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Given that this year's WrestleMania main event was between two guys who were about 45, that age doesn't seem like too old a cut off. I mean do we really think Rey won't still be working in a decade's time, if he can still hobble to the ring that is?

I said just after Danielson got fired: "It's a worrying sign that Gabe Sapolsky booked Bryan Danielson so quickly and is promoting the whole (Dragon Gate PPV) show around his inevitably shortlived return". The move came across as a bit of a Hail Mary to me at the time; now it seems like a blown opportunity, as I don't think Gabe got anything out of Danielson other than a short term bump in business and even that bump wasn't as big as he expected.

I don't think the WON HOF voters view Angle's career in a different light. I imagine if he was on the ballot this year, then he'd get still more votes than Rey or Jericho and get in much more comfortably than he did originally. By the way, over at the f4wonline message board Dave has been debating the Sting as a candidate compared with Jericho. Some of his talking points are a bit odd:

You really believe that? If someone sends in a report it will be in the Observer, its that simple. Yeah, results of prior major North East Wrestling shows have appeared in the Observer.

Gabe may have drawn better if he matched Bryan up with Jacobs or Quackenbush, you know, guys with more name recognition to the average indy fan.

By the way, I hope this year's election results stops Dave from continuing to bang the "It's too difficult for modern performers to get in" drum.

It's interesting comparing the votes needed for inclusion in the Hall Of Fame over the last couple of years: Last year: This year: By my calculations this means that there were 20 less U.S. & Canada modern voters, yet 36 more U.S. & Canada historical voters, 16 more Japan voters and 10 more Europe voters, while Mexico stayed flat. If there were the same number of U.S. & Canada modern voters as last year, Chris Jericho would have missed the cut by 6 votes. The Assassins and Hans Schmidt got enough votes this year to get in comfortably last year. Not really sure what this all means, but it's worth noting.

I love how Percy Pringle is predictably trying to kayfabe a taped wrestling show in 2010!

From the sounds of things Dave is working on several bios - some of which will appear at a later date, so expect quite a few people to be inducted this year.

Update from Dave Meltzer from the f4wonline.com message board: Josh Gross has a contradictory story though:

I imagine the CSAC didn't have the balls to stop the fight.

According to Dave Meltzer, Sonnen failed for "an unusually high level of testosterone". Meanwhile, Josh Gross has reported that Sonnen told CSAC executive director George Dodd before the fight that he had used an illegal PED.

What, no chance it could be Taka Michinoku? Given that the big villains in his first book were guys like Mil Mascaras and Vampiro, artDDP may be onto something there.

I think we should keep coming up with new names, so that Scherer has more domains to buy.

I'm sure Jericho will be shrewd enough to be very careful about what he says about Vince, Hunter, Stephanie, et al. That doesn't mean they still won't be pissed off by what he has to say.

Linda McMahon responds to Barack Obama Richard Blumenthal's first effective TV attack ad on Linda McMahon - Profits Before People

And Tenryu's awesome, of course.

Oh, I forgot to add that not even DVDVR has a jailbit thread anymore.

I think Oliver was upset at my editorialising after I had quoted him accurately and that's what he meant when I said he took his comments out of context: So yeah I understand why Oliver was upset, because I took a shot at him. But in my opinion it was warranted. There's an obvious conflict of interest when someone is employed by UFC and then starts spreading rumours online about WWE utilising shady business practices in his other hat as a "private" message board poster. Just for the record, I don't get paid for my contributions at Cageside Seats, it's just a hobby. So, if this was aimed towards me: then nothing could be further from the truth.

Hmm, someone should send that link to Matt Hardy.

I'm not sure if it's Bryan or Dave to blame, but do neither of them get the irony of posting a letter castigating WCW for the Cactus Jack amnesia skits and replacing all mentions of WCW with TNA and Cactus Jack's amnesia with Samoa Joe's kidnapping, and how WCW is better off dead than keep the same people in charge. I mean the clueless idiot in charge of WCW then was the person responsible for turning the company around, though he had a large hand in subsequently tanking it too. Bit of a ham fisted comparison, as it only makes sense if you ignore that 1994-1998 ever happened, where WCW was largely profitable.

Part of it is Bruiser Brody having the foresight to champion himself to Dave Meltzer at the time.

Speaking of Angle, there's something that really bugs me about the lack of introspection about cheering on guys to have that regular ****+, matches while they're obviously messed up on pain pills and somas. Dave and Bryan both bag on chairshots to the head, but they were never fans of the hardcore style. They rarely stop and think whether their style of choice is too risky, unless someone does something outrageously dumb.

Wade had a come to Jesus moment? When was that?

Even as a British wrestling fan, I think you're being far too harsh on Dave, given that he only said a couple of sentences about every candidate and what he said is what everyone brings up when discussing why they wouldn't vote for him. On a completely different note, from Dave's Wednesday news update: I do like how Dave missed mentioning Cerrone's use of the homophobic slur fag.