cabbageboy

Yeah that Series 95 main event is still really great stuff and probably Nash's best match ever. I know some will say the match with Shawn in April 1996, but that was just a silly brawl with some amusing spots. This match actually had long term selling and psychology. And it also had Nash blatantly cussing after he lost. The WWF had no clue how to get certain people or angles over circa 1995 though. Hakushi could have been more successful had he not seemed sorta like a...jobber. As in he feuded some with Bret during the time where Bret was doing jack shit and was feuding with Jean Pierre Lafitte over his leather jacket. Hakushi seemed like some midcard jobber heel for Bret to beat rather than some lethal Japanese badass like Muta. Heyman could have gotten this guy over big in ECW, much like he did with Tajiri. I saw a Bret/Hakushi match at a July 1995 Raw taping. I remember seeing a move I still can't believe, where Hakushi moonsaulted onto Bret from inside the ring to the floor.

I like the Sharpshooter too but the hold can be countered (Bret himself was in the midst of this in Montreal). And someone can make the ropes. Ditto the Cloverleaf...really good move but a guy can make the ropes. The only hope anyone would have with the crossface chickenwing is to quickly rush to the ropes before it is fully applied. Once it is locked in, I have never seen it countered.

Well this is a bit tricky because is this better in the ring, on the mic, or everything? Punk is of course better on the mic, that isn't up for debate. But I will say that the best Sabin match I've seen (vs. Juventud in an X division tourney) is better than the best Punk match I've seen (vs. Joe).

Just wondering Edwin but in that scenario why is LSU #4? They really didn't accomplish shit last year, didn't even win the SEC West. Didn't actually come in SECOND in the SEC West (Auburn beat them head to head). In such a system anyone who wins a BCS league would have to be seeded over the at large BCS bids. I have a feeling that Hawaii is going to finally run out of luck next week. In fact Boise might beat the piss out of them.

Yeah I am intrigued at seeing this next week in IMAX, at least hopefully. I remember thinking it was pretty cool after reading it in HS.

The Crossface Chickenwing is seriously the only submission move I have never seen countered. I always sorta wondered why Owen was supposed to be such a bad guy for wanting his mom to throw in the towel at Survivor Series 1994. Bret was trapped in the move and was just out, he couldn't escape.

Downhome, I had the same thought about Khali and Hornswaggle last night. What is the point of this if they aren't going to end up unlikely buddies? It will be like Master Blaster. Predictions otherwise: Women's tag: Don't really care, but I think the good girls win by pinning someone besides Beth Phoenix. Cade/Murdoch vs. Holly/Rhodes: C & M have nothing left after getting squashed on Raw, so just get the belts off of them. New champs. Punk vs. Miz vs. Morrison: Since the jobber duo won the tag titles on SD there's no way either wins here. Punk retains as both heels keep trying to win. Survivor tag match: I will go out on a limb here and say that Kennedy ends up as the sole survivor, eliminating HHH to start off a new feud. Orton vs. Michaels: Oh lord, Montreal revisited 10 years later. I don't get why all the goofy stips though if they are going to screw HBK in such a way. I say give Shawn a lame duck title run and have him job it back at Armageddon or the Rumble. But really Michaels needs to win the belt if he's going to constantly get shots. Batista vs. UT, HIAC: I will say Edge does his run in, costs UT the match....then Batista jobs the title to Edge at the next PPV.

I'm a little sick of that argument. Racists and nutjobs are in the HOF, but someone's personal life has nothing to do with their baseball ability. As far as guys like Rose and Jackson go, I am torn. Personally I would put Rose in the HOF for his playing days, since I've never heard about him throwing games, taking money, or anything like that. Rose's indiscretions were during his managing days, so if they want to ban him from that I'm fine with it. Joe Jackson is a different story. Regardless of whether he actually threw the 1919 World Series he DID in fact agree to it and took the money. I've often found it quite bizarre that the 1919 White Sox have been looked at as tragic heroes that were being screwed by a cheapskate owner, as if being pissed at upper management excuses what they did. So while Jackson was likely ignorant and being led by the wrong people, he did throw games as a player and as painful as it is, deserves his ban. If Bonds doesn't get in, it will likely be because writers will flat out refuse to ever vote for this man. He can't really be banned since he hasn't broken baseball's rules per se (and even if he failed a test he'd be suspended, not banned). I too got sick of Stephen A. Smith and Rob Parker on First Take today, constantly saying Bonds was being screwed over for being black. Smith kept bringing up McGwire and how baseball turned a blind eye in 1998, but conveniently forgot to include Sammy Sosa, whose name has also been somewhat tied to steroids in recent years. I remember a reporter asked McGwire about the andro that was in his locker and there was in fact a bit of a controversy even then, but it just sorta blew over.

Well, in my view they practically HAVE a tourney all but set up, but aren't smart enough to figure it out. The BCS has 10 teams right now that make it. So you can't eliminate 2 teams for an 8 team field. I'd just invite 6 more and make it a 16 team tourney. You can keep the major bowls for the Elite 8 of this, teams just advance to it. Keep the jobber bowls for the other teams, since those still would be fun for fans of those teams and draw decent enough TV ratings (could they be more pointless than now?). I'll even give you the bracket as it would currently be, though Oregon is still #2 in it: 1) LSU vs. 16) Hawaii 8) Arizona St. vs. 9) Georgia 4) Oklahoma vs. 13) Texas (rematch!) 5) Missouri vs. 12) Florida 6) West Virginia vs. 11) USC 3) Kansas vs. 14) Virginia 7) Ohio St. vs. 10) Virginia Tech 2) Oregon (using current BCS) vs. 15) Clemson By the way Iggy for 2004 U of L beat Boise St. in the Liberty Bowl, so no Boise didn't deserve a shot at the title.

Ah, but Sabu did reverse the Tazmission into a pinfall at Wrestlepalooza 1997. I might have to also go with the crossface chickenwing. That was just a lethal move right there. I've never seen anyone ever escape it once it was fully applied. It's also a fairly hard move to put on people, unlike stuff like a Tazmission or a Boston Crab.

I remember hearing about Jericho sucking up to the bookers in late 2001, sitting in on meetings backstage for a while, stuff like that. This was before HHH came back, mind you. You know, that piece of info about Jericho dating Michaels' wife could be interesting. Wonder if they would consider a Flair/Savage type feud?

I can tolerate Savio's no sell of Lawler since Lawler had no credibility in the WWF anyway and Savio mostly just bounced up and made a last gasp tag to UT. The Bertha Faye one was more egregious, since she just got up and walked away like "fuck it." Who the hell booked Kong to win that right after The Kid won the opener? Two straight heel sole survivors? Watching that again, Bulldog's performance in the Wild Card match was subtle heel hilarity. For the most part he gets along with HBK and Ahmed, but did all sorts of run ins and then tried to stop Ahmed from pinning Yoko later. That's a fun match.

As someone who used to watch the weekly PPVs from Nashville I can tell you that Tenay and West weren't always this bad. West would do his over the top schtick when selling next week's card, and maybe during some legit exciting moments of matches, but Tenay was a lot more relaxed and more like his WCW self. Anyone who watched WCW knows that Tenay isn't a bad announcer, in fact he was key in getting the cruisers over in my opinion. I think he's just following orders and shrieking like a madman, while reading a script.

I wouldn't mind Jericho being a master politician. I see no reason why we shouldn't be discussing a Jericho title run a year from now, barring injury. The amusing thing is that Jericho got his title run in 2001 due to playing a bit of backstage politics, sucking up to creative, etc.

This stuff with figuring out who is going where in the BCS is mind numbing. I hadn't thought of Boise finishing higher in the BCS standings than some jabroni ACC winner (though that's a moot point if VT wins the conf.). Boise might also finish higher than a Big East team if WVU doesn't win the league, though I think a 10-2 Cincy team would likely move up. USC is currently #11 in the BCS. There's no way in hell they can move ahead of about 8 other teams with only 2 games left. Why assume they are going to simply waltz in and beat Arizona St.?

USC is still behind Georgia and VA Tech though among 2 loss teams. Are we assuming they would jump people if they beat ASU? I might see USC winning that one and going 10-2 and going to the Rose Bowl, but that's about it. Also, taking a look at those BCS predictions would WVU really make the BCS at 10-2? I think they would have to win out or be screwed. The team I have a feeling will really end up screwed is Kansas though. If they lose to Missouri they not only lose out on the national title but also can't even win the Big 12 north. Oh, and Boise St. has almost no shot at the BCS even if they beat Hawaii. Currently Boise is #18, so they would have to rise 6 more spots to make the BCS.

How many WCW/NWA PPVs were there in the 1980s though? Starrcade 87 has been shown before, I got GAB 88 off 24/7 this year, Halloween Havoc 89 as well. Maybe show some goodies like GAB 89, and the various Flair/Steamboat PPVs. I'd like some early 90s WCW PPVs. And some Clash shows as well.

The difference is that while Michaels is hardly a kid and Flair is hardly a boy those names aren't literally dated. The whole Y2K bug is very passe and means nothing now, so I too wish Jericho would go back to being Lionheart.

Carlito was truly horrid when he first debuted, then when he turned face he got somewhat better. Then after a while he wasn't getting pushed beyond a certain point, so I think he just stopped caring. Call me crazy but I think Sabu has something to offer TNA. He could always join up with Mitchell's bunch of evil heels to go after Abyss. Hell I'd sign Sabu before I would Dustin Rhodes or Johnny the Bull. You're telling me that if RVD signed they couldn't have him tag with Sabu against Team 3D?

Am I the only one who doesn't think the Miami Dolphins are THAT bad of a team? Yes, they are winless but take a look at these losses: Washington 16-13 NY Jets 31-28 Houston 22-19 NY Giants 13-10 Buffalo 13-10 The Dolphins have had rotten luck and can't catch a break. I would think they are actually a better team than either the Rams or 49ers.

I watched the ECW show that is on now with Raven/Sandman....Raven wins the ECW title. The postmatch is interesting as Sandman/Scorpio fire Woman as she heads off to WCW. Good way to save face there after a loss. Did I see a guy in the front row during Cactus/Mikey vs. Douglas/Dreamer that had a Rai #0 shirt on?

Yeah there is a certain amount of pot calling the kettle black with JBL and Morrison. Thing is, who thought it was a GOOD idea to put Morrison and The Miz out on commentary anyway? Was there no thought that this just might suck? I didn't even think they really said that much that was untrue. Morrison played up that Miz screwed him out of the match with Punk and Miz acted like an asshole. Did they expect something different? Considering Morrison has beaten Punk about 20 times compared to Punk's 2 times there's no reason why he'd put him over to such a degree, especially considering Punk's screwy win last week via The Miz.

Here are predictions for this week's games: CLE @ BAL: The Ravens look flat out done and the Browns are quite improved. Cleveland by 7. NYG @ DET: Lions are a tough team at home, Giants need a win this week. I'll go with the Lions by 3 in a good game, thus starting the Giants into their usual 2nd half slide. NO @ HOU: It's impossible to figure out the Saints, but Houston hasn't been too great after a hot start. Saints by 10. KC @ IND: Okay the Colts played as bad as humanly possible last week, but even with the injuries it has to stop here. I mean it's Brodie Croyle for crying out loud. Indy by 20. OAK @ MIN: What a matchup. The hopeless Raiders vs. the Vikings without Peterson. I'll go with the Vikings simply because it's in MN. Vikings by 4. MIA @ PHI: Another week, another Dolphins loss. But not by much. Philly by 6. SD @ JAC: The Chargers back on track? I really don't think so. Quinn Gray might not be much, but Jack Del Rio won't let him throw it enough for 6 INTs. Jags by 7. ARI @ CIN: Another tough one to figure. The Bengals in theory should be better but the Cardinals have looked competent at times. Arizona by 3. TB @ ATL: This is another curious game. Since Tampa is at least somewhat decent I'll go with them by 7. CAR @ GB: Packers are on a roll and the Panthers are really, really not. Green Bay by 14. PIT @ NYJ: The Steelers are pretty good but they don't seem great yet. I think they might struggle a bit to put the Jets away. Pittsburgh by 7. CHI @ SEA: Neither of these teams exactly rock my world, but something tells me the Bears will make some kind of late season surge. Chicago by 4. WAS @ DAL: It amazes me that some people continue to hype the Redskins even after that 52-7 nightmare. Cowboys should beat them, though not as bad as that. Dallas by 17. STL @ SF: This has to be the worst game of the week. I know the Niners have 2 wins, but they may well be the worst team in the league. Rams will get a payback win here by 10. NE @ BUF: The Bills have been on a bit of a jobber roll lately, but it obviously stops here. NE by 21. TEN @ DEN: Oh joy, just what the world needs....the Broncos making a surge. Denver by 3 on an Elam FG, the usual.

Well the only worthwhile ending to it is Matt beating MVP for the US title. I mean what else can there possibly be? If MVP beats him, then Matt just keeps coming back at him till he does win.

Huh? I seriously always thought the HBK kick on Bret was certainly on Raw. Those 1993-95 ratings are quite interesting. The 1993-94 shows were all in the 2s or lower 3s range, yet as horrid as 1995 was the ratings actually were really good. They got up there around 3.8 and 3.9 several times. Looking at those numbers just shows how big of an ass Bischoff was in trying to run Nitro opposite Raw on Monday. Raw was doing nice solid 3s in Aug. 1995, but then once Nitro hit the air they took a major hit and were in the lower 2s. I bet WCW's own live show could have drawn better ratings had it been a Tuesday night show.