The Tino Standard

Minor point, but he's been on since January 2005, so it's now been more than 4 years.

How does Orton go through a window and not even have a scratch on him? I love PG WWE.

I love the little subtle touches. Lily has to paint Marshall in the nude because he ate everything in her fruit bowl. A flashback or two earlier, they show him on the bed in the dorm making meaningless conversation... and eating everything in the fruit bowl. The payoff to the "sorry, bro" line was tremendous too.

It would seem our Paragon of Virtue has fallen from his ivory tower.

IIRC, there were an awful lot of people in the arena at the Rumble who agreed with you. First time I can ever remember a WWE crowd turning on Hogan.

Jake's explanation interview after turning on Warrior is priceless... "'Mr. Rabbit, I'm going to eat you!' 'No! I'm your friend!' 'I told you from the beginning: Never trust a snake!' ... Warrior, you might be the biggest, dumbest rabbit I've ever seen!"

How does Juma not pull the ultimate dick heel move at the end and kill the daughter anyway after the president came out? Come on, Juma, if you want to draw heat, you've got to go for the jugular ... literally!

Anybody else notice Dr. Beardface (Damn you! It's BEARD-FAH-SAY!) from Scrubs as one of the doctors in Dubaku's room at the hospital? I did a double-take when I saw him and thought, "Nah, that couldn't be him," and then I saw Scott Keith mentioned the same thing in his blog. As for the speculation on where the attack is happening next week, am I correct in assuming you guys didn't watch the preview at the end of the episode? They spelled it out pretty clearly there.

Oh, I'm hoping like hell we get Michaels-Undertaker at WM. It's amazing those two have gone more than 11 years without a one-on-one match, and the limited interactions they've had have been tremendous. As for already knowing the result, I'm pretty sure everybody knew Flair was losing to Michaels last year at WM, and that didn't stop them from putting on a classic anyway. I would sure as hell prefer that they go this way rather than try to shoehorn Kozlov or JBL (or both) into the WM match just because everybody has been expecting an HBK-Taker one-on-one match for months.

That's exactly what I was thinking. The build-up practically writes itself. "Shawn Michaels has beaten the previously undefeated (har, har) Kozlov, the man who handled the Undertaker like nobody has before! How can the Undertaker keep his WrestleMania streak alive ... against Mr. WrestleMania himself, no less?!" And then Taker beats Shawn Michaels at WM, then gets his win over Kozlov at Backlash. Wheeee...

Austin returning with the big scene on the stage (wireless mic, walking through an explosion Kane set off) happened like the first week of March that year. I remember it because it was a show in town here, and it was also the show where Tyson joined DX.

Oh, where do I begin... - My worst meltdown came over a game of "NFL Blitz" when I was in high school. My buddies and I had a running 'Blitz Belt' (a foam WWF championship belt replica) that probably lasted almost a year. Rules were specific (no cheat codes, best of 3). On a particular Saturday afternoon, I was defending my title against my buddy. Thanks to some ridiculous AI, I got hosed out of the first game. Second game was a complete debacle, and with each failed play, I began pounding my fist into the wall next to me. Finally in the second half of game 2, I throw a backbreaking INT. I scream, "GOD DAMN IT!" and swing my fist at the wall in disgust ... only I miss the wall and put my hand through my bedroom window instead. Window shattered, blood poured down my arm. My dad was not amused. - In college, I got so pissed with one of the NBA 2K games that I fired the box into the wall of my dorm. Box shattered (thankfully, no windows were involved this time). - I've also destroyed a Dreamcast controller and f'd up a PS2 controller. It's kind of strange looking back at this. You read this and probably think I've got some sort of rage issues, but outside of video games, I might be the most mild-mannered guy you'd ever meet. At least I can say that after more than a year of owning a 360, the system, controllers, games and their boxes are all still intact. There's hope for me yet.

I think if they could make it work at the older-than-time-itself Citrus Bowl, then I don't see why they couldn't do the same out in Vegas. They had a TitanTron for the XFL games there. A WM would be more complex, but it's almost certainly feasible.

WWE is wrong on this, but they're hardly the first...

As a Cavs fan, allow me to borrow a Vince McMahon phrase: "That warms the cockles of my heart."

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. Non-stop ridiculous trade rumors right up to the deadline. I get absolutely nothing done in the office and hit refresh on realgm and hoopshype about every 5 minutes. I've heard the Cavaliers offered the freaking house for Amare (a lot more than the rumored pu-pu platter that was making the rounds), but Phoenix wasn't biting. Sounds like Stoudemire is staying put, especially since they dumped Porter and are going to try the run-and-gun again. I'd rather see the Cavs get Marcus Camby anyway. When healthy, they can beat Boston and win the East with their roster as it is right now, but I just can't see them beating the Lakers in a seven-game series in the Finals. L.A. has too much strength and athleticism in the post. Cavs need somebody who can bang in the post with Bynum, Gasol and Odom. Camby is a solid defender/shot blocker who would fit their team philosophy.

For those keeping score, the Intercontinental title hasn't been defended at WM since 2002 (RVD over Regal in the show opener).

Jesus, I didn't mean to trigger a firestorm about the Undertaker's wardrobe. I don't like purple. No self-respecting bad ass wears purple. When I think of Undertaker wearing purple, I think of him "dying" in a casket match against Yokozuna or wrestling a fake Undertaker at SummerSlam or wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask. I also would've figured that any actual WM matches he would be in on this game (WM 7 vs. Snuka, WM 8 vs. Jake the Snake) would be from when he wore the gray stuff. Although I guess you could make a case for WM 11 vs. Bundy in purple. Whatever. No, it's not the end of the world to have him in purple in a video game. In fact, that's been about the only thing I've not liked from what I've seen so far. Really, it's not a big deal, and I sure as hell didn't mean it to come across as such.

Lame-ass purple gloves, boot covers for Taker. He won his first two WWE championships with the gray, and purple is just such a pansy, cartoony color. Not to mention the fact that the purple era had some of his worst feuds in his run with the company.

They wouldn't really save Shane-Orton for last.... would they?

That would have been a great main event. A double retirement of the two greatest stars of the attitude era, as both walk off together for the final time. More or less, that's pretty much what their third WM encounter (19) was supposed to be.

This is probably way down on everybody else's wish list, but I'm crossing my fingers that JR and Cole get switched back. I'm pretty much a Raw-only viewer at this point, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't enjoy Cole calling Raw.

So wait, the arena where this happened is called the "Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre"? Is it named for all the Save-on-Foods that have died? What a stupid name for a building.

I'm freaking jacked about this after watching that IGN video from yesterday. While they skimped on some stuff (no Hoosier Dome for 8 or SkyDome for 6, just a redecorated SkyDome for both), they really got some of the other details down that I hadn't heard about before: - Ring carts! - The DX band stage at WM14 - Actual on-screen graphics used at each show for wrestler introductions - Pretty accurate-looking entrance stages for most of the arenas (LOVE the neon-light columns from WM8). I remember the aisle at Caesar's Palace being in the corner, but I'm guessing they probably had to put it in the standard center of the side because of programming reasons (same with the MSG setup). If the gameplay is half as good as the visuals, this is going to be an instant classic.

Holy shit, I haven't heard that theme in years. Freaking awesome.