______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 281 February 22, 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 **Monday night and weekend ratings **Latest news from the WWF, WCW & ECW **[Article] Dave Scherer give the low down on Simon Diamond **[Column] Vile Thoughts **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 THUNDER results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvthunder.html - Read a good book lately? I have, it was during Thunder last night. All they have to do in WCW is hire some script writers from Hollywood as clearly they have no clue in the drama department. - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] XFL's sponsors upset over ratings The Associated Press reported yesterday that the XFL has already told sponsors who have bought ads during their broadcasts that they will get make-good ads due to the fact that TV ratings for the games dropped so far this week. The gist of the story is that after promising advertisers a total 10 to 11 rating for games, they only delivered about half of that this past week. The XFL will give advertisers more airings of the ads to reach the total audience that they were initially promised. Of course, the downside there is that it means that in many, or maybe most, cases, it will mean that instead of 10 million people seeing the ad once, 5 million will se it twice. This past week's NBC game was the lowest ranked show on the four major networks last week and finished tied for 89th place. The commercials that the XFL has sold cost $140,000 for 30 seconds. This news, coming in conjunction with American Honda dropping their sponsorship of the XFL due to them saying that they were told they were buying ads on a football product, not a wrestling show, is not good news for the XFL. (AP) ______________________________________________________________________ [Monday night and weekend ratings] For Monday 2/19 TIME NITRO RAW -------------------------- 8:00-9:00 2.3 --- 9:00-10:00 1.8 4.4 10:00-11:00 --- 5.2 -------------------------- Head to Head 1.8 4.4 -------------------------- Composite 2.0 4.8 Change 0.0 0.0 QUARTERS: 800 815 830 845 900 915 930 945 1000 1015 1030 1045 1100 RAW --- --- --- --- 3.6 4.5 4.8 4.5 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.2 5.3 NITRO 2.4 2.1 2.3 2.4 1.9 1.6 1.7 1.9 --- --- --- --- --- **Livewire did a 1.0 rating (3.1 share) **Superstars did a 1.0 rating (2.8 share) **Heat did a 1.7 rating (with a 2.7 share) **Smackdown on 2/15 scored a broadcast rating of 4.3, up from 4.0 **Thunder on 2/14 did a 1.9 rating. Down from last week's 2.0. (1wrestling.com) ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **This Friday, Stephanie McMahon will be the special guest on WWF.com's Internet show, Byte This. The show airs every Friday from 4:00-5:00pm ET. **One more match is expected to be added to the No Way Out card. Although Rikishi and Haku vs. The Hardyz has been talked about, there is also a possibility of Al Snow vs. William Regal taking place. I'll keep you updated. **WWF Smackdown Match Listings - 2/22 - The Rock, The Undertaker and Kane vs. Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian. - X-Pac and Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. - WWF European Championship: Test (c) vs. William Regal. - Hardcore Challenge: Hardcore Holly vs. Crash Holly vs. Big Show vs. Perry Saturn vs. Steve Blackman vs. K-Kwik. - WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) vs. The Kat - Rikishi vs. Jeff Hardy. - Jim Ross will moderate an interview between Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin. **The WWF has created a new online game entitled "WWF With Authority", which allows fans to create characters, join factions and compete against each another. For more information, visit WithAuthority.com. **The WWF announced that they will be doing a wrestling game on WWF.com where WWF fans can play against each other other. Sounds interesting. They also announced that THQ and JAKKS Pacific will be coming out with a game for PlayStation 2 in the fall. A Game Boy color handheld game is due out this summer. (Cred: ultimowrestling, the law, 1wrestling) _______________ [News from WCW] **1Wrestling.com is reporting that WCW wrestler Brian Adams was rushed to the hospital yesterday for an emergency appendectomy. It is not known how long Adams will be out of action and his appearance tonight on WCW Live has been cancelled, but his Kronik teammate Brian Clark will still do the show. **Right now the teams confirmed for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Title Tournament are The Jung Dragons, 3-Count (Moore and Karagias), AJ Styles and Air Paris, and Rey Mysterio Jr and Kidman. WCW is planning to team up Jaime Knoble with someone else for the tournament, probably Kid Romeo. They are also going to be bringing in Christian York and Joey Matthews as reported a few days ago. That leaves 2 teams to fill the remaining spots, which either means they will make up a few teams with the left over cruiserweights they have such as Kwee Wee, Elix Skipper, Lash LeRoux, etc, but more than likely they will bring in new talent, such as Super Dragon and Rising Son from Pro Revolution in Southern California which Konnan has been pushing for. **DDP's 'State of the Union Address' has been updated. In his commentary, he talks about how he wrestled 4 matches in 24 hours, how he is in great physical condition, and many more topics. To view the commentary, click http://www.ddpbang.com/news/weeksemail.html **Following their match at Superbrawl this past weekend, Evan Karagias and Yang apparently had a brief backstage fight, which began when Evan accused Yang of making him look bad by missing spots. **Mean Gene gave his Nitro report on the John Boy and Billy Radio Show. Here are the pertinent highlights, (let the hearer beware): - WCW will not go dark in April as originally thought. - The XFL appears to be "a complete bust". - There is a hiring freeze that will delay new talent coming in. Kid Kash was mentioned specifically. - An interview that Bruno Sammartino did with an unnamed "Italian magazine", quoted Bruno as saying that Bret Hart took cocaine. Bruno has denied saying that, and Mean Gene supported him. (Cred: lwn, the law, ultimowrestling) _______________ [News from ECW] **As we are now almost two weeks until ECW's PPV, with no location announced, and I think it's pretty safe to say the show will not happen. It's not officially cancelled, but it's almost impossible to fathom that a building could be announced, tickets put on sale, and have the show advertised with so little time left. Ads have started running for the show on PPV channels, but don't take that for anymore other than the fact that ECW has the next show in the queue after this weekend's No Way Out. The ECW situation almost has to shake out one way or the other very soon. **C.W. Anderson has updated his online "Spinebuster" commentary at ECWAnderson.com. This week CW gives his thoughts on the passing of local legend Dale Earnhardt, his latest week on the indy scene and more! Check that out as well as new feature to the site, "Enforcer Updates", a new newsletter dedicated to CW Anderson and his website. Join today! (Cred: 1wrestling) __________________ [In other news...] **Nothing at this time. (Cred: ) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] Dave Scherer give the low down on Simon Diamond After doing a little digging, I found out reports going around the internet today that say ECW's Simon Diamond refused a WCW tryout because he "felt it was beneath him" are not true at all. From what I have been told, the situation is simply this. He was asked to do a tryout a few weeks ago and was told by Johnny Ace, who handles the talent acquisition for WCW, that he would need a written release (which Paul Heyman will gladly give him) before being flown in to a show. As it turned out, Diamond had another situation arise that kept him from being able to go do the tryout match and could not come in. Him not going had nothing to do with not wanting to do a tryout match or feeling it was "beneath him". At this point however, both Diamond and his fiancé Dawn Marie are still weighing their career options. Obviously, they would both like to work for the same company (though they don't expect to work in the same act together) instead of working for different companies, which wouldn't be healthy for their relationship. WCW has made it clear that they are not interested in bringing in females to work for the company at this time, despite the fact that Dawn is a pro, has a history in place with Lance Storm and could help make an impact since she can actually take bumps as well. So, it stands to reason that Diamond and Dawn are exploring their options with the WWF, where there is said to be interest in both of them, especially Dawn. If WCW wants Diamond, my own personal opinion is that they should make an offer to him. From what I have been told, they have seen his work and tape and they know what he can do. (1wrestling) ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Vile Thoughts - by The Vile First off, I want to express my condolences to the Dale Earnhardt family. While I am not a NASCAR follower, it was a tragic accident at Daytona. NASCAR not only lost their franchise player, but one of the best ambassadors they've had. Now, a few observations on what we've seen over the past few days.... WCW, what is wrong with you? You had a chance to make some progress with Superbrawl Revenge, and what happens? You slip on a banana peel. We already knew the main event would most likely suck, but did you have to add to that by screwing up a perfectly good Cruiserweight match. Here's a clue Schiavone; attend the pre-show production meetings. Then you might have a freaking clue!! I have to give kudos to Jobber Jeff: That parody of the American Dweem was classic "If you weeeeeel." This is the stuff Jarrett needs to do more; then maybe we'll think he has a personality. On a serious note, I am going to start a suicide watch for our esteemed columnist Sam Jerry. Look at what's happened in WCW: Slick Ric and Big Poppa have eliminated Sting, Booker, Goldberg, Sid, and Nash. So who are they making "WCW's" last hope? Dirtbag Doofus Page (Gasp!) For the next month, we are going to see DDP vs. the bad guys. Jerry must be looking for the biggest tree on the planet to hang himself from. While I can honestly say I can take or leave DDP, I just don't see him as a main eventer. Look at his very short title reigns. The only conclusion I can come to is that they must be planning on having the eliminated stars come back at Greed to help DDP. Meanwhile, in the WWF, I'd like to say right now that it was nice knowing The Kat. Upon hearing if Lawler loses to RTC, they get possession of The Kat, that just cinched Richards winning. My only question is: Who will screw Lawler? RTC, or The Kat? As for Matt Hardy, how can I become you? Man, what a job!!! The moment of the night on Raw had to be when the Princess got the stunner from the Rattlesnake. It's been awhile since Steph took a good bump, and it was great to see it come from Stone Cold. The only thing better would have been to see Linda kick the crap out of her. As for Linda, this whole "looney bin" thing is kind of creepy. After seeing that skit, the WWF definitely crossed over into the "soap opera" genre if it hadn't already. I must; I did laugh after it, so who knows how stable I am. I do have to say I am looking forward to Triple H and Austin at No Way Out; probably more than any of the other matches. This could have the potential to be one of the most violent matches in WWF history. The heat between these two is immeasureable, and you know this thing's going three falls so they can show their gimmick matches. They want this to be the greatest grudge type match in their history. And lastly, I didn't want to write about this again this week, but the boobs at NBC have left me no other choice. And I don't mean the XFL cheerleaders. Due to a committment, I was only able to see the 4th quarter of Saturday night's game between LA and Las Vegas. However, I was told about the beginning of the game, and was not happy. At the beginning of the game, instead of a WWF superstar coming out to address the crowd, there was something much more disturbing. Molly Shannon of SNL appeared on the Titan-Tron, explaining how she wanted the game to end on time because it was allegedly her last night on SNL, and she didn't want anyone missing "what she might do." I am now officially ready to nuke Lorne Michaels and anyone associated with SNL or NBC. Let me get this straight if I can: You complain about the XFL infringing on your ability to start your show on time, and then you use the XFL as an advertising vehicle for your own show. YOU HYPOCRITICAL BASTARDS!!!! I sincerely hope that Lorne Michaels has a debilitating brain anuerism. Problem is, to have one, you have to have a brain in the first place. As for Molly Shannon, unless you were going to drink a gallon of gasoline, and swallow a lit match, I don't give a sh*t what you do. Then we hear all the sports snobs claim victory because the XFL's ratings are down again. Why wouldn't they be? SNL took on NBC, and NBC backed down like the chicken shits they are, making the XFL speed up the games for SNL. What little credibility the XFL is now gone. Mr. McMahon, for the good of the XFL, please dump NBC as sson as possible. Dick Ebersol has sold you a bill of goods. He has made promises, and then stabbed you in the back. Other leagues survive without a major network deal (Arena football, women's college basketball, college baseball, minor league hockey, to name a few.) Certainly the XFL can too. And if you don't believe me; choke on this slap nuts: I was in a sports store today, buying an LA Xtreme jersey, and I was told that XFL team replica jerseys were the hottest item on the market. ______________________________________________________________________ [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