As I was putting the finishing touches on my Excess blog, the news broke that 10 WWE Superstars had been suspended. Before this occurred, the news broke that their would be Congressional hearings at the end of the month. So immediately, to me, it looked like the WWE was trying to save it's ass before going into the Lion's Den with Congress. I sat there thinking, before later reports came out, who could the 10 guys be? I figured it was the guys that had been linked by SI.com and anybody else that had come up during the whole steroid fiasco. Word came out that Vince himself called them & suspended whoever it may be. To me, being the conniving person I am, figured Vince did this to save his ass & his company's ass. I also thought that he might have told the guys to let everything blow over and they might be brought back sooner. But, as the alleged names started to come out, my reaction was this, if you're sensitive to foul language, I wouldn't read any further. Basically, I thought the WWE is fucked.

The names that came out that were linked to some company in New York that had been giving prescriptions were Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Shane Helms, Randy Orton, John "Morrison" Hennigan, Funaki, Brian "Crush" Adams, Charlie Haas, Edward "Umaga" Fatu, Darren "William Regal" Matthews, Adam "Edge" Copeland, and Sylvan Grenier. Add to that from ESPN.com, Dave Bautista and Chris Masters. Also reports came out with these guys involved: Mike "Simon Dean" Bucci, Ken "Kennedy" Anderson, Anthony "Santino Marella" Carelli, and Robert "King Booker" Huffman.

That's 19 guys. Three of them are no longer with us: Benoit, E. Guerrero, and Adams. So, that drops the total to 16. Helms & Edge are out with injuries, so that drops it to 14. Sylvan Grenier has already been released so that's 13. Out of those 13 remaining, 10 of them have been suspended. Reports also came out that one of the 10 suspended was on his second time. Chris Masters has been suspended once before and as most of you know, he came back as a skinny weasel. So, I'm thinking that Masters is one of the Terrible Ten.

I'm not jumping to conclusions and convicting these guys like the media will. We'll find out who's part of the Terrible Ten in the coming week or two. After all, these guys will be pulled off of TV regardless. I wonder what else was in that Simon System. Basically, the WWE is screwed. This year has been the worst year in a long time for these guys. If Orton is part of the 10, there goes somebody taking down John Cena. If Morrison is involved, they might as well gift wrap the belt for CM Punk. Batista, as of now, isn't in the World Heavyweight Championship picture. If Umaga is involved, they should go ahead and give the belt to Jeff Hardy or Carlito because Kennedy is involved in this mess, too.

So, pretty much, the WWE is screwed. Now, I could see 3 big names not be suspended like Orton, Umaga, and Morrison, simply because they've got storylines going. This is a big statement by Vince & the WWE to suspend a number of your top talent. Imagine if my Indianapolis Colts came in and suspended Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dwight Freeney, Joseph Addai, Marvin Harrison, and Bob Sanders? We wouldn't have to worry about repeating as Super Bowl Champions, we would worry about having a winning record. This is a big statement if it's these big names. It sends the message that nobody is safe, which is a good thing. Vince has already told them to kick the habit. Most of these connections to the pharmacy place are predated with the Wellness Policy, so we could be in a big hoopla for nothing. However, if these guys are the ones involved and they hold a title belt, as a part of their punishment, they should have to lose it in a clean finish. Whenever they got back, they would job for about 2-3 months. They would wrestle on Heat, squash matches, or hell, put their asses in a dark match.

If Orton is clean, could we see a Cena & Cena vs. Orton & Orton match? That's what it's looking like. Most people know that Orton's dad is Cowboy Bob Orton. He did some work in the WWE a few years ago when RKO was feuding with the Undertaker. Cena's father works as a heel manager in a northeast indy promotion. I've never been a big fan on bringing family members in from the outside to work angles. In the case, it doesn't matter to me. Both dads are able to perform in some capacity. It's not like we're going to have some crap that won't work or won't look good. They've brought out the dark side of Randy Orton, which is great considering he's a heel. I thought it was cool when Edge attacked Cena's father last year. If a family member can pull it off, go for it. I think it's good that they are letting Orton be gruesome. You can only beat up so many legends/old guys before you need to do something very sickening. I wouldn't mind it that much if he beat up The King or JR. I know it sounds bad, but if you really want to get a heel some heat, let him beat up innocent people. In the coming weeks, Orton needs to take out a referee or two. Pull a Khali and come down and interfere in a match. RKO the wrestlers, the referee, then cut a promo. Attack people backstage. If you're trying to get a guy heat, make him do gruesome stuff. Don't have him run in, try to hit an RKO, then get pushed out of the ring.

Moving on, the hints are becoming more obvious in the illegitimate child angle. The creative team needs to pull back on some of these. Each week, there's a sign that the kid is Kennedy. Now, most of us know that Kennedy is going to be revealed as Vince's illegitimate child. They had a stare down when it was revealed that the kid was a WWE Superstar. They revealed that the middle name of Vince is Kennedy's last name. They made a joke about both of them walking different. They said in WWE Magazine that Kennedy doesn't know his biological father. Vince gave the "mother" until September 10th to reveal the identity of the kid or be sued. The September 10th RAW is in Kennedy's hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin. If the hints just don't scream that the kid is Mr. Kennedy, then the creative team is doing a great job of fooling us. But, if Kennedy has been suspended, I hope they have a backup plan or once again, they're screwed.

If I was on the creative team, which most of you know I talk about doing, I would make the obvious choices about 2-3 guys. Besides Kennedy, you can have one guy who was adopted and doesn't know his real father. The same Superstar could say the guy who he thought was his father got in some battle with another company during the 90s. Then, he never heard from him again, so he doesn't know if it was his real father or not.

The other guy would have a hometown of Stanford, Connecticut, which is the headquarters of the WWE. He could then say he was born around 1984, which would make him 23 or 24, the same time Wrestlemania started. He could say his real father had a falling out with his mother about 1997 and he never knew him before or after that year. 1997 would be the Montreal Screwjob with Bret Hart of course. His fake real name would be revealed as Vince and he would have a random last name. If you have more than one obvious candidate, you make people want to know who it is. If you have one guy and drop a bunch of hints about that one guy, people will know before hand and it won't give them the shock value that they wanted.

Moving on to ECW, CM Punk gets another title shot. I don't mind seeing Punk as the main attraction in ECW, but if he's going to get destroyed by Morrison, it's wasting time. What I would have done would have 1 or 2 more guys get involved in one of the matches, whether it be at Summerslam or the GAB. Elijah Burke deserves some type of push because of his work thus far. Burke is something special, but he hasn't gotten the shot. He can wrestle. He can cut promos. So, why not give him a shot? Hopefully Punk will win the belt at Unforgiven. If he doesn't, I think I would give my notice, leave, and go back to ROH.

I don't usually give away spoilers, but the World Heavyweight Championship match at Unforgiven is between Rey Mysterio & the Great Khaliflower. Now, if this isn't a slay the giant match I don't know what is. It's amazing how Mysterio gets a title shot and he hasn't been back that long. There are a lot of guys on the roster that have been there a while and haven't gotten a secondary title shot. Needless to say, I won't be very interested in this match. Khaliflower will throw Mysterio around like a rag doll.

Speaking of guys who haven't gotten a shot, Chris Masters has been buried. Most everybody has taken the Master Lock Challenge. Now, he's being buried by Chuck Palumbo. You guys remember Palumbo, right? He was with Billy Gunn for a while. They won the tag titles and almost got married. Then, he was with the Full Blooded Italians before he was released. Now, he's back as a toned down version of the Undertaker's American Bad Ass gimmick. Back to Masters, he's been buried. They need to repackage him as something else. I wish he would form a tag team, maybe with Elijah Burke. Face it. Right now, he's boring. I'm tired of the Master Lock Challenge. Fix this guy or get rid of him. With the steroid allegations now, it would give them an easy reason to release him.

I've been saying all along that John Cena is being made into the modern Hulk Hogan. People are finally seeing what I'm talking about. But, before you get all bent out of shape, let me explain. The reason I say this, Cena is running over people like Hogan used to run out of people. Cena does his little kick to the bottom rope like Hogan used to point his finer and say "YOU!" Cena is limited by the creative team. The Hogan Leg Drop? Get real. Cena is starting to do movies, like Hogan did. Cena is over with the kids, like Hogan was and still is. Hogan used to wave an American flag. Cena was the Marine for a while and most military people love him. Cena had the Chain Gang. Hogan had the Hulkamaniacs. No, I'm not saying Cena is as big a star as Hogan was, but Vince is trying to make him as big as Hogan.

The more I thought about wrestling back then, the more I realized something else. The Great Khali is being made into Andre the Giant. No, I would never compare Khali & Andre. But, if you think about it, it's true. Khali is doing stuff Andre used to do. Khali is a far worse wrestler, but you get the point. It's like the cycle of wrestling is back to the 1980s. So, I think when I graduate college, we might be back to the Attitude Era!

Because of the Summerslam PPV last week, I didn't do my weekly storyline idea. This week's idea is a resurgence of the King of the Ring tournament. KOTR used to be a huge event every year. It was considered one of the big events of the PPV season, which is why some people say it was part of the big 5, with the others including Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series. KOTR was used to establish new stars. It later was used to determine the #1 Contender. It was brought back in 2006 and it's the reason we have King Booker. KOTR was the birth of Austin 3:16. Needless to say, it's a big deal.

KOTR winners include Harley Race, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Big Daddy V (who won it as Mabel), Triple H, Kurt Angle, Edge, Brock Lesnar, and of course, King Booker. It, like the Royal Rumble, can be used to push a star into the limelight. It's one of those things they need to bring back.

My King of the Ring tournament would begin with a few qualifying matches. These would be like the Money in the Bank qualifying matches they used this year. Guys from different shows would compete against each other for the right to be in the tournament. That way, if a show like ECW doesn't have many guys, they won't have to put random jobbers in the matches. The qualifying matches would begin the night after Backlash. This would take Judgment Day off the PPV list. I'm not really a big fan of the name Judgment Day because of the religious implications, but that's neither here nor there. Just about any guy can enter the tournament. The next week, the tournament would begin on RAW & Smackdown. The first two rounds for those shows would be on TV. RAW & Smackdown would each have 8 guys in their mini-tournament. The next week, it would be a Final Four deal on all of the shows. ECW would only have four entrants because they don't have a big roster.

After the final two from each show has been decided, I don't know if I would have the brand finals on TV or PPV. If the PPV didn't have many matches on it's card, I would move the brand finals to PPV. But, to get the best match possible, I would do the brand finals on TV the week before the King of the Ring PPV. For instance, the finals for RAW could be between Kennedy & Carlito, the finals on Smackdown could be between Matt Hardy & Finlay, and the finals on ECW could be between Kevin Thorn & Elijah Burke. Another thing I might want to mention, having tournaments & battle royals can generate new feuds between different competitors. Anyways, getting back to my version of the KOTR, Kennedy, Burke, & Hardy would advance to the finals. The match would be a 3-way cage match or even a normal match.

The winner would get a shot at their respective show's world title. This way, guys could break into the main event status by winning the KOTR. Of course, to be fair, if a guy won the Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania and hadn't cashed it in yet, he's not eligible to enter the King of the Ring. They could expand this to tag teams and do a Kings of the Ring tournament. It's just a thought.

I like the concept PPVs that the WWE is doing though. Wrestlemania is of course the biggest event of the year. Cyber Sunday is where the fans "decide" the matches. Survivor Series has it's team format. The Royal Rumble of course has the Royal Rumble. Vengeance, hopefully, will continue to be the "Night of Champions." I like the fact that all titles are on the line. One Night Stand, hopefully, will continue as the event where all matches are Extreme Rules. I like the idea that every match will probably have some blood in it. I guess One Night Stand is WWE's answer to TNA Lockdown. I like the idea of having every match as a Cage match. If the WWE did that now, they would be considered copycats. I liked WCW's Road Wild event because it was outside. That probably wouldn't work now because of the wacky weather that's going on, but it's a good idea. I like the idea of having a PPV on the beach, which is kind of like Bash at the Beach and the free event WWE did a few weeks ago. The WWE has the right idea. They just need to deliver.

NEW Excess Power Rankings
1. John Cena
2. Umaga
3. John Morrison
4. Batista
5. The Great Khali
6. Mr. Kennedy
7. Carlito
8. CM Punk
9. Matt Hardy
10. Randy Orton

You can e-mail me at yellow_jackets2000@mgoblue.com. If you send me spam, I will knock your block off. Just kidding, but seriously, I will.

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