iggymcfly

The thing is that being an All-Star is a personal accolade for a player. Does Bonds really deserve to be a 2005 All-Star, despite not playing in 2005? I can see the best player argument to an extent. For instance, if Bonds came back, played 20 games, and homered in seven of them, then sure, you could say that he's back at his previous level and deserves to be an all-star. But would a good manager really rather have a rusty 41 year old Barry Bonds who hasn't done anything in 8 months hit over Miguel Cabrera in a must win game? I think not. Until and unless Barry Bonds comes back and proves that he's still capable of performing at a top level, he doesn't deserve to be an all-star. It's as simple as that.

I'm sick to death of everyone dismissing the Orioles. They're tied with the Cardinals for the second-best record in all of baseball, and they're not going anywhere. If the Yankees somehow pull out a miracle and win 100 games to take the division then so be it, but this idea that the AL East is a two-team race between the Sox and the Yankees is just ridiculous. So, Bedard's going to miss 2 or 3 starts. Big deal. Baltimore hasn't lost three in a row all year long, and both the Yankees and Red Sox have gone through stretches where they were wildly inconsistent. The fact is that the Orioles have the most complete team in the division right now, and the Orioles are the team to beat in the East.

That's amazing. I swear he must have a strand of Hulk's DNA or something.

Were you farting because a large object was coming out of your ass? I think that data would be very pertinent to the conversation.

What's so bad about CronoT? Everyone talks about him like he's the worst poster ever, but honestly, I can't remember a case of him doing anything that really annoyed me at all. Maybe he just frequents different forums or something, but I really haven't figured out what's supposed to be so awful about him.

Out of all the ideas suggested, I'd go with "Push HHH" as it's funny on too many levels. On your topic though, I'd try: VISCERA ATE MY GIRLFRIEND

Figured I'd take the initiative and start a new thread. It is overdue.

I don't feel like looking it up, but if I remember right, some random Raw main event drew higher than that in 1999, just because Nitro wasn't on. I'm pretty sure the WWF had ratings over 8.0 quite a few times in 1999.

The worst part was that they called for a submission in the Richards/Masters match after one arm drop, but then in the main event, Batista dropped his arm twice in Edge's sleeper, and they just raised it to see if it would drop a third time. You'd think they could be at least a little bit consistent.

Edited for accuracy.

I think it's just a combination of the show not being that interesting Monday night, with the title match really being the only thing worth watching, and the fact that there was so much good stuff on TV. I know that I've been watching Raw pretty consistently since Batista started feuding with HHH, but I still found myself switching over to 24 and the Pistons/Heat game several times on Monday. It just seemed like whenever I turned on Raw, there was "nothing important" happening, and when I watched 24 or the basketball game, I didn't want to turn away.

Actually, I wasn't convinced Flair was turning until he did, either. I certainly wasn't shocked or anything, especially after all the speculation that he might. But I really wanted to see them do Flair/HHH at Summerslam, and the idea of a face Flair being torn between HHH and Batista was so attractive that I kind of went with that storyline in my mind.

One thing I was thinking that they could do to try to keep Edge's heat is say that Christian and Tomko were actually working with HHH and Flair all along. I mean, it did seem kind of weird that Flair would be able to take them down that fast, and there has been a lot of interaction between the four of them lately. That way, the odds weren't really stacked against Batista, Edge can still feel like he got screwed, and if he uses his MITB title shot somewhere down the line, it wouldn't feel quite so futile. Honestly though, I think they blew their wad on this, and that Edge's chances of getting somewhere on Raw are pretty much nil at this point.

Well, I don't have any real news, but Edge did say that he "put HBK on the shelf", so I assume he's not coming back any time real soon.

I'm guessing you don't watch the O.C.

For the record, HHH didn't "make a title match" tonight. He got Flair to hurt Batista emotionally, and then beat the living fuck out of him as well to try to piss Dave off enough to accept his HIAC challenge.

The return of HHH of course. It's huge!

So, what exactly happened to Edge's second title shot? I mean he spent a whole month going through the tournament to earn it, and now that it might actually be useful, he doesn't bother. Maybe he was just so scared of what HHH does to World Champions that he decided he'd be better off in the upper midcard.

JHawk, didn't you basically make RRR's point for him? The reason The Rock was so great when he came back is that he came back as a heel. He'd been a face since 1999 so seeing him getting in the crowd's face and acting all heelish got him over huge. I agree that HHH is probably about ready for a face run as well, but first he needs to turn on Flair, and basically cut a lot of ties with his current character (rich, pompous, cheater that needs protecting). If he's wrestling as a lone wolf for a month or two, turning him face won't be difficult at all.

Is preemptive banning an option for new posters who can't write coherently?

What, the idea of Benoit having sex with a woman ruins your fantasies?

Tell me which makes the World Title more of a joke: 1. Contesting it in the second to last match of a PPV. 2. Making the #1 contender a 55 year old man who can barely walk.

Well, for the record, I obviously wasn't comparing either of the Vengeance matches to Rock/Austin. I was just saying that Edge could gain heat as the heel champ who didn't earn the title like Rock did when facing Foley, even if Batista was still going on last with his nemesis like Austin did with Taker and Vince. It's a perfectly logical comparison. And if Batista got screwed out of his only rematch by HHH, then it would leave tons of heat not just for the Vengeance HIAC match, but for a match between Benoit and Edge at Summerslam as well. However, with the energy they've put into the Edge/Kane situation, I'd much rather see a real match between them than watch Hogan hobble around the ring. The man can barely walk. Now, if Hogan comes talk to Edge after Vengeance to set up the Batista feud, and tells him how the title has to be earned, and he has to "win it the right way, brother" only for Edge to batter him in the middle of the ring, then you might have something. The idea that Hogan's words would resonate, but would also make Edge lash out due to his insecurity is good, but I sure as hell don't want to see Hogan trying to wrestle again.

Well, both matches would still get plenty of promotion, and be treated as important. It's just that Batista's would go on last. Austin routinely went on last when he wasn't the champion, and I wouldn't say it "devalued" Rock, Foley, or Taker as champs. Well, Foley maybe, but he never held it for more than a couple weeks at a time anyway. Edge would still get a nice boost from his title run, but since he needed two falls to beat Batista, it would be accepted that he hadn't "really" earned Batista's title yet, just like Rock hadn't "really" earned Austin's title at Survivor Series 1998. Then, when they finally did meet again at Summerslam, there would be tons of heat, and the buyrate would be much better than just throwing a challenger in there cold.

When I look back at what I wrote, I think I was mainly trying to talk myself into a way Edge could win the title to make the matches tomorrow seem exciting. Deep down, I really don't think Edge should get the title because he's only the number three heel. Sometimes, there need to be guys that want the title, but just aren't good enough. When everyone in the division has already won the title, you get apathy as seen by the WWE women's division before it died or the WCW title chase. From the perspective of making the next two months of television entertaining, and selling Vengeance and Summerslam, I think giving Edge a quick run would be a great idea. However, as far as what's good for the WWE in the long term, he probably shouldn't get the belt. Orton/Batista's the money feud for the summer, and they're the ones that should be switching the title back and forth. Giving Edge the strap at this point would be nothing more than a distraction. Finally, Rudo, I wasn't saying that Batista/HHH in HIAC was a brilliant idea that would set the world on fire and cement Batista as a major star. I was just saying that it didn't matter that if the champion main evented since Edge was just a transitional champ anyway, and Batista's still the guy they're building the brand around. If we didn't have the promotional posters out and everything, there would be more options with the card, but given that HHH and Batista will be fighting for a third time, I really don't see any reason whatsoever, (other than Edge being an undeserving champion), that the title should be involved.