Damn it, I didn't catch any of the recent WWF media appearances. Having the timer set for Smackdown and Tough Enough, I wasn't able to catch Linda McMahon on the O'Reilly factor. From what I heard, O'Reilly's show was somewhat edited to make him look good and that he had a well planned attack for Linda. That's what he usually does for his guests, especially those who try to come on his show to plug a book or whatever else. Ask Dan Rather, who just planned to plug a book on that show and got torched by O'Reilly for some of his news reporting. Give O'Reilly credit, though, as he has the balls to ask a lot of the tough questions to quests, whereas hosts like Larry King get out the knee pads for their guests.
And no, I didn't catch Hulk Hogan on Live with Regis and Kelly. By the way, Kelly has added new life to that show. I HATED Cathy Lee. She was such an evil, evil person. Kelly is funny, and you know, hot too. Thanks to his return to the WWF, Hulk Hogan has new life to his character and image. I suppose staying away from the WWF for almost 8 years has sure done a lot.
Many readers said that I forgot a track on the WWF Forceable Entry. No, I did not. On the CANADIAN version of Forceable Entry, they got an extra track which was the theme for Kane. Here in the United States, we got ripped. I like how many other countries argue that American WWF fans have it good, while they get little bonuses like extra tracks on their CDs and FREE Pay Per Views. But anyway, the American version of the Forceable Entry CD does NOT have the Kane theme, thank you very much. The Kane theme is nothing I can't download... For those of you who were asking, yes, I did buy the CD. If I need to whip out the Digital Camera from Hell to prove that I've bought ALL of the WWF CDs from the past 6 years.
Thanks to the many readers who sent in info on the "Judgment Night" soundtrack. I knew Cypress Hill was on the CD for two tracks (especially the GREAT song with Pearl Jam), but I wasn't sure who sang the "Just Another Victim" track. It was Helmet and House of Pain, for those of you who care. Download that great song, or screw it, buy the whole soundtrack since it's pretty good overall.
I was looking through my local mall recently, in search of Bobbleheads for my ridiculously growing collection, and I laughed when I saw the loads of WCW toys still around. I'm talking many of the figures, rings, keychains, and other crap that WCW made in 1998 when they thought they were invincible in the wrestling industry. Especially in Toys R Us and Kaybee toys. It's ridiculous! There are a lot of WWF figures left in my area, too, including plenty of Crash Holly figures if anyone is looking for that one.
Awesome!!! My prayers have been answered. For the new Flair era on Monday Night RAW, there will be a NEW set and NEW music for the show! YES!!! YES!!!! It's about damn time! Maybe if the WWF would have given RAW a new look a while ago, then it could have helped, somewhat, for a new image to RAW instead of the same old, same old.
Enough of the intro. Lots to cover today, so on to the PDC!
Next, we have a LONG 20 minute interview between Kurt Angle, Vince McMahon against Triple H, and later Ric Flair. Incredible heat from the fans for this one. Angle got everyone in the arena pissed off at him, and Vince kept their anger going. Angle showed that he still had some love for Stephanie by ragging on Triple H for making her leave the WWF. Understandable. Triple H would then get pissed off, respond, and a handicap match would be set up of Triple H against Angle/Vince. However, Flair came out and to a massive amount of face pops, made it a tag bout. Awesome interview here.
The second match of the night was the Dudleys versus Billy and Chuck. If the Dudleys were to win, they'd remain as a team. If not, they would have to start their singles careers. Now, I see the psychology of Chuck & Suck winning the match, as they could claim that they broke up one of the most successful teams ever. Remember, The NEW AGE OUTLAWS attacked the Legion of Doom to get a certain "rub" off a legendary tag team. Let's look here... Chuck & Suck are given the tag titles, despite no heat. Then, they retain the title belts at Wrestlemania. They were given a manager. And now, they just beat one of the best tag teams ever. Wow, that's a lot of opportunities to shine, whereas many other wrestlers are just ignored on pushes. It must be something between Billy Gunn and Vince McMahon, eh? Yuck!
HOWEVER, I am hoping the WWF saw a major opportunity flash before their eyes. When the Dudleys acted like faces at the end of the bout, the crowd was popping like crazy. Making them faces again would have been gold for the tag division, but instead, they are both projected to more or less fail as singles competitors.
I really liked the APA segments last night. They are usually funny backstage, and it was sort of sad to see an end to this bizarre team. In 1998, both Faarooq and Bradshaw were struggling WWF competitors. Their singles careers sucked, as Faarooq's time as the Nation of Domination leader was over and Bradshaw's small singles push after the break-up of the NEW Blackjacks failed. They were put together as a team for the the hell of it, pushed on Sunday Night Heat as two possessed demons, and BAM, they took off as an incredible tag team that everyone feared. NOBODY in their right mind expected ANYTHING from this team. 4 years later, they are broken up, knowing that they made a name for themselves after everyone thought their careers were finished in the WWF.
At the last segment, the Acolytes looked back at their door, flipped the sign around to say "closed", and then saluted each other as the great team they were. The lights would go off at the end, which was a nice touch. It was kind of sad to see. It looks like Faarooq was preparing for his new singles career, as he's in great shape for his age (he's over 40).
OH my god!!!! The segment with Hogan, Rock, and Kane was one of the most entertaining segments ever on Smackdown!! It was funny for Hogan to question the Rock about Kane, only for Kane to come in and cut the promo of his life. Kane would whip out lots of Rock and Hogan catchphrases, and then proceed to do many of the Hogan poses. I was laughing hard for that one!
Next bout was Rock, Kane, Hulk Hogan against Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and X-Pac. Pretty good six man by all 6 members of this match, especially the Rock, who looked very crisp in this match. It has a lot of star power that you'd expect to see as a Main Event, right? Well, not when Vince McMahon is in another match. It looks like RAW will mainly feature Kane versus the NWO, which sort of scares me at this point, given the bad health of Kevin Nash. X-Pac and Kane did have a hot feud a while ago, you know?
Oh man, it looks like Stephanie and her WWF fanclub is depushing Chris Jericho to make Stephanie look good in the Wrestlemania feud. Jericho fought Matt Hardy of all people, and basically had to cheat to beat a tag team wrestler (with the low blow). With Hogan and the Rock on Smackdown, do you really think that Jericho will have a shot at the top again? Hardly. Especially when the likes of Kurt Angle is on the show with him.
Next, we have Rob Van Dam vs. Test. A very fast paced match, with Test being made to look good. It appeared that Testicles lost only because Hebner was out to get him. Test is on the Smackdown show, so why make him look good over RAW's IC champion? Shane McMahon back to pushing his friends again?
Great decision in giving Raven the Hardcore Title, in his match against champion Maven. Raven has a weird new look to him, with the blond dreadlocks. Tommy Dreamer involved himself with the match, which means, to all ECW fans, that he'll probably be a major contender for the Hardcore Title. Let's hope that the WWF can make that division interesting with the older ECW wrestlers.
Our main event was Triple H/Ric Flair versus Vince McMahon/Kurt Angle. Fun match, other than the fact that Vince can't wrestle whatsoever. You'd figure that by being in the business for as long as Vince has been that he would have learned to be a wrestler over time. Hell, Shane did a decent job of it in only a few years. The match helped to fuel the continuous feud between Ric Flair and the Undertaker, once the deadman helped Vince and Angle win the match. That could spark the proposed Triple H vs. Undertaker match at Backlash?
LAST WORD: Wow, what a show! The main event scene looks to be in good shape for now, but I have a continuing concern about midcard wrestlers. The split is looking like a great idea thus far, and the impact of it was well represented with this show. We'll go
It appears that Tough Enough producers are trying to have more feuds in between the contestants than on the wrestling itself. They focused on Jake's feelings towards women, and later, Jesse and Alicia got into a fight because Alicia lacked the ovaries to say anything bad to Jesse's face. God, that Alicia is one of the most annoying reality television characters that I've witnessed.
And it's clearly obvious that she's the biggest crybaby of the group. Oh, my back hurts! WAAAAAH!!! She's milking it, which I don't get why the Tough Enough trainers don't see. Well, they did, but they oddly chose to keep her. Why? Who knows? They kept Jesse too, who appears to be having some health problems to worry about in the future. Alicia should have been cut, but nooooo, Tough Enough made a bad, bad decision.
The Dudley Boyz came over, and they gave a little test to the Tough Enough contestants. They made every wrestler cut a promo in the ring, which was terribly judged by the Dudleys and the Tough Enough trainers. This contest made a lot of negative feelings towards Dan. While all of the other HORRIBLE promos weren't critiqued harshly, Dan was made to look like he had no charisma whatsoever. Huh? The other guys sucked just as bad, if not worse. The Women, especially, were horrible on the promos. But to point the finger at Dan?
And guess what? Because of Dan's so-called inability to cut a promo, he was cut from the show. Let's forget that Jesse's body is probably falling apart, and let's not forget that Alicia absolutely sucks. Oh yeah, and how good are the other guys? Hawk? Goofy and sucks. Jake? Great look and ability, but his promo sucked. Pete? As short as Dan, and his promos sucked. Matthew? Promos sucked. Kenny? Promos sucked. And the Tough Enough trainers said that Dan was one of the best athletes out there, if not THE best. But they cut him.
How about we look at the trainers? Al Snow... he has charisma? Hardly. The only time he was ever "over" was when he had a fake head in ECW, and that's from great writing by Paul Heyman and ECW marks screaming for him. Bob Holly... HA! Absolutely no charisma and mic skills. Same goes for Chavo. Same goes for Ivory, especially IVORY! God, she has the worst mic skills of anyone in the WWF. And they can rip Dan for his stuff?
LAST WORD: Crappy decision on the cut this week. Alicia should have been booted off the show, even if you still had to cut Dan. I see Jake winning one spot, while the other spot is questionable, especially since Tough Enough hardly shows any of the contestants training to be wrestlers anymore.
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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@That's it. I hope to have something for the weekend, but if not, see you Monday. Have a Happy Easter, whether you celebrate it religiously or enjoy having a big fat rabbit hiding eggs. Until then, just chill.........
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.