Chock Full's The News That's Fit By Chock Full Well, hello people! Hope you're all doing well, of course... Just a couple of announcements before going to the dishing of the dirt: - First off, you'll notice that there's a new link on the top of the Just The Facts! 3001 page - "Falling Cheeseburgers". For those of you who haven't checked it out, it is the official blog of JTF!3K1 with daily musings and such... - But more importantly, and secondly, is that Falling Cheeseburgers will contain the rankings first off from now on. They are posted up there on a weekly basis, with different categories being ranked every week. At the end of a one month span, the rankings will be put together and place onto the main rankings page here. As well, I will be maintaining an archive of the rankings - for both myself and you all to view - in response to the SNAFU regarding the last total rankings being deleted. - And lastly, we will still have the JTF!3K1 NCAA Tournament Challenge winner submit his rankings when HE feels like doing them. Never said the winner had to do it right away, just at a time of his choosing... Ok, onto the dirt! There's a little rumbling coming from the locker room in the River City. The following was taken from a recent RCW Newswire item, "The return of HERO Ishikawa was a big hit with the fans, but apparently not so with certain members of the RCW lockerroom. Word is that Ishikawa's arrogant attitude has ruffled a few feathers in the past." Now, according to my RCW spies, it seems that the cruiserweight division as a whole as a problem with how HERO was brought back, especially the two leaders of the division - Jeff Kujawa and John Shock. The whole of the division feels that, soon enough, HERO will try to slide into the top of the division. From what my spies have heard, the former champion has been saying that in "no time", he'll be right there. RCW management will keep a sharp eye on HERO's antics and have him on a short leash. In other RCW locker room news, the federation has given a warning to the underperforming members of its roster to quickly shape up or get booted out. Management seems to have shifted to a new polciy - the time when RCW could stick with a guy who looked promising, but didn't have the good yet is gone. The execs feel that with the new Gateway Wrestling Zone development and other deals, RCW must keep only the best of the best on the active roster. El Paso Wrestling tapes have been a hot item on the internet, with sales reportedly growing by 40% over the last two months. However, in perspective, the biggest tape/DVD sellers - aside from RCW & UWF - are the United States Jichitsu Project DVDs. In fact, "USJP: Bloody Path to Destiny" outsold all wrestling DVDs on Amazon.com in the past month. For those watching the last RCW Impact and wondering who those two men Mark Langseth wrestled, well... here's the scoop. The two men, Livan Siaz and El Drag�n, are wrestlers of the small-time Philadelphia based federation, Tri-State Internet Wrestling. The interesting thing is that Mark Langseth owns a sizable share of the TIW federation. Langseth suggested to RCW management to give the youngsters the match with him since he knew the two of them and felt the alternative - having the squash with a Gateway Wrestling Zone product - would only cause resentment. Maybe or maybe not, but it was a nice gesture on Langseth's part in trying to prop up his guys. Management and UWF owner Mike Beeby have been happy with the latest way the fed has been run over the past couple of months. Beeby confered with management in December to try to quicken up the pace of its shows and they finalized a way to streamline the production process. The fed hired new technical assistants, fired their lead producer, and then hired one of the men who helped out EMWC for a time with similiar problems. So far, so good as UWF has been steam-rolling its way into its big PPV, Rise to Power. RCW v. UWF: Round One! Industry experts are predicting that RCW's Glory will topple UWF's Rise to Power in buyrate. Predictions are that RCW's PPV will have about a 1.2 buyrate [roughly 480000 homes] while the numbers for UWF's PPV will have a respectable 1.04 [rougly 420000 homes]. Reasons for the difference? Experts feel that the Destiny v. Kinsey v. Vasquez main event is a bigger draw for RCW than the Kyle Lee v. Edmond Winston IV ladder match. In addition, Glory is the flagship PPV for the fed and sports a stronger undercard [Langseth and Epitome of Cool's PPV return; Martinez/Valentine blow-off; strong cruiser and tag title matches]. However, the figures for the UWF PPV are not to be discounted - that is a huge buyrate for a PPV that isn't the fed's flagship PPV. Rise to Power sports a quality undercard as well [Kinsey/Martinez, Daniels/1WA, Hands of Death/Prophets, and almost every match determining the outcome of the fed]. If this is any indication, Gold Rush should be a hugely bought event. RCW v. UWF: Round Two! By the end of this year, both federations will have released videogames for all the major platforms of their federation. UWF's game reportedly has not only all the current UWF superstars, but all the past competitors to have fought in the UWF ring. Meanwhile, RCW's hook is that in addition to all the RCW past and present stars, the videogame will also have the option of expanding compition out to Gunryo Pro or South Pacific Wrestling [RCw owns the rights to both past feds] and will sport all the stars from those two feds as well. No word on titles for either game, but both should be bought highly from their respective fans. RCW v. UWF: Final Round! Seems that both RCW and UWF have been making overtures to retired star of both feds, Chris Courtade. Courtade has stated to both federations that he's not interested in returning to the ring, but the two feds have entered a bidder war over the rights to his services nonetheless. Let's hope this arm race continues! Former wrestling star, JW Hardin, has inked a deal with publisher Triumph Books to put his life story to the pages for the masses to read. Pinnacle Pro Wrestling came out with a bang on its first show, debuting former wrestling stars Jeff Mathews, tag team Dynasty, and legend Otto Verhoeven. Many were surprised that the brand new fed could draw out those talents especially Verhoeven. Considering that aside from those three acquisitions, the roster looks bleak, it certainly was a coup on the part of the new fed. Why did it happen, though? Well, from my new PPW spies, it seems that the fed hired a former high up recruiter from EMWC's past and that this person wooed many into the fed - suggesting that more surprises are to follow! Well... That's all for me for now! I'll be back soon enough, with all the fallout from Rise to Power, Glory, and all the other big wrestling events to come! Chock Full - out! [I did NOT just type that!] Have news from the wrestling world? Some tasty rumours? Good dirt? Then e-mail [email protected]