Chicago Sun-Times: WWF determined to get in the ring

The World Wrestling Federation got back into the groove Thursday night as "SmackDown" went live after canceling Tuesday night's tapings. In the first major entertainment event held after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, more than 13,000 fans packed into the Compaq Center in Houston to show their support of their country and the WWF. Head man Vince McMahon said the WWF would not allow the terrorists to take away from the show and the enjoyment of the fans: "We will not live our lives in fear. We will fight for our families, fight for our rights and fight for our great nation."

Despite the never-ending campaign of many to discount and degrade anything done by the WWF, it was clear to see this show was done in good taste and was a nice two-hour diversion for Americans who had been focused on tragedy for so long. Because of around-the-clock coverage by UPN affiliates in many cities, a good part of the country never got to witness a show that saw Chris Jericho defeat Christian, Lita pin Ivory, the Hardy Boys defeat Lance Storm and Hurricane Helms, The Dudleys and Test get by William Regal, Tajiri and Scotty 2 Hotty and the APA defeat X-Factor. The highlights of the show included Booker T defeating the Big Show in a battle of former WCW champions, Kurt Angle defeating Rhyno with the Olympic Slam, and The Rock issuing an open challenge to anyone in the back to a WCW title match. The challenge was answered by Sean Stasiak, who was soundly defeated by the Great One in under 30 seconds.

HEARD AROUND THE RING: The WWF is planning to increase its presence at house shows and will be using more wrestlers on the road. One idea in the works is to hold two shows most days--one in the afternoon and one the same night. By using more wrestlers spread over more shows, their individual salaries would increase as would WWF revenues. ... Almost all of the existing WCW wrestlers' contracts with AOL Time Warner will expire in January 2002. At that time we could see big-name free agents pouring into the WWF.

HOTLINE: More news coming in daily on Goldberg possibly heading to the WWF, plus the latest on Tazz, Randy Savage and Kronic all on the hotline: (900) 454-SLAM, $2 per minute.