DrVenkman PhD

Well, I was happy for Benoit when HHH left, but I'm not terribly concerned with him back either. Let's review... FACT: Backlash's main event has already been signed. HHH is not in it. FACT: Credible news sources said HHH was planning on working with Edge at Backlash, not Benoit. At the time this made it seem HHH would be retaining at Mania and moving away from Benoit, but it appears HHH is having one of his rare Non-Title PPV matches this month. FACT: HHH has to go film his movie soon. Is Benoit just a champion waiitng to lose it back to HHH? Most likely yes. Will he be losing it HHH anytime soon? The facts seem to suggest the Bad Blood at the earliest. Will Benoit's run be meaningful and well pushed until he loses the strap back? Tune in and see.

Ok, so, after reading some thoughts and looking over the roster and anticipating posible surprises, this seems to be the list of eligable candidates: Shane McMahon, Paul Bearer, Dean Malenko, Linda McMahon, Dawn Marie, Teddy Long, Vince McMahon, Jonathan Coachman, Johnny Spade, Matt Ditilliano, Tazz, Michael Cole, Sable, Macho Man Randy Savage, Dusty Rhodes, Triple H, Roddy Piper, Stephanie McMahon, or Steve Austin. Probably Shane or Teddy.

Just to clear up the fact some people are debating if something wil lactually be announced on WWE.com tonight, right from a recently posted headline on WWE.com...

The tag title match was very weird... during the break, RVD put a rest hold on Flair... causing us to raly for the heel to break it and make the tag? The crowd was really into Flair, and unfortunatley Batista comes with him.

I'm shocked that didn't get on the show. This happened after 11:15pm. The segment ran very long. The way it was going down, it seemed like it was all being shot for TV, but once I looked at my watch to see how late it was, I realized it must have been cut off at some point.

There were major Cena chants for the first 2 Raw draws, the first not being very audible on TV but I could hear the 2nd one when I watched the tape. The people in my area, myself included, were really looking forward to seeing him that night, so we just exploded when he finally came out.

I have yet to watch the tape from Raw last night and listen to the commentary, but they seemed very seperated this week (and last week as well), seemingly their issue resolved with Christian beating Jericho and getting Trish, leaving Jericho beaten and mad but with nothing he can do about it. I'm not saying a rematch is out of the question, or that this finish is even a good one, but I haven't seen much emphasis on the feud lately. Though I figured since last night Shane was going to be the new GM, I also can't think of any other reason for Long to be on SmackDown unless he's going to be the new GM. I mean, yes, he could manage some people, but who? Orlando Jordan? Or is he going to drop the racist thing and manage some whitey tag team like the Bashams? Actually, the latter sounds very reasonable.

Meltzer's hype for next week's Observer says something about a surprise main event. I suppose HBK vs Benoit could have been that surprise, since it was generally accepted that HHH vs Benoit in a singles bout would be the ME.

It's hard to say now, because there are still pending trades that will be announced at 9pm EST. For all we know, Haas is on his way to Raw as well.

Val was the face. He even got the "You lost be you're a face so let's applaud you as you exit" pop. At the time, obviously, we didn't know Jindrak and Cade were split up, but it was very suspicious that one was on Heat without the other. Equally suspicious when Teddy Long didn't come out with Jaz.

The crowd was really into Flair. They were woo'ing aimlessly since 7pm, and anytime he was in the ring.

For the record, Lance worked the as the heel, regularly cheating towards the end of the match. Matt got the pop when he won. I don't know what Matt's actual fact was, since that's not shown on the Titantron, but the one about Storm was spoken to us on the mic as a Very Special Matt Fact. Perhaps they do this so we know that the one in the chyron is going to be, then cut it out, I don't know.

That one production guy who sounded nothing like anyone else was good.

HEre are the other options he may have meant: Al Snow and Mankind vs New Age Outlaws. Headbangers vs Henry / D`Lo vs. New Age Outlaws. Heavenly Bodies vs. Rock and Roll Express. One of those matches it not like the others...

I was shocked to learn Doug has been in this business for at least 10 years. A retro Observer from 1994 about the steroid trial was posted on ABPW, and in the USWA Results it mentions Doug Basham.

PWI or 1W's Elite/Premium section - I can't remember which one since they both insist on all caps headlines - had "THE REAL REASON RON SIMMONS WAS FIRED" or something similar, so someone who has a subscription might know something... And, apparently, someone at NoDQ.com does. This was mentioned earlier, but just to cut and paste the entire story...

"2 More New DVD's in the works, From PWInsider" That help? And if you absolutely need the original PWI news post, click here.

And here is the answer to the above... "The WWE Hall of Fame Induction was one of the biggest events during WrestleMania weekend as the largest class, ever, was entered into the Hall of Fame, and the first ever celebrity inductee was honored – Pete Rose. Confidential was at the Induction Ceremony and has all of the exciting, emotional and sometimes comical moments of this event."

Yes, in much the same way "The Final Nitro" was an extra on the Flair and MNW DVDs... a segment about it, not the whole thing (that's my interpretation of it, anyway... I don't think a 5 hour event is going to be a DVD extra on something that's already 5 hours).

I've been digging the Resistance for awhile now. 4th row floor seats at a November house show, it was amazing. The section I was in was demanding Dupree did his dance, and Dupree had these great expressions when Conway was being hit in the ring. It's a shame that when they were bad with Sylvain, they were pushed to the moon. When Conway came on board and Dupree improved, they became jobbers. I hope the lottery splits Sylvain away from Conway/Dupree, allowing Sylvain to have his own act with FiFi on another show, but I suspect it will actually give Dupree or Conway the singles run.

The Hall of Fame Ceremony is expected to be released as a stand alone DVD. They expect some editing will be done, as the ceremony was salted to be 2 hours but went around 5. Due to the sucess of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE is now planning a Four Horsemen DVD as well.

You sure do, Steve. You sure do.

I can no longer reschedule or rename my Events. Clicking "Events" gets me "Runtime error: 383 - 'Text' is read only", and then the program shuts down. What do I do to fix this that doesn't require me downloading a new version and converting saved data or even losing saved data? It's not a huge deal.. the only problem will be I'll have multiple events named for the year 2005 and happening throughout the week instead of Sunday.

"See Shannon Moore face Paul London as both prepare for the opportunity of a lifetime at WrestleMania!" Something similar happened last week where, out of context, it appeared the preview was saying London was in the CW Open, but as far as I can tell this sentence implies London is wrestling at WMXX.

I'm calling it now, Lance/Venis vs Test/Hardy is the Heat match. Keep Lance's streak alive!