cabbageboy

Well, they certainly made up for the lack of Flair the past 2 shows cause he was all over this NWA show. Had the notable debut of the title belt, and a really embarrassing interview with Ron Garvin where he compared Flair to Hitler and Manson. He might a bit of a douche, Ronnie, but aren't you getting a bit carried away here?

I've never cared a huge amount about the 2002 Rumble. The winner was too blatantly going to be HHH, and he made damn sure to bury RVD in it before Booker casually tossed Van Dam. Hennig finishing 3rd didn't quite make up for that, but it came close. That Rumble was also the moment that pretty much showed that Austin was running out of steam.

No, Benoit goes under the category of "Those whose lives or careers were wrecked by the New ECW." Lashley actually fits in BOTH the Kennedy and WWECW categories.

The best we can hope for the Burchill/Katie Lea angle is that Katie simply is traded to Raw in a draft and she can feud with Beth Phoenix. A ladder match like they had in OVW for the women's belt would be great and get both over big. Since SD is the only show I can see in HD I now consider it the #1 WWE brand. After all, CW is available in HD in far more areas than USA.

You know, my brother said that the ECW run would end up killing Lashley's career. I didn't really buy it, but can anyone argue that Lashley wasn't better served being on Smackdown? He had plenty of veteran guys like Finlay and Booker to work win and he was getting over in a Batista lite sort of way. I don't recall much of any online vitriol directed at Lashley when he was US champ on SD. But the ECW run? It did these negative things to Lashley's career: --Began the wrath of the hardcore fans as he was beating the various ECW Original guys and not doing it like Big Show did (Extreme Rules) but just in typical matches. Most of which weren't that good. --The Vince feud put him in a position that fans didn't really buy him in yet. Once he jobbed to Vince under any circumstances, I started thinking he was a jobber. Lashley wasn't over enough with fans to job to Vince and have him not lose any face.

I read about that Dana Jacobson thing. Apparently she ranted about Notre Dame saying "Fuck Notre Dame! Fuck Touchdown Jesus! Oh, and fuck Jesus." And yes, I really hope there's a tape of this that surfaces.

Well, the problem is that Bulldog and Diesel weren't ever really friends so Bulldog turning on him didn't come off as some heinous act. Further, I'd say more fans liked Davey Boy than Nash at that point and didn't know how to react to Bulldog being a heel. Bulldog was never a very good heel, never did much that was vicious or mean.

This is fabulous. A 4 corners match over a RAT??? If there was ever instant Wrestlecrap then that match would be it. Do you ever think Russo books this stuff with some kind of kitsch value in mind?

I have to believe that Lashley was going to be a Wellness scapegoat and just wanted to be released. This is a shocking move though since WWE had invested a lot in pushing Lashley through 2007 and I always kinda liked the guy. He was put in a position where no one wanted to see him (ECW Champ) and a feud that went on far too long against Vince, but I thought he did have some actual talent. Yes, he was bad on the mic but some of his work against guys like Finlay and Cena showed promise.

I quite like UT's face turn in 1992. It was a key moment in establishing UT's character and parameters. While he was fine with shoving a man into a coffin or bodybag, the idea of hitting a woman with a chair was beneath him.

Why would Punk even want to mess with getting a rematch from Chavo? This nonsense tonight was the main way to get the belt off Punk without hurting him any. I'm assuming he veers more into the SD title scene, but I don't know how he would fit into it long term.

I Know Who Killed Me wouldn't have been THAT bad had she actually, you know, stripped when she was supposed to be a stripper. I'm sick of that bullshit. I had the same problem with Georgia Rule, she was a total skank but never was nude in it. It's like she wants to do edgy roles but refuses to go all the way with it. Kamala, I agree about Atonement. I remember first seeing the trailer before Eastern Promises and thinking "Man, that movie looks really boring and British." Incidentally Eastern Promises probably should have been nominated instead of Atonement. At least Viggo got a nod, cause let's face it if you've seen that movie you know this man will go to great lengths for his craft, haha.

Haha, UK just beat Tennessee. I might have to scratch the Vols off my FF list after that one. Anyone who loses to UK can't be considered a serious threat.

Oh, Hawk I wasn't trying to trash Michael Clayton. I'll check it out by all means once it hits DVD, but I'm just saying there was nothing in its buzz, critical reviews, and so on to suggest 7 Oscar nominations. That just makes it look like Clooney had some kind of pull. As I mentioned before it's getting 7.7 on imdb.com which suggests roughly a *** movie. On rottentomatoes it gets 87% (7.6 rating), which is very good. It gets 4/5 on allmovie.com. So yeah I'll check out MC on DVD. Now, Atonement? That I have no desire to see.

This shocked me. I will admit when I first saw this news report two things occurred to me: 1. Man, I hope Nolan got all his scenes in the can for The Dark Knight. And 2. This is going to be like watching The Crow. Anyway, I'm not going to jump to conclusions about what he was or wasn't on, or if he killed himself. Just going to wait until all the news comes out.

Yeah, I thought Brolin was excellent in NCFOM in a very difficult and understated role, while Bardem essentially just had to show up and kill a bunch of people (it would be like nominating Rutger Hauer for The Hitcher or something). I think Tommy Lee Jones' nomination is more for NCFOM than it is for Elah, but the thing is he really didn't do much in NCFOM until the last 20 mins. or so. I can't help but think Clooney must have some unreal pull since Michael Clayton just isn't getting the reviews or praise to deserve 7 nods. Personally I would have put Sweeney Todd, Eastern Promises, and Gone Baby Gone in the best picture category before either Atonement or Michael Clayton. I don't think either of those 2 will win though since they just aren't considered good enough. How can the Academy vote for either of those over NCFOM or TWBB when those latter two are getting vastly more critical praise? That said, I'm sticking with my Juno pick for best picture.

Well both were botched really, but what I meant by 1994 was that both men were supposed to touch at the same time but by all accounts Bret really won. Either way the 2005 Rumble was a much better overall match, and while it was botched the finish was at least in the end decisive. As far as the 1995 Rumble goes, that's just it.....it's impossible for me to put my personal feelings aside. In terms of Bret vs. Bulldog not being a draw, hell it only drew the biggest fucking crowd in WWF history for SummerSlam 1992 (if you buy that WM 3 was only 78,000). There was certainly more evidence that it would draw than face Diesel vs. heel Shawn. WM XI did the worst buyrate of any WM up to that point, so would Bret vs. Bulldog really have done worse than a 1.3 buyrate if they had played up the past history properly?

Some things here are truly puzzling. Why is Lethal jobbing at all to the heatless Devine, who is just riding the Dudleys' wave of heel antics? Why is Angelina Love going over ODB in any way, shape, or form? Why is Judas Mesias jobbing to Christian in a match with no build? Why are they wrestling at all? I'm no Judas fan, but if they are going to push him as a monster this seems strange. Why is Joe the MVP of TNA when he mostly jobbed in EVERY big match he had? Shouldn't Angle be the easy MVP choice? This is just puzzling booking.

Yeah, that HHH gauntlet thing was quite strange. It seemed like Regal wasn't really the 3rd man and I kept waiting for him to announce the real 3rd man. But then Regal just sorta....was. I think they realized HHH had nothing to do at the PPV if he wasn't in the Rumble, and that if Big Show was indeed the real 3rd man then it makes more sense to debut him at the Rumble and cost HHH the match.

Okay I'm not going to bother predicting all the categories here but I'll go with the main categories. Best picture: Juno. It got nominated, which I wondered about. I say it wins because it stands out from the competition here, which is full of ultra serious dramas that are mostly bleak. I think Sweeney Todd should have been nominated over either Atonement or Michael Clayton. Best actor: Daniel Day-Lewis. This is the easiest thing to predict in the entire race. Since I've got TWBB losing best picture they'll throw Day-Lewis a bone and give him the oscar. Best actress: Julie Christie. I have no idea about this really. Kind of a whatever field. Best supporting actor: Javier Bardem. I personally think there's others in this particular field that had tougher roles (Bardem basically kills a bunch of people and acts menacing), but they gotta give something to NCFOM. Best supporting actress: Amy Ryan. I think Gone Baby Gone should have gotten more nods, but this is the one category where I feel fairly certain. Best director: Paul Thomas Anderson. I'm not really sure about this, but I don't think the Academy has ever been too Coen friendly. So I'll take Anderson.

I've heard good things about Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but it probably will get best foreign film rather than be in the best picture category where it has zero shot. I am also a bit puzzled by the Michael Clayton hype. It looks pretty good, but not best picture type good. Clooney would be nominated but the film didn't get many **** type reviews, more in the *** range. On imdb.com it's getting 7.7, compared to NCFOM at 8.7, TWBB at 9.0 (!!), Juno 8.4, Sweeney Todd at 8.3, and so on. I'm still calling Juno for best picture. TWBB will get Day-Lewis best actor and maybe director, but I feel it will split votes with NCFOM. Anyone else think this will happen?

I don't think HHH purposely was fucking with Steiner in that match. He himself came off looking like shit almost as much as Steiner, so he had nothing to gain. Here are my brief thoughts on every Rumble: 1988: Just the first one, a trial. Can't really rate it against the others. 1989: This sucked pretty bad. All of the big time guys like Hogan and Savage were gone by the end, and we get Big John Studd as a winner when no one cared. 1990: This was a very good Rumble with an awesome Hogan/Warrior bit, but I don't get why Hogan won this to be honest. DiBiase was great here. 1991: Very underrated. Martel was the iron man here and this time Hogan winning definitely made sense and had to be done. 1992: Best Rumble ever, most on the line ever. Flair delivers one of the best performances I've ever seen in a match, and the numerous storylines weave into it. Classic, classic stuff. Must see. 1993: This started out well enough with some big name guys in it, but man by the end it really ran out of steam. The Gonzalez run in killed it, as did Yoko's win. Backlund was superb however. 1994: Middling stuff here, really lame and botched finish. As befitting the mid 90s Rumbles, there's a severe lack of star power here. 1995: As noted, an abomination. 1 min. intervals, a truly heinous finish that I can't stand, and I hated Michaels at this point. Burn the fucking tape. 1996: This time everyone knew HBK was winning. The Rumble was pretty bleh and uneventful really, don't recall much about it. Not good by any means. 1997: Austin kicks all sorts of jobber ass in this one. Another dumbshit finish though that set up all sorts of controversy and in a way helped lead to a lousy WM buyrate. The Fake Diesel lasts to the end of this too, dear god. 1998: Austin obviously had to win and this accomplished what it needed to. Rock was great in this and the various Foley appearances were amusing although they telegraph that he can't win. 1999: Certainly not good but it is at least car wreck amusing in the Russo vein. Vince winning sucked, and I have wondered ever since why more people don't just hang around outside the ring during the Rumble. 2000: Taka's elimination was funny and Rikishi has his moments, but I don't especially like this Rumble. Not the worst, but not great. Rock needed a decisive Rumble win but we get this Big Show bullshit instead. 2001: Very good Rumble, near great. Austin won since he had to, but it was Kane that carried the mail here. 2002: A very mixed bag. The winner was obvious (HHH). And he made sure to bury poor RVD and some others, which pissed me off to no end. But Mr. Perfect DID finish 3rd, so that saves it from any sort of Bottom 5. 2003: I don't even remember this Rumble aside from Lesnar winning in lame fashion with #29. If this was the one with Maven eliminating UT, then that was hilarious. Or was that 2002? 2004: Putting aside Benoit, this was one of the best Rumbles. A truly great final sequence as Big Show destroys everyone until it's down to him vs. Benoit, and Benoit somehow gets it done. Not as good as 1992 though, since it doesn't have quite the storylines involved, and Benoit doesn't COMMAND the Rumble like Flair did. Know what I mean? 2005: A very good Rumble that managed to have some controversy and yet a clear winner in the end (Batista). Also a key Cena moment in his near win. Near great. 2006: I didn't like it much. HHH and Rey going the distance was so cliched and tiresome, especially when one is a midget with zero shot of lasting that long. This one showed that the "1-2 entrants lasting an hour" stuff had jumped the shark. 2007: Speaking of which, this was non formula since #30 finally won (UT). Perfectly booked in nearly every aspect from the Final 4 to the last 2 and UT vs. HBK is classic stuff. One of the best Rumbles.

Watching Raw tonight I noticed something amusing. Ever notice that when a champion is someone who really sucks or that the crowd doesn't buy, they always try and say "He could be the greatest WWE champion of all time!?" They kept saying this about Orton tonight and it's utterly laughable given how lame his title run has been. To review: --Won the belt, immediately lost to HHH, but got it back at the end of the PPV after HHH had wrestled 3 times. --Got DQed vs. HBK by hitting him in the balls. Then won a rematch only because Shawn wasn't allowed to actually use his finisher. --Lost by DQ AGAIN, this time to a rusty Jericho when an announcer from another show did a run in for no very good reason. --Has been getting his ass kicked on a weekly basis by Jeff Hardy. So how does any of this equal Orton being an all time champion? Anyway watching Raw was frustrating tonight since it was obviously in HD but I couldn't see it in HD, and thus at times parts of the ring seemed cut off like a pan and scan. Hopefully SD will be more enjoyable and I'll get to revel in the new UT and Kane entrances.

I don't see HHH getting back into the Rumble. It makes zero sense at all to strip him of his Rumble spot and then just kinda give it back. Vince will screw him in some way. I'm somewhat excited about the new HD stuff but I can't get USA or Sci Fi in HD. I can get the CW though so SD is going to be cool.

The only one of those 90s Cowboys teams that I'd grant the time of day to is the 1992 team that was 13-3 and beat the Niners on the road for the NFC title, then destroyed the Bills (though some of it was the Bills melting down). The 1993 team was only 12-4 and had a much tougher time with the Bills in the Super Bowl. If the Patriots win 1 more game they have to be considered the best ever. The 1972 Dolphins were also undefeated but they really didn't play anybody, maybe 2 teams in the reg. season with winning records. And their playoff run wasn't exactly dominant, 6 point win over the Browns, 4 point come from behind against Pittsburgh, 7 point Super Bowl win over the Redskins. The Patriots have beaten EVERYBODY this year. Indy, SD twice, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh...all AFC playoff teams. They already beat their SB opponent, the Giants in addition to the Cowboys and Redskins from the NFC playoffs. Green Bay is really the only solid team they haven't faced, and they can't now because the Packers blew that opportunity.