Welcome (back) to TPWW.net for the Tuesday edition of the news and rumors. Both the WWF and WCW put on good, interesting shows last night, both of which had newsworthy situations to talk about in today's report. So without further delay, here are today's news and rumors...
One hot topic in the wrestling world as of late is the potential return of the Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Early yesterday, the WWF put a message on their website stating that Stone Cold Steve Austin would appear on tonight's Raw to make comments about his future in the World Wrestling Federation. However, at seemingly the last second, the Austin appearance on Raw was scrapped and moved to Thursday night's Smackdown!. Two reasons have been brought up for the switch, the first and most logical being that the WWF decided to make the switch to Smackdown for a boost in ratings on their network show. We all remember how high the ratings went with all the talk of a Stone Cold return a few months ago. However, another reason for the switch was simply due to the lack of quality of the pre-taped segment with Steve Austin. The segment was taped in Austin's home in Texas and the WWF was reportedly unhappy with the lighting and quality of the interview, and had the segment re-shot earlier today to air on Thursday's Smackdown.
According to various reports, an interesting note that Austin makes in his comments is that he wants the person who "ran him over" with a car last year to step up and confront Austin at the WWF's next PPV, Unforgiven. Whether or not that will actually happen is still up in the air, but just imagine the buyrate for that one.
After Raw went off the air, Kane returned to the ring only to receive a chokeslam from the Undertaker followed by the People's Elbow by the Rock. Thanks to Jeremy Bratcher & Keith Wilcutt for sending that info.
Here are last night's Raw dark matches (not aired on television) and Jakked/Metal TV tapings, once again courtesy of Jeremy Batcher & Keith Wilcutt:
Dark Matches:
-The Dupps defeated Mean Street Posse by pinfall
-Unknown jobber defeated Mark Antony by pinfall
-Steven Regal defeated Chris Michaels by submission
Jakked/Metal tapings:
-Scotty 2 Hottie defeated Dean Malenko by pinfall (Malenko was escorted by two new valets)
-Lo Down defeated an unknown jobber tag-team by pinfall
-Crash Holly defeated Jason Lee by pinfall
-Rikishi defeated Gangrel by pinfall after a stinkface
As mentioned above, Steven Regal worked a dark match at Raw last night, picking up the victory over Chris Michaels with the Regal Stretch. The WWF was reportedly very impressed with Regal and are planning on adding him into television storylines soon.
A rumored and probable main event for September 24th's WWF PPV, Unforgiven, is The Rock vs. Chris Benoit vs. Kane vs. The Undertaker for the WWF World title. This would make the most sense, considering all three of the Rock's opponents have been battling for the number one contendor spot over the past few shows. Another almost obvious match on the PPV is expected to be Triple H vs. Kurt Angle.
Val Venis gave the reason for his character switch in a recent interview with Alex Marvez of SportsWritersDirect. Val stated that he felt his "porn star" gimmick was overshadowing his actual wrestling skill, so he decided to put forth the idea of dropping the gimmick to WWF management and after a few tries, they went for it.
Bret Hart made an appearance for the second Nitro in a row last night, once again attacking Goldberg. Hart will also be on WCW Thunder this week to explain his actions, according to Bob Ryder.
In case you haven't noticed, this week's Monday night ratings have been delayed due to the Labor Day holiday. They should be available tomorrow afternoon. It should be interesting to see how Nitro did unopposed against Raw, but opposed by Monday Night Football.
Mike Franey sent along a list of wrestling show ratings in the United Kingdom. You can check out the list HERE. The WWF is also dominating the ratings overseas.
Be sure to join us tonight for live match by match results of tonight's WWF Smackdown! and Sunday Night Heat tapings by Mike E.
As you can probably tell by this admittedly half-assed report, news still hasn't really picked up due to the Labor Day weekend. Yes, that's my excuse for everything, but unfortunately, it's true... it's true. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow and we hope you'll join us once again then. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com