cabbageboy

Stevie was the fucking man. Every time I see Booker in some shitty angle I always say "Why don't they sign Stevie Ray? They could do something with him." The apex of the Stevie/Madden announce team was Mayhem 2000. I rewatched it this summer and man that was some funny shit right there. I think when all is said and done WCW 2000 was sadder than WWE 2005 but was more perversely entertaining. WCW 2000 was actually quite a bit better than WCW 1999.

Has anyone ever thought that this issue with Orton and being AWOL is something that will always haunt him in wrestling? Vince is all about having a guy who presents a proper image as a champion, etc. Is Orton the deserter really someone you'd want on top of your promotion (especially with no heat)?

Oh I was quite impressed with Iona in a tough loss I saw to UK in person last week. Steve Burtt is a bad ass. As long as Iona doesn't run into someone in the 1st round with a really excellent big man, they can pull an upset. Hell, if Burtt hadn't gotten the bogus 2 fouls in the 1st half (a la David Padgett vs. UK), Iona might have had a shot.

Oh, I will say that WCW was starting to get a bit better after they booted Russo in late 2000. I think it was Bill Banks and someone else that booked at that point, and at least things were feasible and the action was solid. I'm not putting it down necessarily since this summer I actually dug out a bunch of those 2000 PPVs (yes, I got almost all of them) and rewatched. They were actually quite a bit of fun, at least they MOVED. Hell, Mayhem 2000 is gold if for nothing else than Stevie Ray and Mark Madden on commentary just not giving a shit and doing wild shoot comments. It had one of my fave Stevie moments, where Schiavone mentioned something about Paisley giving an interview about Kwee Wee's match: "I don't want to hear Paisley talk about much of ANYTHING." I thought come on Stevie, is that any way to talk about your sister-in-law? As far as ECW ONS I think the one in 2006 could end up better if they do it right. There's no Bischoff this time and JBL and Angle probably learned their lesson and won't give a shit about it. I might focus on one particular guy who was disgusted with ECW, and who would be better at that than HHH? Who wouldn't enjoy seeing RVD beat the piss out of HHH in an ECW environment? The rest of the show would be the nostalgia/reunion stuff.

I'll make a prediction. This Kane movie is going to easily make more money than the Cena flick. By fall of next year Cena is going to have practically no heat left and no one will give a shit about his movie. I mean this is Kane in a starring role as a serial killer. It's Lion's Gate. It's a cheesy horror flick. How can it fail?

There is no good that can come from Mark Henry being back though. They spent a good 10 years on and off trying to get this guy over and he sorta did get over during his Sexual Chocolate phase, but that was like 6 years ago. I ask again: Why not just keep him on the shelf until his contract is up? They did this with the Dudleys and they are certainly more valuable than Mark Henry.

Yeah I loved the ECW PPV this year. The thing about WCW in 2000 is that there is nothing there anyone could legitimately think was good. Guilty pleasures? Of course. Stuff so bad it was good? Sure. But there wasn't really much of anything that was a GOOD angle, or a GOOD match. I'm assuming the 2 weeks Rudo refers to is after Bischoff and Russo came back and did the restart. WCW was still crap even then, but at times was at least manic paced, entertaining crap. Hell, as far as WCW goes I think 2000 was certainly better than 1999. WCW in 1999 is the worst shit I've EVER seen in wrestling. I mean ever.

Anyone who would rank Old Dominion that highly is a sap though. I thought they might win their conf. (which isn't saying much) but saying they will be 30-1 or whatever is about like saying Iona will be 30-1. I have the premonition however that U of L will end up one of the biggest frauds of the year along with Texas, at least among major teams. At least it'd make sense though, what with home and homes with Nova, UConn, and Cincy and other road games with Cuse and WVU. There really aren't many days off from here on in, maybe USF here at home, but even Marquette and DePaul will likely cause us some trouble.

I never said that WCW in 2000 didn't have its jobber, car wreck charms. It certainly did. Hell, it was really hilarious actually. But it was hilarious in an "I can't believe they are fucking up this bad" kind of way. 1995 was easily worse than this year, Kahran is right about that. But why 1999? I agree the in ring action was lacking but business for the WWF was booming big time and ratings were awesome. It was a bleh year workrate wise, but a banner year for making $$.

Dragon, you've got way more confidence in Texas than me. I think Memphis is going to crush them by 20+ in that game. Texas looks like the biggest fraud of the year thus far. I dare say Tennessee could be a tough one for Memphis, but it's also at home for them. Memphis seemed to have gotten most of their tough games either at home or neutral sites. UAB is a decent team, but a really serious contender finds a way to beat them.

14 is kind of a large line though. I mean whose to say Cowher won't take some guys out in the 4th if they are up like 28-7, then Harrington gets a late TD, then it's a 28-14 push. And yeah, it's a bleh week if you wanna bet on games, but there are still a few out there to try. I might go with KC over Cincy or ATL over Carolina in a mild upset.

Two things hurt Gonzaga last night: 1. The refs in Memphis called about 20 ticky tack fouls in the 2nd half against them. 2. Morrison vanished the last 8 minutes. Truth be told I have given up on Gonzaga ever doing anything. The crappy WCC schedule simply doesn't get them ready enough for tourney play, as they might play their last truly solid opponent before Jan. 1 and then get to squash jobbers. Don't be shocked if they are gone after the 2nd round again. Dama, what should ESPN do? Give Memphis the Jesus push? I think I'd vomit.

WCW had better matches in 2000? Their matches sucked. Hell, they had entire PPVs that year that never had a match that rose above **. This comparison is absurd. Of course it's WCW 2000 that was worse. Has WWE lost 60 million dollars this year? Have they put the world title on a 3rd rate actor? Have they done ultra weird shoot angles where guys go against the booking of the match and tear down the 4th wall? Have they gone and released crucial guys from the upper card like Eddie, Benoit, Malenko, and Saturn (yeah they released people but most were jobbers)? WWE has had its share of clunker angles and gimmicks this year, but WWE hasn't been anywhere near that level of incompetence.

Dude, if they put the fucking belt on Mark Henry that is the day I never watch wrestling again. I warned everyone back when that Austin/Coach debacle went down. I said it made no sense for them to bother bringing Henry back with less than a year left on his contract, and that if they did they might feel obligated to sign him again. Whereas if they just kept him on the shelf he'd be quietly released next year. This sounds really, really bad.

I might switch Washington and Florida. Deep down I know FL has more impressive wins and Washington hasn't even left Seattle yet, but there's something about Billy Donovan in the top 5 that's just....wrong somehow. Not gonna dispute U of L at 17, since quite honestly we're not even a top 40 team at this point. The sad thing is that we'll be about 10-2 or 11-1 when Nova comes to town to annihilate us. Thing is, we've got to win these home games against the scary likes of Nova, UConn, and Pitt (probably giving those teams their first losses). Cause man it gets REAL hard later with road games at Nova, UConn, WVU, Syracuse, Cincy, etc. We're going to get our asses kicked.

That's looking way ahead or far too much into it. Since the Big East just now got all these teams they can't just split in two immediately and do all that. I'd maybe add Memphis to the mix since they stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise lousy C-USA, but otherwise leave it alone.

No, the whole point was for you to think it was Shane only to then reveal someone else so Vince can say "See, we aren't trying to put ourselves all over TV!"

I've seen Dick Slater on some of those 1986 Prime Time episodes where he's The Rebel. Pretty funny really. How about Tracey Smothers in 1995 or so when he was Freddie Joe Floyd? And speaking of Neidhart in 98, how can we forget Bulldog's stint at the same time?

From the way U of L has played lately, Nova by all rights should kill us by at least 20 at home, and 30 in Philly. What's up with Zaga's red jerseys here? They look like Arizona. I can see why they are still viewed as a mid major, but Memphis? They've been to a few Final 4s before. I know they are playing in a crap conf. but I wonder if the Big East regrets not taking Memphis now? Wouldn't they be better than taking nonentities like DePaul and Marquette? Or USF, who sucks in basically everything and has zero fanbase?

Honestly, I don't think there was any overall point to the Vince/Shawn thing. It was mostly just to blather about Montreal again, fuck over Bret some more, etc. As I said, once the new GM is announced there's no particular reason for Vince to be all over TV, and at 60 years old he's not remotely going to wrestle Shawn I don't think. If it goes anywhere at all, why not have Vince throw some guys at Shawn? Could be a nice role for RVD when he gets back, as Vince's hired gun and kiss ass.

Having watched the Police Academy boxed set I got for Christmas, I think Hooks (Marion Ramsey) is a great idea for Shelton's mama. She can be all timid most of the time, then some heel finally gets in face and she goes off on him. "Don't move, dirtbag!" If there was any point in the Vince/Bret/Shawn nonsense tonight I'd really like to know what it is. Seriously, what's it for? Once Vince names a new GM he'll mostly vanish from TV again for a long period of time. I don't know if most of the audience even remembers Montreal and even those who do have a sketchy memory on what even took place. So really, Michaels is right in telling Vince to just drop it. As far as Angle's tirade tonight, I agreed with pretty much everything he said. It's a really bad idea to have a guy voice a very legitimate political point of view as a heel act, since there's likely a lot of people in the audience who agree...yet since the vicious heel is saying these things it makes them feel uncomfortable in having those views.

I didn't say the Pats couldn't play in snow. I'm just saying anyone would rather play in a nice dome rather than freezing cold weather with snow. It goes into a larger point that if Denver somehow gets 2 home games in the playoffs, it's over (with an Indy 2nd round loss). They're unbeaten at home and it'll be extremely tough to go there and win in the playoffs. If the Broncos go to Indy for the AFC title game, forget it. I can't see Jake Plummer winning that one.

Slayer, there's slightly more to it than that. The Steelers should kill the Lions easy enough and get in the playoffs. However, the Chiefs will still have something to play for vs. Cincy this week and the seedings will be up in the air. I'm thinking that KC beats the Bengals and the Pats win out, and both finish 11-5. This knocks the Bengals down to the 4 seed while the Pats get the 3. It'd also give us one hell of a first rounder with NE vs. Pittsburgh and a solid rematch of Cincy/Jax. Hell, that beats the alternative with the 3rd game between division rivals (Pitt/Cincy) and the Pats/Jags game that no one would care about. Snuffbox, here is what I meant earlier. If I'm the Pats, who do I want in that 2nd round? Would I want the Colts in Indy, a team I'd beaten the 2 previous years in the playoffs (not to mention the Colts are looking more and more vulnerable)? Or would I want to travel to Denver, where the Broncos are 8-0 this year and it might snow a foot? I'm telling you guys, that Cowboys loss was a fiasco for the Panthers. I think the Falcons will summon up some crazed effort to knock them off next week, while the Cowboys and Redskins both win.

The problem with that entire scenario is that Bret beating Shawn would kill off Austin's main threat for the title. If we're assuming Bret hangs around we can also suppose Shawn is still in decent health, and of course still a heel with DX. Shawn would have been right there waiting for his shot, UT and Kane would have wanted shots, and so on. There is simply nowhere else to go with Bret, thus I figure Vince would have ended up releasing him anyway.

It's really not a bad prediction considering one team has anemic offense and the other has been insanely lucky all year in terms of getting every tough opponent at home (and getting miracle fluke wins then). What the hell, the Redskins have beaten the Seahawks, Bears, Cowboys, and Giants. I have to wonder, would it be a good idea for the Patriots to lose one of the remaining games? If what I'm thinking occurs the Bengals will lose to KC next week (Chiefs still have playoff life), which would put the Pats in as the #3 seed. In theory that is a higher seed but it also puts them against a tougher 1st round opponent (Steelers insteaad of the Jags with David Garrard), and let's just say if I'm Bill Belichick I'd much rather go to a comfortable dome in Indy for that 2nd round if possible rather than travel to frigid Denver. Of course that's assuming even if the Bengals are the 3 seed that they can make it past the Steelers.