Problems Between Lashley & Batista?

News

– Monty Brown has officially been offered a deal. John Laurinaitis has been giving people the word to start making plans for Brown after coming in, so it seems that he has in fact signed the contract.

– Bob Sapp was apparently slated to join ECW should he have signed the deal WWE offered him recently. As things stand it seems as though Bobby Lashley may take Sapp’s spot in ECW. Lashley is tight with Paul Heyman, who brought him up through developmental early, and the two have been talking about the move for a few weeks till they recently convinced Vince McMahon to go ahead with it. Some are skeptical about Lashley as he is unproven as a top guy but since ECW is not running house shows anymore anyway, it doesn’t really make much difference. Reports of Lashley having difficulty with Michael Hayes, head writer on Smackdown, have been denied. With Big Show definitely dropping the ECW title at December to Dismember before taking a few months off, Lashley has been slated as the favourite to get the belt unless Vince has an unexpected change of heart about Rob Van Dam. Lashley was unlikely to get the nod over Batista on Smackdown and be able to try and carry that brand.

– The Extreme Elimination Chamber match was always the original plan for December to Dismember. The earlier announcement of Big Show vs. Rob Van Dam was simply part of a storyline in which Paul Heyman would ‘screw’ Van Dam by adding four other contenders to the match.

– Batista has pitched to management that his World Heavyweight Title win be saved until WrestleMania. No word on whether they will actually wait until then.

– Bobby Lashley has an interview with The Sun up here. He made quite a few negative comments about Batista due to remarks Batista made about Smackdown being ‘the B-show’, and also spoke about how Batista was still living off of past glories from his stint with Triple H and Ric Flair. Lashley said someone had already exposed Batista as not being as great as he considers himself to be (presumably Booker T) and that eventually the fans would see it too. He also said that WWE originally had a soldier gimmick planned for him, as he did serve in the army before wrestling, but they scrapped it because he wasn’t a good enough talker. He also said that he was tougher than Brock Lesnar and that if they ever wrestled Lesnar would have a hard time getting off his back.

– There is an outside chance that Rey Mysterio will be back by WrestleMania but it is far more likely that he will be out until May.

– All of 2007’s major PPVs are scheduled to be anniversary shows. The Royal Rumble ’07 will be in San Antonio on the ten-year anniversary of Shawn Michaels winning the WWF Championship from Sid in the Alamodome in his hometown. WrestleMania XXIII will be the twentieth anniversary of Hulk Hogan defeating Andre The Giant at the biggest wrestling show in history. Survivor Series ’07 will be the tenth anniversary of you-know-what in Montreal, and will be held in Montreal, and is likely to involve Shawn Michaels and Harry Smith being programmed together. SummerSlam ’07, the ten-year anniversary of Bret Hart defeating The Undertaker to win back the WWF Championship, despite Shawn Michaels being involved as guest referee, is expected to tie into this somehow as well. SummerSlam ’97 was also the show in which Owen Hart botched a tombstone piledriver, breaking Steve Austin’s neck during their Intercontinental Title match.

– The only two shows that don’t go head-to-head with WWE programs that WWE internal documents chart are Impact and Ultimate Fighter.

– Jerry Lawler’s mother underwent dangerous surgery to open up her carotid artery after suffering a stroke but has come through it well.

– Nattie Neidhart has signed her full contract and will be fast-tracked onto one of the main brands.

– Brooke Hogan’s album, Undiscovered has fallen out of the Top 75 on the album charts and has sold under 49,000 units to date. Kevin Federline’s Playing With Fire debuted at #151, with sales of 6,485.

Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)