______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 316 March 29, 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] WWF Press Release Dealing With Monday Night Ratings **[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! - HUGE edition..not going to talk. See ya tomorrow and enjoy! - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] Vince Russo, who was granted his release from WCW today, has broken his silence on VinceRusso.org, and commented on many issues. Russo discusses why he left the WWF for WCW, his relationship with Vince McMahon, and what happened during his time in WCW. Even more interestingly, Russo gives his take on the WWF buying WCW, and Vince McMahon today. Russo also definitively answers the question of him going back to the WWF with a decisive "no." Russo then discusses both his fans and detractors, and his feelings towards them. Russo ends his comments with the statement "We will be heard from again!" It is a very interesting read, and you can check it out by clicking: http://www.vincerusso.org/vcolumn.html ______________________________________________________________________ [News from The WWF] **Official SmackDown! preview - 3/29: The final stop on the Road to WrestleMania is this Thursday night on UPN! Just 72 hours before the biggest night in the history of sports entertainment, SmackDown! explodes from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit! All the key players will be in the house -- including Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and the Undertaker. After all the emotion of the past week -- and with WrestleMania looming on the horizon -- SmackDown! will be the final opportunity for these superstars to have their say before this Sunday's Pay-Per-View. Who will get the last laugh before WrestleMania? Find out this Thursday on UPN! Several matches have already been signed for the show. The Big Show and William Regal will take on Chris Jericho and Kane in tag team action, and in another tag team war, Test and Chris Benoit take on Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle. Also, Matt Hardy faces Rhyno, and the APA takes on X-Pac and Justin Credible. You never know what will happen this Thursday on SmackDown! on UPN -- just three days before WrestleMania! Don't miss it! Check your local listings for time and channel. **For those who missed it on "Raw is War", Mick Foley's book entitled "Foley is Good" will be in stores on May 8th 2001. **According to 1wrestling.com, Shawn Michaels was held off Smackdown Tuesday evening due to him not being in the "proper condition" to return. Michaels is not scheduled to appear at Wrestlemania this weekend as of right now. More information as it becomes available. **The WWF finished as the 12th most searched word on the Lycos top 50. This is up 4 places from last week's rating. **As it stands right now, no WCW wrestlers are expected to be a part of WrestleMania,be it as a second or as an actual wrestler. The WWF doesn't think it would make any sense for WCW guys to be a part of their signature PPV of the year. The announce team for Mania will be Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. **The WWF has officially added three more names to the Gimmick Battle Royal. One Man Gang, Corporal Kirschener, and Duke "The Dumpster" Droese. Hopefully, the Gang will come down as Akeem and have Slick with him. Already announced for the match are: Brother Love, The Bushwackers, Doink The Clown, The Gobbledy Gooker, Iron Sheik, Kamala, Michael Hayes, Nikolai Volkoff, Sgt. Slaughter, Typhoon, Earthquake, Repo- Man, Hillbilly Jim, Kimchee, and The Goon. (Cred: lwn, 1wrestling, wwf.com) _______________ [News from WCW] **The WCW staff had their meeting Wednesday at the Power Plant. Basically a few people were kept on for another month as a transition team and everyone else was let go with severance packages. Other happenings were: - The meeting lasted about 40 minutes, then everyone was broken into smaller groups for meetings. - Brad Siegel did not attend the meeting. - Everyone was terminated and told to turn in their phones, pagers, and any other office related equipment. They were then given the rest of the day to clear out their offices, and to move their stuff out. - A human resources rep. from the WWF told the staff that if they wanted to re-apply for the WWF they could fill out a form requesting that they be considered for jobs there. - Staff computers were de-activated during the meeting. **The broadcast schedule on TSN's website states that last week's "Monday Nitro" will air from 7:30pm to 9:00pm EST as a lead in for "Raw is War" this Monday, April 2nd. **Former WCW Creative Director Vince Russo is happy wit the lay-offs. Russo, who went on the sidelines last October when he suffered concussions from working matches, has worked out a deal with AOL Time Warner that releases him from his contract and allows him to immediately work on new projects. **Mean Gene gave what should be his last Nitro report on the John Boy and Billy Radio show today. Here are the highlights: - Gene said that he "might be spending some time in Houston at Wrestlemania", and suggested that negotiations were in progress between the WWF and him. - The most prominent names mentioned for WCW to WWF transitions were Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Ric Flair, Booker T, and all of the Natural Born Thrillers. Notable names that weren't on that list were Goldberg, Hogan, Bagwell, Luger, and Scott Steiner, due to problems with either contracts or attitudes. - Contract buyouts will be structured as follows: 1.5 million and above per year - 0.30 to 0.40 cents on the dollar 1 million to 1.49 million per year - 0.50 cents on the dollar Less than 1 million per year - 0.70 cents on the dollar - Jerry Jarrett and J. J. Dillon are supposedly forming a partnership to begin a new promotion. - At this time Fox is not interested in a wresting program, but USA might be again. (Cred: 1wrestling, lwn, the law) _______________ [News from ECW] **RVD Talks: - Starts off by saying hello and doing a hilarious Fonzie impression. I didn't know RVD could talk with such a high pitched voice. - He's doing certain indy dates right now and staying pretty busy in Hollywood. - He was in discussions with WCW before they were bought out. Thinks the WWF buying them out is a good deal if the alternative was them going out of business. Says that he figures he must suck and wasn't able to stand out from the pack in ECW since every other ECW wrestlers is in the WWF or headed there right now. (mostly because people have stood up and sid that he's hard to work with) - Talks about the controversy that surrounded him in the WWF in 1997 when he worked the cross promotion angle with ECW. He did the angle to help get ECW exposure on WWF television. The angle took place over a couple months and he started being relegated from appearing on RAW to doing other things on Shotgun Saturday Night. He also was involved in matches that had nothing to do with the ECW angle, which he didn't understand. He finally said something about it during his last night there and Heyman just kind of stood there and kept his mouth shut. He didn't understand why they weren't doing more to promote ECW. - Says his relationship with Paul Heyman isn't any different then it is now. Says that he can never get a hold of him and that he can't get any of his money from him but says that he's a friend when they aren't talking about the business. - He loved working with ECW and doesn't regret any of the decisions that led him to staying there. Says that he doesn't regret any of the chances he had in the past to jump to Monday nights and is happy he stayed with the company. - Says he could stop wrestling for good now and would be happy with what he accomplished. Says that his favorite matches were the ones against Jerry Lynn on PPV and that he could live with just having those matches to look back on his career with. - Says he can adapt his style to shorter matches. He wouldn't be as happy doing it due to his perception of looking at it as an artist, but he's flexible. - Believes he can still end up in WCW or the WWF but would take Japan and the indies into consideration. Says he wouldn't want to go on the three week All Japan tours but would do limited dates in another promotion in Japan if he could. Says there is a good possibility of him opening his own wrestling school and that he had a lot of feedback about it when he talked about it on his website. He's also still interested in doing some work in Hollywood. (Cred: 1wrestling) __________________ [In other news...] **Jerry Lawler announced on the Wrestling Observer Live radio show yesterday that he and Stacy Carter have received their releases from the World Wrestling Federation. - Jerry Lawler has posted a letter on his website he wrote to Vince McMahon on March 3rd asking for a second chance with the company. To read the letter, CLICK http://www.kinglawler.com/wwfletter.html **Jesse Ventura said today on Minnesota Public Radio that he doesn't know the future of the XFL. "If they choose to cancel it, that's their call," he said. "The players gave their hearts. I gave mine, and all the broadcasters, we're doing the best job we can do and that's all you can do." Dick Ebersol did say this week if ratings don't improve, NBC would likely decide in late April to back out of next year's games. (Cred: 1wrestling) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] WWF Press Release Dealing With Monday Night Ratings This press release was sent out by the WWF today dealing with their success in the Monday night ratings sweepstakes. WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION AND WCW REACH MORE THAN 6.2 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS FOR HISTORIC SIMULCAST. STAMFORD, Conn., March 28, 2001 - Just days after World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWF) acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Monday night's RAW IS WAR on The National Network (TNN) and NITRO on TNT delivered a combined rating of 7.7 reaching more than 6.2 million households from 8:00pm - 11:00pm EST. According to Nielsen, the unprecedented simulcast at 9:45pm - 10:00pm EST on TNN and TNT delivered a combined rating of 7.9. WCW programming was up 43% from the previous week. "Based on fan feedback, we believe that the ratings increase was due in large part to two factors. First, the highly publicized final episode of NITRO; second, and most importantly, fans tuned in to see the how the World Wrestling Federation's acquisition of WCW would play out on television and in the storyline," said Stuart C. Snyder, President and COO of WWFE. "We are very pleased about the ratings as we continue to build upon the audience that these two brands are capable of capturing." "In addition to tapping into new revenue streams, we believe that the addition of the WCW brand to our growing roster of entertainment products gives us the opportunity to build our talent roster and add more diversity and creativity to our storylines, further strengthening our core product," added Snyder. ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Vile Thoughts - by The Vile The year is 2001. I have been isolated from the world for almost 20 years since the great war began. The most unconventional of wars, I sought safety in my heavily fortified underground bunker. However, it now seems that the war may have finally ended, and I have emerged from my isolation to find any remnants of life left on this scorched rock known as Earth. My journey began in the state of Florida. There are almost no signs of life or vegetation. I stumble across a crumbled building. Sticking out from the rubble was a very old looking parchment. It was ripped and smeared, but I could make out part of it. It read "FLORIDA HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH-ED "THE BULL" GANTNER VS. MIKE ROTUNDO" I couldn't believe it; this was the venue of Florida Championship Wrestling. Many soldiers had gotten their basic training here: Barry Windham, Mike Rotundo, Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Sullivan, and Lex Luger. Now all that remains of this fabled training facility is mere rubble, ash, and faded memories. It looked like FCW was one of the first rebel nations to fall. My journey continued to Dallas, where I was able to find the ruins of the Sportatorium. It was a venerable old building, where many raw recruits honed their skills. The Freebirds, Jimmy Garvin, The Fantastics, Chris Adams, and of course the Von Erichs. I saw something under the molten ash that used to be the ring. I pulled it out. It was a piece of leather; white, but heavily covered in soot. I pulled a rag from my knapsack and began to wipe it off with some dirty water I found on the ground. As I could read what was on it, I felt a tear in my eye. It read "KERRY" It was a piece of one of Kerry Von Erich's boots. Kerry was the only Von Erich to hold a real world title when he beat Ric Flair. World Class was able to hold on for a while, but many of their recruits were taken by the WWF, the NWA, or the CWF, which they eventually joined forces with to become the USWA. With the demise of FCW, WCCW, and the USWA, I knew that this war was a bitter and bloody one. There were two major superpowers: The WWF and the NWA/WCW. But instead of working together, they were hell bent on destroying one another, no matter how many other lives were taken. I next arrived in Los Angeles. The town seemed to be in pretty good shape. actually, it seemed as if nothing had happened here. Until I reached the office building in Century City. It was a pile of nothing; it looked like it had been left there as a monument. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was the headquarters of the UWF. The UWF was a very small entity; it didn't even seem worth the time or trouble for the Superpowers to destroy. However, they were destroyed; quickly and painfully. It also seemed like the Superpowers were merciful on the rest of the population as I had mentioned before; the city was pretty much business as usual. Herb Abrams had very good intentions, but in this battle, he was about as prepared as Wile E. Coyote. It looked like the missles he had ready to fire back at the Superpowers had in fact, exploded in their silos. I did find the battered UWF title belt in the wreckage. I put it in my sack. I mean, it was the only belt named for a TV network-SportsChannel USA. It had to have some historical significance. As I reached my next destination-Minneapolis, I was amazed at how many nations had fallen to the Superpowers. The ICW, the USWA, the CWF, the UWF-twice, FCW, Stampede-although a rebellious faction is trying to keep them going. Paul Heyman hadn't officially announced the surrender of ECW, but he was appointed to a high ranking position in the McMahon army, so it seems that ECW has fallen also. Then I arrived at one of the bloodiest battles in the war. The AWA put up a fight for as long as they could, but too many of Verne Gagne's soldiers had defected to the WWF. Emperor McMahon made high ranking officials out of men like Hulk Hogan, Curt Hennig, and Jesse Ventura to name a few. Gagne's army was decimated. McMahon totally pillaged this area, and there was nothing left; not even for looters. The area looked like the forbidden zone; no one or nothing had seen the light of day for many years. That meant either one of the Superpowers was left, or no one was.... Upon arriving at the outskirts of Atlanta, I found there were a limited amount of people in the city, and it was highly secured. Ted Turner was being burned in effigy, as well as Brad Siegel. The Turner/CNN building was ablaze as well. No one was allowed in or out of the city. It looked like certain people were being escorted out of the city. Then it happened; I was able to make out one of them. "My god. He really did it." My final stop was Stamford Connecticut. I had never seen a city shine so brightly in the midst of a holocaust. I had seen a bright beacon through the course of my journey, and it looks like this is where it eminated from. I couldn't believe what I saw; A castle as big as half of the city. I made my way in, and began to look around. One of the first rooms I ventured into was the Emperor's trophy room. Apparantly, he made sure he picked many of his vanquished rivals clean. In this room were among other things: Bret Hart's sunglasses, The NWA world title belt, the AWA title belt, the Road Warriors shoulder pads, Dusty Rhodes' bullwhip, one of Ric Flair's ring robes, Lex Luger's flag tights, a banner from the Sportatorium, and Nikita Koloff's Russian chain. The next room was just as shocking: It was a classroom. In it was Eric Bischoff. The class he was teaching was: Getting Stagnant; How to run a successful business into the ground. This place was getting more surreal by the moment. The next room was a wax museum. The motif of it was "Stars I Made, and Then I Broke." In it were statues of Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. and then, I ventured into the courtyard-into the most shocking scene I had ever laid eyes on. a riotous mob; dancing, singing, drinking, screaming with delight. There was a sadistic scene in one end of the yard: Ted Turner was bound and gagged, sitting in a bizarre looking dunking booth. In another booth was a display called "People that screwed me." It was a tank of water, complete with man eating sharks that was used for dealing with people that had crossed the Emperor. Today's examples were Lex Luger and Dick Ebersol. And then I saw it; a sight that would be etched in my memory forever. Vince McMahon was addressing the masses, still in his battle armor, looking much like Victor Von Doom. He had done it; he won the most brutal war ever seen in the history of the universe. WCW was the last to fall. Turner used every weapon at his disposal, but couldn't counter the magnitude of the weapons employed by McMahon. At one time, soldiers from both factions would defect; some more than once. Except for one: Sting. Sting is now somewhere in Free America, out of the wrestling business. VK had conquered them all. He was laughing, much like the hearty laugh of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. He then took a long drink from his silver goblet. Sid Vicious used it as a catch phrase, but Vincent Kennedy McMahon now truly "Ruled the World." ______________________________________________________________________ [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 **http://www.PaulHeyman.Net - 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/CBrown @ 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 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: naidoswrestlingnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Sorry to see you go if you do =(