[Ol Dirty Dastard]

1. What were your thoughts at the time on HHH's return as a babyface?
The initial comeback was fan-fucking-tastic. The workout montages, the ovation for the actual return, even HHH coming back as a walking steroid was amazing.

But--then it turned into a WWE production. The breakup angle with Steph was horrendous. The Jericho storyline was embarrassing for both of them.

As time has gone on, it seems a lot of this is more Vince and Steph's fault than HHH. While the guy loved to put himself over, I think it's fair to think he would have preferred to have gone over in a compelling storyline. Yeah... he passed the heat onto Jericho for the (dog)shit main event, but if Hunter had it his way, the storyline would have been more about the belt than the custody of a canine.

2. What were you thoughts on the nWo coming in - what were your expectations, positive or negative?
I was only 15... and it went almost exactly as one would have imagined. Vince produced it as a WWE angle. From the way they came in with a whimper at No Way Out, to the wet fart that was their essential disbanding (due to Hogan babyfacing himself) at mania, it was pretty sad.

Yeah, the Rock beating was cool, until they crushed him with an 18-wheeler- then it was dumb. Plus, Rock back at the next show with a band aid was a nice "fuck you" to anyone who cared.

3. How did you feel about WrestleMania 18? (I hear Shisen may have seen this live, but have never been able to get him to confirm)

Interesting show. Match quality was mediocre. Flair vs Taker was fucking great (which was miraculous, because Taker stank to high heavens before Mania... and I'd say after Mania he really collected steam as a heel and was very entertaining-- I'm not saying he was perfect, but heel biker taker was way better than face biker taker).

Obviously Hulk vs Rock was something to behold. But let's get serious, that was a happy accident on the WWE's part (and Hulk being his savvy self).

4. What did you make of the brand extension when it was announced, and of the original Draft show in execution?

It could have been good. But you had "invasions" going on within the first few weeks so it was dumb. Smackdown was awesome and RAW was shit. So, that was interesting.

What I find interesting is for all the drivel being booked at the time, the product was actually pretty good in retrospect. Stacked roster, interesting storylines, and still residual energetic-ish crowds from the attitude era. At the time however, they had to wash the stink off from the bungled Invasion. Sadly, HHH fucked a pretend corpse and I have to say, it was pretty much downhill from there.