cabbageboy

You know what's funny? I bet Farnsworth will stop sucking with the Braves. Though I haven't heard much out of him with the Tigers this year (good or bad) until the fight recently.

Yeah I was about to say Stealth was probably filmed before Ray was getting the mega hype and he won the Oscar. It's a movie starring Josh Lucas for god's sake. Wedding Crashers is certainly drawing the money. If you put out a decent rated R movie, people will come.

No love for the 1993 Raw with HBK/Jannetty and Razor/Kid? Then again, X-Pac WAS involved. The Hart Foundation birth show was also a favorite of mine. I always hated seeing Bret and Owen feuding (in a good way, as in I wanted them to reconcile) and Bulldog and Owen were also semi feuding over the Euro title. Bret came out, gave a famous promo that was like "They are just making you guys fight each other, Owen I love you man, join up with me." I also really enjoyed the July 2001 Raw that was mentioned. The main problem with dragging a lot of this out was that the Invasion PPV was coming up and it was looking to be a huge fiasco with the remnants of WCW going against the WWF. Adding ECW to the mix was needed to add credibility to a horrible WCW side.

I still think I was misunderstood in that original post...I was mainly ranting against the casual fans who watched wrestling in 1998/99 because it was cool. It hasn't been mentioned but I think the move back to USA will pick things up a bit. I recall hearing that USA had network people who aided in Raw's overall product whereas I've never heard of anyone mentioning a TNN/Spike exec overseeing Raw. I honestly think this is needed again. TNN originally was just so glad to get the WWF on the network that they let them do whatever. At the end of the day there simply needs to be an alternative. I'm hoping the NWA can get their shit together and bust it out on Spike, but they have several problems of their own.

Why would Batista be in the doghouse and JBL NOT be in it as well? JBL being the veteran in that match is the guy expected to carry it and the guy sucks too much to do so. Give any JBL match 20 mins and no stips and it is going to suck, I don't care who it is against. There really isn't anyone on SMDN I'd rush to put the title on at the moment, so Batista should be safe.

I dunno, he's still far from a lock. To be a legit lock he'd have to have either 500 homers or 3000 hits and he has neither. He might get in but it'll take a few times. As good as he was for a period of time, Thomas was never one of those players that did it for me, never seemed like THE dominant player at his position, that sort of thing. And yes, he'll get penalized somewhat for the DH thing. Playing in the field is kinda the original point of playing baseball, after all.

Savage being the driver is so blatant and obvious that it couldn't have been the idea. I mean of course he was already feuding with Nash, but the whole concept was that it was someone Savage HIRED to run down Nash, not that it was Savage himself. Was the black bodyguard Midnight by some chance? It's funny but I actually remember reading about the Fingerpoke a few weeks before it actually happened. I think it was on Scoops. Something like "Nash will beat Goldberg and end his streak and then simply lay down for Hogan." I never gave this a second thought, I figured there would be no way they'd actually DO something that insane and retarded. For the record I didn't mind Nash ending the streak the way he did....that said, it all went horribly wrong on that Nitro where Nash layed down for Hogan. I simply thought Goldberg would get the title back that night, thus the pressure of the streak would be off his back and he'd still be 99% as dominant. Nash would have been more over than before since he'd have ended the streak, and you still have the ready made feud with Hall waiting over the taser. That Jan. 4, 1999 Nitro is possibly the most outraged I've ever felt at a single wrestling program. From the stupid way they had Goldberg arrested and charged with raping Liz, to the way Schiavone badmouthed Foley's title win (thankfully I taped the show and wasn't spoiled), to doing the Fingerpoke in the main event. That said, it left me outraged but at least wanting to know where they were going with it next, whereas the DDP title win on Nitro left me just feeling disgusted in the way like "I don't feel like watching this again."

I picked Cena simply because Batista losing will hurt him more. Batista needs that dominant type title run and I'm assuming the long term goal here is to build to Batista/Brock at WM. This is goofy if Batista goes around jobbing the title and all that. Cena if anything needed a longer chase considering he hadn't really been a world title contender for very long and simply won the belt. His WM win over JBL was like "That's it?" Besides, we all know he is going to job out to HHH at some point, which is ok provided HHH doesn't just bury him and that he get the belt back in a blowoff. One way to avoid this is to have Cena lose in a bizarro fluke to Jericho, then we all know Jericho will lay down for HHH. If done right Cena won't lose much face, Jericho can get a short title run out of it, and it can still build to the HHH/Cena feud.

Actually I think Kazarian looks more like Antonio Banderas, haha. Put the Mariachi outfit on him and it'd be eerie. Never thought much of the guy when I saw him on a few NWA shows but he's growing on me here.

You know what's sad? I used to WATCH Thunder and to be honest I can't even remember enough about any of the shows to recall how much dead time was there. Though the fact that I can't recall speaks volumes for the quality of the show. Raw in 2002 had some decent stretches. The post split shows with Austin/Bradshaw vs. the NWO were truly hideous and of course the Katie Vick angle later in the year alienated nearly anyone who saw it. But once they got the NWO nonsense out of their system there were a few solid months until both Eddie and Benoit defected to Smackdown. That hurt Raw a lot. I don't care if they do some follies like the Diva Search as long as it is kept short and inoffensive. First off, they HAVE to get the titles on people who are actually over and credible. The secondary champs are both total jokes, the tag division is dead on both shows. If you look at quality times in the WWF from the past, there were excellent IC and tag divisions. It's not like the NWA is a real promotion or anything...hell just pull a Bischoff and raid some of this talent.

When I referred to the "Bandwagon 1998" type fans I refer mostly to people who watched in 1998/99 when wrestling was the cool thing but were really gone by 2002 or so. Of course not everyone who started watching was a bandwagon fan...those who are truly interested in wrestling will seek out all sorts of old tapes (like NateRizzle). It's funny but I remember when Raw came to Louisville in 1999 it was hell trying to get tix for it. There had to be 10,000 people waiting, lined up all around the block hours before the box office opened. I thought "Gee, I wish the WWF would start sucking again so these bandwagon fans would go away and I could get tickets." I meant that in jest of course, but by 2001 I went to a Smackdown that had about half the arena filled. I think the Austin heel turn at WM really killed their live attendance. Anyway, as far as the "moving away from its roots" stuff goes...I dunno. The WWF's roots are really many things. If you mean the Sammartino era stuff, they moved away from that years and years ago. Frankly, it's time to declare the whole "Sports Entertainment" bullshit dead and buried. I have always hated that term (sports entertainment can be many things besides pro wrestling). The Sports Entertainment bandwagon fans are GONE now, what is left are the die hard wrestling fans. People who want serious wrestling action, not bullshit with Divas or lousy Russo lite angles.

I enjoyed Charlie quite a bit, not sure what I thought of Depp's bizarre performance in it though. I assume Y2Jerk meant that Charlie was something his wife would be more inclined to like than Batman Begins. And if Begins is the best movie of the summer this summer is a bit...underwhelming. I liked it well enough but didn't find it jaw dropping or anything.

The main issue when comparing Brock and JBL is perception. Brock came in and just won the title. He's at least always been perceived as a guy who is a top star. JBL was a midcard bum and tag wrestler for a decade and got an inexplicable title push from nowhere. Regardless of charisma or whatever it's easier to accept Brock in a main event role.

Nah, it's gotta be over for JBL as a main eventer at SS. In fact this whole angle with the Cabinet desperately needs to be blown off...God, with the way they keep em hanging around you'd think they were drawing money like the NWO.

It's funny that the Iron Shiek has such a rep considering he was merely a transition champ between Backlund and Hogan. One thing about Austin is that he always was feuding or doing notable angles with excellent performers, be it the Rock, the obvious long running Vince angle, Foley, UT, etc. I mean note than when he started feuding with HHH (who at that point was pretty mediocre I thought, this being the Summer of 99) it seemed like interest in Austin was starting to wane a bit. Hogan didn't really wrestle much of anyone worth a shit during the 80s, just Orndorff and Macho (Andre I suppose was a money feud but Andre was so deteriorated at that point the matches were awful). Either way Hogan still drew money against George "the Animal" Steele, Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, and so on.

The angle I mentioned earlier is really about the best thing that I can think of for the current situation. I do certainly agree that females should never overshadow the two wrestlers in a feud though....what's the point? This Jillian thing makes me wonder....will they bring ANYONE up from OVW? Although my friend Chris has a thing for her, I personally didn't see a whole lot out of her. I did see her in a match before the implants, lipo, whatever work she's had done.

People who started watching wrestling in 1998 or so aren't real wrestling fans in my view. Those are the bandwagon types who just enjoyed the shock sports entertainment stuff, like seeing the McMahons on TV, etc. Wanna be a real wrestling fan? Try watching Mabel get a main event push sometime and come back for more.

Call me crazy but I think there is something you can do with this Jillian angle. It'd be a silly angle but what else could it be? Once this Animal/Heidenreich stuff is done, MNM need to wrestle a duo where one guy falls in love with Jillian despite the MOLE. It can lead to a big falling out between Melina and Jillian (Melina being baffled as to why anyone would like Mole Girl), Jillian can join the other team, etc. Obviously during this Jillian would get the mole removed and thus be unveiled in a new hot persona. This can lead to a decent tag feud, some 1 on 1 women's matches, even 6 person matches. Thing is, I have no idea who I'd have as the other team...though Spanky seems weird enough to go for a chick with a huge mole.

It'd be a big draw type match but I don't think the match itself would be worth a shit unless Patterson does every booking trick he can think of to make both guys look good. About Austin though, the guy had a peak drawing period from roughly WM 14 till SS 99. Also, what does it really say about Austin when the WWF made perhaps MORE money in 2000 without him? The Rock was just as big of a draw. Sure I loved Austin's heel antics in 2001 but would anyone try to make a serious claim that his heel schtick drew money? Critical success, commercial flop.

I was just a kid at the time but I remember being quite disillusioned when I read my first PWI magazine. In the back they had all these house show reports where I saw all those match results of feuds they kept pimping on TV. I thought to myself "Well if these guys are fighting every night what exactly are they building to?" I assumed these guys were all fighting other people (mostly just jobbers like they did on TV) and they were saving these epics like Bulldog/Repo Man for a huge PPV.

I remember a lot about Bret, from his initial Hart Foundation stuff with Neidhart, but I think I loved his 1991-94 stuff the best. Bret/Bulldog from SS 92 is my favorite match ever, and I still remember how totally stunned I was when I tuned into Superstars one morning to find out Bret Hart was the new WWF champ. It was shocking stuff at the time: A world champion who actually wrestled on TV a lot! His late 1996/97 run was perhaps his best quality stuff in terms of storyline and mic work. Just brilliant. It's stuff that I find highly entertaining even now, but the demons were starting to show by this point and I have a hard time being terribly nostalgic about the Hart Foundation given what happened to most of the group (Owen's dead, Bulldog is dead, Pillman dead, etc.). I actually watched Canadian Stampede on the 24/7 thing recently...first time I'd seen it actually. Loved that show, especially the 10 man.

I'd take Russo most certainly over who they have right now....but surely there is some Hollywood writer out there who is a longtime wrestling fan. The problem is that any decent writer is already employed writing movie scripts or a TV show, so the ones left are these soap opera rejects.

I'm glad I read the spoilers for this show, I just turned it off once the main event rolled around. I'm at the point where I'm close to boycotting Smackdown, but there IS some stuff that interests me (namely Eddie, who can carry even the worst of shows)...thus I've compromised and am just boycotting JBL segments. SummerSlam absolutely has to be "Cabinet Job Night." This baffling JBL push--and to a lesser extent the Orlando Jordan US title push--is really killing this show. Job these jokers out, PLEASE. I assume Bradshaw is jobbing to Batista, now just get anyone to beat Jordan.

I wouldn't blame Jericho if he did just quit and said fuck it. The guy has been the single most jobbed out, misused wrestler I have ever seen. Since the first month he was in the company he has been in some way screwed over, dicking around with the Road Dog and X-Pac when he should have logically feuded with the Rock. That said, I don't think he would leave now anyway. If WWE thought he was going to leave, would they really push him in the title match of a PPV? If he was really leaving for good, I'd just have him put over someone....let him job to Chris Masters or something goofy, slightly notable but no one would care if he left (whereas if he was main eventing and left, people would wonder "Where is Jericho?").

I actually have to say I agree with Hogan on this one. Yes Hogan has had some ups and downs in his career but I find his act a lot more timeless than I do Austin's. Austin's schtick is very, very dated and of its time nowdays. It seriously could only work at the exact time it worked. I'd also have to say that Hogan also adapted when it was clear he needed to (his heel NWO run in WCW) and his heel run actually was a bit success. This isn't really to compare in ring skills, where Austin is certainly superior. But Hogan has been headlining in some form forever, whereas Austin had a peak drawing period from roughly WM 14 till SummerSlam 99. Before then guys like Bret and Shawn were still on top and after SS 99 the whole HHH push of doom began.