short road trips

(Let me ease into this.) It occurred to me this week that there’s quite a bit of intra-IL College Basketball going on. Loyola’s played Western, Bradley (who’ll be good this year), and will play Lake Forest (which might be an exhibition game) this Saturday, besides the conference games with UIC. (You could even include Purdue … Continue reading “short road trips”

(Let me ease into this.)

It occurred to me this week that there’s quite a bit of intra-IL College Basketball going on.

Loyola’s played Western, Bradley (who’ll be good this year), and will play Lake Forest (which might be an exhibition game) this Saturday, besides the conference games with UIC. (You could even include Purdue in here.)

UIC’s played (and lost!) to Chicago State, beaten Northwestern, and has a game versus NIU this Saturday. Both Horizon schools played Exhibition games versus Robert Morris as well.

In addition to UIC, NIUs also played Aurora University (how did I miss THAT) and DePaul. Depaul’s also played Bradley, who’ve also found a way to squeeze Chicago State into their schedule.

Illinois plays…uh, no one. Right. (Same thing with SIU.)

It used to be (if I’m recalling right) that these schools – especially ‘big-time’ NU, Illinois and DePaul – would rather step in vomit than play each other and especially play the smaller schools. You could see the logic; they’re fighting for the same kids, they don’t want other schools to point out negative head to head records; Illinois beating Loyola is meaningless for UofI, but Loyola beating UofI is tangible proof something can be built there.

As a fan, it’s much neater to see area teams play each other – not that I bother to go, but you can quickly figure out who’s actually got something this year. I

WWE Title Reigns, updated

Following up on the World Title Lengthes post from September 19. This time, I went thru the complete WWWF/WWF/WWE history for all title lengths. As usual, all title information from Wrestler-Titles 2803 – Bruno Sammartino 1474 – Hulk Hogan 1237 – Bruno Sammartino [2] 1027 – Pedro Morales 763 – Bob Backlund [3] 677 – … Continue reading “WWE Title Reigns, updated”

Following up on the World Title Lengthes post from September 19. This time, I went thru the complete WWWF/WWF/WWE history for all title lengths. As usual, all title information from Wrestler-Titles

  1. 2803 – Bruno Sammartino
  2. 1474 – Hulk Hogan
  3. 1237 – Bruno Sammartino [2]
  4. 1027 – Pedro Morales
  5. 763 – Bob Backlund [3]
  6. 677 – Bob Backlund [2]
  7. 648 – Bob Backlund
  8. 371 – Randy Savage
  9. 364 – Hulk Hogan [2]
  10. 358 – Diesel
  11. 296 – Superstar Billy Graham
  12. 293 – Ultimate Warrior
  13. 280 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [2]
  14. 280 – John Bradshaw Layfield
  15. 280 – Yokozuna [2]
  16. 257 – John Cena
  17. 257 – Dave Batista
  18. 248 – Bret Hart [2]
  19. 248 – Hulk Hogan [3]
  20. 231 – Shawn Michaels
  21. 175 – Steve Austin [5]
  22. 174 – Bret Hart
  23. 154 – Chris Benoit
  24. 152 – Brock Lesnar [3]
  25. 149 – Randy Savage [2]
  26. 140 – Shawn Michaels [3]
  27. 133 – Bret Hart [3]
  28. 133 – Eddie Guerrero
  29. 133 – The Undertaker [2]
  30. 126 – Kurt Angle
  31. 122 – Buddy Rogers
  32. 119 – Brock Lesnar [2]
  33. 119 – The Rock [5]
  34. 118 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [3]
  35. 105 – Kurt Angle [3]
  36. 98 – Chris Jericho
  37. 98 – Bret Hart [5]
  38. 91 – Steve Austin
  39. 91 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [3]
  40. 90 – Steve Austin [2]
  41. 84 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [5]
  42. 84 – Bill Goldberg
  43. 84 – Brock Lesnar
  44. 78 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [4]
  45. 77 – Ric Flair
  46. 76 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley
  47. 70 – Hulk Hogan [5]
  48. 64 – Sgt. Slaughter
  49. 63 – The Undertaker [4]
  50. 63 – Sycho Sid
  51. 62 – Steve Austin [6]
  52. 56 – Steve Austin [3]
  53. 55 – Steve Austin [4]
  54. 51 – vacant
  55. 51 – Kurt Angle [4]
  56. 50 – The Big Show (Paul Wight)
  57. 49 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [2]
  58. 49 – vacant (pinned by Undertaker and Kane)
  59. 46 – vacant (Tuesday in Texas)
  60. 44 – Rocky Maivia
  61. 41 – vacant (Edge and Benoit double pin)
  62. 41 – Ric Flair [2]
  63. 41 – Rocky Maivia [3]
  64. 36 – The Undertaker [3]
  65. 35 – The Rock [6]
  66. 35 – The Rock [7]
  67. 35 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [4]
  68. 35 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley [5]
  69. 35 – vacant (title mistakenly held up after Backluand vs Valentine)
  70. 34 – Sycho Sid [2]
  71. 28 – Randy Orton
  72. 28 – Shawn Michaels
  73. 28 – The Big Show [2]
  74. 28 – Hulk Hogan [6]
  75. 28 – Iron Sheik
  76. 26 – Mankind
  77. 25 – Shawn Michaels [2]
  78. 22 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley
  79. 21 – The Rock
  80. 21 – Ivan Koloff
  81. 20 – Mankind [2]
  82. 15 – Kurt Angle [2]
  83. 12 – Antonio Inoki
  84. 9 – Stan Stasiak
  85. 6 – Vince McMahon
  86. 6 – The Undertaker
  87. 6 – Vacant
  88. 3 – Bob Backlund [4]
  89. 3 – vacant (lost smile)
  90. 2 – Rocky Maivia [2]
  91. 1 – Kane
  92. 1 – Mankind [3]
  93. 1 – Bret Hart [4]
  94. 1 – Hulk Hogan [4]
  95. 0 – Andre the Giant
  96. 0 – Yokozuna

Upcoming milestones:

John Cena
New Year’s Revolution (elimination chamber): 280 days
Royal Rumble: 301
WrestleMania: 364
Backlash: 392

Dave Batista
Armageddon (no defense): 259
Royal Rumble: 301
No Way Out: 322
WrestleMania: 364

Dates they’ll tie the person currently in the place:

  • 13th: 01/08/06
  • 12th: 01/21/06
  • 11th: 01/24/06
  • 10th: 03/27/06
  • 9th: 04/02/06
  • 8th: 04/09/06
  • 7th: 01/11/07
  • 6th: 02/09/07
  • 5th: 05/06/07
  • 4th: 01/25/08
  • 3rd: 08/22/08
  • 2nd: 04/16/09
  • 1st: 12/05/12

Just so future me can remember what I was thinking now, I expect both these guys to last till WrestleMania. It’d probably be too deflating for both to lose, and since they’re priming Orton for a run on SmackDown, Cena’s going to be the one to slip past Savage and get into 8th place. There doesn’t seem to be a chance for Backlund to be caught.

45 minutes of junk

blah blah blah stuff no one can possibly care about blah blah blah you’re totally going to be bored by this, Mike, go read another site. You know, I’ve had about eight ideas for decent posts, and one that is completely worthless, and guess which one I’m up at 1AM writing? Okay, all the posts … Continue reading “45 minutes of junk”

blah blah blah stuff no one can possibly care about blah blah blah you’re totally going to be bored by this, Mike, go read another site. You know, I’ve had about eight ideas for decent posts, and one that is completely worthless, and guess which one I’m up at 1AM writing? Okay, all the posts are completely worthless, go read Primer and get upset at the obvious of it all. (I don’t know why I’m upset at you, you’ve done nothing to ME. Here, have Nomar back.)

blah blah blah blah

Continue reading “45 minutes of junk”

mistaken impressions

If I mock or rip you, it’s only out of love. If you really annoy me, I’d stop talking about you entirely. Speaking of things that I’m not sure actually happened, I made it thru about 10 seconds of the F4D interview before I almost swerved off the road KrisZ != me KrisZ > me … Continue reading “mistaken impressions”

If I mock or rip you, it’s only out of love. If you really annoy me, I’d stop talking about you entirely.

Speaking of things that I’m not sure actually happened, I made it thru about 10 seconds of the F4D interview before I almost swerved off the road

KrisZ != me
KrisZ > me

This had been an oddly amusing 90 minutes.

Heat 12/09 and Velocity 12/10

I don’t know why I haven’t linked here lately, but here and here you go, you know, just in case it doesn’t turn up elsewhere (again). Been busy, especially the last week, thought about posting, been too busy to post, and posting on the cmllblog is much lazier. You know what I hate? Roadside places … Continue reading “Heat 12/09 and Velocity 12/10”

I don’t know why I haven’t linked here lately, but here and here you go, you know, just in case it doesn’t turn up elsewhere (again).

Been busy, especially the last week, thought about posting, been too busy to post, and posting on the cmllblog is much lazier.

You know what I hate? Roadside places – oasises, rest stops, whatever – where they promise “Free Wireless Internet”, except it’s free and it’s not often accesible. You can’t easily sign up for whatever stupid stuff they want you to sign up for on the internet browser of a PDA, and you can’t at all when you’re just trying to connect on a DS or any portable gaming system.

I had this wonderful, awesome plan to try to wake up at the 294Lake Forest Oasis by plaing Mario Kart DS, wireless against the world. Except, while I could connect to the access point, I couldn’t get beyond it, because I couldn’t give them my e-mail address to do god knows what. Sucked.

This was also the day where I looked at the time/temp display on my car, and found myself staring at “4:25 0F” and then rembered that meant 4 AM and wondered how my life had gone so horribly wrong. And then 15 minutes later it hit -1 and at least was happy to know it could show negative. So I really wasn’t in the mood for a stupid signup thing.

I’ve been talking the Pierre stuff to death in e-mail, so I have no need to talk about it here. I figured out a new gimmick to try next season for more consistent posting, but we’ll see if I forget it by the end of the second week.

questions for the world

If Sonic DVD sucks (and I think so), what should I be using?

Should I start making DVDs of the GdR shows? Effort > Money

Are there splitters for composite audio/video cables (the yellow/white/red ones)?

Where is my VCR remote?

RAW is Justin

what a delightful surprise! Update: Justin will be capping off his two week RAW recap run with an sure to be sterling interview on Bryan Alvarez’s Figure Four Daily Tuesday. That’s worth the $4.95 alone.

what a delightful surprise!

Update: Justin will be capping off his two week RAW recap run with an sure to be sterling interview on Bryan Alvarez’s Figure Four Daily Tuesday. That’s worth the $4.95 alone.

addednum

I have a lot less passion for long stupid posts at the moment, but I’d bet on WWE showing a profit next quarter just as strongly as I believe in the other bet. Not near this time’s profit, but they’ve got just enough going to be in the black next quarter (and if WrestleMania falls … Continue reading “addednum”

I have a lot less passion for long stupid posts at the moment, but I’d bet on WWE showing a profit next quarter just as strongly as I believe in the other bet. Not near this time’s profit, but they’ve got just enough going to be in the black next quarter (and if WrestleMania falls in the quarter after, they’ll do it then too, naturally.)

a friendly bet

I haven’t had a chance to really examine the fiscal filing yet, nor have I heard the press conference, but the gist of it is that WWE reported net income of $11.7 million as compared to $4.4 million last year. In other words, they didn’t lose money. It should be noted that without the ad … Continue reading “a friendly bet”

I haven’t had a chance to really examine the fiscal filing yet, nor have I heard the press conference, but the gist of it is that WWE reported net income of $11.7 million as compared to $4.4 million last year. In other words, they didn’t lose money. It should be noted that without the ad revenue (which they won’t have next quarter) and money gained from a favorable legal settlement (which they also won’t have next quarter), they’d have made less than $1 million profit. They also announced that dividends would increase from 12 cents to 24 cents per share. Of course, Vince McMahon himself is the largest shareholder.

f4wonline.com/

I don’t think Bryan reads this part of the site, but since Mr. Vinny has commented once, he might still when he’s very bored. Very very bored. As I might be right now.

If either of them are winning this, I’m throwing out a challenge. Name your stakes – could be a quarter, could be a million billion dollars, could be forcing you to put forum poster Hobbes on a radio show people paid to listen to – because I will bet you ANYTHING they will not have $0,000,000.00 of Ad Revenue next quarter.

They went from 9.8 to 7.7 with one month of USA, so if I had to guess myself, I’d take 4 million more out and go with 3.7, still leaving them a nice profit if everything goes fine. (And I think some places will go better – the Bret Hart DVD isn’t till next quarter, and it’s gotta out do both Undertaker and Warrior’s.) 3.7 will still leave them with a big profit. But that doesn’t matter, because you’ve just put yourself down for ZERO, so I’m taking anything but Zero. This shall be a great competition.

I’d also side bet on WWE turning a profit next quarter – the way I read it, even though SummerSlam did a huge number (and who knew? not me!) and nothing this quarter will, the high amount of international tours and the lower amount of US house shows will make up the difference. But I don’t quite feel as safe going with “zero” vs “anything but zero.”

Also, this goes out to everyone who’s analyzing this info today: when WWE was private and didn’t have any public stock, much less dividends, who was getting all the money? Was it – Vince McMahon? I’m thinking yes. The dividend going up has little directly to do with Vince being on a quest to make himself richer, because he could easily just jack up his salary if he only wanted that. The dividend also goes to stockholders who, if I recall correctly, do not get a part of Vince’s salary.

The “Vince is making himself rich thru the dividend, putting money directly in his pocket” story everyone does every three months is quite lame. Vince is making himself rich thru running a company which, despite it’s flaws and issues, is making millions of dollars every three quarters. The people in charge of the stock are trying to make more money thru the dividend, but more in the sense they want the stock to become more valuable and traded at a higher number.

“Vince McMahon makes lots of money off WWE” is not a story. “Vince McMahon makes lot of money off WWE while the wrestlers do not do quite as good” is not a new story.