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News & Rumors * As forementioned, RAW is live on Monday and as a result, spoilers or tidbits on the action that is to go down is extremely difficult to dig up. However, the WWF did release a modified version of a "preview" and as is almost always the case, they were rather conservative to say the least. Furthermore, Sunday Night Heat is also live from East Lansing Michigan and again the WWF hasn't taken the liberty to reveal too many of the incidents that will pan out come Sunday. Regardless, here is a summarized version of what the WWF is "promising": * For starters, Sunday Night Heat looks to be focused exclusively around two of the major angles within the WWF at this moment. WWF.Com is hyping and teasing a D-X confrontation as the big match of the night will see a return bout featuring the new champs, X-Pac and Kane, and the former titlists Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett. Logically speaking, at some point in this match, we should see an appearance by the New Age Outlaws. Apart from stirring things up just a tad, this could all boil down to setting things up for RAW the night after. Could we see a Triple Threat tag team match between the top three duos in the WWF on RAW? It wouldn't surprise me. * Also on Heat, progress will be made on the Minstry-Corporation angle, however, as one would guess, Vince and Stephanie McMahon will save their involvement until Monday, whereas Ken Shamrock will step up and address all that happened on last week's RAW, involving the "sacrifice" of his sister Ryan. There are bigtime rumors that Ryan will actually end up remaining with the Minstry of Darkness as a valet. A move like that makes sense on one hand, but at the same time seems a bit ridiculous on the other. Ryan Shamrock is expendable to the Ministry, seeing as how her angle with Goldust and the Blue Meanie has come to a rather abrupt close, but as far as storylines go, she would seem the least likely of all the WWF stars to align with the Undertaker and his crew. * Finally, the WWF has confirmed that The Rock will be in action on Heat, against a yet-to-be-determined opponent, and a three way hardcore dance featuring the principle participants in the chase for the HC belt, that being Al Snow, Dr. Death and Bob Holly has also been scheduled. * Shifting over to the developments that may occur on RAW, undoubtedly, the WWF will exhaust all or most of their efforts into furthering the two major angles currently playing out. On one side of the coin, you have the ever-lasting Steve Austin VS. The McMahon family ordeal. However, times have changed and now it is son Shane McMahon who makes up the chief opposition for the Texas Rattlesnake. On the flip side, we got the Undertaker's continuing efforts at capturing Stephanie McMahon as part of his stable. And to make matters even more confusing (yet interesting at the same time), the WWF has hinted that all is not well between Shane and Vince and that on RAW, the two owners will attempt to settle things between them. I suppose it could be a sneaky ploy to feed into all the recent rumors of Shane McMahon attempting to gain control of company OR it could just be a huge element of foreshadowing of things to come. Only way anyone is going to find out is to watch RAW on Monday. * The big news out of the wrestling world today is the apparent parting of ways between "Sycho" Sid Vicious and ECW. As the story goes, Sid no-showed the latest series of ECW events on the basis that he is feeling misued by the company and would rather not show face than be dealt a meaningless role. ECW braced for his depature by shuffling around the card of the upcoming PPV and have taken Sid out of the main event role and have inserted Chris Candido in there instead. As far as I know, Sid was not locked into any sort of LONG TERM deal with the promotion and if that is the case, then a return to either the WWF or WCW is not out of the question. Actually, a return to WCW is probably not going to happen as a result of legit heat between Sid and Arn Anderson, which stems from an old incident in which Sid stabbed Arn with a pair of scissors. However, the WWF would likely be willing to pick him based on the simple reason that Sid is over and could really boost the WWF's expanding team of main-eventers. Furthermore, there are already suggestions of the WWF bringing in Sid as the newest member of D-X. This would ultimately create a plethora of potential bonafide WWF matches as Sid would realistically be free to challenge everyone from Austin to Undertaker, from Wight to Rock. Despite all these reasons, I re-iterate that nothing regarding Sid's dismissal/resignation is confirmed until either Paul Heyman or Sid himself release an official statement. The End. * Speaking of resignations, I'm still getting emails asking me if Bret Hart really did quit WCW. If you don't know the obvious answer to this question yet, it is big, firm NO. Hart, although truly unhappy with his role within WCW, is LEGALLY binded to a contract until at least this coming December. He's also hurting on the injury front as a tender groin has played havoc with his involvement in prominent angles. Put two and two together and you'll hopefully notice that this "quitting" angle was introduced so he would get a much needed break to recover from the ailments he is suffering from. WebTV has released a NITRO preview for this upcoming Monday and they interestingly list Bret as making at least an appearance. Although he just went in for groin surgery on Tuesday, my guess is that WCW may end up using him in a short segment (just for the sake of getting him on TV) to combat the stacked RAW Titan will likely throw at the viewers. Last week, NITRO made a modest stride at clawing back at RAW in the ratings and they'll pretty much need all their stars night in and night out to form any sort of challenge to the WWF. Hence, the preview and the rumors of Bret "returning" on Monday. * WCW, in my opinion, is walking a very fine line with the Bret Hart retirement angle. To me it seems like they are so persistent in attempting to prove to the world that Hart did really walk out on the company instead of concentrating on making this angle work. At first glance, it seems like a quick way to get ratings, however over the long term it could come back to haunt them in a big way. I'd guess 80% of wrestling fans do not check up on "wrestling rumors" on the internet. They're what you can loosely call "marks". Given that, most of these same individuals likely believe this story to be a shoot and may conceivably end up watching RAW to see if Bret Hart does in fact show up. It's almost like the "Tony Schiavone giving away the Mic Foley title win" incident of a few months back, when all it accomplished was more viewers switching to RAW. I don't know if I'm making much sense here, so I'll just stop. It was just a little something that I thought about but needed to be reminded of by one cool reader... * Poor ol' Bart Gunn. He started from scratch during the Brawl For All, wasn't even expected to do well, tore through the tournament and built himself up a pretty decent following as a result. Now, with his embarassing loss to Butterbean at Wrestlemania 15, it looks like he's out of the WWF for the forseeable future and maybe even out of a job altogether. If the what is going around the internet is true, Gunn will soon be packing his bags and heading back over to Japan to hopefully establish himself once again in hopes of a return to the WWF in the distant future. Surely, the WWF won't have too much luck marketting a guy with little mic skills, average WRESTLING talent and a ruined character to boot...or will they? * More guys who recently packed their bags and left (got kicked out of) the WWF: Scorpio and Steven Regal. More likely than not, both individuals will pass on WCW or the indys and look to more "extreme" pastures for work. Scorpio would be a welcome addition to ECW as he enjoyed his greatest success there as a singles wrestler. Regal, who's never been in ECW, will provide a fresh face and a semi-marketable name for the dwindling promotion. Jim Ross, on his latest Ross Report, alluded to the fact that Regal will probably be re-surfacing in ECW at some time or another. However, it is important to note that the WWF and Steve Regal did NOT part ways on bad terms. Although it was likely not a mutual decision either, the possibilty always remains open for the "Man's Man" to someday come back to Titan... * The WWF is all set to introduce a handful of newcomers in the coming weeks. Almost all of us have already seen Kurt Angle, and he should be making a big splash on the scene in a matter of days. Hopefully, he'll be accompanied by his wife Karen, who would then remain at his side as a valet. Sean Stasiak, another rookie, is also expected to debut soon. Several sources report that Stasiak will be brought into an angle with PMS, most probably as a slave who does all the dirty work for the two ladies. If that does materialize, then common sense would seem to dictate that Stasiak will probably end up feuding with either D'Lo Brown or Goldust, the less likely individual being the latter. And finally, how can we end this discussion without even a mention of Nicole Bass. As is the case with Angle, the WWF has already brought her onto programming, however, it is expected that over the next few weeks, Bass will emerge once again and give a lending hand to Sable as she grows into the role of the women champ's bodyguard. This may be out of left field a bit, but Marc Mero will also be making his way back to the WWF sometime this month and who knows what angle the WWF can and will create involving Sable, Nicole and Mero. * If you haven't heard by now, the WWF has released the sub-titles for their next two upcoming IYH PPVs. I don't know if it's a lack of originality or the fact that the WWF likes the name(s), but May's IYH will again be called Over the Edge while July's will also use the same name as last year, Fully Loaded. I've also heard that the WWF will gradually phase out the "In Your House" part of the title and instead coin each event as simply their sub-title. Apart from giving each event it's own unique identity and the fact that it would bring a more "annual feel" to each PPV, I don't know what else it accomplishes. No word yet on what June's PPV, King of the Ring, will be called. * There may be more than meets the eye as far as Steve Austin ripping down the Titan Tron is concerned. One of two things could possibly come out of it: 1. The WWF is looking to debut a "new look" of their own and will use this as an excuse to introduce their changes. Granted they will NOT be as large and prolific as Nitro's, but a different approach has been talked about many times before. If you remember, when the WWF's program changed from "Monday Night Raw" to "RAW is WAR", the results were unbelievable to say the least and Titan higher-ups may be thinking along the same lines again. I say keep it the same. After all, why mess with success? 2. Steve Austin gave us a bit of a preview on how he is going to "cost the McMahons thousands of dollars". The WWF has an old building in Las Vegas and for several weeks, there have been talks that Austin will end up blowing up this building to enhance the current going-ons in the WWF. With him destroying the Titan Tron on Monday, something bigger and far more superior may be looming on the horizon...The WWF has NO use for that old structure and with some touch-ups and editting, a blow-up courtesy of the 3-1-6 could be big. 3. I'll throw in a third outcome in all of this...you don't say that it could mean NOTHING at all do you? * If reports are to be believed, the British Bulldog has been released by WCW. If that piece of news is indeed legitimate, then it brings to a close a long and rocky ride between WCW and the Bulldog. Never a major player within Turner, Bulldog's progress was slowed even more after a series of nagging injuries forced him to the sidelines. Currently, suffering from a very serious spinal infection, his return to wrestling seems questionable, let alone a return to the WWF. I'm going with a gut feeling on this and as much as I hate to say it, I truly think the British Bulldog's wrestling days are over. He'll likely close out his career by helping with Stampede Wrestling run by the Hart family. Let's step back and take a look at this...in just over a year, Bulldog is gone from WCW, Neidhart is gone from WCW and Bret is "supposedly" gone from WCW. How far these three have fallen just boggles my mind. * It looks like the rumors of Madusa returning to WCW are in fact true as Dave Meltzer has confirmed that she was backstage and will sign a contract with the company in the near future. However, judging by the fact that WCW has got almost no one who could challenge Madusa as a wrestler, the optimal guess is that she will be either a valet or have some other non-wrestling role to start off with. * A fan recently had the opportunity to catch up to the most coveted free agent in the wrestling business, when he got a few words in with Chris Jericho. According to this fan, Jericho told him that he would likely be headed to the WWF once his contract ends in late July. Take that for what you will, but keep in mind, he won't be going ANYWHERE until August. As of this time, Jericho fully intends to become a free agent and then weighing out his options before coming to a decision. * The upcoming WCW PPV is going to be a fun one to figure out as far as the main event is concerned. In one corner you got Hogan, who has full creative control of his character and basically decides if he wins or not. You also got Ric Flair who is in much of the same boat. Then you got DDP, who's one of WCW's bookers and obviously wants a decent face push and then you got arguably WCW's biggest star Sting, who has just returned after his lenghty absence. All this in the SAME DAMN match! My question is, can so many egos co-exist behind the scenes when working out the finer details of the match??? For WCW's sake, let's hope so. * And finally, I'll close this out with what promises to be the most exciting rumor being related this week. Rumblings out of Titan indicate that something rather important will come down involving D-Generation X this Monday on the live RAW. The majority of the speculation indicates that problems could arise as the New Age Outlaws aim to get back the gold from X-Pac and Kane. Ultimately, this will cause chaos between the struggling group as the two sides could almost come to blows. A familiar face who's been doing a helluva lot of "whisper"ing lately is said to come out be the man who will end up being both the savior and creator of D-Generation X. As always, this is ONLY A RUMOR so take it whatever way you want. I'll admit, it isn't very reliable but it is cool nonetheless. The end result is that the next few weeks/days will reveal a lot about where D-X is heading so keep watching AND reading... * | |||||||||||||||||
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