RavishingRickRudo

At least the WWE is sorta cutting down on pyro. Right now, lights are where it's at in terms of creating an atmosphere and the only time the WWE has ever really used it well is in HHH's entrances (his regular one and his Evolution one). They need more big-ass strobe lights and lasers and use shadows and darkness better. Hell, the Undertaker got over partially because of his entrance and all that used was darkness (and eventually the crowd started throwing up their lighters which created this awesome effect). There are so many different avenues light can take them and they just don't look into it.

There's a shot from PRIDE 20 with Mario Sperry rising to the top of the stage on an elevator that is just so fucking balls. He's just smiling this big-ass grin and has his arms out embracing the light and the love of the fans. Then he comes down from another elevator and walks down this long transparent, blue-lit walk-way and it's like you're watching a god walk to the ring.

They need to keep the Red and Black for Brand Identity. They could change the logo into any shape they want so-long-as they keep the colour scheme. It's the throughline which connects RAW from 11 years ago, to now. However, some gold in the set design would be a nice touch. Good Set However the WM 17 set is too big for RAW (better for PPV's). I'd say something more compact for the smaller shows, so that when they get extravagant with the PPV's, it makes it seem like you're getting what you paid for... at least visually.

I've used Wrestling as a parallel for understanding Marketing, and there are plenty of valuable things one could learn from the history of it. But having to watch RAW every week? Damn, talk about hard work.

PRIDE used holograms at their Quarterfinals Grand Prix show a few months back. Infact, PRIDE smokes the WWE in terms of entrance-ways. I think the entrances are an important aspect of the WWE. Their best attribute is/was their production. In the wrestling industry, the WWE stood above all others; and since wrestling is mainly a visual medium, strong production values does make a difference. The "old days" of RAW had their set changing every few months, but now they've had the same shitty rhombus and arty design for the past few years and it's boring to look at. The Smackdown set is horrible and just plain ugly. Their entrance peak was at WM 17 (though WM 19 was nice as well.. WM 18 was shit) and they never went back to that epic style, which IMO, is better suited for wrestling. Back to PRIDE; they continuously innovate and change the design of their sets. From using elevators to fire and rain to cylindrical video screens, you always get this "big time" feel from them. The WWE doesn't do that anymore. Then you get something like the UFC where there is _nothing_ for an entrance way and that works too. You get a more intimate ambience that makes you feel like you're there. The WWE doesn't do that anymore either (hell, I was happy with the giant gold WWF logo and a curtain). Instead, they're somewhere in the middle where they just throw up a big screen and some silly shit around it and think that's enough. Where they once were industry leaders, they are now way behind the game. Whatever happened to the floor screen from WM 20?

Oh man... from the weigh-ins via InsideFighting.com

Here are Meltzers thoughts. I haven't read them, but I assume they will contain something whacky. Tonight's UFC line-up: *Yves Edwards vs. Josh Thompson - Both are quality fighters. This is a dark match and is likely to go the distance, which means there is a good chance it won't air on PPV. Dana White, in trying to encourage fighters to finish, said that long prelims have a lower chance of getting on PPV. *Chris Lytle vs. Ronald Jhun - Another prelim fight, Lytle is a pro boxer with lots of submission training. *Karo Parisyan vs. Nick Diaz - Hopefully this will air on tape because this is, on paper, the second best match of the show. Parisyan is top class in judo and looked great in previous matches until George St. Pierre shut him down en route to a title shot. Diaz, if he wins, would be in title contention, since he's coming off knocking out Robbie Lawler *Mike Kyle vs. Justin Eilers - Kyle isn't a great fighter, but he's got that smaller Goldberg look thing going for him and beat Wes Sims (who took the fight on little notice) a few months back. It's on the show because they want a heavyweight fight on the show *Joe Riggs vs. Joe Doerksen - Why this is on the main show is beyond me *Matt Lindland vs. David Terrell - This is an interesting fight. Most people seem to favor Terrell, who is an Abu Dhabi submission fighting champion. Lindland is an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling. Still, Lindland is one of those guys like Dan Henderson and Randy Couture from Team Quest that are grade A competitors under pressure, and win fights that skill-wise, you think they are going to lose *Chuck Liddell vs. Vernon Tiger White - White is one of the pioneers of shootfighting as he dates back to the Pancrase originals from 1994. He's being put in here to get knocked out, since Liddell is one of UFC's big stars. On paper, that is what should happen. *Vitor Belfort vs. Randy Couture for the UFC light heavyweight title. This is a one match show and it's an intriguing main event. Belfort has blinding speed in his hands, and is an underrated wrestler. Couture is a great wrestler and an even better competitor. He's also 41 years old. I just saw a weigh-in photo of Couture, and to say he's in shape is the understatement of the year. Belfort has trained harder for this fight than any other, and he really does have phenomenal tools, which he often doesn't take advantage of. Belfort can win fast, but if he doesn't, I strongly favor Couture because he's got far more guts and won't crack. I don't see a submission here. Either Vitor knocks him out because Couture can't cope with his hands and take him down, or Randy throws him around like a rag doll, breaks his spirit, and he mentally quits and loses to a G&P stoppage. This is the third fight between the two. Fight one saw situation No. 2 take place. Fight two was the fluke stoppage, so they are technically 1-1. Couture is not the underdog, which means he can lose, because he always wins as the underdog.

I'm tired of having to avoid this forum (and MMA forums in general) because of fearing PRIDE spoilers (ONE. MORE. DAY.) only to miss out discussing this show. Vitor Belfort [205] vs. Randy Couture [204] - Light Heavyweight Championship Too much focus, IMO, is going towards their last fight and not enough is going towards their first one. Their first match was AWESOME, and they have only gotten better. The clinch will be where this fight is won and lost. Randy is a master of it and Vitor has been training to avoid it. However, the clinch could also be where a well placed knee could show up and change the fight dramatically (or Coutures face, even). I'm almost happy their second fight ended the way it did because I am even more hyped NOW than I was in January to see these two go at it. For some reason I'm favouring Belfort, which is stupid because you never bet against Couture (ambiguousity~!) Chuck Liddell [206] vs. Vernon White [200] This is such an underlooked and underappreciated match. White fucking rules despite having a shitty record (mainly due to Pancrase fighting and high calibre competition). He is very well rounded and has been in some of my favourite fights (vs. Sakuraba and vs. Freeman). He could give Liddell a ton of trouble and I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull this one out. Should be an awesome fight. Matt Lindland [185] vs. David Terrell [185] This seems to be Zuffa feeding Lindland so they can set up Lindland/Tanner in the future. As long as Lindland doesn't knock himself out, it should be a pretty easy fight. Mike Kyle [237] vs. Justin Eilers [232] I applaud the UFC for trying to build its heavyweight division. I loathe them for doing it with Mike Kyle. Eilers is from MLS and that's all I know. This is on the main draw and Diaz/Parisyan isn't?? Eugh. Ron Jhun [170] vs. Chris Lytle [169.5] This should be a good lil match that'll probably be forgettable and go the distance and the winner will be fed to the guy who will challenge for whatever belt their weightclass is at... something against St. Pierre and Hughes will fight the winner of Diaz/Parisyan and whatever. I dunno. This division and the lack of clearity in it makes me cry. Nick Diaz [168.5] vs. Karo Parisyan [169] Yves Edwards [154.5] vs. Josh Thomson [156] These two are sooooo fucking awesome fights that I wanna see bad and we better get to fucking see em! Diaz won me over completely by murderizing Robbie Lawler and bitcherizing him into exile. Parisyans rolling kimura on dave strasser is still one of my favourite finishes. Both guys are pretty well rounded so it should make for a really fun and active fight. I bought UFC 43 on DVD a few weeks ago and Edwards/Ruiz is fucking whompass beautiful. I love me some Edwards. Thomson is highly regarded and I've seen 2 of his matches but I forget both. This could be MOTN. Joe Doerksen [184.5] vs. Joe Riggs [185] Doerksen is Canadian and everyone says I should love him. We shall see.

I hated a lot of the Special Effects in Minority Report (liked the movie, though) - so this big budgeted sci fi makes me groan. I call AIDS virus as what kills off the Aliens after one of them gets with a homosexualized and HIV+ Tom Cruise, where the real War of the Worlds is between the Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists and the Gay Community.

If _one_ person found out you were invisible, you'd be done for. No one would trust you; they'd fear you. Your own friends and family would probably turn on you, because their privacy would be in question at all times. Part of having Superpowers is sharing them with others, you couldn't do that with invisibility. Flying, on the other hand, is more socially acceptable. I'd take Flying. But not some cheesyass My Secrety Identity flying where I'd use spray cans to float; I'm talkin Superman flyin styles.

I dunno the specifics, but there are copyright and trademark laws that various countries have signed on to enforce. I know the US follows one (there are 2 big ones) which would also apply to the UK. As for the scratch logo. I would assume that a grandfather clause protects the other "new gen" and "old school" logos because the WWFund was ok with them before (each time a logo is changed, I would assume, a new deal is made), so the WWE could use the older logos, but not the scratched one. Oh, and.. *Gives $100 donation to the World Wildlife Fund* I believe in their 2 main causes... Protecting Nature Screwing Vince

AWESOME! I can't wait for the WWE to use the internet to its fullest potential with this interactive deal! WHOOO HOOO!!! WWE.com poll: Is Stacy pretty? JR: "Well, 90% of our fans think so, thanks for participating all you wonderful internet fans." King: "What were those other 10% thinking?! They must live in their parents basement!" WWE.com poll: Is JR fat? JR: "Well, 95% think that I'm fat... well... maybe I am, so what? It's from all this delicious BBQ sauce" King: "I bet you're not as fat as most of the internet fans who live in their parents basement" WWE.com: Who is better? JR: "HHH is better than Chris Benoit... those are the exact results from this on-line poll." King: "I bet all those internet fans will be crying like babies after this. Those fat, living in parents basement, crybabies." They tried this on RAW before and, sadly, it was worse than above.

The funny thing here is that it's a JBL match getting the wave treatment. Infact, I don't think the crowd was doing the wave at all; I think they were all giving Nazi Salutes.

I think a portion of the crowd was booing to boo, no doubt. When I was at WM 18 and the crowd was going nuts for Hogan, some of the guys who I was with weren't Hogan fans but they were still going crazy. When there is that many people around you doing it, you can't help but get caught up. _However_, there is something to be said about a crowd that does not "cling" to wrestlers and are fairweathered. The WWE is FAILING at making strong connections between fan and wrestler - when those connections can be easily broken by something as simple as "the guy beside me is booing", then there is a problem and it is _not_ with the fans. This goes back to the WWE's mentality of "He's a good guy... so cheer him... He's a bad guy... BOO him...". Bad guys do bad things because they're bad. There is no depth to the characters. Why SHOULD the fans cheer Eugene and boo HHH?

I dunno how _the crowd_ could be at fault. I don't think anybody pays to see a wrestling show to do the wave. They, however, *do* pay to have a good time. If the WWE wasn't providing it for them, why should they be blamed for doing it themselves? The onus isn't on the crowd, it's on the company. And I *enjoyed* the show and the crowd.

C-Bacon is being inducted into the SMARK HALL OF FAME for the "Lita is a Dumas" sign. It was PERFECT. Right place, Right time. BIG props.

For the UFC, Taker would both KO guys with his soupbones and submit them with his Abu Dhabi stylings. He can form TEAM TAKER and have Bill Alfonzo as his manager.

Toronto -and Canada, for that matter- tends to go against the grain and at the same time, we're really impressionable and prone to group-think. So when a part of the crowd decides to turn on something, the other part will say "hey, we should do that too!".

They SOOOO need to bring in an MMA guy for Taker to beat (what's Paul Varlens doing nowadays ) so he can build up his Undershooter stylings. Have the "UFC" (Undertaker Fighting Challenge) where he "shoots" with wrestlers and fighters alike.

Taker worked the triangle perfectly! He was reaching for his foot and putting it under his knee! Something most wrestlers tend to forget when duplicating it. I loved that lil touch. I marked out for it BIG TIME.

I LOOOOOOOVED the Wave. But then again I love the crowd shitting on matches. I love when the WWE gets shit backfired on them. The same thing happened at WM and I was freaking out over it. It shows -it's proof- that the fans can't be played. That they can make up their own minds. I hate it when the WWE tries to force-feed us shit and use formulas and predictable booking to manipulate the crowd. It's so unnatural. The WWE deserves crowds that need to entertain themselves.

Takers Top Triangle was fucking awesome. That match was fucking balls out. This was the best WWE show _by far_ this year.

Taker was major-over the last time the WWE was in town for Smackdown (Which was a few months ago... May??) There were a TON of Taker shirts and he got a big pop. I don't get the hate for this show or the crowd.

TD91, please try and do a "Steve The Pirate *clap clap clapclapclap*" chant during the Dodgeball skit. Kurt looks like he just farted and Eddie looks like he just smelt it. It's almost as good as the Summerslam 02 poster with Lesnar and Rock.

Eddie and RVD would be a poor mans Cheech and Chong.