The Wrath of Tito - WWE/Jarrett, RAW thoughts, HHH/Stephanie, more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Sunday, October 30, 2005 at 11:21 AM EST
Don't stop, believing.... Welcome everybody to the Wrath of Tito, the column that suffers when I'm out of time. I have to apologize for the tardiness lately. I'm working a new 8-5 job from Monday through Friday while I'm teaching college classes on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in addition to my other job. I'm gonna spend my time like it's going out of style... The weekend has become my two days off and well, that's the weekend. Last week, I thinking about writing a column, but I had 3 exams to write. What can I say, my time is valuable.
But, I have some free time on this beautiful (yet cold) Saturday morning. Outside of grading those exams I wrote last weekend, I'm in better shape this weekend to get back into Tito-mode. The weekends may be my new home, for I don't feel like writing Monday night (to be tired the next day...), and I'm usually out of the house on Thursday and Friday nights. Weekends, here I come!
Before I start, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that my 7th Year Anniversary of being Mr. Tito and associated with LordsofPain.net didn't come up on Wednesday, October 26. A personal thank you to Calvin Martin, the longtime webmaster of LordsofPain.net for giving me a chance back on October 25th, 1998 to write daily columns.
Time for some apples...
Weekend Apples
-The BIG NEWS OF THE WEEK was... Jerry Jarrett working with the WWE? Actually, it more or less appears as though he's helping another future wrestler join the WWE. If this talent was so extraordinary, why wasn't he developed for NWA-TNA? To me, Jerry Jarrett backstabbed his own son, TNA owner Jeff Jarrett. Jerry started the promotion with his son in hopes of creating a legitimate #2 fed to fight against the WWE. Now, Jerry Jarrett might be helping the WWE by suggesting a talent to them because TNA didn't want to develop him. What if this "Russian wrestler" develops into a legitimate star? If he does, it's TNA's loss at the cost of one of the organization's founders.
This would be like Shane McMahon talking to TNA because a wrestler he liked on the indy circuit wasn't getting signed by Vince. Still, they are the brokers or agents for the talent, but they are still in negotiations with the enemy. To TNA, the WWE is the enemy. TNA is hoping to do well on Saturday nights to CHALLENGE the WWE on Monday Nights. It's already suggested that if TNA gets around a 1.5 on a Saturday night, the Monday night slot will be THEIRS. Again, to TNA, the WWE is the enemy. Nobody from that organization or related to the organization should even remotely close to sleeping with the enemy.
I wonder if this is going to turn out to be a major rift between father and son? It was like when Dustin Rhodes jumped to the WWE to become Goldust and how Dustin and his father Dusty didn't speak for years because of that. The wrestling business is cutthroat and betraying your business partner is one thing... but also betraying your own flesh and blood is another.
-Monday Night RAW is getting WEIRDER by the week, but not in a good way. The long segment of Vince McMahon pulling items out of Jim Ross's ass was sooooooooo unfunny. I like a good comedy segment. When HHH dressed up as "Dr. Hunglo", that was funny. When Shawn Michaels called out Bret Hart and got a midget version of Bret Hart, that was funny. When Kurt Angle and Steve Austin were trying to sing to Vince, that was funny. Vince pulling items out of Jim Ross's ass was not funny. The segment ran too long and the gags just weren't there. I'm actually getting sick and tired of any angles involving Jim Ross. He's a good man and great announcer, and thus should not be embarrassed like he has. The WWE has made him kiss Vince's ass, they set him on fire with Kane, and have tried to publicly embarrass him with various fictional "firings". Just let him do what he does best and that's announce matches. The Coach absolutely sucks, especially given that heels are not a good fit at play by play. It's putting Lawler as the face announcer and he's incredibly weak at that. Then again, Lawler is the most stale announcer out there and he needs to have another wife get fired so that he may leave the WWE set again.
Fun match to start RAW... HBK vs. Kane vs. Big Show. HBK worked his magic with the two giants, as he only can. HBK has done some miracle carry jobs this year and throughout his career. Bad news is that Kane MAY have broken his back during this match and it's another "hyped return" that we get to see. Joy. I do wish Kane a speedy recovery, though. I hate Stephanie, but those tit-ays were looking fine... She came in Austin's truck... good "fooled you", I must say. She talked trash with Coach until trash arrived to respond to her. Mick Foley came out, looking worse than ever, and did his usual repetitive "I'm smarter than you" promo. I really don't care about Mick Foley at this point. He adds zero to the WWE product and if there was ever a need for a stricter dress code in the WWE... It was fantastic seeing a new, fresh talent in Carlito beat his ass. One thing I'll forever give Foley credit for was his ability to put wrestlers over. He better put Carlito over and leave the WWE for another year. Doesn't he have another book to write?
Man, I was robbed of seeing my dream match between Viscera vs. Triple H. I really wanted to see that! *sarcasm* I figure Flair vs. HHH in a Cage should be quite solid, given how Triple H actually performs well for his friends. I liked the Edge/Masters vs. JBL segment... good use of Rey Mysterio. I wonder if in addition to Christian, if the WWE would hype Rey Mysterio as Edge's former tag team partner? If you're in the mood for some great tag wrestling, look up any of the Edge/Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit bouts, especially the 2 out of 3 falls WAR that went an extra fall. Mickie James vs. Victoria must have been short, because I took a quick shower and didn't see a glimpse of it. Good to see that the Hurricane is out of the gimmick... but I'm willing to bet that he's resorted to WWE.com weekend show jobber by the end of November. Angle vs. Cena was good and Bischoff cheating helped add to it. Thankfully, Angle didn't drop the ground with the Anklelock, for Cena was reaching the ropes while Angle was still standing. When Angle drops to the ground with the Anklelock, the WWE should never let a single soul escape that. Amazing how well Ken Shamrock's old finisher has worked with Angle.
Overall, I give RAW a B- this week, but mostly for stale McMahon segments. RAW did a 3.9 this week, by the way, which is slightly up from the 3.7 of last week. Amazing how the audience wasn't lost by the channel switch. USA is definitely a better fit for the WWE than Spike TV, a wretched Viacom channel.
-Needless to say, I did not catch Smackdown (it's on Friday night!), nor did I catch NWA-TNA Impact (it's on Saturday night!).
-Kid Kash has to be one of the most idiotic wrestlers around... in fact, he might be worse than Matt Hardy for 2005. While being employed by the WWE, Kash ripped Chris Masters on his online commentary by saying "(Masters) has a 10 million dollar body, but a 10 cent wrestling ability". This bullshit is why the WWE is so strict on wrestler webpages. I wouldn't even tolerate Kash's comments. If the WWE lets him go, where will he go? TNA? Oh no, he burned that bridge and basically begged to get himself fired with this interview (I especially love his comments about Jarrett). Kash reportedly did this so he could wrestle on the ECW One Night Stand show, but whatever. Point being is that he lit his TNA bridge on fire and will never be allowed to cross it, at least in the near future. Now, he's already dumping gasoline onto the WWE bridge by trashing Chris Masters and the WWE has a history of protecting their developmental wrestlers from verbal abuse.
What's so great about Kash, anyway? He has below average size, decent but not great wrestling ability, and his gimmick is a sad ripoff of Kid Rock (which he's admitted to). Every Kash match I see, it's a spotfest and nothing but that. Yeah, Masters is very green, but at least he's learning a tool called "wrestling psychology". Usually, a big spot from the top rope could normally knock out another wrestler. However, in Kash matches, you could do 5 moves off the top rope and still get up from it. Kash is your typical ECW style wrestler and that wrestling style has led to nothing but broken dreams in the larger WWE ring against larger WWE opponents and injuries to make you appear very slow at the next ECW reunion show. While I wish more wrestlers would have a free voice online, it's apparent that the webpages are becoming places to vent WWE frustration. That will not be tolerated by the WWE, ever, and I applaud them for it.
-Speaking of idiots on webpages, Gregory/Shane Helms is in an internet trash talk battle with Buff Bagwell. Again, when is it even worth it? And secondly, can't you two just use a telephone and call each other? Why must so much information be made public by the actual wrestler source?
-ENOUGH with the Sting rumors. I'm getting sick and tired of all of the speculation about Sting "signing with the WWE". It's NOT happening. Just this week, someone posted on Sting's webpage that he's wrestling Shelton Benjamin at this week's RAW. Ridiculous. WWE has no interest in signing Sting unless he's willing to work a full time schedule at a cheaper price. HOWEVER, I do see the possibility of Sting signing a "Legends Contract" with the WWE, probably like Sabu has just done recently. Many hardcore wrestling fans would like the chance of using a Sting "statue" to wrestle against WWE figures. The Legends contract would allow Sting to maybe make an occasional WWE appearance, even though I'm not sure how the current WWE fan base would receive him (it's been 4+ years since WCW went under). I'd mark out for him, but I'm not sure about the rest of the post-1998 wrestling fans.
Sting is one superstar from another promotion that Vince McMahon never got a taste of. That's one of the reasons to always root for Sting. He was loyal to WCW and could forever be loyal to WCW. He has yet to give into WWE's demands of working a full time schedule whenever they ever do have negotiations. This is despite letting flakes like Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Bill Goldberg, all former WCW stars, work lighter schedules. But not Sting. He's actually a veteran whom I can imagine can still wrestle in this day and age. A few years ago, the Rock made overtures to WWE management that he wanted to wrestle Sting at a Wrestlemania. That's a dream match of a HUGE magnitude, but the WWE was against the idea, at the time, given that it was putting Rock in a compromised position against the rest of the backstage powers. Rock, mind you, was responsible for bringing Goldberg to the WWE (to which, asshole Goldberg is now ripping Rock... such class).
And DAMN IT, there needs to be a Sting DVD out there already!!!!!!!!!!
-Good to see Amish Roadkill getting a WWE contract... Good for him.
-NWA-TNA will reportedly now have video games... Midway appears to be the gaming company who will get to put out TNA games. Good? Bad? Well, it depends on your tastes. Midway has a major arcade feel in almost every game they put out. They are the kings of Mortal Kombat, but if you played games like NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, and whatnot, you'll get that over-the-top kind of feel in addition to what's usually good graphics. Who can forget Midway's attempt at WWE video games with their "Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game" and the "WWE: In Your House" game for Playstation? They were fun, but a lack of realism for actual professional wrestling. Seriously, since when did wrestling games have 5 hit combos? I played the Wrestlemania game for the SNES for years... It was fun, especially how you could just have someone in the ropes and keep superkicking them. Razor Ramon was a hoss on that game, and it was a treat hitting multiple Razor's Edges. I thought In Your House was good, yet it was mostly a polished Wrestlemania game. It was fun wrestling as British Bulldog in that game...
With the video game market, it's hard to top THQ. The Day of Reckoning games for the Gamecube have been nothing short of excellent, while I have heard good things about the Smackdown vs. RAW series on Playstation 2. The Xbox games have struggled... But THQ knows what they are doing. Day of Reckoning, in my mind, is the closest you can get to actually simulating professional wrestling. With Midway, they have that challenge of delivering a game that has the actual pro wrestling feel to it, as opposed to their past attempts at pro wrestling games.
-Speaking of anniversaries, Triple H and Stephanie were married 2 years ago on October 25th... the same day I was hired to work at LordsofPain.net (but different year). How ironic. I do wish the persons Paul Levesque (HHH) and Stephanie McMahon all the best with their marriage. In the wrestling business, longtime love is hard to find. I could seriously see their chemistry forming before our very eyes in 2000, to which I say HHH didn't marry her for the power. HHH was in a committed relationship with Chyna at the time and it probably broke off when seeing the clear signs of HHH falling for Stephanie. I seriously believe they are in love. I don't believe it was for a power play. Triple H was ALREADY a powerful man backstage by 1999. He used WCW negotiations in late 1998 and early 1999 to his advantage and scored himself a huge money deal to re-sign with the WWE (I believe a title reign was guaranteed?). I do believe that Triple H takes advantage of his situation as being married to Stephanie to sit in on creative meetings and keep himself as champion.
With HHH, I've been consistent in saying that his marriage to Stephanie has created a conflict-of-interest. Bookers who remain wrestlers have a long time of abusing their power. Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Sullivan, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Verne Gagne, Von Erichs, and the Harts. Someone with creative power over many other people will soon develop an ego. It's natural and it happens at every workplace. However, if you're also a wrestler, your ego permits you to believe that your character is the best and should always be main eventing. A responsible booker should put over other stars or create newer ones, like Flair did in 1989 by resurrecting the careers of Terry Funk and Ricky Steamboat, while making Sting and Great Muta insanely popular on the midcard.
HHH doesn't do that. He MUST be World Champion at all times and the only guy he's ever "made" was Chris Benoit, and I'm thankful for that. However, he gave Kane, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Chris Jericho absolutely no rub at the top and helped to depush them politically afterward. That's his conflict of interest. Another example are the long in-ring interviews he conducts. Another is how only a select few wrestlers are allowed to rip HHH in an interview. HHH is very protective of his character and main event spot and he's abusing his creative power through his marriage with Stephanie to allow this to happen. HOWEVER, I don't believe he married Stephanie just for the power. I believe there's love there, especially given how HHH can actually love someone like Chyna. Seriously guys, he was in love with Chyna BEFORE the surgery. HHH is capable of loving...
-Way to go, Ricky Morton! Way to be an unresponsible father and owe $73,000 for child support. Let him rot in prison! If you're going to father a child, you should be held accountable for it in every way, shape, or form. With great power comes great responsibility. Morton, meanwhile, was out on the road spending that child support money on many parties and other excesses. The man has collected quite a rap sheet as a wrestler, too, showing furthermore how irresponsible he has been. Neglecting your children should see a much larger penalty than just $73,000. And I'm NOT posting the link to "help" Ricky get out of jail. Let him eat static!
LAST WORD: That's all for today. Hopefully, I'll be more frequent with the columns. I should do much better on time come December where I will have all of my evenings off from teaching class. Have a nice week!
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