Hello everyone and welcome back to TPWW for the post WrestleMania and
RAW edition of the news and rumors. Anyways, I got nothing special to
include in this intro, so it's on to the news and rumors.
WrestleMania is now days behind us, with RAW not too far behind.
Judging from the reaction I've seen, most believe WrestleMania was a
good show, but not as good as last years. Moving onto RAW, it was
announced the WWF would have a "brand extention" with splitting the
rosters on next week's RAW, Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon will
challenge Triple H in a handicap match for the undisputed title,
with the stipulation being if Hunter pins Steph, then she leaves the
WWF. WWF developmental wrestler Brock Lesnar made his debut with Paul
Heyman most likely as his manager, while finally The Rock and Hogan
teamed up vs. the nWo since Hogan is no longer part of that group.
As far as ratings go, the RAW rating increased a lot since last week
scoring a 5.3 rating off the hours of a 5.2 and a 5.4. That is the
highest rating RAW scored since the mid summer.
Starting off with one of the biggest stories that hit the Internet
recently is Stone Cold Steve Austin and the WWF situation. The situation
as I last understood it was that Austin and Debra left after WrestleMania
to go back to their home in Texas. The story goes that Austin is
unhappy with the direction of the WWF and his character alltogether.
It is rumored that Austin originally was to lose to Scott Hall at
WrestleMania by interfearance from Vince McMahonbut refused to job to him alltogether causing a last
minute change in plans. Austin then left after the show, and therefore
was not on RAW and the last I heard would not be at the Smackdown
tapings either. The WWF right now from what I understand is doing
what they can do "downplay" this current situation and whether or not
the relationship between the two sides is any better, it is expected
that Austin will be on RAW this Monday night.
The next night on RAW when Linda announced the board of directors
voted to split the roster, the announcement was made with the
assumption that Vince McMahon did interfear in the Austin and Hall
match the night before, even though that did not happen. That is why
the announcement made little sense that the board would change their
mind, because Vince actually did NOT do anything at WrestleMania, so
why would the directors need to change their minds?
Right now the latest rumors suggest that The Undertaker may be the next
challenger for the WWF Undisputed Championship at Backlash. Assuming Triple H
wins his match with Jericho and Stephanie this Monday night, then I
guess that means we will see some buildup towards a Triple H and
Undertaker feud in the coming weeks.
At this time it is rumored that the WWF has not finalized which wrestlers
will be on which roster for this Monday night's draft. Ok whatever, that
comes kind of as a surprise to me since the WWF has been planning "so
much" time into this split especially with all the delays in it and
they still don't know which f*cking wrestler will be on which roster.
I can say a lot more, but I will just end it here.
Despite all the boos The Rock recieved at WrestleMania and RAW, there
never were any plans to turn him heel. The plan for now at least is
for The Rock to stay as a face. One of the main reasons is with his
new movie coming to theaters soon, it would be better publicity for him
as a face as oppossed to being a heel.
The WWF either yesterday or today sent out a press release concerning
the new WWF Niagara Falls facility. The press released stated there
will be an attraction called "The Pile Driver" which will shoot up
220 feet in the air and drop back down really fast. There will be a
two foot exhibit area for merchandise, interactive displays, and much
more. It sounds like an awesome park and it will be opening this
spring. For more information, you can read the press release from
Yahoo.com.
Another press release from the WWF today was that Sunday's WrestleMania
X8 from the Skydome in Toronto, Canada generated the company's
highest grossing live event in history. 68,237 filled the arena
making a gross receipts of approximately 3.9 million dollars (US currency).
Over 100,000 people attended the PPV event and Axxess combined during
WrestleMania weekend. Those obviously are very high numbers for the
WWF and definately is a good thing.
The WWF has decided to give Val Venis a name change. It isn't anything
too different from what he has now, as he will be using the name
The Big Valbowski for now on.
Talks between the WWF and represenatives of Scott Steiner are not dead.
Health is still a big concern for the WWF regarding Steiner and the
two sides will eventually talk once again.
Eric Bischoff's name is back in the rumormill, as it is rumored he
is interested in going to the WWF. In a recent interview of his, he
claims that he was not in shape when offered a WWF contract. The story
that I originally was told was that Biscoff was offered a deal but was
to job to Vince McMahon at Invasion. He apparantely wasn't interested
in doing that so he never agreed to it.
The Wrestling Observer newsletter is reporting that both Both Eddie Guerrero
and Rey Misterio Jr. have been in contact with the WWF as of late. The
latest is that they both will be hired (rehired for Eddie's case) once
the WWF (re)starts the cruiserweight division.
It seems apparant that Hulk Hogan will stay as a babyface now. Many
believed his work at WrestleMania was an nWo setup, to turn back that
night or the next night on RAW. That didn't happen as we saw. I suppose
Hogan going back to the nWo as part of a long term plan isn't out of
the question though. There are still rumors X-Pac could be another member
of the nWo, but that remains to be seen. Either X-Pac will return in
the nWo or part of the new cruiserweight division that the WWF wants
to start (formely the lightweight division) following the roster split.
I realize this report was late. Tuesday night I was not really in the
best of moods and it probably would have shown in this report. I thought
it would be better to wait one more night and I think this report turned
out pretty good. Anyways, that will do it for this report. Until the next report, please
continue to visit TPWW's newsboard for all the latest news and rumors
in the world of professional wrestling. I'm out, later.
Martin Hawrysko
Send feedback to Martin@tpww.net
AIM Screen Name: INGAME21
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