Kurt Angle Mark

Got this from Dave Meltzer's daily new update "For whatever this is worth, and probably nothing, there was a Smackdown roster photo yesterday on the wwe web site that had Eugene on the Smackdown roster. It was quickly taken down. Eugene's return should be imminent."

From ESPN

From Dave Meltzer As expected, Randy Orton is backstage. Undertaker is also back and will face JBL tonight. Psicosis worked with his mask, teaming with Super Crazy over the returning Billy Kidman & Akio Juventud Guerrera debuted without his mask, beating Funaki

UPN has just announced their fall schedule and they have moved Smackdown to Friday nights http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/...5394|1|,00.html Thoughts ?

Complete Spoilers

DC has announced that all February issues will tie-in to Infinite Crisis and that the following month will be like a new beginning for the DCU. In March all the books will take place one year after the Crisis and things will go from there. Newsarama

Saw this at the ignboards "It was definitely an abnormal day in Upstate N.Y, it had to have been pushing 95 degrees and it was really humid, it had to have been over 100 degrees in the arena, as there was no air conditioning whatsoever. When the wrestlers were sweating at the end, it was no surprise. I was dripping when I walked out, as if I had just ran 4 miles. It was HOT! Anyways, Heat/Dark matches were: Psychosis (w/mask) and Super Crazy over Texas & Tennessee Val Venis over Simon Dean (First time I've seen Val win in a long time) Tajiri over Kid Kash with a buzzsaw kick to the head after Kash missed a 450 splash (Up until this time, ECW wrestlers in every match) Hurricane/Rosey over The Heartthrobs (There was a funny bit where the Heartthrobs were grinding with Maria, and then proceeded to both grind with Jack Doan). Post Raw: However, we got a real treat after it went off the air. As Angle and HBK retreated to the back, Bischoff came out and said "I've had enough of this. It will be Triple H. vs Batista in a Street Fight tonight!" Then he came into the ring to a barrage of "ECW!" chants, and started to berate the fans. He said he was in a good mood for Lita and Edge's wedding, and he had a wedding gift for them. They came down to the ring, and the wedding gift was...KANE! Edge says Kane has no balls, and that after he spears Kane in Las Vegas, "I'm going to spear your wife!" Kane vs. Edge Basically the match was what you expected out of the two. Edge sets up for the spear after about 8 minutes and runs into the big boot. Kane grabs a chair, but the referee grabs it. Kane gets a low blow from Lita. Lita swings the chair at Kane but he stops her, but then Edge hits Kane with a briefcase for the DQ. Edge and Lita leave to Kane being all pissed off. Then, after Kane's pyro goes off, Edge runs back in and attacks Kane. Edge goes for another spear but runs into the chokeslam. Edge got helped to the back. Triple H. vs. Batista Surprising, they went a good 15-20 minutes in this contest. One funny moment was how the match was a street fight, but the ref took the chair from Triple H. Most of the match was Triple H. hitting Batista with the belt, and then choking him out with some rope that he got from under the ring. Triple H. grabbed the stairs and went to hit Batista, but Batista moved. Batista hit Triple H. in the head with the steps. Triple H. got shoved into the ref and he went down. Trips low blowed Batista and then hit him square over the head with a chair, but there was no ref. Hebner ran in but Batista kicked out at 2. Triple H decked Hebner and hes out cold. Trips sets Batista up for the pedigree on the chair, but Batista reverses into a spinebuster on the chair. The first ref revives and counts the 3. Surprisingly, this match ended at about 11:55. Props to WWE for giving us about 4 hours of show, and the last hour definitely made up for the promos we had to endure during the show. Both laid around for a few minutes, until Triple H. stumbled to the back, and Batista posed with the belt to his music. "

You have to take this number with a grain of salt For example last year a week or two after Backlash, PWtorch reported the PPV got 600,000 buys when in fact it only got 350,000

Here is Meltzer's PPV Preview Most PPV events, whether good or bad, ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, are just another show, with no repercussions other than a couple of hours of good, or sometimes bad, entertainment. Tonight could be different. The success (and because of how I expect the live crowd to be, the things that are scheduled to happen and the wrestlers to perform, it's almost inconceivable right now it won't be) of the show can lead to changes in the wrestling landscape. In that sense, this is one of those rare of shows that is likely to be historical. I'm thinking Canadian Stampede crowd and workrate but with more long-term repercussions. The show is going to be more than the usual collection of matches, as there will be angles, surprises, hopefully lots of old video clips (they do own the library and this is the night to make use of it) and different style matches. I don't think anyone cares who wins or loses. This is also a landmark show because this is the first major PPV in history where none of the matches were advertised ahead of time. The line-up was listed on the internet by WWE, but it's clear they didn't want matches announced, being that the angles on TV weren't shot for any matches and the guys in the main event were teaming with each other in brawls on television the week before the show. Because the crowd will be so hot for everything and the matches that look good on paper are supposed to be kept "clean" of the invasion angle, it will be difficult for there to be less than a few top notch matches. Here is what has been talked about: *Rob Van Dam will do a long interview to prove he can do it to WWE management. He'll no doubt be involved physically to a degree even with his bad knee *Lance Storm (with Dawn Marie, and there may be some interesting chants at her) vs. Chris Jericho in Storm's retirement match *Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome in a Japanese FMW style match. This is the only real question mark on the show as Awesome hasn't looked too good in years, but Tanaka was his career best opponent and they feuded over the ECW title with a number of great bouts *Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis as Lucha Libre style combined with ECW style *Tajiri (managed by Jim Mitchell) vs. Super Crazy vs. Little Guido in the classic 3 way dance style *Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero which is said to be Japanese classic style *Tommy Dreamer & Sandman vs. Dudleys. This will be the bloodbath with all the tables, chairs, ladders, interference and probably surprise after surprise. Among those making appearances for run-ins will include Eric Bischoff, Edge, Christian, William Regal, Gene Snitsky, Maven, Coach, JBL, Kurt Angle, Orlando Jordan, the Bashams and more. Tazz will no doubt get to choke out Kurt Angle. Al Snow will be there with Head. Sabu, Balls Mahoney, Danny Doring, Roadkill, C.W. Anderson, Rhyno, Joel Gertner, Axl Rotten, Justin Credible, Kid Kash (who it wouldn't surprise me will wrestle as I'm expecting one surprise match and Heyman loaded the wrestling portion up with guys who can go today), Mikey Whipwreck, Steven Richards as Big Stevie Cool, Simon Dean as Hollywood Nova and Blue Meanie as Blue Guy do the BWO gimmick.

Update from Meltzer "To follow up from yesterday, the impression we've been given is Juventud Guerrera is expected to be brought to TV this week. C.W. Anderson is also booked for TV and I'd think a few of the guys in town for the ECW show could have dark matches."

More ECW news from Meltzer WWE sent BSkyB a statement today giving them advanced warning that Sunday's One Night Stand PPV may need to be heavily edited for future broadcast due to planned content of the show. The show will probably first air largely unedited live, because it starts in the U.K. at 1 a.m. The planned Eliminators reunion after nearly eight years has fallen through due to Perry Saturn apparently having a broken neck. The Hardcorehomecoming web site said he was in a halo, which would mean he is suffering from a serious broken neck. Apparently this injury is not recent, but he never informed them he couldn't work until today, somehow hoping for a miraculous recovery.

You forgot to mention what if Shawn Marion and Quentin Richardson hadn't missed the entire series.... Oh wait they did play, could have fooled me

From Wrestlingobserver.com by Peter Tavares DARK MATCH: George King pinned Harry Smith. VELOCITY TAPING: The Basham Brothers defeated Teddy Hart and J.D. Michaels (a local HBK ripoff for years, but very talented IMO) when Doug pinned Michaels. Teddy was limping badly after the match after landing on the outside diving and Danny. Cruiserweight Champion Paul London beat Chavo Guerrero and Akio in a triple threat match after pinning Chavo. U.S. Champion Orlando Jordan pinned Shannon Moore in a non-title match. SMACKDOWN! TAPING: Carlito's Cabana starts off with Carlito claiming that The Big Show will not be here due to last week's attack by Matt Morgan. Then the Cabana started with this week's guest, John Cena. Cena made fun of Matt Morgan, comparing him to Michael Cole. They talked about the draft and how this can be their last night together, therefore Cena announced that he went to Teddy Long earlier today and made a tag team match for tonight. Carlito and Morgan vs Cena and his partner who WILL be here before the night is over, The Big Show. In a 15-minute match where the most falls scored wins, Tag Team Champions MNM defeated Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas 2 falls to 1. Mercury pinned Holly to make it 1-0 and it was soon followed by Mercury pinning Haas after Haas was KO'ed after being thrown headfirst onto the ringpost after performing a plancha on Nitro. Haas pinned Mercury to make it 2-1. With 20 seconds left, Holly hit the Alabama Slam on Mercury but Melina ran in and distracted the ref long enough for the time limit to expire. A backstage vignette was shown before the tag team match where Booker demanded that Sharmell be taken out of the match with Kurt Angle. Long said he couldn't do that but did change it to a handicap match with Booker and Sharmell against Angle. Kurt Angle hit the ring to taunt Tazz. Angle explained how Tazz disrespected him when Angle appeared on an ECW event in 1996. They showed a clip from ECW Arena where Tazz said to Angle, "you may be a great amature, but I'm a great professional." Angle told Tazz that WWE made him a superstar, not ECW and invited him to join him and his SmackDown volunteers at ECW One Night Stand. Angle beat Booker and Sharmell in a handicap match. The end came after a ref bump, Angle nailed Booker with chairshots. As he went to Sharmell, she tried to slap him but he reversed it into a rollup. Angle proceeded to mount on top of her and tried to kiss her but Booker got up and fought him off. Heidenreich pinned Devon Nicholson (I think that's what his name was). He did the poem thing and the friend thing ... Backstage vignette with Torrie, Joy, Michelle and Jackie interrupted by Mark Jindrak. They mentioned the draft and Jindrak said that if he stays on SD, he hopes to get new Divas because these ones were old. JBL vs. Nunzio. JBL bad-mouthed ECW. He said all the brutal type of matches we have now is because of ECW. Talks about how Paul Heyman is a liar and how McMahon hand to lend him money because he is a bad business man. He then bad-mouthed Lance Storm, saying he couldn't sell out an arena if the tickets and beer were free. He said the only big thing Blue Meanie ever did was marry a porn star. He will not allow ECW to invade his hometown of New York and will join the crusade against ECW. He then asked Nunzio, "Hey Little Guido, how about we make this an ECW rules match." Nunzio grabbed a kendo stick and hit JBL and his cabinet members until JBL nailed him with a boot. Orlando Jordan and The Bashams held Nunzio as JBL nailed him with a hard kendo stick shot and followed up with a pin. Booker T is shows backstage with Teddy Long, blaming him for what happened to Sharmell. Booker wants Angle next week in one of any two ways: legal or illegal. Long tells Booker that if he isn't drafted to RAW this Monday, he will have his match. In the main event, John Cena and The Big Show beat Carlito and Matt Morgan. Show had his ribs and shoulder taped up. Cena hit the FU on Carlito for the pin. Cena then proceeded to celebrate in the crowd as the show went off the air. DARK MATCH: As Cena made his way back to the stage area, JBL and Orlando Jordan attacked him, leading to a handicap match. Cena pinned JBL after an FU. Biggest pops: John Cena Biggest heel heat: JBL

I guess Kobe=Wade as the Pistons used the same game plan from the finals last year to make Wade look like a fool tonight. Pistons win 90-81 to take home court away from Heat

Great Game and series This was an odd series for me to watch because I always root for the Spurs to win the West but this year I was backing up the Sonics. I just love the way the Sonics play. I felt that a Suns against a healthy Sonics team would have been something else.

Since Reggie Miller is my favorite player ever I couldn't hold back the tears Thanks Reggie for all the great moments especially against the Knicks

WOW!! That was awesome If the ship is Kryptonian then it's down to three candidates 1. Eradicator 2. General Zod 3. Kara Zor El

Pacers win the only way they can against the Pistons: UGLY 79-74 Reggie seals deal with a 20 footer with 10 seconds to play Pacers lead series 2-1

Great Game tonight Have to mention the "Greatest Flop of all Time", when Ginobili acted as though he was shot when an Antonio Daniel's elbow missed him by a mile. Loved how he continued to sell it.

Mavs beat Suns 108-106 Nowinski with a shot with 6 seconds to play to give them the lead Q misses three at buzzer to win

Great Win for the Pacers!!! Foster was a beast with 14 and 20 Reggie was clutch in the 4th

I know it was pre-empted in Dallas because of the Mavericks game

Second Round Predictions Pistons over Pacers in 7 Heat over Wizards in 5 Spurs over Sonics in 6 Mavericks over Suns in 6

Second Round Predictions Pistons over Pacers in 7 Heat over Wizards in 5 Spurs over Sonics in 6 Mavericks over Suns in 6

The book arrives March 30th and here is a preview http://www.popcultureshock.com/reviews.php?id=3911