cabbageboy

Yeah I don't see any problem with having a favorite team in the NFC and one in the AFC. My overall favorite team is the Colts (AFC) but I've always liked the Packers in the NFC. If the two ended up playing in the Super Bowl by some chance, I'd go for the Colts.

Yeah Kamala I only made the distinction to avoid confusion with the De Niro remake, which was about boxing. And it's very true that Night and the City is way more than a "wrestling movie" since it's an ultra bleak film noir that happens to have its main character attempting to promote wrestling. Widmark could have been promoting boxing, a racetrack, whatever.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing this. It's wild that a movie about pro wrestling could end up being involved in the Oscar race. Could it be the best wrestling movie since Night and the City (Widmark version)?

Wow, is it me or is the women's title match the most hyped thing on this PPV? They had 3 segments featuring the Beautiful People and Taylor Wilde. And let's face it, this whole 4 way title match is a blatant lame duck main event, since no one buys any of these guys beating Joe right now. Not to mention the real heat is on the Joe/Sting issue which will (I'm assuming) main event BFG in Oct.

I don't really think guys like Vader or DDP faded too soon. Vader had his run in WCW where he was allowed to work stiff as hell and damn near kill people. Two things hurt him: 1. Hogan buried him by the end of that feud. 2. WWF wouldn't let him work as stiff, and the reality is he wasn't a good enough wrestler (or healthy enough) to change his style. DDP was already 40 or so when he first started getting over big circa 1996-97. So even if WCW hadn't botched his heel run in 1999 I don't know how many more peak years he would have had. I do agree on Rude though. He would have been a major star during the late 90s if he hadn't been hurt. And on a similar note I would say Curt Hennig as well. Watching the Mr. Perfect DVD made me realize that Hennig should have been that big rival for Bret Hart circa 1993-95, but his injuries and off and on stints prevented him from ever quite attaining that level of success. Unlike Bret and Shawn, those guys respected and enjoyed working with each other. Could have been the closest thing to Flair/Steamboat for the WWF, but it wasn't to be.

What exactly is my definition of "jobber" anyway?

I don't know what to say about Rutgers' awful performance tonight, but I do recall thinking Schiano was a sucker to not leave when he had the chance. They had their one good year and Schiano should have parlayed that into a bigger job. Instead he stayed, and now they suck.

I was interested in Righteous Kill before reading some of these reviews which make it sound a bit dubious. Probably more interested in seeing Burn After Reading, even if it is lesser Coens. As far as Tyler Perry goes....I sorta get his appeal, but his stuff just isn't for me. It's not even a black/white thing but it's more that the couple of his movies that I've seen are so chaotic in tone that I don't really enjoy it that much. One minute it's him doing a drag act as Madea (badly to be honest), then the next it's serious subject matter like drug use. His movies are like watching a black version of Fast Times at Ridgemont High in that regard. I haven't seen Perry outside of being Madea. Is he any good at playing a regular role?

Oddly enough I almost prefer the TCS era AWA stuff to the 1986 shows. Of course the earlier shows have better matches, but the overall shows are so dull and have no sizzle. The single best episode they have shown remains the hilarious 1987 New Year's show with Nelson being trashed and trying to host the show, with the Midnight Rockers picking up whatever skanks they could find at the bar.

Yeah in regards to Sid he would have had a nice run with the belt in 1994 and then probably unified it with Sting's bogus belt the same way Flair did. Then of course jobbed to Hogan. It might have worked better that way actually since they could have done that feud, then gone into Hogan/Flair in time for Starrcade, then Hogan/Vader a bit later into 1995.

Haha, yeah. That TNT show was pretty funny stuff with all the lech Gene bits and Heenan mugging as well. Who was that chick that was supposed to be a shrink? Just one of Vince's skanks on the side? Believe it or not I had never seen one of those studio audience PTW shows until today. I didn't watch wrestling at all in 1990-91, so this was new to me. I quite liked that setting, it was a bit like TNT but seemed more in the realm of a wrestling program. Dare I say Mooney wasn't actually too bad of a host?

It's probably better to rest him and take a beating from USC, then at the end of the year Tressel can rant about how OSU deserves to be in the title game due to being 11-1 with the lone loss being minus Wells. Slayer, I'm thinking KSU will get a payback win on U of L in that one. If KSU is even as good as UK then that one is going to be ugly.

Here's the thing. It's fine to have guys from other shows crossover onto other shows, but this at least needs to be acknowledged. When it's like "Hey thanks to Teddy Long for sending Bourne, Miz, and Morrison over to Raw tonight" then that's cool. If guys just show up on other shows with no rhyme or reason, then it becomes puzzling.

In regards to Vince Young...this is really bizarre on all fronts. I didn't get that Jags game in my area, but from watching the score it seemed like the exact sort of defensive struggle that was anticipated. Young may have made some mistakes but the Jags have a good defense....did fans think he would go for 320 yards and 4 TDs? I don't get why fans would boo him when they did at least win the game. Seems like they were wrong to boo and Young is now completely overreacting and taking it too hard.

Venkman, considering Raw's ratings in 1996 and WCW's rise to power that same year can you make the case that I am wrong?

Lushus, have you seen Tropic Thunder? My point about Brian Christopher is this: At the same time in 1997 WCW had all these high impact, exciting cruiserweight matches. Meanwhile the WWF tried to counter it by having BC out there doing his silly hyena laughing, adequate moves, and Memphis stalling. It's just not what people were willing to accept from cruiserweights. Here's the litmus test with Taka. Where would he have been in WCW's much better cruiser division? I don't think they even consider putting the belt on him. He would have been like Tokyo Magnum or someone. Can anyone seriously put Taka up there with Rey, Eddie, Malenko, Juvi, etc.? He's not even on someone like Blitzkrieg's level. I recall when Taka had a brief stint in ECW circa 1999 and the thing that came to mind was how much better guys like Tajiri and Super Crazy were.

--I would assume that Neeley attacking Chavo was a misprint and he attacked Truth and thus caused the DQ. --If this is in fact it for Kenny it doesn't shock me. The Spirit Squad was such a once in a lifetime heat killing gimmick that there's no way anyone associated with it could amount to much, especially Kenny since he was the leader of the group (of sorts) and unlike the others never really left TV. --I would assume Vickie is leading Show on, promising him a title shot in the future if he plays ball and takes out UT. The whole Show/Kozlov bit from last week didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things and can be easily forgotten, since they never really came to blows. --The whole Carlito/Primo thing is perplexing. Primo was on Raw just a couple weeks ago, yet now is on SD and is cool with his brother? It's easy enough to assume Adamle was just giving him a try out match, but not so easy to figure out why Primo (who said Carlito was a jerk) is teaming with him. --I am not so naive as to think that Jeff/HHH match will happen at No Mercy as planned. Either Kozlov will beat Jeff in a #1 contenders match or he'll do something to be added in for a 3 way. Jeff vs. HHH seems a bit too high profile of a match for a nothing PPV.

I never got the push for Taka to be honest. He wasn't anywhere near the guys WCW had at the time and the WWF built the light heavyweight division around him and Brian Christopher? I even like Grandmaster but his wrestling style is more the Memphis schtick and certainly not anything resembling a cruiser.

Kamala, I agree with your assessment that the newer Wicker Man is really dull for the first half and then builds to a riotously bad crescendo. I wish the whole movie had been so over the top. That said, it's still one of the worst major studio films I've ever seen. I say that because the director of the newer version literally missed the entire point of the original on every possible level. As far as Wicker Man being untouchable, it depends. Talk to someone British and they'll be deeply offended at it being remade. It's a mega classic there, not so much in the USA.

Yeah I was about to say, Rude was screwing around with Chono over the NWA title in late 1992. That stuff was so hopelessly convoluted as a fan. It would be like if there was no brand extension today but you had Jericho and HHH both with world titles in WWE. Imagine the Invasion era with both WWF and WCW world titles on the show, except here it lasted almost 2 years. I have a soft spot for Simmons' title win, so I will cut him some slack. The main problem he had was that he beat Vader for the title but then feuded with The Barbarian and crap. If he had continued the program with Vader I would think his title run would have gone a bit better.

If it was intended to be product placement it was the single worst example of it in the history of marketing. Every time I see a Hummer on the road to this day I cringe and I can't help but think about this angle.

People forget this but WCW actually got quite a bit better in that Feb.-May 1996 period before the NWO happened. Hogan was off TV for a while and the Flair/Macho angle just carried the hell out of the company. I know I was more interested in it than Michaels and the "Boyhood Dream" crap on Raw. Something I was shocked to learn was that these hokey PPVs actually did better buyrates at times than other shows which are perceived as being better due to the NWO. The famed Bash at the Beach 1996 did a lesser buyrate than either 1994 or 95 (which did a 1.02 and .82 compared to the 1996 show's .71). Halloween Havoc 1994 did a .97 while 1996 did a .70. Of course those 1994 shows had the Hogan/Flair dream matches. GAB 95 actually did a .03 better buyrate than the more famous 1996 show (.51 to .48). Uncensored 95 did a .96 while 1996 did a .70. And SuperBrawl in 1995 did a .96 compared to the next two years which did a .63 and a .75. I think those horrid 1995 PPVs did solid buyrates because they featured a dream feud of sorts with Hogan vs. Vader.

This was another enjoyable ECW show. Bourne/Morrison was a really excellent match, I think I could watch Bourne wrestle all night. I almost wish Kofi was back on ECW so he could do some fun teaming with Bourne, though they wouldn't have any belts to go after. One comment: Striker has largely been a solid announcer but he seriously needs to cut out all the right wing rhetoric. Even JBL knew not to do that stuff very often.

I mostly flipped back and forth between Raw and the Packers game. And I'm not sure when it was that Raw ever lost that many viewers due to MNF. In 1998 Raw's ratings actually went on an upswing in the latter half of the year, in 1999 they stayed the same for the most part. I suppose there was a decline in 2000 but that was mostly due to the move to TNN.

I'm baffled as to why anyone would think Punk would regain the title next week. I don't really know what Jericho will do long term with the belt, but they'll probably inevitably put him vs. Batista on PPV. I'd hold off another HBK match for a bigger PPV.