This situation will probably be buried into the ground by every internet reporter or columnist in the coming weeks, but it’s just too much of a big story, with all these little twists involved, that you can’t pass the chance up on talking about it. Vince Russo was brought in to WCW, by the new WCW Vice President, Bill Busch. Busch did something that hasn’t been seen before. Instead of stealing or "taking" talent, like the previous Vice President, Eric Bischoff did. Busch took it one step further. Instead of taking the "actor" so to speak, he took the person behind the scenes, that was pushing that talent. Vince Russo. Most of the internet fans thought that Russo joining WCW, would be a nightmare for the WWF, and would be nothing less that superb for WCW. With Russo on the other side of the fence, the ratings didn’t jump, nor did his presence even put a dent in the steam rolling of the WWF. Once Russo was in power for a few weeks, things began to get frustrating for him, since he was promised full control, but was then being pushed around and told off and forced to keep his ideas off television. He did get some things right, by cutting Nitro to two hours, and moving Thunder to another night, but in terms of story lines, he did get everyone involved somehow, but some of the ideas that were put out were ridiculous and plain stupid. For this, the ratings didn’t even budge. Russo was starting to receive pressure from the office, to pull the ratings up, but nothing he did could help, so he excused his performances due to some of the top stars being out with injuries, mainly Goldberg. Well now in the last 24 hours, Russo has been rumored to have been fired, or more appropriately demoted. With nearly all the top talent out. Tomorrow’s pay-per-view, will have to have two substitutes for the co-main events. One for the Triple Threat Theater. Which is a damn shame, due to the fact that Chris Benoit has no won the US championship, two months in a row on pay-per-view, due to his opponent being unable to compete. The Triple Threat Theater, may still occur with a substitute for Jarrett, but it will certainly lack the rivalry and lack the purpose it had, when Jarrett was able to fight Benoit. This was to be the deciding showdown between the two, now it’ll be just like last month where they are forced to set up a new feud for Benoit. With the World Title, we have Arn Anderson as Special Guest Ref, with the man that he was supposed to be "against" Bret Hart out, what will occur now. I’ve heard two possible substitutes. Randy Savage, since he wrestled Sid on a house show card a night or two ago. And the other being, Ric Flair. With Arn as the special ref, I see Ric being more fitted for this, with Arn "screwing" Sid out of the gold, for his old friend Ric Flair. Fifteen time world champion? Uh oh… hear that Hogan, someone is better than you. Better get back and get another fifty or sixty world title reigns so that no one can ever come close to your record. Anyway, there are so many questions that remain unanswered at the moment. Why’d Russo want to put the title on Tank Abbott in a battle royal? Only way I could see that work is, if Goldberg came back Monday, and beat the former UFC competitor, to gain more recognition for the WCW "Franchise" Goldberg. With the unopposed Nitro coming up, you have to wonder, how well it will fair. We all know it’ll beat the Dog show on USA. But, will Nitro rise any, in the ratings, or just maintain the same rating? When WWF was making it’s come back, the unopposed RAW’s, where Nitro was pre-empted due to the NBA playoffs, that really catapulted the WWF. Last year WCW didn’t gain much from the unopposed Nitro, and ironically, the RAW that was pre-empted, was shown later that week on a Saturday night, and it still beat Nitro’s rating. That RAW didn’t have a lower quarter hour rating then the regular Live Nitro. That’s saying something. When WCW does gain all their top stars, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Bret Hart, Goldberg, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and even Ric Flair, will it help them at all? I really don’t see it doing much, as Sting may be a fan favorite, but really hasn’t helped all that greatly in the last few months, and since he’s going back to the crow Sting, I don’t see that really drawing in the ratings. Jarrett has been doing great the last month or so, but the nWo isn’t helping. Bret Hart just doesn’t fit into the nWo, and in my opinion, really shouldn’t be wrestling. He still is well conditioned and could put on a better match then most of the talent in WCW, however, he just isn’t the same guy. Bret was a few years too late. He’s stuck in the good guy-bad guy era where he could be the Canadian Hero, and seek and destroy the evil doer’s in the wrestling industry. Now that we have suicidal nuts jumping off balconies, and lighting each other on fire, and more focused on the entertainment, Bret just doesn’t fit the bill. It’s time the Hitman either looked for a job in the NWA where tradition still stands, or head back to Calgary and focus on rebuilding Stampede Wrestling back to it’s prominent position. Bret would also be a great candidate to open up his own wrestling school. Stu Hart is most likely unable to train like he used to, and what would be better than Bret carrying on the family tradition of training some of the top talent in North America.

Just thought I’d mention the Royal Rumble since the card us beginning to come together. Let’s see we have a swimsuit match between nearly all the women of the WWF, including the old ones. I haven’t heard anything on this one, except that it’s a swimsuit competition. Does that mean it’s going to be a judged swimsuit competition like the Jacqueline/Sable one of a few years ago, or will it be like a Evening Gown match where they strip each other? If it is like an evening gown match, I’d say get your VCR’s set, because I think we’re going see some "puppies". In the Royal Rumble, Mark Henry was announced as the 29th competitor, what the hell? What a shocker. I guess that means there’s one more spot for either the Undertaker, Tazz, or the WWF could just put some other less surprising opponent in there. I actually hope it’s the Undertaker. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Triple H Vs. Undertaker title match at Wrestlemania in March, or better yet. A Mankind Vs. Undertaker match at Wrestlemania. What better way for Mick to go out, then to face the man that he had his most popular, grueling and most successful match in many fans opinions? 

That’s pretty much all on my mind right now. There hasn’t been much else to talk about lately, that isn’t too obvious such as the Cactus Jack return. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back this coming Monday with Pain Tolerance in mind.