ASK TITO: WWE Draft, Roman's Submission Hold, and More Submitted by Mr. Tito on 10/17/2020 at 09:52 AM
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Welcome back to the WEEKEND CHILL edition of the Mr. Tito experience that is brought to you exclusively at NoDQ.com. For this column, I take your questions from Twitter, Email, or Comments below my columns and form them into a column. Simple as that...
Speaking of the "Mr. Tito" experience, during my entire time writing wrestling opinions dating back to late October 1998, I have NEVER been captured video. I'm like the Sasquatch of the Internet Wrestling Community... However, tonight (Saturday, October 17th) @ 10pm EST on the Official NoDQ YouTube Channel, I will finally be appearing in person for their "Great Debate" show where I'll be taking on fellow NoDQ contributor Virtue. FULL DISCLAIMER, I will be in disguise... But it will be me physically on camera for the FIRST TIME and I'll be debating Virtue on 3 specific topics that have consumed us on Twitter: Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt/Fiend, and Vince Russo (we converted it into Russo vs. Heyman).
For many years now, myself and Virtue have battled on Twitter with very heated arguments about wrestling and other topics... There is a real rivalry there between two headstrong individuals that is hard to find or recreate. For years, we've talked about taking it onto video form but it always fell apart whether things got too personal, my brief retirement during late 2018 when I had enough of WWE's crap, or just the logistics of working for different websites. Part of my joining NoDQ on August 1st, 2020 was to do special things like this and remove all red tape from doing it. Hopefully, it works out well and my appearing on camera for NoDQ's YouTube Channel can become a regular thing.
I believe that myself and Virtue, along with our boss Aaron Rift moderating, will bring you, the wrestling fans, something much different than what you're seeing on other channels. Just two bullheaded males going at it and it could get personal... SMASH that Subscribe button on NoDQ's YouTube Channel and you'll be ready for the wrestling debate of a lifetime when it posts LIVE or if you wanted to see the On Demand version later.
Onto your questions.
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Who won the 2020 WWE Draft?
Well, nobody won because mixing up the rosters only creates confusion... Yeah, that's the Mr. Tito that you tuned into... I HATE EVERYTHING.
In all seriousness, I like the Smackdown roster better. Anytime that you can flush out Miz, Braun Strowman, and Bray Wyatt/Fiend while keeping the 1 New Day wrestler that I want to succeed, Big E, it's a good thing. Roman dispatched of Braun, too, on the way out. Ditto on the Women's side of moving Lacey Evans, Naomi, and a third one that I was also bored with (can't remember her name) to open up the door for someone like Bianca Belair to walk through. Did you see Bianca's hype video? That was a thing of beauty to incorporate her past athletic career with her early wrestling footage. That one should be a huge star.
Instantly, you have things like Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins instantly feuding... I couldn't recall them ever fighting but apparently, it happened during 2013 or so? But it feels fresh now because both guys have changed and their previous matches were years ago. And could you imagine Rey Mysterio vs. Daniel Bryan at some point?
The one thing that I worry about is Lars Sullivan and how hard the WWE wants to push that guy... Honestly, he's not a bad worker... He had solid matches in NXT... But it's his character that is unremarkable. WWE was trying to push him HARD as "the Freak" and that's where we'll be going. As long as Sullivan can just have GOOD MATCHES, he'll be fine... If he tanks in the big matches that he's given, he'll become just like the rest of the roster. Besides, there's only 1 "Freak" that I know of in this world and that is Joan Ferguson from the Australian TV Show Wentworth which you can catch on Netflix. That woman is terrifying.
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Do you agree with the Judges to dismiss concussion lawsuits?
For a person like Christopher Nowinski who only wrestled for the WWE and collected a handful of concussions there only, yes... Guys like that should sue the WWE when there was a lack of testing and concussion protocols.
HOWEVER - If you are a veteran wrestler and you wrestled YEARS if not DECADES after appearing in the WWE... Hell no. You do not deserve your day in court. After you left the WWE and kept wrestling, you put your own health at risk and thus any consequential injuries sustained is not the WWE's fault. By wrestling for other companies, you muddy the waters on which company is liable for your injuries.
Just because the WWE is the only remaining game in town and is flush with cash as a publicly traded company, it doesn't give you the right to sue them. In this case here, many of these WWE veterans were trying to sue the WWE for their entire careers of sustained injuries.
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Do you like Roman Reigns's new submission hold?
It's alright... It's quite real, as I once witnessed a friend get locked into that and he went to sleep. It worked quite well on Braun Strowman, a much larger wrestler... HOWEVER, one could easily counter that (though risking head/neck injuries) by just slamming Roman and forcing him to keep his shoulders up to not get pinned.
Regardless, it's a GOOD CHANGE for Roman Reigns to have a submission hold in his arsenal... Yeah, it's yet another thing different for Roman Reigns that we DID NOT SEE from November 2012 through March 2020... Gee, what could be different?
Just remember who was one of the first to incorporate MMA stuff in to his ECW promotion and emphasizing the tap out for submission holds. One Paul Heyman.
I'm happy that Roman has a submission hold as that gives him even more flexibility on how to defeat you. Makes him look like a real athlete, too... All of these cosmetic and in-ring changes are greatly helping him. Just ditch that stupid music already.
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Will you miss RAW Underground now that it's gone?
Honestly, I didn't mind it... It was DIFFERENT at a time when RAW needed something DIFFERENT. Obviously, it wasn't perfect and it just appeared randomly on an episode of RAW. Had they built it up and spent weeks preparing it, maybe it could have been executed better.
Many people were quick to bash the "Brawl for All" too. And yes, I know, it caused Dr. Death Steve Williams to sustain a leg injury to end that almighty Steve Austin vs. Dr. Death Pay Per View feud possibility. But at a time when the WWE needed to appear DIFFERENT, it was a trainwreck placed on RAW shows that you just couldn't turn away from. When you're down, you've got to try something NEW... For Brawl for All, it was a shoot and it placed the wrestler's health on the line. However, by having Bart Gunn actually winning the thing, you knew that it was legit if a random midcarder survived the boxing/wrestling fighting. And then he was legitimately knocked out a year later at Wrestlemania 15.
At a time when we were all complaining about how BORING Monday Night RAW was without fans in attendance, it was a refreshing change of pace. Problem is that RAW Underground meant nothing in the long-run and didn't elevate any talents. Ultimately, that is what hurt Brawl for All too... At the end of that contest, nobody was elevated including Bart Gunn who then had to be in a legitimate boxing fight where he got knocked the F out.
In the end, if you do unique things like this, Creative Teams need to have something legitimate for the winner to obtain in the end to elevate him. Creative during 1998 assumed that Dr. Death would win the Brawl for All and that would elevate him to face Steve Austin. And then a torn hamstring happened and they had no back-up plans in place.
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What are your thoughts on PWI's Top 100 Women's Wrestlers?
My only criticism is that Rhea Ripley wasn't higher... Otherwise, I'm GOOD with the top 5 of Bayley, Becky, Asuka, Charlotte, and Sasha. I would have pushed most AEW wrestlers appearing on their list DOWN because their Women's Division is pure hot garbage and needs to be belittled as such. Seriously, when it takes Thunder Rosa vs. Sarena Deeb, almost 1 year into Dynamite's existence, to cause everyone to say "FINALLY, A GOOD AEW WOMEN'S MATCH", you've got problems.
Riho was the worst and everybody knows it. Just to endure her being pushed as legitimate was embarrassing.
I will say this and she's within the top 20... I like Jordynne Grace. Unfortunately, it took Jim Cornette's "Butterface" remark to get me curious to check out her work, but it put the necessary attention on her I guess. She's a solid worker and I like her look of being a power lifter in the women's division. Yet, unlike Chyna before the obvious cosmetic surgeries, Jordynne maintains the obvious qualities of a beautiful woman. I would recommend putting her on my radar for recruitment if I were WWE or AEW. That or I'd start pushing the power lifting as a strong quality for why Mandy Rose might be difficult to defeat.
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What should WWE do with Andrade?
I'm with Vince McMahon on this guy... I never saw the hype. I thought that his debut with NXT was underwhelming and just when he had a few good to great matches in NXT, the WWE main roster pulled him. Since then, he's just another one of those 5'10" guys that are a dime a dozen. Just nothing special about all of these smaller wrestlers. Compare that to Eddie Guerrero who was just oozing charisma, personality, charm, great mic skills, and amazing in-ring abilities.
Sure, send him down to NXT where he can feud with Finn Balor. Have at it... It will just ice that NXT is the WWE's farm system and keep that show from ever breaking 700,000 viewers again.
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What are your thoughts on Ember Moon returning to NXT?
See what I just said about Andrade. Returning to NXT is NOT a good thing. And with her, she's very undersized and yet she's pushed as a serious deal. Just doesn't fit...
WWE needs weight classes BADLY... It's the only way that they'll ever sell smaller wrestlers in their promotion. Pro wrestling thrives when characters are "LARGER THAN LIFE" and when bigger wrestlers fight and have to sell for smaller wrestlers, it doesn't make sense.
BORING... She's someone who couldn't cut it in WWE, like Finn Balor or Fandango/Tyler Breeze. The ONLY time that a NXT demotion worked is when they demoted Emma back to NXT and that's because she completely reworked her character to push her sexuality over being a goofball. That entrance that she had with Dana Brooke was quite a site. Then, she had GREAT MATCHES. She made Asuka look legitimate from day one!
That's what it always boils down to... No matter what your character is or does, if you can have GREAT MATCHES in BIG SPOTS, you'll get over no matter what.
So just chill... Until the next episode!
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