cabbageboy

Eh, generally speaking I tune out when a guy has the IC belt and is also going for the world title. It's like code for "This guy ain't winning unless he's the Ultimate Warrior." Besides, Diesel had done very little to even deserve an IC title run, much less a world title in mid 1994. The only thing of note he did was toss a bunch of jobbers at the 94 Rumble. The funny thing is that when Diesel did win the belt by beating Backlund I honestly thought they would just job him to Bret at the 1995 Rumble, figuring they would realize how foolish it was. They eventually did job him to Bret, but not for another 10 MONTHS.

To chime in here, this stuff sounds about like the shocking "tobacco is bad for you" revelations from some years ago. NBA refs calling games in order for star players to get calls and big name teams to get to the Finals? Well, duh. Let's take a look at that 2002 playoffs. We already had the New Jersey Nets, a blatant non draw, advance to the Finals. There was no need to rig that series vs. the Celtics since the Celtics were so heatless then that no one would have cared if they had made the Finals and gotten swept. But on the other hand you have the Lakers going for a threepeat and the pesky Kings standing in the way of that history. You're telling me David Stern didn't want that series going 7 games with the Lakers eventually winning? Does anyone think NBC in their last year with the NBA wanted the craptastic matchup of the Nets vs. Kings? Much like in 2000 they didn't want Portland vs. Indiana in a ratings killer Finals, though I don't really think there was anyone crying foul over the Lakers/Blazers series. 2005 is a different story. I couldn't even think of a series that seemed dubious off hand. Dallas/Houston is a series that really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, it was just whoever wins here loses to Phoenix (and I doubt Stern would risk the cred of his league over a 4/5 series). By the time the Suns got to the Spurs in those playoffs they were so injury riddled that there was no way to even rig that series if the NBA wanted to, it just went 5 games. I don't have a problem with the league looking at certain dubious things a player does and instructing refs to call it, so the Rockets really don't have as much of a case for being pissed. I can see these conspiracies in instances like 2002, but what would be the motive behind rigging the 2006 Finals for the Heat to win? Is them winning really soooo much better than the Mavs? Does Stern hate Mark Cuban that much? It was likely typical bad home cooking type officiating, but nothing beyond that. At the end of the day it seems like either NBA refs are one of three things: 1. Crooked like Donoghy and fixing games for Vegas. 2. Crooked and fixing games for the league for desired outcomes. 3. Inept and incompetent.

You know, looking at those numbers consider this. The more goofy Russo inspired stuff on the show (Black Machismo's wedding, Eric Young looking for Elvis, etc.) is turning people off while the more straight ahead women's wrestling is drawing more viewers. I think I know why TNA hasn't done the Knockouts spinoff yet. They probably don't want to have to explain how their all women's show beats their regular men's show in the ratings.

So I guess we agree then that Magnum's car wreck basically wrecked the long term plans of the NWA? Oh and after watching this particular show I have to side with Cornette in that whole deal. Okay, so he hit Baby Doll with his tennis racket. That's dirtbag thing to do, but does it really call for him to be practically lynched and tied to the back of a truck with the idea of dragging him to death?

Just watched KOTR 94 for the first time tonight. I'm still baffled at how Diesel got a world title shot in June of 1994 when he really had no remote credibility to main event at that point. In fact I was utterly shocked that he didn't just eat a sharpshooter for a Bret win. At the time I assumed the whole Neidhart run in was mostly to set up the Owen feud rather than them having any serious plan to push Diesel down the road. That said, the Bret/Diesel match was excellent stuff. Probably one of Nash's best matches. The tourney itself was fun enough. No real great match in it but most of it was fun and nothing lasted too long to be annoying, which is a good thing compared to shows like GAB 92 (which was just on 24/7) that have tourney matches with no heat going 15 mins. The funny thing is I have zero recollection of Lawler/Piper as a feud. Absolutely don't remember Piper being around in 1994 at all. It was hilarious hearing Gorilla blather about the New Generation the whole PPV, with a main event of Jerry Lawler vs. Roddy Piper! The sad thing is I would have loved to see that match in 1984. But 1994? Not so much. As far as Art Donovan goes, why exactly was this guy commentating on a PPV? Does anyone have a possible reason for how that was allowed to happen? Can we just chalk it up to Vince being stressed over the steroid trial and not being in his right mind?

Haven't posted on this thread in a while, but does anyone else here not mind the Top Guns? From reading various Scott Keith AWA articles in the past he made these guys sound like they were totally inept and awful. I don't think they are really all that bad, at least they seem like credible pro wrestlers. They were just doing the pretty boy tag gimmick in the AWA post Rockers and had no hope of matching that success.

I'll go see this tomorrow. Pretty sure it can't help but be better than the turd that was the Ang Lee 2003 film. The heels in that film were Josh Lucas and a washed up (and drunk looking) Nick Nolte. At least this has the supreme villain Tim Roth.

Carlito showed signs of being decent in 2006 for a while. I recall the first match of his that impressed me at all was his WM tourney match with RVD, which was pretty good stuff. He also had some matches with Johnny Nitro and Shelton Benjamin that was solid during that time. But after that? Not much.

M. Night Shyamalan is such a hack, but for some reason I am always compelled to watch whatever crap he does. What's funny is that I still remember the initial review The Sixth Sense got in the paper when it came out. It got ** and the reviewer said "It's not particularly exciting or engrossing." Then it makes like 290 million dollars. The funny aspect of Sixth Sense is that it did huge repeat business, yet it's the single movie that most doesn't hold up for shit on repeat viewings since you know the twist now! Unbreakable was a good film (and unlike Sixth Sense the twist ending actually holds up), but I do think that the stuff with Willis foiling the burglary gets pretty damn boring. Signs was a movie I enjoyed the most of his movies, at least at the theater, but man it really loses something on TV. It's like Shyamalan does all these little bits of scare business that startle you on the big screen with Dolby sound, but at home this stuff is just boring. The Village was actually the movie I saw on a first date and it seemed like a **1/2 sort of movie at the theater, but I went back and watched it a while back on TV and dear god does it ever suck on a 2nd viewing. Lady in the Water was a laugh riot that seemed like M. Night jerking off in front of the world, but watching again on DVD I mostly just felt sorry for Giamatti for being in that trash. At least I had free tickets for that movie, which I got due to the projector breaking during Clerks 2. As far as The Happening, I'll probably see it at some point. How could I resist?

I quite liked the O'Haire and Jindrak teaming and was puzzled as to why they broke them up and went with Palumbo/O'Haire instead. Here is one aspect of the Millionaire's Club/New Blood angle that hasn't been considered. Fans are prone to cheering the bigger named stars and a bunch of rookie punks whining about being held down just isn't going to get over. Honestly it would be better to drop that entire aspect of the angle. Also, is anyone really going to cheer Vince Russo if he's leading a group? Russo is one of the most annoying onscreen characters ever, so I have no idea how he would make this group sympathetic. Also, some of the so called New Blood weren't exactly new or anything. I mean Shane Douglas whining about Ric Flair holding him down in 1993? Who gives a shit? They kept referring to this past hatred between the two, but it was never really an onscreen feud or anything...mostly Douglas blathering on about Flair in ECW and Flair not giving a shit. Is a washed up 38 year old Douglas really the "New Blood?" Is Marcus Bagwell, who had been in WCW since about 1991, really "New Blood?" Is a nearly 40 year old Scott Steiner really "New Blood?" Further, let's say the New Blood guys beat the Millionaire's Club. What does it do? Some guys just aren't perceived as being on the same level as other guys, and I don't think there's any scenario that would make fans buy into Billy Kidman beating Hulk Hogan. He could do it clean in the center and no one would give a flying fuck. The entire middle of 2000 for WCW was like this. The music could be good but it was played way out of tune. Booker T. went from being in a feud with friggin Ahmed Johnson over his T (Sullivan era booking) and then became GI Bro soon after, and then a month later won the world title. HUH??????? I can appreciate the attempt to elevate talent, so Russo gets praise for that, but you have to lay the foundation for such a push. I think fans deep down would have bought Booker at that level had he been pushed in a way that made it believable. But you can't job out to a washed up Ahmed and then do a ridiculous comedy gimmick like GI Bro, and then win a world title. Booker needed a credible push and wins vs. top opponents and then it would have gotten over better. The sad aspect here is that once this whole angle died down WCW finally went with a strong push for someone (Steiner) and it worked pretty well. Once the whole idiotic Nash/Steiner/Goldberg angle over guys doing shoots in the ring died down it became Steiner vs. Goldberg in a battle of guys who just hated each other. Note how much better the latter scenario worked. Steiner got a hard hitting win over Goldberg, then he went after Booker for a couple months, was put over strong there, and then beat down guys like Sid, Nash, and DDP. WCW needed a strong champion, it didn't matter if he was heel or face, they just needed someone to hold the belt with some credibility. Praising Steiner isn't the most popular thing to do, but his late WCW work is terrific stuff. Obviously it didn't draw, but by late 2000 nothing could have. He cut vicious and deranged promos that were half scary and half hilarious, he beat the shit out of opponents left and right, and I think Steiner is easily WCW's best champion post Goldberg.

I'll probably check out this show today, it sounds pretty good from what I've read so far. Here's something that has always puzzled me about the NWA vs. WWF comparisons. People have always said that the NWA was the serious wrestling and the WWF was cartoon crap in the 80s, but why? The NWA's weekly show was a series of squash matches for the most part, with maybe 1 TV main event. Interviews are excellent, sometimes angles are excellent. The WWF did the squash match thing with Superstars, ran the major angles there and on NBC, and there was Prime Time Wrestling for the longer matches that went 20 mins. or so (some of which are good stuff). I've mentioned it in the past but I don't think the NWA ever wanted to be so heel centered, it's just the way it worked out. Magnum TA was supposed to be the top face champ for them, but his career ending car wreck really wrecked their booking. Their business started declining during that 1987-88 period when there was no strong face to challenge Flair and guys like Luger and Sting weren't really ready yet. Since they weren't ready but needed to be kept strong, the booking devolved into goofy crap to keep the belt on Flair and screw the faces at every turn. At least with stuff like that there was a reason. I have NO idea why they did a Dusty Finish to keep the tag belts on the Horsemen at Starrcade 87 vs. the Road Warriors in Chicago.

Carlito has lasted a lot longer than he really should have to be honest. He's never had any real look or physique (outside of the hair) and if you have no look you better have serious skills, which he doesn't. And now Santino is better at being the comedic douchebag heel that never wins. Just wondering but why on earth would they change Victoria Crawford's name to Alicia Fox? Victoria Crawford is such an awesome sounding name, like a model would have. As in her real name should be Alicia Fox and they would change it to Victoria Crawford, not vice versa.

You know, I registered for the million dollar giveaway on wwe.com but am going on vacation tomorrow and won't be back until the 14th. What if by some one in a million chance Vince calls me and I'm not even at home? I'm probably the only person who registered that doesn't want the call, at least not this coming week.

Knowing that Mayweather just retired I wonder if WWE wants a do over on that WM booking against the Big Show. The main reason Mayweather went over is because he had to stay credible to fight De La Hoya later this year.

I'm amazed Jingus fell asleep on the show. I can see someone saying "TNA sucked tonight" but I can't really see the notion of TNA being so boring one would doze off on it. It's 2 hours of Russorific insanity. I too wondered what on earth was up with Booker and Roode suddenly teaming. I mean HUH??? I hate this sort of thing in modern wrestling, two guys who were feuding just team after a little while as though we've forgotten. RVD/Carlito was a good example of that sort of angle, with guys teaming only 2 months after they were feuding.

This last show I saw was priceless. Dennis Stamp teamed with a fellow jobber named Hunter Thompson (!) and that gave me a laugh. What's funny is that even when the AWA was pretty dire like in 1988-89 there was some fun stuff on there. How about Lawler's "King Lawler: AWA champ" shirt? I've finally figured out what The Big K reminds me of. He's like one of those Vegas gamblers I used to see on USA doing football hype shows, where they give you their "expert advice" and tell you to call their 1-900 number.

Speaking of Nash, I went to a Raw taping in July, 1995. This would also be at the Gardens and unlike even the house shows from 1993-94 I went to, this wasn't sold out. This was a RAW mind you. The dark match main event was Sid vs. Diesel in a cage, so after Raw wrapped up they spent about 20 minutes putting up this cage. This match was pointless trash too, it went about 5 mins. and Nash kicked Sid in the face and then pinned him. There was a feeling in the building like "WTF? That's all?"

I know Phil Jackson has done this 4th quarter strategy for years, namely resting a star player until a certain point and putting him back in. Thing is, this Lakers team isn't really so good that they can come back in a road game without Kobe in there.

I was glad to see Steiner back on Impact tonight....I missed him and his crazed promos. This time he got to badmouth Kaz, which is hilarious considering the last match he had involved Kaz and Steiner was the one who jobbed in it.

Oh god, I feel sorry for you, Jingus. I too went to a WCW house show in 2000, but this was more like July when Russomania was running wild. Booker/Jarrett was the main and there was some okay stuff on the undercard with the Jung Dragons, 3 Count, etc. Kidman and Shane Douglas. That show was at Freedom Hall (which holds about 19,000 people) and they made had 2,000 in the building. There was actually a scalper outside too! I mean who the fuck would actually scalp WCW tickets in 2000? It was a fun time though. My brother and I sat next to a drunk redneck who was a ring crew guy for the USWA back in the day and he did nothing but piss on the show. That guy was awesome. On the way home we got pulled over by the cops on a bogus stop saying the rear brake light was out...then I got out and took a look at it and it was fine. To this day I wonder what that was all about.

In other words his WWF run was an ominous forecast of his late era WCW announcing?

I was baffled through half of it, but there were some aspects I thought were pretty damn funny. Stuff like The Rock saying "I am a pimp, and pimps don't commit suicide!" I had to wonder:

I always thought JYD sucked. Some might bash me for that, but I never had any use for the guy. None of his stuff looked good at all. It's funny because in the Death of WCW they compared Ron Simmons' WCW push unfavorably to JYD in Mid South for Watts, yet Simmons at his peak was 3x the worker. George "The Animal" Steele was someone else I thought was horrible. Guys like Beefcake to me were a bit overpushed but at his peak Beefcake WAS actually a pretty decent wrestler. And I'll go ahead and say it: I actually liked Glacier and Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia.

Kamala is more charitable towards Fall Brawl 2000 than me. I would put it in there with WCW's run of suck from Slamboree 1999 until Havoc 2000. You know what's truly sad? WCW got quite good for the last 5 months or so, like from Oct.-Nov. 2000 until March 2001.

I'd also say Edge and Christian acting like goofs = Jericho's Man of 1004 Holds gimmick in terms of amusing comedy heel antics. E & C probably drew more money since they had the TLC matches and such.