By Scott McCarthy

Controversy is never that far from Vince McMahon and the WWE, it was there from the very beginning when a young upstart Vincent Kennedy McMahon purchased the promotion his father had made a stronghold, back then the territory system was still in place, and was respected by everyone. All promotions had their piece of the pie, but Vinnie Mac wanted the whole damn pie, even against his father’s advice. Thus began the beginning of Vince McMahon’s long running relationship with controversy.

Killing off the territory system was just the beginning, there was also a time when the feds tried to nail him with steroid charges and went after with the same vigor as they are now doing so with Major League Baseball (Vince has always fancied himself the trend setter), The Owen Hart tragedy, the Eddie Guerrero death, Rob Van Dam and Sabu’s infamous Cheech and Chong moment and a few sexual harassment charges here and there, you can start to see it is never boring being Mr. McMahon. There were also the over the top antics of the Attitude Era, filled to the brim with sex, foul language and more sex, and then there is the XFL, but that is for a whole other story.

But back to the Attitude Era, just like the Attitude Era saved the WWE from being beaten out by Ted Turners monster check book and Eric Bischoff’s unlimited allowance, The Straight Edge era can save the WWE from the steroid stigma that now lingers over the company, and industry as a whole. Apparently the WWE Wellness program is not enough, and why it is impossible to tell who is clean and who is dirty, there are some people on the roster who you can feel pretty sure are not being injected with anything other then the flu shot.

The stigma of steroids and drug use hangs high over professional wrestling, and that public perception is not going to go away anytime soon. There have been too many deaths of past and present stars that have been linked to drugs, steroids or otherwise. Chris Benoit may have been the latest and most shocking, but it was not the first and sadly may not be the last. The list of stars that have died that have a connection to drug use reads like an all star roster, with names like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rick Rude and Curt Hennig right at the top. How come stars from past generations like Harley Race, Bruno Sammartino, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair and Sgt. Slaughter are still alive, and doing well while today’s stars are dying at an alarming rate?

The WWE needs to have a new public face, someone who represents the values they want the public to perceive the company as a whole to have, to do that CM Punk needs to become the face of the company, we are talking about someone who wears his drug free lifestyle on his sleeve and has a large enough fan following that it would not seem rushed, walking out of SUMMERSLAM as ECW Champion is a very good start, and that has can then build towards an epic showdown that will solve two problems at once. The other problem I speak of is with three main titles, there is no way of saying person A is “The Man” so to speak, before the brand split, you knew who the face of the company was, Champions defined certain era’s of the WWF/WWE from Hulk Hogan to Bret Hart to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

The way to kill two birds with the one proverbial stone is to have the aforementioned epic showdown headline WRESTLEMANIA and have it where the winner walks out the Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena vs. Great Khali vs. CM Punk with CM Punk walking out Champion is the answer to not only the fans want, but even more importantly it is the answer the stockholders want. The Straight Edge Era will be the one time you can please everybody, well everybody except maybe Green Lantern fan