cabbageboy

Traitor looks more like a CIA type thriller than an action movie where Cheadle is supposed to kick asses. That's a movie that looks like the definition of a rental to me. Solid actors in it like Cheadle and Pearce, but I'm not such a huge fan of either that I'd rush to a theater to see them.

I know that it looks like they are building to Orton vs. Punk but it would be a mistake. Jericho right now is so far above Orton as a heel it's not even funny. They definitely need to go with Jericho, perhaps even put the belt on him. The way he's being booked now is light years removed from his dubious title run in 2002. I'm assuming that Michaels will take a lot of time off after Sunday, so Jericho needs to do something else to put him out of action. They could simply tell the truth and show replays of Shawn hitting the arm on the floor, then Jericho destroys it during the match.

Yeah they aren't even trying to pretend that Santino is a serious wrestler, just a HTM redux. He's already won too many matches though. Honky spent a year just getting himself DQed and counted out...I don't recall them putting HTM over anyone other than Sat. morning jobbers. I wonder if they realize that Punk absolutely has to beat Orton when they do this eventual match? Otherwise everything Orton said tonight will be true and Punk would have been a lame duck holding a world title. That Orton stuff frustrated me to no end. The guy has an arm in a sling, talks a bunch of shit about all the champions on the roster, yet no one simply kicked the crap out of him.

The thing is this though. Take one look at the Raw spoilers and you'll see that That would seem like they are setting something else up besides Jericho going right into the main event scene.

All of this makes me sorta want to see Babylon AD, but of course not until it hits DVD. And even then it might be one of those "free rentals at the McDonald's kiosk" type deals, like Next with Nicholas Cage.

SD hasn't exactly been sucking but it's more just nondescript with a bunch of matches that seem the same and tell the exact same story: Initial lockup, stuff happens, heel takes control for the next 80% of the match and does nothing but dull matwork and armbars, face makes comeback at some point, go to a finish. There's almost no variety to the wrestling style on SD, it's either this formula match or a basic squash. And in the case of Truth/Kenny that was a match that was this formula edited for TV into a squash.

Stuff like wins/losses should at least matter in terms of a guy's placement on the card though. Cena had lost to JBL on PPV, then Batista on another PPV without any real controversy....so why exactly is he in yet ANOTHER PPV main event with a title on the line? Other than getting a blatant push? Wins and losses may not matter in a case like The Rock in 2000 where he was being screwed and ripped off at every turn and just needed a fair shot. But Cena? He's had numerous fair shots, jobbed out, so if he hadn't gotten hurt he needed a trip down the card to build back his heat. Anyway the best example I can think of in terms of a guy being jobbed totally out is Taz. He lost all of his invincible aura late in 1999 when he lost to Awesome, Sabu, and RVD in ECW. Mind you, the WWF's booking didn't do him any favors, but once he lost repeatedly I don't think he ever regained that aura.

Oh man, was that ever bad. I wasn't expecting greatness out of U of L this year, but this was 10x worse than anything I could have ever imagined. 27-2 loss to a very mediocre UK team? What on earth has happened to Hunter Cantwell? The guy was solid when he played in some games when Brohm was hurt, but he looked hopelessly lost out there today. Add in a total lack of running game and this was just...bad. Brock Bolen should be a FB, not the starting RB.

Predictions: Thu, Sep 04 Time (ET) WAS @ NYG 7:00 PM: I know the Giants have a ton of injuries and sucked at home last year. But the Redskins don't do much for me either way. NYG by 13. Sun, Sep 07 Time (ET) 1:00 DET @ ATL: Oh geez, who knows what to expect. Detroit's crappy D is a decent first opponent for Matt Ryan, so I'll say he does well enough for the Falcons to win. ATL by 4. SEA @ BUF: I've never been thrilled with the Seahawks, and while I doubt the Bills as well I do think they can hold serve at home. Buffalo by 7. NYJ @ MIA: I know the Dolphins may well be improved, but until they win a few I can't really pick them to do much. I'll take Favre and Co. by 10. KC @ NE: Regardless of whether Brady is hurt or whatever this should be a beatdown. Pats by 17+. TB @ NO: Hard to know the status of this one with the hurricane and all. I'll take Tampa by 6. STL @ PHI: The Rams can't be as awful as they were last year, can they? That said, I'll buy into the moderate Eagles hype at least for this week. Philly by 9. HOU @ PIT: I actually kinda like the Texans and if they stay healthy feel they could be a surprise team in the AFC. So I'll go with the upset here, Texans by 3. JAC @ TEN: Jacksonville is a team that just doesn't astound me, while the Titans tend to look ugly but somehow win in the end. Vince Young makes just enough plays for TN to win like 13-10. CIN @ BAL: I have no idea who the Ravens are even starting at QB. Bengals are a dubious team but I'll reluctantly say Cincy by 6. 4:15 DAL @ CLE: The Browns may well come back down to earth this year and the Cowboys need to make some semblance of an opening week statement. Dallas by 14. CAR @ SD: Isn't Steve Smith suspended? Even with a solid running attack I can't see it happening for Carolina here, even with Merriman banged up. SD by 12. ARI @ SF: Kurt Warner will produce decent results as long as he can stay upright. Who knows how long that will be though. Who knows what this O'Sullivan guy will do....all of these games have question marks it seems like. Arizona by 10. 8:15 CHI @ IND: Manning should be back, might be rusty for a quarter or so, and then the beatdown will commence. Colts by 17. Mon, Sep 08 Time (ET) MIN @ GB 7:00 PM: This most curious game of the week. Minnesota is a real mystery team, capable of being awesome at times and yet if someone stops Peterson they don't have many answers. Rodgers won't be amazing, but he may not have to be. GB by 5. DEN @ OAK 10:15 PM: I might almost say the Raiders could be improved this year, but I can't in good conscience pick them here. Denver by 4.

Haha, I'm just saying if UT did in fact attempt to reject a booking plan involving jobbing to Nash when Nash was leaving the company he would have been within his rights to do so. I've often thought it was amazing how much heat Nash had when he arrived in WCW considering all the high profile jobbing he had done in the last 6 months of his WWF run. I guess his character was so bad ass though that it didn't hurt.

Yeah I am quite impressed with that USC performance. Who knows for sure how down UVA is this year but that is still beating a feasible major conf. team like they were a I-AA scrub. Maybe the ACC is simply that bad.

All of that stuff is well and good but losing Austin would have serioiusly hurt the WWF during that time period. There was no one else who was truly catching fire at that point and bear in mind that Shawn would likely have still been hurting, unless in this hypothetical situation the fateful casket match never happened. Honestly, I think eventually Rock and HHH would have still evolved into money guys though, since their improvement had little to do with Austin at the end of the day. Before then though? I have no idea. The biggest need they had was ridding themselves of the cancerous tension of Bret/Shawn in the back. It would be easy enough to just go with Taker as the top guy, feud him with Kane and Mankind, toss in Shamrock or whoever. It wouldn't have drawn the way Austin did, but it isn't business killing either.

Eh, I can just see UT's reaction to that booking meeting. "I'm not feeling it" wouldn't even begin to describe it. Man, how sad would that be though if he did in fact have that 1 WM loss via countout to Gonzalez? That said, he would likely have more than 1 loss since there would be no point in him winning all of these other matches in that case.

I was baffled as to why Pitt was even ranked. It had to be some sort of residual from the WVU game last year. There's always some amount of hype over Pitt's recruits, and then of course Wannstedt screws it up.

I guess that if Enos just got TOO riled up he might do something drastic, so Bloom had to be there to calm him down. That act is pretty amusing for the first few times you see it, but then after a point it gets old and you wish Enos would assert himself a bit.

I made my feelings about TNA possibly pushing Daivari known in a previous thread. The one thing I'll give him is this however: At least I know the dude is a total heel. That's more than I can say for about 80% of the roster at this point.

Bruiser, I think the reason 1995 isn't as utterly dumped on as 1996 is that there really was no decent alternative in 1995. In my area we didn't get ECW back then, so that was out. USWA was just what it was, the usual silly stuff. But WCW? For the vast majority of 1995 they sucked as bad or worse than the WWF. The WWF at least had a few guys who could still wrestle, even if they were misused or in bad angles. Perhaps I am being kind to WWF 1995 because I thought SS 95 was a pleasant surprise when I saw it in the box set recently. I had avoided it like the plague for years, but aside from the crappy main event and the bad women's match it was quite a fun show. Of the 1990s Summerslam shows I'd probably take it over 1990 (which is frankly horrid outside of the Harts regaining the tag belts), 1993 (decent wrestling but the booking is unforgivable for a major PPV), 1996 (nothing really good on it), and 1997 (kind of underwhelming and could have been better).

If it was mentioned in 1997 it was just "Hey, Taker is unbeaten at WM" and they moved on. I don't recall it being any sort of significant storyline mention in 1998 or 99 and of course he missed WM in 2000 due to injury. During the HHH feud in 2001 it became a bigger deal and has taken more added importance each year since.

Kendrick as a heel needs to be the sort that sells like a mofo and gets his ass kicked, only to somehow escape with a win via cheating or Zeke running in. He is absolutely NOT the sort who can believably dominate matches with ground based offense. In fact that's probably the worst approach they could take with him, since it limits his moves and bumping.

I seem to recall the Superbrawl 1999 crowd being pro NWO but I just chalked that up to it being in Oakland and didn't think of it as a long term trend. What I mean is there were no booking steps taken to get Hogan into a face position or Flair into a heel position. They just....did it. In the month leading up to that Uncensored double turn Flair had his own son turn on him and join the NWO, was buried in the desert and beaten every week, etc. Hogan had done nothing to imply he was going face and Flair had done little to turn heel. Even if crowds were reacting a certain way at times you have to plant seeds in the booking.

I quite enjoyed that match even if the teams were baffling. The storyline of Jonnie Stewart being the spoiled rich kid who could care less about winning a share of 1 million dollars was amusing enough. Hopefully they just stay with this 1990 stuff until the end of the promotion, then go back to 1989 or whenever.

It's painfully obvious to everyone but WWE that this Vickie crap has jumped the shark. No one cares about her or La Familia without Edge around to give it all some vestige of credibility. Here's what I don't get about it first and foremost: She already "fired" The Undertaker back in June. If he attacks her or threatens to do so, why not just fire him again? He kicked the ass of your unfaithful husband, so of what further use is he? Vickie should just fire UT again in storyline, but that would make actual sense. I'm glad someone posted that bit about Vince and Ron Killings. I've felt for a while now that SD's actual in match booking was boring as hell with all the heel dominated matches. The Truth needed a quick, easy, and decisive debut win and it was edited as such.

Yes, I want the crappy 1990 stuff! Car wreck proto Russo era AWA is at least fascinating and fun. I dare say I might take that over 15 min. long snoozers with midgets.

Well, Palin obviously is the hottest candidate to run for President or VP, but obviously she's a horrendous VP pick. Seriously I was following this last night and early this morning and actually was a little worried about Pawlenty being the pick, feeling that he might at least give McCain a puncher's chance in MN. Not a great chance, but stranger things have happened. Or with Romney if you're Obama you might be sorta worried he might help McCain in Michigan and some of the western states. But this pick? Oh my god. I cracked up laughing about it for an hour. Even as far as a blatant pandering to Hillary voters pick goes it's a terrible pick. At least Condoleeza Rice or Kay Bailey Hutchison are feasible women picks (not GOOD really, but at least known and with some cred). Seriously this was the plane crashing into the mountain for McCain. I can only imagine what Biden is going to do to this poor woman in the VP debate. Maybe McCain is hoping he'll abuse her so bad she'll get sympathy?

I'm glad others are noticing the awesomeness of Karen's Angle, especially the Abyss segment this week. That segment has rocked though since the first one. Every week there's been something nuts on it, from Kaz asking for his release to the Beautiful People nearly coming to blows with Karen, to Frank Trigg calling her a whore, Black Machismo attacking Sonjay Dutt. I have zero clue if Abyss is a heel or face right now, like about 90% of the promotion not named Curry Man, Shark Boy, or Super Eric.