--The First Mariner Arena in Baltimore is sold out for Backlash on Sunday. Depending on the setup and mostly the size of the entrance stage they are using, that could be anywhere between 8,500 and 12,000 people

 

--The tmz.com web site covered the WWE's suspension of Michael Hayes for 60 days and ripped him hard for it.

--Wrestlemania 24 will be released on Blu-ray disc on 5/20 in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada as the first sports title on Blue-ray. It will include the complete Hall of Fame ceremony (well, almost complete)

--Smackdown tomorrow night is preempted in Sacramento (airing at 10 p.m. tomorrow) and Hartford (airing Saturday night at 8 p.m.). Rating should be well up from last week where a New York preemption killed them.

--Poll on real top drawing match for Backlash on Sunday:
Orton vs. Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL 22.0%
Undertaker vs. Edge 9.5%
Michaels vs. Batista 56.8%
Show vs. Khali 11.7%

--Slam Wrestling at http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/home.html has two stories up today, one on Trish Stratus opening up her new yoga studio in Toronto called "Stratusphere Yoga" at The Village mall and the other on Randy Orton saying that he's grown up now that he has a family and that he looks at Rey Mysterio as a role model. The two in real life are close friends.

--Howard Stern on Tuesday didn't say he didn't want people who watch wrestling to vote, but did say he would never vote for anyone who watches wrestling. That's a pretty clueless statement. He said he understood the candidates going on Raw because there were 5 million viewers and then replayed their promos. You can imagine how bad all three would come off listening in a non-wrestling setting. I mean, it was bad enough during a wrestling show.

--The WWE Creative Team was in Tampa yesterday scouting the developmental talent since there is no TV show yet for them to review. Stephanie McMahon and Michael Hayes (suspended) weren't there. They did matches and cut taped promos for them.

--The CBC's (Canada) award winning "Fifth Estate" show last night replayed the Chris Benoit piece. They did a very good job on it as I saw the original airing with Michael Benoit, Chris Nowinski, Bret Hart and others. If you want to see it, it's at www.cbc/fifth.com and access "A fight to the death." (thanks to Kevin Hobbs)

 

--WWE will have a tribranded house show on 6/28 in Abilene, TX (the night before Vengeance) with Jericho, Kane, Jeff Hardy, JBL (who went to college there some 20 years ago), MVP, Matt Hardy, Umaga, Chavo Guerrero, Finlay, Mark Henry, John Morrison and Kofi Kingston advertised (thanks to Devin Cutting)

 

--Jim Ross on his web site wrote a few things
*In his mind, Ric Flair's best ever opponent is Ricky Steamboat. Well, Flair will always say that as well. He told young wrestlers to study their matches and put over their 1989 series as the best bouts he's seen.

 

Credit: A1 Wrestling Newsletter/Wrestling Observer