By Shane McKinley, Torch specialist

"Don't be afraid to cry in what you see
The actor's gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn
They'll use up what we used to be"
-"Here Comes The Flood" by Peter Gabriel

On Smackdown they announced that it is going to be Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio in a No DQ match at Extreme Rules. Okay. I'll rather see a redux of their J-Day match, which was the highlight of the card. WWE is pushing how darn important Mysterio's mask is. Why? Because they have run out of ideas.

Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho are battling each other to see who can smoothly (snicker) get the crowd to chant whatever they spout off. "619! 619!"

Damn if "Extreme Rules" isn't turning out to be the exact same card as J-Day. What a feat.

What's also a feat? Miz is trying to get the "I'm the Miz and I'm awesome" catchphrase over. His really old one? "Hoo rah!"

***image1***TNA doesn't really do a good job of pushing their young talent. Hell, WWE even repackaged Ricky Ortiz. Gave some time to Paul Burchill. And I'm guessing Evan Bourne is still locked in a Tijuana prison after his wild spring break, considering how I haven't seen him on my television screen. Don't eat the worm!

Also on Smackdown, Ooohmaga spoke. It made us little Umaga fans happy that perhaps WWE will start pushing him as a credible guy, unlike the other guys in the "WWE monsters's group," namely The Great "Bah!' Khali and Vladmir 'I Vill Crush Vou" Kozlov. But more likely Umaga will go back speaking baby talk.

That reminds me, that baby Dolph Ziggler has a feud with Khali. Will it go anywhere? Not likely. But as a wrestler, sometimes you got to take what's given to you and make the most of every opportunity you have. Brian Kendrick's fans are somewhat glum that's he stuck doing four-minute jobs on Raw. But at least he has airtime.

Over the weekend, wrestling fans marked the 10 year anniversary of Owen Hart's tragic death. You hear both wrestlers and wrestling fans speak about Owen fondly ("I'm a two time slammy award winner! Whoo!")

Onto more serious matters, I want to talk about Owen Hart's death. I watched the Over The Edge PPV in 1999. I still remember to this day when a visibly distraught and shaken Jim Ross said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Owen Hart has died." The camera panning to the crowd. Ross informing us that this was not staged.

The question: Should the PPV have continued? Should WWE have stuck to the "the show must go on?" mantra? Looking back on it as a wrestling fan, no. The PPV should have been stopped. No storyline or feuds mattered when a wrestler's tragic death happened in front of everybody. But at that moment, I can understand why WWE felt "the show had to go on."

But looking back, it shouldn't.

If you were young, you probably didn't grasp the weight of the situation. Same can be applied to Eddie Guerrero's premature death and Chris Benoit's murder/suicide.

To this day people will still boo someone who does Eddie's "Three Amigos" suplex. Because that was Eddie's move.

Looking back on it, WWE shouldn't have exploited Eddie's death. But they did.

I still remember the last match Chris Benoit had before he committed his horrible actions against his family and himself. That ECW match where he wrestled Eijah Burke. He looked disheveled. Then later we found out the ghastly actions that happened. These things one cannot easily forget or try to comprehend. These wrestling tragedies.

Onto lighter things, I do wonder if Ric Flair is coming back. I believe he should never, ever wrestle on WWE programming. Not for "one night." Not for "one special occasion." No.

Originally I wanted Chris Jericho vs. Ric Flair at WrestleMania 25, but then I realized that it would tarnish the Ric Flair send-off, one of the greatest moments of wrestling. I copied that send-off to a disc because I wanted to capture what I felt that night. No one really believed that Ric Flair was retired from wrestling for good that night, but you felt it was one of the classiest things WWE has done.

Now, excuse me, I'm going to go play some UFC Undisputed. Ground and pound with Brock Lesnar! Wait, that sounds dirty.

(credit to flickr.com for pic)

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com

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