Congratulations to welterweight Matt Serra and middleweight Travis Lutter on becoming the latest Ultimate Fighters.  They each won a boatload of prizes, the most precious of which is probably their title shots that will come in early 2007. 

And congratulations to Scott Smith for his ultimate knockout of Pete Sell.  It was a move that will likely guarantee him a place on UFC highlight reels for years to come.  If you still haven’t seen it, try to catch a replay of The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale.  You have to see it to believe it. 

***

Eric Bischoff’s book, Controversy Creates Cash, is a must-read for wrestling fans.  In it, he makes no secret that he loathes the internet wrestling community, and “dirtsheets” in particular.  Every time he used that word it was virtually dripping with venom.  Nonetheless, as a member of the internet wrestling community, I’d highly recommend it to ya’all as fellow members of the IWC.

In the book he talks about the successful formula he used in WCW – SARSA: story, anticipation, reality, surprise and action.  He also mentioned that he’d watch the crowd and listen to what they had to say.  That sentence jumped off the page at me.  He listened to what the crowd had to say.  What a concept. 

I’ve begun to wonder if anyone at WWE ever pays the slightest bit of attention to what the viewers have to say.  On the off chance anyone is listening—especially after the recent visit to Raw by Big Dick Johnson--let me say this:

NO MORE BARE ASSES BEING KISSED!!!

I don’t care if it’s Mister McMahon’s spa-polished ass or Big Dick’s disgusting green one.  NO MORE BARE BUTTS.

Is anyone (other than Mister McMahon) really entertained by all of this ass kissing? 

Well, apparently so.  WWE.com is about to unveil (pun intended) a new website cartoon called "Mr. McMahon's Ass."  *Heavy sigh*  

Back to Bischoff’s book. . .

Elsewhere in the book he mulls over what he would do if he were in charge of Raw or Smackdown.  Love him or hate him, Bischoff has a good grasp of the wrestling business.  Again, SARSA comes into play when he says, “One of the things I’ve noticed these days is that the bookers and writers often think they can force-feed conflicts to the audience without bothering to make them believable.  The story suffers as a result.”

As a former WWE employee might say, It’s true…it’s damn true.  The stories (if you can even call them that) and the characters and, ultimately, the matches have all been suffering.

It’s clear that WWE has thrived on competition.  Since they no longer perceive any real competition, it doesn’t seem to matter to them what kind of product they throw together every week.  And if they don’t care about their product, why should I, as a viewer, care?

But if WWE thinks they have no competition, they’d better turn around and look at UFC before it runs over them.  I’m sure I’m not alone in preferring UFC’s product these days to the piss-poor television and pay-per-view efforts of WWE. 

K-Fed…K-FedEx…K-Mart

What a difference a week makes.  Kevin Federline was riding high last week.  With the launch of a new CD and a guest-starring role on Raw, his future as an entertainer in his own right was looking pretty good.  That is if you ignore the caustic critiques, poor sales, and cancelled concert dates. 

But nothing can take an aspiring superstar down a peg or two like being text-messaged that your wife wants a divorce.  I almost felt sorry for him.  Almost. 

His 15 minutes of fame is dwindling, probably like his bank account now that his ATM has dried up.  K-Fed had better get used to shopping at K-Mart again.