Strummer

Two more via wwe.com *The World's Greatest Wrestling Managers *The American Dream: The Dusty Rhodes Story (2-disc) It's going to be great watching Meltzer's head explode after reviewing hours worth of Dusty Rhodes matches.

To determine who faces Cena at Wrestlemania. The matches: * RVD vs Carlito * Kane vs Chris Masters * Triple H vs Ric Flair * Shawn Michaels vs Big Show Not to hard to figure out who's going over. Only thing interesting is will they have RVD make it to the finals and do yet another job to HHH?

Loss, in the F4W preview, Alvarez teased why they don't want Rey in the WM event. What was the reason?

Update from Meltzer:

Meltzer: --There were a lot of unhappy people backstage during the Randy Orton interview for Smackdown taped last night (check spoilers). Let's just say the respect in some circles with management hit an all-time low. I bet Jericho is typing up another letter to send to Meltzer

Cena v Edge rematch tonight on Raw

According to Meltzer and Keller Mania looks like this: Cena v HHH Angle v Orton Shawn Michaels v Vince McMahon Mick Foley v Edge (Keller) Undertaker v Mark Henry I'll say they will probably have Flair v Benjamin and Carlito v RVD. I have no idea about anything else. I'm trying to think who Rey can work and the only person coming to mind is JBL but they already feuded in the fall.

Cena regains the title

Meltzer: Edge vs. Cena is up next. Welcome to Stasiakville. Hope you enjoyed your 3 weeks with the title Edge.

Rey wins the Rumble but it means nothing as he will not get the title match at Mania

JYD's "THUMP" Powerslam

from Meltzer's update: The winner of tonight's Royal Rumble is not scheduled for a main event at Wrestlemania this year.

Spoilers!!! "PWInsider is reporting that rumors are going around backstage that Rey Mysterio will be winning the Royal Rumble. However, the plan seems to be to have Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton at WrestleMania. This could mean that Rey will lose his title shot before WrestleMania, or that one of the two plans have been changed. Another match planned for WrestleMania is Undertaker vs. Mark Henry." Meltzer called Undertaker/Henry a few weeks ago so it seems legit. Too bad about Rey if that's true.

back drop suplex

A cruiserweight "Invitational" has been added to the Royal Rumble. According to an interview in the Miami Herald, Shawn Michaels will be taking time off after Wrestlemania and will be working a reduced schedule afterwards

Crediting Flair for the ratings increase! COME ON It couldn't have anything to do with a fresh start on top and Cena in the chasing role? Shawn "not looking the same" Dave's been saying that since November and I don't see it and really have no idea what he's talking about.

PWI just reported that WWE and UPN (CW next year) have come to an agreement on a 2 year deal. The show will remain on Fridays in the 8:00 PM time slot. The workers were informed last night at the taping.

here is the entire list of Buyrates for the year from Meltzer: New Year?s Revolution 2005 - 367,000 2005 Royal Rumble - 570,000 No Way Out 2005 - 238,000 WrestleMania 21 - 985,000 Backlash 2005 - 310,000 Judgment Day 2005 - 260,000 ECW One Night Stand - 330,000 Vengeance 2005 - 427,000 Great American Bash ?05 - 238,000 SummerSlam ?05 - 640,000 Unforgiven 2005 - 225,000 No Mercy 2005 - 219,000 Taboo Tuesday 2005 - 215,000 19th Annual Survivor Series - 375,000 Armageddon 2005 - 290,000

from DVDVR Board: Shelton B. is expected to beat Flair for the IC title Raven is having severe health problems as it relates to his past abuses of recreational and performance enhancing drugs. His thyroid is all messed up. The reason TNA had their unopposed Monday night show canceled the week that the dog show is preempting RAW, is because TNA was told by Spike to sign another marquee talent (ala Sting) and failed to do so. Jeff Jarrett contacted The Rock recently asking advice about product advice. TNA and the UFC are sharing much the same audience on Spike. This was not the case when UFC and WWE were both on the network. Dave suggests that TNA is more appealing to a ?sports? fan than the WWE is then based on those stats. Armageddon did roughly 290,000 buys ? highest SD! PPV since July 2003 (Vince vs Gowen and Brock vs Big Show vs Angle) Mexico?s Roberto Rangel, a ref full time for 53 YEARS, went into shock on Dec 24th and his career is now over. In the it can always be worse category: Former WWE ?star? Kenzo Suzuki is part of a Hustle storyline where his wife is GM so he is Main eventing all the shows. (Razor Ramon Hard Gay is one of his opponents) WWE is avoiding Dome shows because it costs 2 million dollars before you can even open the doors on such an event. Antonio Inoki continues his trend of weekly outrageous claims: This week he claimed the Bankrupt New Japan promotion was going to split into 2 brands. One would tour Japan and the other foreign countries. The ?Hart House? in Calgary is expected to be preserved as a centerpiece for a new townhouse development. An obscure Mexican wrestler died recently, which led to Dave telling a story about how this guy teamed with wrestling legend Danny Hodge and the 2 of them went over Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody in 1975. Brody and Hansen weren?t happy jobbing to small guys, so Hodge got to stretch Brody a little bit. April Hunter?s ex boyfriend (who she still lived with due to $$$ restraints) recently beat the tar out of her and claimed he was going to cut her tits of since that?s all she had going for her. Dave reveals that Kimmel wanted the ?It?s still real to me Damnit!? fan to be on his show, but once they located him and found out he was (gasp) normal and lost interest in him. Dave said he was approached by NBC in the 80?s to be featured in a show on Pro Wrestling as ?Wrestling?s biggest fan? after the producers saw how clean cut he was they went with a ?barely coherent, drooling Louisiana Jim Duggan fan? as the Biggest fan instead. The legends PPV coming on March 3rd will be called World Wrestling legends and will be mostly 80?s stars. Chris Jericho has his own 2 hour XM radio show, a UK Fozzy tour coming up and has a book deal for his bio. Plus he?s still doing auditions and taking acting classes. Jim Cornette fell down his stairs at home and got a deep hip bruise. He said it was more painful than the Starcade Scaffold bump that messed up his knee permanently. Chris Jericho cited interest in TNA if he could get ?Sting money? . It seems unlikely. Jarrett visited Bret Hart recently and believes he can convince Bret to do some TNA shots. Vince wanted Sting for 2002?s Wrestlemania but negotiations didn?t go fast enough and Sting felt he wouldn?t be in good enough shape to go. Vince called him when the TNA deal came close to fruition, but the WWE wanted him to work 12-15 days a month and Sting wouldn?t do that. Dave Hebner has opened up a wrestling promotion with NASCAR?S Hermie Sadler. He will use mostly TNA talent as a TNA house show dry run. His 1st show had a Dusty finish for the main event which just makes for a wonderful precedent. Al Snow refereed at the event. WWE theme music was used and Spike Dudley used that name which WWE owns. TNA will be doing another PPV of all cage matches this year. The guy who financed Randy Savage?s rap CD made an offer to buy TNA When Skanador Akbar did his recent MMA cornerman duty, he did so while in full turban and Sheik?s clothing (Think World Class 1987) SummerSlam is now up to roughly 640,000 buys the 2nd biggest SSlam buyrate in history (98 Taker vs Austin = no. 1) Antonio Inoki (yeah he?s still lying) claimed Lesner won his court case vs WWE and is now free to go anywhere to work HHH was mad that WWE.com broke kayfabe about he and Steffi having a lil Demon brewing in her womb. The 1st SNME will air March 18th and be on a 3 hour tape delay Kurt Angle?s lower back and his neck are both very bad but now with the belt Angle?s going to go harder than ever. Cole and Tazz both complained that Ken Kennedy was added to their announcing team (Cole more than Tazz) Bob Orton caught hepatitis as a teen and forgot he had it (35+ years) Taker was so pissed off by the whole situation Johnny Ace had to fly to a house show and sooth things over with him. Bob Orton was sent home. Jim Ross has been offered a new contract. No word on whether he wants to resign or not though. Flair said in a recent interview he wants to run for North Carolina Governor Dave confirms that Animal can?t wrestle in 0ne on one matches due to his Lloyd?s of London deal. Al Snow claimed in a recent interview that Vince once called him about his European Champ gimmick while Vince was in the middle of screwing Linda. Billy Graham will be working WWE TV in February to promote the DVD and book Awesome WWE logic: OVW requested Mac Johnson be returned to them from Deep South since he?s over in OVW and not really being used in Deep South. Talent relations denied the request because OVW is seen by the writers and the writers will see Mac has ?no body? week after week and thus have no ideas for him and he will be fired. If he stays in Deep South no one will see him and his job is safe. So by being in a place where he?s not over, he has a better chance to keep his job! The Wrestlemania tour bus which is to go city to city promoting the show was broken into recently and half the stuff was stolen.

Meltzer and Alvarez are very guilty of that. In the debate ,you referenced the Cena/Jericho v Christian/Tomko match from last summer. Dave and Bryan didn't say why they thought it was a bad match, they basically said, "Well Cena and Tomko were in the match, of course it sucked". And Bryan's ragging on the Big Show the last 5 or 6 years is the most blatant personal attack on a wrestler by a reporter that I've ever seen. It reeked of jealousy.

Anyone else notice Lance Cade looks exactly like Steve Austin circa 1991. Same hair, build, tights.

A Slaughter DVD would probably be very profitable because the casual fans will buy it for the "All American" gimmick and the smarks will buy it for his work. I've been watching several matches from his early 80s work and he is VERY underrated. I've noticed that Sheik seems very uncooperative in a lot of his matches. Like he's afraid to give too much to his opponent. It makes for very awkard looking matches.

Everyone at one time or another has liked angles or matches that probably aren't technically good but have some sort of sick appeal. So what matches and angles are guilty pleasures for you? For me: Matches: Jake Roberts v Rick Martel Blindfold Match from WM 7. I could watch this match over and over again for some reason. Martel dropping the elbow on the bare mat is still one of the funniest visuals I've ever seen in wrestling. Hogan/Beefcake v Savage/ Zeus from Summerslam 89. Don't know why but this is a really fun match with incredible heat. Helps that Schiavone and Jesse are great on commentary during the match especially Jesse's misogynistic rant against Elizabeth. AWA Team Challenge Series from 1990. Just the absurdity of the gimmick appealed to me. Doomsday Cage Match at Uncensored 96. Undertaker v Yokozuna Casket Match Royal Rumble 1994 Chris Jericho/Nick Patrick from WW3 1996. Angles: Big Bossman/Bobby Heenan feud over Heenan making fun of Bossman's mother in 1991. Shawn Michaels/Rick Martel feud over Sherri from 1992 WWF. Trish Stratus/Stephanie McMahon feud from 2001. Tyler Fullington/Raven angle from ECW in 1996. Dungeon of Doom v Horseman from WCW in 1996. The current Boogeyman storyline

I've mentioned this before but I did not have TBS until 1996. The only NWA/WCW I ever saw was Worldwide on WSBK out of Boston which aired on Saturday Mornings and then Late Friday Night/Early Saturday Mornings (3:00AM) later on. I grew up on the WWF. There was so much of it on. Superstars on Saturday Evenings, then a possible SNME, Challenge on Sunday Mornings, then All American at noon on USA, Spotlight on Sunday afternoon, then Prime Time on Monday Nights. It was 3 days of wall to wall wrestling and it shaped me on how I viewed and understood wrestling. That didn't really change until 1997 when I got on the net.