clean rob

As far as I understand it, if a phrase or a picture or something is trademarked then no other company may use it (or something very similar to it) for the purpose of marketing. So if a small burger chain started selling 'Big Macs' or ROH promoted a wrestler called 'Stone Cold Steven Austin', there would no doubt be infringement lawsuits a-flyin'. So, -iB-, you could in fact construe WWE as 'owning' the Stone Cold name.

-iB-, a patent and a trademark are different things. Patents are applied to inventions and the like, whereas a trademark is applied to a recognisable name used by a company, 'Big Mac', 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' etc. You will find that WWE trademarks an awful lot of its wrestlers names.

Yeah, I'd snap up a Flair-style Austin DVD straight away, it would make a ton of cash. Provided disc 3 isn't called 'Austin - The GM Years' or something.

I won't be too shocked if this is true either. I was still desperately holding on to the possibility of one decent WWE match between Ultimo & Rey, but it never really seemed likely. Oh well. Also, I have to agree with Goodear - in the little time he actually spent in the ring, he wasn't looking as good as I remember him from earlier stuff. A lot of his spots seemed to lack smoothness, and the infamous slip at WM just made me feel bad for him. I can't imagine he was too happy in WWE anyway, so if he has quit it's probably for the best.

Oh, OK. Fair enough.

Johnny SPADE? I don't remember that. Who the fuck thought that was a good name?

I believe he was going by the name of Johnny Blaze for a few weeks.

Are you talking to me? Because if you are, I think you are confusing 'bashing' with 'having a differing opinion to'. I respect your opinions, I just don't happen to agree with some of them. Here's where I disagree. Flair is still sold as a danger in the ring. He's part of the dominant stable on Raw, which also contains HHH. Beating Flair will achieve 2 things (hopefully): i) It will get Shelton his first PPV singles victory, against an extremely established name. ii) It sends a message to HHH; I've beaten one of your guys, and I'm coming after you. Yeah, that would have been good (I seriously cannot see the point of the IC title being on the line in the Foley/Orton match - the feud needs no title.), although then you'd still have to have the HHH/Shelton rematch. Well, look at it this way...how surprised were you when Shelton won the first time? How about the second time? Not nearly as much, huh? Plus the match wasn't nearly as good second time round. And yeah, of course it didn't matter as much, but that doesn't mean it didn't matter at all. Well quite. Why not? Any hypotheses (which is all they are after all) I make about the thoughts of the marks are bound to be derived from what my mark friends think, plus the crowd reactions on TV.

He was smart enough to take advantage of the situation, stun HHH on the outside, and leave him there to take the countout victory. It's the sort of thinking Trips would be proud of. Well, yes. But the way HHH was speaking implied that he would clearly win any rematch. Which he didn't. That's an exaggeration. Decimated? He was losing, but it was pretty far off a squash. And he was only left in a pool of blood after a 4 on 1 beatdown. Flair is a big name, old as he is, and is still sold as a 'ring technician'. A win (on PPV especially) does mean something - especially to the marks. And it makes sense as Flair and Trips are in a stable together. I wouldn't mind a #1 contenders match for the IC title, but it would seem odd if there's no #1 contenders match for the World Title.

It means that he outsmarted HHH, who is 'The Game', after all. It means that his first victory wasn't a fluke like HHH said. It means he was able to hang in the ring with one of the most dominantly booked guys of the past couple of years. Most importantly, it's better than the match ending with Trips Pedigreeing Benjamins face into the mat. That isn't what most marks think of when they think Flair, I can assure you. Flair is still able to ride on name value to a large extent, and despite his age is still seen as a credible threat due to 'knowing his way around a ring' and being 'the dirtiest player in the game'. Giving Benjamin a mid-card match against a mid-card opponent with upper-card connections is fine for him right now.

It seems to be shaping up as a decent PPV to me. Not great by any means, but decent. The ME should hit ***1/2+, and will hopefully get some great crowd heat. Both Orton/Foley and Y2J/Christian/Trish have had excellent (IMO) build ups and should both be able to hit **1/2 - ***1/2, providing Trish is kept in the ring for a minimal amount of time. Flair/Benjamin & Edge/Kane don't grab my attention, but both have the potential to at least be fairly watchable. Tajiri/Coach...I'm all for Tajiri on a PPV, but Coach? How about Tajiri/Hardy? Tajiri/Storm? Tajiri/Hurricane? This better be short. Victoria revealing plenty of her ass is my only hope for the women's match. So that's 3 good matches, 2 OK ones and 2 that will probably be awful. It's probably going to be streaks better than Judgement Day.

...AngleSault? Are you drunk? That Evolution one is pretty funny. Especially the final sentence.

That's what I thought too. There was just a couple of seconds straight after when Rosey had an exremely annoyed expression on his face. I was rather surprised they let Val Venis get away with referring to teabags.

I like the idea of Shelton giving the opponent the Stinger Splash in the corner and following up immediately with a pinning suplex (with the type depending on which direction the opponent is facing and who they are - HHH+Dragon Suplex = not happening). He could also do with a submission. Cattle Mutilation? Double Chickenwing? STF? Then he'd have a strike finish (Dragon Whip), a suplex and a submission. That would be nice.

Stupid character in an animated sitcom written by a multi-award-winning highly talented writing team =/= stupid character in WWE. The rest of your post though, I agree with. Personally I don't blame Dinsmore one bit - given the option between sitting in OVW until WWE eventually let him go, or at least having a chance to make an impression on TV and make some serious money for little more than making a fool of himself in public, I know which seems the saner choice to me. Besides, it doesn't sound like it's that mush stupider than Cena's gimmick, and that doesn't seem to have done too badly for him.

Yes, that match has ***** written all over it... Count me in as another Jericho mark, though. Heel, face, whatever. I just love his mannerisms in the ring. "That's all she wrote baby! "

Yeah, I like that idea too. Depending on the way the opponent is facing, it could be either a German suplex or a Northern Lights/Exploder suplex. Don't think I've seen Shelton do a Northern Lights suplex, but his Exploder Suplex is sweeeet.

Seems pretty obvious to me. All they need to do is stand Jamie Noble on Ultimo's shoulders and put them in a very long overcoat, dark glasses and a big hat. Then have Taker squash them.

"...has a very impressive physique" = ...is clearly taking steroids. "The audience here are showing their displeasure at this turn of events" = The crowd are fed up with shit like this. "A very talented and beautiful athlete" = Her wrestling isn't much, but hey, she has big tits right?

I don't think it's a case of Vince 'fucking over' Dinsmore at all. Vince is the man who thought PUUUKE~! was a good gimmick idea. I guarantee you he loves this one. I dunno, I suppose it could be funny if the guy's got enough comic flair. Like has already been mentioned though, even in the unlikely event that a few funny segments come out of the gimmick, it isn't going to get anyone very far, and will have to be phased out sooner rather than later.

Do the old classic "hold their head away at arm's length while they flail their puny arms around until they're tired" trick. Then run away.

Or, more likely, no gimmick at all.

That all sounds fine and dandy, but look at it this way - you could equally have said when the Bashams debuted "Don't worry, Doug Basham is excellent, and had really awesome matches with Nick Dinsmore in OVW." Allegedly both Bashams and Orton had some great matches in OVW, so you'll forgive my sceptisism until I see Dinsmore make an impression in a WWE ring.

Not necessarily. But it's as good a reason as any.

Yes, yes they have. See Raw/HHH.