cabbageboy

I gotta agree that there needs to be more than 4 PPVs in a year. In 1992 the time between WM and SS was especially dull since there just wasn't much going on and a bunch of guys all left to boot. That said, the time between SummerSlam and Survivor Series in 1992 was absolutely insane and full of wild title changes and intrigue. By 1993 they had Raw and added KOTR as a stopgap June PPV, and I think the WWF's week to week storytelling on TV improved light years.

While Sid was never particularly good I think Ron Simmons was a very good worker during his Doom days with Butch Reed and also his early 90s singles run. His stuff with Luger was surprisingly good and I also quite like his title win over Vader.

Here is the often overlooked aspect of Bret's contract. He had "reasonable creative control" in his contract. To me that means he couldn't be buried on the way out, as in lose the belt, then job in 5 different matches the next night on Raw and have DX piss on him while he was laying. That sort of thing wouldn't be reasonable. If this ever went to court Bret may well have found himself on the losing end since Survivor Series 1997 was the last major PPV he was going to be on in the WWF and Bret couldn't convince anyone that it was reasonable for him to refuse to lose the belt whenever and to whomever Vince wanted. To me that isn't really reasonable, for a champion leaving a promotion to refuse to lose in a certain place to a certain wrestler. At the time I was totally in Bret's corner on this, but as time goes on I see more and more of Vince's side. I can see Vince thinking "Who does this asshole think he is that he can refuse to do a job on the way out? Fuck him!" Why Bret cared so much is beyond me. Bret should have just said "Eh, who cares?" and gone out and half assed it and done the job to HBK. It's not like anyone would have really cared once he started showing up on Nitro.

I had the idea a while ago that Val could do a tongue in cheek variation on his old gimmick where he now is balding and older, so he picks these sorta skanky or fat chicks out of the crowd since he can't get the hot chicks anymore. It sounds vaguely similar to Mike Awesome as the Fat Chick Thriller but at least with Val he has the long running backstory to make such a silly gimmick fun.

I think I remember hearing that RVD drove the wrong way for some TX house show last year. He ended up somewhere in OK instead. Of course this is RVD we're talking about here, so who knows what stuff he was on at the time.

I will go with the Red Sox in 6, taking the first 2 at home, getting 1 in Cleveland, and finishing it back in Boston. In the NLCS I'll go with the Rockies in 5, splitting the first 2 in AZ and then sweeping the 3 home games at Coors. Red Sox vs. Rockies is such a bizarre sounding series. Indians vs. Rockies makes a bit more sense, if nothing else so the Indians can lose to the OTHER 1993 expansion team.

Well, nearly everyone has a screen persona. I'd be hard pressed to think of someone who flat out blend into any role. Paul Muni and Richard Basehart are two that come to mind. Pacino did have a pinnacle, it was just in 1974 or so. He was never really the same after Cruising, haha. Anyway American Gangster looks really good. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Man, aside from some shorties there isn't shit this week that is new on 24/7. I might watch that NWA show though, didn't get to it yet.

While the Hornswaggle reveal drew a chuckle or two in the end here is the main problem with this angle and the Vince limo angle: It draws no money. There isn't a match that can come from this stuff, so there is no reason to do it. I have no problem with Raw being a show to develop angles for a PPV, but there's nothing much you can do with these Mystery Theater type angles. Hell, even the Hummer angle in WCW would have let do a match (Nash vs. the Culprit) had they actually just revealed who did it.

Well, GT looked great squashing ND this year, but at that point we didn't know ND would be as hopeless as they have been this year. What does it say about U of L this year that the Cards are a 10 point underdog against Cincy? That game will go one of two ways. Either U of L shows up for once and pulls the upset, or Cincy is going to win by about 4 TDs. UK vs. LSU could be interesting. Let's see what Woodson does against a team with an actual defense.

You would want the Jags to move to LA instead of the Colts? You know what the Jags are? A poor man's version of the....BATIMORE RAVENS! SUN, OCT 14 Minnesota at Chicago 1:00 PM Fox: Yeah this is just what the world needs, the Bears making an ill advised run at the playoffs. Chicago by 10. Miami at Cleveland 1:00 PM CBS: What is this, the Browns being sorta decent? Cleveland by 7. Washington at Green Bay 1:00 PM Fox: I think the floodgates may have opened with that Bears game and it might be down hill for the Pack from here. Redskins by 3. Cincinnati at Kansas City 1:00 PM CBS: Who knows with these two. Bengals need the win and I can't help but think the Chiefs suck. Cincy by 4. Tennessee at Tampa Bay 1:00 PM CBS: No Cadillac and Vince Young finds a way to get fluke wins on a regular basis. Titans by 1, maybe 21-20. St. Louis at Baltimore 1:00 PM Fox: Oh this won't be pretty. The Ravens are going to maim them physically...but of course the score will end up like 10-7. Houston at Jacksonville 1:00 PM CBS: Hmm...Houston is still banged up right? They seem to own the Jags, but I sense that stops here for the time being. JAX in their usual dull plodder, 14-10. Philadelphia at NY Jets 1:00 PM Fox: Surely McNabb can beat the freakin Jets, right? Philly by 7. Carolina at Arizona 4:05 PM Fox: David Carr (if it IS him) is not the answer. Not when the resurgent old man Warner there for the Cardinals. AZ by 10. Oakland at San Diego 4:15 PM CBS: I can't buy Oakland as a serious team, I just can't. SD will continue to play like they have a pair and win by 17. New England at Dallas 4:15 PM CBS: Okay, after this week I feel confident in saying that Tony Romo is going to get assraped in very painful fashion. Patriots by 14. New Orleans at Seattle 8:15 PM NBC: How is THIS the Sunday night game over NE/Dallas? Seattle will win it and keep the Saints tanking, 28-21. MON, OCT 15 NY Giants at Atlanta 8:30 PM ESPN: Man, what is this? Giants actually having some winnable games? What were the schedule makers doing, trying to keep Coughlin employed? NYG by 7.

I can't really comment on much of Rene Goulet's career since I have just seen him later in his career as a jobber. I actually would be all for a TNT style show if that would mean put all the Sports Entertainment crap on it and leave actual wrestling for the main shows. The only problem would be that guys now would try to work their silly gimmick on the TNT show, rather than stay semi in character like the guys in the 80s shows but let their real life personality show a bit. I mean how would John Morrison do on a TNT style interview?

This might be a curious statement but I think my favorite era of WCW was a period that isn't all that well thought of, namely the 1992-94 period. Once Hogan and Co. came in and ran roughshod it mostly seemed like 1980s WWF all over, whereas before it at least SEEMED like WCW.

What's bizarre is that I saw that dude Galloway on OVW just one time this past week and he wasn't anything notable at all. What's even stranger is that I haven't seen Burchill on OVW lately either, not since a silly angle where he put up his house for a shot at the OVW title and lost. Who the hell would put up their HOUSE for a shot at the OVW belt???

Orton is someone who can be part of a group like Evolution, or maybe even successfully tag with someone like Edge (who can do the real work), but Orton has never been and will never be THE guy who can carry a main event level feud for a company. Let's also consider this a bit. What the fuck has Orton really done kayfabe wise to be WWE champion? This past year he and Edge mostly got their asses kicked by DX in between their vaguely homoerotic antics. Then Michaels basically beat the crap out of both of them alone once HHH was hurt. Cena beat Orton's ass a bunch of times prior to WM, then Edge humiliated him and made him look like a moron. Orton jobbed at Backlash, and also jobbed clean to Edge as a punishment or whatever. From this point Orton starts giving people concussions, but really never BEAT anyone of serious note. Put HBK out of action, but didn't actually you know WIN that match. Put RVD out of action (and out of WWE) but Van Dam actually beat him in the match! During this Orton also attacked old farts like Dusty and Slaughter and a debuting rookie Cody Rhodes. Somehow this made him the #1 contender, despite not really going over anyone that was a serious contender. So he gets his big shot at SummerSlam and promptly jobs to Cena clean. Somehow he gets a rematch, not by actually WINNING a match or anything, but by attacking Cena's dad. Then at that PPV Cena's dad actually beats the holy hell out of Orton with his own goofy kick. Due to that non finish Orton gets another shot at the belt, and this time only gets it via forfeit because Cena is injured. Then he promptly jobs it to HHH in uneventful fashion, only to regain it after HHH has to wrestle 3 times in one night. Just read that and you'll see why few people would be interested in an Orton title run. The guy has been booked like a complete joke for so long that nobody buys it.

As far as the ratings go, it doesn't matter if they bring back Jericho, HBK, or whoever. As long as fucking ORTON has the WWE title they are going to have crappy ratings. This alleged good booking that gave Orton the title on Sunday is the same ultra shitty booking that WCW did in 1999 with Sting and DDP that resulted in Nitro going from a 4.4 to a 3.4 in a month's time. Booking where a guy loses a belt and regains it in the same night cheapens a title and only pisses off viewers in a very hostile way to where they don't want to watch. Think I am bashing Orton with no justification? Check this out: On Aug. 9, 2004 Raw did a 3.9 rating. The next week after SummerSlam (where Orton won the title) they did a 3.4. Also, recall that Raw did that sorta bogus 2.5 on July 30 this year in the show where Orton was announced as the #1 contender.

Yeah I don't think there is this pinpoint moment where the Yankees dynasty was over. It's not like the Mantle era being over after the 1964 World Series loss to the Cardinals, when the Yankees started sucking immediately after that.

Here is South Florida's schedule from here on. I don't really think it is all that soft, although there isn't much in the way of road games. The numbers in parentheses are from www.realtimerpi.com. Central Florida (69) at Rutgers (23) at UConn (28) Cincinnati (17) Syracuse (144) Louisville (91) at Pitt (62) Out of that schedule I think USF will lose 2 or 3 games to be honest. Rutgers is bound to get their heads on straight at some point and get a big win and UConn is also better than expected. Let's also not forget that Cincy rolled USF last year and Cincy is much improved now. I would say that U of L has a shot but even if this year wasn't a debacle already U of L doesn't play too well in Tampa. In other words, it's silly to even talk about USF at this point. If they can win the next 4 games though, it's quite likely they could run the table.

Mack Strong has the greatest name ever for a football player. I don't think Alexander's production will be the same without him blocking.

Oh, I've seen icing the kicker for years in games. But it seems like it would be a feasible sort of icing where the kicker was on the field and maybe they just call the TO as guys were lining up, but the ball wasn't really being snapped or anything. And really given such split second timing I wonder if these time outs have all been called before the ball is even snapped. It seems like the whistle is never loud enough to hear, especially over the crazed fans.

I'm with Al as far as being bewildered with this talk of "The Indians upset the mighty Yankees!" WTF? The Indians were the better team all year, had home field in this series, and had a better record. On what possible level would this be an upset? Rockies vs. Indians in the World Series. That's money.

Yeah I don't think anyone is saying a team shouldn't be able to ice the kicker. But it's getting really, really annoying seeing this same bullshit every week. I'm glad that Auburn and now Dallas have both managed to win with the 2nd FG attempt anyway. Cause pretty soon everyone is going to do this same crap and several games are going to end up decided on this trash. They need to put a time limit on it when it comes to FGs, that the coach can't call it once both teams are lined up. This game tonight reminded me so much of the Bears vs. Cardinals last year. At least in the game the Bears made several great defensive plays to get back in it. The Cowboys tonight won almost in spite of themselves, right down to Owens not getting the 2 pt. conversion, dropping the one pass with 13 seconds left, etc. The Patriots should just assrape them next week though.

I don't know what to think of Orton vs. Michaels at Cyber Sunday and HHH vs. Orton makes more sense really. I seriously hope they don't try to hold off on that till WM or something. That match has been done so many times it has zero WM main event feel to it.

No I think Jericho will return sometime in the next month, be it either at Cyber Sunday or at Survivor Series. Then he will call out Orton and all that, Orton avoids him. Jericho is my favorite to win the Rumble and then challenge Orton at WM.

The Jags are a team that never seems to win impressively, it's just their style to get those 13-7 type wins. They are a poor man's Baltimore Ravens. Anyway, is Brohm really the answer for the Falcons in the draft? I dunno. He's really not much different stylistically than Harrington and Leftwich.