JasonX

I did some checking and about the Big Show Trade: SD got Big Show and Raw got D-Von, Ivory, Maven, and Val Venis in return. Randy Orton jumped ship right before the roster freeze happened while Hurricane IIRC joined Raw after the rosters were frozen by way of not officially signing with SD during the period where people could jump ship... Batista also jumped ship and signed with Raw but do to some sort of unspoken plot device (perhaps Dave wanting to grow his hair back before debuting on TV) Batista didn't redebut on Raw until after the roster freeze happened...

At the Rumble: Angle retains, Brock wins the Rumble, and HHH retains as well. On Raw: Eric comes out in the opening segment and announces that the first big shake-up for Raw is that with Vince's approval that Brock Lesner's SD contract is now null and void do to a loophole in the contract Heyman had Brock sign and that Brock's back on Raw. Not only that, Brock will get to face HHH at No Way Out for the Raw title and that for WM the winner will get to fight the SD champ to reunify the titles. HHH goes apeshit and refuses to go along with this and threatens to "pull an Austin" when Eric announces that if HHH walks out, he forfits the belt and that Eric will bring back Austin and that NWO's main event will be Austin/Brock. Eric also makes reference to the fact that HHH is a pussy and scared of Brock and insinuate that HHH was working with Steph to steal Brock away from Raw because HHH was absolutely scared of facing Brock. We build up to NWO with Brock and HHH fighting in various six-man/tag match combinations with HHH using every dirty trick in the book to beat Brock. It's made pretty clear though that HHH is weaker than Brock though and that the only way HHH can beat Brock is to cheat and use his trusty sledgehammer. Meanwhile Kurt Angle makes various non-wresting appearances on Raw to gloat at Brock not being able to touch him until Mania and to play shit-disturber with HHH by bringing up the whole "I screwed Steph behind your back the entire time you were married to her" to piss HHH off. At NWO Brock beats HHH CLEANLY to get the rub of being the man who slayed the beast that was HHH. At the end of the match Austin makes his triumphant return and stares Brock down. The next night Eric gets fired for bringing Austin back and gets Shane brought in to take over. Meanwhile Austin and HHH feud some while Kurt Angle gets permission to wrestle on Raw from Vince leading to a series of showdowns with Brock that lead up to WM while Austin/HHH feud as the secondary WM feud for Raw...

<This is the begining of Vince's real revenge, as Bischoff will be made to look like a complete useless fool. The Dudleys and all the faces will run over him, and so will HHH> I doubt HHH will run over Eric but I can see HHH having Steph write Eric into thinking "More HHH=More ratings!" just to totally undermine Eric on the smark level... <Stephanie will probably get in on the action as she tries to drive Bischoff out as they yet again ignore the crossing over rules> Given what was shown on SD, it seems Steph is more concerned with trying to Shane to promise not to fuck her over when/if he comes into power on Raw than to tip the apple cart over anymore. <(BTW, did we ever find out who was traded for Big Show?)> Ivory, Maven, Val Venis, and IIRC Hurricane <Raw itself will be basically unchanged. Exactly like it has been for the past few months. Some nights will just have more promo time than others.> Worse yet, the WWE will use the next couple of weeks to spite us Smarks by making it seem like the things that we've been complaining about be in full effect and treated as if they were what everyone "really wants"....

Problem is that Austin on SD would fuck up even more the already fucked up imbalance between Raw and SD. If Austin goes to SD, you would have to ship Benoit, Team Angle, the Guererros to Raw to balance things out. Simple thing to do is to ship Benoit and Angle (without Team Angle, who would just have to sink or swim on their own without mooching off of Angle's heat) to Raw in exchange for HHH and Flair and stick Austin on Raw.

The SmarK RAW Rant - January 13, 2003 - It's FULL COURT PRESS time on the book hype, as it's coming out next week and I'll have an advance copy in my hands by this time tomorrow. If you want a review copy for yourself or anyone else you know, drop a mailing address to [email protected] and he'll get you one right away. Anyone who has a column on the 'net or even wants to post a message to a board is welcome, the more the merrier! Hell, write a column and send it to me and I'LL post it for you. The book is released NEXT WEEK, so tell your friends! - Oh, and here's a little tidbit I got from a reader in Stamford, from the Advocate... "Scene . . . Greenwich resident and WWE's Triple H, aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley, at Moonstruck, former site of the Coffee Tree on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, during Christmas week. The Grand Slam Champion and King of the Ring and the Royal Rumble reportedly has broken up with Stephanie McMahon, Smackdown's general manager and the beautiful daughter of WWE's creator Vince McMahon." Take that with as many grains of salt as need be. Here's the original article: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/colum...,5826021.column - Live from Mohegan Sun. - Your hosts are JR & King. - Opening match, Women's title: Victoria v. Jackie v. Trish. This is hardcore rules, and Victoria gets dumped early, but recovers to get Trish from behind. Trish comes back with a kendo stick and hammers away, but Jackie uses the ALUMINUM CAN LID OF DEATH to turn the tide. Moonsault misses (boy, THAT move sure got exposed on Tough Enough) and Jackie rolls her up for two. Small package gets two as Jackie's portions of the match actively kill the crowd. Wow, that's insanely negative heat. Richards hits Trish with the lid to give Victoria the pin at 2:28. Victoria & Stevie do the heel beatdown on the girls afterwards. DUD Hurricane makes the save. I care about none of this. - Meanwhile, the Dudleyz attack Uncle Eric & Queef Morley, so Eric FIRES them, but then changes his mind and suspends them to keep them from jumping to Smackdown. I feel my IQ dropping just watching this stuff. - Maven & Test v. D-Lo Brown & Chris Nowinski. Test takes on both heels alone, but gets clotheslined by D-Lo. Man, D-Lo's gangbanger phase didn't last long. And here I was ready to make Kenny Wangler jokes and everything. Maven & Test double-team Nowinski for two. Maven gets his dropkicks for two. Cheapshot turns the tide, after a few tries at it, and Nowinski gets a MAIN EVENT SPINEBUSTER. I guess it's more of an UNDERCARD SPINEBUSTER, but that's not as funny. D-Lo gets two. Nowinski keeps him down and they double-team with a clothesline. D-Lo goes to an armbar in lieu of a chinlock, but this crowd is beyond saving at this point. Hot tag Test and he gets sideslams agogo, but Nowinski saves D- Lo, only to fall victim to the newly-named "Test Drive". It took them three months to come up with THAT name? Test gets dumped and D-Lo hits Maven with the Sky High, but apparently this is the one time in the past 20 years when the ref cares who's legal, and he won't count. Big foot finishes for Test at 5:43. Nowinski and Maven are starting to become a serious drag on the in-ring quality - they need to get off TV until they're ready again. 1/2* - During the break, Mean Gene arrives in a limo. He hypes the RAW X show tomorrow and gets an insider jab at Eric for the 10 people left who remember Nitro. Jericho steps in and requests #1 in the Rumble, but Eric won't let him. He has no decision yet, and that's FINAL. Okay. Plus, he's too busy standing around waiting for Vince. - Meanwhile, Regal trashes Lawler's book. What a cad. And hey, if you want to trash MY book, it's out next week! - William Regal v. Jerry Lawler. Regal gives us a reading from Lawler's book to begin. Well, thank god they took the tag titles off Booker & Goldust to bring us THIS. The referees check Regal and find his brass knux, and Storm is a victim of Big Brother as well. Free dumb gimmick idea for the creative team: Have Regal beat Lawler and upgrade from a Lord to a King, and Lance can be Sir Lancelot. THEY'LL MAKE MILLIONS! Lawler hits Regal with a chain, but the ref DQs him at 1:35, all of which was the refs checking Regal. I like Memphis booking, but my tolerance for it in the 21st century only extends so far, especially when they can't even let the babyface get the upset win. Here's a great post on the OtherArena board detailing why it was so poorly done -- http://www.otherarena.com/cgi/post.cgi?85992&1&4&wwe DUD - Jeff Hardy v. Raven. HOLY HAIRCUT, BATMAN. Raven has short hair and TIGHTS now. This is apparently for the 15th spot in the Rumble on Sunday. I wasn't aware we had the other 14 yet. They exchange rollups to start and Jeff dumps Raven, and heads back in, but gets posted as a result. Gotta say, Scott Levy is looking pretty badass with the new look. Jeff misses a moonsault and Raven gets two. He goes for the leg and uses a spinning toehold (what is this, a wrestling show?), but Jeff mule kicks out of it and makes the comeback with the usual. Note from Jeff's website - his stupid legdrop is called the Compactor, which I will promptly ignore. Raven's DDT is blocked by Jeff, who falls off the ropes in what was either great psychology or a ludicrously blown spot, and the crowd starts the boring chants. Jeff hits, in theory, the swanton for the pin at 4:04, despite missing by a foot. Or actually, to be more accurate, hitting Raven's foot. This was a total disaster thanks to the deteriorating Jeff, despite Raven making a nearly superhuman effort to hold it together. DUD - Meanwhile, Vince is here, and he greets Randy Orton with a pat on the (94%) shoulder, which he sells. Randy is awesome. - Sean O' Haire video package, as he's apparently a gigolo. And a gigolo with REALLY good production values, too. Well, I'm a big fan, so if it gets him onto RAW, fine by me. And once again, the video packages are the best thing done by this crew, because they all come from TV backgrounds. They REALLY need to start doing more of these, because that's how you get characters over. It costs basically nothing and you immediately get a guy over without even having him wrestle. - Vince joins us for an announcement. But the Dudley Boyz interrupt before he can get anywhere and whine about being suspended and what an idiot Bischoff is. Vince overturns the suspension (thus setting a new record for suspensions at less than a hour) and gives them a title shot at the Rumble. Whoopee. So they leave and Vince continues, but Jericho interrupts now, pleading his case for the #1 slot. Hasn't anyone in this promotion ever heard of the chain of command? No wonder backstage is such a mess. So Vince gives the winner of the "over the top rope challenge" later tonight the change to choose any number they want. Except #1 - which Shawn Michaels has already taken. 1 and 2 are the same thing anyway, so it's not like that matters. Bischoff interrupts next, but Vince bitches him out and wants to continue hyping the RAW 10th anniversary special. It's job evaluation time for Bischoff, so he asks the crowd. Man, last time he did that, Buff Bagwell got a job out of it. Vince hired Bischoff to revolutionize RAW and spit up phlegm or something, and he hasn't done that. Crowd cares so much that they start with the What stuff. So Eric now has 30 days to turn RAW around. I always love segments where they talk about how much the show sucks and emasculate the talent. I guess this is gonna be reboot #10 or so since last year. - Meanwhile, Bischoff pleads his case, but Vince has a replacement waiting - Shane O Mac. You know THAT'S coming eventually. I'm just shocked they didn't do it sooner. - Booker T v. Lance Storm. Booker overpowers him to start and blocks a hiptoss with a clothesline. Kneedrop gets two. Rollup gets two, but Storm rolls through into the Sharpshooter, which Booker escapes. Storm chops away, but gets flapjacked and sidekicked for two. JR notes we're looking at our watch thinking about the bench press challenge tonight. I'm looking at my watch, but it's to check if it's still WORKING. Storm whips him into the corner for two. Crowd is comatose. Backbreaker gets two. We hit the chinlock, but Booker makes the comeback. Seriously, has my watch stopped or is this show that boring? Sidekick misses and the ref ducks in time, but Booker gets tripped up. The Dudleyz hit the ring for the DQ at 5:23. What a terrible finish. 3/4* And seriously, why are the stale Dudleyz getting the title shot? - The Hurricane v. Stevie Richards. So the first match was used to set up a Heat match between a couple of jobbers? Stevie goes for a suplex, but Hurricane reverses. Stevie pounds on him, but Hurricane comes back with a couple of clotheslines and an Edge-O-Matic for two. Stevie misses a blind charge and the Buff Blockbuster results for Hurricane. Eye of the Hurricane gets the pin at 1:27. Gotta save time that exciting HHH-Steiner bench press challenge. Yeah, I care. 1/4* Trish will apparently get another crack at that title somewhere down the road. You think they maybe need more challengers? - Nathan Jones promo. Again, great stuff. - Royal Rumble rundown: - HHH v. Steiner - Brock v. Show - Dawn v. Torrie - Regal/Storm v. Dudleyz - Angle v. Benoit - Rumble match, and we actually have 15 guys in the video for RAW. Basically 5 midcarders and a bunch of scrubs. - BENCH PRESS CHALLENGE. I'm hoping for Warlord to run in and drop a weight on HHH's face like he did to Animal in 1988. Steiner's tired of all the games, though. Amen. So we start the bar at 585, which is probably how many CCs of HGH these guys go through per day, but HHH (in a suit) heads to the ring instead of the bench press area. He doesn't give a crap about any of this stuff (much like the audience) and admits that he's just been playing games with Steiner. So they spent time and money setting up the weightlifting set just to do a boring HHH interview instead? Notice how HHH is the only guy allowed to say "Rock" and "Austin" in his interviews, and moreso allowed to bury them. Steiner wants to kick HHH's ass instead of lifting weights, so we get a quick skirmish and Steiner strips HHH down to his skimpy underwear. Yeah, this is so totally not gay. Maybe HHH dumped Stephanie for Steiner. HHH bumps all over, and this gave me NO hope for the match on Sunday. And the crowd was dead silent for all of this. Steiner is so doing the job. Here's a fun exercise for the match on Sunday: After everything JR & King say on commentary about the HHH-Steiner match, add "...in bed!" If I remember, I'll try it out in the rant. - Over the Top Challenge: Rob Van Dam v. Kane v. Batista v. Chris Jericho. One of these things is not as over as the others. History has once again been revised - apparently Shawn won the Rumble in 1995 and then went on to win the title at Wrestlemania XI, instead of a year later at Wrestlemania XII. Historians take note. Kane and RVD work over Batista and try to get him out, but that's Unlikely, even for the Unlikely Duo. It's truly a preview of the Rumble - people laying around on the top rope and flailing their arms and legs. Jericho and Batista work over Kane, but RVD saves. More people standing around and punching. This match is flaming ratings death from above. Kane & RVD hold off the heels and give Batista something resembling Total Elimination, but it's neither total nor an elimination, so really that's not an apropos name. Jericho dumps RVD, but he hangs on and comes back with a missile dropkick. Rolling Thunder for Jericho and Batista spears Kane. I guess someone must have yelled "WWF" because something gets bleeped. Batista clotheslines Kane out, but Jericho goes for the quick elimination on him in turn. That backfires, as Batista gives him the SITOUT POWERBOMB OF DOOM, but gets kicked out by Rob. Jericho pushes RVD out after a botched fall from the top rope at 6:32. This was sloppy as all hell. DUD Jericho takes #2. Shawn earns his pay for the week by running out and dumping Jericho. Whoopee fuck. We end about 2 minutes past the hour, and thank god because I couldn't take a 15 minute overrun with this show. The Bottom Line: To use one of my favorite summations for shows such as these, I could have eaten alphabet soup and shit a better show than this. Just brutally awful on several levels, with no matches even APPROACHING "decent", let alone good, or matches hyped that people want to see, and a preview of the Rumble match that may actually scare people off. And they hyped the bench press challenge for two hours without delivering jackshit, unless you're Sean Shannon. And the crowd sucked, too. It's like the grand slam of shittiness. Save your money on the Rumble and buy my book instead! How's THAT for a plug?

I thought HHH was stipped to his underwear and socks tonight as part of his continuing obsession to be the literal second coming of Ric Flair and that he was doing a homage/swipe of the imfamous "Jailbait/training bra" incident with Ricky Morton that ended with Ricky humiliating Flair by way of stripping him to his underwear in the middle of the ring....

Lesner/Angle and Golberg/Rock are currently the only two currently planned (though Golberg/Rock totally depends on whether or not Golberg pisses off Vince with contract demands to the point that Vince doesn't sign him just to spite Bill). HHH/Shawn Michaels has been name-dropped in the last couple of months and recently came up again. If they go ahead with that, expect HHH and HBK's current sparing partners BPP and Jericho to end up wrestling together while the members of the Clique jerk each other off in the ring. Also rumored is Hogan/Vince in what was planned to be Hogan's swan song match but with Hogan on the outs with the WWE, it's most likely not going to happen. Austin's return also is up in the air. Given Austin's demand that he have Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit as his own private wrestling partners before he went on sabatical, I could possibly see the WWE possibly doing Los Guerreros vs Benoit/Austin though such a match would most likely be stuck in the undercard, where Austin was pissed off at being shoved into befoe he left though....

Possible "Shock" revelations for next week: 1. Vince, in total shock moment, announce the end of the God-Awful roster split live on the air without telling anyone else backstage about it beforehand. 2. That he's buried the hatchet with Bret Hart and that Bret will be on the Raw 10th Anniversery special 3. Comes out and bitches only to be attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin, who makes his return to Raw 4. Announcing that he's renegotiated Rock's contract so that he'll be on both Raw and SD instead of being exclusive to SD only 5. Announce that he's signed Golberg to appear exclusively on Raw starting up a big build-up to his debut 6. Angle is recognized as the real World Champion, HHH's belt is turned back into the IC Belt, and Angle starts appearing on Raw along with Brock Lesner, who keeps making unnannounced appearances on Raw to get his hands on Kurt

In recent reports, it is said that Triple H is blaming Tough Enough on the recent problems in WWE creative. Triple H, and also William Regal, are said to be bashing both Tough Enough and Confidential for ‘exposing’ the business too much. Hunter apparently feels that the his heel character doesn’t have as much as heat as it would because fans no longer suspend belief due to the exposing of the business on those shows. Credit: Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter

How about "DIE HUNTER DIE"?

It's been mentioned in the various dirtsheets that Regal has become something of a go-between for the writers, Vince, and his family who tends to play tattletale on the locker-room and overly criticizes wrestlers for no good reason....

the Nine Inch Nails B-Side "March of the Fuckheads" Fits with the current mindset of WWE....

In terms of Heyman's masturbatory pushing of talentless hacks I am.

If Rhyno joins Team Angle, you might as well have Justin Credible join the team and further stink up the place.

Rock's on SD, which keeps him far away from HHH and the bulk of Trip's political bullshit. BUT given the shitty state of Raw, I could see the WWE possibly making the decision to flipflop Rock to Raw to try and boost Raw's ratings. But it won't do anything worthwhile because aside from Booker, HHH has buried everyone and they've already firmly established last year that Booker can't carry the Rock's jockstrap. They COULD do Booker/Rock where Rock turns heel and passes the torch to Booker firmly establishing him as a WWE main eventer, but you just know that HHH wants first crack at Rock if he gets moved to Raw and most likely pillow-talking to Steph that if Vince moves Rock from SD, HHH should get first crack at Rock. And that's not even factoring in the whole Golberg situation, which would do nothing in regards to the WWE using Rock to undo the damage HHH has done to the Raw roster. The logical thing for the WWE to do when Rock returns is to keep him on SD and trade Team Angle/Brock Lesner to Raw for HHH so we can get HHH/Rock Round 12. This way Team Angle/Brock get better exposure (cause Raw is the flagship and SD second bannana in the eyes of the marks) and given a chance to prove that they are the chosen ones to lead the WWE into the future by way of saving Raw while HHH can try to salvage his heat by way of working with the Rock...

Up until now, Eric Bischoff has strictly been an on-air talent for WWE Raw, and stays to himself backstage, not really drumming up any political support. However, there are reports that Vince McMahon is considering giving the creative control for the Raw brand completely over to Bischoff. McMahon is worried about differentiating the brands, and believes that if he has total control over both brands, it would be impossible to make them distinct. However, it is unclear whether McMahon is truly prepared to give total control away for one brand, especially to someone who was once a hated rival. Apparently McMahon is aware that his booking staffs are both writing shows that cater to what he likes, and he is looking for a solution that will allow a new creative voice to be heard, and Bischoff could be the answer. Credit: Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter

Actually Nitro WAS indeed Bisch's idea. You see, while Turner did want to go head-to-head with the WWF, no one would ever mention the idea of doing a live show that would air at the same time as Raw on Monday Nights because such a show would cost a shitload of money to put together and the fear amongst the various figures running WCW was that Turner would not only veto such an idea but would fire the person who suggested it because of the monetary commitment such a show would require. But Bischoff lucked out and Turner oked the proposal and the rest was history....

The kiss was supposed to lead to a romance between Steph and Bischoff that would lead to the much hyped return of Vince, who would kick Eric off of Raw, sending him to SD and setting up Steph vs Vince Round 33....

Things that could possibly endl HHH's reign of terror: 1. HHH gets injured and forced off of TV for an extended time, leaving Vince with absolutely no choice but to push new talent (which is only a quick fix to the problem as HHH will bury those who get over in his absence and/or being given a God-Push upon his return) 2. Austin demanding that HHH be castrated politically in exchange for his return. But given how Austin is pushing to be put on SD, it can be inferred that Austin just wants to be the big fish in the SD pond ala HHH and Raw and doesn't want to rock the boat 3. Vince's millionaire snobbery kicking in all ofa sudden and having him forcibly end HHH's relationship with Steph and depushes HHH in order to remind him that he's the employee and Vince is the Boss and HHH's social better 4. UPN cutting SD to an hour-long show, which all but kill off the Brand-Extension at long last, forcing HHH to have to take a backseat as Team Angle Versus Brock Lesner becomes the primary angle on Raw.... 5. Steph dumping HHH for another man

For someone who claims to be a Kurt Angle fan, you are one dumb, pessimistic bitch AS..... HELLO? Angle's GOD PUSH when he first debuted in the WWE? The fact that said God push continued up until the fall of 2000 when his stealing Steph from HHH storyline got aborted?

<Also, does Zenk honestly think that ANYONE wants to see Nichole Bass back in the WWE?> I think that the Bass comment may have been about her appealing the verdict in her civil suit against the WWE over sexual harrasment. <And that JR stuff was just cruel.> Not really, given that JR has become nothing but a company shill who's broken record shenanigans have shown how utterly impotent and useless he is....

All I can say is "He had nearly an entire month to write this column and this is the best he could come up with?". Especially given the quality of last year's "Year End" column...... For someone who's gained notoriety over bashing the WWE, Zenk let the WWE off easy for this year's shitfest......

In other words, the interview was one BIG fluff piece with no real substance to it......

Slash is fanfiction that pairs up characters of the same sex and puts them into sexual situations. Usually the characters are picked because of already existing subtext or meta-tex. Examples of slash pairings include: Kirk and Spock (Star Trek) Buffy and Faith (Buffy) Xander and Angel (Buffy) Mulder and Krychek (X-Files) and the grand-daddy of all slash pairings: Xena and Gabrielle

Where the devil did you find that pic at?