There is a slight chance that the "Who Hit Austin?" angle may be solved as soon as... this Monday, according to a report by Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch. An angle is reportedly expected to be played out where Mick Foley may announce that he either has a plan to find out who the driver was or has already found out who the driver was as soon as this Monday night on Raw is War. As of now, Stone Cold Steve Austin's expected return to the ring will be at the WWF No Mercy PPV on October 22. And of course, it's only logical that Austin's opponent will be his driver, so more than likely (maybe even definitely), the driver should be revealed very soon.
Other tentative matches that are expected to take place at No Mercy are the number one contender for the WWF Title, Kurt Angle, taking on the Rock for the WWF World Title, as well as Triple H vs. Chris Benoit, judging from the angles that have been played out in recent weeks.
Rikishi Phatu has somewhat been elevated into main event status in recent weeks, and will most likely face "The Big Red Machine," Kane at the WWF's upcoming PPV, No Mercy.
Mick Foley's best selling autobiography, "Have a Nice Day," is now available in a paperback edition and is in bookstores everywhere now.
Rocky Johnson, the father of WWF champion, The Rock, may be in legal trouble, stemming from accusations of harassment and theft at the Pine Island Community Center in Florida. Johnson reportedly took a $200 boxing dummy home from the training center without permission and was accused of stealing it, and has also been accused of harassment on charges of hugging and making "improper comments" to women at the center. For an article further detailing the situation, click HERE. The link will open in a new window so you don't lose your place here.
WWF.com has added over twenty new superstar Titantron videos at WWFSuperstars.com, including new videos for the Rock, Edge & Christian, Right to Censor, Terri, Dean Malenko, and Crash.
In a somewhat related tidbit, I recorded Disturbed's performance of Stone Cold Steve Austin's entrance theme from this past Sunday night on Heat. A link to the theme, which is available in MP3 format, is available at my Sunday Night Heat report.
A hot story in the wrestling world recently has been the potential sale of WCW to Mandalay Sports, which is reportedly being negotiated by Eric Bischoff for Mandalay Sports. As the story goes, Turner Broadcasting/Time Warner is looking to sell WCW before Time Warner's merger with AOL becomes official, due to WCW being unprofitable. In fact, WCW is reportedly expected to lose around 50-80 million dollars this year. As of now, according to various sources, the selling of WCW is alomst basically a done deal, and may be announced any time now, possibly even as soon as today or tomorrow. If the buying of WCW were to take place, Eric Bischoff would reportedly oversee the day to day operations of WCW, which would most likely mean the almost definite returns of superstars such as Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall. This will also almost definitely mean losses of jobs for several WCW employees, including possibly Vince Russo, according to several rumors, although there is also a definite excellent chance that Russo will remain with WCW...
As you may recall from a recent report, WCW wrestler Konnan reportedly passed around a petition in support of Vince Russo at a recent WCW show and asked each member of the WCW locker room to sign it. Every wrestler signed it... but one. That one wrestler, believe it or not and interestingly enough, was the man who some call the "franchise" of WCW... Sting.
Vince Russo reportedly won't join the WCW roster and staff in their trip to Australia this weekend for WCW's tour down under. The WCW booking team has reportedly already written out the show for the next two weeks, and Russo feels that it'd be best if he stayed home due to several cuncussions he has suffered lately. The plan is for Russo to fax the booking sheets to Australia from his home. However, don't take this as final, as Russo may have a change of mind.
Staying on the subject of the upcoming WCW Australian tour, WCW will tape Nitro this Saturday in Brisbane, Australia, then will tape Thunder on Monday in Sydney. Afterwards, there will be a house show on Wednesday, October 11 in Perth, then another Nitro taping on Friday the 13th and a Thunder taping on Saturday the 14th, both in Melbourne, Australia.
The Australian tour also may effect the potential sale of WCW, causing the official announcement of the sale to be delayed until the tour is over, so to not throw everyone off their game while all the way overseas. However, that is simply a possibility, as the decision (if it does in fact happen) may be announced any time now, as aforementioned.
Goldberg will take on Kronik at WCW's next PPV, Halloween Havoc on October 29. Kronic made an unexplained heel turn on Nitro this Monday, attacking Goldberg for seemingly no reason at all.
Juventud Guerrera was not at Nitro this past Monday due to problems re-entering the country, as he went home to Mexico over the weekend. Guerrera was scheduled to face Rey Mysterio Jr in a ladder match to open the show, but it was obviously changed. Guerrera should be back in action Monday on Nitro if needed.
Beetlejuice, a member of Howard Stern's "Whack Pack," will be involved in the opening segment tonight on Thunder. That guy is definitely a star in the making. Maybe he'll be the next WCW champ. On a side note, did anyone ever see that episode of Howard Stern on "E!" where Beetlejuice feuded with Hank the Angry Dwarf? That was some funny s***.
Buff Bagwell will play a role in an upcoming made for TV movie, "Terror Tract," which will debut on the USA Network on Wednesday, October 18. To read more about the movie, click HERE.
Just a reminder: Thunder airs a half hour late tonight, at 9:35 EST due to NASCAR racing on TBS.
Here are the matches you can expect for tonight's broadcast of Thunder:
- Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. A-Wall
- Lance Storm vs. Mike Sanders - Cruiserweight Title
- Mike Awesome & Crowbar vs. Jindrak & O'Haire - Tag Titles
- Sting vs. Shane Douglas
Bill Alfonso suffered some sort of hand injury at Sunday's ECW Anarchy Rulz PPV, according to Dave Scherer. As of now, no word on what exactly the injury is, or the extent of it. Alfonso was not actually injured by the Van Terminator at the end of the RVD vs. Rhino match, but was only selling the impact of the move.
On a final site related note, I forgot to mention the TPWW.net sign we had on Smackdown this past Thursday. Huge thanks to "WEADZ" for holding the sign! Since the sign made it to television, TPWW columnist The Ref has given him TONS of entries into the WrestleMania 2001 ticket giveaway. More info on the huge giveaway is available HERE. You can check out an image of the Smackdown sign HERE. The sign marks the fourth time a TPWW sign has appeared on WWF Smackdown! and the 22nd total time a TPWW sign has appeared on TV at any big three wrestling event. Huge thanks to everyone! We really appreciate it!
With that, it's time to wrap this one up. Thanks for reading. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com