______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 288 March 1, 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 **[Article] The bare bones on the Stacy Carter/lawler situation **[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 - What a saga this Lawler/Carter thing eh? Well, the King himself has finally made a statement, you can click the link below. - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] From KINGLAWLER.COM: First off, both Stacy and I would like to thank everyone who has e- mailed us with their concern over the recent developments. Your well wishes mean a lot to both of us at this difficult time. I feel the need to tell you all exactly what took place at the Smackdown taping in Tucson on Tuesday and even though it may not shed much light on the situation, it may help quiet any rumors or untruths that might be floating around. I guess a little background into the story is necessary to get us to what took place Tuesday. Stacy has been with the WWF for a little over a year now, and I know I'm a little partial, but I happen to think she is a beautiful and talented young lady. She has been used sparingly in the time she has been in the WWF with her longest-term angle as Chyna's "mini me", or "Chynette". She always seemed to be received very well by the fans, and gave the wrestling world one it's most memorable moments when she showed the world her "puppies" at Armageddon. Subsequently, she didn't refuse when WWF officials asked her to be stripped topless in a pay-per-view catfight in the United Kingdom. The Kat was always game for just about anything the WWF writers could come up with. But for the past several months the Kat was seldom used. She came to every TV only to find herself sitting in the back while every other girl on the WWF roster was used in some situation or angle. It was very frustrating for her and for me, as I could not understand why the writers could always seem to come up with something for everyone to do except Stacy. To read the rest of Jerry Lawler's statement, click http://www.kinglawler.com ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **The WWF's latest music release, WWF The Music: Volume 5, will debut at number 2 on the Billboard charts tomorrow. **Jerry Lawler told the Memphis News that he is not under WWF contract. Lawler mentioned that a return to the WWF is possible, but he didn't "envision it." He also told them that he has officially quit the XFL. Lawler said he plans to relax for a while, however, most believe that a WCW jump is possible. **On the next SmackDown! broadcast: - Crash, Molly Holly battle Lita, Matt Hardy - X-Pac against Chris Benoit. - The Rock fights Steven Regal. - Val Venis is punished by RTC. - Kane, Taker and D-Von Dudley take on Christian, Rikishi, and Haku - Kurt Angle against Steve Austin **Jeff Hardy, Justin Credible and X-Pac could be joining a stable put together by Shawn Michaels. (Cred: wwf.com, lawler, SLAM!) _______________ [News from WCW] **The date that the WCW sale was expected to be finalised was yesterday, but it wasn't finalised afterall. Apparently 2/28 was only a target date, and it is expected to be finalised sometime in March. When it is finalised, that is when all the changes and announcements concerning WCW's future will be announced. **Booker T said on WCW Live! on Tuesday night that he would be surprised to see Harlem Heat get another run with the WCW Tag Team Titles. Take it for what you will. (Cred: wcw.com) _______________ [News from ECW] **Nothing. Since we're less than two weeks away from a PPV and there's still no venue, still no tv, still no promotion, still no wrestlers, and STILL no announcements other than pervert picks; expect a termination notice soon. Unfortunately (Cred: ) __________________ [In other news...] **HOLLYWOOD (Reuters) - They said it -- notable quotes from the entertainment world. "That audience -- 12- to 19-year-old, pimply-faced, mean-spirited males -- came, watched and went on to whatever god-awful other pursuits. USA Networks is doing just fine now." -- USA Networks boss BARRY DILLER, on losing top-rated wrestling programming to cable rival TNN. **There was an article that almost made NBC come across like WCW. The day after Scott Sassa said he hadn't heard of any NBC affiliates complaining about having to carry the XFL, Pat Patton, the Director of programming at KRON in San Francisco (which, because SF is the XFL's strongest live market actually draws well above the national average for the NBC ratings) said, "We aren't going to live with crappy numbers forever. The numbers have got to improve," in an article by Rick Westhead of Bloomberg News who wrote that the games are likely to be moved out of prime time next season even after NBC has continually given the league a public vote of confidence. **XFL Vice President of Sales Bob Riordan announced today he was leaving the WWFE to take a similar position with College Television Network. Riordan is leaving after announcing last week that the XFL, due to the disappointing ratings, was lowering ad rates as well as starting make-goods on ads. (Cred: the law, AP) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] The bare bones on the Stacy Carter/lawler situation The WWF has not yet decided on a replacement for Jerry Lawler. The belief within the WWF is that the door is open for Lawler's return if he were willing, but it would take a considerable cooling off period for both parties. Stacy Carter (The Kat) put up an incredible fuss about the plans for her PPV match on Sunday. Vince McMahon heard about the situation, and then people began coming out of the woodwork with stories about her TV time going to her head. Her attitude was being compared with Rena Mero (Sable). While her conduct isn't being excused by anyone, in her defense the WWF did not give Carter a warning. There was no meeting where she was told to get on her best behavior or she would be fired after the next incident. The expectations among WWF management were that Lawler might walk out on that night's TV in defense of his wife being fired, but quitting outright wasn't foreseen. The decision was made on short notice without a lot of forethought. No alternative color commentator was on hand for the tapings. Tazz was in New York preparing for Wednesday's "Tough Enough" tryouts. Since Kat was such a big part of the plans for Smackdown, McMahon - appalled at the steady stream of stories he heard over less than a 48 hour period about Carter's behavior - decided to pull the plug immediately. In retrospect, a warning may have led to cooler heads prevailing and given Carter a chance to correct her behavior. There are no indications from any sources that there was one overwhelming violation of policy or egregious action that required such hasty, sudden action. McMahon's actions do succeed in sending a message of "zero tollerace" for prima donna behavior and mistreating production staffers. Tazz is not necessarily the leading contender to be Jim Ross's partner on Raw on Monday or Michael Cole's on Smackdown on Tuesday. While he is considered solid for a beginner, he isn't considered a shoe-in who is ready to take over Raw. The feeling is he still has to find a balance between getting across his personality and shifting attention to getting over an angle or match. Apparently everyone is being considered who has experience, including Tazz, Michael Hayes, Raven, Mick Foley, Shane McMahon, or a series of guests throughout the show to see who will work best. No only did Lawler cohost both Raw and Smackdown, but he worked with Ross on PPVs. Calling three hours of purely matches on a PPV is different than two hours of matches, interviews, and angles with commercial breaks. Nobody in the WWF has extensive experience in the PPV genre leading into the WWF's biggest event of the year. Both Bobby Heenan and Larry Zbyszko have also come up in conversations within the WWF. (pwtorch.com) ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Vile Thoughts - by The Vile I was all ready to write my article until I got the news. I have to say I'm stunned that Stacy Carter was fired by the WWF. There has to be more than meets the eye to this whole situation. The powers that be at the WWF wouldn't fire one of their most entertaining characters without provocation; would they? As for The King, I admire your loyalty to your wife, standing by her side when she needs it. Let me be the first to say we will miss you King. As for the business of wrestling, No Way Out gets a solid "A" rating from me. Every match was entertaining in one way or another, and I can say that I definitely got every penny out of this event. The Hardcore match was decent, but my worst nightmare was confirmed. Sam Jerry's is DDP, mine is the Big Blow. I thought The Diet Cola Man, Billy Gunn was gonna walk away with the belt in a nice bit of chicanery, but no; they had to ruin it by having the Big Blow win. Memo to WWF: Stop pushing this loser!!! In the IC match, we got some great action from four top performers, and I must say that X-Punk is looking pretty good. It looks like we're also seeing the seeds of Chris Benoit's face turn being planted. Especially after seeing the ending to Benoit and Guerrero's match on Raw. The RTC match went pretty much the way everyone figured; until well.....see above. Then what might be the match of the year, and we're only in March: Stone Cold and Triple H. It was interesting to see this one early; normally that doesn't mean a happy ending. Triple H has vaulted over everyone into the land of mega-stardom. Look at some of the matches he's had in the last calendar year: Two great matches with Mick Foley, the classic Last Man Standing match with Jericho, and his match with Benoit on PPV to name a few. This one could be one of the best matches...EVER. These guys did just what Ric Flair says all the time. They bled, they sweat, and they paid the price. For our entertainment. I would like to thank both SCSA and HHH for one hell of a, if I may use the term: SLOBBERKNOCKER! You have to be loving the tag team division right now. With Undertaker/Kane, The Dudley's, Edge&Christian, The Hardy's, The Accolytes, Kaientai, Too Cool, X-Punk&Credible, and Rikishi&Haku, the WWF is sitting pretty. I can't remember the last time they had this many quality teams. It was probably the last time they had 5 teams vs. 5 teams at Survivor in the late '80s. The main event was pretty damn good too; except when Hebner was scewing up his counts. I was surprised to see the Rock win. I really didn't think we'd see Austin vs. Rock at WMX7, but I guess he'll drop the belt to our beer-guzzling hero, and then SCSA can feud with the "cerebral assassin." You have to ask this one question: If Rock drops the belt to Stone Cold again, will he come back as a heel? As for the Olympic hero: I like the new attitude. But until you stop bawling like a baby, no one will think you're any tougher. And lastly, a wrestling tidbit from the XFL. It was great seeing Saturday's slop-bowl between Chicago and New York. One of the more interesting, or frightening aspects was the injection of a little wrestling hijinks into the equation. On a fourth and goal from the Chicago one foot line early in the game, The Hitmen elected to kick a field goal. Jesse Ventura proceeded to call coach Rusty Tillman "gutless." That seems like a pretty innocuous comment, given commentators have said worse over the years. It became an issue when Mike Adamle proceeded to hunt down Tillman to let him know what The Guv said. Tillman's response was "Good for Jesse. He knows so little about football; he wouldn't know if it was puffed, or stuffed." To which Jesse replied "I love it; I'm under his skin." Then, near the end of the game, Ventura decided he wanted to interview Tillman. There's nothing unusual about that; except that the cameras followed him all the way down from the booth to the field, and then follwed his chase of Tillman. Tillman told The Guv he had nothing to say to him. Jesse then said Tillman was "afraid of him." Normally, that's just part of the WWF equation; and I have no problem with it. You wanna do stuff like that; that's cool. Just don't spill it into the game. I don't want to see a guy running for a TD, when one of his teammates strip him of the ball because he's "sleeping with his girlfriend." Then the XFL will have no future. What do you faithful readers think? Should they inject more WWF type storytelling into the XFL? E-Mail me, and let me know. Until next week, long live Emperor Vince! ______________________________________________________________________ [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 **Call The KLiQ Hotline For Daily Pro Wrestling News & Rumors. This call give you the most updated Pro Wrestling News that matters. This call is FREE and allways will be you can call from the US and Canada the # 1-888-561-4391 ! Give it a call. REMEBER it's 100% FREE YOU WILL NEVER BE CHARGED ______________________________________________________________________ [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