Whatever happened to that phrase? There was a time in a good stretch of maybe 6 months where there was a firing campaign going, i.e. Orlando Jordan, Road Warrior Animal, Goldust, Johnny Parisi (who?), Kid Kash, Justin Credible, Francine, etc. The WWE rather ironically gave them the one-finger salute and told them all to f*ck-off.

Nowadays, the superstars are taking it into their own hands to leave when they're ready. And the kicker is that it's not the ones who are expendable. Some, if not most of them are anchors of the company itself.

Lita and Trish Stratus both made a claim that the women's division (as prestigious as it is) wouldn't have been the same without them. The truth is that they're both correct. There were runs within the women's title picture that consisted of nothing but Trish and Lita. Even at times when the Women's Title was nothing more than a keepsake, and that was a not-short period of time, the title was on either one of their waists. Their combined departure has forced WWE to bring back a defunct former Women's champion turned faux-lesbian in Victoria into the Title picture and will probably have them looking for more females ala Mickie James who can carry a decent bout. Maybe even the diva search of 2007 won't have the phrase: 'No aspirations to wrestle needed.' Nah, I didn't think so either. Maybe the women's division will finally be just about the T & A (tits & ass) and not T & A (talent and aspiration).

Talk about an anchor of the company, you're talking about Kurt Angle, himself. True, Kurt had his problems with pain medications. True, Kurt worked himself almost to death. But True, Kurt was always dependable. When they needed an American icon after September 11th, they turned to Kurt. When they needed somebody to anchor Smackdown, they turned to Kurt. Whenever they needed a viable face or heel turn, they subsequently turned to Kurt. I'm not gonna include the ECW thing because it didn't work out as well as planned, but still, they turned to Kurt. Kurt Angle was for a while in WWE the most hardest working and skillful competitor they had. He worked to bring in more amateur wrestlers like Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, each of whom has the chance to anchor WWE in the near future. But after some misunderstandings, Kurt Angle asked for his release and left WWE programming. Now, he's a stud in TNA. A solid anchor, who's seen how much better the grass is on the other side and is working to get some of his friends to follow his lead. Because that's what Angle does. He leads. How WWE could ever allow Angle to simply walk away confounds me.

Just lately, another long-time anchor of not just WWE, but the wrestling world as a whole has decided to retire. The Nature Boy is no more. The good thing is that Ric Flair, even in his old age, wrestled some memorable matches (i.e. VS Undertaker @ WM) and was took part in leading some understudies to greatness in Randy Orton and Batista. Perhaps this move isn't so damaging to WWE as it is rewading to Ric Flair. I doubt they'll be a disagreeing vote or a dry eye when Ric gets elected to the Hall of Fame. He may be the one wrestler who truly deserves it above all others. I, personally, wish Flair the best in all future endeavors.

This may be cutting mood a bit, but now The Big Show has decided to call it quits. This may be just for now or it may be for good, only time can tell. But as far as this decision goes, it hurts the WWE. I don't think it hurts due to Show leaving, I just think it hurts due to the lack of planning for something like this. We all know how Vince loves his 'Big Men.' He relied on the Big Show to do such much and carry on so much weight (no pun intended) until it just got to him. Now they're left with not a lot of big men to fall back on. The choices range from Sylvester Terkay, who just isn't there yet, to The Great Khali, who possibly never will be. ECW was the Big Show's playground and I think there is where it hurts most. Big Show at the time wasn't the original plan in ECW, but he was a reliable fallback option and to an extent, it worked in ECW's and Big Show's favor. But now he's gone and wouldn't you know it , the domino effect has Paul Heyman leaving too. I can't just imagine ECW under the complete control of Micheal Hayes or Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and trust me, it's not a pretty sight.

To sum this all up, as I was explaining this situation to a non-smark, he replied, "Man, seems like don't nobody wanna work for WWE no more." This must be true. I couldn't have said it better myself. Oh well, I wish WWE the best in all future endeavors. Be it as it may.


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