Hello, everyone, and welcome to the one and only People's Wrestling Website. I know that once again we had no news and rumors yesterday, but Triple A's internet connection was disrupted for unknown reasons yesterday, and he couldn't contact either of us to fill-in. Nevertheless, I'm here as usual with the recommended daily dosage of news and rumors from around the world of wrestling. Let's get to it.
Well, you know the drill...as usual, the WWF and WCW taped their respective midweek shows. Thunder, from reports, was a very disappointing show, but SmackDown! was stellar on all accounts. You can find the tapings results for SmackDown! right HERE and for Thunder HERE.
Monday night ratings are in, and they are SHOCKING, to say the least. The really intriguing quarter-hour for RAW was the 9:00-9:15 QH, which pulled in an absolutely disturbing 4.7 rating (If you can tell, I'm running out of scary words with which to describe this). Nitro was unable to break the 3.0 composite barrier, but they were obviously boosted by the return of Goldberg. Raw did a 5.9 rating (9.3 share) off of hour of 5.4 (8.1) and 6.4 (10.4), while Nitro did a 2.8 rating (4.4 share) off of hours of 3.1 (4.9) and 2.6 (4.0).
The Rock's episode of Saturday Night Live will be rerun this coming Saturday night. If you missed it the first time around, I can't remind you enough to catch it, as it was nothing short of classic.
The next round of WWF videos slated for release in the fall will include full-length feature vids for both Steve Austin (his fourth tape) and Mick Foley (his second). Both should join the Rock's latest video release in dominating the sports video charts. Also, there will be two compilation/group videos coming out. The WWF's women will be featured in "Postcards from the Caribbean," which I think is pretty self-explanatory given how well hyped the "Divas'" Caribbean photo shoot was. And then there will be "TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs" putting the spotlight on the Hardys, the Dudleys, and Edge/Christian doing their signature insane moves. I'm not sure if any of these will be released on DVD, however. I'll do some more digging and see what I can pull up.
A note that a number of people have emailed me about...the promotional commercials for King Of The Ring appear to have a very Stone Cold-esque flavor to them, e.g. the skeletons and the like. Last month the WWF tipped their hand on wwfjudgmentday.com regarding The Undertaker's return, are they doing it again? Time will tell...
Moving onto WCW...Meng, who previously wrestled in the WWF as Haku, has been given his release from the company. I'm not sure where he'll end up, but best of luck to him.
Keiji Muto, known to American audiences as The Great Muta, has told New Japan Pro Wrestling that he'll be touring with WCW June 16th through June 26th; by my calendar that would include two Nitros and a Thunder taping.
According to the Pro Wrestling Torch, Goldberg may have recieved a concussion from Rick Steiner's chairshots Monday night. Great, just what WCW needs...Goldberg finally comes back after 6 months of being sidelined, and now he may have a concussion. Let's hope it's less serious than it sounds, for WCW's sake.
The advertisements for the Great American Bash have been altered slightly; now the ad for the PPV has been revised to say that the announcement will change the life of Kevin Nash (and not wrestling in general). That makes it sound even more as if a Goldberg heel turn (not likely) or a Scott Hall return and subsequent turn (possible) is in the cards. I really am in the dark regarding this. A number of people say The Ultimate Warrior, but somehow I doubt it would be that huge of a comeback. We'll see.
Hitting the ECW news...Shadowe, a small comic book publisher, has secured the rights to a Rob Van Dam comic book. Last year, Chaos! Comics successfully launched The Undertaker and Mankind comics, we'll see how this one goes.
According to the Pro Wrestling Torch, The Sandman has been suspended by Paul Heyman for this weekend's and possibly next weekend's ECW live shows due to the drunk/nude situation that occurred on Saturday in Pensacola, Florida during the main event. You can read more about it HERE.
Continuing the topic of the video frenzy, on August 29th, coinciding with the release of the Anarchy Rulz videogame, ECW will release Hardcore Evolution: The Best Of ECW, Volume 1. There will be a number of different releases. The "Uncensored" version, on VHS, will feature the Sandman-Raven barbed wire match, The Eliminators vs. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy from the October 1996 "High Incident" ECW Arena event, and Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGillicutty vs Shane Douglas & Francine from the ECW Arena in December 1996. Conversely, the "Censored" edition will feature The Dudley Boyz vs. Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley from August 1999 in Toledo, Ohio which featured double flaming tables and The Grudge Match of the Century, Sabu vs. Tazz from ECW's first Pay-Per-View, Barely Legal. That's probably to avoid problems from retailers like Wal*Mart. On the DVD release (Gotta love DVDs) ECW Hardcore Evolution will feature all the matches mentioned above, as well as an exclusive match from the 1994 November to Remember featuring Sabu vs. Chris Benoit. All releases of the video will feature Mike Awesome v. Masato Tanaka from November 2 Remember '99, and Jerry Lynn v. Rob Van Dam from Hardcore Heaven '99. This sounds like nothing short of a must-have video, and it also sounds like the perfect way for the uninitiated ECW fan to get some real exposure to the ECW product.
And with that, I've got to close out. Enjoy SmackDown! and Thunder, and I'll see you all on Friday. Have a great day, everybody.
Tim Brechlin
Tim@tpww.net