Hawkius Maximus

Christian already had his run at leading a promotion in TNA. It didn't work out. He's not good enough, nor has enough star quality to pull it off. He's always going to be second/third from the top if not lower. Plus, Vince McMahon does not like him. Unless you think Vince is going to die soon, Christian is not going to be a main event player. Miz isn't anywhere near ready either. Maybe in another two/three years. But not now.

Jack Swagger will be on Raw or Smackdown and main eventing title matches within two years. Maybe even one. Depending on how he improves, it may even be after the Draft. He is the new Brock Lesnar/Bobby Lashley. He has real amateur experience. He has size. He's far beyond where both of them were at this stage in-ring. His only downfall will be his lisp and his lack of promo charisma. Both can be worked on. He is pre-destined. Vince and everyone in creative has deemed it to be so. If you don't like Jack Swagger, then I don't know what to tell you. His overness doesn't matter. They will slam him down your throat until you react to him. The other predestined is Ted Dibiase Jr. They love him. Every one does. He is Randy Orton 2.0. He's even a few steps behind Swagger at this point, but when he's ready, they'll strap a rocket to his back. I don't know what they see in him, but back in 2002 I didn't see anything in Randy Orton and he has the potential to be the biggest star they've had since Austin and Rock seven years later. I think they have big plans for John Morrison. They're playing the cards right. He almost never jobs, he almost always wins his matches with Miz, and both are given promient roles on all three shows. Morrison promo wise may not be "there" yet, but he almost is, and is becoming one of the finest workers in the WWE. He's probably never going to be a top, top guy if only due to his size, but he's been built for a strong Chris Jericho/Mr. Perfect type role. Always in the mix. Never the top guy. CM Punk is an odd case. Creative likes him. They didn't set out to bury him with that title reign. They honestly thought he'd become a megastar doing that to him. Didn't pan out. CM Punk's main enemy is going to be himself. He can be incredibly stiff one match, incredibly sloppy the next. He also has a tendancy to "geek out" when he accomplishes something. See every title he's ever won in WWE. The fact that he's gotten this far, and is sure to get even higher is a testament to his own skills and the fact that WWE sees something in him. He will undoubtably be World champion again, but top line player is questionable. Cody Rhodes' main enemy will be his size. He's not that big for WWE standards. In-ring, he's better then most. Promo-wise he's better then most. He has a distinct look in this era, and he's rapidly improving his body (taking after Orton's style of vitamen usage). The problem will be, that he's just not that big. However, being allowed to display all his talent now in his developmental stage may make it so they'll view him as someone they can use later on. He's been given long matches, promos, angles, and he's carried everything well. That bodes well for him. Mr. Kennedy & MVP are both in the same boat. Their main enemy are themselves. Both have pissed off the creative team in the past. Kennedy won't shut up, and they don't feel MVP is improving enough. MVP has a slight lead because Kennedy is fragile. He breaks easily. MVP doesn't. That'll help. At one time they had determined Kennedy as the next big thing. But then he failed a drug test. Then they gave him the ball, and he was immediately injured. Bad news. WWE will not rely on anyone they don't feel they can trust. On the other hand, I don't think MVP's made any significant improvement since the death of Benoit who was his mentor and the reason MVP was so quickly improving. He's been stagnant since, maybe because he has no one to learn from, or because he's lost desire. Either way, it doesn't look good and WWE themselves have gotten onto him about it. I don't see either of these guys being main event guys outside of the Jeff Hardy route. The Miz has improved dramatically, but they aren't deluding themselves about him. Morrison's the star of the team. Miz is just his running buddy. Do I think Miz could make a run at it? Maybe. But not as he is. He's turned into a perfectly acceptable talent, but that's not enough in WWE land for someone his size. And given that he doesn't get a free ride due to his one time MTV fame, he'll have to earn his spot. I don't think it's out of the question, but he's probably the furthest off. On the flipside, he doesn't piss people off. So that's good for him. There's a lot of young talent WWE has. The question is if they'll do anything with them. Kofi Kingston, TJ Wilson, Primo, Manu, and others are all good enough to be given promient roles. That's not even counting guys they haven't called up. The problem WWE has had for this entire decade, is unless the talent is "Predestined" by Vince, they never really make it. That's just the way it is.

One of my things lately, has been to watch shows I've heard about but never seen (Evangelion was one of these) and the other is to go through shows I have seen again. Either in Anime form or Manga. A few week or so ago, I watched the first few episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho again. I had never finished the show. Way back when, Toonami went to once a week, and I fell out of watching it. The episodes reminded me why I loved the show, and I decided to go back through it. But since I didn't feel like getting the episodes, I opted for manga. The manga is pretty much just like the anime. Some small stuff, but nothing overly major. And the series is great heading into the final bit of the Dark Tournament. Yeah, there's some power creep, but nothing that big. In the end, strategy can beat power, and there's actual THOUGHT to the fighting unlike say...DBZ where "I'M SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL THEN J00" happens in every fight. Then there's Younger Toguro. And the massive increases in power. That's fine though. I mean, everything's still making sense, and there's staying true to the roots of the show still. So what if there's some bursts of power. It's rooted in the myth of the show. Then there's the Sensui arc. Has there *EVER* been a series that cannibalized it's story, it's setting, and even the very fundamentals of it's logic like this? That wasn't filler? I can't think of anything. The big one, is the introduction of the Spirit Realm's SDF or whatever their named. This, once thought about critically, mortally wounds the entire series so deeply that tt's the kind of plothole I've never seen before. Spirit Realm has an ARMY of "A" class (Another thing. Power levels for a show where logic and tactics can beat power up till this point. BAD NEWS.) warriors. This is never mentioned until this point. Ever. Not once. And when you think about the fact that they have an army that ASSASSINATES demons, you kind of realize...Yusuke has no reason to exist. The only two missions he ever undertakes, The three artifacts, and Yukina, are the only ones that need "Detective" work. This army could have handled EVERYTHING else. Even Toguro isn't as strong as *ONE* of these guys. Entire Arcs could have been handled within seconds with these guys. Then there's small ones. Characters are introduced with "powers" that they spend forever explaining, but ultimately they mean nothing to the overall story. The power creep goes into hyperdrive. The main villain suddenly has a GOLDEN AURA and CAN FLY. Yusuke gets a Plotkai burst of power the likes of which I've never, ever seen and I watched DBZ and then HE can fly too. It ultimately ends with Yusuke transforming, growing super long hair and being insanely powerful. It sounds...familiar. And then you have the entire final "arc" which is barely an arc. It's like halfway through the managaka went "...this sucks..." and decided to just sum it all up to give the readers one off stories about the people in the show. The Sensui arc just...flies in the face of everything Hakusho established. It's kind of like the Kenshin Anime, how everything fell off a fucking cliff after Kyoto. But that, that was all filler made by the TV network. The manga is still quite good. This is ACTUAL canon story. This is *INTENDED* lobotimizing of the storyline. I'm the type of person, where a plothole will drive me fucking insane. I can safely thank Yu Yu Hakusho and it's plotholes it opened on it's own willfully that I was unable to really sleep last night. Thanks Hakusho!

Awesome, awesome video. I don't even agree with the stance, but fantastic editing job I must say.

The Vault 101 return was one of the few quests in Fallout 3 where I actually felt like I was PLAYING a character and not just roaming. In quick succession , dogmeat was killed in action, and I was banished from Vault 101. My character became evil for a short period of time after all that. The world was out to get him. It's also one of the few quests in the game that gave me a legit emotional response. It made me ANGRY. So angry that I immediately slaughtered every person in the vault. I reloaded. Didn't with my second play through though. My evil character made sure they fucking *paid*.

Copp's been around a looooooooong ass time. Like...longer then I've been on the interwebs. 1996 or earlier. He's always been in pro-wrestling/MMA. The only active journalist of his kind that's probably been on the scene longer would be Dave Meltzer himself. He's probably the leading authority in anything Europe MMA related, especially UFC due to what HTQ said. So generally, if Copp reports something, it's generally the plan when the news breaks.

Trying to avoid jumping on the "cheap" comment. However, if you're on XBL I will treat you extra special. There is no Player Match like HD Remix. Capcom has hinted that will be in a patch. As far as tournaments go, I think those will be in the Championship DLC that's coming for free in a few months. So what can you do in SF4 online? Anything right now?

Someone tell me about SF4's multiplayer. I'm not overly interested in playing with random people (I don't like playing "cheap" as I call it. I thus get murdered) but one of the best features of SF2 Turbo Remix was the Arcade thing, where everyone was in a room together, could watch the matches, and then step in as the next challenger. Is that in this game? How about tournaments? Basically, anything in Remix with expansions to it.

Da Meltz is reporting that UFc 94 did around 800,000 buys instead of the estimated 1 million plus, or as thought, possibly the biggest UFC ever buyrate wise. Still a great number though. May be actually disappointing given that they pumped around three times as much promotion into it then Brock/Randy but still good.

I have a hard time believing Mirko in UFC let alone against Randy. Mirko hasn't exactly lit the world on fire since he left UFC. I suppose they could think that as an international star, putting him against Randy is a no lose situation. Either Randy out-gameplans Mirko and wins, or Mirko knocks a body part off. Mirko's had a habit of late of dropping out of fights. The man has had fifty five professional Kickboxing and MMA fights or thereabouts. His body is falling apart. So I wouldn't be surprised if this fight doesn't happen even if it's planned to.

For Kenny, it makes sense. BJ Penn started it. Plus, he's going to fight BJ Penn. Might as well use good ole trash talk to get things moving towards it. Florian will probably say or do anything if he thinks it'll cause BJ Penn to fight him at this point. Man has had like two/three #1 contendership fights.

Silva won't be able to fight for a long ass time. He failed a steroid test, and then like an idiot he decided to fight while suspended. He doesn't even have a license right now. Even at the time, most people were questioning the intelligence of fighting for DREAM. He wasn't going to get a super payday, he was already a few months into his suspension, and just generally he could have rode it out. Instead he violated his license and got paid but now has no title, no job, no license, no nothing. Bad career decision. In the grand scheme of things, I don't know if it means anything. Despite how much Elite XC pushed him, I don't think he would have been able to beat Overeem, and I question if he could hang with most of the UFC heavyweights. He never displayed much in the skill department aside from promise and being really fucking strong. That'll get you so far, but you have to show some evolution. Even someone like Brock Lesnar has shown more evolution in his game over his four fight career then I remember Silva really showing.

Alot of things in this game piss me off. And now it's gotten to the point where it's just small things. Ignoring the elephant in the room that is no DLC or patch for a second. - You can't use AI online. This means if playing with friends and you have an odd number, well fuck, you can't do anything but three way matches. Perhaps I WANT to play a tag match? If I'm alone on a team WHYTHEFUCKCAN'TICONTROLBOTHANDLETAIDOSOMESHIT?! - Can't do Rumbles or EC or anything above four people online. No reason for this whatsoever in this era. If I want to, I should be able to line up thirty fucking people and do a legitimate Royal Rumble. IT'S 2009. PROGRESS. - It's impossible to make an accurate Jack Swagger and play online because they made it so you can't fucking use symbols. Sure, you can do it if you just want to have a regular singlet, but what's the point? OMG, SOMEONE MIGHT MAKE A VAUGELY MENACING DESIGN. THINK OF THE CHILDREN! - Can't trade Edits. Completely fucking stupid. - They removed moves, and even VERY simple moves aren't in the game. You gotta MAKE the move...and ironically, they put the motions in there. Most likely just to ensure you use the goddamn thing. - Storyline/career both suck. It's astounding that they still can't make anything that's halfway compelling. - Can't record online moments. Again. Stupid. WHATSTHEPOINTOFITTHEN?!? - Takes an hour to make one good edit's look. Takes twenty for Fire Pro. Problem. And that's ignoring small issues, like how Netplay blew at first, and you'll still get games of incredible lag. Or how the game is broken towards a few moves that are given super priority, hard to block, and are just fucking annoying (Shoulder block with little motion, I'm looking at you) and other anger inducing issues. The game is only good as long as your opponent decides to play fair. Once they decide not to, the game falls to shit as they'll abuse moves just to win. Douchebags. I've made up my mind. There's so many games coming out, that if DLC and the patch aren't out for 360 by the end of this month, I'm selling the game and I probably won't be in line to buy anything THQ related for awhile. That goes even for the UFC game. This is bullshit. And before you say it, I SINCERELY doubt this is Microsoft's fault. Why the *fuck* would they be sitting on DLC and a patch? They wouldn't. Makes no business sense. THQ must have made a deal with Sony, and just never reported it. That or it's my theory that they are *TRYING* to ruin the WWE's game brand since they won't have the license anymore.

You expect way too much out of this forum. I find the comic book forum occasionally useful if I feel like reading comics. Just merge comics and lit together, or give them their own sections. Doesn't really hurt anything.

I did a podcast once. It fucking sucked. Yet people listened to it. I have no idea why. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing a weekly column or something like that. I know a lot about MMA but I don't know enough about the inner working of fighting ITSELF like others here, nor do I have the inclination to maintain a weekly gig...and I don't read most columnists in MMA because I think they're morons. But I'd be willing to participate in some kind of round table thing on AIM or something. Given the sheer amount of shows in MMA these days, we'd end up doing atleast two a month. and I promise to read everyone's stuff atleast once before I dismiss it like I do everyone else. I'm nice.

See, I like Josh when he comes out to Ai Wo Torimodose. When he came out at the last Affliction to generic rock music, I wanted him to lose. Josh, at least in Japan, knew how to sell himself. I think on camera, he's a little unsure of himself for stuff like Affliction. He seems to have lost all his charisma. He was pretty boring on Affliction actually. Kenny Florian should just make this his gimmick. Randomly bury fighters on radio or online. Not in his weight class though. Always in a different one so that they'll never fight.

I don't really think it was the fights that were the bad part of this show. Tank and Shamrock's fights were entertaining for perverse reasons, and all the other fights I saw had guys trying really hard. The problem on that stream was the commentating, presentation, and lighting. It was all pretty damn bad. It really made me appreciate the level of professionalism that most Japanese groups attain, and the biggest groups here. I felt bad for Mr. Ross "Grizzly" Clifton. He started crying after Shamrock beat him up and stole his lunch money.

It's funny. All the other MMA folder guys are voting In aside from me. There's a "kinship" that I'm not apart of apparently from that section of the board. And I can safely say I am not a meathead. An egotistical prick? Perhaps. That's something I'd probably agree on. It's really coming down to where you board the most it seems. The MMA folder guys do not want to lose EHME because he posted a shitton there. NHB don't want him back because he posted a shitton there.

What's your point? When EHME was posting fine, I would do as you suggest. I'm not going to lower myself to try and talk any kind of sense into anyone who's acting like that. I don't care who it is. If you notice, I never involve myself in anything on this board that isn't some kind of discussion or point I can join into. That's how I "roll". I leave wacky stories or hijinx to other people. Not my thing. And I find that final point ironic considering that's pretty much what I do in most major threads with our less informed posters over there. If EHME was given warnings and he then proceeded to piss off the mods, I'm supposed to go to bat for him? No. I wouldn't expect anyone to do that for me. Edit: I should note. I don't post anywhere else for MMA on the net. I choose to post here because I know the vast majority of the posters in the MMA section are well educated, or if they are wrong, they'll admit it. Just like I am and I will. When EHME was posting fine, he was perfectly acceptable. But I don't feel the need to *HAVE* to deal with someone's bullshit. If he comes back and posts fine, then I will rescind my comments. Until then, they stand.

If you've already tried that approach then change my vote to Out. If he's already been told he's on the verge of being banned, and still fucked up, then there's nothing you can do. He made his choice.

In. Mildly. I think he needs to be kept on a very tight leash. I mean, really tight. There were posts in the MMA folder that I didn't particularly care for in serious threads that were him giving a wonderful post that amounted to "fuck you" instead of actually defending his points. That or something about being drunk. I don't care about other forums, but I consider the MMA folder something more then regular bullshit where we actually try to have discussion. If I wanted to deal with BS from parts of this folder like NHB, I'd post in those sections. Or post at fucking Sherdog. And it seems like he has a habit of regressing every so often to his "fite me" shtick. He CAN be a decent/good poster when he wants to be, but when he's doing that BS then he's annoying. I say in, but under the knowledge that one fuck up is his ass. Basically, the axe is hanging above his neck and if he messes up just once it's dropping.

I wish I hadn't stumbled across this thread and the stream link right now.

It's a fun social experiment from time to time though. It's like watching animals in captivity and studying them.

I know about Crumbley. I've been involved in the EMPIRE~! for about three years now. I was just dumbing it down for the people not, ya know?

14,000 is real bad for a live PPV of TNA's size. The danger here, is the fact that ratings are going up. TNA deludes themselves by doing "THE RATINGS! THE RATINGS!". They popped a 1.2 for this week's show. Problem is. Ratings don't overly pay, not at that level. And maybe...10% (If that) of that audience is buying their PPV's, their merch, or attending live events. Bad precident. The last major show with Angle/Jeff didn't even do as well as they hoped it would. I really wonder if TNA is still self sustaining profitable with these buyrates. I know they were a few months ago, but I dunno about now. They are losing quite a bit of money on every PPV that does so little.