BLAH

• I enjoyed Raw quite a bit, yes I did. For two weeks in a row I have come out of the show thinking better about the split than I did before. At least for Raw, I don't get to see Smackdown... until next week! Finally the UPN has come to my television set.
  
  The opening business with Flair and Taker and Austin was good. I thought the hardcore match was "eh", but I do like how Buh Buh is getting off to a good start. You dance that funky dance, boy. The Kane/X-Pac stuff was solid and for some reason I've always been a fan of the stuff they do together. Nash's suspension was a nice way to write him out since it gave Flair some cred after the weeks of poor drafting and whatnot.
  
  Spike beating Regal I just loved. Loved! Hopefully it won't lead to a boring Regal PPV match, although I'm sure it will. Taker/RVD I loved even more. In fact, I'd like to marry it. Taker was great with the facials, Eddie is devious, and RVD looked grand in defeat. I still want to hear Eddie talk, though.
  
  The Trish match was like women's wrestling being built on rivalries and wrestling and it was kinda neat. The Jeff Hardy chairshot to Brock's head was CRAZY, like Rock/Shamrock crazy, and he just TOOK it and went "GRR". Awesome. Then when Perfect fought Big Show I was like "well, into every life a little rain must fall", and then I thought about how Perfect actually gave Show the Perfect Plex back on Nitro ages ago... but that Show is probably 300 pounds heavier now. But seconds later Perfect DID IT AGAIN and it saved the whole match for me.
  
  And the main event was a lot of run-ins and whatnot, and Bradshaw kicking ass and Flair getting a stunner, and that's a nice little cliffhanger for next week. What is Flair gonna DO about it? Good show!
  
  

• The biggest news is that the Rock will be gone a while to promote his movie and whatnot. D. Meltzer says he won't be back until June, while D. Scherer says he'll be gone about a month. That's pretty close to the same thing if "June" refers to early in the month.
  
  Rock is hosting SNL this week and then The Scorpion King opens the week after that. And it's been confirmed in various articles that Rock will start filming a movie called "Helldorado" in the Fall. I would assume that to mean that if Rock comes back in June, he'll be around for the summer and then he'll leave again. Boy, I don't see that being a good idea at all.
  
  I like that Rock is always saying "I'll do both movies and wrestling" and whatever, but I just don't see that working over the long haul. The months off last year to film was one thing. He came back and stayed a while, but now he's leaving again. He'll be back for the summer, but then he'll likely be leaving AGAIN for who knows how long. I don't think wrestling fans are going to accept it.
  
  When a pattern starts to develop in which Rock is around for a little while and then disappears, people are going to catch on. The Rock is about the most awesome guy ever, but if his comebacks start getting a "well he'll just be gone in a few months again" type reaction... it's not gonna be good. And when Rock left last year, there was a major void that was never filled. That whole time he was gone was like "when is Rock coming back?". Compare that to 2000 when Austin was gone but Rock and HHH and guys stepped up to fill the void. If, and that's a serious if, new guys are elevated from the split... guys like RVD, Lesnar, Edge, Benoit, whoever... that "no Rock" void might not be as big.
  
  And plus, regardless of any angles they may do to explain why Rock leaves, people will know that he's off to make movies. And for every 1 person who's happy for the Rock getting to broaden his horizons or whatever, I bet there's 2 diehard fans who will be pissy about it and who will go "yeah thanks for fitting us into your schedule" when he comes back. Maybe the people I know are just fickle bastards with no loyalty, but surely SOME people will have that sort of reaction. And it could be grounds for a big heel turn someday or something, who knows.
  
  But the point is, whether people get annoyed at Rock for leaving or whether they just don't get into him like they used to because of the expectation that he'll be leaving again, it's gonna hurt. If the Scorpion King does really well, I'll bet a lot of it will be credited to Rock's loyal audience of wrestling fans. But what happens if that audience starts to shrink? Unless Rock takes off as a major action hero and develops a whole new fan base, his wrestling appeal may be what sells him. "Well hell, Rock will bring in all those rasslin' fans, let's get him for this part".
  
  And what IF that audience shrinks away, Rock isn't a player in the movie industry anymore, he comes back to wrestling... but due to one or all of the reasons I've mentioned, the people have moved on and the era of the Rock is over? I don't even want to THINK about it. WHY AM I WRITING ALL THIS, I'm going to go home and cry myself to sleep now.
  
  I guess I just miss my friend.
  
  
• The main event for Backlash has changed from Triple H vs. Undertaker to Triple H vs. Hogan.
  
  
• In what may be directly related to the above story, Kevin Nash had surgery on a torn bicep last Tuesday and will be out of action for a while. I don't know if anyone has said that Nash's injury was the cause of the change, but it would sure make sense. They were sold on HHH/Taker since even before WrestleMania, but suddenly it changed last Tuesday... which is also when the availability of Nash changed.
  
  So figure Austin was going to fight Nash in some way, now he can't, Taker is freed up, now Austin's fighting Taker, and Hulk gets put into the mix to milk what they can out of him before he dries up. Except for the fact that Austin/Taker and HHH/HHH will probably not be the best matches, it works for me.
  
  
• The WWA has a PPV this Sunday! In some SHOCKING news, Nathan Jones... a big guy who was on their first PPV and stunk the joint up... won the WWA championship this past weekend. He'll be defending against Scott Steiner at the PPV, Sabu and Devon Storm will go at it in a cage, and I think there's an evening gown match with Midajah.
  
  
• Charles Robinson's wife Amy died of cancer over the weekend. That is most unfortunate. I noticed in the Ross Report that JR closed with a mention of saying a prayer for her, and I remembered thinking that he'd done the same for Brian Hildebrand just before he died. So I guess if someone makes it into the Ross Report, you know it's bad news.
  
  
• Dawn Marie is rumored to debut at the Smackdown tapings this week. It is assumed that she'll be paired with Lance Storm again, which maybe signals a push coming for him. I say why not get Storm's old ECW music, too? The WWF is pals with Rob Zombie.
  
  
• Remember Gorgeous George? Not the guy from the 50's, the blonde girl with big boobs who diddled herself on a web video? Well, she's got a new website, and she's apparently going by the name George Frankenstein now. Yeah, cause when I think of "Frankenstein" I think of SEX and HOT CHICKS. You can see what she's up to at http://www.GeorgeFrankinstein.com.
  
  
• ABC is doing a special called "Contact: Talking to the Dead" that will feature, among other things, Bret Hart trying to communicate with his mother and Owen through some medium who claims he talks to famous dead people. God help us all.
  
  

The following scoops are courtesy of the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter! It's a gas, man.


• Vince was all ready to bring Shawn Michaels back and put him with the nWo, but Hall and Nash weren't down with it. They didn't think it made sense for Shawn to come back and be with the nWo right away, thinking he should instead be a babyface at first and then join them later. There is also debate about whether Shawn would even fit into the group with that pro-Texas look he's been sporting at every appearance the past few years.
  
  
• Wade says that stories floating around about the Austin/nWo situation have been oversimplified and even twisted around by anti-nWo people inside the WWF to make those guys look bad. I can only assume that he's talking about the story that Scott Hall got drunk at WrestleMania, but since he gave no specifics I can only guess.
  
  
• Another reason Austin may have been in a bad mood lately is because he's been having some stiffness and whatnot in his neck for the past few months. Austin is said to be the most difficult to work with when he's concerned about his neck and his overall health.
  
  

BLAH