This is one fight vs. Congress that Vince McMahon is NOT going to win. With news that WWE will be subjected to congressional hearings by the same committee that grilled NBA Commissioner David Stern, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, comes word that 10 WWE wrestlers have been suspended for violating the company's "Wellness Policy".

There's been much speculation as to who the Tainted Ten might be, including some key players who've been clients of a Florida pharmaceutical lab already under investigation by Albany (NY) County DA David Soares. Coincidentally, WWE was just in Albany for ECW & Smackdown earlier this week.

While the Tainted Ten will remain anonymous for now, the evidence will start to surface with this weekend's tapings in Ohio. Jeff Hardy had just come off the suspended list himself on Monday, but who's to say he doesn't go right back on it? A list of wrestlers that were clients of the Signature lab in Orlando includes talents as diverse as Sho Funaki, IC champion Umaga, ECW champion John Morrison, Ken Kennedy, Dave Batista, and two men currently on the DL, Edge & Greg Helms.

Clearly, this puts the creative team in a very large pickle, with Unforgiven coming up on Sept. 16. There are key players, such as Morrison, Umaga, Kennedy, & Batista, on the list. Let's suppose that Morrison was among those suspended. It makes the creative team look foolish for letting him remain ECW champion when almost everyone expected a title change at Summerslam. Raw GM William Regal's name is also on the list of Signature clients. Suspending him, while a damaging blow to the Raw roster, won't look so bad, since he's lost some screen time the last couple of weeks due to the latest McMahon soap opera angle. An angle that reportedly will have Kennedy as a key player within 2 weeks time.

Consider, too, the location of the Signature lab. Orlando, home of TNA. While TNA claims they don't have a drug testing policy, they may have people who are clients of Signature as well, and might be under a greater amount of pressure to do something as a show of good faith to Congress, because inevitably, Jeff Jarrett and/or Dixie Carter might be called in as well to testify before the committee.

Back to WWE. Because they're the higher profile company, they're going to be under the tightest scrutiny. Once the spoilers for next week's shows surface Saturday & Sunday before the troupe leaves for Africa, fans will have a better idea about who's gone and who's staying. And it's going to make selling the Unforgiven PPV that much harder. The usual critics are going to have a field day extending for at least several. The Jim Romes and Phil Mushnicks of the world will be on their bully pulpits---as if they never get off them, anyway---and the end result may change the entire landscape of the wrestling industry forever.

Is anyone ready for OVW getting a national television deal?