I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Again. Boy, this is gettin' to be far more regular than I thought it would be. Hey, I guess I just got a lot to say lately on the subject of pro wrestling. But first, a little fanmail on the subject of your friend and mine, Triple H:

You are so correct on HHH it's eerie. I'm glad to see there are more of us who've realized all this. For all the talk about Hunter being Flair 2000 (sans the horrific Dusty Rhodes booking that tarnished Flair's legend), it's more clear that he's really Hogan 2000 with better workrate (which really makes him Hogan-san 2000, I suppose). For that matter, does this make Jericho the WWF equivalent of Kidman (you do recall how Hogan working with Kidman last summer turned out, don't you)? And does anyone believe Hogan won't come back at least long enough to get the win back from Goldberg?

Sam

Amen, brother.

See how my fanbase grows! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF REDMAN!! Well, that's enough ego-stroking for now...

Well, today, we're going to be looking at the Royal Rumble, with some predictions thrown in, and possibly some other opinion-bites at the bottom of the page. As per is becoming the usual, I suppose.

But first...

**WARNING!! WCW-AND BISCHOFF- BASHING MAY OCCUR BELOW THIS LINE!! IF YOU ARE OF A WEAK DISPOSITION OR YOUR NAME IS DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!!**

Sorry, just a little disclaimer there to prevent any real anger spilling out. Right, onto Nitro!!

I was sitting watching Nitro (taped, of course) with a friend last night, eager to see just what Bischoff was going to do his first night in, and to see if he'd learnt from his past errors. Boy, did THAT soon turn to groans and laughter. After watching that show, we just couldn't wait to see what the esteemed I-Net fraternity would have to say about it. So just IMAGINE our surprise when we see praise heaped on this steaming pile of manure, as if trying to cover up the stench with Tiger Ali Singh's rose petals!!

Why, do you ask, would I say such a thing?

Because right now, quite frankly, everyone's opinions seem like the complete OPPOSITE of the truth. Has everyone turned into Russoites or something? What with all this swerving behaviour going on, one can only wonder.

So let's examine what was wrong with Nitro last night, shall we?

1. THE OPENING SEGMENT: At half-an-hour long, the WWF would be absolutely CRUCIFIED if they dared to put on a show-opener of this length. It established only three things-the two factions, the main event, and...

2. RIC FLAIRS' HEEL TURN: What the Hell is that? Flair battles against Steiner for nigh on three months-then suddenly decides he likes him after all? Where's the continuity in that shit? And what the Hell happens to Mike Sanders now? How the Hell is he going to become a breakout heel in the mould of Flair if he's working in the shadow of the man himself? Not to mention the fact that now the CEO is with the bad guys, we have to put up with the heel being put over EVERYONE for the next month or so. PLUS the fact that this completely crushes any hopes of Flair returning to the ring for one Big match.

3. BISCH'S BUDDIES: Oh look, Nash and DDP have prime places on the show! Oooh, so did the Cat! Oh, look at al the old guys at the top of the card! I can just see Hogan storming the ring in a few week's time, laying the smackdown for the faces. It's coming folks. You know it is.

4. TEAM CANADA'S RELEGATION: Once again, Storm and co. are reduced to the sideshow that is the talented workers of WCW, right alongside 3 Count and the Jung Dragons. I don't think I need to point out how moronic it was to job Mike Awesome to Konnan0AND for that loss to cost him his mullet.

5. BISCH'S BUDDIES (PART 2): Hey, guess what this alliance means! More Totally Buff! Maybe even a tag title reign!

6. FACE/HEEL BOUNDARIES: Again, what is this shit? All the faces, all the heels, ALL against EVERYONE ELSE. It reeks of the Russo/Bischoff New Blood catastrophe.

7. THE nWo: What do you mean there was no nWo lat night? What the Hell would you call the warmed-up faction that Flair's putting together? Oh, hey, I've got a cool name idea! The Wolfpac! Oh no wait....The LWO!! Oooh, oooh! What about the NeW blOod!! Yeah, that works!!

8. ROAD WARRIOR ANIMAL: Nuff said, I think.

9. BISCH'S BUDDIES (PART 3): Hey, wow, Nash is getting title shots again! So I guess we're gonna have to put up with the old guard getting the shots until Goldberg comes back, right? Right?

So why the Heckaroonie am I being so bitchy about last night's Nitro? Well maybe this'll cause some of these I-Net guys to look at how they're treating the WWF these days. "No good stuff pointed out, oh no no no-let's just focus on the bad!" "Hey, let's just concentrate ENTIRELY on the booking aspect of the WWF when criticising it, and then, we'll concentrate COMPLETELY on the wrestling aspect when talking about Nitro! Then we can get away with being bitchy about RAW and nice about Nitro!" D'ya see what I'm saying here? Ya can't use one yardstick for Vince and another for Uncle Eric. it just doesn't work. And to prove my point, I could do exactly the same thing for RAW, but point out the GOOD things about the show. I just don't think you need to see it, because I got confidence in your intellectual capability. Oh, and by the way, I thought RAW and Nitro were about equal last night-but don't blame me because I enjoyed RAW more.

ROYAL RUMBLE PREDICTIONS

Even though the booking's faltered recently the Rumble's shaping up to be a cracking way to kick of 2001-and should shed some light on just where Vinnie's heading going into WrestleMania.

WWF TITLE MATCH: TRIPLE H (W/STEPH) VS. KURT ANGLE (W/TRISH)
FINALLY, some sort of payoff to this feud! I got confidence in both guys here to put on a great match, and as much as it pains me to say this, Triple H is going over-with the assistance of Trish, of course, turning the Crying Man full face in the process.

MY CHOICE: Trippa takes his fifth title, ready to drop it to Austin.

ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH
Come on, let's not beat about the bush here-one of two guys are walking out with the win here, and it ain't Rikishi.

MY CHOICE: Rocky takes the Rumble, but Austin wins the belt at No Way Out, setting up Rock/Austin for WrestleMania.

INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE LADDER MATCH: CHRIS JERICHO VS. CHRIS BENOIT
Whoohoo! Come on, we were all waiting for this one to crop up! And, of course, what do the smarks say? "Oh, geez, these two fighting AGAIN? That's just lazy." What the Hell are you-wrestling fans or ninth grade girls? Stop bitching!

MY CHOICE: Jericho wins the belt-simply because Benoit owes him a win, bigtime-and the fans are the winners.

TAG TITLE MATCH: THE CANADIAN BLONDES VS. THE DUDLEYZ
This is a match I'm feeling pretty iffy about, actually. If E&C go over here, then there's no-one left to beat. But if the Duds go over here, then they've got nowhere to go with the belts.

MY CHOICE: Hopefully they'll put together a decent match, before ending it on a DQ for the Duds.

CHYNA VS. IVORY
Man, this storyline sucks!

MY CHOICE: Ivory wins with RTC assistance, and I go to the bathroom.

EUROPEAN TITLE MATCH: TEST VS. WILLIAM REGAL
Regal's got better things on the horizon, and Test needs a little something to back up his push.

MY CHOICE: Test grabs the gold and Regal heads up the ladder to stardom.

So there you go-a solid card from top to Ivory/Chyna, then picking up again right after that crapfest. Should be good, sez I!

Before I leave, here's something to chew on-my WrestleMania predicted card: