If anyone is attending the Smackdown or Thunder tapings tonight, please send in a report! Thanks.
But first......
Thanks to whoever held up the LoP sign at Nitro as well!
Before we start, I caught the opening hour of Monday Night Football. It was the Hall of Fame(why it wasn't Saturday...I don't know), and it was the ABC debut of the new announcing team, which featured the sometimes outspoken Dennis Miller. Many feel that this move with Miller is like a ratings spiker, as ABC wants a bigger audience for Monday Night Football. They have indeed lost viewers to Wrestling, and a move with Miller is an attempt to possibly catch a younger audience. Now I've enjoyed everything that Dennis Miller has done, like his Saturday Night Live stuff and his HBO Show, but I'm not too keen on this announcing. To me, he sounded out of place, although he was pretty funny. I don't think that the average football fan would understand his sarcasm or wit in every thing he says.
But, I bet Monday Night Football last night will put a dent on last night's wrestling ratings.
The Sting vs. Booker T match was good when they were in the ring wrestling, and not having anybody interfere from under the ring. Guess who interfered? Demon. How a piece of garbage midcarder like him could even be involved in this match is still misunderstood by me. What made it worse was that it barely hurt Sting. He kept wrestling the match, and after the "Book End", he got right up and chased Demon. Yuck. Then we have Muta and Vampiro coming down, and attacking Sting. Now Sting can take MORE time off since they set him on fire once again! Jarrett then attacked that "bad knee" at the end as well.
Again, criticism for the "Book End". It's the Rock Bottom for Christ's sakes!!!! I thought the whole purpose of giving him that move was to make it a regular, non impacting move to prove how weak the Rock Bottom truly is. Now, you are praising the Rock and his move by making it finish off guys like Sting and Goldberg. Not a wise move to let him use that as a finisher if you ask me.
Sting also fought Jeff Jarrett to another good match. Sting...two matches, one night?? Well, that is all shot down because we must sell his "fire" injury again, and he'll return with a mask, and take it off to show that no burns have occurred on his face.
Viagra on a pole match. Don't try too hard, it might show your momentum dropping ever since your US title tournament. Even better, we get Major Gunnz vs. Ms. Hancock in a hardcore match! Anything else we could try in efforts to smell those ratings? Quee-Wee isn't too bad in the ring, but somebody please drop that gimmick, and drop the Artist of WCW main programming. Odd match with Buff and Vito as well. However, Buff put over Vito, which is deserving.
WCW did have some good matches tonight, like the Muta/Vampiro vs. Kronic vs. Jindrak/O'Haire match. The gain of the Great Muta is really helping out, and Jindrak/O'Haire are indeed, the Future of Tag Team Wrestling. Hey, since Sting is sorta back, why not try another Sting vs. Great Muta feud?!?!?!
But hey, we get back to RAW with an Edge/Christian vs. the Hardy Boys match, although these guys have fought so much that it gets hard to innovate more moves! Edge and Christian are starting to remind me of the New Age Outlaws...a heel team that always escapes defeat for a long period of time. Good or bad? We'll see.
Good tag match between Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle vs. the Dudley Boyz. Right there folks are 4 of the top future stars in the federation. Yes they are huge now already, but I don't think that any of these 4 are near their peaks yet. Too bad we had no clean finish, but I guess we have to get that evil Shane stable some respect, eh?
How convenient that Steven Richards's Censorship cult is called the RTC, or Right to Censorship. Yeah, I guess that's the closed 3 letter comparison to the PTC, as I would have chosen ASS to describe their PTC like group. Poor RTC got pounded by the Acolytes. By the way, wasn't Steven Richards a good wrestler in his day? That seems to be forgotten, but I guess a move to where he won't suffer any serious injuries is a good one.
Samoan Drop pins someone? Poor Rikishi, as he lost his great "Thunder Driver" or however you want to call it to a decision by the WWF. I think out of Kane, Undertaker, or Rikishi, the decision on banning the piledriver moves is killing Rikishi. That Thunder Driver was one of my favorite finishers in wrestling, and now Rikishi just doesn't seem the same wrestler he used to be without it.
Decent tag match with Chyna/Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis/Perry Saturn. A little work on Val and Perry Saturn, in terms of gimmicks or attidudes would be really nice at this point. Both are great talents, but they just don't have the right gimmicks needed. Big Show and Kane? Everybody run in!!!
Man, I feel like Time Cop. Kind of the same booking as a midcard match from Smackdown, but still, a good match. Main event too, which means that the WWF is indeed high on Lita and Trish. Especially Lita, as the two top faces have had a great partner in her. Lita is indeed the Real Deal in the WWF right now. She's a female Hardy Boy! Trish is improving, as she could be a little bit faster without lots of silicon up top. Triple H and the Rock in a tag match? Uh oh, don't lead to another match!
Overall, a decent night of wrestling. It was very nice of both federations to pay tribute to Gordon Solie. He was a great man, and he will always be missed by the wrestling world.
@That's all for today's carnage. I'll be back tomorrow with Ratings Analysis. By the way, I'm very pleased with one show for that Analysis, which I happen to recap. Congrats to ECW on TNN for the 1.0 rating. How about them apples TNN??
GIGANTIC Phat Pharm Update: NEW "Twisted By Design" to read, the FINAL Phat Pharm "Makin' the Tag" Ever, another controversial "Bad Tito", a very informative "Breakin' Necks and Cashing Checks", a "Distracted Ref" to contend with, a column debuting on Friday, and a spot Open!!! **********CLICK HERE*************
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.