| WRESTLING REPORT 05/15/02 JUDGEMENT DAY THIS SUNDAY WWE presents JUDGEMENT DAY this Sunday. The Main event has Hulk Hogan defending the WWE Championship against The Undertaker. The last time these two fought for the World Title was 11 years ago. Back in 1991, when Hogan was also the champion and 'taker was the challenger, the SURVIVOR SERIES was the place for the "Gravest Challenge". For those who may be too young to remember, Undertaker had just been with the WWF for a year at this time and was one of the spookiest characters to ever be seen by even WWF's television standards at that time. This was back when he had the "dead man" gimmick and was placing his defeated opponents in body bags and carrying them away. Also around this time Ric Flair had just recently arrived in the WWF and was trying to make his mark. He decided to put his two cents worth into this match and rang up a bill of about one hundred dollars. He interfered and caused Hogan the match. At the end of the match we had a new Champion. Six days later the two had a rematch at the TUESDAY IN TEXAS pay per view that saw Hogan regain the title from The Undertaker. Fast forward to now and we have almost the same scenario. Hogan is the champion, 'Taker is the Challenger, and yes Ric Flair is again in the picture. Granted he already is busy with his handicap match with the Big Show against Steve Austin but he has recently turned heel (again!) and may feel the need to build up on some heat. Will history be repeated and Flair will again cause Hogan to lose the title to Undertaker? Will the two then meet again 6 days later in a rematch? Well the latter is highly unlikely but the other two parallels are feasible. Brock Lesner suffered his first loss this week on RAW. Mind you it was by disqualification but a loss none the less. A loss so early on in his push as "The Next Big Thing" slows down his momentum a whole bunch. Was this some sort of punishment handed to him by WWE? For those who may not have heard, Lesner was involved in an altercation with Curt Henning over a week ago on a flight back from the UK. Details of what exactly happened are unclear and about all we know for certain (and even that isn't 100%) is that Henning instigated the fight and was fired for his involvement. Was Lesner saved from this fate because of the circumstances or did WWE spare him because they have plans for Lesner and were not prepared to put a stop to "The Next Big Thing". Well at any rate, as I said above, this loss certainly slows down the momentum that was being built up for this new superstar. Lesner and Paul Heyman will face The Hardy Boyz at this Sunday's JUDGEMENT DAY. For a complete look at this card click HERE. This week's RAW by the way was a bit of a let down to many fans. At the start of the show Flair announced that a new member of the n.W.o was going to be unveiled tonight. Two hours later and this big secret turned out to be Booker T. Well whoopdeodoo! I can only think that the logic in this development is to build up an opportunity for Booker T to turn fan favorite. The Flair vs. Hogan match, to me, was a good treat although some fans may say that its been done before. Now I didn't pay too much attention to this pair's rival in old WCW days but it seems to me that it has never been officially settled and I think it would be good to see them have a short dragged out feud one last time. I say "short dragged out feud" because I would like to see it dragged out for maybe a couple of months but not for something silly like a year. Joanie Laurier A.K.A Chyna will face Joey Buttafuco on Fox's CELEBERTY BOXING next week. According to Jim Ross, WWE is in "preliminary talks" with Bill Goldberg. Goldberg took a buy out of his Time Warner contract recently and his WWE arrival is highly speculated. Jazz will be off for 4 to 6 months heeling a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament in her left knee. (Whatever that is.) Hence the title change mentioned below. NEW CHAMPS: Trish Stratus defeated Jazz to regain the Women's Championship on the May 13 RAW. |