Hello, everyone, and welcome to another round of the maybe-sorta-hopefully daily News & Rumors here at TPWW.net. Talk about a hectic day for me, so let's get this over with. Onto the news...
Well, tonight, the WWF puts on its weekly UPN extravaganza, SmackDown!.
Here's a brief spoiler-free rundown of a few of the matches.
- Scotty 2 Hotty vs. X-Pac
- Eddie Guerrero & Rikish Phatu vs. Val Venis & Tazz
- Edge vs. Matt Hardy
- The Big Show & Chris Benoit vs. Kane & The Rock
- Steve Blackman vs. Perry Saturn for the Hardcore title
- The Good Father & Bull Buchanan vs. The Acolytes
- Road Dogg vs. Grandmaster Sexay
- Triple H, Kurt Angle, & Steph vs. The Dudley Boyz & Lita
In addition to those, you can expect a continuation of the Stephanie/HHH/Trish angle, and many other things. SmackDown! airs tonight on UPN at 8/7 Central.
Last night, at the Republican National Convention, The Rock appeared and was also on CNN, alongside L. Brent Bozell, the head of the PTC. I was able to catch a small amount of it, and I have to say, Rock (Duane Johnson) really came off as an intelligent, literate, well-read individual, while Bozell seemed like a high-strung, stressed-out, raving lunatic...well, maybe that's a tad extreme, but you get the idea.
Rikishi may have injured his shoulder at the SmackDown! tapings during his match, cccording to IGN Wrestling. He will have it checked out by a physician on Friday. Hopefully it's nothing serious, considering that Rikishi is one of the most "over" wrestlers in the WWF, and one of the most entertaining as well.
The WWF has just opened a web site for the Right To Censorship, or RTC, at RightToCensorship.com.
Byte This!, the WWF's audio/video show, will have Commissioner Mick Foley as its guest tonight.
Shawn Michaels will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Detroit Tigers/Baltimore Orioles game on Wednesday, August 9th. Boy, if those two teams aren't the spitting image of futility...
Hitting WCW, the Vince Russo "shoot" interview that was promised to air last night on Thunder...didn't. According to a number of sources, the interview covered such topics as Hulk Hogan, New Blood Rising, his tenure in the WWF, his dislike for "one" participant in the 3-way match at the PPV, and other things. It is now scheduled to possibly be shown on Monday's Nitro, if "executives allow it".
Van Hammer AKA Major Stash is no longer with WCW, according to 1wrestling. Question: If a tree in a forest fell on Van Hammer and no one was around...would anyone care?
Bret Hart will be making a non-wrestling return to WCW in some capacity sometime soon, according to WCW Live!. It'll be good to see Bret back, as he is one of the better interviews in the business.
Evan Karagias will be out approximately 6 more months due to his ankle injury, according to Bryan Alvarez of the Figure Four. That's certainly a tough break for 3-Count.
Ready 2 Rumble, the God-awful WCW comedy that came out in April of this year, will be released on video September 19th.
I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't recap Thunder just a little bit...the show on the whole was...well, just "okay". Nothing really stuck out at me. I suppose the absence of the Russo interview was disappointing, but nothing unexpected, given WCW's recent streak of jerking the fans around (copping out on the Booker/Sting match a week ago).
The Bash at the Beach buyrate is now estimated to be somewhere between .19 and .25. That's a gradual improvement for WCW, as the February and March Pay-Per-Views pulled in the neighborhood of .15.
Not much ECW news, but according to the Wrestling Observer, Viewer's Choice in Canada is considering dropping ECW Pay-Per-View from its programming unless it gets a secure television foothold.
A number of Internet sources are reporting that ECW and an unnamed network are getting very close to a television deal. My money would be on FX (Hopefully not, I don't get it here with crappy AT&T; cable), or USA (probably not, though...never know). You can rest assured that ECW wouldn't be on Monday nights (It'd be crushed by RAW and Nitro), but a Tuesday 8/7 Central timeslot sounds good to me. Hell, put it on Wednesdays and go straight up with Thunder for an hour...be interesting to see the ratings there. Anyway, I digress.
Well, time to close up this report. Enjoy SmackDown!, those of you who are going to watch it, and do have a great day. On another side note, be looking out for a brand new feature debuting within the next few days here on TPWW. One of my N&R; colleagues will elaborate further, but let me say, it's gonna be great. And with that, I'm out of here. Later.
Tim Brechlin
Tim@tpww.net