Man, it's just alarming to see Stone Cold Steve Austin fall apart. After several months of bitterness towards WWE management for the current storylines, Austin walked out of the WWE for the second time on Monday night. The way Vince and the WWE is acting is that he'll never come back to the WWE, ever again. This was his last straw. To make matters worse for Austin, he's looking at charges of domestic violence for his spousal abuse on his wife Debra on one night during the weekend. This attack on Debra is apparently not the first time.
The Debra attack is likely to receive some mainstream attention, as Steve Austin is a somewhat big name celebrity. After walking out of the WWE, the media would see it as a good story. With that being said, this will probably be the final padlock on Steve Austin's time in the WWE.
But who cares if he ever goes back to the WWE right now? It's clearly obvious that Austin has completely lost it, mentally, to the point where he'll affect someone he loves. That's just not right. No woman should be attacked by her spouse. Debra didn't marry Steve Williams to become his new punching bag. She married him to provide support in every way, even through frustrating times in the WWE.
It's just shocking to see the turn of events that can happen in just one week to a man who has been a major figurehead for the WWE for about 5 years now.
Enough about that. On to the PDC.
Oh, and before we go to the PDC, I just want to wish a happy birthday to LoP's webmaster, Calvin Martin. Happy Father's Day to every father out there as well.
Austin's walk out, which is due to his creative clause in his WWE contract, caused the WWE writers or creative team to completely rewrite RAW during the evening before the show. It showed too, as Flair was turned face again and he would fight a returning Vince McMahon in a bout to decide who would own 100% of the company. Rather ridiculous, as it now hurts a good bit of the credibility of the Split, as if it was credible anyway. The novelty of trading wrestlers is now gone between two owners, although it was never tried in the first place.
Aside from Vince winning the company's 100% ownership, RAW was kinda flat. Chris Harvard, using his real name, is now going to hang out with William Regal now. Sort of like Mr. Perfect managing Ric Flair? Well, not that caliber, but you get the point. I guess Molly Holly wasn't cool enough to hang with Regal? Speaking of Molly, she was embarrassed by the WWE writers by Trish's mentioning of her so-called "fat ass". Despite beating Trish, earning a title shot for RAW tomorrow, her image and character are forever trashed.
Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar advanced in the King of the Ring... The best part of RAW was the promo by Shawn Michaels. He'd talk about the past, and then evaluated the nWo, saying there was something wrong. He recognized that Nash was one of the leaders, saw how big the Big Show was, remembered his friendship with X-Pac, and out of no where, BOOM, some Sweet Chin Music on Booker T. That was fantastic!
RAW scored a 4.2 in the ratings, which is 0.1 ahead of last week's rating. Of course, knowing statistics, it's unknown if it's anything significant compared to last week's rating. But anyway, at least hotshotting Flair vs. Vince kept the ratings stable, and it appears that going all out will be the only way to receive decent ratings right now for the WWE.
Velocity and Confidential both had lower ratings this week. I do expect, however, that the ratings will jump for Confidential, especially when they ran 3 segments on Austin during the show.
1wrestling reported that X-Pac went off about wrestling both RAW and Heat this week. While wrestling two matches appears to be unfair, you didn't see Kurt Angle throwing a fit about wrestling twice, as he did for both Smackdown and Velocity this week. Injury or no injury, it's not like X-Pac had to do much in a tag team match, which is probably what he assumed. It just goes to show you why Kurt Angle is one of the bests, while crybaby bitches like X-Pac aren't moving up the ladder right now...
DDP, himself, announced his retirement through his "State of the Union Address". Page has been e-mailing and posting his commentaries for years now, and has really gone out of his way to communicate with fans. Diamond Dallas Page announced that he'll remain in the WWE in some capacity, such as appearing at ticket sales or other promotions. Do yourself a favor and check out his website at DDPbang.com.
The WWE officially announced that Stone Cold Steve Austin is off the active roster. This is the first open indication of the WWE's moves against Austin's walkout, and on the recent Confidential, Vince McMahon and Jim Ross again confirmed this. It's serious folks, and seeing Steve Austin break down is another example of that. It's time to accept life without Stone Cold and hope that the WWE doesn't use Triple H and the Undertaker more now.
Smackdown had its ups and downs. Yah. Triple H and the Undertaker had an official King of the Ring contract signing. The only recent contract signing was the Triple H and Steve Austin one, where Triple H fooled Austin by not completely signing the contract to attack Austin. This just sucked, and I doubt Triple H has a good enough match in him against the Undertaker to make that show watchable. They'd fight in a decent tag match, later on, where Triple H and Hulk Hogan fought Undertaker and Kurt Angle. Angle and Taker actually took Hogan out before the match, leaving us with a boring handicap match that resulted in a DQ.
Jaime Noble and Nidia are acting as though they are inbred. Hardcore Holly and Test advanced in the King of the Ring tournament. Wow. Bob Holly wrestled TWO singles matches, wrestling Tajiri and Angle (Velocity), yet he didn't complain, eh X-Pac? Solid tag bout between Storm/Jericho vs. Kidman/Val Venis. Crowd was totally into it for some reason.
Faarooq made easy work of D'Von, as he announced that he still jacks off and he beat D'Von under a minute. Oh yeah, he beat D'Von in a match in under a minute too. Ok, I'm going to hell for that comment, but for the many comments I've made over the years about professional wrestling, I've had a spot ready there for a while... Trish/Linda took on Ivory/Jackie. The Tough Enough wrestlers could cover their flaws in a tag match. Trish Stratus looked like a million bucks; both in the ring and herself. Good head-scissors move.
We got brackets! On Smackdown, they announced the following brackets:
X-Pac vs. Rob Van Dam
Val Venis vs. Chris Jericho
-----------
Test vs. Hardcore Holly
Booker T vs. Brock Lesnar
Not much news on Friday........
4. Eddie Guerrero - The loss of Austin to wrestle at King of the Ring is badly going to hurt Guerrero.
3. Ric Flair - Just let him become a wrestler again. He's already better than 75% (or more) of the roster, even at his old age and broken down body.
2. Kurt Angle - He's sooo going to make Hogan look good at King of the Ring.
1. Diamond Dallas Page - It's a damn shame about his forced retirement.
WEAK of the WEEK: Using the same flipping pin in the Chris Jericho/Lance Storm vs. Val Venis/Billy Kidman and Rob Van Dam vs. Eddie Guerrero matches. Come on, the shows were just a few days apart.
GOOD SEGMENT THAT NO LONGER WORKS: Pay Per View contract signings, eh Triple H vs. Undertaker?
NEEDS TO LOSE ANOTHER DIAPER MATCH: X-Pac
SHOCKER: The fall of Steve Austin.
HOW ABOUT DEM APPLES: Jim Ross questioning his friendship to Steve Austin on Confidential.
DIDN'T LOOK IMPRESSIVE: Jaime Noble on Velocity. He didn't look too good in his match against Funaki, although Noble's finishing submission hold is wicked.
TOOK TOO MUCH TIME OFF THIS WEEK: Mr. Tito
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.
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@I really hope to be back with a column tomorrow. If not, definitely one on Tuesday. Until the next PDC, just chill...
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.