JoeDirt

I really thought this would be a DQ. Don't tell me HHH wins it back at HIAC, because I can't see him losing THREE STRAIGHT TIMES to Batista. I guess the story is that he had Batista beaten but the ref was down so he should get another shot?

There's a Free For All you can watch at www.wwe.com if you want to see all the video packages that will air tonight.

Steen/AJ 2/3 falls should be plenty of high spot fun. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Is that Damian Steele the same guy who used to be in XPW and UPW? How good is Dave Silva? I like FTM and Arsenal is entertaining in his own way, so that match is intriguing.

That would be great, if only to see the Candido People's Elbow.

Aside from what's been mentioned, one little thing I love about the match is how: Bryce Remsburg really gets into his role when he's getting ready to fight Fannin. He's ready to THROW DOWN~!

Matthews is great. It just shows how it helps to have somebody who actually loves wrestling do commentary, as opposed to the Todd Grisham's of the world.

Yeah, Taker/Austin was my guess, I don't know if anyone can top them.

What single matchup has main evented more wrestling PPVs than any other?

In honor of Chris Candido... Candido/Nigel McGuinness/Double C/Steve Stone vs. CM Punk/Matt Sydal/Ace Steel/Danny Daniels in one of the funniest matches you'll EVER see. Seriously. Download this. It's from IWA-Mid South, 10/22/04 Strong Style tournament show: http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1NL8YJP...0P16DFRPYP2WCWV You will be missed Chris!

HOT PLATES!!! So how was Velocity?

Meltzer writes: Of course, Backlash is tomorrow from Manchester, NH, in the most heavily promoted "B" show in a long time, largely due to Hulk Hogan appearing, which has gotten more pub that the HHH vs. Batista main event, including a huge ad in USA Today yesterday and cable systems playing phone calls with Hogan, as well as Hogan doing lots of media, and tons of radio buys. In reality, the rematch from Wrestlemania is being promoted as second from the top, even though the title match should appear last on the show: *HHH vs. Batista - There is no secret this is building to a Hell in a Cell match as per current plans, which would have that match in late June. I can't imagine HHH winning this early, so I'll leave it at that. *Hogan & Shawn Michaels vs. Daivari & Muhammad Hassan. Everyone knows what this is going in. Michaels sells till he dies, makes the hot tag, and Hogan cleans house, pinning one or the other. The only mystery is whether Hogan will do the kneedrop for nostalgia on his recently surgically replaced hip. If you want to see Hogan "one last time" (and guaranteed this is not the last time, because he's going to be wrestling until he's close to 60 like Flair and Crusher), you know what it is going in. *Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Jericho for the IC title. This should be a good match. Even though the crowd turned on Benjamin last week on TV, this goes in without a clearly defined face or heel, and to some crowds that can make for a difficult match *Edge vs. Chris Benoit last man standing. Unfortunately, the rules of this match make submission moves mean less, and you don't get the dramatic two counts for near falls. I've never really liked them, but these two are good enough that they can overcome the psychological handicaps and should have a hell of a match, and probably the match to the night *Kane vs. Viscera. Please keep this short *I haven't seen official confirmation of the tag match for the titles, but as was at least planned at one point, it's Regal & Tajiri vs. Hurricane & Rosey vs. La Resistance vs. Heart Throbs vs. Maven & Dean. The tag belts are so dead the champs have become featured more on Heat than Raw. La Resistance are past passe. Heart Throbs are too early and haven't gotten over due to their act being introduced badly and their gimmick already blown. Hurricane & Rosey shouldn't win. So you've either got a title retention, or Maven & Dean. I'm guessing the latter but in the big picture, it doesn't matter at all.

Fantastic stuff.

Was the WWF already planning to have Mr. Perfect return to the ring before they were forced into doing that angle for Survivor Series 1992?

Maybe so, but that doesn't mean it's stupid. For one, Capital Carnage didn't have any bearing on the major storylines of the time period, and two, the explanation actually makes sense. I don't see a problem with that one at all personally, but to each his own, I guess. The weird thing about it is that Jacqueline did the job, not Mero!

People think that the WM10 ladder match was the first of its kind in the WWF.

Damn, nine hours, that's huge.

After arriving in WCW in 1994, when did the fans start to turn on Hogan a bit? I know he was never outright booed, but weren't there scattered boos not far into his WCW tenure? Were there other times near the end of his WWF stint where he was starting to get booed? I know he was slightly at the 1992 Royal Rumble after the stuff with Sid. Were people starting to turn on him slightly back then, too?

It's kind of weird, but one of the main reasons I'm NOT ordering this PPV is because Hogan is on it.

It's just weird how life works. Candido only was in the match because Kid Kash quit, and they thought Hoyt vs. Apollo by itself wouldn't be good enough. Siaki is going to take this hard, no doubt, but hopefully he's able to move on. It's not going to be easy, though.

Another note from Meltzer's update:

Totally agree. Candido's stint in IWA-MS had so much fun stuff. Him and Daniels busting out so many WWF finishers at the end of that match had me rolling. I missed the start of Impact, did they say anything about him?

Tag team turmoil has been officially added: From WWE.com:

Dave Prazak's post from the IWA boards:

I totally agree, I was going to post something like this. I really, REALLY liked the MNM vs. Eddie/Rey match this week, much better than the MSG match. You had the great in match story with Eddie and Rey, some cool heel cheating by MNM, a funky breakdance leg drop by Nitro, some nice double teams. Really well executed. I'm interested to see where they go from here with the storyline, though I have doubts that Eddie can get over as a total heel...but we'll see, it should be interesting...

A match you should see if you never have is Skip (Candido) vs. Barry Horowitz at Summerslam 1995...a really underrated, fun as hell match.