cabbageboy

I think Bardem is a fairly easy supporting winner, even though I found Ben Foster from 3:10 to Yuma more impressive since I thought he did quite a bit with a cardboard lackey heel role. Was Bardem even a supporting character in NCFOM? He's in more of it than Tommy Lee Jones and in just about as much as Brolin. Best picture: No Country For Old Men Michael Clayton Juno There Will Be Blood Sweeney Todd I will say Juno pulls off an upset here. Atonement won't even get nominated since it is that same Cold Mountain type of "Let's make a prestige picture to win awards!" film that thankfully the Oscars have ignored recently. I'd probably put Gone Baby Gone on here over the Clooney movie, but Clooney has more pull at this point. Anyway, I think NCFOM and TWBB will both split votes since they are sorta in the same ultra bleak vein, and the more positive and upbeat Juno will win (much like with Rocky in 1976 beating Taxi Driver, Network, etc.). I actually am interested in hearing the announcement tomorrow.

I find that 1991 Rumble quite underrated. Martel's effort was awesome in it and Hogan winning was fine with me, but what was up with Knobs lasting to the very end? Was it just to have some jobber heel to double team Hogan with Earthquake? Oh, and why didn't the Warrior win the Rumble in 1990? Considering they went with him vs. Hogan for WM it makes zero sense. Hogan was already champion, why didn't he defend on the show and let Warrior win the Rumble?

With Bulldog I didn't actually see that Raw since it was open house at my HS, but I caught the weekend show and Tod Pettengill was outraged and talking about what a piece of crap Bulldog was. I was like "HUH???" So they show this tag match and he turns on Diesel and I was like "Oh, who cares...it's just Diesel." Bulldog also got a real haircut after that, the sure signs of a heel. I mentioned that UT heel turn previously but personally I don't even consider that a heel turn. I don't know what the fuck that was really. To me his actual heel turn came the next week when he brutally attacked RVD and left him laying, which led to the really bad ass Vengeance 2001 hardcore match.

Thing is though, wasn't Montana hurt quite a bit in 1988? And given that they were unstoppable in 1989 I wouldn't consider that Niners team one of the weakest SB teams. I guess maybe they are in terms of 1 year. I think the 2003 Panthers are also one of the weakest Super Bowl teams ever. They were 11-5 and had a +21 differential. That's basically a 9-7 team that lucked out a few times. People don't think about that team as being lame though since they damn near won the Super Bowl. Get this. I took a look on pro-football-reference.com and the Giants this year had an expected win/loss of 8.6-7.4. That's pretty horrid for a Super Bowl team. The Patriots oddly enough were 13.8-2.2.

The 2004 Rumble is forever tainted to me now for obvious reasons, and this actually does play a part in my actual enjoyment of that match. It would be #2 on my list before Benoit did what he did though. #1 is of course 1992, which is such a brilliant match that weaves so many storylines, feuds, huge stars, and also was a place for young guys like HBK to show their stuff. I actually think the 2005 and 2007 Rumbles were also very good. Maybe not the best ever, but interesting to say the least. The problem with stuff like 2006 is that the 1-2 guys going the distance is so cliched that it doesn't work as well these days and frankly a midget like Rey can't feasibly win a Rumble match going such a distance. 2001 was pretty good and Kane had a great effort, but it just lacks that something special to push it to greatness (maybe it was Austin being a fairly predictable winner). Truth be told, the 1990s were not good for Rumbles post 1992. I wouldn't consider any of them from 1993-99 to be all that good.

These awards are really silly, since the Observer actually lists MMA fighting in the same awards with worked pro wrestling. That to me is stupid. Khali is considered one of the worst wrestlers in the world, so he's hardly overrated. And to be honest, his world title run wasn't THAT bad....hell it was better than Rey's last year. You know who should have been higher on the overrated list? Umaga. Kennedy at this point is well known to be mediocre so I'm not sure he's the most overrated guy. But really Umaga had one quality match with Cena and a whole lot of bullshit (maybe Jeff bounced like a rag doll for him a few times as well). And I still insist that Black Reign is a fun gimmick, dammit!

Well, I don't know 100% for sure, just quoting Wikipedia actually...on there Mitchell's birthday is Feb. 26, 1965. So he will be 43 soon. This storyline is all the most amusing considering on 24/7 right now they are showing the Raw with Paul Bearer dropping hints about UT's disturbing past and UT is unsure of how to deal with it. This angle obviously is about 10x better than the current Mitchell/Abyss silliness.

I don't really get the Anderson and Tarantino comparison. Anderson doesn't really have his own "style" per se, as in I couldn't define to you what a PTA film is really. Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love....there might be some similarities but Tarantino has his own particular style that we expect. In some ways that limits QT as a director. Anyway I definitely want to see this, it's just a matter of when and where.

I know that the Giants played the Patriots tough on the last game of the season, but isn't this seriously one of the biggest mismatches on paper ever in a Super Bowl? New England (16-0) +315 vs. New York Giants (10-6) +22 If the Giants actually somehow win this game it's got to be the biggest upset in the history of sports. Can you imagine Eli making Peyton eat crow if he was the one to take down the undefeated Pats?

I can't really say the best team lost because watching the game the Giants just SEEMED like the better team tonight. I thought they would still blow it somehow, since the idea of a mediocre 10-6 team in the Super Bowl going against the 18-0 Patriots is horrible. But man, Green Bay just couldn't do shit in the 2nd half. Here's how I felt about it: It wasn't that the better team lost, but it's just the wrong result. I don't begrudge the Giants success next year, but I just don't think they're a Super Bowl caliber team and at best they can muster a Rams/Steelers from 1979 effort and keep it close before losing late. Let's face it, this Giants team is the 2nd worst team ever to go to the Super Bowl. I don't think either the Packers or Giants can beat the Patriots, but I did at least want to see Favre have his shot at it. The end of this game was sort of sad really, with Favre sucking hard and throwing a terrible INT that cost them.

Yeah, now they can run the table in the regular season, be undefeated and the top overall seed....and lose in the Elite 8 once again. Don't mind me though, Bob. I'm just bitter that my guys blew a 14 point lead to SETON HALL tonight and lost. U of L should have just stayed in C-USA, I swear. At least there are plenty of jobbers to squash there, even if it does nothing to get someone ready for the tourney.

There were several problems with Yokozuna and Japan being Public Enemy #1 however: 1. Yokozuna wasn't Japanese and was never billed as such. He was from the Polynesian Island, in other words...Samoan. 2. WW2 was almost 60 years prior to this angle in wrestling. By 1993 I don't think there was much hatred left for Japan. Whatever disdain people had was due to them making excellent cars.

Yes, but here is one thing about HBK in 1995....I hated him with a passion. Oh and Bulldog was my favorite wrestler and I desperately wanted Bret to quickly end the Diesel shit before it started, and for Bulldog to win the Rumble and give me a great rematch at WM from the Wembley classic. But god knows the WWF had to have their little Kliq lover's quarrel at WM in one of the lowest drawing WMs ever. Ah well, at least I got Bret/Bulldog II in Dec. 1995. So yes, in terms of detesting the winner and also hating every aspect of the booking, 1995 wins in a walk. 1988 isn't good of course but it was the first time for the match and needs to be taken with a grain of salt. And how on earth is anyone mentioning the 2007 Rumble on this list? That was a great Rumble. As far as the worst actual match at the Rumble....HHH vs. Steiner. Gotta be. UT/Yoko may have had some truly absurd booking, but the actual work in the match was decent. They weren't out there fucking up spots left and right.

People are suckers for silly UT/Kane inspired nonsense like the Mitchell/Abyss storyline, hence the decent rating. The really hilarious aspect of this is that Mitchell is only 8 years older than Abyss (Mitchell is 42, Abyss is 34), so this angle is completely insane on every level. Hell, with Paul Bearer and Kane at least Bearer is 13 years older so it's theoretically possible UT's mom could have seduced a young mortician's assistant. I have to comment on this Russo hilarity that is the Kaz/Black Reign feud. They are actually feuding because Kaz stole his rat. Think about that and see if you can sleep at night.

I already called Insight cable and they had no idea about USA or Sci Fi in HD, bah. Doesn't HD have to be offered on all channels by next Jan. though?

Ah crap. I was looking forward to seeing it but I looked in the paper and it's only on at Baxter Ave. and Stonybrook (much like No Country was). Hopefully it will expand to some other theaters here, or else I might have to go out of my way to see it.

Ah hell, I still loved that Raw with RVD and Tommy running in from the crowd. The Steph part was goofy at the end but it didn't matter to me until weeks later. I would say I much prefer RVD's debut to Jericho's, but I'm not sure if that July 2001 Raw is exactly a debut for RVD (he was on some Raws in 1997 after all). And yes, basically anything in the new ECW from the Philly screwjob on basically pissed me off as a wrestling fan.

I'd like to see Kane convicted of rape in a court of law over that shit. He didn't personally threaten to do bodily harm to Lita herself, just that he was going to kick Matt's ass. He gave her the option of saying no (which any non skank would have done). What a hilarious storyline though....it made Lita look like a whore, Matt came off like a pussy, and Kane was a pseudo rapist.

1995 is going to take this vote from me and like it. The 1999 Rumble is certainly not good exactly, but it's such a crazy Russo car wreck that it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. Vince winning was lame, but at least he got his ass kicked over it. But 95? Fuck that. It had a lame overall field anyway, the bogus 1 minute intervals, and the single worst finish in the history of the Rumble. Amazingly it gets shown every year, but the Bulldog got blatantly ripped off there (they even played his music like he won). It was half him being screwed and half him being a moron to not make sure HBK was out. The 1993 Rumble was pretty decent for about half of it, but once that Gonzalez run in happened that match started sucking and never looked back.

Yeah the 6 sided ring has always sucked, in particular for tag matches I think since I always wonder exactly who is in what corner and what constitutes a legal tag. Anything that immediately makes people tune out when they see it needs to go. A 6 sided ring doesn't conform to the basic idea of what pro wrestling is to most people, and some find it hokey or stupid.

I'm a huge RVD fan and didn't even find him beating Cena much of a mark out moment, since I thought the way it happened the decision would be overturned. Not to mention Edge essentially handed him the belt. That Jeff/Orton scenario has entirely too many title changes. If Jeff wins the belt at the Rumble, then he should go into WM defending it. Why have him drop it back at all? What, is Orton just sooooo the MAN that he must go into WM with the title? It just gives Jeff that lame Edge 3 week title run when there is no point in doing so (with Edge they had to get the MITB out of the way, but really didn't want the belt off Cena). When in doubt, do the DQ finish here. Or a goofy double knockout spot similar to the ending of Raw. Something that protects Jeff. And then yes, he goes to WM and wins a MITB and then cashes it in against whoever later on.

Yeah Luger's face turn in 1993 sucked all sorts of ass. I think there needs to be some valid reason for what's going on, not just being a heel narcissist one day and a patriot the next. As in Luger should have had a falling out with Heenan or someone on Raw, renounced the Narcissist gimmick, then promised we'd see a new side of Lex Luger. Then he shows up and slams Yoko. He would have gotten over much better. As far as Kane/Lita goes, bear in mind that Kane didn't rape Lita. It was a bizarre consentual thing where she nailed Kane to keep Matt from being beaten up. Why she didn't make Kane wear a condom or use the pill herself I have no idea. Either way it was a demented angle. Having watched these PTW shows from 1987, Savage was turning for most of 1987. Note that Gorilla started putting over his talents more and more, while Savage in interviews would mention how he wanted the IC title back and that meant HTM. He was very much a tweener for a while in 87 and then that HTM match where he got bashed with the guitar and the Hart stable threatened Liz cemented his face status.

Yeah boy, U of L just punked out Marquette 71-51. Glad to see my guys finally playing to their potential once everyone is back and somewhat healthy.

Yeah, but once again what is Cornette doing in all of this? He can't take one look and notice this guy is in no condition to wrestle? Seriously, Cornette has to be by far the worst authority figure in wrestling history. He comes off like a heel GM figure when he's actually supposed to be a face!

I actually don't mind the Hennig turn all that much. By 1997 the Horsemen were in fact outdated so him turning on Flair made sense. I wasn't watching wrestling during most of Jake's crazy heel run in 1991-92, but from what I've seen looking back I think Jake teamed with UT to screw over the Warrior in those ultra strange vignettes where he was training the Warrior.