Kurt Angle Mark

The talk amongst the wrestlers at last night's Smackdown tapings is that Bill Goldberg is either close to signing a contract or has signed one already. Meanwhile, WWE officials continue to say that they have not reached a deal with the former WCW star. credit: PWtorch.com 1wrestling.com also posted a similar story as well. Saying that people close to Goldberg say he has signed or will sign while WWE officials deny the story.

From 1wrestling.com "I have gotten a lot of email asking me if Kurt Angle will work any more matches before having his neck surgery since there are many reports circulating on the internet as to whether he will or not. It was announced on Smackdown last night that Angle will defend the WWE Title against Brock Lesnar on next week's show. WWE sources have told me that Angle will work the match next week, and I would (obviously) expect him to drop the belt to Lesnar at that time. Coincidentally, the match happens to be in Angle's home town of Pittsburgh."

What I would do is that I would have Kurt Angle lose to Brock Lesnar on Smackdown. After the match Kurt Angle shakes Brock's hand and perhaps Kurt may also leave to a standing O since he will be in his home town. Then the following week reveal that Kurt Angle wrestled Brock with an injured neck and he will be out for a year. That way Angle looks tough for gutting it out against Brock and would get him over as a face for when he returns.

Wow, I still can't believe that we will have no Kurt Angle for a year. As a wrestling fan I have never been so depressed in my life. From reading the spoilers it looks like Kurt will wrestle next week and give it his all. I also believe that he would have wrestled at Wrestlemania but that Kurt and the WWE decided best to get the surgery done as soon as possible so they moved up the match to next week. Concerning the title match at Wrestlemania, even though I'm going to get massacred for saying this, Brock should face John Cena since they have already started a feud between the two.Sure its not a Wrestlemania quality match but Wrestlemania sells itself. Save Benoit for another PPV. Also they must find a way to get Jericho over to Smackdown to make up for Angle's loss.

For those wondering about Tajiri's whereabouts I got this from another message board. The poster got this from one of the newsletters. "Tajiri went home to Japan because his wife was going to give birth. Hours after the birth, the baby died. . So he's staying there for awhile. But he's welcome back whenever he's ready, so says the WWE. " I should add that this may have happened weeks ago since Tajiri had been in Japan since the Raw Tour in late January.

Yeah, I should have been specific. Tajiri had been in Japan since The Raw Tour in late January, which is why we hadn't seen him the past five weeks.

I went back to check the No Way Out tape and I saw were Angle got injured. It was when he had Brock in the rear chin lock and Brock broke it by ramming Angle's head into the turnbuckle. Angle hit it with the left side of his head and neck and you can clearly see that Angle's left arm went numb. The referee kept on checking on him to see if he was ok. Are u taking Test's word now...That almost as bad as Ibob. I'm not taking anyone's word. Angle's left arm was dangling and when he crawled to make the tag, he tried but he couldn't put any weight on it. You could see in his face that he was in pain.

I went back to check the No Way Out tape and I saw were Angle got injured. It was when he had Brock in the rear chin lock and Brock broke it by ramming Angle's head into the turnbuckle. Angle hit it with the left side of his head and neck and you can clearly see that Angle's left arm went numb. The referee kept on checking on him to see if he was ok.

The following is a preliminary report of tonight's Smackdown! tapings, done exclusively by rajahwwf.com. If anyone who attended wants to provide additional notes/results, please send it on in and we'll add it to this page. February 25, 2003 London, Ontario Report by: rajahwwf.com - I missed all of the Velocity and dark matches. If someone wants to fill in the blanks for us, we'd appreciate it. All I know is that Rey Mysterio won the final Velocity match. - Vince McMahon comes down for the opening interview. He says he has some bad news for the fans but that's all right, because he also has some good news. The bad news is that the Rock will NOT be here tonight and the reason is because the Rock has earned the right to go to whatever show he wants. And as we saw on Monday, he has chosen Raw. But the good news - Hulk Hogan will also not be here tonight! Vince says he's the most disappointed of everyone because Hogan is using the flimsiest excuse to not appear - a family emergency involving his son, Nick. But honestly, there's only one reason Hogan is not here tonight - Hulk Hogan is a coward, he is afraid of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. It all started a month ago when Hogan challenged Vince to a match but Hogan, you don't screw with Vince. Vince will screw with you and boy did he ever screw him, he screwed him royally at No Way Out. Vince says he's damn proud of what he did. He goes over what happened at No Way Out in great detail and says that tonight WWE will break tradition - they will broadcast what happened at No Way Out! Tonight, it will become official that Hulkamania is dead but don't worry, there is a new 'Mania in WWE and that new 'Mania is McMahon-a-Mania is running wild! - They announce that tonight Brock Lesnar will face Team Angle in a two-on-one handicap match. - Funaki & Torrie vs. Jamie Noble & Nidia. This was a mixed tag team match, with Torrie ending up pinning Nidia for the win. - Stephanie McMahom comes down next and says the following announcement is only for mature audiences. She talks about Hugh Heffner's revelation that one Smackdown! diva will be featured in Playboy in a fully nude pictorial. She asks the fans if they want to see "one of us" naked and with that, she says congratulations...to me! Stephanie then corrects herself and says she meant congratulations to me for closing the deal, but the diva that will be featured in next month's Playboy will be...Torrie Wilson! - They show a Los Guerreros vignette, which I'm not sure will air or not. The theme: Cheat to win. - Backstage, Torrie catches up with Stephanie McMahon and asks her if it's really true - is she really going to be in Playboy? Stephanie confirms it and says that not only will she be on the cover of the magazine, but she'll also be on the Girls Gone Wild PPV. Brian Kendrick then runs into Stephanie and says that he's sorry for streaking but he really wants a job with WWE bad and he wants to wrestle Kurt Angle to prove it. Stephanie says no at first but then changes her mind and says if he can last five minutes with Angle, he will be the newest addition to the Smackdown! roster. Kendrick is thrilled. - Eddie Guerrero vs. Nunzio. Nunzio was accompanied by his Full Blooded Italians (FBI) buddies (Johnny Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo) while Chavo came out with Eddie. Constant interference by the FBI throughout the match but Eddie ends up winning with a handful of tights. After the match, the FBI pours in and starts beating up the Guerreros but Rikishi comes in for the save. Later on tonight, it is announced that Rikishi will face Palumbo. - Backstage, Paul Heyman enters Stephanie's office. Steph says the reason she wanted to see him is because of tonight's match between Lesnar and Team Angle where Lesnar will get to choose the stipulation. Lesnar has chosen that if he can win the match tonight, he gets to pick one member of Team Angle to face in a steel cage match next week. Heyman realizes that this means that Lesnar could potentially choose Angle as his opponent next week and feels as if it's not fair. Stephanie says life is not fair and tells Heyman to leave. - We see footage of the attack on Edge at No Way Out and reveal that Edge has suffered a serious neck injury. - Backstage, Chris Benoit tells Lesnar that Kurt Angle is one calculating, cruel bastard who will do anything to keep his title at Wrestlemania. Benoit says that they both know Team Angle was behind Edge's attack and Edge is now out for a year. Benoit tells Lesnar that if he beats Team Angle tonight, he has the opportunity to do to one member of the stable (next week) what they did to Edge. Lesnar says he'll win but asks Benoit if he should be worried about his own match cause someone will need to be his partner. Benoit assures Lesnar that he has friends who will be there for him. The two part ways with Benoit telling Lesnar to win by any means necessary. - They hype up Wrestlemania 19 on March 30 from Seattle, Washington. The first big announcement is that Limp Bizkit will live at the event to sing the Wrestlemania theme song. - Chris Benoit & ??? vs. Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore. Before the match, Matt thanks everyone for their support when crash-dieting. But all is right in the world now as Matt Hardy Version 1 is the new Cruiserweight champion. Matt then talks about Edge being out for an entire year and wishes him well on his road to recovery. But if Edge was a Mattitude follower, he would not have suffered such an unfortunate twist of fate. This is when about Benoit interrupts and his mystery partner is announced...Rhyno! Excellent crowd reaction with the finish seeing Rhyno hitting the Gore on Matt Hardy for the pinfall. - A very short interview with Nathan Jones airs. He says his ultimate goal is to become the next WWE champion but first he has some unfinished business with the biggest dog in the yard... - And that leads to us seeing this so called biggest dog in the yard - the Undertaker, who is shown arriving at the arena. - After a commercial break, Undertaker emerges from the back and heads to the ring. Taker starts of by addressing A-Train, saying that he got his attention on Sunday but with the attention comes consequences. It's now time to shut up and fight and right on cue, A-Train's music hits but instead it's Heyman. Heyman says that Taker used an illegal chokehold on his favorite client at No Way Out to win but since then, he has signed a contract to be the exclusive agent for A-Train, just like he is for Big Show, Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Big Show's music hits and out of nowhere, both Show and A-Train swarm the ring and attack Taker. Show chokeslams Taker and then A-Train splashes him. They grab a chair but Nathan Jones comes running down and cleans house for the save. Michael Cole and Tazz wonder about Jones' true motives and why he saved Taker. Cole speculates that Jones wants to save Taker for himself. - Rikishi vs. Chuck Palumbo. Palumbo comes out with his friends as expected so Rikishi brings out Eddie and Chavo to even up the sides. Nunzio gets a steel pipe and starts using it on all the "good guys" and Palumbo ends up getting DQd because of it. - Backstage, John Cena, who apparently suffered a knee injury at the hands of Brock Lesnar last week, basically cuts a promo on him saying he will get revenge, etc. and that if his finisher is the F-5, his is F-U. - Kurt Angle vs. Brian Kendrick. They dubbed this match a "five minute challenge", complete with a little clock in the corner counting down from five minutes. Angle came out with agent Paul Heyman to numerous "You Suck" and "Angle Sucks" chants. Angle mocks Kendrick at the beginning so Kendrick attacks him to no avail. Basically, the whole match goes with Kendrick trying to "survive" the five minutes and Angle just toying with him and playing around. Within the last minute or so, Kendrick takes it to Angle, but at the 30-second mark, Angle regains the advantage and with about five seconds left, hits the Angle-Slam for the victory. Time on the clock at the finish: about two seconds. Kendrick is disappointment and looks like he's pretty close to crying. - After the match, Kurt takes a mic and says that Team Angle had nothing to do with Edge's demise. No one can prove anything. But now it's time to move on to Wrestlemania. He turns his attention to Kendrick and says that he's got guts. He won't make it in this business but he's got guts and that goes a long with him. He asks the fans to give him a hand. Angle then says "Brock Lesnar, this one's for you" and he proceeds to beat up Kendrick. - Sylvain Grenier (the ref in the Rock/Hogan match at No Way Out) comes down and starts talking in French to a lot of boos. He eventually switches to English and says that Vince wanted him to be the one to introduce one of his greatest moments, his shining moment for everyone to see. And with that, they air footage of the match from No Way Out, joined in progress near the end. You know the rest. - We then see pre-taped footage of a furious Hulk Hogan on Sunday after losing at No Way Out. He asked Stephanie where Vince was, Stephanie said she didn't know and Hogan asked her to pass along a message that he's going to kill him. - It is announced that next week A-Train will wrestle Undertaker in a one-on-one match. - Backstage, Paul Heyman has a little pep talk with Team Angle members, but I wasn't able to get the gist of it. - Brock Lesnar vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas. Heyman and Angle accompany Benjamin and Haas to the ring and Lesnar had to contend with both of them all through the match. Lesnar perserves though and wins via the F-5. After the match, Lesnar catches Heyman but before he can F-5 him, Angle comes in and takes out Brock by the knees. Heyman and Angle panic and argue with Heyman freaking out that Brock almost beat him up and Angle worried about possibly facing Brock next week in a steel cage match. - Brock then grabs a mic and says that you'd expect him to be mad but he's not. He just beat Team Angle and by beating Team Angle, that sets him up. That sets him up for next week and he once again re-iterates that he gets to pick any Team Angle member to face. Lesnar says that it's him and Kurt one-on-one at Wrestlemania so next week, he will pick one of his teammates instead. And that member is - Paul Heyman! End show.

I still see Rhyno going with Matt as well. Perhaps after getting his ass kicked by Rhyno, Matt will try to recruit Rhyno because he realizes that Rhyno would make a worthy MF'er.

Man, reading the spoilers made me realize the greatness of The Rock. I love Smackdown but I have no interest in this weeks show because nothing can compete with the Rock's performance last night.

Noble & Nidia vs. Funaki & Torrie Eddie Guerrero vs. Nunzio Chris Benoit & ??? vs. Matt Hardy and Moore Rikishi vs. Chuck Palumbo Brian Kendrick vs. Kurt Angle Brock Lesnar vs. Team Angle

By Dave Meltzer These were posted before the PPV: Rock debuts on Raw tomorrow night. I'm presuming the storyline for this will be explained on the PPV later. At this point, Rock moves over so they can do the Austin program on Raw over the next month. While we've heard no word that he's signed, it does appear they are either very close or have reached an agreement and Goldberg is more likely for tomorrow night. There will also be a Battle Royal to determine the #1 contender for the world title.

How did HHH do the right thing? It doesn't say that the decision to keep him off the show was his decision to make.

Here is an update from Meltzer "Tonight's show as of yesterday was to be headlined by a Battle Royal where the winner would face HHH for the title at Wrestlemania. Rock is scheduled to appear on the show and move to Raw permanently to explain his Wrestlemania program with Austin. Steve Austin is not billed as appearing on the show (he will be appearing on Raw next Monday from the Nassau Coliseum) although it would hardly shock anyone for him to be there. "

I'd rather see a straight-up cruiserweight title match at WM between Mattitude and Rey Rey. Isn't it SOP* to have all the belts up for grabs at the "showcase of the immortals"? * Standard Operating Procedure I meant that they feud with each other the whole month and at Wrestlemania you have Rey vs. Matt and Rhyno vs. Benoit.

The great thing about this is that with Edge gone they can easily set up a Matt/Rhyno vs. Rey/ Benoit feud as they head towards Wrestlemania.

Here is an update from Dave Scherer "As we reported on the Newsline last night, the news broke backstage at No Way Out yesterday that Paul Heyman has been removed from his spot as the lead writer of Smackdown by the WWE hierarchy. The change actually happened in the middle of last week, and takes effect immediately. Heyman will now be a talent for the Smackdown brand and what has been termed as a "consultant" to both the Raw and Smackdown shows, which may mean that, like many others in the company, he will do critiques of the shows after they air and then send them to the creative team. Bruce Prichard and Dave Lagana will take Heyman's place at the top of Smackdown. Prichard has played the "Brother Love" character in the past and written for the company for years, including a stint in the 90s where the product was, quite frankly, not very good. Lagana is a former fan who used to go to ECW Arena shows back in the day when he was younger. He then went to college and later to Hollywood, where he worked in a writing capacity on a few TV series, including Friends. Lagana joined WWE, I believe, last year and quickly became Heyman's right hand man on the Smackdown brand, though I have heard that relations between the two cooled in recent months. His rise in the company has been a quick and impressive one. The word of the change in creative began making the rounds among the employees early in the day yesterday. No "official" reason was given as far as I now, but from what I have gathered, the main issue for the move came down to Heyman's many differences of opinion with Executive Producer Kevin Dunn. Dunn, who is the right hand man to Vince McMahon, has more power than almost anyone in WWE and has been at odds with Heyman for months now. I am not sure of the particulars, but things were said to have come to a head between the two men in the last week and the result was Heyman getting pushed out of the top spot on the Smackdown team. In addition to his disagreements with Dunn, Heyman has also verbally sparred on many occasions with Raw lead writer Brian Gewirtz, and others in the company, when he was vocal in his opposition to what he felt were bad storyline ideas. A number of people in the company told me that while Heyman's desire to fight for what he believed in was admirable, it was also professionally suicidal since the WWE Creative Team isn't exactly amenable when it comes to listening to opinions that go against the company line, even when the ideas in questions are horrible. From my position on the outside, this appears to be a very destructive move for WWE. While Heyman can be difficult, and even adversarial, when it comes to fighting for what he believes in, most people would agree that since the split of the writing teams, Smackdown has been, by far, the superior show to Raw. If Heyman's influence is gone from the television shows, I can't see that being a positive in any way. One thing that is very clear is that Heyman was not demoted due to his actual job performance, but rather personality matters that occurred behind the scenes. "

By Dave Melter "While this has not been confirmed, I expect they'll do some sort of an angle on the show to eliminate Edge from the six-man tag (Edge will be at the show). Rhyno's name has been mentioned most prominently as the replacement. There are also some late discussions trying to get Bill Goldberg to make some sort of an appearance at the show."

"A few weeks ago, WWE's plan was to have Rhyno join HHH's Evolution group when he returned from his neck injury, but the talk now is that he will not end up being a part of the group. Apparently, the company likes Evolution the way that it is constituted now and won't add Rhyno to it. As always, that is subject to change but that is where it stands right now." credit: 1wrestling.com

Here is an update "Test and Stacy Keibler were not at Raw last night due to the blizzard that hit the east coast over the last few days, which snowed them in their Baltimore, MD home. By Sunday the storm, which dumped more than a foot of snow on many areas, shut down airports up and down the eastern seaboard. From what I was told, there is heat on the pair from the WWE office due to the fact that they didn't get out of town sooner. The feeling is that since the blizzard was forecasted days in advance, they should have left for Columbus, OH on Saturday, before the snow hit. Due to them not being there, Test's match with Chris Jericho was not mentioned on Raw last night and as it stands right now, will not take place on the PPV. The timing was even worse when you consider that the WWE wrestlers that were on the road have battled horrible weather conditions all weekend but still made their shots. " By Dave Scherer of 1wrestling.com

The report I read was a fake. Test wasn't at the show last night either. I still say that Test/Stacy couldn't make the show because of the weather. Since they were not on the house shows during the weekend.

I just read that Test wrestled at the tapings, he faced Rico for the international Heat. However Stacy wasn't with him so I guess Stacy wasn't able to make the show because of the weather.

The entire upper deck was blocked off, but most of the lower bowl was sold out. Note: Originally scheduled for the show was Cena vs. O'Haire, Jones vs. DeMott, Matt/Shannon vs. Funaki/Rey, and Edge/Rikishi vs. Jericho/Christian in a Raw vs. SmackDown Kiss My Ass Match. Edge was not on the show and Rey took his spot in the Raw vs. SmackDown tag match, Matt took on Jones in a singles match, and DeMott/Cena took on Funaki/O'Haire. Opening Match: Brock Lesnar def. Big Show and Paul Heyman (Handicap Match). Tony Chimmel starts the show be saying how great Detroit is, but Heyman interupts. The crowd was all over Heyman with a "You Suck" chant, to which Heyman replied to someone in the audience "Yes, I DO suck, but your daughter taught me now". Make of that what you will. At one point, Show had Lesnar down and tagged in Paul, who cowardly kicked at Brock's body. Match ended when Brock hit show with a chair while Heyman inadvertantly distracted the ref. Heyman took the F5 afterwards. Match #2: A-Train def. Kanyon. Kanyon gave it his all and as a result it was a decent match. Kanyon's tights resembled Storm's old Red and White tights except they were Green and Black with "Who Betta?" written on them. Kanyon kicked out of the former Baldo Bomb but fell victim to the Derailer or Train Wreck or whatever the hell the Shoulder Backbreaker is called. Kanyon got a standing ovation after the match (from me and my friend Drew, anyway.. some scattered applause from others). Match #3: John Cena and Bill Demott def. Funaki and Sean O'Haire (Cena over Funaki, small package). Cena cut an anti-Detroit rap promo ("I ain't even tryin, the worst NFL team is the Detroit Lions" or something like that). Good heat, decent match. Mostly heels beating Funaki, brief hot tag to O'Haire who rocket launched Funaki onto Cena while the ref was yelling at DeMott. O'Haire took out DeMott and Cena packaged Funaki. O'Haire and Funaki hugged afterwards to some cheers. Match #4: Nathan Jones def. Matt Hardy (Version 1.0). Matt cut a promo, asking if those were boo's he heard (I informed him it was "Boo-urns", but he continued to run down Detroit). Short match, Jones didn't look as bad as I've been led to believe, but not a tremendous talent either. I'd say he did better than Batista. Match #5: Billy Kidman def. Jamie Noble (/w Nidia). Good match, better than the last one I saw live at Vengeance. There was a blown spot where either Kidman was too far or Noble didn't sell it, but the always trusty "Opponent Powerbombs Kidman, Kidman does a Faceslam" spot ended with Kidman landing on his ass and Noble still standing. They quickly transitioned from that to that powerbomb Kidman does that D`Lo did too (Raiden bomb?) followed by the SSP. Bonus Match: Steve Gray and Canadian Change vs. Soda Vendors Who Won't take 3 Canadian Quarters. Also known as 15 minute intermission. Match #6: Team Angle def. Los Guerreros. Not much heat (some people hadn't returned from intermission yet not to mention some people view the Guerreros as heels) but it picked up near the end. Team Angle went for a second Superkick / German Suplex Combo on Chavo, but the ref ended up getting in the way and was knocked out. Eddie hit Haas with the tag title with no ref. I apologize for forgetting the finish, but I believe Haas pinned Eddie with an Oklahoma Roll after the ref got up. Match #7: Nidia def. Torrie Wilson (Special Ref: Dawn Marie). Bad match that seemed decent live, mostly due to all the interest from the male fans. At one point, Torrie and Nidia did the trademark "let's roll around, have the ref jump over us, continue rolling around and take the ref with us" spot, with the added twist Dawn was the ref, so you had tree chicks rolling around together. Torrie hit her Neckbreaker of Doom, but Dawn didn't count it. Torrie argued, Nidia rolled her up, fast count by Dawn. Match #8: Rikishi and Rey def. Jericho and Christian. Comedy to start (Jericho promo, Christian standing on the ropes and falling down when Jericho high fives him). A good match live with both god comedy and good wrestling, but also some slow stuff when Rikishi was in. Finish involved Christian choking Rikishi on the middle rope, setting up a 619 from Rey and a Belly to Belly suplex by Rikishi (I think...). Rey and Rikishi gave stereo stinkfaces to Jericho and Christian respectively and danced with Brian Hebner and a little kid they brought into the ring. Main Event: Kurt Angle def. Chris Benoit. Some people left early to avoid traffic... shame, as the match was much slower than TV bouts but got quite good at the end. I assumed Lesnar would do a post match run in, but was quite surprised by who DID show up. Benoit had Angle tapping in the crossface but Charlie Haas distracted the referee while Shelton hit Benoit with the title belt. After the match, RHYNO came out to a huge pop and everyone went nuts as he gored Charlie and Shelton. Benoit and Rhyno had a staredown and shook hands. Good show overall, I really enjoyed it. I just wish people wouldn't bring signs to house shows credit: 1wrestling.com

As a human being, I must say that I'm happy for the two of them. As a WWE fan, I hope this HHH/Stephanie Marie relationship is as successful as the one Nicolas Cage/ Lisa Marie had.