cabbageboy

I heard that Vince always wanted to get around to putting the title on Luger at some point, but I have zero clue how that would have happened by 1995. Luger was so far out of contention by that point that no one would have cared. In that respect he was right to go back to WCW, where he immediately became a top star again.

If we're talking in ring I'd say that Benoit jumped the shark when MVP waxed him in 2 straight falls for the US title. He really looked like a shot fighter in that match. As far as RVD goes, where exactly was he going to go with the WWE title? If he didn't lose it to Edge that next night on Raw, he would have lost it at some point in the next month anyway (SNME was the plan I think). In terms of the new ECW though, his pot arrest caused that entire project to jump the shark more than his actual career. I would say RVD did jump the shark in the new ECW but that happened a bit later, when he didn't ever regain the title. RVD has actually jumped the shark a bunch of times now that I think about it: 2000 in ECW after breaking his leg. The Elimination Chamber in 2002 where he nearly killed HHH and was buried. Being jobbed totally out to Kane and being humiliated every week of that feud on Raw. And of course the new ECW circa 2006-07. And you know what's wild? If he showed up tomorrow on Raw he'd be the most over guy on the show.

It doesn't shock me that Body of Lies and The Express didn't do all that well. On one hand we have the ultra tired War on Terror/CIA genre that people are sick of seeing, and on the other hand a movie about a star football player that Right now with the economy tanking horribly people need a bit of a fun pick me up at the movies, and something silly like the Chihuahua movie will fare well.

I agree that the booking of this show was almost entirely moronic aside from JJ/Angle, which was done about the way I expected in terms of Foley getting pissed at Angle and costing him. It's almost as if Jarrett put all of his time into that match and didn't think about the rest of the card. Wasn't even a Russo type show either, with swerves and goofy heel turns. Just dumb finishes that accomplished very little. They pretty much killed off Creed tonight with that match. Let's see...he brings out a wounded Iraq war veteran, they play up his American hero gimmick, and he jobs to friggin Daivari?? I don't care if he had simply jobbed the title right back on Impact but he needed to win tonight. Just a terrible finish. So now we get Machismo/Bashir? Joy, we get Dutt running in to cost Lethal the match. Also why the hell did Taylor Wilde retain tonight? Who is she blowing backstage to deserve this kind of unwarranted run with the women's belt? I flat out assumed that she had to be losing the belt tonight given her entire lack of heat or crowd reaction. Enough of this crap, TNA. Just put her against Kong on Impact, let Kong squash the shit out of her, and end this joke. Monster's Ball was actually booked right with Beer Money retaining. Mongo tried his best to kill the match with his truly hideous officiating. Why prevent the tacks from being used by Beer Money early in the match, yet then allow LAX to use them later? The actual work was great stuff with sick spots that I haven't seen in a while so they seemed fresh again (cheese grater, stapler, burning table). You know why all of this booking was so bad in the end? Since there was no title change earlier in the show, it was 100% obvious that Sting was winning the main event. This is TNA's "biggest show of the year" yet for the first 2 1/2 hours there was no title change. The problem is that some of the champs haven't had the belts very long (Daivari, Beer Money) and thus it wasn't quite the time to job them. That said, I didn't really mind the main event finish. It's about time they paid off this Nash storyline with something, and Nash vs. Joe certainly doesn't need to be for a belt. Just don't put Jarrett in there with Sting at the next PPV, please. Let Styles win the belt again since he deserves it. Oh and Jarrett can get over as a face but he needs to repackage himself a bit. Get rid of the annoying music and get rid of the guitar shots. I can't imagine WWE bringing a guy back after 2 years with the same bad music and same tired gimmick...at least not a main event type guy.

Let's see how I did on the predictions. Early Chicago at Atlanta: This is a really tough game to call, since both teams are baffling. Falcons are pretty tough at home though so I will take them to somehow win by 3. (Wow, this was a crazy, great game with a terrific finish. 1 for 1) Miami at Houston: Houston has played so well the past 2 weeks only to blow it both times. I think that has to start wearing on them and the Dolphins win this by 10. (Houston finally got a tough win, good job. 1 for 2) Baltimore at Indianapolis: For some reason I just can't see the Colts losing 3 straight at home. I'm not sure how they will win this exactly since they have looked god awful thus far, but I'll take Indy by 4. (Okay so this wasn't even a contest....Ravens are really, really terrible offensively. 2 for 3) Detroit at Minnesota: Vikings might be getting it back on track and playing the hideous Lions will only help further. Vikings by 14. (What was up with this game? Was it a case of the Lions playing much better or the Vikings just sucking? No spread cover, but as far as W/L goes...3 for 4) Oakland at New Orleans: Saints can't afford this to be a loss, especially to the mess that is the Oakland Raiders. Saints by 7. (Biggest ass beating of the day. 4 for 5) Cincinnati at N.Y. Jets: Bengals just can't seem to buy a win even though they have played pretty well in several games. Can't see them winning this one either though. Favre will make enough plays and the Jets win by 6. (Would have been more interesting with Palmer. 5 for 6) Carolina at Tampa Bay: I'm not quite sold on the Panthers yet, but I'm not sure what Tampa is doing at QB right now. If it's Garcia I'll take the Bucs at home by 7. (It was Garcia, and they crushed the Panthers to bring them back to reality. 6 for 7) St. Louis at Washington: After a rough early schedule it gets a bit easier for the Redskins. Washington by 21. (Okay now this just completely shocked me on all levels. After this fiasco I think we can cease with the Redskins hype for a while. 6 for 8) Late Jacksonville at Denver: Jacksonville is a bit of a tough luck team and the Broncos are a wildly lucky team, especially at home. Denver by 3 (what else?). (Oh joy, the Jags win. 6 for 9) Dallas at Arizona: Cardinals just baffle me, so who knows what to think of this. Cowboys don't really look on their game right now though, so I'll take Arizona in a shootout 35-31. (Cardinals did everything they could to blow this game and the Cowboys still didn't get it done. If Dallas had won this I might have totally flipped out. 7 for 10) Philadelphia at San Francisco: I gave the Niners the benefit of the doubt last week, but not again. Philly by 8. (Philly somewhat back on track but the Niners just aren't much. 8 for 11) Green Bay at Seattle: Both of these teams need a win. But man Seattle is just...not good. So I'll go with the Packers by 6 somewhat reluctantly. (Packers got a solid enough road win. Not much else to say. 9 for 12) SNF New England at San Diego: Okay seriously enough of this Matt Cassel crap. Chargers by 14 since they desperately need this one. (Thank you, San Diego. 10 for 13)

I'll say this about the Red Sox...their games certainly don't lack drama. I'm glad the Rays won since they would have been toast facing Lester in game 3 already down 2-0. Now they can afford to take a probable loss there, come back strong against Wakefield in game 4 (I think he's still starting?) and then game 5 becomes huge. All the Rays really need to do is get 1 game in Boston somehow and get it back to St. Pete.

I still have zero clue why they didn't put the belts on the Allied Powers even if just for a transition run. So not only did Luger choke against Yoko in the world title scene he also choked against Yoko and Owen in the tag ranks. And I have to ponder: You have Luger and Bulldog and want to turn one guy heel. So you choose to turn BULLDOG??? The guy had never been a heel in his career and was still quite over with the crowd, while Luger was out of steam as the All American hero and needed a new direction.

I will give Piper and Hogan this much. When Hogan was the uber face and Piper was a heel in the 80s the feud clicked and made a ton of money. And a decade later when Hogan was the dick heel and Piper was the underdog babyface the feud once again drew big money.

Kozlov is just there to give fans an option of picking someone. Here's the way they are likely thinking about the booking: If Jeff wins, Kozlov gets pissed and runs in and causes a DQ finish. That protects Jeff and keeps him from jobbing again. If it's a 3 way they can have Jeff nearly beat Kozlov but HHH steals a pin. If by some fluke it IS Kozlov that wins (no chance) then HHH would simply win. Basically it's time to just pull the trigger on a Jeff Hardy title run. If he has the belt and blows it and fails another drug test, then he can simply job the belt and be fired. It's going to hurt him more in the long run in terms of credibility to keep constantly losing title matches without ever getting a win.

In fairness I don't think we've seen enough of Swagger yet to know exactly what he can and can't do. I will admit I recall seeing Jake Hager in OVW and wasn't terribly impressed with his work, but heard he improved in Florida.

From watching 24/7 of late I recall that the goofy Piper/Jobbers show was opposite Bulldog vs. Owen on Raw for the Euro title. And it was THAT show that tripled Raw's number? Wrestling fans are an ignorant lot sometimes. That said I didn't watch either show that week since there was a major flood in town and I had to stay at my grandma's house, and she didn't have cable.

Flair jumped the shark but not in 1993. I'd peg that more around the time of Halloween Havoc 1994 when he lost the career match to Hogan. Keep in mind that in 1993 he did win the (bogus) Intl. World title as well as the WCW title from Vader.

The Dodgers may not recover from Lowe's one bad inning in game 1. They were cruising towards a win but then it fell apart. For all the talk about Manny the Dodgers overall haven't been THAT much better with him. Didn't they show a graphic saying the Dodgers were 54-54 before the trade and they finished 84-78. Good enough to win a terrible division, but they wouldn't have even gotten near the playoffs in any other division.

Man, the Rays had every chance to win that game but blew it time and time again. Have they never heard of a timely bunt to move runners into scoring position? That said I take issue with the Rays being a Cinderella team. They've been good all year, unlike a true Cinderella team like the Rockies last year who were mediocre most of the season and got crazy hot in Sept. for whatever reason.

The amusing irony of that whole Nash conversation is that Nash for all intents and purposes did no sell the biggest PPV WCW ever did, Starrcade 97.

Eh, Bulldog was a blatant placeholder challenger for Bret in late 95. Bret had just won the belt from Diesel and since Bulldog owed him a job from SS 92, he got the spot on PPV. I do agree that Davey Boy could have gotten the belt from HBK at Beware of Dog in 1996, just do the same finish except Bulldog gets his shoulder up. Then do the rematch at KOTR with Hennig as ref, Michaels regains. Here's a controversial pick: I think Rob Van Dam jumped the shark in ECW when he broke his leg in March 2000. While he ended up getting over like gangbusters during the Invasion in 2001, if you take a look he really didn't do anything of note in ECW after he relinquished the TV belt. He finally jobbed to Jerry Lynn, beat down a heel turned Scotty Anton in a useless feud, jobbed to Rhino at the next PPV, and all but quit the company after that due to not being paid.

Who was it that said these comments about Hall?

I don't really have a problem with Mongo being a guest ref at the PPV. It's about like Dave Schultz being the ref for the Nastys vs. Cactus/Sullivan match at Slamboree 94...local sports star as a ref for a violent brawl.

I like S. Series 87 and all but they show it entirely too much. Why not 1988 or 89? I haven't seen those since the original VHS release. The 1988 show has the Conquistadors in the finals of the 10 tag team match, which was awesome.

Oh no, not more KO finishes. The use of a KO in wrestling is utterly idiotic since it goes against the very point of wrestling which is to pin your opponent or get a submission. If they insist on doing such a finish at least have the ref raise the arm 3 times since the crowd understands what that means. But otherwise, forget it. It's pro wrestling....if the guy is out cold, here's a novel idea: PIN HIM.

I wouldn't say Bulldog jumped the shark in Dec. 1995 when he didn't beat Bret. Did anyone seriously think he would win? Besides he did so much quality work with Owen in 1996-97. In fact the Euro title finals vs. Owen is probably Bulldog's 2nd best match, so it's hard to say he really jumped the shark.

Sadly I don't see Bourne ever being any sort of major star simply because I have no idea what WWE will do with the guy in the long term. He's terrific but at the end of the day is about 180 lbs. The most he could do is be a cruiserweight champ if they still had the belt. So he'll likely end up having tremendous matches and never going anywhere.

Eh, I think the Dodgers can take game 2 tomorrow with Brett Myers on the mound for Philly. That's all LA is after, just the 1 game on the road. I can't help but think Lidge is due to implode on the Phillies. He's almost been too good this year.

Taz jumped the shark to me when he signed with the WWF and jobbed to Mike Awesome at Anarchy Rulz 99. He jobbed out the last few months in ECW and was never the same. Sadly I think the Bulldog jumped the shark once he lost to European belt to Michaels in England. He was never the same after that and I couldn't tell you a good match he ever had after it. His UK invincibility was also gone.

Khali already won a world title though. It's odd that SD has gotten a certain amount of praise in some circles but I find the show the most boring show that WWE produces. ECW is more focused and has a nice hour of solid wrestling, and while Raw can be extremely bad at times the good stuff is really great (Jericho/Michaels for instance). Raw at least always seems like it matters. But SD? There's just no upward mobility for anyone on the show. There never has been to be honest, at least not in the past 3-4 years. What exactly is the epic match that SD is building to for the future, say at WM? HHH vs. UT again? I'm not thrilled.