The Wrestling Report

Ed De La Garza

Yes, even the WWF can come up with useless angles. Case in point: As bad as the Terri Runnells/D-Lo Brown bit is, having the Undertaker come out and talk for what seemed like an hour was the momentum breaker that made you appreciate Hogan.

‘Taker came out dressed like a giant Druid and proceeded to "sacrifice" former Godwinn Dennis Knight. The funny part was that though Knight was supposed to be in a comatose state, he had no trouble walking out to get on the altar and then walking backstage once he joined the ranks of the "undead". Nice sell.

‘Taker is huge. ‘Taker is a decent wrestler. ‘Taker has a good gimmick. ‘Taker, however, cannot work the mic. Even Kane can do a better interview. Please, Vince. Whatever you do, don’t let the "Phenom" come out with a microphone and force us all to join the ranks of the undead. I thought I was watching Nitro.

Speaking of which, let’s take a moment to review last week’s events. WCW’s deal with NBC would not have been signed without Hogan’s involvement. Booking an angle in which Hogan got the belt back was the only way Nash could have the spotlight for as brief a time as he did. The Wolfpac’s popularity was growing to a level which threatened to kill Hogan’s heat, face or heel. He was never going to retire. If you believed for a minute he was being serious then you didn’t read the Nov. 25 edition of The Daily Cougar.

You can almost justify Nash laying down at the literal drop of a finger. He had to. That’s why WCW sucks and will continue to suck so long as they make all decisions based on how they will affect Mr. Bollea.

Stop kissing his ass, use and promote the talent you have, stop booking pay-per-views which are no better than Nitro and let at least some matches end cleanly. Do this and maybe, just maybe, WCW can regain what was lost over the past year.

Keeping with the WCW theme, let’s run through a quick preview of Souled Out (Sunday, 7 p.m., ppv). Ric and David Flair will team up against Curt Hennig and Barry Windham. The rumor going around now is that David will turn on his father.

Other matches include Scott Hall vs. Goldberg in a gimmick match. A taser will be left hanging over the ring. First one to reach it gets to use it on his opponent. Also on the card is a tournament for the tag team titles. Since this a WCW event, I’ll be damned if I pick the outcomes here.

In the WWF, the build-up for the Royal Rumble continues with Monday’s transpirings. Chyna will be the 30th wrestler entered in this over-the-top-rope elimination match. Austin is still first in and McMahon is still the second. Mick Foley will defend his WWF world title against The Rock in an "I quit" match. Jim Ross will hopefully be back by Jan. 24 to put Michael Cole out of his misery.

Eddy Guerrero’s accident was more severe than reported earlier. Thrown out of his car, he would have been killed had he been wearing his seatbelt. Guerrero will be out for another four to six months. Konnan looks to be the odds-on-favorite to replace Eddy as leader of the Latin World Order. That’s if the stable is allowed to remain.

Tony Schiavone giving away RAW results actually had no, if not a negative effect on WCW. Combined, the two shows pulled over an 11.0 rating, and that’s with the Tennessee vs. Florida State NCAA championship game on free TV.

I’d like to close this edition with the biggest piece of news you’ll ever hear. I finally made it onto RAW. If you taped it, I’m the guy behind the sign next to the Steve Austin look-alike.