Mike Johnson reporting

Dave Meltzer begins the show discussing the upcoming USA-WWF-Viacom trial that begins this week. Meltzer says that this week will be the most interesting week in the business in years. He says that it will begin to determine where the WWF and ECW end up. Meltzer says apparently WCW is on the selling block, although they deny it. ECW wants of TNN either way pretty badly it appears. SFX is interested in buying the promotion rights to WCW, but it may have gone sour. FOX is looking at getting involved in wrestling, and SFX has had discussions with ECW as well.

Meltzer says that there were "a lot of phone calls" made by WCW to ECW on 6/9 to attempt to send feelers towards ECW for doing something on the Great American Bash, but Meltzer says it is almost certain it will not happen. Meltzer says he doesn't know if that's a back up plan or "a home run" they are attempting to hit.

The ECW PPV is in Los Angeles on 7/16 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

Christian from the WWF joins the show.

Christian says that he and Edge met in school. Christian said that he was the only kid in school with a ninja star, and everyone thought it was cool, and that's how he and Edge met. They both were wrestling fans, and they would go to shows every chance they got. They would go see Independent shows in the summer and to WWF shows at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. They would watch WWF and Stampede.

Christian said that he and Edge always talked about what it would be like to become wrestlers, and when Edge was a finalist in a newspaper essay with the prize being that the winner would be trained at being a wrestler, Christian went with him to the session to see who the winner would be. Christian went to school while Edge was training, and he knew he wanted to do it, but he didn't have the money at the time. While he was in college, he and Edge were roommates, Christian used a loan to start training. her trained for nine months and his first match was at a show at his school.

His & Edge's thoughts on working in Independents was that they would work anywhere they would to network and get their names out. Edge and Joe E. Legend met some guys who worked Detroit, and they started working there, and then Cleveland, and so on. He says that putting all the time and energy into it, and being broke, made him work harder and to him, making it to the WWF was the goal for him. He says that anything less for him wouldn't have meant it for him. He says that his parents was totally supportive, and didn't charge him for rent and food and let him used the car. They wanted him to be able to say he did it.

Meltzer asked him about going to the Funkin' Dojo. He says he went to the camp before the WWF signed him, and he was nervous and anxious. He says that he knew everything he wanted and worked for would happen in that one week, and tried not to psych himself out. He felt he would go and work as hard as he could, and hopefully it would (and did) work out. Meltzer says he got high grades from Dory for being a ring general as far as calling a match. Christian says the only other person he knew going into the camp was ECW's Rhino. He says that he appreciates everything Dory did for him and he had a great time doing the Dojo.

Christian says that of the belts he's held, it was a bigger thrill to win the WWF Tag Team titles because they won the belts they talked about winning as kids, and he got to win them at his first Wrestlemania with his parents and fiancé in the crowd. He says that as long as he is even to compete on a high level and his body allows him to, he'd like to wrestle as much as possible, as long as it stays fun.

The best part of travel is meeting different people and places and the worst is that you don't get time to eat as much as you want or train like you want.

Meltzer asks Christian about whether the WWF had banned DDTs and piledrivers. [Meltzer reported this early in the week.] Christian says he hasn't heard that.

Caller says that it seems the momentum for Christian and Edge has stopped and wonders of the WWF has a long term plan for them, and what would Christian like to see as a long term plan for him. He says that their main goal was to keep their own identities in case they need to go their own way down the line. He says that he is enjoying himself, and they are doing backstage stuff and have some mic time, which is fun. He says their matches have been good, and doesn't feel they have lost momentum since Wrestlemania. Fan says he could see them as being similar to the Midnight Express.

When asked about other teams, Christian says that he loves wrestling with the Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boys. He says they are all tremendous.

Meltzer brings up their tag team ladder match at No Mercy. Christian said it worked out the way they hoped it would for them. He says that all of them are perfectionists in what they do, and if anything had gone wrong, he wouldn't have liked it very much. He says that they wanted the match to be on par with what Shawn Michaels-Razor Ramon had done with their matches. He says that they went out there and did the best that they could, and entertain everyone who was there and watching the PPV. He says that it was tough on the body, but it was great. It was his first ladder match. He says that they talked about doing a best of seven series and that they all agreed that they wanted to pitch a double ladder match to finish it.

Caller asked about physical toll and injuries. Christian says that he tries not to worry about it before and when he is doing it, because you could psych yourself out and possibly cause an injury. He says when he watches afterwards, he says, "Wow, I could have gotten hurt." and feels it afterwards, but when the adrenaline is going, you want to give the crowd all you can. He says when he and Jeff Hardy both went off the ladder to the floor at Wrestlemania, he woke up the next day and his side was hurting rolling out of bed. Meltzer asks him if there is anything he wants to back off of, but he says that he is feeling fine and only does things he is comfortable with.

Meltzer asks him about working in Japan. He says that he used to get tapes and magazines whenever he could, and it was goal to go over there an experience it. He did two tours and wish he could have done more.

Caller asks what Christian thinks he would be doing if he wasn't a wrestler. He says that he was going to school to be a physical therapy and had ambitions of being a pro hockey player.

Discussion with Caller about wrestling being blanketed. Christian says that no one likes the same thing, and if people don't like the business or know he's a wrestler, it doesn't bother him. He says that if you are entertained by it, great, if not, don't worry about it.

Caller asks for advice on breaking into the business. Christian says to be patient, as it is hard. He says it is really something you want to do, pursue it and try your hardest. Get as much work as you can, and don't listen to anyone who says you can't. Meltzer says to check out a school that is known for turning out good wrestlers, and Christian says to check out a bunch of them before making a choice.

Caller asks Christian about Jim Kettner. He says Kettner is a great guy who treated him great from the first time he met Christian and has his show every month and has taken his little product and makes it look like a big production. He takes care of his guys and has a great little promotion in the ECWA.

Caller asks about the Light Heavyweight division. He says he guesses they would have to bring in some more light heavyweight guys. He says he doesn't personally see himself as a Light Heavyweight. Meltzer asked him if he worried about size growing up. He says he was intimidated and was worried when he first started training as it was all about monsters when he was growing up but it's evolved into being about athletics. He says he works out and he knows he won't be the biggest guy.

Meltzer asked him about wrestlers he enjoyed growing up and now. He says that he and Edge would sit around in seventh grade and had a list of dream matches they wanted to see. He says that he enjoyed watching all sorts of guys and got to see Hiroshi Hase and Jushin Liger in Stampede. He mentions Bob Orton, Randy Savage, Rick Steamboat, Mr. Pefect, Bret Hart as guys who could really wrestle and Honkytonk Man because he was such a good heel. He says one of his favorite matches of all time is Savage vs. Steamboat at Wrestlemania III. He says he started to understand the nuances and the psychology of it once he started training, but he always had an idea of who he liked to see.

Email asks if Christian has any good stories about Owen Hart. He says that Owen was one of the nicest guys he ever met, and one of the funniest. He says Edge would call him the road guru and they would ask him questions for help on traveling and being on the road. At a house show in Philadelphia, they were the Brood, and Gangrel couldn't find his watch after the match. Owen came up and asked him if he knew what the time was. The next show in Philly a few months later, after their match, they came back from the ring and the watch was sitting there, and Owen came by and asked what time it was. He had kept the watch all that time as a rib.

Christian was asked about working for Grand Prix Wrestling. He says that he got in really good ring shape and got a ton of ring time and learned what it was like to work in a territory, as they had shows seven days a week. He says they got to main event wrestling Don Callis and Rick Martel. He leaves the show.

The Head of Viacom made a comment to the Hollywood Reporter that UPN would become profitable or it would be shut down. Meltzer says that Smackdown will be on UPN for another year, and then they could technically move it to CBS and thinks CBS would use the show.