cabbageboy

WCW's whole awful year of 1999 was a key here. Some blame the Fingerpoke, or the Hogan/Flair double turn, or the bizarre decision to put the title on DDP, or guys being hurt or just not around. Or the No Limit Soldiers angle. Or the Hummer Angle. WCW just sucked so hard that year, it was 10x worse than 2000. The WWF was still going strong in 2000, but there were several things they did later that year that hurt their business. I recall hearing about Austin's heel turn as early as Sept. 2000. Then of course there was the whole "Who ran over Austin?" angle that ended up being Rikishi, which was a letdown (ironically similar to WCW's own mystery Hummer angle). And of course the whole HHH/Steph/Angle storyline ended up going nowhere. Some of this stuff is why I don't consider Chris Kreski that great of a booker. People put the blame on Steph being named head writer, but I think Kreski was still head writer when the Austin return angle semi tanked with Rikishi and the Angle/Steph/HHH deal petered out. And of course the move to TNN may have yielded the WWF some money but it also knocked their ratings down from where they had been on USA.

The main difference between the two guys isn't so much the in ring wrestling. The Rock was wildly fun but was hardly a technical marvel out there, doing a ton of moves sloppy I always thought (like his awkward belly to belly). The difference is on the mic. Cena just cuts the lamest promos, full of bad poop jokes, over the top delivery, and generally coming off like a Rock wannabe. It's hard to truly know about Cena's PPV numbers and what it means since there are now 3 brands on every show, various title matches, and several top guys. So it's hard to really say "This one guy drew the money." Some of the time during Cena's run he wasn't even notable on the show, playing 2nd fiddle to the DX reunion or screwing around with guys like Khali. If we're comparing him to The Rock in terms of PPVs and ratings, check out the year 2000. The Rock either main evented or was prominent that whole year and they did ratings in the 6.0-7.0 range that whole year (until Raw moved to TNN, then it dropped a bit) and every PPV from the 2000 Royal Rumble until WM X-7 did over a 1.0 buyrate.

The lowest point of Flair's career is very easy to me. Uncensored 1995. Nothing comes close. Flair had already been "retired" by Hogan at HH 94, but on this show he comes back in drag to do a run in on that PPV (and made for a hideous looking woman). Then he ended up being a proxy job boy for Vader in the main event, when Hogan had to drag Flair around all 4 corners of the ring.

Yeah, my bracket is pretty much intact at this point. I have 15 of 16 teams, so going with the chalk was the best thing here. The one team I didn't have? Arizona. Even though it's a 1 vs. 12 game I don't mind saying that Zona scares me. Rick Pitino + Arizona + Indianapolis didn't really work out very well in 1997. Still, U of L has to beat the weakest team remaining in the field. In fact I don't recall a Pitino coached team even having a tough Sweet 16 game, regardless of whether he was coaching Providence, UK, or now U of L.

Thoughts: WM 2000: I detested this show at the time and have zero desire to go back and watch. Most of the matches are misfires and wastes of talent, just 3 and 4 ways all over the card. Angle lost two belts without being pinned. HHH retained in the main event with another Vince heel turn, which never made much sense. There are reasons why I think Chris Kreski's booking is vastly overrated, and this show is one of them. The only really good thing here is the ladder tag match, but that was dwarfed by the TLC matches. WM X-7: Awesome show, one of the best PPVs ever. On paper it looked like it would be one of the best shows and it was. Rock/Austin II, HHH/UT, TLC, Angle/Benoit, Vince/Shane....all of this stuff is a tremendous amount of fun. 2001 > 2000 even with the Invasion angle being screwy. WM X-8: What the hell, I like this show. Rock/Hogan was a blast at the time and surprisingly holds up well on repeat viewings. Could care less about the main event, but let's not kid ourselves....no one thought Jericho was winning. Flair/UT was a fun brawl type match, not sure why it's being hated on here. Also like RVD/Regal, certainly a ton better than the various Edge/Regal turds in the IC division before it. WM XIX: This is a curious show. The wrestling is pretty good throughout, but I never cared much for the booking leading up to it and most of the feuds. Vince/Hogan is a silly and fun brawl but it means nothing really. Lesnar/Angle is okay but I never cared for these guys feuding regardless of who was heel or face. HHH/Booker mostly buries Booker, while Jericho/HBK should have seen Jericho go over. WM XX: Very good show, only its overlength keeps it from being truly a great PPV. Just too many tag guys and the aimless women's hair match. But the title matches? Oh yeah. Eddie/Angle is tremendous fun and has a great finish. The main event 3 way is a total classic even after Benoit did what he did. Lesnar/Goldberg is hilarious fun on its own deranged level.

It's funny but I first saw this show in 1988 on VHS and even then it seemed like something from a totally different era. It's a sweet, silly little show and I still like it for nostalgia purposes.

Well, U of L won tonight against Morehead but it was a blech performance. Gotta play better against Siena on Sunday, no letdowns. Hope not anyway but who knows. Still though, a mid major in Siena and then the winner of Arizona/Cleveland St. to get to the Elite 8? I'll take it. Often times I have mentioned I never have any faith in 2nd tier ACC teams (as in anyone not named UNC, Duke, and maybe Maryland some years). I had FSU winning tonight, but didn't get all this crap about them challenging Pitt. I had them out vs. Xavier. Please, Xavier...beat the Badgers now. I can't stand the thought of Pitt vs. Wisconsin in a Sweet 16. The horror! And then there's Wake. Seth Davis actually had these guys in the FF, who knows why. My rationale with Wake has always been this: They didn't make the FF with Tim Duncan, so why would they start now? Cleveland St. is a way better team than I thought, they just dominated. Pac 10 has been really solid so far, surprisingly so. UCLA, USC, AZ State, Washington, Arizona have all won, with Cal being the lone loss. Thus far I had 24 out of 32 right. Today hurt me after a solid 14-2 yesterday. Too many upset picks that didn't pan out like Temple and Utah St. Wake is the only Sweet 16 team I had that is out.

What, no talk yet about that hilariously awful Joe stuff? The guy is supposed to wrestle Bashir, but drags him to the back, ties him upside down, and threatens him with a knife. Has Joe been watching a lot of 24 lately, or is he a big Liam Neeson (Taken) fan?

Whew, WKU almost managed to pull the Zona there against Illinois but managed to hold them off. It's for the best since WKU/Gonzaga is a fun matchup and who in their right mind wants to see that horribly boring Illini team longer than necessary?

Yeah that Alexis chick is so forgettable that Randy Jackson couldn't recall her name, calling her Allison instead. In fact I was a little baffled at the actual Allison being in the bottom 3 since she was pretty good.

Thoughts on these shows: WM XI: This is a boring show. There's some actual decent work on it to prevent it from being the worst WM ever (Shawn/Diesel, LT/Bigelow) and not much is actively awful, but I was so down on the overall direction of the WWF during this era. WM XII: I have never cared for the Iron Man match. Didn't at the time, with my HBK hatred of this era well documented on this board. Austin/Savio is a decent match, though they had better. The parking lot brawl is silly and went nowhere. But here's why I didn't care about the Iron Man: It was 60+ minutes long going to a finish that EVERYONE on the face of this earth knew was coming. Anyone who was a wrestling fan in my HS wasn't looking forward to that match since everyone knew Shawn was winning, because he had to. WM XIII: Am I the only one who finds this PPV underrated? One of the best matches ever on this show in Austin/Bret. A really fun 6 man hardcore brawl with LOD/Ahmed vs. the Nation. And what the hell, I even kinda enjoy Sid/UT since it was nice to see Taker get a decent title win and run. There's really not a lot different between this show and the much more celebrated WM X. WM XIV: Very fun show, not a ton of amazing wrestling but it's like WM XI with much better build and angles. This was Russo style stuff done to perfection with people reigning him in and doing a proper build to matches. Probably the best Outlaws match on this show as well, the dumpster match vs. Foley/Funk. WM XV: I recall getting this PPV at the time and thought ECW's PPV the previous week was a better show. Think about that one for a minute. Really just has a fun main event with Austin/Rock (topped by Backlash), a ton of bad overbooked Russo antics otherwise, and the worst HIAC ever. Not the worst WM ever to me though, it at least moves quickly and is worth an occasional viewing.

Morehead beat Alabama St. tonight in the play in game, so now U of L gets to maul Morehead for a 2nd time this season. At least they got some sort of win out of it. Naiwf, George Mason going to the FF oddly enough may have hurt mid major teams more than it helped. The committee was fine with letting these teams in, but not if they are going to go TOO far. Let a few in as an at large, maybe one wins a game, maybe makes a fun little Sweet 16 run, but a Final 4? This year I don't see an 11 seed type team going all that far in the George Mason vein. I have Utah St. beating Marquette but then losing to Mizzou (even if they somehow beat Mizzou they still have Memphis and UConn to deal with). VCU might have a chance at upsetting UCLA, but then playing Villanova in Philly? Nah. Temple might beat AZ State, but not much after that. Dayton is the one 11 seed that could potentially win a couple if they are on their game, but I don't have them beating WVU.

That Matt/Jeff match will end up having little heat I fear for a variety of reasons: 1. Matt Hardy is a mediocre heel, incapable of putting this act over on the mic. 2. The match needs a gimmick and currently doesn't have one. 3. Right now Jeff is on a different level than Matt in the eyes of the fans. Seriously, Matt was just losing to Jack Swagger in ECW and recently lost his MITB qualifier to MVP clean in the center. As far as Miz/Morrison vs. the Colons goes, I'll take Carlito and Primo in that one. I wonder if WWE is about to pull the trigger on a Miz/Morrison breakup angle, but can anyone imagine those two guys feuding with each other? It would almost be better for them to lose and if they are going to split just have them drafted to different shows.

I listened to that Observer show as well and was intrigued by what they said. There has to be something really, really bad Savage did to be blackballed in such a way. Beyond just going to WCW and having a falling out with Vince in late 1994. Hogan actually testified against Vince in court and he eventually came back, so it would be interesting to find out the actual story behind it.

I don't really blame Jamie Kellner for cancelling WCW. We're wrestling fans on this board but put yourself in the position of a TV executive. There's a program that attracts mediocre advertising, draws heat from some areas of the media, is considered redneck and low class, and on top of that this company is losing 60 million dollars. Who wouldn't want to cancel such a program?

It is decent but some of the spots are strange looking, as in you could tell RVD wasn't quite there yet as a performer. And by the way RVD and Balls Mahoney had some kick ass matches on TV, not so much at the one PPV however (it was adequate but overlong). Bigelow/RVD was awesome too, but they never wrestled each other much beyond the title change.

I don't know. If you watch a bunch of horrible Big 10 snoozers that are 56-53 games then yeah I can see why people would feel the college game is no good. But how about the insane 6 OT game with UConn/Syracuse last week or the unreal WKU/Drake game last year in the tourney? This is an argument of big city markets vs. middle America. Where I'm from, college hoops is king. It's just what we're into here. There was an ABA team here in the 70s, but the Colonels folded 30+ years ago. But people in NYC or Chicago? Even if the Knicks and Bulls suck those teams are always going to be followed more than St. John's and DePaul. The NBA does a better job of producing the best champion with all the best of 7 series. But it just lasts forever to the point where it's tedious getting rid of the scrubs in the early rounds in order to get to the last 4 teams that are good. College basketball is the most wildly fun during that first 4 days of the tourament. But even I must admit once it gets to the Final 4 if I don't have a team there it's harder to care.

I laughed when I first heard there would be a sequel to Crank. Given how the first one ended I have no idea how they could possibly do another one, haha. That said, it should be fun.

Did Foley joint he MEM or was this just him doing this on his own? It didn't make much sense from all that went down. I'll just DVR this show anyway with the tourney on.

Glad I'm not the only one baffled at that Steph cameo. If she's perfectly fine then why is Vickie on my TV on Monday nights? Shouldn't Steph be doing her job? At WM they almost have to have HBK/UT as the main. There's no match that can follow it and these title matches are almost a farce in how they've been set up. If they have that HHH/Orton trash main event we'll see a replay of WM 18 with fans leaving Reliant Stadium during the main event after being burned out by Taker/Shawn. And as far as Jericho goes, has a bigger star been wasted at WM as bad as he is this year? Feuding with 3 old men, a retired icon, and a Hollywood actor?

It's ironic that the ECW stuff from that mid 1996 era that survives with time is the stuff people cared a bit less about at the time. The whole Raven/Sandman angle doesn't really hold up that well with time, but the RVD/Sabu feud and subsequent teaming against Furnas/Kroffat is tremendous stuff. As is the Spicolli stuff.

Just wondering but was Joe in fact wearing the cheesy long pants he had on at the house show I just went to? He didn't have any face paint at the house show like on TV however. Those long pants made him look fatter than he already looked in basic tights. I think it's hilarious they didn't simply job Steiner out to him. Wouldn't anyone assume that would be the idea?

I'm not thrilled with the early draw for U of L. The #1 overall seed in the tourney has to possibly play Ohio St. in Dayton? Huh? I joked in the other thread about how terrified I was of playing Temple in that 8/9 game, saying they would find a way to put U of L with either the Owls or some plodding Big 10 team that U of L always struggles with. Seriously in the past few years I've seen U of L lose to Iowa, Purdue (twice non conf.), Minnesota this year. So yeah I am rooting for Siena in that 8/9.

Is Gonzaga really any good this year though? They are somewhat of a poor man's version of Memphis, tearing up a crappy league and running the table in it. Though St. Mary's is better than anyone in C-USA not named Memphis and is at least on the bubble. I'm in terror of U of L being matched up with Temple in an 8/9 game. No matter what we never, ever in a million years can beat Temple. Let's get an 8/9 game against an SEC or Big 12 team, someone that doesn't play a weird style. No Big 10 plodders, please.

Watchmen took a Hulk 2003 level hit in the 2nd week. Thing is we all knew a big drop was going to happen, but I just wonder if it will keep dropping at this rate. Perhaps the fanbase wasn't that huge, or maybe some are just going to wait for the director's cut on DVD.