Welcome once again to The People's Wrestling Website, TPWW.net, for the Tuesday edition of the news and rumors. There is a lot to talk about today, so without further ado, here are today's news and rumors.
The ratings for last night's shows are in and as should be expected, they were up from last week's low Fourth of July ratings. Raw scored a 6.0 rating with a 9.8 share, off hours of 5.2 and 6.8, while Nitro received another disappointing 2.6 (4.4 share) rating, off hours of 3.1 and 2.1. There must be a lot of backstage frustration in WCW right now, since Nitro was coming off one of the most interesting WCW PPVs in a while. Turning WCW around is going to be a LOT harder than expected.
As for weekend ratings, Livewire pulled in a 1.3, Superstars did a 1.5, WCW Saturday Morning did a 0.8, and Sunday Night Heat did a 2.8. ECW on TNN scored a 0.9 rating for Friday's show. Numbers courtesy of Dave Scherer.
Raw was another pretty good average WWF show last night. There was nothing too spectacular about it, other than Tazzzzz choking out Scotty during the Worm. (Relax, I like the Worm too.) Anyway, it was an overall good show with some good old fashion WWF comedy, including the Kurt Angle scooter and Edge and Christian. Those guys are the best.
I thought Nitro was a decent show last night, which had some pretty interesting angles and actually some good wrestling mixed in as well. There was no (or hardly any) mention of the Hogan/Russo situation last night, but according to Dave Scherer, the announcers were not allowed to mention Hogan's name due to legal papers sent to WCW from Hogan's lawyers, which could just be an extra addition to make this seem even more realistic. With all the "shoot" angles recently, which of course turned out to be angles, it's hard to believe something is real anymore.
There were several newsworthy happenings last night on Nitro. Jeff Jarrett defeated Goldberg, Scott Steiner, and Kanyon in a four way match to become the number one contendor for the WCW title and will face Booker T on WCW's August PPV, "New Blood Rising." Does that name make any sense right now?
Mike Awesome seemingly turned face last night, as he saved Booker T from Scott Steiner's attack. Turning Awesome face could be a pretty good move, since he wasn't too over as a heel. Plus, this "career killer, fat lady thriller" angle is hilarious. Good one, Downtown. :-)
The person who played Sting last night, attacking Vampiro was none other than... Sting. Sting actually made his return last night and that was in fact him behind the black mask.
Lenny Lane also made his return last night, which you may have noticed. If you saw the huge "USE ME" sign, that was Lane, who will seemingly do an angle where he's looking for a job in WCW.
Alan Funk played the role of Prince Iaukea's costume man, Kiwi last night on Nitro. Kiwi is a parody of the Saturday Night Live character, Mango. Another funny idea by Russo.
WCW has once again changed its booking team with the return of Vince Russo. According to Dave Scherer, Vince Russo will be the head booker for WCW Nitro and PPVs, with the old team of Ed Ferrara, Terry Taylor, Bill Banks, and Disco Inferno helping out on the creative team. As for WCW Thunder, Ed Ferrara will be head booker, while Russo will be part of the creative team under him. Seems like an idea that could work.
Speaking of "works," Vince Russo stated the following responding to whether or not the Hogan situation was a shoot or work, according to Dave Scherer: "The next time you see Hulk Hogan in WCW is the last time you'll see me here. If for some reason his contract forces WCW to allow him back... I'm outta here. It's that simple."
The official paid attendance for Sunday's Bash at the Beach PPV was only 4,400, according to Zach Arnold, although Scott Hudson stated that over 16,000 fans were in attendance.
Here are the quick dark match and Jakked/Metal tapings from last night's Raw is War. Big thanks to Josh Schlottman for sending them along. For more detailed results, click HERE.
Thanks to Josh for also sending along a report of what happened after Raw went off the air... The Rock would slowly stagger to his feet and told Benoit that he wasn't yet ready to leave San Jose. He then told Benoit and Shane to "just bring it." Benoit runs in the ring and quickly begins to overpower The Rock but out of no where The Rock Rockbottoms him and gives Shane the just bring it hand gesture. Shane reluctantly comes into the ring and no sooner than he came he was Rockbottomed by The Rock. While both lay down The Rock grabbed the mic and said "If ya smellllla what The Rock is cookin'?" After The Rock left Shane and Benoit where leaving while being covered by a couple of bodyguards and one them was hit in the head by a giant soda which responded with a huge pop from the crowd.
The WWF has announced that a commercial for the WWF new professional football league, debuting February 2001, will air during Major League Baseball's All Star game tonight at 8:00 PM EST on NBC. The commercial features Vince McMahon and according to the XFL website, "wait until you hear what he has to say." You can check out photos and videos of the commercial by clicking the following respective links: Photos | Videos
Staying on the subject of the XFL, as you may have read yesterday, the WWF has announced San Jose, CA as the fourth official XFL team, following Chicago, Memphis, and Orlando. The WWF has also recently announced that Los Angeles and Las Vegas will be the next two cities where XFL press conferences will take place, which obviously means that the next two XFL teams will play in LA and Vegas. The press conferences will take place tomorrow in the respective cities. From what I've heard, Birmingham, Alabama may be the seventh or eighth team announced, which of course leaves NEW YORK. Of course, they're saving the best for last. :-)
It appears that the XFL still isn't being taken seriously by the media. Eric Liebe sent this in: Today, I was watching a local news station stationed in San Francisco and during the sports section of the news, they had a reporter at the Spartan Studium. The reporter at the stadium seemed excited about the XFL, even to the point of wearing a jersey and hat. They had clips of the press confrence with Mr. McMahon and rules of the league and dates of the league. When the reporter gave the show back to the sports newcaster, the newscaster said, "Well, looks like San Jose has been thrown the scraps again. San Francisco probably didn't want it, so [San Jose] is given it. Soccer, hockey, and now this." Obviously, another time a sportsman tries to put wrestling and the XFL down.
Grandmaster Sexay will make a guest appearance in tonight's episode of UPN's Shasta McNasty.
Too Cool and Rikishi recently filmed a commercial for Crunch 'n Munch, which is expected to air during this Thursday's WWF Smackdown! broadcast.
Chyna was recently featured in Sports Illustrated. Thanks to Nils Braselmann for sending this in: "Chyna is featured in this week's Sports Illustrated for Women! There is a one page interview and a picture of Chyna. She lists her ideal day as: Sleeping in, working out, performing for a hot crowd and going home with her boyfriend!"
That wraps it up for today's report. Movie recommendation: I saw Scary Movie this past Friday and let me tell you that it was EXCELLENT. One of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Definitely go see it if you haven't yet. And finally, I was gone all weekend looking for (and buying) a new car :-), which sort of explains why there was no update this past Sunday. Big thanks to Mike for filling in on Saturday's report and for a returning Tim Brechlin for doing a great job with yesterday's report. Well, I think that should do it for today's report (really this time.) Until next time...
Triple A
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