Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's news and rumors right here at TPWW.net. As usual, there's a lot to talk about in the world of wrestling today, so without further ado, here are today's news and rumors.
As many of you may know, I attended Tuesday night's Smackdown tapings in Madison Square Garden. I won't get into too many details here, since you can check out a full report of the show by clicking HERE, but overall, it was a great experience. There were a couple of good matches on the show and a few added treats for the die hard New York City wrestling fans. Without spoiling the show, you should check out Smackdown tonight, since it really was a good show. Of course, the atmosphere of the event did not even compare to an ECW live event, but then again, nothing in the entire world will EVER compare to being at an ECW PPV in New York City. Anyone who has ever been to one will agree without a doubt. You cannot judge ECW if you've never been to a live ECW event. What you see on TV and what you see live, in person, with all the other unbelievably hardcore ECW fans, is so much different. Those who think "ECW sucks" have never really followed the promotion and are so ignorant that it makes me angry enough to feel like going off on a rant. Anyway, as an ECW fan, one good thing about being a part of the Madison Square Garden crowd, or any north east New York/Philly crowd for that matter, was that there was a huge ECW influence in the crowd. When Paul Heyman came out for a non-televised promo, almost the entire arena erupted into an ECW chant and I got a chill down my spine. What exactly is the point I'm trying to make here? Well, nothing really. But even though ECW is gone, it's good to see a big part of it live on in the WWF.
For those interested, you will see the following matches tonight on Smackdown:
- Edge & Christian vs. Billy Gunn & X-Pac
- Kane vs. Albert - Intercontinental Title
- The Dudleys vs. Hardys - Table Match
- Spike Dudley & Molly Holly vs. Crash & Jacky
- The Big Show vs. Perry Saturn
- Tajiri & Regal vs. Jericho & Mystery Partner
The WWF unfortunately appears to have given up on giving WCW its own time slot and instead, apparently will "merge" WCW and the WWF into one, airing WCW matches on WWF television, at least for the time being. The WWF may continue their search for a separate time slot for WCW in the near future if the wrestling market rises again, but for now, again, it looks like we'll just be seeing WCW matches, or WCW vs. WWF matches on WWF television.
In fact, the WCW matches at WWF shows will start as early as this Sunday's WWF house show in Spokane, Washington. Booker T will defend his WCW title against Buff Bagwell, while Shane Helms will defend his cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero Jr. That should be a special added treat to the fans at the house show, but I'd also expect a few WCW matches on Raw and Smackdown coming up next week to lead up to the WCW-WWF Invasion PPV on July 22.
In what has to come as good news for the WWF, it appears that the WCW invasion angle is working great, pulling in high ratings for the WWF. Last Monday's Raw scored a 4.7 rating, the show's highest rating since April 30 and up from last week's 4.2, according to Dave Scherer. The show did hours of 4.2 and 5.1, which is a good sign for the company. Coming off the King of the Ring PPV surely had something to do with the high rating, but the WCW invasion angles also had a lot to do with it. The Booker T/McMahon/Austin main event angle did a big 5.6 rating, and the Shane/Booker T interview from WWF New York did a 5.2 rating, the highest rated segments on the show.
In weekend ratings, Heat did a 1.3 and a 0.7 for the 11PM replay, while Livewire and Superstars both also did 0.7 ratings.
Staying on the subject of the WWF-WCW invasion angle, there are rumors that several WWF wrestlers will defect over to WCW eventually, to give each promotion an even playing field and help give WCW more star power. A few rumored names have been Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Test, Mick Foley, and more. Hopefully we'll see a few WWF lower card talents get an opportunity in WCW as well, including Jerry Lynn and Essa Rios, among others. Both of those men have an unbelievable amount of talent that isn't being utilized at all in the WWF, but would be a great assett to WCW's stellar cruiserweight division.
As far as the WCW announcer positions, rumors are that the WWF is bringing in Scott Hudson to WWF headquarters in Stamford, CT, for an interview for the WCW announcing position.
Although the WWF has signed Diamond Dallas Page, there has apparently been no talk of signing his wife, Kimberly Page, according to Wade Keller.
Shane McMahon will be a guest on the WWF's weekly Internet broadcast, "Byte This!" this Friday at 4 PM EST over at WWF.com.
The WWF just released its annual and fourth quarter business report, citing that the company made a $26.1 million profit in the fourth quarter for the wrestling part of the WWF. The WWF grossed $456 million for the year, bringing their annual profit margin to just around $100 million. However, it was also cited that the XFL set the WWF back $46.9 million, meaning the league lost $93.8 million, since the other half of the losses was taken by NBC. So, in total, before taxes, the WWF made a profit of around $53 million, which is still remarkable, given that the wrestling business is "down" lately. For a full detailed financial report, click HERE.
Tough Enough airs once again tonight on MTV right after Smackdown at 10:00 PM EST. From what I've heard, the show should be pretty good and is worth checking out.
In news regarding the show, according to Wade Keller, there was a lot of concern and some resistance to the concept of the show, Tough Enough, in the WWF locker room. One main concern was a feeling that Tazz had - the wrestlers who were chosen would not have to "pay their dues" to get a shot into the WWF, like so many in the locker room had to. However, Tazz felt that he did not want to let the locker room down and tried to be as hard as he could on the contestants. However, the WWF and MTV apparently did not want this, since they wanted the contestants to last through the 9 weeks of training. Al Snow was apparently more comfortable with the concept and it worked out well for the WWF, since he ended up becoming the main trainer due to Tazz's lack of time being a Smackdown and Heat announcer.
The original plan was to have Tazz and Al Snow rotate as trainers, but again, due to Tazz's position as Smackdown announcer as well as being a Heat announcer, he did not have as much time as originally thought on his schedule. Al Snow led the morning and afternoon Monday to Thursday training sessions and also orchestrated unique Friday workouts that were created to make for good TV. Saturday, the contestants worked on their interview skills, while Sunday was on off day at The Lodge. Tazz did do a little training for the wrestlers, but only for a couple of hours, meaning Al Snow ended up as the main trainer and ultimately the "star" of the show.
Taka Michinoku may have suffered yet another shoulder injury at this past Monday's Jakked/Metal tapings in MSG. During a match featuring Crash & Hardcore Holly taking on Kaientai, Taka apparently injured his arm and was favoring it throughout the rest of the match, in which he stood out of the ring. At this past Tuesday's Smackdown tapings, Taka seemed to be favoring his arm and did not get any wrestling action. Michinoku has had several shoulder injuries in the past, which have kept him out for quite a while.
The WWF has put up photos of Lita's Raw Magazine shoot in London. To check out the pics, click HERE.
In a recent interview with Chairshots.com, Mikey Whipwreck admitted that he has suffered 14 concussions over the course of his career and most likely would not re-consider his retirement, even if the WWF offered him a job.
With that, it's time to wrap this one up. As always, thanks for reading and until next time... later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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