Welcome back to the Wrath of Tito. I'm at a crossroads in professional wrestling. I honestly don't care about the WWE right now. Their programming is absolutely pathetic and it doesn't honestly deserve my attention anymore. I've been a fan since the 1980's and a very loyal one since then. Lately, I've become especially disgruntled with the product, and the ratings/merchandise sales/buyrates and everything else indicates that I'm not the only one. The WWE product sucks... When you have Shane McMahon taking up too much airtime on RAW and Vince McMahon taking up too much airtime on Smackdown, it badly diminishes the product. I want to see WRESTLERS, not McMahons, whose act became bad and stale in 2001.
The WWE isn't giving me, as a fan and customer, what I want to see. I want to see good wrestling and well written storylines. The WWE lacks in both departments. Take, for example, last night's match between Test and Shane McMahon. The Kane vs. Shane storyline has been so bad, and having Kane getting humiliated by a guy 1/2 of Kane's size does nothing for Kane in the long run. I thought the demasking was to push Kane to the top, for once and for good? Test vs. Shane McMahon was a horrible looking backyard wrestling match. Next, everyone and their mother knows that Triple H will come back and win his belt back from Bill Goldberg at Survivor Series. Just to prove this point, the WWE has Goldberg selling an injury angle instead of wrestling and defending his World Title. They have officially set up Bill Goldberg to fail as champion and Vince gets a hard on for his new son in law to suck as World Champion again.
Then, you have the Hurricane/John Heidenreich vs. Conway/Dupree match. Hurricane worked his ass off in that match, and who is made out to look great in the ring? Heidenreich, who despite moving in slow motion, came in and won the match. Heidenreich has size to his advantage, and I guarantee he'll be shoved down our throats, just like Nathan Jones was. But let's ignore the positive work of the Hurricane and even Conway/Dupree. They busted their asses in that ring last night, but the big slow guy gets all of the credit and attention. It's the same way with the Big Show, Undertaker, and Albert on Smackdown. The smaller guys work their asses off to make the big farts look great, but they NEVER get a push back in return. Vince McMahon is totally senile lately, and as he continues to push his own family and the big slobs, karma will be such a bitch to him. He deserves it, too.
It's not like I have a good alternative, either. I've caught a few recent NWA-TNA shows, and let me tell you, what a dumpster that federation is. It's like WCW Thunder had sex with ECW... The shows I watched centered around Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles. One angle had Dusty Rhodes getting involved, and AJ Styles eventually wrestling him. Jesus Christ... NEW faces, please, new faces! The ECW guys you have there are total hasbeens. Shane Douglas can barely move in that ring, due to the many injuries he's suffered and from old age. The Sandman wrestles the same old way. Raven still lacks the edge he once had in ECW. Then, you have all of the lesser name ECW guys, like a Kid Kash, who only wrestle spot matches, many spots of which are blown. The storylines are straight out of Southern wrestling hell, and don't get me started on the promos. Nobody in NWA-TNA can talk. NOBODY! When AJ Styles was yelling at Dusty for their match, it was so hard to understand.
This is the exact same promotion who was banking on Hulk Hogan to take them to the next level. Oh yeah!!! Let's rely on a THREE YEAR OLD storyline between Jarrett and Hogan to sell a Sunday Pay Per View. Great thinking, as if anybody was watching WCW during the summer of 2000 to care about Russo's pathetic attempt at creating his own Montreal Survivor Series incident. Karma for trying to rely on Hogan hit TNA hard when Hogan needed immediate surgery on his knee, forcing NWA to cancel their Sunday Pay Per View... as if anyone would buy it.
Wrestling sucks now. The WWE monopoly is too annoying to watch anymore, and the competition here in the US is so laughable, especially NWA-TNA, who will never get off Pay Per View. No other fed will challenge the WWE. Vince McMahon and his stupid children (and stupid son in law) will have their way and flaunt their egos until someone challenges them. It won't happen. Therefore, the only thing I can do, as a fan, is to speak with my remote control, which is what I've done with RAW and Smackdown this whole month.
Am I nearing the end of my run as Mr. Tito? The way things are going in the wrestling world, it's possible. 2 days ago, (October 26th), it was my 5 Year Anniversary of being Mr. Tito. I've written many columns over this time period and I love to write. I WANT to write about wrestling and make it another 5 years, if possible. I like interacting with readers and I enjoy voicing my opinion about wrestling. However, wrestling is no longer fun to watch, despite the fact that I WANT to watch it. We'll see what happens heading into Survivor Series if I'll keep doing this or not.
-I did catch a significant part of RAW, although I decided sleep was more important last night, as I checked out at about 10:30 last night. That's right, sleep felt like a better alternative than watching 30 more minutes of bad wrestling. I don't know what the WWE was trying with Rico vs. Booker T? Has there been any talk of ever pushing Rico instead of using him as a jobber? Go watch his OVW matches and you'll see the potential. Mark Henry had his way with Lance Storm before Shawn Michaels interjected himself into the match. Again, is there any interest in ever pushing Storm? Is there any interest in buying out Mark Henry's contract? Like I said up top, Hurricane against Dupree/Conway was some good wrestling, but the real star of the match was made to be John Heidenreich, another tall and slow wrestler added to the fold. Shane vs. Test was total garbage and it featured a very silent crowd, especially when Shane was calling out Kane. Pathetic. This is the last thing I remember watching.
By the way, the RAW rating dropped to 3.4 (from a 3.7) this week, and this is a legit loss for the Monday Night Football game was pretty bad last night with the Dolphins and Chargers, for it was pretty much over by halftime.
-The Ultimate Warrior is making yet another comeback? Yeah, like the wrestling world needs another 40 year old hasbeen on the independent scene. Look for him to come back, stink up whatever fed he joins, and disappear, once again. Same shit, different year.
-The return of the Undertaker "deadman" gimmick presents a problem: it's still the same old man wrestling. A bunch of wrestlers laid down for Mark Calloway in the early 1990's when the Undertaker debuted, so now it's time to give back. The funny thing is that the Undertaker was a poor draw as World Champion and main eventer. Why is he given so much time at the top in the first place? Guys like Rock, Mick Foley, and Steve Austin MADE the WWE successful. Undertaker was the old veteran who was there for the ride and has always received undeserved credit for his wrestling efforts.
-The only way I'll be happy with Paul Heyman back is if he's helping to write Smackdown. Otherwise, he's just a character stooge for Vince McMahon right now.
I really have nothing else to say about wrestling. Congrats to the Florida Marlins for beating the New York Yankees. That's a $70 million vs. $185 million payroll comparison there, and who won? George Steinbrenner is likely to spend even more money next year, thanks to the terrible economic system of baseball that has no caps and a powerful players' union.
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@That's all for today's column. Just chill till the next episode....