Quick apologies for the lack of a Confidential recap last week. Through circumstances beyond my control (I HATE FUTURE SHOP!) it was virtually impossible to do the show. The same problem still infects my computer, but through the miracle of Pen And Paper I’ll struggle through and recap this to the best of my ability. Remember this when Christmas rolls around…

I will recap last week’s show eventually though, that I promise, as irrelevant as it may be at that time.

Hey! Confidential airs an hour EARLY this week! I hope they do this every week so I don’t have to be up half the night worrying about it. Stay tuned.

The Hulkster and Edge are posing down…oh, wrong show. Fast forward…there we go!

TONIGHT ON CONFIDENTIAL: Why King Of The Ring’s match involving Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon was nearly stopped, and the segment that drew an 8.4.

Mean Gene Okerlund is alone on another Saturday Night.

Can you imagine how hard your job would be if you were in front of a live audience and injured? Well it just so happened this was the case at King Of The Ring 2001 in a match involving Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle. Some people call it one of the top five matches of all time (and many of these people are writers for Confidential). So let’s find out just what happened that night.

Oddly enough, this is the last pay-per-view I didn’t order.

Kurt Angle has hair! Good planning though to get lotsa segments in the can. Shane McMahon had interfered in his business for weeks on end and now Kurt was out for revenge. Earlier in the night, Kurt Angle advanced to the King Of The Ring finals with Shane’s help, then lost from Shane’s interference. (In the process completely taking away any heat Edge could have received from beating Kurt straight up. Ahhhhh, sportz entertainment!) The message was clear though, Shane wanted Kurt tired for the street fight.

The match started the way Kurt had hoped. He was in control. Shane tried to do his run and chase tactic to antagonize Kurt, but it wasn’t working. About 20 minutes in, Shane was completely numb and feeling like jelly. But he knew he had to keep going. Shane can’t even imagine how Kurt kept going having wrestled twice.

They tried a suplex on the cement – which wound up doing damage to Kurt Angle’s tailbone. He lost his breath, and he couldn’t feel anything. The next spot was where Kurt was supposed to throw Shane through the glass. But his strength was gone and he had no momentum – leading to Shane being dropped on his head. Kurt heard the loudest THUMP on one’s head he’d EVER heard. Mike Chioda was asking Shane if he was okay, but Shane couldn’t hear him. Kurt was concerned Shane had broken his neck. But he sat up, was pissed off, and told Kurt “Throw me through that motherfucker!”. And Kurt did just that.

Shane was lying there for a minute, doing a system check. He counted to 10, tried to figure out what day it was, etc. He was out of it, but told Kurt to throw him through again. After another botched suplex – Kurt threw Shane through the glass face first. Shane was so happy to be lying on the glass because he wasn’t moving. He was getting a chance to lie down and rest. But he continued. A broken tailbone and glass spots be damned, they were going to finish the match.

Kurt set a board on the top rope – and at this point told Shane his tailbone was broken. Shane knew this was it. From the board on the top rope, 29 minutes into the match, Kurt hit Shane McMahon with an Olympic Slam. Shane remembers seeing people standing – and the next thing he knew they were flying through the air. He was waiting, and waiting to hit the ground – and when they did, his body shut down.

Kurt loved the match, saying everything was there. Wrestling, high spots, hardcore action, and a really memorable finish. When the match ended, they seemed to form a brotherhood and a great deal of respect for eachother’s abilities.

WWE TWIX IT’S ALL IN THE MIX REWIND: Shane McMahon leaps off the TitanTron and through wooden beams to drop an elbow on The Big Show and win the match at Backlash 2001.

BEFORE THEY WERE SUPERSTARS

If you visit England, Pleasure Beach is one of the top 10 rated amusement parks in the whole world. William Regal stands with his good friend Peter Thompson to tell his life’s story outside the said park.

Wrestling started in 1975 for Regal when he was 7 years old. He saw a guy in a Viking Costume and one in a mask who challenged people out of a crowd to fight them. He was enthralled by the whole thing, and wanted to work there.

At 15 years old, he went up and wanted to fight them. He got his ass kicked. But he kept coming back and coming back, so they let him hang around a bit. In 1984 he left school and came to live there. They’d start at 12:00, and make challenges.

He was once in the ring and a guy at ringside was causing trouble. So he finished his match up, got on the mic and said “it’s okay for this guy to terrorize kids and rob old ladies, but why don’t you get up here and deal with a real man?”. Everybody in the building turned on the guy and wanted him in there. The guy got in and Regal kicked him in the face as hard as he could, and the guy fell out of the ring and back towards the crowd.

They used to work with a drunken midget. The guy was hammered 24/7. Regal would stand him on a barstool and use him like a ventriloquist puppet.

He found it magical working there. How many people get to do what they want for a living?

At 17, he walked into a pub one night and there was a fight going on when he entered. Right away, he got a glass in the side of the head. He stumbled out with blood pouring everywhere – and had to get 6 stitches. Moral of the story: Don’t go into pubs when there’s a fight going on at age 17.

His dream was to wrestle in Blackpool Tower, and at 18 he got to do it. They’d do it on Saturday night’s, then spend the rest of the night in the lounge. It was a lot of fun.

He’s honored to do what he does for a living. Many times he walks out on RAW or Smackdown! and looks around, amazed he has a chance to do what he does. To come to a place where you get encouraged to do what you do is wonderful. Wrestling was his chosen path, and he couldn’t have lived it any better.

STILL TO COME: Terri shows off her body.

Recently, the WWE went with Stacker 2 to see if Nascar Drivers are tough enough to handle themselves in a ring.

Doug LeBow (that guy who does all the WWE commercials) is on location. Kenny Wallace is going to trick his buddies into getting beat up by the Tough Enough trainers. Then in the second commercial, his buddies double cross Kenny – and he gets beat up by the trainers.

There have been a lot of great tag-teams in WWE history, but perhaps the most entertaining team might have been The Rock and Sock Connection. Now a special look at This Is Your Life.

The special look is popup video. The segment is also clipped to hell, so I’ll do my best to keep you informed as to what’s going on.

We join in progress. [“Rock, This is Your Life” RAW September 27th, 1999 Greensboro, NC] “Finally The Rock has come back to Greensboro!” “This is big Rock. This is important. As a matter of fact, This Is Your Life!” [“This is Your Life” was a popular TV program in the 1950’s] Bouncy music, confetti, balloons, and the works are all over the arena. [Huge poster of The Rock that was supposed to unravel] [The Rock born – Dwayne Johnson May 2nd 1972 (Chris Fothergill-Brown – born May 2nd 1982. Co-incidence? Probably.)] [The Rock’s favorite movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life.”] “Now Rock, Rock, let me ask you this: does Mankind know how to throw a little pardukey or what? While all these people pop these balloons, I want you to listen real close and tell me – as we look into the pages of yesteryear, do you remember this voice?"

CLIP

“Dwayne, can I please run my fingers through your hair one…more…time?” “That’s right Rock! I pulled some strings, and here she is: [Local Greensboro actress] The Rock’s high school sweetheart, Miss Joanne Imbriani! [Rock went to Freedon High School in Bethlehem, PA] Rock, you know that you [Rock’s high school sweetheart was named Maria] used to call her (unintelligeable), she was your one true love [Maria was a senior, Rock was a freshman], I present to you Miss Joanne [The Rock met his 1st girlfriend when he was 10 years old.] Imbriani. I will turn my back to you so you can share a special moment.” [Rock’s sweetheart now is his wife Dany who he married in 1997.] Rock puts up the hand. “How you doin’ honey? Remember uhh, every Saturday night back in high school how you and The Rock used to sit on your parents couch? And The Rock used to put his arm around you, and we used to kiss a little bit. [Kissing the Rock = 1st base] We used to kiss a little bit, and a lot of tongue. You used to love The Rock’s tongue didn’t you? [Tongue = French kiss] [The British call it “Snogging] And remember how you used to nibble on The Rock’s ear [Tonsil Hockey is not an Olympic sport.], on The Rock’s neck, and you would whisper to The Rock [Tonsil Hockey is also called “Tonsil Boxing” or “Tongue Sushi.”], you used to whisper to The Rock ‘Go for it. Go for second base.’ [2nd base = deep kissing, groping etc.] Remember that? [Rickey Henderson stole 2nd base often.] And as The Rock put his hands ever so softly on your knee…[He is baseball’s all time steals leader.] slid his hand up slowly inch by inch…and what did you do? YOU CUT THE ROCK OFF ON SECOND BASE! [Moses is famous for parting the Red Sea.] But The Rock’s not the type of guy to hold a grudge. You see you stand now before The Rock, looking at The Rock, gawking at The Rock, wanting to go one on one with The Great One. [Going “1 on 1” with the Great One = Home Run.] And now in front of all The Rock’s fans you want to serve The Rock a great big piece of that poontang pie?” [A “Pink Poontang” is a popular shooter.] Lawler whoops it up. [Ted Nugent wrote “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang.”] [Pie is delicious and will steal the show at a pot luck dinner.] “It’s no secret The Rock he loves pie, [Rock had his 1st “piece of pie” at 14 with his 18 year old girlfriend Maria.] but The Rock just has one thing to say to you: Poontang your ass on out of here.” [They were interrupted by local authorities because they chose a public park to be the spot for their first time.] “Rock I swear I didn’t know things would work out…” “The Rock says this, if you would shut up, shut your mouth and just listen because THEY ARE CHANTING THE ROCK’S NAME!” [The Rock’s real name is Dwayne Johnson.]

CLIP

[His 1st wrestling name was Flex Kavana.] “I had no way of knowing your old girlfriend was such a complete skank. [Rock’s “old girlfriend” was upset because Mick called her a skank] I just wanna make this night special, and dammit, it's gonna be, because we are going to open up the People's presents! [The Rock’s “presence” was felt as a 6-time WWE Champion] Open up this badboy Rock, come on, open it up.” Rock gets a Rock ‘N’ Sock Connection jacket – and Mick has one just like it. [The Rock-n-Sock Connection were 3 time WWE Tag Team Champions] [While the “Rock-n-Sock Connection” was a great team…] […Rock, Paper, Scissors is a great game] “Because they are chanting our name. ROCK N SOCK! ROCK N SOCK! ROCK N SOCK! It’s not over yet, it gets even better. The night just keeps getting better and better. Open that one up Rock. I put a lot of thought into this one. The fans have been wanting it, they have been asking for it, and now they have Mr. Rocko! [“Mr. Rocko” was a gift to Mick from a fan.] Is this thing great? Do you smell what The Rock is cooking? [Gennifer Flowers was the first to “smell what The Rock was cooking’ at Wrestlemania XIV] Know your role. We can talk about it later, but somebody’s been standing outside there, somebody very very special, and I know you don’t know this somebody yet, but as one half as the Rock N Sock Connection by golly you’ll know ‘em real soon. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Yurple!” [Yurple The Clown debuted with Mick when he visited Mr. McMahon in the hospital in 1998.] [That night was also the debut of Mr. Socko.] Yurple has an IYQ sticker (I Wike You – I Like You…) [Yurple was based in Lansing, MI] [Yurple and her husband JoJo are licensed day care providers.] and a lai for Rocky. Rock actually cracks a smile. “Well The Rock says this, before you come in here and start putting little stickers on The Rock’s shirt and putting little streamers all over The Rock, The Rock just wants to know what is your name? IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!” [For the record her name is “Yurple”.] “Well you hold it right there! It certainly does matter what her name is and I’ll tell you why: Because I’ve tried real hard and went through a lot of expense and [Mick actually spent very little money on this celebration] time and effort to make this night real special for ya, [Airbrushed Jackets - $100.] and one by one you’re gonna insult my guests, make this night a bad night for me, sometimes [A dozen Mylar balloons - $30.] I think you’re a very ungrateful little man Rock. [Yurple charges $100 for 1 hour of “clowning”] But more importantly, I’ll tell you why it matters: Because this young lady is gonna lead Greensboro, North Carolina in a birthday sing along for The Rock.” And she does. Some Guy wheels a cake to the ring. [This man used to be Goldust’s usher.]

CLIP

“Naturally The Rock is real appreciative to all of his fans. But to you, The Rock’s birthday is May 2nd you stupid son of a bitch.” [Also born May 2nd, Bing Crosby, Dr. Spock and the Red Baron] “I know that Rock [Mick’s birthday is June 7th.], it’s just for some reason every day I get to spend a little time with you, it feels like somebody’s birthday.”

[While it wasn’t The Rock’s Birthday, there was definitely reason for celebration. Fans tuned in for “Rock, This Is Your Life” in record numbers. This 25-minute segment was the highest rated opposed hour in the history of RAW. While it was definitely a peak for the “Rock-n-Sock Connection,” their partnership only lasted two more months before they split up and went on to continue their individual careers.]

UGH! I need a Tylenol.

Diva’s Undressed is tonight at midnight – and here’s a sneak preview of the kind of things you might see. Stacy Keibler knew when she signed her WWE contract she’d be doing crazy things, but a lingerie fashion show never crossed her mind. They’ll have teddy, bra and panty, and fantasy categories.

And for the final segment…

Terri Runnells brings lotsa slutty outfits from show to show. She shows off her favorite outfits from her travel bag to porno music. After that Rock-n-Sock segment above, that’s ALL you’re getting!

Triple H underwent surgery this week, and will be out of action for a few weeks. And that’s it. Remember, it’s confidential!