cabbageboy

I have to admit, by and large these matches aren't thrilling me. Austin/Rhodes was lethargic and typically puzzling WCW booking of that era (a 2/3 falls match that goes 2 falls?), the nightmare Warriors/Horsemen match that basically killed the NWA/WCW in Chicago for a decade due to the Dusty Finish, a freakin scaffold match from the same show. Flair/Luger was good at least, as was Rey/Liger. Should be some good stuff coming up though, stuff like Magnum/Tully, Flair/Vader, Vader/Sting, and so on.

Why not? Tajiri wrestled largely the same style and used the same spots in WWE that he used in ECW. It was mostly that Crazy had clearly lost a step and wasn't in good shape, and for a guy who has to have quick and exciting cruiser matches that's a major detriment.

I would repackage Mike Knox to some degree. The beard is a wild piece of business but just being plain Mike Knox won't get him over. Push him more in the Bruiser Brody vein rather than as a generic big man, let him be out of control rather than a ho hum wrestler. Now that I think of it, has Edge ever really had a decent finisher? He's used a variety of semi decent finishers but nothing that has ever made me think "That's it." No Pedigree, Tombstone, not even an STFU.

Crazy did let himself go because if you were watching the guy's ECW work in 1999-2000 he was a tremendous worker.

Predictions~! Thursday Night DEN @ CLE: You know, if Derek Anderson was still starting I'd feel decent about the Browns here. But with Quinn I don't know. I'll take the Broncos reluctantly by 7. Sunday, 1:00 NO @ ATL: Falcons are a real feel good story this year and I think they keep it going at home against the Saints. ATL by 4. TEN @ CHI: Rex Grossman vs. the Tennessee D? If it had been Orton I might have picked upset here, but can't see it now. Titans by 10. JAC @ DET: The Jags very well might be done after the unmitigated disaster that was losing to the Bengals. What the hell, I think the Lions get their first win over JAX as well. Detroit by 1. BAL @ HOU: This is the rescheduled Hurricane game. Both teams have gotten better so this will be a better game than it would have been in week 2. I'll take the Ravens by 6 but it could go either way. SEA @ MIA: Seattle sucks to begin with and they also now have to travel cross country. Miami is much improved, so this will be a beating. Dolphins by 17. GB @ MIN: Packers just have all sorts of tough luck losses and playing on the road in MINN won't help much. I'll take the Vikings by 5. BUF @ NE: The Bills desperately need a win. That said, I can't see them getting it at Foxboro. Pats by 3. STL @ NYJ: The Rams are back down to earth after rallying for a couple of weeks. Can't see Favre losing at home here. Jets by 10. Afternoon games CAR @ OAK: Okay after last week's fiasco and Al Davis threatening to release everyone I can't possibly imagine this game being close. Panthers by 14. IND @ PIT: Is Leftwich starting in this one? If so I think the Colts have a real shot to somehow sneak into Pittsburgh and steal a win. Indy by 3. KC @ SD: Chargers are favored by an insane 15 in this one, but do they deserve it? Chiefs have actually been playing better of late, so the Chargers still win but it will be by 6. NYG @ PHI: Biggest game of the week by far. Eagles can make a statement here and get back into the NFC East race, or the Giants can basically put it to bed. I'll take the Giants by 4, since I can't get it out of my head the way the beat down McNabb last year. MNF SF @ ARI: THIS is the Monday night game? Warner will torch the Niners here and Mike Singletary will rant again postgame. Cardinals by 13.

I did watch this whole show after being exhausted by election coverage. It was a nice change from the results pouring in.

I don't know if we're supposed to forget about Kozlov in the crowd exactly, but it's just not relevant to what is happening now. Has no impact on his character either way.

Yeah I must say this Jeff stuff is quite interesting but I wonder if the fans would ever boo him. If you put him vs. HHH with this angle I don't know if HHH would get cheered over him no matter how it's booked. Finally they went somewhere with this Brie Bella angle.

I was shocked that Jericho won tonight but I think the deal was this: They never really wanted to put it on Batista but were booked into a corner. There was a special ref (Austin), stips that Jericho couldn't run, etc. There was no feasible way he could win the match. So Batista got a title win and they put it right back on Jericho.

I think I would rather see Black Reign again than more Goldust. That character hasn't been any good in over 5 years.

Let's see how I did today in predictions: N.Y. Jets at Buffalo 1:00 pm: Favre was horrid at times last week but managed to win. Buffalo lost a tough one at Miami. Bills will get back on track here though. Buffalo by 7. (Well, Jets managed to win this one on the road. 0 for 1) Detroit at Chicago 1:00 pm: The Bears will beat the Lions yet again but it might be a little closer this time. Bears by 14. (Wow, it certainly was closer this time. Orton going down hurts my fantasy team, bah. No cover, but 1 for 2) Jacksonville at Cincinnati 1:00 pm: The Jags are just a puzzling, enigmatic team. That said, this is Cincy we're talking about here. Jacksonville by 10. (You know, for some reason I thought the Bengals had a shot here but didn't remotely want to pick that upset. 1 for 3) Baltimore at Cleveland 1:00 pm: Could the Browns be ready to turn around their season? I think so actually. Cleveland by 3. (Okay, maybe the Browns turnaround talk was a bit premature. 1 for 4) Tampa Bay at Kansas City 1:00 pm: Tampa is just not a good road team at all, just 1 win away from home thus far. That said, their D is still solid enough to grind out a win here. Tampa by 6. (Bucs needed OT to survive the suddently tough Chiefs. 2 for 5) Houston at Minnesota 1:00 pm: Should I get back on the Texans bandwagon to some extent? Sure, why not. The Vikings are unspectacular. Houston by 4. (Could be time to get back off the Texans bandwagon. 2 for 6) Arizona at St. Louis 1:00 pm: Hard to predict this since Steven Jackson is banged up. I'll say that Warner sticks it to his old team and the Cardinals manage to win a wild shootout 35-31. (Warner stuck to his old team, not even close. 3 for 7) Green Bay at Tennessee 1:00 pm: Titans actually can't afford to slip up at home before they have a couple of tough road games. Packers are decent at times but I can't see them winning this one. Titans by 7. (Titans managed to hang on and win it in OT. 4 for 8) Miami at Denver 4:05 pm: Denver is just baffling beyond words. Miami is also pretty puzzling. Since it's in Denver, I'll take the Broncos by 5. (Hard one to predict, Dolphins got the win. AFC West is just....bad. 4 for 9) Dallas at N.Y. Giants 4:15 pm: Dallas barely scraped by Tampa's bleh offense. This one just isn't going to happen however. NYG by 13. (Beatdown central, no shock here. 5 for 10) Atlanta at Oakland 4:15 pm: Oakland is fairly tough to beat at home, but the Falcons somehow will find a way to get by on the road. ATL by 3. (Look at the much improved Falcons winning big on the road. 6 for 11) Philadelphia at Seattle 4:15 pm: Eagles look somewhat back on track and I don't really buy the Seahawks even with their win over SF. Philly by 10. (Eagles just did what they should have done. 7 for 12) New England at Indianapolis 8:15 pm: Okay, the Colts flat out cannot afford to lose this game at home, not if they want any hope of making the playoffs. Indy by 7. (Sort of sad to watch this really. 8 for 13) Eh, not the greatest week of picks.

Do we really know 100% that Penn State is going to win out? They have a road game at Iowa and Michigan St. is the finale, so it's not like they are closing with nothing but the Washingtons of the world. USC should have zero shot at the title game. The Pac 10 is utter garbage this year, ranking behind even the Mountain West. If there are 1 loss teams from the SEC and Big 12 then those teams have to get it instead.

Obviously I voted for Warners on this since it's not even close, but in a way this is like comparing apples to oranges. If we're talking about shorts then Disney never did many of those worth a crap, while that was Warner Bros.' bread and butter. However, if we're talking feature films from the Golden Era then this is a different question since Warner Bros. never really did that. That's where Disney hit a groove: Snow White, Bambi, Dumbo, Fantasia, Pinnochio, etc. I'm not even a big fan of any of those movies, but they are all considered classics.

Well, really how are feuds going to be resolved in a huge Survivor tag match? The only time I can think of is 2001 where the WWF beat The Alliance to end that, but that was a team oriented feud. I'll give the edge to the 1987 tag match. I never truly understood Fuji's turn on Demolition. Why would the manager of the tag champs turn on his men while his guys still had the belts?

What terms would that be, Cowboy? "Wrestlers?"

Maybe since I didn't pay for a DVD of this I was able to enjoy it more. I watched part 1 tonight and since I was short on time I didn't mind the clip jobs. I can't recall if I actually saw Bret/Kid or not at the time but it was a great match.

That's just headscratching. I wonder if the AWA was always considered a world title since Gagne broke from the NWA in the late 50s.

Sweet. When I was trying to think of the top matches from Starrcade, that was actually the one I narrowed down to #1 myself. Either that or

Actually I thought there was a viable reason why the WWF title wasn't considered an actual world title. The WWF was a member of the NWA from about 1971-83 so technically the NWA title would be the actual World title and the WWF title would be regional. However, once the WWF split once and for all from the NWA and ran nationally, then PWI had no choice but to recognize it as a world title.

I'd keep Cornette off TV entirely and put him on the booking team. Fans are so used to Cornette as a scumbag manager that he won't ever truly be accepted as an unbiased face of authority. So far I really like the Main Event Mafia but I do wonder if this angle will work in the long run for TNA. These old vs. young feuds involving factions always seem to do the opposite of what is intended, since fans usually cheer for the more established names.

I think Jarrett cut the promo of his career on this Raw, although in the long run it hurt him more than it helped since Austin refused to work with him after the way Jarrett badmouthed his use of 3:16. Seeing these shows again makes me take a look at Bret in a new light. You can really see that he was dogging it and was fatigued by the behind the scenes dealings. If Vince wanted to truly avoid the Montreal Screwjob he probably should have just had Bret job to Shamrock on this next Raw. Michaels/Shamrock happened in Dec. 97 anyway, so they could have put it on HBK there and been set for early 1998.

Ah, your enjoyment of the 1987 and 88 tag survivor matches depends on your tag team JTTS preferences. If you are a fan of the Young Stallions (or Bees) then you'll prefer 1987. If you are a big time Conquistadors mark, then 1988.

Whoa, the reverse battle royale involving quicksand actually sounds like it might be amusing. But then I'm always up for a bad gimmick match. I haven't seen all the Starrcade shows but any top 25 should have this stuff: Flair/Race and Piper/Valentine from 1983, nothing from 84 was any good really (Tully/Steamboat was the only thing worth a crap from what I have seen), 1985 should have at least Magnum/Tully "I Quit," 1986 would have maybe Flair/Nikitaj, 1987 Flair/Garvin, 1988 Flair/Luger, 1989 already had Sting/Muta and will later have Sting/Flair, 1990 maybe Horsemen vs. Doom, 1991 had Battlebowl already covered, 1992 already has had the tag title match and Sting vs. Vader will no doubt be on later. 1993 would have Flair/Vader. 1994 totally sucked. 1995 could have Eddie/Otani. 1996 had Piper/Hogan but there were several solid undercard matches. 1997 has Sting/Hogan for historical purposes. 1998 already had Goldberg vs. Nash, but I'd put the 3 way cruiser match and the Eddie/Kidman match that followed instead. 1999 mostly sucked, maybe at best JJ vs. Benoit. 2000 really had nothing that truly stands out as a classic, but wasn't a bad card.

Haha! I too had that Wrestling Rulebreaker mag with Luger on the front of it. I recall the headline in it: "1993: The Year of the Rulebreaker." The first PWI I ever bought was one leading up to Summerslam 1992 that had Warrior and Macho on the cover saying something like "Warrior and Savage: The hatred still runs deep!" That magazine shattered my illusions of what wrestling was, since I read the arena reports in the back and was shocked and I mean SHOCKED to find that all of the feuds they were building on TV were all in fact happening on every show they were doing around the country. I assumed that all of these shows featured the same squash matches that were on WWF TV and that the Superstars were kept apart until they had a big PPV or at least a major TV show.

This was probably one of the best 5 game World Series ever in terms of actual play. Only game 4 was a blowout (10-2) while all of the other Philly wins were 1 run games that came down to the last pitch. It's a shame it will always be remembered as either "The lowest rated World Series of all time" or as "The Series with all the rain delays." For the Rays to actually win a World Series they need a dominant #1 starter and maybe one more hitter that can at least bat .300 for the year. Price can perhaps be that ace at least.