Welcome to another edition of Pain Tolerance. I don’t know about you but when I look outside I see white. We had ANOTHER snow fall last night, not as bad as before but certainly a let down when you would think Spring Break meant hot weather with a light blue sky covered with white patches of clouds. Not in Canada eh?

So the WWF is pursuing other options with their television deal. Almost the entire internet crowd believes that the WWF television shows are signed, sealed and delivered to CBS and more specifically TNN. If this does go through, it will be considered the WWF striking gold. Not only will they get their usual hours on TNN but they will probably get cross promotional deals with CBS shows. Also this means that CBS would probably air the XFL games, instant success right there. However where does this leave ECW? People are saying that they would probably be dumped and would likely pursue a deal with the WWF’s former television base, the USA Network. There’s an interesting twist to all this. To use a phrase from ECW’s Raven, "What about me? What about Canada?". In Canada we don’t get the USA Network. We get RAW from TSN who usually pre-empts it and even edits some things out, we get Livewire and Sunday Night Heat from CTV Sportsnet, Jakked from CHCH and most Canadians don’t even get Smackdown. So if this does happen, what will come of ECW’s Canada invasion that they have slowly been planning? What will happen to the partnerships between CTV Sportsnet, TSN and CHCH with the WWF? Will TNN air all four of the WWF shows? Will Smackdown stay on UPN? If TNN picks up RAW and airs it live, what’s the sense of having the same show on TSN? Would WWF switch RAW with Smackdown on TSN? I’m actually pulling for the WWF to sign with CBS/TNN, that way Canada could actually see the shows live as well. However, what happens to ECW? There is talk that USA would pick them up and have them fill the gap in the Monday night slot. But would ECW go to two hours and fill the RAW slot or just go with the usual hour. How interesting it would be to see the top three promotions go at it at the same time. Would the extra wrestling show, ECW take ratings away from the WWF or would their presence go unnoticed in the ratings, would they take from WCW or not? So for all of you readers who are thinking that this WWF television conflict is jumbled up enough in the United States, just look over the border to the Great White North and you’ll really see confusion. Another thing that is possible, if WWF did sign with CBS/TNN and took RAW of TSN or switched RAW with Smackdown, would WCW move up in the listings? Right now Canadian WCW fans can only watch Nitro on Tuesday nights/Wednesday Mornings at 12 midnight. Would TSN move them up to the Monday night slot that the WWF used to have? That could REALLY help WCW’s presence in Canada.

I’m sure most of you missed this week’s WCW Saturday Night. If you did, you really did miss a great show. The card was solid with the best match probably being Kidman taking on the Artist for this Cruiserweight title. The match ended in DQ after the Artist grabbed his title and clocked Kidman with it for the Disqualification. They went to brake and upon returning from the break we were treated to a cat fight between Torrie Wilson and Paisley. This lead to an inter-gender match up, that will occur next Saturday, Torrie and Kidman versus Paisely and the Artist. Should be quite interesting. The worst match was probably the three way tag team match. The Mamalukes versus The Armstrong Brothers versus PG13. The wrestlers looked very unsure of what to do and quite uncoordinated. However the ending was nice. As the members of PG13 and the Armstrong’s brawled to the outside one of the PG members remained in the ring and got hit with the spinning DDT from Big Vito followed by a nice leg drop off the top rope from Johnny the Bull. Don’t form an opinion about the show until you’ve actually seen it. It may be young talent but they really can work. If your expecting the flashing lights and pretty pyros then this show isn’t for you. The set design is pretty basic but with the enthusiastic work from these young guy, it makes up for it.

Living Dangerously is set to air within only a couple hours and the card is pretty much set. This past Friday was the first time I watched ECW on TNN since nearly mid-February. The show was all right but again the commercials ruined the show. I thought I’d site down and give the show a try, not even 2 minutes into the show and they already go for a break. ECW’s style does not fit television. With the commercials interrupting nearly seven minutes and ECW wanting to have each match go for fifteen plus minutes, you just can’t get into a match. A lot of criticism goes to the WWF for their two minute matches. But really they are just fitting the time slots. Would you like to see The Rock versus Triple H for half an hour, with commercials every seven minutes? Everyone would be on the internet the next day saying the WWF doesn’t know how to book a match, meanwhile in a quick five minute main event you see non stop action with no rest holds. Yes some of the WWF roster sucks and most of the ECW roster has a solid work rate, but plain and simple what company is earning the bigger buck and getting the higher ratings? A lot of people state that ECW’s wrestling is great, sure you like it but when the rating rolls in their only getting 1.0 - 1.3’s. That BARELY one million people I believe. The WWF pulls in anywhere from a 5.5 - 7.0. Obviously a lot more people prefer WWF over ECW.

That’s all for today, smaller column than usually but I’ll have the usual packed column tomorrow, Monday, before RAW and Nitro. Thanks and have a good night of wrestling.