A lot has happened since last night. I figured it was better to
write about the latest situations now rather then during the weekend
when they may be considered old. This probably won't be a full report,
so yes, it will be short. Before beginning, for those of you who
missed Raw, you may read the results by clicking
here.
Sometime before Raw went on the air yesterday, Stone Cold Steve
Austin with Debra left the show out of protest. The story we know now
is Austin was booked in a match to wrestle Brock Lesnar. Though one
would expect the ending of the match was to have Lesnar win, there is
no official word how the match was originally booked to end. Austin
was not happy about something concerning the match, and possibly more
so, his overall character. Austin has been unhappy with the direction
of his character and the WWE overall. Austin took a hiatus the day
after WrestleMania out of protest and was off TV for two weeks. As
far as Austin's future goes, it is unclear when he will be back. From
what I understand, WWE will move on assuming he won't be back soon.
Steve Austin supposedly left Raw before Vince McMahon arrived, and
as a result of him unexpectedly leaving, most of the show last night
was rewritten. Brock Lesnar instead of wrestling Austin wrestled
Bubba Ray Dudley. The last match was then booked with Vince McMahon vs.
Ric Flair with the stipulation of the winner gaining 100% ownership
of WWE. According to various sources, that entire story was put
together last minute.
Many are saying Raw was awful last night due to the last minute
changes due to Austin's leaving. I disagree and despite the problems,
I didn't think it was a bad show. Watching the opening promo with
McMahon and Flair, to me, it came across as if the 100% ownership
thing was planned as a way to set future storylines. When McMahon
won the match, my first thought was, that this was to setup a new
storyline that would be entertaining. Now knowing it was all last
minute has me worried. Last night, the Raw wrestlers and Smackdown
wrestlers at a houseshow were told despite Vince McMahon "gaining"
100% ownership of WWE, the Raw and Smackdown rosters will remain
separate. Some wrestlers were worried that the individual pushes
would end if the rosters were once again to become one.
The plan right now is to keep the rosters separated, however, the
feeling backstage is that if the numbers for WWE (TV shows and house
show attendance, TV and PPV ratings, merchandise, etc) continue to
drop, then the rosters will rejoin. As of now, there is no plan to
rejoin the rosters, not yet at least.
Therehas been speculation that Austin leaving WWE may be nothing but
a work which will start a new storyline in which Austin being
disatisfied with WWE brings Eric Bischoff back with him. Right now,
those are ONLY rumors. Austin leaving Raw last night is definately
a shoot. Even though this is not necessarily true, if this for whatever
reason was a work, I'm sure WWE would have made it more obvious by
either showing Austin leaving in disgust or something similiar to
that nature.
According to 1Wrestling, X-Pac last night was at it again as far as
giving the writers a hard time. X-Pac was scheduled to wrestle on
both Heat and Raw, and he was not happy about having to wrestle
twice in one night. Scherer from 1Wrestling stated some WWE employees
who witnessed the conflict believed X-Pac was whining and that he
should have been punished somehow. Speaking of punishment, it is unclear
whether or not WWE will punish Austin in anyway for leaving Raw yesterday.
Raw scored a 4.2 overall rating last night, which is up from last
week's 4.1 number. This is the second week in a row that the Raw rating
has increased from the previous week. Though the increase is nothing
significant, it certainly is not disappointing. Just like with
WCW a few years ago, ratings don't increase overnight. However, WWE
I believe is yet to proove that they can consistently give a good show
each Monday and Thursday night.
In another mini tibit, Shawn Michaels apparantely had permission
from Vince McMahon to take a shot at the Rock last night. Michaels
stated that Rock has or is trying to keep Triple H down.
One funny thing I noticed, on Raw last night, there was a replay
of the Undertaker and Tommy Dreamer segment in the ring. Either JR or
Lawler stated that Undertaker did everyone a favorite by dumping the
bucket of puke on him. I didn't notice any sarcasm from that statement,
so assuming it wasn't, how is it a favor considering Undertaker dumped
the bucket of puke on Dreamer right in front of the announcer's table?
Anyways, I did say this would be a short report. We will still have
a full report this weekend as usual. For those interested in working
with TPWW, we are hiring columnist and results reporters. Originally,
the deadline was this Thursday, but it will probably be extended another
week. Speaking of open positions, our top ten writer and News and Rumors
fill-in Michael Blaszkowski wrote a very entertaining
Top Ten List
about the top ten things prospective columnist should know before
applying. Very funny I might add. Anyways, I'm looking to continue
my column, Mark My Words sometime this week, most likely concerning
the Steve Austin situation and what WWE should do. Until the weekend,
stay tuned to the TPWW Newsboard for anything new concerning
Stone Cold Steve Austin, and anything else that is wrestling. Later.
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