A few things I saw at the mall... I actually saw Vince McMahon: Sex, Lies, and Headlocks at my local Walden's the other day. Looking in my wallet, I only had $20 on me, and the cover price is a devastating $24.00. Rather than beg for the $4 from somewhere else or actually have some money for the rest of the week in case anything comes up, I passed on the book for now. I want to read it sometime, as I heard it's mostly true and well put together by the authors. Reading books will be very hard to do right now with school, though.
I also went to my local K-Mart and actually dug up 2 Steve Austin bobbleheads and one Triple H bobblehead. I already have the Austin one, and I decided against buying Triple H, for the second time now. Why in the hell would I want his bobblehead right now for all of the disappointing performances he's put on this year? Plus, he remains where he's at, despite a stale character/personality because he's FUCKING his way at the top, and I can't support that.
Anyway, when I was posting or reading some of the news, I was deeply disturbed by the stuff about WWE officials liking RAW as a show and its roster than Smackdown. I guess they have a mean hard-on for the past or style of booking that made the WWE successful in 1998 and 1999. That's what it looks to be, and relying on stars from back then, the whole RAW show, or pushing the Undertaker over to Smackdown and having him dominate proves that further.
Oh, I want to take you back to 1992-1993. Instead of possibly moving to promote younger talent, the WWE continued to go to the well with Hulk Hogan. True evidence of this is at Wrestlemania 9, where Hulk Hogan won the World Title after an attempt to move foward with Bret Hart as champion. The WWE tried to get one last breathe out of it's stale main eventers, all the while the midcarders were getting pounded on or became disgruntled enough at how hard it was to make at the top that they quit.
But the true point of destruction, especially in 1993, was the FAILURE TO EVOLVE WITH THE TIMES. The WWE kept trying their old format that worked in the late 1980's, and actually kept doing up and until Nitro truly lit a fire under their asses in 1997. The WWE lost a lot of money in that time, insomuch that they were in financial troubles in 1997 and almost lost RAW on USA Networks as well.
Today, the WWE officials insist that RAW is the better show, with a selection of guys the WWE has had for a while, as opposed to Smackdown, which has some great former WCW wrestlers and Ohio Valley Wrestling performers. This thinking process that the WWE has about their main eventers, as Triple H and Undertaker, the two most powerful backstage, reign supreme is truly evident with the WWE's recent actions. Who was named World Champion on RAW? Who became instant #1 contender for the Undisputed championship on Smackdown?
There you go. The WWE doesn't realize that they MUST change their format or change the whole scenario of who is on top. Fans have grown tired of seeing the same old faces, week in and week out, dominating while guys who are CLEARLY busting their asses are getting squashed. The WWE also must realize that the crash-TV format no longer works. It peaked in 1998 when stuff like Jerry Springer and video game violence were insanely popular, but this is 2002, where many have seen it all when it comes to sex, violence, language, or anything of that nature.
The time for change is now, or else business will continue to decline. It's time to wise up about guys like Triple H and the Undertaker, two guys who have had great runs, but it's THEIR turn to help other talent, much like it was talent before them that helped their careers as well. Hogan realized that in his comeback, Rock has always put over talent, and the same with Kurt Angle.
But change won't happen. Vince McMahon is too stubborn for a change. As long as he at least makes profit, there's no need to change anything. Of course, little does he realize that he may soon be losing money if things continue to decline. So if the WWE wants to keep up their bullshit, then fine. I WISH doom on their company if they want to keep it up. They had a possible goldmine in Smackdown, and now it has just become the Undertaker's show.
Stupid WWE. On to the WRATH OF TITO!
But we get total stupidity afterwards. Chuck Palumbo would come to the ring, and freakin' propose to Billy Gunn. Oh my God. Talk about becoming desperate. What did I just say above about Shock Value? Early reports hint that Vince McMahon was the one with this bright idea. HA! Oh man, this stuff gets worse and worse.
Next match was Jamie Noble vs. Shannon Moore. No build up here for a Title defense. Typical WWE. Not a bad Cruiserweight match, but the lack of build up to make the fans care just hurts everything. But hey, guys like the Undertaker can have all the time in the world to explain why he's the #1 contender, right? We'll get to that later.
Good stuff with Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar. Is that face pops I keep hearing for Brock Lesnar? Man, I hope the fans cheer for Lesnar against the Undertaker. That would make my day. It's funny how Orton was probably more popular than Lesnar in OVW, but yet Lesnar gets regular TV time while Orton seems to get ignored. Some nice moves and spots in this bout, like that weird move Orton hit Lesnar, where Lesnar dropped on Orton's back, and the set-up for the F5 was very nice. I liked this one.
Next, we had Mark Henry vs. Tajiri. Attempt number 1838474764663636 to establish Henry as a Smackdown television wrestler. Give it up!!! That contract has to be guaranteed if the WWE is keeping him around the way they do. The match was Tajiri bouncing off of Mark Henry's fat ass the entire time. Yay.
Talk about a fast match... Batista destroyed D'Von Dudley. Didn't D'Von just beat John Cena cleanly, who recently beat Chris Jericho at a Pay Per View? So much for John Cena. Another star flushed down the WWE toilet. After the weeks of teasing and hyping their break up, this was their big match? Good lord. At least it's over with, and if the WWE was smart, they'd send D'Von on over to RAW to reunite the Dudleys to pump life into the tag division again.
Oh man, look out for that Mattitude. And people called Tough Enough 2's "Danimal" a bad name association. Please! Matt Hardy is so burned out as a midcarder, one of those cases where he was squashed a million times by say the Undertaker, Steve Austin, or even Triple H. How many beatings can you take for the fans to keep caring? He fought Hardcore Holly in the next match. Hardcore is very misused anymore. Maybe drop the "hardcore" tag and write some better material for him to work with? He's got the potential to be an upper midcarder like Benoit, Guerrero, or Angle, but who knows? Hardcore won the match, meaning that Matt Hardy lost again, making you wonder how great of a decision the departure from RAW was.
Next, it was Crash Holly vs. Hurricane. I sincerely hope that the WWE is fully into pushing Crash on regular television, instead of letting the poor man rot on say a Heat or a Velocity like he's been doing for a while now. The Cruiserweight division is a place for him to shine again, and he looked pretty good in his match against the Hurricane. For the somewhat short time it was given, Holly and Helms made the most of it, and Holly won his first match on a regular 2 hour WWE show in a long time. Congrats.
And finally.... Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle/Eddie Guerrero vs. Undertaker/Rikishi/Edge. This match went well when Edge was in there, but it was hell when the Undertaker was in there sucking or when Rikishi was doing his usual trademark crap. Oh great, Undertaker and Rikishi are a team, and with their long WWE tenure, they are probably your top main eventing faces right now. That's all I need right now. The match hinted some dissention between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, which left Eddie Guerrero for dead. I hope that Benoit and Angle get their singles match next week on Smackdown, and don't add the Undertaker to it this time.
LAST WORD: What the hell was this show on? Firstly, shades of the 1999 WWE were everywhere, with bad shock value getting pushed and stale main eventers continuing to rule the show. But then you had some bright spots, like a possible Angle vs. Benoit feud and some good Cruiserweight action. I, however, didn't like the show as a whole, and my
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@Oh, I only hope RAW turns out to be better this week, because that's 2 shows this week that I didn't like. See you Tuesday for the next edition of the Wrath of Tito!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.