Hello everybody and welcome to the latest edition of the news and rumors. As you can hopefully tell from up top, this will be a "joint" report, as Triple A would like to call them. Both Michael and myself will be contributing to today's news and rumors as he will be helping me out while I will be away in the upcoming weeks, including next week probably. Anyways, I'll allow Michael to start off this report so without further delay, here are the news and rumors.
Michael Blaszkowski's News & Rumors
Yo. As Martin said, my name is Mike, and for those unaware, I write the Top Ten List on this very site, TPWW.net. I'm in training (so to speak) for this News thing, so call me Padawan or some stuff like that. I'm even cleaning up my act! Alright, well, let's see what news flows forth today...
First, an update on the whole Hair Cut Air business where on the way back from Europe, some WWE superstars played rock star and got out of control. Here is apparently what went down: Goldust started serenading his ex-wife Terri on the plane after having a little to drink. Also on the flight, Dok Hendrix himself, Mr. Hayes, had a confrontation with Bradshaw after also having a bit to drink. Then he went to sleep and woke up bald. I hate it when that happens.
There was also a story floating around about Lesnar almost killing the entire flight of people when Henning confronted him. This is simply not true. Curt Hennig and Brock Lesnar, old road buddies, were debating who the better shoot fighter was. Henning apparently had a little to drink as well and apparently didn't realize that Brock Lesnar was the one who THROWS AROUND RIKISHI LIKE NOTHING, so he kept egging him on. Brock took him to the ground a few times before Triple H and Heyman broke it up. Brock backed off until Henning kept trying to start stuff, eventually Triple H physically stopped Henning or something and Triple H alone bumped into the door, and apparently not nearly hard enough to even come close to flying out of the plane and killing everyone on board (like was reported). Oh, and no one blames Brock for being antagonized by an over-the-hill drunk, either. I think that sums up the hell flight information floating around so far, except that no matter what you hear, Eddie Guerrerro is perfect gentleman.
As a result of the whole plane thing, though, the next day at RAW the whole writing team scrambled to change the script around to write out people who, well, were about to be fired. That kind of explains the lackluster writing. Also, Austin doesn't want Michael Hayes to be his agent anymore because of the poor behavior he showed on the flight. I wonder if Austin just has something against bald people?
The nWo was rumored to be on shaky grounds, what with Hall now out of WWE. However, it appears that everyone's favorite black-and-white heroes will remain a unit, with Ric Flair and the Big Show running things while X-Pac stays in the background. They'll stay forever this way, or at least until Nash comes back and decides what he wants to do with his post-Hall career. Its funny, they came into the WWF as Nash, Hall, and Hogan. Now, in WWE, none of the originals are an active member of the group. How quaint...
There's been some discussion as to whether the yearly "King of the Ring" pay-per-view will remain, well, yearly. Some people have taken a "To-Be-Announced" to mean that the tournament based PPV will be no longer, where as others assume that since the WWE website still has it up, its still a pay-per-view. To be honest, no one will ever be completely sure until the pay-per-view takes place. This could always be another situation like last year's InVasion, but I believe that the PPV will still occur. I saw a promotional poster out not too long back, recently made. I'd assume that defines their intentions pretty clearly.
SmackDown had some big-time competition this time around, I know I saw Phantom Menace on FOX, and the normal line-ups as well. Not to mention in Detroit we had some major playoff hockey going on, so that'll be a small chunk too. I'm hoping its not another 2.9 rating this week. Speaking of SmackDown!, here's the main things that happened.
In a cool segment, McMahon and Triple H babbled for a bit until Triple H got uppity. The midcard army (Storm, Christian, Test, D-Von, and Hardcore Holly) came down and laid out HHH, only to allow Jericho to come down and do the folding chair ballet all over him. As the Walls of Jericho were locked in, McMahon announced, Jericho v. HHH at Judgment Day in Hell in the Cell.
Tajiri fought Hurricane for Cruiserweight Title, Torrie Wilson stripped her geisha outfit, and caused a precise chemical reaction in young boys and men everywhere as she danced her sweet little ass off for everyone to see. Oh, and there was a count-out, or something.
Al Snow and Hurricane had a funny segment where thy plugged Spiderman a little (as if after $114 Million it needs the pub), but then they segued into revealing that someone "knows" who Hurricane is. Possible front-runners for Mr. Helms admirer, in my mind, would be any of the old 3Count members. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine, unless you choose The Big Bossman. Then you're just wrong, (at least you better be).
Test fought Mark Henry in a surprisingly good match. A good Mark Henry match, imagine that. Surprisingly, with the dreads and the music and...I am actually interested in Henry's character. Do they have help groups for that?
Reverand D-Von fought Triple H in an uneventful match. I only mention it to note that D-Von took the opportunity to debut someone named Deacon Batista, at least I think that was his name. He's a big dude, kinda looks like Bull Buchanan. Of course he got involved a little, and the match went on until Jericho interfered, giving D-Von the win over Triple H. You heard me, D-Von over Triple H. Now we KNOW the matches outcomes are considered unimportant by the booking team...
Angle tried humiliating Edge by showing pictures of him bald to help promote their hair versus hair match. Edge turned the tables by messing with the pictures on the TitanTron to show Angle bald. Angle made some jokes, the TitanTron mocked him some, Angle got more pissed and then Hogan came down. What? What does Hogan have to do with this hair versus hair match? Well, apparently he took offense to Angle's making fun of bald people. See, some of the best champions in history were bald. "Superstar" Billy G., "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and of course, The Rock. Oh wait, he said Hogan. Anyway, they went back and forth a bit, had a quickie confrontation, and as Angle backed off, Edge jumped him from behind with a spear. Wait a second, which one is the hero here?
Randy Orton had a match with Lance Storm with Hardcore as the ref. I guess they're trying to push the kid, because the amount of screwjobs only made him look infinitely better then Storm. A post-match beat-down only proved Storm and Holly's jobber status as Val Venis laid waste to them. How far the Triple Champ has fallen.
Edge tried his damnedest to get Hogan over by calling him cool and somehow maintaining a straight face. Actually, they seemed to work very well together in the backstage promo and were a decent tag team at least in the ring, so hopefully there will be slightly more interaction between them in weeks to come?
As a result of SmackDown!, the updated card is for Judgment Day is:
The Undertaker v. "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan(c) for the undisputed title
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin v. "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and The Big Show
"2000 King of the Ring" Kurt Angle v. "2001 King of the Ring" Edge in a hair versus hair match.
Rob Van Dam v. Eddie Guerrerro(C) for the Intercontinental title.
My guess would be that a match between Jazz and Steven v. Bubba and Trish would happen, as will Hurricane versus his admirer and Kidman versus Tajiri.
Finally, I actually caught Linda McMahon on the Abrahms report. Basically, Abrahms said that the WWF didn't take his invite to show up, so he let Linda tell her side of the whole story. She said the corporate line, the whole "even though we think we're right, we just wanted to move on." Dan Abrahms essentially said "I agree, that's cool, get off my show." before moving onto Sex Ed talks.
I guess that's it for my half of this News and Rumors thing. Can't think of anything witty to say, so...here's Martin! That was lame, sorry, goodbye everybody, peace, I'm out.
Martin Hawrysko's News & Rumors
Allright thanks Mike, and welcome to my portion of the news and rumors. No need for a 2nd intro from myself so let the news and rumors continue...
I enjoyed this week's Smackdown and I am looking forward to Judgement Day, at least from the Smackdown roster. I am really enjoying the Chris Jericho and Triple H feud this time, and after realizing what I just said, it's a real shame it was not nearly as good the first time around prior to WrestleMania. The Hell in A Cell Match should be really good. I like the buildup of Chris Jericho and wish they would have built him this way while he was the champion. Triple H always plays a better character when he has a little of the heel side to him as he knocked out Hogan, Edge, and the ref on Smackdown. As funny or sad as this may sound, the hair stipulatin of Kurt Angle and Edge has my attention, perhaps cause this match for that reason seems more meaningful then at Backlash. Whether its the hair stipulation, this feud has been built a lot better then previously, no doubt about that in my opinion. For my nutshell or surprise of the night, I liked the way Hulk Hogan was used last night. Maybe it had something to do with being forced to come out and act like he is proud of being bald which we all know he isn't; why else has been been wearing the bandannas for all these years.
Thursday night's Smackdown scored a 4.5 overnight rating with a share of 7. The final rating is not available yet, but should be posted on the newsboard. With Smackdown receiving it's worse score in history last week and the awful Raw that most people believed it was, I'm pretty sure WWE is very interested in how this week's rating will turn out. I myself am very interested as well. If the WWE shows continue to score low ratings, especially this upcoming week, I definately expect some significant changes to be made with the product, more pertaining to a certain World Title belt, which superstars get pushed, and which superstars get de-pushed as a few examples.
This week's Ross report includes some interesting news items, which I will recap some of them. As usual, everything is rewritten in my own words and I usually add it my own information if needed or two cents.
- The plane ride from the UK this past weekend was about 7 hours long. The wrestlers acted like children who drank too much alcohol from an unlocked liquor cabinet according to JR's perspective. What happened on the plane will not be tolerated and things have been done to make sure similiar instances do not happen again. One other news worthy addition from myself is, many people have questioned why this nonsense took place when JR was on the plane. The question going around is, why did he allow it to happen?
- Preliminary between WWE and Goldberg's representatives, but nothing of importances have come out of them (yet).
- Scotty Too Hotty will be released from the hospital later today and will be out of year for about a year.
- The Rock's left knee has been bothering him lately and he will have it checked out by an orthopedist.
- Kanyon, Mike Awesome, Kevin Nash, and Chris Benoit are progressing well. Kanyon will be back in the ring next week, Awesome in a few weeks, Nash in about two months, and Benoit should be at 100% by the end of June. Perry Saturn's recent MRI shows he does not have a tear in his shoulder and he will not need surgery.
In other news, 1Wrestling reports that WWE has signed Horace Hogan, who is the real life nephew of Hulk Hogan. He will be sent to HWA for further inring training to gain more experience to fit WWE's standards.
In the news lately, Kurt Angle has been rumored to leave WWE while competing in the 2004 summer Olympics. It is unknown whether he will or not, but the latest rumors suggest he will make an announcement sometime near December. It is believed that if he does decide to compete, WWE will be behind him and promote his comeback to the olympics.
With the sucess of WWE's recent tour of the United Kingdown, the WWA has cancelled their scheduled tour of the UK for this month. It is rumored they will reschedule the tour for some time in November.
And Finally... WWE is actually selling the Kurt Angle You Suck t-shirt, which I think is a great idea. Many people joked about what if WWE was going to sell it, and I think many people will buy it. I read in Friday's Chicago Sun-Times newspaper that Vince McMahon will appear on Bob Costas' show "Off The Record" once again sometime next week I believe. According to the article, if Costas tries to push McMahon around again, he will beat the hell out of him. Now that should be fun to watch! On Smackdown, Michael Cole mentioned why the WWF changed their name to WWE and the Wildlife Fund. The local news on FOX in Chicag earlier this week told the story about WWE and the Wildlife Fund which leads me to believe other various local news outlets probably reported it too, and I know some national news programs mentioned it too including ESPN's Pardon The Interuption. WWE knew they can't bullshit their fans like they tried to on Raw I guess.
That will do it for the news and rumors this weekend. As mentioned above, I may be gone next weekend so Michael will hopefully fill in for me if I indeed am not around. I would like to officially thank Michael for stepping up and for helping the site out. I believe his contribution to today's report was great and I am sure he will only get better as he continues. With that said, I'll talk to you all later.
E-mail Michael Blaszkowski - threePunk@tpww.net
AIM: threePunk2oo2
E-mail Martin Hawrysko - MartinTPWW@hotmail.com
AIM: INGAME21
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