DrVenkman PhD

I picked the wrong week to quite sniffin' glue. The one thing that really irked me about RAW was how they telegraphed Punk retaining the title, specfically Lawler's commentary. He kept talking about how he had a good feeling, how Punk got himself into it, etc. Plus, there was a commercial break b/w ring intro's, and that feels a bit "throw away" to me, and not something they'd do with a big time, "meant to be taken seriously" title match. I was taping RAW and came home at 10:15 and sat down to start watching thinking, "Oh, nothing important could have happened." And then Cole starts talking about "new World Champion CM Punk," so the moment was spoiled for me. I should pay attention to those nagging doubts. I feel so regarded. I think the finish was more telegraphed by John Cena being "thrown out of the building". That's carny for main event run in. It was the good kind of predictable though, led to a fun spectacle at the end of the show. I actually agree with cabbageboy in his view of how Punk as champion worked - ANYONE can get heat as a credible challenger now. That's probably not great for box office if the marks view the champion as a guy that has to squeak out of a win over The Miz, but it could make for some exciting TV.

Woah what's Public Accountant 3 doing here. The board runners aren't sports entertainment fans!

I don't want to be Buzz Killington over here but calling that one of the best overall Raws in awhile is a bit of a stretch (but maybe not by as much as I first thought). Let's break it down. - Opening segment. A match was technically involved in this, but really it was 25 minutes and no wrestling. That said, it was awesome, even before the Punk thing, which made it even better. - A short and not that good women's match. - I can't remember the order or how things went down, but this was seemingly followed up by at least 2 or 3 more non-wrestling segments (JBL challenging Punk, Cena also challenging Punk). We're now over an hour in and the only match more than 20 seconds we've had is Mickie James vs. Jillian Hall. - A very short squash match for the tag champs. - An IC title match with a DQ finish and a lot of action during a commercial. - JBL entering the ring. - A main event where Punk wins clean. So it was actually pretty light on wrestling... BUT yeah, it was a fun Raw and pretty enjoyable, and while watching the show live I thought Cena coming out where the IC title match should have been (to break up the flow of non-match segments) worked better at the time it happened for Cena to be "kicked out". In this respect, it was very much like an Attitude era Raw and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Now that all of that negative stuff is out of the way, yes, I did enjoy the show and was happy to see Punk leave Raw with the belt. The opening segment was just so damn good that the idea of Raw amounting to a large non-wrestling build up to a second world title match made sense. After being dissapointed last night that they didn't book the obvious solution of Punk getting a belt for his brand, this more than made up for it and made for really exciting TV. I even marked out like an idiot clapping at me TV and cheering. Well done, WWE.

But serious enough to declare anyone that writes a newsletter is a schyster.

One of my friends gave me guff for saying "anyone" instead of "ne1" back in 1996. Even as a young teen with his first next experience, I didn't care for that business.

Seriously though, I agree.

I (hardly) tolerate most of your antics that the rest of these degenerates seem to enjoy, but I will NOT stand for this besmirchment of The Mighty Hercules.

Speaking of Kennedy and MITB, I like how Edge refers to himself as a "two time" MITB winner. I guess beating an injured man in 90 seconds that you baited into a match for a briefcase is a big accomplishment these days. The flip side of that is winning the briefcase in a one on one match is no different than winning a championship in a one on one match, so I guess he really does have the rights to say he was a two time holder of a MITB briefcase.

I realize star ratings are subjective, but for the life of me I can't figure out how some reviews (ex. The Torch coverage) can have the ECW title match a 1/4* or even on par with the WWE tag title and Women's title match. The ECW Title match was terrible while the other two matches (though the Women's match seems to have mixed viewes) were both entertaining.

Foley even put over the US title as being just as good! I realize that was in an effort to put the US title over and not further demean the ECW belt, it was still kind of weird to hear. In one of those kind of funny moments, I thought absolutely nothing of JR and Foley doing commentary for the WWE tag title match but questioned why they did the US title (and made this point in feedback I sent to WO... er, F4W.com). It wasn't until I read other feedback that I realized Foley and JR shouldn't have been calling the tag title match either. Oh well, it's better that they did. Can't have Adamle call 3 (or even 2) live matches from his announcing thing.

Excellent observation. I don't think at any point in history we've ever seen the crowd boo John Cena or do the "YEAH!" "BOO" slugfest spot. Especially when he's wrestling another face! Turn him heel now! This is what I would have said if this happened at a June 2004 PPV. It's kind of passe now... However, you did say you're looking at it from your own (ill-concived) wishes of wanting Cena to be a full-blown heel, thus limiting the amount of merchandise WWE can sell to kids.

RedBaron makes a good point, but conversely the may have thought fighting Kofi for the new top title would be easier.

I've never been a fan of Flair... Is this because he never worked for TNA?

Without me reading the recap, please tell me that's the Thunder where Sid beat the Harris brothers in a cage using the worst Crossface ever.

Way to help out your brand when HHH was easy pickings, Punk. What a selfish jerk! Katie Lea was super hot tonight and Mickie seemed to be groping her during a submission hold. Batista/Edge and HHH/Cena were both very good. Kofi Kingston - top man on Raw?

The more I think about it (and read results!), I think it was a fall 98 episode where Jericho beat Bill Greenberg that I enjoyed. I don't even know if that entire episode would stand the test of time though.

Well you're right, it couldn't have been the summer since Flair was indeed gone. Maybe the spring? Either way it couldn't have been TOO early because it was when Thunder had already developed a reputation for being pointless. You know, maybe it wasn't even Jericho vs. Flair (because like I said, I don't really remember it) but something Jericho centric. It was a "oh neat, Thunder has a storyline and it's good!" deal I believe.

Every time a Diva search happens, just google their names. Chances are that at least half of them have posed nude.

According to two people posting in response to Scott Keith's blog review of this movie, the graphic novel was horrible anyway.

Lee Marshall is very much like Mike Adamle - they have very great broadcasting voices but you don't really want to hear what they have to say. Lee does a good job as Tony the Tiger though.

I seem to recall really enjoying an episode of Thunder in the summer of 98 that involved Ric Flair vs. Chris Jericho. The match wasn't great shakes but something about the overall show sticks out in my mind as "good" even though I can't seem to remember a thing about it.

Mega Man 9 is coming out for XBLA/PSN/WiiWare. The world just became a better place.

I need to stop making DVD buying trips at Wal-Mart. I go in to get Futurama and leave with Futurama, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and the Naked Gun trilogy. NG was only $15! And it comes in one box! Amazing.

It sounds natural on Nitro but it has a really "overdubbed" quality to it on Thunder. Bryan Alvarez had a great analysis about Alex Wright in a late 2000 F4W: In 1996, he was a talented guy wrestling on a roster full of REALLY talented guys. This became really obvious when he was wrestling with the likes of The Harris Brothers and the rest of WCW's rag tag roster before it died.

1. Every belt is on the line, hence Jericho must defend his IC title (though there were some subtle commentary hints by Cole saying "every match is for a championship" that suggest they may have an out). Meltz also said today that pre-draft, Jeff Hardy was being considered as the opponent. 2. Weeks ago on SmackDown Vickie announced a match for the Divas title would be at the PPV. Natalya qualified to be one competitor and no one has qualified to be the other. Meltz thinks this angle and match may have actually been quietly dropped.