Papacita

If we're counting ECW, didn't Mikey beat Sandman with a flying rana or something like that?

Gayda/Trish. Kane falling of the ropes at SummerSlam last year. RVD missing that spinkick in the ladder match at SummerSlam 01. I remember one women's match from last year when Trish and someone else botched a ref bump. She tried to run into him and the ref, not even wanted to sell it, just jumps out of the way. That was pretty funny.

Bah. Any word on whether or not she's rescheduling?

The idea of scripted promos has always been one of my main problems in recent years, because nine times out of 10, the writers don't give the wrestlers any dialogue that's unique to their character, and as a result, the majority of promos (outside of the top tier guys) come off bland. That's one reason why none of the new guys (aside from Cena, and that's mainly because he writes his own stuff) are able to get over, because they don't have a distinct style that allows fans to identify them. Another consequence of this is that writers tend to take wrestlers out of their element and give them promos that really don't fit their character...for instance, RVD's Flair imitation from 2002 (haven't seen it, but I heard it's horrible). Scripting isn't necessarily a bad thing, because at least when you've got something concrete, you're less likely to screw it up, but if they're gonna script promos, they should allow wrestlers themselves to have more imput on what's said.

I'd like the video a lot better without the Wrestlemania countdown at the end. I mean, since when does the dead advertise?

But... I thought Earthquake killed Damien!!! I'm so confused!

I love how that's stated as fact. I won't say that he'll get a strong reign, but at least give them a chance before you condemn them. For all their missteps in this Wrestlemania build, they do seem intent on getting Benoit over as a serious main event player.

How bout Bradshaw? He's definitely up there.

A little while ago, Dames had that thread and my beloved "Person above you thread" (R.I.P. *sniffle*) killed. The good threads always die so young.

How did Bubba lose the stutter in both ECW and WWF? Was there an incident, or was he suddenly cured with no explanation? I'm not 100% sure how he lost it in ECW. I vaguely remember turning on ECW TV in late 96 and hearing Bubba say his name perfectly without the stutter. All the while, Styles is in the background saying "He got it! He finally got it!" In WWE, it was more of a gradual process that was never fully explained. By Rumble 2000, it was just gone.

Bah...maybe the pseudo-Chyna thing has begun to grow on me, but I actually like Shaniqua. She works pretty well with the Bashams and has a great on-screen presence. I dunno why they're sending her back down.

I'll see if I can throw something together when I get the chance. BTW, are the graphics lined up for Zero Hour? I can do something there if you need it.

Nothing new here, but I think the point that a lot of people miss when in comes to minority scholarships is that for the most part, circumstances affecting blacks, whites, latinos and Asians aren't really relative. You find scholarships for minorities because whites are a majority, and therefore have greater odds at getting accepted into college, and financially, whites tend to be better off, so they're a lot more likely to be able to pay for it. And I really don't see the need for complaining because when you look at the make-up of most colleges, the majority of applicants accepted are white anyway. I could see if the situation were reversed and a large portion of the white population was being excluded in favor for blacks, but as is, it's just an attempt by colleges to offer education to people who in all likelihood wouldn't have gotten the opportunity otherwise. However, I've got mixed feelings on this and with affirmative action in general, mainly because it breeds stupid debates like this. That brings into question how many "worthy" whites were excluded just so that universities can meet a quota, causes more tension between races and in some ways underminds the achievements of minorities who may or may not have won such scholarships. However, until there's a way to ensure that everyone gets equal opportunity in the selection process, I have a hard time saying that it should be done away with. Besides, there are a bunch of scholarship opportunities that while not exclusive, are open to whites, so it's not like the race is being short-changed or anything.

I'll second that. That song and "Overnight Celebrity" off Twista's album have been stuck in my head for a while now. Kanye West is fast becoming my favorite producer...and rapper for that matter.

Full Name: (Max 25 characters): Panther Shortened Name: (Max 10 characters): Panther Gender: Male Birth Month: August Age: 23 Weight Class: (Lightweight/Heavyweight): Lightweight Photo: N/A Contract: Written Employer: OaOast Disposition: (Face/Tweener/Heel): Face Card Position: (Opener, Lower Mid, Midcard, Upper Mid, Main): I'll play it safe and say Mid. Gimmick: Cool Wage: ($1000-300,000): $75,000 All the following out of 100... Brawling: 81 Speed: 95 Technical: 69 Stiffness: 68 Selling: 85 Over: 80 Charisma: 96 Attitude: 100 Behavior: 100 All of the following answer Yes or No... High Spots?-Yes Superstar Look?-Yes Announcer?-Yes Shoot Fighting Ability?-No Diva?-No Booker?-No Fonz Factor? (Do you have a natural charisma?)-Yes Menacing?-No Trainer?-Yes Speaks?-Yes Nationality: American Primary Finisher: Da Bomb (Impact) Other Finisher: Panther Cutter (Impact) Tag Team: Panther and Tina (w/ Tina) Stable: The Firm (w/ K Money, Crystal and AJ Flaire) ********************************************************** Full Name: (Max 25 characters): Tina Marie Laurer Shortened Name: (Max 10 characters): Tina Gender: Female Birth Month: December Age: 33 Weight Class: (Lightweight/Heavyweight): Lightweight Photo: N/A Contract: Written Employer: OaOast Disposition: (Face/Tweener/Heel): Face Card Position: (Opener, Lower Mid, Midcard, Upper Mid, Main): Manager Gimmick: Bitch Wage: ($1000-300,000): $70,000 All the following out of 100... Brawling: 72 Speed: 52 Technical: 45 Stiffness: 61 Selling: 75 Over: 71 Charisma: 92 Attitude: 98 Behavior: 100 All of the following answer Yes or No... High Spots?-Yes Superstar Look?-Yes Announcer?-No Shoot Fighting Ability?-No Diva?-No Booker?-No Fonz Factor? (Do you have a natural charisma?)-Yes Menacing?-No Trainer?-No Speaks?-Yes Nationality: American Primary Finisher: DDTina (Impact) Other Finisher: Kryptonite (Impact) Tag Team: Panther and Tina (w/ Panther) Stable: N/A

Ultimo Dragon's been around for about eight months now!! How much more time does he need? I think he's saying that WWE needs to give him more TV/match time in order to prove himself rather than just throwing him out in 3 minute matches in which he's hardly able to do anything.

Nah, they had split for a while by then. As to why Eddie was just standing there, there was a storyline leading into the show where Eddie had allied himself with the Hardyz, and they seemed to be suggesting that Eddie was trying to steal Lita away from Matt. I'm not sure where it was going, since Chyna was taken off TV right after this, and Eddie went into rehab. Chyna was in the midst of a heel turn though, so I wouldn't have been surprised if she and Eddie ended up back together when all was said and done.

Panther vs Calvin should be on for next week. Also, Chris Bryte vs Silver Star. Also...I guarantee that there will be HARDCORE NUDITY right here this week on HeldDOWN~!... ...that or a backstage skit. Try to guess which.

I think that a lot of Tazz's depush in 2000 had to do with the Radicalz sudden jump throwing off a lot of the WWF's immediate plans (that's the only way I can rationalize bringing him in on such hype and doing absolutely nothing with him in the long run). There's also the idea that the WWF was biased against wrestlers from ECW due to the whole Public Enemy debacle from early 99 (something about them "believing their own hype" and being egomaniacs), and from that point on decided to put ECW wrestlers through a humbling process, forcing them to job for a few months to bring them down to earth. The Dudleyz fell victim to this process in late 99 (feuding with the Acolytes and giving Bubba the old stuttering gimmick again) before being pushed seriously in 2000, and they appeared to be repeating this process with Tazz.

Vengeance. The No Mercy match never really did it for me.

As an announcer, Vince said and did a lot of things that cracked me up. I think my favorite was sometime in 95 when Lawler...I don't remember exactly how they got on the subject, but he says something like "Shades of the great Muhammad Ali!", when suddenly, Vince jumps in and blurts out (imagine him in his most excited tone of voice)... "Yeah...STING LIKE A BUTTERFLY!!!!!!!...wait a minute..." There was another one from a Raw where Undertaker was scheduled to fight the British Bulldog. At the top of the show, Jerry Lawler says "The Bulldog's fixing to use the Undertaker for a fire hydrant". Vince pauses for a moment or two, then, in a disgusted tone of voice, blurts out "A WHAT?!?!" Also, not really a quote, but back in the day when Flash Funk was around, Lawler used to tease Vince about dancing to his theme music. Then on one Raw in late 96, Flash is making his entrance and the camera focuses on the announce table, where Vince is doing probably the dumbest looking dance imaginable. My description can't do that justice, but it had me in tears I was laughing so hard.

I'll go with 10 here. Outside of my segment with Panther and Tina (which came off a little odd, IMO), I really liked everything on the show. Parts that really stood out for me were the Poplex wedding, the Rick Heyross segment promoting the Gibralter/Brock match for AM3 (I really like the way they're building this one), the Silver Star/Chris Bryte segment (great job with that one Northstar), and the Northstar/Dama hollywood-style interview (Dama freaking out the interviewer got a laugh out of me). Great show all around.

It's not all that bad of a move, as it helps to balance some things out on the face side (SD has enough strong faces and Raw's only got one or two right now), and Edge has pretty much been groomed for a top spot since 99 or so, so there's less of a chance of him being buried like RVD and the like. I'd rather him stay on Smackdown, though.

What beautiful set up? Brock/Eddy... Eddy's promo and story is just great... The utter stupidity of El Brocko nullifies that. Hater.

So, Jackie and Stacy vs Sable and Torrie for Wrestlemania? Plus, RVD vs Renee Dupree on Heat before Mania?