Allright, no fancy intro, the news and rumors start now.
Three title changes took place from Backlash on Sunday night, being the Heavyweight Title, Intercontinental Title, and the Cruiserweight Title. The title change that surprised me the most was the IC title, being Eddie Guerrero a few months ago was released by the WWF for a DUI, then signs back and within a month is rewarded a title. I am hoping that the WWF has an actual plan for the Cruiserweight division since they gave the title back to Tajirri.
Hollywood Hulk Hogan won his match at Backlash and is now the Heavyweight champion (just for the record, from this moment on I will not refer to the belts as the Undisputed Title, I so hate that). While it seems silly to give that title to a 49 year old man, given his legendary status and popularity, the WWF felt it was necessary. My honest opinion is, Hogan will not hold the belt long, and I truly believe the WWF is just trying to milk Hogan for all he is worth now (don't mean to make it sound negative). Hogan's popularity is at an unbelievable level right now, but it most likely will start to fade in the coming weeks. As a matter of fact, many believed that his reaction last night was less then it has been in recent weeks; I guess that's just a matter of opinion. I didn't really notice. My humble opinion, I can't take away anything that he has done in his career, but just a month ago it looked like Hogan finally passed the torch onto The Rock, and now he is the world champion. With his title win, it kind of takes away the passing of the torch that we all thought he did at WrestleMania. I would ideally like to see him drop the title on Raw this upcoming week, but if he is to hold onto the title longer than Judgement Day, then I will really be irate. He's done a lot for the business, but this is 2002, and listening to his promo last night just made me sick. Seriously, he is 49 years old and my honest opinion is he will probably pass one of his kidneys to someone before he ever passes the torch for real.
The rumor going around is that Hulk Hogan used his "power" backstage to convince the storyline writers to have The Big Show join the nWo. It is believed that many felt The Big Show's career was going nowhere, and just like X-Pac, is now given spotlight that should be mainevent time. I hate relying on backstage rumors or gossip, so only take this with a grain of salt.
Tension between Ric Flair and Stone Cold Steve Austin without a doubt will continue. It first started with Flair accidently costing Austin the match on Sunday vs. Undertaker. Last night Flair wanted to make things right for Austin so he booked him into a tag team match with Bradshaw as his partner to wrestle the nWo. My question from the start is, why the F*CKING HELL didn't Ric Flair just have Austin wrestle the Undertaker again?? Ok this is all made up, but seriously, use some common sense. How is a tag team match suppose to make Austin feel better?? Since the roster split, Flair has wrongfully booked a main event match for Backlash, booked Undertaker vs. RVD and Austin vs. Scott Hall on Raw a few weeks ago to determine who the number one contender would be when Austin and Undertaker should have just wrestled in the first place! Last night he sets up a weird tag team match to make Austin feel better. My question is, have the storyline writers just given up and opted to make Ric Flair look stupid?? The only possible solution is that Ric Flair may be turning heel, and is out to get Austin. Hopefully that will happen since Flair always made a great heel by his mic skills.
With the tag team match last night, The Big Show is the newest member of the nWo. In one way, I do like that as the faction is back to three members again (not including Nash since he is out of action despite his appearance last night). On the other hand, the nWo has two mid card wrestlers being X-Pac and The Big Show. I am seriously suppose to believe The Big Show is a big threat when almost twice in a year, he lost to Shane McMahon (first time being at a PPV, might have been Summerslam 2001, a few weeks Austin returned from his neck surgery; second being a few months after Shane "bought" WCW)!
It was previously reported that Lita strained her neck while filming scenese for her guest appearance on Dark Angel. She was accidently dropped on her head by a stuntwoman. Now it is being reported that her injury is much more severe and she may require surgery. A recent CAT scan revealed she has three cracked vertebrae. She is scheduled to meet with Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, the same doctor that Steve Austin and Chris Benoit had their surgery with. Dr. Youngblood will determine whether Lita will need surgery or not. If she does, she will be out for at least 6 months to possibly a year.
Diamond Dallas Page is suffering from a severe back injury which Jim Ross recently descirbed as career threatening. It's quite unfortunate to hear something like that, however, DDP is up there in age and his body has suffered a handful of various injuries through the years. I hope DDP can make one final and meaningful run in the WWF before he has to retire. Hopefully this current injury won't be as bad as Ross claims it is. Just for the record, Hogan and Big Show are real life friends and were hanging around each other as soon as Hogan came to the WWF.
The mainevent for Judgement Day is scheduled to be The Undertaker vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan. When it's all said and done, my guess is that won't be the actual match though. The rumored main event unfortunately is a four way match with Hogan vs. Stone Cold vs. Undertaker vs. Triple H (or Chris Jericho). I'm not a big fan of four way matches, more towards title matches. I hope the WWF can think of something better than that.
Ughhh, nothing too much is on my mind right now. I question why the WWF is burying Shawn Stasiak though. If you are going to bury someone, why have them on TV in the first place? If you are thinking all this burying now will lead up to something for him, think again. Remember a few months ago when he ran into a statue, got slammed in the face by a door? Did he ever get pushed following that? I think it's only a matter of time before Goldust and Booker T feud. Booker T would make the better face, but so far the WWF has kept him heel.
That's all for today's report. No fancy exit or anything, I am out.
Martin Hawrysko
Martin@tpww.net
AIM: INGAME21
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