Talk about an interesting month for the pro wrestling industry. When it's all said and done, this month, March 2001 may very well go down as the most important month in the history of the industry. And we still have 10 days left. With that being said, welcome to the March 21th edition of the People's News and Rumors...
In the news story that has basically flipped the wrestling industry up side down, yet another twist has occurred in the story regarding the fate of World Championship Wrestling. According to a recent press release by Fusient Media Ventures, Eric Bischoff and Fusient have pulled out of the deal to purchase WCW due to the fact that they couldn't get a TV deal with FOX (which would have resulted with WCW programming airing of FX or Fox Sports Net). In addition to pulling out of the deal, Fusient took off all references to World Championship Wrestling at their website, Fusient.com.
With that being said, reports are that the World Wrestling Federation is in the preverbial "driver's seat" to take over World Championship Wrestling. According to Dave Meltzer, the WWF would be purchasing the "name and trademarks of WCW along with its videotape library" in the next week to 10 days. Here's a statement that WWF spokesman Jayson Bernstein had to say about the possible purchase of WCW by the WWF in an Associated Press article: "We have opened that door and started holding discussions with AOL Time Warner about the possible purchase of the WCW brand."
Being a fan of pro wrestling for the last 14 years or so, watching the World Wrestling Federation for all of those 14 years, and watching WCW for the last 10 or 11 years, I never thought I'd see the day that World Championship Wrestling would leave the Turner Networks, and possibly be sold to the WWF. But there's a great possibility that the day will come, and Vince McMahon will rule the North American Wrestling scene with an iron fist, as there's little to no chance that an another promotion can do relatively successful in the next 3 years or so.
There are two trains of thought on the 'net right now on what Vince McMahon will do if WWFE does indeed purchase World Championship Wrestling. The first being that he'll only bring in a few of the WCW guys (ie Goldberg, Flair, Sting, Booker T among others) for an invasion angle. The other idea is that the WWF will keep WCW running as a separate promotion from the World Wrestling Federation, with a time slot possibility on one of the Viacom networks (most likely TNN), which would eventually led to a possible Cross Promotion Pay Per View, which I'm sure most wrestling fans have thought about at least once. To be honest, I really don't have a clue on what'll happen if and when the World Wrestling Federation purchases WCW, but if it does indeed happen, it's safe to say that the wrestling industry will be changed forever.
Tonight will be the final episode of TBS Thunder, which airs at 9 PM on TBS, and will be the final WCW program on the "Superstation." TBS is where all the magic began two decades ago, as the predescessors to the current WCW product aired at 6:05 Eastern on TBS on Saturdays. Here's the card for the final WCW Thunder on TBS:
- Jung Dragons v. Air Paris & A.J. Styles
- Jason Jett v. Kid Kash
- Cat & Smooth v. Kanyon & Animal
- Hugh Morrus v Rick Steiner
- Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman & Shane Helms v. Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper
- Chuck Palumbo v. Mike Awesome
- Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner v. Dustin Rhodes
After tonight's Thunder, there's only one last show for WCW under Turner, which will take place on Monday from Panama City, Florida in a show that is being billed as both Nitro's "Season Finale" and "Night of Champions." After debuting Labor Day '95 with a hot Pillman/Liger opener and the WCW return of Lex Luger from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Nitro has had an unpredictable feel for a good portion of time while on the air. Even though Nitro hasn't been as unpredictable since the decline of the product since '98, it'll sure be an emotional night for all wrestling fans on Monday night.
If the folks over at WCW didn't have enough to worry about after the culmination of events of the last couple of days, The Torch reports that due to the injury suffered to one of his legs, WCW World Champion Scott Steiner might not be able to participate on Monday's Nitro. Hopefully Scotty will be able to go by Monday. After all of the work he's done in the last couple of months while being the WCW champion, he definitely deserves a slot in the main event of the last TNT Nitro.
Moving onto some WWF news today, WWF.com has reported that there has been another match added to the Wrestlemania card which is being billed as a "Gimmick Battle Royal, and it'll feature "the greatest gimmicks of all time in one ring." Participating in this match up will be Doink the Clown, the Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Freebird Michael Hayes, The Gobbeldy Gooker (that's right, the Gobbeldy Gooker), Bushwhackers Butch and Luke, Nikolai Volkoff, and Brother Love. To be honest, I'd take this news with a grain of salt, as Wrestlemania takes place on April 1, which of course is April's Fools' day, and I'm guessing the WWF is going to "rib" the viewers with this "epic confrontation."
In a somewhat interesting note, the WWF is partially changing the name of the recently debuted, Rhino. While looking through an article at WWF.com about Edge, Christian, and Rhino, the WWF has spelled the "Man Beast's" name, as Rhyno, rather than Rhino. Interesting, I'm sure a couple of hardcore ECW fans will be complaining about that one.
Tomorrow morning, WWF owner, Vince McMahon will be appearing on the Howard Stern Radio Show around 8:30 AM. Vince will probably discuss with the "King of all media," his recent appearance on Bob Costas's On the Record, the XFL, and of course, McMahon will probably shill the Wrestlemania X Seven PPV a couple times.
On Friday at 4 PM, the man who will face the Rock for the WWF title at Wrestlemania, Stone Cold Steve Austin will be appearing on Byte This! on WWF.com. If you want, you have the opportunity to talk to Steve by calling 1-888-LIVEWWF during the broadcast.
According to Dave Meltzer and those who were in attendance for last night's Smackdown taping, Smackdown didn't come across very well live, as many fans complained about the fact that there were only two matches in the first hour of Smackdown which featured a "Sit Down" interview with The Rock, Steve Austin, and Jim Ross, which ran for about 25 minutes.
Speaking of Smackdown, here's the card for tomorrow night's Broadcast:
- Chris Jericho v. Raven
- Grandmaster Sexay, Steve Blackman, and K Kwik v. X Pac, Justin Credible, and Albert
- The Big Show and Triple H v. Kane
- D'Von, Buh Buh Ray, and Spike Dudley v. Edge, Christian, and Rhyno
- The Rock v. Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle
On the topic of Smackdown, before the show, two former ECW Wrestlers faced off, as former partners, Chris Chetti and Nova faced off in a dark match. For those who are wondering, Chetti got the win with his Amityville Horror finisher.
That's about it for today. Really don't have much else to say, so until next time, Ciao...