Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Wednesday edition of the news and rumors here at TPWW.net. There's a lot to talk about today, as always, so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
As they do each Tuesday night, the WWF held their weekly WWF Smackdown! and WWF Heat tapings last night in Washington, DC. I don't normally completely read the spoilers, but I skimmed them this week, and from what I read, it seems like Smackdown will be a rather interesting show, following up on a great Raw this past Monday night. Without going any further, if you'd like to check out the results of the show, they're available by simply clicking HERE.
Warning: The following paragraph may contain spoilers for this Thursday's Smackdown, so if you'd rather not know a thing about the show, please skip it. It appears that the WWF will bring the Undertaker back to singles competition at WrestleMania, having him take on Triple H. The WWF did an angle last night to seemingly build up to a match between the two at WrestleMania. Definitely a good idea, in my opinion, since both the Undertaker and Kane have potential to be popular singles wrestlers and just don't "fit in" to the WWF's tag team division.
In a recent article in the New York Post, Linda McMahon commentated that the WWF may "bail out" of the XFL after this season is over, due to unexpectedly low ratings. Linda was quoted as saying, "We are committed through this first season, [but we're] taking a look at it on a week-by-week basis." Linda McMahon reportedly blamed weak games and critics of the league for its disappointing ratings thusfar. As mentioned previously, the XFL is expected to lose an extra $30 million than projected this season. To read the entire article, click HERE.
Here's something that I thought was interesting... The WWF website put up a poll recently that asks, "Are you looking forward to the invasion of the XFL Orlando Rage cheerleaders' locker room this Saturday?" The results have "No" in the lead over "Yes" with 51% of the 35,0000+ votes. That has to hurt.
Bill Miller sent word that Onion.com, a web site that does parody news stories, did a parody on Vince McMahon and the XFL. The headline reads, "Vince McMahon's X-SPAN Promises Bone-Crunching Legislative Coverage" and the article begins, "At a press conference Monday, pro-wrestling tycoon and entrepreneur Vince McMahon unveiled his latest broadcasting venture: X-SPAN, a 24-hour cable network that promises 'in-your-face, X-treme lawmaking coverage that puts C-SPAN to shame.'" Funny stuff. To check out the article in full, click HERE.
Thanks to Alex Bozich for the following tidbit on Jerry "The King" Lawler: "Jerry Lawler appeared on a Radio Show this morning and spoke about his thoughts on his dismissal from the WWF, Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman's job on RAW this past Monday night. Lawler said that he will have a new statement concerning the situation on his official website (KingLawler.com) very soon. Lawler stated that originally he thought Vince was joking about the Kat being fired, but quickly realized that it was not a joke. Overall, he said there is more to this story than what is being reported. He commented that Paul Heyman did a nice job on RAW this past Monday and that he has not spoken with his good friend Jim Ross since leaving the WWF. The overall feeling after the interview was aired was that Lawler is not on his way back to the WWF anytime soon."
WWF The Music Volume 5 will drop to number nine on the Billboard 200 chart this week after debuting at number two. The CD reportedly sold over 83,000 copies this week.
Trish Stratus will be the guest on WWF.com's "Byte This!" Internet show this Friday at 4PM EST. You can check it out by clicking HERE.
Steve Kaylor sent along the following report of what happened after Raw went off the air this past Monday: "I was in attendance at Raw Is War last night at Washington DC. After Stone Cold confronted Debra, he got out of the ring and started to walk up the ramp. He then turned and faced the ring, looking right at Tripe H who was at ringside. Austin then came down to the ring and traded punches with HHH. Austin got the upper hand and threw him into the ring. Little did HHH know, however, that The Rock was right behind him. After Austin backed up, The Rock rock bottomed HHH in the center of the ring. Then Austin left, 2 open beers in hand, followed by The Rock. Finally HHH left, having to be carried by Stephanie."
Lance Storm has updated his always interesting commentary on his web site, StormWrestling.com. Lance Storm is always in touch with the Internet wrestling community and always has something very interesting to say in his commentary. To check it out, click HERE.
EZ Money did in fact wrestle at Monday night's WCW Thunder tapings, teaming up with Scotty O. to take on Three Count in the WCW cruiserweight tag title tournament. In an interesting note, EZ Money was announced by his real name, Jason Broyles. It was said that he looked good in the match, which is definitely good to hear.
Several people sent word that their cable companies are plugging ECW Living Dangerously this Sunday. TVGuide.com also is plugging the PPV, providing the following description: "ECW: Living Dangerously, 180 min. Living Dangerously features clashes between ECW wrestlers Steve Corino, Justin Credible, Sandman, Jerry Lynn, Tommy Dreamer and C.W. Anderson, as well as Danny Doring, Roadkill and Mikey Whipwreck. Card subject to change." However, the reason this is happening is because there is yet to be an official announcement cancelling the PPV. As of now, it's about 99.9999999999% guaranteed that the PPV will not take place, unless ECW can somehow find a venue for the event, sell tickets, and book the show in the few days they have left. Obviously, that won't happen. An announcement is expected in the next few days officially cancelling the PPV. Hopefully an announcement regarding the future of ECW accompanies it.
That just about wraps things up for today's report. I just got my "History of Taz in ECW" tape that I ordered from RFVideo.com, so it's time for me to wrap this report up and check out the tape. As always, thanks for reading today's report. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com