Welcome to the Phat Daily Column for Tuesday, February 27, 2001. Ok, that sounds professional, right? Last night, we witnessed the WWF and WCW trying to put on their best to entertain all of us. Did the WWF put on a show that was a great follow up to an excellent Pay Per View? Did Nitro try to stack their show to counter the hot WWF?
We'll answer those questions in a bit. For this LONG introduction, I just want to announce that the Rock's new song called "Pie" just totally sucks. It's a waste of a good track on WWF Volume 5, and it just makes me sick each time I hear it. For this past week, I've given this song ever chance to gain my liking. No use.
It's sooo bad that I'd listen to ANY Boy Band song 5 times before I'd hear the Rock's song. I'm serious. Shit, give me any bad 80s hairband, give me any terrible Disco act, my gosh, give me any damn pop act that's playing today. I can't stand this song.
It's shocking too, because I thought the Rock was an excellent singer when he covered "Are You Lonesome Tonight" on Saturday Night Live, but that was singing after the King, Elvis Presley. Rock, singing his own material, was simply terrible. Man, I should have downloaded the rest of the tracks instead of buying a CD with this garbage debut of a song on it.
Now that I've fired up the Rock marks, on to the PDC.
Pretty good opening match with Filthy Animals and Jason Lee/Johnny Swinger. Credit PWtorch for being on top of the Swinger debut yesterday. Anyway, Lee and Swinger looked decent, despite never tagging together, ever. Rey-Rey and Billy-Billy wrestled well, as I thought they'd not be motivated to wrestle two unknowns.
WCW should get Shawn O'Haire some work for his mic skills. Damn it was horrible to hear him call Team Canada on. OK match with Palumbo/O'Haire vs. Team Canada, but no where near as good as their encounter about 2 weeks ago. Kanyon just walks on in for fun during this NON TITLE match, which leads to O'Haire challenging him. Their match was ok, but O'Haire showed that he's a bit too green, still, but practice makes perfect in the singles ranks.
Hey, the Cat is now Eric Bischoff's best friend. He did it by defeating Bischoff's hunting buddy, Rick Steiner. At least the match makes sense, despite the title being on the line. Cat is the BIGGEST FACE in WCW, and despite ripping on his wrestling ability from time to time, I'll admit his huge positive. This big win by the Cat led too...
A thrilling 6 Man match!! The God of WCW, Booker T, made his return. *MARKS OUT* He teamed with DDP and the Cat to face Scott Steiner and Totally Buff. It was a nice and long match, with a very good ending. Booker T even got some revenge on Scott Steiner by getting the pin on him. Booker T won by the Axe Kick. Before that, he hit the "Book End" on someone. I really hope that he finds a NEW finishing move this time around. No need to give WWF fans the impression that he's a Rock imitation, when he's far from that.
Funny thing about this Shane Helms vs. Shannon Moore match was that they had the crowd somewhat behind them, but it was a weaker match than their previous Nitro fight. Hopefully, the 3rd bout will mix the two goods together, if it ever happens.
Ehh, main event was JUST THERE. I didn't quite get excited about seeing Dustin Rhodes vs. Jeff Jarrett as a main event, nor did I get excited with Ric Flair as the referee.
First match was Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero against Xpac/Justin Credible. Benoit was a fucking machine in this match,and carried it totally! Too bad he isn't a few inches taller, had mic skills, and had more charisma. The real story is that Eddie and Benoit are probably going to feud, and a good Wrestlemania match would be wise to book between the two. If you've seen their MANY WCW matches, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Molly Holly vs. Lita was a big disappointment for me. I figured that Molly would carry Lita to a great match, but it seemed like Molly was being too careful not to hurt Lita in the match. I guess it's true that the WWF must sell the image, and if Lita were to get seriously hurt, it wouldn't mean much for Molly. Lita wins, which probably means a big match at Wrestlemania against Ivory.
Phew! The Dudleys survived against Haku/Rikishi. Like I keep saying, the Dudleys are a younger team, and a fight for the titles against either the Hardys or Edge/Christian will draw much more than the Kane/Undertaker vs. Rikishi/Haku match.
Wow, what booking! I DID NOT expect the heel turn on Trish Stratus, at all, during the Vince McMahon/Stratus vs. William Regal/Stephanie. What a shocker! Great booking, and it fooled me totally. I'm not being sarcastic there, either. Trish just got used! Vince got his silicon, and when he got sick of it, he dumped her on her head. Now that's some good sports entertainment.
Dean Malenko and TAKA should have been given more time. I had my hopes up for that match, but was disappointed at the match getting cut short. I did fall off my chair when TAKA discussed why he loved his NEW girlfriend: "But most importantly, She's EVIL". It doesn't get any funnier than that!
Raven and Chris Jericho was a decent match up, although I expected a little more of the match. Raven can fight regular matches, when asked, too. But this one was the fault of overbooking, with the Ninja accidentally hitting Raven. Ninja, oddly enough, made her second appearance of the night, for she helped Lita defeat Molly Holly earlier.
I wonder if the Acolytes mind always playing second fiddle during a RTC feud? Lawler teamed up with the APA to take on the RTC, in what was an alright match. RTC does have some heat now, thanks to having the Kat captive now.
Very strange, but oddly entertaining main event with the Hardcore title on the line! Big Show, Kurt Angle, and the Rock fought what was supposed to be a 3 Way, but it suddenly blew up thanks to the 24/7 rule. I thought it was pretty corny to have a bunch of midcarders pounding on the Rock. It was pretty funny to see the Big Show manhandle midcarder after midcarder in the back, until finally pinning Essa to get the win! The ending was well booked and timed. They had the Rock looking to get a Rock Bottom on Steve Austin, who had his back turned. Rock was then distracted by someone else before giving Austin the business.
Understand this. The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin is NOW the main focus for Wrestlemania. That's fine with me, and it was a good way to build some interest by what they did tonight. Excellent start to build up this match, and since they are the main focus of Wrestlemania, let's keep the momentum for it.
No Triple H on RAW? Wow.
Overall, a very satisfying night to be a wrestling fan. 3 great shows in 2 nights!
Wrestler of the Night: The Returning Booker T
Match of the Night: Booker T/DDP/Cat vs. Scott Steiner/Totally Buff
NEWS ORGY: A BIG Tribute to Puff Daddy before he gets into Jail, Possibilities for the NEW Singer of Rage Against the Machine, new columns by Jaymz and Muffin, and MUCH MORE!!! So CLICK HERE to Join the Orgy!!!
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@That's it for today. I'll be back with Ratings Analysis and Shouts! Remember, send your Shouts in for me to use! So until the next column, just chill till the next episode.
Club Tito: PDC Archives and Tito Projects!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.
Yahoo! reports taht UPN's XFL game scored an overnight of a 1.9, which is down from the 2.0 overnight rating last week. Nothing much to say here.
Nothing else out there besides worthless writer criticisms about how the XFL is failing.
The National Ratings for the NBC game and probably the UPN game should be out tomorrow.
As for the Jesse Ventura and the coach from the NY/NJ Hitmen.... it's a bad work set up by Vince McMahon to spark the league. Since we can't get attention by just the regular play of football, we must pull stupid publicity stunts.
But the bad thing is that Jesse Ventura is losing a lot of credibility. Anyone outside of Minnesota, for the most part, laugh at how he can take time out of his schedule to call football games. Within the state of Minnesota, things are starting to get ugly. I saw on the news, recently, that many citizens are PISSED OFF about Ventura's education plan. In fact, it has started statewide protests against it, which isn't good if Ventura plans on getting re-elected, despite his other odd doings as the Governor.