Mea culpa. I made a mistake in my last column which one of my alert viewers pointed out to me. I called Benoit's win over the Rock a clean pin and I was wrong. (Unless you want to discount the interference by the Big Slow because he was in Hawaii on vacation, after all).

Nevertheless, I made a mistake. The pin wasn't clean, but it was a pin, so the point remains, even if it is a bit smudged by controversy.

Oh well.

Speaking of mistakes, I see a lot of writers out here calling for the return of Vince Russo to WCW as head booker.

Please!

He's not the savior! In fact, he is about the last thing in the world that WCW needs. Granted, they need to rid themselves of the cancer that is the Kevin twins, and Hogan, but to bring Russo back is not the answer!

WCW needs to carve out its own identity. Once upon a time it had one. It was a fed that was noted for its wrestling. There was no heavy emphasis on story lines. In fact, the back story was of secondary concern. They had their corpse of fans who like that style (count me in that group).

However, somewhere along the lines, the bottom line and ratings overshadowed the customer base, and as a result they lost a lot of what brought them to the dance. Chasing the chimera of ratings and "sports entertainment", they rushed to the "can't beat 'em, join 'em" camp.

Look what it got them.

They had one hot idea and rode it to death at the expense of everything else around them. The house is in desperate need of repair, but the first thing they need to do is get a solid foundation from which to work. They will never do that as long as they continue to pander to the dry-rot that is the current booking team and hope that the termites keep holding hands so that the whole thing doesn't cave in.

As has been pointed out before, if they fold up their tent, they won't be the first to vanish, and I doubt highly that they will be the last. However, much like the phoenix, they have the chance to raise from the ashes and spring back to life.

It can be done. Vinny Mac did it with the WWF. However it's going to call for some tough choices, some hard work, and some sacrifice.

I don't think that the this will happen as long as the status quo is allowed to dominate. Inertia is a hard thing to overcome, but it can work for you.

Time for Bill Busch to get off the dime and start making some of those hard choices.