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The EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING is upon you and this edition of Mr. Tito STRIKES BACK celebrates 17 freakin' years of being Mr. Tito. That's right... On October 26th, 1998, an 18 year old kid debuted with LordsofPain.net as the brand new daily columnist. And just how did I get that job? Well, when the Internet became more mainstream during the mid-1990's, I began using it to look up insider wrestling news. Eventually, probably through clicking hot links or through a Yahoo! search, I stumbled upon LordsofPain.net during the early fall of 1998. It became one of my bookmarks to check for news almost by the hour... That newsboard was LOADED with information... And then, one day, there was a post for a job opening for a Daily Columnist. I IMMEDIATELY sent an email to LordsofPain.net owner/operator Calvin "Painlord" Martin... Somehow, he approved and signed me up. Zero experience, 18 year old kid, and with no samples to send him. Basically, my job was just to pump out opinionated pieces daily and don't stop... And didn't. Mr. Tito's Phat Daily Column was born. Just to show you how long ago I became Mr. Tito, I was reviewing WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 and just ripping that show apart. What I lacked in experience during 1998, I made up in motivation and not being afraid to be bold with my opinions. Calvin must have saw something in the first column that I sent to him and he posted it... Kept posting it thereafter and the rest was history. I wrote DAILY from 1998 through 2002 during the height and the peak of the Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era. And I barely missed a day... It wasn't until the workload in graduate school picked up that I shifted from daily to 2-3 times a week or at least weekly. I kept going until 2006 when I officially retired because I was about to get married, just bought a house, and took a new full time job as a professional. Too busy to be Mr. Tito and Eddie Guerrero's passing during late 2005 was depressing for me as a wrestling fan in addition to a weakened WWE product during 2006. I retired and thought I'd never come back... Then, Chris Benoit killed his family and I quit watching pro wrestling "cold turkey" from June 2007 until late 2009. I always lurked on LoPForums.com and someone in the "General Wrestling" forum created an "Ask Tito" thread to ask me ongoing questions about older wrestlers and wrestling storylines. That started peaking my interest in pro wrestling again and I began casually watching RAW again during late 2009. In particular, I was bored with television during 10pm to 11pm before SportsCenter or the Local News would come on. Thus, I gave RAW a chance... During early 2010, LoPForums had a Blogs section that Calvin wanted to start up and I signed up to help begin adding non-wrestling blog posts to LoP. I began writing posts on economics, politics, movies, music, sports, and other nonsense... But then, occasionally, I would write a wrestling blog post. The reactions were overwhelming... Older fans were begging me to write wrestling columns again while newer fans were shocked to see a new bold voice on LoP. Slowly as 2010 moved onward, I began writing mostly wrestling posts. Then, by 2011, I began writing Daily again. With a few bumps in the road since, I've mostly been around LoP and since mid 2012, I've been at least providing weekly content for LordsofPain.net. So what keeps me going? Well, I'm driven and I consider writing wrestling columns (a) a hobby and (b) an art form. It's just sometime to do with my free time, I enjoy speaking with a wide audience, and it helps enhance my viewership of pro wrestling. Much like Fantasy Sports helps NFL fans consume more football games, writing pro wrestling columns keeps me watching even when WWE shows are bad. Seriously, I would stop watching RAW if I didn't need content to complete a column. Me and Doc have been discussing viewership of WWE products lately and how just watching Pay Per Views is more than enough lately. WWE Pay Per Views for 2015 have been pretty good and watching 3 hours of RAW has become a burden on your time. But hey, I need content for a column and lately, we need an opinionated piece on RAW... So here I am. And I already cutback on my RAW viewership by watching the Hulu version of RAW which is only 1.5 hours long. But I consider writing columns an art form... I often daydream of columns during the workday, mowing the lawn, or on long drives and I carefully construct how the columns are pieced together. I also take great pride in how the column is titled... I'm not just writing for my longtime fans, but I want to make a casual viewer of LoP or someone on Google enticed to click on my column link to see what's up. I am always curious in how readers respond to something that I've written and am often baffled when I see the opposite reaction of what I expected. When will I end this run? I've got more in the tank or to quote Rocky, I "still have something left in my basement". I would say that Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman are what keeps me hanging on as a wrestling fan. I was SO HAPPY when Brock re-signed just before Wrestlemania 31 and helped change that show's outcome (was originally booked to have Roman Reigns win the WWE Title). I was actually thinking about walking away when I began hearing the rumors of the Reigns push just before Royal Rumble 2015. I'm just tired of the WWE pissing away great talents (Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Cesaro, Ambrose) and overpushing the same handpicked guys over and over again (Reigns, Sheamus). But, I can endure that to see the next great Brock Lesnar moment and match. He has provided many BIG MOMENTS in the WWE for the past 3 years that I cannot stop watching. To me, pro wrestling has the advantage over other sports in that they can script drama whereas real sports can't script theirs. WWE Pay Per Views deliver 3 hours where the timing of the match isn't a letdown. UFC and Boxing can cause you to pony up top dollar to see a short fight or something disappointing. Wrestling can control the environment and the ending to any match. Lesnar's contract is for 3 years and I think you could expect me to be around for another 3 years... Unless something happens in life or in pro wrestling that causes me to do otherwise. I feel that my past few years worth of columns are some of my best work produced and I feel that I'm in a good state right now. Plus, WWE Network has actually enhanced me as a wrestling fan as I'm inhaling every documentary that I see, NXT is growing on me, and now cover every WWE big event. I do want to give a big THANK YOU to Calvin Martin for continuing to let me post here at LoP. I've been loyal to LoP since the beginning and much of that is due to a webmaster who gives you an open canvas to post whatever. Secondly, my longtime fans... I have people still following me since my Phat Daily Column days and that's impressive. And certainly, thank you to any fans that have become in recent years. Thank you to the trolls, too... Yes, you keep commenting on my column because you secretly love my posts. What else would you read and comment on if I retired? THANK YOU to anyone that I forgot which includes many past or current members of LoP.net and LoPForums. Enough about me... Let's review RAW: =============================== RAW is HULU - Review Missed the Cut: X - Sheamus, King Barrett and Rusev vs. Ryback and The Dudley Boyz X - Lots of Hell in a Cell video packages X - Many entrances - #1 Contender tournament forced WWE to show most matches. X - Backstage segment with Steve Austin/Miz Opening segment was the Authority (Stephanie & Triple H) coming out to congratulate Seth Rollins for his win last night and ending Kane as Director of Operations. Minutes upon minutes of praise leads to the announcement of a methodology for someone to become #1 contender tonight. That's right, ONE NIGHT after a Pay Per View, we'll decide who is the #1 contender in ONE NIGHT. Wouldn't you see a greater benefit to a #1 contender determination by having some qualifying matches this week and then having the finale of the #1 contendership occur next week? You know, announce it a week in advance to build up interest? Hello, McFly? Hello?!? Roman Reigns comes out for a BAD promo as a response to Rollins/Authority which is not how a #1 contender should speak. Guy can't talk... How about a manager? If having a manager is good enough for Brock Lesnar, it can be good enough for Roman Reigns. Maybe Vince McMahon himself could be the manager? First match on HULU Roman Reigns vs. Kofi Kingston as an opening qualifying match for the #1 contendership. Not a bad match... Big E and Kofi nailed another great promo with Xavier Woods out and I loved the verbal thrashing on Reigns, particularly on how his "look hasn't changed for 3 years". So true! Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have both changed their look AND music while Roman Reigns operates as a 1 man Shield band. For as brief of time as both were given, it was a quick impactful match. Kofi bumped and sold like a champ and Reigns executed well on moves. That's how a RAW match should look. No problems here but good Good God, teach Roman how to speak! Because it was a #1 contender's qualifying match, I actually get to FINALLY see Kevin Owens and Cesaro wrestle on RAW is Hulu. OK match, but again, short... Nothing else to really comment and I'm glad to see Owens win because he's the Intercontinental Champion and should at least look competitive in a #1 contender tourney. Team Bella vs. PCB was up next... Looking at the RAW results ahead of time, I was certain that this match would get cut by Hulu. Wrong... Love that Bella entrance. Great music, great swagger heading into the ring, and the ladies look hot. BUT, because they are on Total Divas and are the bridge between the Divas Search women and the Divas Revolution from NXT, Nikki and Brie are badmouthed often. What, do you miss the days of Kelly Kelly? OK 6 women match although Team Bella was quite dominant as the heel team. Worse yet, the Bellas "got their heat back" by winning tonight, particularly with Nikki Bella winning the match with the Rack Attack (great finisher). After the match, Paige turns on her fellow PCB team. Does anybody care at this point? Did anybody care about the trio as a team? There's just nothing natural about their team and I'll have to admit that I WAS WRONG on this July 17th, 2015 Column now that I understand the NXT brand better and have watched months of this "Divas Revolution". Alberto Del Rio vs. Neville was next as another #1 contender's match. Good match with fast paced action and some nice spots hit. I don't like the Zeb Colter pairing. Just looks odd and ditto for the "MexAmericans" stuff. Doesn't make sense and Alberto Del Rio's efforts to get into the SHAPE OF HIS LIFE are downgraded when his entrance is shared with a guy driving down the ramp in a motorized scooter. Del Rio is in sick shape right now but yet he's instantly made to look like a fool with the wrong manager. VERY cool segment with Bray Wyatt and then later the Wyatts claiming another victim. Loved Bray's promo as he acknowledged his loss with Reigns and explained that he'll return for him later... But Wyatt speaking highly of the Undertaker as his new focus and it's nice because they had prior heat from their Wrestlemania 31 match. However, the Wyatts are strong now at 4... Kane, finally, had a great RAW moment when his entrance exploded and he was coming down to confront Bray Wyatt. What, they are acknowledging being brothers again?!? Lights go out and the other 3 Wyatts appear. BEATDOWN ON KANE and they drag him out to the back afterward. Fascinating... Love this 4 person Wyatt Family now. I am completely fascinated by this feud and am curious who Kane/Undertaker selects as their tag team members... Acolytes or APA? Hmmmm... They need HOSSES, so I'd consider adding Big Show and then dipping into the NXT circuit with Baron Corbin. Big E vs. Dolph Ziggler was up next and it was pretty good. Big E and Ziggler had good chemistry although the ending had Ziggler barking instructions at Big E that were audible to the television viewer. But that's how it works... Big E looked great with the power moves and Ziggler bumped like he always does. Odd stuff with Tyler Breeze at ringside along with Summer Rae. And guess what? They did nothing... So why were they ringside again? Is there something I'm missing from Smackdown that I don't watch? As a follow up to the above statement on Roman Reigns, maybe Dean Ambrose should be Reigns's manager? I'm kidding, but the man who has helped Reigns look good in segments has been Ambrose and the way he talks Reigns up in backstage segments. RISE ABOVE CANCER segment up next with Titus O'Neill on the mic and eventually dancing with the cancer victims in the ring. Like I said, I'm not going to criticize this if awareness and money are raised to help with the prevention and treatment of cancer. The MAIN EVENT was Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio in a No DQ Fatal Four Way match. Again - Why not just have a Tag Team match involving the 4 wrestlers this week and have the actual #1 contender determination next week? This match was really different and unique because Alberto Del Rio hasn't worked with Roman or Owens and seeing them work together was fascinating. And Ziggler and Roman had some good interactions, too... Del Rio looked really good tonight and proved WHY the WWE acquired his services again. Tons of in-ring ability with Del Rio, just poor marketing and creative of his character by WWE Creative. Kevin Owens had some great moments in this match, too... Nice finish with Reigns reversing Owens's Powerbomb attempt into a Superman Punch and a spear for the win. SHOW THOUGHTS: Finally, a GOOD RAW to brag about. The matches got better by the night within the #1 contender tournament and then the Fatal 4 Way was very strong. Roman Reigns had another GOOD night... As you'll see in my "Last Word", I just worry that we're moving along too fast once again. At this point, I just don't know how well Reigns vs. Rollins could draw but I'm confident in that rushing Reigns, once again, might not work out. BUT... He has had 2 consecutive good nights and that's what he should keep trying to build on. Prove me wrong, but rushing him to the title without organically getting there will prove me right. A for my show grade, superb RAW. ============================== PHAT QUESTIONS Question #1: Any regrets as a columnist? Absolutely... In my younger days, I was quite a troll. I was 18-22 in my late teens and in my undergraduate years of college and my immaturity was quite evident. I ripped many wrestlers to shreds and was quite unfair. As I got older and better understood the business, I've been less critical of wrestlers and more critical of Management/Creative Teams who have a bigger say in a wrestler's career. I also wish that I was even louder of a critic when it came to drug abuse in pro wrestling. My columns were always anti-drug (remember that 4:20 reference column?) and I have been very critical on the apparent performance enhancer culture in wrestling... But I could have ramped up the intensity further and maybe at least create some awareness online of this growing problem. It was getting quite sad to see how many wrestlers by 2005 were dying and who knows, a louder internet critic could have put more attention towards the situation. But I did speak out on it back then and I only wish that I could have been even louder on that situation. Otherwise, no regrets... I've had fun. --------------------------------------- Question #2: What do you consider as your BEST column? I'm quite fond of the "Told Ya So: CM Punk Was Buried" and probably consider that as my best ever. I saw the body language early of Triple H when he was in the same ring as Punk. HHH was completely repulsed by him. I wrote on that for weeks and I took a lot of heat for predicting that CM Punk was about to be "buried" by HHH and WWE Management to end his 2011 "Summer of Punk" momentum. I was legitimately about to walk away from being Mr. Tito just before that Night of Champions 2011 and then I write one last "FU" column to many haters who attacked me for that "burial" opinion. It's a thing of beauty and I still enjoy how it sticks it to many critics of me back then. It's even better when I saw those same critics reverse their opinions on Punk with time... Otherwise, most of my readers consider my September 2005 column titled "The Winner's Curse" in which I did an economic study on the WWE's deal with Viacom to move RAW from USA Networks to TNN/Spike TV during 2000. In other words, Viacom overpaid for a product that was beginning to decline and had other revenue challenges during that period of time. The column is actually sourced like a college term paper and I took it very seriously. It was the second part of my brief "Economics of Wrestling" series as the first part was about if wrestlers should form a Labor Union. I really liked my recent column about WWE Network and Pay Per Views, sort of in the same light and regard as my Winner's Curse column. And I personally like my New World Order (nWo) History column from January 2001 as it was mostly written from memory with little help from the internet or other sources. I remember sitting down for 4 hours on a Saturday morning/afternoon pounding that column out. My memory of events was super sharp back then and I could recall most title histories through that time. Not so much now, but in fairness to me, many title changes occur now and the brand split throws me off. ------------------------------------ Question #3: In covering both the downfall of WCW and ECW, what do you believe truly killed both promotions? For ECW, it's easy... They lost their stars. WCW and WWE picked them clean of their best talents and Heyman had to overspend to stay afloat. For the talents who remained, he had to pay them more not to leave and he also boosted the production values of his shows. The revenues coming in weren't outpacing the expenses paid, simple math. Even during 2000 when ECW had some momentum on TNN, freakin' WCW steals their ECW Champion Mike Awesome. By then, ECW was burned out on creating stars and losing them. Bad deals with Pay Per View companies and TNN just didn't supplement the promotion with more revenues as expected. By 1998, WCW just became a disorganized mess that was completely unable to create brand new stars to create a succession plan in motion to replace the aging stars at the top. Sure, they created Bill Goldberg, but what else did they have to show for it? And again, same problem that ECW had... High expenses, not enough revenue coming in. WCW overpaid for many, many veterans in the years of competing with the WWE and were thick in guaranteed money. By 1998, the Creative Teams just weren't creating any new or innovative ideas that they were during 1996-1997. WCW's roster was so deep, too, and they often filled out the 3 hours of Nitro and Thunder without much problem in terms of match quality. But the booking just wasn't there and Vince Russo couldn't create a miracle cure for a ship that was already sinking when he joined during the fall of 1999. Ultimately, WWE just became REALLY GOOD with amazing new stars that forced many fans to become WWE fans. Steve Austin, Triple H, the Rock, Mick Foley, etc. Then, by late 1999 and early 2000, the talent roster swelled. Competing with one of the all-time greatest runs by a wrestling promotion in the history of mankind was not easy for WCW or ECW. Seriously, WWE has able to file a successful application to become a publicly traded corporation during the Attitude Era! =========================== THE LAST WORD Sigh... WWE never learns. Already, we have Roman Reigns becoming the #1 contender. Sure, he had one hell of a match at WWE Hell in a Cell 2015 against Bray Wyatt, but that's ONE singles match... Furthermore, in order for that match to appear good, Roman Reigns had to sacrifice his body by brutally going through tables and taking other dangerous spots to win over the crowd. Would that match have been good without those big spots? I don't know... Roman Reigns has struggled with psychology, chain wrestling, and selling in many other one-on-one matches. Reigns's best 2 matches of 2015 were when the fighting intensified, such as his Wrestlemania 31 against Lesnar and now his match against Bray Wyatt. Hardcore style fighting has been used to mask Roman's weaknesses... Again, can someone definitively prove to me that Roman Reigns can (a) draw merchandise sales and (b) pack a houseshow with 5,000 based on his name on top of the card? Some recent RAW ratings scores have Reigns owning some of the blame, notably that singles match against Bray Wyatt. Reigns winning the #1 contendership on Monday did not draw either. What is the rush on Roman Reigns? Since the Shield break-up, Reigns has been on a non-stop push even though he has NEVER proven himself to be a draw and didn't work his way up as a midcarder. Every other top star has proven themselves as a drawing Intercontinental/United States Champion and then became World Champion. You know, like an earned promotion. Since Brock Lesnar's debut during 2002, WWE's expectation of its developmental system is not just to supplement the roster with talent but to create instant main eventers. But why make him a #1 contender now? Why not spend the next TWO months to give Roman Reigns tough match up after tough match up to see if he steps up? Battle test the guy to improve in the ring and also getting over with the crowds. If he puts on strong performances, then maybe reward him with another Royal Rumble win. Instead, he's #1 contender again and getting another WWE Title shot handed to him on a silver platter. Roman Reigns has a real risk of becoming another Sheamus who is a guy rushed to the title too early because someone backstage really liked the guy and he continues to get undeserved World Title shot after World Title shot. And the funny thing is... If Roman Reigns wins, I wouldn't be surprised that we'll see Sheamus cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and give us that vaunted Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns feud that we've all clamored for. For all of you John Cena haters, the booking of the next few months will test your hatred of him. I'm willing to bet that you'll miss Cena at the prospect of the "Roman Empire" beginning soon. See what I mean? Cena has carried this promotion while others have failed to be developed into the next stars. Cena was a midcarder from 2002-2004 before his Main Event push through 2005. He organically became the next WWE Main Eventer and because of that, he's remain a star for 10 years. The rest of the WWE around him has been poorly booked and developed. Thus, nobody is truly ready to replace him. But hey, those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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