cabbageboy

Oh, I'm betting that Edge will do his "shoot" promo type stuff all over Sabu and RVD tonight. The thing I found odd is the cop smelling marijuana, especially if RVD and Sabu weren't lighting up. I assumed it was smoke that the cop smelled. Unless he had a drug dog how did he just smell out the marijuana? Perhaps he recognized Van Dam and figured he ought to check for weed, haha. Ah hell. RVD outta have a Folgers can or something to put his stash in, so the coffee aroma would mask the weed.

I don't think anyone knows yet whether the painkillers were prescribed or not. In all honesty Edge mentioning this on Raw might be a way of cutting off any controversy before it starts. He did mention the Flair road rage incident and then no one really cared or worried about that afterwards. Hell, Vince will probably rant at RVD and Sabu behind the scenes and then they'll do some tongue in cheek TV bits. Stuff like RVD emerging from smoke filled rooms or silly bits like "Hey I've been preparing for my match tonight by reading a bunch of comics, munching on cheetos, and watching marathons of Scooby Doo."

When I first saw this story I thought "I can't believe this shit." Here's the thing about the WWE wellness policy. It is mostly there for the steroid stuff and the hard drugs. Do I think Vince will fire RVD or Sabu? Nah. The timing of this is really, really horrible considering these guys accounted for about 90% of the decent stuff on ECW last week, not to mention RVD having TWO world title belts. If anything they could actually use this incident to get RVD some bad boy heat. It's not like everyone didn't know about him being a pothead....he did an interview with High Times magazine. Even last year Heyman at ONS said "I've been out smoking a joint with Van Dam." And this year Foley even ragged on RVD and others in ECW smoking weed in the ONS build.

I don't think Vince was ever mad at Bret for signing with WCW. It was his stubborn refusal to just drop the belt. The neverending fascination with Montreal lies in the idea that no one was really right and both Bret and Vince have a point. Vince in the end was pissed that Bret would use his "creative control" clause over something like jobbing the belt on his way out. It was something he had to do. Nobody would have thought anything of it once he debuted on WCW (hell Jeff Jarrett jobbed to Chyna on his way out of the WWF, debuted on WCW the next night, nobody cared about his previous loss). What I think goes unexamined is this aspect: Why was Shawn Michaels in this match at all? Bret had major problems working with him, so why not just job Shawn to UT at HIAC, hold off on the Kane debut a bit longer, and then have UT beat Bret at Survivor Series. They could still do UT/Shawn in the casket match, maybe debut Kane in that scenario and have him cost his brother the WWF title. Bret/Shawn outside of Canada was a bizarre heel/heel matchup that wasn't terribly marketable. So I say have UT go into Montreal, Bret wouldn't have minded jobbing to him, and the crowd likely wouldn't have shit on UT beating Bret. It gives UT the blowoff against Bret at least, and they can resume UT/Shawn right after it and forget the goofy Shamrock push.

Not necessarily true. Last week I took notice when RVD beat Angle clean on ECW. And like HHH or not, stuff like Benoit making him tap at WM or Batista beating him in the HIAC does mean something.

I've never heard Sabu cut a promo. Most of the stuff in that vein was RVD, Bill Alfonso, and him and RVD mostly cut him down in hilarious fashion.

What I'm amazed about is Orton apparently thought this match would be a major WM match. Has he not gotten the memo that Vince has still got this hardon for Hogan/Austin (what happened to those rumors)? Let's face it, regardless of this Brooke aspect the match is going to involve Hogan burying Orton. Why not? Orton doesn't deserve a win over Hogan, hell he doesn't even deserve to look decent in the feud. As long as there is a shot of Hogan doing something important at WM next year there's no way in hell he's jobbing to Orton or looking bad in a feud. After SS Orton will likely go into a feud with HHH and get buried some more. Then he might screw around with Cena for a while, since some people have a peculiar fascination with that match. And let's just say I don't like Randall's chances in that feud either. Basically, they might as well cut their losses and release Orton. From all we've heard he's a backstage cancer, he's regressed big time as a worker (let's face it, some matches like the ONS match with Angle actively spoof how bad Orton is with the restholds), he's got no heat or charisma, and perhaps most importantly nobody buys him beating anyone of note at this point due to all the jobbing he's done. Did anyone care that he beat Angle at Vengeance? Or Kane on Raw last week? Not really. It was just a boring groan.

That's kind of the point though. Superman drew major money in 1978 and Batman drew big in 1989. For the past 15-20 years though Marvel has been much more popular than DC. I do think the next Batman movie will make more than the Begins did. Let's face it, Begins had some things going against it and it still did 200 million or so domestic. It had to overcome the Schumacher films and the bad taste those left, as well as the fact that it was lacking a real money drawing villain.

Would Shaq reprise his celebrated role as Steel? I dunno about doing that entire storyline. It was widely read I suppose but I don't recall particularly LIKING it. I'd rather see a really cool movie of Knightfall. After the way Joel Schumacher portrayed Bane in Batman and Robin I think we are all owed that much. The only doubts I have about that would be Azrael. Would the average filmgoer accept him subbing for Bruce Wayne as Batman, or accept Bane beating Batman's ass initially?

You're right, Deon. In regards to the kid in Superman Returns: Anyway, I have no real strong feelings towards this movie either way. It was like watching 1983's blockbuster in 2006. Truth be told I think Superman is slightly passe (as is DC in general..aside from a few major storylines Marvel has been more popular over the past 20 years). You can't really reimagine Superman like Batman, since the 1978 film was pretty definitive in terms of an origin, whereas there really wasn't a definite origin tale for Batman. And really, isn't Luthor getting stale as the only real film villain of note for Superman? Let's mix it up here a bit, get SOMEONE else from his nearly 70 years of comics into the movies.

Whoever does that Ava part has to be comfortable with being nude for like 60% of the scenes though. I don't care for the Argento, Belucci, or Hayek picks because I believe all of them have some kind of foreign accent, and this character never struck me that way. It's more of a classic noir type femme fatale and they need a much hotter, big tits Barbara Stanwyck. This movie could be better than the first, since A Dame To Kill For is a great book. Who knows what this other material in the film will be like though.

Why do I have a feeling that the RVD/Show match wasn't THAT bad, but that this guy was expecting something else? Probably more like the hardcore title match they had some years ago on Raw. While I don't think it is a great idea to announce a certain match is ECW rules, it's not a bad idea to keep the violent mayhem contained to 1-2 matches a night. In later era ECW like 1999-2000 the violent stuff was contained to garbage brawls with New Jack, Sandman, and Co. and the rest of the card was more straightforward wrestling.

Okay this has me stoked now. RVD/Sabu vs. Cena/Flair vs. Edge/Foley. I thought about Edge/Orton but that team just...sucks. The funny aspect of this is Raw would be the first RVD/Sabu teaming like 6-7 years, and I bet JR and the King don't put it over or give a shit.

1. I don't turn Cena off because he's involved with stuff on Raw that is too important to dismiss. Crap like Umaga? Yeah I will turn him off from time to time, simply because I know he's just squashing a jobber. Anyway I've watched Raw since the very first show and Prime Time before it and there's certainly been much worse than what we're getting right now. The show might not be at its absolute zenith, but it's not horrible either. Of course, since RVD is my favorite active wrestler I'm glad to see him get the title. 2. I'm not really a Cena disser. Not a huge fan either, in reality I might be one of the few who really doesn't care about him either way. That said, I actually prefer him to the other rookie guys they've brought up and pushed beyond their merits (Lesnar, Orton, etc). 3. As far as Cena working better on a Raw with more superior wrestlers and booking....fuck no. Are you kidding me? This is exactly what got him booed out of buildings, facing guys that are seen by most fans as being superior wrestlers or entertainers to him. On SD who was he really feuding with that was any good or remotely credible? Booker T. has no real credibility left, not enough to turn fans to his side accidentally. Carlito was a green piece of dogshit when he was on SD (though I think he's improved a lot in the past year). Renee Dupree? Kenzo Suzuki? Then of course JBL and the Cabinet? These are all jobbers for the most part that couldn't possibly win a crowd to their side, aside from perhaps JBL who is such a heel the crowd could never cheer him. Put him on Raw and lo and behold he actually has to wrestle some credible opponents. Jericho was totally jobbed out and buried and he even got the crowd to back him 50/50 vs. Cena. It only got worse when he faced much more credible opponents like Angle and HHH. Cena is recovering his heat, mainly because they went back to the successful SD formula of him facing guys that the crowd thinks are a joke (Spirit Squad for instance) or by facing a guy that is such an unlikable heel that the crowd is forced to side with Cena (JBL on SD, Edge on Raw). There's also RVD but the crowd reactions with him and Cena have been too bizarre to consider a barometer of Cena's heat.

I'd say Kane will team with Cena. Regardless of how much they want us to forget Carlito's past heel actions, he DID have Cena stabbed in a nightclub. If you were Cena would you team with that guy? Unless RVD is a moron he'll pick Sabu. That said, if RVD and Sabu do team against two makeshift teams they better fucking win that match.

Having watched that Kevin Smith Q and A I am glad that the Jon Peters/Tim Burton stuff never got made. Cause that sounded really, really bad. It would have done for Superman what Batman and Robin did for the Dark Knight. What was going on at Warner Bros. about 10 years ago anyway? Were these people completely insane?

Don't ask me why but I just have a hunch Balkman will be a solid pro. Maybe not a 1st round pick level career, but a solid journeyman. Hell, he was the one guy on South Carolina over the past 3 or so years that made any impression on me. Of course, he'll likely be a decent player for someone besides the Knicks.

I'd laugh if Booker got a world title shot after jobbing about 10 times to Bobby Lashley. I'd laugh even more if Booker actually won the title. Let's face it, there is going to have to be some kind of transition guy to Batista. SD just needs a major angle though. There's just no there there in regards to SD right now. It's not about anything. Wasn't UT going to reform the Ministry or something?

In regards to ONS, that match was booked almost entirely wrong. They made Cena look almost too good in the match, gave him entirely too much offense, and RVD didn't get in half the stuff I was hoping. I was wanting this insanely epic encounter where RVD hit the Van Terminator, Van Daminator, did the crazy somersault into the 5th row....and we didn't really get all that. As far as RVD goes, I don't understand why people denigrate him for doing the same spots. It's called his moveset. Every notable wrestler has his spots that he works into a match. And of late we saw a variation on Rolling Thunder where RVD is on the middle rope and covers the length of the ring.

I don't really think that the title will change on SNME either. Where would Vince like to save the big dramatic title change more than anyplace else? Summerslam. Let's face it, the top angle on the new ECW right now is this RVD/Edge/Cena situation. If RVD simply loses on July 15 then where do you go with the remaining weeks on Sci Fi? If Sci Fi wants that WWE crossover appeal then they might get pissy about the Raw guys suddenly not being on the show. In other words I think RVD will keep the belt until ECW is safely on Sci Fi for an extended contract.

Gotta love the title match result: Larry Z. in a draw vs. Greg Gagne. Still, I won't give the AWA too much shit. At least their downfall goes in the normal "push the owner's son" category. Nowhere in the same realm with WCW.

Yeah and it was ultra retarded last year to do such a huge angle with far less people watching. The rest of that Raw was really horrible too, so I was stunned something as important as Michaels turning on Hogan went down. Anyway, Edge is jobbing.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this RVD's first ECW defense on TV? He'd look kinda bad if he just jobbed the belt in his first televised defense. And yeah, doing stuff like giving away Tanaka/Awesome title changes on free TV is one reason why ECW went under. They had those awesome matches on TV then expected people to pay to see Awesome vs. Spike Dudley.

Just think about this for a minute. This show is on the 4th of July. Do you honestly think they will do any sort of title change on an ECW TV show on the 4th of July that will do jack shit in terms of a rating? I think Edge eventually will get a title run, but it'll be later in the year. Cena will get the belt around the time The Marine comes out. Edge will get it around Survivor Series and then he'll probably end up jobbing to HHH.

You know what's sad about that Balkman pick? If he'd been a guy who had been signed as a free agent with no hype by the Knicks he could be a decent journeyman for them. He still might be, but I'm amazed anyone would use a 1st round pick on Balkman. There's a difference between "decent journeyman" and "1st rounder."