The following report is courtesy of lordsofpain.net ...

Match 1: Sabu and Rob Van Dam vs Test and Mike Knox w/ Kelly Kelly

- The extreme rules tag match begins with Sabu and Knox. Back and forth action with Knox gaining a slight advantage over Sabu. Sabu tags in RVD. Knox works over RVD while Sabu sets up a table on the outside. Test and Knox double team RVD in the corner while Sabu hunts for chairs under the ring. Test gets the tag and continues to work RVD over. RVD fights back, whipping Test into the corner. RVD hits the running leg lariat but falls over the top rope. RVD and Sabu hit a rolling thunder leg drop combo on Knox. Test breaks up the count. Knox and Sabu battle on the outside. RVD dives and takes out Knox. Sabu and Test on the inside.

Test starts to military press Sabu, but RVD comes of the turnbuckle with a boot to Test’s face. RVD, Test, and Knox go back and forth on the ring apron. Sabu dives and all four go through the table. Back from commercials, Sabu and Test are on the inside. Sabu sets up the chair for his triple jump moonsault, but Test grabs his leg and Sabu crashes into the chair. Test only gets a 2 count. Test throws Sabu outside, and turns around to get a chair to the face from RVD. RVD skateboards the chair into Test. RVD goes up for the frog splash.

Knox catches him with a chair shot. Knox superplexes RVD. Sabu hits a facebuster on Knox. Sabu puts Knox into the camel clutch and holds a chair in front of Knox. RVD kicks it into Knox’s face. Test breaks up the pin. Sabu launches himself into Test in the corner. Test falls onto a chair. Triple jump moonsault for 2. Sabu and RVD set up a table in the ring. Knox eats a chair from Sabu, and RVD throws one at Test. Knox is laid out on the table. Sabu and RVD go for legdrops onto Knox from opposite corners. It looked like Sabu missed, but RVD crashes Knox through the table for the win.
Winners: RVD and Sabu

Back from commercials, Kevin Thorn and Ariel are playing poker. No, wait, those are tarot cards. They like what the cards hold for them tonight, because it’s sexual.

Matt Striker is in the ring. Brains will always win over brawn. Striker takes a shot at the Little League World Champs. Claims we will never see him swimming with sting rays. Striker goes on and on. The Sandman’s music hits. Striker stands on top of his desks and taunts Sandman to come into the ring. Sandman slides into the ring and Striker runs like hell. Sandman writes sux under Striker’s name on the chalkboard and trashes the set.

Back to the show, Kevin Thorn and Ariel make their way down to ringside. Ariel climbs onto the announce table and rides Joey Styles. Styles screams about the girl with fangs about to bite him. Thorn and Ariel sit at ringside for the next match.

Match 2: Balls Mahoney vs Stevie Richards

- Richards takes the early advantage. Richards with a neckbreaker for 2. Stevie Richards hits an X-factor for 2. Balls fights back with a reverse cradle suplex for 2. Balls goes for his punch combo. Kevin Thorn interferes. Ariel distracts the ref. Camera angle had refs back to camera with Ariel bouncy on the ropes. Interesting visual effect. Missed the finish, but the interference allowed Richards to get the win
Winner: Stevie Richards

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It's time to update the matches set for the next RAW pay-per-view, Unforgiven.

WWE Championship TLC Match:
Champion Edge vs. John Cena
*If Cena loses, he moves to SmackDown!

Hell In A Cell:
The McMahons & The Big Show vs. DX

Intercontinental Championship:
Champion Johnny Nitro vs. Jeff Hardy

World Tag Team Championship:
Champions The Spirit Squad vs. The Highlanders

WWE Women's Championship:
Champion Trish Stratus vs. Lita

Carlito vs. Randy Orton

Kane vs. Umaga

The following report is courtesy of lordsofpain.net ...

The show opened with a recap of the events surrounding Edge and John Cena’s rivalry from last week. After it was over, the camera cut to WWE Champion Edge in the ring setting up tables, ladders, and chairs. He grabbed a mic and, surrounded by the very weapons legal in Unforgiven’s TLC championship match, said that the “John Cena gets out of my life forever countdown is on.”

From atop the ladder, Edge plugged the new CW network and hyped his match with Cena, saying that Cena can’t win in the champ’s hometown of Toronto, Canada. Edge proclaimed that Cena can’t beat him in the TLC match because Edge always wins TLC matches … and the TLC doesn’t play to Cena’s limited strengths. The champ bashed the fans and Cena’s intelligence and had a video, Rated-R of course, played of his TLC and other triumphs.

After the video, Edge said that it was only two weeks before Cena was off “his” show and before Edge would be free to become the greatest WWE Champion of all-time. At that point, Cena showed up and tried to knock Edge off the ladder. Edge leapt onto Cena from the top of the ladder to try and prevent the attack, but Cena caught him in body slam position, tossed him up onto his shoulders, and hit him with an FU through a table. The former champ then threw the ladder on top of the current champ and catered to the crowd with a celebration.

Backstage, Jeff Hardy painted a wall and was approached by Maria. Jeff said he was watching Nitro and Melina’s press conference from last week. Maria didn’t get it … but the point was to put over that it was like watching paint dry.

Match 1: Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro (w/ Melina) vs. Jeff Hardy
- Nitro connected on a dropkick to get first strike points. The crowd was behind Hardy, who quickly came back with consecutive roll-up near falls and a backslide for a third close call. Hardy then hit a reverse mule kick that sent Nitro to the outside. We then got a dreaded mid-match commercial break, but that was to be expected. Back from the break, Nitro had Hardy in a modified camel clutch. During the break, Nitro knocked Hardy to the floor with a standing dropkick. Hardy got to his feet, but Nitro threw Jeff into a backbreaker via pulling his hair and tugging him backwards. Nitro followed with a back drop for a near fall and then synched in a surfboard stretch.

Hardy got to his feet again, but Nitro quickly stomped him back down with several right handed blows. He went for that fancy spinning leg drop of his, but Hardy dodged it and hit a jawbreaker. Hardy tried to keep the offense going, but Nitro hung him up on the top rope. Nitro continued to dominate from there, focusing on the lower back with shoulder thrusts in the corner. Hardy again fought back, but couldn’t sustain the offense, as Nitro hit a Rock Bottom into a backbreaker and immediately followed with a Side Russian Leg sweep. The champ then locked in a rear bear hug before shoving Hardy into the corner and placing him on the top rope. Nitro followed suit and went for a superplex, but Hardy countered, flipped over Nitro, landed on his feet, and caught Nitro in the electric chair. The ref got to nine before both men made it to their feet. Hardy began his babyface comeback with flying forearms and a back drop. He followed with a Side Russian sweep of his own and scored a near fall with a unique pinning combo.

Nitro came back eventually with a standing shooting star press. Hardy came back quickly and tossed Nitro chest first into the turnbuckle before connecting on the Whisper in the Wind spinning corkscrew for a near fall. He tried to follow with the Swanton Bomb, but Nitro regained his footing in time to knock him off the top rope. Nitro couldn’t get back on the offensive, though, and Hardy came right back with the Twist of Fate. 1…2…No! Melina interfered, causing a DQ. Hardy defeated Nitro via DQ at 12:25.

Backstage, Women’s champion Lita bumped into Trish Stratus, who said it was nice that they bumped into each other because she was going to call her out to challenge her to a Women’s title match at Unforgiven. Trish told her to bring everything she had and “just bring it, bitch”… Lita slapped her in response, prompting a brawl. Carlito tried to break it up but got attacked Randy Orton. They had a short brawl of their own and they ended up yelling at each other as they were being pulled apart by several referees.

More hype for the The Marine …

Match 2: Chris Masters vs. Super Crazy
- Masters pushed Crazy to the mat to start the match. He did it again and posed to no crowd reaction. Masters followed with a body slam, but Crazy came back with a running dropkick. Chris came right back with a big boot before tossing Crazy shoulder-first into the ring post. Masters proceeded to latch on a key lock, but soon after took the newcomer down with a power slam. Crazy made a comeback with a springboard dropkick and a Senton splash to the outside. He then went to the top rope and connected on a sunset flip for a near fall.

He tried to keep it up with another high risk, but missed. Masters tried for the Master Lock, but Crazy escaped and got a near fall with a reverse rolling clutch pin. The finish came when Crazy surprised Masters with another quick dropkick and got the pin following a top rope moonsault. Crazy defeated Masters at 3:58.

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Anyone who reads Bill Simmons (aka "The Sports Guy"), ESPN's online columnist, knows he's a major wrestling fan.

We're not sure how he feels about ECW, but Simmons included WWE DVDs on his list of summer recommendations in a recent column:

Somehow I landed on the WWE's DVD mailing list a few months ago. Every 10 days or so, a Fed Ex envelope shows up with another DVD, followed by the Sports Gal grumbling, "Oh, no, it's from the WWE. I'm throwing it out," then me acting cool and pretending there's no way I would ever watch it ... then, as soon as she's not looking, I race off to watch it.

Most of them are serviceable, some of them are terrible (like the unwatchable one about "Degeneration X"), but four recent ones are worth renting if you cared about wrestling at any point over the past 25 years:

1. Hitman Hart (hysterically bitter and full of himself) and
2. Dusty Rhodes (whose body will make you happy that the Steroids Era happened)
3. The "Greatest Managers" DVD (I'm ashamed to admit how much I enjoyed this one)
4. The three-disc history of the WWE belt (my personal favorite because it contains more than eight hours of title matches).

Truth be told, I'm against these DVDs because they remind me that Vince McMahon chooses to make money this way over forming the all-wrestling channel that should have happened years ago. Since the WWE owns the rights to just about every relevant match now, this really shouldn't be hard to pull off.

Heck, the MSG network showed old matches from the '80s on Wednesday nights this summer (I probably received 200 e-mails from delighted wrestling fans alerting me about it).

Just give us a network. For God's sake. Throw us a bone. Like some of you wouldn't check the Wrestling Channel 10 times a day to see what they were showing?

But here's the real reason I bring this up: Why haven't they made an Andre the Giant DVD yet? Andre, the one wrestler who could never be recreated or duplicated, the Eighth Wonder of the World, someone who touched the lives of everyone he ever met. Screw the footage; you could make a two-hour documentary just of people telling Andre stories. He was that memorable. I don't care whether it's the WWE, ESPN, HBO, whoever ... somebody needs to make an Andre documentary. I don't ask for much.

As all wrestling fans now know, Kurt Angle has been releasted from his WWE contract. Details are unclear, but Angle has released a statement from his website:

To all my respective fans in WWE/ECW,

The letter you are about to read is not from WWE, nor from my agent, but from me, Kurt Angle ... to my all fans.

This is my personal ‘Thank You’ straight from my heart, to all my fans for being here with me and providing me with the most honorable privilege to perform and entertain for you.

Thank you for tuning into your TVs weekly, for visiting me at hundreds of house show chanting ‘You Suck’ (I love that phrase), to every single good, bad or indifferent e-mail I’ve received over the past 6 years and continue to receive daily. Thank you for being there and making my life truly blessed.

When I came to WWE, many fans had doubts that an Olympic Gold Medalist in Amateur Wrestling could turn and master the art of Sports Entertainment. To my humble surprise, God graciously granted me the gift to make this exciting transition in my life. Coming into the WWE, I had one goal in mind...to be the VERY BEST!

Many say I am; some may say I'm not. But I want you to know with over six solid years of non-stop wrestling action under my belt from all the shows to the world tours...I treated every single match as if it were my last!

I’ve never known a time in my life from training, competition or entertainment that I have not tried to give over 100%. I honestly do not know of any other way to wrestle or perform, and I have always wanted to give YOU, the fans, what I would expect to see.

From the entertainment standpoint, (good guy or bad guy), it’s been truly exciting, but I know in my heart that I have not reached my peak. Critics have compared me to very honorable wrestlers like Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, all of whom I value and truly respect.

But there is one BIG difference between us. I am by far the most aggressive and intense athlete of all on the mat. When I step into the ring, I treat it as real, it feels real and then I play it like a real shoot fight.

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We can't confirm a definitive return date for Chris Benoit, but hopefully advertisements in Connecticut are legitimate.

Local radio stations in that state are listing Benoit as making his return to WWE at the Smackdown events in that area on the week of 9/10. Let's hope this is the case.

The following is courtesy of Wrestleview.com ...

There was a Vickie/Chavo/Rey opening segment. The bottom line was that Vickie told Rey he'll never be a Guerrero and she slapped him.

1) Matt Hardy defeated WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms in non-title match.

2) The Miz defeated Tatanka by pinfall in his SmackDown debut.

It was scheduled to be Bobby Lashley vs. Finlay for the U.S. Championship, but Teddy Long made a Triple Threat match for the title. Bobby Lashley vs. Finlay vs. Ken Kennedy.

3) Ken Kennedy became the new WWE U.S. champion by defeating Lashley and Finlay. He pinned Bobby Lashley for the win.

4) Vito defeated William Regal by countout.

Backstage promo with Jimmy Wang Yang, where he's talking about being a redneck.

MVP, who was sitting with two girls in the crowd, was interviewed by Michael Cole. MVP said that he could beat anyone on the Smackdown roster, he just wants the right contract offer.

Paul London & Brian Kendrick defeated The Pitbulls to retain their WWE Tag Team titles. After the match, Idol Stevens and KC James attack London and Kendrick, which led to the Pittbulls joining in, making it four on two.

The main event was the contract singing for the WWE No Mercy PPV between World Champion, King Booker and Batista. The ending saw Batista deliver the spinebuster through a table on King Booker.

* Click here for more Smackdown photos

People with computers loved to read about wrestling. That's the only conclusion we can draw after reading the following figures:

WWE was the third most popular search term for the month of July on Yahoo. On the day after SummerSlam, it reached the top spot. As of Monday, WWE has been a top 20 search term for 113 consecutive days.

With ECW drawing strong ratings, the Sci-Fi channel has agreed on a deal that will keep the extreme brand on national TV through at least December, 2007.

Needless to say, Paul Heyman is a bit happy about that.

“This extension means that we now have the ability to think long term. What do we envision for Big Show at WrestleMania? The twists for RVD, Sandman and Sabu. When will C.M. Punk be put to the test? Who are the next breakout stars that have yet to debut on ECW?," Heyman said.

"In the original ECW, Sabu vs. Tazz was the number-one storyline for 18 months, and they never touched each other until our first pay-per-view. We had the luxury of long-term planning. Now, we finally have that luxury again, to take the time to tell these kinds of epic stories.”

Right now, ECW on Sci-Fi is just a one-hour show. Heyman fully supports that frame for now ... but woudn't be adverse to adding another hour, of course.

“I love the one-hour format because it’s different,” said Sabu's recent opponent. “It’s so fast paced. You’re just slurping down your first beverage when the main event is headed to the ring. I would also love to see a 75 or 90 minute offering of ECW as well, but if they told me tomorrow, ‘we are going to two hours’, we’d be ready.

"It would give us more time for longer matches, more characters like C.M. Punk to introduce, more time to explain the background of legends like Sabu, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. But right now, one-hour is a god-send. It sure beats marketing only the memories. Now, we’re creating new moments, new characters and new memories. This is a fantasy come true.”

These aren't exactly new stories. In fact, they're almost as old as any storyline pitting the owner against a wrestler (can you hear us, Vince McMahon?).

Nevertheless, we wanted to give fans a glimpse of a few of their favorite stars outside the ring. And almost behind bars. Take a look at these mugshots:

Charges were dropped against The Big Show back in 1998, after he allegedly exposed himself to a female motel employee. Maybe that's where the ECW Champion's rage comes from. DX may feel it at Unforgiven.

Similarly, a case was never presented against Brock Lesnar for distributing steroids in 2001. Still, the big man was booked on the charges. Now? We just want him to return to a WWE ring.

Ric Flair doesn't look too happy. Would you, after being arrested last year on misdemeanor charges of assault? This angle was then used in a storyline with Mick Foley.