Welcome back to TPWW.net for the first official N&R; report of November 2000 here at TPWW. As always, there's tons of news to get to today, so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
The WWF held its weekly WWF Smackdown! tapings last night in Rochester, NY and from what I've heard, the show was a huge one as far as advancing WWF angles goes. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that this whole Austin-Rikishi situation may take a huge turn in the coming days or weeks and will undoubtedly get a lot of people thinking and speculating. As always, if you can't wait until Thursday night, to check out the complete results of last night's taping, look no further than our weekly WWF Smackdown! Tapings board, reported by Mike E., where you'll also find complete results of last night's WWF Heat taping.
On this week's edition of Smackdown!, Adam Sandler, star of the upcoming movie "Little Nicky," will make a guest appearance. Speaking of that movie, from the previews I've seen, it looks pretty good.
Vince McMahon and the WWF have apparently "had it up to here" with the Parents Television Council and may pursue legal action as soon as this week, according to a report by the New York Post. When attempting to get advertisers to not advertise on WWF Smackdown!, the Parents Television Council reportedly shows the targeted advertiser a list of past companies that have pulled their ads from Smackdown. However, that list is a "big lie" according to comments by Vince McMahon. "It's the Big Lie Theory and that's what they're doing, they're lying their way through this thing. ... The [PTC] will list some 37 advertisers [with the] implication that these advertisers have left us. ... That's not true, 25 of them have never even advertised with us - ever," McMahon told the New York Post. However, PTC chairman L. Brent Bozell III claims that 25 of the advertisers simply stated that they will not advertise on Smackdown in the future. Either way, Vince McMahon stated that the WWF is planning to sue the PTC and Bozell as soon as this week. To read the entire article, click HERE.
Viacom is reportedly very shocked and upset about all the talks of a possible WWF purchase of WCW and have also reportedly been considering going as far as taking legal action against the WWF and Time Warner to stop a potential deal from happening, according to various reports. Viacom's biggest fear is that if the WWF purchased WCW, if Vince McMahon were to grow angry at Viacom for any reason, he could shift attention to WCW programming, according to Bob Ryder, which would air on TBS and TNT, both of course are NOT Viacom owned networks. Viacom's deal with the WWF includes a clause stating that WWF programming may only air on Viacom owned networks. However, if the WWF were to purchase WCW, they would declare it almost a completely separate company and would claim that the Viacom contract does not hold for WCW programming. However, Viacom is reportedly very serious about this situation and as stated above, would even be willing to go to court against the WWF in order to prevent it from happening. TNN has some sort of problem keeping a good relationship with wrestling programs, don't they?
TNN's prime time cable ratings have risen 38% from last year, while USA's ratings have dropped 29%, according to a report by Variety. Can you guess why? However, even with the ratings turnaround, USA still managed to pull into sixth place as far as cable ratings go, averaging a 1.5 prime time rating. TNN, on the other hand, went all the way up to 9th place, averaging a 1.1. TBS and Cartoon Network took the title as the highest rated prime time networks, both averaging 1.9 ratings. ESPN came in 3rd with a 1.8, according to Dave Scherer.
As you may have seen this past Monday on Raw, the WWF played out an angle where Stephanie McMahon had the "flu" or was sick in some way. There are now farfetched rumors that the WWF will play out some sort of pregnancy angle in the near future involving Stephanie. As I stated, that does sound pretty farfetched to me, but as they say, anything can happen in the WWF.
In an interesting little tidbit, the Undertaker's motorcycle apparently died on its way back up the ramp to the dressing room on Raw, according to the Wrestling Observer. However, luckily for the WWF, the situation occured during commercial break.
Chyna's appearance on MadTV will air this Saturday night on FOX, according to 1wrestling. The show will also feature a parody interview with MadTV cast member Will Sasso doing an impression of The Rock. Alrighty then.
The Dudley Boyz were given the week off, which is why they weren't on Raw this past Monday, according to Dave Scherer. They also will not be at Smackdown this week.
This past Monday's Nitro and Thunder taping at the Bren Center in Irvine, California drew only around 2,000 fans... only 768 of them paid. Ouch.
Sting may need to undergo neck surgery some time in the near future, according to WCW Live. That's definitely even more bad news for WCW. Can they afford to lose one of their top faces in Sting?
On the subject of injuries, Vampiro may have suffered a major concussion at the hands of the top rope Mike Awesome powerbomb this past Sunday at Halloween Havoc. Vampiro was reportedly feeling numbness in his hands on Monday, but still wrestled on Monday's Thunder taping.
I got an advance copy of Goldberg's new book, "I'm Next" the other day in the mail. Thus far I've only had the opportunity to read a few chapters of the book and thusfar I'm impressed. The book starts off detailing Goldberg's less than stellar NFL football career, then goes into how he got into the professional wrestling business and how his friends and family reacted. As I stated, it has been an interesting read thus far and I definitely recommend it. The book will be officially released on November 7th, but you can pre-order your copy NOW by clicking HERE.
And with that, it's time to wrap this baby up. One last thing before I go... In case you somehow haven't noticed on the main page, we've added a great new Discussion Forum feature where you can discuss wrestling with other wrestling fans across the world. Thus far, we've been very happy with the popularity of the forum, which already have well over 250 people registered in only three days. Of course, registration is completely free, so what are you waiting for? We also have a new Guess the Wrestler up for everyone who enjoys those. I think I've pretty much covered everyting on the agenda, so until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com