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Because the alleged names are already out there, with some hesitancy and regret, Pro Wrestling Views has decided to list the names that the New York Daily News is speculating are the 10 WWE superstars suspended for violating the company’s anti-drug policy.

We applaud WWE for acting quickly to take corrective action, however painful it might be. We also hope that these 10 superstars are not guilty of what has been alleged or, if they are, that they get the help they need to get healthy and get their lives in order. Lord knows, the last thing anyone wants is to see anymore WWE tragedies play out in real life… let’s keep the drama in the ring!

Here goes. According to the New York Daily News, the following WWE superstars have been suspended:

From RAW:
1) Randy Orton
2) Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy)
3) King Booker (Robert Huffman)
4) Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella)
5) Darren Matthews (William Regal)
6) Charlie Haas

From ECW:
7) ECW Champion John Hennigan (John Morrison)

From SMACKDOWN:
Adam Copeland (Edge)
9) Shane Helms (Gregory Helms)
10) Chavo Guerrero

From WWE Corporate:
11) Mike Bucci (Bucci is a talent development manager)

Clearly, the Raw roster will be the hardest hit. The suspensions, if this list is accurate, will play havoc with Raw storylines. Orton had been scheduled for an extended feud with WWE Champion John Cena. King Booker was to have been the main feud for Triple H, who is just returned from an extended injury absence.

Mr. Kennedy was at one point scheduled to be Mr. McMahon’s “bastard child,” a recent storyline launched less than a month ago, according to PWTorch.com. William Regal was just named RAW General Manager. Santino Marrella has been a popular newcomer in the middle of a heel turn, and Charlie Haas has been a solid contributor in Raw’s tag-team division.

While ECW was the cleanest, they are the only division to be losing a sitting champion, if the list of suspensions the New York Daily News is reporting is true: John Morrison, previously known as Johnny Nitro, has been a popular heel champ who was in the middle of a program with C.M. Punk.

The impact is minimal for Smackdown; Edge has been out on injury, as has Gregory Helms. Chavo Guerrero was set for an extended feud with Rey Mysterio, just returning from an injury absence; that program will now be cut short, although Tuesday’s Smackdown taping was in the can for Friday’s broadcast prior to the suspensions being handed down.

While the mess left by these suspensions will require minimal cleanup on ECW and Smackdown, Raw will look a shadow of its former self with six superstars suddenly missing.

Mike Bucci, a talent development guy for the company, could perhaps get the shortest shrift of all 11 named so far, since he doesn’t have an onscreen role or fan base.

Terms of the suspensions were not announced; it is unclear if the releases are permanent or temporary, with or without pay.

Let’s trudge through this, hope the last of the big names have been revealed, and that nothing like this recurs any time soon; it’s a lot more fun to report on the story lines than the headlines.

NOTE: WWE has announced that, effective November 1, any superstars who are released for violating the company’s health policy will have their identities publicly revealed. Let’s hope there are no occasions going forward that would prompt that new policy to be exercised. This whole mess just makes me want to pack up and go on a month-long getaway to Rio Las Vegas.

It’s never fun to report hard news on the WWE, because hard news is rarely ever good news. Yet when a story like this breaks, that could affect current storylines in such a major way, it’s unavoidable.

The New York Daily News and Sports Illustrated are reporting that as many as 14 WWE superstars have been listed as acquiring steriods and human growth hormone through an illicit drug network, Signature Pharmacy. The WWE is said to have quietly suspended as many as 10 WWE superstars for violating the company’s anti-drug policy, and on Fox News Channel’s On The Record with Greta Van Sustren, WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt confirmed 10 suspensions so far, with possible two more to come tomorrow.

While the WWE has said it will keep the names of this group of wrestlers private, their conspicuous absences going forward will soon make it clear who is and who is not suspended.

The New York Daily News and SI.com have separate lists that don’t completely agree, so it’s clear there’s some speculation going on at this point, but several huge names are on both lists. Looks like another PR nightmare for WWE; hopefully once this shakes out, the table can be cleared and the company can get back to putting on some great sports entertainment programs. No one I know enjoys hearing this kind of stuff.

Here’s a Christmas gift idea for anyone who cares about the WWE: a 2008 all-company photo that contains no one who’s involved in making bad personal decisions. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case this year.

In reality, we know Triple-H is Vince’s son in law. He married Steph after a storyline brought the couple in close proximity to each other several years ago. Hunter and Steph recently had their first child.

Having Triple-H be the “son” of Vince is a payoff that makes a lot of sense, from a business perspective. For one thing, it would reaffirm Helmsley’s entrenched status in WWE. With Vince’s daughter as his wife and a storyline that makes him Vinnie’s son, he has too much tying him to WWE for him to ever again bolt from WWE to a rival promotion.

HHH is already family, so he can be trusted more than most. Plus, it would provide a certain “ick!” factor to the storyline, an element Vinnie-Mac seems prone to favor over years and years and years of RAW broadcasts.

Trouble is, the “incest” aspect of this - even though fictional - might leave some viewers squeamish. While chances that HHH being the bastard son of Vince are high, it’s not a lead-pipe cinch, either. I mean, the thought of HHH and Steph being brother and sister after having a kid together, even though it’s fictional, is enough to make most viewers wet their padded panty in disgust.

ECW’s C.M. Punk would be a great choice if you’re looking for a payoff out of left field. Punk’s image is the exact opposite of the McMahon Family’s, and his revelation as a “bastard” son of Vinnie-Mac could drive storylines forward for years to come.

Trouble is, simply because C.M. Punk is so young, it would be a huge risk to bestow such a title on the kid. After all, what if, like previous highly-promoted wunderkinds like Kurt Angle, he had a falling out over a contract dispute, and switched to another promotion like NWA-TNA? One can only imagine the cannon fodder that would give Vince’s storyline son in real-life, behind-the-scenes negotiations, or that such a wrestler could carry with him when switching to a rival promotion.

No, something like that would be like entrusting your Orlando real estate to Eugene. For that reason, I just can’t imagine a younger superstar like C.M. Punk being awarded this kind of storyline honor.

C.M. Punk, therefore, is unlikely to be Vince’s fictional “bastard child.” Still, the chemistry when they teased this storyline on ECW was fun. Trouble is, I really see this all resolving RAW rather than ECW or SmackDown.

I always enjoy Mick Foley. There’s not a better comic on the WWE roster, plain and simple. And Mick could have fun with the revelation, talking about his struggle to reconcile his image of his parents… especially his mom… with the idea that Vince slept with Mrs. Foley.

It’d be great fun with Mick, something worth watching from the comfort of theater seating. But there are some problems with it.

Most obviously, Mick’s a part-timer now, at best. He might show up for the payoff, kind of like Stone Cold did for Saturday Night’s Main Event a couple weeks ago, but he’s not coming back full-time again, so it’d be the waste of a good storyline.

So, I doubt it’ll be Mick.

SummerSlam has come and gone and the secret of who on the WWE roster is Vince’s son remains. That’s disappointing.

The main reason it’s disappointing is that it’s not that compelling a mystery that one would want to see it play out beyond one pay-per-view. Sure, it was a graceful way to twist the storyline that began with a tacky, ill-timed “Who Murdered Vince?” storyline, which was dropped, only to be replaced by the “too close to the original storyline for comfort” take, which was more of a “Vince Faked His Own Death” storyline. That was given a sharp left turn and now we’re into familiar “McMahon Family Drama” territory… Vince has a “bastard” son who is a WWE superstar.

Let’s hope the storyline pays off soon so that it can advance before the whole thing starting feeling played out. It doesn’t yet, but will very soon. I’m gonna start posting some of my favorite possible resolutions to this storyline in this space. It could be more - or less - useful than a collection of cabinet hardware. You decide.

Terry Bollea, better known to wrestling fans as Hulk Hogan, knows his son Nick has been living fast, but is now praying Nick won’t be living up to the other half of that famous expression, “Live fast, die young.”

Nick Bollea was traveling in his Toyota Supra “at a high rate of speed” with a friend, at around 7:31 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, when the car apparently lost control, slammed into a median, flipped and the rear of the car impacted with a palm tree.

A police vehicle rolled up right after the crash and immediately called in the accident. The yellow Supra was totaled and at this hour it is unclear whether it was Nick or his friend who was at the wheel at the time of the accident. However, since the car belonged to Nick and the Hulk Hogan family, the driver is believed to have been Nick.

Nick, who has become somewhat famous himself while appearing on his father’s VH1 reality show, Hogan Knows Best, has transformed from the younger of the two Hogan kids, living in the shadow of his famous father and his older sister, who would goof around for attention, including wearing animal masks, to an emerging adult with his own set of talents, hopes, frustrations and problems.

Now, though, both Nick and his friend were flown by medical helicopter from the scene of the accident and other than being informed that both are in either “very serious” or “critical” condition, the extent of their injuries are unknown at this hour.

We at Pro Wrestling Views ask readers to keep the entire Hogan family, and Nick’s passenger, in prayer in the coming hours.

OK, in reality, we know that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are husband and wife, initially drawn together by an in-ring fictional story that cast them as a couple. Now they have their first child and no one questions it.

But the new storyline in the McMahon Family Saga is that Vince fathered an illegitimate child in the past and he or she is now the “missing McMahon,” who’s probably pretty pissed off about missing out on the chance to share bunk beds with Steph and Shane, Vinny Mac’s two real-life kids.

Is this tacky? Sure. But is it better and safer than a fictional murder storyline when a real-life WWE superstar committed a double-murder then took his own life?

You bet.

If you’re looking for concert tickets online, or even tickets to a WWE PPV or Live event, these days I’d wonder why.

In a world of MP3 podcasting and so many top WWE matches on free TV, what’s the motivation to go live to such arena events anymore? Seems like a bit of money down the drain, doesn’t it?

Then again, there’s nothing much that could top seeing your favorite entertainers perform in person. Whether it’s hearing whether Brandi Carlile has learned to get her voice to crack on command at the same spot in The Story every time she sings it or not, or experiencing the spectacle that is a live WWE event, I guess I’d have to say that…

…yes, there is still reason to go to such things. Just like my wife says, “I don’t care for basketball on TV. But in person’s another story.”

As predictably as a cash advance to a minimum wage worker, WWE owner Vince McMahon is back. Vinnie Mac turned the “who blew up Vince” disaster of an angle - made particularly tacky by the real-life double-murder suicide instigated by WWE wrestler Chris Benoit - into a “faked his own death” idea and quickly this past Monday ushered Raw into a fresh era by anointing a new Raw general manager, wrestler William Regal, as a replacement for long-time assistant GM and pain-in-the-keister Johnathon Coachman.

While Regal isn’t the most scintillating personality, it does give some closure to the era that was marred by the Benoit tragedy. While that real-life crime may have turned off many a casual fan, WWE’s most loyal viewers will feel that the change was long overdue.

Let’s just hope Vince doesn’t overexpose himself again, and allows Regal to take center stage and shine in his new role in the Raw storyline.

Once upon a time, not that long ago, Joanie “Chyna” Lauer was the queenpin of WWE’s women’s division. A huge woman made somewhat pretty thanks to Vinnie-Mac’s on-staff plastic surgeon, she made her rep by being able to go toe-to-toe with cruiserweight men.

Then we went through the Trish Stratus-Lita era, in which the woman’s title was credibly held by either one or the other of them. Trish was the pretty-looking girl who eventually learned to wrestle a passable match, while Lita was able to pull off some high-flying, Hardy Boyz style moves until injuries got the better of her.

These days, however, Raw’s women’s division is a bit deeper. Between some solid newcomers and some who cut their teeth during the Trish-Lita era, there are now as man as five or six women who can wrestle believably enough to hold the women’s title.

Slowly, the WWE women’s division is becoming more than just a series of Thanksgiving Day gravy matches and Golf Apparel Ladies bra and panties matches.

Thank goodness… the women’s division finally features some decent wrestlers, not just gals with only T&A assets.

Let’s hope WWE milks this one slow.

For the past three or four years now, it’s been obvious that two of the young stars WWE has wanted to build around are Randy Orton and John Cena. Considering Cena’s the champ and has been for the better part of a couple years now, they’ve handled his rise to the top well.

Now, just as they did with Steve Austin and The Rock, it’s time for the always-planned feud to come to fruition. It’s time for Randy Orton and John Cena to start butting heads … and, probably, trading title reigns a bit.

Cena has loads of personal magnetism and is the electrifying personality that gets people tuning in, much like Steve Austin at the height of the “Stone Cold” era.

Like The Rock, Randy Orton is a third-generation superstar who makes the perfect foil with the right set of skills to be a great feuding partner with Cena for years to come.

In the early days of the Austin-Rock feud, they only clashed seldom and usually at PPVs. That was before the era of five hours of weekly programs of WWE TV to fill. Cena-Orton could be the feud that defines the careers of both men.

But, just as it marked the end of the appeal of seeing Austin and The Rock go head-to-head, overexposure is the greatest risk the Cena-Orton feud has. If they overplay the feud and don’t mix in enough other rivals in the title picture, it could get boring pretty quickly.

Don’t believe me?

Hogan-Andre headed two WrestleMania events. Cena-Khali lasted, what, maybe two months before the mismatch was overexposed?

Cena-Orton could be a great feud. Or, if overexposed, it could become as welcome as an outdoor fireplace at the height of an Arizona heatwave.