Once again... hey yo, and welcome to TPWW.net for the Monday post-PPV edition of the news and rumors. There's a lot to discuss today coming out of the WWF's PPV last night, among other things, so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
First off, like many others, I thought Armageddon was a decent pay per view, with most of the undercard passable at best. However, the match that made up for the mediocre undercard was obviously the huge Hell in the Cell main event, which definitely lived up to the hype and was booked very well, minus the finish. I mean, I didn't mind Angle retaining the title, but the finish of the match was a little weak. Before the PPV, doubters of the main event claimed that the match would be way too sloppy to keep up with any of the action but that was far from the case. Last night's main event was amazing and has been called a match of the year candidate by some. For those of you who missed the PPV and have yet to check out the results, head on over to our WWF Armageddon Results, which were done live last night by yours truly.
There were a few noteworthy happenings at the PPV last night, including a new theme song for the "American Badass," The Undertaker. Instead of his usual "American Badass" theme by Kid Rock, the WWF switched the theme over to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'." I don't know about everyone else, but "Rollin" didn't seem to fit the 'Taker right last night. Either way, the reason for the change, according to a report on Launch.com, was that the WWF's rights to use Kid Rock's "American Badass" were close to expiring and the WWF did not want to renew it, since they felt it was "overexposed." It was also mentioned that Limp Bizkit may record an exclusive track for the Undertaker's theme music.
There was apparently a match pitting Too Cool and Steve Blackman against Lo Down and Tiger Ali Singh scheduled to take place either on Heat last night or at the PPV, but it did not take place due to Steve Blackman suffering from ulcers, as was mentioned on Heat. So instead, we saw a singles match between Scotty Too Hotty and D'Lo on Heat.
The WWF website is stating that the following is expected to occur on Raw is War tonight:
- Chris Benoit vs. Billy Gunn - Intercontinental Title
- Ivory vs. Chyna - Women's Title (?)
- Raven vs. Al Snow - Hardcore Match
- Hardy Boyz vs. Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn
- Kurt Angle will speak.
- Mick Foley will speak, and maybe retire as commissioner if someone was "injured" during the main event last night.
Thursday's edition of Smackdown pulled in a great 5.0 broadcast rating for the WWF, according to Dave Scherer. However, an even more noteworthy situation coming out of this is that WWF Smackdown is apparently the most watched of the WWF's two "major" shows. Although Raw is War also constantly draws a 5.0 rating and over, a 5.0 cable rating translates to only a 4.0 broadcast rating, since cable TV is only aired in about 80% of the broadcast market. Although it shouldn't be said that Smackdown is the WWF's "top" show now, it is their most watched and the WWF has obviously been treating both shows as "A" shows in light of the recent ratings.
Sarah from the United Kingdom sent along the following followup to yesterday's report about WWF Insurrextion tickets selling out quickly in the UK: "I was one of the lucky ones that managed to get my hands of some WWF tickets for next years UK PPV. What people don't seem to realise is this. I arrived at the arena at about 10.30am on the Friday morning with my friend. We joined the queue, which was not outside! There were approx in total about 300 people underground, out of everyone's view. We were told that the box office had 2000 tickets to sell, and that they would try to squeeze in about 300 people where we were and that everyone was allowed up to six tickets. We were all given raffle tickets and pieces of paper that allowed us to come and go as we pleased, although we were locked in at night. The arena only had 2000 to sell, as the rest were for sale through ticketmaster. Hundreds, if not thousands of people turned up on the Friday evening to queue and they were kept outside, obviously not aware that the ticket allocation for the arena was basically gone, because there were 300 people out of view under the arena. We were all woken up at 7.30am only to be kept waiting till 9.am till we could get tickets. They only let ten of us through at a time and the queuing system was very slow. All the time we were being kept waiting tickets were being sold via the phones, which wasn't fair. From what I understand the people that had been there since Monday did not get front row! Alot of people complained, and rightly so. BUT, security was very good to us, it was just the way the ticket allocation was handled that was out of order."
Once again, Nitro will not air tonight, due to TNT airing part two of a David Copperfield special in Nitro's timeslot. However, Nitro will air tomorrow night at 8:00 PM EST. The following matches are expected for the show, according to WCW.com:
- Scott Steiner vs. ??? - WCW World Title
- Sid Vicious vs. ???
- Lance Storm & Major Gunns vs. The Cat & Ms. Jones
- Jeff Jarrett & Harris Bros. vs. The Filthy Animals - Elimination Match
- Shane Douglas vs. Corporal Cajun
In an update on the WCW television situation on Christmas and New Year's Day, as of now, Nitro will NOT air on those days, but WCW will still hold a WCW Nitro and WCW Thunder television taping on December 22. However, according to Dave Meltzer, the Nitro taping will be shown ONLY in international markets, since it will not air in the US on Christmas Day. The next week, New Year's Day, Nitro will not air in the US, but a "Best of Nitro" episode will air that week in international markets. As for Thunder, the December 27th edition of Thunder in the US will be a "Best of Thunder" episode, while WCW will apparently air the taped Thunder on Wednesday, January 3rd. Confusing? Sure is.
On the subject of international WCW programming, WCW Nitro has apparently switched channels in Australia. Anthony A. from Australia sent along the following note: "I just thought I'd let you know that Fox Sports in Australia has announced that it will now be airing WCW Monday Nitro instead of 'TCM,' which had previously aired Nitro and was an extra pay channel."
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that Ry and I once again picked up tickets for the next ECW PPV, Guilty As Charged, January 7th at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, New York. On this week's episode of Hardcore TV, Joey Styles hyped up the PPV on several occasions, claiming that the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC was basically the new "home" for ECW. Styles stated that ECW has the same feel for the building as they did for the ECW Arena, and they feel that it best encompasses the "spirit of ECW." Definitely good news for me and probably every other ECW fan in the New York City area. On a side note, GREAT seats (camera side) are still available for the PPV through all Tickemaster outlets. This one apparently isn't selling as quickly as the last few New York ECW shows, but it'll still probably sell out.
And with that, it's just about time to wrap this one up. As always, thanks for stopping by and be sure to stop by once again tomorrow for another round of news and rumors. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com