Sass

He drops in every now and then. Maybe leave him a PM.

This is one of the most depressing things I've heard in a while. This guy passed away at too young of an age. 33? That's asinine. This is just all around depressing to hear. I really hope Tammy is able to keep her life in check because I can't imagine the stuff that's inside her head right now and how it makes her feel. I feel bad for both families. 33...

Favre should join the Ravens.

This match will probably give All-Japan Misawa vs. Muto/Muta at the next big AJ show if Kawada is working a NOAH show. That's like the only real money match that either company has a shot at selling out the Tokyo Dome with.

This post cracks me up after re-reading it. This was one of Banky's better self-deprecation episodes.

Oh brother. Flyboy was right about Rob. He did get flame-baited a lot. Oh and Kinetic still carries this board. Don't be bitter Czech.

Thanks Mike.

I agree that Nik overreacted but he's also got a point about how polarizing folks like Inc, AoO and IDRM can be for posters here to tolerate. He's not the only one who has made a post that talks about this. I dumped him when Josh and I cut the staff down and he ate my face off for it. I didn't give him any fair warning after all the time and effort he put into trying to improve the WWE folder and he felt burned over that. I agree with you though Tom. I think Nik's hit the wall here a while ago and we should just cut our losses. If Josh and Pete agree with you, then, I say we dump him. He works for 411 now anyways so my "give power to front site writers" deal I made with him a while back is off the table. Do it Tom. But, let him know ahead of time what's up.

Matt's new girl looks like Trish in a picture I saw of her. She's smokin hot.

Phillip Buchanon told the Raiders he wanted out after the end of the season. They obliged. Charles Woodson has also become a cancer and the team would like to trade him so they can get some draft picks. The deal for Buchanon will benefit both sides. Phil will be happy and the Raiders will be happy since they got draft picks that they can use to replace him. The Raiders have 2 picks in the 2nd round and 2 picks in the 3rd round now. That's better than having one pick in each round like they had before. If they trade Woodson to a team, the Raiders could get a possible 2 picks in the 1st round. They will get a 1st round pick for sure if Charles is traded. I hope Miami takes Woodson. Them or Detroit. The team could build a good Defense with this year's draft. Houston's O-line is still horrid but their Defense and Secondary is looking nice.

Marvel. DC Scroll down for the DC numbers. Very, very, interesting stuff. EDIT: Scroll down further for the Marvel numbers.

Suguira and SUWA in the Jr. division allows both guys to look like studs instead of jobber duds for the Heavy's to toss around. Of course, they can always bulk up and change that. Yone, Shiga, and Ikeda aren't anything special but they could provide good wrm-up match material for the ME guys like Kobashi, Akiyama and the Takeshi's as the years go on.

The Bulls have been a hell of a shocker this season. As an infamous crazed old kook of a coach once said: "Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?!?" Yeah, the Bulls are in the playoffs this season. Whoda thunk it? Miami is taking the East. They've got a nice amount of bench depth and they're playing like a championship team should. The Pistons just seem to be coasting this season, since the back bone of their team, Larry Brown, appears as if he's ready to call it a career. The Pistons are still a good team but I could see Washington beating them if they let their guard down. Shaq is probably going to make good on his championship promise to Miami this season if the Western teams don't come into the Finals healthy. If Tim Duncan is lost for the season or can't get healed up properly by the time the playoffs roll around, then I see the Suns taking it. I do think the Sonics have a chance at making it to the West Finals but they've gotta stay healthy for that to happen. I don't think the team can beat the Spurs but could have a chance against the Suns if they're playing with all their guys healthy. The Spurs w/Duncan > The Suns w/Nash. If either one of those guys goes down though, the other team is going to get poofed by the other.

If Barry is done for the season, then I could see this team sinking to '03 Tigers levels of ineptness. The pitching is the only thing that looks strong enough to hold up for a season.

If they tried out juicing, any of the Jr. guys could bulk up and look like a small heavyweight. They shouldn't do that but it would be the only sure way for them to *really* bulk up and look like a mini heavyweight at least.

T-Mac hasn't been charged with raping a girl yet so, no, him and Kobe's off-court shennanigans aren't even in the same ball park. This article doesn't give T-Mac a dressing down but is a good read. The one example that I can give for why I thought T-Mac could act like a punk sometimes was when I read how the Bulls organization were furious with him when he was a FA in '00 after telling Elton Brand, his friend, that he wanted to be the next MJ and was committed to helping rebuild the team, only to spurn them and jump to Orlando. The article doesn't bring that up though. Chalk it up to muck raking by the Tribune I suppose. They own the LA Times and T-Mac's off-season moves got lots of coverage in the local paper when he was a FA, pre-Orlando. Other than a couple public outbursts, I've never thought T-Mac was a cancer or anything like that to his teams. He's grown up and become a hell of a baller. Give him a couple more years, along with maybe some good helping hands, and he'll win a championship sometime down the line. He's too talented to not help take a team to the Finals.

There's nothing I care to see on this card that I haven't already seen on a past RAW or Smackdown! Last year's show had the possibility about Benoit becoming the World's champ. This year? Nothing. HHH vs. Batista has enough juice in it to make Dr.Death's airport bust in Japan look like joke. JBL vs. Cena is a battle of the un-established "stars" for a title that has no value. The green as grass punk Cena is getting no one to buy into him and JBL has been a miserable McMahon jerkoff project that has "insecurity" written all over. It's like this year's Mania is like a Heavyweight boxing PPV, except there's no Mike Tyson to draw in the train wreck appeal crowd who will pay to see Mike possibly snap. No draws. Undertaker vs. Randy Orton is not going to make Orton "famous" because Foley already tried it, with better build-up and storylines, and Orton still failed to make a blip on fans' radars after that. This is the one time where I actually hope Taker uses his veto powers on a match if he's called in to do the job. Orton is one of the most unconvincing wrestlers from a mic perspective that I've seen since HHH tried to turn face in '02. Batista, Orton, Cena, and all of the other OVW projects-who-came-up-too-early are all rejects who should have spent more time working on making their wrestling ability stand out in the ring instead of their subpar mic work and low grade acting ability. Any time these guys have to work for more than 5 minutes is asking for trouble. This PPV doesn't even have the Mike Tyson train wreck appeal. It just stinks. I'll probably catch the show from someone else. There's no way I'd ever fork over any money for this abortion.

Hogan should hit Vince up with a retirement match between him and Randy Savage. That's what'll put this year's Wrestlemania over the top of any past ones.

I think '08 is when James' contract with Cleveland is up and allows him to pursue other deals. I'd bet the farm that Isiah Zeke Thomas has the date marked down on his calendar with James' cell number on speed dial.

If Lennox Lewis would have come out and said "fuck America" after 9/11 then boxing would have gotten the wrasslin pub.

LeBron is a kid playing in a man's body. He can bang on the boards with the best of them. When Karl Malone was asked last season on the Best Damn Sports Show Period what he'd do if he saw James try to drive on him, he said something along the lines of "young fella might end up on his rear," and all I said was "yeah right Mailman" and shook my head. Also, I'm going to call it here: James is going to be Knick come '08/'09. LeBron is going to make the Knicks a franchise team once again when he signs with them. New York is going to get him too. The money that team will be able to throw out to LeBron when his contract comes up will be sick. All their current ugly contracts will be gone and the team will have money to spend. They'll probably sign him to the richest deal in NBA history too. Barring injuries, he's probably going to get a couple of championship rings before he turns 30.

Where's the love for Kevin Garnett? Or Tim Duncan? I think the T-Mac love is too homerism here along with my appreciate for Kobe's skills. I gained a whole new level of respect for Garnett last season and I was sorry to see his team fall to shambles this season since I thought he had another shot at the Finals with his team. He almost beat the Lakers with help from Crime Spree who I wish Lamar Odom could have morphed into this season. Playing ability wise, not coach choking. In the games I've seen with the two playing against each other, Kobe played better defense than T-Mac. I'm not sure if that's the general case though. I haven't watched enough Rockets games this season to form an opinion. But, the last couple of seasons I caught some Magic games against the Lakers and Clippers, T-Mac wasn't playing much defense, if any. Kobe hustled hard and I was surprised at the lack of it from T-Mac. However, T-Mac is a better leader on the court than Kobe is. That's become apparent after this season. T-Mac gets his guys to play up to his level while Kobe is off in his own world. It was the same way when the Lakers actually had a playoff caliber team. He just played in his own world and still does. He is the force on the Lakers right now but he needs to grant the other players some of that unGodly ability so that they might be able to put up 20 + a night too. T-Mac and Kobe have both acted like punks in their careers while I have never seen a single punk card moment from KG, on or off the court. He's a class act and appears to be a stand up guy. Same thing with Tim Duncan. I like'em both and will always respect their ability to go out and do their job without raising up a stink about something or bringing their outside problems to work. Kobe and T-Mac could learn something from those two. Really. Switching gears... If the Bryant/Odom/Atkins/Butler group were averaging 14 + PPG then the Lakers would still be in the playoffs. Aside from Kobe, everyone else in that group is wildly inconsistent. One day Atkins can have 23 points, 3 3's and a couple assists. The next game, he puts up 8 points with a couple assists and no 3's to speak of. Same deal with guys like Odom and Butler who have been atrocious to watch on defense sometimes where both guys look like they're aimlessly looking around for the ball while Kobe, Mihm and Atkins (sorta) try to defend against the ball. Kobe shouldn't be getting the ball run through him. He needs to have as much pressure taken off him as possible. Run it through Odom or Butler. You were right about this when you mentioned it in the other NBA Week thread Ripper. Spot on. On the topic, Atkins is a glorified bench warmer who is 30 years old and will probably not improve his numbers any further past this season. He's a big mouth who is a 5 or 6th man at best and is replaceable. Unfortunately, he's the best guard the Lakers have at starter so circumstances have made Atkins the starter, not because he has the talent to warrant such a spot. He also shouldn't have opened up his mouth the way he did. The media *love* to pounce on stuff like that. In fact, Atkins came back out and said his words were "wildly twisted" so now he's back tracking or attacking the way his comments were reported. A team shouldn't have to deal with that nonsense (every team, not just the Lakers). The only guy who should criticize a team and it's players is the coach. That's it. The players just need to go out there and do their job without raising a fuss about something. If something's wrong, take it to behind closed doors with the people involved. Lamar Odom has been hounded by the local press all season for his "subpar" season and all he says is "I'm sorry, I know I need to work on my game and will do my best" and leaves it at that. He's said that all season whenever the LA press has interviewed him and I gained a little more respect for Odom by not passing the buck off to someone else like Kobe and Atkins have done this season. Odom seems to have his head on straight after being like perma-stoned when he was with the Clippers. His time in Miami seems to have done something to him. I mean, when Frank Hamblen says a team quit in the 2nd half, they quit in the 2nd half. He's been around basketball for over 30 years and probably knows what a team looks like when they hustle and what they look like when they're dogging it. Just a hunch. I think the team did dog it too. Kobe and Atkins might have come out and countered the coach by saying "I don't think we dogged it at all" but the final score on the board says otherwise. That last game the Lakers played against the Nuggets *was* sorry. The Lakers are a bad team right now and they need to improve, not come up with excuses to placate their insecure egos about how good they still are. This will be a heck of an interesting off-season for the Lakers by seeing who they dump and keep for the next season. I think Atkins might have just sent in his walking papers after this latest outburst. Frank Hamblen shouldn't have to put up with this infantile crap. No one should. Kobe does need to be reigned in before something (or someone) explodes on him. Sooner, rather than later.

I was going to ask Chris Hyatte if he would write for TSM's main page, since he's had a pretty nasty ordeal lately with InsiderPulse and Widro. He looked ripe for the picking. I thought I could make one more go at making the front page for reading for folks, by getting Hyatte and some of his friends like Eric S. and Flea to write, but I think I'm going to hold off on doing that. I do not want to have a financial stake in TSM. Sorry, that's how I feel. Do what must be done.

No, Shinobu is a female. We think. You're just one of the few who has referred to her as one.

Green Destiny should be able to help you out figuring who's who. Good site for the bare back info. For a guy who professes ignorance, you seem to at least have a good grasp on the names. KENTA will be an ace for the company one day. If he bulks up a bit, he'll be wrestling for the GHC title in a couple of years. Both guys are the best "monster gaijin" workers NOAH has to offer, for better or for worse. Both guys got a title shot against Kenta Kobashi during his 2 + years title reign. The Awesome match seems to be the one that many people like more since Kobashi was actually getting thrown around a bit in it. That doesn't happen too often to him. Williams and Scorpio are one of the better tag teams in NOAH. Yone, KENTA, and Marufuji, once they bulk up some, are going to be the next generation of ace's, along with Shiozaki, dueling it up for the GHC title. The future looks bright for NOAH's main event prospects. Shinobu Kandori. "Girl" heh Rikio had quite a showing in his breakout match. It appears to have panned out. The NOAH shows in particular are a nice alternatice to the WWE's junk sometimes.