Russo/TNA Locker Room, Tough Enough 3 Finals, Jeff Jarrett, & More Submitted by Matthew Boone on Thursday, January 16, 2003 at 4:05 PM EST
Despite a lot of recent claims, the end of the Ross Report was not so much a voluntary move from Jim Ross. In addition to venting about his frustrations with the roster at times on a public forum, JR had been questioning the content and quality of RAW recently. When some of the comments were shown to Vince McMahon, he immediately pulled the plug on the weekly column. That would explain why there are still full page ads in the official RAW and WWE magazine for the Friday column on WWE.com.
Tough Enough III finals are scheduled to air live on MTV on January 23. Five finalists will make it to the live season finale, with three to be cut on the show. This year, there will be a poll on the internet where the fans decide one of the cuts. Whichever contestant receives the most votes on the poll will be cut. From there, the Tough Enough panel will decide the two winners based on the four left as they have done every past season. The five remaining contestants are currently working an off-camera three week training session where the trainers will make their final evaluations.
WWE wrestlers received their checks last week for the recent overseas tour. Due to the fact that all the shows on the tour drew strong attendance, the payoffs are considerably larger than usual.
Chris Kanyon continues to work in Ohio Valley Wrestling and has been ready to return to the main roster in WWE for a few weeks. No decision has been made as to whether he will work SmackDown! or RAW, and the creative team has yet to come up with an idea to bring him back with.
Early reviews of the newest diva on the WWE roster, Gail Kim are a mixture of hot and cold. While many are impressed with her acrobatic style of performing, she is still very green when it comes down to the basics.
On the December 18th NWA-TNA show, Vince Russo was hanging out in the same locker room as the wrestlers. That is the first time Vince Russo has done that since on-air character returned quite a while back on a TNA show.
Jeff Jarrett put up with a lot of ribbing from wrestlers on a recent overseas tour for allowing Vince Russo to play such a large role on NWA-TNA pay-per views. Jarrett continues to defend the NWA World title for outside promotions, traveling to Japan for ZERO-ONE, Puerto Rico for the IWA, and Europe for the WWA.
