Welcome back (to you and to myself) to TPWW.net, on this early Tuesday morning edition of the N&R;, news and rumors for short. This has been an extremely busy weekend for all members of TPWW, which may explain some of our absences over the last few days. Both myself and Ry attended Saturday's TREMENDOUS ECW show in New York City (more on that later) and all four members of the N&R; staff - myself, Ry, Tim, and Mike - have had important personal matters to tend to. Anyway, now that all the talk... or text... is out of the way, here's even more text for you to read, in the form of today's news and rumors...
First off, I have to give my thoughts on last night's Monday night shows, both of which I actually thought were excellent. Yes, including Nitro, although nothing in WCW seems to impress anyone these days, no matter how good. Anyway, as I just stated, I actually thought Nitro was a great show, although most matches had totally messed up finishes. The all around booking and storyline surrounding the entire show was great to me. Yes, it is obvious that Russo is attempting to relive the epic Austin vs. McMahon feud between himself and Goldberg, but however you look at it, it's still pretty entertaining... At least it was on last night's show. Like him or not, Goldberg is a tremendous face (good guy), and although I actually supported his heel turn a while back (I don't know why), I have to admit it wasn't the best idea by Russo and Golbderg belongs in the role he played last night. Having him come out unannounced to take out Shane Douglas reminded me of the old undefeated Golbderg days.
And oh yeah, there was another title change, with Nash defeating Booker T. From what I've heard, Nash had been pushing backstage for the title to be taken off Booker T and given to him, claiming that Booker wasn't over with the crowd enough. Honestly, although it may seem a little selfish of Nash, I have to agree with him. Booker T was moderately over with the crowd, but not anywhere near the likes of guys like Goldberg or Sting, or even Nash for that matter.
The "familiar face" returning to Nitro that had been hyped for all week by Vince Russo turned out to be most everyone's choice, Bret "Hitman" Hart. Hart returned at the very end of Nitro, seemingly on the side of Goldberg, ready to take out Vince Russo. However, just as Goldberg turned his back, Hart clocked him with a shovel, revealing his true heel side. I guess the band once again is back together. Will WCW officially call them the nWo, though? I don't know why, but I would like to see it again. If done right, it could be successful and could be a nice boost for WCW.
Hey, WCW also has next week to gain some lost viewers, as Raw is War will once again be pre-empted by US Open Tennis. Raw will once again air two hours late on the east coast, from 11PM to 1AM. On a side note from last night's Raw, for those who are wondering, Raw was in fact taped at 9PM on the east coast, then was aired two hours later. The show did not air live at 11, for those who may think so.
And staying on the subject of Raw is War, like I stated above, I also thought it was a good show with lots of drama that had you hooked on the show. The WWF just does a great job with that sort of thing. The Edge & Christian stuff was also hilarious and how about that main event? Overall, a good Monday night of wrestling and I think both shows deserve an A, as far as grades go.
Here are the results from last night's Jakked/Metal tapings, courtesy of Mike E...
- Too Cool defeated Lo-Down
- Dean Malenko defeated Crash Holly
- X-Pac defeated Essa Rios
- Road Dogg defeated Gangrel
For complete, detailed results, as well as results from last night's dark matches, check out Mike's full report HERE.
Hey, SummerSlam was also a couple of nights ago, wasn't it? In case you missed our live coverage this past Sunday night, I thought the PPV was absolutely incredible. Just about every match had me interested and to no one's surprise, the TLC match stole the show, as all three teams put on one of the best matches I have ever seen. Obviously a match of the year candidate there. According to 1wrestling, all three teams were met with a standing ovation from the WWF locker room when they returned from their match. Definitely a nice thing to hear.
Shane McMahon's bump was also unbelievable. It was amazing seeing him fall from that high. However, according to several reports, Shane was 100% fine after taking the bump. Also good to hear that and to see that the WWF could make such a sick-looking bump so safe.
Kurt Angle actually was legitimately knocked out at Sunday's PPV, after the table he was standing on gave way when Triple H did the Pedigree spot. Angle hit his head on the table and actually really was knocked out for a while. Him being taken to the back on a stretcher was originally supposed to be part of the show anyway, however. Pretty ironic. But as you most likely saw on last night's Raw, Angle seems to be back to normal.
In other news from around the World Wrestling Federation, there is lots of speculation on the debut of Raven all around the Internet. We can confirm now that Raven has officially signed a deal with the WWF and could make his debut anytime now, as he's officially part of the WWF roster. As of now, there is no real word on his role upon his debut, other than the fact that he will almost definitely continue to use the "Raven" name, and more than likely will keep the same gimmick he had in WCW and ECW.
Napster has apparently began to ban users with WWF related MP3s... OCNWO Hollywood sent along the following report... "NAPSTER has made somewhat of an "alliance" with the WWF in regards to the WWF Volume 5 theme rumors that you mentioned a week or so back. I was able to download the complete Chyna theme and Kurt Angle, etc. from Napster, and as part of a crackdown, as they did with Metallica songs a little while ago, NAPSTER has commenced disabling account of users with WWF theme songs being shared, specifically, the "new Volume 5" songs. If the users want their access re-enabled, they have to agree to let the WWF sue them for copyright infringement. I find this totally wrong as my account, OCNWO, was disabled and I was outraged on what I read. When they disable the account, they do specifically state that it was a result of a ban from the WWF."
In another note from last night's Nitro, for any of you who were wondering why Scott Hudson was absent from the announcer's table, Scott was given the night off to spend time with his wife, who is expecting a new baby girl. Congrats go out to Scott Hudson on that one.
This past Friday's ECW on TNN scored a mediocre 0.8 rating, off quarter hours of 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, and 1.1, according to Dave Scherer.
In news on everyone's favorite current ECW Japenese sensation, Yoshihiro Tajiri, according to Dave Scherer, Tajiri will head off to Japan for about three weeks to visit his family. I got a chance to see Tajiri live at this past Saturday's ECW show, and to be completely blunt, he kicked ass.
For those of you who attended Saturday's show, or read the results somewhere, you may know that a "fan" ran in during the main event, and was quickly taken down by security in the middle of the ring. However, as was obvious after Rhino gored one of the "police officers," the fan who attempted to get into the ring was a plant, as was the cop who got gored by Rhino. If you're confused, you'll see what I'm talking about within the next couple of weeks on TNN.
As I already stated several times in this report, this past Saturday's ECW show was completely amazing and was definitely one of the best live events I've had the privelage of witnessing, if not the best. Here's a tip for everyone... If ECW comes to your town and you have a chance to go... GO! You won't regret it. ECW is just unbelievale live. The way the crowd gets into it... there's just nothing like it.
Also during the show, Spike Dudley told the crowd that they would be returning to NYC at the Hammerstein Ballroom in early December. And of course, I know myself and Ry will once again be attending that one.
For a short recap of Saturday's ECW show, click HERE.
And on a final note, HUGE THANKS to the person who held the TPWW sign up at this past Friday's episode of ECW on TNN. This was TPWW sign number 20, if I'm not mistaken, including a couple that we were unable to grab pics of, from before I had my capture card. Once again, we can't describe how appreciative we are of everyone who has held up a TPWW sign at a wrestling event, whether or not it got on television. To check out a pic of the sign, click HERE. And to check out our signs image archive, click HERE.
That just about wraps it up for today's report. Thanks, as always, for reading and be sure to join us tomorrow for another round of news and rumors. Later, everybody.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com