Kurt Angle Mark

This is the only thing that worries me because this gives me the impression that WWE is going to push the hell out of Brock and Goldberg to set up a champ vs. champ match at Wrestlemania. Therefore its less likely that Benoit wins the belt and that there will be title defenses at WM.

Here is a report from Dave Meltzer for yesterday which had the same card by Dave Meltzer [email protected] WWE house show report from last night at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. I didn't get the attendance figure but looked to be in the 4,000 range. Good show overall. No super matches, but it had no down time and the people who were there liked most of the show. Coach handled ring announcing but no Eric Bischoff tonight. Coach does a good job with the show and was involved in the most memorable incident, when he invited a young fan (6-7 years old) into the ring and the kid had this look on his face like he was mad, and he started throwing crazy punches and kicks at Coach. Coach never came close to getting hit and the kid blew up fast and actually told Coach he liked him. Fans were chanting "Cody" like crazy when they found out his name and nothing on the show got as big a reaction. 1. Val Venis & Lance Storm b Rene Dupree & Rob Conway. Short match. The USA chants were funny if you think about it. They used the old Hart Attack finish on Conway for the pin. Storm now waves his hands at the crowd after winning, and a lot of people, even though it's not over from TV, waved back. I think we may have a new gimmick here. 2. John Heidenreich b Nick Dinsmore. The idea of this match was to try out Heidenreich as a heel because nobody had sympathy for Big Bad John against Dinsmore selling in Vegas. Crowd hated the match and gave it no chance, with boring chants starting within the first minute. It fell apart as well. Heidenreich won with a spinning side slam, like the Abyss black hole slam. 3. Lita & Trish Stratus b Molly Holly & Jazz when Lita pinned Holly with a sick looking DDT on the top of her head. This match had the most heat of anything on the show when Stratus played face in peril. Stratus and Molly were very good. 4. Spike Dudley b Test with the Dudley dog after distraction from Stacy Keibler. Test was much better at working the audience than I've seen him and both did well. Short match, with the big man beating up little man until the fluke pin deal. Test beat on Spike after the match until Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak made the save. They talked about how Spike is the toughest guy in the company, and then, of course, turned on him, establishing themselves as heels. 5. Dudleys b Jindrak & Cade to retain the tag titles with the 3-D on Jindrak. Shorter match then the Dudleys usually do at house shows. Cade has made some noticeable strides and was good in there with them. Probably the second most heat on the show and maybe the best match. 6. Hurricane b Matt Hardy when Lita came out and gave Hardy a flying huracanrana and Hurricane won with the final cut deal. Crowd was getting tired at this point. Hardy also spent a lot of time working he left arm trying to tell a story but people weren't buying it and no crowd reaction until the big pop for the finish. The Lita move looked great. 7. Rico b Steven Richards with a spin kick after Richards turned around after kissing Jackie. Considering how little both are pushed, the crowd was into this a good deal. Entertaining for what it was and Rico was tremendous. The women did their part as well. 8. Randy Orton & Batista b Booker T & Maven when Batista pinned Maven when he met him coming off the top with a sick clothesline, and then used the sit out power bomb. Orton has improved greatly when it comes to mannerisms and carrying himself as a star. Maven played the face in peril. There were rough spots with Batista. Only match on the show to go 10:00. 9. RVD won a three-way to keep IC title over Chris Jericho and Christian. Jericho was entertaining but crowd only popped for the trademark RVD stuff. Finish saw him kick a chair into Jericho's face and then do the five star on Christian. Last minute or so was good but RVD was off a lot in the first half. 10. Bill Goldberg b Kane via DQ in the main event. What they did was hard hitting, probably more than anything on the show. But crowd was into Goldberg selling much at all. Even though they've done angles on TV, it felt like a cold match. Of course, they went nuts for all the spears at the end. Solid execution but not a good main event. Orton & Batista ran in and both got spears. Kane choke slammed Goldberg and everyone left but Goldberg, which is a weird ending. The post-match was a lot more over than anything in the match and neither guy got the reaction you'd expect coming out.

1. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit - RR 03 2. Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker- Smackdown 3. Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit- Vengeance 4. TWGTT vs. Rey and Kidman - Vengeance 5. Kurt Angle vs. John Cena- No Mercy 6. HBK vs. Chris Jericho- WM 19 7. TWGTT vs. Tajiri/Eddie- Smackdown 8. TWGTT vs. Los Guerreros- Velocity 9. Rey Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy- Smackdown 10. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar- WM 03

Complications aside, Angle feeling better by Phil Speer Nov. 24, 2003 Kurt Angle is in great spirits and says he’s on the road to recovery after having surgery last Tuesday, even though there were two fairly major complications. The Olympic gold medalist returned to Dr. Hae-Dong Jho in Pittsburgh, the same physician who operated on him just after WrestleMania, after Angle was clobbered with a Brock Lesnar chair shot on the Oct. 30 episode of SmackDown! “I’ve been getting little symptoms for a couple of months – not real bad, but just tingling down my arm, a little numbness,” Angle said. “Then I took a chair shot a couple of weeks ago, and that was pretty much the beginning of the end for me. So I went to the doctor.” An MRI revealed that part of the disc between Angle’s C5 and C6 vertebrae was touching against his spinal cord, which was causing his problems. Surgery to shave off the bone spur was scheduled for Nov. 18, two days after Survivor Series. But when Dr. Jho made the incision and actually got a look at the disc, he realized that it was worse that he originally thought. “The doctor asked me if I got hit on top of the head, and I said, ‘Yeah I got hit in the head with a chair.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s the kind of thing you can’t do.’ “The disc basically exploded. A bunch of the inside just exploded out and went off in different directions. They found part of it in my spinal cord and that’s why I was feeling the symptoms.” Since the surgery, Angle had also developed a large blood clot in his neck. “I look like I have a golf ball stuck in the front of my neck,” he said. “The doctor said he doesn’t know how it happened, but he said it’ll go away in a few weeks.” He said he’s currently having a hard time swallowing or looking up, and coughing is excruciatingly painful. Angle had originally hoped to return to SmackDown! this week in a non-wrestling capacity, and then get back in the ring within a month. But now he says his recovery time will be more like six weeks. “I’m not going to be able to appear on TV until after the holidays it looks like,” he said. But he added, “My neck feels better already. It feels great. Another four or five weeks, I should be back in action. Strength in hand is coming back. I feel pretty good right now. When I come back, I won’t be skipping a beat. I’ve just got to get back in the swing of things.” Angle wanted to have the surgery now so he’d be as healthy as possible for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, and that goal is still intact for him. In fact, he says his other nagging injuries are feeling great. “I’m all healed up,” he said. “Everything else has been good. Just when I start feeling good everywhere, the neck went. So when I do come back, I’ll be 100 percent and ready to go in every aspect. “I have a little soreness in both (my shoulder and my left hamstring), but my left hamstring is as strong as my right, although I’m missing part of it – one of the muscles. The other muscles have compensated.” Angle said that he realizes that his current complications are going to make others believe that spinal fusion surgery is a better option. But Angle still believes that his procedure is superior. “Guys with fusion – once you fuse that bone, it’s very tight,” he said. “So more stress is going to occur in other parts of your neck because you don’t have that flexibility in that one area. That’s why guys with fusion, down the road, tend to have more neck injuries. I don’t want tightness. I want more flexibility because I want to continue to work and do things guys with fusion can’t do.”

after reading another report at Pwtorch.com it looks like it's going to be Cena vs. Benoit next week and not the Triple threat match

According to these spoilers it's going to be a Triple threat match for the Title next week SMACKDOWN SPOILERS by David Leavitt Navajo Warrior over Some Jobber...Native American/Chief Jay Strongbow gimmick over generic guy in about 4 minutes...Slow Opener with the Boise crowd pretty much cheering for everything. A real little Local Guy, 5' 6", 175 lbs. Vs. Another Dude...Dark Matches suck!...Local Guy gets the roll up with another 3 or 4 minute match. Velocity may or may not start with Another Jobber Guy Vs. Sean O'Haire...No intro for the jobber guy...O'Haire throws this little guy around for about 3 minutes before killing the guy and picking up the win. Nunzio Vs. Funaki is next...Good crowd reaction for Funaki and good back and forth action between these two...after 2 or 3 false finishes, Funaki rolls up Nunzio for the win in about 7 minutes. Next Out was Orlando Jordan Vs. Kanyon...Jordan gets the pop for going to Boise State...Jordan looks good and uses Kanyon for what he's been worth lately, staring at the lights as Jordan gets the win in front of his former college crowd...After match Jordan gets the mic and thanks everybody for their support. Main event for Velocity is FBI (Palumbo/Stamboli) Vs. Spanky and Paul London...Match was pretty much heat segment on London until the hot tag to Spanky...Good and Fast action that saw the bell ring by accident on a false finish...FBI takes the match after Spanky takes the knee from the top rope/back breaker combo. Smackdown beings with Paul Heyman in the ring, talking about giving opportunities to people when he calls out the entire locker room...everyone except Brock comes out as Paul props up his plans for this evening...He announces that a 20 man battle royal will go down tonight with the winner getting a title shot at Brock, Tonight! Paul then calls out Brock...Brock says nobody can beat him and he suggests to Paul what to do for him...Paul and Brock sidebar while the crowd starts in with "You Tapped Out" and Brock then says he's not afraid to challenge anybody, points out Big Show and not being scared of him...Brock and Heyman sidebar again, Brock suggests to make in tougher on Cena and Benoit by having qualifying matches to get in to the Battle Royal later this evening...Benoit gets Matt Morgan and Cena gets A-Train...Benoit's match is next...about a 15-18 minutes segment to lead off the program. Benoit stays in the ring as Morgan comes out and hits the ring during his intro, Benoit cuts him off and they brawl for a while...Benoit takes a good pounding...Morgan is physically impressive but his ring skills need work...Benoit wins in about 5 minutes to qualify. Cut to backstage where Shannon Moore is with Paul Heyman again, Paul telling Shannon he's got "Big" plans for him and his match is next against Nathan Jones. After break Shannon is in the ring, ribs taped up...Jones intro then 4 minutes of Jones throwing Moore around like a sack of potatoes...(YES, FOLKS THIS IS IDAHO!) Jones throws him over the top rope on to the floor like 3 times...A couple of really big arm drags on Shannon and he gets pinned...Jones "works" for 4 minutes and no wrestling moves...Nice! Next up on the video screens we see Jamie Noble and Nidia talking, Jamie not wanting Nidia to come out to ringside, Nidia, in her blind state, says she'll be OK cause she's going to sit with Cole and Tazz. Noble Vs. Akia or what ever the hell their calling Jimmy Yang...I can see why Jimmy is already on the main roster because he looks real good and polished...Tajiri is out with Jimmy...Good Match that I missed the finish of but saw Tajiri messing around with Nidia and getting the low blow, distracting Jamie as The Yakuza's 3rd member runs in and helps Jimmy Yang get win in about 6 minutes. Cena cuts a rap on the crew backstage doing the Thanksgiving thing...Funny Stuff! Next out is Eddie Guerrero Vs. Charlie Haas, both Chavo and Shelton Benjamin accompany their partners...Eddie and Chavo come out in a low rider Suburban, Lime Green...Probably the only one in Idaho...Decent effort for both guys but starts becoming obvious what's going to happen, Chavo selling last week’s leg injury, has a crutch with him, Eddie "borrows" it from Chavo knocking him down, taking the crutch and nailing Haas with it after failed interference by Benjamin who had the ref distracted...Good win for Eddie when Chavo rolls in and asks Eddie what's up taking his crutch...Eddie explains he got the win and Chavo cools down a bit but refuses a ride back stage in the low rider. During the Break...Eddie's backing in the car and people are still cheering him...Boise crowd will pop for anything...Eddie's the Man!! John Cena Vs. A-Train is next...Good Match for getting Cena some babyface time...The crowd likes Cena...The match was not bad but just a little slow back and forth action for about 5 minutes until several false finishes that saw both wrestlers hit their finishers...Cena hits the FU for the win...probably the best A-Train match in a while. Next out is Lamont, Big afro guy and personal assistant to Ernest "The Cat" Miller...but before his segment Hardcore Holly says he'll be back soon and wants to break Brock Lesnar's neck...Nice!...Hope they do this on TV because I don't want to pay and see a "main event" with Hardcore Holly. Back from Break and Lamont is in the ring for the intro of The Cat...Now here comes The Cat and I'm the only person in the building that has seen this before...Cat hits his dance moves and the crowd has a Luke warm response...Cat then says he needs some one to dance with and call out Boise's own Torrie Wilson..."CHEAP POP!!!"...Cat and Torrie play for a while when Torrie reveals she has a lollipop between her breasts and begins licking it then gives it to The Cat...Cat licks it like the antidote is inside and almost can't contain himself as the segment ends. Coming out next was the 20 man battle royal...All night long I had a clear view when this kid 2 rows in front starts to stand up on the rail annoying his parents and making people mad all around...I really only got to see the last eliminations but finish goes of like this. Final 4 is Cena, Benoit, Guerrero and Shelton Benjamin...Cluster finish sees Eddie eliminated after FU from Cena and a sick looking super kick from Benjamin...Benjamin gets tossed by both Benoit and Cena...Down to Cena and Benoit for some action...after a couple of minutes both men eliminate each other with both Benoit and Cena's feet hitting the floor at the same time, 2 refs see the same thing as each man claims victory. Brock Lesnar comes out and adds fuel to the fire, Heyman's out next to see what the refs’ decision was...He begins to interrogate each ref and they all screw up the script...the ref mistake the stipulation and screwed up what was going on...Cena says "next week" when they said tonight for the WWE title match...someone with a headset at ringside comes up, slapping the canvas, breaks up the segment saying that they screwed all up their lines and were going to re-shoot the segment...Paul covers and goes backstage to "look at the tape again"...every one gets back into place and the re-run the segment...Good Cover and not many people live noticed it. Segment restarts with a tease of the Triple Threat but Paul backs the crowd down and says Boise doesn't deserve to see it but it's going down next week...This is where they stopped tape...Brock then lays out Cena with the Belt!...Bang!!...Benoit starts in and gets cut off then out of nowhere it's 5 on 2 at Morgan, Jones, A-Train and Big Show are out for the punk out session...Benoit and Cena are left lying...Ends with heels in the ring celebrating. Next Week on Smackdown! Chris Benoit Vs. John Cena Vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE title. Overall a real good effort by the Smackdown crew...

by Dave Scherer This week’s edition of Raw did a 3.6 cable rating, with a 5 share, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is the same number that the show did last week. The show did hours of 3.4 and 3.7. The highest quarter hour of the broadcast came from 10:00 to 10:15 for the Goldberg vs. HHH match, which did a 4.4. That means that the ratings went downward after that match ended and Raw lost viewers, which is always a potential problem when the main event is placed in the middle of the show. What is interesting to note is that even though the show did the same rating two weeks in a row, they were down in their core demographic from last week’s show, with males 12 to 17 dropping from 4.6 to 2.8 this week and males 12-34 dropping from a 3.9 to a 3.3. It appears that an expanded edition of Fear Factor may have hurt Raw in drawing the young male demo. It should be noted that the young male audience has dropped from watching television so badly this fall season that programmers are actually questioning Nielsen’s methods of gathering their numbers. Nielsen said yesterday that their numbers are accurate and young males are watching less TV and spending more time on DVDs and video games.

No, however it should be noted that when they did that last year there was a big a jump in the ratings.

OK, tonight's show will feature the debut of Matt Hardy. He is scheduled to be in an angle with Lita which will not turn out to be what you would expect. Test is scheduled to be back in action from his broken foot as well. Also, they are scheduled to have Goldberg face Evolution in a handicap match, with a surprise ending to set up his next program. credit: 1wrestling.com

I noticed it too, He looked horrible

Cena is going to win With the WWE going with Brock/Goldberg at WM,I got this feeling that the WWE title match at WM is going to be Benoit vs. Cena.

Brock will be laying down to Benoit right? RIGHT? RIGHT! Right

I'm assuming that Brock will be traded for Kane somewhere down the road to set up Goldberg vs. Brock Kane vs. Undertaker for Wrestlemania

YES !!!!! Clippers win their fourth in a row. 95-92 over the Magic Q had 31 points and Kaman did a good job for us for the first time this year.

As expected with an average (as opposed to below average) overnight number, Smackdown's final number at 3.7 was the second highest of the past year. credit: Dave Meltzer

Clippers win their third in a row a 104-98 victory over the Warriors Chris Wilcox had 21 points and 9 rebounds, doing an amazing job replacing Elton Brand. Hopefully McGrady will be tired after today's game, so he can have an off night when the Magic play the Clippers tomorrow.

That's what I always said to my friends, if you combined the two you would have had the best wrestling company ever.

Here is the list of release dates for upcoming DVD's from WWE Survivor Series on 12/16, Armageddon on 1/20, Mick Foley on 2/10, Best of Confidential II on 2/10, History of the Monday Night Wars (won't this be something) on 2/10, Royal Rumble on 2/24, Kurt Angle on 3/2, No Way Out on 3/16, Wrestlemania 20 on 4/27, Divas in Mexico on 4/29, Backlash on 5/4. credit: Dave Meltzer

Update on Angle from PWtorch.com "Although the MRI results are not back yet, sources say as of today the original fears within WWE about the seriousness of the condition of Angle's neck are subsiding a bit. Angle lost feeling in his left hand last week after taking a chairshot, so his issues may be primarily due to a pinched nerve of some kind. However, Angle had been feeling pain in his neck for a while, especially after the hour long match with Brock Lesnar, so the MRI is a precautionary move to be sure that there aren't bigger issues that made him more susceptible to numbness issues which need to be addressed. MRI test results are expected this week. "

This week's edition of Raw did a 3.7 cable rating, with a 5.6 share, according to Nielsen Media Research. The show did hours of 3.6 and 3.8. The number is up from last week's 3.4. credit:1wrestling.com

Clippers win again 115-103 against the Hawks to go to 2-2 Quentin Richardson had 32 points and 16 rebounds, both career highs. Maggette added 21 and Chris Wilcox added 19 starting in place of Elton Brand. Congrats to Dunleavy on his 400th career win.

No he should not have. Austin was carrying the whole Alliance. Angle won the belt a month later and they had to put it right back on Austin because it failed. You say it was the day the InVasion died, but it would have died faster if they did what you wanted. Austin absolutely should have gone over there. It "failed" because Angle was never suppose to win the title at Unforgiven. They only gave it to him because of Sept 11. Linda said so herself at the share holders meeting, therefore there was no effort to actually give Angle a decent run . And if Angle was a failure then why did Raw go from averaging a 4.5 rating with Angle as champ to a 4.0 when Austin won it back, until Flair came in and brought the ratings back up.

Show that I hated that people loved Summerslam 2001. IMO the one show that started the huge downfall for the WWE. Angle should have won the belt. Booker T should have still been WCW champ. Taker/Kane killing DDP/Kanyon, X-Pac beating Tajiri. Worst booked show ever. In other words the Invasion angle died that day. I even turn to my friend after the show and said "The WWF is screwed." Then they go on to book the worst month ever with Stone Cold Kurt Angle and Edge jobbing every match for three weeks, killing any heat the Edge/Christian feud might have had.

You forgot to add Tajiri vs. Rey vs. Nunzio Noble & Ultimo vs. Yang & Sakoda

World Wrestling Entertainment Releasing 3-dvd Set of Legendary Superstar Ric Flair on 11/18/03 STAMFORD, Conn.--Nov. 5, 2003-- 30 Year Career Spanning DVD Includes Feuds With Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat and Sting World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) today announced the November 18 release of THE ULTIMATE RIC FLAIR COLLECTION, more than 10 hours of material on DVD covering every aspect of "The Nature Boys" illustrious career and 16 world championships. From Ric Flair's debut match on March 1, 1976, with Pete Sanchez to a match from this past year with Triple H, that includes a never-before-seen post-show tribute, this first-ever Ric Flair WWE DVD has it all. The name Ric Flair draws universal awe and admiration. He is the 16-time Heavyweight Champion of the World and has held the World Championship more times than any competitor in the history of sports-entertainment. Fans around the world pay tribute by shouting his trademark "Woooooo!" He's influenced more Superstars than anyone else. There are legends and all-time greats, but there is only one Ric Flair. But Flair's legacy extends far beyond statistics. Flair's charisma, energy and signature "Woooooo!" expression have made him a worldwide legend -- from his birthplace of Minnesota, to his longtime hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina; from coast to coast, to around the world. Flair received one of the loudest ovations ever heard on Nov. 19, 2001, in Charlotte, when he made his surprise return to World Wrestling Entertainment. He staged perhaps the greatest performance in Royal Rumble history in 1992, capturing the vacant WWE Championship by lasting over an hour in the ring. After losing the title to Randy Savage in the main event of WrestleMania VIII, Flair regained the title in late August of 1992, and then lost the championship to Bret Hart the following month. This 3-DVD set chronicles over three decades of Ric Flair's illustrious career featuring his feuds with Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat and Sting. 3-DVD set with 10.5 hours of material including: -- Debut match vs. Pete Sanchez 3.1.76 -- A day in the life of the Four Horsemen -- His match with Triple H from 5.19.03 Raw with a post-show tribute that has never-been-seen on TV -- All the promos & controversies surrounding his greatest matches against Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Terry Funk, Sting as well as his 1992 Royal Rumble victory. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) is an integrated media and entertainment company headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and London. Additional information on the company can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For additional information on WrestleMania xx, to be broadcast live on pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 14, 2004, go to wrestlemania.wwe.com. Information on television ratings and community activities can be found at parents.wwe.com. Trademarks: The names of all World Wrestling Entertainment televised and live programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans and wrestling moves and all World Wrestling Entertainment logos are trademarks, which are the exclusive property of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.