RavishingRickRudo

I'll provide a more indepth review when I watch it again Sunday night, but here are some thoughts... St. Pierre is the fucking MAN. I hyped everyone in the room for him and then he delivered. After that fight, everyone was a Rush fan. Couture got knocked out. I am still in awe. Liddell on top is so good for the division, though. Think of the rematches, think of the matches. You know Bonnar/Griffin vs. Liddell would be much better than Griffin/Bonnar vs. Couture. When all the celebrities were saying "Randy" I knew Liddell was going to win. It's a curse! I have to watch Hughes/Trigg again, because so many people are saying FOTN and are ignoring the awesome GSP performance.

Wrestling is so many things, so that would be my style of writing for it. You can have an extremely whacky storyline, and you can have a straight-up serious storyline. It's about providing variety, because different people tune in for different reasons. And that variety will show up in the ring. The fans already believe that two guys in their underwear are really hitting each other, so why not take it further? The WWE universe is so big and they never take it to its full potential.

Murray isn't fighting. He has VISA problems. Couture vs. Liddell, St. Pierre vs. Miller, and Hughes vs. Trigg should all be big fights. Lindlands fights typically are bathroom breaks, but depending on the type of opponent, that may change. In Canada the PPV is 29.99

Well, Angel tells Harmony she never was part of the team because she is a vampire and that it is in her nature to be evil and betray him. Harmony says if he had more confidence in her, maybe she wouldn't have. Angel says it has to do with her not having a soul. Then you have Spike and his chip and Spike and his soul (and Angel and his). It's a very mixed message then give about whether or not our nature defines who we are.

Which they are currently giving to Hassan. Who is also getting this "rub" from HBK and Hogan. Who also has the stereotypical heel gimmick. Who also won't get nearly as far as Lesnar because he can't perform in the ring and they aren't pushing him hard enough... probably because they can't have a heel getting more heat than HHH.

A consistent push is what ultimately got Brock over. Following that, it was his own freakish ability to support it. Then came the rubs from Hogan, Rock, and Taker. Who, btw, could all still be used in getting someone over... so there goes the need for HHH. It takes a combination of things to "make" someone, but the most important thing is character, storylines and the big match. I would never have believed how over Cena was if I didn't go to live shows. His merch is everywhere, he has tons of fans. Only Taker rivals him.

like anyone else whould be This brings up the "nature or nurture" argument. Was Connor a naturally violent kid, or was it something that he learned? This is something the Buffyverse had dealt with forever and it appears their concusion with Connor is nurture over nature. But... Harmony would say otherwise.

I can understand the "logic" of that, they want to see if you can continually produce new ideas and work under a scripted-television show format. But a wrestling show doesn't follow along the lines of a regular television show. A wrestling show has a different objective of a regular television show. A wrestling show is meant to make money, while a television show is meant to make people laugh/cry/scream. This is something that the WWE can't fully grasp, so I can't imagine how a writer would be able to "get it".

I like HHH, and obviously I hope that he isn't seriously injured. The one thing that I love about HHH is the fact that he seems like one of the few guys in WWE who really loves the old school and is still a student of the game at this point. Which is his gimmick. Which is why you think "very few guys" in the WWE are that way. Because HHH has dibs on being all of that, and no one else can. I could call Chris Masters "old school" because he uses the polish hammer and a full nelson. As an OVW guy, he had to watch tapes of old wrestling matches. Why isn't he old school? Not that it fucking matters. He obviously idolizes Ric Flair and Harley Race, rocks the Ole Anderson/Harley Race facial hair these days and can build a hell of a dramatic match. JBL/Cena could have been a "hell of a dramatic match" but their time got cut and accomodate HHH's lengthy match with Batista. HHH wrestles a formula, so much so that when I was watching his WM match I was calling spots TWO MINUTES ahead of when they'd happen. It's not much of an accomplishment, it's just since he does it so often and other guys don't, it appears to you that this is a unique trait. WWE needs more people like that, and whereas guys like Hogan and Kevin Nash were intent on never improving once they got to the top, HHH is always trying to make himself better and he is way better for the company than The Undertaker. How so? HHH wrestles the same match he did 5 years ago. He cuts the same promo he did 5 years ago. Hogan wrestled with more variety than HHH did, fer crying out loud. The Undertaker, if you want to talk about improvement, is heads-and-shoulders above HHH in that dept. He also would step down when he lost to someone, which is something HHH tends not to do. I'll get to that later. The speed of his recovery from his quad tear was insane, and his workout habits are even more insane. C'mon. Vince McMahon had 2 quad tears and is up and about. He and Ric Flair took Randy Orton and Batista under their wing, traveled with them and you hear stories Dave Batista tells about sitting at dinner with HHH at midnight and just wanting to go to bed and HHH sitting for two more hours talking about nothing but the business and how Dave could improve his game. I respect the hell out of HHH's passion and I think his mindset is a hell of a positive influence on World Wrestling Entertainment. Whatever you think HHH is, Chris Benoit is 10xs more because Benoit doesn't pick-and-choose who to give that info to. And HHH's mindset, whatever you defined it as, has done shit for the WWE, if you haven't noticed. I also think that he gets too much blame for things like Shelton Benjamin. HHH made Benjamin look gold, put him over huge in their first two matches and then set him free. How did HHH "put him over huge" when after those 3 wins Benjamin was still "under" HHH. The concept of the "put over" is clear, putting someone over means giving up your spot, HHH never did and never has. HHH knew those jobs would be meaningless because -as a writer on the show, as fucktoy of Stephanie McMahon- he knew they wouldn't do anything with Benjamin afterwards. In the grand scheme of things, those jobs meant nothing and he didn't "lose" anything with those losses (and STILL got his win back a year later!). This is perhaps the greatest thing a wrestler could learn from HHH. When Shelton Benjamin didn't have the biggest heel on Raw selling his offense and making him look like a star, he wasn't quite ready to be a star on his own yet. He's getting there though. HHH sells for the hurricane for crying out loud! He stooges so often it means nothing! When the WWE had no follow up for Benjamin and dropped him down the card afterwards, how exactly was a "star" supposed to shine? I think that the biggest problem with HHH is that he's the most dominant heel on Raw, so once anyone beats him for the title they have already had the biggest match that they could possibly have and are left with nowhere to go but down. Which is exactly how HHH wants it. Gotta love that mindset. I also think that if The Rock or Steve Austin were still around full time, the fans would treat them as the biggest stars on their show as they do HHH because they were around during the second boom of professional wrestling. That poor HHH, carrying the load all by his lonesome. I totally disagree on the statement that Raw would have been better without HHH as they could "build four stars in the same amount of time". Have you seen Smackdown? They have nothing but time to kill on Smackdown, and no one is really looking like a star and the pay-per-views aren't drawing very well at all. Why? Because you need old stars for new stars to get the rub off of. John Cena, who has gone untouched by HHH, is the biggest star on their _roster_. Go to a WWE show and see how much support he has, it's insane. They had Brock Lesnar built up big time w/o HHH. Eddie Guerrero got over huge at one point but he wasn't able to handle the pressure. Yes, look at Smackdown, they have developed more, longer-lasting and brighter stars than RAW has because they don't have one guy sucking the heat out of everyone. Look at RAW, Eugene was huge and HHH popped his bubble in no time. Benoit didn't even get a chance to be huge. Orton was on his way but, again, popped. RVD, Booker, Kane? Forget it. Batista? Hell, his turn sucked half his heat from him. I love Kurt Angle, but he can't draw or give the rub like HHH can for whatever reason, and John Cena can go over JBL a million times but it won't make him a HUGE star because he's beating a guy who most fans don't regard to be a big star. Cena is the biggest star they have and he didn't need a "HHH rub". HHHs drawing power is laughable, since it has been on the decline for years. HHH is pretty much the only guy left who can give a young star the kind of rub that Batista got at Wrestlemania. That's because HHH has salted the earth so-to-speak, and no new stars were created in 2000 (in this case, Benoit/Jericho/Angle... all of whom HHH went over) so there could be new stars built off them in 2003/2004/2005. That's why the WWE is in the state it is in. But... you don't need a "rub" to get big, you just need to be a unique character who the fans believe in, and have feuds that the fans can follow and invest in. In other words, GOOD WRITING. In other words, what Steph - HHH's wife - hasn't been able to produce since becoming head of creative. But when the smoke clears, HHH is still there and the fans still see him as the biggest star on the show. I don't think is entirely HHH's fault, but he doesn't help the situation either. I think a very large amount of it is his fault. If he were gone, the situation would totally change. I think that by far the best thing to do with HHH is send him to Smackdown in the draft and have him form a new Evolution with Matt Morgan, Rob Conway and Charlie Haas and have him chase John Cena unsuccessfully for the title while Batista is given the chance to fly on his own on Raw. Yeah, that's what they need to do. Have HHH fuck and suck with another roster.

I don't think he buried Shelton last week. I liked that little exchange they did. I liked it too. But Jericho has a habit of the "Stinko Malenko" and "Chris BenOYT" quips that stick to a wrestler; where he makes fun of them, they don't defend themselves from it, which in-turn puts them in a less-serious light. The good thing there was that Benjamin gave as good as he got, but Jericho demeaning his title-holder status does nothing.

The Wrestling Industry started growth in 1996 with WCW and the NWO angle. We are looking at the premise that _wrestling_ is cyclical. So keep your eyes open next year~! Batista as Diesel? No. I refuse to believe it.

You OBVIOUSLY haven't read my Sho Funaki: Time Travelling Scientist from the Future storylines. Taking someone who dominates television time off of television so other wrestlers can become stars = retarded?

They'll hire people who don't have knowledge of WWE storylines as long as they're willing to learn about the product, and I don't imagine depth of knowledge is a concern. HR: So, what has been your experience in watching WWE programming? Writer: I like Hulk Hogan and The Rock. HR: Fantastic.

If wrestling is cyclical, then define the cycle. Because by that logic, in 1 year the turn around will begin. The WWE doesn't need a hot angle like the NWO as WCW did in 1996, because under the wrestling-is-cyclical theory, then product doesn't matter because its just the natural inclination of Americans to watch wrestling after a set period of time. Benjamins mic skills don't suck. He has the perfect bad-ass voice which is unique in the WWE. Unfortunately, he has been conditioned to read whatever the writers give him, and the writers don't have a well-defined character for him so they can't actually design a good promo (working under the presumption that they even could design a good promo, which isn't the case) for him to say. They need for him to cut promos at house shows and not work from a script so he can get more comfortable on the mic. Jericho would have been a nice foil to spout off with if he didn't have a tendancy to bury his opponents in his promos.

But we are to look at Connor as a victim in all this. He didn't ask to be brought up in a hell dimension or be manipulated by Holtz or to have a higher power control his entire life. We see in Season 5 Connor that if given a different history he'd be a well adjusted kid.

They were sowing the seeds of decention between HHH and Austin before HHH's injury. At the time, HHH was on the verge of becoming face, only they were delaying it. Rock was busy doing a movie (Rundown?) at the time. It was pretty clear the direction they were going was HHH/Austin with the face/heel roles reversed.

I wouldn't want Benjamin anywhere near HHH. HHH stooges too much for anyone to take his reaction to Benjamins moves seriously. Benjamin, unfortunately, is best suited to work with Benoit on RAW (I say unfortunately because Benoit isn't a big enough "name" to effectively put Benjamin over the top. He can get Sheldon to the next level, but not over the top. The matches would be great, but what Benjamin needs is something more than that.) Batista isn't good enough or established enough, even if his position is right. Jericho generally can't do anything for anyone now. Maybe Guerrero could. Eddie would probably be the best bet. Benjamin would work so well on Smackdown, now that I think of it.

I think HHH is in a state of denial. Despite the WWE freefalling for the past 4 years (which, coincidently, has been when he has been fucking around on top), he probably sees it as being a case of "the rock is gone, austin is gone, there is no competition, the wrestling business is cyclical" bullshit that has been spouted off for the past, well, 4 years (how long IS a wrestling cycle, btw?). I imagine he sees himself "making" Batista like he was about to "make" Randy Orton, but Randy failed because he "wasn't ready for it and was too young but his time will come" kinda thing, whereas Batista earned it or something. Still, HHH will find a reason for his pet project to fail and take the title back and the find someone else to "make". All the while he'll continually suck the heat from everyone on the roster and do nothing with it, because he's plateau'd, can't go any higher, and can't accept it.

Government officials, after leaving office, typically take BOD positions. It's just to add credibility to the public profile of the company and is more of a figure head role than anything. They basically get paid to impress people. The Board of Directors is essentially what its name states - a group of people who direct where the comapany is going. Depending on the organization, that involvement could be superficial or in-depth. In the WWE's case, it appears to be more superficial than anything, and is mostly there for "trust" issues. They are elected by the shareholders, and in this case with the McMahons holding the majority interest in the company, they can pick and choose whomever they want without consequence. They get together and discuss business matters, where the company is going, whether or not they should have a dividend, report to the CEO, etc. They also own shares in the company (dur), so anyone that follows the WWEs financial activity often sees "Beneficial Change of Ownership" when each member of the board or executive commitee buys or sells shares, or received a dividend. It's a pretty plush job, much better than any wrestling or writing position in the company.

It appeared that they sped up the Invasion angle because their Austin/HHH program for the summer was killed. I dunno what was exactly said about this by Meltzer, but that's the way it looked on TV at the time.

Do the math. HHH takes up, what, 20-30 minutes of every Raw? And that's direct focus, not counting video packages and JR talking about him in every segment. He has the longest interview time by far. He has the most PPV time also. The amount of time and attention HHH takes up on RAW per year, they could build FOUR new stars. Two in the first half of the year, two in the second half. And guess what? Those stars would be sustained rather than the "fuck with, fuck off" strategy that HHH has employed for the past 5 years. So they'd be ACTUAL stars, rather than guys like Randy Orton and Chris Benoit who end up being failures because they can't stay up top for long... just like Batista will be. Four new stars means four possibilities of turning the company around (and the company IS in bad shape, or I've been reading their financial reports all wrong, that they are not in the red is a testiment to cost cutting than revenue growth), and with HHH there that means NO possibilities for a turn around, at least on RAW. And that's what HHH is waiting for. He wants to be the one who saves the WWE and turns it all around. Raw and Smackdown both are horrible shows right now. Anyone who has a sense of what good wrestling is would know that. And so what if I have a persecution complex? They openly insult internet fans and they insult our intelligence with every shitty angle and plot hole. I've fucking stuck with them through BOTH bad periods, just like everyone else here, and they can't even give us the benefit of mediocrity. The show is so fucking boring now with the same guys saying the same things and nothing has changed.

Bren Chris Alex POWER TEAM 05!

Coby is SUCH a bitch. Tom is a fucking powerhouse.

Tom drunk is the greatest thing ever.

I just want the WWE to be better. Fuck morals, fuck karma. Him on TV hurts the product, and is killing my interest in it. And it's not about the paycheck anymore, HHH is in the family now, it's about Ego. The man goes out there every Monday and jerks it off.