cabbageboy

The problem with Jarrett is he simply doesn't work in the HHH vicious, ruthless heel bastard role. JJ has always come off as way too much of a slack jawed yokel from Tennessee to ever be a heel mastermind. He's not really a big enough dude to be a physical threat either. You know when I liked Jarrett best? From 1988-93 or so when I used to watch the USWA. He was fine as a good ole boy face with the long pretty boy blond locks. Also, they had Lawler to carry the company so Jarrett wasn't horribly overexposed. Problem is, that sort of thing won't work anymore with Jarrett. TNA's fanbase is much more smarkish than the USWA's (where people didn't care his dad ran the promotion). I didn't mind it in 2002 on TNA when Jarrett won the title since I knew his dad ran the place and it was a redneck league out of Nashville. But for a promotion trying to grow nationally? It can't work.

In the recent Joe/Styles match there really weren't all that many different moves. More than a typical WWE match? Sure. But it wasn't really two guys out doing aimless flips and such. In fact it was one of the most vicious, hard hitting, stiff matches I've seen in a long time. The X Division is somewhat like watching a group of guys who got into wrestling having enjoyed not only the WCW cruiser stuff (which is far more elegant in style and not as hard hitting) but also were weened on the more violent ECW style of cruiser stuff such as Tajiri/Super Crazy or even the entire RVD/Lynn series. In fact I think the RVD/Lynn series was basically the template for the entire X Division, but since Lynn himself was one of the cornerstones of the early X Division that stands to reason.

That sounds like the scene that Jackson and Co. recreated on the recent Kong DVD set. Am I the only one who doesn't really like the whole attitude in Kong remakes of "We have to develop the Kong/Ann relationship?" They did that creepy shit in the 76 movie (which I just watched last night to get geared for the new one, as I had never seen all of it). I mean in the 1976 Kong they had all this creepy stuff with Kong fondling Jessica Lange and blow drying her after a waterfall shower. I'll go to see the new film this weekend, but it seems they are doing more of the same in terms of elaborating on the Ann/Kong thing. Do we need this? It's a bit creepy and disturbing, whereas in the original it was maybe there to some extent but wisely never on the surface.

The thing is to some extent Juvi is right though. He IS being misused and a feud with Rey would be a good idea that could produce some fun matches. I remember the last time I saw Juvi before he signed with WWE in the TNA X tourney and his matches with Teddy Hart and Chris Sabin were both awesome. He can bring it like a mofo when he's motivated. No masks though, haha.

Why not just do an Eddie tribute on the ECW ONS show though? I'm sure they'll also honor Eddie at WM as well.

I watched the Stone Cold Christmas Raw on the 24/7 today, the one with stuff like HHH/Shawn where Shawn lays down for the Euro title, Austin attacks the Evil Santa, etc. It was such a fun show, still a blast. See, HHH and Shawn were doing shock stuff but it was at least funny shock stuff. But think of it, there were all sorts of storylines with the talent to execute them: --Michaels and HHH pissing off Slaughter and one upping him at every turn. Mix in a bit of Owen Hart wanting revenge for his brother being screwed. --UT and Kane, with UT refusing to fight his brother and beating beaten down until he has enough. --The beginning of the Foley vs. NAO feud that would culminate in the Dumpster match at WM. --The Rock and Shamrock feuding over the IC title, and mix in the Rock trying to usurp Faarooq as leader of the Nation. --Marc Mero tries to humiliate Sable and keep the spotlight on himself. Keep in mind that Austin wasn't doing much at this point, having yet to win the Rumble and get into title contention. But that's a LOT of really good storylines on the show. Everyone had something to do.

Honestly, it's just because outside of Detroit nobody likes the Pistons for shit. The Pistons have always been a team when they are good that a lot of people wish would simply go away. The Eastern Conf. has so much more interesting potential teams than the Pistons, like the Heat, Pacers, even the Cavs if they can ever get it going. That said, I don't think anyone in the East is on their level this year.

Gotta be Carlito. I mean Bret is pretty much just Bret Hart. Carlito feigns a ridiculous accent (I assume it's fake?) and talks about himself in 3rd person.

If you want more Sting/Vader goodness check out the 24/7 right now for Starrcade 92, which has the finals of the King of Cable tourney. Or you can check out basically ANY WCW show from roughly 1992-95, haha.

I might need to watch the match again but I don't really remember any spots where I thought "Oh they fucked that one up." Now, my bias towards this match compared to the 3 way is that I only have seen the 3 way via a download and the picture quality wasn't the greatest.

I'm surprised UTEP is that bad since they have made the tourney the past 2 years. I think UAB could be a bit better than that 87 ranking. I'm hopeful of going to the U of L/UK game on Saturday. Dracula's in the coffin, Prof. Van Pitino has the stake out, now we just need to drive the stake into the heart.

Maybe I need to watch some older Adonis stuff, since I only remember him from 1986 on when he got really fat and horrible. The image I have of him and seeing his name on Best Of the 80s lists doesn't jibe. To be honest from watching the 24/7 old stuff I think the WWF had the worst in ring action by far of the major promotions. The NWA had much better in ring action, and hell the AWA had a lot of good stuff too. WWF stuff from the 70s/early 80s though? Dear God it's dull.

By the way, Carlito and Foley were on Cold Pizza this morning talking about the Afghanistan tour. And yes, Carlito was in character and using the 3rd person. Doug Gottlieb and Jay Crawford teased him afterwards about it. Maybe he's actually internalizing this gimmick?

That press conference was a total laugher I thought. Especially the part where Riley said he'll mis SVG because now he has no one to fill out his pre game chalk board! It's amusing really that Van Gundy would now have this family crisis and quit. It's just soooo blatant that Riley basically just fired him but doesn't want to come off like a total heel.

Actually yes I did see a picture of Clinton in the justice dept. office so it made me wonder if this film was set during the 1990s. But then I did notice Matt Damon mention "Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2" so I'm baffled as to when exactly it takes place. In the end I don't think the film actually takes a real stand on anything. I mean it does try and say that it'd be better for that particular country if they built a new pipe and sent oil to China, but then make sure to note that really isn't in the best interests of the USA.

In theory it should end up as Jacksonville/NE in the playoffs, but I'm torn as to who I want the Colts to play in that 2nd round. On one hand there's the Jags, who have played the Colts tough this year and might be a dangerous opponent the 3rd time around. On the other we get the dreaded game (NE/Indy). That said, if the Pats actually do go into Indy and win this year, that's it for me. I'm not watching the NFL ever again if it happens. That said, who's to say JAX won't beat NE in that 1st round?

I saw it yesterday, not sure exactly what I thought of it. It was kind of dry and tough to follow at times, but it sorta comes together enough by the end to piece it together. I too was baffled at Clooney's motivation near the end, but it's easy enough to infer what others said. I might put this as being slightly better than Traffic. I didn't think Traffic really tied much together other than the drug theme (as in the Michael Douglas storyline had little to do with the Zeta Jones story or the Del Toro story). Here however things do finally crossover and it all ties in.

By the way here is the new ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll: Week 6 ESPN/USA Today Poll 1. Duke (30) 9-0 774 2. Connecticut (1) 7-0 738 3. Villanova 6-0 716 4. Louisville 5-0 654 5. Memphis 7-1 613 6. Florida 9-0 595 7. Texas 8-1 591 8. Illinois 10-0 558 9. Oklahoma 5-1 529 10. Washington 8-0 501 11. Gonzaga 6-2 474 12. Michigan State 7-2 383 13. Boston College 6-2 354 14. UCLA 7-1 330 15. George Washington 7-0 306 16. Wake Forest 7-1 264 17. Maryland 7-2 259 18. Indiana 5-2 237 19. N.C. State 6-1 197 20. North Carolina 5-1 157 21. Nevada 6-1 126 22. Kentucky 6-3 119 23. Iowa 7-3 85 24. Wisconsin 7-1 75 25. Ohio State 4-0 62 Hey, UK stayed ranked after all! I'm guessing that was mainly just so that Saturday's game with U of L is a matchup of two ranked teams.

I doubt UK will lose to the dubious likes of Iona or Ohio, but the U of L and Kansas games look doubtful. Oh, and U of L is ranked #4 due to going to the FF last year. If we can get by UK (which still worries me) then it should be fairly smooth sailing until Nova comes to town. Truthfully I think we'll drop a few in conf. play but it'll just be to UConn and Nova, maybe someone like Pitt, and a split with Cincy.

For some reason I actually think UT will win the HIAC match. If Orton is going to ME then he can easily get back whatever heat (heat??) he needs by winning the Rumble next month. I'd have Cowboy screw up and lead to a UT win and then Randy turns on his dad the next week on Smackdown. The Boogeyman run in also came to mind but I think he's actually a face isn't he?

Well I dunno about that. I mean Turning Point had some great stuff on it that I liked a lot (Barbed Wire, Styles/Joe) but WM had Michaels/Angle and the Money in the Bank so the edge would certainly go to WM. I watched the 3 way from Unbreakable that Meltzer gave ***** and frankly I thought this Styles/Joe singles match was better than that one. But then I feel a great singles match will always be better than a 3 way.

Ouch, UK not even ranked now and yet Bucknell and Iona are. How the mighty have fallen.

Okay now I'll check out my predictions and see how I did today: Oakland at NY Jets. Jobber matchup here, who knows. I'll go with Oakland by 4 since the Jets seem even more hopeless. (Jets actually won pretty easy, man is Oakland THAT bad? 0 for 1) Houston at Tennessee. Another crap game. Titans are still better than the Texans though I'd think, so they'll win here by 7. (Titans did end up winning the "two mules fighting for a turnip" game. 1 for 2) Chicago at Pittsburgh. I asked last week who needed it more between the Steelers and Bengals, and said Steelers (Bengals won). That said, I can't see Chicago winning here. Pittsburgh by 3 in a man's game. (Pretty much nailed this one, Steelers covered and then some. 2 for 3) New England at Buffalo. I'll go with a mild upset here. Bills played the Pats tough in NE and should have won, I think they will here by about 3. (Ok I was WAY wrong on this one...I keep thinking the Bills are tough at home for some reason. 2 for 4) Cleveland at Cincinnati. Assbeating. Bengals by 21. (Had the result right, but just barely. 3 for 5) St. Louis at Minnesota. Tough one to call. The Vikings are getting by on smoke and mirrors, and will likely continue to do so here by 6 or so. (Vikes won again, but not smoke and mirrors today. 4 for 6) Indianapolis at Jacksonville. Yeah I know the Jags played the Colts tough in Indy, but without Leftwich I can't see them scoring over 20 on the Colts and can't see any way they could match that defensive effort and hold the Colts to 10 again. Colts by 10, and secure the division and maybe home field? (Nailed the shit out of this one, not really as close as the final score. 5 for 7) Tampa Bay at Carolina. Panthers beat Chris Simms' ass in Tampa, why shouldn't they here as well? Carolina by 14. (Tampa shocked me today, great effort. 5 for 8) 4:05 San Francisco at Seattle. Seahawks struggled with the hapless Niners recently, but not here. Seattle by 17. (Bitchslap by more than I figured. 6 for 9) Washington at Arizona. Cardinals can be tough at home, but the Skins should pull out a fairly tough win by about 7. (Got this one fairly close, tough win for the Skins. 7 for 10) NY Giants at Philadelphia. After that 42-0 embarrassment I think the Eagles have to be just about done. Giants by 14. (Okay so they weren't done, but they still lost in OT. 8 for 11) 4:15 Kansas City at Dallas. Most interesting game of the day in my view. Both teams here need the win desperately, but Dallas needs it even more and they are at home so I'll take Dallas by 5. (Great game today and I got it within 2 points. 9 for 12) Miami at San Diego. SD in another beatdown by about 21. (This one blew my mind, how the hell could the Chargers lose to fucking MIAMI at home??? 9 for 13) Baltimore at Denver. Denver should get back on track here at home, win by 10. (Denver wins, but are they really back on track after winning that shitty 12-10 epic? 10 for 14) 8:30 Detroit at Green Bay. Surely the Packers will beat someone, right? GB by 7. (Pack pulled it out in OT. 11 for 15) 11 for 15, did pretty well if it just means picking the winners. The Miami and TB wins baffled me though.

Yeah, I've never minded a bad Taker Feud. Hell, I am someone who was amused by the 10 jobbers putting him in the coffin at RR 94. In fact that match gets a lot of shit it doesn't deserve. Say what you want about it, but it DID make you want to see UT get his revenge on Yokozuna, led to a profitable house show feud between the two, and finally a satisfying blowoff where Chuck Norris kicked the shit out of the 10 jobbers. What's not to like?

Duke is hardly a juggernaut. They are a 2 man team with no other real options outside of Redick and Williams. Illinois last year had Brown, Williams, and Head who were all threats, Powell was a threat to go off from time to time, and even Augustine had some moments. Yeah, they killed Texas but therealworld said Texas was a fraud at #2 (the only other time I saw them was vs. WVU, who flat out gave them the game). Regardless of what Duke did to Texas they did just barely beat Va Tech on a hail mary at the buzzer. Thing is, I really haven't seen anyone better. I'm not 100% sold on UConn yet, Villanova has excellent guards but I think Sheldon Williams would kill them inside. Memphis might be able to beat them in a rematch, but that's looking way ahead. Gee, I guess it's up to U of L to take down the evil Duke!