- Smackdown airs tonight with a Battle Royal match, with the winner qualifying for a spot in the WWE Title Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven. Other matches include Jeff Hardy vs. The Great Khali, Finlay vs. Shelton Benjamin and Festus vs. MVP in Championship Scramble qualifying matches for a spot in the title match at Unforgiven plus Maria vs. Natalya Neidhart. Undertaker, Triple H, Maryse, Vickie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Bam Neely, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, Hornswoggle and others are on the show. As always, we’ll have a recap up on the site courtesy of Mark Bright over the weekend.

- Busy weekend on the road for WWE. Tonight sees the Raw crew in Bridgeport, Connecticut with CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho and John Cena & Batista vs. JBL & Kane advertised. Raw then return to Madison Square Garden for the first time since January’s Royal Rumble. Punk vs. JBL in a cage match headlines with John Cena vs. Chris Jericho and Batista vs. Kane underneath. That card has changed about a million times in the past couple of months and until recently, John Cena vs. Batista was scheduled.

The Raw crew then finish the weekend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Sunday before moving to the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for Raw on Monday night.

Smackdown and ECW start their run tomorrow night (Saturday) in Erie, Pennsylvania before moving on to Canton, Ohio on Sunday for a show scheduled to be headlined by Triple H & The Undertaker vs. The Great Khali & MVP. Tuesday sees Smackdown and ECW tape TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

- Gail Kim was backstage at last night’s Florida Championship Wrestling TV taping and spoke with John Laurinaitis about a return to WWE. It appears that a deal to return is all but done and Kim will be signing once her TNA deal expires in the next couple of weeks.

- WWE have already announced tour dates for their post-WrestleMania tour of Europe in April 2009. Confirmed dates are: April 17 - Glasgow, Scotland and Strasbourg, France, April 18 - Aberdeen, Scotland, April 20 - London, England (O2 Arena, Raw TV taping) and Cardiff, Wales, April 21 London, England (O2 Arena, Smackdown & ECW taping) and Cardiff, Wales, April 22 - Liverpool, England and April 24 - Belfast, Northern Ireland.

- Paul Heyman’s latest piece for The Sun is critical of Ric Flair leaving WWE to work his own schedule. “It’s a little painful to watch, because bluntly, Flair deserves better,” said Heyman. “It’s sad to see Flair advertised for some low rent wrestling shows at this stage of his life.

“He should really be above that. I don’t know what his take will be in 12 months, but unless it’s significantly above the half million dollars he was making from Vince McMahon, I just don’t understand what he’s trying to accomplish.”

You can read Heyman’s blog in full at this link.

- Thanks to Devin Cutting for sending along the following: Al Snow, Tito Santana and Doink The Clown will be appearing at the House Of Pain Wrestling Federation event in Martinsburg, West Virginia on September 6.

- Ric Flair, Shannon Moore and Daffney will be appearing at the Pro Wrestling Showcase event in Jacksonville, North Carolina on September 20.

- Fast rise for high flying Kingston