THANK GOD FOR TAPES WRITTEN: July 27, 2002

Last week, I quit recapping World Wrestling Entertainment. And since that time, a couple of people have e-mailed me or caught me on MSN to ask why. What could have been the driving force behind my leaving?

It's NOT a protest first and foremost. I am not trying to make some big flashy statement about the state of today's product by no longer paying attention. As the weeks, and months have rolled on I have become more, and more, and more, and more disenchanted.

I cursed them out when Stephanie McMahon booked the Wrestlemania main event around herself. That was the moment it was clear the WWF was the McMahon family hour and NOT about the wrestling. From marrying Triple H, to the Kurt Angle love triangle, to the InVasion, to Wrestlemania, and now, Stephanie has made herself the point of our attention. I've been fooled into thinking 4 times that her being around MIGHT bring some good. They're not going to fool me again.

For the past four and a half years, Vince McMahon has verbally jerked off all over our television screens. Stroke after stroke, Vince hasn't made himself look bad since the early days of the McMahon/Austin feud. Since then he's always been the powerful emperor who all have bowed down to. When will it end?

And while the net seems intent to make Shane out to be the "good" McMahon, I don't buy that for a second. Sure, he's gone out of his way to make Test, Steve Blackman, and other midcarders look good by bumping like a madman for them and jobbing in the end. But what was the point of his two wins over The Big Show? Was that supposed to get Show "over"? How about getting involved in a Street Fight with Kurt Angle when the main events were sickeningly weak to begin with? While he may be more willing to look bad once in awhile than some of his relatives - I groaned every single time another RAW main event rolled around with Shane against The Rock.

And it will never change. So I've given up. I'm one person. From what I hear, their programs are getting rave reviews the past couple of weeks. I couldn't care less. I went through all of 1998 and 1999 without watching more than a dozen shows because I didn't care for their brand of entertainment, and I can certainly do it again. I love good wrestling more than anything else, but I'm not about to sit through another Stephanie McMahon run at the top - whether her voice is tolerable or not - just to see the good.

I've always heard "if you don't like it - turn it off".

I think I will.