First of all, thanks to Mitnik for supplying me with a great Week in Review banner! Great stuff!
Today, I'll start using my new Week In Review banner. I just want to thank all of those who sent in banners, for I appreciate the time spent on possibly helping me out. A word of caution for the next time myself or someone else on LoP asks for banners: DO NOT USE WRESTLERS IN THE BANNERS!!! Especially WWF wrestlers, since the WWF offices will give LoP a nice phone call or an e-mail, or they'll have a nice talk with our server hosts in which bad things could happen. The WWF seems to have way too much power in terms of what is copyrighted on the internet, and we don't want them to use their stroke on us.
Anyway, on to the PDC.
First of all, thanks to Mitnik for supplying me with a great Week in Review banner! Great stuff!
This week, the WCW invasion hit full scale. First, at WWF King of the Ring, DDP continued his angle with the Undertaker, while Booker T debuted to attack Steve Austin, which almost cost him the match. Notice I said "almost", for Austin became Superman and won the match. The next night on RAW, Mike Awesome made an "awesome" debut by winning the WWF hardcore title by destroying Rhyno with a powerbomb on the ladder. Then, Booker T and Shane McMahon played musical chairs with Steve Austin and Kurt Angle at WWF NY, and then Booker T assaulted Vince McMahon in the ring. The Heat and Jakked tour ran out to make the save. Finally, on Smackdown, Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo attacked during the Dudleys vs. Hardys match, in which O'Haire executed a very graceful Swanton bomb off the top rope. They were then beat down by the Heat and Jakked tour. Later on, Torrie Wilson, who the WCW let go for contractual reasons, showed up backstage to hit on Vince McMahon. Later on, Booker T ambushed Steve Austin after Stone Cold called him out.
Monotone Linda announced that the next few shows will have WCW matches on the card as well. My theory is that those matches are on the shows as testers for the possibility of RAW becoming a WCW show. Personally, if you didn't actually watch Nitro or Chunder, then you'll know that WCW had a lot of wrestlers with loads of potential. Many WWF fans are familiar with guys like Sting, Bill Goldberg, Scott Steiner, or Ric Flair, but they never knew of the many other wrestlers who are still very young and have never been given the real opportunity to showcase their talents. Believe me, their matches on WWF television will be good.
Also this week, many rumors continue to surface about Jerry Lawler returning to WWFE to announce again. This comes on the heels of Chyna's contract problems, for she was a big tattle-tail towards Lawler's wife, the Kat, about a possible attitude. By the way, I don't really see the Kat having any chance of having an attitude, for she seems quite dense. Many reports say Lawler is coming back, while the WWF and Lawler himself are denying it or putting it off. Where else could Lawler go in wrestling these days? Therefore, he's coming back in some shape or form, even if Jim Ross puts his own ass on the line to get him there.
The WWF ratings have seen a rise... Monday Night RAW jumped around a half of a point after King of the Ring and while doing the WCW Invasion angle. Smackdown went up a little bit, which is good, with the more limited television audience than the cable one. Looks like the WCW Invasion is working. That's good, because every other attempt at booming the ratings, failed.
The match had lots of high flying and some stiff kicks and chops. Jericho gave it his all in this match, and he worked great with Tajiri and Jericho didn't blow any spots, like he did in the night before. Jericho has that unorthodox flashy style, which many get from wrestling in ECW, that made his match with Tajiri look so good. Basically, Jericho will always be an ECW at heart. Jericho won after Tajiri accidentally hit Regal with the mist, in a stunning ending.
I didn't think any other match even came close to this one. Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon was good, but it was pushing violence and just sick, sick bumps by Shane McMahon. Jericho vs. Benoit vs. Austin was a good match, too, but the ending really hurt since Austin came back after a beatdown to win the match.
I still believe that the Dudleys must get on the mic and shoot on the crowd. The ECW fans were sooo pissed off when the Dudleys told them off every night. Now the Dudleys can't use cursewords to tell the fans off, but you don't have to be dirty to rip on the crowd. All you have to do is call them white trash or douchebags, and they'll boo you every night.
The tag team scene is a bit dead, lately, but I'm assuming the WCW Invasion should help that out somewhat.
This totally came out of no where, and none of the "inside sources" even saw it coming, either. It's one thing about the WCW invasion that must be looked at more often, and that's the element of surprise to keep the viewers hooked to their televisions. Fans love to expect the unexpected, which is why WCW was popular in 1996 and why the WWF was popular in 1998. Hey, wrestling needs a big boom now, so why not think like that?
Booker T's run in at the King of the Ring was a very close 2nd, but that was tarnished since Austin was able to get back up and get the win over Benoit and Jericho.
For X-Pac, after losing against Jeff Hardy at King of the Ring, he suddenly gets a rematch with Hardy on RAW?!? At that match, he gets the win by cheaply putting his feet on the ropes. But here's where it really gets worse. Instead of getting revenge on X-Pac, Jeff Hardy tags up with his brother to go after the Dudleys, and X-Pac teams with Billy Gunn for no damn reason whatsoever. X-Pac has NOTHING to do with Edge or Christian, and he had no storylines to put him back with Gunn. Remember that D-X kicked Gunn out of the group to sell his injury angle.
For Albert, after wrestling several weeks with none of the fans caring, which made it easy for you to clearly hear Jim Ross hyping him, he gets awarded the Intercontinental Title. I'm telling ya, he's going to do nothing for that belt, for nobody will care who he defends it against, even if they get a so-called big victory over him. Kane was a more marketable champ, but the WWF didn't give a shit to use him as the IC champ. Albert will fail, and then go down as one of the worst IC champs, ever. Mark my words.
4. Tajiri - He's not a bust like everyone thought he'd be.
3. Kurt Angle - One night of wrestling gave Angle more injuries than he's ever had in his entire life!
2. Chris Benoit - So long fallen Crippler. Too bad the WWF didn't do much to inform regular fans about your absence.
1. King Edge - See down below.
Edge just totally humiliated Billy Gunn on RAW with one of the best promos in recent times. Gunn didn't know to cry or wind his watch after Edge dished out those harsh comments! Unfortunately for Edge, he's had to face Gunn twice this week, as I'm hoping for a CLEAN WIN victory for Edge on RAW, in a much shorter match. Gunn sucks, and at his age, how can he improve? Edge is your future, so why not put him over Gunn, cleanly, instead of interference by Christian?
Great week for Edge, and the potential for even better weeks is definitely there.
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@That's it for today. If I'm able to come back tomorrow, I'll have something interesting for you. So just chill till the next episode.
Phat Pharm: Wrasslin' Columns!
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