Jobber of the Week

He's "The Exterminator?" I thought that his nickname was "The Hammer."

hahaha. Dude, Clinton was the reason for the media machine we have now. If Rush didn't have Clinton to beat on, he wouldn't be where he is now. Bush, on the other hand, is nowhere near as attractive target. Look at the "success" *cough* of Air America.

I can't believe Mortal Kombat appeared before Soul Calibur in a "best fighting game franchise" discussion. What kind of half-assed Mickey Mouse game board is this? DS, I will buy when games I want to play are SITTING ON SHELVES. Mario Kart, I'm looking at you. I refuse to buy a console and then let it sit there and collect dust while I wait for the good software to come out. That's just a recipe for another failure ala Sega Saturn. PSP, I'm not happy about the price, and paying more money than other regions because of the weak dollar and Dubya's growing deficit. I may buy it early or I may not, it kind of depends on what kind of a beating my wallet is taking for the near future.

I don't agree. This formula would make Bill Clinton the most effective politician of our modern times.

I'm with you, and that's weird. I don't know if it's been mentioned before or not, but the back inside cover of the WM21 program has a PPV calendar, and the ECW show is actually mentioned and named with a red ECW logo and everything. Since the web site calendar still says TBD, I thought I'd mention this, as I think it's the first public confirmation of the show.

I don't know about the CRTC, but Congress continues to legislate that it either be by that date or when the amount of Americans owning HD-capable TVs reaches a certain high percentage (can't remember the exact number), whichever comes last. So over half of America would have to replace their current sets with HDTV or HD-ready TVs in the next year for that 2006 date to mean anything. As it is, 2006 will come and go, HD will still be a niche toy owned by the rich and the techno-philes, Congress will push it the next year to 2009, and nothing will happen. This wonderful leadership is brought to you by contributions from various entertainment firms that do not want to go HD until they're ready to, and they're not ready to unless there's enough viewers to make it profitable for them. And since there won't be profitable numbers until people find enough HD channels to make buying the set worthwhile, this little chicken and egg problem will likely continue over the next couple decades.

It depends on the provider. Right now, the cable companies are beginning to ally together a bit to battle satellite. INHD is an only-on-cable thing, since InDemand is at least funded if not owned outright by the conglomos of cable. Some cable companies carry both INHD and HDnet (I think Charter? Maybe not) but not many. Our Comcast has FOX (although it took a while thanks to the affiliate being a hard ass), NBC, ABC, CBS, INHD1/2, Discovery, one PBS, some blank screen called HD/SE that sometimes turns into NFL network HD, local As/Giants games presented by FSN Bay Area on the same channel as INHD2 (overrun), and HBO/MAX/SHO/TMC/STARZ. Cable's advantage over satellite is initial cost, as you rent the receiver for a few dollars every month instead of buying it for several hundred. There's also some complicated issues over getting the NBC/CBS/ABC/PBS stuff, as it's basically easier to get that stuff in HD via cable than it is over satellite due to bandwith issues. If you actually live inside your major metropolitian area and can get those signals out of the air with an antenna, it makes things much easier, because as it is, the most the dish groups will do is give you your local affiliate in SD, and give you a major time zone affiliate (i.e. an LA station in the west, an NYC station in the east) in HD, and that requries a ton of paperwork to get through so that the satellite company can legally hook you up. And if your local affiliate doesn't want to play along with that paperwork, poo on you. Although cable generally gives you less reasons to tear your hair out, satellite seems to have all the programming at the minute, but perhaps not for long. VooM is a service that revolves around giving HD viewers something to watch, as they carry pretty much every HD channel as well as make something around 6-8 HD channels of their own that play movies, cartoons, music videos, etc. Unfortunately, things went sour at the top executive level and the company may blink out of existence on any day now. For a list of just about every HD network in the country and what they're playing today, use this page.

Exactly. Although there's a possiblity that he's more open to discussion of the old school stuff. For some reason, he seems to be a mark for the old NWA stuff. Although perhaps hanging around Flair long enough, some of Flair's bitterness about that period has transfered over.

First of all, to correct the post by Slapnuts!, Mark Cuban doesn't own INHD1 and 2. InDemand (the PPV provider) does. Mark Cuban owns HDNet, which is like INHD with a completely different set of shows that get run over and over endlessly. NBC uses 1080i for all their events, including NASCAR and Olympics broadcasts. Only if they were with ABC/ESPN would they use 720p. While most sporting events do use two seperate sets of cameras, most pre-recorded sitcoms are recorded with one set of cameras in HD and then are clipped to a 4:3 box in every shot for the SD broadcast. Because of this, if anything, I expect SmackDown to go HD before Raw or PPVs, which require two different sets of cameras. However, at present, don't look for any of it to go HD, because Nielsen doesn't track HD viewerships, which means that WWE can't tell who is looking at their ad. It also means nobody is interested in buying the ad time on the HD channel in the first place (which is why, for the entire course of the Games, NBC's Olympic HD feed had only one lousy Sony commercial that repeated endlessly for a week, because Sony knew that channel would be playing in so many electronics stores.) Basically, there's NOTHING for McMahon to gain money-wise from going HD, but there's equipment costs and stuff that means money to lose. He won't go for it.

I don't know how to respond to that, so I'll just take it as a backhanded compliment.

I don't know what you're comparing those speakers to, Metro, but the provided iPod earbuds are well-known for sounding like crap. If you want to move up, try the Sony MDR-EX81LP/W for $50. That may seem high, but they're much better than the $40 Apple in-ear buds that I use. If you want headphones instead of earbuds, the Sony's "Street Style" MDR-G74SL supposedly sounds good and costs $40. Those are all MSRP, and you can probably find the Sony things at less than that if you look around.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7407269/ 48 to 46. Woof. C'mon, second term curse!

That's a combination of putting all their eggs in one basket and very bad booking. They could have put anybody over there and given them the belt, and there were a ton of choices better than JBL. They were just trying to keep the brand extension intact without any sudden jumps, and their resilience to put one of Raw's bigger draws over there to carry the slack causes things like JBL title reigns. If they had simply dumped Jericho's long-assed Christian feud and moved him over to SmackDown as a heel for Eddie Guererro, SmackDown would have kept rolling along, as Jericho is better than Lesnar on the mic and at least as good in the ring. The only damage done by Lesnar's departure was depriving Vince of the moneymaking machine that is Lesnar shirts and hats and shit. And then, because Vince is Vince, he deprived himself getting that back because he feels Lesnar hurt his image (as a heel, btw) by flipping people off at MSG. Everyone who gets near this company seems to go braindead. The lawsuit was Lesnar's brain fade, and Vince passing up re-hiring Lesnar as a petty "No thanks, I don't need you" gesture was fucking insane.

That's a matter of personal taste and opinion, and there can be majority opinions on these issues. Go ahead and wear a swastika, but it's not a mystery what the majority of the populace will think it represents and decide it's a reason to avoid you. Again, there's a political message in flag burning, too. But you don't see me out on the front lawn torching Old Glory telling people, "No! No! I really am a good, honest, law-abiding American! I love this country, and I'm just protecting my right to do this if I chose to! It doesn't mean ANYTHING!" Hah, good luck not getting curb stomped.

I know I can't speak for everyone, but knowing the political beliefs of most people here, I don't think anyone is arguing against someone's right to brandish the Confederate flag on their truck, their clothes, whatever. However, it's not really a left/right issue to feel that it's a bad thing that these images and the messages they resonate are being encouraged as some kind of cultural icon. While nobody should be denied the rights to wear a Confederacy t-shirt, hopefully society's reaction will shame them into making the choice not to. Kind of like why I don't go burning American flags to protect my right to do so.

Because there was no real reason to bring in one guy nobody has EVER heard of just to have him go over The Big Show. I couldn't figure out what happened at the time, but I assumed that either the match was a work but wasn't supposed to end that early (i.e. botched accident), or it was a shoot and he got a Bart Gunn humiliation. Plus, Big Show was wearing a diaper in a way that felt like a comedy match, but no real attempts at comedy were made. And the crowd in the building doesn't have Tazz or Cole either laughing or taking it seriously. So nobody knew what the hell to think, and you basically form your own opinion based on what you saw.

They wouldn't mess with the Title unless the Champion was drawing so huge that he was carrying the company on his back, ala Hogan or Austin. The Rock, even, kept the title everyone else uses, even though a special Brahma Bull title was considered and scrapped.

I misinterpreted this as them having to use a truck to transport him around. I left after the show and made a line for the Holiday Inn where I got to hang around with a bunch of tards as well as the guy from ZZ Top. He was cool, but his van came fast and none of the damn cab companies sent enough vehicles, as they were slowly trickling in, always being taken by the rudest person who managed to rush the cab first and ask for a ride. I, with a few other strangers, managed to hitch a ride to the Biltmore thanks to a woman with a Chevy Suburban and get a cab there in 2 minutes. The doorman at the Biltmore said "some" of the wrestlers were staying there. Didn't see any but did see a bunch of fans. I'm guessing maybe McMahons/HHH? Anyway, fucking awful accomodations for getting people away from the arena after the show. XIX, on the other hand, had buses outside of Safeco that went all over downtown dropping people off at various hotels. I realize that Seattle is all about the public transportation, and LA is about everything but, but you think someone would have arranged a cab company to get their guys to stop goofing off in front of hotels in the financial district and get to Staples. Are Lakers games like that, too?

Why the hell was this necessary? As they say, "The last gay thing that happened in Kansas was The Wizard of Oz."

Nevermind this post. Fuck it, I'm not going to participate in another thread that's been gay'ed up by Deadbolt. Who the hell is this guy and where did he come from?

While the crowd was generally kind of bored (I even managed to get a boring chant during the Sumo match that kind of caught on as both guys just stood around), I wouldn't say it was because of LA. By what I saw, the crowd had a ton of people from all over the place, including a scary number of Brits and Aussies I ran into. Rather than bouncing around and screaming all over the place, they mostly just popped for the entrances, than sat down and waited to see what delivered. A lot of times, nothing much was delivered, so they just made the obligatory pop at the finish and moved on. Shawn/Angle in particular had a TON of energy in it. I observed that 19's crowd did much the same thing at that show, but the larger crowd created more idle noise than 21's. Cena's fanbase is scary-huge (I couldn't stop seeing that Chain Gang shit everywhere, and not watching SD for months didn't know what it was), but while the crowd was appropriately hot for him at first, they immediately fell silent while their man sat around and ate Snitsky-style offense from JBL for WAY too long. Ditto for the HHH VS Batista match. If they wanted to keep the crowd alive, the very first segment should be Batista wiping the floor with HHH with all the squashing power of Goldberg and Warrior combined, before letting HHH make a comeback in the middle with some crafty moves and heel tactics. Instead, they had HHH legitimately outwrestle Batista, which deflated people to the point that Flair was the most over guy in the match.

I didn't see anything about TNA, aside from one guy with a TNA sign. In fact, I saw more shit about gentlemen's clubs on the street after the show than I did anything wrestling related.

Come forth, commission report! And share with us what we already figured out for ourselves, as well as a few gems. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7331220/ I love that bit about "take on the lessons learned, and drive on." It quite closely implies "nod your head and change nothing."

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,16242,00.html?tnews Hahahah, this is absolutely ridiculous but certainly entertaining since Knight likes to bully people around. Where the hell is he going to find $100,000,000?