clean rob

WWE Title: John Cena © vs. Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton vs. King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley Do Or Die for the World Heavyweight Title: Edge © vs. Batista ECW World Title Match: Chris Benoit vs. CM Punk Intercontinental Title Match: Santino Marella © vs. Umaga US Title Match: MVP © vs. Ric Flair World Tag Team Championship: Cade and Murdoch © vs. The Hardy Boyz Cruiserweight Championship Match: Chavo Guerrero © vs. Jimmy Wang Yang Womens Title: Melina © vs. Candice Michelle

Sorry if absolutely everyone and their mother knows this, but what is a spinal tap? I've never heard that term used in wrestling discussions before.

Meh, a 16 man tourny would have been so much better. Still, the obvious result is for either Lashley or Finlay to take the win. Probably Lashley. Angle d. Orton .......................... > Angle d. Booker Booker d. Hardy ...................................................... > Finlay/Lashley d. Angle Finlay d. Benoit .......................... > Finlay/Lashley Lashley d. Henry Having one of those two defeat Angle gives them a big rub in what should be a decent match. I can't believe some people are saying that Angle/Benoit in the final is likely - neither of them would gain anything from a KOTR win.

What with MNM vs. Kendrick/London, Burchill vs. Regal, Orton vs. Mysterio, and JBL vs. Benoit, I will definitely not be missing this Smackdown - sounds like it could be their best effort in ages. I'm also pleased that KOTR is coming back - but does this mean that it will be a SD brand-specific PPV? Because IMO Smackdown is already doing a pretty good job with its midcard - it's Raw that's failing to elevate people. Still, at least this year there is actually quite a few credible contenders for the KOTR title.

No need to bother - Kobashi lost the belt to Riko early in '05 (March I think) and the Joe match wasn't till October.

Five point questions: 1) The winner of the 2006 Royal Rumble will be: Rey Mysterio. He's the only credible face really. 2) Who will be the "Ironman" of the 2006 Royal Rumble? Orton, going nearly all the way only to be pipped at the post by Rey. 3) Who will last the shortest amount of time in the ring? Sylvan. Patterson isn't booking the Rumble anymore, right? 4) Who will get the most eliminations? (If there is a tie, you get your points) Lashley, including at least one big name. 5) Who will be the last man eliminated? Orton. 6) Will the winner be from Smackdown or Raw? SD. Three point questions...pick the man who will be in the Royal Rumble the LATEST (not who lasts the longest) out of the two choices below: 7) Viscera or Orlando Jordan 8) JBL or Shawn Michaels 9) Matt Hardy or Shelton Benjamin 10) Bobby Lashley or Kane 11) Chris Benoit or HHH 12) Chavo Guerrero or Rey Mysterio 13) Rob Van Dam or The Boogeyman 14) Randy Orton or Booker T 15) Chris Masters or Carlito 16) Johnny Nitro or Joey Mercury One point questions: 17) Who will draw #'s 1-4? (One point for each correct person) HBK, Benoit, Orton, Booker T 18) Who will be the last four men in the ring? (One point for each correct person) Rey, Orton, HHH, Kane. 19) Who will be the last RAW superstar eliminated? HHH. 20) Who will be the last Smackdown superstar eliminated? Orton. 21) Who will draw #'s 27-30 (One point for each correct person) Kane, HHH, Viscera, Flair. 22) True or False: We will see a Boogeyman/Undertaker showdown False. 23) True or False: We will see a surprise return sometime during the Rumble False. 24) True or False: Somebody in the Rumble match will blade False. 25) True or False: Vince McMahon will interfere in the Rumble True. TIEBREAKER QUESTION: Give the exact time this year's Rumble match will last: 58:41

Match predictions: Orton vs. Taker (HIAC) Orton must win. He's also really going to need to work his socks off in this match in order to give him some impetus going into the WM run. Batista/Rey vs. Kane/Show Batista/Rey to win, otherwise the top of the card has too many heels going over. Plus Batista needs some revenge. MNM vs. Mexicools Now that it's non-title, I see MNM winning. Mexicools vs. Batista/Rey would be kind of odd. Booker vs. Benoit Benoit, obviously. Lashley vs. Burchill/Regal Lashley, also obviously. JBL vs. Hardy Hardy needs to quit and go to TNA/ROH now his schtick with Edge is finished. JBL wins. Kash vs. Juvi Kash seems to be getting a mild push...but I still think Juvi will retain. The quality of the HIAC will really make or break this show, cause everything else looks likely to be decent but nothing more.

Not necessarily. You can still tell a story while doing a lot of different moves. Depending on the crowd and the backstory to the match, maybe you shouln't use too many different moves, or alternatively maybe you should. The art lies in gauging how best to suck the audience into the story you're trying to tell. ...or a powerbomb, or a chokeslam, or a pedigree, or a diamond cutter, or a hundred other moves in pro wrestling that are clearly choreographed to anyone with a sense of reality. If you're going to take umbridge at one implausible move in wrestling, then you might as well go for the whole lot. You quite clearly can, as I've seen it happen many a time. You just shouldn't, as it's no-selling, something that is just as widespread (if not more so) outside of the X-division than within it. The concept being what, exactly?

Fucking sweet. I heart TWC.

Finisher of the Year: Canadian Destroyer Knockout of the Year: Gail Kim X Division Star of the Year: Samoa Joe Tag Team of the Year: Naturals Who To Watch in 2006: Christian Cage Memorable Moment of the Year: Hardy's crazy swanton Match of the Year: Styles/Daniels/Joe (Unbreakable) Feud Of The Year: Abyss/Sabu Mr. TNA MVP 2005: AJ Styles

As far as I'm aware, a 'smart mark' means someone who enjoys wrestling (a mark) but has at least a basic grasp of how the business side of pro wrestling works e.g. that the matches are predetermined, certain wrestlers are booked in specific ways to make them look good etc. etc. That's it. It's got nothing to do with what company or style you prefer. I still enjoy WWE and watch it nearly every week - more than TNA. But that's got nothing to do with it. Although I'm quite sure many people on the internet do bash the WWE just because it's the big corporate commercial machine etc., that in itself does not make them 'smart marks'. There's nothing 'new wave' about crappy storytelling and crappy psychology. There have been matches like that as far back as I can remember (which is only as far as the mid 80s, but still...you see my point.) One of the fakest moves in pro wrestling... Yes, it is the number one fakest move in pro wrestling - in joint first with the irish whip, the sunset flip, the vertical suplex, the 'up and over', the hurracanrana, the moonsault, the press slam, yadda yadda yadda. Like I said, you have to suspend your disbelief for an awful lot of moves considered 'realistic' within the confines of a pro wrestling match - they work because wrestling has it's own set of 'reality rules' - that's why stuff tlike the CD works within a match. Defenitly not... Care to expand on that? I remember watching Hogan matches as a child where he would fight some big, mean looking guy who would end up getting pinned after being punched a few times, kicked once and legdropped once. Even when i was very young this seemed kind of pathetic - most guys in films I had seen needed to be beaten up a lot more than that before they lost. IMO, it makes wrestlers look tougher when they take more moves before getting beaten. That way the wrestlers are put over as being difficult to pin rather than the moves themselves being able to beat anybody. a) I never watched WCW, but I'm sure very few people ever claimed Kidman was more than a decent-good worker. b) I still remember Billy Kidman. So do you actually!

Indeed, it's virtually word for word what Raven says. You haven't come up with much yourself, have you? Anyway, let's go through your post... You should try DVDR. And a grammar refresher course. If you aren't a self-proclaimed smart mark, who on this board is? This is all true. However, for you to pinpoint the X division as the only place where guys don't know how to work this formula correctly is ludicrous. Like Hogan, Rock et al? IMO, the business looks more fake when a guy starts no-selling punches or not pinning a guy when your spinebuster puts them out for 20+ seconds than when say, Petey Williams does a Canadian Destroyer. Pro wrestling has its own set of rules within its self-contained reality, where irish whips work and going to the top rope to do a move isn't really really stupid. What makes the business look fake is when these rules get broken, not when a lot of moves are performed during a match. Would you say WM3 made Steamboat and Savage look fake and inefficient because they did more than five moves each? As for the whole 'looking weak' argument, that's swings and roundabouts. Doesn't it make the guys look weak when they get pinned after taking just a few moves? [ They're both important. The moves are there to build the emotions around and to get a crowd response, hence why heels tend to use slow methodical moves (crowd: boo!) and faces tend to use quick, exciting flashy moves (crowd: yay! that guy is good!). To use a rough analogy, an actor needs to emote to elicit a response from an audience, and it is this that will really allow them to connect, but their words and actions are important too, otherwise they're just standing there emoting. None at all? This type of hyperbole won't win you any arguments after the age of 5. Are some of those elements lacking in many X Division matches? Certainly - and in plenty of other matches too. However, I have yet to see a single X-Dic match with none of those elements at all. There already are guys doing better and more spectacular moves. And even you still remember Styles, Joe et al. No, I don't think you are. I'm not so sure.

Could it be more obvious who's going to win? I could see Flair/Angle (and just possibly Show/HBK) potentially going either way, but yeah apart from that those all seem to be a foregone conclusion.

Wrestler of the Year Shawn Michaels. He's put on good-great matches throughout the year, mostly carrying them. Did virtually all the work both in the ring and promo-wise during his program with Hogan. Probably the best pure babyface in WWE at the moment. Honorable mentions: Angle, Eddie, Rey. Feud of the Year HHH/Batista, for the first half of the feud alone. Match of the Year Angle/Michaels @ WM21 Honorable mention: Edge/Hardy @ Unforgiven Best Brawler When he incorporates it into his matches, Angle. Best High Flier Shelton, only him and Rey have done any notable high flying this year really. Benjamin gets the nod for his beautiful somersault dive. Best Tag Team MNM Most Underrated Orton. He's a pretty good worker right now IMO, and still half the net is calling him utter shit. Most Overrated Lashley at the moment. Best Promos Christian. The fact that he's won over so many with so few promos and not a great deal of good matches speaks volumes about how good some those promos earlier this year were. His delivery and facial expressions have been priceless all year. Best PPV WM21. Worst PPV Outside of Hardy/Edge, Unforgiven was totally forgettable.

I actually like the concept behind Taboo Tuesday with the voting and all, but I'm really disappointed in how shoddily the gimmick is being used. Out of all those voting choices, 4 have utterly predictable outcomes (WWE title, tag titles, street fight, cage) and 2 are pretty unimportant in the sense that the match will be barely affected by the outcome, if at all (divas/foley). The only result I'm interested in seeing is the edge/masters vs. SD choice as there's quite a few reasonable options there. If this is how TT is going to be every year, I think I'd rather never see it again and we just get the extra build for SurSer, which is a shame as I think the PPV concept had some legs.

I think RVD got hit with one by Regal at WrestleMania X8. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Was that the one where RVD did his 'concertina' sell? That was nasty as I recall. Thanks for the reminder! Shame the end of the Lashley/Dean match was a fuckup, it would have been a cool spot if they had pulled it off.

Fun tag team Heat match. Was that the first half nelson suplex in WWE land ever?

The build for this PPV has indeed been one of the worst in years. However, I'll probably still be ordering as a) SD has a past history of pulling something decent out of these seemingly throwaway PPVs and b) I'm already half cut. Anyway, predictions are: Batista .VS. Eddie Guerrero. Winner: Batista. This feud needs to continue to make any sense. Handicap Casket Match Randy Orton & Bob Orton .VS. Undertaker. Winner: Taker. Has he ever lost in a handicap match? Feud continues. Singles Match J.B.L. (with Jillian Hall) .VS. Rey Mysterio. Winner: JBL, just so we get a heel victory in the upper card. I like the chemistry these two have, reckon this could be a dark horse for MOTN. WWE United States Title, Fatal 4-Way Match Chris Benoit .VS. Orlando Jordan .VS. Booker T (with Sharmell) .VS. Christian. Winner: I really, really hope Christian wins as he could seriously do with this win to give his character a bit of legitimacy and something to brag about. Benoit winning would be OK as it would mean he could drop it later on to Kennedy/Burchill or someone and give them a good headstart on a push up the card. Booker stand to gain nothing from a win here, and OJ winning would be idiotic and get shit on by the crowd. I bet the winner isn't decided till 5 minutes before the PPV starts. It's going to be OJ, isn't it? Six-Person Tag Team Match WWE Tag Team Champions, Animal & Heidenreich, & Christy Hemme .VS. M.N.M. Winners: MNM. Melina pins Hemme after the tired old feet on the ropes finish. Singles Match Bobby Lashley .VS. Simon Dean. Winner: Lashley in an entertaining squash. WWE Crusierweight Title Nunzio (with Big Vito) .VS. Juventud Guerrera (with The Mexicools). Winner: Juvi I guess. Hope this gets ten minutes at least so it can get going. Singles Match Ken Kennedy .VS. Hardcore Holly. Winner: Kennedy. Hopefully he can bust out some more of his flashy offense.

This week's SD! was the best one in ages. Apart from the two good matches (tag titles/cage match), when was the last time the WWE had a show where two rookies were getting pushed, and it was actually enjoyable? I would just like to add to the already mentioned praise for Kennedy and Burchill that one of my favourite moments of 2005 is now Burchill calling Scotty a 'techno-dancing poof'. It was classic. Also, I actually don't mind the direction they're taking with Burchill by taking out his crazy highspots, the shoulderbreaker/armbar finish reminds me a lot of Samoa Joe's Musclebuster/Choke finish - a nice blend of an impact move followed by an appropriate submission. I do hope they let him bust out some big spots in PPV matches once he moves up the card though.

Definitely. Being thrown hurts a LOT more if you have someone else coming down on top of you at the same time. It makes it really difficult not to have the wind knocked out of you by the throw - especially, I would imagine, if the guy is approaching 300lbs. I'm definitely excited about Burchill debuting in WWE - for a relative rookie, he's very impressive, although I disagree he's as good as Lesnar, who was truly special towards the latter stages of his run. Burchill could definitely go that way himself though, and his cool spots should get him over while he hones his ring skills. The prospect of a big Burchill-Lesnar match down the line has me salivating. Also, I don't see why WWE should neuter Burchill's moveset too much... aside from the Air Raid Crash (which is gone for sure) and to a lesser extent his flip dive, none of his moves are particularly dangerous. Pairing him up with Regal = good idea. Cutting all his cool spots = bad idea.

Best Worker On a match-by-match basis, it's probably Angle, but he's spent most of the year doing the Invitational, so I'm plumping for Benoit. Benjamin is more exciting to watch, but the matches Benoit has managed to pull out of Batista, Hassan, Tomko et al - along with bringing the best out of Edge over their feud (their April 4 match is surely a Raw MOTYC), being the MVP in the EC and the WM ladder match, and having two really good TV matches with HHH, make him my pick. Most Improved I'm probably going to get shit for this, but going purely on a house show match she had with Victoria, I'm saying Christy Hemme. She's still not even a good worker by any means, but the improvement from what I'd seen on TV a few months prior was really dramatic. She looked way more confident in her movements and pulled out a pretty nifty looking 'rana. She just might be the next Trish if she continues to try as hard as I think she is. Spot of the Year Lots of memorable ones already this year...but the Stiffest Superkick Ever has to win it. Not only did it look like Benjamin had to be knocked out from it, it even fit nicely into the story of the match. Biggest Dissapointment That there's going to be another tedious Diva Search. Aside from that, the mind boggles as to the utterly anticlimactic booking of JBL/Cena at WM. They should have just had JBL get a cheap win. It would have been way better if Cena had won at Judgement Day. Best Match Angle/HBK had me leaping about my front room and shouting at the TV, so that's my pick. Two really intense, fired-up performances that really sucked me in after a slow-ish first few minutes. Matches like that make me a happy wrestling fan. Funniest Moment Snitsky's delivery in the Taxi Driver commercial. Best PPV Judgement Day was such a solid PPV that I think I'm gonna go for that. The only two duff matches were mercifully short (and Big Show/Carlito at least had a cool spot), and absolutely everything else met or exceeded my expectations. Also it's had the best main event of the year so far, and it helps a PPV so much to finbish on a high note IMO.

The Rey/Eddie match has has great build and should be really good - especially as both men should be desperate to top their lacklustre WM21 match, and I'm interested to see how Cena and JBL can do with a gimmick that should play to their strengths and cover up their shortcomings (and presumably, get given adequate time). However, the build to Angle/Booker has been utterly stupid, and I haven't really cared about Booker in ages - moreso now he's got that annoying screeching harridan on his arm - and no other matches look like they'll be getting much build at all. I assume that London vs. Chavo will be announced this week, and probably MNM vs. Hass/Holly and Carlito vs. Show too. Any other possibilities for the card of this mostly weak-looking PPV?

Thanks, still don't remember her doing that at all though! If she hasn't used it in a match though, it seems pretty daft listing it as a finisher. Meh. He isn't on the list at all. You're right though, he needs to get a name for that finisher, as it's the only thing that might get him over at the moment. Now that I come to think of it, they haven't even bothered to name Akio's finisher correctly.

Might as well have a go. The Crippled Avengers: Eddie Guerrero Chris Benoit Chris Jericho Paul London Akio Christian RVD Johnny Nitro Stacy Kiebler It'll probably do shit, but it's the guys (and gal) I like anyway. And it's just a bit of fun, right? Edit: I was just having a look down the list of registered finishers for the league, and noticed one of Lita's is a rear naked chokehold. Anyone got any idea when she actually used that?

That is a seriously tough break for Matt. Poor guy. I personally found him very charismatic and entertaining a lot of the time he was on TV. His SD match with Benoit from 2003 was probably my favourite sub-10 minute WWE match from that year. So, will he head to ROH/Japan and finally get to have the string of good matches that he's shown potential for, or just reform with Jeff in TNA? Please not the latter. V-ONEAAAAAAHHH!