The Tino Standard

The ticking was the best. And as for Lita's and Trish's songs, I guess I'm in the minority by saying I don't mind them. And for the record, Lita's song WAS released on a CD- the Forceable Entry CD last year. She used the music starting at X-8 and continued using it for her few appearances before wrecking her neck.

Come on... We all know the guy who will take out Goldberg.... Frank Stallone.

Kent read. Kent write. Kent State. Go Bobcats.

I want to see some of the wrestlers wearing these on TV. Austin's "F*CK FEAR" shirt has run its course.

WHATAMANEUVUR!

Any idea when the next conference call is? I'm about ready for another fill of Linda's company-line following bullshit. Just in case anybody has forgotten, "IT TAKES TIME TO BUILD NEW STARS."

That video is SWANK. And you know, if the actual Elimination Chamber matches had moves as cool as that wall-to-wall thing by RVD and the swing-from-the-roof rana by Rey Mysterio, they'd have been SO much better. I hope you can actually do that in the game.

What percentage of the country actually gets NBA TV? I thought this channel was more of a myth than anything else right now.

Cavs. Playoffs. Book it.

Don't discount the Twinkies. They've been playing damn good baseball the second half of the year and New York has proven the last year that it can be beaten in the postseason, after all. But yeah, I'll admit. I want to see the Cubs win the Series. I can remember back to when I was like 7 or 8 coming home after school and watching the Cubs on WGN (and I'm a senior in college now). The Indians are still my No. 1 team far and away, no questions asked, but if I need an NL, the Cubs are it. And by the way, my roommate used to live in Chicago and he worships the Cubs. If the Cubbies won the World Series, I'd probably be able to convince him to buy the beer for our apartment for the rest of the year, no questions asked. So yeah, Cubbie Pride, all the way.

Sure, HHH has been fighting through injuries and all and that takes some serious guts. And yes, his work as the champion became a guilty pleasure of mine by the end of his run because of some his old school, Flair-like tactics (seriously, watch the title loss to Goldberg and tell me that wasn't a carbon-copy of Flair), but I'm sorry, I just can't feel THAT sorry for the guy. His face run which included crushing Jericho in the culmination of possibly the worst WrestleMania title feud ever still sticks with me. And how many time did we have to go through the exact same thing in a title feud with him over the last year or so? It became so predictable and simply not fun. Even when he lost the title, things felt anti-climatic. His in-ring abilities simply are not up to standard with what they once were. I respect the guy for finding ways to stay on top while he can, but quite frankly, if he's gone for awhile, I say good. He's run his course as the champion. I say, let HHH heal up for a couple months, then come back and let him prove how over he is in a feud that DOESN'T revolve around a title. He had the HBK match at SummerSlam '02. Since then, he hasn't had a single feud that hasn't had the crutch of a world title to keep things interesting. Proving himself as a draw WITHOUT using the world title would be a real achievement.

Minor point, but just an FYI: Blazing Saddles came out in '74.

Not exactly sure what you mean by this, but if I am correct in understanding it, how about Bret-Yoko (IX, X) or Austin-Rock (XV, XVII, then another grudge match at XIX)?

What did Dean Edwards do other than the MTV Sway character? Watching an SNL documentary on E!, Edwards had a dead-on impression of Michael Jackson lined up for a skit a couple years ago. Unfortunately, it was TOO good. Lorne Michaels took out the skit during the dress rehersal because Edwards looked so much like white-guy Jacko, nobody would know who he actually was. That's a big rule on SNL: Audience members and TV viewers need to know who the actor is playing the role at all times. Apparently, Edwards' costume was too convincing. And looking at the cast lineup for this year, it's kinda sad. I don't even recognize half the names on there. And the ones I do recognize, a lot of them I'm lukewarm on at best. Yeah, I like Tina Fey and I'll admit to finding her attractive (tho, without the TV makeup, she looked kinda frightening in the cast meetings on the E! documentary... yikes). But as for Jimmy Fallon... I found him funny until I started realizing that he can't get through a show without breaking character and laughing in the middle of a scene. That's just bad form.

Blazing Saddles is an absolutely brilliant movie. You could NEVER get away with making something like that today, which quite frankly I find sad and at the same time, ignorant. People now are so obsessed with being politically correct that if they see a movie with any hint of racism, they want it struck down with vengeance. But what those people don't see is that the racist folk in Blazing Saddles are the idiot bad guys who get made to look like simple-minded buffoons in just about every scene. The movie makes racist look like out of touch idiots and it's really really funny. It's really a pretty damn good movie all in all. (And it is in our Top 5 all-time quotable movies here at school) Mel Brooks rules it.

Honestly, I think WMXX will be a really good show (I enjoyed WMXIX this year and did not feel cheated out of my money at all by ordering it), but as far as living up to expectations? ... No way. They just don't have the talent, the storylines or the mainstream cache to put on a show THAT good. Face it, every time people get psyched up THAT much for a show, it doesn't deliver. You need the greatest wrestling show in the history of the world to even have a CHANCE of delivering on expectations like that and right now (and come March 2004), WWE is (will be) in no position to put on a show that solid.

I just hope we don't get the apathetic Super Bowl-type crowd, where the only people that are there are the rich types that don't give a fuck and just want to go because it's the place to be.

I know the game scenes are shot in the SkyDome in Toronto. But I guess that probably doesn't mean much as far as what city they're playing for storyline-wise. And yeah, I wanted somebody to explain to me how a 20-minute halftime could last an hour. That was dumb.

That Evolution theme song on there is AWESOME... And yes, thankfully they didn't include the dumb brass section at the beginning. I wish they kept the ticking clock. The whole "passing of time" thing really worked.

Good for him. But how long do you think it will take for some wrestler to diss the Rock in a promo? They ALWAYS send someone out to badmouth a former wrestler who doesn't kiss Vince's ass up and down. The funny thing is, where in the past, that might have gotten some sort of an "Ooooh, I can't believe he said that" reaction, trying to do that to the Rock would blow up in their faces horribly.

Shit, how could I forget? PRICE IS RIGHT, baby! I've had quarters where I've scheduled my classes so that I had the 11 a.m. hour open... I think that qualifies as must-see.

I think we're at the point now where the core fans are going to watch each show, no matter what. Losing one PPV wouldn't somehow kill the ratings. People aren't watching one show or the other because the perceive it as being the more-talented roster. Then again, WWE writers would never think this way, which would mean a PPV with matches between brands would be a night full of non-finishes.

Yeah, I was at Invasion... That stage looked pretty sweet, except I really didn't understand having that 'blackhole' triangle in the middle. It proved to be near-disaster for several wrestlers. Incidentally, they were actually still setting up the ramp until about 30 seconds before the PPV went on the air. If for some reason, you have a copy of the Sunday Night Heat match beforehand, watch Chavo come out the Alliance curtain, walk across the stage, then come down the WWF ramp. The WCW/ECW side wasn't carpeted yet. The crew still worked on it all during the Heat match, finishing JUST in time.

- Raw - 24 - Ed - Syndicated shows: Seinfeld, Friends (I watch new Friends eps maybe 50/50... Thursday is a going-out night). At one time, Boston Public was on the list, but that show has gone down the shitter the last two years. Playmakers on ESPN is on the verge of joining my "Must See" list.

Hey, maybe some day we can get through a thread relating to announcers without suggesting WWE should hire Joey Styles. GET OVER IT.