supremebve

The NBA thing is tricky, because as we learned from the Atlanta Hawks recently a lot of it is look at those scary black dudes. The shooting at the strip was crazy, but was deemed self-defense because someone tried to run Stephen Jackson(First team "You Don't Want Those Problems" All Star) over with their car. Then there was that one year with the Blazers, that was an outlier. Then there was Gilbert Arenas and someone who I do not feel comfortable using his name, taking guns to work. The NBA for the most part is full of goofballs that get to behave like eternal teenagers. For the most part they act like everyone I know would act if they were incredibly rich and successful and women in every city wanted to have sex with them. The Vikings thing is pretty much another example of what the NFL is all about. They have to decide whether their best player should play or not when there are pretty serious child abuse charges against him, and after losing horribly on Sunday they have decided to let him play. With that said, the owner of the Vikings is a fucking criminal himself. The GM and the coach had no idea how to address this problem, it was obviously not their choice. According to Chris Mortenson it was an ownership decision, but guess what criminal was unavailable to the media. Adrian Peterson is going to be required to speak to the media which is going to be a circus, but the ringleader of the circus who is putting the bad clown in the show won't have to answer any questions. Say what you want about Jerry Jones, but he would have at least stood in front of the firing squad to take some of the bullets. The criminal in Minnesota is invisible like most racketeers. Just to add, the malice at the palace certainly didn't help the NBA's image. . . I meant to put that in there, but somehow I forgot. That is the video they'll show when they induct Stephen Jackson into the You Don't Want Those Problems Hall of Fame. It almost seems like that happened in a whole different league, but that wasn't even that long ago. The NBA seems so tame now, but there were definitely times where they had some issues.

Almost all NFL analysis is the same hivemind thing. If you watch enough ESPN/NFL Network/pregame/postgame NFL analysis you won't hear many desenting opinions. The crazy thing is there is a pretty decent amount of data to compare the two guys and RGIII is clearly better as a passer. Cousins has a significantly lower completion percentage, throws more interceptions, and less touchdowns. RGIII has missed enough time that we see how these two guys compare to each other, but people seem to forget how bad Cousins was last year.

...and Dragon Age Inquisition. With that said, it is the only wrestling game available, and everyone who wants to play a wrestling game on their new system is going to buy it. The thing I'm worried about is that IGN made them their game of the month a couple of months back and all we got were a couple of pretty pictures and a couple matches where people don't even try to play like they've actually seen a wrestling match.

Baccari Rambo will be picked up soon, just because everyone wants to be around a man named Baccari Rambo.

The only thing I can hate about Eve Torres is that she isn't madly in love with me.

Yeah, I remember that and about 25 times he almost crippled himself with that springboard moonsault. When was his mother paralyzed? Was it after he got to WCW? From what I remember of young Jericho he seems like a person who had no fear whatsoever about becoming paralyzed. Most of his signature spots seemed to be moves that went out of their way to putting his head and neck into mortal danger.

Breaking news, Rhianna would like to apologize for the role she played in getting her song yanked from CBS' NFL coverage.

I still don't get why it would be insensitive to play the song of a VICTIM of abuse. It would be insensitive to play a Chris Brown song, because he was the abuser, but I don't see why Rhianna's song needs to be pulled. Will the Vikings remove Jackson 5 songs, because Michael was an abused kid? Will the Jaguars remove T-Pain songs because all he does is win, and all they do is lose?

The NBA thing is tricky, because as we learned from the Atlanta Hawks recently a lot of it is look at those scary black dudes. The shooting at the strip was crazy, but was deemed self-defense because someone tried to run Stephen Jackson(First team "You Don't Want Those Problems" All Star) over with their car. Then there was that one year with the Blazers, that was an outlier. Then there was Gilbert Arenas and someone who I do not feel comfortable using his name, taking guns to work. The NBA for the most part is full of goofballs that get to behave like eternal teenagers. For the most part they act like everyone I know would act if they were incredibly rich and successful and women in every city wanted to have sex with them. The Vikings thing is pretty much another example of what the NFL is all about. They have to decide whether their best player should play or not when there are pretty serious child abuse charges against him, and after losing horribly on Sunday they have decided to let him play. With that said, the owner of the Vikings is a fucking criminal himself. The GM and the coach had no idea how to address this problem, it was obviously not their choice. According to Chris Mortenson it was an ownership decision, but guess what criminal was unavailable to the media. Adrian Peterson is going to be required to speak to the media which is going to be a circus, but the ringleader of the circus who is putting the bad clown in the show won't have to answer any questions. Say what you want about Jerry Jones, but he would have at least stood in front of the firing squad to take some of the bullets. The criminal in Minnesota is invisible like most racketeers.

This was back when Jericho was determined to kill himself by falling on his head from heights, neither of these is as potentially horrific as that frankensteiner he used to do with both guys standing on the top rope.

I always liked this one, but then again I like watching matches where the guys try to break their own legs kicking each other.

I've found myself wanting to say this more than once when one of my kids are throwing a tantrum. I totally agree about the college system-- put these guys into the minors to develop them as players and people. Do pro baseball and hockey players have the maturity/arrest issues that NFL players do? For what I understand the NFL is the worst, and the NBA is the best, but basically all sports go through stuff like this from time to time. I honestly think that the biggest problem is that football is a violent game that attracts violent people. Being meaner and more violent than they average person is something that is encouraged in football like it isn't in other sports. It isn't hard to believe that someone who makes their living essentially trying to hurt other people has a hard time turning off those instincts. Add years of brain trauma and who knows what the fuck might happen.

For what it is worth, the programmer who was on some of the development videos made references to puro, so I'd say at least one. The problem is that they are going to put this out by Christmas no matter what, whether it is ready or not.

When Goodell talks I be like...

I agree with this. What Ray Rice did was horrible and unacceptable, and he should be punished for it. The issue I have with this whole thing is that he is not being punished for his crime, but based on how people have reacted to his crime. When they interviewed Ray Rice and he told them exactly what happened, they decided he should be punished for 2 games. When people complained, they upped the penalties going forward. When people watched the video they punished him again, not because he committed another crime, or it was different than the crime he was originally punished for, but because their original punishment looked bad. They honestly messed this up so bad that Ray Rice isn't even the subject of the story any more, it is how horribly they handled the situation. They have opened the floodgates for everyone with an agenda even vaguely related to the NFL, domestic violence, male oppression, and whatever else they can staple, tape, or paper clip to this story. They have shown that they are able to be manipulated, and people have decided that they are going to take advantage of this opportunity. I'll never understand these "well she hit him first" people, almost every woman I've ever dealt with has hit me harder than she hit him just joking around, and they are trying to justify him knocking her flat the fuck out.

The OJ trail was less cut and dry than this Pistorius trail to me. Pistorius killed someone he knew was in his house, without checking if it was her. OJ allegedly killed someone in a place that no one could prove he was, and the police mishandled the investigation the entire way. So not only was there no proof that OJ was actually at the crime scene, you couldn't trust the people who were supposed to prove that he was. Both of these people are most likely guilty, but Pistorius' story has more holes than a bum's sock. Then again OJ, just basically said, "I didn't do it," but we all know that Pistorius shot her.

Listen, the NFL is essentially the #1 television property in the United States, selling it isn't exactly ice to an Eskimo. Even if it was, they already have the money, keeping him around weaving these tales isn't making them another dime. Wasn't he sweeping up the parking lot a few years ago? This dude is not some sort of business genius. One of the first things I learned when I got my first management position was that owning up to your mistakes is much better than trying to cover them up. Everything will eventually come to the light, and the more you try to bury it the worse it will get. I really think they keep him around because they know he won't say no to any of their bullshit. He is basically their puppet (thanks Burgundy) who dances for the owners when the bullets start flying.

People keep saying this, but I can't understand how he makes them more money than the next person would. He is just a guy in a suit who is essentially selling a product that can't fail. Are you seriously telling me that this dude, who thinks it's a good idea to keep lying about shit when the truth will do, is the single most qualified person to be the commissioner of the NFL? There is no one else that would accept a $40+ million dollar job to not fuck up and lie about it? Seriously, this wouldn't be an issue if he just told the truth about seeing that video. Their issue is that everyone can see through their lies.

The biggest issue here is that the NFL put themselves in a position where they tried to legislate morality, which is basically like communism, it sounds like it should work until you try to put it into practice. They decided that they wanted to make Goodell to be the law and order commissioner and make all these guys act right, but that doesn't work with adults. The issue is that these people don't have a moral compass, they don't care that these guys are breaking rules or committing crimes. They only care if the public cares whether these guys are breaking rules or committing crimes. That is the reason that they are in the mess they're in now. They didn't think anyone would care that Ray Rice punched his wife(for the record, history has shown that they don't) so they suspended him 2 games expecting it to blow over. They didn't take into consideration that the video of the incident was going to go viral and people would demand harsher punishments. So they made harsher penalties thinking that would silence the critics of the initial punishment, and hoped that it would be enough. When that second video came out they had no plan and then they decided to suspend Rice again(which probably isn't legal) and claim that they never watched the video. There is NO FUCKING WAY that they didn't see that video. If you go back to when the original suspension was announced it is reported in multiple places that the NFL claimed that they did see it. The problem that they still can't get through their heads is that the video essentially does not matter. The video is just the visual representation of what everyone already knew happened. If you heard the story when it happened, it was known that he punched her and dragged her unconscious body off of the elevator. Why does the video matter? Goodell's story was that Rice's description of the events in the elevator were ambiguous, which doesn't mean anything at all. The Ravens, who decided to keep him around, described Rice's description of the events as accurate. So why cut him now? So did Rice lie to Goodell only to tell a contradictory story to the Ravens? Did they not confer with each other to see if their stories matched? Is one of these two entities lying? Which one? My question is whether or not the NFL, the Ravens, the public, or anyone else has a problem with Ray Rice punching his wife, or if they have a problem watching Ray Rice punch his wife? Because it sure looks like they all have a much bigger problem watching it than they do with it happening, and that is why this story isn't going to go away.

There sure are a lot of people believing a lot of shaky ass stories this week. How do you sleep next to someone hear an intruder, and somehow not ask if she heard it, check if she is OK, or not just assume the sound coming from the bathroom is not from the person that is no longer laying next to you? Your immediate response is to shoot into the bathroom? Is he trying to say that at no point in between hearing the alleged intruder and shooting into the bathroom he never looked to see if his girlfriend was still in bed? People believe this shit? This story is shakier than Goodell's and even Te'o's, but of course everyone who can do anything about it believes their bullshit.

Why did Mike Awesome's entire moveset consist of moves that could end up with a broken neck? That dive, the powerbombs to the floor, the top rope Awesomebombs, everything he did was basically fly in the air and pray for the best.

Maybe just do the top 4 guys in Flair, Steamboat, Funk, and Luger. Sting was pretty decent, but those four guys are clearly the best workers in the company at the time. The thing that amazes me watching these matches years later is that business was down in '89, because these matches and angles were absolutely great. I can't think of another year that had such consistently great main events, from legit main event guys that didn't make money.

I really think the Dreamcast was the last console that put its complete focus on fun. Games like Crazy Taxi, Power Stone, and Jet Set Radio were just so damn fun to play. They lost because all the other consoles tricked us into believing that fun was less important than graphics, marketing, and competing for big name games. I spent most of the day playing Destiny which is available on the Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, and PS3, yet everyday someone tells you that their Playstation is better than your Xbox or vice versa. The Dreamcast was the last console that tried to be both a hardcore gaming machine, and a quirky, unique, kinda goofy console. It's really a shame it didn't catch on, because I would have liked to see what strange, out of the box things they would have tried going forward.

I just went through all the 80s matches on the list and I thought maybe I should give out some awards so here I go. Wrestler of the decade: Ric Flair, he was probably in 75% of the matches and was the best part of basically every single one of them(Steamboat and Funk gave him a run for his money). 1989 was his magnum opus, he was at his best and he reached levels that very few guys could even dream to reach. Match of the Decade: Either Flair vs. Steamboat from the Clash, Flair vs. Funk from a couple Clashes after, or Steamboat vs. Savage from Wrestlemania III(Meltzer rated this match****1/2…blasphemy). They were basically the best wrestlers of the decade working their asses off against each other, and they are still very entertaining 25 years after they happened. I'd probably pick Steamboat vs. Savage if I had to pick a favorite, but Savage is my all-time favorite wrestler. Tag Team of the Decade: The Midnight Express were about as good of a tag team as there has ever been, and if life was fair they'd have a DVD set out with all of their greatest matches. Revelation of the Decade: It has to be Jumbo Tsuruta, he was someone I've heard about countless times, but he lived up to the hype. He is basically the bridge between the 80s U.S. heavyweight style and the 90s All Japan style. His match with Tenryu was basically the equivalent of Flair vs. Steamboat with fighting spirit. It was the best Japanese match I watched on this adventure. Tiger Mask II was pretty awesome too, but I'd already seen a lot of Misawa. I just didn't realize how good he was as a masked Jr. Heavyweight. Most Overrated and/or Underrated: Lex Luger was great in every single match he was in on this list. I know he was wrestling the likes of Flair and Steamboat, but he absolutely pulled his weight. He also has two matches with Brian Pillman that should be on the list and he miraculously pulls a **** match out of a washed up Tommy Rich. 6/8/90 - Tsuruta vs. Misawa (AJPW) ***** Misawa is out first and he's accompanied by Kobashi and Kawada. The Misawa chants are already in full effect in what I understand is his first big match after losing the Tiger Mask. Jumbo looks to show his dominance early with a big boot to the face and a tooth rattling lariat. Misawa reverses a back drop and baseball slides Jumbo out to the floor. He then hits his trademark rope flip followed by a drop kick to the floor. Jumbo gets cut off coming back in and Misawa then hits a running pescado. Misawa is definitely the plucky underdog here trying to stick and move, and use his speed to counter Jumbo's power. While Misawa's strategy is to strike quick and avoid Jumbo's power moves, that doesn't mean he's scared. He is here to win and even slaps Jumbo a couple times to make sure he knows that he ain't no bitch. Misawa charges with a cross body, but Jumbo catches him and drops him into a stun gun and Jumbo brings the beatdown. Jumbo hits some nasty knees and a powerbomb before getting his double arm suplex reversed into a back slide. Misawa hits him with an elbow and baseball slides Jumbo back to the outside. Misawa hits a pretty swank plancha from the top before going back in and attempting a bridging roll up. Misawa goes to the top to hit his knee tap frog splash, but Jumbo gets the knees up. Jumbo hits a couple of nasty assed lariats before going for the back drop. Misawa kicks off the turnbuckle making Jumbo take most of the brunt of the backdrop on the back of his head and then hits a German suplex and goes for the Tiger Driver. Jumbo reverses it and hits his jumping knee right to Misawa's face. Jumbo sends him into the corner and Misawa tries a springboard crossbody, but Jumbo's ready and hits him with an elbow. Jumbo charges for another jumping knee but Misawa moves and Jumbo gets hung in the ropes. They fight over a vertical suplex, and Misawa drops behind and goes for a back drop. Jumbo reverses in mid air, but Misawa rolls through for the pinfall. This was a great match and the crowd popped huge for Misawa's win. They absolutely love him. Kobashi, and Kawada have to basically fight fans off to get him back to the locker room. This seemed like a changing of the guard and a really historic moment. This is very reminiscent of the Flair vs. Sting match from the first Clash where the young lion takes on the old vet, except the young lion wins here. This is just about perfect. The fans were behind Misawa in the beginning, but by the time he won, they damn near rioted. This is how you elevate a guy, well worth *****. 10/19/90 - Tsuruta/Taue/Fuchi vs. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi (AJPW) ***** This is one of those matches where you can just feel that something special is about to happen. The last match made Misawa look like an absolute stud, and the crowd here is chanting his name from the very start. Watching Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi at this age is strange, because they all wrestle with a youthful exuberance that is just plain missing from the matches I've watched over the years. They see the mountaintop, and they're running to the peak. They see the veteran's time waning, and they are looking to take their spots. I don't speak any Japanese, but the story of this match is clear as day. The young guys are looking across the ring, staring down the veterans and telling them, "It's our time now." The veterans are staring back saying "If you want my spot, you're going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands." It works so well because of how both teams work. The young'ns are all enthusiastic hitting their diving clotheslines and running around like lethal chickens with their heads cut off. The vets are just surly assholes who are going to take their time and make this ass whooping count. In the end the old school ass kickers get the win, but it is very apparent that the fans see Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi as the future. This is the best six man tag I've ever seen, ***** is well deserved . It is essentially perfect. 7/7/90 - Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys (NWA) ****3/4 The Southern Boys are out first dressed like confederate soldiers, and in 1990 I'm surprised that shit like that would fly especially in Baltimore. The Southern Boys control Eaton to start, and are basically the most racist white bread babyfaces ever. Sweet Stan comes in and has a karate standoff with Tracy Smothers…Stan Lane's karate is both the best(in a douchebag heel way) and worst(in a this shit looks terrible) example of karate that I've ever seen. What was the last heel tag team that had the always effective gimmick of knowing every trick in the tag team book? The Midnight Express' entire hook was that they knew every single dirty trick ever invented and used them all every chance they had. Seriously, they would just need to have a lot of double team moves, and maybe have a douchebag manager, it would work right now. Oh the match is great, the Midnight Express may be the best tag team of all time, and the Southern Boys ate their Wheaties that morning. ****3/4 may be a little high, but I just watched the above six-man and this just doesn't really compare. This was fun, but don't watch it after one of the best matches you've ever seen and think it's going to compare. 9/1/90 - Fantastics vs. Kikuchi/Joe Malenko (AJPW) ****3/4 I could only find a version that was joined in progress, and was about 10 minutes long. It was really good, but there were some pretty big flaws for a match someone would rate at ****3/4. First there was a spot where Kikuchi was body slammed from the apron to the floor, and he pops up like nothing happened. He took one of the most ridiculous bumps I've ever seen, and didn't sell it at all. Then Kikuchi botches a springboard, and the victory roll setup that leads to a doomsday device. Everything else is pretty stellar, but it is just too flawed to rate that high. I'd probably have it around **** 9/1/90 - Tsuruta vs. Misawa (AJPW) ****1/2 Before I started this project I had never watched a single Jumbo Tsuruta match, but he is basically neck and neck with Flair as far as who is the MVP of this list so far. He is everything I hoped he would be and more, and Misawa at this point was coming into his peak. At this point in their careers the only thing these two couldn't do was suck. These matches are outstanding, but they are becoming increasingly harder to describe interestingly. So don't be surprised if I skip a couple of these every now again to keep this interesting. For now, I think I have to address the absolute nuclear hot crowd here. There are good crowds, great crowds, outstanding crowds, and then there is this shit. I don't remember the last time an American wrestling match had a crowd that cared even half this much. This shit is absolutely insane. There is a point where Jumbo mounts(pause) Misawa and rains down punches before throwing him into the crowd and hitting him with a chair. The crowd reacts like they are watching someone murder their dog. They care about these two wrestlers more than most people care about their children. When Misawa kicks out of a backdrop, I'm surprised the building didn't collapse. Misawa and Jumbo are insanely good here, but this crowd is the star of the match. ****1/2 seems more than reasonable for the match, but this is a ***** crowd. 8/19/90 - Liger vs. Pegasus (NJPW) ****1/2 The 1990s were a golden age for Jr. Heavyweight wrestling and Liger and Benoit are two of the best of the era. I understand a lot of people have well deserved problems with Benoit and how his life played out, but I've always been one who can talk about someone's work without taking into consideration their personal character. So while watching his matches are problematic for some, I can still watch them and enjoy them despite who he was and his personal choices. After all the Nazis basically invented the highway system, and none of us are taking all back roads next time we go to grandma's house. He was a scumbag, but he was also a damn good wrestler. This is 9:00 and I believe the beginning is clipped, but even if it was complete I think it would be overrated at ****1/2. It was a really good, fast paced match, but it lacked that little something extra that takes a match from good to great. With that said, I need to stop watching matches like this directly after a Jumbo/Misawa match. Those matches are so damn good with such an amazing atmosphere, and they all seem like the most important match of all time. I have a feeling that Misawa/Jumbo is going to be to 1990 what Flair/Steamboat was to 1989.

I think that "Ali" did an inferior job of telling the story as compared to "When We Were Kings", a documentary from around the same time frame. I thought it did a vastly superior job of illustrating what Ali meant to the people of Zaire/Africa. As far as Ali being hated... he was definitely hated by white America,but to Black Americans and internationally, he was beloved for standing up to the establishment. The Foreman fight was his baby face turn in a lot of ways, because Ali an the fight with his brain, and he did it in front of a crowd that he was already a hero to. Americans love a winner, and it was getting hard for white America not to admit he was the best. The Greatest even! I think you are underestimating the amount of black people who found his comments about other black people reprehensible. There was a large group of black people who did love him because he fought the system, but there was also a lot of black people who hated the fact that he disparaged every black fighter with the same type of racist comments that he claimed to be fighting against more than a little problematic.