Personal stuff. Dave has asked me what's up with wrestling school, and I really don't have much of an update. Financial strain is the only thing keeping me out of there. My roommate today just quit his job too, and while he has another lined up it doesn't pay the $12 an hour the other one did. Why did he quit? I guess you would have to be a short order cook in a Greek diner on a Sunday morning with 300 people wanting food while some co-worker with a grudge intentionally misreads the slips to you so you fuck up their food and get yelled at and the owners don't do anything to the cunt who is sabotaging you to understand just why after 3 years of it, it's just not worth the stress. So as to wrestling school, I've got time before I go. I still have my regular bills and my mechanic to pay. If someone wants to mail me $2000, I'll be at the school Tuesday with cash in hand ready to rock and roll.

On the brighter side of things my band, Born Dead, will be playing our first show in Pottstown, PA on Saturday, February 26th. You can e-mail me if you're local and interested in going, I'll give ya directions.

And now, it is the darkest hour for WCW.

A radio station in Philadelphia offered free Nitro tickets to the 13th caller. They never gave the tickets away, because they never got a 13th caller. WCW can't give away tickets to their TV shows, and I can't get Smackdown tickets an hour after they go on sale two months in advance. And in perhaps the biggest slap in the face thus far, Walker, Texas Ranger, which airs on USA from 8 to 9 PM before Raw, beat the first hour of Nitro in the ratings, drawing a 3.3 to Nitro's 2.7.

If ECW had a better television spot on TNN, they would be beating Nitro in the ratings right now. I've read alot of newsboards trying to offer their ideas about how to save WCW, but unless drastic things happen, WCW will continue to burn and crumble.

What would I do? Glad you asked.

Time-Warner needs to cut WCW loose. Sell the damn thing lock, stock, and barrel. It's losing millions of dollars, and it's only a matter of time before some accountant up there in corporate-land realizes this and asks why WCW isn't turning a profit. Surely, this company loses more money than Time-Warner can write off at tax time. Cut them loose. Sell them to someone who has the want and desire to put out a good wrestling entertainment product and the know-how to do it. No, not Vince McMahon, but I am sure someone out there is capable. Consider that Ted Turner didn't really buy WCW because he wanted to get into the rasslin' business, he bought it because he wanted to make money, bottom line. He thought it was a lucrative business venture, nothing more. While Vinnie Mac is definitely out for profit, one must realize that he couldn't just sever the WWF if it goes deep into the red, it's his lifeline. He is the WWF. Time-Warner could cut WCW loose and not even feel it. That's how big they are. $250 million dollars is pocket change to them. But selling WCW would be beneficial to Time-Warner and to WCW.

Of course, by cutting WCW loose, the whole face of WCW would change. It would have to sink or swim. WCW couldn't rely on the safety net of Time-Warner's mountain of cash. Whoever bought the company would have to turn WCW into something that makes money, and to make money, it has to have people in the seats. It has to have people who watch on TV. Advertisers need to know that people will see their commercials. They have to entertain people, make them want to watch on TV or attend the house shows. And to do that, it needs to put out a wrestling product that doesn't resemble the drizzling shits. That means good ring work. That means good, consistent angles and storylines. That means wrestlers who are willing and able to bring those things to life. Commentators who can put the wrestlers over. Everything depends on WCW being able to entertain. This does not mean they have to be like the WWF, for those of you who might be thinking I am a WWF mark. They have to develop their own, unique product, and do it fast before they lose any more wrestlers to the WWF or ECW. WCW had it's strengths at one point and now, the most they rate on any scale is mediocre. They have to start from ground zero and build from there. They still have the talent as far as wrestlers go to pull it off, but they need new ownership, new organization, and new management.

So on the oft-chance that some bigwig from Time-Warner is reading this, please, as a plea from one wrestling fan echoed by millions: Sell WCW. You cutting them as a loss will force them to cut their many losses. And if, in the end, they fail and fizzle out, then it's meant to be. It's not the first time a wrestling promotion died and it won't be the last.