Sass

Right. My post above was actually a riff on the Superman franchise post #2. Reeve got a lot of creative control with the movies, which didn't do them any good, and the Salkind's turned over the producing rights after the 2nd movie as well and the drop in film quality showed on the screen. Funny stuff, especially when Reeve would blow off responsibility for the shitty storylines he helped come up with for Supes 4, which was a total train wreck in front of and behind the camera.

Bret Hart limped around on a bad ankle for 3 or 4 Nitros after Lex Luger whacked him with a bat in the epic Hogan/Flair/Hart vs. Sting/Luger/DDP tag team match, which I thought really got the injury across well. HHH wearing a neck brace on RAW next week while watching Batista vs. Kane would be primo booking if it was because of Benoit's CF. That'd be cool, but it'd be great if he sold the injury going into Mania. Then, if HHH lost, he could file a legitimate gripe about being in "poor condition to perform" and petition for a rematch with Big Dave at the next PPV. Intrigue and smart booking is what HHH needs if he's going to position himself as the top dog of the WWE. He hasn't had any of it since beating Big Show on RAW in '99.

Tracy Smothers??? Oh hells yeah.

The WWE needs to bring in Sabu. He could use a nice pay day from this PPV. He was ECW when the promotion went from Eddie Gilbert to Todd Gordon/Paul Heyman. He was their franchise wrestler. Signing Tanaka should be a long-term deal. He'd take the contract, anyone from Japan would if the WWE came calling. Push him hard and give the Japanese fans someone they can actually cheer for and not feel like retards. The WWE has never booked a strong (i.e. ching chang chong choppee choppee peepee) Asian worker, aside from Tajiri whose career has been on the skids since his wife had a miscarriage in '03. He's never been the same since. Masato Tanaka is probably 5'9"ish legit, which would make him about as tall as Benoit, Jericho and Guerrero by an inch or couple so he wouldn't look too out of place standing next to guys like them. This is a guy the company should retain after the PPV. Just don't book him like some Jap joke.

The X-Men franchise is seemingly falling apart before our eyes. Once the Salkind's turned over the rights to the Supes franchise, it was all down hill from there. Watch as Hugh Jackman gets to co-produce and co-write the new movie. I hope the franchise can keep going strong.

Huh? I thought the Mid west was the best or most common to host monster raves? I'd figure the meth situation would be...prosperous to say the least. But Minnesota? Yeesh. Good to hear you found your keys AoO. Walking 23 miles can't be fuckin fun though.

The thing I found the most offensive about the match was when JR mentioned how HHH has never beaten Benoit in a one on one match. That was just downright insulting, unless I missed something else he said. RRR just didn't like the match and brought it up just like how the folks who did like the match are voicing their thoughts about the match. There's nothing wrong with that. Me? I thought Benoit losing to the Cockshot like the Big Show did in his rematch with HHH for the title in '00 was weeeeeeeaaakkkk. HHH also held out a weee bit long while he was in the Crossface. The WWE should stop using submissions to dangle a win in front of fans. It's insulting after all the times a submission has made someone, in like, let's say, the UFC, tap out almost immediately for fear of getting seriously injured. He also rolled out of the CF like he had gotten a 2nd wind and that just looked too hokey to me. The match just did Benoit no favors. The Rolling Germans Benoit dropped HHH with looked *real* nice though. I was hoping to see HHH take a Northern Lights Suplex or even eat a Dragon Suplex like he's done before but no dice. Too bad, these two could have a great match if HHH wasn't such a fuckin system worker. I'm sure if he thought hard about it, he could probably come up with some neat (i.e. new) spots to pull off in a match. I mean, this guy watches 100's of hours of tapes supposedly so I'm sure he could probably rip off or come up with *something* fantastic to bust out with. The stuff with Flair was too cookie cutter though. This was a match HHH should have been able to look strong in. Instead, he needed help from the 56 year-old Flair to pick up the win against Benoit. It would have made HHH look stronger going into his title match with Batista at Mania if he went it alone and managed to pull out the (cheap) win against Benoit. Lame finish but HHH should have told Flair to stay in the back so he could show he's still got some game left to show against Batista.

Dolph Lundgren could probably play the Master Chief.

Rorschach - Gary Oldman. He's just short enough for the role. Nite Owl 2 - Tom Sizemore. Only if he's not locked up in jail with a prosthetic piss cock. He's got the build needed. Silk Spectre 2 - Diane Lane. She looks 30 but is really 40. I'm sure she can pull off a couple of her own stunts. Her or Katherine Bell. Ozymandias - Brad Pitt. He looks like he's 30 when he's really 40. The guy has the acting chops for this. I like the thought of Val Kilmer as Ozy though. Both guys could fit the bill. Dr. Manhattan - Arnold Vosloo, from the Mummy, has the look. Everything else would need to be CGI like the Hulk. The Hulk had Bana's face and Vosloo's face looks like Manhattan's. Comedian - Stacy Keach, from Titus, was born for this role.

I still can't believe the Pacifier is pulling in nearly $60 mill.

The Lost Vikings.

Lakers should get their retribution in the Miami game. The Christmas game was closer than I imagined. The Lakers have now had time to gel better and I think Frank Hamblen is a wonderful coach (30 + years of experience makes a difference).

Yeah, I'll go 4 rounds as well.

Horses.

Who should be: Tanahashi. The dude got stabbed and almost died. Yet he came back. That showed me he's got his heart in pro wrestling. He seems like he's willing to improve his in-ring work, which is always a plus in today's stale wrestling scene. I can see him as the future NJ ace opposite AJ's Kojima or Suwama down the road. Who will be: Nakamura. He's Inoki's golden boy and he just issued out a challenge to Kojima on a recent AJ show. Nak is the one who will get the uber push from NJ instead of Tanahashi unless something changes.

I still can't get over how Benoit's title reign was placed below the HHH/HBK feud. It was like Hogan/Warrior overshadowing Goldberg when he was the champ. That was something right out of WCW's books.

The deuce? Hogan, Bruno, Backlund and Austin is how I thought it would have gone. I am shocked Dave didn't put Superstar in the Top 5 or one slot above Backlund. Kane's ranking is surprisingly high to me as well. I suppose his longevity with the company has helped. The Rock would probably be #1 if he didn't leave for the movies. When he hit his stride in '99, I thought he was going to be wrestling until he'd drop dead like his grandfather did at 47.

Which SD! PPV drew the best buyrate while JBL was on the top of the card? What has been the lowest buyrate since his time as champ?

He still won the tag team belts with DiBiase who should have never been saddled with such a Vince-alicious gimmick meant to goad the government. Rotundo got stuck with a heat sinker gimmick that should have never made it onto TV. I've got friends who still poke fun about that because of how stupid and absurd it was to stretch the imagination for an IRS agent wrestling in the WWE. The absurdity of it all was just too much. When Vince wants to vent on-air, it's blatantly obvious. But running a successful company is about pleasing and entertaining the fans first. Not getting your own jollies off by pissing down on someone's leg like the IRC or the PTC. That's just an easy way to run viewers off since Vince will push his self-serving interest gimmicks past the point of their expiration date. The RTC guys towards the end of their run looked haggard and putting Stevie Richards at the head of a *serious* group was the opposite way of how to book him strongly. Stevie's always been best when he's had some sort of angle that has some smart comedy to it and there was nothing funny or entertaining about Vince's RTC group. It's kinda like JBL and his Cabinet today. There's nothing funny or remotely entertaining about him. He's a giant boob who went from being in a mediocre tag team to beating the most popular wrestler in the WWE all within the span of 2 months. This is just Vince getting his rocks off now. He saddled Bradshaw up with a gimmick that went *completely* against his character with no build-up or logical explanation for why he'd go high-class on everyone after pouring beer on girls and getting sloppy drunk before matches. Kinda like the Austin turn. JBL is just out there holding a belt that should and would have been Eddy's but lucked into being one of the longest reigning champions in recent WWE history because of bad breaks with the former champ and his reign. Bradshaw will go down as one of the luckiest champs in history for winning a belt that he won more based on crummy circumstances than being over with the fans and getting them to care about him and who he faces. Heels, in order to be successful, need to be able to evoke emotions and interest from fans. REALLY be able to piss them off to the point where fans will pay to see him or her get their BUTT haned to them in the ring. JBL's just a clown in that regard. The SD! buyrates, with him at the top of the cards, have shown that the fans are not willing to pay for him. Not even a *bump* in the buyrates or ratings has been seen while JBL has been on top of the cards. JBL has been given the push of a life-time that someone like Jericho could have used in 2002 when he was the Undisputed champ but did nothing to warrant it. No logic, no explanation, no reason to care, no need to pay. Fans don't need their intelligence insulted like that.

TO/Burress on the same team? Yep, the Eagles are going back to the Superbowl if this happens. That's a hell of a WR combo.

Flutie said he doesn't want to relocate his family and that if he got cut from the Chargers then he would retire. Unless he lives out in Boston still, I don't see him coming back. Bad breaks derailed what could have been a great run as QB if someone had given him the chance. I think Flutie would have made an excellent heir to Dan Fouts and the Chargers after Fouts retied in '87 if Flutie had gotten the chance. He wasn't going to start in New England (Grogan) and there was no chance he was going to become the starter in Chicago (McMahon). He really did get fucked over though during the Rob Johnson QB debacle with the Bills. Height was all Johnson ever really had. Flutie had talent and could have excelled if he had all the guys working for him. He's a CFL legend but an NFL never-was. Too bad. I think he could make a great QB coach somewhere if he wanted to become one.

The movie should not be called Rocky VI. It's been 15 + years since the last one was made. This one needs to be the one to give closure to Stallone (along with a paycheck).

When I read the sub-title of this thread, I had the image of Vince Vaughn from the diner scene in "Swingers" where he's drunk off his ass and yelling at Jon Favreau about how he's alls growns up. Crono is also a year younger than me. I never would have guessed it.

Whatta fuckin putz. Did he shoot himself in the ass or the leg? I liked how the one teacher just casually walked behind him at the end of the speech and checked out where the gun shot went. Dolt.

Vince rolled out RTC in 2000 and that gimmick was totally out of left field at the time when booking and matches were at a fever pitch compared to how mediocre 1999 was (Russo burned out fast). Tanking his own show with a cummy gimmick (IRS, RTC, JBL) that makes no sense or has no build-up has never stopped Vince before. I know many people who stopped tuning in regularly because of how embarassing RTC was and how shoddy of a group they were. Winning the tag team belts in an effort to give the group credibility only managed to discredit the tag team belts.