Papacita

Happy b-day Zack.

With Benoit...I think they could've got a lot more out of him than they did, but either a lack of faith or lack of desire to see him succeed is what ultimately did him in. A lot of people cite his lack of mic skills as sufficient reason for him taking a backseat to HHH, HBK, Eugene and others in the summer, but I've never agree with that because one, his mic skills aren't THAT bad IMO (he's not Rock or Flair, but he's shown himself capable of projecting emotion so the potential of connecting with the fans is there), and even if they didn't trust him on the mic, they could've built his matches as major attractions, and outside of his work with HHH and Shawn, they never attempted to do that. I personally think that they never intended for him to get over and he was only given the belt in order to keep things fresh between Mania and the HHH/Orton program. As for Eddie, I think it was more a case of him not having anyone to work with. I think he was definitely meant to be a long-term champ (or at least a more significant one), but their roster got raped in the post Mania draft, and while I think they probably could've gotten something out of an Eddie/Booker program, Bradshaw was the only real option short of building up scrubs every month for Eddie to knock down. It just made more sense to have the belt on a heel.

Just so you know, a VERY half-assed promo is on the way shortly.

Is Bryte eligible for Rookie of the Year? Doesn't really matter either way, but I'm just wondering.

...I can't even be shocked anymore. They can't possibly believe that.

I liked Eddie's pre-No Way Out stuff from earlier this year.

I expect the show to be opened with a 10 beltshot salute. As for the show, depending on how finals/papers are treating me, I may have something in to follow up on Bryte's return at the PPV.

I've still gotta put their specs up, but I plan on using the Illuminators for a little bit, so you can use them if you want.

Update on the condition of Panther and Tina, as well as some answers about the Brock Ausstin situation.

I agree with most of what's been posted, although I'm a little iffy on the idea of foreshadowing feuds. Not that it shouldn't be done, but the way that WWE tends to do it (like having Kurt Angle jump into the middle of the Eddie/Chavo feud for no reason) makes things too obvious and takes away a lot of the suspense for me. I think the best builds are those that convey a sense of hatred between the two wrestlers, but keeps the physical contact to a minimum prior to the big match. A good example of this was HHH/Austin for No Way Out 01--the non-aggression stuff got a little cheesy at times, but it was effective, and as a result, that match was for me probably the most anticipated of the year. When you see the guys going tit for tat, attacking each other back and forth week after week, that takes away a lot of the excitement for me, and lessens the desire to see them finally get their hands on one another. Rock and HHH did a lot of that when building for their post WM matches in 2000, and that's one reason I could never really get excited about that feud.

Looks like an episode of 106 & Park on BET. That's pretty funny.

Grudge Match Panther vs Brock Ausstin

If I have the time, Tina vs Illuminator 1. Plus, more antics from Taylor.

Are they trying to play that off like the baby was real? Either way, that was funny as hell.

Nah, he said "come to me."

Maybe he means the TV title circa 93-95. I liked it, but at the same time, I can see how someone would say that's an ugly belt.

Panther and Tina vs Taylor's boys. Plus stripping... Seriously.

For the first time in months, I actually had the chance to read the show straight through. Right after, I went to classes, got THREE consecutive surprise quizzes and failed them all. Wonder if that's an omen or anything... Oh well, enough of that gypsy talk. The show was good. I was feeling the opening promo and confrontation between Hoff and Zack. Great INTENSITY~! shown by Zack and it did a good job of establishing Hoff as a face. I also got a laugh outta the little "PLANT" joke that was thrown in there. The Rodez/GPX thing had me dying. Funny stuff. Phenom/Frankie- I think this did a good enough job of making Phenom look strong. Only criticism I have is--as others noted with the WWE match--this one could've used a little more description in between the moves. I agree that this was a better effort than the first match, but there were a couple of points where this just went from spot-to-spot with no transition (the one point that stands out is when it goes from Frankie's flying bodypress straight to a Phenom big boot), and the lack of description there makes things read a little awkwardly. I did like the direction he went with the match, with Phenom looking dominant, and I liked how he tried to convey Frankie's sense of frustration and desperation toward the end. This was solid, but again, a bit more description would've added a lot. Good segment with Alex Bryant. I don't have much to say about it, but it came off well. The Drek/Hoff confrontation was great too. I had to laugh at how quick Drek went from praising Hoff to wanting to take him out in a matter of seconds. Again, I liked the intensity there and this and the opening promo were good lead-ins to the main event angle with Hoff. I'm getting a serious Dusty Rhodes vibe from "Devastatin'" Danny Douglas. Seems like this could be a cool character. Good match between Black T and the Love Doctors. The little cheap shots from JR, and the ending with Ima Hoe joining up with the Docs was cool. Nice finish to the whole Blurricane/Father saga. One thing I've always liked about Parka's writing is that he can pull off these over-the-top angles and storylines and manage to keep them from becoming cheesy. Very well-written, and I liked how JAE was able to do the right thing while still being able to maintain his...heelishness. That's refreshing, since most wrestling characters tend to be either good or evil with little-to-no middle ground. Nice way to wrap up, and it was a great send off for Parka and his characters. And the ME angle came off well.

No, I'm pretty sure Enos was Blake. I remember him wrestling in singles for a while after Beau left.

At this point, it's all about the money with Panther. He likes to wrestle and perform for the fans, but hates the business because of all the backstabbing, politics, etc. It's gotten to the point that he wants to leave it behind, but can't because it's his only means of getting a steady income. After the J-Dogg situation, he's completely soured on wrestling, and feels that the payday/salary that he'd get from being champion is his first big step to breaking away. That's basically what I was trying to get across with that promo. Sorry it wasn't clear. Feedback...I've only read a few of the matches in detail so far so I can't really comment on a lot of stuff (although to be honest, I never really know what to say about most matches anyway), but I agree with what's been said so far...everything I've looked over was great. I'll try and give more detailed feedback a later on, but right now wanna shout out Drek for his portion of the ladder match (which I thought was great), Parka for the opening cage match (PK's return had me marking. Great way to open the show), Adam for the Gunner/Canberra/AWOL stuff, of course, Hoff for the main event. Great job with that one, Hoff, as it had me so drawn in by the end of it, and like everyone else, I didn't see the change coming at all, which was great. If it was rushed or anything, I couldn't tell. Again, I'll try and get back with more feedback once I've read through everything in full.

Thing about Test is that while he may not have been all that charismatic, he's shown that he's capable of getting over with the whole angle with Stephanie. And although I was never really dying to see Test get a big push or anything, he's a guy that they've had a bunch of chances to make a star out of, but rather than take advantage of them, they instead buried him and sent him right back down the card. It's probably best they released him now, as he's had so many sudden starts and stops with his pushes, and that coupled with his limited abilities would make it hard for fans to get behind him anyway, but for me, it's just a shame to see someone who had the potential Test did get wasted the way he's been. And to be honest, I'm still bitter that I never got to see T&A get a tag title reign.

The page is coming up fine for me.

Sucks. I've always beena fan of Train. I've always thought he got a lot of unnecessary hate from the net. I liked him in the ring and felt that he's never really gotten the push he deserved. Had he been booked strong on a more consistent basis, I think he could've been a good upper-midcard threat. Same for Test. Another guy that could've been something if not for half-assed pushes and constant burial by HHH. I was actually starting to like him in his heel role too before he got yanked off Raw last year. Fuck Billy Gunn, though. I've hated that man since I was 9.

I found Austin/Hall from WMX8 to be pretty boring. Come to think of it, to this day, I haven't actually seen the whole match because I've fallen asleep whenever I've tried to watch it.