Day: July 19, 2004

Cubs: You know what’s cool? This Cardinals series is so easy to figure. Either we sweep and get to 6 games back, or we start looking at the Wild Card. There’s no inbetween.

They totally don’t want to risk Prior pitching tommorow, but they’re afriad saying no will cost them at this point. There’s some urgency now.

I believe this is the day Rey Ordonez leaves town. Quietly.

Dream Job: They’re actually putting Mike Hall to work – he starts for real tonight, on the very late SportsCenter. I assume he’ll be there quite a bit, since it’s the one they can redo, and which reairs enough during the day that it makes him look important. (It’s a nice lead in to the Poker Countdown!) Plus, hey, stick the new guy on the crappy shift.

Angle Angle: I still can’t get over the Angle Is A Fraud video pacakge from Velocity. What a horrible nonsensical thing. Thinking like an evil genius for a moment, there has to be an advantage gained for going through with a scheme, or it’s not worth doing. That kind of thing is more the Insane Genius’ style. What was gained by Angle pretending to be crippled in the fiendish acts they brought up?

Angle tries to count a pinfall for Luther: ??? I’m thinking the cast might have hurt him here
Angle hits Cena with a cane: Yea, he wouldn’t have had a cane, but I’m thinking he might have clocked him with something
Angle says his knee hurt: OH THE EVIL

There was absolutely no thought put into it, besides “hey, here’s some clips! See how Angle is being evil there? And there’s one about his knee!” I mean, it wasn’t even close to “Jeff Jarrett and David Arquette scheme to screw DDP” comptency, and we’re not talking about a very high water mark there.

What I’m hoping is it was just “hey, it’s Velocity, who cares? And we’ve got to hurry to get down for the Diva Search special so hurry up” thing, because otherwise the storyline quality control is not so good.

Free Suggestion: Suggested Angle talking points for Thursday
– Big Show did almost kill him – that wasn’t faking. But he got better. He’s a Gold Medalist! These things happen.
– It was All Eddie’s fault, so he admits he did use his power to screw with Eddie
– And, like he’s said all along, Cena was not a fitting United States champion
– He had to take drastic measures, so he forced Cena to prove himself as a worthy champion by facing challenger after challenger, but Cena failed by not beating the challenge of his own emotions. Angle didn’t want to keep sitting in the wheelchair, but he had to do it, to show the Committee that Cena was not someone to be trusted with a title.
– JBL won the title fair and square, and even Eddie can’t argue that, and JBL is a model champion. Kurt knew it would be disatrious if a liar/cheater/stealer for the image of SmackDown! became champion again, so he did what he had to do, because by gum, it was the right thing to do
– And that’s his central point. Angle might’ve had some personal grudges, but he did what he did for the best of SmackDown!

(And then he gets fired anyway and Stephanine’s the new GM and blah blah blah)

A lot of that was stuff DeMott was trying to get over later in the show, so maybe it’s what they’ll go with. I get the feeling sometimes that he’s basing his comments less on the possiblites he’s supposed to hype, and more on the way he’s been told the the angle will actually turn out.

RAW: I’m betting the Diva Search bit happens at the end of hour one/beginning of hour two. There’s going to be a lot of people annoyed if it’s the end of the show – except, hey, you can go do something else sooner. I’m sure the final vote will end up in the main event slot and people will be annoyed!

This is a total “watch it on TiVo/tape delay” situation for the next 9 weeks. They’re going to push it hard, and likely try to blantantly kiss up to the fans in hopes they don’t turn on the segment in the first week. Plus an Oh So Shocking elimination. (I think they turn on the red head, but I’m not predicting anything besides her being annoying with her annoyingness.) The question is, do they have Trish or another girl on the roster start the hate angle with them now or wait for the winner?

Whatever happened to Jazz, by the way? I saw her name on a house show listing this weekend, but she’s been off TV for quite a while. I mean, I know what the problem is:

Faces: Lita, Victoria, Nidia, Stacy, (Ivory)
Heels: Trish*, Molly, Gail*, Jazz

And, with no feuds outside of The Women’s Champion vs The #1 Contender, you don’t have enough to do for 4 heel women. Or women in general. With Trish and Gail hurt, maybe she gets fill in duty? It’s not much of a return, but would you really expect them to have much of a return planned for her?

It’s not like I miss Jazz. It’s just weird. I don’t think WWE has too many people on the roster (perhaps the wrong people), but they rarely seem to getting the most out of them.

This could also be a “Hey, what happened to Charlie Haas?” question, too.

Divac to Lakers (ESPN.com). Oh no. This is the uglyness that ensues when you decide to leave the state.