______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 237 January 5, 2001 "I get the news, so you don't have to." ______________________________________________________________________ [Official newsletter & complement to:] http://www.naidOsWorld.com To subscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-subscribe@egroups.com To unsubscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com ______________________________________________________________________ [Table of contents] **Note from naidO **TOP NEWS STORY **Latest news from the WWF, WCW & ECW **[Article] TNN Scores Its Best Quarter in Its 17-Year History **[Column] Vile Thoughts **Parting chair shot ______________________________________________________________________ [Note from naidO] Hello to those just joining. Tell your friends about the BEST up and coming newsletter around to subscribe today! Click for the SMACKDOWN results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvsmackdown.html - I've got a fat edition for you today with plenty news from all spectrums. The Vile has also returned this week wth his latest rant on rasslin'. Make sure you check out ECW's PPV offering this weekend as they are the last place for wrestling on earth as far as pay per views are concerned. **Until tomorrow, enjoy this latest edition of nWN! - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] **The latest WWF branded site to open is WWFPARENTS.COM, a resource for parents with questions about content on WWF programming. One of the more interesting sections is the "news" part of the site, which features a WWF essay written by a high school senior. The senior sent in the essay on her application to Princeton University and got accepted. To check out the site, http://www.wwfparents.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **Continuing in a series of great personal story articles, WWF.COM has a piece up on Fabulous Moolah. In the article, Moolah discusses her recent double bypass heart surgery, a bout with pneumonia that she was brought back from death twice, and her upcoming autobiography. To read the article, http://www.wwf.com/news/headlines/1025981 **Last night's Smackdown scored a 6.0 overnight metered-market rating with a 9.0 share. **To read an interesting interview on the Big Bossman where he talks about his injury and many other topics, click http://www.wwf.com/news/headlines/1025919 **The WWF is in talks with Larry Zbyszko, and as of yet nothing has come of them. (naidO's Note: WHHHHHHYYYYYYY!?!??!) **The Road Dogg is still under suspension and the WWF have no plans to bring him back in the immediate future. **Triple H is featured three times in the January 2001 "Muscle & Fitness" (a Weider publication). Once is a huge two page ad for a Weider/WWF sponsored sweepstakes (Triple H takes up the entire second page), also in a 1 page ad for the same sweepstakes later in the issue. Triple H is also pictured with (and somewhat towering over) Joe Weider himself in an article about the 2000 Olympia weekend. The Olympia article states "Weider Nutrition created a frenzy with an appearance by WWF wrestling superstar Triple H, while notables from other sports also made appearances." (Cred: LWN, Ultimo) _______________ [News from WCW] **WCW Thunder for 1/3 had a 1.8 rating, up from last week's 1.7. Compared to competition from the Orange Bowl, Thunder did better than expected. **WCW have secured a deal with "Main Event", an Australian Pay-Per- View provider, to have all 2001 WCW PPVs air in Australia beginning with next week's "Sin" PPV. The shows will air at noon and have a replay at 6pm, and are available to Austar, Foxtel and Optus customers. **Booker T, who is recovering quickly from his injuries, will be filming an interview to air on WCW television shows later this month and is expected to return to action at Superbrawl Revenge. Sting should also be back in late February. **Sid's shoulder felt good after the Thunder taping on December 22nd, so he should be involved at Sin somehow. **Glacier will return next Monday night on Nitro, and will be involved with Norman Smiley who is expected to receive a pretty big push from the angle. (Cred: LWN, The LAW, Ultimo) _______________ [News from ECW] **There is a rumor going around that ECW has signed a national cable TV deal. **Lou E. Dangerously has updated his commentary at ECWDAngerously.com **Here's the card for ECW's Guilty As Charged PPV this weekend: - ECW World Heavyweight Title Match Steve Corino vs. The Sandman vs. Justin Credible **stips: it's a Tables, Ladders, Chairs and Canes match - #1 contender for the Tag Titles Match Tajiri & Whipwreck vs. Super Crazy & Kid Kash vs. the FBI - "I Quit" Match Tommy Dreamer vs. C.W. Anderson - ECW World Tag Team Titles Match Doring & Roadkill vs. Hot Commodity, with Elektra. - Jerry Lynn & Cyrus vs. Joey Matthews & Christian York Paul Heyman also guarantees an eventful night for Rhino and wrestlings equivalent of a shot in the head, a BIG SURPRISE THAT'LL CHANGE ECW FOREVER! (Cred: Ultimo) __________________ [In other news...] **The Macho Man Randy Savage will play the part of pro wrestler Saw Bones McGraw in the upcoming Spider-Man movie. If you remember the origin of Spider-Man, before he became a hero, he tried to make money in the world of show business. He attended a pro wrestling match and challenged a wrestler three times his size for a cash prize. Because of this newly acquired powers, he threw the wrestler around like a rag doll. They are going to film a cage match between the two in mid-January. **Appearing on the Vicki Gabereau show on 1/4, widow of wrestler Owen Hart, Martha Hart, announced she will be creating the Owen Hart Foundation to help the working poor get an education. She stated that it is still in the early stages, but she hopes to have it up and running in about a year. The funding for the foundation will come from the recent lawsuit settlement between Martha Hart and the WWF **In the Orange Bowl Parade this past week, Diamond Dallas Page was in attendance on one of the many parade floats. The Miami Herald, in their coverage of the parade, stated that DDP was the WWF Champion. **THe other night, Vampiro, his wife and his child were all on a plane trip from Mexico to Canada when while they were in the air the plane started to lose parts and it became apparent that they would need to make a crash landing. The plane flew around for about an hour and a half dumping fuel so if the plane was to crash, it wouldn't explode. The plane did make a crash landing and all passengers were fine but shaken up, barring 2 who unfortunatly died due to heart attacks. (Cred: The Law, Ultimo) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] TNN Scores Its Best Quarter in Its 17-Year History NEW YORK, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- In its first full quarter as a branded pop entertainment network, TNN: The National Network showed dramatic gains in households and among its target audience, Adults 18- 49, in both Total Day and Primetime, giving TNN its most watched quarter in its 17-year history, according to Nielsen Meter Research. In addition, TNN became a top 10 network in Primetime among Adults 18- 49, ranking No. 8 for the Fourth Quarter of 2000, up from No. 19 in the Fourth Quarter 1999. TNN's most dramatic increases for the quarter were in Primetime, where the household rating grew 40% to 1.12 in 4Q2000, representing 876,000 households, up 46% from 602,000 (.8) in 4Q99. Growth was even greater among TNN's target demographic, with 130% more Adults 18-49 tuning in to TNN during the Fourth Quarter of 2000. In Total Day, TNN achieved a .48 household rating, up 20% from the prior year (.40) and grew 26% in households, delivering an average 377,000 households in 4Q2000 compared to 299,000 in the 4Q1999. In addition, Adults 18-49 increased a dramatic 59% during the Fourth Quarter over the prior year. WWF's RAW IS WAR, which moved to TNN on Sept. 25, remained consistently one of cable's highest rated series during the quarter and set a new record for TNN. On Dec. 11, WWF RAW IS WAR was TNN's most watched telecast in its 17-year history, with 7.2 million viewers tuned in. "WWF's successful move to TNN jumpstarted the network's branding as a pop culture network," says Diane Robina, General Manager, TNN, "and greatly helped the network achieve its best quarter in its history." Coast to coast, TNN is connecting adults 18-49 to the tops in pop culture such as WWF RAW IS WAR, cable's top-rated series. And it's connecting viewers to network decision-makers 24 hours a day through its toll-free number, 1-888-POP-1090. Under the banner of "We've Got Pop," TNN invites its viewers to call and talk about what's pop on television, on movie screens and in their hometowns. Viewers' voices and faces show up on the network, talking about whatever's on their minds. Since TNN started 1-888-POP- 1090, more than 10,000 calls weekly have come in from all over the country. TNN's program schedule will include 50% original programming by the year 2005. ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Vile Thoughts First off this week, I saw something kind of cool on TV on New Years' Eve. ESPN Classic was showing classic bowl games. Who should I see but Ron Simmons, playing defense for Florida State in the 1981 Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, Big Ron got hurt during the game, so his action was limited. anyway, it was still pretty cool. This week, I wanted to talk about someone I just can't figure out: Dean Malenko. Now I know he's part of the Radicalz, was a newsmaker last year, and is the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, so what's the problem? Now Malenko didn't appear regularly in the WCW until around 1995, so I'm not as educated as some of you great fans out there. My first exposure to him was actually during the WCW/NWA tag tournament in 1992, when he teamed with his brother Boris. He looked like an exceptional performer in the ring, although I don't think he uttered one word. He then went to ECW, but that was before they had a TV contract. Once he was in WCW, and seen on a regular basis, I thought "Great ring performer; almost no charisma." However, he was one of those guys in the 'Arn Andreson' mold: He said what he was gonna do, and then he did it. He had the "Man of 1000 Holds" gimmick, and he was a lock for a great match. Just look at some of the great Cruiserweight matches he had with Jericho, Mysterio, etc., etc. The Cruiserweight Division was thriving in WCW. Then Malenko and company jumped ship to Vince Land. The Radicalz started off well, but they just don't get the heat that they used to. Benoit is being groomed to hold the WWF Title, Guerrero is on the shelf after some success as "Latino Heat", and Perry Saturn is kind of "staying the course". But what of Malenko? He gets press as one of the Radicalz, but does anyone care that he is the WWF Cruiserweight Champion? Maybe it's because he doesn't defend it except against Taka and Lita. And this whole Lita angle is making him look like a chump. Forget the James Bond crap; forget the Lita crap. Get Malenko back to the straight- faced wrestler he should be. I know it isn't as exciting in today's Sports Entertainment world, but it does get the job done. They need to push his title more, or get rid of it. What good is a title if it's not defended? There are pleanty of contenders out there: The Hardy's, Too Cool, Edge, Christian, Crash, Essa Rios? Is Essa still alive? anyway, you get the idea. I'm not trying to rag on Malenko, or the WWF booking crew. I just think it would benefit the WWF to work with him a bit. Remember, in all the chaos that is the Heavyweight division, some of the best pops of the night will still go to a top notch Cruiserweight match. VILE'S TOTALLY ANAL TRIVIA: Congratulations to Shooter Mist and Jason Myers who correctly identified the WWF's first pay per view: The Wrestling Classic in November of 1985 from the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. This week's question: You may or may not remember a wrestler in the early/mid 90's in the WWF by the mane of Battle Cat. He was kind of a take off of a He-Man Character, but he was a scrappy cruiserweight. He did wear a mask, so my question is: Who was under the mask? E-Mail answers to stoncold@bignet.net Good Luck!! ______________________________________________________________________ [Parting Chair Shot] Remember, tell your friends about nWN - naidO's Wrestling News today! **Missed any TV Shows? Go to the following link to read the results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvshows.html Also, be sure to check out the NEW internet home of nWN, http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews for all your archived stats, tv shows, wrestling links, terms and PPV's, and most of all PICTURES! - naidO nWN Founder ______________________________________________________________________ [Affiliates] **http://www.paywindah.com **http://green_mist.homestead.com **BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF nWN and make it your official newsletter!! Email naido@hotmail.com with your website's address for consideration. ______________________________________________________________________ [News gathering links] **Dave Scherer, Buck Woodward, Bob Ryder @ http://www.1wrestling.com **Dave Meltzer, Zach Arnold @ http://www.wrestlingobserver.com **Chris Clarke, Jeff Pollock @ http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com **Blake Wolfson @ http://www.ultimowrestling.com ______________________________________________________________________ [Ads] ESW - The number one E-Fed on the face of the Earth! The ESW: Extremely Suicidal Wrestling! http://www.geeksoft.net/gin/gfed2/gfed.cgi?lid=1204 ______________________________________________________________________ [nWN Staff] Founder & Editor: naidO - naido@hotmail.com Columnist: Sam Jerry - SAMJERRY@aol.com Columnist: The Vile - stoncold@bignet.net Columnist: Ted Cabata - tcabata@roanoke.edu ______________________________________________________________________ [Disclaimer] naidO's Wrestling News was founded on April 30, 2000 and is owned and operated by naidO. He, nor this newsletter is in no way, shape, or form affiliated with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting's World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, or any other wrestling organization. Nor the people (staff members), wrestlers, or any other talent in the wrestling. News is gathered from various sources around the net, including newsgroups and are believed to be of public domain and truthful (uh huh). As long as proper credit is given it exempts nWN and it's staff. I (naidO) am just promoting their organization/website. nWN is not responsible for content on affiliate websites or where they may link to including mp3's, warez, kiddie porn and/or other unlawful content. This exempts myself & this newsletter (nWN) from all legal disputes. Anything taken from this newsletter requires written consent from naidO Copyright © 2000 naidO. All Rights Reserved To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: naidoswrestlingnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Sorry to see you go if you do =(