Bret Hart suffers stroke, Top 10 sports videos, and more
    Submitted by William Martinez on Thursday, June 27, 2002 at 10:16 PM EST

  • Bret Hart suffered what was revealed to be a mild stroke after his bicycle accident on Monday but is now listed as being in stable condition. Hart was riding his bicycle at high speed when he hit a pothole and flew over the handle bars landing on his neck and the back of his head. Subsequent tests revealed that he had suffered a stroke on the right part of his brain. As a matter of fact, among the reason that he was forced to retire from wrestling in 2000 was because of fear that another hard blow to the head could cause a stroke after suffering several serious concussions.

    Reportedly, Hart has made good progress since being admitted on Monday but he has very limited control of the left side of his body. From a mental point of view, he did not suffer any brain damage but the part of his brain that controls the movements of the left side of his body was indeed damaged. He will be undergoing a program to relearn how to control his arm and leg which will force Hart to remain in hospital for some time longer. His doctors are hopeful that a near full recovery can be achieved. He has been taken off all machines and today was the first day he was able to eat.

    Credit: WrestlingObserver.com



  • Top 10 Recreational Sports Videos - Week Ending July 6:

    1. WWF: NWO Back In Black
    2. NFL: Super Bowl XXXVI
    3. WWF: Wrestlemania X-Eight
    4. WWF: Stone Cold
    5. WWF: Funniest Moments
    6. Shaquille O'Neal: Ballin' Outta Control
    7. Ball Above All
    8. 2002 Olympic Winter Games
    9. WWF: Divas
    10. Allen Iverson: The Answer

    Credit: Billboard.com



    'WWE Smackdown' Takes Body Blow in the TV Ratings

    By Doug Young

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After taking U.S. television by storm in the late 1990s, "WWE Smackdown!" is down on the mat, at least for now.

    The wrestling franchise that made household names out of Hulk Hogan and The Rock took a body blow this year, with ratings down nearly 10 percent overall and off a whopping 28 percent among male teenagers, one of its main audiences.

    In the current television season, the UPN show attracted an average of 6.5 million viewers per episode, compared with 7.1 million the season before and 7.3 million in the 1999-2000 season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

    The show's audience fell by a similar amount among 18- to 34-year-old men, another one of its core viewing groups.

    But the most dramatic drop came in 12- to 17-year-old males

    -- a key group because many will continue watching into their post-teen years. Among that group, 668,000 tuned in on average each week this season, down sharply from 925,000 the year before and 1.1 million in the 1999-2000 season.

    Television critics attributed the drop to a number of factors, including too many characters to promote after World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. acquired the rival World Championship Wrestling from AOL Time Warner in 2001.

    "(WWE Chairman) Vince McMahon acquired WCW ( news - web sites) last year and had to blend both promotions," said Kristen Baldwin, a staff editor at Entertainment Weekly magazine. "They've had trouble doing it because they had a surfeit of talent and personalities."

    Also hurting the show are recent lengthy absences by arguably the show's biggest star, The Rock, who is back now but has been pursuing a movie career.

    "Smackdown!" may have also been neglected last year when WWE focused on the launch of its ill-fated XFL ( news - web sites), a summer football league that it launched in partnership with NBC.

    But those factors aside, shows like "Smackdown!" tend to be cyclical, and that the show may simply be entering a down cycle after its strong showing in the late 1990s, Baldwin said.

    "As the audience ages, they grow out of it and it takes a while for a new audience to show up and get into it and create a groundswell," she said. "The business has been around for decades, and it will be around for decades more. It goes in and out of the cool column. Right now it's slipping out of the cool column, but it's going to be back."

    UPN is a unit of Viacom Inc. .

    Credit: Yahoo! News



    Robert Fallon sent in the following:

    Triple H was scheduled to throw out the first pitch of tonight's Red Sox/Indians game in Boston. Unfortunately due to rain the game was postponed.

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