cabbageboy

I am assuming this refers to the Packers winning the two Super Bowls and previously the NFL title? Although they didn't play the AFL winner I think it's safe to assume they would have squashed whoever it was.

Allow me to repost my initial thoughts on page 1: "Denver (+137) vs. New England (+41). I am flat out bewildered that everyone on here is just assuming the Pats go into Denver and take out a BETTER TEAM than them (this year anyway), who has a 3 game better record, almost 100 points better in differential, and undefeated at home this year to boot. The Pats this year reek of the 1996 Dallas Cowboys (right down to the 3 titles in 4 years), and they lost in this exact round at Carolina (26-17). I'd expect something similar like Denver 27-17." I don't mean to tell you so, but I fucking told you so. Too many people were buying into the idiotic Patriots 3 peat crap and failed to look at obvious stats. As in going against a team undefeated at home that has nearly a +100 better point differential. And a better record. And who has had their number even during the Belichick regime. Good for the Broncos, now go and job out to Indy next week like good little boys. (The Pats by the way ended up almost exactly like the 96 Cowboys.) "Seattle (+181) vs. Washington (+66). Some people are picking the Skins to win here, and I guess it makes sense since they beat the Seahawks by 3 earlier in the season. But let's get real. The Redskins aren't all that good and it's time they say bye bye. Seattle by 7." Called this one fairly well, though I guess if I'd bet I'd have lost since the Skins didn't cover the 9 1/2. I have no idea why anyone thought a thoroughly mediocre team like Washington was getting to the conf. title game. Is it just me or have these been the absolute worst playoffs ever? Only 1 game has been decided by less than 10 points and that was one of the shittiest games I've ever seen (Washington/TB). Not expecting anything riveting tomorrow either.

Damn, U of L's win over Miami on the road is looking better and better. We held that Diaz dude scoreless. Iggy, allow me to impart some wisdom. Duke this year has not played a team that could even TOUCH the 1996 UMass team. Dude, that team was like 32-1 that year before UK beat them in the FF. They beat the Iverson Georgetown team in the Elite 8 by about 25 points. Alro might back me up on this but wasn't Pitino screwing around with Delk playing point guard in that UMass game? I should also note that Miss St. made the FF in 96, using that UK upset in the SEC finals as a springboard. The other time UK played them they killed them by about 20 in STARKVILLE. It's always been my theory that Pitino just rested guys in that game in lieu of a "wakeup call" to get them focused for the big dance. Besides, where does true greatness lie? Is it in winning an alleged "big game" in December, or is it kicking the everloving shit out of everyone in conference play to the tune of 30 points a game? Do you realize that in SEC play that year UK won all of ONE GAME by less than 10 points (against Georgia on the road 82-77). The SEC that year I might add also had 2 FF teams (UK, Miss St.) and 4 made the Sweet 16 (Arkansas and Georgia). There's irony in your statement on "Duke was fucking around with Va Tech, they had beaten IU and Memphis and didn't care." They better fucking care since the Va Tech game was more important. It's an actual ACC league game. (I should also note that in 96 UK beat perhaps Va Tech's best team ever in the 2nd round by 24). In the modern era (as in 3 pt. line and shot clock) I can't think of a better team than the 1996 UK team. I wasn't alive for IU in 76, I'm sure they were amazing but I never saw them.

Iggy, you've got to be kidding me about Duke being the best team you've ever seen. The 1996 UK team would have made these guys look like bitches. I mean, can you imagine that 96 UK team going to the wire to beat FUCKING VIRGINIA TECH and needing a last second hail mary? Or beating Memphis by 3 points? UK in 96 would have beaten Va Tech by 35 points either home or away. This Duke team isn't as good as even the following Duke teams: 1986 (they went about 37-3), 1991-92 with Laettner, Hill, Hurley, the 99 squad that lost to UConn, and the 2001 team that won it all. At the end of the day they still have only 2 real scoring options and someone will put a defensive stopper on Redick at some point, or just flat out goon him a la Carson Palmer.

I can't help but think we'll have Cena lose via some screwy means at the Rumble. Then dare I say he'll face Hogan at WM, since I've heard Hogan wants to work with Cena. If Cena faces Hogan at WM, it might cause a chain reaction of events here: --Edge/HHH makes absolutely no sense as a heel/heel matchup. HHH can easily start a feud with someone like JBL (what's he doing at WM anyway?) since WM needs some interpromotional matches. --Shawn still might end up dicking around with Vince at WM, for reasons that elude me. --Orton can either go after or defend the US title against the likes of Benoit, Booker, etc. Him going after the world title right now doesn't have any context and he's also totally heatless. --I'd have UT win the Rumble and go on to WM to face Angle. That match has never been on a PPV to my knowledge and I've heard Angle wants to face UT (in fact he wanted it last year). --As far as the tag matches, I'm not sure. Maybe either an interpromotional match (Rey/Matt vs. Show/Kane or perhaps just do MNM/Rey and Matt and Show/Kane vs. Shelton and a returning Haas). --Thing is, if Edge does in fact hold the title till WM who would he face? At this point there's really only one guy not booked that will be over as a face on Raw....Rob Van Dam. There would be enough draw type matches on the PPV to where this doesn't have to draw all the money, not with Angle/UT, Hogan/Cena, and Vince/Shawn. It's a good chance to elevate both men.

With Angle now winning the title on Smackdown I can't see Orton still winning the Rumble. In fact I'd almost have UT win the Rumble. He's never done it before, one of the few honors that has eluded him. Then you have Angle/UT at WM. I have no idea how Orton is supposed to be believable in the main event right now. He's a proxy US title participant at this point and looks to challenge Booker for that belt. Frankly that's what Orton NEEDS right now, a solid run with a secondary title. Nobody would buy him beating Angle for the world title.

Yeah that was great. I sorta saw it most of the night but just thought it was "Mark Henry" and paid little attention. Then during the main event I saw the "?" part and laughed my ass off. I thought of taking a similar sign during JBL's title run like "Bradshaw....why?" I assume this is going to lead to Mark Henry vs. Angle at the Rumble. I'm scared to death for Kurt here honestly, Henry is such an inept boob in the ring that he might injure Kurt the same way he did Batista. The sad thing about this is that now they have to keep Henry around until Batista gets back. Once Big Dave gets back however you will see the mother of all squash burial jobs on Mark Henry...then bye bye.

Well, my friend Chris told me a while ago that in OVW there was always talk that Orlando was gay.

Could be worse, they could look at is as a confirmation that ORTON draws money and they might push him instead.

I think I finally found out why Sid is called the Master and Ruler of the Squirrels! Haha!

Lawler has never been given much of a chance as an actual wrestler in WWE though. Maybe it's because he was already getting a bit past his prime, but I think it's also the ultra goofy King character. He's never been a serious wrestler or a threat. Growing up in old school Memphis territory (Louisville) I'm all about Lawler. He's like Flair to me. The thing is for whatever reason whenever he gets outside of Memphis he always does this goofy heel schtick that is the total opposite of the stuff he did in Memphis to great success. I've never understood it.

The goofy thing here is that if you watch the Taboo Tuesday show Styles did a brilliant job of conveying the HHH/Flair storyline in that match. Perhaps it's because he actually had something to work with there? I'm not sure I agree with Vince on the precise reason why Styles isn't quite right on Raw, but there IS something missing. I think he is just now figuring out how to do weekly live shows, something he never did much in ECW (aside from the PPVs).

Alro, it CAN get worse. It's called jobbing to Bama at home without them having Chuck Davis. Can you imagine the assbeatings UK will take at FL, at Tenn, at LSU, at Miss St.? I think UK will still stagger into the tourney as an 8/9 type seed. They'll put them in Duke's bracket in the neverending quest to have that matchup. And Duke would kill them by about 40.

Repo is the only one here who doesn't seem delusional. I'll go with my trusty point differentials to predict the winners. Indianapolis (+192) vs. Pittsburgh (+131). I'll take the Colts here. It'll be closer than the previous game, but still a double digit win I'd think. Denver (+137) vs. New England (+41). I am flat out bewildered that everyone on here is just assuming the Pats go into Denver and take out a BETTER TEAM than them (this year anyway), who has a 3 game better record, almost 100 points better in differential, and undefeated at home this year to boot. The Pats this year reek of the 1996 Dallas Cowboys (right down to the 3 titles in 4 years), and they lost in this exact round at Carolina (26-17). I'd expect something similar like Denver 27-17. Seattle (+181) vs. Washington (+66). Some people are picking the Skins to win here, and I guess it makes sense since they beat the Seahawks by 3 earlier in the season. But let's get real. The Redskins aren't all that good and it's time they say bye bye. Seattle by 7. Chicago (+58) vs. Carolina (+132). Tough one to predict really. Carolina loves to torment me come playoff time, so I think they will make enough adjustments from the last assraping at Soldier Field and get the win here by 10 or so. Thus this gives us: Indy vs. Denver, AFC title game. Seattle vs. Carolina, NFC title game.

From the order of that battle royal I have this horror that they are still going with Angle/Henry at the Rumble. What is WITH this psychotic desire to push Mark Henry all of a sudden? Like he's so important that they can't jettison that plan and go with a GOOD match? Angle vs. Benoit at WM. It's gotta be. I better not see fucking Randy Orton.

Edge = Ratings then? Let's see how this does next week.

Yeah someone last night mentioned it to me in a freakin basketball chatroom. Anyway here's some spoilage:

The sad thing is that they are so blatantly going to have Flair cost Edge the title at the Rumble. Which is a horrible thing to do since the main issue fans have with Cena is that he got insanely stale as the champ. Get it off him and I noticed a lot less hostility tonight. Put it back on him at the Rumble and it's the same shit again. I wonder, what sort of showing will RVD have at the Rumble? After them hyping his return tonight I hope he at least finishes in the Final 4 of it.

They can't just job Edge out tonight. What's the point of doing that? I think we'll definitely get Cena/Edge in an actual match at the Rumble, but the also have to have Edge win THAT match to justify putting the title on him. One of my cardinal rules of wrestling: You cannot use a guy as a transition champion in his first title reign.

The SEC will have ONE ranked team this week...Florida. I think they might end up getting a 1 seed in the tourney. The Big East should be #1 in this. The conf. is just truly insane and ridiculous. I took a look at U of L's conf. schedule and it's just mindblowing. Nova twice, UConn twice, Cincy twice, Pitt upcoming, Cuse on the road, WVU on the road. Who did Pitino piss off?

My brother said it best last night with the Edge win: "Finally they did something on one of these lame duck PPVs!" The reason fewer people order the lesser shows is that no important title changes ever occur, no big angles go down for the most part. Edge to me has always been the blank slate wrestler. He's the exact image of a blonde long haired type you'd have as a Create a Wrestler on a video game. Put him in with Angle, Eddie, or Benoit and you can have very good or maybe even great match. Put him in with Albert and he's shit. Put him in with a slower guy like Regal and he's shit. I'm not saying he gets ultra carried against better opponents (maybe a little bit), but he sure as hell can't carry anything himself. Still, it was time to pull the trigger and put the belt on him. He was getting to the point of being in that dangerous "Bigger than IC title, not quite world title" level for life.

I think it coming down to Carlito and Masters vs. Cena made sense in some ways. You can say they double teamed the others to eliminate them, but then had a falling out amongst thieves. It was still horrible to have to see Carlito and Masters last THAT long though. It was likely done as a last ditch effort to get fans on Cena's side. It didn't really work all that well.

In this case Cena was already gassed, I mean what more can he do? He took the spear once and kicked out, then Edge hit it again. I hardly think Cena came out looking bad, at least not in terms of booking. Crowd response? Yes. The Spiral of Silence I predicted is starting to occur. Last night I didn't even hear that 30% of the kids and teenage girls cheering for Cena. I didn't hear much of ANYONE cheer him. In fact when it was down to him, Masters, and Carlito the match simply had zero heat or maybe a mild chant for Masters.

The whole Mark Henry push has already been a fiasco on so many levels. First he did that goofy shit on SD this week where he couldn't open the cage. That was harmless and amusing really. But I had a sick feeling that Batista would get legit hurt working with this stiff. He'd been working hurt already and having to heave around Mark Henry's 400 lbs. isn't a good idea. It's their own fault for doing something this stupid. Mark Henry might be the only guy who might win a world title and then be released 6 months later.

What possible sense does Edge/HHH make for the Rumble? They are both heels and that match would most likely tank horribly. They have to have Cena get the rematch there and get ripped off again. What is the big rush to put the belt back on HHH? With Steph now pregnant how much is he really going to be around? And if he gets it back, there's really nowhere you can go with it. With Edge they have a chance to finally have a new top heel on the show for while. They can't just drop it.