MARTYEWR

Just another strike against World Wrestling Entertainment calling itself a legitimate "integrated media entity" or whatever buzzword permutation they have going. Like a real company says "yeah that guy screwed up, rough him up a little." It's a step up from the mob. Take it for what it's worth, but on Off The Record last night, Triple H said that Holly was given one last chance to not "do that again". Hunter himself said Holly's actions were "inexcusable".

http://www.shootingstarpress.com/recaps/ Obviously, not all of them are here, but the HHH one you're looking for is. No direct transcript, just a summary. As for any others, try a search on Google, and you should be able to find something.

My pick: Roethlis. My serious pick: I've always been partial to Wendy's Big Bacon Classic.

- DVDs - Sports merch - Spoons

I tried http://www.shootproject.net/snkt this morning. Got the same page MiB got. I'd like to know how Al and Bruiser got the page last night.

AstroTurf is dying a quick death in the CFL. Only B.C. (dome stadium), Calgary (outdoor), and Saskatchewan (outdoor) have AstroTurf, IIRC. Before, 8 of the 9 teams had AstroTurf, with Edmonton being (and remaining) the lone team to have grass. Ottawa, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Montreal (I think), and Toronto have gone to FieldTurf, with Toronto of course being the lone indoor stadium of the bunch.

I don't hate either all that much, actually.

Seriously, has Lita had a better match ever than that one last night against Trish?

Solid second hour after a crappy first hour. - The opening segment was fine (I thought Jericho's "leis" jokes were cute, as they reminded me, for some reason, of Edge & Christian's "nuts" jokes from circa 2000). The one thing that bothered me was Jericho being left out in the cold during the Vince/HHH saga. After Vince had left, we could've had something, ANYTHING, between Jericho and HHH to give Jericho even more reason to put himself in the tag match. - Maven didn't get the heel heat he (and the WWE) wanted. - I actually like Fozzy, but they sound HORRIBLE live. - Hurricane is this generation's Koko B. Ware. - Edge and Orton had a nice little face-off. Both guys look like they've improved their mic ability BIG time. I'm wondering if they're going to take a chance and make that the WrestleMania main event. I can't see Orton main eventing against HHH, since HHH hardly has any issues with him these days. - I normally don't like comedy matches, but I thought Christian could've sold his ridiculous costume a bit more, either positively or negatively. - I thought HHH and Flair were pretty funny talking to Bischoff, especially Flair, when they were plugging everything HHH had done lately in a really goofy manner. - Tag match was fine. HHH gave Jericho quite a bit of offense in the beginning. Hated the DQ finish. Being a Jericho fan, I'd like to see them play up Jericho indirectly causing a rift through Evolution, but they're not going to do that. They should've had HHH accidently chair Flair as well. The heat directed at HHH for that would've done wonders for the guy. - Women's match was superb, and probably the best match Lita's ever been in. I got freaked out by her suicide dive, but I noticed Lita protected herself by using her arms to break her fall (ala Benoit whenever he Swandive heatbutts someone), so maybe she's learning. Trish was great, as usual, and I really liked the noseguard bit in the match, because it showed that Trish played Lita for a fool this whole time, and that Lita needed an extra bit of something to win the match. This caused her to execute a move she isn't known for (superplex) and a move she hasn't done in a while (moonsault). Great story told during the match, very impressive considering the pop for Lita before the match was almost non-existant, but she got a very satisfying pop after it was all done.

Sounds about right. If Michaels isn't returning, then they'll stick Batista in there.

Where's the snow option in this poll?

Hart-Kidman lasted only 4 minutes. Here's CRZ's recap: http://slashwrestling.com/nitro/991115.html

Jags hold the tiebreak over Denver because they beat them in Week 3. Thanks for reminding me, APO. 7-6 games are easy to forget.

I don't remember exactly everything that happened, but the 11/15/1999 Nitro was HORRIBLE.

For the record, I've checked all six teams' remaining schedules. Here they are: -- Broncos (7-5): H: Dolphins (2-10) A: Chiefs (4-8) A: Titans (4-8) H: Colts (9-3) Ravens (7-5): H: Giants (5-7) A: Colts (9-3) A: Steelers (11-1) H: Dolphins (2-10) Bengals (6-6): A: Patriots (11-1) H: Bills (6-6) H: Giants (5-7) A: Eagles (11-1) Bills (6-6): H: Browns (3-9) A: Bengals (6-6) A: 49ers (1-11) H: Steelers (11-1) Jaguars (6-6): H: Bears (5-7) A: Packers (7-5) H: Texans (5-7) A: Raiders (4-8) Texans (5-7): H: Colts (11-1) A: Bears (5-7) A: Jaguars (6-6) H: Browns (3-9) -- Upon looking at this, as much as I'd love the Bills to get in, I think the Broncos will. They have a favourable enough schedule given their position (unless they REALLY fuck up on the road), and they'll take a tiebreaker against the Bills (Conference records). The Ravens have their work cut out for them with road games against the Colts and Steelers, back-to-back. The Bengals don't have it much better with games against the Patriots and Eagles. The Texans get the Colts next week at the worst time, with Manning chasing the touchdown record and all. The Jaguars may very well be the sleeper team of the bunch, as all their games are very winnable for them, but I'm not sure how they'll do with tie-breakers against the Broncos (both teams lost one game against the NFC, and I'd have to check which team has had the rougher schedule). Oh yeah, strength of schedule also doesn't work in Buffalo's favour mainly because they had the luxury of playing against the very weak NFC West.

yeah Jacksonville needs to lose a game or two here down the stretch and obviously they're fucked if they tie the Jets...unfortunantly, I don't see the Bills winning out, even though on paper they should...I would be okay with an 8-8 season seeing as how it's Mularky's first and a few games that they lost they really shoulda won... The Jets are 9-3 right now, and I don't see the Wild Card Five (Baltimore, Denver, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and maybe Houston) coming near them, let alone tying them. The Jets, to me, are a lock for the #5 seed since they probably won't catch New England. I'm more worried about Buffalo being tied with Jacksonville (as you mentioned) or Baltimore (who they also lost to).

Sorry no idea, I don't even have a copy. I also don't have it, but I do have EWR 4.0 (the last one), as well as the two patches for it. Anyone who needs those, drop me a PM with your e-mail. (As long as you're okay with it, boss! Good to see you here, btw!)

The Bills are the hottest team in the NFL, are they not? The best part is, with regards to the AFC Wild Card race, we may have the easiest schedule of the bunch (Bengals, Browns, 49ers, Steelers (who hopefully will sit their starters on the last week). The one thing I'm worried about is tiebreakers, as they aren't going to work in Buffalo's favour.

Why? It's always weird to watch dudes totally out of kayfabe, and since I've not seen shoot tapes or whatever, it's always intriguing to watch the guys talk about backstage politics after only reading them in text. I guess it is the cultural difference then. This is how we see wrestlers up here. Not really a cultural difference, just that we have more access to that stuff up here, especially due to the coverage that Montreal got during Off The Record's initial days. My other theory is that we're Canada and not the U.S., so Vince & Co. probably consider it less of a deal than to go into detail in Canada than in their home country. I could be wrong though. -- BTW, Triple H had a three-minute interview on The Score as well. (The Score is a Headline Sports station that also carries Smackdown here in Canada.) I caught it before going into work, didn't take notes, but here's the main stuff: - He gets along with pretty much everyone backstage. He admits that many people in the company criticized him at first for shacking up with Stephanie McMahon, but almost no one does it now, or at least they're not being open about it. He admitted to being a writer, but that Vince has final say. He also said, without naming any certain storylines, that he's given Vince ideas in the past that he thought were really good for the company, but Vince vetoed them for his own ideas. - Pat Patterson: When asked if Pat left/was released because of the power Triple H has, Hunter responded, "You have to ask Pat that?" (Sounds an awful lot when he was asked by WWE.com if the finish to WrestleMania XIX hurt Booker T.) Said he and Pat get along great, and Pat ate Thanksgiving dinner with him and the McMahons. Thinks Pat could very well come out of retirement soon too. - Movies: Is using movies to expand his repetoire, but wrestling is his blood, and he'll never leave the business. The Rock was mentioned because of his current movie career, but Hunter never talked about him at all during this part.

Okay, so stuff I expected out of him. Thanks, Deft.

Why? It's always weird to watch dudes totally out of kayfabe, and since I've not seen shoot tapes or whatever, it's always intriguing to watch the guys talk about backstage politics after only reading them in text. The best thing is, OTR has gotten better, in my opinion. The last time Vince McMahon was on the show, he was very open about Triple H and Stephanie McMahon being his main seconds, and possibly the future heads of the company. There's been a lot of other shows like that too. There's never been a perfect, 100% shoot, but you do get some interesting ones. Oddly enough, I missed the first HHH one from two years ago. Can someone give me a quick recap about what he said about Jericho on that very show?

Since the NHLPA are the ones proposing discussions and offers, and the NHL never even proposed a counter-offer from the last one, I'd say at least the NHLPA is trying to talk to the NHL.

Where's Springville?

Hey Tom, why no predictions for the Cardinals-Lions and Texans-Jets games?

Should be very interesting, and I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. Call me crazy, but I'm most interested on his take on the Holly-Dupree incident. Most everything else I can almost predict exactly what he'll say.