Hello, everyone, and welcome to the daily news and rumors here at TPWW.net. I'm FINALLY back online after my hard drive was literally electrocuted, but I'm back and better than ever. Let's get straight to some news, shall we?
I say this every Wednesday...last night, as usual, WCW Thunder and WWF SmackDown! were taped. There were a few major happenings at Thunder, and on SmackDown! we'll see the main-event for King Of The Ring begin to firm up. You of course can peruse the WWF SmackDown! results right HERE, and the WCW Thunder tapings HERE.
Hitting some WWF news...according to Jimmy Van, Hardcore Holly is being groomed for an Intercontinental Title run, possibly taking the title at King Of The Ring off of Chris Benoit. I have to admit that I'm not convinced of the prudence of this move. Holly is entertaining, yes, but I have a hard time viewing him as a viable contender to the IC strap. Although, better him than Val Venis...
I caught a one-time special on the FOX News Channel called "Wrestling With The Mania" over the weekend. It was essentially another attempt by the media to get Vince McMahon to trip up. He said 70% of WWF fans were 18 and older and 85% were teenagers or older. He did not go on to mention that this means 15% are 12 and under. When asked if he'd let his hypothetical six-year old son or daughter watch the show, he said "No chance in hell." Right, right, but does that mean he'd let a 10-11 year old watch? I disagree with Vince's continued admonition that he does not market to children.
Mike Mooneyham, one of the better newspaper wrestling columnists out there, recently spoke to Our Olympic Hero, Kurt Angle about his gimmick. Here's what he had to say. "I was looking to be just the opposite. But they had a plan for me. They said, 'Be yourself. Be America's Olympic hero, and turn it up a thousand degrees. Have a ball and smile all the time. These people love you, even though they don't.' And it worked. From the first minute on it was amazing the reaction I got." It sure did work. Now the test is whether or not Vince & Company can keep him from turning face.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin will be on the WWF's Byte This! Internet show tomorrow.
According to Rick Scaia, the earliest we could see the return of Billy Gunn is Summerslam, although that date seems more than a tad conservative to me. On a personal note, am I the only person who doesn't miss Gunn from WWF telecasts?
Hitting the WCW side of things, Bret Hart appeared on "The Last Word" with Jim Rome recently, and frankly, it disgusted me. Hart continued his endless crusade against Vince McMahon and the direction of the WWF. Forgive me, but hasn't WCW's programming taken a turn towards the risqué side of things? Here's what he had to say about the Over The Edge incident. "I'm sure that if Vince had dropped (his son) Shane from the ceiling the show would have been stopped....Who is he, Vince McMahon, to speak for my brother? For them to wheel my dead brother past a bunch of distraught wrestlers and go 'you're on next'...to do that is such a rotten thing to do to the wrestlers. Vince McMahon...he's such an unsavory human being. I have trouble saying 'human being'. I don't think he has any integrity whatsoever. " Another topic he touched on was the Owen Hart Tribute Show the night after on RAW is WAR, calling it a tasteless ratings ploy. Does he ever quit? Of course, Jim Rome didn't help, acting like the horrified bystander, criticizing the "trash" that's on TV. This is the same Jim Rome, I assume, who not more than three months ago had an episode of his show where he polled callers about which female celebrity was the best-looking for the entire show, correct?
Al Isaacs conducted an interview with Kevin Nash at the Brian Pillman memorial show. He brought up some interesting topics, including a possible WWF return. Nash's response? He'd like to retire in the WWF, if things in WCW don't improve. Another topic brought up was his dream match. Nash said that he'd want to have an Outsiders vs. Original DX match, with a double DQ to end it, so no one would do the job. Sounds like typical Nash to me...
Tammy Lynn Sytch's status in WCW is currently under serious scrutiny. Apparently, Kimberly found a vial in Sytch's bag in the locker room, and brought it to the attention of WCW officials. She was tested last night at the Thunder tapings for drugs. For the unaware, both Sytch and her long-time fiancée Chris Candido have a long history of drug use, and it in fact was the reason for their ECW exile and then release. This leads into my next paragraph...
According to Lance Storm's website, he will be making his WCW television debut at the June 12th Monday Nitro. I'm excited for Storm's first appearance with WCW, although it really depends on his angle to get over with the WCW fans.
Kimberly is now gaining quite a reputation backstage in WCW as a prima donna with a very big ego. Apparently she now calls herself an "actor" instead of a valet. The incident with Tammy Sytch is also not the first with Kimberly bringing things to the front office's attention.
There's now a very big rumor that The USA Network is interested in picking up WCW programming if the company is sold to SFX. THIS is big news, as it gives USA a very big bargaining chip in its ongoing negotiations with the WWF and Viacom. Of course, this also once again screws over ECW, which is still looking for decent television exposure.
ECW on TNN pulled in a subpar 0.8 Nielsen rating, and once again, the show failed to pull above a 1.0. It's tough to see ECW in such tough straits.
Over the last week, when my computer fried, I lost ALL of my email. So if you sent something to me from Thursday to Tuesday, please re-send it to me, and I'll get back to you ASAP, because all of what I had (upwards of a hundred emails) was lost.
Well, this report seems to have come to an end, now. Enjoy WCW Thunder if you're watching, and otherwise, I'll see you on Friday. Have a great day, everybody.
Tim Brechlin
Tim@tpww.net