I have begun looking through Emulator archives for wrestling games on the NES, and once I download those, I'll try to figure out what order they go in, chronologically. It's my believe that this feature would look much better if it was like showing the evolution of wrestling video games. Now, I can't say what NES wrestling game had the most influence over future games, but for the N64, I do have a suggestion on its influence. I'd say that WCW vs. NWO World Tour for the N64 was a wrestling video game that got a lot of fans hooked on THQ's wrestling games, at least on the N64. WCW Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, and WWF No Mercy have all sold well after World Tour came out. WCW vs. NWO World Tour more or less introduced the famous gaming engine that everyone enjoyed in the 3 later games. WCW Revenge's success probably helped to get the WWF and THQ together.
As far as the NES goes, I don't know too much on any influential wrestling games. I had WWF Wrestlemania for the NES, and it's poor quality of gameplay made me stay away from all wrestling games on the NES, back in the day. I did play my share of games on the SNES, so I have a good idea of what to say when I get around to that system.
This feature should be fun, if I can get around to it. Anyway, on to the PDC.
And you know why the number was low? The shows surrounding Triple H's return, last week, absolutely sucked! Why book weak shows around a major star's return? The WWF has this thinking that whenever a big star returns, they can just slack off on the rest of the show. Sure, one name can draw viewers for a week, but good wrestling programming around the return will draw viewers for longer periods of time. The WWF gets what they deserve.
-This sudden panic of ratings decreases has summoned Vince McMahon to bring in locker room cancers Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Hulk Hogan. He's willing to risk the well-being of his own company in hopes of turning around his company, and maybe have a hot year or two of higher ratings, attendance, and Pay Per View buyrates. He's even willing to pay high salaries to all 3 wrestlers, which in a way is hypocritical, because he'll never make an offer to Bill Goldberg to one day show up in the WWF, which in my opinion, would now be a bigger draw than Nash or Hall right now. It's sort of hard to say about Hogan, though, because a lot of old time fans would want to see how he does against Steve Austin, the Rock, Triple H, or even Vince McMahon.
-Like I said in Monday's column, I believe. Why bring in old stars when you could create new ones? Hosses like Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar have been more than ready at Ohio Valley Wrestling, along with a ton of other developmental talent. Nash, Hogan, and Hall are all well into their 40's now, and all 3 were very injury prone during their last run. Why not bring up a younger wrestler, who is healthy and ready to go for years to come?
-The funny thing is, and I've seen this posted everywhere, is that the WWF is indeed following the footsteps of WCW. The Time Warner owned company brought all of the old superstars back, instead of pushing younger wrestlers and/or developing new stars, and in the long run, it killed them. Their high salaries and lack of drawing power in the long run helped to make WCW the only company that had a loss within Time Warner. The WWF is losing money from lower attendance, weak advertising rates, lower buyrates, dismal merchandise sales, and from ridiculous projects, like the XFL. But what does the WWF do? They spend millions on 3 older wrestlers who could do more than bust as wrestlers.
-In a WWF article, Jerry Lawler talked about how his divorce with Stacy Carter was going to be finalized, and how he'll be Memphis's most eligible bachelor. Oh good, and I'm sure Lawler will be "combing the High Schools" to find that special Mrs. Lawler to ruin his life in the future. By the way, the "combing the High Schools" phrase is indeed from Booger on Revenge of the Nerds. The comment was directed at Jerry Lawler, who is well into his 50's, because of his liking of women under the age of 18, if you didn't know that already. Stacy Carter was reportedly 16 or 17 when Jerry started dating her, and then some.
-Oh man, I find it highly funny that DirecTV is posting nice 4th quarter earnings, in spite of the WWF keeping their Pay Per Views off their systems. It stares the WWF right in the face that they are not an intimidating force outside of the wrestling industry. If Vince has any brain cells left, he'll quickly make a deal with DirecTV to get the Royal Rumble on their system, and start making some money to pay off the high salaries he'll be paying to Nash, Hall, and Hogan.
AOL Instant Messenger: BookerTito - It's recommended that you send your questions or feedback as your first message so that it could be answered, instead of saying "hi", "hey", "what's up" or whatever else. Just get to the point, please, to make it easier since I get drilled with messages.
WRESTLEPALOOZA.com - Audio Show, Columns, News, and more!
KOLTERSHOCK!!! - A site that you shouldn't view with small children present!
X-Entertainment.com - One of the most entertaining pages on the net!
@That's it for today. A couple of you have asked me what is there to do to get a plug at the bottom of the PDC. Nothing. The links listed here are in honor of some friends I've had online, and there's nothing more to it than that. But check out those sites. All 3 are quite good and unique in their own ways. See you tomorrow!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.