cabbageboy

Good job, Providence. For some reason I thought Pitt would lose to someone off the radar, as in not UConn or Marquette. Now I just hope Marquette can take out UConn tomorrow night, then U of L can beat the crap out of Marquette on Sunday and be in the driver's seat. This is all the best case scenario for my guys anyway.

2Gold, FSU is in fine shape. They have an RPI of 17 so it would take some massive 4 game meltdown at the end here to not make the tourney. If anything FSU is right in line for a decent seed, like a 5 or 6. Maryland and VA Tech likely aren't getting in. How is Maryland even ON the bubble given how horrid they've been this year? The Terps have had a ton of really awful 20-30 (or even 40) point beatings this year, including a 30 point assrape from Clemson the same week they beat UNC. Both MD and VT are going to end up under .500 in conference, and if that's the case they shouldn't make it.

I don't really buy the Suns being the 00s version of the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets were never a real threat to a team like the Lakers, never had a 1 seed, really just had 2 years of even winning 50 games in the decade (52 wins in 1985, 54 in 1988). The main problem the Suns had is that guys kept getting injured or simply had bad luck. Joe Johnson missed some of the 2005 Spurs series, Stoudamire was gone for the 2006 playoffs or they may well have beaten the Mavs, and we all know what happened to them in the 07 Spurs series with the suspensions.

That review previously where the guy trashed it brought up an interesting point. Adrian Veidt is a character that needed to be played by a major star. Thing is, who exactly could play that role? It's almost an unplayable role since there's almost no way the audience will buy what he's selling at the end of the film. The review mentioned Tom Cruise but he doesn't seem like a great choice either since he's far too small. Maybe Laurence Olivier circa the 1940s or 50s could have pulled off this role.

This stuff sounds totally insane. Who knows what to make of the Don West angle, but somehow I don't think it means he's gone. It's a typical goofy Russo angle with an announcer turning heel.

I quite liked the Steamboat angle tonight since him being beat up was the first time in this Jericho storyline that I've felt he went after someone who truly didn't deserve it. These other guys like Flair and Piper actually have outstayed their welcome to varying degrees, whereas Steamboat retired 15 years ago and has largely stayed out of the spotlight. As far as the whole Michaels/UT angle goes, this Kozlov stuff is ultra frustrating. On the No Way Out thread (and also a few SD threads) I mentioned how it was stupid to put Kozlov in the EC match since he would have to lose but then they would keep hyping him anyway. And guess what? They quite literally are trying to act like he didn't lose clean in the middle on the last PPV! This is like Sid in 1999 x 100. Won't really matter though, since he's hopefully losing next week and there will be no doubt about it.

The Jeff Hardy storyline was probably SD's most interesting stuff over the past year, so of course WWE jettisons the guy who had a hand in it. Anyway, just because Vince nixed the Christian idea doesn't mean Christian won't be on SD before long. There's a draft in a couple months and it makes no sense for him to be on ECW. I do have to wonder though....why did Christian think Vince would now think he was this surefire main event guy when he never has in the past? Did he think Vince cared about his TNA run or followed it?

What exactly would an empty arena match do to increase business? Quite literally it's a match contested in front of zero fans and people can't pay to see it.

Most of this didn't surprise me at all right down to Penn over Rourke. Once the "Mickey at WM" rumors started there was no way he was winning so in that regard he basically screwed himself. Even Penn tonight put him over as if to say "Sorry dude, I probably don't deserve this." The sad part of this is that some will say Rourke will have another day or that he's back. This was his day. He's more likely to drift into B movies again than he is to sustain a leading man career.

While it's a bit early yet to put Steve Kerr in the worst ever category, what he's done to the Suns the past couple of seasons has been wretched. Running D'Antoni out of town, trading for Shaq with no thought as to how he fits, hiring Terry Porter to implement a slow down system that doesn't work with the personnel. Stoudamire hasn't been traded yet, but who knows.

I'm surprised to see this Madea movie make 41 million...knew it would be #1 this week but not with that much. Thought it might make more like 30 million. As far as Taken goes, I finally saw it this weekend. It's pretty good and certainly fast moving but really it's more of a serious minded Commando with weaker villains. Nice to see Neeson in a hit though.

Not a chance. Memphis has done nothing to warrant it. Here's the top 5 as it likely will go down: 1. Pitt (Rock solid, no bad losses.) 2. UConn (Lost to the soon to be #1 team, shouldn't go down much. Without Dyson could be in for a slide however.) 3. Oklahoma (Yes, they lost the 2nd game but it was without Griffin so can they really be penalized much for it?) 4. UNC (OT loss against a mediocre but desperate Maryland. It happens, though Carolina does show a touch of dogging it in some games) 5. Memphis (They'll move up 1 spot since Michigan St. lost, but beating scrubs in C-USA doesn't warrant moving past more accomplished teams.)

I went with Dibiase. He seems like such an obvious fit that not even the burial he's had recently via Shane beating him down can hurt him in the long run. Once he splits from Orton how hard is it to book this guy as a singles? It's the Million Dollar Man's son! Give him a killer sports car, a manservant in the Virgil mold, let me throw money around, and this guy will get over. Morrison and Miz simply seem like tag wrestlers to me. Miz isn't that great of a worker, but Morrison can carry the in ring aspect. Morrison has a great look but is almost anti charismatic on the mic, but the Miz can work the mic in annoying heel fashion.

Thing is, getting a clean win over a guy doesn't mean much when he still gets a push at the end of the day and the younger guy drifts into oblivion. Lethal got a win over Angle so that they could get the X title off him, nothing more. Joe got a win but was booked so ineptly afterwards that he wore out his welcome as champ. Styles got some wins but the whole Karen storyline went nowhere. Meanwhile Angle forms the MEM and runs roughshod over the entire promotion.

Come to think of it, Rock had the IC belt handed to him by Vince in Dec. 1997 and then in Nov. 1998 had the world title handed to him in a Montreal screwjob type deal. In retrospect the whole Austin/Rock 1997 mini feud set up the Corporation quite nicely. Before then Vince was relying on madmen like Mankind, Kane, and even UT to some degree to take out Austin. But those guys weren't really corporate. The Rock was everything that Vince wanted in a champ.

I can't even recall the other. But they did try it in 2001 at some point and it was highly forgettable. Was Matt involved with the Alliance at all, or was that about something else entirely? This angle is going to wreck Matt Hardy's career. It's similar to Owen Hart in some ways, but the thing is circa 1993 Owen really had no career to ruin. He was a JTTS doing nothing. Matt was at least ECW champion and could always count on getting a decent pop. Sure, he could be a silly heel like he was with Shannon Moore, but he was hardly trying to kill his brother. Owen at least had this ultra annoying quality that could put a feud over on the mic to some extent. But here's where it truly will misfire: In the ring. Unless this is some sort of gimmick match it really won't be anything outstanding. In fact in other threads I pondered whether they should even waste Jeff on this at WM. Why not have Jeff face Matt on the undercard and get the winner of Cena/Edge if they really want to riff on the Bret/Owen feud?

The hilarious aspect of that finale is that The Rock got the IC belt in the lamest way ever and he held it until Summerslam 98! He mostly screwed Shamrock at every turn during that run, including the revisiting of Bret/Lawler at WM XIV. In that case it was more tolerable though since Shamrock was a goof who did that sort of thing to himself all the time.

A combo of Heyman and Russo would be a fun booking team. Heyman is much better at building to the big match and seeing the big picture, but in ECW he had guys leaving left and right so that his big picture ended up ruined more often than not. Russo can handle the undercard guys and give them gimmicks and angles to get them over, but wouldn't be hotshotting anything that truly mattered.

Oh, that level of language was a typical Raw from 1997-99. In fact it wasn't really one of the more shocking shows in terms of language. For the sake of sanity I hadn't mentioned Jarrett's bizarre gimmick. Who knows what they were going for with it but the notion of him getting over seemed like a longshot. As far as Lawler/BC go, it'll be nice when Christopher gets buried for a while so Lawler can be put at the booth full time with JR. In regards to Tom Brandi, why didn't they push this guy at all? He has a solid look and had at least a little talent. Could have been an IC contender, but after stuff like Mero burying him so hard on the mic he was almost impossible to take seriously.

Having watched those clips here's an observation. I almost think this movie would be better off if it had bigger name stars in it. For instace George Clooney could rock big time as The Comedian since he has a ton of charisma that Jeffrey Dean Morgan just seems to lack in these clips. Obviously they needed someone else as Veidt but it's a difficult role and no one comes to mind. Still definitely hyped for this movie, but I do wonder if the notion of "barely known actors playing lesser known superheroes" is a good strategy.

Just watched that Raw and wow, it was the Russo experience left and right. Nothing but angles out the ass, barely any wrestling, promos galore. Given the roster of that era that isn't a bad thing exactly, but is there any excuse for a match where Vader gets counted out against JJ (Goldust distraction) and then they follow with the same exact silliness with Mero/Brandi? Mero's rant on Brandi was hilarious and total Russo, calling him "A jobber with a bad gimmick." However, the show is very worthwhile for the legendary HBK promo where he trashes Owen Hart and calls him a nugget. As a matter of fact while watching these old Raws on 24/7 I've come to this conclusion: Shawn Michaels' heel run from Summerslam 1997 (or right after) until WM XIV is the greatest heel work in history. He was a total dick on and off camera, but after screwing Bulldog in England, ripping off UT in the HIAC and the Casket Match, winning the title due to the Montreal Screwjob, and generally being an ass every week I couldn't wait to see Austin crush him at WM.

Here is one riddle to this Hardys feud that WWE is going to have a hard time figuring out: Matt Hardy just got his ass kicked repeatedly by a rookie like Jack Swagger in ECW, so why are we supposed to believe he can beat his brother Jeff (who was just WWE champion)? This feud almost feels like filler for Jeff until he can get back in the title scene.

I'm a little confused. On the previous week's spoilers there was a match set up by Vickie where either HBK/JBL would face Kozlov to get to The Undertaker. But on this show Kozlov beats Taker and there's no sign of either Raw guy. Maybe this is to set up Kozlov as a monster heel, then Shawn can beat him en route to UT? Michaels can then say "Dead Man, I took out Kozlov and the guy beat you clean in the middle."

Hmm....I wonder if WWE has already given up on the Matt/Jeff program? It really hasn't been all that interesting thus far, just Matt cutting a snoozer promo and beating up The Hurricane. This might end up hurting Matt Hardy in the end, since he worked as a goofball heel in the past but just doesn't have the mic skills to pull off a vicious heel.

Here we go with comments when needed: NL East: New York 93 (They won't do the choke this year until the playoffs.) Florida 90 (You want ominous? 1997....2003....2009. Anyone else smell wild card?) Philly 84 (The Phillies finally won it all but at some point relying on an old man like Jamie Moyer to get 16 wins will backfire.) Atlanta 70 (Just not much left there.) Washington 61 (Eh, someone has to be last.) Central: Chicago 96 (Cubs will win a bunch in the reg. season again, after that I have no idea.) St. Louis 89 (Cardinals will be a bit back on track but barely miss the playoffs.) Houston 87 (The Astros always come on strong late to my chagrin.) Milwaukee 86 (Slight fall off from last year with no Sabathia to save them.) Cincinnati 75 (About like last year.) Pittsburgh 66 (Just not ever any good these days.) West: Arizona 88 (If these guys could ever hit they could be dangerous.) Los Angeles 84 (Up and down like last year, regardless of Manny.) San Francisco 79 (A bit better but still not a major threat as is.) San Diego 63 Colorado 61 AL East: Tampa Bay 98 (Am I missing something here? I didn't see much fluke about this team last year. They are young and with Price now starting could have the ace they lacked last year.) Boston 94 (Solid and steady, pitching maybe slightly better, hitting I dunno so much.) New York 90 (They got Sabathia but lost Mussina's 20 wins. The other moves like Burnett and Teixiera are just...eh.) Toronto 84 (Not really that bad of a team but just in a stacked division.) Baltimore 70 (Someone has to finish last.) Central: Minnesota 90 Chicago 89 (Basically just a switch from last year with these top teams.) Detroit 81 (Still an underachieving, highly paid team.) Cleveland 78 (Their days of contending might be over for now.) Kansas City 71 (Typical last place Royals.) West: Oakland 89 (The A's are always lurking and ready to contend it seems like.) Anaheim 87 (Lost quite a bit and really weren't that great stats wise last year.) Texas 79 (If they could get some pitching I might pick them to win the division in the future.) Seattle 61 (Just a bad, bad team there.)