JoeDirt

Nice read.

Keeping it real Rivalry with Stone Cold wasn't rehearsed By BRET HART This past week, I've been completing an upcoming TV special about a one-time NHLer who used to play for the Rochester Americans. I was riding in the production van when it pulled up at the Rochester War Memorial Auditorium and I was instantly struck by memories of many great matches I had there, many of them involving Stone Cold Steve Austin. While storylines suggested Steve and I had an intense, bitter rivalry, we were always close friends who had a deep mutual respect. I sat down on the front steps of the Rochester War Memorial and gave Steve a call. Turns out, he has a part in the remake of The Longest Yard and was talking to me from the set in L.A. When I told him where I was calling from, he chuckled almost deviously and we enjoyed swapping old war stories. I asked Steve if he has any plans to return to the ring and he said he's been feeling it in his knees and neck lately. And he's not sure if it'd be worth risking injuring himself at this point in his career. But never say never in wrestling. We joked about whose knees are worse -- mine or his -- and recalled that when I needed to have knee surgery for real, we had a story angle in which Steve was all fired up after losing to me at Wrestlemania XIII. He viciously attacked my knee with a chair on Raw the next night in Binghamton, N.Y., so I could go home to have my knee taken care of. We talked about the present state of the business and we both had similiar sentiments: Realism is severely lacking and, for me, it's the realism I always loved about the business. Our matches and interviews were never overly rehearsed and no script writer could have invented a Stone Cold or a Hitman match as well as Steve Williams and I did. Wrestling shouldn't be reduced to a formula written by someone else to be followed by wrestlers because then the result will never come across as genuine. Pro wrestling should be an art form so wrestlers can tell stories in the ring again. Just before we got off the phone, Steve Austin invited me down to visit him in Texas to go wild boar hunting. Something tells me that will be quite a tale.

Meltzer's preview.

I remember thinking this match was a decent power match when I saw it first, and then was surprised to see people on here had it down as one of the worst 20 matches EVER.

Of course Taker doesn't need a title run. But you're looking at things logically here, we can't have that. Angle and Taker will probably have interaction by the end of the year. They usually start their push towards WM around the new year anyways.

I don't see Rey winning it. And from everything Meltzer is saying, it's looking like Angle/Taker at WM. I think that if you weren't a smark last year the Benoit win at the Rumble would have been SLIGHTLY surprising, even though they built him up with the "you'll never get a title shot again and you have to be #1" thing. I kind of wish I hadn't known ahead of time he was probably going to win. Orton is definitely winning the Rumble this year. I'd be really surprised if he didn't.

No, I'm not talking about HBK carrying Kevin Nash to a ****1/2 match. I'm talking about a match in which BOTH wrestlers were known throughout their career as guys who didn't have good matches, but for whatever reason they came up with a good or a great match against each other. Can you think of some?

Bump. Gonna continue on this soon and hopefully do some fun stuff. I'll try and stay away from doing what the WWF did do for the most part, though I may have to go with the Austin/McMahon storyline down the road since that worked out fairly well, huh?

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULED FOR NEXT FRIDAY’S IMPACT! PLUS, ROWDY RODDY PIPER’S IMPACT DEBUT! Director of Authority Vince Russo has announced that next Friday on Impact on Fox Sports Net, a tournament will begin to determine who faces Jeff Jarrett at Victory Road for the NWA World Heavyweight Title. The four superstars that will compete in the two-week tournament are Jeff Hardy, Abyss, Raven an The Alpha Male Monty Brown. The first two matches will take place next Friday (Alpha Male vs. Raven / Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss) with the winners advancing to the finals scheduled for the October 15 Impact broadcast. In addition to the World Title Tournament, NWA legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper will make his Impact debut! What will the Rowdy Scottsman have to say? Will it involve Victory Road? Tune in next Friday (October 8) to Impact to see the World Title Tournament and the TNA return of Roddy Piper!

If TNA DOES bring in guys like the Outsiders, Sting, DDP, Roddy Piper, etc in for this PPV, will it really bring in more buys? Will it be worth the cost of bringing them in? Will they really be willing to put over young talent? How many buys do you think Victory Road will get? And based on an argument I saw on another board, here's a question for you...what will get more buys, Victory Road or DVDs and tapes from ROH's weekend bringing in Liger? What needs to be done between now at 11/7 to get you to buy Victory Road? Discuss!

Definitely see Cash and Bailey winning that tag gauntlet.

I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

Will a channel like C-SPAN or anyone show a replay of this debate?

Dunn and Marcos!

I wonder what they're going to play up for comedy from this debate.

That's the 2nd really bad question tonight. -=Mike Who are the moderators for #2 and #3? I heard Bob Schieffer for one?

I hate the Kerry picture they use in CNN ads and other places where it looks like he just smelled a fart. Ooh, Bush thinks Kerry's a good dad!

Twenty more minutes to go. Pretty solid debate so far, IMO.

Come on Kerry, work in some more 'Nam references.

"No! This is not a joke! I am not a joke! I am serious! And you will not look past me, you stupid son-of-a-bitch!" From Mike's sig...I would love it if Kerry ended with this line.

Kerry pounces... "Kerry's from the Serenghetti!!! He's got the POOOOOOUUUUUUNNNNNCE! Okay that made me laugh. Next Bush will fight back as Double-J drills Kerry with a guitar. "CHOKE ON THAT, SLAPNUTS!"

Bush with the first big sigh of the night. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

"Of course I know Osama Bin Laden attacked us...I know that!"

He agreed that Bush is doing the right thing by reforming Iraqi civillians. But he has a better plan for doing it. Which you can read at JOHNKERRY.COM! :: thumbs up, cheap pop :: What's that email address, Senator? JOHNKERRY.COM!!! HUZZAH!

Yeah, that's a pretty stupid argument. I don't know if that's exactly what he was saying, but that's what he surely was insinuating...