Welcome back to the ONE and ONLY Phat Daily Column. Well, RAW is back to it's regular time, and this is the first Nitro since Eric Bischoff was demoted. How did they do? Did RAW come back with a thunderous show for the return? Did Nitro get booked good? Let's see what I thought about it..on to the PDC.

Monday Night Impressions

Nitro

First 40 Minutes were great! I was actually pumped up by the first 45 minutes of the first hour. You had a stellar match between Malenko and Benoit, Ric Flair interview where he was attacked by Luger and Sting. During that interview, Sting made an excellent point. He said "You guys have been running the company for years, but now it's our turn to carry the ball." Then the show went downhill....

Fire Ricky Rachman He's horrible. He's a panzy doing a high quality segment. Just hearing his stupid-ass talk ruined a promising segment for me.

Who booked this crap? Disco Inferno vs. Erik Watts is the opening match to go up against the beginning of RAW. Then you get Norman Smiley vs. Silver King, and Steven Regal and Dave Taylor vs. the Windhams directly after that. Now I don't care what matches were used as Sid pounding matches, any fan who's flipping channels see's horrible mid-card matches like these will turn it back to RAW or maybe go watch some football. Maybe Kevin Nash still books backstage....

Why is the first family getting pushed? First family sucks! Why never let them lose? They both couldn't sell a move if you payed them more to do so. Too pathetic.

Benoit gets the screws everyweek! Instead of a World Title shot, he gets the television title. Fair deal, my ass! At least now if he wins the world he can say he held every Heavyweight title.

Good match with Saturn and Uncle Eddie See, any member of the Revolution or Filthy Animals can wrestle! Use them, push them, but just don't misuse them!

Berlyn is pathetic! Why the hell is WCW pushing Alex Wright? As Berlyn, he has way less moves than he used to, plus nobody cares? Congradulations WCW, you just wasted good talent, Buff, by making him lose to a moron like Berlyn.

Hogan and Hart vs. Luger and Sting Not a bad match up, but I was pissed at something. Since Sting turned heel, he's wrestling worse! Same thing happened to Hogan when he was heel. He took the pounding and didn't wrestle to his potential. I don't think WCW did a good job at putting Sting over as a heel, besides having him beat Flair's ass earlier. Bret Hart showed some major balls, as he took that bat right in the face. I don't care if it's plastic or not, but he got nailed good in the nose. He also took the pin. Also, looks like Luger is ashamed to show his muscle tone now. Must be really small since the layoff.

Nitro Phat Stats

Matches: 10
Clean Wins: 5
Screwjobs: 3
No Contests: 1
Disqualifications: 1

====$$Alright, the first 40 minutes of this show, I was like wow, they are improving!! Then Ricky Rachman hit. Then a bunch of worthless midcard matches hit, and I was like: "same old Nitro". The final hour this week was decent, but nothing spectacular. It appears that Sting isn't over as a heel, as Nitro didn't do a good job of getting him over that way. Oh well. Hour 2 was the real killer this week, as it had me bored to death. I'll give it a

C-

because they need to do something about those horrible midcard matches. Do they think anyone watches when Sid comes down to ruin those? Didn't think so. I predict a rating of a 3.5 this week!

RAW is WAR

Everyone wants Hunter Yay, that was the theme all night. Everyone out to screw Hunter. See, I'm clueless to why because I don't get Smackdown!! Anyways, we had Kane, Undertaker, Rock, Mankind, and Big Show chasing after him, and Linda McMahon ordering Triple H to a match with Stone Cold. Then, you get Vince returning pissed off as hell at Hunter. I still say they make him the "jack-off" he used to be when he was in DX back in the day with HBK to get him over as a champ. That was the best Triple H.

Jeff Jarrett the Wife Beater I'm not much for this angle with Jarrett beating the hell out of the women. Most of them are way smaller than he is, and he really pounds them. Chyna is much bigger than the females he's fought, so he can take those shots. But those other women..damn. I'm sure some support groups keep knocking on WWF's door, and they should for that.

Dudley mania is in effect! I love the Dudley boys! I was really impressed with D-Von getting the win over former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Farooq(as Ron Simmons).

Welcome back Bulldog! I'm wondering if the WWF will ever let the Bulldog win the World Title. They might as compensation for wanting to come back.

I smell a set up! Something very strange is going to happen with Test and Shane. Either someone is turning on the other, or something else. That wedding just won't happen.

Nice to see the Godfather back I missed hearing "let's go aboard the HOOOO train!" Too bad he couldn't fight anyone other than Chaz. Headbangers need to return!

Welcome back Mr. Hughes! I am glad to see that Mr. Hughes will be Jericho's bodyguard. It rewards him for looking in excellent shape from what he used to be in.

Chaos errupts for some crap! I wanted a clean win in that 5 way battle, not everyone take out whoever comes to the ring. How lame.

Sexual Chocolate That was messed up with Sexual Chocolate getting some personal entertainment in the back courtesy of the Godfather. I hope D-Lo kicks Henry's ass though.

Final Match had energy but... The final match had the crowd so damn pumped up, it was ridiculous! Too bad Stone Cold had to join the crowd and hit the ref to DQ himself.

RAW Phat Stats

Matches: 7
Clean Wins: 4
Screwjobs: 0
Disqualifications: 2
No Contests: 1

=====$$Overall, not a bad show, but not a great one either. Good RAW returns by Bulldog, and especially Vince. Stuff I didn't like was the overuse of the cage, Jarrett's domestic abuse, and 5 way dance. This show gets a

B

for this week's show. Welcome back Vince! I predict that RAW gets a slim 5.6 in the ratings this week.

Note: Overall, decent wrestling, but I've seen better from the two. One thing I did notice when flipping back and forth between Nitro and RAW during their main events, was the crowd noise level. Fans at RAW were going crazy, and fans at Nitro were quiet. That's interesting.

Other Wrestling Related Stuff

-Well, it appears that WCW will NOT re-sign Macho Man once his contract expires. Apparently, WCW didn't think too much of his little hold out, nor are they too impressed with his cocky backstage attitude trying to act like he was much younger than he really was. Macho was also hitting wrestlers with very stiff moves in the ring. He also had some late problems jobbing matches. He absolutely refused to put another wrestler, even main eventers over. Oh well, but if he's gone, then he'll never have a chance to defeat Hogan.

-Alright, reading the Minnesota News Headlines, I see that Ventura will be featured in an upcoming edition of Playboy. Here's the exact section about it:
"Governor Jesse Ventura, who's taken heat for appearing in a raunchy pro wrestling event last month, will appear in an upcoming issue of "Playboy" magazine. The November issue, out October fourth, will feature a lengthy question-and-answer interview with the governor. Ventura declined to say what he told the magazine. But according to Playboy spokeswoman Elizabeth Norris, "He says a lot of terrific things."Norris also said the cover blurb questions whether Ventura could be the next president.""
That's interesting, as if you thought his political career was going to end by being part of the WWF for one night, you ain't seen nothing yet!

-ECW on TNN got a 0.9 this week. Don't panic yet TNN, because remember what I preach about on shows on Fridays. Anyways, I felt this week's show was horrible compared to the previous week's show. Oh well. ECW and TNN shouldn't panic because this stuff takes time. I keep hearing stuff about Rollerjam debuted a decent number of 1.9 or 1.7 or something. Well, I remember TNN having commercials like crazy about Rollerjam. Was there many if any on ECW. No. So there. (Credit: Michaels and Scherer for the ratings)

@That's it for today. I'm hoping the WWF-WCW ratings come in later today, so that I can provide them tomorrow. So until then, just chill...till the next episode. Oh yeah, thanks to all who enjoyed my WCW booking yesterday.

EVOLUTION: Updated with a brand spankin' New Edition of BAD Tito! So check it out!

Take Care, and Thanks again for reading.

Mr. Tito © 1999