Talk about hopeful talk tidbits: first, the WWE spoke of being in talks with Ultimo Dragon to come in in 2003. He's been out of the ring for a few years because of botched arm surgery, but that's now been fixed.

He was arguably the most exciting cruiserweight in WCW, with his blend of puroresu technical style with lucha acrobatics. The dream of him now in a series of matches with Rey Mysterio Jr. gets my blood pumping.

Then, the possibility of resurrecting ECW as a third brand, with a late-night weekend show. JR spoke of it. Rhyno spoke of it (pointing out that he's still the ECW World Champion).

That it would still be under WWE could be disappointing, but just letting it shine for a small while again would still be great.

Three performers were released last week: Horace Hogan, Mike Awesome and Sean Stasiak.

Horace was only on a developmental contract. I'm not upset about this. From what I remember of him in WCW he madehis uncle the "Hulkster" seem multi-dimensional in the ring.

Awesome just wasn't really given a chance to shine in the federation. True, he was the first Alliance member to win a title (the Hardcore belt), but since then, even before his injury, they didn't give him a push.

Stasiak... he gained a measure of fame in his 'clumsy Sean' gimmick - but "Planet Stasiak"? That was even more lame then "Meat"! He is another potential Superstar wasted.

JR hoped Sean would go to Japan for some seasoning. I hope Awesome goes there too. Before ECW, he did great stuff there.