DrVenkman PhD

Not the first time JR has done that... lately, when Goldust does a bulldog, JR will call it "Goldust hits a Bulldog, if you weeel" or something.... I don't know, I know he's done it before.

Speaking of Owen, not sure if this has been mentioned on one of the pages I didn't read, but at the Raw after Revenge of the Taker, Owen and Bulldog were having a conversation about getting revenge on Austin that could be heard, but barely. This caused someone to yell out "Again Owen!" and Owen then repeated his entire promo. Also, the Arnold "20 Years in the Making" promo last night was hilarious.

If WWE edits mistakes out of their DVD releases, shouldn't the Raw X DVD be Awards Show Free?

Well, it's done and posted. 6798 words - my longest column to date.

Ok.. I was going to lie and act like I didn't read this and go ahead with my column, but that would be dishonest. Yes, my discussion with Andrew is actually very close to the Crossface format. The difference is, to me, we're just two guys talking about WrestleMania to preview it while the Crossface is a big panel. The whole thing took me almost 2 hours (long conversation, editing it from AIM to normal text) and the fact is I think it would be a real shame if I just deleted it. In fairness, the only time that a star rating is used is when I say "Angle vs Brock won't be the ***** classic some people thought it might be", so in my mind, that makes it different enough that I'll print it. This will be the last time I do it, though. With this new info I've given, I shall wait for word on whether I should post it or not. If I knew how to take part in the staff discussion, I would have (I never got to be in a 411 Roundtable and I was hoping I could be in a Crossface over here). As for the old Shades of Gray, they're still archived on 411Mania under "Smarks News Update" so feel free to read my past.

Is this about WMXIX or a new NWA: TNA game?

I've only played it for a bit but I was marking out for the opening. I've never been so impressed with simple picture and text graphics telling a story, especially in this day and age of FMV, but listening to the old Zelda theme over top of crude pictures that represented Zelda III (I assume.. there were only two triforces in the original LOZ, the pictures showed the 3 triforces formed into one big one). I haven't even left town yet (I was wandering around collecting pigs and just admiring the graphics) so I don't know much about the game, but it was good to see Gannon represented as a pig monster in the opening as opposed to the less cool character of Gannondorf that appeared in the otherwise awesome OOT.

I hope this doesn't take away from a WrestleMania Crossface (and it shouldn't) and the fact that no one really knows who Drew_K is (my friend Drew), but we just had what I consider, possibly out of bias, to have a really insightful and interesting discussion about WrestleMania which I intend to make the majority of Thursday's update.

Thanks!

You were probably joking.... but yeah, that sounds good Dames!

I know I only have like 53 posts, but can I / how do I get a custom title?

You'd think I'd knwo that since I just watched WM15 2 hours ago... but then again, that's not really Mania.

^ made a cheap shot about my lack of Smarks updates in one of his teasers! All is forgiven though.

In 18 WrestleMania's they've had 4 battle royals. WrestleMania 2 (Andre), 4, (Bad News Brown), 14 (LOD 2000) and 17 (Iron Shiek). While hardly the 8-9 you were thinking, it's something that has been done more than once.

Well, I don't want to give away too much of my next column by doing predictions here... And of course, someone might ask me to take part in the Crossface (and I'd really enjoy doing that, you know)... But what the hell, eh? (do people on the forums even know I write for the main site?) Raw Tag Title Match: RVD/Kane Womens Title Match: I don't know, Trish? Matt vs Rey: Rey SmackDown tag title: Team Angle Taker/Jones vs Show/Train: Show/Train, Jones turns Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels - Jericho, but Shawn winning won't shock me in the least. Hogan vs Vince: Hogan Booker vs HHH: Before Raw I was pretty sure Booker would do it (if only to lose at Backlash or sooner), but now I'm not sure. HHH,but I'm hoping for Booker anyway. Brock/Angle: Brock of course. rock/Austin: Rock

Poor Regal won't be able to jerk his 3rd Mania curtain this year.

I was just watching WM15 en route to watching all the past Mania's, and Bossman being hung from the cell was really funny. Bossman's facial expressions combined with Cole's commentary and the fact no one really seemed concerned that a MAN WAS HUNG not 1 minute later makes this attempted murder a hilarious moment. While on the subject of WM15, Bart Gunn getting knocked out is always good for a laugh, as is the back cover of the WM15 DVD's line, "No amount of hyper-hyperbole can prepare you for this event".

Hogan/Vince or Lesnar/Angle being last would cause Cole and Tazz to call the main event, and if WM15 taught me anything, that won't happen. I'm expecting Austin/Rock to be last.

The Heat before Unforgiven 2000, Cole and Kelly ask each other what they're doing there... I'm not sure who said what but this is the idea.. Kelly: Michael Cole what are we doing here!? Cole: I don't know! My cousin and I laughed a good while at that one for some reason.

A Battle Royal that uses the unbooked guys from both brands, the winner wins a Trophy for their GM (or something). Hurricane wins. It's not like they're reading this, will say "wow that's a good idea" and book it, but I was just wondering if you guys thought it was a good idea or not.

34.99 in Canada.

Fun Fact (or rumour, anyway): No Holds Barred 2 was in development, but when Devito and Ahnuld turned down Suburban Commando, Hogan did that (with the same company, New Line) instead.

When Bob Holly has people up in a Suplex, why doesn't he just complete the Falcon Arrow (question prior to his elimination of the move from his moveset)? Same for Al Snow in regards to bodyslamming people instead of plowing them. Maybe their spirit meter isn't flashing or their SmackDown meter isn't full?

Wait, peope expecting good things from the card AND exciting about Mania? Wow, I thought I was alone on the board (being one of the more WWE-positive writers on the net). First off, I'm not very good with * ratings. Secondly, as much of a mark as I am for WWE, I'm aware that a "WWE Style" *** would probbaly be considered *3/4 or so in Japan. With that in mind... RVD/Kane vs Storm/Morley - I like RVD, I like Morley, I like Storm, I tolerate Kane. Standard tag forumla match here, n oexcuse for it to not be at least **1/2. If Kane stays on th apron for the hot tag sequences, could be ***+. Worst case scenario, *1/4. Matt vs Rey. I love Matt, I love Rey, but I don't think they'll have a ****+ CW title match. I look for a solid but not outstanding **1/2-***1/2 match, but I'd like to be wrong. Jones/Taker vs A-Show - Probably a DUD or worse, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the match booked in a way (with proper work from A-Train and Taker to carry their partners) that it would make it to **. Not likely, though. Booker vs. HHH - I've been enjoying their stuff on Raw lately. It's not going to be **** and it probably won't even be close, but I'll say **1/2 - ***+. Team Angle vs Rhyno/Benoit vs Guerreros. The triple threat part will hurt it, but it should be good none the less. ***-***3/4, here's hoping for ****+ though. An elimination stipulation could help, but could also hinder. A problem at Survivor Series was even though they got that particular 3 way into a proper 2 on 2 match, a lot of the crowd was deflated when Angle/Benoit were eliminated. A similar thing may happen here if Rhyno/Benoit would be eliminated first, so keeping everyone in for one pinfall might be best. HBK vs Y2J - I'm really looking forward to this match. In THEORY, if Jericho > HHH, and HHH + HBK = ****, than HBK + Jericho = > ****. That remains to be seen (and HBK vs HHH at Armageddon didn't exactly set the world on fire) but I expect and hope for good things here. Hogan vs Vince. From a technical standpoint, absolute crap. From a Hogan mark standpoint, should be entertaining for what it is (and that is seeing Hogan kick Vince's ass). DUD - *, but probably very hot crowd. Jazz vs Trish vs. Victoria. Could be a mess like last year (and I'm certain it will be sabotaged for the sake of spacing out Vince/Hogan and Brock/Angle), but I like the work all 3 ladies have been doing lately. Could be the best women's title match in months or a huge train wreck. 1/2* - ***. Brock vs Kurt - A lot of people thought this would be awesome going in, but with Kurt's injury people are now thinking it will not be all it could be and perhaps even bad. While it certainly won't be all it could have been, Angle's determination to not throw the match away on SmackDown and go through with a full WM main event match says to me that, insane as it is, the man will work a real match. I am scared for Angle, but I hope for the best. Look back to WM14 - Shawn was a walking cripple yet he managed to have a good match with Ausitn. It's was called a let down, but was still a good match, and having a good match, let down or not, is what's important. **3/4 - ***1/2+. Austin vs Rock. Austin is apparently not 100%, but he looked good in delivering Stunners last night on Raw. Despite the "no one cares about this match" line the IWC is throwing around, I AM looking forward to this match, especially the chance to see Rock's current heel style against Austin. It won't be WrestleMania X-7, but it could be on par with WrestleMania XV, a match which I enjoyed. ***-****. Overall, I probably over rated most of these matches, but hey, I'm a WWE mark and I love WrestleMania. Hopefully this revelation of the fact I'm not angry and bitter towards the WWE doesn't totally kill my readership on TSM.

Ok, I know earlier there was a thread for the predicted order of the Quintuple Main Event, but assuming the current card of 10 matches is the complete one, I thought I'd start a thread for predicting the order of the whole show. Personally, I'm finding predicting the match order for this show somewhat difficult. As you'll see, I have Booker vs HHH as Match #4 when you'd think it would be at least 5 or up... From 1st to 10th RVD/Kane vs Storm/Morley (/w Dudleyz, according to the website) Matt vs Rey UT/Jones vs A-Show HHH vs Booker T Team Angle vs Benoit/Rhyno vs Los Guerreros Jericho vs. HBK Hogan vs Vince Jazz vs. Trish vs. Victoria Brock vs. Angle Rock vs Austin