NYU

Better hurry up and sign that contract, Rob. Wouldn't want to miss the chance to fight Sakoda!

Sure, I'll go with that.

Fear Havoc: "My Avatar Topic Bombed"

Why drop the Hurricane gimmick? So Shane Helms can become another bland superstar on a roster that's already completely filled with them? Being "The Hurricane" helps him stand out from the rest. He's never going to be a Main Eventer. He's probably never going to be an Upper Midcarder, no matter what gimmick he has. Might as well have him play a character that helps him stand out from everyone else on Raw.

I know, man! Christ, is Eugene retarded or something? Seriously! But he pulls the same thing EVERY week. Even a retard can't be that stupid. He fucking remembers Benoit beats him up, but can't remember Bischoff sending him out to the gallows every week? He craves acceptance from his Uncle Eric. That's been established from Day 1. And every time Bischoff pretends to give Eugene that acceptance, Eugene's ecstatic. Deep down, he might know that it's all an act and that Bischoff is just as nasty as ever. Yet, he's willing to push aside those suspicions on the off-chance that Uncle Eric has finally decided to treat Eugene like a loved nephew.

I know, man! Christ, is Eugene retarded or something? Seriously!

"The Clothesline of Death".....?

Raw is sorely lacking tonight. The front-row fat chicks don't have Jeff Hardy! Who shall they now scream for and throw their oversized panties at?

Well, that's it. If Garrison Cade isn't wrestling on Sunday night, Heat just lost a viewer!

Nope. He actually walked away from Triple H in the second backstage promo. After Benoit talked to Eugene, and Eugene walked sadly into the room and slumped down on the couch, Flair told Hunter: "Listen, man, just do something about him." Orton stared at HHH for a second, rolled his eyes, then just walked away shaking his head. Hunter looked like he wanted to plead with Randy for a second, but then turned his attention back towards Eugene. I still say Hunter's isolating himself from the rest of the Evolution and, as a result, will soon be kicked out. And it will probably be Randy Orton that does the booting.

No way will they put Edge in a ladder match this soon. I'd go as far to say as WWE will never book Edge in a ladder match again. They're definitely planting the seeds for Orton to be the one to kick Hunter out of Evolution. Last night, it was Randy that kept questioning Hunter's motives, then rolling his eyes whenever HHH kept mentioning that Eugene was part of a bigger deal. Later on, Orton actually walked away from Hunter with a disgusted look on his face when Eugene walked in. Batista looks to actually be the calmest member of Evolution - the one that goes along with everything without arguing. So I can't really see a reason for he being kicked out of Evolution in the near future. However, either Hunter or Randy are open at this point, simply because some solid roots of dissention were planned last night, and it might be time for either one to take control. I would bet that soon, it will be Randy, setting up the future HHH/Orton angle.

This PPV sucked. It was the worst example of pro HHH booking/stupid movieentertainment endings that I've ever seen. Ever. If Benoit weren't there I'd be gone right now. Pro HHH booking? ----In order to finally beat Chris Benoit, he needed EUGENE to run into the ring and use a steel chair. ----The plan Triple H - the cerebral assassin - has been devising for a month completely fell apart tonight. Which means it wasn't such a good plan in the first place, and that Triple H actually *gasp* planned poorly.... ----Triple H tapped out to the Crippler Crossface. The ending of the match didn't do HIM any favors. It didn't do BENOIT any favors either. The bias you're screaming about right now is making you look silly, simply because its basis is unfounded. Hunter really wasn't booked to look good tonight!

Well, let's not go overboard. Chris Benoit STILL cleanly beat Triple H at WrestleMania XX to win the Heavyweight Championship. Chris Benoit has STILL made Triple H tap out COUNTLESS times....including tonight. Chris Benoit has STILL bettered Triple H on multiple occasions - something not many other people have done. Benoit has NOT been treated badly in his series of matches with Triple H and, while tonight's Main Event did make him look a little weak, it really didn't hurt his character any. The Benoit/HHH match wasn't a travesty. It was just booked poorly. The way Benoit won is nothing to get outraged over, simply because he's been able to come out on top against HHH various other times before.

It had to be done. If Eugene turns on HHH intentionally, it hurts his naive character. If Eugene helps HHH win, he gets booted from Evolution tomorrow and leads to Eugene/HHH, a very dull main event. They went with the choice that gave them the most options. Well, just to clarify, I have no problem with the idea of Eugene unintentionally causing Triple H the match. I understand they want to continue the Eugene/Triple H storyline, and I'm completely fine with that. However..... .....the way they went around it tonight was just completely wrong. Since when was it in Benoit's character to resort to cheating just to keep his title? Why was he so insistent tonight on using the steel chair when - as we've seen before - he doesn't need it to beat Triple H. He's never been that addicted to a weapon in a match before. Why so, tonight? Then, to make matters worse, why did he feel the need to get a cheap roll-up pinfall over Triple H following a Eugene chairshot? Benoit has always been about proving he was the best technical wrestler in the company and proving that he was "the real deal." Why did he then tonight compromise his entire value system just to get an incredibly cheap victory over Triple H? The story they told in this match was just so flawed. While the direction of the storyline was logical, the execution of it was terrible. Unfortunately, this winds up leaving a flat taste about the overall match as a result.

The action tonight was good. But the booking was just terrible. Batista beats Jericho with a sit-down powerbomb....by pulling his foot off the bottom rope. Does this do anything for Jericho? Nope. For all intents and purposes, he was finished had Batista not put him so close to the ropes. Does this do anything for Batista? Nope. The big monster had to cheat by pretending Jericho never put his foot on the rope. Who was this result supposed to help? Matt Hardy beats the huge monster Kane with a chairshot? I can appreciate the unpredictability they were going for here, but the actual finish was just so weak. And, after a month of Matt wanting Kane to bleed - a month of an incredibly intense Matt Hardy trying to hurt Kane - he scrambles over for a quick three count, then instantly runs away from the ring to escape further danger. What?! Then we have Randy Orton jobbing the Intercontinental Title. With every passing title defense, Orton's character was gaining more and more momentum. He has done more for the legacy of that title than anybody else in the past few years. So what happens? He drops the title to Edge when it just didn't need to be done. Edge doesn't need the IC Title right now. He's held it several times already, and they're obviously grooming him for a top feud with Triple H at this point. The Intercontinental Title does absolutely nothing for Edge's character, but it continued to do so much for Orton - even after he's had the title for nearly eight months! And I won't even go into the crowd reaction. The fact that the majority of the people clearly wanted Randy to retain until he had to scream at them in an attempt to get some boos. The new Intercontinental Champion - the guy who's being groomed for a Main Event spot - the soon-to-be #1 face on Raw........should not be getting booed against an established heel like he was tonight. Just a terrible booking decision. And then, of course, we have the Benoit/Triple H/Eugene booking fiasco that I already mentioned. The matches tonight were great. The results were horrid. As a result, this becomes an average PPV......which is a shame, because the right endings could have made this one of the better shows of the year.

It wasn't so much comedy as it was tremendously flat. What kind of technical-wrestler extraordinare is Chris Benoit if he managed to pin Triple H after scoring a roll-up from a previous chairshot? What kind of strategist is Triple H if the plan he was devising for a solid month against Benoit completely fell apart? What does it say about the federation itself if Eugene, of all people, was solely responsible for choosing who walked out of Vengeance with the Heavyweight Title? I've loved the story they've told with the HHH/Benoit/Eugene triangle for the past month. But the plan seemed to completely fall aprt tonight, and it did NO ONE in the match any favors whatsoever.

The fans were solidly behind Randy Orton at the beginning of the match. The majority were chanting "Let's Go Orton" and booing any offensive move that Edge was pulling out. Orton screamed "Shut your freakin mouths! I don't need your help!" After that point, an "Orton Sucks!" chant broke out and the fans cheered for Edge - but with still a large amount clapping for Orton - until the match ended. It's still not good that the new #1 face on Raw - the one who is most likely going to have the high-profile title match at SummerSlam - is getting booed against a quite established heel. It's the WWE Goldberg factor all over again.

Ugh. I'm so sick of Edge already.

Please. Just stop already. To call duckquack a "fucking imbecile" for that one particular comment is absurd. There are plenty of his other quotes you could have used for that certain description. Not one person on this forum truly knows the extent or the seriousness of Kurt Angle's injuries. In fact, I would say there is only a select group that actually knows just how dire the situation is. Kurt, of course. His wife. His doctor. And....that's probably about it. Every conflicting report you read about Angle's neck being one bump away from snapping or Angle's neck not being as bad as once perceived are simply hearsay. Nobody knows for sure what the exact situation is, but people - especially WWE Internet reporters - like to pretend they do. Choken, you have absolutely no idea whether or not another match would lead Angle to a wheelchair. And truthfully, if it would, I doubt anybody's opinion on this website would matter one bit towards changing Angle's opinion on whether or not he should wrestle. He's going to make the decision himself, so it's unbelievably silly to read people screaming for Angle's retirement or preaching about how much he has to live for. Yeah, guys, he has a good life. But it is not your duty to tell him the decision you want him to make. Nay, the decision you DEMAND he makes. Anyone that supports an Angle return isn't a fan of Kurt Angle? Ridiculous. It might be best if you took off the "holier-than-thou" glasses for one minute. The people that support an Angle return are JUST THAT - fans of Kurt Angle. He WANTS to wrestle. They want to SEE him wrestle. They want to see him participate in a WWE ring, just as Kurt wants to do it himself. They're the fans that Angle wants. Not the people that look down upon him and throw tantrums when they hear of his decision to keep wrestling. Why, those are the people that become more of an annoyance, simply because they're as much in the dark as the rest of the wrestling world is, yet like to portray the image that they know everything. But it does look all the more humanitarian when these people call for the retirement anyway, huh? Don't stress yourself over Angle's decisions when you have no actual source for the background besides some secondhand story that Meltzer heard from some wrestler who may or may not have eavesdropped on a conversation Kurt had with his wife about his doctor's visit. Don't pretend like you know more about Angle's health than Angle does himself, and don't throw out stories about the Dynamite Kid when there's no true, rock-hard, solid evidence that this situation is even near the same ballpark. Just drop it.

Well, I just sent both you and CC a PM about a tag match idea I had for Thursday. Let me know what you think.

Yeah. Nice hair, Nidia. I didn't realize they sold Nidia Chia Pets.

Raw tonight has been absolute gold so far. I'm genuinely impressed at this point.

That was, like, awesome and stuff.

So it's official. OAOAST Italian Championship Drek Stone © vs. Calvin Szechstein I'm leaving for three days early Wednesday afternoon, so it'd really help me a lot to learn who's going to be putting up the show before I leave.

Why the long face, Kotz?