cabbageboy

Well, U of L finally got off the canvas the other day and beat Memphis. Thank God the losing streak is over. Now we get to go job to St. Louis and Marquette on the road to finish the season. You know what's truly sad about U of L? They are the best team in CUSA--and are 6th in the standings behind Memphis, Cincy, Charlotte, UAB, and DePaul. There are a lot of people that think Pitt is a Final 4 team this year, but there were people who said that last year. I'm sorry but when you score 46 points in an OT game and cannot hit FTs down the stretch, you are not a Final 4 caliber team. Don't look now but UK is 21-4. It's funny how no one is really talking about them this year (that's what two losses to Georgia will do), but I think they are a very good candidate for the Final 4. Right now UK's late game coaching and execution are second to none.

Since William Petersen is hot right now with CSI I decided to get the DVD of one of his early movies, To Live and Die in L.A. I remembered seeing some of it on cable back in the 80s and it struck me even as a kid that our "heroes" were scumbags who broke the law as much as the villain! I'm kinda shocked that Maltin only rates it *1/2, mainly due to the film having no one to cheer for (then again he gives Blade Runner *1/2 and Taxi Driver **). To everyone who has seen it, post comments. What was up with the ending scene? What do you think of the car chase? Performances? Etc.

It won't remotely be nominated, it's not even really getting much in the way of critical acclaim. Having a 50/50 split over the film is hardly the way to get Oscars, though I don't think that's what Gibson had in mind. The bizarre thing to me is that people say "This is the best Jesus film ever" when it doesn't really (from what I hear) cover anything but the torture and death. Movies like King of Kings cover most of Jesus's life. Greatest Story Ever Told did pretty well at the box office in 1965 but lost all sorts of money since it made about 6 million and cost 20 million.

Sherman Oaks was a really fun show and I wonder why it was cancelled. The characters are still etched in my mind: the doctor dad who was cheating on the mom with the blond bimbo, the airhead mom, the wigger son, the blond bimbo daughter, etc. Heh.

Let's hope that OSU loss tones down the hype for them a bit. Their fans are getting obnoxious with all this Eddie Sutton love crap. The man still ran UK into the ground, regardless of what he has done since. I also gotta comment on the mid major thing. Teams like Memphis and St. Joes aren't mid majors. CUSA is a pretty big time conference. When you talk about getting 5 or 6 teams into the dance, that's a major conf. (don't forget DePaul might get in). The A 10 is a decent league most of the time, it's just that all of that league's perennial contenders (UMass, Temple, Xavier) are all having crappy years. I define mid major by this: Can a team from that conference possibly get a top seed? St. Joes will be a 1 this year, but I don't think Gonzaga will be as high as some think. Recall that they were about 28-3 two years ago and got a 6 despite being ranked #6.

After this tag run with Booker is over RVD desperately needs to go to SMDN. His contract will be up then so it's a logical angle to do (Heyman signs him) if he resigns. This might sound goofy but one problem Jericho has is that he gets involved too often with chicks and he never gets to nail them. Heh. Think about it, his partnership with Chyna was a bizarre co IC champ deal, but he was hardly nailing her. The whole Steph thing could have worked if Jericho was fucking her and making Trips pissed over it. I sense a similar vibe with this Trish angle, but hopefully Y2J gets a little this time around.

I kinda always though Ghul was an Arab type guy, that's the closest to what his name sounds like.

Let's see.....Jewish groups are up in arms over the film, saying that it will cause Anti Semitism to run rampant. The Vatican wanted to see it as well, etc. The Passion is R rated but not in a way that would be cause adults to say "I don't want my kid seeing that." I'm guessing it's rated R due to crucifying Jesus, torture, etc. From what I've heard, it'll make about 40 million in the first weekend.

Jericho: I think Jericho was basically sabotaged from day 1. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious: Chyna. Him jobbing to Chyna cleanly just killed his credibility in my eyes. He's never quite recovered from that angle. Booker: There wasn't one moment, but I'd say having him as a wannabe Rock wasn't a good idea. Made him look 2nd rate and killed his heat. RVD: Oh, they had their chances. I'd say RVD was very over up until about Unforgiven of last year. That match was pretty much the dagger.

Here's the thing: people shouldn't work RVD's leg in a match. It's a surefire formula for a crappy match. RVD can't do any of his offense in that situation. Note that in that one match Jericho worked his shoulder and he sold that just fine, and got in most of his offense.

Look, Angle was never trying to be Eddie's friend in all of this. He came off smarmy and insincere (which are Angle's strengths I think) in his attempts to "help" the Guerrero family. It's not that hard to explain some of this stuff: --Angle comes back from injury, notes that Eddie is on a wave of popularity and could be a serious threat to the title, but that he's being held down by tagging with Chavo. Thus, Angle attempts to keep Eddie buried with Chavo rather than have them part ways and Eddie become a superstar. --This plan didn't work, since Angle is a smarmy, insincere scumbag and the Guerreros were well past salvaging as a team. Chalk it up as Kurt Failure #1. --Still, Kurt had his shot to be #1 contender and to keep Eddie down, so he attacked him before the SMDN Rumble. This didn't work though as Eddie came back and won it, eliminating Kurt. Kurt Failure #2. --Eddie wins the title at No Way Out, despite Angle's attempts to hamper his career. This is the final straw, and since Kurt had his title shot in the bag there was no point in being Mr. Nice Guy anymore. Combine this with his frustrations over failing to keep Eddie down, and he lost it and did the heel turn. There, I just explained that in the Sydney Greenstreet "Maltese Falcon" style.

I don't think Eddie is a transition champion. It makes utterly no sense to job him to Angle at WM. If he was just a transition champion I don't think they would have had the confetti and balloons. As I've said, we know what Kurt will do with the title as either heel or face....and to be honest it won't likely be much in terms of drawing big money. I know someone pointed out that Angle's first title run drew big money, but that was also during the time when Austin, HHH, The Rock, and UT were around so who could tell if it was really him drawing. Right now Eddie has a chance to draw some real money, they'd be morons not to take advantage.

Eddie was doing a lot of subtle cheating in the match tonight, minor things like faking a hair pull in order to gain an advantage. Little things. You gotta at least mention the part with Angle trying to help Eddie and Chavo. Angle can say at first he wanted to help, but eventually saw things Chavo's way and agreed that Eddie was a sleazy, cheating former addict. And when Eddie won the title that way Kurt just couldn't take it anymore and had to ACT NOW. Hence the heel turn.

Really good SMDN tonight mainly for the Eddie/Kurt stuff. That said next week Angle needs to pull off one hell of a heel promo explaining all this stuff: his intervention with Eddie and Chavo, who has been attacking who in the back (i.e. he attacked Eddie, faked his own attack, and maybe had Chavo Sr. fake it too), his frustration with losing to Eddie in the Royal Rumble, and Eddie cheating to win the title finally made him snap. I know Anglesault will cry out about the Eddie/Chavo part of the angle, but it has to be touched on if nothing else for Angle to say "Eddie, I tried to help you guys out....but now I'm gonna break your damn legs. You've got MY title."

Why remake a cheesy one like Amityville Horror anyway? Is there anyone out there dying to see this?

I don't think that this No Way Out PPV should be taken into huge consideration when it comes to Eddie's drawing power. There wasn't really anything else of note on the card, and I'm not sure how many people would buy a PPV for just one match alone.

I don't necessarily blame Barnett for not wanting a female kicker. I remember at one time during the horrid Ron Cooper Era at U of L we had a female kicker who was a backup. On the last game of the season people whined because she didn't get in the game (it was a blowout), and all that crap. Unless you have the female Mike Vanderjagt there's really no reason to bother with a female kicker. All it can do is cause problems. That said, Barnett was a moron for saying all this to the media, especially at this point in time. My jaw damn near dropped. It's safe to say he'll be gone in a month's time.

It's not like the Torch is THAT credible either to be honest. Meltzer is the only one who seems to deliver the goods in terms of these scandal sheets. HHH retaining makes utterly no sense at all, not gonna happen. I can see Shawn winning just to bring that whole angle to some closure, and then Benoit goes after him for stealing his shot and all. HHH winning to close a 5 HOUR show though? I would hope MSG would riot.

RVD got by with a lot of stuff in ECW because they could edit the tape for TV. Thus, a lot of his stalling, missed spots, etc. never saw the light of day on TV. Also, ECW matches had this kinetic energy and vibe to them....the crowds were just so rabid that it covered some of the weaknesses of the wrestlers. I'm a very big RVD fan even now, and I find it sad to see him not giving a shit anymore and just cashing the check. When he's motivated and in the proper environment, he's amazing (say in a hardcore match or a ladder match, most times). However, he's been shit on so much over the past 1 1/2 years that he just doesn't care, and you can tell.

I actually got it off amazon.com, never occurred to me to check at Walmart. At the time this movie was shot (1989/90) I would doubt that Garth would have had a star on the walk of fame, since he was just getting big about that time.

I was glad to get the DVD of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane recently. It was odd because I don't remember it even coming out, that's how low key the release was. I went to both Best Buy and Suncoast and neither even had it, saying that it wasn't being stocked due to the film's content if you can believe that. I've never understood the bashing this film took when it came out. I suppose since it came out in 1990 the whole PC movement started and Dice was screwed, but if this came out today it would make quite a bit of money. What do you guys think of Ford Fairlane?

I wouldn't be shocked if Benoit doesn't win, and to be honest his reception on Raw has been a bit lukewarm. It's just that the way he left SMDN just doesn't make any sense to the average fan. There's no logic behind why he left, nor is there any explanation for it. I think it is really hurting his heat on Raw. As far as HHH/Edge goes, I dunno about it. Can't really see Edge getting a title shot immediately after being gone so long, so let's hope it's non title.

I'm amazed as to why people are debating this. Of COURSE there should be an RVD DVD, hell they could do a 2 disc set if they wanted to (1 ECW, 1 WWF). I'd say that maybe people like Eddie should have one first though, since he has ECW, WCW, and WWF stuff to go through. People forget some good angles RVD was involved in: Sabu respect feud, the WWF/ECW angle from 1997, the various stuff against the Dudleys with Sabu, the Lynn feud, etc. On the WWF disc it'd be easy to chronicle the initial reaction RVD got during the Invasion angle, the Jeff stuff, the Jericho match from Unforgiven, his problems in the Alliance with Austin, then his IC matches with Eddie. For the love of god stop after SS 2002 though, his career has been shit since.

So does this mean the story about Brosnan being released isn't true? I thought they were going with someone new.

I didn't care about most of it but I'll rate the main 3 matches: Rey/Chavo: ***1/2. I actually liked that 2001 match better despite Rey screwing up in it (it was the epitome of Chavo's awesomeness at carrying). This one was good too though. Angle/Show/Cena: ***. Just sorta what these guys would do against each other, no better or worse. How come no one has mentioned the incredibly gay looking spot of Kurt trying to German suplex show off the apron? Eddie/Brock: ****1/2. My brother wasn't too thrilled with this match actually, and found the Brock mat based stuff hugely boring. Still, there was much to rejoice about here. I've never seen an STF get that much pop, and I'm the only one here who thought the run in and ref bump ADDED to this match. I hate it when a run in is pointless and could be avoided, but here the show was basically hyped around a Goldberg run in so no one could object to it. Besides, Eddie won the title and that was just a magic moment. They need to trade RVD or someone to SMDN now though to give him someone to feud with.