cabbageboy

Hold up, I thought Benoit was being prescribed 10 months worth of steroids every 3 weeks, as in the stuff they found at his house...not necessarily 10 months worth of only the testosterone. The thing is with Benoit, we don't know when exactly he used all this testosterone. He may well have used it all up that very weekend.

I never worry about that type of angle, i.e. "If there is a title change such and such match is for the title (Bret/Austin), and so and so is screwed (UT). I figure that maybe it's up in the air booking wise to the wrestlers (in storyline terms) and that they are looking to protect their spot on the PPV. Yet again I have to comment the following: Isn't WCW's 83 week streak incredibly overrated? Given how passionately most of us here enjoyed these Raw shows from 1997 it's obvious that Nitro was hardly the better show for quite a few of those 83 weeks.

I have to admit I'm intrigued at this movie, ever since seeing the trailer a while back. Is it just me or is Statham incredibly bad ass in everything? I've liked the guy ever since first seeing Snatch.

I haven't seen that Wrestlefest show since I rented it in roughly 1988 or 89. But what I'm more excited about is that 1-1-83 World Class show, since I'm assuming that is the one with Flair vs. Kerry on it with the notorious Hayes heel turn that sets off the Von Erichs vs. Freebirds rivalry. I'm trying to remember when Bret went ballistic. The next show is the ECW "invasion" show that they have shown on 24/7 in the past, then after that is the overseas show with Bulldog/Owen (which I am intensely looking forward to since I was flooded out over the weekend in March 1997 and didn't see that Raw). It seems like Bret went nuts after some cage match where he was screwed over yet again, maybe it was a Sid rematch? It's wild as to how my memory of these things is different from the shows. For instance watching these shows originally I just thought of Sid as a heel, but watching them now on 24/7 I notice he really was over with the crowd and played to the crowd, acted like a face most of the time. Then of course he would hit Jose Lothario with a camera and go insane. It's like there are new layers that reveal themselves with time. "Frustrated isn't the word for it! This is bullshit!"

Haha, I saw those prices too. $1.24 baby! I watched the MNW show tonight. I'd say Raw was definitely better, with the hilarious stuff of Austin attacking Bret and Sid constantly and all that. Anyone else find it strange the way UT was just suddenly the #1 contender. Was it because he finished 2nd in the Final Four match? Nitro had the notorious Piper in Alcatraz bit. I seem to recall that being one of the main things that sorta turned me off from WCW and back to watching Raw again.

Yeah the former champion part interested me. Brock? RVD? This was a pretty funny show tonight with the goofy Angle tanning angle as well as Abyss hiding in the trunk for Christian and AJ.

The funny thing about Horowitz is that the guy is a really solid worker. I saw a few matches with him vs. the Blue Blazer and those were terrific. And Horowitz finally winning wasn't a huge shock to me....I remember the guy actually holding a title on Global! The RVD/Orton result was truly puzzling given RVD's status, but I wasn't that surprised. I remember reading before ONS that Vince was going to give RVD the win there to swerve fans who expected him to job on his way out.

I'll have to mention some stuff in Pulp Fiction. I've always found the scene with Bruce Willis talking to the cab driver chick really long and drawn out for what it was (mainly just a post fight scene to get Butch's thoughts, frame of mind, etc.). Come to think of it the stuff with Willis and his French girlfriend in the motel is a bit dull up until he flips out over the watch.

1.What if Bret never got that career ending concussion? I think Benoit eventually beats him for the title in 2000 and then Bret fades away anyway. The Owen match and the Mayhem match were to show that Benoit was THIS close to beating Bret, and in 2000 he likely would have. 2.What if there was no Iraq war in 1991? I have to wonder. They could have still signed Slaughter and turned him heel, but without the traitor aspect. Even brought in Col. Mustafa to team with him and all that. 3.What if Vince Russo never left the WWF for WCW? This was inevitable since Russo was burning the candle at both ends having to write both Raw and the new SD show. Eventually they might have hired a 2nd guy (Kreski?) and Raw would have been Russo and SD maybe Kreski or whoever. Kinda similar to today actually. WCW would have gone to the Sullivan regime earlier and fallen apart either way, guys would have wanted out, etc. 4.What if the WWF never had to change to WWE? Then they would be WWF and people would like them better. 5.What if Triple H never joined in the MSG incident? In all honesty I don't think HHH winning KOTR would have meant shit. Austin still could have gone against Bret, though I'm not totally sure if the 3:16 bit would have come into play. One thing that people need to realize is that Austin was merely meant to be fodder for Bret's return. At the time I never gave any serious thought to that being some major feud, and I doubt WWF did either. It was just some semi credible heel to feed to Bret, but then it started clicking so they went with it.

What is with the bizarre hard on they have for showing GAB 1990 every year? I know it has Mean Mark on it and is a pretty fun PPV, but can't they show something else? I'd like to see GAB 92 with Sting/Vader and the NWA tag tourney, since I've never seen that show.

Yeah, WWE has a myriad of problems at the moment and it goes beyond the Benoit tragedy hurting ratings. The limo angle was going to carry the company for the next few months, but now it is dropped and I can't really think of a way Vince can simply show up on TV again that will make sense (outside of the two Benoit related shows a few weeks ago). Also, the draft did the exact thing it's not supposed to do: It made all the shows WORSE. They couldn't help it with ECW since Benoit was the guy they were going to build around, but there's no one who has any desire to see Johnny Nitro prancing around with a fraudulent world title. Edge was a fun heel on SD but the draft basically wrecked that brand and left him no one to feud with aside from the stale Batista and even staler Kane. What does it say when 2 of the 3 champs right now got the belts because 1 guy killed his family and hung himself, and another guy got hurt screwing around with a Mardi Gras celebration?

This is what is truly bizarre about HHH. It's at the point where we know he's going to job in a critical match, but yet he'll bury people in other circumstances. Is there anyone who gives Booker a hope in hell in this upcoming feud? Or Kennedy? Al, you're more optimistic about the guys in the Spirit Squad than I am. Personally I think Kenny will always be tainted by it and the others are back in developmental doing nothing, waiting to be released.

Well, I actually do attribute the initial big ratings hit to the TNN move. They were drawing high 6s and low 7s in April-May 2000, but then in one felt swoop they moved to TNN and were down to 5.0 in a hurry. I took a look at the ratings through 2001 and you know what is sad? The idiotic Two Man Power Trip actually was doing pretty good ratings. Then it started going down to 4.2 or so when they went with the Jericho/Benoit push against Austin. I think they waited almost too long to launch the Invasion, those months in between the buyout and the actual Invasion killed the momentum.

Well, they raped SD mainly so they can bring guys on Raw in order to bury them. Let's face it, that's what is happening or is going to happen. Booker is there to job out to HHH and get buried, so I can see him being pissed about leaving SD. Kennedy has already jobbed in 3/4 of the matches he has had on Raw, including an assbeating from Edge (MITB loss) as well as losing to Super Crazy in 20 seconds. The jury is still out on Lashley, but if he jobs out in this Cena feud you can add him to the list. What does it say that The Sandman of all people is one of the few guys that was brought to Raw that hasn't jobbed yet?

Here is what I don't get about that Jarrett idea. Jerry Jarrett was a redneck Memphis promoter. I have to wonder if he had the proper mentality to put on a national product since a lot of the absurd gimmicks and silliness that got over in Memphis was amusing because it was a local hick promotion. That said we probably at least could have gotten a decent Lawler push out of it, as in him being a serious wrestler and not the Burger King.

Yeah I am also very interested in seeing if that Nitro does in fact have Benoit on it. Since he's just facing Roadblock they might could cut that without attracting much attention. I watched that Dusty 6 man vs. the Horsemen and the heat for that match was just nuclear.

I was about ready to say, did they not expect some sort of business downturn due to Benoit? They really ought to be relieved that they only have lost a 0.3 or so. I figured it might drop below 3.0, and it may yet. But hey, if Vince is pissed at Gewirtz and wants to fire him, be my guest.

I actually read the Santino spoiler so that wasn't a shock. This is actually pretty hard. Stuff like Jericho over HHH might have shocked me more if he had kept the title. I did predict Jericho to win the undisputed title since there was no point in either Austin or Rock winning and Angle had zero heat to win it at that point. I might go with RVD over Edge at Vengeance last year. That's a strangely forgotten excellent match, and all sorts of people thought Van Dam was simply jobbing in his first defense. We obviously know what ended up happening, but for that night it was a pleasant surprise.

With Viscera, I have given up hope that they will ever just release the guy and keep him released. Has there EVER been a less talented guy that keeps getting brought back? The goofy thing about WWE lately is that they think they can just job a guy out on one show and then put him on another show and put a belt on him. Pro wrestling doesn't work that way. On some level guys have to be built up to some degree or people won't accept them. If Nitro had gone from the IC title to then jumping to ECW and winning the title it wouldn't have been so bad. But why are we supposed to think this guy is worth a shit? He got buried on Raw and was wrestling dark matches with Kenny Dykstra. Are we now supposed to believe CM Punk can't beat this guy when Punk beat him in about 5 minutes in the MITB qualifier? It's what I like to refer to as a Blatant Push, where there is no rhyme or reason to why a certain guy is now supposed to be this good other than that he's just being pushed.

I think people are downplaying the testosterone since we were likely expecting much more. After the variety of roids found at his house I figured he would have all sorts of crazy shit in his system. Thing is, if that 59:1 ratio was right then I really have to wonder what his April test looked like. I don't know a huge amount about this, but how could he go from say 4:1 in April to 59:1 at the time of death (as in what is the usual roided up ratio)? It almost sounds like he just mass injected it right before he hung himself.

The thing I wonder is this. Are they serious about giving Khali anything resembling a real title run? I'm assuming Kane is in the match to job on Sunday, nothing else makes sense (then again I thought he was merely the 3rd man jobbing at Armageddon 2003, but Goldberg lost). Why not just give the belt to Kane for a month or so and job him to whomever? Batista almost has to win the title at SS though. If he gets another shot and loses he really is the new Luger. In fact a Khali vs. Batista match at SS has disturbing echoes of Yoko vs. Luger. Do they not realize that after Cena wiped the mat with Khali that you can't exactly push this man again and have it be taken seriously? Man, if Lashley wins at the PPV they would end up with him, Khali, and Morrison/Nitro with titles at the same time. Have there ever been 3 more unover guys with belts?

What would be the point of Punk jobbing again on Sunday? Everyone seems to just think he's jobbing, but why? Let's say they job Punk out. What then? There is nobody on ECW, no other main face. I'm thinking indecisive DQ or double countout finish, Punk wins the belt at SS once even they realize how shitty the new John Morrison gimmick is.

Personally I've always found the Broadway Melody number in Singin in the Rain to be gratuitous and tedious. I know what Kelly was going for there, something similar to the Lullaby of Broadway in Gold Diggers of 1935, but the thing is the big number climaxed that earlier movie (and is the main thing it has to recommend it) while the Broadway number in Singin in the Rain stops the narrative we actually care about dead in its tracks.

Okay to back up a second, the Titans were very lucky in that 1999 season (not like 2001 Pats level lucky, but still). Just that Bills game alone was enough to make you wonder if something supernatural was up: 1. Wade Phillips shows what a moron he is and benches Doug Flutie in favor of Rob Johnson. This seemingly would give the Titans an easy home playoff win. 2. They do the single most insane, miraculous play in history to beat the Bills. Besides, the Titans had a +68 differential in 1999 which is really low for a 13-3 Super Bowl team. They beat the Bengals by 1, Jags by 1 (first meeting, 2nd was a blowout). Ravens, Saints, and Rams they won by 3 a piece. Beat the Steelers by 6, Oakland by 7. So that's 7 wins right there that could have gone either way. Anyway, regarding the 1993 baseball season. I think if the Giants could have held on they would have certainly beaten the Phillies (who were really a fortunate team that coasted while the Giants and Braves duked it out). Against Toronto though? I don't know. Blue Jays were defending champions and I think they would have found some way to repeat against either the Phillies or Giants. If the Braves had gotten back to the WS in 1993, they might have had a shot with the old revenge factor.

Well, I can see not wanting Khali to be such a jobber with the belt that he simply loses at GAB right after winning it. That said, Batista needs to win the title at SummerSlam. I don't exactly know what else you can do, cause keeping the title on Khali for any length of time is a farce. You know the deranged aspect of it? I can actually see them keeping the belt on Khali until WM next year and UT coming back to take him down. And what's worse, if that is booked right I can see that actually drawing money.