no, he interupted a Rock promo

And Austin wasn't that massive as the Ring Master.

Infact, he was given the gimmick and DiBiase as a manager cos WWE creative had no idea what to do with him.

I have to disagree with some of this.

Austin was brought in with very little fanfare. He was brought in [And Jim Ross has stated this many times on interviews] to be a 'Good Hand' basically being the type of worker who could get another worker over in the process to a main event push.

The Ringmaster gimmick was the s, it was Steve trying to play a character he just didn't feel, which is why it fizzled out shortly after Wrestlemania 12.

During Bret Hart's hiatus after Mania 12 the buildup started after Summerslam about The Hitman making his return, and him picking Steve Austin to be his opponent and going as far as saying Steve was the 'best wrestler in WWF today] a possible dig at HBK who was the champ at the time.

It was that match at MSG in 1996 that really 'Made' the Stone Cold character, after his initial win at the KotR in 1996.

My point is Austin never came in 'Hot' and was mainly a Lower Midcard-Midcard guy up until this point.

As for Jericho, he made his Debut during a segment with the Rock on RAW. He largely floundered after that and his first real feud being with Chyna. Read Undisputed for Chris' look on all this.

Damn I love researching old wrestling!

Have you read Mick Foley's third volume of his autobiography? The Hardcore Diaries. It's a combination of blog entries and notes from the road during his last run in WWE and it gives a little inside look at how the backstage stuff works in terms how how an idea becomes a programme for wrestlers and how things can get changed up.

Rocky then buried him!

In all seriousness, I think Jericho was already over, but the way he threw an Owen Hart-like tantrum at the Rock really aided his heel character.

iMPACT! looked and sounded (no awful screaming woman) better this week by being outside of the iMPACT! Zone. Instead being in an arena with 3,500 paying fans for the taping of 2 shows. I think they are aiming for 10 tapings outside of the IZ a year with 2 shows at each one, they should do 1 in the UK.

TNA also got good ratings for the show a 1.4 cable rating (1.5 for the overrun of the show for the World Title Match) and an average of 1,847,000 viewers. They were up against a UFC event and the season finale of The Jersey Shore.

Sounds all very encouraging mate. Must confess have missed the last couple weeks of Impact on Challenge but will make sure don't this Tuesday to get up-to-date.

Hey was reading on UKFF about TNA making a big UK annoucement shortly, but the only thing I've seen is JB over here promoting the company, giving away merch etc. Was hoping for something big like a TV taping or PPV annoucement, would be very interesting to see what crowd they could draw for either of those.

Just thought, next year will be the 20th anniversary of SummerSlam '92 at Wembley Stadium, the biggest ever wrestling event in the UK. Would be amazing if WWE could do a PPV like this again over here but apparantly they've no interest in taking them away from the US / Canada unfortunately.

IS it 20 years.. Jeez. That was a ppv I kept for ages as me & my family were in the first few rows.

Ah right, gutting, bet that'll be ace down there.

Yeah saw it was approx 5000 (ish) for the MEN show, not bad at all considering they missed advertising ops by not having a UK TV deal for a bit eh.

Hey how's Flair doing after his injury against Williams mate?

Appreciate this is a really long shot, but am looking for an original DVD (or even VHS tape!) of WWF Insurrexion 2002, if anyone has one they'd be prepared to sell can you drop me a PM please. Cheers.

There was an event on Friday tea time at a pub in Leeds on Friday were merchandise and things were given out, a guy had been waiting 6 hours and was given a signed Jeff & Matt T-shirt

Shad Gaspard has been arrested.

He claims, and apparently witnesses have confirmed, that he was treated unfairly and was the victim of racial profiling.

Found it amusing as I had Top Gear on while reading the story, and Ewen McGregor was the guest and was telling the story of how he was strip searched upon entering the States following the release of Trainspotting.
rlLink to footage of Shad being arrestedrl

I thought he cut the Rock off mid sentence.