I can't wait until Smackdown is back on Thursdays!! Back to back nights of wrestling, late at night because I'm taping it and watching it after work, is killing me! Must get sleep....
Ok, so what's this week's column schedule? Well, Thursday and Friday present problems, since both rely on Smackdown. However, I've practically bought my solution. On Thursday, I'll be reviewing ECW Hardcore History as a Video Review, and on Friday, I'll whip out the old "WWF Day" format and discuss Ratings and other WWF issues, although the Jackson 5 won't be until the Week in Review column. Sound good?
I better not get burned on ECW Hardcore History, though. It was nice of me to have some extra money around to buy this sucker, and it better heal the wounds that Best of RAW Volume 3 left me. God, that video is just hideous. Hardcore History, on paper, has the best matches of the 4 tapes. I'll just have to see for myself if the matches are good to watch or not.
If you'll notice, today's column came out a bit early. Well, my new class schedule has me waking up at 7 am from now on or at least Monday through Thursday. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I'm able to spend an hour before class starts to write this very column. I seem to get in a much better rhythm when I write in the early morning, as I observed a few years ago when I had a really early morning class. On Tuesdays or Thursdays, the column should be up by noon or at least 11, since I'll write the PDC after I get out of class.
The PDC is best done when you have a set time to write it. Throughout the summer, I didn't quite have that, as I'd have different times to write it. Well, I hope to keep this column going, heading into my 3 year anniversary as Mr. Tito next month.
I'm stylin' and profilin'. On to the PDC.
I can't wait until Smackdown is back on Thursdays!! Back to back nights of wrestling, late at night because I'm taping it and watching it after work, is killing me! Must get sleep....
Wow, the opening match was Raven/Justin Credible vs. the Hardy Boys. Justin Credible and Raven?!? It's odd enough seeing them on Smackdown, but in the hot opener? Well, anybody and their mother, too, could wrestle the Hardys in the first match of the night and fire up the crowd. Not a bad match, although a win against an Alliance tag team won't do the Hardys any favors.
I'd really hate to be a WCW or ECW lower card wrestler, since it just allows Austin to humiliate them without even considering the damage done to a character.
Good promo by Christian. He clearly explained why he did what he did, and Edge wasn't there to attack since he was selling the single conchairto. I really question, however, the longevity of Christian's heel turn after his feud with Edge. I believe that Edge can be a strong face, but Christian seems to lack size to be a strong heel, besides acting like a sneaky one.
Oh God, KroniK is in the WWF. Anybody care to take bets on how long it will take Bryan Adams and Brian Clarke to refuse to job to someone? Don't worry about the Undertaker, though, because it's very well known that he's great pals with Adams. I'd imagine that KroniK is working very cheap ($$$) since Adams left the WWF, as Crush, in a bad way. See, WCW was really hot, and the stable he was in, DOA, was not. So Adams begged to get out of his contract to join WCW. After a few hassles, he was finally let go by the WWF. Amazing that they take him back.
The Richards and Undertaker segment, where KroniK debuted, was so stupid. Once Kronik attacked the Undertaker, I just shook my head at how pathetic it was. The Undertaker was no-selling all of their early punches, while KroniK was no-selling all of Taker's offense. I'm telling ya, the WWF is going to be truly sorry that they signed KroniK. It will only be a matter of time before their egos really kick in..... The WWF doesn't need bad attitudes in the locker room, right now, since they already have too many with the jealousy over the WCW and ECW wrestlers.
Did Tajiri have the night off? I take it that the Buzzsaw has some Mtv Heat duty, which is only good for that show. (Update: he's fighting Tommy Dreamer on Heat) The true sad thing about the Regal segment is that Booker T and Shane McMahon announced the Judgement Day match of Booker T/Shane vs. Rock. Oh lord, could we make Booker T look any more weaker?
If anyone has ever questioned how poor of a performer that Billy Gunn is, listen to the crowd heat during his match with Test. I feel bad for Test, since he's had to wrestle two WWF wrestlers past their prime in the past 2 days. Hell, both the Undertaker and Billy Gunn seem to get worse by the week anymore. Lots of "boring" chants by the Toronto crowd, and a loud pop for Test when he beat Gunn in this match. Hey, isn't Test a heel? I thought so. At least this match had a clean win over Billy Gunn, which should happen all of the time, ya know?
Extremely long interview with Austin was next. I didn't even watch it. The miracle known as Fast Foward took care of this, and from the looks of how fast the television was moving, I didn't appear to miss much. I remember seeing a good 22 minutes, or something like that, on the VCR timer for this bogus interview, which actually got worse once Kurt Angle arrived.
HILARIOUS interview with the Rock and Lilian Garcia backstage. Rock messed with her head enough for her to finally admit that she wanted the Rock's strudel. The "wet" comment was just classic Rock. I laughed at the promo, but Rock never became serious at the fact that he was booked in a Handicap match at Unforgiven. I wouldn't have been making jokes if that was me, to make it believeable.
How do you kill 2 birds with one stone? You send them out to wrestle against the Big Show. It's funny how the WWF continually throws out little guys to wrestle the Big Show, in order to make him look halfway decent. Hurricane was sent out to bump around first, and then Lance Storm, for no damn reason, comes out to force a lame DQ. Storm would get attacked by the Big Show, and take a double chokeslam with Helms. Wow, two good wrestlers with potential were dropped by a guy who is only around because Shane McMahon could care less about a man's weight or conditioning, as long as they're his friend.
Solid 8 man match between Rock/APA/Chris Jericho against the Dudleys/Booker T/Rhyno. What else did you expect? APA and the Rock have been helping each other a lot lately, as I guess ol' Faarooq has forgot about the Nation of Domination days, I suppose. Yeah, that was a good 3 or 4 years ago. Rhyno and Jericho seemed to be shoved in too many tag matches these days.
Funny how Hardcore Holly was talking about how the Alliance never came near him, but yet he's just dominated Alliance wrestlers on Mtv Heat on a weekly basis. I suppose this show doesn't count anymore?
I didn't quite expect a Stone Cold vs. Rob Van Dam match tonight or early into RVD's WWF career, let alone the outcome of the match. We'll lead to that in a second, but let's discuss the match as a whole first. The match started out with nothing but a squash, as RVD was selling all of Austin's weak offense. Austin was so dominant that he didn't allow RVD to do anything but punch, but I'm guessing that the WWF was selling Austin's intimidation as a leader here? I disliked, very much, how Austin no-sold the suplex off the ramp. It should hurt anybody, even if they are still fresh in the match. Austin would eventually get pissed off about not being able to hit the stunner, and after Austin put the knees up on RVD's handspring move, Steve went for a chair. However, out of no where, RVD drills Austin with the Vandaminator!! Holy shit! RVD sold it well, too, as he acted like it was the last thing he could do at that moment. RVD would later miss the 5-Star Froggy Splash, in which Kurt Angle's music hit. This provided a big distraction, which Austin COULD HAVE AVOIDED to allow Rob Van Dam to get the clean roll up victory over Austin.
Holy poop on a stick!!! This is freakin' HUGE for RVD's WWF career!! Guys like Jericho, Benoit, or any other glorified midcarders never got a clean win over Austin, but RVD, just months after his arrival, has pinned Austin, 1, 2, 3. That's simply amazing on so many levels, and it shows how high RVD's stock is rising within the WWF. He's working great, the crowd loves him, and the attitude he had in 1997 within the WWF locker room, is gone! Kudos to Austin for putting over Rob Van Dam. Austin will probably get lots of revenge on RAW, but oh well. Rock lost to Kane the week after Kane put him over, back in 1998, so there.
With this, I DO NOT want to see any more complaining by the ECW marks. The WWF has just given you the biggest present of them all in this victory. No more complaining about Tazz, no more about how the Impact Players won't be reuniting, and no more about anything else ridiculous when complaining about ECW in the WWF. Hell, wasn't it last week that Rhyno got the pin over the Rock? In one week, Austin and the Rock have greatly put over former ECW talent, especially Austin. You don't see old fucks like the Undertaker doing that, now do you?
LAST WORD: The finish shot this week's show up to a B+ (B Plus). I had it around B/B- heading into RVD vs. Austin. I couldn't give the show anything in the A-Range because of the interview segment, Billy Gunn on Smackdown, and just nothing flashy about the show until the big victory for RVD. But wow..... RVD's victory is just amazing.
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@That's all for today. It's amazing how talent elevation in one big match can just excite you! I'll be back, tomorrow, with a FULL REVIEW of ECW's Hardcore History video. So until then, do as Wrestle Palooza's Bill Edgar says, and stay out of trouble!
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