cawthon777

Heather Nauert > Kieran Chetry Maybe in Bizarro World. Sad to hear Kieran's married.

Who the fuck cares what Scott Keith has to say? Honestly.

Since my predictions about Benoit's push have been correct since December, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say IF ... and I do mean IF ... Triple H wins the title back, it won't be anytime soon. To put so much effort into making Benoit be percieved as world title material just to have him drop the strap in a month or two isn't the way to go - and Vince is smart enough to realize that. That would have been like having Bret go over Flair in 92 just to drop the belt back to him a few weeks later. Also, with all the main event caliber matches on the card at WrestleMania, it really says something about their intentions for Benoit to send him out there last and close the show with Eddie, Benoit's family, and the confetti celebration (a handful of which I took home as a souvineer).

I haven't been on much in the past few days, getting ready to head up to NYC in the morning, and just wanted to check in to see who all is going to the show. With the close seats I have, I imagine I'll end up camera once or twice. Look for a guy wearing a Bret Hart t-shirt circa 1993 (white background, Bret with the world belt in black, pink logos all over) over a black turtleneck. I believe I'll be on the far left hand side of the screen, if they shoot MSG as they usually do. I also have tickets to Raw at the Meadowlands. Should be fun. Obviously I won't be around to read too many of the replies but if you see me, feel free to say hi (and let me know where I know you from ... otherwise I'll just think you're really friendly / weird). Oh, and I'm taking the train up from DC. So let's hope for no repeats of what happened in Spain.

It's MSG. I don't know if you could find a more respecting crowd. Yes, Bret is the Canadian boy but even he referred to the Garden as holy ground.

I wouldn't really mind if Taker squashed everyone and turned heel. ...As long as Eddie pins him.

I'm watching the show about 30 feet away from the ring. The first row up from the floor seats. 1st WrestleMania, 1st time at the Garden, 1st PPV.

Yes, please!

Shawn did a pretty good job on Fox & Friends earlier this morning. I helps when one of the co-anchors is familiar with Bruno and the old WWWF. Did I just see Triple H come out without the title? Just caught the final minutes of him on Regis and didn't see the belt.

I have a newspaper ad for the Capital Centre in 1975 and it claimed that the same matches drew 26,000 at the Garden. I don't know how valid that is but it could be true. The Curtain Call MSG card in 96 drew around 18,000 and that was a sell out. If you throw in video cameras all over the arena, stages, lighting, etc then it could be cut down to about 15,000 I'm guessing. I would be interested to see how many showed for the famous Raw at MSG in 97 or the 2000 Rumble. That would be a good indication as to what WrestleMania will hold.

Andre was looked upon as being on an entirely different level as Hogan's challengers from that time - especially similar big men like King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd. Andre had a mystique around him that no other wrestler had and to pit him against Hogan was pure gold. I'd say the Hogan marks HOPED the champion would win but going into the match it was anyone's game. The fanbase wasn't as educated as they are today regarding injuries, booking, etc - had they been, I'm sure most would have predicted Hogan walking away with the belt. If everyone was a subscriber to the Observer back then, then no - no one would have given Andre a hope in hell.

That's one of the few things that would get him booed out of the arena. After all this hype and the lightning bolts / lighting / gongs / vignettes on Raw, the fans will be upset - dare I say livid - if he DOESN'T come back as the Dead Man.

Well I hate her too but if she's running against say ... Rudy ... you would rather not vote at all rather than voting for her opposition?

Not too sure if Hillary wants to go through 8 years of being VP and THEN run for office. I could much more easily see her running in 2008 after Bush's second term is up.

IF, and I mean IF, Kane is able to kill the Undertaker's WrestleMania winning streak - then he would be a perfect candidate to challenge Chris Benoit ... AND in doing so, solidify Benoit as a worthy world champion. I don't really care one way or the other who wins between Taker and Kane but it would be pretty historic for Kane to get the win.

I don't recall too many people from the early to mid 90s using the DDT on a regular basis. Of course, there was Arn Anderson who used it as a finisher. Bret used it on the rare ocassion. The move remained protected for quite a while. Even today it has enough credibility to be a finisher.

Think the SuperBrawl Revenge Cruiserweight Elimination match that Shane Helms won (which ruled, IMO).

I'm guessing most people expected it to be Hogan vs. Orndorff. Andre wasn't even on TV (aside from Giant Machine) in the fall and winter of 86. It was only a week or so after the SNME cage match aired that the Piper's Pit segments with Hogan and Andre started - so I think it was obvious at that point.

And what would he do w/ it on Raw? The only guys on Raw who would fit the bill as cruisers are Spike & Helms, neither of which are anything other than jobbers. Plus, the CW Title *should* be below Hardy at this point. Matt could hold the belt hostage and just defend against the Raw talent, making himself look unbeatable in the process, before he's forced to face a SD challenger at a joint PPV. Yeah, it's a step back for Matt but I don't see them doing anything more entertaining with the Cruiserweight Open. Hopefully one of the often-looked over guys has a good showing. Ultimo isn't over at all right now with the casual watcher but watch him put away 3 or 4 guys in a row and the crowd will be all over him.

With Jim Ross playing up the fact that Matt Hardy hasn't won a match since coming to Raw, I would think this would be the perfect opportunity for Matt to involve himself in the match and "steal" a Smackdown title. At the very least, the Cruiserweight Open should include the Raw talent that probably won't be on the show - Hurricane, Spike, etc. London is a definate must-have. WrestleMania would be the perfect opportunity for someone such as him to make a lasting impression.

Glad he finally cleared that one up. I was beginning to wonder...

I'm not disappointed enough in it to complain. Personally, I'm a big fan of "Chasing Amy" and am enjoying the simularities to the angle, thus far (aside from the non-existant lesbian stuff). Best friend feels threatened by new girlfriend, blah blah blah. Christian is doing a great impression of Jason Lee; I'm just waiting for him to refer to Trish as 'finger cuffs'.

IYH 5 I was actually interested in seeing. On paper, and with the Summer Slam 92 Bret vs. Davey Boy match kept in mind, it looked fun if not overly memorable. It's Time was garbage. Taker in a gimmick match vs. some guy we've never seen wrestle (at least not with the mask). Owen & Davey vs. two guys the fans crapped on the moment they appeared on TV. Yeah, that's how to draw. International Incident looked watchable on paper. Austin vs. Mero in somewhat of a revenge match for Austin going over at KOTR, as well as Mero busting him open during the match which required stitches. Jake the Snake vs. Mankind. The 6-man tag, though enjoyable, wasn't a good draw on paper which I think obviously takes the blame for the buyrate. I had zero interest in Armageddon 03. IYH 4 looked watchable. HBK vs. Douglas, Diesel vs. Davey Boy (2 months of buildup and with Bret doing commentary), Goldust's TV debut. I think the blame for DX's poor showing had something to do with backlash over the Montreal Incident. Yeah, not the greatest card but I for one wasn't too thrilled with the WWF over the situation with Bret. Ground Zero needed more buildup. In retrospect, it was basically a throw away PPV that built to the much more solid Badd Blood. Buried Alive was watchable. Vader vs. Sid was disappointing; I would have much preferred Vader squash Sid and then squash HBK at MSG. Beware of Dog had some solid build to it. Most of the bouts on there had about 2 months of backstory, if not more - Austin vs. Mero, Vader vs. Yoko, Triple H vs. Mero, etc. The only real draw for Mindgames, for me (and I'm speaking at the time of the show, not now), was the tag title match. I really wanted to see Owen & Davey walk out with the belts. But other than that I wasn't too enthralled with the line up. I would be interested to see how the PPVs following these shows did in terms of buyrates. I think in most cases, these PPVs ended up being more memorable than people anticipated and they ended up buying the next show as a result of what occured at these events (I guess aside from Mindgames / Buried Alive in which both tanked).

I think it's a good match but considering the talent involved that's pretty much a given. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it played up Bret's newfound cowardly heel role, which I never got used to. Bret wasn't even supposed to face Austin that night. His original opponent was Psycho Sid, as Sid wanted payback for Bret costing him the title at WrestleMania. No clue why Sid was not on the show ... or why Rocky Miavia replaced him against Mankind at Cold Day in Hell. I know he was in a car wreck that summer but that wouldn't explain these situations. The Kuwait match is the equivalent of an above average Raw or WCW Saturday Night bout. Obviously the two can go but Kuwait wasn't really the forum to put on a match similar to what they had at the Garden.

The only time I remember that happening was on Raw in June 98 when Taker, as Kane, pinned Mankind to become the #1 contender to Austin's title.