cabbageboy

TNA needs to start promoting actual shows around the country. I know the ratings aren't that hot, but how can they draw any sort of TV audience when the vast majority of the U.S. has never had a TNA house show or TV taping nearby? If they did a house show near me I would certainly consider going. They would likely draw at least what ECW does at house shows, maybe more. They might as well go up against Raw on Monday nights. What do they really have to lose? They only do a .8 or so now, would it really get much worse? If anything they might get some Raw viewers to tune in. As far as Vince raiding the roster if they did that...why hasn't he raided them already? I seriously don't think Vince has any interest in a lot of these guys.

I dunno if Raw's main event scene was stale in 2002. I mean in that year alone we had Jericho and the Rock, Jericho/Austin, the various NWO incarnations, Hogan, UT, a bit of Lesnar before he defected, RVD, Kane, HBK. That's quite a few different main event guys. I honestly don't find Edge/Cena that tedious. They usually have a good match, especially with a gimmick. Do we really need Orton or someone being pushed in the title scene instead? If anything, I think ECW has the stalest crap in the main event.

Honestly I almost refused to tune in to this show tonight. I think it was due to the spoilers. What does it say when a show has some of my all time favorite wrestlers (RVD, Sabu, etc.) and I find it a chore to watch? One reason is I am simply sick and fucking tired of these crossovers. I wouldn't have a problem if it was actually GOING SOMEWHERE. But it doesn't, it's just random Raw/SD guest star of the week that doesn't lead to any actual ECW crossover stuff on another show, but just serves as some lame attempt to draw a few extra viewers when if anything it pisses off the actual viewership. If they actually did an ECW/SD crossover feud with guys invading each show (which makes sense given the struggling nature of both shows), that would make sense and likely get over. Tonight finally crossed over the line. Until now they hadn't actually jobbed an ECW guy to these guests. Add to it the real ECW guys struggle to beat the Heat and Velocity likes of Test, Matt Striker, and Bob Holly. Styles mentioned the various roadblocks that Heyman has put in RVD's path to the title. Why does RVD simply go along with this? Why does he not just say "Holly, let's do an extreme rules match" and then beat him bloody? There's no "there" there in this feud. We all know Holly isn't anywhere near RVD's level and there's no amount of jobbing Van Dam out to him that would change anyone's mind. So just book an extreme match, have RVD slaughter him, and then RVD says "Fuck this, I want the Big Show and the title and I want it NOW!" But since there is no PPV until December we get a bunch of placeholder snoozer feuds.

Wouldn't that be the first time that the WWE and World champs would oppose each other since Lesnar split the belts by going to SD? You gotta love them not jobbing Cena and sending him to SD, only to put him on SD anyway to spark interest.

Wasn't SD taped tonight as well? Anyone got spoilers for that show?

I don't mind DX staying around as a team, but they have to end the in ring aspect of Vince and Shane against them. What's the point anymore? If DX is staying around get some real opponents in there with them.

Ok guys, here are my original predictions from page 1 along with the actual results and some thoughts: Oakland at Baltimore: You gotta be kidding me, right? Oakland looked helpless in the first game, Ravens looked great. Baltimore by at least 21. (I nailed this one, not too hard though. 1 for 1) Buffalo at Miami: Bills had their chance at the upset in NE, but blew it of course. They'll compete here and maybe pick off Culpepper a couple times, but lose again by about 6. (Well I was right about Culpepper sucking ass, but underestimated the Bills. 1 for 2) Houston at Indianapolis: Assbeating, thy name is the Texans. Colts by 21. (Another no brainer. 2 for 3) Tampa Bay at Atlanta: I have to wonder, are the Bucs really that bad? Are the Falcons really that good? I'll go with Ron Mexico here by about 7. (Falcons won by 11 actually, close enough. 3 for 4) Detroit at Chicago: This will be an ugly, ugly game. Lions aren't quite as helpless as the Packers at this point, but the Bears should still hold them on D. Something like a 13-3 game. (Bears are looking solid on offense as well as defense, look dangerous. 4 for 5) Cleveland at Cincinnati: Rivalry game, so the Browns will bring an effort. Won't matter though, Bengals by 14. (Bengals won by 17, another no brainer. 5 for 6) New Orleans at Green Bay: How far have the Packers fallen when they are home underdogs to the SAINTS? I can't in good conscience pick N.O. here though....Pack by 3 if they have any pride left. (Guess the Packers don't have any pride left...or talent. 5 for 7) Carolina at Minnesota: Interesting game. It might sound crazy but I'll take the Vikings here in a tough one by about 6, sending the Panthers to a surprising 0-2. (Vikings continuing to carry over the wins from last year with Brad Johnson. 6 for 8) NY Giants at Philly: Maybe the best game of the day. Giants can't afford to go 0-2, so by hook or crook they have to pull this one off. NY by 3 on a late FG by the maligned Feeley. (Nailed this one, and it was the best game of the day. 7 for 9) 4:00: St. Louis at San Francisco: Rams seem to struggle once a year with the Niners, but I don't see it for some reason. Rams by 10. (I didn't listen to my own warning. 7 for 10) Arizona at Seattle: I am so close to picking upset, if it was in AZ I might. Seahawks get another major scare and get a late TD to win it by 7. (Not really a big scare, Seahawks win though. 8 for 11) Kansas City at Denver: Jake Plummer can't possibly be as bad as he was last week, and with Trent Green hurt the Broncos should take this one by 14 at home. (Ouch. The Broncos struggled here with the Chiefs, minus Green. I guess I'll say 9 for 12) New England at NY Jets: Pats should put up another uninspiring win against a bleh opponent. NE by 5. (The usual here. 10 for 13) Tennessee at San Diego: This one won't be pretty. Chargers in another romp, maybe 35-10. (40-7 actually. No brainer. Titans might be the worst team on earth. Maybe they should play the Raiders to find out for sure. 11 for 14) Washington at Dallas: Redskins have a short week and have to go to Dallas. Cowboys can't afford to go 0-2 with a home loss. Dallas by 7. (Cowboys won by 17 actually, Washington struggling big time. 12 for 15)

I didn't know there were such things as separate WCW contracts for guys in 2001. I do remember having an RVD shirt from the Invasion era that had WCW on the logo, which has to be some kind of novelty. The irony was that RVD was never really WCW in the Invasion, he was still very much ECW. I remember the original WWF planned WCW relaunch had RVD, Booker, and Bagwell among the major stars. Maybe DDP too. RVD was really mysterious in late 2000 and early 2001. He largely vanished from ECW after Anarchy Rulz 2000 (where he jobbed to Rhino), mainly due to Heyman not paying him. Since ECW was on its last legs and lost its TNN deal it was hard to tell he was actually gone. I think he really only missed N2R 2000 and maybe Massacre on 34th Street, before then turning up on the last ECW PPV ever against Jerry Lynn. After that he basically vanished until July when he and Dreamer ran in from the crowd on Raw, still one of the greatest and most shocking angles I've ever seen on Raw. Of course they blew it an hour later, but that's another story.

In all honesty I don't think working UT at WM has any benefits if you're his opponent. If you lose, you become a statistic in the streak. If you are the "lucky guy" who ends the streak people will say you're unworthy and hate your guts (in a legit fashion).

This PPV had booking tonight that was just beyond terrible in certain instances. Yes, I enjoyed DX finally killing Vince dead. Trish winning was also nice and would have remained nice had they not used it as a lame way to get Orton some token heel heat by badmouthing Trish. Here's the stuff I had issue with: --Keeping the IC on Nitro.....why? After that dreadful press conference they needed to job him the fuck out. I don't care if it was to Jeff. --Double countout in Umaga/Kane....again, why? If Umaga actually is going to challenge for the title shouldn't he be willing matches against guys without much left in the tank like Kane? --Keeping the tag belts on the Spirit Squad. This is the most idiotic finish of the night. It's not that I care one iota about the Highlanders but my god the SS is so incredibly boring and jobbed out at this point. Just end the farce and put the belts on another farce. --Orton winning at all. The guy just failed a drug test and he's now winning a PPV match? What kind of message does this send? --Cena winning. What purpose does this really serve? Cena could be a definite addition to SD, which is ailing for a top face draw at the moment. I'm assuming this is a short term deal just until The Marine tanks at the Box Office, then Edge will end up with it again around the Rumble. I actually did enjoy the HIAC for the most part, it was what it needed to be. Vince and Shane getting their asses kicked. Now please do something, anything else. But really, with these Cena, Orton, and Spirit Squad wins it's like they refuse to realize when someone is a failed experiment. Well, maybe not quite so much Cena but the others.

The Patriots will put together some wins, mainly because they may be in the worst division in football today. Think about this for a minute: The Bills might finish 2nd in that division. As I look at the schedule I'm feeling about 11-5 for the Patriots this year. The losses will be to Cincy, Indy, Jacksonville on the road, Minnesota, and the Bills.

Yeah I recall U of L moving up after the Miami game 2 years ago. Sometimes if you're impressive enough in a loss you can move up. That's usually a team that is lower in the polls though that takes a highly ranked team to the limit. OU was ranked slightly higher than Oregon (though Oregon was favored), so if they lose they likely have to drop a little bit, while Oregon moves up.

I doubt U of L will move up much in the actual AP or coaches polls. Here is the way it'll be depicted: "Oh yeah, Louisville beat Miami but it's obvious that Miami really sucks this year. Besides, without Brohm they aren't any good." I wouldn't put U of L ahead of WVU, not yet anyway. That's what Nov. 2 is all about. If U of L can beat their asses then it's a different story. But that is a long way away....at this point I'm just worried about Kansas St. next week. That one might be more interesting than it needs to be.

Probably much like Road House, he just digs the hell out of TCM 2? I have to say, TCM 2 is certainly a movie that's...different. I think when I watched it I sat in stunned disbelief with my jaw hitting the floor.

When will it ever end? U of L finally puts an assbeating on a major program (Miami) and now I can't even celebrate it because Brohm is hurt. I heard he'll be out maybe 3-5 weeks, which might mean he'll be back in time for the WVU game but who knows. Basically until then it's hold down the fort. I think we can beat Kansas St., Cincy, and Middle TN with Hunter Cantwell.

I too don't understand why they'd give the belt back to Cena again when he has no top level heel to feud with other than Edge (and the thought of Umaga in that spot makes me physically ill). I mean, yeah I know why they'd give him the belt back....The Marine. But what is this? Why just because a guy has a movie coming out does he need the belt back? Do they seriously think people sit around thinking "Oh gee, the WWE champion is in a movie....I gotta see this shit RIGHT NOW!" The people who will go see The Marine will see it regardless of whether Cena has the title or not, and those who don't care about Cena or The Marine won't go anyway. Anyway, this PPV should be a good one with the proper booking. Just wondering but how many PPVs does the UFC have per year? WWE has a buttload of PPVs, so maybe they've oversaturated the market in a way that UFC hasn't.

Yeah but winning fucking WOTY in 1997? I mean come on, there was no one in WCW who should have won it. Hogan was mostly an inactive champion, and I guess Luger got a lame duck 1 week run but that's about it. I can see that vote being legit in some ways, since WCW was much more popular in 1997 and thus would have more viewers and voters. Some of this stuff was utterly retarded though, like DDP/Macho winning Feud of the Year over Bret/Austin. By the way, I think UT should have been Wrestler of the Year in 1997. He held the title from WM till SS that year, and after that was in the first HIAC. He tailed off in the later months of 97, but the previous stuff was possibly his peak as a worker and in terms of overness.

I'm still not sure why Malenko was #1 in 1997. He really didn't have much in terms of accomplishments that year aside from maybe a US title reign of little note. That year has an odd 500. I mean UT was #6 in it behind DDP and Lex Luger. What the fuck did either of them do in 1997? Luger had a 1 week title reign but that's about all he did. DDP didn't win anything in terms of titles that year until Starrcade, which wouldn't be in the grading period. Meanwhile Bret Hart was only #20, though I guess he was inactive from June 1996 till Nov. 1996. One that angered me was 1999, when Austin beat out RVD for #1 (RVD was #2). I mean what more did RVD have to do? He didn't lose a singles match during that entire June 98-June 99 period. Austin lost to Kane during that period, also UT a few times, Mankind, hell I think he even lost to Vince and Shane.

I have to say I hope there actually are some real fans who try to go after Jarrett at that PPV, and that he in turns beat the shit out of them legit.

You know, I remember a few years ago seeing some WWE show where Michael Cole put the badmouth on various gimmick type wrestlers from 10-15 years ago. He mentioned Tatanka as one of these losers. That really pissed me off, since Tatanka was one of the top 5 most popular guys on the roster from 1992-94 I'd say. I mentioned that comment to some friends who were also pissed that Cole would group Tatanka with the Goons, TL Hoppers, and Mantaurs of the world. Anyway, SD is at least on here at 12:30am, but I dunno if I really care enough to watch it or tape it. SD is the sort of show that when it's on in its regular slot I'll watch it, but I dunno if I want to go out of my way. I'll likely watch again when it debuts on the CW next week.

Honestly, I don't think they even could strip USC of a title, mainly because college football doesn't have a legitimate title. It's a sponsored type deal with the BCS. If the NCAA had a sanctioned title then they could strip them of a title.

My point is this though: Hall was booked to simply go out and squash Jericho. That was it. He at least gave Jericho a fluke win, which gets Jericho a bit more over than him just getting squashed and buried.

Okay, I watched the show tonight for my favorite angle (sarcasm). Let me get this straight. Earl Hebner does a blatant screwjob to get JJ the belt back. There is VIDEO PROOF of him doing it. And since JJ convincingly lied on a polygraph Jim Cornette now reinstates Hebner. I mean, this stuff is just mindboggling.

Yeah but according to that Hall was supposed to simply squash Jericho and he did an audible to at least attempt to get Jericho over.

Goldberg's best stuff isn't anywhere near as good as Warrior's best stuff (vs. Hogan and Savage). I discussed this Goldberg streak thing in another WCW thread. The problem was not so much that he jobbed to Nash and his streak was over. It was that he didn't do shit after that. If Goldberg loses to Nash and simply regained it at that infamous Jan. 4 Nitro (with the Fingerpoke) I think things would be much different. Goldberg being screwed over was a storyline they could have run with, but they didn't do shit with him.