Steve J. Rogers

Yet another example of the self-fulfilling prophesy of sports talk. Listening to ESPN radio, and they are all but pushing John Calipari to leave Memphis for Kentucky. Okay, now no one who suggests this should complain over the next Nick Saban mess, where a coach uses a University as leverage, or act like a complete dick by lying about their intentions.

Heh. Fair enough. Race was a reason for ESPN and the MSM to attack the test results and defend Young, but I don't think it was the over-riding reason that Kuselias seems to think.

Erik Kuselias continues to annoy the sheer hell out of me, which is odd considering I only hear him for about an hour whenever he is filling in for Mike Greenberg or Mike Golic. Well anyway, he and Golic were talking about the Wonderlic Test at the NFL combines, and to play the Devil's Advocate about privacy of the results, Kuselias brought up the Vince Young situation and how there were those at ESPN that didn't want to touch it, in part due to the race card. This is wrong on OH SO MANY levels. Oh sure race probably had some hand in it, but Kuselias, and no one at any major mainstream media outlet, will not tell you the real reason no one wanted to touch Vince Young. Plain and simple, Young was to be the Next Big Thing in the NFL. Even if he was white they would have defended him and bashed the idea of the Wonderlic Test and making the test results public. They didn't want to touch Young because he was being hyped as potentially being the greatest player in NFL history by ESPN (a partner of the NFL of course), clearly they weren't going to ruin a good thing by making any sort of deal out of him scoring a 6 on the Wonderlic Test. The Mainstream Media, whether it is poltical (Obama), sports (Young), or entertainment (too many to mention), there is a strong sense with it to completely overhype and deitfy someone who shows even a hint of great potential. To the point where they will explain away the flaws, even going so far as bashing the system that created the flaws in the first place (i.e. the fairness and seriousness of the test, showing examples of great players who did not do well in said test, etc).

Just to add to the Rocky taking over the Nation storyline; After SS in 1996 Rocky, starting to show some of the modern prima donna athlete character that was "The Rock", challenged Austin for the IC belt because he was the "greatest IC champion ever" etc. Austin is forced to relinquish the belt after beating Rock at the D-X PPV and it was handed over to Rocky, who during the promo uttered the phrase "Vince, The Rock thinks you should fire him." During that winter they kept teasing friction between Rocky and Faarroq, especially when The Rock presented Faarroq with a portrait of The Rock as a gift! Around this time during a Nation promo (Off hand, I think Rock and Faarroq were wrestling each other in some form on the WM card) was when Rocky instructed D-Lo, Henry and Mustafa (he wouldn't be The Godfather until Rocky took over) to kick Faarroq out.)

Yeah, because apparantly in the WWE universe, you're the bad guy if you try to have good morals. Also see: Bret Hart and Right To Censor. And Kurt Angle I can't recall the Molly Holly angle, but as far as RTC, Angle and to a lesser extent Hart, you can be right, but you don't have to be such an arrogant dickhead about it. It's more the attitude than the message that makes you a heel (and of course they're a heel because WWE tells you so). Edit: okay Viciousfish already said it, I'll go sit at the back of the class now. Very true, but the whole point of RTC, Molly and Angle was to mock the message through the heel persona. Hart's diatribe's were deadly serious, he wasn't cutting them to get cheap pops, he was speaking from the heart (no pun intended) of his character. RTC, Molly and Angle (also throw in Owen Hart's last run as The Blue Blazer) (as promos and things other than during the matches action) were all presented as jokes and therefore their message WAS a joke because it disagreed with the way the WWE was doing things. Rational thinking people WOULD agree with the messages, but since the WWE DIDN'T want you to agree with what they were saying, they turned the message into a bunch of living in the past goody-two-shoes jokes.

No matter WHAT, a live non PPV telecast of the main event on a telecast will end promptly before the designated time the programming is scheduled to be off the air. Quite uncanny! Speaking of that, I did love the overtime concept WCW tried with Nitro, but I think what hurt it is that the shows got bloated with so much other crap that it became more like a regular TV show as opposed to a sporting event, or even a boxing or MMA card. You already seen enough of the show, you don't want an extra 15 minutes or so tacked on because the producers want to play up an "anything can happen on live TV" or "We had so much stuff tonight we couldn't fit it all in the 2 hours we were allotted." Especially considering everyone was pretty much aware that these were scripted matches and that the "extra time" was really a sort of sweeps gimmick and not something that would become a regular thing.

At my parish they brought in girls to be altar servers as well as boys, and for a while they were introduced as "acolytes" I kept saying "Farroq and Bradshaw" in my mind when I heard acolytes.

It does become more obvious when it is clear they are wearing protective devices, like Austin's knee braces would be on underneath his jeans or something.

I am not finding anything funny about Will Ferrel's You're Welcome America. Has Will ever been able to actually do Bush's actual voice rather than a stereotypical Texan?

Any promotional specific ones out there is specifically what I'm looking for. And I don't mean kayfabed "official" ones. Also anything that delves into various past topics for an episode or such. I.e. a podcast that will do an episode on The WWE's Attitude Era, or The Monday Night Wars Era, the "Rock 'N' Wrestling" era, etc.

-I haven't watched the programming in a long time, but seemed like every single PPV was hyped as being The Biggest of the Year/In Some Time/etc. -Every wrestler or that the face announcers want to over hype is considered the one of the best in the business, or a future HOFer. Two big culprits off hand, Michael Cole declaring X-Pac & Road Dogg as one of the great tag teams of all time, and on the WM 1998 commentary for Rock-Austin (remember, this is before Rock really took off. He was big, but this was still early in his rise ) JR actually said that The Rock was a future WWF HOFer!

This bothered me during the "Austin got run over" angle as they covered their tracks when Austin returned as saying "Austin isn't going to press charges." Ummm, I think the crime of vehicular homicide might trump any "I don't want any charges pressed" attitude by a victim! I think I can explain this by saying that having the music blaring is a more effective way to get speaker in the ring to shut up rather than coming out and trying to speak over him/her with a house mike from the top of the ramp.

Has to be said: Beets, are a very misunderstood vegetable. -Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Curt Henning causing Flair to bleed hardway bad at the end of the nWo/Horsemen War Games match helped make the turn more effective and gave a great intro shot of Flair on a hospital bed all stitched up the next night on Nitro.

Who was the first wrestler to essentially keep every single aspect of his heel persona once he made a face turn? In other words, the only way you knew said wrestler was a face was by the way the announcers treated him, rather than his own actions. Austin maybe? Flair?

AND my point still stands! I do stand corrected on the DC Direct thing with the mass brick & mortar toy outlets. I wonder if this the first or if they've been doing it for some time now and I haven't been down the action figure aisles of my local TRU in some time.

Interestingly enough, Rock's promo after joining the Corporation, when he laid out his reasons for why he "turned" heel after being promoted as a babyface since SummerSlam counts. Essentially the point was "screw you, you hated me when I was this way, you wanted me to die! And now you love me? SCREW YOU!" Can't say the fans didn't deserve that one!

Hmmmm. I also see links to Watchmen collectible busts in the related products section, are you sure these aren't exclusive to the online store, and not sold at the actual stores themselves? Maybe I should pay my local TRU a visit...

Its all about the costumes and the "superhero" genre that Watchmen portray, and the stereotype that superheros are for kids. Sin City had no costumed or super powered beings. Also Sin City flew under the radar because it didn't have the machine that is DC and Time Warners publicizing it and making sure that you are made fully aware of its presence. Sin City is like that independent movie that flies under the radar, gets major love from the festival and art house crowd, and only gets the mainstream media buzzing about it when it gets Oscar buzz in December/January. You don't know about it if you aren't paying attention, with Watchmen you can't help but notice it.

Really? Where is the Fast Food Restaurant tie-in toys? DC Direct IS making action figures, but last I checked DC Direct is a high end HOBBY EXCLUSIVE or non-toy shop/convenience store distributor. You aren't going to find DC Direct's products in your local Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, CVS, etc and are meant as collectibles. In other words, these aren't kid friendly action figures! Oh sure I'd hand down a figure or two for a child to play with, but the point of the product is the collecting hobby aspect of action figures. Put it another way, I'd wager DC's lines with Mattel get some TV ads on cartoons, specifically DC animated cartoons (right now just Batman: The Brave & The Bold) but I'd guarantee there has never been a single TV ad for a DC Direct action figure line, EVER! Where is all of the product tie-ins that The Dark Knight, a movie NO ONE under the age of 12-13 should see under ANY circumstances (great film of course, but come on, you'd give the kid nightmares, and I'm sure most kids would be bored by the plot of the movie), had? Cereal, Dominoes Pizza, Fruit Roll-Ups for crying out loud had ads in DC comic books for "choose your side" Roll Ups! What, she sees "superheroes" and automatically assumes "marketed for kids?"

The Mets on paper should have been a 95 win team, in 2006 they lost to a team with one of the worst records of all time to win a championship, and the 2008 Phillies won 92 games, after winning 89 a year ago. THAT is insulting actually. Like I said, it isn't like a Battle of The Titans where the second place team wound up with 95 wins or something, it is a battle of two lousy teams, one of which got lucky late. Then again, thank Bud Selig for that, with the NFL style of forced parity, getting cities amped up because their team that is barely over .500 has a chance to win the World Series. Stop with the "prospects." The Mets have been over hyping prospects since the days of Don Bosch. And the latest crown jewel, Fernando Martinez, seems to be heading towards an oft-injured career. And just once, JUST once I'd like the Mets to have a Cole Hammels or a Nelson Liriano. Essentially a pitching "prospect" that doesn't wet the bed the first season he takes the major league mound.

I was in Aruba this past Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and had this: Good stuff. Comes in small cans though. Ehh, it is a good light beer though.

Could just be trying to push Bass as a "challenge anything that moves" kind of a dick heel. Basically Bass is such a badass that he'll challenge a long since retired announcer to a match.

But they DIDN'T win those games, they didn't. And that is part of the damn problem. To say nothing about the fact that, no offense, but it wasn't a 1978 Yankees-Red Sox clash of the titans, or a 1993 Giants and Braves both hit the century mark with wins, but only one team makes the playoffs. In theory the Mets should have clinched both the 2007 and 2008 divisions half way through September, but there is a culture on this team that seems to wilt when the pressure is on. THAT you can lay the blame on Minaya for, since he brought in many of these ballplayers who don't seem to care that their seasons were slipping away (Delgado, Castillo, etc). And now with the shit going on with Johan, this team is lucky to win 85 freaking games in 2009! So yeah, Al, you are going to have yourself three straight divisional titles my friend! Put THAT in your books!

As great as it would be to see Andy back with Conan. Hmmm, I don't know. I'm sure it also has something to do with Conan trying to do an homage to the Carson Tonight Show more than "getting the band back together" which in my eyes could be a mistake. Granted Paul Schaeffer is considered Dave's sidekick, even if he isn't on the couch, ditto Kevin Eubanks, but I think that is a better way to go, with interaction coming from a different vantage point, and not really going back to an older way of doing things.