Hawkius Maximus

...How do you play your ass off the entire game, then give up a TD with just twenty nine seconds left? God damn you Seahawks. I had my hopes up for second.

The problem with Monty Brown, is it's not the correct time. Do I think he should come out, and eliminate the most people in spectacular fashion? Yes, but winning the Royal Rumble in his first match? WWE missed a huge opportunity to gauge how he'll do in that 30 Man Battle Royal. He should have been in it, and then dumped everyone at the end in highly spectacular fashion. Then they could have had him face Cena, and tested how the fans would react on national TV to the man. You could have then had Umaga cause the DQ, or any sort of circumstance. I'm not sure why Monty hasn't debuted yet. He hasn't done any OVW that I know, they just seem to be...sitting on him. For no apparent reason. I also wonder if their even gonna let him wrestle under the name Monty Brown, or keep the Pounce. They'd be FOOLS to get rid of the Pounce. When someone took it right, that was one killer move...and yes, I know it's just a flying shoulder tackle. The way I see this Rumble going, is their going to hand it to someone established. The last three years, it's went to a new main eventer, and it's time for someone "established" to win it. Undertaker doesn't need it, but given their tenancies, he probably will.

I'm not down with Taker taking the match. The Royal Rumble is traditionally used to do one of two things: Make a new star, or cement a star. That's it's primary function. In the history of the traditional rumble, it's only been used as a plot device or used for no gain only a handful of times. You can trace the Rumble and see that it's main focus has been to do one of those two things. I mean, look at the traditional PPV history (Duggan emitted): Big John Studd - Cemented for a future main event run, that had to be nixed due to his illness. Whole point was to re-establish Studd. Hogan - No real gain. Although it does cement the legacy of the Rumble by having a huge name win it. Hogan - No gain. Flair - Cemented as WWE main eventer. Yokozuna - Skyrocketed to the top. Bret & Luger - Arguably both cemented. Also used as a plot device for Luger. Shawn - Skyrocketed to the main event. Shawn - Cemented as maineventer. Austin - Skyrocketed to the top. Austin - Cemented as top guy. Vince - No gain. Rock - Arguably no gain. Austin - No gain. Triple H - Re-established, therefore re-cemented. Brock - Cemented as main eventer. Benoit - Skyrocketed to the main event. Batista - Skyrocketed to the main event. Rey Mysterio - Sky rocketed to the main event. You can't cement Undertaker as a main eventer, nor can you "skyrocket him", so he basically becomes like Hogan's wins, and Austin's third in that nothing is gained by it ultimately, although granted not as bad as Vince's win. A Royal Rumble win will not help sell Wrestlemania, and doesn't even make a whole lot of sense since Undertaker shows between little, to no interest in the title right now. It would just be another accomplishment for him, that's about it. If it were my choice, I'd go with who I already selected, Nitro, or I'd give it to Edge to give him more credibility. Orton's actually not that bad of a choice either if you keep the historical significance of the Rumble in mind, he'd be cemented as a main eventer. WWE should think about more then the now, and what will benefit them the most six months a year down the line. Undertaker winning the Rumble has no long-term benefits, only short term.

Personally, if I were in WWE's situation, and the main event scene was so weak, I'd use the Rumble to skyrocket someone to the top. The problem is, all THREE champions are faces. That limit's possibilities a little more. The key would be that the wrestler choosen for this has to have been getting somewhat positive responses, and can carry the ball. Otherwise, I'd have Monty Brown come out and Pounce ten people out to win. He has the look, and arguably the charisma, but they missed their chance to do a similiar thing on the Raw Battle Royale. The major problem with Brown, is he's not that good of a worker. So keeping that in mind, we've narrowed it down to a heel, who is upper midcard at best, and can work. Now we gotta factor in Age. Arguably, WWE fucked up by pushing Batista so hard at his elevated age, and their next major pushee has to be able to carry his end of the ball for awhile. This eliminates even more people, including someone like Finlay. So, now that we've got Age, Status, Working, and alignment factored in...there's really only one choice for Royal Rumble winner. Kevin Federline. or if you wanna be a puss about it. Johnny Nitro. Now here's why. Johnny Nitro is one of the best heel workers in the E, on top of that he is fairly hot right now, he's never won the big title, AND he's very young with many years to go. The other option is a freshly heel turned Carlito. Same thing either way. It doesn't really matter if Nitro/Cena or Carlito/Cena or whatever is the WWE title match, because Wrestlemania is going to draw no matter what, FURTHERMORE, Hunter will likely have the top slot even if he doesn't have the title. So you take the title shot, and you god push the fuck out of a hot new heel and you get a new star. If you have Nitro beat Batista, then you have a major feud for the rest of the year, with Mercury returning and what not. Nitro's a good enough worker that he could have passable matches with Batista, and that's really all you need from him at this point. You could have Nitro form a stable, Batista form a stable, and Booker form a stable. There's SD's main event scene for the rest of 2006. I just pretty much booked better then the E in five minutes. WWE's most likely going to have either Hunter, or Orton win the RR this year, but this is probably what they should do to bolster their main event scene more.

I honestly think there's one thing that the Seahawk's are missing. They have ALL the talent they could need, and almost have the same exact squad as last year. What's missing is heart. Last year, they believed and gave it everything they had. This year...It's like the team collectively could give a shit. Hasselbeck at times is the ONLY person who seems to care, as he's willing to get himself killed to give the team some fucking hope. Ever since I started seriously following the Seahawk's a few years ago, I've seen this trend...If they start feeling like they have no hope, they don't seem to try. The biggest example of this was the 2004 game against the Rams. Seahawk's were up 20+ points going into the second half, and just gave it all up. For the rest of the season, they had no fire or intensity. They were just *THERE*. There's no logical reason why the Seahawk's shouldn't be one of the best teams in the league after 2005's season, their just not playing to where they should be. I don't know if that's Holmgren's fault, or whatever, but they need to get that desire back. There is a serious difference between teams like the Niners and the Seahawks. Niner's don't have the talent the Seahawk's have, but they WANT it more. Seattle just seems to not freaking want it, and it's disturbing to see as a fan.

My DVD/VCR combo A five disc changer in the Living Room A DVD player in a bedroom My PS2 and my DVD Burner on my PC... So that's five.

Edge is so damn awesome. It's a shame he's not the top star in the WWE. Second (Third?...Fourth?) fiddle is not as good as he should have it.

I'm one of the biggest Seattle supporters here...but logically, San Diego should murder death kill Seattle given how both teams are playing. It shouldn't even be fun to watch, it'll just be a one sided assbeating on both sides of the ball. I dunno what's wrong with Seattle, beyond injuries, but they need to figure out WTF is wrong *NOW*.

I remember reading, at an ECW house show, the fans started chanting "He's on Steroids" at Test. His response to their chant? He screamed out "SO?!". Now that's just awesome. It just seems that WWE just sees him as a big, powerful guy and that's how he's gonna be pushed. He should be almost a chicken heel, mock the opponents, cheat his ass off...All that good stuff, because when he's actually DONE it, it's worked out very well. Then again, that goes for so much of the WWE's roster. Just let them be themselves, and they'd have so many popular wrestlers. It's sad.

I just don't get what their doing with Test. Test is a fantastic prick heel. He's unlikeable, and he's effective at being a dick. Why not give up on this "HE'S SO STRONG!" push, and instead have him be a cheating bastard like Edge? He'd be way more effective that way. He's great at getting people to dislike him that way. He's not really that great at getting people to dislike him as a generic big bad guy. If WWE would play up his strengths, he could be a good main level guy...but they won't. So I guess it's a moot point.

You also have to keep in mind, that Yul admitted that he was throwing challenges by the end. Doing just enough to keep himself looking strong, but not enough to actually challenge Ozzy. You could even tell in the second to last immunity if you think about it. Yul had a HUGE lead, but the second Ozzy caught up, Yul suddenly fell behind. Coincidence? Given how Yul was playing, I'm thinking not. Yul is a highly intelligent man, I find it questionable at best that Ozzy could figure out that puzzle before Yul, given that Yul had a significant head start to begin with. He didn't NEED it. I'd even say that he intentionally bowed out of the final immunity as well, both because he knew he probably wouldn't beat Ozzy, and because he quite frankly didn't need it. Why waste his time and energy on something he ultimately wouldn't need? He could have ensured Becky's safety...but why do it, when he could have given her the idol onthe down-side anyway like he offered? No one would vote for Yul no matter what. He was safe, 100%. Ozzy played a fantastic game, but Survivor is more about mental toughness and ability then what the body can do. Take Chris from a few seasons ago, he was one of the weaker players but he manipulated everyone to the point where he survived a 6-1 or so deficit to win the game. Yul controlled the entire game from the first day. He ran the Asian tribe, he secretly ran the first merged tribe, and he ran Aitu when it was down to four, and then he ran the final merged tribe, and only THEN did anyone realize it. Jonathan thought he ran the show for awhile on Aitu, but Yul was the one pulling strings behind Jonathan, using him as a front. Yul played quite possibly the greatest game of Survivor yet. There's no holes in his game, whatsoever, and he did it while managing to keep some integrity in tact by not turning on Aitu even when it was down to just them.

Boo, I'm sad MIB doesn't remember me. Stupid Choken stealing my Hawk name. I was here first. And at WDI...and Hideout...I've had the same damn name.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should be offended at that "Of all people, Hawk52, figured it out" comment... It's about the only thing in this thread worth figuring out anyway.

Lemme get this straight... An auction was put up for being a mod for a week. A silly idea, but a silly idea that was made quite clear it was stupid in the course of the discussion over it. A poster named "Paul" wins it, a poster I've never even HEARD of to be frankly honest and I've been around these forums since Keith ran the place, and his entire brilliant scheme is to win the auction, then get booted from the board, thereby killing the auction and then threatening negative feedback on the "seller". All so he can "ruin" their stupid auction, and then gloats about it. That's the stupidest goddamn thing I've heard in awhile.

Here's my problem with some things. People act as if a lucky win isn't a win. It's still a win. No matter how you win the game, it's still a victory. The Seahawks may not look overly impressive when they win, but they still WIN. It's not their fault they have one of the best clutch kickers in the league in Brown. They don't have to do anything dramatic, they just have to keep it close and get it within FG range, and know that Brown will do what he is supposed to do and give them the win. It's like the Giant game last season, people kept harping on how Seattle shouldn't have beaten the Giants when Feely missed those FG's, but the simple fact is that they WON, and then marched into the post-season while the Giants were taken out relatively quickly. As a Seattle fan, am I happy with how they've played? Not really. Alexander's still a question mark, our defense isn't playing as good as they did last year, and Hasselbeck's only in the game because Wallace cannot be trusted with the fucking ball (See Niners game), but they've still won their games. Do I think they'll make it back to the Superbowl? Hell no, not with how their playing, but all I'm saying is a win's a win, and shouldn't they be respected for going 8-4 with everything that's went wrong?

Mirko to UFC would be a brilliant move by UFC. Mirko speaks English, is charismatic, and INCREDIBLY dangerous. I'd go as far as to say that Mirko would dominate everyone in UFC's division aside from possibly Vera. There's no one else that could beat Mirko. Sylvia would be KO'd likely within the first round due to his open fighting style. If Mirko can't high kick him, he'd re-arrange his internal organs like he did to Herring with kicks to the midsection, or even use his punching ability to drop him. Monson wouldn't be able to take him down, and Mirko would knock his head off...Who's left? Mir? Mir would die a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DEATH. Arlovski's the only other possible threat, and that depends on which Arlovski shows up.

I bought one off Ebay for a grand total of SIX dollars with S&H. Fucking fantastic. Even has two slots for two controllers. Probably the best thing I've ever bought off Ebay.

I have more faith in Josh Brown then any other person on the planet. When it matters, he DELIVERS. Plus, that was one helluva tackle for a kicker to boot.

From what I read, it's not up, so much as he will not sign an exclusive deal to PRIDE. One of Fedor's biggest desires is to make MMA popular in Russia, and BoDog is helping him do it. UFC will want an exclusive deal too, so I doubt he'll go there. PRIDE will atleast deal with him on a PPA basis. Plus, Fedor's a gamble. As much as I think he'd work as a Tyson-type draw, Fedor just doesn't draw that well in Japan. PRIDE's been hoping for awhile that someone would dethrone him due to that. They were praying that Mirko would KO him, but it didn't happen. The whole reason they didn't rush Josh/Mirko v.s. Fedor, is because they want whoever challenges to be in perfect condition so they'll have the best chance to dethrone him. On top of not drawing super well, he also has his history of hand injuries, so who knows what you'd get for multiple millions.

I can't honestly say. My memories of the fight could be messed up from the fans. That sometimes happens to me. The fans were SO pumped for Aerts to win. I get caught up in the moment. Another thing I forgot to add, Schilt is fucking smart. Everytime they bodylocked, Schilt would turn himself before or right after the referee broke them up so that Aerts was against the ropes, even if Schilt himself had been backed up against the ropes. I didn't see ANYONE else during the night do that, but Schilt was doing it constantly, and Aerts couldn't counter when he was against the ropes.

I watched it live. I usually have a few friends around, and we voice chat during events, but alas, not for K-1. I was the only one looking forward to it. Schilt is going to be nearly impossible to beat. The problem is, anything that might work can be negated by his freakish reach. People act as if all Schilt has is his size, which a totally laughable claim. Schilt's a fantastic striker who would probably hold his own in K-1 if it weren't for his size. The problem is, what do you do? Leg kicking may work, but he's not some lumbering giant, it'll take awhile to really hurt him and when there are only three three minute rounds who knows if that'll work. You come in close like Aerts did with punches, and Schilt grabs you and knees you. Try to keep your distance, and he cracks with with his hard jabs. He can be hurt, but how do you manage to keep him hurt with out him grabbing your or countering? What amazed me, is Peter Aerts was smarter about fighting Schilt then Hoost was. Hoost should have chopped the living fuck out of Schilt's leg, and even if he lost, Schilt would have been hurt for the finals. I don't even know WHAT Hoost's gameplan was, it was like he went in there like he would against Sapp, and let him dictate the pace of the fight for him. Le Banner thought he could outbox Schilt...he was pretty much proven wrong. Aerts was the one who had the gameplan. One more round, and he probably would have won when Schilt couldn't walk forward anymore. The fans marrrking for Aerts was pretty amazing. They wanted to see him tie Hoost's record. In one night, I became a fan of Aerts, for his "...Meh, fuck it, I'll fight" attitude, and MISIRLOU~! One problem for me, is I always judge K-1 fights by MMA rules, specificially PRIDE. Aerts would have beat Schilt under PRIDE Judging, he did more damage and tried to end the fight more...but Schilt hit more stuff, and got a knockdown, so it's understandable why he won. I wonder if one of Bonjasky's balls collapsed the way he was acting from those low blows.

The K-1 WGP was fun, but not a blow away show. I don't get why it had to run 5+ hours, but whatcha gonna do.

...Evan's hair wasn't real?!

34's right. Terkay was HIRED because he could impersonate Bruiser Brody so well. Why they took that away from him, I dunno. So...Mercury's hair isn't real?

What I dont get, is you hire Predator, a Bruiser Brody clone and quite a good one at that...and then drop the gimmick. Why not have him beat the fuck out of people with chains? Stuuupid.