Hello, and welcome to the Monday, pre-Raw edition of the news and rumors here at TPWW. There's a lot to talk about concerning tonight's Raw is War, with some extra news on the side. With that said, this may be a pretty quick report, but here are today's news and rumors.
The big rumor out is that Diamond Dallas Page is in attendance at Raw tonight and may have a "huge impact" on the show, according to Dave Scherer. The WWF has been attempting to keep DDP's signing a secret and we may see why on tonight's Raw. A rumor that has been thrown around is that Diamond Dallas Page will end up as the Undertaker's "stalker," but of course, that's just speculation at this point. Page had been rumored to make an appearance at this Sunday's King of the Ring PPV, since it's in his home town of New Jersey, but we may see his debut sooner than expected.
On the subject of WCW wrestlers at Raw, Billy Kidman, Kanyon, and Shawn Stasiak are also said to be in attendance at tonight's show from Tampa, Florida. No word on whether or not they'll have an on-camera impact, but only time will tell.
Staying on the subject of the WCW-WWF invasion, according to Dave Scherer, the WWF is interested in possibly doing a multi-man team match between a few WWF superstars taking on a few WCW stars at the upcoming WWF Invasion PPV in July. That would definitely be a very interesting match and could provide for some dream wrestling action that many fans have been waiting to see for a while. No word on who the participants could be or even if the match will actually take place, but hopefully some more light will be shed soon.
The following matches are expected to take place on tonight's Raw is War:
- The Dudley Boyz vs. Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit
- Matt Hardy vs. Albert - European Title
- Two of the four King of the Ring elite eight matches
With the King of the Ring PPV less than a week away and only two shows left to promote it, we can surely expect more development of feuds tonight leading up to new matches signed for the PPV, including more development of the Triple Threat main event match. As of now, the only actual matches signed for the PPV are the Triple Threat main event, Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon in a street fight, and 3 King of the Ring tournament matches.
Kane will be hosting the WWF New York "Raw party" tonight at WWF New York. Alrighty.
Speaking of WWF New York, those in the New York area will be able to see Tough Enough two days before it airs for everyone else... The WWF will air a special showing of Tough Enough tomorrow night at WWF New York at 8:00 PM, hosted by Tazz and Al Snow. Uh, how exactly is Tazz going to be there? Isn't Smackdown supposed to be taped tomorrow night? Weird.
An article in "The Programming Insider" talks about the current state of WWF Smackdown and its lowest ever rating this past Thursday. The article states that UPN was less than pleased with the rating, especially due to the fact that the WWF's target audience of adults 18-49 only pulled in a 2.0 rating. Ouch.
In a related story, the WWF's two house shows this past weekend in Toronto and Ft. Lauderdale only did about 60% occupancy, according to Dave Scherer.
Speaking of the house shows, we have results of both shows up on our newsboard. To check out last night's Ft. Lauderdale results, which featured Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit vs. Austin and Rhyno in a cage match, click HERE.
In a very interesting note from the house show, after the match was over and Austin and Rhyno's team took the loss, Austin began to berate Rhyno. However, afterwards, Austin was met with a huge Gore by the man beast to a huge pop from the crowd. Maybe a sign of things to come? Hopefully.
An article in the Rochester News talks about a possible new bill in New York to regulate drug use in professional wrestling and to declare wrestling as "entertainment" instead of a sport. To check out the article, click HERE.
Our latest poll asks "Who would you like to see win the King of the Ring tournament?" The results are a big suprising, but sort of expected and pretty pleasing to me. They are as follows:
- Tajiri (883) 42%
- Rhyno (415) 20%
- Jeff Hardy (380) 18%
- Edge (127) 6%
- Kurt Angle (105) 5%
- Perry Saturn (82) 4%
- Big Show (70) 3%
- Christian (53) 3%
Our popular Discussion Forums have now been transferred over to our new server, meaning that they're now back up to speed. Also, we've added a new Wrestler Profiles section, with a Chris Jericho profile up, written by Pat McGregor. That just about wraps things up for today's report. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the post-Raw edition of the news and rumors. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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