ASK TITO: Road Warrior Animal, Retribution, and More Submitted by Mr. Tito on 09/25/2020 at 10:47 PM
Follow Mr. Tito on Twitter by going to the following link: @titowrestling
Welcome back to the "weekend chill" column here at NoDQ.com where I take your questions from emails, Tweets, and comments below my columns and convert them into answers in the form of a weekly column... Sorry about taking last weekend off, as I posted my WWE 2K Battlegrounds video game review instead.
I need to state this to start this week's ASK TITO column... Can WWE and AEW step up their quality please? We've had nothing but HOT GARBAGE from both promotions for the past few weeks and many devoted marks of both ambush anyone who dares to suggest that either are "off their game". All I need to show you is metrics... RAW is now consistently under 2 million viewers, AEW is back under 900,000 again, NXT is sinking below 700,000, and Smackdown's "dead cat bounce" following Roman's SummerSlam return is over.
Go ahead and attack me for being "negative"... And then I'll show you Retribution and the Dark Order.
We're not going to have Pro Wrestling in 5 years at this rate.
And to answer your next question, I watch and then write about it in hopes to help SAVE wrestling... Just check out the links below on my past columns where I've provided FREE advice for both WWE and AEW to improve.
Just watch that Miro tag match against Joey Janella and Sonny Kiss on Dynamite if you don't believe me. Miro (Rusev in WWE) should SLAUGHTER Janella and Kiss with ease and yet he has to sell for both guys. AEW has just killed a HUGE Free Agent signing that could have mattered. Sure, Miro's talent could make it up later, but AEW has to stop it with the "everybody is equal" stance on their Creative. All of these under 200 pound guys should NOT have any fighting chance against much larger guys above 200 pounds. That is WHY there exists weight classes in UFC and Boxing.
And Retribution for the WWE... Everyone is laughing at you, WWE. I seriously need to apologize to Vince Russo for disliking his WCW and TNA booking because it is quality compared today's crap.
On to your questions, bah humbug!
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ASK MR. TITO - Your Questions, My Answers
What are your thoughts on Retribution officially signing WWE contracts?
Moronic... I'd love to see my employer hire people who not only invade my workplace, but vandalize it as well.
The whole angle is completely stupid... For one, it was trying to play off of real life events where several of the protests throughout the cities in America were getting violent and saw property damage. Just poor taste to begin with... And then their look... They all had masks on, with one guy clearly looking like Bane from Batman and another like Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. Oh, and did I mention that the WWE signed them to contracts after attacking wrestlers and vandalism?
And the names of each wrestler! T-Bar, Mace, and Slapjack!
By the way, if you want to play a fun Card Game with your kids, try "Slap Jack". It involves just a stack of cards and when you flip each one over, you're watching for a Jack to appear. When one appears, SLAP IT! Whomever slaps that Jack first, they get the pile of cards under it. Play until all 4 Jacks appear and then count the amount of cards earned for the winner. Your kids will love it.
WWE is just STUCK ON STUPID when it comes to their Creative and this is among their all-time worst ideas.
It is HILARIOUS how each of these Retribution wrestlers have their own Twitter handles and are arguing with wrestling fans as well. You know that if each wrestler had their feet to the fire, they'd tell you that this stable was a DUMB idea. But they won't because they are stuck in a WWE contract and beholden to whatever Vince McMahon wants.
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What do you think about COVID-19 outbreaks within WWE and AEW right now?
Just send the wrestlers home who test positive and then go about your day.
Just looking at CDC's own statistics, if I look at the amount of deaths from ages 15-54, that equates to 15,676 deaths. There have been 6,916,292 known cases of COVID-19 in the United States. If you can do the math (take the death rate, subtract from 1), you're looking at a survival rate of 99.8% within the 15-54 age group. If I convert the age group to 15-44 years old, the survival rate becomes 99.9%.
Pro Wrestlers are in superior athletic shape and have the lung capacity well above everyday human beings.
I know, there are many who will read those statistics and question why I'd have the audacity to treat them as numbers... But 99.8% is pretty certain, folks.
If you want WWE and AEW to shut down, then you'll have no Pro Wrestling to watch...
*Reads My Own Intro* Well, maybe that's not a bad thing these days based on the poor quality shows that we've been receiving lately.
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Do you believe that Stephanie McMahon believes that the WWE is in trouble by selling 43% of her Class A Stock?
Hell no... Her selling her own stock has the same impact if I sold my own WWE stock. It doesn't matter. For one, she still has plenty of shares. Consider what she actually sold... She sold over 57,000 shares of her "Class A" stock. It's very likely that these are shares given to her as rewards by the WWE Corporation either as an executive or board member (she is both, double dips). She owns almost 1,900,000 shares of "Class B". Difference between Class A and Class B is the amount of votes per share (Class A has more voting power). Since Stephanie is a Board member and her father, who still owns the majority of WWE shares, has a stronghold over the voting power of the corporation, the Class A stock to Stephanie is kind of worthless to her.
It's a "SO WHAT?" moment... It's likely that Stephanie needs $2.3 million to invest in College Funds for her kids, paying off real estate investments, or investing in a side business (like Vince did to restart the XFL). It's not a big deal. She still has plenty of Class A shares remaining, remains a high volume Class B investor, and she also nets an EVP and Board member salary from the WWE. Stephanie is also set to inherit a fortune if/when Linda and Vince pass away (hopefully not soon). Steph also has spots on other Boards with other organizations. She'll be OK... Plus, she's married to another Board Member/EVP of the WWE.
Now, if all of the EVPs/Board Members start selling large % of their stock all at once, that is when you should panic. However, there's lots of money to be made by majority shareholders if the WWE were to ever be acquired.
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Do you have any great Road Warrior Animal memories?
Plenty... I LOVED the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom. The first time that I ever saw them was on a late 1988 NWA studio wrestling show where they ran into the ring and squashed a team in under 1 minute. They finished the team with the Doomsday Device and my jaw freakin' dropped... I could not believe that was a tag team finisher... Blew my mind.
Hawk and Animal were GREAT, period. They were like comic book superheroes coming to life and performing in a wrestling ring. They completely nailed the LOOK of a drawing pro wrestler with the haircuts, the muscular builds, the facepaint, and the spiked shoulder pads. Combine that with coming out to "Iron Man" from Black Sabbath? Damn man... And then being paired with Paul Ellering as their manager?
To me, it is SAD that their WWE career didn't materialize during the early 1990s... The sad story of what happened to Hawk at SummerSlam 1992 pretty mush spelled their doom in the WWE but in my opinion, Demolition's success blunted the Road Warriors in the WWE. Ax and Smash were knock-off but they were great in their own right. Then, for them to step aside and bow down to the Road Warriors? I believe that irritated many Northeastern fans who grew up loving Demolition.
Animal was a BEAST and was the powerhouse of the team and all things considered, he had a very lengthy career from 1982 to 2012. Always fun to watch, may he rest in peace.
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What are your WWE Clash of Champions Predictions
I predict that it will be a bad and dull show...
Asuka defeats Zelina Vega
Randy Orton defeats Drew McIntyre to become WWE Champion
Roman Reigns will smash Jey Uso
Bayley defeats Nikki Cross
Nia Jax/Shayna Baszler defeats Riott Squad
Cesaro/Nakamura defeats Lucha House Party
Sami Zayn regains his IC Title against Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles
Andrade/Angel Garza defeats Street Profits to become Tag Champs
Bobby Lashley defeats Apollo Crews
That is definitely a "throwaway Pay Per View".
So just chill... Until the next episode!
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