WWF: There's really no conclusive word on the condition of Steve Austin. He got a gastro-intestinal attack while on the flight to England and was so sick that he had to cancel all his promotional appearances and couldn't eat for four days. Luckily he had the week off before the PPV to rest. He was still recovering from the virus at press time although he was able to eat regular meals by 12/14. The injury suffered in the PPV match was to be examined on 12/15 and there wasn't even any speculation as to if he could make or wrestle on the Chicago and Madison Square Garden shows. The People Magazine photo spread where Austin is named one of the breakout new stars of 1998 comes out this week

There is also nothing conclusive that can be stated about the condition of Jim Ross. It appeared his attack of Bells Palsy wasn't as serious as when he suffered the attack four years ago, but there is no timetable as to recovery and when he can be back on the air. He's suffering severe headaches which result in periods of blurred vision as well. About a week before his mother died, his only uncle, his mother's brother, had died and he was close to both of them so he went through about as trying a period as you can imagine. It isn't inconceivable he could be back for the TV tapings at the end of the month, but there is no way of even estimating a timetable

TV tapings on 12/14 at the Tacoma Dome drew a sellout 17,508 paying $409,430. The live show opened with a try-out match with Sumito beating Timothy Flowers. For Superastros, Armando Fernandez beat Shoichi Funaki and Apolo Dantes beat El Merenguero (Jesus Castillo) via DQ. Bradshaw & Faarooq beat Blue Meanie & Duane Gill in a match that had no heat. In another Superastros match, Papi Chulo beat Buddy Wayne. The live Raw opened with a hilarious DX spoof on Team Corporate. Billy Gunn played Shane with a silver spoon wearing a diaper, and he pulled off the diaper and bent over and showed his ass. Road Dog was Vince and he was okay with the mannerisms. X-Pac was a lame Ken Shamrock. HHH was a tremendous Rock and Jason Sensation stole the show as "H.B. Gay." They also had two minis with their noses glued to Dog's butt as Patterson and Brisco. Sensation kept dropping a basketball, to signify HHH's line about Wrestlemania about Michaels dropping the ball. This brought out Michaels, Rock, Shamrock and Bossman, and Michaels ordered Outlaws to defend the belts against Shamrock & Bossman. Rock challenged HHH to a non-title match, but HHH goaded him into making it a title match. Rock did the same interview as in England doing everyone's catch phrases, and Michaels really played it up when Rock was doing Bret Hart. Godfather & Val Venis beat Edge & Christian in 2:34 when Venis pinned Christian with a fisherman suplex. Goldust beat Blue Blazer via DQ in 2:10 when Jarrett interfered. Blackman made the save and unmasked Blazer as Owen Hart. Hopefully that ends that lame shtick. Sexual Chocolate (Mark Henry) & D-Lo Brown beat Bob Holly & Scorpio when Henry pinned Scorpio after Jacqueline used a missile dropkick on Holly in 2:59. Shamrock & Bossman beat Outlaws to win the tag titles in 6:44. Decent match ending when Michaels hit Gunn with the night stick and Shamrock put him in the ankle lock. Just for consistency, Gunn was knocked out so he was neither pinned nor submitted, but the title changed hands anyway. Vince & Shane came out and picked Austin as the first entrant in the Rumble. Vince said someone who never had wrestled in the WWF and the only man who could save Ted Turner's WCW would be in the Rumble, and then said it was him, and he picked No. 30. Vince also offered a $100,000 bounty to whomever eliminates Austin. Jarrett beat Blackman in a guitar on a pole match in 3:31 when Hart hit Blackman with a guitar after a ref bump. Blackman had the match won but Debra pulled down her blouse. The Brood then all destroyed Singh, who was covered in blood as they came back from a commercial break. Although this didn't air, in the building they were doing a gimmick that they were sucking the blood from him. Mankind vs. Kane had one of those non-endings, as McMahon challenged Mankind to fight outside while Shamrock & Bossman beat up Kane and the Orderlies took him away to be committed. In the parking lot, Mankind threw Vince, Patterson and Brisco into a garage door. It looked one hell of a lot better than when Hall and Nash did the same angle on Nitro a few months back. Rock and Mankind ended up on top of a car and Rock gave him the Rock bottom on the hood, smashing that up. Rock beat HHH in 10:51 to keep the title. Michaels was at ringside. Rock did the spot where he does his own commentary. The corporate elbow still gets a gigantic face pop. It was an old-style match with some basic high spots and long rest holds, but Rock's charisma is such that he doesn't have to do much to get heat. Rock's gyno was looking really unsightly as he's almost becoming a man with breasts. They teased a lot of Shawn vs. HHH spots. Chyna low blowed Rock and HHH hit a DDT for a near fall. HHH hit the Pedigree but no ref. Shawn hit HHH with the title belt but HHH kicked out. Finally Chyna went after Shawn, and Andrew Martin ran in and gave HHH the melt down to set up the pin. Martin, as would be fitting Team Corporate, is going to have the name "Test," which is short for testosterone, so now they're actually naming wrestlers after steroids. For Heat, X-Pac beat Singh, who was showing no effects of all his blood being sucked out 20 minutes earlier. Snow beat Droz when Hawk hit him with a cast on his arm. Brian Christopher & Kevin Quinn, with Scott Taylor on crutches in the corner, beat Hardy Boys. Oddities vs. Head Bangers had one of those non-finishes after 1:00, when they had this giant present and the Bangers opened the box up to reveal George Steele, 61. who got an amazing pop and ran around the ring with his green tongue eating turnbuckles. Outlaws beat DOA when Paul Ellering's interference backfired. Outlaws then turned on Ellering and beat him up. He was useless anyway. Shane McMahon then insulted the fans for 10:00. Show ended with a four-way with Rock, Shamrock and Bossman all destroying poor Mankind and Rock pinned him. Vince tired to put Mr. Socko claw on Mankind, but Mankind blocked it, and DX made the save and the show ended with Mankind and DX in the ring crotch chopping

Sable is home training for her Playboy photo shoot which is in a few weeks. The issue will be out in April. It's not guaranteed to be on the cover but if they know what's good for them as far as selling magazines, Continued on page 18.

Continued from page 16. it will be. She has been given creative control of what shots can or can't go in

Rochester Roadblock has been talked with about coming in as a masked wrestler who would be Golga's brother

The Christopher/Taylor wedding is planned for the 2/14 PPV from Memphis. Wonder if Lawler will give away the bride. It's said that Christopher and Lawler are both heavily against this angle. Worse because it's in Memphis. This is one of those angles with a little bit of short-term upside but could be a career killer over the long haul. If you're wondering why they are doing this angle, it's because McMahon found out that Lawler really isn't Christopher's father. His real father is Bret Hart. You're supposed to laugh at this point

Mark Canterbury has yet to have his neck surgery so he's at least three months before coming back

Stephen Regal finished rehab on 12/9. Despite reports to the contrary, he is still with the company and expected to be back at the next set of tapings

Also despite rumors to the contrary, there are no plans for Michaels to wrestle at any time soon. If he's given the okay, he'll be in the ring and if he's okay he probably will face HHH at Wrestlemania or wherever the storyline takes things at that week, but there are no plans in that direction

There wasn't much to Superastros this week aside from funny promos for the Rock Bottom PPV where they called the WWF champion "La Roca" and the tag champs "Los Farajados Modernos." Undertaker and Stone Cold are simply Undertaker and Stone Cold

El Hijo del Santo had three major problems with his WWF contract. After showing it to his lawyers, they red flagged clauses that would have given McMahon control over negotiations for him to do movies, a clause that would have given McMahon the right to trademark the Santo name, and a clause that would have given McMahon the legal right to have him unmask. Apparently those clauses will be removed and he is expected to sign before the end of the year

Bart Gunn is apparently training with the idea of possibly trying pro boxing

The rumors about a Gunn vs.

Tank Abbott Brawl for All match aren't at all out of the realm of possibility

Madison Square Garden for 12/27 sold out this past week. At press time the 12/26 Chicago show had only 1,800 tickets left. Meadowlands on 1/17 already has 12,500 tickets sold for $308,000. Royal Rumble on 1/24 in Anaheim has 10,957 tickets sold and 3,500 left. Wrestlemania hasn't even gone on sale to the public, but through mail orders has already done 13,429 tickets for $1,055,410

The 11/30 Baltimore Sun ran an article on Droz, 29, who played defensive line for the University of Maryland from 1988-92. Droz played one season with the Denver Broncos (1993) before blowing out his knee and having a failed attempt to make the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL. He said pro wrestling is more physical and much more strenuous than pro football

In the latest Billboard Magazine list of Sports Video sales, Austin 3:16 was No. 1, Sable Unleashed was No. 2, Cause Stone Cold Said So was No. 3, Best of Wrestlemania was No. 5, Best of Survivor Series was No. 7, Undertaker: The Phenom was No. 8, Three Faces of Foley was No. 9, DX was No. 10, Sting Unmasked was No. 11, Mayhem in Manchester was No. 13, 1998 Royal Rumble was No. 15, Wrestlemania XIV was No. 16, Best of Halloween Havoc was No. 18, Breakdown In Your House was No. 19, and Best of Bash at the Beach was No. 20

WWF is promoting "No Bull sessions" where wrestlers go to high schools and tell kids to stay in school and warn them against using drugs. Let's just hope they are very careful who they send or they should be named "Full of Bull sessions." In the 80s, even though they used to have guys like Warrior warn kids not to use drugs, maybe kids were a bit more naive, although it's hard to believe they were that naive. Today, everyone knows and while the kids will be star-struck when the wrestlers come to their school, they'll see through phoniness on the drug issue pretty darn easy, and at that point, what value does any of it have? Kind of funny that the WWF sends wrestlers to schools to preach against drugs, and McMahon one week earlier went to Oxford to brag about the highs he would get when doing steroids, which I guess sounds cooler than the hepatitis

M&M Mars signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the WWF valued at more than $10 million. Coca-Cola is said to be considering a major WWF marketing program next year as well. WWF is claiming that in October, they attracted more 18-34 males then either "Friends" or "Monday Night Football." That figure is true, when adding up the combined audience that watches all of its syndicated shows and all of its cable shows, and Raw is considered as two different shows. If you added up the total audience of 18-34 males of seven NFL games or seven straight weeks of "Friends," which would be a more fair comparison, the numbers would tell a different story

Mick Foley was No. 2 on the Time Magazine Internet balloting for Man of the Year (of course Linda Tripp was No. 7) when it was announced on Raw. At the time he had 2,000 votes. By the next day, he had more than 34,000 votes and was in first place. Ric Flair was high on the same poll for Man of the Century, and how many times has WCW mentioned it? I swear sometimes that WWF books to get everyone they can over and WCW has performers booking to make sure nobody but them and their friends get over. I mentioned to one prominent WCW performer about how Goldberg is flattening out, and the response was, "What do you expect when you have bookers in charge whose primary goal is to take his spot?

The only show this week was Tacoma with $156,463 in merchandise or $9.26 per head

Weekend ratings for 12/12-13 saw Live Wire at 1.7, Superstars at 1.6 and Heat at 3.76 rating with a 6.1 share.