jester

Triple H looks like a romance novel hero with his white shirt open like that. Barbara Cartland's "Swooning in the Moonlight" featuring HHH.

Foley is probably just pissed because he put on the rose coloured glasses when describing the more tricky parts of WWE life ("Steroids?" [puts sack over head] "don't see 'em anywhere!"]) and they didn't extend him the same courtesy.

I agree. It goes back a long way, it's only more noticeable now. Smackdown was recently stripped of most of the things smarks liked about it--guys with an actual workrate, more smark favorites like Benoit, and although the cruisers weren't placed on a pedestal, they weren't nearly as buried as they are now.

Exactly. They are very selective about what "paying your dues" means. The bottom line is they push/not push who they want. Whether they have experience or not only matters if it justifies their decision after the fact. This is the company that will happily babble about your college football days--and never once mention your time in the Indies. If they're really feeling generous, they might mention your time in WCW or ECW once in a blue moon. Who wants to bet that if Sting showed up in WWE tomorrow, there would be rumblings about he "needing to learn the WWE style" -- in other words paying some dues?

Guys who had heat in the lockerroom would get booked against APA as punishment.... Stiff em' so they learn their place... Didn't Saturn get the pissed beat out of him by those two or am I thinking of someone else? Ah, didn't know that. Ok, having Bradshaw as champ is just as sucky as Holly in my opinion. The lot of them should be fired.

Three words. Mean. Mark. Callous. Now, if wrestling with that name, and trying to become a big name, isn't paying some kind of dues then well....there's no justice in the world. As I said, I know he went through hell to get to the WWF. But as soon as he got in, he was made into an unstopple monster and kept at that level for quite awhile. He wasn't pushed for a few matches, then pulled back to job to midcarders.

As I recall, Undertaker came into the WWF squashing people left and right. I know he went through the Indies and all that, but what dues did he pay coming into WWF?

I would say that Holly would be worse simply because they would be putting the belt on (and therefore rewarding) a guy who has been known to step in the ring with intent to deliberately injure. Bradshaw shouldn't haven't either for all sorts of reasons, but I honestly think a horrible message would be sent by making Sparky the champ. At least Bradshaw waits until they drop the soap in the shower.

I'll bet Job Holly is just thrilled that he had to lay down for a guy that went back to Hoss School. He'll need to go beat up the new cast of Tough Enough to make himself feel better.

But if the hoss wins, everyone will bitch... No, people are bitching now because the Hoss almost always wins. Rey going over Mordecai is an anomoly compared to what usually happens. If there was a mix of outcomes, it would make the product much more watchable.

Exactly. The hoss is big and strong and can put you away with a few power moves, but he's slow and not as technically proficient. The cruiser is small and speedy, and while his moves don't do as much damage, he can wear you down with an assortment of flashy moves. So the story of the match is can the cruiser keep out of the hosses' clutches long enough to win the match? All it could take is one lucky grab from the hoss to end the match.

You know, it's not just the WWE championship belt that's in trouble. Almost every belt on Smackdown is being treated like a joke. WWE Championship: around the waist of Dibiase Lite Crusierweight: Recently given to a woman whose only distinguishing feature was her grossly inflated breasts (and who was fired just a few weeks later), and then to a senior citizen. Tag Belts: The Dudz as tag champs would be tolerable, but they've established that the Undertaker--one man--can beat on the tag champs with relative ease. But I guess we forgive everything Taker does because he does a few mixed martial arts moves and no-selling "fits his character." US championship: Gone from gathering dust in Big Show's closet to actually meaning something. Apparently the title match at GAB helped a lot. Who would have thought a few months ago it would be the title with the most cred on Smackdown?

The fire was started by the hummer driver, who is the same person behind GTV and the rising briefcase. He is also the real father of Lita's baby. They should seriously introduce a wrestler whose gimmick is that he is behind all the weird shit that has gone down over the years, no matter how strange.

I agree. Regal backstabbing Eugene is too predictable. Regal as the manager of Eugene is much more intriguing.

"Speaking of suffering...Lita's acting again."

It was "Lita...what year was the Treaty of Utrecht signed?" Her answer was "Yes."

Hebner is not calling the match.

Ok....I admit I didn't see that one coming. Could be interesting...

Oh lord, overbooking alert.

By "J" word I thought HHH was going to say "Jobber."

Question: Can one be a physically confused man? Yes. That would be Matt's brother. Sorry, that was a cheap shot.

And so the focus would be on Undertaker, and not the belt. Vince should just take a big dump on the belt and be done with it.

It could be worse. The title could be around the waist of Rikishi or Job Holly. Well, ok, maybe the title couldn't actually be around the waist of Rikishi, but you know what I mean. On the other hand, Smackdown also has Booker T, RVD and Mysterio. All of these people could be perceived as title threats if they just used them correctly and would make far better champs than Bradshow. And two of them could put on wicked programs with Eddie. Of course, only one of them is a heel, and he was jobbed mercilessly to the Undertaker.

Watch, they'll put the cruiserweight belt on her next Smackdown instead. It's that type of company.

Isn't that more or less what the McMahon-Helsmley Era was in 2000? Agreed. Not running with that angle is good, because it's already been run into the ground. But believe me, it will happen sooner or later. And we'll all be sorry when it does.