Strummer

according to the Torch, one of the reasons he's coming back is that Sable broke up with him. Apparently Brock was struggling big time financially and Sable left him behind.

from Meltzer: --Brock Lesnar is expected to officially sign his WWE contract tomorrow. This is not a definite, but at this moment he is pegged for the Smackdown side of things.

more from wwe.com. From Brock: ?I?m excited about getting my working boots on and getting back to business, I don?t know what?s going to happen tomorrow in the meeting, I don?t know if I?m returning to WWE, I really don?t. In order for this to happen, it has to work for both Vince and myself.? ?We need to get on the same page. There?s some hard feelings on both ends of this. Sometimes it takes a little time to heal. We?ll know more tomorrow.? ?I had some maturing to do. There comes a time in everybody?s life when you have to grow up. But professional wrestling is in my blood. I may have second guessed it in the past, but I know it now.?

He was getting some decent heat at the beginning but once they drove the joke into the ground, he got less and less of a reaction. As Loss said earlier, Vince obviously loves the guy

yup, Dudley Boys and Matt Morgan are gone. That explains why the Mexicools got to squash Morgan, knew something was up Edit: Oops, ^ technically a spoiler

add Spike Dudley and Kevin Fertig to the list of those released. Up to 8

That was the best heat they got for a heel turn in FOREVER. The crowd was legit stunned, it was great. I would assume it's Hogan/HBK, Cena/Jericho, HHH/Angle, and RVD/CCC at Summerslam for the Raw side.

SHAWN HEEL TURN!!!!!!!!

Thank God this putz was one of the first to go... He set a new low in WWE commentating when doing commentary with, IIRC, Benoit and Malenko over one of Benoit's Japan matches on the Benoit DVD. actually that was Todd Grisham, who will be replacing Loyd in all his announcing duties

first "name" to bite the dust I guess: PWI: Announcer Marc Lloyd was released today.

In the 80s, a lot of Hogan's Title matches took place in the middle of the show so he could avoid being mobbed by fans when trying to leave and also so he could quickly get to the next House Show.

yeah they want to keep her heel but she can't show up Lita on Raw, so this makes sense. She's either going to feud with the T and A girls or be a valet, I'm betting on the former. More fresh bikini contests I guess. Although if you believe what Trish has said in the past, she likes doing the T and A stuff just as much as wrestling. Don't know if that is a company line or not though. Somehow I don't believe she's telling the truth.

--Sabu will be meeting with Vince McMahon on Monday in Phoenix --Anibal Gonzalez, formerly Juventud Guerrera, is now going to be called just plain Juventud. I guess we have enough guys with last names starting with G. --The storyline on Super Crazy & Psicosis is that Teddy Long was so impressed with them on the ECW PPV that John Laurinaitis signed them four months earlier. Well, something like that. --The Sun has an interview with John Cena at www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003560001-2005280084,00.html. They brought up where Cena had claimed to them just a few months ago that if he was moved to Raw he'd be kicking and screaming about the move, and then when they move was made, he didn't kick nor scream. "But now that I am on Raw, I'm going to say Raw is the better show. I have to, because you have to show your support for your brand," Cena said while promoting the current Smackdown tour. He said it's like getting traded. The story was half kayfabed as he talked about how the G.M.'s have until the end of the month to work out trades. When the spinning belt was brought up, Cena said, "if wrestling was run by the traditionalist, then it would still be in carnival halls featuring large hairy guys." Me think Cena needs to bone up on some wrestling history, but he has learned how to play Hulk Hogan. In fact, 20 years from now, perhaps he'll take credit for coming up with new ideas like playing to the crowd and delivering promos. He noted this belt is the most expensive belt in company history. --Chris Jericho put this on his web site and was very upset about internet reports that he had bad mouthed Bill Goldberg on a Phoenix radio station, being that the two get along. "Just a quick note to set the record straight. I was sitting in my hotel room in Portland, Oregon doing some web surfing and I stumbled on a post on Liveaudiowrestling.com that stated the following...Jericho shoots on Goldberg...I promptly clicked on the post to find out what it said, only to be surprised at an article stating the comments that I made on Real Rock 98 out of Phoenix, Arizona completely burying Goldberg. Only problem is, I never appeared on Real Rock Radio in Phoenix or any other city this morning. I was too busy playing with my son and flying to Portland! So that means either Live Audio Wrestling is lying or some jackass actually wasted his time impersonating me on the radio! Either way, I just want to say that I have no ill will toward Bill. If I saw him today, I would shake his hand and give him a hug. As much as people would like to believe there is huge amounts of hatred and animosity between us...there isn't. What is done is done and I think that Bill is doing a great job with his acting nowadays and I hope someday we'll meet again. Maybe we'll have to meet again, in order to whip the asses of the people who won't let the events of our past...personal events at that...fade away!"

Isn't that in Caddyshack? yes it is. I was thinking the same thing. Rodney Dangerfield says it to Ted Knight at the very beginning of the movie.

PWI:

so Vengeance has HHH v Batista Kane v Edge Cena v Jericho v Christian HBK v Angle I would think they will add Benjamin v Hassan or something like that. I would think this show will do a pretty good number

yeah I post there, they are very pro HHH/ Taker, Batista, basically all the top guys, I try to explain to them the deal but they don't want to hear it, they pass it off as "typical smark crap" I swear it's a different world at these boards. I get a kick out of visiting them, it's just surreal sometimes

yeah hopefully. Here are some of the responses from last night from some boards I visit. It seems that RVD and Heyman had a free ticket to just say whatever the hell they wanted. I read some of the things they said and RVD just sounds like a whiny bitch. IMO. I just don't like the guy and never will. If he hated his character so much then why didn't he come up with a better character for himself *rolls eyes* Don't forget RVD is a wrestling god. I like what the guy does in the ring - he's incredibly gifted athletically. I think his attitude sucks, though, so I can't say that I've missed him while he's been recovering. I also think his interview skills are terrible, so "best promo of his career" doesn't really mean much to me! I didn't see it but I heard about what RVD said and how he complained about how he is used in the WWE. All he does is bash the company. If he hates it so much, than he should just quit. He should be lucky they haven't fired him yet after the injuries he has caused.

about the RVD push, I'm all for it and it might work, but Id be concerned if the casual fans would buy it. After the PPV last night, all the mark boards I visit were saying stuff like "RVD is complaining too much" "he's clearly not as good as HHH, he should just shut up" and "RVD has proven that he isn't main event talent" The time to push him might be over, but hopefully these responses are just exceptions, and not the rule.

great review Loss Best one I've seen on the show so far. I'm definitely getting the DVD now

Bradshaw sure is taking advantage of the fact that management loves him

yes, Prime Time would air matches taped at house shows (or TV tapings) sometimes months and months after the fact. They stopped airing "Main Event" type matches around 86/87. In fact I don't think they ran a first run Hogan match after 87, but I'm not sure on that. Starting around 87/88 they would usually (almost always actually) show matches with midcarder v midcarder as the Prime Time Main Event. I remember Rick Rude v Koko B Ware, Rick Martel v Haku, Harts v Young Stallions, etc. all main eventing. This being 80s WWF I would say at least 75% of them had indecisive finishes. Starting around 89/90 Prime Time starting airing more repeat matches from the syndicated shows from the previous weekend and the "first run" matches started to lessen. And of course when Prime Time changed into the "Talk Show" format hosted by Vince, Heenan, Piper, etc. the wrestling took a backseat and the skits became the focus of the show

Last year, I got flamed over at TSM for knocking this match. I don't see what is so great about it, it's solid of course, but I've seen people give this match ****+. It was more of a show case for Benoiit than a wrestling match. The point of it was to say "Hey this Benoit guy is really good". Snow (despite a few short bursts of offense) was just cannon fodder. Good match that served to get Benoit over, but not the classic it has been portrayed as.

PWI: The first Raw star to be drafted to Smackdown is Chris Benoit.

if you look back to the 80s, at least in the WWF, their top wrestlers were not what you would call great looking. Vince has never pushed the pretty boys anyway, just the monsters, roid freaks and big fat guys, so I really don't believe Vince is truly behind that theory (he might be more now). Like I said just look at the 80s