Mad Scientist

That doesn't mean I can resist my natural tendency to be an argumentative bastard.

You don't turn your best drawers into jobbers! They're not "minimal" either because, unlike what some goth boys claim, they're not WWE rejects. They're taking all the BEST wrestlers out of WWE! Do you think anyone care about Triple H and Batista? I don't! I wasn't an Angle fan when he was in WWE, FAR from it, but then it's like he was re-created in TNA and he's incredibly good. He's a 1-man sitcom. Cancel "king of queens" and put Angle in it and you have a winner. And what a PPV it was! PPV-Of-The-Year Look, I can't stand HHH or Batista either, but you can't deny those two guys are superior draws to Booker, Angle, or Christian. You're letting your personal dislike of them, or your opinion of the work product, color your view of the fact that people tune in and crowds pop big for those guys. Booker, Christian, and Angle are certainly good workers, but not on the draw level of a Batista, HHH, or Cena. It's more a function of general charisma and sustained push than in-ring ability. You use older talent to put over younger talent, so you have a sustainable business model. Otherwise, your younger guys are never credible at all when your old guys retire. Certainly you don't have your young turks squash your more established guys, but the young guys need to be able to win matches against the older guys to get any kind of heat going. Having Angle squash someone like an AJ Styles or Senshi or Petey Williams is great for Angle, but what happens to the company when your old guys like Angle get hurt, retire, or are sent to prison for drug charges? You're left with a roster full of people that you've made look like crap, whom you are now forced to sell as main event caliber. You do see the problem that sort of booking creates?

Let me tell you something, goth boy. I replayed the main event that happened yesterday and i could barely watch it again - almost 24 hours later - because it was STILL tension-filled. In the Hall shoot interview, he says that the WCW in 95 was mic-based and that if people weren't good on the mic, they'd bury them. In an incredible twist of event, he was buried the same way with Samoa Joe... and, up to a point, who knows how it affected / will affect Nash. You can hear someone in the crowd yell "don't let him talk to you that way Nash!!!" and who knew what Nash was thinking at that point... because... in the old WCW days, that could end up with baseball bats in the locker room!!! You can downplay the most SHOCKING event in professional wrestling in 2007 all you want, I KNOW WHAT I SAW !!! You know you only need to use one exclamation point to show emphasis or exclamatory emotion, right? I don't doubt it was a shocking development for TNA. A no-show by a booked main-eventer is always shocking for a PPV. However, given Hall's past, did TNA have any reasonable right to be surprised by this event, and shouldn't they have had a backup plan in place?

That would be absolutely perfect. Santino is the only decent talker on the brand right now. He's painfully crappy in the ring, so having him go managerial and point Lashley at the person who wants kick his faux Italian BUTT that particular week, and Santino goes from funny comedy heel to funny comedy heel with an incredibly dangerous bodyguard. What could really make this interesting is a heel vs. heel promo war between Kennedy and Santino, and just before Kennedy stomps Santino, Lashley comes out and destroys Kennedy. And Santino starts selling Lashley as his new bodyguard, since he helped him out against the first bully who thought he could walk all over Santino (Umaga). Lashley gets a subtle, but understandable heel turn, and Santino as his mouthpiece.

I honestly wouldn't mind a Lashley return. Lashley has all the tools to be a good wrestler; he only needs a lot of promo work, or a good mouth piece. He's got the basic wrestling chops, if the E would ever let him use them, and he's got the physique and power that Vince loves. If Lashley can do a few things, he'll be gold: 1. Develop a better power game. He needs some really good power moves. He lacks even Batista's weak ass power game, and that's just sad. As far as I can tell, he uses that stalling vertical suplex, an exploder suplex, that Davey Boy Smith running powerslam, and that's it. A guy with his physique who is sold as a dominating powerhouse needs to show that off with a lot more than that. 2. Drop the Spear. Too many other people use it to make it legitimate as a finisher anymore. The spear has become the new DDT. It's just too common to be seen as a legitimate finisher without something special added to it. Goldberg's spear and Rhyno's Gore look devastating. Lashley's spear is way too much like Edge's to make it a good finisher. Edge has, IMHO, the worst spear in wrestling today. 3. Learn to promo or get a mouthpiece. Lashley needs to work with a voice coach or he needs to be paired with a good talker. I would have said to pair him with Elijah Burke, but now he's on RAW. There don't really seem to be any good manager types out there now. This would almost certainly require a heel turn, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Lashley has a terrible voice. He can seem intimidating if he never talks and just does that Brock Lesnar style of hyperventilation, but he'll need someone to talk him up and get him over with someone other than Vince.

That's too much for what I'd get. I don't get the movie tiers (HBO, STARZ,etc.), and I could care less about seeing most of the TV I watch in HD. For my money and entertainment, it's worth more to save that up and get a new video game every couple of months. It's not that I'm against HD, I just don't care enough about regular TV shows to pay the extra per month. Now, it's really sweet to play my video games and watch my DVD movies in HD...

12/12 is a Wednesday. I'm no HD lobbyist like ol Marv there, but if they offer it, why not take it? It's usually a higher fee for not a lot of return. I have an HD tv that I play my video games on, but honestly there's not enough of a difference for me to pay an extra fee each month to watch television shows in HD.

None that I've found yet. A lot of the old Benoit Germans are still in the game, though. Might be under a different, generic name though. I haven't found it yet, but I haven't unlocked all the legends and pregenerated movesets yet. Although I doubt it'll be in there. And if it is, it won't be under the struggle submission system. (Insert gripes about lack of submission moves here)

None that I've found yet. A lot of the old Benoit Germans are still in the game, though.

Here's what you do first. Go into 24/7 mode and pick the Undertaker or some other pregenerated, high-rated guy (HHH). Page down to Wrestlemania and simulate everything until that date, then simulate WM. That'll give you a ton of cash, which you will need. That should unlock the "kits" in the WWEshop. The kits give you attribute boosts for your CAW. You pick the one for your primary fighting style. The premium kits give you an overall score of 80 with emphasis on the attributes most important to your style, the starter kits give you an overall of 60 with emphasis in the primary attributes. You have to buy the kit for each CAW separately, though, so if you want to create lots of CAWs right off the bat, I'd simulate the 24/7 mode multiple times to build up cash. There are no unlimited points that I've found yet, just the kits in the shop. After that, you can pretty easily build your guys stats up through training. Much less frustrating that way. Or you can simulate through 24/7 as you said, make your first caw, buy the kit, and then you can copy that caw and make your other caws. The other caws attributes will be the same as your first and all you would have to do is change everything, but you wouldnt have to simulate time and time again. That could work as well, but the attributes would always be exactly the same for each CAW...you can't alter the stats at all except through the training or buying other kits. So if your first guy bought the Submission kit, all your guys would have submission as their primary attribute.

I hate "puzzle" levels in my favorite action games. They interrupt my wanton destruction. In particular, I hate the levels in God of War I & II where you have to hop or swing around a room and hit switches in the right order to get out. It's not they're that difficult once you figure out what to do, but I don't play God of War to figure things out, I, and pretty much everyone else I know of, plays it to rip wings off griffons, decapitate zombie armor things, pop the heads off of medusae, and rip the eyeballs out of cyclopses, darn it. Those little "puzzle" levels annoy me to no end, as they postpone my evisceration of various mythological monstrosities.

Here's what you do first. Go into 24/7 mode and pick the Undertaker or some other pregenerated, high-rated guy (HHH). Page down to Wrestlemania and simulate everything until that date, then simulate WM. That'll give you a ton of cash, which you will need. That should unlock the "kits" in the WWEshop. The kits give you attribute boosts for your CAW. You pick the one for your primary fighting style. The premium kits give you an overall score of 80 with emphasis on the attributes most important to your style, the starter kits give you an overall of 60 with emphasis in the primary attributes. You have to buy the kit for each CAW separately, though, so if you want to create lots of CAWs right off the bat, I'd simulate the 24/7 mode multiple times to build up cash. There are no unlimited points that I've found yet, just the kits in the shop. After that, you can pretty easily build your guys stats up through training. Much less frustrating that way.

I agree with you about the commentary. Although there's a lot of good commentary from JBL in the cut scenes, the match commentary painfully, sickeningly, horrifically blows. Honestly, if they can't do a better job than that, then dump the whole thing. I especially hate when they start talking about people who aren't even in the damn match. Also, does anyone else miss the ability from SD! games past to name your finisher, and have the name appear on screen when you hit it? I think it was in SD! 1 or 2.

My views on the game are as follows, in no particular order: 1. I like the struggle submission system. It adds a little bit of strategy to the submissions, as opposed to the button tapping or slide bar from the previous games. 2. I don't like the fact that the vast majority of submission moves in the game are NOT worked into the Struggle Submission system. Monumentally annoying. Why even bother including the anklelock or the cloverleaf or the tazzmission if they're not submissions? There are only about 15 total submissions in the new system. Lazy bastards. 3. The new UCM reversals are great. 4. I like the fighting styles. It makes the wrestlers actually feel different in play. You don't play a high-flyer like you would a brawler or submissionist, or you lose. I think the fighting styles they assigned to the existing wrestlers are a little questionable. Luckily, you can fix these. HHH a powerhouse? 5. Why are there fewer moves? There should be more moves, not less. Even though a few new moves (mostly new guys' finishers) have been included, this does not compensate for a loss of a lot of cool moves. The submissions were especially hard hit. I know that hardly anyone in the E uses submissions anymore, but still. Further, each wrestler has fewer move slots available. I know that most wrestlers on the roster have very few moves outside of punches and kicks, but what if I want to make someone with talent? 6. 24/7 mode is annoying. I can only raise my CAW's stats 1% at a time? I can't rest without forfeiting popularity? There's a storyline about starring in a movie, but I can apparently do that any day of the week? I can never challenge for the intermediate titles or tag titles at all? Gah. 7. The gameplay is enjoyable. It's not perfect, but it is fun, more so with a person than against the AI, which is as dumb as ever. 8. ECW Extreme Rules matches are awesome. The weapon selection is gold. While these are a lot less fun if you're not a hardcore guy, the awesomeness of this match is not to be discounted. 9. I hate having unlockables. I want to be able to play the game with whatever character or move set or arena I want as soon as I pay $60 for the damn game. I especially hate having to go through GM mode. Those are my thoughts so far.

"That's the Code Breaker! Say it loud, say it proud, JR!"

I am most likely available. I'd appreciate keeping the word limit low, though.

Incidentally, are there stats somewhere for this Non-Austin, Non-Brave Starr person? I was going to try to get 'em before the Turkey Day...

Tenay and West suck because there's no chemistry between them at all. No friction. They completely agree on everything. And they shout like idiots and sound like they're reading from a script...badly. Tenay wouldn't be bad if they paired him with someone with a little personality. Nash would probably be great on commentary for a bit, but Christian would be gold. Or maybe bring back Shane Douglas. Tenay is best when he is the play-by-play guy, and has a good color commentator to banter with.

I'd be down with the "Ayatollah of Rock and Roll-ah." It works and it's catchy.

Gotcha. I just noticed the alignments and wondered if it was a problem. If it's not a big deal, I won't worry about it.

It seems to me that most of our active roster are heels. So far, unless I'm missing something, for faces we have Johnny Dangerous, Wildchild, Chris Fury, and a couple of tweeners. Is this an issue for booking purposes? Do we need more faces? Or is this really a nonissue, and I'm showing my newbage by worrying about it?

Salsa is no laughing matter, my friend. That is serious business. Spicy, delicious business, but serious nonetheless. AND an Alexander mention! From the Superior One! I can't let that go by without tossing a promo out for next show... And Michael Alexander will henceforth be known as "Michael god damn Alexander!"

That could work. I'm sure I could swing that...that'll give me a few days after I get back to put things together.

No, no, no...Austin bookings go more like this: Santino offers Austin some Italian beer as a peace offering, Austin accepts since it's beer, spits it out because it's ITALIAN beer (the horror!) and stuns Santino and then Maria for good measure. Then drinks some real beer (AMERICAN, BAH GAWD) and spits it on both of them. He will then disappear until he has some other awful affront to all media to hype. I hope he does stun Maria. Austin needs to beat up more women on TV. I agree. It will add some realism to his character. The sad part is he'll get a standing ovation for it. For cripes' sake, Austin could deliver a stunner to a crippled, cancer-patient Girl Scout and still get a huge face pop. Same could go for The Rock as well. It's just one of those things I suppose. The Rock proved that if you just say their hometown sports team suck, you'll get really big heat. Beat a girl up? Awesome. Say the Kings suck, massive heat. Austin, though, can get a FACE POP from stunning ANYONE. I remember when random run-ins and sneak attacks were the stuff of HEELS. The antihero deal should only stretch so far, IMHO.

No, no, no...Austin bookings go more like this: Santino offers Austin some Italian beer as a peace offering, Austin accepts since it's beer, spits it out because it's ITALIAN beer (the horror!) and stuns Santino and then Maria for good measure. Then drinks some real beer (AMERICAN, BAH GAWD) and spits it on both of them. He will then disappear until he has some other awful affront to all media to hype. I hope he does stun Maria. Austin needs to beat up more women on TV. I agree. It will add some realism to his character. The sad part is he'll get a standing ovation for it. For cripes' sake, Austin could deliver a stunner to a crippled, cancer-patient Girl Scout and still get a huge face pop.