Big RAW Match Revealed, Dupree Signs 5 Year Deal, SmackDown!, & More

WWE.com has announced that Edge will be taking on Ric Flair Monday night at RAW in Rochester, NY. The last big match between the two on RAW, back in January in a TLC match, was one of the most watched RAW matches of the past few years.

Thursday night's edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown! did a fast national rating of 2.4. The show was pre-empted by sports in many large markets last night, so this number might not be very accurate for how many people were watching SmackDown. For those unaware, the fast national rating attributes the audiences who were watching UPN in the usual SmackDown slot into the SmackDown fast national rating. Many of these people were actually watching a baseball game, in the markets where the show was pre-empted, last night. The final SmackDown rating, when released, will take into account the pre-empted markets where SmackDown was not airing. WrestleView will have the final rating as soon as it becomes available.

Times and Transcript, the newspaper in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada had a large article in their Sports section today about Rene Dupree. Dupree is from nearby Pointe-du-Chene. The article mentioned that he has been recovering from a hernia for the past 9 months and working for his father's independent wrestling company, Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling (his younger brother Jeff also has been working there). The article went on to mention that Dupree recently signed a new 5 year contract with WWE.

Mike Barton (known to wrestling fans as Bart Gunn), who was at one time WWF Tag Team Champions alongside Billy Gunn (no real relation) as the Smoking Gunns, is fighting tonight in Hilo, Hawaii. He'll be fighting Wes "Cabbage" Correira at BJ Penn's Rumble On The Rock show.