strummer

So this was the "earth-shattering" news surrounding the Lakers over the weekend that would "skyrocket them into the playoffs"

That's not really a strange reaction though. There are tonnes of people (me included) who would love a Steph playboy spread. oh yeah, Steph still looked good at that point, it's just that she got a bigger pop than Torrie. 99-early 2003 Steph is off the charts hot.

Stephanie McMahon getting a huge pop saying she was posing for Playboy and then getting booed mercifully when she said it wasn't her. I talked to a guy that was there live and he couldn't believe the pop when she teased she was posing nude

They reposted this from 1wrestling.com

Cena went over clean, Meltzer said it saved the show

Just like last night, the crowd is absolutely DEAD for the game, IMO it makes the NBA look bad to have no reaction to its "cavalcade of stars"

more fake lesbian action for Torrie? At least according to Meltzer's report

Probably, but Bruno seems to think very highly of himself as a worker, and I just don't see it. Bruno seems to have a tremendous ego, but that's common in top guys in wrestling. And Bruno picked a bad time to start criticizing Vince, right in the middle of the 80s boom when business was on fire. No one really started to pick up on his agenda till business went down in the early 90s with the steroid trial.

The thing I never understood was that Bruno spoke out against the pushes of the steroid freaks who did very little in the ring, but it wasn't like he was a ring technician himself. I've seen dozens of Bruno matches and all he seems to do is punch/kick, bearhug and some clotheslines

Bruno hates Vince because Bruno hated the gimmicks and the steroid infested wrestlers the WWF pushed in the 80s. It was more over philosophy than financial reasons.

Rock is writing the show with David Spade:

Nash! Crowd finally getting into an event.

Christ, the crowd has been DEAD for the whole night. Sign of the times for the NBA or just the lack of star power for the contests?

God please, Joe Dorgan is a TERRIBLE wrestling name

Early news out of Mets camp is that Willie Randolph has banned facial hair for the season. The "Yankeeization" of the Mets continues

According to various sources, HHH was to go over, but HBK showed up "incapable of performing" and HHH was punished due to his friend ruining the planned storyline this has been debated several times on the board, was Shawn going to cost Undertaker or HHH the match? I've heard that Shawn would help HHH win and then they would face Undertaker and Kane at Backlash, but I've also heard that Shawn would have helped UT win and Shawn and HHH would have had their feud a year and half earlier

yep, I was going to say Beefcake also, WWF tried like hell to make him a main eventer in 89/90 by having him hang around Hogan and man handle midcard heels. If he hadn't gotten hurt, he would have had a shot on top. Who knows how long he would have got to fail?

Each year I see the talent the Phillies have, and I'm amazed that they don't win the division by at least 10 games. Their pitching hurt them last year, but their offense is just lethal when it's clicking. They seem to score a tremendous amount of runs in bunches and then other times, they can't buy a run. It's seems like a feast or famine offense. Maybe they just needed to get rid of Bowa.

On this point, I visit a few boards inhabited by mostly "marks" and they don't buy Edge or Orton as main eventers in the slightest. To them, Edge has so called "X-Pac Heat", they find him annoying, whiny, and didn't buy in the least that he could beat Shawn Michaels at the Royal Rumble. Orton, they like a little better, but they don't believe he should be champion or fighting for the title because "he hasn't been around long enough". Don't mean to extrapolate, but if this is how the majority of the audience (non-smark) feels, WWE might be in deep trouble.

from an interview with a Cleveland Sports Outlet: SHOW: You know what, I'm gonna tell you something. Brock, listen to me because I'm telling you the truth from the heart - I'm pissed at you. I did a lot for him when I came over to Smackdown. I worked hurt with herniated discs in my back, chewing vicodins like they were M&Ms just so I could stand up straight and get to the ring, to do my match, to take an F-5 or a belly-to-belly or whatever I had to do to get him over, because he was gonna be our man. Whatever got in his head, to turn his back, which he did, on a multi-million dollar contract, had everything he wanted, EVERYTHING HE WANTED, and he got it fast. Great work ethic, tremendous in the ring, a natural at understanding psychology, executing moves and just being a freak of nature in the ring. Brock was all that and a bag of chips, there's no doubt about it. To see him go pull some goofball stunt and go play football, it really showed a tremendous amount of lack of respect to the guys in the locker room because when we needed him... BELFI: He wasn't there. SHOW: I had to have knee surgery. I had worn my kneecap down to the bone and when Brock left I had to work an extra two months so I could get somebody over, I don't know who it was, (John Cena laughs) so I could leave to go get knee surgery. He dumped all that on everybody. Just the attitude of he wants this, he wants that, he only wants to work a certain amount of dates. Honestly, my personal opinion, hey we had a great run with him, and we don't need him. We can work around him. To give him the red carpet treatment again, hell no.

Meltzer said it best when he said that when Austin sided with Vince, all the casual fans realized that nothing truly means anything in wrestling, and they tuned out.

In Keller's update today, he says vignettes have already been filmed to promote the match, so it looks like a go

No women to work programs with, and forced to put over Christy Hemme's new Playboy spread. With Christy getting the Playboy push, wouldn't suprise me if they have her go over Trish.

every time I watch Royal Rumble 92 it becomes less and less special. I think it has to do with the nature of the Rumble, where the drama builds with each entrant and after repeated viewings, it loses that effect. Shawn Michaels v Diesel from Good Friends, Better Enemies. Each time it seems more and more like an extended squash.