Hey, what’s up? You’re reading the weekend’s News and Analysis for which I thank you! No Way Out is one week away, but there are plenty of other things to get to today. Let’s get going…
WWE SmackDown! aired on Thursday night and it was another great show for the brand. SmackDown! continues to deliver as of lately. The main event saw two stars whom exactly one year ago were not on WWE TV battle it out, as Lesnar took on Cena. The card was good from top to bottom in my opinion. Even A-Train’s match with Chris Benoit was not that bad from where I sat. Elsewhere on the show, Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio had a heck of a fight, while both co-holders of the WWE Tag Team titles were in singles’ action and did more than well! Charlie Haas defeated Edge while Shelton Benjamin defeated Eddie Guerrero and those two bouts were awesome. SmackDown! is often the better program because it offers great wrestling and storyline progression at the same time. The same happened this past Thursday as we found out that Chuck Palumbo and Johnny the Bull were “Nunzio’s people,” and the three laid an attack on Rikishi. Also on the show, Chris Kanyon made a return as a part of the storyline between Undertaker and Big Show. Anyway, a full report is available on our site, so check that out if you need more than a short recap. SmackDown!’s rating is in and the show scored a 3.2 rating, which is the lowest it’s done on a regular night in quite a bit. Not a good sign for WWE, but I’m sure they’ll improve.
With SmackDown! now over, the No Way Out card looks like this…
The Rock vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan
Triple H vs. Scott Steiner – World Heavyweight Championship
Team Angle vs. Lesnar/Benoit/Edge – 6 Man Tag
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff
Billy Kidman vs. Matt Hardy – WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Chris Jericho vs. Test
You can also expect RVD and Kane vs. Lance Storm and William Regal to be added from RAW, and maybe even Booker T vs. Dave Batista. Since Bischoff/Austin and Triple H/Steiner won’t exactly be considered long matches, it’ll allow WWE to use more people on the PPV. From SmackDown!, Undertaker vs. Big Show is the match that will most likely be on there as well, but I could swear WWE hasn’t made that official yet.
The two main programs as it stands right now on SmackDown!, are the two feuds that involve Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit on one hand, and Hulk Hogan and The Rock on the other. It was announced by GM Stephanie McMahon that at No Way Out, Lesnar/Edge/Benoit will take on Team Angle. That’s a good move, as it will allow the company to move forward with the highly anticipated main-event status match for WrestleMania – Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle. Since WrestleMania will be a stacked show, I would also expect that Edge and Chris Benoit would continue to team up and take on Team Angle at WrestleMania. That’s also where the Guerreros can be used. WWE is just trying their hardest right now to get everyone involved for the big show, and WrestleMania XIX is definitely shaking up to be one of the greatest shows, if not THE greatest they’ve done in a while, or ever.
Elsewhere, Hulk Hogan and The Rock continued their feud, as the two men are headed to a rematch at No Way Out from what was an epic counted at WrestleMania X-8. Though neither man was present, WWE aired an “in-depth” look package of how the feud came about and it’s progress (kind of) in the past months. Since they didn’t show up on TV, there really isn’t much to say about these two. Rock will continue to play the heelish persona to the point where he will most likely turn on everyone by uniting himself with Vince McMahon. That’s also one suggestion of how to end the match. Have Vince interfere which will ultimate set up the scene for a McMahon vs. Hogan match at WrestleMania XIX. The Rock is definitely considered a heel in my book, but is still at the point where he hasn’t turned his back on the fans 100%, and continues to have a funny, enjoyable side to him. It’s mostly a “cocky Hollywood” thing, but I would tend to guess that an alliance with the ultimate evil that is Vince McMahon will solve the problems.
Chris Kanyon returned to TV on SmackDown! as he was Big Show’s latest “wooden crane gift” to The Undertaker. (Like the smart line there?) It’s good to see Chris back on TV, as he’s certainly been through a lot injury-wise and luck-wise lately, always getting the shorter end of the stick. Hopefully WWE has something planned for him, and for the meanwhile, he seems to be somewhat aligned with Paul Heyman and his associates. Kanyon was considered an impact player before getting injured, so definitely looking forward to seeing what WWE has this time. Let’s face it – Who betta than Kanyon?
WWE seems to be once again trying to push their cruiserweight division, this time by introducing a solid superstar like Matt Hardy to it. Hardy faces Kidman at No Way Out for the belt, and to be frank with you, I enjoy the work of both guys. It’s nice to see Matt get involved in the division, and now someone like Rey Mysterio can be finally introduced into the cruiserweight picture and at the same time still manage to feud with someone like Matt Hardy, rather than the likes of Jamie Noble, or Kidman. No offense, I think both Noble and Kidman are great competitors, but it’s my belief that Rey, and Tajiri are the ones who deserve to be on the top there. Speaking of that, if Rey was to get introduced into the division, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take on Tajiri eventually, as these two guys are known for working some unbelievable matches together.
Nunzio finally introduced us to “his people” this past Thursday on SmackDown!, and they ended up being Italians Chuck Palumbo and Johnny “The Bull” Stambolli. The three seem to have formed an “Italian mafia” type of stable, which will be lead by Nunzio and if you mess with “the family” you’re in trouble. That was a good storyline progression as these three guys definitely have the skills to do bigger things than what they were previously doing. Chuck never really hit it big ever since Billy Gunn’s injury, and well Nunzio’s storyline with Jamie Noble never came through for some reason. I should note that Jamie Noble is a great competitor and very respected by many so it kind of gets to me why WWE isn’t using him here. I guess his accent is too much of a proof he isn’t Italian, but they said he’s Nunzio’s cousin, so I don’t know. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’d expect that new trio to be getting a nice little push and hopefully entertaining things will be happening with them soon.
He’s bad, he’s big, and he’s coming to SmackDown! … for a special interview. Nathan Jones will be joining the SmackDown! brand, as announced this past Thursday, and apparently WWE will debut him with an interview. I reported in my first News and Analysis for this week that maybe WWE weren’t sure on whether to debut Jones or not, but as you can say, they’re definitely going forward with his character. I can’t help but wonder if they just can’t give away that good of a background and will probably not work Nathan big time for a while, hoping he’ll gain more experience as fast as possible. I would expect them to have more interviews and squash matches that don’t last too long, or maybe more footages. We’ll see.
There have been plenty of news to report outside the ring this week, and boy, some of them were pretty big. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are now engaged, as the rumor started by Dave Scherer has it. Triple H proposed to Stephanie on Valentine’s Day and the couple has finally taken that big step forward. Congratulations to Stephanie and Hunter and I hope they have the best life can offer. Now, I don’t want this to come off bad, but just like many other people have said, Triple H getting engaged to Stephanie is the smartest political move he’s done in a while. Again, this will come off bad, I know, but I’m not saying that H married Stephanie just for the money and that he doesn’t love her. I’m sure he does. What I’m trying to say is that by securing a marriage with Stephanie, Triple H also secured himself his spot in the company. He will no doubt be looked at differently from now on and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had even more power than before. It’s just really odd that when guys like Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan (who are known for their backstage pull) returned to the company, all of the sudden Triple H got engaged to Stephanie. Again, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just an interesting coincidence that Triple H secured his power that way. Also, you can’t help but wonder what’s going through the head of Vince McMahon and how will things go from here. Stephanie said on the Howard Stern show that if the two break up, Triple H’s career with the company will be over. Folks, the McMahon drama is just beginning.
D’Lo Brown and WWE will be parting ways very soon. Just tonight on Sunday Night Heat, a footage of what went down after RAW was aired, and Teddy Long with Red Dogg (the wrestler last seen on SmackDown! as John Cena’s partner) attacked D’Lo while Long broke his relationship with Brown up. D’Lo’s contract is one WWE simply can’t afford to pay to, as I believe he’s getting $350,000 a year. It runs out next month, and WWE wasn’t too fond of how the “Down with the Brown” storyline took off, so they decided not to invest into D’Lo anymore and let him go. It’s sad to see one of the best European Champions go, but with Raven, Justin Credible, B-2, and now D’Lo all gone, you got to wonder if a certain rumor is correct. And that certain rumor says that WWE is cutting all expenses just so they can save up and pay to someone big like Bill Goldberg or Bret Hart. Take this for what it’s worth. As far as Teddy Long goes, it looks like he’ll be now managing Red Dogg, who’s also known as Notorious Dogg, and several other names. He’s Jazz’s real-life husband, so that definitely makes their personal lives better.
Finally, in some other news, Tommy Dreamer has recently joined RAW’s creative team. I think that can be nothing but good news as it’s been well-documented that on several occasions the link between wrestlers and writers on that show was what has caused troubles in the past. By having Tommy join the writing team, the managers are hoping that he’ll be the link between the boys and the writers, as he’ll deliver wrestlers’ ideas to the team and of course insert some of his own. Tommy Dreamer will continue to wrestle, and it’s expected that there won’t be much heat over this, as he’s known for always putting guys over, all the way back from his ECW days. So there ya go, RAW’s writing team just got a brand new Innovator of Violence.
That will do it for this week folks. My Two Cents will be back next week! Thanks for reading everyone! Have a good week!
Eddie
