Dirt Sheet History: Spring 2005 (Wrestlemania 21 and ECW One Night Stand)

Take a trip back to a memorable timeline in sports entertainment with the most important stories reported as fact in the journalistic world of pro wrestling dirt sheets.

Following the timeline of the last Dirt Sheet History breaking down the best inside scoops and rumors from the road to Wrestlemania 21, we see what happened during the Wrestlemania 21 event and afterwards. Delving deep into the Matt Hardy/Edge/Lita saga and going all the way to the first ECW One Night Stand reunion PPV, here’s Dirt Sheet History from April through June 2005.

4/4/2005

* The crowd was dead during JBL vs. John Cena because they were exhausted after Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle. They were on their feet for most of that match. Kurt Angle was over big during, and after the match. Quite a few people were booing Michaels. The crowd also seemed surprised that the JBL-Cena match was that short

Biggest pops:

1. Hulk Hogan (by far)
2. Steve Austin
3. Batista
4. Kurt Angle
5. Undertaker

Most heel heat:

1. Muhammad Hassan & Daivari
2. Randy and Bob Orton
3. The Sumo Match
4. Edge
5. Shawn Michaels (when he got out of the first Ankle Lock)

4/5/2005

* In a surprising note, following his World Heavyweight Title victory over rival Triple H, the first person on Batista‘s list to hug was none other then Triple H’s father. Triple H’s mother was also at the show, situated alongside her husband on the front row.

* There was a positive mood for last night’s PPV, with people generally thinking it delivered strongly. That being said, there was slight concern that the crowd seemed a little dead after John Cena‘s title win. That apart, everything went the way the company wanted it to.

4/11/2005

* The early indications are that Matt Hardy was released due to the way he handled the situation with Edge & Lita.

4/13/2005

* In a bit of a strange news note, WWE have released their eligibility requirements for the second Diva Search, and below is one of them:

A. Applicants must have been born female and must be legal residents of the 48 contiguous United States (excludes Alaska and Hawaii) or the District of Columbia.

Now, what the company has against Alaskan and Hawaiian transsexuals I can’t even begin to guess.

4/15/2005

* Colt Cabana and CM Punk of ROH and other indie companies were backstage at WWE TV tapings this week, getting assessed by WWE management. CM Punk also worked a match for this weekend’s edition of Sunday Night Heat.

4/19/2005

* As RAW was in Madison Square Garden last night, there was anticipation amongst talent and other staff about how the crowd would take to Lita and Edge, given they are usually very vocal.

There is a great feeling of resentment towards both Edge & Lita for what they did, and how they seemingly cost Matt Hardy his job.

Many took satisfaction in the heated reaction Lita received and believe it was justified. One wrestler had the following to say on the whole matter:

“Vince McMahon considers MSG his gauge for what’s over in his company,” says one wrestler. “I wonder what he was thinking during that segment.”

Lita took the crowd reaction at the MSG  pretty hard according to WWE sources backstage. Lita was said to be shaken up, but did her best not to react to them. On the other hand, Edge took a “business as usual” approach to everything and believed the heat was good for his character.

4/25/2005

* Before last night’s TNA pay-per-view, TNA’s new Vice President Frank Dickerson was introduced to the wrestlers.

Dixie Carter gave a speech, putting over that the company had cleared Eurosport in Europe, and putting a positive spin on the future of the company. Carter asked the workers to work hard because a number of network executives “had their eyes on the company” and everyone was doing their best to get a deal done.

According to someone backstage at last night’s show, the atmosphere was “close to Victory Road” in terms of commitment from the crew to put on a good show. There were a number of wrestlers who wanted to “wash out” THE Destination X PPV from fans’ memories.

A number of workers were openly noting the positive change in the locker room with the departure of Kid Kash.

4/26/2005

* A lot of the boos for Batista during his match with Christian on RAW from the UK yesterday were edited out.

5/3/2005

* At Wrestlemania, Lance Storm sort of was trying to teach some of the younger wrestlers on how to behave so they don’t come off as having an attitude problem and he ended up specifically mentioning JBL and Bob Holly, who have a reputation for bullying people around. Anyway, the word got around to both JBL and Holly, one of which told him to f-off while JBL ended up challenging Storm, who decided to ignore the whole thing.

5/9/2005

* Ring Of Honor has announced that Matt Hardy has been signed to wrestle on their July 16th event, which emanates from New Haven, Connecticut. While waiting for his WWE no-compete clause to draw to an end, Hardy is scheduled to work a few independent shows over the coming weeks. This has been the first show Hardy has been announced as wrestling on since WWE released him.

5/14/2005

* It’s recently been reported that WWE has stated that wrestlers will not be given first class or business class seats on long overseas flights anymore. It’s something that hasn’t gone down too well as this has been standard for years considering superstars are big and tall.

The company however felt it would be a reasonable cut back. Several wrestlers spoke out against the move, but it was John Cena who was the first to stand up and speak out against the new policy at a meeting next week.

It wasn’t expected as Cena is usually laid-back but it was impressive in that he took a leadership role, something expected of title holders.

5/17/2005

* Lita has apparently voiced concerns about her controversial new storyline dumping Kane to be with Edge, but understands that she must oblige given the company are against talent refusing storylines for personal reasons when there is money to be made.

5/18/2005

* From TheMattHardy.com:

I don’t know about you guys, but in my opinion, the ending of Raw was tasteless and deplorable. It’s literally sickening to see a real life tragedy exploited as a wrestling angle. – Matt

6/3/2005

* JBL’s promo which aired on SmackDown last night was cut down quite a bit from its original version, which included rips on Paul Heyman’s finances. They segment was set up by Bryan Gerwitz. Many backstage wondered if the promo was designed to promote the ECW PPV or just to take shots at Heyman. It’s no secret that there is some heat between Heyman and Gerwitz.

A number of people noted to sources that JBL quickly took shots at Blue Meanie and Lance Storm, two people JBL does not get along with. One part of the promo edited out was JBL saying that Meanie married a “slut”, referring to his former girlfriend Jasmin St. Claire.

6/5/2005

* According to sources, management within WWE are very keen on bringing CM Punk to the company. They also believe that once signed, within a couple years he will be on main-event status. Punk has been working dark matches and Heat matches recently. One source predicts that he’ll end up tight with Triple H “cause “the two are so similar in their passion for pro wrestling” and similar as people overall.

6/6/2005

* CM Punk has been offered a contract by WWE. It’s expected that the company will offer contracts to Samoa Joe and “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson this week.

6/8/2005

* One former ECW star that won’t be quite as happy as others this Sunday is New Jack. From what we’re told, WWE would like to use him on the show, but due to some legal issues in the state of New York, they can’t. New Jack has tried painstakingly to resolve these issues but could not.

6/12/2005

* Shane Douglas was pretty much booed out of the building according to fans at tonight’s ROH show. The show was going head to head with ECW One Night Stand in New York City.

6/13/2005

* The prevailing opinion from last night’s PPV was that everyone had a great time and were happy to be involved as part of the show. For past ECW workers, it brought back a lot of fond memories of how fun it was to work for the promotion. For those that never worked at ECW, it showed them first hand how the company worked back in the day.

Rey Mysterio and Psicosis knew their match wasn’t all it could have been and both were upset with it. But, Mysterio was said to be working with a bad leg, so that may have been part of the reason people didn’t see what they would have expected from these two who have had some classic matches in ECW.

As reported, the only negative thing to come out of the PPV yesterday was JBL and his cheap shots at the Blue Meanie, legitimately punching him and busting him open. Meanie in the past has mentioned that Bradshaw is a backstage bully that preys on younger talent, which is probably why Bradshaw roughed him up. With his actions last night, it went a long way to proving the Meanie is actually right.

6/15/2005

* Before the action got underway at ECW One Night Stand this past Sunday, there was nearly action backstage with Francine and Dawn Marie said to be involved in a near altercation. Dawn Marie believes Francine blew her off upon entering the arena, which she found very patronizing as she is now a WWE star while Francine was an outsider.

Francine had the following to say to PWInsider.com: “This did not happen that way. Dawn came over to me and said “Hi”. I extended my hand to her and we shook hands. I then said “How are you?” She said, “I see you are as pleasant as ever”, rolled her eyes and walked away. I just ignored her comments. If she called me a b***h, I didn’t hear it. I didn’t disrespect her in any way and I did shake her hand. We are not the best of friends but I shook her hand because it was the right thing to do. Whoever told the story is lying to make me look bad. There were people standing with me that saw me shake her hand.”

Many feel there would have been a physical altercation between the pair had Dawn Marie not been pregnant. Another thing which is likely to have upset Marie is that Francine ironically took her spot at the end of the show when she was involved in a cat fight with Beulah, who she apparently has heat with stemming back from their ECW days.

6/26/2005

* During the Edge and Kane match at WWE Vengeance the crowd began some bad chants. At one point they chanted “We Want Matt” referring to Matt Hardy. They also chanted “She’s a Crack Whore.”

Stories are credited from Rajah, PWTorch, PWInsider and The Wrestling Observer.

Past editions of Dirt Sheet History are found here. If you’re in a Wrestlemania mood, the Dirt Sheet History for Wrestlemania 20 is here.