I had the chance to watch the WWE Wrestlemania 22 press conference on WWE.com this afternoon. The press conference ran for just about one hour, and basically consisted of each wrestler involved coming out and cutting a promo for the assembled fans and media. Some notes from the conference:

- Michael Cole came out first, and put over the magnitude of the event. He actually said the show starts at 8ET/5PT, then corrected himself and said it was 7ET/6PT. He also noted that the live festivities for the fans in the arena would begin at 5:30pm. Cole commented that there were 30 or 40 fans camped out since 6am this morning for the press conference. Given that I could see empty seats, I have a feeling they didn't need to do that.

- Cole then talked about Wrestlemania II being in Chicago, and asked if anyone remembered the battle royale that Andre The Giant won, and involved William Perry. That got little reaction from the fans. Well, it was 20 years ago. As Cole talked about the battle royal, Jonathan Coachman interrupted and entered the room. Coach talked about other famous WWE moments in Chicago, including Bret Hart defeating Steve Austin, Shane McMahon jumping off the Titantron onto the Big Show, and the start of the Hogan-Rock feud. There was actually a "Coach" chant.

- JBL was the first guest. JBL referred to Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero hugging at Wrestlemania 20, which prompted an "Eddie" chant. JBL said the fans were chanting that because they remember the great JBL-Guerrero feud, and because they don't care about Chris Benoit. JBL said he defeated Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Title, and now he would defeat Chris Benoit for the U.S. Title. He said defeating the two greatest technical wrestlers in the world for championships in a two year span was like defeating Harley Race and Lou Thesz in a two-year span. JBL said Benoit is a future Hall Of Famer, and they should put their match on last, because no one would be able to follow him.

- Carlito came out next, apple in hand, and said everyone knows the World Tag Team Title match is the "real main event" of the show. Carlito said everyone wondered if he could beat Kane & Big Show while at the same time "babysit" Chris Masters. Carlito said he and Masters would be on the same page on Sunday, and that everyone should congratulate him now on his title win.

- Michael Cole began to talk about Booker T, when Sharmell came out to the podium. She said that Teddy Long, Michael Cole and everyone else were in cahoots against Booker T, and then brought out her husband. Booker joked that he had a prepared statement, but decided against reading it. Booker said he had no problem facing the Boogeyman, but Teddy Long tricked him by putting Sharmell in the match. Booker said Sharmell was not a wrestler, and that he would do whatever has to in order to protect his wife. Booker then said he would sue Teddy Long, the WWE, and even the fans if anything happens to Sharmell on Sunday. Booker then teased his "Can you dig that" line, but instead of saying "Sucka" he said "Thank you very much" and left the podium.