The WWF held its weekly edition of Raw is War last night, taped from Austin, Texas. The show definitely came out well and was an overall enjoyable show in my opinion. The Stephanie vs. Stone Cold feud brings back memories of the old classic Vince vs. Austin feud and the WWF is definitely doing a great job in putting over Austin as a huge face and Stephanie as a big time heel at the same time. And hey, let's not forget that Tazz actually made an appearance, wrestling his first match on Raw in what seems like months. But of course, the finish of his match made absolutely no sense, as Raven picked up a pinfall victory on Crash Holly, even though he wasn't even in the match to begin with. Oh well. Anyway, like I said, it was an overall enjoyable show and gets a B+ in my book.

A big part of Raw last night was the WWF's WWF title mini-tournament. Three matches were fought last night: The Undertaker vs. Rikishi, The Rock vs. Kane, and Steve Austin vs. William Regal. The winners of those three matches were The Undertaker, Kane, and Regal, meaning, according to the rules, all three of those men will advance to Smackdown to face off in a Triple Threat Match. The winner of that Triple Threat match will then take on Kurt Angle on the live Raw is War this Monday. If you'd like to find out who exactly won the Triple Threat match, as well as everything else that went down on Smackdown, simply click HERE for complete results, courtesy of TPWW's own Mike E.

For all you WCW fans, WCW Nitro finally returns live this Monday, January 8 from St. Paul, Minnesota. However, you don't have to wait that long to get new WCW programming, as WCW will air a new edition of WCW Thunder this Wednesday, January 3. The show that will air was taped back on December 22, but nonetheless, at least it's something new to keep WCW fans updated.

For those wondering, no television ratings will be available today due to the New Year holiday. However, they should hopefully be available tomorrow.

Raven will be on hand at WWF New York this Thursday to host the airing of WWF Smackdown!.

Here's a little interesting/funny tidbit for all you video gamers out there, especially for people with THQ's N64 game, WWF No Mercy. In light of Tazz's recent work with backstage interviews and commentary, my good buddy Ry from here at TPWW decided to see what would happen if he edited Michael Cole in No Mercy to look like Tazz. Well, what happened is that in No Mercy's career mode, when there are any backstage interviews, it's Tazz doing them instead of Michael Cole. Very funny. :-(

Due to the recent confusion of wrestling programming in the United Kingdom, TPWW's own Rob Harvey sent along this report to hopefully clear up all confusion... "I have noticed a lot of confusion with British fans over certain wrestling programming in the UK so I hope this clears everything up. WWF Heat will return to Channel 4 next week. Channel 4 will also be airing the Royal Rumble on 50 minute delay (as usual). WCW Worldwide has NOT been cancelled. It will return in a couple of weeks. Battledome, which is currently in Worldwide's space, will be moving if Channel 5 keeps the rights. Cable company NTL have revealed that all talks with WCW about broadcasting WCW PPVs have broken down and any deal is off. ECW Hardcore TV will return to Bravo after the holidays. For the record, it's ECW's fault that Bravo is 6+ weeks behind the America air dates. Bravo also confirmed that WCW Nitro will be brought up to date very soon."

Remaining on the subject of international wrestling programming, Dogman from Australia sent along the following: "WCW Nitro is now being shown here in Australia on only a 10 hour delay. It airs at 11PM Tuesday nights on FOX Sports on the Foxtel Network and C7 Sports on Optus Vision."

The WCW web site, WCW.com, is holding a poll which asks WCW fans who they thought WCW's year 2000 MVP was. To cast your vote, click HERE. As of now, the results are as follows:
- Goldberg - 26.6%
- Booker T - 25.9%
- Lance Storm - 16.3%
- Jeff Jarrett - 14.7%
- Scott Steiner - 14%
- Terry Funk - 2.5%

ECW finally announced the card for this Sunday's ECW PPV, Guilty as Charged on January 7, live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. As of now, the card is as follows:
- Steve Corino vs. The Sandman vs. Justin Credible - World Heavyweight Title, Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes Match
- Tommy Dreamer vs. CW Anderson - I Quit Match - Winner must make his opponent tap.
- Doring & Roadkill vs. Hot Commodity - ECW Tag Team Titles
- Mikey Whipwreck & Tajiri vs. The FBI vs. Super Crazy & Kid Kash - Winners become #1 contendors for ECW Tag Titles.
- Jerry Lynn & Cyrus vs. Christian York & Joey Matthews
- Appearances by Dawn Marie, Simon, Swinger, Nova, and Balls Mahoney.
- According to the ECW site, "it will be an impactful night for Rhino."
- Also according to the ECW web site, Paul Heyman promises "an absolutely, positively, 'Holy S--t' surprise guaranteed to change the face of ECW."

The interesting part of the card was the announcement of an "absolutely, positively, 'Holy S--t' surprise guaranteed to change the face of ECW." Several people have speculated what the surprise could be, but as of now, it appears that no one outside of ECW knows for sure. Just for the record, here's what I'm thinking... I think there's a chance we'll see the return of Rob Van Dam to ECW, taking on Rhino for the ECW Television title. Even though that wouldn't be so huge, trust me, to the ECW crowd, it would definitely be a big time mark-out moment, since most ECW fans follow Internet wrestling and know the current situation with RVD and ECW. But like I said, that's just my opinion, and is really the only thing I can think of. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

Like I've probably already mentioned a few times before, I'll once again be at the ECW PPV this Sunday and of course, if anything interesting happens when the cameras aren't rolling, I'll post it here in the news and rumors the following day.

Television listings here in the New York area are not listing ECW Hardcore TV next week. ECW airs on Saturday night at 1:00 AM EST on the MSG Network in New York, but as of now, it is not listed next week or the week after. It appears that the contract between ECW and the MSG Network has expired and MSG canceled the show because ECW failed to renew the contract. However, all signs point to ECW obviously renewing the contract very soon, meaning that ECW Hardcore TV will most likely be back on air next week. If ECW, for some reason, does not renew the contract, it would be a HUGE crushing blow to the company, since New York is definitely one of their biggest - if not their biggest - fanbase and most of their shows as of late have been in the New York area. But in the end, it looks like things will thankfully work out and ECW will renew the contract.

For those who are wondering, ECW currently only airs their latest editions of Hardcore TV in New York City, Philadelphia, and Baton Rouge. All other markets currently receive a week old show or in some places, even older. To find out when ECW airs in your area, click HERE.

For those in the Philadelphia area who received a week-old show this week, never fear. ECW will be up to date once again next week. The reason this week's show was a week old was due to the bad weather in the Northeast.

That just about wraps things up for today's report. Final results of the TPWW 2000 Year End Awards should be in sometime in the next couple of days. Also, if you haven't yet, be sure to vote in our new Fantasy Tournament. Until next time, later.

Triple A
TripleA99@aol.com

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