DE.

TNA are really on a roll at the moment. I loved this week's Impact, it was very well done. They're miles ahead of WWE at the moment IMO, it's a shame they aren't on a bigger network with more exposure. They could be legitimate competition for WWE at this point, the product is at that level. Moving out of the Impact Zone has done wonders for them as well. The crowd is just so much better, the arena looks and feels bigger. I know Sting and Hogan are old these days, but this promo was superb. These guys can still go on the mic.

Have read that he was intoxicated, said he was going to "knock the hepititus out of Nigel" - or words to that effect. Called Kevin Kelly a "fat idiot" or something similar. Pretty classless tbh. I'm guessing there are underlying issues there that we're not privy to.

If only he was true to his word and stuck to his rambling blog. Anyhow, I came across Charlie Haas' bizarre ROH retirement the other day. Basically went a bit crazy, having a go at various people on and off the mic. Completely unexpected, impromptu retirement. Obviously in wrestling retirements are rarely permanent but I think in this case it might well be. The fella had a serious breakdown by the looks of things.

Thought the go-home Raw last night was really really weak. Ending segment with Taker/Punk was just sad. Has made me decide against ordering WM this year. It's been so poorly built up to that I don't feel WWE deserves my money. I'll check the results afterwards and see if it's worth catching a replay of at some point - though still highly unlikely I'll pay to watch any of it.

Very sad. Reid has had some serious heroin issues... have to assume drugs are the cause.

According to Powell @ prowrestling.net X-Pac DID go to the after party, despite having quite literally torn his anus to shreds. I'd believe him on the basis he speaks with Waltman fairly regularly.

IMO it's a pretty weak WrestleMania this year. It'll only be saved if Cena turns heel at the end. If he wins clean and doesn't turn it'll be the crappiest end to a WrestleMania... possibly ever. Also, X-Pac tore his anus open at the weekend doing a bronco buster

Which is pretty much why he did the smart thing and quit rather than get repeatedly humiliated by superior opponents.

It also ruined one of the greatest WrestleMania moments of all time - when he and Eddie hugged in tears after winning their respective world titles.

Aye, that was pretty bad too. I just remembered in '97 they also interviewed Pillman's wife after he died and really went into tasteless territory there too. They do have a history of it, and for all WCW's faults the one thing I never remember them doing is mocking or exploiting the death of a wrestler. Though they did make a storyline out of Scott Hall's descent into serious alcoholism and substance abuse, and mocked JR's bells palsy, so... suffice to say wrestling in general is rarely a classy business.

Put me off Smackdown entirely to be honest, I never really watched it again after that.

JR mentioned earlier this week that he was uncomfortable with the direction the feud had taken and I agree with him tbh. HOWEVER, it's nowhere near as bad as how WWE horrendously exploited Eddie Guerrero's death. That was sickening, and a real low point for the company as a whole.

It's made the match redundant. There's no way Taker is going to lose now, so why bother watching it? I was fine with Punk doing it in the first week to get some heat, but there's no need to keep doing it. It's cheap and lazy. What would they have done if Bearer hadn't died?

It was CM Punk. An uncomfortable segment. WWE have as usual taken the low road and decided to make Taker Vs Punk all about Punk disrespecting Paul Bearer. It could and should have been much more than that.

Ratings unfortunately don't! I don't buy Bully as a mainstream promotion's heavyweight champion. It's not because he isn't good enough, he just doesn't have the drawing power to pull people in. I wouldn't be surprised if his reign was a short one. Just saw this, too. Warning in advance, VERY strong homophobic language, from about 6:15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wrLF3juVcU Way, way over the top IMO. Apologies from him and Dixie Carter on Twitter, but Bully should know better than that.

I hope Dallas is able to get Hall clean. if he can get Jake clean then he has a good chance, because I think everybody had written Jake off. This really is Hall's last chance, if he bails on this then I think he'll be dead within a year.

I just watched a little of TNA's show for the first time in a while, they've just started touring on the road as opposed to staying in the Impact Zone in Orlando. I thought the show was a hit and miss (a bit too much Hulk Hogan and Sting considering it's 2013...) but the actual production values looked fantastic. Worth a watch IMO.

Are you thinking about going to their May event Tom? Some pretty big names there.

Sounds interesting, I may have to give it another chance.

i haven't watched NXT since its earlier series, which I thought were a joke. The stuff with Low-ki in particular was just horrendous and made a great wrestler look like a total dud. One of the few occasions where TNA actually did a better job than WWE with a wrestler (Ki wrestled as Senshi in TNA and was pretty good). I remember it having a ton of stupid gimmicks and dumb "challenges". Has it changed? I've seen that they've taken Generico's mask off, so I guess he'll have a totally new name and gimmick. A shame.

Triple H definitely seems to have a more old-school approach to the business which one hopes will translate into future generations of wrestlers. It would be great if WWE could strike up a deal with Japan or Mexico, though Japan especially isn't what it used to be. I'd love to see some different styles on WWE programming. One of the best things about WCW was the mix of styles, from the luchadores, to the Japanese wrestlers, the mixed-martial artists and the shooters. You then had the heavyweight grapplers with charisma main eventing. For a few years WCW was a fantastic showcase for various styles of wrestling. Nowadays you have very little in the way of variety.

It's a double-edged sword. The disappearance of the territories reduced the ability for talent in the states to perform in front of vastly different crowds and hone their in-ring skills and promo abilities. It led to what we see now as the standard, cookie-cutter WWE wrestler - by and large, pretty boring. Guys like Jericho still managed to get their education abroad in Mexico, Germany and Japan... but the problem is these styles don't translate so well in the US. Jericho struggled to get anywhere in WCW and his early run in the WWE (then WWF) was difficult for him because he wasn't working the style the other talent were used to. If the territories still existed Jericho would have been able to fit in easier. On the other hand, the dissolution of the territories heralded Wrestlemania, the birth of WCW as a single entity and arguably brought American wrestling to a more global audience. McMahon used the money gained from dissolving the territories to take the WWF and wrestling in general to the global stage in a way that hadn't been done before. Ted Turner followed suit with WCW and this eventually led to the Monday Night Wars from 95-01, when wrestling was as popular and mainstream as it is ever likely to be. It's hard to argue that the industry isn't stale these days, though. I have little to no interest in the current WWE product and only a passing interest in TNA, who are only a contender to WWE on the basis there is nobody else credible to challenge. In truth TNA is a very distant second and probably always will be. The removal of the territories has undoubtedly contributed to the current state of affairs in regards to the wrestling landscape, but I doubt McMahon much cares.

Bearer played his role very well, and by all accounts he was a very nice guy. He was a big fella though and sadly this probably contributed to his early passing (I believe a blood clot is the official cause). He was supposedly very cut up over his wife dying fairly recently, so maybe it's merciful that he's with her now.

Poor girl. Thoughts with the family of course.