Hey Hey, I'm back on this lovely (actually, it's a dreary, rainy day here in New York) Thursday afternoon to bring you, the readers of TPWW.net, The People's News and Rumors.
Lots of news out there, and let's start off with belated ratings news from Monday's two shows. WWF Raw coming off a PPV, did a 6.9 with hours of 6.2 and an amazing 7.5 in their second hour. Raw peaked with an over run of a 8.4. While Nitro on the other hand received a rating of a 2.8 with hours of 3.0 and 2.6, peaking at the 8:45/9:00 quater hour with a 3.3. Thanks to Dave Scherer for those numbers.
Since Thunder aired last night, I'd think it would be wise if I start off the day with some WCW news, and there's definitely a fair share of that...
As the Cat announced last night on Thunder, Booker T would be defending his world title on Nitro against the man known the wrestling world over as Sting. WCW is at it again, delivering a PPV quality main event for Nitro, but that's not all... It has been announced that another PPV quality match up, between Scotty Steiner and Kevin "Big Sexy" Nash has been added to Nitro. For some reason or another, I doubt we'll be seeing a clean finish to either of these two big matches, as some outside force will definitely see it logical to get involved whether it's the likes of Goldberg in the Nash/Steiner match, or Jarrett (or even Vamp, Muta, and Demon) in the Sting/Booker T title match up.
It seems that in response to Goldberg's quasi shoot comments on Thunder last night concerning Kevin Nash during Bill's interview with Scott Hudson, WCW will giving Kevin Nash a live microphone on Nitro to hear Big Kev's rebuttal, according to Dave Scherer. Like the man or not, Kevin Nash is one of the best in WCW on the mic, and it's going to be far more than interesting to see what he'll say about one Bill Goldberg and his comments from Thunder.
Speaking of both Nash and Goldberg, if you've been watching Thunder the last two weeks, you've noticed that they've both had shoot interviews with Scott Hudson. Last night on WCW Live's Post Thunder show, Bob Ryder and Jeremy Borash announced that you can add to Vince Russo to that exclusive list of shooters on Thunder. Now if anything is a must watch on WCW TV, it might just be Russo's shoot comments, and WCW will be airing the interview next week on Thunder.
Dave Scherer reports that WCW's June PPV spectacular, Bash at the Beach, which saw not only Vince Russo's shocking comments on Hulk Hogan, but saw the dawning of a new day for WCW, as Booker T won the world title scored a buyrate in the area of .25 or .26. Still not up there with the WWF's over 1.0 numbers but still showing some signs of improvement.
WCW Canadian and Hardcore Champion, Lance Storm has updated his commentary at his website, StormWrestling.com... This week, Storm discusses a grueling 8 Day Road trip with WCW. As always, Lance provides some of the most interesting reads on the 'net when it pertains to wrestling, as it's always interesting to see something through the eyes of a wrestler, while most of the articles on the 'net are through the eyes of us, the fans.
On the topic of Lance Storm, WCW.com has an interesting poll concerning Lance Storm and the WCW United States/Canadian Heavyweight title, pertaining what they should do about Storm and the title. I voted for it, and if you're interested, I'd advise you to click HERE.
Speaking of polls, we here at TPWW.Net have a tremendous poll located on our main page, as it's one of our closest polls ever... It all pertains to the question, "What do you watch wrestling for the most?" Currently, Interesting Angles is slightly in the lead over Great Wrestling by about 100 votes. The concept of T&A; (Not Test and Albert) is in third place, while Entertaining Interviews/Promos is in last. If you haven't voted in the poll yet, what are you waiting for? After finishing today's News and Rumors, hit the back button on your browser, and vote in the TPWW.net Poll.
Moving onto some WWF news for today, and it's some literary news for all you book worms out there... WWF.com reports that Mike Foley's Christmas Chaos, Chyna's If they Only Knew, and Jim Ross along with several WWF Superstars bringing us The WWF Cookbook (Tenative Title: If you smell what the WWF is cooking), are all due out October 24th. Definitely a variety of books there with a Christmas book, a Cook book, and an autobiography. For more details, and the possibility of Foley writing another book on the wrestling business in general, Click HERE.
The greatest technical wrestler in the history of the World Wrestling Federation, Chris Benoit will be appearing on WWF.com's Byte This tonight at 6 PM. If you have a question or comment for Shane McMahon's good friend, send it to bytethis@wwf.com.
The WWF has opened WWFSummerSlam.com, and it's definitely a nice site, as it always seems that the WWF does something extra special for their PPV sites. It really doesn't have a whole lost of content right now, but it's definitely worth a look.
Fox's Guinness World Records program played the theme music of the Hardy Boys during one of the show's many record breaking attempts this week. Thanks to everyone (JSwoop, RockPuddles, BSB102, saland, and kingjobber) who sent in an email about that.
Even though Triple A plugged this site on Tuesday, I'd definitely
advise you check out WWFHoTrain.com. With its recent changes, the Godfather's website is now a site that will help all of us strengthen our moral well being. Thank you, Mr. Richards.
Don't expect to see Triple H in his wrestling gear tonight on Smackdown, as Dave Scherer reports that the Game is still hurting from his pinched sciatic nerve in his back. Doctors will examine Hunter before Monday to see if he'll be ok to wrestle on Raw.
Cable World Online reports that Viacom will be spending 8 Million Dollars in promoting the WWF's move to the MTV Networks (TNN and MTV). Of course the most important move would have to be Raw's move over from USA to TNN, which if not promoted enough could cost more than a few viewers on Monday come September. Nice to see Viacom is prepared to spend money on the World Wrestling Federation, while the only advertising for ECW seems to happen on the Nashville Network during the Friday Night Thrill Zone.
Finally, here's the non spoiler Smackdown! preview before I go...
- X Pac v. Steve Blackman for the WWF Hardcore Title
- The Hardy Boys v. Low Down
- Grandmaster Sexay v. Tazz
- Edge, Christian, and the Big Show v. The Dudleys and Kane
- Perry Saturn v. Crash Holly for the European title
- Chris Jericho and Lita v. Chris Benoit and Trish Stratus
- The Rock v. Kurt Angle
That's about it for today's edition of the People's News and Rumors... Couple of TPWW related plugs before I go, Jordan Redmond is back with both the Top Ten List and the Raw Report Card, while The Ref has returned with another edition of 3rd Man in the Ring. Only one word can describe these updates - "tremendous". Also some guy named Ry has returned with the Thunder Report Card, check that out if you must :). So until next time, Ciao...
Big Ry
BIGRY214@aol.com