Kurt Angle Mark

By Dave Scherer of pwinsider.com Smackdown ended up doing a 3.0 broadcast rating, with a 5 share. That is down from last week's 3.2. --------------- So to recap since Wrestlemania Smackdown has gone from a 3.6 to a 3.3 to a 3.2 to a 3.0 rating. Although it should be noted that nobody saw T.V. last night since the second hour of the show ended up in third place.

I am telling you guys, have you watched the epiphany that their offense has underwent in the past few weeks? Plus they are alot better at forcing turnovers and most of their points are coming from the halfcourt sets now. I'm tellin ya, the Mavs could very well take the west. I am still picking San Antonio with me WANTING memphis to SHOCK THE WORLD~! but Dallas....mark my words. I said MARK THEM~! I believe in the Mavs too. My upset special of the playoffs is Mavs over Lakers if they meet in the first round.

By Dave Scherer Steve Austin was not at Raw last night, as evidenced by him not appearing on the show, and was not written into the episode when the show was put together last week. There have been stories recently that he and Vince McMahon have been at odds lately and from what I am hearing, that is why he wasn’t there. It’s said to have the potential to be a serious situation. It could have something to do with Austin’s recent domestic situation. We are looking into that.

Not only that but the second pick was fixed as well. I thought that it was a strange coincidence that it came down to Memphis and Cleveland, considering that if Memphis got #1 they would have kept the pick and if they didn't then Detroit would get the pick. It looked like the NBA deliberately created a suspenseful moment to get and keep viewers tuned in.

***Update*** by Dave Scherer @ 10:50:00 AM on 4/7/2004 Here is the latest on the Steve Austin-WWE situation. Austin was at Smackdown last night in his hometown of San Antonio, TX. I know that he met with Vince McMahon before the show and then left, but don’t know any more than that at this time. Since last night, I have also heard that in the new deal that the sides have been discussing, WWE wants to keep control of the rights to the Stone Cold name so that if Austin branches out into other areas, such as movies, WWE will have a piece of the action, as they have with Rock. That is part of the bone of contention since Austin’s new lawyer is said to want his WWE deal and his outside projects to be completely separate things. On a related note, it will be interesting to see what happens with The Rock when his WWE deal expires later this year. Now that he owns the Rock name, as he has said recently in interviews, there really doesn’t seem to be any reason to keep giving WWE a piece of the action and maybe that has something to do with why they are taking the position that they are with Austin. If they lose money from one cash cow, they don’t want to lose it from another. ---------------------------------------------------- Many backstage are supporting Steve Austin in his latest battle with WWE over control of outside projects. Most believe that WWE goes overboard in terms of trying to own everything related to their wrestlers and are glad somebody is standing up to Vince McMahon. Austin's WWE future is in question at this point. He could be yet another main event level loss for the company. Austin, despite not wrestling, generates a lot of money from merchandise sales and is one of WWE's biggest names. Credit: 1wrestling.com

Velocity: -Doug Basham vs. Paul London -Rey Mysterio vs. Akio vs. Kidman vs. Nunzio, winner becomes #1 contender for Cruiserweight title -Gunn and Hardcore Holly vs jobbers Smackdown: -Rikishi and Scotty vs Dudley Boyz -Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble -John Cena vs. Danny Basham -Booker T and RVD vs. Big Show and Charlie Haas -Renee Dupree vs. Orlando Jordan -Teddy Long vs. Spike Dudley -Great American Award ceremony

By Dave Scherer of pwinsider.com This week’s edition of Raw did a 3.8 broadcast rating, with a six share, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down from last week’s 4.3. The show did hours of 3.5 and 4.0. The highest rated segment of the show was the 4.6 that the overrun did. In other ratings news: Velocity did a 0.8 rating, with a 1 share. Confidential dipped to a 0.5 rating, with a 1 share. Heat did a 0.9 rating, with a 2 share.

I think he is doing OK. His in ring promos have been a little bland and too straight forward, However his backstage interaction with Booker T has been great IMO.

What about the Smackdown PPV in June? I still can't believe that WWE is going to book two Smackdown PPV's two weeks from each other.

I don't think Diana is good looking but her sister sure is. Also there is a player for Minnesota, I think her last name is Whalen, who I think is cute.

Probably UCLA vs. Arkansas in 1995 since UCLA was #1 and Arkansas was #2 and the defending champs.

RAW World: Triple H IC: Benjamin Tag: I don't know or care. I'll say Edge and Jericho for the hell of it. Women's:Nidia Smackdown! World: Kurt Angle US: Dupree Tag: Those Damn Dudley's. Cruiser: Spike Dudley. The way they have booked Spike vs. Chavo makes me think that Spike might a short reign before Chavo wins it back.

Looks like Flair has a busy day today. "Ric Flair is scheduled to have lunch with President Bush today and Theresa Ernhardt (Dale's widow). They may air clips of it on Raw tonight. Flair is at this point scheduled to be flying from his luncheon in Charlotte to Houston for Raw tonight." credit: Dave Meltzer

Everyone in Evolution that is not named Ric Flair

By Dave Scherer This week's edition of Raw did a 4.3 cable rating, with a 7 share, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down from last week's 4.5 but is still above the show's recent average. The highest rated quarter hour of the show was the 4.8 that they did for the overrun. The show did hours of 4.1 and 4.5. In other ratings news, the Raw replay from 3/28 did a 1.7 cable rating, with a 2 share. Heat, which preceded it, did a 1.0 cable rating, with a 2 share. The 3/27 edition of Velocity did a 0.8 cable rating, with a 1 share. The 3/27 edition of Confidential did a 0.8 cable rating, with a 2 share.

Another really detailed report WWE Smackdown Spoilers March 30th, 2004 Nationwide Arena Columbus, OH 7:30 PM - 11:50 PM EST Author: Mr. Tito from Lordsofpain.net CROWD: Pretty hot throughout. The WWE may boast that it was a sellout. However, the very upper deck was tarped off. Secondly, they rigged the crowd set up so that it looks like there are more people on the camera side, especially on the ringside area. The crowd was pretty hot overall, which is why Columbus is a regular stop for WWE events. DARK MATCHES "Lonely Road of Faith" video shown, and it's been updated through Wrestlemania 20 (added Trish and Christian's love affair). I still get chills down my spine seeing that video with a big crowd. Paul London vs. someone from Puerto Rico The new Smackdown announcer has a terrible echo in his voice, for I didn't hear the unknown wrestler that London wrestled. London came out to Spanky's old theme music, and my money is on London leaving with 2 weeks notice just like Spanky did. Decent opener, as London hit a bunch of flashy moves. Quite a talented guy. The Puerto Rican dude won with a roll-up. Afterward, London chased the man who beat him. Winner: NOT Paul London VELOCITY Out come Josh Matthews and Bill DeMott, both with separate entrances. Tazz and Cole came out to Tazz's theme just before Smackdown started. Match #1: Orlando Jordan vs. Something Albright, I think? Seriously, the guy on the PA was hard to understand, and neither of the guys I don't have names for had Titantrons to get the names from. Sorry. Orlando Jordan won the match with the Downward Spiral or Flatliner, one of the most recycled finishers out there. Orlando looked good in the ring, showing flares of charisma. Winner: Orlando Jordan OPENING FIREWORKS FOR VELOCITY! My seats were somewhat behind the main stage, for I could see the machine that made the loud exploding noises. Rather interesting. Match #2: Mark Jindrak vs. Shannon Moore It's nice to get traded to a show and immediately get to work on Velocity. Mark Jindrak played the big guy, overpowering Shannon Moore throughout the match. Jindrak won after hitting a move that started out like a back suplex, but he twisted it mid-air to look like a slam. Interesting move. Winner: Mark Jindrak Match #3: Danny Basham vs. Billy Gunn Billy Gunn had a HUGE pop for his entrance and a HUGE pop for his victory pin... but in between those two points, total silence from the crowd. The Bashams played switcheroo twice in this match. A funny scene saw the brothers holding each other, but in a spinning motion for one switch. Doug Basham tried to interfere in the match, only for it to fail and Danny was Fameasser'd. Winner: Billy Gunn Match #4: Jamie Noble vs. Rico Jamie Noble is back to wearing regular tights. Speaking of outfits, you gotta see what Jackie wore! It was insanely revealing, with it taylored to look like she had a Whale's Tail (thanks Senate!) on the back of her pants, if you know what I mean. It's a good thing that this will be on TNN and not UPN. OK match between the two. Rico got the clean win by hitting what I thought was an Edge-a-matic, but only Noble landed on Rico's knees. Winner: Rico Before Smackdown, new WWE diva "Rue Demonna" or something like that (again, bad announcer) came out to sing "America the Beautiful". Just doing the research, I believe she is or has hosted WWE Afterburn? Very beautiful voice. SMACKDOWN! FIREWORKS!!! SMACKDOWN INTRO!!! A table with a covered object was brought to the ring by the WWE ring crew. Kurt Angle opens the show and announces that he put aside his wrestling career aspirations to become General Manager of Smackdown for the "good of the show" and for the fans. To make Smackdown better, someone must step up. Someone must be a "Great American". Angle then takes off the covering and reveals a big trophy, donned with USA colors and an eagle on top. Angle says this is the Great American Award. He then says that Eddie Guerrero does not qualify for it, which is met with boos. However, the Great American Award will be given to the #1 contender for the WWE Undisputed Title, and he's set up a series of matches tonight to determine who will be up for the award. In fact, the first match is right now... Match #1: Big Show vs. Rikishi (Great American Award qualifier) Short opening match, and there wasn't much going on in the ring because the Big Show isn't healthy enough to move in the ring. Some back and forth fighting, until Rikishi got in the stinkface (which got a huge pop). Big Show pushed Rikishi's ass off his face, and a few moments later, the Chokeslam was hit. Winner: Big Show Backstage, a big white limo with longhorns on it pulls up. Bradshaw gets out and yells at his limo driver, who happens to be Spanish. Bradshaw yelled at him to speak English, which got a big pop from the crowd. COMMERCIAL BREAK Walking Tall mini-trailer was shown. Match #2: Rey Mysterio/Spike Dudley vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Chavo Guerrero Sr. Chavo Sr. looked pretty decent in the ring for his older age and possible ring rust. Chavo Jr. has new music, which just doesn't fit him in my opinion. Good tag match, and the Chavos should tag up more often. They had some good tag team cheats in this match. The faces won when Spike Dudley hit Chavo Jr. with the Dudley Dog, but he kicked off Chavo Sr. in the corner to execute the move. Nice finish! Winners: Rey Mysterio and Spike Dudley After the match, Bradshaw hit the ring and mauled both Spike and especially Rey Mysterio. Bradshaw got some good heat for that attack. COMMERCIAL BREAK Promo for UPN's "Game Over" was shown. Match #3: Rob Van Dam vs. Charlie Haas (Great American Award qualifier) Charlie Haas now has green shorts tights with "Haas" on the back instead of his amateur wrestling tights. Good midcard match, except for the fact that Rob Van Dam's moveset doesn't allow him to sell a leg injury. Haas works on the leg forever, but Rob Van Dam will do a move involving jumping or flying kicks only to revert back to selling the injury. A lack of psychology due to his trademark moveset. At one period in the match, Haas tried to use a chair. He put it by ringside, and the match ended when RVD jumped over the ropes for a flying body press on Haas, only to hit the chair, too. DOUBLE COUNT OUT! Winner: No Contest Kurt Angle, however, insists that there must be a winner. So he'll choose the winner based on points, and he picks Charlie Haas to advance! Crowd hates it, for they really were behind RVD. COMMERCIAL BREAK Bradshaw video package is shown, in addition to his highlights from last week. Booker T was backstage with Kurt Angle, complaining about the Smackdown fans not cheering for him and Eddie Guerrero's attack last week. Angle said he'll do Booker a favor by booking him in a match against Hardcore Holly, a man who threatened Booker last week. COMMERCIAL BREAK Backstage, Josh Matthews was with Booker T. My guess was that this was a heat seeking promo only seen by the live audience, for I've seen the WWE use this technique before. Booker T rips on the audience and city of Columbus, insisting that he needs to take a shower soon to wash the Columbus off of him (HAHA!). Funny promo that could have given him lots of heat if he had a more popular opponent. Legacy of Hope Award segment was shown, for the WWE was rewarded for their trip to Iraq to entertain the soldiers. Match #4: Booker T vs. Hardcore Holly (Great American Award qualifier) Booker T has his old music back! Yipee! Before Holly arrives, the whole confrontation segment between Booker T and Holly from last week was shown. This match was rather long, with plenty of restholds and no flare. Despite the promo beforehand from Booker T, nobody wanted to cheer for Holly in return. Dead crowd for this match, and at one point, "Holly sucks" chants began. The match ended when Holly tried for a body slam, but Booker T got out of it and rolled Holly up and held the tights for the 1, 2, and 3. Winner: Booker T COMMERCIAL BREAK Live shot of the Nationwide Arena was shown. Match #5: Dudley Boyz vs. Akio/Sakoda Big pops for the Dudleys, and the usual "we want tables" stuff included. Typical Dudley match, although Bubba whipped out a devastating spear at one point in the match. Got a "ooooohhh" from the crowd. Dudleys won via the 3D. Winners: Dudley Boyz Great American Award qualifiers were shown on the Titantron, and Cena vs. FBI was up next! Match #6: Hardcore Holly vs. Booker T Hardcore Holly ran to the ring and grabbed the mic and said Booker T can't beat him fairly. So, Booker T runs out and they do roughly the same exact finish to the last match. Booker T rolled up Holly and held the tights, in the same position as before. My assumption is that this was a repair shot, for something may have went wrong with the finish (I was in peanut heaven folks, I couldn't tell) or whatever. I'm guessing you won't see this match, BUT you'll see a clip of the ending edited on to the previous match. That's my guess, for the WWE has done it before. Winner: Booker T COMMERCIAL BREAK Backstage, all 3 Dudleys are together when Teddy Long approaches them. He hits prejudice of Smackdown wrestlers, and says that they should unite together. Teddy offers management services, gives a card to D'Von and Bubba (ran out of cards for Spike, however). Teddy says for the Dudleys to "think about it". RAW Highlights were shown. Only the Jericho/Trish interview and Benjamin/HHH highlights were shown in the package. The highlights of Benjamin beating HHH got a pretty big pop. That was awesome. Backstage, Eddie Guerrero pulls in with his low-rider and takes a look at the Bradshaw's stretch limo. He talks some Spanish to Bradshaw's driver, and I thought we'd see some car vandalism in this show. Thankfully, I was wrong. Rene Dupree comes down to the ring, in a full Ric Flair like robe, French flag, and his dog Fi-Fi. He was getting some good heat. He'll be announcing for the next match... Match #7: John Cena vs. Nunzio/Johnny Stamboli (Great American Award qualifier) Cena is insanely over! His rap was pretty funny, albeit clean. He rapped about the Great American Award, saying that Haas to cheat his way in, while Big Show eats apple pies to eat his way in. Booker T looks like Busta Rhymes. He then turns his attention to Dupree and throws something at Fi-Fi, which upsets Dupree greatly! In my opinion, that's going to make a great midcard feud. Onto the match... Cena came out with a Buckeyes oldschool jersey on, to add to his big pop. The FBI didn't give him much of a match, and Cena pinned Stamboli with the FU drop after Nunzion fell to the outside on a pretty sick bump from what I could see. Winner: John Cena Backstage, Kurt Angle says he wants to see Eddie in the ring and that he has an announcement to make. Backlash promo is shown, hyping a rematch of Wrestlemania 20 between HHH, HBK, and Benoit. COMMERCIAL BREAK Walking Tall complete trailer was shown. Was this the agreement for Rock to wrestle at Wrestlemania 20? Kurt Angle comes out to the ring, saying he'll give the power to the fans to vote on who wins the Great American Award on WWE.com. Angle begins to rip on Eddie when the low-rider pulls up. Eddie Guerrero gets on the mic and says that if he's such a threat to Smackdown as Angle says he is, then Angle should do something about it. Angle, however, says he's the GM, a position Eddie can't ever have since he doesn't understand the word "responsible". However, he knows someone who does, and Angle nominates Bradshaw as a "Great American" and making him instantly qualifiy for the Great American Award without having to wrestle. Bradshaw then pulls up in his big white limo, parking behind Guerrero's low-rider. Bradshaw continues to push his successes, moving from Texas to New York City. Talking about his football career, stock market, and his job on FOX. In fact, Bradshaw will be on FOX News this Saturday at 11:30 am. Through all of Bradshaw's successes, he lacks one thing: a world title. Eddie has it, and Bradshaw claims he always gets what he wants. Bradshaw said his thirst for the title was nothing personal, but Eddie said he'd make it personal and storms to Bradshaw's limo. Bradshaw escapes through the sunroof, but Eddie snatches his hat. Eddie ran to the ring with his hat, and Bradshaw wants it back since he paid thousands for it, calling Guerrero a "Latino Thief". Eddie questions how many gallons of stuff can the hat hold, and eventually takes it around the ring for fans to dump crap in. Several fans even spit in the hat! Eddie takes the hat and stomps it in the ring. Bradshaw yells at the fans for cheering Eddie, but Eddie challenges Bradshaw to a match and storms the limo again. Bradshaw hides for good, and Eddie leaves the arena. I'm not sure if this next part made it to television... After Eddie was gone, Bradshaw ran to the ring, upset about the hat. He yells at the fans and calls Eddie an "illegal alien" (ouch), and he wants to call the "Mexican" out right now for a fight. However, the arena got dark and the Undertaker came out to an erupting pop from the crowd. He turned on the lights with his hands and stood in the middle of the ring to a panicking Bradshaw. Bradshaw said he wanted Eddie, not the Undertaker. He also yells at the crowd for egging on the Undertaker and Eddie earlier. Bradshaw said he was tough enough to take the Undertaker, although appearing scared at the time by saying "quit looking at me" with the Undertaker in a dead stare right at him. Bradshaw tries to throw a righthand at him, but is blocked. Chokeslam by the Undertaker, and then a Tombstone. End of show, as the Undertaker walks out and Bradshaw is left in the ring.

Damn, beat me to it.

All this from the wrestling observer newsletter via 411mania.com. It looks like even Meltzer had no idea they were going to give Shelton such a push New Raw Wrestlers: - Shelton Benjamin: It is somewhat of a question what they will do with Benjamin, as well as Charlie Haas. Benjamin may team up with Garrison Cade who also does not have a partner now. RAW's tag division is very weak with the loss of the Dudley Boys and Booker T & RVD. - Nidia: She will be used as a wrestler in the women's division. She will fill the spot left by Trish Stratus who will be serving as Christian's manager for awhile. - Chuck Palumbo: WWE has hopes for him due to his solid physique and height. WWE has been planning to break him away from FBI for awhile now. - A-Train: He will likely get another big push on RAW to take advantage of fresh matches with guys like Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. He may also end up being teamed with Chuck Palumbo. - Edge: Is expected to get a HUGE push and may even be put over by Triple H due to the lack of other main eventers for Triple H to work with once he wins the World Title back. - Tajiri: Being taken out of the Cruiserweight division will hurt him. WWE may throw him in a comedy tag team with Lance Storm or Matt Hardy. - Rhyno: It isn't expected that he will have a better role on RAW than he did on Smackdown. New Smackdown Wrestlers: - Rob Van Dam: RVD isn't expected to move up the ladder on Smackdown. With The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, John Cena, and Rey Mysterio, there isn't room right now for anything above a mid-card face, which is what RVD is expected to be. WWE had been planning to move RVD to Smackdown for awhile now. He may end up feuding with Booker T. - Rene Dupree: Dupree will likely go back to a variation of his "French Phenmom" gimmick from OVW. He is also expected to feud with John Cena for awhile. - Spike Dudley: He will be the new Cruiserweight fall guy. - The Dudley Boys: The Dudleys are expected to eventually turn heel, replacing Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas as the top heel tag team. This sets up potential programs with face teams like RVD & Booker T (if they are paired again) and Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi. - Teddy Long: Will likely manage Mark Jindrak. - Booker T: For now, he will be used as a upper level heel which is what Smackdown needs. Look for him to work programs with all the top faces such as The Undertaker, John Cena, Eddie Guerrero, and Rob Van Dam. He may also go back to teaming with RVD at some point. - Rico & Jackie Gayda: Rice isn't expected to get any sort of push following his move. The main reason for this move was so that Smackdown can use Jackie in their bikini contests and such.

Which was disappointing. I live in the west coast so I just saw the match, and since everyone said it was clean i couldn't wait to see it. But much to my surprise it wasn't clean, if a guy is distracted by someone or something else outside the ring, then the win isn't clean. However i must say that I did like how Shelton dominated the match and he had a great presence about him. His cocky attitude helped Shelton look like he belonged in the same ring as HHH.

The Champion can't ALWAYS be the main focus of a show...This show was built around how the guys hate HHH and Benjamin's arrival...Sometimes the champion has to take a back seat. I would agree with you if this didn't involve HHH Remember in 2000 when HHH was champ everything revolved around him But when the Rock was the Champ it was the HHH/Steph/Angle Love Triangle that dominated the shows. And when Angle was the champ it was the Austin/HHH feud that got all the hype. See a pattern there.

Due to how weak Smackdown's crop of heels currently is, WWE is actually considering headlining the May 16th Smackdown-only Judgment Day PPV with a Eddie Guerrero vs. Bradshaw WWE Title match. To add a little edge to Bradshaw, WWE may have Paul Heyman manage him. Most backstage are in shock that Bradshaw will likely be getting a main event push despite his horrible in-ring work. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter ------------------------------------------------ The decision to "fire" Paul Heyman from the Smackdown General Manager position was made right away once Vince McMahon decided to hold the draft lottery. The reasoning then was to open up a regular spot for Kurt Angle where he would not have to wrestle. WWE is also hoping that using Heyman as a major heel manager will not only add some strength to Smackdown's weak heels, it will add more to the Eddie Guerrero programs. WWE wants Heyman to be a modern day version of Capt. Lou Albano and Freddie Blassie. WWE also wants Heyman to get involved in programs with John Cena so that Cena can get more over as a face. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter -------------------------------------------------------- Teddy Long is set to manage Mark Jindrak Credit: WOL radio show

I came up with the same idea when I found out about the re-alignment. IMO it makes perfect sense and there is a better chance of getting the best 16 teams in the playoffs, which is what the playoffs should be about. And it also would allow for the best teams to meet when they are supposed to meet which is the semi's and the Finals.

It was pre-empted in Atlanta as well.

By Mike Johnson of pwinsider.com Chris Benoit fans will be happy to know that WWE is releasing a Chris Benoit DVD title on 7/19. Here's to hoping they including the Owen Hart tribute bout he worked against Bret Hart in WCW.

Update from Meltzer by Dave Meltzer [email protected] Steve Williams (Stone Cold Steve Austin) was involved in an alleged domestic dispute last night at his home in San Antonio which saw police come to his residence. The story was reported earlier today on KSAT in San Antonio. Williams, 39, was not arrested, despite reports to the contrary, and is still scheduled to appear at an autograph session in New Jersey tomorrow. His 37-year-old girlfriend, who was not identified, and who he is reportedly in the process of breaking up with, called police last night. She claimed Williams had shoved her to the ground, injuring his hands and knees and she was fearing bodily injury. She indicated a willingness to press charges.