Welcome to the Sunday edition (Did I get the date right this time?) of the news and rumors here at TPWW.net. There have been several intesting developments in the pro wrestling world as of late, and we're here to run through 'em all, so without further ado, here are today's news and rumors.
Tazz's website, TAZMISSION.com has added a great new "Ask Taz" section, where fans of the Human Suplex/Wrecking Machine can send in their questions. It had several interesting tidbits. Tazz stated that he should be healed from his bicep injury soon and will be back in action either before or at the King of the Ring. Tazz also mentioned that he is of Italian descent and mentioned that the reason he doesn't use the "Beat me if you can, survive if I let you" quote is to differentiate himself from his ECW character. He stated that like it or not, the ECW Taz is gone. He made mention of the Dudleys as well, stating that when we look at them, no one thinks of ECW anymore. The section is a great read and you can check it out in full at the link above.
Here are a few WWF.com tidbits on The Rock: The Rock will be making an appearance and inserting his catch phrases in Wyclef's new video "It Doesn't Matter." MTV will shoot a "documentary" on the video, which it will also obviously air. Should be very interesting. The Rock will also do a photo shoot on Thursday and will be on the front cover of the August edition of Jane Magazine and will be interviewed by Dateline NBC, in a show that will air sometime in late June. He is expected to talk about his home town in Miami, WWF events, and more.
Jim Ross updated his weekly "Ross Report" this week, and as always, it had more than a few interesting WWF notes. Here is a summary of the important points mentioned in Ross's update:
- Jeff Hardy has been suffering pain in his side recently and will be getting tests done to check up on the injury, according to Jim Ross. As of now, he is not expected to miss any action, but if the injury is more serious than originally thought, that will obviously change.
- Grandmaster Sexay suffered another knee injury this week, but it was not as serious as in the past. It is the same knee that he just recently had surgery on. We are under the impression that he won't miss much action, if any.
- Tazz's rehab is reportedly going well and the Human Suplex/Wrecking Machine is expected to return twenty pounds lighter, dropping from 250 to 230. I personally can't wait.
- Val Venis will be the newest member of Trish Stratus's T&A; clique. He was accompanied by Trish at Tuesday's Smackdown/Heat tapings with new theme music, meaning his "porn star" gimmick may be gone for now. His match is expected to air tonight on Sunday Night Heat.
- The WWF has signed Kaientai, Taka Michinoku and Shao Funaki to contract extensions. Definitely good news there, at least for me, as Taka is one of my favorites in wrestling, when given the chance to shine. Imagine him in ECW again?
- Bradshaw will be appearing in an upcoming USA Original Movie, and will miss action this week to film his role in it. He will play the role of a murderer.
- A biography (not autobiography) on Chyna is expected to be released sometime this fall, around October or November.
- Chyna also is expected to release a fitness video sometime this fall.
- Mick Foley also has plans for a Christmas book sometime in the near future. The book will contain illustrations by Jerry Lawler.
- A WWF cookbook is also expected to be released in the fall. It will contain WWF Superstars' favorite recipes, interviews, and more. The book will be "hosted" by Jim Ross himself.
Thanks to Dave Stednitz, among several others, for sending this in: Jerry "The King" Lawler was on a morning radio show this morning called, "The Shredd and Reagan Morning Show on 103.3 The Edge" in Buffalo, NY. He was there to hype the Smackdown tapings that are there on June 6th, and Chyna's name came up and the King said: "I really should not be saying this, but... we should all expect to see a lot more of Chyna in the near future in a very prestigious Men's Magazine (PLAYBOY) very soon!" Saturn has also stated the same recently in his online audio show, I believe.
Thanks to Matt for sending this in: If you go to www.comingsoon.net/music.htm and go down to the June release area, there is a spot that says "June ?? - WWF: The Music Volume 5". As of now, I really haven't heard much about WWF The Music Volume 5, so ultimately, unless something is announced in the next few days or so, I strongly doubt it will have a June release. But as always, we'll have to see how things develop to know for sure.
Thanks to DMXdog914 for sending this in: In the most recent edition of Newsweek, the cover story is about "The War Over Napster". In the article, one of the captions says, "Napster has acts like Metallica and Limp Bizkit in a fierce war of words reminiscent of WWF Smackdown. Let's get it on!"
Thanks to Jeff "mayhem2go" Rose for sending this in: I was one of a few hundred in attendance at Frank and sons collectibles in Walnut, Ca to witness the Blue Meanie and rumored girlfriend Jasmine St. Claire. All I can say about the Blue Meanie is "WOW" he looked great. He looked about 75lbs. lighter then his WWF days. Gone was his blue mohawk and he spent most of his time taking a few pictures and signing autographs. Jasmine on the other hand had her hands full with autographs and pictures. She had nude 7x11 pictures for sale and she had about 90% of the crowd in her line. The wrestling booth in the back was staffed by none other then XPW color guy Larry Hernandez. He told me that former XPW champion "Real Deal" Damien Steele has left XPW and is rumored to be on his way to another small time California federation UPW.
Thanks to Big "B" for sending this in: Recently, LA Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal was shown on a repeat of the tonight show with Jay Leno. Shaq said he wouldn't mind being a wrestler after basketball. He said his favorite wrestler is Goldberg. He said his wrestling name would be big foot tornado. Jay said " maybe some names Shaq could use would be Shaqster, or CountShaqula, Shaq rattle & roll, or Jumpin Shaq flash." Shaq laughed at Leno's jokes. Then Jay asked him if he think wrestling is fixed Shaw said "well when I see a guy stacked on two tables, and then another guy goes through them, I know that has to be real. Jay: "Don't go betting on wrestling." After the joking the went back to talking about basketball.
Do you have any news tidbits or results? You can send them in to news@tpww.net.
Bret Hart may not fully recover from his concussion until six months from now in December, according to Dave Scherer. Hart is still not doing well at all according to his doctor and as of now, given all the recent happenings in his career and the obviously negative way he feels about the business today, there is a very strong possibility that Bret's career is done.
It was announced recently on WCW Live! that Dustin Rhodes would finally debut his new gimmick this Monday on Nitro. As stated several times before, it is rumored to be very similar to his Goldust character in the WWF and will go by the name "Platinum."
In a very interesting note, it is projected by several sources that WCW is in line to lose about $61.2 million this year. Unbelievable.
As those who saw Friday's ECW on TNN know, Paul Heyman's "shoot" on TNN was muted and ran messages at the bottom of the screen stating "Please ignore this gentleman's temper tantrum. Could it be he's been thrown though too many tables?" ... "TNN has no ill feelings toward ECW" and "TNN fully supports ECW and all its redeeming qualities." Later in the show, Joel Gertner was also muted, and a message ran that said "We are experiencing technical difficulties." First, before I get to my thoughts on this whole situation, what exactly did they say behind the censors? Basically, Heyman was obviously "shooting" on TNN, mostly talking about how they were throwing $100 million at Vince McMahon to bring in the WWF and have not done a damn thing to help out ECW. Later in Joel Gertner's comments, whatever he said had something to do with TNN "smuggling farm animals into the country for sexual purposes." (HAHAHA) Now, you have to ask yourself - is this real or an angle? Shoot or work? Personally, although everything on the Internet is pointing at this being a total shoot, and I do somewhat believe it, I seriously doubt what went down on Friday was a complete shoot. Hey, I'm not saying Heyman didn't mean whatever he said, because he probably did. But, just look at these points... If TNN was going to censor out the segments, why wouldn't they COMPLETELY CUT IT OUT instead of just muting it? And... "could it be he's been thrown through too many tables?" What the hell? Although TNN isn't the most intelligent network on the planet, I doubt THEY would have inserted something THAT stupid in there. Here's what I think is the case: Heyman and ECW sent the tape to TNN, TNN didn't like it and asked for it to be changed. ECW muted the segments and added the crawling messages themselves, then submitted it to TNN. This way, they further their "ECW vs. TNN" angle, and add some hype and interest to their show, thus hopefully boosting their suffering ratings. I could be completely wrong, but hey, that's just my opinion.
However, several other reports swear that everything is real in this situation and that Paul Heyman has been intentionally trying to get taken ofF TNN in hopes of being picked up by another network, namely and hopefully USA. As of now, all signs point to the WWF going to TNN, which is my worst nightmare. Whatever the case, this month may be one of the biggest in wrestling history as far as television deals go. Starting July, I have a feeling everything is going to be completely different as not just the WWF, but WCW and ECW are undergoing similar issues.
ECWwrestling.com has promised to put up Heyman's unedited "shoot" sometime next week. Once it goes up, we'll have the link right here.
At last night's ECW House Show in Pensacola, Florida, The Sandman was apparently completely drunk and ended up doing a few VERY crazy things. Thomas "TRiQ" Kulesa, who attended the show, sent this in: "The Network" came out and issued a challenge to anyone in the back. Tajiri came out and Corino started to diss him bad and said it would be a 4 on 1 match because no-one else would help him. Dreamer and Raven then came out to Corino's suprise. Corino then accepted saying it would be a 4 on 3 match. Now the fun begins. Sandman's music hits and he slowly makes his way in the arena. He's really trashed. He came out and did his usual stand in the crowd and pop a few beers gig. He was so drunk my brother and I had to hold him up from falling. Dreamer, Raven, and Tajiri seemed very angry because it took so long for the match to get underway. Dreamer said that after the show everyone was invited to go to the bar and see Sandman get naked. Sandman was totally gone. He pulled down his pants and then his underwear and was butt-naked for a few minutes. Sandman ran into the crowd and grabbed some girl and tried taking her to the ring but she wriggled free. Once the match did get started, it ended quickly. Sandman kept interfering and actually hitting people with his cane. Once Sandman got out of the ring Tommy Dreamer came in a gave Jack Victory the WORM! Then Dreamer, Tajiri, and Dreamer brawled up the entrance way and left Rhino and Sandman in the ring. Sandman grabbed the mic and began to diss "The Network" saying that when he was naked all their girlfriend wished they could be with him and they wanted to come with him. Then, I quote, Sandman said "...and when I say they want to come with me, I mean C-M-E with me." Some real funny stuff. Rhino seemed real pissed and grabbed Sandman's cane and bashed him with it until it broke in pieces. Rhino tried to gore Sandman though a table but missed. The match ended really quick with the Dreamer DDT on Rhino. After the match was over Sandman stood in the middle of the ring and chugged a couple more beers.
In a bit of an early self-plug, we'll be providing free live coverage of WCW's Great American Bash this Sunday, live starting at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST/1:00 AM United Kingdom time. As WCW has promised, the big "surprise" everyone has been talking about is expected to be unveiled on Sunday's event. I'm definitely looking forward to it.
That's all for today's report. As always, stop by tomorrow for more news, rumors, updates, etc. Also, I'll have another Entrance Themes update very soon, so be on the lookout for that. Until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com