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News and Rumors for Saturday, January 5
Hey hey hey. I'm back and so are you for what we term the weekend edition of the news and rumors. Finally, we are out of that slow stretch of taped shows that comes with the holiday season and the WWF has already changed gears in anticipation of some big developments over the next three weeks or so. I'm here to hopefully talk about that and more, so without further ado, here is the Saturday news update...
On Thursday, the WWF presented a live episode of Smackdown! from the nation's capital, Washington D.C. The show was a decent performance with appearances from all the important people involved in the top storylines. On one front, we had one of those much abused #1 contenders match pitting the Rock against Booker T, with the winner earning rights to face Chris Jericho for the undisputed championship belt at Royal Rumble. Elsewhere, the previously mentioned Jericho teamed up with Kurt Angle to take on Rob Van Dam and Edge and in a sensible move, got the victory for his team. Finally, the rest of the show was balanced out with storylines movements involving the Undertaker, the Big Show, Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and others. If you weren't able to watch the show and would be interested in finding out how it all fell into place, you can check out our Smackdown! Report.
Smackdown! ratings are in for the week and the show drew a 4.9 overnight rating which translated into a 3.8 final, broadcast score. Solid numbers coming off a generally low period of viewership but still nothing to write home about. I suppose this also re-affirms the fact that the taped nature of Smackdown! does not really affect ratings as a 3.8 final score is right on average to all the taped shows before Christmas. As for the RAW ratings on New Year's eve, the show drew a 2.5 rating, off of hours of 2.5, 2.5 and 2.2. That is tons lower but nothing to worry about since I'm sure many people had better things to do on that particular day. Weekend ratings saw Sunday Night Heat draw a 1.3 rating and Excess chip in with a 0.8 rating; both numbers are nothing out of the ordinary.
This Monday, the WWF officially returns to normal when they bring the next episode of RAW straight from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show is expected to be a big one with the return of Triple H figuring to be the biggest of its kind for the WWF since the Rock returned last year. The main event has already been announced with Steve Austin and the Rock teaming up to take on the duo of Booker T and the Big Bossman, however, this will surely take a back seat to the return of the Game. If history is any indication, the WWF will probably delay Triple H's return until the last few minutes of the show with the possibility that he will interfere and reveal his position amongst the other main eventers. Chances are we will also see Stephanie McMahon make her presence felt and there are many different trains of thoughts as to how her relationship with Triple H will progress. Some are of the opinion that Steph and Trips will simply remain together and be what will arguably be the third "group" in the WWF, against both Ric Flair and the rest of the faces and Vince McMahon and the rest of the heels. However, there is another opinion which basically suggests that we will see the beginning of the end for the couple, as Triple H will choose to not aid Stephanie in her quest to regain employment with the WWF. Whatever the case, we will find out in a matter of days.
As for Triple H, technically he has already returned because on Friday evening he made his in-ring return at a house show in Binghamton, New York where he teamed up with Kane to go up against Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. Reports (which are available on our newsboard) indicate that Triple H looked good and received a phenomenal reaction from the audience, playing the face role and perhaps giving us insight as to what type of role he will play upon his TV return. The indication for now is that Triple H will be a face without any allies and feud with many of the top superstars, most notably Chris Jericho since Jericho's character indicates that he's defeated everyone from Rock to Austin to Rob Van Dam, implying that he has no big challenger left. It wouldn't surprise me to see Triple H step up as Jericho's worst enemy especially considering all the history the two share with one another. It will be interesting to see Stephanie's involvement in this scenario because the fans are accustomed to boo her which could complicate matters since Jericho is now a heel and Triple H will get cheered upon his return.
The Royal Rumble PPV is now less than three weeks away and we already have the announcement of two matches on top of the 30-man battle royal. The first is for the undisputed world championship where the Rock will face Chris Jericho, likely to determine who will be the champ going into Wrestlemania X-8. This will be the third singles PPV match between the two and both previous ones have seen Chris Jericho come out top. I don't know about anyone else, but I definitely hope that Jericho wins this one too because it will continue to drill into the minds of fans that he is not only the equal of Rock, Austin, etc. but more than capable of defeating them on any given night. Furthermore, it would be nice to see Jericho keep the undisputed title for several months strengthening his character and going into his home country as the federation's top dog so to speak. With the mentioned Triple H-Jericho feud looming on the horizon, it would be a nice culmination if Triple H wins the Royal Rumble match itself (more on this later) and secures the right to face Jericho at Wrestlemania.
Speaking of the Royal Rumble match, there has been no hype or participants announced thus far, but you gotta expect this all to change as early as this Monday. With Triple H returning and with there being little time to start a singles program, it is almost certain that he will be one of the 30 competitors in the battle royal. I've explained some of the reasons before, but a Rumble match would be perfect for Triple H to make his return to since it will not only be beneficial to him coming off of an eight month layoff but it will add a lot of prestige and excitement to the Rumble, something which I feel has been desperately missing from Rumbles in the recent past. Although it hasn't been announced yet, I would hope that the remainder of the main eventers like Austin, Booker T, Rob Van Dam Undertaker and Kurt Angle (and hopefully even the Rock despite the fact he's already in the title match) to be in the Royal Rumble because it will certainly help sell the event. Then they could round out the card with a tag team match and a women's match bringing the total to four regular matches, plus the Royal Rumble event.
The other announced match pits Vince McMahon against Ric Flair, in a battle of the two owners of the WWF. The match is important because it will likely set the stage for a roster split sometime after the PPV, perhaps because nothing will be settled coming out of this match. As for other matches, the Dudley Boyz remain the tag team champions but the tag team division unfortunately remains weak with the Dudleys' recent challengers being an atypical team consisting of Tazz and Spike Dudley, two individuals who have little background with one another and who are not likely to stick around for too long as a duo. Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo are on the horizon but they haven't done anything to get over as a face team and very rarely get a chance to get on TV to tell their story and strengthen their respective characters. The Acolytes also there, potentially to be used but they do even less than Palumbo and Gunn and Faarooq in fact doesn't seem to be around much.
Another thing that caught my eye and probably was noticed by many others is the semi-alliance of Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Test and Christian with one common bond being that all four individuals are Canadian. Not sure if this is just a tease or a temporary alignment or something more long-term but in the case of Test, Christian and Storm, I don't see how it could harm their, especially at this point in their careers where they are locked in that mid-card role with no storylines and very little TV time to show for. Test's run as a near main eventer seems over as his short feud with the Rock has been abandoned and he's back to virtually the same place he was earlier in the year. Christian's split with Edge hasn't gone exactly the way he has wanted it to. Edge has benefited from a strong push as a face, but Christian has seemed to take a couple steps backwards despite still being the European champion. And as for Lance Storm, he managed to get himself on TV but it's pointless if they don't follow up on it. Anyway, back to a potential Canadian stable, if Jericho limits his participation amongst this group, it could definitely work because theoretically one wrestler will not necessarily overshadow another. I'm positive I mentioned this a few months ago as it pertains to Christian, but I totally felt like he needed a bodyguard or a valet to be effective. He seems like he could be a Shawn Michaels type character from the early-mid 90s (Shawn had Sherri and then Diesel). Well, with Test as the bodyguard and possibly a valet added to the mix (Trish Stratus since she's Canadian too?), he could be well on his way to meeting his potential.
Moving on to something different, it appears as if the WWF has now secured the services of Kevin Nash. Nash, whose contract with Time Warner/AOL expired on December 31, has been contemplating a return to wrestling for months but had been considering both the WWF and the upstart WWA. Obviously from a security standpoint the WWF was the way to go, however, Nash has been very persistent with his lack of desire to work numerous dates per month. With the WWF, all superstars are required to work non-televised events (house shows) and Nash in the past had refused to take part in any of this, choosing or asking to work in only the essential dates such as the TVs and the PPVs. However, sources are now reporting that Nash and the WWF have either already agreed to a contract or verbally agreed in principle to some sort of deal that would see him make his return in the near future, but probably not until at least the Royal Rumble. Nash has thus far for his part denied signing any contract but this could very easily be a joint ploy by him and the WWF to keep some sort of element of surprise in tact. I can say for sure that the WWF is cracking down leaks, especially after the news of Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler signing hit the internet prematurely and before they made their official returns to WWF television. Anyway, and even though I may be getting ahead of myself by saying this - Kevin Nash, if he has not yet signed with the WWF, is strongly rumored to be signing in the near future so much that the WWF is reportedly conducting business as if he has already signed.
There are many ways the WWF can bring Nash into the mix and it may be that we have already been given a huge hint. On Smackdown!, when Ric Flair entered the arena and met up with Arn Anderson, he relayed that he was busy with some "big business" but we didn't hear specifics and in fact, was not made mention of again until Vince McMahon brought it up. If you don't recall what McMahon said, the gist was that he was concerned at whatever Flair was doing secretly which consequently makes you wonder if Flair is negotiating (storyline wise) with Nash in hopes of bringing him in at a later date, possibly at the Rumble itself as a mystery participant or soon thereafter when the federation splits the roster into two. There are conflicting reports surfacing around regarding Nash's long time friend and partner Scott Hall. As it stands right now, the WWF has apparently not signed Hall to any sort of deal, but there are reports that despite some communication problems in the past, the federation has attempted to contact him again to see if he is interested in joining the WWF alongside Nash. There is no evidence that the two sides are close to an agreement so suffice to say that as of now, Hall is not expected to show up on TV, but this could very well change in the coming weeks depending on the circumstances.
There is one more important issue that has made news this past week and it pertains to the status of the Hardy Boyz and Lita. What should have been a straightforward and non-controversial matter has turned into tons of speculation mainly because of some very dishonest reporting by certain people around the internet. The problems started when Lita's official website released a statement saying that Matt, Jeff and Lita were being taken off of TV for six weeks in a move which Lita apparently claimed as being "punishment". Whether this is true or not means little now because tons of sites took the statement as indicating that the WWF suspended or even fired the Hardy Boyz which consequently caused Lita's site to retract all statements regarding their absence. The accurate story is fairly simple - WWF management has decided to give the Hardy Boyz a six week break from televised events in an attempt to let them more or less recharge their batteries. They will still be used for house shows though so any talk of a suspension makes absolutely no sense at all. There is more concern with Jeff Hardy who wrestles a very risky style that has no doubt taken its toll on his body. Furthermore, Jeff is said to be tired lately and has not only arrived late to the arena on more than one occasion but has also missed a show or two in the past which the WWF usually pays a lot of attention to. After the Matt-Jeff at Vengeance match didn't live up to expectations, Vince McMahon reportedly killed all storylines related to the Hardys by having the Undertaker injure them both as a way to explain their absence on TV. No word on how or exactly when they will return in an active storyline capacity, but all we really need to know at this point is that there is no danger of any of Matt, Jeff or Lita being released and so anything you read stating otherwise should be discounted.
That's about it for me. I was planning on recapping the Ross Report and sticking in some one-liners at the very end but it's almost 8am and I need to sleep. See you all on Tuesday for the next report and hopefully RAW will be a good enough show giving me a lot to yap about. Later.
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News and Rumors
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