Welcome, everyone, to TPWW.net for today's edition of the news and rumors. As always, thanks for stopping by today. There is a great deal of news in the wrestling world today, and as always, I'll try my best to cover everything that needs to be covered. So without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
Raw was a pretty good show last night. The main event was "tremendous" (Cyrus and Ry are influencing me too much), as you could just feel the electricity and excitement in the match, as well as Triple H's return at the end of the show. The show's undercard was also definitely good stuff. You gotta love Edge & Christian. The Dudley parents stuff was hilarious. Plus, we saw a little of that old "WWF Attitude" with the Dean Malenko/Lita segments. In a way, the WWF's ratings being down is a good thing. This makes for better TV for the loyal viewers who are still watching each week. Instead of sitting back in cruise control, the WWF now has to work hard to put out a great show each week.
Triple H's return was also done very well last night and got a great crowd reaction. Personally, I think it would have been better to just keep him off TV after he was "dropped" from the car. It would have been much more realistic and would have added to his heat with Austin, plus would have made his return seem a lot more important. The WWF is probably thinking the same, but whaddya gonna do? Anyone else notice Triple H's new theme music? I personally liked the last one he had better, but I guess this will have to grow on me. For all you theme music fans, I'd expect the theme to be on WWF The Music Volume 5 in February.
TPWW's own "The Ref" was in attendance at last night's Raw, and sent along notes on the off-camera happenings on the show, including a dark match and the weekly Jakked/Metal Tapings. To check out the report, click HERE.
For those who checked out yesterday's Raw is War preview on the Internet, you may have noticed that a steel cage match between Billy Gunn and Val Venis was being promoted. However, on the actual show, it was changed to a lumberjack match. The reason for the change, believe it or not, was because the WWF simply... forgot to bring the cage. Definitely uncharacteristic of the WWF, but hey, we all make mistakes. There is a rumor that the cage match may take place on the Royal Rumble.
Was anyone else surprised to see Chris Jericho actually get a PINFALL over Chris Benoit on Raw? Whoa! That makes Chris Jericho's record in the last few months... 2 wins (?)... and 87 losses. Wait, I guess it doesn't count, though, since it wasn't a singles match. Oh well. Anyway, it appears that we will see a singles match between the two at the Royal Rumble, but that isn't confirmed just yet.
This Thursday on Smackdown, a match will take place featuring The Rock vs. The Undertaker vs. Kane vs. Rikishi. As mentioned on Raw, the winner of the match will get the coveted #30 spot in the Royal Rumble.
Since Stone Cold Steve Austin came up empty handed in his match against Kurt Angle last night on Raw, January of last year remains the last time that the WWF World Title changed hands on Raw is War.
Did it PISS anyone else off when Jim Ross said that no one else knows more suplexes than Kurt Angle? UGHHH, are they INTENTIONALLY trying to bury Tazz?! It's bad enough that they take away his suplexes (and his in-ring time altogether), but now they rub it in! Remember the angle a few months ago where Tazz "wanted out" of the WWF? Does anyone else wish that would really happen?
Anyway, now that I've calmed down a BIT... Tazz is scheduled to be on the Craig Kilborn show sometime this week. Thanks to Mike for sending word that Kilborn has been promoting an appearance by the Human SUPLEX Machine this week. By the way, as you probably noticed, Tazz was once again not on Raw last night. Great.
As announced on Raw last night, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler will in fact be doing commentary for XFL games starting February (it's closer than we think!). Jim Ross has had past experience announcing football games, as he has done a few Atlanta Falcons games over the radio in the past.
Moving on to this week's ratings, Raw scored only a 4.8 rating this week, off hours of 4.3 and 5.3, which has to be disappointing, considering there were no holidays to blame, plus there was no Monday Night Football. As for WCW Nitro, they scored a below average 2.1 rating, but I guess that can somewhat be expected, since they've been off the air the last two weeks. As for weekend ratings, Heat scored an above average (on MTV) 2.1 rating, while Livewire and Superstars scored a 1.2 and 0.9, respectively.
The WWF and MTV will start a "reality" series this summer in hope of finding the next big WWF superstar. The following is the description of the new show, from the WWF themselves: "MTV and the World Wrestling Federation are seeking talented, charismatic male and female athletes to become the next stars of Professional Wrestling. Finalists will be selected to be regulars on a new MTV reality-based television series to document the discovery and creation of the next male and female World Wrestling Federation Superstars. World Wrestling Federation executives, trainers, and stars will coach and judge the finalists with two of those individuals (one male and one female) ultimately being awarded talent development contracts with the World Wrestling Federation!" For more information, including how you can apply, check out WWFToughEnough.com.
The WWF has launched a special web site for their European Champion, the WWF's Goodwill Embassador, William Regal. The site includes photos, videos, and even a William Regal dictionary. Examples: "BESMIRCH: To insult one's reputation." "JOLLY GOOD: Very good." To check it out, click HERE.
As mentioned last night on Raw, "WWF Raw is War" by THQ will be one of the launch games for Microsoft's new video game system, Xbox. To check out an article on the system by TPWWGames's Tim Brechlin, click HERE. Also, for more info on Xbox and their alliance with The Rock, check out Travis Reed's article HERE.
Moving on to WCW news, there are several rumors that WCW was already sold sometime yesterday. However, as of now, it appears that those rumors as false and come due to the fact that Kevin Nash jokingly said that WCW had been bought out by Eric Bischoff yesterday on a recent edition of WCW.com's "WCW Live!" audio show. As of now, all signs point to Bischoff actually purchasing the company, but for now, it hasn't happened yet.
In an even more intriguing story, according to Wade Keller, Time Warner has given Brad Siegel a final date of March 30 to sell WCW. What happens if a sale is not reached by then? Well, as unbelievable as this may sound, Time Warner has apparently ordered Brad Siegel to "shut down" the company. This comes due to the fact that WCW lost a reported $90 million last year. Honestly, I don't know if the "deadline" story is completely true, but I guess we'll have to just wait and see.
In another interesting story, Jerry Lynn was apparently backstage at WCW Nitro last night. Apparently his talks with the WWF aren't going as well as expected, but of course, that could change.
Does Ric Flair annoy anyone else when he comes out on WCW television and spouts out a bunch of BS? Two examples from last night on Nitro: "We all know that the Vikings are going to beat the Giants next week!" Smooth move, Ric. Way to get face heat. And, "WCW is the greatest company in the world right now!" Although we still watch WCW each week, your fans are not morons. As mentioned last night on Nitro, Nitro will once AGAIN be pre-empted on Monday, January 22nd. However, this time it will air the following night, Tuesday.
For those tuning in to see Glacier return last night on Nitro (I'm sure there were many of you), as you probably noticed, he wasn't at the show. Apparently, according to WCW Live, WCW has decided to hold out on debuting Glacier for now.
In some news that should anger a few people out there, WCW has released the lovely Pamela Paulshock, according to Dave Meltzer. Noooo.
Rob Van Dam recently commented on his status with ECW on his web site, RobVanDam.com. There were several notes of interest from the commentary, including RVD confirming that his return to ECW at Sunday's PPV was only a "one time thing" and he is by no means back for good just yet. He stated that he would love to stay with ECW, but for now, he is keeping his other options open. He said that any deal with the WWF would take a while to do, and it would be hard to get with WCW now due to their potential sale coming up anytime now.
In another very interesting note, RVD stated that he thinks there is a chance that ECW will stop producing their weekly edition of Hardcore TV for now due to the fact that they lost their slot in New York on MSG. That's definitely a huge story there if it turns out to be true. This is definitely a desperate time for ECW and if things continue the way they are, as much as I HATE to say it, if they don't get a network deal soon, they could be in big trouble.
On a side note, as many of you may know, I was at Sunday's ECW PPV. The show was my fifth (I think) ECW show, and as always, it was amazing. The crowd was extremely hot as always, and we kept each other entertained by shouting profanities at each other while ECW set up for the next match. Fans in balcony: "Floor seats suck! Floor seats suck!" Floor seats: "You cheap f***s, you cheap f***s!" The pop that Rob Van Dam got was absolutely unbelievable. The crowd just totally exploded when his music hit. Big time mark-out moment, even if it was somewhat expected. ECW fans love RVD.
As some of you video game fanatics may have heard, there is currently an amazing wrestling game out called "Fire Pro Wrestling." However, here's the bad part... it's only being released in Japan. How can we solve this and get the game released in the US? Well, sign a petition of course! TPWW's own Tim Brechlin sent along the following message: "We here at TPWWGames.com have all become quite excited over the prospects of the new Fire Pro Wrestling game to be released on the Dreamcast in Japan in the future. Fire Pro Wrestling, for those who aren't aware, is an incredibly popular series of wrestling videogames that, until now, has only been available in Japan. We have just posted a petition on PetitionOnline.com for the newest title's release in the United States and Europe. If we get enough signatures, we'll send the petition to the makers of the Fire Pro Wrestling Series. What we need you to do is to sign this petition, tell your friends to sign it, tell your parents, your cousins, and your pets to sign it. We need anyone with a website or anyone who knows someone with a website to pass the link around, to spread awareness of this petition. You can use your real name, or if you don't want to give your real name out, an alias. Pass this link around, and with luck, we can make this work. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support! Click HERE to sign the petition!
And on the subject of petitions, my good bud Lindsay Anderson, who some of you may remember from ScotlandWWF.com, has started his own "Save Viscera" campaign. As some of you may know, Big Vis was recently released by the WWF, and Lindsay is looking to save him, with hope based on the success of the "Save the Blue Meanie" campaign a while back. To check out the Save Viscera campaign, click HERE!
And with that, it's just about time to wrap this baby up. Until next time, later!
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com