Hey, hey. Welcome to the Saturday edition of the news and rumors right here at TPWW.net. After a couple of days off, the N&R; are back and there's a lot to catch up, including a few potentially big stories. Without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
It was announced in this week's edition of Jim Ross's Ross Report that The Rock would be out of action until around July or August to film the lead role in the upcoming movie, "The Scorpion King," a prequal to the Mummy Returns movies. The absence to film the movie was explained on Smackdown this past week with the Rock being "indefinitely suspended." Who, besides the Undertaker, is a top true main event face in the WWF now that Steve Austin has turned heel? WWF.com has posted an interview with The Rock about his absence to film the movie, amomg various other topics. To check it out, click HERE. The Rock stated that he is expecting to be back before SummerSlam, which takes place on August 19th. I'd imagine that he will make his return anywhere from mid/late July to early August. And when he does return, if the WWF does it right, it could be a great moment.
In another major story, it has been announced that the originally scheduled May 9th date for WCW's first new taping has been cancelled and pushed back to a new tentative date, Saturday, June 9th. The show will be taped from a yet unnamed location, and will air later that night at 11PM-1AM on TNN. Again, this is the tentative plan and it could change at any time. The overall feeling is that the WWF felt that they needed more time to develop the new WCW and felt that they should not rush it and instead, should go for as best of a show as possible. Although I'm as anxious as everyone else to see the WWF's version of WCW, I think it's a smart move by the WWF to push back the date and make sure everything was as "perfect" as possible.
Jim Ross announced in his Ross Report this week that a WCW Pay Per View might come as early as September if everything goes as planned. Also, WCW house shows should be ready for sometime in the early fall, according to JR, if everything goes well. It was also announced that WCW has signed 24 wrestlers to contracts, obviously including the wrestlers we saw at WrestleMania and a few other unnamed wrestlers at this time. I doubt any of WCW's high-paid big names (Goldberg, Steiner, Sting, etc) are on that list or else something would have been announced. However, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw a few of those big name stars in the new WCW when it's ready.
All wrestlers who were not signed by the WWF and who have 90-day cycles in their contracts received their releases this past week. Again, no official list has been released, but once the WWF announces their signed wrestlers, we'll know who wasn't included, obviously.
This past Thursday's Smackdown scored a decent 4.3 rating, helping UPN to a fourth place finish among the networks. For those wondering, Smackdown's competition, Survivor on CBS scored a 16.5, CSI from 9-10 on CBS scored a 12.8, Millionaire on ABC scored a 11.3, and a rerun of Friends on NBC "only" scored an 8.8 rating, when it usually does around 13-16 or so.
Howard Stern will do an upcoming radio broadcast from WWF New York sometime in the future. For those who have been listening to Stern's show lately, they have been promoting a boxing match between two of the show's regular "characters," Crazy Cabbie and Angry Black. That fight will apparently take place at the WWF New York broadcast whenever a date is finalized.
Speaking of Stern, according to Jagger Kaye and 1wrestling, a portion of Stern's Vince McMahon interview will appear on Stern's CBS show this Saturday night at 11:30 (here in NY, at least; not sure about the time in other areas).
Commissioner William Regal will guest host WWF Heat live from WWF New York this Sunday on MTV.
The WWF has put up an article on Tazz regarding the concussion he suffered in his match at WrestleMania after he was slammed head first into the steel steps. The article does a great job of putting Tazz over. Too bad the WWF creative team isn't as good with that. To check out the article, click HERE.
According to Jim Ross, "Playboy seems to be interested in doing more projects with the Federation."
The WWF has released Just Joe (who appeared in a few angles with Triple H and Kurt Angle earlier this year), Jason Sensation (who did a few WWF impersonations a couple of years ago, including the late Owen Hart in a DX Nation of Domination impersonation), and Murray Happer of the Dupps tag team, who have been wrestling on dark matches for months now.
The WWF will hold another UK-only PPV on Saturday, May 5 from Earls Court in London, England entitled "WWF Insurrextion." Scheduled to appear at the show are Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, Kane, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, William Regal, The Dudleys, Edge & Christian, The Hardys, Lita, and more. It's expected that both Austin and Triple H will defend their titles at the PPV. The WWF has put up a web site for the PPV, which you can check out at Insurrextion.com.
The WWF is reportedly looking into Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida as the site for WrestleMania 18. It is not yet confirmed, according to Jim Ross, but the WWF is looking into it. I believe it holds around 45-50,000 seats or more, depending on the event.
As of now, according to various reports, the main event for the WWF's next PPV will most likely be Steve Austin & Triple H vs. The Undertaker & Kane, although I wouldn't be surprised if the WWF split up the tag team match into two singles matches. Also, I'd expect another Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle match, possibly an "I Quit" match, or possibly a Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle & William Regal match, although "big star" tag matches seem to be a rarity on PPV these days.
The XFL has renamed their championship game from "The Big Game at the End" to the "Million Dollar Game." Definitely a smart move there, since the former sounded ridiculous. Also, there will be a rule change implemented for the playoffs (Go Hitmen... they'll make it... I think...). For extra points, if a team scores from the one yard line, they will receive one point. If they score from the five yard line, they will receive two points. And from the ten yard line, it's three points. I think they should have stopped at two points, but ehhh.
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That just about wraps things up. Thanks for reading once again, and until next time... later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com