cabbageboy

Truth be told would we really care about a huge Two Face plot late in the film? In the end the film will be remembered for Ledger basically showing these nothing villains like the Sandman "You want a villain? Here's how to be a friggin villain!"

Predictions: Edge vs. HHH. I think Edge wins the belt here and I'm glad to see others going along with the theory I put forth on the SD thread about the whole Alicia Fox thing being a staged ruse. I might even have HHH even wonder about it himself, but in the end still not be able to stop it. Punk vs. Batista. Let's face it, we know Punk isn't going over in a clean, dominant manner. He really shouldn't anyway since too many fans wouldn't find it believable. I'd figure on Kane running in to either cost Batista the match, just attack both men for a no contest. Either way Punk retains. Dreamer vs. Henry. Obviously Henry retains. If this match ended up being Extreme Rules it might be fun stuff, but I don't think it is. So it will suck. Tag team 4 way. I'll go with Miz and Morrison to retain here since none of these other teams are over enough to warrant the belts. Cena vs. JBL. Call me crazy but I think JBL wins. Let's face it, he's had zero heat in this feud and can't buy a win. Of course then Cena will kill him dead in a blowoff at SummerSlam and then JBL can take time off, but go with this a little while longer. Michaels vs. Jericho. Jericho almost has to win this match and seriously injury Shawn, maybe take out his eye in the process. Keep Cade out of it though, just cheapens the win. Shelton vs. Matt. Hardy retains the US title. Just filler to get a Hardy on the PPV and Matt can get the win back from SD. I'm not expecting an amazing match here. To be honest Shelton to me is one of those guys who has the physical talent but has never put it together in terms of actually working a match consistently. McCool vs. Neidhart. Don't really care, this belt is useless. I'll go with Michelle I guess as a political favor for UT.

Okay here are my thoughts in some amount of detail, some of which may counter my brother's opinion (DarKnight). In the end I think The Dark Knight is easier to admire than it is to really love. In comparison to this year's other superhero films it's probably a better actual movie than say Iron Man or Hellboy 2, but I can't really say it's as much fun. I think there's some ultra definitive Batman movie that could be put together from everything in all the movies. Maybe take Nolan's actual script and actors and Burton's flair for visual design and art direction, then you'd really have something.

Going to see it tomorrow for an afternoon showing. Had to hold off today since my mom wanted to go see it for her birthday. It's very likely I'll end up having to see this both at the reg. theater tomorrow and maybe also across town in IMAX at a later date. What exactly is the difference in terms of what is in IMAX and what isn't? I'll tell you what to me is the defining money scene in Begins. Not sure if I should use spoiler tags, but I'll do it anyway: Mind you, that isn't the flashiest scene but it's so beautifully done.

Kamala, there is one key difference for me when it comes to the PPVs you listed....I simply haven't seen Souled Out 2000. I now regret not seeing it given how historically terrible it was (though more for backstage stuff than in the ring). SuperBrawl 2000 was a PPV I saw at a sports bar and I recall it being mediocre, but I'd need to see it again. Uncensored 2000 is just bad and boring, though for whatever reason I don't find it among the worst PPVs I've ever seen. Maybe I'm a mark for the Rhodes/Funk feud with Funk wearing chickens for boxing gloves?

Hell, on the last TV show Verne says that Lawler/Dundee beat the Russians for the belts, but that isn't even true. They beat Ustinov and a makeshift partner Doug Somers (Zukov had defected to the WWF). The truly bizarre aspect of this show is that on the previous show I could swear the bogus Midnights had the belts and were defending them against whoever....and this was BEFORE the match with Lawler and Dundee had even aired!

After seeing that silly stuff play out on TV I am convinced that this whole thing is a ruse. Who in the hell was filming that whole Edge/Alicia Fox bit? I would be willing to bet it was Chavo or someone with La Familia and it was a staged scene (in storyline, well and also in reality). Then it was conveniently leaked to HHH. This clearly was a camcorder with the date and what not on it, not just the usual "people being filmed backstage" segment. The more I think about it, the more I think it has to be what they are going for. Vickie has too much heel heat to turn face effectively, and Edge/Alicia has all the appeal of a damp rag. I mean she's just the friggin wedding planner, what reason is there for her to even hang around WWE after this?

Right now TNA just doesn't have a lot of interesting stuff going on. To add in my two cents on the women thing in TNA, TNA flat out does have too many women. By this I don't mean the actual women wrestlers so much, but it seems like EVERYONE on the show has some chick as a valet or feuding over a woman, whatever. They could jettison half of these useless chicks and the show would be better for it. Does Rhaka Khan have any use? Christy Hemme is hot but she's annoying as hell, so just cut her too. Salinas is worthless now that LAX has an actual manager in Hector Guerrero. How about Booker telling Sharmell to stay the fuck at home and he and Joe can have a bitter feud over a title like two grown men? I won't include Jacqueline in this since she at least has some value in the Knockouts division and with Beer Money. Seriously, take a look at this show right now. You have Angle and Styles feuding over Karen Angle, when neither guy seems to even want her. You have Machismo and Dutt feuding over So Cal Val when both guys want her. They are running the same "two guys fighting for a chick" angle in the main event AND the undercard. If you watch WWE they have a women's belt on both shows and that's about it as far as the female involvement on the show. Mickie James vs. Katie Lea was on Raw this week and that's it. SD now has a women's belt but it's featured about on the level a women's belt should be featured (it gets a bit of TV time, but hardly a focus). Women have a place on a wrestling show, but TNA has gone way overboard with it and I wonder if this is a reason why their male 18-35 demo is down.

I'm still trying to understand why Savage selling his leg is a BAD thing. If you watch most of the 1992 booking Flair would destroy Macho's leg repeatedly and Savage was even selling it big time at SummerSlam. Is it shocking that he would continue to sell it during the match with Flair?

If Vader hadn't been hurt he might have gotten the belt at Survivor Series 96, but at the time I didn't think he would win at Summerslam.

I wish they had shown that huge Battle Royale in its entirety since it looked cool as hell. They are willing to show a bunch of crappy squashes and double dip with various guys, but just skim through something cool. I think Lawler and Dundee mostly just won the tag belts to pop the Memphis crowd. Not like that epic makeshift team of Somers/Ustinov had any business with the belts. The AWA had been working with Memphis for years, with Bockwinkel going down to defend a lot vs. Lawler. It wasn't until the AWA got bad business wise that they seriously thought about putting belts on Memphis guys though.

The Russo Holy Trinity of Suck would have to be GAB 2000, BATB 2000, and the Russo crowning moment of crap known as New Blood Rising. Those shows all seem like they were done in back to back to back nights, all have the same feel, and all are truly head scratching.

Bear in mind that was Rob Van Dam when he was first starting out in ECW and I don't think he knew quite how to work yet in that environment. It seemed mostly like a crazy Sabu match with guys just killing each other until someone can't get up. You know the match Styles hypes for the next arena show (Matter of Respect)? That RVD/Sabu match actually has some psychology to it (!) as RVD targets Sabu's neck.

Here's something that has been in my mind of late with the GAB upcoming. Why doesn't WWE revive other WCW PPV names to replace the ho hum PPVs that no one cares about? For instance, No Mercy. Boring name for a filler PPV. Why not call the Oct. PPV Halloween Havoc and have some fun with it? Wouldn't the Dec. PPV being called Starrcade draw more than Armageddon or whatever? Ditto SuperBrawl instead of No Way Out? Bash at the Beach instead of Night of Champions or Vengeance? Having seen most of these Wargames now the big problem they always have is the finish. It's so hard to keep track of 8-10 men and it's hard to put over a submission in that setting. In regards to that 2000 Wargames I too wondered about Booker climbing down the cage. I ended up assuming that such a move would be illegal and that the only way to win was climb back down through the ring where you HAD to face everyone.

In all honesty Cole hasn't bothered me all that much since Raw has been a solid show so I haven't had to focus on the announcing to get over dubious angles. Didn't Vince already do a pseudo Hughes gimmick last year when Lashley beat him for the ECW belt? He acted crazy for a couple weeks.

Getting back to something....Iron Man and Batman Begins are very, very different superhero films. I'll be honest, it took me a couple of viewings to "get" Begins. The first time I saw it I found it a bit frustrating, with an origin that I didn't really buy on some levels. But then I went back and watched the previous 4 movies and saw how truly hideous all of them aside from the 1989 film are, and then I started appreciating it a bit more. If I had to choose between the two films, I would probably take Iron Man. That's probably the best Marvel hero movie to date. I've read some of these bad reviews of Dark Knight and notice the same criticism in most of them, that Nolan's films "aren't as fun as the Burton films." People, it is time to get off Burton's nuts when it comes to Batman. Even as a 10 year old the 1989 Batman was never a favorite of mine. Perhaps I didn't care for the ultra bleak tone (bleak for back then anyway, probably nothing compared to the new film). Maybe I just didn't like the fact that Burton gave The Joker everything to do and seemed uninterested in Batman/Bruce Wayne as a character. For all of the visual splendor of Burton's films, storywise they aren't much better than the Schumacher foolishness that followed. It always amazes me that some try to defend Batman Returns as any kind of a decent movie, despite the horribly unfaithful rendition of The Penguin, the bizarre and incoherent origin of Catwoman, Batman being reduced even more to a bit part player in his own movie, and an army of penguins with bombs descending on Gotham. That's what I enjoyed about Begins on multiple viewings. It was the first Batman movie that actually qualifies as a BATMAN movie. It's not The Scarecrow guest starring Batman.

Always enjoy seeing some Memphis action on these AWA shows and it was amusing to see Lawler and Dundee be the first team from the area to win world titles.....over a makeshift Soledad/Sommers tag team?? It was hilarious that the ref counted a pin when Dundee was blatantly not legal at all (he was face in peril forever, finally tagged Lawler). It's interesting to hear Paul E.'s promo setting up his Midnights vs. Lawler/Dundee by mentioning the notorious head shaving in Memphis where Idol/Rich shaved Lawler's head. That stuff would be about 10x better than anything on these AWA shows, but sadly we see none of that footage. It's bizarre hearing Lawler talk about it in the interview with Lance Russell since he mentions Rich, but in the AWA at that point Rich was a face and feuding with the Dangerous Alliance!

I saw the match on Superstars at the time and thought it was a very good match, but then again this has been eons ago. What was it that Vince hated about the match? It sounds to me like Macho was just doing a primo job of selling.

Nitro was a pretty fun show (8/25) with the historic Arn retirement speech. Put me in the corner that actually really likes this angle, the main problem is that the Horsemen never really got in heat on Hennig and the NWO when all was said and done. I enjoyed La Parka, Psychosis, and Silver King all beating the crap out of Ultimo Dragon. I've always hated Ultimo and thought he sucked, from his lame dragon sleeper (smell my armpits!) finisher to the single dumbest move ever invented where he stands on his head in the corner and without fail his opponent looks like a moron and charges in.

Oh yes it was, good lord that match sucks. The 1998 Wargames is seriously on a short list of one of the worst matches ever produced by mankind. First off, even before the Hogan/Warrior trash happens you have a series of rule changes that render most of the match incoherent and foolish. Guys are going for pins in the first 5 mins. of the match, so it could end before anyone else even arrived! Further, it was in reality every man for himself despite the 3 team setup, so you have truly insipid moments like DDP and Piper fighting EACH OTHER when they are in theory both on the WCW side. I wanted to see a pinfall attempt between two guys from the same side, but no dice. It didn't help that guys like Bret just blatantly were cashing a paycheck and not giving a shit. Fall Brawl 98 as a whole is one of the worst PPVs ever. It was all the worse because WCW hadn't yet wrecked their business and people still viewed WCW as a real promotion. Oddly enough the 2000 Wargames was actually a pretty amusing match. I always liked the triple decker cage though, and we get to see Russo get his ass kicked in it. The booking even allows Nash to be lazy and have it work beautifully since he simply waits at the bottom for whoever retrieves the belt to get down. The 1994 Wargames was a good match (given the brawling participants it can't help but be decent), but was hampered by 2 things: 1. WCW's lame family friendly lack of blood circa 1994. 2. Heenan's truly horrible announcing. Seriously, Heenan acted like he had never seen a Wargames before and had no idea what was going on. 1991 is probably the 2nd best Wargames ever behind the 1992 version. One of Pillman's best performances ever, with him showing all sorts of fire in beating the hell out of Windham. Love the quadruple Figure 4 as well. Sid weighs the match down however, since you can see him blatantly calling spots and generally having no idea what he was doing.

Well, if you take into account college sports then LA might factor in as well, with UCLA's 11 national titles and USC's however many football titles. Not to mention the plethora of titles won by the Lakers and by the Dodgers as well. Can LA really win though when they don't have an NFL team?

Here is the point I always make when this man vs. woman crap rears its ugly head: Is Awesome Kong totally unbeatable in the women's division? No. She can't even beat some blonde skank off the streets, you're now telling me she can beat a psychopath like Abyss? The only time this ever produced anything resembling a decent result was the Chyna/Jarrett feud in the WWF, and that was mostly because Jarrett was leaving so him jobbing was tolerable.

I honestly would recommend BATB 2000 over Fall Brawl 2000. FB is almost too decent. BATB 2000 is a near legendary show for a variety of bad reasons, though I will admit the Booker/Jarrett main event was pretty decent. It's a shame they hadn't built Booker up in the minds of fans whatsoever.

You know, as a kid I used to rent the hell out of that 1992 World Tour tape since I was a huge Bulldog fan. I might have seen the 96 tour as well, but it likely sucks. Keep in mind for the Savage/HBK match on that tape that Macho was selling the leg from WM 8, since Flair put him in the Figure 4 a lot. In fact I think Savage sold that leg quite literally for the rest of 1992.

Bob, to some degree I suppose the RVD/Lynn match is a bit choreographed but it's certainly unlike anything else you'll see in North America circa 1999. I've said it before in various ECW threads, but my favorite RVD/Lynn match is from Sept. 1999 on TNN, with Lynn having bandaged ribs and teasing not being able to continue, etc. That one is much more about passion, crowd heat, and drama and not so much about intricate spots.