tigeraid

Monster success with those ratings. If Elite can hold ground or gain with their next special, then the entire dynamic in the US MMA scene changes. Considering Kimbo's hype, that was expected (though maybe not to that high a rating)... Whether or not the next few shows garner those ratings is the key.

Oh and I *will* give them props for putting together great video packages, ESPECIALLY the one at the beginning explaining MMA rules and techniques. THAT part was an excellent way to introduce MMA to the masses.

I'm perfectly fine with the women's fight stopping due to the mouse being too bad to see... (even though I've never seen a real fight doctor in the UFC stop it because of swelling under the eye)... My problem is that the broadcast made NO effort to show it (again, CBS can't have us see that violence--they only briefly showed her, ONCE, and then never put the camera back on her), and no efforts to explain to us why the fight was stopped. As far as the main event, the stoppage FOR Kimbo didn't bother me, the lack of stoppage for the OTHER guy feeding a dozen unanswered elbows TO Kimbo bothered me. It's clear they had the ref let it go to give Kimbo a chance to get out of that mess, because he WAS done.

Indeed.

Not at all. I'm critical of anything that deserves it. In fact the last EliteXC show, with Frank Shamrock/Cung Le, was awesome, and I loved it. I've also critiqued poor UFC cards in the past. This show would've just been a "half-assed, poor show" in any other situation, and I would not be "over-reacting" to it. But given that this is MMA's first "prime time exposure" and this is supposedly where "millions of people" will see MMA for the first time, it's a really, really bad example that hurts MMA way more than it helps.

Holy fuck, where to begin... that was the worst night in the history of MMA. Thank you EliteXC for setting the sport back 15 years. Dancing girls, shitty hip-hop music, "thug style" everywhere... Every single fight was a clusterfuck... the commentators lied out their ass left right and center overhyping everything... editing mistakes left right and centre... complete trash. First two fights were MASSIVE early stoppages to make TV time, clearly fixed. Even if you don't see that as fight fan, you can see it in the way Gary Shaw talked to the fighters after, and the way Phil Baroni in particular was COMPLETELY stone-faced about the stoppage. He just didn't care--why? Because he knew the fight would be stopped early anyway. Then the third fight, which was shaping up to be interesting, is ALSO stopped early due to a cut UNDER THE EYE. UNDER THE EYE. CLEARLY a call by CBS because of the potential for blood and further violence--cuz y'know, you don't want violence in mixed martial arts. Then to make matters worse, Carano makes a complete fool of herself and the sport by basically admitting "ya I just won a fight against a supposed tough opponent despite being overweight, out of shape and putting no effort into the training... oh and thank God." Then the title fight, which was shaping up to EASILY be the fight of the night and would've saved an otherwise shitty show, with Scott Smith showing a true warrior's spirit and getting the fans to rally behind him... Then he gets an unfortunate eyepoke, and that dumbass doctor who clearly isn't qualified to be a fight doctor AT ALL stops the fight, rather than giving Smith the time he needed to blink it off and keep fighting. Absolute bullshit. Then the main event, which SHOULD'VE come second to Lawler/Smith, was an even bigger clusterfuck. Had it followed the pattern of the rest of the night, the fight would've been stopped and Kimbo would've LOST, he ate a DOZEN unanswered elbows on the ground, and you could just picture that crook Gary Shaw pleading the ref not to stop the fight--absolute bullshit. Poor Mauro Renalo and Frank Shamrock... they spend the entire show pushing the "fighting spirit" and "warrior" and "gladiator" deal ("this isn't street fighting, this isn't thugs, this is the elite, the best athletes in the world"), only to have EliteXC turn around at every goddamn chance and talk about Kimbo Slice being a street fighter and a brawler... the entire show has a "thug" theme to it, with the hip hop and the stupid dancers and Kimbo and his "thug crew." Anyone tuning in who wasn't an MMA fan before probably thinks exactly what they thought when they tuned into UFC in 1995: "buncha fuckin savages and thugs."

What's this Project 161 you speak of? I haven't really been keeping up with ROH much lately. God damn, might just be better to read on the ROH boards, or in the post about here in the Indy section. Long story short it was a "viral marketing campaign" started on the ROH boards, pretending to be out of kayfabe, with blog postings and weird eerie pictures and stuff, all talking about "161" and Chicago on Sept 15th (ROH's 161st show.) And on that date (PPV taping) they revealed themselves as Jimmy Jacobs' new faction, sort of an uber-sick Raven's Flock. It's all over the video wire, with him standing under Jay Briscoe as blood rains down on him, drinking it, etc... Along with Tyler Black, Lacey and Necro Butcher, The eerie pictures are now at http://www.ageofthefall.com/ The blog is at http://projectonesixone.blogspot.com/ It was brilliant and kept everyone guessing, passing out weird half-assed underground leaflets at shows, occasionally showing up in the crowd with a megaphone to yell "project 161" and then disappear. Stuff like that.

I don't suppose anyone notices the startling similarities to ROH's recent Project 161 Storyline... I don't suppose. And as much as Jericho is the man, this won't make me watch RAW anytime soon... He'll just be jobbing to Carlito in a month anyway.

- Homicide rupturing Steve Corino's eardrum - Gran Akuma? (or whoever it was) rupturing Jimmy Rave's eardrum - Danny Inferno breaking CM Punk's nose & rupturing his eardrum in the same match - Samoa Joe concussing a Ballard twin. - Samoa Joe concussing Kurt Angle. - Samoa Joe concussing KENTA, KENTA or Joe concussing Bryan Danielson, and Danielson or KENTA rupturing Joe's eardrum, all in the same match. - Low-Ki concussing Dan Maff. - Whatever the hell Low-Ki did to Kid Sensation to make him vomit blood. - Yoshihiro Takayama accumulates numerous brain injuries leading to a cerebral thrombosis after his G-1 match with Kensuke Sasaki. - Naohiro Hoshikawa's 2nd concussion in a few minutes comes from a stiff lariat, he suffers severe brain damage and forgets most of his life. - Chris Benoit uses shoot headbutts often, suffers severe brain damage, and kills his family before taking his own life. I'm sure I'm forgetting many more. Intensifier: I did say recently, not 1990s All-Japan. As for your list Bix, the majority of those were accidents that had little to do with how hard they hit. Homicide accidentally hit Corino's ear instead of the side of his head--the strength of the strike really doesn't matter. Neither does Gran Akuma on Rave, or Low Ki concussing Dan Maff, or Joe concussing Angle, or whatever... these go in the same category as concussions from headdrops--reckless, poorly aimed accidents. Not a result of their style. Hoshikawa's is definitely a good example, as is Benoit's, as is most of Takiyama's problems--I would call those exceptions to the rule. The only way these accidents occurred was from poor aim, not from the style of wrestling. If stiff strikes were the reason this sort of thing happened, it would literally be happening EVERY night in the ring. A stiff forearm to the side of the face, or a chop or stiff kick to the back or chest is not dangerous--period. Broken noses happen ALLLLL the time in "non-stiff" wrestling too, as to busted lips, black eyes and cauliflower ears. The only way whatsoever that accidents like this can be prevented is if everyone did Hulk Hogan "hold-his-forehead-and-punch-my-hand" moves. And I'm sorry, I don't want that.

What's funny is, I can't remember a single time that working stiff caused injury in the last several years, other than this one with Dragon, which was a freak accident. And I don't count bleeding or welts on the chest or back as injury. Briscoe's SSP to the floor has nothing to do with stiff, it's just a high risk move that he fucked up. But in terms of stiff kicks and forearms, I've never seen them deal a particularly big injury. On the other hand, Botchtista tears eighteen muscles and breaks a rib (or whatever) just picking a guy up for a power bomb... Vince McMahon tears BOTH QUADS WALKING DOWN A RAMP, and HHH and Kevin Nash both bust shit up just by walking across the ring. I gotta go with stiff work over roided up catastrophes any day. EDIT: I take that back--Nigel breaking Rave's jaw with the Lariat. That's another one. Though again, the severity with which he hit wasn't so much the problem, it was the fuck up on either his part of Rave's that made the Lariat hit too high.

Agreed, easily the "Worst" Detroit show they've had. Still better than anything from TNA or WWE of course, but not up to ROH standards. Marufuji/Generico was MotN for sure, lots of fun, if a little short. The Morishima/Stevens match was also fun, even though it was a foregone conclusion what was going to happen. Evans/Romero was a fun little spotfest "Street fight." The main event was a bit slow by Briscoe standards, but I think Aries is still protecting his knee a little. Not terrible, just not their usual pace. The rest of the show was pretty meh. The first few matches were all pretty much jobbers, and Hero/Jacobs was boring as hell--but I suspect Jacobs was still going easy on the knee and making sure it was 100% before he tries any real matches. Whitmer/BJ as a team is a little weird, BJ with short blond hair looks like Steve Corino--it was an ok match vs Claudio and Nigel though. Overall, still worth the price of admission, still better than any WWE or TNA live event I've ever paid for, just sorta "eeehh" by ROH standards. The whole thing belt like the "B Show" that it was, leading up to the PPV taping tomorrow night. Hopefully their return in April will be a bit bigger.

Sure, but what makes you more qualfied than even Dr. Riviera to say when either of them are safe to wrestle?

Mark Briscoe was medically cleared to wrestle one week BEFORE he got back in the ring. Danielson was medically cleared and, more importantly, both he and Morishima will know how to protect the eye. And I'd rather have relatively healthy, clean, roid-free wrestlers in the ring with an injury that's been medically cleared than roided up freaks hobbling around working through a variety of injuries all at once.

Where'd the crushed orbital bone come from? I've heard nothing of it... And Morishima will likely protect the eye just fine. Nor do I see how a 2 hour PPV with two MOTY candidates is a "glorified infomercial." Nor is the 2nd PPV, which has what is LIKELY the MOTY for the main event. I'll be heading to Detroit in a couple hours--can't wait for Generico/Marufuji!!! Gonna try to convince my buddies to road trip to Chi-town after...

Jesus, you need to watch more of Daniels' work in the past. He's a god on the mic, sir. Watch his early Prophecy stuff in ROH.

lol @ teeth spot. And ya, our 4 Corner Survival qualifier and main event look GREAT.

Indeed! Comin' to Detroit in two weeks for the ROH show?

Kazarian was buried with the Seratonin bullshit, and having him turn on the group would've been great, if the group had gotten over in the first place and hadn't been buried themselves. He's the best of the X-Division "B-team" as I like to call them (Bentley when he was there, Sonjay Dutt, Kaz, Williams) but if the whole division's going in the shitter, his push won't help. Bentley of course is gone now, but even when he was there, the Seratonin gimmick was dumb and failed anyway... as the "regular" Matt Bentley is was the slowest and least talented of the X-Division--in every match he was in with AJ Styles, Daniels, Low Ki, etc etc he looked like he was 2 steps behind. He belongs on Smackdown with the midget guy who has the belt. Johnny Devine was pretty useless in Team Canada, he's even more useless on his own. Has no business in the X-Division either. Eric Young has tons of charisma, and is quite the wrestler (watch his BCW stuff if you don't believe me) but considering how much of a pussy his storylines turned him into, I don't see him ever becoming more than a lower card comedy act. Which is a shame. Shark Boy is Shark Boy--they occasionally let him do real comedy stuff, like his Steve Austin impression a while ago, but they really should run with it--he could be what The Hurricane was on RAW, having funny promos and going out and doing some decent wrestling in the lower card.

I've been boycotting TNA, though not directly wanting or deciding to. It's just been too awful to watch. TNA has almost completely buried their entire roster in favour of WWE has-beens. One or two being put in the spotlight fine, but this is just ridiculous. Test - Sucks. Why is he here? Who's idea was this? He wasn't relevant in 1999, why would he be relevant now? Matt Morgan - Excellent big man, tons of potential... So what do they do? They INTRODUCE him by having him stand behind Jim Cornette in his office while Cornette cuts a promo and doesn't even ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE'S THERE. In one promo, Brother Ray actually has to say "hey is that Matt Morgan???" Team 3D - booooooooooooooring. And they're both heinously out of shape and get blown up 3 minutes into a match. They weren't relevant in WWE a few years ago, so why would they be interesting now? At least they FINALLY turned them heel (they had no choice, the crowd was shitting on them) so Bubba can cut some decent promos again. Steiners - Scott Steiner is a trainwreck, but he's an entertaining trainwreck. Rick is completely out of ring shape and shouldn't be there. While the story behind Steiners vs 3D is a good one, this is taking up way-too-valuable TV time that could be putting over new tag teams. Sting - Complete waste of time and money. He's being paid more than half the fuckin roster combined, pretty much sucks in the ring, and hasn't done a THING for buyrates or ratings. I admire his effort to stay in shape and keep working, but he's old and played out. And they buried half the roster to put him over in a failed attempt at a title feud. Christian - In my opinion, the only cast-off that's been dealt with properly. His face run with the belt, in terms of storyline and promos, was kinda meh, he's always been better as a heel. But when he had the belt, heel OR face, he did great work in the ring, busted his ass and really put the company over whenever he could. His feud with Abyss was great in particular, and he's arguably the best heel on the roster now. Kurt Angle - Huge swerve, really grabbed some attention for TNA, and I'll admit I marked for him showing up. But it all went downhill from there. It started by clearly and concisely putting him over Joe--why didn't they just make the 3rd match a draw? I'm still not in the camp that believed the feud should've been held off--I thought the three matches were fine, but they had to CLEARLY put Angle over the guy who arguably should be the future of the company. Angle is old and broken--he moves at half the speed he used to, takes zero risks, and unlike his old angle in ECW of the "MMA badass", which FIT him going slower and taking less risks, we're back to the Angle of old, trying to be a comedy act. I only ever really bought him in WWE as the MMA badass, or as the goofy babyface with a heart of gold. This new Angle is unentertaining, and not all that much fun to watch in the ring anymore. And now IMPACT is unquestionably "The Kurt Angle show." Every fuckin week we have to stomach half the show being taken up by awful unfunny promos and segments with him and his wife, and burying most of the roster by holding all the belts. Genious. New Age Outlaws - I refuse to call them anything else, because that's what they still are. Old, tired men who barely had talent in 1997, never mind today. Continue to waste time on IMPACT with shit no one cares about, and continue to go over in matches against talent that SHOULD be main eventing (like LAX or the Motor City Machine Guns.) I mean, Homicide was pinned clean by Billy Gunn. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, HOMICIDE. At least Billy Gunn had the balls to stand up and point out that Pacman Jones is a useless tit who shouldn't be on TV. Pacman Jones - Jesus fucking christ, this is the #1 reason I'm not watching IMPACT anymore. I didn't even know who this guy was until I read about it. Signing a goddamn criminal, who has nothing but a bad reputation, who can't wrestle AND isn't allowed to wrestle, and waste our time with segments involving him all the time. Bringing in mainstream celebrities and sports guys in ANY wrestling fed leads to failure, but TNA seems to have made an art out of it. No one CARES about this shit, STOP IT. ---- And what about the TNA talent you ask? Gone. Buried. Shit. The future of the business, the young, awesome, hungry talent, virtually non-existent. Samoa Joe - all at once the best off, and the worst off. He's been in the main event scene, which is good. The crowd is NUTS over him, which is good. So every few months, Joe goes through a big conveluted storyline that builds him up as the "babyface chasing the badass heel" over and over and over and over and over again. So what happens? He jobs. Over and over and over and over again. This last time, he jobs FOR ALL THE BELTS IN TNA. He's repeatedly been made to look like a joke, even falling for the most tired, predictable swerve in all of wrestling, when Karen Angle turned on him to help her husband. LAME. Thankfully his contract is up soon, we can only hope he goes back to ROH. AJ Styles - On the one hand, he's fun to watch as a heel, and his promos are really starting to come around as a result of it. But, either way, he's languishing in the mid-card while all the WWE rejects take his spotlight. He's been responsible for multiple MOTY candidates, he was in the feud of 2005 with Daniels and Joe, and the feud of 2006 with LAX. There's no reason he shouldn't be main eventing TNA all year. He's the face of TNA, the most recognizable and most popular of TNA's "home-grown" talent--instead he's Christian's stooge. Christopher Daniels - He goes through all the trouble of a character change into this new, darker, badass Fallen Angel, Sting offers to run a program with him to put him over, yet the creative team shits all over it and buries him. He does a few run-ins on Sting, plays a couple mind games, they have one abysmal PPV match where Sting essentially SQUASHES HIM, and that's the end of the feud because Russo thought "it just wasn't working." So they "reward" him by putting XXX back together. Which of course means Daniels, who's busted his ass and paid his dues for 15 years, who cuts one of the best promos in the business, who should be main eventing TNA after being in the feud of the year with Joe and AJ in 2005, and against LAX in 2006, is now floundering again in the X-Division, which he's been in for-fuckin-ever, and which TNA doesn't even care about and may bury anyway. Ridiculous Low Ki - Arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world, came in an won the X-title almost immediately, had a few great matches, then lost it and was completely buried. He's now made a comeback with a reformed XXX, but in a division that's going nowhere and is booked poorly. There's no reason he shouldn't be main eventing either. Abyss - Unstoppable monster? He used to be. Know he talks, has lost the best manager in the business today, and has jobbed to everyone on the roster at least twice. Why hasn't he had a long run with the belt? He had one very brief run, and he was buried--it was like a Rey Mysterio title run, except with a 300 lb man. He's just about the best big man in the business today, and his talent is squandered on mid-card hardcore matches. Terrible. Motor City Machine Guns - Probably the second-best tag team in the entire world next to The Briscoes, and where are they? Jobbing to fucking Billy Gunn and the Road Dawg on XPLOSION. There's NO reason they shouldn't be feuding with LAX for the tag titles right now, with Team 3D and the Steiners not even in the fucking picture. Jay Lethal - While the Macho Man gimmick is hilarious and his impersonation is PERFECT, this angle can't continue for long, otherwise he'll never be anything but a comedy act. There's no reason he shouldn't be having a nice long title feud in the X-Division. Instead, they jobbed him out to Joe on his FIRST NIGHT AS CHAMPION, just so they could put the belt, and ALL belts, on Angle. Retarded. LAX - Where'd they go? They were part of the feud of 2006 against AJ and Daniels, including two of the most memorable matches in TNA history. Homicide is great on the mic and has endless talent in the ring, and Hernandez is one of the better big men there is, incredibly agile for his size. They thankfully had a good long run with the belts, one of the few things TNA has done right--but then they jobbed out to Team 3D (for no good reason, they SUCK) and have virtually disappeared. Homicide jobbed to BILLY FUCKING GUNN in a conveluted tag match with Rick Steiner. That is an embarassment. Jerry Lynn - So disgusted by the current direction of TNA, he requested his release. Good on him, maybe he'll show up in ROH for a short run and put over some young talent, which is what he is the BEST at doing. Something he hardly did at all in TNA when he wrestled the last few months. Rhino and Raven - Don't even get me started. Both had hugely popular title wins in the last few years that faded into complete nothingness thanks to the creative team's opinion of them. While Rhino isn't that great in the ring, both of these guys can work their ass off, and Raven in particular should be, if not wrestling solidly in the mid-card, at least using his talent on the mic to put others over. Instead they're either not seen on TV, or squandered repeatedly in lower card matches and forgotten about weekly. Petey Williams - Had a really shitty babyface turn that wasn't at all believable, and is now virtually nonexistant. Another guy who should be feuding for the X-Title. I miss Team Canada. Bobby Roode - Sucks. Why is he even on TV? His in-ring work is horrible, his mic work is horrible and his angles are unentertaining. Yet he has "the look" so he keeps getting booked. America's Most Wanted - Broken up now, of course, which means Chris Harris gets a decent push and James Storm gets buried in the lower card. Their matches against each other were awesome, but where do you go from here? --- That's about all I can think of to rant about right now. The company's direction is a joke, they're burying their top young talent in favour of has-beens, and we all know Jarrett is waiting in the wings to come back as a triumphant babyface (that will either not be cheered, or cheered out of pity for his wife, may she rest in peace) and ruin the title scene for another year. He was never much of a main eventer even in his prime, and he's just awful now. It's only going to get worse. There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, that AJ, Daniels and Joe aren't essentially repeating their feud from 2005 in the heavyweight title scene. None. It was an amazing feud that drew interest to the product and it can do it all over again, even with a little Angle or Christian thrown in to spice things up. There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, why LAX and the Motor City Machine Guns aren't feuding for the tag titles as we speak, or, assuming XXX needs to exist at all, why Low Ki/Daniels/Skipper aren't feuding with them either. Team 3D and the Steiners need to go away. There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, why Angle should be holding the X-Division title, and no reason whatsoever why Jay Lethal lost it. There's no reason Lethal shouldn't still have it right now, and be feuding with Low Ki for it. They had awesome matches in ROH together, they can do it again. They keep putting gimmick match after gimmick match after gimmick match on display, both the traditional kind (6 sides of steel, Iron Man match) and the ridiculous kind (King of the Mountain, reverse Battle Royale) to the point where they're meaningless and boring. And most are confusing, to boot. Gimmick matches are supposed to be built toward during a feud, not just tossed out there randomly. Their tag line is "We Are Wrestling" and they constantly put over how they're an alternative to WWE, yet all they do is put over washed up WWE talent and do the same insulting bullshit storylines WWE does. If you asked me a year ago about TNA, I would've raved about how awesome it was (other than the Sting bullshit), but now I can't even stomach watching it OR WWE.

Most of mine are Detroit ROH moments... The Johnny Fairplay "celebrity appearance" at the ROH Wrestlemania Doubleshot in Detroit this year. I've never heard a crowd pop louder than when Nigel give him a short-arm lariat that nearly broke his neck. At my first Detroit show, Dragongate Challenge, there was a huge fat black dude all dressed up like a gangsta with the fubus and the jacket 8 sizes too big and all that... he and Julius Smokes got into a HUGE shouting match at ringside during Ricky Reyes' match, like it was straight out of a Bernie Mac routine, complete with Smokes calling him "YOU BLACK SUMUMABITCH" and climbing the barracade. The after-show party at Como's in Detroit, after Night 1 of the Wrestlemani a Doubleshot, was a ton of fun, got to talk with a lot of the wrestlers. Roderick Strong is either a total dick in real life, or playing his heel persona a little too seriously, as he shoved people out of the way to get to the buffet like an idiot. Daniels is a huge Corona whore, and had everyone buying him one left right and center. For an older dude with a family, and being in the athletic shape he is, he sure does drink like a mutherfucker. I believe it was at Throwdown, Delirious won a match and was leaving the ring, walking up the entrance ramp and was jawing with the fans--and for some unbelievable reason, a fan took a swing at him. Barely hit him, Delirious did the right thing and just stared him down and then left. Why Delirious, of all the wrestlers, anyway? Someone sitting near him said "Delirious tried to hit his girlfriend," which sounds retarded and wrong anyway. But during intermission, he ran for his truck and was hunted down by "security," which consisted of Big Bad Bobby Dempsey and some other students. He cowered in his truck and then left. I could just imagine him doing the same thing to Joe, Strong or Homicide--I doubt they would've had that kind of restraint.

WWE offers no health insurance and rarely helps its performers out--ROH does have health insurance, though apparently there was a dispute with Jimmy Rave over them. Either way, Danielson will be cared for properly. The ROH guys work 3-4 times a month (in ROH, at least), make decent money now that they're under contract, and have health insurance. WWE workers are guilted into using steroids and HGH to get "the look", which increases their likelihood of injury from even the smallest movement (Vince tearing both quads walking, Botchtista breaking a bunch of stuff doing a power bomb, HHH tearing his quad running across the ring)... I won't deny a lot of workers in ROH and elsewhere in the indys take some pretty big risks, but they're far more likely to pull the moves off safely because they're actually limber, agile and have great endurance. The thing with Danielson was a freak accident, not from doing a tope suicida into the crowd. And when they do, they usually have less weight on the injury too--Mark Briscoe did an SSP to the floor in front of me in Detroit and cracked his head open--he was working a month later. DESPITE that, ROH waited for him to be medically cleared, PLUS another week, before letting him wrestle again. Same went for Jimmy Jacobs, who tore up his knee in the same weekend, he's just coming back now. They're given the proper time to heal, which is also important. It's a shame now though, I won't get to see The Best Wrestler in the World in action in Detroit in 2 weeks.

O RLY? Well thank you, but clearly it was someone involved with WWE. I should've clarified my statement.

What in the FUCK? So someone at WWE headquarters knew she was dead, but not Benoit and his kid, before the police found them? This shit is messed up.

QFT, and thank you. I'm not gonna touch this aspect of the subject again.

no, the squats thing sounds like something any of the veterans might have done, like Undertaker or a Vader or a JBL. Doesn't sound to me like a nut. In fact those guys are famous for stiffing the shit out of rookies for messing up. And yes, domestic abuse is a problem, but losing your temper and smacking your wife is NOT the same thing as planning, PLANNING a cold-blooded murder. There is a GIANT leap in reasoning here. Steve Austin hit Debra, he's a wife-beater, and that sucks--but he's not a murderer suddenly.