WWF: Rock was named in People Magazine's list of the 25 most intriguing people of the past year, a list that no pro wrestler has ever made previously

Raw on 12/18 in Greenville, SC was more soap opera above wrestling, but some good wrestling. The show opened with a 25 minute promo starring Vince. He apologized for laughing about his wife's problems on Smackdown, saying people misinterpreted him, doing a fake sincerity act and saying that he wasn't the insensitive megalomaniac people thought he was. Linda had a storyline nervous breakdown. He blamed Foley and Stephanie and most of all Linda for her problems. They showed all sorts of family photos including wedding photos, using the same background music they used on the Raw the day after Owen Hart died. He's holding off the divorce until she gets better. Stephanie came out and called him a mean old bastard and he went on about having to marry Linda at the time against his will or Shane would have been a bastard. Angle came out and teased he was appalled by Vince, but ended up turning on Stephanie for how she was talking to her father. Finally Foley came out. Angle cut a promo on Foley bringing up the scene in "Beyond the Mat" saying Foley was a terrible parent for letting his kids sit ringside in some of the most violent matches ever. Vince hated the move so bad he wanted to kill it, but that doesn't mean he's above using it to get an angle over. This segment went so long that Benoit and Jeff Hardy were cut to 3:36 with Benoit winning with a crossface in a very good match with a cool finish, of Benoit blocking a neckbreaker and doing the crossface. As the show went on, Vince got more and more out there being obsessed with winning the belt from Angle. One hilarious exchange saw Vince tell Angle he'd throw some punches and take it easy on him and Angle should lay down for him. Angle refused to lay down. They teased Chyna suffering a career ending injury and Gunn said he'd get revenge for her. E&C went to Foley & Debra to talk them out of the Angle vs. Vince match, but instead Foley booked them in a tag title match. Goodfather & Venis & Buchanan beat Dudleys & Gunn when Gunn went to piledrive Ivory but Richards kicked him and Venis pinned him with a fisherman suplex. Gunn did this fantastic tilt a whirl slam on Venis which probably shocked all six million viewers. Rock & Undertaker won the tag titles for one night over E&C in 8:40. Much better match than you'd think and super heat. It wasn't good when Taker was in, but it was tremendous when Rock was in. Undertaker did the last ride on Christian but there was a ref bump. Edge hit Undertaker with the bell but Undertaker kicked out of the pin and hot tagged Rock, who used a spinebuster and people's elbow on Edge to win the titles. Vince slapped Foley. Jericho beat Saturn in a short match with the walls. Jericho and Saturn for some reason never have good matches even though they've worked together so many times. At one point Jericho did a quebrada and nearly landed head first which was scary. After the match, Jericho put the walls on Terri, but Malenko and Benoit came out and Saturn did a death valley driver, Malenko a cloverleaf and Benoit a diving head-butt to lay out Jericho. Regal beat Austin via DQ. There was an amazing spot where Regal used a neckbreaker and had the pin for about ten seconds but no ref. Even though they did that spot in the tag title match, it was amazing to see Austin allow Regal the spot, which shows that who is put over and gets over in the WWF is awfully dependent upon who the top guys want to put over. If you compare Regal and Tazz' original reactions in the WWF and their subsequent push, it isn't your immediate reaction that determines your fate or getting over with the fans, but the ability to have the top guys want to work with you. Regal was about to hit Austin with the belt, but Austin stunned him. Ref Tim White got up, saw Regal laid out and Austin with the belt and DQ'd Austin. Austin stunned White. E&C walked out on Angle saying he only cared about himself. Acolytes & Jackie beat T&A & Stratus very quickly when Jackie pinned Stratus after a DDT. Jackie is now playing a tough broad who drinks beer and smokes cigars. Angle again tried to get the match stopped but Foley told him that his wife would divorce him if he canceled the match. Lita was modeling lingerie in WWF New York while Malenko was drooling on the monitor. Angle vs. Vince never took place. With Angle distracted, Vince got to take him down before they turned on Foley. It had to happen. Vince got to pin the guy who never gets pinned (HHH) for the title, he got to beat the UFC king in an octagon (Shamrock) and take down a real world champion wrestler. Angle and Vince turned on Foley and did a number on him. Foley made a comeback on both and put the socko claw on Vince until Angle stopped him with a chair shot. E&C came out and did a sandwich chair shot Foley. Stephanie came out and sided with Vince, saying the board of directors had given total power now that Linda was unfit to be CEO. Vince then fired Foley, who was all bloody, and Angle hit him with one last chair shot

Smackdown highlights from 12/19 in Charlotte. For Heat on 12/24, they did an angle where Tazz was confronted by Santa Claus. Tazz called him a fat old bastard, but Santa decked him and did the worm on him, revealing Scotty 2 Hotty. Smackdown opened with your basic 15 minute Vince & Stephanie interview where Vince talks about all his achievements. Dudleys over Lo Down with the 3-D on Chaz. Ivory pinned Jackie to keep the womens title. Jericho & Hardys beat Malenko & Saturn & Benoit when Jericho pinned Malenko after the lionsault. Regal vs. Bob Holly with Austin as ref ended without a winner. Austin was drinking a beer while the match was going on, but Regal caused him to spill his beer. Austin stunned Regal, but then stunned Holly, and started counting both out when Kane choke slammed Austin. Crash & Molly Holly beat Kaientai. They were continuing the deal where they use the fake voices ala La Parka for Kaientai. Blackman beat Raven with his own DDT off the middle rope on a garbage can in a hardcore title match. Gunn pinned Richards clean with a cobra clutch suplex. Main saw E&C regain the belts over Rock & Undertaker with Angle as ref. Taker had Edge pinned but Angle was distracted, causing Rock to get hot at Angle. Rock gave Angle the rock bottom. Hebner came out to continue as ref. Rock had Edge pinned but Angle gave Rock an Olympic slam and Edge pinned him to get the belts back

The OVW Christmas Chaos show was postponed at literally the last minute on 12/13 because the WWF talent was stuck in Little Rock and there was no way they could make it to the show as the earliest flights out were late that evening. The WWF is going to send the same talent (Austin, Kane, Hardys, Lita, Benoit) to Louisville in January as a make-up date. The show is now scheduled for 1/31

Matt Hardy's shoulder was a mess from the 12/11 Raw match against Malenko & Saturn. In the Smackdown match the next night, Jeff had to carry the load

Early projections by the WWF regarding the XFL are pretty positive. The estimates at this point are that the league with generate $80 million in revenue on costs of $113 million. The $33 million in first year losses, which would be split 50/50 by WWF and NBC, are well under the original projections. Those figures are based on generating a combined 11.0 weekly rating for advertisers, who are paying an average of $110,000 per 30 second spot airing three times. The three spots would air once on TNN, NBC and UPN in the same weekend and the idea is the combined three shows would average an estimated 2.5, 5.5 and 3.0 respectively. The league is projected to be profitable in the third season. This all depends on whether people buy tickets and they can generate those kind of numbers. The numbers are nowhere close to what the NFL gets, but are considerably better than most sports like baseball, basketball and hockey do on the networks and cable. Wall Street analysts say the XFL's success, or lack of success, is going to be the main determining factor of attitudes by investors in the WWF stock. Stock has dropped 30 percent over the past three months, but has come back a little over the past few weeks

Vince McMahon was quoted in a Bloomberg News story about the attempted WCW purchase, saying that he was going to keep WCW as a separate brand and build to expand PPV business by using interpromotional matches. McMahon said, There were a lot of good reasons to buy WCW, but said that Viacom standing in the way of the deal made it financially impractical

The Jim Ross cookbook has already sold well over 100,000 copies and is in its second printing

Huge error in last week's Observer in the Armageddon rundown of Venis vs. Chyna where I wrote Chyna's offense looked good. Actually it was supposed to read except for one good clothesline, Chyna's offense looked bad

At this point, Foley will probably stay home through maybe late January. Nothing is definitive but the idea of shooting a big angle in February to lead to a Wrestlemania match with McMahon is certainly on the drawing board. Foley has said that he doesn't want to do the match because he's not in condition and doesn't want to come back unless he is. The feeling is he's got more than three months to drop the weight, the money for such a match would be huge, and that like always, McMahon has always been able to talk him into coming back sooner than originally thought, such as last year's Mania match after doing such a great farewell just a few weeks earlier

ESPN.com ran a poll on 12/14 asking which athlete people would most like to invite to a party giving choices like Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal, Mark Messier and The Rock, and Rock at last look was the leading vote getter

The 12/11 Raw, going unopposed for the first time since the move to TNN, set the record as the most-watched show in the history of the network with 7.2 million viewers. WWF sent out a media release proclaiming the rating of 5.8 as proof that the switch of networks was a success. Somehow I think the 5.6s the show did its first week going head-up with Nitro was far more impressive than a 5.8 on an unopposed week

Got this letter regarding a show listener who sent a letter to Goodmark Foods, Inc. (makers of Slim Jim) saying he would no longer purchase their products until they stopped bowing to the wishes of the PTC. They sent him a large 24 count box of Giant Slim Jims and this letter, "Thank you for writing to Slim Jim regarding you concerns about our association with wrestling. We have been involved with wrestling for 10 years and feel that the connection has been extremely valuable to our brand. We recently made a strategic decision to shift our advertising dollars from WWF Smackdown to WWF Raw. WWF Raw is more popular and brings in higher ratings than Smackdown. We view Raw as one of the most efficient media buys toward our target and that is not something we plan to walk away from." How do you like that corporate weasel mentality. If a company thinks because of the nature of the product that they shouldn't advertise on WWF, or Friends, or any show, that is certainly their right. But if a company thinks the product is worth advertising on but refuses to do so because of a pressure group, that's the height of hypocrisy, particularly if they continue to advertise on that product, just bypass one show to avoid pressure. If a PTC video truly convinces companies they don't like Smackdown and don't want to be a part of it, that's more the WWF's fault for giving the PTC the ammunition. But if a company isn't convinced by the video to pull out based on content and still pulls out, and still advertises on the product, except that it's always bad business to run off sponsors, I'd almost want to tell them to get lost. A group that advertises Raw and pulls out of Smackdown has given the WWF's opposition group, the PTC, ammunition, while still supporting the product and that's not the kind of company, no matter which side of the fence you are on, that you can respect

Some Smackdown notes from the 12/14 show. Tremendous show built around vignettes with Vince and Stephanie building to the in-ring interview where Vince ran down Linda. Between Linda doing it in the back seat of a '69 Impala on the first date (which must have been amazing considering the two started dating as teenagers which would have been the early 60s), taking all the personal insults at Linda including about how she lays motionless in bed. Vince was the greatest heel in history, bar none, on the show. I guess the days of toning down the storylines are over. I was also surprised to see them going back to the blade for Raven's hardcore match with Undertaker. Usually the blood to this point has been limited to getting over a special match like a PPV main event, or a heavy angle (where, if possible, they've used fake blood if it's a backstage deal where they just have a quick shot of the blood as opposed to fighting in front of a crowd where the fake blood dries too quickly). This was blood for the sake of giving the product a more violent feel. That's not a knock, because you have to be receptive to your audience and clearly this show was meant to shock interest back up. Between McMahon and Foley, the show was tremendous from the storyline standpoint. Rock also did a great promo about Little Angle, Little Regal, Little Rock (they were in Little Rock) and Regal wanting to touch Angle's ball when they were children. Angle & Regal look to have tremendous potential as a heel tag team, particularly on interviews. While that's great for Regal, I don't know that it's the right thing for Angle other than it makes for easy main event booking because they can put Angle on top, and put the babyfaces over without Angle jobbing for them

WWF is looking at either building a new and larger office building, or buying an existing larger building because it has more employees than Titan Towers has space. They also want to move the TV studio to the same grounds as the business office, as currently they are about a mile away. They are looking at keeping the headquarters in the Stamford area because all the employees live in the area

Rikishi's back is still sore from the PPV bump. He could have wrestled at TV this week had they needed him to but they figured to let him rest another week. The story about the lacerated kidney was a work

HHH will be kept out a little while because they want to establish Edge, Christian, Angle, Vince and Stephanie as the new top heel group and then build up the idea of what HHH will think about this because he hates Angle. The problem is if HHH feuds with the group, he'll be a babyface, and the highest on the pecking order he can be as a babyface is No. 3 or No. 4, so he isn't going to be a babyface. They also can introduce Shane, with the idea he's been gone caring to his mother

Nelson Frazier Jr. (Viscera) was fired several months back

Dave Heath (Gangrel) is out of action with an injury

Chris Chetti hasn't been signed yet. It is still something under consideration to give him a developmental deal and send him to Memphis or Ohio Valley

Foley did a USA Today chat. As you can imagine, many of the questions regarded his coming back. He said he had mixed feelings about it, but wouldn't do it unless he dropped a lot of weight, claiming to be 30 pounds of dieting away from being in just miserable shape. He recognized that the majority of fans would like to see it. He said he loves being commissioner and loves writing as much as he loves wrestling but he can write longer and it's easier and less worry on his family. He said he's got nothing against Terry Funk wrestling, but hopes he'll wrestle a comedy style rather than take all the physical punishment at his age. Foley noted he became a comedy wrestler at the age of 33

The 12/15 HITS magazine had a profile on McMahon because of his starting the new Smackdown record label. He said he was never interested in buying the Boston Red Sox. He talked about considering buying WCW. He denied his shows being a bad influence on anyone. He claimed when he bought the company from his father and saw he was going to expand, it said it drove him nuts for a couple of years and said he regretted the pain he put his father through during that time but said he eventually came around to saying, "F*** those guys." He said the one thing his father wouldn't approve of is Shane and Stephanie becoming on-camera talent, which is no doubt true because Vince Sr. always had forbid Vince Jr. from being anything more on television than an announcer

At this point there is no new trainer in Memphis to replace Tracy Smothers, who was just let go. Several people are under consideration for the spot

Some Ross Report notes. HHH is expected to be kept out for one or two more weeks. He was scheduled this week to shoot another Joe Weider products TV commercial. He denied reports that Lawler's contract had recently expired, saying Lawler had signed a long-term renewal a long time ago. He noted that Memphis Championship Wrestling and Power Pro have basically merged into one company. What happened was that MCW on 12/11 was told by UPN 30 in Memphis that they were cancelling the show. While the two groups had been working together because Hales had the stronger TV but Terry Golden, who was running MCW, was running more house shows, they had been separate promotions and PPW was not aligned with the WWF. After MCW lost its TV, the WWF came to PPW to put the obvious deal together on 12/12 when Jim Ross had a meeting with Hales in Little Rock, but the announcement was held off until Saturday so the talent would know about it first. Golden will be running the house shows. Just Joe and Russ & Charlie Haas will be the next wrestlers heading in within a few weeks. X-Pac is a few weeks away from returning. Lita did the WWF New York deal because of a lower back injury. Blackman's bleeding ulcer was apparently from taking too many anti-inflammatory drugs due a back injury. Tori is filming an episode of "18 Wheels of Justice" in early January for TNN. Guerrero is being kept off TV for a few weeks because of his hamstring injury, which explains why they did the angle where Jericho put him in the walls on Smackdown

Latest Nicole Bass update. She's in really rough shape as he latest catscan showed multiple cysts in her pancreas. She's also lost a ton of weight in this hospital stay and has an IV placed directly into her neck because her arms are too swollen for it

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post wrote a negative XFL column on 12/15 tying in wrestling. Now there is a valid point, and Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal did a tremendous series of articles on the XFL, largely positive, but pointing out the issue of injuries and insurance problems. Miki Yaras-Davis, the longtime director of benefits for the NFLPA called the XFL benefits in the event of injuries "scary," and it is compared with the NFL. However, Arena Football exists, and doesn't appear in any danger of folding soon although it isn't flourishing, with a dangerous game with a high injury rate and the XFL benefits and salaries are far higher than AFL, and they are basically going to be using the same calibre of players who aren't good enough to make the NFL. There was a tie-in made to the Owen Hart death and continuing the show, although I just don't see how the two points can be brought together. Mushnick tried to tie in that the players will be disposable, replaceable stuntmen because of the XFL rules such as no fair catch. But those rules have been used in other leagues at various times. Pro football is inherently going to have an injury rate and a lot of turnover of the talent, as is every contact sport. All professional sports are going to have evils, and certainly strength sports and contact sports are going to have the drug issues. Guaranteed, like the NFL, there are going to be players on steroids, maybe more so because there won't be drug testing and it's a league comprised of marginal players (the USFL was a big-time drug league which many believe was due to that reason) and maybe less because the players aren't being paid as well thus can't afford as much help as an NFL counterpart. If you make the sport safer, a lot of the appeal is gone. That's not necessarily a wonderful thing to say, but it's the reality of professional contact sports business. As it pertains to the XFL, at this point we are only five weeks from the debut, and trying to guess what it will be and if it'll make it when we're so close to seeing it, is probably best left to reserve judgement on. The only thing for sure is that they are doing a great job of promoting it and it'll no doubt have the same problems that face all sports. After that, everything depends on the public buying it, and the presentation of it

Smackdown will be facing even tougher competition come the February sweeps, as CBS has decided to put the new "Survivor" episodes from Australia from 8-9 p.m. starting on 2/1. This means Smackdown will have tough competition from CBS as well as the traditional strong ratings of the NBC block anchored by "Friends." To this point, Smackdown's numbers don't seem to get affected that greatly by competition of other programming as much as its own storyline ups and downs. For example, the ratings don't seem to increase when the networks are in rerun mode, which theoretically they should with Smackdown being original programming every week

There was a huge write-up on OVW and its ties to WWF in the Louisville newspaper this past week. Lots of stuff on Cornette and trainer Danny Davis, who still insist on wrestlers living their gimmicks outside the ring. Cornette is teaching the guys the old Watts philosophy, such as a babyface and a heel can't be seen socializing in public after hours, and he doesn't even like to hear that they are in the same night club even if they aren't socializing. Cornette wouldn't let the reporters know anything about the background of Leviathan, for instance. Jack McCubbins, 23, who works 40 hours a week guarding violent inmates at Central State Hospital and works for literally no money without a WWF developmental deal as Mr. Black, talked about the piling up chiropractor bills from this dangerous hobby and not knowing how long he can pursue it without a deal. About 25 wrestlers in the school have deals and Davis is currently training about 75 wrestlers

The 12/24 and 12/31 editions of Sunday Night Heat will be the same version that airs internationally as opposed to the American MTV version. The two versions have the same wrestling matches, but the international version does video features while the domestic version does the WWF New York cutaways. They won't be doing the WWF New York cutaways or anything live so people can have those days off. One would suspect the ratings on both nights will be way down anyway.

For the weekend of 12/10 in the UK, Raw drew 390,000 viewers, Smackdown drew 210,000 and Nitro drew 100,000

Smackdown tapings on 12/12 in Little Rock, AR drew a sellout 9,835 paying $333,764. Raw on 12/18 in Greenville, SC drew a sellout 11,596 paying $427,731. Merchandise in Greenville was $65,521, or $5.65 per head.