Yo. Welcome to the post-King of the Ring edition of the news and rumors right here at TPWW.net. Coming off of the PPV last night, there's a whole lot to talk about, so without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
The big rumor over the last day or so has been the apparent return of Jerry Lawler to the WWF. A story was broken yesterday by Dave Meltzer that stated Lawler was pretty much now back in the WWF and an angle was planned soon involving Lawler's return. However, Lawler denied the story when asked, and posted the following message on his web site, KingLawler.com, today: "I must admit I did get two calls from WWF personel on Sunday... both asking if the rumors that were going around backstage were true about me coming back. I said, 'If everyone at the WWF is talking about me coming back, I wish someone from the WWF would call and ask me to come back!' But as of now, I have received no such call, so I must officially state that the rumors of my return have been greatly exaggerated! It is rather ironic though, that on Monday night both the WWF and the 'King' will be in New York. Who knows... maybe while I'm at the ballgame my cell phone will ring and I'll be called upon to 'pinch hit' so to speak, not at Yankee Stadium, but at Madison Square Garden! If it's been said once, it's been said a thousand times... 'Anything can happen in the World Wrestling Federation'"
Although Lawler denied the story, there is still a feeling that this is being done to keep Lawler's return a surprise. However, of course, that may not be the case at all. It is known that many in the WWF would love to have Lawler back and are pushing strongly for his return, which, in all honesty, would make sense right now, given the WCW invasion angle. It would be a perfect angle for Lawler to return and "sign with WCW" as their announcer to screw over Vince McMahon and the WWF. For now, pretty much nothing is clear, but hopefully some light will be shed on this situation soon.
Last night's King of the Ring PPV came off as a decent, solid PPV to me. Nothing overly spectacular happened at the PPV, but Kurt Angle's effort made him the star of the show last night, namely his match against Shane McMahon, which was the best match of the night by far. The glass/suplex bumps that Shane took were absolutely sick, but I think we all expected Shane to do something crazy. Stuff like that always makes you look forward to Shane McMahon's matches and last night's match exceeded my expectations. Great effort by both men.
Kurt Angle unfortunately suffered a couple of injuries during his three matches on the night. Angle suffered what was thought to be a broken tail bone in his match against Shane McMahon, which would have kept him out for quite a while, but in good news, x-rays revealed that his tail bone was only badly bruised and not broken, so Angle won't miss much action, if any. Angle also got nailed in the head during his first match against Christian, according to Dave Scherer, which really shook him up and may have given him a mild concussion. When you think about it, it's amazing how Kurt Angle continued for that match and two more after it, still putting on an awesome effort.
The PPV's main event was also decent, but the finish was a bit anti-climactic. Booker T's run in was a good addition to the match and pumped up the crowd a bit. Overall, it was a decent main event - nothing too special - but it got the job done. Plus, it was good to see Austin retain the title, since the WWF is pretty much running smoothly right now with Austin as champion and there was no need to change that just yet.
In addition to Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin also suffered an injury during the main event at the hands of Booker T after he was tossed through the Spanish announce table by the WCW champ. You could see that Booker T tossed Austin a bit carelessly into the table and Austin seemed like he was in a lot of pain afterwards. He apparently hurt his arm on the fall, and also landed on his back and head. There are rumors that there is some backstage heat against Booker T for the careless move, but there are conflicting reports that there isn't any heat at all on Booker. Knowing the WWF, I'd expect the former, but hopefully that's not the case. Austin's hand was apparently badly bruised up and swollen after the PPV and he was taken to a hospital for x-rays. It's not known how bad the injury is at this time, but as of now, it's not expected that he'll miss much ring time.
As for the other matches on the card, the KOTR tournament was good and I was really glad to see Edge win it over Kurt Angle. Angle didn't need the victory at all, but giving it to someone like Edge helps him out a lot and gives him good singles credibility. Edge really wasn't made out to look so great against Kurt Angle in the finals, as Angle was played out as the "better man" and Edge only won after Shane McMahon's interference, but whaddya gonna do? The DDP/Undertaker angles were OK, but the brawl was just that - a brawl. After a few minutes of punches and kicks by the Undertaker, it started to lose steam, but that's what happens when you only pull out two moves from your arsenal. Jeff Hardy vs. X-Pac wasn't as good as it could have been, but again, it was OK. The Dudleys vs. Spike/Kane match was also decent, but I didn't really like the way the WWF turned the Dudleys heel. They ain't gonna get over this way. Hopefully Paul Heyman has some influence in turning the Dudleys into full fledged heels soon, since they were probably some of the greatest heat getters ever during their ECW days, almost inciting riots in the crowd with their comments. Obviously, they won't be able to do that in the WWF, but hopefully something else is done.
In addition to Kurt Angle and Steve Austin's injuries, Chris Benoit will be undergoing neck surgery sometime this week to fix a nerve problem that had been giving him problems in his tricep area. According to a WWF.com article, Benoit will be operated on in San Antonio by Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, the same doctor who operated on Stone Cold Steve Austin's injured neck. Benoit is expected to be out of action for three to six months, which definitely has to hurt the WWF. First The Rock, then Triple H, and now Benoit. The WWF is getting short on luck and short on main eventers.
Speaking of Triple H, The Game was backstage at King of the Ring last night and was said to be in good spirits. Triple H was telling people that his rehab was tough, but he would get through it and was making great progress.
There were several WCW wrestlers backstage at King of the Ring last night. In fact, most - if not all - of the WCW roster was there, and many of them are also expected backstage at tonight's Raw is War in Madison Square Garden. It's expected that a few of them may make it on camera tonight. There should also hopefully be a few WCW wrestlers backstage at Tuesday's Smackdown tapings, also in MSG. I say hopefully because I'm going to be there and damnit, it better be a good show.
The WWF apparently wanted Lance Storm to do a run in at last night's PPV, but he was unable to due to obligations with Stampede Wrestling. There are rumors that Storm will appear on Raw tonight instead.
The WWF has put up an article on Booker T and DDP's "invasion" of King of the Ring last night. To check it out, click HERE.
You may have noticed that the WWF plugged next month's PPV as "WWF Fully Loaded." However, it's expected that the PPV will eventually be renamed "WCW Invasion", since that's what the WWF has been hyping it up as everywhere else.
Speaking of WWF Invasion, the plan now is to most likely have a big ten man tag team WWF vs. WCW match as the PPV's main event. That would be huge and hopefully some light is shed on that in the coming days and weeks.
Rob Halden sent the following note on Sunday Night Heat in the United Kingdom: "Just thought you might want to know that the UK edition of WWF Heat that was supposed to show on Channel 4 at 12:45 on the morning of Monday the 25th of June didn't air. Recently Heat's regular time slot of 4pm on a Sunday afternoon was replaced by 12:45 the same night, pretty stupid considering the average WWF fan would have school the next morning. Tonight the show was replaced by a documentary about soccer schools, no explanation has been given as to why."
That about wraps it up for today's report. As always, thanks for reading and be sure to enjoy Raw tonight. Also, stop by Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning for complete results and news from the WWF Smackdown and Heat tapings at Madison Square Garden by, uh, me. Until next time...
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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