General round-up, 1st May

Well the big news is the return of ECW

There was always the potential for this to happen, I just hope they get it right. The points of note so far are:

• There will still be the One Night Stand PPV in June, and will be WWE v ECW, though how that will work yet I am not sure
• Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer will be responsible for the booking
• Joey Styles is likely to be the play-by-play commentator, with JR returning to Raw
• It is scheduled to start around September
• Rather than adding a 3rd day of television tapings, it is likely to replace Velocity and be recorded before the Smackdown! tapings. It will, however, run independant house shows
• The roster is likely to be made up of old ECW stars and developing WWE stars
• Vince is rumoured to be very open to the idea of signing new stars to the brand
• Sabu has reportedly agreed to be a part of the roster
• There are also reports that Rhyno (Rhino) may be interested in moving from TNA, however Raven and the Dudleys (Team 3-D) are on long-term TNA contracts
• Lance Storm has been contacted about joining and, although he appears open to making a few appearances, has stated that he has no intention of returning to work full-time

In other news:

Kurt Angle recently suffered a cracked rib and will be out for an undetermined amount of time. The incident happened in a match against Mark Henry (aint it about time he was fired?) on the recent tour of Europe. As a result, Booker T automatically goes to the final round of the King of the Ring.

Speaking of Booker & the KOTR, I really hope he wins it & starts to gain some momentum to put him back toward the top of the card, cause right now he is pretty pointless.

Although I do not have the details, it appears that WWE & Brock Lesnar have reached a settlement, and that Lesnar will soon be free to pursure other ventures. There are no plans for Lesnar to return to WWE at this point.

The DX reunion idea is nothing more than that at the minute, though it could happen. One of the issues though is how far they could take certain things - bearing in mind HBK's religious beliefs these days - and also whether or not there will be room for both the ego's HBK and HHH on the same team! However, it would certainly create an element of interest, in the short-term at least.

Depite the boo's continuing, there are no plans to turn John Cena heel.

Rumour has it that Shawn Michaels is a bit disillusioned with life as a WWE employee, and will be cutting back on his schedule soon.

In addition to the above news re Joey Styles, he will also apparently be commentating on Heat, though how much of a permanent arangement that is remains to be seen.

Apparently HHH & Steph do not know - nor do they wish to know - the sex of their child. Whatever happens, the little dude is bound to end up in wrestling!

The Tim White suicide videos continue to run on wwe.com.

Trish dislocated her shoulder last night at Backlash, and we await an update to see how long she will be out for.

Sadly (for me) Stacy Kiebler will officially cut ties with WWE once her contract runs out.

Speaking of Backlash, here is a round-up of last nights event:

Carlito beat Chris Masters in a reasonable match. It ended with Carlito winning by putting his feet on the ropes while getting the 3 count. I think Carlito will follow in some similar "Lie, Cheat & Steal" footsteps of the late Eddie Guerrero.

Umaga beat Ric Flair in a non-event.

Trish Stratus beat Mickie James by a DQ. The match was ok but the ending was pretty rubbish, with Mickie getting DQ'd for a 5-count on a choke. However, it has crossed my mind, considering the injury which Trish had, that maybe it was a spur of the way moment of getting her out of there.

Rob Van Dam beat Shelton Benjamin in the 'Winner Takes All' match. Although this was not an unforgettable classic, it was arguably the joint best show on the card - as was expected. A good bout from two of the most enjoyable performers in the business today.

Kane and Big Show had a fairly dull bout, ending in a no-contest as Kane continued to hear more 'voices'. Enthralling, eh...

Then, Vince & Shane beat HBK (and God) in a passable bout. HBK, as you would expect, provided most the action. He was beaten by the McMahons getting some aid from the 'Spirit Squad'.

Just before the WWE title bout there was a fairly dull angle with Matt Striker and Eugene. It did end, however, with Eugene giving Striker a stunner, which always gets a pop, obviously.

Finally, in a decent main event, John Cena pinned HHH to win the triple threat match, which also included Edge. At the end, HHH attacked both of his opponents and the ref with a sledgehammer. Although I wanted HHH to get the belt back, and I would have rather Edge won than Cena, this still a good bout, which meant that, along with the RVD match, I will probably remember the card as average. Believe me, it was nearly much worse.