King Cucaracha

Badass. After this, I might not even put my X-Mas promo up at all. You and King have pretty much done my job for me already.

Seems RRR beat me to it, but Booker/JBL probably gets my vote. Fact is, JBL has had okay to decent to good matches this year against the right opponents. Eddie, Angle and Taker (yeah, I liked the SummerSlam match too.) But Booker wasn't the right guy. All the people who continue to say Booker should be champion and not JBL should re-watch the match and see how much Booker phones it in. HE should be champ? Please, no. And obviously, JBL needs someone to control a match for him. When he's got someone to guide him through a match (I'm not a fan of the word 'carry') like a Taker, or an Angle or an Eddie, then JBL is perfectly watchable. Obviously, Booker isn't that man. Other than that, you of course have Stevie/Tomko. Holly/Mordecai. Kenzo/Billy. And anything involving Chavo Snr. and Jacquie. And for pure disappointment factor, Eddie/Chavo at the Rumble (should have been EONS better) and Angle's Team v. Eddie's Team at Survivor Series.

Yeah, when I actually came up with the plan, I was going to PM you about it and run it by you...the whole idea of Toxxic wanting to end it quickly, decisively and brutally after being shown up on Lockdown. (And the KO bit, which I stole from one of Liger's Super J '94 matches.) But, with your 'net problems, I took the risk of writing the match that way. Which somehow worked. To be honest, I would have preffered the match to be about 4k more, in between the facelocks and the high angle backdrop...but by then I was already running low on time, so I cut a bit of that short with the plan of coming back to it if I had time. Of course, I didn't...hence Maddix being nearly dead 4 minutes in. But then again, a lot of that was also me trying not to make the high angle backdrop look weak. And yeah, should have been 3/4 facelock rather than full nelson.

Edited, as I don't know what the plan was for Darring.

Never fear, I am here...to save Christmas. Unless anyone has any objections or there's anyone I should probably take out for obvious reasons... THE ANTI-CLIMAX!!! Mid-South Eight Man Elimination Match OAOAST X-Division Championship Leon Rodez © vs. Alex Bryant vs. Sean Bryant vs. Mikey Tethers vs. Aussie Saxon vs. Danny Douglas vs. Yuji Chusaki vs. Jacob Lyne

Holy crap! I'm in shock. Or, I would be if someone hadn't have PMed me with a spoiler in the title. But whatever. Uhm, wow. I am actually shocked that I won because I'm a big self critic and all, plus I'm sure Toxxic wrote one hell of a match. Maybe when gets off of his lazy ass and replies here we can all stop with the spoiler tags. I'll probably get to gloating some time tommorow, so for now, Huzzah! for me. And Rando, thanks for not bombarding me with congrats PMs. At least, yet. I need to empty out my boxes over X-Mas methinks.

The problem I had with Rude was, almost without fail, he'd go to an endless series of very long chinlocks right in the middle of the match, cutting off the flow of the match. He never seemed to worry if they fit the story of the match, or even if it was the right time for them; without fail, you'd get a 5 or 6 minute chinlock spot, and all the momentum would be lost. Rude v. Roberts at WMIV springs to mind.

I think the plan is for Joe to outlast RVD's TV Title reign, at least. I'd be shocked if Joe didn't make it to the 24 month stage. Hell, Doug Williams held the FWA Title for 20 months, so I'm sure Joe'll beat that. So, Aries won't win.

Bubba's Running Plancha from his fat-ass ECW days. First time I saw that, it blew my mind. Ditto for RVD's Somersault Plancha into the crowd.

Summerslam 1988. They hyped the crap out of a Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Danny Lalonde fight. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought it were McMahon booking the fight himself, then shilling it on his established PPV market in an attempt to become a successful boxing promoter. But, that'd be just silly.

It was only given **** by Meltzer because it was a TNA match. It's like the high ratings ECW matches used to get sometimes when they were first viewed. Meltz or whoever would watch it and the match would stand out from the crowd, which causes the guy rating it to be more lenient with the snowflakes. Which you can forgive Meltzer for doing. An entertaining match on an otherwise dull show is going to be more memorable than an entertaining match on an entirely entertaining show, after all. Looking back, then you can probably say he over-rated it. Point is, different people have different opinions on wrestling and what constitutes a good match. Tim's opinions are just as valid as Meltzer's are, because that's what they are...opinion. And star ratings are the same...purely individual. One person's *** match is probably someone else's *3/4 star match.

I hope we can expect the return of Dace's Diatribe for this show.

I'll comment when a certain part of a certain match goes up.

Well, my match is in. My sinuses are the size of grapefruits and I feel like crap, but it's in. Good luck to Toxxic and I'm glad you showed buddy. At least, for now. Oh, and don't expect a Women's match I'm afraid. When you're bed-ridden for two days, you have to make priorities.

My point exactly. You can pick and choose whichever facts you want to make someone seem a draw. Of course, we're not pointing out the fact that Benoit had been given clean pinfall or submission victories over his main rivals, while JBL has basically got diddly squat on that subject...or for that matter, ANYONE on the roster. But nevermind that. We can forget that. Just like everyone forgets that Diesel had hideous competition for the belt. Forget that, Diesel sucks, he's a horrible draw. Just like JBL. I'm not saying the facts aren't true, I'm not saying they're not valid. I'm saying it always irks me that people seem to twist and turn the ratings arguement whatever way they want, dependant on who the person in question is. Take for example, Eddie's ratings. When they were good, it was his doing. When they dropped, it was because Eddie wasn't being booked correctly.

The crowd went there with the sole intention of putting themselves over. If we're judging the WWE by that crowd then god help us all. Let's not forget the cheers Tripper got, or the fact the crowd sat on their hands for most of EDDIE~ vs. Angle and the opening six-man involving LONDON~. I still don't get the arguement that one person makes the WWE a draw anymore. Until there's another Rock or Austin coming along, the WWE name is what draws, not 'Crapshaw' (very original btw) or Orton, or Benoit or Trips. In fact, I hate the whole 'he's a draw, he's not' arguement itself...not because it's neccessarily wrong, but because there's so many factors you can ignore when you want to turn it against someone like Diesel, or so many you can suddenly remember when you want to make an IWC favourite look good. JBL entertains me. That's all that matters to me. I'm not worried about what PPV buyrate the WWE gets while I'm watching a show. Sure, there's better wrestlers and better people to hold the title. But JBL's not doing a BAD job as champ.

It's certainly better than mine Papa'. Seemed pretty good to me and it was a nice touch to put Yancy in on commentary of course, giving the commentary an added edge as Coach always seems to be played as the neutral when Crystal isn't around. Another good show. Nice to see me in so many different segments too. Always a good sign.

Well, I've done my bit by ordering a whole bunch of videos from SMV for X-Mas. And I'm agreed on what Hawk said...from what I've seen over here, I've become an IWA:MS fan too. Not sure how Ian can go about on the money scale. Maybe if they promoted in a way similar to ROH, with a 'big' show a month and fewer of these double-headers it'd encourage people to go to the big events.

It's a cold winter night in Minneapolis, Minnesota...and also, a very windy night judging from the continuous swooshing noise that can be heard in the background. Somewhere in what seems to be some sort of park, the SWF Intercontinental Television Champion Landon Maddix is stood in the warmest warm-up gear he could presumably find. Steam comes from his breath as he begins to rub his hands in a futile attempt to stay warm, noticeably shivering. "And so, the day is almost here. December 19th, Sla..." "Uhm...it's December 21st actually." mumbles a voice from behind the camera, presumably from the cameraman himself. "Yeah, right. December 21st, Slay Ride. The single biggest night of my career to date, without question. It's bigger than the Two Out Of Three Falls Match with Alan Clark, the last ever SJL match, when I won the SJL World Heavyweight Title. It's bigger than my SWF debut against Sacred. Bigger than even my first SWF World Title shot against Charlie Matthews. Because this time, people actually think I have a chance of winning. It's the biggest night of my career, biggest night...of my life. One night, one match, one chance to become the number one man in this company. But, of course, you know that." Landon turns his head to the side, spitting to the side, presumably risking catching a hefty cold by being out in a park in the early hours of a December morning. "We all know how important this match is. It's for the SWF World Heavyweight Championship, main event of a live Pay Per View...of COURSE it's important. I know I'm looking forward to this match. You Toxxic, you know what this is like. You know what it's like to walk out in the main event spot of a Pay Per View event, with all the pressure of defending the World Heavyweight Championship. And evidentally, you know how to win. I know you're confident Toxxic. Heck, you know you're confident. You'e Toxxic. Two-time World Heavyweight Champion. One half of the Tag Team Champions. Former two-time ICTV Champion. Of course you're confident. However, and here's comes another clichéd 'life lesson...as much as you know, you don't know. 'As much as you know, you'll never know it all'. And if there's one thing you don't know... ...it's me." Now a smile adorns Maddix's face as he adjusts the ICTV Championship belt that sits on his shoulder, as it ALWAYS does...not something you'd expect to see someone carrying in a park. Unless of course, that person was Landon Maddix. "You see Toxxic, the thing about you and me is that our careers haven't yet crossed paths for any lengthy amount of time until now. Should you have debuted a few months earlier, you'd have ended up in the SJL where no doubt you'd have been chasing after MY World Title. An odd parallel, huh? After that, we never seemed to cross paths in the SWF. While I was chasing titles, you were busy establishing yourself...and somewhere along the way, you passed me on the way towards the top, while I was being held up with Chris Card and all that crap. We met once, granted. One tag team match which lo-and-behold, myself and Tom Flesher won. But besides that, we never had the reason to face each other. As time went on and you went through the top half of the roster, I was beginning to build up another ICTV Title reign, which began the talk of Toxxic versus Maddix. The two youngsters. The two men who'd benefitted most from the 'new generation'. You could even say, the two leaders of the 'new generation'. The more the talk intensified, it seems the more we were held apart. For that special occassion. And what mor..." Suddenly, Maddix is cut off from his lengthy talk by the sound of panting approaching ever closer to him, until he finally has to stop. The panting isn't coming from a dog though. Though it does sound similar. No, it's the panting of the SWF Women's Champion Megan Skye, breathing heavily as she jogs over to Maddix and stops by his side, crouched over in exhaustion. "Ah, Megan...uhm...fancy seeing you here!" "Ve..very funny...Landon. I thought..this was supposed..to be a..joint training session." "Well, it is. But I'm the number one contender now Megs, which means I have to give these guys a promo or two before Slay Ride. You know, to increase the buyrate." "Increase your payrate you mean." Megan snaps, getting her breath back. "Can I..sit down now?" "You know, these pole type of matches...there's a lot of climbing involved. And there'll be a lot of need for some cardio vascular back-up if you're having to go from one side of the ring and back repeatedly, as well as wrestling a match. Better...better give it one more lap." Megan glares at Maddix as she realises he's serious, before taking a deep breath and jogging off again. Shaking off the interruption, Maddix smiles as he turns back to the camera. "Women. Sheesh! Anyway, as I was saying...what more special of occassions could there be than Christmas? And what better present to the fans could there be to SWF fans than giving them, finally, Toxxic versus Landon Maddix one on one?" "Well, I guess if Eji..." "It was a rhetorical question dummy." Maddix grunts to the cameraman under his breath. "Anyway, Toxxic, you don't know me, because you've never been in the ring with me, save for a few short exchanges in that tag match months ago. That could have all changed on Lockdown. It was your chance to get a pre-Slay Ride assessment of my style, my speed, my strength. Hell, it would been to your benefit Toxxic. You wasted it though, didn't you? When it came down to you and me, you baulked at the thought of giving away any Toxxic 'secrets', so you sent in your cronies to try and give you a bit of protection. Once again, Toxxic and Revolution Zero use their numbers advantage to get what they want, right?" Maddix chuckles under his breath. Holding up five fingers on his left hand, Maddix smiles as he holds up just two on the right...pausing for a moment, before holding up the other three. "Wrong!" Down goes one finger on the right. "Oh yes, Spike did a number on Kaine...real bad. But with him out of the way..." Down goes a left finger, presumably representing Spike Jenkins. And as the smile on his face grows, one by one Maddix drops down the rest of his left fingers until all that remain are the four on his right hand. "It suddenly...fell...apart. You thought you had it all figured out again, didn't you Toxxic. Wait until it came down to you and me. The very moment that I'd been waiting for. You waited until you and me got into the ring, until we locked eyes...the moment that I could smell the chance of kicking your ass. And then, in come the cronies. I suppose you thought that you'd just be able to walk off while I was stuck against Sacred and Davis and then, I'd be so determined to get to you at Slay Ride that I'd possibly end up losing my cool, losing my focus and maybe even getting myself DQed. A very nice plan. And that's coming from someone who knows quite a bit about plans. But, it didn't work. You didn't reckon on Ghost and Cortez did you." Clenching up his other fist, Maddix looks off into the distance for a moment, while the cameraman is forced to wipe some of the steam off of the camera lens. "You see, that's your problem Toxxic. You're caught up in this whole 'ruler' persona...and you see everyone as mere pawns in 'your' world now. Trouble is, that makes you think you can treat these pawns however you like. But you can't. Us 'pawns' have had enough of Revolution Zero and we're not gonna stand for your games anymore. With me, heading the resistance. All I need...is your World Heavyweight Championship belt." Slowly, Maddix removes the ICTV Championship from his shoulder, cupping it in his hands with a wistful gaze as he looks into the main gold plate. "Your plan backfired. Mine? At Slay Ride, my plan isn't going to backfire. We've gone through all the ins and outs, all the what-ifs and all of the possible things that could go wrong. Not gonna happen. See Toxxic, I know you don't know me. So, let me fill you in on something. I ALWAYS have a plan..." Maddix's smile grows another few inches, as he puts the ICTV Championship back over his shoulder. "And believe me, THIS one...is a doozy! See you Tuesday night Toxx." Looking set to revel in his apparent happiness, Maddix is cut off in mid-chuckle as Megan comes panting back over, even more exhausted than the last time. She doesn't seem too happy with all the laps she's having to do at 2 o'clock in the morning. I wonder why. "That's..four laps. Now...ar..are you gonna..do some work now?" With a wry smile, Maddix looks at his watch. "Maybe later. I fancy a latté." Pulling off her gloves, Megan hurls them at Maddix before storming off screen as the ICTV Champ shrugs his shoulders. "...something I said?"

Right, ta Dace. If you speak to him again and his net isn't back up by Tuesday night and he can't show then I might tag on some sort of draw ending, if he wants. Oh, and I hope you told him about the epic Women's Title match he's involved in too.

Remember that thread in HD where 'Chav' was this year's buzz-word. Apparantly, these kids are chav. Sad thing is, there's so many punks who dress and act like them here in Britain, either intentionally or un-intentionally. Asking them for the time is apparantly reason enough to 'rip your fuckin' throat out, guv'. Amen.

Anyone seen Toxx online since...I think Wednesday?

Thunderbirds Are Go. The Killers- "All These Things That I've Done" Eric Prydz- "Call On Me" (if only for the video) U2- "Vertigo"

Eamon- F*ck It (Don't Want You Back) is the song in question and, if not for "Just Lose It" would top my list. His 'ex-bitch's follw-up was equally as bad (Frankie?). There's a whole bunch of bad songs that probably never saw the light of day in the US too. Like the Portugese chick who won Big Brother, and used to be a man. And Blazin' Squad. Also, the theme-song from the Thunderbirds movie. Done by Busted. And voted Record Of The Year here in the UK by a bunch of dumb teen bitches and their mobile phones. That had to be 2003, surely.

^ Outside of America The problem with American soccer, from the bits I've seen of it, is that there just isn't the quality or the passion. Baseball, basketball, American football...all have great rivalries, passionate fans and the like. Soccer though. There's not the history that the other sports have. In England, 'soccer' (or to most people football, seeing as you actually use your feet 90% of the match) has the history. There are rivalries, passionate fans. Soccer is I'm pretty sure the oldest team sport in England. Hell, we invented it after all. Hence, everyone grows up on it. It's easier to enjoy a sport if you've watched it all your life. It's harder to get 'into' a sport. And it's certainly harder to get a vast number of people 'into' that sport. To the people who don't see soccer as a real sport, joking or not...it's obviously a cultural thing. There's probably just as many Brits who'd never watch baseball, because they haven't watched it from youth so they don't enjoy it. Soccer is very much a real sport though, believe me. The Major Leauge lacks quality. Watch either Spanish or English football and you'll see a much different atmosphere and definately a much better quality of soccer.