Well, hello there! Happy Holidays to everybody out there, whatever you’re celebrating, I hope you’re having fun and are enjoying your vacations. My name is Eddie, often referred to as Eddie T, Eddie T., and simply Eddie. Just pick one. If you are still wondering, today’s News and Rumors will be a wrap-up edition of what’s been happening in the wrestling world around the holidays. Martin has been under the weather lately, and has been busy with Stacy Keibler from what I hear, so I guess he has become a Testicle. I’m taking over for this weekend. Anyway, he’ll be back next weekend, and has managed to post his famous “Mark My Words.” God, it’s the first paragraphs, and there’re plugs already. Away we go…
It’s been pretty quiet due to the holidays, but that didn’t stop the WWE from airing two pre-taped shows this week. RAW aired on Monday, and it was the last regular edition for the year. Triple H and Scott Steiner continued their feud through an arm-wrestling contest, in which Steiner won. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler ended up wrestling in the main event, as the taping was from Oklahoma. It was all pure entertainment in my opinion. SmackDown! aired on Thursday, and delivered in my opinion. Chris Benoit is your new #1 contendership for the WWE Championship and will meet Kurt Angle at the Royal Rumble. This brought a lot of holiday happiness to many people’s faces (including Big Show’s #1 fan — Adam Gorzelsky himself), but it must be noted that the WWE did a good job of getting Show away from the main-event picture by not hurting him badly. Elsewhere, Billy Kidman and Edge teamed up to take on Los Guerreros in another solid match, and Brock Lesnar no-showed.
Ratings are in and WWE scored a 3.3 rating off of hours 3.0 and 3.5. It’s not a big deal as it’s the holidays, and less people watch TV. WWE SmackDown! scored a 3.4 rating, and the show beat RAW. In other ratings updates, the 12/21 editions of Velocity and Confiential scored a 0.8 and 0.6 ratings respectively, whereas the 12/22 edition of Heat scored a 1.0 rating. The 12/19 edition of Tough Enough did a 1.2, but I believe this has been reported. SmackDown! was the top rated UPN show for the week ending 12/22. It tied for number 80 out of 130 shows considered.
To wrap it up on TV news/notes, if you’re interested, here are the matches the WWE will show on this Monday’s “Best of 2002” edition of RAW: – The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan (WrestleMania X8) – Kurt Angle vs. Edge (Backlash 2002) – TLC IV (RAW Roulette — October 07) – Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge — Ladder Match (SmackDown! — September 26) – Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy — Ladder Match (RAW — July 01) – The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar (SummerSlam 2002) – Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (SummerSlam 2002) – Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle (SummerSlam 2002)
Probably the most popular tidbit on-line lately has been the plans of UPN to cut SmackDown! short to one hour. The contract for SmackDown! between WWE and UPN expires next August, and UPN wants it changed, according to the PWTorch newsletter. Though WWE SmackDown! is their highest-rated show, UPN is saying that it doesn’t bring much money on the advertising side of things, whereas lower-rated shows like Buffy the Vampire do so. That’s understandable, as I believe the WWE takes care of their own advertising and promotions, and has no obligations to UPN in that area. Stay tuned.
The Pro-Wrestling Torch is reporting that upon his return, The Rock will be able to stick around for up to 6 months before probably taking on a new movie project. It’s also now a lock that The Rock will be at WrestleMania XIX, even if that’s the date of his first match ever since leaving earlier in 2002. That can be both good and bad news. The good side of it is that Rock will be able to stick around for a while, but the bad side of it is that the movie projects keep coming, and I won’t be surprised if Rock finally makes that big decision of Movies or Wrestling, as he’s getting criticizes from both industries for mixing them up. Speaking of movie projects, Triple H is wanted for the next Conan The Barbarian movie, to play the role of Conan’s son. Conan is played by Arnold Schwartznegger.
BlackJack Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the WWE and Bill Goldberg are now closer than ever about signing a short-term deal. The two sides have had disagreements before and were never close to signing, but it’s now said that the possibility of having Goldberg sign for a short period of time is very possible. BJB also went on to say that Steve Austin might be back in time for the Royal Rumble itself. Brown is reporting that the WWE will be very high on setting up WrestleMania with the Rumble PPV. In somewhat of a twist of previous rumors, Brown says Bret Hart has recently confirmed WWE hasn’t contacted him about a return at RAW’s 10th Anniversary and he’s no longer interested in returning to the company. Please take all his stuff for what it’s worth.
TNN is thinking of a whole new launch of their station, all over again. The Nashville Network turned into The National Network upon buying rights to WWFE RAW is WAR back in 2001, and ever since has been aiming to get the younger viewers out there to tune in. 25-34 is the age demographic they’re looking to work on with a new re-branding they might make, therefore, this could be considered good news by the WWE.
If you didn’t see it on the newsboard, Triple H and Scott Steiner will wrestle their first match on the January 03 big House Show event in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Stone Cold Steve Austin will be at another held autograph session on January 25. It’s at Westfield Shopping Town in Meriden, CT. Autographs are priced at $25 from what’s reported.
Jim Ross updated his Ross Report on Friday. Probably the most important injury updates from there are that Rhyno, Kanyon, Tajiri, Mark Henry, Rey Mysterio, and Jazz will probably make their return from their respective injuries in January. Kurt Angle will not wrestle until the Royal Rumble PPV itself, as the WWE is very high on him and has plans to make him one of the top stars in 2003. Randy Orton will be also returning but shortly after all these guys. Ross visited Kevin Nash, and it seems that Nash’s injury will take a big longer to recover from. He also touched on ‘Taker’s injuries and said it doesn’t seem likely we’ll have a Royal Rumble without him. Jim Ross ended by saying he looks forward to 2003 and said that the WWE has probably the best roster right now. A fact I must agree with. Anyway, he still believes Austin and Rock will be both back by WrestleMania and said WrestleMania XIX will be the launch of a new era for the wrestling business and the WWE. Amen.
Though Hulk Hogan’s book will definitely be the top wrestling book of 2002, its sales are considered a disappointment by some in the WWE. The company expected it to be the leading book that will renew their book publishing success after Mick Foley’s best sellers, but that hasn’t happened. Jerry Lawler’s book is far more interesting in my opinion, though I have only heard that, and haven’t read the whole book yet. So far, it’s interesting though, whereas Hogan put us to sleep here and there. I guess Linda McMahon was right when she called Hogan’s book boring not that long ago.
In a rather interesting note, the WWE experienced problems with their set at the Armageddon PPV. For those of you who didn’t see the show, they had two plastic RAW and SmackDown! logos on the set, and upon Kane’s entrance, his pyro set them on fire. They burnt for about five minutes, but the WWE staff managed to get everything in control rather quickly.
DDP is a movie star! Check out his latest commentary.
Scotty 2 Hotty will be the host at The World for the “Best of 2002” edition of RAW.
Well, folks, just like that I’m done! Martin will be back next week with another edition of the News and Rumors. There won’t be an update during the week as it’s New Year’s, and I doubt there will be too much going on anyway. Check out the main page for the latest, and have fun on New Year’s Eve. Before I go, I want to wish everyone the greatest time ever, and let’s all hope that 2003 will be a great year! Hopefully, we’ll be all healthy and happiness will be the thing to the discuss. As far as wrestling goes, I truly believe the WWE can turn this thing around big time in 2003, so let’s all hope for a great new year! Thanks for reading everyone!
