Originally posted by rvjgd"Of course, Hassan's going to SD; that's the Land of Evil Fur'ners. Imagine the Survivor Series match with Hassan, Dupree, Suzuki, and one of the Canadians against a pro-US team. "
Fair enough, but I can't think of any Canadians on Smackdown at the moment. I had this discussion with my friend and neither of us could think of one outside of Dupree.
Um, Beniot.
Well, the WWE wants everyone to forget that Benoit's Canadian, so the crowd won't look stupid when they chant USA! USA! during his matches. Unless the WWE has plans to turn him heel some time soon, no one on WWE TV will be calling him Canadian. And isn't Dupree "from France" in kayfabe land?
(edited by Stilton on 21.6.05 1541)
I haven't been able to watched Raw for awhile but from what I've heard is that Jericho is turning Heel. So I'm interested to see if they go back to announcing him as being from Canada again.
I agree that HHH needs to go to Smackdown and, if he needs to take the belt with him to do that, so be it. There is just no one on RAW I want to see him wrestle anymore. While I'm not necessarily hyped for him versus Big Show or Undertaker or JBL...well, at least it would be someone -different-. If HHH isn't going to take some time off and give us a break from him, they at least have to put him in a different environment so we can have a vague interest in what he's doing.
I hope Matt Hardy can come back and soon. Whatever happened in his personal life, from everything I've read, he's dreamed of being a champion professional wrestler his whole life. While the circumstances suck, he's never going to have an opportunity like this again. From the pop last night, he's going to be as over as he's ever going to get. Swallow your pride, if you must, but he'll always regret it if he doesn't snatch that opportunity while it's there.
I'm fairly sure Hassan's going to Smackdown this week. They've done relatively even trades, to some degree, at least in terms of card placement (Yes, the talent or degree of heat isn't necessarily the same, but their pushes were relatively equivalent. The only exception there is that Benoit hasn't been pushed as much as Cena lately, but he did get that push in the recent past and easily could again). I would personally send Eddie and RVD to RAW next week and HHH and Kane to Smackdown.
Anybody think one girl or two girls in the Diva search are ringers?
I've heard about HHH not wanting to be on the same show as Cena, but he really shouldn't want to be on the same show as Kurt Angle. Every time they wrestle near each other, HHH's talk about being the best wrestler in the world looks fairly hollow. Kurt's just established such in-ring legitimacy now, making everyone from Hogan to HBK to the Rock tap out, that he seems to be the gold standard to me and, I think, to a lot of casual fans. For example, I thought Batista looked way out of his league in there with Kurt, and I doubt I was the only one.
"Never piss off a hawk with a blowgun" - Conan O'Brien
Anybody else get a little weirded out by that Bischoff-Angle segment backstage. I know Kurt's a brown noser but it didn't come off like that to me. It felt insincere or forced. I was waiting for him to ask Bischoff if he wanted a chocolate covered pretzel.
The Hassan squash match seems like when the WWE wasn't impressed with Mordecai so they killed off the character by having him job to Rey Mysterio. Maybe their killing off the Hassan character by having Hassan lose his unbeaten streak in a squash match. I won't be surprised if we don't hear of nor see Hassan again.
Originally posted by JellofiendAnybody else get a little weirded out by that Bischoff-Angle segment backstage. I know Kurt's a brown noser but it didn't come off like that to me. It felt insincere or forced. I was waiting for him to ask Bischoff if he wanted a chocolate covered pretzel.
Originally posted by suldogThis might sound pretty snide, coming from someone who's been out of the loop for quite a while.
I've literally not seen more than 60 minutes of WWE in the past three years. So, I'm flipping around the dial and I see Edge and Lita standing at an altar geting married. I figure that this might be some horribly tacky fun - maybe George "The Animal" Steele will turn out to be the father of the bride or something - so I stick around. MY WIFE and I were putting the over/under at 3 minutes for the appearance of someone to object to the proceedings. Unfortunately, it was longer than that - way longer.
Snitsky? Oh, my. He's quite ugly. Swell poem about dead babies and all.
Didn't know until I read this thread that Matt Hardy wasn't still on the active roster, so when he didn't come out, I figured he'd run in from the crowd or something when Edge started snickering. Guess not, huh?
Then, this big THING pops up from under the altar. My God - It's Isaac Yankem, DDS! Who else is gonna show up? IRS? The Million Dollar Man? Bastion Booger? Oh, I see, that's Kane. I didn't know he was going maskless now. How did they get the mask off of him and how did they explain away the fact that his face was terribly disfigured, etc.? Ah, nevermind.
Edge and Lita do the google-eyed "feets don't fail me now!" and the preacher gets chokeslammed. Gee, I thought Kane wasn't going to do that, after he had so nicely picked him up and dusted him off...
Oh, heck with it. I think I saw about 4 minutes of wrestling from the wedding until the end. And I can't say I was terribly impressed with what little wrestling I did see. I was hoping that Angle might be worth watching, but nothing much there. I think it might possibly be another 3 years before I watch more than 30 minutes of WWE again.
(Just my two cents. I know that if I was actually following things closely this would have been more exciting. I think. Anyway, I understand that there's a whole bunch of luchadores on Smackdown now? I guess I mighgt have to check that out.)
While the post as a whole was somewhat annoying -- posting just to say you haven't watched in a while and oh isn't it precious that you have no idea what's going on in terms of storylines -- I will say that, yes, there are luchadores on SmackDown! now (Super Crazy, Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera), but you'll probably only see them on Velocity.
Originally posted by SkarecrowSo we can establish that Christian, as he currently stands, isn't really a top title contender. So what is he doing challenging for the WWE title? Either he's jobbing to the title, or they don't consider the WWE title a "top title" as long as the World Championship Title is around. I suppose that a third option, that they are building christian up as a real upper mid-card/title competitor, is possible... but it would go against the way they've booked him in recent weeks. Jericho will always and forever be a legitimate "last minute title contender" by virtue of being the first undisputed champion... however, much as I love Y2J, they havn't been doing a whole lot to make him look big and badass lately either.
At this point I almost think it's a forgone conclusion that Jericho is going to Smackdown. Especially since Carlito will be having his cabana on Raw, so Jericho's Hilight Reel will have to find a new home. With Jericho added to the Smackdown Title match at the PPV, I can easily see him beating Christian so that Cena keeps his heat and then Jericho gets drafted to Smackdown with the belt. Maybe to lose it to Eddy or Benoit once he gets there.
It almost seems like the Smackdown Title match at the PPV is just a 'get it out of the way' type match.
Originally posted by SOKSomeone in the WWE must hate Smackdown; I mean...why in the world would they move Cena, Carlito and Angle? They were three of the most entertaining wrestlers on that show.
Smackdown better get someone really bad ass next Thursday. (edited by SOK on 21.6.05 0804)
Because Smackdown’s getting moved into the “Death slot.” So they’re moving all their top promo workers to the show that will guarantee them exposure time. I’m going to predict that Thursday will probably see Shelton make the jump, and next week will see either Jericho or Christian make the jump (most likely Jericho, but basically whoever wins the WWE Title from Cena). Meanwhile, Rey will probably make the jump from Smackdown.
Keep in mind there are few weeks left of the the draft to iron things out (and several months before any time slot / network changes). One would think they would end the draft with a a bang (Batista to Smackdown - as champ, etc)...plus the rumored "switches"...I don't see Smackdown be left "decimated" or without "star power" when all is said and done. Not to mention this weekend's PPV is being front loaded for as many "buys" as people have money left for after ECW
I also don't understand the "death slot" verbiage that's being applied to Smackdown. The show survived on Thursday Comedy Night for years, with respectable ratings and no executives jumping out of windows. UPN simply made the decision to take advantage of a pending "weak best night of the week to watch TV Thursday" to debut hopefully heavy hitters for the network.
Wrestling fans will find the show. It's up to the show itself to garner new viewers. I'm sure it's been mentioned that WCW survived on Saturday Nights for 2 decades - until the "star power" quit appearing. I doubt WWE will make the same mistake, as Smackdown is their only foothold left on the networks
...and Edge rules
FLEA
They would be suicidal to internally bury SD just due to the stand alone PPV's. Why kill the money making machine? Friday night will hurt somewhat, especially during baseball season in Boston and New York where UPN broadcasts the Red Sox and Yankees specifically on Friday Nights and will pre-empt SD in the fall '05 and spring/summer '06. However, ECW was able to pull respectable ratings for its first few months on Friday Nights; including X-Mas and New Year's Eve, until Heyman decided to turn the program into his own pissing contest with TNN. As the company headed towards the crapper, so did the ratings. Also, even if UPN is putting it in the 'death slot', it is the only show on network TV that, except for the odd week or two where they try debuting a show off of it, has the entire block of a network's prime time schedule devoted to it. UPN isn't cutting it from 2 hours to 30 minutes. I do have to disagree with the Saturday Night comparison though: The NWA/WCW fan virtually grew up with the 6:05 (after fishing) to 8:05 wrestling time slot, and it became habitual to them, much as wrestling on Monday Night replacing Saturday over the past decade. When they introduced the Power Hour in '89 at 10 PM on Friday, I don't think it did well, as it didn't last long. Also, show starting at 6 and ending at 8 means the night hasn't even come close to beginning, whereas beginning at 8 and ending at 10 cuts into enjoyment time.
Originally posted by Skarecrow Christian in the past few weeks... He just doesn't seem like he should be challenging for any top championship title.
Well, now hang on a moment. In your last post, you hailed JBL's title reign as an example of Smackdown's honorable treatment of the WWE title. I dare say Christian is a much more credible contender for the WWE title than JBL was at the time. Yes, I know your point was that they kept the title on JBL for 10 months and made the title a big deal, but why are you assuming Christian's title reign would be less? No one in their right mind thought JBL was gonna keep that gold for more than a month or two. Also, Christian wrestled Batista in the main event a couple of months ago - and Batista gave him quite a bit of offense. Thats more than JBL had at the time. I don't think Christian is as far away from credibility as you seem to.
As far as the Cena/Hassan match goes - I think you missed the point. Bischoff did not make the match - Cena essentially did. That's why it wasn't hyped/promoted. It was an impromptu match made by Cena and he CRUSHED Hassan in 2 minutes. This clearly sent the message that Hassan was not anywhere near Cena's league - which I believe is *exactly* what you are arguing. In kayfabe, no one ever said Hassan deserved a title shot. He got one anyway - sometimes people get things they don't deserve. As for the placement on the card? It was probably a combination of not wanting to end the show with a 2-minute squash and wanting the image of HHH with the belt standing over the fallen beast as final moment. The World Title match is the finale of a storyline that has basically been brewing since the start of Evolution. Makes sense to me that they'd give it more attention/hype - I'd do the very same thing.
Besides, judging from crowd reaction, I think fans are actually more into the WWE title match than the World Title match at Vengeance. As long as that continues, you got nothing to worry about.
While the post as a whole was somewhat annoying -- posting just to say you haven't watched in a while and oh isn't it precious that you have no idea what's going on in terms of storylines -- I will say that, yes, there are luchadores on SmackDown! now (Super Crazy, Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera), but you'll probably only see them on Velocity.
The point was that sometimes not knowing what's going on allows you to have more insight than if you did know. This wasn't even close to a good wrestling show, and as theater it, um, wasn't even close to a good wrestling show.
Sorry you were annoyed, but to each his own when it comes to humor. Thank you for the pointer to the show where I might actually see some wrestling.
SULDOG
"There is only one person in the whole world exactly like you, and people can like you just the way you are!" - Fred "Mister" Rogers
I can't think of anything he spoiled. Unless you are referring to the June 18th Velocity, taped June 14th. He didn't post any results though, so I can't see why he would need spoilers.
"You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" --Toby, West Wing
Not a fan of the Hardy thing...not because it was in bad taste or whatever; more because it was basically WWE saying "Boy, it would be amazing if this really happened, huh? But we're just messing with you instead!" It's just drawing attention to how your own product is underwhelming. Similar thing happened when they faked the Austin appearance on the Raw after he supposedly smacked around Debra.
No idea if they're going to bring him back or not, or if this was just one of those things where Vince is all frustrated with internet fans and puts something on TV to get at them. I assume if they do bring him back it'll be a similar setup to Monday where they play his music and video, Edge laughs like he set it up, then Hardy really does come out from the crowd or something.
It was noted on Velocity last week that Teddy Long signed Super Crazy and Psicosis after seeing them in action at One Night Stand. Juvi was introduced along with his WCW resume, as a new signee.
Your second post on the subject makes reference to something that happens on tomorrow night's Smackdown. While vague, it does have much more of a spoiler connotation than anything sentonBOMB posted.
Originally posted by SOK I keep thinking that Kane should return to the mask.
Maybe Edge brings out the patented Jerry Lawler fireball & "burns" Kane, only to have his come back in the mask in a few weeks.
If Shane McMahon can push Kane into a burning dumpster, and the next week Kane comes back with just a bandage on his arm, then nothing will work to get the mask back on.
That's not my point: Kane was...I don't know...darker with the mask: that is, when he wasn't being a dork (see angles with Terri, the nWo, etc. etc.) I think it's about psychology, for the most part.
I'd mark out for a return to the original mask.
I play chicken with the train, play chicken with the train train, uh-huh uh-huh!
Originally posted by JellofiendAnybody else get a little weirded out by that Bischoff-Angle segment backstage. I know Kurt's a brown noser but it didn't come off like that to me. It felt insincere or forced. I was waiting for him to ask Bischoff if he wanted a chocolate covered pretzel.
I had a feeling that it will lead to Angle as a crazed Bischoff obsessed guy. Which sounds dreadful of course, but Angle is the only one I can think of wh could polish that turd.
He was just a little too clingy. Played for laughs, you could have Angle learning kickboxing and wearing a grey wig. Played the way Angle can play it, it could be the good kind of creepy (ie Waylon Mercy, not Heidenreich/Cole)