Thank you so much!

For today’s column, I’m going to be utilizing the “Ask Tito” format to look back on my 27 years covering the industry as a writer along with a few forward looking things.

The thing that makes me most proud is that every column was 100% my own opinions without any outside influences or financial considerations telling me when, what, or how to write. It’s been my choice to do this on a VOLUNTARY basis for 27 freakin’ years because it’s my hobby and I’m personally trying to do a service to help advise the pro wrestling industry with what I write (whether you agree that I’ve been successful at doing that or not). I could have “sold out” (or “souled out”) many times, as other wrestling websites tried to lure me away many times along with just about every major sports website trying to dabble in wrestling content. But in joining them, they’d tell me when, how, or what I’d write with a few of the sports sites wanting me to sign a deal to copyright my “Mr. Tito” name. Years later, the writers that I know who took that money have been let go or replaced with writers who will take much less.

Since I wasn’t whoring myself or my good name out for the cash, I’ve been able to have FULL creative freedom and editorial power of what gets posted. Both Calvin and Aaron just let me do my thing, with only rare occasions where they had to pull back on the reigns. In return, they’ve enjoyed thousands of columns posted to their websites free of charge and many columns that could draw as well as a news story or a results post. Then, the added bonus of when a wrestling personality would respond to a column or when a wrestling audience member would hold up a sign saying “Tito LoP” or “Tito NoDQ”.

Working for great platforms like LoP and NoDQ have given my columns great attention and with that, many good sources of information who have reached out to me from WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, AEW, and many independent wrestlers. Much of them enjoy the debate of what I posted in my column, some of which will confirm or refute something that I wrote. I’ve heard some CRAZY stories in my day, particularly the early to mid 2000s WWE where that faucet was quite leaky with storytelling by those within the company. For those who personally reached out to me, THANK YOU, as you really helped shape my opinion and understanding of the wrestling business as I became older.

To many, many readers… Especially the long-time ones who have been with me from the start or from 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, or over 20 years ago. I love you so much! I have many, many long email chains of going back and forth with many long-time readers that has provided me a much needed escape in the middle of the day between meetings or when I’m on the road somewhere. Many of you followed me over to NoDQ, which I appreciate, as I hope that you’ve enjoyed the many content avenues that NoDQ can provide as well as the open opportunities to participate as a content provider yourself.

I joined NoDQ because they seemed to have a family atmosphere with all of the volunteer help that it has and a good culture… I can confirm that after being here over 5 years, and I especially enjoyed meeting Aaron Rift, his wife, and their friend at the 2025 Royal Rumble. I really enjoyed that moment… I wish that I could have done more on-screen content, but hey, you gotta have willing dance partners who can put away their fevered egos and just have fun. I literally made myself available almost daily between August 2020 and December 2021, but only got 2 debate shows out of it. What a shame… There is no “I” in team, and I’m certainly not the only person said individual has had a problem with for the past 5 years. Oh well, I’ve written great columns here at NoDQ and I have zero regrets joining this team.

To the haters out there… Notice how I haven’t flinched for the past 27 years? No matter how many personal shots fired at me, threats made (which I forwarded to officials), and bizarre internal attacks made by jealous co-workers… I kept writing. I once had an entire group on a forum come after me and tried to spam an area where I was posting content, yet I didn’t back down. I’ve been called every slanderous name in the book for simply having a wrestling opinion, and I didn’t back down. Then, when I do hit back, I always LAUGH at the “victim card” that the hater pulls out. I used to LAUGH at any time someone would try to message any webmaster that I worked for and ask that my columns be deleted or cancelled. I even heard of a few cases where advertisers were contacted. Remember, it’s hard to cancel someone who provides a net profit to the website because there’s zero expenses (other than server bandwidth for my long columns).

No matter how hard you’ve punched me, I’m still here… And in return, I’ve always been professional and maintaining a good image for the websites where I’ve worked. Even when punching back at the trolls. I’ve seen others throw racial or homophobic slurs, referring to others as a leader of Germany during the 1930s who started World War 3, and even a recent claim that my Mom must have consumed Tylenol. This is the kind of COMPLETE TRASH that you have to deal with in a public forum where you simply post your wrestling opinions, yet here I am, with my head still high and producing columns in SPITE of you.

If you really hate someone who writes columns on a volunteer basis, then you need to look in the mirror and re-evaluate yourself. CLEARLY, there is something else in your life that pisses you off or disappoints you. But I’m not your punching bag for whatever that is! Never have been, never will… If you’re showing anger towards a columnist who professionally posts his opinions on wrestling, how are you treating co-workers, friends, or family? Or do you just act that way on a keyboard and are much more cowardly in-person? I don’t know, but many of you who spread negativity all over NoDQ’s comments section and social media need to find a way to reduce your anger or bitterness. Other people online should NOT be your punching bags or vehicles for venting because something in your personal life sucks right now. Get help, or if you want to have a conversation with me outside of your wrestling gimmick online, then let’s have it to clear the air. I’ve mentored many employees and helped a few get in the right path who were on the wrong direction.

On my end… If I ever hit back too hard, especially when I was younger, then I apologize… Hopefully, as I’ve become older and wiser, I’ve shown much more restraint. That said, if you throw slurs, attacks, or threats at me, you deserve getting put in your place.

On top the 27th anniversary column, utilizing the “Ask Tito” format to look back but also look forward.

ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers

Do you have any regrets from what was written in your columns for the past 27 years?

My early columns… I was young when I started and didn’t fully understand the pro wrestling business within my first 2-3 years worth of my columns. I probably showed a ton of immaturity in the way I assessed how the business worked and who could be to blame for when things go wrong with a promotion. If a storyline or a match went wrong, I was often blaming the wrestlers versus the promoters for putting the wrestlers in a position to fail. Many wrestlers hit back and I deserved it.

With time, I began to read more books, speak to many wrestlers or personalities, and incorporate my growing education and corporate career into how I presented my columns. I started to see how the many mistakes that promoters made, past and present, and that began to shape how my columns would be come by the mid-2000s and then by my 2010 return from my mid-2006 retirement.

My other regret is not knowing much about the long-term effects of concussions and prescription drugs to call out the WWE and other promotions for not policing that better. Eddie’s death during late 2005 and then Benoit snapping during 2007 really bothered me and I seriously stopped watching wrestling from mid-2007 through late 2009 because of being ashamed at what I missed and for spending so much time watching a WWE company who didn’t save their own wrestlers from themselves. Modern WWE implemented a Wellness Policy and a concussion protocol program, so by late 2009, I started giving wrestling a try again and then I returned to writing around February or March of 2010. Been pumping out many columns again ever since.

I also wish that I jumped into YouTube when it was created… I was actually good at editing videos back then and I could have made decent videos for the time to maybe make that as a bigger leap from my columns. But, life was presenting other opportunities at the time and I didn’t go all-in as I could. No regrets, but I feel that during 2005-2006, I would have used my Adobe Premiere skills of that era to good use to make great content.

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What do you believe was your BEST column that you have ever produced?

Recently, I wrote about how maybe Netflix paid too much for WWE RAW and used the economic term “Winner’s Curse” to discuss that. That was a follow-up column to what I originally wrote during 2005 discussing how Viacom paid too much for RAW during 2000 and overpaid for a WWE promotion that peaked and was about to go downhill. I had lots of detail in that column, along with actual graphs (love that Image Bucket back then!) to prove my point. Very detailed column where I broke down what happened on TNN and Spike TV, how that compared to Smackdown on UPN’s trend, and the reasons for the decline.

In terms of QUALITY columns, that 2005 entry about the “Winner’s Curse” for Viacom overpaying for RAW is my very best. That said, I believe that I wrote many great columns during 2024 and 2025 that could compete with that one for extra research performed and ideas put together.

Personal favorite, though, was my “I Told You So: Triple H Just BURIED CM Punk” following the Pay Per View after SummerSlam 2011 because I was calling out how Triple H showed pure disdain for CM Punk and was legitimately trying to sabotage his “Summer of Punk” momentum. I saw the body language that Triple H displayed and I went out on a limb to repeatedly say, weeks into WWE Night of Champions 2011 predicting that Triple H would win and nobody believed me. Then when Triple H won the match, I immediately wrote that column as a middle finger for all of those who personally attacked me over that opinion. Then as 2011 unfolded, CM Punk was further humiliated in multiple Pay Per Views in a row and then had the lamest World Title run after that where he barely main evented any show. Then the 2013 podcast with Colt Cabana confirmed it, as did Kevin Nash revealing that Triple H told him that he was going to bury Punk at Night of Champions and beyond.

The amount of pageviews this “I Told You So: Triple H Just Buried CM Punk” made was staggering… Just insane what that specific column drew.

I really love doing the Predictions columns at year-end, too…

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What do you consider to be the BIGGEST story that you covered in your 27 years writing columns?

Technically speaking, I was retired during Chris Benoit’s double murder and suicide during June 2007. As I said above, I stopped writing from mid-2006 through early 2010 to handle some personal achievements in my life, so to speak. That said, I did write a few columns in LoPForums about Benoit, as many there were showing an ignorant stance on the situation and trying to deflect blame from Benoit or WWE for not taking care of Benoit. So, I put them in their place and that column was later featured on LoP.

If we take out the Benoit story…

WCW’s closure was massive, as I remember it, but became disappointing at the end and sort of died without much of a whimper. That SHOULD be the top story, but it wasn’t.

Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero’s deaths really bothered me and I could probably argue their deaths as having massive impacts.

The recent Vince McMahon stuff has been MASSIVE, that involves the scandal erupting during June 2022, his early 2023 return and sale to TKO, Vince’s downfall during January 2024, and now wondering what his next move could be. Vince McMahon was a constant throughout much of my run as Mr. Tito, so to see that shattered and shifting to a new corporation and newer people handling the WWE is quite massive.

As I look back, however, I see a story that nobody mentions as possibly the biggest story in my 27 years… I go back to October and November of 1999, as seismic changes began in the WWE. Vince Russo left the WWE and joined WCW during October 1999. Say what you will about Russo, but he had a stranglehold on WWE Creative and once he left, that created major opportunities for others and changed how WWE shows were written and then heavily scripted. Also in October 1999, WWE announced their IPO for intentions to form a public corporation. That would change the game on how WWE would operate, moving forward, as shareholders and other corporations became what WWE cared about versus the fans. As the 21st century moved on, WWE’s opportunities to grift fans increased.

In my opinion, though, the straw that really broke the camel’s back was when Stone Cold Steve Austin left the WWE due to his neck injury becoming so excessive that it required surgery. At Survivor Series 1999, Austin was hit by the vehicle and you wouldn’t see him wrestling regularly again until the Fall of 2000. For almost 1 year, there was no Steve Austin presence in the WWE locker room and that caused WWE Creative to be reshaped without catering to him and also caused other wrestlers to get their tenacles into the WWE process, namely Triple H. HHH not only increased his role as a WWE main eventer, but began attending WWE production meetings where he could have say on other wrestlers or storylines. And then he began dating Stephanie.

When Steve Austin returned to wrestle full-time again during the Fall of 2000, the promotion completely changed and began losing its way. By late 2000, Stephanie began running creative, a writing team was hired and put together, and guys like Jim Ross, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, many agents, and the wrestlers themselves began losing any creative say in favor of the new writing team or what the corporate WWE or corporations that it worked with wanted. Think about how much the Parents Television Council had as an impact on WWE and then when WWE moved back to USA Network, the PG era began. And then corporate sponsors had a say in everything, like making threats on toy production if a wrestler did something (remember Mandy Rose getting fired because of Mattel’s pressure?).

In my opinion, the WWE becoming corporate during October 1999 and then losing foundational pieces of the Attitude Era like Austin, Russo, Ross, Brisco, and Patterson changed things. For example, instead of realizing that USA Networks was a great home for WWE content, the newly formed WWE corporation chased boosting the Income Statement by signing with Viacom. Having RAW on TNN/Spike TV hurt that program, along with dealing with the many failed promises that Viacom made.

WWE becoming too corporate is what led to Vince McMahon being dismissed, whereas if Vince said or did stuff like that during 1998 or 1999, it would get swept under the rug and it did as he admitted to many infidelities back then.

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What was the Best Wrestler, Best Tag Team, Best Pay Per View, and Best Match that you seen as while writing for the past 27 years?

John Cena is the best wrestler that I covered. Keep in mind that I started during October 1998, so the growing chunks of Austin and the Rock getting to that main event scene weren’t covered. That said, I did proudly cover that massive peak year of 1999 with Rock and Austin and I consider November 1998 through Wrestlemania 15 (April 1999) the best storyline that I have ever seen.

But John Cena, in my opinion, did more with less… He saved the WWE from the 2000-2004 decline by becoming the babyface main event follow-up to Rock and Austin through 2005 and that run ended with a terrible SummerSlam 2014 squash by Brock Lesnar. Cena carried the WWE through those tough Benoit years, through the WWE roster weakening through the late 2000s and the early 2010s, and WWE cancelled houseshows when Cena couldn’t make a show. Nobody sold more merchandise than Cena, period. And now, in my opinion, he’s beloved during 2025 because of that great WWE career that people are just now appreciating and that’s translating into his acting career being successful.

Best tag team? Gotta hand it to the Dudley Boys. Always great, always entertaining. Just the perfect pairing of 2 human beings together to form a tag team. LOVE that 3D finisher.

Best match? Oh boy… I’d have to say Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 21 was the best match in my 27 years as Mr. Tito that I covered. It’s perfection and Dave Meltzer is a total idiot to not give that 5-stars, let along 7 or 8 stars as one of the best matches ever.

As for Best Pay Per View… Oh man, I was here for both Wrestlemania 17 and Wrestlemania 40. But I’ll go one further, as Royal Rumble 2000 is my favorite Pay Per View that I covered. You had the Royal Rumble, which was great that year and epic as usual. But then you had the Foley vs. Triple H street fight which was an absolute battle. On top of that, Dudleys and Hardys tore the house down with their tag team battle. And then you had Tazz debuting and oddly peaking against Kurt Angle in Madison Square Garden. I really like SummerSlam 2002 and SummerSlam 2013 as very close seconds to that.

I’m just going to say this… Wrestlemania 17 will never top my list due to that STUPID Steve Austin heel turn in Houston, TX. Completely idiotic and set the tone for WWE sucking for the rest of 2001. Made ZERO sense and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, to this day. Wrestlemania 40 also does with its ending, as I still don’t understand what the hell “Bloodline Rules” mean when Cena and the Undertaker could interfere?

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Could WCW have saved itself during 1999 or beyond, in your opinion?

In the words of Scotty from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, “he’s dead already”. When I began writing during October 1998, WCW was already in free fall. They peaked through July 1998 by blowing their load on Goldberg’s push and had terrible plans afterward as Hulk Hogan was still headlining shows despite Bill being champion. And then Bill’s inexperience made him look bad as champion, so WCW lost either way with Hogan or Goldberg headlining shows.

As I’ve said before, Eric Bischoff was like the 1994 San Francisco 49ers who sacrificed the future by signing free agents to win now versus sustain many years of winning later. For Bischoff, he paid a ton of money to Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash and thus that paid off during 1996 that fed into 1997 and 1998. But once their NWO act got older, WCW had no second act as a follow-up especially with the way they sabotaged Sting and Bill Goldberg wasn’t experienced enough to sustain as a main eventer. Fans were tired of preferential treatment going Hogan’s way and tuned off, while WCW and Time Warner had to pay those big contracts that Bischoff helped get sign for all of those veteran wrestlers. Then by 1999, WCW began getting increasingly corporate and things were made worse when AOL would get their corporate tenacles into everything.

WCW, to start 1999, had terrible creative, expensive contracts, preferential treatment for Hulk Hogan always, unable to move on from NWO, and had zero youth movement worthwhile to replace any of the overpaid veterans besides Goldberg who turned out to have terrible 1999 and 2000 years for WCW. WCW was “dead already” by the time Vince Russo showed up and he lacked the support system in WCW that he had in WWE to help him succeed. Hence the utter chaos with a toxic culture there that couldn’t be fixed.

Obviously the 2001 WCW revival as part of the Invasion was botched, but so were the attempts during 2002.

I just think the magic was there for WCW from June 1996 through December 1997, and wrestling fans were ready to move on to the interesting things WWE was trying to do especially after Mike Tyson and Steve Austin got into a shoving match on RAW during January 1998. WCW refused to change and therefore began dying for the next 3 years.

I blame Eric Bischoff’s mismanagement of the company, following him joining the NWO during November 1996, and beginning to care too much about his on-screen character versus managing the company backstage as the #1 “killer” of WCW. I’ll debate that with anyone… Just watch Bischoff’s ego growing throughout 1997 and then being very repulsive throughout 1998.

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How are those 2024 predictions going?

Well, let’s take a look… Keep in mind that I write and post them on 12/31/25, as many things can happen during a calendar year and the last 3 years have been pure chaos with Vince McMahon’s unexpected drama erupting.

#1 – Vince McMahon will force his way back into the WWE or TKO, or sue them. I believe that I’m close on this one, but nothing has happened yet. Vince has formed his own company and seems to be doing something behind-the-scenes.

#2 – AJ Lee will return to the WWE and wrestle at least once. BOOM, point on this one. Called it.

#3 – WWE will change its Premium Live Event model and make it more expensive for WWE fans. DAMN, got this one too! $29.99 ESPN+ that will go up next year, compared to the much cheaper Peacock option.

#4 – Kevin Owens will be tempted to join AEW, but ultimately remains with WWE. Point, Owens signed a new 5-year WWE deal during February.

#5 – The Rock will perform, inside the ring, at Wrestlemania 41. Damn it, so wrong on this and very disappointed.

#6 – The Rock will hold a WWE World Title at least once during 2025. So very wrong on this.

#7 – Paul Heyman is definitely turning heel on Roman Reigns during 2025. POINT! Wrestlemania 41, baby!

#8 – WWE and TNA’s relationship will expand during 2025. BIG POINT, they are in a relationship with crossing over functions.

#9 – Shane McMahon will join AEW. Miss, but we were close. Negotiations did indeed happen, but Shane ultimately avoided them. I believe TKO struck a deal with him, quietly, to avoid jumping to AEW.

#10 – Demolition finally gets into the WWE Hall of Fame. Close. Both members signed a WWE Legends contract during February, but did not get into the Hall of Fame. I definitely think that 2026 is their year.

#11 – Major restructuring changes are in store for Warner Bros. Discover that will have an impact on AEW. KABOOM! Nailed this one to the wall! WBD has announced an attempt to split into 2 corporations, while also putting itself up for sale.

#12 – WWE and UFC will try to cross-promote, but it shall fail miserably. I’ll take it… Both promotions have tried to have locations in the same area, and while WWE is on a hot streak with attendance, I don’t see it as a boom for UFC. They have different fanbases.

#13 – Jordynne Grace will join AEW, not WWE. Total miss. But technically speaking, my “not WWE” is true as she’s stuck in the NXT promotion rather than the WWE one.

#14 – Tony Khan is going to shake up his back-stage management group. Point, just read this article, which describes him taking on more creative control. Several other stories posted throughout the year shows the EVPs are becoming even more negligible.

#15 – Cancel culture is coming for Triple H. I’m taking the point. The whole Hurt Business stuff kept coming from interviews, attempting to paint HHH as a “racist” again. Furthermore, lots of blame was coming HHH’s way for Wrestlemania 41’s ending and having “heat” with the Rock.

I’m scoring roughly 9 out of 15, but I think some of my predictions for 2025 were MASSIVE and landed. One of my better years, honestly, and I’d argue several of them are close to happening.

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What are your wrestling predictions for 2026?

Here we go…

#1 – Vince McMahon will announce a new promotion, either as wrestling, combat sports, or a rogue league of another sport.

#2 – Demolition into the Hall of Fame (finally)

#3 – WWE attendance will decline significantly.

#4 – Warner Bros. Discovery will be sold, but AEW will retain its TV deal.

#5 – Stephanie McMahon obtains an official executive title and job with TKO and WWE

#6 – TNA will be sold to WWE, officially

#7 – Chris Jericho will return to WWE

#8 – Saudi Arabia will make yet another large investment in WWE, whether that’s acquiring a piece of TKO or permanently buying Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania or just signing extensive deals to be the exclusive homes of those.

#9 – ESPN+ and Netflix will have a conflict over Netflix airing PLEs internationally

#10 – John Cena will be lured back for Wrestlemania 42

#11 – The Rock returns to WWE during 2026, begins to lay the groundwork for 2027 opportunities such as Wrestlemania 43

#12 – More Hollywood opportunities will come Roman Reigns’s way, thus making him less available during 2026 than he was during 2025

#13 – Brock Lesnar and Gunther will wrestle at multiple PLEs during 2026

#14 – “Tell-all” stories or books will come out on Triple H by former WWE employees, with some stories creating controversy.

And finally…

#15 – TKO will further automate their office and backstage operations, leading to considerable layoffs of WWE personnel during 2026.

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Mr. Tito’s LAST WORD: Folks, that all I have left my the basement for now. It was an absolute pleasure serving you for the past 27 years. THANK YOU to my readers and the websites who hosted me throughout these many years. For those who have hated me for many years, you’ll have to find someone else to kick around unless a massive news story brings me back from the shadows.

Until then, just chill till the next episode whenever that may be.

Follow me on Blue Sky!

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post ASK TITO: 27th Anniversary Edition Covering the Past 27 Years of Pro Wrestling (WWE, WCW, AEW, etc.) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Of course, when WWE had like 20-30 human beings on their Creative Team since the late 2000s, y’all complained then.

To me, it’s no surprise. EVERY and I repeat EVERY corporation and large privately owned business are investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) right now.

What is AI specifically? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the application of computer systems able to perform tasks or produce output normally requiring human intelligence, especially by applying machine learning techniques to large collections of data.”

Most thinking about AI seems to see something resembling James Cameron’s Terminator films, where robots become self-aware and destroy humans. Maybe we’ll get there one day, as a few robots already in China have become self-aware and have actually attacked people testing them…

But for now, AI seems to be threatening anything that a human being can input into a computer or system, especially repetitive tasks. Right now, banks, insurance, and technology companies are shredding their back offices of employees because artificial intelligence can be developed to replace repetitive tasks of using a piece of software that required human intervention. For example, if loan payments arrive into a system, often that would require human intervention to post or it maybe return the item timely. Now, AI generates smarter methodology to do that task automatically as payments arrive.

AI is really shredding Computer Science based jobs. What used to take HOURS, WEEKS, or MONTHS for writing programming language to create a system, patches, or make video games now takes a few moments. AI can also perform testing at a higher level and in moments versus humans trying every scenario manually. Wow, that’s interesting… Maybe with AI, 2K Sports could make better WWE 2K games instead of them being buggy and bloated as hell? Maybe those games could be less than 40GB in size, too, with the help of AI making more efficient programming?

However, where I think AI will really shred jobs is on written word. Sports Illustrated caught a ton of heat a few years ago when they were caught with AI-generated sports writers that were completely fake and made-up. Trust me, there’s more of that happening than you believe. Anything from articles, movie or television scripts, books, marketing campaigns, political speeches, etc. can be replicated with close accuracy to someone’s writing style and thought process with current tools. That includes writing a script for WWE storylines whether it’s for the short-term specific to a single RAW or Smackdown show or something long-term for major PLEs down the road.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t anything new for the WWE… For years, the WWE has employed up to 50 employees who are statisticians, economists, or marketing folks who are very specific at taking data generated from merchandise sales, live events, viewership, social media responses, YouTube views and likes/shares, subscriptions, and other metrics and have been generating reports for WWE Creative to analyze. In addition, this analytics team has also been wrapping those numbers and measuring it against wrestler salaries. Wonder why Braun Strowman was released the first time or why R-Truth was released? They measured the size of their salary versus how statistical outputs of data weighed against it. If the ratio of revenue or attention generated was too low versus salary + event payouts, that wrestler could get released.

In my view, how WWE will use Artificial Intelligence is to link what their analytics group is doing and create an output of suggested storylines based on those analytics. And then I believe many WWE jobs will be replaced in both the analytics department and also the creative team, and then the WWE marketing department will also lose jobs because AI will generate ways to hype events, matches, or advertise wrestlers or storylines featured.

Trust me, if WWE and TKO could create perfect AI thinking robots to replace wrestlers, they would…

Right now, AI is getting better and better at generating videos using life-like appearances of people and utilizing voiceover AI to create perfect sounding voices that use AI generated scripts. I’ve heard from a few industry experts on AI that systems just need 3-5 spoken words to get a voiceover captured reasonably well.

Lately, NoDQ.com’s webmaster, Aaron Rift, has been messing around with the Sora application to create reasonable looking Video Shorts of wrestlers beating up Aaron. While the past wrestlers look a bit off, it’s capturing the maker of the video’s likeness perfectly. That’s just a public application that any user can use, as there are far more intelligent videos that can capture much more detail and add more realism.

Could it be crazy that maybe in the future, an entire episode of RAW or Smackdown could be AI-generated? It’s possible… I could see the WWE becoming a PLE only promotion and keeping wrestlers healthy and safe by having AI-generated shows to control for quality while keeping the costs of arena leases down while offering ways for fans to buy merchandise online versus at events. After all, as I described in my last column about Netflix overpaying for RAW, RAW and Smackdown are essentially infomercials for PLE events.

But replacing WWE wrestlers and live arenas with a closer to perfect version of AI is something for the future. For now, WWE wrestlers could not be physically replaced by AI versions of themselves, but the analytics handed to the WWE and reviewed by AI statistically could put WWE jobs in trouble. Then, results of a storyline will be measured statistically with AI generating reports on how effective a wrestler performed in a possibly AI generated storyline.

AI, again, is a danger to any process that involves inputs using technology. Things that are physical, such as fighting or pro wrestling, entertainers, art, sports, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, dentists or orthodontists, or anything involving something physical that a robot or automated process cannot replicate, yet, have some relief against AI replacing their jobs. Hence why I think kids going to vocational school to become plumbers or electricians are going to do well in the future, along with anyone going to dental school. However, the more AI puts people out of work, the amount of disposable income to build a new house or get high-end dental work declines.

Through 2025, there’s an estimated $250 billion invested globally in AI investment, with that being up from $33 billion last year. 78% of companies are reporting the use of AI in some form, while a reported 92% of high school and college students are relying on AI-assisted tools with their schooling. Compare that to the 81% of current workers in the workforce who DO NOT use AI tools. They are in for a massive rude awakening, as they’ll be targets for replacement for not being deemed efficient enough in the workplace and companies may hire younger and cheaper employees who like to use AI at the workplace.

In my mind, that 81% of current workers not using AI creates what I think is an AI “bubble” where I think that companies are wasting too much capital on AI, in its infancy, when its quality isn’t there yet. In other words, humans can still do quality work equal to or even better than the current form of AI. Hence what you see with the WWE’s early attempts to use AI for storyline development. It’s a hot mess, full of inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and impossibilities. But with time, AI systems will become more intelligent and will really begin to shred jobs when the quality of the output continues to improve.

In addition to higher prices due to tariffs and price gouging, consumers being tapped out on credit, commercial real estate issues, possible bad loans on the books at banks, home loan prices about to crash, and lots of money shifted to cryptocurrency with uncertainty of those markets, I think too much of an investment in AI without seeing enough in return could be an additional “bubble” that bursts and helps induce our economy into a recession. I’m seeing a lot of similarities of the problems that plagued the economy during 2001, where a recession was induced by too much investment in Dot Com websites, and the 2007-2009 recession that was triple invested into housing, securities based on housing, and insurance policies based on housing.

AI isn’t pushing out quality yet, but that won’t stop corporations from trying it… After all, purchasing services from an AI vendor is an EXPENSE on an Income Statement and EXPENSES can be subtracted off before Net Income is taxed as a corporation. In other words, AI investments can help a corporation or a large private business pay less in taxes… Fancy that.

The FACT remains, though, that WWE is trying to use AI to create storylines. If you are part of the WWE Creative Team, I’d start showing off other talents at the workplace or keeping your resume current. As already seen by WWE’s past actions and especially now with the TKO overlords owning it, they care more about making money than spending it on human beings. The Endeavor owners care about lining their pockets and keeping their Shareholders happy versus creating a culture that rewards employees other than executives.

It’s just another reason to dislike how TKO is operating things for WWE, but they are acting like any other corporation right now who cares more about compensation packages of executives and keeping Shareholders happy. In fact, corporations don’t mind putting out a substandard product as long as it creates a bigger profit margin. FACT!

And to create a nod to all of the online marks who think that I’m “anti-WWE” or “pro-AEW”, when was the last time that I wrote an AEW-based column? I don’t, because in the immortal words of Weird Al Yankovic, “I can’t watch this”. Maybe Tony Khan should invest in the early stages of Artificial Intelligence to improve on the UTTER GARBAGE that he’s producing as creative for All Elite Wrestling? What’s the worst that could happen? I’m sure literally anything could create better creative than what comes out of Tony Khan’s peanut brain.

By the way, the image that you see at the very top of my column was AI-generated, but took about 20 attempts to make something reasonable looking. It’s not perfect yet, but with time, AI will improve and put a real threat towards anything involving computer inputs… Including wrestling columns… Oh crap!

But I don’t think AI could replace this diabolical mind who has been producing thousands of columns since October 1998.

Follow me on Blue Sky!

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: The Threat of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to WWE Wrestlers and the Creative Team appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

To start, I want to talk about Nintendo… Through June 5th, unless tariffs cause possible delays or pricing changes, Nintendo will be making its Switch 2 console available to purchase. The pricing point seems to be $449 for the basic system without games, but $499 with Mario Kart World packed in (could be higher, we’ll see). Reportedly, however, if you were to purchase Mario Kart World separately, it costs $80 digitally from the Nintendo eShop and I’ve heard up to $90 for the physical copy of the game. The latter point about the prices for Mario Kart World as an individual game purchase has set people off.

By comparison, WWE ticket prices… Prices have seriously doubled throughout arenas for WWE events, and really have gone up for this year’s Wrestlemania. While 50,000 tickets sold is impressive and should equate to a massive gate for WWE this year, they are under the 65,000 capacity for the Las Vegas Raiders football stadium. I’ve argued in previous columns that maybe WWE went too high with ticket prices and are missing out on the bragging rights for a sellout (though they may make more by selling at a higher price).

But how can both WWE and Nintendo gets away with charging higher prices?

Because their devoted fans will pay for it.

I’ll admit, I love me some Nintendo. When it was announced that Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would become the Switch’s first $70 game, I didn’t flinch… I gladly handed them my money. My DEMAND to play that game was extremely high and as a financial professional, I’m doing OK financially so thus I’d probably pay up to $200 for that game. And why not? That’s 50 hours of solid entertainment and memories that can last forever, along with multiple replays of the game. Getting above $200, I’d probably start thinking a little bit… Even though I love me some Legend of Zelda games, “I’ve got a price” as Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase used to say.

Many traveling WWE fans had price points, too, and hence why I don’t think the Las Vegas tickets are surging as they should be. You could argue the card, blah blah blah blah blah, but all of the top WWE stars will be there along with different fan fest events. Plus, and I know this is 100% true, wrestling fans like to BRAG to other wrestling fans about attending other events. It’s exactly like a teenage girl immediately getting the latest Apple iPhone model to show it to her friends. But asking them to pay over $4,000 for good ringside tickets and sitting in nosebleeds for $200 with bright lights pounding you all night long? Plus expensive plane tickets to Vegas and that city’s skill of nickeling and diming everybody that shows up?

There are a lot of gamers who like to own multiple systems and that runs up the costs on the hobby. Casual Nintendo gamers and an $80 probably hits their wallet harder. But for me, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I don’t have any other expensive habits. I just pay my bills, take care of my family, and thus, I can pour funds into my Nintendo collection. And I freakin’ LOVE Mario Kart after years upon years of seeing my boy Steve Kinser DOMINATE dirt tracks on the World of Outlaws sprint car scene. So yeah, I’m willing to pay $80 for Mario Kart World, knowing that I’ll likely pump 200 hours of online racing alone with that, along with racing with my kids.

As a wrestling fan, for example, I have ZERO interest in purchasing replica world title belts from the WWE. Many of you, however, will pony up $300 to $1,500 for one of those belts. So, thus the prices seem ridiculous to me, but not ridiculous to a fan who really wants those belts.

I almost didn’t go to Royal Rumble this year in Indianapolis… The high ticket prices plus the maddening Ticketmaster fees discouraged me… But then I shopped around, found a pair of tickets that hit my personal threshold, and I was ready to plow… They call me Mantis!

I don’t have any desire to fly out to Vegas and watch Wrestlemania in-person. It’s just above where I demand to pay for events, even if I could possibly afford it. In terms of opportunity costs, I have better alternatives than to pay for overpriced Wrestlemania tickets and price gouging from airlines for flying to Las Vegas.

But for events where you have to travel, it takes TIME… “Time is a luxury you do not have”, as Khan would say from Star Trek 2. Traveling to an arena times time, whether you are driving or flying… Even if you live close by, traffic ramps up during a sporting event night. Then, getting into a parking garage and walking to the arena where there are long lines to get in (crazy long lines in Indianapolis). Then, once the event is over, you’re going to fight traffic to get out of that parking garage. Driving late at night isn’t fun, so if you traveled 3-4 hours, you may consider a hotel. If you flew, there’s a cost to doing that, but lots of TIME walking around an airport terminal, dealing with TSA for 2 hours before your flight, possibly dealing with a layover or any delays, and then dealing with a rental card or rideshare to get there.

Thus, when you raise your prices on big destination events, all of that stuff that I just mentions comes into consideration… If prices are just too high, you don’t want to deal with that other bullcrap.

THAT SAID, I know many traveling wrestling fans who LOVE the thrill of attending a live event. They’re saving up throughout the year and attending an event is their vacation. They have a higher demand to see stuff live than I do, so thus they’ll pay the high prices that WWE is now charging on tickets.

But, at what point, will they hit their threshold? As WWE become more popular, they have more casual fans to milk for higher prices than ever. When prices keep rising, WWE risks alienating a loyal fan for a casual fan who is willing to pay higher prices as a fad to brag about. If WWE loses popularity, it will be interesting to see what happens to ticket prices and if WWE begins to shrink back down to smaller arenas. As good as WWE is right now, everything goes in cycles and their younger fans will start burning out from wrestling once they realize how much fun partying or handing out with women is. Those late high school and most of the college years.

With Nintendo, though, I think they jacked up the size and power of their system, which video gamers have been yelling at Nintendo to do for years. Then, when Nintendo presents a brand new system with more size and power, those same fans complain. Go figure. These video games take YEARS to make, each… $80 is cheap for how much the Nintendo programmers should have probably been paid to make the games.

With prices, it’s all about how much you or others are willing to pay… If someone is willing to pay the higher prices, a company will charge the higher prices.

Aside from the movement of the price itself, there are other determinants of demand that they describe in Economics course. For example:
[ ] Income
[ ] Tastes/Preferences
[ ] Expectations of the future economy
[ ] Market Size (# of consumers)
[ ] Prices of related goods (complements & substitutes)

Let’s look at me for Nintendo, first… Income is good, no debt as well. Tastes/Preferences for Nintendo products are STRONG, as I love Mario and Zelda games and literally play them all. I’m more leery on what Tariffs (taxes on United States importing producers) will do to the economy, so I’d probably keep it to the bare minimum for my Nintendo purchases (just the systems, won’t get the expensive controllers or camera). I could play Mario Kart World for months and I’ll be good… Excluding me, market size for Nintendo has grown thanks to the successful Switch, Mario movies, and growing with pop culture strongly again. Prices of related goods would discourage me, such as the expensive controllers which I don’t need when primarily playing in handheld mode. There’s no substitute for Nintendo, as my Playstation 5 collects dust (what a TURD of a system!).

Let’s look at the WWE… Again on my end, incoming is good, no debt, and lots of savings in place. Tastes/Preferences for WWE has been strong through early 2025, but not as strong following Royal Rumble 2025. Burning out on Cody and Roman Reigns just doesn’t seem as massive as he once did. Growing impatient to get Rock vs. Roman over with already. Not crazy about Jey Uso, nor do I see that many promising young talent to replace Roman/Cody at the top. With expectations, the WWE will cost you more as a hobby or habit than WWE if you attend LIVE events. You could buy multiple Nintendo Switch 2 consoles before attending Wrestlemania 41. Thus, making that big of a purchase could have more of an impact if the economy in the future crumbles. Market size, WWE has grown since 2020 some attendance numbers show some receding effect from 2024’s peak. WWE is growing internationally, but they may not want to travel here right now… As for related goods, well, AEW is much cheaper than the WWE as a substitute (but taste/preferences may be low for them) and complementary goods like merchandise will cost you an arm and a leg to purchase at events.

BUT, your EVERYTHING regarding DEMAND might be different towards Nintendo or WWE…

THAT is how you have to measure things, and what Nintendo and WWE have to use analytics and research to figure out patterns and trends of their customers. Video gamers, for example, have been very vocal about Mario Kart’s $80-$90 price point, especially as other games have been already priced at $60-70.

However, I want to make this last point… Since 2017, Nintendo has been pumping out quality games onto a quality product for the Nintendo Switch. To keep that momentum going, they have to invest more TIME and MONEY into their games. Same goes for WWE… Look at how much the PRODUCTION has improved for the WWE. On top of that, they’ve been paying wrestlers more money who have performed well. To serve larger venues, they have to purchase more trucks and hire more employees to dress an arena. Both WWE and Nintendo are pumping in more expenses into their product to keep making it better to meet your demands… So if they are spending more and you’re willing to pay more, HENCE THE HIGHER PRICES.

Sorry, but I don’t want to return to the 2010s versions of the WWE and Nintendo pre-switch. Those were some tough times for companies that I great up loving. I’m willing to pay more money to let them entertain me rather than not parting my money or paying less for a lesser quality product. That’s just me, but I think that is most of you as well.

On to your questions…

ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers

Thoughts on the recent Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton interview segment where they went off-script?

Well, who went off script first? Charlotte Flair. Who was going off script during the previous weeks in attempts to antagonize the younger Stratton? Charlotte Flair.

Who went off-script with Nia Jax, trying to stiff her during a match and then Nia gave her immediate receipts (but Nia got in trouble)? Charlotte Flair.

Who went off-script during the whole Women’s Title swap segment between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair? Charlotte Flair.

On top of all of that, who was trying to get out of her WWE contract when Andrade joined AEW? Charlotte Flair. She pulled all kinds of backstage antics and drama that made lives difficult back then. Suddenly, Flair shut up when Andrade began having troubles in AEW and then WWE became an OK place to work again.

She just turned 39, becoming increasingly injury prone, and takes a ton of time off to vacation and show off on Instagram. She’s NOT a draw, as her merchandise never sells and viewership/attendance aren’t spiking because of her. Terrible promo, bad and phony personality, and she lives on the reputation of being the daughter of Ric Flair. Great in-ring performer, no doubt, but many other performers were great in-ring technicians too but lacked the other intangibles to draw.

There’s a major risk of Charlotte Flair sandbagging in her match against Tiffany Stratton at Wrestlemania 41 in attempts to make the younger Tiffany look bad. Charlotte could then point to her past resume and show WWE officials “I had great matches with all of these other performers, but struggled against this head case”. And then Triple H will fold like a chair, as he helped raise Charlotte up from NXT and is indebted to her father, Ric Flair. Tiffany was also a signing of John Laurinaitis from the 2020-2021 era where Triple H was OUT as Talent Relations EVP.

When in reality, WWE doesn’t need Charlotte Flair, but Charlotte Flair badly needs WWE. They don’t need to put up with her crap and should humble her at Wrestlemania 41 with Tiffany Stratton wrestling another opponent or Tiffany just squashing her. I’d go with the former, as Charlotte should lack the TRUST for her to adequately perform at Wrestlemania 41.

Idiotic for WWE to push Charlotte to the moon upon her return, too, having her instantly win the Royal Rumble match. Every time they push her immediately upon return from line time-off stints, she’s pushed well above other females who have exceeded her and are better than her. Charlotte is overrated in terms of an overall superstar and she just doesn’t present herself well, either.

I’d consider having their match earlier on Smackdown and creating a replacement opponent at Wrestlemania 41. Depush her to see if it humbles her, as that normally works with other wrestlers who misbehave. If she doesn’t, then let her bring the toxicity to AEW’s already toxic locker room.

*****

What are your thoughts on Kevin Owens pulling out of Wrestlemania 41 and who may Randy Orton face instead?

My thoughts are that it’s a shame that KO is missing out on Wrestlemania. Very sad to see him missing out on the biggest WWE day of the year and its payday. That said, we’ve seen what Owens has tried in and outside of the ring. “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana), and Owens has been able to witness the physical conditions of many wrestlers who came before him who tried high risk maneuvers.

As for who Randy Orton now faces… Think outside of the box. Make it a “mystery opponent” and hype it until the day of the show. Then, Joe Hendry comes out and they have a fun match. Simple as that. I don’t know. See if Matt Riddle is available and make him the mystery opponent?

*****

What do you think of AEW Dynamite’s MAX streaming viewership?

Something like 500,000? Good for them, I suppose… I just want to know why folks like Dave Meltzer pop champagne for a number like that, but dislike when WWE gets 3-4 million on Netflix.

It should be higher, obviously, but AEW still has a presentation and trust issue with wrestling fans. Until they remedy that, we’ll have to keep bragging about 500K on MAX.

*****

Are you excited about WWE 2K coming to the Nintendo Switch 2?

Nah… I tried to support the WWE 2K18 disaster of a game before, but I really don’t trust the micro-transaction push that 2K does on all of their games that reduces the enjoyment of them. They are essentially gambling, but somehow, they get away with blocking most of the game unless you pay.

Being honest, wrestling video games bore me. Nothing has been ever as good as Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 and Day of Reckoning 1 for the Game Cube. Those are the two most perfect wrestling games ever made. Hard to play anything lately with those available to play. Furthermore, I gave WWE 2K22, the NWO edition a good playthrough. It was mostly good, but felt repetitive and I was using the same strategies to win every match. Seeing Hall, Nash, Hogan, and Syxx come out to the SWEET New World Order theme was 100% worth it, though.

I’ll be even more honest… Been playing the Nintendo 64 games here and there lately, and I get bored with them quickly. Just not into them when I can race in Mario Kart, explore Hyrule, fight with 99 other souls in Tetris 99 or Fortnite, or playing soccer with cars in Rocket League. Hard to go back to those retro games…

*****

What are your thoughts on Mickie James’s WWE LFG?

Well, now we see why Mickie was replaced…

Speaking as an objective heterosexual male… I’m going to have to disagree with Ms. James here…

Getting serious, though, I’ve always wondered how Tiffany Stratton and Rhea Ripley have been able to wrestle in past outfits. Tiffany was mostly wearing outfits that resembled lingerie while Rhea’s butt cheeks are hanging out with a very high thong (not complaining, just wondering about their comfort). I just wonder about comfort and wardrobe malfunctions, as doing high impact moves could cause anything to pop out.

WWE has a 60-70% male audience, with the female audience mostly making up girlfriends, moms, or daughters who are convinced to attend live WWE events or watch the TV shows. Hence why the female wrestlers wrestle in the outfits that they do.

And it’s not like Mickie James is “Miss Innocent” with her outfits. While she often wore the shorts or pants, she showed cleavage up top. And all we have to do is pop in a tape of Wrestlemania 22 and see Mickie grabbing Trish Stratus’s crotch and then proceeded to lick her hand afterward… So yeah, be careful what you’re commenting on.

*****

Thoughts on Chris Jericho suggesting he’d be open to returning to WWE?

Why wouldn’t he? Jericho left on great terms with the WWE, insomuch that they let him do Steve Austin’s podcast. There’s no heat with Jericho and WWE because he was professional with them and was professional with his exit.

Jericho is just putting it out there that he’s open to returning, if that opportunity ever presented itself. For Jericho, he was one last thing on his “WWE Bucket List” and that is to get into their WWE Hall of Fame. Jericho 100% deserves it and would have achieved it if he retired instead of opting to perform for New Japan and then AEW.

It’s just one of those questions that are asked and then everyone overreacts to on a slow news day.

Variety reported that Jericho signed a 3-year extension with AEW during late 2022 and thus his contract will expire during December 2025. Perfect timing for next year’s Hall of Fame, but also another big Royal Rumble entrance.

Crazy thing to me is how Jericho has been in AEW for 6 years now… Time has been flying by, folks.

Enjoy your life now, as it goes by in a flash.

Follow me on Blue Sky!

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post ASK TITO: More on WWE Ticket Prices, Charlotte Flair’s Toxicity, Chris Jericho Returning to WWE?, and More appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Now, one thing I really dislike for both politics and pro wrestling is how the vocal minority appears to be the loudest and dares to condescend the majority. During my LAST COLUMN entitled “The Real Reason Why AEW is Declining and Struggling”, I wrote about how AEW isn’t growing because they don’t have a perceived natural leader, confident top draw, or anyone on their roster who is assertive to keep their top spot. Nope, instead AEW is a roster full of wrestlers who leak gossip to Dave Meltzer, play video games, project their feelings on social media, and get very sensitive to any feedback about their product.

The idea from the column came from hearing that anyone born from 2025 to 2039 would be labeled as “Generation Beta” and I thought to myself that’s very unfortunate, as the word “beta” is considered secondary and often looking for a leader rather than being one themselves. Then, I began thinking about the top draws of the modern era between Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Triple H, the Rock, John Cena, and the “since August 2020” Roman Reigns… Those are ALPHA males full of confidence and fans gravitate to them, as many aren’t “alpha” in nature and are seeking one to lead them. I simply applied that idea to AEW’s roster and I didn’t quite see the confidence, assertiveness, or natural leadership skills in anyone deemed a “top guy” there.

That’s it… Somehow, a big AEW mark and his minions (or burner accounts) think that I wrote it as a response column to what that big AEW mark wrote. WRONG… For one, IF I write a response column, I’ll gladly put your name and link your column. I’ve actually done that on the rare occasions that I felt necessary to write a response column. Two, I’d have to actually read your column to begin with… Believe it or not, I don’t read many columns and I especially don’t go out of my way to read pro-AEW propaganda. Only time that I may read it is if a reader prompts me or if I happen to catch an excerpt or provocative title on Aaron’s NoDQ social media accounts. Otherwise, I’m not reading your work as I’m too busy with my columns and thinking up what to write next.

You AEW fans think that you’re so important… Well, you’re not. FACT is that your dwindling in numbers and energy. We’ve seen your viewership, attendance, PPV buys, and merchandise numbers throughout 2024. ALL DECLINING. Your tastes and preferences about pro wrestling just aren’t that relevant and I’m sure that upsets you.

AEW has long lost this war and did so during 2022 when they began sabotaging CM Punk just as WWE began righting its ship by beginning to push Vince McMahon out the door. While AEW is dependent on a declining Warner Bros Discovery company with $45 billion in debt, WWE has formed lucrative relationships with cash rich Netflix and NBC/Universal for the next 5-10 years while their Premium Live Events are just gaining more popularity.

We get it, you’re jealous of WWE’s growing success while the cult you’ve joined, AEW, is losing steam. Signing Copeland, Okada, Mercedes, and Ospreay didn’t plug that leaky damn of momentum after you’ve, once again, attempted to sabotage CM Punk. Punk, by the way, is thriving in WWE and doesn’t have to deal with the backstage nonsense that AEW has.

Do you want to be a good AEW fan? Then START HOLDING AEW ACCOUNTABLE!!!

Go read my columns from the second I made my 2010 comeback through 2021… I repeatedly held the WWE accountable, despite everyone labeling me a “WWE mark”. Go read the MULTIPLE times that I wrote how ineffective Triple H was as a EVP of Talent & Creative during the 2010s or how Vince McMahon was “out of touch” with his creative decisions. I leaned into WWE HARD back then and they DESERVED IT. Honestly, by the end of 2018, I was through and almost walked away… But do you know what brought me back? AEW forming during 2019, and I gave them very positive coverage as I was rooting for them to FINALLY give the WWE competition. And it worked, as WWE is better today than it was back then.

All business metrics are declining for AEW… It’s just a FACT. Congrats to them for getting a desperate payout by a cable channel company desperate for any live sports content at this point, but facts don’t lie about fewer wrestling fans wanting to watch AEW. Why is that? Well, it’s about Tony Khan and the EVPs… Their leadership, their management, and how they use the resources given to them. Hold THEM accountable, AEW marks, instead of trying to chase me with pitchforks because you don’t like my opinions in a column that you didn’t have to click!

But STOP thinking that you’re so important and that everybody cares about your opinions, AEW marks. We don’t care. The column that I wrote on “alphas” and “betas” was independent of any joke opinion that you’ve posted lately. Get lives and go worry about your own opinions instead of constantly being jealous of or attacking mine!

On to your questions.

ASK TITO – Your Questions, My Answers

What are your thoughts on Tiffany Stratton becoming Women’s Champion?

I feel like a proud father today, honestly… First and foremost, she 100% deserves it. She’s in that rarified air of people like Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar who are so superior as athletes yet they have shockingly smart personalities that they understand the intricacies of pro wrestling this early. She GETS IT and looks like a million bucks on top of it (doesn’t hurt). Take away the blonde hair, the gymnastics ability, wearing lingerie as attire, etc… Her personality is what gets her over. “It’s Tiffy Time”, and you fully knew from the second she won that Money in the Bank briefcase that she was going to decorate it.

If you go back and watch Kurt Angle when he started during late 1999 and early 2000, he needed a little more confidence in his in-ring performance, but that cocky personality showed up on day #1. “It’s True, It’s True”. If you’ll recall the Royal Rumble 2000, it was Kurt Angle versus a debuting Tazz and everyone was predicting that Tazz would become a HUGE WWE star because of that match. Great debut, but that was Tazz’s peak with the WWE… He couldn’t get any bigger than debuting in Madison Square Garden and making Angle tap. Instead, Kurt Angle got over from the match because he articulated that Tazz applied an “illegal chokehold” and drew massive heat because Kurt Angle could cut great promos. Tazz couldn’t in WWE, along with being massively short in height.

Tiffany Stratton has been the complete package from day 1… Again, very beautiful, very athletic inside the ring, but what sets her apart is charisma and personality. When you pour that on top of your look and in-ring ability, YOU GET OVER. Did you see how bonkers those fans were getting at Tiffany finally cashing the title in on 1/3/25’s WWE Smackdown? They were excited because they, too, have been following her quick and sudden rise to the top of the WWE.

How Tiffany Stratton won the Women’s Title was amazing… Watch the recap for yourself! Perfectly done by WWE’s creative team. During Nia Jax’s match with Naomi, Tiffany acts like she’s going to cash-in yet it was to create a distraction and interference (Naomi taking the briefcase to the head) to help Nia win. After the match, Bianca Belair hits the ring and tries to get revenge but the strength in numbers between Jax, Candice, and Tiffany overwhelm them. Just as we thought Nia was going to squash Bianca with her finisher from the ropes, Tiffany turns on Nia by hitting her with the briefcase and then disposing of Candice. With Nia still on the ropes, Bianca Belair showed an impressive display of strength by hitting her finisher on Nia… Holy cow! Tiffany then pulls Bianca out of the ring and hits her perfectly executed Moonsault on Nia to become Women’s champion.

Perfect story told, perfectly executed by the wrestlers, and perfectly sold by the announcers. PEFECT SEGMENT and an good indicator of why WWE is the #1 wrestling promotion by a mile these days.

*****

What are your thoughts on the Royal Rumble possibly being in Saudi Arabia for 2026?

I think that it’s a travesty, to be honest. The “Big 3” rotation should be rewards for the most loyal fanbases who built the modern-day WWE for the past 40 years and that includes United States and Canada while I also believe that England deserves some love for their loyalty. Sorry, but Saudi Arabia fans are bought & paid for from their government who are using the WWE to advertise that they’ve “changed” from their prior ways.

Saudi Arabia already has their 2 annual PLE events… Let those still happen and I’m 100% fine with it.

THIS goes to show you that the Endeavor-owned WWE doesn’t entirely care for you, the loyal fanbase, but they care about maximizing their money. That includes taking more of your money… Have you attended a WWE event lately? Ticket prices have gone through the roof. Wait until that Peacock WWE Network deal ends for United States fans… Fans will be in for a rude awakening when Pay Per View or a more expensive streaming network suddenly arrives.

I don’t like it simply from the standpoint that the “Big 3” PLEs should be rewards for WWE’s top fanbases to attend and not for governments who are handing WWE over $25 million to host events there. What about the loyal fanbase who legitimately uses their vacation time to travel to BIG WWE events and spends their hard-earned dollars on tickets, hotels, plane tickets, rental cars, and merchandise? Loyal North American fans, in particular, are the reason why these Big 3 Premium Live Events are so successful in the first place.

I think it sucks, to be honest. Only benefit is for those who don’t travel, they get to watch it early in the morning and not have to stay up later… Go to bed early is a benefit, I suppose.

If you’ll paint my words as “anti-Saudi”, you need to re-read what I said. The fanbases who built the WWE into this powerhouse and are STILL the MAJORITY of fans who fund the WWE are the ones who attended and supported the Big 3 PLEs. Reward them rather than being yet another corporation that chases the big bag of money from a government who wants to advertise how their country has changed. United States, Canada, and later England fans built the WWE into a powerhouse, so reward them with Rumble, Wrestlemania, and SummerSlam. I’m 100% fine with sending Money in the Bank, Backlash, or whatever to Saudi Arabia or other countries. Be my guest… But LOYAL fans should be rewarded with the WWE’s top events.

There are some reports suggesting that Wrestlemania 40 made around $40 million on the live gate alone… Think about that. That’s NOT a government paying WWE to host Wrestlemania, that’s fans buying tickets and merchandise for a 2-night event.

*****

Should Ric Flair be allowed to wrestle 1 more match?

Look, everyone is entitled to do what they want in a free country… That said, when you’re a 75 year old man about to turn 76, I would hope that Ric’s family would step in and try to stop him. However, his family has been trying to slow him down for decades now and it hasn’t worked.

My issue is that Ric’s desire to wrestle another match is linked to yet another quick money scheme. The fact is that Ric Flair is TERRIBLE with money and shows ZERO maturity to want to be careful for any income that he receives. Furthermore, he’s had heart issues related to alcohol consumption, yet Ric is still there to party. While I admire his energy and desire to be his old self, he needs to somehow find a way to enjoy live without being the “Nature Boy”.

I saw him at an autograph signing over 20 years ago and he was miserable to be there. Many fan interactions with Ric have been the same, and many wrestlers have had bad experiences with him, too, particularly if they are lower on the card. Anybody who has tried a podcast with him has experienced issues, including his own son-in-law. Unless he’s in the spotlight and enabled to be the old “Nature Boy”, he’s miserable to be around. THAT is the ultimate problem, as he’s developed no hobbies, no interests, and no curiosities to do something other than the “Nature Boy” gimmick he created as a wrestler. Somewhere in time, that gimmick took over his real self and rules who he is and anything trying to impede the “Nature Boy” from having fun, he becomes frustrated and angry about it.

Go ahead, let him wrestle… Let him show why most wrestlers struggle to perform after age 50, when they try, let alone at age 75.

But someone needs to work with Ric Flair on how to enjoy life WITHOUT wrestling and being a character. And teach him how to balance a check book, too.

Love ya Ric, but I’m concerned about you as a longtime fan.

*****

What are your thoughts on the Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk promo on RAW?

It was excellent, it was effective, and both wrestlers played it as if they were shooting for real… For parts of it, they probably were. There’s legitimate dislike between the two that stems from Punk being miserable during 2013 and a younger Seth Rollins probably hearing Punk complain non-stop about the WWE.

The one area that I thought was very low was when Seth ripped Punk for not having any kids yet… That’s one area that I probably would have left off of the promo, yet, I could agree to keep it because as seen with the AJ Lee bracelet angle with Drew McIntyre, that’s how you get under Punk’s skin. Still, who knows if Punk and Lee have tried to become parents or not, but it’s still felt a bit too dark for me. I guess that’s the parent in me speaking…

But this one-on-one promo is what I was begging for YEARS for the WWE to do… Unscripted reality-based angles. They work… This feud seems personal, just as Punk vs. Drew felt very personal. Then, in the end, both guys will CRUSH the matches because the hot crowds will 100% be into their match-ups. That is how professional wrestling works…

I would like to see AJ Lee make a comeback and then extend Punk vs. Rollins feud with AJ Lee and Becky Lynch getting involved. TONS of money added to this feud that can keep it going through the first half of 2025.

*****

Thoughts on New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom 19?

Zero interest in viewing this show, so I have none… Shows weren’t bad when Omega, Okada, and Jericho were pulling out all of the stops for non-stop action in their matches, but otherwise, much of NJPW matches look the same to me. Fun to watch, yes, but needs more drama and story. Beating each other senseless for 30 minutes without much selling and hitting multiple finishers for normal matches with kickouts and no-selling afterward gets old after a while. That style was imported into California independent promotion and resides heavily as an influence of AEW thanks to Meltzer, the Bucks, Omega, and now Ospreay/Okada.

I will say, though, that I haven’t heard much buzz on Wrestle Kingdom this year as I have in previous years. Usually, online wrestling marks will ACT like they are suddenly New Japan wrestling fans and are legitimately quoted as saying “WWE will have a hard time topping THIS show”. Usually Royal Rumble easily tops their show instantly. But for this year, it’s been quiet…

With New Japan, wrestling fans get enough of their style through watching AEW and are burned out from it. Then, when WWE is successful, wrestling fans don’t need to seek an alternative promotion. That’s why I believe the Wrestle Kingdoms of the late 2010s were successful because burned out wrestling fans from the WWE overpushing Roman Reigns as a babyface were desperate for an alternative. Also, Dave Meltzer’s influence is crumbling… Years of him backing AEW and making a fool out of himself on Twitter/X has caught up to him and I can imagine so have the declining subscriptions with Fightful/Sean Ross Sapp doing a much better job at providing backstage news.

In other words, AEW has over-exposed New Japan’s style and New Japan will suffer for it.

As I’ve said repeatedly about New Japan before, if it was sooooooo great, United States fans would be snorting lines of it. Look at all of the Godzilla, Nintendo, Pokemon, Dragonball Z, and Anime stuff that sells heavily to American culture. If something is cool from the Asian region, United States folks will pay money to consume more of it. Lately, we’ve been digging into South Korea stuff such as Netflix’s “Squid Games” and K-Pop. If it’s cool, Americans will throw LOADS of cash at it.

New Japan stuff tried to be incorporated within the hot New World Order gimmick and nobody cared about their involvement. Bullet Club was in New Japan, but it consisted of mostly North American workers.

When it comes to AEW and New Japan fans, they need to realize that they are in the vocal minority of worldwide wrestling fans and need to understand that their popularity is lower because it’s not even near the quality of what WWE can provide right now. And that’s OK… Like what you want, but don’t threaten me when I’m not worshipping at the alter of AEW, New Japan, or the Observer clowns who spread weekly propaganda about their promotions being better than WWE.

You are in the MINORITY, AEW and New Japan fans… Get over it and stop threatening me because I’m pointing out how inferior your favorite promotions are.

Follow me on Blue Sky!

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post ASK TITO: Message to AEW Marks, Tiffany Stratton, Saudi Arabia Royal Rumble for 2026?, and Much More appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

You love me, you still love me!

Yet, most of you MISSED the point of what I wrote in my last column entitled “Why the Women’s United States Title is a Mistake for WWE That Overexposes Women’s Wrestling”. Most of you fools just read the title of the column or whatever snippet that Aaron Rift places on Social Media to hype the column, and then attack me without context of the column.

The POINT of my last column entitled “Why the Women’s United States Title is a Mistake for WWE That Overexposes Women’s Wrestling” is that if you PANDER to one group of people while totally disregarding or writing off another group of people, particularly a loyal base of consumers, you’ll lose business.

I argued that WWE struggled during the 2010s because they couldn’t get their MALE main event scene correct. Overpushing a green Roman Reigns, poorly using Seth Rollins, and getting too repetitive on Brock Lesnar made the WWE LAME at the top of the card. At the same time when they were lacking on the male side, the female brand of wrestling was seeing increasing amounts of screen time during the late 2010s. The end result? RAW lost over 2 million viewers, thousands of attendees of WWE shows disappeared, and merchandise sales went down. THEN, when WWE finally got their main event scene correct by pushing Roman as a heel, improving how they pushed Seth Rollins, and getting other MALE main eventers right (Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, returning CM Punk, etc.), the WWE has suddenly rebounded in business.

THAT was the point that I was trying to make, as MALE wrestling when it’s done correctly will draw a thousand more times than FEMALE wrestling ever could. Why? Because of SCIENCE… Men are bigger, stronger, and faster and can do more physical things inside the larger ring than women. Same idea goes between NBA versus WNBA. There’s a reason why NBA makes money and why WNBA needs NBA to subsidize it. 2024 was an outlier with Caitlin Clark and even then, the WNBA lost $50 million. Even with the NBA in decline thanks to Load Management, it still outperforms WNBA and again, makes actual money. Many women’s wrestling promotions struggle or have failed, as have many other women’s sports league such as pro football, many soccer attempts, roller derby, etc.

And then I made the valid point about the Music Industry… Record sales have declined for 11 straight freakin’ years, folks, and have likely been declining mostly for the past 20 years. Why? Because the Music Industry PANDERS to only one gender right now. While music producers allow women to sing about their “Wet A** P***y” or literally any Sabrina Carpenter song off her new album singing about sex, men are completely neutered on their lyrical content. Gone are songs about partying, getting laid, and getting paid along with any vulgarity. Record executives won’t publish it, radio stations won’t play it, and it gets censored every step of the way for male artists. The end result is weak bands like Maroon 5, the Weeknd, and Ed Sheeran singing about their feelings and not in the way that Marvin Gaye did it with valid emotion. No, they pander to weakness in order to fit the neutered mold of what radio stations now want. Meanwhile, women can signing about getting f***ed, sucked, and basically whatever they want without censorship.

I made a valid point of looking at the 2025 Grammy Nominations… Dominated by women and my comments weren’t that they were “overrated” or anything, as I’m personally a fan of most of the ones nominated. But the issue was how much MALE music has DECLINED. Rock artists aren’t allowed to sing about anything sexual, while rap/hip hop artists are completely toned down. Listen to Eminem or Snoop’s latest songs versus what they used to sing about. Then, everyone talks about the “rap battle” between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. LAME. Go listen to Ice Cube completely SHRED his N.W.A. former tag team members with “No Vaseline” if you want see how to really “own” someone. By the way, it is utterly hilarious now Artificial Intelligence (AI) can easily make Drake music and fool many people as if he’s released a new album.

FACT is that the majority of album sales through the late 1990s was by Men. Most of the concerts used to be attended by men. Music sales and ticket sales have dropped significantly because the male demographic no longer wants to participate in the music market. Instead, they listen to podcasts at work, on the road, doing chores, or cutting grass. Country Music has seen somewhat of a boom because that’s one of the few genres of music who has some loyalty to the male fanbase, though even they have neutered the content of what male country artists can sing about, too. I can remember the late Toby Keith catching heat during the mid 2000s for the lyrical content of his music. “Who’s Your Daddy”, among other great tunes by Toby (RIP).

And then I spoke about the 2024 Presidential Election… Donald Trump won because he wasn’t completely PANDERING to one gender like Kamala Harris did. Kamala had the entire world watching her in Houston, TX for a campaign stop and she dedicated her entire speech to JUST abortion and hardly nothing else. Meanwhile, her campaign and Biden’s before it could not explain what caused INFLATION and did not hear the cries of many blue collar workers who were drowning in weaker incomes thanks to inflation while having to exhaust their personal savings or run up credit card debt to survive. They also didn’t have an answer why illegal immigration was ramping up for the past 3 years and what would be different for the next 4 years. They were TONE DEAF to the pleas of many MALE workers who were struggling to feed their families.

Sorry, but having Beyonce, Oprah, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, and Katy Perry at your rallies won’t impress people who were working long hours for little pay or working multiple jobs for little pay to stay afloat. They thumbed their nose at everyday workers, particularly men, and they paid royally for it.

I professionally stated my opinion and presented facts, like I do for most of my columns. So what was your response? And I’m quoting exactly what was said:

Twitter/X:
“Weird. Very very weird.”
“Just say you don’t like women’s wrestling”
“Sexist af article”
“Dumb take.”
“Seriously who writes this sh**”
“Man f*** off”
“F*** OFF”

Comments Section of my last column:
“This is an outdated view on Women’s wrestling and WWE is clearly stacking NXT with top tier women’s talent to make them more of apart of the show. This is a weird column.”
“Gee Tito….what are women good at in your opinion?” (Repeatedly claims that I have created an “Incel Manifesto” afterward)
“I never want to read anything from this guy again.”

By the way, most of those were the direct quotes without presenting any opposition opinion. Just attacks.

Where exactly did I bash Women’s Wrestling? My argument is that creating another title belt is the LEAST thing that the WWE needs right now for women’s wrestling. Maybe do a better job with the Tag Titles and at times, the actual Women’s Titles before adding another title.

Secondly, I have 26 years of columns… GO READ THEM ALL and show me where I’m “sexist”, at least for the last 20 of those. My columns have CONSISTENTLY PRAISED Women’s Wrestling and that’s a FACT. My columns praised the work of Trish, Lita, Jaqueline, Victoria, Molly Holly, and Mickie James. Then, I was 100% in praise of the Bella Twins while many of YOU, the devoted faithful of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) were too busy saying that both ladies “slept their way to the top” and kept quoting AJ Lee’s “talent isn’t sexually transmitted” or however it was phrased. You slandered those poor ladies who held the division together for YEARS before the 2015 NXT call-ups arrived for the “Divas Revolution”. And again, if you ACTUALLY READ MY F’N COLUMNS, you’d see how much I’ve praised the NXT call-ups of Charlotte, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, and many others.

How DARE YOU call me “sexist”, you human vile pieces of crap! FINGER OF SHAME to you getting me wrong and slandering my good name and reputation.

You don’t even F’N know me or what I’ve done beyond wearing this Mr. Tito mask. Been a proud married man for many years now while I’ve successfully promoted many women to top management positions at corporations.

How DARE YOU judge my character and attack me personally.

Do you know what many of you haters truly are? WEAK… You are WEAK to hearing any feedback or opinions that is contrary to your own or your own self-inflated beliefs of yourselves. Something is going wrong in your own personal or professional life, so thus I’m your punching bag because trolling on a keyboard is easier for you than standing up to anyone giving you grief in your personal or professional life.

For one, I said nothing vulgar or inappropriate within my last column. Obviously, with a touchy subject, I was real careful on what I wrote because I knew these attacks on my character were coming. But two, all of you haters just posted a poorly written sentence or two with attacks rather than professionally stating why my opinion might have been wrong. I afforded you the decency of writing a CLEAN column, yet you cannot do the same for any responses? Quite cowardly and says more about you than it does anything that I may or may not have said in my column.

And for the 2 NoDQ columnists who wrote “response” columns to mine… How about you focus on your own ideas instead of leaching off of mine? Ohhhh, you’re big and bad for using my good name to get you additional clicks to read your columns. How about letting your OWN opinions cause those clicks, not trying to transfer my heat onto your columns.

The TRUTH is that many of you cannot handle opinions other than your own, while being completely unable to accept or listen to feedback.

Let old Mr. Tito give you some advice… If you act like that in most workplaces, you won’t get far. If you take EVERYTHING personal or refuse to listen to anyone, you’re going to get stuck on the ladder intended to climb upward. Be that negative Nancy or a complete troll, and you’ll pay for it financially and be bitter enough to place all of your hopes on a Presidential candidate to “save you”, when he or she couldn’t if they tried.

And QUIT trying to CANCEL me anytime I write something, you bunch of weaklings! Seriously, I cannot talk about Women’s wrestling without inciting a riot online and I’m not saying anything vulgar, ever. Oh my God, I once said women should wear LESS eyelid make-up one time and y’all went nuclear on me. Yet, my point was that the women should promote their NATURAL BEAUTY instead of hiding it behind the make-up that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn wanted them to wear. Why don’t you look up what your favorite insider journalists have said about women in wrestling. One of them directly called a WWE women’s wrestler as “stupid”, another called their make-up as looking like “clown make-up”, while yet another has repeatedly commented on women’s weight in derogatory terms.

THIS is another reason why people voted the way they did… They don’t want to list their pronouns, nor do they want to see competitive imbalances in women’s sports. During COVID-19, people were getting censored and kicked off of Social Media websites simply by stating opinions about the effectiveness of treatments or where the virus came from. Before that, all kinds of words that were previously used in media and books were suddenly getting scrubbed. It’s been a difficult chore to keep up with which words are politically correct and which ones are not. People are sick of it and voted in the WWE Hall of Famer with 34 convictions to go back to Washington, D.C. and “shake things up”.

But this political environment over the past 25 years, getting worse by the year, too, has created a major divide and caused everyone to be highly sensitive of anyone’s spoken words, opinions, feedback, or critiques. Look at the past few elections, in particular. Family members are not speaking together and there are many stories out there of divorces and absences from Thanksgiving/Christmas celebrations going on right now.

I haven’t said anything largely controversial for the entirety of my 26+ years as Mr. Tito. Sure, sometimes actual wrestlers react to what I said, but it was merely an opinion based on a match or how the character was being presented. Many in wrestling media have said FAR WORSE than I ever have in my 26 years.

Yet, y’all wanna CANCEL ME?

You do realize that I write columns for 100% free, right? That’s not because nobody wants to payment, as I have kept many valid offers from wrestling AND mainstream sports sites for my services. What I long determined is the second that I start accepting paychecks for this, the second it ceases being FUN. Writing columns has been my HOBBY since October 1998 and presenting my wrestling opinion to thousands of people, including many longtime readers, has been mostly enjoyable. But man, some of you just go out of your way to be AWFUL human beings. I’d love to find out what your hobbies are and go sh** all over them, too.

But I know why you want to get rid of me… Myself, along with many others online, are somehow “in the way” from the wrestling utopia that your mind thinks that you deserve. The one where your views are the only thing out there to read and will be somehow read by WWE or AEW. Yet, if you transferred all of that energy HATING to doing something productive, then maybe someone would actually listen to your opinions on wrestling. The WWE, believe it or not, is constantly looking for writers and I counted TWO writer job openings currently available. Why spend your energy hating on people like me when you can focus your energy on getting your supposedly great views on WWE television?

Trying to cancel me or call me “sexist”… The F’N nerve! Go look in the mirror within your glass house, and be careful throwing rocks from that place, too.

And actually, all of you just figured out my secret… The more passionate and/or pissed that I am, the more columns that I’ll produce. So keep pissing me off and I’ll use this bully pulpit to put you in your places repeatedly. The older I get, the more zero f***s that I give.

Go ahead, make my day, punk!

I hope that enjoyed them apples!

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Cancel Culture Needs to Leave Pro Wrestling, Particularly on Women’s Wrestling Opinions appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

My idea on writing columns was to be a current events writer who acts as a “watchdog” for the wrestling business, providing positive feedback for what was going right but holding those accountable for things that were going wrong. For example, through October 1998, the WWE was killing it with Austin vs. McMahon and things were about to erupt into further greatness when the Rock turned heel and Mick Foley got his big push. So, if you read my columns during late 1998 through mid 2000, I was mostly positive on the WWE with a few exceptions. Conversely, WCW was clearly going downhill by the time I began during October 1998, so thus my columns on WCW from then until the closure during March 2001 were pretty harsh and deservedly so.

By mid-2000, things felt differently in the WWE… Everything became too centered around Triple H and Stephanie and I really had a bad taste in my mouth from the awful Wrestlemania 16 besides the Hardys/Dudleys/Edge & Christian ladder match. When Stone Cold Steve Austin officially returned to wrestle again, it was a different WWE that was becoming more corporate and featured Triple H as the top star versus Austin or the Rock. Just didn’t feel right and you kind of knew something was up when the Kurt Angle and Stephanie storyline was quickly squashed to firmly put HHH and Stephanie back together. Furthermore, there was TOO MUCH wrestling on, as RAW and Smackdown were happening during the week and WWE was quickly burning through matches.

Then, 2001 rolls around and instead of fixing how dominant Triple H had become, WWE doubles down on him and opts to turn “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as heel at Wrestlemania 17. Stupid, stupid move made worse by Austin teaming up with Triple H, who schemed to hit Austin with the car with Rikishi at Survivor Series 1999, and then Austin was on the WCW/ECW Alliance side for most of the TERRIBLE Invasion angle. That’s right, WWE bought WCW during 2001 and after botching its debut, they tried to recreate ECW and merge it with WCW. Complete cluster, as WWE blew a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because they wanted to spend more money on the XFL pile of crap rather than top drawing wrestling talent who could make the WWE more money to blow on terrible football leagues. Oh, and guess who was promoted to Lead Writer of the Creative Team to help make this nonsense happen and be a total enabler to Vince McMahon’s creative wishes to bury WCW? Stephanie McMahon and she’d lead the creative team until late 2013.

2002 was no better, as WWE botched the return of the New World Order. Holy cow, look at that roster during 2002… LOADED, yet they couldn’t be counted on for creating quality night in and night out, even with the “Class of 2002” Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) group beginning to debut with Brock Lesnar, Batista, John Cena, Randy Orton, and others. The BRAND EXTENSION first occurred during the late Summer of 2002 and call me crazy, but I enjoyed the Smackdown brand with younger, fresher talent and Paul Heyman writing television. Heyman not only continued to make Lesnar a bigger star, but Rey Mysterio, Edge, Angle, Benoit, Guerreros, Benjamin/Haas, and many others thrived with Paul writing for and pushing those wrestlers. But of course, the McMahons were jealous of Heyman getting credit by fans and they pushed him out of the Smackdown chair by early 2004. The Smackdown brand was meaningless from this point onward, as John Cena would would move to the RAW brand during 2005.

Those 2002-2003 RAW years were rough watches… Triple H just pushed his passive aggressive no-selling character on everyone and humiliated the likes of Kane (Katie Vick & unmasking), Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Scott Steiner, and other wrestlers. He was a dominant heel champ and only truly sold fear from Shawn Michaels until 2004 when he put Chris Benoit over and for 2005 when he put Batista over. HHH tried to make Randy Orton the youngest champion ever, but when Orton floundered after SummerSlam 2004, Triple H took his title back.

From 2005 and onward, it became the John Cena show… Loved his character on Smackdown, but on RAW as a babyface, they slowly took the rapping promos away and cleaned up his character. While his promos were weak at first, he had great opponents fed to him and made for a great main event scene that carried the WWE during the latter half of the 2000s. But by the early 2010s, much of that veteran talent were gone or taking reduced roles inside the ring, leading Cena to be surrounded with a bunch of green developmental callbacks. He lacked dance partners and literally put the WWE promotion on his back through 2014 before the WWE opted to give mega pushes to Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar when Cena began having Hollywood desires.

Before I go any further, I did take a brief break as Mr. Tito during the Summer of 2006 as I had a few things professionally and personally to take care of and you wouldn’t see another column from me until early 2010. Yep, I retired… But I also stopped watching wrestling entirely following the murders by Chris Benoit of his family during June 2007. Cold turkey… No more TV shows, no more Pay Per Views, no live events, nothing. That held until late 2009 when I was flipping through the television and I saw Chris Jericho cutting a promo. And then I came back the next week, and then the next week… By early 2010, I jokingly wrote a RAW review one night on the non-wrestling blog for Lords of Pain and many of my readers popped. So I wrote another one, and another one, and then I was back as Mr. Tito once again.

Point being following the Benoit murders, I was SICK and TIRED of WWE wrestlers being treated like pieces of meat and forcing them to work through injuries or concussions while looking the other way for any performance enhancing substances taken. I was over it, as Eddie’s death really impacted me during late 2005. Cutting off the WWE and boycotting it was my way of holding them accountable for me, personally, as a wrestling fan.

So I’m back and as an older wrestling fan, I appreciated John Cena more during the 2010s versus the “Super Cena” he was becoming during the late 2000s. And I thought the rest of the roster was kinda green, at the time, with Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, the Miz, Jack Swagger, and much of the Nexus group. Because I disappeared as a wrestling fan, I never fully saw CM Punk but then during late 2010, he appeared on the RAW roster and I became a fan quick. First, he was an announcer as an injury was healing and he was tremendous. Then, he became a cult-like leader for the revamped Nexus. With his contract about to expire, CM Punk was out the door that year and then the WWE gave him the “Pipebomb” promo. That changed everything, as it’s the closest promo we’ve ever had to Steve Austin’s “Austin 3:16” promo from King of the Ring 1996.

I was completely on-board the CM Punk train and was hoping WWE would break their plans for the Summer of 2011, which was to eventually make Alberto Del Rio become WWE Champion by SummerSlam 2011. To our amazement, Punk wins the WWE Title at Money in the Bank 2011 and it was one of the BEST nights in WWE history and championship wins ever. But then, it all fell apart… From my standpoint, I immediately caught on that a BURIAL was going to happen. For one, WWE had no concrete plans after MITB 2011 and just booked on the fly to rig the Champion vs. Champion match at SummerSlam 2011. Secondly, Triple H began appearing on-screen as the “COO” and I sensed a bad vibe from him towards CM Punk. HHH clearly didn’t like him and I repeatedly reported that, which drew a ton of heat on him. Then, WWE pulled the trigger on screwing CM Punk at SummerSlam 2011 with that weird Kevin Nash finish to help Del Rio cash-in that MITB.

After SummerSlam 2011, the obvious storyline was for CM Punk to get revenge on Kevin Nash and then go after Triple H who probably induced his buddy Kevin Nash to attack him. Nash “couldn’t get cleared by doctors”, which big Kev later confirmed as BS because Triple H was eager to bury him inside the ring. CM Punk vs. Triple H happens and HHH defeats him. CM Punk gets his shoulders pinned for 3 more consecutive Pay Per Views to shovel more dirt on him. Now, Punk receives the title at Survivor Series 2011 but only because Del Rio was failing. Punk holds the title for over a year, but he barely headlines any Pay Per Views or RAW shows along with getting turned heel midway into his WWE Title run. He was just kept as champion so that the Rock could dispatch him twice during early 2013 and then Punk put over everyone after that for the rest of the year (Kane, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar) and then put over Roman Reigns to start 2013. Then, Punk walks out.

I took a TON of heat for saying “CM Punk was buried” both internally at LoP and from the outside, even Punk commented back to me on Twitter saying he was “buried in money”. By 2013, he knew that I was right and Punk would be OUT of pro wresting until showing up in AEW during the Summer of 2021. That didn’t last long, as AEW messed up having Punk in 1 year and then made things worse within 2 years. Now, CM Punk joins a healthier WWE culture as seen during 2023-2024 under an experienced and mature Triple H while AEW continues to crumble.

The latter part of the 2010s were hard for me… Just trying to push an inexperience Roman Reigns as the #1 babyface and WASTING Wrestlemania after Wrestlemania main event to convince everyone he was “great” was torture. He was given world class opponents, too, such as Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and the Undertaker yet the matches were awful. He just wasn’t good back then… But, by 2020, Roman has 10+ years of experience under his belt and then WWE gives him Paul Heyman to shape his promos and creative. Turned heel and BOOM, Roman is a star. Crazy how accurate Vince McMahon was on Roman being a top guy, but his poor use of him while he still needed experience hurt the business.

WWE has been greatly improving ever since August 2020… Bloodline has been great and again, getting Paul Heyman more involved is the key and Heyman has delivered for Vince and now with Triple H to help creatively build drama and suspense. Vince outside of the Bloodline was getting confused and watching RAW was a brutal task. Then, he gets hit with sexual allegations of paying off WWE employees for his bad behavior and thus Triple H gets put in charge. From 2022 through present here in October 2024, Triple H has been a steady hand and he’s more empowering of fellow staff and the wrestlers themselves to contribute more towards the creative process. The result is a positive culture backstage and a much better product.

And that’s where I’m at right now, celebrating 26 years as Mr. Tito.

Right now, I’m in a difficult situation because the WWE that I wanted since the early 2000s has finally arrived. I don’t have any nitpicks, as I just pick up the remote or tablet to just enjoy the show and not even need to second-guess the booking decisions. I TRUST that Triple H and WWE/TKO will make the right decisions.

Prior to 2022-2024, I would argue that the WWE was worthy of my criticisms because they made lots of creative and talent mistakes… However lately, I have zero advice to give. I’m just very impressed with their product.

So, with that said, where do I go in my 27th year as Mr. Tito? What can I write when I’m a current events writer? Maybe more economics columns like what I wrote yesterday about Wrestlemania 41 ticket prices? I don’t want to pile on AEW, as it’s not worth my time and their poorly drawing product speaks for itself. I don’t want to write any Retro stuff or Lists because that’s a tired format to go and everything from the past has been discussed too much by wrestling fans. I like to look forward, anyway, ya know, to turn the page?

Going to be honest, I’m just going to keep hanging around here at NoDQ but I cannot guarantee the frequency for which I’ll write. Maybe I’ll write more during the Rumble to Wrestlemania season when news headlines are being generated? But I found myself bored and struggling to write content following Wrestlemania 41 this year and don’t want to force myself to write.

I’m NOT saying that I’m retiring, but what I’m saying is that WWE has been so impressive that I don’t have much to write on them other than non-stop praise. And I don’t want to seem like a mark writing non-stop positivity columns that would get old fast. The last thing that I want to do is to crap on AEW, a promotion who refuses to fix itself.

Don’t worry, I’ll still be around… I’m NOT retiring, but I’m just lacking the motivation to write as constantly as I used to. You got my best stuff for the past 2 years, anyway, and I’ve fully cleared out what’s remaining in my basement.

But I’ve said all I needed to say on WWE and they’ve finally morphed into a WWE that I’ve wanted for over 20 years. I’m good.

So, we’ll see when I show up next, probably something involving Rumble to Wrestlemania unless some news breaks or I’m somehow inspired one day.

CLICK HERE for the Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: 26 Years of Writing Pro Wrestling Columns – Thank You SO MUCH For Reading! appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Speaking of Vince McMahon… I have completed the Netflix documentary, as I was watching 1 episode per night with my wife. Overall, I thought it was a good documentary but it was more like an extended A&E biography of both Vince and the WWE rather than a controversial piece. It pretty much laid out the history of Vince McMahon’s life and WWE’s ups and downs, while doing it in a highly produced way. While it produced “nothing new” for me, longtime wrestling fan, it was captivating to my wife who didn’t regularly watch wrestling or knew about any of its wild stories. THAT is who this documentary was made for!

I honestly found it to be more of a tribute to Vince McMahon rather than a scathing piece… For what he could comment on before things blew up during the Spring of 2022, Vince was open about various controversies and presented his side of the story on things like steroids, Owen Hart, and for the first time ever, he openly talked about Chris Benoit. Personally, I was expecting the documentary to get deeper into the cut-throat nature of him destroying territories, the harassment of the female referee, Jimmy Snuka cover-up, and other ruthless business tactics he had intimidating arenas and Pay Per View providers, but it’s difficult to cover someone’s 50+ year career in professional wrestling.

Right now, we have Cancel Culture who are aggressively scrubbing anything in pop culture associated with someone who is accused of either crimes or immoral behavior. From 2022 and especially 2024, Vince was effectively cancelled as if his 40+ years of contributions as WWE owner didn’t exist. What I especially liked about this documentary is that it preserves what Vince McMahon created and allows him to speak freely. Thus, future generations can check out this documentary and see the positives versus the negatives of what Vince did. It’s important to showcase what Vince created because it had a lasting impact on pop culture and maybe the world, as I noted during a 2016 column for Lords of Pain where I said Donald Trump was essentially a wrestling character out there on the campaign trail.

That said, two things can occur at the same time. Vince McMahon gave us a great WWE wrestling product but he also needs to be held accountable for his sexual accusations in which he paid $20 million to be swept under the rug. Now that Vince has “retired”, the Department of Justice can sort that out, as can other courts regarding any additional lawsuits. I believe that the DOJ will try to catch Vince on his sexual crimes, but will lack evidence or the NDAs themselves will shield Vince. However, the financial fraud part is where they’ll get him as he paid out each settlement with WWE money even though each were treated as personal matters. With WWE being a publicly traded company and also paying taxes, THAT is where they’ll go… Unless Donald Trump is elected and either the Department of Justice looks elsewhere or Vince will be fully pardoned.

I enjoyed Vince’s Netflix documentary, but gained nothing new from it other than Hulk Hogan finally admitting about being a rat about unionizing before Wrestlemania 2. After decades of denying it, despite Vince McMahon confirming that as a fact in court, Hogan admits it and said that it wouldn’t have worked anyway. What a goof… If the entire roster, plus Hogan, unionizes before Wrestlemania 2, Vince would have been screwed. Instead, Vince rewarded Hogan by paying him more and kept paying the highest stars more money as a way to negate any unions forming. If anything, the documentary confirmed that Hogan is an even bigger POS than before.

Worth your watch, but don’t get your hopes up on anything new if you’ve been a longtime wrestling fan. Just kick back and enjoy the nostalgia, as this documentary is packed with it.

Onto your questions.

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ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers

Why won’t the WWE induct Sid, Sable, Demolition, etc. into their Hall of Fame?

Same reasoning why it took forever to get Bruno Sammartino, Ultimate Warrior, and Scott Steiner into the Hall of Fame. What the WWE doesn’t want are shoot interviews happening at their glorious events. Any wrestler who is outspoken and has said critical or outrageous things in the past pose a risk for WWE’s live event. Before Bruno got in, he was highly critical of Vince Jr. and the growth of steroids in the WWE. Ultimate Warrior said many controversial things but also took WWE to court regarding his tenure. Scott Steiner said lots of things online…

WWE doesn’t want that drama at their Hall of Fame ceremony. What they want is a fan friendly event and in return, the wrestlers can advertise that they are a “WWE Hall of Famer”. It’s a simple trade, but not every wrestler is 100% behind that handshake deal. WWE wants to TRUST who they are putting out there with a live microphone and not worry about what could be said.

Sid recently passed away and it’s SAD that he never made the Hall of Fame while alive. But watch his shoot interviews, as he’s very expressive with his opinion and he’s very critical of what happened during 1991-1992 with things that were promised but WWE didn’t deliver. That said, I’m surprised Sid didn’t get in earlier during the early 2010s angles with Heath Slater. That seemed like they were on the same page.

Demolition has been on various concussion lawsuits against the WWE, while Ax fought the WWE over various copyrights through the years. This is WWE’s best creation as a tag team, in my opinion, and it’s a total shame that they are not in. BUT, what WWE doesn’t want is for them to bring up any past heat with the company on their live broadcast.

Then you get to Sable… She’s difficult to handle, but if someone crapped in my luggage (X-Pac) and was the recipient of other rude exchanges backstage, I’d be difficult too. Sable came back to the WWE after their lawsuit settlement and did things like flirt and make-out with Vince McMahon, as you saw on the documentary. However, she was a big part of why Brock Lesnar left the WWE, as they began dating and she had a big influence on him and continued to be during the later 2010s. If you wanted to keep bringing in Brock, you better pay him higher wages for those limited dates.

Pete Rose just passed away and I’m willing to bet that he’ll now get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Very likely that someone like Sid will now get in and his family, without controversy, can represent him now. It’s a shame that we can’t get the real wrestlers when they are alive, but the WWE has a policy on their Hall of Fame and any wrestlers willing to participate must abide by it.

*****

Do you think that it’s a mistake for AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery to keep having higher priced Pay Per Views as opposed to just airing them on MAX?

Well, here’s a crazy opinion that I have… You should get used to watching WWE PLEs on Peacock for now, because once that goes away, I wouldn’t be surprised if Endeavor/TKO bring back the Pay Per View model for WWE.

It’s called the “Law of Demand”… If you’re giving away a premium wrestling product for $9.99, while having high expenses to create content for that WWE Network, and yet consumers are willing to pay $50 for it… See how that works?

Reason why WWE Network was created is because WWE’s Pay Per View buys were dropping. Why were they dropping? BECAUSE THE PAY PER VIEWS SUCKED!!!!! WWE was absent of quality through 2014 and about to suck even harder as the decade wore on. However, by subscribing to the WWE Network, it kept many fans along for the ride and tolerating WWE’s low quality 2010s Pay Per Views.

After 5 years as a company, AEW goes from earning way less than $100 million to upwards close to $185 million per year while having some streaming ability on MAX. That’s a win for AEW. They still have people willing to pay for their Pay Per Views, so why break that business model?

I believe Endeavor/TKO is gonna shred that WWE Network in the near future… So enjoy that cheap PLE sensation that you have now with WWE big events.

*****

What are your thoughts on AEW possibly seeking a new video game developer for their next game?

It’s an open admission that their “Fight Forever” video game was a flop, period. It wasn’t just a poorly selling flop, but a BAD GAME. After years upon years of development, AEW Fight Forever poorly performed on all platforms with glitches and slowdowns due to framerate issues. Crazy thing is that the game barely tried in the graphics department, which means that it should have performed better but it didn’t. Then, that online mode that tried to create a Fortnite game but with wrestlers was total trash.

This is the easiest example of why placing wrestlers with ZERO managerial experience as key executives of your wrestling promotion is a BAD idea. Kenny Omega was in charge of this video game and made things very difficult for developers by repeatedly changing his mind and causing many restarts of the development process. We have about 30 years of great wrestling games and features to look at by comparison rather than changing things on the fly, which AEW did.

Because Fight Forever flopped, there is a LACK OF TRUST for the 2nd game no matter who the developer is. I’ll predict it now that the 2nd game will flop harder than Fight Forever UNLESS the developer is as revolutionary as AKI was for THQ WCW games. Highly doubtful that this would happen, especially in today’s video game market where creativity isn’t encouraged.

*****

What are your predictions for WWE Bad Blood?

My predictions? I hate you guys… You KNOW that I hate making predictions on PPV/PLEs. Back when I wrote daily columns, PPV predictions columns were an EASY way to achieve writing daily. But trust me when I say this, it was TORTURE for me to write those prediction columns. Why? Because I don’t give a damn who wins or loses, as I just want a GOOD match that benefits both parties. The winner is put over by winning a title or climbing the ladder, while the loser of the match put in a “fighting effort”.

Here are my predictions for Bad Blood, as I struggle not to call it by the show’s older name “Badd Blood”.

– CM Punk will defeat Drew McIntyre in Hell in a Cell, thus beginning CM Punk’s big push and likely aim to feud with Roman Reigns following Wrestlemania 41. SummerSlam 2025 with Punk vs. Roman would sell any outdoor arena, including one in New Your City next year (well, New Jersey).

– I’ll predict Liv Morgan retaining her title against Rhea Ripley. We’ve seen it in the past that just because someone is suspended in their air within a smaller cage, it doesn’t mean interference won’t happen. Too obvious… Either the cage gets lowered and Dominik is allowed to interfere, or someone else will interfere… I think there is more to milk with this feud to carry it through the rest of the year. Personally, I think Liv Morgan has found her character and she’s deserving of a reward to keep it going as champion. Why not?

– Bayley will retain her women’s title over Nia Jax, but may be at risk for Tiffany Stratton cashing in immediately after a grueling match. It’s time and Tiffany is ready for the spotlight, as she’s exceptional and WWE could draw serious money to build her up as a massive heel for someone to take down at Wrestlemania 41. That said, I could see WWE milking this feud one more month if Tiffany accidentally hits Nia in the head with the briefcase to cost her the match. That, or Tiffany takes out both Bayley and Nia with the briefcase. Lots of possibilities, which could make for a GREAT match and for some GREAT drama.

– Damian Priest should smash Finn Balor. Triple H refuses to give up on that 180 pound soaking wet Balor, as we’ve endured this nonsense for the past 10 years. Recreate the Cruiserweight division and push it seriously with Finn Balor on top. Sorry, but I just don’t find it believable that he could defeat a wrestler much taller and heavier than him. That is why boxing, amateur wrestling, and UFC have weight classes.

– Cody Rhodes/Roman Reigns vs. Solo Sikoa/Jacob Fatu is a total mystery to me. For one, you’ll likely have interference from the Haku brothers and I could see the WWE using that as an opportunity to allow Solo or Jacob to pin Roman’s shoulders to the mat. That said, I could also see a surprise reveal with maybe the Rock causing interference to set up something at Survivor Series and then marching onto Wrestlemania with Cody vs. Rock at Royal Rumble, Roman wins the Rumble, and then it’s Rock vs. Roman at Wrestlemania 41. I just don’t know… But what I do know is that Roman versus this rebooted Bloodline feels too small and the group needs a bigger villain that matches his star power. I’ll lean Bloodline wins here via interference, but I hope that it’s more than the Haku brothers doing so.

Wouldn’t it be CRAZY if this was a whole scheme to lure Cody Rhodes into a “false sense of security” only for Roman to turn on Cody to reform the Bloodline with Roman as its leader? Wouldn’t that be insane? With Rock vs. Roman still on the table, I don’t think so but you never know…

*****

What are WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump’s chances to win the 2024 election?

Well, he got a lucky break in the form of a natural disaster with Hurricane Helene. Lately, he’s been successfully lampooning the Federal Government’s response to hard hit Georgia and especially North Carolina and I believe that propaganda is working to retain both of those states and maybe preventing Florida from flipping too. Hey, luck is part of the game… John McCain tanked as a Presidential candidate when the stock market crashed, just as Jimmy Carter’s presidency was over thanks to the Iranian hostage crisis.

Thanks to the hurricane sealing the deal in the South for Trump, the “blue wall” gets the attention once again with Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Kamala Harris needs to win all 3 to become President, while Donald Trump just needs Pennsylvania to win, assuming he also wins Georgia and North Carolina. If you’ve been to Pennsylvania, as I repeatedly have lately, you cannot avoid political ads, signs, and billboards in that state. That is where most of Trump’s money is going while the Democrats have spread their money throughout different states.

Thought the VP debate benefitted both candidates, probably helping Trump more because most people just watched the first half where J.D. Vance performed better than he did in the 2nd half and vice versus for Tim Walz. Democrats are running with January 6th stuff again, while Trump is effectively using the destruction of a hurricane to pile on criticisms of the current administration for which Harris belongs to as VP for Joe Biden.

But then you have things like the economy… Inflation is not increasing at a rate seen during 2021-2023, job market is still strong, and other metrics. There’s a chance that voters may value the difficult task of following the brutal 2020 year in which Trump was still President. Biden has been in a peculiar position of having to mop-up 2020 with a divided Congress while having an ex-President on the sidelines criticizing his every move. Given bizarre accusations of eating pets in Springfield, OH if voters will see through the lies and conspiracies constantly thrown at the wall by the ex-president and WWE hall of famer?

I predict either a close election that hinges specifically on Pennsylvania, or Kamala’s momentum is quietly strong and may make major surprises on election day. I think the Springfield, OH stuff was a low moment for Trump’s campaign, while I also think there is a chance that Women overwhelmingly push to see the first female President who will also try to protect their reproductive rights. Because of the hurricane criticisms, I think that the former is what we’ll see with Pennsylvania deciding it… And that state could go either way.

*****

What are your thoughts on Tito Jackson passing away?

First of all, let me explain where “Mr. Tito” came from as an alias. During the 1990s, there was a Jackson family mini-series which showed the rise of the Jackson 5 musical group and it was a difficult path for the sons of Joe Jackson. Joe ruled things with a violent iron fist and when I watched the mini-series on Vh1 one day during 1996, Joe Jackson screams at the Tito Jackson character to “go outside and get a switch”. No this wasn’t a Nintendo Switch but rather pulling a limb off of a tree and stripping off its branches to allow Joe Jackson to whip his poor son, Tito, for using his guitar. If you think of a tree branch, especially a smaller one that has flexibility, that acts like a whip and it’s going to hurt badly!

I was in an early version of a chatroom at my cousin’s house, connected to a 28K modem, and we were trolling people in a chatroom. Obviously, I didn’t want to use my real name while my immature younger self was being an a-hole, so I went with “Tito” thanks to this mini-series. From there on out, I was “Tito” for any anonymous online activity. Then, during October 1998 when my then-favorite wrestling website Lords of Pain was advertising for a daily columnist, I applied for it and I added a “Mister” in front of it to look a tad more professional but also mysterious. In wrestling, someone with “Mr.” in front of it was always a bit curious and it worked. Here my arse is, 26 freakin’ years later and am still called “Mr. Tito”.

So yeah, I’m very sad that the influence behind my online name has passed away. I loved the Jackson 5 and began listening to them on a whim when needing to select CDs for that Columbia House deal. To my surprise, their Greatest Hits collection was amazing and I became a big fan. So, it’s out of love and tribute when using “Tito” as an online alias. For the record, I have NEVER made a dime off of using that name.

Tito Jackson passed away on September 15th, 2024 at the age of 70 due to a heart attack and just missed his 71st birthday.

Honestly, it was Tito that really caused the spark in Joe Jackson to create the family band Jackson 5. While it was obvious that the family had musical talent, it was when Tito played the guitar for his dad and showed that he had legitimate musical talent that things began to change. Tito broke the string on his guitar, hence the need for the “switch” in the mini-series, but after the string was fixed, Joe demanded that Tito play for him as Tito was sneaking playing the guitar while Joe was working in the steel mill. That’s where it all ignited and in my opinion, Tito had the toughest task out of the brothers by having to sing and dance while playing the guitar at the same time. In my mind, that’s the coolest Jackson and hence why I’m proud to use “Tito” as a nickname.

May he rest in peace…

Peace out!

CLICK HERE for the Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post ASK TITO: WWE Bad Blood 2024 Predictions, Hall of Fame Snubs, AEW Video Games, and More appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

I thought about having a big, long column (that’s what she said) to honor 25 years, but damn, it was taking forever to write… Top 25 stories of the past 25 years… Instead, I’ll just reflect on the wrestling business that I’ve viewed for the past 25 years since October 26th, 1998.

When I began writing Mr. Tito’s Phat Daily Columns during October 1998, WCW was beginning to decline with Bill Goldberg not being as impressive and Hulk Hogan was feuding with the Warrior. Seriously… Halloween Havoc 1998 was in my first column! WWE, meanwhile, was still on the way up and was about to get AMAZING with the Survivor Series 1998 tournament, Rock vs. Foley, and then Rock vs. Austin. To me, the November 1998 to April 1999 for WWE programming is the best ever stretch of months for pro wrestling. After Wrestlemania 15, WWE ran Austin vs. McMahon into the ground the rest of the year was also trying to sell us that Triple H was “the guy”.

The year 2000 was fun, but only because WCW gave away its best in-ring talent for free (Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Saturn) and WWE’s developmental system was restocking the WWE constantly with new talent (includes Kurt Angle). But 2001 is where the WWE’s wheels really began to fall off. The Austin heel turn was a major mistake and then the ECW/WCW invasion was botched. Oh yeah, both ECW and WCW were officially gone by March 2001. Both had money problems, but at the very least, it brought both Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman to the WWE as on-screen characters to enjoy. The WCW/ECW invasion was a disaster and Stephanie McMahon should have not only been FIRED for her Creative decisions, but also for that 9/11 speech.

2002 was an interesting year, though… The WCW wrestlers that you wanted during 2001 began to show up during 2002. Ric Flair arrived in late 2001 but was regaining confidence as a performer during 2002. Then you had the New World Order (Hogan, Hall, and Nash) return to the WWE all at once. Hall and Nash were made to be insignificant after WWE decided to push Hulk Hogan as a babyface again, meanwhile, Steve Austin had enough of the WWE and went home. To me, the best of Steve Austin was seen at Wrestlemania 15 and he was never the same, especially when he left at Survivor Series 1999. Also during 2002, you had the “Plane Ride from Hell”, which was absolutely bonkers when it happened.

But what made 2002 very interesting was the unleashing of Ohio Valley Wrestling’s BEST homegrown talent in the form of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, and Randy Orton. You got 4 Main Event stars and a very talented tag team (Haas & Benjamin). This group added to the many WCW/ECW stars that were signed and justified the 2002 brand split. I REALLY loved the 2002-2003 Smackdown which Paul Heyman co-wrote with Stephanie, but it fizzled fast by early 2004. Heyman made Cena, Lesnar, Edge, Angle, Benoit, the Guerreros, and Rey Mysterio into major stars and each of those guys (besides Benoit) put serious mileage as performers. While RAW was rough to watch at times, Evolution was a great stable with Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista, and Randy Orton. SummerSlam 2004 made Randy Orton a World Champion too early, but that mistake was rectified when Batista went after Triple H during 2005. Then, to see the Shield vs. Evolution feud during 2014 was an amazing cherry on the top for this group.

John Cena emerged during late 2002, finally, with the rapping gimmick and then 2003-2004 were amazing to see his growth into the superstar who headlined the WWE from 2005 until 2014, while still being a big name to this day. To me, John Cena is 3rd best WWE performer behind only Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. The guy carried the WWE on his back and stopped the downslide that not only occurred from 2000-2004, but also the Benoit induced slide from 2006. Cena got the WWE through some rough times and really carried the promotion on his back as the talent pool began to thin during the early 2010s.

Wrestling had its dark moments to endure as a fan… For one, NO wrestlers should be hanging from the rafters and this stunt killed Owen Hart. We were robbed of many years of working against top talents and witnessing Owen possibly becoming World Champion. Then, the WWE’s LACK of Wellness Policies caused some bad conditions that allowed wrestlers to die early from prescription pill abuse. That, and a lack of concussion protocol and a tough road schedule made bad conditions for wrestlers during the 2000s. Many wrestlers failed to reach the age of 45, while the years of concussions, alcohol abuse, prescription drug abuse, and steroid use caused Chris Benoit to snap and tragically murder his family. The wrestling business almost caused someone like Kurt Angle to pass, but his major bolting to TNA during 2006 probably saved his life because the WWE wouldn’t protect him from himself or their road schedule.

People forget this storie these days, but the whole Lita love triangle with Matt Hardy and Edge was bonkers. For one, Edge did his friend Matt wrong BUT you had other angles to the debate such as Matt exposing the affair publicly. In the end, it enabled Edge to finally get a foot into the main event door but I also believe the shame of those events got his life in order. Dating Lita broke up Edge’s first marriage and it seems like he has been making it up with his current wife Beth Phoenix.

What I loved about the 2000s, though, was Shawn Michaels. His comeback was inspirational and significantly added to his career and legacy. Nice to see a clean, happy, and healthy Shawn just crushing it with feuds with Triple H, Undertaker, John Cena, Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho. That feud during the late 2000s with Jericho, man… That is one of the best and most believable feuds ever, the best work of both of their careers in my opinion.

Several competitors tried to arrive during the 2000s, but I really didn’t enjoy TNA and Ring of Honor. Both just felt smaller to me, as both performed in smaller arenas and their big events just didn’t feel like must-buys to me. I know that many liked TNA, but not me… Impact Wrestling renaming themselves to “TNA” does nothing to me, especially when I have no clue on how or where to watch their content.

From 2006 to early 2010, I stepped away from being Mr. Tito to do grown up things… Got married, started having kids, and began working in a corporate setting. I returned to watching wrestling and being Mr. Tito during early 2010 and WWE had changed. While Cena was there, many new wrestlers were there… But WWE was pushing the wrong guys as top wrestlers. However, one guy rose to the top and that was CM Punk by early 2011. CM Punk did the “pipe bomb” promo and it ignited his character before the Money in the Bank 2011 show. While WWE did the right thing by crowning Punk at that amazing event, they did the wrong thing after that with the SummerSlam 2011 debacle with Kevin Nash helping Alberto Del Rio win the WWE Title and then Triple H burying CM Punk at the Night of Champions 2011 Pay Per View.

I took so much heat during September 2011 with my “Triple H just BURIED CM Punk” column following that Night of Champions 2011 column and that column drew over 25,000 views, my highest since the peak years of the Attitude Era. That’s crazy and it even caused CM Punk to respond to my column by saying “buried in money”. Funny how he’d soon realize how correct I was and how he was trapped in that 3 year contract that he just signed. Triple H was the main reason why CM Punk left during January 2014, but may be the main person who helps him rejoin the WWE during 2023.

For the rest of the 2010s, it was basically defending John Cena from all of the hateful marks, loving the return of Brock Lesnar, and hating on the babyface push of Roman Reigns. Honestly, not much to it than that… When the WWE buried John Cena at SummerSlam 2014, it officially kicked off Lesnar and Reigns dominating the WWE for the rest of the that decade. While I disagree with Roman’s overpush back then, it has helped set him up for being a great heel from 2020-2023. That resume of beating top names like Undertaker, CM Punk, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Triple H helped him gain experience and prestige that clicked in once he switched to the heel team. Roman has been KILLING it ever since.

2019 brought on All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and it has been a mixed bag for me. I initially enjoyed it and was happy for Jon Moxley, but I quickly soured on it… COVID years sucked for AEW and placing too much hope on CM Punk to overcome jealous EVPs and their clique of indy wrestlers didn’t end well. That said, anytime CM Punk stories hit the fan, it provided fodder for many, many great columns. AEW losing Cody Rhodes hurt too, though AEW really didn’t use him well at all. Good to see Cody doing well and having incredible matches in the WWE. 2023 will prove to be a great resume year for Cody, whom I expect to be a World Champion for 2024. Tony Khan needs significant help, as he appears to be someone losing sleep over trying to beat the WWE with a weaker roster of talent.

WWE during the early 2020s has been interesting… First, they struggled through COVID-19, but to their credit, they kept the promotion alive. All things considered, they deserve a THANK YOU for refusing to shut down operations and keep us entertained. Wrestlemania 36 will be one of my favorite shows only because of the significance of pressing forward just to entertain us. As the year wore on, Roman Reigns returned from his COVID hiatus to become a heel by joining Paul Heyman and forming the Bloodline. For 3 straight years, we’ve been heavily entertained by them as a storyline along with Roman being a dominant champion. WWE has grown with viewers, attendance, and merchandise ever since and made them appealing to be purchased.

If you asked Mr. Tito from October 1998 if Vince McMahon would still be doing this 25 years later, I’d call you crazy… But if you told him that Vince would pay out nearly $20 million in sexual harassment/abuse NDA payouts, retire from the business, force his way back as Board Chairman, and then prompt the sale of the company to Endeavor, I’d think you were crazy. Hell, I’ve been writing so long that I pre-date the sale of UFC to Endeavor by almost 2 decades. Just pure insanity… And now, it’s hilarious to see Endeavor actually controlling Vince McMahon and disabling him from micro-managing WWE’s creative process. We’ll see how long that lasts…

But I am writing here, 25 years later, to suggest that wrestling is in a good place right now. WWE is on fire from a talent and creative perspective, while AEW exists as some form of competition. 25 years ago, I wrote on a WWE that was still growing and WCW was beginning to decline. Meanwhile, most wrestling fans are still talking about the wrestling from 25 years ago because it was, indeed, the best wrestling ever seen. Attitude Era was the best era, period.

I’ve had fun as Mr. Tito for the past 25 years. Under this alias, I’ve been about to pump out over 4,000 columns for all of you to enjoy and I did so on a 100% voluntary basis. While I’ve been the best bargain ever to websites, I wrote for free because this is my hobby and I woudn’t enjoy it if paid. Thus, you know that I’m 100% speaking as a fan without a filter rather than whoring myself for a dollar or speaking for special interests.

Thank you for reading me, as I’m very grateful to have your time.

CLICK HERE for the Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: 25 Year Anniversary of Mr. Tito – Reflecting on Last 25 Years of Pro Wrestling appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

I usually write a long introduction, but I’d rather get right into your questions!

ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers

Where does the Bloodline go from here?

In case you missed it, Jimmy Uso screwed Jey Uso at SummerSlam 2023 and then on Smackdown, Jimmy gave an odd reason for his actions that he didn’t want Jey to become just like Roman. Huh? Jey proceeded to overcome both Roman and Solo, and then he superkicked Jimmy on the outside. Jey announced he was not only done with the Bloodline, but done with the WWE. WWE, playing along obviously, placed Jey Uso in the Alumni section of WWE’s website.

I think what you’ll see Jey legitimately taking a few weeks off, as this was probably a planned vacation and it will fuel the hype while he’s gone. In the meantime, it’s Jimmy’s turn to wrestle Roman Reigns and they’ll have a few battles over the next few month. After Jimmy loses, he’ll acknowledge Roman and rejoin the Bloodline. Then, Jey comes back and it will be babyface Jey versus Bloodline heel Jimmy, possibly at Survivor Series or Royal Rumble?

As for Roman Reigns, after his feud with Jimmy, I think they might do a feud with Edge to keep things busy through the last few months of 2023 or something like that. Cody vs. Roman II is happening at Wrestlemania 40.

But I still see Brock Lesnar somehow joining the Bloodline, as teaming up Roman and Lesnar hasn’t been done before and Paul Heyman is the connection. Then, with time and possibly after Wrestlemania 40, Lesnar turns on Roman and Heyman sides with Lesnar to officially turn Roman as a babyface. The Usos, after feuding with each other and possibly wrestling against each other at Wrestlemania 40, will reunite after a hard fought match-up.

Everything with the Bloodline DEPENDS on if they can add new pieces to the group, such as what the Nation of Domination and DX did to shake up their groups a bit. You already saw the magic that Sami Zayn added, so hence if Roman reboots the group with more family members or adding Lesnar, it could spice things up.

Honestly, I have full faith in WWE Creative on this one… They’ve highly entertained me for the past 3 years and it has been appreciated. The Bloodline has been easily the best storyline since the Attitude Era.

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Thoughts on “The Elite” re-signing with AEW?

There was valid interest in Kenny Omega in the WWE, as the guy can bring it in the Main Event scene when he has a great dance partner. However, I just don’t believe that the WWE wanted the Young Bucks or Hangman Page. For one, Vince McMahon does NOT like Tag Team wrestling, particularly tag teams small in height. Secondly, Page went into business for himself on the promo that set off CM Punk. Nobody in the WWE wants that.

Plus, with Adam “Hangman” Page, I have zero respect for the guy after he jobbed to Joey Ryan at the 2018 “All In” show. What a complete joke.

It’s likely that sports agent Barry Bloom used the slight interest in Kenny Omega as leverage against Tony Khan and with Tony still punch drunk after losing Cody Rhodes, additional urgency was there to re-sign these guys.

Just a bad move for AEW, especially retaining Bucks and Omega as EVPs. As Jeff Meacham adequately put it, pro wrestling has no room for wrestlers acting as player coaches. There’s just too much self-interest at play here for Bucks and Omega to keep themselves strong as wrestlers instead of devoting time to help put over other talents.

I expect some exodus of talent, and I wonder how long CM Punk will last before he blows up again with these guys around.

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Could Brock Lesnar ever sign with AEW?

It would take a TON of money… We’re talking above and beyond what the WWE pays him. Lesnar has received contracts where he was paid between $3-5 million per year, but more recently, he’s been paid per major event. In addition, he has perks like being flown on a chartered private jet, which adds significantly to the cost of Lesnar. Brock has GREAT relations with the WWE and it would take a large sum of money to want to break that relationship. Plus, with Endeavor owning the WWE, they’ll want Brock Lesnar to cross promote both WWE and UFC. With time, I could see Lesnar helping to train for BOTH promotions.

Tony would be OUT OF HIS MIND to sign him. For one, Lesnar is 46, so thus those peak in-ring years are coming up soon. WWE has already sacrificed him multiple times for key losses (Reigns, Rollins, and now Cody). And you’d be willing to break the bank for that?

And Shad Khan isn’t stupid… They man didn’t get rich by overpaying on assets at their very peak. No, he bought things cheap. Believe it or not, AEW is on a very tight budget and much of the ex-WWE wrestlers who were released during 2020-2022 got a rude awakening when they joined AEW for much less money. Furthermore, besides CM Punk and maybe Bryan Danielson, wrestlers (besides the EVPs) aren’t making that much money. However with AEW, they give wrestlers flexibility to make more on the side, such as Indy shows, streaming on Twitch, and with merchandise (which WWE disallows).

There’s just no way and with Endeavor buying WWE, they’ll overpay Brock Lesnar themselves to keep him around. And I believe Brock is happy in the WWE. If he truly “shooted” by giving Cody a handshake, that proves that he’s happy and interested in the well-being of the WWE.

—————

What was the Federal Government looking for when they requested documents from the WWE regarding Vince McMahon?

You mean the subpoena that happened right when Vince was having spinal surgery? That convenient one?

I believe it is related to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), or possibly BOTH for expensing his hush money to multiple women (along with John Laurinaitis) to the WWE Corporation. This has major implications based on how the WWE presented its financials not just quarterly, but annually, and has an impact how taxes are assessed and could influence the WWE’s stock price, good or bad. These actions probably caused the WWE to pay (a) less in taxes and (b) changed the way stock was purchased by investors or re-purchased by the WWE Corporation.

Vince McMahon reportedly “paid the WWE” back for 20 years of settlements, but that’s NOT going to solve everything. That doesn’t undo failure to pay taxes on certain things, plus it has many chain effects on the WWE’s stock price. Here’s a crazy scenario… What if a WWE Board Member or Executive BOUGHT stock after the WWE reported financials that were lower than expected BECAUSE one of Vince’s settlements caused the Net Income number to be lower than expected.

That’s what I believe it is… Don’t pay the right amount of taxes, the Government will get you. But if you lie on Financial Statements, we’re getting into a whole big can of worms because you not only have SEC reporting, but year-end accounting statements to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. You know, the legislation that requires an accounting firm to independently sign-off on a corporation’s financials, thanks to the Enrons of the world that were cooking their books.

In my humble opinion, I believe that the quick sale to Endeavor was Vince McMahon’s escape plan to avoid any financial fraud or tax fraud that could be alleged, along with any class action lawsuits due to Vince McMahon’s actions as CEO/President/Board Chairman of WWE. You know, it’s kind of like running for President in hopes of pardoning yourself of all crimes if you win. Exactly like that, and two birds of a feather will always flock together to get out of sticky situations. It’s very likely that Endeavor actually bought WWE cheaper than what it could have been, anticipating a major fine from either the IRS or SEC (or both). When it comes to making money and being above the law, Vince is playing chess when investigators are playing checkers.

I don’t believe it has anything to do with the MLW anti-trust lawsuit, which would be pushed up to the Feds for such claims. This subpoena was specific to Vince McMahon.

—————

What should Bray Wyatt’s role be if he returns?

Look, we tried the entire Fiend experiment from 2019 through 2021 and we tried more goofiness with Uncle Howdy and the returning Firefly Funhouse during late 2022 and early 2023. Complete disasters and I’m still SHOCKED that LA Knight hasn’t been fully damaged from his Royal Rumble 2023 feud with Wyatt.

To me, it’s evident that something is off, inside the ring with Bray, and thus he’s become 100% reliant on SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT stuff to keep him floating along. It hurts more, as you get older, when you take bumps inside the ring. I just don’t think he’s that healthy anymore, and that affects everything from conditioning, motivation, and desire. Can’t blame Creative, as they heavily pushed Fiend above and beyond what it should have been along with multiple World Title changes.

It’s time to do it my way… Plain old Bray Wyatt… No Uncle Howdy, no supernatural BS, and no more puppets. He’s the acknowledged son of IRS/Mike Rotunda and nephew of Barry Windham. Go with that, as pushing him as a next generation wrestler is something they have not tried. Plus, he has a GREAT NAME as “Windham Rotunda”. How cool is that? You wanna talk about Bloodline, holy cow, he’s the branch of 2 great wrestling trees.

I’m over this Supernatural crap with Wyatt, and I don’t want it staining Alexa Bliss’s career, either. Bliss’s best years were during 2016-2017 when it was just her, as a heel, and talking smack on all of the other female wrestlers. Having her carry a doll and adding too much theatrics to her character actually subtracted from her value to the WWE. She hasn’t been the same, since.

Push him as a serious wrestler and if that doesn’t work, then get goofy again, I suppose.

—————

What are your thoughts about Dave Meltzer’s recent star ratings given to events?

I don’t care about anything Dave Meltzer publishes, at this point. Based on his own reporting (sometimes, lack thereof) he has clearly shown his complete bias towards New Japan, California Independent Wrestling, and AEW. It’s funny to me how someone so connected to AEW repeatedly fails at breaking stories on them, as Sean Ross Sapp has repeatedly beat him to the punch on AEW breaking news. Why? Because Meltzer is impaired.

Look, the FACT is that Dave Meltzer gave ZERO 5-star ratings to the WWE from WWE Badd Blood 1997 (Michaels vs. Undertaker) to WWE Money in the Bank 2011 (CM Punk vs. John Cena). Think about that… Lots of great Steve Austin, the Rock, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Chris Jericho (before June 2007, of course, but he’s in Dave’s Hall of Fame!!!), Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Edge, and Mick Foley matches YET none of their matches were awarded any 5-star matches. Sorry, but I find that completely hard to believe. Meanwhile, 2 guys could fart inside of a New Japan ring and easily get 5 stars.

He’s a joke because he refused to acknowledge many, many great WWE matches from 1997-2011, while going overboard on his love for New Japan and eventually AEW. Isn’t there a stat out there that shows Dave giving more 5-star+ matches to AEW than WWE and WCW combined? When you hear things like that, you should immediately disqualify Dave Meltzer’s opinions on professional wrestling. He’s a mark for the promotions he loves and that makes him an impaired journalist, if he’s even deserving of that title any longer.

I mean, seriously… Bloodline blows the doors off of everything during 2022, and Dave Meltzer’s newsletter awards Tony Khan as “Booker of the Year”, even though AEW’s viewership numbers dropped the second they destroyed CM Punk’s career there.

All I can say is look at the evidence out there regarding Dave Meltzer… The star ratings, the awards, who gets into his Hall of Fame, etc. Complete clown shoes.

—————

What are your thoughts on CM Punk’s recent actions?

In case you missed it, CM Punk took a shot at Adam “Hangman” Page after the recent AEW Collision went off the air. Now, the Observer Boyz are reporting that wrestlers are being refused from appearing on Collision thanks to CM Punk’s insistence.

Am I surprised? Nope… Things went nuclear last year and were NOT healed. Furthermore, AEW just re-signed Page, Omega, and the Bucks to reported 4 year deals. For the rest of Punk’s tenure, he has to deal with these leaky backstage politicians. With Punk having some creative power over Collision, he’s going to use that power to get any would-be Elite stooge off his show.

This isn’t healthy for a wrestling promotion, at all, and AEW is just lucky that Warner Bros. Discovery is desperate enough for live sports content that they’ll pay $50 million over the course of 2-3 years to air AEW Collision.

As I keep saying… WWE broke him and he’s been very angry and bitter ever since. He used to love the pro wrestling business and then stooges within the WWE and AEW ruined it for him.

—————

THE LAST WORD

So I was listening to Jim Ross‘s recent podcast with Conrad about Talent Relations and I was SHOCKED to hear that Ross almost joined TNA, presumably either during the late 2000s or early 2010s. Maybe even 2013-2016, when he wasn’t in the WWE? He had a great recruiting trip with the Carter family but it was Dixie Carter who apparently nixed the idea. Why? Because Jim Ross wanted FULL control over the TNA roster.

Paul Heyman had a similar interview with TNA during the late 2000s and almost joined but again, he wanted full control over the TNA roster, too.

Folks, TNA or now called Impact could have had Paul Heyman and Jim Ross and they blew both cases. Why? Because Dixie was too attached to many on the existing TNA roster to realize they were working her.

If either guy makes this leap, who knows how pro wrestling’s history would have changed.

Think about it this way… If Paul Heyman or Jim Ross were in TNA, someone like Seth Rollins could have joined them instead of joining the WWE. The roster is revamped, Bischoff, Hogan, and maybe even Russo are out leading to a whole different creative direction that could have worked (or not). If successful, TNA/Impact could get a better television deal and have much higher viewership.

That’s the funny thing about Pro Wrestling… So many moves tipped the scales, and so many pullbacks on big deals prevented something great from happening. Eric Bischoff having Jim Ross released handed the WWE one of the best backstage hands they could ever ask for and his unique for talent helped win the Monday Night War. Think about where Bischoff would be if he somehow kept Ross?

If Paul Heyman is successful in TNA, he’s not returning to the WWE with Brock Lesnar. Maybe he brings Lesnar to TNA in 2012 instead of the WWE? Kaboom!

Dixie Carter, you’re an idiot. Ross and Heyman could have saved your promotion, but you just couldn’t pull the trigger. What a shame.

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The post ASK TITO: Future of Bloodline in WWE, The Elite Re-Signs with AEW, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and More appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

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Coming off the heels of the WWE Hell in a Cell Pay Per View, I have one question… Did anybody really care about this show? By all accounts, the matches seemed to be well reviewed and the show as a whole seems to be receiving good marks… But did this match feature anything that will move the WWE needle along?

And the answer is “NO” because everyone knew that this was a throwaway Pay Per View. Why?

(a) Its #1 star, Roman Reigns, had his Hell in a Cell match moved to WWE Smackdown.
(b) Next month’s Pay Per View, Money in the Bank, will be the first Pay Per View with live fans in attendance.

However, we have known this for YEARS… The non-Big 4 Pay Per Views are usually throwaways… WWE tends to save their big title switches for those shows and if any title switches happen otherwise, they are purely transitional.

There is a real problem with these non-Big 4 shows and it’s not so much that they aren’t treated with the honor or prestige as the Big 4…

The problem is that the Pay Per View theme derives the type of matches needed, NOT the wrestlers or storylines.

Could everyone go back to the Fall of 1997… Why was the first “Hell in a Cell” match created at WWE Badd Blood 1997? Wasn’t it to ensure that the heel, Shawn Michaels, would be unable to escape the Undertaker in a brand new steel cage type developed for this Pay Per View? There was a REASON why this match happened and NOT because it was a particular month. In fact, the show was called “Badd Blood” and had nothing to do with cage matches until the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels feud brought it up.

THAT is the problem. “Because it is June (formerly October), we must wrestle in Cage matches”. When Money in the Bank soon arrives, we’ll be forced to wrestle in a dangerous Ladder match involving weapons and furniture. In December, that’s TLC month. Oh great, we’re back to wrestling with ladders, weapons, and furniture except this time, for no serious reason because there are no briefcases with World Title contracts in them. How about when “Extreme Rules” comes around as a Pay Per View? That will be the month where everyone gets EXTREME even though on most Pay Per Views, many of the matches are No Disqualification anyway.

Could you imagine this at your workplace? You’re in an office setting and an accountant. Suddenly, for the month of September, you’re allow to THROW your office equipment at your co-workers. Wouldn’t it be hilarious to walk into a meeting, only to get blasted in the head with a stapler? How about this? We’ll put extra amounts of WAX on the floor during the month of November. Oh well if you slip and break your hip, it’s November and that’s when we CHANGE YOUR WORKPLACE CONDITIONS because he happens to be that particular month.

Seriously, that is what these STUPID gimmick themed Pay Per Views are all about. They change the workplace hazards for 1 month and because of the Pay Per View theme, the wrestlers have to endure it and have ZERO SAY on how dangerous these matches could be to them. In my examples above, you could report the throwing of office equipment or extra waxed floors to safety commissions due to them being workplace hazards. In the WWE? Nope… You go out there and take those Kendo Sticks like a man (or woman). Go ahead and jump off that cage, as that crash pad will catch you *wink**wink*. Take that those chairshots. Even though we no longer use them for headshots, your ribs and spinal cord will be less forgiving. Getting thrown through tables are fun! We buy thinner tables and gimmick them to break more easily. Don’t worry, the floor will catch your fall.

Oh – I guess this is the difference between being an employee or an independent contractor?

I’ve hired many independent contractors in my day, such as plumbers or carpenters… Not once were they ever asking me to make my house dangerous for them to work in as they were fixing my pipes or redoing my roof. No, in fact, they carefully surveyed the landscape before performing work in my house in the beginning and asked many questions beforehand. Last thing that they wanted was to get hurt on the job… Wrestling in cages, using Kendo sticks, going through tables, hitting people with chairs to the ribs, or other dangerous things are not safe.

The heart of this matter is “because it is June, we wrestle in cages”. That has to be stopped. Fine, if you want to keep Money in the Bank as an event because there is at least a purpose, albeit a dumb one with how the MITB winner cashes in, then fine… Keep Money in the Bank. But why have an entire Pay Per View full of cages when there is ZERO heat between the wrestlers to perform in cage matches that month and fans actually don’t want to see a full Pay Per View with nothing but cage matches either. Seriously, who wants to stare at that period blood colored monstrosity of a catch for 3 hours? And yes, that comment was misogynistic. I said the same thing about the WWE Universal Title being red in color, too.

Could you imagine UFC having any goofy gimmick matches for any of their Pay Per Views, let alone being uniform in the gimmicks for each match of a particular month’s shows? Dana White would get laughed out of the building if he tried that.

I know what many wrestling fans will say… “That is what makes wrestling unique…”

Well, then how is this onslaught of gimmick and weapons matches doing for your lately? Business keeps declining… We’ve LOST over 2 million RAW viewers over the past 6 years and now we’re seriously pushing below 1.8 million viewers per show as the norm. For Smackdown, that show can only barely draw 2 million viewers itself despite being broadcasted and available to 115 million households. Tickets are FAILING to sell for the July and August RAW, Smackdown, and houseshows. That “pent up COVID demand” just isn’t there by wrestling fans after enduring the AWFUL 2020 year full of AWFUL gimmick and weapons matches!!!!!

Go back to that Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Hell in a Cell match at WWE In Your House – Badd Blood 1997. Aside from Michaels falling off the side of the cage, which had NEVER been done before, it was just an epic match that happened to be surrounded by a cage. THAT IS WHY IT IS GREAT. Then, fast forward to Undertaker vs. Mankind at WWE King of the Ring 1998. Why is that match so fondly remembered? Because what Mick Foley did in that match was REAL and damn near killed him. Both of those bumps were unexpected from everyone and 100% real and Foley has the scars and bodily damage to prove it. Fast forward to 2000… Does anybody remember that Hell in a Cell match that Foley had with Triple H? Not really… It was a decent match, but that “big bump” was clearly gimmicked. And that’s why all of today’s “big bumps” off of cages don’t work or are failing to be remembered years later.

People remember Michaels and Foley’s bumps, but they are NOT remembering recent bumps. I guess when there are CLEARLY Crash Pads below the area where the wrestler will safely land, it reduces the effect.

Now, am I advocating for Crash Pads to be taken away so that wrestlers can take REAL bumps? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matches should NOT have to be reliant on No Disqualification rules, Cages, Ladders/Tables/Chairs, Kendo Sticks, getting thrown through the Announcers’ Table, and other gimmicks to be great. These guys are FULLY TRAINED to deliver well executed matches. Why have wrestlers learn how to properly bump, use psychology, and work on their characters at the WWE Performance Center or NXT when all you need them to do is take bumps or weapons shots? Right now in Hollywood, there are plenty of Unemployed Stuntmen (and women) that you could hire if all you need is a big bump. Hell, there are Death Match wrestlers out there. Why not hire them? Why not pick up Nick Cage as a wrestler, as the WWE has never seen light bulbs used in a match.

We’re just getting ridiculous, WWE…

WWE Hell in a Cell used to be the October Pay Per View, just as Extreme Rules used to command June, July was for Money in the Bank, and TLC was in December. The idiotic impression that WWE gave fans was “well, it is October, time to force everyone to wrestle in a big cage match”. Just lame. You don’t just make your workplace conditions dangerous based on a terrible theme for a Pay Per View. I AM HOPING since Hell in a Cell no longer occupies that October spot that a BETTER Pay Per View name is possibly returning or SHOULD return.

For the older wrestling fans out there… Remember World Championship Wrestling (WCW)‘s Halloween Havoc? In fact, Eric Bischoff actually admitted to that show being his “Wrestlemania” in terms of big matches and storyline blowoffs compared to Starrcade. What was great about that show is that it occurred during October where Halloween legitimately happened. Wrestling fans could attend the event in costumes and it was a BIG PARTY. The costumes put fans in a great mood to cheer loudly throughout the shows and Halloween Havoc was always well received during that era (well, maybe not 1999).

And that’s what the WWE needs to focus on… Maybe they are emphasizing too many gimmicks inside the ring when they should be making it a FUN experience to the fans paying $40 or more outside of the ring. Halloween Havoc is obvious for October. Remember Great American Bash? Patriotic theme and the WWE had a few successful shows during the first half of the 2000s with as the theme. Proof positive! (Rehire Torrie Wilson to appear on its posters, too!) For the 1999 year, I always enjoyed the St. Valentine’s Day themed show. It was just something for an off-month of February to occur. Then, you have December… Sorry, but TLC needs to go. Why not create a brand new Christmas themed Pay Per View? “Christmas Bash”, “Holiday Havoc”, “Santa Slamboree”, or something like that. Make it a Christmas themed show… If that doesn’t work, just continue your great work providing shows in front of the Troops and make THAT the December Pay Per View.

Do something other than WATERING DOWN great gimmick matches such as Hell in a Cell, TLC, or other types of matches that are only needed when the confines of a regular match are exceeded. If a handful of regular matches don’t settle the score, then THAT is when you seek out a more violent match. Don’t do it because we’re on a certain month and that is the type of gimmick match that coincides with the Pay Per View theme. Furthermore, let’s REMOVE the No-Disqualification gimmick from Triple Threat and Fatal 4 Ways and force actual tags to happen again. We need “Legal Men” declared on those matches instead of the stupid bedlam rules which always has 1-2 participants acting like they have been knocked out on the outside anyway.

EVERYBODY knew that WWE Hell in a Cell was a “throwaway” Pay Per View. Now that the results are in, no major title changes happened and Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio was actually moved to Smackdown. Need any more proof than that? Why risk your wrestlers’ health and safety when you don’t need that poorly colored cage anyway? Cage or not, because that gimmick has been WATERED DOWN, you’ll receive the same amount of viewers whether a gimmick exists for the match or not. WWE Smackdown for June 18th, headlined by a Pay Per View match moved to Smackdown, barely scored above 2.0 million viewers as if it were a normal Smackdown. IF that Hell in a Cell gimmick + the allure of having a Pay Per View match moved to a regular show truly was a draw, we’d be well above 2.0 million viewers. Instead, we appeared as if it was “business as usual” despite the Cage gimmick and the luxury of seeing a Pay Per View early.

The SAD THING is that the WWE Creative Team, consisting of 40 writers reportedly, is so creatively bankrupt that they have become reliant on these gimmick matches to briefly “pop” the numbers. I’m sure that WWE’s reported staffing of 50 statisticians are suggesting that these gimmicks “draw” as well, even though the Creative Team has to pile on multiple gimmicks per Pay Per View show just to draw any interest. The FACT is that WWE Creative + Vince McMahon are NOT setting up their wrestlers to succeed in regular matches and thus have to put them in more dangerous style matches to grab the public’s brief attention.

This is just like the hair band W.A.S.P.‘s lead singer Blackie Lawless once trying place a fireworks shooting device on his crotch to impress fans at a live show. The end result of this device gave many 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The best part is his quote to this band afterwards: “If we wrote better songs, I wouldn’t have to try something like this!”

If this great staff of 40 WWE Creative Team writers + Vince McMahon had better Creative, then gimmick matches or gimmick match Pay Per Views wouldn’t be needed in excess. If WWE Developmental provided the WWE with better Main Event ready superstars over the past decade, then maybe WWE wouldn’t have to be so reliant on gimmick matches to cover up their inability to draw.

For the WWE’s reported team of 50 statisticians… The numbers don’t lie. It is a FACT that WWE has lost MORE THAN HALF of their North American audience since 2015. STUDY THAT, nerds! Study how these gimmick Pay Per Views aren’t drawing extra WWE Network subscribers but it’s someone performing in WRESTLING MATCHES, like a superstar named Brock Lesnar, that does.

But all of you Internet “fans” won’t hold the WWE accountable for its own stupidity like I do and thus the WWE will keep delivering CRAP to you. Crap is exactly what you deserve. I hope that you enjoy the Crap Sandwiches that Vince McMahon kindly delivers to you consistently while he easily steals your money.

I will give the WWE some credit, though… At least for last year’s WWE Extreme Rules 2020, they at least advertised that event correctly as the “Horror Show”… It is hard to see such honesty from the WWE these days!

So just chill… Until the next episode!

Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments.

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PAST MR. TITO – NoDQ COLUMNS / YouTube Videos

– 06/19/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – USA Network Upset at WWE?, Samoa Joe NXT Return, Eva Marie, LA Knight, Hell in a Cell Predictions, & More
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– 06/12/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE SummerSlam, Alexa Bliss, Bella Twins, AEW on Fridays, NXT Takeover Predictions, The Rock Returning?, and More
– 06/08/2021 – Reasons Why Braun Strowman Struggled in the WWE and Was Eventually Released
– 06/05/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Andrade and Mark Henry in AEW, Booker T’s Comments on Aleister Black, More on WWE Cuts, and More
– 06/03/2021 – Does the Recent WWE Releases (Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Lana, etc.) + Prior Firings = WWE for Sale?
– 06/02/2021 – The Top 5 Greatest Nintendo 64 Pro Wrestling Video Games
– 05/31/2021 YouTube Video – Unwrestled Mysteries: The Infamous Macho Man Randy Savage and Stephanie McMahon RUMOR
– 05/29/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE & New Japan, Ultimate Warrior Documentaries, John Cena/China, AEW Double or Nothing Predictions, More
– 05/25/2021 – WWE Creative Has Ruined Lives and Caused Unemployment for Many Wrestlers
– 05/22/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Zombies in WWE, Velveteen NXT Release, AEW Dynamite Television Changes, and More
– 05/18/2021 – Tony Khan’s Jacksonville Jaguars Signing Tim Tebow is Like AEW EVPs Signing Talent
– 05/15/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Zelina Vega Returns to WWE, Velveteen Dream, Miro Wins TNT Title, RIP New Jack, and More
– 05/11/2021 – Should AEW Dynamite Move to Monday Nights to Challenge WWE RAW?
– 05/08/2021 – YouTube Video: The Great Debate between Mr. Tito and Virtue – The Future of WWE with Roman Reigns, early AEW vs. Current AEW, and WWE Women’s Rankings
– 05/08/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Daniel Bryan, Mick Foley on WWE’s Women’s Wrestling, Eva Maria, and More
– 05/04/2021 – The Future of Roman Reigns in the WWE: Remain Heel or Return to Babyface?
– 04/27/2021: Without Tony Khan, Things Could Actually Be Worse in AEW
– 04/24/2021: Ask Mr. Tito – Mickie James and WWE Garbage Bags, CM Punk, Ronda Rousey’s Pregnancy, More
– 04/20/2021: How to Repair Seth Rollins’s WWE Character
– 04/17/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE Releases, Charlotte’s Return, Pat McAfee on Smackdown, NXT/AEW Viewership, & More
– 04/13/2021 – Celebrity Newcomers Should NOT Dominate Pro Wrestling Veterans in the Ring
– 04/11/2021Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Wrestlemania 37 Night #2 Review with Match Ratings and Show Grade
– 04/10/2021 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Wrestlemania 37 Night #1 Review with Match Ratings and Show Grade
– 04/10/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE’s Post Wrestlemania 37 Plans, Becky Lynch’s WWE Return, All-Time Wrestlemania Questions, More
– 04/07/2021 – Should Hulk Hogan Be a WWE Co-Host for Wrestlemania 37?
– 04/06/2021 – WWE Wrestlemania 37 Predictions – Who Should Win and Who Will Win?
– 04/03/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Chris Jericho on Steve Austin’s WWE Network Show, Hurt Business, and More
– 03/30/2021 – What if Rob Van Dam Wasn’t Suspended During 2006 in WWE?
– 03/27/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Peacock Censoring WWE, Daniel Bryan, More
– 03/24/2021 – Supernatural Stuff Has No Place in Pro Wrestling
– 03/22/2021 – Edge = Wrong WWE Veteran for Roman Reigns
– 03/20/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Cornette/Miro, WWE Fastlane, Bischoff, More
– 03/16/2021 – Triple H is the Ultimate WWE Yes Man
– 03/13/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – John Laurinaitis for WWE Talent Relations, More
– 03/09/2021 – Forget Christian in AEW, Where is CM Punk?
– 03/06/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – AEW Big Surprise, Shaq, Crockett, & More
– 03/03/2021 – Statistical Findings on AEW Dynamite’s Viewership
– 02/27/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Gina Carano in WWE?, Paul Wight/AEW, More
– 02/23/2021 – The Problem with the Miz as WWE Champion
– 02/20/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Lacey Evans & Ric Flair, Jim Ross, and More
– 02/16/2021 – How to Push Big E in the WWE
– 02/13/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Nia Jax, Sammy Guevara, Edge, and More
– 02/09/2021 – Are WWE Wrestlers Softer Now than Before?
– 02/06/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Follow-up on HHH, Bianca Belair, Lars, and More
– 02/02/2021 – Triple H’s Incompetence Helped Edge Win Rumble
– 01/31/2021 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Royal Rumble 2021 Review
– 01/30/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Ronda Rousey, WWE Rumble Surprises, More
– 01/26/2021 – WWE Network, NBCU’s Peakcock, and YOU
– 01/25/2021 – What Makes the WWE Royal Rumble Great
– 01/23/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Bryan/Nakamura, USA Network & WWE, More
– 01/20/2021 – What is Wrong with Being a WWE Cruiserweight?
– 01/16/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Chris Jericho, Roman vs. Owens, More
– 01/13/2021 – How the WWE Can Use Nostalgia to Grow Again
– 01/09/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Donald Trump & WWE Hall of Fame, More
– 01/06/2021 – The TRUTH About New Japan Pro Wrestling
– 01/02/2021 – Ask Mr. Tito – Brodie Lee/AEW, Luke Harper/WWE, More
– 12/31/2020 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT 2021 Wrestling Predictions
– 12/26/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE Creative, Slammys, Rousey, More
– 12/25/2020 – My 2020 Awards & Wishlist for 2021
– 12/21/2020 – For 2021, the WWE Should REDUCE Ticket Prices
– 12/19/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE/USA Network, TLC Predictions, More
– 12/18/2020 – WWE Should Bring Back Jim Ross
– 12/15/2020 – Is Kenny Omega a Draw to Wrestling Fans?
– 12/11/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – AEW/Impact, Sting, 2021 WWE Rumble, More
– 12/08/2020 – Why Do Fans Hate Chris Jericho Now?
– 12/03/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Sting, Patterson, AEW/Impact, and More
– 12/01/2020 – In Defense of WWE’s Vince McMahon…
– 11/28/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Lana & Nia Jax, Undertaker, and More
– 11/26/2020 (Thanksgiving) – Top WWE Survivor Series Moments
– 11/24/2020 – WWE and Wrestlers Need Better Marketing
– 11/22/2020 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Survivor Series 2020 Review
– 11/21/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Kenny Omega Hall of Fame?, Zelina Vega, and More
– 11/19/2020 – Can Zelina Vega Survive as a Twitch Streamer?
– 11/14/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Zelina Vega’s WWE Release, Bellas, More
– 11/11/2020 – How to FIX Brandi Rhodes in AEW
– 11/6/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Sting in AEW?, Full Gear Predictions, and More
– 11/2/2020 – The POSITIVES in Pro Wrestling Right Now
– 10/30/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Jericho, Hager, WWE 3Q Financials, and More
– 10/28/2020 – 1998 = Peak of Wrestling and American Politics
– 10/25/2020 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Hell in a Cell 2020 Review
– 10/24/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Jericho/MJF, WWE Hell in a Cell Predictions, More
– 10/21/2020 – Wrestling Fans and COVID-19
– 10/17/2020 – YouTube Video: The Great Debate between Mr. Tito and Virtue – Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt/Fiend, and Vince Russo vs. Paul Heyman
– 10/17/2020 – WWE Draft, Roman’s Submission Hold, and More
– 10/14/2020 – Good, Bad, & Ugly of the WWE Draft
– 10/9/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – WWE Draft, Retribution, Cody/TNT, More
– 10/7/2020 – AEW and NBA Gambling on 18-49 Demo
– 10/3/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – The Rock’s Politics, Roman Reigns, and More
– 9/29/2020 – WWE Needs to Appreciate Paul Heyman
– 9/26/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Road Warrior Animal, Retribution, and More
– 9/23/2020 – The Rock and John Cena Returning to the WWE?
– 9/19/2020 – WWE 2K Battlegrounds Video Game Review
– 9/16/2020 – My Job Application to Join WWE Creative
– 9/12/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Miro in AEW, Tessa Blanchard, More
– 9/8/2020 – Time for AEW To GROW UP
– 9/5/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Sasha/Bayley, Jey Uso, and More
– 9/1/2020 – The Value of Brock Lesnar to the WWE
– 8/30/2020 – WWE Payback Review & Roman Reigns
– 8/29/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Roman Reigns & Paul Heyman, More
– 8/26/2020 – Who Wants to be the Next WWE Main Eventer?
– 8/23/2020 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE SummerSlam 2020 Review
– 8/22/2020 – Mr. Tito’s PHAT NXT Takeover XXX Review
– 8/22/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Rene Young, WWE Thunderdome, and More
– 8/18/2020 – Maybe WWE Has a Triple H Problem?
– 8/15/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Randy Orton/Ric Flair, Dixie Carter, Kamala, Pat McAfee, and More
– 8/13/2020 – YouTube Video: What’s Wrong with Wrestling – Foreign Objects
– 8/11/2020 – Does AEW have an EVP Problem?
– 8/9/2020 – YouTube Video: The Positives in Pro Wrestling for 2020
– 8/8/2020 – Ask Mr. Tito – Adam Cole vs. Pat McAfee, Rock vs. Daniel Bryan?, Blood in AEW, and Much More
– 8/4/2020 – WWE is an Unorganized Hot Mess
– 8/1/2020 – WWE and AEW Blew It with COVID-19

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