Welcome back to the Phat Daily Column. Interesting Monday Night...that's all I have to say. There was no Monday Night Football to contend with this week, so expect the ratings to be a little higher. Today is Tuesday, and even though this is now the only day that has no wrestling, it's always my busiest doing those darned Monday Night Impressions. Let's take a look at them, shall we?

Monday Night Impressions

NITRO

First off, the segment with Oklahoma calling out women was a sad rip off of Andy Kaufman and Jeff Jarrett. Come on!! Second, I wouldn't sell his sauce if the glass container breaks that easily. That's one flaw. Then you have the Tank Abbott situation, which will allow him to hype up no-selling anymove. Beating up Doug Dillinger is pretty cool, but his feud with Flynn is worthless. Guess what...that's all of my complaints!

WCW was on the ball tonight with the Jarrett matches vs. the Oldtimers. I actually enjoyed Funk's booking against the NWO, as I jokingly predicted that he would have the NWO fight each other in my column yesterday. As for the oldtimers, I marked out each time they came out. George the Animal Steele is still crazy as ever. Tito Santana, who I get mistaken for all the time(a joke), returned to the ring as well. He might not have been in true ring shape, but it was nice to see the legend in the ring again. Jimmy Snuka still has it folks, and he even one-upped himself from his famous cage jump that the did in Madison Square Garden. On top of his jump, Benoit followed up with a jump of his own!! Wow! Speaking of jumps, Perry Saturn started the show out with a bang to help set the mood for later with his high risk jump. The table might have had a ton of reinforcements, but Saturn hasn't taken a dive like that since his ECW days.

What was missing tonight was, for the most part, a good chunk of the angles that made Nitro boring or confusing. They stuck with the 3 matches of Jarrett, and it was great. I actually liked how WCW put over Buff vs. DDP, Stevie Ray and Booker T, and even how they ended with Sid and Bret Hart. Now this is the type of show that Russo and Ferarra can book. Can they keep this up?

NITRO Phat Stats

Matches: 6
Clean wins: 1
Screwjobs: 3
Disqualifications: 0
No Contests: 2

Last Word: Who the hell booked this great show? WCW was on top of it's game with such limited resources with many top faces on the shelf. The whole angle with NWO vs. Old Timers was awesome tonight, and the matches, for the most part, were very entertaining. This is what Russo is capable of, and not the past few weeks. I feel that his past few Nitros were unorganized and weaker as of late. This week, Nitro gets an

A

in my book. Can they keep this momentum up? I'm sure the additions of the Oldtimers made the ratings jump a little, and I predict a 3.2 in the 9-10 hour.

WWF

After weeks of no hype, the WWF finally started to hype the Royal Rumble tonight. It all started out with one of those long interviews that I'm not a big fan of. However, it was interesting to see just about every WWF superstar out by the ring. They really put the screws to Triple H and Stephanie tonight. Mankind was reinstated last night, and he will now face Triple H at the Rumble in the main event. Rock declared himself in the Rumble, and gee, I wonder if he'll win it? That was it really as for Royal Rumble hype.

DX being forced to fight each other was great, and they acted their frustrations well. They fought each other in their matches with a lot of intensity, but they "got their shit" together in the main event. It was nice to see Triple H and Stephanie getting the screws tonight, because I don't know if I could take another night where they were in complete control.

Interesting angle starting out with Edge and Val Venis. I have a feeling that the WWF is going to milk the real life engagement of Edge and Val's sister, and it will only lead to jealousy by Val to be the best man. Rikishi and I guess Too Cool continued to dance on top of WWF competition....well, I mean Rikishi with Too Cool helping him dance. Good stuff from Mick Foley threatening Mideon tonight as well.

The matches on RAW were overall short, however, as most of them were under 5 minutes. Ouch. Also, the Test facing adversity and Chyna-Jericho angles need to be dropped, and have each of the wrestlers move on. Please!! Overall, that's my complaints about RAW. Oh yeah, Triple H still can't defeat anybody cleanly.

RAW Phat Stats

Matches: 9
Clean Wins: 7
Screwjobs: 2
Disqualifications: 0
No Contests: 0

Last Word: The Phat Stats for last night are astonishing, but he matches were very short in length. I did like how the WWF superstars put the screws to Stephanie and Triple H tonight, but in the end, Triple H cheated his way back on top. Overall, a good show, therefore, it gets a

B+

in my gradebook. I should get around a 6.1 or so for their first hour in competition vs. Nitro.

Overall, a great night of wrestling to take the Monday Night Football viewers by storm.

Other Wrestling Stuff

-I'm sure you've heard it by now that AOL has purchased 55% of Time Warner's stock. Yikes, AOL has become a money making force! Time Warner, you know, owns WCW. Will this effect WCW at all? I highly doubt it. The list of Time Warner's holdings is very long, as AOL would take forever if they were to check each and every one of them to see how much each was making. I'm just impressed that AOL got up the money to purchase Time Warner. I guess they weren't lying when they said they were the #1 internet service around. It was funny how Tony Shiavone referred to AOL as their new friends.

-ECW on TNN continues to improve, as they struck a 1.2 for their last show. Not back, as I expect ratings to go up once the promotion for the ECW Hardcore Revolution video game starts. Paul Heyman is really booking the TNN show well now, and it's starting to have some of the best "wrestling" around. I'm glad that the TNN deal is really starting to come through, because there was some panic over no improvement for a while. Things take time, and ECW on TNN will continue to grow in time. I personally think they should move to Tuesdays, a night where there is NO wrestling on.

-I thought Tito Santana didn't want to be a part of WCW's plan to have oldtimers fight Jarrett? Oh well, like they say, "money talks, and bullshit walks". It makes me wonder what other Oldtimer will come get some. Of course, WCW does have a bunch of oldtimers at their disposal, but they are their main eventers too. There are plenty of them out there, and WCW does have a couple of them under contract or at least in contact. Wrestlers like Brutus the Barber Beefcake and Greg The Hammer Valentine are both on a pay per night basis with WCW, and they could be used for future shows. The possibilities are endless.

@That's it for this lovely edition of the Phat Daily Column. I'll be back tomorrow to see how each federation did in the ratings Monday Night. It should be interesting! Just chill, till the next episode!

Do you remember the toys called M.U.S.C.L.E., as in Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere? You know, those small pink wrestlers such as Muscleman and Terry Bull? Remember those? Great toys of the 80's, and there so happens to be a webpage that is dedicated to them. It's called the M.U.S.C.L.E. Preservation Society, and if you loved your M.U.S.C.L.E. back in the day, you would want to check this out:

Click Here to Enter the M.U.S.C.L.E. Preservation Society!!!

Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.

Mr. Tito © 2000 Exclusive to Lordsofpain.net