Enigma

Jim Ross denied that title reign guarantees are part of contracts, but was that kayfabe? I seem to remember a report saying that Curt Hennig's WCW contract guaranteed him at least one WCW Title reign, and that never happened.

I'm sure in Angle's 4+ years with the company, has been arrested in a storyline, right?

If Vince is serious about bringing back ECW, it's not going to work unless he buys the ECW Arena.

Nah, it's more likely that Angle is worried about his card placement post-Mania. ... He's not gonna retire, is he? There was some talk that WWE would be willing to demote Angle to mid-carder if he didn't slow down his work as a way of trying to deal with him.

I never said they wouldn't. I'm stating that it would be insane and stupid to do it. But then again, "insane" and "stupid" has never stopped WWE before.

Kurt winning at Mania would be retarded for a couple reasons: 1) Kurt's had the title 4 freakin times in less than 4 years. Back off. 2) It'll make Eddie, who is proving to be a draw, look like a supreme loser by getting his ass kicked every week AND losing at Mania. All his marketability would go out the window and no one would ever look at him credibly as a main-eventer and/or WWE Champion again. His No Way Out title win would become a fluke. 3) If WWE really wants Angle to slow down his work and are willing to demote him to mid-card status for him to do it, with a guy who hides his injuries so much, how much sense does it make to put the title on him? Who's going to want to slow down their work when you have the demand of putting on main-event caliber matches?

Isn't that what WWE itself is running? Often for Smackdown, once in a blue moon for Raw. House shows are almost always run in the mid-size arenas or smaller. Anyone have any idea what the biggest attendance for an ECW show was? I seem to remember them drawing as many as 11,000 to their very first show in Canada in Mississauga, Ontario in September 2000. If so, I'd say that was their largest.

Luger/Sting/Flair is the best Triple Threat match ever done on PPV. Rock/Angle/Undertaker from Vengeance '02 is a close second.

Wasn't Scott Hall driving a retarded people's bus too during that angle?

Isn't that what WWE itself is running? They run those now for TVs generally. But they run even smaller for house shows. They usually run arenas for house shows where a sellout would be around 2,000.

Big Show never had a lack of weight. He came back at Royal Rumble 2001 looking fatter than ever.

Actually, he's not right. It's well-documented that Eddie cleaned up his life. And it didn't happen yesterday; he's been cleaned up for about two years now. Angle is wrong in this situation because he's basing someone off their past and not who they are now.

If they let the Dudleys and RVD be who they were in ECW, it would work. Not their watered-down WWE characters. I don't think it would bring those men down, I think it would bring up the importance of the show. Remember, Sunday Night Heat used to have just as high ratings as RAW because it was viewed as an important show due to who was on it and what happened on it regularly. It's not like they are doing anything with either 3 anyways. The Dudleys are becoming Heat mainstays and RVD is just wandering around piling up more mindless Tag Title reigns with the Wacky-Not-A-Usual-Partner formula.

I think the main ones who were associated with it in the glory years, like Tazz, The Dudleys, Spike Dudley, Rob Van Dam, Rhyno, Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Lance Storm, Jazz, Dawn Marie, Nunzio, etc. They could even bring back some previous employers like Justin Credible, Jerry Lynn, Perry Saturn, Raven, etc. if they still have a penchant for sticking it to TNA. If they are REALLY serious about ECW, they could bring in the names that haven't traversed into WWE-world yet like The Sandman, Balls Mahoney, New Jack, Axl Rotten. And hey, it'd be a great place to start off developmental-talent Mike "Nova" Bucci too. And if Vince is still dead-set on killing territorial indy promotions, give The Blue Meanie a call and see if he'll shut down 3PW for a chance to return.

They should have Angle brutalize Eddie again on Smackdown, leading to Guerrero beating Angle at Mania and then giving the REAL payoff of Guerrero beating Angle's ass into oblivion post-match.

1) Leave Shane McMahon or ANY McMahon the fuck out of it. 2) A late Saturday night time slot is death. Tape it on Saturday and give it a Tuesday slot on SpikeTV or something.

I think the point was the fact that Angle started to speak up until Laurinaitis leered at him. I think they lost respect for Angle for backing down and not so much not speaking for what Big Show spoke for.

Did we ever find out who 1Wrestling's Willie The Worker was? (Yikes, alliteration!)

"A big topic in the Smackdown locker room this week was an incident that took place at the talent meeting before the show on Tuesday. Neither Vince McMahon nor Jim Ross, who are usually at the meetings, attended this week’s. Ross was in Louisville for OVW. I am not sure where McMahon was. This left John "Ace" Laurinaitis ran the meeting. He reportedly mentioned, in a chastising sort of way, an incident on the first flight of the last week’s long and brutal South Africa trip. It happened on the WWE charter from Kansas City to Atlanta, which was the flight right after Smackdown was taped on February 24. The Smackdown crew then flew from Atlanta to South Africa. At the meeting on 3/2, Laurinaitis started off by "getting tough" on the Smackdown crew, even though it was common knowledge to everyone there that problem in question was just Bradshaw putting away a few cold ones and getting boisterous. As Laurinaitis continued the speech, The Big Show spoke up and challenged him. Big Show reportedly asked how the company can expect the talent to sit through a session in which the man who is second in command for talent relations doesn't even thank the talent for the brutal tour, and instead chastises them for something that wasn’t really a big deal. From what I was told, Show felt that if the office didn't like a talent’s behavior, they should place direct blame on that person instead of disrespecting everyone's contributions. In the eyes of some, they felt that there was some favoritism shown here since it was Bradshaw, who is tight with the office, that was the person in question and not named. Later in the meeting there was another incident in which Kurt Angle started to speak up, but when Laurinaitis started looking at Kurt, Angle reportedly backed down and started saying how he wishes everyone was more professional. In the end, the general feeling was that the wrestlers gained a lot of respect for Big Show and probably lost some for Angle." CREDIT: Dave Scherer/PWInsider

Rob Black, XPW's porn-conglomerate owner, tried to get an exclusivity lease on the building, and did succeed, but it ran out. So, theoretically, yes.

Cole, if she pisses on me, you're buying after the show.

Remember Tazz & Sable's mini-feud? I'd pay to see Tazz put the Tazzmission on her.

I'm all for Candido coming back as long as his fat hog fiance' (or wife? did they EVER get married?) doesn't come along for the ride.

I'm still banking on the biggest swerve ever and having UT come back as BikerTaker. Actually, that would make me want to see him get his ass kicked more.

What's the screen name?