Hello, everyone, and welcome to TPWW.net on this cold Wednesday afternoon/evening/whenever you're reading this. After suffering from a few Internet connection problems yesterday, I'm back and there's a lot to catch up on in the world of wrestling so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
As usual on every Tuesday, the WWF held its weekly Smackdown! and Heat tapings last night in Indianpolis, Indiana. This week's Smackdown! will be the WWF's final show before the Survivor Series PPV this Sunday, and if the past is any indication, Smackdown should be a pretty eventful show to help buildup the anticipation and, hopefully for the WWF, increase the buyrate for their PPV this Sunday. However, if you can't wait until this Thursday night to catch Smackdown!, the complete match by match results are available right here on TPWW, courtesy of Mike E. To check them out, simply click HERE.
On the subject of Smackdown!, WWF fans in Canada who are unable to watch Smackdown weekly will now be able to every week... starting tomorrow. The WWF has reportedly signed a three year deal with The Score Television Network to air WWF Smackdown! every Thursday night at 8:00PM, then a replay at 11:00PM. The deal also includes WWF Metal starting in December, which will air Saturdays at 5PM and will be replayed Sundays at 6PM, and XFL games for two years starting February 2001. The Score will pay the WWF for rights to air the show, and will give the WWF 100% of ad profits. In return, the WWF will give The Score an undisclosed amount of the net profits. The WWF will also take an equity position in The Score's parent company, Headline Media Group Inc.
Staying on the subject of Smackdown, none other than the Big Show, who has recently been working in Ohio Valley Wrestling (a "minor league" affiliate of the WWF), was backstage at the Smackdown tapings last night. He was reportedly in great shape and is hoping for a return to the WWF soon.
Speaking of returns from Ohio Valley Wrestling, Mark Henry made his return to the WWF Monday night to work a dark match against a local worker. Henry reportedly has somewhat of a new look - he has slimmed down a lot and has grown his hair longer and braided.
In case you missed it, the ratings are in, and it's pretty much the same old story. Raw scored another relatively "low" 5.0 rating off hours of 4.7 and 5.3, while Nitro scored a 2.6 rating, up from last week's 2.5, off hours of 2.9 and 2.2. The biggest jump, however, was by Sunday Night Heat, which scored a big 2.6 rating after last week's 1.9. That is Heat's highest rating since moving to MTV. For the morning shows, Livewire and Superstars scored a 1.2 and 1.1, respectively.
The final card for WWF Survivor Series will reportedly look like this, according to Dave Meltzer:
- Steve Austin vs. Triple H
- The Rock vs. Rikishi
- Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker - WWF Title
- Chris Jericho vs. Kane
- Lita vs. Ivory - Women's Title
- William Regal vs. Hardcore Holly - European Title
- The Radicals vs. Billy Gunn, Chyna, Road Dogg, & K Kwik - Elimination Match
- The Dudleys & The Hardys vs. Edge & Christian, Goodfather, & Bull Buchanan
- Steve Blackman, Crash, & Molly Holly vs. T&A; & Trish Stratus
Just under 50,000 tickets have already been sold for WrestleMania X-Seven from the Houston Astrodome on April 1, 2001. Tickets went on sale Saturday at 10:00 AM on both the Internet and at Ticketmaster box offices. An amazing 44,000 tickets were sold just three hours after they went on sale. However, tickets are still available for the WWF's PPV spectacular through Ticketmaster outlets and at TicketMaster. The WWF reportedly was hoping to sell around 66,000 tickets for the show. It appears that they will achieve that goal without a problem.
The WWF will be releasing two new home videos soon, according to TPWW reader Derek Bonk. The first video is entitled "Chris Jericho: Break Down The Walls" and the second will be entitled "Kurt Angle: It's True, It's True." Both videos are set for a November 22 release, but are available for pre-order right now at the WWF Shopzone.
Vampiro may be done with WCW, according to a recent interview on RealJuggalos.com. JuggaloChe sent along the following report: "According to an Interview conducted by Realjuggalos.com (A fan site for The Insane clown Posse that is endorsed by ICP themselves), Vampiro stated that he will be leaving WCW forever as of the end of December to concentrate on his music career with The Insane Clown Posse's Psychopathic records. To see the interview, go to RealJuggalos.com, click News, and look at the 11/15/00 part one news update.
Konnan suffered a concussion at the WCW Thunder tapings Sunday in Manchester, England during his match where he teamed with The Cat to take on the Boogie Knights. CoolRy sent along this report: "After the match, Konnan laid in the ring once the cameras stopped rolling for about five minutes. I missed how Konnan got injured, but it was definitely not a work and he seemed to have some sort of whiplash, which prevented him from getting up. A number of officials and WCW staff came down to attend to him. It's unlikely that you'll see this on Thunder. Konnan was able to walk out on his own two feet in the end."
I picked up WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64 yesterday, and as I expected, I was very pleased with it. The game adds so much to its excellent predecessor, WrestleMania 2000, including a great new career mode, the amazingly fun ladder match, a new steel cage, breakable announce tables, and so much more that I can't even think of right now. I'm going to attempt to dish out a full review of the game on TPWWGAMES.com over the next few days, including my ratings breakdown of the game. I'll also be adding a No Mercy creations forum for everyone to post their... No Mercy creations, within the next few days. So if you're a video games fan, stick around for that.
And finally, HUGE thanks to everyone who held a TPWW sign at the WCW Nitro taping (which aired Monday) this past Friday in London, England. One of the signs appeared prominently throughout Nitro. You can check out a snapshot of that sign HERE. HUGE thanks to degenerate#69 for holding that sign. A huge shoutout also goes out to Anthony Jeffery and James Garner, who also both held up TPWW signs at the Nitro taping. As always, we GREATLY appreciate it when a TPWW sign is brought to a wrestling event. Huge thanks to everyone who has ever held one in the past. To check out snapshots of all previous signs we've managed to take pictures of, click HERE.
And with that, it's time to wrap this one up. As always, thanks for reading. Until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com