March 13 Update - Bret Staying Post 'Mania
**Friday night's edition of ‘Smackdown' was excellent in my opinion. The build for The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels has been one of the best built programs in WWE history and I don't see how you cannot finish the show with that match. The video Friday night with all the talent discussing the streak and how important it is was just so amazing and a key to this feud has been that the company has known the direction since last fall and are not rushing any of their top programs. It would have been very easy for the WWE to panic this past Monday and throw out certain ideas to win a one nights ratings battle with TNA but instead they stayed with what was planned with the focus being on WrestleMania (an event that will generate more money in one night than TNA has made in eight years) rather than screwing with that formula for one night in a battle that they destroyed their competition anyway.
**The ‘Raw' crew is in Fresno, California tonight while the ‘Smackdown' crew is in Stockton, California (the home of the Diaz brothers).
**TNA is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania tonight and then finish up in Wheeling, West Virginia tomorrow.
**The
second EVOLVE wrestling show takes place tonight in Rahway, New Jersey.
This is the company that Gabe Sapolsky is booking and has a very strong sports
theme to it where standings are tabulated and perhaps the best description of
their philosophy is putting together a wrestling promotion with the context of
a MMA promotion with wins and losses being valued above all else and a strict
adherence to rules. Here is the card for tonight's show:
*Chris
Hero Vs Ikuto Hidaka
*Mike
Quackenbush & Jigsaw Vs Hallowicked & Frightmare Vs Amasis & Ophidian
Vs Fire Ant & Green Ant
*Bobby
Fish Vs Claudio Castagnoli
*Johnny
Gargano Vs Jimmy Jacobs
*Kyle O'Reilly
Vs TJP
*Ricochet
Vs Chuck Taylor
*Brodie
Lee Vs Gran Akuma
*Kenn
Doane Vs Silas Young
*Cheech
& Cloudy Vs Flip Kendrick & Louis Lyndon
*Brad
Allen Vs Chris Dickinson
*Mercedes
Martinez Vs Sumie Sakai for the WSU Title
**A reminder that The Honky Tonk Man will be our guest on The LAW Sunday night
at 11pm EST on Sirius 98 Hardcore Sports Radio and you can also listen online
through our site.
**The Manny Pacquiao Vs Joshua Clottey fight takes place tonight in Dallas, Texas at the brand new Cowboys Stadium. It will be an interesting fight to see numbers wise what it can draw as it's a fight that Pacquiao is drawing all by himself as compared to his last three fights (Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto). Even if you're not a boxing fan and just follow wrestling and / or MMA, it's interesting to watch the health of the pay per view industry because it does all connect.
**The WWE is advertising Bret Hart as being part of the WWE's overseas tour after WrestleMania in Germany (one of Hart's favorite countries to work in and has always spoke highly of the fans in Germany) and will be the special enforcer referee for the main event matches between Chris Jericho and Edge.
**Former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis will be joining the U.S based King of the Cage promotion as a member of the broadcast team. Kanellis will debut on the March 26th event and calling the action alongside Michael Schiavello and Jason ‘Mayhem' Miller. The company will be holding a press conference on Monday to announce the signing of Kanellis
**The WrestleMania picture should be just about set after Monday night's edition of ‘Raw' with the announcement of what they're doing with Randy Orton and Legacy as the only major players without a role yet on the show. There will be one more entrant into the ‘Money in the Bank Ladder Match', which many assume will be Kofi Kingston. Due to the lack of heat and interest in Orton and Legacy, it would not surprise me to have Orton to go into the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. They have also teased a Michelle McCool Vs Beth Phoenix match, which would tie up all the loose ends.
**The Thursday night replay of TNA ‘Impact' did a 1.0 rating on Spike, virtually the same number they did on Monday night. I actually feel that number could be a negative in the sense Spike officials have to be wondering what Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair's returns would done unopposed if it drew that much on the replay. I think 8-10pm EST on Monday nights would be a huge positive right now but it's far from the major problems in TNA because those were evident on Monday and a chance to a different night or timeslot are not going to correct those problems.
**In his latest blog Jim Ross states that he doesn't feel the WWE is interested in having Ross on weekly TV and the extensive travel it would require. He also classified the chances of working with Jerry Lawler again ‘highly unlikely'. To me if the company really believes Jim Ross is done (and don't kid yourself for a second that TNA won't do everything in their power to recruit him) than it would be a nice touch to have him call the Vince McMahon Vs Bret Hart match at WrestleMania (it was the 1997 Survivor Series which was the first pay per view that Ross and Lawler did solo with McMahon backstage for the show and Ross and Lawler became the main commentary team permanently after that show).
**Dixie Carter made the following comment on her Twitter account regarding this past Monday's edition of ‘Impact':
I'm humbled by all your comments re:iMPACT last nite. I'm so proud of our talent, staff & the show we put on. It's only going to get better.
**The rating for the February 26th edition of ‘Smackdown' was a 2.0 rating (numbers are delayed because of My Network TV's status being downgraded from a network).
**Jesse
Ventura has confirmed that truTV has picked up a second season of ‘Conspiracy
Theory' that Ventura
hosts.
**
