notJames

When someone trusts you enough to look after their child, you have to be even more vigilant with them than with your own kid. That's something a parent should automatically know. According to Kathleen Grossett-Tate, Lionel's mom: She recalled hearing a noise from downstairs where Lionel and Tiffany were playing. "I came and opened the door upstairs. I didn't go all way downstairs, I opened the door and I said, 'What was that noise?' And Lionel said, 'That was Tiff.' " Grossett-Tate said she heard a sort of moaning noise, not crying or screaming, but she didn't go downstairs to check on the children. "I went back and laid down. Later on, I don't know how long after that, Lionel ran up the stairs knocking on the door." Lionel told his mother that Tiffany wasn't breathing. She said she ran downstairs, checked Tiffany, started doing CPR, and called 911. Ever since then, she's struggled with the fact that she didn't go downstairs. "You just don't know. You know how when things happen, people say, 'If only.' If only I had gone downstairs." I've watched my friend's kids many times, and even I know to check out every moan, cry, wail, or even silence when they're not within my line of sight. Lionel's attorney Richard Rosenbaum relays his thoughts: Rosenbaum said Lionel has begun to talk in detail about what happened the night Tiffany died, and it's quite different from the story that came out at his trial. Rosenbaum said, "I believe … what really happened was Tiffany went down to the bottom of the spiral staircase. She laid down. Lionel went upstairs to go to the bathroom, when he came down, like a 12-year-old, he bound down the stairs, he jumped and he landed on her." According to Rosenbaum, this was enough to lacerate Tiffany's liver and crack her skull. "Lionel describes it as she jerked up like she'd been hit with a fibrillator and her head hit the ground again," he said. Rosenbaum thinks that Lionel was too afraid to tell the truth at the trial. "He's just a kid. He didn't know what would help — and this actually sounds worse," he said. There are even more contradicting stories coming out of this case, stuff like the slamming couldn't have been done the way it was described because there was exercise equipment and boxes in the supposed area that it took place. You can read the article here. The worst part is that no one will ever know the whole truth.

In all the hubbub over the culpability of a child, was there any discussion, legal or otherwise, about the woman who was supposed to be watching the two kids? From what I understand, the woman was sleeping when all this occurred, and when she heard the little girl screaming, she either told her to shut up or told Lionel to shut her up. Where does her responsibility lie? Because if it was up to me, she should have gotten the chair.

Agreed. Of course, a good portion of the RAW roster elicits similar apathy from me. Thank goodness for picture-in-picture and SD!:HCTP.

I think it was more the circumstances involved in that spot more than anything that caused the gaff. First off, Jericho is already shorter than Orton. Secondly, Jericho was crouched over doing the Walls, so he's even shorter at that point. Thirdly, Orton insists on pulling off the move as a running finisher, when the mechanics involved are either too contrived or just plain overkill. Finally, I don't think Jericho was even ready for the spot; otherwise, he wouldn't have had the Walls cinched in so tight so that he could transition out of it into the RKO. Truth be told, the RKO is just a plain dumb finisher. Orton looks like an emu trying to fly when he jumps off his feet for the move.He should just tweak the 3.0 with a bit of flourish and use that as his finisher. In that sense, he could use his height to his advantage.

Sounds like gangrene. I didn't know lethargy was contagious.

I don't consider Animal House to be a teen movie for the sole reason that it's set at a university. Pump Up The Volume is also a great flick, but unfortunately didn't make enough of an impact. Lots of great quotable lines in that one. Plus, when he was in his prime, Christian Slater was awesome, Nicholson schtick or not. American Graffiti should definitely be on this list, but I guess it's a little too old for most of the young whippersnappers in here. In essence, the '80s defined the "teen movie" genre, so other generations can't possibly live up to it. Speaking of which, all those teen movies from the late 90s and up can go fuck a duck. Paltry imitations and retreads. Phooey!

The whole point is to make everything look authentic, while still protecting your opponent from real injury. Holly refuses to do that. Perhaps he should think about that every time he rubs his neck.

I too don't understand the non-logic of going after a belt Benoit had no interest in for the last few months. However, squabbles over title legitimacy aside, the only thing I see when I think of Benoit going after the RAW belt is... ... he will have to fight Triple H to get it. And that's what keeps me from being happy. I'm not even talking about the politics that shaped this predicament already, or the future shenanigans to come. I mean, did you see Trip wrestle last night? Or all those other nights with guys whom HHHe deemed "unworthy"? Don't even bring up his epic RAW bout with HBK that got everyone chanting "Clique! Clique! Clique!", because if you're not Trip's best friend, don't count on getting the best out of him. And that's what I see happening at WMXX. No matter how awesome it might be to see Benoit wearing gold, it will have transpired after a tacked-on uneven feud and a lackluster match with a guy with too much water weight, too many injuries, and too much ego to make anyone but himself look good. The next few weeks will be crucial; if they can truly make Benoit look like he's on even ground with HHH, give him real motivation to go after the RAW belt, than maybe...just maybe, Benoit can extract something good out of this... ... but I'm not counting on it.

I think he's doing fine. His overly "flame-boyant" antics are slowly catching on with some of the fans. I don't necessarily agree that they need to go full-bore face with him, but his wrestling is decent if he has someone good to work with. I remember his match with Rey Rey a long time ago was really good. All he really needs is something interesting to do. Maybe there's a feud brewing betwixt him and La Res. Could be interesting, given the un-manly tendencies of Dupree. He won't ever be Main Event material, but for the most part he's still entertaining.

We'll probably be getting lots of pre-taped vignettes taunting Kane until the RAW before WMXX. Taker will come out Old School, scare the shit out of Kane, and the Mania match will be on like neckbone. Or something.

All I know is that I heard and saw lots of people cheering when he got eliminated.

How do you explain the pop when he got eliminated? I'm not sure we can attribute it to Angle in this instance.

I want Brock to take him to school. Embarass him on all fronts... out-grapple him (yeah, I know...), overpower him, absorb all F.G.B. can dish out and still hoist him up for the F-5. A Jericho-esque cocky pin would be icing on the cake. That or pull a Holly and drop him on his head.

Any suggestions? So far I haven't seen any matches end that way. Which moves would qualify?

Because Goldberg called him a pussy during an interview beforehand. They also had a brief staredown at another co-PPV (SurSer maybe?), so they were probably playing that up as well. Decent bit of continuity there, but I'd still prefer Lesnar fight someone who can actually wrestle for more than three minutes.

That list begins and ends with The Breakfast Club. I think Heathers is a better film by far, but it wasn't mainstream enough to have as big of an impact. But I think both films are neck and neck when it comes to quotable lines.

Seriously, when a tables match goes five minutes, and involves exactly one person going through a table, that doesn't exactly fill a crowd with anticipation.

Hmmm... a pathetic James Brown rip-off and a pathetic Adorable Adrian rip-off... Viscera could have tossed them both and he'd still get the crowd pop. I'd say Orton benefits from default Philly hate. And no way would Vince let F.G.B. get a win over his golden boy, especially on his way out the door.

Easy answer: to give Austin something to do. Back on topic: I hate this bittersweet feeling, knowing that Benoit will be fed to HHH and his bid for legitimacy (not to mention Benoit having to make Evolution "look good" for the next six months) and Lesnar will have to sully himself by facing F.G.B. On the other hand, that little glimmer of hope of both Benoit and Lesnar going buck-wild on their respective opponents makes me want to believe there is a Santa Claus, if only for a brief moment. Sigh. Maybe HHH and Goldberg will injure themselves between now and WMXX. I'd love to see the damage control in that situation. Maybe Vince would finally pull the trigger on Benoit and Lesnar for the title. Incidentally, did anyone catch that "Cock Molester" sign last night? Priceless!

Just wanted to say that Big Show gave an excellent promo last night when he berated Lesnar for leeching off his protection, and then telling him how he was gonna win the Rumble and take the title at WMXX. His speech was concise and direct, it illustrated his motivation to a tee, gave his character more dimension than just the average "me bad guy, hurt good guy", and was delivered impeccably. I haven't been the biggest fan of his work, but he's showing a lot more motivation in and out of the ring, and his performance last night was very efective in making him a viable threat. Not only that, aside from Lesnar's stupid fart joke, Show made Lesnar look vulnerable and added to the whole "afraid of Bob Holly" angle. He made it sound like "If you get past Holly, you'd better watch out for me", and if they can get that over, it might just put Show back in true contender form, instead of as a second banana or high-profile choker. (Now if only he could shed some of those pounds...) So why can't the bookers put that much effort into everybody? Is it really that hard to make everyone on their shows seem important, on any level?

But he's never stated it as such, at least not lately. There's no real basis of motivation to do that other than the deus ex machina that you gave. And that kind of lazy writing is what's killing their shows. Besides, does he now proclaim that HHH's title is the more prestigious trophy, thus rendering Lesnar and his reign impotent by comparison? The only way they could pull that off in any satisfactory way would be to truly start a "wrestling war" between the two shows, actively poking jabs at each other in an attempt to prove which program is better. And they've proven time and time again that they're not willing to do it.

Any time Akio takes a West Coast Pop from Rey Rey. Damn, he takes that head bump like UN HOMBRE!

Hey, great contribution. Honestly, I'm not surprised. I've given up hope Benoit will ever be seriously pushed in North America. Hey, great contribution. Until Benoit actually jobs to HHH, this is all speculation. Seems shockingly like something smarkish that's been written to create headlines. Maybe that's just me. Hey, great contribution. Rumour or not, my blood boils at the thought that they would have Benoit give up his quest for Lesnar and his title to go to RAW, essentially with his tail between his legs, and go after a consolation prize.

Unfortunately, they scored more than enough to beat my Nets last night. Damn.

Hear hear. I would suggest heading to Times Square to the MTV offices, since it was The Real World that arguably paved this particular road to hell.