Yes it's me, the Tito PDC, with another Phat Daily Column for this wonderful Friday. I love Fridays, as it's the only chance for me to sleep in during the week. For today's column, I will tell it like it is concerning the world of wrestling, Smackdown, and I have yet another Phat Video Game review lined up for you! Yes, that's right, two days in a row! Without anymore rambling, on to the PDC!

WWF

-I have to give the Rock mad props for last night. He truly busted his ass in the ring on Smackdown, taking some good bumps, and allowing opponents to dish out on him. Now I'll admit that I'm not for some of the Rock's things, you know, like his repetitive catch phrases, but damn he put on a show last night. First off, he single handedly defeated Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn, only to get a beat down at the end of the match. Then, the Rock took on the Dudley Boyz in a tables match, which he almost won, but he got the 3D through the table for the loss. Hey, he just put over the Dudleys...mad props there! Then, he comes down and tries to fight off Big Show and Triple H. He took both of their special moves, along with a lead pipe to the ribs a bunch of times! Great showing Rock!

-Speaking of the lead pipe, did anybody notice how someone must have been at ringside to make those metalic sounds? It happened with the ring bell too, as the Rock was hitting the Dudley Boys with the back of the ring bell, and it was making a distinct bell sound. Hmmm.

-I guess maybe it's time for Tazz and Chris Jericho to tag up against Kurt Angle and Bob Backlund? Tazz? A tag partner? Eww, because Tazz always refused to tag up with anybody in ECW. Oh wait, this is the WWF, and he's not the top badass anymore! I think it's rather funny to have Bob Backlund attacking everyone who fights angle, and I wouldn't mind a Backlund vs. Tazz submission match. I'm still wondering why the WWF has Backlund siding with Kurt Angel..I mean Angle. Maybe he recognizes the 'American hero' in him, and that the fans didn't respect Angle just like they didn't for Backlund in 1995.

-I'm really loving any angle with Crash Holly right now. The Posse attacked him at a laundry mat! How funny is that? However, why was the WWF putting over Prince Albert in that Hardcore match? Why do they even think to put him over? Sure, he's a good performer, but does he draw heat? No. Does he draw cheers? NO! Why WWF why?

-Yet for all of tonight, no Wrestlemania matches have been named...well, besides Triple H and Big Show, which will definately change. It seems rather odd, because the WWF usually makes the matches way ahead of time, and drags feuds out for weeks until the Pay Per View. They aren't doing it this month, as wrestlers are just wrestling each other. After tonight, you aren't sure if Jericho is fighting Kurt Angle or not. Who are the Dudley Boys wrestling? Christian and Edge are having their problems, plus, they lost last week to X-Pac and Road Dogg. It's confusing, but with about 3 weeks to go, I guess they can build it up without losing viewer's interest.

WCW

-According to Dave Scherer, there seems to be no ECW PPV clause in the releases of Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch. That would mean that they could finally sign with WCW, and finally debut after millions of interet wrestling fans kept asking me "when will they debut in WCW?". Yay. I hope that they don't screw up their chance in WCW. Lord only knows that the bridges have been burnt down in the WWF and ECW, so WCW is their only true chance to make it big into wrestling. Let's pray that they get their heads screwed on straight, and become great performers once again. I'm hoping so.

-Since there isn't much WCW news floating around, I guess I'll just discuss the current Uncensored card, and just let it be known how the buyrate will do. First off, you have the Hogan vs. Flair match, which will be a decent one, but it's been badly hyped with Hogan's 80s promos. Hogan, however, will be at Nitro Monday, as I'm hoping that they give some kind of heat to the match. Then you have the match between Sid and Jeff Jarrett, as those two were in the last main event as well, and still couldn't draw a dime. Push someone else to be a main eventer please! Harris Brothers will be fighting the Mamalukes, which has been getting some heat, but nothing spectacular enough to buy a pay per view for. Harris Brothers will smash them anyway. Sting will fight Lex Luger in yet another poorly built up match. Sting needs to be at Nitro, as he will be Monday to hype this match up! Harlem Heat 2000 vs. Booker T and Billy Kidman. I swear, if Booker T and Kidman have to put anyone else over, I'll let WCW hear about it in this column. Terry Funk and Dustin Rhodes will fight in a match that has been build up with heat, and it could be alright. I think Dustin has overdone it on his interviews though to make this match a turn-off. Vampiro vs. Fit Finley is a match where Vampiro better smash Finley, and beat him cleanly. Brian Knobbs gets to fight 3 Count to regain his Hardcore title. It's an odd thing to cheer for 3 Count in a match.

Those are the matches, and you could be asking yourself, is it really worth buying this? Well, it's a much better lined up card than Superbrawl, but how could you get any worse than this. Besides the Vampiro match, Harlem Heat match, and the Hardcore match, this is probably the best card that WCW can put on. But where is Norman Smiley on this card? No where to be found on a WCW Pay Per View, yet he's so over with the fans.

Mr. Tito's Phat Video Game Review

Upon returning that joke of a game that some people call ECW Hardcore Revolution, I looked around on the N64 shelf, and poor WCW Mayhem was just sitting there. Since a few people have suggested for me to review it, I figured "why not give it a try?", so I did. Therefore, here is the review:

WCW Mayhem for the N64

I had a few feelings coming into this game. For one, EA Sports is the company who made this game. Back in the day, EA Sports and THQ worked together. Yeah, that's right, when EA didn't want to do the great sports games for the dying 16 bit systems, they gave the rights to THQ and helped them make the games. So maybe this game MIGHT be like THQ wrestling games, which are the best in the business. WCW used to be on THQ, as for some reason, their deal ran out, WCW jumped to EA Sports, and THQ picked up the WWF license, and the rest is history.

They don't have any special intros to the game, as you are taken directly into the menu of the game. I must say that the menu is very annoying! It keeps having those pop up screens! Some of the options aren't too bad, as you can play a pay per view mode, and you have the wonderful create a wrestler. It's about like the ECW Hardcore revolution one, only with just a little bit less features. The matches are pretty good to choose from, like pin anywhere, no DQ, battle royal, and a few others. You can adjust other options, but nothing new or spectacular for options in this game. One feature that hurts this game is the long loading time! Argh, that drove me nuts! It's an N64 game for heaven's sakes, so why is there loading time? I found that ridiculous!

WCW tried to do entrances for their wrestlers, but not all of their wrestlers have their theme music. They just run down to the ring, but it is pretty cool how Mean Gene announces them coming in. The commentary on the game is very good, even though it's Tony Shiavone. Now for the gameplay. Overall, it's very easy to catch on to this game. The moves and grappling is simple and easy to do, and moves aren't countered like they are in the THQ games. In fact, the grappling is like the THQ games very much, but the moves from the grappling are performed very fast. However, the gameplay slows down when you walk through the ropes, and some of the action is a bit choppy at times.

One of the features that helped make this game noticeable was the backstage brawling feature. In fact, it was so good, that THQ had to one-up this feature for Smackdown. Anyway, it's pretty good, with weapons all around. This is probably the best feature of the game. A few other things to note before I'm done, like the character selection. From what I could see, there are a ton of hidden wrestlers! Also, you have a vast selection of WCW main eventers, midcarders, and jobbers to choose from. The graphics of this game are pretty good, as the wrestlers do look pretty lifelike..but a bit choppy too.

Last Word: Overall, this game isn't as bad as I thought it would be. If you are a hardcore WCW fan that wants the most current roster of WCW wrestlers, than this is your game. If you want stronger gameplay, then stick with WCW Revenge. Revenge is a very solid game and it just about matches the same wrestlers in Mayhem, with a few exceptions. I'll give WCW Mayhem for N64 a

B-

for an overall decent game with a few things that can be corrected. Not bad for EA sports first licensed wrestling game, as I'm sure they will only get better at this. This is a lot better than ECW Hardcore Revolution! God, that game was so bad!

Note from Tito: Many of you readers keep asking me where my "Smackdown" review is. Well, I don't have a Playstation. In fact, I'm not going to even bother to buy a Playstation now with that lovely Playstation 2 coming out, as video game companies will produce games for the Playstation 2, and not just the regular Playstation. Besides, I'd rather buy a system that can play DVD's along with video games! Therefore, the only way you'll see a review of any PSX games is if I play any of those games elsewhere.

@That's all for this Friday edition of the Phat Daily Column. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow to critique ECW on TNN, which is on at 8 pm Eastern Time on TNN. You better watch it now, because come September, ECW might be out of luck with the WWF possibly coming to TNN. Hopefully, the Pay Per View picture for ECW gets better on tonight's show.

Wrestlemania 2000: Still the Best Wrestling Video Game!

Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.

Mr. Tito © Exclusive to LordsofPain.net