notJames

That's my story to a tee, although it was the WWF that brought me back and not wCw. I too started renting PPV tapes from the blackout period just to get up to speed. The Internet also helped in that capacity. I daresay I might be returning if things don't get better. And that UFC stuff is really starting to grow on me, though I wish there was more submission stuff.

They'll just use T-t-t-t-tanka in some casino skit where he's the guy at the door greeting everyone. He'll do his little Indian dance, beat a tomtom and say, "Hi-how-are-ya, hi-how-are-ya."

i was thinking that exact same thing... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Y'know, if this match actually gets booked, would you guys agree that (in terms of star power) it would be the biggest match in the history of professional wrestling? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'll bet Tony Schiavone would agree.

Wax and wane, wax and wane… It's 1994 all over again. I am hopeful though, seeing that Lesnar is coming back, and from what I just read, Spanky and Jamie Noble as well. Of course, with Jillian the Mole Girl and the Boogeyman, I'm not sure that the balance will ever be set right again.

I agree with der Barron. As for saving SD!, if UPN is so sour on WW_ now after HassanGate, I doubt anything save incriminating photos can save that show. Maybe USA will free up a Thursday slot for it.

Nice. I better buy Season Five soon before Six comes out. As for Matt Young's complaint about buying stuff new and perfect, I've run into many DVDs from Be(a)st Buy that were damaged, usually because of damage to the packaging. When I bought the Ultimate Matrix Collection, Reloaded had a scratch from one of the disc holders shattering. Shards of plastic spilled out of the case. Needless to say, I exchanged it for a new one. However, I still don't trust eBay enough to purchase stuff from it.

Picture-in-picture. MNF gets priority (especially since I'll be doing Fantasy Football again), but if RAW looks promising on the small silent screen, I might switch off. If I ever hook up my damn TiVo box and get a subscription, I'll go the Dangerous A route.

Just "disappear" him to OVW until he can learn to wrestle. As for all the smarks that will remember him as Hassan, who the fuck cares? Guys have been repackaged since the beginning of wrestling history, regardless of who they were before. Case in point: Simon Dean. Sure, ECW fans knew he was Nova, but obviously WW_ didn't care. In fact, they care so little that they have Mike Bucci wrestle as both characters! So why should repackaging Magnus be any different?

I think the whole lawnmower bit is to tell America that they're not going to be just cutting lawns and washing dishes for the gringos anymore. The uniforms are to remind you that the days of servitude are over. They're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore! Viva la revolucion!!! Oh who am I kidding? Vince and Co. are not exactly known for their stance on racial equity. At least they have outfits that match. And I find it hilarious that their Spanglish is so bad, Juvy has to be the spokesman for them.

In a way, I can see where the arguments arise. If you use a guy's finisher as something other than a finisher, then that move is seen as just another move. It takes away part of the distinction that wrestlers have amongst themselves. Granted, there are only so many times you can say "don't do powerbombs, that belongs to so-and-so" to everyone, but at least Batista is savvy enough to change his a little so that his stands out. Same with EDDY~! and RVD's frog splashes. On the other hand, it's Job Holly. The Alabama Slam is a transition move. Fuck him if he's not smart enough to come up with something better. And like it's been said before, it's a perfect opportunity for London to bring back the SSP. It's a nicer looking move anyway, and I've yet to see him mess it up. And Juvy just needs to move the guy further away from the turnbuckles. Perhaps his experience with wCw's smaller rings threw off his perspective.

I don't get how people can use the "he's young/he's got room to improve" argument. WW_ is supposed to be the pinnacle of the wrestling world. WW_ Wrestlers should be good enough not to have to fall on some crutch like "oh, he's still learning the business". If I wanted to watch wrestling school, I'll buy OVW tapes. I watch WW_ to watch competent, entertaining wrestling, not good mic work to disguise horrible wrestling. I can't even call what Carlito does "wrestling". His HTM act is so stale, and to top it all off, he's bringing down the secondary singles title of their flagship show. Sure, you can say it's management's fault for putting him there in the first place way before he was ready. But fuck, even he should realize he's nowhere near good enough to be defending the IC against someone as good as Shelton Benjamin, who was way better when he first came in than most of the other lumps now. Yeah, Carlito's got potential. If so, let him develop it in OVW. I don't need to see it on my TV.

I chose The Royal Tenenbaums. All four of them were well done, but Tenenbaums just seemed to affect me more. I really loved the family dynamic, the way everyone interacted with each other, especially when they didn't get along.

I don't get why anyone would want to pair up Angle with any of HHH's cronies. Or rehash the Horsemen. Or watch another Hogan match. Or want HHH back on TV. Truth be told, though, I would love to see Mr. Showstopper lay down for something as lame as the Orange Leg Drop.

Not for me. Although, the "Hardy attacks Edge and gets tackled" peaked this week. One of them needs to bleed now. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, with Kane v. Edge in a stretcher match next week, rest assured someone other than the regular "ambulance" crew will be ready to open the rear doors. "Where to, Adam? Hahahahahahahaha!"

Kane vs. Edge Steel Cage... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh man, if that's the case, I can only imagine what the Matt Hardy run-in and subsequent beatdown is gonna look like.

Yeah, but in a good way. Conway was pretty decent last night. And I like his finisher. Lots of way to pull that off, especially against guys who like to springboard off the ropes or climb the turnbuckle. I just hope they don't go with the whole "con man" gimmick, and that it's just a play on his name to do things the "Con Way".

Damn, another reason to like Batista. And it's too bad this Diva got cut. Even though I hate the whole Diva Search, Canadian Filipinos gotta represent. Pinoy power!

Neither of them have done anything for me lately. Even those who argue that Cena is superhumanly over should listen to his crowd reactions lately. His exchanges with Jericho last week were somewhat underwhelming.

They'll probably use it as a springboard (no pun intended) for Juvy to challenge for the Cruiserweight belt and/or the "Battle of the 450s".

Ugh. What a shitstorm SD! was. Are they deliberately sandbagging the show so that RAW looks that much better? All those wrestlers released and they bring back Animal to vie for the tag titles?!? Does anyone believe something like this will give MNM credibility? "Sure guys. Just defend the belt against Hacksaw Duggan '05 and the head booker's washed-up brother. This will launch you into the stratosphere! People will mention your name in the same breath as luminaries like the Beverly Brothers! Or the Dynamic Dudes!!!" So, with Kidman gone and Juvy using the 450, does London finally get to use the SSP? I mean, after he recovers from that concussion? Oh, and tell Juvy not to unpack if he keeps fucking that move up.

Considering the kind of weird booking that is going on (Creepy Pedophile Eddy, the return of Road Warrior Animal, Snitsky's foot fetish, Viscera, the Boogeyman), I doubt the writing team has enough chops to pull off such an elaborate work. Occam's Razor suggests that, as most have already pointed out, the breakup was real, the release was real, and that the overwhelming audience/Internet reaction caused Vince and Co. to use it to jump start the work/shoot angle.

Let's fill in the blanks you seem so adamant about leaving behind: "You see masked men wearing faux-army fatigues beating someone and using a garotte to evoke images of removing one's head from one's body in a group led by an Arab-American who consistently decries what in his mind is a prevalent anti-Arab sentiment, which then carries away their fallen comrade in a ritualistic display of honour for sacrifice and right away your brain jumps to images of guys getting beheaded by terrorists. Quite a leap. Is it starting to sink in yet? And stop with the "replace A with B" strawman tactics, because it doesn't hold water.

Hear hear. If only they had presented Hassan from the beginning as merely a Arab-American trying to dispel the myths about his heritage and let the audience decide whether they approve of him or not, none of Vince's bluster and backtracking would be necessary. A well-rounded character could have naturally evolved from it instead of going directly to the knee-jerk "anti-American" heel that WW_ thinks is a ticket to the big money. Because that shit hasn't worked in a long time, especially the way they always seem to go about it.

But you can't take Hassan and Daivari out of the equation because WW_ tailored their characters specifically to play on anti-Arab sentiment. The angle was designed to evoke images of terrorist activity, whether they spell it out or not. You can't argue that it's just a wrestling angle simply by replacing the characters in it. The storylines would play out so differently if it didn't have the anti-Arab element in it. To say otherwise is turning a blind eye to the original thought process (or lack thereof) that created it. I'm not saying I was offended by it. Personally, Hassan and Undertaker are "wrestlers" I don't really pay attention to to begin with. But I do have to question the lengths to which WW_ is willing to prey upon the (unfortunate) prevailing "us against them" attitude that the average wrestling audience seems to engender. Especially when the spectre of war and terrorism is still a fact of life that much of the world still lives with.

D'oh! Thanks for the info. And DA's right. WW_ doesn't have to play it up… they just choose to dumb it down for the masses who probably wouldn't see Daivari as anything but a "damn foreigner" anyway. Sad commentary on both Vince and Co. and the world in general.