cabbageboy

I'm assuming that doing a Punjabi Prison match is how they will get the belt off Khali. They should have considered it for SS since it's a bigger PPV, but I guess doing something like that for Unforgiven or No Mercy would maybe add to the buyrate of a lesser PPV. I have zero interest in Khali/Rey. Hell, Khali squashed Rey last year when Rey had the title. Who would want to see it now?

V For Vendetta was an excellent movie. Not sure why the Wachowskis would be involved in a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers though. I have to admit it surprises me that people actually would walk out on it though. It looks like a rental, but nothing so terrible that anyone should storm out of a theater.

Yeah but it's not like the typical OVW show has guys busting out crazy moves, it's just that it's an actual wrestling show. As in there's a segment with the tag champs wrestling, OVW champ either wrestling or cutting a promo, TV champ now defends every week, and thankfully the Six Flags stuff is almost over and the actual women's division can start up again (instead of Divalympics).

I checked out SS 94 tonight. Had seen it before a few years ago, but got a copy of it this time. It's actually a pretty decent PPV up until the god awful UT vs. UT main event. What the hell could they have been thinking having THAT match main a PPV?

I'm telling you, OVW is a much better week to week TV show than TNA. It at least has more than 10 minutes of wrestling on it.

I have to admit I too thought that Ron Simmons should have looked in the mirror and seen himself younger and with the WCW title. But I guess that's because I watched his win over Vader the other day on You Tube.

Yeah I don't get how this Vince angle can exactly be long and drawn out. Any sort of paternity suit in real life would have to have the plaintiff's identity and the name of the child on it. If this woman won't even reveal herself, why is Vince even taking it seriously since her case would be instantly thrown out of court? I bet it will end up being Kennedy, and then at some point about 3 years from now we'll find out Kennedy orchestrated the entire thing to further his own career and isn't Vince's son.

This was a lot, lot better than either 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up. I found Steve Carell almost unbelievably lame in Virgin, to the point where I felt it was more sad and creepy than all that funny. And Knocked Up had a few too many serious scenes (and yes, it was long winded). I have to admit that I just had trouble identifying with the main characters in those 2 films. Superbad? It's much funnier than either of the previous 2. While watching it I couldn't help but think it was destined to be a new teen classic. It has a little more on its mind about actual friendship than something like Porky's (which is primarily about getting laid) and didn't suffer from the uncomfortable tone shifts that Fast Times has (here's Spicoli getting high....and now here's an abortion subplot). And I might put it higher than American Graffiti since I just never felt that movie had a coherent center to it, just a bunch of characters running around with no cameraderie. McLovin kinda reminds me of Charles Martin Smith a little bit by the way. Dazed and Confused is quite good in its own right, but I can't say I like it better than Superbad. Just can't relate to much of it, stuff like seniors beating up freshmen with paddles and all that. In HS as a freshman I don't recall seniors caring about freshmen at all, and as a senior I was almost more of a mentor/aide to the freshmen. Didn't know anyone who went around beating up freshmen. Also really couldn't identify with the football players refusing to sign the "no drugs and alcohol" paper, since it seems like a fairly reasonable request nowdays that a coach would ask of players. The only real flaw I could think of is that some of the first party lasted a bit too long, keeping Seth and Evan away from McLovin.

I don't totally buy that. Hell, I think quite a few of the guys acquired in the WCW buyout are better than the various bums WWE has brought up from developmental in the past 5 years.

Well, the Living Dangerously bout was tremendous stuff aside from the utterly idiotic booking where the ref actually tried to give Lynn the TV title on a time limit draw. I remember watching the PPV live and being confused and stunned that the ref thought he could possibly do something like that. The Hardcore Heaven match was really awesome too. But to me the best RVD/Lynn match was one on TNN circa Sept. 1999, the one where Lynn had the broken ribs. In fact they probably should have just put the TV belt on Lynn there, since the crowd would have gone nuts for his win. Gotta put those matches into perspective. The WWF in 1999 had evolved into this goofy ultra sports entertainment style product without much solid wrestling. WCW had become a complete hellhole of awful matches, awful booking, and the quality performers were buried or misused. Stuff like the RVD/Lynn series and Tajiri/Super Crazy (not to mention Tanaka/Awesome) made ECW the best actual wrestling product of that era. Heyman's booking however was going south by that time.

Well, I think WWE does put over WCW during the NWO period but it seems to me like they never discuss anything they did right in the pre Hogan era. They bring up the Watts era and have nothing but bad things to say, and some of it is justified (i.e. the top rope rule). But WCW's product was more mature and the in ring action was quite good during that period.

See, the context of JR's Bulldog comment was that the WWF had a mediocre roster circa 1995-97. I did not take it as a remark on his admittedly mediocre last run in 1999, since by that point the WWF was cruising in the ratings and most his push lasted about 2 months (he was in the 6 pack challenge, then jobbed to the Rock, and that was it for his push). It was like he said "Yeah, we had nobody back in 1995-96 so we had to keep repackaging the British Bulldog." 1. Bulldog did a mega heatless heel turn on Kevin Nash in Sept. 1995. The two had no previous onscreen relationship so it was a big WTF moment. And even during that dubious initial heel run he had a great match with Bret on PPV. 2. The angle with Diana and Michaels was borderline tasteless. In fact I heard Bulldog at one point wanted his release over it, but decided to stay on. This angle was one thing that led to me watching WCW more and more. 3. He finally tagged with Owen and that clicked pretty well, but they still had no one worth a damn to feud with over the tag belts. Besides, even if JR WAS referring to his 1999 run it's still an uncalled for remark considering Smith was in dire physical health and hospitalized not too long before he was signed.

Well that's what I mean....it's a nice angle to run for 1 town on 1 night but that's about it. It's not anything to build your overall business around.

Yeah but really the whole Lawrence Taylor angle didn't draw shit for the WWF. It was probably one of the worst WMs in fact. To elaborate on that football point, I think such an angle could still draw today at a local level for 1 show. For instance if TNA went to Green Bay and had some mid level heel badmouth the Packers they could have Favre come out and beat this dude up. It would at least pop the crowd and probably get them on Sportscenter, so it would accomplish something.

I'm half joking about the Benoit/ECW thing. In no way, shape, or form does it rationalize what he did, but it seems like I read somewhere that Benoit was upset about having to go to ECW, feeling it was a demotion and that he was paranoid about being released. I can see Benoit feeling slighted and unhappy with being traded to ECW, and it could be one of the plethora of reasons (unhappy at home, unhappy at work, drugs and roids, who knows what else) why he went off the deep end. In regards to Booker, the meetings might be interesting if he and HHH keep feuding on TV. Wonder if Booker would try to play some backstage politics of his own?

Well, if the Warrior had signed with WCW in 1995 it would have been a lot of goofy shit, but it would have fit in better with WCW's ultra lame product of the time. Everyone was still doing a cartoonish 1980s act in WCW at that point, so Warrior cutting bizarre promos on the Dungeon of Doom wouldn't seem that out of place. This is a promotion that had a mummy break out of a block of ice and guys doing monster truck battles on the top of the arena. By 1998 though the Warrior's act was completely anachronistic.

The Legends show is certainly must see but man it pissed me off a few times. What was with JR's mean spirited crack at the British Bulldog along the lines of "Honestly, how many times can we repackage The British Bulldog?" as if to belittle his career. Hey asshole, it wasn't MY idea to turn the guy heel in heatless fashion in late 1995. Shit, unlike 80% of the Attitude Era roster at least the Bulldog could actually WORK. The WWF had no desire to get rid of the Bulldog after Montreal, he would have stayed on the roster like Owen had he not paid 6 figures to get out of his deal out of loyalty to Bret. That line pissed me off from JR. Having guys that could actually work wasn't a high priority in 1998-99 though. Bischoff had a few lying gems as well. Stuff like Raw doing ratings in the 4s and Nitro in the 2s in the early half of 2000 when he and Russo came back. Yeah right...Raw was doing mid 6 ratings and even as high as 7.4 at the peak of Rock vs. HHH. I also found Bischoff full of shit when he said the Foley trashing on the Jan. 4, 1999 Nitro wasn't personal. Let's say Ken Shamrock won the title from The Rock on that show, or HHH, or whoever. Do you seriously think WCW would go out of their way to trash those guys? It was specifically because it was Foley that won, a guy Bischoff cast aside and scoffed at as a main eventer. As an aside isn't it ironic that all of the guys badmouthed Bischoff over the Foley comments, yet JR denigrated the Bulldog on this show in somewhat similar fashion? I have no idea why Foley would believe that WCW's live Nitro from the Georgia Dome should have beaten the taped Raw with his title win. The irony is that WCW's ratings did actually improve from the previous week (5.0 from a 4.6), it's just that Raw went from 4.9 to a 5.7 for the title change. Also, Foley has a bizarre way of not mentioning just how that Nitro actually ended. To me, the part that offended me most was the juxtaposition of the Fingerpoke bullshit alongside Foley's emotional title win. Imagine Schiavone saying the stuff he did about Foley knowing that WCW was going to do THAT in the main event.

Beefcake wasn't a serious main event proposition. The only show he had ever mained before was SS 89 where he was constantly referred to as "Hogan's weak link." After Hogan had beaten down Macho and the invincible Zeus, then fended off a technical master in Mr. Perfect, would anyone REALLY think a San Francisco hair dresser had a hope in hell of killing Hulkamania?

There has to be something we don't know about with Jarrett and Dixie Carter. As in why is this guy who doesn't draw any money and draws anti heat from the fans pushed on the show and in a position of power? He's gotta be nailing her or something.

Regarding Booker, I don't actually think that was kayfabe at all. Or maybe part of it was about the King gimmick, but I bet he truly feels that way about ECW. Let's face it, since ECW was relaunched take a look at the major draws put on that show and where they are now: RVD: Busted for pot, depushed and jobbed out, left WWE entirely when his contract was up. Big Show: Career shortened considerably by being in hardcore matches in ECW, left when his contract was up. Angle: Spiralled out of control and was injured and/or suspended during his brief ECW run, and then was released soon after. Benoit: The dude killed his family and hung himself about 2 weeks after being traded to ECW. Some think this is a coincidence. I do not. So why wouldn't Booker refuse to go to ECW?

Anyone who wants Mabel pushed obviously wasn't watching wrestling at this time of year in 1995. I'm still trying to get over the pain and agony of him main eventing SS 95. In fact that show is one of 2 SS shows I've never seen (the other is 2003 due to a cable problem). I've had the troubling thought in the back of my mind for a long time that someone in WWE still sees V as a potential main eventer, though lord knows why.

Eh, I do think it's the best ESPN produced show thus far. The jarring aspect is watching it on HD though and seeing the pristine new HD footage mixed with blown up old game film from 30 years ago.

If Austin had truly had a career ending injury at SS 97 the WWF would have been totally screwed. There was no one at that point who had really caught the fans' imagination the way Austin had, and they desperately needed the 2 years of 1998 and 99 they got from him before the injury put him out for a long while and guys like Rock and HHH were ready to draw. The IC title actually to me stayed relevant until the whole Katie Vick angle buried the belt in late 2002. Yeah, there were some crappy champs in 1999 or so but they got over that by 2000 and guys like Jericho, Benoit, and Angle held it. The IC belt was hurt a bit in the Invasion but hell I'd say nearly every belt suffered the same fate since there were two sets of everything. I do think the Edge/Regal feud for the IC was a low point for the belt, since those were some unbearably boring matches. Once the IC division became RVD, Eddie, and Benoit in 2002 then it got really good again. But once Kane won it and they used it as fodder for the Katie Vick angle and killed the belt off for 6 months or so....it was over. The IC title has never been the same.

The thing is, I don't get the perverse pleasure out of watching TNA fuck up the way I did with WCW. WCW's demise was so spectacular, so unreal that it was amazing to watch Rome burn week by week. WCW went from the hottest promotion on earth in Jan. 1998 and by Jan. 2000 they were in complete shambles. For a while it was maddening but after a point WCW's ineptitude wore down everyone and it was fun to sit back and watch in bewilderment. TNA is frustrating because there IS potential for them to do better. I'm hoping they can get 2 hours and stop rushing through everything.

Well, it seems like I read that Dixie Carter is in fact married but if she's not.....well, Jeff Jarrett is now a widower.