Welcome back to another edition of Pain Tolerance. March Break is over here in Canada. Back to hell on earth, also known as school. 

Quite a bit to talk about since I last wrote. One of the biggest things that has happened is the Vince McMahon return and him announcing a triple threat for the WWF title, with a McMahon in each corner. Seeing Vince back was exciting, but I don’t really have an opinion on it. We’ve been told forever that he’ll return. Royal Rumble, the RAW in Madison Square Gardens, No Way Out etc. Hoping that he would show up each show, I guess sucked the excitement out of it. Only question I have is, there’s still one corner of the ring that will be empty come Wrestlemania 2000. Will Linda McMahon be in that fourth corner and if she does happen to be will she be rooting for a fourth member of the main event? A triple threat for the title just doesn’t seem appropriate for a Wrestlemania Main Event. The main event should be solid match between two wrestlers. A match of the year candidate. 1996 we had one of the best matches ever with Bret Hart dropping his WWF title to the up and coming Shawn Michaels. 1997 we had a decent match up between the Undertaker and "Psycho" Sid. That’s one thing I found funny about Sid. In the WWF he was Psycho Sid. In WCW he’s Sid Vicious. Only time I remember the WWF calling him Sid Vicious was back in early 1992, but they then began calling him Sid Justice. Then in 1998 and 1999, we saw Stone Cold Steve Austin defeat Shawn Michaels, and the next year The Rock. With the exception of 1997, of the past four Wrestlemania Main Events have been solid matches with a one on one scenario. How will the biggest show of the year react to a triple threat match?

Torrie Wilson has some major competition in the battle of "The Hottest Female in Wrestling".  Trish Stratus finally made her debut in the WWF. On Sunday Night Heat last night. Surprisingly, she seems to be scouting Test and Prince Albert to form a tag team or stable of some sort. Does this mean Prince Albert may develop a personality. He is one of the few big men in the WWF that has zero personality. Test who basically been put on the back burner for the past few months as actually been misused. The WWF had the perfect story line with Test/Stephanie’s wedding not going through due to Triple H marrying her. Well after that Vince McMahon took the spot as the hero and Test seemed to disappear. 

Chris Candido FINALLY made his debut in WCW last night on the pay-per-view. All you can say about his "less than dramatic" debut is WCW does not know how to introduce someone. They have him come out and do color commentary? I didn’t see the show but I read that all he did was do commentary and state that he is going after the Cruiser Weight title. By the way, Hard Knox? What a nick name. Too bad they wasted another opportunity at bringing someone in with a purpose. Look at the time they had the No Limit Soldiers with Master P. They have him walk around the back only to be met by Curt Hennig, then Master P flips out over Hennig cracking his cd case? Whoa, I never thought I’d mention Master P again. That brings back some sad, sad memories of Nitro. 

Kanyon. Last I heard of him was on the LAW (Live Audio Wrestling) radio show. He seemed really depressed with the recent state of WCW, and even said that he would rather take his release from WCW, and never wrestle again, just to get out of there. That’s truly sad. He was one of the best workers WCW had, it’s a shame that a talent like him has to sit on the sidelines. I haven’t heard anything about him lately. Whether he’s out nursing an injury, or is suspended from WCW, I hope he returns soon.

Hulk Hogan went over Ric Flair last night at Uncensored in the last match of the evening? Dear god no. Why wasn’t the Heavyweight title match the last match of the evening? Do the bookers think Hogan is over? Sure they do. The reason why? The people going to WCW events obviously like him. Look at the monster pops he’s getting. However OBVIOUSLY there’s a minority of fans who like him. If they were pushing the younger talent, WCW would attract different fans. Not the ones that come now an pop for Hogan. Let’s put it this way, if you keep feeding a dog the same meal over and over, he’s going to just stupidly take it. The people WCW are gearing towards is WCW. Most of these kids probably do not know about the WWF or, are not allowed to watch it do to their parents concerns. When they don’t know of anything better, they’ll adapt to Hogan and even cheer him. A young kid isn’t interested in sex, most probably don’t even know what it is yet, they’re still probably in the cooties stage. Hogan’s eat our vitamins and say your prayers attracts these ids to him. Plain and simple. There are far more people between the age of 18-50 that watch wrestling, then there are 18 and younger. So obviously the WWF has a larger market. However like one reader stated the WWF often crosses the boundary and attracts kids as well. If WCW attempted to bring in an older audience, they may revive some competition in the ratings race, or as it stands now a one sided race. It’s like the old story, the Turtle (WCW) and the Hare (WWF). Except that hare sure as hell isn’t stopping.

Last column, I asked for your definitions of the term "Mark." Here are a few of the responses I got. 

[email protected]
"I just see it close to like the original term meant to the carneys: some schmuck who "buys" into the whole deal, who goes for the "good" guy, instead of who the genuinely like.. for ex.: I think Kurt Angle is a HELL of a wrestler with loads of talent, I think the same of HHH, yet we get guys like 2 Cool and Rikishi who are "favorites" with the loudest "pops" and I think they have no talent, but no one cares because they can dance.."
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[email protected]
Also I wanted to add my definition of "mark." I would say: anyone who suspends disbelief or has an uncontainable outburst while watching wrestling. And no, I am not ashamed to say it, I DO mark out while watching raw. It wouldn’t be worth my time if they couldn’t get my emotions going.
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[email protected]
A mark is someone who believes or "buys into" a story line.  A mark can also be someone who does not know the matches are not predetermined and watches to see who the better man is in terms of winning, and not to see a good match put on. Marks usually change their opinions on their favorite wrestlers often, cheering baby faces and booing the heels.
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[email protected]
A Mark is someone who takes wrestling to the extreme. Someone who believes every story line for example any person who thought HHH and Steph really got married is a mark, or in that case and idiot. Also A mark is someone who repeats what they see on wrestling, for example, if you insult someone and they give you the "DX Crotch Chop" in return well that person is a Wrestling Mark. People who are wrestling Marks pop at home for wrestlers like, Hogan, Goldberg, or someone who u ask who's your favorite wrestler, and they reply, Goldberg and Stone Cold. I personally don't care for marks. As a matter of  fact I can't stand 'em.
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That’s all I’ll post tonight. I’ll continue this question and will post more responses in my next column. Later on in the week, most likely Thursday night. If you haven’t sent me your definition to the term "Mark" feel free to send it to me by email.

This is for the Canadian readers. TSN, the cable channel that airs Monday Night RAW, has always edited things out of the RAW program. During the entire Undertaker Ministry angle last Summer we basically didn’t get to see any of it. Going back a bit, Canadian WWF Star Val Venis made his appearance the day after Wrestlemania 14. We didn’t actually get to see a damn match of his until late July. TSN kept editing him out due to fact that they thought his gimmick was too sexual for airing. Lately they’ve been cutting out bits and pieces of RAW, mostly backstage scenes. But last RAW where the Dudleys powerbombed Mae Young off the ramp, we didn’t even get notified of it! Instead TSN cut to a 10 minute long Edge/Christian promo. They played his song twice, the song it self is about 5 minutes in length, while airing Edge’s titan tron video. Personally I could give a damn about Edge’s video. I want an unedited RAW! I understand they sometimes have to edit the profanity, but do they REALLY need to edit a whole segment out? In the past RAW has been delayed by CURLING, and Hockey. TSN has made it clear they cater to local programming rather than something like RAW. I may not agree with that, but I respect their choice. However I do not like sitting through a RAW nearly guessing what happened. Also, CTV Sportsnet who airs Heat and Livewire, are VERY unorganized. We got a 25 minute Heat last night, due to the NCAA championship running late. The game didn’t run into overtime, just the game went on as usual and carried on into the 7 o’clock hour. Well, if you want to sound off to these two channels, then the following addresses are were you can reach them.

TSN - [email protected]
CTV Sportsnet - [email protected]

Let them know how you feel about your wrestling, however try and remain polite. Otherwise, I doubt your efforts will do any good.

 That’s all for tonight. Thanks, as always for reading. Enjoy your Monday Night Wrestling.