Hey, heyyy. Welcome to the post-Backlash edition of the news and rumors right here at TPWW.net. Unfortunately, there's not much news coming off of last night's Backlash, but nonetheless, there is enough going around to suffice for a decent report today. So without further delay, here are today's post-Backlash news and rumors.
The overall feeling across the Internet seems to be very negative towards WWF Backlash last night and personally, I can see why. I personally didn't think they Pay Per View was bad, but it definitely was missing something, and it didn't have that same spark and feeling as past WWF PPVs have had. But, of course, with The Rock out of action and the WWF's attention seemingly being focused on other projects at this time, I wasn't expecting much from the PPV anyway. I guess that's why I wasn't really disappointed. It's no secret that I've been very bored and tired with WWF TV lately, so I really wasn't looking forward to last night's PPV at all. When it was over, it was just what I had expected it to be - a mediocre, "nothing special" show.
The show's main event was decent, but was pretty predictable, just like the rest of the show. One thing that I hated about the main event is the way the WWF is playing Triple H and Steve Austin up as "cowardly heels." How many times did they try to run away from the Undertaker and Kane last night? That just makes them look weak and removes a lot of credibility that they had been built up with for so many months and even years. This has actually been the case with Stone Cold Steve Austin immediately after he turned heel. The night after WrestleMania on Raw, he actually tapped to a submission move by the Rock behind the referee's back. Why did he turn so "weak" all of a sudden? Just one of those non-logical things in wrestling that bother me. Then the next week, Austin was taking orders from Triple H like he was just a puppet or something. I don't know if the WWF is purposely trying to give Austin that persona, but whatever the case may be, I don't like it.
One major highlight and maybe the most memorable part of last night's PPV was, of course, Shane McMahon's sick bump from aboud 40 or so feet on top of the entranceway. Even though he missed Big Show, it still looked sick. I wonder what would have happened to the Big Show if Shane actually landed the elbow drop from that high. One thing's for sure with every Shane-O-Mac match - he will take a sick bump that'll make us anticipate every future match he's involved in. By the way, Shane was fine backstage according to reports.
One match that seems to have disappointed everyone the most was the 30 minute submissions match between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. I think a lot of people were expecting a lot more from the match, considering the two guys who were involved in it. I guess what it all came down to was that there weren't enough regular wrestling moves that people were familiar with, and there was too much of the same, constant mat wrestling. I think a mix of the two would have kept the match a little more alive and would have kept the crowd into it a bit more.
This may be going out on a limb, but I have to say that the most entertaining match from last night's PPV was actually the Hardcore match between Raven and Rhyno. The crowd was really into the match, which made it a lot of fun to watch. Rhyno took a lot of big bumps too. Raven got a lot of great pops from the Chicago crowd and Rhyno got some big heel heat. Good stuff. Hopefully the WWF will see that they have two potential huge stars on Rhyno and Raven.
One very notable happening from last night's PPV didn't even happen at the PPV at all... it was the WWF debut of Jerry Lynn, who defeated Crash Holly to become the new WWF Light Heavyweight champion. From what I saw, Lynn got a warm reception from the crowd, which popped loudly when Lynn picked up the victory. One thing that was interesting was that Lynn held on to Crash's tights to secure the victory. That old school heel tactic may indicate that Jerry will continue from where he left off in ECW - as a heel.
Jerry Lynn will actually be hosting WWF Raw tonight at WWF New York. I'm not sure what the WWF has planned with that, but I'm just hoping they don't give him a WWF New York waiter gimmick. I'm also praying they don't change his name to "Jerry Linn."
Staying on the subject of Jerry Lynn, the WWF web site has put up an interesting article on the New F'n Show and his title victory last night. To check it out, click HERE.
In addition to Jerry Lynn, the WWF web site is reporting that Linda McMahon will also be at hand at WWF New York tonight. Hey, maybe the WWF will do an angle where Jerry Lynn does some evil heel tactic to Linda? Nah, that would actually get him over as a big time heel, and since he's still "new," the WWF can't have that... or maybe I'm wrong?
What ever happened to Yoshihiro Tajiri? Am I the only one who thinks that the WWF completely forgot that they signed him? Ahhh, being too negative today. Anyway...
You can expect the following matches for tonight's edition of WWF Raw:
- Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kane - WWF Title
- Chyna vs. Trish Stratus
- Matt Hardy vs. Edge - European Title
- Spike Dudley vs. X-Pac
Judging from the Chyna vs. Trish Stratus match, it appears that the WWF is building up to a Chyna heel turn. The rumor going around is that she is set to begin a feud with Lita over the Women's Title. Sounds good to me and it could be interesting to see Chyna as a heel again.
Rikishi has been out of action with an ear drum injury for the last few months, but has now been cleared to wrestle, according to Jim Ross.
MTV's "Tough Enough" will begin airing on Thursday, June 21 on MTV, according to Jim Ross. They are still shooting the show now, but will be done on May 11.
Chris Kanyon recently posted a message on his web site stating that he has been released by Time Warner and is confident that he will end up in the WWF (or the WWF's WCW) in the near future. Kanyon acknowledged that he would have to take a pay cut, but stated that he was willing to do so, since it has been his dream to work in the WWF. Kanyon is a great talent, in my opinion, who can put on some very innovative and entertaining matches. He would be a great assett to the new WCW once it starts up.
Thanks to TPWW reporter, Jeremy Bratcher for the following tidbit on Sting: Sting (Steve Borden) appeared on an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, on Saturday night. He played the leader of a drug-dealing biker gang.
There wasn't much news in today's report, but Corey Silvia put together a great report yesterday with a lot of important news, including a list of the 24 WCW wrestlers signed by the WWF, more on the WWF/Rob Van Dam situation, and a lot more. In a tidbit from Corey's report yesterday, the following wrestlers have been signed by the WWF: Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Hugh Morrus, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Shawn Stasiak, Johnny the Bull, Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, Evan Karagias, Chuck Palumbo, Sean O'Haire, Mike Sanders, Mark Jindrak, Elix Skipper, Allen Funk (Kwee Wee), Lash LeRoux, The Wall, Kaz Hayashi, James Yun (Yang), Jimmy Howard (Jaime Knoble), Miss Hancock, Reno, Sam Loman (Kid Romeo), and Jason Boils (EZ Money/Jason Jett). To check out the entire report, click HERE.
That just about wraps things up for today. Until next time...
Triple A
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