Nitro

First Hour(unopposed): 4.0
Second Hour: 3.4
Third Hour: 2.8
Composite: 3.4

Raw is War

First Hour: 5.9
Second Hour: 6.9
Composite: 6.4

Head To Head

-Oh gosh, this week was a slaughter! So for all of the "WCW marks" that were bothering me about my C- grade, take a look at the ratings above. They don't look so good for you guys, especially the lousy 2.8 in the second hour. A 3.4 isn't spectacular either in the first hour. This proves that Nitro must put up a top notch program everyweek, and never slack off like they did this week. Also, not only were the ratings low due to a poor show, it proved that the WWF put on a very good show. A 6.9 in the second hour, damn is that high. Raw, overall, bitchslapped Nitro by a 3.3 margin, which is huge! WCW better put on a huge show next week, or they could be doomed! Oh yeah, Heat did a 4.0, also beating Nitro.

The State of WCW

Since the ratings were so bad in favor of WCW, I thought I'd do the States today. Well, WCW has a pay per view coming up, and Nitro didn't seem to hype it much. Only a few things were done to hype it, nothing spectacular. Is Thunder going to hype it up? How about Saturday Night? Maybe World Wide? Well, who knows, Slamboree might not need hype to be bought. But having good hypes and good Nitros before a pay per view really helps the buy rates. I hope WCW realizes that.

Slamboree Card:

Nash vs. DDP for the World Title

Gorgeous George vs. Charles Robinson for Macho's reinstatement

Flair vs. Piper for control of WCW

Scott Steiner vs. Buff for the US title

Rey Misterio Jr. and Kidman vs. Benoit and Malenko vs. Raven and Saturn for the World tag titles

Sting vs. Goldberg

Booker T vs. Rick Steiner

Konnan vs. Stevie Ray

Bam Bam vs. Brian Knobbs

Now take a look at that card. It's a very good one on paper, but it could be greatly affected by the recent Nitro. On Nitro, they hyped Goldberg vs. Sting by having them come out and having the usual security guards breaking them up. Haven't we seen that before with Goldberg? What was up with Nash helping out Konnan? Why didn't Nash go after DDP? An angle I could do without is having Macho always helping DDP out. Those two really hated each other, and I hate how easy it is to forgive in WCW. I can't stand it!

What can be done to improve WCW? Well, realize that Sting is still the top man!! I may be partial to Sting sometimes, but take a look at his matches when he wrestles. Believe it or not, people tune into his matches, and his matches were the only things ever close to beating Raw at a 15 minute interval. Another thing they need to do is to use wrestlers properly when they come back from injury or breaks. They need to utilize Bret Hart and Scott Hall's talents when the come back. Those two can really perform. Just remember we have Hogan coming back in a few weeks, and I'll try to be nice in this segment because I always get yelled at when ripping Hogan. Hogan needs to come back with a brand new, fresh gimmick. Maybe then he'll be over again. Just look what a gimmick change did for him when he turned into Hollywood...it made WCW the top federation. Of course, that's just my opinion.

The State of the WWF

I'm sure the WWF is just wining and dining over their recent crushing of Nitro. I thought the recent RAW was the best I've seen in a few months. I thought they were taking it easy for a while, but they bring us this recent great show. It seems that they finally have the Ministry over, now that they are the Corporate Ministry. The pay per view matches seem to be getting over early as well. WWF is really tearing up.

Current Over the Edge Card:

Stone Cold vs. the Undertaker with Shane as the referee(again!) for the World Title

The Rock vs. Triple H

Up Yours(Mankind, Test, Shamrock, Big Show) vs. the Corporate Ministry(Mideon, Bossman, Bradshaw, Farooq)

X-Pac and Kane vs. Sexual Chocolate and D-Lo

Mr. Ass vs. the Road Dogg

It's looking very good so far, but the WWF isn't out of the woods though. They, believe it or not, have some flaws. The major flaw that I see can really hurt them, especially their ego. The flaw is that they are really getting cocky now that they are dominating every week in the ratings. A good example was Vince's whining about the Entertainment Weekly Goldberg cover. Yes, I know WCW gloated about their winnings, but look what happened to them, they took it easy, got cocky, and started to lose the ratings. Same thing happened to the WWF before WCW made it big. They put on half-assed Raw shows, which were always taped, and WCW figured out something that would make the crowd fall in love with them, and the weak WWF had nothing to counter the Outsiders. Nothing, thus the ratings winnings by WCW.

But this WWF juggernaut is starting to look like they are even stronger than WCW was when they were on top. WWF live event titckets are hot sellers, and they are getting really tough to get for Pay Per Views or television events. I see the shirts everywhere, and everyone is talking about the WWF, not WCW. Of course, I live in the North, where the WWF has a much greater hold on us. But still, the WWF has put on RAWs that I have felt were terrible, but they still get high ratings. Impressive. I think the main reason is how they can get wrestlers over. Now sure they couldn't get some over like Public Enemy and Dr. Death, but you can't get everyone over. Their storylines can't be beat, and their wrestlers don't forgive other wrestlers as easy as they do in WCW. I don't, that's just my opinion.

Phat Chat!!!

Well, tonight is Wednesday Night, and you know what that means. Yet another installment of Phat Chat! It starts at 7:30 Eastern Tonight. I will be there to answer questions as usual, and I will also be interviewing my guest for this week, Chill-N, the Co-Webmaster of Top-Rope.com
!! So come on in and talk some wrestling. To get to Phat Chat on mIRC use the server:

irc.webchatting.com

#phatchat

http://talk.to/mrtito

@Well, that's all for today's Phat Daily Column. Thanks as always for reading, and just chill...till the next episode.

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Take Care, and Happy Wrestling.

Mr. Tito © 1999