[Emperor Smeat]

Some recent stuff from the Wrestling Observer:

The original WrestleMania main event for next year (this was proposed in booking, but had never been agreed to) where HHH would be the heel in his feud with Vince McMahon, leading Vince to bring back Austin in a battle for full control of the company appears to be off the books ... At one point the progression of the storyline was that at SummerSlam, Vince, Stephanie and HHH would end up uniting, and then later in the year, they’d split when HHH would go heel. Just heard that everything has changed but based on television, the idea of a slow build for a battle for control at Mania still seems to be the direction. Everything on television is building to Vince as the heel but the original direction was HHH as the heel by the time Mania rolled around.

A name we’ve heard bandied about for the Hall of Fame this year is Steve Williams. Williams would probably get the endorsement of Jim Ross and Gerald Brisco, and they do have a good deal of tape of him in the new Mid South collection as well as from WCW and some WWE. What is working against him is that he’s not alive, and he was never a major star in WWE.

They’ve changed directions on SummerSlam. It started when Show wasn’t cleared before Raw was written so they went with a show where instead of shooting The Shield angle to set up Show & Henry, the Shield was just there to be the foils to build up the three-way top program with Orton, Bryan and Cena. It should be noted that Show was cleared on 8/5, but Raw and Smackdown for the week were already written by that time. So they may do something with him next week on Raw in Sacramento, but the undercard for SummerSlam has been revamped over the past week ... There’s probably room for one, or possibly two matches, and The Shield, Orton, RVD, Henry, Ryback and Show are not accounted for.

Sheamus, who the company had attempted to groom for the position of top star on the non-Cena tour, will be out of action four to six months due to needing surgery on his left shoulder for a torn labrum ... Originally, he thought the serious injury was to his leg, which was at first badly swollen and with visible nasty bruising. He had continued to work and was on tour of South Africa with his leg healing but his shoulder getting worse. His range of motion was getting more limited while on tour and he had sharp pain radiating down his arm, according to an article on the WWE web site. When he was working out on 8/5 in Green Bay, prior to the Raw taping, he said he experienced sharp pain in his shoulder and told company doctors. He had an MRI done on his left shoulder and both Dr. Chris Amann and Dr. Michael Samson reviewed the results and suggested surgery. He’ll be undergoing arthroscopic surgery early next week, which, surprisingly enough, will be the first time he’s ever had any surgery in his life. That fact is remarkable for a 35 year old who has been wrestling 11 years, with the last four years working among the most dates of any company performer.