Hey, hey. After probably one of the longest "breaks" I've ever taken from the N&R;, I'm back and I welcome you back to TPWW.net for today's news and rumors. Obviously, there's a lot to get to in today's report, which will pretty much recap a few days worth of news in the world of pro wrestling. So, without further delay, here are today's news and rumors.
One major story over the last few days has been the announcement of a new Saturday night 10 PM to 12 AM WWF time slot on TNN. Speculation was that the time slot would be used to air WCW/ECW programming separately, but apparently, that is not the case. Instead, the WWF cancel their weekend morning shows, Livewire and Superstars, and pretty much put them together for the Saturday night show, which will still pretty much be a recap show, along with a few "special features" that the weekend morning shows had, as well as wrestler personality profiles. The morning time slot didn't allow the WWF to get away with much, so the new late slot will allow them to aim for a more adult audience, if that's what they have in mind. At least for now, it appears that running WCW/ECW as a separate promotion has been put on hold. To read an article about the new show, click HERE.
Another major story has been the "fight" over the rights to ECW's assets. The story is that Annodeus, a division of Acclaim, which ECW had signed a video game deal with, is attempting to foreclose, meaning they are attempting to gain the rights to the ECW trademark and video library for the money they are owed by ECW. If they are successful, the WWF would have to work out a deal with them if they intend on continuing to use the ECW trademark, which I hope will happen. If Acclaim is not successful in its foreclosure attempt, according to Dave Meltzer, any money that ECW still has from past due PPVs or video tape royalties, would be distributed to the various creditors and ECW's trademark would be pretty much in the air. There will hopefully be more on this situation by Tuesday.
The other major happening this week was, of course, the return of The Rock to the WWF. As expected, The Rock's return brought huge ratings for Raw, helping it to a 5.7 rating, the second highest rating the WWF has ever done for Raw since they moved to TNN, only barely trailing a show back in December. That is definitely good news for the company, which seems to be right back on top of things once again, at least in terms of viewership. The Rock's return segment at the end of Raw drew a huge 7.1 rating for the company.
The WWF's ratings continued to rise for Thursday's Smackdown, which did a 4.7 rating, up from the 4.3 rating the previous week and the show's highest rating in a long while, dating back to before CBS aired Survivor II.
In other ratings, Tough Enough scored a 2.1 on MTV on Thursday night, right about on average for what the show has been doing.
In pretty interesting news, according to an article on Mediaweek.com, the WWF will debut a whole new set and graphics for the August 16th Smackdown, which will be aired live from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is being plugged by UPN as the debut of Smackdown's new fall season. New sets are always something to look forward to and are great for adding a fresh feel to the show, obviously. UPDATE: Big thanks to Metallica3285 for sending along an image of what may be the new Smackdown logo. To check it out, click HERE.
Tonight's Raw will feature a street fight between The Rock and Shane McMahon, which should be a fun one to watch. Also, the WWF's Raw preview hints at a possible Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle match at SummerSlam.
As many have noticed, former ECW World Heavyweight champion, Jerry Lynn, has gotten hardly any television time at all over the past few months or so. The last time I remember him on Raw or Smackdown was to lose the LHW title to Jeff Hardy, which was a few months ago. Also, Jerry Lynn was inexplicably left out of the ECW invasion angle and there have been no signs of him doing some sort of angle to "join" the "alliance". The apparent reason for his lack of a push has simply been... Vince McMahon. Of course, I'm not shocked a bit by this revelation. McMahon has apparently not been impressed with Jerry Lynn's look and character, which I must admit is a bit lacking, but maybe if the WWF's writers actually attempted to give him something to do, he would have a character. Rumors were that the reason for Lynn's "de-push" was because of heat between himself and Paul Heyman from back in their ECW days, but that is not the case. In fact, Heyman has been pushing for Lynn and he proposed the match between Lynn and Rob Van Dam on Heat to show McMahon what Lynn can really do in the ring, according to Dave Scherer. Jim Ross even had something to say about the match in his Ross Report: "Check out the Jerry Lynn-RVD match Sunday night on MTV's HEAT. It's very good!" For those wondering, RVD picked up the victory with a Five Star Frog Splash.
WWF stars have been suffering from many and various injuries. According to Jim Ross, Trish Stratus had ankle surgery this past Thursday and will be out of the ring for a few weeks. Booker T is suffering from a calf sprain, but won't miss any action. Billy Kidman has a PCL tear in his knee and will most likely be out of action until SummerSlam. Sean O'Haire is suffering from a sore collarbone and Hugh Morrus is suffering from tendonitis in his shoulder, but both won't miss any action. Rikishi's injured shoulder is healing well and he's expected to return in October or November. Spike Dudley is expected to receive medical clearance to return from a fractured fibula in the next few days.
Molly Holly will apparently be sent down to Ohio Valley Wrestling to feud with Victoria, who some may remember as one of the Godfather's "hos". What this means for the Spike Dudley-Molly Holly angle, I do not know.
According to Jim Ross, Chris Benoit will be making appearance for the WWF while he heals from his neck injury, which is still a few months away from 100%.
We may see the return of D'Lo Brown in the WWF very soon. According to JR, "D'Lo Brown will soon finish his stint in Puerto Rico, and it looks as if he will be brought back to the primary roster soon." Should be great to finally see D'Lo back in the WWF.
Val Venis is in great shape, according to JR, and is ready to return. However, "a return date has not been determined."
We may see a Rhyno vs. Chris Jericho feud on the horizon.
Jim Ross will apparently have a meeting with Rey Mysterio Jr. in Los Angeles next week. That sounds like a good idea to me. Rey really should have been signed already.
The WWF has put up a WWF New York 3D virtual replica web site. If you're not in the New York area and can't go there in person, you can at least check it out on your computer. To go on a virtual tour of the restaurant, click HERE.
The WWF has also put up a web site where you can send virtual greeting cards with WWF superstars on them. To check it out, visit WWFGreetings.com.
In some saddening news, Jerry Lawler recently released a statement on his web site stating that because of all the recent problems they have had, mainly the WWF situation, he and his wife Stacy "The Kat" Carter have broken up. All of Stacy Carter's content, including photos, has been removed from Lawler's web site. To read Lawler's statements on the unfortunate situation, click HERE.
Finally, THQ has released some amazing media previewing their upcoming video game titles, WWF Smackdown 3 for PS2 and WWF Raw is War for the Microsoft Xbox. Electronics Boutique states that they will receive SD3 on October 15. To check out video clips and screen shots of the games, which look amazing, visit THQ.com.
If you're going to be attending Tuesday's Smackdown tapings in California, please send along a report of the show. Unfortunately, because the show will be on the west coast, we will not be able to receive a satellite feed and Mike E will not be able to provide the usual live taping results. So, once again, if you're attending the show in person and can send along results, it would be greatly appreciated and you will receive full credit for your work. Thanks in advance.
With that, it's time to wrap this one up. Until next time, enjoy Raw tonight. Later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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