WWE Notes from the 3/8 Observer

[Enigma 0]

The good news from last weekend's house shows was offset by bad news when the buy rate for No Way Out on 2/15 came in for the show headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Eddy Guerrero.

 

The first estimates are that the show did 248,000 buys and a 0.46 buy rate, which would have made it the second lowest buy rate since 1997. That's down a whopping 45% from No Way Out last year, although it wasn't about to come close to a show that featured the first match back after months being away of Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan and The Rock, the company's three biggest PPV draws in its history, all on the same night.

 

On paper, it was one of the weakest line-ups in a long time, as the support for Lesnar vs. Guerrero was a cruiserweight title match with Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero, which would have been lucky to have been an opening match on PPV a few months earlier, and a three-way for a title shot with Big Show vs. Kurt Angle vs. John Cena which wasn't backed up with good promotion or interviews and came across as being thrown together. Lesnar vs. Guerrero, however, was promoted well. Guerrero did excellent promos and was even given a pinfall win over Lesnar on the final TV before the big show. Guerrero was getting phenomenal crowd reactions at all the arenas leading to the show, which again shows crowd pops and drawing power are entirely different. One could say that being sandwiched between Rumble and Mania, and with the strong Mania push, that people decided to skip this one, but if you look back the past two years, No Way Out was hardly overlooked on the way to Mania. While the undercard was weak, excuses aside, it was not a strong main event to the buying public. For a business hoping that catering to the Hispanic market, which boxing promoters feel has saved their business, it is not an immediate panacea. Still, this show did do better than Armageddon, the Raw brand's last show.

*************************************

At this point, Ric Flair is said to be feeling very little discomfort overall other than three of his fingers are numb, which is actually a pretty big problem. His back isn't feeling bad right now but his neck problem should be keeping him out of action for a while, even though he did bump at TV and is wrestling at Mania. His exact problems still haven't been fully diagnosed, but he was having dye shot into his spine to get a better read after Wrestlemania. He was told even in a worst case scenario, which is a ruptured G-8 disc, he won't need fusion surgery. The belief is right now that any surgery he might need would be minor and wouldn't keep him out of action more than six weeks to two months, He is doing Wrestlemania, which is a 2-on-3 situation, and Orton will be the focal point of the team so hopefully Flair won't be required to carry the load or take too much punishment, but it is Wrestlemania and Flair is not in anywhere near the kind of pain that he's worked through in the past. I suppose if he gets the word he'll need surgery, they can make a storyline out of it in the match

 

Regarding The Rock and the tattoos as noted last week, Rock did add more touches to upper body tattoos over the past week or two from Samoa's leading tattoo artist, Suluape Petolo. But what he recently got were considered the finishing touches to his existing tattoos: He is not getting full tattoos like his grandfather, Peter Maivia, was known for, which went from the middle of his stomach down to the bottom of his calves. In Samoan culture, it would be considered a sign of disrespect, and not respect, to get a tattoo like Maivia, when you are not an official Chief.

 

Benoit vs. HHH for the World title will headline the 4/18 Backlash PPV in Edmonton. So much for making sense out of that Michaels pin on Benoit a few weeks ago on Raw.

 

Add John Studd, Junkyard Dog, Pete Rose and Don Muraco to the list of those being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The final list also includes Billy Graham, Jesse Ventura, Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, Sgt. Slaughter, Bobby Heenan and Harley Race. I don't know what happened to Bob Backlund. They got some mainstream publicity for this on 3/2 with the announcement of Rose, including a story in the New York Times and carried nationally by AP, with the idea Kane would induct Rose. John Minton Jr. (Studd's son) will be accepting the award for his deceased father and I'm presuming a member of JYD's family would be there as well. This is now an amazing list because, while granted, Billy Graham and Vince and Jesse Ventura and Vince have since made up, but Ventura successfully sued Vince and often was critical of him publicly, and Studd, before his death, was a government witness against McMahon in his 1994 steroid trial. While Dog was a huge star for Bill Watts, his tenure in WWF was more notable for his number of no-shows. The funniest thing I read regarding Rose was someone saying that Bud Selig announced the next day that Major League Baseball would be inducting Bruno Sammartino into its Hall of Fame.

 

Eric Bischoff did a symposium for about 25 high school and college students (mainly University of Georgia) in Georgia for two hours before the 3/1 Raw. It was expected to be a 45 minute speech and some Q&A, but instead Bischoff just did a Q&A, which went two hours, and he impressed everyone there. Well, I can say a lot both good and bad about Bischoff. He is one of the most charismatic people on a one-on-one basis I've met in wrestling and speaks with so much confidence that it breeds confidence in him. I've also thought that Bischoff is a great listener, but much of what he says is very forceful repeating of what people have told him. There was a joke in WCW that Bischoff would tell people ideas, and sell them great, to the same people who originally gave Bischoff the idea in the first place. His track record, both good and bad, speaks for itself. He said that anyone who didn't have $150 million would be foolish to try and get something going in wrestling. He's right about that as far as trying something national. He talked about things the WWE was doing wrong and right, which apparently were the same things most wrestlers in the company would privately say to their friends. He didn't come across as having a lot of faith in pro wrestling as a long-term entertainment brand, and even said the future was scary for pro wrestling. He indicated he knew his tenure with the company wouldn't last forever. He placed a lot of the blame of WCW's failure on the suits at Time Warner, and was very convincing in that portrayal. He did blame himself for producing TV that people didn't want to see. When he was asked what he considered his crowning achievement in wrestling, he said the Hogan heel turn. One Observer reader there said that for an insider, he didn't really say anything you wouldn't know. When asked who the greatest wrestler today was, he said Angle. He said if Vince had to do it all over again, he wouldn't have bought WCW and would have let him buy it because he would now recognize competition is important for the business. He then noted that when TBS canceled the TV, it really didn't matter at that point. He said the most dangerous thing he ever did was take the power bomb from Nash. He said they never practiced it and Nash wasn't given instructions on how and where to drop him. He said taking hard chops is worse than any other bump except the Nash bump that he ever took.

 

Ray Gordy, the son of Terry Gordy, worked a dark match in Atlanta, losing to Mike "Nova" Bucci. Match was sloppy. Crowd gave Gordy a huge pop, although most felt it was because he was announced as being from Atlanta (home town pop) as opposed to more than a few people recognizing him as Gordy's son. Dudleys win over Storm & Venis on Heat went more than 15:00 and apparently was a really strong match. This was the match that put the Dudleys into Mania. After the show was over, Rock & Foley laid waste to Orton, Batista and Flair (Rock was very protective of Flair when giving him a rock bottom due to Flair's apparent broken neck). Both Foley and Rock gave Flair the people's elbow. Austin came out and joined them for about 30 minutes of singing with Lillian Garcia, and Austin and Garcia drinking beer. They made fun of Rock drinking Gatorade. Foley talked about how he and Austin for years lived in the Atlanta area as Austin lived in Austell and Foley lived in Acworth and Marietta. At one point they tried to get Austin to wrap it up. Austin turned the ring crew head heel by telling him to repeat what he said. The guy said they needed to wrap it up because they needed to start taking the ring apart. Fans booed him more than anyone all night. Austin didn't leave and wanted more beer. This went on so long that finally fans started leaving. Rock doused Garcia with beer. The ring crew seemed to be getting impatient and actually was taking the ring down when Austin's friends came in to sing and the show ended at about 11:40 p.m. At one point a fire developed on the floor from the flaming Undertaker cross, but it was quickly extinguished. There were Goldberg chants all night long, coming regularly until Rock came out.

 

I don't know if this is even true, but there was a Japanese magazine internet story written by Jimmy Suzuki, who shoots for Japan at some of the WWE big shows, where he said he was going with Austin to a karaoke bar after the Atlanta Raw and asked Suzuki if the last Misawa-Kobashi match was as good as everyone says.

 

The New York Times ran an article on 2/25 about Angle, and WWE's recruiting athletes from football and amateur wrestling. The story listed Rock, Faarooq and Lesnar as athletes the company recruited from college football or college wrestling. That's misleading since Faarooq was recruited by Championship Wrestling from Florida and Rock is in wrestling more because it was his family business than he was recruited out of football. It is Jim Ross' theory, and Angle and Lesnar have been shining examples of it on the positive side, that amateur wrestlers have no problem working hard and the most successful ones aren't going to complain if they are hurt a little. Football players are also going to be used to playing in pain. Ross has long talked about strengthening the recruiting, which as pointed out here, should be a high priority in the company for this year, because they haven't had, in football terminology, a strong recruiting year since 2000, which also coincides with the death of WCW. The fact was it really wasn't until the Monday night wars hit that developing talent was even an issue in WCW or WWE, as the belief was that the old territorial system would at least create enough new stars to keep the thing going. They also quoted Bradshaw, who was listed as having played a season with the Raiders. According to a member of Raiders management that is a regular reader, Layfield never played a down for the Raiders in the regular season, but was in training camp once. Layfield was a good lineman at Abilene Christian. If you look at the top stars in WWE, many have the good college sports background, but even more don't. Of the haves, you've got Austin (football), Rock (football), Lesnar (wrestling), Angle (wrestling), Eddy Guerrero (wrestling), Undertaker (basketball), Flair (football, although that was also in the 60s), Show (basketball), Bradshaw (football), Faarooq (football) and Storm (volleyball). Have-nots are HHH (although he was a teenage bodybuilder and a big fan), Orton (third generation wrestler and a very good age group wrestler when he was very young), plus super huge fans growing up like Jericho, Benoit, Foley, Van Dam, Dudleys, Edge, Christian, Hardy, Mysterio and Michaels. You've got success stories in both lists. Maybe part of the job application should be being able to give you the year that Snuka came off the cage against Muraco. If you get it right, if you can't cut it as a wrestler, you can at least get a job helping come up with matches and the right dates for them on their DVD's.

 

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported that local High Falls Brewing Company is working with Austin on the Austin beer., CEO Tom Hubbard said Austin (with Vince McMahon) came in January and tested out different brews. He wanted to be involved in the creative end of it, since Austin is known for being very hands on when it comes to merchandise.

 

HHH vs. Michaels was announced as the main event for the company's 4/3 debut in Monterrey, Mexico. From Smackdown, they will be doing Chavo vs. Mysterio.

 

On the Shaq "Can You Dig That" thing in last week's issue, those who have covered Lakers basketball said he's been saying that before Booker T, dating back to his years with the Orlando Magic.

 

A funny deal about Matt Hardy's losing streak gimmick. Matt himself didn't even know he was doing a losing streak gimmick. He just thought he was losing all his matches. He first found out about the streak (which ended to no fanfare last week on Heat) when he found out Lawler and Ross were talking about it on TV.

 

Well, one week after writing about how Phil Mushnick no longer writes about WWE, lo and behold, on 2/28 he wrote a column critical of the WWOR-TV news of 2/19. It should be pointed out that when Smackdown was hot, many UPN newscasts around the country really were instructed to do WWF puff pieces. This was not coming from WWF, nor corporate headquarters, but the stations themselves, feeling that they should, during Smackdown, the highest rated show at the time on the station, they should tease a wrestling story to keep the wrestling audience watching the newscasts. When on the road in places like New York and Los Angeles, I saw it on many occasions. It's part of the news business, although if you were a news purist, you would find it revolting. Those stations would do wrestling puff pieces, but never touch the serious issues. Anyway, Mushnick wrote that on 2/19, there was a story about a report on the fine line between boxing and wrestling. Mushnick wrote that the UPN-9 news frequently does stories on pro wrestling, but has never examined any real issues in pro wrestling, noting they don't report on the deaths of wrestlers, even high profile wrestlers. Since I don't live in New York, I don't know how accurate that is, but the segment ended up being Shaniqua going on a shopping spree. If that was news, and UPN-9 didn't cover the deaths of Liz Hulette and Curt Hennig (I don't know if they did or not but going by this article you'd think they didn't), then, well, slam dunk, Mushnick's point is valid. Mushnick also wrote that the anchors are encouraged to talk about pro wrestling, noting that in a piece on "Against the Ropes," the new Meg Ryan boxing movie, that Pat Collins, who was the face on the piece, kept asking the movies' stars about pro wrestling.

 

South Africa's deputy president Jacob Zuma attended the first two shows of the weekend tour. Zuma said he had been a pro wrestling fan since the 70s, when Jan Wilkens was the local hero. Pro wrestling in South Africa was similar to that in Austria, where Wilkens was the local Otto Wanz. He was the promoter who would bring in 300-pound Americans to beat, like Don Leo Jonathan, Sailor White or Andre the Giant.

 

Tim White, who hasn't been working as a regular referee for years, since being injured I believe in a Hell in a Cell match, tried working this weekend. Something happened on 2/28 in Birmingham during a Jericho vs. Christian match. White was doing either his first or one of his first matches back more as a test to see how his shoulder would hold up, and it didn't. He was in the ring but clearly favoring his right shoulder after it popped out of its socket. It was popped back into place by doctors later that night. Mike Chioda came out. White didn't want to leave, but after some near falls where he had to count with his left arm because the right was useless, he reluctantly left in the middle of the match and Chioda took over.

 

At this point there are no plans for Jeff Hardy to return. As noted, his name was brought up a couple of months back as being a last minute surprise entrant in the cruiserweight Battle Royal for Wrestlemania. The explanation given as to why it didn't happen is that Jeff is hard-headed. His departure from the company originally was because he had failed two drug tests and was asked to go into rehab, and refused. Since his departure he still hasn't gone into rehab.

 

Proof from D-12, who had been talked with about doing a rap battle with Cena at Mania, did an interview this past week saying it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

 

WWE Originals was No. 108 on the Billboard charts this past week, which isn't good for a record with so much television promotion. It sold 13,599 copies last week for 156,010 to date.

 

Actual attendance for the Raw TV on 2/16 in Bakersfield was 6,600 and 2/17 Smackdown TV in Fresno was 5,000.

 

2/26 in Cape Town, South Africa drew a sellout estimated at 10,000. We didn't get the complete weekend rundown other than the Montgomery, Birmingham and Chattanooga Raw run didn't draw well. All the South Africa shows were sellouts and Raw at the Gwinnett Arena in Atlanta sold out three days ahead for about 9,500 fans. It was Rock who sold the building out, making it the second Raw sellout in a month, and seven sellouts in the last seven Smackdown brand house shows since the Guerrero title win (not that I'm attributing it to Guerrero's win, as South Africa was selling out even if Chavo Guerrero was champion). The last TV shoot in Atlanta at the same building (Smackdown on 10/28) drew less than 3,000 paid and was heavily papered. There were ticket giveaways early and plans to heavily paper at the end for this show. But when they ran TV ads on Raw on 2/23 which basically told people that "The Great One" was rumored to be there and showed clips of Rock, there was a rush at the box office the next day and tickets were almost all gone by the end of business that day, and trickled in until selling out officially, including many obstructed view seats, a few days later.

 

In Cape Town, they had Guerrero over Angle again to get them ready for Mania. It was the same basic house show they've been doing in the U.S. where Heyman suspends Cena due to his injury, and then Cena attacks him, Show lays Cena out and Heyman orders Cena unsuspended and starts the match. Show wins when Dawn Marie gives Cena a low blow to set up the choke slam.

 

In Birmingham, Teddy Long filled Coach's role as the authority figure on the show. He came out and said Bischoff had put him in charge as G.M. for the night. The first thing he did to get heat was to distract the Dudleys, causing them to lose to Jindrak & Cade. Later in the show, he had a confrontation with Benoit, ending with Benoit putting him in the crossface. Main event was the same strong HHH vs. Benoit match where HHH wins with a pedigree after both Orton and Batista get involved. Orton & Batista earlier lost to Van Dam & Booker in a tag title match. In the match to get them ready for Mania, Wilson & Sable beat Keibler & Gayda. In another match likely as getting ready for Mania, Jericho beat Christian. Funniest thing on the show was during the Storm vs. Dupree match. The Birmingham crowd started chanting “USA,” but was clearly doing that to cheer Storm, despite Storm being Canadian and once doing an anti-American angle.

 

They did largely the same show in Chattanooga except the women's match was changed to Victoria winning a three-way over Molly Holly and Jazz.

 

The shows in Durban and Johannesburg were the same as Cape Town. The East Rand show on 2/29 saw them change it around with Eddy & Cena over Lesnar & Show as the main match and Chavo beating Mysterio in a cruiserweight title match.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Benoit vs. HHH for the World title will headline the 4/18 Backlash PPV in Edmonton. So much for making sense out of that Michaels pin on Benoit a few weeks ago on Raw.

 

But people here, like Loss, were certain....

 

Fuck it. I'll let RRR take this one.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

The funniest thing I read regarding Rose was someone saying that Bud Selig announced the next day that Major League Baseball would be inducting Bruno Sammartino into its Hall of Fame

 

The funny thing is Bruno would probably go into that HOF before he agrees to be in the WWE one.

[Enigma 0]

Michaels will probably do the job at Mania and do a knee injury angle (to explain his absence with the torn ACL) and to set up the "Benoit never lost" angle.

[The Decemberists 0]

A funny deal about Matt Hardy's losing streak gimmick. Matt himself didn't even know he was doing a losing streak gimmick. He just thought he was losing all his matches. He first found out about the streak (which ended to no fanfare last week on Heat) when he found out Lawler and Ross were talking about it on TV.

 

What? Even WCW told wrestlers when they had an angle....

[Guest wildpegasus]

That's good that Benoit's fighting HHH at Backlash. I figured it would happen but I was scared it was going to be Michaels.

[NoCalMike 0]

Will Flair retire already......jeez.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

But does HHH walk out of WM w/ the belt? Ideally, they should have Benoit defeat HBK at WM, have HHH pull the "you didn't beat me" card, and then have Benoit go over at Backlash to cement him as champ, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll happen that way.

[Guest wildpegasus]

But does HHH walk out of WM w/ the belt? Ideally, they should have Benoit defeat HBK at WM, have HHH pull the "you didn't beat me" card, and then have Benoit go over at Backlash to cement him as champ, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll happen that way.

I know it's Wrestlemania XX but from a fan perspective I don't want that to happen. Benoit's big win can't happen in a triple threat because triple threats essentially mean nothing. It has to be one on one. It means so much more. I actually have to cheer for Benoit not winning at Mania XX.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Who cares? They fucked it up a LOOOOOOOONG time ago. Benoit is in Jericho/Michaels territory here where a win does nothing for him but a loss horribly buries him.

[NoCalMike 0]

if the WWE is legit interested in pushing Benoit as champion, then he wins at WM and successfully defends at Backlash.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Who cares? They fucked it up a LOOOOOOOONG time ago. Benoit is in Jericho/Michaels territory here where a win does nothing for him but a loss horribly buries him.

Notice the common denominator....

 

"But he's CHANGED since he found Jesus!"

[notJames 0]

Yeah. Trading wins with HHH won't do anything to cement Benoit's status as a true Main Event player.

 

That is, of course, if that's what they want to happen with Benoit. Recent history (specifically regarding HHH and his World Title contenders) would point to the contrary.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Let's all just pray that Benoit isn't the one with the last laugh tonight.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Yeah, cause then it's a clean sweep from the Rumble to Mania of Benoit not looking strong.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

This is ridiculous.

[AndrewTS 0]

Who cares?  They fucked it up a LOOOOOOOONG time ago.  Benoit is in Jericho/Michaels territory here where a win does nothing for him but a loss horribly buries him.

Notice the common denominator....

 

"But he's CHANGED since he found Jesus!"

No, no--you don't understand. Michaels has no say in how he's booked. So I'm sure he didn't mean to have the feud with Jericho turn out that way, or take a cheap shot at Bret Hart, or have a really fucking lame feud with HHH.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Damn that HHH for forcing all of this on Michaels! Damn this... JUDAS!

[AndrewTS 0]

Damn that HHH for forcing all of this on Michaels! Damn this... JUDAS!

To say nothing of putting that terrible burden of being World Champion on him. That bastard!

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Why, HBK should have a disturbingly long World Title reign just in-spite of HHH, do a better job than HHH, job it back to HHH and let's see how HHH deals with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and let's move Benoit back to Smackdown; he's caused nothing but trouble for HBK since coming to RAW.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

What frustrates me a great deal is if HHH retains at WrestleMania...

 

the apologists on this board will be out in force saying "They'll do it in Benoit's home town...it's better that way".

 

LIKE ANYTHING could be better than winning it in the main event of WrestleMania.

 

Come on Vince...put Benoit over!!!

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Winning at Mania is what will be remembered 20 years from now. If it means Benoit has to job it back to HHH in his hometown, I am willing to make that sacrifice.

 

Three-way or not, Sunday is when Benoit needs to win.

[notJames 0]

Agreed.

 

You know, the more HHH and Benoit's names appear in the same sentences, the more and more I lose faith in this thing called professional wrestling. Whatever happened to doing the right thing?

 

Oh yeah, Clique happened.

[Guest BionicRedneck]

the apologists on this board will be out in force saying "They'll do it in Benoit's home town...it's better that way".

 

LIKE ANYTHING could be better than winning it in the main event of WrestleMania.

 

Come on Vince...put Benoit over!!!

I dunno, Eddie Guerrero's title win was a pretty great moment, and that happened at one of the weakest PPV's ever. I see your point, though.

 

If they really want Benoit-HHH at Backlash, it's simple what they do: Benoit makes Shawn tap at Mania, HHH comes out with his excuse of "You didn't beat me!", Benoit beats HHH clean at Backlash. Of course, that wont happen.

 

Jimmy Suzuki, who shoots for Japan at some of the WWE big shows, where he said he was going with Austin to a karaoke bar after the Atlanta Raw and asked Suzuki if the last Misawa-Kobashi match was as good as everyone says.

 

The answer is NO!

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

That is an excellent point about Eddie's win.

 

The difference I see between the two is that the No Way Out match was Eddie's first real shot at the title...and there wasn't a month leading up to it of him looking like a fool. In fact...he pinned Lesnar heading into the match.

 

Benoit, on the other hand...has his big opportunity at WrestleMania...and if he loses (after this past month of HHH standing over everyone to end shows)...I can't see why or how anyone would believe he can win the next month. Now...he would win...but try to sell that show...

 

Not to mention the difference between Brock and HHH. No one was calling for Brock to drop that title...wheras HHH has been holding his on and off since it was created...with no one getting an advantage on him. What better place than Mania to end what has really been they're longest running storyline (HHH on top of Raw)

 

I'd also imagine that Eddie's title win would have been tainted from what it was had he lost a title match at the Rumble the month before getting put over as Main Event material. Now factor in how big Mania XX is...yeesh.

 

I still think Benoit may win...but things like this don't encourage me.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I still think Benoit may win...but things like this don't encourage me.

 

You are more optimistic than I am about this. I didn't think he stood a chance from the beginning. The real issue was always between HHH & HBK, and with HBK injured that leaves only one man.

 

HHH will convincingly retain at Wrestlemania. You can count it.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

No, no--you don't understand. Michaels has no say in how he's booked. So I'm sure he didn't mean to have the feud with Jericho turn out that way, or take a cheap shot at Bret Hart, or have a really fucking lame feud with HHH.

OK, I find his matches just as good as the next person (as long as his stupid entrance is cut out from the video file or tape), and when he was an unmitigated asshole in late 1997 I detested him, but there was some modicums of respect underneath for being upfront and so good at it.

 

But right now? It's despicable, all because he's trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes with the religious mannerisms and the T-shirts. I'm not religious myself but him trying to convince people that he's a changed man by using God is flat out disgusting. Even HBK the character is a greedy selfish bastard who is angry because someone retaliated on him (which makes no sense) doing something wrong (which was also against one of the Commandments - Thou Shalt Not Steal), and I'm not holding my breath on him getting his just deserts anytime soon.

 

HHH and Randy Orton can only dream of inspiring such disdain from me.

[Brett Favre 0]

HBK is like the worst case to represents those T-shirts. He turned the other cheek on Benoit during the tag match, stole Benoit's one on one title shot by trying to make it his, while being greedy, AND is having too much pride in this HHH vs. HBK stuff. This guy is like satan or something.

[Hektik 0]

Monday update from the Wrestling Observer Website

 

--ProWrestlingInsider.com reported earlier today that Brock Lesnar may be taking time off after the Smackdown European tour which ends on 3/21 and that all post-Mania plans for him are being rewritten. The report was that Lesnar was unhappy about being removed from the top of the card and that his next planned program was being fed to Undertaker to get over the old Undertaker gimmick as an unstoppable monster. It is no secret that Lesnar wasn't handling the demotion as no longer being in the title picture well, and that Undertaker part of the story has been going around since Royal Rumble time. As of checking on things, the story is accurate but it's an issue that still hasn't been resolved as to how it's ending up. But it's not even guaranteed at this point that he's even doing the European tour.

 

--Add Rikishi & Scotty vs. APA vs. Bashams vs. Haas & Benjamin for the Smackdown tag belts to Wrestlemania.

 

--We will try and update this later with any funeral information on Ray Fernandez (Hercules Hernandez), who died of an apparent heart attack on Saturday morning.

 

--Chris Jericho was on ESPN 2's Cold Pizza this morning. He came off well, saying that Martha Stewart was going to do a run-in during the three-way Raw title match for a little "Better Homes and Beatings." Jericho said that when Pete Rose was turned down by the baseball Hall of Fame, he is now going to be inducted into a more prestigious Hall of Fame. He was clearly kidding. He said his favorite Wrestlemania was last year's because of his match with Michaels, which he said stole the show. He said his back story with Trish and Christian was like a "Days of Our Lives" storyline.

 

--Apparently the Flair/Foley deal last night in Baltimore was a home run. It will be interesting to see if they try and redo it tonight. The main item on Raw is "This is your life, Mick Foley," hosted by Rock, and no doubt Flair, Orton and Batista will show up at some point (thanks to Clancy Gilpatrick)

 

--Wrestlemania XX will be released on VHS & DVD on 4/27, as will WWE Divas South of the Border (thanks to Michael Carpenter)

 

--Based on the comments we got, apparently last night's radio show was really good. It's sometimes hard for me to tell, because Bobby Heenan has been historically one of our best guests. The show will be replayed next Sunday, and we will probably be getting Heenan back on in a month or so, after Mania and maybe around Cauliflower Alley time.

 

--TV Guide Online has a listing of the ten biggest stars of the Wrestlemania era, and please don't laugh. Actually, they are broken up into five men, Hogan, Undertaker, Austin, Michaels and HHH. I said, don't laugh. And five women: Moolah, Trish Stratus, Wendi Richter, Sable and Chyna.

[Guest Anglesault]

--TV Guide Online has a listing of the ten biggest stars of the Wrestlemania era, and please don't laugh. Actually, they are broken up into five men, Hogan, Undertaker, Austin, Michaels and HHH

 

HHH instead of Rocky.

 

Why the fuck not.