cabbageboy

Man, that is worse than I figured The Condemned would do. I didn't think it would do big business or anything but I figured it would do okay. WWE needs to realize that while people will go in for a cornball horror or action movie on DVD, this stuff is a big tougher to sell to filmgoers. Their entire approach is insulting and demeaning to the audience, as if they go out of their way to explain to the potential audience that there is no thinking required by the viewer on any level, that everything is about the shock moments (See No Evil), the loud shooting and explosions (The Marine), and the simple and brutal fighting (Condemned). Wrestling fans aren't especially different from most filmgoers, but WWE is obsessed with treating the fans/filmgoers like the lowest level of moronic white trash that have zero desire to see a movie with actual characters and a decent plot. It's ironic that the WWE films so far have been reheated 80s stuff like slasher horror or Arnold actioners, considering that in the 80s WWF programming had the absurd Fuji/Muraco spoof bits that required a bit of thought from the audience to fully get the satire (as in it required the audience to understand the difference between good acting and bad acting, comic timing and being inept, etc.). Ah well, I might eventually check out The Condemned on DVD, as I did See No Evil and The Marine.

"I'm gonna rape, pillage, and plunder in the World Wrestling Federation!!!" I watched that show the other night and it's a blast. Raw was an exhilirating show back then but it's easy to see how they didn't draw any money with that stuff. It's too abrasive and nothing the WWF did in 1997 gave people anyone to cheer for. From 1997 to 98 Austin's character changed from a borderline sociopath who would cripple his former friends, break and enter, and hate pretty much everyone...then in 98 he became the everyman champ who hated his boss, while still for the most part retaining his edge. Taking that ultra unlikable vibe away from Austin is what made his character click massive. Vince portrayed a full blown evil heel that everyone wanted to hate. Bret Hart wasn't like that, since he was sorta either way depending on the venue. Austin became such a joke by 2002. In fact I was talking to my brother about this and we narrowed it down to right after Royal Rumble 2002 when Austin became a caricature. In his post Rumble promo he said flippantly that he wouldn't be main eventing WM (oh well), and then started his "What?" crap and reeled off his entire lunch menu.

If I hadn't have read spoilers I wouldn't have known or cared about Sting vs. Angle. Besides that match was 5 mins. at the beginning. It's almost like Bischoff expecting a 7.0 for the relaunched Nitro in April 1999, when he never bothered to TELL ANYONE that WCW was changing the set or doing anything different. Keep Backlund away from the booth long term. He'd annoy the shit out of people after 2 weeks with his constant crazy old man ranting. Nash would be hilarious but self serving. I'd let Konnan do it since he's been out there the past couple of weeks. As far as Young's mystery friend, it was never such a hyped angle that we were led to expect some shock debut. I just assumed it was someone in the company.

From 1988-93 I was a pretty big fan of Jeff Jarrett in the USWA. It's a sad irony that Jarrett was either forced to work heel most of his career or enjoyed doing it, because he's never been good at it. I've said it on other threads, but JJ is too much of a yokel good ole boy to play some mastermind heel in the Flair vein. I think Jarrett's heydey would have been if he was about 5-10 years older and he could have been a face draw in the NWA or UWF back in the day. Or of course Memphis. I think Jarrett's Memphis face act would have translated better outside of Memphis than Lawler's did. But yeah, if Jarrett is ever going to be a solid face he has to ditch the guitar nonsense, since that's such a lame HTM schtick. It's curious to me that Jarrett has had any staying power in the business when he's been totally miscast as a goofy heel for about 3/4 of his career.

I saw that same Young/Roode/Jarrett bit at the house show last week, only there I think it was a bit more satisfying since Roode took the guitar shot. Ms. Brooks taking it tonight was more unpleasant. Jarrett shouldn't just turn heel again. For once he's finally dropped the awful heel schtick he's been stuck with (or has stuck with voluntarily) for the past 13 years. If he can simply be the old Memphis/USWA Jeff Jarrett that is a good ole boy, humble, and generally a nice guy he will get over as a face. That's always been a problem with JJ as a heel....he's always seemed much too nice of a guy in real life and is forcing these heelish acts.

Orton is at least 2 years past his push date. He was so totally ruined and fucked after the HHH feud ended that quite honestly he needed to just get released right then and there. In fact if it had been 10 years earlier he'd have been in WCW a month later. Orton is frankly stuck since he has nowhere all that viable to go (yes I'm counting TNA here) and they won't just release him, but they also can't push him either. I'll admit to halfway enjoying some of his work (RNN updates, the guilty pleasure homoerotic teaming with Edge) but when Orton sucks he REALLY sucks. I'm talking so bad I want to pull my hair out. He's the epitome of what someone like Michael Hayes would consider "a young kid trying to play a heel on TV." The nadir of his run is of course the nightmare that was his 2005-06 Smackdown stint, where he was ultra horrible and annoying in those UT and Rey feuds some were waxing poetic about. Add in some 30 minute long clunkers with Benoit where poor Benoit did literally 90% of the semi decent work and Orton was exposed so bad during that period as someone who can't really work, can't interview for shit, and has no charisma. He's the Lina Lamont of wrestling, a triple threat. Orton's teaming with Edge was entertaining because they at least realized Orton is crap and let Edge carry things, keeping Orton's in ring involvement down a bit. Note that once the team split and Orton was back to a singles act he went right back to sucking hard and his matches once again consisted of him doing 5 minute headlock spots. Honestly, what can they do with Orton at this point? They can't really push him not only due to his incredibly boorish behavior, not only due to his singular lack of talent and overness, but most importantly due to the 2 years of character assassination they have done on TV. Why not just release him then? Let TNA have him and I would assure WWE he won't make a damn bit of difference.

As long as POTC doesn't go the way of the Matrix series and have a craptastic 3rd movie, it should be massive. Thing is, it did leave viewers with the sense of "What will happen next?" I guess the HP series also does that but those movies are all sorta self contained. With 28 Weeks Later...why would this be a huge hit? The first one made 45 million (82 worldwide). It'll do solid enough business and make an impact on DVD.

There's no way Shrek 3 will end up being the #1 movie. First off, early test responses to the trailer haven't exactly been all that positive. Second, Shrek 2's success was huge but yet had a ring of fluke to it. Not so much that it made serious $$, but the sheer psychotic amount that it made for what was kind of a standard flick. Also, Shrek is coming out in a month where there are easily two other movies that have more hype: Spider-Man 3 and POTC: At World's End. With those two movies we have the cliffhanger from Dean Man's Chest to propel POTC to massive box office, as well as the whole symbiote black costume in Spidey that is a huge fan favorite storyline. Shrek really doesn't have much else to say as a series, but those other series do. I dare say the next Harry Potter movie will make more money too, since it is heating up as a storyline at this point. Some of these I don't know about. I know everyone on here thinks Transformers is going to do huge business, but I'm not sure how many people really give a shit about Transformers anymore. It'd be like doing a new He Man or GI Joe movie. Why is Transformers going to be huge when TMNT wasn't? I'd put the Simpsons movie in that 200+ range. If it's any good at all it'll be a huge hit.

Oh man. I thought the Street Fighter movie was truly awful when it first came out. I actually saw it right around Christmas in 1994, seem to recall looking forward to it. Much like Judge Dredd it seemed like just a mediocre to bad actioner at the time, but now it's hilarious and campy. There was sooooo much wrong with this movie. From Van Damme trying to be an American Guile, to Guile being the lead in it anyway, to the burial of Ken and Ryu as two loser con men, to the Carlos-Blanka deal, to Balrog and E. Honda being good guys in the movie (they seemed heelish on the game), to Dhalsim being a doctor and nothing else (he was one of my favorites on the game). Julia as M. Bison is really the only thing they did right, along with some of the lesser heels like Zangiev and Vega. I will say Zangiev was hilarious and Vega had a really cool look. Street Fighter is really kind of hard to do as a movie, since the game is essentially "pick a fighter and face everyone else" and not a whole lot else.

I saw that Bret/Shawn ladder match from 1992 on an old VHS release from years ago. It's pretty primitive stuff compared to even the WM X match. A curio but not much more.

I don't see where a Monty push is in the works from the current storylines. It looks blatantly like they are going with Snitsky at some point, and won't that match just suck with Lashley? I'd just have Lashley go through him on TV or something, no need to waste PPV time with it.

Lofton has announced that he is in fact returning to Tennessee, so they should be loaded for next year. It's funny but in the Courier Journal Rich Bozich listed his very, very early FF picks and he too had UNC, U of L, Tennessee, and Memphis.

Yeah, the odd man out right now is Burke in some aspects. Having seen his OVW work I can safely say he sucks ass as a face and is 100x better playing heel. If Punk supplants him in the New Breed then Burke almost has to turn face, or maybe be sent to Smackdown or something.

I don't know how to even rate TNA as a TV show. It doesn't properly convey the level of talent they have, that's for sure. It goes by way too fast and is foolish, but it's not really as ponderous as a lot of Raw shows. What I don't get about Raw is how the supposed #1 wrestling show/brand can have such a lackluster roster. Raw is a 2 hour show with a mostly unover or bad roster. TNA is a show with a massive roster and only 1 hour, but I can't say I'm usually bored while watching it.

Well, I suppose overall SD has a bit more going on but it mostly is categorized as "watchable" but usually never rises to the level of outright compelling. Can we agree that Raw is by far the weakest show right now?

Oh lord, this stuff is just classic right now. I was dubious when I read that Punk just flat out attacked Burke the way he did, but the way it played out was hysterical. I especially enjoyed Punk's sarcastic "I'm sorry" after he did it. But some were worried that he just attacked Elijah and quit the group, which certainly wasn't the case. And yet it wasn't the entire faction beating up Burke and tossing him a la Orton with Evolution. But how exactly can Punk explain his actions to the rest of them? The amusing byproduct of this is that since Punk joined the New Breed they have yet to win a match. Seriously, I have never seen an angle that sucked so hard when it first started that got compelling so quickly. Dare I say ECW might be the best week to week wrestling show at this point?

Okay here is the one thing I don't understand about the whole Austin/Mankind/HHH thing. Why were they so desperate to put the belt on HHH to begin with? HHH had an extroidinarily heatless heel run in mid 1999. I wasn't really on the net much back then but to me HHH was a weak challenger for Austin that I figured Austin would simply beat and that would be it. Of course this all sounds strange 8 years later, but HHH really had no heat as a heel back then. He seemed IC title for life quite frankly. His program with Austin was also coming off the massively successful Austin vs. Corporate Ministry angle that led to the final blowoff of the UT feud and also sent Vince packing for a while. After this HHH just seemed like some mediocre challenger to give Austin something to do for SS. It didn't help that Chyna actually challenged HHH for his SS title shot and WON the match and for a week or so had the shot. HHH eventually hit his stride as a heel, but it was after Russo left for WCW. I can't say this for sure, but I never got the feeling Russo thought all that highly of HHH as a main event performer. He jobbed to Chyna, Vince, etc.

How do we know Punk has turned back though? What if it is a case where the New Breed side with HIM in this and they kick Burke out of the group instead next week?

As far as WM rematches go, you can't really not order WM because of this because you don't 100% know before the PPV that they are going to do rematches ad nauseum. Also, if the storyline is "Oh my god, they went 50 minutes on Raw so what do they have left for the PPV?" is what they are going for, I'm not sure I buy it. It's not like the Terry Funk/Sabu Barbed Wire match where they had to turn around a week later for a PPV with Shane Douglas added to the mix. After that match it really WAS a viable question in that they were so fucked up physically that Douglas had a major advantage (and he won the belt). But yeah, the fact that it was non title hurt the suspense of it since it didn't particularly matter who won. Why did a non title bout have seemingly a 60 minute time limit anyway? Aren't title bouts 1 hour and a typical TV match just has a 20 minute time limit? Being taped also sorta hurt since I had admittedly read the spoilers and knew they were going a long time. If it'd been live, I might have gotten more into it. Ah well.

I'd have rather seen Edge against somebody for about 15 minutes or so and then do Cena/Michaels for about 25 mins. I just think 55 minutes on TV is too much time for a match that honestly doesn't have that much to say. Cena can't put HBK away...okay fine. They can't tell that story in 25 minutes? There's a PPV on Sunday, right? What did anything on this show tonight do to make people want to see Backlash? Michaels/Cena tonight was already a better match than the tepid 4 way promises to be (where we all know Orton is jobbing). Did seeing Shane/Vince/Umaga beat up some local guy really make anyone want to see Lashley take them on at Backlash? This PPV just feels odd, like they just had to throw something together to do a PPV or maybe haven't ironed out the kinks in putting all the brands on the same PPV. Maybe SD will do more to sell UT/Batista, since Raw didn't feel like any sort of "go home" show before a PPV. Oh and one thing that is beginning to annoy me to no end. Why do Shane and Vince now say "Oh, don't expect Lashley tonight. He isn't going to be here!?" I mean Lashley IS an ECW guy and thus really has no business being on Raw, so why would people expect him to be there at all?

Am I the only one who really could have cared less about this tonight? Once it was non title the match had no real meaning to it other than "These guys are circle jerking for nearly an hour because Orton is a moron." I have to ask the question: Why not just make it a title match and do the same finish? Even if Cena regains at the PPV it at least give Michaels a token title win. Seriously, a 55 min. match that was non title? This should have been the Backlash main event instead of the 4 way nonsense. Now we obviously know Orton is jobbing and getting buried hard in it, and poor Edge has zero momentum going into it to boot. Here's something else I had to wonder tonight. They were in the UK, so why not debut Katie Lea from OVW in her hometown and have her win the women's title from Melina? It would make more sense than the Santino Marella angle last week and would have rejuvenated a division that is pretty dire at the moment.

Okay, if the White Sox have such a douchebag manager and are such assholes...cast them as a heel. The NBA had no problem making the Detroit Pistons a heel that kept MJ from the promised land, then later had no problem doing the same with the Knicks. Of course the problem there is who exactly would the White Sox be holding down or have as a rival? It'd just be the Red Sox and Yankees. There are several factors that may have lead to a rise in attendance. After the 1994 strike attendance was bleh for a few years until the home run chase in 1998. Combine a renewed interest with new state of the art ballparks to replace the run down parks and it's easy to see how attendance improved at a local level. But what about the rest of the country that casually follows MLB? ESPN and the media in general force feed the constant "Sox! Yankees!" talk until any postseason series not involving one of those two teams is met with apathy, even a series with two old guard teams like St. Louis and Detroit. If that World Series was in the 1980s for instance it would have drawn much bigger ratings because people hadn't been so brainwashed by this Sox and Yankees hype.

It was also non title. So he's blatantly just retaining at the PPV.

Well, therein lies the dilemma. The longer they waited the more chance they would run of people simply forgetting about WCW and not caring about a potential Invasion angle. It's a Catch 22 really: Either do the angle without the full roster of WCW talent, or wait until they are available (which in some cases was up to 2 years later) and run the risk of nobody caring anymore.

Nashville and Knoxville aren't important cities in Tennessee? Anyway, I am amazed that people actually list Steve Austin ahead of Hulk Hogan on all time drawing lists. For one thing, Austin wasn't even a clear cut main eventer for a very long period of time. The only time where he was unquestionably THE top draw was from roughly March 1998 until Nov. 1998. After that point the WWF had guys like Rock, UT, Foley, HHH, Kane and so on that were in that same main event mix. Want some ratings statistics? Austin's highest rated segment was that 9.5 cable rating vs. UT in 1999. Hogan vs. Andre on The Main Event in Feb. 1988 drew a 15.2 broadcast rating and 33 million viewers. Hell, Austin was only a headliner from roughly 1998-2001. Hogan has headlined shows from 1982-2005 on and off.