Joey Styles/ECW

Styles's speech will set up his hosting the ECW TV show, which will at least be broadcast on WWE.com and perhaps cable TV, if WWE can find a taker. To the general WWE fan, though, Styles's speech may sound so biting, so anti-WWE, so "I can't believe he just said that," that many fans may truly believe it was unscripted and unplanned. That's what WWE wants. For ECW to succeed, the belief is that it must have credibility as an anti-authority product. It has an uphill battle, since it will be clear that WWE owns the promotions and reaps whatever profits it generates.

Jim Ross is expected to be named the replacement for Styles as full-time lead announcer of Raw, which will translate into an admission that his removal last year was a mistake. The relaunch of the ECW brand, though, allows the Ross critics (and Joey Styles himself) to save face since Styles isn't officially being removed from Raw because he failed. Instead, Styles is simply being shifted to a more natural role as the voice of ECW.

The plans for the ECW relaunch have not dramatically changed over the past week. The goal is to get it up and running as a full-time territory, running profitable shows every weekend, multiple pay-per-views per year (which could be a dagger to TNA), and a weekly TV show eventually generating ad revenue from worldwide distribution.

Allowing Styles to reveal some of WWE's "trade secrets" (for lack of better term) and rip on WWE fans shows that Vince McMahon is committed to taking some chances in allowing ECW to have some edge and feel genuine, even at the risk of exposing or demeaning WWE.

Kurt Angle

From this point on, Angle may not ever wrestle a true full time year-round schedule again, although given Angle's drive and ability - for better or for worse - to work through pain and injury, after a few weeks off, he may try to wrestle again. Otherwise, it seems a best case scenario is that he wrestles for stretches of time, then takes a stretch of time off - a schedule long advocated by critics of the year-round, never-ending WWE schedule which never gives wrestlers stretches of time to rest their body.

Angle is not advertised for weekend house shows in California and Texas the weekend of May 5-7 and May 12-14, respectively. He wrestled his final TV match for the time being at the April 22 Smackdown taping in London. Angle has been pulled from the King of the Ring tournament, which means Booker T will advance by default to the finals.

Without Angle, with the death of Eddie Guerrero, with Batista out with an injury (although within weeks of returning), and with Randy Orton suspended, the Smackdown brand is stripped of much of its proven main event stars. There have yet to be any hints of when the annual "Draft Lottery" to reshuffle and redistribute talent may take place.

The Angle injury situation prompted WWE's decision to book Rey Mysterio vs. JBL for the World Heavyweight Title at the May 21 Judgment Day PPV. Angle is currently slated to return before the PPV. He is slated to return to TV at the May 16 Smackdown taping in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Cena

Although plans can change, multiple sources say the current plan is for John Cena vs. RVD to headline the ECW PPV, with JBL not part of the main event plans. However, based on WWE's booking on Raw Monday night, Cena is being positioned as a strong babyface. Wrestling RVD, who is also a babyface, in front of an ECW crowd could hurt his babyface push just as it seems he's quieting the rebellion against him. Then again, WWE completely ignored ECW on Raw the night after the first ECW PPV. Cena could play heel on the PPV then return to his normal character on Raw. However, unlike last year, ECW will live on after the PPV, so it whatever happens on the PPV is more likely to be acknowledged on Raw and Smackdown... Paul Heyman is getting an office at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn. to accommodate his ECW booking duties...