My friend Pat helped to jog my memory a bit: Allan Funk is he of the awful hair-do, Kwee Wee from WCW

Well, add Essa Rios and Evan Karagias to the cost-cutting pink slip list.

Evan, like Lash, I don't feel bad about. He lacked charisma and, more importantly, talent.

Essa Rios though... here's a man who was Light Heavyweight champion, at one time thought of as even more impressive than Rey Mysterio Jr. - at least until after he won the title. Then, he was buried like he never existed.

This is also yet again a case of the WWF eliminating smaller talents from their roster. After all, we'd much rather boo wastes like Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo than cheer exciting wrestlers like Yang...

Well, pink slip mania has begun at WWFE the news from wrestling-online newsletter:

- WWF official Johnny Ace is in Cincinnati, OH., today speaking to the talents at the WWF farm system at HWA. However, his appearance is not about good news, but bad news for most of the guys. Today serves as a 'cleaning house' day, with Ace giving the pink slips to many up and coming superstars. Bob Ryder of 1wrestling.com reported that former WCW stars Jimmy Yang, Kid Romeo, Lash Laroux, Allan Funk, Elix Skipper and Reno were already told that they will be cut from the roster. The list is much bigger than that but not all names are yet known.

Hmm... Laroux I won't shed a tear over; I always said I was annoyed by him. Allen Funk I never knew anything about. Yang, Romeo, Elix and Reno though... these are talented wrestlers, guys with a lot of potential who weren't given a chance. Plus, they're mostly cruiserweights.

I guess McMahon is going back to his practice of giving only big men a shot. Not that it's ever worked, but he obviously never learns.

tsn.ca: Wrestling (WCW, WWF, ECW, and Independants). Sad news of another loss in our sport's fabric.

I saw Ed on TV near the tail end of his career as a wrestling announcer... as the host of a show on TSN called Wrestling Plus. The show was an often innacurate mix-up of action from the independants (they even showed matches for a young wrestler named Wayne Ferris - who'd been known as the Honky Tonk Man for many years by then), and Ed seemed a bit too prim and proper... but years later I read about his involvement in Stampede, and his significance to Canada, as Gordon Solie was to Georgia and US Wrestling.

Goodbye Ed. Rest in peace.

It has been a week since I posted some thoughts here. Sorry. Smackdown! and Heat just thoroughly underwhelmed me, and it killed my enthusiasm.

Vince latest idea is that repeating the plot of the past, Austin vs. McMahon, will bring the viewers back. To be fair, it hasn't come to that yet, but we are instead getting this dumb "Kiss My @ss" club bit.

It just struck me today too: with Austin now face again, Triple H will have to be a heel. Plans to make him a face are gone... as soon as he attacks Austin, he'll be boo'd into the next century.