AndrewTS

And from the looks of things, she's practically posing for Playboy already.

Orton > Edge

Askew: I also got the extended, since I knew how notoriously the early PSX's and PS2's were pieces of crap. I don't think I needed to use it, though.

How the hell did he get injured? Wouldn't a neck injury require you to do something other than punch/kick/knee/slam? He wasn't exactly known for taking a hell of a lot of bumps.

Didn't the PS2 price drop happen well over a year after launch? I bought my PS2 in November 2001 and it still cost $300. I remember waiting for a price drop around that time, but I caved in and bought a PS2 anyway because I just had to have THPS 3 and GTA III. Not sure. I'm fairly certain I waited for the price drop to get it, but come to think of it it may have been a used one or something, because I think that was about the same time I got mine, since I had it to play MGS2. Anyway, I'm a notorious cheap ass, and got my original Playstation something like 6 months after launch, since I was able to get it through a friend of my brother-in-law's for 200 bucks instead of 300. It may have been a hot one, but I didn't have any suspicions of that. I weigh costs vs. benefit--clearly the cost was too much. Was on DC and in arcade; sucked; wouldn't have cared anyway; sucked; never heard of it; and that skiiing game. I mentioned the other launch titles above. Yeah, they mostly sucked. Because Sony's early models were pieces of crap?

"Owning a home version is different than playing a game at the arcade." Yeah, you have to buy a joystick extra to play it at home to get the same experience. "Have you ever considered maybe, just maybe, some people actually liked the PS2 launch games? Just a wacky thought I had." Yeah, I considered that. That's why I called them idiots. Ridge Racer V sucked, Driving Emotion S sucked, Dark Cloud sucked, Oni sucked, etc. Okay, that skiing game didn't look too bad... "I know personally I didn't "cave in" and Sony "earned" my money. I got PS2 the day it came out because TTT is really awesome." Well, the money wasn't much of a big deal to you...but there were people with a lot less money to throw around obsessed on obtaining the nigh-worthless thrown-together black box. I'm glad it croaked early on many of those fools.

According to Matt, Michael Cole and Rue are far more qualified to comment on what should be done, since they are or were "in the business." Bruce Pritchard has of course been in the business for a long, long time. Naturally he knows better than all of us, and how dare we criticize him for his (what we believe to be lousy) booking. Russo's been in the business several years before he left completely, and he was presiding over some successful periods. Damnit, Matt'd be pissed if he heard some of the things we've said about him. Maybe he means that the wrestlers themselves know better, so we shouldn't criticize any booking that was done by Hogan, Flair, Nash, or HHH.

One of the best fighting games ever made came out at PS2 launch. Tekken Tag Tournament was the most freakin' easily available arcade machine around, and could be played 50 cents a pop. So why were people paying 100 extra dollars + above retail price for the system alone just to play it? With virtually nothing to play on it? We call these people "idiots." I waited a full year, when, you know, there were great games out on it like Devil May Cry and it was 100 bucks cheaper. You are very wise, grasshoppa. The rest of you who caved in should be ashamed, and make these rat bastards earn your money.

You're still left with the problem of how to build it up. Part of the problems we have now with Benoit's reign is that they don't treat him like the champ, but they also *can't* treat him like they usually would a champ. Benoit's not going to be able to do money promos at the start of the shows. They don't have faith in him to carry part of a segment to build up a big match. If you would do any of those matches, how would you build towards it?

I've watched basically the whole thing. Holy guano, Batman in my Basement IS horrible. Joker's Favor is fantastic, glad I could see it again. The way Joker's ego is threatened at the very end would be like his worst nightmare come true--although wouldn't Joker's thugs still know where Charlie's family lived? It's odd that it took so long for them to get to Riddler--he didn't show up in this set at all, for instance. However he was very cool when he did so I'm awaiting it eagerly. What was wrong with Mudslide and Growing Pains? The former was average at worst, with a great ending. The mere existence of the latter after the former kind of undermines Mudslide's effect, but I can overlook it since I really liked Growing Pains, which I thought was excellent on all fronts. Of course, I'm a mark for Clayface in general, so maybe others beg to differ.

Yeah. They'll release it with two or three crappy games but people will still rush out to get it like it was that toy in JINGLE ALL THE WAY. Why did so many idiots HAVE to have a PS2 at launch anyway?

Well, at least there's no reason for me to put my copy of VPW2 on Ebay...and as long as Yukes is working on WWE games, I won't have to. The new Gamecube and X-Box WWE games are going to = teh 5uXX0r5 Good Lord, the body-part specific damage was in the Fire Pro games, what, 10+ years ago? It was in the N64 games for sure! Yet just NOW they're getting around to putting it in? Pathetic.

"A Cinderella Story" looks absolutely horrible. Wow, can you get any lazier to dream up that concept? Hopefully no one over the age of 14 will give it the time of day, but of course it will probably be a hit... "I, Robot" is going to be lousy, but it has Will Smith. Then again...remember Wild, Wild West? He was the only major star in that one, too. BOMB, DAMNIT!! White Chicks still being in the top ten makes the baby Jesus cry.

Thank goodness. However, the rest of this doesn't sound good. Translation: we're going to ruin much of the appeal of a story mode, since we're not that good at programming A.I. Oh, and the in-game wrestlers probably are going to have their stats differ wildly. Don't expect to be able to copy a CAW and then just edit stats to the "real life" stats. Sounds like HCTP...lame. Translation: Expect more crappy "legends," and to boot they won't have their themes and real entrances, therefore losing HALF THE APPEAL OF HAVING LEGENDS IN A LICENSED WWE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE!! At least DiBiase and Andre will make it in... So don't expect some of the lesser-known wrestlers or cruiserweights aside from Rey to make it in the game. Aside from the submission stuff, no mention for more polished gameplay. Yeah, forget the important stuff, guys.

Then it will be out much earlier in Japan than in the US, and then it will probably be 6 months later before it'll be in the US. So we're looking at 2006 for the PS3, or at least maybe the 2005 Christmas season. Meh.

From S_D in the Raw thread: "Meltzer said on the LAW last night that an idea for SummerSlam is being kicked around for HHH vs. Benoit vs. Eugene." Whoopie.

The mere fact that Benoit/HHH happened at Vengeance doesn't mean it was a well-booked and built-up 2 month feud. They were both kind of "there" up until Vengeance, and had a match where HHH won the title. In the end, it isn't like that match made people care any more than if it was a one-month deal, simply because of the piss-poor way they handled it.

DarkAge makes a good point--nobody is really "a draw" these days except for guests appearances by Foley or Rock. *Now* is the time for experimenting and building long-term stars. Putting HHH right back on top again is just promoting more stagnation. So all we have is "a hope" they'll build it up? What's the chances of that vs. "it's Summerslam, it'll sell anyway. Book more Eugene wackiness"?

Yeah, I'd say any title wins after Vengeance 2001 only counts for one and not two.

"Yeah, Benoit/HHH would provide a pretty strong buyrate. " Unless they actually bother to build it up, it won't be helping the buyrate. You'd think Vengeance automatically going to have a lower buyrate than Summerslam would have made them decide to build that up a lot better than they did, but instead they didn't bother at all. Surely they have to do better going into Summerslam...or it all the focus going to be on Eugene and Trips?

"Why should benoit have won the match clean? If he did, there'd be no reason for a rematch. " Yeah, that sure as hell stopped HBK from getting 400 title shots.

"Also, off topic, but does anyone know what they're going to do about title histories and such when the split ends?(it will eventually) I mean, will hinter actually go down as an 8(or more) time champ once they go back to the 'real' WWE title?" Since they took down WWETitleHistories.com, they'll just let the commentators arbitrarily make up the numbers as they go along. =P Seriously though, naturally they'll count HHH's "World" title wins. They've always counted Ric Flair's various wins regardless of promotion.

Benoit doesn't so much as get a mention in the preview--Eugene does, HHH of course, even fucking Lita gets a mention, but not the guy who was champ going into last night's PPV. Big shock.

*marks for Iron Maiden*

HHH wins, smarks get upset, and the anti-smark trolls come out out of the woodwork. *yawn* On the one hand, it's too soon to call this a "burial" because Benoit probably still will be in the title feuds. However, WWE *has* been continually treating HHH as *the* star, and haven't had a clue how to properly book Benoit as champion. Plus the Kane and HHH feuds have had horrible buildup and failed to get anyone to care. HHH holding the title again makes me apathetic, because I honestly forget he ever lost it.