(If anybody in Canada knows when they can see any Lucha Libre action on cable, please e-mail me. Heck, if anybody in the Toronto area knows of any non Big 2 1/2 action on non-Superstation cable channels, please let me know as well.)

Everybody has had their say about the Jim Ross parody that will be a recurring character, and the opinion seems to be split into two categories: (1) It is tasteless, and (2) It is hilarious. Count me in a seperate category: It is slightly tasteless, it's not really funny, and Tony Schiavone needs to shut up.

Including the Bells Palsey into the impersonation wasn't needed, and was tasteless. If Ferrara is going to go into full JR mode, trying to look as much like Jim Ross as possible, then I wouldn't be as hard on it. It would be similiar to the Bob Dole impersonations that various comedians do. But instead, the general gist of the parody is to make fun of Ross' various quirks, for lack of a better term. So why bother including Ross' Bells Palsey? To be mean and vindictive, that's why.

And the defense of including the Bells Palsey into the impersonation is very weak. The theory is that since the WWF has made fun of Ted Turner's father committing suicide during the Billionaire Ted skits, Ross' Bells Palsey is also game. Well, I guess that makes it okay. And I guess it would be okay for the WWF to come out and say something like "WCW crowned a new champion last night on their PPV in Toronto, which drew less paying customers than our show in Toronto the night before. And that champion, Bret Hart, was a great choice. This is the same man who wouldn't do the right thing, and was concerned only about his character, not the well being of the wrestling business. We here at the WWF wish WCW the best of luck convincing this selfish individual to do what is best for WCW, and not what is best for Bret Hart. Remember, Bret screwed Bret." This would be okay because when Mick Foley first won the World title (on that memorable Raw in January), Tony Schiavone made comments that Mick Foley was nothing more than a midcarder in WCW, and he wouldn't put any asses in the seats. Obviously, two wrongs make a right.

And speaking of Mr. Schiavone, he must love it when Mr. Oklahoma makes his way to the broadcast table. Whenever Oklahoma appears, it gives Tony the opportunity to take shots at Jim Ross, including the ever popular "I replaced you here." Of course, this is the same man with enough credibility to say that a WCW PPV main event of Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash was an unbelievable match, topped only by Hogan/Piper #52843, and be believed by everyone who heard the comment. He also has enough credibility to say that Mick Foley wouldn't be a draw as World champion, and have the millions of people watching stay tuned to Nitro because they believed him. Tony really needs to be quiet while Mr. Oklahoma shows up, because every time he takes a shot at Jim Ross, he comes across as a bitter individual. And if Meltzer is to be believed, Tony should concentrate on improving his horrid announcing skills and his great reputation as the beacon of credibility, rather than getting into a pissing match with Jim Ross. If he doesn't, he might have to ask the guy who he replaced for a job, while Scott Hudson talks to "Fat Tony", discussing how Hudson replaced Fat Tony here.

As for the parody itself, I didn't find it all that funny. On the Nitro where Oklahoma first appeared (the only one that I have seen, for a point of reference), the bit where Oklahoma discussed Juvi's college football accomplishments was funny. The mocking of Ross' famous repetitive calls was funny the first time, but got old real quick. Everything else was just boring, and pointless.

Maybe part of the problem is that I've never had the opportunity to work with Jim Ross, and see how he is behind the scenes. When Kevin Nash appeared as "The Promoter", I had the same problem. Once I figured out it was Vince McMahon, and not the Spitting Image puppet of Ronald Reagan, that Nash was parodying, it made the scenes watchable. But I didn't find it particularly funny. And apparently I wasn't the only one. Don Callis said that he found the parody brilliant and hilarious, but Lance Storm thought it was just stupid. Callis thinks it's because he had worked for McMahon, and knew the little nuances that McMahon had, while Storm didn't recognize the nuances because he had never worked for McMahon.

If that is the case, where you need to have worked with McMahon or Ross to find the parody funny, then why bother running them? So that you can have your own little inside joke for the boys in the back, but have your viewers bewildered and changing the channel because this isn't entertaining them? That isn't a good plan, no matter which way you cut it.

"Mike Mooneyham's most recent column for the Charleston Post & Courier blasts WCW for the recent Jim Ross parody. To read the column, CLICK HERE.

Call me curious...but where was Mooneyham's column when the same parody was done in the WWF? Where was the outrage then? Where was the self-righteous indignation when Jim Ross parodied himself for the sake of a WWF storyline, and when Ed Ferrara parodied Ross with an even more exaggerated parody on Heat than the one he did on NITRO?"

Interestingly enough, Mooneyham mentions the second point in his article, albeit very briefly at the end:

" Ferrara impersonated Ross earlier this year on Raw when Ross was being portrayed as a deranged announcer, and took a stiff German suplex at the hands of Williams at the time."

So why does the Nitro parody draw rants, while the original Ferrara parody and the Jim Ross self-parody draw no comment? The main reason is because of the Bells Palsey issue. It isn't necessary for Oklahoma to act like he has Bells Palsey. But he does anyway, seemingly only out of spite. For obvious reasons, Jim Ross had to act like he had Bells Palsey as he did his self-parody. Was it necessary for Ferrara to pretend like he has Bells Palsey when he did the parody on Heat? No. But there is a difference.

When Ferrara went on Heat and did his parody, he was attacked by Steve Williams and destroyed by a suplex. So, Ferrara does his parody, then gets the retribution for it. On Nitro, Ferrara does his parody, and there is no dissenting voice. There will be no retribution for Ferrara doing his parody. If anything, Mr. Oklahoma will be attacked for being associated with the WWF.

As for the self-righteous indignation, well, Bob has some explaining to do on that front. For, when he first discussed the Jim Ross parody (on 11/16), and defended it, he was sure to bring up Gillberg:

"I mean, the WWF wouldn't have been out of line to make fun of Ted Turner's father committing suicide would it? Or they wouldn't have been out of line saying Ted Turner takes lithum would they?

The WWF isn't out of line when they send a midget out to mock one of their greatest champions they day after humiliating him in front of his fans? The WWF isn't out of line when they shave a jobbers head and call him Gillberg.

Of course not. That was all different. At least that's what the WWF fans will say.

Well you know what? It wasn't different. Those things were personal. They were very personal."

Now, call me kooky and everything, but when I read Bob's comments on Sunday, it seems to me like he's saying that the Jim Ross impersonation is okay, because the WWF itself did it first, before WCW did it. And reading the Gillberg comment above, he's saying that it was wrong for the WWF to have run with Gillberg, because it's insulting and personal to Goldberg.

So, I'm left to ask where Bob Ryder's self-righteous indignation was in September of 1998 when Chris Jericho brought out Greenberg, the midget wrestler that was a parody of Goldberg. I'm sure Bob remembers, because Jericho fought Greenberg on Fall Brawl 1998.

How come it's okay for WCW to now run with Oklahoma because of the previous Jim Ross parodies in the WWF, but it wasn't okay for the WWF to run with Gillberg after Jericho brought out Greenberg?

I'm sure that we will now read Mr. Ryder say that he was wrong, and apologize for the inconsistency. He wouldn't want to seem like he was living in a glass house, would he?

Finally, it looks like Steve Austin's career is over. All reports are indicating that the tests that Austin went through are coming back with bleak results, and Austin will have to retire, only returning to in-ring action very sporadically, if at all. Obviously, this is a huge blow to the WWF, and it will be interesting to see how they react to it.

Next column, I'll talk about how the WWF should react to it, and how they likely will. But here, I just want to make a mention of the impact on the WWF. Initially, I thought that losing Austin was a huge blow, but it's something that the WWF would be able to recover from, because of the way that they have been running in the last couple of weeks. Now, I'm not so sure.

The WWF has the Rock, who is extremely over when he's not wrestling, and that's a good start. But he's not Austin, who is one of the few wrestlers in America that gets a reaction when he's not wrestling, and gets just as strong of a reaction when he is wrestling.

For those who think that the Rock will be able to carry the federation like Austin did, I can only point to the mainstream coverage that Austin's injury is getting. I heard about Austin's career-threatening injury on a local radio station's news report this morning. This station, which targets the baby boomers, reported it without a hint of scarcasm or humor. How many other wrestlers would receive that sort of coverage? Darren Drozdov's injury received coverage, but that was due more to the horrific nature of the accident than the victim.

And let's not forget about Nash Bridges, which Austin has guest starred on, and increased the ratings for those shows his character is being considered for a spin-off show. The Rock isn't able to claim that sort of mainstream success. With Austin, they have a recognizable name that even the most casual of fan will know. The Rock might reach that level some day, and I have no doubt that the WWF is banking on it. But Austin is at that level, and losing him could be the final blow to the WWF's supremacy of the last 18 months.