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Paul Bearer has two years left on his contract? Get ready for that Mordecai w/ Paul Vs Undertaker feud which will take up most of Smackdown in the fall of 2004.

So Booker T had some pretty good matches with Benoit, Austin and Angle, huh?

NoCalMike had one of his post erased in this thread. http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=57304

All because you're stepping down doesn't mean you can't post here anymore. BTW, who's the mod erasing post in the WWE folder?

I have no problem with Jericho Vs Batista. Those two stiff each other in the ring. Been fun to watch. Give me no DQ next week in Canada. And who's the Eugene that erased Mike's actual post and left the two Edit's?

What did you guys expect them to do with Eugene? He got over a lot more then WWE expected. He was only going to be a special attraction for so long. You can't have him in the mid-card going over guys like Orton or Christian. Feuds with La Resistance and Coach were already getting old. Maybe a tag team with Regal? A lot of people on this board were saying the Eugene character wouldn't stay over for long. WWE probably thought the same thing so they're milking it for all it's worth.

Not only that... probably have a few goofy gimmick matches and segments which will drive us nuts, but the average mark will love.

Even though they build Eddie as lying, cheating, and stealing. And there's already been numerous death angles, most involving Undertaker, not to mention the whole Katie Vick thing with Kane. WWE is strait up lying to parents, but I suppose JBL could justify it because it's entertainment, right? Are people here actually offended by the storylines around rape, robbery and murder or that they're done on wrestling programming? I'm more turned off by how awful these storylines are acted out. The writers and wrestlers just don't have the minds and acting skills to pull it off. They come off cheesy and not very sensitive to the issues at hand. I have no problems with movies and TV shows like "CSI" doing storylines around these issues. They handle it with more intelligence and class, for the most part. Wrestling should stick to simple storylines.

I'd be a lot happier w/out the Lita bullshit, but I thought Raw was pretty damn good tonight.

Vince McMahon apparently liked the show last night. He did not attend due to an internal infection he is suffering from, but was in constant contact with management via phone. - The Paul Bearer angle was done using a stunt double during the live shots. Another version featuring Paul Bearer was shot in the afternoon and then superimposed. - Dave Lagana took last week off but returned last night at the PPV. - Stephanie McMahon was the main person in charge last night. Shane McMahon helped lay out the Guerrero/JBL match. Jim Ross handled the announcing. Kevin Dunn handled the production. Triple H basically did a little of everything. - Bruce Prichard was the main man behind the Undertaker/Dudley Boyz/Paul Bearer segment. - Kurt Angle is expected to return soon and play a role at Summerslam. Credit: PWInsider.com/411

I've never been to an afternoon event. I thought they were all at night?

Where is Raw tonight?

I guess we'll get to see some "great" acting from Benoit tonight when he begs Eugene for forgiveness.

Does this mean Steph could be running Raw tonight?

One new option for Summerslam is to have John Bradshaw Layfield defend the WWE Title against Eddie Guerrero and The Undertaker. Undertaker would play a tweener role in the match and the angle would be that nobody knows whether he will end up being good 'Taker or evil 'Taker. Credit: PWTorch.com

Did you stick around to see Bearer be removed from the tank?

Credit: Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com...411mania World Wrestling Entertainment returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time since Wrestlemania XX on Saturday 6/26 with a Raw house show. The show opened with Howard Finkel introducing Lillian Garcia, who began singing the national anthem. La Resistance's music began to play and they came to the ring. This led to the first bout.... *WWE World Tag Team champions La Resistance defeated Rhyno and Yoshihiro Tajiri in a really good opener. Tajiri and Rhyno got a sizable "ECW" chant from the crowd when they hit the ring. This was a good back and forth bout, and probably the best match Resistance has had in the company thus far. Tajiri hit his trademarks including the springboard elbow off the ropes and the baseball slide kick in the corner. La Resistance knocked Rhyno off the top to set up getting a lot of heat on him. Tajiri finally tagged in and cleaned house. Resistance tried to bring in the flag, but Tajiri got it. The referee took it away, setting up a doubleteam on Tajiri for the pin. Really fun opener. After the match, La Resistance began singing the Canadian national anthem, which led to Eugene Dinsmore (making his Garden debut) coming out and saluting while holding the flags. When they realized he was there, he got scared and accidentally hit Robert Conway with the flag pole while turning. Conway bumped off of it. La Resistance threatened Eugene but Eric Bischoff came out and calmed them down. La Resistance left. Bischoff told Eugene that he could have a match with anyone on the roster tonight that he wanted. Eugene picked.....Uncle Eric. If you had told me in 1996 I'd be watching Bischoff wrestle in MSG, I'd have asked you to tune into Reality FM, but here we were in 2004 with the in-ring debut of Uncle Eric. Eugene and Bischoff wrestled for several minutes with Dinsmore obviously outclassing Bischoff. This led to Jonathan Coachman coming out and taking Bischoff's place.... *Eugene Dinsmore pinned Jonathan Coachman. It wasn't an awesome wrestling match inside the ring, but the crowd was into it and really seemed to like the Eugene character. William Regal pulled Bischoff off the apron to stop him from interfering. Dinsmore finally scored the pin with the People's Elbow and hit a stunner for good measure after the pin. Cute. Eugene was originally booked to wrestle Garrison Cade, but they switched the show up and this worked. Lita came out and said that after everything that happened on Raw, Matt Hardy won't speak to her. She said that she wasn't going to leave the ring until he came out and spoke to her. I know that when I need to have a private discussion, I always wait until I have 8,000 witnesses to have it. Hardy came out but before they could talk, Kane's music hit. He stepped into the ring and rubbed Lita's belly. Hardy attacked him leading to.... *Kane pinned Matt Hardy with a chokeslam. Hardy was working hard here, but the crowd has no emotional attachment to him whatsoever at this point. Hardy hit the Twist of Fate but Kane kicked out of it. Kane caught him coming off the ropes in the goozle and hit the chokeslam for the pin. *Hurricane Helms and Maven defeated Test and Garrison Cade. With that haircut, Cade looks like Steve Austin in 1991 WCW. This was the first match on the show that the crowd seemed less than interested in. Hurricane got a nice reaction coming out but for the rest it was just filler time in the eyes of the crowd. They did a good false finish where Test hit the pump handle slam on Hurricane but he kicked up at the last second. Maven didn't seem to be very involved, so I am wondering if he was a little banged up. He was originally scheduled to work a singles match (Maven vs. Test, Hurricane was originally booked against Tyson Tomko.) They did a bit where Eugene came to the ring to help them shoot T-shirts out of a gun into the crowd. It ended up with Eugene having trouble with the gun, setting up a T-shirt to the nether regions for Dave the T-shirt guy. Crowd liked it. Chris Jericho pinned Batista with a rollup and a hook of the tights. This was a decent match with some good back and forth stuff. I don't think Batista gets as much credit as he deserves for his hard work. He'll never be Ric Flair but he does seem to be working hard. Jericho hit his old springboard dropkick onto Batista, who was standing on the apron. Batista sold that he was shocked he got pinned while Jericho scurried up the aisle. *After intermission, WWE Intercontinental champion Randy Orton pinned Edge with his feet across the top rope. Orton has the look and the swagger, but something felt flat here. They did a bit where Orton tried to walk out but Edge attacked him in the aisle. This was decent but nothing that would stand out. Orton is really hit or miss in the ring, although his persona is awesome. *WWE Womens champion Trish Stratus pinned Victoria with her feet on the ropes. The same finish twice in two matches? That was odd. Stratus tried to get heat on the ring mic before the match but the crowd didn't really seem to hate her. Victoria's new music is horrible but at least she stopped dancing. Steve Richards saved Victoria after the bout, wearing a red wig and a dress. Why ask why? This was OK. Tyson Tomko worked in Trish's corner. *WWE World champion Chris Benoit forced Triple H to tap out to the Crippler Crossface in the main event. From entrances to exits, this was about 45 minutes total but it wasn't the blowaway match that I think a lot of fans would assume it was considering the names involved. H had both of his knees taped up under his kneepads. Triple H got a huge reaction while Benoit got a big respectful one. His current run reminds me of Bret Hart in 1993 in terms of crowd response. They did a lot of mic work and Triple H stalling for a good portion of the early minutes. In a funny moment, Ric Flair asked the crowd to show some respect for the best wrestler in the world, but instead of booing Triple H, they all serenaded Flair with a "Wooo." The fans were chanting "You tapped out" so they played off that for a long time as well. They did a lot of back and forth mat work with H escaping from the crossface. Mike Cioda got bumped after H accidentally clotheslined him in the corner. Flair and Batista interfered but Benoit kicked out. Benoit bumped them and finally locked on the crossface. Triple H tapped out in the middle of the ring. After the match, Benoit got on the house mic and declared he was, "For Real." I suspect this may have been a match that would have gotten over better on television, but live it was too much stalling for me for a lot of it. I understand it's just a house show and they had another few days on the road, but it's still MSG. That said, the crowd was into it. Notes: The crowd looked to be in the 7,000-8,000 range....Perhaps as an effort to make up for lost revenue the night of the PPV (where they sold out of these), WWE was selling Wrestlemania programs for $10. In comparison, the official Raw program was $15. They also had the Eddie Guerrero Wrestlemania plaques marked down to $100 at the house show, plus Steve Austin merchandise as well....They aired that awesome Chris Benoit video on the big screen of the Garden during intermission. As I watched clips of Benoit wrestling in the ECW Arena, I realized how wild it is that more people were actually watching it right there then actually witnessed that bout live....They were pushing the 7/31 Smackdown house show at the nearby Continental Airlines Arena, but oddly enough not the Vengeance PPV in CT....Dave Finley sat at ringside all night watching the matches....If I had to pick best match, I'd go with the tag title opener, although the entire first half was entertaining overall. The show seemed to stall out a little after intermission.

Bearer knew he was being killed off so he gave some of the worst and cheesy acting seen in some time in pro-wrestling.

They're going to book an arena, sell tickets and set up travel arangements for all WWE employees in the next couple of days for this live show?

Right now my state of mind involves sharpening an axe so maybe you are right. Anyone have an email address and the ability to calm me down enough so I don't curse the hell out of their stupid asses?

This is seriously one of those times we should put together a bunch of angry/disappointed emails and send them into WWE. They may not make a big, if any, difference, but it's for our own state of mind.

LOS ANGELES(AP) Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" took in a whopping $21.8 million in its first three days, becoming the first documentary ever to debut as Hollywood's top weekend film. If Sunday's estimates hold when final numbers are released Monday, "Fahrenheit 9/11" would set a record in a single weekend as the top-grossing documentary ever outside of concert films and movies made for huge-screen IMAX theaters. Adding the film's haul at two New York City theaters where it opened Wednesday, two days earlier than the rest of the country, boosted "Fahrenheit 9/11" to $21.96 million. "Bowling for Columbine," Moore's 2002 Academy Award-winning documentary, previously held the documentary record with $21.6 million. "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's assault on President Bush's actions after the 2001 terrorist attacks, won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival and has attracted attention from both sides in the presidential campaign. The movie has been embraced by left-wing groups, which mobilized members to see it during the opening weekend. Conservative groups sought to discourage theaters from showing it and asked the Federal Election Commission to examine its ads for potential violations of campaign-finance law regulating when commercials may feature a presidential candidate. "I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there who tried to stop the film, either from their harassment campaign that didn't work on the theater owners, or going to the FEC to get our ads removed from television, to all the things that have been said on television," Moore said. "It's only encouraged more people to go and see it." "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened in 868 theaters, a wide release for a documentary but narrow compared to big Hollywood flicks. The film averaged $25,115 a theater, compared to $7,190 in 2,726 cinemas for "White Chicks." Distributors Lions Gate and IFC Films plan to put "Fahrenheit 9/11" into a couple of hundred more theaters this Wednesday, when competition heats up with the release of "Spider-Man 2," summer's most-anticipated movie.

Any chance Eddie/Bradshaw will be surprisingly good? Without Eddie killing himself with a blade job?

Thank you for that. I had no idea. We we're going to watch here, but wwe.com says.. So it looks like we have to watch it at his place. I tried calling the 800 number on wwe.com and, of course, it's out of order.