Welcome to another edition of Pain Tolerance. My ISP was down for nearly a week and a half there (great customer satisfaction, huh?) so I was unable to write a column. Last time I wrote, I had an ongoing WCW poll of who you, the readers would like to see wrestling for the WCW Heavyweight title if you could book the match. I had an overwhelming response, but unfortunately if you emailed me any of your choices last week (February 26 - March 4) your vote wasn’t counted, since I my mail server wasn’t up. I will give the results that I have, out later in the column and I’m going to be forwarding the results to WCW through their feedback email address on WCW.com, let’s hope it opens their eyes a little. 

Well since I haven’t had a chance to comment on WWF No Way Out yet, I’d like to take the opportunity to just give a quick run down of thoughts and opinions I had while watching and after the card. 

I like Kurt Angle’s character, and his three "I"’s speech and degrading the crowd is sometimes hilarious, and I appreciate his hard work ethic in the ring and how smoothly he can wrestle. However I just don’t feel he should of been the next WWF Intercontinental champion. Look how long it took Chris Jericho to get the title a good four months before he even got into the mix of the belts. Kurt Angle has been around since late November I believe, but he’s never been pushed that far until recently. The latest occurrence really hasn’t made sense. They brought Tazz in to face him at Royal Rumble, only to be choked out via the Taz Mission, one month later he’s wrestling Jericho for the number two title in the federation. The Tazz feud had no ending at all. Hopefully they can strengthen the Kurt Angle character some more, so that he’s a viable champion. 

Nothing special in the Dudley Boyz/New Age Outlaws match up. The New Age Outlaws are just totally unorganized, the duo has run it’s course. They just haven’t been fun to watch as of late, and Road Dogg’s catch phrases are as annoying as hell. Good to see the Dudley’s pick up the tag straps here, as they’ve earned them, working harder than ever since they came to the big lake, the World Wrestling Federation.

Mark Henry taking on Viscera? On a pay-per-view?! Dumb match to begin with. It’s nice to see two big men like Kane and Undertaker wrestle, or brawl. But it’s another thing to see two out of shape four hundred pounder’s wobble around a ring for ten minutes. Completely boring.

The number one contender’s match for the tag titles between the Hardy’s and Edge/Christian was another fine match, but I have to admit I’ve getting tired of seeing these four against each other. It’s been nearly six months since the famous Tag Team Ladder match, and these four are still working the under card against each other? Christian and Edge are long over due a break up, and the Hardy’s are due a tag title run. The Dudley’s jut got the titles so you know the WWF is going to allow their first run, run awhile but I think the Hardy’s are deserving the straps at least for a couple weeks.

Tazz getting beaten repeatedly by Bossman and Prince Albert, wow how entertaining. When I saw Tazz continuing to move, I was about to throw the remote control at the TV it was so damn annoying, and a blatant time waster. Personally I haven’t seen anything worth the attention to watch, out of Tazz. If he’s going to be stuck in a life long feud with Bossman, of all people then fire him and let him go back to ECW. I do not care what anyone says, or how many emails I receive, Prince Albert, Bossman, the Bulldog, Viscera and Mark Henry are all wasted time, and should be dropped. The WWF roster is jam packed with talent right now, the most it has probably ever been, and we STILL have to be treated to a boring Bossman promo, or match?!

Xpac going over Kane? Why is the WWF so set on running this feud into the ground. Let Kane win, raise the flags and fire the damn cannons because these two just don’t match up together.

Too Cool defeating the Radicals, a little surprising since this was the first pay-per-view for the Radicals. Show’s you anyone will job at any time in the WWF. 

I was surprised that the Big Show actually beat the Rock, even if it was by a screw job ending.  When I saw the Big Show get the win, I began thinking of rumors I had heard, around this time last year when we heard the Big Show was promised to be apart of the main event for Wrestlemania 16 (2000). Now a year later, we’re "scheduled" for a Big Show Versus Triple H main event. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Rock thrown into the mix, or even Vince McMahon returning and making The Rock the "special guest" referee for the main event. 

The Hell in the Cell match was amazing. Many people were "disappointed" by the fall Foley took holding on from the side of the cage crashing down into one of the tables.  To them, I have to say for a guy that gave us nearly four hard years of blood, broken bones, lost teeth and even tears. It’s quite all right if Foley only fell from half the cell and then even did the back body drop through the cage. When Mick Foley went through the top of the cage and then was pedigreed by Triple H, I didn’t hear Jim Ross, I didn’t hear Jerry Lawler, I didn’t hear the fans, all I heard in my mind was Green Day’s "Time of Your Life". The lyrics really explain the career of Mick Foley. I would have preferred that song to have been played while the WWF’s tribute to Foley played during RAW, the night after.

Well the WWF steam rolled into the Great White North this past weekend. The first stop was in the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I was in attendance and must say I enjoyed myself, but the majority of the matches pretty much sucked. The wrestling really wasn’t the focused attraction. The Rock cut a twenty minute promo at the end, and there were no title changes, big surprise. Worst of all, the merchandise was terrible. All they were selling was "Lay the Smackdown on your Candy Ass", "Finally the Rock has come back to Toronto", "Are you Ready DX", "Test This", "Sharper than an Edge" and "Not for the Innocent, Triple H". Pretty much crap. I wouldn’t have minded a Triple H shirt, but they were sold out in my section by the time I got around to looking. No Tazz, Hardy Boys or Dudley shirts. Worst off the prices of the shirts were $30 Canadian. How much more can they charge?! I remember when the shirts were, $15, then they raised it to $20, then they raised it to $25 and it stayed for the longest time, until they raised it even more, $30. Damn, a quality Nike or Adidas shirt doesn’t cost that much, yet people are paying $30 for a Fruit of the Loom, shirt with a WWF logo on it?!

What is with wrestlers, and autobiographies? Mick Foley released his, it was obvious he was getting ready to retire soon so it was appropriate. Then The Rock, Diamond Dallas Page and The Dynamite Kid (Tom Billington) came out with their books. Now we have Chyna releasing hers in late May, and SURPRISE SURPRISE, Rena Mero the plastic Barbie who formerly played Sable is releasing her book titled "Undefeated". An auto-biography should be a recap of a person’s life in fame, the Rock is still growing, and on top of that is only twenty seven, I believe. What does he have, that could possibly fill a book? Besides catch phrases? 

Okay time for the WCW Heavyweight championship poll. Just to remind you, the question was "Who would you have wrestle for the WCW Heavyweight title?" Only on rule applied, they had to be active on the WCW roster. I received 567 votes, but so many of you chose different matches that many of them did not make it to the top ten. However, here are the top ten matches with the amount of votes per match. Out of the top ten matches there are 491 votes. So 76 emails did not make it due to the fact that they chose "unpopular" matches, majority rules. 

Here are the top ten matches, chosen by you, the readers. 
1. Kidman Vs. Jeff Jarrett  - 88 votes
2. Vampiro Vs. Crowbar - 69 votes
3. Booker T Vs. Big Poppa Pump - 64 votes
4. Buff Bagwell Vs. Vampiro - 63 votes
5. Booker T Vs. Norman Smiley - 62 votes
6. Sting Vs. Vampiro - 46 votes
7. Goldberg and Tank Abbott - 44 votes
8. Norman Smiley Vs. Goldberg - 27 votes (Disqualified - Goldberg is injured)
9. Tank Abbott Vs. Buff Bagwell - 17 votes
10. Kevin Nash Vs. Lex Luger - 11 votes (Disqualified - Nash is injured)

That’s all for reading tonight, I’ll be back this Thursday with another Pain Tolerance column. Just a note for all you loyal readers. The one year anniversary for Pain Tolerance is coming up, I wrote my first column April 11, 1999. Only about a month to it, and nearly 45 columns written. Enjoy your night of Wrestling, and I’ll see you all again.