The Tino Standard

You know, if that was my Stratus that JBL t-boned when he tried to kill Cena, I'd be pretty pissed off.

... and Batista pulls another Luger in a PPV title match. Of course, the answer is to give him another title shot next month.

LAAAAAAAAAAME

A truly honorable fighting champion, indeed.

I was just thinking the same thing with white ropes. As for WM, if you look closely, they actually used a bright orange, which was even worse than red.

It's a Random Thoughts thread, not a whole "OMG! BREAKING NEWZ! NEW SPINNER BELT WTF!" thread. Relax.

Speaking of titles, I saw this on another message board, but it originally came from a site called wrestlingattitude.com: So, if Triple H retains and Edge drops the world heavyweight title to Batista (thus sending it to Raw) on Sunday, then the pieces are in place for Cena to win the world heavyweight title somewhere down the road and ruin the glorious Big Gold Belt. Now, I have no idea how credible the site where this originated is, and considering Cena's character hasn't really been fitting for a "spinner" belt in a long, long time now, I'm hoping like hell this isn't true. But on the other hand, I can totally see them trying to get more merchandise sales out of something like this. A little piece of me is dying inside already.

I've seen a few people mention Undertaker being part of the revamped SD upper card. With him getting written out by being "fired" off SD, am I the only one seeing him coming to Raw? You still get the Cena-Undertaker match at WM25 that a lot of people were talking about, only now it's a Raw brand match.

These prize winners are reinforcing every awful stereotype about wrestling fans you could ever think of.

Wow, when was the last time Triple H busted out the alternate theme song?

Not in WWE. JR has, in the past, emphatically said during first blood matches that the referee won't call it for a scratch on the elbow or something equally as minor. And it's a good thing they covered their bases that way, because one time in the late 90s - I want to say the Austin-Kane match from KOR 98 - Austin got a small cut on his back or arm after hitting the railing, and the referee just let it go like it never happened.

If you think it's ridiculous now, wait until you see some of the storylines around season 3. I really enjoyed that show when it was on, but man, they went off the deep end over the last couple years. It was like they ran out of plausible stories to tell, so they just started coming up with the most outlandish stuff you could imagine.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/22/bill-law...quad-interview/ Really great interview with Bill Lawrence, talking about the end of the line on NBC and the future of the show on ABC (including a ninth season and beyond without BL, Zach Braff or most of the current main cast around).

Enough with the cheap heat-drawing tactics. Spit it out, Vickie.

Aww, I wanted the WM XIX post-match kick to the groin.

"Native American Deathlock"? Come on, JR

That absolutely makes sense. A guy either SOUNDS like a broadcaster or he doesn't. Adamle definitely has a good PBP voice, and with some coaching on the product and a little patience, I still think he'll be fine. In fact, part of me is starting to wonder if his awful performances the last few weeks have actually been on purpose to start this bizarre angle.

I can't stand to watch ECW anymore thanks to the announcing situation. And by that, I mean ... Tazz. I understand the guy is probably trying to carry more of the broadcast while Adamle gets comfortable, but in the brief time I watched, he was just unbearable. How is Adamle supposed to do anything when Tazz won't let him finish a sentence? Adamle: A nice move by Kofi, and he'll go for the cov- Tazz: WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! Infuriating.

When was this show taped? If it was earlier today like Raw was yesterday, then I don't think they really had much time to clean up the audio like they would for Smackdown, which airs three days later. Adamle was decent, but Tazz needs to slow down and let Adamle get a word in edgewise. Tazz seemed like he was trying really hard to carry the broadcast while Adamle got comfortable, and it was a little much. Tazz was doing play-by-play AND analysis at times, leaving Adamle with little to say. I think they'll mesh over time, though.

A buddy I was watching with summed up tonight's show perfectly: "They turned out the lights, and the party was over." First half of the show was really entertaining... good action, a surprise in the MITB with Matt Hardy returning, an awesome Flair-Michaels match. Then they hit the second half of the show, the lights went out in the women's match and everything from that point on felt like a disjointed mess. - Raw title match felt rushed. And I wonder how much the technical problems hindered the entrances. - Speaking of which, anybody else get the feeling giving Orton the win was a last-minute decision. They had the most elaborate entrances and pre-match hype, complete with the boxing-style intros, yet it goes on before 10 p.m. - Floyd-Show could've been a lot worse, but what they put out was about the best you could possibly hope for. Then again, for a match with that much hype, I think I'm fair in expecting a little bit better than "well, at least it didn't suck." And I don't know what the "shocking swerve" discussed before the show was supposed to be, but I had a feeling the knux were coming into to play when I saw the lackey wearing them in the locker room. Nothing that happened here was earth-shattering. - The main event had us bored to tears until the final 5 minutes. And even then, Undertaker going over was so predictable that it killed any sense of real drama anyway. The real shame of the final three matches being such a letdown was that it totally wasted what I thought was a really entertaining first half. JBL-Finlay, MITB and Flair-HBK were all really, really entertaining. I almost wonder if it was the second half of the show that was strong instead of the first if I would've still walked away feeling disappointed.

Next year in Texas? Is there a leak on next year's WM location already?

Great comeback episode tonight. I almost forgot how much I missed the writing on this show and the way they tie everything together. The crooked apartment was kind of a stretch, but they found a way to pull it together at the end. And did anybody else think we might have really seen the mother tonight? Ted bumped into a random woman in the bar, apologized and forgot about it. Any other show, I wouldn't think twice, but with this show, they don't just do stuff like that if it isn't going somewhere. He said he didn't meet the mother that night, even though she was there. His memories of a lot of other events that night weren't very sharp. Just saying....

That was one of the most entertaining Raw episodes I can remember in ages. I'm normally leaning heavily on the FF button, but I didn't skip almost anything but the commercials tonight. Flair flying through a table off the top rope to beat McMahon... the hot main event... the comedy stuff with Santino cheap-shotting Lawler, then coming back to take his sandwich... That was a fun show.

I was at the tapings. Nothing particularly noteworthy outside of what was posted in the spoilers. Noble got FUBAR'd pretty good with some body blows, but what was even more impressive was the work by the ring crew after that segment. Noble did the "bleeding from the mouth because of 'internal injuries'" bit, and as soon as the ring was cleared, the crew came out, untied the mat, rolled it up, peeled off a tarp underneath and - presto! - they had a clean mat already in place, ready to go. As this was the first time I had attended a Smackdown taping (I've been to more Raws than I can count), I was also impressed with how quickly they got the ring changed over before Smackdown started. Changing the ropes and apron took less than 10 minutes. That crew does some solid work. Pay attention to the 10 count during the Batista-MVP match. The referee took forever to get to 7, then magically threw it into overdrive when MVP got in the ring. Weak. Can't remember which match it is, but one of the refs does the "Tommy Young slide under the ropes to the floor to be in position to count a pin attempt." Love that spot. Kane's "wall of fire" on the new set is bad-ass. Saying the arena was 70 percent full is a little generous, tho I was surprised at how many people were there. The ice storm that hit in the hours leading up to the show was awful, and the freeways here were a disaster. Lower 2 decks of the building were pretty close to full, as was most of the upper deck opposite the main camera. In other words, pretty close to what they had when Raw was here in October. Probably not a good sign for the show when the most interesting stuff is everything but the angles and action in the ring, but for the price of my ticket (free), I won't complain. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night.

This match is moving in slow motion. This is brutal.