Well, hello. Welcome once more, whether you like it or not to The Live Wire - the column that has become a shadow of whatever it once was. And hey, it wasn't that much to begin with!

With that sobering thought still rattling round your collective brains, allow me to take this opportunity to shill a few things shamelessly... first, if you're a music fan of any kind, doesn't matter what sort, then it's a no-brainer - The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a must have, especially the 3 disc edition. Throw it on, kick back, and dwell in the greatness of The Boss. Also, while you do that, check out the redesigned http://www.WrestleHolic.com - New content will be added this week, but just soak up the new look in the meantime...

Those bare faced plugs aside, I feel the need to write a column. Yeah, I know you don't want me to, but I'm gonna anyway. I need to. I have to. It's in my contract. And, you lucky, lucky people - I think it's gonna be... a RANDOM THOUGHTS column!!! Yeah!!!

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I miss DDP... and that's not a good thing, that's a BAD thing.

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So NWA-TNA really think that bringing Lex Luger in, even for one night, is a good idea. I have to ask myself, do they REALLY know what they're doing? No matter what role he played in Miss Elizabeth's death, and nobody will ever really know, the fact is this : one of the most beloved figures in wrestling died - fingers were pointed at Luger.

Wrestling is as bad as any other form of entertainment in the public eye - throw enough mud, and it WILL stick. Giving Luger a platform to appear on live TV isn't the smartest move ever made - Elizabeth had so many fans, I don't think that NWA-TNA can guarantee that there won't be any derogatory chants aimed at Luger - with live TV, there's no way of editing them out.

Purely from a wrestling standpoint, I don't think Luger is a) a good enough worker or b) a big enough name to live on past reputation alone... it's a huge gamble on NWA's part, and possibly the final curtain for Lex himself. He'd better hope the fans are as forgiving and understanding as the NWA-TNA management are.

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On a brighter note (at last) Thank the stars that Paul Heyman is back on TV... if only to hear Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrock Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesnar's name pronounced the way it was always meant to be heard! I've missed Heyman's on-screen presence, and hopefully, that'll extend to allowing him a say in the booking process again.

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Why does the Undertaker inspire such strong feelings? There's no middle ground with him - you either love the guy or hate the guy. Me? I'm the exception to prove the rule. Can you imagine a WWE without the Dead Man? I can't. I'm not too sure he deserves this resurgence he's going through right now, but nobody can deny he hasn't earned his spot over the years.

What he needs to do now is take a long hard look at himself... he's getting near retirement age, there is no getting away from it - how does he want to be remembered? One look at Hogan and his standing should be all the answer he needs. 'Taker is above all the backstage manoeuvring and shenanigans that he's been attributed with, or should be at least.

He's probably the most secure guy on the roster that's not named (or married to) McMahon, so he has no need to be pulling all these (alleged) backstage hissy fits... let's hope that things click into place, and 'Taker can mark his place in wrestling history for a good reason, not a political one.

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Who would have thought that Batista could hang with Austin on the mic? That promo he cut upon his big return, and the follow up confrontations have been stunningly good. Does Batista have a big future? Well, he certainly has the look that Vince loves to give push after push, and now that we've discovered he can talk, he could be the WWE version of Goldberg in the making.

Evolution is rapidly developing into a very credible stable, IMO. Ric Flair has finally found his niche in the WWE as the crazy old guy of the group, Batista looks to be on the fast track to the big time, and Randy Orton just has future World Heavyweight Champion written all over him... and that Triple H fella looks like he might just be useful too...

Hopefully, the writers will resist the obvious temptation to create a face stable to duke it out with what is basically a WWE 2003 version of The Four Horsemen... for some reason, I've never really believed that a face stable works as well as a heel group, and I don't see anyone on the WWE Raw roster now that could carry it off.

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For the record, I still prefer Smackdown - just for the peeps that always ask me. Smackdown has Angle, Benoit, Cena, Eddie G and Paul Heyman - that five alone makes me want to watch. Although, with Raw seemingly about to get some Mattitude, the balance could be shifting...

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It's been a rough few weeks for the world of wrestling... in the past month or so, the grappling game has lost a few members of it's fraternity... Stu Hart, Anthony 'Pitbull' Durante, Mike 'Hawk' Hegstrand, and this week, Michael 'Crash Holly' Lockwood. It's hard to know what to write in situations like this. I generally prefer to not dwell on a death, and allow them to live on in my mind.

In my mind, Hawk is still walking down a ramp somewhere with the spikes on... in my mind, Stu is stretching a young wannabe in a dungeon in Calgary... in my mind, The Pitbull is still raising hell in ECW... in my mind, Crash is still carrying those scales to ringside and claiming to be 400lbs... Wherever they are now, they won't be forgotten, and that's the important thing

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On that sobering note... until the end of the week, and Survivor Series picks, have fun, go mad.

Tony Cottam

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