cabbageboy

Orton really does have more of a claim on the #1 contender spot right now. And no he can't turn on his dad and RKO him since Ace is giving him what little heat and credibility he has! Think about that one for a minute. Orton losing to HHH last Sept. and the way he was subsequently portrayed did irrepairable damage to his career. He was booked like such a tool, such a loser that nobody will ever care about him again. They better hope Lesnar does come back because Orton/Batista won't draw a dime, while Batista/Lesnar certainly would.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you....Steve Romero. The weird thing about Cole is that he's the last guy in a long line of lame pretty boy type announcers and for some inexplicable reason he has hung on. I mean he's not any better than Craig DeGeorge, Sean Mooney, Todd Pettengill, etc. A guy I knew in college said this about Cole: "They finally fired Todd Pettengill and then replace him with a guy that sucks just as bad."

Yeah I know that was a crappy way to package. Anyway, the early UT stuff was pretty crappy but once the first DVD kicks it into high gear for the Mankind feud it really hums. The Revenge of the Taker match is a total forgotten classic, I liked that one even more than the Bret ONO match. You still have that stuff, the first two HIAC matches (which are both awesome), some other good stuff. That said some of it makes no sense in context, like it goes from the Hogan feud to early 1994 vs. Yokozuna....would a package with clips saying "Taker worked his way up the ladder through 1992 and 93 by beating Berserker, Kamala, and Giant Gonzalez before getting his shot at Yokozona." It also skipped over the Corporation feud, which isn't a bad thing but a short highlight reel of it would be nice to give some perspective on what he was doing if nothing else. Also, why the RR 94 match and not the Series 94 rematch? I'd have had clips from the Rumble match and put the rematch where UT prevails.

HHH jobbed clean at WM XX though, and I'd hardly say there were vanillla big men in the main event. At this point I could care less if the Rock shows up again. What's he gonna do? He's come back to job so often that he has no real rub to give and why have him face Michaels? I'd rather see HBK/RVD at WM 22.

Well, I really doubt Vince, Steph, etc. will let Dusty run wild with the Dusty Finish. I also doubt that Dusty will be able to just put the world title on whoever he wants One Dusty Finish a year could be exciting (a la HHH/Jericho in 2000) but not a dozen. Dusty could help out some younger guys in the promo area if nothing else. At least Dusty is an experienced wrestling booker and not a friggin soap opera writer. Sure he ran the NWA into the ground with the Dusty Finish and Flair vendetta, but on Smackdown most of that stuff won't come into play.

Before the thread is closed I'll add some thoughts to these proposed matches: Smackdown Brock vs. Batista: The one surefire money drawer for Brock. Even I'd be interested in this one. Brock vs. Eddie: It's been done, might draw an ok amount and produce a good match, but no blockbuster. Brock vs. Benoit: It's been done, didn't really draw much. Brock vs. Orton: Yawn. Brock vs. Rey: Might be a Smackdown match, not much else. Brock vs. JBL: Please God no. Brock vs. Christian (if they would ever push Christian): Jobber squash. Brock vs. Burchill (down the line): Haven't seen enough of Burchill to say. At this point another jobber squash. Raw Brock vs. Triple H: Could prove intriguing, might draw at a WM or something but otherwise I dunno. Brock vs. HBK: Might be ok if Shawn bumps like a madman. Brock vs. Cena (his character is much farther along now): Fairly interesting but the match would be crap. Brock vs. Shelton: Sadly a jobber squash. Brock vs. RVD: Keep Brock the fuck away from RVD. Brock vs. Edge: I'm indifferent here. Brock vs. Kane: Raw match, not much more. Brock vs. Hardy: Do we really need Brock squashing the Hardys again? Brock vs. Foley (could be awesome if Foley can get in shape like the Orton match): If Foley kills himself it might be fun but it doesn't reek of Dream Match exactly. Brock vs. Rock (rematch at a Mania or Slam could be huge): Been there, done that, seen the Rock job.

Uh....a hit of any kind is better than getting out. I'll take the base hit, the next guy can worry about wearing the pitcher down.

Just wondering about Williams and Gordy but were they ever really called the Miracle Violence Connection in WCW? I mostly remember them simply being called Williams and Gordy.

Not to mention it but Rey jobbing to Orton makes Eddie look like an even bigger jobber, since Orton took ONE try to beat Rey while Eddie has had 7 at least. But yeah, he's winning next week...and it has to be a vicious, convincing win. No one has really mentioned it but what is up with pushing Orton so hard? I mean I know in theory why they are doing it, but it's like they are just acting like the whole period from last Sept. to April never happened. Sorry, but Orton has zero heat now. He just has this "yesterday's news" vibe about him of a guy who had his shot at the main event and tanked. I'll admit having Ace around is amusing in a Chavo Classic sort of way, but I hardly would have paid to see Chavo main event with his dad in his corner.

Anyone else hoping they put the title on Eddie? Hell, put the belts on both Eddie and Angle...reward the guys who have been staying over regardless of whatever bad angle they've been in and/or jobbing.

Surely this Jordan humiliation will lead to JBL firing him as Chief of Staff....right? Maybe then Benoit can take him under his wing and teach him to not be quite as big of a jobber.

Let's start the movement now: Eddie for Champion! Any other news on the undercard matches?

Carlito/Flair could be fun if Carlito could do anything in the ring....I mean anything at all. He's not enough of a physical presence to have Flair beg and stuff. That is to me the main problem with Carlito matches: He dominates the action. The guy is a cruiser/glorified 80s jobber, he should get his ass kicked in EVERY match and then if he wins it should be by some devious means (more than foot on the ropes). Or he could just get DQed or counted out. Let's call this PPV what it is....a lame duck show. It's just whatever crap they can think of to fill up the lame duck Spike TV shows before moving on to USA again. Anyone think they could have Angle win the title since they could play off of "The Olympic hero headlines the USA Network!" Cena/Angle has the makings of a good feud, I dunno if they should just blow it off at this nothing PPV.

What do I need to get a clue about exactly? Brock is going to be back, I have little doubt about that. There's no way they would even mention him on WWE.com without it being basically done. I wondered if the whole "negotiations break down" thing is a ploy and so did many others on here. I'd also like to know how Lesnar is going to draw all this money. They've pushed him as hard as humanly possible and he didn't draw especially well. How's he going to get over more now than before when he won KOTR, then the WWE title in his first year? Does anyone think they will push him quite as hard again after leaving them high and dry? Sure it'd be nice to see him back...anything would be better than another 6 months of JBL.

I think it's bullshit. There is no way WWE.com would ever report anything about Lesnar if it wasn't a done deal. If they DID do that then they are idiots. I really have never cared for Lesnar much but at least him coming back would likely put an end to the Bradshaw crap that has killed Smackdown for over a year. I don't think there is a huge amount of money to be made off of Brock, aside from maybe a WM match with Batista. After that, what? They have to job him to Batista for a variety of reasons.

MJ, the thing is the 6 sided ring is just goofy to look at. I did try watching the FSN show a few times but the ring was so stupid to look at that I couldn't get used to it. And I used to watch their Wed. PPVs quite a bit in 2002-03. There's such a thing as being too experimental, and stuff like this will appeal to a fringe market and few others. The thing about TNA is that it makes a nice name for a TV show but that's about it. It is NOT a good name for the actual promotion. Total Nonstop Action is like Raw or Smackdown, but the actual promotion is the NWA whether they like it or not. Sure, being the NWA is old school but I don't think many people really associate it with late era WCW so it doesn't have a stigma.

The Foley/RVD match is an interesting idea but I don't see them as doing the same style exactly. Even in ECW I don't recall seeing an RVD match that was a sick bloodbath with thumbtacks and blood, etc. I'd rather see an RVD/Michaels match at WM, and quite honestly it really has to happen at some point. There really isn't much of anyone for Foley to wrestle at this point, besides he'd just be there to job to whoever.

Oh, one question that is bugging me. A guy in the UK sent me a DVD of Cat and the Canary in PAL format. I've tried converting it on DVD Shrink which in theory puts stuff in all regions for burning....yet when I tried the burned disc on my players it still doesn't work and recognizes it as PAL. What's up with that?

I got a fancy Sansui DVD/VCR combo for Christmas in 2003. This thing was expensive as hell though, like 400-500 at the time. This thing is fucking sweet though. It'll record on both VHS and DVD and also you can transfer your old tapes to DVD on the machine, and also tape off of a DVD if it isn't coded. I can safely say that if you use a DVD and have digital cable you can get something factory DVD quality. I dare say that on old movies it's BETTER, since for some retarded reason studios like to release old classics with mono sound, whereas on TV it's stereo. VHS is still good for stuff like taping the odd Raw, but if there's a movie I want to have for my collection....DVD.

Well the thing is by definition they can't have a Japanese guy #1 for various reasons, mainly that most of the reading audience has seen the guy. Thus they used to put Misawa or Muto at #2 or so.

The RVD/Lynn series was great but it's the most well remembered matches that are the overrated ones. For instance, I recall a brilliant match they had in 1998 (technically before they really feuded I guess) where RVD had his eyelid almost torn by a table shred. Though their best match to me was the ultra intense early TNN match where Lynn had taped ribs (Impact Players attacked him) and the crowd was insane wanting Jerry to win. WCW in 1999-2000 was fucking garbage, ECW was easily better. Christ at least even if it was garbage style wrestling it was fun and entertaining. WCW was boring as hell, angles bad, wrestling bad. I dare say at the point ECW first got a TV deal they had the strongest in ring product (which might not be saying much...take a look at shows like KOTR 99 or BATB 99). I think I'm one of the few who likes late era ECW over the 1995-96 stuff. That said there is one thing I agree with, and that is RVD got stale by the later part of 2000. His matches had more and more stalling. He desperately needed to be pushed to the world title, and it was too obvious that since he wasn't getting that pushed in 2000 he stopped giving a shit (not being paid probably hurt too).

Jarrett's antics were fine when NWA: TNA was merely a redneck local league out of Nashville. Hell it reminded me of the USWA with Jerry pushing his son and all that (I loved the USWA, but I'm from Louisville...I HAVE to). That said, Jarrett has too much of a "Late era WCW" stigma about him. There's no way any promotion with serious designs on going big time can have him as a main eventer. I doubt that WWWA thing is legit, has ESPN had wrestling on since Global shut down? And if it is legit, why on earth would they pick a promotion run by Jim Duggan? Basically, what is likely to happen to Jarrett is this: He'll wear out his welcome in the NWA. Then this WWWA thing will go the way of the WXO. And Vince probably won't want him back. In other words, he'll be fucked.

Well perhaps not much sucked (aside from UT vs. Albert/Show, which was hideous) but so many guys were wasted. Matt/Rey should have been much longer (geez guys, elminate the fucking Limp Bizkit songs...it was 2003 after all), all the guys in the 3 way tag were wasted, etc. To me shows like WM 7 and 8 are easily better than 19 because the booking wasn't retarded (yes the Slaughter heel turn was a mistake but the match itself wasn't bad). Sure there are nothing matches on both shows, but that sort of stuff never bothered me provided the good matches delivered.

Anything involving Jordan getting another win over Benoit is a no no in my book. Absolutely not. I'm thinking a Jordan face turn is likely in the works however. Having Benoit squash him in 20 seconds numerous times kills any possible heat Jordan could muster, and then having Jordan pull off a fluke win over Benoit only serves to kill Benoit's heat. Here's an idea: PUSH SOMEONE ELSE IN THE US DIVISION! You do realize that if Eddie kills Rey in that cage match it would basically destroy Rey's heat and undo whatever was accomplished by having Eddie job to him a million times. Thing is, it has to be done.

Gotta be Hogan/Andre from WM 3. Just wondering but why the Flair/Von Erich match? It didn't have any real significance long term, just Flair jobbing and regaining like he did a plethora of times in the 80s. I'd say Lawler/Hennig from 1988 has as much regional type significance.