Cheech Tremendous

That's not really true, as Austin returned in 2000. The show where he returned, Unforgiven, drew a monster buyrate. Business didn't start to go down until after he turned heel in April of 01, which was months after he returned. Okay, so tack on another six months. Still doesn't hold up that well against Hogan's run of 8 years (or even Sammartino's insanely long run).

There are a couple problems with calling Steve Austin the face of the franchise. While he definitely had the biggest peak of any of the wrestlers we are discussing, there are essentially two issues that reflect negatively in comparison with someone like Hogan. 1. Longevity - Steve Austin had a run that only lasted about 18 months. His run started with the Mania win over Michaels and more or less ended at Survivor Series '99. The fact that business went up in 2000 with Rock and Triple H on top and tanked when he returned in 2001 is telling as well. 2. Contemporaries - While Austin was the definitive top guy in WWF, the NWO, DX, Goldberg and Vince McMahon were all huge in their own right during his run. The fact that Austin never really drew outside of his feud with Vince is a major negative. While Hogan was the key ingredient to success in the eighties, the formula included a lot of different things during the Monday night wars.

In that scenario they'd have to let Marion walk to have enough money to sign Boozer.

He'll get max offers from other teams. I don't know if he'll leave for sure, but if the money's the same I'm not sure why anyone would choose to stay in Utah. Miami, for instance, will throw huge money at him. Playing with Wade and Beasley in the East? Doesn't sound too bad.

I made a few changes to your post.

Those are the Raiders I know. Fuck.

EDIT: Nevermind

Ronnie Brown has 5 TDs today? Holy shit. I know the Raiders are the Raiders, but they've been excellent today. It's not really a matter of the Bills playing badly or anything.

I can't believe I am going to say this, but the Raiders sort of look like an okay team. They are flawed, but 6-8 wins doesn't seem that outlandish after what I've seen the past two weeks.

There should be a rule that prohibits sucking. I know that it's really hard to define what constitutes "bad" but if you are unable to contribute to the community in any positive manner over an extended period of time the staff should have the right to remove you. I'm not saying that there should be free reign for knee-jerk bans to people that aren't well liked, but if the community at large finds nothing redeemable, ship them out.

Playing devil's advocate here, but why can't someone be banned just for sucking? It's not like everyone has the right to post.

Sure Deon is Deon, but the Truthiness is really awful as well. Not sure you could call him the definitive worst poster.

Most closers work like this.

Hey look, it's Czech "I root for an extremely crappy organization that hasn't managed to put a championship team on the field in 100 years despite obvious historical and financial advantages so I'll become extremely indignant towards any franchise that hasn't suffered through the same level of frustration as mine" Republic.

In the first post of that thread I said they'd be in the race in September. I just missed the important part about them winning the race. If I wasn't a Red Sox fan, I'd be a little more excited. I'm intrigued by this version of the Rays, and my offseason prognosis of them being a modern version of the '91 Braves seems well-founded.

Czech's been boarding hard lately.

I'm just not feeling this Fierce! gimmick.

Bob didn't make anyone look like a moron. He merely expressed an opinion that today's product is good, which you obviously share. That doesn't make him right. In my opinion, today's wrestling product is abysmal. I basically gave up for good around 2005 when they put Cena on top, but I've tried to give it a chance in recent years. I honestly can't make it through five minutes; it's that bad. Also, on the subject of ratings, Bob was right in the fact that one shouldn't overreact, but that doesn't make them irrelevant. When the ratings go down, it's because less people find the need to watch. That's directly indicative of their enjoyment of the product. On the subject of making money, that's a result of the tremendous WWE business model. That has nothing to do with the quality of the product. However, ratings that are at ten year lows and PPV buys in the can are a reflection of public's interest in said product. Yes, Flair has a problem with Hogan and citing Austin as the top face is being a company yes man, but shit, this is just all kinds of wrong. First of all, Hogan didn't blow up some mom and pop organization. Flair was a huge draw all across the country for ten or so years before Hogan came to town. He was so big in the south that mega-star Hogan couldn't draw flies there in the eighties. Yes, he's not the star that Hogan was, but he's number 2 for that era. Also, Austin was the guy that Flair wanted to push to the title in '94 before Hogan came in. Hogan screwed that up. Yes, he missed the boat on Foley, but you can't win them all. Oh, and who would snicker and laugh behind Flair's back? And why? That's just asinine. He's probably one of the most respected wrestlers in history. Truthiness, you really need to stay out of arguments like this. It's fine to have an opinion about today's product, but you present those opinions as fact and you look moronic. Aren't you like 17 years old? You have no historical perspective at all.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09172008/gossi..._000_129397.htm Well, there are upsides to being a dictator. Or should I say dick-tator. Amirite?

Ha! Stupid Vanhalen.

What the fuck is this?

This is going be a screwy year for awards. -AL MVP is wide open, which makes for a scary possible outcome (see: Justin Morneau in '07). -AL Cy should go to Lee, but writers might fall in love with K-Rod's saves -NL MVP... if Pujols doesn't win, I don't know what to say I think the only lock out there is Lincecum with the NL Cy. Then again, CC might have some momentum if the Brewers manage to get in the playoffs.

Just wanted to point out that the StatMongers are about to take back-to-back championships in Al's league.

Bartolo Colon has been suspended without pay for refusing to work out of the bullpen. He's gone home to the Dominican for the remainder of the season.

I don't really care that people are posting in that thread, but does it really need to be in the Music folder? Isn't that sort of discussion more appropriate for, I don't know, the Video Games folder? Also, what the hell does ITT mean?