Hello and welcome to the post RAW edition of the news and rumors here
at TPWW. I'm in somewhat of a hurry, so lets get to the report.
I thought Raw was a good show last night, with most of the matches
being good, and some solid storyline development. Unlike others out
there, I liked the nWo attack on Kane backstage and the segment
with the removal of his mask. It is a shame though the nWo suffers
another blow with this time Nash being sidelined due to his recent
bicep surgery (which explains why he was suspended). The Rob Van Dam
and Undertaker match was allright, but got really good towards the
end with all the attempted pin falls with RVD kicking out of almost all
of them. This match allowed RVD to lose without making him look bad and
also further establishes his feud with the returning Eddie Guerrero.
Paul Heyman's promo was great and further established Brock Lesnar; I
am still anticipating his first match however. Even Spike Dudley
defeating William Regal for the European Title was a nice segment. I
liked the show, and as I stand now (seeing two Raws and one Smackdown),
the Raw brand is my favorite out of the two.
With Kevin Nash expected to be out for the next 3-4 months rehabbing
from his recent bicep surgery, he has been "susepended indefinately"
without pay for storyline purposes. Though it seemed silly for Flair to
suspend Nash and not X-Pac or Scott Hall, it explains Nash's absense.
I would expect by the time Nash returns, the nWo will most likely be
no more, and Nash will return as a babyface (again, only my guess).
The main event for Backlash will indeed be Hulk Hogan vs. Triple H
for the WWF Title (now with the new title belt, I don't feel I need to call
it the Undisputed WWF Title anymore). Stone Cold Steve Austin will therefore
take on The Undertaker at Backlash to therefore determine the number
one contender for the WWF title following Backlash. The Austin or Taker
vs. Hogan or Triple H match will either take place at King of The Ring
or either on Raw or Smackdown (depending on the wrestlers I guess).
Speaking of Triple H, he was backstage at Raw last night, but there
was no spot for him on the show. I have a feeling similiar incidents
will happen with the WWF champion in the future. For example, with
Triple H feuding with Hulk Hogan, is there really any need for him to
be on Raw? I'm not suggesting Triple H won't be at Raw again before
Backlash, but if you see my point, it sort of makes you think what
the champion does on "Show A" when he is feuding with a wrestler from
"Show B."
It seems The Rock will be taking more time off from the WWF, and may
even miss Backlash. I haven't heard any reliable amount of time he
may be gone, but early rumors suggest he may be gone until May or June.
Obviously this has do to with his movie coming out on Friday, other
promotional appearances, and what have you. With him being out until
possibly May or June (which I hope is not the case), I'm not sure
what else he is doing for that amount of time. More information to
come as it comes.
The Rock appearared on Regis and Kelly this morning. I won't really
recap the inverview, but point out one main highlight. When asked if
he prefers Hollywood over wrestling or vise versa, The Rock mentioned
he would not choose one career over the other. Instead he would balance
the two careers out. Great indication (and not the first) that we will
be seeing many situations in years to come where Rock takes "time off"
for filming purposes.
The Pro Wrestling Torch website
is reporting a story about how Bret Hart will be appearaing on
ABC's "Contact: Talking to the Dead." The title explains the entire
show, and the show is being promoted that Bret will try to communicate
with Helan and Owen. Rather then offending any of our readers, I will
not give my opinion or add further comment about this. More information
at Zap2It.com.
Ratings news for Raw, the show scored a 4.8 rating off of hours of 4.5
and 5.0. Those are the same numbers as last week's.
Former WCW wrestler/valet Daphney will be tryingout for the WWF
on April 20th. She currently wrestles for Dusty Rhode's TCW promotion.
Jason Sugarman and Miss Galaxy Kim Nielsen, both
TCW wrestlers are rumored to eventually tryout for the WWF as well.
For the most part, I like how the WWF is pushing Kane. I was one
of those marks a few years back that wanted to see Kane unmasked, but
I now agree with the majority of the Internet Wrestling community. If
he was unmasked, it would take away his gimmick. I understand his
gimmick a few years ago was that parts of his body were burned as well,
but if he was to be unmasked, he really wouldn't be any different
from any other wrestler. While I like that they are trying to add a
more human side to Kane, I'm not sure if him looking at a Diva's
magazine exactly fits.
And Finally... Did anyone see Goldberg on The Best Damn Sports
Show Period on Fox Sports Net last night? Pretty good stuff lol,
wouldn't surprise me if he became one of the "regulars" on the show.
Why am I not looking as forward to The Rock's SNL appearance like I
did two years ago? Going back to the Kane issue, when he was unmasked,
Jim Ross mentioned that never happened before. I remember him being
unmasked twice; once by Vince, and definately one other time (maybe
two times) from the Undertaker.
If you have e-mailed me anytime on Monday night and afterwards,
you most likely have not gotten any response from me yet. At this
moment (Tuesday night) my e-mail is down and I am unable to check it.
Worse yet, tomorrow immediately after class my team has a tennis
meet that's nearly if not an hour in a half away. I most likely won't
be home until 7:30 or 8:00 tomorrow night, and by then, I'm not sure
if I will even come online. Please wait patiently for me to respond,
as I will do my best to answer e-mails possibly tomorrow night or
sometime on Thursday.
That's it for now. Moonax told me last night he was planning on
doing a report this week sometime, whether he does or not, I return
this weekend with another update. Oh one more thing, TPWW has a new
top ten columnist, so I would like to welcome "three Punk" Mike to
the site. His first top ten list is the bad aspects of Internet Wrestling.
Sounds ironic but it's a great read and you'll understand what he means
once you read it. If you're interested, you do so by clicking
here. Now with
that said, I got nothing else to say, except... until next time.
