cabbageboy

Hey, what do you know....my guys U of L are actually doing well in this thing. Beat Missouri today to get into a Super Regional.

GAB 96 is probably one of WCW's best shows ever, so if you don't like that one there's frankly no hope of ever getting into WCW. It has Rey/Dean, Sting/Regal (which was quite good), the Benoit/Sullivan brawl that winds up in the bathroom when such things were novel, and Kevin Nash beating the shit out of Bischoff. If it had a better main than Luger vs. Giant it'd be in the discussion for best PPV ever. What is it with their obsession with certain shows anyway? I've had 24/7 for a while now and they just keep pimping the hell out of GAB 90 and 96. How about the 1991 debacle? Or the bizarre 1992 show? Or ANYTHING else? GAB 05 better fucking not win that poll. That might be the only PPV where I actually turned off the TV for a few minutes...it was after Orlando Jordan beat Benoit in the US title match.

What do you really do with either of these guys though? We've established that Khali is going nowhere near the title again and has lost his invincible appeal. We've established that Umaga can't beat either Cena or Lashley and I doubt he could face a heel Edge on SD. I guess maybe go to SD anyway in the draft and face Batista or UT when he gets back. In regards to the rest of this show tonight, it was just lame duck crap to kill time until the draft next week. I guess there was the tag title change, which may well be a mistake if it ends with the Hardys once again on separate shows. Who knows where this Vince "Black Cloud of Doom" angle is going, but it desperately needs to get there soon. If there are many more shows with him acting insane I may well go off the deep end too.

Hostel II will likely tank next week. It's just up against too much competition and it's not the right time of year for a gruesome horror flick. If it was out in October, it'd be a decent hit. I think Ocean's 13 will probably be #1 next week. Knocked Up will probably drop a tad, but comedies seem to have solid staying power at the box office.

You know, now that I think about it RVD spent more time being buried or depushed than he did being used well in WWE. Here is a guy who managed to be one bright light in an ugly time in wrestling (namely the Invasion angle) only to be depushed for a while. Then he got the IC title, feuded with Eddie and Benoit as well as the debuting Lesnar and was perhaps the most popular wrestler around. Then of course by late 2002 he got buried big time and to be honest I can't think of anything all that notable he did in 2003, 2004, or 2005 with the exception of the Christian ladder match on Raw for the IC title (though he was hurt for all of 2005). And you know what's funny? When he returned in 2006 and started getting pushed harder the fans bought into it with ease. Think back to the WM tourney final with RVD/HHH/Big Show and how insanely over Van Dam was in that match, or at how he was very well the most over guy on the card at WM in Chicago. Whereas the top faces like Cena and Rey got trashed on that PPV by the fans, Van Dam was mega over. When all is said and done though RVD has to be considered something of a tragic hero. After finally overcoming years of bad booking, injury, and politics he was on top of the world with both the WWE and ECW titles and an entire new show (ECW) that was his vehicle to get over, only to then have his longtime weakness, pot smoking, wreck it all. I don't know what Van Dam has left in the tank. Maybe he is through for the most part. But a part of me hopes that he ends up in TNA and that unlike the various WWE rejects there he is booked right and can bring TNA to a new level of popularity.

Hey, I'll take it. At least he didn't job to Orton and came out looking better than Michaels did at the last PPV, considering he actually rallied to win the match and HBK just fell on his face.

Okay, I laughed my ass off at the stretcher match tonight. It was hilarious on so many levels. For instance: 1. They did do the swerve and Van Dam won by shoving Orton past the finish line. Silly me, I thought a stretcher match meant a guy couldn't continue. 2. Orton kills Van Dam afterwards and then acts like he really did something big, when he in fact just jobbed to a guy with a concussion and who is leaving the company in a matter of weeks. 3. Orton and Edge share their usual homoerotic backstage segment (Randy: "This is such a special night!") and Orton says he'll take Edge's title if he moves over to SD. Despite just jobbing to a guy with a concussion that is leaving the company. 4. I fully expect to read some Observer notes saying Shawn Michaels was pissed about this match, and to be honest I can't blame him. Honestly how does it make him look? He has a concussion and is booked to fall on his face mid match and be stretchered out, but Van Dam got quite a bit of offense and won the match with the same setup.

Invader, I understand where you're coming from. Anarchy Rulz was a very good PPV from what I recall, and I understand what you mean regarding Storm and Lynn. Yes, Lance Storm had the charisma of a damp rag and yes Jerry Lynn never meant anything outside of feuding with Van Dam. But the thing is, as mentioned in my previous post, at least Heyman let these guys go out and do their thing. In Sept. 99 were Jericho or Eddie really doing their thing? I can't say they were. And while Jericho is certainly more charismatic and better on the mic than Jerry Lynn to suggest he's a better wrestler than Lynn is silly. That said, you're of course 100% correct on Justin Credible. Him beating Sabu was all the more sickening and disgusting if you were following the storyline at that point, which had Justin running like a bitch for 4 months or so and getting restraining orders to prevent Sabu from killing him. And when Sabu finally gets him in a match....he jobs. WTF? As far as the RVD/Balls match goes, some people like it a lot...some hate it. I'm somewhere in between. It's decent enough but they had matches as good or better on Hardcore TV.

The only thing with the women's match that I can think of is that they felt an Extreme Rules women's match would be upsetting, seeing hot chicks doing blade jobs and what not. Anyway here are my predictions: --Lashley vs. Vince. This shitty nonsense needs to stop immediately. I am beyond being fed up with it and it's doing the exact opposite of what angles like this should do (namely get Lashley over). Jobbing to Vince and Shane in ANY fashion is not condusive to getting over. It'll be overbooked as hell, with a dozen guys running in, but Lashley should get the belt back and hopefully go on to feud with actual wrestlers. Winner: Lashley. --Cena vs. Khali. Can you say booking by numbers? Cena made Khali tap, Khali beat Cena on SNME last night. Obviously Cena hits the FU on Khali and then we can get that epic Khali and Umaga tag team. New Colossal Connection! Winner: Cena. --Edge vs. Batista. Batista desperately needs to be jobbed out of the main event scene for a while, since it's incredibly tiresome to see the same guy constantly challenging for a belt. That's SD's problem right now though, the show is 90% midcard and hardly any main eventers. Mark Henry or whoever runs in, doesn't really matter but Edge retains. Winner: Edge. --Hardys vs. Haas/Benjamin. I can't see a title change here with basically zero build. It seems tossed onto the card and let's be honest....Haas and Benjamin haven't meant anything as a team since 2003. Hardys will retain here and then maybe Cade/Murdoch can go to SD in the draft and bring over London/Kendrick for a wild program with the Hardys. Winners: Hardys. --Candice vs. Melina. Since it's non title it's obvious Candice wins. Why are they so hesitant to do anything with the women's division? For once they actually DO have some options (Jillian on SD, Beth Phoenix, Katie Lea currently in OVW). Winner: Candice. --Henry vs. Kane. Kane is the designated "impressive jobber" these days when it comes to pushing some fat monster heel. If Henry is going to feud with Batista or maybe move to ECW and challenge Lashley (which SNME hinted at), then Henry will have to win somehow. Winner: Mark Henry. --Punk/Dreamer/Sandman vs. The New Breed. Well, the NB layed Punk out on ECW this week and put him through a table, so I guess the Punk/Originals combo will win here. It's just guys going through tables, so I don't see why it matters either way. Striker will fuck up again and cost the New Breed. Winners: Punk/Sandman/Dreamer. --RVD vs. Orton. Oh joy of all joys. I think anyone who has posted on this board for more than a month knows how I would feel about this match. I know the logic here would dictate Orton laying RVD out and RVD goes out of WWE on a stretcher. But the hell with that idea. I say they hold off and keep Van Dam around another few weeks and he jobs at Vengeance. But do they actually put him over here? I don't know. Know what I think it'll be? Both guys wipe themselves out and both are carried away on stretchers. Result: Draw (though I'd just love to see Orton eat a Van Terminator and be hauled away).

I don't know how anyone could overrate the Cavs, considering at 50-32 they're a particularly weak team to make the finals. They're about like the 2002-03 era Nets and will probably fare about like that Nets team did against the Spurs (6 games). The only difference is that LeBron has now shown an ability to dominate a game, which separates them from those ho hum Nets teams. I will say Spurs in 6 games, but I wouldn't be enormously surprised if an upset occurred here.

I have the original PPV broadcast of Anarchy Rulz 99, so that stuff wasn't new to me. What you have to take into consideration was the stuff going on at that time period. The WWF was in the midst of Russo Fever in 1999 (though he left about a month later, Oct. 99...Anarchy Rulz was Sept.), so there was a dearth of hard hitting wrestling action in the WWF. WCW was so mind numbing and terrible around Sept. 1999 that it made you want to pull your hair out, this being right around when Bischoff was initially removed and the Hummer angle was rearing its ugly head again. Then you had ECW, which was maybe my favorite promotion in 1999. While the WWF and WCW were playing musical chairs with the titles, ECW had two dominant champs in Taz and RVD. And while the Big 2 had a very lackluster in ring product by the Summer of 1999, ECW had RVD/Lynn, Lance Storm, Tajiri/Super Crazy, and later Tanaka/Awesome. ECW had the best wrestling product in North America in 1999, but once Vince signed Taz and the Dudleys away the wheels started coming off, and once Van Dam got hurt in early 2000 I don't think they ever recovered.

Getting back to Kenny for a moment...let's face an unpleasant fact. The Spirit Squad will end up being the career death for all the guys involved in it. Some of them like Nemeth and Mitchell weren't shit to begin with, some like Mondo were iffy and glad to get a gimmick in WWE, but some of the guys were actually pushed down in OVW and seemed to have a future (Kenny and Jeter). Mitchell has been released with no fanfare, while Mondo and Nemeth barley make OVW TV any more doing a silly SS variation called the Frat Boys. Jeter is mostly used in OVW as a jobber these days. See, the disturbing aspect of Kenny only being 21 or so is that he was thrown on TV in a bad gimmick and now he's mostly been jobbing after that gimmick was over. I wonder if he can be salvaged at this point, or if he'll just end up like the vast majority of Raw's roster...pointless.

Yeah but given the initial Backlash buyrate (which WWE has already grumbled was disappointing) I don't think loading up these 2nd tier PPVs is adding to revenue thus far. I think these tri brand shows are really opening up Pandora's Box for a variety of reasons: 1. They feel the need to load them up with nothing but main event guys, which in turn makes these guys stale 3x faster than it would under the brand exclusive PPVs. 2. Since they put the same guys on the PPVs now and seemingly every world title is always defended there are a lot of guys on the various shows that can't even make a PPV. 3. It will inevitably take away the aura of the Big 4 PPVs where all the brands unite. 4. I doubt these shows draw a bigger buyrate than the brand only PPVs.

I don't understand why Nikita didn't ever go to the WWF and feud with Hogan. For all the thoughts people may have about Hogan facing the Evil Foreigners back in the 80s there really weren't too many notable feuds of that nature. These NWA shows have a fascinating shades of gray vibe. For instance, Flair was somewhat heelish but feuding with the Russians (the biggest heels), and also had no use for Dusty either. Dusty hates the evil commies too, but wants the title from Flair. The wild thing is hearing all these heels like Blanchard and the Andersons constantly put over Jim Crockett and the NWA. Heels who love their promoter, very curious concept.

Does anyone else find SD to be a show that is 90% midcard? Batista keeps getting these neverending title shots because there's really nobody else to put in the spot. Once this Vince crap is over I'd rather Lashley move over to SD, maybe unify the worthless ECW belt with the world title vs. Edge. SD is in dire need of a new top face, so hopefully they'll get someone in the draft.

I have to say, this game tonight was perhaps the first time in a long while I've been pumped over an NBA game. LeBron tonight may well have gotten to that next level. I'm thinking Cleveland now can win game 6 to get to the Finals, but realistically I don't know how much of a shot they have vs. the Spurs. I'm not 100% sure they'll get past Detroit yet, but it seems hard for a team to come back from a loss like this one tonight.

I don't think the Lakers have the guts to do this move, and Kobe will likely end up playing out his contract in L.A. before going free agent. I'd be greatly amused to see him in Miami, but with him and Wade I don't know how they would possibly share the ball. I don't get the mention of Phoenix at all or why they would put Stoudamire or Marion on the trading block. Geez, these guys were really the best team this year and by all rights should have at least had a game 7 vs. the Spurs at home. Phoenix owes it to themselves to give it one more year with their current lineup, maybe add a couple of guys to the bench. The last time the Suns got desperate and started trading valuable guys was 1995 when they shockingly sent Dan Majerle to the Cavs for Hot Rod Williams. That isn't to say trading for Kobe is anywhere near that idiotic trade, but do they really need the headaches and diva act from Kobe?

Well, the initial Michaels 1995 angle was more believable since it was one of the first angles I recall that blurred storyline with reality. The Syracuse incident was well documented and the way the match went down seemed like something very different had happened. Owen deserves credit for his own selling since he was shocked that HBK went down like a ton of bricks. He wasn't TRYING to seriously injure anyone...it just happened. That's the major difference with that angle and this Orton stuff. Orton is desperately trying to hit guys in the head and cause a concussion. Concussions just happen with no rhyme or reason, it's hard to set out to give someone a concussion.

I certainly remember the Orton concussion angle in 2005. What I found odd about it was that the announcers were trying to play it as some evil deed that HHH did, but the match itself didn't quite tell that story. As in Orton just hit his head on the floor and maybe seemed somewhat dazed, but otherwise you wouldn't notice the difference in the arena. So it just looked like HHH was squashing him. People laugh at RVD and HBK for doing these absurd oversells of the concussion, but it has to be done to convey the angle to the fans in the arena and at home. The Orton/HHH match and angle was more realistic but it's difficult to convey a concussion in realistic terms in a wrestling match.

This show tonight was bizarre. The Lashley/Vince interview was curious stuff in that Lashley seemed to think Vince was a total joke and no sold the entire match at the PPV. Combine it with the odd Major Bros. backstage bit and of course the entire main angle of the show (Orton/RVD/Dreamer) and it was just beyond description. If this concussion angle is designed to bury RVD in some way...I don't see it. If anything it's going to cause him to get more sympathy heat and when he's gone for good it'll mostly seem like he is off healing up and will be back to kick Orton's ass any day now. I'll admit that this is truly a Wrestlecrap worthy angle though for a variety of reasons: 1. Nobody believes Michaels or RVD are hurt from concussions. 2. It trivializes what is a serious injury that can actually end careers. 3. Orton is entirely the wrong guy to do an angle like this. He's nowhere near the physical threat it would require. Vader circa 1993? I can believe he'd destroy guys and deal out concussions. Orton? Ha.

Well, as fun as it was last year seeing Cena get crapped on by that psycho ECW crowd, it was the entirely wrong thing to have booked. It focused the storyline on the exact wrong thing: "OMG, can Cena overcome the odds again???" The real storyline should have been "Can RVD finally win the big one?" The overwhelming Cena hate overshadowed what should have been Van Dam's big moment. Add to it the goofy finish with Edge doing the major damage to Cena and the questionable decision at the time (the next night it was confirmed, but I feared Dusty Finish). In the end they managed to take one of the main things I'd wanted to see for years--RVD winning the title--and made me not care. I think HHH would have been a better choice to go into ONS with the title. At least there if he got crapped on by the crowd it fit the storyline.

I guess we're to assume he was already at the building and then the doctor checked him out. Oh joy, more crap with Concussions by Randy. I have to admit I have no idea how they are going to write RVD out of the storylines considering he has standing issues with Snitsky on ECW, the New Breed on ECW, and now Orton from Raw. Anyone else find it odd that a guy who is supposed to be getting buried and finishing his contract is involved with so many storylines?

Wasn't RVD already advertised for ECW tomorrow night in a rematch from last week? Don't kid yourselves, this concussion crap is the reason they'll use to justify his jobbing on the way out, maybe culminating in him being totally destroyed by Snitsky at ONS.

You gotta love this Orton concussion angle. It's the ideal way of having him take out a bunch of guys to build him up for HHH to squash, but yet Orton isn't really going over anyone. It's like "Hey dumbass...your opponent has a concussion and can't hardly move...PIN HIS ASS." I've always thought concussion angles were silly in wrestling. If a guy can't continue, it's easy enough to stop the match. It's called a 3 count. I missed that Khali/Umaga interview bit. Was having modem troubles and was distracted. Sounds like it was pretty damn funny though. I did see the main event though. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this angle supposed to try to get Lashley over? I don't see how him jobbing to Vince AND Shane under any circumstances could be construed as getting a guy over.

Dammit. They just couldn't resist jobbing RVD out to fucking Orton, could they? And I had just gotten through praising them for NOT booking that match for ONS. I'm watching the NBA game during that match. Fuck em.