Mr. Tito's Phat Daily Column - Smackdown and Tough Enough reviews Submitted by Mr. Tito on Friday, September 21, 2001 at 4:15 PM EST
Welcome to another edition of the Phat Daily Column. It's Friday, which is my wonderful day off from both work and school. Actually, I'm really off from school, but I tell my employer to give me Fridays off. And you know what? They listen when the whole F'N show talks at my workplace. Friday is my recovery day, where I really catch up on my sleep that I missed throughout the week.
A couple of the readers really enjoyed the Live PDC format of what I did for RAW. Well, I'll be doing it live, again, but only since I missed Smackdown because I went bowling last night. So the laptop is loaded and ready to recap both Smackdown and Tough Enough.
End of intro. On to the PDC.
Before we start the PDC, I just want to give my best wishes to all of the men and women of the United States armed forces who are heading into the Middle East or who will be eventually doing so. Best of luck to all of you in your mission for peace and justice.
Mr. Tito's Smackdown
Oh shit. The WWF is starting this show with a damn interview, as Steve Austin walks down in street clothes. Yay, what a way to kill a possibly hot crowd. Austin just talks trash, like always, but everyone knows that he'll somehow pull out a victory over Angle at Unforgiven. But in reality, Austin is stale, and his eventual feud with the Rock is something that fans do NOT want to see. I think a simple backstage interview would get Austin's point across instead of rambling for minutes in the ring. Torrie Wilson?!? Has she been successful with her kissing up to Austin? Austin questioned why she was hanging around Tajiri, and calls her trash. I'd call her "Sara", because she's dressed like the Undertaker's wife in this interview.
Austin looks to possibly give her the stunner, which prompts Tajiri to run into the ring. Damn, does everyone have to sell the ring posts shots when fighting Austin?? After manhandling Tajiri, Austin questioned Torrie to why set him up on a Tajiri attack. Kurt Angle then proceeds to run down, and beats on Austin. Tazz tries to make the save, but is unsuccessful. It distracted Angle, and allowed for Austin to beat the piss out of Angle. Was Austin going for the piledriver there, and then remembered the WWF rules? Ooooooh no, Austin decided to remove the padding, and drill a piledriver there. Now watch, some kid will break another kid's neck, and the WWF will get sued for doing the piledriver spot this one time! The piledriver is dangerously effective here since it hasn't been used in a while. Too bad the WWF doesn't ban the DDT, too. 2 injury angles for Kurt Angle in a 2 week period. Wow.
And the WWF replays what happened in the next segment, wasting time even further.
Jim Ross replaces Tazz, and Ross puts over Angle's injury in an eery way, sort of like he was making it like the terrorist attacks. Sort of poor taste here by Ross and the WWF.
Our first match is Spike Dudley/Big Show versus Hurricane/Lance Storm, in a match that I figured would be entertaining when I saw it booked the other day. LOL @ Hurricane trying to bodyslam and chokeslam the Big Show. Not a bad match, but it was too damn short for anyone's good. After the match, Ivory and Molly Holly proceed to CAT FIGHT, CAT FIGHT, CAT FIGHT!! Then, the Dudleys attack the Big Show, because there's an apparent 4 way tag match. The WWF cops out like that, all of the time, when it comes to the tag division these days.
Backstage, Steve Austin talks to all of the Alliance about the piledriver. Man, there's a lot of wasted potential in that room, thanks to the stupid WWF arrogance. I do wish that the WWF would let Tommy Dreamer do more on television, besides wrestling on Heat.
KroniK..... oh boy. They get to whip on Kaientai, who are absent of their strange mic work. TAKA has new tights, too. Yeah, like that will get the WWF to actually respect his talent. Kronik is quite stiff with Kaientai, which is somewhat prick of them. But hey, if the WWF allows this, then why not get away with it, right? At Unforgiven, Kronik won't be able to easily toss the Undertaker or Kane like they did on TAKA and Funaki.
Props to William Regal for showing incredible intensity. Too bad Regal can't stay off the injury list or he'd be a great full time wrestler right now.
Chris Jericho joins us for commentary. His match against Rob Van Dam should be something this Sunday. Speaking of RVD, he's fighting Raven tonight. I guess they slipped this match by Austin, finally? Wow, Raven whipped out the Million Dollar Dream for this very match. Both guys looked quite crisp. Rob Van Dam, though, is incredibly over right now. It wouldn't surprise me that He'll destroy Jericho on fan favortism at Unforgiven. After the match, Perry Saturn ran down to warn us about the Raven vs. Saturn match this Sunday. Well, their matches were good 4 years ago, but that was 4 years ago!
Whoa, Rob Zombie theme music for Edge. Damn, I can't wait for Zombie's new CD to come out. What I like about Zombie is that he'll put out a CD, and then a CD full of remixes a few months later. I really enjoy that.
Digression #1: So which do I like, the Rob Zombie or White Zombie? Probably White Zombie, because the CDs seemed a little more polished off than Rob Zombie's solo work. Still, I really like the Rob Zombie solo stuff, so no problems there.
Edge is fighting Kanyon, who has been misused ever since Diamond Dallas Page went down with injury. Ref bump occurs, and Christian runs down to maybe spear Edge. Edge leapfrogs, and Kanyon gets drilled. Good spot there. Edge then gets the win, in spite of Christian's attempt for a screwjob. Not a bad match, but it had a lack of time on it, too.
Dudleys vs. Hardys... where have we seen this match before? Dudleys were somewhat intense in this match, which makes me question if the WWF writers will actually try to make the Duds look like a heel tag team. Lord only knows that they (writers) have slacked off in the past. Hardys get the win to quickly hype up the 4 way tag match at Unforgiven, and the Dudleys attack the Hardys afterward to do so too. Duds lost this match because of Spike's distraction, and Spike got his by Hurricane and Storm. Is that hyping a match for Unforgiven, too?
Wow, Kurt Angle checked himself out of a hotel for the injury. I thought he couldn't feel his arm? Normally, hospitals would run plenty of tests and keep you overnight for that.
Tajiri vs. Steve Austin was next. Austin just walked through Tajiri, making the US title look worse. Sure, Tajiri was selling injuries, but at least give him some spur of offense. After the match, Angle came back to cut a promo on Austin. Good promo, too, as Angle told Austin that he's the only one who can honestly beat the Rattlesnake.
Lots of time wasted by showing a boatload of the Rock vs. Stephanie/Test match. The Rock is back with the Coach, and talks about how he lost the match. The "Stephanie has probably been on a top of a lot of guys" comment was funny. Good celebrity rub off of Jerry Lee Lewis, and great singing from the Rock as well. Killer promo by Rocky.
I just absolutely love what the WWF has done with Booker T's entrance theme. APA/Rock vs. Booker T/Rhyno/Test is next, and your main event. I find it funny that Jim Ross ALWAYS mentions two names when discussing the WCW title: Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. True, they were two of the best wrestlers to hold their belt, but there were a handful of others (ahem, Sting) that have held the title with some dignity. Hey, this match is a elimination match. I wondered why Booker T pinned Bradshaw so fast. That was nice how the Rock side-stepped the Rhyno Gore to help take out Test to enable the Rock to get the eventual pin on Rhyno.
Digression #2: Do you notice how when wrestlers make the tag to their partner, they reach out the back of their hand instead of the front? I believe they do that to avoid adding any sweat to their partners hand to save someone from possibly harm on a blown move. I could be wrong there.
Back to the match... Rocky eliminated Test, so it's one on one with Rocky and Booker T. Note that the "Lights Out" match, in my opinion, hurt the Summerslam match because they already had a look at each other. Oh wait, Booker T took the count out! HA HA! Now that's funny, and it puts some added heat on the Unforgiven match.
LAST WORD: Not a bad show whatsoever. Matches were decent, but no where near as good as the ones we saw on RAW. Some matches were just total squashes, which bothered me. I guess Lightweights are going to be used, from now on, to put over large wrestlers instead of having their own division. I'll go B+ (B plus) on this show. Unforgiven looks good on paper, but who knows how it will turn out overall.
Mr. Tito's Tough Enough
This show is really in trouble due to the 2 week layoff. Wow, they put over the Josh size difference at the beginning of the show. Al Snow says it's time to crack down and tells them about tat there are only 7 days left. Snow says that Chris has the size and knowledge, Josh has the passion, and Maven has the charisma. Jackie says that Taylor has the determination, but someone else said that Nidia has those female qualities wanted by the WWF. Why not take both ladies?!?!?
Uh oh. Steve Austin is coming for a visit. Austin was somewhat in character for this, but in a serious way about the business. He told Josh about knowning about psychology and not only high spots. Early on, there's a ton of focus on Josh's size. Moonsaults were being taught, and Josh was killing himself learning the move. I don't blame him for not wanting to do it at the end.
After Commercial, everyone proved to be able to hit the moonsault better than Josh. HAHA! So much for the highflying ability of Josh. Back at the house, a call came in about everyone bringing their clothes, like their boots. Strange, it's a competition. Chris was badly hurt in the swimming, whereas Josh won it easily. The Josh-Chris rivalry was pushed throughout the show. Chris couldn't do the Rock climbing competition. Maven barely won this one. The women seem neck and neck in this competition.
Josh and Maven rip on Chris for being an ass kisser and how he can't do anything good on the competition. Things are getting good.
Oh my. Ivory stops in for a visit. Everyone is in trouble, cause she can be very intense in the ring. She beat the shit out of those guys, and let the other wrestlers give some back to her, too. Ivory was a good quest, especially for the women.
Ouch. Moonsault time without the padding! Before, they had padding, but now, no padding but the ring! Nidia and Taylor both did well there. Maven did awesome on his moonsault. Chris did well, but got a little low on it. Josh finally hit the moonsault on his attempt!
At the end, Al Snow lets it be known that it's still a tough race, and that he's proud of everyone for what they went through. Next show: the contestants wrestle the trainers, and take one big ass kicking! Also, Vince McMahon shows up to observer what's going on, and a winner will be chosen. As any hint of who wins, Taylor is seen crying at the end. Hmmm...
LAST WORD: One of the better shows this week. A lot of realism towards the sport of wrestling was shown in the contestants' final days of training. As for my picks.... I see Nidia edging out Taylor for the contract. Nidia just seems to have the overall package, compared to Taylor, who is still good. I'd take both women under contract, but that's my opinion. For the dudes, I'll pick Maven. Overall, he has what both Josh lacks and what Chris lacks. The latest show hurt both Chris and Josh in certain aspects.
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@That's all for today. I don't know what I'll have for you tomorrow, as I deem the "Week in Review" column as becoming somewhat stale. Plus, sleep is valued on Saturday morning before I go to work. I should have at least a column on Sunday, to give my Unforgiven (and NFL) predictions. Until then, just chill.....
