______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 272 February 13, 2001 "I get the news, so you don't have to." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naidoswrestlingnews ______________________________________________________________________ [Official newsletter & complement to:] http://www.naidOsWorld.com To subscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To unsubscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ______________________________________________________________________ [Table of contents] **Note from naidO **TOP NEWS STORY **Latest news from the WWF, WCW & ECW **[Column] Rounding The Squared Circle **Parting chair shot **Affiliates ______________________________________________________________________ [Note from naidO] Hello to those just joining. Tell your friends about the BEST newsletter around to subscribe today! **Click for the NITRO results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvnitro.html **Click for the RAW results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvraw.html - Gee...I wonder what that little stipulation will be on SmackDown!? Hmm..lemme think. SCSA has this little thing called a title shot at WrestleMania. You thing Trip would want any part of that?.....NAAAAAHHHH! - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] Dave Meltzer reports Turner executives have vetoed a planned shutdown of WCW, scheduled to take place after Superbrawl. Eric Bischoff's idea was to have a major story go down at Superbrawl that forced Nitro to be canceled the next day. This would lead to a shutdown that lasted several weeks, culminating at WCW's March PPV event. Turner shot down the idea because of television advertisements. Since Nitro and Thunder's ratings have dropped, ads were sold above what they are worth now and have promised a number of "make good" commercials. For now, the plan is to keep the company centered on Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and all the regulars you see now. Until the sale with Fusient is finalized, WCW is nothing more than a lame duck. ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **WWF diva Lita will be appearing on Muchmusic on 2/14 at 4:30pm EST. There is talk that Ed the Sock will be doing the interview but that has not yet been confirmed. **Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria of Godfather's ho's), who has been training as a wrestler in Memphis, is scheduled to debut in the ring with the WWF on one of Sunday's house shows. **At this stage, this is what confirmed for No Way Out: - Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. - WWF Championship Match: Kurt Angle (c) vs. The Rock. - WWF Tag Team Championships Match: The Dudley Boyz (c) vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Undertaker and Kane. **Sonny Oono, Curt Hennig & Jerry Lynn were backstage at last Saturday's WWF house show in St. Paul, Minnesota. **Justin Credible was not the only familiar face to ECW fans at the Raw tapings at the Medowlands in East Rutherford, NJ last night. Tony DeVito of the Baldies tag team worked the show in a dark match, putting over local worker Judas Young. DeVito was wearing his usual Baldies garb, with a WWF T-shirt. Earlier in the night Young had done a job for WWF developmental talent Scott Vick. **Gene Padden sent word that after RAW ended, Steve Austin and HHH faced off. Rock hit the Rock Bottom on HHH. They celebrated and had a few beers. Austin begged Rock to drop the People's Elbow on HHH, and Rock obliged. They took turns crushing beer cans on HHH. Austin left. Rock left. Rikishi left. HHH stayed and Lilian Garcia announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the man who will make the stipulations for WRESTLEMANIA....HHH!!!" HHH's music hit and he stood staring at Lilian and I swear he did not move for 2-3 minutes. When his song ended, he reamed Lilian for messing up "yet again" and started to humiliate her. As he was ripping into her, the mic started cutting out. So, he had to keep starting over and right when he'd start cursing, it would cut out again (obviously someone was doing it on purpose). So, he was like DAMMNIT, KEVIN DUNN if you think this is funny I'll come back there right now and kick the hell out of your ass (mic cuts out again). Then he got a new mic and started ripping some fat guy at ringside. All you could hear was like "listen you little piece of crap I'll...and...on....up your....to your damn...cuz I'm.....ass" then he got pissed and slammed the mic and left. It was hilarious. (Cred: wwf.com, the law, ultimowrestling) _______________ [News from WCW] **Eric Bischoff appeared on Dave Meltzer's audio show this evening and addressed the status of WCW's sale to Fusient. Bischoff said he hoped the sale would be complete by the end of February or early March. There are still some hurdles to get over, such as getting approval for the sale beyond Time Warner (regulatory approval). - In the "transition" period, Bischoff said he couldn't hire new talent. However, there is an exception where he can match dollar for dollar and bring in new workers. Example: Major Gunns, who was released two weeks ago. We'll say her contract was worth $100,000. (Note: It's not, but this is just an example.) Since she was released, Bischoff can bring in a new talent worth $100,000. - Bischoff hopes to re-launch storylines at the end of March or early April. In the meantime, he does have some creative control as to what we see on Nitro currently, but it is limited. He said he is trying to get WCW back to "Wrestling 101" until he can take complete creative control. - Another goal Bischoff has during this transition period is to get benched talent back on camera. Dustin Rhodes and Rick Steiner are examples. - Bischoff did address what was reported earlier today about the proposed "dark period" that has been shot down by Turner. It is indeed true. - Eric Bischoff also denied that Road Dogg has signed a contract with WCW. Rumors have been persistent online that the former WWF star has already signed with WCW. **As it pertains to rumors regarding Steve Corino and Pat Kenney (Simon Diamond) in WCW, it is expected that Corino will be offered a contract, although that has not happened yet. Kenney will probably be brought in as some point for a try-out match before any contract is offered. **The first 2 segments for Nitro actually ran short, which meant that going as they were would come up 6 minutes short at the end of the broadcast. Therefore, the Cruiserweights were given more time during their matches on the show to make up the shortfall. **Here is the updated SuperBrawl card for this Sunday: - WCW Heavyweight Title Match: Scott Steiner (c) vs. Kevin Nash. - DDP vs. Jeff Jarrett. - WCW United States Title Match: Rick Steiner (c) vs. Dustin Rhodes. - WCW Tag Team Title Match: Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo vs. Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak. - Kronik vs. Totally Buff. - WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chavo Guerrero Jr vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. - WCW Commissionership Match: Lance Storm vs. The Cat. - 6-Man Elimination Match: Kaz Hayashi vs. Yang vs. Shannon Moore vs. Kidman vs. the winners of Evan Karagias and Jaime Knoble vs. AJ Styles and Air Paris on Thunder. - Hugh Morrus vs. The Wall. (Cred: wcw.com, wrestlingobserver, ultimowrestling, the law) _______________ [News from ECW] **Francine is auctioning off her ECW black jacket. The ECW logo is embroidered on the back and Francine's name is on the front. It has a zip up front with a hood and it is very warm too! Full details on what bidding starts at and how to place your bid are on FrancineECW.com now! (Cred: 1wrestling) __________________ [In other news...] **Killer Kowalski has opened up an excellent website for his pro wrestling school located at KillerKowalskis.com. Photography on the site was done by former NWO babe April Hunter. Kowalski has trained Triple H, Saturn, Albert, and Big John Studd, just to name a few. (Cred: AprilHunter) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] XFL feeling the heat from NBC Both the New York Daily News and the New York Times are reporting today that there is a lot of internal heat within NBC toward the fact that the XFL football game on Saturday ran long and delayed the much- hyped edition of Saturday Night Live with Jennifer Lopez by 45 minutes. SNL Producer Lorne Michaels was described as being "enraged" due to show being pushed back by 45 minutes. Due to XFL running long (in part because of a power outage in LA, a player suffering a compound fracture of his foot, and the game going into overtime), SNL ended up doing a much lower rating than hoped, scoring only a 6.3 overnight rating when a 10 was expected. One indicator that SNL would have scored higher was the 7.4 that was recorded at 11:30. The XFL was quoted as saying that it was because of fans who tuned in to see the overtime of the game, but given the ratings for the rest of the night, that would be a major stretch for one to believe. The News reported that due to the fact that the game ran long on Saturday, decisions were made yesterday at NBC to speed up the pace of the XFL games. The Times reported that NBC executives took great pains to placate Michaels, who again was said to be very angry that what should have been a ratings monster edition of his show started 44 minutes late. Michaels reportedly wanted to tell the network to run a repeat episode of SNL but couldn't since Lopez, who is one of the hottest stars in the world right now, had been heavily promoted for the show. People close to him were mentioned in the News as saying that Michaels could have accepted the delay if it was the Yankees going into extra innings, but "not for an XFL game". SNL has been on a recent hot streak lately, fueled by recent specials that have aired after "Friends" the last two Thursdays, which helped keep NBC competitive with the Survivor juggernaut on CBS. Given the drop by the XFL in the ratings, keeping Michaels happy is a lot more important to the network than the XFL. The Times corroborated that NBC is working on a way to shorten games, saying NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol would have changes implemented to shorten the games and try to ensure they would be off the air by 11 p.m. The XFL is obviously feeling heat from NBC due to the fact that their ratings fell to more than 50% from their opening week number. The WWF may have gotten what was a half hearted vote of confidence from the network yesterday. The Times quoted NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker as saying, "We are not absolutely not abandoning the XFL. We are absolutely committed to it for the full season." That is hardly a ringing endorsement of the venture and signs are starting to become apparent that only two weeks in, the XFL is hardly on solid footing. The fact that NBC would only commit through this season to a product that they own half of does not bode well for the future of the league. (Yahoo! News) ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Rounding The Squared Circle - by Sam Jerry "EVERYBODY WANTS TO GET INTO THE ACT" OR "ANYTHING THE PROS DO, I CAN DO BETTER" There are many fans who don't like The WWF spending twenty or so minutes (usually at the start of RAW and SmackDown) in a "talkfest." They feel they would rather have a match instead. However, there are many more fans who like how the shows are being done. Judging by the crowd in the arenas, so do they. Why do they do it? Think of what many (most)? fans say is the reason The WWF is better than WCW. It's the story lines and angles. Let's take a look at last night's RAW: HHH will be facing Stone Cold Steve Austin (SCSA) at the next PPV, No Way Out (NWO) (Think the acronym is accidental?). There is a Stipulation (Emperor McMahon's favorite word) to the match that says if either touches the other, HHH will spend the next six months mopping toilets at The Acme Adult Video and Microwave Popcorn Company, Division of The Acme Corporation, and the closest SCSA will come to Wrestlemania will be the TV at Uncle Willie's Gas Emporium, in Broken Elbow, TX. The match will have a Stipulation (There's that word again) selected by the winner of a match between representatives of HHH and SCSA. The Supreme Ruler of The WWF selected The Rock to represent HHH, and The Ass That Ate Alaska to represent SCSA. Ghengis Khan loved the countries he raped and pillaged more than The Rock does HHH, The Ass does SCSA, and vice versa. The time they spent swapping words and other social amenities furthered the match and was intended to make the PPV more attractive. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, mission accomplished. Let's take a look at how another story line has been set up, and how a good, but under utilized was pushed. Our American Olympic Zero, the WWF Champion, will be defending title against The Rock at NWO, so he needed an angle for the weeks leading up to it. Last week on SmackDown he accused Essa Rios (El Under Utilizedio) of starting his own T-shirt business, employing the midnight requisition method to build his inventory. This led to a solid match between the two at Heat this past Sunday. So we weren't served up leftovers by a repeat match, they were put in a tag team match, with each picking their partner. Raven volunteered to be Zero's, pairing the Hardcore Champion with The WWF Champion; on paper a solid team. Solid that is until El Under Utilizedio pick The Big Slow. Watching Raven trying to worm out when he heard the news was a winner. Giving El Under Utilizedio some much deserved TV time may have another motive. The WWF has been building a solid Light Heavyweight roster and maybe they are about to get serious about this Division. Last anyone can remember Light Heavyweight Champion Deano Macheeno defending the title was just prior to the Millennium ... the 1000 Millennium. Justin Credible made his debut on RAW, as Y2J was trying to shove X- Pac's head up his candy a*s. This reunites two of DX's original drinking buddies, as a possible tag team, maybe in the Light Heavyweight Division. With these three, El Under Utilizedio, Deano, The Hardy Boyz, the refugees from the latest bad Godzilla sequel (Taka and Mr. Indeed), and others already here, or rumored to be on their way (i.e., Jerry Lynn), The WWF could build a solid Division. If the Women's Division remains a T&A operation, Lita and Chyna could join the Division, and I suspect hold their own quite nicely. As an aside, how many people saw Deano's Clothesline to Lita coming? It was set up beautifully, with Deano going after Saturn for the Back Breaker he nailed her with. Who says romance is dead? Complaining about the Booking and thinking you can do better is all part of being a fan. You can look at angles like the old joke about waking up after an all night binge. If an angle works, it's like waking up next to Trish Stratus; if it sucks, that's Mae Young putting her teeth back in. Speaking of the lovely Trish, you have to hand it to the writers for the angle using England's equivalent to a double dose of Bangkok Crotch Rot as her "boyfriend." For some reason, known only to The Emperor and His Court, Sir Regal is being pushed harder than a twenty mule team hauling tail from The Little Big Horn. The WWF didn't get where they are by making a lot of mistakes. Sure some people are tired of The Rock's catch phases and SCSA's Stunner and a Steveweiser, but many more eat it up and yell for more. When The Rock's eyebrow has worn out its welcome, Emperor Vince is smart enough to scope it out. As long as it "puts asses in the seats" (Good Old Eric, circa 1997), The WWF will go with it. You have to stay with the one who brought you to the dance, and right now the cash register is dancing. Visit My Home Page At: http://members.aol.com/samjerry ______________________________________________________________________ [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 **http://www.tommydreamer.net **http://www.stephaniebellars.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] **1Wrestling/Dave Scherer/Bob Ryder @ http://www.1wrestling.com **Wrestling Observer/Dave Meltzer @ http://www.wrestlingobserver.com **The Law/Dan Lovranski @ http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com **UltimoWrestling/MrWolfson/MrCutting @ 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 - vile316@yahoo.com 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