Welcome back to the website that belongs to you and me, while Triple A pays the monthly tab; this is The People's Wrestling Website, and these are the people's news and rumors.
Smackdown is now days behind us, however the Rock has finally returned to the World Wrestling Federation, and it was announced that this Monday night, Rock and Austin would wrestle the nWo in a handicap match. Other happenings included the elevations of a few feuds including the Kurt Angle and Kane feud and the Triple H and Chris Jericho feuds. We also are seeing the beginning of a feud with Booker T and Edge, and William Regal and Rob Van Dam, both which were expected to begin anyways. The beginning of a feud for the Women's Championship also began when Jazz attacked Lita. Last but not least, a match between Ric Flair and The Undertaker is now official for WrestleMania.
As far as my opinion on the show, the show was pretty good. The nWo invasion means more when you got another big star like The Rock now involed. Not having one of the nWo's main opponents not being in attendance for a few weeks, especially after just debuting, hurt the storyline a bit I believe. I'm not sure what Monday's match will bring, but I hope something good comes out of it. The rest of the show had some wrestling, and the show seemed right on pace and didn't really drag. The Triple H and Stephanie segments were a bit odd too.
One of my main critisms is the feud between Chris Jericho and Triple H. I don't like the fact at all that what we have seen in the last three weeks has been more of a Stephanie and Triple H war of words feud. I don't like that because so far Chris Jericho has seemed to be somewhat the odd man out when in fact, he shouldn't be. I realize that this match for the undisputed titles is second to the Hogan and Rock matchup, but that doesn't mean this match for the undisuputed titles should be less intriugiing. I'm sorry, but Stephanie and Triple H battling by words doesn't want me to watch a Chris Jericho and Triple H title match. This match needs to be hyped more with Jericho getting some heat. And if the WWF thinks Jericho wearing one of Triple H's robe is enough, they are so sadly wrong. One thing I will watch for this week is Jericho's role in this feud. But maybe I shouldn't kid myself, because knowing who is writing this storyline (Stephanie), should I be shocked at the way it is turning out?
After the beatdown of his son by The Undertaker Monday night, Flair finally agreed to accept Undertaker's challenge at WrestleMania. After Undertaker playing with Flair's mind again, finally agreed to the match himself. I still am not really into this feud despite Flair's awesome promo Thursday night. I really am against Flair wrestling. He looks fine in a suit and tie, but when he's all wound up, he looks like an old man who may have a heart attack. I honestly have a hard time believing Ric Flair actually has a chance of hurting the Undertaker, despite knowing how awesome Flair was in the past.
Vince McMahon returned Thursday night (not including the silly promos he made backstage before at a few recent shows) to announced The Rock and Steve Austin would wrestle the nWo in a handicap match this Monday night. I honestly don't think this will be a wrestling match with a winner and loser, I don't want to over excite myself or anyone else, but for this storyline to keep my interest, I expect something damn good to happen during or following the match. I don't know particulary what I want or if anything that good will happen, but watching the end of Smackdown I started thinking. When the nWo were walking towards the backstage curtain, it seemed like they were stalling purposely. I started to think, how awesome would it be knowing they are live in San Antonio, Texas that Shawn Michaels walks through the curtain to make an attack on them. Wishful thinking yes, and it turned out that the entire segment was delayed, especially at the end. Anyways, I think I've over spoke on this topic, the bottom line is, whether the nWo beat down Rock or Austin again, or somehow it happens vice versa, I don't see there being a clean winner and loser. Take it for what it's worth, case closed.
Moving on, Shawn Michaels was backstage at Smackdown on Thursday night. From what I have heard, as of early Friday, Jim Ross was unable to speak with Michaels about a comeback to the Federation. The WWF would like to bring him back, and I'm sure Michaels wants to return as well so its just a matter of time before the two parties can sit down, and agree on something. If Michaels ever does return, it is still unknown what his role would be, and whether he would wrestle or not. A year ago at this time, Michaels was going to return and was expected to even come back as a wrestler but got back in the doghouse after showing up at the Smackdown before WrestleMania in poor condition. He was sent home and the two sides didn't speak for a while. All wounds have healed now, and hopefully something can be finalized sooner, rather then later. Michaels is under contract for at least another year if not longer from what I understand.
Smackdown on Thursday night scored a final 3.4 rating. That is really bad news considering the overnight rating was a 5.6. The 3.4 rating is really bad considering WrestleMania is just a week away, and the WWF hoped that Hogan and the nWo would have brought back more wrestling fans by now. I would expect some really good TV this week by the WWF as they must do everything they can do make WrestleMania look good or they can expect a low buyrate for that too.
Jim Ross mentioned in his latest Ross Report that there will be two divisions of the WWF following the roster split. One division will appear on RAW while the other appears on Smackdown. Ross included that the chance of developmental wrestlers being called up is great. Ross added that many superstars will be pushed to main event status quickly.
I believe I covered everything, so with that said, this report shall come to an end. One thing I've noticed is, the number of e-mails I have recieved as of late has been down a bit. This is just a reminder that all wrestling questions, or feedback concering the report are welcomed. My AIM screen name is available as well, and I do try to make time to talk to everyone interested in chatting over the IM. Anyways, I'm done babbling about that. I'm looking forward to watching "Season on a Brink" on ESPN tonight, while trying to remember to watch a bit of the WWF version of Weakest Link. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, later.
Martin Hawrysko
Send feedback to Martin@tpww.net
AIM Screen Name: INGAME21
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