RATTLE SNAKE SPEAKS ON HOGAN

In an interview with WWE Magazine’s special 2010 WrestleMania 26 Almanac, WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin says he still has no interest in fighting Hulk Hogan, despite WWE’s repeated attempts to make the match happen at the past few WrestleManias.

“After I retired, for two or three years, they asked me, ‘Do you want to wrestle Hogan this year? Do you want to wrestle Hogan? And the answer is: No, I don’t. “I don’t care to wrestle Hulk Hogan. I don’t think it would live up to fans’s expectations.”

Austin says his match with Dwayne “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson at WrestleMania 19 in 2003 was his “retirement match.” Austin isn’t looking for one last rematch, because he doesn’t think it could be as good as their past classics.

“That was my last match, and I’m not looking for a re-match. I don’t it would be as good as what we’ve done before because we’ve both been out of the ring for some time. Could it be done? Of course. But there’s no use talking about it. … I definitely do not have any interest in delivering anything that would be second-best to what I’ve done before.”

When asked about his favorite WrestleMania match, Austin his WrestleMania 17 main event match against The Rock, but admits that turning heel and aligning himself with Mr. McMahon that night was a bad idea looking back.

“Looking back, it wasn’t the best thing we ever did,” Austin said. “Now, if I could go back, as soon as that match ended, when Vince walked up to me, I would have shaken his hand and said, ‘Watch the Stunner,’ and dropped him right there in the middle of the ring. That’s hindsight being 20/20!”

SMACKDOWN SPOILERS AS ON 2/19

* Chris Jericho comes out to start SmackDown and says he will win the Chamber. Edge comes out to a big pop. He talks about spearing Taker last week. Jericho tells Edge to pick the RAW Champion for WrestleMania for his own good. The lights flicker and Edge spears Jericho.

* Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler takes place until Drew McIntyre comes down in a suit. Dolph tries to take advantage but Kane chokeslams him for the win. Drew comes in and hits his finisher on Kane but Kane reverses it.

* Rey Mysterio cuts a promo backstage and says he will win the Elimination Chamber.

* John Morrison & R-Truth vs. CM Punk & Luke Gallows is announced for tonight.

* Cryme Tyme defeated Trent Baretta and Caylon Croft in a good tag match.

* John Morrison is interviewed and says his ankle won't make him miss the Chamber. Truth comes in and says he will win the Chamber but tonight, he and Morrison will beat Punk and Gallows.

* CM Punk and the Straight Edge Society come out. Punk cuts a promo and says he will win the belt at Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Tons of heat for Punk.

* Punk & Gallows vs. Morrison & Truth ends in a no contest. What looked like Undertaker's pyro went off during the match, everything stopped but nothing happened. Match is restarted. Morrison was really playing up his ankle injury. The referee called for the bell when Morrison went to kick Punk but kicked the ring post and went down in pain. SES beats Morrison and Truth down until Rey Mysterio comes in for the save. They beat him down and pose in front of Rey to a ton of heat. 

* Teddy Long is shown backstage. He says he will take action against Shawn Michaels for super kicking him on RAW. Mickie James comes in and Vickie Guerrero announces it will be Mickie vs. Michelle McCool next week with Vickie as the referee.

* Maria, Matt Hardy and The Great Khali vs. The Hart Dynasty is up next. The Dynasty gets the win when Natalya pins Maria. Maria walks up the ramp pissed off with Matt right behind her apologizing.

* Maria is shown backstage arguing with Matt Hardy about him letting their team down. Michelle McCool and Layla come in and make fun of them.

* Edge vs. Batista is next. No pyro for Batista, simple entrance but a big pop. Edge comes out to a big pop also. Batista stalls to start the match. Edge takes the mic and says John Cena was right about Batista. Finally they wrestle and it's a good match. Edge spears Batista and Taker's bell hits and he appears in the ring. Taker chokeslams Edge. Taker chases Batista off. Chris Jericho appears in the ring and hits the Codebreaker on Edge. Taker comes back out and stares down Jericho to end SmackDown after Jericho motions to the World Title.

BACKSTAGE NEWS ON FAREWELL ECW

There were people within WWE who wanted to honor the ECW legacy on last night’s show by bringing back old ECW names for appearances. The feeling was that it was more important to get WWE NXT over and close out ECW quickly so they chose not to bring any old faces back.

Vince McMahon made the decision to put the ECW Title on Ezekiel Jackson last night so he would have momentum going to the SmackDown brand, where he will likely be kept with William Regal. The latest word is that the duo will end up on Fridays after it was first believed they would go to RAW. Some on the WWE creative team wanted Christian to retain the belt to give ECW a “happy ending” but that idea was shot down.

NO EDGE VS BATISTA, UPDATE ON ECW DVD, BRET HART INJURY

As far as we can tell from the SmackDown spoiler reports, Batista vs. Edge was not announced for this week’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. No word if the match is planned.

There were some rumblings within WWE yesterday of the company doing another ECW DVD later in the year but it’s not something that’s confirmed.

To keep with the Bret Hart injury storyline from RAW, WWE posted on their website that he has suffered “a broken left leg in addition to ligament and tendon damage.” 

Y2J ON ECW'S END, EZEKIEL MAKES HISTORY

Chris Jericho wrote the following about ECW on his Twitter earlier: “Goodbye WWECW. But as those of us who were there know, ECW really died in 99.”

Not only did Ezekiel Jackson make WWE history last night by winning the final ECW match but he now holds the record for the shortest ECW Title reign. From the moment the bell rang until the show went off the air, Ezekiel had the title for 2 minutes and 59 seconds. He beat The Sandman’s previous record of 6 minutes and 32 seconds.