cabbageboy

I don't buy that Steiner crap. In the past he's shown no particular preference over who he would rather face between Joe/Angle, so why bother with the run in? Let these guys pulverize each other, then cash in. In fact why is Steiner such a moron that he flat out announced when he was cashing in? Wouldn't it make more sense to just cash in AFTER the Joe/Angle rematch when both men are tired? Instead he does an ill advised run in without even thinking that whoever he screwed would have a valid argument to be in a rematch. And further, why doesn't Steiner simply pull out and now say he'd rather save his shot for later when it would be 1 on 1? The way this comes off makes Steiner look like an idiot for running in and costing himself a 1 on 1 match, and it sorta buries Joe since Steiner screwed Angle to avoid facing Kurt, thinking (I'm assuming) that Joe is an easier match. That idea of Petey doing a misguided run in makes more sense, with Steiner now frustrated at having to be in a 3 way. But this booking reminds me entirely too much of the way Jarrett used to be booked, with guys doing illogical and stupid shit at every turn in order to justify keeping JJ in the main event.

With the goofy Knockouts angle and the tag situation let's not overlook the total brainfart that is the main event scene. Why on earth did Steiner get involved in that match? What did his run in accomplish that was good for his cause? If he had just left things alone and watched the match play out, he gets Joe or Angle 1 on 1. Instead he runs in and causes a controversial finish, and thus leaves Cornette the option to insert Angle in a 3 way. Steiner is the only guy dumb enough to actually have a MITB and not even cash it in for a 1 on 1 match. Instead he could have wasted his chance and not even be involved in the finish. All of this just so we can have Angle dick around in yet ANOTHER PPV main event? They can't just stick him with Christian, Rhino, Booker, Sting, etc.? TNA has a stacked upper card roster, they don't need to do crap like this.

Here are East picks: Boston in 5, Detroit in 5, Orlando in 6, Cleveland in 6. It would be better if all those were just sweeps though, get rid of the dreck and get the East down to the 4 that matter. Then Boston over Cleveland in 6, with Detroit having to go 7 against a game Magic team. Celtics over Pistons in 7 games, home court ends up paying off. I'm bewildered at NBA fans who think another Spurs/Pistons Finals would be a good thing. That series was one of the all time clunker snoozefests with either total blowouts or low scoring brickfests. Ideally the playoffs would come down to Celtics/Pistons in the East and Lakers/Suns in the West. Boston vs. either of them would be an exciting Finals.

1. Do you think that the WWF will ever seriously push the division again? I think it could happen at some point, if anything I've noticed a renewed emphasis on the Raw tag scene, though the SD/ECW scene is still fairly mediocre. 2. Do you think we will see another renaissance of the division? It's certainly possible, all there needs to be are some up and coming guys who gel as a team and it's time to let guys improve their tandem moves. Too much tag wrestling these days is of the same variety, without the fun double team offense that makes tag wrestling enjoyable. 3. Why did the mid 90's suck so much? What teams would you have liked to have seen around this time? Honestly it was just that the teams all dried up. LOD and the Steiners were MIA during this time period until they resurfaced in 1996-97. Some teams broke up like the Rockers and Harts so that someone could go solo. The teams that replaced them were largely lame or just weren't connecting with fans or having great matches. 4. Do you think the draft has had a lot to do with killing the tag team scene? Eh, it's more that WWE sees more in one guy in a team and wants the team to split so they can push someone solo. This would happen regardless of a draft. 5. Do you think the average fan wants to watch tag team wrestling? Can it still draw? Does it have a place in the modern WWE? It would have a place but the style of wrestling is too restrictive. Tag wrestling can becomes terribly formulaic at times (face in peril, false tags, ref didn't see it, that BS). It could still draw but it takes the workers to do it, the feud to compel fans, and a more crisp and non formula ring style. 6. Who are your favorite tag teams? Owen/Bulldog, British Bulldogs, Rockers, Sabu/RVD, Demolition.

From what I heard Adamle isn't all that bad. I'd take him over Cole and Coach at this point. That said, I don't get the Styles demotion. In fact last week I pondered why they keep that crappy SD team as it is, and that maybe they should switch announce teams with ECW and have Styles and Taz do it. I have to ask this question about Colin Delaney: Are we supposed to be behind this guy? I assume so, but he's simply a jobber. Armando Estrada doesn't even come off like a heel GM to me in this case, since he's given Delaney several chances to get a contract and Colin gets his ass kicked every time. Why is it a guy with no contract is on TV every week anyway? Is Estrada just bringing him in per night for his own amusement?

No way they would job Joe out right after he won the belt. This isn't like Rhino where they just changed the title to pop the crowd, or with Sting giving him a gold watch title win. Joe winning should be the dawn of a new era in TNA, and you don't just job him right back. I warned everyone a while back that Eric Young would eventually start getting stale and irritating, and this Super Eric storyline is going to do jump start that. That scenario read like the Midnight Rider vs. Flair in 1982 or something, except then Dusty was banned for 60 days and there was a logical reason as to why he was in a Catch 22 and couldn't unmask. Super Eric just comes across like a fool who won't unmask for whatever reason.

Yeah for whatever reason I'm not buying something. This might sound goofy but I think the Saw series needs another notable star in one of the movies. Maybe if the box office goes down for the next movie, bring in someone for Saw VI to be a cop that finally stops the madness and ends it. I'd crack up if Samuel Jackson was in one, he can go off on his usual rants like "I'm sick of these motherfucking games!" Or maybe Jason Statham since he works a lot for Lionsgate, but he seems like the typical moron Saw cop character that gets played.

Raw was decent enough tonight. Notice that they did a token title change once again overseas so that the crowd could see something semi notable (last year Santino debuted and beat Umaga). I would expect Beth Phoenix to regain at Backlash, if that match is signed. I honestly have no idea who is going to win the KOTR next week, but then I'm not 100% on who all is in it.

I finally got around to seeing this one, since I wasn't exactly thrilled with the notion of a Saw IV after the 3rd one seemingly left no room for another. The aspect of this series that truly impresses me is the insane level of detail and continuity in them. These sequels aren't just the typical horror sequel fare with victims getting killed. There's some actual thought and screenwriting in them, and all of the films flow as a narrative. It's fun to go back now and rewatch previous films and note characters that become more relevant later (such as Rigg, Hoffman, etc.). At any rate I surprisingly enjoyed the 4th installment and am now interested in seeing Saw V. If I had to rank them it would be Saw I, II, IV, and III. The third one went overboard with the sick shit and had by far the least interesting protagonist.

1. Do you think WWE properly handled the storyline for this match? Sure, they did about as well with it as possible given that Hogan wasn't on TV every week leading up to it. The pseudo heel turn was handled well but I don't agree with doing it on July 4 when fewer people were watching Raw. Oddly enough I went to a house show during this period of time and there was an HBK/Flair match on it, with Shawn basically wrestling a normal match as a face. 2. Do you think Shawn Michaels' overselling helped or hindered the match? I'm a bit torn on this, but it certainly made the match memorable, haha. I'll go ahead and say it helped the match, since I don't think it would have been very good at all without some wild selling from HBK. 3. Has this match affected the way you look at either Hogan or Michaels as workers or as people? Not really. It honestly went about like I figured a match between them would go. People forget that Hogan can in fact draw a crowd in and sell for his opponent before making the superman comeback. 4. What impact, if any, do you think this match has had on their legacies? It was a fun match but I don't think it really helped or hurt either man's legacy. It drew solid enough money though. In the end I think Michaels learned that while he may have had Vince's ear over the years he's still not the backstage master that Hogan is. The beauty of the match to me is that Shawn does all his ridiculous overselling but Hogan ended up with the ultimate "fuck you" at the end. Once he hit the boot he made Shawn wait a good 40 seconds while he played to the crowd and only THEN did he finally drop the leg for the win. I loved it. 5. Will we see another match between two wrestlers of this caliber (popularity wise) again? Have we seen one already,perhaps? We already saw it at WM this year with HBK vs. Flair in the career match. I prefer the Flair match actually since there was some real emotion to it and not as much foolishness.

I'm excited about this. While KOTR has seen better days in terms of being a PPV draw, it should make for a fun one night tourney on Raw. Anyone know who all is in it, or what the bracket is?

Yeah that's what I meant. The Knockouts division has been quite good thus far but keep it to a match or 2 on a PPV. I wouldn't really mind the MMA influence if it wasn't so overdone. For instance the way UT is now using his submission move is a nod to MMA, but it's not like UT was asking UFC fighters to train him to face Edge. Guys rolling around on the mat or doing strikes isn't dull in MMA since these guys are actually hurting each other. There are two different endgames with MMA and pro wrestling. MMA is about legit beating someone's ass, wrestling is about entertaining the viewer.

I was glad to see Joe get the belt but I don't even think it was the best match these guys have had. Best booked? Of course. But to me MMA and pro wrestling are two separate genres and I might enjoy the occasional move or nod to it during a match, but I'd rather not see two wrestlers emulate a worked MMA fight. Pretty good show overall tonight...might have wanted to see more brutality in the Lockdown match. There was the nice crazy Styles spot on top, but otherwise there wasn't enough blood in it for what is supposed to be an intense brawl. One thing to note: TNA almost needs to watch it with all the women's matches on PPV. I draw the line at 2 on a show (champion match, maybe #1 contender match). But stuff like Sharmell and Payton Banks being in another match is overkill, especially when it added nothing. Booker and Roode need to move on. This feud has lasted a long time and hasn't produced a good match that I can recall.

It is imperative that Joe goes over clean and decisive tonight. That Karen Angle crap about her being at the PPV tonight had better be a double swerve, as in we think she is there to swerve SOMEONE but she ends up doing nothing at all. Can they really have Karen run in again and cost Joe the match? They just did that booking recently and it sucked hard then. And having her cost Kurt the match only cheapens Joe's moment.

I'm amazed people here are baffled as to why DOA got cheers while the Nation and Savio's jobbers didn't. They were the white guys in that gang warfare angle, haha.

Yeah I enjoyed Hardcore Diaries a lot more than Foley is Good since it gives a good insight into the creative team circa 2006 and the whole build to the ONS PPV. Did you like how his "retirement" was handled? Not really. It's one thing to put HHH over on the way out, but Foley jobbed....then jobbed again and retired. Then unretired and jobbed again. I personally think a guy who is really retiring shouldn't lose a retirement match, since if he loses we all expect him to come back for revenge. How'd you like his run as commissioner? It was fine. I really enjoyed his silly skits with E & C from back in 2000. His various other runs as commish, like in 2001 near the end of the Invasion, weren't as successful. Did you like his short run with Randy Orton in 2004? I'm torn on this. It led to some decent stuff, especially the Backlash 2004 match. But Foley sorta made Orton a star in that feud. If you like Orton, then this is good. Otherwise.... Did you enjoy his 2006 work? Yes, I liked it more than the 2004 run actually. The Edge feud was odd at first but produced a great WM match. The ONS stuff was quite interesting as well, and the Flair stuff was very interesting. Only the Melina nonsense hurt his run, that angle was out of nowhere. Would you be interested in a more serious Foley if he wanted to come back ever full-time or close to it? I don't really think he can, but if he was actually healthy and wanted to be back full time then that would be fine.

Wasn't this show on a while back as well? I know I saw that Blue Angel vs. Horowitz match and thought it ruled. Horowitz was a hell of a good worker, it's a shame he's mainly thought of as a jobber.

I'm surprised no one really commented on my assertion that ECW was brought back mainly as a vanity project to put RVD over and basically lost all its meaning once he was busted with weed. Call me crazy but I think they would have jobbed him out to the Big Show anyway, if for no other reason than to give him the belt back at D2D. The arrest just made the regaining of the belt impossible. That said, even while buried RVD was still having some really killer matches on Sci Fi. The Bob Holly match with the sick table spot is one that comes to mind, and there was a match with Test that seriously might have been Test's best match ever (or maybe 2nd to the Shane SS 99 match). Once they put the belt on Lashley though, you could kinda tell RVD just stopped giving a shit, though I do recall him having some pretty solid matches with Elijah Burke during the New Breed/Originals feud.

You know I too wondered if the whole idea of heel/face in Batista/HBK is what they are going for from show to show. As in Shawn is the face on Raw with Batista the heel, and on his own show Batista is the face with Shawn the heel. It's really the only really good storyline in WWE right now. Speaking of curious face/heel roles, what is one supposed to think of that Show/Khali segment? I mean Khali seemed sincere enough with his gift giving. Big Show comes off very much like a douche for punching Khali.

Yeah I thought it was pretty vicious stuff as well. Here are some thoughts: Aside from some of that stuff though I enjoyed the movie. Had to be one of Reeves' best performances, and Whitaker and Laurie were good. Probably a *** out of **** movie.

Any talk of UT being one of the worst workers of all time should have been gone by 1998. After 2 years of having some actual decent opponents you could see he was capable of solid work. Call me crazy but I kinda like UT vs. Yokozuna from RR 94. It is hilariously over the top and unforgettable, got more heel heat on Yoko for winning with 9 jobbers helping him, and made you want to see UT come back and kick his ass.

1. Would things had gone differently for the brand -- i.e. would the brand look different altogether today -- had RVD and Sabu not been pulled over for drugs, with Van Dam having to give up both Heavyweight Championships only a few days later? Yes, I think things would have gone somewhat different. I think both men would have at least stayed motivated in ECW with the thought that they could keep their pushes. Let's be honest about this though...ECW was brought back as a vehicle for RVD, not much else. Once he got busted and then depushed the entire show lost the point of its existence. 2. Do you feel making an established WWE star in The Big Show the unstoppable heel ECW Champion helped or hindered the brand in its developing months? It basically wrecked the brand out of the gate. The Big Show was wildly overexposed when he had the title and while some of his matches were good it was him going against various guest stars. This made it impossible for ECW to develop its own main event scene. Once they didn't put the belt back on RVD and went with the Lashley experiment, the brand was dead in the water. 3. Would adding a secondary singles title and tag titles make the brand more legitimate in your eyes? Would it help you place ECW on the same level as Raw or Smackdown? Not really. There are too many belts as it is. At this point it's almost easier to just get rid of the ECW title itself rather than add new titles. It's a 1 hour jobber show at this point and that's all it is going to be. 4. Do you think young wrestlers like John Morrison, CM Punk, and Elijah Burke would be more prevalent or less prevalent in the WWE if only Raw and Smackdown existed? Would they even still be in the federation at all? Sure. Morrison had already had runs on Raw and SD and held belts on both shows. If anything being any sort of world champ HURT Morrison since people looked at him with the ECW title as a joke. Punk would be a major star either way and if anything being on ECW this long has hurt him...it's time to put him on a major show. Burke might be on SD or something, but who knows. 5. Has this reincarnation of ECW ultimately sullied the legacy of the ECW of the 1990s in your mind? I am torn on this. Yeah I think to those who didn't see any of the original ECW, then this will forever taint it. For those who saw old ECW, this doesn't really taint it since it's easy to separate the two.

1. Would you say this is one of the worst matches in WWF history?In pro wrestling history? Nah, it's really just typical early UT stuff. It's certainly not a good match but if it was just on a Raw or Superstars from back then no one would care about it. It's not like there were wildly missed spots or anything. 2. In a similar vein, where would you rank Giant Gonzalez among the worst pro wrestlers of all time? He's pretty bad, but not really much different than a bunch of other 7 ft. tall stiffs over the years. As noted if he had a better array of opponents and booking then maybe he wouldn't be perceived as such a waste. 3. In the past decade, do you think The Undertaker has dramatically improved or do you think he was just hindered in the early to mid 90s by a string of bad opponents? Certainly both. UT never really had any sort of decent opponents until Mankind showed up and made him work, thus taking away the zombie aspect and making him a more rounded wrestler. I think UT was always pretty good but his gimmick and opponents didn't really add up to many good matches pre 1996.

1. What is, in your opinion, the best match that TNA has produced thus far? Jerry Lynn vs. Lo-Ki vs. AJ Styles, early weekly PPV for X title. This is on the Styles DVD, but it is not the ladder match. 2. What makes it better than everything else you've seen from TNA? There are other matches that are better known and seen by more people, but that match was revolutionary when I first saw it in 2002. It was a statement of purpose from early TNA that "this is what we're about." It also invented several of the wild 3 way spots that TNA has done since. 3. How does it stack up against other great matches you've seen from different companies? I haven't seen enough great ROH to say but it's much more athletic and exciting than most WWE stuff. Some aspects remind a bit of Lynn's earlier ECW work with RVD, but those matches had more of a mean streak. 4. Does any grouping of workers (not including those in said match) under TNA contract now make you think that another match of this calibre could be produced anytime soon? Sure, they do matches similar to it all the time, but the immediacy and trailblazing aspect of the match can't be duplicated. We've seen the same spots plenty of times since. 5. How would you rate this match on the IWC star scale? The PCN 1-10 factor? I'll say ****3/4. It was damn near a perfect match for the time period, the only minor deduction is that the finish was a little strange with the ref bump and all. PCN I'll say 9/10.