cabbageboy

I don't really see how Leftwich is the answer in Atlanta. Given that Jacksonville released Leftwich and they are playing just fine with Garrard, I have to wonder if Leftwich was hindering the Jags more than he was helping.

I actually think Orton will keep the title till WM where he will job it to the returning Jericho. If I'm Jericho that would be something I'd want in my contract, to main event WM and get the title. Maybe Michaels will get some title shots prior to WM.

Why exactly was there a match stoppage in the Rey/Finlay match? I don't recall the bell ringing, so it should have continued. It's just Rey for crying out loud....we've seen him job ad nauseum so I think him jobbing in such heinous fashion to Finlay would have been okay. That whole thing reminded me of Buff Bagwell in WCW when he was feuding with Rick Steiner. Come to think of it there was a lot of WCW type booking on this show. The Bagwell inspired Finlay nonsense, the DDP/Sting riffing with HHH and Orton. What's funny is that HHH will act like he was mega screwed when in fact Orton wrestled twice and he wrestled three times so it's not like there was some huge disparity. If anything Vince's decisions made a lot of sense. HHH wanted an immediate title shot, so Vince gave it to him. HHH already had a scheduled match with Umaga, so Vince made him honor that commitment. And there was already a WWE title match scheduled in the main event that was LMS, so HHH had to honor that as well since he was now WWE champion. Are we to assume that the epic with Umaga took it all out of HHH so he was so weakened that he couldn't beat Orton?

John Morrison might have a shitty gimmick and horrendous mic skills, but at least he doesn't do headlocks for 50% of a match. Note that I didn't say that this booking tonight was going to end up as bad as WCW's did with DDP in 1999, mainly because WWE at least has some vague notion of what the hell they are doing. Where WCW blew it was not really doing anything with DDP after that, they just jobbed him to Nash at the next PPV and that was that. If they had kept it on DDP and tried to at least get him over as champ maybe things would have been different, instead of the musical chairs they did with the world title in 1999. Even a really boring and dreary Orton title run would be more healthy than that WCW booking.

I have this horrible feeling that Orton is going to hold the belt until WM. I'm begging for the challenger there to be Jericho, but who knows. I can't see it being HHH since they already did it twice tonight and surely again at Cyber Sunday. Shawn might come back to be that lame duck Rumble type challenger for Orton, then let Jericho win the Rumble and go for the title at WM. I'm glad someone else thought of Sting vs. DDP to compare to this. It's funny but those who read the General Wrestling forum know my thoughts on THAT fiasco for WCW (I think it was more of a business killer than the Fingerpoke of Doom).

For some deranged reason I think we'll see Big Daddy V get the ECW belt tonight. What other point is there in tossing him onto the PPV when he wasn't in the title chase? I think Jericho will win the title tonight. I don't really know where they can go with it from there, but it would be fun for tonight. If he is wrestling tonight then he flat out has to win, otherwise it kills him out of the gate. Batista vs. Khali will be funny as hell. I can't believe they act like there's some suspense there as to who will win. No way would they put the title back on Khali.

I have no idea what they were going for with Sid. Watching these shows again makes me realize it was more complicated than I thought at the time. With Sid I just assumed he was a heel big man challenger for HBK, attacked Lothario and his kid, etc. But he and Shawn were actually friends before that PPV match and Sid at no time before then was booked as a heel in 96. He played total heel vs. HBK at the Rumble, but then got the belt back and was back to playing to the fans and what not. UT was obviously the guy people wanted to win at WM though.

Okay in terms of the biggest humiliation it's still got to be USC last night. Yes, U of L losing to Syracuse was horrible but after the UK game it's obvious that they quit on the season. I'm just talking about one game here, not a whole season. For a whole season it's obviously U of L that is the biggest debacle. How exactly would BC get into the title game over USF anyway? USF is already ranked higher and if they win out they'll at least have some decent wins on their resume (WVU, Auburn, Cincy, Rutgers). The ACC is the lamest major conference in the nation. That said, there's no way USF can run the table. They're more likely a 9-3 team than a 12-0 team.

Ah well, the week wasn't a total loss. At least USC managed to embarrass themselves worse than U of L has at any point this year (which takes some doing, believe me). They were favored by 40 in that game tonight, which I found insane to begin with. I figured they would win by like 28, but 40??? There were other positives. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Rutgers eat a dick again, now Cincy is going to beat the piss out of U of L next week. That one won't be pretty at all. It was also nice seeing Wisconsin finally go down. That said who is left to take out OSU? This is starting to disturb me greatly.

If you think about it, there really hasn't been much time to really hype the saveus.222 guy. It's maybe been on TV a couple of weeks, but I would keep running those bizarre "ads" for a few more weeks.

Well it ended up being 44-35. U of L apparently is good at making it just close enough to stay tuned, but still losing. Steve Kragthorpe should try to get on the staff of the Chargers, Norv Turner would love this guy. They can compare notes on how to wreck a great team in a matter of games. Incidentally why not kick it long with 3:30 to play? It would beat having Utah kick a game clinching FG. Besides, the Cards are hardly frauds. The suckage has been well established at this point. I'm honestly trying to figure out how U of L held NC St. to just 10. Are they THAT bad?

I actually thought the 2nd one was the guilty pleasure, mainly because it didn't have Diesel there to drag it into boredom. Such a funny ripoff of GTA: Vice City.

Also what is sad is that a healthy Pillman would have been a major star merely 6 months later. Imagine the Loose Cannon running amuck in 1998 as this crazy tweener loyal to no one.

For me personally, yes I would. I remember having the notion going into that PPV that something crazy was going to happen, but I didn't end up ordering the PPV. Next night I see this crazy shit on Raw and kicked myself for having not seen it. I ended up getting SS 98 soon after, and I bet a lot of other people did too. As far as Hogan winning the AWA title goes, there was more to his departure than just that. If anything he might have held the title, still gotten pissed at Gagne over money, and left with the belt.

In regards to Kane, I can't decide whether to give the guy props or just be baffled that he is actually still around 10 years later. I figured he would hang around and put over UT and then vanish like so many giant jobbers.

To be honest I think Raw already had the anything goes vibe after the Perfect/Flair loser leaves town match. That was on maybe the 3rd Raw ever too.

What is this big fucking deal about John Morrison? The guy gets suspended for drugs, so they would just bring him right back and put a belt back on him like nothing happened? For some reason I don't see this happening. In fact the only reason to screw everyone over (Dreamer, the fans, etc) is for Big Daddy V to simply win the belt and have some never ending title run from hell. At least if they put the ECW title on Mabel I'll have one less show to bother with.

I agree that stuff like point differential and the Pythagorean record isn't that important in baseball (whereas I do think it is often useful to look at in football). Over 162 games there can be so much that happens, maybe a few pitchers get hurt and the replacement guys give up more runs, maybe like with the D'Backs they win close games but get squashed in several losses.

Gotta love the Angle stuff where he accused Sting of trying to have him arrested. Fiction becomes reality! Oh and that angle tonight with Sting's son was one of the more disturbing and pedophile type angles in a long while.

I don't think they were going to put the belt on Orton at all. They might now for the lack of anything better to do, but if Orton was getting the belt it would have been at SS. At No Mercy I bet they would have done the goofy double KO spot, and then set up a HIAC for Cyber Sunday where Orton would finally job out conclusively.

Eh I didn't mind HH 97. The production and lighting are bleh of course but at least the first half was a pretty fun show if you're into old ECW. Bear in mind with RVD that he wasn't quite The Whole F'N Show in 1997. But really though, I can't hate that PPV. It had RVD and Sabu beating the shit out of ICP, which was hilarious. And yay, I am glad to get Survivor Series 1990 and 95 since I don't have either. I haven't seen the 1990 show in 15 years.

And then the goofy 4 way rematch at the end of that Nitro where DDP regained the belt. That might be one of the worst finishes in history.

Eh, Survivor Series 1999 and 2000 also did almost the same buyrate as the 1998 show, but yeah the 98 show did a really great number.

Here are my picks for the week: JAC @ KC: KC is playing better lately, but I'll have to take the Jags to pull off a fairly low scoring win here. JAX by 4. CLE @ NE: You want assrape? This will deliver. Pats by 21. CAR @ NO: I have no idea at all. I'll assume the Saints will bear down after the bye week and win this one at home. Saints by 7. JETS @ GIANTS: Hey the Giants are on a bit of a roll now, so I think they will keep it up. NYG by 8. MIA @ HOU: Houston is all kinds of banged up, but I think they can still beat the hopeless Dolphins. Texans by 6. SEA @ PIT: Seahawks are playing well, but the Steelers need to rebound from the loss last week. Steelers by 3. DET @ WAS: Tough one to call. I don't really buy into the Lions yet, so I'll take the Redskins at home by 4. ATL @ TEN: Falcons got a win last week, but I don't think it'll happen here. Titans by 10. ARI @ STL: The Rams suck really hard this year. Cardinals by 13. TB @ IND: Injuries all over the place for both teams, but I just can't see the Bucs winning in Indy. Colts by 7. SD @ DEN: God, who knows? Neither team impresses me at all, but I can't see the Chargers sucking this bad forever. SD by 3. BAL @ SF: The Ravens are a baffling team, but the Niners can't score at all. Ravens by 6. CHI @ GB: Packers are on a roll right now and the Bears are tanking. I can't see this being the Pack's first loss, not at home. GB by 7. DAL @ BUF: Some might think the Bills can hang here. I don't. Dallas by 17.

This show was such bullshit. The past few weeks of solid matches with the chase were rendered pointless when Big Daddy V was basically just handed the shot. How is that retro ECW booking? Yes, I know Dreamer lost to Justin in 2000 in an impromptu match but that was all a hectic mess to begin with. This was basically just fucking over the viewers who have invested any time and interest into the chase. Why not just have Dreamer get a PPV payday and job to Punk, then they can move on to Punk vs. Big Daddy V anyway.