Sup. Welcome to today's news and rumors here at TPWW. There's a lot to talk about today, blah blah, I hate intros. Anyway, here are today's news and rumors...
The WWF's next PPV, Unforgiven, comes to us on Sunday, September 23 from Pittsburgh, PA. As of now, three matches have been officially added to the card, those being Steve Austin taking on Kurt Angle for the WWF title, The Rock taking on Booker T and Shane McMahon in a handicap match for the WCW title, and Edge taking on his "brother" Christian for the WWF Intercontinental Title. As of now, The Dudleys are the number one contendors for the tag team titles, which are held by the Undertaker and Kane, but with the WWF's recent signing of former WCW tag champs, Kronik, the two teams may not be facing each other at the PPV.
The WWF's recent signing of Kronik was obviously to develop a feud between them and the current tag champs, The Undertaker and Kane. If built up correctly, it could be a pretty interesting feud and may lead up to a match between the two teams at Unforgiven. One of the main reasons the WWF decided to sign Kronik is that the Undertaker pushed for it, since Brian Adams is a good friend of his.
The team of Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo have seemed to be missing from the WWF's roster as of late. The reason is that the WWF has sent Sean O'Haire to Ohio Valley Wrestling to better develop his wrestling skills. The WWF did the same with the Big Show and Mark Henry, who has yet to come back to the WWF, obviously. Sean O'Haire has an amazing amount of talent in him and is one of the most impressive young wrestlers on the WWF's roster right now, in my opinion. He just hasn't been given the opportunity to showcase that. Chuck Palumbo, on the other hand, has been getting a lot of praise from backstage officials.
Stone Cold Steve Austin suffered a couple of injuries in his match against Rob Van Dam on Smackdown this past Tuesday. First off, I have to say that it was a great move by the WWF to have RVD pick up the victory over Austin. The match was booked perfectly, since the way RVD beat Austin didn't cause Austin to lose any credibility, but it added a lot of credibility to RVD at the same time. Anyway, during the match, Austin actually suffered a broken tip of his thumb and two stitches to the head after being hit with RVD's Van Daminator. However, he won't miss any ring action if he's needed.
Speaking of injuries, Diamond Dallas Page is about two to three weeks away from returning from his injury. Hopefully the WWF will have an idea on what to do with him by then. Also, Billy Kidman's knee injury is taking longer to heal than expected, according to JR, so there's no set return date for him. Trish Stratus is expected to be able to return to action in about a month after an injured ankle.
Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson recently shot a commercial for 1-800-CALL-ATT along with... Carrot Top. I... can't stand those commercials.
The WWF is apparently working on a deal with the WB Network to get a new WWF show aired. According to Dave Scherer, the WWF had been trying to get a show on the WB for a couple of years now, but weren't able to since Time Warner was the parent company of the WB and they already had a wrestling company of their own - WCW, of course. With the WWF now owning WCW, they're once again able to negotiate with the WB over airing a new show. As of now, not much is known about the show, but hopefully there will be some more info soon.
This past Tuesday's live Smackdown drew a 3.4 rating, its second lowest in history. However, since the show was aired on Tuesday for the first time, it's a bit expected. Monday's Raw also dropped, scoring only a 4.6 rating. For those wondering, the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday drew a big 9.9 rating, up from last year's 9.8. However, it didn't come close to 1999's huge 15.6 or so rating for the show hosted by Chris Rock. Chris Rock is the man, but Jamie Foxx ruled at this year's show too. But, the line of the night has to go to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (from Late Night with Conan O'Brien, of course): "N Sync's performance was great... but then again, I eat my own crap." Bahaha. Good stuff. Uh, wait... wrestling... right... here we go...
In some XFL news, this is sort of a sad/baffling story... According to Dave Meltzer, the WWF did not issue championship rings to the players of the XFL champion LA Xtreme. Instead, the WWF offered them the opportunity to purchase the rings themselves for $120. I don't know, is an XFL ring really even worth that much?
WCW referee Billy Silverman has quit the WWF, according to Dave Scherer. Silverman apparently had some heat with a few of the wrestlers backstage stemming from WCW's Time Warner days, so he wasn't treated too well backstage, causing him to quit the company.
Stacy "The Kat" Carter has apparently filed for divorce from Jerry "The King" Lawler. According to Dave Meltzer, she is asking for half of the couple's assets and is asking the court to consider the 12 years that the couple was together before getting married. You sorta have to feel for Lawler. He sticks up for his wife, then she leaves. Damn.
Speaking of Lawler, he was recently on TNN's "Pop Across America". To check out a full report of Lawler's appearance, click HERE.
As mentioned a few times on WWF TV, the WWF is now taking applications for Tough Enough 2. If you're interested in applying, you can check out the information on the Tough Enough site by clicking HERE.
Kurt Angle's autobiography, "It's True, It's True" will hit stores on September 18 of this year, which is next Tuesday. Amazon.com has the book up for pre-order at a 30% discounted price. To check it out, as well as the book's cover, click HERE.
Mick Foley also apparently has a new children's Halloween book out. For some reason, it hasn't received any promotion, since I've never heard of it up until now. Thanks to Jason K for sending along the link. To check out the book, which is available for order now, click HERE. Maybe the WWF is waiting until Halloween to let everyone know about it.
Finally, I'm going to end things with some WWF video game news. The WWF has two big games set for release for the Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation 2. WWF Raw is War for the Xbox is set for a November 20, 2001 release, while WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It for the PS2 is set for an October 30, 2001 release. Both games look amazing, but each have their own little flaws. Raw is War apparently won't include a career mode, or so I've heard, and WWF Smackdown for PS2 will be using the same fast, arcade engine that was used for SD and SD2 for the PlayStation 1. Personally, I don't like the engine too much and I always preferred the engine used by WWF No Mercy for the N64. The WWF also has a game called WWF Road to WrestleMania set for a November 19, 2001 release for the Gameboy Advance.
Be sure to check out Jessica's WWF Heat report by clicking HERE.
With that, it's time to wrap this one up. I might add a few extra updates later today if any big news is released or if some of tomorrow's matches for Raw are announced. Until next time, later.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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