Hey there TPWW readers, and thanks for checking out my News and Rumors Report on today, March 25. There are definitely a lot of interesting items out there today, most of which border around the massive story of the WWF purchasing WCW last week. I'll do my best to cover all the major happenings in the wrestling world, so without any further discussion, let's get on with the news…
With the sale of WCW to the WWF, Vince McMahon will be getting every copyright and trademark WCW currently has. This means that they're free to use the New World Order, or any of the WCW pay per view names. Vince has been informing people that he wants to run one inter-promotional wrestling pay per view a month, not two separate ones for WCW and the WWF. There's a very good chance that he's only saying that to intimidate the pay per view company (which has been nervous ever since the fold of ECW and the recent sale of WCW), so I'd take that story with a grain of salt if I were you.
There is currently talk of WCW taping a show on Wednesday night, and then airing the telecast on late Saturday or Friday night (11:00-1:00 is highly rumored right now). This would of course allow Vince to be backstage at all WCW shows, which is pretty much needed to keep all the current egos under control. While Vince has a pretty good sketch of this drawn out in his head, no actual buildings have been booked to tape WCW Nitro as of yet, and there's no start date either. They are hopeful of announcing the start date tomorrow on Nitro, but no one's sure as of now.
There's a good chance that the WCW show airing late night on Friday/Saturday will undergo a name change before airing. The name "Nitro" is affiliated with the former WCW, and Vince is doing as much as possible to distance the new WCW from the old.
Agents Arn Anderson and David Finlay are very well liked and respected by Vince McMahon and company, so they are almost certainly going to be retained. There's also a good chance that Vince will ship Pat Patterson (a creative genius in the WWF) over to WCW to oversee the creative end. Paul Heyman is currently occupying his slot on the booking team, so WCW would be a good place for him.
Yesterday the story hit that there would be some big name WWF guys present on WCW Nitro tomorrow, but more has surfaced to that story today. Apparently there will be some WCW guys appearing on Raw as well to shoot an angle. There aren't any names known as of now but as always, we'll get back to you if something turns up.
Several big names within the WWF stepped up last night at Madison Square Garden and recommended Rey Mysterio Jr. to Vince McMahon personally. Apparently Vince originally thought Rey Jr. had a bad attitude, but several top talents have defended Mysterio by saying he's an "absolute pro" backstage. There's a good chance that the WWF might sign Rey, who was originally snubbed from the list of cruiserweight contracts the WWF picked up.
Contrary to popular belief, Bill Goldberg is far from a lock to appear in the new WWF controlled version of WCW. There's talk of some major dissention between he and several WWF superstars, and while Vince is considering offering a contract later on, there's a good chance he might turn it down. He's apparently happy to sit back and collect his paychecks, and may never work in the wrestling business again. Likewise, Kevin Nash, who has stated that he will sit out the remaining 10 months of his contract, may be brought in by the WWF when his contract expires, but it would be at a drastically reduced contract. Chances are Nash will be signed, mostly because of his close friendship with Triple H, as well as Vince McMahon himself.
There are no announcers named for the slot on WCW's new television show as of yet. There's very little chance of Joey Styles and Don Callis being brought in, since both have a negative past with the WWF and Vince McMahon as a whole. Though they are the top team in the business right now and the best option (in my opinion anyway) I really doubt either man will be brought in.
In a somewhat related issue, Paul Heyman and Jim Ross will be the official commentators for Wrestlemania X-7. It's expected that Michael Cole will handle the backstage interviews and angles, while Tazz's involvement is unknown at this time.
Speaking of Wrestlemania, it's expected that Dean Malenko will take on Crash Holly in a match for the Light Heavyweight strap. The WWF has four hours of pay per view time to fill, which explains the inclusion of this match as well as the gimmick battle royal. Perry Saturn will be used to heighten the feud between Dean and Crash, as will Molly Holly.
Both Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley will be at Monday Night Raw tomorrow night, though neither will be in a wrestling role (obviously). I wouldn't be surprised to see them interact with the WCW boys in some form, thought that's complete speculation on my part.
Here's what you can expect on tonight's edition of Heat on MTV:
*Hardy Boyz vs. Kaientai
*Test vs. Haku for the European Title
*Crash Holly vs. Perry Saturn
*An Eddie Guerrero promo
*Raven will guest host the show from WWF New York
I saw the taping of the show on Tuesday, and I think it will translate pretty well onto television.
Scott Hall recently defeated John Tenta (Earthquake) in an indy match. Hall won the rights to Tenta's wrestling school, as per the stipulations of the match. There's a good chance that Hall is currently finished with New Japan, since he's working hard to get a good reputation here in the states. There is said to be next to no interest in the McMahon camp for signing Scott, so I don't know how well that will turn out.
It's been confirmed that both Earthquake and Typhoon (former partners in the Natural Disasters tag team) will be in the WWF's gimmick battle royal at Wrestlemania. I actually used to like Earthquake and Typhoon as a duo (keep in mind, this was a time when the Beverly Brothers was the best tag team on the roster).
Lance Storm has recently updated his usual commentary over at Stormwrestling.com. It's a great read, since it's basically his thoughts on the huge WCW/WWF sale. I'd highly recommend reading the commentary, since it's always interesting to read Lance's thoughts on the big events of the month.
For those of you interested, the Undertaker brought back the infamous Tombstone Piledriver last night at Madison Square Garden. He put Triple H down with his former finishing move. The move won't be returning to television, since it was just done since it was Mark Calloway's birthday, and they wanted to do something special in his match with Triple H.
There's a good chance that Rhyno may be paired up with Tajiri and Jerry Lynn when the two superstars debut in the WWF. I really doubt those three will be the only ones in the rumored stable, since none of them can function as the mouthpiece.
Mikey Whipwreck has been telling friends and colleagues that he has a very good chance of finding work in the new WCW, or even the WWF for that matter. He's said to be very optimistic about getting employment with either federation, but would like to finish up all the independent bookings he's slated to appear at.
Now that the WWF has purchased WCW, Jerry Lawler is expected to receive his release immediately. The WWF was afraid that Lawler would sign on with WCW and help pick up the dwindling ratings on face value alone, so they continued to send him paychecks. Now that WCW is under McMahon's control, Jerry Lawler will be totally removed from the national wrestling scene.
Just to kill some rumors here, there is absolutely NO CHANCE of Bret Hart returning to WCW or the WWF in the future. He's happily retired, and will not return to the wrestling scene, particularly in light of the recent sale. Vince contacted him personally about appearing at the Royal Rumble for one night only, but of course Hart declined that invitation.
For those interested (and I doubt that's a lot of you) the XFL pulled a 2.0 rating last night. I believe that's the exact same rating they drew last week, which could be inferred as either good or bad.
Some former ECW superstars appeared at the United Wrestling Council show last night in Akron, Ohio. Danny Doring and Roadkill (who were billed as the ECW tag champs and "defended" the titles), New Jack, and Tom Marquez were all on the card.
Hope you enjoyed this jam-packed edition of the News and Rumors. I'll be back next weekend on Wrestlemania Sunday with all the news, as well as my column. Talk to you then, and be sure to check out Wrestlemania Week all week long here at TPWW.net.
Corey Silvia
Corey@tpww.net