Be Sure to Vote for Smackdown's grade and the Best WWF wrestler tonight after Smackdown Airs!!!
As for Mike Sanders. I can't say that he's a great commissioner because all he is doing is to set up the faces for harder matches. Big F'N deal. Many commissioners before him have done that. The Cat is the best commish in the business, as he's usually fair and impartial, and plus, he's very funny in his role.
PRAISE THE LORD, they've done something great with Shane Douglas!!! I think WCW is starting to notice that Shane could be a top heel, and by giving him the win over Sting tonight, he's on his way. At least I hope so. Knowing WCW, Billy Kidman will come back, and he'll feud with him and Kwee Wee at the same time.
Wait a second, Sting showed up for Thunder??? Scott Steiner did as well, as I'm wondering how much they'll be wrestling in Australia. Steiner was going berzerk in the back, until Midajah asks for a special match...with the Jung Dragons???
I was surprised at how pissed the crowd was at Jim Duggan. Lots of heat, from what I hear, a very small crowd. I read the reports that the heat from the crowd was killed, thanks to DJ Ran's commercial breaks, but it sure didn't sound like it to me. Anyway, Duggan fought A Wall (Get it? A Wall?) to an OK match, considering both are just two big slugs. Well, I shouldn't say that, since Duggan made a good US champ in the mid 90s, if anyone was watching WCW then. I was. Also for Team Canada, Lance Storm tried to win the title back to give it to Elix Skipper, which I've never understood really. I thought if you give a title away, it's immediately vacant? Well, luckily, it didn't happen tonight to rant about.
The match of the night, however, was Crowbar and Mike Awesome vs. Jindrak and O'Haire. Damn good tag match, with 4 great competitors. However, Jindrak/O'Haire were fighting two guys who need to start acting like themselves, and not that damn 70s crap. But of course, with Russo in charge, you aren't allowed to get over on wrestling ability, you must have a corny gimmick.
Say it with me three times: Beetlejuice Sucks, Beetlejuice Sucks, and Beetlejuice Sucks!
But this was a good show. Hell, I'll even grade it. I'll give it an A-, especially for a good follow up from Nitro, and a better Thunder than last week's disaster.
Why is all of this happening?? Well, if you didn't know by now, Time Warner is a very profitable corporation. Every single branch of their company makes profits, EXCEPT World Championship Wrestling, who is still set to lose $82 Million. With this AOL merger still being discussed, Time Warner wouldn't want an unprofitable branch on them before the merger finally goes through. So what I'm saying is that WCW needed to be sold. Time Warner really has NO CHOICE but to sell it, and it seems that the Mandalay Sports company is willing to buy it, and it just so happens that Eric Bischoff is a part of them.
Now it's pretty safe to say that WCW is going back in time on this one, as superstars like Hulk Hogan and anyone else who was very close to Eric Bischoff will definitely return. But the whole point of my argument is that WCW has no choice but to sell. The current scheme isn't making WCW money, no matter how Russo will brag about having better ratings than Kevin Sullivan. Anybody could have done better than Sullivan, but that's not the point.
Many love what Russo is doing. Many don't. The ones who enjoy Russo are the ones who stick by WCW on every move. They know the bad times when Russo is not in charge, so when he comes back, it's a breath of fresh air for them. It is for me at first, and then I see lots of bad booking occurring, like David Arquette, the new wrestler of Kwee Wee, the Misfits in Action, and so forth. No matter how he connects with wrestlers, it's still not selling tickets for events, not selling merchandise, and certainly not getting that great of a ratings gain on Monday Night RAW. That's the whole point of this sale. Russo's WCW isn't making the money spending any better for WCW, and it's still going to be around $80 million in debt.
Since it doesn't make Time Warner any money, which in fact, makes Time Warner lose money, it must be sold. Now whether that brings in another Hulk Hogan era, and Russo without a job, we'll have to see. I can tell you that's very likely to happen, since Bischoff and Russo just don't get along like they did when Bischoff brought Russo back. Once the official sale is announced, hold onto your seats, because you'll see lots of news and moves going on.
Anybody see that report on Diamond Dallas Page??? WCW is offering a buyout which would pay $0.55 on the dollar(Isaacs), for an overall loss of about a million. Now I'm sure that Page is itching to return to wrestling in some shape, as I'm hearing he wrestled well at the Houseshows. I'm sure he could be a huge draw if he took this buyout, and jumped to the WWF. I don't know about you, but I'd love to see a Rock vs. DDP match. How about DDP vs. Triple H? How about DDP vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin? The list could go on and on with great wrestlers! It may be a lot of money, but think of the opportunity in the WWF, and he's wanted to go there by many wrestlers.
Click Here for a hilarious parody conversation about Russo and Jeremy Borash. This had me off the chair laughing!
4. Jeff Jarrett- I was hoping for the Chosen One to win the title on Nitro so that he and Sting could fight over it, but oh well. Jarrett must be a very willing person to work with such freaks like Beetlejuice.
3. Sting- He wrestled Thunder! Now that's an accomplishment. He fought Shane Douglas to a good main event match, and he also did well in the tag match earlier this week on Nitro.
2. Shane Douglas- Finally, WCW is seeing the potential!! Shane Douglas got some fine wins this week, as he defeated Mike Awesome and Sting this week! Two huge wins, as he might be well on his way to being a top heel in the business again.
1. Scott Steiner- Now well under control, he's really starting to shine as a wrestler. Good things will now happen for Big Poppa Pump.
Remember, since I don't get Smackdown, I'm placing the responsibility of grading the show in YOUR HANDS. YOU are also responsible for making my Phat 5 as well, so........
A few individuals have approached me about doing polls for the shows more often. Well, I'll have to think about that one. If you see any newer polls coming up, if any, it would be the Monday Night Impressions one where YOU would vote on RAW/Nitro. That's the only thing I might add, so that way, YOUR grades can compare with MY grades for something interesting. I don't know, I'll think about it, ok?
@That's all for today! I'll be back tomorrow with WWF Day, tallying up YOUR votes to analyze the shows, and I'll also discuss the current issues of the WWF. So until then, check out I Know What You Did Last Monday at the Phat Pharm!
Phat Pharm: CLICK HERE to check out "I Know What You Did Last Monday"!!!!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading!