cabbageboy

Well, I kinda thought RVD was going to retain when it was placed right after the IC title change. I figured there was no way they would change two belts back to back like that. The bizarre logic here is the world title match being in the midcard on a PPV indicates either the heel winning or some sort of non finish. Yet here it was the face retaining, or at least I think RVD is the face. The aspect that sucked is that it was in fact a main event level match.

Well, RVD not changing the belt is funnier than Edge. He at least already has the ECW belt and mostly has the spinner belt to amuse himself. There flat out has to be something more tonight than Cena just beating RVD clean. I'd have rather them just jobbed RVD to Edge last night rather than that scenario.

I wouldn't have minded if Cena had just FU'd Sabu and pinned him. But that was a serious burial on Sabu after they had done such a solid job with him before this. I don't know why but I can't see RVD/Cena going off as planned tomorrow. Edge will run in, or be added, or something. Van Dam losing the title has to be done in a way that protects him since he'll still have ECW's belt and be the main draw on that show. It absolutely cannot be "Missed 5 Star, FU, STFU, bye bye Robbie."

In regards to the Houston Rockets, yeah them winning was pretty much the nadir of the league since it was so obvious they only won because Jordan was retired. I won't give them too much shit about it though because at least Hakeem and Co. took advantage of Jordan's absence. In my view the Phoenix Suns had the best team in both 1994 and 95 but just choked their nuts off the moment they saw the Rockets. That's why I don't have much sympathy for guys like Barkley, Malone, and Ewing. Those guys had their chance in 94-95 and they blew it. Take a look at that 1994 playoffs. The #1 seeds were Atlanta and Seattle, one of whom was a total joke with zero credibility that lost the 2nd round to the Pacers..and the other was (I think) the first #1 seed to lose to an 8. Combine this with the MLB strike in 94 and is it any wonder the NFL became the premiere sport?

Yeah but you know what that Orton/Angle match reminded me of? That crappy Orlando Jordan vs. Benoit match from the GAB last year, right down to the tedious "take the turnbuckle off" spot. Except with this match I half expected this lame result. I mean honestly, what is with this Orton shit? I can at least on some level grasp Cena's Moses push (hey, JR called him Moses tonight), but Orton? He has no heat, no mic skills, he's been jobbed out to the point no one could ever care about him, and his matches are sleep inducing borefests with 80% headlocks. The reason it's stupid is that it's not like Orton is going to do something with this win. With him on Raw they won't put him over HHH. They won't put him over Cena, or if they do it'd be a one match thing with Cena getting the blowoff. So why job anyone of consequence out to Orton at this point?

I enjoyed some aspects of this show tonight, especially the RVD win. Thing is, I am going to be sick tomorrow night if they just job him to Cena the way everyone assumes they will. It's almost so lame and blatant that they can't actually just DO that. I'm assuming Edge will just run in tomorrow or perhaps be added in a 3 way. Then they can do the "Cena and RVD both pin Edge" spot and everyone is happy and has a belt. Why exactly did they job Angle to Orton tonight? Was there any purpose to this? We all know Orton will end up jobbing to HHH, so it's not like this matters or anything. And it hurts Angle's lethal shooter gimmick out of the gate by jobbing to a guy who 1. Has no heat, 2. Is obviously beneath him and has been proven to be beneath him previously. It's like they want ECW to succeed in theory but then once it comes time to put up or shut up they won't actually job some people out in order to get people to take ECW seriously. Shit, they actually job the Raw guys out to SD most of the time to make people take SD seriously (not that it works). They really need to end this cross promotional crap if they want ECW to succeed, because having them all job out to Cena and Orton is really, really horrible. Those two guys are some of the least credible wrestlers on earth to ECW fans. Lastly, that crowd sucked tonight. I mean they wouldn't even pop for a good match. I'd recommend the PPV mostly for the world title and IC matches, but the other stuff was forgettable.

The Spurs are kinda like the bland Bob Backlund 1978-83 babyface, a team that is on top when there's just no better option. As far as the Knicks I meant they were the heel mainly in the early to mid 90s under Riley. The various Riley coached Miami vs. Van Gundy Knicks matchups were basically heel vs. heel matchups. I was actually shocked when I looked back at that 1994 Knicks season that they were the 2 seed in the east. I could have sworn they were the 1 seed and that the 2nd round Bulls series was a 1/4 (it was a 2/3). The Pacers were the 4 seed. The 1 seed was actually the Atlanta Hawks. The friggin HAWKS had a 1 seed! Do you see now why the Jordan retirement years are considered a joke?

One I used to like was an old 1998 RVD shirt, the one with the turquoise letters. It was different from the usual bleak black ECW shirts of the time period.

I really liked the idea of a double title ladder match between RVD and Edge. It'd be a nice way to end the interpromotional Raw/ECW "feud" and would keep both guys strong (each reaches for the belt he wants most). I say do a goofy finish tonight with those two, then do that match at SS with the ladder. Maybe have RVD get DQed tonight for using ECW styles chairs and what not.

CM Punk also uses the AFI song down in OVW. I thought that theme was really cool and eerie sounding so I hope he gets to keep using it.

For some reason WWI movies really make me break down. All Quiet on the Western Front left me a quivering pile of jelly, ditto Hell's Angels. Ironically another Lewis Milestone movie--Of Mice and Men--gave me the same reaction. Milestone directed both All Quiet and Of Mice and Men. As far as The Wild Bunch goes, I never cared about any of those guys enough to weep over them dying. It's another Peckinpah movie that makes me cry like a bitch, namely Ride the High Country. But the absolute top prize for a movie that made me cry like a bitch (and I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it) is.... Armageddon. Seriously, I'm glad I watched that alone the first time I saw it cause it was embarrassing how much I was crying like a bitch during the last half hour.

Well the Can Ams were pretty good, but let's face it...they just weren't Strike Force.

I knew all about the Radicals being on Raw, since the whole falling out with WCW and the WWF signing happened over weeks of time. As far as Nash beating Goldberg, there is a serious revisionist history in regards to this match. I guess hindsight is 20/20 given the fiascos that happened afterwards in WCW. Nash ending Goldberg's streak to me wasn't bad at all. Look, it had to be a really big name guy to end the streak. Someone like Sting, Nash, etc. DDP was the exact guy to take GB to the limit before jobbing, but not actually end the streak. At the time I figured it was just a way to get the streak shit over with since at some point it'd be an albatross on Goldberg's neck. Goldberg losing to Nash the way he did at Starrcade didn't hurt GB much at all...it was what WCW did AFTER Starrcade with GB that killed his heat. Let's say he had actually gotten his rematch at that fateful Jan. 4, 1999 Nitro where the Fingerpoke took place. He'd have beaten Nash and gotten the title back and would again be dominant, but since he lost his matches would have a drama that they lacked when it seemed he couldn't lose. Or....let's say the Fingerpoke still happened and the NWO reunited. You can now have Goldberg go through everyone in the NWO, beat Hall's ass for zapping him, beat Nash's ass, and the finally get to Hogan and regain the title. This could have led to the money drawing Hogan/GB PPV that never happened. Instead we get that whole bizarre Hogan face turn/Flair heel turn that didn't really work and Goldberg drifted away and wasn't anywhere on the show for months. If WCW had done anything at all different from what they did the wrestling world would be a lot different.

The Knicks made the Finals in 1999, albeit in a strike year. Doesn't THAT seem like a long time ago? Hell, the Trailblazers were in the western finals that year as well. The Knicks used to be kind of a guilty pleasure. They at least knew how to play the heel role to perfection.

I can't hardly single out a match during the initial 2002 period, but all the Styles/Lynn/Lo-Ki stuff was great. I also think Chris Sabin vs. Juventud was a really awesome match, but I dunno if it is TNA's best ever. If I flat out had to say a best ever TNA match I'd go with Joe/Styles, the match where Joe won the X title. I give it a nod over the 3 ways with Daniels for a couple of reasons: First, a great 1 on 1 match is preferrable to a great 3 way. Second, I've just never cared about Christopher Daniels.

I wouldn't say Holly gets main event level pops, but he's still a fairly popular veteran. I never had much of a problem with Holly's feud with Lesnar since it was to be: 1. Filler until Brock jobbed to Eddie and 2. A logical feud due to Lesnar breaking his neck. Orlando Jordan is by far the worst champion of any kind, possibly ever. I'm talking worse than David Flair with the US title, which was at least meant to be a joke (and hell, David at least could do a fun psycho, though that was later). He couldn't wrestle, couldn't talk, had zero heat, no charisma. They literally put the US belt on him just to get it off Cena so Cena could win the WWE title, then forgot he even HAD a belt. The only thing that might make Orlando not fit the undeserved push aspect is that I dunno if he was exactly pushed. Even as US champ he still mostly worked Velocity and did nothing of note.

I'd say Shawn Michaels had the Mother of All Undeserved Title Reigns from Survivor Series 1997 till WM 14. So a guy holding it for 5-6 months isn't necessarily a bad thing. Problem is that Shawn was a freshly heel DX character at that point, whereas Jarrett is his usual stale self.

HHH/UT was a forgettable match but I am at least willing to give HHH the benefit of the doubt there since I believe he was injured. I might need to rewatch the Hogan/UT match again. I don't recall being flat out offended by it at the time. I'm telling you, that Austin/UT match is just horribly bad. Putrid on all levels. It was Austin in his ultra fast decline, it had Flair as the ref (and lord he sucked at it), and the match goes almost 30 minutes. You know, UT had a weird run in 2002. He had some matches that were historically bad (the Austin match, HHH match) and yet some of his work that year was really good. The 3 way with Rock and Angle was a real good match, I also kinda enjoy the Flair match from WM. His work with RVD was good as well that year, not to mention him putting over Lesnar in the HIAC. UT's shitty matches that year weren't even really his fault. The HHH match was lousy due to HHH being injured and a generally tedious storyline. The Hogan match was bleh due to it being, well, Hogan in 2002. And the Austin match sucked due to Austin being highly unmotived by that point.

While I did not see this in the credits myself my dad said Ramses was played by Silver King.

I wasn't there live for that KOTR 2002 main event but I did rewatch the HHH/UT match a while back. To be honest it's not all THAT bad. It's at least competent. If you want a shitty UT match from 2002, I suggest the Backlash match vs. Austin. JHawk, since you were there live at KOTR 2002 tell me this....did the crowd go totally dead after Brock beat RVD for the KOTR title?

I am amazed that people here actually defend last year's finals. I mean that series was one of the all time shittiest in history. Roughly 4-5 games in the series were flat out unwatchable and the only remotely interesting games were the Horry game and the 7th game. It was like Rockets/Knicks level bad. This series had 3 blowouts but it also had 3 exciting games. I figured the Mavs would be toast though after that game 5 loss..and they were. As far as the Heat, I don't think they will go on some psycho run from here exactly. Eventually Shaq will get too old to go anymore and retire and other teams will improve. To be honest, I thought the better team actually lost this series. Reminded me of the 1996 World Series in a lot of ways.

In a bizarre way I can see how this could turn out decent for TNA. I'm assuming the idea here is to have Jarrett be a blatantly undeserving champion and then have Joe kill him beyond dead. At least I'd HOPE that is the grand scheme. The main problem is that Jarrett to me inspires no real hate. Maybe he does with the Orlando crowd, but I have always found him too namby pamby to be a serious heel threat. Problem is that he's not all that old so he could hang around for years to come.

It's funny that people mention Booker beating Steiner on the last Nitro, considering Booker was largely jobbed out before that point. Seriously, after he lost to Steiner at Mayhem 2000 Booker was out of the main events for the rest of WCW's run. He got the belt on the final Nitro because he was going to the WWF. Anyway, I don't think anyone is arguing that Booker was an undeserving champion but rather a badly booked champ.

Here's one for you guys: I went to a Raw taping in July 1995. Anyway, the locally advertised main event was Diesel vs. Sid in a cage. After Raw was finished they spent 20 mins. putting up the cage, then Nash and Sid went through the motions for about 5 minutes of crap action. Then Nash hits Sid with a boot to the head and pins him. No cage spots, no intrigue.

You know what's ironic about that Orton injury? Tonight I noticed him selling the arm (which wasn't selling in reality) and making some nice quick tags with Edge in and out, not doing his tedious headlocks....I thought it was one of his better efforts in a while.