ASK TITO: Lacey Evans & Ric Flair, Jim Ross, and More Submitted by Mr. Tito on 02/19/2021 at 11:06 PM
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Welcome proudly back to the EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING, the weekend chill edition, brought to you exclusively at NoDQ.com. Here, I take your questions from Twitter, Email, and the Comments below and answer them in a column below.
Gotta admit... Besides wanting to see Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair, as I believe that will be a great athletic contest... I'm really not hyped for Wrestlemania 37. This Sunday is the Elimination Chamber Pay Per View and it's one of my LEAST favorite shows of the year. That Cage match with pods is just a cluster and just gives way to more hardcore based wrestling which I loathe with age. Compare that to the Royal Rumble match which uses the actual ring for the match and not a gimmick cage surrounding it.
And I worry that the WWE has botched the Men's Rumble winner with Edge. I'm glad that Edge is back but does he matter here in 2021? He matters to me because I'm a longtime fan, but to younger fans? Don't know... It seems like the Wrestlemania 36 match against Randy Orton took away the excitement from his return and I just don't feel any heat when he's talking about wrestling Drew McIntyre or Roman Reigns. I just don't feel any juice there... If he even dares to wrestle the Cruiserweight guy from NXT with his Rumble ticket, I'll knock myself out from how hard I slap my forehead in disgust.
WWE has a roster full of above average guys but nobody is standing out... Furthermore, with 3 hours of RAW, 2 hours of Smackdown, and monthly Pay Per Views, the WWE has already exhausted every possible match-up of relevance. Even worse, the Performance Center and NXT promotion is NOT scouting or preparing male athletes properly for the main WWE roster. Triple H needs better talent scouts to help him and he needs to hire better in-ring trainers at NXT. Lastly, WWE needs to cease having these hardcore type matches and understand that they are pure garbage to book. Tonight on Smackdown, they did a stretcher job and also an injury angle with Mysterio. How am I to believe it when Kevin Owens is able to walk after high risk table spots?
The Rumble to Wrestlemania period USED to be the best time of the year for the WWE... Now, they aren't taking it seriously and thus the hype for Wrestlemania 37 feels lackluster. It's February and we don't have any real feeling as to what the card will be. Furthermore, we have no Brock Lesnar, John Cena (he may show), or the Undertaker to get excited for and the remaining roster is, again, tired.
But hey, I have answering YOUR questions to cheer me up. Believe me, putting on the Mr. Tito mask and writing for you is more therapeutic than you know. For times where I've felt overworked, had deaths in the family, or even when my favorite form of entertainment, pro wrestling, disappoints me repeatedly, writing wrestling columns gets me through it. I seem to type faster when I'm angry or focused... Most of all, however, it's YOUR support that I appreciate... Just hearing any feedback gets me through a lot of things.
Onto your questions.
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ASK MR. TITO - Your Questions, My Answers
How do you feel about Ric Flair and Lacey Evan's pregnancy angle?
As Virtue repeatedly says, anyone who criticizes Vince Russo's booking needs to apologize to him when WWE pulls off HORRIBLY BAD angles like this.
What can I say? For one, Lacey Evans gets pregnant right in the middle of a big angle for her. Potentially, she was going to defeat Asuka for the RAW Women's Title and then maybe wrestle Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania 37. However, this actual pregnancy for Lacey has changed plans and actually caused the WWE to suggest that Ric Flair is the father.
How many times have we tried pregnancy angles in Pro Wrestling? Each and every time, they have been TOTAL FAILURES. Terri, Lita, Mae Young, and I'm sure a few others.. Nobody cares because everyone knows that it's a scripted wrestling show and nobody is willing to make believe in a staged pregnancy. In this case, Lacey is actually pregnant BUT we know that she's married to someone else in real life.
Just more of the same... TERRIBLE Creative Team taking shortcuts for cheap heat. Little do they know is that their Pay Per Views have actual matches for title belts. Dumb pregnancy angles mean nothing because of the scripted athletic competition that happens inside the ring.
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What are your thoughts on Jim Ross's "WWE Champion" slip-up for Kenny Omega on AEW Dynamite?
It was a one-time error, give Jim Ross a break. Ross has more wrestling knowledge in a single brain cell than most have in their entire brain. Without Jim Ross's role as WWE VP of Talent relations, Pro Wrestling would be in deep trouble because he saved the WWE and gave it a long-term plan on developing talent while WCW and ECW were about to implode. WWE would have been in trouble finding talent if Ross didn't put his farm system in and that has kept the WWE powerful for 20 years following WCW and ECW's deaths.
And if you have a better solution than Jim Ross as your play-by-play announcer in AEW, let's hear names. I haven't heard any... The fact is that there are NO good younger announcers out there. Ross at his later age is still the best in the business.
If the Internet Wrestling Cancel Culture wants to go after Jim Ross, then they should also go after the EVPs of AEW and Tony Khan for not using Ross as an advisor. Just look at that roster of misfits and guys who are less than 6 feet tall & under 200 pounds. It was poorly constructed from the start and the booking from Khan & EVPs has made everyone appear foolish. Seriously, Miro should have been a can't miss talent and yet they have him feuding over video games and being a best man in a wedding. Dean Ambrose should NOT be wrestling stupid hardcore matches.
We should see more Jim Ross involvement in AEW, not less.
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Do you have WWE Elimination Chamber 2021 Predictions?
Do I have to?
Real quick, here are my predictions:
Nia Jax/Shayna Baszler vs. Sasha Banks/Bianca Belair Both Banks and Belair are babyfaces here and yet they'll be wrestling at Wrestlemania... They'll probably mess up and collide at some point in this match, allowing for Nia and Shayna to win here. Pretty obvious that this match is only being used to draw heat to set-up the Wrestlemania match.
WHO SHOULD WIN/WHO WILL WIN: Nia & Shayna. As long as both are Tag Champs, they'll stay away from the singles division... And that's a good thing.
Bobby Lashley vs. Keith Lee vs. Riddle Let's see here... Vince reportedly dislikes Keith Lee's recent work and Riddle is just a mystery on how the WWE wants to use him. Lashley is on a role and should be a serious Main Event contender soon. I could see him possibly dropping the title here to prime him for World Title shots this Summer? But not yet...
WHO SHOULD WIN/WHO WILL WIN: Bobby Lashley. I agree with Vince on Keith and am confused on what Riddle wants to be in the WWE.
RAW Elimination Chamber: Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston So... Drew has to wrestle in the Chamber and yet Roman somehow doesn't? Anyway... Rumor has it that the WWE wants Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre at Wrestlemania 37 and I don't know if I'd pop for that. You can still have that match without having Sheamus winning the WWE Title in this stupid cage match.
WHO SHOULD WIN/WHO WILL WIN: Drew McIntyre. Bring back Brock Lesnar, please.
Smackdown Elimination Chamber: Jey Uso vs. Kevin Owens vs. King Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Daniel Bryan I predict that Cesaro will actually win this match and then score his match with Roman Reigns later that night... However, Seth Rollins will interfere to help Roman Reigns win the match. With that plan in place, I predict that Cesaro will win this match and that could be an exciting opportunity for Cesaro.
WHO SHOULD WIN/WHO WILL WIN: Cesaro. Let's get this push started! Long overdue!
Roman Reigns vs. ??? Roman faces the winner of the Smackdown Elimination Chamber... I predict that it will be Cesaro and then Seth Rollins will interfere to help Roman win the match. This will set-up Seth vs. Cesaro at Wrestlemania 37 and free up Roman to retain his championship.
WHO SHOULD WIN/WHO WILL WIN: Roman Reigns. Keep him as champion for as long as possible right now.
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What are your thoughts on Cody Rhodes being willing to have talent cross-overs with WWE and AEW?
He's being nice. Obviously, WWE will never associate themselves with AEW... But Cody could be saying this to praise the WWE roster (in case any of them want to leave and join AEW) while also praising the AEW as equals as well.
However, he could be acknowledging that AEW might have peaked already... If you look at viewership numbers, they just cannot get past 850,000 viewers. COVID-19 couldn't have come at a worse time for AEW, as they cannot make any money off of live shows nor can they see large pops for any debuts of wrestlers for the past year.
Who knows?
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Thoughts on Kyle O'Reilly's injury scare following NXT's recent show?
As I said above... We've had so many fake stretcher jobs that it is hard to take anything seriously... In this case, O'Reilly needed to be helped out of the ring via stretcher after the show was off-the-air. There are conflicting reports as to whether it was a storyline or something really happened with O'Reilly.
Because the WWE tries to play with our feelings so much, it's hard to take any of their news seriously now about real injuries or incidents.
If he was really hurt or had a seizure as some places were reporting, I pray that he gets better. If the WWE is just working us again on an injury angle, THANK GOD he's OK and FINGER OF SHAME to the WWE for lazy booking.
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Are you excited for the AEW Exploding Barbed Wire Match between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega?
Again, this is more hardcore garbage in today's wrestling. You can give me the "Terry Funk and Mick Foley did it" all you want, but the fact is that both guys did that in Japan and made much more money when they weren't wrestling that hardcore style.
Neither man can wrestle a normal match in AEW... In New Japan, Omega piled up 5+ star matches inside the ring without any gimmicks. Yet in AEW, he's doing nothing but brawling with weapons and high spots. Meanwhile, Jon Moxley goes to the well repeatedly on hardcore match.
This is why nobody can take AEW seriously as a wrestling promotion and why it cannot grow beyond 850,000 viewers per show. AEW is like eating sweets all day without a thought of consuming something healthy or basic. Eventually, the diminishing returns of eating sweets daily will catch up to you and you'll get bored of consuming them. That's AEW.
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So just chill... Until the next episode!
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