Austin goes bye bye, and thoughts on the PPV.

So I get home tonight and go to ITVR to find the following statement in the Wrestling section.

WWE and Steve Austin part ways

After months of negotiations, the WWE and Steve Austin have been unable to come to terms on a new contract and as a result have mutually agreed to part company. Both parties have left the door open to work together again in the future and the WWE wishes Steve the very best in his future endeavors.

The article from WWE.com can be found here, and thanks to Jaygo for posting this on the board. Read his blog, damnit.

Austin and the WWE, according to the intramanet dirt sheets, were far away on a contract. The chief issue was rumored to be the rights to the "Stone Cold" character and the use of the name in non-WWE projects. Austin's recent domestic issues also appear to have been a factor. Things being what they are, I don't see this as a major loss. They'll lose some casual fans, but maybe this gives someone a shot at a couple of minutes of TV time they might not otherwise have gotten. It's not like he was going to wrestle on a regular basis. Yun from ITVR sums it up best:

Hell, I didn't like Austin even when he could wrestle. Actually I remember the exact moment when he went from mere dislike to blind "Get this dipshit off my TV, please" hatred. It was during Foley's reign as commissioner, when Austin attacked the (babyface) commissioner, and the fans got mad at FOLEY when he got a little peeved about it. And then after the first brand split when Austin kept stunnering Flair for no apparant reason and in the end Flair was the one who turned heel even though he was completely justified in his hatred of Austin.

In wrestling we're supposed to boo the agressors and show support for the innocent victims. Austin killed that in America, it's why some people make a distinction between "heels" and "rudos."

So in short, goodbye, good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

PPV predictions:

Main Event - HHH/Benoit/Michaels Redux: I see this going as Benoit retaining by pinning HBK, hopefully igniting a decent feud that can carry the main event until Summerslam. The last thing that Raw needs is another endless HHH title run.

Foley/Orton, No Holds Barred, Falls Count Anywhere, Evolution banned from ringside: Orton will win, keeping the belt, but will probably get beat pretty solidly for his trouble. But I also figure that Foley will take the worse abuse, because he's Foley.

Vickie/Lita, Women's Title: Vickie probably retains, maybe with help from Trish, depending on where this match ends up falling in the show.

Jericho/Christian & Trish: Hopefully Trish won't be much of a factor, and I'm pretty sure Jericho's gonna go over. I can't see them running this storyline through the summer.

Benjamin/Flair: Man, this should be good. Flair could carry me to a *** match, and I suspect that he and Benjamin will go all out. Benjamin should win, but Flair will give him a match to remember.

Edge/Kane: Who cares? Edge, in all his newfound Balco-ness, will win, but no one will care.

Coach/Tajiri: Tajiri wins a joke match, then hopefully decides to follow Ultimo back to Japan so that he can get booked in decent matches. If there's one wrestler on the WWE roster that would benefit from some version of ECW restarting, Tajiri is it.