______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 260 January 31, 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 **Monday night and weekend ratings **Latest news from the WWF, WCW & ECW **[Article] XFL shifts Sunday game time slot to avoid NFL **[Column] Random Thoughts **Parting chair shot ______________________________________________________________________ [Note from naidO] Hello to those just joining. Tell your friends about the BEST newsletter around to subscribe today! - I've got a nice surprise for you this issue. You may have noticed something added to the contents menu that usually shows up on Sundays. After the news...you'll see. As for the news...there's a lot going on, especially the new item #1 on WCW's stupid list: Scheduling See the top WCW news item for more. - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] A trial date for Davey Boy Smith was set for 7/17 in Calgary on charges of threatening his brother-in-law, Bruce Hart. Smith is accused of making threats toward Hart, the husband of Smith's current girlfriend Andrea Hart. Charges against Smith for making similar threats to his own ex-wife Diana Hart Smith and former sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hart Neidhart, were dropped last month after Smith signed a peace bond. (Dave Meltzer) ______________________________________________________________________ [Monday night and weekend ratings] For Monday 01/29 TIME NITRO RAW -------------------------- 8:00-9:00 2.7 --- 9:00-10:00 2.4 5.0 10:00-11:00 --- 5.8 -------------------------- Head to Head 2.4 5.0 -------------------------- Composite 2.6 5.4 Change 0.0 -0.2 QUARTERS: 800 815 830 845 900 915 930 945 1000 1015 1030 1045 1100 RAW --- --- --- --- 4.1 4.8 5.3 5.8 6.2 5.7 5.8 5.5 --- NITRO 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.1 3.0 2.3 2.1 2.1 --- --- --- --- --- **Livewire did a 1.3 rating, with a 3.2 share **Superstars did a 1.3 rating, with a 3.2 share **Heat, going against the Super Bowl, did the lowest rating ever with a 1.1 rating and 1.6 share **Smackdown on 1/25 scored a broadcast rating of 4.9 and an 8.0 share **Thunder on 1/24 did a 2.2 rating with a 3.3 share (1wrestling.com) ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **Official SmackDown! Preview: This Thursday at 8/7 CT on UPN, SmackDown! gets Xtreme! Three huge matches have already been signed for a special "Xtreme" episode of SmackDown!, and are huge! The main event will be a World Wrestling Federation Championship match pitting Kurt Angle against the No. 1 contender, The Rock! This match will no doubt have huge ramifications for No Way Out and for WrestleMania! Also on SmackDown! Extreme, the Undertaker and Kane meet Haku and Rikishi in a First Blood Match. Someone's gonna bleed this Thursday! In a high-impact affair, the Dudley Boyz will defend the Tag Team Championship against the Hardy Boyz! Be sure to join us this Thursday on UPN at 8/7 CT -- it's gonna be bloody ... it's gonna be intense ... it's gonna be SmackDown! Xtreme! **This month's Raw magazine is another strong issue. As the cover suggests, Kurt Angle is this month's cover boy. There is a long article on Angle's rise to the top in the WWF. Reading his commentary, it's really hard not to like the guy. There's also a great interview with X-Pac which gives a good look into Sean Waltman. I also liked a feature they did on legend Walter "Killer" Kowalski. The issue also has features on Raven, Steve Blackman and life working for a WWF territory. (Cred: wwf.com) _______________ [News from WCW] **At this time it looks like WCW won't be able to hold an April PPV this year. Apparently there was a mix up in organizing the event, and they originally booked Sunday the 15th, but later realized that it was Easter Sunday. Once they went back to change the date, every other Sunday was filled up. We'll update you if anything changes. **There was a 10 minute meeting at Nitro with management and the wrestlers, and one of the things mentioned is that they are encouraging wrestlers to give suggestions about angles involving either themselves or other wrestlers, and to give them to Johnny Ace, who is seemingly now heading WCW's booking team. **Also in the meeting, Eric Bischoff said that he is disappointed with several WCW wrestlers including some of his close friends, who are in poor cardio-vascular condition and told them that they needed to lose some weight. **Goldberg recently underwent shoulder surgery to fix some minor damage he had received. There is no word on when he will return. **Lance Storm suffered an eye injury and Crowbar suffered a leg injury during their match on Nitro. Both will be fine. **The latest word is that WCW will move Nitro to 1 location possibly sometime in June, and the most favored location at this time is Las Vegas. **Julio Denero, Simon Diamond and Dawn Marie were backstage at Nitro along with Steve Corino. (Cred: 1wrestling, ultimo) _______________ [News from ECW] **In his latest commentary on www.SteveCorino.com, Steve Corino discusses being backstage at last night's WCW Nitro event in Baltimore, his reasons for being there and meeting Eric Bischoff. To read the commentary, which also touches upon several charity events Corino is appearing at, visit www.SteveCorino.com. **C.W. Anderson has updated his online "Spinebuster" commentary at ECWAnderson.com. This week CW gives his thoughts on ECW's current situation and let's you know what he's been doing in his time off. Check that out as well as NEW items in his merchandise section including 3 new tapes and 8x10's! **ECW's Sandman is looking for indy dates in February. If you are running shows, you can drop him a line at (610) 356-4463. **SimonDiamondECW.com is proud to present its first ever audio commentary with the Thinking Man's ECW wrestler. Diamond discusses why he got into the wrestling business, his thoughts on backyard wrestling and dishes the dirt on what it's like living with Dawn Marie! Check it out now at SimonDiamondECW.com! **FrancineECW.com has been updated with info on Francine working in an upcoming UCW wrestling show. Also on the show are Tommy Dreamer, Rhino, New Jack and all the stars of the UCW. Visit FrancineECW.com now for additional info! (Cred: 1wrestling) __________________ [In other news...] **In the latest Lycos Top 50 search rankings, XFL ranked number 30, garnering more searches than the NBA and NHL combined. Here is what was said about XFL: "Football fans were out in force last week driving the Super Bowl to number five. Users not only searched for information about the big game but also searched for Super Bowl recipes, Super Bowl food and even Super Bowl party games. Meanwhile, the XFL (#30) continues its march up the list as the upstart league, which begins its season on February 3, has already received more searches than the NBA and the NHL combined." WWF made the list at number 7. (Cred: 1wrestling) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] XFL shifts Sunday game time slot to avoid NFL NEW YORK (AP) - NBC Sports promises the XFL will be football like you've never seen it - and the network hopes that won't apply to the quality of play. With microphones all over the field, cameras peeking into huddles, and interviews with players right after a big run or painful sack, the new league aims to take TV viewers where they haven't gone before. Play begins Saturday night, less than a week after the Super Bowl, with NBC televising the New York/New Jersey Hitmen at the Las Vegas Outlaws at 8 p.m. EST. Games will also air Sundays on cable networks UPN and TNN. Clearly, it's all about presentation, with NBC and its partner, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, zeroing in on the ultimate in sports-as-entertainment, a sort of Bizarro NFL. Just as the WWF brought cartoons to life, the XFL will try to bring football video games to life. ``Right now we're selling the differences between us and traditional football. We're tinkering with the game and trying to get some of the duller elements out,'' NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said Tuesday. ``Our games don't run against NFL, and we don't plan to, ever.'' In fact, one of Sunday's games is being shifted from 4 to 7 p.m. to avoid going head-to-head with the NFL's Pro Bowl telecast. The goal is to draw the same audience that the WWF thrives on - male viewers 12-24. And Ebersol said advertisers have been told to expect a rating of about 4.5, about 33 percent higher than NBA games averaged on NBC last season. About 70 percent of the commercial slots have been sold, and sponsors include the Army, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T and Burger King. NBC has made a two-year commitment to the XFL, ponying up about $50 million in a rare joint venture between a network and a sports league. NBC lost its AFC contract to CBS in the last NFL TV rights bidding three years ago. NBC is quick to point out that, unlike the soap-opera world of the WWF, nothing about the XFL will be scripted. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas started taking bets on the league's games last week. ``I guarantee you this is absolutely legitimate,'' NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer said. ``NBC Sports would not be a partner in this if it were not going to be real football. ``There have been suggestions to do things that would impact on the legitimacy of the game - and we've rejected all of them.'' What TV audiences can expect: 15 players miked per game (and a 5-second delay to give censors a chance to catch unwanted utterances); cameras on the field; use of SkyCam, a camera suspended on wires over the field with movements controlled by computer (picture what you would see if a blimp hovered 20 feet above the field); glimpses into locker rooms at halftime; reporters shoving microphones in coaches' faces to ask, for example, why an off-tackle running play was called on third-and-8; Jesse ``The Body'' Ventura, Minnesota governor and former WWF wrestler, reinventing the art of sports announcing on a weekly basis as NBC's color analyst; an April 21 championship contest tentatively entitled ``The Big Game at the End.'' What's less clear is how competitive or compelling the football itself will be - and how other media outlets will cover the XFL. ``Any of the teams in the league could beat any of the top college teams,'' Ebersol said, then quickly noted, ``I don't think everything has to be at the quality of the NFL.'' ESPN will show the first weekend's scores on its bottom-of-the-screen crawl, but it isn't clear what else the network will do. ``We'll take a look at the ratings, the attendance, and look at the product on the field,'' said Bob Eaton, ESPN Senior VP and managing editor. ``Our viewers are pretty hard-core sports people. It's going to have to fight its way in.'' Never before has a league's life depended so heavily on a TV partnership. And even if the play isn't spectacular, the mere spectacle could lure enough viewers to keep ad dollars rolling in. ``If they were simply trying to start another outdoor spring football league like the USFL, I wouldn't give them any chance of success,'' said Neil Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports who runs a TV consulting company. ``But they're directing their sales pitch to a totally different demographic, a totally different audience. I'm a 60- year-old man. They don't care if I watch.'' ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Random Thoughts - by naidO (NOTE: I've decided to up this column to Wednesday's as the shows are still fresh in the minds of all rather than waiting for Sunday.) WWF RAW: **What a commercial! **Welllll...it's the Big Slow! **"B-R-ootle" - Edge. Another gem **Why does Blackman get so many opportunities? **Know what? That ring mat looks pretty cool in all black **How does losing ONE title shot at Mania equal a 6 month layoff? **What's with this Pittsburgh crowd? They're usually good. **Molly sure has some nice Holly's **What a messed up hardcore match that was **Gotta love Lita's strut to the ring **I thought a Four Way was an elimination match. Or is that just for WrestleMania? Wait, last year's main event at Mania was "special". Never mind then **Ladies and gentlemen. RAW is the #2 show. Did you enjoy that infomercial for SmackDown!? WCW NITRO: **Shannen Moore rules. He just need to get rid of those braces. I'm sure he'd love to. **Ric losing his breath or somthing? **Whoops...another persn to sue Poppa Pump **Gotta love the Cat. And Ms. Jones' dancing too *wink* **OH NO! THE HUMMER!!! **Whatever happened to Pamela's Paulshocks? **Dustin Rhodes....yeah **DUSTY RHODES! YES! **Wait...where's David? Not that I care though **Will there be a Scream 4? If so, sign Daffney **Have you noticed all those Jarrett themed signs? **"Tell Bubba I said hello" - Jarrett. He kills me. ______________________________________________________________________ [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 **http://www.geocities.com/dsherelo/ - 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, 2001 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 =(