sek69

You know, it took watching the Eddy-Angle match up on WWE On Demand to make me realize how much I missed watching Eddy. You can talk about moveset and work rate all day, but my favorite part of his matches were the devilish little kid faces he'd make whenever he found a new way to cheat. And really it was kind of amazing that he was able to turn the very basics of heeling (lying, cheating, stealing) into a babyface gimmick that got over pretty big.

His WWF run was handicapped because of the stupid gimmick he was stuck with (more than one actually), but anyone who says Jarrett's TNA run is bad is being willfully ignorant just for the sake of hating TNA.

It would be hard for anyone to spin this latest bout as just a side effect of the marriage breaking up/Karen shacking up with JJ when Kurt has a history of crazy. It would be way easier for the prosecution to point out how you have a guy who's mental state is questionable at best + drug problems and then throw a divorce and the ex taking the kids and shacking up with his co worker. I hate to sound like a broken record, but it would be nice if anyone cared for a second about the well being of Kurt Angle (not to mention his kids) instead of how his personal problems might mess up a PPV. For all the hand-wringing that occurs online when there's Yet Another Tragic Death, you get the feeling we're seeing another one happening in slow motion, yet even on WO.com the only concern was if he was going to be able to make it to the show on time.

Should Glen Jacobs be lighting people on fire? Okay, that'd be awesome, but the question still remains Lighting people on fire and driving around a parking lot deleting photos from a cell phone are TWO entirely different things. Exactly, one is a pro wrestling gimmick and the other is a guy who's legit physically and mentally breaking down. It's easy to laugh at Kurt and by extension TNA and their wacky antics, but the more you watch Impact the more you wonder if they're the 2009 version of WCCW.

The great thing about wrestling is that it's probably the only profession in the world where no one would have stopped to think that maybe this guy is batshit insane, oh I don't know, maybe when he decided to hide a broken neck before wrestling in the Olympics. Or maybe when he had drug issues so bad even by pro wrestling standards WWE didn't want to have him OD on their watch. Or when he continues to wrestle with arms so atrophied from nerve damage that he looks like Kendall Windham circa 1988, which you'd have to think puts his opponents at risk of getting Misawa'd if he ever loses sensation in the middle of a move. But since it's wrestling, hey why not make the guy your world champion and for all intents the face of the company?

You tend to dislike a guy less if you need money.

They do that almost every time they go there now. They wonder why they get the "bizarro world" reactions (that they really don't get anymore, but whatev), maybe it's because every time they do TV up there they spend the whole show slapping them in the face with their collective dick.

So I don't get why would you have Sgt. Slaughter guest host RAW when it's in Canada? None of the current fanbase has any recognition of him as a heel unless they watch the Mid Atlantic stuff on WWE On Demand.

I'm not saying AJ isn't a good wrestler, but I don't see how he's an irreplaceable part of TNA. Him leaving shouldn't be the thing to hold off pulling the trigger on any changes that need to be made.

Why get mad about that now when that's how it'd been for 25-odd years?

Just like how a crappy ending can ruin people's opinion of an otherwise stellar movie, I kind of think Rey's jobberific world championship run left a bad taste in a lot of HOF voters' mouths (not to mention the circumstances of him getting the title). I mean, it totally shouldn't matter to people who are supposed to be above getting upset over things like that, but you know what they say about the biggest marks being behind the curtains.

Honestly at this point, I don't think anyone in TNA would give a shit if Styles left. Spike calls the shots more or less and they only seem interested in ex WCW guys. Besides, it's not like AJ would have that much success in WWE that it would be a "WCW gives away Austin and Foley" kind of deal.

(I know I'm not jdw but I'm putting in my two cents anyway ) I think Bob was the prototype of the technically superior but boring and bland wrestler that became all the craze in the 90s. I understand that it was a different era when Bob was WWWF champ, but his goody-two shoes All American gosh darnit persona is just so painfully vanilla. It doesn't help that Billy Graham was right there making him look even more whitebread. Having said that, Mr. Backlund is still one of my favorite heel gimmicks ever. I think him not wanting to turn heel when asked to after losing the title might have been in retrospect one of the biggest mistakes ever made. If he would have been able to pull off "Mr. Backlund" back then and snapped on Hogan, I think it could have been a good money drawing program. Plus it's still hilarious to see Dave still working in "I think he's shoot retarded" comments every time he mentions Backlund in the WON.

Didn't the injury happen because he took the bump wrong in an attempt to do a dramatic oversell? I was honestly surprised that they ended up paying him anything since it wasn't anyone's fault but his really. I guess they would have covered his medical expense just as a PR move, but I was shocked he got $2 million or whatever it was.

It seems like, for good or bad, there's only one master in TNA (for now) and that was Jeff Jarrett. Even Vince Russo is there because he's pals with JJ. Also being successful in Puerto Rico and being successful in TNA are two different scenarios. Puerto Rico is pretty much the last territory-style area left, and history has shown that what works in a territory situation is different than what works on a national level. I know that opens the door to a lot of "lol TNA is no better than a territory" jokes, but it still is the #2 promotion in the US even if by default.

You know, I can't help but think a lot of the stuff in TNA that people chant "Fire Russo" over was really Mantel's. He got this rep for being a great booker, but he's just the 2009 version of Bill Watts trying to book WCW like it was the mid 70s. It seemed his entire bag of tricks was shit that got over in Puerto Rico 20 years ago (or whenever the hell it was when he booked there).

I can't help but think of Yatsu as anyone but the guy on the 1983 WCCW shows playing the role of Random Vaguely Menacing Japanese Guy in the Devastation Inc stable.

I have it for the 360, it's not bad. I think people expected it to play like a Smackdown vs Raw game, and got upset that it didn't. It's aimed at people who were fans in the 80s-90s and lapsed since then so anything not marketed at the "hardcore" market gets bashed.

As someone who never was a fan of Hulkamania, it was one of my personal favorite moments in wrestling when Heenan was finally vindicated for hating him all those years.

Yeah, the first game is pretty bad with the recycled movesets, but I'm really digging the third game (Showdown). I think it would have got more attention had it not come out right before Acclaim went in the shitter.

So I've heard about these games released for PS2, and I finally got around to picking them up. Turns out they may be some of the most underrated wrestling games around. First off, just to get it out of the way, they're clearly not as polished as any WWE produced game. That may turn a lot of casual players off right from the jump, but if you get past that there's a lot of fun to be had. The first game is the most basic, but what it lacks in moveset it makes up for in the roster. Here's who's available in that one: * Hulk Hogan * Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka * Road Warrior Hawk * Road Warrior Animal * Bret "Hitman" Hart * The Iron Sheik * Mr. Fuji * "The King of Hardcore" Terry Funk * Don Muraco * Jerry "The King" Lawler * George "The Animal" Steele * "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas * Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat * Nikolai Volkoff * "The Million $ Man" Ted DiBiase * Tito Santana * King Kong Bundy * "The Bird Man" Koko B. Ware * One Man Gang * Greg "The Hammer" Valentine * "The King" Harley Race * Dynamite Kid * Ricky Morton * Robert Gibson * "Flyin'" Brian Pillman * "Superstar" Billy Graham * "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert * Rick Martel * Ivan Koloff * Ivan Putski * "Cowboy" Bob Orton * The Sheik * Kerry Von Erich * Fritz Von Erich * Kevin Von Erich * Mike Von Erich * David Von Erich * Dory Funk, Jr. * Rob Van Dam * Sabu * "Captain" Lou Albano * "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart The second one features everyone from the first game (except RVD, who returned to WWE in the meantime) plus the following: * Abdullah the Butcher * André the Giant * Andy Kaufman * Bam Bam Bigelow * Baron von Raschke * Big John Studd * Bob Backlund * Bobby "The Brain" Heenan * "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith * Bruno Sammartino * The Nasty Boys * "Dr. Death" Steve Williams * "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan * Killer Kowalski * Mil Mascaras * "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff * Owen Hart * "Soulman" Rocky Johnson * "Rowdy" Roddy Piper * The Steiner Brothers * Sid Vicious * Eddie Guerrero * The Grand Wizard The third, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, had the roster from the second game (this time minus Mike and David Von Erich) plus the following: # "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig # Diamond Dallas Page # "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes # Jake "The Snake" Roberts # Nikita Koloff # "The Macho Man" Randy Savage # "Ravishing" Rick Rude # Sting # Ultimate Warrior It also has announcing by Tony Shiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Heenan (unfortunately this is post-cancer, so it's a little sad to listen to), plus the ability to play in the following arenas: * Madison Square Garden in New York City * Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan * Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan * The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia * Cow Palace in San Francisco, California * The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts * Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan * Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina * Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee * Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas * L.A. Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California * Wembley Stadium in London, England * Moscow * Dory Funk's Gym * Legends Colosseum in Austin, Texas Also features Gary Michael Capetta as ring announcer. Not quite sure how they got the rights to all those wrestlers, some of them clearly seem like WWF/E creations and I don't know how they were able to include them. They did, so whatever they had to do apparently passed legal muster. All three are probably in the bargain bin of your favorite game store for less than $10, and for that price you really can't beat it. A lot of people complain about Showdown being buggy, but I've been playing it and haven't really run into any game-ruining issues. Sometimes there's a bit of clipping wackiness, but anyone who played the Aki N64 games probably wouldn't even notice. The biggest draw is clearly creating your own old school matchups. Think Superstar should have gotten his win back from Backlund? Make it happen. Want to relive some Mid South classics? DiBiase, Williams, and Duggan are all there. You can have some JCP tag team goodness with the Rock n' Rolls, The Road Warriors, and the Koloffs. World Class fans can avenge the Von Erichs against Harley Race. You can even go really old school and have Bruno vs Killer Kowalski.

I think it's just WWE forgetting about past gimmicks, or they're trying to do what they do every so often and push a guy who's been involved as comedy forever as a SERIOUS WRESTLER thinking that makes people forget about Stone Cold Steve Haas-tin.

I read it as they don't want someone out there with the bikini babes that makes it more obvious they don't know what they're doing. It's kind of a leap to go from "she's not being used right now" to "OMG PREGGERS~!". It's not the first time a woman on the roster went a long time between appearances, it's just never been someone as high up on the food chain as Beth was. After the angle with Santino ran it's course, it seems like she's Just Another Victim of the dreaded we-don't-have-anything-for-you-itis.

This is the WON tidbit: Nothing there mentions her being pregnant, but I guess you could read between the lines.

I'm reading the new WON and he mentions how WWE is using Jeff refusing to go to rehab as a babyface aspect of his character. It's interesting that a company like WWE that can't seem to get out of it's own way in terms of drug issues would make it a positive that someone wouldn't go to rehab. At least it's something to ponder the next time you see someone trying to make the argument that WWE doesn't subtly encourage or discourage certain behaviors.