sek69

I think that it's been proven that Foley needs time to rev up when he makes these returns. He's always flat the first time he cuts a promo, but after a few weeks he's back up to that "I think he's going to commit a felony in this match" level he gets in his good promos. I think it's partly because fans have some sort of mental divide between "Mick Foley: Fun Guy and Author" and "Mick Foley: Guy Who'll Hurt Himself As Long as He Hurts You Too". Mick seems to know that, and kicks into his Cactus voice so the fans know that gears have been shifted. Granted, crowds were shitting on Cena before HHH got involved, but Hunter was the one who said it was because Angle didn't know how to work heel. Edge managed to get boos against Cena, by those rules that would mean Edge is a better heel than HHH. If HHH wants to be the heel all the time, that means you have to get your opponent over. Pointing out your opponent's flaws (especially ones the fans can see for themselves) is bad business. How is anything HHH said supposed to make anyone want to buy WrestleMania? He totally ran down the WWE Champion, called him a bad wrestler, and said one of his big moves is pumping up his Reeboks. That's pretty much the definiton of burying someone. What's worse is HHH doesn't seem to know or care that it affects him too. If/When he wins at WM, so what? He beat a guy he dismissed as a bad wrestler. If Cena somehow wins, then HHH just lost to a guy he punked out in a promo. I won't even get started on Cena doing the "we're feuding but I'm going to do nothing but sing your praises" promo. Is Dusty helping write both shows now?

They pretty much have to do the double turn for HHH/Cena, or else the match will die a slow death in front of the famously tough Chicago crowd at WM.

I think the ROH fanboys have lead the charge when it comes to "seeing more than there actually is". Not to knock someone for being a fan of a promotion, but I haven't seen such blind fanboy LUV for one group since the heyday of ECW, the only difference is Meltzer isn't under the spell this time like when he said Sabu was the best wrestler of 1994 (LOLZ!). It's especially amusing to see them get their feathers ruffled at TNA since they're starting to pull rank on ROH, causing all the fanboys to look down their noses. "Oh, TNA thinks they're big shots now"....uhh yeah...PPV, soon to be primetime TV, and they're about to start running houseshows. It's not WWE level but it's more than ROH does. It's a shame too, since I've liked most of the ROH I've seen, but their fanbase makes me long for the days of ECW Mutants claiming the Eliminators are the best tag team ever. What does this have to do with the topic? Well since a lot of the reviewers on the net tend to be ROH fans, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of TNA reviews where the product gets shit on mercilessly, all under the excuse of "well they want to be big time so I'm being harsher in my review". It works both ways, when someone has an axe to grind against a worker or a company, they either start to nitpick or just flat out make shit up in order to justify their opinons.

It makes the RAW team the faces since they're the ones with the handicap, which is what you'd want if you were planning some angle designed to make Cena more heelish.

The NWA based their tag divison around heels for a while and no one seemed to mind. Tully and Arn, the MX, The Road Warriors (who were heels depending on who they were beating up at the moment) all had the "who can beat them?" air around them.

So, was HHH's burial of Cena worse than the one he did to Booker or not? This one didn't have the racial overtones, but he made up for that by completely destroying whatever cred Cena might have left while all the champ could come back with was to say how great he thinks HHH is. All HHH needed to do to make it complete was to ask him what the capital of Thailand is and then cockpunch him. Hell, they probably would have done it if Christian didn't already do it on Impact.

Nothing happened between Cena and Steph, it's just when Cena asked HHH what made him special, there was that pause for all the smart fans to scream "HE'S MARRIED TO THE BOSS'S DAUGHTER".

I think that people watching a match see a lot more than the wrestlers intend. The reactions to Angle-Taker over at DVDVR seem to back me up on that. Half the people there think it was some great display of wrestling, when all I saw was a bunch of people marking out over Taker putting in more than his usual half assed effort for a change. In all honesty, most of the time guys probably go out there with a finish and a general idea of how they're going to get there. When I hear people say so-and-so move is a callback to a match they had months ago, I laugh (unless it's part of the angle like Steamboat's throat injury). Someone over there made the point that most reviewers spend more time trying to get themselves over than what they're reviewing.

Beyond the roid stuff, wrestling without booze and pot seems like an unlikely prospect. How can they expect guys to take bumps 200+ days a year and not partake in some manner of painkilling?

The crowd was pretty active cheering for HHH and booing Cena. I loved when Cena was all "WHAT MAKES YOU ANY DIFFERENT!" and HHH had to stop himself from laughing. I was waiting for one of them to play the OMG SHOOT~! card and mention Steph, but then that would have actually made their angle interesting when it's becoming clear HHH just wants to plow through and have another conquest - audience intrest be damned.

So I guess based on the crowd reactions, HHH is the biggest face on RAW now.

Did Shawn leave in a hurry and grab one of his wife's shirts by mistake?

Well they're putting a lot of effort into it, more so than if they just wanted it to go away. I'm thinking they crack down for maybe the rest of the year, then ease up if no one OD's before then.

Unless WWE and New Japan reach a deal on Brock, you won't be seeing Mrs. Brock in WWE anytime soon.

Looks like the new way for WWE to fire people will be to plant drugs in their bag and then be all "hey Vince, I think X is acting kinda funny, you should test him".

Also, I predict HHH will get a prescription for whatever he's been using, using his quad tear as an excuse.

Just because someone's on the fat side doesn't mean they're going to fail a cardio test. Hell, if they really are serious about the drug testing, a lot of guys are going to start looking like JBL and Trevor Murdoch anyway.

Am I the only one thinking that Marty is only in this angle because they couldn't get Bret to do it?

WWE should be thanking whatever God they believe in that the Silverdome is closing. Vince wanted to run WM there next year because it's the 20th anniversary of WM3, and with the current level of interest in wrestling the turnout in a place that large would be flat out embarrassing.

It probably helps that SD has more guys like JBL and Finlay who work Benoit's style too.

The one rib Percy talked about is how they had Fink tape a skit with the Bushwackers where they were all eating sardines. They kept making them do retakes because the sardines were making Howard sick (the Bushwackers ate that kind of stuff for real and it didn't bother them). By the end of the taping, Fink was barfing but he never refused to do it because he just liked the business so much he'd never say no to anyone. His extreme willingness to be a team player combined with the knowledge he would never get mad and quit was the starting point for endless ribs. Cornette didn't go into details of what happened, but he said he's seen Howard in tears as a result of some of the shit that would be done to him.

Bret Hart has a really soothing speaking voice. I made the mistake of listening to a shoot interview he did on my headphones last night and the next thing I knew it was 2 hours later.

WWE did a great job making Eddie the top guy like they always should have, unfortunately it was after he died. I think Chris Masters has potential in the sense that he's improved a lot since his WWE debut, but he was brought up way too early and he's going to have to work ten times as hard to be seen as worthy of the push he's been given. Especially among smart fans, who have almost universally shit on him already. Ken Kennedy can be the next Rock. I'm dead serious. If he's allowed to show his personality like he was in OVW and not locked into a one note act, he'll be huge. He has that "it" factor that you need in wrestling in abundance. Paul Burchill can be a solid mid to upper card guy if he doesn't get buried in all this pirate foolishness. Personally I think Carlito can be a guy who can run with the ball in the future. He's improving in the ring and his Piper-esque squash on RAW where he talked while beating the guy showed he can bring the intensity as well as being funny.

I wonder if Tony Atlas in the HOF would include Rocky Johnson too, since they were the first black tag team champions, and we all know Vince would like a certain special someone back to induct him. I've seen a few Akebono matches, and he's not that terrible. Yeah, he's a workrate freak's worst nightmare but he's like Japan's version of Yokozuna (which is ironic on many levels). Sumo is still respected in Japan, so he has the instant cred to challenge the champion too. I thought Raven was taking time off because he was hiding a medical problem from TNA because he didn't want to fuck up their booking?