clean rob

No they shouldn't. This next few months should be about getting Batista over as the 'next big thing'. What would repeating the Benoit/HHH shenaningans from last year accomplish? Nothing. Kane and Benoit could both easily face Batista, with Benoit being able to provide a relatively guaranteed exciting match with Dave, and Kane having the big man vs. big man appeal (which Vince will never, eeeeveerr get tired of). You also have the more obvious choices of Edge or Christian for Batista to SMASH!~ HHH knows what is good for him, and right now that is losing at WM in order for Batista to get built up as a big mega-face. Then trips can draw lots of lovely money with him in future, and get his title back once Dave has been built up strong enough. HHH is dropping the title to Batista come WMXXI. I got 20 bucks that says so if you're that confident otherwise, 4hartthreat.

I'm not sure we have all the matches yet, but here goes anyway: HHH v. Batista: SHOULD HAPPEN: In a match that doesn't go over 15 minutes, Batista basically dominates, with one or two short spells of HHH offense. Rather like HHH/Benoit from 2 weeks ago. Sledgehammer comes out while Flair distracts, Batista blocks it. Flair interferes, gets punked out by Big Dave. While the ref is ejecting Flair, HHH hits a low blow and a Pedigree just like on Benoit. JR goes apeshit, Batista kicks out, JR goes more apeshit, Batista hits a bunch of offense and a powerbomb for the title. WILL HAPPEN: The match goes too long and is even more overbooked than the above. Some of the crowd cheer for HHH as he dominates a good portion of the match. Batista eventually hits the powerbomb for the title. JBL vs. Cena: SHOULD HAPPEN: Cena and JBL surprise with a dramatic, heavily worked 20 minute match with lots of blood. JBL works over a body part and hits a lot of high impact offense. Cena sticks to what he's good at (selling and making comebacks). I really don't mind who wins here, as long as JBL only does so after Cena kicks out of a ton of offense and has to take a belt shot/alternative for JBL to win. It's be nice if Cena has to hit a better version of the FU to take the title, but that's probably hoping too much. WILL HAPPEN: Pretty much the above. Cena wins with the FU. Angle vs. HBK: SHOULD HAPPEN: 20-25 minutes should be just right for this match. Lots of matwork and clever counters to start with, some intense brawling in the middle, then back to the ring for highspots and nearfalls galore. I'd like to see Angle get the win, but won't be too miffed if HBK takes it. If I get to see the Anglesault one more time (at Mania no less) then I shall be very happy indeed, and will utterly disregard the crazy (lack of) selling that will probably occur. WILL HAPPEN: Pretty much the above. On the one hand, as it's a legend/legend type match, HBK seems likely to win, but some heels need to go over at WM, and Angle seems a reasonable bet. I still predicy Shawn to win though, after toughing out numerous Anklelocks and missing SCM a couple of times (the 'tuning up the band' version must not and will not connect) he finally hits it for the pin. Money in the Bank Ladder Match: SHOULD HAPPEN: A crazy, dramatic spotfest where each and every guy gets to put over his desire to get that shot at the title. Absolutely no-one should do spots off the ladder instead of grabbing the briefcase. Shelton should get plenty of opportunity to showcase himself. Kane should be there to catch those doing big dives and not much else. Kane must not win. A Christian win would fit the stips nicely. WILL HAPPEN: A crazy, dramatic spotfest where each and every guy eventually gets chokeslammed by Kane, who wins. Undertaker vs. Randy Orton: SHOULD HAPPEN: I don't really want to see either man win here. Probably the best result is a hard-fought match where Randy uses every trick in the book to wear down his bigger opponent, before a ref bump occurs when Randy has Taker pinned. Randy complains, Taker sits up and hits a chokeslam. Orton kicks out, but gets rolled up after another RKO attempt. Taker wins but Orton then beats the shit out of him with a chair. WILL HAPPEN: A replay of HBK/Y2J from WMXIX. Except without the workrate. Rey Rey vs Eddie: SHOULD HAPPEN: A fast, fun, show opener with both guys going full throttle. No heel turns, no interference or ref bumps. Eddie goes over clean (apart from the usual slight cheating) with the frog splash. WILL HAPPEN: The above, except Rey pulls off an upset win which sows the seeds of the team breaking up. Trish vs. Christy: SHOULD HAPPEN: Trish decimates Christy over 5 minutes and wins. WILL HAPPEN: Christy wins. TBS vs. Akebono: SHOULD HAPPEN: 5 minutes full of plenty of comedy spots, as a break between the more dramatic matches. WILL HAPPEN: I honestly don't have a clue.

Ha! Good work all round there. Looks like the flip side of getting two good shows last week is two rather crappy ones this week. The last ones before Mania better be an improvement.

1. Basic Instinct 2. Taxi Driver 3. When Harry Met Sally 4. A Few Good Men 5. Forrest Gump 6. Braveheart 7. Pulp Fiction 8. Dirty Harry

It's pretty obvious hype for his Sumo match. If he can push over a jeep, he must be able to push over Akebono. Are they going face/face with Rey/Eddie then? Or was there a turn tonight? I kinda hope they keep both as faces for now.

Poor Shannon, hope the injuries aren't too serious. Come to think of it, poor Matt too. He's been having a rough time of it lately.

Indeed. TLC3? TLC3 (Dudleys/Hardys/E&C/CVC) - Smackdown 2001

Well, technically speaking, he did. What with this being the only one of HHH's 'Pick Your Poison' matches. It didn't make him look strong when he "lost". What made him look strong was the fact that he was beating the piss out of HHH for the majority of the match, and HHH had to resort to a low blow to win, because he knew he couldn't beat Benoit clean. HHH's lack of selling later is another story - that was annoying. I would have liked to see Benoit win, but it seems like a logical decision to put over the guy who's going into the main event of WM - probably to put over a man who the company is banking on to become a big star.

No, but I do wonder why you'd bother watching pro wrestling if you didn't like that sort of thing... what with it being pretty much a succession of staged moments trying to pass for genuine. Count me in for HHH in the crossface... that's probably the most I've ever marked out.

Joe Thurman is the guy who had his back broken by a Vader powerbomb in WCW, I'm sure.

Here you go mate. Daniels vs. Lynn (WWF Metal 26/05/01) I seem to remember the first ever match on Velocity was Tajiri/Kidman, and it was rather good. I also really enjoyed Venis/Flair from earlier this year, and the London/Noble match with the reversed Northern Lights - Paydirt finish.

I'll drink to that. There's some great stuff coming up here, thanks to all who've contributed. For those who remember it being lots of fun, here's the No Mercy Ladder Match between E&C and The Brood, precursor to all the TLC matches. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardys (WWF No Mercy '99)

Err...almost everyone? I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Taker has ever really used the Triangle Choke or Swinging DDT (or that armbar variant he did) as finishers - they were more like signature moves that may have got a pinfall/submission on occassion. In addition, he's done the Triangle Choke, what, like 3 times? IMO, Taker's finishers were/are Tombstone, Last Ride, Chokeslam, TCB/Dragon Sleeper. Jericho probably wins that competition.

Here you go. Why, that Paul London dresses oddly, and acts somewhat crazy! I think I shall cheer for him. Yay.

I'll probably be reiterating earlier points with some of this, but here's my take on last nights lacklustre PPV: - Eddie/Rey vs. Bashams really surprised me with both the result and with how solid an opener it was. I'm pretty sure that was the Bashams best match to date, they looked a lot better than they have previously to me. Everyone had their working boots on, and the whole thing rattled along at a nice pace. Well booked finish too. **1/2 - Heidenreich vs. Booker totally killed the crowd after the opener. If you had the misfortune of seeing any of the Cena/Booker matches over the US title, you may (or may not) be surprised that this was worse than the lot of them. Lots of botching, slow, plodding match. 1/4* for Heidenreich's facials, which were pretty funny. - The CW match wasn't awful like Heidy/Booker, but had its problems too. I'm a big London mark, but his ring gear last night looked awful, and didn't suit him at all. It sounds daft, but it really took away from his whole 'heroic effort' bit in the match, because it just looked so...not Paul London. Given that NWO seems to be the start of a push for London, it baffles me that he'd have thought "I know, I'll wear my silly outfit tonight." Also, I don't want London to be killing himself but it seems odd, given his role in the match, that he didn't do a single 'holy shit' bump. Obviously, the lack of time meant that everything looked rushed and guys got pinned in no time at all, making them look like shit. The only real big positives were that London should be getting a one on one title shot, and that he never pinned Akio, which will hopefully lead to a continuation of therir rivalry down the road. And the first WWE Dragon Suplex in I don't know how long. *1/2 - The whole divas thing was as expected. Michelle actually looks like she might be able to do something in the ring, so of course the other one who wiggles her arse about won. - Reigns/Taker was the usual Taker match, like the Heidenreich ones before it. Not as offensive as the earlier match as it wasn't actually uncomfortable to watch, just predictable and slow. Crowd still disinterested. * - Angle/Cena was done to a tee. Both men played to their strong points, especially with Cena selling the leg like a champ. I really enjoyed the matwork at the start as it looked like Cena was really struggling to stay alive on the floor with Angle, but just couldn't hack it. The drama towards the end was great, with Cena toughing out the laying anklelock after Angle viciously pounded away at Cena's leg following the FU nearfall (which despite looking so weak, has been built up to such a degree that I really did think that might be it). Cena going over clean with no run-in (thank god) was exactly what was needed from this match. *** - JBL/Show was bad, outside of two nice bladejobs (I always think JBL's look great), and at least they stuck to the promise of (almost) no outside interference and came up with an original finish. I wasn't expecting much, but my main gripes with the match were: i) especially after JBL's promo, I felt that this was the chance to have JBL get a big pinfall victory to show that despite his cowardice, when his back is to the wall he really can get the job done by himself. They didn't, and at the end of the day I feel that this is only going to cheapen what I assume will be Cena's big title win at Mania. ii) If you're going to virtually base a PPV around the fact that a cage has barbed wire on it, it would be nice to actually use it. And if you're going to say that you can't escape through the door, don't let people escape throught the door! *1/2 I rest safe in the knowledge that I didn't pay a penny to watch this PPV.

Eddie/Rey over Bashams to win Tag belts Booker over Heidenreich via DQ Chavo over London to win CW belt after London eliminated everone else Taker over Reigns Joy wins Diva thing Cena over Angle JBL over Big show

Basically going by the way WM21 is shaping up: Booker T .VS. Heidenreich. Winner: Heidenreich. So he can be built back up a little bit before he and Snitsky get synchronised tombstones at Maia. The Undertaker .VS. Luther Reigns Winner: Taker. There'll be Jindrak interference, but that's only 2 guys for Taker to fight, and everyone knows he can easily beat up 3. Funaki .VS. Spike .VS. London .VS. Chavo .VS. Shannon Moore .VS. Akio Winner: London, only to balance up the face/heel going over ratio, and out of blind hope. London/Akio the final two? Pretty please... The Bashams vs. Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio. Winners: The Bashams, assuming we're getting Rey/Eddie at WM. John Cena .VS. Kurt Angle. Winner: John Cena. Angle/JBL would be a better match, but WWE won't do heel/heel and won't/shouldn't turn Angle face. JBL .VS. The Big Show Winner: JBL. Duh.

It was. In fact, Victoria did it quite a lot, not just on one occassion. She did it on a virtually weekly basis during matches where she'd interfere for Stevie for a few months. I think Shawn did that Teardrop Suplex against Benoit last year. I'm not 100% though.

I really don't get why so many people on the board are claiming that Edge's bitter "I keep getting screwed over" gimmick has been killed after the match on Raw. Not only did Batista interfere (heavily), but Edge also had HHH pinned for a 3 count while the ref was out. There's plenty for him to bitch about.

Here's another one of Misawa taking a Burning Hammer. There's a great pic of Akiyama getting nailed by one around somewhere, I can't remember where though.

As I understand it, Oldschool = 5+ years old. Big thanks to everyone who's posted matches so far, it's much appreciated. If I could make one request, it'd be to Morrisey Is God - any chance of reposting those Weekend Of Thunder matches and/or Misawa/Kobashi? Anyway, here's some old WCW cruiser matches: Cruiserweight 6-man elimination match(Evan Karagias vs. Jaime Knoble vs. Kaz Hayashi vs. Jimmy Yang (Akio) vs. Shane Helms vs. Shannon Moore - Superbrawl XI) Rey Mysterio Jr vs. Chris Jericho (Souled Out 98) Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio Jr (World War 3)

I also thought about the possibility of HHH giving Batista a 'Hey, it's going to be a shame that you'll be leaving for Smackdown now' spiel before Big dave obviously reveals that he'll be challenging for Trips' title - and if you look at the Raw preview on wwe.com, it looks like that's the direction of Raw tonight.

I think I got 47, just behind Imarkout4chrisdaniels. None too shabby, though I do say so myself.

I have low expectations for the show (not as low as Super Pissed Smark I guess though...), but I actually think this name is pretty good. It fits. And it's about a hundred steps up from Taboo Tuesday.

WWE Heavyweight Championship JBL retains. There is no point going this far with the tiltle run only to take the strap off him in a seemingly unimportant 3-way (not to mention one where the build has been pretty awful). World Heavyweight Championship Triple H retains. This one is even easier to predict than the 3-way. The Undertaker vs. Heidenreich Taker wins. I see what people are saying about the reverse psychology, but... it's Taker. Edge vs. Shawn Michaels I think HBK is going over, by either sneaking a lucky win in (rollup/pinning predicament/Edge has a pin when the ref is out etc.) or by DQ after Edge goes apeshit. No point blowing off the feud quite yet.