cabbageboy

Jersey Girl wasn't a horrible film, but it wasn't really GOOD either. It was the exact sort of film that Smith's fanbase doesn't want to see from him. Hell, it's the sort of film he himself would have ridiculed 10 years ago. It's pretty much the definition of a ** type movie.

Well I didn't pay full rental for it. I got it (and also Phantoms, which was a free rental) on an overnight rental for 1.99. I didn't really think it was too bad really, aside from Madsen's blatant cash the paycheck performance. I mean seriously, I was in awe of how much he didn't give a shit. To be honest I really don't think a lot of Boll stuff is THAT bad, not like 2.2 on imdb.com level bad. Aside from Alone in the Dark, which was truly a hideous atrocity I'd show people if I was going to torture them. House of the Dead? Eh, it had some fun gore and killing in it. I will say the end credit music from Alone in the Dark had me almost rolling on the floor. Some kind of German rock band, haha.

I seriously doubt the reactions tonight will matter one bit when it comes to ONS. This is one of those things they needed to have mapped out months ago, you can't just change stuff the week before. Not when it comes to relaunching an entire brand. It's funny but on pwinsider.com they have a poll up on the various scenarios for Sunday. Right now there are more people who think Sabu will beat Rey than think RVD will beat Cena. How sad is that? The most votes went for the option of "One of the titles will change hands but will be followed by a reversal or screwjob."

I said it back in Dec. I hated the way Denham was portrayed in this film. It's like on some level Peter Jackson had no grasp of the original character at all, and thus just portrayed him as a sleazebag movie producer who conned everyone, sent his men out to die, didn't care, etc. Denham in the original is basically our main protagonist. He made some mistakes in his attempts to seek adventure and get rich, but he had a certain cameraderie with the crew that was lacking in the new film. And I know it's a cheesy sequel, but Son of Kong is worth seeing for some interesting Denham characterization showing his guilt ridden he was over the whole debacle in NYC. Think about this for a minute: I actually think the effects in the 1933 film are more realistic looking! Some of the dinosaurs in that looked about as real as they could for that time.

Owen going against Austin at SS 98 would have been oh so lame. Why on earth would anyone think Owen had a shot against Austin? He jobbed to the guy after breaking his neck. Then once Austin got back he basically squashed Owen at S. Series 97. And Austin had actually gotten more popular and dominant in the year after those events. In the end it is all a matter of money. Austin vs. UT is a much bigger money drawing match than Austin beating Owen's ass. I think if Michaels was healthy they could have done a throwaway PPV match with him vs. Shawn. Maybe at like No Way Out 98. After that, just go to the Owen/HHH feud. After all, HHH needed someone fairly notable to feud with at that point.

What does it say about the build for RVD/Cena that I am actually almost more interested in Rey/Sabu. I think sometimes having no build at all is better than a mediocre build. One thing that I think needs to be said is that ECW was hardly garbage style wrestling in the late 1990s. Sure, they had New Jack, Balls and Axl, guys like that. But they also had guys like Lance Storm, Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, Super Crazy and some guys who could mix it up in either style (RVD, Taz, Sabu sometimes). If anything the most ECW got into the garbage wrestling was in 1996-97, that general area of time. That was after they had lost guys like Eddie, Malenko, Benoit but had yet to really bring in many scientific guys to replace them. And the guys they did sign like RVD and Storm were a couple of years away from making a big impact.

Last year's Finals sucked so much dick. 4-5 of the games were practically unwatchable, either blowouts or all around bad play. There were maybe 2 games that were somewhat interesting, namely the Robert Horry game and the 7th game. It goes up there with the 1994 Finals in terms of really long, really bad series. I don't think you guys get what I mean. When I said this finals should be the most interesting and even in a long time, it's because there is no surefire winner. The East was so bad in the post Jordan era that it led to a bunch of really lame finals. The Pacers put up a mild fight in 2000, but I doubt anyone thought they had a chance. The Sixers with Iverson? No shot. The Nets? Ha!

Here is one thing being overlooked here: The Heat were the better team last year. Let's face it, Riley trading everyone and signing a bunch of new guys really didn't matter a hell of a lot either way. The fact is that when it came down to playing the Pistons this time they had a healthy Wade. Last year Wade was injured the last couple of games and the Pistons got a series win they didn't really deserve. This will be the first finals in forever that will be actually worth seeing. I really haven't been interested in the NBA Finals since the Bulls were winning it. Since then the East has largely been mediocre/bad. Seriously, has there been a good finals of late? All 3 of the Lakers wins from 2000-2002 were lame, Spurs/Nets should never be discussed again, Lakers/Pistons was a bizarre non series, and last year's may have gone 7 but it was a truly terrible 7. This year will be good and the teams will look fairly even going in. Heat/Mavs would be good, as would Heat/Suns.

I guess there really wasn't a solid contender for Shawn at that point. Besides that show was built around the draw of the Buried Alive. Deon, WCW did really stupid shit even before the Hogan deal. How about any time Cactus Jack flirted with the main event in WCW? I recall Beach Blash 1992, which is a very solid show, but the booking of the Sting/Cactus street fight is idiotic. The announcers practically ignore the match to focus on Sting's upcoming defense at the OMNI in Atlanta (why yes, this was Bill Watts era WCW). The title wasn't even on the line here I might add. Oh, and the announcers also hyped Sting's issue with Vader more than the Cactus feud that was playing out at that PPV! It was really insulting to Foley really, since this was a match he called one of the best of his career. On that same show they also had the Steamboat/Rude Iron Man match and it wasn't even for the US title! I mean seriously, what the fuck was WCW thinking? Did they not realize you need stuff like title matches on a PPV?

Yeah that Flair/Macho match was full of interference. I know Razor made his first real mark there when he injured Savage (who then passed out in the Figure 4). Yokozuna might not have won the WWF title cleanly but most of his defenses were clean wins, aside from the goofy RR match with UT.

Damn, I need to check out that Hardcore Heaven 2000 show again. I mostly remember Tanaka and Balls beating the shit out of each other with chairs. RVD and Balls had loads of fun matches. The Anarchy Rulz match in my view gets flack because it simply wasn't the advertised match, but instead a match that had been on plenty of ECW TV shows over the past year before it. I kinda wanted to see RVD vs. Johnny Smith, since I'd long heard of Smith but had not seen him in action. To me, 1998 was RVD's breakout year. With Shane Douglas injured for most of it Van Dam was really the guy who kept the company credible as TV champion. He and Sabu were also PWI's runner up for tag team of the year (to the New Age Outlaws....I ask you guys, who would YOU take in a fight?).

Why the hell would Angle screw RVD? Hey, I'm going to ECW, so what should I do? How about screw the guy out of the title that I could face for the title later thus for the moment leading to ECW having no belt. As I said, there are ways to have Sabu job here without doing any damage to him (well, not heat wise anyway, maybe physically). If he does a flip through a table in the 5th row and Rey rolls him back in and pins him, I don't think anyone would mind that Sabu jobbed. There is no getting around the fact that SOMEONE--either RVD or Sabu--has to win a title here. I mean they can't book an ECW themed PPV and then just job out the actual ECW guys that will be expected to draw the money for the new ECW. I know WWE has done some dumb things, but no one could possibly be that retarded. PongKong, as far as your precious Cena goes, I imagine they can do some sort of cheesy Dusty Finish or Vince can simply announce him vs. Edge at the next PPV for the now vacant WWE title.

Well I dunno how reliable www.comicpriceguide.com is but I took a look at the Deathmate books on there. If they are CGC graded then they might be worth the cover charge. If they aren't and are less than NM condition then they are worth like 2.50. I don't know what made me think of this whole crossover. Maybe it was my brother looking through my old comics and then checking out Valiant on Wikipedia. It's pretty funny to compare the Valiant entry on there to Image. With Valiant they were practically waxing poetic, whereas with Image it was like "Fuck Rob Liefeld! Fuck these assholes and their late arriving books with overly flashy art and uninteresting characters!" As an aside, I haven't bought any comics since 1994 until recently when I found a Solar #1 at a local store for 8.00. I also have some old school Valiant stuff coming in the mail. I am getting Rai #0-4, and also 6-7 from this guy, as well as Magnus #1 and #12 (first Turok). Oh, and I'm getting Harbinger #1 as well. The lone Image I'm getting is a Spawn #1 since I traded my copy years back and regretted it. I don't really understand this whole CGC grading thing though. Mainly it sounds like a way to screw people out of money.

Well, there's the flat out marking out that people did during the final tap out sequence. I don't have much to add to the overall list, but wildpegasus just has this bizarre, unwarranted hard on for that Benoit/Lesnar match. I even got into in another thread, saying Benoit beating Brock at WM XX wouldn't have meant anything compared to beating HHH. Maybe I need to rewatch that match, since I don't recall it being much beyond a *** TV match.

I dunno, are you sure about that? That dude Big Al didn't really look a whole lot like 911 to me. Did 911 cut his dark hair and get a blond buzzcut look?

I think Rey might get shit on more than Cena. It's not like the ECW enjoyed his appearance last year, and add to it they might well react against him having the belt at all and also might trash him for the notion that he used Eddie's death to get himself over. They won't put the title on Sabu. It makes for a fun dream match scenario, but it really won't hurt Sabu much to job to the world champ. Besides, Sabu is a former ECW heavyweight champ anyway. It's RVD that desperately needs to go over.

There are ways to work around this. Look, no one is going to care THAT much if Sabu jobs as long as he does some insane shit and practically kills himself. The excitement of Sabu is not seeing him win, but seeing him take an asskicking and come back for more. Besides, what the hell sort of hype is there for this match? I have heard nothing about Rey dropping the belt anytime real soon. The crowd in theory shouldn't mind Rey beating Sabu all that much, since Sabu is obviously past his prime (though I could be wrong, and I'll get to that in a minute) and as mentioned Rey was in ECW. That said, Rey got one of the worst responses last year at the show of the non invader guys. I actually think he might get a worst response in some ways than Cena, given how he's been booked and the possibility of the ECW fans shitting on him for using Eddie to get himself over.

I never personally bought the Liefeld issue, so I can't really vouch for the crappiness of it. I'm actually semi interested in finding a cheap copy so I can finish the series. I think aside from the catastrophic damage it did to the comic industry, there were fundamental flaws in the approach the books had. I checked out the issues I did have (Blue, Yellow, and Black) and I'll be damned if I knew who half of these Image jobbers were. What does it say when Spawn wasn't in the entire series (save for a brief cameo) and Savage Dragon wasn't in it? This speaks to the huge problem I had with Image, namely that the characters were tedious. I'd think most people walking into this series had some notion of who X-O, Turok, Solar, etc. were and what they do. But I had no idea about Cyber Force, WildCATS, Gen 13, Brigade, and so on. I had a vague notion of Supreme and Union. The Valiant stuff at least had things boiled down into 4 stories per book with clear mentions of what characters were in the story. Then I pick up Deathmate Black and it's a baffling book with no mention of who the hell is in it, it's all one really long and bizarre story, and it made little sense. And in the end, what difference did most of Black, Blue, Yellow, and Red end up making? The main stuff boils down to the unholy alliance of Solar/Supreme/Master Darque/Dr. Eclipse anyway, so most of this stuff is window dressing.

Yeah I could care less that they are doing this one in color. I always assumed the original movie was in B and W due to the extremely low budget. Nothing else Clerks related has been in B and W, not even the Soul Asylum video with the guys. I'm quite looking forward to this movie and I think that its box office performance will surprise some people. In the 5 years since Smith's last movie (no I am not counting Jersey Girl) I think his films have attracted a lot more fans.

Bah, no KY on there anywhere. But given the KY athletic commision's stance on blood in matches, I guess ECW coming here will always be unlikely. They never came here.

Well, he's had the best match nearly every week he's been on Raw since his return. Does that not count for anything? I think this thread has accidentally brought up something that I've thought about for a while. Much of the notion of RVD being bad on the mic is mainly WWE having no clue and having him do promos that don't fit him whatsoever. Van Dam shouldn't be cutting bitter, angry promos on a weekly basis....it is jarring and not what fans like from him. I think it was on youtube.com that I saw an old ECW RVD interview hyping his match with Taz at N2R 99. It was hilarious. He trashed Taz in mocking fashion like "Oh gee Taz, we get to find out who the top guy in the company really is. Did you ever have anyone come up to you after one of your 4 minute world title defenses and say 'That was the greatest match ever!?'" Van Dam is not bad on the mic, not when he does what he is actually GOOD at on the mic. He can cut the occasional bitter shoot type promo, but it has to be when he is legit upset about something. The worked anger at Cena just came off like someone misplaced RVD's stash. I can't see RVD jobbing at ONS. Yet they've already leaked the Vengeance poster. It's a real mess. The reason I can't see him jobbing is that Heyman is booking the show (with Vince nominally overseeing it). Let's face it, if they job RVD in any way, shape, or form at that PPV then his career is over. Finished. He's fucked. ECW would also be fucked as well, because no one would buy him on top there and frankly no one would buy it as a legit alternative if they just put the title on Angle. And if RVD jobs there and then wins an ECW tourney for the belt, he'd still come off like a jobber and the belt would look 2nd rate. I think the most likely thing is some sort of silly Dusty Finish with a WWE ref being bumped, ECW ref counts 3 for RVD, the next night Vince reverses it and Cena is champ, but RVD has already taken that belt and become the new ECW champion.

I think the crowd honestly is highly confused by the whole angle. That is most of the problem. The west coast venues certainly don't help any, but here are some other problems RVD is facing at the moment: 1. John Cena's heat has recovered in recent weeks. Maybe it's the west coast locales, I dunno but Cena has been 80% cheered since Backlash. 2. RVD did what appeared to most fans as a heel turn. Let's face it, when you get in a guy's face, talk shit to him, then attack him that is the mark of a heel. 3. Cena is an innocent bystander in all of this. Seriously, why is Cena holding the title going into this show? He has no anti ECW agenda, if anything he's been Van Dam's ally in the past. Cena actually IS in the right here. Anyway, fans simply don't know how to react to this angle. What's the deal here? Cena desperately needs to cut some kind of promo badmouthing ECW or something As far as RVD phoning it in at ONS...not a chance. If he actually tanks it at that show after being so upset at missing last year's PPV, then I give up on the guy.

Orlando Jordan released May 26, 2006 "World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of WWE Superstar Orlando Jordan. WWE wishes him all the best in his future endeavors." I think that says it all. I can't find it anywhere else at the moment but just on wwe.com.

I am about to say something that will draw heaps of scorn and ridicule: The UT/Yokozuna match wasn't that bad of an idea. There, I said it. Now I will explain myself. First off, the actual work in the match wasn't all that bad before the 10 jobbers run in. Second, how do you book it otherwise? Yoko wasn't losing the title till WM and yet they didn't want UT to simply lose his terrifying gimmick match. Thus everyone in my view ended up coming out of this looking good: --Fuji and Yoko come out looking like heel masterminds for organizing the heel roster to unify for the good (or evil) of taking out UT. Did the Ortons have the stroke or evil genius to unify SD's jobber heels to take out the Taker? I think not. --UT keeps all of his heat and fans heavily anticipate his return (now his return angle vs. the Fake Taker...that was a terrible idea). --Most importantly, the eventual feud ended up drawing really solid money. After UT dispensed with the phony UT, fans were dying to see him get his hands on Yokozuna. I myself recall going to a house show shortly before S. Series 94 and it was a packed house. --Dude, the rematch involved Chuck Norris being the special enforcer and kicking Jeff Jarrett's ass. What more do you need?

Well, ostensibly Flair did a subtle heel turn where he actively contributed to Goldberg losing his new streak and thus losing his career. I remember having to do a presentation in an Effects of Mass Media class in the Spring of 1999. I ended up discussing wrestling and it was the most fun time we had in the class. If I recall, even the chicks in the class realized how crappy WCW was getting.