Hey yo... (Haven't said that in a while, huh?) Welcome to today's edition of the news and rumors here at TPWW.net. First off, major props go out to Corey Silvia for doing an awesome job with the N&R; the last couple of days. He'll be your N&R; party host here at TPWW every Sunday from now on and quite possibly any other random days. With that said, there's a lot to discuss today, ranging from wrestling news to site news. So without further delay, here are today's news... and rumors.
The Monday night ratings were definitely somewhat surprising this week, although not shocking, as Nitro decreased the ratings gap, scoring a 3.2 rating off hours of 3.4 and 2.9, compared to Raw's 5.8 rating, which came off hours of 5.3 and 6.3. This is the closest WCW has been in the ratings since November 22, 1999, where they scored a 3.4 to Raw's 5.5. This is definitely a huge accomplishment by WCW, considering this is the closest they've been in the ratings since almost ten months ago. But of course, this is nothing to go crazy about, unless the ratings remain consistent or even get closer for Nitro.
For those wondering, this week's Monday Night Football scored a big 13.9 overnight rating.
Tazz's promo this past Monday on Raw was definitely an interesting and somewhat confusing one, where he stated that he was "just another victim" to the WWF's politics. The promo, for anyone who is unsure, was a work (angle), and Tazz is expected back on Thursday's airing of WWF Smackdown.
Steven Regal was backstage at Raw this past Monday, but due to time constraints, was not used. Regal was expected to cut a "snobbish" promo, where he would teach the crowd proper etiquette. Due to the fact that the segment did not air on Monday's Raw, Regal will do the promo on this Thursday's Smackdown program.
We have three complete reports of the WWF Smackdown and Sunday Night Heat tapings posted on the site for anyone who is interested. You can check out all three reports, from three separate people in attendance, at our newsboard.
Eddie Guerrero taped vignettes at the Playboy mansion yesterday, which will also air this Thursday on Smackdown. In the vignettes, Guerrero is seen attempting to break into the mansion to prevent Hugh Heffner from releasing Chyna's Playboy photos. The WWF will add the Chyna Playboy shoot as a factor in the Eddie/Chyna angle, obviously in hopes of greatly boosting the magazine's sales, which it almost definitely will.
An audio version of Mick Foley's best selling book, "Have a Nice Day!" will be released on September 19. A paperback edition of the book is also scheduled for release on October 3. Also scheduled for paperback release is the Rock's book, "The Rock Says," which will be out in paperback on November 7.
Staying on the subject of Foley, the WWF has given the commish's official website a brand spankin' new look, which you can check out HERE.
Ric Flair will appear on tonight's edition of WCW Thunder in a taped interview conducted by Mike Tenay. Flair was obviously greatly over with the crowd this past Monday on Nitro and it's definitely good to have him back. However, he is not yet cleared to wrestle, but should be sometime in early November.
Speaking of Ric Flair and son, David, the question everyone has been asking as of late is "who's the daddy?" My guess is definitely Scott Steiner... Actually, I'm going to go with the obvious angle, which is picking Ric Flair as the father of the baby, as has been rumored for weeks. But hey, Russo could completely swerve us all and have someone else as the father, fooling us all. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.
Here's what you can expect for tonight's edition of WCW Thunder:
- Jindrak & O'Haire vs. Disco & Tygress
- Segment: Mike Awesome's Lava Lamp Lounge
- Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett - 2/3 falls
- Franchise & Torrie vs. Kidman & Madusa
- Interview: Ric Flair by Mike Tenay
- Juvi & Rey vs. Kronic vs. Harris Bros
- Storm & Skipper vs. General Rection & Jim Duggan
- Nash & Steiner vs. Booker T & The Cat
As you may have noticed by the above, Billy Kidman has been cleared to return to the ring and is back in action after suffering a fractured larynx during his match with Shane Douglas at WCW's last PPV, according to Bob Ryder, where he was hung by a strap by the Franchise.
Shawn Stasiak should also be cleared to return to the ring sometime before WCW's tour of Australia, which begins October 7 in Brisbane with a WCW Nitro taping. Stasiak has been out of action with an injured knee.
Goldberg once again slightly injured his arm this past Monday on Nitro at the end of the show when he broke free from Mike Awesome's bus. When he broke free from the bus, a piece of it broke off and apparently cut Goldberg on the hand. I'd imagine he isn't expected to miss any action due to it.
This past Friday's ECW on TNN did a 1.0 rating. Decent, I suppose.
It has been officially confirmed that starting next year, ECW will do a PPV each month. That's definitely great news for both ECW fans and ECW as a company. I, for one, am definitely looking forward to it.
As you can tell from the TOTAL half-assedocity of the last few paragraphs, it's just about time to wrap this one up. But before I go, I'll leave everyone with good news and hopefully something extra to look forward to here at TPWW. I officially registered the domain, "TPWWGames.com" last night, which of course, will be used for our all new wrestling video game themed website, which we are working on completing as we speak. I'm definitely excited about it and I'm sure you guys will enjoy it, judging from the responses I've received thusfar. And with that said, this report has come to a close. For some reason I'm at a loss of words, since my vocabulary has seemingly shrunk in the last few paragraphs so before I make even more of a fool of myself (see how sloppy that sounded?)... LATER!
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com