cabbageboy

I literally turned the PPV off after the Benoit/Jordan match. I told my friend Ian (who came over for the show) "Just go home, I am not watching this anymore." Of course everyone else demanded I turn it back on... Here's the bottom line: Neither JBL or Hassan is worth a shit. Neither guy should remotely be main eventing. The one guy on SMDN who SHOULD be main eventing is in the never ending cycle of jobbing to Rey. I know Rey is Eddie's buddy but I wonder if Eddie realizes his pal's booking of this angle is flat out killing his career. And for the last time, Bradshaw isn't any better. If you gave him 20 mins in 1998 he would have had the same shit match he had last night, but back then the idea of giving Bradshaw 20 mins was rightfully considered insane. The man simply cannot wrestle. If you note whenever the APA did a violent brawl type match it was ok, but when they did regular wrestling they, you know, sucked. Last night's GAB was eerily similar to the 1999 GAB for WCW. It had it all: No talent wrestlers going over talented stars, bizarre and out of nowhere sports entertainment moments, a mystery angle with zero payoff, and a lame DQ in the main event.

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for Hassan. The guy is a 3rd rate wrestler doing a cheap heat gimmick...and they were going to put the TITLE on this idiot? Face it, Mark Magnus' career is fucked. There's really no good way to repackage the guy because at the end of the day it'll be revealed that he's Hassan and no one will care. The basis of him getting over with another gimmick relies on him being able to wrestle well enough to overcome a gimmick that doesn't rely on cheap heel heat.

You know, I think by tonight's finish it is obvious they had no idea where to go with this angle. Welcome to Hummer Angle 2005.

Well if you watched the match Jordan also got most of the alleged offense. So not only did Benoit job to a totally talentless and heatless piece of shit, but he didn't just DESTROY him for most of the match leading up to a fluke win. This show was 1999 WCW level bad, it really was. Actually it might be worse, since while they might have jobbed guys like Benoit out to David Flair that was at least meant to be a joke. I mean it was never presented in a way that anyone was expected to believe David could beat Benoit or Malenko without copious Ric and Arn run ins. We're actually expected to believe motherfucking ORLANDO JORDAN can beat Chris Benoit pretty much 1 on 1. And quite frankly, I'd take the hasbeen WCW main event scene of 99 with Nash, Macho, etc. over friggin Bradshaw. At least those guys seemed like actual stars, rather than a career midcard bum getting a push from nowhere. It's hard to believe this was the same brand that had as good of a show as Judgment Day. Of course guys like Cena and Angle who made that show good are now on Raw.

Yeah but he wasn't really ROBBED. In fact as far as jobbing to Orlando Jordan goes, he didn't get protected nearly enough. I mean what is this, 1992? Removing the turnbuckle is that lethal these days? For Jordan to beat Benoit it should take a friggin army of run ins from JBL, the 10 guys who put UT in the casket, and the NWO Wolfpac. There are certain times when jobbing a guy out doesn't help someone, but just hurts the other guy. Jordan gained nothing tonight because he still sucks a dick and no one cares about him, and it just made Benoit look horrible for not being able to beat a total scrub.

Is Orton even going to be back for SS anyway? Besides, how many times are they going to have him cost UT a match? Further, I know they are expecting UT to put Orton over in the rematch but isn't that a bit absurd considering they would have jobbed UT out via Ortonference to both JBL and Batista? Does Orlando Jordan have his own secret over Vince? Documents proving guilt in the 94 steroid trial? Pics of Vince with a chicken? There has to be SOME reason for his continued employment and push.

I fall somewhere in between on Scarlett. I know who she is, seen her in stuff, but don't really care a whole lot. She's ok, but hasn't done anything that any dozen others couldn't do. Doesn't shock me that The Island tanked. No one in the movie has ever had to carry something at the box office, and for that matter Bay has also never had to open a film without Bruckheimer's name. I have to admit Wedding Crashers making 26 million on its 2nd week is surprising, I figured it'd go down to about 16 million or so.

Just wondering but what is Morgan's problem with Sandberg? Just wondering but what is Morgan's career fielding % compared to Ryno, gold gloves, etc? If I had to choose one I'd probably take Sandberg, but I'm biased. He was my favorite player. Besides, he had to carry the Cubs for years while Morgan was on a loaded Big Red Machine with Rose, Bench, Griffey, Foster.

Sid's win streak was really rather harmless though. It was too rushed and he just attacked people and counted them as wins. Thing is, at least it led to a pretty solid PPV match with Goldberg where Sid did a sick bladejob. This wasn't anywhere near the level of crap of the Hummer.

I wasn't too upset with Booker winning since I kinda like both guys there really, and besides Booker did a mega squash for Christian on Smackdown. Have there ever been two more horrible secondary champs than what we have right now? Carlito doing his tedious HTM 1987 bullshit on Raw and Orlando Jordan's insanely heatless US title run on SMDN. Jordan is far worse, at least Carlito is kinda over and has some mic skills. I mean honestly Orlando Jordan is a guy who frankly should be RELEASED, not going over Benoit on a PPV. You cannot defend this man. Join the club now: "Orlando Must Die!" How about renaming the OCT. PPV Halloween Havoc and having the PPV go off the air because it went over 3 hours?

Oh God. This show was pretty much the worst shit I've seen in a long time, probably the worst show since last year's GAB. I didn't even watch the New Year's Revolution PPV so I can't comment. Will someone please tell me why the FUCK they keep up with this Orlando Jordan bullshit? Seriously, the guy is a total jobber, he can't wrestle, can't brawl, can't work the mic to any degree....why do they keep the US title on this piece of fucking dogshit????? I mean does anyone realize this totally heatless wonder has wins over both Cena and Benoit now? Seriously, this is some sort of sick joke. I flat out turned off the TV after he beat Benoit tonight, only turned it back on due to the show costing 35.00. Speaking of bullshit, what is up with this Eddie/Rey thing now? I mean, I'd think most people bought this show mainly to see what the big secret was, and not only did Eddie job yet AGAIN to Rey he didn't even do anything cool like people predicted on here where he would job and then be a dick and tell the secret anyway. This whole angle was garbage tonight and the Dominic stuff killed what should have been a good match. And the main event? Fuck me. A really horrible 25m Bradshaw match ending in a DQ. What have I done to deserve this? Anyone who dares to say that JBL has improved a great deal needs to be forced to watch this snoozer on a loop for 24 hours. The only thing saving this from contention in the "Worst PPV Ever" category is UT crushing Hassan. Unfortunately this leads to yet more Bradshaw in the main event. They outta just get rid of the Great American Bash as a PPV. It seems like when they take the WCW PPV name they try and actually BOOK the show like WCW. After tonight it's time to start the "Orlando Jordan Must Die" club. Who's with me?

Having Hassan win at this point would be about the dumbest swerve anyone could think of doing. Time to chalk it up as another shit gimmick, let Taker squash the jobber, get him the fuck off my TV. Case closed. I actually saw Mark Magnus on an OVW taping at the Davis Arena. The guy has nothing, believe me. He wasn't even any good on OVW. This cheap heat gimmick is his crutch, without it he's going absolutely nowhere.

I'm pretty sure that pic above was from about 1991 or early 92. He had gone off the juice a bit by SS 92 since he seemed smaller on that show. I guess he was hurt before it or maybe he realized the bulk would hinder him in a 25m long match with Bret.

Well sure people who got into wrestling in 1995 or so would HAVE to like Michaels since he was the guy being shoved down everyone's throat. But I had watched wrestling since 1987 or so and wasn't amused. By the way, yes Michaels was a joke IC champ in his first run with the title in 93. He jobbed clean in a non title match to Tatanka (for the life of me I don't know why Tatanka never at least won the IC). He jobbed to Jannetty in a title match on Raw. Eventually he got in some sort of steroid/drug/contract dispute, whatever and was stripped of the title in Oct. 93....leading to Razor Ramon winning it and the subsequent WM 10 ladder match.

Why, is that where Nash was run over by the Hummer? In Fargo? I actually just watched that GAB 99 show where the Hummer angle initially happened (or rather it led to the Nash/Macho match). My God that show SUCKS. I mean bad enough to drive a man to drink. I have to admit though seeing Hennig tear up Master P's autographed CD at the beginning was funny, but of course they job the West TX Rednecks out to Rey and Konnan (this being the hideous No Limit angle). The show also has: --The Steiners and Tank Abbott unleashing trained dogs on Sting in the back. Ok that was actually pretty damn funny. --Benoit and Saturn jobbing to the Jersey Triad in a feud that made zero sense to me even AFTER the recap was shown! --Sid returning to attack Nash during the ME and the announcers all think he drove the Hummer. This would lead to a truly bizarre and convoluted main event at the next PPV where Nash and Sting went against Macho/Sid. Stips: Nash's title was on the line and his OWN PARTNER could pin him! So what did Sting do? Nothing, didn't even turn on Nash at all even though the stips insisted that he should!

If they play off the inherent foolishness of this gimmick it could be quite hilarious, kinda like how ECW would have done it. I mean hell Amish Roadkill got over there due to being a silly gimmick that was treated as such. If they actually seriously try to push him and have people be afraid of him....he's gonna suck horribly.

I'd be amazed if Rey came up with an angle that had his wife banging his former best friend and his own son is actually Eddie's bastard offspring. Maybe Vicki will get in on this too and say she and Eddie used to have swinger parties with Rey and his wife?

The thing is, there's always been a segment of the fans that never liked Michaels. Not being a smark a decade ago I was incredulous as to why they kept pushing this guy. He was ultra annoying, dressed like someone out of a gay bar, and most guys at my HS couldn't stand him. What does it say about the guy that I basically said "To hell with the WWF" when he won the title and watched mostly WCW? That's the only time I ever felt that way too, since once Bret came back and started feuding with Austin I got back into the WWF again. Hogan's character is simply more timeless than Michaels and that's why no one would cheer for Shawn over Hogan. If the jaded Philly fans were solidly behind Hulk, everyone will be. I mean what is sadder: A 50+ year old man out flexing his muscles and trying to play to the crowd or a 40 year old man wearing a gay cop outfit and pretending to be a boy toy sex symbol (while balding)?

JBL beating Batista would make Batista look really horrible though. We just saw Cena destroy JBL on 2 PPVs, so Batista has to beat him down as well or look a lot weaker. I say just do Batista/UT at SummerSlam. If they want have Orton run in there to cost the Taker, or at least attempt to.

I'd just suggest doing a search on Google for the Death of WCW and see what all is out there. This is a guilty secret of mine but I actually quite liked the initial Russo "Powers That Be" angle. In fact I dare say I enjoyed that stuff better than what the WWF was doing in the Oct-Nov. 99 months (what with the HHH push of doom starting...when he had zero heat). At least the PTB angle was leagues better than the horrible crap that came before it. WCW was for all intents dead in the water after some amazingly awful events in Dec. 99/Jan. 2000: --Bret Hart suffered a career ending injury vs. Goldberg and had to vacate the WCW title. --Jeff Jarrett suffered a concussion in a cage match with JIMMY SNUKA of all people and was temporarily stripped of the US title. --Russo, hero to millions, decided to have a Battle Royal at Souled Out 2000 for a new champ and wanted to put the strap on Tank Abbott!!!! This is what got him relieved of command. --Needing a new booker, Bill Busch appointed Kevin Sullivan. A bunch of guys in the back (Malenko, Douglas, Saturn, Kidman, Rey, Eddie) and in particular Chris Benoit protested the move and asked for their release. Benoit was now booked to win the title against Sid later that night, but had obvious heat with Sullivan and feared he'd get a token title run and then get jobbed out again. --This basically led to the Radicals joining the WWF, but Douglas, Kidman, and Rey all stayed in WCW. For the next 3 months WCW had quite possibly the worst wrestling shows this side of the dying AWA. By April they got so desperate that Bischoff and Russo were brought back, which actually did provide a short term boost but by the end of the summer things were fairly desperate again.

Ok actually I just found Nitro ratings for 1999, so have a look: 1999 Date Rating January 4, 1999 5.0 January 11, 1999 5.0 January 18, 1999 4.4 January 25, 1999 5.0 February 1, 1999 4.7 February 8, 1999 5.7 February 15, 1999 3.9 February 22, 1999 4.8 February 29, 1999 4.3 March 8, 1999 4.4 March 15, 1999 4.3 March 22, 1999 4.0 March 29, 1999 3.5 April 5, 1999 4.3 April 12, 1999 4.4 April 19, 1999 4.1 April 26, 1999 3.9 May 3, 1999 3.4 May 17, 1999 3.3 May 24, 1999 3.8 May 31, 1999 3.1 June 7, 1999 3.2 June 14, 1999 3.3 June 21, 1999 3.1 June 28, 1999 3.6 July 5, 1999 3.3 July 12, 1999 3.45 July 19, 1999 3.3 July 26, 1999 3.4 August 2, 1999 3.1 August 9, 1999 3.1 August 16, 1999 3.3 August 23, 1999 2.9 August 30, 1999 4.0 September 6, 1999 4.1 September 13, 1999 3.3 September 20, 1999 3.1 September 27, 1999 3.0 October 4, 1999 2.9 October 11, 1999 2.6 October 18, 1999 3.3 October 25, 1999 3.5 November 1, 1999 3.2 November 8, 1999 3.4 November 15, 1999 3.1 November 22, 1999 3.4 November 29, 1999 3.1 December 6, 1999 3.0 December 13, 1999 2.8 December 20, 1999 3.2 December 27, 1999 2.9 By those numbers it actually looks like the bottom started falling out about 1 month before the Hummer Angle. Anyone who wants to cite the Fingerpoke of Doom as something that killed ratings should have a look. In Jan. and Feb. WCW was still drawing excellent ratings in the high 4s and into the 5s. I think the ratings decline really started when DDP won the title at Spring Stampede. I remember one truly offensive Nitro where DDP lost the title to Sting the first hour, then won the title back in a goofy 4 way to end the show (by pinning NASH, not Sting...after protesting in the crowd the entire match). I think that show was an unsung fiasco that really hurt WCW. If you note Nitro's ratings would only rise above 4.0 2 more times in August (was this when Hogan went back to the red and yellow?). Either way, the Hummer angle only further killed WCW's popularity after the silly DDP experiment.

Yeah but I always thought the whole Bischoff thing was a total joke. As in by that point even they realized how horrible the Hummer angle was and it was an ironic joke. I'm not 100% sure Bischoff was literally supposed to be the original driver, because that doesn't make a bit of sense. It wasn't a bad angle? Re-read my original post and tell me that isn't absolutely pathetic. It's the worst angle in history. Now if they'd just stopped at Sid being the driver (which is what anyone watching that PPV would assume) it would have been fine, but they kept stringing it out until the whole thing was so bogged down and made no sense that WCW's ratings went down the tubes. Anyone know of a website that has Nitro ratings from 1999? I'd like to see what the ratings were pre Hummer angle (May), and by the fall of 99 once Russo took over.

You know, I almost thought they should just do a lame no decision tomorrow in the title match and do a real blowoff at SS for Batista/JBL...it's like the feud has just sorta started and now is going to end 2 weeks later. Thing is, I'm absolutely sick of god damn Bradshaw main eventing, but when faced with the prospects of Hassan winning the title I guess I'll put up with more JBL. When in doubt, don't do shit. Jobbing Batista with little clear idea of where to go next is a horrible idea. In my opinion Batista shouldn't be jobbing to ANYONE on Smackdown at the moment....bring in Brock, keep those two dominant but apart, and build that for WM.

That's truly horrible then. One of the key rules of wrestling booking (to me anyway) is this: When you do a mystery angle, always plan in advance what the payoff is going to be. Hell, why did the NWO 3rd man angle work? They had a decent idea that whoever it was would be important (either Bret if he jumped or Hogan). And they also had Luger get stretchered if it absolutely came down to it. Actually, I don't guess it would kill either guy's career if it was the "Eddie is Dominic's father" storyline. I'm not sure what the impetus to keep fighting would be at that point. Now if they do "Eddie is molesting Dominic" then it really would kill Eddie's career dead.

I'm not sure how bringing Boogeyman up would exactly avoid a lawsuit though. If anything bringing this jobber up to the main roster for the world to see will make the OVW kid's lawsuit look better...the whole world will get to laugh at how bad this gimmick is.