Bruiser Chong

How could you hate Greg Kinnear? He's the one who made Talk Soup the show it was by time Henson took over. Henson was great, too, and I always wondered what happened to him since he was leaving the show for something over at ABC. One of my favorite Talk Soups was the Christmas episode where John has Douglass Fern, the talking Christmas Tree next to him and it won't stop singing so he takes it out with a baseball bat.

I must be the only one who remembers that they said they were going to cut down on the wrestling aspect of SD to make it more like RAW and focus on the backstage angles and such. Ridiculous, but all this was planned a while back, so it shouldn't be such a surprise.

I thought it took steam out of Kane's push. He didn't sell the offense and rightfully so, but Austin shouldn't have been able to get in all that offense. Kane made the first attack, which lasted a heartbeat and Austin then proceeded to beat the hell out of Kane for good amount of time (longer than a minute and even a minute is a long while when the offense is heavy like Austin's was). I don't think it took all the steam out of his push, but his second week as a heel shouldn't have seen him just barely escaping Austin's wrath.

Are you referring to the episode of RAW where Austin beat the hell out of Kane for a good long while before Kane mounted anything resembling offense? That was the week after Kane's big monster heel push began, and I think that took a lot of steam out of it, although that's nothing compared to the Shane feud, which has killed any momentum he had for this new monster heel.

I'm not saying that Austin should be "letting them" attack him in storylines. It's just that Jericho could easily accuse Austin of refusing to let go of past glory by constantly provoking the talent. Yeah, some new elements would need to be added to completely make sense, but the groundwork is right there. Austin being done isn't just backstage BS. It's common knowledge among even the marks and they should quit insulting everyone's intelligence by having a near-cripple constantly kicking the asses of the young and/or established talent on RAW. How are we supposed to take someone like Christian seriously if he can't even take on or get revenge on a guy whose spine is more twisted than Vince McMahon's soul? I'm not saying Austin should start lying down for everyone, but him showing a little more vulnerability wouldn't be that far-fetched, his bad health considered. Bottom line, Jericho can use those attacks as the base of his points in his accusations that Austin won't let go of former glories.

Yeah it was a good promo, but it added fuel to the feud that had been losing steam since its inception months earlier. It was definitely still one of the more interesting feuds going at the time, but when that promo rolled around, it had begun to lose some of its luster, and Jericho's promo rejuvinated it. They finished off the feud soon after that and it seemed it was the right move. After all, no reason to have it overstay its welcome, right? When a program's run its course, it's time to close up shop and move on and that's what happened. Jericho wasn't properly used after that feud, but that's not because of the promo's effectiveness, it was just inept booking. The promo (I thought) perfectly set up a "passing of the torch" of sorts at WM with Shawn finally putting Jericho over. The match was probably the best on the card that night and quite frankly, they had the perfect scenario for Shawn to job cleanly, as he struggled to get out of the Walls of Jericho for several minutes. Being unable to escape and going down in a blaze of glory ala Austin at WM 13, would've been perfect. Unfortunately, that's not what happened and Jericho ended up being the one to job cleanly. I think that killed some interest in the feud, because after all, why have a rematch? The face already came out on top, cleanly, no less. No point in a rematch. If Shawn needed the win that badly, he should've let Jericho go over at Mania and gotten his win back in the match on RAW from LA, which would've been counterproductive, but at least would've ensured that the match had some heat. That's because shoot angles were done to death in 2000 and the majority of the wrestling public gave up on having an interest in them. I don't see how it applies to the topic, though, as none of these three Jericho promos (the two that happened and the fantasy one Loss started this thread out with) were shoot angles. All three used points and things that pertained to the according storylines. I didn't see any shoot angles, just a pair of intense and effective promos.

The way he's treated on the show, you could've fooled me that he isn't god. Ever notice that since Austin became GM, there hasn't been one incident where someone laid him out, yet he's stunned at least half of the RAW roster and made them look like nothing? I don't expect a nobody to come and lay him out, but what's it say when a retired near-cripple (I don't care if he's a badass rattlesnake or not, he's still messed up in the physical sense) is able to plow through most of your young talent? Let's see, off the top of my head, Austin's made Jericho, Test, Steiner, Christian, and Kane seem like nothing, basically destroying them, while they got little to no offense or future revenge in. And there, right there, could be Jericho's angle. It's not so much in the matches Austin makes but rather, how he treats the talent and is able to still look better than everyone who crosses paths with him, despite his career being over. The fans know why he's retired, would it hurt his image that much if one of these guys were to come back and extract revenge on Austin later on? Certainly seems that way.

The lighting for their Wrestle War match is fairly bright, compared to events from earlier years. The one thing I can't stand about the old NWA as far as the look and style goes, are those damn ring aprons. Plain ones are fine, but the ones that say "NWA" on them look like some Cub Scout came in with his dad's yellow electric tape before the show and made the letters himself.

What do you mean nothing happened? It added a lot more intensity to the feud and the upcoming match at the Royal Rumble. What was supposed to come of it did take place. It added another layer to the Rock/Jericho saga. What did you want to happen?

HellSpawn, if WWE didn't train fans to not care about such things, there wouldn't be that potential problem. If the announcers didn't tell the fans who to cheer for and who not to cheer for, there'd be a definite difference. WWE can't control how the fans act or who and what they like, but week after week, they are still training them to accept a certain formula. Change that up a bit and the scenario that was mentioned with the stunner and JR praising anything Austin does probably wouldn't seem so definite.

True that the underused faces like RVD wouldn't have much of a case (against Austin, anyway) in storyline terms, but Jericho's been used in pretty poor ways for a long while now, and he could use Austin as a reason for that.

It wouldn't be a shoot angle. Just because he's challenging something that rings truth outside of the storyline doesn't make it a shoot. Jericho has always stated what a lot of people have been thinking, but never willing to say, so this wouldn't be outside of character. This would be a lot like his promo before Wrestlemania with Shawn Michaels. That promo made me excited about their match, which up to that point, had me feeling pretty apathetic. Good stuff, Loss, and I could see Jericho saying that, but because of the politics, he'd never get to say half of that stuff because it rings a little too much truth.

Norm was the start of Norm and he was the smartass guy he always was. I don't expect him to be here, but I'll bet shades of it will be showing soon enough. How did Norm wrap up, then? It was just gone all of a sudden to me, although I didn't keep very strong tabs on it because it kept being moved around.

I'm not so sure about that... it seems strangely ironic that back in "the day", playing to the crowd was a huge deal. Faces were supposed to get the crowd cheering, while heels needed to get crowds riled up, and crowds were typically hot throughout entire shows. As opposed to today, where wrestlers don't seem to play to crowds at all... like they're wrestling in a vacuum where the crowd doesn't exist, and so they wonder why fans sit on their hands for 95% of an event now. Yeah, I might've been a little off there, but I still think that the main focus of the show was always to be the ring and nothing else. The fans played a role in the match in that they responded to what was going on, but the fan involvement wasn't nearly what it's become today where you've got a sea of signs, souviner items, and what have you. Playing to the crowd was incorporated much better back then, but I still don't think that means that it's not wanted today, it's just you've got a bunch of performers unable to get the crowd involved.

That's like passing up a DVD because there's no insert included with the package. There's tons of great footage that is required viewing for fans out there, and best yet, it's in DVD quality. Seeing those old NWA matches in crystal clear vision alone was worth it for me. But you get mad props for your Clarence Boddicker avatar.

I'm a fan of Norm, too, but this show was pretty bland. Funny in some parts, but nowhere near as good as Norm was and that got cancelled, so I don't see a bright future for this one. My main complaint was that they went totally crazy on the canned laughter. I felt like I was watching Full House or something. Norm: Hi. *crowd laughs* *edit* Obviously I was thinking of another show when I mentioned Norm was cancelled twice. Maybe the fact that they "modified" it after a season or two is what threw me off.

Choken's actually right. It's pretty traditional (at least it used to be) that the ring would be the only thing you could focus on and should be the only thing you focus on. Remember, the fans weren't such a big part of the show like they are now. Yeah, they booed and cheered who they hated and liked but note small differences, like there being roughly three signs in the entire audience. Admittedly, it can be a bit of a shock to see NWA stuff from that era for the first time after only being exposed to the WWF, but that was usually the rule back then, not the exception.

I'd surely mark like a bitch if Pudge signed with the Cubs. If they were to cut some of the dead weight or at least get them to sign smaller contracts, I think they could pull it off. Chicago's got that atmosphere that players like to be a part of, so hey, it could happen. //Little black kid from Disney's Angels in the Outfield

I got the set yesterday and I've gotta say that watching the clipped up Bret/Owen match, it doesn't come across too well. It does when it runs in its full length, but I swear, the way that they clipped it made it seem so repetitive, since seemingly every clip involved Bret almost getting out of the cage and then Owen pulling him back in by his hair. It's a great match, but it doesn't really come across that way here. The Flair/Garvin match is universally accepted as being mediocre, but I really like it. The ending is fun and I love Ronnie's Knockout Punch. Although I've seen it before, I never realized how brief the Murraco/Snuka cage match really was. Still an intense match, although a video package of why it was such a vendetta would've been appreciated. Overall a great set, and the old WWF and NWA footage will hopefully open the eyes of some of the newer fans and make them realize how things used to be. I don't see a sequel in the works simply because they brought us up pretty much to present day with the cage matches. I'd love to see another edition out in the future, but this'll do nicely. And before I forget to mention, I agree with the poster who talked about the illogical rule of the only way being able to win a cage match is to escape. These matches always signified the blowoff to an intense feud that had gotten to the boiling point, and the only way to settle it once and for all, without anyone being able to get it, and the participants having nowhere to go, was battling it out in a savage cage match. It was almost like a fight to the death just because both guys would usually be juicing to the max by the end of the match and even the winner would seem like the loser. With the rules being so that the only way to win is to escape the cage, it seems counterproductive, just because these two guys who hate each other are now trying to run away from one another. It's caused some interesting spots in cage matches, but ultimately, it defeats the original purpose of such a match.

Sam's Club has it for under $40.

Married With Children: Season One The Haunting (Original) The Incredible Hulk 2-disc WS WWE Bloodbath (last one) A good day, indeed. I would've gotten the Looney Toons set, but it was $55 and it's less than $40 at Sam's Club.

Pudge won't be back. Everyone went on about how happy he was there and I'm sure that's true, but money obviously talks when it comes to where Pudge plays and after the season he had, he'll be asking for a lot. I think him not even saying he'd be back in that interview after they won the WS should show that he's already thinking about leaving. I mean, he didn't even give any lip service saying he'd like to stay, he just said he didn't know.

I still say the bangs don't work for her at all. But then again, I think bangs look pretty bad on just about anyone.

Meh, if they contend next year I'll be impressed. Having a team win it all one season and then not even have a winning record the next five years is embarrassing.

In all respect to the World Series and the teams involved, I like many of you baseball fans are already looking ahead to next year rather than focus on the WS. While I won't live my life for the next several months sitting on my hands and waiting for the 2004 season to begin, I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been thinking about it, especially since last week. Because most of us who even watch baseball have a favorite team (or two), I thought perhaps we could take our respective favorite teams and talk about some of the changes that need to be made for a successful season to be possible. It's no secret who I'll be talking about, the Cubs. Yes, they basically fell apart five outs away from the WS, but that doesn't change the fact that this is the same team that lost 95 games just one year ago. I think they'll actually be a competing team over the next few years, but obviously, changes are in order. Let's start with the starting lineup. It's expected that Hee Sop Choi will be the top candidate for the starting first baseman role, as the futures of Eric Karros and Randall Simon are in question. Both were big players for the Cubs down the stretch, but everyone's expecting Choi to get back into the swing of things and become that breakout player most are figuring he'll become. I'm a fan of Simon, but I'd say give Choi the nod since he's younger, has more potential and his game is more refined than Simon's is, or Karros' for that matter. It'll be interesting to see what they do, since I doubt that all three will be back next year and I don't see Choi going anywhere. Moving over to second, you have Mark Grudzielanek. Despite performing poorly in the postseason, he's one of the reasons the Cubs got to where they were, and even though he's a free agent, I expect to see him back next season. The shortstop and third base positions seem to be set, barring some sort of move, which would be odd since Gonzalez is probably the best defensive shortstop in the NL despite the big error in Game 6 of the NLCS and Ramirez really started to come into his own once he joined the Cubs, not to mention his defense improved considered where it was before. The catcher's position doesn't seem to be generating much talk, which would indicate they plan to stick with Miller and Bako. Both guys are usually as close to automatic outs as you get, but I really think they bring a lot to the team defensively, so I won't be damning the team if both are back next year. Heading to the outfield, Alou exercised his option to return next season, although it's expected that he will not be an everyday guy. This may turn out to be a good thing, since Patterson will be back and looking for a big spot on the team. Lofton is a free agent and most expect him to be gone, although now that it's been made clear that Alou isn't expected to be an everyday guy, hanging on to Lofton may be a smart move, as he can be an assest in the case of either guy going down. I know Patterson's a CF, but you'd figure he'd fill in for Alou on his days off. We'll have to see how that turns out, but I'm all for keeping Lofton around, that is, if Patterson still gets the chance to shine. Sosa is also a free agent, I believe, but considering how well the Cubs did this season, most expect him to return with little hassle. Leaving the team after their first really good season since he's been around would be pretty silly. Now we get to an area that's in definite need of change, and it's already been said that it will happen. Guys like Alfonseca, Veres, and Guthrie are all free agents and I'd say it'd be in their best interest to not hang on to any of them. They rarely did well and really cost the team in some important situations. Guys like Todd Wellemeyer, Sergio Mitre and Felix Sanchez all have a chance to be valuable in the bullpen and show potential. They've got a lot to learn, but having those three around instead of the potential free agents I named would be a good move, especially since Mitre has shown the potential to one day be a solid starting pitcher. Although they're not easy to come by, I think the Cubs need to go out and find a real closer. Borowski was great considering that he's not a real closer and basically voluntered to take on the undesirable task. He'd work well elsehwere in the pen, but I think it's time to go find a guy who would be more fit for the position. Farnsworth and Remlinger are the only other two mainstays in the pen and I expect to see them both back next season, which isn't all bad, since they werent' nearly as terrible as some of the other guys in the pen. It's encouraging to know that they're already addressing the bullpen situation, since that's the area that was really lacking for the Cubs this season. Speaking of pitching, let's look at the starting rotation. At the moment, you've got Wood, Prior, Zambrano, and Clement who are more or less sure to be back next season, barring an injury or transaction. Unless Zambrano gets hurt, I expect him to start to become as effective, if not more so, than Prior. That fifth spot belonged to Estes most of the season, with Juan Cruz taking over near the end of the season. Although neither guy is that great, I'd go with Cruz who's still young enough and shows more promise than Estes, who's never going to be a really good pitcher. If Mitre comes around, he may just get that fifth spot, as he didn't do too badly in his two starts for the Cubs this season. The bench is also an area in need of some attention. The Cubs pinch-hitters were just piss poor this season. It's expected that it will be an area that's given much attention in the off season, and hopefully, they'll get some more reliable guys on there. As much as people dislike him, I don't mind Tommy Goodwin and thought he stepped up after Patterson got hurt, and did a nice job until Lofton was brought it. He came through with a lot of big hits in pinch hitting roles, as well. Whether Doug Glanville will be back next season remains to be seen, but if he were kept around, he wouldn't be a bad bat to come off the bench. Other than that, they've got Troy O'Leary, who's a good power guy, and to a lesser extent, Augie Ojeda. Aside from the pen, the Cubs bench was the worst area for the Cubs this season. The coaches will most likely be back next season, but I can't help but think that a new hitting coach would help. Not to slam Gary Matthews, but considering that the Cubs had some pretty solid bats in their lineup, they never really went on a hot streak for too long. Surely it's not all his fault, but you look at teams that have the same caliber players and they're hitting much better most of the time than the Cubs, and you can't help but think. Ok, that was pretty lengthy, especially for those who read it that aren't Cubs fans, but the whole idea of this here thread is do what I just did, only using your favorite team. Feel free to make comments on other teams that posters may mention, too. This may seem like a bit of work, but I thought it could be an fun thing to do.