Welcome to the returning edition of the Phat Daily Column. Where was I yesterday? Well, I was about 1/4 the way through writing my column, and then I attempted to save. While I was saving, the computer froze, like it's done before. Usually, I save the column before I even start writing, but the one time I forget I got burned. I hate computers. I could rant, again, at how pathetic the tech industry is these days, but that's another column.
I had a good column going, too. I had a nice long rant about the word "Xtreme", and how sad it has replaced the word "Extreme". I could redo the rant, but looking back on it, it has nothing really to do with wrestling, although the WWF and other federations use the word quite often.
Another thing I've mentioned is that federations are naming themselves after ECW. Scream, out loud, "ECW, ECW, ECW", and after you do that scream either "XPW, XPW, XPW" or "CZW, CZW, CZW" to hear a crazy resemblance. I also found it quite funny that ECW is making a nice chunk of change on their videos, while other indy feds aren't selling, especially the XPW tapes. Paul Heyman could easily repay his debt from ECW with releasing tapes of older wrestling, since many wrestlers have come through ECW, whereas XPW gets all of the has-beens or the wrestlers who are barred from the WWF.
Before I go many paragraphs on this, on to the PDC!
Our first match of the night was William Regal/Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho/Chris Benoit in a Dutchess of Queensbury match. Well, we weren't quite shown what the rules for that kind of match are, but who cares? It was a solid opening match, especially when these 4 wrestlers were given more time, instead of the RAW debacle of a match. It was good, until the odd rules took over for this match at the end. It just looks like the Dutchess of Queensbury match will just be William Regal changing the rules as they go, like Vince McMahon has done many times before. As long as Jericho and Regal get some time to develop their match until the rules affect them, I won't care about the certain stipulations.
By the way, the boos Regal received were just amazing at the beginning of this match.
Wow, Matt Hardy won the European Title off of Eddie Guerrero. It's funny, because everyone and their mother said the Hardy's were finished after this, but look at them!!! The rub from Triple H/Austin is allowing them to now climb the ladder of the WWF, whereas they'd be stuck as a tag team before. The match was pretty good, for you'll get that with two good workers. After the match, Lita and Matt kissed, bringing that angle back, with Jeff just standing around. Just be patient and let the Hardy's eventually break up.....
Even better, we got strong news after the match. The European title match was originally supposed to be Raven vs. Eddie Guerrero, but since Raven isn't getting any face pops, he'll replace the worthless Bob Holly in the Hardcore match against Rhyno. That improves the hardcore match by about 100%. To make matters better, the European title match now consists of Christian, Matt Hardy, and Eddie Guerrero. That has GREAT MATCH written all over it, for all 3 are excellent workers.
But what about Edge? What about Jeff Hardy??? I'm thinking Edge will get this PPV off, since he's probably still recovering from injuries sustained before Wrestlemania. Notice how E&C haven't been wrestling much this month...... OR, I believe the WWF may quickly book a match at Backlash between Jeff Hardy and Edge, which would improve this card a whole lot more.
But doesn't this just strike you as odd that the WWF has made quick changes to improve the Backlash card? They put NO faith in Raven, Bob Holly, and others last night, and that's after pushing them in the feuds for several weeks. The WWF, quite frankly, has wasted a whole lot of time these past weeks in attempts to book a WWF card after one of their best shows ever, Wrestlemania. Seriously, how could you NOT ride off Wrestlemania's momentum? Is it that hard to do?
Back to the show.... Kane and the Undertaker were booked in cheap handicap matches, since that's the WWF style lately. Oh, don't get on me about being negative about this... just watch the WWF shows from this whole month, and you'll see how many attempted Handicap matches were done. Kane fought Edge/Christian, in which they disqualified themselves with a conchairto. Kane seems to take a lot of those, for some reason. Then, the Undertaker for ALL 4 male members of Right to Censor, and beat them after Bull, Goodfather, and Venis left Richards to get the last ride. Richards and Christian love taking that move. Anyway, although I'm sick of RTC on all levels, I seriously question what you could do with Bull, Goodfather, and Venis. Bull Buchanan lacks charisma, mic skills, although he is a solid overall wrestler. Goodfather can only become the Godfather, which is a dead-end gimmick proven by the past. Val Venis is a good overall wrestler, but what can you really do with him, besides making him the porno star again? I guess we'll just see when the RTC finally breaks up. I bet you that Ivory and Steve Richards will keep the gimmick, no matter what.
It was quite funny to see Debra stick up for herself by throwing HOT coffee on her husband, Steve Austin. You could say she learned that from WCW, but I don't believe she was truly around when the coffee throwing was going around. Anyway, the WWF used the real life relationship to get Austin over as a heel, as he threatened his wife to get into the truck and stay there!
Why must every Hardcore match go backstage? Can't the crowds get their money's worth at the arena? Test vs. Rhyno could have been an incredible match, for Rhyno is the kind of wrestler who can sell Test's moves well, like those big boots. I agree with my brother, who first noticed it, that nobody sells the big boot quite like Rhyno. Hey, doesn't Test have the BEST big boot in the business? Oh well. The match served as a stepping stone for Big Show to get revenge on Test, although I'm very unsure about his overall relations with Shane in the storylines. The chokeslam on the wooden pallets had to have hurt.
Oh lord, are we witnessing the gimmick change of Steve Blackman to the Lethal Fat Chick Thriller? The women and Blackman were attached via chains, just like the shitty UPN series that Jay Leno loves to rip apart. However, I found the segment quite degrading for anyone overweight when Grandmaster Sex-ay threw chocolates on the floor. I'm sure that offended a few people out there.
Ok X-Factor, you should let Justin Credible do ALL of your talking from now on. X-Pac just struggled on the mic, as he always has since his first great interview when he came back during the RAW after Wrestlemania 14 in 1998. Credible actually made sense in his interviews, which should be utilized if you want X-Factor to get noticed much better. Good heel stables are hard to come by these days.... Dudleys came down, and nailed a 3D on X-Pac. I'll take the "smart fan" approach on this one, as history shows that when X-Pac looks bad before a certain match, he'll most likely win it. I'll leave you to talk amongst yourselves on that topic. (Sort of quoting Michael Myers's Coffee Talk from SNL)
I about fell of my chair laughing when Kaientai showed up as the "mystery" tag team for Austin/Triple H. Now that's a main event for you! However, it never happened, for Undertaker/Kane pulled a swerve on the singles champs. Yikes, a show without a main event! I could just bitch, bitch, bitch about how this feud might not be great, but I'm willing to see how it turns out this Sunday at Backlash. It COULD be a good match, and then again, it COULD be a lame match. Just wait and see.
LAST WORD: I do like how they've reshaped Backlash, but I can't believe they waited until the end to finally make some good changes. Oh well, I'll just shut up and just wait for Backlash to arrive. I'll give this show a B-, especially from the fact that there was no Main Event. If you read through past columns in my Archives, you'll see that I have been much more harsh to shows without Main Events, so really, I'm being nice today. :)
-Opinion-
It appears that Sting will NOT taking a Time Warner buyout to sign with the McMahons for either the WWF or WCW. As a fan of Sting's, it sort of saddens me and at the same time, it makes me respect him much more. Let's look at both ways to look at it.
1) Sting has never attempted to work under the McMahon regime, and that he has many years still left in him. Possible crossover matches against the likes of the Rock, Steve Austin, or Triple H would definitely draw ratings, for the many hardcore Sting fans would be glued to the tube. From his last match against Ric Flair, Sting proved that he could still wrestle. So hey, why not give it one last run?
2) However, at Sting's age, he's been more injured than healthy. Plus, as a long time and hardworking wrestler, he missed out on a great deal of family life while on the road. Also, Sting has been very loyal to Ted Turner/Time Warner, in that he's NEVER jumped ship to the WWF since they acquired him in the late 80s. Sting deserves to live off of his WCW contract for all of his hardwork, and he'll even show more loyalty by completely retiring from wrestling.
I don't know.... I still want to see the Stinger in the ring, but then again, I respect his wishes about retiring from pro wrestling. I guess we'll just see what happens.
The WWF probably fed some of the news sources that they are speeding along with the WCW project. Yeah right. I believe there are plently of holes to fill, but yet they don't want to admit it. If it was on 11 pm on Saturday nights, I know for damn sure I'd watch it (VCR though), but it's hard to say about other wrestling fans. Especially after the XFL embarrassment, which couldn't get "over" in Prime Time of NBC!!! Let's just wait for the Ross report to come out to really determine the official status about WCW.
The Jackson 5
5. Matt Hardy: New European Champ!
4. William Regal/Kurt Angle: How could I rate a team who really lost twice any higher? This might be going out on a limb, but Angle and Regal may have more heel heat than Triple H/Austin. However, Regal and Angle have been heels from the start, so that comment is sort of invalid.
3. Steve Austin/Triple H: The 2 best overall WWF wrestlers (notice the word "overall"), who are starting to gain a better heel status than predicted. It will take time though.
2. Undertaker/Kane: Insanely over as a face team, which is good, because they are doing their part for the match this Sunday.
1. Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho: Dominating team over the heels this week, despite the garbage dealt to them on Smackdown by the Dutchess of Queensbury stipulations.
NEWS ORGY: Robert Downey Jr. to write a book, interesting sexual study made, and MUCH More!!!! So Click Here to join the Orgy!
CLICK HERE to listen to the latest show, which will have former WCW wrestler Lenny Lane as a guest. If you thought I was wrong about the insane leadership at WCW, just listen to what Lenny has to say about his experiences in WCW!
LoP T-Shirts: NEW STUFF IN STOCK! Mouse Pads, Sweat Shirts, Coffee Mugs, more T-Shirts, Baby Doll shirts, and more! Also, you can now order via Credit Card!
Backyard BBQ: The Best in Backyard Wrestling!
KOLTERSHOCK!!!!
@That's all for today. Tomorrow, we'll get extreme with a History of ECW's Barely Legal, where I'll discuss the feuds leading up to the 1st ECW Pay Per View, review the actual show, and briefly discuss where the wrestlers are today. It should be a good one! See you tomorrow!
Phat Pharm: 3 Columns to Read!!! New Editions of "Ban the Legdrop", "Behind the Shotgun's Barrel", "Right to Wrestle", and "the Receiving End" to check out! CLICK HERE to Read Some Wrestling Columns!!!!!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.
Mr. Tito © 1998 - 2001 Exclusive to LordsofPain.net
-XFL-
Both UPN and NBC are very scared about the possibility of carrying the XFL next year. NBC will most likely pull out completely, while UPN is afraid of the thought of carrying the whole season on their network.
UPN should just pull out, now, just so the league becomes extinct. Next XFL news I'll report will be the one that officially states that the league is finished.