Welcome to TPWW.net for the Sunday edition of the news and rumors. There are a few interesting stories developing in the world of wrestling, and I'll try to touch base on all of them in today's report. Temperatures have once again gotten to the high 90s here in New York. Thank God for air conditioning and Gatorade. Well, now that I've typed a completely irrelevant introduction, here are today's news and rumors.
In a story that broke earlier this weekend, Dave Meltzer reported that the WWF has asked their wrestlers to refrain from using tombstones and piledrivers. The ban of the moves applies to all wrestlers, including the Undertaker and Kane, who have been known to use a Tombstone as their finishing maneuver. There are also rumors that the WWF has banned the DDT, but that is not yet confirmed. The decision to ban the moves was done simply to look out for the safety of the wrestlers and was prompted when Triple H was shaken up after receiving a Tombstone from the Undertaker in the Iron Man Match at the WWF's last PPV. This is a very interesting story, to say the least, and hopefully we'll hear some more about it in the coming days.
Thursday's WWF Smackdown! pulled a good 5.0 adjusted broadcast rating and a 9.1 share. The show's quarter hour ratings are as followed, courtesy of Dave Scherer: 4.0, 4.8, 4.7, 4.8, 5.4, 5.1, 5.5 and 5.7.
Tonight, the WWF brings a packed Sunday Night Heat, which includes both title defenses and King of the Ring qualifying matches. Here is the card for tonight's broadcast, subject to change:
- Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho vs. Hardcore Holly vs. Val Venis
- Buh Buh Ray Dudley vs. The Big Boss Man
- D-Von Dudley vs. Perry Saturn (KOTR qualifying)
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Crash Holly (European Title)
- D'Lo Brown vs. Steve Blackman
Chyna, Trish Stratus, and The Kat recently did a photo and video shoot for the commercial for the WWF's upcoming pay per view, Summerslam. You can check out photos and videos from the shoot (not that kind of shoot) HERE.
The trial between the WWF and the USA Network begins on Monday. After the trial takes place, we should have a pretty concrete idea of where each promotion will be headed as far as TV broadcasts. If CBS/Viacom does in fact get control of WWF programming, which unfortunately (to me) seems to be the case, WWF Smackdown would remain on UPN, as UPN is a part of Viacom. RAW is WAR, however, would air on TNN.
On the subject of TNN, how many commercials were there on Friday's ECW show? I mean, the first half hour contained probably 15-20 minutes of commercial time. And on top of that, 75% of the commercials were plugs for other programs on TNN. Five minute commercial, one minute of ECW, five minute commercial, one minute of ECW, five minute commercial. That was the pattern and it made me sick.
In a VERY interesting story, Dave Scherer recently reported that WCW has contacted Paul Heyman about ECW possibly "crashing" tonight's WCW Great American Bash. Paul Heyman stated that if that were to take place, WCW would have to pay him a large seven figure number. As of now, this may or may not happen, but I personally hope it does. If played out right, I can only imagine how great it would be. On a side note on this story, an ECW/WCW deal was NOT scheduled to be the original "surprise," but WCW is still considering several options. WCW has been hyping this "surprise" so much, and they still don't know exactly what it's going to be themselves? That's sort of baffling to me. Tonight's Great American Bash should be a good one.
In another potentially huge story, WCW is extremely close to signing a deal with the FOX Network. Eric Bischoff has reportedly had serious talks with FOX over the past few days. If WCW does in fact sign the deal, the plan is for FOX to run an after school wrestling block or a weekly cable show on FX, according to Dave Meltzer. However, if the deal does go through, TNT and TBS have stated that they want to keep broadcasting rights to Nitro and Thunder.
There has been much speculation that WCW's surprise may be an angle where the company is split into two, with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan starting their own company on FOX and Vince Russo staying with WCW. The two companies would then have interpromotional matches. I don't know, but that just seems WAYYYYYY too farfetched to me and I seriously doubt something like that would happen. If it does, I'll be confused out of my mind. As of now, the most practical situation would be another remake of the nWo. Yes, it does not sound too great but if Bischoff and Russo know what they're doing this time, it could be great. Whatever this infamous surprise is, I have a feeling that if it's played to perfection and delivers on all the hype, it could be the spark that WCW needs to get back in the ratings battle with the WWF. Only time will tell.
Buff Bagwell's suspension ends this Monday and he is expected back on Nitro. Demon and Asya are also expected to make their returns on Nitro and Three Count is scheduled to return on Thunder, according to Dave Meltzer.
Lodi, Psychosis, and Meng will all be released from WCW when their contracts run out in a couple of months or so.
In an interesting tidbit, WCW Nitro will air on a Tuesday on July 18. The reason being that TNT will air a two part movie and Nitro will be pushed back a day. In a somewhat related story, while lookin over WCW's Upcoming Events Schedule, I noticed that several of WCW's Thunder tapings are set for Wednesday. It should be interesting to see what happens with that situation.
Barry Blaustein was on TSN's "Off the Record" in Canada this past Tuesday and stated that "Beyond the Mat" would be released in Vancouver and Toronto on June 16 and other cities would follow soon after. Big thanks to Scott Ramsay for passing that info along.
ECWwrestling.com recently put up video clips of the infamous Paul Heyman and Joel Gertner censored TNN "shoots" on last Friday's ECW on TNN show. Paul Heyman's comments were as followed: "My name is Paul Heyman and I am the executive producer and owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling. And since this show is apparently going to make air this week, I'd like to take this moment to thank you for watching ECW. You have to be an ECW fan to watch this show because God knows, the network has never put out one freakin' commercial or one press release to let you know that we're here. But that's their scheme of things. You see, in just a few weeks the network is going to give $100 million to Vince McMahon, like he needs it, to REPLACE US. In case they haven't thrown us off before then. And the fact of the matter is, we're not a publically funded company like Vince McMahon or WCW. We survive or even thrive on your support and for that, we thank you. Now in this industry where everyone wants to be real, and everybody wants to do a shoot, this my friends, is a SHOOT. We hate this stinkin' network. We hate their guts for abandoning us. We hate their guts for not supporting us. We hate their guts for not advertising us. And we hate their guts for not having the balls to throw us off the air. And just in case you're watching this, hey, network, I dare you to throw me off the air. Because I'm going to break every rule that you put in front of me until you throw me the hell off the air. Now, this my friends, is a shoot. You better take that 100 million dollars that you're going to give Vince McMahon, and you better spend it on attorneys, because I promise you network, the WAR has just begun." Joel Gertner then stated the following: "I'd like to take this personal time to say hello to all of my executive friends at TNN. The ones who have been incarcerated for smuggling underage farm animals across state lines for the purposes of sexual gratification. But at least while they were doing it, they were safe about it. They only picked the calves that didn't kick back."
ECW held a TV Taping last night in Pittsburgh, PA. Big thanks to John for sending along a complete report of the event, which you can check out HERE.
On a final note, be sure to join us tonight for live WCW Great American Bash coverage. If you're not ordering the PPV but can't wait to find out what that surprise is, we'll post it on the site as soon as it happens. The coverage starts tonight at 8:00 PM EST, 1:00 AM UK time.
With that, I'm going to wrap up today's report. Thanks, as always, for reading and be sure to stop by tonight for live results of the Great American Bash. Until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com