Now, on to the column, today’s will be a relatively small one, since there isn’t much happening right now in the world of wrestling. However, the topics that will be discussed are, Wrestling’s over saturation  of the past year, the recent over flow of wrestler’s biographies, WCW’s latest bookings, and to wrap it up, the failed gimmick of the week.

First, the over saturation of wrestling today is really ruining the shows. Fans on the internet groan about the big 2, more specifically the WWF, about their recent "bore fest", or stale atmosphere as of late. Well it’s apparent that the add on of Smackdown, is catching up to the WWF’s scheduling. Rewind, back to early 1995 and beyond. There were only the classic four pay-per-views, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and finally Survivor Series. The WWF was able to space out their story lines, and focus more on the character and angle development. The fans were more laid back, and watched intently on, as the story line unfolded, slowly each week on Superstars, and then later RAW. Then, the World Wrestling Federation, got greedy and unveiled their monthly pay-per-views, titled In Your House. These would be more mini pay-per-views, to continue to build up, and put more emphasis on the classic four of the company. Now, fast forward to 1999. The first year that the "In Your House" pay-per-views, were pushed up a few notches, to the popularity of the original four. Now, instead of the classic four, it’s the over saturated twelve. Now, that we have 12 pay-per-views a year, two main stream television shows (Monday Night RAW and Smackdown!), with a side bar show (Sunday Night Heat), and two crap-fest shows, Jakked and Metal, there is too much damn wrestling. With Russo and Ferrera long gone, McMahon has to book his own shows now, which can be time consuming and quite stressful, but even more, it leaves him, with more shows than story lines, however there are the hungry fans that wanted to be entertained every show. Nearly every where I go on the internet, I see "The WWF has become boring, Stephanie and Triple H running the show again?! God when will they get something fresh out there that will entertain me, I’m so bored watching the WWF." I’m sure a lot of you have seen that two, well it’s simple. Vince is trying to play out a story line, a bit longer than, done in the past year or so, and the fans of today, aren’t the same fans, way back in the early 90’s that tuned in for the classic four, and the only WWF show, Superstars. WCW is just as bad for that, but their problem isn’t putting out story lines, it’s what can we do to keep the fans interested? Everyone was paranoid when Smackdown first came on the air, but after a few weeks, loved it, as it was more wrestling each week, well now it seems that the extra two hours a week are catching up on the WWF. 

Moving on, what is up with all these wrestlers putting out there auto-biographies (Written by them), and in most cases, plain biographies (Written by an author, a third person, a ghost writer.) Mick Foley, his was written by him, and it’s just so damn good. Since he is going to hang em up soon, it’s appropriate for his biography to come out around this time. The Dynamite Kid’s, I haven’t heard much about it, except the controversy over a story he tells in it, where him, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Junk Yard Dog, are in a hotel room, and without naming names, one of them tries it. That lit a fire under Bret Hart, as he really showed his true morals and integrity, stating Tom Billington, must of broken a few things more than just his back, referring to his brain. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this book, as I grew up watching the British Bulldogs, which Dynamite was a part of, and would love to hear his stories of Japan, the WWF, Calgary Stampede, among other things. Then, we have the Great One, The Rock, putting out a BIOGRAPHY. Therefore, it’s not even written by him. I read a preview of the book at Slam! Wrestling today, which stated, parts of the book were interesting, details of his childhood and wanting to out do others, but then Slam!, stated that the book goes into Rock mode, and he stays in character, while detailing his WWF career. I was actually considering, to pick up a copy of this, but not now. I can just imagine, the millions and millions of the Rock’s fans flocking to their near by book stores, to buy this book (assuming 11 year olds can read Big W-o-r-d-s.), opening it up to read, to only find out that it’s 10 pounds of monkey crap, in a 5 pound hard cover. Next up, Diamond Dallas Page. I actually wouldn’t mind reading his, except it’s again, just a biography, and not written by him. Biographies are sometimes great, but nothing’s better then reading a story, right from the source. You can capture the true emotion as it happened, and how he feels today, about the incident. Third person biographies, are often dry, and not compelling at all, due to the fact that the third person author, wasn’t there when the story happened, and usually don’t capture the appropriate atmosphere for the reader. 

Now, rumors on the internet are that the WWF is setting up a series of biographies? What the hell? If that wasn’t a desperate attempt at making money, I don’t know what is. A wrestler’s biography should be released, when the time is right, and when their story is complete. The Rock’s really hasn’t even started yet, as he’s only twenty-seven, or twenty-eight, been in the WWF for only three years or so, but only hit the big time the past year or so. To me, it’s just, "The time’s right, to cash in on his popularity", and with regret, I believe most fans will be disappointed. 

I’m not really going to get in deep on this subject, I’ll save it for another time, but is Russo and Ferrera, back pedaling or what? I think the two of them got caught so far up on their build up from the internet community, that they really believed, they could walk across fire, part the seas, and in their case, bring WCW to number one again. They state they had an nWo Vs. Goldberg program set up, but since Goldberg is out, they are using that as their excuse for the less than stellar ratings. Firstly, the ratings don’t mean very much at all. WCW is still in the profit margin. Yes their profits have gone down CONSIDERABLLY, but they are a lot better off than ECW, and other federations. Now with WCW, cutting down on the Nitro airing, to 8pm to 10pm EST, the ratings will be even more useless. Both companies will be bring in impressive ratings, since they both have an hour to themselves. What will be interesting is, WCW has never done extremely well, even without the competition. During the 8pm hour, they usually pull in low 4’s, which is even lower then the WWF’s ratings which are head to head. Does that tell you something? The WWF’s fans seem to be very loyal. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what WCW can pull in tonight.

Almost done this week’s column. One last thing to do. The Failed Gimmick of the Week is…. Through hell, fire and brimstone… KANE. This stupid love angle with Tori, is just a waste of time. Kane was actually looking good, and in line for a title program, but then, what do they do? Stick the big red retard with Tori. I really don’t see where they are going with this. Tori is man-a-phobic, yet she loves Kane. Kane is basically kissing his title aspirations good bye, as he plays out this worthless thing. It was great to finally see him end the Xpac feud, now they got him in one with nay guy that touches or looks at Tori the wrong way? Please tell me this thing has some meaning, or is going to transpire into something worth while…

That’s all for today. A bit short then usual, sorry but their just isn’t much news from this past week, dueto the Christmas holidays and now the new year. I have been thinking of expanding Pain Tolerance to a few days a week, maybe two or three, if you would like to see more Pain Tolerances per week, drop me a line and let me know how you feel. 

Thanks, and don’t forget to check out the Temple of Insanity, at http://insanewrestle.cjb.net