Greggulator

Just to go back to Pacers/Heat Game 5 -- I hate that "LeBron should have taken the shot" is a talking point. Why isn't the talking point "Chris Bosh needs to make that shot?" Because that's the real thing right there. Also, I think NBA coaches learned their lesson after last playoffs when a lack of bigs at the rim let LBJ drive uncontested for a few last-second shots. I hated when that happened last year. LeBron at the rim is essentially a guaranteed shot. Making LeBron pass the ball adds at least a little bit of a variable -- maybe Bosh bobbles the pass; maybe someone gets a hand on the ball; Bosh taking a mid-range shot isn't as good as LBJ driving to the rim, etc.

I don't think Daniel Bryan can really say: "Yeah, the plan was for me to get into an extended chase for the WWE Title and to get 85% of the final hour from SummerSlam to WrestleMania, have the announcers talk about me more than anyone and make the entire story of the promotion be about me. And to help do that, they'd keep pulling the mat out from under me. Also, along the way, I got to cement Bray Wyatt as the next big thing. But even that was based around my chase for the title, since he was trying to convert me to the darkside so I could overcome the Authority's odds." Because that's what happened.

It's been a few weeks since we've added anything to this! But I think it's been a few weeks since there was anything truly great. I need to go back and see the Cena/Usos/Wyatts mash-ups again to remember what happened when. Anyways, from NXT -- SAMI ZAYN VS. TYLER BREEZE -- This was a great coming out party for Tyler Breeze, who has gone from "entertaining comedy worker" to very, very good since his character made his debut. This was a really fun indie spot fest. It felt a lot like high-end ECW stuff from the 90s. Everyone remembers all of the insane hardcore stuff from ECW, but they would then throw out something like "Chris Candido vs. Lance Storm" or "RVD vs. Jerry Lynn" or "Super Crazy vs. Tairi" that were just really fun, fast-paced matches. I know our tastes have matured a lot since then, and we've moved on past spot fests. But this had all of those plus a really fun story of both guys thinking they needed to try new things to put away the other. This was especially true on Breeze's end, and he emphasized that point in his promo. This also had a really fun end with Breeze taking advantage after a cheapshot to steal the win. Fun stuff. NATTIE VS. CHARLOTTE FLAIR -- This is a miracle match. Charlotte's been a lot of fun since she joined the BFFs but she hasn't had any singles matches that were anything too special. Nattie's polarizing in wrestling dork circles. I think she's pretty bad a lot of times but I'm changing my mind. This match was absolutely golden. It had some sloppy stuff to it, like the weird rolling Figure Four stuff. But the actual intensity and emotion they put into the match -- slap and chop exchanges -- and stuff like "I'm hooking your niece in your finishing move right in front of your face, Bret" will always go a long way in my eyes. Stuff like that is more important to me than whether or not stuff looks clean, and this had it in spades. They did a great job making this the next stage in a family rivalry. It looses points, though, for Bret Hart sandbagging his apron work. He should be ashamed of himself for someone who prides himself on his professionalism and always makes a point to talk himself up in that aspect. No "COME ON, NATTIE!" or turning to the crowd when she's in control or even a threatening point at Flair? Come on, dude. If he upped his apron game, this match would have been even better.

Nattie's stock has gone up a lot in my eyes recently. She's had decent matches during her NXT run. Maybe it's because she has more time to work on matches in NXT but the divide in talent between NXT and WWE Divas is so stark. But I think, for the most part, she's been pretty bad in the ring for most of her career. That match, though, really had no right being as excellent as it was. It wasn't a perfect match -- the Figure Four rollover spots did get weird -- but even with that, it was really damn good. I think Paige vs. Emma was better. Paige vs. Tamina on NXT was also really, really good and stiff and nasty.

Ah, the new age of working the marks continues.

The more I think about it, the more I love Tyler Breeze getting a push for the NXT title. He's likely the next big thing coming from NXT. He's shown he can work as a comedy guy since his debut. But he's really stepped up his in-ring game recently and is showing a ton of potential. He's got a great look, a fantastic gimmick, and is starting to really put together good matches where he's a solid wrestler but masterful cheap shot artist capable of stealing wins with his Beauty Shot finisher. Sami doesn't need the title to get over, obviously. He's absolutely terrific in all aspects of professional wrestling. But I love him on NXT and never want him to leave. He's the centerpiece of the show and has been since his debut. I'd much rather see him in that role than him getting 10 minutes total a week on Raw/Smackdown.

I think you have to use a sliding scale a bit. It was far from perfect and had some clunkiness and video game stuff. But it's also Natalya, who has been better but is usually pretty bad, and Charlotte, who hasn't done anything nearly as good as this before. They brought intensity and fire and had some fun family rivalry stuff with the submissions. That match is pretty much a miracle match between a not-very-good veteran and someone who is still pretty green that they also tied into a long-running family rivalry.

That match was so, so, so good. There was some sloppiness -- the rolling Figure Four spot where ring general Nattie forgot she was supposed to be the one in pain -- but it got made up for with their slaps and the general intensity both brought to the table. That was Nattie's best work, by far, and Charlotte pulled a Tyler Breeze in climbing up a whole lot of ladders in one night.

Is it too early to talk about the show? This was the first match I saw. That was the best possible RVD/Jerry Lynn in ECW-type match ever. Wow. Tyler Breeze became a star.

Sami's 90s ska-punk and Tyler Breeze's New Order clone cover the basics of music I listened to from the ages of 16 to 22.

Are you kidding me? He apparently wrote and SANG those lyrics! And it's a New Order rip-off! PERFECT.

Alicia has grown on me a ton lately, like she should. But she wasn't involved in anything interesting for a few years. That's not her fault, obviously. But AJ was given the ball and ran with it for a long time. I don't think Bryan becomes what he became without his AJ angle. She did great stuff with Kane, Punk and Ziggler. The only thing she really fell flat at was the commissioner stuff, but that always falls flat. The Pipebombshell is one of the best promos in recent memory. And she was the only woman who obviously cared about her performances for a good two years. But Alicia got awesome. Her NXT matches have been really solid and her current stuff has been absolutely batshit. But she's been doing it for three weeks. Let's give her some more time. I hope Alicia doesn't win the title. When was the last time the Divas division had more than one person worth watching? LayCool?

MITB 2011 is an excellent show with arguably a ***** main event and the best MITB Ladder match ever imo (the Smackdown one). Cena/Punk is a historically good match. It's either that or Shield/Wyatts from EC as my MOTD.

Test was released in November 2004. He won the immunity battle royale in November 2001. In between those 3 years, all that happened was The Un-Americans stable with Lance Storm & Christian and the "Testicles" stuff with Stacy/feud with Scott Steiner. Then it went like this: injury - surgery - fired. I remembered all of that except for his release date, which I had to Wiki. Is that sad? I quite enjoyed RAW back in the early brand split days for all the wrong reasons... The Test/Steiner/Stacy angle was brutal. It ended with Stacy becoming their slave. I can only guess her duties. But it got there in a really weird way. Stacy managed Scott. She cost him a match against Test where the stipulation was that Steiner had to become Test's servant. I think he had to carry his bags or something once. I really wish they just kept it with that so I could hear Steiner try to pronounce the phrase "indentured servitude."

I know it will never happen since the Sixers are now building their team responsibly, but I would do anything for a max-spaced Lance to play in my city for the next five years. Everything is on the table with that guy in terms of lunacy. Crazy guys who aren't as good as they think they are make the NBA great. That's also what's essentially happening with Spurs/OKC. The Spurs, tactically, are by far the best team in basketball. But KD and Russ are the best two players on the court, and Parker's a distance third. And I *LOVE* Parker, but when you have two sick freaks playing like the baddest dudes alive, and Serge Ibaka hawking the interior like a monster, all of the ball screens and great passing is sort of for naught. Sometimes having a 6'11" dude doing a Larry Bird impersonation and the most athletic PG possibly ever flying down the lane is all you need.

Divas have a hard time getting over when positioned as the champion. The division for years has been AJ and then a bunch of interchangeable, awful parts. If Alicia Fox can get over with this gimmick without needing the title to do so, it's a really great step in adding depth to the division.

I tuned in just in time for Usos/Wyatts. The Wyatts start out with a promo. Luke Harper really cuts a good big crazy man cult follower interview. This was a really good match, which I shouldn't even have to say at this point. They just kick and punch and beat the hell out of each other for a while until they get to the really fun finishing sequence, highlighted by the Usos doing their great dives. Match ends with Harper absolutely decapitating J(immy) Uso with his clothesline. It's an A+++ clothesline.Bray lays out one of the Usos post-match with Sister Abigail as Harper taunts him. Definitely worth watching.

Totally feeling this Philly band called Modern Baseball who seem to have become a pretty big thing lately.

I believe you were simply "john lowe" back then and on the short list of my favorite posters! (I went by Zubaz back in the green board days.)

Yeah, we did that too. I tore said deck down within three years of moving in and will NEVER replace it. Scrubbing/staining/sealing a deck isn't all that much work aside from a few hours but I have to replace a board or two before we put our house on the market, and figure out a way to repair a loose corner, hopefully w/o needing a ladder since I get bugged out by heights. That's the part that stinks -- I'm okay with some house case stuff (I can replace a toilet!) but stuff like sawing and the like isn't anything I'm particularly great at. And I lost a weekend doing so since it was raining on and off this weekend. It's really not worth it. My wife likes to sit outside but we also have a front patio. I also love it when our deck-less neighbors grill out front. Everyone sort of hangs out and sometimes an impromptu block barbecue starts up. One of my favorite moments of my life came in 2007. That was when the Phillies clinched the NL East on the final day of the season, capping a ridiculous comeback against the Mets. My wife and I have the MLB package so our house became a headquarters of sorts for a few of our neighbors who would pop in to get Mets scores over those weeks. The day they clinched became a block party and we had multiple front grill operations going on. Decks don't provide such opportunities! The one good thing is that maybe the person who wants to buy our house will be seduced by deck ownership like we were. The hopeful new house (god, I don't want to jinx this!) has a back patio.

You'd be pretty cranky too if you had an employee on the job for almost two decades that still needed to be led by the nose every time out. Don't know if joking or not. How long has Cole been on the job? How many times has Vince screamed in his ear about cover plot points, getting certain things over, etc.? I know the announcing can get a tad repetitive but I also know that Vince has forgotten more about running a wrestling company in one hour than I'll ever know in my life, combined.

This is a photo from Wissahickon Park, the aforementioned park that I can enter from two block away from my current house. It's over 1,800 acres in size with over 50 miles of trails. It's pretty much my favorite place on earth. I've lived right next to the park in some form for the past eight years of my life and I think I've explored 30 percent of it. It's that gigantic!

I always come close to seeing Queen reunion shows but end up not wanting to spend the money at the last second. Adam Lambert's really not that bad as a front man. I would definitely go if the dude from fun. was playing the role of Freddie, though. My friends saw the Queen reunion tour when Paul "The Voice" Rodgers was taking the reigns. They said it was so incredibly amazing to see thousands of people leave their seats to head to the bathroom at once when he said, "Okay, now we've got some Bad Company coming up!" or what have you.

My wife and I put in a bid on a new house tomorrow. Hopefully it works out. Our current house is a lovely starter home. We moved in here seven years ago or so. It's a very solid 3-BR, 1-bath house that is very livable. But since we both make more money now than we did when we first got married and bought our house, and we've retired most of our student loans, we figure we could buy something bigger/with more character. Philadelphia has an abundance of houses with charm and character, so we decided to start looking. We really discovered that house-hunting made us really think about who we are and how we want to live our lives. Buying our first home was sort of a necessity -- we just got married, we had a lovely apartment but were running out of room, etc. But we had a pretty tight price range. That sort of limited it to the general Philadelphia rowhome. We looked at some really nice, old places that were amazing but felt way, way, way too fancy for us (even though the prices are affordable). We also realized that where we live now has all sorts of great advantages. Wissahickon Park might be the best park in any city in the United States and an entrance is just a block away. We have a train station that gets us downtown in 15 minutes or so. We have a bus at the end of my block that gets us downtown in just a little bit more. It's a 10 minute commute from my wife's workplace. It's right by the highway so I can get to my office. We can walk to our beloved ice cream stand and to the restaurants in the commercial strip by us. It's really safe. It's just a great little neighborhood and we love it. It took maybe leaving the neighborhood to make us realize how much we'd miss it. So we started looking at houses around here and found one we really love in our price range. It's two block or so away. It was built 115 years ago and has all of these really unique little antique things like a clawtub and a non-working steampipe that was used to heat the bedroom. We start the whole bidding thing tomorrow and hopefully it works out. But even if it doesn't, we both realized that the little 15-block or so section of Philadelphia we live in is where we want to stay for the next 10 years of our lives or so. That's a great feeling.

Gotta give myself a big F You for thinking that moving into a house with a deck was a great idea. Guess what? It's not! Deck's are a pain-in-the-ass to maintain! DON'T MOVE INTO A HOUSE WITH A DECK!