Hello, everyone, and welcome to The People's Wrestling Website on this wonderful Thursday. Let's skip the hyperbole, however, and just get straight to the news, shall we?
Well, this past Tuesday, the WWF held its weekly SmackDown!/HeAT tapings in Worcester, MA. All in all, SmackDown! looks to be an interesting show, with some interesting things spliced throughout, and HeAT looks entertaining as well. As a treat for the live crowd in attendance, Wyclef Jean and The Rock performed the song "It Doesn't Matter". This will NOT be shown on the SmackDown! broadcast, however. If you want your Thursday night spoiled, or you simply won't be able to tune in to UPN tonight, simply click over HERE.
According to Mike Samuda of WrestleLine, the XFL has signed approximately 200 players to contracts. Its target quota of players is in the neighborhood of 700. I'm not entirely sure how players will be selected by teams, whether by a draft by all the teams, or by simple negotiations. In other XFL news, players will be earning a base salary of $45,000, with a bonus of $100,000 to be disseminated among the players of each winning team every week, and another bonus of $1 million to be split among the players of the XFL Championship team.
Shawn Michaels recently updated his online commentary, which can be found at his Texas Wrestling Alliance website, at HBK-TWA.com. It's an interesting read, as usual, so I'd advise you all to check it out.
According to the Pro Wrestling Torch hotline, this is the official card for WWF SummerSlam later this month:
- The Rock v. Triple H v. Kurt Angle for the WWF Title;
- Chris Jericho v. Chris Benoit in a 2 out of 3 falls match;
- The Undertaker v. Kane;
- Jerry Lawler v. Tazz;
- X-Pac v. Road Dogg;
- The Dudleyz v. The Hardys v. Edge/Christian for the Tag Titles in a tables, ladders, and chairs (TLC) match.
- Rikishi and Too Cool v. Right To Censor;
- Terri v. The Kat in a stinkface match;
- and Chyna &Eddy; v. Val Venis and Trish.
There are a number of reports that The Undertaker suffered a minor back injury when he was chokeslammed through the ring on RAW is WAR Monday night. I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors, though I wouldn't be surprised, considering it looked like Kane missed the spot in the ring to land the 'Taker.
Thanks to Bryan Fotheringham for this news tidbit: At a concert in Barrie, Ontario, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins showed how big of a wrestling fan he is. Right before the last song they played, he was able to sneak in the quote, "It's true, it's true."
Here's a brief, spoiler-free rundown of what you can expect for tonight's edition of WWF Smackdown!:
- Rikishi & The Kat v. Terri & Saturn
- Acolytes & Crash v. Kaientai & Boss Man
- Edge & Christian v. The Hardys v. The Dudleys
- Eddie Guerrero & Chyna v. Val Venis & Trish Stratus
- Chris Benoit v. Steve Blackman
- X-Pac & Road Dogg v. Too Cool
- The Rock vs. Triple H
And on the WCW side, Bill Goldberg will be a guest on tonight's episode of "Turn Ben Stein On", on Comedy Central. "Turn Ben Stein On" is one of my favorite shows on TV, along with "Win Ben Stein's Money", and I'm sure Goldberg's appearance and interview tomorrow night will be quite fun to watch. "Turn Ben Stein On" airs Thursday nights at 10:30/9:30 Central.
Alex Wright's (Berlyn) WCW status is currently unknown. Mark Madden reported on the WCW hotline that Wright had been released from the company, while Jeremy Borash of WCW Live! offered a conflicting statement, saying that Wright is still a WCW employee. I'm not sure myself...
According to Dave Scherer, WCW officials are now considering making a serious effort towards settling the still-pending WWF lawsuit against them regarding the entry of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash into the company. I'd guess that considering WCW is on pace to lose something in the neighborhood of $79.2 million this year, a multi-million dollar lawsuit payment wouldn't look too nice in the eyes of the beancounters. For those of you unfamiliar with the suit, the WWF sued WCW soon after Hall and Nash entered WCW, alleging that WCW claimed WWF wrestlers were invading WCW, and that Nash and Hall were portraying characters copyrighted by the WWF. The suit has been pending for four years. The incident also brought about the disastrous "Fake Diesel" angle and an aborted Jim Ross heel turn.
In some other news, I recently was able to wrangle together some news on the upcoming "Beyond The Mat" DVD release. The disc will contain a number of extras, including: THREE separate audio commentary tracks, by Barry Blaustein (writer/director), Terry Funk, and Mick Foley (those make it worth the purchase themselves), an alternate beginning and ending, a lot of deleted footage (featuring Vince McMahon, Chyna, Jake Roberts, and more), the theatrical trailers, crew/cast bios, and more. "Beyond The Mat" will be released on DVD next Tuesday, August 22. VHS owners get stuck in the cold, however, as it will be only priced for rental upon release. I'll have word on a general VHS release as soon as I can get it to you.
Last night, I purchased both ECW Anarchy Rulz for the PlayStation, and WWF Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast. To sum up my feelings, both are ultimately disappointing. ECW Anarchy Rulz is yet another rehash of the ages-old Acclaim wrestling engine, with some very minor tweaks to the controls and Joel Gertner commentary. The new modes aren't anything to scream about, either. On a side note, WrestlingGames.com reports that Anarchy Rulz has not appeared in East Coast stores yet, and retailers are puzzled. Royal Rumble is just an arcade port, essentially. It has some neat graphical touches (weapons denting), but a number of things, such as the lack of wrestlers (No Dudleys, Radicals, Too Cool), lack of modes (only Exhibition and Royal Rumble), and some jerky animation and odd graphic touches (sparks when wrestlers hit each other) really pull it down. It's more worth a rental than a purchase in my eyes. To slip in a self-serving plug, you can catch my full analysis on Anarchy Rulz, Royal Rumble/THQ, and many other topics in the debut edition of my new videogame-themed column, entitled "Press Start", tomorrow.
Well, that'll close out this report for now, because there unfortunately is no ECW news circulating today. Enjoy SmackDown! or any other programming you watch in the next few days, and have a great day, everyone.
Tim Brechlin
Tim@tpww.net