cabbageboy

Rick Rude did the physique posedowns and all that but he got zero heat from that stuff. It's just boring watching a guy flex his muscles or talk about how strong he is (Dino Bravo had that problem). Mr. Perfect was over mostly due to winning all of his matches from his initial push, not to mention the vignettes showing him doing all sorts of athletic feats. He didn't just flex his muscles. Chris Masters might be able to get over if he had something else. This was something that Luger always had a problem with...most of his act was based on posing and flexing muscles. He wasn't amazing in the ring (aside from Flair carrying him) and not much on the mic. I'm just waiting for Masters to start talking about his 4% body fat. I have to admit I'd mark out for that.

Cena isn't totally talentless or anything, but is more of a guy who really does seem to do a lot of silly spots due to his character. When he debuted as the bland rookie Cena I was moderately impressed with his ring skills (he seemed a 2nd rate Sting type). I repeat: I saw Carlito down in OVW and I don't think he was a heel then. Or if he was it wasn't clear to me the infrequent OVW viewer at that point. Being a heel doesn't mean being a boring piece of shit, it means insulting the crowd, getting the crowd pissed off, cheating like a mofo. Unless you're Mick Foley in ECW, where he literally went out and grabbed headlocks for 10 mins. as a heel tactic. The difference was Foley was TRYING to suck....Carlito doesn't know any better.

Blitzkrieg was awesome. He goes under the category of guys I wish I'd seen more of. I was never 100% on this but was he actually a Mexican luchadore or some white dude under a mask? How could I forget this one: The Warlord. Take a bit of Goldberg's look and physique, and give him a Chris Masters finisher...and you get The Warlord.

I haven't seen enough of Carlos Colon to say really, but I did used to have an old AWA toy of him if I remember correctly. I liked those AWA toys, haha...even the Greg Gagne one. I dunno about Carlito in WWC but I did see him at an OVW taping shortly before he debuted on Smackdown. And he sucked. Same nothing headlock based offense with nothing interesting or credible. Carlito matches might be better if he was a chickenshit heel who got his ass kicked the entire match and knew how to sell. Thing is, in most of his matches he gets most of the offense and he sucks so hard at that.

Gorgeous George also wrestled 50 years ago. In the past half century since then nobody has gotten over with this gimmick. Besides, George was doing a pseudo gay type gimmick and that's what got him over, not the narcissist aspect. Carlito isn't a jobber, but he looks like one. The guy has no physique, no believable offense, no finisher. I ask you, what does that sound like? A 1989 Saturday morning JOBBER. Hell, some jobbers like Barry Horowitz were infinitely more talented. I think Carlito has a role as a manager or doing the Cabana, but there's no way someone with zero in ring ability should have the 2nd most important title on the show.

Greatly disappointed in Cade and Murdoch? If anything they are exceeding my expectations (which weren't high). Why didn't they just make this a title match tonight and get the belts off Hurricane and Rosey? I actually thought the Rock had "It" even back in 1996. Hell when I saw him on the USWA as Flex Kavana I thought "This guy is WAY more talented than these guys on here." But someone like Chris Masters? Bleh. No heat, no talent, nada. As far as Unforgiven goes, I disagree with Fook. All this Matt jobbing has to lead to something besides him just getting waxed again by Edge in the cage match. He has to pick up a win here at some point or else what they are doing is inexcusable. In terms of the title match, I say put it on Angle. Honestly, what can Cena do to put a crazed psychopathic Angle down for a 3 count? The guy has Road Dog type offense people. Either way I can guarrantee the crowd will turn on Cena and root for Angle since nearly anyone can tell who is the superior worker. Besides, having the title on the American hero sounds cool for the return to USA. As far as Michaels/Masters goes, get real. I can flat out 100% assure everyone that Masters is jobbing his ass off there. Does anyone think Shawn is going to agree to job out to Hogan and THEN at the next PPV to a jacked up rookie with no heat? Time to give up on Masters, Carlito, and these other failed jobber experiments. Thing is, I can't see Flair as IC champ...too bizarre.

The Chris Masters crap is going to be over soon guys, believe me. He's going to job out to Shawn at the PPV and that'll be that. That said, there's something fairly disgusting about the way that went down tonight. Mind you, I think Masters sucks ass but there is no way friggin Michaels should be the guy to break an invincible power submission hold. He's simply not big or powerful enough to get out of a full nelson. The only good way to break the hold is to do a Bulldog/Warlord type deal where the Bulldog flat out powered his way out of the full nelson.

I'll second the Horowitz love. Him winning wasn't a shock to me in 1995 since I'd seen him HOLD A TITLE on Global back in 1992. I swear he was the TV champ on there and was Barry "The Winner" Horowitz. Incidentally on the 24/7 this past month I've seen some 1988 house shows on the Old School and there are some killer Horowitz/Blue Blazer matches that are excellent for 88.

Monsoon and Jesse were the best for actual putting over of the talent and product, while I'd say Heenan and Monsoon were the best entertainment speaking.

Oh, college football is the stalest sport when it comes to rankings. Every year it is the same old teams on top with no real tourney to ever shake things up. Last year was really the only time where there were some teams that broke into the BCS from nowhere (Utah and Pitt, though Pitt didn't remotely deserve it). Otherwise every year it is the same old Michigan, Ohio St., Tennessee, 3 schools from Florida, etc. I dunno what U of L was doing in the 2nd half. That goofy missed FG at the end of the 1st half took away the momentum and I'm unclear why. There's 2 weeks to prepare for Oregon St. so hopefully Petrino will iron out the problems. I'd like to see Brohm take a few shots down the field. At least UK did that much yesterday.

Austin in WCW was like watching a wrestler try to find himself as a performer. Seeing this stuff now is surreal, Austin with the blond hair and the goofy Hawaiian trunks. Some of his matches with Steamboat were good, I liked some of his Dangerous Alliance work (particularly the War Games), though I have to admit my memory of the Hollywood Blondes is a bit sketchy. That said, Austin was soooo not over in WCW. Watch any of the matches where he was US champ or TV champ. He had zero heat, none, nada. I mean really, when he jobbed the US title to Duggan in 27 seconds and got buried did anyone care at the time?

An Angle/Eugene rematch can do no good for anyone. Angle should dominate the match once again, further killing Dinsmore's career. But if not, and Angle struggles or even loses a screwy decision it'll really bury him going into his match with Cena.

Vito is a guy who was mostly a jobber in ECW (and I believe a Sat. morning jobber in the WWF in the early 90s, but don't quote me on that), yet was used quite a bit better in WCW. I thought he was a solid performer in the Mamalukes and also on his own feuding with his "brother" Reno. He looks a bit more cut since those days.

Why is doing the same 5 moves all THAT bad? It's his traditional setup stuff for the Sharpshooter. It at least has a point in the context of a match, unlike the Flair Flip (which is still fun). Every wrestler has his trademark spots so it's pointless to criticize that.

I'm a U of L alum and even I was outraged over that LSU game. I was absolutely screaming at them for calling that idiotic timeout instead of running it down for the FG to end it. The irony is that I KNEW LSU would do that. I...I don't know what to think of this game today. Maybe it'll take Brohm and Co. a couple games to gel. Thing is, we better get our act together in the next 2 weeks because Oregon St. is coming to Papa John's and they are most likely better than friggin UK.

I agree, we're a fucking embarrassment to humanity. At least U of L held on for the win or else you guys would get the total meltdown I promised yesterday. Jesus, should have beaten UK 55-10 or so. You know I feel dirty saying this but UK really isn't that bad. I think the switch to Joker Phillips as offensive coordinator has helped a lot. Maybe that tough effort vs. Tennessee last year was no fluke? I am so not sold on Brohm, wasn't last year when he was in the game. Everyone in town thinks the guy is the 2nd coming but if he's as good as his brother Jeff I'd be surprised.

Texas did about as well as humanly possible last year going 11-1. It seemed like they got a huge amount of lucky breaks throughout the Big 12, winning on late TDs in the last minute or whatever. A guy I know in PA keeps pimping Iowa to me big time, saying they have a shot at the Rose Bowl. Thing is, someone like Michigan, Ohio St., or even Wisconsin will give them that 1 loss that will keep them out. Iowa isn't exactly a marquee team, 1 loss will send them out of sight and out of mind. Just wondering but how much does playing a jobber hurt in the BCS standings? I assume it hurt Auburn last year despite the SEC schedule. This year U of L is only playing one flat out non BCS league jobber in Florida Atlantic, and that's mainly as a favor to Howard Schnellenberger.

He does overrate the Steiner/GB match no doubt but it was quite the impressive brawl for WCW at the time. I stress AT THE TIME. I watched that show again not too long ago and while it's still a relatively fun match, it isn't a classic by any means.

I don't think they can get rid of the Big Show, can they? He's not a huge problem though really. And I hardly think Steph is ever going anywhere. Yeah Animal shouldn't be around anymore but him being around doesn't do great harm to the show. That said you are right about pushing cruisers more, CM. What I think is needed is a variety of in ring styles. Not every match should be a boring middle of the ring affair with guys doing fucking headlocks and armbars. Look at a show like WM 17. You have the wild WWF main event style match in Rock/Austin, an over the top spotfest in TLC II (with some cruiser type overtones), you have a classic wrestling contest (Angle/Benoit), also a violent hardcore match (Raven/Show/Kane). All that is missing is a true cruiser type match. Invader, it's funny what you said about pushing guys like RVD that are actually over instead of hyping someone as "The Next Big Thing" and then in the same breath insist they bring back Lesnar. Call it fool's hope, but I do think RVD will get pushed when he gets back.

Well also Batista crushed Orton the night after WM on Raw in a match that made Orton look like a huge bitch as well. I think they need to stop using WM as a platform to bring back a bunch of old guys. At some point that well will run dry and then they're stuck with a bunch of talent that no one perceives as being important because the old stars of the past get the choice WM matches. It also makes the other 90% of the PPVs look irrelevant since those big name old dudes won't be on there.

The key problem I always had with Shawn matches is a lack of believability. For some reason I never really bought into Michaels being able to beat guys like Vader or Sid. Maybe it is the almost cartoonish bumping, or his total lack of credible offense that could defeat a man of that size. Let's face it, the guy's matches while champ (while amusing and entertaining) are fairly empty in terms of substance: Big fat heel kicks the shit out of Shawn, Shawn no sells and kips up, hits the superkick, finish. This formula was more effective during his heel run in 97-98 because it played off of how inherently unbelievable this is and he'd get lucky as hell via run ins or whatever. I got the new UT DVD set and compared the Shawn stuff from 1997 and the Bret match from One Night Only. HIAC was a gimmick match so let's toss that out and focus on Ground Zero, same month as the Bret match and no gimmick in theory. The Ground Zero match mostly featured UT beating the shit out of Shawn and Shawn's theatrical bumps, and various refs getting knocked out. There was no time where I would really believe Shawn was a credible threat to the Taker (regardless of the actual outcome...Shawn simply wasn't physically a threat). The Bret match however focused on psychology as Bret periodically took out UT's leg, grounded him, etc. Watch those two matches back to back and ask yourself which match was more credible, had internal consistency and psychology, selling (not just wild bumping), and most importantly which guy (Bret or Shawn) you would perceive as being a legitimate opponent for a guy like UT.

After seeing Pitt tonight I see no reason why U of L shouldn't easily run away with the Big East. It blew my mind when they said Wannstedt wanted to have a power running game when he doesn't have one and DOES have a QB in Palko. And yeah Pitt did pick up this year where they left off....Utah beat the crap out of them in the Fiesta Bowl.

The "What?" stuff in my view killed Austin's career. It really destroyed his face run after that Series show because all he would do is these annoying "What?" promos with stalling. I think my all time favorite Rock moment was the WM 14 Gennifer Flowers interview where he said to keep the homeless trash of his palacial estate in Miami.

I noticed that too, I was like WTF? The Boiler Room Brawl is way too long and I can see why it wasn't on here, but a highlight package of it and the Bearer heel turn was 100% needed. Also, the 3rd disc here is really boring. It's nothing but the BikerTaker stuff with dreary crap against Hogan in 2002, Cena when he was little more than a rookie, Vince, etc.

I'm not going to say anything about OU's loss...I figured without White they'd be a bit down this year. That said, the Tenn. score doesn't shock me at all. I didn't think the Vols were shit last year, having to barely survive against UK and Vandy...not sure why they are top 5. That said, if you guys want a meltdown you might get one if U of L loses to UK tomorrow. Cards are 22 pt. favorites, and if we lose our dream season to this crappy UK team....surely not. Right?