Secondly, we'll have a special book review, as promised in previous columns. I just finished up Dave Meltzer's "Tributes: Remembering Some of the World's Greatest Wrestlers", and I'll give my full review on it. This book is just the latest to my growing number of wrestling books, which impressed me when I saw the stack of them the other day.
Some of the readers have suggested that I left out some awards for the Tito Awards column, done on New Year's Eve. Fine, we'll quickly fill in those gaps! For Best Announcer, the award goes to Michael Cole for his consistant and NOT down-your-throat commentating. Sure, he may overhype a Pay Per View or an angle, but he doesn't scream like he's having kids like Jim Ross. For Best HEEL Announcer, the award goes to Paul Heyman, who in my opinion, is much better than Jerry Lawler. Heyman was a lot better with promoting the heels' wrongdoings than Lawler's screaming for "puppies". For Best Entrance the award goes to Christian, for the cool fireworks and the Opera entrance music. Wow, Christian takes home two "Tito Awards" for the year 2001. As does Steve Austin.
You can still read about those darn Tito Awards by Clicking Here. I thought I did a fairly decent job on my picks, and some of them agree with other awards columns or posts throughout the internet. However, a lot of people are dogging me for giving Rob Van Dam the "Most Improved" award. Hmmm... well, just take a closer look at his ECW matches, aside from the ones against Jerry Lynn. RVD is known to take long breaks between spots, and those spots could have been blown, too. 2001 proved to show that Rob Van Dam is a much more polished off worker now than he was then. Just my opinion, hence the name "Tito" Awards. Duh.
Oh well. We have a show and a book to review, so on to the PDC.
The matches of the year.... well, I agree and I disagree with it. I thought, despite two of the hottest women on television, that the Stacy Kiebler vs. Torrie Wilson Lingerie Match at #6 was a ridiculous ranking. I mean, these ladies can't carry a match, and this one was just plain awful, getting past their great looks. They excluded Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin from Summerslam for that, in terms of match quality? I also thought that the Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit ladder match should have higher, as it was better than TLC 2 match, ranked at #2.
The top 10 matches of the year seemed to have a lot of variety. You had everything from Shane vs. Angle, the Lingerie match, 3 Wrestlemania matches, and the Jericho/Benoit vs. Austin/Triple H tag match. I somewhat disagree with the positioning of Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam, though, as it wasn't THAT good. I would have preferred the TLC 3 match between Edge/Christian, Jericho/Benoit, and the Dudleys instead, or the Chris Benoit vs. Steve Austin Smackdown match, as well. But who knows, because the matches were "voted on" by the fans, and the show was still enjoyable, although Rock vs. Austin from Wrestlemania got too much time, unlike the other matches on the show.
My Tito Award for Match of the Year matched this show's Match of the Year with Triple H vs. Steve Austin, best 2 out of 3 falls. If this voting is legit, then the WWF has a HOT Wrestlemania Main Event on their hands
LAST WORD: Although I have a few disagreements, I liked this show for the most part. It gave me a chance to relive some matches that I've only seen once, like the Pay Per View bouts (Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon, for example). If the WWF puts this show on video, shit... I'd buy it.
The list includes many wrestlers who have either had some influence into the wrestling world, or they were known internationally as big wrestling stars. You could argue that some wrestlers were left out, such as Terry Gordy, Gorilla Monsoon, or Gorgeous George, should have been in this book. However, the title does say "Remembering SOME of the World's Greatest Wrestlers", so that's covered. Plus, I'm sure the author, Dave Meltzer, has some justification for his picks.
For the wrestlers on the list, however, Meltzer is very informative on the wrestler's careers and the events leading up to their deaths. Sad thing is that a lot of the wrestlers died the same ways, either from something involving muscle enhancers, drugs, or oddly enough, cancer, and at times, the 3 connected each other for the wrestler's death. The wrestling business is a tough one to get into, as the pay is low for the damage done to one's physical health, and the long time on the road would destroy a normal human being.
I really liked reading about the International stars, like the ones I've never seen wrestle before. I only watch what I can on my Cable in my home, and I basically only know about wrestlers who have made their way through, mainly, the WWF and WCW. I really liked the section on the Giant Baba, whom I've seen pictures of in PWI for years.
There's a lot of sadness when reading about some of the wrestler's lives, especially those who basically threw their lives away. It was amazing to read about how bad the Junkyard Dog ruined his own career with drugs, and how pitiful the Von Erichs led their lives. Sure, all sports have drug users, but the ones in pro wrestling appear to go overboard.
The pictures are very nice, too, as if you never saw the wrestler, you can at least think about how the fans perceived the wrestlers by the image they had. Giant Baba looks like a walking tree, while Art Barr looked like a wrestler who gave it his all for the fans in attendance.
LAST WORD: Excellent "tribute" book on a good selection of late wrestlers or personalities. This book is highly recommended for anyone curious about the wrestling past, and pretty much recommended to anyone, as I'll give this book a grade of an
@That's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed my show and book reviews. I hope to be back, tomorrow, with some possible Smackdown Hype, and whatever else comes to mind. Now can you dig that?
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.