Hello and welcome to the post RAW edition of the news and rumors here at TPWW. I'm in somewhat of a hurry, so lets get to the report.
I thought Raw was a good show last night, with most of the matches being good, and some solid storyline development. Unlike others out there, I liked the nWo attack on Kane backstage and the segment with the removal of his mask. It is a shame though the nWo suffers another blow with this time Nash being sidelined due to his recent bicep surgery (which explains why he was suspended). The Rob Van Dam and Undertaker match was allright, but got really good towards the end with all the attempted pin falls with RVD kicking out of almost all of them. This match allowed RVD to lose without making him look bad and also further establishes his feud with the returning Eddie Guerrero. Paul Heyman's promo was great and further established Brock Lesnar; I am still anticipating his first match however. Even Spike Dudley defeating William Regal for the European Title was a nice segment. I liked the show, and as I stand now (seeing two Raws and one Smackdown), the Raw brand is my favorite out of the two.
With Kevin Nash expected to be out for the next 3-4 months rehabbing from his recent bicep surgery, he has been "susepended indefinately" without pay for storyline purposes. Though it seemed silly for Flair to suspend Nash and not X-Pac or Scott Hall, it explains Nash's absense. I would expect by the time Nash returns, the nWo will most likely be no more, and Nash will return as a babyface (again, only my guess).
The main event for Backlash will indeed be Hulk Hogan vs. Triple H for the WWF Title (now with the new title belt, I don't feel I need to call it the Undisputed WWF Title anymore). Stone Cold Steve Austin will therefore take on The Undertaker at Backlash to therefore determine the number one contender for the WWF title following Backlash. The Austin or Taker vs. Hogan or Triple H match will either take place at King of The Ring or either on Raw or Smackdown (depending on the wrestlers I guess).
Speaking of Triple H, he was backstage at Raw last night, but there was no spot for him on the show. I have a feeling similiar incidents will happen with the WWF champion in the future. For example, with Triple H feuding with Hulk Hogan, is there really any need for him to be on Raw? I'm not suggesting Triple H won't be at Raw again before Backlash, but if you see my point, it sort of makes you think what the champion does on "Show A" when he is feuding with a wrestler from "Show B."
It seems The Rock will be taking more time off from the WWF, and may even miss Backlash. I haven't heard any reliable amount of time he may be gone, but early rumors suggest he may be gone until May or June. Obviously this has do to with his movie coming out on Friday, other promotional appearances, and what have you. With him being out until possibly May or June (which I hope is not the case), I'm not sure what else he is doing for that amount of time. More information to come as it comes.
The Rock appearared on Regis and Kelly this morning. I won't really recap the inverview, but point out one main highlight. When asked if he prefers Hollywood over wrestling or vise versa, The Rock mentioned he would not choose one career over the other. Instead he would balance the two careers out. Great indication (and not the first) that we will be seeing many situations in years to come where Rock takes "time off" for filming purposes.
The Pro Wrestling Torch website is reporting a story about how Bret Hart will be appearaing on ABC's "Contact: Talking to the Dead." The title explains the entire show, and the show is being promoted that Bret will try to communicate with Helan and Owen. Rather then offending any of our readers, I will not give my opinion or add further comment about this. More information at Zap2It.com.
Ratings news for Raw, the show scored a 4.8 rating off of hours of 4.5 and 5.0. Those are the same numbers as last week's.
Former WCW wrestler/valet Daphney will be tryingout for the WWF on April 20th. She currently wrestles for Dusty Rhode's TCW promotion. Jason Sugarman and Miss Galaxy Kim Nielsen, both TCW wrestlers are rumored to eventually tryout for the WWF as well.
For the most part, I like how the WWF is pushing Kane. I was one of those marks a few years back that wanted to see Kane unmasked, but I now agree with the majority of the Internet Wrestling community. If he was unmasked, it would take away his gimmick. I understand his gimmick a few years ago was that parts of his body were burned as well, but if he was to be unmasked, he really wouldn't be any different from any other wrestler. While I like that they are trying to add a more human side to Kane, I'm not sure if him looking at a Diva's magazine exactly fits.
And Finally... Did anyone see Goldberg on The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Net last night? Pretty good stuff lol, wouldn't surprise me if he became one of the "regulars" on the show. Why am I not looking as forward to The Rock's SNL appearance like I did two years ago? Going back to the Kane issue, when he was unmasked, Jim Ross mentioned that never happened before. I remember him being unmasked twice; once by Vince, and definately one other time (maybe two times) from the Undertaker.
If you have e-mailed me anytime on Monday night and afterwards, you most likely have not gotten any response from me yet. At this moment (Tuesday night) my e-mail is down and I am unable to check it. Worse yet, tomorrow immediately after class my team has a tennis meet that's nearly if not an hour in a half away. I most likely won't be home until 7:30 or 8:00 tomorrow night, and by then, I'm not sure if I will even come online. Please wait patiently for me to respond, as I will do my best to answer e-mails possibly tomorrow night or sometime on Thursday.
That's it for now. Moonax told me last night he was planning on doing a report this week sometime, whether he does or not, I return this weekend with another update. Oh one more thing, TPWW has a new top ten columnist, so I would like to welcome "three Punk" Mike to the site. His first top ten list is the bad aspects of Internet Wrestling. Sounds ironic but it's a great read and you'll understand what he means once you read it. If you're interested, you do so by clicking here. Now with that said, I got nothing else to say, except... until next time.
Martin Hawrysko
Martin@tpww.net
AIM: INGAME21
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