Saturday, October 28, 2000 By Mike Christopher

Who? Mike Christopher? Yeah, after a long and grueling fall sports season that is finally over, I'm back. For those of you who don't know who I am, I've been with the site for a very long time and you'll get used to me. Anyway, I've got a lot of stuff to go over today, including thoughts on Smackdown, news and notes from the Ross Report, and all the day's news. Let's get started.

This past Thursday night, the WWF presented its latest installment of their weekly Thursday night show, Smackdown. Overall, a pretty good show, which included Rikishi getting the upper hand on Steve Austin, leaving him in a bloody mess with the help of a mystery person aligned with Rikishi, Kurt Angle's second title defense against Chris Jericho, Perry Saturn seemingly aligning with his Radical partners Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, and the advancement of several other angles. The question that everyone seems to be asking themselves recently is "who is the mystery person aligned with Rikishi?" I'm stumped myself, but the only logical explanation I can come up with right now is the possible heel turn of The Rock, revealing that he is the mystery person attacking Steve Austin. However, that is only speculation on my part. That would nicely set up a Rock vs. Austin, heel vs. face matchup, possibly at Wrestlemania, or maybe ever earlier than that at the Royal Rumble. With the WWF's 3 biggest stars, Steve Austin, The Rock, and HHH all being good guys right now, it's really inevitable that one of them has to turn, and it could quite possibly be The Rock. Stay tuned to WWF TV in the coming weeks to see what happens on this one.

Moving on, last night Jim Ross released his weekly Ross Report, which is filled with lots of tidbits this week. As always, if you want to read Jim's own words, I encourage you to scroll over to WWF.com now. The following paragraphs are in my own words, with my own two cents thrown in as well in some parts. Let's continue.

The WWF's cookbook, "Can You Take The Heat?", is in bookstores now and Ross informs us that it's doing well, according to the publisher of the book, ReganBooks. He also mentions that "JR's BBQ Sauce" will be available on WWF.com starting next week. After several months of planning we'll finally get to taste JR's sauce.

The Acolytes, creators of the Acolyte Protection Agency, will be out of action for about 4 weeks, according to JR. Bradshaw is nursing several broken ribs and Faarooq is getting his knee scoped.

Bob "Hardcore" Holly, who suffered a broken arm at the hands of a Kurt Angle moonsault several months ago, will be cleared to return to action on November 13th. Hardcore was in the beginning stages of a nice push into the IC division just before he suffered his injury, and one would expect upon his return he should be pushed nicely.

The Big Bossman is now healthy, and ready to return to action. I've never been a very big fan of the Bossman, but it's good to hear that he's healthy.

In some good news, Mark Henry's conditioning at Ohio Valley Wrestling is going great, however, his partner over at OVW, The Big Show, is not doing as well, and is still 60 pounds over where the WWF wants him to be. Both of these big men could make a huge impact on the WWF and let's hope each man gets it together.

The Undertaker has been cleared to return to the ring, and JR thinks that he could possibly do so this coming Monday night on RAW. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll drop the "American Badass" gimmick and return to the "Phenom" angle, but I don't think we'll get that lucky.

Tori's rehabilitation is doing great, according to JR, and after her shoulder surgery, she has basically reinvented herself. Apparently, she has gotten a haircut and slimed down a bit, and JR says she looks great. JR says we can expect to see her around return to the WWF around Survivor Series.

Victoria, the brown-haired ho, will be relocating to Memphis to learn how to improve her wrestling skills and learn how to work a large crowd. She can take the bumps, now if she can learn how to wrestle she'll be a big part of the WWF in the future.

JR reminds us to check out Sunday Night Heat this coming Sunday night for 2 reasons. For starters, Chris Jericho will be the guest host for the show, and his favorite band, Fozzy, will be performing live! That's this Sunday night at 7PM on MTV.

It's being rumored that The Kat may align herself with Eddie Guerrero. In fact, it may happen this Sunday on Heat. Personally, I don't see how that would help Eddie Guerrero in the long run, because no matter how "bad" the Kat acts, she will still garner face pops, bringing down Eddie's heel heat.

Kane is expected to intensify his mean streak in the coming weeks. Don't really know what else he could do to become "mean" against his current rival Chris Jericho, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what JR means. This ends the Ross Report for this week.

WWF Smackdown earned a final 4.7 rating. Its competition, the World Series and "Friends," earned a 13.1 and a 14.7, respectively.

Bret Hart announced Thursday at his website, Brethart.net, that he has officially retired from professional wrestling. Bret Hart said goodbye to his fans in a column in the Calgary Sun. He talked about all the great and fun times he had over his career, and talked about a specific match with the Dynamite Kid as being one of his favorite and most memorable matches. It's too bad his career had to end like it did. To read the column, click HERE.

In some rather strange news, The British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith, was apparently arrested Wednesday after threatening to kill his estranged wife, Diana Hart Smith and his sister-in-law, Eleanor Hart Neidhart. After he was released, he was arrested again yesterday after turning himself in after threatening her life again. We will attempt to keep you posted in the coming days on this story.

Well, that's all for me today. Check back tomorrow for updated News and Rumors and for all the site updates. I'm out, later.

Mike Christopher
Mike@tpww.net
AOL Instant Messanger - "MikeCTPWW"