Despite a ton of media stories and rumors, there are no major changes in the landscape of the proposed WWF purchase of WCW deal. Talks have continued over the past week, but progress appears to be slower than many would have liked.

According to various sources very close to the negotiations themselves, reports of a Vince McMahon/Brad Siegel blow-up and a re-opening of discussions with Eric Bischoff are exaggerated greatly. One source close to the situation said that there have been frustrations on the WCW side at some of the deal points that WWF doesn't want to budge on and there are numerous points on the WWF side that appear to be potential deal breakers. What those are don't appear to be clear, but stories of those points being the retention of front office workers or arguments over which side gets PPV money due in from the past three or four shows as has been reported doesn't appear to be the sticking points. We've also had denials of the going media story reported in many places and rumored in wrestling for some time that the WWF has the right to match any purchase offer as part of the settlement in its lawsuit with WCW. WWF lawyers also told the Blomberg Business News Wire there is no such agreement in the lawsuit settlement.

While no doubt some wrestlers would be upset about a potential sale removing virtually whatever is left of talent negotiating leverage by having only one major company in North America, there have been no class action lawsuits filed to prevent a sale or even seriously threatened as has been printed in numerous places, and actually the majority of WCW talent isn't nearly as against a sale as one would be led to believe. Discussions are continuing, and at least as of press time, it doesn't appear that WCW has re-opened any talks with the group headed by Bischoff, nor does it now appear a deal would be finalized within the next few days.

The hold-ups appear to be more along the lines of existing contracts, not just talent contracts, but all facets of business, that WCW had made. There could also be a hold-up with the recently cut deal with Viacom, which is paying $28 million per year for exclusivity of the WWF on cable with the idea that being the WWF wrestling station would make TNN a major player on cable. Viacom also owns 2.3 percent of WWFE stock but if the deal goes through, the company would likely have to supply programming to rival stations TNT and TBS. While many of the talent contracts have the 90-day clauses and thus legally could be restructured, the long-term business deals would not have such provisions. When it comes to all facets of doing pro wrestling business, WWF would likely want to re-structure contracts, or as it would pertain to licensing and merchandise, want to use its existing office staff that handles such things and the brand power of the WWF to cut better deals than WCW, with its weaker popularity and thus weaker negotiating leverage, would be able to cut.

The 10/23 ratings brought even more bad news for WCW as Nitro fell below even its previous weeks mark. Raw, on the other hand, coming off the PPV, had its strongest rating to date on TNN, doing a 5.52 rating (5.01 first hour, 6.03 second hour) and an 8.2 share. Nitro did its lowest rating since its early episodes (not including the 4/3 highlight show which did the Nitro record low of 1.78) did in a regular time slot with a 2.22 rating (2.67 first hour; 1.76 second hour) and a 3.1 share. The first hour was the second lowest rated unopposed hour in the history of the show in its regular slot, trailing only the first hour on 7/3. The second hour was the lowest rated hour in the history of the show except for the taped show. Because of the Raw number being up, the total wrestling audience was ahead of last week's record low of 7.6 million up to 7.9 million, still trailing the marks of both 10/2 and 10/9 as the second lowest wrestling audience in the past few years. This time there is nothing on television that can be blamed because "Everyone Loves Raymond" was down, there was no baseball, and Monday Night Football with the Dolphins against the Jets did a 12.08 rating.

Raw's main event of Angle vs. HHH vs. Rock was the best number since moving to TNN, doing a 6.63 over-run after a 5.90 final quarter. Nitro's main event of Steiner vs. Awesome did a 1.87 rating, the third lowest rated main event in the history of the show.

For head-to-head quarters, it was 4.82 (Rock/Rikishi interview) to 1.93 (Goldberg vs. Stasiak, Wright vs. Kidman vs. Jindrak); Raw at 4.96 (Lita vs. Stratus) to 1.61 (Vampiro vs. Crowbar); Raw at 5.25 (Benoit vs. Road Dogg) to 1.63 (Vampiro vs. Crowbar) and Raw at 5.01 (Regal vs. Jericho) to 1.87 (Konnan vs. Douglas, Steiner vs. Awesome). The Vampiro vs. Crowbar match was the second lowest rated match in the history of Nitro.

Smackdown on 10/19 drew a 4.60 rating and 7 share, finishing fourth on the night behind NBC, CBS and ABC. Smackdown destroyed everything with male teenagers doing a 10.1 in that demo as compared to a 3.7 for Friends. However Friends killed wrestling among Men 18-34 by a 10.4 to 4.3 margin.

Thunder on 10/18 drew a 2.16 rating and a 3.4 share.

For the weekend of 10/21-22, Live Wire did a 1.3, which is the best its done thus far on TNN and about what it averaged on USA, Superstars did a 1.2, which was below its USA average, and Heat did a 2.09 rating, which is lower than the show used to do. Three more weeks of this and I'd say the musical guest/WWF New York format can be labeled at least a short-term failure.

The three hour Galavision Lucha Libre block on 10/17 drew a 1.5 rating after being pre-empted the previous two weeks.

Amidst all the problems and uncertainty, and without anything resembling future or long-term direction, or could there be, they did the first double taping on 10/23 in Little Rock. From all reports, the quality of the wrestling and the overall show on Thunder had improved. Nitro came off like a lame duck show with some very strange occurrences, in particular Kevin Nash's two interviews bringing up Scott Hall, and one really good match. Harris Twins beat Stasiak & Palumbo with the High Times on Palumbo. Storyline was that Stasiak wasn't a team player. Nash ripped on him in commentary and he wasn't even paying attention at the finish. Nash did the Bobby Knight on him after, choking him when Stasiak wasn't making a good student. Booker did an interview. Steiner came out and they started brawling. Jarrett came out to help but the lights flickered and Sting made the save. Everyone from the back except Goldberg pulled them apart. Awesome went after Steiner in the pull-apart to set up the TV main event. Sanders did an interview. He said he was from Badstreet USA. He said the further down the block you went the badder it got, and he lived in the last house on the right. Actually, that was the lines from the song written by Michael Hayes. He obviously didn't grow up hearing the song played 1,000 times since he messed up the wording just a little. Sanders beat all three Jung Dragons in quick kickboxing matches by putting ether on his glove, rubbing it in their faces and they all were spaced out and easy pray for his KO blows. Leia Meow came in and give him a low blow, but he no sold it and pulled out a cup. He then threatened her with his cup. For some reason, Ms. Jones then came out to save her. While Sanders was distracted, Cat KO'd him with one of the greatest looking worked kicks I've seen in U.S. wrestling. Kronik did an interview. Clark actually got to talk. They were doing the APA gimmick where they were protecting 3 Count as they were going to sing. 3 Count talked about singing every song they knew. The APA, I mean Kronik, decided they didn't want to hear them and attacked them, leading to a match with Kronik winning with the High Times on Helms in 57 seconds. Nash came out and did a promo talking about Hall. Either this is all a work about Hall being fired, and everyone swears it isn't, or WCW is run by total chowderheads. If someone was shooting with a live mic and trying to get over a guy that Vince McMahon just fired and it wasn't a worked firing, that guy who did so on live TV would be seriously disciplined the first time and probably fired the second time. If they pushed anyone who wasn't there as being done in by management, whether it be Hall, Hogan or Juvi, of course the fans would rally around them so the crowd reaction for Hall is so obvious. Either from day one, they should have had this as an angle, or if they are going to tease the fans for months with an angle they aren't going to deliver on, there is no purpose for the angle as it only makes the company look worse at a time when that should not be the goal and there should have been a directive never to mention the name, as WWF does whenever it lets someone go. If they did the same thing to get Flair back, at least it would have built up ratings for something that paid off. So, in other words, the best job of build-up for someone's return WCW has done this year is for a guy who isn't coming back. Mark Madden wrote about how a guy who hasn't been on TV gets better pops than most of the talent who is as praising Hall, but it's not a praise of Hall, it's a knock at the ineptness of the people in charge of the product who let someone get pushed harder on television than virtually everyone who actually is working their ass off every week, particularly the babyfaces booked to look like a fool and impotent against the top guys. Neither interview was scripted for any mention of Hall. Nash went on the impression that the people in charge, Terry Taylor, Bill Banks or Ed Ferrara, would never have the guts to discipline him and being the smartest guy in the promotion, he guessed right, which is another example of why this company is in the shape it's in. MIA did a spoof on Team Canada. It wasn't the NWO spoofing Horseman or DX spoofing NOD, but Sgt. Awall spooking Duggan as a 2x4 carrying cross-eyed moron was the best work he's ever done in his career. Because there are only three Team Canada members, two of whom it was noted weren't Canadian, Cpl. Cajun had to dress up like a Canadian moose. Nash did another interview, against talking about Hall, using terms like shoot and work. He said that the success of Hall & Nash as a tag team is in the record books as the greatest tag team of all-time. They're in the record books all right. After having a good run for a couple of years, they were two of the key components leading to another record, the most money ever lost by a wrestling company in history. Goldberg destroyed Stasiak, who was being set up by his own teammates, in 41 seconds. Goldberg was 7-0 on Wednesday and he was 12-0 after this match, despite WCW having no events in the interim. I think that's why this winning streak is so over. They announced a three-way tag title match with Jindrak & O'Haire defending against Misterio Jr. & Kidman and Wright & Disqo. Then they did a three-way with Kidman winning over Jindrak and Wright when he used the Kid crusher on Wright. Short but it wasn't bad. Crowbar did an interview with Pamela, wiping off his staff with tissue paper. What was that all about? Vampiro then returned as the mystery superstar making his return (after what is it, three weeks?) for a great match. Vamp, as a heel worked hard to get a face reaction and succeeded in doing so. They worked their asses off and had great heat. Some sloppiness but it was overcome by the fact fans really enjoyed seeing guys work this hard on Nitro. They were brawling in the raised section by where the Nitro Girls dance in the cages when Vampiro choke slammed Crowbar through two tables for the DQ. With all the objects used and the fact they brawled outside the ring for what seemed like a week, then they do a DQ for a choke slam through a table. They gave these two 9:50, which is one of the longer Nitro matches in a while. Vampiro challenged Awesome for the PPV. Douglas, doing the broken arm gimmick, still beat Konnan with a franchiser quick. Konnan did a hell of a promo, then turned his back. Somehow he always does a strong promo and comes off looking in the booking like a total fool. Main event saw Steiner beat Awesome with the recliner in 5:38. Booker did commentary. Midajah interfered as Awesome was about to win, allowing Steiner to hit Awesome with the pipe to set up the finish. By Nitro standards, it was a good main event

Thunder was taped after Nitro. It was said to be much better than most of the recent Thunder shows. They told the crowd there would be a main event six-man with Goldberg & Sting & Booker as the main event and everyone stayed and the crowd heat was decent at least. They had a local DJ named Crawford wrestle and beat Jimmy Hart in a dark match. 3 Count was in Hart's corner. Another local DJ named Tommy Smith hit Hart with a chair after a ref bump, then took his shirt off to reveal a ref shirt and counted as Crawford pinned Hart. For the show, Reno pinned Kwee Wee to keep the hardcore title. After the match, Reno gave his twist of fate like move to Paisley. He was about to put Kwee Wee through a table when Awall made the save and choke slammed Reno through the table. The Thrillers and Nash came out. Nash had a croquet mallet and went to punish Stasiak saying he was going to spank him. He told Stasiak to bend over, but Palumbo put a chair there and Nash hit him and he sold it big. Bagwell beat M.I. Smooth, who was wearing his old Ice Train gear. After Bagwell won, David Flair ran in, but Bagwell made his own save and laid him out. Bagwell vowed to reveal whether or not he knocked Stacy Keibler up at Havoc. Too bad everyone is long past caring. David Flair and Konnan are the two guys who always do run-ins and always get left laying. Cat & Ms. Jones beat Sanders & Meow, which made perfect sense given that Sanders and Meow were fighting earlier on the Nitro taping. As it turned out, Meow then turned on Sanders and both Meow and Jones pinned him. Vampiro pinned Vito in a match where Vito took most of the match. Loco & Cajun beat Storm & Skipper. Duggan interfered, leading to Rection and Awall coming out. Major Gunns went to hit Storm with the flag, but instead hit Loco, but Loco reversed Storm's cradle and pinned him. O'Haire won a three-way over Misterio Jr. & Disqo when he cleanly pinned Disqo with the swanton. The partners all ran in after the match. Goldberg & Sting & Booker beat Jarrett & Kronik when Sting ducked a guitar shot and pinned Jarrett after the scorpion death drop. Steiner came out to attack Booker after the match but the faces cleaned house after the show went off the air. The original plan was for the heels to go over in the six-man, but that would have killed Goldberg's goofy win streak gimmick that nobody takes seriously so they had to change the finish

Taylor, Ferrara and Banks were apparently the lead force in writing the television

Although it falls somewhat in the dated reference material, although not for the WCW audience, the most hilarious line of the year was when Mark Madden was running down the various great tag teams of the past like Midnight Express, Funks, Briscos, Steiners and Harlem Heat (well?) to compare with Jindrak & O'Haire and added The Butchers, Abdullah & Sam

Nobody has any idea why they brought in a live tiger from the zoo to accompany Steiner to ringside on Nitro. Backstage, as he was trying to get a photo with the tiger, the tiger nearly took a chuck out of Misterio Jr

Goldberg's book "I'm Next" comes out on 11/7 and he'll be doing a promotional tour immediately after

They've re-named the early 2001 PPVs. The 1/14 show will tentatively be called Sin, instead of Souled Out, the 2/18 show will still be called SuperBrawl, but now SuperBrawl revenge and the 3/18 show, formerly Uncensored, will be tentatively be called WCW Greed. I guess because the NBA and NFL ratings were down last season, the way they'll address it is to just change the name of the teams

E! will air a feature on Women of WCW on 11/5 at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific

While this could certainly change, the promotion for the November Mayhem PPV is built around Steiner in a straight jacket as champion

In the Time Warner stockholders report, they estimated $10-$15 million in losses by WCW over the three month period between July and September. Apparently that means the cost cutting has made a difference because at that rate the losses won't come near $80 million, although they'll still top $50 million

The 11/16 show in Oberhausen, Germany will be a PPV for about $13

In a Pittsburgh poll, Mark Madden finished third for the radio personality you'd most want to punch

In one of the funnier articles, Promo Magazine listed WCW as "one of the top 50 best promoted brands.

For whatever this is worth regarding ultimate plans of Terry Bollea, he has said for years that he wanted to end his career in the WWF, but he also wants to end his career on top

Some notes from the Thunder taping in Melbourne. While Sam Greco is very well known in Japan, including in several television commercials and his matches on TV as part of K-1 draw between double and triple what Rock does in this country, he is largely unknown in his native Australia. On WCW TV, they tried to portray him as one of Australia's most celebrated athletes, but his notoriety in Australia is probably no different than the notoriety of Rick Roufas in the United States. It was also funny hearing them talk about Ernest Miller's shootfighting background. I think his only background is that he once bumped into and nearly got into a street fight with Don Frye. Comparing the K-1 that Greco does and what Miller did in point karate is the exact same comparison to comparing what Ric Flair does as a pro wrestler, except that Miller is hardly the Ric Flair of his sport, as a shoot sport comparison with somebody like Kurt Angle. That's not knocking his talent, but real fighters do refer to point karate as a game of tag. They were using plants in the crowd for Steiner to attack at almost every show on the tour

CNN ran a special on Goldberg on 10/22. Goldberg talked about his parents divorce 13 years ago, saying he's still angry about it to this day. They showed Vince Russo and the booking team talking about a Nitro script where Goldberg would get revenge on Steiner. Russo's had an idea that Steiner would be in the dressing room bleaching his moustache and Goldberg would pour bleach down Steiner's throat. They actually showed a booking meeting where Russo wanted Goldberg to pour Clorox down Steiner's throat as revenge in an angle, but Ed Ferrara noted that you don't bleach a moustache with Clorox. He then said they could use bleach instead. That one never made television. From the footage of the booking meeting, we're told it appeared during that time frame they probably could have put on a more entertaining TV show having just aired the silliness that went on in their booking meetings. Russo claimed it took Hogan 15 years to make a name in the business (he started in late 1977, was a superstar in Japan in 1980 and the biggest drawing card in the American business for the AWA by late 1981) while it only took Goldberg three months. The show talked about Goldberg delivering ratings every week, which certainly was true until this yea

Scott Hudson missed the 10/23 Nitro because of work commitments at his regular job

Terry Taylor's father, who had recent health problems, passed away this past week

The first combined Raw/Nitro tapings in Little Rock, AR on 10/23 drew 5,431 fans, which was 3,022 paying $87,390.