April 22 RAW
Lawrence, Kansas

The show begins with JR recapping the title changes and says Ric Flair promises some big announcements tonight.

Match 1: Jr. Heavyweight Title - Chavo vs. Hurricane. Hurricane has Chavo down on the mat and is about to do the big Superhero Flying Body Press, when the mysterious masked man appears on the Titantron. "Hurricane, you are no champion. How can you call yourself a hero after all you've done in your past?" Hurricane mouths "Wazzupwitdat?" while standing on the top rope. His delay makes him vulnerable to Chavo, who kip-ups and stuns Helms with a big forearm. Chavo then hits a top rope Frankensteiner, followed by a Gory Special 2000 for the win. After the match, the masked man reappears on the Titantron, with an evil supervillain "bwah-ha-ha" laugh.

Backstage, Flair and AA discuss the Canadians. Flair is agitated and can't believe a guy like Edge would associate with people like Jericho and Christian. AA tells him to calm down. After all, AA says, weren't you the dirtiest player in the game? Flair shakes his head and says he has other things to worry about tonight. Standing behind him, Stacy rubs Flair's shoulders.

After the commercial, we see the Y2J countdown and then it stops. It's soon replaced by a giant maple leaf flag and instead of Jericho's music, we hear "O Canada." On their way to the ring are Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian and Lance Storm. There's lots of booing here.

Edge takes the mike and talks about how great their plan was at Backlash. Did anyone really believe he'd team with raved-out losers like the Hardy Boys? As if. And I realized that my career has been stagnant since I split up from my brother Christian. And his career's been even worse. (Christian mopes and Storm pats him on the back.) So, we got the band back together. And I can't thing of two better friends to be with than Y2J and "Mr. Electricity" Lance Storm.

He gives the mike to Jericho. He bemoans how he got no respect as Unified Champion. Why? The WWF's tradition of screwing us Canadians. Let's review quickly here. Stan "The Man" Stasiak, former WWF champion; did he ever get any rematches? No. The Yukon Lumberjacks, former WWF tag teams champions; did they ever get a rematch? No. The Mountie? Well, let's not go there. And we all know that the biggest screwjob in WWF history happened to a Canadian in Canada." (The camera conveniently finds a sign in the crowd that says "Bret screwed Bret." And what about me? Remember when I won the WWF title from HHH on RAW, only to have Earl Hebner reverse it later in the show? So, we decided that there's safety in numbers and us Canadians have banded together to make sure that no one, especially Ric Flair, screws us again. Why, because we have ... Canadian Pride. The music starts and all four salute the flag as the anthem plays.

Match 2: Eddy Guerrero vs. Raven - JR sells how great the Regal/Eddy match from the show last night was on the PPV. Eddy wins clean with the Brainbuster.

Backstage, Flair is on the phone, angry yelling into the phone. He slams the phone down and tells AA that Vince will trade David (Flair) to him, but only for the right price. At that moment, in walks William Regal. He volunteers to be traded for "young David." Flair says he already thought of that, but Vince turned him down. Regal is aghast. He says the hell with Vince, the hell with Flair and the hell with the European title, which he drops on Flair's desk and walks out. Flair and AA nod and smile.

Match 3: Rey Misterio vs. Kidman - Rey isn't as clean as I would like, probably because he's still not used to the WWF ropes. Misterio wins with the Dragoncanrana. After the match, Rey tries to shake Kidman's hand, but Kidman sucker punches him and puts the boots to him. Finally, the refs pull him off.

Backstage, Kurt Angle is moping over losing the #1 contender's match. Heyman says that no one's perfect (not even Curt Hennig) and he'll bounce back. And he's got the perfect way to make him feel better. He convinced Ric Flair to give them a match tonight with the Hollys and he can't wait to see Angle and Lesnar in the ring together.

Top of the hour, it's glass breaking time. Austin rants and raves about beating Kurt Angle. He says the Dangerous Alliance to only be dangerous to each other. (JR shills the PPV rerun here, rather than us showing clips.) Out come Heyman and the Dangerous Alliance. Heyman says he will admit he made a tactical error; those happen once a decade or so. He says Angle will still get to wrestle HHH at Judgment Day, since he'll make sure Austin is on the shelf by then. Austin just laughs. He says to do his worst, because it can't be as bad as the Rattlesnake, cuz SCSA said so. Glass. Beer. Repeat.

Match 4: Tag Team Titles - Chuck/Billy vs. Hardys - Before the match, we show the clips of the Rico/Lita incident from a few weeks ago. The match progresses formulaically, with Jeff Hardy making the hot tag. Rico gets on the apron and tries to hit Jeff with the title belt. Lita grabs him and yanks him off the apron. The Hardys hit Poetry in Motion and then Jeff hits the Swanton Bomb for the win. Immediately after the match, the Canadians hit the ring and just murder the Hardys. Eddy and Chavo eventually save them. JR says those Canadians are nothing but cowards.

Backstage, Coach stands outside Flair's office door for comments on what just happened. Stacy tells Coach that Flair doesn't have time for him right now. He's in the middle of sensitive negotiations with Vince and can't be disturbed. Flair storms out and announces that he's changed tonight's main event and it will now be Angle/Lesnar vs. Jericho/Edge.

After the commercial, Coach interviews Molly. She proclaims she's the purest WWF women's champion of all time, not that there was much competition. I mean, between silicone and tattoos, when was the last time a real woman held the title?

Match 5: Tajiri vs. Crash Holly - Quick squash to get ready for the main event.

Before the commercial, the Canadians are discussing strategy. Storm can't believe they double-crossed us like this. It always happens to us, especially if you're from Calgary. Storm pauses and Jericho says we don't have time for his shenanigans. They've got a match.

Match 6: Angle/Lesnar vs. Edge/Jericho - This match goes about six minutes when all Hell breaks loose. Austin hits ringside from out of the crowd and stuns Venis and Benjamin. Heyman and Ivory run away. Austin gets in the ring and quickly gets double-teamed by Angle and Lesnar. Soon, Edge and Jericho join in, making it a four-on-one. Next, the Hardys run out to make it four-on-three, but the Hardys quickly follow them. A minute later, Chavo, Eddy and Misterio hit the ring and we've got a donnybrook in the ring. Ross sells it like there's no tomorrow as we go off the air.

April 25 - Smackdown
St. Louis, MO

The show opens with a video package from Backlash. Cole really puts over the Undertaker not submitting to HHH, but passing out from the pain.

Vince is sitting behind his desk, staring at the European title. In comes David Flair, escorted by the Bossman. Vince announces that David has been traded to RAW in exchange for the European title and some other concessions. Vince says his going away present tonight is a match with a partner of his choosing versus the APA. And don't even think about calling your father, as he's barred from the building tonight.

Match 1: Mark Henry vs. Spike - Spike does his patented rag-doll act here, putting over Henry's strongman gimmick. He pounds on him after the match, until he's saved by the Big Show. Henry and Show have a stare-down.

After the commercial, Sharmell interviews Trish. They play a clip of Molly from RAW. Trish says if Molly's a natural blonde, then she's 7-feet tall. And she'll prove to everyone just how fake Molly really is.

Match 2: Test vs. Rikishi - This is a grudge match from the PPV. Rikishi wins, but Test rolls out of the ring before getting the stink face.

After the match, we see David on the phone to Ric. He's happy to be leaving, but he's got to face the APA tonight and no one wants to team with him. He nods a lot and then gets a big grin on his face. He thanks his father for the idea and we got to commercial.

Coming back, we show the [moments ago] clip and then cut to Vince's office. Vince curses and wonders what's going on. Bossman promises to get to the bottom of this.

Match 3: Dudleys vs. DDP/Hennig - The old men get the win, when Bubba gets knocked from the apron and misses D-Von's Tag. D-Von turns around and gets the Diamond Cutter.

Backstage, APA is in their office with David. They say they like the kid, but business is business and they have to kick his ass later. Bossman comes barging in (doesn't use the door, either) and starts yelling at Flair about what's going on. Bradshaw tells him to get the hell out of their office, as Flair is under their protection until the match, thanks to the Nature Boy's checkbook.

Match 4: Hardcore title: Snow vs. Stevie - A quick hardcore match that Snow wins with the Northern Lights Bomb.

After the match, the N.W.O. is in the lockerrom, gloating over their win at Backlash. Hall says Big Kev always has a plan. Nash plays it down and then starts laughing.

Top of the hour and the champ is out for an interview. HHH puts over the UT's effort at Backlash. Hit the music, here comes the N.W.O. X-Pac claims that since he got a pinfall on the Immortal Hulk Hogan, he deserves a title shot tonight. HHH just laughs. Vince appears on the Titantron and says HHH will defend tonight against X-Pac. Ric Flair has surrendered the rights to book HHH until Judgment Day as part of my deal to trade him David Flair. HHH agrees, but promises that there won't be any monkey business like at Backlash.

Match 5: Rob Van Dam vs. Goldust - Van Dam goes over clean.

After the match, Vince calls in David Flair, flanked by the APA. He says that in fairness to his partner, he must name him right now, to give him time to prepare for his match. Flair says that is perfectly reasonable. His mystery partner is you, Vince. Vince starts to protest, but Flair said his father said if you weasel out of this, our deal is off and you don't get control of HHH for the rest of the month. Vince gulps and nods, putting his head on the desk. Flair grins and the APA just crank their knuckles.

Before the match, we show clips from Scorpion King and brag about the money it made its opening weekend.

Match 6: APA vs. Flair and Vince - In contrast to his usual attitude, Vince is not his preening self coming to the ring. He makes David start the match and refuses to tag out whenever David tries to make the exchange. Finally, Vince turns to yell at the crowd and David tags him. Bradshaw slingshots him into the ring, hits the Lariat and the match is over. Flair shakes hands with Bradshaw and Ron Simmons and waves to the crowd as he goes up the ramp.

After the match, we see X-Pac throwing Kicks and then cut to HHH taping up his wrists.

Match 7: Unified Title: HHH vs. X-Pac - Tazz puts over the history between the two. HHH comes out, but stops on the ramp. The music hits and out comes Hogan to be in Hunter's corner. The match is pretty much a brawl. Hogan prevents outside interference and Hunter wins with the Pedigree. Afterwards, the two pose in the ring.

Roger Hayden
freelance