Yo. A brand-new News and Analysis hits you with the latest news in pro wrestling, and a piece of analysis for each update. For some articles, there’s a link at the end of each update/paragraph. This link leads to a different article on the TBL Newsboard, where you can find more on the topic discussed. Enjoy.
In definitely the most important piece of news today, Kurt Angle has reaggrivated his hamstring injury at the SmackDown! tapings last night. For those who have forgotten, he pulled his hamstring at Wrestlemania XIX. Without spoiling anything from the show, apparently Angle had a tough luck in his second on-TV match since his return as he reaggrivated the injury. There’s no word as of yet on how serious his condition is, but it’s believed for now (or at least hoped it seems) that his condition isn’t tough. Knowing Kurt Angle, it’ll take a severe injury to put him out of action, so I’d expect for him to down play the injury, and continue wrestling. Stay tuned, as we’ll keep you updated on the situation. We wish Angle the best of luck. [TBL’s news update on Kurt’s injury]
There has been tons of commentary and backlash on the piece that HBO’s Real Sport aired last night. If you missed the show, basically they did a piece on the deaths in wrestling in current times (based on drug use) and how the industry “treats” the situation. Most people agree that the piece made WWE look bad, as some blame was put on them. Vince McMahon also ended up losing his temper, as he was interviewed. Vince seemed to loose his cool, thinking that the reporter was blaming WWE and Vince himself. He turned “Mr. McMahon” on the poor guy, basically, as he ended up mocking him, making noises, and even went as far as smacking the papers out of his hand. That definitely didn’t look good and it won’t make WWE look any better. In my opinion, the deaths in wrestling caused by drug abuse is a very edge-y issue, and there’s a lot of sides to consider. Stay tuned for opinions on our site. If you missed the show on HBO and would like to see it, click HERE to find the dates and times it’ll be repeated on the network. [TBL’s news update on HBO’s Real Sport]
There’s still talk on-line about Kane’s unmasking this past Monday night on RAW. This time, the talk is “more serious” so to speak as Percy Pringle (also known to wrestling fans as Paul Bearer) himself addressed the issue on his site. You can read what he had to say here, but to sum it up he basically told the world what I was trying to say in yesterday’s report, meaning that Kane was never really a character of his own to support, therefore it’s really hard to deal with him now that he’s now “Undertaker’s shadow,” so to speak. It’s unfair to Glen Jacob to do what they did, yet again, like Paul Bearer says, you never know, they might just do something big with him. In an interesting note, Pringle states in his column that the RAW rating (quarter hour) should have been very high for Kane’s segment. He’s right as the quarter hour of Kane unmasking scored a very big 5.0. [TBL’s news update on RAW’s rating]
According to reports from various sources, there has been a lot of frustration backstage at the SmackDown! brand shows as of lately. The same sources report that there has been a major transition of attitude in the workers from the brand, as most of them are not happy with how the writers use their characters. Recently, more guys have openly revealed their opinions, but nobody is “bald enough” to step up to Vince McMahon and tell him that they’re unhappy with their role. The wrestlers mostly complain to the writers and road agents at the shows. It’s my personal opinion that Vince McMahon should indeed take the blame, as he’s been reportedly busy with the Zach Gowen/Mr. America storyline, and has also recently taken on creating a new storyline for his daughter Stephanie, which began last week. It’s obvious to me that Vince is losing it, as he doesn’t really seem to care about how the rest of the show goes. That’s pretty evident if you watch the full broadcoast. What comes out as a result of all of this is that unfortunately the SmackDown! brand now seems to have lost its “bond” that it once had while the RAW brand used to have all the “in-fighting” and problems, a while ago. The tables have certainly turned around. [TBL’s news update on Frustrations with SmackDown! Stars]
Former WWE Hardcore Champion and employee, Pete Gas, was backstage at SmackDown! last night meeting up with people and friends. For those who have forgotten Pete, he was a member of the Mean Street Posse, the group brought in as Shane McMahon’s close friends. In reality, Pete and Rodney are indeed friends of Shane-O-Mac. There’s no talk if Gas will return to WWE as of yet, but from what I remember one of the reasons he quit, besides WWE having nothing for him, was to better his skills as a wrestler.[TBL’s news update on Pete Gas]
Well, folks, that will do it for today’s update. I hope you enjoy that type of “summary” of the latest news which I plan on doing in the near future. I will be also adding more opinions to each news article, trying to expand on the updates. I hope you like the idea, and I’ll really appreciate your feedback! I want to improve this section as much as I can! Thanks for your time and feel free to drop me a line! I’ll be back on Friday with SmackDown! thoughts.
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
