The Wrath of Tito - Full RAW Review, HHH/McMahon problems, and more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 at 1:05 PM EST
(Sorry for the delay. My internet connection was busted yesterday.)
Welcome back to the column that has pulled NO punches since 1998. Actually, this isn't the column from 1998... I should say since 2002 when I became weekly, but I have been writing since 1998. I stand firm in honor of a good and presentable wrestling product, and when it's bad, I don't hold back. I'm not afraid to bash the owners of the WWE, the McMahons. I'm not afraid to question if a main eventer is out of his league now, *cough*HHH*cough*Undertaker*cough*, etc.
I get this criticism all of the time: "all Mr. Tito does is criticize the McMahons and Triple H, it's repetitive". It's a weak criticism, in my opinion, because the McMahons AND Triple H are heavily responsible for the WWE's downfall from the Summer of 2001 and beyond. 2001 saw a different Triple H. He began to become a dominant heel, and my case and point is proven with his squash of Jeff Hardy after Jeff found a way to win the IC title. The fact that after losing the World Title that he chose to wrestle with the Undertaker and Kane instead of feuding with other wrestlers. He ripped his quad, and in 2002, he came back too big on muscle mass. That greatly hurt his wrestling ability, and by 2002, he was very close to Stephanie McMahon by then. This relationship enabled HHH to attend production meetings (proof of this was with the many Steve Austin criticism's of HHH attending the meetings through the press), and no wrestler should be there to have a say in another wrestler's career and storyline.
Triple H made himself the first ever RAW World Champion, and only let himself look weak against Shawn Michaels and Shawn Michaels only. Everyone else, he no sold their moves and slammed the faces hard through interviews. His feuds with Kane, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kevin Nash, and Scott Steiner were total flops and HHH didn't provide the extra effort, as he did in 2000, to make the matches watchable or the feuds meaningful. Each wrestler listed above left the feud with nothing to show for it, despite main eventing a Pay Per View. HHH's domination of the RAW roster has hurt this brand greatly, and ratings/buyrates have proven that. He only lost the World Title because he had some acting roles to fill in Hollywood, and once he was full time again, he won the title right back at Armageddon. As a main eventer, he gives no opponents any credibility, with the exception of his longtime buddy, Shawn Michaels.
The McMahons... I was fine with Stephanie McMahon as the GM of Smackdown until the Mr. America feud began. You can't tell me that the extreme amounts of time that the McMahons spent for the Mr. America feud wasn't ridiculous? It kept Smackdown from growing, for it has a younger audience than RAW does through UPN. Younger kids find Hogan to be old, not great. Then, Stephanie and Vince went into another long feud with each other when the Mr. America feud abruptly ended. A Pay Per View match between Stephanie and Vince? Then, you have Shane McMahon. When you try to build Kane up as a monster, why must he sell for a regular sized human being that doesn't have full wrestling training? I'll give credit that Shane has the balls to put his body on the line, but this is Kane, a former World Champion and Shane McMahon gave him a run for the money on 2 Pay Per Views!!!!!
Let's not forget that the McMahons are behind the creative issues in the WWE, and Vince has final say as to what goes on television. Gee, don't you have 2 rosters of wrestlers with a nice handful of wrestlers on each roster with NOTHING TO DO right now? Secondly, how many ideas can you recycle? (HHH's money offer to take out Goldberg, the Royal Rumble 1993 finish on Smackdown, etc.) Without competition, good ideas fall by the waistside and Vince doesn't feel the need to search for new stars, as he did in 1997-1998 with Steve Austin, Mick Foley, the Rock, and Triple H. I like new stars in Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, but other than that, what new main eventers have the WWE created outside of Austin, Foley, Rock, HHH, Big Show, and the Undertaker? Guys like Jericho and Kane get a taste of it, but are then humiliated and depushed afterward.
Quit painting me as repetitive when it comes to Triple H and the McMahons. My arguments are just and informative when placing blame where it properly belongs. The 4 paragraphs that the criticisms forced me to write proves it even further. If you deny any of this, then you aren't watching wrestling closely. HHH and the McMahons are very damaging to the WWE product through their own arrogance and ignorance as to what the fans want right now, and that comes without any threatening competition.
I mean seriously, does NWA-TNA have a chance? What the hell are they thinking when they want to bring in Kevin Nash and Scott Hall? Hall gave them nothing during his first run in TNA, and Kevin Nash is so washed up. Neither guy have had any true appeal since 1998, but yet every promotion pushes them for their success in 1996. WELCOME TO 2003, NWA-TNA!!!!!! This is the same organization who is trying to live off the dead beetles crawling on Hulk Hogan, in addition to bringing back other older stars, such as Rick Steiner, Lex Luger, and even Sting (who is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time). While they have pushed newer guys to the top, such as AJ Styles, NWA-TNA still tries to live in the past and it dominates their programming. You must innovate to get ahead in the wrestling business. WCW invented the Cruiserweight division, pushed the TV title division, and gave us the NWO to make for great programming in 1996-1997. They filled 3 hours of shows, every Monday!!! The WWE put a little attitude into their product and it did wonders. ECW, operating out of a bingo hall, had violent programming and insane storylines/characters, and they almost broke out as a national federation in around 8 years from starting with nothing.
NWA-TNA doesn't get it, and from the recent shows I've seen, they aren't worth my PPV dollars. Secondly, they better get used to Pay Per View, because their failure to innovate will keep them on PPV instead of getting a cable deal (in addition to the WWE giving a bad name to wrestling programming after the PTC fights over advertisers).
I've been going through the Steve Austin book, "The Stone Cold Truth". So far, it's NOT bad, but I wasn't much for how quickly he breezed through his WCW career. Why did he avoid bashing Hulk Hogan for bringing in his close friends in wrestling, such as Hacksaw Jim Duggan, to beat Austin for his US Title in an alarming fashion? I like Duggan, but face it, how did he get his job? Secondly, how did he get his initial push? I think there's more to the firing than Austin let you believe, and this is given with his Hogan ECW promos. Why would he bash Hogan and not just Bischoff? Sounds to me that Hogan found a quick way to eliminate a possible rising star through the tricep injury. I'm a little more than halfway through the book right now, and I'm past the wrestling stuff other than the WWE. I would have liked to see more insider detail on the WCW matters, like Mick Foley's book. Then again, this isn't Austin writing, this is Dennis Brent listening to Steve Austin talk. BIG difference, and the book has less pages.
I also lowered myself to buy WWE Originals. *GASP*, call me a sucker. I bought it because I'm CRAVING the Eddie Guerrero theme, and I though the Guerreros track would be the theme. Call me stupid, for it's not. The only real official theme was John Cena's. I'll post a full review of this CD sometime in the future, and I plan on getting pretty nasty!
Just from rumors, here's what Wrestlemania 20 MAY look like:
-Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle
-Triple H vs. Chris Benoit
-Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar
-Rock/Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton and ?? (Flair?)
-Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon (may not happen)
-Kane vs. Undertaker
I don't know about you, but that looks to be a very interesting Wrestlemania.
On to the RAW review....
RAW is TITO
The show starts off with Johnathan Coachman, that night's interim GM, coming out to the ring. He announces that matches will be held to determine a battle royal for #30 in the Royal Rumble. I guess Smackdown was denied to have #30? I actually like Coachman in the announcer's booth. He gets Ross a little more pissed off, in addition to providing a heel voice. Jerry Lawler is a face commentator now, and it's hypocritical that Vince McMahon is pressing Tazz to become a heel on Smackdown but yet he's let Jerry Lawler remain a face when he used to be the best heel commentator in the business.
The first match was a tag match for the #30 battle royal in Rob Van Dam/Booker T vs. Matt Hardy/Christian. Decent little tag match, with the faces winning. By the way, Matt Hardy and Christian were tagging up. Make sense? Well, I guess they are both over Lita now... And guess who was pinned in this match? Matt Hardy. Does his WWE seniority matter? Why can Bradshaw, Albert, or Mark Henry get love from the bookers, but yet WWE veteran Matt Hardy is ignored? If I were Matt, I'd let my contract run out and give NWA-TNA something to talk about.
The next match was Rene Dupree vs. Chris Jericho. I'm noticing a slow push towards making Dupree a singles wrestler. He has the charisma and that personality which the crowd would love to hate. He just needs a little polishing on his wrestling ability OR to have the WWE take off the handcuffs and let him wrestle. Decent advancement match, and Jericho is always a guy you want to work with. Jericho advances cleanly. Speaking of Jericho, Christian wanted Jericho to give him his spot in the #30 battle royal as his Survivor Series favor, given how much Christian has done for him. This stuff with Jericho/Christian/Trish is being handled so poorly, and Jericho/Christian/Trish will have nothing to show for it once it is over.
Here's the hype for the HHH vs. HBK match: a video package. Man, way to hype this show!
The next advancement match was Mark Henry vs. Rico. Poor Rico... It probably doesn't help Rico, though, with his glaring baldspot in the back of his head, though. Squash match, and the OVW prodigy will never get any respect in the WWE. Rico, too, should let his contract run out and join NWA-TNA.
Next, it was Spike Dudley vs. Kane... crappy match, with Spike pulling out the surprise finish in just over a minute. OHHHH, BIG DEAL!!! After every upset victory, the loser gets "his heat back" by attacking Spike to keep that glass ceiling in place. What ever happened to running away after you get the upset or just walking away? That will make a more meaningful rematch, at least.
Our next advancement bout was Bill Goldberg vs. Test/Scott Steiner. FINGER OF SHAME to the WWE on changing this week in advance hyped match. I wanted Steiner vs. Goldberg, and the WWE denied me of that. This is how they disgruntle their fans and lose their fans. Test's involvement helped to make it a total cluster... oh man, I'm not allowed to curse! (New Year's resolution) He threw off timing and became the pinguy for this match. Well, I guess it allows for a Goldberg vs. Steiner match for the future. Sloppy match, and it would get even more sloppy later!
Next, it was a Women's match with Lita vs. Jazz. BORING... BORING... BORING... Jazz wins by pulling the tights via distraction. Whoopee~!
The Dudley 3D on authority figures is just as stale as a Stone Cold Stunner on authority figures.
The last advancement match was Hurricane vs. Randy Orton. Before the match, Hurricane cut a promo about his match and the Rumble. It was well versed and well said. He fought and lost to Randy Orton. Orton and Hurricane are about the same size, with the Hurricane being slightly taller. Who has more charisma? Hurricane. Who is better on the mic? It's close, but Hurricane seems to have a more entertaining feel to him whereas Orton plays a cock (stealing from the Rock's playbook, but badly). Wrestling ability? I've seen Hurricane pull off more good matches than Orton, but Hurricane has had more televised matches. So who is better? I'd argue that they are at least the same guy. Why is Orton going up and Hurricane is going down? Oh yeah, it's who Orton has become friends with and because of this, he's being overpushed without EARNING it.
The main event was a VERY SLOPPY #30 Battle Royal. Seeing Henry and Goldberg working together made me cringe at certain points. The wrestles involved either seemed to be going through the motions or just bored to be out there. Nothing like the previous attempts at wrestling for #30 in the past. Goldberg won, as if he has any chance of winning the Rumble with his contract coming up (I bet NWA-TNA gives him a good offer).
LAST WORD: Usually, I'm up for the Royal Rumble RAW shows. However, this one was poorly organized and the wrestlers with limited ability were very exposed. Even worse, neither HHH or HBK showed up for the show, and who is main eventing the Royal Rumble? This show featured sloppy wrestling in attempt to bring back the fun that was fighting for the #30 spot. Better luck next week, [ D+ ] (D plus).
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@That's all for today. Thanks a million for reading.
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