Judgment Day, of course, took place last night and as I stated in last night's coverage, I thought it was excellent. Every match in the undercard seemed to have the crowd going, and each one was entertaining in its own way. The opener between Too Cool, Kurt Angle, etc, had the crowd probably pumped the most, keeping in mind that it was the opening match of the night and the crowd's energy hadn't been drained yet. I thought the Submission match between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit was one of the best of the night, which had a lot of great back and forth action. The crowd really didn't seem to be into the tables match as much as I thought they would be, but the WWF deserves that for officially turning the Dudleys face. Why not just keep them as heels and let them get face pops, rather than turn them "officially" face? The crowd was rather quiet during the European Radicals Triple Threat match, but that's to be expected when Malenko and Saturn are given no characteristics / mic time in the WWF. The Big Show vs. Shane McMahon match was also very interesting, and had an interesting ending with a big speaker falling on the Big Show's leg to set up an excuse for his legitimate knee injury (more on that later). And of course, we had the Iron Man Match main event, and judging from the responses I have heard so far, everyone thought that it lived past its expectations. It was definitely an entertaining match and surely had everyone on the edge of their seat. The Undertaker's appearance at the end of the pay per view was just the icing on the cake, as the Phenom finally returned after several months of absence, with a new "biker" look, riding a motorcycle, and wearing a bandana over his head. Shawn Michaels did not specifically favor Triple H, as he was simply chased backstage by the Undertaker after he made the decision. Overall, I think the pay per view definitely deserves an A in the grade books.
Our latest poll on the main page asks what you thought of Judgment Day and as of the time I'm typing this, most fans seem to agree that the pay per view was a good one. The results so far are as follows:
- Best PPV of the year 25%
- Excellent 44%
- Decent 21%
- Horrible 4%
- Worst PPV of the year 4%
Several reports indicate the the end of the main event last night was somewhat messed up. The plan apparently was to have the Undertaker tombstone Triple H before time ran out, and for Shawn Michaels to make the decision to award the fall to Triple H just a couple of seconds before time ran out. The decision was off by a few seconds, and was made after the sixty minutes were up. Nonetheless, it was recently mentioned on WWF.com that in an interview with Michael Cole, Shawn Michaels explained why he made the decision. He stated that he saw The Undertaker chokeslam Triple H with about two seconds left, so technically, it was a disqualification.
There are a few injuries to talk about coming out of the pay per view. Firstly, the Rock suffered a minor hyperextended knee. He is still expected to be at tonight's Raw, but most likely will not wrestle due to the injury, which shouldn't keep him out of action for long.
As aforementioned, The Big Show will be taking some time off to heel a torn meniscus in his knee. The Big Show will reportedly undergo arthroscopic surgery on the injured knee, which could keep him out of action for as long as six to eight weeks. However, the WWF is hoping to have him back in time for King of the Ring, which is just under four weeks away, coming to us on June 25 from Boston.
Both Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn were also feeling sick at last night's event, according to several reports. Chris Benoit apparently was sick with the flu all week, while Saturn was hospitalized on Saturday for a case of food poisoning.
Judgment Day received a gate of over $600,000 in Louisville last night, according to Dave Meltzer.
Statman015 sent along these live notes from last night's event:
- The two beer men that Brisco beat up were wrestlers from Ohio Valley Wrestling.
- Crash Holly was walking around in the halls before the show signing autographs and meeting WWF fans.
- The Iron Man Match was much better than I expected it to be. Both the Rock and Triple H deserved a standing ovation.
- After the show went off air, Rock's music hit while his fans chanted.
DougyD sent this interesting tidbit from last night's PPV: "Some friends and I were at Judgement Day last night in Louisville, thought I'd send along a few notes you may not get from anywhere else. During the main event, when Rock and HHH went into the crowd, a fan grabbed ahold of Rock, and Rock proceeded to toss him a couple rows deep into the seats. I'm not sure if this got on camera or not... But, what I KNOW didn't get on camera, when the fan that Rock pushed landed, he landed on or near a small child (age 5-7), and apparently either by contact with the fan or by getting caught up in the chairs that fell, the child's leg was severly injured, possibly broken. Through the second half of the main event, people were standing up on this side of the arena (which is the "camera side", the side the camera usually focus most on, or the part that is behind the wrestlers when they do in-ring interviews), looking at the kid, losing focus on the match. I believe the fan that approached Rock and was thrown was taken out of the arena, as was the small child who was taken out with a brace on his new, carried by paramedics. It took them a good 10-15 minutes to get him out of there, as they were very careful moving his leg, and I would be willing to bet it was broken, as the kid was absolutely bawling in tears, and a heavy brace was placed on his leg. Hopefully this will not turn into a big ordeal... but one way or another, I smmmelllllalalala... a lawsuit... be it against the fan who was pushed, or against the WWF. Personally, I think the fan is at fault here, because he did approach and grab the Rock, and I believe once this occurs the wrestler has the authority to do as he pleases to protect himself from the fan."
Here is a little of what you can expect for Raw is War tonight:
- Vince McMahon will give his thoughts on the PPV and the Undertaker
- Chris Benoit vs. Val Venis - Intercontinental Title
- Eddie Guerrero vs. D'Lo Brown - European Title
- The Dudleys vs. Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan
- The Godfather & Essa Rios vs. Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko
- The Hardys vs. T&A;
- Gerald Brisco's Hardcore title still on the line 24/7.
- Too Cool & Rikishi vs. Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian
And of course, WCW brings to us, WCW Nitro tonight at a special time of 7-9PM ET, due to the NBA playoffs. Vince Russo has promised to strip Ric Flair of his WCW World Title and hold a "funeral for Ric Flair's career." Also, Terry Funk has promised a major career announcement, which will most likely be his retirement. Also, the Cat will take on Booker T in a Weapons Match, and Mike Awesome will take on The Wall in a "Table vs. Ambulance Match." It should be a good night of wrestling tonight.
Bret Hart was recently interviewed by Alex Marvez, and revealed a few interesting notes on his current status. Hart stated that he won't be cleared to start training again until at the earliest, July. Hart has not been able to work out at all recently due to doctor's orders. Hart also stated that due to his injury, his pay was cut in half, as a rule stands in WCW. He is currently out with a severe concussion, which he suffered at the hands of a stiff kick by Goldberg earlier this year. Hart also stated in his recent column that he has not been feeling well at all lately. He stated that he has not been watching wrestling, and is emotionally drained at the unfortunate loss of his brother Owen almost a year ago.
Ryan Marchetti sent the following as a tribute to Owen Hart, who tragically died on May 23rd of last year: "The sole purpose of this e-mail is to inform you of something that I think that should be started in the so called 'Wrestling Community.' It's a remembrance of Owen Hart. Since the anniversary of his death is coming up, my fellow hicks and I in Southern Illinois are going to wear a pin type deal on our shirt on the 23rd. I'd like to spread this to the rest of North America, and I am hoping that you can perhaps mention it on TPWW.net due to its popularity. Thanks a million."
Thanks to Ray for sending this in: "Diamond Dallas Page was featured on "More Than A Game," a weekly syndicated sports show CBS. The whole clip on him focused on him stressing the importance of reading. In it, he revealed that he was dyslexic (I didn't know this because I don't follow WCW wrestlers as well). Apparently this is important to him since he donates some of his money to school's libraries so they can build their collections. Some kids were interviewed on this topic and how cool it was to meet DDP. Even his wife Kimberley was interviewed. I especially liked it when he said kids walk up to him and ask him how's wrestling. In response, he asks them how's school. Yet another cool interview to kill stereotypes about wrestlers only being strong men with no brains and morals."
I recently contacted Channel 5 in the United Kingdom to question if they had any plans to air WCW programming in the future in the United Kingdom, now that several UK viewers have lost their ability to view WCW. I received the following reply: "We have spoken to the Controller of Acquisitions at Channel 5 regarding the possible extension of our wrestling coverage. He has confirmed that we will be continuing with the one hour WCW Worldwide programme for the foreseeable future, and that we may consider acquiring another wrestling event in the forthcoming months. We cannot be more specific regarding these details at present." I have heard rumors that there are plans for some channel to purchase the rights to air WCW programming in the UK in the near future. Whether it will be channel 5 or not is not known at this time. I'll try to keep our UK readers updated on this situation.
Just a little something both myself and Ry have been thinking... Now that The Artist formerly known as Prince has changed his name simply back to "Prince," what's going to happen with the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea?
As Tim touched on in yesterday's report, Raven has been offered his release from ECW, but has not replied to it as of yet. As the story goes, Raven is open about the reason he is wrestling in ECW, which is simply to ride out his no compete clause by WCW, which stated that he could not wrestle in the WWF after a certain period of time after he was given his WCW release. Paul Heyman still signed Raven, knowing he would look to go off to the WWF later on. However, rumors are that Heyman has not been pleased at all with Raven's effort and work rate. Raven's physical condition has noticeably downgraded during his ECW stint, which has hurt his ability to work, something that ECW is built on. Raven is obviously one of the most popular wrestlers in ECW, and although his leaving won't absolutely kill ECW, it has to hurt them a bit with all the recent defections. Taz, Mike Awesome, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lance Storm, The Dudleys, and probably more that I forgot to mention have all left ECW, and I don't know about everyone else, but I honestly liked ECW a lot more back when these wrestlers were with the company, specifically Taz and the Dudleys. Stay tuned for more updates on this situation.
Hey, I promised that myself and Ry would give our Judgment Day predictions, didn't I? Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to post them yesterday, but I figured, what the hell, I'll post them now. So, without further ado, here are my, Ry's, and Tim's predictions for Judgment Day, which (just to be sure) were made BEFORE the actual PPV:
- AAA: The Rock d. HHH, Benoit d. Jericho, Guerrero d. Saturn/Malenko, Dudleys d. Outlaws, Shane d. Big Show, Too Cool & Rikishi d. Angle/Edge & Christian.Mwahahaha, choke on that, Ry.- Tim: The Rock d. HHH, Benoit d. Jericho, Saturn d. Guerrero/Malenko, Outlaws d. Dudleys, Shane d. Big Show, Too Cool & Rikishi d. Angle/Edge & Christian.
- Ry: The Rock d. HHH, Benoit d. Jericho, Guerrero d. Saturn/Malenko, Dudleys d. Outlaws, Big Show d. Shane, Angle/Edge & Christian d. Too Cool & Rikishi.
AAA: 4/6
Tim: 4/6
Ry: 2/6
Speaking of predictions, how about those New York Knicks? :-)
And that wraps it up for today's report. Stop by tomorrow for more news, rumors, updates, etc. Also, I've finally added Jeff Jarrett's and Terry Funk's themes to the Entrance Themes section, for those who didn't notice on the main page. Also, feel free to discuss the PPV with other wrestling fans at our Message Board/Forum. Adam Kirk is also back with another great edition of his column, Nevermore, with thoughts on Judgment Day, Lance Storm, and more. Until next time, enjoy Raw and/or Nitro.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com