Guest TSMAdmin Report post Posted December 19, 2002 THE MIDWEEK NEWS In a development that will no doubt cause unspeakable anguish for many of you, this is going to have to be a brief edition of the News. I have a large editing project that is devouring a lot of my time right now, time I could otherwise spend making this, as usual, the best damn rasslin' news report on the whole wide internet. This week, it'll just have to be the best damn truncated rasslin' news report on the whole wide internet. When projects collide, the one that pays is the one that gets priority. I'm the time-constrained Dr. Tom, and it wouldn't be the Midweek News in any form if we didn't kick it off by talking about things other than wrestling. Yesterday was Election Day here in the US, with the House, a third of the Senate, and many gubernatorial races up for grabs. The Republicans retained their small majority in the House, though they were able to regain control of the Senate. Locally, Maryland elected a Republican governor for the first time since the days of Spiro Agnew -- let's hope Bob Ehrlich doesn't follow those footsteps too closely. Despite Democrats winning six of the eight House seats, the Democratic candidate for governor was inept enough to lose the state. What is it with the Dems running miserable campaigns they could have won? Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of RFK, and her important-only-every-four-years middle name lost a ten-point lead in the polls from July thru yesterday. Just like Al Gore in 2000, she had the election right there for the winning, and managed to come from ahead and lose it. I hope everyone got out and voted, regardless of your party affiliation. One thing I've grown tired of is the crowd that thinks it's some kind of cool counterculture thing to say, "My vote doesn't matter, man, so I'm, like, not gonna vote." The last Presidential election (and PLEASE don't email about who "really won," since I was tired of making those rounds two years ago) was decided by 537 votes. State and local elections can be decided by even fewer. So the whole "my vote doesn't matter" line is really a crock of shit, designed to mask either apathy or an unwarranted sense of being above the whole political machine. If you don't want to vote, that's really up to you, but you shouldn't go around bitching about things you had no say in. Don't complain about someone unless you exercised your opportunity to vote for the other guy. In short, if you don't want to vote, that's your choice. If you don't vote, rub that fact in my face as some kind of holier than thou crap, then bitch about politicians: fuck you. For the record, I'm a registered Independent, a fiscal conservative, a social and philosophical libertarian (small L, since that party's pretty much a joke), and a guy who votes a strong Republican ticket. Randy Johnson won the NL Cy Young award, getting all 32 first-place votes. That's four in a row, tying him with Greg Maddux in that department. People can argue for Schilling or Smoltz, but 24-5, 2.37, and 334 are tough numbers to dispute. That makes the Unit the first NL player since Dwight Gooden in 1985 – thus making him the first non-coke fiend in quite a while – to win pitching's "triple crown." The Packers established themselves as the class of the NFL thus far, with a decisive win over the Dolphins Monday night. If Ray Lucas really is hurt, it might be the best thing to happen to Miami in two weeks. I admit I don't know a lot about Sage Rosenfels, but I know he'd have to try pretty hard to be as lousy as Lucas has been while subbing for Jay Fiedler. BTW, if the season ended now, one of the wild cards from the NFC would have a .500 record. The Rams might be able to recover from that abysmal start yet. On to the wrestling news, in brief. -- Raw was better than it had been in weeks, but it was still pretty boring, IMO. If I had time to say more about it, I would. Turn to JHawk for your detailed recap. -- Reflecting the non-necrophilia theme of the show, ratings jumped 0.1, up to a 3.5. Weekend ratings continue to be low: Velocity 0.6, Confidential 0.5, and Heat 1.1. Nielsen Media Research provides the ratings, as always. -- From the Observer Newsletter, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper might be interested in working with NWA: TNA. Piper has a book coming out soon, and would no doubt use any TNA appearances to help promote that. -- The Torch reports that rumors of a Jesse Ventura vs. Brock Lesnar match continue to swirl. I have no idea why anyone would want to see this match, and it's obvious that Ventura's best fit is at the commentary table, where I'd love to see him replace the beyond-stale Jerry Lawler. -- For those of you into the fluff dating shows, 1bob reports that WWE stars will be going on "Blind Date" next week. Chris Nowinksi will appear Monday, Nidia Tuesday, with the rest of the week as yet undetermined. -- Hulk Hogan has begun filming commercials for 10-10-220, with one of them already making it to the air. Reports that Hogan has refused to job the dollar bill to ALF are unconfirmed. Hogan's future with WWE is still very much in doubt. -- Stephanie McMahon will be fielding questions in an MSN Chat room next Thursday, the 14th, starting at 7:00 pm Eastern. -- In more proof that bashing the internet is written into all WWE contracts these days, Bradshaw ripped on the "smart mark" internet community, basically saying we're all a bunch of fat rejects with no lives. Go to wwe.com if you want to read it. What they fail to realize is that a lot of the fanbase is online, a lot of them have "smartened" up about the business, and alienating your fans is never a good idea. Whether Jim Ross says it or Bradshaw says it, it still comes across as sour grapes on the part of WWE. -- According to the Torch newsletter, the creative team has been divided on the decision to turn Brock Lesnar face. Vince McMahon apparently championed the move, while Paul Heyman opposed it. Heyman, in addition to being Brock's on-air "agent," is also the head writer for Smackdown. It's possible this is just a brief face turn that will set up another heel turn later, but we'll see. That's really all I have time for this week. I hope I'll be able to turn out a full report next week and get away from this unaccustomed brevity. Tomorrow, I'll be back with Smackdown, and Byron will give you your weekend news fix over the weekend. Ave atque vale. Dr. Tom Send me feedback or I will give out-of-breath promos! (Remove the leading X from each field to holler at me) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
