Hello, everyone, and welcome to the only site that can lay claim to being The People's Wrestling Website, TPWW.net. We're only a few short hours away from ECW's yearly July PPV, Heatwave, so let's hit the news.
Well, since WWF news is pretty sparse, I'll just kick off with the
oh-so-infamous DirecTV RAW preview. As always, take this with a grain
of salt.
- RAW: Commissioner Mick Foley returns.
- War Zone: The Rock seeks to destroy Chris Benoit.
Now hitting the weekly Ross Report, JR touched on a number of things. Tori will be having shoulder surgery on July 20th, with two to three months of rehabilitation time, but will be back on television before that. JR also made mention of the fact that Shane McMahon will not require knee surgery.
Ross said that he expects Steven Regal to be back on the WWF's television roster by the end of the summer.
JR put over Tazz and his work with his new gimmick, and Tazz deserves it. His interrupting the Worm was classic. He also mentioned that Big Show has dropped even more weight in his absence. On that note...how much more weight can Wight drop? Honestly...
Thanks to "J M" for letting us know that parts of Georgia and South Carolina had UPN technical difficulties on Thursday night's SmackDown! broadcast. He said that during the program, there was no sound. The interesting part is that during the COMMERCIALS, the audio was present. Intriguing, indeed...
Also on the SmackDown! front, "Tireguy644" emailed us and said that the Detroit Tigers game (Not much to watch on the Tigers except for Juan Gone...he's going to Cleveland) pre-empted the SmackDown! program, which may have added to reasons for the low 4.0 rating.
According to Dave Meltzer, Shawn Michaels's Texas Wrestling Alliance will be scaling back or shutting down completely its house show/television circuit, to become more of a wrestling school instead of a regional promotion. If you recall, the TWA acted as somewhat of a farm system for the WWF previously, and some of its students were given WWF tryouts.
Not much other news from the WWF camp, so let's proceed to the WCW news. Denver radio stations are promoting a contest to go backstage to meet WCW stars, "including Hulk Hogan". As far as I know, Hogan is not scheduled to be at Nitro, but you never know. On another Nitro note, Scott Steiner v. Bill Goldberg is projected to be the main event. Remember, Nitro will air on TUESDAY night this week.
Diamond Dallas Page will be returning to WCW action at the July 29th house show in Moline, IL. Hey, Moline is where my parents grew up. :-) The 29th is a Saturday, so I would assume he will appear on the July 31st Nitro...which of course is my birthday. :) On that house show note, "6J racing" emailed us and said that local promotions in Moline are promoting DDP, Sting, and the omnipresent Hulk Hogan.
Hitting ECW...wasn't sure where to stick this, but since they own a minority stake in ECW, I figured I'd shove it here. Acclaim Entertainment, recently removed from the NASDAQ stock exchange, is in dire financial straits. For the third fiscal quarter, Acclaim reported a net loss of $49.7 million, compared to breaking even at this same time last year. Numerous project delays were blamed. To combat this, Acclaim has scaled back nearly thirty percent of its workforce, and a number of Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Dreamcast projects are in jeopardy. PlayStation 2 production is still at full speed, however. This reminds me of 1996, when Acclaim was in such bad condition that they actually began Chapter 11 protection proceedings. How did they get there, then and now? Simple: releasing a stream of subpar products that don't sell. *coughhardcorerevolutioncough*
Well, I guess I'll give my Heatwave predictions, and then jet. Last time I gave predictions, for Judgment Day, I wiped the floor with my TPWW brethren. :) Let's see what happens tonight. Here they are:
Danny Doring, Roadkill, and Kid Kash v. Swinger, Simon Diamond, and C.W. Anderson: I'm gonna give in to my "mark"ish side and say the Doring/Kash/Roadkill team, mostly 'cause I think Kid Kash is amazing.Well, that just about wraps it up. Enjoy ECW Heatwave, and have a great day, everybody.Steve Corino v. Jerry Lynn: Isn't Lynn supposed to be a semi-heel? I'll go with Lynn getting the victory here, with additional development during the night.
Da Baldies v. Chris Chetti & Nova: Well, Nova and Chetti are incredibly entertaining to watch, but given Paul Heyman's proclivity towards putting the heels over, I'll give Da Baldies the victory.
Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Psychosis vs. Little Guido: This one will be stellar. We're looking at highspot city, with some incredibly sick bumps to be taken by all 3 parties. I'll just grab a name at random and pick Tajiri.
Rob Van Dam v. Scotty Anton: Well, given all the hype of Rob Van Dam's "amazing" new move, the Van Terminator, I've got to go with Van Dam getting some revenge on Anton here...I don't see RVD picking up a losing streak on PPV. Going with what I said earlier, I think Jerry Lynn is going to return the favor to Anton from the last ECW PPV and turn full-blown heel.
The Sandman v. Rhino, for the TV Title: When will this feud END? Let Rhino take it, as a loss for the Sandman won't hurt his steam at all. And let this rivalry go to the grave. Please. I'm begging you, Heyman.
Tommy Dreamer v. Justin Credible, for the ECW Title, Stairway To Hell match: Okay, this could swing either way. I think our former own DOWNTOWN DAVE over at WrestleLine had it right, Dreamer needs to hang 'em up, as he can barely walk. Dreamer, even with his numerous injuries, has shown no qualms about taking some of the most dangerous bumps imaginable, and given the stipulations of this one (ladders with barbed wire), it could get ugly. Supposedly, Heyman dreams of RVD chasing Credible for the ECW Title, so I guess I'll have to go with Justin Credible for the win here. I don't like it, though.
Tim Brechlin
Tim@tpww.net