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I personally think it's OK. I didn't mind the US title-spinner though, either. While the belt should be treated with some respect, it's also just the "prop" which signifies the championship - and if that "prop" assists Cena in getting over, and means increased merchandise sales via replica belts, t-shirts, and such, then it's been a good thing. And as long as the championship is still being viewed as THE important, main-event storyline and not just a mid-card angle, then I'm OK with it. You can have the shittiest looking belt in the world, and if two (or multiple) guys are in a powerful, intense angle for that shitty-looking belt, then it's automatically going to gain attention. And in retrospect, you can take a classic, highly-regarded belt such as the "Big Gold" WCW title, and completely desecrate it by putting it on David Arquette, Vince Russo, and so forth. Therefore, it's not the belt, or what it looks like, it's the storyline behind it that makes it special - no matter what form said belt takes. God, that last sentence almost sounded like some sort of After School Special or something.

Alright, I gotta try this: Jeff 'Unover' Jarrett David Flair EDIT: Damn, the David Flair thing didn't work.

Just picked a two-disc DVD set at WalMart devoted to the '03 and '04 trips to Iraq. The entire Smackdown episode from each year is included, plus a ton of related extras and such. Nothing spectacular on the wrestling side of things, but it's a pretty cool set if you didn't see it or want to see what went on. Yes, I know, it's a pretty loud "pat on the back" by WWE, but it's all good. They're donating a portion of the sales to a military-related charity (can't remember off the top of my head what it is), so I guess some good can come from it. And as far as I know, this was only gonna be available from WalMart, so check it out. Best part was the price, it was $12.74, for a two-disc set, that's not bad.

Show owes a lot to Hogan from his WCW days, and I'm sure it really meant a lot to Show to see Hogan get his due props. I thought it was a classy, cool moment.

For anyone that's been to Chicago/Rosemont/Allstate Arena, is it hard to get to? Is Chicago a bitch to drive through (interstate only, not driving downtown, mind you), or what? Any feedback from those in the know would be appreciated.

Look at everyone that's going in the Hall of Fame . . . Hogan, Piper, Orton, Volkoff, Sheik, Orndorff, Jimmy Hart . . . What could fill up that third disc besides . . . . WrestleMania I I can hope, can't I? It was a shitty card, but for historical reasons, one that I'd love to have in perfect VQ on DVD.

Consider yourselves lucky, I've never gotten to go. Been to SummerSlam, King of the Ring, Unforgiven, Armageddon, and several other shows, but not WrestleMania. But alas, that will hopefully change next year, I've almost decided to plan on a trip to Chi-Town for next year's show. It's about a 9 hour drive from where I am (eastern TN), but I don't mind. Cawthon, when you went, did you get a hotel room in NYC for the night, or did you pretty much drive back out of the city right after the show? I was just curious, knowing where you go to college, you're probably the closest (in proximity) person that I'm aware of that's gone to WrestleMania, so would love to hear your experience if you've got time. We know the show was awesome, what about the trip up/back/time there?

Yeah, the extras are all trip-related, meaning, there's no matches from over here or anything like that. Some of the stuff is pretty cool, I guess, like "After the Show" kinda segments, with the troops chanting for beer, various superstars talking about their experiences over there, a photo gallery, and a couple of promos cut before and after the trip here in the States. Nothing major, but for $12 and change, I thought it was cool.

It's hard for me to get stoked about paying $50 to watch ANYTHING, actually. Whether it's WrestleMania, PRIDE, UFC, or what . . . it's hard to afford all the shows nowadays . . . Man, I miss when there were 5 PPV's a year that cost like $19.95 each . . . those were the days!

Without even seeing it or reading any reviews, my guess would be . . . .

Somehow, I think that they'll drag the old-ass HHH/HBK feud out of the woodwork for WM22, in a title match/loser-must-retire match, or something of the sort. I can see Orton/Cena or something like that on the SmackDown side. As for the possibility of Benjamin being groomed for next year, the next few months will be interesting to see. He may even "test the waters" in a B-level PPV main event (winning Money in the Bank and challenging Batista or HHH) to see what he's got. There's definitely tons of potential there though. . . . Right now, it's really hard to say. Who'da thought we were gonna get HHH/Batista for this year's show, we were all just certain HHH/Orton was gonna be the money match this year.

I'm sure I'm not as hyped about it now as I will be Sunday afternoon, but I'll be stoked by match time . . . After all, it's WrestleMania, and even though the card kinda has some "just like other PPV's" feel to it due to flawed buildup, it's also got some awesome matches on it. Eddie/Rey, Angle/HBK, and the Ladder Match (if Kane stays on the floor) should all be good . . . What intrigues me most about this year's show is that there's only 8 matches signed, but it's a four-hour show. While I know Piper's Pit and the HOF stuff will take up a good amount of time, there's still a considerable amount of time to give all the matches proper time to build. And if you consider that the women's match should be relatively short, then there's only 7 matches for an extended show. Is it possible that they're gonna give all the matches 20 min. each? That would rock, and definitely give us the potential for possibly three MOTY's in Eddie/Rey, Angle/HBK and Money In The Bank. Now, after saying all of that, WWE will add about four meaningless matches on Heat Sunday night, so that nothing but HHH/Batista and Cena/JBL gets any amount of time whatsoever.

Viacom has said that while wrestling brings the ratings, it doesn't bring the advertisers, so this makes no sense. I don't see how they can say it doesn't bring advertisers. It may not bring huge-dollar advertisers (such as Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, etc.), but it definitely seems to have no problem bringing in advertising aimed at a young target demographic (such as the video games, "edgy/scary" movie trailers, some fast food/candy/"junk food", and don't forget the ever-popular Birdman Lugz ) It's not like TNA is going to change things when it comes to advertising revenue, it'll be the same old stuff, just with an upstart company as opposed to an established money-maker in WWE. It's not like Coca-Cola is going to see TNA and think "hey, that WWE wasn't worth advertising on, but this company with the 6-sided ring and 500 fans in the audience may just be what we're looking for!"

I'm guessing that maybe Viacom hasn't "gotten rid" of WWE after all; to save face, that's what they're telling the media, but in all reality, it seems that I've read that WWE was asking for an almost $10 mil. per year hike in their "usage fee" (paid to them by Viacom, is what I mean). WWE probably put a "take it or leave it" option on the table, knowing that USA or some similar network would be willing to at least negotiate to WWE's benefit, and Viacom said "Leave It." TNA would definitely be more affordable for Spike, I'm sure, so I guess it's not all that far fetched that they could be talking with TNA.

Amen bro. I allow no one to tell me to get rid of my wrestling crap cuz its all mine lol. I mean I do have all the wms on tape (and 19 and 20 on dvd) so I guess that makes me a big fantaic as well. I guess theres sites that have the dvds cheaper, I should check them out actually. Yeah, sometimes its hard to find stuff cheap, and other times very easy. We've got a used CD/DVD/Book store here in our area that'll sometimes have WWE DVD's for super-cheap, like I got my WWF Hardcore DVD there for like $4.00. Most of my commercial VHS (both WWF and WCW) came from little local video stores either getting rid of them or I just offered them a deal . . . I'm always proud that my original Wrestle War '92 commercial VHS goes for $30 or more on eBay, and I got it for $3 in a used VHS bin at said local shops. Good stuff.

Here's hoping that they put this on an Austin retrospective DVD in the near future. You know they're bound to be planning one ala Flair's or Benoit's, so that would rock if included.

Thank God I got my WMX7 DVD when I did . . . I bought it from half.com about two years ago or more (I think that's where I got it, anyway), and I only paid about $6.75 plus shipping, brand new, unopened. I thought for a second about selling it, but I rarely ever part with any of my wrestling stuff. My wife hates it, but she's got 14 Rubbermaid containers and a walk-in closet full of clothes, so she'll get over it.

OK, I gotta try it . . . . useless moron Scott Keith. Damn, that's awesome.

I've been a fan for over 15 years, been to countless live events and PPV's, but still no WrestleMania for me. Chicago is about 8 1/2 hours from here, so I'm considering trying to go next year. I keep holding out hope that WM will come to the southeast sometime soon (Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, etc.), but I don't think it'll happen. Unless you're LA, Chicago, or NYC, your odds of getting a WM in or around your area are pretty limited.

No Way Out '02 is kinda "bleh", I think. Not a terrible PPV, but not very good either . . . kind of a place-filler for WrestleMania X8. WWF Hardcore is pretty good, for what it is. Cool thing about this DVD is the extras; I think, total, there's like 15 or 20 matches on the whole thing. Of course, considering most of the hardcore matches were lucky to last 5-7 minutes, that's not too big of a deal. Rebellion '01 is a good show - Austin/Rock, Edge/Christian in a cage, Angle/Jericho, all good matches. Rebellion '01 is one of the few UK PPV's that would've passed for a kick-ass American PPV, IMHO. Of the Stone Cold DVD's, my fave is the Stone Cold Truth. It's got the Blonds vs. Flair/Anderson match from the Clash in June '93, Austin's first TV title win vs. Bobby Eaton, and the whole match vs. Owen Hart from SummerSlam '97

Action is a hella good DVD. The extras are what make it, though, especially the Austin/Angle match, and the Austin/Jericho match, which I found to be really entertaining. Methinks I may watch that DVD again later tonight for old times' sake.

Yeah, all of the WalMarts where I live have the Wrestling Gold set for $14.50 (the five disc set). And, Deepdiscountdvd used to have the Before They Were Famous disc for like $11.00 - that's where I got mine from. You shouldn't have to pay a lot for it wherever you get it from. It's an entertaining set, especially with Cornette and Meltzer's commentary.

And on the same note, Spring Stampede '99. I don't know if I've ever been so stoked about being a wrestling fan as I was after that show (WM X-7 excluded) - it shows what could've happened had WCW done things right, it was a damned good PPV with only a couple of minor flaws.

Apparently, the new issue of SmackDown magazine hypes an Eddie/Rey match at WM. I hope to hell this happens, and is given at least 15 minutes to shine. Anything less would be a crime. I'm actually pretty jacked about this year's show. We've got a potential Eddie/Rey match, a potential Chavo/London match, HBK/Angle which should at least be good, if not great, both WWE and World title matches should at least be entertaining, and UT/Orton may even surprise us. The potential is there for this to be a great show, but there's also potential for this to be crap-tastic, more so than any other year if booked wrong and good match-ups not given due time.

I've always said that WM X-8 should've ended with Hogan/Rock. That would've ended the show on that "epic, unforgettable" note that WM is usually known for. HHH/Jericho was one of the most bland main events in WM history, save for UT/Sid or Bret/Yoko. The crowd was so drained by the time HHH and Y2J hit the ring at X-8 that it was hard to get a pop from them for anything. And it's not their faults, really. The match wasn't a five-star classic or anything, but it was decent enough and would've probably been better received as the co-main event right before Hogan/Rock. The World Heavyweight Title main evented last year. Do they have JBL/Cena last this year, or is it HHH in the main event again? I honestly see Batista getting screwed at WM (with a rematch at Backlash, no DQ or something of the sort), and JBL/Cena possibly going on last with Cena going over to send the crowd home happy . . . er, yeah, happy. Thoughts?