Joe Versus The World – 39: Tanvir Raquib

Tanvir Raquib joins us to talk Wrestling Society X and the pilot episode, the history of wrestling on MTV, what changes have to made to WSX, the WSXtra show, gimmicks we’re looking forward to, massive explosions, and more. Plus a Royal Rumble recap, our ideas for Wrestlemania, throwing rocks at Kevin Nash, Rollergames, animatronic scorpions, … Continue reading “Joe Versus The World – 39: Tanvir Raquib”

Tanvir Raquib joins us to talk Wrestling Society X and the pilot episode, the history of wrestling on MTV, what changes have to made to WSX, the WSXtra show, gimmicks we’re looking forward to, massive explosions, and more. Plus a Royal Rumble recap, our ideas for Wrestlemania, throwing rocks at Kevin Nash, Rollergames, animatronic scorpions, Tan dumps on Randy Orton and Ken Kennedy calls my house. 50 minutes of fun!

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To listen to this show, right click to download the mp3 file here, subscribe to the RSS feed @ http://www.thecubsfan.com/joe.xml, or add it to your iTunes Podcasts by clicking here.

You can read more from Tanvir at Testicle Chowdhury. We thank Tanvir for coming on again.

Please visit http://www.joeversustheworld.com for an index of old episodes. If you use a non-iTunes podcatcher, check out http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeVersusTheWorld for easy ways to add the show to My Yahoo, Google and a half dozen other places.

If you’ve got any feedback on this show or any other, we’d love to hear it. Either leave a comment below, or contact Joe at joegagne AT charter DOT net. Thanks for listening – if you enjoyed a show, we’d quite appreciated if you told your friends, or at least told us!

You can download any of our previous editions below. Right click and save them to your computer to take a listen.

Previous editions:
39: Tanvir Raquib [WSX] (01/31)
38: Mark Coale [DVDs] (01/24)
37: Christopher Robin Zimmerman [a little bit of everything] (01/17)
36: Dr. Keith [a little bit of everything] (01/06)
35: Matt Foy & Rob Naylor [year in review, ROH] (12/27)
34: Justin Shapiro [year in review, WWE] (12/23)
33: Adam & Mike [year in review, Japan] (12/14)
32: thecubsfan [year in review, lucha] (12/07)
31: Sven Mascarenhas [wrestling video games] (11/27)
30: American Balloon (2) [wrestling in Japan] (11/23)
29: Scott Christ [TNA] (11/21)
28: Tom Feely [survivor series] (11/19)
27: Rob Naylor (2) [indy] (11/12)
26: Matt Foy (4) [ROH] (11/07)
25: Vince Verhei (2) [comebacks] (10/27)
24: Justin Shapiro (4) [the Marine] (10/21)
23: Bryan Alvarez (2) [everything] (10/10)
22: Ken Dreiling and Jesse “J-tron” Irwin [IWA-MS TPI] (10/05)
21: Matt Foy [ROH] (09/20)
20: Tanvir Raquib [09/11 RAW] (09/16)
19: Rob Naylor [News and tangents] (09/09)
18: Dean Rasmussen [DVDVR, life] (08/31)
17: Phil Schneider [Best of the 80’s Japan Indies DVD] (08/26)
16: CRZ [being CRZ] (08/17)
15: Justin Shapiro and thecubsfan [WON HOF, US, Mexico] (08/10)
14: Dr. Keith Lipinski and Mike Sempervive [WON HOF, Japan] (08/04)
13: thecubsfan [lucha] (07/24)
12: Matt Foy [ROH] (07/17)
11: Bryan Alvarez [being Bryan Alvarez] (07/12)
10: Mike Coughlin [MMA] (07/01)
9: Dr. Keith Lipinkski [Japan, general wackiness] (06/27)
8: Tanvir Raquib [ECW, parallel dimensions] (06/17)
7: American Balloon [his career] (06/10)
6: Justin Shapiro [RAW, ROH] (06/03)
5: Albert Ching [Judgement Day, ECW] (05/28)
4: Vince Verhei [everything] (05/21)
3: Matt Foy [ROH] (05/14)
Bonus: Hogan Knows Best recap (05/08)
2: Justin Shapiro [WWE] (04/29)
1: thecubsfan [lucha] (04/22)

Heat 01/26 (449)

This one is from this week. I thought this “the Highlanders get beat up for 8+ minutes but rally back to win lose” was better than the previous one, though maybe not as great as you’d think. It does help that they gave the Highlanders more than 10 seconds of hot tag comeback this time. … Continue reading “Heat 01/26 (449)”

This one is from this week.

I thought this “the Highlanders get beat up for 8+ minutes but rally back to win lose” was better than the previous one, though maybe not as great as you’d think. It does help that they gave the Highlanders more than 10 seconds of hot tag comeback this time.

11:47 is a long time for a TV match and, as far as I can look back, the longest match on this show in at least six years. They did a 10:54 Goldust/Snitsky vs Spirit Squad match on 06/10, and that’s the longest one of the Internet only era. There was a 11:45 Lance Storm/Val Venis vs the Dudley Boys WM Title Shot was back on 03/07/04 that might have been the last best match the Dudleys had (I dunno), but that’s 2 seconds short.

Otherwise, I checked thru all the recaps I’ve got, and can’t find a match longer. Maybe back in the first couple of years, pre-SmackDown, when they were doing stuff that matters on the show? That would’ve been heavy into the Vince Russo era, so who knows.

It didn’t feel exceedingly long, but with all the offense Shelton and Charlie have, I’d thunk I would’ve seen more of it. Didn’t feel like the best 12 minute match these two teams could have, for whatever that’s worth.

Heat 01/19 (448)

from last week. I downloaded the show and had it sitting on my computer all week, but I just didn’t feel like doing it. To be honest, the year in review stuff I’m doing for the CMLL blog is taking up about 7x as much time as I thought it would. I’ve planned on the … Continue reading “Heat 01/19 (448)”

from last week. I downloaded the show and had it sitting on my computer all week, but I just didn’t feel like doing it. To be honest, the year in review stuff I’m doing for the CMLL blog is taking up about 7x as much time as I thought it would. I’ve planned on the last third of the year better, but it’s still a bunch, and this is even with no attempt to edit.

This show, if I can talk about this show in the post about it, was okay. I wasn’t thrilled when I realized how long the main event was going, but it was okay enough. I dunno how they ever expect Cade & Murdoch to be do anything but Heat matches if that’s all they do, but welcome to life.

soul brother Rocky

I have three very pressing questions 1) Since when is there a Black Family Channel? 2) Why does “Bullwinkle and Friends”, and “King Leopardo”, air on the Black Family Channel? 3) Does this mean I’m black? Answers below.

I have three very pressing questions

1) Since when is there a Black Family Channel?

2) Why does “Bullwinkle and Friends”, and “King Leopardo”, air on the Black Family Channel?

3) Does this mean I’m black?

Answers below.

Continue reading “soul brother Rocky”

white whale caught

Took long enough. It was clearly the different player options and injury protection they put in there. All sorts of wacky things start to happen if he gets 425 PA or 100 starts, but let’s assume no. He should be used to spot people versus right handers and an effective pinch hitter. Note that he’s … Continue reading “white whale caught”

Took long enough. It was clearly the different player options and injury protection they put in there.

All sorts of wacky things start to happen if he gets 425 PA or 100 starts, but let’s assume no. He should be used to spot people versus right handers and an effective pinch hitter. Note that he’s not sure if he’ll make the start of spring training – it seem possible he could start the year on the DL while rehabbing his Achilles tendon/bone spur injury.

11 hitters on the 25, as of now…

CA Barrett
1B Lee
2B DeRosa
SS Cesar
3B A-Ram
LF Murton
CF Soriano
RF Jacque

CA Blanco
1B Ward
UT Theroit
OF Pagan
OF Floyd

Floyd and Ward are lefties off the bench and kinda the same type of player. I wonder if they still would’ve signed Ward if they knew they were getting Floyd? Then again, they’ve been trying to get Floyd since day 1, so that couldn’t have been a surprise.

While I’ve still got him on the list, I think Pagan’s not making the team. Including the three starters, they’ve got five corner infielders and no one with center field experience on the team. If they’re telling the truth about trying Theroit out there, that’s great, but that also means he’s not working at SS and there’s no backup there.

(off topic: if Theroit’s the backup CF, doesn’t that mean Pie’s going for his spot? that’s gonna be a war.)

If Cesar went down during a game, DeRosa or Theroit could shift over and take his place, and they could call up Cedeno immediately after, but I believe they’ll instead keep Ronny or Tomas Perez on the 25 man roster just in case. This is one of the points where people who actually manage the game differ in how they do things than people who just watch (who’s take that risk.)

Cesar actually did play full seasons till 2005, but he’s fragile and he’s a guy you’d like to pinch hitter for, so from a tactical standpoint, I could understand keeping one of the no-hit SS as the 25 man. I’d actually prefer it to be Tomas Perez, because Cedeno needs to get some consistent at bats at AAA to get better and get evaluated. The potential problem, as it was with Neifi and Macias, is Tomas Perez is best used as the 25th guy, but there’s no guarantee he won’t be the first man off the bench.

I picked up this years Bill James Handbook and they’ve included the manager breakdowns, which are interesting, but like James said in last year’s introduction, they’re only a start. Maybe it’s just because of where the Cubs are right now, but I think they’d be improved if they included managers who didn’t manage in 2006 but would be considered for future jobs – we’re not going to read Pinella’s tendencies till we’ve seen a year of them. More specific to this situation, I’d like more breakdowns of pinch hitting – what hitter was the first off the bench, and how did he do. Some managers will use their best guys first, and some will hold them back for a key opportunity and use leftover hitters instead (like Dusty). It’s a NL only thing, but it’s a major difference in strategy.

Joe Versus The World – 38: Mark Coale

Mark Coale of Odessa Steps Magazine joins us to talk about wrestling DVDs, including all the recent WWE offerings and Heroes of World Class, plus all the future 2007 releases and what looks promising (and what doesn’t), WWE vs. history, problems with overlapping matches, plus Dave Meltzer’s old National columns, covering Wrestlemania VII in the … Continue reading “Joe Versus The World – 38: Mark Coale”

Mark Coale of Odessa Steps Magazine joins us to talk about wrestling DVDs, including all the recent WWE offerings and Heroes of World Class, plus all the future 2007 releases and what looks promising (and what doesn’t), WWE vs. history, problems with overlapping matches, plus Dave Meltzer’s old National columns, covering Wrestlemania VII in the cheap seats, and Mark gets yelled at by King Kong Bundy. Over 70 minutes of fun!

To listen to this show, right click to download the mp3 file here, subscribe to the RSS feed @ http://www.thecubsfan.com/joe.xml, or add it to your iTunes Podcasts by clicking here.

You can read more of Mark at odessasteps.com (some day), The Year 1905, or his blog of TK stalking.

Please visit http://www.joeversustheworld.com for an index of old episodes. If you use a non-iTunes podcatcher, check out http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeVersusTheWorld for easy ways to add the show to My Yahoo, Google and a half dozen other places.

If you’ve got any feedback on this show or any other, we’d love to hear it. Either leave a comment below, or contact Joe at joegagne AT charter DOT net. Thanks for listening – if you enjoyed a show, we’d quite appreciated if you told your friends, or at least told us!

You can download any of our previous editions below. Right click and save them to your computer to take a listen.

Previous editions:
38: Mark Coale [DVDs] (01/24)
37: Christopher Robin Zimmerman [a little bit of everything] (01/17)
36: Dr. Keith [a little bit of everything] (01/06)
35: Matt Foy & Rob Naylor [year in review, ROH] (12/27)
34: Justin Shapiro [year in review, WWE] (12/23)
33: Adam & Mike [year in review, Japan] (12/14)
32: thecubsfan [year in review, lucha] (12/07)
31: Sven Mascarenhas [wrestling video games] (11/27)
30: American Balloon (2) [wrestling in Japan] (11/23)
29: Scott Christ [TNA] (11/21)
28: Tom Feely [survivor series] (11/19)
27: Rob Naylor (2) [indy] (11/12)
26: Matt Foy (4) [ROH] (11/07)
25: Vince Verhei (2) [comebacks] (10/27)
24: Justin Shapiro (4) [the Marine] (10/21)
23: Bryan Alvarez (2) [everything] (10/10)
22: Ken Dreiling and Jesse “J-tron” Irwin [IWA-MS TPI] (10/05)
21: Matt Foy [ROH] (09/20)
20: Tanvir Raquib [09/11 RAW] (09/16)
19: Rob Naylor [News and tangents] (09/09)
18: Dean Rasmussen [DVDVR, life] (08/31)
17: Phil Schneider [Best of the 80’s Japan Indies DVD] (08/26)
16: CRZ [being CRZ] (08/17)
15: Justin Shapiro and thecubsfan [WON HOF, US, Mexico] (08/10)
14: Dr. Keith Lipinski and Mike Sempervive [WON HOF, Japan] (08/04)
13: thecubsfan [lucha] (07/24)
12: Matt Foy [ROH] (07/17)
11: Bryan Alvarez [being Bryan Alvarez] (07/12)
10: Mike Coughlin [MMA] (07/01)
9: Dr. Keith Lipinkski [Japan, general wackiness] (06/27)
8: Tanvir Raquib [ECW, parallel dimensions] (06/17)
7: American Balloon [his career] (06/10)
6: Justin Shapiro [RAW, ROH] (06/03)
5: Albert Ching [Judgement Day, ECW] (05/28)
4: Vince Verhei [everything] (05/21)
3: Matt Foy [ROH] (05/14)
Bonus: Hogan Knows Best recap (05/08)
2: Justin Shapiro [WWE] (04/29)
1: thecubsfan [lucha] (04/22)

Joe Versus The World – 37: Christopher Robin Zimmerman [2]

Christopher Robin Zimmerman returns to talk all sorts of stuff, including his days at Wrestleline.com, the RSPW awards, ECW and much more, including Baron Von Rasche buying furniture, the great Tony Schiavone, Mark Coale, To Catch A Predator: The WWE Angle, Marquis Corvon, and a dramatic reading of an angry rant from 1998. 50 plus … Continue reading “Joe Versus The World – 37: Christopher Robin Zimmerman [2]”

Christopher Robin Zimmerman returns to talk all sorts of stuff, including his days at Wrestleline.com, the RSPW awards, ECW and much more, including Baron Von Rasche buying furniture, the great Tony Schiavone, Mark Coale, To Catch A Predator: The WWE Angle, Marquis Corvon, and a dramatic reading of an angry rant from 1998. 50 plus minutes of fun!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

To listen to this show, right click to download the mp3 file here, subscribe to the RSS feed @ http://www.thecubsfan.com/joe.xml, or add it to your iTunes Podcasts by clicking here.

CRZ was on back in August, talking about ECW. You can read more from him on his message board, the w. We thank him for coming on.

Please visit http://www.joeversustheworld.com for an index of old episodes. If you use a non-iTunes podcatcher, check out http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeVersusTheWorld for easy ways to add the show to My Yahoo, Google and a half dozen other places.

If you’ve got any feedback on this show or any other, we’d love to hear it. Either leave a comment below, or contact joe at joegagne AT charter DOT net. Thanks for listening – if you enjoyed a show, we’d quite appreciated if you told your friends, or at least told us!

You can download any of our previous editions below. Right click and save them to your computer to take a listen.

Previous editions:
37: Christopher Robin Zimmerman [a little bit of everything] (01/17)
36: Dr. Keith [a little bit of everything] (01/06)
35: Matt Foy & Rob Naylor [year in review, ROH] (12/27)
34: Justin Shapiro [year in review, WWE] (12/23)
33: Adam & Mike [year in review, Japan] (12/14)
32: thecubsfan [year in review, lucha] (12/07)
31: Sven Mascarenhas [wrestling video games] (11/27)
30: American Balloon (2) [wrestling in Japan] (11/23)
29: Scott Christ [TNA] (11/21)
28: Tom Feely [survivor series] (11/19)
27: Rob Naylor (2) [indy] (11/12)
26: Matt Foy (4) [ROH] (11/07)
25: Vince Verhei (2) [comebacks] (10/27)
24: Justin Shapiro (4) [the Marine] (10/21)
23: Bryan Alvarez (2) [everything] (10/10)
22: Ken Dreiling and Jesse “J-tron” Irwin [IWA-MS TPI] (10/05)
21: Matt Foy [ROH] (09/20)
20: Tanvir Raquib [09/11 RAW] (09/16)
19: Rob Naylor [News and tangents] (09/09)
18: Dean Rasmussen [DVDVR, life] (08/31)
17: Phil Schneider [Best of the 80’s Japan Indies DVD] (08/26)
16: CRZ [being CRZ] (08/17)
15: Justin Shapiro and thecubsfan [WON HOF, US, Mexico] (08/10)
14: Dr. Keith Lipinski and Mike Sempervive [WON HOF, Japan] (08/04)
13: thecubsfan [lucha] (07/24)
12: Matt Foy [ROH] (07/17)
11: Bryan Alvarez [being Bryan Alvarez] (07/12)
10: Mike Coughlin [MMA] (07/01)
9: Dr. Keith Lipinkski [Japan, general wackiness] (06/27)
8: Tanvir Raquib [ECW, parallel dimensions] (06/17)
7: American Balloon [his career] (06/10)
6: Justin Shapiro [RAW, ROH] (06/03)
5: Albert Ching [Judgement Day, ECW] (05/28)
4: Vince Verhei [everything] (05/21)
3: Matt Foy [ROH] (05/14)
Bonus: Hogan Knows Best recap (05/08)
2: Justin Shapiro [WWE] (04/29)
1: thecubsfan [lucha] (04/22)

$ for Z

There hasn’t been many posts, because there’s really nothing going except – waiting to see if Cliff Floyd will get signed – waiting to see if they come up with a second option in CF Neither thing has progressed since the end of the winter meetings. There’s the Z arbitration news, but really I don’t … Continue reading “$ for Z”

There hasn’t been many posts, because there’s really nothing going except

– waiting to see if Cliff Floyd will get signed
– waiting to see if they come up with a second option in CF

Neither thing has progressed since the end of the winter meetings. There’s the Z arbitration news, but really I don’t care as much about next year as the five after with him. I’m hoping this bit in the Tribune has some validity:

Ultimately, Zambrano is expected to seek a six-year deal for somewhere around $100 million-$110 million when contract talks begin next month.

If you can sign Z for 18.3 a year (which is $110 over 6), you do that deal and you do it right away. I firmly believe he’ll get 20 on the open market. He’s significantly better than Zito, and you’re getting him for only $1 mil more a year. That’s a huge bargain.

It’d be nice if Felix Pie turned out to be a borderline all-star CF (that seems to be the current projection – except there’s no such thing as borderline all-star CF, but go with me on this), but the most important move this team will make for it’s future is signing Z long term. They’ve got to get it done before the season starts, and the sooner the better.

Ohman getting resigned for two years kinda surprised me, because it doesn’t seem like the club likes him all that much and a two year deal would seem harder to trade than 1. I guess he’s sticking around, which solidifies one more spot on the roster and makes it more likely all those kids who started in the rotation later year will be back in Iowa.

Assuming a 12 man pen (which sucks but it’s the way it’ll be)

SP Zambrano
SP Hill
SP Lilly
SP Miller
SP Marquis

RP Wood
RP Wuertz
RP Cotts
RP Howry
RP Eyre
RP Ohman
RP Dempster (closer by default at the moment)

OUT: Marshall, Novoa, Marmol, Guzman, Ohman, Mark Prior

There’s really no flexibility left, and yet no spot for Prior. I can’t imagine it’ll stay that way; they’re still going to keep a space open for him and are willing to stick Novoa or Marmol or whoever in his spot if he isn’t ready (it’s only the 12 pitching spot after all.) Ohman sticking must mean they’re prepared to flip Wuertz in any CF trade they make (or for some pittance before spring training.) I wonder if Wuertz for the M’s CF Reed would work?

I think Ohman’s deal, making him the third lefty, also means they’re really serious about Cotts getting a shot at the rotation, competing for Wade Miller’s spot. (Theoretically, that’s the spot Prior wants too.) Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s really for the best – there’s no long reliever on the staff, and that killed the team last year when Dusty did things like using four guys to get four innings in blowout games. Cotts getting stretched out in Spring Training and being able to come in every time Marquis goes nuclear will be a nice improvement.

return of the king

Sosa works out for Rangers (MLB.com) Sosa also met with general manager Jon Daniels over dinner on Monday night to discuss a one-year, non-roster contract with an invitation to Spring Training. MLB’s random and unpredictable schedule just happens to have the Cubs and Rangers playing, July 19-21, in Arlington. Can you imagine if that series … Continue reading “return of the king”

Sosa works out for Rangers (MLB.com)

Sosa also met with general manager Jon Daniels over dinner on Monday night to discuss a one-year, non-roster contract with an invitation to Spring Training.

MLB’s random and unpredictable schedule just happens to have the Cubs and Rangers playing, July 19-21, in Arlington. Can you imagine if that series was played in Wrigley? That’d be some sort of armageddon – the anger over the way he went out has somewhat dissipated, so there’d people who’d be happy to say goodbye and people who are still very angry (about the end and about steroids.) Even if the Cubs and Sosa both aren’t so good, that’s going to be an interesting midweek series. It is reliant on Sosa actually making the team, and I don’t know that we’re that close to that. (Tangent: It’d be great for Sosa’s HOF chances to play this year – less for the numbers but more to distance himself from McGwire. 6-7 years from now, when Sosa would be on the ballot, they may be sick of discussing steroids.)

Cubs would go from that circus to the second White Sox series, so that’ll be one heck of a week.

Of course, the Rangers come to Chicago to face the White Sox – on April 17, 18, 19. I may be going, I don’t think I’m going to be wearing my Sosa jersey for those.