pochorenella

An AWA DVD is coming out soon ... hence, Sherri, Mean Gene, Verne & the Blackjacks, all of whom have history in the AWA. Well, I think the Blackjacks do, I might be mistaken. I don't recall the Blackjacks ever being AWA World Tag team champs. Lanza was Tag champ in the AWA but not with Mulligan IIRC. Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

I'm still trying to figure out the Blackjacks being inducted over teams like the Samoans or Mr. Fuji & Prof. Tanaka (not to mention LOD but since Animal is still active...). Really, what did the Blackjacks accomplish that merits them being so important, other than their paltry 2 1/2 month WWF Tag title reign? Honest question, please.

Ratings news from 411mania.com: I think last week's rating was actually a 4.2, but I may have to check that. Anyway, a slight rise on the next-to-last week before Mania.

Well, blame the return of a few posters that do nothing but say over and over how they hate every segment, drowning out all positive comments. This is the most negative I've seen this board in about 2 years. SNME was definitely not a bad show. On almost every other board, the response is overwhelmly positive. Raw was decent. Edit: A good example is the IC match. Everyone is not up in arms over it. Go to page 5 and look at the names. It's just the same 3 or 4 idiots. This got a good laugh out of me. Indeed, the negativity these past few weeks has been off the charts. SNME was good IMO, and I have yet to see RAW, but the from the recaps I've read it sounds more than decent. I can't believe how some complain about Foley acting intelligently (he KNEW Edge was coming) or that the IC three-way was the worst match ever.

A bit more detailed spoilers from PWInsider.com: That RKO on Rey sounds cool. Only one more SD! until Mania and MNM still have no match. What are you waiting for, WWE?

That would disqualify quite a few TNA wrestlers as well, since most of them only wrestle once or twice a week at the most.

Ha! I called it on the RAW thread, although I said a bra & panties match. I sound like a broken record by now, but PLEASE WWE: MNM vs London/Kendrick and/or Mexicools for Mania. SD! deserves another match on the show, and MNM deserve to be included. Book it, dammit!! I figured, they would at least want to showcase Melina. Giving MnM, a 10 minute opener against a spunky tag team like London/Kendrick or Mexi-Cools where MnM cheats to win is a good way to get the crowd into the show and at this rate, would be the only match entertaining that doesn't involve massive amounts of shortcuts and stunts. I couldn't agree more.

Ha! I called it on the RAW thread, although I said a bra & panties match. I sound like a broken record by now, but PLEASE WWE: MNM vs London/Kendrick and/or Mexicools for Mania. SD! deserves another match on the show, and MNM deserve to be included. Book it, dammit!!

Possibly the only two big names not mentioned? Hogan and The Rock.

Well, have fun at the show. Tonight I expect them to make Trish vs Mickey official for Mania, and possibly Torrie vs Candice in one of those bra & panties matches that WWE loves to have on this kind of shows. Other than that, let's see what they do to further the Edge vs Foley storyline (which I felt they did nicely on SNME), since Edge was taken out on a stretcher after the conchairto.

So does that mean the match was well built afterall? Not necessarily, but maybe it does mean that the actual match itself was compelling and engrossing enough to warrant such a reaction. BTW, it had the same effect on me.

I'll be watching it with my usual group of friends.

Pretty much my sentiments exactly, RedJed. While I agree the show was more or less a glorified edition of RAW, I enjoyed the majority of the show. I felt it build nicely to WrestleMania and so did a friend of mine that watched the show with me. We specially liked the build to Foley vs Edge and I liked the Street Fight (NOT a FCA match, people!) although the ending felt a bit flat with the Montrel screwjob reference. The opening match was adequate, I laughed quite a bit for the beer bash, and that double-take Booker did to Teddy Long after he saw the Boogeyman was pretty funny too. These kind of shows are not gonna accomplish anything more than what RAW or SD! can do on their regular days, bad rating not whistanding, but it was a decent outing specially on the heels of WrestleMania. I give it a mild Thumbs Up (TM Ebert)

No. Yes, he was. At No Way Out 2003(?) after the Jericho vs Hardy match, Shawn came out and initially they booed him, but after he confronted Jericho the crowd popped for him. It was weird.

Especially if we ignore the fact the divas DVDs, diva calendars, diva merchandise, etc, draws more money for the WWE than most of the males on the roster. Vince is obviously stupid for keeping such cash cows on the roster. I have quite a few of those Divas DVDs and magazines. ** puts head down in shame **

Also from PWInsider.com: Yeah, right.

I figure that they can't possibly fit every WrestleMania-themed angle from both RAW and SD! on this single show. They have both Mania main eventers already paired up, for RAW they're doing the HBK vs McMahons angle and possibly setting up the Women's Title match, so they have no room for the MITB angle. For SD! they have ..., hum..., Booker vs Boogeyman! Yeah, that's it. (I know it's not a Mania feud, but still.)

No travel, less dates. yeah but the point is also "less money" - probably quite a bit less. When they went into contract renewal negotiations, the WWE's offer was supposedly a lot less than he was currently making. But according to him and TNA, we're not supposed to believe that. Well, if we can't believe info straight from the source (in this case, Christian himself) then who are we supposed to believe? Only Meltzer? everything you read ont he internet! OF COURSE! D'oh! Stupid old me.

No travel, less dates. yeah but the point is also "less money" - probably quite a bit less. When they went into contract renewal negotiations, the WWE's offer was supposedly a lot less than he was currently making. But according to him and TNA, we're not supposed to believe that. Well, if we can't believe info straight from the source (in this case, Christian himself) then who are we supposed to believe? Only Meltzer?

Here you go, from PWInsider.com:

Remember his much reduced work schedule and supposedly he invested well. Well, Christian's new reduced schedule comes down to only wrestling once a month near his home on PPVs if we look at the past 3 months, so that surely is a great investment. But I do remember him downplaying all that "lowballing" talk that made the rounds back then. WWE actually offered him a raise IIRC.

Terrific comparison. Edited a little bit for more accuracy. Agreed.

Quick ratings news from PWInsider.com: Also, the overrun did a 4.6 and the contract signing did a 4.4 (411mania.com)

I read on PWInsider.com that it's possible that this segment, while very good, won't be shown on TV, although no reason as to why was given. So the possibilty exists that Christian won't be shown on Impact at all for two weeks, supposedly selling his "rib injuries." If true, then way to go, TNA. Not featuring your HW champ or your marqee star (Sting) for two weeks is certainly the key to success.

I disagree. This is Wrestlemania. The idea that you need to get every title and everyone in the company on the show REALLY bogged down WM 20 when they had the pointless million man tag matches (Because Jindrak, Cade, The Bashams and both tag titles needed to be on the show) and the cruiserweight match with 8 million people. Mania 18 had every belt and seemingly everyone in the company on the show and felt like a Raw. And then there's the Wrestlemania 2000 debacle. Wrestlemania should be the top show of the year, and it only hurts it when you shoehorn heatless matches in to get everything on the show. I agree that you shouldn't "shoehorn" matches at WrestleMania just for the sake of putting everything and everybody on the show. God knows I have no interest in watching Sylvian, Orlando Jordan, etc. on said show. But I do think that certain titleholders deserve to be featured on the show in the best possible matchup available to them, specially if they've been somewhat integral/important to their respective show, be it RAW or SD! Case in point: MNM. I may sound like a broken record by now, but they (well, Melina more than the actual champs) have been heavily featured on SD! while they've been champs, so it stands to figure that they deserve to be placed on WM22, certainly more than Kane/Show who've had sporadic (at best) title defenses with the largely-ignored World Tag belts. Problem is, MNM doesn't have a compelling feud (or a feud, period) going for them right now and I think that sucks with such a short way to go until Mania. In the case of the Cruiser belt, I could make the argument that it's been featured quite nicely on the SD! brand with the "Helms vs everybody" storyline, in which he's been "forced" to defend the Title every week (well, almost) against all comers, so a WM Cruiser Title defense isn't completely out of the realm of probability. And I take some exception to that "Wrestlemania 2000" debacle, as you call it. It seems I'm one of the few who liked the show. Then again, maybe I'm biased since it was my very first live Mania experience ever.