Written by Michael "Captain" Gelfand
April 24, 1997

Been away all weekend for Passover. My favorite holiday of the year!! Friends, family, home-cooked meals, the whole bit. Nothing like a little matzoh and haroseth and horseradish to cheer you up. Anyway, on to wrestling matters. WCW really screwed up this week with the whole Flair fiasco. Confirm that the guy's gonna be their before you announce he's gonna be on!

Anyway, I wanna talk about loyalty. People are always saying how Vinnie Mac screwed Bret Hart and how it was so terrible because Bret had been so loyal to the company. Now Bret is in WCW with Saint Bischoff who never screws any of his talent. Yeah, right. Let's explore WCW's stance on loyalty. To start off, we have the afforementioned Ric Flair. In my opinion, and many others seem to agree with me, WCW is the house that Ric built. How does Bischoff reward him? By having him job to Hennig like 18 times and then pull him off TV when "there is no angle for him". Right. A promotion with 100 wrestlers and supposedly the biggest talent pool in history and they can't find an opponent for Ric Flair. The fact is, Ric Flair and Hogan don't get along, and Hogan doesn't want a more talented entertainer stealing his thunder. Just ask Kevin Nash about that.

Next, we have Syxx. Here is a wrestler that WCW legitimately made into a star. He was a good worker for them, and up until the end, his merchandise outsold everything, but Sting's. And Bischoff simply fires him. Because he did something wrong? Because he was hurting the company? No. Because Eric Bischoff was on a power trip and wanted to show the Outsiders who was boss. He wasn't willing to deal with Syxx's injury, which reminds me of the situation with Steve Austin. Bischoff fired Austin OVER THE PHONE because of Austin's injuries. Now, I hear rumblings that Rick Martel is on the way out. These guys injured themselves working their butts off for the company and WCW shows how much compassion they have by firing them. It's not like the money is such a drain that Turner can't afford it. Come on!!

Let's compare this to the WWF's situation. Brian Pillman was injured for a year. Shawn Michaels was injured for six months. Mark Henry was out for a year. Rocky Maivia was out for six months. HBK is even now taking more time off to convalesce. Did the WWF give up on these guys? Hell no! And let's not forget about the whole situation with Austin after Summerslam. The fact of the matter is, the WWF treats it's injured talent better than WCW treats theirs. I am starting to think that the only reason Arn Anderson wasn't cut loose is because it would have been a public relations nightmare. So tell me, now? Who really rewards loyalty?

Folks, also, always remember this. At least Vince McMahon took the punch. Eric Bischoff fired Austin over the phone, he fired Syxx via fed ex. He didn't have the balls to face up to the consequences of his actions. Vince McMahon walked into Bret Hart's locker room and confronted him. And the bottom line is, the firing of Bret Hart has worked out for the WWF whether Hitman fans want to admit it or not. Despite being at the top of WWF's payroll, Bret Hart was not the WWF's top draw. For some reason, Bret's appearances on Raw made fans (myself not included) switch over to Nitro. Fans wanted to see Shawn Michaels, not Bret Hart. It's no coincedence that ratings skyrocketed after the Hitman's departure. Now that WCW has him, they are struggling to stay ahead of WWF. The Hitman is not worth 2.5 million a year from a business standpoint. Thus, even though I highly condemn Vince McMahon's actions and decisions, I do see where he's coming from.

On top of that, Bret Hart refused to do the job. This whole Canadian hero thing, as I've said before, is a bunch of crap. Bret complained when Hogan refused to "pass the torch" to him in 1993, yet now Bret is doing the same thing to Shawn Michaels. Bret Hart may be the best worker in the biz, but he's a hypocrite, and that's undeniable.

Rumors of the Pitbulls and Abdullah the Butcher tomorrow on Raw. I hope so. I really want Raw to win this week, if for no other reason than to see how Bischoff is gonna rationalize it.