Sup. Whoa, lots of stuff to say today. It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I don't really have any "excuse" either this time. I just haven't been "into" wrestling too much these past couple of weeks, probably for the obvious reasons you're thinking of. But I felt that it was finally time to get back to doing N&R; reports here at TPWW when I realized that this past Wednesday, September 26, was the three year anniversary of TPWW. Yessir, three years ago, September 26, 1998, myself and the infamous Ry started a tiny wrestling website on Angelfire.com with a dream to get our wrestling thoughts and opinions out to the 'net, as well as to become one of the largest wrestling multimedia websites out there. "The People's Wrestling Website", it was called. Yeah, The Rock was real big back then too. Well, three years and a couple of lawsuit threats from the WWF and ECW later, tons of things have changed. The staff has grown and changed tons of times, we've moved to the TPWW.net domain, our number of visitors has increased dramatically... and a bunch of other stuff that I'm too lazy to think of right now, but you get the point. So, yeah. Plus, it wasn't until I stopped doing the N&R; for a while until I realized how many people "cared" about them. I can't even count all the e-mails I've gotten asking when I'm going to update, the death threats, insults, and all that good stuff. If I had a nickel for everytime I got one of those, I would have like... $8.75 or something like that. It's cool to see that people care enough to "request" that I update. I love you guys. So, since this is The People's Wrestling Website, uhh... yeah. News and rumors time... finally.
I caught the season finale of Tough Enough last night and I was pretty surprised by both choices. I sort of had a feeling that Maven would win, but it still was a surprise. As for the women's side, it was really surprising that Nidia picked up the win over Taylor. I thought it was almost a sure thing that Taylor would win, but I guess the WWF thought that Nidia's size was better, plus I'm sure that missed dropkick spot that Taylor did right in front of Vince McMahon may have had something to do with the choice. Personally, I was pulling for Josh to pick up the win, since he seemed like the hardest working one of all of the contestants in the ring. He took a bunch of sick bumps and could probably put on a good cruiserweight match... but uhh... yeah, I guess I'm forgetting that it's the WWF we're talking about, so Maven was a pretty good choice. Harvard Chris could have been good too, but I don't think the WWF playing him up as a heel helped at all.
As of now, word is that Maven and Nidia will receive one year contracts with the WWF and may be sent down to Ohio Valley Wrestling eventually. However, it was mentioned recently by Al Snow on radio that the winners may wrestle a match on WWF TV as soon as Smackdown this Thursday. The obvious possibility for the winners to start off would be to develop a feud with Al Snow. That would have worked well if a guy like Chris won, but unless the WWF has some good excuses for Maven, I think the fans will have a hard time buying him as a heel against Al Snow, who he seemed really cool with on TV all these weeks. Whatever the case, it should be interesting to see what the WWF does with the two.
You may have noticed that Tori wasn't at WWF New York last night for the finale of Tough Enough. The reason, according to Dave Scherer, is that the WWF has released her. She was involved in the Raven "ninja" angle a while back, but that was just flat out dropped right after Tori was revealed.
Speaking of the WWF releasing wrestlers, there are rumors that they are planning more releases in the near future to try to cut down their severely overcrowded roster. According to Dave Scherer, K-Kwik has already been told that his contract will not be renewed when it expires soon.
Also, the WWF release that has received the most attention recently is the release of Brian Adams and Bryan Clark, Kronik. As the story goes, after the WWF watched their awful tag match against the Undertaker and Kane at Unforgiven, they decided that they would send them to Ohio Valley Wrestling to help better develop their skills. Kronik reportedly took the request as an insult and refused, so the WWF offered to buy out their contracts and give them a release. Word is that Kronik was released, but the latest news is that the release has not officially taken place yet and Kronik may be reconsidering their decision to go to Ohio Valley Wrestling. Hopefully there will be more on this soon, but it's likely that you won't see them in the WWF anytime soon, possibly even ever again. Personally, I don't think the WWF should have signed them in the first place. Their roster was already way overcrowded with talented wrestlers who could have been elevated instead of them, but the WWF decided to listen to the Undertaker and sign his buddies, Kronik. Personally, I don't think all of the blame should go on Kronik for putting up the horrible match at the PPV. Since when have the Undertaker and Kane's matches been so spectacular anyway?
Last night's WWF Smackdown pulled in an overnight rating of 4.7, which is relatively low for what the WWF would like the show to do, but still decent considering the competition it was going up against. Friends on NBC drew a monster 21.7 rating while "Inside Schwartz" on NBC drew a 14.8 along with a flurry of other monster ratings on the night. So, the 4.7 overnight isn't too bad, although it will most likely drop down to around 4.0 or so when the final number is released.
As a result of the recent tragic events in the United States, the WWF has announced that they're dropping the name "Raw is War" and will now call their show simply, "WWF Raw". Also, Armageddon, the WWF's December PPV, has been renamed to "WWF Payback". Also, as you may have noticed, Stephanie McMahon is no longer using "Bodies" for her theme music. Hopefully the WWF brings back the ECW theme music.
In an injury update, Hardcore Holly recently underwent surgery to remove the plate in his broken arm at the hands of a Kurt Angle moonsault last year. According to Jim Ross, he will be out for six months. Ouch.
Speaking of returns from injuries, signs are pointing to Triple H making his WWF return sometime in either as soon as late November or more likely early December, according to JR. Rikishi should also be making his return around the same time and Trish Stratus is expected to return from her injured angle and possibly get back into the ring around mid October. Also, Shawn Stasiak is suffering from a hernia and will be out for 4-6 weeks as a result, but it may eventually require surgery.
In WWF media appearance news, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Booker T, The Big Show, William Regal, Stephanie McMahon, Lita, and Trish Stratus will be doing an episode of NBC's "The Weakest Link". I haven't watched the show since its premiere, but that sounds pretty interesting. No word on when it will air. Also, Mick Foley will be on the celebrity edition of ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" soon.
Jerry "The King" Lawler and his son, Brian "Grandmaster Sexay" Christopher were both backstage at last week's Smackdown tapings in their home town of Memphis, Tennessee. They were apparently invited by Jim Ross and spoke with Vince McMahon about a possible return. As of now, there is no word on whether or not they will be back, but Lawler is said to have a decent chance of being back sometime in the future due to his friendship with Jim Ross. Lawler is in the midst of a divorce with his now estranged wife, Stacy "The Kat" Carter and has apparently been told to finalize the divorce before furthering negotiations.
If you haven't yet, be sure to check out our Discussion Forums. They rule, seriously.
I want to thank everyone who e-mailed me to ask if I was okay following the tragic events of September 11. I live in the New York City area, but in Yonkers, New York, which about a half hour away from Manhattan, right on the border of the Bronx. I like to consider it "the sixth borough" of New York. As for the tragic events of 9-11, I honestly would rather not comment much about it in this report since I probably wouldn't have the right thing to say. Condolences go out to everyone who had family working at the World Trade Center that day. I, myself, had a few family members working near it that day who watched the horrible tragedy in person. The only thing that I'll say is that violence is horrible - whether you're receiving it or giving it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." A quote that fits this current situation like a glove.
Thanks for checking out today's report. It's been fun. Until next time, lata.
Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com
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