Your favorite Tito is back in da house!!! Well, at least the one who calls himself "Mr." Tito. I'm not Tito Jackson, who was part of the Jackson 5. I'm not Tito Ortiz, who is an Ultimate Fighter. I'm not Tito Santana, former WWF star. Nor am I Mexican, for those who make those darned taco jokes. It's called a gimmick, if you haven't heard about that yet.
A bunch of odd feedback concerning yesterday's column. Especially about the Undertaker/Kane vs. Austin/Triple H. I swear on my life and my future kids that I did NOT read the spoilers when I talked about the titles vs. titles match, and I only assumed the IC title and World belt would be on the line because I misread the news post about that match. So when I discussed Owen/Yokozuna vs. HBK/Diesel in the titles vs. titles match, I had no idea that Edge/Christian would be facing and losing their straps to Undertaker/Kane. I'm serious on that.
Looks like you'll be seeing a Book Review on the Wrestlemania book sometime in the future. Thanks to Mrs. Tito, the most wonderful person in the world, I got this book as a birthday present. I was just flipping through it, and damn, there are some incredible pictures used throughout the book. Also for my birthday, which is tomorrow, I got another wrestling book by some independent author. It's about the size of the Wrestlemania book, only it's yellow and has Goldberg on the title. That review will come soon, too. I don't know how I'll set aside time for reading, since I have quite a pile of Sociology and European Economic History to read right now. God, I just love school. If only writing columns and doing Multimedia reviews could be a job.............
Anyway, this is my last column before I turn the big 21 tomorrow, so let's go out with a bang.... or at least a Smackdown review or so.
WWF DAY
The evil commissioner, William Regal came down for the opening segment of RAW. It was short and sweet, and it set up Kane vs. Rhyno for the Hardcore Title. I'll tell you what, Rhyno can sure make Kane's moves look extremely painful. The way he sells the legdrops and chokeslams can't be taught to a wrestler. The WWF is quite wise with their push of Rhyno. Thanks to the Game and the Rattlesnake, Rhyno is your NEW Hardcore champ. So will you ECW marks enjoy that? If anything, the WWF could turn the Hardcore division into a division of ECW wrestlers, to satisfy the 0.005 % of WWF fans who mark for ECW.
RTC vs. Acolytes/Kaientai...... You know, I believe the WWF has worn out every single combination of the APA vs. RTC feud. Anyway, this match was the same stuff as usual, with the Goofs and APA getting the win. Notice I said "Goofs". Typing letters doesn't show a speech problem. It seems as though the RTC gimmick keeps dragging, forever and ever and ever and ever.........
My Gosh, did Jerry Lawler get with a 1st cousin to have Grandmaster Sex-ay? He sure can't talk if he tried. The sad thing is that the WWF keeps giving this waste of space television time to fend off any possible lawsuit, and Grandmaster isn't doing much with it. Last night, Eddie Guerrero carried his ass to a no-heat match, in which Eddie cheated to win. With the European title, I believe you aren't allowed to wrestle anybody good now.
Interesting backstage scene with Kane/Undertaker setting stuff in Regal's office on fire. In the upcoming weeks, some pyromaniac child will burn his house down, and you know who will get the blame. Anyway, this forceful way against Regal set up the tag match for later on, which I know will make some people quite mad. I'm willing to be patient on this, and I'll judge after Backlash is over.
Good stuff from Vince McMahon this week, as he pursuaded Big Show to turn on his buddy Shane McMahon. Good use of the past footage, by the way. It mainly set up a Big Show vs. Shane McMahon last man standing match, which is going to be worth the price of Backlash alone. Seriously. Shane is very entertaining to watch in the ring, and that's of total surprise to me. The poor guy is going to take such punishment for his good friend in real life, Big Show. Big Show, by the way, looked a big slimmer than usual to me. Hmm. He seems to be growing the hair long again, too. Maybe if he cuts off a strap on his current tights..... Giant return?
Pretty good match from the Dudleys and Jericho/Benoit, but it should always be with 4 pretty good workers in the ring. This match, however, somewhat split the crowd since it's faces vs. faces, although they all marked out for the "Get the Tables". Kurt Angle helped the Dudleys win the match, and he'd later set up an interesting exhibition with some Local Wrestlers. You never know, one of those locals could turn out to be the next best thing in wrestling. Hey, just remember who wrestled a tryout match for Piper's team for Uncensored 1997.... Bill Goldberg. It can happen. Anyway, Benoit snuck in, and snapped in a sweet Crossface. However, Benoit pulled a bad flaw afterward. He was receiving a decent pop, and he just walked away. I know his attitude is to have a killer instinct, but he should have saluted the crowd, in some way, to make them scream louder. He definitely needs that.
Did you notice the cocky attitude of Chyna tonight? I'm telling ya, this Women's title situation for her will pan out once a big money feud with Lita occurs. Mark my words there. Molly Holly was thrown out to the lion last night, in which she sold every move with pride, just like she did with the WCW valets last year. Very underrated worker, in my opinion, in concerns with Molly Holly.
Well, Kane and Undertaker are your new champions. One could argue that it trashes the tag division, while another could say that it will help to hype the match with Austin/Triple H at Backlash. How about we just wait until after Backlash to judge whether or not this was a bad decision or not, based on the Main Event match. It's not like Edge/Christian could do much with the titles, for they can only fight the Acolytes, Hardys, and Dudleys so many times.
LAST WORD: Funny thing is, I'm getting hooked on Jim Rome's "Last Word" on FOX Sports Net, at 5:30 pm EST. Anyway, this show was decent, with a few goodies, enough to get a B+ (B plus) in my gradebook.
-Opinion-
The one big thing I've noticed with the WWF is that they have a talent roster filled with great wrestlers, gimmicks, and storylines, but it just seems with the two Prime Time shows a week and a Pay Per View every month that the WWF just isn't fresh on creating new matches or feuds. It seems like they've exhausted virtually every big name feud possible or any big money match ever these days. I guess this is why they turned Steve Austin heel.... to allow him to fight faces. Well, besides Chris Jericho, he's fought all of the good guys a few times, like the Rock and Benoit. From my standpoint, the only true money match at this point is a rematch between Triple H and Steve Austin, which may not happen anytime soon. Their match at No Way Out, by far, is the current match of the year. With Rock coming back on July 30th, who will he face? Triple H again? Austin... again? It's just what I've noticed, a lot lately, in the WWF.
It's quite interesting about how the WWF is talking to Scott Steiner. I guess his new so-called attitude is paying off with WWF officials enough to consider bringing him in for the "new" WCW. But what happens once you get him signed under a contract? Say he doesn't like a program in which Shane McMahon books him in, and then Steiner proceeds to threaten Shane. What will happen then? Scott Steiner has a rap sheet for just overall bad behavior, and only recently, with his job on the line, has he shown any type of good behavior. I don't know... it just seems a bit odd for the WWF to fall for a false presence, like Scott MAY be doing.
I'm sure Vince McMahon will be able to breathe easy now, since the FCC has ruled that Viacom may run two network channels in the market. There was great concern about the FCC rule, which tried to stop any kind of monopoly from forming on network television, about if UPN would survive. Well, UPN is now fully functional, and with the WWF fuel, it's slowly growing in the ratings overall. I've seen the numbers recently, and UPN seems to be growing and growing and growing, all the while the WB network is in total decline.
You know, I'm especially glad the WWF is allowing their signed WCW wrestlers to wrestle the indies. It would seem quite stupid for them to do absolutely nothing until the first WCW show (which was moved back again?). Plus, the WWF could have some influence on the WCW stars by suggesting certain gimmicks or attitudes to tryout with Indy crowds. That way, the WCW wrestlers will be very polished up for the first ever WCW show, which MUST be strong to keep a good audience on late Saturday Night.
The Jackson 5
5. Chris Jericho/Kurt Angle/William Regal/Chris Jericho: Good performances by each this week, and their wars at Backlash should be classic!
4. Rhyno: New Hardcore champion, and a continued improvement by the week.
3. Jeff Hardy: Great rub off Triple H, which should serve him well for any future climbs to the top.
2. Undertaker/Kane: New World Tag champs.
1. Triple H: Best wrestler in the WWF, period.
-- I've got an interesting poll on my Column Archives page, if you want to check it out. Click Here to check it out.
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@That's all for today. I shall be back with a "special" History column for the Birthday edition of the PDC. Well, the birthday edition for Mr. Tito, as the PDC was originated on October 26th, 1998. Have a nice day.
Phat Pharm: Plenty of Columns to Read!!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.
Mr. Tito © 1998 - 2001 Exclusive to Lordsofpain.net
-XFL-
Galen Hall, coach of the Orlando Rage, has been named XFL coach of the year. Congrats!
Click Here for a good article about the past year in the XFL, and how they'll probably get dumped by NBC at the end of the season. It also reveals that UPN might not carry the load, if NBC drops next week.
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