DrVenkman PhD

3 more Shorties I think we'll be seeing after going through the photos on WWE.com again: Warrior vs. Hogan Bret vs. Austin (Mania 13) Foley vs. Michaels (Mind Games) - I'm basing this one on a picture of Shawn coming out with the world title with an In Your House set in the background. So 3 more matches many of us probably have on DVD. I can't fault them for that though.

He is not over Molly Holly.

It's slightly better when he bothers to say where he's posting the news from.

Bruiser Chong: Thanks for taking my "and now we play the waiting game" set-up line in the Vader thread.

Life and Times of Vader Why the hell was I waiting for Scherer to confirm something as true? lol

Could Jesus apply a Masterlock so strong that even he could not break it (if he was somehow also on the other end)?

I just have some sort of minor dysleixa (self diagnosed!) that causes me to mis-read it by accident, that's all. As someone who isn't under TNA contract, I wonder if Masters was invited to Raw XV.

I actually have thought about that. I figured it would be treated as a joke announcement if someone came online to inform the forum of my death (or if that happened for anyone) barring some sort of legit obit.

Does anyone ever accidentally read ChrisMWaters name as ChrisMasters?

Meltzer is too busy asking me why I haven't sent him any of the promised 24/7 show recaps I promised months ago. Seriously though, what's he going to say? "Yeah he died but I was too busy watching TUF to say anything"? On another note, PWInsider, normally awful, made me laugh with their headline "Chris Masters talks... again". I'm getting tired of seeing daily headlines about his interviews.

And you can't even get over your sorrow of being played for a sap by dining at Pizza Hut until they get their game face on. Things aren't looking good for ol JN News these days.

I remember when I once asked Meltzer about the life status of Vader (he was alive!)

That message board is full of TNA hating goths.

But he DID have a good line...which he got fired for: "Slim Jims...when you don't care WHAT part of an animal you eat!" He was on for more episodes though (which I am now learnign via 24/7 Online). Is this really what got him fired or just an assumption people came to over time?

Was I just not paying attention previously or is this the first MNW where the set has the AWA, JCP, WCW, old WWF, SMW, WCCW, and old ECW logos between the Hogan and Sting posters? I know WCW and WWF were there before, but the others just seemed to really stand out for me this week.

Damnit! I almost predicted that was going to be his choice but I thought Coach's choice might have been something not yet revealed. Oh well, one more down, more unpredictability coming up.

Odd note on TNT, Jake's snake bag looks like it says "Phillip Fry" on it during a quick shot. A longer shot of the bag reveals it says something else, possibly the snake handlers name (Phillip Frsomething). I like how the DDT is called a "reverse bulldog".

Definitely have to say in my books, that was one of the best MNWs in weeks. Raw: Good show with good nostalgia. I already said I was looking forward to Owen's big win and I still enjoyed it. As mentioned, Bulldog's antics in celebration of Owen's win was tremendous. I loved all the stuff with Pillman and Bret's first promo ("Go ahead and chant USA, my mother is American") was pretty good too. I didn't realize this was the Raw with a big Austin / Undertaker confrontation to set up Cold Day in Hell... how I marked for that 10.5 years ago. Really hot ending to the show. Nitro: Also a very hot ending! Normally I hate Nitro's motto of advertising main events that you know aren't going to happen, but Flair was ready to go and get everyone excited. Juvi vs. Syxx was also pretty awesome, best match on Nitro in awhile. WWF Alert! Jim Ross mentions the "WWF Superstar line". Chris Benoit alert! Apparently Jeff Jarrett earned his respect.

There are 20 Struggle Submissions for the record (since your finisher can be any move regardless of your fighting style you can see every move, so I counted out 20 of them). I was happy to see buying one of those premium kits bumped my CAW right up to 80. I didn't know what the hell "kit" meant. Using someone's previous suggestion of just simulating a few years of 24/7 mode as someone like Undertaker helped me buy just about everything before I even started 24/7 (which I did as Matt Hardy and only played until I won the right to be #1 contender and earned Rey Mysterio's respect).

Huh, didn't hear about the Traci thing being a worked shoot. Pretty awful stuff. I look forward to Bryan's eventual book about TNA if this trend continues.

Who is that being quoted? I don't see it anywhere else here.

I don't know if I already said this (I think I did...) or just thought it, but you'll notice that in recent years the SD series is criticized both for not changing at all AND changing things too much. Especially on the PS2 version (which I have) there isn't much within the system limits that could be changed. A lot of last year's annoying glitches seem to have been fixed too (tag teams are more than person in introductions, I haven't heard the announcers talk about people not in the match yet, etc.) and there have been some new move animations too (though whether or not you LIKE these new animations is up for debate... I like them, but good lord people jump high when the counter a UCM with an Edge-o-matic). That said, once you get used to playing the game and what is new about it (controls), a lot of it begins feeling familiar. This is the first time since the 2001 that I didn't at the very least go to the store and pick the game up (2001 - 2005 I had pre-paid for the games, 2006 I think I just went and got it) and even now I'm not playing it that much. Their tendency to remove things (moves or modes) and not replace them with other things of equal or better value is annoying. I don't like that this year's game doesn't have a belt showcase area to let me know who the exhibition mode champ is and what the last 5 title matches were... yeah, it's kind of a wrestling geek thing to book exhibition title matches and have their histories on file, but it gave the game re-playability. On that note, I love the ability to put two belts on the line in one match and the post match double gold celebration - not enough to cancel out my disappointment at the removal of an easy to read champions list, but it's good. Also good - the King of the Ring coronation ceremony. It's a blast taking people like Umaga or The Sandman and winning the tournament with them just to see how wacky they look in the ceremony with the Diva you pick as their Queen. The fact it adds a KOTR stable (which changes everytime you give someone a new tournament win) so people make a King and Queen entrance is a nice touch. It must be said, they did a lot of small things right with this game that give it nice touches, but it sounds like they botched it big time on the season mode (which I've barely played this year) and that annoys a lot of people.

I prefer SHEOS The Movie.

Yeah, I noticed in my MITB match all the asshole opponents stood around while Jeff Hardy was hanging there and I was laid out on the mat. It was like that in the Rumble, too. If I was on the ring apron, two jerks came at me right away, but if I threw someone else over the rope (or they threw someone else over) and I accidentally became auto targeted at someone else, none of the other guys seemed to care.

The spoilers sent to WO.com made it sound like Scott Steiner had two title shots. "Hermie Sadler is introduced as doing commentary for the four-way briefcase stip match. Steiner pins Petey Williams and chooses Williams briefcase which is later revealed to have a shot at the TNA title" But the spoilers here make it sound like Petey has a title shot. Weird. It was kind of funny, when I heard about this briefcase deal I thought they were maybe doing a far too late Deal or No Deal type thing, and apparently they were.