D'oh! The Ratings aren't in yet, thanks to the Presidents day holiday Monday. No big deal though, as a celebration of our founding fathers are a good enough reason to have a delay.

Amazing. I didn't quite get as much e-mail about the RAW or Nitro impressions yesterday. Usually, I get called a blasted WWF or WCW mark, or someone will write me long paragraphs of their own thoughts on the shows. Hmm... maybe I should get more nasty next week!

Today, I introduce a NEW feature! You'll see it below, and it's actually a way for YOU readers to get involved. Yes, I've finally cracked on letting some readers get involved, as I've been asked constantly ever since I started. But be sure to read the rules or indications below, mmmk?

Instead of doing ratings analysis, I'm going to push foward an idea that I was going to reserve for a Saturday History Column. So enjoy.

Oh... by the way, thanks to Dwayne Stewart for holding this sign up at Superbrawl:

As usual, I really appreciate it. Thanks! #54

Today's PDC
*Music and Wrestling
*[New Feature] Shouts!
XFL Gazette at the very bottom

Music and Wrestling

No, I'm not talking about theme music here. I'm talking about the Music Industry and the Wrestling Industry. I was listening to a little Nirvana the other day, and the idea occurred to me that wrestling's trends, especially the WWF's, were very associated with what happens in the music world. This really starts in the 1980s when Vince McMahon became a force in the wrestling business.

The 1980s because a decade of fashion, glamour, and just the corniest ways to express yourself. Music was all about big hair bands, especially towards the end of the decade. Wrestling, I would argue, followed that same pattern. Whether you were a heel or not, wrestlers had the "pretty boy" long haired look to them. Well, a lot of them do now, which traces back to then. But the wrestlers didn't quite have the "tough" attitude as they did back then, and faces ruled off of charisma. Why else would teams like the Rock and Roll Express be loved by many fans?

Vince McMahon pushed his shows to be like rock shows, actually, in the 1980s. Hell, he even incorporated many from the recording industry, like Cindy Lauper, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, just to name a few. The storylines were quite cheesy back then, as was the big hair bands who were surging in the late 1980s. This notion of thinking in the music industry stuck around in 1990, but something changed...

I'd argue that 1990 was the final peak of the WWF product, as it would tumble down after Wrestlemania 6. The Music Industry had many listeners ready for something new, as they were sick of seeing the big hair bands, who were all the same for the most part. Then, Nirvana and the Grunge revolution really hit in 1991, and the music or feeling of the 1980s was buried!

Now, I think that wrestling felt this hurt as well. Wrestling sort of lived off the vibes of the 80s rock shows, and now that the Music Industry changed, Vince McMahon should have moved with it as well. He should have taken the glamour out of his product.... but he didn't. In fact, we were still treated to the same strange characters and storylines, meaning that the WWF failed to evolve with the times then. Even with great stars like Ric Flair, Sid Justice, and many more on the stacked WWF roster, they simply weren't as strong as anything in the late 1980s. Attendance, ratings, and everything else were dropping fast!

The music industry eventually evolved into something representing a tough attitude around 1996, but it really caught on in 1998. The WWF really latched onto this idea, by noticing that the fans were cheering the heels like the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. So the Attitude evolved, and now you see a lot of professional wrestlers acting tough instead of relying on charisma as they did in the 1980s. 1980s music was about style and how to present something, and the 1990s/early 2000 was about attitude. When smart, the Wrestling business fed off those eras, in my opinion.

But look at the music industry now. It's very uncertain where the trends are heading. Many of the so-called tough bands are losing steam, and plus, there is a great variety of music out there. With that being said, the wrestling world is at a stalemate on where it will go next. In some ways, the WWF tries to do more attitude, and in other instances, they try to rely on just wrestling matches. Ratings are falling too, meaning that the WWF and the wrestling industry might have to figure out what the next trend will be.

Wrestling follows a lot of other trends too. For example, they pushed a lot of sex in the late 1990s, since its becoming more common than protected. Wrestling has also played off World events, like the Iran hostage crisis and the Desert Storm situation. They have also cut deals with popular names to show up on shows, and much more.

I could be entirely wrong on this theory, but who knows? It's just an interesting idea.

Shouts? WTF is this? (you ask) Well, here at Ohio University, there is a feature in their Post called The Yell. It consists of one or two liners that just rips apart the city of Athens or the University. It's a very funny and entertaining part of the Post to read, so I figured, why not do something like it on a wrestling column?!?

The thing that makes The Yell unique is the fact that a lot of students send in phrases for the original writer. That is what I'm going to do, so starting next week, you can send in your one or two line phrases about wrestling! They must be funny, have satire, or just a very right to the point observation. DO NOT SEND ME ANYTHING NOW... Please WAIT until NEXT Tuesday when I ask for YOU to SEND THEM. Understand? That way, I can prepare for the flooded mailbox. I'll write the first edition completely by myself.. Here we go!

Odd that Jim Ross kept hyping the Triple H vs. Steve Austin match to be the BEST ever. Someone backstage missed the memo to turn Ross off from his XFL Hype mode from commentating Saturday.

Anybody find it rather uneasy to do a funeral angle on Nitro, just the day after the legendary Dale Earnhardt died?

Funny that General Rection bought GeneralRectionUSA.com just before WCW decided to change his gimmick back to Hugh Morris. Even funnier that he doesn't buy another domain name.

I bet the Lita and Matt Hardy relationship turns for the worse, as Hardy discovers that Lita gave him cold sores! Then it even gets more scarier, when it's discovered that Dean Malenko also has cold sores!

If the WWF is worried about Justin Credible's look being close to Steve Austin's, then why do they have a lot of blond, long haired wrestlers around? (Edge, Christian, Jericho and a few others)

Scary that Jeff Jarrett's impersonation of Dusty Rhodes was exactly right. The only detail forgotten was the big bump Dusty has on his torso, and also mentioning that he was a "son of a plumber".

Hey, since Chris Jericho was willing to wear an XFL jersey Monday Night, does that mean he'll get a bigger push from Vince?

Amazing that it takes a gimmick of being part of "Totally Buff" to convince Buff Bagwell to resign with the company he apparently hates.

Isn't it ironic that the same wrestlers complaining about not getting paid in ECW, are the same ones who want to help ECW survive?

*That's all for the Shouts! this week. Remember, DO NOT SEND ME ANY SHOUTS JUST YET. Only send your Shouts on Tuesday, when I ask for them. Be funny, creative, and so forth, and I'll gladly use them and CREDIT you for your participation if I use your Shout. Ok?

NEWS ORGY: Movie Review for "Down To Earth", Sports Rant Column in tribute of Dale Earnhardt, possible writing openings, and more! So CLICK HERE to Join the Orgy!!!

Wrestle Palooza Audio Show

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!

@That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with the WCW Day column. I have to go to the hardware store to buy stronger straps to hold myself in the chair to watch that crap of a show. See y'all tomorrow!

Backyard BBQ: The Finest in Backyard Wrestling

Take Care, and Thanks a Million for Reading.

Mr. Tito © 1998 - 2001 Exclusive to LordsofPain.net


The NBC ratings are said to be down 25.5% from last week's 50% drop. Not a good sign.

Even though the ratings are dropping, the XFL has yet to lose any advertisers. Advertisers are reportedly paying $140,000 per 30 seconds to run a commercial on NBC, TNN, and UPN.

CORRECTION: It was just announced this morning that Honda has pulled their ads from XFL games. They claim that the programming was NOT consistant as promised, and that they wanted football programming, not WWF programming. Ouch.

Click Here for an article about how the XFL is affecting Jesse Ventura's image.

A father, with two sons and a brother, left the NY/NJ Hitmen game after being offended by the way the crowd was responding to the cheerleaders. The crowd was giving the ladies dollars, in reference to them being strippers (which they probably were), and they kept yelling "show us your [insert word for breasts]". This is getting pretty rough publicity against the content of the XFL.

Yahoo! News

Anybody catch the Daily Show, last night on Comedy Central? If you missed it, you didn't see the great ribbing by the newscasters aganist the XFL. They totally destroyed it! But with the 25% ratings drop, they suggested that the XFL would survive off of Xeno's Paradox. The parodox stated that if you keep dividing something by half, it will never reach zero. It would have worked if it was a 50% drop, there buddies. But they were correct that if the paradox works, then the XFL will never have zero viewers.

Hannibal joke on Jay Leno last night: What does Hannibal do while watching the XFL? Who knows, because nobody watches the XFL! (Or something like that. Sorry if it isn't exact)