MARTYEWR

That's a great idea, but do it after the match. Have Michaels beat Angle cleanly (especially if Angle's health is as bad as everyone says it is), Jannetty (who was banged up a bit say, from an earlier beatdown a couple weeks back from Angle) come out to congratulate Michaels, and then, POW!, superkick on Michaels when he's not looking. Another nice part is while Michaels-Angle may be a good match, it's doubtful it'll be a MOTY given the weaknesses of both guys, so you have no risk of a post-match angle overshadowing a greatest match of all-time. Similar to WrestleWar '89 actually (and no, that wasn't the best Flair-Steamboat match). Too bad Al Snow's retired. Otherwise Shawn could really wrestle matches like it's 1996 again.

WOW! The Raptors light up the Sixers with 128 points, led by Donyell Marshall's 38.

Actually, I know the real reason why you're evil, and it has to do with the player you're interested in for your next pick in the All-Time Draft.

You're now a die-hard NFL fan, perhaps?

The Ottawa Athletics select C Bill Dickey. (Sorry for the faux PM, Al)

Sunday anytime is good for me.

Since Ottawa was never in the major leagues, give me Jerry Park in Montreal as the home park.

I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything right now. It's probable I'll be out for the evening. Same deal with Saturday afternoon and evening; certainly the late afternoon and evening. If an AIM session is what you want, you can autodraft me. I'll keep track of this thread, of course, and, if possible, I'll let you know if I can make the scheduled time.

Treble's up, then me. Al, I won't be online tonight. Check your PMs. My pick probably isn't too surprising to you.

Grrr.... I was hoping nobody would notice him.... Good pick, though, Harley.

Heh! Angle even bringing up Marty Jannetty (and claiming he taught Shawn everything he knows) is awesome, let alone challenging him. I may wind up catching SD this week.

Well a few people here actually chose a player who plays a position worse than a player not chosen (see: Randy Johnson, no offense to Harley). If you mean Hornsby, I realize he's not #1 defensively, but few second basemen are better hitters and that's generally what I was looking for. In the 1920s, during his prime, he was the National League's answer to Babe Ruth.

As I already mentioned to Al via PM... With the 12th pick of the TSM All-Time Draft, Marty's Ottawa Athletics select 2B Rogers Hornsby. Next up: Treble, The Californian and KingPK.

Do you know something about the D-Rays that the rest of us don't?

I saw a picture of her from last November. She doesn't look too bad these days. Anyways, I think a Playboy pictoral of Trish *AND* Steph would sell the most.

Do you think it was over Bret's declining mental state and depression post-Montreal and being misused by WCW? Plus Julie didn't seem like the nicest person in Wrestling w/ Shadows It might have been over Montreal. I know in the days and weeks after it, Bret felt very betrayed at what happened. I thought Julie was probably the sanest person in Wrestling With Shadows. Bret and Julie divorced at some point in 1998, I believe in the mid-to-latter stages of the year. This was well after the "Sunny Days", if it matters.

As for bad names: not an arena name, but the Phoenix Coyotes' practice facility was once named "The Cellular One Ice Den".

Meltzer tends to ignore gossip (as far as I know) so The Torch is as good a source for this type of story as anyone else.

MiB - I took the Ottawa Athletics because they were the original AAA International League team in Ottawa in the '50s. Completely different from the top farm team.

It wasn't supposed to work! They wanted the team to fail in Montreal so they could move it to Washington from day one! I guess by that logic, it worked perfectly! True, but that's the point I was getting at. If you have a single entity controlling 30 teams, it's very possible some teams will be shown more favouritism over others.

Yup. Murder is ALWAYS something else's fault. -=Mike What Mike said. Really, this has NOTHING to do with decriminalization of drugs, this has to do with the MURDER OF FOUR OFFICERS WHO SERVED CANADA PROUD! It pisses me off to no extent when people make excuses about the legalization of drugs or what colour the uniforms they wear are or how the blended in with the rest of the settings at the time, etc. Maybe it's because I have a father who's a retired officer of the law or that my best friend's dad is a member of the RCMP (and his son is currently trying out for it too) but this incident is hitting REALLY close to home for me, and it pisses me off when people make sad, sorry excuses for four blatant murders.

That's a good point. Syndicate ownership has never benefited sports, and it nearly killed baseball in the 1890s. It'd be nice to see a change in ownership, but this has obvious drawbacks. I'm actually more worried about the Canadian teams if this purchase happens rather than under the current system. In fact, Al, the first thing I thought of when I heard this news is when baseball took over the Expos. Gee, that worked out well for that franchise, huh?

1) Ric Flair - Face. I was watching some 80s promos of Flair, and it never ceased to amaze me a lot of the face reaction he got from them, in spite of being a heel. On top of that, as Loss pointed out, he was far less repetitive. 2) Shawn Michaels - Heel. His late 1997 run might've kicked his career back into overdrive if he was still healthy. Has never been a great face, and his championship run in 1996 bombed badly. 3) Bob Backlund - Face. I know there's much love for his work with Bret Hart in 1994, but Backlund was played a superb scientific wrestler/hero role in the late 70s/early 80s that always got a great reaction from the MSG crowd. Drew great money too. He was able to hide a lot of his heel opponents' weaknesses quite well. As mentioned, had a nice angle with Bret Hart, but any other portion of his WWF heel act falls into the crazy old guy/comedy level. 4) Roddy Piper - Heel. Face Piper was bland. Heel Piper did things very unexpectantly. Had great lines in his promos too. 5) Jake Roberts - Heel. Much like Piper, as a face, he was bland. Great worker as a heel in the mid 80s. He experienced a nice revival in 1991, although at times his act got tiresome. 6) Mick Foley - Face. First, I will say this: I LOVE the ECW promos. Foley gave them to the greatest of his abilities. HOWEVER, even Foley admits that, after one of the anti-hardcore promos he gave, he got cheered quite a bit thanks to the great delivery. This should not happen with a heel. The Cane Dewey promo was superb, but thanks to what Foley said, a lot of people, including the ECW fanbase, cheered him and agreed with what he said. As a face, his character is very easy to tell a story about: the death-defying hard-worker. I don't recall him being booed much as a face (albeit, I admit to not seeing much of his WCW face stuff). 7) Bret Hart - Heel. Hart had a bland character as a face, but I thought he was great as heels with Jim Neidhart, and 1997 speaks for itself. Never could get going as a face in WCW. 8) Lex Luger - Heel. He had shown the most potential possible as a member of the Four Horsemen, and his run as the Narcissist was fun. 9) The Rock - Face. I almost said heel here. The Rock is at his best as a face, but only if he keeps his edge. I thought he was losing his edge in 2002 (explaining the reactions to Hogan and Brock) but regained his "F-U" character again in 2003. 10) Undertaker - Face. Was getting face reactions even during his initial heel run. Got cheered during his last heel run, especially after powerbombing Spike Dudley out of the ring. Always gets a noticeable reaction as a face. 11) Randy Savage - Heel. Not a bad face, just a far better, killer heel. 12) Big Show/Giant - Face. Heel Show is hardly taken seriously, but face Show I think is someone the fans want to get behind, hoping he does eventually become the next Andre.

That's the first thing I thought of when I heard of his firing too. It's a shame, but it's probably a thankless job coaching the Blazers at the moment. Hopefully Cheeks, one of the good guys of the game right now, lands another job fairly quickly.

*is eagerly awaiting Loss' response* I'd say since they began focusing on maintaining a good women's division (from 2002-2004), she's been the best. Best credibility of the group of girls, best draw, etc. Great spokesperson for the division too.