Welcome to the one and only Wrath of Tito, coming to you for a second consecutive day. I felt compelled to write a column, given the headlines that are out right now and the Wrestlemania hype. Believe it or not, Wrestlemania is just 4 days away. It doesn't feel like it just yet, but we'll see how Smackdown plays out before deciding this officially.

I pissed off several readers yesterday regarding my comment about Montreal hockey fans booing the National Anthem: "Lilian Garcia sings a great National Anthem. By the way, FINGER OF SHAME to the hockey fans of Montreal for booing our Anthem. Complete ignorance and disrespect of hockey fans in that city and arena."

Notice I said "Montreal hockey fans", and NOT Canada as a whole. They booed the National Anthem last week out of disgust for the United States's decision to move into Iraq, clearly. Sure, you can disagree with what a country is doing, but to boo its National Anthem, especially when the NHL is mostly based out of the United States now (and keeping the league going, Quebec and Winnipeg, ahem!) and when there were American players out on the ice. Just disrespectful. Now, days after that, several American hockey arenas booed back at the Canadian anthem, which I didn't know, given how America's liberal media interprets news for all of the viewers. Fine, if you want me to give a finger of shame to them, then fine, although during a wartime, those fans were obviously disgusted with what happened in Montreal.

Many readers pointed out that several American arenas have booed Canadian anthems in the past, then fine, give those fans the finger of shame as well. If it offended you from what I said, then I apologize. But I will say that I care about my country and I dislike disrespectful things towards it, such as having a hockey arena booing the entire National Anthem while American soldiers are risking their lives overseas. That's all I'll say about this.

With the RAW review, I think a few people need to read my columns more clearer. For one, I gave the show a "B" grade, which is a lot higher than what many other columnists or sites gave the show. I clearly mentioned that I liked the Rock, the HHH/Flair vs. Booker/Goldust tag match, the RVD/Kane vs. Dudleys tag match, and the HBK/Jericho stuff. I believe I said positive things about Steiner vs. Christian, too. If you didn't read that, put on thicker glasses. Anybody with a clear mind can recall that Austin's storylines are seriously stale, as he's had restraining orders placed on him before, he's been escorted out of the arena, and he's driven a vehicle to the ring, too. Same goes for the mixed tag matches, as Trish Stratus has wrestled so many of those matches, it's scary! And I seriously hate the Goldust twitching. It hurts promos and takes away the seriousness needed for a Wrestlemania feud. Also, I'm furious to see Booker T getting the win over Triple H in the tag match, which only proves that Triple H will win at Wrestlemania and that's total bullshit.

On to the rest of the column.

Random Rants and Raves

-Curt Hennig's cause of death was finally revealed, and what should be nobody's surprise, Hennig died of an "acute cocaine intoxication", according to Tampa's Coroner and Medical Examiner's offices. Oh lord, another death in professional wrestling caused by drugs. Just what it needed. Something needs to be done to make sure wrestlers are well taken care of after their careers, whether it's an early pension or better benefits in their contracts, but it seems that every wrestler that gets out of a national promotion is either scraping the independents for a paycheck or puts their bodies into terrible shape. For many of these wrestlers, they don't know any other job skills other than wrestling in a ring. Hence, you see old guys like Greg Valentine or King Kong Bundy still on the indy circuit when they should be relaxing at home.

Hennig seemed to free-fall ever since his return to the WWE. He got into some trouble partying in the WWE before his firing, and his pink slip came after the famous European plain trip, where he was loaded on alcohol and tried to start a fight with Brock Lesnar. It seems as though his partying days weren't over, as his death is the result of drugs. That's very, very sad.

Wrestlers seem to die from 3 things: health issues as a result of past steroid use, drugs, or suicide. With each death, they seem to always fit in one of the 3 categories. It's sad when you grow up and enjoy these wrestlers performing, not knowing what they are taking to keep up their physiques or what actually takes their pain away.

-RAW's rating came in at a 3.5. No excuses, given that this is the final RAW before Wrestlemania. If this is a forecast for how the buyrate will come in, the guys in the WWE offices will be stressed. Especially comparing it to the last 2 years, which have had rather high and near record buyrates for Wrestlemania, and that's something stockholders will see and say "why the sharp decrease in the Wrestlemania buyrate?". A 3.5 rating is something RAW was getting before the Rock arrived. The Rock has been great, and he's been a breath of fresh air for the show. But the surrounding show is a joke. Nobody has a chance against Triple H, Austin is stale already, and the midcard is pathetic.

Gee, and you wonder why Bill Goldberg was finally signed.

-Hmmm, the Rock's new movie coming out will now be called "Welcome to the Jungle", instead of "Helldorado". I'm sorry, but I thought Helldorado had a nice ring to it. Will more people go see the movie since it's named after a Guns N Roses song? Doubtful, but we'll see. It doesn't seem as though the Rock is receiving huge roles as everyone has predicted, but if Welcome to the Jungle does well, he should be getting more roles. Welcome to the Jungle will be an action comedy, so we'll see if the Rock's comedy from wrestling can prove he's a funny actor as well.

-Many people get on me for questioning Jeff Hardy's desire to be a WWE wrestler. Well, in his recent No Holds Barred interview, here are a few things that he said on the interview:

"Jeff talked of his love for music and his passion for freestyle motorcross. He calls doing both in his free time great stress relief. He wants his fans to stick with him even though he has other interests besides wrestling."

"We asked Jeff if he had a choice of being a part of the best selling rockband or WWE champion, which would he choose? He said he would be a part of the best selling rockband. "

Do you see what I mean? He's not focused on being a WWE wrestler at the moment, as he prefers to dick around with his other interests instead of taking himself seriously as a wrestler. He's lost a lot of muscle tone over the past year for not caring, he's late all of the time, and his matches lack the energy that he once had. I put partial blame on the WWE for this, given that they let Triple H demolish him after winning the Intercontinental title and the Undertaker jobs were just embarrassing. But fine, get up and keep trying. Put on some muscle and work on your mic skills.

Hardy still has the potential. The WWE always keeps him strong in the midcard, no matter what, which gives him an incentive to be lazy and not improve himself, while everybody that jobs to Hardy is in the weightroom and trying to improve themselves. If Hardy took wrestling seriously again, put on some muscle, ditched his stupid looks, and worked on the mic skills, he could become something, especially in the wake of the RAW brand having a terrible bout with creating stars, although Triple H has a great hand in that.

-Def Jam Vendetta is looking fantastic from the pictures, ads, and whatnot that I've seen. It has the good ol' gaming engine as the Nintendo 64 THQ games (by AKI?), and that alone will spark extra buys of the game. Hell, if I had the money, I'd go buy a Playstation 2 and get the game as well, just like I did when I had money for Wrestlemania 2000. Ah, the punishments of being a college student paying a good deal to attend every quarter. Hopefully, someone in my dorm will have it.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your day, and MAYBE look for the return of Wrestling's FACT OR FICTION in the near future. Plus, I just might update my column archives sometime soon.

Check out the Valley Wrestling Federation and Willygoat Xtreme Wrestling. Two great backyard feds!

SNACKBAR-GAMES.com - Video game reviews and much more!

LoPForums.com - LoP's Message Boards, where you can discuss wrestling, sports, entertainment, and anything else!

@See you whenever....

Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.

Mr. Tito © 1998 - 2003 Exclusive to LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com