Welcome to another edition of Pain Tolerance. Tonight’s column will include thoughts on WCW’s situation, the women of WCW, WCW’s Hard Core and Cruiserweight divisions, TV title, wrestling theme songs, D-Lo Brown as the pimping side kick, and to finish this column off The Failed Gimmick of the Week. 

I’ve decided that it’s too easy to insult WCW right now. Actually even bring them up in a semi-positive note is pleasing to them. But I’ve decided from now on that I will only concentrate on the positive or good things that come out of WCW. However one last thing I have to say on the bad part of WCW is we can call complain, we can all try and flood them with email or phone a feedback line or write letters, but nothing will be settled. The reason is to fix a problem you have to realize that you have a problem to begin with. In WCW’s case it doesn’t seem like they notice.  Another interesting thing I found while lookinmg back at and old RAW magazine I have (January/Febraruy 1997), a transcript of Vince McMahon on AOL is shown. One of the questions was ‘Why have you been losing all your good wrestlers? And what are you going to do about it? McMahon’s response was large, but the part that caught my eye was "all our superstars are now under long-term contracts. This will prevent Ted Turner from this practice. Ted can now concentrate on attempting to make his own stars... something he has never been able to do before." 

Three years after that quote was made and it still fits. McMahon locking up his talent in long term contracts didn’t hurt WCW at first. WCW had all the new talent from the WWF and were riding high with the nWo. Three years later, the same stars are on top. Nothing has changed except a lot of talent has left. In the second part of that quote, Turner not being able to create his own talent is still true to this day. Who has he created that really rose to the top? Goldberg is the only one. Mind you a lot of people would state that Goldberg is just a imitation of Austin.

If I’ve got a question for you all... Who would you like to see do battle for the WCW Heavyweight title. Since I doubt many people are interested in Hall/Jarrett/Sid. The two wrestlers you choose MUST be a part of the active WCW roster. If I get enough feedback, I’ll even forward it to WCW.com, maybe it will do some good. Anyway choose two wrestlers and send it to [email protected]

WCW has some great women apart of the roster right now. It’s a shame they don’t know how to use them correctly. The only one they are using halfway right is Torrie Wilson. But they need to get her more involved in the matches. Get her involved in a story line. Paisely right now is with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea, I’m really liking this character and his entourage, but he lacks aggressiveness and she lacks direction. It seems she just comes out watches the match and then comes in to the ring, crawls over to him and there that’s her done for the night. Let’s get some QUALITY vignettes going with some depth to her character. The Maestro has the Artist Formerly Known as Ryan Shamrock, Symphony. I really don’t like her paired up with him. She would be much better suited for a role alongside the gothic Vampiro. Like I said before, I would like to see Vampiro/Symphony Vs. Kidman/Torrie Wilson. Ninety percent of the fans don’t care whether the women can wrestle or not. It would probably garner better ratings than any rematch between Hogan and Flair. Dafney is the only female in WCW I’m actually totally pleased with. Her character is unique and it’s fresh which is a good thing for WCW. Spice who was last seen with Madusa should now be teamed up with a guy like Kid Romeo. The guy can work, he even has enthusiasm. He just needs that little push to get over majorly with the crowd, and I think with Spice as his valet that would certainly help. One question I have with Ms. Hancock is, did they ever really tell us her role? I would personally really like to see Ms. Hancock repackaged into a Britney Spears type figure and then put together with 3 Count. They could pipe in a new song for her and put if off as if she’s a teen sensation. 

The WCW Hard Core division has a great champion now. Bam Bam Bigelow really can put on a show in this division. All he needs is competition. The Finlay/Knobbs feud is just too much story line driven. Norman Smiley may be funny but he really brought this division down. If Kanyon stuck around WCW, they should get him into the mix. The Wall wouldn’t actually be bad in this either, nor would Jerry Flynn. In the Cruiser weight division we’re set to see a new champion. It will either be Lash Leroux or The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea. Whoopie. These two should be competing for the TV title. The Cruiser title should be put around Kid Romeo, and more predominately shown on all three shows Nitro, Thunder and Saturday Night.

On WCW Saturday Night this week, Jim Duggan stated he found the TV title and that he is the new champion. He then defended it against Robert Gibson. Why not just  make a Senior’s title for all these old guys with egos thinking they still can give it a go? Leave the dominate titles to the real deals, the young. There won’t be any thing left of WCW in the future if they keep up this tirade with the old fogies running the show. I was a Duggan fan when I was seven. Nearly ten years later and he’s STILL AROUND. Doing basically the same gimmick and match. 

Another thing that WCW could certainly use is a solid mixture of theme songs. I don’t know who is doing them right now for the company, but they aren’t doing a good job. The whole point of theme music, is so that the fans can know who is coming out exactly as the music starts up. When you hear the glass shatter you know it’s Austin. When you hear "If ya smell what the Rock is cooking" you know it’s the Rock. If you hear "You think you know me", it’s Edge and Christian. If you hear the toll of the bell and the lights are out it’s Undertaker. If you hear "Is this thing on" you know it’s Triple H. Half the time in WCW the crowd is left to wonder who it really is, until they actually see the wrestler. The only music that really sticks out in my mind in WCW is Ric Flair’s, and the nWo’s. Hulk Hogan’s American Made as well. The rest are often re-used music themes that no one remembers.  Something as small as a wrestling theme song, is very important. If a viewer at home hears a certain theme they know, they will often stay tuned to see what will happen. When they hear some odd put together piece, they’re going to most of the time click over to the competition. ECW on the other hand, has taken it to purchasing the rights to some of the more popular songs written by well known artists. Metallica with Enter Sandman. Highway to Hell for Spike Dudley and Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys for Nova.

There is a lot of talk about wasted talents in WCW. But one that really bothers me in the WWF is D-Lo Brown. Sticking him with the Godfather? What the hell is up with that?! The Godfather is a character suited for an idiot that can’t get over on his own. Anyone could go out there rub shoulders with a bunch of women and shout out a bunch of lines each night. However when the Godfather actually wrestles, the fans either zone out or chant for the ho’s. D-Lo Brown is a very gifted athlete that is so much more than an idiot in a yellow hat with a red feather sticking out of it. He can actually impress the crowd with his maneuvers. He’s been one of the most noticeable WWF wrestlers that has been held down or held back. I don’t know if it’s accidental or not, but he really has gotten no where in the WWF. 

The Failed Gimmick is..... I could say D-Lo Brown as a pimp. But I really just discussed that. Nothing in WCW really sticks out to be that terrible except Hogan, but he’s always bringing down the show’s quality. 

That’s all for this issue of Pain Tolerance. Hope you enjoyed the read, and see you back Monday before RAW and Nitro.