Yo. (It’s the rules!) What’s going on? You’re reading News and Analysis, for which I thank you! I hope that is one section of TBL you truly enjoy. There’s a lot to get to today, so let’s get this bad boy started…
This time we’ll start differently. There is two major news bits I need to get to first. Most importantly, Kurt Angle has recently reaggrivated a previous neck injury. Kurt has had problems with his neck for a long time now, and wrestling over the years didn’t help. However, he felt that if he worked through the constant pains it’ll get better and adapt to it. Unfortunately for Angle, he reaggrivated the neck at No Way Out, when he was in a sleeper hold. Word has it that the problem occured at the South Africa WWE SmackDown! tour, but it’s now believed that it was actually at No Way Out. Kurt Angle has already seen a doctor and the results of the tests done to him are not good at all. Kurt will need a surgery and rehabilitation to his neck, which will take him out of action for one full year. Most importantly, Angle, as it stands right now, will miss WrestleMania XIX! That’s a major blow to the WWE, as their top player is basically now out. I’m guessing that WWE will have Kurt drop the belt to Brock on next week’s SmackDown!, as Lesnar is occupied with Heyman this week, but if things with Kurt are really bad, I won’t be surprised if it even happens this week. I also can’t help but wonder who will step up to challenge Lesnar for the belt at ‘Mania. Anyway, we wish Kurt Angle all the best and I must say that I’m very disappointed and have been since I heard the news, as Kurt Angle is one of the reasons (not “the” reason) I watch SmackDown!, and is one of my favorites.
On the positive side of things, every evil has its positives and good consequences. The way I see things, WWE can finally go ahead and turn Angle face upon his return in a year. What’s also under consideration is that now whenever Lesnar vs. Angle happens, it’ll be bigger than ever, and the anticipation will be even bigger than it already was! WWE just needs to carefully plan out the future of Team Angle, and in my opinion the best thing they could do right now is push Chris Benoit and Rhyno back into the main-event picture. So yeah, maybe Rhyno will turn heel faster than we all thought. Of course, there’s also the possibility of WWE simply having no choice in such a situation, and giving up on some demands, meaning they would sign Bill Goldberg. It’s been talked about on-line, so I won’t bother getting into it, but we’ll see what they come up with for Lesnar’s WrestleMania match. We shall see. I’ll keep you updated on the situation, so stay tuned.
If that wasn’t enough, more bad news got out for WWE during the weekend, as the RAW tour headed to Reading, PA, to do a house show. Randy Orton and Batista were in a tag match against the Dudley Boyz, and that one didn’t go well at all. Randy Orton ended up breaking several bones in his foot and dislocating his toe, and Batista also injured himself, as he is confirmed of having a torn triceps muscle. Test stated today on Bubba the Love Sponge Radio show that Randy Orton will be out for two months, while Batista will have to sit on the bench for six full months untill he’s fully recovered.
To make matters EVEN WORSE, Bubba Ray Dudley, who was also in this match, has been working through some bad back pains and the house show didn’t help. Also on the RAW roster, William Regal had a stomach flu he was battling with these past days and couldn’t compete. Things aren’t looking good health-wise for WWE. We wish everyone a speedy recovery and hopefully they’ll all be back sooner than expected. With that said, and with four wrestlers injured on the RAW roster…
WWE presented RAW this past Monday night, and for the first time since WrestleMania X8, Triple H, The Rock, and Steve Austin were all present on the same TV show (excluding the No Way Out PPV) in the same arena. Austin and Rock started their highly-anticipated WrestleMania program, whereas Triple H seemed to be picking things up with Booker T. The 5-time WCW Champion was also in the main event, as he faced Scott Steiner. Elsewhere on the program, Kane and RVD teamed up in the other main event (so to speak) to take on Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow in a tag team hardcore match, which was obviously put together in the last minute. The suspended Dudleyz were also in attendance, and so was Eric Bischoff, of course, who was expecting Austin but didn’t do much upon his arrival due to Rock’s request. For a full report, click here. In some bigger news, RAW scored a 4.5 rating, which is way up from last week’s 4.0. This is the best rating the show has generated in almost over a year now, and the fact that Triple H, The Rock, Steve Austin, Booker T, RVD, and Kane were all present definitely helped. WWE is back on track rating-wise, so let’s see how long it’ll last.
I liked Steve Austin’s return. I thought it had its good points for what it was worth. Let me start by saying that with so much time left before WrestleMania, and with Austin being gone for so long and hyped so much lately, I didn’t really expect him to do anything. Just show up. What I liked about his segment was that he thanked the fans, but at the same time managed to very well keep his “Stone Cold” persona working and didn’t look as if he was breaking character. The Rock also did very well last night. Rock vs. Hurricane II was pretty funny, but kinda seemed to be put on there because of the success of last week’s segment. I still enjoyed it a lot and thought it was hilarious. Rock did pretty well in his interaction with Bischoff as well. Also, his constant aluding to the crowd was funny, it’s like he recognized them being there, while not even talking to them. You don’t see that in wrestling every day when it’s not a wrestler-audience segment. Then of course came the Rock-Austin confrontation. I thought it was well done. The teaser about Rock getting stunned also worked well and Rock sold the spot pretty good. Austin was in shape and opened up a can of whoop-ass on the “oh-so-dangerous” 3 Minute Warning. Anywya, again, I thought that was ok for what it was worth.
Triple H made his first interaction with Booker T a memorable one. The Game also made sure to remain controversial, as his promo left many scratching their heads. Some could find racism in it, as H was talking about “people like you” to Booker T and was referring to the old WCW, where Booker at one point had a storyline (as a singles wrestler) that was linked to his race. Anyway, I don’t think that’s something to pick over, so let’s drop it. Triple H cut a good promo, but it somewhat made Booker look weak, so I hope WWE will go ahead and do something next week to bounce Book’s “appeal” up. A win over The Rock might help here, but I’m sure if not, it’ll be at least a squash type of finish, definitely a screw job. With Evolution out of the picture, it looks like Triple H and Booker will carry the feud by themselves, and we might see some of Goldust, as someone has to take care of Ric Flair being at ringside.
Chris Jericho officially challenged Shawn Michaels to a match at WrestleMania XIX this past Monday night on RAW. For the first time in a while, Jericho finally managed to get the better out of Michaels, and the segment was done very well in my opinion, as they even had Shawn blade and lose some blood. It’s very admirable of Michaels to put over young talent, so I give him credit for that. His feud with Jericho has kept me interested, and what’s more important, it looks like the Test/Jericho situation is now over and WWE could focus on HBK vs. Y2J alone. We’ll see how it goes. I truly hope Jericho wins at WrestleMania, or at least gets the rub in the rematch because otherwise every single good thing they’ve done with this storyline will go down the drain. The main goal is here to push Jericho in my opinion, and possibly set up HBK for his last match with a loss at ‘Mania. Then again, I still have the feeling HBK is not retiring soon at all.
The Dudley Boyz are still suspended. Regal had a stomach virus. Spike got squashed. Chief Morley gets the most of it. Poor Lance was all alone. Aww… Ah, whatever.
Kane and RVD continued their storyline this past Monday as well. The two were once again on friendly terms as they teamed up to take on Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow in a tag team hardcore match, won by RVD. I don’t know what the idea is here, but I suggest WWE does something with these two soon, or if not consider making them a constant tag team. What they’re doing right now — one week friends, next week dealing with masks, battle royals, etc. — isn’t cutting it. At the beginning when RVD was trying to get Kane’s “human” side to show up more often, at least they were entertaining. Now, that’s not happening for them either. Hopefully things will pick up soon.
The women on RAW continue to deliver big time. I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m not a big fan of Jazz. Make that, I’m not a fan of her at all. I’m highly against her holding the women’s belt, and I think it’s already showing that she might be a great wrestler (quite possibly the best female wrestler they have right now), but she has absolutely no chemistry with anyone. Her past storylines with Trish weren’t all that, and after what Trish did with Victoria, it’s obvious that it wasn’t Stratus’s fault. Trish and Victoria’s chemistry and ability to work with each other is what got the women’s division the great push they’ve been enjoying, and having Jazz enter this little situation has had its effect. The work of Fit Finlay is amazing though. He’s just done an unbelievable job and deserves a hand. Hopefully with Lita coming back soon, things will once again pick up. Please, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Jazz, I think she’s a great technical and powerful wrestler, but I am just not a fan of hers, and she doesn’t entertain me, whereas while I’m watching Trish and Victoria go at it, I can see a good fight, great in-ring work, and two beautiful women battle it out.
I think that will do it for this edition. There’s a huge gap in the WrestleMania XIX card, now with Kurt Angle out of the event. I’m going to have fun with this one, so please, take this for what it’s worth 🙂 I’ll have more WrestleMania talk during the weekend hopefully, and also make sure to e-mail me if you have any opinions or thoughts on the PPV. I’d love to hear them. Here’s my current card:
– The Rock vs. Steve Austin
– Triple H (c) vs. Booker T — World Championship [confirmed]
– Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Goldberg (?) or Chris Benoit (?) — WWE Championship
– Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels [confirmed]
– Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon [confirmed]
– Matt Hardy (c) vs. Rey Mysterio — WWE Cruiserweight Championship
– Team Angle vs. Los Guerreros vs. FBI (?) — WWE Tag Team Titles
– The Undertaker and Nathan Jones vs. The Big Show and A-Train (?)
– Victoria (c) vs. Trish Stratus vs. Jazz — WWE Women’s Championship
– Storm/Regal (c) vs. Dudley Boyz — World Tag Team Titles
– Kane vs. Rob Van Dam (?)
– Limp Bizkit Performance [confirmed]
Scott Steiner, and Rhyno seem to be the odd men at this time. Anyway, I’ll have more in the next report.
My Two Cents
Wouldn’t you agree with me in saying that whenever Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar happens at a PPV, it will indeed be the most awaited match ever?
When the main event is RVD and Kane vs. Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow, doesn’t it tell you they booked the show in the last second?
Did you catch The Rock messing up and telling the security guard to get him Austin, when he meant Bischoff? And did you catch how smartly he got out of it?
Speaking of catching people, did you catch Lillian Garcia singing along to “One of a Kind” after she announced RVD, and right before Kane’s entrance?
So, does that mean Evolution is now over and only the primates are left?
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
