of buys so much that WWE would be out of business quickly after the "Bad Blood" PPV happened. None of this came true and logically it was never going to come true. But this is the hybrid wrestling fan we have created.

No longer is the wrestling fanatic simply happy or content with watching a show on television, now they want to mislead themselves and others in to thinking they could actually book a better version of the show. But the metamorphosis of the wrestling fan in to this new hybrid wrestling fanatic is killing the business and no one understands that. No matter who's ideas are being used on WWE TV, those ideas will never be good enough for these fanatics, even if WWE stole their ideas and used them!

WWE could shoot the greatest angle of all time and these fanatics are going to find something wrong with it, because it isn't about the company anymore, it isn't about the talent anymore, it isn't about having an entertaining show anymore. It is about the fanatic themselves who have deluded themselves so much to think they are actually "inside" the business because they may write a column about it. I'll be the first to admit that I am not "in the wrestling business".

I am not in the wrestling business because I run LEWD. I am not in the business at all and neither is anyone else who runs a webpage dedicated to pro wrestling. Neither is anyone else who may happen to have a newsletter dedicated to reporting about the business. Dave Meltzer wasn't "in the business" when he was penning his National Wrestling Observer Newsletter on a weekly basis and he still isn't in the business. All Meltzer and others like him do is report on the business. They are not performers, they are not employed by WWE. There is a difference between writing/covering a business and actually being in that business. If you collect a paycheck from WWE, then yes, you are in the business. But if you just write about the business, then no you are not in the business.

And it is this desire to "be in the business" that has created this delusion which has in turn created this situation I am writing about today. This all may seem like a lot of double talk and some of it is, but some of it isn't. It is your job to read this and soak in all of the information and all of the misinformation contained in this column and logically deduct what it all means. It is your duty to translate this column and tabulate what is contained herein and come away with a better understanding of what it should mean to be a Wrestling Fan. To be a fanatic.

I tell you what. When I was watching Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair in 1989, I did not care who was holding the other down nor want to discover who was either for that matter. I just enjoyed the great match that WCW put on for me. I didn't care if it could have been booked differently or if the finish could have been better. I did not judge the match based on my preconceived (and in most cases naive) ideas of what should or should not be a wrestling finish. I watched the show, I soaked in what was on the show and I enjoyed what I was giving from WCW. Certainly that doesn't mean I automatically LIKED everything WCW did in those days. But if I didn't, I didn't think it was my birthright to blast James Crockett for putting on a bad show.

Maybe our priorities have changed, maybe I am out of touch with the current fanatic that governs what a wrestling fanatic should be based on. I don't think I am. I think wrestling fanatics have lost their way. I think there are lot of wrestling fanatics who think this business is their business and think WWE should listen to what they want WWE to do, even if what they want WWE to do is stupid. They can not take a look from the outside-in - to recognize that perhaps their ideas are actually no better then the current ideas WWE uses. But they will never admit their ideas are not as good or do not measure up to WWE Creative's ideas. Because to do that would be to admit their entire existence was a total crock. And more or less in the end, that is what this has been all about. Those fanatics who think they can write a better show then Vince McMahon, are deluded.

They have no idea what it takes to run a company the size of WWE. If they did have the knowledge and or ability to run a company like WWE and make money by doing it, then what exactly are they doing wasting their time online? Why don't they start their own company and put WWE out of business or at least attempt to do it? Why don't they put their money where their creative pencils are? Paul Heyman didn't just come online and begin chastising WWE & Vince McMahon.

Paul Heyman didn't delude himself in to thinking that his ideas were better then Vince's with out first testing to see if his ideas were better. Paul Heyman put his money where his creative ideas were at and created his own company to compete with WWE. He actually gave WWE a run for their money doing it for a few years. So everyone that claims they have better ideas then WWE Creative, should follow Heyman's lead. But perhaps inside they understand their ideas are actually no better then WWE's.

Or maybe they don't know a thing about the business they claim to "be in". But in the end result their lack of motivation, their lack of dedication, their lack of follow through on their own ideas, pretty much dispels their delusion. For how can they actually be "in the business" when they are afraid to "of it".

I decided for my own amusement to gauge the impact of Paul Levesque's current strangle-hold on the RAW World Championship and how it fits in to wrestling history. What I found was very interesting on so many levels, because even though Levesque has been reportedly 'playing political games' to keep the title, in terms of long title reigns he would rank 75th currently. Yes, there have been 75 Championship title reigns in professional wrestling history which have been longer then the current title reign Paul Levesque is on. The following list might be like reading a foreign language to some reading this column, so please let me give you the key to decipher what follows below.

The list is as complete as any list documenting title reigns for the last 100 years (including the following Championships: WCW, USWA, WWWF, WWF, AWA, WCCW, NWA, NWA TNA, UWF, ECW, IWGP, AJPW, WWE RAW & WWE Smackdown. How you read the chart below is to look at the corresponding rank and three digit number which follows in terms of years months and days. In the case of #1 Bruno Sammartino you would read it as the following: Eight years, Eight Months and 1 day he held the championship. I did not take the time to specify what Championship was specifically held during the title reigns, because that would have taken way to much time. But let me do one more example just to make sure you can follow the chart below. #62 Hulk Hogan would have held the title for 0 years, eight months and 3 days.

As you can clearly see where the list ends, Paul Levesque's (Triple H) current title reign would come in as the 75th longest title reign in the history of the wrestling business. Some would say it is unfair to compare the current business with the business of the yesteryear, that would be an opinion you are going to have to come to on your own.

CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE REIGNS LIST: 1. Bruno Sammartino 8.8.1, 2. Verne Gagne 6.4.0, 3. Bruno Sammartino 4.4.20, 4. Nick Bockwinkel 4.4.10, 5. Dory Funk 4.1.13, 6. Hulk Hogan 4.1.13, 7. Dan Severn 4.0.20, 8. Harley Race 3.3.15, 9. Gene Kiniski 3.1.4, 10. Lou Thesz 2.11.13, 11. Bob Backlund 2.10.18, 12. Pedro Morales 2.9.24, 13. Pat O'Connor 2.5.21, 14. Ric Flair 2.2.23, 15. Bob Backlund 2.2.5, 16. Terry Funk 2.1.27, 17. Shane Douglas 2.0.25, 18. Mitsuharu Misawa 1.11.24, 19. Bob Backlund 1.10.12, 20. Buddy Rogers 1.6.25, 21. Shinya Hashimoto 1.4.2, 22. Terry Funk 1.2.0, 23. >Ric Flair 1.2.0, 24. Ric Flair 1.1.24, 25. Keiji Muto 1.1.4, 26. Yuji Nagata 1.1.0, 27. Ric Flair 1.0.18, 28. Shane Douglas 1.0.18, 29. Big Van Vader 1.0.9, 30. Jumbo Tsuruta 1.0.9, 31. Curt Hennig 1.0.7, 32. Randy Savage 1.0.4, 33. Shinya Hashimoto 1.0.2, 34. Mad Dog Vachon 1.0.1, 35. Kesuke Sasaki 1.0.0, 36. Jack Brisco 0.11.29, 37. Hulk Hogan 0.11.29, 38. Mitsuharu Misawa 0.11.28, 39. Hulk Hogan 0.11.24, 40. Diesel 0.11.23, 41. Naoya Ogawa 0.11.17, 42. Keiji Muto 0.11.6, 43. Antonio Inoki 0.10.27, 44. Verne Gagne 0.10.25, 45. Verne Gagne 0.10.18, 46. Kerry Von Erich 0.10.9, 47. Nick Bockwinkel 0.10.3, 48. Jerry Lawler 0.10.2, 49. Verne Gagne 0.10.1, 50. Tatsumi Fujinami 0.10.0, 51. Harley Race 0.9.28, 52. Billy Graham 0.9.21, 53. Ultimate Warrior 0.9.17, 54. Kazuyuki Fujita 0.9.16, 55. Vader 0.9.10, 56. Yokozuna 0.9.7, 57. Tatsumi Fujinami 0.9.0, 58. Jerry Lawler 0.8.28, 59. Keiji Muto 0.8.16, 60. Tazz 0.8.9, 61. Raven 0.8.8., 62. Hulk Hogan 0.8.3, 63. Bret Hart 0.8.3, 64. Kenta Kobashi 0.8.1, 65. Keiji Muto 0.8.1, 66. Rhino 0.8.0, 67. Billy Watson 0.7.24, 68. Jumbo Tsuruta 0.7.24, 69. Steve Corino 0.7.21, 70. Harley Race 0.7.18, 71. Shawn Michaels 0.7.18, 72. Rick Martel 0.7.16, 73. Bill Miller 0.7.13, 74. Riki Choshu 0.7.12, 75. Triple H 0.7.7

But I didn't simply end my journey with the current streak Levesque is on. What about combined time as World Heavyweight Champion? Where exactly does Triple H rank on the all time list? The following list has been compiled using the same formula as the above list used (which will be explained) to determine the greatest World Champions of all time. How you read this list is to look at the corresponding rank & name and the number which follows. In the case of #1 Bruno Sammartino it would come in as 156.12 which would break down to 156 total months and 12 days he held a World Title. Note some of the talent may have switched companies and won multiple versions of the World Title. All of these titles have been counted and compiled in to the total number of months. In the case of Paul Levesque he would come in 31st with 19 months and 9 days total. Again some would argue comparing today's talent to the talent from the yesteryear is unfair. I don't make those conclusions and think it is fair to guage todays talent using these lists. If the business returns to the way it used to operate, and title reigns start to become longer (or at least as long as they once were) then the talent is going to have a fair chance to break the records compiled by the talent of the past. Oddly enough, Triple H's current title reign is not close to being the longest in the history of the business and he would have to hold the World title or a version of the World Title for 137 more months to come close to breaking Bruno Sammartino's record. Which would break down to Triple H having to hold a World title for close to another decade solid.

The following list is a complete list of all of the World Title holders over the last 100 or so years. You can notice the trend with the talent pushed today was to have more title reigns but for less time. The older you go back to the origins of pro wrestling the longer the title reigns get, the closer to todays generation you get the shorter the title reigns get. Triple H's current title reign is actually the longest in North America for a national company since Diesel held the WWF title for 11 months in the mid 90's. If you put that in to historical perspective it is kind of sad that the only way Triple H could reach this point is by playing political games to keep a strangle-hold on the respective title he is currently holding. In my opinion, the business MUST allow champions to be booked to look strong and hold titles for a long period of time. It helps the company build up the titles and build up the talent. Changing the titles to frequently is not going to turn the business around.

I don't have a lot to write about. The reason is I started a new job recently and find myself tied up with that more often and thus my columns section has suffered quite a bit. But that is okay. I am going to work on writing my columns during the week end and that way I can do one every week on Saturday or one every two weeks on Saturday. Right now I am listening to Byte This! with Eddie Guerrero.

They are talking to Eddie Guerrero and fielding phone calls. The first fan wanted to know how he came up with the "Frog Splash". Eddie answered the "markish" question with a "markish" answer and talked about how one day when he was running from the "border patrol" in Mexico, he had to jump over a wall with barbed wire on it in to a river and did a "frog splash" over the wall and decided it would be a great move in pro wrestling and that was how it was born. The next caller wanted to know what Eddie wanted to accomplish in his wrestling career and what his next goal was. Eddie sarcastically answered he wanted to win the U.S. Title. My question for these fans is: Are you smoking pot?

Are you on drugs? You have to be on drugs to ask questions like that. You have one of the greatest workers in the business on the phone and you ask him a stupid question like, "how did you come up with the "Frog Splash"?. No wonder the talent doesn't think that high of the internet fan base. I think there are more important things to discuss then how Eddie came up with his finishing move. Josh & Prichard talked about Eddie's problems with demons in the past and Eddie said it was a struggle for him every day to stay on the right track. I respect Eddie G a lot for staying on the right track and wish him the best of luck. He is one of the greatest workers in the history of our business and I wanted to mention that. Sometimes what the talent gives to us each day, each week, each month and each year goes unnoticed and un talked about. People forget these are human beings that are just like you and me. We should respect what they give to us and honor it.

Lets talk about the Kane situation for a second or two. So I hear some people think WWE screwed Kane (Jacobs) by ripping the baby bottle away from him. No longer can Kane suck on the plastic nipple of his mask and remain a baby. Now he has to grow up and become a man with out the mask. And he is quickly becoming a man on a weekly basis, working minus the baby bottle. I think any fan of Jacobs would have no problem with the mask being gone, because Jacobs didn't get any recognition over the years for playing Kane in WWE. Lets face it, Talk shows are not going to invite a goofy looking guy with a red & black mask on their show to talk about WWE. Kane had no marketability away from WWE. Kane couldn't appear on a talk show to plug WWE and Jacobs suffered because of it. While other performers were making the rounds on the talk show circuit and being booked on television sitcoms, Jacobs was stuck in a mask and had absolutely ZERO chance to cross over to another entertainment industry.

C'Mon lets be honest. Did Kane ever stand a chance of getting a movie role? NO! And the reason why other entertainment groups use pro wrestlers in movies is to get cross over buys. Thus, They would require Rock to be Rock or Triple H to be Triple H in the credits. That way the wrestling demo understands that Triple H is in the movie or Rock is in the movie. Thus, Jacobs appearing in a film as Kane wasn't going to happen. And Jacobs appearing in a movie as himself wasn't going to fly either. But now Kane can appear in a movie as Kane. Or Kane can appear on a talk show as Kane. Kane can break kayfabe on a talk show now and talk about the career he has led with WWE, and not come off as a complete retard because he is wearing some goofy looking mask. A lot of people think the MASK made Kane.

HBO SHOULD HAVE TALKED ABOUT. With all of the online furor in regards to the HBO special, which again was one of the most blatant hatchet jobs in the history of news reporting, no one questions why HBO didn't talk about the good things WWE has done over the years in the face of substance abuse problems. In fact, all I have read online about this situation is how Vince McMahon is part of the problem and hasn't 'doing' anything to solve it.

I am not so eager to even admit there is a problem in the wrestling business. I don't think there is a problem in the wrestling business with illegal substance abuse. I don't think there is because I think there is a bigger problem in society with illegal substance abuse then there is a segregated problem to one cross section of society (wrestling business).

Pro wrestling athletes fit in to the category of being a part of our society, and thus the problem shouldn't be exclusive to the wrestling business but it ought to be exclusive to American Culture. And if we are going to scream and holler about illegal substance abuse in one cross section of American Culture (in this case professional wrestling athletes), we must first take a look at the whole picture known as American Culture. Because that is where the true problem lies.

But first lets take a look at WWE. What has WWE done to correct the problems American Culture has? They recently released one of the most popular superstars in the history of the wrestling business because he refused to go to illegal substance abuse treatment and complete a rehab program (Jeff Hardy). To me this doesn't sound like a company that is interested in covering up its athletes substance abuse problems for their own financial benefit.

In the past they sent William Regal to alcohol abuse treatment because he was an alcoholic, and required him to complete the program before he was allowed back in the organization. Again, this doesn't sound like an organization that is solely interested in financial gain at the expense of one of its athletes, does it?

In the past they fired Eddie Guerrero when his substance problem became to BIG of a problem for him to handle. Guerrero was sent to rehab first by the company and required to complete the program and get clean before he was hired back. It would have been so easy for Vince McMahon to turn the other cheek and act as if Guerrero didn't have a serious problem and continue to use him to financially gain, but again he didn't.

But no one talks about these instances, not HBO, not any of the media that is against WWE and not any of the online critics who are against WWE because it does sort of vindicate Vince McMahon from the charges levied against him by the HBO story.

Would WWE be in the position to tell if 100% of their athletes are "clean"? NO.

But this isn't a problem that is exclusive to the wrestling business.

There is no way for society to tell if 100% of its citizens are clean! Why should be hold WWE to a much higher standard then we hold American Culture to? If we are going to require professional wrestlers to take urine tests every so often to maintain a certain level of.. well of what?

What is the reason we want our professional wrestlers to be drug-free? Is it to protect them from potential health problems down the road? Or is it just to make the public feel better about themselves?

I think the public doesn't give a damn about the health of the athletes they so eagerly want tested, they just want to feel better about themselves by knowing the testing goes on. The facts are the urine tests are simply PR tools used by companies and promoters to give a false sense of security to the public, hey I guess in this sense the urine testing actually does work!

The public demands the tests, not so much for the health of the athletes taking the tests, but for their own peace of mind and the professional organizations decide to submit their athletes to tests to get the media & public off of their backs, knowing full well that the tests are trivial & meaningless. Why are they trivial & meaningless? These urine tests are the most unreliable tests in the history of testing. They can be beat and are beat every day of the week by people abusing illegal substances.

But again, this isn't a problem exclusive to pro athletes and or pro wrestlers. So let me take it one step further. If you think WWE should urine test its athletes so you can feel better about yourself. I say American Culture should also submit to urine tests!

I think all of us should take these tests from time to time to make sure we all are clean. To extreme of a thought? I can sense that some of the people who favor WWE making their talent take urine tests are saying, "WAIT A SECOND HERE BUDDY! I don't want to be tested, why should I be tested? I don't do anything wrong and there is no evidence that I do, so I shouldn't be tested.".

Why exactly are pro athletes tested for illegal substance abuse? What exactly did they do wrong and where is the evidence they are using substances? What exactly do they do that normal citizens don't do that requires them to be more sober then we are?

They play SPORTS FOLKS! THEY play a game! So their game playing is more crucial then say, a doctor? Or someone driving a bus? Or someone operating a fork lift? I don't think so.

In fact, I think the last person on the face of the planet that should be urine tested is the pro athlete. Their profession is not as dangerous to the surrounding public then that of a bus driver or a cab driver or a fork lift operator. In some cases drug tests are required to get the more important jobs. But once the tests are over with, thats that.

Maybe we should hold the rest of American Culture to the same standards we hold our professional athletes to! We should urine test them year round. That way we could all feel better about each other and know each of us is drug-free, or that at least some of us have the ability to pass urine tests when we still abuse illegal substances. But hey, then the cheaters would still be cheaters and the non cheaters would have the impression that there were no cheaters, so in a sense the testing would work as it was designed to work, to give the non cheaters a false sense of reality.

Do I favor urine tests? No I don't. They don't work.

Anyone who has ever taken a urine test while abusing a substance and passed that test can tell you that. In some cases urine tests are harder to pass if you DON'T use illegal substances then if you do! How is that possible? False-positives. The drug user KNOWS exactly what they have put in to their bodies to be able to mask the urine tests and pass, whereas; the person who has not used a substance may not know what they have put in to their bodies which is going to flag the test as "positive" when in actuality it wasn't "positive".

And then who is going to tell me that these tests actually catch those intended to be caught? Will some of the substance abusers be caught through urine tests? I'd say 1% of 1% of the substance abusers will be caught through these tests, those who do not know how to mask their system correctly and or beat the tests.

Which would indicate why you only see one or two athletes suspended from major league sports for abusing the substance abuse programs every few years. Don't tell me there are not hundreds of professional athletes abusing substances (there are). We see more DRUG RELATED ARRESTS in major sports on an annual basis then we see urine tests being flagged.

How is this possible? This would suggest those busted for illegal possession aren’t using the substances they are caught with, hey maybe Darryl Strawberry was telling the cops the truth, the drugs weren’t his, he was just holding them for someine.

Are you telling me that someone can be busted for marijuana possession yet continually pass every urine test they take? It is possible, but highly unlikely unless they know how to beat the urine tests. The possessor of marijuana usually possesses it to use it. Even if they sell it, they use it. So the #'s do not add up to support urine testing as a viable solution to keeping athletes clean.

But then as noted above, I don't think the urine tests were ever meant to keep athletes clean. I think they were meant to make the public get a false sense of security about professional athletes. It was a PR tool used to make a cross section of American Culture feel better about themselves and about the world surrounding them. And it was used to get the heat off of the sports franchises.

But these tests are a complete joke and don't work. But as I stated if we are going to test our professional athletes, including professional wrestlers, we ought to test ourselves as well. So, if you support Vince McMahon urine testing his talent, give me a HELL YEAH! And if you did scream "HELL YEAH" after that sentence, then I suggest you write your local congressman and tell him you support a nation-wide urine testing program to test every American Citizen for illegal substances.

If you think this is going to far, then don't ask Vince McMahon to urine test his athletes. It is that simple. You probably have a more IMPORTANT position in life then a professional athlete has. You probably have more of a risk to injure another citizen through your job tasks then does a professional athlete. But then again, you are not making as much money as John Cena is, and perhaps that alone makes you think John Cena should be tested before you are. I don't agree.

I don't think Cena should be tested, and I don't think you should be tested either. I don't think anyone should be tested. Not until we can find a test that actually exposes those who ought to be exposed and not those who don't know how not to be exposed.

Maybe not steaming as in upset, but it is very hot in this room where I am writing this column. And thats a shoot. So I am going to let Gerwitz have it. I don't do this very much, because I don't think there are many, if any at all, positives about what I am about to do. But I am sick & tired of Gerwitz. First I must point out that I dislike COMEDY on a pro wrestling show (I mean ANY comedy, really I am being dead serious). When Foley became Dudelove, I was pissed off.

I was, am and always will be a Mick Foley mark (and damn proud of it). So I wondered why WWE was compromising one of the toughest sons of a bitches to ever step foot in the squared circle. Of course I would later find out it was Foley himself who wanted to become Dudelove, hey I was wrong. I can admit I was wrong. It doesn’t happen every often, but it does happen occasionally.

Through Dudelove’s appearance in WWE I actually began to enjoy comedy on a wrestling show. No, I didn't become soft, my writing style didn't lose its seriousness. My outlook didn't change. I just realized that perhaps with the world the scary place it is, perhaps there are worse things then laughing a little each week while watching a wrestling show (Not to mention Michael Maynard kept trying to convince me on a nightly basis that comedy in wrestling wasn’t such a bad thing; hey he was right… Psss. Don’t tell him though, or I will never hear the end of it!). Again, I can deal with limited comedy skits on a wrestling show (now) as long as the skits are FUNNY or ENTERTAINING, Preferably both.

So with that said. That brings me to Brian Gerwitz. What the hell does this guy think he is doing? Who exactly is he writing his comedy skits for? Isn't the main demographic the company is going after A. males and B. Teen Agers or C. Teen Age Males?

Does he think teen age males have "burping contests" on a regular basis? Does he think they sit around in semi-circles 'belching' to see who has the loudest one? And does this schmuck actually think wrestling fans want to watch two grown men doing the same thing on a wrestling PPV? Does he think it is funny for it to happen on a wrestling PPV? Or is this schmuck just trying to prove a point? All I hear is about how it is a giant EGO trip for Vince McMahon. But no one ever questions whether or not maybe this is a giant ego trip for Gerwitz.

Wait before you laugh off that premise, think about it. Maybe the joke isn't the joke itself, maybe the joke is Gerwitz is getting these tough & serious wrestlers to act like they are six years old on a weekly basis! Maybe Gerwitz is laughing backstage because he realizes he just got one of the TOUGHEST SOBS in WWE history (Austin) to look foolish belching on a wrestling PPV. Maybe that is why Gerwitz continues to write horrible comedy skits.

And one must question why this putz is still writing for the company at all. Maybe Vince McMahon enjoys Gerwitz humor, but I don't (Yeah, I know my opinion is not the do all and end all of opinions out there, but to me it is. And generally speaking if I think something sucks on a wrestling show, nine times out of ten so does my reading universe.) If I wanted to see a belching contest, and let me assure you I don't, I would rent "Revenge of the Nerds".

I think Gerwitz probably owns a copy of the movie. In fact, he probably watches it every single day and laughs hia ass off. I think maybe Gerwitz doesn't even write for WWE anymore. Maybe he is to busy reading his Marvel Comics collection during the week and has his 6 year old son? Nephew? Cousin? Imaginary playmate? Gay lover? Writes the show! I would like to think this is what is actually going on, because then, I would have an explanation why a grown man, a college graduate even, would write such illogical smut.

Now I know some are going to read this and shake their heads at me classifying his writing style as "smut". You are going to be thinking, why this is not pornography at all, so it isn't "smut". I disagree. To me "smut" is what Gerwitz is churning out because he is prostituting the wrestling business on a weekly basis with his drivel. And why is he doing it?

What does the company gain out of this? Absolutely nothing. Take away the skits on Bad Blood last night and the PPV would have been able to give Booker T & Christian 10 more minutes and Flair & Michaels 10 more minutes. Or could have added two more short matched to the show. We would have been able to have a classic IC Title Match and turned Flair v. HBK in to a classic battle between two legends. Instead Gerwitz thought it would be better to write 20 minutes of pointless comedy skits.

Not only that he took two of the top talents on the brand (Austin & Bischoff) and wrecked their entire characters in three skits. Yes, the once mighty Texas Rattlesnake, “THE TOUGHEST SOB IN THE BUSINESS” according to Good Ol’ JR was on screen belching to sound effects! This wasn’t the Rattlesnake we watched beat the snot out of Bret Hart! This was a shell of the former Rattlesnake we used to fear, because in those days he wasn’t belching on television for a laugh here or there, he was kicking ass and opening up cans of whoop ass to prove he was the baddest MOFO in the universe. And Bischoff, who was once one of the sleaziest heels in the business, and now he reduced to rolling around in pig shit. The real pig shit was the shit that Gerwitz wrote.

Gerwitz doesn't "get it". At one time that is what Vince McMahon would have said to this column. "Well you just don't GET IT!".

He might have even responded by telling me, "IF you don't like it, GET THE F OUT!". And if someone else had written this column six months ago, I probably would have said the exact same thing in response to the column. But I am not laughing now.

There is no smile on my face.

There is no laughter that is brewing inside of me right now.

I am not going to happy until Gerwitz "GETS IT!" or until he "GETS THE F OUT!".

Because I want wrestling to return to the wrestling fans. I want wrestling to return to the people who pay to see wrestling. I've given Brian Gerwitz the benefit of the doubt on numerous things he has written. And no more. I will still watch WWE. I won't ever stop watching WWE. But every time Gerwitz snubs his nose at wrestling fans by writing dopey skits, it destroys my interest in the product a little more and a little more, and who knows, maybe one day I will stop watching..

I hope Gerwitz, I hope WWE and I hope Vince McMahon saw what happened at the Bad Blood PPV. I hope they read the feedback and realize that the only reason people hated the PPV was because of the Austin/Bischoff skits. I hope they realize they killed Bischoff off as a viable heel through the skits. I hope they realize all of this before 9PM and someone else writes tonights RAW show.

HOW THE WRESTLING WAR BETWEEN WCW & WWE HURT THE WRESTLING BUSINESS...

I decided to take a look at the era when the WCW v. WWE war was at its height (1997 to current will be considered the height of the wrestling war between WCW & WWE). What did this era actually give back to the wrestling business?

A lot of people remember huge ratings, lots of sold out shows and money rolling in hand and fist to both companies. But during that same period both WWE & WCW began to murder the wrestling business with frequent title switches and it is my belief the wrestling war era educated fans to think title switches make a show hot and solid wrestling with no title switches doesn't make a show hot. No title switches just means the product is not moving forward any longer and is boring compared to the "height" of the business. Now those who will defend this ere as being the most productive in the history of the business will claim all of the title changes led to ratings & business booming. I would respectfully disagree with this opinion and sight how after the boom ended, WWE still constantly changed their Championships and business did not turn around or rebound in any shape or form.

Changing Championships on a frequent basis is counterproductive to turning the business back around and the only way WWE is going to build the business back up again is to establish a more meaningful product. One of the ways business always re-generated itself before the height of the wrestling war was to establish a hot wrestler on top as THE CHAMPION. But if everyone or anyone could hold the top Championship and it wasn't considered "elite" to hold the Championship, why would fans consider any new talent as special if they conquered the belt? Isn't that the way some fans are looking at Brock Lesnar right now? Brock won the WWE Title and some fans have stated it doesn't really matter because so many other wrestlers have won the title as well.

So it isn't really special that Lesnar won the WWE Title since he did something a lot of people have accomplished over the last few years as well. And it is this thought, no matter how incorrect, which is the reason why Championship's were not meant to be passed around like chicklets.

WWE during the height of the wrestling war with WCW was not as bad as WCW was in changing their Championships, but as the following will prove even WWE followed WCW's lead and increased the number of title switches during this era almost two times more then before the era began. But don't take my word for it, take a look at the numbers yourself.

From 1948 until 1996 (48 years) in NWA/WCW there were 61 World title changes and during the height of the wrestling war from 1997 until 2003 (6 years) there were 50 title changes (I counted the changes when WCW was sold to WWE in this, minus them it was 43 title changes by WCW).

From 1963 until 1996 (33 years) in WWE there were 34 World title changes and during the height of the wrestling war from 1997 until 2003 (6 years)there were 42 title changes (realize at one point WWE was only averaging 1 title switch per year and during the wrestling wars they averaged 7 per year).

From 1979 until 1996 (17 years) in WWE there were 41 IC title changes and during the height of the wrestling war from 1997 until 2003 (6 years) there were 51 IC title changes (which is why the title became meaningless and had to vanish for a while).

From 1971 until 1996 (25 years) in WWE there were 73 World Tag title changes and during the height of the wrestling war from 1997 until 2003 (6 years) there were 71 World Tag title changes.

I think these statistics speak for themselves. I believe even though Triple H is using backstage politics to keep the RAW World Title on himself, at the same time the title is becoming more 'elite'. Obviously one would agree the Championship right now is a lot harder to win then it was in the past. The regular fan does not know why Triple H is keeping the Championship and thus doesn't understand the title isn't changing because of backstage politics. All the regular fan understands is Triple H has beat everyone that has challenged him for the Championship.

Whereas; this might turn off a lot of the regular fans who were educated through the Wrestling War Era to accept constant & frequent title changes, that is not an altogether bad thing to do. The business right now, being down, needs to use the down turn to re-educate the marks. The longer Triple H plays politics in the back to keep the title on his shoulder, the better the business is going to be after he loses the power struggle in the back. Obviously if Triple H can hold the title for another couple of months and actually reach the 6 or 7 month mark as Champion, it is going to set up the next Champion to carry the belt in to 2004.

And the business needs to get back to a time when they only crowned ONE or TWO Champions per year. This is possible as long as one or two things happen. One, you have a champion on top who the fans respect and love. In Example, Brock Lesnar on Smackdown. There is absolutely no reason for WWE to take the title off of Brock as long as the fans are reacting good enough to him as Champion. The only way to make the SD World Title mean something again is to have challengers challenge Lesnar for the title and have Lesnar successfully defend his Championship. Once he has had the belt long enough (around 6 months to a year) the company should consider changing the title and having the next wrestler hold the title for six months to a year as well, this would create a situation where the Championship seems "elite" since is isn't changing as frequently as it had in the past. The same has to be said about the RAW World Title. Online fans fully understand why Triple H has the belt and it has created a situation online where the RAW World Title does not mean as much as the other Championships the company currently pushes.

But this is not a big deal since the bread & butter for the company are fans that do not know why Triple H has the title. And the longer Triple H can keep the belt the better the business may be when he drops the belt. A wrestler such as Goldberg holding the title for as long as Triple H has held it, after Triple H has effectively held it hostage, wouldn't be a stretch. In fact, If Triple H kept the belt for 6-7 months by holding it hostage through politics, I would argue Goldberg could keep the belt for 14 months and the fans online wouldn't be upset about his title reign.

And the only way the business is going to get healthy again is have prestigious Championships that the bread & butter fans and online fans care about. At one point the IC Title was changed once or twice a year as well. And it meant something when a wrestler actually won the Championship.

But the fact that WWE could have an IC Battle Royal on Judgement Day, exclusive to one brand, and have 9 former IC Title holders enter the Battle Royal to determine the Championship proves the title does not mean as much as it once did.

How could it? The only guy that hasn't held the title will be competing for it next month in Houston, Texas. The only reason why WWE should give the title to Booker T is because he would be able to carry the belt for a year with out the fans being upset that he still has the belt. Booker T can establish the IC title through title defenses and make the belt mean something again. And by this it would be like its own mini World Championship again.

Right now WWE should book the entire title picture with one thought in mind. Why are we even considering changing these Championships when business is down?

WWE Attempts to police itself in the Elizabeth Hulette tragedy.. WWE announced it would cover the Elizabeth Hulette & Larry Pfohl situation on Confidential this weekend.

This has itself caused controversy online as some have claimed WWE is attempting to exploit the situation, but I don't see it that way.

The wrestling business should POLICE itself, so the national media can not use this situation to blast them. The national media has shown a willingness to blast the wrestling business at every turn.

Some in the national media have made entire careers out of blasting the wrestling business over situations such as this one.

A major reason why they can blast WWE over a situation such as this one is because WWE typically ignores the situation and runs from it. WWE running this story is actually refreshing.

Refreshing in the sense that WWE is willing to discuss these controversial issues in a responsible way. WWE isn't running away or attempting to sweep these issues under the carpet.

However; WWE is now being hammered from the other side, the wrestling community. The same people who for years have scolded them for running away from FACTS & TRUTH. Scolded them for ducking situations such as this one and acting irresponsible by doing so.

Is the company "taking advantage" of the situation or simply running a story? I think they are policing themselves with the story and that is a good thing.

I applaud WWE for running the story on Confidential. I don't think this death warrants a 100% fluff tribute to the career & life of Hulette.

I don't think anyone in this business should be CELEBRATING her career with out first pointing out the COLD HARD facts about WHY we HAVE to CELEBRATE her career, and the cold hard facts in to why she actually passed away. No matter how negative or controversial that might be.

WWE OUGHT to and has an OBLIGATION to cover this story on a factual basis. To discuss how Larry Pfohl was arrested for illegal possession of drugs. How Elizabeth Hulette may have overdosed on drugs and how it is feared that is why she passed away. I think WWE owe's it the business to finally handle thi