Hello there, and welcome to today's news and rumors right here at TPWW.net. Tonight's Raw promises to be a big one, with the return of The Rock set, a WCW world title match, a match featuring two of ECW's greats, and more. Without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
Raw is War comes to us tonight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - ECW country. You can almost bet for sure that ECW will receive a very warm reception from their "home town" crowd in Philly, and I'm hoping that there is some sort of major ECW incfluence at tonight's show to please the many hardcore ECW fans in the Philly crowd. It's just too bad this ECW angle wasn't going on when the WWF went to Madison Square Garden last month.
The major selling point for tonight's Raw for the WWF has been, of course, the return of The Rock. It has been advertised and plugged repeatedly over the last week and the WWF is surely expecting huge ratings for his return tonight. It's not expected that he'll get back into the ring right away tonight, but he is definitely expected to have a huge influence on the show. The WWF has been questioning whether The Rock will be on the WWF's side or on the side of "The Alliance". As of now, unless the WWF plans to swerve us, I'm guessing The Rock will be on team WWF, to lead to another feud between him and Austin at SummerSlam.
Announced matches for tonight's Raw include Kurt Angle defending his WCW title against Booker T, The Dudleys taking on Kane & The Undertaker in a tag team tables match, and of course, a match to please all the ECW fans out there, Rob Van Dam taking on Tajiri. As always, if given the opportunity, that could be a great one. The WWF doesn't seem to be concentrating much on the actual wrestling part of Raw and Smackdown lately, meaning we haven't seen many great matches on free TV in the last couple of months. Hopefully that changes tonight.
In potentially big news, it appears that the WWF may put Paul Heyman back at the announce table along with Jim Ross tonight because they feel that having two play by play men (JR and Cole) hasn't worked well. I'm definitely glad Heyman may return to his commentating role tonight, but I'm just hoping this doesn't mean we'll see Tazz as a commentator on Smackdown again. Unfortunately, there has been some talk of that happening.
Believe it or not, the highest rating the WWF has ever received since they have been on TNN was a 5.67 rating, according to Dave Meltzer, which they received on April 2, the night after WrestleMania X-Seven. That Raw featured The Rock vs. Steve Austin in a cage match.
Annodeus Inc, a division of Acclaim, filed foreclosure papers today claiming ownership of the ECW trademark and videotape library, since they are listed as a creditor in the amount of $1.47 million, according to Dave Meltzer. Acclaim purchased the license to make ECW video games a couple of years ago, and also owned 15% of ECW. If Acclaim does in fact take ownership of the ECW trademark, the WWF will have to work out a deal with them in order to continue to use the ECW name on WWF television, meaning their previous temporary deal to use the ECW name through the end of the month would be void.
Also, according to Joey Styles, whichever company picks up the ECW tape library, whether it be the WWF or another company, may have to work out some sort of deal with Joey Styles to be able to use his likeness. Styles apparently feels that since his contract was breached after ECW filed for bankruptcy, HHG Corp no longer has the right to use his likeness, or sell the video tape library, which features his likeness. It's a very awkward situation, which will hopefully be cleared up soon.
On the subject of the WWF acquiring rival wrestling promotions, in a story that's absolutely BAFFLING to me, in the WWF's annual report released this week, they state that the purchase price for WCW was only $2.5 million, as well as $1.8 million for other costs in acquiring the company. What the hell? It's well known that Eric Bischoff and Fusient Media Ventures planned to buy the company for at least ten times that amount, but for whatever reason, Time Warner decided to sell the company to the WWF instead. Can somebody explain this to me? Because really, it doesn't make any sense what-so-ever. To read the WWF's full annual report, click HERE. (Source: Dave Scherer)
TPWW's own Rob Harvey, as well as several TPWW readers in the United Kingdom, have pointed out Channel 4 in the UK will be dropping their WWF coverage at the end of December due to the fact that the WWF has become "increasingly difficult to edit". Channel 4 has apparently been displeased with the WWF's portrayal of women on their shows as well as the violence on WWF programming. Channel 4 airs WWF Heat in the UK and also airs about half of WWF PPVs. However, Raw and Smackdown, as well as the other WWF PPVs air on another channel in the UK, Sky.
Lita and Trish Stratus's appearance on Howard Stern will air tomorrow night on E! Entertainment Television. Now, that should be entertaining.
Tazz and Trish Stratus are filming a Stacker 2 commercial, according to JR. That should be pretty cool.
In his recent Ross Report, Jim Ross had the following to say about the possible return of Ken Shamrock: "Sources say Ken Shamrock may be contemplating a return to the Federation".
This past Thursday's Smackdown drew a 4.3 rating, up from last week's 3.9 and the best number the show has done in quite a while.
Also, WWF Tough Enough scored a 2.1 rating, about on their average, but still down from last week's 2.3.
It's just about time to wrap this one up. Enjoy Raw tonight and until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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