Kahran Ramsus

I loved tonight's show. The editing made it painfully obvious who was going home and it was just gleeful to watch, since Judd deserved all of it.

I didn't like that he was jumping around, I'm okay if he plods along like a giant ape. It was the action they had the CGI ape doing. Okay. I apologize then. I misunderstood you.

Not liking CGI films is one thing, but Duke said that he was excited to see it until he found it is was a CGI Kong. That's like looking forward to a Gene Snitsky match and then complaining about how bad it was. Did anybody seriously expect it wouldn't be CGI?

What did you expect? Stop-motion? A guy in a suit?

I immediately thought of Benoit too. Rey, maybe?

You're wrong. The 800,000 or so buys for ONS was just a fairy tale. It didn't even go over 400,000 while Mania had over 1,000,000 buys IIRC. Maybe even SummerSlam did a bigger buyrate than ONS but I may be mistaken on this one. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't know about Summerslam, but Vengeance did better than ONS.

That argument can certainly be made.

I know it says 5 years, but I'll count 2000. Best Wrestler in the last five years: 1. Chris Benoit - Since he came to the company in 2000, he has had more good matches than most guys have in the entire careers, and he wasn't even at his peak. The most memorable moment of the last 5 years is the ending to Wrestlemania XX. 2. Kurt Angle - Benoit's eternal rival, he got big in the WWF at about the same time and has become one of the company's biggest stars. He lacks the versatility of Benoit, but what he does, he does very well. 3. Eddy Guerrero - It is it any surprise that these guys are 1-2-3? Eddy missed significant time, but managed to kick his drug habit and over the five years was better than everybody but the two guys above him. I'll miss you Eddy! Best feud in the last five years: 1. HHH vs. Mick Foley - This was an extremely well-booked feud that made HHH a star. He was Ortoning his title run before Mick saved him. 2. Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle vs. Los Guerreros vs. Edge & Rey Misterio - The Smackdown Six. Not much storyline, but they played well off each other and practically saved all of 2002 for the company. Funny how you could just stick any combination of these guys together for weeks on end and entertain the fans. Nothing WWE has done since has been as good as this period on Smackdown. 3. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, Early 2003 - Not a great half-decade for feuds as the writing quality took a big hit mysteriously in the fall of 2000. But I quite enjoyed the initial Kurt Angle/Brock Lesnar feud ending at Wrestlemania XIX. Best match in the last five years: 1. Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle, Royal Rumble 2003 2. Steve Austin vs. The Rock, Wrestlemania XVII 3. HHH vs. Cactus Jack, Royal Rumble 2000 Best brawler in the last five years: 1. Triple H 2. Brock Lesnar 3. JBL Best High Flyer in the last five years: 1. Rey Misterio 2. Paul London 3. Shelton Benjamin Best Tag Team in the last five years: 1. Edge & Christian - One of my favourite teams in WWF history. Noone else on this list even comes close. 2. Los Guerreros - The winners of the Smackdown Six stuff, they were both entertaining as characters and as wrestlers. 3. The World's Greatest Tag Team - Carved out a nice niche for themselves in 2003, culminating with a great match against the Filthy Animals at Vengeance, before they got buried for no reason. Most Underrated performer in the last five years: 1. JBL. The amount of hate this guy has gotten in the past two years is baffling. He used to be terrible, but he's improved tremendously to the point where he is one of the best characters in the company and even a decent wrestler. 2. Undertaker - Like JBL, he didn't start off the decade well, but he changed his style in 2002-2003 and became a much better wrestler for it. 3. Edge - Has put on good matches off and on for the last five years, with a few hiccups. He is far more talented than Christian, but you wouldn't know it from their reactions. Most Overrated performer in the last five years: 1. Rob Van Dam - Without a doubt. He's barely passable as a worker and is even worse when forced to act out a part in a storyline. He's lazy and dogs it when he's booked to lose. A terrible wrestler in all aspects. But somehow he's popular. 2. Shawn Michaels - He can still go, not as often as he used to, but he's still one of the best wrestlers on the RAW roster. But if you listen to his fans, he's the undisputed top wrestler of all-time in the prime of his career. He's not. 3. Christian - His character is great, but his moveset just isn't good enough for the attention he recieved. Works well as a tag wrestler, but not as a main eventer. They could have used him much better, but his mishandling isn't nearly as tragic as someone like Jericho's. Best promo guy in the last five years: 1. The Rock 2. Steve Austin 3. Kurt Angle - It should be those three easily. The only question is the order. Best PPV in the last five years: 1. Wrestlemania XVII - The best PPV the WWF has ever put on, with something for everybody and good matches up and down the card (except for Chyna). 2, Judgment Day 2000 - This was during the period in spring 2000 when everybody was on fire. Still my favourite televised Iron Man Match. 3. Royal Rumble 2000 - This PPV revived the Royal Rumble after years of bad ones. Plus the Street Fight, Tazz's debut and an entertaining table match. Worst PPV in the last five years: 1. No Way Out 2003 - The last three matches are all in the negatives, and the only thing even remotely decent featured Jeff Hardy. 2. King of the Ring 2002 - So bad it killed the gimmick. 3. Taboo Tuesday 2004 - As bad as this year's was, it was still better than the initial offering. Anything that features yet another HHH/HBK match (this time worse than ever) and a main event of Randy Orton/Ric Flair deserves to be panned. Most disgusting promotional tactic in the last five years: The Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club. I was absolutely embarrassed to be a wrestling fan after that. Best promotional tactic in the last five years: Signing Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn. They boosted an incredibly weak WWF midcard at the expense of WCW's. Two of those guys ended up being in my top three wrestlers of the last five years list.

And take off a year for when they filmed GoF. Believe it or not, Emma Watson is actually younger than her character. Order of the Phoenix is scheduled to start shooting early in 2006.

That is exactly why I voted for him. He has been consistent, be it with JBL, Booker, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Shelton Benjamin, etc. Shawn Michaels had some great matches, but he had a lot of crap too (The Hassan feud, the Edge feud, Hogan, Masters) and he missed awhile with an injury. Eddy/Rey was really disappointing, so count out both of them. Shelton Benjamin disappeared after he lost the IC Title. HHH & Orton have had some good matches, but they've both missed a lot of time with injuries. Chris Benoit has had good matches as always, but he was also stuck with Orlando for months. I considered JBL, but he's not at Angle's level and JBL/Show and JBL/Batista sucked. I can't see it being anybody but Angle.

Wrestler of the Year: Kurt Angle. Almost by default. He's had good, not great matches at almost every show he's been at all year. Shawn, Benoit, Rey & Eddy and Eddy all went long stretches this year without doing much good at all. The Kurt/Booker feud sucked, but the matches were pretty good and based on Booker's other work lately, it wasn't because of him. If Benjamin didn't get buried, he might have had a shot, but I really can't see it being anyone but Angle, unless you start counting other factors like character. Feud of the Year: Batista vs. HHH. It went on too long, but until Mania it was great and did a lot to get Batista over. Last January/February this feud was superhot. Match of the Year: Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels, Wrestlemania XXI. It has been a down year all around, but this one would have been rated fairly high in a good year for this company. Their rematches aren't even half as good. Best Brawler: JBL. If there is anything he can do well in the ring, it is brawl. He carried Cena to his best match ever at Judgment Day and the JBL/Angle series was good fun as well. Best High Flier: Paul London. I was really tempted to put in Shelton Benjamin as he is a great high-flyer as well, but I don't think anybody in the company can do what London does. Best Tag Team: MNM. There isn't really any other choice. Most Underrated: JBL. As established above, he might be the best brawler in the company right now and his matches are rarely horrible anymore. Yet, from all the hate he gets you would think that he was the worst wrestler on the roster. Most Overrated: Carlito. He has no real skills to speak of. Best Promos: JBL. For awhile on Smackdown JBL promos were the only thing worth watching on Smackdown. Cena really misses him to play off of. Best PPV: Judgment Day. No real amazing PPVs this year, but aside from the Carlito/Show & US Title matches, both of which were short, there was no real stinkers on this show. There were four good matches here as well, one of which was the best WWE PPV main event of the year. Worst PPV: One Night Stand. Aside from a fun Tanaka/Awesome brawl which was done better in the past, it was complete garbage. Great American Bash wasn't much better, nor was No Way Out. and stolen from the WON... Most disgusting promotional tactic: Angle lusts after other men's wives. There was other stupid stuff, but I thought it was terrible that you have you WOTY doing that bullshit. 'I'm your Papi!' isn't far behind.

For some reason Vince listened to the fans when it came to Batista, probably because Batista was buddies with HHH. Batista wasn't pushed to the moon until after he got the reactions though. Prior to that he was always the odd-man out in Evolution, or the guy they would use if they need to put over someone in a RAW main event (as happened more than once in the Benoit title reign). Batista was getting very strong reactions by the summer of 2004 though, and the push started in the fall. Remember this is a guy who's career almost ended with his injury in 2003. He won the World Title at Summerslam 2004, then got punked out by HHH the next night and turned face. The next month featured him running like a bitch from Evolution before jobbing the title to HHH at Unforgiven 2004 ending his title reign after about 4 weeks. He got his ass kicked by HHH for months, finally losing clean in a humilating defeat at the Royal Rumble (with Orton getting booed out of the building despite being face). By the time we get to the Undertaker feud, Orton's heat had been killed and his credibility shot. Meanwhile, Batista was starting to really get super-over in the late summer-fall of 2004 as well. In the fans eyes, since they were both in Evolution, Batista and Orton were in direct competition with each other. Batista was the fans choice. Orton was Vince's choice who was being viewed as having gotten an undeserved World Title push by that point. In order to boost Batista, therefore some fans found it necessary to tear down Orton as well, since he was being groomed for the Wrestlemania title win against HHH that they wanted Batista to get. Personally, I despised Orton during that face run, just because it was so painfully obvious that the company was trying to use whatever cheap heat they could to get him over and Orton himself just couldn't play the character. He is much better as the Legend Killer. I am still not a fan of him, but by Wrestlemania his credibility was so destroyed by the face run that putting him over Undertaker there would have ruined his career as the fans simply would not have accepted it. He was rather fortunate that he got injured actually. Because by the time he got back, a lot of that stuff was forgotten by the fans and the Batista/Orton comparison was no longer valid since Batista had gotten the title (and crushed Orton in a match the next night). Plus the match against Taker was a pleasant surprise. The combination of that job to Taker and the injury was the best thing that ever happened to Orton. It was a very weird situation in which doing a job ended up helping him more than winning would have.

I thought this came out of the blue too. I didn't even notice it until I was told last night. It is supposed to be on WSBK, so I'll be able to watch it, but they didn't seem to advertise it that well. Maybe they want a live show to do a quick World Title change?

Not really. More like it is 'cool' to cheer the more talented wrestlers. There are a few exceptions, but most of the guys who get the most cheers are usually among the best wrestlers in the company (Rey, Benoit, HBK, Eddy before his death, HHH, Angle). Batista isn't a great wrestler, but he's over because he's a rarity in wrestling, a face character that isn't an idiot. You won't see Batista get booed against anyone other than an Eddy Guerrero or Chris Jericho-type, and at No Mercy both he and Eddy were faces so it isn't like it mattered anyways. Taker is an exception because of who he is. Besides, both Batista & Undertaker (as well as Kane & Show) can believably beat the best wrestlers just because of their style. They are big power guys that can believably end any match with one move, even against more talented opponents. Cena doesn't have the moveset or character to compete with most of the top names on RAW. He worked well with JBL on Smackdown, but he really suffered by the move to RAW where the heel characters are less defined. But at the same time, if he feuded with someone like Masters who he wouldn't get booed against, the match would stink up the joint and both guys would probably end up getting booed anyways (ala Steiner/HHH). In short, he just isn't talented enough for the position he's in. I don't mind Cena, but that seems to be the problem. If they really want to try to make this work, they pretty much have to stick him in with Edge next. He's about the only heel on RAW that I can think of that wouldn't get that many cheers AND is talented enough to get a decent match out of Cena.

Radcliffe used to be the weakest, but he improved a great deal for Goblet of Fire, so now I agree with you.

Don't know. But I get UPN too, so I'm not too concerned if it isn't. I'll take a look. EDIT: It is not. The Score is showing the Illinois/North Carolina game.

This is one of those hilariously awful films, as opposed to just awful. It is just so unintentionally stupid, that you can't help but enjoy yourself. Don't watch it more than once though.

I hated that in Chamber of Secrets too. All of the stuff about the Muggleborn/Pureblood conflict is explained by Ron in the books, but for some reason in the movies they changed it to Hermione, despite the fact that as a Muggleborn who had only known about magic for less than 2 years she would have little idea about how deep the resentment is. It doesn't fit with Hermione's character at all. I understand the need for changes, and I have no problem with most of them, but there is no way that Hermione would have known all of that stuff, in either the book or the film.

Didn't Meltzer say just last week in his Survivor Series preview that the plan was for HHH to take the title from Cena at Mania? So who's right?

I've seen all of them. From best to worst, not including this year. Borneo Africa Palau Pearl Islands Thailand Vanuatu Australia Amazon Marquesas All-Stars It used to be traditional for the odd number shows (the fall shows usually) to be great and for the even number ones (the spring shows) to blow, but it was broken last year.

Because she's Rafe's sidekick, and he's controlling the game right now. Plus, she hasn't been very obvious about it, which is why Gary & Danni thought she was the best option to turn to their side. She doesn't deserve it more than Rafe, but she is better than Steph & Judd. Lydia & Danni are finished so unless something big happens we shouldn't be bothering to discuss them. Marquesas was terrible too. I agree with that. But I liked Thailand. Brian was one of the best Survivor players ever. Somehow he convinced practically everyone on his team that he was going to the Final Two with them, and when it came down to it he was able to take the most hated player there (Clay) with him and win an easy vote despite the fact that he had betrayed everybody on the jury.

Idiots. Now Green Bay needs to fire Sherman and bring Mooch in.

The bg winner this week is obviously Walk the Line (great movie BTW), but WB should be very happy that Goblet of Fire didn't have a greater than 50% drop when it made so much the first weekend. Usually you get 60+% drops with that kind of opening. That should tell you that the film was fairly well recieved by audiences.

I agree with most of what you say. All-Stars was the worst season ever. There were such bad moves made by Lex and company throughout the entire thing, and it ended with someone who didn't belong anywhere near an 'All-Star' edition winning the whole thing. Terrible season. But I do think Rafe will end up winning this one, and he is probably the most deserving (followed by Cindy) so I don't have any complaints about this season yet. Even though Gary was my favourite.

Warrior. Warrior won in 88, 89, and both matches in 90. Hogan won those same years, including both matches in 90, but I say Warrior performed better because Hogan had that loss in 87.