GrzeTim's Domain

Movie Review - Spider-Man 3

2007-06-06T13:06:00.000-05:00

Over the past month or so, I have sat and read review after review take movies I enjoyed and rip them apart. Some of these reviews came from sites and people I felt were pretty close to my tastes. I have to take this time to step up and have my say:

WARNING - My reviews contain spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled, read no further.

Spider-Man 3 - 5/4/2007

If the Spider-Man series ends with this movie, it would be a great ending. Each of the Spider-Man films has improved on each other. From start to finish, this movie had me. I enjoyed how there were shots from the first two movies in the credits as a recap. Always a nice touch for the folks who are not die hard Spider fans.

This film really explores the darker side of Peter and Spider-Man. The movie starts with Peter having life going his way. He's a famous superhero, his pictures are selling, school is going well, and he and MJ are going out. What could be better? To quote a famous Sith, "Twice the pride, double the fall.". After Spider-Man saves Gwen Stacy from falling to her death, there is a rally held for Spider-Man. With one "familiar" kiss, Peter's life starts to fall apart.

Harry Osborne has picked up where his father left off and is the New Goblin. In a stunning battle over the city, Peter seriously hurts Harry and takes him to the hospital claiming he was a victim of a hit and run. At the same time, MJ loses her role in the play she's in and her displeasure is compounded by multiple instances of Gwen showing up. To top it all off, we find out that Uncle Ben's killer was not who we thought it was and the real killer is on the loose. Cue Flint Marko aka The Sandman, who has his own back story and reasons for being bad.

All these negative feelings plus his powers cause an alien symbiont to be attracted to Peter. It merges with him to form the black suit. While amplifying Peter's power, it also amplifies him primal emotions. This leads Peter to do some very "unPeterlike" things. It takes a shocking moment between him and MJ to snap Peter back to reality. Peter tries in vain to remove the suit until, in a bell tower, he successfully removes it.

At this point, Eddie Brock Jr discovers both Peter's secret identity and come in contact with the symbiont becoming my favorite Spider-Man villain; Venom. Eddie, who has a grudge with Peter already, combined with the rage the symbiont has for being abandoned by Peter, track down Sandman and concoct a plan to eliminate Spider-Man. This leads to an action set piece that is at least the last 25-30 minutes of the movie. I wont spoil it here, but it is an amazing sequence that I feel was a great payoff to the wait for this movie.

Many of the bad reviews of Spider-Man 3 claim the story element and characters came on too fast and/or it varied from the comics too much. I don't' believe they ever wanted to do an exact copy of the comic. This was Sam Rami's vision of Spider-Man, and I enjoyed it.

Other complaints were about the "bad" or "fake looking" effects. What movie were you watching? If you've seen a man made of sand or a alien symbiont and would like to elaborate on how it should look, please, let us know how it should have looked.

As with any movie I see, in the end, I ask myself the question, "Was I entertained for the past X minutes?". If I can say yes, then the movie gets the thumbs up from me.

Starcraft II

2007-05-21T11:41:00.000-05:00

I have to agree with the tagline:

"Hell, it's about time."

http://www.starcraft2.com/

Random Things

2007-05-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

The term ended about a week ago here at Dominican and as most "break weeks" it's been slow. I've had a few calls and such, but nothing too severe. The big news has to be that the Pepper Construction trailers are not at the Parmer Hall site anymore which means we're closer to the building being handed over to Dominican. This summer will be very busy, exciting, and full of getting the new building ready for classes in the fall. Once there is some shape to the interior, I'll do a new photo album for the blog and for my Facebook profile. By the way, if you've not seen it, check out the links section on the right for some of the photos I've taken of the work done at Dominican over the past year. You can also find a link to out wedding site.

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Gears of War - New Maps / Annex

In the world of gaming, Epic released the Annex expansion and four new maps for Gears of War. I do like the new maps, with Subway being my favorite. All the new maps are based off of sections of the single player that we're represented in the original maps:

Garden - Probably my least favorite of the new maps, but I've played it the least. This map looks like the greenhouse you fight the 2nd Berserker in. In line with the free set of maps from last year, this map has an environmental hazard; to go into the greenhouses you have to turn off the gas or you will choke and die.

Bullet Marsh - This looks a lot like the areas outside the start of Act 4. It's a multi-level marsh setting with the environmental hazard being a generator you can turn off and then the Kryll will attack anyone stuck in the dark. Most matches seem to end up on the top middle of the map near the Boomshot. Watch out for snipers on the ends of the bridges.

Process - This uses the graphics from the end of Act 4 when you battle the Corpser. All the Imulsion around the level looks dangerous, but I haven't found a way to fall into it...yet.

Subway - My new favorite map. It's large and works best in 4 vs 4 matches. There is a large subway tunnel to fight in with derailed subway cars and a large above ground area with concrete guard rails to hide behind. Be you a sniper, a torque master, or a shotgun surgeon...you'll find something to love in Subway.

The game mode Annex adds a new spin to Gears. The other game modes rely on you sneaking around and taking cover as best you can to not get killed and then have to wait for the next round to help your team. In Annex, the goal is to hold a specific spot on the map, similar to King of the Hill in other games. After 60 seconds of being held, the hill moves to another location. To make it easy to find, the hill only appears at weapon spawn points. You also get a nice new part of your HUD so you can find it easily. Also, you respawn in between 2-15 seconds depending on how your previous life went. It seems the more good you do (killing opponents, taking the hill, etc) the quicker you respawn. It breaths a fresh air into Gears. Execution and Warzone were still good, but having Annex in the mix makes it feel new again.

Feel free to send me a buddy invite to my GamerTag - GrzeTim

In 40 Years...

2007-05-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

I hope I can still be half the gamer this Grandma is when I'm 70. This is 100% amazing.

http://oghc.blogspot.com/

The Ultimate Star Wars Personality Test

2007-04-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

Lots of Stuff...Guitar Hero 2, Dominican Happenings

2007-04-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

Wow,

Haven't done a post in a while and it shows since I have tons to write about now:

- Kathy and I got Guitar Hero II last week for the X-Box 360 and it is A LOT of fun. I never thought I would get into a game like that, but it's very challenging and most likely the closest I'll ever come to playing a real instrument. I would highly recommend it.

- I finally got to get inside of Parmer Hall at Dominican today (4/16). I thought the building looked big from the outside. It's even BIGGER from the inside. I took a whole bunch of pictures of the inside and I have a link on the side for both pictures of Parmer and the new Parking Pavilion, which is now complete and cars have been parking in it for about a month now. You can find the links to the pictures on the right of the blog in the Links section.

- While in the Links section, you can visit out wedding site as well. Six months and counting as of last Friday. Kathy maintains a lot of that page and she updates from time to time.

Well, I have to get back to Raw...

Transformers Posters

2007-03-27T13:24:00.000-05:00

New posters for the Transformers movie have been released. The movie comes out July 4th, 2007.

Transformers posters

My "friend" Jack Thompson

2007-03-24T00:40:00.000-05:00

Well,

He's at it again:

Thompson countersues Take-Two

I wish people would focus on all the REAL problems there are in the world. Remember when people used to play games for fun and that was it? Good times...

Let It Snow...

2007-02-13T12:52:00.000-06:00

I hate people in SUVs. I know some of my friends, and even family, drive them, but they are a pox on humanity. I live in the Chicago area and today it starting snowing overnight and was a very hard drive to work today. The roads were so bad, my normal 25-30 minute drive took over an hour and a half.

I don't mind driving in bad weather...when I got my car back in 2002, it was in December, in a snow storm. My first week driving it, I saw three people spin out in front of me. The weather doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when a 200 ton piece of crap SUV gets behind me at a red light and honks at me when I don't start moving right away because of all the slush and ice on the street. Then, once I get moving, he blows past me with all his four wheel drive and glares at me. This is all in the RIGHT LANE. Sorry, buddy, some of us don't have a SUV that makes us feel that we can go 45mph in the slush and ice.

Now that I got that out of my system, I have to get back to work. Anyone caught in the storms, take it easy and if you drive a big car, watch out for those little guys...they need to take their time.

Latest "Parenting Terror"

2007-02-09T13:33:00.000-06:00

So I was browsing through the web comics I read and I found a link to this news story:

Nintendo Hand-Held Child Molester Target

The story is about the Nintendo DS and its ability to do short range wireless gaming and chat. The "official" range of the wireless antenna of the DS, according to Nintendo, is about 65 feet.

Anyone who has worked with any type of wireless device knows that a lot of things can hinder your signal. These are not limited to physical obstruction, other wireless signals in the area or interference (electrical, environmental, etc). The folks at FOX Channel 6 Milwaukee took two DS units and went to the local shopping center and were able to connect across the food court (about 200 feet) with no problems.

This wasn't to show how powerful the device is, but how a child molester can use a DS to lure your kids into giving away personal information. They actually come up with a scenario where while you are driving and your child is playing with a DS in the back seat, a child molester can be driving next to you and chatting with your child. Let's ignore the facts that:

If they wanted to find out where you lived that badly, they could follow you home and
They are driving AND writing on a the DS with a stylus at the same time and not crashing into other things in the road.

The story then shifts to some parents whose children have the DS and were shown how easy it is for someone with another DS to start a chat with their child. Of course, this person would have to be within 65-200 feet of them, and the further they are away, the fewer obstructions there have to be. The parents are outraged that this can happen and wonder why Nintendo did not inform them of this feature. The sad part is, the ability to chat is right in the manual and on the information page for the DS.

In both the manual and on the website, Nintendo recommends talking with your children (imagine that, talking to them...) about the dangers of chatting with someone they don't know and about the dangers of giving ANY personal information away. But, why should the parent be expected to parent? Isn't that everyone else's job? Maybe if parents were smart consumers and looked into what they are buying and not just bending to the pressure their child is applying they could avoid looking like idiots.

Have a good weekend, true believers.

Back From The Dead...Yet Again

2007-02-08T15:28:00.000-06:00

Well,

Looking at the last entry I did, it's been about three months I've been away. It's also a new year...I'm going to try and update more often...yet again.

I can't believe it's 2007. When I bought my car back in 2002 and the last payment was listed in the fall of 2007 that felt like forever. Where has forever gone? The past few months have been filled with some bad, but mostly good.

- Kathy had her purse stolen back in December (part of what lead to me not posting consistently). It was hard for her and she had much trouble with some of her cards giving her a run around on things. It's all sorted out now, but it was not a fun two or three weeks right before Christmas.

- Christmas itself was great. This was the first year Kathy and I tried to spend time with both sides of the family. Christmas Eve was at the condo with Kathy's family for dinner. Christmas Day was spent at my folks' place with my side of the family. It worked out pretty well, but we were both burned out after that.

- Da Bears. What else can I say? Over the past three seasons to go from a 5-11 team one year, to playing in the Divisional Playoffs the next, to winning the NFC championship the next is something special. Do I wish they had gone all the way? Yes. Am I any less proud for the team and for being a loyal fan all these years? NO. Sure you have a lot of people bad mouthing the team, but the sad part about the playoffs is someone has to lose and someone has to go home disappointed. So, congrats to the folks in IN. The Bears will be back next year and be they 13-3 or 3-13, I'll be there to cheer them on.

- I turned 29 just a little over a week ago. The people around me make a bigger deal of my birthday than I do. It's just another day for me. Thanks to everyone for the wishes, all the same.

- Jib is back! Jib is our friend who went to Dominican with Kathy and me years ago. She moved back to Thailand a while back and has just moved back to the US full time. I'm looking forward to seeing her in a few weeks for a welcome home party.

Time to get back to work...

Wii Wii Wii

2006-11-21T16:31:00.000-06:00

In a move that has shocked me and many others, my wonderful fiancée Kathy went to Best Buy at 6:45am on Sunday and got us the Wii and The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess. She had mentioned the night before she was going to go, but I figured that she was playing around and I went to bed.

The next morning, she wakes me at 6am or so to let me know she is leaving. I asked if she was serious and she walked out and was on her way. About two hours later, she comes walking back in with the Wii and Zelda. She then got together to go dress shopping with her friends for the wedding we're attending this weekend (only three days Liz & Ted!).

Later that evening, we played around with Wii Sports and had a blast. The Wii is not a gimmick; it works as well as the demo videos show. We just tried Zelda last night and, so far, it stands up to the Zelda legacy. I agree with some that the graphics aren't as impressive as you might have hoped from a next gen system, but it looks beautiful and it's a Zelda game at launch (the first time Nintendo has launched a system with a Zelda game at the start). I hope to have some more time this weekend to play with it. I also have to be sure not to ignore Gears of War and my 360.

Seriously, Christmas came early for me this year, in a big way.

It Lives!

2006-11-15T00:17:00.000-06:00

I got my replacement X-Box 360 and it works! The overall experience is amazing; I can see why people were raving. Gears of War is intense and hard and fun all at the same time...and I haven't even tried online play yet.

Now for sleep, and then tomorrow a DSL install at Kathy's folk's house.

The Boy Who Cannot Win

2006-11-13T20:33:00.000-06:00

There is a time when you wonder if there is a God. Then there are times if you wonder if there is God that takes joy in making your life crazy.

I FINALLY got an X-Box 360. There is a GREAT deal for the next week at Micro Center for the Core for $199 and the Premium for $299 after $100 mail-in rebate. It's a steal, no tricks, no hitches. I don't eat lunch and drive to Micro Center; they have a TON of them. I buy it and get a free charger for the wireless controller for being one of the first people at the new gaming section they just opened.

I wait all day to get home and open it. I set it up, power it on...and get an error. I call support and it's a hard drive issue. Since the unit is so new, I have to FAX my receipt and info so they can process a new hard drive. Until then, I can't use it. The WORST part? My fiancée surprised me after hearing I got one with Gears of War, the biggest game out for the X-Box 360.

So I have an X-Box 360 and the hottest game for it, but I can't play it. To play Gears, you need an update for the 360, which you can't do without X-Box Live, which you can't do without a hard drive.

As I said, God is a vengeful child with a hot poker.

WWE - Eric Bishoff as GM again…

2006-11-06T21:38:00.000-06:00

Eric Bishoff as GM again…

Controversy = Low Quarterly Ratings

Transformers The Movie!

2006-06-30T01:26:00.000-05:00

I had read about it and heard the trailer was coming and here it is!

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Michael Bay directed and Steven Spielberg produced!

July 4th 2007!

I was excited about this summer's movie season; next summer is already shaping up to be something too...Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3, Transformers.

I love summer movies.

Return + GrzeTim Books...WWE Vengeance

2006-06-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

I'm back after a little break. One Night Stand and the weeks after it saw me get upset at the handling of the WWE Title. The lack of respect for it by RVD was terrible. He's keeping it because "it spins". Please. It's like taking a dump on all the stars that MADE professional wrestling and without the WWF / WWE Title there NEVER would have been an ECW as it is know and RVD would be back in Battle Creek going "Dude, do you want fries with that?". Ok, end rant.

The PPV for tonight looks good, let's get to it:

GrzeTim Books...WWE Vengeance

Match 1 - Eugene vs. Umaga – While I think it’s a mistake to open with this match; I wouldn’t put it anywhere else because it’ll kill the crowd. I would like to see Eugene get the win here via some new “tutor” or some outside interference, but Umaga is being built up for something, who knows what, but something. All we can hope for is a quick match.
Winner – Umaga

Match 2 - Mick Foley vs. Ric Flair – 2 out of 3 falls – This match worries me because of how they are promoting it. Foley was talking on Monday about how it was going to be a stinker so he could embarrass Flair in Charlotte. I know Foley isn’t a great matt wrestler, but this could still be salvageable. I look for Foley to win the first fall with a backslide or something using the ropes. Flair will win the 2nd fall in the same manner. The final fall will most likely be Foley tapping to the Figure Four.
Winner in 3 falls – Ric Flair

Match 3 - Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat Match – Shelton Benjamin(c) vs. Johnny Nitro vs. Carlito – This and the match between Angle and Orton could steal the show. All three of these guys are hungry and very good at what they do. I look for some great spots between Shelton and Carlito and with Nitro in the mix, this could be something special. I look for Nitro to get the win over Carlito. This will setup some nice rematches in the future between all these guys.
Winner and NEW Intercontinental Champ – Johnny Nitro

Match 4 - John Cena vs. Sabu (Extreme Lumberjack Match) - This match will be interesting just for the fact of how they are booking Cena with ECW. I thought the segment where he proposed the match was great. The ECW guys seemed both shocked Cena would walk into their arena and also that he would call them all out tonight. They seemed to respect it. In the end, that is what I think this is about, respect. I don’t see Cena getting the win, but I do see him giving Sabu a great fight…enough that the ECW guys will finally respect him, including Heyman.
Winner – Sabu

Match 5 - Kane vs. "Impostor Kane" – I have no idea where they are heading with this, but I have liked the way they built it up. Kane is afraid of this man, and the only person Kane has feared is Undertaker. I don’t think it’s Taker, but I think it’s someone from his past, maybe another half brother from Paul Bearer and a different woman (not Taker and Kane’s mom). It could also be the true killer of Taker and Kane’s mother and step-father. We will see, or maybe we won’t till Monday. I still have to make a pick:
Winner - “Imposter Kane”

Match 6 - Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton – Like I said earlier, this could be the match of the night if it’s given time. These two had a decent match at One Night Stand, but it felt too rushed. Give them a solid 15-20 minutes and you have a match of the year candidate. I look for Orton to get the win back and setup for a rubber match in the future.
Winner – Randy Orton

Match 7 - WWE Championship - Rob Van Dam(c) vs. Edge – While I never like booking the title match below something else, the crowd will not go home happy on this one. I think Edge will win this for two reasons:

1. If RVD retains, then without someone coming to ECW and beating him for it or him coming to Raw, the next time there is a Raw PPV is SummerSlam. I don’t see Raw being without a main title that long.

2. You need to start establishing the ECW Title again. RVD can’t do that if he’s on Raw too.
For those reasons, I see Edge becoming a two time WWE Champ tonight. It’s also a good place to be with the title on an established heel that can be chased all summer up to SummerSlam.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion - Edge

Match 8 - D-Generation X vs. Spirit Squad - Most people consider this result a no brainer, but I beg to differ. One side is Triple H and Shawn Michaels and while that is a formidable team on the other side you have not just the Spirit Squad, but the McMahons. They should NEVER be underestimated or forgotten about. Still, I would be surprised if DX doesn’t get the win tonight. I also don’t see ANY new or old members of DX showing up. I don’t think it’ll happen tonight or ever. I look for Michaels to be the face in peril for most of the match. He then gets the tag to Triple H and they clean house. The finish is either a botched attempt by Vince and Shane to interfere or a tandem Pedigree and Sweet Chin Music.
Winners – D-Generation X

That will do it. Enjoy the PPV and I’ll be back.

GrzeTim

GrzeTim Books...ECW One Night Stand 2

2006-06-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

Tonight is ECW One Night Stand 2 and it’s shaping up to be an interesting show. Let’s get to the picks:

I’m not even going to try and predict an order to the matches since I expect there to be unannounced matches, so I’ll work with what they gave me:

Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler – I like both guys but this will be hard to watch. I hope Tazz will go back to doing commentary with Joey after this or maybe manage. Anyway, I see Tazz getting the win with the Tazzmission after a short match.
Winner - Tazz

The FBI vs. Super Crazy & Tajiri – This is actually one I’m looking forward to. I love watching Tajiri wrestle and with Super Crazy, it’ll be something to see what double team madness they can come up with. I’m picking Crazy and Tajiri to pull this one out (and I hope to see at least one mist tonight by Tajiri).
Winners – Super Crazy and Tajiri

Mick Foley & Edge vs. Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk – This match will be the only sure blood bath of the night. All four of these guys are nuts and will do ANYTHING. I just hope all four come out without any major injury. I’m hoping this match will be for the Hardcore Title, because that plays into my theories about later on in the show.
Winners and NEW co-Hardcore Champions – Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk

Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka - Sadly, I have never seen Balls wrestle and the first full match of Tanaka’s I have seen was last One Night Stand with Mike Awesome. I would GUESS that Tanaka will get his win back from last year.
Winner – Masato Tanaka

Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton – This one could be a clinic. I see Kurt playing the face in peril for a while and then coming back to make Orton tap out. I am afraid of what Kurt could be thinking of doing tonight based on how badly he wants to get ECW over. I just hope he remembers this will be a marathon not a sprint to sell ECW to the WWE faithful who were groomed to “hate” WCW and ECW as the “enemy” in years past.
Winner – Kurt Angle

Now, here is where things get dicey and I am going to get flak from some for it:

World Championship - Rey Mysterio(c) vs. Sabu – Considering that both these guys have mostly ariel offence, they will have to be careful how they book this so it doesn’t become just a high spot fest. I don’t see Vince giving either title to ECW (also, see my notes about the WWE Title Match).
Winner and STILL World Champion – Rey Mysterio

WWE Championship - John Cena(c) vs. Rob Van Dam – Now here it the tough one. I do NOT see Vince giving Heyman even the storyline victory of destroying the history of the WWE Title, which was the WWF Title. It would be killing the history of that title, a title that Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Chris Jericho, and many many others help build. I also think it would turn classic WWE / WWF fans off from the ECW brand. So, how to keep the belt on Cena without killing RVD…here’s how I would do it:

The match will be something special, with each guy taking the other’s best shots and still coming back. In the end, RVD will hit a move on Cena and knock him out. RVD will then look to the crowd and go to the top to hit the Frog Splash. As he is about to jump, Lita comes down and pushes RVD off the top. Cena starts to come to and stumbles up. RVD starts to recover from getting pushed off the top rope and walks into a FU attempt by Cena that RVD counters into a DDT or some other move. Edge hits the ring and coils in the corner ready to strike. He rushes out of the corner and spears…RVD. He then places Cena on RVD. 1…2…3. Cena retains.

The reason for this? As Edge will tell us on Monday, he is the #1 contender for the WWE Title at Vengeance in a few weeks and he’ll be damned if he’ll lose his chance to get the title back cause Cena lost the title in a “bingo hall” to an “ECW chump”.

Flash forward to Vengeance…Edge has Cena beat and is waiting for Cena to get up so he can hit the spear. Cena dodges the spear, Edge hits the ref on accident, and then walks into a FU but Cena is unable to make the cover and falls over. From the crowd, RVD comes out and jumps to the top rope. He looks over his targets, shrugs, and jumps…OVER the prone Cena and hits Edge. He then places Cena on Edge. 1…2…3. Cena retains.

The next night on Raw, Edge is pissed at RVD and promises to get revenge on RVD. He’ll be at ECW’s show Tuesday night! This also moves Edge and Lita over to ECW.

Feud commences and all is well in the world.
Winner and STILL WWE Champion – John Cena

Well, that is what I see happening tonight. I’ll be back next week with the results and my thoughts.

Take care.

Return

2006-06-11T12:15:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I fell behind again... The biggest thing to happen over the past few weeks was asking Kathy to marry me on May 18th. Last year around her birthday, I had promised I would ask before her next birthday (May 19th). I cut it pretty close, huh? Of course, she said yes and we've already set a date: Saturday, October 13th, 2007. Why so far off you ask? Kathy wants to have a fall wedding in October and this October would be WAY too close to try and get everything ready. Also, one of our friends won’t be coming back from Thailand until this Fall, and that's just too close to risk. So I am now made her an "honest woman" as she used to put it. :)

I'm going to work on an ECW One Night Stand predictions post and have it up before I go to my folks to watch the PPV. This one is always hard to predict since they never let us know all the matches.

Atari Quiz

2006-05-10T10:35:00.000-05:00

Again, I am too big a nerd for my own good...

WWE Thoughts

2006-05-10T10:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a long two weeks or so for me. With the end of term, I didn't get a chance to finish my Backlash results and it's a little late to do them now. Gotta try better with Judgment Day. Speaking of Judgment Day, it seems JBL is going to be fighting for the World Title. This leads me to an interesting theory...JBL vs. RVD and One Night Stand 2 for the World Title. Follow me here...

Right after winner the MITB match, RVD said the timing was "extreme". This pretty much cements that he'll use the shot at One Night Stand 2. This past week on Raw, we had our first face to face of Cena and RVD as Cena left and RVD came out for the IC title defense. I consider this a ploy; they are waving Cena vs. RVD in our face to mask the truth...JBL vs. RVD at One Night Stand 2.

The World Title match for Judgment Day is Mysterio vs. JBL. I see JBL pulling out a cheating win here. Do you recall the leaders of the WWE factions that were at One Night Stand last year? Eric Bishoff and JBL. There was even some blowback with an incident between JBL and The Blue Meanie that came onto SmackDown for a few weeks.

Now, how to get RVD to notice JBL...easy, have JBL jump all over ECW. I say the week after Judgment Day, start doing the ECW tapings before SmackDown. Before the first match can start, have JBL's music hit and he comes down to the ring with some other SmackDown heels. He can run his mouth about ECW ("This isn't a bingo hall...", "Extremely Crappy Wrestling", etc, etc). Once he's done, the WWE gang rushes the ring and destroys the ECW guys. They could even rip into Joey Styles a bit. This can continue up to the Raw before One Night Stand 2.

That night on Raw, RVD calls Vince (or a GM if named by then) to the ring to announce that he is going to cash in. Before he can finish, Cena's (or whoever has the title then) music hits and he comes down. RVD will tell him to chill and that he isn't using his shot tonight...and not against you. Queue Teddy Long's music and he struts to the ring. Teddy gets on the mic and confirms that RVD will be using his MITB shot at One Night Stand 2 to challenge for JBL's World Title.

The next day on WWE.Com, they can have a video from JBL taunting RVD and challenging him to show up on SmackDown. That night, for the whole show, they have a camera watching for RVD to arrive. Near the end of the show, still no RVD. JBL and his crew from the ECW taping head to the ring and JBL again calls out RVD.

Nothing.

JBL then runs down ECW and RVD some more. RVD's music hits and the crowd goes nuts. RVD comes out on the ramp and stands there. JBL and his crew are then jumped from behind by the ECW stars they attacked. JBL tries to flee and is trapped on the ramp between RVD and the ECW stars. JBL ends up back in the ring and takes a few signature moves from the ECW stars before RVD walks down and gets on the mic.

"I hope you liked that, JBL, because that is just a taste of how EXTREME this Sunday will be. Our match at One Night Stand is an ECW Rules match!"

The crown goes wild.

Now, ask yourself, would you order One Night Stand 2 now?

Now, the big question...should RVD win the title? My gut reaction is yes. The main issue with this is then RVD has to move to SmackDown or the World Title comes back to Raw. Both pose issues:

- Move RVD to SmackDown and when Batista comes back, it's a foregone conclusion they are going to put the belt back on him. If RVD is squashed by Batista, it would destroy all the building they did here, but they've done it before.

- Move the World Title to Raw and now there is no major title on SmackDown....unless you turn the show into 100% ECW, but I doubt it with it being on network TV.

Of the two, I would wager on RVD coming to SmackDown, if this all happens, of course.

Well, enough for me, I should get back to work.

GrzeTim Books...Backlash

2006-04-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

Once again, I’m in a rush at 1:30 the day of the show to put up my predictions. Let’s get right to it:

GrzeTim Books…Backlash

Women's Championship - Mickie James(c) vs. Trish Stratus – I’ve loved how they have gone about booking this feud. Trish dressing up as Mickie (they finally called her Trishy James on TV, as I’ve been doing since the first time she came out like that) has been a hoot. I’m expecting Trish to continue her mental attack on Mickie tonight. My only concern is that Trish might focus too much on mentally beating her and Mickie will pull it out with a quick roll up.
Winner and STILL Women’s Champion – Mickie James

Ric Flair vs. Umaga – I’m not even going to get into this match too much. It’s, once again, Ric Flair lying down for the new talent. Umaga / Jamal isn’t even new talent. Also, whose idea was it to put a Cuban manager with an Islanders rip-off? I see Umaga going over on this to push his character as a “monster” with his thumb of death.
Winner - Umaga

Kane vs. Big Show – I’m surprised how fast they jumped on this one. I expect the usual big man vs. big man stuff. It would be cool to see Kane go psycho and start to hit that MAYBE he is the man from the See No Evil movie. Maybe even bring the hook from the movie down with him. Kane will get himself DQed by using a weapon of some kind.
Winner via DQ – Big Show

Intercontinental Championship vs. Money in the Bank - Shelton Benjamin(c) vs. Rob Van Dam (MITB) – This could be the match of the night. Both these guys can deliver in the ring and while they have conflicting styles, if they can mesh, it’ll be something special. I expect a lot of “crash and burn” high spots in this one. With the ECW One Night Stand poster having RVD with the briefcase, I would be VERY surprised if he doesn’t win here and go on to One Night Stand to face the WWE Champ.
Winner and NEW Intercontinental Champion – Rob Van Dam

Carlito vs. Chris Masters – This is another match I’m looking forward to. The slow build has been great. They had been hinting at Carlito turning on him since before WrestleMania. The time is right; the crowd is REALLY into Carlito. He needs to be the one to break the Masterlock. I see it as he takes a bite of the apple, gets caught in the lock, looks up and spits in his face. This allows Carlito to break the hold and reverse it into the back cracker for the win.
Winner - Carlito

Shawn Michaels & "God" vs. Mr. McMahon & Shane McMahon – While this is a handicap match on the surface, a lot can happen here. I could see them doing things with the lights, ring, and pyro to make it seem like Michaels has a partner. I have the same feeling about this match as I did about the Michaels vs. Mr. McMahon match from WM. A lot can happen in this match, but I’m not building it up too much in my head. I expect the McMahon’s to get their win back in this one.
Winners – Mr. McMahon & Shane McMahon

WWE Championship – John Cena(c) vs. Edge vs. Triple H – Now the match everyone is waiting for. I thought I had this one figured out, but with RVD going to be using the Money in the Bank at ECW One Night Stand, everything is out the window. Let’s look at the three possible outcomes in the match starting with the least likely and going up:

3. Cena retains the title. I SERIOUSLY doubt this will happen. I think it would be a massive mistake to send Cena to the ECW PPV as the champ. The crowd there will eat him alive…or worse yet they’ll leave when he comes out. While I do see the flip side that it’ll make RVD into a superman to the fans, does RVD really NEED the cheap heat going into an ECW PPV?

2. Edge wins the title. If Edge wins, he will NOT pin Cena. That way, there is an easy setup for a rematch. I do like the idea of Edge bad mouthing ECW for a month. He could be pissed about how he is the WWE Champion, not the champ of a bingo hall and he wont defend there. Also, Edge just had a nasty Hardcore Match with Foley at WM, so his toughness won’t be in question.

1. Triple H wins the title. This could be a win over either man. Triple H is the most likely person to go into an ECW PPV as the champ. RVD and Triple H have some title history in the past and imagine Triple H walking into ECW Arena…the fans will go nuts on him. Even more so, what if he BEATS RVD there…he better get the three, grab the belt, and RUN.

In the end, this all comes down to who they want to walk into the ECW PPV as the champ. I have to go with the best choice (in my opinion)
Winner and NEW WWE Champion – Triple H

Enjoy the PPV folks. I’ll post the results tonight or tomorrow.

NES Quiz

2006-04-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

This was a fun quiz. It shows you a screen from a NES game and the box art and you have to type in the title. I got all of them but one. Give it a shot.

The Sheep Say "Baaaa Cena Sucks Baaa"

2006-04-26T14:20:00.000-05:00

I have to cover something that has been grating on me for months now; the crowds DRASTIC turn on John Cena. As a man over 25, I know I'm going out on a limb here by saying "I still enjoy watching John Cena.".

"The Sheep" is my term for the masses of wrestling fans that come to the live events and don't have A SINGLE CLUE as to what is going on. Why do you pay $40+ to go to a live event if you have no idea who is who and what is what? My favorite is the guys (that always seem to be in front or behind me) who chant the whole night for "puppies", chant "boring" at nice chain wrestling, and then again chant "We want puppies" or "HLA" when Trish and Mickie come out and put on a good match. It's disgusting. If you want HLA or puppies, might I recommend a strip club or the Playboy channel? It's cheaper, you can still drink, and it doesn't cost $6+ a glass.

Now, back to Cena. It has obviously become the "cool thing" if you're male over 13 to boo Cena. Why is this? Is it because the girls love him? Is it because he has become a bit younger fan friendly? Is it because he is Champ? I don't think so...I think it's because one crowd booed him. Not any crowd in particular...just a crowd. Here's where the "sheep" mentality comes in. Every crowd, every week, tries to out do the last. What we end up with is Cena being booed and Triple H being cheered...what? I thought the world hated Triple H...? Don't get me wrong, I have been a fan of Triple H for a long time...but I hate these sheep who cheer for him because he's against Cena. Heaven forbid we THINK FOR OURSELVES!

For my last point, and the lock on the sheep, think back to New Years Revolution. The crowd was all over Cena the WHOLE MATCH. When he won, they booed him. When Edge hit the ring and won, they cheered like crazy and then it dawned on them, "Wait, Edge just won the title.” You can see it in the tape. Watch the crowd, they are cheering and jumping because Cena lost...then it hits them like a ton of bricks...you can see it in your faces. Let me also make it clear that I am a big fan of Edge and I'm happy to see the push he's gotten as of late.

The SAME THING will happen at Backlash if Cena loses the belt. And, if they truly hate Cena and love Edge or Triple H, when one of them comes out with the belt the next night on Raw, they better cheer like mad.

Of course, they won’t. Cause they're sheep. They were sheep when they "hated" the Rock and booed him...but they would still talk along with his catchphrases. They were sheep when they would pop for Triple H when he came down, but when he would talk they would boo him because he was dating / married to Steph. So, as sheep, when Cena goes for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, they all go "You can't see me." If you don't like the man, then don't talk along with him.

If you don't like it, I got one word for ya!

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The Plague

2006-04-25T16:30:00.000-05:00

Well,

Raw was fun back in the first week of April. It was a good show and it was great to see it. Sadly, the day after I developed what can only be described as the worst cold / flu / ill I have ever had. I was DOA from Tuesday after Raw all the way though until the Wednesday before Easter. For the first time in my life, I got medicine from the doctor (two things, a five day antibiotic and a prescription level cough medicine). I, of course, forced myself into work Wednesday and Thursday of that week and then spent my three day weekend in bed. I'm about 100% again, almost a month later, but I still have a bit of the cough.

Of course, this pretty much made anything beyond watching TV and trying to breathe impossible. You know I'm sick when I'm off for a week and I don't get online or turn on the X-Box once. Some people at work thought I must be dead since I never miss that much work unexpectedly. But, here I am, almost back to normal.

A lot happened here while I was away. The head of my department had announced he was resigning and moving to a new job in Connecticut about a month ago. His last day is this Friday. My direct supervisor is moving up to fill his position. We're not sure if she is going to stay there full time since the original head's boss (the Provost of the university) is ALSO leaving at the end of April. The new Provost won’t start till this summer, so it's all up in the air. What do I do? Keep on truckin...

I started playing Madden 06 on All-Madden recently. Man, it's tough. The DBs and LBs seem to know where the ball is going before I decide. Has anyone played with the sliders in the AI section and found a good setting where they are challenging but not psychic?

I'm working on a post to recap the past few weeks of WWE and some Backlash predictions, which I'll have up by Friday (hopefully...).

Wish me luck kicking the rest of this cough.

WrestleMania 22 Results & Thoughts

2006-04-03T01:30:00.000-05:00

WrestleMania 22 is done and there were a lot of great moments and a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to it and see how I did.

WrestleMania 22 Results & Thoughts

Match 1 - World Tag Team Championship - Kane & Big Show (c) vs. Chris Masters & Carlito – I was so off on the order of matches tonight, but my picks were very good. This was a solid opener and all four guys worked hard. Kane was on tonight and was on fire (no pun intended). I was surprised that Kane & Big Show retained. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a rematch tomorrow at Raw and it will either mark the end of Kane & Big Show as champs or it will be the spark that starts the Chris Masters / Carlito feud and the start of Carlito’s face turn. The finish saw Kane give Carlito the chokeslam for the win. Winners and STILL World Tag Team Champs – Kane & Big Show
My Score - (0/1)

Backstage - Coach interviews HBK about his match tonight.

Match 2 - Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Shelton Benjamin vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Ric Flair vs. Finlay vs. Matt Hardy vs. Lashley – I was very surprised to see this match so early in the card. I thought all six men worked hard. The spot where Hardy superplexed Flair off the ladder and they took Flair out “hurt” was a sure sign that he would come back to win. Some amazing spots in this…Shelton running up the ladder and flying to the outside and his mad jump from the middle of the ropes onto a ladder. I also dug the three man powerbomb on Lashley. There was a nasty spot near the end where Shelton and Hardy went off a ladder and to the outside. Hardy seemed to hit his head on the apron…I hope he’s ok. In the end, RVD comes out on top as Mr. Money in the Bank. 2006 just might be RVD’s year to shine. Winner - Rob Van Dam
My Score - (1/2)

Backstage – Josh Matthews backstage with Mean Gene. Randy Orton interrupts and rips on Mean Gene for getting into the Hall of Fame for holding a mic. Mean Gene gets upset and walks off camera mumbling about Orton’s father.

Hall of Fame Segment – It was great to see all the Hall of Fame superstars again tonight. I think it was TERRIBLE that Bret was not there. I had read that he was not going to, but I was hoping he would have a change of heart (again, no pun intended). It’s sad if this is how we will have to remember Bret Hart.

Match 3 - United States Championship - Chris Benoit (c) vs. JBL – This match went just about how I expected. It was great with JBL playing on Benoit’s love of Eddie to get him out of his game plan. The finish saw Benoit lock in the Crippler Crossface from a blocked Clothesline from Hell that JBL then rolled into a cover and a pin with help from the ropes. Winner and NEW United States Champion – JBL
My Score - (2/3)

At ringside - Joey Styles comes out to call the Hardcore Match. It was a great idea to let Joey cut his teeth at WrestleMania on a match like this. He did a great job and it shows how Lawler and Styles can do a two man show.

Match 4 - Hardcore Match - Edge vs. Mick Foley – As I said, this match was hard to call. The match was bloody and had some amazing moments. Foley wrapping himself in barbed wire to avoid the spear was classic. The tacks were something else. I said when Edge got them out “He’s going on those.” and so he did. Socko with the barbed wire to both Edge and Lita (she bled even if it was just pellets…) was nice as well. The finish saw Edge spear Foley though the ropes and through a burning table. Did you see: 1. That they both got burned because the table flashed and didn’t go out as fast? 2. The burn marks on the black mats at ringside? YIKES! Winner – Edge
My Score - (3/4)

Backstage – Booker T and Sharmell and talking over their match and wondering why all the psychos get drawn to them. They start walking to the ring and run into:

Paul Burchill playing with his sword
Eugene trying to win a bet with DiBiase and loses (classic Million Dollar Man here)
Snitsky licking Mae Young’s foot (yes you read that right)
Goldust in a dress as Oprah-dust

Goldust tells Booker that the only way he can win is to find his inner freak like they all did. Booker is NOT happy with this and storms out. Great segment!

Match 5 - Boogeyman vs. Booker T & Sharmell – This match was exactly what I expected. Booker used Sharmell to distract Boogey and get the early advantage, but Boogey fought back. In the end, Sharmell tried to hit Boogey with his own staff and got a worm filled kiss for her trouble. Boogeyman then hit a double handed sit-down chokeslam for the win. Winner – Boogeyman
My Score - (4/5)

Match 6 - Women's Championship - Trish Stratus (c) vs. Mickie James – While this was a good match with some great ring work and psychology, one thing stands out to me: the crowd TURNING on Trish! I couldn’t believe it. They were booing her and “Let’s go Mickie” rang out through the arena. I was amazed. I have nothing bad to say about Mickie. She has done great work with a hard role, but why would the crowd turn on Trish like that? What has she done to deserve it? Cause she didn’t give them HLA? The idiots in the crowd obviously wanted a T&A match (which they got later and chanted "Boring!” over) and didn’t get it. It’s a shame and a perfectly good match wasted on a crowd that I bet was les than 50% Chicago area fans. Mickie won with a Mick Kick after a botched attempt and Stratusfaction. Winner and NEW Women’s Champion – Mickie James
My Score - (5/6)

Backstage – Vince leads the whole McMahon clan in a prayer for Shawn Michaels. I can’t wait for the letters they’ll get for this one… :)

Match 7 - Casket Match - Undertaker vs. Mark Henry – This was a decent match for what it was. As always, Undertaker gives us a memory for WrestleMania. The vault over the ropes and casket was amazing. He then powerbombs Henry and gives him the Tombstone. RIP Mark Henry. Winner – Undertaker 14-0
My Score - (6/7)

Match 8 - No Holds Barred Match - Vince McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels – As I thought, all the “what ifs” about this match were just that; “ifs”. The match was solid for a part time wrestler being in it. Shawn controlled the early part of the match and then the Sprit Squad hits the ring. Shawn finally gets his vengeance on them too and lays them all out with their own megaphone. Vince does get the upper hand for a bit with Shane’s help. As they are about to have Shawn kiss Vince’s ass again, he reverses it and Shane does the honors. Once Shane is handcuffed to the ropes, Shawn proceeds to assault Vince with many weapons, deliver an elbow drop from a TALL ladder while Vince is on a table and in a trash can, and finally gives him a brutal Superkick for the pin. As Vince is rolled out bleeding he flips Shawn off, signaling that the Backlash will be hell (I love foreshadowing…:) ). Winner – Shawn Michaels
My Score - (7/8)

WrestleMania 23 will be at Ford Field in Detroit. That’ll be massive…I hope they can sell it out.

Match 9 - World Heavyweight Championship - Kurt Angle (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio – This is the match I picked as the main event…I guess not. This was an amazing match with a lot of action and many false finishes. The double German Suplex by Angle to both men was amazing. Kurt always gives 110% out there. Kurt got both Orton and Mysterio to tap, but the ref was distracted by the third man, something that will come up this Friday I bet. The end saw Angle go for an Angle Slam on Mysterio and he revered it into an armdrag that sent Kurt out of the ring. Rey then hit the 619 and West Coast Pop on Orton for the win. Kurt tried to break it up, but just didn’t make it. This had to be one of the biggest surprises of the night. Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion – Rey Mysterio
My Score - (7/9)

Backstage – We are shown Triple H and Cena preparing for their match later tonight. The crowd is very anti-Cena as they have been lately. JR tries to play this up to the fact that Triple H is more of a traditional wrestler and Cena is hip-hop and new. That’s crap…the crowd started disliking Cena when he became more kid-friendly as WWE Champ and when the girls started cheering for him. All I have to say is GET OVER IT. The guy and wrestler and worked his ASS off to get where he is. If you don’t like him, I can’t tell you otherwise, but don’t waste seats and WrestleMania if you don’t want to see the people there.

Match 10 - Playboy Pillow Fight - Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle – As usual, this match throws off all my picks. There was bit more wrestling than you usually see in a match like this, but for what it is, it was ok. Torrie won with a rollup. Winner – Torrie Wilson
My Score - (7/10)

Match 11 - WWE Championship - John Cena (c) vs. Triple H – Whenever I think I have the WWE figured out, they throw me something like this…where to begin:

Triple H comes out dress like Conan the Barbarian to some new song about the “King of Kings”. While it was kind of cool. He looked rather uncomfortable in it. I hope this isn’t a new thing full time for him.

Before Cena comes out, we get a video about the Great Depression and the Chicago gangsters doing what they had to survive. The part that stuck with me was “Whether you liked or hated them, they sacrificed everything.” That is a very interesting quote to associate with Cena. We then get a car with gangsters and Cena firing off a Tommy gun before the match.

The match itself was something in itself with the crowd solidly against Cena. Over the course of the match, I was saying “This will be like when Edge won…they’ll cheer that Cena isn’t the champ anymore, then it’ll dawn on them, Triple H is the champ again.” Personally, I am a fan of Triple H. I have been since he started and was feuding with the Rock when he was in the Nation. Near the end of the match, Triple H went for the Pedigree but Cena backdropped him out of it. Cena then hit the FU near and Triple H kicked out. Cena then went to the top rope and missed a cross body. Triple H then tried to hit the Pedigree again, but Cena stepped through and locked in the STFU for the 2nd time in the match. Cena did a neat trick where he had Triple H’s hand that was closer to the ropes tied up in the hold. They sat in it for a LONG time and the ref checked to see if Triple H was out. After two drops, Triple H looked like he would fight back. Cena put some extra power into the hold and Triple H tapped out! Amazing! The crowd was stunned; there were shots of the fans just amazed. It was the first time all match that they stopped harping on Cena and were silent. Winner and STILL WWE Champion – John Cena
My Score - (7/11)

We then get a video recap of the night and we go to black.

Final Thoughts & Questions

WrestleMania usually has some of the best matches of the year, and it this year was no exception. From top to bottom I enjoyed the card. I started off cold in the pick department but then came back with seven in a row. I ended seven for eleven, which isn’t bad. I’ll be interested to see where some feuds and stories move from here.

I’m not sure where you go with the tag titles on either show at this point. Unless Masters and Carlito pull it out tomorrow on Raw, there is no one left for Kane and Big Show to beat. Also, did you notice there was NO sign of MNM except for Melina bringing out William Perry? I do see one possible solution for the titles…make the tag titles a floating title. It is the only title that can move shows. It would allow for there to be just one strong tag division. That or just drop them. They are both afterthoughts now, which is a shame for the talent that is being wasted.

RVD having the title shot will be interesting. If they put him against Cena, he’ll be the 100% crowd favorite. If they move him to SmackDown to face Mysterio, that could be interesting due to the fact they were tag champs way back when. Of course, it took Edge almost eight months to use his shot, so who knows.

I’m looking forward to JBL feuding with some of the newer talent in the US Title picture. I would move Benoit right back into the World Title race NOW.

I’m a big Mick Foley fan, and I know he isn’t a full time wrestler anymore, but why do they keep neutering him by having come back and lose again and again? Sure, he beat the tar out of Edge, but anyone who saw Edge in the TLC matches or at Money in the Bank last year knows he’s tough.

Where do you go with Booker T now?

Where do you go with Boogeyman now?

I’m also looking forward to watching Trish fight to get her title back. I wish wish wish they would bring back some wrestling divas. Hire them trained or send them to be trained! I don’t want to see Melina, Maria, Ashley, or any others take that title off Mickie or Trish unless they can give a decent match.

Have we seen the last of Mark Henry?

What’s next for Undertaker? Will it be another month before we see him again?

Is a WWE Title shot in HBK’s future? I think a win over Vince gives him the right to one.

Will Vince be back on Monday night? Will he be back in his custom Mr. McMahon wheelchair?

How will Rey wear the World Heavyweight Title? The thing is almost as big as his chest. Seriously, I’m happy for Rey, but I don’t know if you said to someone who didn’t watch WWE programming, “Here’s the World Heavyweight Champion” and showed them Rey it would be impressive. Yes, Rey deserves it, but how long can he keep it?

How badly will the crowd rip into John Cena tomorrow on Raw? Will there be a rematch tomorrow or at Backlash for Triple H?

I think the people that claim Triple H is having thing handed to him because he is the happy husband of Stephanie McMahon can finally SHUT THE HELL UP! He has lost at the past three WrestleMania main events, twice by submission:
1. Tap out to Benoit to lose the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 20
2. Pinned by Batista to lose the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 21
3. Tap out to Cena in a WWE Title match at WrestleMania 22
If that’s favored treatment, treat me like a regular Joe!

I’ll post some Live Raw notes tomorrow and MAYBE get some non-wrestling related posts up…we’ll see.

Until next time, true believers, take care of each other.

GrzeTim

GrzeTim Books…WrestleMania 22

2006-04-02T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are, WrestleMania weekend is upon us. I was at the HOF on Saturday night and I’ll write something up about that tonight or tomorrow…I have to get this up and then get to my folks house from the show, but, for now.

GrzeTim Books…WrestleMania 22

United States Championship - Chris Benoit (c) vs. JBL – I think starting with this will get the crowd going early (not like they need to pump up the crowd for this one…). JBL can cut a promo and then lead into Benoit coming out. I see this being very physical and rough. I think Benoit would be better off moving up to the World Title picture and JBL would be a great US Champ and there is a lot of mid-card he could help.
Winner and NEW United Stats Champion – JBL

World Tag Team Championship - Kane & Big Show (c) vs. Chris Masters & Carlito – Some might frown on putting the two mid-card titles early like this, but there is SO MUCH on this card that it needs to be early so it isn’t lost in the shuffle. The WWE has shown Kane & Big Show to be unstoppable and overcoming Masters & Carlito all month, BUT I think it’ll do Kane & Show good to move on and Masters & Carlito would make a great heel team that escapes each week by cheating to win. It also sets up for a renewal of the tag team division which has been a mess on BOTH SHOWS for a long while now. But, I’ll do a post on that later in the week.
Winners and NEW World Tag Team Champions – Chris Masters & Carlito

Hardcore Match - Edge vs. Mick Foley – This is a hard one to pick. I’m a big Mick Foley fan, but I don’t see how having him beat Edge will do anything but hurt Edge. They will both bleed and give their all, but I see Edge coming out on top with Lita’s help. It’s POSSIBLE Lita could bleed in this, but they usually shy away from that since they don’t want to risk scars on the ladies.
Winner – Edge

Boogeyman vs. Booker T & Sharmell – While I think the Boogeyman angle has gone better than I thought it would, I think they’ve let it run its course and it needs to end tonight. I would love to see Booker get the win over Boogey, but I see Booker leaving Sharmell in the ring and Boogey pinning her for the win setting up more to this feud, which I feel is a mistake.
Winner – Boogeyman via pin on Sharmell

Playboy Pillow Fight - Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle – These matches usually don’t have a clear winner other than the crowd. With Candice’s Playboy still on the shelves, I have to give her the nod.
Winner – Candice Michelle

Casket Match - Undertaker vs. Mark Henry – This one will be interesting to see. With all the superstars Undertaker has beaten at WrestleMania, I don’t see Mary Henry being the one to snap the 13-0. I’m going to take the safe bet.
Winner – Undertaker 14-0

Women's Championship - Trish Stratus (c) vs. Mickie James – Of all the matches on the card, this one has the most buildup and storyline to it. They have done a great job of not jumping the gun with Mickie’s turn and doing it on SNME was a great call. While I love Trish to death, if she wins, who does she fight (unless they have a new woman up their sleeve)? Trish chasing Mickie for the title for a few months would be fun to watch.
Winner and NEW Women’s Champion – Mickie James

Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Shelton Benjamin vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Ric Flair vs. Finlay vs. Matt Hardy vs. Lashley – I loved the first Money in the Bank match and while I’m happy to see it back, I don’t know if the people in this one will mesh as well as the first one. Don’t get me wrong, they will tear the house down and this will be the match to beat for the three main events, but of the people in this match, only three of the six are ladder match tested (yes, I know Ric was in one, but that was with Edge who is one of the masters of the ladder match IMOP) and it’ll be a challenge to mesh all the varied styles together. I’m going to pick one from Raw and one from SmackDown here.
Winner (Raw) – Rob Van Dam – The crowd always goes crazy for RVD and I think it’s time to put him in the main event picture.
Winner (SmackDown) – Lashley – When he first came on, I was impressed with him. Now, the great feud with Finley has made him a crowd pleaser. Time for the real test, being Mr. Money in the Bank.

WWE Championship - John Cena (c) vs. Triple H – Triple H has lost the World Title at the last two WrestleManias…I think this time he’s going to get the win. The crowds have been all over Cena since before 2006 started. With the belt off him, they can retool Cena or turn him outright heel for the crowds “turning on me”. In the end, I’d be very surprised if Triple H doesn’t leave with the title.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion – Triple H

No Holds Barred Match - Vince McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels – Now, for the match with all the questions. While it would be easy to say this is where HBK gets the best of Vince, I’m not so sure. With all the press about Bret Hart not wanting to sign a contract and if he saw HBK at the HOF he would leave, I think there is something much deeper going on…or I could be seeing shadows. Again, since I’m already late, I’m going to take the safe bet.
Winner – Shawn Michaels

World Heavyweight Championship - Kurt Angle (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio – Ok, I lied, another match with questions. I could see the belt going to Rey since there is a massive following for him right now. I could see the belt going to Orton and Rey, Angle, and Benoit chasing Orton over the summer. I could see the belt staying on Kurt because he has just been so good with the title. Since I predicted a title change for all the others, I’m going to go with the champ here.
Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion – Kurt Angle

Well, there you have it…those are my predictions. Sorry for they being so short and so close to the event. I just got this in under the gun. I’m going to try and be more consistent with this. I will also try and get a HOF review up here and maybe some live notes from the Raw on Monday that I’ll be at. So awesome…new year of storylines starts Monday. Woo!

Until then, take care of each other.

GrzeTim

The Pain! The Pain!

2006-02-16T16:13:00.000-06:00

Well, it turns out that GameStop shipped the Empire at War pre-orders on Wednesday Night. So, it won’t be till Monday that I get to try the game. I can't win with pre-orders. When I do pre-order, there are copies everywhere. When I don't pre-order, I have to run around the world to find it. Life likes to give me lemons and then I set them on fire and chuck them right back... ;)

I'll have No Way Out predictions up sometime on Friday or Saturday (depends on when I get to watch SmackDown).

New Year - New Post

2006-02-09T11:30:00.000-06:00

How I neglect this Blog. If it was a friend, it would have left me long ago. I'll have to try and be better about posting. Well, here we go:

There has been a lot of shakeup in the WWE as of late. Batista is injured and went out for surgery and now Kurt Angle has moved to SmackDown and is the World Champ. John Cena won the Elimination Chamber at New Year's Revolution only for Edge to cash in his Money in the Bank from WrestleMania 21 and win by beating a worn down Cena. Then, three weeks later at the Royal Rumble, we Cena gets the title back via an FU and a tap out. Rey Mysterio wins the Rumble starting at number 2 and is going to WrestleMania (maybe...watch for my No Way Out booking and WrestleMania preview for more on that).

With all the WWE has going for it (the rating have been pretty decent the past month or so) now Raw gets moved to THURSDAY this coming week for the dog show on USA. MY GOD, you would think that when they were coming back to USA they would have gotten out of having to move for the ruddy dog show. There has to be a 90 year old man at USA who loves the dog show and wont budge (maybe he should be budged out a window....I kid! I kid!) or the folks that run the dog show have dirt on a USA board member. It's still crappy to take Raw off for the dog show. I know where I'll be on Monday night...watching ANYTHING else, maybe even Spike TV...again, just kidding...

My birthday was a few weeks ago and Kathy got me a great gift. I am going to my first Arena Football game in March. It's the Chicago Rush vs. the Colorado Crush (the AFL champs). Win or lose, it's going to be a fun time :) I also got a mini Arena football and a sweet Rush shirt. Thanks again, Kath, if you read this.

That leads into my newest game; EA Arena Football. For a first crack at an Arena Football game, EA didn't do a bad job at all. If you've never watched Arena ball, you might want to rent it first, but if you like Arena ball, you'll love it. The options are not as deep; there is only quick play, online play, and a really basic season mode; but all the teams are there and the rosters are accurate for this season. They also support downloadable content, so there should be roster updates for online play and maybe some other tasty features (downloadable expansion teams?).
Next week, Star Wars - Empire at War comes out for the PC. It's a RTS (Real Time Strategy) made by a new studio called Petroglyph that is comprised of people from Westwood Studios (the Command & Conquer series). The premise is that you control everything from what you build, to where you deploy, to what strategy you use. They also removed some of the more tedious parts of RTS, like resource gathering and let you focus more on the combat. I'll post a bit on it here after I get it on the 15th.

I hope to keep up more on this blog...I know I say that all the time, but I mean it this time.

Take care.

Viva La Raza

2005-11-22T11:47:00.000-06:00

It's been a little over a week and my thoughts still drift to Eddie Guerrero. For those who don't follow pro-wrestling, Eddie Guerrero, one of the best in the business, died last Sunday from heart failure. In his past, Eddie had struggled with drugs and drinking. He had come back from it to become the WWE Champ two years ago and to cement his place in wrestling history. Sadly, Eddie's demons caught up with him. A lot has been said about Eddie in the past week. I never met the man, but I saw him compete, both in person and on TV, many times. It's amazing how someone can become attached to your life without ever having spoken a word to them. I will miss Eddie. I'll miss the entertainer and the showman. I'll miss how he made me laugh, made me sit up in my chair when he would hit an amazing move, and how I would look forward to his segments every week.

Still, I can't help but feel selfish in this. Eddie's family and friends are going to miss a lot more than I will. They are going to miss him in the simple, day to day ways that I was never aware of. For that reason, I feel selfish. We, as fans, demand so much from these men and women who give up their time, families, health, and sometimes sadly their lives, just to entertain us for a few hours each week. Someday, I hope to meet one or more of them and thank them in person. Eddie was one of those people I would have loved to thank. I have to hope, somehow, he knows, even more so now, what he meant to us, the fans.

Thank you Eddie. Thank you. I hope, someday, I get to meet you still...

Viva La Raza.

Long Time

2005-11-22T11:08:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time...yet again...since I added to this blog. Every time I come back, I say "I'll stick with it" and something comes along. Well, here goes another try.

The big buzz this week is the release of the X-Box 360. Anyone who knows me would expect that I would be excited. I have to admit, I am...but I have some trepidation with this new system. First and foremost has to be the backwards compatibility. With both Nintendo and Sony already being upfront about backwards compatibility (the Playstation 3 will play all old games and the Nintendo Revolution will accept all Gamecube discs along with the ability to play any 8, 16, or 64 bit Nintendo game via the web) Microsoft had a lot of ground to cover. I realize that the new system has a different architecture and that it would be hard to do it, but the lack of backwards compatibility would hurt them. They kept silent for a while on it, then released this:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm

A list of the games that, at release, will be compatible with 360. While it is a large list (200+), there are many glaring omissions from the list:

- No EA games to be found...this includes all EA Sports & EA Sports Big titles, Burnout Revenge, X-Men Nemesis, and many others. There is a 360 port of Madden 06, but from the reviews I've read on Gamespot and the like, it's Madden 2001 with pretty graphics.

- No Splinter Cell games. The latest Splinter Cell games have a LARGE following on X-Box Live (and the original line was that X-Box Live games would be the first brought over to 360...Barbie Horse Adventure?).

- Lack of backwards compatibility for recently released games. How many parents are going to buy a 360 and an original X-Box game, not knowing the difference, and come Christmas the game won’t work at all. As of today, the top ten searched for games on Gamespot for the X-Box (bolded games are on the 360's list):

Half Life 2 - Supported
Need For Speed Most Wanted - Not Supported
Halo 2 - Supported
Star Wars Battlefront 2 - Not Supported
50 Cent : Bulletproof - Not Supported
The Matrix : Path of Neo - Not Supported
Gun - Not Supported
True Crime : Streets of New York - Not Supported
King Kong - Not Supported
America's Army : Rise of a Soldier - Not Supported

So, of the ten games, two of them work on 360. One of them is a Microsoft release and the other is a PC port which worked on most PC hardware. You would THINK any Microsoft game would work on 360 at launch. MechAssault 2 on the list? I think not.

In the end, Microsoft has their work cut out for them. They have to provide a full online community and try and build the list of legacy titles that will work on the new system. I can say for sure that I will be hesitant to buy into the new system unless I can play some of my favorite, and more popular, titles on 360.

I'm sure that the five people who bought Barbie Horse Adventure got their 360s at midnight...sigh.

WWE - ELH (Edge, Lita, Hardy)

2005-07-15T16:14:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short post since I don't want to go on and on about this. I wouldn't have covered this at all, as I don't like digging into the real lives of actors, wrestlers, etc. I always look at it this way...I work on networks and computers and it's not a very glamorous job. What, if in a backwards universe, it was? Would I want someone watching where I went, who I dated, what I did, etc, etc? Not at all. So, I try to separate the "superstar" from the person. I can tell you all about a "superstar". When it comes to the real person, I can maybe tell you their name and maybe a few small things (interests, etc). Things like that you find out in interview and whatnot. I don't like hearing about the dirty laundry. It's their laundry, let it be their problem. That's my opinion.

So, the WWE has made the dirty laundry 100% public with the fact that Matt Hardy is now on Raw again. Even if this is a one shot deal to close this up, they have opened Pandora's Box and now they have to deal with it. For those who don't know, long story short:

Matt and Lita we're a couple, both on and off screen, for six years or so. This past spring, rumors started about Lita cheating on Matt with Edge (or Adam, his real name, as Matt referred to him on Raw). It turned out, some of this was true (I have no idea how much since I don't know any of the parties involved and care not to speculate). So, Matt goes onto the Internet and tells the world all about it. The WWE, trying to protect itself (they like to keep things like this quiet, like ANY company does...) released Matt Hardy back in April. For the past few months, Hardy has continued to rant on this. Also, the fans, who wouldn't have thrown water on Matt Hardy if he was on fire back in the fall and winter, started chanting "we want Matt" and "you screwed Matt" and many other more vulgar things. The WWE, seeing an opportunity and being a BUSINESS that likes to make MONEY (like any other business on the planet) gets Hardy back and starts this storyline.

Ok, now that we have the history, my opinion. I don't like it. I intentionally tried to keep the real world out of the story. While I knew in reality that Lita and Edge were together and what had happened, I tried to suspend reality and enjoy the storyline with Kane and the wrestling therein. Now, with Matt back, who’s to say what parts of the things the net was spewing are true or not...was this WHOLE THING a fake? Was part of it a fake? Was none of it fake and they are just using this to make some money (which I cannot knock them for)? We'll never know...at least not till Matt, Edge, or Lita write a book or sit down for an interview in 30 years.

So, again, my take? Let's make wrestling what it is...a story. Leave the real world where it belongs; in the real.

Take care of yourselves, and each other...we're all we've got.

So much for this being a short post...

WWE - 18 Superstarts Released In 24 Hours

2005-07-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

I have to say that my faith (what little I had still) in the WWE is starting to shatter and I have to truly wonder if, in a year or two, there will even be a WWE as we know it. 18 (yes 1-8) have been released, bought out, or have had negotiations fail. The list so far (there are more cuts coming supposedly...)

Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley - This is one of the biggest shocks to me. After they were in the ECW stuff, I was sure they were coming back. It shows how even with a good reaction from the fans, if the powers that be don't think of something for you, you're "useless". I will miss the 3D, the Dudleys, and the fire that they could bring to any match.

Joy Giovanni - While this cut surprises me, it doesn't surprise me at the same time. For those of you with G4 (the video game channel), she was just on a show there as "WWE SmackDown Rookie Diva of 2005". The show she was on was brand new and just started airing a few weeks ago. Again, it shows that, just like the draft, "No one is safe". If I recall, Joy has a kid in real life maybe that had something to do with the decision. Again, I find this cut odd since Joy was one of the few Diva Search ladies that got an actual story on TV...she feuded with the one that was with JBL's group and was Big Show's "girlfriend".

Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroko - Another cut that doesn't surprise me. WWE tried everything with Kenzo...evil guy, silly guy, crazy guy, nothing stuck. He was one of the folks involved in the trade between Raw and SmackDown. It's amazing that the draft stuff is GONE from the WWE website, so it's as if the trade never took place. I had heard good things about Kenzo when he was coming to the WWE, but when he got there, he seemed very slow. It's possible he had a hard time adjusting to a WWE style, but we'll never know.

Matt Morgan - Another shame here...I was hoping since Carlito and Christian switched shows, they would switch bodyguards. Morgan and Christian could have had some great interviews and such. He was also starting to get better in the ring.

Charlie Haas - Yet ANOTHER one of the drops where you have to read it twice to be sure you saw it right. This is a GIANT mistake by the WWE. Haas is an A+ talent, yet was given crap to work with storyline wise. I would hope, if business picks up again in a few years that they bring him back. A true loss for the fans and for the future.

Jackie Gayda - Not a surprise to see her gone is Charlie Haas is being release. I hope they both like this as a wedding present from the WWE. Jackie was one of the co-winners of the 2nd Tough Enough. She did some good valet work with Rico and also with Charlie for a while. Again, not surprising.

Marty Jannetty - Marty didn't surprise me here either. They brought him in for the Angle / HBK build for WrestleMania and I was shocked when they kept him on contract. There is also news that he was arrested for some domestic incident, which the WWE does not take very well. It was nice to see the Rockers together one last(?) time.

Dawn Marie - Another shock to me here...anyone who talks to me about wrestling know that I felt that Dawn Marie, given time to shine, could become the Sherri Martel valet of this generation. She was the senior (experience wise) Diva on SmackDown and was always on the mark, be it in the ring or on the mic. I would hope that she wasn't let go due to being pregnant...if so, WWE better get their checkbook ready when the lawyers start calling...yet another big loss to SmackDown and the WWE as a whole.

Mark Jindrak - Just like Matt Morgan, I think he could have been something, but never got the chance to shine.

Maven - And with the release of Maven, the Tough Enough experiment is complete...leaving only Josh Matthews (the announcer) as the remaining TE person on WWE TV. It'll be interesting to see if Al Snow is released soon since he and TE went hand in hand.

Shannon Moore - I'm honestly surprised Shannon lasted as long as he did. After Matt Hardy was off TV, I was surprised they kept him around...nothing against him, but WWE has very littler patience for the mid card.

James Yun (Akio) - See Mark Jindrak, Matt Morgan. Another good mid-card talent that could have been something.

David Heath (Gangrel) - Gangrel was signed for the stuff with Undertaker and Randy Orton for WrestleMania. I chalk this up to the same level as the release of Marty Jannetty but without all the arrest stuff.

Billy Kidman - Another BIG surprise here....I always thought Kidman had a lock since his real life wife, Torrie Wilson, has been a staple of SmackDown for a while now. Again, this shows that no one is safe...it'll be interesting to see if they keep Torrie around much longer. They've had her in Playboy twice and they have made their money. AGAIN, I am not trying to be vicious towards these people, but with the Diva search and such, it is VERY obvious they are intent on bringing in more and more girls they can parade around half naked.

Spike Dudley - Another loss for the fans. Spike had been hurt for a while but was on the mend...obviously not fast enough for the WWE...

Kevin Fertig - Most people will know him as Mordecai, the character that was in the white cloak for a few weeks on SmackDown a while back when Eddie was the WWE Champ...happy days....sorry, I'm back now. I had heard good things about him from OVW, but I don't think we got to see that on TV...another missed opportunity.

So, after all that was announced, the front page of WWE.Com has freaking BROCK "THE CROCK" LESNAR on there that he wants to come back. You have GOT to be KIDDING me! Mr. "I'm too big for the WWE" and "I want to play football" is now coming back with his tail between his legs after getting a nice dose of reality. I tell you right now, if he comes back, he will be the champ on either show in a second. There is some history between him and Cena (recall the reason Cena's finisher is the FU is a knock and Lesnar's version of the F5) and WWE loves to have their big man vs. big man matches even though the crowd falls asleep. Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

I have to imagine it's bad enough to be cut, especially some of these folks that have been with the WWE for a while, but then to see that they are cutting you, a loyal employee, to bring back Mr. "I carry logs cause that's what my head is made out of...har har har". I'm going to finish this post off...I could sit here all day but then it would never get posted.

WWE Draft Results, Trades, 7/4 Raw

2005-07-05T12:13:00.000-05:00

A lot to cover in this post, so I'm getting right to it. My draft picks last week were:

Raw gets Eddie Guerrero & Rob Van Dam - Raw got The Big Show and Rob Van Dam. I got one! RVD was the guest on the Cabana last week and seems to be setting up for a feud with Carlito. The Big Show was a surprise since he was in the SmackDown title hunt. More on that next...

SmackDown gets Chris Jericho & Triple H - SmackDown got Christian & Batista. A double surprise here, Christian takes the place of The Big Show in the six man match. He had to be TIRED since he was in the match at the end of Raw (they taped both Raw and SmackDown at the same place on the same night back to back last week). After JBL won the six man match we found out Batista is on SmackDown with the Heavyweight Title. I found it interesting that this was not mentioned at all this week on Raw.

With that, the draft is over. With the trade that took place last week, the moves look like this:

Key -
1-5 = Draft Picks
T = Via Trade

Raw
1 - John Cena (WWE Champion)
2 - Kurt Angle
3 - Carlito
4 - The Big Show
5 - Rob Van Dam
T - Mark Jindrak
T - Rene Dupree
T - Danny Basham
T - Kenzo Suzuki (with Hiroko)
T - Chavo Guerrero

SmackDown
1 - Chris Benoit
2 - Randy Orton
3 - Muhammed Hassan
4 - Christian
5 - Batista (World Heavyweight Champion)
T - William Regal
T - Candice Michelle
T - Sylvain Grenier
T - Simon Dean
T - Steven Richards

The big thing this week on Raw, in my opinion, was Shawn Michaels turning on Hulk Hogan at the end of the show. I didn't see this one coming at all. Michaels was dancing around the ring as he usually does right up to the kick. Amazing stuff...the crowd went dead silent for a second or two and then the boos started. Nice job by Shawn, Hogan, and WWE to make that work perfectly.

Have a great, short week everyone.

WWE Vengeance Results & Draft Picks

2005-06-27T02:35:00.000-05:00

Time to see how my Vengeance picks turned out:

Match 1 - Intercontinental Championship - Carlito(c) vs. Shelton Benjamin - I picked the opener, the same as I did WrestleMania, which is something. I also got the winner right. Carlito took advantage of Shelton still suffering from the fall he took on Monday and when Shelton went for the Stinger Splash in the corner, Carlito moved and he hit the exposed turnbuckle. Carlito then went for the pin. 1/1

Backstage - Triple H and Ric Flair arrive for the title match tonight. Triple H looks like he raided Brother Love's closet with the white suit and red shirt...

Match 2 - Victoria vs. Christy Hemme - Not the match I would have put next, but here it is. As always, I think Christy, while a pretty girl, should NOT be wrestling. She was not hired to wrestle. Look at Stacy; she is very pretty, but she knows she is not a wrestler. Christy is not a wrestler and should be a valet or manager or something like that, not wrestling a multi-time champ in Victoria and giving her enough trouble that Victoria had to use the ropes for the pin. No sign of Trish, sadly. 2/2

Backstage - An interview with John Cena regarding his match tonight. Nothing special, but good buildup for the match and some extra WWE Fantasy League points for me.

Match 3 - Kane vs. Edge - A pretty decent bout with some back and forth action. Kane surprisingly gets the win after overcoming interference from Snitsky and Lita. Good to see Kane come out on top finally. 2/3

Backstage - Shawn Michaels says vengeance will be his tonight and I agree...

Match 4 - Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - I'm surprised this is so low on the card, nice to see the WWE and World title both get the highest spots. Another excellent bout from these two, but I give the edge to their WrestleMania bout. Michaels wins with TWO superkicks, one of these being from when Kurt comes off the top rope (what aerial offense does Kurt have again?). I would wager we see the rubber match to break the tie and SummerSlam. 3/4

Backstage - Batista is being interviewed by the Coach. Coach says that Batista was lucky to be champ due to the bad officiating at Backlash. Batista does the same speech they did at the contract signing (going to hell...etc...etc). Triple H shows up and they have a stare down and have to be separated by security.

In Ring - Lilian Garcia comes to the ring looking beautiful as always. She has to be one, if not the, most elegant diva on WWE TV right now. She calls Viscera down to the ring and sings for him. She then gets down on one knee and proposes to him. GODFATHER’S music hits (you read that right) and comes down with some ho's. Godfather asks Vis if he is going to be happy with just one woman or if he wants to ride the "HOOOO TRAIN!". Vis looks over the ladies and lets us know his decision by saying "All aboard the HOOOO TRAIN!". He leaves with the Godfather and the ho's. Lilian is left in the ring crying. I have to again give her credit, she was really crying. Interesting end to this angle. This could be setting up for Lilian and Trish to get together and get revenge on Vis maybe...

Match 5 - WWE Championship - Triple Threat Match - John Cena(c) vs. Christian vs. Chris Jericho - In a great match, John Cena retained the WWE Championship via a FU on Christian. This was a great match and showed that Cena can work with faster guys. A lot of his matches with JBL were a bit slower based on JBL's style. It was nice to see him hang with Jericho and Christian. It's also always great to see two high caliber stars like Jericho and Christian go at it. Also, so much for my draft theory that had Christian showing up on SmackDown with the WWE Title... 3/5

Match 6 - World Heavyweight Championship- Hell in a Cell - Batista(c) vs. Triple H - To everyone's surprise that I was watching with, Batista defeated Triple H to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. This match was ok. Triple H had to carry Batista through most of it. It's sad when it seems Batista is out of steam 5-10 minutes into a match. Some decent spots in the match, but nothing special with the cell. This match could have been without the cell and have done as well. One nice spot was the spinbuster by Batista to Triple H on the lower part of the stairs. The end saw Batista go for a Batista-bomb and Triple H had the sledgehammer to hit him in the head, but Batista hit the bomb faster than Triple H could swing. A surprise ending for sure. 3/6

Final score - 3/6 or 50% - Not too bad, a little lower than my WrestleMania score, but with fewer matches, it's to be expected.

Now, for my draft picks:

Raw gets Charlie Haas - Raw got Carlito and he won the Intercontinental Title. Not a bad addition to Raw, as they needed a decent mid-card heel.

SmackDown gets The Rock - I knew I would be WAY off on this. SmackDown got Muhammad Hassan & Daivari. I assume they come as a package deal. He didn't make too many friends right away on SmackDown. He verbally ran down JBL, Booker T, Chris Benoit, and the Big Show. He did pick up a win over Big Show, but with the help of Matt Morgan.

This week, each show gets two picks, which makes for a lot of possibilities.

Raw gets Eddie Guerrero & Rob Van Dam - After losing to Rey again last week, I don't think there is anything left for Eddie to do on SmackDown and he can go after Batista. RVD is a pick from a few weeks ago that I still expect to happen, even if it's after the draft.

SmackDown gets Chris Jericho & Triple H - People will most likely think I am nuts for saying that Triple H will go to SmackDown and I doubt it myself, BUT he did say that the Hell in a Cell match would end the feud between him and Batista...so now what does Triple H do? Jericho is more of a sure bet since now Raw has both his Highlight Reel and Carlito's Cabana. The Highlight Reel and the extremely expensive Jeritron 5000 will find a good home on SmackDown.

This week will bring us a lot; including a new champ on SmackDown...my pick is either JBL or Booker T.

Take care all.

GrzeTim Books... - WWE Vengeance

2005-06-26T13:48:00.000-05:00

I'm cutting it a bit close here with this one seeing as Vengeance is about five or so hours away, but here I am. I'm reserving making my draft picks until after the PPV. When the WWE announced the draft, they said the last week would have two picks per show. They haven't mentioned that since, so I want to wait and see if they are still going with that or if they are staying with one each. Then, I will make my picks.

To the PPV:

Intercontinental Championship - Carlito(c) vs. Shelton Benjamin - I could see them opening with this one. Carlito has really gotten to be a great heel so he can get the crowd fired up. I don't see Shelton getting the title back here. There are way too many guys Carlito can feud with.
Winner - Carlito wins with a handful of tights or the ropes as he did on Monday.

Kane vs. Edge - This one is a hard call. There have been so many rumors and whispers about all the Matt Hardy / Lita / Edge stuff being a script to get the fans into it, but I doubt it.
Winner - Edge with some help from Lita.

Victoria vs. Christy Hemme - In my opinion, the only reason for this match is the return of Trish Stratus. She's going to interfere to cost Christy the match.
Winner - Victoria via the Widow's Peak after Trish attacks or distracts Christy.

WWE Championship - Triple Threat Match - John Cena(c) vs. Christian vs. Chris Jericho - This should be a good one. It's always good to see Jericho and Christian mix it up and adding Cena will keep the crowd live and into it.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion - Christian. This ties into my draft theories, which I will post tomorrow if this comes true...

Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - This is, again, going to be a classic and match of the year candidate. I see Michaels taking this one to make it all tied at 1-1 and we'll have the rubber match at SummerSlam.
Winner - Shawn Michaels via a superkick out of a reversed Angle Slam or Ankle Lock.

World Heavyweight Championship- Hell in a Cell - Batista(c) vs. Triple H - This will be a mess in the sense that they will both be bloody and beaten to a pulp. I see Triple H coming out on top of this since he has not lost a Cell match before. With the draft, there are some new challengers for him to face.
Winner - Triple H via Pedigree on the Cell or on the floor.

Check back tomorrow to see how I did and enjoy the PPV.

Batman Begins, WWE Draft, and more...

2005-06-20T13:43:00.000-05:00

Greetings True Believers,

We'll get started with the draft results from this past week in the WWE:

Raw gets Rob Van Dam - Turns out I was right but a week too soon. This past week, Kurt Angle made the jump to Raw. In the last 10 minutes of Raw, two matches for Kurt's first week on Raw were made. Tonight, he fights Batista in what I assume will be a non-title match and a nice opportunity for Triple H to beat down Batista before the PPV this Sunday.

SmackDown gets Shawn Michaels - In a surprise and not a surprise at the same time, SmackDown gets Randy Orton. If I had seen that Undertaker was back on the roster, I would have picked Orton in a second. Thus continues the feud from Wrestlemania.

This week is tough, I have to get at least one right, don't I?

Raw gets Charlie Haas - I'm having a hard time making a pick for SmackDown this week. I don't know what they'll do since Raw has a PPV this weekend and they won’t want the draft pick to overshadow that. I think moving Haas would be a great thing. Beyond all the people for him to work with, it puts all three members of Team Angle back on the same show and makes for the opportunity for feuds or reunions.

SmackDown gets The Rock - I am most likely 110% off on this, but Rock is still listed on the Raw roster, and I think this would be a big boon to SmackDown. Also, that's the Rock's show remember?

I saw Batman Begins over the weekend. All I have to say is see this movie NOW. This is how Batman should be. I did like the first two original Batman flicks, but this is nice and dark and part of it was filmed here in Chicago, so you can't beat it.

Well, since I'm at work, I better get back to...you know...work.

Be excellent to each other (what is with me and the 80s refs today?).

Mr. & Mrs. Smith, ECW, WWE Draft Pics...

2005-06-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

A busy week here, so let's get to it.

I saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Friday. This is classic summer cinema...fun and just long enough. The beginning is a bit slow, but once it gets rolling, it's a fun little ride. This week, Batman Begins opens and I can't wait.

Now to WWE business, my draft predictions from last week were way off:

Raw gets Kurt Angle - In a shocker Raw gets John Cena and the WWE Title. This is an interesting choice since it leaves SmackDown without a heavyweight champ. Tonight, Cena has his first match ever on Raw.

SmackDown gets Tajiri or Christy Hemme - After being off the show for over a year, Chris Benoit was back on SmackDown. Part of this was to get Benoit on both shows to play into the ECW angle. Benoit left SmackDown after winning the Royal Rumble in 2004 to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 20.

For this week, I'm going with:

Raw gets Rob Van Dam - I see this as a good move. Get RVD on the show where he can continue his "no storyline" storyline.

SmackDown gets Shawn Michaels - I think this is a good move; there are a lot of folks on SmackDown who could use a good feud with a face like Michaels.

I saw the ECW PPV last night, and while it wasn't the worst thing I have ever seen by far, it wasn't the "A+ - Best PPV Ever - Cure For Cancer" that people are saying it was. IN most reviews, it seems that the "best match of the night" was the Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka match. I honestly don't think two men almost killing each other is a classic match when Benoit and Eddie have a match and it gets boring chants. "ECW fans aren't bloodthirsty and love mat wrestling"...right.

I think a lot of this comes from who I watched the PPV with. My family is VERY pro-WWF/E. They have watch WWE, and only WWE. They only saw one WCW PPV that we taped for an uncle and they never saw a lick of ECW beyond the little bit we've gotten on WWE TV. As fans of WWE, they order the ECW show only for the WWE stars they knew, who were then beaten down in a rather lame brawl at the end. While the ECW PPV made a lot of the Internet loyal happy, I don't know what it did for the majority of the fans that are not "Internet marks".

I realize that these are harsh words, but I hope that this was ECW's "blaze of glory" because it burned a great deal of WWE loyal fans.

Have a good week.

Back From The Dead...Again

2005-06-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

At least I am consistent in my inconsistency to update this blog. I do for a month or so, then disappear for a few, then come back, etc, etc, etc. I hope that this time (yes THIS time) to stick with it more.

I saw Star Wars on opening weekend and all I have to say is if you ever liked Star Wars or ever saw a Star Wars film, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. It's good for even the casual Star Wars fan. This film sparks a whole new set of Star Wars debates and answers some questions that fans never thought would be answered:

1. Why is the Emperor all disfigured?
2. Why do the Jedi fight like they're in the Matrix in the prequels but Luke and Vader duel like old men?
3. What did happen to Luke and Leia's mother (Padme)?
4. Why is Yoda seem to have a hard time moving in Empire Strikes Back but kicked the hell out of Count Dooku in AOTC?
5. What happened to Darth Vader that he is confined to his suit and chamber?

This and more is answered in Revenge of the Sith...an interesting title that friends of mine know I called long before they announced it. The original title of Return of the Jedi was Revenge of the Jedi, but Lucas changed it late in production since revenge is not a Jedi trait. There is actually a teaser out there for the film with the name Revenge of the Jedi. It's hard to find, but cool to watch.

Also tonight starts the draft lottery in the WWE. For those not into the storyline, each week for the whole month of June, each show will get one random pick off the others with the last week offering two picks to each show. NO ONE is immune. I will try and post my picks for each week. For this week:

Raw gets Kurt Angle - It'll sting Booker when he can't get his hands on Kurt anymore since he is on Raw. I would expect to see Booker POSSIBLE come to Raw at the end of the month either via a trade or the last pick on the last week.

SmackDown gets Tajiri or Christy Hemme - If it's Tajiri, it'll add more to the Cruiserweight division, which has been hurting. With a new Diva Search starting, unless they are going to do the obvious old winner vs new winner storyline, Christy has done all she can on Raw and moving her to SmackDown would allow her to feud with one of the most consistent non-wrestling Divas - Dawn Marie. I call it here, in 10-15 years, Dawn Marie's will be spoken of in the same light as Sheri Martel. Just you watch...

Well, since I'm at work, I should get back to work...enjoy Raw or whatever else you do on Monday Night.

WWE - Rhyno and Matt Hardy Released

2005-04-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is truly a shame. I had read a bit about Rhyno and something having gone down over WrestleMania weekend, but I try not to read about or get into the wrestler's personal lives. It's their business and they should have their lives. My best wishes to Rhyno.

HOWEVER, the Matt situation is a different ball of wax. Again, I don't like discussing personal lives, but it plays into this. If you follow any wrestling news, you know it came out recently that Lita was cheating on Matt with Edge. I guess we see who the WWE has sided with on this one. Edge is a great worker and I like watching him on TV, but it was like sticking a knife in Matt's back with this. I assume when you travel with folks for years and years you at least get to be acquaintances, if not friends. While Lita should have had the guts to tell Matt to his face if things were not working and they should both move on, Edge didn't help the situation. Matt was most likely let go so there wouldn't be "an issue" in the back. I hope she's happy. I also hope that fans of the Hardy Boys will turn on her now. Last word on this; (open sarcasm) it's nice to see that the WWE has their priorities straight: they let two good workers go and keep on the semi-talented female wrestler. Lita is just lucky she didn't do Playboy yet...cause I bet she would have been dumped too if they still couldn't make a mint on her posing nude. (close sarcasm).

I'll be attending the SmackDown taping here in Chicago on the 12th. We already know two matches for it:

- Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle in the WWE Championship Number One Contender's Tournament

- John Cena & The Big Show vs. JBL & Orlando Jordan (I assume this the "house crowd" match)

For those out of the wrestling loop, a "house crowd" match is the match they do after the live show or taping for the live crowd so they have something special for coming to the show. I'll try to have a non-spoiler match list up on Wednesday. If not, have a good week.

GrzeTim Books... - Wrestlemaina XXI

2005-04-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

Well, time to see how I did:

Match 1 - Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - I called the opener, so that's something...Rey won with a quick huricanrana rollup for the win. A good match, but not a good way to start my booking career - 0 / 1

Match 2 - Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, still in my order. Edge wins after knocking Chris Benoit off the ladder with a chair shot. An excellent match and it gets be back on track - 1 /2

In Ring - Eugene comes down and is talking about WrestleMaina. Hassan and Daivari come down and beat him down. Out comes HULK HOGAN for the save. Hulk is one of those guys I never thought I'd see wrestle live twice here in Chicago once I was old enough to go to the live shows. Hulk clears the ring and poses for the crowd. Good times.

Match 3 - Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - I blew the order on this one. Undertaker wins after reversing Orton out of an attempted Tombstone into one of his own - 2/3

Match 4 - Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - This match, in my opinion, was too close with Trish selling too much for Christy. Trish gets the win after a Chick Kick. Trish gets even more heat back the next night on Raw by dropping Christy and Lita again. More good times - 3/4

Match 5 - Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - Kurt wins via tap out with the Ankle Lock? WOW. An excellent match and most likely a shoe-in for Match of the Year - 4/5

Piper's Pit - The normal stuff from Piper and Austin. I LOVED Piper ribbing the crowd for the "WHAT?" chats. Carlito makes the mistake of coming down and gets a thumb to the eye and a stunner for his trouble. Austin and Piper then break out the beer. Piper gets a stunner as well.

Match 5 - Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - They took the ropes off for this one. Akebono wins with a ring out. Show did rather well and even lifted Akebono of his feet at a point. Sadly, the image of Big Show in that outfit will be burned into my eyes for all time. 4/6 (Marked as a loss for me, I made no prediction)

Match 6 - WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Cena wins CLEAN with an FU after ducking JBL's Clothesline From Hell. Not the best match, but gets the job done. New champ on SmackDown and they come here to Chicago in a few weeks, woo hoo! - 5/7

In Ring - Hall of Fame Class of 2005

Match 7 - World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - Batista wins with a spine buster and a Batista-bomb. Triple H was in control till he hit the post after a Batista slingshot on the outside. For the 2nd year in a row, both show's champs are faces leaving WM (Benoit on Raw and Eddie on SmackDown). - 5/8

Final score - 5/8 or 63% - Not bad for my first attempt at booking. Check back later in the month for my Backlash predictions and in a few weeks for my review of the SmackDown taping here from Chicago.

I also hope to have some more movie reviews and general posts. Keep your eyes open.

Take care.

WrestleMaina Weekend

2005-04-01T11:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, it's that time of year again...WrestleMania! The card is actually shaping up to be good. So, I'll start my new item with "the grand-daddy of em all" WrestleMaina. GrzeTim Books...WrestleMania 21 - WrestleMaina Goes Hollywood - Sunday, April 3, 2005

- Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - There are a few matches on the card that can fit the "1st Match". I would guess it will either be this or the Women's Title...but I would hope they save the titles for higher in the card. Eddie and Rey have had a few good matches on SmackDown over the past few weeks...and I expect the same here. If given 15-25 minutes, these two could be one of the many matches to steal the show. This is also one of the matches that can have a nasty swerve in it...either man could turn heel and throw the crowd for a loop. Winner - Eddie Guerrero via a rollup with a handful of tights out of a reversed Rey move.

- Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, I would like this to be higher in the card, but the titles SHOULD be the top billing. This match can go a lot of different ways and can be a sign of how the Raw title match is going to go. The piece of this that makes it hard to call is the fact that the contract is valid for a year, which means they could have a heel win and keep the belt on Triple H and have a machine 6 months down the line based off this contract. Just DO NOT use the title match within the next two weeks...that will destroy the whole thing. This is a tough call...Winner - Edge

- Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - This is one of the many matches on the card that the WWE has done a WONDERFUL job to promote. It's like an old-school feud that was going for months and months and is going to be settled at the PPV. I know, regardless of how this comes out, one or the other will move shows and continue the feud, but just to see these two rip it up for 25+ minutes (I hope) will be worth it. So many hard picks in this...Winner - Kurt Angle via a rollup reversal and some help from the ropes.

- Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - I wasn't sure what they were going for with this till I saw Akebono "wrestle" on Thursday's SmackDown. I don't know if they are going to have them really sumo or if they are going to have a planned ending. This match scares me and reminds me of when they had Butterbean fight Bart Gunn in a boxing match. After Bart Gunn had beat the tar out of many WWE stars in boxing matches, Butterbean knocked him out with a few punches. Not surprising, Bart Gunn disappeared soon after. Big Show is toted by WWE as "the biggest athlete in the world". If Akebono defeats him, it could take a lot of air out of Big Show's sails. Winner - Depends on if it's a real sumo match

- Piper's Pit - This should get interesting...both Steve Austin and Roddy Piper are "colorful" characters to say the least and neither wants to be made a fool of. What I see happening here is that Austin and Piper will go back and forth on the mics and when it's about to come to blows, Hassan will come out and jabber on about how he isn't on the card, but these two "has beens" are. For his efforts, he'll get smacked by Piper and a Stunner from Austin. Austin and Piper will then partake in the beer and the fans will be cheering. What a wonderful world...

- Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - Now, I have no problem with the WWE hiring women who are, for lack of a better term, eye candy. After all these years, we still get a "we want puppies" chat during a women's match. I recall when they did the Diva Search, they turned women away cause while they were nice looking, they and a more developed wrestling background and "we aren't looking for wrestlers in this contest". Then, six months later, they turn around and put Christy, a minimally trained wrestler who had her first "match" just a few weeks ago in a six-person tag, against the Women's Champ at the biggest show of the year. I have to cry foul. They had a decent Women's Division a while ago with Trish, Victoria, Lita, Jazz, Molly, Gail Kim, and Ivory. It seems that Ivory is going to do commentary now, which is a shame since she was a great wrestler. They let Jazz and Gail go. Lita is hurt AGAIN. So, we're down to Trish, Molly, and Victoria. So, what do we do? We squash Victoria and have a NON-wrestler dodge her finisher and pin her CLEAN. To quote a famous movie "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!". As I said before, I have no issue with the non-wrestling ladies of the WWE. They have a place in the show, but it is NOT this high on the WrestleMania card facing the Women's Champ. If they put that belt on Christy, not only is it a slap in the face to all the other women wrestlers in the company, it's a slap in the face to the fans. Trish has busted her butt to make the Women's Division mean something again; it would be a shame to have this happen. Winner - Trish Stratus via royal beatdown of Christy (I hope)

- Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - Another match that has been built up rather well. The most interesting part of this feud was how the crowd reaction has changed for Orton. From the moment he challenged Undertaker, the crowd has turned on him a little more and a little more. The straw that broke the camel's back was when he gave Stacy the RKO. Instant heel, just add water. I have also loved how he (not the character, the man) has reacted to the fans turning on him. You can see he expected the fans to at least split as they did with Hogan vs. Rock. I had said to a few people on Tuesday that if Orton showed up and laid Taker out with an RKO and Taker did not sit up right out of it, that Orton didn't have a shot in hell. Well, that's what happened. I see a decent match with some type of setup for Orton to go out for the shoulder work he needs done. Winner - Undertaker (13-0) via the Tombstone

- WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Yet another match with good buildup. The fact that they couldn't touch each other over the past few weeks will make seeing them lock up even more exciting. They had some great steam going after last week, but the lame, recycled arrest angle took some of the fire out of this one. I'd look to see the Bashams and/or Orlando Jordan get involved and maybe even be the reason JBL loses the title. Winner - John Cena via FU

- World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - This feud has been building for a while and while most people would expect it to hit its peak here, I don't think it will. First off, the events of the contract signing were many weeks ago and after that, this got slow. I think they ran out of things to do over the past few weeks. Also, the placement of this match is one I question. While I feel that the title match with the winner of the Rumble SHOULD be the top match (thus the Main Event) my prediction contradicts the "send them home happy" idea. Winner - Triple H via Pedigree - My logic on this is that I expect Batista to somehow get a rematch for Backlash, where he will win the title.

I didn't pick an easy PPV to start with, but hopefully I'll set the tone here. Come back Monday for my breakdown of the events of the PPV and to see how I did.

So Much Time - So Few Posts

2005-02-16T15:50:00.000-06:00

Well,

Once again I lack in the posting department...such is the "busy" life.

I've been playing MechAssault 2 a bit lately. It's a lot of fun...I just wish I had started playing the 1st one a bit before I got this one. Going from the run and gun in Halo 2 to the slower pace in Mech 2 is a bit hard at first...for people who try it once and get wasted, don't give up. Also, I don't mind people kicking my butt...at least it's other gamers who might be better than I am versus a computer who can tell what I'm doing and where I'm going.

If you play MechAssault, or anything on X-Box Live for that matter, give me a buddy request. My name on there is "GrzeTim" (big shock, huh?). I'm not the best gamer in the world, but I wont run from a fight and I'm pretty decent with the VTOL in Mech 2. (What's a VTOL you say? Read up on it here: http://www.mechassault2.com/ma2/tactics/vehicles/ and scroll to the bottom).

It's about time for the spring and summer movies to come out. Many goodies coming soon, including (I know I'll miss something...):

February 18th -
Constantine

March 4th -
Be Cool

March 18th -
The Ring Two

April 1st -
Sin City
The Weather Man

May 19th (Happy Birthday Kathy) -
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

June 17th -
Batman Begins

June 29th -
War of the Worlds

July 8th -
Fantastic Four

August 5th -
Doom

What can I say? I'm a nerd :)

Trillian

2005-01-31T13:00:00.000-06:00

Ok,

Does anyone know anything about this program Trillian? I've started using it this weekend and I like it. I only have one question...how do you turn off your away message? I figured out how to set myself back as available using the little lights on the menu, but at the top it still says GrzeTim with my away message below it...so I think it still assumes I'm away and my notifications don't show up and my sounds won’t play. I ended up changing the setting on it that makes the sound mute when I'm away, but I don't want that to be the final solution. Any help would be great.

Also, does anyone know if putting the %n for name and the %t for time in an away message in there actually works? When I was messing with it, no one I knew was online (yes, I lead a sad online life).

Still, a very cool program that eliminated the mess my screen was with AIM and MSN Messenger both running at the same time.

MMORPG

2004-12-10T15:00:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's just me...but it seems more and more of the universes I like are moving to MMORPGs. For those of you who don't know what that means...a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (or MMORPG) is where you purchase a game for $40-50 and install it. Then, depending on the title, you get 30-60 days of free play in a massive world that could take years to explore fully. This sounds great, but then after the 30-60 days, you have to start paying $10-20 a month to keep going.

First off, before people start flaming me, I realize that the fees are to maintain the servers and to pay the people who maintain them both in the physical and content sense. While the prospect of this ever changing world sounds great to the gamer in me, the cost is the key. Mostly, I would have to say, my problem is the sour I've had in the past. The only game that I've tried to be involved with from a community standpoint is Diablo II. For a short while, it was great online...then all you get is people who seem to fall into a few categories:

1. Begging - They stand in town and spam messages to the whole game asking for gold / runes / weapons / protection / quest items / etc / etc.

2. Player Killers - I think this one needs no explanation. I know some people enjoy dueling, but when I'm questing I don't want to be killed by a sneak.

3. Duping, Mods, etc - This is what killed Diablo II. People hacking or modding the game to make super weapons or characters or to copy one good weapon 50 times.

Some people might call me a whiner or a loser cause of these complaints, but it made the online portion of Diablo II hard to swallow. They created a ladder system to stop some of this. It is supposed to stop people from hacking but they've already reset the ladder once due to dupped weapons. While I would be upset at a character on there being erased when he is free...what happens when I get deleted in the game I pay $15+ a month for cause I found something or got something that was "bad" and I was deleted. Then would they be giving me back my money? Nope. Also, there is no way to try before you buy. Say I pay $50 and I hate it. Ok. I stop it so it doesn't charge again. I'm still down the $50+ for the game and the month. Then what do I do with it?

Again, I sound like a whiner, but it's not right that the latest Matrix and Warcraft games are MMORPGs. If I want to know what happens next in either world, I would have to play them. I wouldn't have minded if they were stand alone games and I would have bought them. But MMORPGs are a new breed and without the ability to try one without losing a fair amount of money, it's hard to adopt.

Sadly, it seems more and more games are going this route (Final Fantasy, Warcraft, Matrix). So, it seems, I'm being left behind since I can't devote 20+ hours a week to gameplay.

Star Wars Bashing

2004-11-16T12:49:00.000-06:00

Most people who know me know I'm a rather rabid Star Wars fan. While I know I'm not as big a fan as the folks who go to all the conventions and such, I do feel I can stand up as a life long fan. Over the past few years, there has been a TON of flak about the Star Wars prequels. A lot of folks are taking pot shots at the movies.

I go on record right now in saying neither of the new movies are better than the original three. I like Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Are they good, sci-fi / fantasy movies? Yes. Are they right in line with the type of movies Lucas set out to make? Yes. Are they as good (or better) than Episodes IV-VI? No. While Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are great films, they still rank at the bottom of my favorite SW films. Why is this? Is it the acting, the effects, the story? No, not at all. I didn't see a problem with the acting. This is sci-fi, people, not Shakespearian theatre. You want deep acting; go see Cold Mountain or something else down the hall. The effects are EXCELLENT. Giving someone with an imagination like George Lucas CG is like giving a kid the weekend in a candy store. Are there some parts that looked "odd"? Yes. Did some things get WAY too much focus? Yes. Does this detract from the fact that we are getting to see what we NEVER thought we would see; the story of how a sweet boy who "knows nothing of greed" turns into the most evil being in the galaxy? Not at all.

That leads me to the story. I have been rather happy with how things have moved in the new films. I'm ready to see how Palpatine is going to turn the clones from the Republic's army to his own personal force. I'm ready to see the huge space battle that's in the teaser (harkening back to ROTJ). Lastly, I am READY to see Anakin and Obi-Wan have their duel. This duel has been the thing of myth. How was Anakin hurt to have to wear the Vader armor? With how good both of them have gotten with the lightsaber duels, this proves to be something special. Also, if you watch close at the end of the trailer...Palpatine has a lightsaber. My one hope; The Emperor vs. Yoda :)

Vader and the Emperor keep telling us that we underestimate the power of the Dark Side. Well, it's time to show us. It's time to pull back the nay sayers and the strays. Revenge of the Sith needs to be dark. It needs to be evil. It needs to bleed the Dark Side; and it MUST BE PG-13. To heck with the little kiddies. This film should seep from the seams with evil. Give us what we want. Give in...

Now that I have sealed my "nerd-dom" forever, I have to get back to work.

New Post?

2004-11-10T16:49:00.000-06:00

Yep,

After a long, long time away, I'm back. (Pause for applause...3...2...1). Thank you.

It's hard to believe it's been over two months since I posted to the blog. Kind of sad in a way. I started off doing this and was all excited to have a space on the web again. Then work started kicking my butt (which is still is...) and other parts of my life started to demand more attention. Before you know it, two months have gone by.

The biggest thing to happen is the decision to move. Yes, I have left my apartment and moved into a condo in Glenview. It's a nice, two bedroom place that Kathy is already in. I get the 2nd bedroom. The best and worst part will be living with someone again. There are days at my apartment that I am happy I close the door and it's just me there. Other days, I yearn for company badly. Regardless, I'm looking forward to this and I will make it work.

The other big thing that happened this week is the release of Halo 2. It seems as if 10 years have passed since they announced the game and now it's here. If you have an X-Box and have, or are planning on getting the game, feel free to add me to your Friends List; "GrzeTim". Also add "Butcher" to your list. Butcher is a guy I work with who is pretty good too. Butcher and I have laid waste to people in LAN games on Halo in the past. Can't wait to get even more matches and fun going with Halo 2. I've already tried a few games online and the campaign is outstanding. Another excellent game from Bungie. I'm beginning to look at them like I look at Blizzard (the company that makes Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo). If they only bring out a game or two every few years, I wouldn't be upset. The quality of the one or two they make is worth 10 "cookie cutter" games.

Now, the countdown to MechAssault 2 starts. It comes out right after Christmas and then I'll be hard-pressed to choose; MP Halo 2 or MP Mech 2. Life is full of hard choices, isn't it? :)

Hopefully months won’t pass between my posts again.

AvP

2004-08-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

Don't believe the critics on this one. AvP had me worried, I have to admit, but after seeing it on Saturday night I can tell you this one is NOT the dog people predicted. For me, as a big fan of both franchises, this movie would have had to have been terrible for me to say bad things about it, but it turned out to be better than expected. Even my girlfriend, who was nice enough to go with me, liked it AND she isn't a big fan of either series. So, if you like the Alien or Predator movies SEE THIS FILM. Sadly, this movie will suffer like a lot of cult films do; good 1st week draw and then it'll drop. My only hope is that there isn't really a lot of new Sci-Fi coming out this week, so it might benefit from that.

Up next? Resident Evil - Apocalypse. :)

WWE Raw 8-9-2004

2004-08-10T11:32:00.000-05:00

Raw was pretty good this week save for a few glaring things.

The Diva Search is getting on my nerves big time now. It is sad how this is taking all the current ladies on Raw off and either putting them on Heat or off the air all together, however, the idea for the dodge ball game is a GREAT idea. It will be: Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, Gail Kim, Jazz, Victoria, Nidia, and Stacey vs. The 7 Diva Finalist in Diva Dodgeball. My only hope here is this is some payoff for the fans to see the real Divas wipe the floor with these wannabes. If the WWE feeds their current ladies to these rejects from a wet t-shirt contest, they are out of their minds.

I love the stuff with Eugene / Triple H / William Regal. A lot of people didn't know about the history between Regal and Triple H and it helped to make this more heated. This story has brought the old, vile Triple H out and I LIKE IT. Triple H sends another message to Eugene by beating Regal for the 2nd week in a row. The match this Sunday should be something to see.

A lot of people have frowned on the Kane / Lita / Matt Hardy story arch, and I can see the reason why. We get the classic contract signing, with Matt beating down Kane after the deal is inked. Lita told Matt right before this that the baby is Kane's. This plays right into my idea, follow me here: This Sunday in the match, Matt has Kane beat. Lita comes down and is all excited; jumping up and down. Suddenly, she clutches her stomach and falls over in pain. Matt, concerned for Lita and the baby that isn't even his, starts to head to help her. As he is looking at Lita, Kane rises and defeats Matt. Lita "recovers" and looks on in shock. Kane starts up the ramp, laughing all the way. Lita gets in the ring and start to console Matt. Suddenly, low blow, twist of fate by Lita. She laughs and runs up to Kane and they leave together. It was all a game; the stalking, the deal, even the child, it's all been lies to get back at Matt for what he did to Lita when she came back (recall he dumped her). Comments?

Outstanding match from Edge and Jericho. Too bad they couldn't have this match at SummerSlam...The announcers tried to convince us if the match is this good now, what will it be like when you add Batista. Don't get me wrong, I am starting to like Batista more and more now, but getting a three way to have the pace this match did will be a big challenge.

Rhyno & Tajiri and La Résistance continued their dance towards each other. Could we see a title match Sunday? Maybe, if there is time on the card (which is pretty full now).

Nice main event with Benoit taking on both Triple H and Orton (Eugene was back at the hotel with Regal after his beating). Benoit would hold his own for a while, but 3/4 of Evolution got the best of him. Eugene came down to make the save and we are treated to Eugene beating the tar out of Ric Flair and Orton as we fade to black.

A solid show, built to promote SummerSlam. Fingers crossed for this Sunday. SS is usually what sets the tone for the fall. Hope for good things.

Later peeps (a little Christian there for ya...God I miss Christian)

Where's GrzeTim?

2004-08-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Sorry for not being around as of late, but the world has been kicking my butt. I'm doing fine, but just busy, busy, busy. Due to that, I've come to a decision: no more full reviews. I'm going to just do notes and thoughts from the wrestling shows and try to do more non-wrestling related posts. So, no time like the present. I recently saw The Village. It was good and if you like M Night's work, you'll be happy, but there is one problem; if you're good at figuring out his movies, you'll have this one pegged by the midpoint. This still doesn't detract from the movie, but it kills the "shock" at the end. Still, I recommend it to anyone who cares for suspense movies. Excellent date movie.

On the other end of the world, I got Mega Man - Anniversary Collection for the GameCube. What can I say? Mega Man 1-8 and the two Japanese Arcade games as unlockables. This was a trip back for me. Mega Man 1 is still hard as hell and Mega Man 3 is still a masterpiece that Capcom should be proud of. The best part? Mega Man 7 and 8 that I never got to play (7 was hard to find and 8 was for the PlayStation, which I never had). Good times.

I order Madden 2005 for the X-Box yesterday. I'm taking a risk here; never tried a Madden game before, but I have ready SO MANY good things about the series. I have played NFL Fever 2003 and liked it, so Madden should be good for me.

Check back later this week for my SummerSlam predictions.

WWE SmackDown - 7-8-2004

2004-07-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

WWE SmackDown - Taped at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

The SmackDown review is back, late, but back! Tonight we'll have two titles on the line:

The Dudley Boys(c) vs. Billy Kidman & Paul London for the WWE Tag Team Titles
&
John Cena(c) vs. Booker T for the United States Title

We start off with our opening contest:

Match 1 - Rob Van Dam vs. Mark Jindrak - Rob Van Dam picks up the win with a split leg moonsault. Rene Dupree was ringside for commentary on this one. A good opening bout that got the crowd going early, and they would need it with some of the crap they are going to throw at us later. Interesting note that Theodore Long is no longer with Jindrak...hmmm...

Next we have a recap of JBL's celebration last week and his squash match with Spike Dudley. After the recap, we go to an interview with JBL. He states that he is going to defend his title this week as well. He also has a special opponent in mind; El Gran Luchadore, the champion of Mexico. Out comes El Gran Luchadore. He says a few works to JBL in Spanish and goes off. JBL offers to pay the masked man's medical bills after the match. Another good interview from JBL. I'll give them one thing, they have succeeded in making JBL into a great heel that the crowd HATES.

Match 2 - WWE Tag Team Championship - The Dudley Boys vs. Billy Kidman & Paul London - In a shocker, Billy Kidman hit the Shooting Star Press on Bubba to make Billy Kidman & Paul London the NEW WWE Tag Team Champions. I very solid match that saw Paul London finally come into his own. This match is EXACTLY how it should be done. Kidman & London started out early with some nice double team wrestling (did anyone else catch the double fist, very Rockers like). The tide then turned and the Dudleys got London isolated and pounded on him. The finish saw the Dudleys setup Kidman for the Wassup headbutt, but London pushed D'von off the top rope and Kidman reversed Bubba and London came off the top with the headbutt. Solid match, nice stuff, and CRUSIERWEIGHTS with a push! I'm a happy guy.

Backstage, Kidman & London are greeted by most of the faces in the locker room. As they make their way through the pack, they bump into the Dudleys, who look REALLY pissed. Finally, Bubba & D'von extend a hand to the new champs. Nice to see the Dudley's give the rub to the younger guys. I would guess at this point they are going to try and move the Dudley's away from Heyman (see later for more evidence).

Next we have an interview with Kenzo Suzuki. Very bland interview that seems to be setting him up to feud with John Cena. Am I the only one disappointed in this guy. I had read and heard good things, and he wrestles in super slow motion, even for the WWE. Ah well...

"So, you think you're untouchable..." John Cena hits the arena. He cuts a promo on Booker T and builds some hype for the title match later in the evening. Some nice stuff about Booker T being a Woopie Goldberg wannabe due to his dreadlocks. Then, Kenzo Suzki's music hits and he rushes the ring. Cena makes short work of the "Bronze Warrior" and tosses his out of the ring. While Cena is watching Suzki, Luther Reigns comes in and hits a variation on the Roll The Dice (swinging neckbreaker). He leaves Cena lying in the ring with the announcers wondering about Cena's condition for the title defense later tonight.

Match 3 - Champion vs. Champion - JBL vs. El Gran Luchadore - This match started out as a standard Bradshaw squash till El Gran Luchadore was tossed to the outside. Then, ANOTHER El Gran Luchadore came out from under the ring on the other side, tossed JBL out, placed a banana peel in the ring, and then went back under the ring. The ref found the peel and both he and JBL looked confused. While this was going on, the two El Gran Luchadores switch. JBL went out and got the new El Gran Luchadore and tossed him back in. Suddenly, El Gran Luchadore is fighting back...he knocks JBL down and starts to strut in a very familiar fashion. Then he hits the Three Amigos and goes for the Frog Splash. JBL wants none of it and gets out of the ring and heads for the back. El Gran Luchadore gets on the mic and informs us that he is good friends with Eddie Guerrero and next week, he is going to enjoy watching Eddie take JBL out in the steel cage. A nice segment, but it pretty much seals the fact that Eddie will lose next week.

Backstage, Josh Matthews interviews Booker T who says he is going to make Cena pay for what he said earlier and take the United States Title. He also feels it's a shame Cena got attacked earlier; now Cena has an excuse when he beats him.

In the locker room, Bubba & D'von confront Spike again and offer their help in his match tonight. Spike tells them he didn't want their help and advice when they were Tag Team Champions, why would he want it now.

Match 4 - Six Man Tag - Chavo Guerrero, Akio, and Jamie Noble vs. Spike Dudley, Scotty 2 Hotty,and Rey Mysterio - Jamie Noble wins it for his team when he hits Spike with his finisher, the Tiger Driver. VERY nice match with a lot of great crusierweight action. WWE?! DID YOU SEE HOW GOOD THIS WAS?! GIVE THEM MORE TIME TO SHINE!

Backstage, Josh Matthews catches up with Paul Heyman and asks how he feels about the Dudleys losing the Tag Team Titles. Heyman could care less about the Dudleys right now...he has the Undertaker to deal with. What he has to say, he has to say in the ring, and off he goes.

Paul Heyman enters the ring and reads a prepared statement to the Undertaker (yes, he had it written down, he even "lost his place" once, great stuff...). He says that he doesn't deserve what the Undertaker has in mind for him. It was Bubba & D'von's idea to do that to Paul Bearer, not Paul Heyman. He offers to return the Undertaker's property; the urn; in exchange for mercy. He knows Undertaker does what he says, but he asks him to "let this one slide.". Heyman leaves the urn and the letter in the ring and walks away...Taker never shows.

Match 5 - United States Championship - John Cena(c) vs. Booker T - Before the match could start, GM Kurt Angle and Luther Reigns came down to watch the match. Both men gave a solid effort. People say Cena isn't very good in the ring, but I disagree. Every week he works hard and entertains the crowd...last I checked, that's the job he has; sports entertainer. During the match, the action spilled to the outside in from of Angle and Reigns. Cena went to clothesline Booker and Booker ducked. Cena when right into Angle and knocked him out of the wheelchair. Reigns tried to attack Cena, but Cena got Angle's cane and attacked Reigns with it. Back in the ring, Cena goes for the F-U and hits it, but before he can cover Booker, Reigns hits the ring for the DQ. Angle calls Reigns off and tells him to get the US Title Belt. Angle says he warned Cena not to lay a hand on him or he would pay. Angle then STRIPS Cena of the US Title. The title is now vacant as we fade to black...

Review - A solid show that built off of the groundwork they have laid since the Great American Bash. I especially like the focus on the crusierweights (two of them won the Tag Titles!) and they got decent airtime. I hope it keeps up. I'm also looking forward to the cage match next week. The real question is the US Title. I can only see three paths here:

1. Angle sets up a tournament for the title that'll end at SummerSlam. He would, of course, stack the deck against Cena, but Cena would still get in. I don't think I'd put the belt back on him at SS, though.

2. Angle gets overturned by the Board of Directors and has to put the title back on Cena; along with an apology.

3. (NOT WHAT I WANT TO SEE) Angle puts the belt on a champ of his choosing. Sadly, this will either be Rene Dupree or Kenzo Suzuki. Kenzo said "Got Bless America" at the end of his promo, so that scares me. Dupree deserves a title run, but not one handed to him. I guess we'll have to wait and see for ourselves...

I'll hopefully have a Vengeance review up before or after Raw tonight, with a Raw review to follow.

Take care.

WWE Raw - 7-5-2004

2004-07-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

WWE Raw - Live from Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Welcome to this week's Raw Review. A happy 4th of July weekend to all my fellow US readers and a hello to any outside the US. We got a lot to cover, including the full card (as it stands now) for Vengeance this Sunday, so let's get to it:

We were promised a surprise by JR at the 7:45pm (central time) break in, and after the pyro, we see six chairs in the ring along with Tyson Tomko, the King, Tajiri, The Coach, and Stacy Keibler. Ric Flair's music hits and he makes his way down to the ring. Then the arena explodes as Chris Jericho makes his way to the ring. After all seven superstars are in the ring, Eugene, our acting GM for the night, comes out onto the stage. He reminds everyone that his Uncle Eric wont be here tonight but left him in charge (he's even got a sport coat on). He wants everyone to have fun tonight and asks the crowd if they want to see a title match. Of course they do, so Eugene books:

Match 1 - Tajiri vs. Tyson Tomko vs. Jerry Lawler vs. The Coach vs. Stacy Keibler vs. Ric Flair vs. Chris Jericho - Musical Chairs - Yes, you read that right, musical chairs. Eugene calls for the music to start and only Stacy is walking around the chairs. After a moment, the King starts to follow Stacy around the chairs. The music stops and they both take a seat. After a heartbeat, all the others dash for chairs. Tajiri is left standing and is eliminated. Coach finds this amusing and starts laughing at Tajiri and this buys him the green mist in the face. Pull one chair, and the music starts again. The other four superstars start around the chairs while Coach stumbles around the ring. When the music stops, everyone sits, including Coach who sits down right on the mat. Coach is eliminated. Pull another chair and the music starts again. When the music stops, everyone gets a seat but the King who sits on Stacy's lap, getting a cheer from the crowd. Pull another chair and hit the music. As they start around again, Ric Flair is doing his strut. As the music stops, he pushes Stacy down and she is left without a chair and is eliminated. The crowd boos till Stacy leaves the ring, and that makes them happy again. Down to three, another chair gone. Flair continues his strut in the next round, but gets too into it, loses track of the music, and is eliminated. We're down to two; Chris Jericho and Tyson Tomko. One chair left...they start around the chair and as the music stops Jericho pulls the chair out from under Tomko, nails him with it, and then sits down. Jericho wins the game of musical chairs.

Eugene declares Jericho the winner and announces tonight, in that very ring, it will be Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton with the Intercontinental Title on the line! Jericho plays to the crowd and throws a few armbands to the crowd.

Match 2 - Non Title - La Resistance vs. Rhyno & Val Venis - La Resistance picks up the win when they hit Val Venis with the Au Revoir. Interesting to see that a Canada crowd outside Quebec didn't take to La Resistance. Standard tag match here. It seems they are setting up for Rhyno to find a new tag partner...maybe for a debut at Vengeance this Sunday?

We cut to backstage where Randy Orton is complaining to Ric Flair and Batista about Triple H making Eugene a honorary member of Evolution last week. They are headed to Eugene's office because Orton doesn't feel it's fair he has to defend the Intercontinental Title tonight against Chris Jericho and then again Sunday at Vengeance against Edge. As they are walking, we see a sign behind them pointing towards Eugene's office. They stop, shocked at something off camera. We pan to see Eugene office; a moon jump (you know, those inflated things kids jump in at picnics?). Eugene sees Evolution and comes rolling (literally) out of his office. He is happy to see them and reminds them of how Triple H said now that Eugene is a member of Evolution, no one will hurt him. So, tonight, it'll be Batista vs. Kane. He also makes a match for Vengeance for the World Tag Team Championship...La Resistance will take on the team of Ric Flair and....Eugene gets distracted by his wrestling guys and starts to play. Flair gets upset and presses Eugene for an answer, who is his tag partner for Vengeance? Eugene! Eugene goes back into his office and it takes both Batista and Orton to keep Flair from killing Eugene.

Cut to the ring where Triple H is making his way to the ring. Triple H cuts a decent promo stating that on Sunday he's going to answer the age old question; God or Evolution when he beats Chris Benoit for the World Title. The "You Tapped Out" chants start and Triple H states that no man, woman, or god can stop him.

"You think you know me..." Edge comes out to interrupt The Game. Edge says that in the year he was out, he watched Evolution dominate Raw. In the time he's been back, not much has changed, but that is going to stop. He sends a message to Randy Orton that, regardless of if he beats Jericho tonight or not, at Vengeance he's his. He then tells "Hunter" to listen real close. The rest of them are going down too. One by one, they are all going to fall to Edge. Triple H just stares at Edge, he then takes off his jacket and tells Edge that all he said sounds great, but he's heard it all before from MANY guys; Foley, Austin, Michaels, Benoit; they all say the same thing. What makes Edge any different? Edge answers by lying right hands into Triple H. As Evolution comes down to make the save, Edge ducks out and over the rail. Orton tries to give chase, but gets a stiff right hand for it. Edge makes his way to the back through the crowd. In the ring, Triple H is irate, yelling after Edge.

Match 3 - Kane vs. Batista - This went to a no contest when Matt Hardy came down and rammed Kane into the steel stairs five to seven times.

After the match, Todd Grisham catches up with Matt Hardy and informs Matt (and us) that his match with Kane at Vengeance is now a no DQ match. Matt asks if Todd saw what he did to Kane out there and says it's just a sample of what awaits Kane. Brave words, but when you get Kane mad to this level, he will snap you in two. Todd tries to ask some questions about Lita, but Matt will not answer them. The Intercontinental Title is on the line next!

Match 4 - Intercontinental Championship - Randy Orton(c) vs. Chris Jericho - Randy Orton wins by rolling up Jericho and using the ropes after the distraction by Batista to retain the Intercontinental Championship. This was a solid match that the crowd was 100% into (especially high number of Y2J chants, it is his hometown, after all) and they deserved a better ending. Even if it was Orton winning clean with the RKO. Jericho had Orton beat in the middle of the ring with The Walls of Jericho and he let it go to chase Batista off the apron (who had come down half-way into the match). Jericho got his mouth busted open at a point in this one. Obvious heat setup for the Chris Jericho vs. Batista match on Sunday.

Backstage, Triple H is in Eugene office (this was a great shot..."Do...We...Have...A...Deal...Eugene?") and meets Ric Flair outside. Flair wants to know if Triple H got him out of the match with Eugene as his partner this Sunday. He says it never came up, but he did get what he wanted tonight; the first step in getting the World Title back. In the main even tonight, it will be Chris Benoit & Edge vs. Triple H, Ric Flair, & Eugene in a 2 vs. 3 handicap tag team match.

SmackDown Rebound - This Thursday see John Cena defend the United States Championship against Booker T. Should be a solid match there, if they give it time.

We come back to the arena to the sound of Victoria's music to find we have what looks like a triple threat women's match.

Match 5 - Nidia vs. Victoria vs. Molly Holly - Contract On A Pole Match - Nidia retrieves the contract and gets a Women's Title match in the near future. Decent stuff from the ladies. This kind of a match is hard to get any type of momentum going in. The shot of the match was the stiff kick from Victoria to Nidia while Nidia was on the top rope.

After the match, Trish and Tyson Tomko hit the ring. Trish has a cast on her arm from a "shattered wrist" (Trish does have a legit hand injury). She congratulates Nidia for her win and informs her that her title match is RIGHT NOW and SMACKS her with the cast, knocking her out. Trish then orders the ref to ring the bell and start the match.

Match 6 - Women's Championship - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Nidia - Trish wins by covering the lifeless Nidia. NICE heel heat for Trish here. Could be a setup for a match at Vengeance.

Raw Diva Search Update = Some time for GrzeTim to get the laundry from the dryer. At least they got the idea and have the semi-finals on after SmackDown on Thursday. At least then the folks who want to watch it can watch it. I know for a fact I am in the minority in this. My neighbor from upstairs was down borrowing my vacuum on Monday and was there when this started and stayed though the bikini segment and then left once Trish and Lita were done (see below). I guess I just wish for more than eye-candy. Don't get me wrong, the ladies of the WWE are lovely, but I like seeing them mix it up too (cause many of them can very well)...sorry...end rant.

We come back to the arena and JR & King run down the card for this Sunday at Vengeance:

Chris Jericho vs. Batista

Kane vs. Matt Hardy - No DQ

Intercontinental Championship - Randy Orton(c) vs. Edge

World Tag Team Championship - La Resistance(c) vs. Ric Flair & Eugene

World Heavyweight Championship - Chris Benoit(c) vs. Triple H

Backstage, Trish and Tomko run into Lita. Trish feigns concern for Lita being pregnant. As she walks away, Trish comments "and to think...they call me a slut.". OUCH!

Cut to outside Eugene office, where Triple H is giving him a pep talk for the main even, which is NEXT.

Match 7 - Chris Benoit & Edge vs. Triple H, Ric Flair, & Eugene - Triple H, Ric Flair, & Eugene win after Eugene uses a chair on Benoit while the ref is down to break up a Sharpshooter on Triple H. Triple H then hits the Pedigree for the win. This match was ALL about playing up how Triple H has been using Eugene. Twice in the match, Eugene was lured into attacking Edge or Benoit. Seeing Eugene chain wrestle with Benoit at the start was a treat. I don't think we got to see Edge and Eugene at all. Eugene didn't want to hit Benoit with the chair but Triple H was screaming about how Benoit was hurting him. As we fade to black, you could see Eugene saying "I didn't want to do that...".

Review - A good buildup show for the PPV this weekend. Not much in the line of "new" storyline, but that's what next week is for. This week, as it should have been, was "sell the PPV". They did that, and I respect that. I expect at least one more match to be added to the card either on WWE Experience this Sunday morning or on Heat before the PPV. Have to wait and see on that, but my guess would be either Nidia vs. Trish for the title or a four way with the three ladies from the pole match and Trish. The 2nd makes more sense cause they can protect Trish depending on how hurt her hand is. Not that she needs it, but she is one of their "A" talents.

See you later in the week for SmackDown & Vengeance!

WWE Raw - 6-28-2004

2004-06-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

WWE Raw - Live from Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia

Welcome to another Raw review. Let's get to it:

We start the show with a recap of the events leading up to the Triple H vs. Eugene match from last week. As always, nice video segments by the WWE production team.

The pyro hits and we're off and running.

JR and the King welcome us to a big night on Raw where we will see the Bad Blood rematch of Kane vs. Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship tonight. But before that, JR has been ordered by Eric Bishoff to interview Kane tonight. Bishoff has assured JR that there will be security around the ring to protect him in case Kane tries anything. Recall Kane set JR on fire a while back when he (Kane) was unmasked.

We cut to the ring as Evolution's music hits and all four members make their way to the ring. Triple H gets on the mic and informs us that he will be challenging the winner of the Kane vs. Chris Benoit match tonight at Vengeance. But, he isn't here to talk about that; he's here to talk about his match last week with Eugene. He goes over the events at the end of the match last week and then calls Eugene down to the ring. Eugene music hits and he makes his way slowly to the ring (he has a bandage with a smile on it where he was hit with the chair). Triple H explains to Eugene that he was rough on him last week to prepare him for other guys in the back that want to beat him up; like Chris Benoit who hit him with a steel chair. Eugene tells Triple H that Benoit apologized, but Triple H will have none of it and says only he will tell Eugene the truth; Benoit is a jerk. Eugene doesn't need Benoit, cause he has Evolution. So, tonight, Triple H is going to make Eugene an honorary member of Evolution. At this, the other members of Evolution start to look at each other and grumble.

William Regal then comes down to the ring and is trying to talk sense into Eugene about Evolution. Triple H then tells Eugene that Regal doesn't care about him...he only was helping Eugene to get his job back. Regal is forced to admit the truth. Triple H then rips into Regal how there is nothing lower than pretending to be Eugene's friend to get what he wants. Triple H then demands a choice from Eugene; Evolution or Regal.

Before he can answer, Eric Bishoff comes out onto the entrance ramp. He is not going to let Triple H pressure his nephew. If Triple H and Regal have a problem with each other, then they'll settle it in the ring tonight. But, for a match like that, you need a special referee. That ref will be none other than Eugene! Excellent segment to start Raw. Triple H playing the "friend" to Eugene is classic stuff; old school DX Triple H.

Before we go to break we find out that NEXT is the rematch from last week:

Match 1 - Chris Jericho & Edge vs. Randy Orton & Batista - Jericho & Edge get the win when Edge hit a spear on Batista and Jericho followed it up with the Lionsault for the pin. Solid match for the 2nd week in a row from these four. It was nice to see them let this match run after using it last week as a way to make sure Jericho wouldn't be around to help Eugene. During the match, the fire alarm in the arena went off (no doubt from the mix of Jericho's and Edge's pyro) and the crowd was doing a Y2J chant to the beat of the alarm. There was also a big pop when the alarm finally went off. I know I was wondering what it was...I was making dinner and walking back and forth and heard that alarm and thought it was my smoke detector...

We get a recap video of last week's chapter of the Matt Hardy / Lita / Kane triangle. Quick update: Lita is pregnant, Matt proposed, and Kane interrupted and said the child is his. Lita couldn't deny it and is not sure whose the father.

Triple H and Ric Flair are back in Evolution's locker room and Flair is complimenting Triple H on his manipulation of Eugene. Triple H says that once he has the World Title back, Eugene goes bye-bye for good.

Raw Diva Search recap 1...yawn...wake me when the show starts again...

Back to the locker rooms, where Lita is trying to reach Matt Hardy on the phone. She leaves him a message and then Stacy enters and asks Lita what she is going to do. Lita has no answer.

Back at ringside, the security for JR's interview with Kane is in place, so to the ring JR goes. Kane's pyro goes and he comes down to the ring with a smile on his face at the sight of JR. He informs JR that if he wanted to hurt him, no one could stop him. Unfazed, JR asks Kane why he attacked Shawn Michaels a few weeks back. Simple answer from Kane; Michaels was in his way, and when you're in Kane's way bad things happen. JR then asks about the situation with Lita. Kane has craved one thing, that is to have a normal life. That starts tonight when he beats Chris Benoit for the World Title. Then, in 8 months, he becomes a father. JR reminds Kane there is still a chance the child is Matt Hardy's. Kane starts to stalk JR. As he's about to attack, Matt Hardy comes out of the crowd and attacks Kane. Bishoff comes out onto the entrance ramp and orders the security to remove Matt Hardy from the building. He apologizes to Kane and, due to Benoit coming out to help Eugene last week, in tonight's World Title match Benoit can only win by making Kane submit. However, Kane can win the title by pin, submission, count out, or DQ.

Match 2 - William Regal vs. Triple H - Special Referee - Eugene - Triple H wins by DQ when Eugene catches William Regal with Flair's brass knuckles. Not a very long match, but it was good to see Regal back in the ring. As the match goes on, Regal starts to get the upper hand, so Flair gets up on the apron to distract Eugene and tosses Triple H the knuckles. Regal punches Triple H and get the knuckles. Eugene turns around and sees Regal with the knuckles and calls for the bell.

Post match, Regal is trying to talk to Eugene and Triple H hits Regal from behind, bumping Regal into Eugene. Eugene thinks Regal attacked him, so he charges Regal and pounds him with a flurry of rights and lefts. It takes both Flair and Triple H to pull Eugene off Regal.

La Resistance come down to the ring and get on the mic and do their normal act to get the crowd mad at them.

Match 3 - Non Title - La Resistance vs. Rhyno & Sgt. Slaughter - La Resistance picks up the win with their tag team finisher, now called the "Au Revoir". Sarge looked in great shape in this match and it's always great to see Rhyno in action on Raw. Did you here the pops for him, WWE? Push him. Decent match that kept the crowd alive and ready for the main event.

We come back from the break to find Triple H hyping up Eugene. He tells Eugene that Kane, Benoit, and even Regal were just pretending to be his friends and that he is part of Evolution now and NO ONE is ever going to hurt him again.

Raw Diva Search recap 2...zzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZ...Oh, the show is back on.

JR and the King run the card as it stands so far for Vengeance:

- World Heavyweight Championship - Kane or Chris Benoit(c) (Depending on the outcome tonight) vs. Triple H

- Intercontinental Championship - Randy Orton(c) vs. Edge

- Chris Jericho vs. Batista

Cut to Eric Bishoff's office where Ric Flair is talking with Eric Bishoff. As Flair leaves, in comes Coach. Bishoff informs Coach that while Bishoff is off on vacation next week, the interim GM for Raw will be...Eugene.

Up next, the main event!

Match 4 - World Heavyweight Championship - Chris Benoit(c) vs. Kane - Benoit can only retain by submission / Kane can win the title via pin, submission, count out, or DQ - Chirs Benoit wins by making Kane submit in the Crippler Crossface to retain the World Championship. A nice match that played off the stipulations well. More than once, Benoit went for a pin "out of instinct" and the ref would wave it off. There was also a moment where Benoit was outside the ring and Kane was "one second away" from winning the World Title. The end saw Benoit going up to the top rope for a move and Kane caught him by the neck, ready for a chokeslam, but Benoit countered by dropping to the outside and hanging Kane's arm up on the top rope. This plus a shot to the pole was enough for Benoit to make Kane submit.

After the match, Kane attacks Benoit from behind and chokeslams him to hell. He signals for a Tombstone, but then Lita's music hits. She comes down the ramp with a big smile on her face. The crowd is very confused. She gets into the ring, grabs the World Title, and hands it to Kane. She then raises his hand. As he turns away from her, she gives him a low blow and grabs the belt, ready to hit him with it. Lita misses with the belt and Kane sets her up for a chokeslam. As he is about to do it, he realizes he can't; Lita is carrying his child. He lets her go, and she slides out of the ring. As he turns away from her, Benoit waffles Kane with the belt, much to Lita's delight.

We see Benoit holding the belt above his head as we fade to black.

Review - An ok edition of Raw. Not enough wrestling for my taste (only four matches). Also, did anyone else notice the only women on were Lita and Stacy, and Stacy didn't even go into the arena, she was backstage. Where are Trish and Victoria and Molly? Obviously I'm in the minority in my belief that the ladies have been busting their butts the past few months in the Women's Division. After looking at the Sunday Night Heat taping list, I see a few of them get to wrestle, but still...also it would have been nice to see the Sarge win right before the 4th of July. Maybe they are saving that for next week?

Chronicles Of Riddick

2004-06-28T15:32:00.000-05:00

Just saw Chronicles Of Riddick this past weekend, and I have to say I was very pleased. I was one of the few that saw Pitch Black when it first came out in 2000 and, like many, liked Vin Diesel's character Riddick. Beyond the fact that Riddick was a badass who seemed to be super human, he had what has now been dubbed in the new film "eyeshine". Eyeshine is what gives Riddick's eyes that blue glow. It allows him to see in total darkness; the darker it is, the better he sees. Of course, if he is in a bright place, he cannot see very well at all(which is why some pictures of him have him wearing his signature goggles). This all comes into play in Pitch Black, when his ability to see in the dark is all that stands between the crash survivors and a squishy end.

I would highly recommend seeing Chronicles Of Riddick; especially if you're into action / adventure movies. Also, if you have the time and are inclined, check out Pitch Black before you see Chronicles. There are a few characters and references to it in Chronicles and you can enjoy the film a bit more cause you'll be "in the know".

Yes, I do other things beyond watch wrestling and movies...but they are both two of my stronger passions and Blogs are about passions, correct? :)

"You're not scared of the dark, are you?"

WWE Great American Bash 6-27-2004

2004-06-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

WWE Great American Bash - Live from Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia

We start off with, as always, a nice video package hyping the main events for tonight; John Bradshaw Layfield vs Eddie Guerrero & The Dudley Boyz vs. The Undertaker. We cut to the ring and Torrie Wilson, it the outfit she has been in the past few weeks (Uncle Sam) welcomes us to The Great American Bash.

The pyro hits and we're into our first match.

Match 1 - United States Championship - Rob Van Dam vs. Rene Dupree vs. Booker T vs. John Cena(c) - Fatal Four Way Elimination Match - John Cena wins via his finisher, the FU, to Booker T to retain the United States Championship after dodging Booker's Scissors Kick. A very solid match that left all four men looking strong. For once, thankfully, a heel in a match like this did the right thing. Booker T was outside the ring letting Cena and Van Dam beat each other. Order of elimination was: 1. Rob Van Dam by John Cena via rollup after Van Dam had hit Five Star Frog Splashes on both Booker T and Rene. Nice heads up pin by Cena. 2. Rene Dupree by Booker T after Cena hit Rene with an FU. Rene had the top rope to try and block the FU, but Booker kicked Rene's arm allowing Cena to hit the FU. As Cena turned around after the FU, Booker hit a Scissors Kick and then covered Rene. After eliminating Rene, he tried to cover Cena, but too much time had passed and Cena kicked out at two. A very good opening match that got the crowd going early, and they would need it...

Backstage, Charlie Haas and Miss Jackie are by the entrance to the backstage area. Cena comes by and they congratulate him. Cena made a comment to Miss Jackie regarding his "equipment" and leaves them both looking confused. On cue, up rolls Kurt Angle who rips into Haas for hanging with Cena. Haas tries to tell Kurt off, but Kurt will have none of it and books Haas tonight in a match with Luther Reigns.

Cut to the hot tub the Divas are hosting the PPV from. Sable is there and talks a bit about her match with Torrie later on...standard heel Diva interview. We head out to the ring for our next match...

Match 2 - Charlie Haas vs. Luther Reigns - Luther Reigns wins with his current finisher, The Roll The Dice. Sadly, and I like Haas, but this match was nothing to get excited about. Standard strong man tosses the smaller guy around match. The feeling I have is that this match was made solely to get Miss Jackie out into the arena (I hope that isn't the case, but with how short it was and how much of a squash it was, it's hard not to think that).

Short interview with John Bradshaw Layfield. Pretty much the same things he has been saying all the time; Judgment Day win, this is more than personal, etc, etc.

Match 3 - Cruiserweight Championship - Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio(c) - Rey Mysterio wins via countering the Gory Bomb (Chavo's finisher) into the snap sunset flip Rey uses to retain the Cruiserweight Championship. This match was outstanding and should show the powers that be in the WWE writing and booking teams that if you give the cruiserweights the time to make a match, they will shine BIG TIME. This match had high flying, weardown, and told a great story (gotta love how Chavo was working on Rey's leg the whole match and how it showed when Rey would try and use his aerial offense). The spot of the match is a tie between when both men came off the top rope and slammed each other face first into the mat and the finish. It took a lot of work to make the counter to the Gory Bomb at the end look right, and both men did great.

Back to the hot tub where Torrie has Spike Dudley, Billy Kidman, and Funaki with her. All three of them are arguing over which one, if they were in Chavo's place, could have beaten Rey. Torrie stands up and is wearing a small bikini and that stops the argument. She excuses herself and heads off to get ready for her match tonight with Sable. Funaki watches her go and says "God Bless America". Two things, first, did Billy Kidman slap Funaki in the head after the cameras went off (Kidman and Torrie are married in real life, if you didn't know that...) just out of impulse. Second, why do people still hoot and holler for Torrie or Sable. Yes, they are nice looking ladies, but if you wanted to see them 100% naked, they have both been in Playboy. I guess for that part of the PPV, I wasn't the target audience...

Match 4 - Kenzo Suzuki vs. Billy Gunn - This is where I question the WWE again. I have been at arenas where Billy Gunn comes out and the cheers that come over the TV are NOT fake. My girlfriend is not a full time fan and she likes Billy Gunn still from the days of the New Age Outlaws and DX. When SmackDown came to Chicago, she came with to see him. Sadly, he wasn't even in a dark match (sorry Kathy :( ). After all the hype for Kenzo, I have to say I'm disappointed so far. I was hoping for something great and when I first saw him come out on SmackDown, I got excited, "a big Japanese wrestler! This guy is going to rock.". Sadly, he has done nothing of the sort. Someone needs to remind him that this is 2004 and that no one buys the "iron claw" bit anymore. Also, the finisher he uses to beat Billy Gunn is a move Christian uses in matches ALL THE TIME. WWE either needs to rethink how this guy operates or not push him so hard at first. Oh - Kenzo Suzuki wins via a inverted DDT into a neckbreaker. The crowd was DEAD for this. At least they have been smart enough to put the slow matches between good ones, keeps the crowd awake.

Backstage, we see Paul Bearer tied up with Heyman walking around him doing what he does best; talking. Heyman says that the authorities think he is bluffing about the cement, but Bearer knows Heyman is not.

Match 5 - Sable vs Torrie Wilson - Help me now...I know they tried hard, I know they work hard, but this was a trainwreak. As far as I had read, the original plan for the Bash was to have the Divas in summer contests (volleyball, swimsuit contest, etc) over the course of the show. Honestly, even if it would have been cheap thrills for the fans, that would most likely have been better than this. Both ladies tried hard, but the ending was SO BAD. They collided in the corner and Sable played that she was hurt and Torrie walking around the ring looking lost. Sable then grabbed her and rolled her up for the three count. Michael Cole and Tazz could be heard trying not to laugh about BOTH of Torrie's shoulders being off the mat, they even showed it in the replay.

Back at the Diva's hot tub. Dawn Marie is interviewing Rene Dupree about his loss earlier in the show. Rene plans to go protest. Good idea, you go do that. He then starts to hit on Dawn when the FBI (the FBI!? On a PPV!?) come by and Nunzio shows off his big feet and tries, and fails for a while, to get Dawn to understand why it is good to have big feet. Dawn goes off with Nunzio and Johnny the Bull looks over at Rene and INSULTS HIM. Could this be a push for the FBI or is Rene going to Velocity without passing Go or collecting $200?

Match 6 - Mordecai vs. Hardcore Holly - Mordecai wins with his finisher, the Razor's Edge. Again, while I like Hardcore Holly, this match didn't feel like a PPV match to me. I felt like something I should see on SmackDown or Velocity. That being said both men worked hard, but the crowd was dead from the past two matches and this did nothing to wake them up.

Match 7 - WWE Championship - John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Eddie Guerrero(c) - Texas Bull Rope Match - For those who don't know the rules, in a bull rope / leather strap match like this, the object is to beat your opponent up and then drag him around the ring with you and touch the four turnbuckles in succession. If you are stopped by your opponent, you have to start all over again. A new twist was put in by the WWE about if you take the rope off intentionally, you get DQed. My brother and I figured that would come into play, but it never did. The also had lights at the corners; green for Bradshaw (Tazz said it was for money) and red for Guerrero in case you couldn't keep track of it...A decent match over all with both guys working hard and your standard bull rope / strap match spots. Bradshaw got busted (hardway I think) by a chairshot from Eddie (it was in the same place outside the ring that Bradshaw busted Eddie open at Judgment Day last month). The other big spot of the match came when Bradshaw wrapped the rope around Eddie's neck and toss him off the top rope, to the outside and off the Spanish announce table. Of course, it didn't break, so Bradshaw then powerbombed Eddie through it. The end of the match saw both Eddie and Bradshaw with three lights each and Bradshaw reaching for the final one. Eddie rushed Bradshaw and jumped over him to hit the final turnbuckle. The ref awarded Eddie the match but then Kurt Angle came down and showed a replay of the end of the match. Bradshaw's back touch the turnbuckle before Eddie touched it so the winner, and NEW WWE Champion, John Bradshaw Layfield.

I have no issue with Bradshaw getting the title, but I do have an issue with the end of this match. MANY MANY times in the WWE, we have seen replays where it is OBVIOUS that the wrong call was made, but "The referee's decision is final". Also, on more than one occasion I've heard the announcers say "There's no instant replay in the WWE.". SO, if that is the case, how does Angle have the right to come and do that, GM or not? Now, if the end had played out where Eddie when into Bradshaw and the ref called for the bell and then reversed the decision himself, I could deal with that. Yes, I know it's wrestling, yes I know it's scripted, but still, if you're going to set out rules and precedents, then stick to em. Now, there should be no reason why people can't call for an instant replay all the time...

Match 8 - The Dudley Boyz vs. The Undertaker - Concrete Crypt Match - Undertaker wins with a chokeslam to Bubba and a tombstone piledriver to D-Von (gotta love the D-Von leg twitch, classic). Before the match started, we were shown Paul Bearer in his glass coffin. Heyman put on a little demonstration for Undertaker of what would happen unless he did "the right thing" and Heyman filled the coffin up to Bearer's ankles. Bubba then got on a mic and told Undertaker to do the right thing and lie down. After Undertaker did this, Bubba got over him and said he had been waiting for this for a long time. Undertaker then grabbed Bubba by the throat and the match was on. Standard fair from the Dudleys and Undertaker. As the match when on, Heyman got more confident and moved closer to the ring. After Undertaker got the win, Heyman started to head back for the switch to run the cement mixer when lightning hit it, knocking Heyman on his back. Undertaker then stalked Heyman, who, screaming like a little girl, ran into the back. After reaching the coffin, Undertaker did his kneeling bow to Paul Bearer. Undertaker then grabbed a mic and told Paul to rest in peace and THREW THE HANDLE HIMSELF. We fade to black as the cement covers Paul Bearer's head.

Review - As with most WWE PPVs lately, The Great American Bash had it's strong and weak points. The strong would be the title matches. All three of them told good stories and featured good wrestling / brawling (depending on the match). On the other side of the coin, I still think there are too many backstage interviews on PPV today. PPV is where the talking stops and the action starts. It's a place where all the smack that was talked is over and it's time to put it on the line. I understand pre and post match interviews, but not new storylines. We don't need that at the PPV. Also, a few of the matches seemed like overflow from Velocity and just took the air out of the crowd. It'll be interesting to see how things with the titles and with Undertaker go from here. How does he justify "killing" Paul Bearer? What will Kurt Angle try next to bring John Cena down? Where does Eddie Guerrero go from here? We'll find out this Thursday on SmackDown.

WWE Bad Blood 6-13-2004

2004-06-15T15:54:00.000-05:00

WWE Bad Blood - Live from The Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio

We start out with the classic WWE pre-PPV video. It hypes the two main events tonight; Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels - Hell in a Cell and Chris Benoit vs. Kane for the World Title.

The pyro flies and we're right into our first match.

Match 1 - World Tag Team Championship - La Résistance(c) vs. Chris Benoit & Edge - Chris Benoit & Edge win by DQ due to Kane's interference, however La Résistance remain the World Tag Team Champions. Benoit had Sylvan Grenier in the Crippler Crossface but Kane's pyro went off and Benoit released the hold. Kane then layed out both Benoit and Edge with big boots and chokeslams. Benoit was then tossed out of the ring and rammed into the ring stairs. Kane backed away up the ramp laughing as Chris Benoit was left in a heap ringside. Remember, Benoit has to fight Kane with the World Title on the line later tonight.

Backstage, we see Eric Bishoff and The Coach discussing Coach's match with Eugene scheduled for later tonight. Bishoff has barred William Regal from ringside so Coach has Eugene all to himself. They both then notice Eugene has overheard everything they said. Bishoff offers Eugene the opportunity to get out of the match with Coach if he quits wrestling tonight. Eugene, of course, chooses to wrestle.

Match 2 - Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Tomko - Chris Jericho wins with his current finisher; the step up Enziguri. The end saw Trish try to distract Jericho but Tomko ran into Trish and knocked her off the apron setting up for Jericho to hit the Enziguri for the win.

Backstage, Todd Grisham is interviewing Randy Orton regarding his match later tonight with Shelton Benjamin. The crowd is all over Orton and he takes exception to this and goes out into the arena with a mic and cameraman in tow. He goes on about how great he is and how long he has been the Intercontinental champion; his normal "respect me" speech. He is interrupted by Shelton Benjamin's music and Shelton makes his way to the ring. Shelton asks if Orton ever shuts up because no one want to hear what he's saying. He notices Orton is in his wrestling gear, and so is he, so lets have the match RIGHT NOW. Leads into...

Match 3 - Intercontinental Championship - Randy Orton(c) vs. Shelton Benjamin - Randy Orton wins by rolling through a cross body off the top rope by Shelton and hooking the tights to retain the Intercontinental Championship. One of the best moments of the night was when Ric Flair, having come down to "support" Randy Orton, got pulled into the ring and put in the figure four leglock by Shelton. While he had the move on Flair, Shelton rolled up Orton and ALMOST got the win. Very nice. I have a feeling where Orton's storyline is going...a match with Eugene.

Cut to the women's locker room and Lita is getting ready for the Fatal Four Way match for the Women's Title. Matt Hardy comes by to wish her luck in the match. A knock on the door breaks up the moment as Eric Bishoff and a herd of security come in. Bishoff informs the couple that he is worried Matt will interfere in the World Title match tonight and he is here to remove him from the building. Matt at first refuses until Bishoff threatens to take Lita out of the Women's Title match if Matt doesn't comply. Matt wishes Lita luck and leaves with Bishoff and the herd.

Match 3 - Womens Championship - Victoria(c) vs. Gail Kim vs. Lita vs. Trish Stratus - Fatal Four Way (First Pin or Submission Wins Title) - Trish Stratus wins by rolling up Lita after Lita hit Gail Kim with the snap DDT to become the NEW Women's Champion. Nice work by all four ladies in this match and congrats to Trish for becoming the first five time Women's Champion.

Match 4 - Eugene vs. Jonathan Coachman - Eugene wins with a Rock Bottom and a People's Elbow (yes, you read that correctly). After the match, Garrison Cade tried to attack Eugene and got a Stone Cold Stunner (again, yes, you read that correctly) for his trouble. As Coach stumbled to his feet, he also got a Stunner. One odd point in the match was when a woman in a bikini came down with a tray of cookies and distracted Eugene (with the cookies). A few people I watch the events with said she looked a bit like Stacy Kiebler (the younger sister she mentioned recently...).

Match 5 - World Heavyweight Championship - Chris Benoit(c) vs. Kane - Chris Benoit wins by rolling up Kane for the pin to retain the World Championship. Many times in this match, we saw Chris Benoit going for his standard compliment of moves with them having little to no effect on Kane. More than once, Benoit tried to get the sharpshooter on Kane with no luck, then when he did get it locked in, Kane was able to struggle to the ropes after a LONG time. Kane hit a chokeslam late in the match, but Benoit kicked out. The ending saw Benoit hang onto Kane's arm when he tried to power out of a Crossface attempt and roll him up. A nice match that left both men looking strong.

Match 6 - Hell In A Cell - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels - Triple H wins via THREE Pedigrees! After hitting the third Pedigree they both collapsed and it took almost a minute for Triple H to put an arm over Michaels for the three count. Not much action with the cage in this (one of the first Hell In A Cell matches I can recall that had no action outside or on top of the cell) but there was a lot of bouncing off the walls of it. Triple H and Michaels beat the tar out of each other in this one. Some of the highlights:

- Triple H grabbing Michaels in a bear hug on the outside the alternating between smashing him into the ring post and the corner post of the cell over and over.
- Two NASTY stair shots to Michaels by Triple H, which busted Michaels open.
- Two equally as NASTY chair shots to Triple H by Michaels, which busted Triple H open (see the pattern?).
- The look on Michaels' face when he found that ladder under the ring (they used the shot on Raw Monday night...I bet we'll be seeing that shot for a while).
- Michaels dropping the elbow off the ladder onto Triple H while he was laid out on the table that Triple H had brought into the ring. The best part was when he got to the top of the ladder, he was at the roof of the cage, so he just fell and didn't jump, but still the same effect.

After the three count, Orton, Flair, and Batista come down to collect Triple H and they help him up the ramp. The ref helps Michaels up from the mat to cheers from the crowd. He waves to the crowd as we fade to black.

Review - A good PPV overall. The weakest match is probably a tie between Eugene vs. Jonathan Coachman and Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Tomko due to the fact that 1. Eugene matches are 90% story and 10% action (as they should be) and Tomko is still VERY green. If you see the replay, check him out falling before Jericho even gets close to him on the Enziguri. The match of the night had to be the Hell In A Cell. They went for an announced 47 minutes and 26 seconds. That is unreal. Kudos to them and to the whole brand for a great show.

Normal Life For Me...

2004-06-14T01:42:00.000-05:00

Well,

As you might have noticed, there was no WWE SmackDown review and there won’t be a WWE Bad Blood review till at least Monday or Tuesday. Some of you might have heard I was in a car accident on Wednesday. It wasn't too serious, but it's the first one I've been in since I started driving a little over two years ago. I was a bit shaken up, but the damage is minimal. It shook my confidence in my driving ability for a few days, but I'm pretty much better now (taking the Edens Expressway from Glenview into downtown then the Stevenson out to Midway will help the confidence level).

The hoot of the whole thing was that where the accident happened wasn't even a place I would normally be. I was coming back from jury duty in Rolling Meadows (I live in Forest Park, about 35 minutes away in good traffic), which I discover most people seem to get out of somehow. So, thanks to the Circuit Court of Cook County for this. Maybe I should send them a bill? ;)

Like I said, I'll get a Bad Blood review up tomorrow along with WWE Raw if I can. I'll also work on a SmackDown taping review since I'll be going to it at the Allstate Arena here in Chicago on Tuesday. I'll mark it accordingly so you can avoid it if you don't care for WWE or spoilers.

Need...Sleep. Night.

WWE Raw 6-7-2004

2004-06-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

WWE Raw - Live from Pepsi Arena in Albany, NY

We start the show with Stacy Kiebler coming down to ringside to push the $250,000 Raw Diva Search. After the plug, she demonstrates her "ring entrance". Gail Kim interrupts her, to the dismay of the crowd. Gail states that Stacy can show us how to be a Diva, but she is going to show us how to be the next Women's Champ. That leads us into our first match...

Match 1 - Lita vs. Gail Kim - Lita wins with her new finisher since coming back; the snap DDT. A decent match with Lita selling the beating Gail gave to her leg and knee. Also, a very nice looking leg submission by Gail during this one.

Cut to Eric Bishoff's office, Johnny Nitro and The Coach are there at Mr. Bishoff's request. Bishoff makes a match for Badd Blood this Sunday of Eugene versus The Coach. Nitro makes a joke at Bishoff's expense and gets booked in a match versus Eugene tonight that, if he loses, "YOU'RE FIRED!".

Match 2 - Batista vs. Shelton Benjamin - Batista wins with his finisher; the sit down powerbomb. A match to build for the Randy Orton vs. Shelton Benjamin match this Sunday for the Intercontinental Title. Orton cost Benjamin the match when he distracted both the ref and Benjamin long enough for Batista to hit a STIFF clothesline and the powerbomb for the win. Afterwards, Batista, Ric Flair, and Orton beat down Benjamin.

Cut to Edge and Chris Benoit backstage and they start to argue a bit about their World Tag Team Titles loss last week to La Résistance. The Coach interrupts them to inform Benoit that he has a match tonight versus BOTH members of La Résistance in a handicap match. Jump to Bishoff's office where Trish Stratus and Tyson Tomko get their wish: Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Tomko at Badd Blood AND Jericho must wrestling tonight on Raw. Trish then makes the case that she beat Lita a few weeks ago and now Lita beat Gail Kim, so she should be the #1 contender for Victoria's Women's Title. Before Bishoff can respond, Kane comes barging into the office and orders Trish and Tomko gone so he can talk to Bishoff alone.

Match 3 - Chris Jericho vs. A-Train - Jericho wins with his submission move; the Walls of Jericho. Jericho had his ribs taped up to sell the beatings he's been getting from Tomko the past two weeks.

Triple H enters the Pepsi Arena and strides to the ring. He points to a skybox where he will sit and enjoy first hand watching Randy Orton take apart Shawn Michaels in the main event. He states he has never lost a Hell in a Cell match and while he knows he'll never go to heaven, he'll see Shawn Michaels this weekend in Hell.

Match 4 - Chris Benoit vs. La Résistance - The match started as a two on one, but after a run in by Edge to save Benoit from a two man beating, Bishoff makes it a handicap tag match and gives La Résistance another partner; Kane!

Match 4.5 - Chris Benoit & Edge vs. La Résistance & Kane - Kane wins with his finisher, the chokeslam, on Chris Benoit. This match was meant to show that both Benoit has a chance to get Kane in the Crippler Crossface and Kane can pin Benoit. Standard "Raw Before The Pay Per View" match.

Match 5 - Eugene vs. Johnny Nitro - Eugene wins with a double ax handle off the top rope. Match had Eugene out wrestle Nitro many times. Coach and Eugene have a stare down / wave down which ends with Coach falling off of King and JR's announce booth.

Cut to Lita talking to Matt Hardy on her cell phone backstage. She mentions getting a Women's Title match at Badd Blood (excuse me?). As she gets off the phone, she turns into Kane. He says that he convinced Bishoff to add her to the match at Badd Blood. "I thought it was over,” she says. "I lied," Kane replies. O...k.

The King and JR run the card for Badd Blood:

- World Tag Team Championship - La Résistance(c) vs. Chris Benoit & Edge

- World Heavyweight Championship- Chris Benoit(c) vs. Kane

- Intercontinental Championship - Randy Orton(c) vs. Shelton Benjamin

- Women’s Championship Fatal Four Way (First Pin or Submission Wins Title) - Victoria(c) vs. Gail Kim vs. Lita vs. Trish Stratus

- Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Tomko

- Eugene vs. Jonathan Coachman

- Hell In A Cell - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

Match 6 - Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels - Shawn Michaels wins via DQ when Batista comes down to the ring to attack Michaels as he is about to hit Orton with his finisher; Sweet Chin Music. Michaels turns the tide on them and lays them both out with a steel chair. He then works his way through the crowd to the skybox. We fade to black with Triple H and Shawn Michaels brawling in the skybox.

Review - An overall good show considering, as I said, that it's the show the Monday before a Pay Per View. Some strong matches that built towards the feuds going into this Sunday. I'm still not sure what to think of the Lita / Kane / Matt Hardy triangle. It keeps making me thing that Kane has no shot to win this Sunday since he has a "backup" story. Bump of the night was without a doubt the STIFF clothesline from Batista to Benjamin. Check back later in the week for my Badd Blood picks.

Something To Post About...

2004-06-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

I thought I might as well get this out of the way now; I'm a pro-wrestling fan, WWE in particular. I know I set myself up for a lot of abuse over this, but I've been into it since the mid 80s and as most fans say I "have the fever". I’ve decided that one of the things I can do here is give my two cents on the current stories and shows. I know there are a lot more feds out there, but I grew up on WWE, so that is what I'm going to cover. For those of you of the non-wrestling persuasion, I'll be sure to have posts pertaining to wrestling have "WWE" at the start of them, so you can just bypass them. Fair deal? :)

Working on my first WWE Raw review right now, hopefully I'll have it up tonight...

Memorial Day Start

2004-05-31T18:28:00.000-05:00

Well, since I've had this space now all weekend, and I already have a few friends who are linking to it, I might as well put up something. The big problem is, what to put up. I've been looking through a selection of different Blogs and it seems that most people are rather creative. Sadly, I don't fall into that crowd. I'm the type of guy that cringes when asking what someone wants for birthday/Christmas and I'm told "Be creative.". Now, give me a list, I'm all smiles.

So, for about six hours before June 1st, you wouldn't know it here in Chicago if it wasn't for the calendar. It's 63 degrees out and it has been raining on and off for at least the past three weeks. Not that I don't mind it not being 85+ degrees, but this is just too much.

This seems pretty good for a first post; I'm shocked I came up with something. Now the real challenge; keeping it up.