Dangerous A

A couple of things I am looking at in this series.... Speed v. Strength- in particular, Parker v. Billups. Billups had a lot of success posting up the smaller Damon Jones in game 7 yesterday and I think they will try to exploit this matchup. On the flip side, Parker can take Billups just about anywhere he wants to go. The Pistons bigs are going to want to watch tapes of last year's Lakers-Spurs series to see how to deal with Parker when he gets into the lane because after the first 2 games, Parker wasn't nearly as effective. Ginobili/Bowen v. Prince/Hamilton- Ginobili has been the offensive gem of the Spurs this postseason and has help eleviate a lot of the scoring pressure off of Duncan. After dealing with defensive softies at the 3 position (Melo, Rashard, Marion) Manu must now deal with arguably the Pistons best one on one defender. It'll be interesting to see how Prince's length will effect Ginobili's awkward, yet potent scoring drives. It'll be interesting to see how much gas Hamilton will have when a guy like Bowen, who's only on the floor because he chases and harasses guys like Hamilton into fits. On the flip side, I can see Hamilton becoming the double person, putting the onus on Bowen to hit from the outside consistently because Bowen just isn't that much of a scoring threat and the Pistons will gamble on Bowen beating them before Duncan or Ginobili. Rasheed v. Duncan- Duncan is getting his if he wants. His worse enemy is himself and when he's focused, he's pretty unstoppable. Sheed is almost the same way, except he's more easily distracted and taken out of games by either his perception of the officiating or being too unselfish. Sheed's ability to hit from long range will be huge because they are looking to draw Duncan out of the paint. When he's either guaranteed a win or just has a hair up his ass, Sheed can be as much of a load to deal with as a guy like Garnett. This is the money matchup. More to come later.

Just call DA your one stop NBA Draft Watch for the 411 (ok, so I'm just cutting and pasting from ESPN Insider, sue me) Here is the latest from Chad Ford... Stock Up We've been dogging Arizona State's Ike Diogu and Kansas' Wayne Simien for years because of numerous NBA scouting reports that had them both listed at 6-foot-7 in shoes. NBA scouts hold firm to a threshold that says a player must to be a minimum of 6-foot-8 in shoes to play the power forward position (Charles Barkley notwithstanding). Neither Diogu nor Simien has the perimeter skills to make the transformation to the three, so they've picked up the derogatory "biggie smalls" designation. Ooops. Our bad. Both players were in Denver May 31 for a workout and a startling truth was uncovered: Both guys are taller than we thought they were. According to a source inside the Nuggets, Simien measured 6-8 without shoes. NBA teams add another 1¼ inches for shoes, bringing his height up to 6-9¼ Diogu measured 6-foot-7½ in socks, with an amazing 7-foot-4 wingspan. That means he's nearly 6-9 in shoes with the reach of a 7-footer. Size matters in the NBA, and both players are now tall enough to be considered legit power forwards. In fact, Diogu, because of his wingspan, now figures to be on the tall end of things. Combine that with feedback from several teams that both players have been excellent in workouts and you can expect both to rocket up the boards in the next few weeks. Combine Diogu's toughness with a very good skill set, and he's going to look great in these types of workouts. What's surprised people is his shooting. Diogu is known as a guy who works his BUTT off in the paint. But he's shown teams that he has legitimate NBA 3-point range in workouts. Given a pretty solid handle, his size, toughness and that improving jump shot, Diogu is likely to move up our board big-time the next time our mock draft is released, after the Chicago camp. Based on what we're hearing, he might be a late lottery selection now. "If a team wants a four who's going to know how to score and rebound in this league," one NBA scout told Insider. "I don't know how they can miss with Ike. After watching him work out, we came away a lot more impressed." Simien also has been very good. He's not an amazing athlete, but he's shown great skills and polish at every workout. He has the ability to score down low and away from the basket. If his medicals check out at the Chicago physicals (some teams are concerned about a rash of injuries for Simien), he should be able to crack the top 20. Diogu and Simien aren't the only ones measuring up. Florida's David Lee was 6-8½ without shoes at the same workout in Denver. That puts him at nearly 6-10 in shoes. Lee has also been impressive at all of his workouts, garnering high praise in Phoenix, Utah and Denver for his athleticism, motor and toughness. If he had a jump shot he'd be a lock for the first round. Even without a jumper, some teams in the 20s are saying that he's in the mix. Spain's Fran Vasquez is putting on a show in his homeland at the moment. While most of the top international prospects are still young and relatively inexperienced, Vasquez is playing a major starting role on his team, averaging 12.6 points and eight rebounds per game in the playoffs for Malaga. He was very good earlier in the week in an elimination game, leading his team in both points (18) and rebounds (11). Those might not seem like huge numbers for Americans, but in Europe, for someone age 22, they're pretty big. The Hornets (fourth pick), Jazz (sixth pick), Raptors (seventh pick) and Knicks (eighth pick) are all showing major interest in Vasquez. He should be the first international player off the boards. Louisville's Francisco Garcia is also playing to rave reviews right now. He has shot lights out in workouts and proven to be a better athlete than originally thought. Teams still worry a little about his body and lateral quickness, but he, too, seems to be a player destined to crack the first round in our next mock draft. Rashad McCants has gotten his fair share of bad press over the past couple of years. Scouts uniformly rate him, on talent, as one of the 10 best prospects in the draft. But he was such a difficult player to coach in college that red flags have gone up. To make matters worse, he showed up at his first workout in Toronto with a bad case of intestinal illiness. After the workout, another participant, Julius Hodge, unaware that McCants was ill, ripped into him, saying, "We started the workout, and I was working with Rashad. We were doing shooting drills, and I was hitting everything. I think it was getting discouraging for him and near the end he decided to go to the sidelines in an attempt to say that he was hurt. Once it was found out that he wasn't hurt, he then tried to say he was sick. That was unfortunate; he was free and able to show his stuff, and he shied away from it." McCants ended up having to sit out the rest of the workout. So why is he on the upside list? Because sources with the Lakers and Clippers watched him work out in Los Angeles just before his trip to Toronto and both came away convinced he'll be gone before they draft at Nos. 10 and 12, respectively. "That was as good a workout as I've seen," a source on the Lakers told Insider. "He didn't miss. He's a better athlete than we thought. It was just amazing. I know he's got some baggage, but with that much talent, it's tough to see teams passing on him at the end of the day." Illinois guard Dee Brown looks like he'll be the headliner at the Chicago pre-draft camp. Most of the top prospects are pulling out even Lee and Hodge have withdrawn their names in recent days leaving Brown the guy NBA teams want to see most. Why? Because Brown is going to get a chance to play the point at the camp, something he wasn't able to do at Illinois with Deron Williams running the show. If he's impressive, his stock will get a nice bump probably into the first round. Italian big man Angelo Gigli has a name that sounds like a bad movie, but he has received high marks from a couple of NBA teams after workouts. While they say he isn't as athletic as advertised, he measured a legit 7-foot in shoes and was tougher and more skilled than teams had thought. Off the workouts, his name is generating a bit of buzz. Big man Deji Akindele also has played to strong reviews. He's measuring a legit 7-foot and has tested off the charts athletically. Teams are saying he's smart and picks up things quickly, but he's still pretty raw. He'll also be playing in the Chicago pre-draft camp. If he comes up big there, he'll be another guy who could see his stock really rise. Stock down? It's been a tough couple of weeks for Pittsburgh's Chris Taft. First it was his lackluster workout in New York. Then he went up to Toronto and the normally reserved Rob Babcock wondered aloud about his heart. "That's the toughest thing to measure," the Raptors GM told the Globe and Mail after the Taft workout. "Even the mind's easier to measure than the heart. It's difficult. It's very difficult. "I think Chris is still very raw and he would certainly be better served & by going back to school. He has a tremendous amount of potential, there's no doubt. But there's a lot of guys with a great amount of potential. It's what you can do with that and whether you can develop that, that's the key." Of course, Taft can't go back to school. He's already hired an agent. I wonder if his agent, Billy Ceisler, will now ban Babcock from all of his client's workouts as well. Combine that with the recent revelations about the actual height of Simien and Diogu, and there's a good chance Taft will be sliding down to the bottom of the first round and maybe even out of it, according to one NBA director of player personnel who claims his team has Taft ranked as the 10th-best power forward in the draft. Maybe that's why, in the past few days, Taft's agent has reversed course and agreed to start working out Taft for teams in the 20s after insisting to them for weeks that he'd be in the lottery. High school guard Louis Williams said earlier in the week he won't be attending the University of Georgia and will instead keep his name in the NBA draft. From what we hear, it's a major mistake. Williams was recently destroyed in a workout against Hodge. Afterward, everyone told him he needed to go to college for a minimum of two years. Instead, he went out the next day and said he's staying in the draft. Either he knows something we don't, or he's getting some very bad advice. Nemanja Aleksandrov has, for the most part, fallen off the radar screen since tearing his ACL earlier in the year. According to his agent, David Bauman, the chances of his playing in the NBA next year are slim. He won't be able to begin playing basketball until December, which means it's likely he'll stay in Europe at least one season to rehab. Bauman, however, hasn't pulled him out of the draft yet. According to Bauman, Aleksandrov has received a strong nibble from a team in the mid-first round and he and Bauman are trying to decide the best course of action. If he were to recover and play well next year in Europe, his stock would be much higher. However, by agreeing to something now, he would have security. Neither consideration is primary, according to Bauman: "He just needs to get drafted by the right team. Draft position really doesn't matter. What matters is that a player gets with the right team that believes in him and will do what it takes to develop him. That's the most important thing." Insider first reported on Thursday that Croatian guard Marko Tomas had signed a five-year deal with Real Madrid. That deal doesn't have an NBA buyout for this season, and the buyout amount is pretty high in Year 2, meaning it's unlikely he'll be in the NBA for at least two more seasons. While there are a few teams in the mid-to-late first round who are still pondering whether to guarantee him a first-round spot and keep him in Europe, the revelation probably means that Tomas withdraws from the draft. It's unfortunate for the NBA. As far as international prospects go, he was one of the few who was actually ready to come into the league and play immediately. The rest New Mexico's Danny Granger has played to rave reviews in all of his workouts. But after a recent workout at Golden State, he was sent to the hospital with a serious infection. Those with a weak stomach probably don't want to read on. Apparently Granger split the toenail on his big toe several weeks ago and didn't have it checked. Puss started growing under the toenail and Granger decided to remove the toenail himself to clean it out. The toe kept getting worse and Granger kept slowing down in workouts. After a so-so workout in Golden State, the team's trainer wondered if he was hurt and was shocked to see Granger's toe, which had become seriously infected. Granger was taken to the hospital. Doctors said that the infection had spread all the way to the bone, and put him on antibiotics. Granger was forced to shut down his workouts while it healed. However, he won't be out for long. He has a big workout schedule for Thursday in Chicago against Hakim Warrick that's open to all 30 teams. Chad Ford covers the NBA Draft for ESPN Insider.

And here is some workout info on potential sleeper Rawle Marshall... Rawle Marshall a camp sleeper? While Raymond Felton and Dee Brown did their thing, my eyes kept wandering to the other side of the gym where Oakland University's Rawle Marshall worked out against Michigan State's Alan Anderson. Marshall, a razor-thin, athletic, 6-foot-7 swingman from Detroit, averaged 19.9 ppg and 7.7 rpg during his senior season at Oakland (Mich.) University and is considered a possible second-round pick. He looked great in ATTACK's workouts on Monday. What stood out the most was his outside shooting. He has a super-smooth shooting stroke and was swishing NBA 3s with Joe Johnson-like consistency. He also has a very good handle for a guy his size and was excelling at several ballhandling drills meant for guards. Marshall was too thin in college, but trainer Tim Grover has been working on it. Marshall has added 15 pounds of muscle since showing up in Chicago. He also has long arms that allowed him to really disrupt Anderson whenever Anderson tried to dribble the ball. If he plays well in the Chicago pre-draft camp, Marshall could make a big move up the draft board. posted: June 6, 2005 1:17:14 PM PDT

Here is some workout info on some Bigs who haven't gotten as much pub as guys like May or Bogut.... Big upside in Chicago After the guards were done working out, several interesting big men took the floor at the West Loop Athletic Club (formerly known as Hoops the Gym). Chicago State's Deji Akindele, Cincinnati's Jason Maxiell and Vermont's Taylor Coppenrath all have been working out here and put on a show of contrasting styles on Monday. Akindele, a native of Nigeria, has the most upside. He's measured 6-foot-11½ in shoes. He has long arms, is extremely athletic, and has a ready-made NBA body. Akindele's in great shape and excelled at a tap drill where the prospect must tap the ball on the backboard five times and then dunk it, then four times and dunk, etc. The best player I ever saw at this drill was Andre Iguodala last year. Akindele was just as good, finishing all five reps. He also has great feet (the blessing of being a former soccer player) and likes to finish strong around the rim. He isn't a perfect prospect however. He still is very raw, especially offensively. He doesn't have much of a perimeter game and was even missing on some of the close-range stuff. However, if he goes into Chicago and has a big camp, I don't think there's any question he'll get consideration in the first round based solely on potential. Maxiell was the star in Portsmouth and did nothing to disappoint on Monday. No one plays harder or with more ferocity. He was bending the rim on every dunk. If he were three inches taller, he'd be a top-five pick. Still, you wonder if teams are sleeping on him a bit. He measured just 6-foot-7 in shoes at Portsmouth, but with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and a big vertical jump, he plays much bigger. He could really end up being a steal in the second round. Coppenrath clearly was the most skilled player on the floor. He has a soft touch around the basket and has range that extends all the way out to the NBA 3-point line. But athletically, Maxiell and Akindele are in a completely different world. Coppenrath is a good basketball player. But it's going to be hard for him to make the leap to the NBA because of his average athleticism. If he doesn't hook up with an NBA team, he'll be a big time player in Europe, however. posted: June 6, 2005 2:34:07 PM PDT

Here is Hakim Warrick's workout.... Hakim Warrick's workout The Chicago pre-draft camp doesn't start until tonight, so I took the chance to go back into Tim Grover's gym to catch Hakim Warrick's workout. Warrick worked out for the Knicks, Hornets, Blazers, Clippers, Lakers, Raptors and Bobcats. The reviews have been mixed. Teams love the athleticism and pedigree, but he plays so effortlessly that it often looks like he's coasting. He worked out vigerously for an hour alongside the 76ers' Andre Iguodala on Tuesday -- and barely broke a sweat. Despite the appearance, Grover says Warrick's one of the hardest workers in the gym. Warrick was in Charlotte on Monday working out for the Bobcats. After the workout GM Bernie Bickerstaff complimented Warrick on his improved mid-range jumper. He wasn't kidding. Warrick barely missed from inside 18 feet today. His shooting mechanics are silky smooth. He gets such great lift on his jumper that its going to be hard to stop at the pro level. The only real knock is that he hasn't developed real NBA 3-point range ... yet. Warrick's been working out with Grover for eight weeks in an attempt to work on his perimeter skills and add weight to his super-thin frame. The shot looks great, but his body is still a work in progress. Grover had him up to 228 before workouts began. But he's already dropped back down to 220. That's still an 18-pound improvement from when he came in. That's right -- he came into Grover's weighing 202 pounds. Grover believes Warrick eventually will weigh around 235, but Warrick has to keep drinking his protein shakes. "They're terrible," Warrick said. "Worst thing I've ever tasted. It takes me two-and-a-half hours to drink one. It's pink and tastes worse than Pepto Bismal." The reason his weight is such as issue is that teams are still trying to figure out his position in the pros. Warrick has the length and leaping ability to be a dominant 4, but he's going to have to keep packing on the weight if he's going to guard NBA power forwards. That's why the focus, for now, is on highlighting his skills as a 3. He still needs to work on his ballhandling and his long-range shooting, but he's improved dramatically in a short time. And in a few years, if the pounds ever come, he could be a big-time 4. "Hakim's just a player," Grover said. "When you roll out the ball in a game situation, he produces. I think he'll be a lottery pick based on what I've seen." If he keeps hitting that jumper and packing on the pounds, Grover might be right. posted: June 7, 2005 10:45:44 AM PDT

Here is a report from the Chicago workouts on 2 top point guards, Raymond Felton and Dee Brown.... Live from Chicago: Felton, Brown work out First up were the two fastest point guards in the draft – Raymond Felton and Dee Brown – joined by a surprise guest, former Bulls point guard Jay Williams. Felton looked the part of a lottery pick on Monday. He has a great body and blinding speed, and he was showing off his much-improved jumper. A couple of things really stood out: First, Felton is an amazing athlete. He was finishing lobs from Williams with tomahawk jams. That's special when you factor in that Felton measured 6-0¾ in socks. Second, Felton is super-quick laterally. Combine that with his strong upper body, and Felton has a chance to be a great pro defender. If Felton can continue to improve his jumper (he looked great from mid-range, inconsistent from NBA 3-point range), he has the chance to be a great pro. Brown might be, baseline to baseline, the fastest guy in the draft. He appears to have bulked up quite a bit in the last month, and he's got a nice shot that extends beyond the NBA 3-point line. The only knocks on him are size (he's only 5-11) and a lack of explosive jumping ability (he can't dunk). What he can't show in a workout like this is whether he can play the point. His ballhandling skills are good, but you can't judge decision-making skills here. That's why Brown will be playing in Chicago at the predraft camp. If he runs the point well there, he's got a shot at the late first round. posted: June 6, 2005 2:32:49 PM PDT

How is he overrated if critics skewer most of his movies? The guy makes generally funny bankable comedies and he knows what will draw people. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Jesus, I meant that he is overrated amongst the paying public. Like I give a fuck what critics think. I mean he is overrated amongst people like us. I never said he wasn't bankable. I know he's a draw. I am talking about talent in correlation to salary. I was trying to take the convo to a place where it doesn't seem that people bitch about actor's salaries, but they bitch about athletes. While I agree that athletes salaries should be criticized to an extent, I also feel why not the same scrutiny for hollywood actors?

I couldn't agree with you more on Raw sucking. In all actuality, I didn't like the ECW stuff either. It's like, great, you beat on Snitzky, Tomko, and Maven. Nice to see those guys on the level of ECW. Sorry, but I am not excited about watching ECW guys beat on WWE jobber dudes sans Edge and Christian. (although Christian is basically a jobber who is over with the crowd) Not a good show at all and definitely did not make me enthused about this sunday, that's for damn sure.

I have to agree with Flyboy a little here. While The Documentary was ok, Get Rich or Die Tryin was real, real good and I am not a 50 fan. Get Rich... while not boasting the greatest flow, had killer beats and hooks that make the album good music to play out of your car.

I think there are a lot of haters right about now going off of stereotypes seen from a year ago. Hate all you want, but this should be a very good Finals. Both teams are capable of playing great defense during stretches when they need it, but they are not half court, shut down Riley type teams anymore. The Spurs proved last series they can run when they want to. The Pistons won the championship last year. not executing the Lakers in the half court, but by out running them and then getting stops when they could or if they felt they could pull away some distance at certain points. I also feel both TEAMS have enough personality to carry me through. Just because the media haven't pumped gas about guys like Manu, Rasheed, Chauncey, or Tony Parker doesn't mean they won't provide entertaining basketball moments.

Excellent Game 7. You can really see where the poise and being a team together longer really helped the Pistons. The Heat took some pretty bad shots in the final 2 minutes when Shaq wasn't shooting. We are in for a kick ass Finals.

They probably filmed it JUST for the DVD. I noticed at BoxOfficeMojo that the Longest Yard cost $82 million. How the hell did it cost $82 million? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I know Sandler's salary of $25 million is part of that budget. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> $25 MILLION??? He is up to $25 MILLION? FOR WHAT? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You got me. I think the man is terribly overrated. And people bitch about athlete's salaries?

They probably filmed it JUST for the DVD. I noticed at BoxOfficeMojo that the Longest Yard cost $82 million. How the hell did it cost $82 million? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I know Sandler's salary of $25 million is part of that budget.

I'm not sure about Steiner's tolerance for wrestling while hurt, but he did hand DDP his ass backstage at a Thunder taping I believe. Quite sad because DDP was sticking up for his wife, who said Scott Steiner had pretty much sexually harassed her. DDP went to approach Steiner about it and according to reports from people who broke it up, it was a one sided affair and Steiner was on the better end.

One sad thing about tonight will be that this is the last TNT broadcast for this season. TNT is head and shoulders above ESPN and ABC in broadcasting games. They have the best pre and post show hosts in Barkly, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson and I really like the Kerr/Collins/Albert combo during the ECF. Very effective broadcasting crew from top to bottom.

I remember and Em dis on Ja on a mixtape that went like this... I done seen a lot of people go cross the line but this motherf*cker Ja must've lost his mind That Ecs got him thinking he was DMX then he switched to Pac, now he's trying to be him next So which one are you, X, Luther, Pac, or Michael Just keep singing that same song recycled We'd all much rather get along than fight you Me and Hailie dance to your songs, we like you And you don't want to go and step inside a mic booth C'mon dog, you know the white boy will bite you I'll hurt your pride dog, and you know I don't like you But I will if I have ta, with syllable after syllable, I'll just slap ya Killin you faster than you poppin little pill after pill of them tabs that you on But if you want it you got it you'd bump the shit too if we didn't dis you on it but if we lock horns we can charge harder than Busta we'll bump heads with any motherf*cker that wants ta So what's the deal, where was all the tough talk like when I walked up to you and said "Ja, what up dog?" How come you didn't say you had a problem then when you were standing there with all your men? We could've solved it then I'm a grown man, dog, come holla All you did was slap hands and swalla another one of those little Ecs pills in front of me and told me 50 Cent was everything that you wanted to be. I just love when anyone disses Ja Rule.

This is correct. I remember awhile back during the 50-Ja Rule wars when Jay-Z warned Ja not to go after Em because he'd murder him lyrically plus he's hot. Ja didn't listen and many, many dis tracks later, Ja was looking real stupid. I can imagine 50 having some pretty well thought out dis tracks for Em since 50's thing is beef, but if I were him, I wouldn't want to battle with Em. Hell, Canibus didn't want it with Em and Canibus is sick. I also think 50 knows this since he is all about the dollars and cents, would be willing to risk some of his rep to make some big dough.

I'd put Game in a Carlito status in that he isn't great in the ring either, but with a push, gets over with charisma.

It's sort of like wrestling in that your workrate MC's like Common, Kweli, Mos Def, Canibus, etc. have respect amongst the hardcore audience, but they are not getting MTV/TRL exposure like "star" MC's like 50 and Game. Jay-Z is a stud and he even admits that he has to dumb down his stuff for the mainstream because he can flow with the best. Em is in the same boat. Those 2 are like Rock or Austin in that they have tremendous workrate i.e. flow and are still huge stars. Game and 50 are stars who sell a lot of records, but can't hold a mic to a lot of the guys just listed in this post.

I'm banking on a big name to get drafted tonight as Meltz eluded to last night on WOL. I also wonder how much Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals will possibly effect the rating, especially since this is the first night of the draft. Add to that the Finals Game 1 is Thursday night. WWE v. NBA- Feel the Heat!!!

On Friday June 24th, Fuse will be airing the Summer Jam concert. The concert also has Jay-Z performing with Kanye West and such. Should be interesting to see how the Game/50 stuff is shown/portrayed.

I'm just gonna kick back tonight and hopefully watch a competitve Game 7. I don't have any real attachment to either team and have my reasons for wanting to watch each team succeed. Reasons to want the Heat to succeed for me, -Really like Wade, although if the Heat progress, he will not be 100% for the rest of the playoffs. -Like Shaq and would like to see him stick it to the Lakers. Reasons to want the Pistons to win, -Used to be a Pistons fan (back in the Mahorn-Laimbeer-Rodman Bad Boys days) and don't mind seeing them move ahead although I've become a Kings fan first and foremost. -Even though they blew their cool a couple times this series, the Pistons for the most part are a decent team with stand up guys. Even Rasheed is cleaned up in comparison to his Portland days. Winning will do that. May the best team win.

I know more than a few of you have seen the old Maynard wrestling videos over at clipwrestle.com (they have removed Maynard's videos for some reason) My query is about his wrestling video "Why I Still Watch". I am trying to find the song he used for the video. I need the title and the artist. I know the chorus is something like "I will not be broken" or what have you. Any help is appreciated.

It's a post-match dark match that you're never gonna see. Why are you concerned? It'll probably be a fun match, with lots of comedy spots like the other dark matches. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are right, I will not be paying to go to any WWE show anytime soon. It's not worth it. And my perspective of being concerned is IF I was to be going to that particular show. I did not make myself very clear on that in the first post.

Joe is good, but he may not translate well to WWE style. His strikes are stiff and there is no way WWE is going to allow him to do moves like the musclebuster or spots like the ole',ole' kicks, stuff which got him over with the ROH crowd. He doesn't have the look WWE craves, but that is what sets him apart in my eyes. I could see him languishing in WWE (most likely to happen) or he could take his uniqueness and use that to stand out from the crowd a la Rey Mysterio. Basically, he needs to play the cards he's been dealt (flabby body, great wrestling ability) and see where it takes him.