cabbageboy

Good idea. It has pretty much run its course at WM, so let's make it the focal point of a secondary PPV. Maybe Vengeance or a PPV like that. Or NYR if they want to have the angle for the whole year.

The Debra interviews are curious. I don't think anyone would have a problem if she was a guest on one show and said her peace, then vanished. By constantly showing up on all these news shows she comes off more like she's pushing her own agenda rather than discussing the Benoit story or having serious ideas on how to change the wrestling business. And really, does anyone care about Austin and Debra's home life? Sure, maybe Austin had some bouts of roid rage...or maybe he just has a bad temper. I would like to see Austin on one of these shows to hear what he has to say about Benoit, maybe he could also speak on all the allegations Debra is making.

Jingus, honestly it's because he's just a jobber and whether he won or not meant nothing. Speaking of that match Kennedy is just getting buried. He has had 3 matches on Raw and in those matches he got owned by Edge to lose the MITB, then jobbed in 30 seconds to Super Crazy (which was kind of a silly joke match, but still), and tonight Lashley beat him like a bitch. Have any of these additions to Raw meant a damn thing, besides Lashley? Booker and Kennedy are jobbers right now and have little credibility as main event heels. And if Lashley just jobs out to Cena I don't know where he can go after that, unless it's just to feud with Booker for the umpteenth time. I was hoping Ron Simmons would just hold the "DAMN" for the rest of the show after seeing Haas/Benjamin in the back. Then near the end they cut back to them and then he finally says it. This was a mostly forgettable Raw tonight but there were a couple of things I found interesting. I'm glad they finally put Beth Phoenix back on Raw, I've been ranting on this for months. Now bring up Katie Lea from OVW to be a face in the women's division and they might have something. Also, man Cody Rhodes was over tonight. The guy has been on TV all of 2 weeks and has said nothing and the crowd was chanting his name. I actually wouldn't mind Cody's debut being in this Orton storyline, where Orton beats up his dad and gives him a concussion and Cody swears revenge. The GAB match will likely suck, but it could jump start a decent angle.

I was about ready to say....rock stars doing drugs is historically par for the course. There really is no one forcing them to do that, it's just them doing it because they think it's cool or pick up habits while touring on the road, etc. Ditto actors who get into drugs or alcohol. With wrestling there is a tangible company that the govt. can go after in terms of investigating. I do hope that while WWE takes this position that Benoit's outburst had little to do with steroids that they say this in public and privately make some changes in the company. I do actually agree that King was a bit soft on these guys tonight. I laughed in particular at Cena's response to the question about WWE only wanting to push jacked up dudes. This while a Raw was going on that had Gene Snitsky featured.

I'll go with Gandalf returning near the end of Two Towers. The whole portion from the charge of the Rohirrim led by Theoden until Gandalf and Co. charge down the hill and take out the orcs.

Yeah, honestly what was Bret going to do post WM 14 anyway? After he jobbed to Austin at WM he likely would have been released anyway, or realized his days as a top guy were mostly over.

I warned everyone that Kennedy would be that main guy sent to Raw that would get lost in the shuffle or possibly buried. This Raw sounds pretty dull tonight. Why would they take Cena off the show for the Larry King thing? Why not use someone from SD for King that isn't supposed to be on Raw tonight?

Oh boy. Those who are longtime posters here know almost exactly what I'm going to say. I think Lesnar sucks for the most part, and he was the first guy in the disturbing trend of pushing rookies way too hard, way too fast. This isn't to say I didn't like any of his work. The Eddie match was easily his best match ever in my book. There are some other matches with him that were decent too, but here are some negatives: --Lesnar had no charisma or mic skills. Thus he wasn't ever truly convincing as either a heel or face. In fact the most heelish he came off as was when Heyman managed him and did the talking for him. --He was sloppy as hell. Not only did he damn near kill himself fucking up the finish for the main event of WM, but he also damn near killed Bob Holly in a match on SD by dropping him on his head during a powerbomb. Add that to the fact that he couldn't even execute his own finisher properly (F5), since he kept knocking guys almost unconscious to the point management made him drop a guy on his side. TEST could do a friggin TKO properly.

The absolute main problem with Justin's title run in ECW is that nobody gave a shit or wanted him with the belt. Van Dam was far and away the obvious guy ECW should have had as champion, but Heyman kept waiting for some perfect storm scenario that would allow him to put the belt on RVD and capitalize with huge money. He was waiting for ECW to get off TNN and onto a better network, but the thing is what network would want a promotion with Justin Credible as world champion? If anything having the belt on RVD would have at least been the most alluring prospect for a network to pick up ECW.

While I will say that the Vengeance 2005 match with Angle/HBK was overrated I do think the WM match was a classic. I was jaded going into the Vengeance match anyway though because it was blatant that Michaels was going over just because.

Die Hard 2 is by far the worst, and to me it's exactly because of the reasons Kahran mentioned. They obviously knew with Col. Stuart that they had a villain with zero heat or credibility so it's like "OOOOOH, let's have him crash a plane and kill everyone!" It's such lame and cheap heat and such a moment should be the master plan of the villain and not some sort of goofy transitional action scene. Shit, there are a few hundred people who die in a horrific plane wreck and then 5 mins. later it's back to the one liners and escapist action. Further, John Amos' heel turn has never made a lick of sense to me. How the hell did Stuart know that those exact guys would be sent to deal with the airport crisis? Did he orchestrate all of this before going renegade? And why the hell would all of these special forces guys agree to turn traitor and help a South American drug lord? I can buy a scenario of a bunch of terrorists hijacking a building to steal bonds and money, or even the more absurd NYC gold theft scheme in #3. But Die Hard 2 just has entirely too much strain on credibility even for an action movie. The villain's plan, and also that Holly McClane just happens to be on one of the planes and the seedy reporter Thornberg just happens to be there too. Hell, Thornberg sucked in the first movie....why bring him back?

I finally got around to GAB 88 tonight and good god if that show isn't exactly the stuff that pissed me off to no end as a kid watching wrestling. The actual work on the show is very good, but the booking is enough to make someone swear off wrestling forever. The Horsemen were getting annoying and stale as shit by mid 1988 and I still don't understand the NWA's reluctance to job some of them to the faces to send a crowd home happy. In fact I can't think of a face win on the show aside from the ridiculous Tower of Doom match. Otherwise we had: --Tully/Arn vs. Sting/Nikita, time limit draw. I wouldn't have a problem with this normally but the show needed a better finish to an opener than Sting having Blanchard in the Scorpion as time expired. Who books a time limit draw as an opener anyway? Besides Dusty. --The Midnights beat the Fantastics even though Cornette was in a straight jacket high above the ring inside a cage. What a way to make the Fantastics look like jobbers. --In the US title match we have a nonsensical Ronnie Garvin heel turn on Dusty Rhodes to cost him the match with Windham. Did this really go anywhere? --And of course the grand finale, Lex Luger having Flair beat in the Torture Rack when the MD commission stops the match due to Luger's ultra weak bladejob. Is it any wonder Crockett went under shortly after this PPV and had to sell the company to Turner?

I am 50/50 on whether Edgehead is a troll or if he has a few good points. I too didn't really like any of the Cena/HBK matches, not even the hour long snoozer on Raw. I think my apathy there was that it was non title, so I just put it in the "don't care" file since there was no particular reason to keep interested. The WM match had Cena no selling the leg (and I still wonder if Shawn was lecturing him at times during the bout) and generally didn't hold my interest or scream out greatness. Umaga/Cena was a good match because it let both guys brawl and play to their strengths. Note the NYR match was a regular match and it mostly sucked. I've bashed Umaga at certain points because I think the Samoan Savage gimmick is idiotic in 2007, and really there's not much you can do with the guy once he jobbed so definitively. But he did have his one good match at the Rumble.

The Deer Hunter is one of those 1970s classics that really doesn't hold up at all with time. When I watched it for the first time I wasn't necessarily surprised it won Best Picture, but it is a very flawed film. The first hour is a crashing bore with a wedding that lasts entirely too long. Then it does a bizarre transition to Nam and never touches base on their basic training or how these guys all conveniently wound up in the same unit overseas. I will admit the Nam scenes with them being captured and POWs were intense, and Walken was great in it. There was probably a really great 2 hour movie in this somewhere, but the pacing and editing were just shit. Story of Michael Cimino's career really. Lushus, I agree with you on Platoon but not quite so much with Full Metal Jacket. FMJ has one of the best opening hours in history, but the end of basic training is so shocking that it takes it out of me and I always lose interest in the 2nd half. It didn't really help that the movie itself kinda loses steam, and the whole 2nd half never really FELT like Vietnam to me. Platoon is the right running time (120m), focuses entirely on events in Nam itself, and doesn't suffer from choppy editing or lulls.

I do applaud them for slowing the fuck down a bit with Impact. The past couple of shows have at least had time to breathe, rather than the constant barrage of 3 minute matches, 30 second interviews, and mass chaos. The chaos comes from having too many guys and not enough TV time.

Sid vs. UT wasn't that bad of a match. While I don't think WM 13 was a great show by any means, it is a bit unfairly maligned. Bret/Austin was of course a classic, and the 6 man tag was also a very good plunder brawl. WM XXII is a pretty decent show really. Cena/HHH certainly had a wild environment, Foley vs. Edge was a crazed brawl with an awesome finish (though not the best hardcore match ever), the MITB was nearly perfect aside from Flair's injury angle not 100% coming off. I'll even defend WM 2 on a few levels. While there were a lot of bleh matches most are at least short enough to not annoy. Bulldogs vs. Dream Team is a great match, Funks vs. Santana/JYD is a nice little tag affair, and I even kinda like Hogan vs. Bundy. Most people don't want to hear this but quite honestly WM VI was a piece of shit PPV. It has Hogan vs. Warrior and a whole lot of garbage. I can't think of anything else remotely decent that is on that show. WM VII however....that's a really good show.

Hell, my brother thought Independence Day WAS a Bruckheimer/Bay production. It seems exactly like something they would do. And yes, Transformers did remind me quite a bit of ID. That had a better cast than Transformers though, but it stands to reason since we're supposed to be seeing this for the robots and not the people anyway. I thought Transformers was fun enough, but I do echo the notion that the Decepticons were underused in the film. Aside from Megatron nobody really was developed, and even he wasn't in that much of the movie. My theater was packed and a bunch of people cheered at the end. I wasn't quite that enthused, but that's mainly because Transformers for me personally was a distant 3rd in the 80s Holy Trinity behind Masters of the Universe and GI Joe. Give me a real He-Man movie with "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL....I HAVE THE POWER!" and I'll be there marking out like a little bitch.

Yeah but the thing is that those bleh matches on SS 92 at least are brief. Nailz squashes Virgil and that's it. Crush squashes Repo and that's it. Kamala vs. UT as a match is brief and not much, but it did at least have UT's awesome entrance in the English hearse and the hilarious expression on Kamala's face when UT sits up. There were 8 matches shown on the US PPV. I can't comment on the others that were essentially dark matches, but out of the 8 matches I'd say half of them are good matches and the other stuff is at least brief and inoffensive. LOD vs. Money Inc. was a very good tag match. Michaels/Martel is a really fun match, and one of the few heel vs. heel matches that worked (though I'd say Martel played face a bit more). Warrior/Macho, while not as good as WM 7, was still really great and had a terrific storyline with Flair and Perfect. Yeah it was inconclusive, but the important part wasn't that it needed a clean finish, but that neither man sold out to Flair/Perfect. And of course there's Bret vs. Bulldog in the main event, what more needs to be said about that one? I still regret not getting that PPV when it aired. Had to get it at Blockbuster about a month later, and I was the first person to have ever rented the tape. They gave me a free WWF frisbee for being the first to rent it. Even though I got sick at my stomach from the old version of KFC's popcorn chicken, that was still a great night.

I sometimes think the X Division can't really recapture the magic it had going on in 2002-03 when the company first started. It just seems like most of the guys in it aren't as good as they used to be (Lo-Ki, Lynn, etc.) or maybe it's just I've gotten desensitized to the wild spots. TNA's major problem is that they have yet to have a really compelling face champion in their entire existence. They constantly have Jarrett or the Heel of the Week with the belt, maybe a face wins it and is a transition champ. Christian was okay as a face champ but is better suited to heel. Of course that compelling face champ might end up being Jarrett, but that's another story.

WM 23 goes along with 19 as one of those "Could have been brilliant but is a slight misfire" type of PPVs. I was mainly annoyed by the match placement, feeling that UT beating Batista in a title change should have main evented. Given that there was no title change in the main event, I think UT's title win should have gone last. This show's legacy is already disturbingly disposable though. Vince was "blown up" in his limo after winning the ECW title, so it's not like the Trump angle led to something decent. We know what happened with Benoit, so the US title match is being edited from the broadcast. The MITB meant jack shit since the winner (Kennedy) never even cashed it in and one of the losers (Edge) actually did cash it in and won the title from UT. Speaking of Taker, he got hurt so his big title run was cut short. Michaels got hurt, so his program with Cena was cut short as well. RVD didn't sign so the Originals winning was a bit pointless, Sabu was released as well. That said, there are worse WMs by far. IX is pretty tedious stuff. XI is mostly bland and dull without much that stands out (though I will take HBK/Diesel over HBK/Cena). The amusing aspect of WM XV is that I detested the show at the time and thought Living Dangerously the previous week was a much better PPV. Then I watched it on 24/7 this year before WM and actually kinda liked it. The main problem it had was that it was too much in the Russo car wreck vein, typical of his PPV booking. Backlash 1999 was a better show.

I wouldn't mind seeing SS 88 again since it's been forever since I saw it. Maybe it wouldn't hold up, but I think the important stuff would still deliver (main event, Warrior crushing Honky). SummerSlam is usually one of my favorite PPVs. The first few (1988-92) are for the most part really good, some better than others. The 1993-97 period was pretty "eh" with the 1994 show being pretty decent and the 1997 show being sorta fun but underachieving. SS was hell on wheels again from 1998-2002, with the exception of 1999 being a bit lesser. Since 2003 I think the PPV has lost something, possibly because it seems like WWE has stopped giving a crap in the summer and fills it with Diva Search nonsense and what not.

Sometimes in the NFL teams catch lightning in a bottle or just luck into a big run. In theory Trent Green might have been as successful in STL as Warner, but sometimes guys have chemistry in ways that others don't. Maybe Green would have led the Rams to the playoffs but maybe team wouldn't have ever had the Super Bowl level chemistry. As far as Bledsoe goes, the Pats were going nowhere fast with him in 2001. I remember how lousy they started out that year and with Bledsoe I'd venture to say that team would have been maybe 6-10 for the season. If Belichick had yanked him anyway it would have likely been similar to the results the Cowboys had this past year, something like 9-7 and a first round loss (this isn't to say the Cowboys win the Super Bowl if Tony Romo starts earlier).

I'll throw in a bit of college hoops "What If" scenarios from the Pitino Era at Kentucky: --What is someone guards the Grant Hill inbounds pass vs. Duke in 1992? Would UK go on to win the national title or lose to either IU or the Fab 5? I personally think that the UK/Duke winner was going to win it all, but who knows. --What if Pitino starts Derek Anderson vs. Arizona in the 1997 title game? I think this one is pretty obvious though. And here's one for my guys U of L: --What if the 1983 Final Four was held somewhere besides the high altitude of Albuquerque? The intense, up and down level of play left U of L sucking wind against Phi Slamma Jamma, but at sea level it may well have been a different story. And would U of L have choked against NC State the way Houston did?

SS 89 is a very good show and I enjoyed as a kid and enjoy it now. Here is how I look at the various SS PPVs and let's see if people here agree or disagree: 1988: First one, historical importance, Warrior destroys HTM, main event is fun, there's some other okay stuff too. Been years since I've seen it however. 1989: A better show, albeit with a lesser main with Zeus in it. Still there is a good Harts/Busters match, a nice 6 man, Warrior/Rude IC is terrific, and so on. 1990: A decent show but to be honest aside from the Harts/Demos title match I don't really care for it that much. Shoddy main events. 1991: Wonderful, joyous show. One surefire classic in Bret/Perfect, all sorts of great blowoff booking (Dibiase/Virgil, LOD/Nastys, Bossman/Mountie). One of my favorite PPVs. 1992: This might be my favorite PPV actually. Amazing atmosphere at Wembley, Warrior/Savage is good, Martel/HBK is fun stuff, LOD/Money Inc. is solid, and the Bret/Bulldog match is quite possibly my favorite match ever. 1993: This show sucked ass from what I recall. Luger/Yoko isn't that bad of a match I don't guess, but of course the booking was insanely retarded. Bret/Lawler has a finish from hell that STILL gets dusted off from time to time. Shawn vs. Perfect disappoints. Watch it and throw eggs at your TV. 1994: A pretty good show, not a blow away show though. Fun IC and world title matches, though the UT vs. UT match is silly. Why didn't they main event the cage match? 1995: Can't fully comment since I haven't seen it. Mabel main events, but there IS a good ladder match and some other decent stuff that was mentioned above. 1996: Sucked hard. Most of it is ungodly boring, but I guess some might enjoy the Boiler Room Brawl and the main event is about the highest point Vader had in the WWF. 1997: Better in concept than execution. Lots of fun gimmick matches with the Harts, enjoyed Shamrock vs. Bulldog, but the main event is boring aside from the ending, and truth be told I've often found Owen/Austin a bit overrated. 1998: This was a fun show with a great main event angle, a fun Rock/HHH ladder match and lots of other Attitude Era hilarity. Don't care for the Lion's Den however. 1999: Honestly I barely remember this show, but I did like Test vs. Shane on it. I have a hunch this is one of those Russo era shows that probably doesn't hold up. 2000: Amazing TLC, more Benoit/Jericho goodness, though I think Chyna won the IC here, ugh. Main event was adequate. A good show but not any better than 5 PPVs in 2000. 2001: This is a great PPV, with a bunch of good to great stuff on it (Austin/Angle, Rock/Booker, Jeff/RVD, Storm/Edge). Proof that the Invasion didn't totally suck. 2002: This had quite a bit of good wrestling but I was so down on the WWE at that point that I never really enjoyed it. HHH/HBK was a shockingly great match but I don't know so much now in hindsight. Rock/Brock is overrated (much like Lesnar in general, but that's just me). Edge/Eddie has some of the most egregious no selling of a shoulder you'll ever see. RVD/Benoit is good if you watch it a couple of times to get a feel of it. 2003: I have not seen this PPV due to a cable malfunction at the time. But let's face it, HHH wins the EC after being hurt the whole time, so it likely sucks. It is kinda funny that RVD vs. Kane was the semi main event and was after the WWE title match (Angle/Lesnar). 2004: This was pretty bleh. I think everyone here knows how I feel about Orton winning the title, though Eddie/Angle was decent. UT/JBL was garbage. Not much of a PPV. 2005: I quite liked this show, enjoyed Hogan/HBK a lot. Cena/Jericho was fun enough, I kinda liked Batista crushing JBL, Benoit making Jordan his bitch in 25 seconds was hilarious. Good but not great. 2006: A lesser version of the 2005 show really. Edge/Cena was okay but they had better matches, Foley/Flair was vicious but had the lame Melina crap to ruin it. Hogan/Orton was pointless. Batista vs. Booker was eh. A middling SS PPV.

Watching SD tonight is it just me or have they completely played out the non title heel loss? It seems like every week on SD there is some heel doing a non title job. Chavo jobs constantly to Jimmy Yang, but then beats him in the title match. London/Kendrick beat D & D, then job in a title match. Batista finally beats Edge, but non title. Tonight Matt Hardy beat MVP in a non title (Kane beat MVP non title as well). It's like watching an entire roster of heels that are like Ric Flair being booked by Dusty Rhodes circa 1988.