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Welcome back to the EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING exclusively here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com by yours truly, Mr. Tito. I have to admit, I'm really pumped for the WWE Clash of the Champions RAW-exclusive Pay Per View this Sunday. I am thrilled... Why? Because it has potential to present something GOOD from the RAW roster. Sorry folks, but this needs to be said. Monday Night RAW just is not materializing as a worthwhile show to watch whether it's the full 3 hours on USA Networks or condensed to 1.5 hours on Hulu. It's sloppy... It's as if all of the Creative Team members who have ruined Monday Night RAW for the past year remain while WWE Smackdown seems to be benefiting from a few NXT writers helping out with that show. RAW feels like Attitude Era-Lite but without any top drawing main eventers. Don't get me wrong, RAW does have some talent and probably has a more well rounded roster than Smackdown. But their use is poor... You tell me the logic of Roman Reigns going for the US Title and yet he's able to defeat the World Champion in a non-title match? At Pay Per Views, the "truth serum" comes out and the wrestlers hyped as "great" from the RAW hype have to prove themselves. During 2015, it was my opinion that Seth Rollins was struggling as a character particularly trying to overcome the awful Authority angle and Corporate Kane. Add to that, the edge that he had before Wrestlemania 31 was gone when he was forced to lose his Curb Stomp finisher that was replaced with a Triple H Pedigree. It just looks terrible... BUT, if you watch the Pay Per Views ONLY, you'd think that Seth Rollins was the BEST worker in the company by a large margin. The guy can flat-out wrestle and he often made me erase the thought of his RAW show character because of his PPV performances. On RAW lately, the WWE is hyping Roman Reigns again as the top superstar. Sure, he's in the middle of the Rusev feud for the US Title, but he keeps injecting himself into the WWE Universal Title feud. WWE fans are not suckers and the back-to-back weeks of 2.7 million viewers are evidence of that (Monday Night Football ratings are down, FACT!). However, Roman Reigns vs. Rusev could either justify the RAW push or prove how bad WWE Creative is... Pay Per Views FORCE wrestlers to, you know, actually WRESTLE. At the end of the day, the WWE stands for "World WRESTLING Entertainment". Until the WWE has the ability to sell Pay Per Views where no wrestling occurs, they need to push guys who can legitimately execute in the ring. This isn't the 1980's where cartoonish characters can get away with being BAD in the ring... Way too much exposure now with a 3 hour RAW show and lots of access to WWE shows. You can't quite hide flaws like you used to. Plus, the Internet Wrestling Community is quite vocal... It legitimately feels like RAW has retained the same writing crew that we've endured for the last decade. Just a bad imitation of the Attitude Era, as the writers are stealing pages out of Vince Russo's playbook... However, they have to abide by the PG rating guidelines so thus many storylines play up cheap comedy instead of adult situations. And also from that era, we have Stephanie McMahon AND Mick Foley as authority figures. Been there, done that... In fact, they were authority figures during the Attitude Era! Seeing Stephanie McMahon talk down male wrestlers without any redemption makes me cringe, but as much as I like Mick Foley, his role feels very tired to me. We've seen the absolute best out of Mick Foley and see him try about everything... His GM Role is just nothing new. I felt really bad when he was in the ring and trying to hype the Cruiserweight division. I'm getting very close to the point where I'll take on my intial promise of being "Smackdown only", although writing wrestling columns as Mr. Tito make discarding RAW difficult to do. But I really hate watching RAW because it's nothing but poor storylines, bad promos, and giving away big matches for FREE that just don't impress. Look at those main events for RAW, like this week's Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns CAGE MATCH. Seriously, RAW ends with that match, which could have easily been booked for a Pay Per Views, and the WWE can't even break 3 million viewers. That is SAD. The only real times that the WWE has been above 3.0 million is when they are having a WWE Universal Title tournament. They've done that twice and RAW can't keep having World Title tournaments every week to draw interest. But the WWE Pay Per Views are GOOD... Why? Because WRESTLERS HAVE TO WRESTLE and that's the main time when the WWE Main Roster actually resembles a legitimate athletic contest. That's what draws for pro wrestling, folks... The conflict IN THE RING between Good & Evil for the power and prestige of being Champion. WWE has lost their mojo ever since the early 2000s regarding this and thus why they've lost more than half of their audience. I'm just happy that I watch the condensed 1.5 hour Hulu edition... I feel bad for y'all watching on the USA Networks live as it happens. I just can't give away my 8-11 Monday evening timeslot to pro wrestling any longer. ============================================= Mr. Tito's PHAT WWE Clash of the Champions 2016 Predictions First and foremost, let me just note what a piece of crap that WWE.com has become. They made what was a nice slick and easy to use website into a hot mess. I could have put together a better website on Angelfire or Geocities back in the day. Based on my navigation of the poorly organized WWE website, I believe that I have the complete card. If not, blame them. Kickoff Show: Nia Jax vs. Alicia Fox I just wonder if Charlotte's issues with Dana Brooke are setting up Nia Jax to eventually be Charlotte's muscle? For this match, it's obvious who is winning.... WWE hasn't been serious about Alicia Fox when she was younger and they won't now. I wouldn't doubt that Nia Jax makes an appearance during the Triple Threat. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Nia Jax -------------------- Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn Can Sami Zayn win a big profile match, please? This guy is legitimately talented and charismatic as a babyface. Instead of letting him rack up wins to see if his audience of fans could build, he loses big match after big match. All he has ever done was entertain in the ring yet he doesn't win. WHO SHOULD WIN: Sami Zayn and then let him start consistently winning matches. WHO WILL WIN: Chris Jericho and then Sami will win the rematch. Same pattern. -------------------- Cruiserweight Title: TJ Perkins (c) vs. Brian Kendrick Nothing against Kendrick BUT... I thought WWE was attempting to present something unique for the Cruiserweight Division? Kendrick is a WWE retread whereas Rich Swann, Gran Metalik, or Cedric Alexander are still new to WWE fans. No, I don't care about rewarding Kendrick for training Eva Marie... WWE needs to launch this as something BRAND NEW instead of with old faces. Otherwise, by using older WWE guys, it doesn't distinguish who is a cruiserweight and who isn't. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: TJ Perkins, it's obvious why Kendrick is there (for him to lose), but I still would have pushed a unique match-up to impress out of the gate. -------------------- Tag Titles: New Day (c) vs. Anderson/Gallows I continue to maintain that WWE Creative is CLUELESS on how to use Anderson and Gallows... Their best work was when they were heel thugs for AJ Styles and they should be with him on Smackdown right now to continue that work. Instead, we have this goofy New Day feud which isn't helping them. Meanwhile, the question you have to ask yourself is "how long will New Day be tag champions?". We're almost 400 days in and we're close to the Demolition record of 478 days. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: New Day. I believe that the WWE wants that Demolition record wiped clean from the record books. ------------------- Best of 7 Series: Sheamus vs. Cesaro I can't say that this feud did much for either guy... What title shot will the winner receive, anyway? This feud is just "something to do" for 2 wrestlers who have lots of talent and the looks of legitimate heavyweight wrestlers yet WWE Creative has screwed with both guys. Honestly, I don't care about the outcome because I don't believe that the WWE has anything invested in either guy. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Draw. They'll wrestle the rematch on RAW. -------------------- Women's Title: Charlotte (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley It is difficult for me to see Sasha or Bayley winning here... Sasha can't stay healthy and she just lost the championship... It's too early for Bayley particularly from the losing booking that she's been receiving. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Charlotte, possibly with someone some help of Nia Jax... -------------------- United States Title: Rusev (c) vs. Roman Reigns If RAW is any indication, the WWE wants Roman Reigns back into the Main Event scene... Thus, I sense that Rusev will somehow retain the United States title. WHO SHOULD WIN: Roman Reigns, he needs to work in the midcard for a while. WHO WILL WIN: Roman Reigns by disqualification to let Rusev retain. -------------------- WWE Universal Title: Kevin Owens (c) vs. Seth Rollins This biggest part of this match will the whether or not Triple H appears. In some ways, you could argue AGAINST him appearing to continue to make fans wonder a little longer... Provided RAW's viewership problems, however, I believe that WWE will blow their load now as opposed to later. Count on Triple H appearing... WHO SHOULD WIN: Kevin Owens because he just on the WWE Universal Title and that title needs some stability for champion in its brand new state. WHO WILL WIN: Seth Rollins by disqualification. ============================================= THE LAST WORD As I look at WWE Smackdown's ratings this week, I'm baffled... Why aren't there MORE wrestling fans tuning in on Tuesdays? Are you telling me that you're not entertained by AJ Styles, John Cena, and Dean Ambrose as the main eventers? That's a gift, folks... Women's Division is fun, Tag Team Division seems to be working, and the Miz, who isn't a personal favorite of this column, is actually improving. If only Smackdown could figure out what to do with NXT call-ups Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews, they'd be set. I REALLY like the babyface Authority pairing of Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon. The heel taunting on Daniel Bryan seems to be an unintended consequence and I believe we'll see Bryan at Wrestlemania 33 for a one-time match. But... You're NOT watching. Why? 2.3 million watched this week and it was on a Tuesday without the NFL head to head. As I was discussing with my buddy Virtue, wrestling fans may have "RAW fatigue" and just have no demand to watch any wrestling for the rest of the week. 3 hours of RAW is quite the chore to get through and if there's a Pay Per View that week, that's back-to-back days (Sunday & Monday), said wrestling fan has just watched 6 hours of wrestling and you're asking him to do 2 more? And RAW and Smackdown are legitimately fighting over the same 3 million fans. This is NOT like the early 2000s when RAW and Smackdown legitimately had different audiences. UPN seemed to have a stronger audience in more urban area whereas USA Network was found to have more of a rural audience. Not now... USA Networks hosts both RAW and Smackdown on back-to-back nights and is pulling from the same audience. I believe that Smackdown, so far, trails RAW because are worn out from TOO MUCH WWE. Then, if you're really a devoted fan, you have NXT on Wednesday! If a Pay Per View happens, WWE is legitimately asking fans to watch FOUR straight nights of wrestling with a grand total of 10 hours watched. That is insane! Which is why, in my opinion, Smackdown should NOT be on Tuesdays... It was fine on Thursdays. If you give wrestling fans a brief break in between programs, the burnout won't be there. I know, most of you are SICK of me talking about Hulu and how I cut my Cable last year... Because Hulu airs shows next day, it allows me to take Monday off... I spent the better of the last 20 years watching pro wrestling on Monday Nights and because I've become a Hulu viewer, I watch RAW on Tuesdays at the earliest... Thus, I have no pro wrestling shows to watch on Mondays. Boy is that a relief! Particularly when there's a Pay Per View, I get a 1 day break between the PPV and RAW. Totally refreshed! Lately, I've been watching both RAW/Smackdown on Wednesdays... Granted, that's a combined 3 hour viewing experience, but I just leave both shows run as I'm getting work done around the house or on this computer. Having that Monday off has legitimately kept me sane as a wrestling fan. If RAW bothers you so much, then STOP watching it... Take Monday off and enjoy Smackdown, the BEST WWE show going right now. From what I understand, some of the NXT writers are helping with Smackdown and the simple storylines where title belts matter is showing that. FURTHERMORE, help out AJ Styles as WWE Champion. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 10 years, Vince McMahon is very reactionary... 2.3 million viewers for Smackdown could make him change his mind about AJ Styles as the "Champ Who Runs the Camp". After all, Styles has that "TNA" and "Ring of Honor" stench on him that he's dislikes from other wrestlers. Don't give Vince a reason to hotshot the WWE Title off of AJ Styles. Tune into Smackdown, damn 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 - 1998-2016
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