That being said, I have sort of an announcement to make. It's likely that this might be the last Summer or 3 Months that I'll be writing DAILY columns. About 2 months ago, I was accepted into Graduate school, in which I'll be starting in September. As you go through college, courses become harder each step of the way. That's one of the reasons why I haven't been 7 days a week, like I used to be, as opposed to 5-6 days a week like I am right now.
With this column, I planned on continuing it, as long as I could as long as it does NOT affect my personal life, my schoolwork, or any career that I went into. I usually write the column in the morning or sometime in the afternoon on my free time in between classes, before or after I go to work, or before I go to work. I always found it funny that many would imply that I "had no life" because I could write a Daily wrestling column. Well, did it ever occur to them that I enjoy writing and I like to use my free time writing about something I enjoy very much, such as wrestling?
With school, it was easy to write the column at first, but as classes got harder, finding time to write became harder as well. In fact, in the Fall of 1999, I nearly retired as Mr. Tito because my class schedule seemed heavy at that time. But I managed to get around that, and keep going until then. With graduate school, with intensely hard classes to receive a Master's degree, I don't know if I could keep it up on a Daily basis.
With work, the only time it affects my column is around Christmas time, when all retail business becomes very busy, and I get called into my part-time job for nearly every day (and I have no school during this time). No big thing there, but I am going to work this September as a graduate assistant, meaning that I'll be working under a professor to pay off half of my tuition, which I need to do.
I will admit that I almost retired completely as Mr. Tito in the Fall of 2001, when the WCW/ECW Invasion completely failed. Each day, I was just fed up with how the WWF completely blew one its biggest money making opportunities in their history. I was THAT sick of it that I was willing to walk away from it all, and probably stop watching wrestling on a regular basis, too. Thank God for the Rock vs. Jericho feud, and Thank God for Ric Flair's WWF return, although Vince McMahon's ego trip thereafter (remember, Kiss My Ass club?) and Stephanie's usual antics about sent me over the edge, too.
But damn it, I LOVE wrestling. I wouldn't be spending my free time writing about it if I didn't. I wouldn't spend my earned money on the videos, books, and music CDs if I didn't. I wouldn't waste my time watching RAW, Smackdown, and the Pay Per Views if I didn't. I like it, and my anger caused from it is from my compassion for the sport or entertainment I grew up watching.
Now, all of this DOES NOT say that I'm retiring completely as Mr. Tito or a columnist. Notice how I kept on saying "Daily" up top. In September, unless I can manage my time in amazing fashion or if graduate work appears to be easy to me, it's likely that I'll become a part-time columnist, probably doing just a RAW review, Smackdown review, MAYBE a Pay Per View review, and possibly the Week In Review columns. Those 3 or 4 columns, right now, appear to be my more popular days. I'd say reviewing the television shows could be likely, but if I can squeeze another in, then maybe that would happen. Maybe I could do special "Multimedia" reviews, given that those columns seem popular too.
But for now, I've got 3 months to keep bringing it Daily, and when the 3 months are up, I'll see what my situation is and decide to go from there. I decided to announce it now just to let readers know of what may happen in the future, regarding this Daily column. I've got several plans of what I want to write about this summer, given that I just have to work instead of taking summer classes (which I usually did).
A couple of other things... I really enjoyed WWE Confidential. The discussions about Davey Boy Smith and the highlight reels of him were fantastic. I found it respectable that both Bruce and Diana Hart bit the bullet of bitterness with Davey Boy and talked about the positives he had. You know, Bruce's wife started having an affair with Davey Boy, and Diana's final years being married to Davey Boy were a disaster. I wish the WWE would do more with wrestler's deaths, maybe have something on Owen Hart or Brian Pillman in the future? I figured that the Shawn Michaels interviews would serve as something to get Michaels back into the WWE. Still good. I didn't like how the WWE was recycling "Before they were WWF Superstars" footage, which was ultimately done as a cost cutting feature. My hopes are that the ratings stay high enough for the WWE to keep caring about the show. I laughed at how Torrie Wilson said that Billy Kidman was the hottest WWE superstar, no question, in the segment that had the Divas getting the question "who was the most sexy WWE superstar". That's hilarious!
Also, thanks to whoever held up the Mr. TITO #1 sign last night at RAW. It's one of the biggest perks in the 3+ years writing that someone would take the time and effort to honor me at a show. I REALLY appreciate it!
Hey, I do have a column still to write here, so let's review RAW, Tito-style! On to the PDC.
Our first match of the night was for the Hardcore Title, as it was Bradshaw against champion Steven Richards. By the way, Jackie is the referee of this match, thus proving me right that the WWE gives her unlimited chances to make it big at something in the WWE. Hey, more power to her, but not to the fans, who have to suffer with her lame wrestling, announcing, and being a referee. He was HORRIBLE on Heat from the few moments that I caught that show Sunday night. The match was I'm-a-Hoss-and-overpushed-Bradshaw pounding on I-am-not-the-same-since-1997-Richards. Whoop-dee-doo. Bradshaw won the title, yay, and hit Crash on the way out. If you can't push Bradshaw in the Main Event level, I guess this is good enough. Just better hope that there are enough wrestlers to take Bradshaw's stiff wrestling style, especially with weapons.
Hey, a King of the Ring Qualifying match... X-Pac vs. Goldust was the first one, making you wonder how poor the talent pool will officially be for this year's tournament. In a weak match for two veterans going at it, X-Pac won to advance onto the tournament.
For being the future of the WWE, Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar SUCK on facial expressions during a promo. Thank God for Heyman.
I liked the adding of the stipulations to the match contract for Ric Flair vs. Steve Austin. What I liked better is that a loophole was found in the contract would make Flair, Austin's servant if he lost. Amazing that Debra was the one who found that out, given that there's a whole lot of air in that head.
Next, we had a yet another lingerie match attempted on RAW, this time it was Trish Stratus taking on Terri. I guess since Terri won the Hardcore title and nearly showed beaver on RAW last week, she deserves a title shot. Man, Trish was ~SMOKIN'~ tonight, as Howard Stern would say. The should show MORE of her in revealing shots than the tired act of Terri, which we've all seen nearly nude since 1997. Plus, Trish is and looks so much younger... Trish won this horrible match with Terri feeling a twist of irony, losing to a bulldog of all moves. Guess who used to use that move in WCW? Good ol' Dustin Rhodes, her ex-husband.
Rob Van Dam/Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Eddie Guerrero/Brock Lesnar was good overall, but it was sloppy at times. You know, like some blown spots and Bubba Ray standing there, waiting for Guerrero to kick the table into his face. Eddie "got his heat back" when he pinned Rob Van Dam at the end. When you are pushing a new superstar to the top, this is the appropriate time to do it. Not having someone winning a fluke win over the Undertaker, only to get completely squashed the next week. BIG, big difference there. Bubba is slowly but surely (don't call me Shirley) shaping up into a good singles wrestler again.
GOOFY interview between William Regal and Booker T. It's one thing to push Booker T as a new comedic face act, but to go overboard with it, that's another thing. Booker T would beat Regal in a King of the Ring Qualifying match, with a dead crowd, still trying to decide if Booker T was turning heel or not. That Dallas crowd wasn't hot at all tonight, although I don't blame them in some instances. Booker T badly needs a Chris Benoit to wrestle.
In what was total garbage, the Undertaker completely squashed Tommy Dreamer. Yeah, let's play Tom Green with lame puking spots. Hell, why not play the Godwins with dumping slop on people, too, while we are at it? This just hurt the eyes watching this crap. Jeff Hardy run down and baseball slide Undertaker into the puke, and he'll probably run for his life for the next few months or weeks for some time off. Jeff Hardy actually looked motivated for a change. Undertaker would then attack Matt Hardy later on, as if we weren't down this road before. Undertaker on both shows is a complete ratings problem that needs to be solved.
Kevin Nash would come out with a HUGE announcement. I figured he would be dissolving the New World Order, but instead, he announced a new member, which turned out to be Shawn Michaels. It's good to have him back, yes, and he'll probably help the nWo, at least in the short run. I wasn't much for HBK dancing around the arena and ring though. Do a little bit of it, and then cut a promo, as only the Heartbreak Kid can do. Instead, he was dancing around, and that was it. I was guessing that Nash would turn on him, but oh well. Let the backstage political games begin!
Final match was Ric Flair vs. Steve Austin. Decent technical match, but damn, I didn't realize how much the "No Punching" rule would affect the match. Austin somewhat needs it to control his flow during a match, and the chops were just overdone in the match. Austin uses his many righthands to move from one move to the next, and the Lou Thesz press is a great move with punches. It kinda killed the crowd for this big match, too. Austin would eventually win the match, despite Guerrero's help, meaning that Flair will be Austin's servant next week on RAW. Smell the Sports Entertainment.
LAST WORD: 2nd week in a RAW for a RAW with some brightspots, yet reaching some new lows. The storylines structure of the show was good, but crap with the Undertaker or other weak midcard matches need to be fixed, and now, or else the ratings will keep sliding. I'll give it a
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@I'll probably be back on Monday. If not, I'm guaranteed to be here on Tuesday, where I'll make some sort of announcement. Until then, just chill...
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.