Trevon's WWF Insight - Wrestling - http://maxpages.com/trewwfsite2002/Trevon

Trevon's Insight for Saturday (Sunday), January 26 (27), 2002

Starting this real late, so (un)fortunately, there won't be one of my (un)impressive intros this morning...

Well let's see, the WWF held a pretty anticipated edition of Smackdown! on Thursday, anticipated I suppose if you read the spoilers a day or two earlier. Undoubtedly the biggest news of the night was Vince McMahon's announcement that he would "poison" the WWF with a lethal dose of the nWo. Obviously that announcement is probably the biggest of its kind from an industry perspective since Vince announced that he had purchased WCW so we'll get into all this later. Elsewhere, two big #1 contender semi-final matches took place, first with Steve Austin outdueling old nemesis Booker T and then with Kurt Angle upsetting The Rock. On the basis of that, the two winners now get a chance to wrestle for the right to face Chris Jericho next month at the No Way Out PPV. If you missed the show and need a recap, you can find a full Smackdown! Report available for your reading.

Smackdown! ratings originally came in promising with the show drawing an overnight score of 5.7, the highest the show has drawn in the top 49 markets in several weeks. When all was said and done, the final broadcast rating came in at a 4.2, much lower than you would expect given the overnight number, but still relatively high compared to recent weeks and in fact, two tenths of a point higher than Smackdown! earned seven days ago.

There obviously is no better place to start today's discussion than Vince McMahon blockbuster announcement that he will be introducing us to the nWo in the coming weeks. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, Vince was fairly vague and simply implied that he had no other choice but to destroy the WWF because of his recent loss to Ric Flair since he would rather do it himself than sit around and watch Flair do it. The reasoning behind it is irrelevant because ultimately, this is the WWF's way of introducing the either likely already signed trio of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. The fact that Vince is the one who announced it surely means that he will be aligned with the group for the long term which is natural considering that he's one of the federation's most identifiable heels right now. He would also serve as a logical mouthpiece for the group as well as explain their signings since technically only Flair or Vince and I suppose Linda have the power to "sign" superstars from a storyline standpoint.

The next thought involving the nWo is when to expect their debut. To put it into perspective, the WWF hasn't even publically acknowledged that any of these men have signed and to be honest, they may just avoid this topic to try and make it as best a surprise as they can. However, with the mere mention of the nWo on WWF TV, I would be bold enough to say that all three men have given the WWF either written or verbal committment to be part of their roster effective immediately or whenever the company needs them. At this stage though, it is expected that none of Hall, Nash or Hogan will re-debut until at least next month and Dave Meltzer of the Observer has stated that as of this weekend, none of these men are expected to appear at RAW or the Smackdown! tapings, although we shouldn't yet rule out some sort of pre-taped vignette or interview. Instead, I would assume that they will debut at or around the No Way Out PPV, if only for the already stated reason that this PPV has that cute little coincidence of sharing a similar acronym with the New World Order (NWO). Although there is no indication that the WWF will play off this, it works out well and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. It would almost be like the invasion angle all over again, except this time it would stand a way better chance of getting over because of the people involved.

For what it's worth and specifically regarding Hulk Hogan, reports indicate that he met with WWF management on Friday afternoon and signed an official contract shortly thereafter. Again, this is all pretty irrelevant right now whether this is 100% true or not, because if he hasn't yet officially signed, he will do so shortly. Hogan has been almost desperate to get into the WWF for the past year and would probably accept any worthwhile contract. The problem in the past has been that the WWF has shown little to no interest in his services but obviously that has recently changed. Once the WWF was sold on hiring him, it became a question of when rather than if. I think it would have been a nice touch if the WWF somehow succeeded in signing Eric Bischoff to lead the nWo, but with all the history between him and Vince McMahon, it isn't a surprise that he wasn't brought in as well. In fact, the WWF tried working a deal out with him this past summer but Bischoff reportedly refused to play second fiddle to McMahon by jobbing to him at the Invasion PPV.

Finally, it is also being reported that upon entering the WWF, the nWo trio of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan will feud with Triple H, Steve Austin and the Rock, the WWF's three big babyfaces. I'm not sure how valid this "rumor" is because it would kind of complicate current storylines especially as they relate to Wrestlemania since guys like Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and Undertaker would need other opponents. The situation with Jericho is really interesting because he may in fact be the WWF champion going into the event which would mean that he will face Triple H at Wrestlemania. That is what the WWF seems to be building at so unless we see a big change in plans, Triple H will likely not be wrestling any member of the nWo at this PPV.

Moving on, the card for No Way Out is gradually taking shape with a pair of #1 contender elimination matches taking place on Smackdown! turning into one final #1 contender match this Monday. Steve Austin and Kurt Angle have secured their place in this match and the winner will be booked into a world title match against Chris Jericho at the next PPV. It should go without saying that Austin is heavily favored if only for the fact that he's a face and a matchup with Chris Jericho would provide the most enticing as the WWF's main attempt with PPVs is to get as many people as possible to order. This may be pushing it, but what I'd like to see is Jericho defeat Austin at No Way Out and then face and defeat Triple H at Wrestlemania because this would definitely establish him as the superstar his potential has always suggested he would be. This way the WWF could also tap into numerous feuds involving Jericho because everyone from the Rock to Steve Austin to Triple H would want another shot at him, giving the WWF three rematches right there to use for later on this year. But I'm getting ahead of myself so we'll just stop at the fact that Jericho's first challenger will be determined at RAW and if you're into betting, put your money on Stone Cold.

Once the top main event is set, the top other matches will naturally fall into place. On Tuesday, I posted a very tentative and purely speculative card for the No Way Out PPV and I must admit, after Smackdown!, at least a few of the matches seem like they will happen. The Undertaker vs. The Rock is right at the top and we evidence of this come about on Thursday as Taker attacked Rock in his match against Angle, costing him the chance to face Austin on RAW. Undertaker didn't have to explain why he did what he did but it will probably end up being something silly like Taker taking exception to Rock's comment about Maven eliminating him from the Royal Rumble. That would leave Triple H to wrestle Kurt Angle and the rest of the card to contain chaos from the nWo and the rest of the roster, primarily the upper midcarders like Rob Van Dam, Edge, Booker T, etc.

Okay, I know I'm really slacking here, but I'm just gonna cut to the one-liners before wrapping this baby up. It hasn't been a great last few days and I'm really struggling through this more so because I didn't even update this past weekend.......

Reader MasterC600 sent this one in: "If Edge wasn't expected to be at Smackdown then why did they have his music ready to go immediately after he speared Regal?"

Reader Stephen Cohen sent this in: "If you are an observant fan, you can easily tell Vince was either messing or talking in a mirror because his bandage and wedding ring were on the wrong side of his body."

Reader Oscar Fernandez sent this in: "It was kind of funny with the coffee thing because Lilian was screaming for help when she didnt notice that right next to where she and Steph were there were 2 guys sitting in an office. She could have asked them for some help."

Oscar Fernandez also sent this one in: "Michael Cole was screaming after Austin beat Booker that Stone Cold is going to Raw.....wouldn't he be going anyways if he didnt beat BookerT?"

From readers Harvey "tv316" Vays and Into The Black: "Vince turned around and the nWo logo was seen in the mirror and it was written forward. So does that mean that on his chair, it was written backwards? Vince should go to someone else for his chairs next time." Here's a question from me and maybe it's all wrong cause again I didn't watch it, but if they wrote the "n" as an upside down "u", does that mean they wrote oWn, which if you remember is Warrior's little stable when he went to WCW to feud with the nWo. Silly, silly.

From reader DVonGetTheMufins: "During the Billy and Chucky promo backstage, when Billy pointed to Chucky he said me, and when he pointed to himself he said you."

Reader Alexer sent this one in: "I just wanted to say, is it me? Or is Rikishi using former "BIG MAN" wrestler's finishers. First it was the Banzai Drop, and now he's doing Earthquake's finisher."

From reader The Unforgiven: "Don't you find it ironic that back in November 2001, Vince McMahon was struggling to save the WWF... and now he's trying to destroy it??"

And that will do it for the weekend update. I'll be back on Tuesday with the next report hopefully after an eventful RAW that I should be able to watch. In the meantime, keep your eye on the newsboard for all the news as it is reported. Later.

ThePJs5040@aol.com