Technico Support

Don't take "Mania 3" literally. You could say Mania 2 or 5, Summerslam 88, whatever. I mean to illustrate how Vince used to actually get guys over and then rely on them to draw. As opposed to today where nobody is booked strong enough to draw and then he just calls the stars of yesterday when he needs them.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad and apparently true. Building new stars who can headline is the exception to the rule nowadays and I'm positive your scenario, with Vince hitting the "old draws" panic button, is correct. But damn, sometimes you have to just push forward. I'd be really into the spectacle of an Austin comeback, so I'm, being a hypocrite here, but come on. Steve Austin was huge 16 years ago. Vince didn't try to get Sammartino, Backlund or Graham for Mania 3, did he? There were some really down Wrestlemanias in the early 90s when the company was trying to build back up between the end of the 80s era and the start of the Attitude era but they just went ahead with the guys they had instead of relying on cheap crutches. Eventually, these old draws won't be able to do it anymore and then what will they have? There was a rumor that there was some infighting regarding the main of the next Mania, with Vince wanting Rock vs Brock. Sigh.

In completely unrelated news, The Baggage Handler Wrestling Federation (BHWF) is holding a tournament this Saturday to determine its first ever Intercontinental Champion. Catch "Payback on the Tarmac" exclusively on iPPV!

Breaking Bad doesn't have any Kid rock or AC/DC in it. Vince will hate it.

One that I found myself thinking about for some reason:I hated "Taken." It was a jingoistic pile of crap. Every single non-American character in the film was a racist caricature and every single one was a bad guy. It was all us vs. them. The whole lesson was, "don't let your pretty white daughter travel to one of those dirty foreign countries. Filthy foreigners will kidnap her and sell her into the sex trade and their horrible foreign officials will even be in on it." So the viewer is taught to hate the film's non-Americans and then cheer for the American good guy as Liam Neeson (joke's on you! He's not from here!) brutally dispatches them in a parade of torture porn. Just a disgusting, vile movie.

It's already been said but, god damn, Kelly and Corino are awful. They had an exchange where they discussed Bennett crying over almost breaking Whitmer's neck. How fucking dumb. The guy is a heel. He is not supposed to be remorseful. Unless a face turn was coming (like Nikita crying for Magnum T.A.), what was that exchange supposed to accomplish?

holy shit that story

Sam Worthington sits alone atop the "shitty at doing an American accent" hall of fame. In any role he plays, you can hear the Australian accent sneaking in.

I will fight you, sir. Franka Potente was amazing on this season of The Bridge. But then again, I'm not sure what her accent was supposed to be. She's a German actress playing a...Mexican with a German name?

Exactly. WWE doesn't do nuance. Remember, Hassan and Daivari started as Americans of Middle Eastern descent who were sick of being treated badly by other Americans post 9/11. That was a pretty well thought out gimmick but it didn't take long for Vince or whoever just just say, "fuck it, make 'em terrorists!"

Of course, but they're not seen as a "dirty organization." When Mike Tomlin tried to trip Jacoby Jones from the sidelines, nobody said, "yup, typical Pittsburgh." The point I'm making is that I'm guessing (but don't care enough to research stats to win a dumb internet argument) every team has roughly the same amount of bad apples as Baltimore has had over the past decade plus, but only Baltimore is painted as some mythical evil organization that gleefully welcomes criminals and scumbags. It's pretty lame. I think it comes from two places: hatred of Ray Lewis (completely legit; the guy is a grade A douchebag who no doubt did something horrible that night) and a little jealousy of how well the team has done since its inception. But in all, I think the Ray Lewis thing happening so early in the team's existence did a lot to paint the team in that light.

That's why there's zero reason to get invested in WWE. The whole company runs based on Vince's bizarre issues, biases, preferences and general all around pettiness. And he's constantly changing his mind. He killed a push and tried to turn a guy heel for who knows what reason. He would turn down money if the voices in his head told him to.

I forgot all about that. Only WWE would turn a guy heel because he's too over.

Nah, it was the first thing I checked for. Sad thing is I had to check and see if Adam Bomb was still alive and was surprised the see he is.

There's nothing especially wrong with Cena, he's just the most glaring example of WWE's problems as a whole. The unstoppable superhero was great back when there was only a few hours of TV a week and you never saw the dude except for PPVs and SNME. But there's so much TV, they're just burning through matches and storylines so fast, and he's on top for every single show so much that people are sick of him. If it wasn't Cena, it would be somebody else. If they insist on this much TV every week, they really need to change how they do things, because Super Cena going over strong 10 times per month is too much.

IWC = it's the Special Olympics and everyone is calling everyone else retarded

Andre looking like Mark Briscoe

AWESOME. Piper's They Live shirt is a nice touch.

That's an America problem, not a football problem.

If anything, all the stories coming out this season, plus the Patriots having a multiple murderer on their team, should teach us that every team has "jackasses" and every team will tolerate them as much as they are allowed to. Your own favorite team still employs a man who clearly has anger problems and pretty much tried to kill a few dudes on the field. I'm betting the Ravens have had the same number of shitty people on their teams over the years as any other team has. What I don't get is how so many other teams get a pass and we just say, "oh, he's a bad apple," while Baltimore gets a rep as a dirty club where this behavior is allowed with open arms. Nobody called out Pittsburgh as a dirty organization when Roethlisburger raped a girl in a bathroom while one of his lineman guarded the door. Why is that?

There's a lot of crap going around but only time will tell. They at least got their head out of their ass in the second half of the Philly game so MAYBE this won't be a complete disaster of a season. I can definitely see the team getting frustrated after how the last two seasons ended. Then this one starts 2-2 and could have easily been 1-3. I'm sure his antics are getting tiresome, too.

Not sure how much more you could enlarge it without Alex having blood pressure issues

So what's with the Niners rebelling against Aspie McKhakies?

I think it'll be looked upon as a transitional era, a grey area between the Vince McMahon era and what comes after him. The positives you mentioned (NXT, indy guys coming in) are not things being championed by Vince McMahon. However the negatives are all Vince. Start and stop pushes, ADD booking and letting talented guys fall by the wayside because of imaginary downsides are all McMahon specialties. Small non-Vince changes are being made but the guy at the top still has final say. Good things might happen but it could be for naught because of Vince. Word is he's already souring on either Zayn or Neville because they're too flippy. Can you believe that shit? The company is being run by a 69 year old man whose best days are behind him yet everyone still has to cater to his tastes and ever-changing whims. As far as having a true, unified direction goes, WWE is in a holding pattern.

OH shit that is tremendous. Is it time for a "dumb shit at the gym" thread? I get the feeling it would be a few pages deep pretty fast.