Yo. You’re reading yet another edition of News and Analysis, for which I thank you. Before I go on, make sure to read Trevor’s post on Kurt Angle’s injury and future. That is also, of course, one of the main points of this edition of N and A. Away we go…
SmackDown! hit the airwaves on Thursday show and it was a very anticipated broadcast, mainly due to the current situation with Kurt Angle’s health. Angle was set to take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship, and to the surprise of many, defeated Brock. More on that later. Elsewhere on the program, Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio faced Team Angle in what was the match of the night in my opinion, and Rhyno teamed up with Chris Benoit once again to take on Los Guerreros to determine the #1 Contenders for the tag belts at ‘Mania. The match ended with a double DQ due to a Team Angle interference, resulting in a triple threat at ‘Mania, but nonetheless, it was a great bout. Torrie Wilson revealed her Playboy cover, while Dawn revealed her breasts, and we also found out that Nathan Jones will be at WrestleMania as the tag partner of The Undertaker against the team of Show and A-Train. SmackDown!’s rating is in and things aren’t looking good. The show scored a 3.0 rating, with a 4.6 share, which is down from last week. Last week, Busch’s speech was the reason for the downfall in the rating, but it looks like WWE dropped the ball this week.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest piece of news in the world of pro wrestling in the past few days has been the condition of one Kurt Angle. As previously reported, Kurt was set to undergo a neck surgery which would take him out of action for at least a year. PWTorch, however, had an article up which made a lot of wrestling fans like myself feel very worried about Angle’s condition. The article, which our own Trevor had on here as well (click here), basically said that there’s a high possibility that Kurt Angle might retire, following the surgery. Angle has two bulging discs that need to be repaired, and such operations are very tough on the neck. In fact, when more than two of the discs in the neck (Kurt’s vertebrae that need to be fused are C6 and C7) are surgically repaired, most people have troubles taking bumps, and it’s not recommended that you keep on wrestling.
To make some light out of this… The surgery Angle is going to have is similar of those that Austin, Benoit, Rhyno, Lita, and Waltman have all gone through. It’s not the main concern. The concern here is how his neck holds up afterwards, and will he be able to go on. Word has it that it’s too early to say he’ll retire. Everybody who knows Kurt Angle knows how physically tough this man is and the type of sacrifices he is willing to go through. Doctors have been telling him it’ll take a year to recover, but Angle keeps saying that all he’ll need is eight months. You have to admire his love for what he does, and his toughness. No wonder he’s the best wrestler Vince currently has under contract. To wrap it up on Angle, within a year it’ll be known whether he can continue to wrestle or not, but soon after his surgery, we’ll know how his neck holds up, so we’ll have an update then.
Previous reports stated that Kurt Angle will be out of WrestleMania for sure, with an injury like that. However, with the possibility of his ‘Mania match being his last one, and with Kurt’s competitor spirit, things have changed, and Angle will take on Lesnar at WrestleMania. Many expected for Brock to win the belt on SmackDown!, but word has it that plans were changed several minutes before the show was taped. Angle approached Vince McMahon and other higher-ups and pleaded with them to compete at ‘Mania, meaning that he was willing to push his surgery three weeks back. McMahon wasn’t so happy, as there’s a possible risk for Kurt to be paralyzed or even die if dropped on his neck wrong. However, Angle had a medical clearance to wrestle if his opponent is aware of the situation and treats him carefully. Kurt trusts Brock, so the match is on.
With all that said, Angle defeated Lesnar on SmackDown!, with the help of Eric Angle, a move WWE has done in the past — at Survivor Series 2000 when Kurt defeated Undertaker, to be more exact. With the updates above on Angle, this comes in natural, and I would look for WWE to really take it on easy on Kurt for the next three weeks. He believes that by resting his neck, it’ll allow for him to carry a bit of the load for the big match. Nonetheless, WWE has done a good job with this feud and even with Angle’s injury will continue to do so, I’m sure. As far as a winner goes, we might just see Kurt win at WrestleMania and possibly just give the belt away afterwards. I think that’ll be a nice gesture, as it’s not 100% sure he’ll be wrestling afterwards.
The injury problems for WWE continue. So far, Edge, Kurt Angle, Dave Batista, and Randy Orton had been taken out with injuries. William Regal and Bubba Ray Dudley are working through their own problems as well. To add more to it, Billy Kidman was injured at the SmackDown! tapings this past Tuesday. Billy went for a Shooting Star Press and his feet hit the ropes. In order to prevent a nasty fall, Kidman used his arm to soften the fall, but in the process jammed his shoulder. If you watched SmackDown! you probably know what I’m talking about, as he was careful of his shoulder for the rest of the match. That will probably put Billy on the bench for a bit, but it’s not as big a blow to the company as the Angle and Edge situations are, since Kidman isn’t involved in a huge feud as of the moment.
The feud over the cruiserweight championship is currently Rey Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy. That’s where the SmackDown! analysis of the other feuds goes on. I’ll give you a sentence or two on each one… It’s good to see WWE getting Mysterio in the mix of the cruiserweights, but can you believe it took them half a year to finally put him where they originally signed him for? Proves his popularity is huge… Speaking of Matt Hardy, I loved his match with Brian Kendrick. Brian has shown nothing but goods so far, and Shawn Michaels should be proud of his student. Hardy carried the match great, too… The Dawn Marie bit seemed a bit weird, but I won’t complain for the shot they had of her. Seeing Sean O’Haire back was also well done, but they need to get him into a feud soon, before they kill everything they’ve worked on with him… Team Angle are just amazing. I don’t know what else to say here… Chris Benoit and Rhyno seem to be quite a team. By the looks of it, I expect one to turn on the other (Rhyno to turn on Benoit), or probably one of them (Benoit) to advance forward and feud Lesnar after ‘Mania… Not sure what to say on the Guerreros. They have the skill, but seem to be stuck with a dopey, “ha ha” storyline… McMahon and Hogan have been doing great job with their promos, but Hogan has to be actually present at the shows for the feud to work better.
Let’s take a look at the WrestleMania XIX card and what’s been updated there:
– The Rock vs. Steve Austin [confirmed]
– Kurt Angle (c) vs. Brock Lesnar — WWE Championship [confirmed]
– Triple H (c) vs. Booker T — World Heavyweight Championship [confirmed]
– Vince McMahon vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan [confirmed]
– Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels [confirmed]
– Matt Hardy (c) vs. Rey Mysterio — WWE Cruiserweight Championship [confirmed]
– The Undertaker and Nathan Jones vs. A-Train and Big Show [confirmed]
– Team Angle (c) vs. Benoit/Rhyno vs. Los Guerreros — WWE Tag Teams Championship [confirmed]
– Limp Bizkit performance [confirmed]
– Kane vs. RVD
– Victoria (c) vs. Jazz vs. Trish Stratus — Women’s Championship
– Storm/Regal (c) vs. Dudley Boyz — World Tag Teams Championship
And there ya have the updated version. The unconfirmed matches are all but sure to happen in my opinion. Big Poppa Pump remains the odd man with nothing to do on the card. Send in your thoughts, and any comments. They’re welcomed! Thanks for reading folks! I’ll see ya next week!
Eddie
