by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

WWF: The Music Volume 5 debuted at #2 on the Billboard album charts, knocking the Beatles down to #3 for the week... 

When abysmal numbers for February's PPV were revealed, a planned follow-up PPV for the Women of Wrestling was called off; the weekly syndicated show ceased production and went into reruns in the handful of markets that remained airing the show... 

TheOnion.com wins the OO Best Wrestling Parody of 2001 award for a front-page story about X-SPAN, Vince McMahon's new "extreme" rival network to C-SPAN... 

Buff Bagwell, vocal about being upset with WCW management, nevertheless decided to extend his existing deal by a few months to make it through the transitionary period... 

The Harris Brothers were among those shaved from the WCW roster during this transition period... 

Scotty 2 Hotty suffered a "broken ankle" at the hands of Kurt Angle as a way to explain his absence from TV while he tended to a very real injured neck; it was the first phase of adding a hard edge to the previously-goofy Angle persona... 

Despite being dead in the water, ECW continued to produce licensed spin-off products in 2001, including March's "Anarchy Rocks," the second compilation rock album released with ECW's seal of approval...

The ECW infusion continued in the WWF, as Rhyno (allied with Edge and Christian) and Spike Dudley (allied with his half-brothers) both debuted on a big RAW as part of a double tag team title change... 

Tough Enough began taping, and almost immediately, Tazz was earning a reptuation as a hard-ass... 

Vince McMahon appeared on "On the Record" with Bob Costas, and wasted no time in getting into a heated debate about the content of WWF TV; both guys, normally among my favorites at what they do, came off looking very bad: Vince was an insecure and confrontatonal blowhard, and Costas was a smug but clueless elitist... 

Quotable OO

"That's probably enough spank-tastic material to satisfy the needs of thousands of needy 12-15 year-olds, and it'll have to be secreted away to a vault somewhere at Titan Towers..." -- OO on the just-completed "Lost Divas Photo Shoot" featuring the just-fired Stacey "the Kat" Carter, 03/02/01

"Has anyone else noticed Paul Heyman's fingerprints on Benoit lately? The Crippler is back to rubbing his hands together in an evil fashion at
every turn..." -- OO picks up on the return of an old affectation displayed by Chris Benoit in ECW, circa 1995, 03/14/01

"Even if the Fusient deal is as "dead" as others are reporting (a term that I feel is too strong at this point) -- there will be other suitors. For example, the WWF would re-emerge as a prospective buyer if WCW were forced to sell at a bargain price." -- OO manages to look retarded and prophetic, all at once, 03/16/01

"If this winds up being WCW's swan song on PPV, they could have done a whole lot worse for themselves... but if they're back again in May, then it's a show that can (and should) be built and improved upon." -- OO issues a generally positive review for WCW's last PPV ever, Greed, 03/18/01

"In front of a small, non-paying Spring Break crowd, WCW will produce it's final Nitro just three years after they were on top of the wrestling world, performing in front of huge crowds and doing huge cable ratings." -- OO on how far WCW had fallen since the glory days of 1997-98, 03/21/01

"Hey, did you see The Rick on ESPN2 last night? For about 11 nanoseconds, I was visible standing in a ticket line during the pre-game of last night's Dayton/Detroit contest... considering how quickly things went downhill for the Flyers, it may well count as the highlight of the broadcast." -- OO on The Rick's national cable TV debut, 03/22/01

"Alright, and I guess to be totally fair, I guess I'll also point out that -- like last year -- WM will this year feature Bull Buchanan in the night's lone 'Match That Nobody Gives a Rat's Ass About.' Tough break for Bull, surfacing in that prestigious position two year's running, now..." -- OO on Bull Buchanan's back-to-back meaningly WrestleMania appearances, 03/30/01

PPVs

WCW Greed (03/18/01) -- Scott Steiner concluded the final WCW PPV ever by turning back the challenge of Dallas Page and retaining the WCW Title. Scott's brother Rick was not so lucky, losing the US Title to Booker T in the night's second biggest match. Other match results: Jason Jett beat Kwee Wee... Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo upset Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio Jr. to become the first WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions... Shawn Stasiak beat Bam Bam Bigelow... Mike Awesome and Lance Storm defeated Konnan and Hugh Morrus... Shane Helms beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. to win the Cruiserweight Title... Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo absolutely squashed Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell to retain the WCW Tag Titles... "The Cat" Ernest Miller beat Chris Kanyon... and Dusty and Dustin Rhodes teamed up to defeat Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett when Dustin pinned Flair.

Title Changes

Crash Holly defeated Dean Malenko to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title (3/13/01)... Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo won the newly created WCW Cruiserweight Tag Titles by beating Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman in a tourney final (3/18/01)...  Shane Helms defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title (3/18/01)...  Booker T defeated Rick Steiner to win the WCW US Title (3/18/01)...  Edge and Christian defeated the Hardy Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Titles (3/19/01)... the Dudley Boyz then defeated Edge and Christian to take the tag titles (also 3/19/01)... Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman beat Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo to take the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles (3/26/01)...  Booker T defeated Scott Steiner to win the WCW World Title (3/26/01)...  

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