DrVenkman PhD

Cogeco seems on their game getting me all the updates on time lately, so hooray. I'm looking forward to leaving work and watching one of my favourite title changes of 1997.

Big Dave Meltzer seems pretty excited about 24/7 airing - and calling it as such - "Black Saturday". Apparently someone named "Mr. Mike" coined the term in an Observer cartoon.

Wow I'm getting good at predicting what the Shorties will be based on footage aired on the channel... so right now, unaccounted for but shown in footage matches are: Rock vs Hogan Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard Patterson vs. Slaughter Savage vs. Steamboat Flair vs. Steamboat (Wrestlewar 89) Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair (photo on WWE.com) I have a feeling Punk's gift is going to be Savage vs. Steamboat. So far no one's gift has been of one of their own matches, otherwise I would say Patterson vs. Slaughter would be Patterson's gift. I think Jack Korpela is going to intro Hogan vs. Rock, don't know why though. Coach... no idea. I guess I really have no prediction for tomorrow. I'll go out on a limb and say Coach wants us to watch Shane McMahon vs. Eric Bischoff from SummerSlam 2003, but that would be a pretty bad gift, Coachman.

As long as you already wrote your review and realize the match will be gone after the 8th, it's all good.

Playing SVR 08 had made me miss Sandman being on Raw, and I couldn't stand the guy in his prime. I don't know, I guess watching old ECW on 24/7 has made me appreciate him some (the way he did Irish Whips by falling down to give it some realistic momentum was genius).

Give the book back to D'amore.

Same thing, I think. At least if you bundle them together it's a $70 purchase, but I'd have to double check that. Bottom line, you can actually snag all 4 volumes for less than the entire Anthology originally was last year (it was $200+ or so in Canada unless I'm remembering wrong).

Unless the price went up after pre-orders, Volumes 1 and 2 were also $35 on Amazon.

Good lord that first hour dragged on forever. I was hoping they'd keep a good Raw streak going, but it was not to be. That said, Umaga vs Jericho and HBK vs Orton were both good TV matches, too bad they couldn't have better endings. I did mark out for the fakes and their entrances, but it was a pretty dull segment (Kennedy telling Razor Ramon III "Thanks for coming" was great though).

I caught some of ROH's "Arena Warfare" (that CZW angle was pretty intense... I know I'm quite late on that comment though) on The Fight Network last night, but it was very difficult to watch due to the film quality. It looked like a camcorder with some sort of macro setting on it... comparable to the way ECW's TV shows looked when they were recapping something from the previous week. 1. Why would they film it this way? 2. Was this some issue with TFN, or was a DVD actually released in such poor quality?

I will say that this year, there seemed to be far less... maybe even none at all... "warping" suplexes in the MITB match. I remember playing 07, guys just kept warping to the top of the ladder and suplexing me off. They seemed to have to legitimately climb this year. Also, I had no idea it was a two hand mechanic this year. Was it last year? The book just says "Use the right or left stick" and it was vibrating so I didn't move it. In 07, if it was vibrating it meant you found the "sweet spot". I guess that doesn't exist now?

Hooray for calling it! Prediction #2: Mickie James' gift will be Wendi Richter vs Lelani Kai from WrestleMania 1.

KOAB's Sid theory intrigues me.

That crazy #3. I look forward in a twisted kind of way to the day Vince sends Khali out to end Flair's win streak. Actually, they had a match on SmackDown in the summer, right? I was thinking recently that it was time for Marty Jannetty to have chance #6 or #7 or so in the company. I hope he's involved in this gauntlet somehow.

Where did you pull that quote from?

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/f...t.asp?aID=21481

Don't forget Booker's promo. Oh yes... I didn't see the show but I pieced together from recaps he made various comments like "slip on a banana peel" and "you have a good look but...".

Well, Matt and Snitsky had some passable outings (two - one was a better than it had any right to be tag match from Taboo Tuesday 2005 - Rey/Matt vs Masters/Snitsky, and Matt basically squashing Snitsky when he came back to Raw in 2005). Let's see what happens here with Jeff. I wonder what Scott Batura has to say about Jericho's return so far.

By now he's obviously a gimmick, but there's some PPV feedback on WO.com that made me think it was from Jearan. It was so damned positive. There was also some feedback that caused enough of a "stir" that Meltzer let the bastard write his own rebuttal. Scott Batura all over again, but instead of the actual wrestler he critcised getting mad, it's a bunch of fans. Speaking of WO, what the hell is this comment from the WO report of the show supposed to mean: "Reign did a promo saying, "I don't like spiders and snakes, but that ain't what it takes to love me, like I wanna be loved by you." Yes, JBL is booking the company writing Michael Hayes' interviews while thinking it's still 1975." First off, I have no idea what Reign is even saying here. Second, why is JBL booking TNA?

So... wrestlers doing worked shoots about being held back, Hall being heavily advertised and not showing up, Nash main eventing, and wrestlers having a meeting where they're told they can quit with one person accepting. Something about the way this company is being run seems awfully familiar (yes, I know it's cliche to bring that up... but Jesus Christ TNA, come on now...)

So your defense for your comment is to bring up a failed tour that had to be merged into SmackDown tours? Even in that instance, I guarantee all the $70 seats were sold Marv, so I'm not sure if you're trying to support your disbelief over the cost by talking about poor attendance or not.

They came out last Tuesday.

I almost always FF past the Taker/HHH match when I do my March to Mania annual WrestleMania viewings so this is the first time in almost 7 years I've actually watched the match. I remembered thinking it wasn't as good as everyone was saying back then... but it actually seems pretty good so far. I know the ending sequence is good, that's where I usually stop FF'ing. For a second or two I thought they actually kept "Rollin" as previous edits of that theme don't keep the opening *DONG*. The actual result - BikerTaker coming down to the evil Ministry theme - was one of the more amusing visuals I've seen lately. Speaking of music edits, I noticed Jericho's "Evenflow" rip-off was intact on the Rey DVD, so here's hoping it stays when we get to the point he has it on 24/7. I would not be surprised to see Mean Gene's gift be Hogan vs. Bockwinkel.

If I recall the 2003 Raw was really really good. I believe it also had the return of Stone Cold and Victoria turning face? Could be wrong. Plus 1993 Raw will probably be on 24/7 Online by March? I don't really count the Raw's I watch on 24/7 Online. If I could see them again on my TV, all the better. I guess my connection just isn't fast enough for the 750k streams (I only have DSL, not cable) and it's often very choppy. The listed card for the 2003 Raw is RVD vs. Scott Steiner, Randy Orton vs. Booker T, 6 Divas Santa Match, and HHH vs HBK. I don't recall any of the angles but I recall it being a fun holiday show with a strong main event. Oh, and Starrcade 92 won the PYBO.

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/touts/video/143472/5904420