... yo. Welcome to today's edition of the news and rumors... right here... at TPWW.net. Things have once again been very hectic for TPWW and myself this entire week, but I'm hoping we've finally gotten past all the bumps and things will be smooth once again. This whole month has been terrible, but again, hopefully everything will be cool from now on regarding server issues and everything else going on. Anyway, I can barely even open my eyes right now, so if you notice a lot of spelling and grammar errors, you know why. With that said, here are today's news and rumors.
The blockbuster story today is that Triple H reportedly suffered a very serious injury to his left leg during Monday night's Raw main event. The injury apparently happened while Chris Jericho had Steve Austin in the Walls of Jericho and Triple H tried to make the save. Triple H planted his leg wrong and tore the quadriceps muscle in his left leg. However, he actually somehow managed to finish the match and perform all of his spots, including being put in the Walls of Jericho on the announce table, and later running in towards the end of the match with the sledgehammer. Triple H reportedly was stretchered out of the building Monday night and was obviously in a great deal of pain. He will undergo surgery tomorrow (Thursday) in Birmingham, Alabama, by Dr. James Andrews. Reports are that he will be out of action for 3-5 months, most likely something around 4. He actually took time to speak to WWF.com for an interview regarding his injury. A few interesting quotes are as follows: "Triple H: What I'm being told initially is that I will be out three to five months. Probably leaning more towards the four or in that area. Three would be a stretch. ... It's pretty tough for me with how I feel about this business to stay away. For me to not be on the show at all for three months or four months would pretty much be unacceptable. I got a funny feeling that you'll be seeing my face around." To check out the entire interview, click HERE.
On the subject of injuries, Rikishi has been suffering from a bad shoulder injury that will also require surgery sometime this week. Rikishi actually worked through the injury at Judgment Day against William Regal.
Monday night's Raw was a very hot show, in my opinion, and was a great change of pace for the WWF. Word was that there were two paths they had to choose from... one being continuing the Austin-Undertaker feud until King of the Ring, which had been basically backed by Vince McMahon, and the other being to push Jericho and Benoit, which was basically backed by Paul Heyman. It's great to see that McMahon didn't let his ego get in the way this time and made the right move. Raw's main event was one of the hottest in recent memory and it capped off an all around solid showing by the WWF.
As of now, rumors are that King of the Ring's main event will be Steve Austin taking on Chris Jericho for the WWF Title. The WWF will need to build up Jericho a great deal in the coming weeks to make him seem like a legitimate contender, in my opinion, since he's pretty much been branded as a mid carder for the past few months.
Rumors are that the Undertaker was rather disappointed with the WWF's decision to push Jericho and Benoit instead of furthering his angle. However, it was felt that a change was needed (and it was) due to sagging ratings and tons of criticism, so the WWF went ahead and made the move.
On the subject of ratings, Monday night's Raw was unfortunately no exception, as the show dropped to a 4.2 rating, off hours of 4.0 and 4.4. This is a definite disappointment, especially since the show was coming off of a PPV, which has traditionally meant higher ratings than normal. But I don't think pushing Jericho and Benoit had anything to do with the ratings dropping. Rather, it was pretty much due to the recent quality of shows. I guess the only way to find out is to see if next week's ratings improve in light of the WWF's path change. I'm hoping they do.
In other ratings, Heat scored a 1.3 rating, while Livewire scored a 1.0 and Superstards did a 0.8, according to Dave Scherer.
In what came as a pleasant surprise to me, it has been announced that this Thursday's Smackdown main event will be a four way Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. In short, TLC3 will take place Thursday night on Smackdown between Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit, Edge & Christian, The Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz. This has been confirmed by the WWF web site.
A few other random thoughts from Raw... why, why, why did the WWF have Rhyno drop the hardcore title to the Big Show? I said to myself before the match that if Rhyno lost, he would be pretty much forgotten like most other former ECW wrestlers who have stepped into the WWF lately. I'm hoping Rhyno doesn't get "Tazzed," but for some reason, I have a bad feeling. ... One angle that I'm really liking is the whole Dudleys/Hollys angle. The Spike and Molly segment on Raw looked hilarious and it's good to see the WWF finally building up an undercard feud well.
As you may have seen on Raw, Perry Saturn was hit with two vicious powerbombs by the Acolytes. For some reason, I had a feeling something like that was going to happen eventually, and the powerbombs were pretty much "payback" against Saturn for his brutal attack on Mike Bell during a match a few weeks ago on Jakked/Metal. According to Dave Scherer, everyone in the WWF locker room, including Saturn, knew what was going on and they accepted it. If you noticed, Saturn even gave out a "you're welcome" while he was being checked out by EMTs.
As of now, word is that Rob Van Dam is almost a lock for the new WCW. He has been meeting with Jim Ross constantly recently and the general feeling is that RVD will have a role in the new WCW once it starts up this summer.
Mick Foley will be on the Today Show on NBC this morning at around 7:40 AM EST to promote his new book, "Foley is Good."
On the subject of wrestling autobiographies, Bret Hart is reportedly working on his own, according to Bob Ryder. Now that should definitely be an interesting one. No word yet on a release date.
On a site related note, our very popular Discussion Forums are finally back online and have been upgraded with a few new features. The forums have been our most popular feature since they were set up a few months ago and there's a good reason for that. If you haven't yet, be sure to check them out at the link above.
And finally, this report wouldn't be complete without me giving a shout out to my "esteemed colleague," Ry, who wrote his final N&R; report this past Saturday. TPWW was started off by Ry and myself as a tiny little web site with a vision back in September of 1998. And looking back, we have surpassed that vision more than we could have ever imagined thanks to everyone who has visited the site in the past two and a half years. Ry will still be around "behind the scenes" at TPWW to help out with decision making, whether it be a new feature, new staffers, etc, both of which we're working on now. To read his report, please visit our News Archives.
With that said, there's really not much else to say, so until next time, thanks for reading, and later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com