cabbageboy

It's obvious that Jordin is going to win, especially with that ultra lame final song. It wasn't exactly Blake's strength since it's the sort of sappy ballad type song he can't do at all.

Hell I even liked that silly Noble/Gunn match with Noble wanting to pay Torrie Wilson for sex. I had forgotten that whole storyline, but I'm assuming Nidia just broke it up on SD the next week so it likely never went down. As I said earlier, if they insist on showing these dreary 2003 PPVs can they at least drag out SummerSlam 03? I have never seen that show since we had a problem with the cable company. The amusing part of that show from the results is that the RVD/Kane match was 2nd to last. Considering how buried RVD was in that entire Kane unmasking angle you'd think this might be the piss break match before the main event. Yet it was too high profile to be a piss break match...was this seriously intended to be the semi main event?

Just wondering but do they not know when to end feuds at all anymore? It's like the same exact card from Judgment Day except now all the matches at ONS will be Extreme Rules. Honestly, why give Batista another title shot? We know he's just going to job again. Why continue Benoit vs. MVP when we now know MVP can beat Benoit and thus Benoit isn't going to get the US title back?

Well, this was a curious show. After tonight any talk of RVD not being at ONS is idiocy since he was literally all over this show tonight. I'm assuming they'll want to get RVD/Punk/Burke/Corvon on the PPV, so I'd look for Snitsky to beat RVD next week on TV (with a possible New Breed run in?). After that they can do the tag match at ONS with RVD/CMP vs. New Breed. Extreme Rules. And RVD jobs in the match, yet somehow puts over Punk postmatch to give him a rub of some sort.

Oh joy! More crappy 2003 PPVs! In all fairness Vengeance 2003 was a solid PPV aside from the Vince/Steph nonsense. But Judgment Day 2003? I seem to recall that show sucking hard at the time.

I think people tend to forget how lousy quite a bit of the first season's contestants really were. Probably due to that year having the best overall winner yet (Kelly Clarkson). But honestly I've checked out some of the AI rewind shows in moments of boredom and that year had a pretty lame group of talent aside from Kelly. I mean Justin Guarini? Hell, Blake Lewis right now is better and more creative. Nikki McKibbin finished 3rd? Obviously Melinda Doolittle is better than her by a mile. I forgot the black chick's name who finished 4th on the first year, but LaKisha this year was certainly better.

The difference is that D2D was a PPV with nothing announced and tried to use the thin ECW roster as a stand alone PPV. And regardless of what they are expecting, that crowd will be a decidedly ECW type crowd due to the previous 2 ONS PPVs being ECW. Maybe not everyone will put forth an effort, but I think that for the most part a lot of guys will. Cena/Khali in a hardcore match can't help but be better than a standard match, and I'm sure Vince/Lashley will be overbooked to the hilt with people running in to ensure some sort of entertainment value.

I think the crowd would be more split 50/50 for RVD and Punk. I would assume one of the two turns on the other tomorrow night, I'd guess RVD on Punk since Punk joining back up with the New Breed makes zero sense. Maybe have Van Dam turn on him but not join the NB of course.

In all fairness what is exactly such a heated feud on SD right now that it would require an Extreme bloodbath? Edge/Batista maybe could be on the show, but Benoit vs. MVP has been a pure wrestler type feud and the hardcore stuff is out of place there. I'm hoping for that RVD/Punk Extreme match at that PPV, even though I would be out of town and likely wouldn't see the PPV. As far as the Hardys go, I don't see them against Haas/Benjamin at the PPV. It seems like they set up a huge 8 man hardcore brawl tonight with Hardys/Cade/Murdoch vs. WGTT/Nitro/Kenny. That could be quite the epic brawl if they let it happen. Dare I say this PPV could be surprisingly decent?

No I can see people defending Flair when his match is really solid and he does more than chop or get beat up. My point wasn't that Flair's selling was subpar last night (it was fine) but that the arm work itself was pointless since it didn't factor into the finish at all, nor does Carlito have a finisher that justifies the arm work. If Chris Benoit did this it'd make sense because he'd be setting up the Crossface. Batista is a very hot and cold worker. He and Orton are quite similar in that respect. When both are close to getting buried or jobbed out they bear down and have a good match, but when unmotivated they are both pretty tough to watch. After his excellent series with UT I'll give him a bit more than 1 match with Edge before I say he's gone back to being totally useless.

Well, if that's true then I'm even gladder that I'm not going to bother with ONS. I still don't get it, shouldn't they at least attempt to use RVD to try and get someone over?

Millenium, hell Angle is the epitome of the washed up WWE guys that TNA hires. Unlike Christian he was just flat out released by WWE for not only his own good but because they felt he was also a shot wrestler.

It amazes me that there are some people who flat out defend Flair's matches no matter what. I've even heard various comments on the net of that being Carlito's "best match ever." Um, how? Because he did 10 minutes of meandering arm work that went nowhere and didn't mean shit since he has no arm based finisher, nor did it impair Flair from chopping him with the OTHER arm. Or from putting on the Figure 4. Note the difference: Carlito did 10 minutes of arm work for no real reason. Flair did about 2 minutes of leg work that immediately led to the Figure 4 because he has an actual finisher that involves the legs. Carlito's best match would probably be one of the 3 ways with Shelton and Nitro. One on one is a bit tougher....how about Carlito vs. RVD in the first round of the #1 contender tourney?

Here is why Brian Gewirtz is a complete moron. Edge isn't leaving the company! Look, Raw and Smackdown are separate shows in theory but it's all just WWE. Thus it's imbecilic to keep jobbing guys out who are leaving for SD, since it only serves to hurt the image of that show to have these guys who were last seen getting buried on Raw. I even remember thinking it was stupid that they buried Rene Dupree hard in 2004 on his last Raw before he went to Smackdown. He jobbed in a match and then Austin stunned him a few times if I recall, just to make sure he didn't get over on Smackdown (where they actually tried for a while to push him!). Ever notice that guys leaving SD are usually never jobbed out in this fashion? I don't recall John Cena jobbing to JBL in a non title match in June 2005 before he left to go to Raw.

Please let this lead to friction between Punk and RVD that culminates at ONS with RVD vs. Punk, Extreme Rules. Thing is there is almost zero time to build such a match.

I'll put it this way regarding Burke: He's improved enough to be a valuable addition to an already decent roster, but he's not remotely anyone worth going out of your way to see. RVD is someone I might consider going out of my way to see, even if it meant buying ROH DVDs or whatever.

The sick aspect of this is that I bet they give Orton some sort of title feud now, at least around the time of Vengeance or so. He'll job of course, and then it's the Job Tour 07 vs. HHH and once HBK gets back it's more jobbing. After that I dunno what is left for Orton to do. As far as ONS goes, hell I'd be fine with RVD returning the job to Cena. I'd be fine with him jobbing to Punk. I am not fine with him jobbing in his last match to Snitsky, since it would mean nothing. The Snitsky to Raw rumor has been debunked at this point, seems the last I heard he was staying on ECW to be fed to Lashley. Regardless of whatever stupid shit Orton has done, I'd still rather see him in a title feud than Snitsky (whose one note act wore out in early 2005).

He has no chance of winning such a suit in my view. See, if the doctor told him "Oh, you're not that badly hurt....you can return in 6 weeks" and then it turns out to be a total tear and he further hurts himself, then it's a complete misdiagnosis. What's he going to sue over, the doc telling him to take MORE time than required to heal? Further, given WWE's constant backstage turmoil there's no way to 100% prove that Kennedy was getting the belt or even would have held it for more than a couple of weeks.

Oh sure they could use RVD to put Punk over in an Extreme Rules match on PPV. But they'll give that RVD "last match" rub to Gene Snitsky. I'm glad I'm going on vacation and won't be tempted to order that PPV.

You also forgot Flair had to fight the odds with the shoulder ailing after Carlito worked it. There are people actually praising that match. I personally thought it was boring as hell, with Carlito doing tedious shoulder work for 15 minutes and Flair throwing weak chops for offense. I have a pet peeve and that would be meaningless working of a body part that masquerades as psychology. It's like they tell Carlito "Go out and work Flair's arm for 15 minutes" without any "Why?" figured in. Carlito has no arm based finisher, so why do it? At least if he had attacked Flair's legs it would prevent Flair from using the Figure 4. I think whoever does the in match booking and layouts for PPVs needs a wakeup call. Not every match needs the same tedious "Heel works a body part" story. Frankly it's boring as all fuck considering most of the time it leads nowhere and most of the guys aren't compelling enough at selling to justify it. It's like someone decided Arn Anderson was God and all matches shall be in his image.

Let's see how I did with the predictions from page 1: --Hardys have been added to defend tag belts. They'll win, dunno against whom though. (Ended up being Cade and Murdoch and the Hardys beat them again. Send the hicks back to Heat and bring in Cryme Tyme or some other lame duck challengers. --Benoit vs. MVP. Honestly...I'm tired of this feud. Matches have been good, but not quite good enough to overcome the deja vu of it all (Benoit beats MVP, then beats him, then beats him). Give MVP the belt to pay it off, which is odd since he's the heel. (MVP dominated Benoit in 2 straight falls, which I found a bit surprising. Thing is, where do you go with MVP as US Champ now?) --Michaels vs. Orton. I'm assuming those were Meltzer's thoughts above. I don't get this hard on he has for Orton, but he always, invariably, overrates his matches. Also given that these guys had a real clunker on Raw recently I'm not expecting much. Add to it the various injuries--legit and worked--such as the knee (legit) and the concussion (worked) and I'm expecting crap here. Orton with the headlock for 10 minutes type crap. HBK will fall unconscious and the match will be stopped a la Owen in 1995, but Orton won't technically win. (Thankfully the match was kept short due to HBK's injury, but this sucked terribly as I figured. I really, really hate and despise the HBK concussion angle booking where his opponent just stands there like a douche and doesn't, oh I dunno, PIN HIM. I mean my god the guy is laying there unconscious...pin his ass!) --Carlito vs. Flair. I'm not totally sure, it depends on if Carlito is still being buried. I think he is. Flair wins. (Yep, Carlito = Buried. Flair just owns the guy.) --CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke. Burke cost Punk the match with Corvon recently, so I'd expect Punk to get the win here and possibly plant the seeds of either breaking up the New Breed entirely, or maybe Punk takes over as leader. Could be good depending on the time. (Probably the best match on the PPV, let's see where it goes from here.) --Vince/Shane/Umaga vs. Lashley. The ECW belt is so utterly worthless now it doesn't matter. I'm assuming Lashley wins here but does NOT pin Vince (remember the Umaga burial I mentioned earlier?). The Vince job out will be at ONS, as though anyone wants to see that. Glad I'm going on vacation and won't see that PPV or be tempted to get it. (Okay Shane was at least a man and jobbed to save Umaga the embarrassment. The post match antics were garbage of course and I assume will simply lead to Lashley killing Vince and everyone on earth at ONS.) --Cena vs. Khali. I bet they want to extend this feud until the GAB to do another Punjabi Prison (this time with the actual guy it's meant for, Khali). You know the deal: DQ, doesn't matter who gets DQ'd. (Well, they just jobbed Khali here and I dunno if the foot under the ropes aspect will matter or not since the announcers never mentioned it and maybe Khali is just too big. Considering Raw's dearth of challengers why not get another match out of it? PUNJABI PRISON!) --Edge vs. Batista. After Edge getting jobbed out to HBK on Raw he flat out must get a win here, even if it's a lame and screwy win. Mark Henry runs in, attacks Batista, aligns himself with Edge. Edge wins and retains. (Wow, Batista jobs without even a Henry run in. I gotta say...this match sucked.)

I can't help but think Shrek is destined for a hemmorage, all time level drop next week. Is there anybody, even little kids, who wants to see Shrek over POTC 3? I bet Shrek will make somewhere between what Spidey 3 made in its 2nd and 3rd weeks. About 40-45 million. Having a fellow blockbuster might prevent POTC 3 from breaking that Spidey 3 record of 151 million, but it'll do much better overall business.

Man, some of those kills look more violent than anything in the original films aside from maybe the exploding arrow from Rambo II. I have to admit, it does look pretty damn cool.

Yes I know about ROH coming to PPV but there's only a finite amount of $$ to be spent on PPVs. Besides booking RVD in TNA is a lot easier. Let's face it, RVD has worked a proto X division style for years. Hell, I bet half the guys in the division got into wrestling due to RVD (those in the business less than 8 years). The fact that there are guys out there doing wilder spots these days isn't all that important when those guys for the most part lack RVD's charisma, popular spots, or overness. Only a complete retard would book RVD wrong in TNA. It's too easy. Provided Van Dam stays healthy here is what I'd do that could flat out draw TNA some money. What has TNA lacked since its inception? Strong champions. Guys who you can put a belt on and say "This is our guy." I'd do the following: --Samoa Joe needs to win the KOTM match at the next PPV. If not, then at some point during the year from whoever wins that match. Keep Joe strong for a long time with the belt, have him feud with Christian, Sting, Angle again, maybe Daniels or Roode even. --Give Lethal his X division title win over Sabin, but then put it on Jerry Lynn soon after. Obviously once RVD debuted in TNA, who does he go after? Old rival Lynn, X division title. Maybe have it be a 2 PPV feud. Then RVD can go into the obvious Styles feud, fend off Lethal, Sabin, Shelley, and so on. --After about 9 months TNA would have two very dominant champions in Joe and RVD. So that is the big money match, title vs. title. It'd be the sort of money drawing match that Heyman was hoping RVD vs. Taz would be before Taz signed with the WWF and Heyman panicked. I think this scenario would be a big draw for TNA and would certainly end up giving them their biggest buyrate to date.

Why the fuck would they release Beth Phoenix? I'll admit she's kind of a big girl, but take a look at that women's division. If anything I've been waiting for them to finally call her back up to spice up a currently sad division. Does Stephanie not know the difference between the skank eye candy chicks and the actual women wrestlers? If they release Katie Lea (current OVW women's champ), that's when I go postal.