Cheech Tremendous

What? Would that imply that everyone comes to see the scratch logo on the ring aprons and nothing else? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Look, I'm at work currently and don't have time to make huge posts, so I may not be explaining myself clearly enough. There aren't any characters that pop ratings every time they are on screen, or draw huge gates when they work house shows, or see a monster increase in PPV buys when they work a main event. There are instances of characters who have drawn recently (Batista and HHH at WM is a good example, Kane after the unmasking in 2003), but on the whole no one really makes a discernible difference in money drawn for the company. That's also because the WWE prefers it that way, too.

Fantastc on the mic - not my my standards. Playing off against the war is cheap heat in it's most mediocre form, Davari could do as good of a job if not better than him. I dont see at all where anyone thinks he can cut great fantastic promos. They all come off boring, tedious, and predictable to me. Not one has actually made me want to see Hassan work a program with ANYONE. How can you make a feud with a hot off the HOF returning Hogan and a very over Michaels boring as fuck? Immesurable upside? Huh? And where are people getting it that he's fucking over?!!! Is he drawing huge quarter hour ratings? No. Did he draw against one of the easiest and most successful babyface draws EVER in Hogan? No. Did people care when he went back and forth with Austin (meaning did the quarter hours soar through the roof)? No. The reality of the situation is now WWE, I think, realizes playing off the controversy wont work, nothing has worked to get this guy over as a draw, and they finally gave up. I would too if I was them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> While I will agree to disagree in regards to Hassan's entertainment factor, it is really unfair to blame him for not being a draw. NO ONE IN THE WWE today is a draw. The brand draws and that's it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You just said he was a draw though (or should I say "over" which is the same to me as a "draw", now you're saying he's not and just the brand is? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Over does not equal draw in my book. A character that is over receives a strong reaction from the fans, be it positive or negative. Hassan receives a reaction by playing an interesting character. The crowd pops when he comes out and boos when talks. That's over. A draw denotes someone who makes money for the company, of which there are none on the current roster. WWE shows and PPVs make money because of the brand name, and not any single character.

Fantastc on the mic - not my my standards. Playing off against the war is cheap heat in it's most mediocre form, Davari could do as good of a job if not better than him. I dont see at all where anyone thinks he can cut great fantastic promos. They all come off boring, tedious, and predictable to me. Not one has actually made me want to see Hassan work a program with ANYONE. How can you make a feud with a hot off the HOF returning Hogan and a very over Michaels boring as fuck? Immesurable upside? Huh? And where are people getting it that he's fucking over?!!! Is he drawing huge quarter hour ratings? No. Did he draw against one of the easiest and most successful babyface draws EVER in Hogan? No. Did people care when he went back and forth with Austin (meaning did the quarter hours soar through the roof)? No. The reality of the situation is now WWE, I think, realizes playing off the controversy wont work, nothing has worked to get this guy over as a draw, and they finally gave up. I would too if I was them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> While I will agree to disagree in regards to Hassan's entertainment factor, it is really unfair to blame him for not being a draw. NO ONE IN THE WWE today is a draw. The brand draws and that's it.

I'm generally surprised by all the Hassan hate. To me, he was the most interesting character on WWE tv over the past few months. Granted, I didn't see the terrorist angle, and by all accounts it was in terrible taste, but is that enough to kill the character off? The guy is fantastic on the mic and his lacking in-ring skills seem to be far more a result of inexperience instead of lacking the attitude to learn the craft (Cena, Carlito). Why would you want a 24 year old with immeasurable upside who's over as shit to be buried and removed from the roster>

Screw that, we need a Bill Walton show ASAP. It doesn't even have to be about sports, just a running commentary on anything he observes. I don't think I'd be able to turn away.

I wonder how many times he will be able to say "flat out" during one show.

Depending on how the Pacers adjust to having everyone back together, its not inconceivable that the Cavs grab the #2 seed this year.

Jasikevicius, Hughes, LBJ, Marshall and Z as a starting line-up sounds damn good to me. They still have Snow, Luke and Gooden coming off the bench. I smell playoffs.

Someone's looking for a job.

So there's still hope that Matt Hardy and Edge will have a one-on-one match at Summerslam instead of a pointless tag match with Kane and Snitsky added to them, or is Matt Hardy and Kane vs. Edge and Snitsky considered one of the "top" matches? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> In this weeks Observer, there was absolutely no discussion of making the Hardy-Edge deal into a tag match like that. So I think that is more than likely not planned to happen after all. And might I add, thank god! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah I'm glad it was just a rumour because that match made no sense on any level. If they were treating it as a shoot, why would Matt Hardy agree to team with other WWE wrestlers to get over their storyline? And if they kept their internal logic, why would Matt team with the guy that raped and stole his girlfriend before putting him of the shelf for a year?

From Baseball Propsecus: VORP Value Over Replacement Player. The number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute if given the same percentage of team plate appearances. VORP scores do not consider the quality of a player's defense. My understanding of the stat is this - there are an unlimited number of interchangeable players available who offer essentially equal offensive skills. The VORP measures how much more an individual player contributes over one of these numerous no-name players. Hence, Derrick Lee has added more runs to his team than any other player in the league this year. Hope that satisfies.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think I see it as a great look because it's something different. Everyone in the WWE looks and acts exactly the same. Cena, Orton, Masters, Jindrak, Cade, Morgan, Tomko, Reigns... they're big and strong, we get it (yes I know most of those guys have been cut). The fro, the purple tights, the average physique... it's something new that sets him arpart from the rest of the roster. I think that's important, but maybe it's just me.

He has a great (albeit unique) look, can work the stick and has an entertaining persona. Some people just get over on intangibles, and I think that's the case with Carlito. I mean Cena's not much in the ring and he's the most over guy in the company. He still has time to improve in the ring. It doesn't bode well that he has spent his entire life around wrestling and was a main eventer in Puerto Rico already, but that doesn't mean we should shut the door on him. Let him keep learning on the fly.

I've never seen that TWA match, but I have heard that he worked extremely safe and was still hurting for weeks afterwards. Can anyone confirm this>

None of them were random. The early ones were specifically booked to look like they were, however.

"Tell Sabu to fuck Sabu." Man, that is never going to get old.

Dude, when did it become the cool IWC thing to hate on Family Guy? The show was never about the characters or the plot, it was the guerrilla humor and out of left field jokes. I could probably reel off several dozen jokes or sight gags from the original run and not remember which episode any of them came from.

The thing that doesn't make sense with that story is that when the Acolytes started they were paired with the Jackyl and had nothing to do with the Ministry.

It is a WWE creation. They wanted to give him a few weeks in OVW to work out the kinks before putting it on the main show.

I think it was more Cornette being pissed that someone exposed the business than actually having faith in the gimmick. He probably knew this would be a tough-sell and having some punk kid kill the thing right out out of the gate probably didn't sit real well with his old school line of thinking.

I'm thinking that everybody is right in this instance, seeing that: a. Shawn was Vince's right-hand man and was in his ear regarding all issues at this time b. Shawn had flat out refused to do any jobs in the territory I'm just saying that the way Meltzer's timeline of events reads, it was his (McMahon's) decision to have Bulldog lose and it was done just in case he decided to bail after the Bret Hart thing.

According to the Observer piece on Survivor Series '97, Vince approached Davey on the day of the show and asked him to job with the idea that they'd build to a rematch at a bigger show in Manchester several months down the road. According to McMahon, Bulldog was the only Hart Foundation member that Shawn would work with. However, this was never the actual plan. The WWF intentionally breached Hart's contract two days later. The Bulldog job was just taking out insurance in case of an impending defection. Michaels is still a dick, though. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Bulldog was meant to win the UK match. The idea behind the booking was to show to the locker room that Shawn was really a professional, and would do business. Shawn just changed his mind at the last minute, after Davey had done a ton of press to dedicate the match to his dying sister. Davey Boy doing the job had nothing to do with Bret leaving; it happened purely because Shawn pulled a power play he was allowed to get away with. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually I am holding the Wrestling Observer article in my hand as I write this and it clearly states that it was McMahon's idea for Bulldog to job and it was all done in the context of the Bret Hart contract issue. Meltzer wrote the definitive piece on the whole SS '97 fiasco and so I tend to side with him on this issue. That's not to say that Michaels wasn't an asshole who refused to job all time, because he was. It is just sort of a wrong time, wrong place in this instance.

OH MY GOD. Cornette should have driven to Stamford and slapped the shit out of every member of the creative staff for this one.

According to the Observer piece on Survivor Series '97, Vince approached Davey on the day of the show and asked him to job with the idea that they'd build to a rematch at a bigger show in Manchester several months down the road. According to McMahon, Bulldog was the only Hart Foundation member that Shawn would work with. However, this was never the actual plan. The WWF intentionally breached Hart's contract two days later. The Bulldog job was just taking out insurance in case of an impending defection. Michaels is still a dick, though.

Well, actually... credit: hoopshype.com Tim Thomas: makes $13.9 million this year, contract expires at the end of this season. Penny Hardaway: makes $15.7 million this year, contract expires at the end of this season. Malik Rose: makes $20 million over next three years, a paltry sum - contract expires at end of 2007-2008 season. Jerome Williams: makes $20 million over next three years, a paltry sum. The last year (2007-2008) is a team option. Contract expires at the end of next season. Maurice Taylor: the other "bad signee". His contract expires at the end of next season - will make $16 million until said time. Under contract for 2006-2007: Stephon Marbury Maurice Taylor Shandon Anderson Jamal Crawford Quentin Richardson Jerome Williams Malik Rose Mike Sweetney (This group will count for about $65 million towards the cap. Below are the players with figures unreported to hoopshype.) Channing Frye ® Nate Robinson ® David Lee ® Trevor Ariza Jackie Butler Jerome James Under contract for 2007-2008: Marbury Crawford Q Jerome Williams Malik Rose Sweetney all players on second list above. (THIS group will account for only $42 million towards the cap.) Considering that Isiah wants to move Marbury's bad contract to anyone who wants it (Philly and Dalmbert, for example), he's going to have a very good (and cheap) squad in the 2007 season. That being said, Isiah has done a miraculous job correcting all of Layden's fuck-ups. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Fair enough, I see the point that you guys are trying to make. I'm not a Knicks basher by any stretch. But what you have illustrated here just reiterates the point that they still have some big contracts that they are on the hook for until 2007. You do realize that it will be very hard for Thomas to keep his job until then with his ridiculously high paid roster that is continuously not making the playoffs. Layden really screwed things up, but I really don't have the optimism that you share. I bet Thomas loses his patience and tries to move those expiring contracts for other players he think can help now, just starting the cycle all over again. Seriously, if you are going to suck it up and build for the future, you don't throw $30 million at Jerome F'n James. If they could move the Marbury contract, it would help, but I don't think there are any GMs stupid enough to do that. The way I heard it, Philly basically laughed at the idea of Dalembert for Marbury, so that is probably off the table. I guess Atlanta is an option, but we'll see.