Hello, everyone and welcome to the People's News and Rumors for this Tuesday, February 27, 2001. A lot to talk about today, so let's get to it...
Let's start off with some XFL news today, which as many of you are aware of is floundering in the ratings after its huge 10.3 rating on its debut broadcast. Saturday's XFL broadcast on NBC brought the lowest rating in prime time history among the big four networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) with a 2.6. Definitely bad news for Vince and the XFL, which is now relying on a Jesse Ventura/Rusty Tillman (NY/NJ Hitmen coach) feud to bring in ratings. If these low ratings keep up, the XFL might just be a bigger bust than one of Vince McMahon's more recent non WWF endeavors, the WBF (World Bodybuiding Federation) in the early 90s that might have lasted about 5 minutes with the biggest name on roster being a forearm injury rehabbing, Lex Luger.
Moving on, I thought that last night's Raw was a terrific show. It had two amazing matches in Benoit & Eddie Guerrero vs. X-Pac and Justin Credible, and Taka vs. Dean Malenko, and also had some great preliminary build up to the scheduled Wrestlemania main event of Steve Austin challenging the Rock for Rock's WWF title, among other things that will undoubtedly influence the biggest show of the year.
Speaking of Wrestlemania, as many of you might have noticed from the Wrestlemania TV spots, this year's show will be running from 8 PM to 12 midnight, which is a whopping 4 hour broadcast. I'm guessing the extra hour is because of the fact that last year's show went past the 11 PM hour, which is usually the limit for wrestling PPVs. In any event, we'll be getting 4 hours of WWF action on April 1st at Wrestlemania, and I, for one, can't wait.
A lot of people are wondering, "Where was Triple H during Raw last night?" Well, Hunter was backstage for the show but wasn't used after his amazing match with Austin at No Way Out (which is probably the best Triple H match I've seen since the Cactus Jack/Triple H street fight at last year's Royal Rumble). It's been said that HHH was in good spirits last night, but whatever the case, it was nice to have a Triple H-less Raw for once, because as good as Hunter is, sometimes the WWF seems to over expose him with Hunter being in almost every segment.
The hype is on, as last night's Raw did a magnificent job laying down the "Road to Wrestlemania" for Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, who at this point are scheduled to headline Wrestlemania X-Seven at the Houston Astrodome. From the opening promo where Austin told Rocky to "Stay Healthy" which Rock responded with "Get Ready," to Austin making the save for Rock after he was being attacked by Kurt Angle and others, which only led to a stare down between Rock and SCSA. To be honest, if the WWF doesn't do something stupid with this match up (such as add Triple H to the equation), this match has the potential to be one of, if not the greatest Wrestlemania main events of all time, as the heat between the two most popular wrestlers on the planet is amazing.
The seeds may have been planted at No Way Out, but after last night, the tree that is Chris Benoit's face turn has seemingly begun to sprout during Benoit's tag match with fellow Radical, Eddie Guerrero against X-Pac and Justin Credible. From the looks of it, by the time April 1st comes, Chris Benoit will be a full fledged babyface (hopefully similar to the Bret Hart type babyface who earned respect by his wrestling ability) taking on his former Radical mate, Eddie Guerrero at Wrestlemania.
I don't know where the WWF is going with this Undertaker and Kane/Islanders feud, but I sure hope that it doesn't involve the tag team titles. Nothing against Taker, Kane, Rikishi, or Haku but the WWF tag team division has been red hot when teams such as the Dudleys, Edge and Christian, and the Hardys were the focus, and I feel that if the WWF puts the tag titles on either Taker/Kane or the Islanders, the tag division would go rather stagnant as all 4 guys aren't the best of workers, and combination of all 4 of them in the same ring doesn't bring out the best of possibilites.
Some news on the newly WWF signed, ECW Unified Champion, as the Man Beast once again worked a dark match on Raw, scoring the pin over Memphis Wrestler, Steve Bradley who is the Power Pro/MCW Unified Champion. I don't know if the WWF will put the Big R on TV tonight at the Smackdown tapings, but I'd say the odds are good.
Nice to see the WWF use Taka Michunoku and Dean Malenko in a match up for what can be called the "dormant" light heavyweight championship. Don't know if this will lead to the revamping of the LH division, but with light heavyweight talent the WWF has, I sure hope so.
Thanks to BSTORM1515 for the following, which details what happened after Raw went off the air last night: "Once the show was off the air, The Rock called Kurt Angle back to the ring,aying he wasn't ready to leave Phoenix just yet. Angle and the Rock stared each other down for about five minutes until Kurt got back in the ring. Once he was in the ring, he got in Rock's face. Rock told him to back away, he then layed the WWF title on the ground in front of Kurt and told him to JUST BRING IT! Kurt got in a few punches, until the Rock whipped him off the ropes and caught Angle in the a spinebuster. He then went on ahead and did the People's Elbow. After that he celebrated with the crowd while Angle was helped to the back."
Last night's Nitro saw the well awaited return of former WCW Champion, Booker T who assisted Diamond Dallas Page and the Cat in their war against Ric Flair's Magnificent Seven. Booker also returned to ring action last night, and looked great in a very good 6 man tag with DDP and the Cat against Scott Steiner and Totally Buff, which saw Book get the pin on WCW Champion, Scott Steiner. Good to see Booker back, as he's definitely one of the pieces WCW needs to fall into place for their comeback.
Another return of sorts occurred on Nitro, as Swinger of ECW and WCW Saturday Night fame, made his WCW return in the Cruiserweight tag team tourny. Simon Diamond's former partner and Jason Lee ended up doing the job for Rey Mysterio and Kidman in the first round of the tourny last night. Swinger is the first ECW wrestler to jump to WCW after ECW's recent problems, and one must wonder, are there more to come?
On the topic of the Cruiserweight tag team title tournament, here are the brackets for the tournament, which will conclude at the only PPV in March (unless ECW pulls off some sort of miracle), WCW Greed:
- Rey Mysterio Jr. and Kidman vs. Swinger and Jason Lee
- 3 Count (Evan and Shannon) vs. Jaime Knoble and Scotty O
- Elix Skipper and mystery partner vs. AJ Styles and Air Paris
- The Jung Dragons vs. Mike Sanders and Kwee Wee
I don't know the extent of Hugh Morrus's knee injury that occurred on Nitro, whether it's a work or a shoot, but once we here at TPWW find out, we'll get it to you as soon as possible.
Before I go, here's the quick Monday night ratings report, courtesy of Dave Scherer:
- WWF RAW: 5.1 (Hours of 4.9 and 5.3)
- WCW Nitro: 2.1 (Hours of 2.3 and 1.8)
That's about it for today's report. We have some great updates on the main page, so be sure to check those out. Until next time, ciao.