The Wrath of Tito - RAW review, video game review, Sting, Booker T, more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 11:33 AM EST
Welcome to the Wrath of Tito, the column that never holds anything back. Today, we'll discuss various issues and review RAW. It's what you'd expect from this column, but the forumula does work.
Actually, this column is coming to you a few days late. Why? I wrote most of the introduction off the top of my head. When I opened up my internet browser to check up on any wrestling news I've forgotten, my whole computer crashed. See, for the past few months, I've had severe problems with Trojan viruses and worms. The free virus scanners aren't doing the trick, and some of the viruses have been a bitch to remove manually. This last one, called Wintools, was a pain, for it was hogging CPU resources and just damaged my computer to the point where I had to use a System Recovery (not a restore) on the whole computer. I then dug into my bank account and purchased the best internet security software that I could, and here we are with shields up.
I've had virus problems before. But lately, there are so many hackers whipping up new viruses that get by weak defenses. I fully recommend getting new software, because so far, this new anti-virus software has done wonders for this computer. Don't use a free scanner, like AVG, because it's not going to catch every virus.
So I'm behind on everything, and luckily, I saved part of this column on disk. I'm also writing this after yet another bad migraine headache, as I wonder why they are suddenly starting up again. God, my head hurts... On to the Wrath of Tito.
A dry news week... Smackdown ratings are still low, and for good reason. RAW ratings rebounded. No talent movement, even with NWA-TNA getting a FOX Sports timeslot. No serious injuries to really report...
-I thought Smackdown was another absolute joke of a show. I want to enjoy wrestling on Thursdays, but the show has become WCW Thunder. There's no doubt in my mind. It's Thunder. At the end, WCW Thunder just had dry and boring storylines. Right now, Smackdown just has BAD storylines, like using Bradshaw to scare Eddie's mother or completely shitting on the Cruiserweight Title. It's clearly the throwaway show, which is a shame because Eddie Guerrero is one of the best workers that the WWE has. Just close up shop on Smackdown and merge the rosters already. It's definitely time, given the lack of attention given towards Smackdown by the McMahons right now.
I tried to be firm in my belief that the merged rosters work. Actually, it worked until Wrestlemania 20 when several key events hurt the Smackdown roster. Angle was injured, Brock Lesnar left... Losing 2 big main eventers created a huge gap that Triple H was supposed to fill. Of course, he was traded back. Undertaker's return has been an absolute bust, as has the transfers of Booker T and the Dudley Boyz (while RVD has been decent). Meanwhile, the Smackdown roster is now flourishing ever since Benoit arrived, and key additions made from the draft have helped as well.
Time to merge the rosters... enough of this already! If you don't care about one show, then end it. Throw Eddie Guerrero into the mix of HBK, HHH, and Benoit, and JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY, you've got an excellent main event scene! How about John Cena and Randy Orton fighting over the midcard titles? Etc. The WWE needs to stop insulting fans' intelligence by the way they've handled Smackdown.
-I actually bought a wrestling game this week for the Gamecube... no, it wasn't a WWE game! I bought Ultimate Muscle. When I was younger, I was a HUGE collector of MUSCLE. They were the little pink or multi-colored figures who resembled wrestlers. They were red hot in the 1980's, replacing baseball cards for a while on the trading block at my school. No lie. They fizzled out, like any other Japanese toy. However, recently, with the recent surge of Japanese animation, Pokemon, among other things, MUSCLE has made a comeback. You can buy their newer figures at local stores, albeit expensive ($5 for 8 small figures, or something like that).
So I went to my local Electronics Boutique store... I saw Ultimate Muscle in the Gamecube section for cheap. I looked on the back, as the graphics looked pretty good. Then, I saw that it used the AKI fighting engine, which is the famous engine used for the Nintendo 64 THQ wrestling games and most recently, Def Jam Vendetta. Given my past enjoyment of the MUSCLE toys and seeing the AKI fighting engine used in this game, I bought it!
I've grown to absolutely love this game. It's a whole lot of fun to play, for a lot of wrestlers that you can choose used to be toys I played with, such as King Muscle, Sunshine Man, Robin Knight, and Buffalo Man (although I had my own personal names for them). It's fun wrestling as Sunshine Man, who is the MUSCLE character who looks like he's made out of bricks (I called him Brickman, back in the day) and I always thought Buffalo Man was named Terry Bull? One cool feature on this game is the Toy section, where you can insert coins from the matches you win to buy a MUSCLE figure. If you collect them all, I'm told you'll unlock stuff within the game. That's pretty cool.
Now, you may or may not like the gameplay of this game. Yes, it has the AKI engine. However, it's very modified. This game is based on KO's instead of pins and it has a slight twist of an oldschool fighting game, such as Street Fighter 2, in it. Basically, once you're hit with something, it's very rare you can counter it. This is unlike other AKI games, where the computer has a tendency to counter your grapples to death. The controls are basically the same as a regular AKI game, with the exception of moves you can do in mid-air, while tossing your opponent, and moves you can do while on the run. There's no top rope moves, however, but you can jump off the ropes when jumping towards them. While Ultimate Muscle adds a bunch of unreal moves, they've kept a lot of the classic AKI slams.
The gaming options are that you can play the Story mode, Versus mode, or Tournament mode. The Story mode could have been better, as it's basically one wrestler wants to fight another wrestler, but to eventually fight him, he must go through 3 other wrestlers. Big whoop! I do like the slight twist, though, in the Story mode where some of the old generation MUSCLE clash with some of the newer generation MUSCLE. Versus mode is just your one on one, tag, or rumble modes. I have to say that the 4 way matches are quite fun, especially when you have several outrageous moves hit at the same time. One note about tag matches or one on one matches... you can wrestle one on one matches with a partner on the outside. He's usually throwing either his energy at you to replenish yours or special energy boosts, along with providing interference through cheap tag moves. Although you don't normally have energy boosts thrown at you in real life, it's kind of cool to have some outside interference, which is what real wrestling has. The tag moves are absolutely INSANE! You can wrestle either regular tag or the bedlam style (i.e. no tags). The Tournament mode is basically setting up your own tournament and then wrestling it.
If you're a traditional wrestling game fan, you may be turned off by this game. It's VERY Japanese with it's style and speaking among wrestlers. If you hate watching some of the Japanese animation shows, then this could scare you, especially in the corny storylines. In most AKI games, you have a SPECIAL move to hit. Here, it's in Levels. You have levels 1, 2, and 3, and it pops up after you do a certain move. When you get a Level 3, that's when you can hit a very devastating move in which you get a cinematic sequence by pressing L and R together. Most of the moves involve getting tossed in the sky way up high and getting drilled to the canvas very hard. Each looks severely painful.
OVERALL, I very much enjoy this game. I find the wrestling style of the game to be fun, and I loved the old Street Fighter type games, so I'm not offended by wrestling to a KO. A pin would be nice, but at least a match can end with a finishing move, unlike many other AKI games where you can hit 3 consecutive finishing holds and the wrestler gets back up like nothing hit him. Storylines could be better, yes, but there is some interesting stuff whenever it's an old generation guy going up against a new generation guy, if you collected MUSCLE. There's lots to unlock and the MUSCLE toy collecting mode is a lot of fun. The game is pretty cheap right now, new or used... if you see it in your area, give it a try. There's also a create-a-wrestler mode in the game, something that the first Def Jam Vendetta should have had, although it's not much to brag about given the limited options. I like the game, so hence I give it an [ A- ] (A Minus), and I like the game even more at its lower price.
-I'd love it if the WWE signed Sting. It would make my day. However, would Sting get any respect from the WWE, ala DDP or Booker T? I think Sting has more appeal than any WCW superstar who has tried to enter WCW during the last 3 years, but at his age and his many years in WCW, it's hard to say if the WWE would give Sting a proper shake. I personally wouldn't do it if I were Sting, even if a big handful of fans want to see him in the WWE. It's not worth getting your character buried and embarrassed for life by egotistical McMahons or a poor creative team.
-Booker T needs to stop bitching about retirement and just do it already. If your back hurts, then retire. If you hate how you're being used on Smackdown, then retire. You've said so, yourself, that you don't want to be in the wrestling business forever, probably citing that you don't need to be financially. THEN RETIRE!
Ok, on to the RAW review.
RAW is TITO
The whole show was based around Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels at Backlash... this is fine and dandy, but Benoit gets to feud with a burnout and overexposed Kane? Show opens up with HHH demanding a match with HBK at Backlash.
Decent opener with Edge vs. Ric Flair. A complete contrast of style, but the two seemed to work together OK. Edge won on a Spear after distractions/interference from the feuding Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin. This is what Smackdown lacks. A definite feud, clearly putting bad guys against the good guys. While Evolution vs. Everybody isn't blowing away the ratings, it's keeping the ratings stable and at least providing good wrestling matches for the fans who didn't abandon ship already.
Oh joy, a Diva contest on RAW. Just what the show needed, a show who pretends to present reality trying to have a reality contest.
I had no idea where the whole Kane/Lita/Matt Hardy storyline was going this week.
Poor Steven Richards got served by HHH and Batista. Well, he did try to wrestle like Shawn Michaels back in ECW... I thought the whole ambushing of HBK was pretty funny all night long, which later led to Eric Bischoff telling all WWE wrestlers to pull those two apart. HBK vs. HHH, since their strong RAW match, has been an excellent feud.
Next, it was a hopeless tag team match between La Resistence and SHIT/Hurricane. Both teams, unfortunately, are going no where, especially SHIT and Hurricane. The WWE needs to admit that they don't care about Shane Helms instead of pussy-footing around the issue. La Resistence wins, as they are the team with more credibility right now (and that's after Conway lost to Eugene!).
Next, we had a Highlight Reel where Chris Jericho blasted Randy Orton for his lack of title defenses. That led to some brawling between the two and Batista/Shelton Benjamin running in. Hey, it's a tag match!
Pretty solid tag team match between Batista/Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho/Shelton Benjamin. Wrestling a lot of tag matches lately has certainly helped both Orton and Batista improve a great deal. I'm glad that Chris Jericho might be added to the feud, for he can mix it up, too, with great matches against the heels. So it's Benjamin, Benoit, Jericho, HBK, and Edge against Flair, Batista, Orton, and HHH? I sense someone new will be added to Evolution VERY soon. And if it's Maven, as that has been rumored in the past, I'll laugh my ass off. After the match, which the faces won, Jericho was powerbombed through a table by Tyson Tomko. Yeah, that makes him more vicious as a heel.
OK, I can barely see the screen now with my migraine (as I see fuzziness in my vision). Therefore, if you see any bad spelling errors, blame it on barely being able to see half of the screen.
So long T.A.T.U. for Victoria. Actually, as Victoria's theme, it was the first place I heard those fake Russian Lesbians. Then, a month later, that song was EVERYWHERE. Next match was Molly Holly vs. Victoria, which is supposed to be your two best female workers. Well, the match just didn't work, much like everything in the women's division, especially the heel teaming of Molly and Gail Kim. Remember, being located from Korea makes you EVIL, according to the WWE.
Our next match was Chris Benoit/Eugene vs. Mr. Garrison Cade/Coach. William Regal, according to Bischoff/Johnny Nitro, isn't sanctioned to wrestle just yet. Therefore, Eugene needs a tag partner. I guess the WWE's attempt to make Eugene their next big thing continues, as a week after the Rocky rub, Eugene is tagging with the company's World Champion. Benoit was pretty vicious this week, pounding on both opponents pretty badly. Eugene got to do the flying headbutt, as the WWE is amazingly trying to push a OVW wrestler hard here in 2004.
The end of the show saw no main event, but Shawn Michaels calling out Triple H. This reminded me of the Austin-Triple H feud of 2001. HBK and HHH began to brawl, which led to the locker room clearing to break those two up. Eric Bischoff had enough and declared that at Badd Blood, it will be a HELL IN THE CELL match, which more and more, makes me want to attend that show in Columbus.
LAST WORD: Minus a main event, this was a pretty strong showing by RAW. HBK and HHH put a lot of heat on their Hell in the Cell encounter. Those two have a hard match to live up to, though, as I wonder who will be manly enough to fall off the side of the cage (although I thought Lesnar and Undertaker's match within the cell was pretty good). The women's division and the rest of the midcard could use a shot in the arm, though. [ B ]. Ok, I'm going to lay down now.
LAST WORD: Two great matches on television... can't complain, plus, the Rock was in town. This show gets a [ B+ ] in my book, for the midcard still needs work. Simply put.
Mr. Tito's BLOG! My thoughts on Sports, Politics, Entertainment, and everything NOT Wrestling!
Willygoat Valley Wrestling - A Backyard Fed that's Still Alive and Kickin'!
Mr. Tito supports his local independent wrestling feds! Black Diamond Wrestling and XWF Inc..
LoPForums.com
@That's all for today. Thanks a million for reading.
Mr. Tito © 1998 - 2004 LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com
*NEW GALLERY* MUST SEE! Very Rare Photos of KAREN ANGLE Over the Years!
Quick Links - 
