Torch Today 12/5 Afternoon Update: Piper, Russo, WWE talent cuts, Raw rating
Dec 5, 2002 - 3:53:00 PM
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By Jason Powell, Torch assistant editor
LATEST NEWSBITS
-NWA-TNA officials are claiming that Roddy Piper's comment regarding Owen Hart was not scripted, nor was anything Piper said during his promo. The company is also claiming that Vince Russo was not scheduled to go to the ring to confront Piper. Piper was not backstage prior to the angle. His longtime friend Bart Sawyer was backstage, which led to some wrestlers questioning whether Piper was going to make a surprise appearance on the show. The wrestlers who inquired about Piper were told he was not scheduled to appear, which of course led to bad feelings once he did show up. Wrestlers say that Piper entered the locker room from outside the building around the same time his music started playing and headed directly to the ring. Although he claimed in his promo that he was headed backstage to talk with the younger wrestlers, he spoke briefly with Bob Armstrong and said hello to Kid Kash before leaving the building roughly a minute later. Piper has also issued a press release today but did not address the controversial comments he made regarding Hart's death.
-Monday's Raw drew a dismal 3.3 final rating.
-Vince Russo did not make an appearance in the TNA locker room for the second consecutive week.
-The word going around the Smackdown locker room is that Ron Simmons retired a couple of weeks ago. Although he is no longer listed on the Smackdown website, there is talk that he will remain with the company in some capacity.
-Godfather was reportedly released by WWE. The word from Smackdown wrestlers is that the company may offer him a deal to make occasional special appearances.
-Perry Saturn's WWE contract expires in January, but he was given permission to work the World Wrestling All-Stars tour. The word going around is that NWA-TNA officials are not interested in using Saturn, and that he'll likely end up working for New Japan.
-The WWE website reports that Fozzy's (Chris Jericho's band) video for "With the Fire" has been added to MTV2's rotation.
-The XWFWrestling.com site no longer exists.
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