cabbageboy

Umaga gets buried, that's where he goes. It's either that or a tag team of Monster Heels with Khali once he gets finished jobbing out to Cena. Here are my predictions: --Hardys have been added to defend tag belts. They'll win, dunno against whom though. --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. --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. --Carlito vs. Flair. I'm not totally sure, it depends on if Carlito is still being buried. I think he is. Flair wins. --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. --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. --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. --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.

I agree on Astin, he should have been nominated. In terms of snubs, how about the various times Scorsese has been screwed out of best picture? Or are those exactly shocking snubs since they happened several times? As far as Citizen Kane goes, I have to wonder if it would look so snubbed today if it had lost out to a better movie than How Green Was My Valley. For instance, if The Maltese Falcon had swept the Oscars would this have seemed like such a snub?

I don't know this but maybe IWC was for International Wrestling Council? It's the only thing I can think of. As far as the PPV, I don't know exactly why that 3rd fall wasn't shown since it was on Eddie's DVD. Maybe they are just idiots and there is no good answer.

There is one huge problem I have with the RVD to ROH idea. Namely that I'd never get to see him unless ROH suddenly got a TV deal. I guess there's always buying a bunch of DVDs, but there's only a certain amount of $$ I'm willing to spend on wrestling.

Hey, I'm all for clearing the dead weight on a roster. Ariel is puzzling to me since she is the main one released (not named RVD and Sabu, who are a different matter) that actually was getting notable TV time. Wanna know something? This should only be the beginning. I noted in a thread a few days ago that WWE is full of guys who have been jobbed out, buried, or just not doing anything. Here are some others who need to be released in my view: Raw: Duggan, Eugene, The Highlanders, Val Venis, Viscera. These guys are all stale or worthless. Smackdown: Ashley (they got the Playboy cover out of her, now get rid of her to bring in the next Diva Search bimbo), Funaki, Maryse, Michelle McCool (either move the chicks to Raw where there's a women's division or get rid of em), Shannon Moore, Mike Mizanin. ECW: Sandman (not so much that I'd want to, but with the Originals all but gone he serves no purpose), Little Guido, Mike Knox, and a bunch of them are borderline but I'd keep for now.

Yeah it's still cool. I never got the When Worlds Collide PPV last year for whatever reason, so it was nice to see that show even if they did FF through the Eddie/Barr vs. Octagon/Santo match. The same stuff is mostly the shorties section which has the same bunch of matches from last May. I want them to show the following shows in the Big Ones over time: 1. Old WCW PPVs from 1990-94, stuff that I haven't seen or could use an upgrade. 2. WWF stuff from 1995-97, mainly the IYH shows and all that. Though I haven't seen SummerSlam 1995 at all.

I recall reading an interview with him from early 2006 when he came back from injury and he said that he did in fact get to keep the name Rob Van Dam if he left WWE. I dont think he'd seriously entertain the notion of TNA if he would lose his ring name.

WWE releases people every year around this time. I think Steph taking over the new position really had little to do with Conway and Scorpio getting released. What if she just rubber stamped what was planned for months anyway?

Once TNA signed Angle they no doubt had to realize the enigma of booking Angle. Angle has never had a character that ever totally gelled, and this is WWE. Excellent wrestler, but Angle was always either a goofy dork that drew no serious heel heat, or he was a smarmy and unsympathetic hero, and now he's doing this "I'm a real wrestler, dammit!" gimmick in TNA that's getting over like a lead balloon. Regardless of how RVD has been used in ECW and WWE, at least his character and persona were over with viewers. If TNA can't figure out how to use RVD--a guy who can fit into the world title division, X division, or tag division--then they truly are incompetent.

I'll amend my predictions for UK now that they have Patterson. I thought they were an NIT team. Now I think they'll lose the first round of the tourney. My very early FF picks are still U of L, UNC, Memphis, and Tennessee.

WCCW is a better show than NWA in my opinion. NWA is great for interviews but mostly boring for wrestling, whereas WCCW gives you some good action and some promos too. Actually the Razor/Martel IC title match was from Oct. 1993 if I'm not mistaken. They were finalists in a battle royale and faced off the next week, or really the same show but shown the next week.

I actually can see WWE not wanting to give RVD a bunch of time off, considering he was off the entire year of 2005 injured and also was suspended 30 days in 2006. I think RVD might have just tossed this out there knowing they wouldn't do it. Van Dam has become almost a modern version of a Greek tragic hero, letting his one big flaw (namely marijuana) wreck his chance at success. What amazes me though is that WWE didn't think to simply have him put over Punk in a great 20 min. match at ONS on his way out. Instead just a Snitsky beatdown, albeit a DQ win, and he's gone. The irony is that RVD faces Snitsky on his first singles match back last January, and Snitsky is also now his final WWE opponent.

I've been purposefully avoiding this thread for a while since I've been so angry about this Suns/Spurs series (and frustrated with the modern mediocrity of the NBA in general) that I may well have said something overly negative. Honestly I wish the Suns had just gotten blown out last night like I assumed they would. Being up the entire game only to give it away late just makes me ill. Not to mention the punk Bowen being the guy to make the game winner. I really, really hope somehow the Suns can get that game 6 on the road, but it really doesn't look good. Let's say the Spurs win this series. Can you imagine the level of heatless garbage the Spurs/Jazz series will be? At least the Jazz won't hesitate to thug and goon right back. What does it say when I'd almost root for the PISTONS in the Finals?

I enjoyed SS 2005 more than 2002 to be honest. But then I've ranted ad nauseum about how much I loathed Lesnar's push in mid 2002, so does anyone honestly think I'm going to put over SS 2002 all that much? I haven't seen the show in a while, but I think I caught most of it on 24/7. Here are my match ratings off the top of my head for SS 02: Rey vs. Angle: ***. Decent opener, due to the participants likely to be overrated. We saw this 100 times on SD. Flair vs. Jericho: ***. Pretty fun and nice to see Flair get a win, even if this further jobbed out and buried Jericho. But at that point I think we'd all lost out hope for Y2J. Edge vs. Eddie: **1/2. This match was a misfire. I disliked it 5 years ago and still do. One of the most blatant no sells of a body part ever here. They would have a better match at Unforgiven and also the ladder match from SD. Un-Americans vs. Booker/Goldust: **. Don't recall much about it, but it didn't really rise above mediocre to my recollection. RVD vs. Benoit: ***1/2. This match was a letdown to me initially but I enjoyed it more on a 2nd viewing. Still a bit too slow to truly hit crescendo it could have. UT vs. Test: *1/2. Note the Un-Americans had the crappiest matches on the show. Michaels vs. HHH: ***1/2. This seemed more like a ****1/2 type match at the time, but that was when we still bought into HBK having serious back trouble. Now that we know Michaels is okay and can wrestle without his back falling apart it doesn't quite hold up. Lesnar vs. Rock: ***. The Rock gave this whatever entertainment value it had. SS 02 has a big reputation mainly due to the crappy SS shows to follow. I mean hell it at least didn't have an injured HHH beating Goldberg in the EC match or Randy Orton winning the world title from Benoit.

Well, it's hard to say since in the new ECW RVD and Sabu had infrequent opportunities to tag in worthwhile matches. The one time they truly let them go wild was against Mike Knox and Test in an Extreme Rules match and that match was really fun. I know Team 3D are incredibly tired and formulaic but hell RVD/Sabu could wrestle the Dudleys in their sleep at this point. Or a wild hardcore match against LAX? It's be great. RVD and Sabu had a fun match with jobbers like Knox and Test....I think they still have enough left in the tank to have some terrific matches with real opponents.

Here is what I said last week when everyone seemed to think Blake was toast: "I have to wonder...is Blake really gone next week? We've yet to have a shock result really and I think Melinda may well be tossed if Blake comes up with something wild. Jordin is getting the God push, so she's going nowhere." It hit me last night watching Melinda that I was a bit tired of her act. She got a bit...monotonous? As in she is technically solid on most anything but lacks the pizzazz and charisma to bust out huge as a star. In other words, she's been a backup singer for a reason. This result doesn't surprise me. It seems vaguely rigged, mainly because they probably wanted a guy in the finals and also to not have 2 black girls in the finals. Although for those exact reasons I can sorta see it be legit, as in the various black chicks cannibalized each other and Blake capitalized and stayed around. Jordin is obviously winning next week though. Let's not get carried away here.

Yeah I watched the MNW show tonight and I have to say that Raw punked Nitro big time. It's funny when people blather about WCW and say "Whoa, Nitro beat Raw for 83 straight weeks!" I pose the question: How many of those 83 weeks was Nitro actually a better show than Raw? I'd say it was for the 2nd half of 1996, but really once the Bret/Austin feud picked up steam Raw was easily superior in quality. Also checked out the added World Class show and it's wonderful (as they've all been thus far). What blows my mind is that back then WCCW only really had 3 actual heels on the entire roster: Kabuki, Magic Dragon, and Checkmate. I guess Spoiler and Wild Bill Irwin were also heelish. On the face side you had all the Von Erichs, Al Madril, Brian Adias, and Bugsy McGraw. Of course the heel side will be bolstered hugely when the Freebirds turn, but that is coming up in a few weeks. The highly intriguing guy in World Class was King Kong Bundy though. If you watch the shows you'll know that he essentially got fed up with Gary Hart and Co. and left to go out on his own, but also got Hart and Co. in trouble with the NWA office for copying a $5000 check from Flair that was Kabuki's bounty to take out Kerry Von Erich. In other words Bundy is now at odds with Hart and his men, but yet still feuding at times with the Von Erichs. This is fascinating booking for 1982, very proto tweener style stuff from Bundy and I'm digging it big time. Shades of gray!

The Heatwave 98 match is fun enough, but RVD and Sabu had easily more fluid and enjoyable tag matches vs. Candido/Storm when they first won the ECW belts, and of course the obvious feud with the Dudleys. Given the amount of previous opponents in TNA how hard is it to book these guys honestly? I'd have Lethal win the X belt to pay off his storyline with Sabin, then have Lynn win the belt soon after. Thus RVD can go after Lynn and the X division title, and he and Sabu can go after the Dudleys and the tag belts. Or how about RVD/Sabu vs. LAX after that? And in the long term future I'm sure they'll eventually do RVD vs. Joe, RVD vs. Christian, and RVD vs. Angle. This is why I've said RVD would be a major signing for TNA. He can fit well into any division they have (world title, X title, and tag with Sabu).

I watched that Razor show last year. Gee, are they just repeating the same programs? I guess they'll have to drag out GAB 1990 during the summer yet again. Let's get some other obscure WCW PPVs, dammit! How about some Watts era shows? I guess they DID have Havoc 92 and Starrcade 92, but why no Beach Blast 92? GAB 92? WrestleWar 92 with the War Games?

Yeah I seem to recall both Steiners doing that idiotic dog attack angle with Sting at GAB 99 and some other stuff with Tank Abbott later. The problem with the Bashams is that they are sorta competent workers but they have no standout skills. People from time to time hype their OVW work as though it's something revolutionary, but believe me, these guys weren't exactly out there having ****1/2 matches on a nightly basis. In fact I recall one show where Benoit came down to OVW to work Doug Basham and Basham managed to get a crappy match out of Benoit.

I just read on pwinsider.com that TNA does want to bring in RVD and Sabu but get this. They want them to feud with each other. This sounds like a really dumb idea since it makes little sense, and also these guys should come in as a unit and start destroying people left and right. What would this feud even be over? RVD vs. Sabu: Battle For the Stash! Anyone who has watched the past 10 years of wrestling knows that RVD and Sabu work better as a team than they do as opponents. As a team they compliment each other and the other team can bring their own style to the table. As opponents they just do a "can you top this?" spotfest where they inevitably miss as much as they hit.

If nothing else Regal could at least get a decent IC title run out of it that might prove better than his late 2001/early 2002 run (power of the punch gimmick was fun, the feud with Edge sucked).

As I said, RVD shouldn't show up hours late with no ring gear. Yes, that is quite bizarre and unprofessional and Sabu is in the wrong for doing it. Van Dam owed them 2 jobs last year when he got caught with the weed: One to Edge, and one to Big Show. If you get suspended or are leaving the company, you owe it to them to job a belt. Nobody owes a company months of constant jobbing, because it does nothing to get those guys over and only serves to bury the guy that is leaving. This isn't 25 years ago where guys could job out in one territory and show up elsewhere and be totally fresh since those fans wouldn't have seen the jobbing. For instance, take a look at the way Taz and the Dudleys left ECW in 1999. The Dudleys ended up sorta putting over Raven and Dreamer and were well protected, then left for the WWF. They went on to further title wins and classic TLC matches. Taz on the other hand jobbed the ECW title to Mike Awesome and then spent the next 2-3 months jobbing out to Awesome, Sabu, and RVD in heatless matches since everyone knew Taz was leaving. Taz went from unbeatable macho champion to a jobber pussy very quickly and in my opinion his career never totally recovered. Did his jobbing get anyone over? Not really. Let's say RVD is kept reasonably strong and then they save one final job out to CM Punk at ONS. Give it 20 minutes or so and treat it like a big deal. Give Van Dam a decent send off and let him proclaim Punk the future of ECW. In that scenario it doesn't bury RVD on the way out, and it actually gets Punk over. But let's say RVD jobs hard next week to Snitsky, then to Thorn the next week, then to Striker, and then puts Punk over at ONS. It gets no one over and just buries RVD on the way out.

Well, by jobber in Khali's case I mean a guy of little skill rather than his actual record. At least I can take Khali seriously at the moment though, he's lost maybe 1 match to UT and that's it. Snitsky? He's a bum.

This rule is idiotic because it simply punishes everyone for coming off the bench, which in and of itself is a harmless act. While I thought the 1997 Heat/Knicks series was amusing in the way it went down, the Knicks were completely screwed there. The difference is that it didn't really matter since the winner of that series was mere jobber fodder for the Bulls anyway, and the winner of this Spurs/Suns series is likely to win the NBA title. It's time to differentiate this stuff. If a guy comes off the bench and gets involved in a fight or escalates a situation, then suspend him. If a guy comes off the bench briefly and does nothing or is quickly restrained, then let it go. What I don't understand is why these guys don't realize "Oh shit, I am on the court!" and then know they'll be suspended and just get their licks in. As in Horry knocks Nash down hard like that, if they're going to walk on the court at least beat the fuck out of Horry. If I'm D'Antoni I send in a goon next game to knock the crap out of a major Spurs star, or at least beat the piss out of Bruce Bowen. Do the Suns even HAVE a goon though? But playing Mr. Nice Guy isn't getting them anywhere.