Sass

Wrestler's aren't the smartest people to begin with. Look at all the petty and insecure political bullshit they deal with from fellow wrestlers and owners. They're not too far off from pornstars.

Jericho would be the highest paid gaijin in Japan if he jumped to HUSTLE, New Japan, or All Japan. That interview came from the heart. His heart isn't in wrestling and I'm not surprised it isn't. He's had his pushes and title reigns derailed and sabotaged so many times that at some point enough is enough and maybe packing it all home is the way to go. Jericho's body will probably thank him the most. He's never had any serious injury that has caused him to miss an extended amount of time and he's never looked roided out of his mind. Aside from maybe RVD, Jericho might just have the best post-wrestling body out of anyone 10 years down the road. But yeah, this was a depressing thing to read. It was just Jericho stating what everyone else was thinking about him. In 1999 it looked like he was going to be the next big star in wrestling. Now, he's a notch on Hassan's belt.

Wrestling fans do get unfairly shat on for being dumb rednecks. I'm not one. Neither are many other people on this board I imagine. It all goes back to Vince and what he allows on his shows. There are also many fans that fit the ignorant fan stereotype. I don't see too many toothless yokels in overralls with their pig Frisky being led around on a leesh. Wrestling fans are smarter than credited. Hell, people stopped tuning into Vince's nepo wrestling show years ago so obviously a good number of fans have some taste about themselves. Blame Vince.

I haven't seen any of the 3/5 show yet. I hope to soon since I'm curious about how Morishima looked now.

Witty Banter is one of the greatest douchebags in douchebag posting history. With one simple post, he inadvertently started a message board revolution. Yup, it doesn't get much more ghey than that folks. Witty's special.

The Jaguars still have some money to spend. I wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up Burress since they have the cash to offer him. The Bears and the Vikings also still have a good amount of bank left that they could spend on guys. Dallas and Jerry Jones looks as if they've spent all the money they're going to on FA's until the draft happens. Maybe the Vikings will pick up Sharper to spite GB. I'm just hoping someone takes Charles Woodson off the Raiders hands. He's outstayed his welcome with the team.

...I thought Akiyama got pinned instead of Morishima. I'm losing what's left of my damn senses here. The Takeshi's reign as tag champs did give the division stability. 7 months as champs? That's not too bad. I think losing them to the Akiyama and Saito tag division institution team didn't hurt WILD II either. Only because the guys they lost the belts to really did prove they were the better tag team by beating practically every team NOAH had to throw at them. That does look strong for the former champs.

Let him and his cabinet feud with Ron Simmons and the new Nation of Domination.

Didn't Orton almost get into a fist fight with someone in OVW during a match?

I *still* don't get why Booker couldn't have feuded with a HHH/Nash/Flair/Jericho heel unit after Mania. Him, Goldust, RVD and Kane could have teamed up to wrestle those guys for months on PPV and RAW's. Booker actually did get a couple decent in-ring matches from Nash when they were in WCW together. HHH is a lesser worker compared to Booker when both guys break the WWE style formula and could have had a better RAW brawl than the heat sinker one HHH and Nash had in April.

I don't think it was Kay unless she took over for the woman who I'm thinking about.

Booker should have done a jig for HHH. Unfortunately, Booker was really just a dancing fool so HHH wasn't completely off base with his comments at the time.

The office heads at USA, in press releases, were less than warm to the thought about the WWE leaving their network after being partners for 20 years. It was also USA's highest rated show. It wasn't an easy parting of ways is what I remember.

Kobashi starts out at the bottom of the contender ladder. He'll have to work his way up unless Misawa has no other challengers and just starts feeding guys to the champ (Saito, Awesome, Sano, etc.) A re-match between the two could be a draw though.

Kawada did not like Misawa. He didn't like his business practices, style of booking, etc. and sided with Motoko Baba when Misawa wanted to go for more of Sports Entertainment style type booking. The first NOAH show was more flashy than any AJ put on in 2000. Kobashi, Akiyama and Taue all liked Misawa and grew tired of Motoko's poor and "outdated" vision for her deceased husband's company. Kawada wrote them all off and would have probably crippled Taue if he tried to come back and reform the Holy Demon Army team with him. He felt disrespected. The irony of this all is how Motoko welcomed back exiled SWS traitor Genichiro Tenryu back into AJ in 6/00 after Giant Baba had said he would never allow Tenryu to come back to AJ. Then again, Motoko also allowed the company to work with NJ, which would have also been something Baba would have probably scoffed at. When Muto came on board and started siphoning off power and control from Motoko and Tenryu, AJ should have just merged with NOAH. It was like Misawa's vision for AJ except if he were on crack or meth. By the end of 2001, many people were probably wondering why the two sides even broke off anyways.

Well then, I stand corrected. Nice work guys, I tip my hat to you all. I thought Morishima had teamed up with Misawa at the Zero-1 PPV instead. One note, Kobashi has and never will understand how to project himself as the ace of a company. He's had over 10 years to figure it out and he hasn't. I knew about Morishima's knee injury, torn cartilage, but I still figured he was really over with the fans when he came back. At least that's what I had gathered during his return match from a couple months ago. Misawa has always had plans for the Takeshi's since they jumped ship with him to start up NOAH in '00. Rikio got a push practically out of the gate by teaming up with Misawa against Hashimoto and Ogawa in the big co-company tag team match. It was just a matter of telling when Misawa was going to pull the trigger on their singles pushes. They had a 7 month tag team title reign after beating No Fear for the belts and lost them to the Sterness team of Akiyama and Saito. That's not bad company to be next to in the title brackets with. The Rikio tag team tourney win signaled, to me, Misawa finally pulling the trigger on a Rikio push. But I was skeptical as to whether Misawa felt Rikio could hold himself up as the top dog of the company. It appears he does believe in Rikio and possibly Morishima who hasn't gotten pinned since returning to the company. The future looks *much* more brighter for AJPW and NOAH than it does for New Japan right now. There 3rd Young Lions generation is in total free fall with Shibata ditching the company for BIG Mouth and putting Nakamura and Tanahashi at the top of a 1/4 Tokyo Dome show that had no hope of drawing a good crowd. Tanahashi should be the one to have Inoki's blessing for taking the Title Crown from Kojima, not Nakamura. He failed against Bob Sapp who got killed and beaten by both Sasaki and Fujita. That doesn't put Nakamura in a good light to beat Kojima. At least Tanahashi pushed Muto to his limit in their recent singles match. Kojima basically got the rub of his career in his match against Misawa by gaining the upper hand with some offense against the aging legend and the fans reacted to Kojima accordingly. Kojima vs. Misawa at the Tokyo Dome could *maybe* draw a crowd. Maybe. But the booking would have to be top notch. Kobashi vs. Akiyama at 7/10 was elementary because of the shitty and plot hole filled build-up the match had. Perception is everything and good booking could maybe net AJ and NOAH some mint if the two sides started working with each other. Misawa vs. Kawada would be a bust in-ring quality wise but it'd draw if they were willing to work with one another. The polls are a good sign to read about with Rikio's reign. His win does signal a changing of the guard. Hopefully.

The burial of Booker T was atrocious and embarassing. HHH's pre-Mania mic spiels to Booker were so outdated and wrong.

USA can basically stick it to Vince and the WWE here. They have no leverage to lean on with them.

The WWE brought up a *20* year-old 3rd generation wrestler to ME shows. Orton's like Kobe Bryant. He never had anyone tell him "NO" and got work based on his name alone. The guy has never had to work hard to get where he is today. All he had to do was go to the gym and pump a needle in his ass so he'd look big on TV. He's got the height and the looks to be marketed like a company king. But he's got the resolve and wisdom of a 10 year-old who lives in Beverly Hills. There's no way the WWE should have not seen some sort of shit like this coming up. I'm surprised none of the young OVW have gone out and raped and killed someone because of some uncontrollable roid rage. They already lack the maturity but none of these guys are really shown any restaint by management unless they get caught with drugs at some state line or if they mess around with another married worker's girl. Orton supposedly wants to be able to have "old school" stories to tell people when he's older like guys like Harley Race and Dick Murdoch could do. Problem is, half the shit those guys got away with back in the day would wind up making the news today because of the internet and faster news travel. If anyone in the WWE today has a shit fetish then it'll be "revealed" online at some point. Jimmy Valiant might have been able to get away with that back in the day but now that type of thing would make someone's news wire down the line. The WWE should do the company thing and just stiff the shit out of Orton at some point if he continues to act up. Otherwise, he'll never learn what it's like to be humbled. Orton isn't the Rock and he never will be.

USA could so fuck Vince and the WWE in the cornhole right now. He's lucky the former USA suits who he dealt with left the channel. The way I understood it, there was some major bad blood carried over by the Barry Diller and the 2nd-in-command female in-charge who helped keep RAW on the air. Sooooooo fucked. Not even *FOX* will negotiate with the WWE. That says a lot if a company run by chimps won't even deal with hillbilly trash like Vince and Co.

Kid Miracleman was going to comeback. Someone didn't sever the head from the spine enough...

There was also that.

Methinks the WWE just set Orton's career back big time. He's never going to be accepted as a face no matter how many times fans see him with Stacy or some other Diva ho. EVERYONE HAS HAD STACY~ The Dudleyz, Test, Scott Steiner, etc. have all had Stacy by their side at one point. She has terrible taste. HBK posed for Playgirl and the following year his title reign tanked even though he was booked rather strong in the first half of his 1996 title reign. That was *no* coincidence. Orton should just go back to being a heel since the heat he'd be getting would at least be the kind Vince would be shooting for. He's too sleezy and unconvincing to play an honest babyface and doesn't have the mic chops to make people give a shit about him and his problems. Now he's got Kiwi backing him. Where's Alan Funk at? He's *never* going to draw all that big in the future if he has a gay mag spread hanging over his head. Many wrestling fans, going back for decades, have always been chided for liking something as "gay" and "retarded" as wrestling. Now, one of the top young guys of the WWE will be posing in a gay mag. It's like a sick joke is being played by the WWE on its fans here. The WWE doesn't have much of an audience left to lose. But they aren't going to be gaining many new fans with this Orton deal. Terrible move by the WWE here.

I needed some time to think about this match. I have not seen the match yet and I hope to soon. With that said... Tenryu or Sasaki should have beaten Kobashi for the belt. Not Rikio. Rikio does not have a top dog "aura" or presence to him when he steps into the ring. Morishima shows more personality and fire than Rikio and has garnered louder pops than him on many shows. It shows. The fans believe in Morishima more than Rikio and that's how it'll stay unless Rikio gets a personality overhaul. Kobashi's first title match against Rikio was elementary. He wasn't going to lose. Rikio should have gone 0-2 instead of 1-1 with this last win being the most important. It's not his time. Kobashi should have beaten Rikio. Kobashi's next challenger could have then been Morishima. Neither guy has a singles or tag pinfall against the other (IIRC). They have a clean slate. Morishima swears retribution against Kobashi for the defeat of his partner at Kobashi's hands. Sure, Rikio would be 0-2 against Kobashi but he's like the Lance Storm to Morishima's Chris Jericho during their Thrillseekers days. That's just how it should be booked. Morishima has more upside than Rikio does and that plays a huge role in how fans will perceive a wrestler turned champ. Misawa gave the belt to the wrong Takeshi here. Morishima is the guy who could convince fans he's the champ and not look like a transitional errand boy. What could have *really* made NOAH some bank was if Kobashi entered into a feud with the Sasaki Office. Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki, Genichiro Tenryu & new recruit Toshiaki Kawada would pique people's interests. Especially the Sasaki match. Kobashi already wrestled Suzuki, who was a special member of the group, so the gears for a feud could be set right there. Kobashi should just have beaten both of the Takeshi's and then lose the belt to Tenryu or Sasaki in his next title defense. None of NOAH's regulars are strong enough to beat Kobashi. The outsiders are the only ones with the chance to dethrone him. That storyline could have worked. From a business standpoint, the money matches would lie with Kobashi/Akiyama/Misawa vs. Sasaki/Tenryu/Kawada in singles and tag team matches. Bring in Suzuki and some other Sasaki Jr. proteges and NOAH could have a 1 to 2 year money boat trip on their hands within the Heavyweight and Jr. divisions. Once champ Tenryu or Sasaki cut down guys like Kobashi, Akiyama, Misawa, Taue, Sano, and Ogawa is when one of the Takeshi's should be made the champ. It'd have more importance if the "younger" guys did something that the aging veterans were unable to do. Then the "younger" Takeshi's, preferably Morishima, can do the same thing and beat the older guys and *hopefully* get the fans to believe that they're the future and really *are* the champions of NOAH. Wins, wins, wins, and wins are crucial towards building up someone strong. Rikio has never had important singles matches against NOAH's upper tier guys like Kojima and Kea have had in All Japan against guys like Kawada, Muto, Tenryu, etc. Now, Kojima can go out and collect the heads of those who stood in his way of a title win. Satoshi Kojima has a top dog aura and presence to him. It's why I think his title reign will help AJPW out now that Kawada is going to be a free lancer. If Muto can keep himself from getting bent over by NJ then Kojima should be the future ace of AJ that many people felt he could have become under NJ's banner. Time and extremely strong booking will be what makes or breaks Kojima's AJ/NJ title crown reign. He won the mother of all title matches in Japanese history. That still does mean something to fans even if NJ's top belt has been booked like shit over the last year or so. Rikio's title reign future does not look sunny at this point unless Misawa starts feeding him top tier guys for the next 8 to 12 months. Hell, Misawa held onto the Triple Crown for 2 *years* during his first run as champ. That's what kind of reign Rikio will need in order to thrive as champ. Misawa is at least trying with Rikio here...

Thanks Bob. I apologize for the mix-up FBTG. Everyone, just ignore me here, move along. If I knew who BBCW was then I might do something.