Spoiling The Illusion: WrestleMania Edition

Wrestle Mania XX
- Eric Bischoff ‘heard a rumor’ the Undertaker would be at the arena? Guess he didn’t notice all the supernatural stuff that was haunting Kane for the past two months, or the fact that Vince McMahon himself announced the match on RAW, and it was one of the most anticipated matches on the card. So why WOULDN’T the Undertaker be at MSG that night?!?
- Randy Orton, Hardcore Legend? Dude, unless you fly your ass over to Japan and take part in a REAL hardcore match, there is NO WAY IN HELL anyone is gonna take you for anything remotely related to hardcore status. Constant blading doesn’t count either.
- Did Jerry Lawler really have to waste two whole minutes of commentary talking about ladies undergarments during the Women’s Title match?!? Was he so ticked at not getting to call the Playboy Evening Gown match that he had to get his licks in somewhere? He really took all the seriousness out of that match just so he could discuss a dirty fetish of his and made the story of the match of what would happen to Molly if she lost secondary.
- And why was Tazz & Michael Cole given the 'envious' task of calling the Evening Gown match instead of giving it to the RAW team so King could drool all he wants, and call one of the other inter-promotional matches like the Undertaker/Kane match since 'Taker representing SmackDown won that one?
WWE RAW
- King must have a REALLY short memory. Why else would he forget that Triple H did indeed lose the world title before? Or is it because that since Goldberg is no longer with the company, his title win never really happened?
- Normally, when a new champion is crowned in all the glory that is WrestleMania, shouldn’t the new champion be the one to start-off RAW? Not where Triple H is concerned. Despite being the loser of Mania, He STILL starts off RAW and STILL rants endlessly bout how he’s better than everyone. How easy is it for HHH to say the bulls-eye is on Benoit and that Benoit won’t last long as champion. But when HHH was champ, he was doing all he could to avoid defending the title at all! And what was that he said about the defending the title night after night? It’s been months since Triple H has even wrestled on TV let alone night after night!
- What part of NO EXEPTIONS did Triple H not hear his father in law (Vince McMahon) say? And did he REALLY think Bischoff could over-turn (or had the guts to over-turn) a decision by Vince?
NWA:TNA
- Not that I’m complaining, but after all the weeks of preparation and constant bashing by people who said he wasn’t ready, Chris Harris indeed shows he isn’t ready to be NWA champion. Whereas Raven, probably the most deserving of the roster, still isn’t given his shot by Russo. But how cool is it that despite how they try to heel him, Raven is still MEGA over with the crowd?! It wouldn’t surprise me if this led to Russo turning heel and backing Jarrett again just to keep Raven from the title. And doesn't this sound familiar? Cough... Austin/McMahon... Cough...
WWE SmackDown
- Wonder if Brock Lesner and Bill Goldberg wished they had gotten a send-off like Farooq did instead of getting beat up by a crippled Austin?
- First show after ‘Mania, and SmackDown is already looking for it’s next challenger for the world title, and using fresh faces to boot. Whereas RAW is beating around the bush by throwing out names. At least SmackDown is seriously looking for CONTENDERS.
- Paul Heyman really is the better GM between both brands as the guy really does give opportunity to the youngsters. Hell, he even does a better job than Russo on TNA who’s trying to put over who HE wants to get the opportunity!

Other News and Thoughts
What's next for Lesner?
He did not getting a rousing farewell from the fans at WrestleManiaXX. But what did he expect? He basically walked out on the company that made him what he is. Now he's throwing it all away to try out for the NFL. Operative word here is 'TRY OUT'. That means no guarantee he even has a chance. He says he really wants to play for his home team, the Minnesota Vikings. But the Vikings coach said they have no plans nor interest in giving Brock a 'try out' in a recently conducted interview. But Brock says he just wants to give it a shot, just so he'll know if he ever could have made it in the NFL. So that years from now he can look back and at least say he tried.
Right now Brock is the biggest free agent since Bill Goldberg when WCW went under. Numerous promotions in Japan are trying to acquire his services to work their shows (DSE-PRIDE, K1, NJPW). Nippon Sports offered WWE $250,000 to have Lesner and Angle work the upcoming NOAH Tokyo Dome show. But now Angle is on the shelf again. And as for Lesner? I seriously doubt the money means that much to him unless he gets desperate, but right now those promotions probably need to understand Brock has no-interest in pro-wrestling at this time, and even less in taking part in MMA events. But if Brock fails at his ventures and does decide to return to WWE, I doubt he should expect a rousing return welcome.

Farooq's firing NOT an angle!
Despite the angle where he was fired on SmackDown, Farooq was indeed released by WWE this past week and confirmed by WWE.com. Personal reasons were cited, but Ron Simmons has been known for wanting to retire before, but gave it one more run with the APA reformation.

King of Collosseum 2
The sequel to one of the best puroresu games ever is expected to be release in Japan around June. Screenshots don't look all that much different than the first one, but the big news is that now everything is on just ONE disc! Can't wait for this one!

NOAH News
Takeshi Morishima successfully defended the WLW title against Jun Izumuda on 3/13 and is now expected to make a short tour of America as the WLW champion. Interesting to note the match main evented the show with all the regular big names working the mid-card.

Yoshinari Ogawa & Yasuhiro (Kotaro) Suzuki will be the next challengers for KENTA & Marufuji's GHC Jr. Tag Titles on 4/3 at the Differ Ariake Arena. Anytime you have Ogawa challenging for a title is a scary situation, as the man is no stranger to holding multiple titles. Suzuki would be expected to be the fall-guy in the match, but you never know with Ogawa as he would love to be the man that finally wins the belts off KENTA & Marufuji. The only way I would justify Ogawa & Suzuki winning the belts is to have Suzuki get the pinfall.

Yoshihiro Takayama has been confirmed as the next challenger to Kenta Kobashi's GHC Heavyweight Title and the match will take place on 4/25/04 at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan. The last time these two met in a singles title match was Kobashi's final Triple Crown defense in All Japan before the NOAH jump. There was significance to that match as it was billed as a non-televised match to sell more tickets.