The Tino Standard

In retrospect, it might have been a good thing that Austin injured his knee in the Final Four match. Having him win the title that night would've taken a lot of the mystique of him winning the belt and starting the "Austin Era" a year later.

Actually, I think HHH would've made a pretty good villain working for the ACME Corp. Eh, screw it. I'm just glad the Looney Tunes are back. I'm a total mark for them.

Look at it this way... Of course the show is going to be ridiculously overpriced, but if you can afford it, spectacular... have a great time. If you can't, I promise that you'll be able to make a killing on Ebay.

I was the big spender tonight and bought both the 8pm AND the 10pm showings of tonight's TNA show (broke the bank!). I have TWDC down off campus here at OU in Athens and it worked fine both showings. Sounds like you had some bad luck.

How about shooting some hoops with Kevin Nash? Maybe if he tried a lay-up, he'd tear his quad.

I missed that part of Raw last night, but that is one of the sickest bumps I've seen in a long time.

Yeah, the face on that action figure sucks, but the packaging for that figure is AWESOME. They actually cover his face and make you buy him in order to see it. That's hysterical.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually miss the days of: "1... 2.... 3 HE GOT HIM!........... oh wait, no he didn't" and "WHATAMANEUVER!"

Wasn't he involved in an AWESOME cruiserweight match with Malenko at Backlash a couple years ago?

The reason they don't put in an Edit-a-Wrestler mode is that they don't want people changing the gimmicks of the characters, pretty much for the exact reason you'd want to. A guy changes his gimmick and suddenly his look is completely different from what's on the game. Do you get to change it? Sure, you'd LIKE to, but no, that's not an option. If you want the new and improved version of your guy, you have to buy the next game. Follow the money.

Why not make him a tweener? He seems to play a pretty good shit-stirrer from both sides (heel/face) when necessary during the Highlight Reel.

So that would mean there is an actor hired to trick a bunch of other actors who thought THEY were hired to trick HIM? Good lord, don't say that too loudly or someone will make a show of it.

Major League has edits all over it... ORIGINAL VERSION Jake Taylor: Well, I guess there's only one thing to do... Some other guy: What's that? Taylor: Win the whole fuckin' thing. Willie Mays Hays: Yeah. EDITED VERSION Jake Taylor: Well, I guess there's only one thing to do... Willie Mays Hays: Yeah. *** On a semi-related note, I LOVE the sketch on Mr. Show that is a parody of Goodfellas. They call it "Pallies" and they dub over everything... It's become a running gag with my buddies... My personal favorites are "You piece of SHOE!" and "You mother father Chinese dentist!" ... and then there's one where a guys goes to flip the other guy the bird, but they superimpose a hand giving the "thumbs up" signal over it. Priceless.

I suppose they weren't paying attention to the last HHH face run which was LAST YEAR. I mean, man, that went over HUGE! The fans ate it up with a spoon! People just LOVE to cheer HHH! [/sarcasm]

I just had a bizarre ranking for a game. Playing as Ohio University (Go Bobcats!), I was in my dynasty against Kent State. I ended up winning 24-17 in regulation and led by two scores for virtually the entire game. They scored on the final play to make the difference 7, but that was basically irrelevant. The game scored a 1089, my No. 1 greatest game of all time. It wasn't a rivalry, or anything. Just another conference game. No overtime or anything either. I think that's the first time I've had a ranking that was totally BS.

I really liked Brock-Angle tonight. The way Brock kept beating the hell out of Angle, with Angle getting in just enough offense to stay in the match, surviving interference and pulling out the surprise victory... It reminded me of Flair-Vader from Starrcade. And the EC match. That ending sucked, but I got the NWA vibe from that too. Goldberg played the part of Lex Luger being the ass-kicking babyface, HHH played the part of Flair, the cowardly heel and the ending/beatdown by Evolution sequence was straight out of the Flair/Horsemen playbook. Unfortunately, I think they're going to realize that in this case, waiting the extra month so they can try to do the "proper build" leading to a Sept. rematch (and really, what's the fucking point of 'proper build'? Strike when the iron's hot... When opportunity knocks, open the door and let it in). That is going to completely anti-climatic and one of two things happens: 1. Goldberg wins after getting beat down for a month, making him a heatless champion and giving HHH a reason to take it right back. 2. HHH wins like always and yet another babyface is put out to pasture.

It's not often I get completely duped on a PPV and tonight, it happened TWICE. - The thing with the Coach surprised me. Yeah, with the way he's been treated, I could understand it after it happened, but coming into tonight, I was not saying "Well, Coachman is going to turn heel in that match." It just came out of nowhere. (Side note: They need to do a better job of explaining that turn on Raw. It was presented really poorly on the PPV). - The Goldberg loss. I really don't like the guy too much, I'll admit. I've never been a Goldberg fan. But tonight, that was something else. You could just FEEL the energy and the anticipation of the people, waiting for Goldberg to come out. Finally he does and he just beats the shit out of three guys. The part with HHH locking himself in the cage with Flair helping was priceless. Goldberg breaking through the glass was AWESOME (as was the spear on Jericho). I was thinking, "Holy fuck. He's going to win. This is it.... and even stranger, I'm completely unopposed to this." And then, that bullshit ending. After HHH had done NOTHING the entire match, he pins Goldberg. Just out of nowhere. That SUCKED. If they want Goldberg to be the guy to finally win the belt, I understand what they're doing. The massive heel beatdown (which was pretty impressive) after the match will probably lead to more of the same for the next month after which, Goldberg will finally win at the PPV. It won't work. Tonight was the night. Sometimes, you just need to seize the moment. Goldberg winning next month will seem completely anti-climatic. And after getting beat down for a month, his heat could get flushed down the toilet too, making things even worse. Of course, having said all that, I could very easily see HHH pulling another one of his schemes where he pushes his title loss back a month (The Stall), gets his ass beat on the last Raw before the next PPV to look vulnerable (The Setup), then miraculously gets the PPV finish switched to keep his belt (The Escape). He's done this with Van Dam, Steiner, Booker and (in an ironic twist), who's next? Goldberg.

Savage-Flair was the gold standard by which I measured all other matches growing up... I was like 10 when I watched that match for the first time and even then, I thought I was watching something pretty special... I thought 2000 had an "epic" feel to it just because the buildup from the Rumble, thru NWO and then into March was tremendous. Plus, I sat and watched the entire "Wrestlemania: All Day Long" 8-hour pre-show. And save for two booking decisions, I loved XIX this year. Wasn't the best WM of all time, but I like it a lot more than last year. XVIII had one match (Hogan-Rock) and the rest of it just seemed completely flat and uninteresting to me. I think they're walking a fine line with all the hype for XX. Two reasons: 1. By doing that, you are basically downgrading the importance of your other PPVs (you aren't going to see a "SummerSlam" neon sign hanging in the rafters at WrestleMania, but I guarantee you see the WMXX logo there tonight). 2. You set the bar so high for the show that it's pretty much impossible to live up to, especially given WWE's push for making us settle for less. I could very easily see XX being a show that seems great because guys will go all out, but when you put it in perspective, you'll realize that kind of effort and pull-out-all-the-stops mentality was already around during the Monday Night Wars.

"This isn't like that fake wrestling you'll be doing on Sunday... this is REAL pillow fighting!"

Yes, but you seem to forget that happened way back in 1999, you know, when HHH was dating Chyna? When he had no influence was just another in a long line of roid monkeys Vince was pushing as in the case of Lesnar today. HHH said the shit and got away with it. Who fucking cares? And the "long blonde hair" theory is just so stupid. The days of mullets and flowing hair are over. Only a select few like HHH, Jericho, and Nash are hanging on for dear life. And really, if the theory is true, why has Jericho not cut his hair off yet? You'd think that since Jericho is HHH's No. 1 burial priority, he'd have done everything in his power right now to get rid of Jericho's long, blonde locks. Especially before non-issues like Test, Christian, and Bradshaw. And speaking of stupid theories, didn't some idiot post something about Jericho cutting his beard because of HHH? And now, with Jericho's proposed Hair vs. Hair match, I'm going to bet you can kiss Y2J's rockstar locks of hair goodbye. Jericho vs. The Clique with ANYTHING worthwhile on the line = Automatic "L" for Jerky.

As far as the Elimination Chamber goes, I think you guys are missing the boat... HHH has had documented injuries over the last couple months and he is definitely not 100% now. His latest injury was made public AFTER the originally announced SummerSlam match (HHH-Goldberg). They realized with the injury that HHH probably can't wrestle a full PPV main event-length match, so they needed some way to cover. Hence, they throw everybody else in and make it an E.C. match. This whole thing is an elaborate cover for HHH's gimpy leg. One of three things happens in this match: 1. HHH retains by being one of the last guy or second-to-last guy to enter the match, wrestle as little as possible and gets a cheap win over Goldberg to finish the match. 2. HHH comes in late, but still loses the belt to Goldberg and they are the last two left. (And given the situation, if they were planning on giving the belt to Goldberg originally, this is the best way to do it. HHH still jobs to Goldberg and the other guys can carry the rest of the match.) 3. Goldberg wins by pinning Jericho to finish after HHH gets eliminated early by HBK or Nash. I'd say No. 3 is most likely because it allows HHH to lose the title by getting pinned by one of his buddies and then he can drop the "Goldberg didn't actually pin ME" card and get a September rematch. But bottom line, if you think any of the other four have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the title, you're nuts.