Mad Dog

It makes me sad to hear Jim Ross on those old tapes. He's really fallen apart as an announcer. I liked the little mistakes Sting made here and there that kept Flair in the match. Going for the Stinger Splash too soon in the match. Letting go of the headlock he was having great success with to go for an elbow drop. Even the 5 seconds he'd waste here and there in the last 5 minutes that ultimately cost him the match. I liked the Fantastics/Midnights match better overall.

I was surprised to see that Lelani Kai is still an active wrestler. She's gotta be at least pushing 50 at this point.

I'm thinking this means that they expect to get a second hour of tv next year. I liked the idea of the X Division Tag Titles. That way they can leave the belt on Samoa Joe for a long time and still give the second tier guys something to fight for. I think they need a Television or United States belt over a Women's belt. It's been shown time and time again that some of the heavyweights like Chris Harris have needed a secondary title at points. Plus with a Television Title you could bring back the 10 minute time limit match for it on tv.

New Japan's probably going to have Brock signed to a deal by March. You most likely won't be seeing him in a WWF ring anytime soon.

There was an Observer note a few weeks ago and I've been stunned that it hasn't seen more talk on the net. The WWF can't draw a big enough crowd to profit after paying the 250k rental fee. That says everything about the current state of the company.

There will be some token firings around spring cleaning due to "testing" so Vince can forever justify no steroids because he fired that one guy that one time. As far as the company. I think more cracks will appear in the armor. I think by the end of the year the WWF will admit defeat and we'll see them doing smaller arenas for Raw and Smackdown. Also don't be surprised to see no MSG shows since they can't afford to run there currently. I think we'll see Benoit jump ship after Mania. Jericho won't be back and I wouldn't be surprised to see Edge try and get out of his contract.

I'm also curious to see who ends up with Tajiri. I'm hoping New Japan gets him because he'd be one of the final pieces to get the junior division back to the glory days. With that said I think he'll be a top priority for All Japan.

It's a mixed blessing with Chosu. With Inoki gone it's going to be easier for a booker to operate. As long as he lets someone else book the junior division he's a plus for the company. If he's allowed to book the junior division we'll probably get a repeat of Liger in 2000.

I think New Japan is posed for a comeback in 2006. They've finally got Antonio Inoki's influence away from the product and they have just the right gaijin in Brock Lesnar. With the rumored house cleaning coming up we should hopefully see a lot of deadweight like Tadao Yasuda getting the boot. Inoki being gone and Fujita pulling his usual nonsense over jobbing should hopefully end the shoot fighter crap.

It seems like everyone has a promotion in Japan now. I don't see how anyone could think that now is the time to start a new fed.

Yeah, working 45 minutes was really beyond Sting's capabilities as a worker. But the repeated spots did make sense with the storyline they were going for in the match.

What would you guys rate Sting/Flair from Clash I. I kind of thought it was disappointing the first time I saw it but the second time I really caught all the little things going on in that match. I'd give it ***3/4 or **** depending on my mood.

Nothing is worse than when they'd stick Missy Hyatte in there. Not a fan of Bob Caudel either.

It's been a rough month for All Japan's roster. Jamal, Giant Bernard, the Dudleys, Taiyo Kea and a few other guys are now gone from the promotion. It's looking really bad for All Japan as they have little money and a very depleted roster. So do you think they'll survive 2006?

I was watching Clash I. Midnights/Fantastics was an insane brawl. Too bad it didn't have a finish.

That would require me to stop reading any board that has smarks on it.

The people that think Angle's the best in the world are typicall those with only exposure to the WWF, some WCW and maybe seen a TNA match.

Abyss: Truely a top worker in the U.S. right now and it seems smarks shit all over him because he's a big guy. I've seen a lot of unwarranted bashing that goes his way. America's Most Wanted: Miles ahead of the Impact Players and the Eliminators but get hated for being TNA's golden boys. It seems a lot of workers are currently getting unfairly shit on because they work in TNA and not RoH. AJ Styles: I can understand thinking he's overrated but the level of hate he gets on some boards is beyond stupid. Can't you just think a guy isn't as good as others think without taking every possible chance to take a shot at the guy? Masahiro Chono: Give the guy a break. He's broken his neck a couple of times. See how good you are in the ring after that. Also he has only won the IWGP Title once so he's not overpushing himself in the booking.

Necro Butcher: It seems people get a hardon because he's a deathmatch wrestler that has some basic fundamentals of actual wrestling. He's probably the best garbage wrestler I've seen but that's not really saying anything about the guy. I've seen him called a top 5 worker on the indy scene and that's just insane. CW Anderson: Everything this guy does screams of a 2nd rate Arn Andersom impression. I've never seen the guy in anything passing as good. I have seen him many times drag a capable worker into an awful match. Jimmy Rave: This is a guy that went from being underrated to being completely overrated in the span of about a month. Ebessan: Just don't get what people see in the guy. He's capable enough in the ring but I don't think he's anything special.

Why is the Undertaker still even main eventing in 2005? He's been tanking buyrates and ratings since at least 2000. His push after Wrestlemania X-7 completely derailed the company. They should've turned him into more of a side show when he's hips started going bad in 1999. At this point Taker should just be beating up jobbers in handicap matches and filling in as a tag partner every once and awhile. He shouldn't be beating up whole portions of the roster in a single night. Pretty soon the WWF is going to go beyond WCW and turn into the AWA.

I would like to see less chanting and more side taking on the indy scene. A lot of indy chanting can really work against what the wrestlers are trying to do in the ring. But I guess that's the point since a lot of indy fans are obsessed with getting themselves over. I'd like to see smarks cheering heels to go away as well.

He would win me over by staying in the mid-card and not doing a 20 minute Raw promo for at least 2-3 years. I'm talking no title shots in that amount of time and not getting the lion's share of the PPV buildup. He's probably laying low right now because he intends to beat Cena at Mania and kick off another long winded title run.

I'm highly annoyed at the way they jobbed Regal and Burchall. They could really have something with that team if they actually tried to push them.