Greetings and welcome back to the 'dot Net for another dose of the infamous news and rumors report. After a mostly uneventful RAW Monday night, and lack of news storiess out there, this report may end up on the shortside. Consider that your warning, so with that said, here is the post-RAW news and rumors report.
Despite several WWF superstars being in Asia last night, I still enjoyed RAW. Throwing my opinion in quickly so you will better understand why I may or may not like a certain show, I have more of an interest in the midcard wrestlers than I do the so called maineventers. I honestly am sick of Austin, Undertaker, Rock, Angle, Jericho, and even to a certain extent Triple H. I am not saying I dislike them, but there are many other superstars I like that I would like to see more often. Some of those stars are Edge, William Regal, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Christian, and eventually the returning Chris Benoit. Anyways, Monday night's RAW I did like mostly 'cause there were a lot of the midcard wrestlers who did wrestle.
Some highlights from RAW include, yet again, the nWo making their presence felt by taking out Austin (again) and even picking on various backstage crew members. Triple H and Angle wrestled in a cage match where Stephanie cheated to help Angle get the win, there was a great match between Lance Storm and RVD, Undertaker beat up Ric Flair's oldest son David on hopes that Flair will say yes to his WrestleMania challenge, Christian's grandmother Edna is about to die, and at a lesser extent, Mark Henry returned.
I somewhat mentioned this in my weekend report I believe, but the WWF announced last night that The Rock will return to Smackdown live this Thursday night. Who knows what actually will go down, whether he will just cut a promo or actually look for revenge against the nWo. I guess we will find out this Thursday.
After some criticism from the Internet fans about the nWo already getting somewhat stale, the WWF, last night, I believe, tried to make the nWo get over more as heels by picking on innocent backstage crew members. While that added heat, I still don't buy the fact they are suppose to be a threat. So far they have only really interacted with three wrestlers in the ring that I can remember being Austin, The Rock, and Spike Dudley (please e-mail me if you remember anyone else that the nWo already dealt with in the ring). In my opinion, for the nWo to appear more as a threat, they will have to do a lot more than gang up on three different wrestlers and a few backstage crew members. I realize I may sound too harsh on the WWF, but with the nWo possibly being the last big chance Vince McMahon has to gain ratings, the WWF damn well do the best they can with this storyline. So far it is not living up to my expectations and from what I understand, it's not living up to other fans as well. Again, many will disagree with me, some will agree with me. It just depends on who you are I guess. End of story.
The Rob Van Dam and Lance Storm match was an awesome match on RAW, as was their match on Heat. I would expect sometime in the next week for Regal and RVD to cross each other's path in one way since they both are due to wrestle at WrestleMania. A match can't really be hyped when the two opponents haven't really dealt with each other yet. I can assure you that will change very soon. It has to.
The cage match last night didn't really do it for me. It seemed like that match was just thrown together because Chris Jericho wasn't at RAW last night. The real reason he wasn't there last night was because him, along with several other WWF superstars (including The Rock) are in Asia for a tour that they were doing their. Getting back to the cage match, I thought Angle and Triple H wrestled pretty well, but the addition of the cage didn't excite me too much. There really was nothing for either men to do because both of opponents (the Angle and Kane match is not confirmed yet but expected to go down though) were part of the Asian tour. The interferance I didn't really mind as its part of the story and always will be, but the screaching by Stephanie is just mad annoying.
The Underseller... I mean Undertaker proved he still won't take no for an answer by Ric Flair concerning his challenge for a match at WrestleMania. The attack that Undertaker made on David Flair wasn't too surprising considering it was rumored that something of that nature would take place. Sure enough it did last night, and I would expect Flair if not on Smackdown, but then on RAW next week to return and most likely accept Undertaker's challenge. It was almost obvious that this match would indeed take place, but instead of Flair saying yes earlier on, it adds further heel heat on 'Taker to force the "yes" out of Flair by attacking his friends and family.
Mark Henry made his return to the WWF last night, as he was announced as the World's Strongest Man. He won the competiton about two weeks ago, and it sadly took that for him to finally come back. Henry has been down in the developmental league(s) for almost two years now working hard and couldn't catch a break, mostly because of Jim Ross. It is expected that if Henry indeed is back fulltime in the WWF, he will be in some sort of World's Strongest Man gimmick, or if not that, be labeled as that at least.
I mentioned earlier as part of the RAW recap about Christian's grandmother Edna about to die. It was just a miny segment that was part of RAW. The storyline with Christian and DDP is kind of goofy, but I personally am liking it. Just one silly question though... Christian gave the OK for the doctors to pull the cord on Edna, so I have to ask what poor Edge thinks about that?
Need I comment on the Stephanie and hives situation? Oh, and some fan appreciation night too, right?
RAW scored a 4.5 composite off the hours of 4.2 and 4.8. The first episode of Tough Enough 2 scored a 1.6 rating.
Triple H will be appearing on the Conan O'Brien show next Wednesday, March 13th. That should be fun to watch.
In an update on Scott Steiner, the results to his physical he took for the WWF are now known. One of the main concerns about his results is that he has drop foot syndrome. That basically means he has severe nerve damage in one of his feet, meaning he must wear a bandage to avoid it flopping around. There are a few other concerns as well but those are not known. It is expected the WWF will make a decision as to if they will sign him or not in a few weeks. Personally, I would love to see him in the WWF with the nWo, but if he is too much of a risk because of injuries, then I'm not sure he is worth the risk.
Lance Storm has updated his commentary from his official website at StormWrestling.com. For those that have never read his commentary before, they are usually very good reads, because he is out of character and has a lot of interesting things to write about.
Marc Lloyd, the new WWF announcer is expected to debut next week on RAW. He will be another one of those announcers that will interview wrestlers backstage, just like Jonathan Coachman does.
The WWF was in Singapore this weekend as part of their Asian tour. Of some of the more interesting highlights, The Rock beat Chris Jericho for the Undisputed title, but it was an accident. As The Rock pinned Jericho, he was suppose to kickout during a 3 count. Jericho was late and Referee Mike Cheaota made the 3 count giving The Rock the win. The accident was corrected as the match somehow continued and Jericho won the match with the interfearance of Shane McMahon. Jericho won the title back obviously. It is unknown whether Shane was originally planned to come out, or if he was used just to help fix the accident. Also, his coming out questions whether he will soon return to the WWF. Under one more note, I doubt the WWF will keep record of The Rock's accidental winning of the Undisputed Title from this weekend.
This Friday, Vince McMahon will be the special guest on WWF.com's WWF Byte This program. That should be interesting to watch.
The following is a press release about the WWF's "Forceable Entry" CD that is set to come out Tuesday, March 26hth. Below is the list of titles that will be includes on the CD. Personally, this CD looks like it will kick some serious ass, and I plan to buy it as soon as possible after it's release.
- 1. Drowning Pool "The Game" (Triple H(TM)'s Theme)
- 2. Kid Rock "Legs" (Stacy Kiebler(TM)'s Theme)
- 3. Creed "Young Grow Old"
- 4. Disturbed "Glass Shatters" (Stone Cold Steve Austin(TM)'s Theme)
- 5. Limp Bizkit "Rollin'" (Undertaker(R)'s Theme)
- 6. Our Lady Peace "Whatever" (Chris Benoit(TM)'s Theme)
- 7. Rob Zombie "Never Gonna Stop" (The Black Cat Crossing Mix) (Edge(TM)'s Theme)
- 8. Breaking Point "One Of A Kind" (Rob Van Dam(TM)'s Theme)
- 9. Marilyn Manson "The Beautiful People" (Remix) (SmackDown!(TM) Theme)
- 10. The Union Underground "Across The Nation" (RAW(TM) Theme)
- 11. Sevendust "Break The Walls Down" (Chris Jericho(TM)'s Theme)
- 12. Saliva "Turn The Tables" (Dudley Boyz(TM)' Theme)
- 13. Monster Magnet "Live For The Moment" (Hardy Boyz(TM)' Theme)
- 14. Stereomud "End Of Everything" (Raven(TM)'s Theme)
- 15. Neurotica "Ride Of Your Life"
- 16. Cypress Hill "Just Another Victim" (Tazz(TM)'s Theme)
- 17. Dope "No Chance" (Mr. McMahon(TM)'s Theme)
- 18. Boy Hits Car "Lovefurypassionenergy" (Lita(TM)'s Theme)
The Howard Stern Show will be a special WWF edition this Friday night at 11 pm Eastern time. The show will include various guest who have appeared on the show in the past.
That is going to do it for this report. Oh my gosh, did I actually say this report may end up being short? Gosh, I told Triple A this would probably be short too. Anyways, I can't think of anything else to say except to keep your e-mails and IMs coming. Until next time, I am out.
Martin Hawrysko
Send feedback to Martin@tpww.net
AIM Screen Name: INGAME21
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