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Welcome back to MR. TITO STRIKES BACK exclusively here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com. I have to admit... I'm liking the WWE SummerSlam 2016 card so far: - The Miz(c) vs. Apollo Crews for the Intercontinental Title - AJ Styles vs. John Cena - Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton - Dean Ambrose(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE World Heavyweight Title - Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor to decide the WWE Universal Title Whatever your feelings on ALL 10 wrestlers shown above, each of them are fine tuned athletes that are capable of executing a good match. It's certainly "opportunity knocks" for Miz and Apollo I like how both Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler were presented on Tuesday. Dean now has a swagger to him with a little bit of a nasty edge to his personality since he's champion. That's confidence... Combine that with actual WINS and he looks legitimate as champion. I really liked the quick booking on Dolph Ziggler. Good promo to start the show and later redeeming himself by defeating Bray Wyatt cleanly. WWE has tore Ziggler down since his major Authority busting win at Survivor Series 2014 but the guy can wrestle. Just give him a shot... Match should be good and ditto for Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor. Seth has proven that he can wrestle anybody to a good match and lucky for Seth, Finn is lighter than his normal opponent. I'm sure we'll see lots of high flying spots but I figure Finn will step up his game being that it's his first WWE Main Roster Pay Per View. This could make or break his early career. He should look up to AJ Styles who made the most of out of his early Pay Per View appearances to solidify his top spot earlier this year. The most interesting match to me, however, is Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton. It's 2 longtime WWE superstars going head to head in their first serious match. I know, they wrestled on an edition of Smackdown during 2002... Lesnar was in the main event then already but Orton was still figuring out his path. In fact, he was later moved to Monday Night RAW where he'd join Evolution and figure out his character and career path better. Then, Lesnar leaves after Wrestlemania 20 during 2004 just when Randy Orton was starting to figure things out. These are 2 veterans who debuted in 2002 that are locking up for their first "Main Event" style match. I loved the trading of finishers and invading each other's brands this week. Those actions made the match feel like a BIG DEAL and it should be a big deal. Both Orton and Lesnar are among the top paid WWE wrestlers with multiple World Titles between them. As I've said for a while now, Randy Orton is ideal for Brock Lesnar because he has moves that the WWE could sell that actually could HURT Lesnar. RKO has been sold for years as "coming out of no where". Randy could even hit the RKO as both wrestlers attempt to lock up when starting the match. The DDT through the ropes is absolutely brutal and I'm shocked that WWE Corporate hasn't forced Randy to stop using it. Then, Randy's punt kick which other wrestlers have sold as being quite dangerous. Brock Lesnar is wrestling a guy that has 3 impact moves that could be easily sold as damaging to Brock, especially the RKO. I can already envision the F5 getting reversed into an RKO... Wow... But should Brock Lesnar LOSE?!? For one, Brock Lesnar's issues with drug testing following his UFC 200 bout could call the WWE Wellness Policy into question. For example, if the Wellness Policy was good at busting Roman Reigns, what did it possibly miss with Lesnar? Timing wise, the testing appears that any potential doping happened just before the fight and well after his last WWE bout. Still, the Public Relations nightmare exists... WWE might feel the need to punish Brock Lesnar. To Lesnar, it's "just business" and he still has about a year and 7 months left on his 3 year, $9 million extension. Unless he wants legal troubles again, he has contracted appearances and matches. He'll "do business" if asked... And why not? In my opinion, Randy Orton needs a definitive victory in his career. That is what his career was always lacking. I've said this for years upon years... The timing was perfect for Randy Orton to defeat Triple H in the headlining match at Wrestlemania 25. That was his former mentor and by that point, Triple H was looking for a reduced workload as a wrestler. Instead, what we got was Triple H winning. That result baffles me to this day. If I name BIG wrestlers from the WWE, I can name their opponents who helped make them into big stars. Steve Austin sort of had it with Bret Hart, but Austin was put over by Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. John Cena's rise to the top saw big name opponents drop and that includes Triple H. Look at Brock Lesnar's resume! Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Cena, and I could go on and on with him. BIG victories. With Orton... I really struggle to remember his matches. If Randy Orton drops Brock Lesnar in the center of the ring with the RKO and gets the 1, 2, 3 cleanly at WWE SummerSlam 2016, it will do wonders for his career. And I think that it's happening... Look at how excited he has been in the ring lately as a returning babyface. He's pumped! I believe that he knows that he'll win at SummerSlam 2016. Orton is one of those wrestlers who likes to win and his emotions in the ring often give away the match's result. If he's losing, he seems to get a bit robotic and unemotional with his opponent. But if he's about to win? He feels grrrrrrrreat! Is it good for WWE business for Brock Lesnar to lose? Well, is Brock still a wrestler who was once the UFC Heavyweight Champion? I think so... And again, just sell it that Randy Orton has effective offense that can beat him. You know, psychology... How else would the RKO, Attitude Adjustment, Pedigree, or F5 be so dominant in defeating wrestlers? Because those moves are sold to be the absolute strongest moves in the WWE! So why not just use what's already in place? Randy Orton can seriously hit the RKO "out of no where". We've seen it at many shows now... How about that reversal of Seth Rollins's Curb Stomp? Remember that one? Holy cow. How many wrestlers have tried to dive off the top rope only to get drilled by the RKO in mid air? Best thing about Brock Lesnar losing at SummerSlam is that they don't have to punish him for the UFC testing results... Just make him lose and the message is sent. WWE does not need any bad publicity following what happened in the latter half of the 2000s (Benoit + Online Pharmacies + Deaths). I've heard some people even bring up how the WWE could address the UFC testing issues by possibly stripping Lesnar of his Wrestlemania 30 victory over the Undertaker. Huh? Are you crazy? That would mean that the WWE Wellness Policy was asleep for over 2 years! WWE should keep quiet and let Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) take the hits because they've had some failed tests lately. It could be easily seen that Lesnar was clean in the WWE and decided that he needed help for his MMA return. WWE already endured drug issues... Let UFC take their lumps over this matter because as far as we know, WWE's Wellness Policy is legit and wrestlers are tested often. How else would top star Roman Reigns fail? Hell, even Randy Orton has had some Wellness Policy issues himself. Just let the MATCH do the talking as Pro Wrestling Fans want to see it... And they will. ----------------------------------------------------- THE LAST WORD Let's get away from the WWE for a second and speak about TNA Wrestling for a moment. Now, I don't cover TNA wrestling at the moment because PopTV was on the Cable TV package that I decided to retire last year. It was getting too expensive for my tastes, but in all honesty, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and WWE Network were doing it for me. Plus, I can just lose myself on YouTube. Just endless entertainment there. So therefore, if you like TNA and are among the 400,000 or so who still watches Impact... Hear me out. Billy Corgan, former lead singer and band member of the Smashing Pumpkins, recently became a minority owner of TNA Wrestling. This is in addition to the "Senior Producer of Creative and Talent" title that he presently has as well. From what I'm hearing among my readers, they like what he's doing... TNA has seemed to have simplified it storylines and focuses on a handful of wrestlers only at the top. Their ratings aren't showing it but from all that I've read, fans are happy with the TNA product now. With that being said, why not reward Billy? First and foremost, BUY every TNA Pay Per View if you like what TNA Impact Wrestling continues to provide on PopTV. TNA needs the capital in order to stay afloat in addition to retaining/signing wrestling, touring, and trying to keep up with many ongoing changes in the television world. While $35 to $45 might feel a tad steep for these shows, it's a true investment as a wrestling fan to make. More money in TNA's pocket could help them compete and maybe sign one of the many disgruntled WWE wrestlers away. But I have a more radical idea... BUY SMASHING PUMPKINS MUSIC, specifically songs that Billy Corgan wrote. Don't know which Pumpkins songs that Billy either wrote or shared duties, go here. The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the top bands of the 1990s as they took what was popular with the Grunge scene and crafted music that anybody could like. All of their biggest hits had Billy's involvement as a writer: -Today -Disarm (personal favorite) -Cherub Rock -Bullet with Butterfly Wings -Tonight, Tonight -The End is the Beginning is the End Smashing Pumpkins were GREAT in their day and their songs still carry airtime to this very day. What I'm imploring is that if you don't have these songs already on your iTunes, Google Store, or whatever you use... BUY THEM. See, Billy will get song writing credits for anytime his songs are used and purchased. What, you don't have a few sets of $1.29 laying around to help TNA? That's cheap... But if all 400,000 of you PopTV viewers bought these songs... Just do the math. Don't just sit around and rip WWE to shreds because you, in your opinion, think that TNA is better. Speak with your wallet. If you want competition for the WWE so badly and you believe in what Billy Corgan is doing, BUY HIS MUSIC. And the best part about my suggestion is that his music is GOOD and not horsecrap like much of the industry back then and now. That goes without saying to the WWE as well... Do you like a wrestler? BUY THEIR THEME MUSIC on iTunes, Google, etc. For example, I really liked the WWE additions of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. What did I do soon thereafter? Bough their WWE themes. If you believe in Finn Balor so much, buy his theme music and encourage others to do so as well. WWE sees those numbers thanks to their corporate Marketing department and will make suggestions to the Creative Team. At the end of the day, Vince McMahon likes to make money. Didn't he eventually give into the "YES!" movement at Wrestlemania 30 by completely rewriting the show to include Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Title against Randy Orton & Batista? I'm not asking you to saw off an arm or a leg... But wrestling promotions NEED CAPITAL, particularly ones airing on PopTV and don't have a publicly traded corporation backing them. WWE has shares of stock that just feed them money all day long. So give Billy some help and as an added bonus, if older Smashing Pumpkins sells well, their full band could reunite and play a venue near you. Added bonus! Smashing Pumpkins made great music in their day and you'll be getting a great product with your individual $1.29 purchases per song. There could be worse things to listen to in this world, like if I had an audio show... That's why I stick to the columns. 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 - 1998-2016
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