poorly received by many within the wrestling community, claiming that the character was in bad taste (and even sparking a legitimate feud between Ed Ferrara and Jim Cornette, one of Ross' close friends). Russo himself became an on-screen character whose face was never shown on camera; only his hand and the back of his chair were ever actually seen. This became part of a recurring theme as "worked shoots" became regular occurrences on WCW programming as a way of blurring the lines between what was legitimate and what was not. In December 1999, Bret Hart suffered a career-ending concussion during a match with Goldberg. Goldberg himself would slice open a major artery in his forearm less than a week later, while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland, as part of a storyline that was written by Russo. Russo and Ferrara were suspended three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Abbott, despite his legitimate fighting background, had little wrestling experience and had failed to connect with WCW audiences. Kevin Sullivan, who had been on and off as a booker over the course of several years, was appointed as the new head writer in the interim. The new writing team attempted to appease fans by having Chris Benoit win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Souled Out in January 2000. However, Benoit was among a group of wrestlers who expressed their intent to leave the company prior to the show because Sullivan was not particularly fond of them. Benoit, in particular, had a personal grievance with Sullivan dating back several months as a storyline with the two that involved Benoit winning the services of Sullivan's manager, Woman (Sullivan's then-wife Nancy), led to an extramarital affair that resulted in a real life relationship developing between Benoit and Woman. Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn among several others, voiced their grievances to Busch, who initially agreed to take Sullivan off Nitro and Thunder, only to turn around and tell them they were all being sent home except Benoit. In retaliation, Benoit handed the belt back after winning it and he, along with Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn, signed with the WWF the next day; becoming popularly known as "The Radicalz". As a result, Busch was fired as Senior Vice President and replaced by Turner programming executive Brad Siegel. On