Kurt Angle wins the World Heavyweight Championship
January 10, 2006

Kurt Angle won the World Heavyweight Championship tonight at the SmackDown television taping in Philadelphia.

In one of the most shocking moments in recent SmackDown history, RAW's Angle walked out from the locker room area and into the SmackDown ring to compete in the Battle Royal ordered by General Manager Theodore Long.

The addition of Angle to the Battle Royal clearly caught many Superstars off guard, and he became an immediate target of the SmackDown roster. In fact, Mark Henry even threw Angle through the announce table at ringside. Angle was able to withstand the attack, however, and in the end Angle last eliminated Henry to be crowned the new World Heavyweight Champion.

Afterwards, Angle celebrated in the ring while the audience in Philadelphia looked on in total amazement.

Of course, the crowning of a new World Heavyweight Champion was ordered after an injured and emotional Batista was forced to surrender the title earlier in the night due to injury.

Be sure to watch SmackDown this Friday night on UPN to watch this truly historic event unfold.

Incredible, I thought it would be Orton since they were about to put it on him the first time Batista got hurt. But outta nowhere this happens, well it's a lot better than the usual. Now all WWE needs to do is have Angle drop it to Rey at Mania ;) .

Angle vs. Rey or even Angle vs. Benoit at 'Mania would be awesome.

My thoughts on how to build to this:

With all this talk of bringing in Haas and Lethal, right now would be the perfect time. Bring them in as the new Team Angle. Along with Daivari this stable would be awesome.

Next, remember the Team Angle vs. Brock, Benoit, and Edge feud from early 2003?

Well, they could easily recycle that replacing Brock with Lashley and Edge with Rey.

Angle, Haas, and Lethal w/Daivari vs. Benoit, Lashley, and Rey at No Way Out.

This could then lead to Angle vs. Benoit for the title at Wrestlemania much like Angle vs. Brock from 2003.

I gotta say I'd rather have Angle vs Rey for Mania. This is the year where they have to put the title on Rey, and this is the perfect chance.

True. That could work with the same exact buildup, just switch Rey with Benoit.

As much as I want it to happen though, I honestly can't see WWE putting the belt on Rey...

I'm for Rey too, and definitely think they will pull the trigger. Its their last "boyhood dream" win left for Mania. And with Eddie' passing, the emotion will be even higher.

If they wanted to move Angle to Smackdown, and make him champion....why not strip the title and put it up for grabs in the Rumble...instead of just having him show up on Smackdown for no reason.

Its time to end the split.

No, it's not. There's still way too many people to juggle around. On Raw, only 8-10 people get concrete TV Time. If you Combine the two, then half of the top stars will barely see Raw or Smackdown every week.

If this were 1998-2000 where they had 10 quick 2 minute matches, I'd agree, but these days you get MAYBE 4 matches a week. Definitely not enough time for a roster that has about 60 people combined, including divas.

This makes sense to me now that I think about it that they would put the title around Angle. Angle seemed to be playing job boy lately and I was rather confused with it. But now.............it makes sense.

Although I have no clue where they are going with ANYTHING on SD these days the addition of Angle to the roster is certainly a positive thing. Plus, I'm curious to see how they explain it.

I'm curious about this too. Does this mean that Angle is now a permanent Smackdown star again or does this mean that a Raw star swooped in and stole the title and is going to threaten to keep it on Raw?

And what does this do to the promised Angle/HBK match that was going to happen on Raw?

I think it means they are more confused than ever on weather or not they should end the brand split.

Well, when they started the brand split, business was still good and they had way too many big names to fill up the roster.

Now business is bad and both rosters (more so Smackdown) are suffering from a lack of big stars.

I think ending the split would help things out in the short term, but eventually they'd be in the same situation they are in now, but with only one roster and I think they'd be in even bigger trouble.

I say let the split continue... for now.

Yeah, let it continue. They don't even have B-Shows for gods sake! How can you juggle a 60 person roster (including wasteful Divas) with only 4 hours of TV week? We are lucky to get 4-5 matches at most per show. That comes to about 10-12 people per show, depending if there's Tags.

I'll be the first to say it...

What about Smackdown?

By the way, check out the poster for No Way Out.



They aren't even trying anymore :(

Trying as in...


1. Being Creative

or

B. Giving Away The Main Focus


If B, Remember 2002 NWO? RVD was all over the posters AND the PPV Commercial, and he was in a 2nd from the bottom feud with Goldust.

I meant being creative. I learned a long time ago that being on the pay-per-view poster means nothing to having any focus on that particular wrestler.

Key examples: anytime Torrie Wilson has been on a cover (hell, it usually just means she's lucky enough to be on the card in the first place).

John Cena on the Royal Rumble 2004 poster, he was just in the Rumble and did not do anything too noteworthy.

RVD on No Way Out 2002 and Survivor Series 2002 posters. On both occasions, his poster was not used for the dvd cover because there was no focus on him.

Edge on the Bad Blood 2004 poster. It was changed to HBK/HHH for the dvd release.

Booker T on the Judgment Day 2003 poster.

Don't forget Unforgiven 2003 had Kane on the poster. Instead he was fighting Shane McMahon. I still can't believe WWE fucked up a money Kane/Goldberg feud following SummerSlam.

Oh wait, it's WWE. I can believe it.

Haha, that's right. Then at Survivor Series 2003, Shane McMahon of all people was on the poster (and the dvd cover). He was in a sort of noteworthy match in that he wrestled Kane in an ambulance match.

Yeah... the match was third from the bottom instead of second. :) Survivor Series 2001 had Lita and Torrie Wilson on it, and the latter wasn't even in a match.

Haha, I remember that. It's okay though, the dvd cover ended up just being the participants in the WWF vs Alliance "winner takes all" match.

One month later, Vengeance had Triple H on the poster, and he was still weeks away from returning on a January episode of Raw.

9 out of 10 times basically, the poster has nothing to do with the show.

True, and like my original point, they are not even trying to be creative anymore. A faded out shot of Randy Orton's gay pose? That's just terrible!

Yeah. That's almost as bad as Old-Lady Sable half-naked on the SummerSlam 2003 cover... which featured RVD being squashed. :D

Ugh, I'd forgotten about that one :blink: To make matters worse, they didn't even change it for the dvd release. I don't think she did anything but back up A-Train when it was time for him to be squashed by Undertaker.

They could have changed it to a Brock/Angle staredown or having the six elimination chamber participents (but I guess they wanted us to forget that they put Kevin Nash and Randy Orton in that match).



On a side note, Summerslam 2003 was Randy Orton's first ppv and he was in the damn main event.

Actually... oh wait, you're right. God damn, that's sad. And Kevin Nash was in the fucking match. Jericho and HBK were the only guys with talent/not completely hated by the smark community, but they weren't good enough to carry 4 people.

Yeah, that chamber match was sad. It featured:

Shawn Michaels: highly over main event face.

Chris Jericho: highly over main event heel.

Triple H: at the time moderately over heel, but injured champion.

Goldberg: flopping main event face, useless as shit.

Kevin Nash: unover main event face, was in crap physical condition.

Randy Orton: unover mid-card heel, not yet established as anything but a rookie.

That one made the 2002 Chamber look really good. Everyone had a chance to win I thought. EVEN RVD! :D Then he nearly killed HHH, becoming my favorite wrestler for about two minutes. The one spot I remember most other than that was Kane jobbing to a Superkick and Pedigree. :(

I was actually a big fan of the first EC match (still markish) but the second one just pissed me off to no end.

It was due to Triple H laying around injured throughout the entire match. Meanwhile Goldberg steamrolls over both Jericho and HBK. Then Flair slides a sledgehammer to Triple H, who in his one offensive move in the entire match, hits Goldberg with it and pins him to retain the title. It was the stupidest thing I had ever seen for a couple of reasons.

1) Triple H was injured.

2) Triple H had very little heat at that point, from feuding with the likes of Kevin Nash.

3) Triple H was on his "title reign from hell" that had been going on for eight months by that point.

4) A month later at Unforgiven, Triple H hit Goldberg with the hammer again. This time Goldberg no sells it and beats Triple H for the title.

Raw in 2003 was pure shit.

WWE completely ruined Goldberg (and Kane) in a matter of weeks in 2003. What should've happend: Goldberg steamrolls over everyone to win the World Title. Kane destroys RVD, and for fun, cripples Shane McMahon during the Shane/Bischoff match. The next night, Kane/Goldberg sets up with an in-ring bit.

Instead...

Coach turned heel

Shane McMahon pussified Kane

Triple H nuetered Goldberg

I swear, in 2 minutes, I can come up with better storylines than what takes the "creative" team hours/days to come up with.

I agree with you, Scrooge. As much as I don't like Goldberg, he COULD have been a huge asset for WWE in 2003. That, and Kane's storyline where he lost the mask and became insane again was getting huge ratings for Raw.

I know this is cliche at this point, but I honest to God think Triple H had Kane sabotaged. Triple H was the flopping World champion and suddenly another heel on his show was gaining more fan interest.

I've been saying that since No Mercy 2002. You don't build up a guy winning the IC and Tag Titles just to have him buried by the World Champion. I have a good feeling Trips pulled a power play there.

From what I have heard, Triple H did very little but powe play in the backstage area between 2002 and 2003.

He was supposed to drop the World title to Rob Van Dam at Unforgiven 2002. That was a big reason of why RVD had been the one to retire the European and Hardcore titles. Triple H had the outcome changed in his favor.

He was supposed to lose the title to Kane at No Mercy. Once again, he had that changed.

He dropped the title to his best buddy, Shawn Michaels, in his second match in four years.

He made sure there was no way that Chris Jericho would ever have main event credibility again.

That, and the majority of Triple H matches from 2002 and 2003 suck hard. He got back into the business of putting on good matches in 2004 and 2005, but it's hard to forgive the bastard.

Yeah. Oh, and don't forget WrestleMania 19. I had my money on Trips pulling some bullshit there. Booker T was booked like a loser that couldn't win because he's black...

And Booker T loses. Vince really shows us his true colors there. So many people who had a chance in 2001-2003 were screwed because of Triple H's politics. Hell, even before that. Test was fucked out of the main event picture, the Hurricane had been buried countless times in the last few years. Everyone! Even Hogan is on Hunters bad-side because Vince made him job the belt at Backlash 2002.

Yeah, Triple H made sure to quickly bury the Hurricane right after The Rock had put him over.

I remember listening to a radio show going into WrestleMania XIX. They said that even though Kurt Angle had to drop the title due to his neck injury, the outcome of his match with Lesnar was still not the most predictable match to call a winner on the card. HHH/Booker was still more predictable because there was no way in hell Triple H was going to let go of his vanity belt to a man who had become a main eventer in WCW first.

:lol: I don't even think I can watch WM XIX ever again. Remember... the Kane/RVD vs. Storm/Morley match was bounced to Sunday Night Heat.


FOR THE MILLER LIGHT GIRLS. Vince: Thanks a lot guys! I'm rewarding you with a spot on Wrestlemania's pre-Show! ENJOY!

I really did enjoy WrestleMania XIX at the time, but looking back on it I get angry thinking about HHH/Booker as well as what happened with the Miller Lite girls getting that spot over the World Tag title match.

I mean, Kane and Rob Van Dam had both been World title challengers mere months earlier and they were stuck losing to Lance Storm and Val Venis (which is even more amusing now since those two were jobbed out later on).

I felt bad because I remember Lance Storm sounded really excited to be finally on a WrestleMania card.

Yeah. Thanks Vince! Scumbag cocksucking whore... if Vince died, I wouldn't shed a tear for him. He's a wolf in sheeps clothing. He tries to sound like he's a good guy, but he's scum. He makes Hitler look good.

I find it hard to hate Vince because it is thanks to him that I have had all these hours of free wrestling television and the likes, but in no way can I respect him as a human being. For every classy thing Vince has done in his life, he has done ten dispicable things to undo them.

Vince is a "what have you done for me lately" guy. Lately being the last 5 minutes.

It doesn't matter someone like Chris Benoit is the best wrestler in the WWE. He gets buried in a midcard feud. Or it doesn't matter Paul London tried to respetably reaosn with him to not ban his entire moveset, because he gets buried and givena crybaby loser character on a show no one watches.