Greggulator

I just listened to The Return of the Rentals for the first time in ages. Uhm, that album friggin' rules so much. It's one of the best power-pop albums of all-time. I legit mean that. So many great choruses and harmonies and interesting Moog lines and guitar parts and even a cello. There's so much synth-pop of the past few years and absolutely NONE of it touches this album.

I don't want to be that guy but Lana might be the most attractive diva ever.

The So So Glos Kurt Vile Diarrhea Planet The Front Bottoms Pretty much it.

Just if you're interested, NBDL games are broadcast live and free on YouTube. Watching my Delaware 87ers right now.

Rusev always speaks in Bulgarian, and Lana speaks in Russian. I thought she spoke in Russian. However, I know nothing about Bulgarian so I thought there may have been a similar language crossover -- Ukrainian and Russian are essentially interchangeable.

He's an underachiever if he had the potential and the ability to be a 16-time world champion. Ken Griffey Jr. was a guy who achieved a lot in baseball, but at the same time was an underachiever who never reached his full potential. Griffey jr. was massively talented in everything he does. Randy Orton is a good hand wrestler with very little charisma. He has vastly over-achieved. Sixth all-time in HRs, arguably the best defensive CF of all-time -- I'd do absolutely anything to be compared in my professional career to Ken Griffey, Jr.

It's guaranteed that at least one game a night out west will have two very good teams in a good game. There's been five games already I can think of out west that have a "Game Of The Year" vibe, if such a thing existed. The first OKC/GSW game that the Warriors won on Iggy's jumper, the OKC/GSW game the Thunder won on Russ' jumper, the Pacers/Blazers thriller, the GSW comeback last night and tonight's very good Blazers/OKC game. Tonight's game wasn't quite the masterpiece but that was still a really well-played game. I love both those teams so much. The unfortunate part is that for those of us NBA addicts on the east coast it stinks. Professional basketball could end up as a regional niche sport just because of how friggin' bad the Eastern Conference is. It's embarrassing to watch. The Pacers and Heat absolutely rule but every team but Utah and maybe Sacramento and a Brow-less Pelicans is better than anyone in the East. Who is the East's third seed right now? Atlanta? Phoenix and Denver could take the Hawks in a seven game series. The only reason to watch the Eastern Conference right now are the Pacers, Heat, Drummond, MCW in Philly, the chance the Cavs fight each other on the court, Oladipo in Orlando and Jason Kidd being so laughably terrible as a coach. And anything associated with the Knicks and their horror show of a team.

We start off with THE BOSS OF THE WORLD ANTONIO CESARO asked about William Regal. Cesaro does a great awful British accent when threatening Regal when he's interrupted by Leo Kruger. Kruger thanks Cesaro for their match -- Cesaro dominated but Kruger looked like a PROBLEM in how much it took to put him down. He also mentions his upcoming match with Sami Zayn, Cesaro's old foe. Kruger asks to join the Real Americans. The heels whisper. Great, short segment -- it advances the Cesaro/Regal agenda; it advances Kruger's motivations after his loss against Cesro; Cesaro naturally still hates Sami who nearly destroyed his reputation; it adds heat to Kruger/Zayn series that didn't have any reason until now. And more importantly, it shows the purpose of NXT -- these guys want to get to the big leagues. How you go about getting there defines you as a person. Leo Kruger is the type of person who will make a deal with the devil (or Zeb Colter's Swiss henchman) in order to get there. All of this, mind you, happened in 90 seconds. PAIGE VS. NATALYA -- Great Malenko/Guerrero stuff to start. This has a good story that I like -- they start off respectful and then it gets a little nasty as each one realizes how hard it is going to be to win this match. The end sequence is really good, I thought. Natalya gets Paige in the Sharpshooter. Paige reaches for the ropes but Nattie pulls her into the middle of the ring. Paige this times goes to the corner. Right when he's about to tap, she flips Natalya's head into the corner. They both recover. Paige hits the Paige Turner and gets the very big win. This had a lot of good stuff to it. A lot of VERY good stuff. Natty, though, doesn't look like she's wrestling with her facial expressions. It's like you can see her thinking "I have to look like I'm hurt" as opposed to looking hurt. But this was easily her best match in a long time and probably ever. Paige friggin' rules. Her and AJ are going to have a "Steal The Show" type of match within three years. I can't wait for them to finally cross paths. They're made to feud. ALEXANDER RUSEV is in the back with LANA, who is talking in what I assume is Bulgarian but might be Russian gibberish. TYLER BREEZE interrupts to thank Rusev for taking out Ohno the week before. He wants the two of them to go to one of his modelling gigs shortly. "I'll send you the e-vite!" he says after Lana shoes him away. More stuff about crushing Ohno. MOJO RAWLEY is out for an interview. He talks about how he's stayed hype this whole time. He wants to be NXT champ and then he can get on to Raw. Very natural delivery. He's interrupted by SYLVESTER LA FORT and SCOTT DAWSON. Sylvester wants to help Mojo's career so they can all make ze money. Mojo shakes him off and talks about his past with shady NFL agents and how he's been stiffing Dawson. Dawson goes over this in his brain ("I guess the checks are waitin' for me in the bill box") while LeFort gives this great "pleaseohpleaseohplease believe me" face. They've got a match next week. This was really good, simple promo. Mojo came off really well -- nowhere near the energy he has in the ring, which is good because if he acted like that on camera he'd be terrible. Nice read on how to play the character. Dawson and La Fort also ruled in this, too. "Caffeine High." Great stooges. AIDEN ENGLISH VS. -- We don't get to hear the guy's name because Aiden comes out before he's even announced to begin his show tunes. His entrances are spectacular. I also don't know if those are new trunks or not but they're ridiculously great. This is another Aiden squash. Renee talks up his acting/opera accomplishments during the match. He says at one point "To be or not to be!" before hitting some move. CESARO interrupts Aiden's exit. He asks Byron Sexton to come up to the stage so he can offer him an apology -- in FIVE languages nonetheless! This is great heel insincerity. Cesaro then wants Byron to say "WE THE PEOPLE!" He refuses. Cesaro bullies him into saying it and he says it dripping with shame. Cesaro then bullies him some more and looks over his shoulder for Regal, who isn't there. He keeps taunting Byron saying "WHERE'S REGAL?" He doesn't show up so Cesaro slaps Byron and walks back. This was such a great play on the usual trope of heel bullying. He obviously came up with this whole plan to lure Regal into a fight but none was there. Was the old villain up to the ploy and wanted none of it? Or did Regal see this and not want any piece of Cesaro, as he hinted at last week? SO GOOD. They show an interview with Sami from last week talking about losing the number one contendership to Adrian Neville. He's disappointed but accepting of his loss but not giving up. Then Leo Kruger knocks him from the side and taunts him. Aha, they already have something brewing. Did Kruger come up with this idea before -- if I beat up Sami, I can get myself in the good graces of The Real Americans and join them in the big leagues? TYSON KIDD vs. LEO KRUGER -- Alex Riley says Tyson Kidd resembles Eddie Guerrero. A-Ry's been fine tonight (aside from talking about Miley Cyrus during the Paige match) but this... uhm...Kruger attacked Kidd a few months ago when Kidd was injured. Kruger manhandles Kidd and works on his surgically repaired knee. He hooks the Sharpshooter and looks to get the tap-out that way in an awesome bit of dickishness. Sami comes out and catches Leo's eye. Leo gets distracted and Tyson wins with a quick roll-up. Sami makes a great "Ohhh, I didn't mean for that to happen!" mocking face. A-Ry talks about how he sees Bo Dallas' POV that Sami's a sore loser. This didn't feel like that. It felt like a dude who got jumped by this guy for no real reason getting his comeuppance a bit. Kruger works really well in-character as a hunter. It's very methodical and grueling looking. It's a bit slow-paced which might hurt him getting over on a bigger stage but it works well with his persona. HUNICO and CAMACHO are hanging out in some electrical closet apparently and say some things about getting the talents. BO DALLAS vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE -- This was also a very good solid match. Bo started off in control, hitting his offense -- very simple, decently crisp stuff. He at one point was in the corner and the middle turnbuckle came off -- a few weeks back, a similar thing happened to Sami Zayn that cost Sami the match against Bo. Hmm. Anyways, Bo pulls down his knee pad and climbs the ropes and screams "DON'T STOP BO-LIEVING!" before missing a knee drop. Neville works over the leg and also has some kicks. He makes an incredibly dive over the floor onto Bo. He eventually gets Bo into position for The Red Devil, however Bo slips to the floor. Neville cross-bodies Bo on the floor and the ref starts to count. Both men are on the apron at 9. Neville rolls into the ring. Bo drops to the floor. Neville wins via countout. It looks like they're headed in a direction where Bo very cunningly escapes with wins -- a coy pull of the turbnuckle, taking a countout loss like that, etc. That's the PERFECT way for a blowhard like him to win matches and keep the title. NXT, thank you. You are the best.

Portland: America's Next Top America's Team

To change the subject, what do you guys think is the APY rate for a WCW Mastercard credit card these days?

Daniel Bryan is in the main event on Smackdown. His storyline ends the show. This has been like this for him for about five months now. I don't think that's buried at all.

Also: Toronto didn't have a defensive rebound in the fourth quarter. Not one defensive rebound. GSW didn't miss too many shots but still. That's hilariously terrible.

Oh, you know how last night had what was one of the best regular season games of the year? Let's just follow it up with a 27-point comeback led by the most electrifying shooters maybe ever in front of the craziest crowd in the league. You know, just an average Tuesday night game. And also the Sixers/Orlando went to Double OT that saw dude go for 40 and two rookies have triple doubles. And Andre Drummond with 18 boards. Man, the NBA has been really good to start the season. Teams and players really got into it quickly. Good times.

I know nothing about ROH but I assume this would be Chris Hero?

Oh yes. I rescind my hyperbole.

Considering you call every Rhodes/Shield match the greatest match in wrestling history, I just think you're a big fan of hyperbole. Yeah, but it's the best hyperbole in years. Well, when was the last time there was a promo that good? Some of the Heyman stuff was on that level. AJ's Pipebombshell was terrific. But aside from that, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything. Point me to something if I'm missing out but that as a terrific promo and I can't for the life of me think of something that good. ESPECIALLY when it's from someone playing a character not "an extension of themselves" or some such. Punk was awesome with the Straight Edge Society and I can't remember anything in between as compelling, smart and twisted.

Love can certainly get taken while on defense but he makes up for it by his ability to close out and keep possessions alive. He's also one of the best stretch forwards, too. And his passing off of rebounds is insane. Kevin Love has one of the weirdest games anyone has ever had. He's a bulky dude who can shoot from three. He's also not that crazy an athlete and has all sorts of knee stuff but is probably the league's best rebounder. And he can throw passes like he's a quarterback. What a strange set of skills. The Wolves team has a few other guys like this. Ricky Rubio has no shot whatsoever. Kevin Martin is the skinniest non-center I can ever remember and can't play a lick of defense. Corey Brewer is a crazy hustle player. JJ Barea...

I'm trying to think right now who is better: Chris Paul or Paul George? That is TOUGH. I think you have to go CP3 just for length-of-service but man it's becoming close. Is there anyone I'm forgetting for third best player in the league? Kevin Love has an argument but he hasn't played a playoff game whereas Paul George nearly took out the Heat. Anthony Davis was rising up that list very quickly before he broke his hand. Tony Parker might have an argument, too. I am trying to think of anyone else.

George has been playing at a high level all season. There is a reason I took him as my first pick in the fantasy league. Nobody has compared him to Lebron yet(that I know of). People are just recognizing that he's having a fantastic season and leading a damn good team. No one's touching Le Bron. Or KD. But the argument for third best player in the league? Votes need to be tabulated.

Paul George is 23. The thing that blows me away about him is how much energy he has. He's all over the floor on defense, just hawking and trapping dudes everywhere. On offense he's even crazier. He runs like Rip Hamilton without the ball, except he ALSO posts up AND also sets man picks as opposed to just dodging a defender. And he also brings the ball up the court a fair amount, too. I don't know of anyone in the league like him. He's such a great player. But he's also such a unique one.

That game ruled. Welcome to superstardom, Paul George.

I only watched the beginning since my clearly legal feed was crapping out and I had some stuff to do. I liked Steph using her best awful corporate honcho voice. Kane was even better -- I never would have guessed that dude would be great as a "general counsel" character. The D-Bry/Rowan match was very good. My feed was disjointed but it looked awesome. It felt like a backwoods monster was finally starting to figure things out against a guy who has been batted down over the past few months, including being physically beaten and left in some abandoned parking lot last week. I loved D-Bry getting a roll-up win -- D-Bry should win, but he needed a flash pin to defeat the monster. And then there was Bray's promo. Am I being that big a fan boy if I think that was the best promo in years? I'm trying to think of when I liked a promo as much. Maybe when Punk interrupted Rey's daughters birthday celebration? This was so great and awesome and spellbinding. That was all I watched.

Kane = Foo Fighters. I've had a debate w/ people forever about the Foo Fighters. I've dubbed them the most average band of all-time. They are the medium of rock music for me. If you're better than the Foo Fights, I consider you a good band. If you're worse than the Foo Fighters, I think you're terrible. Kane is that for me. Kane has had his moments -- i.e., Team Hell No -- and he's had his garbage. But, mostly, Kane is just sorta there for me. I don't hate him but he's just eh. Also, Kane sprung from The Undertaker and Foo Fighters sprung from the superior Nirvana. Punk = Rancid. I know that's the same "genre" as it were. I am a huge Punk fan (and punk fan). I love the dude so much. I'm not really a fan of Rancid so the link isn't working so much but I'm having a hard time thinking of another similar band. Most of the dudes in Rancid started out as Op Ivy and in the uber-DIY Gilman Street scene. Op Ivy put out a ton of great stuff and were beloved in the underground. Then they disbanded and became Rancid and ended up on a major label. Their sound didn't change all that much but was still palatable to the old-heads obsessed with indie cred would kill an act for selling out in a minute flat. Rancid's music isn't for everyone (like me) and Punk certainly has his haters and I can see why. Larry Sweeney = The Exploding Hearts. The Exploding Hearts are rock's greatest tragedy. They were a punk/power-pop band in the early 00s out of Portland, Oregon who were set to become THE BAND for the next XXX years. Their material was absolutely perfect -- catchy, witty and something absolutely anyone could love. They got signed by Lookout Records, the first step of what was looking like an ascendant and transcendent career. Then their van tipped over on the way home from a serious of kick-ass shows in San Francisco. Three of the four members died. They could have been absolutely enormous. Instead, they left a brief legacy of perfection. Easy to see that comparison.

I like this. It also makes sense in terms of a greater purpose -- both have a lot of moments as artists, but both exist almost solely to make profit.

Metallica is a pretty corporate entity. And a sad one in their later days, as made evident by "Some Kind of Monster." That's a great documentary. My only problem w/ it is the name. "Sad But True" was RIGHT THERE for everyone. Metallica doesn't quite work for Cena w/ me. I love early Metallica but everything after Black is really awful. Cena has staying power.