He never held an official WWF/E title.  He was a WCW tag champion with Chuck Palumbo before AOL/Time Warner sold the company to the McMahon family in 2001.  He and Palumbo dropped the titles in the WWF/E to the Undertaker and Kane on an episode of Smackdown if memory serves me.  It will be a lot easier for me to remember exact days of non-pay-per-view television as those shows appear on WWE Network.  If memory serves me correctly if I remember what I was covering at the time it was right in the middle of the invasion angle that the company was running and shortly after the invasion pay-per-view in July 2001, where O’Haire and Palumbo dropped the titles to Undertaker and Kane, meanwhile whomever the WWF/E tag champions were at the time dropped those titles to Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon and that set up the steel cage unification match at Summerslam the next month. 

Shortly after O’Haire and Palumbo dropped the WCW titles to Undertaker and Kane O’Haire was sent down to Ohio Valley Wrestling, (OVW) which was WWE’s top developmental territory back then for more seasoning.  About a year and a half later he resurfaced with a new character and was paired with Piper, but as I said he never really got the chance to show what he could do.  He got injured and was waiting to start up again, but was released.  In essence he had the rug yanked out from under him.  Unfortunately, a lot of talents have had similar experiences.  It unfortunately happens when there is only one company.  I said this when I was still covering the business fulltime, but I have always felt that WWE blew a big opportunity by failing to run two completely separate promotions simultaneously and thus perhaps there would have been more spots available for workers. 

I know they tried to turn their weekly TV shows into “Brands”, but I was never really in favor of that and it never really got over the way the company thought it would.  Ironically after that failed they tried to re-launch ECW, another failure simply because they tried to incorporate it with the WWE product, now had they run it as a separate entity it would probably be successful.  Do I think it would be the type of product that ECW produced when it was a separate company?  Probably not, but at least they would have had a chance to be successful if they were run from a business perspective as a corporate division of WWE, thus theoretically allowing the company over all to have another potential revenue stream by running things separately and not incorporating with each other.  I see it as two missed opportunities and that could be pointed to as a reason, but not the main reason why the business overall is in the shape it’s in.  Just one man’s opinion.  

I cover Boxing primarily, but there was a time when I covered both Boxing and pro wrestling simultaneously and have covered MMA as well in my career. Combat sports is my area of expertise.  I haven’t covered the business since 2003, but I am still a fan (lifelong fan) and follow the business closely. 

One of the reasons I got out of covering the business when I did was I pretty saw the whole industry going downhill post-WCW being sold.  When there is only one company in the industry that gets the majority of publicity, there is only so much you can cover.  Promotions in Japan could attempt to compete if they wanted, but unless you’re really knowledgeable about how the business is presented in Japan it probably wouldn’t translate well over here. 

The business is presented in a completely different manner than it is in the states. Matches are more technically based, there’s less theatrics and not many storylines.  I enjoy what companies like New Japan, All Japan and Wrestle-1 have to offer, but because American audiences haven’t been exposed to Japanese wrestling presented by a Japanese promotion, it probably wouldn’t fit.

To give you an example when WWE was running a program between Triple H and Brock Lesnar about two years ago, they had a match at Summerslam that was in essence a Japanese style match. It was a solid match, but if you look at how the crowd reacted to it, it didn’t get over well because it was something that most fans here aren’t used to seeing.  A pay-per-view (Now WWE Network special) isn’t necessarily the best place to test out something like that on an audience, but I understand why they did it.  The business has to constantly freshen things up, if you give people the same product and the same presentation, eventually it will go stale and will ultimately have an effect on a company’s bottom line.  


I apologize for trending off topic a bit, but as I said combat sports is my area of expertise.  I tend to be thorough when discussing combat sports or subjects of which I am knowledgeable.

O’Haire was already released around 2004 after he suffered an injury.  He is a perfect example of how those charged with the creative aspects of the business can ultimately damage a career when they develop characters for workers to portray, but don’t allow that character the adequate time to develop.  His pairing with Roddy Piper had a lot of potential as a teacher/student type of angle where Piper was cast in the role of mentor to O’Haire, but it never materialized the way it was drawn up.  This was due to Piper getting let go by the company due to his interview with HBO, in which some unflattering things were said about the business. 

The problem is by that going on the way that it did, it pretty much left O’Haire on the outside looking in. It’s a problem within the industry where guys are let go because a promotion’s creative department doesn’t have anything for them and not based on a talent’s lack of effort, reputation and so on.  It’s also why you see so many talents relegated to the independent circuit because there are only so many spots available to guys at any time.  Although a lot of people like to place blame on Vince McMahon for the decline of the business outside of WWE, the reality is it isn’t his fault.  There are hundreds of independent promotions throughout the United States and many groups that run on a regular basis internationally.  No company has made a legitimate attempt to compete with the one company that is still standing.  Ultimately, it leaves the talents with few options to ply their trade and make a comfortable living. 

One thing that I have noticed since my last post in relation to O’Haire while browsing is several mainstream outlets have linked him to WWE as either a recent talent or a current talent who was under contract.  It really bothers me, even though I haven’t covered the business in almost twelve years that those in mainstream media don’t follow facts.  O’Haire wasn’t with the company very long and hadn’t been involved with the business, much less with the company in over a decade.  It bothers me because it leaves the potential for unwarranted bad publicity for the company.  It’s tragic any way one chooses to look at it, as a writer though I wish those who are in mainstream media would practice more ethics when it comes to things like this.  Just one man’s opinion.  

As someone who used to cover the business, it is sad whenever someone passes, but in regard to the pro wrestling industry it’s sadly common.  I do not know what led to O’Haire’s passing, but I will say that he was a talent that didn’t really get a chance to show what he could do.  He had a good run as a tag champion in WCW before they sold to Vince McMahon, but beyond getting one decently built pay-per-view match and his brief pairing with Roddy Piper, he didn’t really get much of a chance.

After he retired from the business he did try to go into MMA and Kickboxing, but from what I have heard he didn’t do too well on the K-1 circuit.  It’s a shame because if he were given the time and the backing of those who are charged with the creative aspects of the business he could have had a shot at being something beyond a worker on the lower mid-card level.  Just one man’s opinion. 

My condolences go out to his family.  

Depression is something that everyone goes through at one time or another even if it is for brief periods of time.  I can understand where you’re coming from.  When I was younger I went through a period of time that was very difficult to go through and very hard to cope with.  One thing that I found that helped me get through hard times was my writing.  I became a writer at an early age and I never thought that it would be something that I would want to do as a career.  Now I can’t imagine doing anything else.  I won’t lie to you, writing does have it’s share of challenges and stresses, but it is also very rewarding and it can be therapeutic.

Finding a way to be creative like writing, music, film making, or even participating in sports might interest you and can give you an outlet. I do think though that talking to a counselor and/or finding a support group would probably be helpful. 

I guess it would depend on the situation. Sometimes people have a bad day doing whatever it is that they do, but then are able to have a better one the next day. There are times though when rough stretches or funks as you call them can go on for longer periods of time. It can be difficult sometimes to figure out what is causing the problem or problems you might have.

In my own experience almost any time I have a rough stretch where things aren’t going well or when I deal with a bout of writer’s block, the source of it is almost always attributed to some form of stress that I might be going through. I will be honest when I say that coping with stress is something that can be easier said than done for some people, but again I think it would have to depend on the situation. One thing I try to do to de-stress is I try to give myself a diversion somehow to take my mind off of things. 

I like watching movies and listening to music. One thing that I have recently done is on my streaming player, I purchased a screensaver that has several fireplaces that play on a continuous loop. I don’t know what it is, but listening to a crackling fireplace is relaxing, even if you don’t have an actual fireplace. 

I would like to, but like I said I spend most of my time writing.  Most of the time my self-imposed schedule is week to week.  I spend time either preparing to cover a card, or covering a card.  Basically I’ll get done with a card and then I’ll go into preparing for whatever is going on the next week and so on.  On most weeks I try to cover two to three cards if possible.

It can be exhausting at times. Covering Boxing there is no season, so I basically go from shortly after the new year right on through Christmas.  I may get a few weeks during the year when there isn’t much going on due to cancellations or postponements, but there isn’t too many “light” weeks as I call them during the year. A few years ago there was a stretch of almost six weeks where cards that were scheduled got pushed back due to postponements, etc.  It was the last time with the exception of Christmas that I let myself take a break for most of that time. 

I would love to get together with friends of mine semi-regularly if possible.  Part of the problem is when my friends are free, I’m busy and when I have some downtime and aren’t trying to recoup, they are busy.  There are a few friends of mine who have gotten on my case about my work ethic and not giving myself time.  Most of them aren’t writers and don’t understand what a writer has to do in order to not only write solid material, but the time it takes.

When friends get on me about it I try to not let it bother me in that I try not to feel insulted, etc.  I do put myself through more than most probably do admittedly, but it’s all part of paying your dues.  I have always thought of it as if you want to succeed at anything, you need to commit yourself 100%. 

Hopefully I will be able to lighten my schedule a little in time.  For now I try to do as much as possible.  I would imagine teachers have a similar struggle.  Even though my experience with schools wasn’t always pleasant, I do respect what teachers have to go through because it can’t be an easy vocation between the hours in the schools, preparing lessons, and whatever goes on in their lives. I would imagine whenever teachers get a chance to have some downtime, they probably look to get as much rest as they can.  It has to be exhausting. 

For me it’s relatively boring.  I spend most of my time writing material and when I’m not writing, covering something, or checking my social pages, I try to spend a lot of my downtime resting.  As for what I do during downtime, I like watching my streaming services and such.  It’s relatively boring.  If I could afford to and had the time I wouldn’t mind going to games, depending on the sport and I also wouldn’t mind traveling occasionally.  

Most of the material I write averages between 1500-2000 words.  Like I said before there is nothing more frustrating when mistakes like that happen.  It’s an unavoidable thing though because it can happen at any time. It really isn’t dependent on the person who is writing.  Sometimes it’s a simple human error, other times it’s power outages.  If you use a reliable word processing program though you can recover a good portion of your writing if you make a mistake either by hitting undo or in the case of power outages, some processing programs can auto-recover your material. 

In my opinion, the technology is much better now as compared to when I first started writing.  I remember times years ago when I had an article nearly finished and would be well within the 1500-2000 word range and would have to rewrite from scratch due to either a mistake on my part or a power outage.  It’s not an enjoyable experience when you have to do that. 

It wasn’t me who told you that eight hours of writing a day would be good.  Daily writing is good, but the conundrum is trying to find a healthy balance of making sure you get enough writing in, but not overdo it at the same time.  I have had this problem frequently over the years. 

One thing I have tried to do in the last few years is give myself a few days of downtime per week if I can depending on how busy a given week is.  Dealing with bad hands is a main reason I try to give myself a bit of rest even though I try as much as I can to give my hands a break while writing material. 

One thing I will say is it is good to do daily writing even if you’re not working on anything in particular. Writing things like emails or posting in forums is a form of writing so it can be helpful. I would just be cautious that you don’t overdo it.  I also know a thing or two when it comes to having to meet deadlines so if you have any questions on how to deal with deadlines where it isn’t stressful, feel free to ask. 

Best of luck to you.  

Not so much on Vizzed, but as a writer common mistakes like that have happened to me from time to time.  What’s particularly frustrating is when you write a long piece and the process of writing seems to be flowing like water and all of a sudden one little mistake wipes everything out, it also happens with power outages.  There is nothing more frustrating than that, especially if you have to meet a deadline.  

I don’t think it would be a problem. I dropped out of school and reconnected with a teacher who I had both in elementary and high school many years later via social media. I will be honest I wasn’t expecting to hear from a teacher from my past as I was well into my late 20’s at the time, but was surprised when my teacher reached out to me after so long. Although I wasn’t expecting it, it was nice to hear from my teacher after several years. 

Even though I don’t think it would be a problem I would double check to see if there are any rules that the school might have seeing as you’re still a student.

Best of luck to you. 

First, congratulations on your new job. Although my experiences with schools and school systems were not always positive, I do have a respect for what teachers have to go through. In some ways I would assume that it is a lot like what a writer has to go through in that there is a lot of planning that takes place prior to and the hours can be extremely grueling.

Admittedly, the schedule that I put myself through as a writer is one that is self-imposed, but there is a lot that goes into writing beyond the actual writing of material. Things such as research alone can be very time-consuming and when it comes to the actual writing that also has its own set of challenges. An advantage of being a writer is that some writers don’t work what most would consider a shift, but depending on the subject matter of material, you can put in a lot of hours.

As for me, most of my time is spent either preparing to cover something, covering something, or looking to rest in between. It is a week to week thing for me that goes year-round. In that aspect, I have the utmost respect for teachers go through because I would imagine that most teachers don’t get much of a break either, even if schools are out for summer vacation and things like that.

Best of luck in your new job.

I have been an avid Sony gamer for twenty years going back to the original console.  Unfortunately, for all the good PS3 can do, it’s had it’s share of drawbacks.  My problems, which led to me buying new consoles were getting a disc read error on my original console. I got the yellow light of death on another, I ended up having to take my console to a repair place just to be able to get the game out and have access to the hard drive.  Once I bought a new console I transferred my data to the new console.  Everything was fine for about two years with the new one and then almost two years ago, a botched firmware update, which crashed thousands of hard drives caused my hard drive to crash.  Coincidentally, this happened the same week that Sony released the super-slim version of the console. 

I am naturally conspiracy minded, I think given how the economy was at the time, that the botched firmware update was done on purpose to deliberately crash hard drives as a way for the company to introduce the new super-slim line for PS3 with supposed improvements in an attempt to boost holiday sales.  As a result I haven’t played my PS3 in a couple of years and have taken my time thinking about whether to invest in the super-slim, which supposedly doesn’t have those issues or invest in a PS4.  My only issue is PS4 is not backward compatible and even though they are going to launch a cloud based service called Playstation Now, which would supposedly allow access to all generations of playstation games without discs, I’m leery of it.

I have been a gamer all my life, although the technology is leaps and bounds better in regard to what is available today, better technology doesn’t always equal better reliability and durability of the console.  I still have all my consoles from when I was growing up, pre-playstation era packed away, all of them worked the last time I used them. Those consoles are well over 20 years old. Hopefully Sony got it’s act together with PS4.

As I have said on this forum before, for the amount of money these companies charge for the consoles nowadays, they have a responsibility to the consumer to ensure the consoles work properly and will last.   As far as MMA gaming, much like Fight Night round 4, most of the early MMA games, the first UFC undisputed and EA MMA were all analog based, which makes it extremely difficult to perfect.  I don’t know if the newer MMA games have a combination of button and analog control, but in regard to EA MMA before they retired online mode, in favor of the new EA UFC, my strategy was typically to counter takedowns and do as best as I could to beat them with striking.

 One technique I liked using was to counter takedown attempts either by side stepping my opponent and counter with a takedown of my own where I could gain a dominant position where they couldn’t counter with submission attempts or  I would wear down the legs of my opponent with leg kicks. Much like a real fight, if you tactically work on something, eventually the accumulation will take an effect.  I found tactically mixing my attack instead of looking either for a quick one strike knockout or quick submissions catches most online players off guard  and can actually make your own submission attempts easier because their resistance won’t be as great.  I used to love it when I would beat a spammer either on the Fight Night games or an MMA game when, no matter what they tried, it didn’t work.  I would write them a message after the fights and would say Good game, Spammers justice. Most of them would respond with foul language and I would end up reporting them.  I hope that is another thing Sony is able to curtail now. 

Mine would have to be one time when I was playing a game of fight night on my PS3, I was fighting one of the world champions in online mode and despite the fact that the person had the win/loss record of a spammer, I was beating that person pretty convincingly. I had scored a couple of knockdowns and think pretty much that I won every round, until my console went down with the infamous yellow light of death.

I have had to buy three different PS3 consoles for varying reasons, and those experiences have made me very leery of investing in a PS4 for fear that the new platform would have similar problems. I do regret not being able to finish that fight because it is always good to beat someone who doesn’t like to play by the rules, using nothing, but skill and not sinking down to their level. My record against spammers wasn’t great for the obvious reason that they generally did not want to compete. Hopefully with the new platform Sony can police those practices a little better. When games/fights were legitimate, I had a decent record, but I never was able to win one of those online belts in fight night. I was however, able to win several on MMA games though.