Just John

The first wrestling shows I ever watched were WCW Saturday Nights, so I have a soft spot for some jobbers. "Hole in one" Barry Darsow and High Voltage were my favorites. Another great jobber team was Disorderly Conduct because they had such jobber names (Tough Tom and Mean Mike). Roadblock was good for comedy value too.

Bombs Over Baghdad came straight to my mind when I read the title. The Final Countdown is another good one.

I guess we can continue to look forward to more of the same now. I can't argue with Vince if he's getting decent ratings with what he puts out there. I'm just disappointed 2.2 Nielsen points worth of fans find that shit entertaining.

I heard this too, and MAN I wish Joey Styles would have said it so I could update my sig. I like your sig theme. I have to amend my previous statement about everything in ECW2 being straight up bad. The announcing is so bad it's funny. Is it wrong to say Cole carried Tazz when they were a decent team?

I see your point. We just fall on different sides of the win now or later question. I think the best thing AI would bring is the fact that he's a game-changer which is something the Clippers don't really have. You kinda had Brand and Cassell alternating in pressure situations, but they didn't have someone who could take over at any point. A game-changer is what the Clippers need to get over the hump. It gives them a a big first option, and it's not like anyone could double him because there's too many other good shooters around. Everyone on the team would be able to get better looks because there would be so many scoring threats and guys who can beat you one on one. The team would become devastating on the offensive end. I think that would put them over the Suns for sure, and give them a pretty good shot at beating Dallas or SA. Don't forget, it's not just AI that puts the Clippers over, it's AI + Brand, Cassell, Kaman, and Thomas. That team matches up pretty well with any of the bigs in the West.

ECW2 is so painfully boring to watch. It's not even bad-funny, it's just bad. Everything about it sucks. There is no direction, bad wrestling, terrible writing, and the announcing is some of the worst I've ever heard. At first I thought I wanted to watch and laugh at this show crash and burn, but now I'm thinking that just not watching would be a better idea.

I have to say, I don't watch much TNA, but I download their ppv's occasionally. I like a lot of the wrestlers there, but can't stand the booking. This show was better than Slammiversary, but only because the undercard was better. The main event scene still sucks. Opener was decent. I assume the point is just to get the Naturals over which the match did. Good enough for what it was. Nice tag finisher from the Nats too. Seems like Elix Skipper has really taken a drop in terms of status over the last year or so. Rhino/Brown really seems like a poor man's Finlay/Lashley. Could be a decent angle, though I can't say I'm excited for any of their matches. I like LAX. TNA seems to be much better at doing social commentary angles than WWE. All 4 guys looked good, and major props to Sonjay for taking a sick bump for the finish. Senshi vs. Kazarian seemed like a waste. Not necessarily a bad match, but just seemed really pointless. Kazarian was pretty heatless and looked a step slow most of the match. It was also fairly one-sided which didn't help. Hopefully Senshi can get a decent program in the X division instead of random challengers and winners of clusterfuck spotfest matches. Raven vs. Zbysko was super lame. Who thought that would be a good feud? Nash/Shelley vs. Sabin/Lethal wasn't too bad. I'm really impressed with Alex Shelley. He has a great ring presence and a lot of natural charisma. Outside of one botched move, the match flowed pretty well and accomplished what it was supposed to. The "legit" X guys looked good and Nash got to be funny without getting in the way. New Age Outlaws and Abyss vs. The Dudleys was much better than the last time around. Probably because Abyss throwing around Spike was really fun. Typical stuff otherwise, but fairly entertaining. I loved the tag title match personally. I thought it was one of the best mixed tags I've ever seen. I liked how they didn't make gender a huge issue and treated everyone equally. The women got some moves in on the guys and the guys didn't hold back on the ladies either. AMW really stiffed Sirelda. I'm kind of surprised Sirelda didn't do more, as I thought they'd want to put her over, but whatever. Also, the corner spot with AMW and Gail was one of the better comedy spots I've seen in a while. I also have to extend some major props to Gail Kim. She's come a long way from her WWE days. I'd be curious to see what she can do one on one with a competent worker. Main event was stupid, but not really surprising. Terribly lazy, unoriginal booking with match layout, though. Most of the match was pretty sloppy and the camera work was atrocious. Sting/Jarrett is nothing I care about. I hate TNA's attempt at turning Jarrett's "X-Pac heat" into an angle. Sorry guys, no matter how you spin it, it's still not good heat. All in all, not a bad show. All the tag matches were good, and the only things I completely hated were Raven/Larry and the ME. Mixed tag gets MOTN from me.

SD is pretty interesting because their roster is so thin. Thus, you get programs you wouldn't have imagined a year ago (Booker/Rey for the title, Finlay/Lashley, etc) as well as longer, better matches. Raw is just terrible, and ECW2 is a joke. Don't watch either of those.

I thought Michaels and Hogan had heat in 2005 over the finish to their Summer Slam match. Neither guy wanted to job, but since Hogan has creative control, he got to go over. Michaels' response was comically overselling every bit of Hogan's offense to make the match look as ridiculous as possible. He did a freaking corkscrew moonsault off a head to the turnbuckle bump!

I always wondered how guys like Al Green got title shots. From a kayfabe perspective, that made zero sense, but then again it was post-97 WCW, so very few things did. Also, do Matt Hardy and Edge still have heat over the Lita thing? I like Edge a lot and don't care for Matt too much, but Matt got one of the shittiest deals in the world with that one.

Precious Roy: I think it's unfair to say the Clippers getting AI is bad because he's never won anything. At what time in the last few years has he had the team around him to even have a shot? I know they went to the Finals in 2001, but that wasn't a great year for the East and no one gave them a shot against the Lakers. Putting Cassell, Brand, Kaman, and Tim Thomas around him is better than Webber, Korver, Dalembert, and Igoudala. I like the last two, but there's no question the Clippers are putting a much better team on the floor than anything AI's been with his whole career. I understand people's concern about trading Livingston, but I think getting AI kind of follows the Heat's strategy of "win now, worry later." I guess it depends on if you think a really good shot of winning now is better or worse than a handful of decent opportunities later. I think the window of opportunity is small, and you need to capitalize while Brand is in his prime, and Cassell can still contribute. Unless Livingston becomes a top 5 player in the NBA within the next 5 years, the Clippers don't have much of a shot with their current lineup. They'll be like the 90's Pacers... Perrenial contenders, but never getting over the hump.

Show vs. Taker as an ECW main event... Something just doesn't seem right. Raw set the bar pretty low for worst show this week, so it'll be interesting to see how WWECW tries to be worse.

Nah, outside of Raw, wrestling has been pretty good. SD is solid tv with some legit MOTY candidates. ROH and NOAH have been pretty good too. The Vince/Shawn saga is like a never ending chain of crap. Look at the evolution of the feud... Shawn tells Vince to "get over Montreal" for no reason -> Vince tries to make Shawn's life a living hell using the Spirit Squad and repeated KMA club efforts -> Shawn wins what should've been the blowoff match... -> But Vince claims it was divine intervention thus starting the "God" feud -> Vince goes over Shawn/God, but still wants to make Shawn's life a living hell -> HHH gets involved and does a poor face turn -> Lame-ass DX rehash -> Vince tries to make DX's lives a living hell via the Spirit Squad and KMA club efforts -> ???? Honestly, I can't see this program ending well. Don't know why. For my money, it's one of the worst feuds in wrestling history.

If I recall, Meltzer made some really stupid comments about the Trish/Mickie Mania match, calling it "carry job by Trish." I think he gave it like 2 stars. But then again, he called MITB on the same show ****+, so I don't put any stock in his opinions. I'm not sure why he's so down on that program, though. It's been the best feud of the year, and probably the Raw MOTY as well. Granted, Raw MOTY doesn't mean much, but it was at least *** 1/4. I'm also not terribly impressed with Melina as a wrestler. Her best WWE match was with Christy Hemme last year.

Well, Mark Henry might get the award for being the best-booked wrestler of the year, but he still wasn't good on his own merit. I won't be sad not to see him, but if he had to get hurt he should have done it before the Rumble so we could've avoided this push altogether. Batista was going to squash him at the Bash anyway, so I don't see any benefits to him getting hurt a week earlier. The only real downside now is it forces WWE into panic booking, which they are historically not good at.

I totally need to see the two AJPW tags that have been mentioned repeatedly. On the ROH Best in the World tag match: It's pretty damn good. The match layout is standard stuff for a 30-minute tag, but I thought the most fascinating element was the character interaction. KENTA and Joe really hated each other, Danielson was being his usual jackass self, and Marufuji was trying to be the lone professional (except with Danielson because he kept cheating). It was a pretty interesting match. Maybe not as good as it could've been, but let's not be unreasonable with our standards. It's still a ****(+) match. Another match that deserves mention is Kobashi/Shiosaki vs. Sasaki/Nakajima on 11/5/05. Great match with an awesome blend of the heavyweight and JHW style. Plus the Shiosaki surfboard + Kobashi chop to the throat double team move was sweet. And WP, I have the ROH: BITW match. If you want, I can see about uploading it later.

I understand building for the future, but isn't the goal of every team to win a championship? Getting AI gives them a very good chance to do that now. It might be a setback in the future, but if they draft another PG, it won't be that bad... And hey, if they're struggling a little in 2010, they might be able to look back to 2007 when they won the title and be happy. I'm telling you, putting either of the big trade prospects this summer (KG or AI) on the Clippers makes them a serious championship contender. The AI/Brand dynamic would be awesome, as defenses would be hard-pressed to double team either of them. Especially with other shooters like Cassell and Thomas on the floor. As far as chemistry goes... Look what team won the title this year. It was a new-look Heat team that still had their superstars (Wade and Shaq) to build around. The Clips would still have Brand/Cassell (through Brand/Iverson sounds more appealing personally). You have some experienced guys that want to win a title on the Clippers, so I think people would learn their roles sooner rather than later. In other news, the Rockets did wind up pissing Stromile Swift along with Rudy Gay away to the Grizzlies. Fuck our managment. Unless T-Mac (in 04-05 form) and Yao (in 05-06 form) can stay healthy all year, it's going to be a long season.

Honestly, if I'm the Clippers, I make this trade. I know they have lots of good players that look tough to part with, but in exchange for game-changer like AI, I don't see how it's a bad deal. You lose Maggette? Meh, AI will cover the scoring loss and then some and you still have Tim Thomas to bring energy off the bench. Livingston is a little bit more of a blow, but he isn't as good as AI and there's always the chance he won't be as good as AI. You can draft another young PG, and if you can win a championship now, why not? The fact is, the Clippers need a superstar to reach the next level. Right now, they're a guaranteed 2nd/3rd round playoff loss. With a starting lineup of Cassell, Iverson, Brand, Kaman, and Ross or Thomas... Now that's a team that can win it all. It also works out well for the 76ers because they get a good scorer and a possible franchise PG for many years to come. Letting Livingston, Dalembert, and that other AI develop together has potential. And they can't do a lot worse than they're doing now with Iverson, so why not try something else?

I hope we get Akiyama/Marufuji and Akiyama/Joe. Both matches would be great. Marufuji is red-hot right now, so it probably wouldn't be too bad to pull the trigger on a title shot now, even if he has to lose. I would like to see him break through the size barrier and win the GHC heavyweight title, but it would be too rushed to do that now.

Power Rangers. Loved it in 3rd-4th grade, watched it a few years afterwards and laughed at how sad it became. I don't even want to know what happened post-Zeo rangers. I don't think Family Guy has completely jumped the shark, but it has definitely lost a step since its re-birth.

If it was the Bulldog, the NWO wouldn't have a thread commemorating its greatness. It would be listed next to the invasion and NB vs. Millionaire Club feud in a thread about storylines that could've been excellent, but flopped misearbly. Hart would've been ok, but he was really only on par with Nash in terms of status. If you're going to build up the suspense, it has to be someone who's going to be bigger than the two you've already seen. The Hogan turn was perfect on so many levels (arguably the best heel turn in wrestling history), and that's why the NWO took off.

Tatanka is from Pembroke, NC. I'm staying at someone else's house tonight and they aren't fond of wrestling. Sometimes I put it on around non-fans anyway and they're pleasantly surprised, but thanks to WWE's own preview, I know I will certainly not take that approach tonight.

On ratings: I agree you can't judge yet due the holiday. However, how many people who did watch the show this week will watch again? I still think the ratings drop a solid .5-.7 from the Week 2 rating.

Excellent news. I am a bit sad he won't return to the states, but hopefully after some time off, he can continue having great matches in Japan. Can ROH send Samoa Joe over there for a rematch?

I'm not sure if the dates match up, but I remember one of those funny WCW Observer quotes... It was something like Sting won by using the scorpion on Nash, but Nash never tapped or even moved his head, the ref just rang the bell. I'm pretty sure Rey tapped out to Jericho at Souled Out 98. And didn't the Rock tap out to Shamrock at KOTR 98?