Judging from the TV, it appears the 7/25 Fully Loaded PPV line-up will go something along the lines of Austin vs. Undertaker in a first blood match for the title, Chyna & Mr. Ass vs. Road Dogg & X-Pac, Kane (going heel back with Undertaker) vs. Big Show, perhaps Acolytes vs. Hardy Boyz and since both are left without an opponent, it leaves HHH vs. Rock and probably throw in Shamrock vs. Blackman in some sort of a gimmick match and maybe Test vs. Joey Abbs (the new mean Street Posse character, real name Jason Ahrndt) and Mideon, now as European champ defending against Brown

Tickets were put on sale for the Raw on 10/11 at the Georgia Dome on 6/25, which is the WWF's first appearance in the Atlanta market in about eight years. WWF went all out with the local promotion sending Austin, Rock and Jim Ross among others to hit all the media and resulted in selling 19,395 tickets for $548,151 on the first day almost guaranteeing it'll be either the biggest or second biggest (to the Skydome Raw in February) Raw event in history. They were well over the 21,000 mark in sales by the end of the weekend

Raw on 6/28 from Charlotte drew a sellout 19,553 which was 18,560 paying $486,325. The show opened with a CM celebration and Shane firing Austin (as if), but I guess only firing him as CEO. Vince said that Austin would become a prelim wrestler and part of the ring crew but Austin claimed he had as CEO before losing the match at the PPV signed himself for a WWF title match which would take place later in the show and also to a big contract. Earlier McMahon had promised HHH a title match at the next PPV and they had a deal where Bossman came out, but ended up hugging the McMahons so that angle from last week has already been erased. Pam must have been having a lot of bad dreams. Shamrock vs. Blackman went 2:49 with a sports entertainment finish. Shamrock was selling the idea of internal injuries, ran out the ring anyway. Blackman destroyed him with the stick and then with Shamrock bleeding even worse from the mouth this time, Blackman just walked off. Mr. Ass did an interview. HHH and Chyna came out and said X-Pac & Road Dogg were getting all the DX merchandise money. He said he's putting Chyna with Billy to go after Dogg & X-Pac. I'm not sure what that actually has to do with merchandise money. I guess if they beat them up they get their merchandise money. Beaver and Mama Cleaver this week were Chaz Warrington and last week's mama is this week's girlfriend Marianna. Chaz said he's just Chaz from New Jersey and used to be a Spider, a Head Banger, Harry Beaver Cleavage and a Sister of Love. This appears even more to send the message that if you're in the WWF and you don't like your gimmick, you just don't do it and everything is fine. It's a form of subtle Owen Hart damage control for the public and also dumping a bad gimmick at the same time. They showed Test kissing Stephanie McMahon and actually made a real big deal about it. Chaz beat Meat in 2:01 with a torture rack into a slam. Marianna shoved Terri Runnels at the finish. Why do I think whoever came up with the idea for Meat to wear that underwear as a ring outfit used to live in San Francisco? The Mean Street Posse beat up Test. Bob Holly beat Kane in 1:27 after Big Show choke slammed him. After the match Kane got up and choke slammed Holly four times. Rock beat HHH via DQ in 1:40 when Mr. Ass hit him with a club. They did a local TV ad for the next show in San Jose which is a Friday night house show but the ad gives the impression it's a Raw taping. From what I understand, at this point in the show in the Philadelphia market when they were plugging the next house show they mentioned that Austin would be defending the title in the main event, and this was before he'd won it. They also ran two interesting WWF.com ads, one of which showed a guy picking his nose and another showed a guy about to get a hand shoved up his butt. Edge beat Godfather in 2:05. Albert gave Godfather his dreaded whattamaneuver and Edge pinned him. Droz and Prince Albert came out and were about to pierce one of the ho's mouths but Edge made the save and she left with Edge. They were making a big deal out of her so she may be a recurring character with Edge. Bradshaw pinned Mr. Ass to get his tag title belt back when both Faarooq and X-Pac interfered in 3:06. Chyna jumped X-Pac after and Dogg made the save and decked Chyna. Ivory came out with Nicole Bass and challenged anyone in the house. She made some remarks about having a champion who could actually wrestle (where?) obviously aimed at Sable. A plant ran out (Malia Hosaka) and they did a thing where security wouldn't let her in but Ivory asked Jim Dotson, who they seemed to be building up for an angle because they made a big deal about him, to let her go. Bass power bombed her. She was wearing a short dress so you got the requisite ass shot. Ivory clotheslined her out of her dress. Bass and Dotson seemed to have words. Jarrett kept the IC title beating X-Pac in 5:01. This match blew away anything on the PPV. A very hot short match. Mr Ass ran in. Debra undid her top. X-Pac hit Jarrett with the guitar but Mr. Ass used the famouser on X-Pac allowing Jarrett to get the pin. Road Dogg ran in after Mr. Ass but Chyna ran in and they brawled again. Finally Austin pinned Undertaker to regain the title in 12:03 with a stunner. He did a stunner about a minute earlier but Paul Bearer pulled Earl Hebner out of the ring before the three count. Austin decked Bearer and used the stunner again. Match was good and the pops for Austin's big spots were huge. Taker destroyed Austin with the belt after the match and Austin juiced heavily

Harvey Wippleman was back doing the heel ref gimmick on Shotgun taped earlier that night trying to help Brooklyn Brawler win the Hardcore title from Snow but Snow still wound up winning

From 6/29 in Fayetteville, NC taping. It opened with a dark match with Kurt Angle beating Chuck Coates with a torture rack dropped into a death valley driver which was a totally sick move the few times I've seen Kenta Kobashi do it. For Sunday Night Heat for this week, the Hardy Boyz beat X-Pac & Kane via DQ when Acolytes attacked Boyz. X-Pac & Kane helped out the Hardy Boyz since the interference had cost them the match and Kane gave Bradshaw the tombstone on the ring steps. Mideon beat Snow via DQ in a European title match when Brown attacked Mideon since Brown doesn't want anyone to beat Mideon for the title before he gets it. Test beat Jarrett DQ in an IC title match when Joey Abbs and the Posse attacked Test and left him laying. Holly challenged anyone in the back who was at least 6-6 and 400 pounds. So Viscera accepted. Holly hit him with a chair shot. Kane came out and choke slammed Holly. Big Show came out, while Undertaker also came out and had a stare-down with Kane and I guess used the old supernatural powers to convince Kane to join him again. Austin agreed to Taker's earlier challenge for a first blood match on the PPV for the title. Austin vs. Undertaker again? Vince said that if Undertaker wins, Austin never gets another title shot. If Austin wins, Vince will never interfere in any of Austin's business. Godfather & Venis beat Prince Albert & Droz in a match where if Albert & Droz lost, they'd have to become ho's for a day. I guess this idea stemmed from Godfather working an indie show on 6/25 in Howell, NJ and they dressed up 400 pound Mark Mest as a ho. Road Dogg NC Show when Kane attacked Show. Dogg tried to get Kane to stop but Kane choke slammed him. X-Pac then came out and convinced Kane to leave. On Raw, Hardy Boyz won the tag titles when Matt hit Bradshaw with a cane given to him by Michael Hayes and pinned him with a tornado DDT. Godfather came out, with Droz and Albert as ho's, and beat Gangrel. After the match, Gangrel, Droz and Albert all attacked Godfather & Venis. Christian & Edge made the save leading to Gangrel shoving Edge. Snow pinned Brown in a hardcore title match by splashing him through a table. Chyna filed a police report claiming X-Pac & Dogg had griffiti'd up her car and demanded that they both get arrested. Just what we need is some more arrests since both companies stopped doing the weekly arrests after running that gimmick into the ground a few months back. Jarrett kept the IC title beating Chaz. They had Debra and Marianna going at each other. Jarrett went to hit Chaz with a guitar when out of the crowd came Glen Ruth for the save. Test NC Joey Abbs when the entire Mean Street Posse destroyed Test. Shane made Stephanie watch. After they all left, Stephanie went to help Test. Dogg NC Venis ended when the police showed up in the middle of the match and carted away X-Pac & Dogg. Edge pinned Bossman after a spear. After the bout Bossman attacked Edge. Mr. Ass beat Meat. Chyna laid out Jacqueline with a DDT and after the match Ass & Chyna spray painted Meat & Jacqueline "DX" and played the old DX theme music. A handicap match with Show & Holly vs. Kane ended when Undertaker came out and distracted Show so Kane could choke slam and pin Holly. After the match Kane & Undertaker joined forces to attack show including giving him a double suplex and bloodying him up after a chair shot. Main event saw Rock beat HHH in a cage match. The ref was bumped and HHH actually climbed out first. Rock climbed out after and they brawled outside the ring. They got back in and the ref recovered. It was one of those photo finishes as Rock climbed over to win just before HHH hit the floor going out the door. After the match Gunn hit Rock with the famouser and the two laid out Rock. After the show went off the air, Rock made a comeback and laid out both of them with the people's elbow

WWF The Music this week was at No. 130 on the charts with 12,855 units sold

Insane Clown Posse on their web site this week claim they are going to the WWF

Shawn Michaels appears on two episodes of Pacific Blue which air 8/1 and 8/8

It is official that the name Over the Edge has been dropped as a future PPV event. WWF is now changing its PPV marketing from the idea of five major events and seven minor shows, to the idea of 11 major shows and one Wrestlemania. All of the events will have a name that continues every year. The Badd Blood name was dropped after the death of Brian Pillman prior to that show

Jim Cornette is moving this week to Louisville to help run Dan Briley's Ohio Valley Championship Wrestling which will use a lot of WWF guys on developmental deals with the idea they'll start in Louisville for a few months, then move to Memphis, then move to WWF

On the WWF's King of the Ring web site, they have photos from all the different PPVs. They showed a photo of the year Mabel won it and underneath is a caption that reads, "What were we thinking?

Kevin Kelly and Michael Cole will be the announcers for the Smack Down show which officially starts on UPN on 8/26. That pretty well makes it clear that Raw will stay as the "A" show

The new member of the Mean Street Posse is Jason Ahrndt. Among the names they are considering for him are Heater and Joey Abbs

The only house show of the week was Madison Square Garden which sold out weeks in advance with 16,453 paying $443,224. Between MSG and Charlotte they did $215,456 in merchandise which was $6.15 per head. MSG saw Christian & Edge over Henry & Brown when Christian pinned Henry. Gangrel was at ringside but is a little banged up so didn't wrestle this weekend. Godfather beat Mideon in a short match. Vince came out and said he was going to apologize for the abysmal performance of the Knicks and Rangers and also wanted to apologize for Austin because he wasn't going to win over Undertaker and like the other teams, would let the fans down. Snow won a three-way over Blackman and Holly by pinning Blackman in a hardcore match. Shamrock beat Jarrett via count out. Finish was really weird. Debra took off her top which allowed Jarrett to escape the ankle lock and he just left. Shamrock after the count out chased Jarrett down, threw him back in and put the hold on again. Shamrock then chased Howard Finkel around. Rock beat Bossman with the night stick on the pole. Bossman got the stick but Test got it away from him. Rock did a people's elbow with the night stick for the win. Big Show beat HHH after a choke slam. Viscera beat Venis with a splash after Bass distracted Venis. Mr. Ass beat Dogg with the famouser after Chyna gave Dogg a low blow. Best match on show. Acolytes beat X-Pac & Kane in another good match. Finish was Austin over Taker via DQ. Austin hit the stunner but Paul Bearer attacked Earl Hebner for the title saving DQ

Godfather worked an indie in Howell, NJ on 6/25 and Mark Mest, who weights about 400 pounds, came out without a shirt as a ho

Terry Taylor is trying to sign undiscovered talent to developmental deals and pitching people on the idea he wants to get a light heavyweight division going but with Vince as a size freak and others in the office against it, it's not a good bet to be taken seriously

WWF will do another U.K. PPV show on 10/2 called Rebellion from Manchester

Rena Mero is getting flooded with media requests to talk about the WWF direction and her lawsuit

The audience for Raw has grown 166% over the past two years after bottoming out in 1997

Raw Magazine won a first place award for best cover for the September 1998 issue with Rock's face designed as part of Mount Rushmore out of 700 entries of magazines with circulation between 100,000 and 399,000

Victor Quinones ran an IWA show with mostly WWF talent on 6/25 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, PR before an estimated 15,000 fans. Val Venis did his mic work in Spanish which got over big. Undertaker and Big Show went to a double count out in the main event which disappointed the fans. After the match Undertaker challenged Rock for a match on the next tour

There was a huge article on WWF Canada President Carl DeMarco in the Financial Post Magazine section of the Canadian National Post. The story starts out like it's going to be a positive piece but pretty much takes DeMarco's quotes and numbers and make fun of their suspect accuracy throughout. They didn't make fun of the $1 billion figure WWF supposedly grosses in merchandise alone (considering the entire gross from all forms of revenue is about $230 million that would be rather difficult). The article talked

about the popularity of Catch play-sets and of WWF t-shirts which did $6 million in Canadian business over the past nine months. But the story said pro wrestling faces a number of challenges before it can start boasting about corporate respectability, noting it doesn't have the deep pocketed advertisers noting Roots Canada and Nike both saying they don't even consider working with pro wrestling. TAG Heuer, the Swiss sports watch company which pays big money to the likes of Boris Becker and Grant Hill said it steers clear of WWF because it considers it too low end and TAG only wants to be associated with elite sports. It said even with its popularity WWF is still considered as having a demographic not highly valued by mainstream advertisers and corporate sponsors. The story had the new WWF propaganda line that McMahon merged with local wrestling companies to build his empire (rather than he simply ran them out of business). The story noted that the soft porn elements are one of the advantages WWF has over real sports. The story claimed (don't you love history) that WCW was formed in 1989 and lured away WWF superstars like Ric Flair, Savage and Hogan. DeMarco compared WCW to WWF as saying it's like comparing the NHL to peewee hockey. DeMarco bragged about the WWF's drug policy (the reporter didn't know it's almost non-existent these days) and claimed homophobic taunts are out (the reporter recognized seeing Too Much's act on the show that wasn't the case and brought it up with DeMarco saying he never knew the characters they played were intended to be gay). DeMarco brought up the WWF being seen by half a billion viewers a week, numbers Neilsen Research claimed one should be very skeptical of. It talked about a house show in Vancouver where there were 3,200 empty seats but DeMarco still insisted it was a sellout. It said only WWF and Ice Capades draw audiences that young. It then noted that two nights earlier a larger crowd paid double the WWF's ticket prices to watch a meaningless end of the season game between the Canucks and Calgary Flames, both of which were eliminated from any contention. It noted that hockey had corporate sponsors everywhere, a press gallery filled with reporters and skyboxes were filled. The WWF had a few reporters and almost all the skyboxes were deserted. It noted the WWF scores great with teenagers but isn't considered a good buy for older and more affluent consumers as compared with the NHL, NBA and NASCAR

A new Michael Jordan video has for the past two weeks knocked Steve Austin off the No. 1 spot in the video charts after 28 weeks. Austin's videos remained No. 2 and No. 3. WWF's Rock video debuted at No. 7, while WCW's new releases, Kevin Nash and NWO 4 Life were No. 8 and No. 9. Of the top 20, WWF was down to nine, WCW had four and a 14th wrestling video was the A&E History special.