Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to TPWW.net for today's edition of the news and rumors. There are a few interesting notes from the world of wrestling to discuss today, so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
The big news today is that former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lynn and former ECW Television and Tag Team champion Yoshihiro Tajiri have both signed three year contracts with the WWF, according to Dave Meltzer. Jerry Lynn had been in contact with the WWF for over three months now about a possible contract and finally officially signed with the company today. Yoshihiro Tajiri had also reportedly signed a letter of intent a few weeks ago, and has also signed with the WWF. As mentioned, both wrestlers reportedly signed three year contracts, but, obviously, no debut date is set for either man. I think Jerry Lynn is a great addition to the WWF roster and has the skills, size, and look to be a big star in the WWF sometime down the road. As for Tajiri, given the WWF's recent track record with international and "short" wrestlers, how well he'll be used in the WWF remains to be seen.
Triple H officially announced his stipulation for his match against Steve Austin at No Way Out, last night at the WWF Smackdown tapings. For those who would rather not have the show and the announcement spoiled, please skip on to the next paragraph. The stipulation that Triple H announced was a two out of three falls match. The first fall will be a standard wrestling match. The second fall will be a "street fight," and the third (if necessary... but obviously, it will be necessary) will be a cage match. That definitely should add a lot of excitement to their match at the PPV. The original thought was that Triple H would ask for Austin's Wrestlemania title shot to be put on the line, but obviously the WWF is set on Austin in the main event.
On the subject of the WrestleMania 17 (or X-Seven) main event, James H. sent word that a WrestleMania promotional poster has been released with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock on it. It definitely adds to speculation of an Austin vs. Rock main event at WrestleMania, which many believe will happen (Hey, Ry called it 4 months ago), but of course, as likely as it sounds, the main event has not been confirmed yet. Either way, it's pretty interesting and can be checked out by clicking HERE.
The XFL's championship game at the end of the season will apparently be called, simply the "Big Game at the End." Alrighty. CastrolUSA, in conjunction with the WWF, is holding a prize drawing to win tickets to the "Big Game at the End." To enter, click HERE.
In an interesting ratings tidbit, the infamous USA Dog Show that has preempted Raw so many times over the last few years, aired once again on Monday night (and last night). For those curious, going head to head with Raw, the dog show scored a 3.3 rating. Keeping in mind that Raw did a 4.8 and ESPN's much hyped ESPY awards scored a 2.0, I suppose that's pretty impressive.
The ratings breakdown for WWF Raw and WCW Nitro is very interesting. According to the Wrestling Observer, 93% of teenagers from wrestling's Monday night audience watch Raw, compared to only 7% that watch Nitro. Among kids age 2-11, 81% watched Raw on Monday, while 19% watched Nitro. Other percentages are as follows, courtesy of Dave Meltzer: Women 18-24: Raw 81-19%... Women 25-34: Raw 71-29%... Women 35-54: Raw 56-44%... Women 55+: Raw 63-37%... Men 18-24: Raw 72-28%... Men 25-34: Raw 71-29%... Men 35-54: Raw 61-39%... Men 55+: Raw 54-46%. Overall, Raw's "average viewer" was a 24 year old male, while Nitro's average viewer was a 35 year old male. Very interesting.
The WWF has put up a section dedicated to the infamous Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon steel cage match that took place two years ago at the WWF's "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" PPV. The match saw Vince McMahon take a bump off the steel cage through an announce table at ringside, plus the Big Show's WWF debut. To check it out, click HERE.
Tim sent along the following: "Lita will be on TSN's Off The Record on Thursday night up here in Canada. Lita will be answering selected e-mail questions which will be posted on the OTR website. You can ask her questions by emailing this address: otr@tsn.ca"
Below are the matches you can expect for tonight's WCW Thunder broadcast:
- Knoble & Karagias vs. AJ Styles and Air Paris (Newly signed talent)
- Sean O'Haire vs. Mark Jindrak
- Mike Sanders vs. Kwee Wee
- Mike Awesome vs. The Cat
- Chavo Guerrero Jr & The Wall vs. Rey Mysterio Jr & Hugh Morrus
- Konnan vs. Buff Bagwell
- Jeff Jarrett & Rick Steiner vs. DDP & Dustin Rhodes
That pretty much wraps up today's report. For those interested, full Smackdown and Heat taping results from last night can be read by clicking HERE. Unfortunately, things were a little slow on the WCW news front today, so there wasn't much to talk about, obviously. Things should hopefully pick up soon. Also, in a site related note, for all who have e-mailed me, TPWWGAMES.com should be back up very soon. We are currently in the middle of a server change, which is the reason the site has been inaccessible over the past couple of weeks. Also, the rest of the staff openings should be decided soon. We received an overwhelming amount of applications, which is the reason why they always seem to take so long to check. Everyone's patience is greatly appreciated. As always, thanks for reading. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com