Major props to RAW for their great ratings. Hey, school is back, so a nice chunk of the WWF audience will be forced into bed at 11 pm on a schoolnights. The ratings for them are just down by one point off their normal rating. It's especially amazing considering RAW went up slightly during the 12-1 am slot for the East Coast. Very impressive, and the WWF must be proud since the US Open is screwing them once again. Gee USA Networks, do you wonder why WWF has signed with Viacom?
Nitro gained close to a full point, which I guess is OK for Nitro. When you get a majority of wrestling viewers on Monday Nights watching RAW, you should expect Nitro to be higher. But I think it's a good rating for Nitro, but it's NOT something to celebrate over. When Nitro fights RAW head to head on the East Coast again, then maybe we can talk progress. In my opinion, WCW sort of has the WWF by the balls now, because the WWF is pre-empted for US Open right now, and there will be confusion to where the hell WWF wrestling is when they move to TNN. It's your time Russo, show us what you got!
It's my general feeling that when the ratings for Heat, Livewire, and Superstars are down, the demand for the overall WWF product is down slightly too. However, I'm expecting these shows to start slowly rising again, with many returning to school and not staying up every night like in the summer. Sunday is now a schoolnight, so Heat should rise also. If they don't rise, then the demand for the WWF is down.
ECW on TNN seems to jump up and down, from a good 1.0 rating, to their average summer rating of 0.8, which they had this week. They had 1.0 last week! I felt that ECW on TNN would struggle this week because it was a highlight show more than a wrestling show. Hopefully, the judges handling the USA Networks case, gets his head out of his ass and makes a ruling so that ECW can get a USA Networks deal!
No WCW Saturday Morning, as it was cancelled last week. Oh Boo Hoo, thank God someone put away that ruined show.
The video starts off great. Oh before that, this video has a good narrator, actually, for this video. Not that I'm knocking Michael Cole, but when you hear him for EVERY WWF video, he gets a little old. Anyway, the video starts off with the early days of each team. It was cool to see early videos of the Hardys, and it was informative to where each wrestler had their starts. I found it shocking that the WWF let Devon(or D'von, whatever!) say that his idle was Hulk Hogan, and then they showed highlights of Hogan as well. Shocking by the WWF!
First, we see the early feud between the Hardys and Edge/Christian. If you don't remember, or were under a rock the whole time, they switched back and forth from being in the Brood. Their feud slowly grew, and they fought over the Terri Invitational Tournament. Their hard battles in the TIT led them to the great ladder match. Now this is pretty cool, because both teams discuss the HBK-Razor ladder matches, and how they admired them. They showed the classic tag match with the ladders, and highlights. Well, clips, or all of the spots from the match(only have 60 minutes). One of the best matches ever!
The teams had respect for each other, and then the BIG BAD Dudley Boyz came into the WWF. Odd stuff here with D'von or whatever, as he said he wasn't sure about joining the WWF since their style might not be as big there. Truthful stuff here. They showed everyone and their mother getting slammed through tables. Funny how by attacking women, the Dudleys now get cheered by everyone, world wide. The teams of Edge/Christian and the Hardys got in the Dudleys way, which led to Wrestlemania. This feud leading up to that great match at WM 2000 was one of the most violent feuds I've seen.
The Wrestlemania 2000 match highlight reel was shown, with all of the awesome spots. Again, one of the best matches ever. I'd say the original tag team ladder match with just the Hardys and Edge/Christian was just a tad better, but probably because it was sooo innovative at the time. Besides, the WM 2000 match was soo good that it killed all heat for matches after that. It's the only real stand out from Wrestlemania 2000, and that's not a good thing.
Last Word: Wow, now that was a great WWF video. The WWF is on point lately on producing new WWF videos, because the scenes are always flow greatly with each other. This one is loaded with awesome highlights, and just a great background on 3 awesome tag teams(speaking of tag teams, I know Krueges, who writes "Makin' the Tag", would LOVE this video). I highly recommend it to ANYONE, and that includes those of you who don't watch wrestling, or are just a WCW follower and nothing else. Easy
Spike Dudley will be the special guest on today's Wrestle Palooza Audio Show, so be sure to check out the show!!!
CLICK HERE to listen to the WrestlePalooza.com Audio Show, in association with LoP, with special guest Spike Dudley from ECW!!!!
The show will be up later today.
@That's all for today's edition of the PDC. Holy cow, two Wednesday columns in a row with Video Reviews. I keep this spending up, I'll be in mad debt! Hehe, I'll see you tomorrow with yet another PDC, which will be WCW Day. Gee, I wonder what I'll discuss....
Phat Pharm: It's FANTASTIC!!!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.