cabbageboy

Flair actually did control quite a bit of the middle of that match. Besides, this is wrestling....can you imagine a judge actually awarding a belt to someone on such a decision without pinning the champ or making his submit? The single dumbest booking on that note was RVD/Lynn from Living Dangerously 99. Very good match but the booking was mindnumbing. The time limit expired and the ref was just going to give Jerry Lynn the ECW TV title, just because he thought in his own mind Lynn was ahead on points. I was watching this with a group of people and at first everyone was puzzled as to why Lynn was almost awarded a belt he in no way had won, then once Styles chimed in that the ref simply thought Lynn had been more dominant in the bout everyone in the room was like "This is fucking stupid! He can't just give Lynn the belt for the hell of it!"

For whatever deranged reason I sometimes wonder about that final US tag title match. Why on earth would WCW want a makeshift team like Slater and Barbarian as the last champs instead of the Freebirds? Did Hayes and Garvin want to lose the belts as to not be "the team that killed the US belts?" Oddly enough I could probably stomach Vader more than Yoko since he at least seemed tough and vicious and was also at least having good matches. Besides, WCW had 2 different world titles floating around on the same show back then, so if you didn't like Vader you could focus on the other (bogus) belt. Yoko should have jobbed to Luger at SS 93. Not saying he couldn't have won it back on Raw at some point and then done the UT feud, and then lost it to Bret for good....but Luger was built quite well and they needed to pay that angle off. Instead we got about 10 months of uninterrupted Yokozuna tedium.

I dunno about everyone else but my HD feed of SD looks like crap. I almost felt like turning to the standard channel since the HD feed has so many breakups and blurry crap in it. It has to be the network since the Rumble HD broadcast looked great.

There's no point in having HHH constantly lose to Cena. HHH has already put this man over at WM in Chicago, he jobbed to him at Backlash after that as well. HHH jobbed to him in the Rumble this year. Don't you think it's time for HHH to finally get something back on Cena? Seriously if HHH jobs again at WM this year they need to stop main eventing him at WMs in title matches.

I watched the Clash last night and it was your typical NWA show of the time period...namely very solid ring work and insane booking that wrecked the company. As a kid I wondered why on earth they would start a major show with an Amateur Rules match that went to a 1 count. This is a show where in theory they are trying to attract new viewers and they begin with THAT? Then follow with a hell on wheels US tag match that had a goofy Dusty Finish that pissed me off as a kid. I did quite like the Windham/Luger vs. Horsemen match. Then they also take 20 mins. to set up this barbed wire for a match that lasted all of about 5 minutes. Oh, and a main event title match that went 45 mins. and then the judges had a split decision. Gotta love the judges: Gary Juster (a WCW promoter), Sandy Scott (retired wrestler), some Penthouse Pet chick (!?), Jason Hervey from the Wonder Years, and some dude from a Leave it to Beaver show. Actually it turned out that Hervey and the one Beaver dude weren't judges, though I dunno why since they were sitting at the table. Obviously the Penthouse chick picked Flair. He probably nailed her in the back before the show. Is it any wonder Jim Crockett was going under and had to sell to Turner?

That's odd. I always kinda figured Rude was getting the title since he hadn't had the world title yet, and that going back to Vader was the panic move once Rude went down. Man, the WWF and WCW both did the same unbeatable fat fuck heel champ thing in 1993. Is it any wonder the industry really hit the skids around that time?

That MyNetworkTV station is basically what became of my local UPN channel once that merger happened with the WB. It's also an HD channel for me and in fact is just 1 spot on the dial from CW. So that would be fine with me...the HD feed can't be worse.

So from the sound of this HHH basically wants Cena at this WM so he can beat him instead of Orton? I don't think HHH can afford another WM main event loss, since he hasn't actually won at WM since 2003 vs. Booker T. What is Orton going to do at WM then? Job out to Batista? Do nothing in another MITB match?

Yeah and also aside from Vader I don't think Simmons really had any other heel challengers. I think they were going to have Rude beat him for the belt, but Rude got hurt. So he was left to screw around with The Barbarian and what not. WCW did have its dubious aspects in 1992, stuff like the top rope rule and all that.

There are really two halves to 1992 WCW. The first half was more the K. Allen Frey regime with the Dangerous Alliance being the main heels, but by mid year Watts had taken over and things shifted from that angle to Sting/Vader and Williams and Gordy started destroying people. There was some great action in WCW circa 1992 and really makes me wonder if Flair was ever as essential to their promotion as people think. On a weekly basis it was probably stronger than the WWF, but the WWF's best matches from that period are still my favorites. I do think my favorite WCW show ever was from 1992. It was the show where Jake Roberts debuted and attacked Sting, leaving him unable to face Vader for the world title. A lottery was held and Ron Simmons won the title shot and then he went on to beat Vader. This was just captivating storytelling that made you really CARE about what you were seeing. I'm amazed no one has done an angle like this again.

Wanna know what's more confusing? OVW actually used to run out of Jeffersonville, IN for a long while until getting the new Davis Arena in Newburg. J'Ville is just across the Ohio River on the IN side. I can see WWE officials not wanting to go to Newburg to observe OVW. It's the worst area of Louisville that isn't the West End.

Lushus, but eventually the WWF had the common sense to turn Shawn heel. Right now they are just going to keep Cena in this same stale role for eternity. Aside from the notorious Survivor Series 96 show at MSG where HBK was booed big time, there weren't that many instances of Shawn being booed out of a building.

I get the feeling that dude from Lexington is a Colts fan. Personally I've never wished death on any rival teams, maybe wish they would just start sucking. I did revel in Kenyon Martin's season ending injury in 2000, but then I was having an ultra shitty week and needed something to amuse me.

It may have been online but the one I saw on 24/7 cable was Macho getting a somewhat sneaky roll up win over Steamboat.

How? Brock/Benoit is a mediocre drawing match to start and we would have seen it on free TV with a clean finish to boot. I could maybe see it if Heyman had screwed Benoit in some massive fashion.

I don't know if that means OVW is actually going to shut down though. Bear in mind OVW was a regional independent promotion before landing a WWF development deal. I figure the first real blow to OVW was when Cornette was fired for smacking the trainee (which we later learned was Santino). They managed to keep things going with Heyman booking but once Heyman left to do the ECW revival then OVW was basically screwed. From there it was the debacle of the Greg Gagne regime that wrecked the territory and in my opinion OVW never recovered. Once FCW was announced as a new development league I knew OVW's days as #1 development league were done. Bit by bit the main stars in OVW were sent down to FL. Cause let's face it, if you are a WWE executive are you really going to want to mess with coming down to Louisville for something other than the Derby? Or would you rather forget that trip and go down to Florida? OVW's legacy is a decidedly mixed bag. While it was fun to have a feeder league right down the road from me, did OVW really produce that many solid workers? I almost feel that OVW's restrictive style held back the more advanced workers and didn't give the newer rookies a chance to learn much besides the absolute basics.

Ah, but Eddie was still more over than Benoit on SD and that show has a bigger Latino demo than Raw, so Eddie going to Raw made no sense. Also, Benoit flat out lost to Lesnar clean on free TV...are we supposed to now buy him as a title threat at WM?

Oh, WCW in 1999-2000 desperately needed a strong face world champion and Goldberg was that guy. It seemed like guys were either getting hurt or having personal issues every day back then. I even thought they had a shot at maybe turning it around with a strong Steiner/Goldberg feud, but the titles and promotion were such a wreck at that point that I don't know.

Duke is doing well right now but UNC was screwed tonight without Lawson. The problem that Duke is inevitably going to have is in the tourney when they have to play some tough, grinder teams. Pitt already exposed them somewhat on that level, so what if they run into a better Big East team like G'Town? Or a more physical UCLA squad?

Tito was one hell of a worker really, it's a shame a lot of people recall his post Strike Force job boy duties rather than his IC days feuding with Muraco, Valentine, and Savage. The best match I've seen on any of these WWF house shows was from right before WM 3...Savage vs. Steamboat. From Maple Leaf Gardens I think. It was a longer match than WM and I swear it may have been even better.

I never much cared about seeing a Brock/Benoit PPV match. Maybe it's because I have no idea who would have carried such a feud on the mic, unless maybe Heyman was involved. Thing is, Eddie was more over than Benoit on SD and HHH wanted a fresh opponent on Raw, so Benoit won the Rumble and jumped to Raw.

Man, not only did Kidman lose Torrie but she is now dating the least talented member of the Spirit Squad.

Okay, to back up a bit. In no way was I trying to devalue the 1985 Bears. They had no control over the weak AFC and who they played in the Super Bowl, but I bet they wanted a rematch with Miami so they could avenge that lone defeat. Instead they got a lame Pats team. I will give the 85 Bears this over the 84 Niners: Their 2 playoff opponents were a bit tougher. The Giants and Rams in 85 were a little better than the Giants and Bears from 84.

I've mentioned this before on other topics but WCW was still doing a 4.4 or so when DDP first won the belt. When he lost it they were down to a 3.4. DDP as a heel had zero heat and it just literally came out of nowhere. Having already noted that the real money was in Goldberg going after Hogan and the NWO, they also had the Flair/Hogan stuff going. Where the hell did DDP fit into ANY of this?

I live in a strange area when it comes to football allegiances. In theory the Bengals are sorta the local team for Louisville but they've been so pathetic for largely the past 15 or so years that they really have no fans here anymore. The Colts have definitely gained fans here over the past decade, though I liked them during the Jim Harbaugh years as well. The Rams and maybe even Titans have some fans here as well. Packers have a few fans, but GB has fans everywhere. As somewhat of a fan of that Rams team in 2001, the Patriots initially irked me by winning that Super Bowl. I wasn't ultra pissed, but it seemed so utterly fraudulent. The Patriots seemed like the same sort of lame duck jobber that they were in 1985 and 96, namely a mediocre team that lucked out and got to the Super Bowl only to be beat down by a truly great team. But what the hell, they won. Fine. Then they actually did it again in 2003, which I found most unwelcome since I didn't like the team, didn't find them especially talented, and of course they kept beating my favorite team (Colts). I think that is what drove me up the wall about these guys...it always seemed like it was stuff the Colts kept messing up rather than any great talent the Pats had. The goal line stand in 2003....you're telling me Edgerrin James couldn't have simply punched that in? Or the various weird shit that happened in that season opener in 2004, stuff like James fumbling in the red zone, goal line, and Manning being sacked at the worst possible moment that knocked them just enough out of FG range. Last year was fun to see the Colts finally beat these guys, but at this point the Pats are in serious "get off the stage" territory. I almost wonder if we might see the NFC start to reign again, with the Giants likely to contend in future years, the Cowboys are certainly competitive again (though who knows if Romo will ever really do anything in the playoffs), and Green Bay is a young team that could likely do well even after Favre retires.