Hey, yo. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the news and rumors here at TPWW.net. There are a few interesting things to talk about today, so without wasting anymore time with this intro paragraph, here are today's news and rumors.
As they do every Tuesday night, the WWF held their weekly WWF Smackdown and Heat tapings last night in Oklahoma City. Without spoiling it, from what I heard, the show was actually a great one last night coming off of a mediocre Raw on Monday night after a spectacular WrestleMania. An explanation for Stone Cold Steve Austin's heel turn was given at the Smackdown tapings as well, which is definitely a good thing, since there was absolutely no explanation on Raw. Without getting into the tapings anymore, if you'd like to check out the results yourself, check out Mike E's Smackdown report HERE.
It appears that the XFL may not live to see another season on NBC. According to a recent article in the New York Daily News, NBC has announced that they will not continue with the XFL next season due to its sagging ratings. A statement by NBC was made a couple of weeks ago that if the struggling league's ratings didn't improve, NBC would most likely not continue with it. However, XFL executives have stated that the WWF will stick with the XFL next season, although I'm not sure if that claim will actually hold true.
Sunday night's UPN XFL game drew only a 0.7 rating, an all time low for the XFL on UPN, and a 0.5 rating on TNN. Obviously, that doesn't sound like good news for the league, and its future is not looking very bright unless something drastic goes down.
With Nitro out of the picture and WrestleMania to follow up on, Monday night's Raw is War on TNN scored a big 5.7 rating, giving it its highest rating of the year 2001. The highest rated part of the show was the Rock vs. Austin main event cage match, which scored a 6.4 rating, according to Dave Meltzer. In weekend numbers, Livewire and Superstars scored a 1.1 and 1.0, respectively.
The WWF somewhat "re-designed" WCW's official web site, WCW.com, a few days ago, giving it a look similar to WWF.com's main page, but the only content being a story on Shane McMahon "buying" the company and a link for fans to send their ideas for the new WCW. However, the new look also had a link for anyone wishing to enter the old WCW.com web site. As of today, it appears that the old web site has been completely removed. I'd surely imagine that a full web site is being worked on now and should be up by the time the promotion restarts (supposedly) on May 9th.
On the subject of WCW restarting, Ticketmaster.com has put up an on sale date for the first proposed "new" WCW event at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, NJ on May 9th. The on sale date is listed as April 14th at 10AM, but in an interesting/weird note, the event is listed as taking place at 12:00 AM. I'm not sure if that's a mistake or what. The description of the show states: "Shane McMahon presents WCW at Sovereign Bank Arena, Saturday, May 9, 2001." For the link to the event's page on Ticketmaster, click HERE.
A Coming Attractions web site is reporting that The Rock is in consideration for the lead role in a proposed Duke Nukem movie, according to Dave Meltzer. I'm not sure if that's legit, but that would be interesting.
The new WWF tag team champions, Edge & Christian and the man beast, Rhyno will be special guests on WWF.com's "Byte This!" this Friday at 4PM EST. To check it out, click HERE.
The WWF has put up a whole new web site dedicated to the Undertaker. Fittingly enough, the address is Undertaker.com. WWF.com's description of the site is as follows: "Check out the Dead Man's official site over at Undertaker.com. It features a comprehensive history section encompassing his decade of destruction in the Federation. Also, scan through the 'Greatest Matches' section which houses videos and photos voted on by you -- the fans!"
Lance Storm has once again updated his always interesting commentary at his web site, which many consider the best wrestler official web site, StormWrestling.com. This week, Lance talks about his experience attending WrestleMania this past Sunday. Again, it's a great read, as always, and you can check it out by clicking the link above.
In a recent press release, XPW mentioned that they have signed Konnan and that a major force in XPW from the past would be returning at an upcoming show on April 21 from the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. XPW states: "Fans will not want to miss this night which will feature all of the stars of XPW including XPW World Champion Sabu, XPW King of the Deathmatch The Messiah, New Jack, Vic Grimes, Kronus, Supreme, Steve Rizzono, and more! Plus, the return of one of the most important people in XPW history and the debuts of a number of XPW newcomers including Konan!" It is being speculated that the "mystery person" may be "The Franchise," Shane Douglas. Tickets for the show are available through all Ticketmaster outlets or through the XPW Box Office at (818) 779-6479 or www.XPWrestling.com.
That just about wraps it up for today's report. News has apparently slowed down a bit with WrestleMania in the books and WWF-WCW speculation tuning down a bit. Nonetheless, thanks for reading and until next time... later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com