The Wrath of Tito - The Return... RAW review, Smackdown on Fridays?, ECW, more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 at 10:33 AM EST
Welcome, one and all, to the returning edition of the Wrath of Tito. Where was I? I bolted to South Africa after the pressures of a $50 million contract was getting to me. Oh wait, WRONG STORY. I was just a bit overworked and burned out at the same time. It happens, I'm human, and I'm back. Today, we'll discuss the latest in professional wrestling as well as reviewing RAW, which my emailers really missed. But I'm BACK, suckas!
Catching up on issues... Thankfully, the WWE pulled the trigger on Edge and Lita as an on-screen couple. This puts out the possible flame Matt Hardy might use in another federation as well as squashing the growing "You Screwed Matt" chants. In addition, Lita's on-screen character was becoming excessively stale and was in need of a change. Will Trish turn face when she returns, though? What if Trish was the "badass face"? That might work.... Also, did anybody even flinch at Triple H returning the other night, not expecting it to happen? As I keep repeating myself, RAW is about Triple H as champion OR his chase to regain the championship. Through this whole tournament, Batista has looked nothing but a chump, especially after last Monday night. What's even funnier is how the previous RAW, headlined by Edge vs. Kane, was one of the biggest drawing RAWs in recent times. Guess what? No HHH.
-Getting back to business here... it's the BIG NEWS OF THE WEEK! This week, it's Monday Night Wars Part Deux. After NWA-TNA reportedly left FOX Sports Network, they've apparently signed a deal with WGN. WGN is more of your up-and-coming TBS based out of Chicago, though not growing as quickly as TBS once did. It's availability is growing on cable selections, especially satellite over the years. TNA signs with WGN for a 8-10 pm timeslot which will be good for fans, at first, to get to know NWA-TNA for the first hour and stick around for the second if they were entertained by the first. This is a better timeslot than going directly into the fire against the WWE. The best way to defeat the WWE is to slowly introduce your product to fans, hook them, and then one day compete in a full time manner.
If I were the WWE, I would NOT sweat it yet. NWA-TNA is no where the financial giant of the WWE. Then again, the Ewoks did not have the muscular strength of the Stormtroopers in Return of the Jedi and who won that fight? However, TNA didn't exactly set the world on fire on FOX Sports or else they would have gained a prime time shot on FSN. Then again, they must have set WGN's world on fire to get a prime time slot. In my humble opinion, TNA has a long ways to go, in a storyline and superstar sense, before they could even attract any viewers from the WWE, let alone defeat the WWE. Their storylines are so poorly written or stale, their superstars are poorly pushed, and Jeff Jarrett is the equivalent of Triple H, if not worse at times. Removing Dusty Rhodes as head booker was a great thing... now, if we could only humble Jarrett to actually be generous to the wrestlers he employs.
-A secondary big news item is about WWE Smackdown and its move to Fridays... The WWE is upset at the unannounced switch (despite CEO's of UPN wanting to eliminate the show all together, as it was once leaked), as well as going to Fridays. Thursday nights are considered to be the largest viewing audience share out there and the WWE, since 1999 and 2000 have been there for UPN on Thursday nights. For every Thursday, the top networks dish out their biggest and best shows in hopes of toppling each other in the ratings. UPN, basking in the success of America's Top Model and probably the new success of Britney Spears's show, overthrew Smackdown off of Thursdays to utilize the 2 hour time slot for probably 2-4 different shows. GOOD MOVE, in my opinion, by UPN. Smackdown has more of a built-in wrestling fan audience with a share of the younger male minority audiences in the more urban areas.
However, I'm here to tell you why Moving to Friday Nights is a GREAT IDEA:
1) Less Competition. Yes, there's a smaller viewing base. But there's less of a competitive nature out there on the television markets. It's FRIDAY NIGHT. People are going out and networks know this. While many channels attempt to have new programming, many other channels either dog it by putting on a movie or a sporting event to fill the timeslot, OR they'll simply show repeats of their biggest shows. Meanwhile, Smackdown is guaranteed to be new material each week.
2) Less time in between Pay Per Views. Before, it was 2 days in between Smackdown and the day of the Pay Per View. Now, it's just one. The WWE can now present something good on the Smackdown before the Pay Per View and the viewer will have LESS TIME to change their mind about buying the show. Less things to influence their purchases or less bad news to hear about the upcoming show.
3) Benefitting off of the Bar Crowd. Televisions in bars or namely sports bars usually attempt to put on some sporting event on Friday nights. Now, bar owners have the opportunity to instead of putting on yet another baseball, basketball, or even hockey game (if the NHL comes back), they could turn it onto wrestling. That should translate into a possible net gain of viewers, in my mind.
4) Gaining a Younger Audience. Younger children or younger teens tend to stay home on Friday nights, outside of say the high school football season. Looking over the years, ABC had huge success with their old TGIF line up. In addition, many youngsters must be with a babysitter on Friday nights when their parents go out. What are they going to do? Watch television! Now, they have professional wrestling to watch on a Friday night! The WWE would be foolish to not capitalize on this new fanbase opportunity. By appealing to a more younger audience, storylines MUST be toned down. That's right, no more Kurt Angle rape threats or stupid lingerie/bikini contests. The WWE might have to relearn how to make wrestlers get over or storylines work without the use of shock value, but to obtain younger fans who buy toys, video games, etc. and those younger fans can grow up and possibly continue to be WWE fans. Imagine that!
5) What else are you going to watch while being smashed/high? This was an idea generated from VH1's Doug Benson from "Best Week Ever" regarding watching Wrestlemania 21... Friday nights are one of the "highest" nights in terms of substance or alcohol use, and the WWE could benefit by entertaining those who are a bit altered on a Friday night.
Ok, #5 might be off the wall, but you get my point. The WWE should embrace this change instead of bitching about how "unannounced" it was. I believe my answers for 1-4 have a great deal of teeth behind them and the WWE would be foolish to not attempt to have a successful show on Friday Nights. Besides, they NEED the Smackdown timeslot or how will the Smackdown brand even exist?
-ECW One Night Stand Pay Per View seems to be shaping up to form lately... I just made some arrangements with some friends at work to see the show on PPV, though I worry how much of a WWE filter will be applied to this show. Here is the current card:
-Retired due to Injury Lance Storm with pregnant Dawn Marie vs. Chris Jericho, a man who really isn't as associated with ECW as the others
-Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis (sp?), which I hope is the door to getting Psychosis (I know that's misspelled!) into the WWE... that guy can go!
-Super Crazy vs. Tajiri (with Sinister Minister, yes!) vs. Little Guido, which I'm again guessing will introduce Super Crazy to WWE fans...
-Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit... that ought to be spectacular, especially without any WWE restrictions
-Tommy Dreamer/Sandman vs. Dudley Boyz... probably a lot slower in their older days...
More matches to come... I wonder what bad blood Terry Funk has with the WWE lately, outside of personal pride regarding ECW? He's going to be exclusive to Shane Douglas's ECW Arena reunion show. In fact, it's argued that Funk, Douglas, and Raven were a big chunk of ECW, even though all 3 took a bigger paycheck when offered...
But I'll keep a more optimistic view instead right now regarding the ECW show... I've become a fan of a more toned down wrestling environment, free from excessive production and ridiculously planned matches from my recent enjoyment of local indy feds. More on that later... My fear is that the WWE will have some sort of control or meddle with ECW's affairs to make this show a legit ECW show. By the way, I thought it was slick of Vince to admit, in character, why he helped bankroll ECW back in the day... "so I could later buy those stars for my own!". Vince can be the biggest pimp of them all.
-John Cena and Triple H hate each other? Goodbye Cena... HHH has reportedly suggested that John Cena doesn't represent a "good leader" or that he makes a good champion. I agree on both accounts BUT I'm a paying customer. Triple H is a wrestler on the RAW roster who has a conflict of interest by also serving as a creative member, in addition to banging/being married to Stephanie McMahon. If I were Cena, I would forever keep my mouth shut about HHH and just do your own thing, in addition to hoping that HHH isn't on the same roster as you. HHH has a long history of sabotaging wrestlers in his path (Booker T, Kane, Rob Van Dam) and taking care of the younger wrestlers who are his personal friends (Batista and Randy Orton), while developing storylines that only serve to keep Triple H in a dominant role on the show by being champion or overshadowing the champion he'll eventually defeat (except Benoit, thankfully).
As I keep saying before, it's a shame about NWA-TNA. If Jarrett wasn't such a dumbass, he'd create a creative environment that creates or reinvents stars. That way, your Chris Jerichos or any other disgruntled WWE big name still-in-his-prime wrestler could have a place to go and make a big difference. If HHH pisses you off by his abuse of power, you're stuck in the WWE because there's no other place financially better.
-Congrats to the Longest Yard for scoring $60 million, BUT coming 3rd in the box office. The credits say that Bill Goldberg, Steve Austin, and Kevin Nash were all in it. Good for them, although the best acting gig for a wrestler will forever go to Randy Savage for his role as Bonesaw in Spiderman #1. Longest Yard placed 3rd by barely getting edged out by "Madagascar" at $61 million, while "Revenge of the Sith" remained #1 with around $70.8 million, with a grand total of $271 in a little more than 2 weeks. Can Revenge of the Sith overtake Titanic? Doubtful, for Titanic had sustained growth over time. I'll contribute much as I can, though, for I've seen it 3 times already... If the WWE could manage an evil heel like Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, that would be the day....
-I have to say that I was HIGHLY entertained by two indy wrestling shows from Black Diamond Wrestling on May 20th (in Brilliant, OH) and May 22nd (in Martins Ferry, OH). The promotion has a solid crew of performers who can get great crowd reactions based on their own merits. Great tag team action all weekend by the teams of the Tri Chi Fraternity and Virus/Unknown. The WWE ought to give the Tri-Chi's a call, for Hammer and QB Blitzz have the size, look, and ability to make a great tag team within their fed. Virus and Unknown are great high flyers and have performed quite well for every show I've seen them in now. Devin Devine and Daron Smythe, two of the guys mostly headlining the shows, had a great feud and series of matches going. Smythe's an excellent wrestler and a great face, while Devine was gaining all kinds of heel heat with his "King of Men" persona and great promos.
Then you had Kid Cupid who did revamped his gimmick into "Cupac". BDW mimmicked the Viscera segment where Viscera was on the bed. Cupac did the same on an air mattress. CLASSIC! Others who were fun to watch... Jason Cage, Nikita Allanov, Dash Bennett, Justin Idol, Chris Taylor, Zach Proctor Jr., Jake Garrett, among many others whom I'm forgetting off the top of my head. The next BDW show will be in Martins Ferry, OH on Sunday, June 26th at the Martins Ferry Rec. Center once again. Fun shows at a very nice bargain of a price. Seriously, just $5 to get into a pro wrestling show that's GOOD? In addition, you get to meet actual wrestlers, get nice seats, among many other great things about indy wrestling.
Oh, and speaking of indy feds... A simple and generous plug here for the American Cancer Society... XWF Inc. will be holding a benefit show on June 5th at the Bridgeport Eagles in Bridgeport, OH. If you're in the area, namely the Wheeling, WV area, and you'd like to not only benefit a good cause but to see indy wrestling as well, check this show out. It's for the ACS so check it out...
On to RAW!
RAW is TITO
Good Memorial Day salute by the WWE... WWE is getting better and better at PR these days...
The show, however, started off with a Bikini Contest to "unofficially start off the summer" says Lawler. I thought we were going to be treated to an SSDD (same shit, different day) until the surprising and great ending. First, though, the competition was fitted with Maria (Terri 2005), Candice Michelle, Christy Hemme, Victoria, and Lilian Garcia, of all people. BUT, you knew who would come down if she were there... Big Viscera came out and took Lilian away. My sincere hope is that Lilian is a good sport about this angle and doesn't throw a fit on how she's portrayed. I don't know, I just see that one coming. So they continued the Bikini Contest on, which was hosted and judged by Jerry Lawler. Out of the 4 remaining, I would have voted for Victoria or Maria. Candice Michelle seemed too covered up on her assets, while Hemme was her usual odd looking self. A good friend of mine, Dirty Harry, used to say that Hemme didn't have a forehead, she had a FIVEhead! Now that's funny... Since every contest is rigged in favor of Hemme, despite her weak crowd response, she won the contest. But then the segment gets REALLY GOOD. Maria and Candice remain in the ring with Hemme to celebrate the victory. Meanwhile, Victoria was upset about losing and looks back on the celebrating Divas with despair. Then, something snapped... She attacks the 3 divas. She made quick work of Candice and Maria (nice kick!), and then went to work on Hemme. Lawler tried to pull her off but she drilled him in the nuts with an actual convincing looking ball shot (especially with the smack). She then went on to hit the sickest looking Widow's Peak on Christy Hemme! Fantastic finish to what was a disaster of a segment.
Backstage, Victoria expressed her anger for Hemme and all of her unearned success. Good, this is a great way to use Victoria. Note, however, that Hemme is NOT that over with the fans. People were cheering heavily for Victoria as she made her turn and that could definitely carry on. In addition, the WWE now has a dilemma of its 3 actual working female wrestlers (Lita, Victoria, Trish)... They are ALL heels! Looks like the overall best heel, Trish Stratus, will likely now turn face.
Next, we had a good short tag match between the Heart Throbs and Hurricane/Rosey. The 'Throbs have a killer entrance, as does MNM. It's a good thing to see the WWE actually push gimmicked tag teams again. Heart Throbs are a bit green BUT they have the charisma to hide their inefficiencies. For as short as this tag match was, it seemed to flow well between the teams. Good tag action and nice double teams. Funny chant of "Stacy's Hot" by the crowd, as I thought the current look was one of her all time bests. Hurricane/Rosey won the match...
Backstage, Batista agreed to the "Hell in the Cell" stipulation in Bischoff's office. Seriously, how can the WWE make that match special as compared to other HITC matches OR any other HHH vs. Batista match? They have zero chemistry together within the ring and HHH can only wrestle well when a much faster or aggressive wrestler takes him on (Benoit, HBK, or Kurt Angle for instance). After the stipulation was agreed on, Muhammad Hassan interrupted, saying he deserves a title shot, feeling overlooked. Batista, however, was in a fighting mood and accepted his challenge. Daivari started to run his mouth which resulted in Batista saying "what did the five fingers say to the face?". SLAP! Down went Daivari, and the scene was quickly broken up with lots of threats made for later on...
Next, we had a 3 way dance between Shelton Benjamin vs. Sylvain Grenier vs. Rob Conway. La Resistance has had sort of a rivalry as of late, probably breaking up in the future (Conway can more than handle his own in the singles ranks), and this match could be the last straw. I always like the spot over two cooperative wrestlers fighting over who should make the pin. Always a favorite of mine... This rift would enable Benjamin to bounce back from the double-team and win the match with his body slam. Good little match.
Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel was first... Jericho boasted that he'll have the first Smackdown defection from the draft on his segment, next week on RAW. That could get interesting. I wonder if the WWE will make it John Cena, more or less giving UPN the finger for moving them to Friday nights? Jericho's guest was Kane... Jericho played the heel here, greatly shooting down Kane based on his relationships and his "equipment". Before Kane could react to Jericho, Edge appeared on the Titantron, and along came Lita on the big screen as well. Lita has officially filed for divorce. Wait a second here... If Lita didn't want to get married in the first place, why didn't she just find another man in the first place? Edge's comments, by the way, about doing Lita on the side while she was recovering from knee injury, among other things, have major allusions to Matt Hardy and I'm sure he'll bitch about it on his message board or webpage. Funny how none of this trouble would have happened if Hardy kept a closed lid on the personal situation. Edge and Lita would then flush Lita's wedding ring down the toilet. I gotta say that Edge and Lita already have a strong chemistry together that was surely lacking with Lita and Kane. I figured they'd have Kane trash Jericho's Highlight Reel set or set off his pyro, but we went to commercial...
Eric Bischoff came out before the match and suggested that an army of WWE wrestlers, now also from Smackdown, will help try to stop the ECW Pay Per View show. I thought the ECW PPV could sell itself? Apparently not... Edge appears to be a lead general of the RAW wrestlers attacking ECW, and his Tables match was next against Chris Benoit. The match was decent, though the gimmick actually hindered two good wrestlers from you know, actually wrestling. Edge would eventually win by various cheating attempts, but it would take calling out 3 wrestlers (Snitsky, Tomko, and Maven) by Eric Bischoff to help Edge get the win by putting Benoit through a "solid oak table" (quoting the late Rick Rude there).
Next, RAW wouldn't be RAW if Triple H didn't use his magic of turning SUCK to BLOW. He was at the WWE studios for a satellite interview. Seriously, HHH just loves to hear himself talk. He just rambles on and on about how great he is, and meanwhile in the storylines, he's booked to always remain great. There's your problem. The Canadian crowd, too, was ripping HHH apart with their chants, insomuch that the WWE had to turn it off several times. What does that tell you? Triple H and Jeff Jarrett see NO flaws in their characters or how they run things. That's why both feds, WWE and NWA-TNA, aren't reaching their true potential.
Next, we had the "Masterlock Challenge" with Chris Masters. Dead crowd throughout this segment, even when Val Venis showed signs of life. Masters was now offering $10,000 and opened the door for wrestlers. I thought it was originally supposed to be open to wrestlers when he first started it? Then, he went to the crowd with its obvious plants. Now he lets wrestlers join the competition? Val Venis, WWE's resident jobber despite his 1998-1999 contributions, came out and accepted the challenge. Morley is Canadian and the fans didn't even care. They saw the predictable finish a mile away... Why put someone out there whom the fans don't believe in the first place? That goes both ways......... Before Val Venis could get the Masterlock applied to him, Masters attacked him. That was a good idea, right there... After the cheap attack, Masters applied the Masterlock. Val gave up a little fight, but it was eventually lights out. The Masterlock might be effective if Masters had talent and wrestling ability fans actually want to see. Instead, the WWE must resort to 1980's tactics in hopes of getting him over. I'm sure the guy is laughed at heavily backstage.
Now, we had an actual over wrestler come out... Christian, as the WWE continues to thankfully keep the lid off of him. Christian embraced his Canadian crowd and shot down the Smackdown roster heavily. Those John Cena shots are just priceless and I can't believe the WWE is risking it while Cena is still the World Champion and the brand's top face. Great promo and it helped to make Christian's move to Smackdown or Cena's move to RAW that much more interesting.
The main event was Batista vs. Muhammad Hassan. I do NOT like Batista's new theme, at least for the moment (I have a history of wrestling stuff growing on me)... It actually sounds a lot like Orton's music. In addition, the WWE should have made this music switch either after Batista officially turned face OR after his Wrestlemania 21 win. Bad match, as Hassan's not ready and Batista can't quite make diamonds out of coal just yet. The ending was even worse, as Batista "snapped" after lots of cheating attempts by Hassan/Daivari and Batista was then disqualified for having Hassan in the corner for a 5 count. Who gets disqualified for that? Afterward, Batista kept beating down Hassan and Daivari, even hitting a few Sitdowns. What's with this? Is the art of still looking good while losing a match completely gone? Why couldn't Hassan have lost that match? What's there to protect? WWE's credibility with wrestlers has been long lost ever since they started to really protect wrestlers from losses. Batista is forever in HHH's shadow, and as a face wrestler, he needs to rack up significant victories. Hassan, as everyone still sees him, is still a younger wrestler with many great years still ahead of him. What's the crime of him losing now?
LAST WORD: HHH vs. Batista for the "Hell in the Cell" looks to be an absolute mess. This show won't draw unless the replay is bought because of hearing about one of the wrestlers falling through the cage's ceiling or off the side (i.e. incredible bump taken). Otherwise, the diaper needs to be taken off of Batista and HHH needs to drop this ongoing egofuck with himself. Why must Batista ALWAYS be in the shadow of HHH? Why can't he grow on his own or defeat wrestlers on his own without lame interference or disqualifications protecting other wrestlers? Other than this and Chris Masters, I liked this show... The midcard had some actual good features and the Victoria heel turn (or face turn?) was quite awesome. I'll go [ C+ ], suggesting that the main event scene should be the one making extra grading points.
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