Hey yo and welcome back for another edition of the infamous weekend news and rumors. Unfortunately, I seem to have fallen behind with certain site stuff and with other important things in life, such as my Christmas shopping (which I am yet to start!). With that said, it is early Sunday and while I hope it won’t be obvious in this report, I am in a hurry to get some sleep so I can get some things completed later today. Enough babbling by me and it’s straight to the N&R…
WWE holds their Armageddon Pay-Per-View later tonight, just after three weeks (I believe) following Survivor Series. There doesn’t seen to be a whole lot of anticipation going into tonight’s event, considering that prior to this week’s Raw and Smackdown, there was almost literally no card for the PPV. Also under consideration is that both title matches for tonight’s show seem to be obvious as to who will win and won’t, unless WWE decides to throw a curveball and go into a new direction. With those both factors, there isn’t too much excitement going into tonight.
It is believed that The Big Show will retain the WWE Title and go on to feud and lose the title to Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Another idea (only an idea and not considered a rumor or fact) going around is that Brock Lesnar will accidently cost Angle the match tonight causing some heat between the two. If Brock were then to beat Big Show for the title at Royal Rumble, and Kurt Angle was to win the Royal Rumble, then the two would wrestle each other at WrestleMania. Again, just an idea, WWE never sticks to their plans, so who knows what will transpire tonight.
Over on the Raw side, many fans and backstage WWE employees (as rumored earlier this week) believe Triple H will win back the World Title from Shawn Michaels. It is not clear what direction Raw is going in, especially considering that with how they have been portrayed, WWE doesn’t believe that Booker T, Chris Jericho, or Rob Van Dam are capable of being champion. My thought is that if Steiner does indeed sign with Raw, then a program with him and Triple H will start immediately. That way, Steiner gets first class exposure off the bat before he has the chance to injure himself. Steiner’s health is a major concern right now, and it would be a blow to WWE if Steiner were to get hurt before contending or becoming the World Champion.
The Pro Wrestling Torch is reporting that WWE is trying to arrange Bill Goldberg to wrestle a match for next year’s WrestleMania. As of now, the opponenent would be none other than The Rock. Nothing more is known about this at the time, but I will state that if WWE offers him enough money, I definately would not be surprised to see Goldberg accept the assumed offer.
Vince McMahon has been quoted recently stating that both The Rock and Steve Austin will return to WWE sometime in the year 2003. This according to a recent Atlanta publicaton which had backstage access to a recent Smackdown. It has been well known that the Rock would be back sometime after the start of the new year, but a return from Austin so far has been nothing but rumors. Austin may appear on the Raw Tenth Annivesary progam next month, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Smackdown this week scored a 3.2 broadcast rating with a share of 5.
Jim Ross confirmed that Hogan was backstage at Smackdown this week, but denies that Hogan spoke with any management. I don’t really buy that folks, not that I am calling JR a liar, but sometimes he has been known to (and with reason) twist facts around for the protection of himself and the company.
Sting defeated Lex Luger to become the WWA (World Wrestling All-Stars) Champion. He won the belt during a WWA tour in Zürich, Switzerland sometime this week.
With that said, it’s time to wrap this baby up. Staff predictions will be up shortly if they aren’t up already. This upcoming week is going to be a killer as far as school and work goes. Eddie or myself hopefully should have a post Armageddon and Raw report sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday. ‘Til the mean time, if you are looking for something to do, why not check out our discussion forums? They totally rule and there are all kind of topics you may talk about, and we will be adding more topics in due time. In a final site note, next week when Joe and myself are on winter break from class, we will continue our small renovations to the site much like what took place during Thanksgiving break. Nothing major should take place, but a few changes here and there in design or layout is expected. With that said, I am about out of here, enjoy the PPV if you are ordering and finish your Christmas shopping if you haven’t yet (I still need to start!) and have a good week.
