oh yes

NJPW Inoki TV Debut lineup, PWI (watch for many many many popups or cheat like I did and just read about it on the DVDVR board; NJPW.com does not confirm, but they haven’t bothered to update in a few weeks) Figured the card would be switched around because of Curry’s injury, but I had no … Continue reading “oh yes”

NJPW Inoki TV Debut lineup, PWI (watch for many many many popups or cheat like I did and just read about it on the DVDVR board; NJPW.com does not confirm, but they haven’t bothered to update in a few weeks)

Figured the card would be switched around because of Curry’s injury, but I had no idea:
– Samoa Joe (c) vs Shinya Makabe for the ROH Title
– IWGP Jr. Champion Heat vs Rocky Romero [non-title?]
– American Dragon vs Ultimo Dragon [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! such a dork !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
– Toru Yano vs ???
– Kazuhiro Hamanaka vs ???
C.M. Punk and Vampiro to appear

They had me at Rocky vs Heat, actually.

Expedia says I can get from O’Hare to LAX (via PHX!) and back sameday for $428.30 and I’m almost thinking about it. It’d probably be better if I actually looked at a map to find Santa Monica but hey, that’d be thinking.

At the very least, I’ve gotta get that tape. Anyone get KVMD?

Edit: As noted in the comments, I won’t be going. Was an interesting idea. Still need the tape.

King of Chicago (followup)

Followup I can’t believe I forgot Valpo. They totally fit the Usual NCAA Suspects. Butler probably should fit in too, maybe even IUPUI if they had managed to get in this year. I think putting DePaul over Big10Basketball is an envy thing; being from a fellow city school, I know they must get way more … Continue reading “King of Chicago (followup)”

Followup

I can’t believe I forgot Valpo. They totally fit the Usual NCAA Suspects. Butler probably should fit in too, maybe even IUPUI if they had managed to get in this year.

I think putting DePaul over Big10Basketball is an envy thing; being from a fellow city school, I know they must get way more attention than they deserve, so they must get a lot of attenion. But I tend to zone out on Big10 basketball so I could see the other side.

I think Arena Football’s importance is overplayed just because they have a national TV deal; they appeared to lose their radio deal locally, and no one seemed to have much interest when they got to the semi-finals this year. There’s probably as many people in Dekalb (and in the western suburbs, because it’s quite the mid-range high school graduate magnet) who care about the Huskies as people who care about the Rush.

Ralph Wiley

Ralph Wiley – Page 2 Memorial Tanvir mentioned in the comments back on Monday, and I’ve been kinda felt I should add more since then, but I don’t find much to add. I liked his columns – Page 2 and back when I used to get SI. I was always curious about his books, though … Continue reading “Ralph Wiley”

Ralph Wiley – Page 2 Memorial

Tanvir mentioned in the comments back on Monday, and I’ve been kinda felt I should add more since then, but I don’t find much to add.

I liked his columns – Page 2 and back when I used to get SI. I was always curious about his books, though I never actually read them. I didn’t always agree with him. Sometimes his metaphors were too forced, or gimmicks too annoying, or his desires to group different topics outreached his grasp. But the highpoints were so good, even if you disagreed, you’d want to hear his side of the argument.

Which is not different than hundred of other people have managed to say about him this week. Wiley own found his own way to say things. If I’m not doing that, I’m not doing much of a proper eulogy.

I do know one thing; if I ever come up with something half as good “All a man’s got is the integrity of his work”, feel free to off me right there. Wiley’s ability to grab you with a good opening line was vastly underrated.

RAW

RAW by Scott. (also see: Bad Blood and TUESDAY) Ultimo Gail is just great. Well, not in the good match sense, the “which wacky submission will she use next” sense. It’s even better when the people taking them have no idea how they’re supposed to sell them. I think it was TomK who correclty wondered … Continue reading “RAW”

RAW by Scott. (also see: Bad Blood and TUESDAY)

Ultimo Gail is just great. Well, not in the good match sense, the “which wacky submission will she use next” sense. It’s even better when the people taking them have no idea how they’re supposed to sell them. I think it was TomK who correclty wondered what the point of pushing – I guess the JR tease which went nowhere (and so, they shouldn’t have bothered) about pushing a heel female tag team when your champ is a heel, so I guess one of them turns face between now and the next PPV.

Since Gail’s winning and is the more important of the duo right now, I’d guess Molly would be person flipping sides to serve as a building block. Which could’ve been another fine angle post-haircut, as sympathy for her could’ve worked to get the personality shift over. But that would mean they plan these things out in advance.

I thought the Highlight Reel was one of their better talking bits in quite some time. Four different characters got motivation – which isn’t the word I really want but it’s 2 AM so I’ll go with it – setting up the match next week, while drawing in some history. Jericho got a reason to be drawn into the anti-Evolution forces, which makes me happy because that surely means the end of Jericho/Christian for at least now.

Triple H did put over Angle (though there were shennangins) when he was going the undefeated streak, which makes me think he’s going to do the same here. I don’t see anyone reporting it so it’s probably just a red herring (because it was only explicity a #1 contenders match for Triple H), but I was wondering if they might actually main event Eugene this month, for lack of a better thing to do. It’s a pretty safe arguement that he’s got more momentuem than Edge at this moment, and if it was a face/heel match, I’m sure they’d think about doing it. Eugene’s probably never going to be as interesting once the novelty wears off (see: the Hurricane), so they might as well mine it for all it’s wroth.

Main event would’ve been great if anyone who taped it would’ve gotten the whole thing. Since they obviously had to be planning the Joe Schmoe 2 stuff in advance, they probably knew they were going to get extra time to make up for it. If they did, they could’ve just adjusted the schedule that’s distrubted to all the DVRs out there, and no one misses the main event because taping cut off too soon.

I liked RAW – the second hour non-Lita stuff, mostly – but it wasn’t the super duper Great RAW Rick Scaia saw, and I’m thinking he’s underestimating the effect being there had on him. I also disagree with him on his Chavo Classic piece, but I want to disagree with more than thrown off sentence so we’ll try that later.

It must really suck to be Matt Hardy this week. Every mark and smart guy in the world coming up to tell you about Lita’s pregenacy, and have to continunally smile and laugh it off. Forget about being stuck in a stupid storyline two hours a week, try having to talk about it to everyone you meet for the next month, and everyone pretending like they’re the funniest person in the world by making incredible obvious jokes. That’ll cause a sore spot.

Other stuff took longer than I’d like, so I’ll catch up on comments tommorow. I’m tempted to count Rosey/Hurricane vs La Resistance matches too, but we’ll see.