RavishingRickRudo

Good eps. It explained a lot of things from the last Kate eps. but left room open for more episodes. As hot as Lily is, it's hard to go through a full episode of her, so its potential was limited. The Sun thing was a nice twist, and I doubt its a coincidence that the dude was a doctor. The Jack/Locke interactions were fun, but it is moving them away from Locke vs. Jack, which is MONEY. The big thing definitely was Walt knowing about the cave just by touch, and then him wanting to leave the island. That is fucking big time. Shannon looked like a total crackwhore. Sawyer was badass. Hurley was clueless. All is right with the world.

I looooooooooooove that idea. Cept Edge should win the title like that. And then Matt Hardy shows up, Edge knocks him out, and then fucks Lita with him watching. THE HEAT, MY GOD THE HEAT.

They have the look of the winter environment DOWN, it was what I imagined as I was reading the book as a kid. However, the wardrobe was a disappointment. I always imagined it (whether or not it was described in the books this way, I dunno) as just a regular wardrobe in a regular room - not some huge thing standing alone in a room with a sheet over it and a whitelight when you open it. That alone sorta turned me off the movie.

Everytime Flair should be doing a goof-off, they do a wrestling match. There should be NO wrestling in that match. Neither guy has the offense to make for a interesting match. As much as I can't stand Booker T in the ring, Flair is 10xs worse. Both of these guys' specialties is stooging for other wrestlers, so how the fuck can they put a match together?

I disagree. It's fantastic to watch in context. If you watch all of Noguiera PRIDE fights to the point, and then you watch Fedor's PRIDE fights, and then you watch Fedor/Noguiera, it's just awesome. I am a big fan of strategy and the very notion of Fedor WILLINGLY playing around in the guard with Noguiera is so fucking good. The story of the match is amazing, especially with the history between the two teams and the two fighters. It's a very active ground fight, but not in the Uno/Hansen, Diaz/Parisyan, kinda way. Fedors punches are loud, Noguieras submission attempts are frequent, and the crowd reacts to EVERYTHING. I thought I would be bored watching it for the umpteenth time, but the time just flew. Quadros/Bas were great, IMO, as well. Infact, this fight was the opposite of Couture/Ortiz. C/O was exciting at the time, but got more boring after a second viewing. I thought Nog/Fedor was boring the first time I saw it, and I saw it live at the time. It took another watching for me to appreciate it.

Thurs the 26th... if you READ what Joss had to say, you'd know that. Jerk.

Has anyone said that if Christian/Flair is a wrestling match rather than a goof off, then it will be the worst wrestling match ever?

As Requested... http://s17.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=387SITA...TE1IPZWYX9OUNPT

I HATE YOU ALL!!

COCK-SUCKER! This whole situation is balls man, BALLS. Fuckin Americans, blow up the world and you still get to see Serenity before we do. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?! Atlanta, GA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Hollywood 24@ North 1-85 3265 Northeast Expressway Chamblee, GA 30341 Phone: 770-936-9468 Austin, TX For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Gateway 16 9700 Stone Lake Blvd Austin, TX 78759 Phone: 512-343-5480 Boston, MA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Boston Commons 175 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02111 Phone: 617-423-2568 Chicago, IL Rivereast 21 322 East Illinois Street Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: 312-596-0333 Dallas, TX Valley View 16 13331 Preston Road #2300 Dallas, TX 75240 Phone: 972-387-4503 Denver, CO Highland Ranch 24 103 W. Centennial Blvd. Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 Phone: 303-471-5232 Hartford, CT For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Buckland Hills Manchester 99 Redstone Road Manchester, CT 06045 Phone: 860-646-4555 Kansas City, MO Barrywoods 24 8101 NW Roanridge Kansas City, MO 64151 Phone: 816-505-9199 Las Vegas, NV For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Palms 14 4321 West Flamingo Road Las Vegas, NV 89103 Phone: 702-507-1525 Miami, FL For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Aventura Mall 24 19501 Biscayne Blvd. - 3001 Aventura, FL 33180 Phone: 305-466-9880 Minneapolis, MN Southdale 16 400 Southdale Center Edina, MN 55435 Phone: 913-894-9214 Norfolk, VA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. MacArthur Center 18 300 Monticello Avenue Norfolk, VA 23510 Phone: 757-623-7800 Philadelphia, PA Neshaminy 24 3900 Rockhill Drive Bensalem, PA 19020 Phone: 215-396-8045 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Mills I-24 5000 Arizona Mills Circle Tempe, AZ 85282 Phone: 480-820-0387 Portland, OR For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Eastport 16 4040 South E. 82nd Avenue Portland, OR 97266 Phone: 503-772-1111 Providence, RI Providence Place Mall 16 10 Providence Place Providence, RI 02903 Phone: 401-270-4659 Sacramento, CA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Roseville 14 1555 Eureka Rd Roseville, CA 95661 Phone: 916-797-3466 San Francisco, CA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Van Ness 14 1000 Van Ness San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: 415-674-4630 Seattle, WA For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Meridian 16 7th & Pike / 1501 7th Avenue Seattle, WA 98101 Phone: 206-622-2434 Washington, DC For tickets, contact theaters directly. Please check back later to purchase tickets online. Georgetown 14 3111 K Street NW Washington, DC 20007 Phone: 202-342-6033

CRUSHING DISAPPOINTMENT... ...is not in store! Good things are coming... to a theater (possibly) near you! It's Joss, your roving reporter, with another ZOWIE! exclusive(!) hot off the presses! Browncoats Bring Boffo B.O.! Vegas Vibe Very Vivacious! You heard it first here, true believers... Okay, first of all, being that guy is exhausting. So no more roving and on to the meat of the thing. I just saw the whole cast today (which is in itself a wonderful and rare thing) and we all compared notes on the screenings, the general feeling being: damn. As in, Big Damn. You guys were SO sweet. We all thought it was a grand time. More (or at least just as) importantly, the Uni Brass thought it worked out great too, so... wait for it... there's gonna be more. You might have heard rumors, but I'm here to confirm. On thursday the 26th the studio is doing another round of hit-and-run screenings, and this time it's not ten cities -- it's twenty. It's another vote of confidence from the studio and another chance for us to say "thanks" to you guys for keeping this all rolling. And most importantly, another chance to run that videotape of me before the movie, looking so tragically sexy. "Wait a minute! What cities!?!?! Hey, %#$@face, stop talking about how sexy you are (although you are confessedly quite the dish) and give us the info!" Well, I don't actually know. I think we'll be repeating in the cities we've hit and adding 10 new ones. I expect can'tstopthesignal will have the info some time tomorrow, and let the manager-threatening begin! (Or, you know, the ticket buying.) Hopefully one of those cities will be near you, and won't be one where the film breaks and has to start again (heh heh... professional showbusiness... ). I don't know if any of the peeps is gonna be able to come out this time, but if they can they will, and I know Jewel's going somewhere 'cause she was working last time. That's it! Except to add that Summer and I were pretty overwhelmed last Thurs, and I got the impression everyone else was too. Of course everyone else didn't have to put up with Summer's constant whispering of "I SAVED this film, Hackboy!" or her "surefire" system of winning at craps that had me down six large come the dawn... That girl. Just trouble. Enough with this post. You guys are beyond swell. Let the party continue. -j.

I don't think many of us are "down" on it, we're just not "up" on it. The worst thing that was said was that it was uneventful... that's not being down on it.

...or form new ones.

Most of us thought that Benjamin was the future back when he first showed up with Charlie Haas. Nah. At that time it was a Cena-love fest. Only 4 or 5 people here were thinking that highly of Benjamin, most others wrote him off jokingly saying "He's black, so he won't be getting a top spot".

The next BUSHIDO show.... Dokonjonosuke Mishima vs. Yves Edwards Akihiro Gono vs. Crosley Gracie TAISHO vs. Jens Pulver Ryuki Ueyama vs. Milton Vieira Ryo Chonan vs. Nino "Elvis" Schembri Yoshiro Maeda vs. Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett Takanori Gomi vs. Luiz Azeredo Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Phil Baroni Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Luiz Buscape AND the debut of Shooto Champion Tetsuya Kawajiri still to come on this card.

Saying that Benjamin is "the future" doesn't really reflect any insight so-much-as-it is stating the obvious. If this was a few years ago... maybe... but right now it's like saying *HHH hits the pedigree on the Hurricane* "IMHO, it's over."

Any idea that has Flair wrestling is a bad idea.

YOWZA that was awesome. Ninja had some nice guard work and Gono had excellent positioning and ground control. I dunno if it was the editing, but that was a very active fight on the ground which I didn't really expect. I thought that last leg lock was it.

Give her her own reality show. Big time ratings.

YES, YES YES YES. MORE, MORE MORE MORE. You're pity inferiority makes me strong!

Could someone PLEASE recognize my awesome Harrison Ford comparison to Christian?

For all the MMAniacs out there, and hopefully this will become a weekly thing, I'll keep this poll up for the weekend and on Monday I will upload one of the following. I'll take the 2 most popular ones and carry them on to next week, and I'll throw in 4 new matches to vote for. They're all over 20mb, but I believe they are under 125mbs, so they are certainly downloadable for high speed internet connections. They are about 20 minutes in length, on average, so you get a good bang for your buck. I don't know if I could post the match on the board or send it through PM/email, but it'll be done. Rampage/Randleman - the match itself isn't very good (fantastic finish), but I included the pre-match promos (awesome~!) and the beginning of the Rampage/Silva feud in the post-match showdown (awesome!!). The VQ isn't great, but is certainly watchable. Just don't expect full screen. The same applies for most the matches on the list. (32mb) Fedor/Noguiera - One of my all-time faves. I just got done watching it again for probably the 20th time. I still love it, and can still watch it in awe. I included the pre-match stuff, entrances (~!!) included, and the post fight celebration. It's in english commentary, which is different from the stuff that I have found online. I think Quadro and Bas are tremendous here calling the action, telling the story, making the history. 90% of it is Fedor in Noguieras guard, which screams "boring" but the time flies by so fast and there is always something going on. The fans' reactions are a big thing, because they react to every hard punch Fedor throws and every submission Noguiera attempts. (75mb) Frye/Takayama - The infamous hockey brawl. With Bonnar/Griffin being a month ago, it's fitting to bring this match back. I don't know what more to say, they punch each other in the face... a lot... and hard... (20mb - not fantastic VQ)... and Takayamas face balloons... a lot... Newton/Pele - As time goes on, it seems -at least to me- this fight gets forgotten as the two fighters' status falls. It's still a fucking amazing match and a must-see. (25mb) Herring/Fedor - Fedors coming out party. Shogun/Jackson - Shoguns coming out party. (amazingly enough, in all my time here, I have never made a poll... let's see how this goes...)

I watched UFC 41 today. Pedro Rizzo v Vladimir Matyushenko - This was an ok fight. Neither guy did anything impressive or really notable. Not the best fight to start off the show. I wouldn't mind looking back to see if the UFC learned from putting heavies on first and took a WCW-approach of putting the small guys out to start the show. Phil Baroni v Matt Linland - I remember this being pimped as a MOTYC and I think it is a border-line candidate. Surprisingly full of action, I almost feel sympathetic to Baroni as the fight progresses. I don't really know what else to say about it.... oh, those shots to the body at the end by Baroni were sick. BJ Benn v Caol Uno - Really good fight, I wouldn't mind seeing how this ranked in the MOTY draw. A lil slow at times, but they kept transitioning and trading, and each guy had the upperhand for a round or two. The final decision was a bit bogus though. Tank Abbott v Frank Mir - Nice technique by Mir. Not so much by Tank. Ricco Rodriguez v Tim Sylvia - I remember when I was a Ricco fan. It was right around this period... lol... it's fun seeing how they were building Ricco up and how they completely ignored him afterwards. I wouldn't mind seeing a rematch between the two to see if it would be any different... thoughts? Yves Edwards v Rich Clementi - Very nice technique on the choke at the end by Yves. Good standing exchanges, overall a good match. I was hoping for better. Overall, this show was better than I expected. Goldberg has really improved since then, as has the production. I don't miss the old set at all, which is funny considering how much I was against getting rid of it. Shamrock was good in the booth, as usual, but someone really should have kept him up-to-date with the fighters as he botched many names and thought BJ was the champ. Rogan was similar back when he first started announcing, but since then has become much better - I wonder if they learned from their past mistakes, or if Eddie Bravo has influenced the commentary any. Does anyone (coughLeicough) have any knowledge of this?

What I'm trying to ask is if MMA can't get your average Joe's attention and kep it most of the time, how would they be able to hook whomever in the hip-hop community enough to get them to bother starting their own team? The actual interest in MMA for the hip hop artists is almost irrelevant - it is more of a financial opportunity than anything else. A brand extension. They'd be a figurehead, they'd show up from time-to-time, they'd give shout-outs occasionally. They'd be giving a rub. It also benefits their image, since a lot of being a rapper is about being street-tough. 50cent got shot a billion times and lived. 50cent owns a group of fighters who can knock you out and break your neck. The message is the same: Don't fuck with me. It's the gang mentality carried over to MMA, which already exists in MMA, which is why they'd be a good fit. And assuming they do try and succeed in getting people's interest, you're still going to have mostly the same people who don't have the attention span to stick with MMA long enough to learn a thing or two. I honestly don't think anyone's going to get attached to MMA because some hip hop figure tells them to, and if they do... that's just sad. All you have to do is get them cheering a fighter, and they'll stay for a while. If they can personally identify with a fighter, they will become invested in the fighter - when that fighter fights, it's like they are fighting. Besides, "because some hip hop figure tells them to" is what's going on already - with shoes, drinks, clothing, etc. BTW- You also mentioned that UFC is starting to get away from grapplers in favour of strikers as a way to hook more people, but I personally don't care for those who jeer pretty much any ground fight nowadays, much less influx of those types of "fans" that would be brought in hoping to see brutal KO's all the time. Of course there is the risk of alienating the current fanbase, but you run that risk trying anything new. There is also the possibility of creating a race-issue in the sport, which might actually benefit it. PRIDE was successful inpart because they played nationalities and races against each other. A certain amount of the popularity basketball had during the 80s was race-related. I think it would add an extra layer of intensity to the fights.

His match with Balls Mahoney was a no-selling mess. I'm stunned that you complain about Shawn Michaels pulling out a kip-up after a beating --- but Tanaka no selling chair shots is of no concern. The problem with Shawn Michaels isn't about just a kip-up, it's about sporadic selling. It's about him trying to garner sympathy one minute and then shrugging it off for a pop. Besides, I always give HBK credit when it comes to pacing and popping a crowd. Tanaka/Ballz wasn't about epic selling, it was about beating the shit out of each-other until one guy dies. It was a dick measuring contest with chairs. And they did it extremely well. Balls v Tanaka in 2000 was better than the vast majority of the stuff the WWF was churning out? That might be the silliest thing I've read in a while. Absolutely. There are probably about 10 matches the WWF put out that year that could top Mahoney/Tanaka and Psicosis/Tajiri. I doubt there would be 20. Quite a bit in 2000 was better than that. Hell, Rock v Hunter churned out better matches on PPV. Ditto Benoit v Jericho. Ditto Venis v Rikishi. You've got to be kidding me. Rock/Hunter?! Their matches were as interesting as belly-button lint. Benoit/Jericho was usually marred by shitty finishes; their 2/3 falls match might be taken into consideration. Venis/Rikishi? Their cage match? Ack. When was the last time you watched these matches? Credible/Corino/Lynn could've had lovely chemistry --- shamefully, their matches still were quite bad. There is not ONE Credible match that hit higher than 3 stars. As for good 3-way dances --- umm, no. The WWF had several better ones that year (Angle/Benoit/Jericho at WM 2K annihilated it). I've got both matches, let's sit down and compare the two. I was meaning to go back and watch the tape of the 3 way anyways. Better than the tag division today is hardly praise. I know, I said that. I also alluded to the similarities between the two divisions. But it was still a good division, which says something of a company on its last legs compared to the still-up-and-running-WWE. Better than the tag division in the WWF in 2000? Clearly not. Simon & Swinger were rather mediocre. Words can't fully describe my loathing of Nova & Chetti. Never said it was. They did produce some very good tag matches though, better than the majority of the tag matches produced in early ECW times and certainly better than what you give them credit for. Wow. Just wow. WWF in 2000 was the best promotion I've ever seen. Insanely good TV, terrific booking, great PPV's. To even attempt to compare ECW 2000 to WWF 2000 is laughable. WWF 2000 aged terribly for me, especially when the current WWE is taken into consideration. I was watching some of it the other day and couldn't believe the stuff was so popular and still is when people look back on it. A lot of it was painfully basic and average and the stuff that stood out doesn't seem so special now in retrospect. The angles are so boring because they've been rehashed again and again and again. It's just sad to watch. ECW, on the other hand, I can watch and respect. They were still playing strong, even if the ship was sinking. Even if the names were gone, the guys there were still trying to make themselves names to fill the void. QUOTE No, they went belly-up because they could never GENERATE a large fanbase. They were always niche. ROH with infinitely less gifted workers and weaker booking. ROH's biggest drawing card was, what, a lil over 1000 fans? ECW did 5000+ when it was supposedly at its lowest. 5 times bigger. If you want to talk about laughable comparisons, there ya go. They did better numbers than Heat and Velocity do now, and that's with less promotion, smaller names, and a worse timeslot. You can talk about how the WWE doesn't promote those small shows on RAW, but ECW didn't even have RAW so they were worse off. And the shows didn't feature popular names, so you can't use that excuse either. Yet they drew better, and WWE is not "niche". In their death, they still drew bigger houses than most of what the WWE does now for their house shows, and that's with constant national promotion and big names.