cabbageboy

Aw, shit. I honestly had forgotten about that. Thing is, I don't want to lose OVW or ECW or whatever the territory would be. There's been some form of local wrestling in Louisville since time began. I dunno how much it is enforced though. I remember last year in the Jeter/Cappotelli feud Jeter nailed him with a chair and there was sick blood loss. Dean Hill even had it all over his hands.

Here is one fact about the original ECW that is overlooked: Vince was paying Heyman under the table. The WWF let ECW plug PPVs and put their wrestlers on Raw, and they did in fact do the same ECW style acts (aside from the WWF signed guys like Flash Funk). What I'm going to be interested in is how they do this on TV. I'm assuming there will be something major at One Night Stand that will explain this. Also, if this is going to work at some point there will need to be an actual territory. Where will it be? OVW is already located here in Louisville, but what will they do with it? Thinking outside the box, why not just keep the new ECW here? The Louisville area is one part of the country that never had a single ECW show run here, and I think people would be really into it. They could run shows at the Louisville Gardens, a 6000 seat mid sized arena. That's where the old Memphis/USWA ran shows every Tuesday night. Of course the new ECW could still run the obvious places like NYC and Philly, but why relocate everyone? ECW was actually going to run a show at Louisville Gardens in 1999, but for some reason it never got officially booked.

Gotta love Rey being the world champ and he gets put behind a guy who won a HANDICAP match this week. But Edge did beat the mighty HHH, so by divine right he goes ahead of Rey.

Well, thing is I can't see Vince allowing his main show to be ECW now. I'm thinking they'll reintroduce ECW and then Heyman and Co. will do a full scale takeover of SD with RVD as the champion on the show. Cause let's face it, SD is by and large a show with literally NO direction right now. There's some solid action, but no real overall direction. Raw at least has something happening on the show right now. SD's roster is thin and also has more ECW guys on it than Raw (which has just RVD I think).

I'll go ahead and state the obvious: Just change Smackdown over to ECW. You know, if they wanted to do something truly insane they could have Van Dam win the title at One Night Stand, then throw it down a la Shane Douglas and proclaim himself the new ECW champ. Cause let's face it, if they are really going to relaunch ECW they are going to need champions and such, right?

Oh it seems like every year analysts try to hype some 7/8 seed jobber in a series with the 1 or 2 seeds. I remember last year some thought Memphis could beat Phoenix the first round. It turned out to be a 4 game squash of a series. Having four rounds of 7 games is an incredible bore, but they do it to make a bit of extra money. I used to prefer the days when Jordan and the Bulls would make quick work of the Washington Bullets or whoever in 3 games and then move on.

Yeah but the thing is this goofy Kane stuff is part of his character and gimmick. He's a lunatic nutjob character. This psycho shit he's doing right now is likely their idea of giving him a bigger push. Can we get a clarification on that 6 man? Did RVD pin Shelton or Striker? If he pinned Striker that makes sense, but pinning Shelton clean before Backlash would be moronic.

That's ultimately what is terrifying about zombies though. Sure, you can beat the shit out of a bunch of them, but eventually you make that ONE mistake and they just keep coming. I have to say that I like the first Evil Dead the least as well. Mainly because I don't think Ash had really become that central character. That one dude Scott is just as important for much of the film. Ash doesn't really stand out for most of it.

To some extent I don't think MX gets what I meant about matches like Bret/Owen. I was positively not belittling the match in any way, just that I think the match was too good to go on first. Problem with WM X is this: What would have opened instead? I can't see the ladder match opening (it was way too good as well), the title matches had to be saved for later, etc. That would leave Savage/Crush as the only other decent match on an overall mediocre card, but I dunno if I'd open a PPV with two guys fighting in the back for half of the match. WCW by the year 2000 did the "opener as best match" formula to a distressing degree. They would throw out a crazy ladder match with 3 Count and the Yung Dragons as the opener (or some other similarly exciting cruiser fare) and then the crowd would be spent by the time the main event arrived.

Maybe Cena can form a tag team with Booker T. under his G.I. Bro gimmick? They can hire Greg Gagne as their manager and he can don the Rambo gear once more. I'm baffled at that 6 man tag. Now RVD is teaming with Carlito, the very man who reinjured his knee and kept him out of action for 6 months?? I have to wonder what that means, the clean 5 star on Shelton like that. I'm telling you, this has lame DQ written all over it at the PPV.

I actually do know what Dama means on the Evil Dead movies. While I quite enjoy the Evil Dead movies I have seen others who flat out cannot stand 1 minute of either of the first two. Perhaps those are too bizarre, over the top, graphic, I dunno. Same thing goes for the Romero movies. Though quite honestly Land of the Dead isn't in a league with the first two of the series (I do prefer it to Day though). There are some people who just do not like to see flesh eating zombies.

Eh? I have to think Vince knew going in that Bret and Owen were going to tear it up at WM X. You know what I would have done for that BATB 96 card? Switched the order of Rey/Psychosis and Malenko/Disco. The Rey match was perhaps too good to be the opener, whereas the Malenko match was a hilarious asskicking of Disco and a joy to behold. It'd have been an ideal opener.

Ok wait up. How exactly have ECW fans become this traditionalist group? Isn't that the exact opposite of what ECW was all about?

That Styles interview indicates to me that we're bound to see Cena/RVD at that PPV. To some degree I thought his comments were worked, though I have to say that the bit about "the only thing I haven't called that I want to is Rob Van Dam's victory for the WWE or world title" was interesting.

Am I the only one who still thinks Undertow is Tool's best album? Opiate is cool but as an EP it's hard to really consider it their best album (it's also not representative of their style since). I've never quite gotten the love for Aenima. I just find it a badly produced album that is very muddy sounding and outside of the well known singles there really isn't much there. Lateralus was an album I thought really sucked when I first heard it, but I have since warmed up to it. At first I found it way too long, full of aimless songs that run 8 minutes without doing anything for half of that run time. Of course I also listened to it often around the time of Sept. 11, so maybe that says something about the frame of mind one needs to be in to enjoy Tool.

Maybe I need to watch that PPV again? I tend to be somewhat down on the Justin Credible reign of terror in ECW circa 2000, but in retrospect that PPV was cool. Adam, I know how you feel though. I had seen RVD some when I first got ECW here in Louisville in 1996, also saw him on Raw in that bizarre crossover angle, but had never really SEEN him until that Bam Bam Bigelow match in 1998 where he won the TV title. The insane flip into the 5th row is one of the few times I've ever jumped out of my chair over a wrestling match. Anyway, with HH2000 I didn't even remember Balls/Tanaka as the opener. Perhaps it's because there's more notable stuff on the PPV like Tajiri damn near killing Steve Corino (great bladejob!) and of course the RVD/Lynn match with the goofy Scotty Anton heel turn. The RVD/Lynn series stands out from everything else during that time period. Would there even be an X Division without those matches?

The Two Towers is certainly the LOTR movie for those who want to see a bunch of shit get fucked up. It could be said that I originally didn't care much for the FOTR theatrical version when I first saw it. Just thought FOTR was too incoherent for someone who had never read the book...all sorts of names, places, characters tossed out and it gets totally confusing for a newbie. I spent far too much time thinking "Who are these other midgets with Frodo? Why did they tag along? Where did the dwarf and elf guys come from? What is this Gondor place and who is Boromir? If Strider/Aragorn is supposed to be the king of the place, why is he screwing off in the forest? Who the hell is this creepy little dude that is following them?" See, Two Towers simplifies things greatly and yet expands on the characters and concepts...it's quite remarkable really. It splits everyone up so we get more focus on the Aragorn/Gimli/Legolas stuff, more depth with Frodo and Sam, and even some Merry/Pippin scenes. And of course Gollum shows up early on and just grabs the viewer by the balls. ROTK is actually way better than I thought it might be going in. I was seriously worried that the movie would be horribly anticlimactic since the ostensible main villain (Sauron) is not even IN the movie. I can see Tolkien's reasoning behind the Scouring of the Shire in the book, since it gives you that payoff of seeing a tangible villain (Saruman) get his. But what the hell...seeing ROTK at the midnight showing when it first came out is one of the greatest theater experiences I've ever had. It helps to see it with people who really, really care about it. People were marking out for everything.

By the way, the main event of GAB 96 was actually Luger/Giant. That match was after the Horsemen/Football players and the Outsiders attacking Bischoff. I don't think you guys quite grasped what I meant. An opener should not be the best match on the show, that's my point. When the opener is the best match on the show, it doesn't follow the function of what an opener should be. I too like that RVD/Regal match. Not the best opener ever (it was a bit too short to be really special), but I'd take it any day over those hideous Regal/Edge matches that preceded it. It at least had that cool one armed suplex spot and (finally!) a payoff to the Power of the Punch angle as RVD kicked the brass knucks into the crowd, or far away at ringside.

Well, Peter Jackson was damned if he do, damned if he don't. If he had just edited out the whole last 20 mins. or so and ended it at the Aragorn ceremony then you'd have all these LOTR fanatics crying foul since the last 1/3 of the book would be missing. Hell, people bitched enough about the Scouring of the Shire being left out...just imagine how long ROTK would have been then. But yeah, I found the last 20 mins or so a bit self indulgent. It's the kind of stuff that would be fine in the extended version, but I think the theatrical could have just as well ended with the ceremony, in particular the shot of the 4 hobbits side by side (with the pan out showing the entire crowd).

See my problem with the Rey/Psychosis and Bret/Owen picks is that the best opener ever should not be the best match on a particular show (the same argument can be said for Rockers/Orients). An opener is there to get the crowd energized, entertain people, but not be such a classic that it drains the audience for the rest of the show. Under that criteria I shall nominate: Rockers vs. Barbarian and Haku, WM 7.

I'm not saying Evil Dead 1 doesn't have its tongue in cheek moments, but it's certainly more serious than either of the sequels. Allow me to now trash Million Dollar Baby. I'll make no bones about it..I flat out hated that movie. It went so horribly awry during the fight scene. And the justification for the evil bitch getting away with it was the ultra lame WWE "ref didn't see it" bullshit. This is an Oscar winning movie bear in mind, and the entire plot hinged on "the ref didn't see it." There is no way in hell that would be possible in real life. That bitch would have been immediately DQed and stripped of the title, banned from boxing for life, and probably would have to do time over it. In the movie we never hear about this at all, but just have to accept that Maggie is a loser. I thought this whole fight scene and pretty much everything after it was horrible, horrible writing without any credibility and only designed to make it all the more tragic.

It really wouldn't have been that hard to do either. Just keep ECW on the Friday Night timeslot on Spike. Hell, as we know Vince was paying Heyman under the table for a long time anyway.

I actually quite like Abyss. Sure he's derivative of all the WWF monster types like Kane, Mankind, and so on but he's at least kinda cool. After the Sabu barbed wire match and the Rhino matches though I've concluded that Abyss needs to leave ECW guys alone. The problem with TNA is that, yes, there aren't any really interesting storylines. Add to it that far too much of the roster is full of smallish, bland white dudes. Sure, guys like Austin Aries and Roderick Strong are capable workers, but they just look like the sort of bland jobbers that would be getting squashed by Dino Bravo on a 1988 Superstars show. I can see why WWE signed Heyman to a new deal. He's made me at least CARE about the goings on in OVW. It's hard to explain but when I see OVW's show I may not have necessarily seen great in ring action, but I feel like week to week there's something happening. I guess part of it is because OVW doesn't have a huge roster, so they can focus on a few top guys and really create some feuds. It might sound odd but TNA almost has too big of a roster. Especially for a 1 hour show. I mean hell, I remember entire 1 hour ECW shows that were nothing more than RVD vs. Lynn and maybe another undercard match. Just a couple of things, and just a few guys to hone in on and care about. TNA is all over the place....we have Jarrett's insanely large heel faction and the various intricacies of it. There's the top X division feud and then the entire X roster. Then you have guys who don't quite fit into anything at the moment. I think most fans would really enjoy TNA if they saw a 3 hour PPV. I actually appreciated the old Nashville weekly PPVs since they had to attempt a more serialized week to week style of booking to get you to order again. The main problem is that over the 4 years of TNA's existance I've never seen things change in particular. Jeff Jarrett is still in the title scene, center of attention. AMW are still screwing around in the tag division. AJ Styles is still feuding with whoever over the X title. In the end, they need a really kick ass booker to take over. Somebody like Heyman if he wasn't already with WWE.

I'd say Evil Dead 1 is played for the most part straight, it's just that it comes off funny. Now Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness? Those are played flat out for laughs.

Oh man, the Bush/Farenheit spoof went over like a lead balloon in my theater. It didn't attract negative reactions, but it didn't attract a single laugh either. Most people just sat somewhat uncomfortable. Either that or they just didn't get the reference.