cabbageboy

I like Lashley reasonably well, dare I say I prefer him to the Lesnars and Ortons of the world. This isn't to say he's had matches on average as good as either, but I dug the guy in OVW and his early WWE work against Finlay was good stuff. While he's viewed as bland, at least he's not ultra annoying. I agree he shouldn't be wrestling four times on a show (no one should). I hadn't considered moving Mark Henry to Raw simply because he just showed up again on SD. It wouldn't make much sense.

The thing that makes me wonder about Vick is that he hasn't simply come out and said "Look, I am in no way involved in dog fighting." The way he's dissed reporters and issued non denial denials makes him seem awfully suspicious. Do I think he'll end up being suspended? Not really. If it comes to it, some idiot buddy of his will likely take the fall for being involved and Vick will walk.

Regardless of the final numbers I'd say releasing POTC 3 a week after Shrek the Third has hurt its chances at all time weekend records. Shrek actually made about 6-10 million more than I thought it would make. Considering Spidey 3 has already gotten to 800 million worldwide (and likely will be the highest grossing outing in the series to date) I'd say it could likely end up the #1 box office hit of the year. I guess there's always Harry Potter to consider, but those seem to do better in the fall/winter than in summer.

For some reason watching The Fountain made me want to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. I guess it was the ultra weird stuff with Hugh Jackman Truth be told, I don't even know how to rate this movie. Visually it was quite stunning but at some point I got puzzled by what the hell was happening. Ironic comparing it to Pirates 3, considering that film's labyrinth plotline isn't the easiest thing to follow either. Not to mention a teased POTC 4 at the end that would cover some of the same ground as The Fountain!

I heard about that Kennedy idea but frankly it's foolish. What exactly is Kennedy going to DO on Raw that is so important? Be the #3 face? Um...why? He has a ready made feud with Edge that is easy to book and would relieve Batista from constantly being in the title scene. Kennedy may even win the title from Edge at some point, though I think he'd inevitably job out at the end of the feud since Edge vs. UT has to be SD's big money match. Raw needs some heels at the moment in a bad way. Let's face it, we have Khali who is going to be jobbed out to Cena. We have Umaga who is losing steam more and more by the day with the Vince and Shane crap (Umaga is a good idea to trade to SD, but what he'd do there is baffling to me since Henry is there for the monster heel role). And we have Randy F'N Orton, who is going to be jobbed beyond belief to HHH. Smackdown on the other hand has a need for a top face, since Batista is basically played out. It's ironic that Lashley left SD because Batista was clearly the top guy over him, but now I would suggest putting Lashley back on SD to feud with Edge (if Kennedy goes to Raw). Punk would be an ideal IC guy for Raw or a US title feud for MVP on SD, but if they take him off ECW there is officially zero reason to watch.

I think everyone here has a point to be honest. In fact Scroby and Mysterious both mention the way I feel about it. Yes, pro wrestling is a work and RVD likely could give a shit less that he's jobbing to Snitsky. I doubt it'd really hurt his overall standing. With that said, yes it does churn my stomach that of all people it's Gene Snitsky that Van Dam jobs to on his way out. I grasp the rationale of having RVD job to someone, but let's face some facts here. Snitsky isn't going to do shit with this win. At best he'll get some lame title shot at Lashley (once Lashley regains) and be fed to Lashley the way these monster jobber heels are to Cena on Raw. What does it say when the best thing I can muster up about the RVD/Snitsky match is that at least Van Dam won't be jobbing to Orton as originally planned? What they have set up is something that literally does not matter: It won't bury Van Dam, and nobody buys Snitsky beating RVD so it won't get him over either. Hell, last year when RVD came back for the Rumble his first singles match was against Snitsky on Raw and it was perhaps the only time I've ever heard a crowd chant "Boring" during an RVD match. Is it so hard to do SOMETHING constructive here? As in RVD vs. CM Punk at ONS, give it 15-20 minutes and make it Extreme Rules. Van Dam jobs and then puts over Punk as the future of ECW, then takes a bow and goes out with some dignity.

Okay, after hearing that original idea by all means bring on Snitsky! What's with Orton getting the wins over guys who are about to be released? He beat Angle at Vengeance last year right before Angle was released. If I'm RVD I'd much rather job to Snitsky, who is at least being pushed hard at the moment. Jobbing to Orton is like jobbing to a guy who has been buried, dug up, and buried again.

Whenever there is a draft lottery you know one thing will happen. They are going to rape Smackdown's roster. Being on Raw right now would be a nightmare. You're destined to just go out and job to either HHH or Cena.

Nah I wouldn't just no show the PPV. Van Dam I don't think would care about losing to Snitsky, but there are some lines I would draw in the sand if I'm him. I wouldn't go out there and get squashed or buried, wouldn't let Snitsky kick out of my finisher at 1 and no sell everything. Wouldn't do some goofy stretcher job. I'd just go out, have a back and forth match, maybe go for a 5 Star and miss it, then Snitsky hits a finisher and that'd be it. Hell, people usually cite Jake vs. UT at WM 8 as an ultra example of burying a guy before releasing him (or contract was up). Even there Roberts got in 2 DDTs and UT didn't really no sell them, it's just that Jake never bothered to cover. And it took a Tombstone on the floor for UT to win. There are ways to do this without making RVD look awful.

You know, she outta be glad that it was at 5:30 a.m. and not at a time when a bunch of people would have been out. She could have killed someone, or herself. I've driven on part of Sunset Blvd. before and it's kind of a twisty, narrow road. Certainly not something to drive while intoxicated or high.

Here are my thoughts with spoilers:

The new Legends show is brilliance. It's a better show now without Mike Graham there to drag it down. The fascinating element is that there is some underlying tension with all of the guys involved. Foley and Bischoff likely don't care for each other. Hayes and Lawler likely don't either from stuff in 1979. Ross and Bischoff probably don't like each other. Even while discussing their favorite feuds they throw in rants about backstage politics, guys today playing a character rather than speaking as themselves, and so on. The next show is going to be Heat Seekers, guys who had enormous heat backstage. I wonder if Orton will be featured, or if we'll need to wait 20 years for his self destructive feature?

I'm hoping that Lashley wrecks Vince enough to get him off TV for a good long while. I have no earthly idea what Umaga will do at that point, but as I said a while back he can be in the New Colossal Connection with Khali once they are both done jobbing out in singles. At this point I'd even take Lashley vs. Snitsky over this Vince crap. At least with RVD gone I don't have to worry about watching ECW any more, so go ahead and book that lame feud and I won't even DVR it by that point. What a depressing way for RVD to end his WWE run though, jobbing to Gene Snitsky on PPV. It's not even that I mind RVD jobbing, it's just that it'll be to a guy who has zero potential and will just be some monster jobber heel that they'll feed to Lashley and/or Cena.

This isn't a shock since I don't think he ever allowed WWE to trademark it for their exlusive use. I remember an interview a while back where RVD said he allowed WWE to use his name and market it, etc. but that he retained the actual rights to his name in case he ever left. If WWE really did own his name then he'd have no choice but to sign a new deal, since I can't imagine him being worth anything to TNA as Rob Zsatkowski or whatever.

I already have SuperBrawl III from a while ago on 24/7. Why not show SuperBrawl I or II instead? I demand obscure WCW PPVs from the early 90s!

Hell, I've wondered about Jarrett nailing Dixie Carter for a while now. Given that she's running a wrestling promotion and Jarrett is constantly booking himself in the main events it just seems like the easiest answer. Not saying that it's true, but I can see how someone would wonder. Storyline logic dictates that Jarrett isn't even interested in the title right now. I mean he just basically gave a title shot to Sting at Lockdown.

Right now I don't know who is #1 or anything. The various rosters are so injury plagued and messed up that it is mindboggling. I mean is Cena clearly #1 on Raw when Lashley is seemingly on Raw as much or more and involved in a bigger angle? I actually don't mind the Khali or Umaga type monster heels. I don't mind the roided up dudes or the really tall giants. I just hated the ultra fat fuck monster heels....seriously the main event scenes from 1993 in WWF and WCW to me were the nightmares that wouldn't end with Yoko and Vader on top. I know someone will defend them as workers (especially Vader) but it's just my own preference. Anyway, Cena. If we're talking about the Raw roster at present then he may well be the best worker on the roster. But the roster sucks. Cena is having to carry Raw right now because there's simply nothing else. I have noticed him slightly moving away from his ultra goofy and stale spots, but he's really a deficient worker in some other areas. Some of it is very basic, stuff like the FU being a badly executed Death Valley Driver (just as Lesnar's F5 was a shitty TKO that wasn't done properly, and Orton's RKO is an badly done Diamond Cutter). Cena is most at home in violent garbage brawls. The Umaga match, the JBL I Quit match, and so on. He can also take a beating from a heel on occasion. But the majority of his offense in a standard match? Eh. Regardless of his work or overness, I think anyone would notice that Cena is ungodly stale at this point. I'm talking near the level of Backlund circa 1982-83 here, albeit more popular. What does it say when the most fascinating Raw has been since he arrived is the brief time Edge had the title in Jan. 2006, or maybe when RVD won it from Cena at ONS? I dare say it was more compelling TV because it was like the trapeze artists were not working without the net with RVD and Edge holding the belt. Well maybe with Edge you sorta knew he was just jobbing it back to Cena, but the RVD tite win was truly bizarro world and left you for the first time in a while not quite knowing what was next and who was going to win. Take a look at the ratings from last year. Ratings hit 4.5 or so in Jan. 2006 when Edge had the title. Then dipped a bit in May under 4.0, only to rise up to 4.3 for the brief RVD run (I wonder if 4.3 in the doldrums of June is more impressive than 4.5 in Jan. during the Rumble build). But then they just put it back on Cena eventually and from Sept. to Dec. they went down and stayed in the 3.4-3.8 range. This shows two things: 1. People are more interested when someone else has the belt. 2. Cena is better off chasing the title rather than constantly holding it.

I might go with Heatwave 98 as ECW's best PPV. But that Anarchy Rulz PPV is also pretty strong. I'm still a bit pissed at that Sabu/Justin match however, bah. That PPV also had ECW's biggest crowd ever I think.

The funny thing is that I agree with most of the booking for RVD over the past few weeks. I'm glad they aren't just jobbing him left and right, because really what good does that do for anyone? Guys don't get over since it's obvious RVD is being jobbed out, so it's not like the win is impressive. At least by doing DQs they can save the jobbing of RVD for his last week.

Well I did sign up the other day for DVDR's board but I haven't posted on there. I also occasionally look at wrestlecrap's board but the thing is on those boards I'm a newbie with the goofy "OVW" rating or "Body Donna" or something lame. At least with this site I've been on the board since it was first thesmartmarks.com and even back before then when it was still Rantsylvania.

Well, the thing is the truly lame and mundane threads tend to die off fairly quick. A decent thread will draw interest and posts, whereas the vast majority of crap threads get a couple of posts and fade away. There are the exceptions of course, where a crappy thread evolves into a flame war or idiotic nonsense and thus should be closed. This is more of an in general comment on SD rather than a spoiler, but isn't it time SD had a different top contender than Batista? If there's one thing about Raw they at least have rotated guys in and out against Cena this year (Umaga, HBK, Khali). In the past year it seems like no matter who has the belt, Batista is either champ or constantly challenging. Are there no other contenders on the show? ECW is even worse, but that's obvious. Why does Lashley even WANT this shitty ECW belt back when it now has zero meaning due to Vince winning it period? None of the other ECW wrestlers seem to give a shit about Vince having it, aside from a 2 week bit with the Originals. Why doesn't Lashley just say "Fuck it, Vince. I'm going to Smackdown and will challenge Edge."

Bah, I did a DVR of the show and FFed through 2 hours of filler crap and then found that the winner wasn't even announced until AFTER the 10:00 listing and so I didn't even get to see that. Anyway it looks like Jordin won as everyone expected. And yes, I second the Lushus post above.

I run very hot and colt on the Pumpkins. Truth be told I've usually found Siamese Dream to be an overrated album. I enjoy Cherub Rock off it, Today is of course a standard, Quiet is decent albeit too long. But stuff like Disarm? Really doesn't hold up at all with time, mainly due to Corgan's whiny voice. And really the 2nd half of the CD? It's filler. I'd be hard pressed to name a really notable song on the 2nd half of that CD. Mellon Collie I enjoyed a lot at the time. Of course a double album is usually cumbersome and a tough listen. But if you connect with it there are a lot of wildly enjoyable songs on that album: Thirty Three (one of their best songs), BWBW of course, Porcelina of the Vast Oceans, Through the Eyes of Ruby. We Only Come Out at Night is a rare humorous Pumpkins song.

Chilling that someone brought up Owen dying on May 23, 1999. I thought about it the other day, but didn't connect it with Jarrett off hand. After seeing Jarrett's interview on that PPV and how he was on the verge of breaking down, then his subsequent Owen Raw tribute, I can't ever view him as a heel on a wrestling show. In an odd coincidence my grandmother died on May 23, 2003. Maybe it's a cursed day or something?

Here is one argument that will always go against Tim Duncan, namely that he played in the post Jordan Era. Let's face it, if he had he'd be in that same boat along with Malone, Barkley and Co. who never got the ring, unless he was like Hakeem and Drexler and got it while Jordan was striking out for the Birmingham Barons. And truth be told, the Finals that the Spurs have played in have been so unspectacular that it's hard to rate Duncan or the Spurs highly all time since the league has been down for the past 8 years or so. No offense, but the fact that these relatively journeyman Pistons teams keep making the Eastern Conf. finals year after year just shows how lousy that half of the league is. They've just stayed competent and win 53-54 games, which is good enough to be a top seed now, but 10-15 years ago they would have been lucky to make it to the 2nd round. A decade ago the Pistons being 54-28 meant they lost in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks (or best case scenario got squashed by the Bulls in 5 the next round, which was the Hawks' fate).