Kahran Ramsus

I don't mean hyping the hell out of an underdog, I mean in merely treating both wrestlers as competitors instead of a superstar and a jobber. Just look at Royal Rumble 1992 since we are talking about it, Sgt. Slaughter was a midcarder by this point and had no chance of winning, but the announcers were talking long before he came out that he was a former WWF Champion and was one of the major threats to win, so that when he does come out, it gets our attention. These days when a similar competitor, like say Chris Benoit last year, comes out the announcers barely make a peep. The only time they get excited if is they are a big part of the storyline like Batista or Shawn Michaels. In 1992 when Haku comes out, Gorilla acts like anyone can win the Royal Rumble. In 2005 when Luther Reigns comes out, JR acts like he doesn't have chance in hell. It only hurts the performers when the announcers do that. You're right about the rest of course as well. That only adds to the problem. Basically the company treats too many performers as jokes, instead of using them to their full potential. Some wrestlers are going to pushed and some not, but if Hurricane is used as a proper opening act performer rather than as just a complete joke the fans would respond more positively. Even five years ago they did this well enough with guys like the Godfather. You don't have to be pushed to be a valuable asset to the show, and they have seemed to have been missing this, like I said, ever since the Invasion angle where the WCW guys got buried on a regular basis. It hurts the big guys too. In the old days you could get a big monster over by just killing guys that would be competitive in a normal match. Why should we care if Chris Masters can destroy Hurricane if another joke like Rob Conway can do it?

Martel, yes. He was only a 'threat' because he had the record from the year before and there was thus a storyline running throughout the match of him vs. Flair. Before the show Martel was an afterthought. But you are ignoring how big Jake Roberts was at the time. He was the unquestioned #2 heel (arguably #1, as Flair didn't really take off until this win) and realistically had a better chance of winning the thing than even Taker, his buddy at the time. Savage/Roberts was the feud of the year and Roberts was getting unreal heel heat.

Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels - I really don't think that Hulk Hogan should be coming back to do jobs, but Shawn just can't afford to lose this match if they want to make him a credible heel. Since HBK/Cena is probably the biggest match RAW has right now, Shawn needs to win clean. But he won't. He might pull off a tainted victory, but my gut tells me he's going down clean to the legdrop. WINNER: Hulk Hogan WWE Champion John Cena © vs. Chris Jericho - Jericho's about as much of a threat as Rob Conway would be in this spot. I'm actually more interested in the Smackdown title match if that tells you how poorly this feud has been done. WINNER: John Cena No Holds Barred World Champion Batista vs. JBL - JBL is only here because of the Hassan thing so I don't expect him to win in Batista's hometown. I like JBL, but he can't and won't win this match. WINNER - Batista Matt Hardy vs. Edge - They screwed this up so bad that I don't even care anymore. I'm guessing Edge wins just to screw with Matt some more. WINNER - Edge Undertaker vs. Randy Orton - I liked it when Randy was hurt. He'll win here unless Taker pulls off something backstage. I'm almost hoping he will. WINNER - Orton No Time Limit Eugene vs. Kurt Angle - Another match where the winner is coming from a mile away. This is one of the most predictable PPVs in memory, unless they go completely the opposite of what they've been building too. Probably the most entertaining match of the undercard sadly. WINNER - Angle Ladder Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero - This feud was redhot in May, but was killed by the Russoriffic storyline. Like Edge/Matt, I don't even care anymore, and I can't possibly see how they can have Eddy get custody of Dominic, so Rey wins again. WINNER - Rey US Champion Orlando Jordan vs. Chris Benoit - One of the few matches on the card where the outcome is in question, but since they were building to JBL/Benoit before Hassan interfered I imagine that Benoit will get his win here and go on to face JBL at No Mercy. WINNER - Benoit OVERALL - Unless Shawn pulls the biggest miracle of his career in the main event and goes over, there is absolutely nothing here. It looks even worse than last year's Summerslam.

I'm just in one league at the moment with family and friends, but I'll probably join a standard yahoo league as well. QB - Trent Green QB - Matt Hasselbeck RB - Ladanian Tomlinson RB - Edgerrin James RB - Tatum Bell WR - Terrell Owens WR - Chad Johnson WR - Steve Smith WR - Larry Fitzgerald WR - Lee Evans TE - Alge Crumpler TE - Randy McMichael K - Jason Elam DEF - Carolina DEF - Atlanta

I'd hate to have this guy as a lawyer if that's how he argues his case. I'd probably be better off with the 14 year old.

As long as you see those two guys flailing in the undercard, you'll remember. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They'll be retired within 10 years, possibly 5, so that's not a problem.

Nobody will remember what happened afterwards, just like nobody remembers Warrior's horrible run after Wrestlemania VI. That night is what is really memorable.

Wrestlemania XX will stand the test of time. I don't imagine many of us will ever forget Benoit & Eddy ending the biggest show of the year on top. My favourite Wrestlemania in terms of the storylines going in was probably VIII. It is far from my favourite Mania (although it is good), but the storylines were quite memorable. Flair/Savage over Elisabeth, Hogan/Sid over one of the most famous Rumble endings ever, Piper/Hart in one of the true passing of the torch moments in wrestling, Roberts/Taker with Taker having just turned and Roberts as the best heel in wrestling over the past 6 months, and Disasters/Money Inc after they were betrayed by their manager only to have his new clients win the tag titles. Except for the filler (like Owen/Skinner & Tatanka/Martel) the angles going in were fantastic. We even got Warrior's big return at the end of the night.

A shame really, because Shawn was more interesting last night than he's been since 1997.

Except the NWO didn't start paying off financially until the fall, and the first good buyrate that the NWO drew was the 0.95 they got at Starrcade in December, after Shawn had lost the belt. The NWO didn't even get started until July, when Shawn's reign was half over and he was already tanking by that point. The peak of the NWO-era came in 1997, which helps explain why WWF had trouble gaining a foothold that year despite a good product, but it had very little impact on HBK's title run. Shawn was only there full-time from Montreal to the Royal Rumble. He got injured at the Royal Rumble and never wrestled again on RAW. This was also where the bulk of the increase was. Note that Steve Austin in a complete throwaway tag team main event at No Way Out in February drew a better buyrate than the December 1997 show that was built completely around DX and was one of the lowest bought PPVs in WWF history. Shawn's role in the rebirth of the WWF begins and ends at Montreal, where interest over the screwjob caused ratings to jump almost a full point overnight. Even there, the bulk of the attention was on Vince McMahon. Michaels was more of an afterthought. The rest of the rise can almost solely be attributed to Austin. Just look at Royal Rumble 1998 and tell me who's the bigger star. The pure fact that ratings continued to go up after Michaels left when Austin was stuck fighting Foley and Kane, should tell you that Michaels had little impact on the ratings increase. If your argument is that Shawn is just as good a ratings draw as Kane, then okay you might have made your point, because Kane had no impact on the ratings in 1998 either. Austin could have been feuding with Kurrgan for the belt in 1998, because Austin was simply one of those performers that come along once in a generation. Like Hogan in 1986, who was a better draw fighting slugs like Kamala anybody between then and 1998. The week that Nitro lost the streak was a week featuring Austin vs. McMahon (a guy who wasn't even a wrestler), so saying Doink/Austin would draw just as well as HBK/Austin isn't as far off as one might think. For the record, I like Shawn Michaels as a wrestler and want to see him feud with Cena over the WWE Title. I also think that JBL is the most entertaining wrestler in the company. But neither are draws, the numbers are there in black and white.

I generally prefer long reigns, but if a reign is completely bombing (like Orton's) then it is a good idea to get the belt off of him soon. I don't mind short reigns as much as I despise titles going back and forth 3 or 4 times between the same two guys. That's just cheapshotting to pop a buyrate/get a good rating and it cheapens the belt. If there is going to be a short reign it should be a transition between two champions that you don't want to get in the ring yet. Usually this would be a heel bridging reigns by two faces neither of which you want to turn, or vice-versa. This is less necessary in recent years because they can go heel/heel or face/face in multi-man matches and not have the problem of having a heel vs. heel main event.

I think a big problem is the announcing. Back in the day announcers used to pump up everybody, from Koko B Ware to Hulk Hogan, with very rare exceptions (Danny Davis, wrestling managers, etc.). They made it seem that even though Tito Santana would be a underdog against Ted Dibiase, that at least he stood a chance if he the match went his way. These days the announcers ridicule far too many wrestlers. When JR tells you that Rosey doesn't stand a chance against somebody, why should anybody cheer for him. Too many wrestlers are made to look like complete jokes today. Red Rooster was a joke too, but we didn't have the company telling us every five seconds that he was a joke, and that is the big problem. It goes beyond that too. Even Barry Horowitz got more moves in than Simon Dean, but the announcing (and other wrestlers treating them like jokes) is a big problem. 1992 was mentioned, but it wasn't nearly the problem it was even in 2000 as it is now. I really started to notice it in 2001 with the Invasion and it has been a problem ever since.

Michaels lost his rub in 1998. Now he can still help a guy and have good programs, but his days of being able to make a career is over. He isn't a big enough star any more. Unfortunately, the only man who is big enough to be able to make a star with a single job (HHH) has done so much jobbing in the past couple of years that a job from him no longer means anything since he will just continue to hog the spotlight whether he's 100-0 or 0-100. Undertaker is similar to Shawn. People like him still, but beating him is no longer this great accomplishment as Orton will find out in a couple of weeks. Anyways, my choice would be Cena. He's already over, but a clean win over Shawn would give him some credibility that he'll need after HHH crushes him at Survivor Series.

That's what I thought too.

Both things already get taught. Evolution gets taught in science classes. Creationism gets taught in history and philosophy, at least it did when I was in school. BTW, I belive in the Big Bang, but I also believe that God was the one who initiated it. There is little to no evidence of what existed before the Big Bang because the Big Bang wiped out all of it, sort of like how we have no evidence (on Earth) of what our planet was like during its creation, all the rock material from that time has been subducted into the interior of the earth. There are theories of course, but we will never be able to prove any of it. That's why the Big Bang is always used as the starting point of the universe.

Hassan/Taker got more publicity than anything else at GAB. That angle should take the blunt of the blame. It is also the only reason that JBL is main eventing Summerslam too.

The real famous one is Goldberg/Brock from Wrestlemania XX. Another really high profile match that comes to mind is Luger/Windham at Great American Bash 1991.

Since the poppy is a WWI symbol, I take this as him being supportive of the Kaiser? He probably thought WWII wasn't a necessary war either. Either that or he's an idiot with no knowledge of even Grade 2 history.

The crowd pops for Chris Benoit because he's Chris Benoit and fans respect him more than about any other wrestler on the roster save maybe Angle. Benoit has had good heat for years. There is something more legitimate about Benoit than most wrestlers.

I would like Shawn to cheat like hell to get the win, and then go on to face Cena, but if Shawn is being a whiny bitch and refusing to go full heel than fuck him. He has very little value as a face anymore, and is nowhere near as popular as Hogan even at his lowest point. If Shawn is going to end up face, then anything but Hogan winning clean will just piss off the fanbase. They will be annoyed anyways, but if Shawn goes heel it would be positive heat.

They happen to be showing this episode on my FOX Seattle affiliate right now.

The only times HHH has stepped out of the spotlight are now, and for about two weeks last summer when he was feuding with Eugene. That's it in 3 1/2 years. That's why people are tired of him. It has nothing to do with the number of clean jobs he does. Compare him with a similar name in the Undertaker. Whenever he's done with a main event feud, he drops down the card. He does fewer jobs than HHH, but he's a lot more accepted because he is willing to let other people get the spotlight.

I don't mind it, as long as we get a semi-entertaining match. Hell, I think the only WWE show that has been worth watching lately has been Velocity. I'd much rather see Christian beat up some random OVW guy than Eddy yap about being Dominic's father. And if you watch long enough you will get to recognize a lot of the jobbers as they make several appearances. Usually you would get a semi-competitive main event too, like Brainbusters/Young Stallions or Honky/Dusty or something like that.

He showed up after he got fired for blading heavily on television after a Turner mandate that banned blood from their shows. He was around from the summer of 1989 until Royal Rumble 1991 when he and Dustin lost Dibiase & Virgil. Lex Luger mainevented for almost a year against Ric Flair in 1988 and had a very high profile feud with Ricky Steamboat in 1989. Sting was a minor player until the very tail end of the timeframe we are talking about. He broke out with the draw agianst Flair at Clash of the Champions, but didn't become a true main event until the end of 1989 when he asked Flair for a title shot and got turfed from the Horsemen. Then he got injured. The best thing that Sting did in this period was feud with Muta over the TV Title. There were still weekly shows with storylines, but they were much simpler and most of the matches were of the star/jobber variety.

I thought it was males in their late 20s and 30s, but you probably can remember better than I can. Regardless, it is a much older audience than it was pre-2001. This is partly why nostalgia acts are so popular (like Hogan). The main audience is old enough to remember these guys. It also makes the childish storylines even more counterproductive.