Potential Night of Champions Spoiler, Jericho Update, Marella Spoils Future Storyline

sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, www.f4wonline.com

— Ted DiBiase and whoever his mystery partner ends up being should be winning the WWE World Tag Team titles tonight at Night of Champions. At least that was the plan as recently as two weeks ago. A decision was made then to put the tag titles on DiBiase and his mystery partner at tonight’s event. Carlito was informed of this decision and got upset as it pretty much ended any hope of him & Santino Marella getting the titles. It looked like the two were being groomed for a title run a few months ago, but it never materialized.

— It was announced during tonight’s Night of Champions preview show that Chris Jericho would not be defending the Intercontinental Championship belt against Shawn Michaels due to Michaels’ injuries on Raw last week. Jack Korpela said, “One championship that won’t be defended at Night of Champions is Chris Jericho’s Intercontinental Championship. His scheduled opponent, Shawn Michaels, was injured at the hands of Y2J this past Monday night on Raw.” A highlight package of the rivalry was then shown.

— SLAM! Wrestling has an interview with Santino Marella talking about future plans for his character in WWE. He reveals plans for him to get a new on-screen girlfriend and possibly even a stable centered around him. “I think I may have a new on-screen girlfriend coming up. I’m not sure exactly when or how. But the person they chose is in developmental, and she’s very sexy, you’ll want to hate her. She’d be a really good match. I’m just happy I get to kiss her once in a while,” Marella said. “Just in case, she’s not the right person, I don’t want to tell you her name,” he explained. “She’s actually Canadian. I’ll leave it at that.” He confirmed the early Internet rumors of the stable for Italia’s finest were accurate. Marella then confirmed Internet rumors about a potential stable. “There’s some talk I might get a stable going,” Santino said. “I’d do a little bit of managing, and fighting. I debuted a little older, I’m 34, already been here a year, so I can’t wrestle forever. I did judo for 25 years, so my body is not as fresh as it was before. But I’d like to do some managing down the road, still want to wrestle, I want to do everything to be honest, be involved in everything every step of the way, even management and creative. I want the ball basically.” There are currently two two women in WWE’s developmental system originally from Canada. There is Angela Fong from Vancouver, a former model & CFL cheerleader. She was signed a few months ago. The other one is 2006 Diva Search contestant Milena Roucka, also from Vancouver. She has been in developmental for two years and currently works in Florida Championship Wrestling after a stop in OVW. She is said to be doing a gimmick reciting poems about Marella in FCW, so it looks like it’s going to be her. In an unrelated note, in case you missed it, Marella revealed his age as 34 years old. In his DUI charge report from last month, Marella listed his date of birth as March 14, 1979, which would make him 29 years old. Marella also talks about his WWE career thus far, his love for MMA, the writers not scripting his lines too much anymore, soccer, and more. {Article link}

— The SmackDown Divas title match was likely nixed from tonight’s Night of Champions pay-per-view event due to time constraints. WWE pay-per-views usually only feature seven matches, but had they added this one, it would have made for nine matches on the card, and WWE doesn’t like rushing matches on PPV. For instance, WWE had to cut the Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton Triple Threat title match at WrestleMania 22 down to nine minutes because they were running out of time and they didn’t want to cancel the heavily promoted Playboy Pillow fight match featuring Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle. Because the Playboy match wasn’t being called off, and Triple H vs. Cena definitely wasn’t being shortened, Rey’s big match was forced to be cut down significantly. Anyway, the SmackDown Divas title is not really that high of a priority, and they can always push it back to another date anyway.

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