cabbageboy

Almost had Eagle Eye right when I said 30 million, though I didn't bother predicting an entire list or anything. The only shot that a movie like Miracle at St. Anna had was great reviews and thus a strong word of mouth. Let's also not kid ourselves on something else. The audience for WW2 movies is shrinking to begin with, since Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima did little business (though Letters was really a niche film). But an all black WW2 movie is shrinking the audience even further. It's just a hard sell since the main audience for a WW2 movie skews older and they don't wanna hear about it. The only good black WW2 movie I can think of is A Soldier's Story.

Let's see how I did today with the predictions: 1:00 Games ATL @ CAR: I have a feeling ATL will be a decent home team but when they go on the road the youth will start showing more with Ryan. Carolina by 10. (Nailed this one pretty much. 1 for 1) CLE @ CIN: Well, someone is going to have to win. The Bengals actually were quite good against the Giants, so I'll take them by 7. (Wasn't factoring in the Palmer injury, ah well. 1 for 2) HOU @ JAC: Houston always plays the Jags tough and they really need the win here. That said, I can't see JAX following that Indy win by losing at home. Jags by 6. (Only by 3 in OT...where would JAX be without Scobee? 2 for 3) DEN @ KC: You want assrape? This is one right here. Broncos by 17. (Most bizarre shock of the day. Maybe Denver's luck is running out? 2 for 4) SF @ NO: I don't buy the Niners as being anything decent yet. Saints also need a win badly after two tough road losses. New Orleans by 12. (Saints won by 14 actually. 3 for 5) ARI @ NYJ: This is a perplexing game. I don't really like what I'm seeing from the Jets right now, so I'll take the Cardinals to pull off a road win 24-21. (Wow, Favre had an insane day and this was just crazy. 3 for 6) GB @ TB: The Bucs are a pretty solid team actually and I think they can hold serve at home here in a tough game. Tampa 28-24. (Ended up 30-21 with Tampa winning. 4 for 7) MIN @ TEN: This will be an ultra physical game. Can't see either team scoring very much in it, but Tennessee has the better D so I'll take them 16-10. (Ended up a bit easier than I figured for the Titans. 5 for 8) 4:00 Games SD @ OAK: Chargers look back on track and with Oakland's bizarre coaching situation I can't see this going well for the Raiders. SD by 14. (Chargers had more trouble than expected, but a solid win. 6 for 9) BUF @ STL: The Rams may well have a shot at 0-16. Bills by 17. (Nailed this exactly. 7 for 10) WAS @ DAL: A little surprising that the line on this one is 11 or so. I think the Redskins keep it a bit closer than that. Dallas by 7. (Wow, Redskins with an impressive road win. I knew Dallas wouldn't cover 11, but thought they would win. 7 for 11) Night game PHI @ CHI: Bears have lost two really tough games thus far, but with the Eagles perhaps a little banged up I'll take Chicago to win this one by 3. (Bears won by 4 actually, very exciting game. 8 for 12)

Rude/Vader seems like a puzzling matchup since both guys were total heels back then. Was there a planned Rude face turn? At that point in 1994 I think the notion of a 3 way feud with Sting involved was beyond people.

Angle isn't the sort of guy who can job out clean all the time and retain any sort of heat though. He has always done too much goofy comedy stuff, but could back it up in the ring. If you job him clean a bunch of times he will lose his in ring cred as well.

Why? Steamboat was a bad fit for the ECW product, even the more scientific ECW product. Guys like Eddie, Malenko, and Benoit wrestled with much more high impact moves that could pop even a cynical hardcore crowd. What great technician did Heyman ever put the world title on in ECW? Douglas was a marginal technical wrestler but mostly got pushed due to his ranting promos. Sandman and Raven were both brawlers. Funk could work but in ECW mostly did the vicious hardcore stuff. Guys like Malenko, Guerrero, and Benoit were fine for the TV title level, but I just don't think Heyman thought their style exactly represented his product. I guess Taz was the most scientific guy who held the ECW title, but his suplexes and submissions were designed to portray him as a vicious badass.

In regards to the Angels I remember something Al said here about the Yankees in 2004 when they were 101-61, but their Pythagorean W-L was only 89-73, that they had significantly outperformed their numbers and it would eventually come back to bite them. Right now the Angels have a Pythagorean W-L of 87-74, which is 12 games worse than their actual record. The Twins and White Sox are both in that same area in both actual record and Pythagorean W-L (both are roughly 87-88 win teams), while the Rays and Red Sox are both better (Tampa's expected W-L is 91-70, Boston 95-65 as of now). Mind you, this isn't the end all be all but if you look at the stats the Red Sox are still the best team in the AL. The NL? Chicago: 97-63 (Pythagorean 98-62, so the Cubs are right about where they should be) Philly: 91-70 (Pythagorean 92-69, again right near where they should be) LA Dodgers: 84-77 (Pythagorean 86-75, lost a couple they shouldn't have but in the same ballpark) NY Mets: 89-72 (Pythagorean 89-72, so they are exactly what they are) Milwaukee: 89-72 (Pythagorean 87-74, nearly the same, maybe won a couple they shouldn't have) I'll say Red Sox vs. Rays for the ALCS and Cubs/Phillies for the NLCS.

I didn't see this show but was wondering if Duffy was any good as the musical guest? What songs did she do?

It doesn't hurt that the Tigers also made the World Series 2 years ago and at least had a winning record last year. But the Lions? They are just one of those loser organizations in sports. Even with Barry Sanders they never did much of anything aside from an NFC title game appearance when the Redskins destroyed them. Millen sucked of course but doesn't the Ford ownership need to take some of the blame here? At some level Ford Sr. okayed all of this goofy stuff like drafting WRs every year or dubious coaching hires.

Steamboat had no place in the cartoon circus that WCW was becoming in the mid 90s. Bear in mind Steamboat was never a Hogan guy, since Hogan always was a bit threatened due to Steamboat/Savage stealing the show at WM 3. To be honest I always thought Steamboat saw that writing on the wall, saw what WCW was becoming, and just retired rather than attempt to rehab the back injury. Was that injury any worse than Shawn Michaels circa 1998?

Eh I don't think they ever were going to have Sting kill the NWO. Hogan's loss would likely have simply caused the split with the Wolfpac that happened anyway in 1998. Hogan still would have gotten the belt back in the nefarious way that he did. Still, an astute point on the goofy Starrcade "fast count" finish. People who complain about the count not being fast are missing the entire point. The whole finish was horribly wrong to begin with even if Nick Patrick DID do the fast count as scripted. This was the biggest PPV in WCW history and they did that horrible finish?

This was probably one of WWE's better PPVs of the year. TLC was of course a standout match and most everything else was watchable or at least amusing fun.

Ah, there's the rub. Raven was tremendous in hardcore matches but I don't really know if he could do that sort of thing in the IC division. The last gasp of making Raven a star in the WWF was a brief angle he did with RVD for the hardcore title during the Invasion. They might could have gotten a PPV match out of that one.

Thing about HBK/Vince is that the crowd had no choice but to root for Michaels since who on earth would root for Vince and the goofy Spirit Squad? Edge/Foley were two guys doing a mega hardcore brawl so the crowd could pop for all the crazy spots. Van Dam got a great reaction for winning MITB on that show.

More than anyone I think Foley hurt how Mero is perceived with his trashing of the guy in his first book. I sometimes wonder what Mero would have done if he had come back to the WWF circa 1999 instead of Sable suing the company. Thing is I don't see much beyond being another Corporation goon for him. Maybe a feud with Shamrock in a boxer vs. UFC deal.

Okay looking back at SD in early 2006 I know for a fact Orton was a total heel scumbag. I know Rey was a face, albeit a complete moron in the booking. Angle seemed much more of a tweener, having been a complete heel on Raw yet not really being especially defined when he went to SD. Since Angle was the best wrestler in the WM match and wasn't involved in the Eddie garbage the crowd largely backed him.

Hmm....Slamboree doesn't seem like a big enough PPV for that match. I'd have done it at either GAB or BATB 97. Maybe GAB if they were adamant about using Rodman for the next PPV.

Just wondering but did I miss something in terms of Vickie not being GM when they go to MyNetworkTV? We've seen her Tombstoned before and she came back from it, so I assumed it just meant the return of the wheelchair.

I don't think the time was right to do Hogan/Sting in Dec. 1996. Sting had just started doing the whole rafters gimmick and we didn't even know what his intent was at that point. Thing is, Sting did finally attack the NWO at Uncensored in March 1997 but the actual Hogan match was in December. Either they needed to delay Sting's attack or move up the Hogan match.

Given how the Pac 10 is trash this year there is no way USC is going to the title game. They don't play another ranked opponent the rest of the year. There's bound to be a couple of teams from better conferences that wind up 11-1.

Even at his peak Kidman did some truly irritating things in the ring, like the constant powerbomb reversal spot he seemingly worked into every match. But yeah I think guys like Rey and Juvi were making Kidman look better than he really was in WCW and once he hit WWE it wasn't the same.

Yeah this whole scenario is starting to actually take shape and make more sense. Quite an enjoyable show in fact. I enjoy that old school style of booking with a heel constantly talking shit about a face (and even his family) to goad him into fighting. Reminds me of the SMW stuff in Foley's book where Terry Funk ranted about Bob Armstrong's whole family until the finale of "Your mistress is a whore!" Now that I think about WM 22 in Chicago, was there anyone on that PPV who got the actual desired reaction? Cena was booed out of the building, Rey was booed out of the building, HHH was more or less cheered, Angle was mostly cheered (though he seemed more tweener than outright heel...Orton was the heel in that match). Even Trish was booed in the match with Mickie James. I guess HBK was cheered but he was facing Vince, and RVD got a big pop for winning MITB.

Not looking forward to Quantum of Solace? That's really the only "must see" movie left that I can think of. Saw V will be a guilty pleasure. Disturbia made about 80 million last year, so Shia was in fact starting to draw before Transformers and Indy 4. That movie came out at a good time as well, in that dead zone in April before all the summer movies hit theaters.

I wonder if Windham didn't get the belt in 1987 because Flair mostly wanted to lose simply to regain at Starrcade, but Windham was too over for a lame duck role such as that. Flair's career is full of this sort of thing, guys who probably should have beaten him for the belt. David Von Erich in 1984, Magnum in 1986, maybe Windham in 1987, Luger in 88, and so on.

The amusing payoff to that whole Sunny angle in 1996 was that finally a team won the belts that didn't give a crap about her (Bulldog/Owen) and that essentially was it for her. From that point it was just nothing but guest ring announcing and cameos. It went like this if I recall: Sunny with Bodydonnas, Gunns beat them for the belts, she runs off with them. They tease her hitting on Phineas during this time, but it's a ruse. Then finally I think the WWF realized this angle wasn't really working all that well and Bulldog and Owen kicked the crap out of the Gunns. If I recall that match simply ended with Davey Boy powerslamming one of them and that was it. Odd finish for a tag match.

Wrestling With Shadows was a UK documentary? I just thought it was a Canadian documentary so there wouldn't be a difference in format.