Hello, everyone and welcome to The People's Wrestling Website, TPWW.net on this... plain... Wednesday here in New York. The world of wrestling has been buzzing with several potentially huge stories over the past couple of days, and today is no different so without further ado, here are today's news and rumors.
As was mentioned yesterday, reports are that ECW owner Paul Heyman has given the majority of his ECW roster - with the exception of a certain few, most notably Steve Corino, Rhino, Tajiri, Super Crazy, and Justin Credible - the OK to search out potential deals with the WWF or WCW, and if they should get a good offer, they will be allowed to leave ECW. Obviously, this is being done as somewhat of a cost-cutting measure, since ECW's financial status right now is not too great. As has also been previously reported, several wrestlers are way behind on being paid, some as much as six weeks, according to various reports. The first wrestler to apparently take Paul Heyman up on his offer is former and recent ECW champion, Jerry Lynn, who reportedly was at Smackdown! last night meeting with Jim Ross about a potential deal. The meeting, which took place at the Smackdown tapings in Minnesota, Lynn's home state, was said to have gone well and the WWF will be in touch with him again shortly about a possible deal.
Quick warning... this paragraph may contain a WWF Smackdown! spoiler concerning the main event at the WWF Armageddon PPV. If you don't want to find out, simply skip to the paragraph below... Mick Foley officially announced the rumored six person Hell in the Cell main event at Armageddon last night on Smackdown. The match will feature WWF champion Kurt Angle, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Rikishi. The first person to pick up the pinfall victory will be declared the new WWF champion. I've read various comments concerning the main event... some feel that it'll be way too sloppy to be entertaining, and some, including me, feel that it'll be a very entertaining match... if booked well, of course.
Recently released WCW wrestler Lenny Lane wrestled a dark match (non-televised) last night on Smackdown in his home state of Minnesota. Lane reportedly received a pretty loud pop (probably because he was announced as a hometown boy), but ended up taking a loss to Shao Funaki.
After being delayed due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the ratings have been announced. Raw is War scored ANOTHER 5.0 rating, off hours of 4.4 and 5.5, while Nitro scored a 2.4 off hours of 2.6 and 2.2, according to Dave Scherer. In the weekend ratings, Livewire and Superstars scored a 1.1 and 1.2, respectively, while Heat continued to struggle with "only" a 2.0 rating.
Speaking of Heat, the guest host for Heat this Sunday night on MTV will be none other than The Rock.
The WWF has made a few major changes to the UK-Only WWF Rebellion PPV this Saturday, live from Sheffield, England. Thanks to TPWW reporter Mike Franey for passing along the new card, which is as follows:
- Kurt Angle vs. The Rock vs. Steve Austin vs. Rikishi - WWF Title
- Chris Benoit vs. The Undertaker
- Chris Jericho vs. Kane
- Right to Censor vs. The Hardys - Tag Titles
- Lita vs. Ivory - Women's Title
- William Regal vs. Crash - European Title
- Steve Blackman vs. Perry Saturn - Hardcore Title
- The Dudleys vs. Edge & Christian vs. T&A; - Tables Match
- Billy Gunn & Chyna vs. Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko
- Val Venis vs. Bradshaw
The WWF conducted an interview with Matt Hardy on WWFHardys.com recently, where Matt talked about working in the WWF, being on the road with ECW champion Steve Corino, and more. To check it out, click the link above.
WWF New York is holding a contest where WWF fans can win lunch with WWF superstars. The drawing is taking place at the WWF New York themed restaurant in New York and the prize is either lunch with Too Cool on December 4th, or lunch with Al Snow and Jacqueline on December 5th. The winners will be announced this Thursday night from WWF New York during the WWF Smackdown telecast.
Vampiro has officially begun touring with the Insane Clown Posse at their concerts. Juggalo Che sent along the following report: "I would just like to report on Vampiro, I was at an Insane Clown Posse concert yesterday in Cleveland Ohio, and after like two songs, ICP said 'let's hear it for Vampiro!' and as all we Juggalos cheered, the light shined on Vampiro and there he was, going off on his guitar for the rest of the night. At one point, Vampiro made his way into the mosh pit, I was in there, but I didn't know he was there into he bumped into me. I looked next to me because the guy was kinda huge, when I looked, it was Vampiro himself, I couldn't believe I was right next to him, he stayed in the crowd for a while and the whole time I was next to him, it was the shxt. I'm very happy for Vampiro because it looked like he was having the time of his life while he was playing with ICP. I don't really mind him leaving WCW now because a person's happiness is more important than him wrestling for us as miserable as he was. I'm looking forward to many more concerts where Vampiro will be playing with The Insane Clown Posse."
Goldberg has reportedly been suffering from a rotator cuff injury that will eventually require surgery, according to Ric Russo via Dave Scherer. However, Goldberg will put off surgery on the injured shoulder, due to WCW already being short on top talent with the recent injuries to Sting and Booker T, who are suffering from elbow and knee injuries, respectively.
There are rumors across the 'net that Eric Bischoff met with WCW's "lead man," Brad Siegel last night regarding a possible sale of WCW to Bischoff. There are also rumors that the sale may happen anytime within the next few days, but again, how many times have we heard that already? Also, other sources have denied this rumor.
Austin Kellerman of XSE wrestling sent along the following press release, regarding to the recent cancellations of two ECW shows in Texas early next month: "On Saturday, November 25th, Dave Scherer reported on 1wrestling.com that the cancellation of the ECW show in Dallas on December 8th was the decision of the promoter at The Bronco Bowl (the Dallas venue). The report stated that The Bronco Bowl was upset when it learned that Steve Corino, Sandman, Yoshihiro Tajiri and Mickey Whipwreck were booked to work a show for XSE wrestling, a local independent promotion, the previous night in Fort Worth. XSE wishes to issue this statement with the intent of informing the professional wrestling community that this story is ABSOLUTELY AND CATAGORICALLY FALSE. XSE spoke with Bronco Bowl promoter Ray Compton on Tuesday, and Compton assured XSE that he was notified by Steve Karel of ECW last week that Paul Heyman was canceling the shows due to financial reasons. He offered a note from Karel informing the Bronco Bowl of ECW's intent to cancel as proof. Heyman then had the nerve to blame the cancellation on the four workers, some of whom received heat from others in the company before the real story started to surface. XSE realizes that Paul Heyman and ECW are in dire financial straits. XSE has enjoyed positive working relationships with several ECW talents, and we do not want to see the bulk of their livelihoods taken away. However, we will NOT sit still while we are used as convenient scapegoats by Paul Heyman to hide the fact that he cannot afford to run his own shows. This affects our credibility, as well as costing us many advertising dollars that have now been wasted promoting the appearance of ECW talent on our show (Heyman has apparently mandated that none of the aforementioned talents will be permitted to work the XSE show, regardless of ECW's cancellation). Ironically, Paul Heyman has always positioned himself as the underdog, an independent visionary in an era of corporate wrestling. Yet Mr. Heyman has chosen to sacrifice the good name of XSE (the very type of "underdog" independent promotion that he claims to champion) in order to save himself from being honest with his workers and his fans, and that makes him a hypocrite. Attempts to contact Paul Heyman in order to try to reach a more amicable solution to this problem have been met with no response, so we cannot realistically expect him to start returning phone calls and e-mails now. However, XSE would like to suggest that Mr. Heyman owes XSE and its' fans, as well as ECW and its' fans a sincere apology for misleading them as well as misrepresenting himself. XSE will run the December 7th show as promised, all be it without the ECW talent it had previously booked. XSE is currently arranging replacement talent, and will notify all media outlets when arrangements are confirmed."
Despite the allegations by XSE, ECW still claims that their show had something to do with the cancellations. Sales for the Texas shows were apparently a lot less than expected, so ECW cancelled them and still feels that their talent being booked for the XSE show the night before had something to do with the low sales for the ECW shows.
On a somewhat related note, the big December 21st ECW show in Queens, NY, which will feature the Dudley Boyz, has been moved to December 15th, according to Dave Meltzer. Thankfully, the Dudleys are still scheduled to make an appearance at the card. Tickets for the show will tentatively go on sale at Sunday's Massacre on 34th Street PPV.
ECW's second major home video/DVD, "Path of Destruction," scored a good fourth place finish on Billboard's Sports and Recreation list for the week of December 2. In other good news for ECW, their first major video, "Extreme Evolution," placed number six.
It's just about time to wrap this one up. As always, thanks for reading and until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com