Angle-plex

Since Backlash, all they've done is have Hunter kill Batista with a Sledgehammer, constantly remind us that Hunter is undefeated in Hell in the Cell, constantly remind us how great Hunter is at Hell in The Cell matches, and have Hunter pin Batista after a Pedigree. Meanwhile, Batista looks like a fool for falling for the Flair turn. I'd say that the fans look at Batista and Hunter at about even (Hunter was screwed in the rematch and the Gold Rush Tournament) and that the Cell gimmick put Hunter as the favorite to win the match.

I don't get that at all. Why did they give the Shelton/Carlito match on RAW if they are going to do the same match on Sunday? Did they think the first match would be so excellent that people would be demanding a rematch and order the PPV? Really stupid booking. I also hated the ending to RAW. Why they ever have the heel look dominant before a PPV puzzles me. After RAW, Triple H looks to be the favorite to win the Cell match Sunday. So why would I want to pay to see the guy I don't like win? One of the worst RAW's since the dark days of Summer 2002.

-Victoria almost killing the even more annoying than usual Christy Hemme during her psycho face promo?

"I like your poetry" "And I like what you do to babies" Gayest interaction ever. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Did you forget about the Angle/Brock kiss and ass slap?

Did anyone notice how Batista didn't get hit with one move in almost BOTH matches he was in, but once he gets hit with the pedigree (complete with Batista's non-head hitting the mat action) he's DONE. Boy, one move and the champ is toast huh? And what a creative finish with Flair interfering and Tips hitting the Pedigree for the win. Did Angle and HBK vanish while brawling in the crowd? I look foward to Batista shaking the ropes and pointing his thumbs down this Sunday.

Well, that was the worst RAW I've seen in quite a while, and I need a bit to recover from watching it, but two things that stood out in my mind as AWFUL are the wedding, which was basically saying "We know that you know what REALLY happend with Matt Hardy, Edge, Lita, and we'll fake doing that, but we'll deliver the storyline that you know is fake". Kane's head poking up was laughably bad. Snitsky's promo was embarrassing. The guy who plays the character of Gene Snitsky must have felt like a fucking TOOL after reading the poem and walking backstage. The other awful thing was the very unfunny, very uninteresting, somewhat homosexual interaction between Angle and Bischoff. Angle must be REAL horny lately, with the whole Sharmell thing and him coming on so strong to Bischoff.

Jericho right now is beyond stale because his character has been the same since 2000. His finisher, entrance, music, attire - nothing has changed. WWE seems to realize that he's stale, but they don't know why, so they turn him face/heel every couple of months thinking it will freshen up his character. It won't. I franky wouldn't WANT to see a Chris Jericho World Title run at the moment. His in-ring work isn't good enough to justify his stale character.

The Spider-Man movies have the same problem, but at least Rachel as a love interest is actually important to the film before she becomes a "Damsel in Distress" at the end. Joker could work if the didn't make him over-the-top silly like Nicholson's character was and actually make him a sociopath that enjoys disfiguring/killing people. Knightfall wouldn't really work, because you'd need all the actors who previously played villians to come back. Plus Azrael is pretty important to the story, although it would be impossible to pull off in this new Batman "universe" because we have learned that Batman can, in fact, let people die - one of the main reasons that Bruce Wayne and Robin were appalled at Azrael in Knightfall. The Burton movies have aged horribly. I tried watching the first one a couple of months ago and couldn't even get though it.

But the last thirty minutes (the only bad part of the movie) was a standard formulaic superhero movie.

I saw it again (dragged by a friend against my will basically, saw if for free though) and picked up on a few more things I didn't like about it. -Comissioner Gordon in the Batmobile shooting out the train tracks was just ugh. He looked like a bumbling idiot who just gets lucky with the shots. Granted that Gordon was never an action hero, but then why put him in the situation? -Too many main villians. First, the "big" bad guy is the mobster. Then we find out that it's actually the ScareCrow. Then we find out that it's Ra's. All three villians were done well, but we didn't need all of them in this movie. I really liked Scarecrow though. -Clunky fight scenes, but that's somewhat understandable. -Batman is an action hero in this movie, not Batman. Where is the detective skills? He didn't figure anything out. In fact, he was more like The Punisher in that he just went after the bad guys and fought them. One of the keys to Batman's character is that he's smart - really smart, and he's usually ten steps ahead of everyone else. -Lastly, Batman letting Ra's die was horrible in my book. "I'm not going to kill you, but I don't have to save you? Please. Batman's code of honor is not to kill anyone throught action or inaction. Plus, Ra's is a cool villian who shouldn't have died, as they could bring him back in the sequals. Upon the second viewing though, I liked a few things even more, like the Scarcrow, the Batman scene at the docks (he's actually scary), Katie Holme's character (she does have a purpose, at least until the end), and the car chase, which I didn't care for the first time (rooftops?), but ended up really enjoying the second time. I actually think reading Batman: Year One ruined the movie a little for me, but I'd still give it a 7 or 8 out of 10.

After all the flaming began. I found out that Zacalex was from my home town of Lynn, MA. I wonder if I've ever seen him around before....

Just saw it. I have to say that acting is great and the first hour is superb. The second half was just normal superhero movie stuff, which is unforunate since it could have been great if they kept the more human approach that the first half did, but it was all well done and was overall a good film.

Why would Angle want to play second fiddle to Triple H? Doesn't he want the World Title to? Would he really join this group knowing that his job would be to help Trips get the title and not himself? The Horsemen are better left dead.

So Batista accepted the challenge. Yeah, that'll show Triple H. Batista sure out smarted him this time. And what is Triple H going to do next monday? Sit in his locker room, growing his moustache?

Any idea that has HBK and Triple H teaming up after seeing them try to kill each other five million times the past three years is a bad idea in my mind. I'd rather see HBK and Angle have a mutual respect for one another and feud with Triple H/Flair while someone else main events with Batista or Cena, but I don't even know if I like that idea very much.

Those two examples are different. Shane's turned shocked the hell out of everyone at the time, and only a small amount of people picked McMahon to be the higher power. Most fans were as legitimately fooled as Austin. After Flair's beyond obvious turn and the accepting of giving Triple H yet ANOTHER World Title shot, Batista just looks naive.

Actually, he lost the rematch, lost the #1 contender tournament, then proceded to quit RAW for two weeks, but your point is still valid. Batista got over initially because he crossed the normal "stupid face" line by not falling for Trips's obvious traps. After WMXXI he was put right into that generic inside the box type approach that all faces have been in the past five years. The biggest face in the last 10 years, Austin, was over because he crossed this line and REMAINED there, not falling for anyone's shit, and THAT's why he was so huge. That's a big problem in WWE right now; all the faces and all the heels obey the same rules, regardless of what character they are/were playing.

Oh and what was with that Trips/Batista/Angle stuff. Hunter was trying to get Batista to fight Angle next week so Batista would be hurt for the cell. Batista responds with "I know what you're doing. Stop it". So I guess Batista's not falling for Hunter's tricks....until he announces that he's going to be fighting Kurt next week. Boy, they may call Hunter the cerebral assasin, but I guess Batista's just a step ahead of him huh? He really showed the game who's boss by agreeing to fight Kurt next week. Fuck, Hunter didn't even have to use reverse psychology or ANYTHING for that trick.

The only logical way that the Batista/Triple H story can end is with Hunter getting the belt back. It's been Hunter losing the belt to the monster Batista, Hunter being screwed out of winning due to the ref being down, Hunter being screwed out of the #1 contender tournament, Bischoff saying "too bad", and it all came to a climax with Hunter challenging Batista to "one last match". We already KNOW Batista can beat Triple H cleanly. What exactly should the crowd be hoping for Batista to achieve in this match? Do they want him to beat Triple H again? No, everyone is wondering if Triple H can actually achieve his three month goal of beating Batista. The heel/face aspect is reversed. Not to mention that the whole Hell in A Cell thing only with a roman numeral citing what match number in this "epic" feud it is are only attempts to make it seem more important than it actually is.

Austin's segment was so unpredictable tonight. What a way to make use of him. And Chris Masters? I was really impressed by his victory tonight. Nothing will get you over as a mega-heel like beating Sgt.Slaughter in the year 2005. They totally fooled me when Jericho attacked Cena. I never saw that coming, especially because of the prior Jericho segment where he said he wanted a title shot, followed by Bish telling him to prove it. I thought he was just going to take out Christian and Tomko! Nothing like making a predictable turn more predictable than it already was. Then there was a bunch of nonsense, followed by Angle going to RAW. Thank God. There was nothing left for him to do on Smackdown. Just keep him away from Triple H. Those two have less chemistry together than Benoit and Guerrero.

While he certainly shouldn't be crucified for having one bad match, you can't just "Eh. He didn't try, but he USUALLY does so he's off the hook this time". Blaming the crowd, broken nose and the time it was given is nonsense as well. The match was going nowhere to begin with. They didn't try to display any type of wrestling psychology, instead opting to throw out chops and random moves until Benoit's tap out victory finish.

Why are people trying to justify Eddie's shitty perfomance in that horribly dissapointing match last night? The guy didn't try and the match sucked. It doesn't matter if he wasn't an ECW guy or not; if he was on the show, he should have gave 100% for, you know, the fans that bought the PPV.

Tanaka had a good match with Balls Mahone as well...

Fun show. Benoit and Eddy have NEVER has chemistry together, even back when Black Tiger/Wild Pegusus faced off, so I didn't expect anything out of them. Mike Awesome GLADLY proved me wrong; he can still go. As for Tanaka....SIGN HIM RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!! The guy can just work a match. The first three matches were "alright" but this show wasn't really about the matches. Heyman's shoot was great. WAY too much WWE stuff for my taste. What was with showing BRADSHAW'S reaction to every move in the Tanaka/Awesome match? The production and camera work were way too WWE like too, but it was expected. Lots of mark out moments make this a thumbs up PPV for now, but a few weeks down the line I think we'll look back on this show and say it was only decent.

The Cena/Xtian/Jericho was stuff was real good, and the ECW stuff was OK, but the rest of the show was hard to sit through, and the Batista/Hunter feud SUCKS. Whoever is writing the script for that feud must have some watching some cheesy B-movie or something.