cabbageboy

Nash and Lethal are awesome. TNA has some very curious storytelling I must say. I still don't understand what the hell is going on in this Sting/Daniels angle, though I don't think Sting does either. The Wycheck/Storm angle was fairly interesting but then I don't recall them explicitly mentioning that this was a match on PPV. Abyss' return was a bit bizarre since he just sorta showed up with little hype for his return, yet Christian's match was mentioned enough to where it wasn't a shock surprise. I also have to admit I'm puzzled as to who the last man is for KOTM. Why not just do a Storm/Harris rematch to determine the final man where there must be a winner? And further, they didn't explicitly mention that Cornette would clarify this at the PPV. TNA needs to better get over what they need to get over for a PPV. Maybe it's a lack of TV time compared to WWE, but regardless of how bleh a WWE PPV may look on paper at least they go over what is on it several times.

Is this perhaps leading to Foley vs. Cena at SS? I can't imagine anyone caring about that match to be honest (though it might be decent). Given that Cena is Superman and Foley is the old star that jobs to everyone, the conclusion isn't exactly in doubt.

The Spurs weren't way better than the Suns. They were just given that series due to a lame rule. Anyway, the Cavs certainly go up there with the worst teams to ever make the Finals, mainly because they did little of note to get this far to begin with. Beating the Wizards without Arenas and Butler? A .500 Nets team? I guess they did get by the Pistons but that's about it. I'm torn as to whether the Cavs are worse than the 2002 Nets that got swept by the Lakers, but at least New Jersey made it back the following year. The worst Finals team is still probably the 1981 Rockets (40-42...losing record and made the Finals) but they at least took the Celtics to a 6 game series. The NBA is in serious trouble right now. It's got to be the only pro sport that isn't as popular as its college counterpart.

This might sound weird, but the Spurs are a team that need to be carried. As in they need to be against the right opponent that can drag an exciting game out of them, since they can put up 100+ if necessary but have a hard on for these dreadful 75-72 crapfests like the other night. For instance the Suns series had games that were 110-105 type games. As far as the Suns go, I don't think they are destined to be that fun also ran team that never gets it done. In fact I think next year could be their year as long as they don't trade someone (a la Dan Majerle in 1995) in some desperate attempt to change styles. If you consider it the past 2 years there are "What Ifs" with the Suns. What if Stoudamire was healthy in 2006 for the playoffs? What if there hadn't been the goofy suspensions against the Spurs this year? The Suns are out of excuses though. If they can't get it done next year, the window of opportunity may be shut.

I wish they would show some WCW stuff I've never seen. I have both the 88, 89, and 90 Bash shows, but why not show the 1991 show for the hilarious hell of it? Or the bizarre 1992 Bash with Sting/Vader and the NWA tag tourney. Or the various WrestleWar shows that never see the light of day. Or the first couple of Beach Blast shows. Maybe the first two SuperBrawl shows too, since I've never seen the 1991 show but did see the 1992 one (which is generally considered one of WCW's best PPVs). Or just any goofy Halloween Havoc or Starrcade shows that are obscure these days. And yes, SuperBrawl III from 1993 was a very good show. Sting vs. Vader is the main event, but since it's early 90s WCW that's a given.

Sabin's best match by far was the X Cup tourney match with Juventud. That was one there that just blew my mind on an initial viewing, and also when I rewatched it last year. Considering however that Juventud had a similarly brilliant match with Teddy Hart on that show and Sabin's other stuff in the tourney was just "eh" I have to wonder if Juvie was carrying him a bit. Sabin and Shelley could be a great team in TNA if they'd get the X belt off Sabin so they could team full time. Black Machismo is over with the crowd, so just pull the trigger on Lethal's title win, and forget this idiotic Backlund crap and let these guys team.

I didn't even know anyone rated Morales enough these days for him to be considered overrated. As far as Raw vs. Nitro in 1997 goes, in all honesty I don't really remember much of Nitro. I was definitely tuned into WWF again once they went to 2 hours on Raw. The entire year of WCW in 1997 seemed like a bunch of jobber squash crap, Sting hanging around in the rafters, the NWO beating up everyone, and random cruiser matches that were cool but had zero bearing on anything. The entire year was literally filler that was supposed to set up Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade 97, and then they blew it big time with that PPV. I've said it time and time again on threads, but the WWF didn't have anything that could draw money in 1997 regardless of how good it may have been. There was simply no one to cheer. Shades of gray can make for fascinating TV, but at the end of the day on some basic level fans need to have the face to root for and the heel to boo. They were somewhat successful once Michaels turned full blown heel on UT and that feud heated up, but then they still had this bizarre HBK vs. Bret angle with the Montreal Screwjob. While Bret was a hero in Canada where that show took place, he was a douche to US fans and HBK was a scumbag as well. Note that once they established Shawn as the asshole heel champ with the working class face Austin chasing him this led to huge money for WM the next year. And Evil Vince and his various lackeys against Austin drew even more money.

At first I too thought this Vince thing would send shockwaves and might boost business big time. But then I thought on it a bit more and realized it won't even be as significant as the "Who ran over Austin?" angle. Can anyone come up with a way that this angle can lead to a PPV match or something that could draw money? What could it be, Shane vs. The Culprit?

Well, with the Horsemen that stuff sorta blurred the lines with the various times they attacked Dusty in the ring as well. Ditto the NWO. There were attacks but for the most part it was wrestlers beating someone up within some basic context of wrestling. We didn't see Hogan planting a bomb on Piper's car in order to get out of facing him at Starrcade. They can't not arrest someone for this, if it turns out to not just be Vince faking his own death in storyline terms. This is really opening Pandora's Box since people on WWE TV are not fictional characters that exist only in a movie or TV show. Or maybe some are and some aren't. For instance John Cena is simply himself, so if he was "killed" on TV people might wonder if it's real as opposed to some absurd UT or Kane angle where it's obviously not the real guy. With Vince he might be playing the TV character Mr. McMahon but he still IS Mr. McMahon in real life.

I saw that ATH show and the silly part of it from Woody wasn't so much the comments on Morrison or Morton but the idea that he thought MMA was an actual promotion or something. UFC is a type of MMA, there's no organized promotion called MMA, haha. JA Adande quickly chimed in that these lesser MMA groups really can't compete with UFC or Pride, so at least he seemed a bit more researched.

I'm willing to forgive Maryland and IU for that mediocre outing since each team was involved in some awesome games to get to that point. IU had the markout upset of Duke, the 3 point display vs. Kent St., and the even more shocking upset of Oklahoma (to me anyway). Maryland had a fun game vs. UK, a terrific regional final vs. UConn, etc. Games like the one last night are worse though, since these guys are supposed to be professionals and thus held to a higher standard.

What happened to the idea of Kennedy coming to Raw to be the #3 face? Being a heel on Raw isn't a very good thing right now considering you're bound to end up jobbing to Cena or HHH, maybe HBK. Or like Edge end up in a homoerotic tag team with Orton in addition to all of that.

Yeah what is up with these lame DQs of late? If they want to book a DQ at least have a chair involved or something a bit more interesting than someone not obeying a 5 count. It's not even an interesting 5 count, which would be a guy being choked repeated on the ropes without a break (which could justify a DQ if it was done constantly). This is just a guy not getting out of the ring in time, which is retarded because to have decent tag action you have to have all 4 men in the ring at some point. I've seen maybe 1 tag match that was really good where it was mainly two guys in the ring and two guys on the outside and that was Bulldogs vs. Dream Team from WM 2. These quick trigger DQs remind me of when Slaughter was commish in late 1992 and he was DQing Rick Martel for pulling Max Moon's tights and shit.

This series needs to just end. The only title game that might be worse is the Colts/Cowboys Super Bowl where both teams fumbled and threw INTs the entire game (Super Bowl V). What's worse is that this is a terrible way to have the guy who is supposed to carry the league for the next decade debut in the Finals. Almost reminds me of the Rockets/Magic series in 1995, but at least Houston played well in that series and the Magic could at least brag that they beat the Bulls even after Jordan returned. That said, to suggest Detroit vs. San Antonio would have been better is to miss the point. Spurs vs. ANYONE in the Finals isn't going to be worth a damn, I think it's obvious by now. Sure, the Pistons might have provided a tougher series, but that would just be 6-7 unwatchable games instead of the unwatchable sweep we'll get here. Fans by and large don't want to see any of these teams. I'm hoping for the Suns vs. Heat next year in the Finals. At least that might produce something resembling professional basketball.

I think Flair vs. MVP can be an interesting feud so I wouldn't just feed Flair to him and drop it. Isn't it interesting that SD gets the awesome Masters, Khali, and Torrie draft picks and none of them apparently are on the show? If they actually try to make people buy into this as a serious angle it will end up as the All Time Wrestlecrap angle. They also will come off like The Boy Who Cried Wolf here when someone really does die and fans are dubious as to whether it's real or not.

That had to be one of the weirder hours of wrestling I've ever seen. If they really wanted anyone to believe Vince was dead they wouldn't show the Raw footage again, since people who remember the Owen Hart death recall that they never showed him falling at all (not sure if it was filmed but surely some camera caught it). Whatever hope I had from last night is basically gone now. Everyone in the crowd knew Vince wasn't dead and regardless of what they think pro wrestling is NOT an art form with fictional characters. The fact that Styles and Taz were so utterly serious made is all the more goofy. The sooner they get past the grieving portion of this angle and into the whodunit aspect the better. Even with the whodunit part....can they really even say? Cause the culprit will have to be put in prison for a long ass time over murder or attempted murder. Unlike the Austin limo angle, I don't see what possible PPV match this can lead to. At least there you had Austin coming back gunning for the guy who ran him over. But this? What will we have, Shane challenging the murderer to a match on PPV?

How about a solution right out Murder on the Orient Express where all the people on the roster had a hand in Vince's demise? That would explain all the people standing in the back, especially London's bizarre smile. They all knew about the bomb in the car but no one spoke up because they all hate Vince. And since no one would talk, no one would ever be charged with killing Vince. Let's face it, there's no real way to have the culprit revealed since they would have to be arrested and do serious time over it. I think they will allude to Shane or whoever being the culprit, maybe get an evil smile from Shane, but we'll never really know for sure.

I have no idea how to even comment on this show tonight. I mean...wow. It'll get people talking though, that's for sure. And they better not just have Vince show up again in a month. He has to be gone for a long, long time or else this was pointless. Maybe he can be found alive with amnesia in Cleveland? I'm glad he's "dead" though, since I couldn't stand much more of those shows like last week with Vince constantly all over TV being nuts. It was trash. Lost in all of this is of course SD yet again being whored by the draft, with Raw taking everyone (Kennedy, Booker, Lashley, etc.) and the best guy SD got was a decrepit Flair. At least ECW got Benoit, though at this point that means Benoit will be jobbing on a 3rd tier show rather than the B list show. Punk vs. Benoit in a tourney final? I'll take it. Incidentally why put Lashley on Raw? Now that Vince is "dead" what earthly reason is there for him to be traded there and not SD? He could have been the new top face on SD to feud with Edge.

On the topic of the Cavs being a lame Eastern Conf. team I think the East being so weak will hamper the Spurs from being considered an all time team. Let's face it, the Spurs have won titles by playing an 8 seed Knicks (in a lockout year no less), the friggin New Jersey Nets who were 49-33, and now this 50-32 Cavs team that is hopelessly overmatched. The only sorta competent team San Antonio has played was Detroit, but even in 2005 I'd have been more intrigued by a Heat/Spurs series. I've heard the occasional slight taken at the Bulls for "not beating anybody good" during their 6 title runs. As in not the Bird Celtics or Magic/Kareem Lakers. But really, the Bulls did beat an excellent Suns team in 1993 (62-20), the Sonics and Jazz in 1996 and 97 were both 64-18, etc.

Here's the prime example of Shane's ludicrous ability to hang with wrestlers. In 2003 they did the whole crazy Kane angle and basically had Kane destroy RVD every week on TV. Kidnapped, tried to torture him, then stomped him in the actual match. Then Shane gets involved and now here's Kane selling like a mofo for Shane and having twice as hard of a time as he did with an actual wrestler.

Yes, this should be worth seeing for the Sheik alone. Is he going to threaten Vince with sodomy in order to make him humble?

I might be ready to declare this series over already but last year Dallas embarrassed Miami in the first two games but when it shifted to Miami things got totally different. That said, I can't see the Spurs choking like the Mavs. Hell, thus far the Nuggets offered more resistance than the Cavs.

When I read that Cena/Edge match is booked for tomorrow night I instinctively figured Edge was getting buried yet again in a pointless match on Raw. There has to be a DQ or run in there. And gee, since Edge is back wrestling on Raw doesn't Brian Gewirtz look even more like a retard for suggesting Edge job to HBK recently because "he was leaving the territory and thus needs to job."

The problem with that Cena angle that was mentioned is that it's impossible to build Cena as this Rocky type underdog when the key aspect of the angle is Sid's apparent careern ending injury (and showing that over and over on TV). First, it would put sympathy on the heel and second should Cena really have trouble with a guy who suffered such an injury? I always liked Sid, especially on the mic, but him being back would bring to mind memories of mid 90s WWF garbage that is better off forgotten.

Well, I noted last week that Hostel is out at the wrong time of year. It would do much better around Halloween in October, such as the Saw movies being released at that time. And truth be told, Hostel wasn't a movie that exactly demanded a sequel, since there isn't that ONE killer to market the franchise around (it's just various people paying money to torture and kill). A marketable horror series has to have a recurring character: Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kreuger, Jigsaw, etc. Hostel was a film that was a shocking, disturbing horror flick but do I necessarily want to see more people get tortured and killed in eastern Europe?