Hello and welcome to the returning edition of the news and rumors
report here at TPWW. I am aware it's been well over a week since I
last updated, but with all excuses aside, there are some important
events or happenings to catch up with which will take up much of this
report.
One of the biggest shocks last week was when WWE.com announced
the return of Vince Russo to the WWE's creative department. In the
past Russo stated he would not return to the then WWF unless he had
full control of the storylines (obviously full control under the
direction of Vince McMahon, because no one will have more authority
then he will). Later the next day, rumors went wild that Russo was
already demoted and that he may have quit the company. The story that
we believe to be true is that the other WWE writers did not like
Russo's creative ideas and went straight to Vince McMahon. McMahon
supposedly had second thoughts about Russo's role, and as far as we
know, Russo is playing the role of an "advisor" to the writing teams
of both Raw and Smackdown. Russo is still with the WWE. For those
wondering, there has been no suggestion that Russo will ever appear
on camera, nor should anyone count on it. However, with the Russo
character somewhat be familiar to the fans of the old WCW in its final
year, he always could be put on WWE TV.
In what turned out to be a huge surprise for those watching Raw
last week, The Rock made a return to the WWE in light of the situation
that took place with Stone Cold Steve Austin the week before. The Rock
made his appearance on Raw and at the King of The Ring, but it now
seems Rock will not return (assuming he is not on Smackdown this week)
until his originaly scheduled return, July 11th. Until then, The Rock
will continue to take time off before his return and then to eventually
start filming for the movie "Hellorado." For the record, though Rock
does return on July 11th, his return won't be that long as he has that
next movie to film.
Triple H will undergo elbow surgery sometime this week. The elbow
has been bothering him lately and at first, it was hoped he would be
able to work through it, but that is no longer the case. He will be
out of action for a few weeks, but should be able to wrestle by the
next Pay-Per-View.
The WWE held a press conference yesterday to investors concerning their
fourth
quarter financial numebers. The information is courtesy of
WWECorpBiz.com. To sum it all up, WWE is losing out, obviousy due to
the bad storyline progression, the Stone Cold Steve Austin situation
(though that is only a recent problem), competition, and more. One
fact that stands out is the price for Pay-Per-Views has increased while
the attendance for them has decreased.
Other news items that came from the news conference included the
status of Steve Austin and The Rock. Austin is currently suspended
for his conduct, which may sound silly since Austin is the one who chose to
leave himself. The Rock is splitting his time between WWE and his
movie career.
Supposedly, Vince McMahon was prepared to go back to using the WWF
initials in the event that the final appeal vs. the World Wildlife
Fund was won. This is the rumor even though the company has already
put a lot of time and money into the new WWE name. However, McMahon's
final appeal went nowhere, and the company will stay as WWE.
There are rumors circulating Kurt Angle may be portrayed as an
"old fashion" wrestler. The idea is to have him be the champion while
defending the belt against both faces and heels. I haven't heard too
much to believe that this will happen. This very well may be an idea
the WWE has for Angle eventually and not necessarily be the plan for
him at this time though.
For the most part, The Rock's behavior backstage at Raw was
positive. There were some weird reactions from certain individuals
claiming The Rock is "faking" his good attitude, while most believe he
has not let his new career get to his head.
The reason Shane McMahon maynot be backstage at WWE events at present
is because he too is unhappy with the direction of the company. There
are also suggestions that he too may not know exactly how to solve
the company's current problems. Just for the record, Shane still has
a big role with WWE as he is in charge of the company's media department.
Torrie Wilson may be involved in some "raunchy" segments as a result
of some heat that her soon to be husband Billy Kidman may have with WWE.
The rumor is that WWE wanted Kidman in a storyline with Wilson, but
had no interest in doing so.
Raven will still be part of WWE despite the stipulation that he will
not perform on Raw anymore since he lost his match to Tommy Dreamer.
He will supposedly wrestle exclusively for Sunday Night Heat. Just
a quick sidenote, when Mr. McMahon stated the loser of the Raven and
Dreamer match will not be on Raw anymore, how many of you figured he
would wrestle on Smackdown?
A few weeks back, X-Pac made a fuss backstage before Raw since he
did not want to wrestle on Heat. The reason it is believed he didn't
want to wrestle on Heat is because Michael Hayes is the writer of the
program. It has been revealed that X-Pac is the one that cut off Hayes'
hair and as a result of that, Pac believed Hayes may book him to look
bad on the program.
The Hurricane gimmick may very well be dropped since many of the
agents of WWE are not fond of it. Rather then playing the superhero
character of The Hurricane, Shane Helms (Shane is his real name) may
return to his original WWE/WWF character of Gregory Helms. For the record,
Helms debuted with WWE as Gregory Helms, then became Hurricane Helms
before going to the superhero gimmick. Getting back to the dumping
of the superhero angle, with Nidia unmasking him two weeks ago, that
could very well be the excuse used why he isn't a superhero anymore
despite the fact he did get the mask back. Again, I don't read Smackdown
spoilers so I am unaware of what will happen on Smackdown.
WWE Raw finished with a 3.7 rating. Speaking of WWE TV, the
Divas Undressed special originally scheduled for this past Tuesday
night was rescheduled to this Saturday night (or Sunday morning
technically) at Midnight. TNN asked WWE to "tone
down" the program. As Scherer mentioned in his Lariat column, I do
believe this may be the start (or continuation) of TNN being upset
with WWE due to the decreased ratings.
The upcoming WWA European Tour has been cancelled due to poor
ticket sales. Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland were all included as
part of the European Tour. It is unknown at this time whether this tour
will be rescheduled or not. This is the second time in recent months
that WWA cancelled a big tour like this. I hate to say this, but as
more time passes, the future of WWA looks worse then it did when it
started.
Though Smackdown was taped in Chicago (I live in the south suburbs),
I did not attend the event due to my work schedule and other happenings
in what I call a life. With the recent attendence figures, I am sure
a lot of people have better things to do rather then go to a live
wrestling event; its a damn shame though isn't it?
Our top ten writer Michael Blazkowski is currently under the weather.
I wish not to reveal what exactly is wrong, but he has been off
the computer and his top ten list will be delayed for a few more
days. Michael should be allright though, however, if you would like to
e-mail him a "get well" message, you may do so by
e-mailing him.
That is going to wrap it up for this edition of the news and
rumors. Before I go, I would like to return the favor to one of my
closest online friends, being Joe Balrog. He recently bought the
domain TheBalrogsLair.com
and the site is looking great. Despite the domain being new, the site
has been on the 'net for over six years, and to this day isn't
involved with any of the politics involved with the newsboards and
the newsboard "whore" reporters. I'm not sure when the next news and
rumors report will be, with this being late in the week, there may
not be a lot of news for a weekend edition. We shall see. Until
next time.
Previous News Update >>> McMahon and Ross speak about Austin situation, Diamond Dallas Page announces retirement, update on The Rock's hollywood and wrestling careers, NWA-TNA to debut "X-Title," and more.
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