cabbageboy

I voted for Dibiase. I've been fairly impressed with him so far and think he will be a future star if he works on his gimmick a bit more. His promo at the PPV was a nice start as he mentioned his dad being rich and he didn't need the money. Expand on that and give him a Virgil type servant, throw money around, etc. As far as MVP goes, I think the damage has been done. He's been so buried on SD this year that it's hard to see him attaining a major level of success there. I've suggested trading him to Raw for Cade, and given the way HBK beat Cade down on Raw it makes even more sense.

You know what would be ironic if the Dodgers won the WS this year? The notion that Greg Maddux could get another ring as a washed up 4th starter when he only won 1 with the Braves during their glory years.

I know they probably want HTM to win that poll but does anyone in their right mind think fans would ever vote for Honky over Piper? The people left that do remember him hated his guts in the 80s. I think WWE will eventually do that match, but fans won't vote to see it.

It was a curious plan in that case since my cable company cut out on the show at 11:00 and I missed the finish of Warrior/Hogan but it DID come back on for the main event so I did get to see DDP/Goldberg. WCW may have been stupid enough to do something like this, but I have no idea why Bischoff would want to piss off PPV companies and cable systems.

Here's my point though. Austin started calling Bret out in Sept./Oct. 1996 and those two guys had some sort of altercation nearly every week on TV until after Canadian Stampede in July, 1997. Then they went to Austin vs. Owen. Maybe it's because I've always been a much bigger Bret fan than Austin fan, but I never once sat down and thought "Gee I wish Austin had gotten that elusive blowoff win over Bret." WM 14 would have been more depressing than rousing with Bret in that champion role. Bret never wanted to flat out be the 100% asshole heel that the angle would have demanded. And thus Austin wouldn't have gotten as over as he did since people would have been conflicted about who to cheer or what they wanted to see. But Shawn? This guy screwed UT out of the title at SS, screwed over Bulldog in England (in a match Bulldog dedicated to his dying sister), got lucky as hell and screwed UT at HIAC, literally was handed the title vs. Bret in the biggest screwjob ever, and got another bullshit win over UT in the Casket Match. After all that crap I personally needed to see him finally get his ass kicked and while I was no Austin fan I realized he was the necessary evil. If anything HBK's injury in 1998 prevented UT from getting a satisfactory blowoff win over Shawn. In fact UT never really got anything back on him until the 2007 Rumble.

What is going on with MVP? Other than the piss test what has he done to be so mercilessly buried? It seems like he's being jobbed out in order to send him to Raw, but I have no idea if that plan is in place or what. The main event doesn't sound that odd. Basically seems like UT runs in (or just appears) and he brawls with Show to the back, then Kozlov attacks HHH, Jeff makes the save and he and HHH run off Kozlov, then Jeff attacks HHH and leaves him laying. Here's the part of the whole Brie Bella angle that I don't get or like: Why is it that the twin is able to simply pin someone immediately after getting in the match? Shouldn't Victoria or Natalya be expecting something by this point?

It got worse as the night went on. I think that had to be the This is Your Life, Rock show and thus the one segment had an 8.4 rating to 1.6 for Nitro. WCW was just getting assraped back then.

Know what I mean though? That WM match was more of a catharsis for the HBK haters of the world (I was one from 1992-98). I didn't like Austin much at all at that point, but warmed to him once the Vince feud got going. After all the times Shawn pulled his crap and got out of jobbing, won matches he shouldn't have, acted like a douche...this was the one time where everyone flat out knew he was jobbing.

I think the Havoc 98 show was a case of WCW simply being morons and not clearing 3 1/2 hours with the cable systems before doing the show. To me though if you want to go a lot longer with a PPV, fill it with actual content and not dance routines.

I disagree with this. To me, WM 14 was more about Shawn finally getting his ass kicked than it was a huge Austin moment. Austin's big moments came in the weeks following this, but the title win was a formality. Austin/Bret was out of steam by late 1997 anyway. And besides I always dislike simply repeating WM matches in consecutive years, unless it's a scenario like Andre/Hogan where they met in a tourney match at WM 4 after the previous year's main event.

I'd say 2nd best. JR and Taz are the best team right now. I think we can all agree Cole and Lawler are the worst however. Given the weed references with Kofi I think they are grooming him to be the next RVD, haha.

Thing is, the tough part is over for the Redskins. They have the dubious likes of St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Cincy all left so that alone would get them to 8 wins. If they can win a few tough ones then they might end up finishing 12-4 or so.

I remember a really hilarious Flair/Luger interview during that time period where Luger did his spiel and then Flair did a rant listing all of their accomplishments. It was like "I'm the Nature Boy Ric Flair! Greatest of all time! 14 time world champion! And this is the Total Package, former world champion himself....4 percent!" It was as though Flair thought Luger's 4% body fat deal was so awesome he had to work it in, haha.

This might sound silly but why did they bother putting the belt on Bret at Summerslam 97? Clearly they had no real plans for him as champion other than to dick around with the Patriot and Vader. His last title run in the WWF was pointless. Why not just keep the belt on UT, have him job it to HBK at the HIAC match, and then Bret goes on his merry way to WCW?

The Dodgers just seem like that team on a roll this year. Phillies are a decent enough team but they just have all the feel of a team that is maxed out at the NLCS level. That said, I don't think they will completely tank like the Cubs, so the Dodgers will have to do a bit more.

That whole plot makes zero sense if you've seen the first movie. Crash and Annie end up together at the end and there's no real way Nuke would ever bother with her again since he went to the Major League. And wouldn't Nuke mentor a young pitcher that reminds him of himself rather than Crash doing it?

I think it really depends on the match and the level of violence needed. I've harped on WWE of late for not having enough bladejobs in vicious brawls like Edge/UT HIAC or various HBK/Jericho matches. Those matches in my view required blood due to the hatred of the participants. But a Machine Guns vs. Dudleys match? Who would care if there was blood in that or not? I can see why guys would refuse to disfigure themselves over a match that no one would remember tomorrow.

I'll say something that most here will scoff at but here goes. I sort of enjoyed the silly Totally Buff tag team in late era WCW. They at least got some heat by "retiring" Goldberg, and since Goldberg never returned to WCW they got that job done. And I'll also admit to being amused by Luger's schtick of "4% body fat."

Enigma, my bad...I was looking at a list of ratings and saw a big drop and thought that was the TNN move. It was in fact Sept. 25, 2000. They lost 0.3 that week (5.7 to 5.4). Thing is, the move to TNN was something that prevented them from staying in that 6.0-7.0 range that they flirted with in 1999-2000. That along with some storylines of that time period that started dragging the WWF into decline (the Austin limo angle resolution, the Angle/HHH/Steph angle not having a decent blowoff).

Oh yeah I was always a Bret fan much moreso than a Shawn fan, but the match was so oddly booked and promoted. It was quite literally "Hey here's two assholes who run their own factions. One guy is misunderstood and acts like a douche but thinks he's right (Bret) and the other is without any redeeming value (Shawn). The PPV did a .89 buyrate though so I guess it did intrigue people on some level.

Yeah I still remember Pillman's death like it was yesterday. It's hard to separate it from the bizarre and tastleless angle he was doing with Marlena and Goldust, and it was so creepy and weird to see Pillman's wife on TV that night on Raw. Speaking of the actual drop in ratings from them going from USA to TNN in 2000. The rating for Raw on Aug. 21, 2000 was a 6.2. The next week they moved to TNN and it was a 4.9.

This is a tough series to call since I don't really know if the Dodgers are this good or if the Cubs were just that awful in that series. When in doubt I'll go with the team that seems to have a bit better starting pitching, the Dodgers. I'm not 100% sold on a team making the World Series with an ancient Jamie Moyer leading the team in wins. Dodgers in 6.

I'll take the Rays in 7 games. Red Sox have a few question marks going into this with Beckett not being 100% and Lowell is out for the entire series. Rays also have the best home field advantage in the league this year.

Bleh. I don't buy it at all. The tag was made and that part of the play was flat out over when Varitek dropped the ball. I felt bad for Willits though. He will be remembered for that strange squeeze play even though he did nothing wrong and it was Aybar that screwed up. Then in a typical baseball irony wasn't he the guy who dove for the Bay fly ball and missed it? He probably should have held up and kept Bay to a single, but I can't really fault a guy for hustling. That said, fielding was another aspect of the Angels that turned me off of them this year. I recall a game on national TV this year with the Yankees where it seemed like the Angels made 5 errors. They did win the game, but it made me wonder about them.

And now here are the questions: 1. Who is the best QB in the league up to this point? I would say Brees but he's just not winning enough games. This is a down year for QBs so I'll go with Eli I guess. The gutsiest right now is Roethisberger. 2. What the fuck happened to San Diego's running game? A variety of things. Offensive line issues, Lorenzo Neal's departure, losing Michael Turner to ATL, and also I just think Tomlinson has hit that wall most backs hit when they get near 30. I dare say I would have tried hard to have kept Turner since I think he's the better long term RB. 3. Indianapolis is dead last in the league in rushing and dead last against the run. Baltimore is 4th in the league in rushing and FIRST against the run. Do the Colts need to get lucky again? Yes. The Colts are really, really struggling this year and probably should be winless. I think they can beat the Ravens this weekend, but it'll have to be Manning carrying them big time. Ravens just don't have that much luck with the Colts. 4. How long does Rod Marinelli keep his job? He'll last the rest of the season and then he'll be fired. Might as well let him stay for now since this season is garbage anyway. 5. Tennessee has two players with 4 INTs this year, and another with 3. By far the most in the league. Can this defense carry them into the playoffs and win there? In a certain year, yes. Let's face it, the NFL had a crappy year when the Ravens won the Super Bowl with nothing but defense (can anyone see that team shutting down and beating a truly excellent Pats or Colts team?). Or the 2002 Bucs, who came out of a whatever NFC. That said, the AFC this year looks sorta like junk, but even then I might still take someone like the Steelers over the Titans with money on the line. Bonus: How many yards is Adrian Peterson gonna put up against the Lions this Sunday? He'll have a nice 100+ yard game but they probably will rest him a bit in a rout.